May 2022 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

MAY 2022 TDM

INTRODUCTION

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.

All TDMs are game canon. You can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Each TDM will provide a scenario for how characters arrive in-game that particular month.

Playing TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.

Current players are allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a log with the prompts. Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

A PLACE IN THIS WORLD

Content Warnings: Possible insanity via cuts by thorns. Temporary nullification of abilities.

DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS

The world comes into focus in one sharp, overwhelming rush. You are laying on the ground surrounded by staggering walls of flowers of all types and colors. Their sweet scent fills the air and the sky above is clear, blue, beautiful, and endless. It would be easy to be lulled into a quiet nap in such a peaceful place. You can even hear a soft, disembodied voice singing songs from some unknown place all around you. After some time, this siren song creates an intense yearning that will eventually bring you to your feet and pull you forward. You are filled with the urge to find someone important. You may know who or you might just have some aimless, faceless person at the forefront of your mind.

All you know is that when you finally find them, you'll know. Is it love? Is it a friend you have always needed? The perfect enemy? Only time will tell, but for now, you must find them. The flower maze is dense and for now, it doesn't seem like flying out and above them is an option. If you try, you just wind up vaulted back into the maze. Nope! This trial is about using other means of exploration. Maybe you can destroy the flowers, but you will find that this flower field is apparently endless. If you get cut by thorns along the way, you will become increasingly hectic about finding this mystery person. Some have been thrown into insane desperation just looking for their People among the flowers.

But once you finally find them, you're both filled with relief and the flowers around you blossom wider. You can then treat the flower maze like a solvable puzzle and get your way out of it. However, some people spend a bit more time in the maze since once you do find your person or people, you will be stricken with the urge to talk to them, to "open up" about your yearning to find them...even if you've never met them before!

OUT OF THE WOODS

Just outside of the flower maze is a little festival set up just on the edge of Willow and partway into Epiphany! Little stalls of food and drinks have been set up - and we mean little! The good folk who set up these stalls are magical cats standing upright and wearing clothes like little people! All the stalls are cat-sized and so are the dishes and food - which means most of the people walking through will likely be quite a bit bigger! That's okay, the cat folk seem happy to serve you bigger or multiple helpings of their yummy soups and bread. None of them seem able to really communicate with the new arrivals, but that's okay, their cute meows are fun to listen to anyway.

The music is a bit more pronounced here and a handful of cat couples are dancing around. Don't be surprised if they encourage you to join in the dancing! Maybe you didn't actually find someone in the flower maze - if not, the cat folk will encourage you to dance with another new arrival to get to know them! Because apparently dancing with someone you don't know is a good formal introduction? Ah well. Sometimes it's just the idea that counts.

There will also be some supplies to help patch people up who have gotten a lot of cuts from the flower maze. Some of the bouts of insanity are probably still going a bit hectic, so you might want to lay down in the recovery area until you feel a bit more stable. Talking to people apparently helps with the stability, so maybe strike up a conversation with a fellow newbie?

ENCHANTED

Content Warnings: Optional selective amensia and/or altered sense of self, possible monster/creature violence, temporary enchantments, forced relocations.

LONG STORY SHORT

You're in a very unusual, specific outfit and in a place you might have seen once or twice in a storybook or in the imagination of your childhood. For some, you might pick up on what's happening immediately. For others, you might be so immersed in the role that you don't realize it - but you're featuring in a classic fairy tale. Maybe it's Sleeping Beauty or Little Red Riding Hood or Tale of the White Snake or The Mirror of Matsuyama. Either way, you're the main character or the main antagonist and it looks like you're going to have to play out the story with whoever you're stuck with!

The other person in the trial can either match up to the other side of the story or just arrive as themselves and have to play along. Trying to just abandon the trial is quite literally impossible! You're stuck in the weird woods or high tower and trying to "leave" just results in you going in repeated cycles until you wind up where you started. You have a role to fill and you might as well get used to playing roles in Folkmore! It's time to understand how these trials work. What lesson are you supposed to take away?

If you're grumbling about it or are left confused, don't worry! Thirteen will appear to those struggling and explain the situation: "You need to play out the story! C'mon. Everyone knows this story...Right? Well, whatever, it's obvious! If you play your part, I promise I'll give you something you want." Can you really trust a fox though? Especially the fox who brought you here? She laughs before you can really pester her for more information and vanishes in a burst of red dust. Foxes really are mischievous, aren't they...At least most fairy tales are incredibly short, basic, and straightforward so most people should be able to figure it out!

In theory.

DAYLIGHT

At least the Fox wasn't lying. When you complete the task of the story, the fairy tale world will melt into one of the settings in Folkmore and you will be brought back into the current reality. You will be left in the weird clothes, but fear not! A mystery trunk has appeared in front of you and whoever you completed the trial with. Inside the trunk, you will find some of your canon clothes and a few canon items. Nearby, there will be some weapons sticking out of the ground: basic swords, guns, shields, etc. These items might not be enchanted, but at least you have something to work with!

Better yet, you don't necessarily have to complete the Long Story Short prompt to find these trunks either! They seem to be dotted around Folkmore and you might find them just by virtue of exploration! The trunks seem to mysteriously know who is opening them so you won't find someone else's stuff by accident, but you might have to fight over who gets the sword in the stone...

A word of caution to those who grab the weapons...You will immediately be tested on how good you are with them. As soon as you have pulled them out of the ground, the ground will begin trembling and a serpent-like creature will form out of the ground. If you're in Wintermute, you have a sizeable icy creature to deal with. If you're in Cruel Summer, meet the fire-breathing snakey nightmare that's going to try and roast you alive. Don't think Epiphany or Willow will have gentler creatures! They might be covered in moss or flowers but they will hit just as hard. You have to defeat the angry creature - or try running for your life. They are relatively easy to beat and people without powers can manage if they are highly skilled or...really lucky...Or if someone far more capable finds them! Good luck. As a pro-tip, maybe don't pull weird swords out of the ground in the future.

Comments

Maleficent, Mistress of Evil (myth)

[medeiun]

DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS

( She stirs from where she lies in a heap of feathers, great wings unfurling slowly to expose a woman — certainly not human, with her flashing cat eyes and her dark, fanged mouth. Everything to her is sharp: the hard slants that are the bones of her cheeks, the long horns that curve upwards from her head, the black wings tipped in razor-edged claws.

She tilts her head upwards, breathing in the sweet scent of flowers, and for only a moment she thinks home. But immediately after, she knows she is not in the Moors, and that this is not home. She remembers being with the Fox, that impossibly ancient, knowing creature. How much time has passed?

Maleficent gets to her feet, and stands tall in in billowing black, with a row of raven's skulls adorning her forehead and waist: the garments she had been wearing when she'd said good-bye to Aurora. It was only a temporary parting, though bittersweet. She knew they would meet again. And she knew things would never be as they once were.

But now... she is here, and she realises her farewell was more lasting — she has crossed the threshold from something she cannot return to. She lives on back home, the Fox assures her. Aurora won't be left behind without her; the sweet girl will not mourn or ache.

But Maleficent will, and does. Her heart hitches, and she hears singing. Beautiful, melancholy. Longing seeps in and ensnares her, so powerful that it even staves off the anger that would be her initial reaction, the tool she learned to use so long ago. No, she is not angry. Not yet. She is only yearning, and she begins to move, barefoot, quick.

She can find her daughter again. She is meant to. Navigating the thick maze is difficult with the bulk of her wings, but she keeps them as tightly pressed to herself as she can. She does lose patience at times, and with a quick sweep of her hand and a flare of acerbic green, flowers are sent crumbling backwards out of her way. But the labyrinth is endless, and the dark fey keeps moving. She won't stop until she finds—

—you. )

LONG STORY SHORT

( Maleficent does not know humans' fairy tales. But she recognises the scene before her, all the same.

For she has lived it.

....Perhaps a slightly different version than what various storybooks may hold (and perhaps your world has its own versions of the classic tale), but she might as well be looking at one of her own memories, more or less.

The scene is the room of a grand castle, with a large bed, and (as though to make sure everyone understands what's going on here), a spinning wheel nearby.

Whomever you are, you're the role of the Sleeping Beauty, and Maleficent comes to an abrupt halt a few feet away, eyes wide and flashing a venomous green at the spinning wheel. On her way to this room, the Fox had briefly appeared to her and told her that she must play her part. Now she understands.

(Though is her part that of the Villain or the Saviour?) )

You.

( She snaps at you, voice quiet but cutting. She does not like this game, this invasiveness, this distortion of what she has known. Is this meant to torment her? This is not hers. You are not hers. )

Move away from that spinning wheel. Now.

DAYLIGHT

( She doesn't touch the weapons. She simply doesn't have a need for them; she trusts only her own powers. She will not lay a finger upon the crude tools of mankind.

...If any of them happen to be made of iron, she literally can't lay a finger upon them, either. Fae Weaknesses.

Getting too close to something jutting out of the ground like that feels wrong, regardless. This place has already shown its tricks. No, she ignores them entirely. And if she sees anyone else nearby seeming to be eyeing the weapons or drawing close, Maleficent will pause, debating for a moment whether she wants to assist, before ultimately calling out in her even, cool voice. )

I would advise you not to touch those.

( Or perhaps you've already yanked something out of the ground, and have found yourself abruptly swept up into battle. It could be any of the various lands in which you end up, but Maleficent swoops up like a giant bird of prey and lands close by, hands lifted and glowing with green flame. There's a dry, pointed glance down to the weapon in your hands, and the strange woman with the inhuman features seems to be judging you within an inch of your life. )

You should not have touched that.

---

WILDCARD / ETC

_{ooc ➤ skeletals / pm
Feel free to hit me up for questions, concerns, ideas, etc. Also, respond in prose if that's your preference, and I'll gladly follow suit!}

thousand cuts

[overnightoaks]

[ Henry's sporting brand new wings of his own— a mismatched set, one the wing of a sparrow, the other the wing of a lark— that he doesn't quite know how to use. He tried using them to fly up and out of the maze, but came crashing down to earth soon again after. Instead, he's just trying to make it out the old fashioned way, with the help of a little druidic magic to get the plants to part a little wider so his wings don't get caught on their stems.

He stops in his tracks when he sees someone else coming his way. ]

There you are—!

[ The words come out from him before he even realizes he's saying them. But as soon as he does, it occurs to him that he doesn't know this woman. ]

Uh... I'm sorry, I just got so relieved at finding somebody else in here... Hail and well met, my name is Henry Oak,

[medeiun]

( Maleficent keeps moving; there's no thought in her to stop. Not until she reaches what she must find — who she must find. It's almost spell-like, and when she finally catches sight of someone up ahead, for a moment she's still captivated by what's been leading her. Her heart lifts and for a moment she's gazing at the person with something almost like adoration; she's found them. Her most precious one, with golden hair.

.....But the spell wavers as she takes in the sight of him: not Aurora but a man, a stranger. With glass over his eyes and inharmonious wings. One of the dark fey....? Her expression shifts to a frown, chin lifting up so that she can gaze downwards at him with an intense searching; she is still a bit dazed, confused. )

What are you?

( ...That's maybe a little rude, Maleficent. But she's only so recently even learned of her own kind, learned what she is. And the last time she woke somewhere strange and new, it was because of the dark fey bringing her to them, to the last of their kind.

Still, he doesn't... exactly smell like one. She is unsure, and still grappling with that odd feeling of relief to have found him... but he is not hers. )

[overnightoaks]

[ Henry pauses, frowning a bit, confused. He had been expecting a different W-word at the beginning of that question. "Who are you?" is easy. He's Henry Oak. "What are you?" is a little harder. ]

Oh—! Uh... Well, let's see... I'm a geologist? I'm a proud father of two. I'm, uh, a husband to my beautiful wife...

[ He gets the feeling none of these will be the answer she's looking for, but he doesn't really know what other answers to give. ]

[medeiun]

( "Geologist" is not a term she's familiar with, but the other two certainly are. A father, a husband.... No, it doesn't give her more of an understanding of his species, but it does place him in a certain category. He has a wife (beautiful, he says, the way a young man freshly in the throes of a new romance might gush about his lover), and two children.

He has people he's been taken from, too.

Maleficent continues to look him over with her stare — confused, steely, some strange mixture of the two. Through it all, she can sense the flowers that make up the maze around them blossoming out further, their sweet scents a natural perfume. And with it, some strange... desire to talk to him? To find out more about this person? She's not fully aware of this atypical sensation she's feeling, though she asks with all the mannerism of someone unused to.... conversation. Words awkward at the edges, uncomfortably stiff. )

How... old are they? The children.

long story short

[backronym]

[Theo is absolutely not Aurora. He's not nearly as refined, as graceful, or as well-suited to a flowing scoop-neck dress. At the moment, frozen in a half-step, he doesn't even look as well-practiced as the princess at remaining generally upright under his own power.

(Maybe the persistent hopefulness at the edges is a bit like the person he's meant to be, soft and quiet and doggedly real in spite of the hurts every world seemed inclined to pile on.)]

--really?

[Theo's well aware of how this story is meant to go. He's also fairly certain that the woman (or entity, perhaps; the taste in the air since she's appeared feels more than a touch like The Enchantress more than anything else) is meant to be encouraging the opposite behaviour.]

[medeiun]

Yes. ( Maleficent answers immediately, dark mouth releasing the words in a hiss. In her tension she may seem angry, but it stems from some odd blossom of fear. For her, perhaps the two emotions have been so intermingled over time that they are one and the same.

Her eyes flash with that green, as though lit with fire. Why should she try to protect him? He is only some boy. And if what the Entity had said is true (it most certainly is), she must let this story unfold for this dreamstate to be over.

....And yet she stands here, warning him. )

It is Cursed. As soon as you touch it, you will...

( The dark fairy's words halt for a moment, expression unreadable. Then, after a moment, she repeats the same words she'd once unleashed. It had once been with hatred, fury: raw and unchecked. She'd wanted to see their suffering. Waited years and years for it.

Now the words are quieter, said slowly. )

....fall into a sleeplike death. One from which you shall never return.

[backronym]

[This is not quite how the story goes. Or, at any rate, this feels slightly crooked from how the story is meant to go, like a thin crack in a mirror that the eye has trouble catching.

These aren't quite the flashing green eyes he's used to, either. Still, they're very much tugging on an instinct to hold still and listen.]

Isn't...? [Honestly, it's embarrassing to have to speak up about it. It's something she clearly knows. It's something this particular pocket of the universe seems to be requiring of them.] Aren't you meant to want that?

[That feels harsh. One hand lifts and waves, safely clear of the spinning wheel.]

To keep things trotting along?

[medeiun]

( He isn't wrong. She is meant to want that. And she did want that once, more than anything else. To hurt the girl, so that she could hurt Stefan. And some part of her wanted to hurt as much else as she could in that process. She'd delighted in seeing humans' hurt, fear, anger, upset, all directed towards her. Let it come. Let them see her as the darkest thing they had ever known.

She'd played that role once in a story of her own making, and she's supposed to play it again now. Perhaps some part of her still prefers to be seen as villain, always will. And yet, something in the pit of her stomach aches quietly. )

...I am, ( she admits, eyes moving to the spindle that awaits him. His face is soft, sweet. Maleficent hesitates, not knowing how to express the reason for her hesitance. He clearly knows how this story goes, though, so she turns it back around on him for a moment. )

...Are you really so willing to let yourself be put under such a curse? For the sake of this trivial game?

daylight

[integrous]

[ It's a good thing that the woman calls out - and just at the right moment. Asahi's hand was already moving halfway towards one of the swords, though the girl seems to freeze the moment she hears someone say that.

Her hand pulls back, held almost defensively close to her chest, and her head turns to look in the direction of the person that just spoke up. She doesn't recognize Maleficent - but then again, Asahi hasn't recognized anyone in this place, so that doesn't feel like too much of a surprise. ]

.. why?

[ It doesn't sound defensive. Like Asahi is at least willing to give advice from a stranger a shot - though there's still something thoughtful about her, halfway wary. ]

What do you know about what's going on? [ She's got to know something, right? Why else would this random woman tell her to not touch the weapons? ]

[medeiun]

( Maleficent doesn't answer right away. She takes her time, eyes studying the young woman she'd called out to, looking her up and down purposefully with a manner that's some mixture of intensely curious and intensely judgmental.

Finally she replies, only after she's drawn to her full height and her chin is jutted upwards a bit, allowing her to gaze down to the girl. )

Only a fool would lay hands upon something of unknown origin.

( She says it as though already assuming the girl is a fool... )

One cannot be certain what magic imbues it. What consequences may come.

[integrous]

[ Yes, that.. sure is the implication here, isn't it. It's not even thinly veiled. It's not really veiled at all. Asahi is a pretty perceptive person by nature due to the way she grew up, but that perceptiveness isn't even needed here.

She's pretty sure anyone could pick up on what Maleficent is trying to say here, and it immediately offends her.

.. not that it takes a lot to offend the girl, but still. ]

Does being desperate make someone a fool instantly?

[ Asahi's shoulders straighten, like she's trying to make herself a little bit taller here in a way that's instinctively defensive. ]

This place is strange, and as I have experienced it so far, dangerous as well. [ Especially compared to Asahi's own world, where any and all dangers are more rooted in realistic causes rather than fairytales and monsters. ] People want to be able to defend themselves.

[ She wants to.

Yet she's not turning to grab the weapon anyway. It's a weird mixture of her actually listening to the woman, yet seeming absolutely determined to defend her own point here as well. ]

[medeiun]

( Maleficent has grown to enjoy seeing people cower beneath her. Despite time changing certain things, softening certain edges, there is a part of her that will always delight in watching someone greet her with fear.

...And yet. There is another part that finds some quiet intrigue in the fact the girl doesn't immediately break down into fear. It's a contradiction within Maleficent, but she is full of those.

She listens to the girl speak, and... she makes a good point. Not everyone has the powers Maleficent herself possesses. The girl isn't blindly touching things, but rather trying to defend herself. It's smart. )

It seems I was mistaken, in that case.

( Admitting such a thing is not something Maleficent would once have done, but there is another young woman who has made her much softer than she once was. Her lips pull just a little at the corners, almost smiling — but not quite, more like an amused cat. )

But are you willing to face the consequence of what may happen afterwards? Is it of equal worth?

Long Story Short

[moralabsolutism]

[Rorschach read a lot as a kid, at least after he was sent to the group home once he'd been taken away from his mother. They hadn't had a lot of money to spend on the kids but they'd made sure to give them all a good education. He always liked fairy tales. They were clean-cut, easy to understand. There was a Good Guy and there was a Bad Guy and Good always defeated Evil. In hindsight, it was foreshadowing of how his mindset would end up as an adult.

So he knows this one pretty well. Sleeping Beauty. And apparently he's in the role of.....the princess? What. No really, who had a bad sense of humor putting him in this role? He remembers the tale well enough to know he has to prick his finger on a spindle in order to fall asleep. He's trying not to do so but the urge is nearly irresistible. The glove has come off his left hand and he's reaching towards the spinning wheel once again. Then he whirls around when he hears a sharp, cutting voice. He recognizes the figure in a vague way he can't put his finger on. He'd been nineteen when the animated Disney version had come out, far too old to be going to the theaters to see such nonsense, so he doesn't immediately know Maleficent for who she is.

But he does pause, taking in the strange looking woman just as she must be doing to him. For Rorschach, most women tend to be whores, sluts who just want one thing and that's it. But Maleficent is so beyond the realm of what normal women look like to him she doesn't really register as one at all to his senses, what with the horns, wings, and strange eyes. She's alien, different, almost ethereal in how she looks.

For his part, Rorschach still has his face on, the strange white fabric that has the black liquid move around slowly on his face. It never mixes together to create grey, instead always remaining a viscous liquid, the left and right side always mirroring each other as the shapes react to body heat and the expressions he makes. There's one of surprise and curiosity on his face now as he stares at this strange being, trying to figure out if she is friend or foe.]

[medeiun]

( The figure she's stopped is the shape of a man — but when he turns to look her way, she finds herself stunned at his appearance. His face. But Maleficent controls her expressions well, and she's regarding him with a cool gaze, albeit an intense one.

(What is he? Human...? He doesn't quite seem so, to her senses. More like... the echo of one.)

Maleficent knows her own power and has confidence in it, but she is no fool. There are things here that are outside her realm of knowledge and experience. She will be careful with this stranger, and for a moment, the two of them are just staring at each other with the same intention — trying to gauge the potential for a threat, or not.

After a long, tense pause, she finally asks, unsure of his capabilities with the strange mask-like covering(?) upon his visage. )

Can you speak?

thousand cuts bc i couldn't resist some possible softness... and return of rainbow!k lol

[obeir]

[ One would think that possessing a winged form perfectly suited for flight would vastly simplify the task of navigating the maze. But, unfortunately, the unexpected transformation K has undergone did not come with the kind of innate knowledge he's accustomed to as an android — where he was simply programmed with the knowledge necessary to exist within a human society, to successfully fulfill his duties.

In other words, he doesn't actually know how to fly. With wings, anyway. This leaves him to traverse the winding flower maze on foot, a process rendered considerably slower and more awkward than it would be if he knew how to regain his regular form. But a strange compulsion drives him on, an all-encompassing yearning he's unable to resist, even if the difficulty of the task has him occasionally grumbling in birdsong to himself.

Until—

Maleficent will find a small, round starling staring up at her from the ground in silence, but there's an unmistakable intelligence in those dark eyes. The sight of her fills him with a boundless sense of relief. Of belonging, and rightness, and other, less familiar emotions that certainly warrant closer examination. In time. For now, he's achieved his purpose. That's all that matters.

He spreads his wings with an air of uncertainty, hesitating. Rather than fluttering up to alight on the fey's shoulder as he wants to, for the moment he settles for hopping closer on little bird feet as the flowers surrounding them begin to bloom wider, beautiful petals fully unfurling.

He has, apparently, found his Person. ]

I love one (1) rainbow robo/bird....

[medeiun]

( Perhaps on some level, she of all people should realise that this yearning is the result of some enchantment (and there's an irony, certainly, in the fact that now she is the one guided forth by some compulsion, hand outstretched, fingertips waiting....) Though it is not the prick of a spindle she will find.

True, it is an image of golden curls and rosy cheeks that her mind and heart cling to, but the spell is such that when Maleficent turns a corner and is met with someone who is not Aurora, she still feels the enchantment's sweetness blossom within her as the flowers do, their scent a pleasant perfume that delights her senses. Her heart flutters with relief, with joy, still such a rare emotion for the dark fey to experience in its raw form. Her dark mouth parts with a wordless movement, almost as though to say Oh.

This is who she was meant to find.

She stares down to the little starling, her own great wings shifting slowly behind her, head tilting slightly to the side. There's a smile that lingers at her mouth, fond. )

Aren't you a pretty thing.

( Aurora is not the only one she misses. There is another, someone who was her closest companion for a very long time. Perhaps she is already partial to birds, and perhaps part of her understands that this one is not quite an ordinary bird at all. But overarching everything is the feeling that she has found the one she's been looking for.

Maleficent, unknowing of his flight predicament, offers a hand to invite him up. Long fingers uncurl, exposing her palm to him, gentle. )

death by a thousand cuts

[culver]

[If this was a dream--which Nill is becoming more and more certain it isn't--she doesn't think she would be lost for this long. But not matter how long she walks or how many turns she takes, she doesn't seem to be getting any closer to an exit. It's frustrating, and makes her willing to try anything she can to get out; but her powers aren't working right, leaving her with arms all scratched up by the thorns in the hedge walls.

She needs to get out of here. No, she needs to find someone. Maybe they can help her get out. She breaks into a jog, then a run. Her wings flare out behind her as she whips around corners, helping her keep her balance. Eventually, she starts to see portions of the maze that are burned away, and a warning bell in the back of her head tells her that she should avoid them and whoever made them, but it's too late. She sees a dark figure looming ahead of her, and barely manages to stop before running into her. She sees horns and lots of flowing black fabric and--wings, huge, black wings. Nill's eyes go wide, and she tilts her head back to stare up at the woman, her own much smaller wings flaring out behind her.]

[medeiun]

( It happens quickly, and startles Maleficent just as much as the girl. Her mind, practically consumed by the odd yearning that has her moving forward, is a dreamlike haze. For a moment, she sees golden locks and thinks Aurora, and even when she quickly realises the girl is not her daughter, the enchantment that's upon Maleficent pads her reaction. There is no anger, no disappointment. She simply stares down at the young girl, feeling strange, a bit confused, one hand lifted upwards from its instinctive attempt to catch the stranger who'd practically run right into her.

The hand hovers for a moment longer before it slowly lowers, and now Maleficent is fully taking the girl in, eyes intent and focused. She finds her gaze traveling purposefully to those small wings upon her back for a long moment. One of the fae?

The silence lingers as she's gazing down at those wide eyes looking back up at her. Finally, she breaks it, and though her voice is even and cold by default, there is something softer there at the edges. )

Are you all right?

[culver]

[In those few silent moments, Nill feels very much like a deer in the headlights. She knows she should move, but the possibility of danger has her frozen in place. The woman is tall, imposing, and some base instinct in Nill tells her that she's also powerful. She finds it impossible to look away, to step back, to do anything except stare up at her like an absolute idiot.

Finally, the woman's voice breaks the silence, and snaps the spell Nill cast over herself. She shuffles back a step, giving herself some space to breathe, and offers a jerky nod in response. Yeah, she's fine, just... she doesn't know. Intimidated? Embarrassed? A lot of things, right now.

Floundering with awkwardness, she lifts a hand to gesture at the woman before her, reciprocating the question without a word. Is she alright? Nill is pretty sure she can't do much damage just by running into someone (she's always been small for her age), but who knows. Maybe she stepped on her foot. God, she hopes she didn't step on her foot.]

Long Story Short

[phantomthot]

[the young girl Maleficent snaps that at is a girl of approximately fifteen Terran years with ridiculous masses of long black hair and previously hazy eyes.

was she in a trance?

she was in a trance. damnit. though, in all fairness, she'd expected a Titanese to make her go into a trance, not a strange world even stranger than the battle cruiser and Legion headquarters she'd just been moved into.

but she was still wearing a long, Earther gown while wearing a truly bizarre dunce's cap with gauze flowing from it. she immediately knocked that off, her gown was gauzy enough. and pretty. no one could deny that it was flattering. even her interrupter? maybe?

probably not]

Ooops! Ooops! Not touching that, I promise. [a long pause] Hi.

[medeiun]

( Maleficent can't be certain that the girl would be able to stop, and she is prepared to use more forceful means if she must. She doesn't know how the magic of this realm might function, or if her own would be able to do much good here, but she would certainly be willing to try.

So it is relieving that the child is broken from the spell — though Maleficent can't be certain it will last. She moves closer, as though ready to step in again as needed, though it's slowly, carefully. She is well aware that her appearance may frighten some, and while usually she is unconcerned about such matters, she doesn't want to frighten the girl off. Not while she is trying to protect her.

Though she stands stiff and awkward as she takes her in, eyes cool and unblinking. 'Hi', the girl says. Well. She doesn't seem afraid of her. )

...Hello. ( She is unused to such casual greetings, and the word feels strange against her tongue. Maleficent isn't quite sure what to make of all of this, but at least the girl has obeyed her. )

...Do you know of this story? Of how it must unfold?

[phantomthot]

[one of the things about the Traveler caste, they all had to strong-willed and even stronger in intelligence. both were essential to will oneself through multiple dimensions and not go mad in the process. but despite the ditzy persona she usually projected, she'd been a prodigy.

enough of a prodigy to be sent on a life-or-death mission at fifteen. part of that meant adapting to new situations and beings quickly. so of course Maleficent's appearance didn't throw her off balance. why would it? and she didn't frighten easily.

while Tinya looked up at her, smiling guilelessly]

Not really? It's not a story from home, I'm sure of that much. Is it one from yours?

daylight

[taveren]

[Once upon a time, there was a very foolish young man (a boy, really) who escaped horrors by entering a city that died at the hands of greater horrors, with only the bones left to show it had once been beautiful. But those horrors hadn't died, and that man with the naivety of a boy had followed them to a chest of treasure. Had listened when they whispered he should touch what living hands should not touch. Such a small, harmless-looking chest, and in it a fine golden dagger with a ruby that reflected light like fire. Like blood.

An image that will wake him up in cold sweats for the rest of his years, he's sure.

And now, here: a large, harmless-looking chest tucked away in a thicket like it was just waiting to be noticed by the same boy who used to daydream about uncovering some long lost relic in the Mountains of Mist; had run around excitedly showing off the eagle feather he'd found, and the carved stone he'd thought had looked like an ear from some fragment of statuary. That boy would have danced to brush foliage off a trunk and spy the hilts of weapons sticking up out of the ground.

But that was before the ruby-hilted dagger. Once cursed to within an inch of his life, twice shy.

His pulse is already a fast flutter neck when Maleficent speaks, but he's only looking--looking, hands balled at his sides, rooted in place by remembered fear. Someone coming up on him had gone unnoticed in its onset, so his jumping happens in double takes--once, for the sudden warning, and again once he spins and actually lays eyes on the speaker, horns and wings and all. Oh... no. Registering her almost sends him stumbling backward right onto the trunk and the weapons.

They'd fled into Shadar Logoth to escape Trollocs' claws and horns the first time; Light, did one just talk to him?]

What--what are you?

[By some miracle of mulishness in the face of perceived death, he voice wavers on what sounds like indignation, but doesn't break. His bloody damn heart can't take anymore of this shit! Can't a guy get one day off? Just one.]

You have a follower... [Wildcard]

[burnthewoods]

The Fox King has spotted Maleficent a number of times now. He glimpsed her shadow among the flowers, caught her scent as he wandered. She is unusual, not like the rest; she stands like Man, yet she boasts the wings of an eagle and the horns of a ram, carries a scent that is neither animal nor human and somehow wholly of the forest, the wild. The King isn't even entirely sure how he knows it and yet he does, like the memory of his dam's den, the river he drinks from, the forest, the hunt, the turning of seasons. It is a scent he knows even better than his own, somehow.

He must know more. Is it magic, like the Fire? Is this woman merely a witch or something else? He tails her in her travels until the opportunity presents itself for him to reveal himself, be it by her own notice or by a moment of optimal privacy. He approaches with his head bowed, his antlers borne to her despite his otherwise cautious posture, though no amount of court conduct hides the wrath that burns behind his guarded gaze, the fear that draws his muscles taut.

"You..." he growls slowly. "What manner of creature are you? From whence do you come, over field or under tree?" How am I to face you, in trust or in hate?