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

Wily-Kit | Thundercats (2011)

[alley_kit]

Kit really wasn't sure what to make of this whole thing. She supposed she should really be more worried; after all, she'd apparently been either kidnapped or magicked away to a strange place in the middle of the night. But nothing about this place felt threatening. Not even vaguely grim and unwelcoming the way the Forest of Magi Oar had felt at first. It was just... strange. And confusing.

Especially the wings she'd sprouted after touching that bit of gem. Not that they weren't pretty, and that flying wasn't fun- as long as she paid enough attention to coordinate her wings and tail-, but they only added to the strangeness. Seriously how often did someone just randomly sprout wings like that? Well, apparently the answer around there was 'all the time', but aside from in this big tree? Yeah, it was weird.

At least the local creatures were friendly, even if they couldn't provide any answers either. A particularly excited glowworm had almost landed on her head when his silky thread snapped. After a moment of uncertainty- because he was still a worm, after all- Kit had knelt down to pet him and found him pleasantly fuzzy, rather than slimy like she'd expected.

Soon, she was walking around with the glow worm draped around her neck shoulders like an odd sort of scarf. First order of business; try and see if any of her friends had also been brought here, and see if she could find something to eat, since a full stomach made any situation a bit easier. Then, well... she'd have to see.

[survivorsyndrome]

An... alien, maybe? Kaoru had a berry balanced on the palm of one hand and a firefly balanced on top of that. He'd given up on trying to shoo it away; maybe if he kept it around, he could use it to explore.

"You look pretty young." Well, Kaoru was fourteen or so himself, but still.

[alley_kit]

Kit had thought she'd caught the smell of food coming from the branch tunnel ahead of her. She'd been headed in that direction when she met an older boy who was coming from the opposite direction carrying a berry as big as a candyfruit, confirming her suspicions. And a firefly, which seemed quite content to perch on the berry.

She blinked at his (sort of) greeting. "Well, that's probly cause I am," she said. "You don't seem that much older though."

"My name's Wily-Kit, by the way," she added. "What's yours?"

[survivorsyndrome]

Yeah, you know what. Fair enough. "Kaoru."

Oh wait, wait -- right, he had to actually communicate in complete sentences. He had this. "I'm a student at Soria Academy. Or I was. Are you... from here?"

The firefly blinked on and off, apparently unconcerned about anything that was going on. What a carefree life...

[alley_kit]

Kit shook her head negatively. "Uh-uh," she said. "I just got here a little while ago, like everybody else. I was just looking for something to eat and seeing if I could find anybody I know."

"You wouldn't happen to have seen any other cats wearing one of these, have you?", she asked, indicating the prominent red circular cabochon on her belt.

[survivorsyndrome]

"I haven't seen any cats at all. There's a big bird with moth wings, though..." Not that he'd talked to the guy yet.

He motioned back where he'd come from with one hand. "If you want food, you should come back this way. I didn't see any meat or fish, though." Assuming... Kit liked either. Terran cats were obligate carnivores, so.

[alley_kit]

"A big bird, huh?", Kit said thoughtfully. "Was he kind of stuck-up and all 'Oh, I'm so much better than you are cause I have wings and stuff'?" Her attempt to imitate Voltaire's didn't go very well, but it should still get his general attitude across.

She nodded about the food though. "Yeah, I thought I smelled food that way was headed there myself," she said. "And it's OK if there's no meat. There's lots of times we've had to go without it before." And sometimes without food entirely, but he didn't need to know that.

[survivorsyndrome]

"...No." At least, he didn't think so? "He had weird wings for a bird. There were clawed hands coming out of the front."

Technically, of course, a bird's wings contained their digits anyway, but. Trust him, it was super weird? Kaoru turned and started walking, pausing after a moment when he remembered that he should actually make sure Kit was following before he walked off because otherwise it would be super rude. "There are nuts and berries. Things you'd find in a forest. I didn't try any mushrooms; it's hard to tell if those are poisonous."

[alley_kit]

Kit tried to picture what he was talking about and failed. "Well, I'll keep an eye out for him," she said. After all, he might be from Third Earth, even if he was no one Kit knew.

Kaoru need not have worried; Kit was following right behind him. She nodded to his comment about the mushrooms. "Yeah," she said. "It can be hard to tell sometimes, so it's probably best to avoid them til you can figure out which ones are good and which aren't."

The soon emerged onto the branch outside, where a large stone table or alter was set up, laden with all sorts of food. A few other people were already there, eating or looking for something to eat. "Wow," Kit said, impressed by the spread, "there really is a lot of stuff here. Wonder what I should pick?" Nothing on the table looked entirely familiar to her so she really had no idea where to start.

[survivorsyndrome]

What do you know? Most kids Kaoru's age didn't have much of an idea of what in the forest might be edible and what was probably bad news... but maybe it was different for Kit's people.

"Those berries over there are sweet," he said, pointing to a nearby platter. Cats liked sweet things, right...? Or was that just cat robots?

"Where are you from? Is there anyone else you know here?"

[alley_kit]

On her home turf, Kit knew a number of different wild plants and their effects. Their mother had taught them which ones were to be avoided early on to prevent problems with curious kittens getting into things, and had begun to teach them which ones were edible and which had medicinal properties. But none of the fruits, nuts, and fungi set out before her looked familiar, so she was somewhat flying blind.

The mention of the sweet berries, though, had her eyeing them speculatively. "I wonder if they taste like candy fruit?", Kit wondered aloud. They were about the right size for candy fruit, though that was pretty much where the resemblance ended.

"I'm from Thundara, on Third Earth," Kit said. "But I haven't seen anyone so far who looks like they might be from there. The bird you saw sounds like he could be, but I'd have to get a look at him to be sure."

[survivorsyndrome]

"Third Earth? What happened to Second Earth?" He'd ask about the first Earth, but honestly, in his timeline, it was pretty trashed. And what the heck was candy fruit?

In any case, he set his firefly down on the table, where it buzzed once or twice before settling into a slow pattern of blinks.

[alley_kit]

Kit paused at the question about Second Earth. "You know, I don't really know," she said thoughtfully. "No one's ever said anything about a Second Earth before that I know of. I don't even know if there is one. Though it does sound like there should be..."

Darnit, this is gonna bug her now. Thanks Kaoru. She picks up one of the berries he'd mentioned earlier and absently takes a bit while thinking... only to be distracted by how tasty it is. "Wow, you're right! It is sweet!" Not that she really figured it would be otherwise, but...

She took a bigger bite, this time focusing more on the flavor. "Hmmm...", she said after she'd swallowed. "Doesn't really taste like candy fruit, though. But still tasty!"

[survivorsyndrome]

He lived to serve. In any case, it looked like Kit did enjoy sweets, after all. Well, that made sense, right? What kid didn't, unless they were paranoid loners that ate lizards...?

"I wonder who put them here. They haven't shown their faces at all." No note, either; how rude.

"...I'm from Earth, too. Humans are. But I've never seen anyone like you before."

[alley_kit]

"I dunno," Kit said, glancing back out at the impressive spread. "We'll probly find out if we stick around long enough though. I mean, all we'd have to do would be hide someplace and watch."

The comment about him being from Earth too had her making a thoughtful sound. "Hmm...", she said. "Well, the cats and the other Animal Tribes don't really come from Third Earth, even though we've been there a long, long time. So it might not be the same place your from."

She paused, thinking. "Tell me a little about what your Earth is like," Kit said. "Then I'll tell you a bit about Third Earth, and we can see if things match up."

[survivorsyndrome]

"Earth is a wasteland," he said. "Industrial development and poor resource management rendered it impossible for human habitation years ago. No one lives there any more. They all keep to space colonies. They're working on ways to reclaim it, but it won't be any time soon."

What a cheerful thought...

"...It used to be nice, though."

[alley_kit]

Kit's gaze was sympathetic. "I'm sorry," she said. "It must be awful, seeing your home ruined like that. Thundara was wrecked by the lizards, but not to the point that it was a wasteland."

"Though if the whole place is a wasteland, then it's not Third Earth," she said. "Parts of it are, like the desert around the Sand Sea, but most of it that I've seen is pretty nice."

[betterthanwu]

-that was a young girl with a tail. Kuvira had a wonderful blank, composed guard face, but somehow, this was stranger than the talking bird to her. She tried not to stare, but kept glancing conspicuously at Kit.

Finally she gave in and came over, her armor clicking quietly against itself. "Hello. You've made a friend?"

[alley_kit]

It's probably a good thing that Kit normally wears her ears bound back, then, or else Kuvira would really be staring. At least this way they're easily mistaken for just hair.

Regardless, if Kit noticed the glances, she doesn't seem to mind, and smiled up at Kuvira when she came over. "Uh-huh," she replied. "He almost fell on my head when his thread broke. I was worried he'd be all slimy, but he's actually nice and fuzzy." She petted the glowworm a little as if to emphasize his fuzziness.

"Are you a soldier from around here?", Kit asked, indicating the armor. "Or did you get brought here like it seems everybody else did?"

[betterthanwu]

Pet insects were... unusual, but not completely weird, she supposed. "Does it have a name?"

"I've come with the others. I just altered my armor to fit better." She's started getting used to how people here don't understand how she could do that, so she clarifies without prompting. "My bending lets me move earth and metal easily."

[alley_kit]

"Not yet," Kit said. "I don't know if he's going to stay with me or wander back off with the others later so I'm gonna wait and see if he stays around first before I name him. And besides," she added, "none of the names I can think of for worms sound very nice."

Kit listened to her description of her bending, evidently impressed. "That sounds really cool," she said. "I don't know anybody back home who can do stuff like that. We have other kinds of magic instead, though."

[betterthanwu]

"You could mark it so it's easier to identify," she suggests. People put collars and so on on their pets, right?

Magic, in her world, has little to nothing to do with bending. A fantasy. Still, Kuvira supposes this place is strange enough to have to do with it. "Is that so?"

[alley_kit]

"I guess I could," Kit said thoughtfully. "I'd have to find something to make a collar, though. I used the only long piece of string I had to make this." She indicated the crude necklace she'd fashioned to hold her gem fragment.

"Uh-huh," she said. "There's lots of different kinds. Like the Wood Forgers, who used special paper made from the trees in the Forest of Magi Oar to work their magic. They could turn the paper into weapons or creatures to help them fight, and even bring drawings on it to life, like when their leader, Zigg, drew a bottle, and used it to trap some tree spirits who were attacking us. Though... it turned out that the Wood Forgers were really the bad guys; they'd been cutting down a lot of the forest's magical trees and destroying whole sections of it for their paper mill. The spirits and Viragor were just trying to protect it."

"Clerics, like my friend Cheetara, use other kinds of magic, though," she said. "They can tap into the magic energy of the world around them and use it to help them fight or sense things. Plus it helps them live longer than most regular cats. The most obvious way they use it, though, is to let them move super-fast. I mean, Cheetara's fast even without magic, but with magic, she's really fast. Way faster even than the Thundertank!"

"And I can do a little magic of my own," Kit said. "It's not as cool as Cheetara's speed, or being able to move earth and metal, but I could show you, if you wanted."

[betterthanwu]

"Maybe a piece of leaf, or something," she suggests. The lack of real supplies here is frustrating. No textiles, no metal, no medicines, just what they brought with them.

Kuvira lets all this wash over her. It's all kinds of references and things she doesn't get. A problem with talking to children, she knows. You have to wait them out, and try to piece things together on your own time. "I see," she says. "Can you tell me what it is first?"

[alley_kit]

"Maybe," Kit said. "Or maybe a plant stem would work better?" She considered it for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll find something."

Kit nodded to the woman's request, pulling her flupe out of one of her belt pouches. "I can put people into a trance when I play my flupe," Kit said. "Animals too. I can put animals to sleep with it too, but I dunno if that works on people; I've never tried. Either way, it only lasts as long as I'm playing. They wake up a few seconds after I stop, and don't remember anything happened."

"It doesn't hurt them or control them or anything," Kit assured her. "They just kind of... sway to the music and maybe look kind of silly. It's not too useful on its own, but it makes a really good distraction."