driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Katie and anyone!
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Vanquish
When: Today!

[So ever since a couple of weeks ago when she spent a couple nights off ship (for reasons she still hasn't explained), Katie has remained basically shut up in the personnel office instead of getting underfoot or sticking her nose out of the ship and making faces at the moon, a quieter shadow of herself. She's hiding. She also feels guilty for hiding, because she wasn't raised to hide, but she's at a complete loss of what to do about what, to her, is a critical and terrifying problem. What she'd really like to do is just tell an adult about what she saw, because that would be the simplest and wisest thing for any other child. There's something terrible. Make it go away. But with how much honesty would have to be involved she'd be a wreck on the floor within minutes.

There's a brief few days in there where her mind shies around the idea that she may have to kill someone on the Fleet. Which makes her shut down on multiple levels, because she's just a kid and kids shouldn't have to think about that, and it's a horrible act, and nobody would understand at all why she did it, and on a very base level she doesn't want to, she's not made that way. But not going through with it just means she's letting the problem roam free and he's hurting people just by existing. Any older fae would have dealt with this by now. Ignoring the problem is equally a terrible option.

So there's a third choice. She's just terrified of making that one, too. It's never ended well for anyone. Sam and her mother are testament to that.

In short, Katie is hiding because she can't make a choice and getting more and more frazzled and withdrawn because in not taking action she's letting things get worse and this suuucks--

Sometimes it might be nice just to be, in fact, a little girl.]

---------

[By the second week she starts making dolls. Simplistic blue yarn dolls at the base. It's just something to do with her hands and mind at first. Then she makes one in which her blue wool is dipped sporadically into black ink as she makes it, so the doll looks rather like it got thrown in a tar puddle when she's done. She attaches five or six pieces of loose, spattered wool to its shoulders, closes her eyes, and blows gently on its darkened face.

Don't ask why she does creepy things.

Then she stares at her little collection, swallows... and goes to watch Princess Bride instead. It's video courage! (Which small children have to make do with instead of liquid courage.) Which leads to this post on the network twenty minutes in, very grumpily:]

[Video]

If we're in space and everything's so very future and all, why don't we even have television? [Petulant, pale child alert. Please ignore the spattered bits of ink on her chin.] Aren't we allowed to watch alien TV?

...I don't suppose anyone can make a TV with magic, can they? I don't think you should have to watch movies on this thing. [She taps the screen and accidentally turns it off. OH WELL. Question stands.

...but now that it's off, after a few minutes there comes an addition in text:]

[Text]

If it would make everything better, would you do something terrible so that nobody else had to?

[Hopefully, that part's anonymous. Right?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh dear.

She wonders if that holds up in text and not in person. But she'll work that out later; she's just too relieved.

The Huntress will have a visitor some time later-- as soon as Bigby takes off from guarding her door, anyway-- in the form of one small child with a bundle of blue yarn dolls. WHERE YOU AT.]

[Well, at least "sorting it out" doesn't guarantee one result or another...

Anyway, he's hanging out in the docking area with a book, waiting for her, since she said she'd be coming. She gets a quirked brow. Voodoo??]

Dolls?

Voodoo dolls. [READ YOUR BRACKETS. But not really. She grins hopefully at him.] You shouldn't touch them until you're ready, though. They're like glasses. In French.

[Well-- she can pass glamour on, in the form of things she made herself. Her explanation makes no sense, but as long as he's careful it doesn't really matter.]

Do you know Sascha?

[it's extra funny because he doesn't actually know what voodoo is, so all she gets is a questioning look. He does understand what she means, though- those are whatever it is that will help him see her "truth".]

Sascha? I did meet him once, only briefly. He doesn't have any resonance and we have nothing in common, so.

[Shrug.]

[Good. She doesn't have to try and explain who Sascha is. She tugs one doll free of the bunch-- the one splattered in dark ink, wrapped carefully in its own little towel for safety-- and holds it out.]

When you see him next, why don't you try unwrapping this? I don't know if he likes dolls, but you could always try. See how things are for yourself.

[She bites her lip, and then adds in a rush--] You should probably avoid people with nightmares after. They don't like dolls.

[It's probably the most warning she can give him. Don't run into Sam, dear god.]

[He accepts it, keeping it carefully wrapped, and ponders it for a moment. Avoid people with nightmares... hmm.]

Do a lot of people have nightmares around here?

[He's assuming she's not speaking literally again. So how does one tell? Or will it just be a matter of trial by error?]

The very gloomy ones do. And the very tall ones.

[I am just full of clear advice.]

[There are an awful lot of people who are taller than him, though...

...he is not going to say that out loud.]

I'll keep that in mind. I have to ask, though... what is it you're hoping to accomplish, here? What is the terrible thing you're considering?

[He has some concerns, kiddo, because he has a feeling he already knows.]

[Lord. How does she answer that? Katie bites her lip, shifting from foot to foot as she considers.]

...he needs to be fixed. There's something wrong with him.

You might guess when you see him properly.

[Oh dear.]

We'll do what we can, but... there might not be a way to "fix" him. Could you handle that?

I can't give you an honest answer to that.

[Because if she says she can handle it, well. He might kinda be wise to it.]

I wouldn't expect you to.

[If she could handle it right now, this wouldn't have come across as so urgent.]

It's something to think about, one way or another. But first we have to find out what the problem is.

[He peers down at the doll for a moment, brows furrowed.]

Do you know if it can interact with another kind of mana- magic- without losing whatever you've done to it?

[She's never given thought to it, but Katie knows the nature of glamour.]

It's very touchy. What did you want to do?

I'm able to infuse mana into an object and carry it within myself, instead of on hand. It's just a matter of convenience.

[And, uh, fashion. Since his outfit has neither pockets nor purse.

He lifts his free hand and gestures, a little burst of white light flaring in his fingers, and his comm appears out of nothing. Like so?]

[Oh. It's like what she does when she turns into a cat. She kind of... takes all her clothing and stuff with her.]

Can you keep it wrapped just in case? I think it should be okay.

I intended to do that, anyway. But I can test it first, either way.

[He makes a series of gestures - first to dismiss the communicator, then to do the same with the wrapped doll. Finally, he calls back the doll and offers it out to her.]

See if the glasses are cracked.

[She giggles just a bit.]

If they were, I think you're already know. The glasses are okay.

Edited 2016-06-26 07:07 (UTC)

Well, good. Then I'll hold on to them until I meet with that man again, and we'll see what we can do about him after that. Just don't try to do anything on your own, okay? We'll make sure nothing bad happens in the meantime.

[At the very least, even if she still needs to take matters into her own hands, she won't go completely misunderstood. And hopefully she won't have to do anything at all. Katie breathes out.]

Thank you, Mikleo.

You're welcome. I'm glad to be able to help.

[Even if it ends up that all he can do is see what she sees, at least she's not dealing with this on her own.]

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