strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-In Day

Why Caroline had needed her to help with Check-In Day she hadn't bothered to say. Just, "you said you'd help," and when Regina protested she wasn't good with people, "aren't you a Queen or a Mayor or something?" complete with shooing gestures. While Regina found Caroline more exasperating the terrifying, she did have a point.

So Regina suited up--literally, gathered her files and folders, coffee mug, pens and pocketed the wooden carving of Henry/Roland Robin had made for her, then headed for the cafe. If, polished and politic and patently Busy, she didn't offer newcomers the brightest or warmest smile when they arrived, it was nevertheless confident and quite possibly reassuring.

Caroline did friendly. Regina...did knowledgeable and polite. Dot and Ignis had been asked to provide finger food on catering trays. The still-grieving Miss Pryde had been tasked with samovars of tea and coffee and ice chest of soda and beer. Caroline's welcome baskets sat on the table beside Regina's for easy access. And though she didn't when she was alone in the office, Regina spent the magic to fix her eyesight so she didn't put glasses between her and new arrivals.

Madame Mayor was in.

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"A great deal, yes," Merrill said, rolling her shoulders in a gentle shrug. "That's part of it, really. Adulthood brings pain and hardship. You haven't got the carefree parts of youth anymore. The whole process is about being able to face all that unflinchingly."

Corbie thought about that, her mind automatically flashing back to Felix's tattoos and his confession that he'd still been in considerable pain while swearing his oaths when he'd been invested as a Cabaline. She quirked a smile. "And if that ain't the truest thing in the world, I don't know what is."

Merrill laughed a little. "Thank you for asking instead of just staring. I'm Merrill."

"My teachers always indicated I never had much of a talent for shutting up, so I dunno if it's manners," the girl admitted with a shy duck of the head. "I'm Corbie."

"Mine were pretty similar," Merrill confessed with a playful wink.

Corbie snorted, then covered her mouth with her hands and burst into a fit of giggles. "My favorite teacher would tell me to shut up as a sign of affection."

"Mostly I got 'that's enough, Merrill,'" she said, smiling a little fondly as she remembered Marethari once again that day. "What were you studying?"

Corbie stilled at that. She could not tell the truth, and at the same time, telling a lie was impossible. She knew she lied like a kid. It was so obvious that she just embarrassed herself when she tried. There were too many magic types around, and she didn't know if she could trust them.

She smiled a little when she found an answer. "Philosophy."

It was close enough to true. Schools of magic were rooted in it.

"Really?" Merrill asked, green eyes bright with interest as she leaned forward a little, ever curious. Even Kirkwall couldn't take that from her.

"What sort of philosophy? I met a philosopher once. Well, he said philosopher, but he really was a very odd man. We found him hanging upside down from a tree branch. Well...sort of. He'd been following us for a while very badly. It was the first we'd had to stop ignoring him." He'd been lucky at the time that he'd been allowed to get away with it and Tamlen hadn't just shot him out of the tree.

"Ain't rightly sure how to answer that question," Corbie admitted, because it was easier than continuing to find half-truths. "I'm only a beginner, really."

"Oh, well there's no shame in that. We're all beginners at some point," Merrill said, smiling brightly at the young woman. "Can you still study here? Is there a library?"

Corbie's nose wrinkled. "There's books. Not much in the way of a library, though. I managed to stumble through with a couple, though, so... there's something."

She nodded and chewed the inside of her cheek a little in thought. "Is...is the written language here the same as your spoken one? Or did you have to learn the letters from scratch?"

Corbie blinked, startled. The idea hadn't occurred to her at all that written and spoken language could be separated. "It's the same. Why?"

"It's not for me," she said, frowning even more. "Do you think anyone here would be willing to help me learn the letters here?"

"Um," Corbie jumped like she'd been poked with a pin. "I could... I could try anyway?"

[GP/EP] Check-In Day

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