Video - Attempting This Princess Leader Thing

[mal_contented]

[Mal closed her connection to Merlin and considered what he had said when she arrived, about what a princess is here, about leadership. Then she opened her connection to everyone through her mirror.]

"Alright. Listen up. Someone is missing and we've been asked to go help. Those who chose not to. stay in the assigned apartments. Yours or together with others, I don't care. If things go sideways it will be easier to keep you lot safe if we know which one building you are all in."

[A deep breath.]

"For the rest of us. We need to work together. Most of you probably don't know or like me. That's fine. Most of you if I know you... I don't like you. But we don't have to like each other for this. We just need to work towards the same goal. After, if you want to tear into me, fine, you're welcome to try. But until we all come back successful and safe, we are horns out, not in. We are one."

Comments

[mal_contented]

"Yeah? any of them include bear traps?" [Because one of hers did.] "But okay, fine, let's go with something tart and sour, something blue, something with peanut butter, some jelly beans. Any or all of the above." [Unknowingly sending a Demon to buy the things she tried to steal from a different Demon? YEP.]

[takeitsleazy]

"Several, actually. Rusty ones." He shrugged. The Poaching Department hadn't been one of his favorite assignments, but he'd made it work. "Interesting list. I'll see what I can do."

[mal_contented]

"Oh, and stay away from the dipped apples, they apparently might be poison." [Okay, now she wanted to know more.]

[takeitsleazy]

He showed up later in the afternoon, still in his red and white striped Emporium uniform, complete with matching bowtie, and a paper bag.

"Hi, Mal. Special delivery."

[mal_contented]

She chuckled. "Well a girl does like to feel special." She waved at one of the chairst at the salon. "Pay at the front then come have a seat. And as a reminder, Tipping is not just the name of a really generous city in Northern Wei."

[takeitsleazy]

"Tipping....? Oh, you do that for hair too. I didn't know that. ... Of course," he said pleasantly, as he paid, "I didn't know you did it for waiters, either. Boy, was my first one upset until I explained. And tipped him, of course."

[mal_contented]

She chuckled. "Yeah. That was a hard thing for me to learn too. In Auradon you tip for just about everything that isn't in a palace. Restaurants, airports, trains. It's a wonder the treasury has any money after Ben takes a trip somewhere." Her voice caught on his name a bit, but she kept up the cheerful chatter. "Back home, though? On the Island, I mean. Tipping was what you did to knock someone over so they couldn't catch you once they realized what you stole from them."

[takeitsleazy]

"I like the sounds of your Island better," he chuckled, slipping into the chair. "So how does this work? Because I know you're not just going to unmake the excess hair. It doesn't work that way here."

[mal_contented]

"Well.... I work a little differently than my coworkers," she said with a grin as she pulled out her new spellbook. She flipped to an early page and grinned, hopping up to sit on the counter facing him. "So I'm thinking jet black with faint dark red highlights, very faint, and ice white tips, maybe with an ice white streak?"

[takeitsleazy]

"Black, huh?" He considered himself in the mirror. He already had a pretty ruddy complexion, and Janet had told him once that red ties did him no favors. "Sure, why not. Maybe leave out the red, though. Apparently I'm something called a 'winter'."

[mal_contented]

She chuckled. "The way I intended the red would have worked anyway, but hey, no skin off my nose. Alright then." She made a note in her book, considered, tweaked it. studied the note, then him, then nodded.

"Beware forswear, replace this white with edgy dark hair." so saying she gestured with her finger, channeled through her spark and... he now had jet black hair, slightly spiked, with icy white tips. She was getting better at not having side effects. Though some of that was pretending that things, like the fact that he now had a small ponytail were totally intentional.

[takeitsleazy]

"Whoa." His eyes widened behind his glasses. "You really have a handle on this magic thing! I still can't get mine to work quite right. It's supposed to be fire, and all I ever get are these shield things. Not even an ember."

He twisted in the chair a little to look.

"Um. Can you shorten up the back a little? I don't think anyone I live with would take that seriously."

[mal_contented]

She grinned, refusing to let him see what the magic took out of her, and the twitchy feeling between her shoulder blades that she was never sure was coincidence or not. She hopped off the counter, grabbed scissors, and removed the ponytail the old fashioned way. "There you go. Quick and painless."

[takeitsleazy]

"Huh! I didn't know scissors could be painless. Neat. So what's your element?"

Because as far as he knew, all kinds of magic had elements.

[mal_contented]

"Based on the rules of magic at home, or the weirdo magic here?" she asked, leaning against her counter to casually rest from the magic and to keep her back to a wall.

[takeitsleazy]

"Let's go with both, since I'm curious about what magic's like in places where it actually exists, too. The more I learn about it in general, I figure, the more I might be able to do."

[mal_contented]

"Here is is apparently... wishfulness." She said, rolling her eyes. "I swear I feel like Jordan these days." She shook her head. "Back home my spells don't really have an element. Just spoken word and gesture."

[takeitsleazy]

"Wishfulness." He nodded a few times, wondering how that could be considered an element. But then again, the classes worked in different ways, so ... hmm. Either way, it was food for thought. Wishes were, after all, another facet of imagination. He could dig it.

"Spoken word is that powerful where you're from? Does everything people say have an effect?"

[mal_contented]

"Nah, mine works because of who I am, and the spellbook. Started making a new one here. I mean, sure, some of the spells needed to be put into food like poison, but most of it was just the right words and right gestures."

[takeitsleazy]

"I wonder if that's why I haven't been able to do much with mine. Do you think each element might have its own right words and gestures?"

[mal_contented]

"Could be. I know Evie's mirror generally worked best with rhyming couplets."

[takeitsleazy]

"So I just have to figure out what works with fire. Any ideas?"

He reached up and messed a bit with the little spikes in his hair, turning his head to and fro, unable to leave it alone like most people with new haircuts.

[mal_contented]

"Hmm...." she considered. "Breath," she said finally. "Fire needs fuel and air when it isn't magical, so maybe you want to focus on how you breathe when you shape the spells. Breathy sounds and maybe plosives to pop the way a flame does."

[takeitsleazy]

"Air, huh? I wouldn't have thought of that. Huh. ... I won't try it in here, obviously - don't want to send the place up in flames! But I'll definitely have to give it a shot. Thanks."

He grinned, turning for the door. "And, uh, thanks for the haircut!"

[mal_contented]

"Ahem," she pointed to the tip jar. "Not just a city in Northern Wei," she reminded him.