No Sheol Were Harmed in the Making of This Post (Mostly)

[flickerflash]

Who: Katie and you.
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Planetside, deep forest.
When: before the birthday announcements

[It's been a great month for Katie.  She spent most of it as a cat out of sheer self-defence given she wasn't entirely sure when the whole truth compulsion would wear off, and truth be told (oh haha) she's felt pretty horrible ever since.  The whole idea of an amazing adventure through space and how amazing that might be?  It's starting to wear a little thin.  Especially if she's going to get stuck in a place with random glitches that try their best to kill her, and a threat fleetwide that nobody seems to be taking seriously.  Kids just wanna have fun, y'know? 

So the planet with its forests is a godsend, and she knew it from the moment that first weird wave hit and she felt all the power, there and gone again.  It's a place to put distance between herself and others and explore and-- after a few hours of delighted discovery-- recharge.  There's magic soaked into everything out here.  For once, regaining glamour really is just as easy as sleeping in a sunbeam.  She is vaguely aware that too much can be a bad thing.  She remembers forced addictions in Adstringendum, hers to glamour and Sam's to blood (and Mihawk's to her blood, she didn't hit him hard enough--) how crazy that made people.  But she's not taking it from anyone, not draining it off wholesale, so it's completely different, right?  It just.  Takes longer.  It's more subtle.  And she forgets to be careful.  There's a shifting of balance deep within, and when the onset of bedlam finally arrives it goes mostly unnoticed. 

Her comm gets left behind under a tree purely because she gets too distracted to pick it up again.  Katie goes deep into the forest, pursuing something only she can hear, distracted by lights flitting through trees in the distance.  It won't be so bad.  Once she realises what's happened she'll head for home where she can get her head straightened out.  But until then...

To meet her might be an awfully big adventure, depending on who you are. 

Please someone make sure she gets home safely.]

Comments

[aigue]

Is your mother a fox?

[Rhetorical question. Anyways.]

You look infinitely less scary. I suppose that's a good thing, generally. I'm Renart, by the way.

[flickerflash]

[She wishes her mother was a fox. That would be awesome, instead of just the vaguely sad reality.]

Dorothy. [...] Although sometimes people call me Katie. I suppose it depends on what they like more.

[aigue]

Katie it is.

[She hums thoughtfully.]

They don't like being scared. It's a blow to their ego, usually.

[flickerflash]

[Katie smiles widely at Renart's choice. She said before that she knew of pooka, so... maybe that's all the explanation needed.]

What a pity it's such fun to scare people, then.

[aigue]

It is. It's just too bad they hold grudges over nothing so easily.

So what are you doing out here?

[flickerflash]

Oh, I was... [--well. She gestures down at the path she was taking. She can't exactly answer truthfully. But then she wonders if this fox person can see the world the way she does.]

I was fishing. Can you see the lights?

[aigue]

Lights? Afraid not.

[She might be made of magic, but sadly her sixth sense only extends to other Fairy Tales.]

Want to describe them to me?

[flickerflash]

They're like Christmas lights! If Christmas was for very drunk piranhas.

[That's totally legit.]

[aigue]

[Renart blinks.]

Christmas lights for drunk piranhas? I wish I could see that, I enjoy Christmas.

[flickerflash]

Really? [She'd be tempted, in Renart's case only, to shift things so Renart could see them-- but that'd sadly expose her to everything else, and the people on the Fleet just have too much nightmare fuel baggage for that to be a good idea. Katie makes a face.]

They're very rude lights, not showing themselves to everyone else. Or maybe they're shy. What do you do at Christmas?

[aigue]

Rude lights, hmm? I've seen a few of those before. Will-o'-the-wisps and the like.

[She shrugs.]

Oh, I've done about everything by now. Sleigh rides, midnight mass, Christmas markets, gift-giving, bonfires, visits to temples... [She waves a hand.] If I'm around for it why not try it, right?

[flickerflash]

[Actually Will-o'-the-wisps are what the lights remind her of. Katie just has difficulty explaining, to put it very mildly. She smiles dreamily at the list.]

Temples, too? Are there temples that celebrate Christmas? Can you open presents without getting squashed by boulders?

[...wrong kind of temple, Katie.]

[aigue]

It's tricky, but I think most people manage it. It's more of a praying and ringing bells for the holidays sort of temple, no boulders to worry about. Huge crowds, since I visited these in Japan.

[flickerflash]

[Darn. There goes her inner mind theatre screening of Indiana Jones and the Christmas Parade. But actually, she's curious.]

Japanese temples? I haven't been to Japan in forever. Are there many differences between temples and churches?

[aigue]

Plenty. I like them quite a bit more than churches, but I've got some history with those types, so I'm biased.

[flickerflash]

Everywhere is better than churches. [Church bells make her ears bleed, and crosses are kind of a drag.] I think I should like to visit one some day.

...have you met pooka before?

[Circling around to truer curiosities. It's disappointing you look so much like one but aren't :c]

[aigue]

[Oh nice, someone she can commiserate with!] Perhaps we'll travel to a place that has temples.

Indeed. It was a long time ago, though. Pooka haven't existed for a while back home.

[flickerflash]

Really? [Oh, that's sad. But Renart is fine, so it can't be what's systematically wiping out the fae back in her own world.] Is it that they don't exist or that they just like to pretend they don't exist? Sometimes it's more fun that way.

[Or, y'know. Safer.]

[aigue]

No, unfortunately they're completely gone. Like almost every other magical creature that ever existed, sans ethereal things.

[It's an unfortunate reality.]

[flickerflash]

[Her face falls.]

Because people stopped believing in them?

[aigue]

Yes. Humans kept developing, and became too skeptical for things like us.

[She's going to reach other and put her hand on Katie's shoulder.]

That's life, unfortunately.

[flickerflash]

Life should stop being annoying and learn to be nicer. [She doesn't really believe that, but sometimes it's fun being petulant.] My world is full of people who believe in pooka. It's a wonder we ever started dying out at all.

[aigue]

Your world as well? Do you know why it was happening?

[Since in her own world it's definitely tied to belief.]

[flickerflash]

I don't know. Nobody ever taught me that part.

Do you have Peter Pan in your world?

[aigue]

That's an abrupt question. Why do you ask?