liakoura | okay but what's the thread count

Kiri stays away for weeks, and then she's back, and then she goes to the Ardelay house to learn her way around it and make (thoroughly advised) decisions about staff maintenance, and then she's back, and then she leaves again to be at the Chialto house, but this time Ko is allowed to go with her.

(At a safe distance.)

It's a long boring ride, or it would be boring, but Kiri has learned to make harmless fire-shapes in the air and entertains him with swirls and streamers of it crackling alongside the carriage until she decides to take a nap.

He's not going to be able to sleep in this carriage, it bumps too much, but he can scoot over and sort of nudge part of her onto his lap while she mumbles words.

(And then lurch away from her once she stops partway through "interior decoration".)

She smiles a sad smile at him like she always does when she wakes up and finds him halfway across the room. Or in this case, the carriage.

"You're not even huggy," he observes, on this occasion. "Not like Jayce is anyway." (Jayce is a very huggy little boy.)

She shrugs. "If I didn't have a family and it was just me, and distant Ardelay relatives I barely know, and stuff, then that would be fine probably. We just used to be next to each other all the time and now we can't. I don't need hugging, I just want my brothers."

Ko thinks about this, but doesn't get much of anywhere. Kiri's the smart one, all sweela, always thinking and writing. He isn't going to come up with a solution if she can't, probably.

"I could just try it again," he says.

"You didn't like it last time," she says.

"Yeah, but, you weren't mean about it or anything."

"Why would I be mean because you had to go to the bathroom?"

"I dunno." He fidgets, and looks out the window.

She makes a fire-dart that follows the path of his eyes.

They arrive in Chialto, and wait for the arrival of the prince.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

liakoura

"I dunno. Kiri's smarter than me," he volunteers; this seems relevant.

From:

pythbox

...The prince does not see how this is relevant.

From:

liakoura

"...I dunno. What if she memorized me like a book, then what?"

From:

calescent

"If I what? I can't do that. That isn't how people work."

From:

pythbox

"Yeah, that," says the prince. He is extremely clear on this point, even if it is not a clarity he can articulate.

From:

liakoura

"Well, how do you know?"

From:

pythbox

"Because... people don't even have themselves memorized," he says. "You can't. There's parts of you that haven't happened yet. And I don't know about you, but even if Kiri followed me around every day of my life taking notes, I bet she still couldn't - say my entire half of a conversation for me, or know what I think of somebody's clothes without checking."

From:

calescent

"I mean, if I could memorize a whole person like a book I'd've done it to myself by now."

Edited Date: 2014-03-07 04:16 am (UTC)

From:

liakoura

"...Yeah, you would've."

From:

pythbox

The prince giggles. "I wouldn't," he says. "Even if I could. I don't think I'd even want to could."

From:

calescent

Kiri snorts. "Far as I know most people don't care about it. I do though."

From:

pythbox

He shrugs. "I care differently than you care."

By which he means: if Kiri wants to memorize herself like a book, she wants the opposite of the kind of self-knowledge that the prince has and is pleased about. If it were somehow possible to know himself so perfectly well that he could never again have a moment of realizing what he's going to do only after he has decided to do it - and he doubts it could be possible, however many sweela primes might try it - there would go much of the appeal of continuing to live. Surprise is one of his birth blessings for a reason.

Edited Date: 2014-03-07 02:32 pm (UTC)

From:

calescent

"Way differently," agrees Kiri. "I don't want to surprise myself like that at all."

From:

pythbox

"I like it. I feel like it's part of what makes me me and not somebody else."

From:

kindestgarden

Renny comes down the stairs, having squared the luggage away. "Are you three ready to go?"

From:

calescent

"I think so," says Kiri.

From:

liakoura

"We just sort of triangle around Kiri and make sure nobody gets close to her, right?"

From:

calescent

"Yes please."

From:

pythbox

"Okay!" the prince says cheerfully. He is imagining her bubble again.

From:

calescent

And out they go. Kiri dodges and weaves as necessary within her triangle to conscientiously not get within five feet of anyone they pass in the street.

From:

pythbox

While they're walking, the prince spots a little shop with a window display of five lovely necklaces made of glass shapes linked by thin chains - white and yellow elay surrounded by dreamy swirls, blue and purple coru surrounded by ripples and waves, black and brown hunti surrounded by woodgrain streaks, red and orange sweela surrounded by stylized flames, green and green torz surrounded by stones and vines.

His first thought is of himself, as a girl, wearing one of those necklaces. They're so pretty.

What he actually says out loud is, "Ooh, look at those! I wanna get the coru one for my mom. And Kiri, you could get the sweela one to wear when you're tired of red dresses."

Edited Date: 2014-03-07 06:49 pm (UTC)

From:

calescent

"I like them," she says. "Are the rules about wearing the same jewelry different from wearing the same clothes?"

From:

pythbox

"Yeah! You can wear the same jewelry as much as you want, almost, just if you always wear the same one thing all the time everywhere people are gonna think it means something special to you and some of 'em will think you're - I dunno, something not nice." (He knows what that particular kind of contempt looks like, but not what it actually represents in the minds of the people who feel it.)