nautical

[aetheling]

Cymbeline doesn't really like boats, but they're the only way to get anywhere in a reasonable period of time, especially when "anywhere" isn't on the mainland. Today he is sailing to Vectis, to oversee the change of governorship; his father the king is needed for courtly matters back home and his mother the queen, despite being the source of his royal blood, declines to involve herself in affairs of state when she can avoid it. Zoyah takes more after Ranae than after Charles in this department. So, it falls to Cymbeline.

Walking on a boat is even more difficult than walking on land, and Cymbeline is no great shakes at the latter to begin with. Unfortunately, neither he nor Kerem, the court magician and Cymbeline's confidante, have been able to figure out how to apply the principles of practicable magic to alleviating princely clumsiness. So Cymbeline is clinging to the railing of the boat, watching the waves, trying to avoid having to walk anywhere.

Comments

[aetheling]

"Is that better than learning to write, for you? I imagine drawings will still be useful, but there are advantages to this too, even though I'll have to learn it too..." He shrugs and starts doing his best to draw the concepts in the book for her, and studies the signs for himself.

[treasuresuntold]

Jade is much more interested in signing than she ever was in writing. She sticks with it, repeating the sign associated with each new concept until she's sure Cymbeline understands it, and when his drawing makes no sense she pesters him until he clarifies.

She is particularly interested in verbs. As soon as she can string signs together to make a complete sensible thought, she does: I walk. (With a silent laugh.)

[aetheling]

"Yes. Yes you do," Cymbeline laughs, after he's deciphered the signs. "Not very well, but then neither do I and I've had more practice..."

[treasuresuntold]

She nods, giggles silently, and repeats this sentence several more times.

[aetheling]

Cymbeline has a good head for vocabulary; he can go at whatever pace is comfortable for her. Eventually they've passed things like pronouns and "walk" and "sit", skipped over the sign alphabet which doesn't seem to interest her, and moved on to slightly more complicated words. Prepositions, nouns like "bird" and "fish" and various body parts, verbs that are a little trickier to draw or mime like "see" and "hear" and "want".

[treasuresuntold]

"See" and "hear" come naturally to her. "Want" takes a little more explaining, but when it clicks, she immediately says a sentence:

I want legs.

[aetheling]

"Uhh..." He doesn't know how to ask 'forever', but - he can always take them off again, if she changes her mind, he supposes. "You want me to magic your legs on?" (They don't have a sign for magic covered, but it was mentioned earlier in the writing lessons.)

[treasuresuntold]

She nods firmly.

[aetheling]

"Okay." He reaches for one of her feet, closes his eyes, and concentrates on the magic sticking them on. The legs she's wearing were encapsulated very neatly, attached inexpertly - someone has more fun playing with transference than doing anything lasting with it - and -

He blinks.

"These are -" They don't have "cursed". "These are - bad magic legs."

[treasuresuntold]

She laughs soundlessly and shrugs and nods.

[aetheling]

"You want these legs? They'll - they must have -" They don't have 'hurt', either; he pinches himself in the arm - "Ow, that hurt. These legs hurt. You want these?" He's not sure where you go to buy less cursed legs, but there's probably somebody selling, people make all kinds of bizarre economic choices, he could probably even pull her tail out from under the layering and swap it for someone who wants to be a merperson just like she wanted to walk.

[treasuresuntold]

Jade signs I want legs again, and then shrugs.

[aetheling]

...He reminds himself that she can change her mind anytime. "Won't come off by itself" doesn't mean "irretrievable".

"Okay," he says dubiously, and he touches her foot, and concentrates, and after a few minutes he says, "There."

[treasuresuntold]

She beams and hugs him enthusiastically.

[aetheling]

She's very affectionate, isn't she. Well. Hugs, all right.

Presently he returns to teaching her signs.

[agnatic]

Zoyah interrupts them when they're about a third of the way through the book, and says, "Dinnertime. But if she's going to come she should borrow a whole outfit."

[aetheling]

"Ah. Um. Jade, want to go with Zoyah and -" They don't have 'borrow'. "Take clothes?" He pulls at his sleeve by way of illustrating 'clothes'. "Then eat?"

[treasuresuntold]

Jade nods.

[agnatic]

Zoyah offers Jade her hand, since she remember how ineffectual Jade has been at walking so far.

[treasuresuntold]

Jade hands Cymbeline back his jar, now that she won't be needing it anymore, and takes Zoyah's hand with a smile.

If her legs are hurting her, she's not showing it.

[agnatic]

Zoyah leads Jade up to her chambers, and flings open the closet. (She has already replaced the overskirt that Jade is currently wearing.) "Do you even know what constitutes an outfit? I bet not. Hermioneeeee," she calls.

Zoyah's lady-in-waiting appears from another room in the princess's suite, and is told: "This is Jade, I found her on the beach, she can't talk, help her into something presentable, not my favorite stuff but something she can wear to dinner, I don't think she knows how regular people clothes work."

"Yes, milady," says Hermione, chipper, and she sets about choosing an outfit while Zoyah sweeps off, and attempts to get Jade out of the leather top and borrowed overskirt and into something more surface-conventional.

[treasuresuntold]

Jade resists taking off the leather top, but is willing to layer over it. She greets the revelation of the existence of corsets with an expression of mild horror. In general, anything that's snug around the waist is an instant rejection.

[alicornucopia]

Hermione tries to coax her into one until she realizes that the gills are the problem, and then she improvises as best she can in the absence of proper foundation garments, muttering to herself about strange beach women with gills. Eventually Jade has been attired in a layered dress and stockings and a spare pair of Zoyah's shoes, which are too big for her, and Minnie shows her down to the dinner table, apologizing in Zoyah's ear about being unable to talk Jade into a corset.

[treasuresuntold]

Jade is quite cheerful about all this once the gills problem has been sorted out!

Dinner is a whole different kind of adventure.

[aetheling]

Cymbeline is somewhat dismayed by her lack of table manners. "Just - do what we do," he suggests the first time she uses her fork backwards.