fandomtownies | The Magic Box, Tuesday

Keyleth had gone for a walk in town after class, hoping it would help with the mild sense of irritation that wouldn't go away. (It didn't.)

The sign caught her attention, though, and she had to come in and ask about it.

"Do people really ask that all the -- oh hi, Norman."

"Hey, Keyleth," Norman replied, smiling wryly her way. "Yeah. They kinda do. Usually in February, but they've been at it all day so far."

... Phrasing, buddy.

The phrasing would go right over Keyleth's head anyway, Norman, so it was okay.

"Why would people be looking for them today, though?" she asked, genuinely confused. Not overwhelmingly confused, just . . . not quite connecting all the dots.

Edited 2019-04-09 17:51 (UTC)

"Um," Norman replied. "Well."

His ears were suddenly very pink.

"Because they're awful people, I think."

Look, pollen plus some weird forced state of love equals horrible people.

Yeah, Grog and Vax pranking Scanlan with that love potion would not be Vox Machina's finest hour.

"There's definite ethical complications that come up," Keyleth agreed absently.

Phrasing, Kiki -- oh, never mind.

"Um, are you okay, Norman?"

"Yup," Norman replied.

... His voice cracked. But sure, that was totally a reply.

"... I'm great!"

Seriously. Back to Blithe Hollow next year. For the whole week. He'd rather put up with his sister calling him like, totally lame for five days than have to acknowledge things like 'apparently having a libido is a thing.'

"You're sure?" Keyleth felt a little invested in making sure, for some reason, but ugh, the weird antsy feeling was back.

So she conjured another wind gust to clear the air around herself for a moment. Sorry for the extra pollen, Norman.

"Sure I'm--" Excuse Norman. He was just, you know, being hit in the face with a gust of wind and a double helping of immediate discomfort. "--sure."

Oh no.

And that was Keyleth, leaning forward to take a slightly closer look at him. "You look like you're kind of warm. You're sure you're not getting sick or anything? Can I help?"

Despite having accidentally just done the literal opposite.

"Nope," Norman... well... squeaked, really. "Nope, not sick, just, um."

And there was a long, awkward pause, there.

"Allergies?"

Sure, Norman.

"Something is definitely in the air this week," Keyleth offered in a stellar example of stating the painfully obvious. "Not surprising for spring, I guess. All those new plants coming up everywhere and all."

She was totally prepared to believe it was allergies! Really widespread one's apparently.

"Really, though, you look like you're running a fever."

No, Keyleth, don't try to feel his forehead. That's a terrible idea.

Aaaand that would be Norman just standing there, wide-eyed, as that hand reached for his face.

... At this point, he probably felt a bit like he was running a fever, too. And oh, hey, was it possible for his ears to go even more red? Because that was a lot of ear for a human kid, going a lot of red, right there.

"I, um. I'm pretty sure it's fine," he managed. It was kind of a miracle he wasn't making squeaky sounds again.

Yes, Keyleth was quite hyperaware of those ears right now, thank you, and on some totally objective level, thank you, thought they were fascinating. What? The difference from half-elf ears was intriguing and she could be a nerd about that sort of thing!

"Well, you don't feel like you're burning up or anything," she said slowly, and conjured a pitcher of cool water. "Still, it can't hurt to try and cool down a little bit, maybe."

Like one of those slow-motion glamorous bathing montages or something.

AND SHE WASN'T EVEN INTENTIONALLY IMPLYING ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

Yeah, but now Norman was thinking it, and quietly wishing he could maybe melt into the floor or fall into a trapdoor he'd never realized was there before this very moment or at the very least, turn invisible.

There was a gremlin ghost floating across the room doing an excellent impression of that lizard-monkey guy from the third Space Battles movie.

"Cooling down would... would probably be a good idea, yeah. Um."

Could he just dunk his face in there and stay that way?

It would be a valid use of the water, sure! But there was that whole pesky risk of drowning that went along with it.

Really, Keyleth had mostly intended for him to drink it, but funny, the Create Water spell didn't include a drinking vessel. But she could fix that! Muttering another incantation under her breath, she started to druidcraft a large leaf she could fold into a cup, but that pollen was starting to get to her again (she couldn't do this and create another wind gust, after all, not at the same time) and what she ended up with was a flower. Which was very pretty!

But Georgia O'Keefe would have been proud of how that one turned out. Just saying.

"Oh. That's . . . not what I meant to do."

It was, at the very least, an unexpected enough distraction that Norman was blinking at the flower and wondering about that for a moment, rather than just generally freaking out about the state of his day thus far in general.

"... It's really pretty, though," he offered. Helpfully. "... Why did you make a flower?"

Please let it not be another flower like the ones making this pollen?

"I . . . don't know?" Keyleth's voice went up and up and up into a plaintive, confused squeak right at the end of that sentence. "I was trying to give you something so you could get the water into your mouth!"

Norman was still kind of staring at the flower.

It... was a really appealing flower and he had no idea why.

"There's a few mugs here," he offered, kind of vaguely distracted now as he tried to puzzle it out. "In case whoever is working wants... coffee or tea or something...?"

That flower had been completely unintentional, and that went for the . . . very evocative . . . shape of it, too.

"Oh." Keyleth laughed again, a little too high-pitched and uncertain. "Well, I guess that would have been the obvious solution, wouldn't it?"

Awkwardly -- like everything she did, really -- she went scurrying off to find one, without actually having bothered to ask where they would be, and on her way she sent another swirl of wind around herself to dispel some of the pollen. Hopefully she was just far enough away that Norman wouldn't get caught in the cloud this time.

Don't watch her go don't watch her go don't -- don't inhale don't inhale don't--

"In the cupboard through the door in the back," he called, helpfully. "Careful, the puppy likes to sleep on the floor back there."

There was a long pause, and then:

"There's a puppy?"

Oh look, that might be a nice distraction!

"He's big," Norman offered, "and, uh, difficult to miss."

What with coming up to his knees and being jet black with a banana-shaped spot on his butt like some kind of magical pony and smelling faintly of tutti frutti.

And the three heads. That too.

". . . oh wow, that's a lot of puppy," was what came drifting back from the cupboard as Keyleth opened the door. "He's so cute, though!"

Yes, she was absolutely cooing over the puppy. Of course she was, at least until she actually came back out with a mug and held it out to Norman.

"Okay!" Still with the slightly high-pitched, wobbly voice. "Unless you do want to just, you know, pour the entire pitcher over your head and end up all soaking wet . . ."

Why was she even thinking about that?

"Do... do you figure that would help?"

Asked Norman. Who was still contemplating the world's most awkward flower.

"I . . . have no idea?" admitted Keyleth, who was also now contemplating the flower.

It was awfully intriguing for some reason.

"It just seemed like a good idea for the moment?"

"I mean... I could try it?"

And then he'd be uncomfortable and wet. Great thinking, kids!

And wet clothes were heavy and also uncomfortable, and then you had to get out of them, and wouldn't that just be even more awkward?

And now Keyleth was leaning forward to peer at him again.

"Well, that is, I mean -- are you feeling any less warm now?"

Probably not.

"... I'm really not."

He really, really wasn't. And admitting that was gonna just make everything worse.

Yes, because it was harder for Keyleth to pretend that she wasn't having some . . . temperature issues herself that way.

"It's not even the right time of year for it to be this warm," she said, a little bit pitifully.

The little pout? Probably not helping either.

Suuuuper not helping.

"I could try the air conditioning," Norman hedged.

Because oh no, that little pout was kind of distracting in its own right.

Guess whose ears were also starting to turn red, in a fairly obvious way because thanks, elven heritage?

"Oh, I could maybe help with that too," Keyleth blurted out.

. . . no, Keyleth, that gust cantrip is really not helping.

"With the air conditioning?"

Norman, no. No, don't let her.

"... I mean, if you want?"

Norman, no!

"Sure!" Keyleth got a little extra giggly when she was flustered. So now, basically. "It's sort of our specialty, you know, Air Ashari and all . . ."

Not that she'd ever mentioned that to him, but having effective and coherent conversations was really just not a thing that was happening right now anyway.

"I can just --" She made another gust of wind swirl around him, which had the unfortunate effect of concentrating any pollen in the area sort of like a cyclone. You know. Centered on Norman. "See?"

Not. Helping.

Not helping even a little bit.

Though Norman was starting to equate 'Keyleth does magic' with 'everything becomes horrible and I can never come out from behind this counter ever again.'

Ahem.

"Oh!" He blinked, and then proceeded to just kind of stand there wide-eyed while that cyclone whipped his ridiculous hair around every which way. "Oh, yeah. That's. That's a way more useful talent than mine. I."

That gremlin was still laughing at him.

Harder, now.

"I mean. Yeah." Pause. "Um. There's a lot of, ah, pollen in here. Have you noticed?"

. . . that even more ridiculous than usual hair should not have been so adorable. And yet.

"I had?" Keyleth frowned, because she was starting to put things together now. "Oh wow. Everyone's allergic to it, aren't they?"

Not quite, Kiki. Not quite.

"Yeah, it's... I mean. Everyone's definitely reacting to it."

... Norman.

"But . . . where is it even coming from?" Keyleth chewed on her lower lip a little bit, looking confused. "I've never heard of pollen like this before."

It probably existed in the Feywild, though.

"And is this the kind of thing that comes up often around here?"

"Annually, I think," Norman hedged. "Last time around, it was the week leading up to Prom, too."

Last time around, Norman had come to this realization that feeling the feeling didn't mean he wanted to do the deed with anyone, like, at all. So this week was a special sort of frustrating for him.

"Oh. Oh wow." There went Keyleth with the high-pitched nervous giggle again. "That's . . . fun, I guess?"

Well, some people certainly thought it was.

"I, uh, I guess so? If you're into that sort of thing."

A long pause.

"I'm kinda not, really?"

"Oh."

Keyleth blinked, then blinked again, then went into a six-second span of just rapidfire blinking and also turning bright red as everything started to finally make sense ~~because she'd been crit-failing wisdom checks like she was making them on a cursed opal d20~~.

"Oh. You mean -- oh, wow, I didn't -- uh --"

She was not actually physically flailing, but she might as well have been. Because everything was REALLY EMBARRASSING RIGHT NOW.

"OhgodsI'mreallysorrythishasbeenfunbutIreallyshould -- byyyyyyye!"

Aaaaaaand then she was gone, and there was a mouse scurrying as fast as its tiny legs could carry it toward the front door and then out.

And... that would be Norman, staring off after her, doing a bit of rapidfire blinking of his own.

"Well... that's..."

Blink.

"New."

He glanced back at the flower for a few long moments.

And then went, "Uuugh," and leaned forward to thump his face against the counter.

The Magic Box, Tuesday

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject