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

[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?

[flickerflash]

I just thought of all people, he might know why the pooka disappeared.

[Though they're not dead. They're just hiding in the most metaphysical sense.]

[aigue]

Wendy would be better for that sort of thing. Or Scheherazade. Anyways, it has to do with humanity's growing skepticism.

[flickerflash]

[Scherewhatnow-- she squints. Katie knows exactly why. But she's beginning to suspect Renart doesn't know the issue here.]

Did pooka in your world have to lie?

[aigue]

As far as I know, yes. Though I never actually held an extended conversation with one back home.

[flickerflash]

Oh. So you know you should believe absolutely everything I have to say, then.

[aigue]

[That gets her chuckling.] But of course. I expect only one hundred percent honesty from you.

[flickerflash]

Just so we're clear. People are often surprised at how I'm so very honest.

[She reaches up a finger to poke at the air lazily.] Nobody ever taught me about humanity's growing skepticism. I think some things are just obvious, though. Everyone should believe in Peter Pan.