milliways_bar | Happy New All Skate!

"You know what, let's have a party."

Dinah threw her platinum card (thanks, Oracle) on the Bar and as a result there is free flowing champagne for everyone whose culture, age and religion permits champagne - and top quality soft alternatives for the rest. There are bar snacks doing the rounds around the tables, and delicate winter flower arrangements on each surface.

And most importantly, on the TV screen is a lot of dancing, a giant countdown, and a big ball ready to drop.

...and when the ball drops, something happens.

Welcome to another Milliways All-Skate!
All welcome - yes, that means all. Whether they're retired, deleted, AU, original or already being played by someone else, bring 'em along.

Usual all-skate rules apply:
1. Everyone's stressed out of their mind right now, so have fun!
2. Communication is key.
3. Gratuitous behaviour (either of a violent or sexual nature) will not be tolerated in the bar proper. Take that to an OOM, and then Content Warning the hell out of it before you link it.
4. Much like Vegas, what happens in All Skates, stays in All Skates (in most cases)
5. Please don't be a dick.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As she can turn her attention away from the meringues settling back on their plate, the baker looks at the grumpy girl, eyes wide. "Is it that bad?"

Sulk, sulk. Large bite of the meringue.

"You spotted her," Rory said, leaning against the counter and eating another chocolate. "Give her a minute. If she didn't like them, she wouldn't be reaching for a third and that will be the last one for right now." This last bit is added without looking at Ceilidh, his attention on Sunshine.

"Awww..."

"For right now," the baker echoes the important stipulation, with a wry grin for the sulky ninja who'd had her plans foiled. "Who is this master of stealth who has raided my kitchens, anyhow?"

Later is vague, it might even mean the next time she comes to the bar. It depends on behavior. And how upset he thinks Siobhan might be by giving her too much sugar. Mom is on tour so he might be fine.

"She goes by Ceilidh McCallum."

Which is agreed with a nod. She is trying to milk this sulk for right now, but give her a minute and she'll lose it.

"And I go by Rory McCallum. I'm her uncle." Because he would not like to be confused for the father. It's happened enough times that he likes to cut it off at the pass.

"A mean one," is muttered quietly. She's scooted under the island so she's hiding under the island trying to be sneaky sulky. Like Batman.

"It's good to meet you both," the baker grins, wry. "I'm called Rae, Rae Seddon of New Arcadia, though more often I'm called Sunshine."

"We're from Eire," Rory said. "And I'm assuming New Arcadia isn't in Greece?"

"No more than New York is in Albion," she chuckles. "New Arcadia's in Independencia."

Her accent says north-eastern United States - Pennsylvania, in particular.

They don't have the United States or Independencia in their world, so her accent is interesting to Rory. He collects them for later use in his work. Which totally doesn't involve pretending to be other people. But he gets the connection.

"Where's that?" Ceilidh finally asks, curiosity getting the better of her sulking.

Rory was going to ask the same thing, but sometimes it's nice to have a small child ask the question. People will explain things more openly to children than adults.

"Far across the ocean to the west of the land called Éire in my world," she says, smiling at the would-be kitchen-raider, then amends, "Southwest, mostly."

"Never been there," Rory said. "Though it shows up in the news occasionally as all things tend to do. It's probably quite different than your world anyway."

While Rory has traveled a little for Work, he's never gone farther than the continent. People further away don't tend to have an interest in Eire. He's got a second cousin that lives in Australia - but it's not called that in his world - and that's rare. Roderick occasionally comes to visit and spends most of the time sitting on the couch and watching sports. No one knows why he does it, but it's probably just the call of Home.

"Are there Dragons there?" Ceilidh wants to know.

"Oh, I always just assume my world's weird and different," Rae admits to Rory, chuckling. "Hasn't failed me yet."

"There aren't any dragons where I'm at," she replies to Ceilidh, wry, "but there's wild dragon colonies up in the mountains out west. From what I've read, they don't tend to do well too close to cities, and prefer the heights."

"I always assume that other people's worlds are weird and different," Rory countered with a grin. "Hasn't failed me yet either."

"I know a dragon. Her name is Pearl and she works for momma. She likes swimming in the ocean," Ceilidh informs Sunshine very seriously.

Ceilidh technically knows at least one and a half dragons; her father is a dragon. Mom, of course, and a few others know this. Ceilidh does not.

"That's super neat," Sunshine replies to Ceilidh, absolutely sincere. Rae's Other-obsession has been with her since childhood, and really more recent nighttime excursions have only confirmed the disease. "I've seen plenty of weres, and some part-demons, but I've never actually seen a dragon outside of books or images on the globenet. What are they like?"

Because lived experience and personal impressions are much more interesting.

"Pearl is very pretty and had pretty blue eyes and white, white, hair when she's human. And she is very big and has pretty white scales that glitter in the sun and big wings and she can breath fire and really likes sea shells. She gave me one once and I have it in a very, very, very special place because gifts from dragons are special and magical. Momma said so." The words flow out of her with barely any breath taking in.

They have weres in Eire. A pack help protects the king. No demons of any number of parts. Rory would like to ask about this, but Ceilidh is busy talking about dragons. Pearl has always been very polite to Rory, but she has a fondness for Siobhan and Ceilidh.

Sunshine nods, eyes wide. "Absolutely you'd keep a gift like that in a special place." Clearly the girl is very wise.

Dragons in Sunshine's world do not take human form, as far as humans know. But then, in recent years Rae has found there's a lot of Other specifics that human society doesn't know.

Less wise and more it's pretty and her mother and nana said she should. When she gets older she'll learn what a gift it was to get a piece from a dragon's horde. Even if it was a tiny shell. At this point she just thinks it's a pretty shell and a nice gift.

So, she nods very seriously in agreement.

That is the fun thing about human forms. If you do it right people don't know you don't belong.

Curious about her weres, Rory says, "We've got weres. A pack is in charge of security for the royal family."

Most people (that is, humans, at least) don't have an ability to read whether someone is fully human or just passing.

"That's smart," Rae remarks. "Were-whats, if I can ask?"

It takes a particular magical knack to do that or really good at watching body language. Non-humans moved differently than humans after all. Rory was fairly good at it, 4 out of 10 times which was much better than most people who tended towards 0 out of 10 times. His Luck helped with that.

"Were-wolves. This particular pack has been protecting the family for two hundred, two hundred fifty years, I think," he said.

Happy New All Skate!

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