"Exploring? And you went with Paris and Prague?" He scoffs under her finger, but doesn't so much as ruffle a feather4. "You didn't get very far, did you? Could't have gone straight to, I don't know, Siroktabe or Mituo? Now those are two places really worth your time. Hardly any people there at all."
It might have taken him even longer to find her then. His master would have snatched him back at the end of the time he'd been allotted for his task and for the first time in all of history both known and unknown, he, Bartimaeus of Uruk, could have been very happy indeed to report being a complete failure. There'd be consequences, sure. But he's confident he could have said or done something to get out of anything truly terrible if only by the skin of his pointed skin.
Hopping across the table, clacking over her comb and the occassional bobby pin, he makes his way to a small stack of books. He flips open the topmost one - a dog-eared copy of 1001 Useful Phrases for Everywhere - with a four-toed foot.
"The next time you plan a trip, be sensible and ask the advice of someone with expertise5. But yes," --he scans the table of contents; top ten spoken languages and it still surprises him that English is anywhere on it-- "as it just so happens, this is indeed my first time back. And much sooner than I would have liked, if I'm being honest."
The bird shoots her an apologetic look. It comes with surprising ease, given he's so unpracticed with them. "No offense."
4. It's not so bad really - a little stroke here and there from the right hand. Ptolemy had once scratched him under the chin while he'd been in the guise of a cat, but that had been early days and he'd objected at such length that it had never happened again. Live for a few thousand years and learn.
5. This is an awkward turn of phrase, knowing what he knows. But just go with it. They're trying to have a nice time here.
no subject
It might have taken him even longer to find her then. His master would have snatched him back at the end of the time he'd been allotted for his task and for the first time in all of history both known and unknown, he, Bartimaeus of Uruk, could have been very happy indeed to report being a complete failure. There'd be consequences, sure. But he's confident he could have said or done something to get out of anything truly terrible if only by the skin of his pointed skin.
Hopping across the table, clacking over her comb and the occassional bobby pin, he makes his way to a small stack of books. He flips open the topmost one - a dog-eared copy of 1001 Useful Phrases for Everywhere - with a four-toed foot.
"The next time you plan a trip, be sensible and ask the advice of someone with expertise5. But yes," --he scans the table of contents; top ten spoken languages and it still surprises him that English is anywhere on it-- "as it just so happens, this is indeed my first time back. And much sooner than I would have liked, if I'm being honest."
The bird shoots her an apologetic look. It comes with surprising ease, given he's so unpracticed with them. "No offense."