the golden age

[deepest_magic]

When the party has died down, Isabella, for one, is well and truly exhausted. She explores the palace until she finds a room with a bed in it, and into this bed she flops, still in her clothes and holding her staff and carrying the cordial in her pocket. She sleeps late, because the party kept her up so late and she hadn't really slept the night before; but around noon, she stirs, and gets up, and goes looking for James and wherever her backpack may have got to. The backpack she finds in the great hall where the principal mass of the party was; some enterprising creature took both bags from the battlefield at Beruna up to the castle for them, and she only wishes she knew who it was. She takes her bag to her room and carries James's with her and continues looking for her friend.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"Well, based on current estimates of projected weirdness levels, what are we going to do?"

[deepest_magic]

Isabella laughs.

"I think me and my notebook are going to go somewhere and I will get back to you?"

[neverbeatme]

"Sure, sounds good."

[deepest_magic]

Isabella sneaks one more peek at James-in-armor and then scurries away.

[neverbeatme]

James decides that while she has the armour on, she might as well go try out learning from the sword in it. So she'll be doing that.

[deepest_magic]

Isabella comes and finds her again about an hour and a half later.

[neverbeatme]

"Hi!" she says, pausing in her imaginary combat.

[deepest_magic]

"Hi. How's it going?"

[neverbeatme]

"Good! I am liking this armour."

[deepest_magic]

"Does it help all by itself?" wonders Isabella.

[neverbeatme]

"Not exactly. But it - gets out of my way. It doesn't get tangled up, it doesn't jam, it doesn't poke, it's lighter than it has any right to be."

[deepest_magic]

"Cool. Um, I did my thinking."

[neverbeatme]

She sheathes her sword. "And?"

[deepest_magic]

"And I still think it's going to be kind of weird but perhaps not prohibitively weird. Um, the part you probably figured out was that I think you - the part I said out loud actually was that you look nice in your armor and I am guessing you figured out that it was in like a 'I find you attractive' way."

[neverbeatme]

"Yeah, I caught on to that part."

[deepest_magic]

"On the other hand, I barely remember what other humans besides us look like. And I don't think I'm actually quite bisexual? Because I have old notes about how pretty nymphs are and the notes are very much 'maybe I will be that pretty if I grow out my hair and get all willowy when I am taller' with no hint of anything else and that hasn't changed since. And nothing else around is human-looking enough, at least so far. And I have nothing written about you like that at all up until this morning. So I don't know how much of it is - anything you should find personally flattering?"

[neverbeatme]

"I think I find it a little personally flattering regardless. The fact that you might not find me attractive if you were well supplied with Sons of Adam doesn't mean you don't, you know?"

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah. Anyway, I don't think I'm actually quite not bisexual, either. I don't remember if there's a word for that."

[neverbeatme]

"I'm not sure either. You could make up a word if you wanted a word," she suggests.

[deepest_magic]

"Maybe I will. Anyway, so there's that, and - yeah."

[neverbeatme]

"Okay. Well - I think nymphs are pretty. Not in an 'if I grew my hair out' way. I haven't spent much time evaluating whether I think you're pretty, but... I could. The two of us being the only humans around, and all. It seems reasonable."

[deepest_magic]

Isabella nods, smiling a little.

[neverbeatme]

James smiles back.

[deepest_magic]

"So - let me know?"

[neverbeatme]

"Yeah."