middaeg | Octeuril Catch All

Entry tags:

Octeuril Catch All

Who: Kaede and you! And people doing quests.
When: All month where convenient
Where: Within the City, The Slums, Outside the City
What: Another monthly thread container!
Warnings: Goose. Will update as needed.

I. Duck, duck...duck? [River Temese Bridge]

[One of the bridge's occupants doesn't seem interested in an argument, at least for the moment. Nor the lanterns, nor the decorations. No, Kaede's leaned over the rail and staring over the side, her scarlet feathered tail lashing in agitation behind her. She isn't being too mindful of where it's going, and smacking people in the ankles with it is a very real possibility. There's a stiff core to the tail, under all the fluffy feather.

Get close enough—an easier proposition this time, as she's distracted—and one can hear her mildly distressed muttering.]

...those ducks have shells on them.

[What the fuck. How long have they been this way. How long has this been happening.

This is messing her up.]

II. Garden Troubles [Slums]

[Seeing a garden—one that wasn't a mess of weeds, or a vandalized sunflower field—was nostalgic, in a way. As was...seeing parts of it all torn up. At least the pawprints around kept it from reminding her too much of that.

Kaede had split up—the better to flush the wolves out of whatever burrow they were hiding in. She could be quiet when she wished, her senses were sharp despite the rain, and she could get into places someone more human-shaped couldn't.

Something rustled the plants in a row nearby, and Kaede stilled. She couldn't see through to the other side—there was a heavily laden trellis in the way—but she could pinpoint the sound quite easily. The Chimera gathered herself, coiling her legs and back like a cat about to pounce, and sprang up, almost ten feet up, until she could clear the trellis and come back down on the sound.

...and, hopefully, what was rustling on the other side of the trellis was one of the creatures they were after, and not a person. That would just be dreadfully inconvenient, wouldn't it.

At least the Chimera's on the smaller side.]

III. honk [Outside the City]

[Kaede didn't choose this quest. It chose her, with a yank on her tail. And a sharp pain from a few of her feathers coming away, but mostly from the sheer indignity of it. The Chimera roars—a proper one, not a grumbly mumble—and whirls about, but the culprit was already dashing away down the dirt road, a few of her scarlet feathers clutched in a clawed hand.

The goose-feathered Harpy finds this all quite hilarious, shrieking with laughter as he dashes off, the Chimera hot on his heels. He's quite fast, though, even without flying. The Harpy occasionally makes a few fluttering hops when she gets too close, but he doesn't take off.

Occasionally, Kaede's chased the Harpy up onto some building—a barn, a cottage, a stable—and is sitting crouched at the bottom, tail lashing like a frustrated cat. The Harpy looked fairly smug up there.

Sometimes Kaede doesn't make it that far, though. Her knees had been prone to aching lately, sometimes going a bit numb. And this time they crumpled entirely, sending the Chimera toppling facefirst into the road. It wasn't raining today, but the ground was still plenty damp—and mud got on her clothes and once-bright feathers immediately. Kaede tried to get back up, but only pins and needles answered where her legs should have been.

Worst of all, the Harpy was impossibly far away down the road now. His off-white feathers were mockingly bright against the fading summer colors.]

Get back here you little shit—

[Kaede's opinions were intact! She'll probably live. After she gets back up.]

Wildcard

[For prompts or closed threads not seen here! My plotting post is here for ease of use. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Swimsuit season's over, there'd probably be some great deals!]

Either that or they're mutants.

[Said without a...well, no, maybe with a little bit of irony. The Chimera's tufted ears twitched backwards, betraying her unsettled mood where her face didn't.]

Were they always like this, and I just...forgot?

Maybe the people who get brought here aren't the only ones who get affected by this world.

[Her choice of words bother Kairi even without those ears giving her mood away. With a frown, she shakes her head.]

Forgot something like this? Isn't it more likely that you just haven't seen them before? How long have you been here?

....hmph.

[That idea didn't sit so nicely with Kaede. She shook her head, too--less in a denial, and more a vain attempt to clear such unpleasant thoughts from her mind.]

Since spring.

[...it had been that long, hadn't it.]

Spring, huh? Well... that means you haven't seen the fall wildlife before, right? Maybe they migrate. Or this is a winter coat.

[Granted, she's not sure how a turtle duck could actually migrate, but nature pulls off some weird stuff sometimes. Besides, it could still just be a strange pattern on the feathers.]

There are a lot of possible answers. It doesn't need to have anything to do with your memory.

[Something something African or European swallows. Turtle ducks. Same difference in this discussion.]

Hm.

[Kaede hadn't considered that, though. Her feathery tail swishes again before she snorts--this time, a more human sound.]

Aren't you nice.

I try.

[She can tell there's a bit of mockery in her voice, but Kairi smiles nonetheless. Yeah, nice is kind of her thing.

She offers her hand.]

My name's Kairi.

[There was a hand coming towards her. Instead of the usual greeting response, Kaede's mind fell on a different track.

She twitched away, shoulders huddling up and feathers smoothing to her body. More like a stray animal shrinking away from touch than an aloof person.

But, once she saw the hand isn't coming after her, specifically, Kaede's shoulders lost some of their tension. Her claws stopped digging into the rail, and while she kept watching Kairi's hand, didn't recoil away from it again.

This all passed in the space of a moment, from the time it took her tail to move from one side to the other.]

...Kaede.

[Wow. That reaction said more than words probably ever could have. In fact, Kairi almost pulled her hand back immediately. The last thing she wanted was to frighten anyone.

But before she could withdraw it, Kaede was relaxing. Well, in comparison to how she had been when she extended her hand in the first place, at least. So, Kairi just... held it out for a moment, looking perplexed.]

Kaede. [She finally said, dropping her hand.] Sorry. I didn't mean... Sorry.

[There were...a lot of things that went into that. The instincts of a flighty deer, the thoughts of a high-strung bird--the wariness of a predator, and the warped perceptions of a person under all of them.

The Monster ruffled her shoulders and crest, the feathers there lifting up before smoothing away this time like they were dislodging dust. Nothing happened there. It was all just something to be swept under a rug.]

You wouldn't want to touch my hands anyway.

[Kaede tapped her hooked claws against the railing.]

[Naturally, that comment gets Kairi's eyes to go straight to Kaede's hands. Yeah, those do look pretty deadly.

But she smiles nonetheless.]

Well, it's nice to meet you anyway.

[The Chimera...blinks, in response. That wasn't how things were supposed to go. Where was the "you're scary!", the recoiling or startled squeaking?]

...if. You say so.

[Her voice wasn't quite as cold as it had been; more faintly befuddled. A little glimpse under the armor before Kaede shrugged it back into place.]

[You've encountered a Disney Princess now, Kaede. Even Kouta couldn't match her for sheer friendliness and determination to see the good in people.]

I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. Besides, it's nice to run into someone who's been around a while. I just got here.

[And she really hasn't adjusted yet.]

Not that I'm expecting you to explain things to me or anything.

[Friend?? What is that word, Kaede suddenly doesn't know what it means.]

Hmph.

[Kaede shrugged, and her feathers ruffled and resettled themselves in the process, though her tail kept lazily flicking back and forth like nothing was the matter. Antisocial aloofness was hard when your body contrived to ruin all your poker faces.]

Assume they gave you the talk about what you're turning into.

[This girl seemed human, and smelled human, but Kaede's nose was the weakest of her senses. But some Monsters just weren't very obvious.

Not like her, who had no chance of hiding her horns here.]

[Learning animal tells was going to go a long way for her here, apparently. Kairi didn't know exactly what Kaede's feathers and tail were signalling to her, but they were still telling her more than the woman actually said.]

I'm a witch, actually. I'm going to be starting my lessons very soon. Not that I know anything about how magic in this world actually works.

[So unfair. All the training she'd done back home, wasted.]

[The Monstrous woman snorted, attention split halfway between the waterway and the human next to her.]

Lucky you, not growing any new limbs.

Eh, I dunno. A tail might be useful.

[She chuckled, trying to make a joke out of it, but it was pretty weak.]

[Kaede found it at least passingly amusing, from how she snorted. The tail currently in the equation curled upwards at the end, like some kind of cat's. A really, really feathery cat.]

You sure?

[She...didn't mind the tail so much, now. It was pretty to look at, and Kaede had gone almost two weeks now without any close encounters with doors.]

Well I won't know for sure unless I try it out, naturally.

[Another thought occurs to her, and she sighs wistfully.]

Of course, if I was traveling worlds the way I was supposed to, I'd probably end up in a world where I had one eventually.

You--?

[Wait, back up. An ear turned in Kairi's direction as Kaede looked at her with more than just split attention now.]

You're a...planeswalker?

[The word was still a bit strange for Kaede to say; she wasn't all that familiar with the term. Yet, at least.]

Uh...

[She can't answer for a moment, not knowing how to deal with a response like that, using a word she's not familiar with.]

I've never heard that word before. But if it means someone who goes around between worlds, then... I was in training for that, yes. A type, anyway. I don't suppose "Keyblade" is a word that means anything to you.

[Kaede tilted her head, antlers emphasizing the otherwise slight gesture.]

Close enough, I guess.

[Then it was Kaede's turn for some blank bewilderment.]

If you say it's a big key I'll pretend to be surprised.

[She's imagining some outsized set of keys you'd whap someone with in a parking lot, not the Disney definition.]

[She can't help but laugh a bit.]

That's not wrong, exactly. There's more to it than that, but... short version. We travel from world to world, keeping the balance between Light and Darkness.

Or, well, fully-fledged Keyblade wielders do. I'm just an apprentice. But that's why I was talking about traveling between worlds.

[Well, ignoring the whole kidnapping thing. And the time her world got swallowed by darkness. And the other time-

Honestly she's usually gone to other worlds involuntarily.]

[One of Kaede's ears twitch when Kairi laughs, though she said nothing about it being loud.

Chandra had never mentioned using objects that way; as Kaede understood it, planeswalking was just something she...did, like walking anywhere else. Kaede didn't pry into the specifics.

...these particular specifics made her expression flatten into less than impressed one, though.]

Balance between light and darkness.

[Said with a healthy dose of skepticism.

She's from the wrong genre for this, sorry Kairi.]

[Well that's some pretty obvious skepticism. Kairi shrugs in response.]

Look, when you see weird shadowy creatures that are literal embodiments of darkness crawling around, you learn to accept these kind of things pretty quickly.

Though hopefully none of those show up here. I'm not quite sure this world has any way to defend itself from the Heartless.

I suppose. Still seems like a big judgment call to make.

[Kaede tended to assume The Worst about people, anyway. And her understanding of that conflict was superficial at best, even before Aefenglom granted her night-piercing eyes. The dark was...what it was. Not nice, but there were far fewer people to bother Kaede in it. Once her vectors could guide her around like whiskers, the dark became like any other obstacle.

Still, it would be nice to see her feet sometime. And to see the dawn again.]

What's a Heartless?

[Not someone missing some vital organs shambling around anyway, that was clearly just a zombie.]

Octeuril Catch All

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