What the...

[donotmail]

| characters | Arj and anyone!

| date/time | Wednesday afternoon, just after the crystals shatter

| location | 1st floor of the tree

| rating | PGish?

| summary | Arj gets a sudden welcome when the new floors open up!



Arj is outside when he hears the commotion. He'd slunk off into the outdoors some time earlier, in search of a quiet place to hide. Outside, he'd been overwhelmed by the vast forest in front of him. Did greenmount trees really get this big?

Of course none of it matters, because this is a hallucination, and he is going to be calm about it and not get into trouble. So he's found himself a nice hollow in one of the great tree's roots, and is how hiding behind a curtain of illusionary moss. He's curled up in a tight little ball, ears turning this way and that. He can hear things outside, people talking, but he is going to be sensible about this. There is no point whatsoever in talking to anyone who doesn't exist.

Until the crystalline sound of shattering pierces the air, and he startles, the 'moss' vanishing into nothing. Against his better judgement, he half runs, half slinks over the massive roots to the hollowed out trunk.

"What on Ryll was THAT?"

Comments

(Action, though that is probably self-evident XD)

[hairsay]

When the crystals shattered, Jo had been in the unfortunate position to be on the ground floor of the tree, inside the trunk. She'd been ogling the sword that had been pulsing brighter with light as it charged up over the course of the week, enjoying--for once--the golden light of the stream as it served to soothe the prickling at the back of her thoughts.

Just as the blue mass of fur shoots in through the trunk, a few of the crystal shards that had managed to make it all this way down the tree are scattering around the ancient floor and into her hair. She'd cringed back, but the sight of the child-sized animal with huge ears and a feral look startles her worse, and the human leaps into the air so hard that her wings carry her into the far side of the hollow.

At least she's getting better at stopping herself by falling into things: she slides awkwardly down to floor level again, pulled by gravity, and then hisses, "what are you?!"

The explosion can wait; she's got three or four floors between her and whatever happened up here, but this thing could probably leap across the intervening space and bite her face off.

Re: (Action, though that is probably self-evident XD)

[donotmail]

Arj comes to a halt surrounded by shards of crystal. Thankfully none of them have sliced through him, though he's had a few near misses, he finds, as he shakes himself down and a cascade of shining stones come flying from him like water droplets.

That's when he sees the... the... the whatever that thing is, in front of him.

For a moment he's shocked into silence, not only by the creature's bizarre appearance, but that it seems to be cautious of him. That's definitely a first.

He sits down, careful to avoid the crystal shards. "Well," he says, cocking his head to one side, "given that you are clearly a hallucination, I don't think I should be answering that. I don't talk to figments of the imagination, thankyou."

[hairsay]

"Fuck you and your figments, you're the talking cat," Jo spits. She wishes her rifle worked; since it's proven so completely useless she's taken to stashing it under her bed, but that makes her feel vulnerable and terribly weak... usually it's not so much in evidence, but at the moment she's feeling particularly hapless, which makes her posture all the more defensive. Her wings, which she wears almost all the time these days, are spread to make her look much larger. The only thing that's keeping her from freaking a hypothetical leak is her proximity to the lifestream. It's hard not to be soothed in the presence of the golden light, though she is eyeballing the sword between her and Arj like she could even possibly use it.

She glares at the cat. "Some kind of fucked up blue fucking rabbit-cat," she amends, feeling spiteful for being put on edge.

[donotmail]

"Of course I'm a talking cat. I'm perfectly normal. It's you, being a... a... whatever it is that you are."

He stops when it hits him that perhaps this was not a sensible thing to say. The creature is standing there, wings spread, and it occurs to Arj that not only is she a lot bigger than him, she's clearly also a lot better in a fight.

Maybe "rabbit" means kiarr. But it probably doesn't.

"But on the other side of things," he says. kicking aside a few stray crystal shards and sitting down, "perhaps we could talk this over instead?" He licks a paw, and looks up.

[hairsay]

"It's 'human'," Jo replied, only slightly mollified. As her wings thumped back down over her back, the weight of them reminded her, "mostly, anyways."

She gave him what amounted to the evil eye with her own blue peepers for a few moments, waiting for him to spring. He could talk, right? That meant 'good guy', right? Or at least the kind of good guy whose worst danger was a mauling of her sense of esteem rather than her soft parts.

After he seemed to hold still for a while, she carefully approached him--and the lifestream, which helped to settle her even more, even if artificially. She was still wary, but the unbridled urge to skitter up into a corner disappeared. Jo took her chances and glanced up through the hole in the trunk, but from here all she could see was the beam of light traveling straight up, as well as the offset levels of the floor.

She turned her gaze back on the extremely strange cat, deciding she was going to have to take things in an orderly fashion. He looked a little like the bobcats her country supported, but lankier. The blue wasn't helping things, either. All that she knew about cats that weren't of the barn variety came from her knowledge of cougars... and those, it was said, were extremely dangerous. You couldn't run or play dead. Shouting them down was a chancy proposition. They could stalk for days.

They also didn't talk, and more specifically, they didn't ask to talk things over. She was still ready to kick up into the air if need be, but she jutted her chin about as amicably as she was able under the circumstances. "I haven't seen you before around here. You're not from Ferelden like the Grey Warden and her war dog, are you?"

[donotmail]

"Human," Arj says, bobbing his head in an attempt at looking respectful. "Understand. Human."

What's surprising him now is that she looks wary of him, as she approaches, enough that he stays where he is rather than turning to flee. He doesn't know what these humans do to show how they feel - she doesn't have, say, ears that can lie flat like his are now - but the way she moves says it all.

"I haven't a clue where Ferelden might be," he says. "I happen to be from the Aauron Clan of the Heshroun Basin, in fact."

He pauses, and then... "So... am I to believe that you are not imaginary?"

[hairsay]

Jo considers the cat thing. Either it's going to rip her arm off or it's going to puff in smoke if she goes near it, but its question leaves her unable to reply by words.

Instead, she carefully approaches him head on, then raises a hand. She's impetuous enough and stubborn enough that this for some fucked up reason seems like a good idea, even as she reaches out. She bops him on the nose lightly and then leaps back like a frog on a skillet, waiting for him to come at her and ready to spring directly up through the hole in the trunk.

[evantuality]

Evan is actually out flying when the shatter happens, doing controlled drops from the branches of the tree in order to finally, grudgingly get used to the whole idea of being in the air without constantly being certain he's going to end up a thin smear on the springy moss.

However, when a patch of moss he's staring straight at disappears, and a blue streak of a creature charges out, he's taken enough by surprise that he banks absolutely by accident and almost runs into the side of the tree he's been so carefully spiraling next to.

He startles a yelp out of himself. But curiosity is stronger than fear, shockingly, and he quickens his descent.

When he lands it's thankfully on soft moss -- he hasn't mastered the gentle land yet -- and after getting his footing in the shin-high plants he heads for the tree, peeking inside.

The last thing he was expecting was a blue cat. Freezing, he sizes Arj up: he's too late to catch the cat's words, and he's not sure if this is some mysterious local fauna he hasn't heard of, or if someone else has shown up with a pet, like the dog he's seen with an acquaintance of his.

Either way, this blue thing is big enough that it could cause some damage, and he can't help but not want to get bitten. "Hey, kitty," he offers, trying to make his tone soothing.

[donotmail]

Arj's clan were never one for pets. But his father once kept a pair of hunting nirith, and though he has no idea what a "kitty" might be, he recognises the tones alright.

He whips his head around, startled. "Right! At what point do I appear to be a..."

His voice trails off. Whatever the creature standing in the entrance is, it's got to be another product of last night's unfortunate meal. The wings make sense. Nothing else does.

"...pet?" he finishes.

[evantuality]

In turn Evan ends up staring at the creature, jaw half open as if he'd been about to say something. In fact he had, but Arj speaking had stopped him in his tracks.

He flushed, embarrassed. Talking creatures aren't totally foreign to him but he's never run into one that was so like an actual cat. Well... maybe not a house cat. Lynx?

"Well, up until just then, honestly." That slipped out without much thought from the young man, and he had the wherewithal to look even more embarrassed. He held up his hands. "Sorry. My mistake."

[donotmail]

"You're another one of them!" Arj backs off at the sight of Evan, now he's gotten a better look at him. He sounds a little embarrassed, but with his arms up like that, he looks about ready to pounce. The kiarr stands poised to flee, just in case, the hair on the back of his neck raised ever so slightly.

"Do you all look like that here?"

[evantuality]

He's had cats, he knows what that raised hair and those canted ears mean -- although that thought throws the young man for a loop too. Why is he assuming this creature has the same body language as a house cat? Isn't it by definition an alien?

Huffing a breath, the young man carefully lowers his arms, although he keeps his hands clearly in sight to prevent misunderstandings. "Like what?" he has the wherewithal to ask, consternation. He's trying to think of the salient points of comparison between cats and humans. Well, humanoids. "Uh... um, do you mean bipedal? Hairless?"

[donotmail]

Okay, maybe he's not going to pounce after all, but Arj remains tensed. That body language means exactly what it would on a housecat, even if neither of them's to know it.

"Yes!" he says. "Like... like you! What in the name of the Archetypes are you?"

[lady_bug]

Kitty? Kitty.

Agitha wasn't sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her at first when she spotted the blue cat darting out from under the tree roots. But it persisted even after she blinked and rubbed herself. There was, in fact, a kitty. It was blue, and it talked!

"Oh! Hello, Mister Kitty! My, that gave you quite the fright, didn't it?"

[donotmail]

"I... you..."

Arj stands still for a moment, and then sinks into a sitting position. There's another one of the bizarre dream-creatures... although this tine, he notices, with his talent for spotting pointless details, this one seems to have reasonably normal ears.

He sinks further, slumping on the wooden floor, dislodging a few crystals as he slides downward, and looks up at the girl, almost smiling. "Heh... another one? Yes, I think... I think I'm ready to wake up now..."

[lady_bug]

Urge to pet the kitty rising. Agitha does her best to resist, despite how soft he looks.

"You're not sleeping, silly kitty!" She giggles. "Maybe... I'm the one who's sleeping, because I've never met a talking kitty before!"

[donotmail]

Arj groans and covers his face with his paws. "Who knows? Maybe you are. Maybe we're both sleeping. Wouldn't that be something?"

It's mild, compared with his normal attitude, but even here and now, he can't bring himself to snap at a child - unfamiliar as her species is, she's too much like his sisters...

"I've never met a... whatever it is you are... before." He takes away his paws and lifts his head, eyes half lidded. "Does that make us even?"

[lady_bug]

"Hmmmm..." Agitha pondered aloud, clearly not offended by Arj's outburst. "I remember waking up this morning, so I certainly can't be dreaming! Unless, it's one of those dreams where you dream that you wake up! But, oh! That would mean I would never get to meet a talking kitty like you!"

No, that wouldn't be any fun at all, she decided. She was going to accept that they were both awake. But what to do about their other problem?

"I know! We should make it official, to clear the air!" She giggled and curtsied. "I am Princess Agitha, of the insect kingdom!"

[donotmail]

"I'm quite sure I woke up this morning, too," he says. It's the rest he isn't sure about. "Why? Was there a lot of light for you as well?"

But even he can't resist a tiny smile at Agitha's actions. It's exactly the sort of thing his sisters did as fluffy cubs, declaring their ownership of... well, usually the nearest rock. There wasn't much else to declare ownership of, outside of the dens.

And, Archetype Spirits take him, he'd liked his sisters.

He got back to his feet, and nodded to her. "Arj," he said. "Of Clan Aauron."

If this is too much of a backdate feel free to ignore!

[celena]

Celena had been flying down with the intention of going outside to practice her sword when the crystals shattered above. She shrieks and dives, instinctively heading for the door outside as Arj is coming in. She banks up at the last minute, realising someone's blocking the door, and barely manages not to smash into the wall above.

The crystals aren't bouncing this far, she realises as she sucks in a breath, so she flutters down to land lightly on the floor.

"The light of the sword! It's shattered the crystals above!" She double takes as she looks at his properly- not because he's a talking animal, but because his animal head isn't on a humanoid body like the sentient beastkin of her world.

not at all!

[donotmail]

Arj skitters to a halt as someone stops him right in his tracks, barely avoiding a collision with the stranger. He stops as she shouts out her explanation, amidst the glittering shards that litter the chamber's floor.

He stares, back and forth, between the newcomer and the blade within the light. "That thing," he says, waving a paw in its direction, "shattered... up there?" He looks up, seeing the floors above lit golden in the stream's light. "Well, that... that makes perfect sense, I'm sure."

[celena]

"It makes sense once you understand the logic of this place." Celena panted. The scare and dash, though short, had sent enough adrenaline through her that her heart was pattering. She drew a deep breath and continued. "I've been here for two Moons now and have had to forget much of what I believed true in my real life."

"You're new." That's a statement rather than a fact; if this Cat-man had arrived some time ago, she'd have heard about him, she's sure. "You'll learn that soon enough, but it may be a difficult journey. If you need help, I can offer you my aid."

[donotmail]

"Journey? What journey is this? I don't know if you're aware, but I already have a journey." He turns to go, kicking aside a shard of crystal as he does, and then stops.

Two moons? The wording is a little confusing to Arj (Ryll has two moons itself) but the intent is clear. "Are you saying I'm stuck here?"

[celena]

She straightens up in order to address his questions with the solemn seriousness they deserve.

"Yes, you are trapped like all of us. This Tree God has chosen you to come and serve it, though why any of us have been chosen is unknown." She lets that sink in for a second and then points.

"That glow is the God's life force. That sword was fetched at the God's demand in order to give it the strength to shatter the crystals that blocked its life force. I hope and I pray to this god and my own that once its trunk if completely clear that it will show mercy on us and send us home."

[donotmail]

Arj knows gods, but the only gods he knows are the Archetype Spirits. "I'd ask i this is the Glade of Light," he says, "but I think your answer will be no. Quite strange. We are in a glade, and there is, indeed, light."

He turns away from Celena and takes a few tentative steps toward the stream. The first time he'd seen it, he'd taken it as the ultimate proof that he must have been hallucinating. Nothing felt like it did. This time, he's doing so with the intention of testing that. He slinks, almost on his stomach, toward the light.

He still can't resist purring, and he hopes she didn't overhear.

The stream feels just as it did before, warm with golden light, and reaching inside his head like a rough tongue licking at his thoughts to calm them. Maybe it's the way he interprets it, maybe it's what he wants to feel, but he can't help thinking that the tree is proud of him.

He looks back to Celena, standing taller this time. "Well," he says, "if that is what it wishes, that is what I will have to do."