(Untitled)

[ostro_goth]

Early on Saturday morning, there are three people outside taking very little notice of each other, each going about his business. For some reason, if you find all three of these in almost one spot, it is always outside, always early morning.-

• Asar-Suti is stacking pumpkins from the garden by the back entrance of the kitchen. It isn't hard work, as

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[ami_imperfect]

Outside, there is a teenage girl circling the lake on a zipboard.

Normally Dani doesn't get up this early. But Enzo's been angsting about his upcoming exams, so Dani's been anxious about Enzo angsting about his exams, which led to Dani waking up in the wee hours and not being able to get back to sleep. So, she decided to get some zipboard practice in.

As she passes by the cigar-smoking man by the lake, she waves.

[destroy_restart]

Tower waves back to her, grinning.

[ami_imperfect]

Well, no reason to be impolite; Dani veers off of her course and flies closer to him.

"Hi. Can't sleep either?"

[destroy_restart]

"I don't sleep, anyway," Tower says. "Not human, really."

[lasthalfmile]

Dan's walking (limping, as usual) outside in the cold morning air, back from checking on his horse. Contemplating. He barely notices anything around him as he walks, and he feels colder today, but it's not any different.

He's still dead. He's still here. Same as the day before and the day before that. And the one before that. He hasn't seen Charlie lately, and he's not sure if that's good or bad.

He senses someone else and lifts his eyes, then turns to look at the sunrise, slowing his walk.

[destroy_restart]

"Morning!" Tower says, exhaling a cloud of sweet, pungent smoke. "Cigar?"

[lasthalfmile]

Dan glances over, considers this a moment - he's never been much of a smoker, since he didn't want to do anything at all that might irritate his son's condition, but now...

That doesn't matter.

"Mornin'," he replies, with a polite nod. "And sure, I'd like that."

[destroy_restart]

Tower hands him a cigar; it is a big one. "What went wrong?" he asks.

[shoeless_ed]

There is a smallish red-headed someone observing Asar-Suti from the edge of the roof. The someone wears seasonally appropriate long pants, a coat and even a scarf - which are bright green, purple and pink with a Hello Kitty print pattern, respectively - but no socks or shoes. It's difficult to determine based on sight alone whether the someone is male or female, though Asar-Suti may have other methods of making that determination.

"Ooooh!" the someone remarks, eyes wide. "Flying pumpkins!"

[asar_suti]

"Hey, kid!" Asar-Suti says, neatly dodging the whole gender issue. "Yes; I'm too lazy to carry them, so I use magic."

[shoeless_ed]

"So they're not magic flying pumpkins? Because you are using flying pumpkin magic?" Ed asks, neatly demonstrating both logic and the importance of word order.

Personally, she would rather that they were magic flying pumpkins. Flying pumpkin magic just doesn't have as big a cool factor.

[asar_suti]

"Yes, that's right," Asar-Suti says. "My magic, not theirs. I just stack them by the kitchen door for Gil and the rats to make pumpkin pie and pumpkin juice and ornaments and soup and all the other things they make from pumpkins -- oh yes, pumpkin seeds to nibble, and that nice dark green pumpkin see oil."