RP Time? You betcha!

[shipwreck_light]

"Lucien? What did I tell you about running off on your own?"

Somewhat unsurprisingly, his son didn't answer him with more than a grin. And a splash, once Claude had drawn closer.

Leave it to any child of his to throw off his nice new boots just to stick his feet in the first likely looking stream that came along.

It wasn't even as if they'd gone that far out of town, but away from the roads, from the other sorcer-sorts and Aethies, even the breeze felt calmer, though it had hardly caught to much all the while they'd been walking. Claude being glad they had any at all, as hot as it had been the past few days.

The storm the night before had left lacy scatters of twigs and leaves and knocked down spider webs. Clean and still damp, the leaves overhead and tangled in the grass, they looked pieces of stained glass. And the trees, when they nodded, they sounded clear as harp strings with nothing else to cut the sound.

Out of farmland use and the whiles of any humans at all, the stream had been left so clear, so delicious looking. Just begging for some little blond imp of a boy to come along and kick his heels in it.

Well, one already had. Claude didn't bother with another sigh. He pulled his shoes off and laid them in the stones at his side, stretching lazy as he reached his own toes towards the glittering surface.

And promptly jerked back with a yelp. "Child of mine? That's /cold/."

"I know," said Lucien. "I think it feels nice."

"Maybe if you're part bear. I've always halfway figured, you know."

They had some teasing hums between them and Claude crossed his legs, feet now on the warm pebbles along the bank where they damnwell belonged.

"I think I got that from your side of the family," his son suggested after a while. "Anyway, why do you think it's like that? I don't hear anybody around."

"That wasn't tagging along?"

"Well..." The boy knitted his fingers in his hair, tugging himself a wingtip curl along his temple. "I think I'd only notice Nene if she was /gone/."

"And as for our new friends?"

"They couldn't have gone far. They know we have candy." To which, he nodded. Ever so sure of himself.

Ah, children. Children had gotten him this far with their self-assured beings. And children had found him what was really a rather strange clearing on closer inspection. The stream wore deeper through some places in the grass than others, showing shifts of rock, glints of moss and tree roots sneaking by. It divided the clearing just about cleanly in half.

Besides, on the edge of the forest easing back into being, a great, old ash stood.

Covered in tiny flowers. Pink and violet and hints of white. All of them, growing in streaks as if the bark had long ago turned to soil, though the tree seemed healthy and strong otherwise.

Besides.

"Papa," said Lucian, voice hushed. "There aren't any birds here, are there?"

"No," Claude answered after a moment. "It's just you and I and /a bunch of stinkers who ran off from us/."

"Oh, so that doesn't include me?"

"Child of mine."

They had a few more hums, there in the quiet of the clearing.

There, before something very strange and very faint began to creep along Claude's Aether lines.

It felt like being tickled almost. Anyway, it made him smile. Lucien too.

And next, there his son darted off again, racing over the grass and into the middle of the clearing, where he stood staring into the sky and whistling. Expecting a giant Gust to come sailing down in the form of a giant bird? It might just be that.



Welcome!

Note that anything your characters do in the clearing may result in posts back of things happening around them, even if these aren't exactly invited. Something's lurking around here, and it wants a snack!

Feel free to bring your own fairies, ghosts, mages and seriously confused regular people.

Comments

Re: Host: Claude

[shipwreck_light]

"That's quite alright," Claude responded. And how else to react? Watching a little dog have a good licking run where their eyes started to go closed? Even if he was the Thing To Be Licked, how satisfying was that? "She just needs to know what her master's getting into. Speaking of which, I don't bite myself, so you're welcome to join me if you like."

Rather than remove his fingers from Ripley's grasp, Claude shifted one of his feet away from the stream and pointed with his toes.

Re: Mermaid AU!Setsuko

[shipwreck_light]

Oh, how Lucien grinned. Just the teensiest bit of a happy blush sneaking into his cheeks. "We would have to investigate! So, ah, I'm not sure. But, investigating things is fun, usually. Last time, Maman and Papa got alllll the sorcer's guild members in town together at their precinct with their Aethies. It was like a party. We have a pond, and there could be punch..."

(OOC: That is a lovely ring and you should feel lovely for buying it. HELL YES MORE MING. HAPPINESS.)

Re: Shade Pip

[shipwreck_light]

Oh, how Pip giggled at that! Maybe she did try to hold back, just a little starting off, but soon she was chiming away in her happiness. And maybe nibbling Joanna back. Just a little. And very much like a kitten if she had realized this. "Nooo~," she did eventually singsong. "Like I am now. 'cause we can all make this shape, so ish not to skerry. I think."

[shipwreck_light]

"Absolutely," he agreed, offering his hand straight back to her. "And likewise. I'm Claude."

Claude might have been a bit vexed by what had become of his afternoon, but he accepted it and was really quite determined otherwise to enjoy the situation. All of these people from lands he could not fathom, there with their stories and their songs and their loveliness.

He felt no more and no less removed from them than he did any other... People? But, "People" as it lived in his head carried divisions as elaborate as the leading in a stained glass window. Not all of the pieces between flickering "human".

[sarcasticsra]

"Heart attack," Maria said, purposely softening her voice. She might not have felt the loss as keenly as her siblings, but she had been fond of her father, inasmuch as she could be.

[shipwreck_light]

"Ohh. Rightrightright. Jack only warned me bout that rounda million times," Not that the bat seemed terrible put off about anything right then. It had fairly melted into Johnny's pocket, and from there went on speaking in a blase drawl. "Kay, so 'm Nicholas. Notta name-name, but just go with it. Makes stuff easier. An a Shade's just like in books, man. Aethie of darkness, mastera shadow an human desires."

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

[sarcasticsra]

"I didn't say the darkness didn't serve a purpose," Gabriel said, more haughtily. This put him, too, back on familiar ground. "Temptation may exist. That's no reason to give into it."

[shipwreck_light]

Beautiful, giant, talking cat. Doing kitty radar ears. Siebenkas honestly had to stop him laughing, just from how happy the sight made him. So much adorable in such a singular, fluffy instance. "I am called Siebenkas and I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance, Nemo. So, if there's anything I could tell you or do for you..."

He wouldn't have made that offer to a human such a little way into their acquaintance. But a cat? Cats were different.

Re: Host: Claude

[johnny_corlioni]

Johnny shrugged and lowered himself to sit beside the man. "'m Johnny. Not exactly from 'round here. An' this is Ripley, who's real fuckin' spoiled an' she knows it."

[johnny_corlioni]

Irreverently, Johnny thought of how much more Matt would be on his case about stress levels and all that shit. "Heart attack," he muttered. "All the shit he's done, an' that's gonna kill him." He wasn't about to fool himself into thinking he could get his father to change any of his habits. For one thing, Pop wouldn't believe that Johnny knew how and when he'd die.

[johnny_corlioni]

"Yeah, don' think we have the same books where 'm from." At least, not that Johnny knew of. "What's a name-name?" How the hell was it different from a name? Unless it was like 'Giovanni' versus 'Johnny'.

[sarcasticsra]

Richard shook Alyce's hand. "Of course we don't mind," he added. He lead the way toward the stream, taking off his suit jacket and laying it down for Janet to sit on. "Here you are. I hope it's comfortable."

Mark snorted. "Your tailor's going to kill you."

"It'll give him something to do," he said with a small grin, undoing his tie and rolling up his sleeves.

He looked good like that--and he knew it, too. Mark gave him an unimpressed look, but Richard kept grinning. He turned back to Janet and Alyce. "Where were you supposed to be, when you landed here?" he asked, curious.

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo considered the offer, giving Siebenkas a piercing look as he did so.

Possibly that might be unnerving coming from a predator his size.

And then he decided that Siebenkas could be trusted not to say anything about the lack of dignity in asking, "You good at ear rubs?" Bryta was, when she wasn't busy, and he'd planned to go see if she had downtime after he drank.

[janet_mohren]

Janet sat carefully on the jacket. "Thank you," she said gratefully to Richard. She slipped off her sandals and dipped her feet in the water. Absolutely freezing cold--which felt amazing after the heat in their apartment. "We were on our way to dinner."

"The air conditioning in our apartment is dead," Alyce explained, "and it's the middle of August in New York City. I don't know if you've ever had the misery of being there then. If you haven't, I don't recommend it."

[sarcasticsra]

"Yes, it did seem anticlimactic," Maria said, carefully suffusing her tone with just a touch of melancholy.

Since she'd already read his mind once, getting flashes of his thoughts barely took any pressure, and this time she decided to ask, "How long have you and Matt been together?"

He was her brother, she reasoned. Caution was less crucial here of all places.

[johnny_corlioni]

Johnny gave her a look. "Based on that, 'm guessin' we're not together where you're from. Been... Christ, 'most nineteen an' a half years now." That would make him feel old if he hadn't been fifteen when they got together.

[sarcasticsra]

"Yes, we've had the dubious pleasure. It doesn't get any better in a hundred years," Richard said sagely. "We stay indoors. I hate to imagine our air conditioning dying."

"I'd like to see an air conditioner dare to die on your watch," Mark said, amused.

[janet_mohren]

Alyce laughed. "Technology's obliging, or is it just scared of you?"

Janet grinned, shaking her head. "Considering who we work for, would you be surprised by either answer?"

Alyce paused a moment. "... Not really."

Re: The Ash Tree

[shipwreck_light]

Besides their sounds, their flushing rise of happiness, the flowers came to another turn of whispers amongst themselves at that, questions for each other and for her turned as shooting stars and perfumes over their surface.

::We had heard People were particular about who is 'mother' and 'father and 'sister' and 'brother'." They came to say though. ::But, you're not? You think about Gina like she's yours. And us, you know, we wouldn't to most People have the same parents, but we're all siblings forever because the same tree watched over us when we were small.::

Re: Other Host: Lucien

[shipwreck_light]

"Oh, no ma'am," Lucien replied with a diffident bow of his head. One never did know when the people one met in a magical glen were after all queens and princess and scions of greatness his own language could not touch. "My Papa is just over by the brook and my... well, she's sort of mine. I have an Aethie too and she's around."

And on another more ordinary day, he might have left it at that. But, today, he smiled and he asked. "And you?"

Re: The Ash Tree

[shipwreck_light]

::No no! Don't run off, kitty! It's OK.:: Laughed the tree. ::We don't want to hurt you. We're just happy to have some company.::

A sweet enough sentiment and offered in some truly welcoming unwords, sweet and cuddly as catnip.

But, there was still only one ash tree to have offered it.

Re: Other Host: Lucien

[martina_corlioni]

"Aethie?" Martina asked. She was essentially fluent in English, but she supposed there might be words she didn't know, especially words children and teenagers would use. "I came here by myself, I'm afraid." And how she hoped the archangel was right about time passing differently back where they came from, or Teresa would be frantic by now, and her boys and Augusto wouldn't be much better.

Re: The Ash Tree

[one_eyed_nemo]

Cautiously, Nemi crept forward and sniffed at the tree. It smelled like... well, mostly like a tree. Still, he didn't want to risk clawing or jumping on it. "Talking tree," he grumbled to himself, more of a growl than words.

All this because he'd landed on soil instead of the catwalk.

[sarcasticsra]

"A little of both. Mostly the latter," Mark said with a smirk.

Richard shrugged, smiling innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Almost believable."

Richard gave Mark an amused look. "You're one to talk," he said, and glanced back at the women. "Who do you work for, out of curiosity?" Given the last time they had met someone from a universe that had sapient lightning, there was no guarantee he would know it. But it never heart to ask.

[sarcasticsra]

"No, you're not," she said. "He's straight. He's also cisgender. You're married to a man named Michael. He's...peculiar. In a good way. You seem very happy."