InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hit it til it breaks!"

Isabelle 'Izzy' Shaw (izzyshaw) wrote in spinningcompass,
@ 2017-04-30 15:49:00

Entry tags:

beast, ~izzy shaw

Who:Izzy and the Beast (aka Adam)
Where: the bookstore
What: helping someone take their first steps into a larger world
When: early afternoon
Rating: low
Open: No
Status: Ongoing

With the children down for a nap, Izzy managed to get one of the other grownups at the house to look after them for a bit when they woke up with the promise of being home in time to fix Sunday dinner. Sadly it wasn't as hard a task as it had been just a month earlier with so many people gone, now smaller yet again with the loss of Sookie Stackhouse. She felt a bit guilty leaving the house, but it would only be for a few hours and the children were well behaved today. Of course that just meant they'd be holy terrors soon enough, hopefully the good behavior would last a few days.

One side benefit to not hauling the kids along meant she didn't have to drive and could use her flyer instead. It was a tight fit to get into the thing, she'd designed and built it before becoming pregnant with Vi and Lilly, which meant she'd had precious little chances to fit into it and actually fly it the past few years. She'd have precious little chance to fit in it after this for the rest of the year as well considering she already sported a small bulge under her clothes at seven weeks. Izzy tried not to think of that and focused on starting up the flyer and getting under way.

Ten minutes later saw her landing in the churchyard not far from the bookstore. She took a moment to unmuss her hair and straighten her clothes so as not to look too much like a frazzled mother or crazy person, then slung the poster tube holding the map over her shoulder and started off toward the bookstore.

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une_bete
2017-04-30 09:00 pm UTC (link)

Adam was following the map Izzy had provided him with, making his way through the streets very carefully. He did not want to get lost in this city, even though the people who talked to him through the looking glass were more than helpful, and would surely help him once again if he were to lose his way.

Soon enough, though, he found himself arriving at the bookstore. The door was unlocked and so he went inside, propping the door open as he did so.

"Mon dieu," he breathed out as he looked round. So many books! He would never have been able to get Belle to leave this place.

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izzyshaw
2017-04-30 09:22 pm UTC (link)

Izzy arrived at the bookstore just in time to hear the muttered exclamation and she had to suppress a grin. "I remember when I first saw the place," she told him as she stepped into the building. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I saw their engineering section."

She wasn't sure how 18th Century Frenchmen greeted new acquaintances, so she stuck with standard 21st Century American custom and stuck her hand out for him to shake. "Hi, I'm Izzy. It's nice to meet you in person."

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une_bete
2017-04-30 09:42 pm UTC (link)

He spun round at the sound of the voice, then smiled as he realised who it was. Then she spoke again, confirming things for him.

"Bonjour, Madame Izzy," he said with a bow, before taking her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

He had to admit, it was strangely freeing to have nobody know he was a prince. He was not bound by any conventions, save those he decided upon himself. Belle would have been delighted, he thought.

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izzyshaw
2017-04-30 10:01 pm UTC (link)

Izzy could feel her face heating up in a blush as he kissed her hand, but she made no move to stop him. It didn't hurt that he was very cute, and had a lovely accent as well. In short it was a nice ego boost to a very married woman with small children. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Adam."

She gestured around them. "I see you found the store all right. Was the map I included helpful?"

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une_bete
2017-04-30 10:13 pm UTC (link)

"Yes, very helpful. I was very careful to follow it correctly once I found the apartments buildings. I did not wish to have to call you and admit to being lost." He had looked all round at the books once more as Izzy gestured, noting all kinds of types of books if the signs on the shelves were anything to go by.

"I think my wife would move in here, if she were here," he admitted, "for she adores reading and books."

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izzyshaw
2017-04-30 10:25 pm UTC (link)

"I'm sure you would have found your way again, hopefully this will help you get your bearings even more." She moved toward an open table and unslung the tube to remove the freshly printed map. One side contained an overview of the island itself, with the road network and important spots (the various houses, the wyr, beach, etc) marked, while the other held a map of the city.

She heard his comment about his wife as she smoothed out the map and laughed. "I can understand that. I've never had much time to read for pleasure rather than knowledge, but the temptation is there with a place like this." Once he was better acquainted with 21st century technology she'd mention how he could download thousands of books onto his phone or a tablet, but right now she suspected he wouldn't quite understand. Not that he was stupid, his speed at figuring out how to use the phone for texting showed otherwise, but he couldn't be expected to figure everything out in a few days.

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une_bete
2017-05-01 07:54 pm UTC (link)

Adam took his time going over to the table, and spotted what looked like a garden in the middle of the building as he was looking all round. He really would have to explore this place properly.

He ran a finger along the spines of some of the books as he walked over to the table, and was amazed yet again by the map in front of him. "This is where we are? Truly? ...there. That is here, so... Is that the tall building made from glass?" he asked, quickly matching the section of the map he had already seen to the paper map in front of him. "The glass must be very strong in the future. No. It is now, not the future," he muttered, correcting his mistake as he looked over the map.

"May I ask, where is your house?"

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izzyshaw
2017-05-01 08:40 pm UTC (link)

"It is our location, yes." Izzy nodded, looking over the map. She looked at where he was pointing. "Oh, Stark Tower? No, that's just the outer skin. Commercial buildings like that are built using skeletons of structural steel and reinforced concrete, it's been that way since the early 1900s after they learned how to make large quantities of steel at once. They started using glass for the outer shell sometime after the Second World War, certainly by the 1960s."

She felt a bit of a headache coming on at the idea of how much had changed since Adam's time. The technology he was used to had more in common with that of year 1000 rather than 2017, even if the gap between his time and now was less than two hundred and fifty years. "If you want more detail than that I'm afraid I'm not the best person to ask. My field of study was electrical engineering and technomancy, not architecture or structural engineering."

"My house?" She flipped the map over to show the whole island rather than just the city. "We're out in the country a bit, over here." She found the spot where the house was located and pointed it out.

If this first meeting didn't go completely south she might invite him to Sunday dinner. It would do him good to meet more people, and the Sullys made up a significant chunk of the island's population.

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une_bete
2017-05-01 09:33 pm UTC (link)

He nodded as she explained how the glass buildings were constructed. "If only we were somewhere that had innumerate books on such subjects," he deadpanned, and then looked at the new side of the map.

The details on it were very impressive - the mountains he had only seen as a distant haze beyond the forests surrounding the city, individual buildings, all manner of places with strange names ("Weyr" and "Hometree" and suchlike). He concentrated on the area Izzy was pointing at, though. "That is a large distance, n'est-ce pas? Did you come by horse?" he asked, "or do carriages run by themselves now?" He was entirely serious.

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izzyshaw
2017-05-01 11:27 pm UTC (link)

His joke earned the chuckle it deserved and Izzy shook her head, smiling. "If only." She agreed.

"There are a few horses on the island, but actually the answer to your question is yes. From a certain point of view anyway." Izzy replied, equally serious. "Steam engines became practical a few years after your time and they invented more types of propulsion since then, not counting magical methods in various dimensions." Like her flyer for instance.

"Horses kind of became obsolete about a century ago, for transportation anyway." She skipped the whole mass transit category, he could look that up later. "They also started figuring out how to make heavier than air vehicles about that time too. But most of the time people will drive automobiles of one kind or another if they're going distances that will take more than say thirty minutes on foot. Obviously they look pretty different from the carriages you're used to, but the function they serve is the same."

She felt like she was lecturing, but there didn't seem any way to avoid it. "I guess I'm giving you what we call a 'crash course' on the changes in technology over the last couple centuries. If I ever go on too long feel free to tell me to stop."

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une_bete
2017-05-02 08:10 pm UTC (link)

Adam listened, fascinated by what she was telling him. "No, I like to learn what is new," he said, "and there is so much that is new to me now. I think it will be more that you will have to say 'Enough, Adam!' when you are tired of talking."

He studied the map again, and turned it back over to look at the city once more. "This one," he said, and pointed to the other very tall building. "What is it? Everywhere I have gone, I can see this one. It must be important, oui?"

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izzyshaw
2017-05-02 08:50 pm UTC (link)

"I'll be sure and do that." She assured him.

Izzy's smile faded as she saw where he was pointing. "That's the Spire. You could say that's the reason we're all here but I wouldn't claim to be 100% certain on that point. I will say that going near it is a very bad idea." Her tone and expression were quite firm on that point, she couldn't stress the issue enough.

"Going near it leads to strange or bad things happening to whoever decides to try it. And not always quickly. There's a...being, I refuse to call them a man, that lives inside there. The magic he controls there is more powerful than anything I've ever seen, and he's a vindictive son of a bitch who enjoys hurting people."

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une_bete
2017-05-04 08:51 pm UTC (link)

"An Enchanter," Adam said with a nod. "I know of beings like that, although maybe not so ... vindictive, you say. It does not sound to me like he is teaching lessons, oui? He is hurting because he wants to hurt. Is this why my wife is not here?"

He did not look up from the map as he spoke, taking note of the street names that were in the area of the Spire. He would avoid it as much as possible.

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izzyshaw
2017-05-05 01:01 am UTC (link)

"Yes, most likely." She decided not to get into the whole situation with the Girl and the Man. Sometimes she thought they were really on the same side. "Though sometimes once one person from a place comes, others follow within a few days or weeks. There's no rhyme or reason to it."

"What's your wife's name? I'll keep an eye out for her when new arrivals pop up on the phone."

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	une_bete 2017-05-05 09:05 pm UTC (link)
	"She is called Belle. You will know it is her because she is very kind and intelligent and also very beautiful," Adam said, looking up at Izzy with a small sad smile. "I do not know if I would have her come here, if this... person is hurting everyone. But I miss her, very much." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	izzyshaw 2017-05-07 12:12 pm UTC (link)
	"He doesn't kill people usually if it's any consolation." Izzy gave him a lopsided smile and shrugged. "Most of the time I'd say life is good here, I met my husband here for example, the being in the Spire just enjoys throwing a curveball at us every now and again. Especially if you make him mad." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

une_bete
2017-05-07 08:04 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, well, that is an excellent consolation, oui," he replied.

He blinked at the word "curveball", but he understood the context and so he did not feel the need to ask for an explanation. "How does one make this Enchanter mad?" he asked, since that was something that required explaining. "I would think that it takes... not much, yes? Not much to make him mad, if he does not let people be close to him."

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	izzyshaw 2017-05-08 02:05 am UTC (link)
	"That is one way of looking at it, yes. From what I've seen, any attempt to enter the Spire or try to do something to the exterior will cause a reaction. That's the best explanation we can come up with." To be honest sometimes she wasn't sure 'The Man' wasn't some artificial intelligence with corrupted code, but it wasn't something she could exactly investigate. (Reply to this) (Parent)