floating candles

[cry_me_a]

Allila loves everything about the holidays- really, with two weeks of free time and parties, what's not to like? But her absolute favorite thing is weddings. Her town's not large, really just a small cluster of houses down by the river, but the girl down the road is getting married and absolutely everybody comes to the party. Quarrels are ignored, grudges set aside; this is a full town affair. There's even people from a couple nearby villages; Allila doesn't recognize everybody. New people, food, drinks, and fun! Today is a very good day.

The party does not seem likely to let up for at least a couple days, so it's not near the end, but it's been in full swing for quite a while when Allila ducks outside and heads for the water. She doesn't bother with the path through the woods- she can hear at least one couple there, and she has no desire to interrupt them- and just picks her way through the field instead.

There's a nice, large and reasonably flat rock on the riverbank that she's rather adopted as her own. She likes it here; it's quiet, except for the river which she likes listening to, and it's pretty. On clear enough days she can even see a little bit of the waterfall up the river by the estate- it's hardly close, but it's high enough to be seen from quite a ways off. But today, her attention is on the candles drifting down the river. They're twinkling prettily in the twilight.

"Weddings are the best," she sighs happily to herself, and curls up on her rock. Candle watching time it is!

Comments

[headunbowed]

Candle watching time is about to be interrupted.

"Fuck, shit, fuck fuck fuck how the fuck do I land, fuck-!"

And that is when a young woman falls out of the sky, spinning and cursing in the air wildly and then crashing into the river. Splash.

[cry_me_a]

...this is not how Allila was expecting candle watching to go. This is 100% more falling people than her river usually contains and it is extremely startling.

"Yeee-IKES what the-" she yelps in surprise, jerking backwards. This lands her unceremoniously upside down on the riverbank as she overbalances off the edge of the rock. "Fucking rock," she mumbles, dusting herself off and hurrying over to the water. It's not that dark yet, but it's dark enough, and she can't immediately tell if the screaming falling person can swim. "Hey, screaming falling person! Need a hand?"

...okay, maybe she should not have said that quite like that. She's supposed to be very, very polite to mages. Mages are Scary and Powerful People who can Hurt Her. Her brother has attempted to drill this into her. But it's all very abstract, she's never talked to a mage before, why would she? And it's rather difficult to feel particularly afraid of someone who can't even manage to land from her own spell.

[headunbowed]

The screaming person, as it turns out, can swim. Behold, how she swims to the riverbank.

"Nah," she says, laughing, once she is at a place she can stand. "I'm fine. Thanks, though."

She starts wading to dry land, shooing a stray candle that bumps into her. It's - really ruining both the Scary and Powerful People image, and the picturesque peaceful image of the river.

"Pfff," snorts the mage. "Someone is going to fuss 'cause I ruined my dress, I bet. Boohoo, the sorrow. Ugly piece of shit, anyway. Good fucking riddance." She looks at Allila and waves. "Hi! Hope you enjoyed the show, I'm pretty sure it was hilarious!"

[cry_me_a]

Allila laughs and waves back. "Hi! Don't worry, it was totally hilarious." Pause. "...Once I got past the oh holy shit that was a screaming flying person thing." She eyes the woman's dress. "No loss on that dress, though. You look like someone dumped paint on a lace balloon. River water's an improvement."

In Allila's defense, river girl's the one who started the dress mocking. And it's not like she could try to object and say something flattering about it, and still sound remotely believable. Except maybe "but it's a lovely dress, see how it's neither on fire or made of thorns."

[headunbowed]

"I know, right? I didn't pick this out, my taste is way better than - this. Whatever this is. Like, I make shit look good, but - I am not a miracle worker." Pause. "... Or am I?"

She looks down at herself, makes a concentrated face, and then - oh look! The bizarrely coordinated bright colors darken all at once to black, and the dress is very much improved.

"Ha! Ha! Still ruined, but less hideous. I'll take it!"

Allila probably doesn't have enough experience with mages to understand that this particular one is a bit too casual with her magic.

[cry_me_a]

Alli wants to make some kind of crack about yes, clearly you're a miracle worker and not a mage, but she's distracted by the dress. She's never met a mage before (casual with magic? What's that?) and this dress-changing thing is cool.

"Wicked!" she says, impressed. "That is so awesome, I'm jealous." She hops down off her rock. "But. Ruined. Do you want to see if I have something you can borrow? Unless you can fix that part too, I guess."

[headunbowed]

"Thanks! I - don't know, fixing the ruined part doesn't seem worth it. Borrowing something would be great, though, but I think that when I eventually get found they will want to burn any non-dress clothes I'm in, so fair warning."

[cry_me_a]

"Hmm. Jos has lots of stuff he outgrew I don't want, no loss if it gets burned? Also, who burns clothes, that's weird. Whatever."

[headunbowed]

"They are kind of stupid and have a side job in also being terrible fucking people. So. That's fun. But clothes would be great!"

[cry_me_a]

"Clothes it is. House is this way. Just... walk around the party, or something? I won't take long."

The house isn't particularly far away. Allila picks her way through the field with the ease of long familiarity, showing up at the back door relatively promptly. She makes sure the screaming river lady hasn't been left behind, then heads inside.

Everyone is clearly still enjoying themselves; most people are drinking, a few are dancing, and one couple hasn't even bothered to duck somewhere private to grope each other. Allila tracks down her brother reasonably quickly- Jos is the only tall one in the family, which helps- and is directed to some acceptable clothes.

She heads back to screaming river lady, to lead her to the clothes.

[headunbowed]

Screaming river lady is very pleased about this!

"Thanks," she says, sincerely. "For the clothes, I feel much less like a toadstool, it's great."

[cry_me_a]

"Congrats on not being a toadstool," Alli says with a laugh. "Are you headed somewhere? Did you want to join the party?"

[headunbowed]

"Wasn't headed anywhere in particular! Joining the party sounds fun. If it's a fun party. Is it a fun party? I have been to unfun parties, and they are exactly as advertised."

[cry_me_a]

"There's- little bit of everything, probably. Watch out for the old guy in purple, though. He thinks he's the shit and totally irresistible, makes him grabby. But there's drinks and food and people out floating candles and dancing- and more drinks. Lots more drinks." She grins. "I'm behind now, really. We could go catch up?"

[headunbowed]

Zeviana snickers.

"Sure, let's. And, watching for the old guy in purple, done. He touches me, he gets some broken fingers."

[cry_me_a]

Allila rounds up two drinks and brings them back to the edge of the crowd where she left screaming river girl. They're fruity and delicious and very strong, that being sort of the point. "Cheerssssss nameless person? Shit. That was a dumb thing to miss. So, hi! I'm Allila." She downs her drink, eyes it appreciatively (year end parties have such good treats) and while she's at it, steals a couple cheese puffs from a passing tray. One is offered to screaming river girl. "Got a name? I can always stick with Screaming River Girl, though. So helpfully descriptive."

[headunbowed]

Screaming River Girl giggles.

"Pretty correct, too! I did do some serious screaming. And uh. Call me Anna, my brother does all the time anyway."

'Zeviana' would undoubtedly get her attention. So, pass on that.

[cry_me_a]

Allila is distracted by cheese puffs and this is not her first drink tonight. She completely misses any hesitation and is totally unbothered. "Nice to meet you, Anna! Your screaming was effective as shit, yep. Here's to that."

She has obtained another drink, pretty much out of thin air. The magic that is possible when you know where everything in the entire village is. Hey, it's as close as a non mage gets, she'll take it.

[headunbowed]

"Nice to meet you too! You are way better company than my last party."

Zeviana finds this ability to 'magically' acquire alcohol amusing, and partakes in the fruity alcoholic drink herself! It is delicious, and also very intoxicating. Is it a bad idea to get the second most powerful mage in the plane drunk? Probably. (Definitely.) Oh well.

[cry_me_a]

"Awww, I feel special and shit. Except for the part where your last party ended with you screaming in a river. I suspect I am competing with- well, probably nothing. But special and shit anyway!"

Since 'Anna' has failed to identify herself as hilariously powerful, Allila is blissfully unaware how similar her evening activity is to holding live electronics over a bathtub. And anyway, after another drink, she is starting to get slightly loopy. "So, what's it like being a mage? Do you get to do lots of cool shit all the time?"

[headunbowed]

"Special and shit anyway!" agrees Zeviana with a snort. "I - like it and I hate it? Like, okay, the magic's awesome. But I never get to do anything with it. It's all - 'scry this, scry that, okay, now understand the complicated inner workings of this minuscule detail' instead of 'let's do something really fucking cool with magic. Plus, people suck, I know I mentioned that, but I need to again, because people suck."

[cry_me_a]

"Lots of people suck," Allila agrees blithely. "But I, obviously, am awesome. So you should hang out with me more. You can do cool shit with magic, I'll be appropriately impressed, success for everyone."

And eye candy! Allila likes eye candy. But she is not actually drunk enough to say that to a mage. A female mage, no less.

[headunbowed]

"I'm up for hanging out with you more, you are pretty awesome. You can watch me do cool shit with magic, that'll be fun."

Zeviana likes eye candy, too. She wonders if it'll be off-putting if she flirts with her new friend so quickly. Probably. She'll settle for just looking. Contemplatively. Only ogling a little.

[cry_me_a]

"Deal. What kind of cool shit do you do?" She eyes the party. Has anyone here even met a mage before? "Maybe nooot with demos though, unless you want to be the center of attention for the next forever."

[headunbowed]

"I'm mostly good at - okay, this is going to sound stupid, but - plants. My brother's the 'I'm going to analyze it to death' type, I work more by - figuring it out? Getting what's going on in general and then adapting? Sort of hard to point at a thing and say, 'I did that one singular cool thing' with that, but there you go."

[cry_me_a]

"Yes, but see, you're a mage. I think you are missing how very, very hard it is for magic to sound stupid to us mundanes." She grins rather loopily. "I mean. Except for that dress. That dress was really shit."