14th Fairy Tale § Voice

[tehoniongirl]

[Jilly woke up in a cave.

At least, that’s her first impression. Opening her eyes, she blinks several times at the gray, cavernous walls in confusion before she realizes that they aren’t going away. And she’s equally confused when she goes to stand and finds herself on somewhat spongy ground.]

Len? Buffy?

[she calls out, but there’s only

Comments

[action]

[abidinglaw]

[Well then he shall move less cautiously. Sort of. He must look quite the fool - or else quite the hero. He cuts a hulking figure at the best of times, broad of shoulder and taller than the majority of full-grown men. To see this man watching every step, peering around every corner before he progresses, checking behind each bottle and between each stack of books.. But of course, it is the cat that he is checking for. It is a long time before he finds the bed and the book with his eyes, but when he does his eyes widen. At once he seeks to stifle the shock of it. He would not want to alarm this lady. So. He falls back on tradition and actually bows to the book and the girl upon its pages.]

My lady mouse. I apologize that I could not come sooner.

[He is dressed in a black jacket, and beneath that a bright white button-down shirt. His trousers are a thick navy blue and they barely appear to have been used. Indeed, he is wearing them for the first time today. To all appearances he must look frankly modern in spite of his manner. Even his hat and wig remain at home.]

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

[clothes might make the man...but that bow and the formality of his language gave him away as easily as if he'd been in full uniform.

It takes quite a bit not to laugh, and as it is she's certainly smiling as she stands carefully on the open pages. She's in the miniature version of what she'd gone to sleep in...just a t-shirt and shorts...so her tiny, bare feet make almost no sound at all against the paper]

Sir, I'm not about to criticize a rescue. And I'm not on a time table. Just...

transportationally challenged, at the moment.

[action]

[abidinglaw]

Certainly. I would not risk the distance to the floor from here were I you.

[He kneels, now, and after checking quickly beneath the bed to make certain that the cat does no lurk there he draws himself up and does his best to seem less imposing. He lowers his voice, and keeps himself from making violent gestures with his hands.][An awkward pause. He watches he within this time, balancing an attempt not to patronize her with the effort not to harm her. For this he notes her reactions carefully.]

How did this happen?

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

I wish I knew. I woke up like this.

[a laugh] I guess it's better than waking up in the river. [not that she'd minded all that much. Being a naiad had been rather enjoyable.]

[The lowered voice and the controlled motions are certainly helpful, but she wouldn't have expected anything else, considering the way he'd entered the room. And when he kneels, she gets a better look at his face, recognition dawning.]

Oh! I know you. [your lack-of-uniform hides nothing, sir. She remembers running into you while you were sewing it]

[action]

[abidinglaw]

My goodness.

[The recognition seems to hit him too, her features having been hidden by distance and quite reduced. Somehow his having encountered her before makes her yet more worthy of his attention in his own eyes. More worthy of his care. It is in service of care that he takes and holds a breath, and adds,]

A tea-cup. I might convey you in a tea-cup.

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

[she can't help but laugh] If you keep helping me, I'm going to have to find a way to pay you back.

[there's a pause as she considers this proposal, torn between relief and amusement. He could have picked her up, of course. She'd assumed it would happen when she'd sent her call for help. But there was something a bit more reassuring about being conveyed in an object, rather than a hand.

An object with sides.]

I know we have some in the kitchen.

[action]

[abidinglaw]

Nonsense.

[This with regard to the very notion of being paid back. That cat. Where is that cat? And what would he have done with himself if he had heard her plea, delayed in coming to her door, and later found out that that cat had bought its owner a particularly gruesome gift? He shudders to think of it. Standing now, deliberately, carefully, he glances behind himself.]

Will you be quite alright if I leave you here a moment?

[He doesn't want to pick her up with his hands - no. She has reminded him of his difficulty sewing. What if he were to drop her? Or worse?]

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

[she nods, glancing around.] Plenty fine. I'm not planning on wandering. [she knew how precarious some of those book piles were, and she didn't feel like being squished.]

Cupcake's probably in Len's room, but even if she's not, I'll be fine if the door's shut.

[a small smile. It's not quite embarrassed, but she knows there's no reason he has to do this. She's grateful] Thanks.

[action]

[abidinglaw]

[Presuming, of course, that the cat is not in this very room this very moment. He does not know the age nor the size of this beast -- this cupcake. There are plenty of places for a kitten to hide amongst the clutter if it is young, or even if it is merely a breed genetically predisposed toward having a slighter build than the common domestic species. He cannot bring himself to inquire, however. He would expect that she is doing her best to keep the creature from her mind.]

I shall only be in the kitchen.

[He says. By now he has come to stand. It is only once he has taken a single step away that he realizes what he must do. Perhaps he feels its weight in his pocket and that itself is enough of a reminder to his unconscious mind. Whatever the reason, when he turns again and stoops it is to place a small tin soldier on guard beside the shrunken girl. He offers her a smile as if to say that this idol will protect her in his stead, and with that he is up, and out of the room, taking care to close the door behind him.]

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

[it's unexpectedly touching, having that little soldier standing guard. She doesn't feel particularly endangered --more inconvenienced than anything-- but the thoughtfulness of the gesture makes her smile. Though, looking over the plastic figure and it's tin weapon, it does make her think. She doesn't want to hurt either Cupcake or her kitten, if she happens to run into them, but it might not be a bad idea to fashion some kind of weapon to ward them off if they viewed her as a particularly fun cat toy. Maybe a tiny plastic sword, like the kind found in fancy cocktails. Or a toothpick.

...she really should have let Jack start to teach her sword fighting before this all happened.]

[action]

[abidinglaw]

[So. The kitchen. Now that he knows that he need not fear where his boots may fall he makes the trip to the kitchen quickly, and after a brief pause at the thought of rifling through the possessions - after hesitating with due reluctance, his fingers upon the handle of a cupboard door - he sets about the task of locating a suitable cup. The majority of them are too deep, the bottoms too dark by far, but he does at last put his hands upon a ceramic coffee mug which is built to be broad-based rather than high-lipped. Its interior is slippery with varnish, but he reminds himself that this girl is not a spider in a bath tub and heads back to the room.

And it takes that long for him to wonder whether the other residents of this place might have suffered a similar affliction to Jilly's. The thought slows his pace dramatically.]

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

[Jilly was never one to sit still. While she tried to stay in one place while she waited for Norrington's return, she'd begun to fidget as thirty seconds turned into a minute...which turned into two. Still not straying far from her tin protector (as it seemed wrong to abandon her post entirely) she's wandered far enough from the journal to retrieve a few paintbrushes that had apparently fallen, unnoticed, under her bed. One bottlecap and a hair tie had been retrieved as well, set neatly beside the journal for her to consider. She wasn't quite sure what use they could come to...but it seemed that having liftable and easily manipulated objects might be a good idea until she'd figured a way to fashion useful tools from them.

Or maybe it just gave her something to do.]

[action]

[abidinglaw]

[The door creaks open. Despite himself, the admiral cannot shake the though that perhaps his mousey host might have taken it into her mind to approach the door for some reason or another, and that if he were not cautious the sheet of wood might cruelly run her down. He makes enough space for his head to peek through and checks that the space in front of the entrance is clear before he steps within, and shuts the door behind him.]

I hope that this will do.

[He says, first crouching, and then kneeling on the floor. It seems to him that walking toward her would do more harm than good -- better for her to approach him than to require her to trust that all the weight of his body will not bear down on her in the course of a mis-step. He places the cup on the floor two feet in front of him, ensuring that she need not come too close after all, and tries his best to smile. It is likely too high for her to climb within, but at the very least she can assess its relative merits from without.]

[action]

[tehoniongirl]

Oh!

[when he sets it down, she smiles. There's a pause as she considers her meager collection of items, before she picks up the hair tie (it would probably be the most versatile if she wanted to use it, later) and makes her way over to the cup. Standing beside it, it was a towering wall of white ceramic...one she couldn't even reach the top of if she stretched up on tip-toes.]

That'll be perfect. [she certainly wouldn't have to worry about falling out.]

[Stepping back from the cup, she looks up at her benefactor with a smile] I just realized...you're helping me with all this, and I don't even know your name. I should have asked earlier...I'm sorry.

[action]

[abidinglaw]

Admiral James Norrington.

[With the fair warning promoted by moving his hand slowly toward the cup he takes it gently by the handle and tips it at such an angle as to allow the young lady to step inside if she desires.]

And you, my Lady Mouse?

Re: [action]

[tehoniongirl]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Admiral James Norrington. [there's a slight note of...not quite teasing, but something akin...when she repeats his title, but it's not meant poorly. He's certainly earned her respect, with or without the title, and what little jest is there is tinged with fondness and the familiarity of yet another oh-so-formal military man.

One hand resting on the rim, she sets her hair tie inside before stepping lightly in, herself.] Jilly. I'm Jilly.