Kevin Curry
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Fae Chronicles 1
🕑 Added 2024-04-21 21:39:22 +0000 UTCTanya stared at the sky, the alien stars providing only questions, no answers.
Damn Being X.
They would be the first to admit that they lost their temper when the so-called god started reading their mind and called them out on their rushed rationalizations, which was far from a smart move, but this? What purpose could they have for inflicting this on them?
Being reborn? They could sort of understand that. There was sort of a bet-like transaction there, if one squinted. If they died of old age, Being X would admit defeat and reincarnate them normally, like he was supposed to do and Tanya explicitly asked him to do. If they repented and begged at Being X’s feet for mercy, they would be ‘saved’, he wins, and Tanya had no idea what would happen after that. If they died in any other way, it was a draw and Tanya gets utterly obliterated… which is what Tanya had assumed would happen after death anyway, so no real loss there.
They really shouldn’t have attempted to psych themselves up with a mental shounen speech about the human spirit. It just gave the bastard ideas.
So Tanya had been incarnated into a pumpkin, and immediately hatched into a newborn member of the fair folk. Fae, fey, faerie, fairy, it’s literally all the same and interchangeable, Tanya’s one of them. Who couldn’t die of old age, so Being X removes their ability to win the “bet” from move one. Bastard.
Technically, their name was Duchess Titania Argent of the Skyclad Fineries, Sovereign of the Six Pillars, Lady of Currency. But giving out one’s true name was gauche, and gave non-fae power over you. Well, they say non-fae, but fae society had a strict hierarchy, and anyone above Tanya could use their name in the same way a non-fae could and even more besides… but the only one above them in the hierarchy was full royalty, so only about five vastly powerful fae, King Oberon and his harem of Queens; Lurue, Titania, Verenestra, and Mab.
The problem was, all of those things were insults. They couldn’t utter their name (which utterly replaced their old name in their memory, damn Being X) without angering the capricious Summer Queen, the ‘signature treasure’ part of their name was in reference to the fact that they owned no clothes, the ‘six pillars’ referred to the six trees surrounding the pumpkin patch they were born in, and that last title was ironic because not only did Fae laugh at the mortal idea of currency, you couldn’t bring mortal goods into Arcadia so they couldn’t get any, either.
The thing fey used as money was glamor, which was also usable magic. It came in ‘motes’, and represented magical potential based on its state of matter, of which it had six. Tanya only knew the first three, though, so arbitrarily equated them to gaseous, liquid, and solid. Echo glamor was the gaseous state, and could be made to shape visual illusions to the senses of the fae, poor ones that couldn’t fool anyone. Myst glamor was the liquid, it could be made into convincing, if fragile, illusions to the senses of the fey. Facade glamor was the solid state, the first state that can be agreed to be valuable, able to make illusions of objects well enough to be considered real. It took about one hundred motes of one to convert up to the next highest stage, and while it could not be broken down, owning objects, or “Treasures” of one denomination slowly trickled an income of one step down into the lands of the fae the treasures resided in.
Tanya, needless to say, owned very few treasures. Their lawful existence had infuriated King Oberon, who was eager to ‘pass justice’ over the first thief to get caught stealing from his lands in three hundred years, not that he actually cared about the theft itself. As a newborn fey with no possible patron other than himself, Tanya was fully within their rights to eat from the bounty of his lands, and as a result, he gave them their title and lands, the tiniest parcel that he could think of to grant: Six trees and all that rests beneath them.
Fae politics aren’t supposed to make complete sense. It’s all a game, as consistent as it would be among elementary schoolers on the playground. Nevertheless, his disfavor was clear, and while their lofty title did a lot to protect Tanya from the lower stations, the peerage still had plenty of room to belittle and insult them.
Ironically, those insults are the source of the majority of Tanya’s wealth. Their largest tree was far larger than any mortal tree, a kilometer or so tall with a canopy stretching over about four hundred meters. The other trees were of a similar size, as they were not particularly exceptional specimens in this particular segment of Arcadian forest: the Land of Giants.
This left Tanya with a quite spacious hollow inside that tree, one of the few mercies of owning land in Arcadia is that such ownership is intrinsically apparent: this hollow was previously occupied by an owl the size of a moving van, but they vacated without complaint once Tanya expressed their intent to live there.
The hollow was far from reasonable accommodation: while it did keep dry when it rained and the owl was polite enough to clean the place up before leaving, the bed was just a pile of leaves and the only other piece of furniture was a crude wooden chest where Tanya kept their treasures.
The majority of Tanya’s treasure was useless to a fairy, gossamer blessings that granted things like singing talent, the ability to read anything, or a ballerina’s grace. The same kinds of ‘gifts’ that would be parceled out to mortals to solicit praise.
The reason they were useless is that they were mostly made of echo glamor, which meant that, for example, the singing talent wouldn’t actually improve their ability to sing, instead just making their singing sound better to mortals. Which Tanya could do with a few motes of echoes, no gift required.
But there were a few notable treasures: First, a map of Arcadia and their equivalent locations in the mortal world pinned to the wall, although it was called Europa instead of Europe for some reason. It was the focus that allowed Tanya to notice and thus respond to mortals beckoning assistance from the fae. It also helpfully labeled the surrounding regions in a way useful to Tanya: Atlantis, The Frozen Wastes of the Baba Yaga, the Beastlands, and the Djinni Caliphate.
Second was a swaddling blanket, notable only in that it was their only possession composed of facade glamor rather than echo or myst. The only party Tanya was ever invited to was one thrown in their honor, although the entire point was to insult and humiliate them with a hokey ‘christening’. There wasn’t even a priest, it was purely from a fairy’s perspective: minor gifts are given to the designated baby, and then everyone applauds them for their generosity. That was the whole party, beyond the banquet. Which Tanya wasn’t even allowed to eat.
The joke’s on them, though: even crappy gifts held some value, which let Tanya begin making connections in the mortal world. The ability to read any mortal language was pointless to a fae who could do it innately as part of their nature, but to a Librarian with ancient texts in lost tongues? It’s certainly worth something.
The glamor income from the treasures that were pointless but still made of myst was also handy: it doubled her echo income. So they sat in the chest, and Tanya slowly grew in strength.
Tanya chuckled as they looked at their contacts, each pinned to the wall. Each one represented another asset, another developed contact, another point of access. Word of mouth marketing was excruciatingly slow, but they had already gotten some referrals. Pinned between them was a map of Europa. It still looked awful, the mundanity of it somewhat painful to Tanya’s delicate fae senses, but it was important. Pins on the map noted the cities where they could access, and any further beckonings without specific intent would show up on it as motes of light.
Really, the map was weird in another way. The nations… they were mostly bigger. Blobbier. Tanya was very familiar with maps of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, and there wasn’t even half the number of nations there should be on it. A lot of it was taken up by ‘The Empire’, which is the equivalent of the Kaiserreich. World War I hasn’t happened yet. With the vastly fewer polities to interlink in defensive pacts, it wouldn’t happen for the same reason. But it will happen, because the mortals must learn why war is a bad thing that should be avoided at great cost.
If they had to guess… Someone will tick off The Empire, the military with a government attached will mobilize, and then the defensive pacts that do exist will trigger. Well, they just get to read newspapers in five countries, so they could be wrong, but operating under the assumption that there will be war, that seemed the most likely tinder for that blaze.
Ah, a beckoning. Empire this time. Tanya sniffed at the point of light. Smells like cream and honey with cinnamon, a high-class offering. Tanya tapped it with their finger, and stepped towards the mortal realm, a direction that did not correlate to one in four dimensional space.
Tanya wrapped themselves in echoes, creating what, to mortal eyes, would be a fine suit made of leaves with golden hair ornaments, instead of their normally filthy appearance, as their lands did not include a source of water beyond rain, although they hadn’t had to worry about dehydration.
The beckoner was evidently wealthy, having set up a proper tea service on a table right next to the faerie circle where the offering was placed. Tanya took a deep drink of the offering. They had always had a sweet tooth, but being transformed into a fae made the taste of meat and salt disgusting, with only sweetness truly providing a delight to their taste buds.
The man in front of them was dressed up richly, although his demeanor was that of nervousness and fear. Appropriate for someone beckoning fell powers who could not be swayed by gold. Well, as far as he knew anyway. “Greetings.” He said, “I am the Lord of the Rhine, and I welcome you to my lands as a guest.”
Tanya nodded, acknowledging the courtesy. “Hail and well met, Lord of the Rhine. You may call me Tanya. For what purpose do you invoke the sacred pacts of parley between man and fae?”
He seemed troubled by Tanya’s introduction. “Just Tanya?” He asked. Tanya raised a single eyebrow at him at the minor break in decorum, and he swallowed thickly before going into his explanation. “Please, have some tea.”
Tanya sat themselves down at the tea service. “I accept your hospitality, freely given in the spirit of friendship.” The Lord of the Rhine’s eyebrow furrowed at the comparatively informal exclamation, but Tanya had trouble remembering all of the proper courtly phrasing. Their words were sufficient to prevent any favor owed for the hospitality, which was what mattered.
The Lord served the tea himself, dutifully dosing Tanya’s tea with more honey than palatable for mortal tongues, and Tanya drank it happily. “Now, once again: What manner of problem do you seek the fair folk to remedy?”
The Lord seemed to have regained his equilibrium, going into a wrought explanation that used five times as many words as he needed to. “So, if I’m understanding all of that correctly, “ Tanya said, carefully not pinching the bridge of their nose, “-you’re not actually a noble, but you are rich with industrial wealth. Your mother wants you to marry into the peerage, while you want to avoid getting subordinated by an influential noble house.”
“That’s right.” The Lord replied, a bit befuddled at how Tanya had stated it so bluntly. “I very much do not want to marry Helga von Lergen, she’s a beast.”
Interesting, a quandary that Tanya couldn’t just magic away. “Tell me, how did you think this was going to be fixed?”
He fidgeted. “Well, I don’t really know. Maybe… you could enchant Helga into being less…” He shuddered rather than elaborate. “Or something?”
Tanya thought about how difficult it would be to do that. According to the Twilight Accords… he’d need to bring her here at least… trick her into giving Tanya her name… If only they had magical matchmaker powers that could find spare unmarried nobility… wait. “I believe I have an idea.”
“Really?” The Lord asked, hope blooming on his face.
Tanya smiled back. “What would you say if I could track down some surviving Russy nobility?”
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[Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov]
Despite the inherent foolishness of the action, Visha thought that selling her soul to Tanya two years ago was one of the best decisions she’s ever made. She had struggled in the mandatory education that the Empire demanded of its citizens, but Tanya had a way of explaining the material clearly, using small little illusions to demonstrate or further expand on the subjects that Visha needed to learn.
That is, when she popped up. She did so a few times per week, always when Visha was alone, and she liked telling Tanya about what the fairy had missed since the last time they talked, it was like having a friend. Visha didn’t have that many of those.
Although it was a little strange that the fairy kept showing up at bathtime, Tanya's hair was gorgeous and it was a privilege to wash it for her. Doesn’t she have a bath in faerieland? Or did she just not like bathing alone? She was always muddy, so perhaps she wanted to play in the mud without her own Mama getting mad at her?
“How are your studies, Viktoriya?” Tanya asked, startling Visha from her musings.
“Eep!” Visha squeaked. Gathering her composure, she politely answered her Lady’s question. “It’s going quite well. I got top marks on all of the final tests last week.”
“Excellent.” Tanya said, grinning sinisterly. Uh oh… “Now, I know your family knows about our… relationship, as it were, but it’s time that we get formally introduced.”
Visha frowned. “Um… are you sure?” She was always very careful to do what Tanya explicitly told her to do, as they did sell their soul, but when she was more indirect in her orders… “I don’t think Babushka likes you.”
“Tch.” Tanya seemed a little offended by the implication. “Well, I suppose that’s fair. Even a kindly Master is worse than a proper employer, after all.” What? “Nevertheless, I wish to speak to your mother. It’s dinnertime soon, after all.”
“Right. I’ll go tell Mama we’ll be having a guest for dinner.” Visha said as she ran off to do just that.
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Mama and Babushka were not happy at Visha’s news. “The fair folk are bad news, Visha.” Babushka warned, “It may be too late for you, but this desire to meet with us… it bodes ill.”
Mama hummed. “This fairy has allowed Visha to stay at home, when they have every right to spirit her away. This one may be different.”
“Or she could just be wanting the full set.” Babushka retorted.
While there was a bit of a sour pall over the preparations for dinner, a simple beet stew the primary dish, an extra placement was made for Tanya. When everyone sat down, there was a pause, an awkward silence broken by Babushka whispering to Visha: “You did tell her when dinner was starting, yes?”
“She did.” Tanya said, suddenly behind Visha. She jumped in surprise, as she usually did when Tanya showed up.
Tanya was dressed in her usual leaf-suit, as she always was when she shows up at times other than bathtime. Mama and Babushka’s eyes widened at the appearance of Tanya, the fae shorter than Visha, not having aged a day since the time they met, two years previous.
The meal proceeded, somewhat awkwardly. Tanya seemed to enjoy the stew, which was nice, even if she poured in an inadvisable amount of honey into her bowl. Mama said nothing, even if Visha would have been over her knee in a second if she did the same.
After the food was consumed, Tanya clapped her hands. “Now, to business: Countess Serebyrakov, are you happy with your current life?”
The question was rhetorical, but it still demanded an answer. Carefully, Mama replied: “I am satisfied with what I have earned with my own sweat and effort.” It was a lie; Mama frequently fantasized about being rescued by a wealthy man, returning to the luxurious lifestyle that Visha couldn’t really remember.
“A fine sentiment.” Tanya replied, not missing a beat. “But sentiment doesn’t put nutritious food on the table, nor does it fight off the chill of winter.” She grinned, her smile a little too wide to be comforting. “I am prepared to offer you a deal to fix that. Are you interested?”
“...Why me?” Mama asked.
Tanya took a moment to consider the question. “Fundamentally, it is because making such a deal will benefit me. If you gain wealth and security, my servant will be better positioned to complete the tasks I have in mind for her. Her education, I can handle. Connections… not so much. Leveraging resources becomes simpler if you have more resources at hand, after all.” Tanya’s gaze turned sharp. “But it will not benefit me enough to do such a thing for free. So payment must be discussed.”
Babushka shuddered at Tanya’s glare. “Don’t do it, Doch. She speaks in poison.”
“I am a fey of business.” Tanya said, “Do not insult me by implying that I do not follow my end of the bargain.”
“Yes, to the letter.” Babushka agreed, “But you have not said exactly how that money will be given, hm?”
Tanya smiled. “Oh, is that all? Then I’ll explain: Do you want a rich husband? One without a title who is interested in marrying a Countess? Buying a place among the peerage is a common enough transaction. Pay my price, and I’ll make it happen.”
Babushka glared at Tanya suspiciously, but ‘rich husband’ were the magic words, as far as Mama was concerned. Visha immediately understood from the gleam in Mama’s eyes that she would be willing to pay a very dear price indeed for such a boon. “Remember, you can’t sell your firstborn daughter.” Visha reminded her. “I’m already hers.”
“...Firstborn son?” Mama asked.
Tanya’s glare returned with twice the force. “I will never deal in chattel slavery. I will forgive your insult, once. Do not repeat it.” A tense silence crossed the table.
Eventually,“You bought my granddaughter.” Babushka pointed out.
Tanya nodded in agreement. “She sold herself to me. Completely different from selling someone else.” Visha recalled, from Tanya’s lessons on law, that fundamentally, children do not have the capacity to make contracts in any ‘sane society’ because they cannot fully comprehend the consequences. Why did Tanya teach her that? “Further, that transaction was not one that is instant. Your continued good health is due to that deal, after all. If she wanted to walk away… She could.” She can!? “It would be a blow to my reputation, and I would take back that blessing of health, the thing that keeps those ribs from being visible due to you starving yourself, or those eyebags from showing, or those chemical burns you picked up on your hands from showing.” Tanya waved her hand dismissively. “But she could.”
Mama paled as Tanya icily listed off health problems that she had, as if Tanya could see them beneath that veneer of health. But… she was really healthy, right? You couldn’t just… make someone look healthy and expect that to work, right? Fey magic is confusing. But the idea that one of the fair folk, the scary ones from Babushka’s stories, would just let her… walk away, just taking back what she was paid… that seemed… unfair. Like she would be cheating Tanya by doing that. Cheating the fey was all well and good in stories, they were always so mean in them… but Tanya? She didn’t do anything bad. The opposite, in fact. It would be like cheating the kind man who runs the general store. The one who slips her sweets when Mama was busy worrying about what they could afford that week. Always with one more “for your little friend”, just because Visha had asked for a second one for Tanya once. The man hasn’t even met Tanya, and he believed her when she said that she had a friend with no proof.
“What is the price?” Mama said, convinced of the reality of Tanya’s words, without the famed rhetorical traps you would expect from a fairy. Tanya was just like that, VIsha was sure.
“First, a question:” Tanya said, “-can you prove your status as a Countess? While it would not be an impossible obstacle to work around, it would be a much greater investment on my part if that were necessary.”
Mama hesitated. “I was able to save our signet ring, and my departed husband’s seal of office, and I saved one of our genealogies, although it’s not entirely up to date: Visha isn’t written in yet.” Visha would like to say that she was surprised that Mama managed to save those, but she would entirely believe that Mama had decided those were more important than, say, her jewelry box. Visha was the one to grab that, although they had to pawn them to afford their current house.
“Ah, perfect.” Tanya said, pleased. “In that case…” She snapped her fingers, and a contract appeared, immaculate calligraphy upon the parchment. “Now, most of the details of this contract are less of a price and more… conditions. It presupposes you have access to the aforementioned wealth and limits what you can do.” She gestured, and a few segments of the contract lit up. “I’ll let you read the specifics, but to summarize: You can’t disinherit Viktoriya. Part of the reason I am doing this is to increase the value of my servant, so I won’t be cheated out of that, nor will you impede her from that service. Any major decision you make that will affect her future must be approved by myself, my tasks for her will supersede any obligation from you, etcetera.” Visha wondered what Tanya’s game was here. Sure, she always seemed straightforward, but even in her deal, there was a ‘gotcha’, where Tanya implied that what she was giving was worth more than it was.
Mama seemed worried about the small print on the paper, but it did only seem to be a single page, so how bad could it be? “Alright, that seems reasonable…” She said nervously, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Naturally, that portion is limited to as long as Visha’s contract with me persists.” Tanya continued, “Now, this section,” A different set of text started glowing, “Goes into your ongoing obligations to myself: namely, that I be given full access to your estate, and when present I am to be treated as… not quite a guest, more of an additional dependent. My own room, a wardrobe, meals, etcetera. ”
“I’m not sure I can promise all of this… What if my future husband says no?” Mama asked, worried.
“You let me worry about that.” Tanya said breezily, disregarding the concern. “Now, while those two main points summarize conditions as to your enjoyment of your gift of wealth, they are not payment.” Babushka leaned forward with a stern glare of her own as Mama readied herself for the worst. “I want your dreams.” What?
“My… dreams?” Mama asked, her fingers picking at the edge of her shawl.
“Yes.” Tanya replied, “Claiming your service in the same way as I have Visha would be counterproductive to my aims, and you have no material possessions that are desirable beyond what you’re about to come into. Therefore, I must claim an esoteric resource. Thus, your dreams.”
“Why?” Mama asked, “And… how?”
“It’s a standard arrangement.” Tanya said assuringly. “The dreams of mortals hold value to the fae. Not a lot of value, but non-zero. It’s one of the few assets you possess, so for as long as you remain married to the aforementioned rich husband, you will no longer dream.”
“What will you do with them?” Mama asked, still quite worried.
Tanya shrugged. “I’ll probably use it to fuel the ongoing costs of my various contracts. Like your blessing. It’s not really important.” She slid the contract further towards Mama. “What is important is that you read the contract and then sign on the dotted line.” She picked up a spoon and held it out, the utensil turning into a fountain pen after Visha blinked. “If you’re concerned about accidental violations, these things typically work mostly off intent. If you intentionally violate it, that’s a problem, but minor, accidental violations are easily forgiven.” Visha noticed that Tanya didn’t say they weren’t violations. Meaning that she could demand restitution, if she felt so inclined.
…Tanya’s decision to teach Visha contract negotiation is becoming stranger by the minute. She kept her silence, however. She trusted Tanya to play fairly, as long as Mama did the same.
Mama looked at Babushka. The old woman’s brow furrowed, trying to see the trick. “I still think you shouldn’t.” She said with finality. After a beat, she added: “But… It may be worth it.”
At that begrudging assent, Mama immediately signed the contract, her eyes shining. “Alright, when do I meet him?” She asked.
Tanya grinned widely as she ‘made a sale’, as she would say. “Start packing.” Tanya instructed. “We’ve got a train to catch.”
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As it turned out, the ‘trick’ was that Tanya had already been paid to bring a rich ‘client’ an eligible noblewoman to marry for status. So she got paid twice for the same task of matchmaking. Which explained why Tanya sold this service so cheaply; the whole point was to stop Mama from objecting to the terms that she had given her new Papa by making her agree to the same ones. The actual payment was just a bonus.
The Kaiser had many sympathies for the exiled nobility of Rus, and the Empire was happy to thumb their noses at the communists by elevating Papa’s family into a proper Imperial noble house. So now she was Visha von Degurechaff, heir to Rhine County, and her father was now Count Theodor von Degurechaff, with her mother now being officially recognized as a Countess again. She was ecstatic, even if the Imperial noble courts had a few extra ranks than Rus so they weren’t as high up as before.
Visha was in Tanya’s room, studying while she waited for her friend to return, occasionally glancing at the fine silk gown that Tanya seemed to like the best of all of the clothes Mama and Papa had provided her. Other mortal fabrics apparently itched her skin. The more she learned about Tanya the more she started to think that her youthful appearance was more than just an appearance.
“Hey.” Tanya said, oddly despondent.
“Tanya? What’s wrong?” Visha asked, concerned. She turned around to see Tanya wearing the gown, she probably just appeared inside of it.
“It’s nothing.” Tanya said sadly. “Just getting back from a party, so I’m spent.”
Visha frowned. “I thought you said you didn’t like parties.”
“One doesn’t simply snub the Lady of Owls.” Tanya explained, “She could petition the King if I don’t have a good reason to refuse to attend. Hosting events is very important in fey culture.”
Ah. “Have you ever hosted any?” Visha asked, curious.
Tanya gave a half hearted laugh. “I am not expected to.” She said simply. “So no.”
Hm. Well… “Do you have a title?” Visha asked.
“Technically,” Tanya replied, “-I am the Lady of Currency.” That made way too much sense. Like why she changed out her leaf suit for one made of money. She used magic to turn a small stack of paper notes into the suit.
“Currency seems like it would be powerful.” Visha pointed out, putting a bookmark in the economics textbook that Tanya had procured. It was a bit advanced, given that Visha was just thirteen, but she was learning it well enough.
“It’s not.” Tanya assured her. “It’s basically just an identifier, something that can be used instead of my name while still being unique. Fey names are complicated, which is why I simply go by Tanya when dealing with mortals.” She stood up and picked up one of the newspapers that were placed on her desk. It was one of many ways that Papa encouraged Tanya to stay within her room rather than wandering the halls, having everything she could need sent to that room. “Ooh, tarts.” Tanya said with a smile, lifting the glass covering of the serving tray of pastries. She ate one completely before continuing. “If it meant I had some kind of authority, powers, or even special money senses, that would be nice, but it doesn’t.”
“Then why are you called that?” Visha asked.
Tanya shrugged. “Changing the subject away from fae society, “ She said, her tone bitter with a note of anger. Visha got the impression that Tanya was not very popular in fairyland. It would explain why she kept sleeping over here… “How are you doing with the economics textbook?”
Visha smiled. “It’s written surprisingly clearly. It’s almost like you’re there telling me how it all works.”
Tanya puffed up her chest in pride. “Ufufu… That’s because I wrote it myself.” Visha was beginning to understand why the other fae decided to call Tanya the Lady of Money. “I’ve seen what you mortals pass off as economic theory, and it’s mostly zero-sum nonsense still. Trade does not require a ‘winner’ and a ‘loser’, everyone involved can profit and be all the richer for the transaction. That is the secret of a successful business.”
Visha thought about the deal Tanya had made with her. Then she thought about the deal Tanya had made with her mother.
…She knew it. The reason why Tanya was so nice for a fey… was because she was a big softie! Visha smiled to herself as she listened to Tanya passionately lecture on economics, and how even small, everyday things could be explained through that lens.
