fandomhighdorms | Thursday late afternoon: 2nd Floor Common Room

"Hey," Arden said, walking into the common room a few minutes late, arms full of ~~moddable~~ beverages. "Sorry, I realized that I should bring something, too--" The South had very strict rules about that, even for someone as locked out of human culture as Arden was "--and I was gonna bring dessert, but then I remembered you'd said you had your charm pies and I wasn't really sure what to bring then, but eventually I remembered drinks and stuff, so I had to make a detour on my way here..." And she was babbling a little. Cool.

"Uh, and since I didn't know what to bring, I tried to grab a bunch of stuff so anybody who stopped by would have something they wanted." She might have been expecting the entire school, going by the number of bottles she was carrying, but considering the amount of food on offer, she was starting to feel less weird about that.

"Awesome!" Charlie said easily. She wasn't fussed about time. Actually there wasn't a lot Charlie was bothered by. "I didn't think of drinks. Come on in, grab some food, and make yourself comfortable. I've got a bunch of movies, but since we're going to New Zealand on our trip I got the King of the Bracelets trilogy in case you wanted to see it before we go. But you can pick any of the ~~moddable~~ movies. They're all good."

"Oh yeah, those are classics!" Arden said, since the last one had been released several years before she'd been born ~~which is a fact I'm sharing with everyone since it hurt me~~. "I saw part of the first one, I think, but I don't really remember it. One of the kids at the foster home I stayed in last had a King of the Bracelets themed birthday, but they didn't start watching the movies until late and I fell asleep."

All of which was vital information Charlie needed, absolutely. Arden was going to practice shutting up now.

"This is a ton of food. Are you expecting more people to show up?"

~~Ouch!~~

"Then we can definitely watch that," Charlie said. "They are pretty amazing."

She looked around at the food and shrugged. "I ordered a bunch because it is a common room so others might stop by to watch or see if they can grab some food, and they always seem to bring a lot extra. It's all good as leftovers though."

"So, just shared freely with anyone who wants any?" Arden asked, very normally and casually. "That's a pretty cool system y'all have going on here."

"Shared freely," Charlie agreed. "And yes, it is. I mean, I checked it out when I first got here. If anyone knows about hidden compulsions or things like that it's a Gale Girl, but no, it's just the way things work here."

"It's still weird," Arden murmured, but looked happy to hear it. "And what delicious compunctions do we have today?"

"This one here," Charlie said, "Is a delicious raspberry 'clean your room' pie. I straightened up before I came so this one's easy for me. This banana cream is an 'answer your phone when someone calls you, Charlie!', so pretty safe for you. And the apple pie is a 'get outside and enjoy the nice weather before it's gone' pie."

"Your family calls you?" Arden asked, caught somewhere between wistfulness and horror.

Maybe it would be less horror if she had family to call her? Who knew?

"Constantly," Charlie said. "I mean, I love them, but it's unending."

Charlie would be more than happy to share the Aunties with her.

Oooooho, thanks, that was, like, super kind, but Arden had, uhhh...a thing. She had to do. That was...not that.

"And you've tried explaining that actually calling is the sign of a deviant?" Arden checked. "Not even a fun deviant, the terrible kind?"

Edited 2023-10-14 03:18 (UTC)

"Next time they call I'll be happy to hand the phone over and let you explain that to the Aunties while I run for the nearest portal to as far as I can get before they show up here," Charlie said with a laugh.

"Mmmm, that sounds like a great idea but somehow, I think I'm gonna have to decline," Arden said, her North Carolina drawl cranked up to eleven. "I have a firm rule about getting involved in family fights."

And already had far too many older powerful women gunning for her, thank you very much.

"Smart choice," Charlie said cheerfully. "Nobody messes with the Aunties - not without consequences they won't like anyway.

Though if Charlie' Aunties took a liking to Arden and decided to take on Arden's problems - oh boy, would that be something to stay very far away from.

Boy wouldn't it? There was this whole oncoming war and...never mind.

Arden thought that Charlie's Aunties sounded like a mix between the church aunties she'd known as a girl and the local Arbiters and that sure was a mix of intimidation, thanks.

"So, what do your Aunties do?" she asked as the intro to the movie played. "Besides bake pies and collect power?"

"Wreak havoc?" Charlie suggested, then shpook her head. "Whatever they want. Some are involved in local activities, some make sure all the family stuff is going smoothly and some I have no idea."

[I was looking all day for a response, but turns out you have to hit post for the other person to get what you wrote. Who knew?]

[The lack of instant telepathic commenting is very rude.]

"Family stuff?" Arden asked. "Oh, uh, is it okay that I'm asking all this stuff? I'm just curious, not after family secrets or whatever."

"Oh no, it's fine," Charlie said easily. "I'll be honest, I don't pay that much attention. But they keep the lists of who's related to who and who's within each person's seven year break, keep track of what all the Gales are up to, all our holdings. But pretty much I think more about what they can do. If there's an upgrade to something they'll be offered it without an extra fee. If they need to put ten of them on a flight with half an hour warning, there will be ten seats together for them - then there will be a complimentary upgrade to first class. Our phones? They start off as the cheapest most basic phones, but when the Aunties are done with them they have all the bells and whistles and then some. They're practically unbreakable and you can't lose them."

Arden thought about her most basic of Tracfones (it barely even had a screen), bought because she had to leave her solidly middle-of-the-line phone when she'd run. "They sound useful, if--" she glanced to the pies. "A little pushy. Your family reunions must be epic."

"It's hard to have a reunion when we're never far apart. And even I head back for most of the monthly rituals," Charlie said. "And most of this branch live at least in the same neighborhood, if not on the same street. It's like our own little compound. And the rest are pretty close by - except for the ones who go Wild, like I probably would."

"Damn," Arden said, trying to picture that and failing utterly. "And Wild means not settling down and finding places far from the family to live...?"

How incredibly different their lives were. Charlie, surrounded by family, allowed to practice her magic openly, returning home once a month, her whole family history kept in lore. Arden, no family, pretending to be a normal human, ran away from 'home' with no intention to return, giant question marks for a past.

"Wild... maybe?" Charlie said. "Nobody talks too much about what it means. I guess we're all different, but yeah, most don't seem to settle down or have families - or maybe they just do it different."

"Are you the first Wild Magic in generations or something?" Arden asked. "...You know your life sounds like a story, right? It's pretty awesome."

"Well, Allie's grandmother is a Wild power," Charlie said thoughtfully. "Auntie Catherine. She shows up every once in a while. And I mean it's not given that I'll go wild, but I don't have much doubt about it."

"So 'going wild' and being a wild power are different?" Arden asked in between bites of pizza.

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