I thought I'd do something a little different for today's episode, I hope you enjoy it!
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Chapter 20
Several weeks after the excitement of helping out at 'the Reading Incident', Samantha had had another meeting, as the ambassador for the witches and humans, with the other ambassadors from the other realms: this time she went by herself, along with the fairy ambassador. Whilst a little unsure of herself, she soon realised they were all feeling the same way. The fact that she was a member of 'Serena's team' had definitely been noticed by the other realms, and the meeting was very positive, with agreement to provide relevant assistance.
There was also reports of progress made of the previously requested research, with meetings planned so that the researchers could pass on the details.
But for the last couple of weeks, Samantha's life had been surprisingly quiet. Yes, she had some college work to do, but that was all now done, and she was alone in her room. She was currently in her bedroom, sat at her dressing table, and looking into the mirror. More specifically, she was looking at her teeth. Whilst Samantha's actual teeth were really good (she had no fillings) her teeth weren't perfectly straight. Don't get me wrong, they were not badly out of line... they were sufficiently ok that, as a teen, there was no way she would have qualified for braces on the NHS. And there was no way her parents could have afforded for her to get private braces, especially for such a minor 'defect'.
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Elida went over to the kitchen area to get herself a coffee, when Faylinn arrived there too. "Hey, Elida, not seen you for a few days, nice to see you! I guess you've been busy apprenticing over at FI5?" said Faylinn, with a bit of a smile. Whilst, as far as most fairies were concerned, Elida was mainly a tooth fairy but was doing an apprenticeship over at FI5, Faylinn was one of a very small number that knew the real truth: far from being just an apprentice, she was actually helping to run the place!
Now, if you're trying to remember who Faylinn is, then she was the fairy that Elida worked together with, when they were fixing the 'trail of braces' left by 'The Dark Fairy' (and who we now know as Sebby!).
"Hey, Faylinn, how's things? Keeping busy?"
"Yeah, had a young kid this morning, braces, expanders, elastics and a facemask, he was not a happy boy. Lots of calming and soothing spells got used to relax him. Need to check in with him later, see how he's coping."
"Oh, yes, it's sad when kids need such extreme braces... but so much pretty shiny metal!"
"Yes, plenty of that! So what have you been up to recently then? Were you involved with that thing with the FAS the other week?"
"No, that was Poppy. I was having a lovely evening at home with Puck, and the first I heard of it was the next day when Poppy filled me in. Tell you what, Poppy is starting to give me a run for my money, she's getting really good, and self confident too. Luckily we get on really well, and our skills seem to complement each other really well. Tell you what though, I'm so glad I still get to do some work here, it's almost 'relaxing' to just be dealing with teeth and braces! Especially shiny metal brackets... I do hate it when they get ceramic brackets, or those new plastic 'aligners'... I mean, how can you call those aligners 'braces'? They don't even shine or sparkle!"
"Oh, definitely with you there! I mean, when they first started doing aligners, it was relatively easy to use a few 'nudge' spells to persuade them to use metal brackets, but it's getting a lot more difficult now..."
"Hmm, maybe we should just burn down the places where they make those horrible aligners?" suggested Elida.
"Nah, they'd just build more! I think we're just going to have to get used to the fact that more people are going to get treated with aligners. At least, the good news is that the total mumber of people getting orthodontic treatment has been going steadily up. Plus, with the problems caused by a lack of NHS dentists, we have plenty of people with other, non-braces, teeth problems to keep us busy!" said Faylinn.
Just then, Elida's tablet beeped. "Oh, looks like I'm needed, better go, see you around!"
"Yeah, we must have lunch together some time, have a proper catch-up." Elida was very pleased that, after the 'time loop' events, she had become friends with Faylinn.
'So, what's this call then?". She opened up the tablet to see who and what was needing her attention: she got a bit of a surprise to discover that her 'customer' was one 'Samantha Parsons', a very familiar name.
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As Samantha looked at her teeth, some words inadvertantly crept out of her mouth: "I wish I had nice straight teeth...".
Of course, the magic of the fairy's wish scheduling system had predicted Samantha's wish in advance, and Elida was there to hear her say it. Whilst she would normally have made herself visible to Samantha, this time she stayed invisible, so she could take a look at Samantha's teeth. Yes, her actually teeth looked really nice, lovely and white (but not TOO white!), and while their positioning wasn't actually all that bad, there was definitely room for improvement.
Now, normally when someone made a wish like Samantha had just made, it would be up to the fairies to work out a way to fulfil the wish, without the human customer actually realising what was being done. However, Samantha knew about fairies, so Elida decided to take a rather different route.
"Hey there, Samantha!" she said gently, making herself visible, and flying into her line of sight. "You made a wish...."
"Did I?"
"Yeah, you wished you had nice straight teeth."
"I guess I did, didn't I? And of all people, YOU got the call?"
"Well, it's the way the wish scheduling system works: it remembers which fairies have interacted with a customer before, and allocates them again if they are available. So, you don't like your teeth then?"
"Well, I like them, I just wish they lined up a bit better."
"Whoah, there you go, another wish!" said Elida, giggling. "So, straight teeth: normally I'd have to do something to get you in to see an orthodontist, work out how to pay for it, and all that. But we can simplify things for you. So, the big question is: do you just want them straightening up, or do you REALLY want to have braces, and do things the more traditional way? If you just want them straight, I can do that for you now."
"You know, that's a very good question!" replied Samantha, looking in the mirror at her teeth again.
"I think braces would actually look nice on you" commented Elida. "Hey, want to try some? I mean, they'll be kinda like 'fake braces', they won't DO anything, but you could see what you'd look like."
Samantha thought for a bit. "Ok, yeah...."
Elida called up her wand, and cast a spell on Samantha: it wasn't often she could be quite so overt with braces - a normal human getting braces all of a sudden would get quite a big surprise, so it wasn't something she got to do very often. She put a simple set of medium-sized metal braces onto Samantha's teeth, with a suitable archwire, and dark blue ligatures. She felt a cetain excitement at being able to blatently give a human lively shiny metal braces, and realised that maybe this was how Sebby (aka The Dark Fairy) had felt when giving her victims braces. "First impressions?" she asked.
"Yeah, I kinda like the look.... you're right, they do look good, don't they!"
"Ok, so you like the idea of actually having your teeth straightened with braces?"
The more Samantha looked at the braces that Elida had put on her teeth, the more she liked them. She was also starting to have some rather nice 'feelings'. The idea of being a 'metal mouth' for a while was becoming quite appealing.
"Yes, I think I'd like that."
"Right, so the next question is whether you are interested in the experience of going to an orthodontist to actually GET the braces, or whether just getting the braces is good enough. I mean, if you just want the braces, I could probably get Faylinn to treat you."
Samantha thought about if for a moment: what did she actually WANT? She wanted to have straight teeth, and wanted the experience of having to wear braces. The thought of all the faffing around if she had to go to an orthodontist wasn't that interesting to be honest. "I think I just want the braces. So what options do I have?"
"Ok, there's plenty of options for the actual braces. But whilst I can show you what they look like, I haven't learned the skills needed to give you a proper braces treatment. I think we need to ask Faylinn to join us, she knows all about what needs to be done." Elida pulled out her phone, and was about to call Faylin, when she changed her mind. "Nah, let's have a bit of fun: Samantha, could you say 'I wish Faylinn was here to give me braces'"
Samantha smiled, letting Elida see the braces that were still on her teeth. "I wish Faylinn was here to give me braces". Seconds later Faylinn appeared. "Oh, hello there, you must be Faylinn, that's a lovely name and I DO like your outfit - it's nice to meet you!"
"She can actually SEE us?" asked a rather surprised Faylinn.
"Yeah, I made you visible to her as soon as you arrived. She knows all about us, we've been training together, along with some of the FAS guys. And I've probably just said far more to you than I should have said!"
Faylinn smiled. "So why am I here?"
"I could do with your help: Samantha here would like some braces"
"You're kidding? She wants braces? Can't you handle that?"
"I asked Samantha if she wanted to actually go to an orthodontist to get braces, and she wasn't that keen: she just want to have braces, to get her teeth straight. Now, Samantha knows about us fairies, and I'm thinking that YOU could give her braces to straighten her teeth, kinda like an ortho would... I'll put it through the system, plus we have three wishes now!"
Faylinn took a breath, and turned to Samantha. "Well, hello there, Samantha." Samantha looked back at Faylinn and smiled.
"Oh, yes, they DO look good on you! I'm guessing Elida put those on you so you could see what they look like?"
"Yeah, I did." said Elida. "I thought I'd leave you to go through all the options she has. I'm just gonna sit here, and enjoy the show!"
"Fine with me! This is going to be such fun! So, Samantha, you want to go through a 'real treatment' with braces, letting them slowly move your teeth into a better position?"
"Yes, I think I do"
"That's VERY ok with me, I'm sure that you know by now how much we fairies LOVE shiny things. And braces ARE nice and shiny!" said Faylinn. "Ok, so let me talk to you about the options you have: let's start with the size of the brackets: what you have on right now are quite typical for modern treatment. If you were to get treated privately, at a more expensive orthodontist's, then you'd probably have much smaller brackets, like these." She waved her wand, and the brackets became a lot smaller. "Much more discrete, but not the sort of thing we fairies like to suggest, just not enough shininess!"
Samantha looked at herself in the mirror. Faylinn was right, they did look a bit TOO small. "Nah, you're right, too small!"
"Ok, well, if you were getting NHS treatment, they would possibly look like this...". Again, Faylinn waved her wand, giving Samantha MUCH larger brackets. "We fairies do everything we can to encourage the NHS orthos to use these, for rather obvious reasons!".
Again, Samantha looked at her metal smile in the mirror. She knew that Serena had MUCH larger braces, full metal 'bands' that actually went all over her teeth, and she now realised that, in a strange way, she was a bit jealous of Serena's braces. These large brackets were giving her some rather nice feelings! And the molar bands looked good too!
"I get a feeling you like those, don't you?" suggested Faylinn. Samantha nodded.
"Ok, so large brackets. Any idea what colour ligs you would like?"
"Ligs?"
"Sorry, ligatures. The small rubber bands that hold the wire to the brackets. I could use wire, if you'd prefer that! At the moment you have dark blue ligs, but you can go lighter, or go for pretty much any colour. There's also silver and clear to choose from. And you can always ask me to change them at any time."
"Let's stay with these blue ones for the moment, they look pretty nice."
"Ok. Now, having looked at your teeth, I can say that I could treat you with the braces you have on your teeth right now. However...."
"However?"
"However, if you're up for it, either now, or in the future, I could give you a few interesting 'additions'"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, one very obvious option would be either headgear or a facemask, you know what they are?"
"I remember a friend having a headgear at school, a few years ago."
"Like this?" asked Faylinn, waving her wand. Faylinn was rather ejoying this 'wish. it was so much more fun tha the majority of wishes that she handled.
Samantha looked into the mirror: she had a metal facebow between her lips, connected to a neck-strap. "Well, the bit at the front is the same, but she had straps over her head?"
"Ah, a high-pull.... like THIS?". Another wave of the wand.
"Yeah, that's the one!"
"Of course, if you had both at the same time, we'd call it a 'combi headgear'". Faylinn waved her wand again. As the extra strap appeared on Samantha's head, a slight tingle went down her spine... Samantha was rather enjoying the experience! "Maybe you'd like a second facebow?" Another wave of her wand, and things got reconfigured: the upper facebow was on the high-pull, the lower on the neck-strap. "Oh, yes!" exclaimed Faylinn, "those two shiny facebows look good, what do you think, Elida?"
"Oh, yes, very nice!" replied Elida "Lots of shiny metal!". Samantha was being strangely quiet. "You know, I reckon a facemask could suit her, I think she should try one...".
"Why not: Samantha, ready to see what a facemask is like?". Samantha nodded, at the same time holding her legs tightly together. Another wave of Faylinn's wand, and the headgear disappeared. She had added in a couple of thick extra metal wires onto her braces - onto the molar bands to be exact - with loops on the front, adjacent to her canines. From there elastics connected to the bar on the front of the facemask. The facemask she was wearing was the modern style with a thick bar down the middle, pads top & bottom for the forehead and chin, with the lateral bar in the middle for the elastics. "Of course, there's a couple of other types of facemasks you could have."
Once more, Samantha looked at herself in the mirror, and liked what she saw: the most confusing thing for her was trying to work out where the strange - yet very nice - feelings had come from.
"Tell you what, let's leave that facemask on you for the moment, as you DO seem to be enjoying it, and talk about other options. I guess we can start with expanders: you don't ACTUALLY need one, but you might want to experience an expander."
"I remember a boy at school had a lumpy removable one of those, he hated it!"
"Yeah, I've seen that they are hard to wear. But no, I'm thinking of one that made of metal, non-removable. Tell you what, let's give you both an upper and lower expander to try out! Ready?" Samantha took a big breath - she was just so glad all of this wasn't for real. Well, yes, it WAS for real, but if she asked Faylinn, she would take it all off her - well she hoped she would. Except...
She nodded her head: her tongue was moved out of the way, and she discovered that she now had metal wires just inside her lower teeth, with a big lump at the front, plus a big lump in the roof of her mouth, with wires from it going to her molar bands... oh, she now had two more molar bands.
"Oh, googneth, icth fiwwing my mowf!" said Samantha with a big lisp.
"Yes, it does, doesn't it. Here, use this small mirror to take a better look what I just put in your mouth. Samantha put the mirror into her mouth, then looked in the big mirror, all of which let her see what was in her mouth a lot better. She was getting those nice feelings again....
"Why don't you just go the whole way," suggested Elida, "and give her a tongue crib and a herbst too??!!"
Samantha wasn't quite sure what Elida was talking about, but she soon discovered a moment after Faylinn waved her wand again. Shit, her tongue was now caged in, and she couldn't waggle her jaw from side to side any more, something to do with the metal rods that had appeared at the sides of her braces. Not forgetting that she was still wearing the facemask! Samantha's breathing rate was becoming shallower and faster, and she held her legs even more toghtly together, trying to cover up the very nice feelings that she was having. She was really having trouble understanding WHY having these braces were making her feel the way she was, although she wasn't really complaining, they WERE rather nice feelings after all!
Finally, she managed to calm down, and her breathing returned to normal.
"You ok there, Samantha?" asked Faylinn.
"Yes, I think so" said Samantha. Well, that's what she TRIED to say: I'll leave you to imagine how it actually came out. But she DID have a big smile on her face!
"Ok, let's go back to the basics....". Once more, Faylin waved her wand, removing everything except for the 4 molar bands (2 on top, 2 on bottom) and the large metal brackets. "So, those are normal stainless steel brackets. I can think of two possible 'tweaks'. The first is what is called 'self-ligating brackets'. Some people think they are more comfortable, but it would mean that you wouldn't need the ligs... like this...". A wave of the wand later, and Samantha was sporting a set of very modern self-ligating brackets. Normally they would be a lot smaller, but Faylin had magicked up some special large versions.
Samantha looked in her mirror: for some reason they didn't 'look right'. Yes, they looked a bit odd without the small rubber ligatures on the brackets. "No, don't really fancy those..." she said.
"That's fine with us, we much prefer the normal ones, much more sparkly! Now, the OTHER possibility is to have the normal brackets, but gold plated. Want a look?"
"Oh, definitely!". Her brackets changed back to the more normal type, with the dark blue ligs on again, but this time they were golden. They DID look rather nice!
"Like the self-ligating ones, they WOULD normally be much smaller - after all, if you can afford gold plated braces, you'd not normally want them to be QUITE so obvious, would you? But I think they look so much nicer when they are bigger, don't you agree, Elida?"
"Oh yes, so much nicer and far more sparkly and shiny!"
"I think that's about it as far as fixed braces go - well ignoring lingual braces that is, but who wants to have braces that noone can see? How stupid! Of course, I could treat you with removable braces, with springs in them...."
"You know," said Samantha, admiring her smile in the mirror, "I do rather like these braces!"
"Actually, I just thought of something you've missed, Faylinn: a removable bite plate!" suggested Elida.
"Oh, yes, silly me! Although I have a feeling that Samantha won't like it. No reason we couldn't try it though....". Faylin waved her wand, and suddenly Samantha could feel a big lump of plastic appear at the front of her mouth, at the top. She ran her tongue over it: it felt strangely nice.
"You know, it thort feelths nithe" said Samantha. "Ith it re... we... wrrwwremovable?"
"That one is, although I could give you a fixed one?"
"How do I wrrwwremove it?"
"Clips that go just above your rear molars. Tell you what, look in the mirror, and I'll show you how to get it out." As Samantha looked in the mirror, Faylin used her magic to slowly pull out the clasps enough to go over Samantha's brackets, then pulled gently down: the bite plate fell into Samantha's mouth, and she was able to remove it.
"You know, I don't think I'd want to wear this all the time, but it could be fun to wear it, like when I'm in bed."
"Yes, that would be ok, if you'd like that."
"So, how long will it take for my teeth to move into place with these braces?"
"For you, any time between 1 day and 5 years! And you can change your treatment length any time you like. How long would you like to have them? I mean, normal treatment for your teeth would probably be something like 9 months, they really aren't all that bad. But don't forget, you'll have to wear retainers afterwards! Ok, only joking about that bit, you don't HAVE to have retainers, if you don't want them: the magic will hold your teeth perfectly in the right place."
"Nine months seems fine to me! And I guess we can talk about retainers nearer the time?".
Samantha sat looking at her teeth and lovely braces in the mirror. Next to her were two small fairies, also having a good look....
