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[element_wizard]

Alec has been quietly busy.

Bopping in and out of places within time and between.

To do what?

He's found an unused shop of his own and has been renovating it.

For a given value of renovate.

There's junk all over the place. Odds, ends, odd ends, things and whatsits, lots of books, shiny objects and everything else.

Come check it out

Comments

[watsonyourmind]

"Yeah, well, you're not wearing any clothes," Jane answers, feeling oddly snippy considering it's a freaking pink sword. A glittery pink sword. Did anyone actually ever fight with that? That is, use it as a weapon. She was sure plenty of people fought it.

[element_wizard]

"I," the sword said archly, "Am a sword. I am not supposed to wear clothing."

Alec grins at her as it talks.

[watsonyourmind]

Jane shakes her head. "I don't know how you ever managed to sell it to anyone," she said. "A very stylish knight?"

[element_wizard]

"Very desperate mercenary captain."

[watsonyourmind]

"That sounds like a fantasy novel in the making," she answered, imagining it. She took a long glance around. "So... do you have anything less... rude here? Show me something interesting."

[element_wizard]

"Have you ever read the Lord of the Rings?"

Now watch a possibly terrible idea in the making.

[watsonyourmind]

She thinks about it. "Yeah, I think so. At least part of it. Lots of dwarves wandering around, yeah?"

[element_wizard]

There's a twitch on Alec's face. The sort that a fan gets when a non-fan say something incredibly stupid.

"No. That's the Hobbit."

[watsonyourmind]

Jane is cheerfully oblivious. "Oh, right. Well, you know, dwarves, elves, hobbits, wizards, right? Standard fantasy fare. I know what you're talking about. I think I've met a few of them, come to think of it."

At least, that's what she assumed about that one bartender in the pointy hat. Otherwise he was making a really poor fashion choice.

[element_wizard]

Alec's inner fanboy is just screaming in incoherent rage. Blithering around and foaming at the mouth.

"Something like that," he says in mostly polite tones of voice. "I'm a wizard myself."

Walking around to a bowl of rings he fishes a few out. "In the Lord of the Rings there's a magical ring of power that can control all the other rings of power. It's called the One Ring. Inventive? Anyway these are the Other One Rings."

[watsonyourmind]

Well, that doesn't seem to make much sense. Watson takes a look. They're pretty, at least? She doesn't wear much jewelry, but there are a couple that appeal to her.

"They're the other rings of power, or other rings that control rings of power? What are rings of power, anyway?"

[element_wizard]

"The Other One Ring of Power. Capital letters, there. And how to explain this. Um. Every write fan fiction?"

Hello and welcome to this conversation taking an odd turn.

[watsonyourmind]

"I've read a bit," Watson admitted. She didn't spend a whole lot of time online, as a general rule, but after her injury, when she was holed up in bed healing, she had discovered all number of timewasters on the Internet. Including fanfiction.net. That was an interesting experience.

[element_wizard]

Ah, the pit of voles. Alec knows you well.

"And I'm sure, then, you've read those stories about the girl who finds herself in this world that belongs to her FAVORITE book, television show, movie etc and she's able to beat up the guy who's been a warrior for longer than she's been a live and she's got all those MAGICAL powers that really shouldn't exist...?"

[watsonyourmind]

"The girl who always has a suspiciously similar name to the author?" She laughs. "I thought about writing one of those once, but I think I missed the window."

[element_wizard]

"Yes. Or names like Angelique Melyda Darcy Nightstar." Somehow he manages to say that with a straight face. "A lot of these belong to them. I collected them after I killed their owners."

Alec says that completely conversationally.

[watsonyourmind]

Jane cannot take that entirely in stride. She looks quite shocked, in fact.

"What?"

[element_wizard]

And Alec runs over the conversation he just had in his mind.

Oh.

Right.

"No. No. It's all right. They're really parasitic life forms that would completely destroy the integrity of the world if they were allowed to live."

[watsonyourmind]

She looks unsure.

"Seriously? The integrity of the world?"

[element_wizard]

"I'll give you an example. What's your favorite ... tv show or movie or book?"

[watsonyourmind]

She thinks about it a moment. She's a big fan of classic novels, 80s movies, and 90s sitcoms.

"A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway," she answers. It's her favorite right now, anyway. Usually whatever she's rereading this week takes the top spot.

[element_wizard]

"I don't know what that is..." He frowns and then holds up his finger in a waiting gesture. A most peculiar expression crosses his face the sort someone gets when they're trying to figure something out and there's a soft blurring around him.

It lasts for all of a few seconds, but definitely noticeable.

"Okay. Got the gist. Can you imagine what would happen if Henry and Catherine didn't get together but instead he got together with some teenage girl who wasn't a nurse but instead a doctor and not only that but a captain in the Army as well and actually helps Henry escape from the torturing people and then have lots of babies together while Catherine is just some evil shrew?"

[watsonyourmind]

Jane blinked. And rubbed at one eye. She still has a hard time accepting magic, even when it's right in front of her. So maybe her eyes were just blurry.

"Doesn't sound very Hemingway," she said with some distaste.

[element_wizard]

Maybe they were just blurry.

"Exactly. And that's what I take care of. I keep those things out of Hemingway."

[watsonyourmind]

"But he wrote that book... ages ago. He's dead now. How is anyone going to retroactively slip new words into a classic novel? Do you time travel?"

Jane found herself oddly fascinated with the idea.