Glimmer, glitter, shine...

[thecanopycrew]

| characters | Everyone!

| date/time | March 15, all day

| location | First Floor

| rating | Currently G

| summary | A flash of light, and a new adventure.


LIGHT

Warmth, love and kindness.
The Life Stream glimmers and glitters with joy, swirls of shimmering dust dancing around the ray of life.
It was time for new ones to test their wings.


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.

Comments

[betterthanwu]

She's not sure whether she should be friendly in turn or keep some professional remove. This doesn't really count as being on duty, here, but Kuvira has no idea who is friend or foe, and who is pulling a trick. If only she had any aptitude for truth-seeing.

A last name. Fuu must come from a wealthy family.

"It's better to be calm at a time like this." She nods in a measured way. "I'm Captain Kuvira, of Zaofu's security force."

[monster_san]

Well Kuvira is actually right about the wealthy thing but not for the reason she thinks

"I see. That's what I've always thought as well." Fuu ran through the names Kuvira gave. Neither was familiar, although she thought Zaofu might sound... Chinese? But surely they didn't wear metal armor--in fact it looked like something out of a history book. Either Kuvira was from a different time or her world had similarities--but that wasn't unusual, Fuu reminded herself. Fahren had rather a Chinese style, and Chizeta had somehow developed the same accent as Kansai. Fuu bowed politely. "It's nice to meet you, Captain. What do you think of our situation so far?"

[betterthanwu]

"Good. A clear head is useful." Kuvira herself looks vaguely like she could have ancestry in India, and her name seems to back that up. It means 'courageous woman'. She's eighteen, but her armor and carefully-cultivated composure make her age easy to overestimate.

She nods again, acknowledging the bow. "It's difficult to come to any conclusions yet. Something this elaborate must have been arranged for a reason, by someone very powerful."

[monster_san]

"I've always thought so." Fuu put the woman in... her twenties, perhaps. She could be any age, honestly. She looks older than the 745 year old that Fuu knows

She tapped her fingers on her chin lightly. Speculating about Kuvira's origins was less important than speculating on current surroundings. "Yes, that's a natural conclusion," Fuu said. "When I was first summoned to another world, the person responsible made it known immediately. I find it quite unusual that our hosts have provided for us without actually sending an emissary to explain why we've been brought here."

[betterthanwu]

Meanwhile, Kuvira has a roughly accurate estimate of Fuu's age, but she comes from a world where a series of children between the ages of twelve and sixteen had a massive effect on the political landscape, so she can't count Fuu out.

"That is the kind of reception I'd expect. There's housing on some of the upper floors, which suggests they want us to stay for some time, but there isn't much food. Tomorrow I doubt any will be left. Maybe they're waiting until then." To give them time to adjust and get coordinated? It's easy to speculate, hard to come to conclusions.

[monster_san]

"Perhaps we're expected to forage for our own supplies as well." The food was welcome, but indeed finite. Still, protein could be gained from gnats or acorns, or other kinds of seeds... perhaps not insects, given that the fireflies were so friendly.

If they weren't greeted, however... did that make much difference? Fuu was determined to find her own answers in any case. But the starting point would have been nice. "Yes, perhaps they're waiting until we get properly settled in before announcing themselves. But in that case, their needs would not be very urgent." And if the matter wasn't urgent, why were so many people needed in the first place?

[betterthanwu]

Kuvira's foraging skills are hardly ideal. If it comes to that... well, she'll just have to ally with people who seem proficient in it, like that Kaoru boy. Hopefully she can keep Korra fed too, but the Avatar is probably good at making friends, anyway.

"It would seem not. Speculation won't be very productive until we know more, unfortunately."

[monster_san]

"That's probably the wisest course of action," Fuu admitted. "I will try to focus on gathering more information before I can start drawing conclusions." She certainly wasn't going to float any fanciful suggestions (like "maybe Mount Fuji exploded") to a straightlaced adult like Captain Kuvira, the way she would with her friends or people close to her age.

"You sound like you've done some exploring around the tree's interior already."

[betterthanwu]

"Very good. Please tell me if you find anything noteworthy." Tell her? Well, why not? Kuvira hadn't seen anyone else to call shots.

"I've seen some of it. It's the highest point we can reach, and what's outside, that are concerning me. Have you looked at either?"

[monster_san]

Fuu supposed someone with the title 'captain' would instinctively give instructions, especially to a young person like herself. Still, she wasn't sure how she felt about it. Kuvira wasn't her captain, and Fuu wasn't a soldier. Still, she nodded. "The more we share information, the better off we'll be." It was agreement without responding to it as an order.

She looked up towards the hole in the ceiling. "Yes, both. I saw something moving around beyond the webbing, but I couldn't tell what it was. The light seems to reach beyond it, but the barrier inside seems to be on the same level as the fog outside." Fuu hadn't flown all the way up to the exterior fog, though, not particularly wanting to take the risk on brand-new wings.

[betterthanwu]

The girl doesn't relish the idea of someone taking authority. Kuvira's encountered that before - a number of the guards she's led are older than her and had been on the force for longer - but for now decides to let it lie. She has only what she can claim and people will allow; anything from there must build on its own.

"I'm told that we can't pass through the fog. Even if I haven't seen for myself, there's no reason she would lie. For now it seems we're contained with some unknown creature just above." Kuvira frowns.

[monster_san]

"I see... I suppose this is what it's like to be in an ant farm," Fuu sighed. Wait, did the captain know what an ant farm was? Fuu wasn't sure when they'd been invented on Earth, but for other worlds it was impossible to guess.

And the idea called up the unpleasant implication that they were possibly being observed--a thought that had been lurking, given how all of this had clearly been provided, but with an absence of anyone explaining... Fuu would have to stay alert. "That creature I saw didn't look very nice. I do hope it stays contined."

[betterthanwu]

Kuvira doesn't know what that means, but from context she assumes it means being kept at the mercy of the 'farmer' and confined. "Why would you farm ants?

"I thought spiders are supposed to be able to take their own webs down. It's hard to have faith in one as a barrier to it."

[monster_san]

"Oh, it's... a sort of educational toy," Fuu explained. "It's a little glass box and you watch the ants build tunnels, and that kind of thing."

Kuvira's reminder about spiders dropped the smile from Fuu's face, though. "Oh, yes, that's true. They rebuild them every day, don't they?" She tapped her fingers on her chin. "We'll have to be very cautious, then."