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

[superbdianthus]

[After making a rather inelegant ascent to the second floor, Naotora stands amidst the crowd of arrivals looking completely and utterly out of her depth. Her wings, if they're meant to be any sort of reflection of her character, suggest someone who's about to start blushing and rhapsodizing in girlish glee about the wonder of this all.

And then a firefly gets too close.]

Wh-what do you think you're doing?! Is this your doing? DO YOU DARE CHALLENGE NAOTORA?!

[The wings say one thing. The huge sword she's just drawn and is pointing at the bug suggests something else entirely. And speaking of suggesting, someone might want to point out that there really isn't enough space to be swinging that thing around right now.]

[ladiesknight]

"Hey, take it easy on the insect population," said Kyle, tipping Naotora a quick smile in hopes that she wouldn't start some kind of bug massacre.

"I don't think he's the one responsible." His own sword was sheathed at his hip, and he hoped things would stay that way.

[superbdianthus]

That only earned the sword being turned on him instead. Once you worked up this much righteous fury, it wasn't so easily dissipated. Well, if you were Naotora, at least. It didn't help matters that it was a man with one of those easy, charming smiles that no doubt likes to use them to play with women's hearts who had dared to interrupt her.

"Then who is? If you know so much about what's going on, then shouldn't you be doing something about it?"

[ladiesknight]

Kyle held up both hands in a seemingly defensive gesture. "I don't know much more than you do, but it did seem like a kind of one-sided confrontation you had going on there. Plus, I'm not even sure that bug could answer you if it wanted to. You kind of need vocal cords for that."

[superbdianthus]

"Vocal what? Are you saying I'm loud?!"

That...wasn't exactly something up for debate, especially when you were pointing a sword at someone and yelling. This was, however, something that occurred to Naotora. She was being made fun of or insulted. That was all she was picking up on.

[ladiesknight]

"Not really what I was going for. But now that you mention it, you do seem a little forceful. Not that that's a bad thing. I mean, I think it's pretty cute."

He winked at her. "Of course, if you really wanna fight, I wouldn't have any objections... we really should take it outside, though. I mean, there's this whole nice party someone set up for us; I wouldn't want to ruin the decorations."

[gempathic]

Wait, don't! [ Steven can't say much about the lack of space to actually swing a sword that size. From his general experience with weaponry, people have a way of just using them anyway and wrecking a lot of stuff in the process. But he can't just stand by and watch an innocent bug get sworded. That would be terrible. So he dashes up to stand next to the firefly with his arms stretched out to either side. ]

I don't think it was challenging you! It probably just... wants to be friends! Maybe it thought your sword was cool!

[superbdianthus]

C-cool...?

[It takes the wind out of her sails for a second at least.]

That word again! What does it mean?!

[She can't even make sense of it. This is a completely different context from the last time she heard it. The beast thought her sword was "cool?" Inanimate objects can't go mad and it sounds like the child means it to be a positive sort of thing. It's very, very confusing.]

[gempathic]

It means- it means... oh, no! I've never had to explain that to someone before! [ He moves his hands to the sides of his face as if this is a completely legitimate life crisis. ] Um... well, cool is good! It means it thinks it looks neat! Like- like you could do really awesome sword stuff with it!

[superbdianthus]

Oh.

[She relaxes a little more, looking much more confused than angry now. That's definitely not what "cool" meant last time, but she's more inclined to believe a child about this sort of thing that she is to believe a single word said by the puffed-up, incoherent nonsense-spouting One-Eyed Dragon of Oshuu.]

Well, that is true. Is that really what it thinks?

[She doesn't speak bug. All she can tell is that it looks creepy and it's too close. Even now it's hovering around them.]

[gempathic]

[ That she relaxes a little serves to help him relax a lot. Preventing a firefly murder wasn't something he'd ever imagined on his accomplishment list, but now that it's apparently happening, Steven doesn't mind too much. He offers a tentative smile. ]

I don't know if that's exactly what it thinks. But I do know that everyone's been really friendly, including all the bugs! [ He'll reach up to pat it once, when its hovering brings it a little closer to his side. ] Sooo maybe you don't need to worry about fighting anything in here right now.

[twilightlegend]

[what? What was this girl threatening- oh. Oh dear]

[Link also steps forward to try and stop this poor girl from hurting what looked like a benign and very friendly bug. He isn't going to blame her for her reaction - because he's met his fair share of terrible bugs - but he isn't going to just let her attack things at random either. Someone could get hurt!

... Or a few someones, judging by that sword's size. Goddesses, what a dangerous situation!

But being a lad of few words, Link just steps forward and waves first to try and get Naotora's attention. Such violence isn't necessary! Look at the concern on his face for the wellbeing of this (not-so) tiny creature!]

[superbdianthus]

What?! Say something!

[He looks troubled, but how is she supposed to know what he means if he won't talk?! She's used to being in this situation, though. The various squads of men under her command have this same tendency to wave their hands about and look terrified instead of speaking up. It's why she leaves them under the command of the Nadeshiko Brigade if she can. Otherwise she ends up yelling at them just like this.]

[twilightlegend]

[not quite the reason for his silence but he flinched slightly all the same. Were women always so keen to yell at him? At least it looked like she wasn't going to continue threatening innocent bystanders.

And at least he was accustomed to being threatened by women. Alas...]

We're not sure who's behind this, but you shouldn't threaten those helping us.

[his voice is firm, if quiet. He seems the soft-spoken sort, but he doesn't look scared]

[superbdianthus]

Helping us?! How is that [She points accusingly at the firefly.] helping us?!

[From what she can tell, it's just flying around and looking gross. She isn't all that fond of bugs when they're the normal size. When they get to be this big, she can barely deal with it.]

[twilightlegend]

Light.

[it's a little... succinct by way of explanation, but it was something, right?]

Else it'd be really dark.

[some of the dungeons he's had to walk through were dark and he knows how dangerous fire can be in woods. So really, it was probably for the best that no one started on while this was their only shelter-- Oh wait.

Could it be that-]

Do you... not like bugs?

[redactions]

You might not want to — whoa!

[ He moves back, palms facing her. Never messed with a dame wielding a sword, not about to start now. ]

[superbdianthus]

Not want to what? He started it!

[She points accusingly at the poor firefly with her free hand. Because it's clearly his fault. That bug. Right there. And it's clearly a male bug because she said so.]

[redactions]

[ It happens to be an insect, but he knows without looking. ]

He's just flyin' around, don't think he's lookin' for trouble. Ma'am.

[superbdianthus]

How do you know?! Can you speak with them?

[Considering the beast doesn't seem to be talking, just flying about. No doubt plotting its next move. Come to think of it, how does this man know that the creature is harmless? Maybe he doesn't. But what would that imply...?]

[redactions]

[ His eyebrows rise minutely. ]

No, it's just a firefly. They don't do nothin' except fly around and glow.

[hakanai]

[The name Naotara being shouted so loudly is what initially makes Yoshitsugu look over; the sight that greets him, however, is what really draws him in. A well-armed woman threatening a firefly whilst sounding rather flustured?]

[It's too much. He can't help himself. He really can't. And so Yoshitsugu approaches, though remaining very much out of reach of that blade for now, and says:]

Yes, clearly this is all the work of the small and harmless-looking insect.

[He sounds completely serious.]

Such a creature can only be up to no good.

[superbdianthus]

If you understand that, why are you just standing there talking about it?!

[She's a bit too caught up in her righteous fury for it to sink in that she's being made fun of. Really, it would take a while to sink in on the best of days, but she has a villainous bug to strike down at the moment and that requires the majority of her mental resources.]

[hakanai]

It's a complete mystery.

[Yoshitsugu says pleasantly. For some 'mysterious' reason he has found himself thinking of Fukushima Masanori; a samurai whose gullibility had made him a source of endless entertainment in the past.]

There are many of them around, aren't there? Look at how many of the villainous creatures are sitting at the feet of others.

[He points around the room. Look at them, doing evil things like cuddling up to the legs and lighting the place up!]

[superbdianthus]

[Naotora takes a quick look around the room, appalled at how many of the creatures there are. It's nothing she can't handle, but no one else seems even the slightest bit distressed by them. Are they being taken in? Fooled somehow? Controlled somehow?]

What on earth are they after?!

[None of this makes any sense.]