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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"Indeed, thread would be like rope. But there may be plant fibers that can be woven into a bowstring." Ones that would normally be far too fine to work with.

She tapped her fingers on her lips as she considered the problem of insects. "Fireflies are not always predators... I think their larvae may be. Oh dear, if only I could go to the library to find a book of insects," she sighed. Ants and wasps, though, should definitely be treated as dangerous. Fuu had more than once seen a swarm of ants attack larger insects ~~and wasps as we all know are the SPAWN OF SATAN~~

"Plants are also a problem," said Kaoru, who was apparently used to thinking of all kinds of ways in which things in the wild could kill you.

"Pitcher plants..." Seriously, fuck pitcher plants.

"...Do you have a weapon that you can use now?"

"Pitcher plants live in marshy areas, I think. So do sundews..." If this tree was in such a habitat, they would need to keep an eye out for such plants. On the other hand, quicksands wouldn't be so bad for people who weighed about ten grams.

"But I do have a weapon!" she said, brightening up. "There are some other things I can do as well." Both, however, involved magic, and Fuu had no idea if this young man was familiar with it. "Oh--but we don't know each other's names yet! I'm Fuu Hououji."

"I haven't been able to see very far from the immediate area," said Kaoru, meaning that he didn't know if there was a marsh nearby or not.

"I'm Kaoru." Just Kaoru, apparently, definitely not because the series never gave him a last name, definitely not. "What sort of weapon is it?"

"Ah, well I'm sure we'll be able to explore the area and map out potential dangers. All the easier with wings! ...although it would be best not to fly alone. Someone might end up feeding a nestful of baby robins!" She sounded entirely too cheerful about the possibility.

She ran her fingers over the jewel on her glove. Did Kaoru know about magic...? Well, if he hadn't before, he was getting a crash-course already. "I have a greatsword, stored in here," she said, holding up her hand. "But it's a little big to draw it indoors."

And people said Kaoru was grim. "Camouflage would be best. Maybe a leaf umbrella." Generally, he hadn't had to deal with birds swooping down and devouring him, but he could totally see it happening.

He frowned at the jewel. "Some kind of matter compression technology?" Sounded pretty nuts to him, even if he had been stranded on a nameless planet for months.

Fuu nodded at the suggestion. "The clothing seems to be made of leaf, so that will help." And her own wings were mottled black and green, just like moths that blended in with tree bark. That would help.

She smiled and ran her fingers over the glove jewel. They had been transformed by magic, given magic gems, and were standing in an obviously magical tree, but if he was assuming 'normal' possessions were technology, well, it might be best to stay with that. (And 'matter compression' sounded like something right out of science fiction, for that matter.) "It's something like that, yes. It makes traveling much simpler."

Freaky. "What else can you store in there?" Gosh, all the things Fuu might be able to carry around. Knives... spears... saws... things that weren't weapons, maybe?

"I'd rather not wear clothes made out of leaves. They might make good cover, though."

~~Things that aren't weapons? What are those?~~

"It can only hold one thing at a time," said Fuu. "As the sword is rather large, I don't keep anything else in it." Not that she had anything else to put there at the moment. "But I think we'll just have to get used to leaves, at least to wear while we're laundering our normal clothes... and we'll have to figure out how to launder our normal clothes," she added at the realization. "Unless they have a very tiny laundromat for us."

Oh. Well, that sounded less useful. You'd think they'd let Fuu have a little more storage, especially if she was off to save the world.

"It's not that hard. I've done it before." Although he was used to water drops not being as big his hand...

"Why carry around such a big sword?" That sounded heavy and rather impractical.

"It was the sword that was made for me," Fuu said. It really had started out as a normal size, too. "And it isn't actually that heavy for me. I was outdoors most of the time that I used it." The few times indoors had been in very spacious shrines, too, so it hadn't been awkward.

She was more interested in Kaoru's casual dismissal of the laundry problem. Oh, but he had said that he was somewhere similar before arriving here. "You sound like you have a lot of practical knowledge, Kaoru-san."

"I was shipwrecked for several months before I came here. We had to learn a lot." He glanced around at the tree briefly.

"Whoever was here last built all this. That's lucky for us.... but what happened to them?" Creepy...

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that." Being brought to Cephiro had been jarring, but with Mokona there to conjure food and shelter, it was nothing like being a castaway.

She tapped her fingers on her chin at Kaoru's morbid speculations. "Do you think so? There aren't any bodies or cast-off belongings," she said. "I think it's more likely that this place was prepared for us. I mean, this gathering has even been catered." She gestured towards the branch with the buffet with a smile. That didn't point to post-apocalyptica, in her opinion.

"I didn't say anything about bodies," said Kaoru, frowning a little at Fuu's assumptions. He didn't like the idea of someone preparing for their arrival (though it was certainly a possibility), and he didn't like the way she was talking about bodies and things left behind with a smile, like she was some schoolteacher here to correct his responses. Like the idea of people dying was just an amusing hypothetical puzzle.

Unfortunately, he was also not capable of articulating what it was he didn't like about it. So instead, he merely turned and walked off, good luck deciphering that one.

Talking about bodies... to a shipwreck victim. Fuu clapped her hands over her mouth as Kaoru stalked off, realizing her blunder.

"Oh! Kaoru-san, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, hurrying after him. "I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine," he said, heading toward the tree's entrance. His body language, however, clearly indicated that he wanted to be left alone. He didn't like being followed.

It definitely wasn't fine, and she definitely wasn't going to follow him and make it worse. Feeling quite ashamed of herself, Fuu hurried in another direction.

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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