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[asar_suti]

It is not quite morning, the quietest time in the bar, when the door opens and two short, slight figures walk in. One gives an overall brownish impression, the other is somehow purple, and they both carry only a few small and light bags that should not give the impression of laden-ness that the have about them

Comments

[femme_wizard]

"Hi Sooty!" she says cheerfully, obviously pleased to see him back. "Did you have a good time?"

[asar_suti]

Asar-Suti looks up from his stacks at her.

"Oh yes we did!" he declares, happily. Despite yesterday's dissent, he basically had a week's holiday, and that has done him good.

Also, stacks of books are happiness.

"Gil's got a new wand, I got shushed by a librarian and arm-wrestled a drunken warrior, we ate lots of interesting things and bought lots of books, as you can see. Here, this one is for you!"

He hands her a tome inscribed "The Origin Of Magic", the publishing company is noted as 'Flourish & Blott's'.

[femme_wizard]

There's a strange squeaking sound as she takes the book and turns it over in her hands to read the blurb

"This is amazing!" she says. "From Gil's universe, yes? Thank you!

"What other books did you get?" she slides off her chair to sit in front of the table, not knowing what to look at first.

[asar_suti]

"I haven't finished sorting them by far; these are Bottomless Bags, and there's many more books in them. Basically, I've got magic books from Gil's world" - he puts his flat hand on one stack of leather-bound books on the table - "non-magic books of all sorts from the non-magic world that exists parallel to his, and a few from the New Orleans of the vampires as well," - a stack of smaller, much more colourful paperbacks - "grimoires, primers and books on theory from all traditions of Ihlini magic, not just my own, from my homeworld; I will have to sort out the duplicates as I bought them in bulk, Ihlini magic not being very popular there just now. The duplicates I'll spread over everybody who can use them, but I think I might give Lochiel first refusal on them" - this is four different stacks of teetering, leather-bound chaos - "and then a few books on Voodoo, which is an odd magic tradition from New Orleans" - one book sitting all by itself awaiting more - "and then odds and ends and guidebooks and so forth

[mini_matantei]

"Have a good time on your trip, 'Suti?"

He's a few seats away, carefully sipping from a cup of tea and smiling his usual smile.

[asar_suti]

"Hello, Loki!"

Asar-Suti gets up and comes over. "We enjoyed ourselves a lot, most of the time, and bought lots of books, as you can see. I think it was a good thing to go away with Gil to spend some time just with him, but in the end, he got homesick for his kitchen. Well, I think that's the best sort of trip where you enjoy going away but like coming back just as much."

[mini_matantei]

He smiles and nods.

"I suppose that is the most pleasant."

And he leans against the bar.

"May I ask what you got Richard and Armand for their wedding today? I'm just curious, you understand."

[asar_suti]

Asar-Suti looks acutely embarrassed.

"It was one of the first things that we got in Gil's world, and he found it very funny, and I copied quite a lot of coins to pay for it - but I have no idea what the thing is. It was in a large box that Gil put into his bag. It was... Something to do with... It made a lot of sense at the time."

Something is slightly weird about Loki. "Is everything all right with you?"

[vampire_brat]

A voice in the god's ear. "Boo."

[asar_suti]

"Whoops - there you are again! Long thime no see."

Asar-Suti looks with mock-astonishment at Lestat, to whom he said goodbye only this morning.

"Are the others coming for the wedding as well?"

[vampire_brat]

"That's what we brought Marius here for, isn't it? Yes, yes, they're coming."

He pauses, and looks troubled. "What are you going to wear tonight?" Of course he looks troubled, this is a troubling matter for this vain little vampire.

[asar_suti]

"I don't know what these Armanis you were going on about really are, or whether you need them for an event like that, really. So I think I'm going to conjure myself a purple leather jacket like the one I saw in Lodon - I mentioned that? To go with my usual dark purple leather trousers. And a silk shirt. And I'll try and talk Gil into trying the same in soft green and browns."

He looks at Lestat with a bit of worry.

"Or is one supposed to wear a certain sort of thing for a wedding?"