Author: aetheling | Cymbeline doesn't really like boats, but they're the only way to get anywhere in a reasonable period of time, especially when "anywhere" isn't on the mainland. Today he is sailing to Vectis, to oversee the change of governorship; his father the king is needed for courtly matters back home and his mother the queen, despite being the source of his royal blood, declines to involve herself in affairs of state when she can avoid it. Zoyah takes more after Ranae than after Charles in this department. So, it falls to Cymbeline.
Walking on a boat is even more difficult than walking on land, and Cymbeline is no great shakes at the latter to begin with. Unfortunately, neither he nor Kerem, the court magician and Cymbeline's confidante, have been able to figure out how to apply the principles of practicable magic to alleviating princely clumsiness. So Cymbeline is clinging to the railing of the boat, watching the waves, trying to avoid having to walk anywhere. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The waves are watching him back.
Ariel is a deep-water child, and it used to be that she couldn't even see up this high - too bright, the water too clear, the air stinging her eyes with its breathtaking lightness. But she likes it too much, coming up to watch the boats. She does it whenever she sees a shadow. And look, there's a cute human hanging over the side of this one, like a reward. She wonders if she could leap high enough to drag him into the water. No - they can't breathe it, that's right. That's why they need to go across on those enormous rotting hulks. |
Author: aetheling | There's something green over there. Seaweed probably.
The water's getting a bit choppy, and they're coming up on some dark clouds. The sailors are starting to look anxious. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The mermaid in the water has only a vague knowledge of the relationship between storms and shipwrecks. She keeps watching, staying far back. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline is ushered towards his cabin, but if things are that serious, surely he belongs on the deck, helping Kerem. Kerem's putting bits of turbulence into glass balls where they are more decorative than harmful. Cymbeline can do that too -
They run out of glass balls before the storm runs out of turbulence, and they're deeply in it, now.
Then a wave twice the height of the ship breaks their glass, which was boxed but not, apparently, padded well enough -
And Cymbeline cannot keep his footing in the ensuing chaos. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Down, down, down he goes.
Ariel flips her tail and ducks under the water, arrowing for the falling human. She doesn't know why she does it. Because he's cute, really. Is there a better reason? |
Author: aetheling | He holds his breath.
He shuts his eyes against the salt.
He tries to figure out which way is up, which should be easy, and is not.
He runs out the clock trying to find air, and his lungs burn, and his throat closes up, and he swallows seawater - |
Author: treasuresuntold | Something grabs him hard around the middle and shoves him up above the surface.
She stares at him, then looks up at the boat. No more humans are leaning over the side. Maybe he was the only one. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline coughs up water, sucks in air. He doesn't regain consciousness. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Well.
It's no good just leaving him here. She couldn't get him back up on his boat if she tried. But the edge of the water isn't that far away. She could get him there.
Ariel starts swimming.
It's hard, keeping him up by the surface - ten, twenty times, she forgets what she's carrying and ducks under a wave, has to pull him back up again and watch anxiously while he coughs and breathes. Even without that, the waves keep getting him. But after a few hours, she does get him to the shore. |
Author: aetheling | He flops limply onto the beach where she takes him, spits out more water, and continues to be unconscious. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She tries to get him up as high as she can, as far from the water as she can. Moving is so hard up here, how do they do it? Well - feet. Feet is how.
This boy has feet.
Ariel inspects them, poking her fingers between his toes. They're cute! Like funny hands. (She looks up at his face. Is he awake yet? No.)
"C'mon," she murmurs, trying to stir the magic of her voice, even though she knows it doesn't really do that kind of thing. "I didn't drag you all this way to have you die on me." She kisses his forehead. "Wake up, pretty boy." |
Author: aetheling | The pretty boy's feet twitch when she pokes them, but he doesn't wake. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Ariel sighs.
"Too bad, I guess," she says. "If I stay out any longer, Dad'll serve me for dinner." She gives him a last, thoughtful look, then kisses him on the mouth (because when is she going to get another chance?) and starts hauling herself down the beach towards the water. The sand itches between her scales. |
Author: aetheling | It's not long later when Cymbeline's eyes flutter open.
He has the oddest, most vivid memories of being spoken to. Despite having been unconscious, he heard. Despite not knowing any of the words she used, he understood.
He hauls himself to a sitting position, coughing.
There are strange tracks in the sand. Handprints, too small to be his, and larger smoother depressions in the beach, like a seal or a dolphin with human forelimbs hauled itself up alongside him - with him? In tow?
He doesn't know what to make of that.
A quick assessment of his surroundings is in order. He starts along the shore, looking for a stream; fresh water will lead to people, and he's recognized over the whole of Loegria and its neighbors; he can get home as soon as he finds civilization of any kind. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Meanwhile, Ariel swims straight home.
The king under the sea doesn't serve her for dinner, but it's a near thing. She's a week recovering, and she'll have another scar right down the length of her tail.
She can't stop thinking about her little taste of the surface.
What must it be like up there? Whatever it is, it can't be as bad as it is down here. And her father won't be able to find her no matter how he looks. That's worth a lot.
By the time she can swim well enough to leave the palace again, her mind is made up.
She goes looking for the witch. |
Author: alicornucopia | The witch has the sense to fear Triton, but not the sense to let that keep her far away. She's findable, if you know who to ask.
Here she is, deep inside the twists and turns of a stinging reef, with her garden of polyps, and her collection of sea-glass with small trapped moving things in each piece. |
Author: treasuresuntold | "I want some magic," Ariel announces. Her voice fills the reef. She's good with her voice. |
Author: alicornucopia | The witch creeps out from the maze, peers around a corner.
"Do you? Well then, pretty voice, why don't you come in," says the witch, mimicking the inflection, if not the power. "And we'll see if we can't make a deal." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She swims inside fearlessly. There are things in this ocean she fears, but stinging reefs and creeping witches aren't among them. |
Author: alicornucopia | The witch is themed purple where Ariel is green. She's half-octopus, not half-fish, but still certainly a mercreature. Her hands skim over her sea-glass collection. "Now what would you like? I've got someone's charmed hands, nimble as you please... got whales' strength and sharks' ferocity and several sorts of poison and glitter for your scales - what's your fancy?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | "I want legs," Ariel says firmly. "I want to go up on the surface and walk around." |
Author: alicornucopia | The witch starts to reach for something, but then she says, "In the interest of repeat business - the legs I have are not the best models - I took them as a curiosity, got them for a song, but I wouldn't use them. Cursed, painful." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Ariel shrugs. "And I care? How painful can they be?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "Oh, very, it'd be like putting all your weight down on a narwhal's nose every time you took a step - you want them anyway?" inquires the witch with interest. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Ariel laughs. "Can't scare me." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Innnteresting. Well, they are certainly available... what will you give me for them?" says the witch with a smile. Octopus tentacles rearrange themselves into what might be called a businesslike posture under her. |
Author: treasuresuntold | "I could give you a song," she snorts. "I don't know, what do you want?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "That's just an expression, but from you, I'd take a song - so to speak," muses the witch, creeping forward a bit. "The entire voice would be ideal..." |
Author: treasuresuntold | "I like my voice," Ariel points out. But she doesn't point it out very hard. |
Author: alicornucopia | "But my dear," says the witch, "so do I." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Ariel snorts.
"Whatever, then." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Now," says the witch, "you are absolutely welcome to keep the set of legs indefinitely. However, my personal skills run more towards the encapsulation and the transference, not so much to the sticking. They have ludicrous numbers of practical magicians on land, I'm sure you won't have any trouble getting someone to attach them permanently if you like them. If you can't, they'll come off and you'll have a tail again, but I can reattach them for another try, no extra charge." She plucks the glass containing the legs off its coral shelf. "Do we have a deal, my dear?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She tosses her head; her hair flows out behind her.
"Yeah." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Excellent," the witch grins, "this may sting even before you walk on them, be a dear and don't move," and she reaches for Ariel's throat; her grip is firm, but not painful.
The transfer takes about five minutes of humming concentration, and the moving shape in the glass changes, and Ariel's tail is sliced right through the middle and changed. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She only wriggles a little bit. (It tickles.) |
Author: alicornucopia | "All done," says the witch, grinning from ear to ear, "you have fun!" |
Author: treasuresuntold | Ariel opens her mouth to say 'thank you'.
She makes a face, then shrugs.
Swimming with feet is hard - she misses her flukes already - but she gets the hang of it after a few false starts, and she leaves the witch's reef, and she heads for the surface. |
Author: agnatic | The beach where Zoyah's brother washed up isn't too far from the palace. Zoyah is poking around idly, looking for any signs of a speaking seal or a dolphin with hands or (Kerem's outlandish notion) a mermaid. So far she hasn't found much. |
Author: treasuresuntold | A woman with green hair and bluish-greenish skin pops her head up out of the water and climbs awkwardly onto the shore. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah stares at her.
"Uh, hi," she says, "do you want to borrow my overskirt?" She poises her hands over the buttons. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She smiles cheerfully and doesn't answer. |
Author: agnatic | "I think you had better borrow my overskirt," says Zoyah. She unbuttons it - she's got three layers on under it; it's a chilly day. "Here. What happened to you? Did you almost drown like Cymbeline? He washed up here the other day, saw funny tracks in the sand, but I don't see anything weirder than you around. Speaking of which, where did you get those colors transferred from? Who did the magic on them? They're a good look on you." |
Author: treasuresuntold | The stranger takes the skirt and holds it up questioningly over her unclothed crotch. She doesn't speak.
Then she makes a face, and takes a deep breath, and water flushes out of long green streaks along her ribs. She bundles the skirt into one hand and uses the other to brush sand away from her gills. |
Author: agnatic | "Youuuu have gills," observes Zoyah. "...Um, the skirt, you wear, it, you step into it and then button it up." |
Author: treasuresuntold | When she exhales, her gills flutter a little and then settle back into place, just faint unobtrusive stripes along her sides.
She fiddles with the skirt a little, manages to get one foot into it, manages the other, pulls it up around her knees. It is upside-down and covered in damp sand. She is still sitting down. |
Author: agnatic | "Other way around," says Zoyah of the skirt, gesturing, "And you have to stand up, to get it on right, and you've got sand all over it, don't they have skirts where you're from?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | The stranger gives Zoyah a look, then throws up her hands. |
Author: agnatic | "Do you even speak Loegrian?" asks Zoyah. "Um, wave your hand if you understand me?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | No hands are waved. She fusses with the skirt a little more, managing to drag it up over her hips without standing up, and then she gets it aligned the same way it was on Zoyah, albeit inside-out, unbuttoned, and full of sand.
With the buttons undone, it neglects to cover the crucial area. The stranger does not appear to notice this deficiency. She's wearing a halter top of some kind of grey leather, so she does know how clothes work, but lower-body coverings don't seem to be her area of expertise. |
Author: agnatic | "Parlis Aquitaniais?" tries Zoyah. "Latinitas?" (She is a well-educated princess.) |
Author: treasuresuntold | Uncomprehending blankness. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah holds up her hands in a nonthreatening gesture and moves to button the skirt for the strange green person. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The strange green person watches her approach, then shrugs and allows this. |
Author: agnatic | After the buttons are done, Zoyah says, "Okay, so, um, do you want to come to the castle with me? Kerem speaks like fifteen languages, I bet he knows one you know." She accompanies this acknowledged likely-pointless speech with a gesture and a few steps along the beach. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She studies the steps eagerly, then tries to get to her feet and follow. Her legs tangle up in the skirt and she falls on her face, then spends a short while cursing viciously in absolute silence. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah offers her a hand to help her up. "You must've got, like, really thorough sea legs if you can't even walk anymore. Or maybe you're dehydrated? I hope you didn't drink the seawater." |
Author: treasuresuntold | The stranger takes Zoyah's hand and, with its help, manages to get up on both feet. She wobbles. She takes a step. She takes another step. |
Author: agnatic | In this way, they may eventually make it all the way to the palace!
"Mother! Father! Cymebliiiine!" calls Zoyah. "I found a lady with gills and cosmetic transfers and she doesn't know Loegrian or Aquitiniais or Latinitas and I dunno what to do with her!" |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline is the first person to respond to this call. He comes out the side door and looks quizzically at his sister and the green lady. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green lady beams and waves at him. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline waves back. "¿Habl'Iberiola?" he tries. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She blinks uncomprehendingly. |
Author: aetheling | "Okay, well..." He points at himself. "Cymbeline." He points at Zoyah. "Zoyah." He points at the green person. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green person shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | "Okay, well... do you want to come inside?" he says with a corresponding inviting gesture. "We can show you to Kerem, he's better at some fiddly stuff than I am..." |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green person shrugs again, agreeably, and takes a few tentative steps towards the palace.
She falls over. (It's been happening a lot.) |
Author: agnatic | "She's worse at walking than you, Cymbeline," says Zoyah. |
Author: aetheling | "That's an accomplishment." He helps the green person up and puts his arm (quite chastely) around her. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She snuggles right up, beaming again. |
Author: aetheling | "Kerem!" calls Cymbeline, leading her into the palace. |
Author: pleasantsurprise | "Coming!" Kerem calls back, and presently he appears within view. "Goodness gracious." |
Author: aetheling | "We've tried all our languages," Cymbeline says, nodding in Zoyah's direction, "but you've got a few more?" |
Author: pleasantsurprise | "Yes, of course," says Kerem, and he tries a few more languages. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green woman just blinks at him. And leans on Cymbeline. In a way that might be described as 'overly familiar'. |
Author: aetheling | "...Okay... Now I'm wondering if she's deaf. Zo', go behind her, shout suddenly?" suggests Cymbeline. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah obeys. "HEY!" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She flails and yelps. No sound emerges from her mouth. |
Author: aetheling | "Not deaf," concludes Cymbeline, propping her up again from where she fell on him. "...Possibly mute. Probably mute." He sighs and starts leading her to the study, where he tries her on some pen and paper. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Ooh, pen and paper. She figures those out in short order, and starts drawing.
She draws:
- a recognizable silhouette of a ship, with a simple figure, just two arms and a blank head, peering over the side
- a big wobbly up-and-down scribble overtaking the ship
- a figure with arms and a head and a dolphin's tail
- an arms-and-legs human falling over the side of the boat... |
Author: aetheling | "Is that..." No, she can't understand him. He points at the human figures, and then at himself. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods repeatedly.
She points at the person with the tail.
She points at herself. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline blinks, then nudges one of her feet with his boot. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods.
She draws something that looks sort of like a jagged cave entrance, and a figure peeping out of it with arms and a head and eight wiggly tentacles.
She draws a dolphin-person approaching the cave. She draws the dolphin-person a mouth, with wavy lines straggling out of it. She draws an arms-and-legs person on the other side of the cave, and puts both her hands over her own mouth, and points at her legs. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline blinks slowly.
The study has a few repositories of transferred things in it. He picks up one of them; it holds something not readily identifiable, moving around inside. "You gave your voice -" He touches the corner of her mouth, then the quartz chunk - "and got legs?" He touches the chunk again, then her knee. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods again, and smiles. |
Author: aetheling | He puts the quartz down.
"Okay..."
There's another test. He remembers the words very clearly. If he pays attention to what he's saying, he thinks he can reproduce the sound of them and not just the sense. "C'mon, I didn't drag you all this way to have you die on me," he begins, and he waits for a glimmer of recognition. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She beams and nods several times.
"Pretty boy," she says, although there is no sound to the words. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline matches remembered sound to the way her mouth moves, and he smiles. "Well then." |
Author: agnatic | "Cymbeline's got a cru-u-ush," coos Zoyah. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green lady giggles silently. |
Author: aetheling | "Kerem, if you'll go tell my parents what's going on? I'd like to see about teaching her to write Loegrian," says Cymbeline. |
Author: pleasantsurprise | "Of course," agrees Kerem, and off he goes. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green lady gazes adoringly at Cymbeline. |
Author: aetheling | "In the meantime I need to call you something," says Cymbeline. He considers, then says, "As long as it's going to be temporary I suppose I needn't be terribly creative. Jade? Jade," he says decisively, pointing at her. "Okay?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | "All right." And he sets about drawing little pictures and writing words next to them, which he speaks aloud so she'll recognize the terms when people say them to her. (Since she is after all not deaf.) |
Author: treasuresuntold | The green lady - 'Jade', if you must - pays attention. |
Author: aetheling | After he's made enough little pictures to incorporate all of the letters of the alphabet, he teaches her the alphabet with these examples. And then he hands her the pen again. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | "Nothing to say?" he asks. And he shrugs and goes back to teaching her words; Zoyah has long gotten bored and left. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Nothing to say, or no idea how to say it. One of those. |
Author: aetheling | He talks to her, while he's drawing the pictures, leaning on the vocabulary he's already provided but not restricting himself to it. Immersion was how he learned Iberiola. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She seems attentive, but vaguely frustrated.
Eventually, she interrupts the lesson by pushing the paper away. She looks him in the eye, to get his attention. She touches her legs. She points to the quartz crystal he used in his earlier demonstration of magic. She touches her legs again and mimes with her hands something jumping off them and fluttering rapidly away. |
Author: aetheling | He frowns, considering interpretations, then draws a little stylized Jade-with-legs, and a little stylized Jade-with tail, and an arrow from the one to the other. "Your legs are going to go away? How long - how many days -" He sketches the path of the sun; they've already done numbers. "One day, two days, three days -" |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline hmmms. "Okay, so this is a temporary visit. I wish I knew what you wanted to get out of it..." He sighs and goes back to writing. Names, this time - himself, Zoyah, Kerem, Jade's temporary moniker. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She puts up with the lesson long enough to learn his name and hers, but she's frowning.
After labeling her various drawings of Cymbeline with "Cym" (apparently his full name is too long to bother with), she repeats the legs-flying-away mime and this time leans away after her fluttering hand and grabs it and hauls it back. But when she attempts to stick it back onto her hip, it just keeps stubbornly fluttering.
She looks at him expectantly. |
Author: aetheling | "Yeah, transfers do that if you don't catch them... uh... I guess they were expensive, maybe you need to trade it back..." He gets up, finds her a jar, and offers it to her. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She gives him a deeply exasperated look, but takes the jar. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline is going over their past notes and what words they've covered, trying to figure out how to go forward in some kind of sensible order, when Kerem returns. |
Author: pleasantsurprise | "I've told the King and Queen," Kerem reports. "And, I've found a book on sign language - I don't know it, but it might be easier for her to pick up and more portable than writing?" He offers Cymbeline the book. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline flips open the book; it has a lot of prints of diagrams of signs and their meanings. He shows it to Jade. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade is intrigued! She pets the book, cradling her jar in her lap. |
Author: aetheling | "Is that better than learning to write, for you? I imagine drawings will still be useful, but there are advantages to this too, even though I'll have to learn it too..." He shrugs and starts doing his best to draw the concepts in the book for her, and studies the signs for himself. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade is much more interested in signing than she ever was in writing. She sticks with it, repeating the sign associated with each new concept until she's sure Cymbeline understands it, and when his drawing makes no sense she pesters him until he clarifies.
She is particularly interested in verbs. As soon as she can string signs together to make a complete sensible thought, she does: I walk. (With a silent laugh.) |
Author: aetheling | "Yes. Yes you do," Cymbeline laughs, after he's deciphered the signs. "Not very well, but then neither do I and I've had more practice..." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods, giggles silently, and repeats this sentence several more times. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline has a good head for vocabulary; he can go at whatever pace is comfortable for her. Eventually they've passed things like pronouns and "walk" and "sit", skipped over the sign alphabet which doesn't seem to interest her, and moved on to slightly more complicated words. Prepositions, nouns like "bird" and "fish" and various body parts, verbs that are a little trickier to draw or mime like "see" and "hear" and "want". |
Author: treasuresuntold | "See" and "hear" come naturally to her. "Want" takes a little more explaining, but when it clicks, she immediately says a sentence:
I want legs. |
Author: aetheling | "Uhh..." He doesn't know how to ask 'forever', but - he can always take them off again, if she changes her mind, he supposes. "You want me to magic your legs on?" (They don't have a sign for magic covered, but it was mentioned earlier in the writing lessons.) |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods firmly. |
Author: aetheling | "Okay." He reaches for one of her feet, closes his eyes, and concentrates on the magic sticking them on. The legs she's wearing were encapsulated very neatly, attached inexpertly - someone has more fun playing with transference than doing anything lasting with it - and -
He blinks.
"These are -" They don't have "cursed". "These are - bad magic legs." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She laughs soundlessly and shrugs and nods. |
Author: aetheling | "You want these legs? They'll - they must have -" They don't have 'hurt', either; he pinches himself in the arm - "Ow, that hurt. These legs hurt. You want these?" He's not sure where you go to buy less cursed legs, but there's probably somebody selling, people make all kinds of bizarre economic choices, he could probably even pull her tail out from under the layering and swap it for someone who wants to be a merperson just like she wanted to walk. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade signs I want legs again, and then shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | ...He reminds himself that she can change her mind anytime. "Won't come off by itself" doesn't mean "irretrievable".
"Okay," he says dubiously, and he touches her foot, and concentrates, and after a few minutes he says, "There." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She beams and hugs him enthusiastically. |
Author: aetheling | She's very affectionate, isn't she. Well. Hugs, all right.
Presently he returns to teaching her signs. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah interrupts them when they're about a third of the way through the book, and says, "Dinnertime. But if she's going to come she should borrow a whole outfit." |
Author: aetheling | "Ah. Um. Jade, want to go with Zoyah and -" They don't have 'borrow'. "Take clothes?" He pulls at his sleeve by way of illustrating 'clothes'. "Then eat?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade nods. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah offers Jade her hand, since she remember how ineffectual Jade has been at walking so far. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade hands Cymbeline back his jar, now that she won't be needing it anymore, and takes Zoyah's hand with a smile.
If her legs are hurting her, she's not showing it. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah leads Jade up to her chambers, and flings open the closet. (She has already replaced the overskirt that Jade is currently wearing.) "Do you even know what constitutes an outfit? I bet not. Hermioneeeee," she calls.
Zoyah's lady-in-waiting appears from another room in the princess's suite, and is told: "This is Jade, I found her on the beach, she can't talk, help her into something presentable, not my favorite stuff but something she can wear to dinner, I don't think she knows how regular people clothes work."
"Yes, milady," says Hermione, chipper, and she sets about choosing an outfit while Zoyah sweeps off, and attempts to get Jade out of the leather top and borrowed overskirt and into something more surface-conventional. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade resists taking off the leather top, but is willing to layer over it. She greets the revelation of the existence of corsets with an expression of mild horror. In general, anything that's snug around the waist is an instant rejection. |
Author: alicornucopia | Hermione tries to coax her into one until she realizes that the gills are the problem, and then she improvises as best she can in the absence of proper foundation garments, muttering to herself about strange beach women with gills. Eventually Jade has been attired in a layered dress and stockings and a spare pair of Zoyah's shoes, which are too big for her, and Minnie shows her down to the dinner table, apologizing in Zoyah's ear about being unable to talk Jade into a corset. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade is quite cheerful about all this once the gills problem has been sorted out!
Dinner is a whole different kind of adventure. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline is somewhat dismayed by her lack of table manners. "Just - do what we do," he suggests the first time she uses her fork backwards. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade blinks at him. |
Author: aetheling | He takes her fork out of her hand, turns it around, then mimes eating with his own. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She smiles. This is a more effective way to use a fork! Excellent! |
Author: aetheling | He continues correcting her as the meal proceeds. His parents look at her quizzically. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Since most of these corrections make Jade better at eating their weird food with their weird utensils, she accepts them all and follows them diligently.
But when it comes time for dessert and he cautions her not to lick the bowl, she stares him down and then goes right back to it. |
Author: aetheling | "Jade, no, really - don't -" says Cymbeline, dropping his face onto his hand. |
Author: agnatic | "Ew," says Zoyah.
The king says, "I understand that a gilled, green woman found on the beach is an interesting curiosity, but if she can't eat like a civilized person she's going to have to take meals in the servants' quarters as long as she's here, Cymbeline." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade puts her bowl down triumphantly, having cleaned it of every available drop of pudding. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline is still completely exasperated, trying to think of some way to explain what's going on. |
Author: agnatic | Zoyah is not so hindered. "You can't do that," she tells Jade, "and if you do you can't eat with us." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade makes her 'I don't understand' face. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline says, "May I be excused?"
And the queen says, "Yes."
And up he gets and off he goes. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade looks around; it's not obvious to her where Cymbeline went or what's going to happen now. |
Author: agnatic | The king, queen, princess, and other members of the household who eat at their table - Kerem, a few other court persons - sit around talking for a bit longer, and eventually disperse. Servants take the dishes away; Jade's is the only one that has been licked. |
Author: aetheling | Presently Cymbeline returns with the book of signs in his hand. "Jade?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She looks up at the sound of her name and smiles at the book. |
Author: aetheling | He leads her back to the study, and starts skipping around in the book, looking for the words he needs.
After he's picked up the necessary pieces, including a lengthy detour to explain "if", he says, "You will not eat with me and my family if you lick things." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade gives him a suspicious/quizzical look. |
Author: aetheling | "My father doesn't like it," he summarizes, since he's at a complete loss for how to define 'manners' in terms of anything he can draw or mime. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Understanding dawns. She nods. |
Author: aetheling | That's better. Cymbeline smiles, and goes back to where they were in their more linear approach through the book. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The book is fun! And she's picking up an understanding of Loegrian very fast. The 'I don't understand' face is getting rarer and rarer. |
Author: aetheling | Excellent! Cymbeline will happily pass the rest of the evening teaching her Loegrian.
After that, he shows her - with occasional puzzled glances at her feet - to a guest suite. "You can sleep here," he tells her. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods and signs 'thank you' and kisses him on the cheek, bouncing a little on her toes. (Her coordination is improving already.) |
Author: aetheling | He's slightly bemused at all the excess affection but presently unable to ask about it in any useful way, so he just shows her how to douse the candles - the servants prepared this room for her in advance - and then how to re-light them with the available matches. |
Author: treasuresuntold | The candles are fascinating!
Jade pokes one. On the burning part. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline grabs her hand. "That will hurt," he says. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade extracts her hand, signs I want, and pokes the flame again. |
Author: aetheling | He takes her hand again. "You could catch fire -" No, she doesn't know the words. Uuuum. He's been watching her walk apparently comfortably on cursed legs all day, but those don't spread, and he doesn't have the vocabulary for a proper fire safety lecture. "It could hurt other people," he tries. "If the fire goes anywhere but the candle," (he covered these words when he was showing her how to douse and light it) "it can - get big, grow - fire eats things." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She signs Eat?, disbelievingly. |
Author: aetheling | He looks around for something to burn, then picks up the discarded match he used to light the candle in his demonstration. He shook it out before, but he relights it, then sets it on the candle tray before the flame can reach his fingers. It obligingly burns into a little line of black ash. "Not really eat. Burn. Fire burns things." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade stares at the match, then nods slowly.
She taps the candle tray and makes the sign for this-is-a-question. |
Author: aetheling | "Small candle fire can't burn this," he says, tapping the tray. "That's why it's under the candle. But fire can burn clothes, wood, paper, people, - most things. If it gets big, it can burn more things." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade nods again. |
Author: aetheling | "So - fire stays on the candle, and not other places. Okay?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | Nod nod. |
Author: aetheling | He smiles. "Okay. Good. Sleep well." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods, and smiles, and hugs him. |
Author: aetheling | Hug.
And off he goes to go to bed himself. |
Author: treasuresuntold | It's hard to get comfortable up here. She didn't know she'd miss the water so much. But she manages it eventually, and drifts off to sleep.
She wakes up early the next morning; even an hour before dawn, it's brighter in her room than it ever gets in the depths. For lack of anything better to do, she makes her way to the study (she's starting to get the hang of this walking thing) and sits down with the book of sign, refreshing her memory of everything she learned yesterday. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline is up around dawn, and when he finds her room vacated he tries the study next. "Good morning. You can read in the dark?" he inquires. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade signs Dark? and looks around quizzically. |
Author: aetheling | "The sun goes down, it's dark, we sleep, the sun comes up, it's light, we can see," says Cymbeline. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She laughs her silent laugh.
I can see. |
Author: aetheling | "With no sun and no fire, you can see?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods. She gestures vaguely in the direction of the ocean; she signs water. |
Author: aetheling | "So you live deep enough -" He grabs the drawing paper, draws a deep scoop of ocean, illustrates shallow, deep, deeper, shallower - "So deep that there's no sunlight, so you can see in the dark." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade nods again. |
Author: aetheling | "Interesting. What have you been reading in the dark?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She holds up the sign book. |
Author: aetheling | "Reviewing stuff from yesterday. Good, it accomplishes nothing if I don't know the signs you use... All right." He sits down next to her, and on they go. |
Author: treasuresuntold | And on and on!
She's a little less driven today, but still clearly interested. In both Cymbeline and what they're learning together. |
Author: aetheling | Eventually, when there is a hope she might understand him, he says:
"If you ever want, I can take your legs, hold them in a jar, and give them back later. If you want to swim." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She smiles and kisses his cheek. |
Author: aetheling | "Why do you do that?" he asks lightly. |
Author: treasuresuntold | I like you. |
Author: aetheling | Fair enough; any more detailed report will probably have to wait until they have more vocabulary between them. He shrugs, moves on. They're going to run out of signs from this book soon, although review will of course be available, and then she can learn to fingerspell and read Loegrian to fill in other words. Or maybe Kerem will find another book of signs, though Cymbeline's not even sure why they had this one. |
Author: treasuresuntold | At least by the time she starts properly learning to read Loegrian, she's going to understand it pretty well. She's hardly ever giving him the look today. |
Author: aetheling | That is good!
However, Cymbeline has other obligations today. First of all, breakfast is called for - he has this brought into the study, for both of them, but it distracts from lessons nonetheless. And then:
"I have lessons too," he says. "After lunch, I can teach you more. Do you want to read what you've learned so far again until then?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | "Okay," he says, because he's not sure what else she'd do, and off he goes to learn the finer points of Iberiola, and poke at magic with Kerem, and help Zoyah through her protocol lessons, which he finished a year ago but which she struggles with. "I'll be back later." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade waves cheerfully and goes back to her book of signs. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline returns, with lunch for both of them, at noon. "Having fun?" he asks. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She giggles soundlessly. |
Author: aetheling | "I'll take that as a yes."
He has the afternoon free; in the evening he'll be doing some miscellaneous court tasks for his parents, but until then his time is his own, and he opts to spend it entirely on going through this book.
They are approaching the end of the book, and Kerem said he was pretty sure it was the only one in the library. Cymbeline supposes they can invent more signs. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Still, with just the signs in this book and a little imagination, it's possible to say a lot. And Jade is positively chatty in the name of practice. She talks about Cymbeline's house, about his family, about the clothes she borrowed from his sister; she questions him about the sorts of things he does with magic.
She does not volunteer any information about her life under the sea. |
Author: aetheling | He's happy to answer questions, confirm or deny or correct the grammar of her remarks about his life.
He has his own questions, though.
"Yes, I do have a sister. She has a brother, me. We are brother and sister. Do you have any brothers or sisters?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | I have brothers and sisters. |
Author: aetheling | "How many?" He produces the page of numbers in case she needs it. |
Author: treasuresuntold | She looks at the numbers and shrugs helplessly, moving her finger down the column past ten, past a hundred, then trailing it off the page. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline looks at her skeptically, and introduces several new orders of magnitude. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade shrugs again.
I don't know. |
Author: aetheling | "Do sea people - merfolk - have children differently?" he wonders. Something with eggs that could confuse the issue, he supposes... |
Author: treasuresuntold | Different? |
Author: aetheling | "There's me, there's Zoyah, one at a time, no others," says Cymbeline. "Same mother, same father, I am three years older than her. Are you more like - fish? Or something?" This seems like a rude question, but he doesn't know how to couch it delicately. |
Author: treasuresuntold | ...Something occurs to her.
How many wives does your father have? |
Author: aetheling | "Just my mother." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Aha. The mystery is solved. Jade nods.
My father has more. My father is old. I have more sisters and more brothers. I don't know all my sisters. I don't know all my brothers. |
Author: aetheling | "Oh. How old is he? How old are you?" asks Cymbeline. |
Author: treasuresuntold | He is old old old old old. I am twelve years, she signs cheerfully.
She doesn't look twelve. She looks closer to his age than Zoyah's. |
Author: aetheling | He peers at her.
"Twelve? Really? I'm - I'm twenty-one," he says. "You don't look twelve to me." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She gives him a disbelieving look.
Twenty-one? You look like twelve. |
Author: aetheling | "Maybe that's a merfolk thing?" he suggests. "Zoyah is eighteen." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Zoyah looks like ten. |
Author: aetheling | "You look twenty or twenty-one to me," Cymbeline says. "If you were a human." |
Author: treasuresuntold | I am not a human. |
Author: aetheling | "Yes," he says, "I know. So merfolk grow differently than humans. How did your father get to be so very old? Do all merfolk get that old?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She shakes her head.
My father is king. |
Author: aetheling | "...So you're a princess," says Cymbeline. "Like Zoyah." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She shrugs; she nods. |
Author: aetheling | "...Interesting."
It may be possible to derive information about the way in which this is interesting from his tone. |
Author: treasuresuntold | What? |
Author: aetheling | "...Ah. Politics," shrugs Cymbeline. He hasn't actually taught her this word yet. He's not sure how to sum it up. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade thinks she has an angle!
Do you like me? |
Author: aetheling | He taught her the word in reference to things like favorite foods, so he doesn't think he's overstating the case to say, "Yes." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She grins at him. Rather as though he is a favourite food. |
Author: aetheling | Cymbeline chuckles and shakes his head. She's astonishingly expressive with her one bookful of signs, but he's not going to start talking about working something out between Loegria and a kingdom of merfolk until he's had a conversation with her at least relatively unimpeded by vocabulary.
Speaking of which.
"Why did you want legs?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | I want to be up here. |
Author: aetheling | "Why's that?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She considers this, then says, I don't like my father. |
Author: aetheling | "Oh," he muses. "That sounds unpleasant." Pause. "Well. Not sounds." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade laughs her silent laugh. |
Author: aetheling | "You had such a pretty voice and you traded it for cursed legs," he sighs. |
Author: treasuresuntold | Pretty? she signs, smiiiiiling. |
Author: aetheling | "And charmed. I was asleep," (he has not covered the fine points of "unconsciousness") "and I still heard you." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She nods. Magic voice. |
Author: aetheling | "Charmed voice, for cursed legs. Bad trade," opines Cymbeline. |
Author: treasuresuntold | I want legs. |
Author: aetheling | "I wanted a particular horse -" He sketches a horse - "once, but the man who had it wanted too much gold for it, so I didn't buy it. - Buying is trading gold for a thing instead of trading a thing for a thing." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade nods thoughtfully.
I want legs. Only one legs under water. I have legs. Good. |
Author: aetheling | "I guess they would be hard to find," agrees Cymbeline. "But your voice? You couldn't give the magician something else?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | She shrugs. |
Author: aetheling | "I have a charm too," he says conversationally, shrugging and veering away from the subject of just how much of a cheat the witch was. |
Author: treasuresuntold | What is it? |
Author: aetheling | He taps his head. "Charmed mind." Hmm, how to explain 'mind'... Maybe she'll get it by the gesture alone. |
Author: treasuresuntold | What does it do? |
Author: aetheling | "If I can remember something, I remember it right..." He contemplates how to demonstrate "remember", grabs a sheet of paper, writes a sequence of digits on it, hands it to her so he can't see it, recites them aloud - "I remember those numbers. I don't have to look at them to say them. I won't say them backwards or miss one or put in one that isn't there. And," he continues, "if someone tries to do magic to my mind instead of to my body, it doesn't work well, and I can think faster than a lot of people." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade grins at him. Good, she says happily. |
Author: aetheling | "I like it," he agrees. |
Author: treasuresuntold | I like you. |
Author: aetheling | "That's good," he laughs. "What else do you like?" |
Author: treasuresuntold | I like your feet. |
Author: aetheling | He peers down at his booted feet. "Really. My feet." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Jade nods, beaming. |
Author: aetheling | "Well, they aren't cursed, they are good in that way." |
Author: treasuresuntold | They are pretty. |
Author: aetheling | "They're just feet." |
Author: treasuresuntold | Pretty feet. |
Author: aetheling | He laughs. "If you say so." |
Author: treasuresuntold | She giggles silently and nods. |