[Fin] Let's Dance [Jenn]

[Kari Muffin]

Oh. Oh wow. That was one heck of a story. Her father had been a doll? And her siblings had... wow. That was just absolutely amazing or unfortunate, he wasn't particular sure which word would be appropriate at the moment. And who on earth would enchant a moth of all things? At least a ring made sense....

"Well you've certainly managed to make it through quite a bit of adversity... I'm sure plenty of people would have gone insane from all those mishaps." Ichigo was quite thankful for his arm now compared to all the problems he could have had. "I wouldn't really expect a month to be enchanted. Or... well... half of those things to even be possible."

He shifted to take a tiny sip of his drink. The mouse's ears twitched when she asked the question. She must have been into a variety of different magics to be so fascinated by his arm. Considering her family life he could understand an interest. "Like I said before this all happened when I tried to pry a ring off my finger. I had found it in the kitchen at the court of Spades, and I slipped it on to keep it safe since I unfortunately don't have pockets. When I felt the tingling feeling however I tried to take it off, and then I felt a horrible all consuming pain in my arm. My real arm shriveled up and became a giant block of ice and frost. I can't feel anything... and from all the test done it seems that magical fire is the only thing that could possibly cause damage."

He snorted as he carefully tapped the appendage on the stool. "Pretty useful I suppose. And how about you, did the month just change the color of your fur or did you get something useful out of it?"

[The Jenn]

Yeah, her family was pretty messed up. She'd gone to the Highlands to get out of the Tulgey and be more "normal". Fat chance. She'd gone to the Courts to "make something of herself", but she was just wallowing and not doing anything of much import. She'd gone to the Golfam to find out more about curses and left with more questions than she'd started. Story of her life, right?

"That's a pretty tough break," she replied, taking another sip of the soda. "What were you doing in the Spades kitchen, if you'll pardon the question? Seems a little random, especially someplace to find an enchanted ring. Unless one of the nobles was screwing with somebody else and you got caught int he crossfire."

She paused, reaching for her tail to carefully pick up a frond. "I got these things. They help me... smell, weirdly enough. Better than a wolf's nose ordinarily does. Which, I'll tell you, is no great blessing in a place like this. I'm also covered in dust, so don't touch me or you'll feel sick." She dropped the blue strand and smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "So I guess it's convenient that I changed colors, then, so people are too busy trying to figure out what the hell I am to want to approach. It's pretty awful, making everyone who'll ever touch you in your entire life feel ready to pass out. Sort of puts a damper on things."

Resting both elbows on the bar, she tucked the tail back beneath the stool. "So is your new arm super-strong or something like that?"

[Kari Muffin]

"I was giving someone a tour of the palace and we were stopping by the kitchen for lunch. I figured someone had dropped it whole grabbing a snack or something, but apparently not. No one ever found out who actually owned the ring so... " He sighed. Oh well, it wasn't as if he could go back and change things.

His ears perked as she spoke about her interesting addition. A better sense of smell from her tail? That probably caused quite a bit of trouble. And from the sound of it she could smell everything horrible about this bar. No wonder she was drinking what she was drinking, alcohol probably would have just made things worse. And covered in dust? That must have been inconvenient.

"So you have a heightened sense of smell and you have powder on your fur. That's pretty amazing however inconvenient it is. You seem to be well adjusted." He smiled and gave a small shrug. "It's impossible to break and rather heavy all things considered. I'm still not quite used to it so my shoulder gets pretty sore sometimes. It doesn't seem to really have a purpose beyond being annoying."

[The Jenn]

"Not like they're getting it back now," Thyme agreed with a snort. Unless they were willing to magically chip it out, that thing seemed pretty well embedded in there. She could only imagine the sorts of readings a mage would get when scanning something like that.

And she understood the 'annoying' bit. "I think I'm afflicted by enough 'annoying' to last me a lifetime. Family, weaponry, magical side-effects... I suppose I've embraced annoying as a way of life. Either that or go mad, and I don't quite think I'm there yet."

This really was a surprisingly entertaining conversation. Maybe she shouldn't have been such a pissant at Rosemary about coming out.

No, you shouldn't have. She was just trying to help, however selfish her motives. Now kiss and make up. I'll watch.

Fucker. She grimaced and then realized how that would probably look to the person across from her. "Ah, sorry. That wasn't at you. Just another bout of annoying."

Aww, don't be that way. We can kiss and make up too. I won't hold it against you, I promise. Pucker up?

[Kari Muffin]

Ichigo snorted at her comment about the ring. No kidding. He had no intention of letting someone drill into the block of ice regardless of how skilled they were. Actually he had no idea if it were possible to get the ring without melting the entire thing. Either way he was just going to suck up this little curse.

He was about to ask a question about the weaponry when he say Thyme's face. He hesitated for a moment, was she upset with him all of a sudden? He hadn't really said anything to get such a negative response. His ears flipped back at her comment.

"Ah, well good to know my snorting didn't offend you," He smiled., "But you said something about weaponry? Is this magical weaponry you're speaking of?"

Weapons. Ichigo absolutely adored different kinds of swords, and honestly missed being able to handle them with the same amount of skill he had previously. Doing everything one handed was taking quite a bit of time to get used to.

[The Jenn]

Thyme smirked at his comment, mentally shoving Gred to the side in her head. She ignored his protests and focused on the mouse instead. "No, snorting isn't a big concern. When you're a canine with a cold, it's pretty much par for the course."

Talk about her weapon always brought conflicting emotions. On the one hand, she really would like to talk about Gred with someone. On the other, Clubs with summoned weapons weren't exactly a socially acceptable anomaly and keeping it quiet made it a more useful scare tactic in many situations.

"Oh, he's got a few tricks up his sleeve. He's actually a sentient rapier. I call him 'Gred' and my sister has his twin-in-make, Forge. Don't ask us why we gave them the names. It's a long story." She smiled to take a little bit of the sting out of her words. "He's capable of moving through battle of his own accord in some cases, so long as I'm holding the hilt. Very nimble and lightning fast. He also doesn't like to harm noncombatants and can maneuver around them on his own. And he doesn't like Yarrows for some reason, to the point of embarrassing violence. I'm glad there are none of them in the Clubs Court or there might be problems."

There. Sentient, with no mention of summoning. She really did enjoy her snarky bastard. He was worth bragging about, and this man didn't seem much of a threat so she didn't have to worry about "spilling secrets". Hopefully.

[Kari Muffin]

The little mouse seemed to perk up even more as the woman spoke. A sentient sword? He hadn't heard of something like that for anyone besides Hearts. Then again he'd been surprised before when it came to Miss Xylia.

"That sounds utterly amazing. I've never heard of a sentient sword beyond one that was owned by a Heart. He sounds very interesting especially when it comes his abilities." So she was part of the courts? She must have been one of the Kings then. He really should have kept better track of who the different nobles were in the Courts. "I would love to face him in a fright sometime, it sounds like it would be a blast. Would you happen to know who forged him and his twin? Or perhaps the type of steel he's made out of?'

Maybe he shouldn't be asking so many questions. But this was quite the interesting conversation and she seemed to be enjoying herself, though that could have easily been his imagination.

[The Jenn]

"Heh. 'Interesting' is a pretty good word to describe him all around. He has a stupid sense of humor and an overactive interest in women for being a pseudo-inanimate object." She rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink. Whenever talk turned to the rapier, he invariably buzzed around in the back of her head like a persistent insect.

"I'm sure he'd love nothing more than to show off in a duel sometime. Perhaps we could arrange it. I rarely get to do very much with him at the palace. You'd think with an army and guards around it wouldn't be too difficult to find a sparring partner, but my hours are kind of strange and I don't think about it until most people are otherwise occupied. Annoying. That reminds me, though, I should ask Rosemary for a fight later on." An apology fight, if nothing else, even if she didn't phrase it as such.

"He was enchanted by one of our ancestors on my father's side centuries ago. We weren't really supposed to get our hands on them, but... things just sort of worked out that way." Because they'd been curious, obnoxious children with a penchant for getting into everything they shouldn't have.

[Kari Muffin]

Wow. That sounded like one hell of a weapon. To some degree the mouse was jealous, but then again he would be at a loss if he had a talking inanimate object to deal with.

"Enchanted?" The mouse seemed to perk a bit more. "I've heard about several Heart mages who used to enchant weaponry for Hearts. But I've never heard of anyone other than a heart with a weapon that sounded so alive. Well... no, I did meet a Spade once who had a interesting set of weapons like that. But I'm curious... what was the name of the man who enchanted your swords? I think I might have to look him up."

This was a nice conversation. When was the last time he had a talk with a stranger like this? It was a good thing he had decided to go out after all.

[The Jenn]

"Heh. Well, my full name is Thyme e'Devya. The last bit comes from the Highland family side. It skipped my Dad and passed on to me because he was mostly Corvie. The founder of our family on that end was a mage named Devya, a wolf. He was apparently the ones to make Gred and Forge into what they are today. I'm only marginally familiar with his magical exploits, but I know that Heart-specific magic was his specialty."

The fact that she was rambling on about this sort of thing with a complete stranger was at once bizarre and pretty fun. She felt a lot better about this whole bar ordeal already.

"So tell me about this Spade...?"

~Several hours later~

Thyme noticed, looking over at her sister's slumped form, that Rosemary didn't seem to be conscious any longer. Sage was still there, either out of tolerant patience or because she didn't feel comfortable walking in the Capital this late on her own... or with any of the numerous people who'd tried to pick her up...

Her eyes sought out and found a clock, blinking in surprise at the time. Oh. Huh. Rose had taken a while to pass out, hadn't she?

"Much as this conversation still interests me, I'm afraid I'm going to have to play responsible sister and cart this one home." She pointed her thumb at the writing-covered body and smiled sheepishly. "This was probably one of the most entertaining conversations I've had outside of family in a really long time, Ichigo. Thank you. If you're ever near Clubs, maybe we can arrange some sort of duel."

Then came the fun of calling a coach to cart the three of them to a hotel room for the night. The palace was just too far away for this late at night.