Finally, something other than trying to ask her to cast something other than wishes!
Why don’t they have to clean them? That’s a question she wants to ask her superiors now. Sure, it’s magic but why can’t they have something nice like the humans? “I think I’d like to do my own laundry… I have two dear friends by the Milky Way and I wouldn’t mind hand-washing it. Since I’m so high in the sky, no one would see me, would they?” She giggles and holds her hands under her chin.
“Goodness, I wish I knew the answer. I suppose magic means I don’t have to… but I love earth flowers so much. I’d certainly love my gown to smell like them!”
The gown does have some sort of a smell. It’s metallic and sweet but otherworldly at the same time.
She tilts her head and her eyes widen. “Oh, I’ve never bathed in a river before… Do tell me about it? What’s that like? You don’t mind doing that with your clothes on?” It’s practical. She can’t argue that. She’s seen humans do horrible things to each other. She’s sometimes been able to replace things that have been stolen but it’s never enough. “You are safe, yes? The current can get very tricky…”
Okay, but _wow_. This beautiful lady had friends who didn’t even live on earth!
Of course, the very first thing that crosses Ina’s mind was _holy freakin’ fuck, she knows ALIENS!!!_ which was just too cool for words. If the expression on Ina’s little face didn’t say that, then nothing did. The mathematical odds of anyone knowing an alien isn’t foreign to Ina. She’d overheard the professor having that discussion with students one day, and still remembered the numbers.
Ina always remembered the numbers.
She was distracted from her distraction when the woman spoke up again.
How did a child describe the biting cold of a river? The squish of the muck and the sudden pinch of little sharp pebbles against their bare feet? How the discovery of wearing shoes in the water was a poor choice and how she’d almost drowned once when she waded out too far to get cool the summer before? There were some things adults didn’t need to know. Ina knew that from experience.
So instead, she sized up her new companion, and shrugged with a little smile.
“Cold. Sometimes, it’s so cold that when you get out, my toes are tingly and when I push down on my skin, it turns white!” Which, despite what Ina thought, wasn’t particularly a good sign. “But then, I get warm really fast, so that’s not too bad.”
She played with a curl, absentmindedly twirling the dark lock around her her index finger.
“I don’t mind doing it in my clothes, though. Sometimes there’s people at the river, and I don’t want ‘em to see me naked!”
More accurately, Ina didn’t want her scarring exposed to people who might ask question--or worse, call the authorities to try and drag her off to another family that didn’t get her.
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
