thehometree | Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

One by one, new adventurers now arrive in the Tree. As one gain wings and rises to the second floor, another light brings in the next person. Soon, a steady stream of people from all kinds of worlds, times and realities come to join the others. Whether confused, angry, excited or scared, your arrival is welcomed with nothing but joy as the fireflies and glow worms descend to greet their new friends.

The Tree offers no explanation and no reason, but the truth is undeniable.

As you will soon realize, it isn't easy to be tiny.

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She grimaces as, one hand on each cable, she takes the weight. It's fine. Then, the tricky part isn't reeling both in simultaneously with the weight of two people, it's doing so smoothly. He can probably feel the tremor as they rise, and if he flaps his wings, it's not going to help.

-no, wait. The tricky part is when she's almost at the opening and he's not too far from her, and she has to get a very firm grip on the cables. "I'm going to try and arc you up," she says. "Ready?"

Hell no, he thinks, but replies, 'Ready!'

He folds his wings, trying to make his own body as aerodynamic as possible. This is incredible. He should tell - Steve, but that's not a possibility anymore, and he bites his lip.

"All right. I'm not counting to three." Kuvira makes very sure of her bending grip. She's not strong enough to do a stunt like this without metalbending.

She spools him back down a short ways and starts to swing him to build up momentum and make this a little bit easier, flicking and pressuring the dark, heavily textured metal to enhance the swing until she hits the right point. From there she stiffens part of her cable and puts more into the swing until it's an arc - right over her head, past the opening.

Once he's let go she can get to the much simpler work of getting herself up there, using her cables like very long arms.

Whoa. What a rush. It's like (sliding down a cable to a moving train) flying, weirdly, and he clambers onto a branch, securing himself and letting the cable drop so she can retract it. Once she's close enough he reaches out a hand - he figures she ain't the type to need help but it's habit to offer.

She looks up and takes his hand. Kuvira's not a delicate woman and the armor is heavy, even if she fires up her wings for the extra push forwards. He'd better be braced.

Once up she look around. Those look like... "Houses?"

His grip is firm and his feet planted steadily; add supersoldier strength to that mix and he lifts without effort. As soon as she's steady his hand drops to the grip of the gun, instantly wary.

'Sure look like 'em,' he replies, gesturing to one with an open door. 'This way?'

Yeah, he's very strong. She'll file that away.

Kuvira's bending doesn't pick up on much in any of these. There seems to be a little bit of stone, but if anyone's carrying stone or metal it's in small enough amounts she can't sense it from here.

"That's a weapon, isn't it?"

'Yes,' he answers, simply, moving stealthily into the apartment, peering. A metal one which is probably going to be useless against her, if she's fast enough to dodge a bullet, or - more likely - warp the gun.

It's very clearly not an electrical device. Parts are hollow... gas, perhaps?

There's not much here. Screens, crude furnishings, the stone she sensed from outside, the omnipresent glowing insects. Windows, made of clear crystal. Kuvira goes to one. "There's a balcony," she says. "Apparently it's possible to go outside without passing that webbing below."

They seem to be a good ways up, and there's not much to see. Mostly cold-affected giant grasses, and the fog.

He squints into the fog, but even with enhanced eyes and ears there's nothing.

'That's the real barrier,' he observes. 'If we can shrink to this size and get wings, who knows what'll happen if we try to make it through there.'

Stepping back, enjoying the scent of the forest - he always wanted to live in or near one, ever since the first few days in France. There was something about it that was simple: living off the land and the soothing presence of so much green. Not so great in the Ardennes when the shelling made even the tree bark deadly as metal stripped it from the trees and sent the splinters flying. The War is far away, and behind him. He'd do well to remember that.

Kuvira nods, though he's not looking at her. For her part... she wants to go home.

Zaofu won't get on as well without her, but it will get on. So much is happening around it, though, that she can't be absent for. The Earth Kingdom is crumbling and it doesn't look like there's anyone to stop it. The new Airbenders are only going to be able to do so much.

She wants to be home, able to at least track what's happening. Maybe Suyin will deign to help the country she has so little love for.

Wishing and wondering won't do her any good. She clasps her hands together behind her back. "I think these were set up for us in advance."

He glances at her out of the corner of his eye. She's been a commanding presence, a resolute and firm officer, and while he doesn't have the measure of her quite yet he's getting a clear idea. You could always tell a bad commander almost right off the bat, if you knew what to look for: selfishness, cowardice, no sense of responsibility towards one's men.

'I agree. Doesn't seem like there's anybody to ask about it, though.'

Kuvira doesn't have much of a reading on him. Very strong, unarmored but possessed of a mystery weapon, amiable enough while clearly not being slack, didn't get in a huff about her rank being higher, though she thinks he's the elder. She'll hold off on judgement but is cautiously favorable.

"Not yet. It's strange to go to this kind of effort without some explanation. Maybe the idea is to let us get settled first." She doesn't like that, but then, she doesn't like much about this period.

It doesn't sit right with him either. He's dead, they've got every use for one like that but the others downstairs, they're not. So that's out as a possible pattern. Have they just taken whoever won't be missed? Kuvira certainly isn't in that category.

'Can't hurt to search a few of the other rooms down the corridor,' he suggests, after a pensive pause. 'Who knows.'

"Very well. There's some stone in each of them, like that." With so little around that she can bend, when she's never lived away from earth and metal, what she can here stands out, larger amounts more than smaller ones. Using her chin she indicates the... what is it, anyway? "It's like... this isn't set up to hold a fire. It would fill this whole space with smoke and catch on the floor. There are easier ways to kill us all."

'Looks like some kinda stove,' he reports. 'Nothin' electric here... s'pose they want us to cook the old fashioned way.' So she doesn't use stoves? Interesting. 'We can warn the others that this is a fire hazard.'

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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