(Untitled)

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary Lennox is clutching a book, today, as she enters the bar; she makes her way over to the counter, climbs up onto a seat, and sits down to flip through it, a faint scowl of a frown on her face

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[creator_raven]

"The plants have offended you?"

Raven leans over her shoulder to better see the page she's looking at.

"They are often coarse in their speech, I think. It is the weather."

[creator_raven]

Raven quirks a slight, rueful grin.

"It is, I think, a question of plausible deniability. Also such a free thing, perhaps, gives it more power. It is a difficult thing. Tangled."

Oh, the irony.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary stops her unhappy contemplation long enough to give Raven a straight stare.

"Plausible deniability?

- you mean, if she had made me touch it," she adds, frowning, "it would not have worked so well."

[creator_raven]

"It is possible, yes. Such things are subtle."

He shrugs.

"Still, you will know better next time, yes?"

[mmquitecontrary]

"That is what I thought at first," Mary says, a little sulkily, "but it is hard to tell - and I cannot always be afraid of things. At least, I thought I could, but it did not work so well. So I am not sure."

[creator_raven]

"Afraid is not good, I do not think. But wary is often helpful. Even if only a little."

He shrugs.

"That, too, is tricky."

[mmquitecontrary]

Seriously: "I am trying - but I do not know very much about it.

I do not know where is the line, between wary and afraid."

[creator_raven]

Raven considers.

"Wary is studying a thing carefully, perhaps, and choosing whether or not to go forward."

He blinks.

"Afraid is studying a thing without seeing it, and fleeing in panic."

He shrugs.

"Perhaps it is not so clear in practice. Still."

[mmquitecontrary]

A little indignantly: "I do not ever flee in panic.

- well, except when the boxing kangaroo came, but that was only because I did not have time to think."

[creator_raven]

"Boxing kangaroos move quickly, I think. It is a pet?"

He looks intrigued.

[mmquitecontrary]

"No," Mary says, with a slight scowl. "It is a vicious attack kangaroo that hunted me down.

- only," she adds, somewhat proudly, "Dickon was able to make friends with it - but that is because Dickon is Magic."

[creator_raven]

"They are all like that, I think."

Raven nods sagely.

"Dickon? I do not think I have met him."

He frowns.

"There are things I forget, perhaps."

[mmquitecontrary]

"You would remember Dickon - you would like him," Mary says, confidently. "Everyone likes Dickon. He is special."

[creator_raven]

"It has been difficult of late, perhaps. I blame the knitting."

Certainly that did not help, no.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary looks more than a little startled, as two and two finally come together.

"- you were bespelled, too?

I - I did not know that."

[creator_raven]

Raven wrinkles his nose.

"It was a near thing, both times, I think. There is, perhaps, not quite so much shame in being caught so. She has had a long time to practice, do you see?"

It takes only a slight effort of will to stop the shivers.