milliways_bar | (no subject)

"I weave, a little."

The tangent confuses her, and she shrugs;

"Many people end up here oddly. I got here by falling."

He blinks.

"Well, I fall a lot, usually when someone kicks my cane or I trip over something or cause I'm trying to go too fast, or Tacit doesn't wait up, but I've never fallen into a place like this. And I didn't fall in here. I just walked in."

"I used to fall alot, too, when I was littler. I have a bad leg also."

She taps her gloved hand on the table over her left leg.

"It was a different kind of fall. My daddy and my brother just walk in."

He triest to peer over but stops when he realizes that might be rude and Ma'd swat him if he was rude.

"Oh. Nice to know I'm not the only one, though I'm sorry you have yours because I don't like mine all that much, really."

"That whole side isn't good to look at."

She decides that's the best way to put it.

"I don't like it much, but at least I have thumbs. My brothers don't."

A pause, Yamino does...but...

"Usually. Sometimes my brother here does."

"Does he keep them in a jar or something? Or keep forgetting to put them on?"

Thumbs sometimes is a weird concept.

"No. Usually he's a snake."

She's not teasing him. She's so matter of fact that it is impossible to even think of her teasing him about this.

"And my other brother is always a wolf."

He peers at her.

"So you're dad's a wolf and your mom's a snake?"

And that doesn't explain her...but he can't think of much better.

"No, daddy is a god and mom is a giantess."

Which explains her, but not Fenrir and Jormungand.

And he blinks a bit.

"Your mom's a giantess? And your dad's a god? And your brothers are animals?"

He thinks.

"That's kinda neat. I wish I had a brother or sister, though I hope they wouldn't be like me."

"Yes! Well, look at me. I'm this tall already and I have hundreds of years left to grow. I'll probably be ten or eleven feet tall before I'm done."

She smiles at him again, and laughs softly.

He blinks, looks at her, looks to himself, and seems to work out height according to feet. When he's done, he looks at her again.

"That's...really tall."

"Not for a giant."

She points out cheerfully. She's very, very carefully not thinking of the gods.

He shrugs.

"I don't know how tall they get. I've never seen one. Do they like to drink, because if they don't that's probably why. I live in a tavern."

"Oh, yes. But I may not be from the same world as you. So."

She shrugs,

"And I can only go by what my mother has told me. I've never seen any of my giant relatives."

"Cause they couldn't all fit in the room?"

"No. Because we had to hide. The other gods...well, when they found out that my brothers and I existed..."

She trails off, and holds her left hand with her right one until the knuckles on her right hand turn white. Her voice, however, when she starts talking again is steady;

"It was a very long fall."

He nods...and then he reaches out to the hand with the glove on it and pats it gently.

"I'm sorry. I don't like falling either and the long ones hurt a lot and I'm sorry you fell because you're really nice."

She offers a slight smile. Her hand feels wrong; as though just bones sit inside the glove.

"It was a very, very long fall. Months, I think. Its a good thing I don't eat often."

"That must have hurt a lot."

And he looks sad.

"It did."

Gently, because she doesn't want to cry.

"I miss my mother, and my family."

He nods.

"I miss my Ma. I always thought I wouldn't but I do because she's not here and she's supposed to be and I don't know what I'm doing here and you're very nice but I'm a little scared because she's not here and she's always been here and I don't have any money and I don't know anyone and I don't want to get in trouble but I'm tired and I want to sleep and I can't because I don't have a room here."

And he looks pretty close to crying actually.

"Have you tried the door out yet?"

Start with number one, then,

"If it won't let you go home, I will make sure you have some place to sleep."

He blinks, gets a mildly-aggravated-with-himself look on his face, and turns back...and blinks again.

"Where'd the door go?"

"Oh."

She says after a moment. She's not going to take him with her...no clue where they'd end up. She pulls several heavy gold pieces out of her pouch,

"Set this on the bar and ask for a room....it should give you a key."