the_lioness | (no subject)

Lilly is not cold, possibly because she is basking in the Caribbean inlet.

It takes her a moment to notice the figure... doing something... under the tree. Lilly squints. It's either the world's slowest seizure or a valiant attempt to repel bugs.

"Hey there," she calls across the distance separating them. "Are you okay?"

Alanna freezes in place, one arm over her head and her weight on her back heel.

Tortallan culture does not include much interpretive dance, but if it did, Alanna still wouldn't be very good at it by the looks of things. Bugs are probably out, too, and she is perfectly healthy, so maybe Lilly can sense her (his) confusion even at a distance as she replies, "Yes?"

Squinting, Alanna pulls herself to her full height and looks more closely at the beach -- which she had been denying herself thus far, for reasons she won't admit but that boil down to: it won't always be warm when she needs to fight.

...What in the Great Mother's name is that woman not wearing?

Lilly's very good at sensing confusion. Often she can do it just seconds after she meets someone! (No comment on the possible cause-and-effect relationship there.)

"Just making sure everything was cool," Lilly calls. She narrows her eyes. The figure looks oddly familiar.

"Hey, do I know you?"

"Quite cool," Alanna grumbles, mistaking her meaning.

The beach looks awfully warm. Chewing on her lip, Alanna points her feet in that direction and starts walking. It was inevitable.

"No. We haven't met."

She would have remembered. Most of the women she has met have stuck with her, one way or another.

"Are you here often?"

"Yes?" Lilly tries. She laughs.

"I used to practically run the joint." Bar, Baby, the security staff, etc might disagree but this does not bother Lilly. "And then I got bored and went universe-hopping. Now I'm back!"

She comes further in, the water only coming to her decidedly bare ankles (also bare - almost everything else) and sticks out a hand.

"Lilly Kane, cosmos-politan."

Alanna is busy averting her eyes.

"Universe hopping? Is that possible?" Sharp interest causes her to forget not to look at Lilly. Her eyes widen, her cheeks heat, and now Alanna is occupied with the intense study of a rock along the shoreline.

"Um."

Oh, Goddess. This business of talking to girls didn't use to be so bloody difficult.

"I think you bought me a drink."

Unless Bar was playing with her again.

"I'm Alan of Trebond."

Lilly chokes, turns it into a coughing fit and manages to avoid falling back into the water. No wonder "Alan" looked familiar.

She starts to say something, remembers Alanna's stories of her youth and the importance of her disguise, and stops abruptly. She needs time to think. Clearly, this calls for a wardrobe malfunction.

"Sorry, I think my strap's coming loose!" At least it is now. "Just a sec."

Lilly fiddles with the strap while thinking furiously. She's going to kill someone. Probably Raph. In the meantime, she's playing along.

"Okay, decent!" More or less. "And yes, that was totally me. Did you like it?"

"What? No!" Alanna cries out, whirling around so fast she nearly falls over when her feet get stuck in wet sand.

Why had she come over?

Why can't she keep herself from turning so RED?

"Are you sure?" comes out surly and suspicious. "Um, I don't drink. But thank you?"

Her deportment master never covered how to handle a situation like this! And now her feet are getting stuck again. Great. Scowling, she attempts to rectify the situation, which also allows her to keep not looking at Lilly.

"You don't drink?" God, this version of Alanna has so much to learn...

Lilly starts to smile.

"Maybe tequila's just not your thing." Yet. "What's popular in- Trebond, was it?"

"Tortall," Alanna answers glumly. Alcohol is not her favorite topic of conversation. "Wine, generally. Or ale at the taverns."

She risks a glance at Lilly. All is as covered as it ever was, so she turns slightly, eyes narrowed and ready to shut should that change.

"I don't drink those, either. I'm in training to be a knight. I can't lose control that way."

"Ohhh, that makes sense," Lilly says. It doesn't, but that's not important.

What's important here is molding young minds into the best that they can be, and that's surprisingly difficult to do if the young mind in question is running away from you. She needs to lull- er, show young Alan that there's nothing to be afraid of here!

Sadly, this means no sudden movement or sudden nudity, so she goes for her towel.

"I never trained to be anything, unless you count cheerleading. It's a good workout, but not really like being a knight. No one's supposed to die at the end."

Edited 2012-08-02 01:33 (UTC)

Alanna blinks, then silently thanks the Goddess when Lilly reaches for her towel.

"People aren't supposed to die at the end of my sword," she points out. "Knights are honor bound to protect people, yes, but needless death is wasteful."

Young Alan is Very Serious and has not yet killed anyone. Thus, in her opinion, Chivalry is still shiny and without dents.

"What is cheerleading?"

It seems self-explanatory, but... why would anyone do that?

"Well, it's a little sharp for just teaching them a lesson," Lilly points out.

Lilly hasn't experienced much chivalry, but she could probably find a way to use it to her advantage and thus defeat the entire point.

"Depending on who you ask, cheerleading is either an extremely competitive and athletic sport or an excuse to wear hot pants and short skirts to school."

Her face heats again, but this time it's from barely banked temper, not embarrassment.

"You don't have to stab someone to disarm them!"

Other things Alanna takes seriously: her sword skills.

Her affronted expression is quickly lost to confusion, however. Because... well, because. Because Lilly.

"...why would you want to do that?"

Competitive and athletic she understands. Short skirts, not so much.

"I suffered from an excess of pep."

True story.

And then, because it's not Alanna but there is still blushing, Lilly can't resist.

"Also, I have amazing legs. Right?"

The towel is dropped to help drive the point home.

"Ah."

Like Gary, perhaps. He is always too cheerful early in the morning.

"Goddess!"

Alanna's hand flies up to cover her eyes. Lilly can take that exclamation as she wishes (Alanna suspects she will, anyway).

"We do not have cheerleaders."

Or very short skirts.

Sorry, Delia.

It's like Alan knows her! Or is learning quickly. (And accurately.)

"Your loss."

Lilly arranges herself more or less decently on the blanket, reaching for the picnic basket.

"So, no cheerleaders, what do you do for fun?"

She opens the basket, looking for something wholesome.

"Oh, are you hungry? Want an apple?"

No! Her gain, her gain!

Alanna clears her throat, squares her shoulders and courageously looks at Lilly again.

"I'm in training," she explains, tone bordering on impatient. Then, after a moment of reflection, she adds, "I go to the Lower City sometimes. To the Dove."

She nods. Apples are safe, surely.

Oh, good. There is hope for this Alanna yet.

"The Dove sounds like a fun place," Lilly says casually.

She holds up an apple. It's delicious and innocent and tastes like friendship! Well, mostly friendship.

"Here you go!"

No one has ever gotten in trouble for accepting an apple from anyone, ever, in all of history, so this should be fine!

Totally fine, if only because Alanna's world has never heard of Snow White.

Or Eris.

Lilly doesn't happen to have a nice banana lying about, does she?

"Thank you," Alanna accepts the apple with a courteous nod of her head and sits down nearby, fishing for her knife. "My friend George is in charge of the Dove."

And the Lower City.

"He keeps a lively tavern, I suppose."

She shrugs and cuts a slice out of the apple, looking pensive. Alanna doesn't spend much time in the tavern proper. They usually go upstairs to talk.

Just talk.

A little sad, "He would like this place."

Or he would hate it because it's so much awesomer than the Dove. Lilly does not say that out loud, though.

"Maybe he'll wind up here sometime. It can work like that, where one person from a place and time finds a door and suddenly it's the new hot spot for their friends and neighbors and uh, occasionally enemies."

Oh, wait. That might not be reassuring.

"Mostly you meet crazy people from other worlds, though." She flashes Alanna a mischievous grin and no additional skin. "Like me."

The apple slice halfway in her mouth, Alanna turns wide eyes on Lilly before slowly biting and beginning to chew.

It allows her a moment to get over the idea of her enemy, Duke Roger, lounging in front of the Milliways fire.

"You're not crazy," she blurts out, then scowls like this observation is somehow Lilly's fault. "I doubt a crazy person could universe hop and make it back."

Pointed look.

Determined Alan is determined.

Determined Alan is adorable. But that doesn't mean that Lilly won't argue his point!

"I suspect only a crazy person could come back sane," she says with an air of mystic wisdom.

Or a faint hint of tequila. Same diff.

What.

Does that make sense? Alanna isn't sure. But then again, insanity does run in her family, so perhaps she's genetically programmed not to understand Lilly. Or something.

"You sound like Master Splinter," she snorts.

Beat.

"Will you tell me how you do it?" Her eyebrows shoot up. "Universe hop, not sound like Master Splinter."

Look! She's learning!

"Splinter?"

Lilly beams. "Okay, I need to practice that so I can do 'who's your daddy?' around Mike and Raph and make it convincing."

Alanna IS learning. Lilly is so proud.

"Oh, the usual way. I found an untested magical artifact in the Lost and Found and took it for a spin."

Edited 2012-08-31 03:15 (UTC)

Alanna's face does something strange. Her mouth... moves into a wide grin, showing teeth and everything. It starts small then spreads quickly, and Alanna herself is completely unaware that she has just exhibited any form of approval.

"Raph seems a little stiff. He's a good fighter, though. Mike didn't seem to take his training as seriously."

That was very nearly teasing!

Lilly's next comment sobers her up, however.

"An untested magical artifact? Goddess, how many are in there? Who has access to that?"

Lilly is careful not to spook Alanna by pointing out this strange facial contortion or speculating on its HIDDEN MEANINGS.

And then it doesn't even matter, because the whole artifact thing gets in the way. God, Lilly hates artifacts.

"Uh."

These are very good questions that she very much doesn't want to answer. Young Alanna is disconcertingly all about rules.

"People who shouldn't? Well, person. I'm pretty sure it's just me. So no need to worry!"

RIGHT?

SIDE EYE.

"Are you a mage?"

Young Alanna lives by the rules. Except for the one (female) or two (BFFs with the King of Thieves) ENORMOUS rules she's breaking on a regular basis.

Three (hides her Gift from Roger).

It's a slippery slope.

"It's unwise to handle an untested magical artifact without training. Without knowing what it is."

Alanna is somewhat familiar with this, as well.

Let's make that four. (Her sword was not exactly a gift from Sir Myles so much as... an untested magical artifact hidden in ancient ruins.

Whoops.)

Wee Alanna's side eye is a thing of GLORY. Lilly refrains, barely, from cooing.

It helps that Alanna promptly suspects her of dark magic, causing Lilly to choke somewhat.

"A mage? Oh man, no way. They do magic as like, a job. I can't do magic and I don't do regular work, so I'm doubly out."

She gives Smallanna a side eye of her own.

"Does that mean it's totally cool to handle artifacts if you have some training? Because I have it now!"

On the job training counts!

"Oh."

Alanna's brow scrunches in a confused frown.

"No! Wait. What kind of training? From whom? And where?"

A flash of something akin to worry crosses her face, accompanying the thought: Lilly is even MORE disconcerting than Delia. How is such a thing possible?

"Actually I had it before. From a genuine archaeologist!"

She pauses.

"Uh, in case you don't have them, they're people who are specially trained in finding and handling artifacts. They would have totally signed off on my artifact usage."

This is broadly true. Indiana Jones would probably have approved of Lilly's general "find something interesting, pick it up, see what it does!" approach to artifacts even if the rest of his field would have been busy fainting in horror.

"So I'm good. Qualified and everything!"

Also not a lie. She didn't die (again), therefore? Qualified.

Edited 2012-09-11 04:43 (UTC)

Uh huh.

Alanna pops another slice of apple in her mouth and chews slowly. It's possible she'll be searching for the Lost and Found box as soon as this conversation is over.

Just to check.

"Where have you been?" she asks casually, hoping to hide her eagerness to hear everything about adventuring across the universe.