so full of this adventure;

[fantasies]

Who: Henry and YOU
What: INVESTIGATION
When: Sometime this afternoon
Where: Out in the castle courtyard
Rating: pg for fairytale nonsense

[Henry is doing research.

Between all he castle's changes and Arya's loss, he hasn't had a lot of time to do it. But today he's doing it out in one of the castle courtyards, because the library was stuffy, and the pup Robb gave him was antsy. He has books all around him, and a journal separate from the castle's open in his lap, where he's taking painstaking notes. August wanted to rewrite his book, the book the castle took from him, and he's going to make sure it's as complete as possible.

However, a disproportionate number of the books are open to 'Rumpelstiltskin.'

Henry's wolfdog pup, still full of energy, is running about around him, pawing at dirt and sticking his nose into bushes (and occasionally Henry's lap). But he never wanders too far away from Henry himself.

He comes close to nudge Henry's shoulder with his nose, and Henry reaches up to pat his head.]

Don't worry, boy, I'm almost done. We can race after.

Comments

[fantasies]

No, it's okay. He likes meeting new people, don't you, boy?

[He reaches down to pick up the puppy petting duties where she left off, and smiles up at her.]

I'm Henry.

[nottallerordead]

He does seem to enjoy it. [ She smiles fondly at the animal. He's absolutely a cutie. ]

I'm Linda. Nice to meet you, Henry.

[fantasies]

[Henry squints at her. On a hunch:]

Are you new?

[nottallerordead]

Yeah. [ She shrugs with a slightly smile. It must be pretty obvious, huh. ] Second day.

[fantasies]

[The longer you stay, the easier newbies get to spot.]

Stuff gets pretty weird around here, but it's okay. You'll get used to it.

[nottallerordead]

Yeah, it's kind of the getting used to it that worries me.

[fantasies]

It's not all bad. [A pause.] Some-- some of it is. But a lot of it is good.

[nottallerordead]

[ She brushes a short strand of hair behind her ear. ]

I haven't heard much about the good stuff.

[fantasies]

[He smiles wide.]

Okay, then I'll tell you.

Have you been to the beach room yet?

[nottallerordead]

The beach room. [ She can guess what that means, but her tone is a definite 'no'. ]

[fantasies]

Yep. [He looks very proud of himself.] Well, sometimes. On Tuesday and Thursday it's a beach. On Monday and Friday it's snowy.

[nottallerordead]

Does it stop being a beach when it snows?

[fantasies]

Yep. It's a whole different place.

We don't know what it does on the other days.

[nottallerordead]

Can't you just look and see?

[fantasies]

You can't get in on those days.

[It is a ~MYSTERY~]

[nottallerordead]

Huh.

[ She sits and thinks about that for a moment, so interested by the thought that she seems to have forgotten manners. ]

[fantasies]

[Henry, for his part, doesn't seem to mind.]

Pretty cool, huh?

[HE DID GOOD, RIGHT.]

[nottallerordead]

Weird, but cool. When it works. I'll have to check it out. [ Snow doesn't sound nearly as exciting as a beach. ]

Anything else I should know about?

[fantasies]

Hmmmm... [He pretends to think on it, but it's pretty clear he's bursting to the seams with examples.] We go cool places sometimes. And it doesn't always go bad at the end.

[nottallerordead]

Oh, as long as it isn't always bad. [ She chuckles and rolls her eyes. Hey, gold star for effort. ]

The beach room is enough, I guess.

[fantasies]

No, I'm serious. The good ones are always really fun. We went to Japan.

[nottallerordead]

Did you have to speak the language? [ She has clearly never been. ]

[fantasies]

Not really. I mean, I don't know any, but I didn't get lost or anything.

[A pause. He hadn't thought about it, really.]

The castle does that here, translate for us. It probably did it there, too.

[nottallerordead]

Seriously?

[ Now there's a surprise. She hadn't really thought about the fact that everyone seemed to speak the same language. There was no reason to think that they weren't just all American or European with varying accents. Now she feels kind of stupid. ]

That's actually pretty cool.

[fantasies]

Told you. [That was an accident, but he's counting it as a win.] It's magic.