[open] caught in a bad romance

[sophicsulphur]

So have an Iris, Chicago, who's been figuring she needs to get out of the house some.

Not that she's been spending all her time indoors, recently. But, well, it's been between the Kashtta and Molly's sorority house, for the most part, and that's nice and all, but she's starting to worry that she's becoming one of those people who disappear into

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[sophicsulphur]

"Well, um," she replies, ruffling her hair back into place herself. "I'm kind of, um, contracted to the local library to bring these back in three weeks. So I still can't let you have them, or I'll be in trouble and have to pay a fine and stuff."

She sits back down on the lip of the fountain, fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "But I can get you ones just like them, I'm really sure."

Although now she's reconsidering this whole series of events. After all, if this creature is on some kind of exalted mission, isn't that a little more important than her duty to the government? Maybe she should just give up the books, if it's in the service of the greater good. She can always pay the fine, and maybe the library won't think too badly of her if she explains that a talking magpie took them. But then, it's hard to really tell if it really is on a holy mission or just a mundane one-- as mundane as any mission that would send out a magpie would be, anyway-- when she doesn't even know who his lord and master is.

"...So what kind of person is this, um, Corvidae... what you said?" she asks meekly.

[callyourselfa]

One For Sorrow sighs. "Well, he's no Majicou, but he's a fine beast in his own right," he says. "A venerable old raven, almost half as big as you are."

This is probably a slight exaggeration.

"Fearsome in battle, august in repose, a true knight of the old codes. -pardon, but if you could get books just the same, what's this Library got to yowl about, anyway?"

Human laws. He finds them foolish.

[sophicsulphur]

Majicou. Another word she's never heard of. This conversation's getting more fascinating by the moment.

Not that she hasn't seen penguin-men taller than she is, but she's never seen a raven fitting that description before. And to Iris, everything new is interesting.

But interesting's not a good enough reason to let the creature make off with the books. "Well, these are their books," she presses. "For that matter, if I can get books for you just the same, I could ask, well, what do you have to yowl about?" There's a note of good humour in her voice, and she smiles at the bird; she doesn't want it to think she's being rude. She's just making a perfectly valid point.

[callyourselfa]

"Well, if it mattered, there'd be some distinction, and if it didn't matter, what'd a sensible person be doing bringing it up, hm?" It's... like an answer. If you're One For Sorrow. ...really, obfuscation is just often how he deals with questions he doesn't know the answer to, because he's got a(n almost wholly imagined) reputation to uphold as a bird who knows everything.

Anyway, he's going to drive that brilliant piece of logic home with... another bite of sandwich.

Anyway.

"So, how exactly the same, particularly?"

[sophicsulphur]

Iris doesn't know whether to attempt to follow the bird's train of thought or just giggle, at that. She decides on stifling the latter, just because it wouldn't be terribly polite to laugh. The bird might get offended, and might decide to steal her books anyway.

So she puts a hand to her mouth, partly in thought, and partly to mask the smile. "Well, I think these ones have bits of paper in them that tell you the date that someone last borrowed them. And they might be a little more worn. But the ones I can buy in the store have all the same words."

And will cost her whole paycheck, but then, so will having to pay off library fines for a whole stack of stolen books. She guesses it's back to eating out of the cafeteria again for a while, after this. And just as she was thinking about starting to eat a bit better for Kaden's sake, too. She'll just have to take more shifts at the cafeteria herself, and make her own food. Then at least she can control what goes in it.

[callyourselfa]

One For Sorrow would offer advice on that matter, but he's still a little fuzzy on the mechanics of money at all. After all, the world provides all the food one needs, in terms of plants and prey animals and carrion and stuff dropped by two-leggers going about their two-legger business, depending on one's needs. And sometimes, yes, you work for others, but you work as matters of law and Code and honor and hierarchy, not for "your keep". "Your keep" is a foreign concept to him. Even the pampered cats in the human houses received food as a matter of natural order.

He puts on something of a show of considering that, turning to look at the books out of one eye, then the other, then cleaning his beak on his breastfeathers. "...I suppose that'd work," he says. "If you absolutely can't part with these."

[sophicsulphur]

Iris would note that she prefers to work for honour than for keep. It seems like a more natural way to go about things. But she needs her supplies, and Chicago's not as good as her old world was about just ponying those up for free. Not that she got free food and board in her old world, that said. She supposes it's a trade.

"It'd be better all round," she says with a nod. "I can take you to the bookstore, if you'd like to come along?"

She doesn't question the strangeness of being accompanied to the store by a huge, talking bird. After all, this is Chicago, right? You can't even sit down to eat a sandwich without something diving out of a Rift and wheedling you out of your food, your money or your books.

[callyourselfa]

Indeed it is. And Chicago, except for the bastards in the CLF, is pretty good at either rolling with or ignoring the weird.

One For Sorrow nods, gobbles down a good portion of the rest of the sandwich, then picks up the remainder and struts in the direction it seems like Iris will be going. Maybe today won't be a complete loss, after all.

In any case, he does take a certain amount of pride in making the Thegn happy.