This is a very sudden transition from my own bedside to a patch of sand on the other side of the island. Perhaps anyone has any notion as to what to giant ants might have thought to do with a man-sized glass cocoon?
Re: [Quicklog]azhdarchidaeJune 12 2011, 15:21:07 UTC
[The arrow lingers a bit, but disappears soon after she refocuses her attention. There are actually two bands of giant ants in the bamboo, clearly visible, one rather close to Huo's position. Tracking by scent? She doesn't know.]
< Hey, you stupid... >
[...She can't really insult ants. People, sure. But these are big, limping bugs. They're... there was a movie, once. Shrunken kids...]
< Hey, you! Antie! I see a giant Oreo! >
[She pictures it in great detail and projects with all her power. Something house-sized, at least, flattening part of the bamboo forest. Sweet smelling. Sweet tasting, or what she remembers sweet to smell and taste like. A malleable, gooey center between moistened crumbling chocolate cracker-bits. The scent wafts along.]
[Above holds the image firmly as she circles. Broken antennae wave towards the place she's picturing it in as the ants stop and raise their heads, moving their pincered jaws.]
< Yum, yum. Don't you want it? It's not going anywhere. Everyone can have some, come on! >
[God she wishes she could have a bite - and that, too, ends up in the sending that's blanketing the bamboo and the things in it. Not hunger proper. Sweets-hunger. Some of the ants are turning now.]
< Your buddies are already dragging it away. But you can still make it! If you hurry! >
[She forms a team of glossy, healthy illusory giant ants around the illusory giant Oreo, breaking splintery, crumbling chunks off with their mandibles and carrying them away. Nothing outside the forest can see or smell it - but everything in can, even if it shouldn't be visible.]
[This does it. The rest of the ants turn, heads up, mandibles gnashing, and blunder in the right direction. They will start to dismember the cookie, though anyone outside of her projection will just see them tearing at air. Sooner or later her projection will fade and they won't be fooled anymore. But for now, they're occupied.]
[Above widens her circles, checking to make sure they haven't seen and started following her, and at last comes to a gusty landing on the outskirts of the bamboo forest. It should be the right place.]
Re: [Quicklog]getsome_sleepJune 13 2011, 11:15:32 UTC
[Despite the more immediate concern of, well, ants, Huo pauses in his swift escape for a moment to look at - well, the giant cookie. This is turning into a very strange day. Intellectually, he understands that Above is creating the illusion somehow, but his senses (and stomach) are taking in the enormous sweet on face value. It's a fascinating sort of contradiction. He once more feels a little sorry for the ants who will be left empty-mandibled. They are simple animals, after all: all that they know is that they're hungry.
He watches over his shoulder for a short while, then, with a somewhat mournful shake of his head, returns to navigating the bamboo. Following the imaginary arrow, it doesn't take him long to finally emerge into the clear, to face Above.
It was a bit of a shock; in his mind, fresh from the dream, was the image of her as a human girl. He knew that it was her - the tag told as clear as a name. As she came into view now, enormous and powerful and strange, there was no way to overlay one sight upon the other. It was - how would Stellaris call it? - a binary division. Either/or. But the tag was the same.
He offered her a grin and a salute, hand over fist in the military style.]
A timely arrival and an excellent tactic. It is good to see you.
No - I only just woke, and they never came near me. I am in luck to enjoy your assistance.
[What he woke from is rather obvious from the journal entry, he knows, and there's little hiding it anyway when his clothes and more so his hair are positively trailing sand. Washing it all out is going to take hours.]
Re: [Quicklog]azhdarchidaeJune 13 2011, 12:21:26 UTC
< Well that's good, because they're supposed to be poisonous. Or... no, that would be venomous, wouldn't it? > [She blinks, translucent third eyelids closing just ahead of and opening just after her conventional pair.] < I'd recommend the waterfall on the little fighting island, but then again I'm sure you have no trouble getting into showers. >
< It's early June. Don't really know the date, sorry. Kind of hard to keep track. >
Re: [Quicklog]getsome_sleepJune 13 2011, 14:31:49 UTC
They may certainly be both, although presumably, not at the same time. [It's difficult to imagine anyone trying to make a meal out of a giant ant, but also hard to avoid the thought that if anyone has the mouth to get away with it, Above is probably it. Huo definitely knows better than to take the joke in that direction, though. She really is intensely alien, he thinks, seeing that great eye blink. But underneath that eye, that skin...
He diverts his thoughts from there, for now. June is... late.] That is rather longer than I might have expected, [he says with a frown.] Has anything remarkable happened in my absence?
Re: [Quicklog]azhdarchidaeJune 14 2011, 01:27:02 UTC
< Most animals aren't. Then again I'm sure there are some which are. >
[She moves her head and neck fluidly through the gesture which serves as a shrug, and cants both to the side a little in the thoughtful sort of frown. It's been long enough for her that practically every conceivable facial expression has some body-language equivalent, now.]
< There's a fancy Wilderness with portals or something. Oh, and the ants. They're sick, apparently, but they were here and more dangerous last year. >
[Her head moves - she inscribes a small circle in the air with the tip of her beak.] Some people had amnesia... like, they forgot the Sphere and the people in it. But they got better. I got a prize from a machine in the bar that I don't really want. And I found something weird.]
[He knows her well enough - the gestures are not hard to follow. It's remarkable how she's adapted really, he thinks, but there was something of the winged, flying creature in the girl before - the girl he now remembers. There was something...
He must tell her, he knows, even if she is bound to dislike it.
The news she delivers, though, is a persistent distraction. Another spell of lost memories, another sign of decay and failure in the Tree. Suddenly he wonders if Hawk has returned yet. But he cannot focus on these matters now. If Above is not involved in them, that is for the best. He should keep smiling.]
Nothing too extremely out of the ordinary, then, [he says lightly.] Unless perhaps that weird something of yours is of note. I may inquire further - but perhaps you should wish to hear of my dust-dream, first. [It's only a hint, but she's smart, and knows that he never says anything needlessly. If she asks then he will say. Simple as that.]
Re: [Quicklog]azhdarchidaeJune 16 2011, 11:58:59 UTC
< It might be. I'm not sure. >
[Above is starting to pick up on this... unease from Huo. Got to be from him; she can't think of any reason why she'd feel uneasy. Her head draws back slightly, slowly, arching her long neck, and her voice gets a little wary. Those third eyelids make another appearance - just barely showing in the inner corners of her red eyes.]
[Of course, he should have thought of it - her uncanny ability to know what others are thinking. Huo braces himself a little. He is ready for anger on her part, unjustified as it may be since he had no hand in choosing the dust-sleep or the dream. He has a good sense of Above's sensibilities, and he would have felt the same in her place.]
I do believe that you should know, since the dream was yours. [He meets her eye - it's hard, with the way her head is built, but he makes the effort.] You were painting a wall, and were - not quite as you are now.
Re: [Quicklog]azhdarchidaeJune 16 2011, 14:40:30 UTC
[This, now, is the kind of blink her body has in situations where she has to keep her eyes open. It's all third eyelid, sliding horizontally across her eyes, making them seem somewhat darker and cloudy.]
[It's a defensive sort of reflex - protecting her eyes while still being able to see. Otherwise, she doesn't move. When she does speak, her voice is distant.]
[All things considered, this distance is better than many other options. He knows how careful he must be. What they have by way of friendship has never quite lost its prickly edges, and he has wronged her before. He will not, again.]
I'm not sure how much I know, [he answers truthfully.] Without context, it is easy to mistake. I have seen you wear human form here, but cannot guess under what circumstances you may have had it before.
[It's a way out for her if she wants it. He'd suspected even then, but could not be sure and cannot be sure now.]
Re: [Quicklog]azhdarchidaeJune 19 2011, 14:58:25 UTC
["So after all that 'oh, I know better than you, you're not serpentine enough', you're finally calling me a dragon?" the nasty part of her wants to say. But while Above is young, she does have a little restraint.]
< Pretty much. A little less depressing than the butterfly, though. I'd hope that I can live for longer than a few months. >
[Her third eyelids finally open, sliding back into place, though the cant of her head is still a little guarded - the bulk of her beak is slightly in the way, even if it's not pointing at him.]
< If you know that, you probably know the rest. > [The thoughts and feelings that came with the dream. She'd experienced those of that hawk-boy, when she dreamed. Nothlit.] < Old tapes. You know what tapes are, right? Recordings. >
[He chuckles at that comment, as if to take off any sting or foreboding that may be in it. It's interesting that she recognizes the reference - an unexpected moment of meeting minds.
she looks calmer - he watches her for it, which he imagine that she understands. Perhaps this exchange can end well, yet. Her next statement gets another nod. He isn't hiding anything.]
They are erased quite thoroughly now, [he remarks, quietly. He isn't hiding this thought, either.]
< Hey, you stupid... >
[...She can't really insult ants. People, sure. But these are big, limping bugs. They're... there was a movie, once. Shrunken kids...]
< Hey, you! Antie! I see a giant Oreo! >
[She pictures it in great detail and projects with all her power. Something house-sized, at least, flattening part of the bamboo forest. Sweet smelling. Sweet tasting, or what she remembers sweet to smell and taste like. A malleable, gooey center between moistened crumbling chocolate cracker-bits. The scent wafts along.]
[Above holds the image firmly as she circles. Broken antennae wave towards the place she's picturing it in as the ants stop and raise their heads, moving their pincered jaws.]
< Yum, yum. Don't you want it? It's not going anywhere. Everyone can have some, come on! >
[God she wishes she could have a bite - and that, too, ends up in the sending that's blanketing the bamboo and the things in it. Not hunger proper. Sweets-hunger. Some of the ants are turning now.]
< Your buddies are already dragging it away. But you can still make it! If you hurry! >
[She forms a team of glossy, healthy illusory giant ants around the illusory giant Oreo, breaking splintery, crumbling chunks off with their mandibles and carrying them away. Nothing outside the forest can see or smell it - but everything in can, even if it shouldn't be visible.]
[This does it. The rest of the ants turn, heads up, mandibles gnashing, and blunder in the right direction. They will start to dismember the cookie, though anyone outside of her projection will just see them tearing at air. Sooner or later her projection will fade and they won't be fooled anymore. But for now, they're occupied.]
[Above widens her circles, checking to make sure they haven't seen and started following her, and at last comes to a gusty landing on the outskirts of the bamboo forest. It should be the right place.]
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He watches over his shoulder for a short while, then, with a somewhat mournful shake of his head, returns to navigating the bamboo. Following the imaginary arrow, it doesn't take him long to finally emerge into the clear, to face Above.
It was a bit of a shock; in his mind, fresh from the dream, was the image of her as a human girl. He knew that it was her - the tag told as clear as a name. As she came into view now, enormous and powerful and strange, there was no way to overlay one sight upon the other. It was - how would Stellaris call it? - a binary division. Either/or. But the tag was the same.
He offered her a grin and a salute, hand over fist in the military style.]
A timely arrival and an excellent tactic. It is good to see you.
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< Yeah, I know, I'm awesome. >
[Her head tilts, and she regards him with one big red eye.]
< You're not hurt or anything? >
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[What he woke from is rather obvious from the journal entry, he knows, and there's little hiding it anyway when his clothes and more so his hair are positively trailing sand. Washing it all out is going to take hours.]
May I ask how long has it been?
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< It's early June. Don't really know the date, sorry. Kind of hard to keep track. >
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He diverts his thoughts from there, for now. June is... late.] That is rather longer than I might have expected, [he says with a frown.] Has anything remarkable happened in my absence?
Reply
[She moves her head and neck fluidly through the gesture which serves as a shrug, and cants both to the side a little in the thoughtful sort of frown. It's been long enough for her that practically every conceivable facial expression has some body-language equivalent, now.]
< There's a fancy Wilderness with portals or something. Oh, and the ants. They're sick, apparently, but they were here and more dangerous last year. >
[Her head moves - she inscribes a small circle in the air with the tip of her beak.] Some people had amnesia... like, they forgot the Sphere and the people in it. But they got better. I got a prize from a machine in the bar that I don't really want. And I found something weird.]
Reply
He must tell her, he knows, even if she is bound to dislike it.
The news she delivers, though, is a persistent distraction. Another spell of lost memories, another sign of decay and failure in the Tree. Suddenly he wonders if Hawk has returned yet. But he cannot focus on these matters now. If Above is not involved in them, that is for the best. He should keep smiling.]
Nothing too extremely out of the ordinary, then, [he says lightly.] Unless perhaps that weird something of yours is of note. I may inquire further - but perhaps you should wish to hear of my dust-dream, first. [It's only a hint, but she's smart, and knows that he never says anything needlessly. If she asks then he will say. Simple as that.]
Reply
[Above is starting to pick up on this... unease from Huo. Got to be from him; she can't think of any reason why she'd feel uneasy. Her head draws back slightly, slowly, arching her long neck, and her voice gets a little wary. Those third eyelids make another appearance - just barely showing in the inner corners of her red eyes.]
< You think I want to know? ...All right. >
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I do believe that you should know, since the dream was yours. [He meets her eye - it's hard, with the way her head is built, but he makes the effort.] You were painting a wall, and were - not quite as you are now.
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[It's a defensive sort of reflex - protecting her eyes while still being able to see. Otherwise, she doesn't move. When she does speak, her voice is distant.]
So you know.
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I'm not sure how much I know, [he answers truthfully.] Without context, it is easy to mistake. I have seen you wear human form here, but cannot guess under what circumstances you may have had it before.
[It's a way out for her if she wants it. He'd suspected even then, but could not be sure and cannot be sure now.]
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[Above exhales deeply. Not a sigh, this body can't sigh.]
It might have something to do with time travel. I don't know.
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A butterfly dream, [he murmurs, remembering like an echo.] A girl who dreamed that she has wings, or a winged dragon dreaming of being a girl.
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< Pretty much. A little less depressing than the butterfly, though. I'd hope that I can live for longer than a few months. >
[Her third eyelids finally open, sliding back into place, though the cant of her head is still a little guarded - the bulk of her beak is slightly in the way, even if it's not pointing at him.]
< If you know that, you probably know the rest. > [The thoughts and feelings that came with the dream. She'd experienced those of that hawk-boy, when she dreamed. Nothlit.] < Old tapes. You know what tapes are, right? Recordings. >
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she looks calmer - he watches her for it, which he imagine that she understands. Perhaps this exchange can end well, yet. Her next statement gets another nod. He isn't hiding anything.]
They are erased quite thoroughly now, [he remarks, quietly. He isn't hiding this thought, either.]
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