milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Snow! ~~GIP!~~

. . .Dude, it's summer back in Nita's world. Snow is a good thing.

Nita's outside, idly making snowballs and ~~stock~~piling them up. Though she's got a good coat and mittens, she's hatless.

Approaching carries the risk of a snowball fight. You've been warned.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She considers. He looks like he's about the right age -- and if they're old enough to ask. . .

"You probably could."

"How?"

She tilts her head. "If the Oath gets offered to you, and you take it, you have to go thorugh an Ordeal. If you" -- survive -- "succeed, you'll be a wizard."

"Who offers it to you?"

"The Powers, but They contact you different ways. Like, They contacted me and my partner through these books." She hefts the manual. "But I know wizards who woke up with the Oath in their heads, waiting to be recited."

He considers this. "So how do they choose who they want?"

She shrugs and gives him a wry smile. "They choose whoever's best for the job. You can try and find common factors -- like, we all tend to love words -- but mostly, it's just. . . whoever's best."

Gavroche considers this for another moment, then nods. "Okay."

She grins. "Am I done lecturing now?"

He grins back. "I was just interested."

"Hey, it's cool. I don't get to talk about it at home much."

"Why's that?" he asks curiously.

"My world's sevarfrith -- people don't discuss magic openly there, because most people don't believe in it. People used to get killed for being suspected of being a wizard."

"...like Jeanne d'Arc?"

He used to hang around with students. Uneducated or not, he picked up some things."

She nods. "Like that, yeah."

"Oh."

"It's not like that all over, though. There are places in the Universe where you can talk about it -- like here."

Gavroche smiles. "And in the House of Arch."

"The house of which?"

"Where I live. It's Door's family house."

"Oh, okay. Where is it? I mean, on an Earth, or. . .?"

"It's in London Below."

She raises her eyebrows. "This is more than just the Underground, I'm assuming."

He nods. "It's a whole other city. You can't see it if you don't know it's there."

"Ah, gotcha. One of those kinds of places. What's it like?"