Ttaa 19) Splitting Hairs

The world is not only getting stranger, but people are starting to truly understand that it’s changing.

And they don’t like it. Especially the people whose livelihoods are being threatened.

Meet Elvelyn Dushane, her real name, owner of the Empora Hair Saloon.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to compete. I can style hair, dye it, cut it, but I can’t grow it on command. I don’t have magic and that isn’t fair.”

Evelyn’s competitor is Scott Langshaw, one of her distant cousins, and former employee.

When I talked to Scott, he let out a huff.“It’s not my fault, one day I left the house, and as soon as I was out the front door, I was standing in the middle of a crowded city with all sort of races around me. Dozens of them, and no way of getting back. So I fell back on the only thing I was trained in. Hair styling.

He shrugged, “And doing with magic was how things were done there, learning the basics of Hursinmancy was the only way to keep me out of one of the charities homes for the incapable or incompetent.”

While Scott can do other magic, most of the spells he learned were one offs, magic made to do one thing and to be mastered with practice. His training was from more like a community center class then formal schooling.

“I was there for about eight months, and starting to do pretty well, then someone from something called the Theological Commission showed up, apologized for the inconvenience, but insisted that I had to go back home.”

Scott, a man in his early thirties, with excellent hair shrugged again. “He did give me an entire two weeks to sell off my business, do some sight seeing, shop, and have a goodbye party. Decent guy, really.”

“But then I was home, and I tried to work with Evelyn, but she wanted nothing to do with magic, and I do have to earn a living.”

His cousin’s hired a lawyer to write a cease and desist letter to him, which Scott claims had no actually legal force behind it, But Evelyn says she is still planning on pursuing legal action to shut down Scott business “Enchanted”.

Evelyn explained. “This isn’t just about him stealing all my customers, I’m actually concerned because no one can say for sure if using magic here on Earth is safe. Things need to be tested before he goes and uses it on people. He made my uncle’s hair grow back, does that sound safe to you, and he’s changing people hair color so it grow in whatever shade they want. Some of the younger girls have purple or pink hair, permanently. What if his magic stops working and they’re stuck like that for life?”

She shook her head. “It just isn’t right.”

Scott meanwhile is already planning to move himself, and his business elsewhere.

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“I’ve been getting a lot of attention, and I think I could do well with a bigger market. Cousin Evie can have this town, but I would like to beat her in court, just to have a precedent in case someone with a better lawyer come after me later.

Now I didn’t want to mention this, but… Someone with a lot more money then Scott ever had, before or after he vanished for two weeks, is paying for some very good, very expensive lawyers to represent him in court.

Someone, or someones are already moving to protect the use of magic in America, in a legal sense, while the politicians who would use it as a witch hunt to sell fear to get votes are still in denial.

Damn. That makes it sound like I hate and distrust politicians, which I do, but I shouldn’t use this blog to go on about my personal beliefs So let me just say this, it appears that some unknown people are trying to smooth out the speed bumps of our country becoming one in which magic is an accepted and commonplace resource, before it become an issue.

And I can’t say it’s a bad idea, or a good one. This is all just too new.

From it’s all about hair, I moved on to it’s all about the children.

Other worldly children.

Stanley Dixon High School was closed down twenty some years ago after a newer school was build. Stanley D was converted into office space, but never had all that many renters.

Recently is was bought up in it’s entirety by a returnee. One of a group of people kidnapped off of a plane to fight against a great evil, and lost.

The woman sitting across from me. Padma Singh, could either be considered in her early twenties, her age on Earth, or her late twenties, the years she lived.

“We didn’t entirely loose. We beat the Dark Emperor's army, and utterly destroy him as well, but by the time we won, that entire world had been too badly damaged. It was actually slowly breaking up into pieces. We had earned our ticket home, but everyone we left behind was going to suffocate or freeze as their world died.”

She frowned. “The King and his wizards who had summoned us were already using the magic they promised us to save themselves, but we had found out own way back. And we took as many people as we could with us.”

Padma closed her eyes. “Just over five hundred of them. All children. Their families insisted, and Sven, our Wizard, said the smaller the people we took, the more we could save.”

“I offered to stay behind, so did others, but Sven refused. He said the ones we saved would need us.”

She abruptly stood up. “Lunch will be served soon, let’s meet the children.”

So to note, not human children.

Oh there were a few, but do to a mixed heritage almost all of them had hair and eye colors not seen on Earth without dye and special lenses.

The others… “Beast kin, Demons, Dweomer Folk, Celestials, Jinni. The last city had been very cosmopolitan, and then it was filled with refugees, but in the end we had to pick and choose.”

Her eyes watered a bit. “Only the one’s who could survive on our world that had so little magic, and only the ones who could intermarry with humans.”

She turned towards me, and raised her head to look me in the eyes, “We wanted them to find new families, or be able to start their own.”

The kids… were kids. Loud and hyper, or quiet and sullen, both types with haunted eyes. Some of them took an interest in seeing a stranger, others just wanted to chat with their friends as they ate their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with something red and fruity smelling to drink.

Only three members of the group that got taken to another world stuck around to take care of the kids, along with a few women who had been pregnant and had ties with their group.

I’m guessing very close ties.

Other’s had at least donated some of the gold and other valuables they had brought with them from the Fallen World, or sent money as they made it elsewhere on Earth with the abilities they had earned during their war.

But it was still too many children for the handful of people to care for, and most people were too fearful to take a job taking care of kids with horns and others who already knew simple spells.

Which is why they are up for adoption.

Legally the children’s status is up in the air, the government is giving them the run around rather then anyone taking responsibility for making a decision that may be used against them politically. But it’s not like they can be deported back to their own country, or anyone wants to deal with taking them away from their guardians or prospective parents and doing something with them.

But if you are ready for a kid, one that looks a little different, you will find the contact information below.

Under different circumstances… I donated some money. It’s what little I could do.

Whoever backed up Scott Langshaw might want to help out here too, at least in terms of getting things sorted out in a legal sense, because I don’t think there are the last people in need of help coming our way.