fashion statement

[revivian]

Isabella eats up as much magic as Vivian can teach her; both of their library cards see a lot of use. The list of spells she's allowed to cast gets longer, and eventually she gains permission to cast one or two by herself. Vivian worries, but she's also proud. It's nice to see Isabella so motivated.

Now that Isabella has a medallion and a library card, they go to the Avalon more than just "as necessary to replenish her cash." It becomes something of a habit for Vivian to arrive, drop Isabella off at the library, and then wander around to sell her charms, do her shopping, catch up with her friends, or whatever else she feels like exploring that day. The critters are blinder to human society and politics than she might like, but she thinks she's getting through to some of them. If they want to blend into human culture, these things matter, after all.

Today in particular being a nice day, Vivian and Isabella took the whole day to go out. After a protest demanding equal rights for LGBT employees, they head into Avalon. Vivian leaves Isabella at the library and goes to grab a cup of tea from the cafe next to the marina. She drapes her jacket over the back of her chair, but when she sees the woman at the next table eyes her Out and Proud! button on it warily and grimacing, she removes it from the coat and puts it onto her shirt, front and center. Take that, nosy lady.

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[revivian]

Vivian watches her go with a rather goofy smile, then shakes herself and goes in search of Isabella. Knowing Isabella, this will be a search of, at most, ten feet.

[shesepankh]

There's Isabella, in the library with three books and a notebook.

[revivian]

"Ready to go, love? There's something I want to discuss with you on the way home."

[shesepankh]

"Uuuum okay." Isabella puts bookmarks in the books and then goes and checks them out. "What is it?"

[revivian]

"I met a nice lady at the docks today who has a sick brother. I'm going to look into spells to try to make him feel better. Would you like to help?"

Vivian will explain things in more detail to Isabella later, when saying "sphinx magic" will not get her stared at by passersby.

[shesepankh]

"Yeah! I want to learn healing magic and then heal everybody."

[revivian]

"We will learn all the magic and fix all the things," Vivian agrees. "And we can heal people and help fix the environment and solve world hunger and be superheroes."

[shesepankh]

Isabella giggles.

[revivian]

Once they're safely in the car on their way home, Vivian circles back to the subject. "One more thing, sphinxette. I didn't want to say anything in the Avalon in case anyone heard, but I've read a couple books that said that sphinxes were often healers. I can't find anything saying what exactly they did, so I know I'm not being very much help, but I think you might be able to do more than just the spells I've shown you."

[shesepankh]

"I don't know how though. I read that too and I tried to fix my knee when I tripped once and I tried to fix my shoulder when I had that really big bruise and nothing happened."

[revivian]

"It could only be for certain things. Maybe they can only make illnesses go away instead of fixing injuries, or maybe they could only reattach things you lost, or something. 'Healing' is pretty broad."

[shesepankh]

Nod, nod. "I'll try to fix the lady's brother. And it's okay to do that? They know things?"

[revivian]

"She knows about magic and critter things, yes."

[shesepankh]

"What about being a sphinx?"

[revivian]

"...not that part," Vivian admits. "But I don't think we need to tell her, as long as we don't let her watch."

[shesepankh]

"What about her brother, though? He kind of has to watch."

[revivian]

"We can do it when he's asleep." Or if any of his drugs knock him out, that works too.

[shesepankh]

"What if it wakes him up? Maybe it makes a noise or a light or it's just very obvious if you're the one being healed."

[revivian]

"Then we'll deal with it when it happens. But I'd rather risk him waking up than not heal him."

[shesepankh]

"Me too. But we should be careful if he shouldn't know I'm not a winged lion."

[revivian]

"We will be. He doesn't live nearby, so we have all the time while he gets here to plan, okay?"

[shesepankh]

Nod nod.

[revivian]

The week comes and goes. Friday evening Vivian arrives at Gianna's hotel with a smile and a small bouquet. The evening is, in Vivian's not at all unbiased opinion, a great success. They spend the night at a sushi place she likes, giggling at the drunk couple in the back of the restaurant and talking about their lives.

Vivian's 'big reveal' of a daughter at home elicits an "Awww, how come you decided to adopt a baby?" from Gianna, which is significantly better than some of Vivian's past experiences. She trots out her usual excuse, a somewhat rambling speech about how she shouldn't have to wait to get married if she wants a child, traditionalism has its place (she is the one who brought the flowers) but it's not like women can't have it all if they want to. Which has the benefit of being entirely true, if only distantly related to her actual reasons for 'adopting'. Pictures and stories are brought out, motherly cooing ensues, and Isabella is tentatively established as precocious but adorable.

Gianna eventually admits rather haltingly that she has no connections to the critter community at all; she's neither a critter nor magical, and essentially tricked her way into the Avalon. Vivian finds this both hilarious and enterprising of her, and promptly confesses to being similarly human and at least previously unmagical. This turns into an impromptu quiz from Gianna, curious about all things critter and Vivian laughingly attempting to satisfy her curiosity without sounding too insane.

It's eventually a good three hours into their conversation before Vivian realizes how late it's getting. (She could listen to that accent forever.) She reluctantly returns Gianna to her hotel. She grumpily reminds herself that kissing Gianna should wait until after attempting to heal her sick brother, but when she hugs Gianna goodbye she gets a smile and a blush that make up for it in sheer adorableness.

She reminds Gianna to call her once she has news about Illario or she's back in town, and returns home to her daughter. They have magic to research!

And maybe a little bit of excited gossiping on the phone with her best friend. Carefully censored, of course, but just a little.

(That accent!)

[alicornucopia]

Gianna calls her when she's managed to get her brother transferred to a San Francisco hospital.

[revivian]

Vivian arrives the next morning with Isabella in tow. This time the flowers are for her brother, and have a cute Get Well Soon card tied to the vase. "How is he?" she asks Gianna.