plum — 07/02/2020 5:27 PM
"Aren't rabbits the ones with the carrot thing?"
"No, hamsters like them too, we Googled it," Illy insisted. "Anyway I think you should just try chocolate for Valentine's Day. It's lethal to hamsters, but he doesn't eat carrots, so how much of a hamster can he really be?"
peach — 07/02/2020 5:29 PM
"What if he dies, though?" Vera pointed out. "That's the opposite of what I'm trying to do."
"Does he like cake? You could bake him a cake," Sparrow said, almost mentioning why /she/ made cakes and then thinking the better of it when she glanced at Kyros. "Or... uh, some kind of pastry."
"I guess... that seems like a lot of work."
plum — 07/02/2020 5:32 PM
"You girls mean to tell me you have the energy to do laps around the Palace but you can't bake a cake?"
"We were playing Extreme Combination Hide-and-Seek Red-Light-Green-Light Cops and Robbers Tag that time so it doesn't count."
peach — 07/02/2020 5:33 PM
"Yeah, and baking cakes is boring." Vera made a face. "And messy."
"It can be fun," Sparrow protested. "I bake cakes all the time!"
"Yeah, so we never have to!"
plum — 07/02/2020 5:33 PM
"Yeah! You owe us anyway, for the nail painting service!"
peach — 07/02/2020 5:34 PM
"What if I paid you by teaching you how to bake a cake."
"Mmm... we'll think about it." Vera said, looking at Illy. "What should we ask Kyros for, since he got his nails painted too?"
plum — 07/02/2020 5:35 PM
Illy practically cackled. "Ha! I can't believe the Prince of Atherdale is in debt to us."
"Hey, this was a favor I did for you."
peach — 07/02/2020 5:36 PM
"Mmm, I don't think so." Vera pointed at his hand. "You'd never have pretty nail polish if it weren't for us. Maybe we should ask him to invade a country for us."
plum — 07/02/2020 6:27 PM
"Oh I know exactly what I want." Illy puffed out her chest. "I want that red high-collared gold-embroidered coat you have. The one you last wore to Tasia's New Year's address?"
Kyros looked to Sparrow with furrowed brows, admittedly bewildered. "How..?"
"I like that coat."
peach — 07/02/2020 6:29 PM
"I think Illy runs that Tyrneamitore Fashion Insta." Sparrow recalled. "Right?"
"Yeah!" Vera cheered, eager to boost her friend's popularity. "Are you following it, Sparrow?"
"I think so? You made me, last time." she said, more for Kyros' benefit than Vera's. It wasn't like she'd follow a Kyros fanpage because she wanted to see him on her timeline. That was ridiculous. (edited)
July 6, 2020
plum — 07/06/2020 1:05 AM
"It's not a /big/ deal, it's just something I do when I'm bored," Illy made sure to play it off cool.
"Sounds like a lot of dedication." Kyros commented, seeing right through it.
peach — 07/06/2020 1:07 AM
"Illy's dedicated to everything she does! That's why she's such a good best friend." Vera said sunnily. "And it's why she's gonna be the best warlord of Hell when she gets big."
"Vera..." Sparrow said disapprovingly, "That's... so dark. I bet Illy would love to be, like... an astronaut. Or a magician?"
plum — 07/06/2020 1:14 AM
"Magicians don't really get to rule the world, or any part of it. I wanna be the boss of people when I grow up."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:15 AM
"Oh, like a super cool CEO!" Sparrow said. "That would be neat."
"I want to be a sorcerer!" Vera told them. "Not a witch. I want all the magic."
plum — 07/06/2020 1:23 AM
"Do you /have/ any powers, Vera?" Kyros wondered.
peach — 07/06/2020 1:23 AM
"I can exorcise demons." she told him, waving her hands around.
plum — 07/06/2020 1:23 AM
"Apart from that?"
peach — 07/06/2020 1:24 AM
"Uh..." she thought hard.
"You're a cat." Sparrow said helpfully. "With feathers. That's pretty cool."
"Oh yeah!"
plum — 07/06/2020 1:24 AM
"Her dad said he would teach her to fly someday," Illy volunteered.
peach — 07/06/2020 1:25 AM
"Yeah!" she confirmed, pumping her fists into the air. "Then I'll cast spells from the sky and they'll fall on unsuspecting civilians like rain! Buahaha! Mmm. What do you guys wanna be when you get big?"
plum — 07/06/2020 1:26 AM
"Well, I'll be the king someday, I imagine."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:26 AM
"What about you, Sparrow?"
"Um, I don't know." she admitted. Vera looked aghast. "But you're already almost big!"
"Well... I guess I have time to figure it out."
plum — 07/06/2020 1:41 AM
"I wanna be an Empress when I grow up. Maybe even before if I can do it! Then you can be one of my councilwomen if you want to, so I can ignore your advice and do what I want anyway."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:42 AM
"Aw, you'd ignore my advice?"
plum — 07/06/2020 1:43 AM
"Of course! Just like how I'm going to ask you to reach the snack cabinet and you'll say not before dinner but I'll sneak in and grab some anyway."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:45 AM
"Well, that's very sneaky of you, Miss." Sparrow said, more amused than angry. "... we'll have to find you a kingdom to conquer."
plum — 07/06/2020 1:46 AM
"Not mine, please." Kyros said. "Not while my nails are wet."
This made Illy giggle. "Sounds like the perfect plan of attack, actually."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:49 AM
"You can't go telling all the people you're going to conquer your plans," Vera told her seriously. "Forget that, Kyros. No one's conquering Atherdale while your nails are wet."
But she crossed her fingers behind her back.
plum — 07/06/2020 1:50 AM
Illy snickered again, hopping to her feet. "I call a biffle meeting in the laundry room."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:50 AM
"What's a biffle?" Sparrow asked.
plum — 07/06/2020 1:51 AM
"You'd know if you had one!" She responded, motioning to Vera as she slunk off through a doorway. "Come on!"
peach — 07/06/2020 1:52 AM
Vera scampered after her and Sparrow looked at Kyros. "Somehow, I feel offended."
plum — 07/06/2020 1:52 AM
"Little girls will do that to you. They have no filter."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:55 AM
"For real," she sighed, leaning back against the couch. "At least they're honest."
plum — 07/06/2020 1:55 AM
"In their own middle school view of the world, I suppose."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:57 AM
"So? Nervous about Illy?"
plum — 07/06/2020 1:58 AM
He laughed. "Her coming to steal my crown? I'll be waiting."
peach — 07/06/2020 1:58 AM
"She's gonna pluck it right off your head," she said, and tapped his red noggin.
plum — 07/06/2020 1:59 AM
"I'm actually more concerned about the coat. That, she actually has a chance of stealing."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:01 AM
"Hide it in Pari's closet." she suggested.
plum — 07/06/2020 2:03 AM
"Or yours."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:03 AM
"Mine /actually/ might be better. They never dig around in there."
plum — 07/06/2020 2:20 AM
"It's because all you have is practical and simple stuff. And anything that isn't is borrowed from Pari," he pointed out, perhaps a bit brutally.
peach — 07/06/2020 2:22 AM
It was lucky for him that Sparrow had known him long enough not to take it as an insult. She merely gave him a thoughtful nod. "Yeah, my closet is probably best. But she'll just find something else of yours that she wants."
plum — 07/06/2020 2:23 AM
"Maybe I'll throw her a bone sometime. Keep her sated for a little while."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:24 AM
"Her birthday is coming up. She'd lose her mind if you remembered." Sparrow gave him a nudge. "Not in front of you, of course."
plum — 07/06/2020 2:24 AM
"Maybe." He stressed. "I don't want to indulge anything unhealthy."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:25 AM
"What do you mean?"
plum — 07/06/2020 2:25 AM
"Well, I don't know. She's a little obsessed."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:26 AM
"Not at all," she told him laughingly. "She thinks you're cool. She thinks Tasia's cool. But she's not about to steal your pillow or anything."
plum — 07/06/2020 2:28 AM
"I'm not convinced."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:29 AM
"Well, even if she were a little obsessed, it's healthy for her age. All little kids have some sort of obsession. Pari's was reading, Mirza's was stars..."
plum — 07/06/2020 2:29 AM
"Yours was?"
peach — 07/06/2020 2:33 AM
She pressed her lips together, wondering. When she'd been Illy's age, what had she been obsessed with?
Well, that was when Apolonia had taken her aside and said clearly, "You can't be of the sea and the land. You have to choose one."
Then Asherah had swooped in and swatted Apolonia away, crooning to Sparrow that she could do what she wanted and she didn't have to listen to bitter old Po. And maybe she hadn't had to listen, but the words stuck. When she'd been ten, she'd been obsessed in figuring out where she belonged. Only, Sparrow wasn't sure she had ever fallen out of the obsession. It still sat like a rock in the pit of her stomach.
But she couldn't tell Kyros all of this, so she told him another half-truth instead, making a face at him and teasing, "You."
plum — 07/06/2020 2:52 AM
He wrinkled his nose in amusement. "Me? You totally thought I had cooties."
peach — 07/06/2020 2:54 AM
"Yeah, you and your cooties. See, the question was, if Kyros is royal and the cooties feed off of him, does that make them even more royal? And if so, then who's more royal: the prince or his cooties..." (edited)
plum — 07/06/2020 3:10 AM
"Listen, it's clear as day. Pari's obsession was me, and yours was her."
peach — 07/06/2020 3:11 AM
"Thos are some big assumptions to make." (edited)
plum — 07/06/2020 3:11 AM
"Why? There's plenty of supporting evidence."
peach — 07/06/2020 3:12 AM
"Enlighten me."
plum — 07/06/2020 3:31 AM
"She always wanted to do whatever I was doing, and you always followed after her."
peach — 07/06/2020 3:32 AM
"Because we were friends!" Sparrow protested. "But I wasn't /obsessed/." (edited)
plum — 07/06/2020 2:03 PM
"Okay, but you have to admit she was."
peach — 07/06/2020 3:01 PM
"A little." Sparrow admitted. Parisa had always enjoyed bothering Kyros. "But you were the most obsessive of all of us. You still are!"