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]

"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."

[deepest_magic]

Isabella smiles and then goes off to find something else to do.

[neverbeatme]

And James goes back to her practicing.

And when she's done with that, she cleans up and finds somewhere to sit and play with her puzzle while she thinks.

It's... inconclusive.

[deepest_magic]

Isabella occupies herself finding a tree that she may politely shoot at (some trees would take exception), clearing the area around it, and then shooting at it. The bow is helpful, but she's still making meaningful progress.

She turns up to lunch.

[neverbeatme]

So does James.

"Hi."

[deepest_magic]

"Hi. I'm a pretty good shot with this thing, turns out."

[neverbeatme]

"Well, you do have help. Still, congratulations."

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah, two entire magic objects are helping me, but what I mean is that if we have an emergency for which I need to shoot at things tomorrow, I could shoot at things."

[neverbeatme]

"I hope we don't, but good."

[deepest_magic]

"I hope we don't too. Um, should I just wait and not prod you about the thing?"

[neverbeatme]

"My conclusion so far is 'you are observably pretty, but I don't know what to do about it'."

[deepest_magic]

"What do you mean?"

[neverbeatme]

"Well... what do you mean, what do I mean?"

[deepest_magic]

"Like, do you have ideas about what to do about it and can't pick one, or no ideas, or what?"

[neverbeatme]

"It's hard to say. Why, do you have ideas?"

[deepest_magic]

"If you wanted to you could kiss me."

[neverbeatme]

"That's definitely an idea."