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[az_from_the_oz]

Az knew she shouldn't have been interested, but she was despite herself. She had come to the bookshelf with the definite purpose of finding more books on advanced chemistry because the ones she had received with her gift in the beginning of the year were now woefully inadequate. But on her way to choosing something heavy and scientific her eye

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[giftless]

"Hello," Edmund said as he walked into the room, a faint smile on his face and a book in his hand. His eyes widened a bit when he looked beyond just Azkadellia to see the stacks of magazines around her. He knew he had to apologize for being a right git to her before, but all this was a bit distracting. "I say, what are all those?"

[az_from_the_oz]

"Hello, Edmund." One of the added benefits of keeping track of all of the quizzes with her head was that she could turn to another page and just come back to it later, which is what she did when he came in the room, flipping to a safe and rather boring advertisement for shampoo. "They're some sort of instruction manual, I think. I'm not sure though. We didn't have anything like them in the O.Z."

[giftless]

"Instruction manual?" he echoed suspiciously, casting a surreptitious eye over a few of the covers. "Oh, for makeup," he assumed, reading a few of the by-lines. "Makes sense. I really don't know how you girls manage that stuff."

[az_from_the_oz]

"I'm not sure either," Az admitted. "I left home before I could really get to care about any of it there. But even then, I don't remember hearing about most of these things. They must all be from the Other Side." Not that she would expect Edmund to be able to tell her. They were all pretty much exclusively girly after all. Wendy and Coraline would probably be much better sources of information.

[polly_okeefe]

"Who is 'him'?" I asked. "Depending on the answer of _that_ question, the response could be a hug, a kiss, a slap across the face, or a nod and a smile."

I stood there, a dish towel in my hand, and smiled at the woman, hoping I'd been helpful.

[az_from_the_oz]

"What?" Az looked up, momentarily confused. "Oh. It wasn't really a question. Well, not one like that. It was a question from a quiz." She held up the magazine as proof, just to be sure the other girl was understanding her.

[polly_okeefe]

"Oh," I said. "One of those. So 'him' would be a potential lover, or something, I guess. I think 'hello' might work best, but I don't have much experience in these matters." I notice the pile of magazines around her and I frown a little. There's a 50-50 chance that _I'll_ be the one who has to clean these up, but I still feel mostly good natured about it. "Researching something, are we?"

[az_from_the_oz]

"I suppose you could call it that." It really was a fairly accurate description of what she was doing. After all, she had plunged into the stack of magazines with very little understanding of the culture behind them and was now going over them as thoroughly as an archaeologist in the newly discovered library of some long-lost civilization.

[apinkrose]

"I do believe that I would compliment him," Cecily said from the doorway where she had been listening for the past minute. The woman had looked so intent, and she did not wish to interrupt, but when the moment presented itself, she could hardly let it pass by.

"Yes. Complimenting does seem to be the easiest way into a person's heart."

[az_from_the_oz]

"Perhaps..." Az frowned and scanned the page again. "It would have to be a worthwhile compliment though. Not just something silly to make someone feel better about themselves."

[apinkrose]

"Well, of course, you would not compliment his breath or anything quite so silly, but I do find that most would enjoy a compliment on their hair, or their clothing. Unless, of course you know them, in which case you may compliment them on kindness or intelligence."

[az_from_the_oz]

"But just complimenting them on something like that would be silly. If they'd done something important recently, that would be worth a compliment. Not just telling them about something that they normally do or look like everyday. It would have to be something more special." Az never had really understood courtiers and the art of flattery.

[heartliketin]

"What in the gods name is this mess?" Cain demanded, his voice sharp and somewhat short as he managed to step into a veritable travel storm's worth of papers. He levelled an expectant look on Azkadellia, hands on his hips as if he'd found Jeb covered in mud back at the old house.

[az_from_the_oz]

"They're just papers," Az said, rolling her eyes dramatically in reply to his question. "I'm trying to read." Honestly. "I'm going to clean them up when I'm done."

[heartliketin]

Cain knew that this was coming. Hell, he'd missed it with Jeb so he felt he was going to get it three-fold because of it, but he wasn't about to just lie down and let Az trample all over him. He took a deep breath and wandered in. "It's not the mess I'm concerned about and more the trash in the script. What use is reading those?"

[az_from_the_oz]

Az sighed. She should have seen this coming. "They aren't trash. They're a cultural guide to the Other Side and I'm studying them. You wouldn't want me to get into a conversation with someone and not know what they're talking about, would you? This is research."