Karla was wandering back to the cabin, wondering if Dinah was home yet, when she got distracted by the scent of something delicious. Finding Liir roasting meat at the end was an extra treat.
"Kiss kiss," she said, coming around the campfire. "Food up for grabs?"
Karla did not melt at the sight of the half-grown puppy. To suggest otherwise is slander. However, it is slightly possible that she dropped down to the puppy's height, cooed, and made all sorts of delighted and welcoming noises. "She's so cute! What's her name?" Karla asked. "Is she kindred? Can I speak to her?"
Just in case, she sent a thought along a kindred distaff thread. *Hello there! I'm Karla. Can we be friends?* As a rule, one didn't use baby-speak on the kindred. But this one was okay because she was clearly still only a little girl.
"Her name is Makejoy," he said, clearly amused at the reaction to the dog but unwilling to actually laugh since he was just as much of a fool about her as anyone else.
The puppy couldn't speak back but perhaps she heard something as she bounced a little and moved to lick Karla's hand. Animals, after all, had a sense about these things.
"You're welcome to speak to her, but she doesn't understand common Ozian or anything. She's a dog as opposed to a Dog."
"Hello, Makejoy," Karla crooned, reaching out to pet her. "You are very pretty. Yes, you are. Yes."
If anyone mentioned this conversation to Karla, they were going to get hit.
"A dog, rather than a Dog, you said?" Karla asked, in between making noises at Makejoy. "She is not kindred, you mean. Just a regular old furball who is so very cute, isn't she? Why yes, that's right, she is!" The last part of that hadn't been directed at Liir.
Back to Makejoy: "Oh, I bet that glitter itches, doesn't it? Here, let me help." A quick use of Craft was ruffling Makejoy's fur, and the remaining glitter rained out. "There, that's much better, isn't it? You're welcome."
Regretfully, she stood up, giving Makejoy one last pat. "Liir," she asked, grabbing a sausage at random, "do you still have your notes from when you were making the device? Or do you think you could walk me through it. I have an idea for the cultural fair."
"Well, I can't cook, and since no one else is from Kaeleer, I can't really organize anything appropriately cultural. So what I want to do is this: I'm going to spin a tangled web. Anyone who is interested will be able to enter it, and experience a few of my memories of Kaeleer: riding a unicorn is an obvious choice, swimming in my family's loch and eating honey-pears, listening to some music from Pandar. Stuff like that. I need to know how you trap your memories so I can use them in my tangled web."
"I built it, originally, because-- do you remember that professor a mentioned?"
He breathed in and then out.
"Someone had stolen half of his mind, half of his memories from him. It was terrible, the whole idea, and what it'd done to him. So I made the device, originally, in what was supposed to be a gift for him. So he'd have, well, have a 'back up' and that could never happen again."
He leaned back against the log.
"But I can do the same thing, remember things I shouldn't be able to. In fact, for part of the first semester, I was doing it while I was asleep. There were a lot of uncomfortable discussions back then."
"Kiss kiss," she said, coming around the campfire. "Food up for grabs?"
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"Yes, very much up for grabs. I've got some drinks stashed here as well."
Makejoy peered at her from behind Liir's leg.
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Just in case, she sent a thought along a kindred distaff thread. *Hello there! I'm Karla. Can we be friends?* As a rule, one didn't use baby-speak on the kindred. But this one was okay because she was clearly still only a little girl.
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The puppy couldn't speak back but perhaps she heard something as she bounced a little and moved to lick Karla's hand. Animals, after all, had a sense about these things.
"You're welcome to speak to her, but she doesn't understand common Ozian or anything. She's a dog as opposed to a Dog."
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If anyone mentioned this conversation to Karla, they were going to get hit.
"A dog, rather than a Dog, you said?" Karla asked, in between making noises at Makejoy. "She is not kindred, you mean. Just a regular old furball who is so very cute, isn't she? Why yes, that's right, she is!" The last part of that hadn't been directed at Liir.
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"Yes. She's sweet, and very smart, but she can't speak. I'm assuming that Kindred is the same thing we'd call Animals back home."
The capital letter was rather pronounced.
"If you see any glitter, feel free to scritch it out. I got most of it, but she has a lot of hair."
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Back to Makejoy: "Oh, I bet that glitter itches, doesn't it? Here, let me help." A quick use of Craft was ruffling Makejoy's fur, and the remaining glitter rained out. "There, that's much better, isn't it? You're welcome."
Regretfully, she stood up, giving Makejoy one last pat. "Liir," she asked, grabbing a sausage at random, "do you still have your notes from when you were making the device? Or do you think you could walk me through it. I have an idea for the cultural fair."
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"I still have the notes. They're in one of my notebooks."
He had about a half a dozen notebooks full of all manner of things that he worked out. Mostly because he enjoyed being able to use paper as he liked.
"What's your idea? I also have some of the reference books I used for it."
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"The device just does what, well, what I do when I want to."
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He breathed in and then out.
"Someone had stolen half of his mind, half of his memories from him. It was terrible, the whole idea, and what it'd done to him. So I made the device, originally, in what was supposed to be a gift for him. So he'd have, well, have a 'back up' and that could never happen again."
He leaned back against the log.
"But I can do the same thing, remember things I shouldn't be able to. In fact, for part of the first semester, I was doing it while I was asleep. There were a lot of uncomfortable discussions back then."
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"Actually, it means I don't need he notes to explain it."
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"Of course. I've... fouled up magic work before. Thankfully, nothing terrible happened. I just made my girlfriend rather unhappy for a day."
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