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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
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imeanforever
imeanforever
"Right. If that doesn't work there's an option for you in particular between getting away clean and suicide; he won't expect your singing trick and will ask questions, so you could sing your answers and hope he's usefully enthralled. But better to avoid him entirely. He probably won't be nearby. He has had enough contact with Yellow to make a transaction, but did not routinely visit or consider him a friend or anything. ...Also, if you see a tall silver-skinned blue-eyed fairy, also leave. You can still back out if you're scared."
wormcan
"No, I can do it. Especially since those ones aren't even likely to be there. But I see why you say Fairyland is dangerous."
imeanforever
"Okay. First I'm going to make a gate to one of my trees, so I have a good place to put him; and if that settles right away, I'll make one to where his house was before I set it on fire; and if that settles right away too - in you go."
imeanforever
"You really don't have to do this if you're scared. It's not urgent. It doesn't have to be done at all."
imeanforever
"Okay."
Promise does nothing visible, then: "The gate to one of my trees settled..."
And:
"...So did the one to Yellow's area. When you're ready all you have to do is walk perpendicular to the floorboards, here to there."
Promise does nothing visible, then: "The gate to one of my trees settled..."
And:
"...So did the one to Yellow's area. When you're ready all you have to do is walk perpendicular to the floorboards, here to there."
wormcan
Paige looks down. "Oh. I thought it'd be more...something."
She walks through, and starts singing. Just in case there are any fairies here.
The song, to anyone other than Promise, will convey the feeling that the listener doesn't urgently need to be doing anything right now, they can stay calm and stay where they are, and they especially don't need to be aggressive. It's not exactly a quality of the music, though she is also good at singing in the ordinary sense, more just an effect added on.
Trusting in that for protection, she advances farther from the gate and looks for any sign of habitation.
She walks through, and starts singing. Just in case there are any fairies here.
The song, to anyone other than Promise, will convey the feeling that the listener doesn't urgently need to be doing anything right now, they can stay calm and stay where they are, and they especially don't need to be aggressive. It's not exactly a quality of the music, though she is also good at singing in the ordinary sense, more just an effect added on.
Trusting in that for protection, she advances farther from the gate and looks for any sign of habitation.
Well, around this tree and at the edge of that lake there, there's a temporary-looking shack, a partially-constructed less-temporary stone house, and a whole fuck of a lot of screaming!
wormcan
Her voice falters momentarily, but she's already using exactly the right song for this. She keeps going and increases both the volume and the power. She just has to find the fairy and get out.
The shack has a window! Isn't that convenient? It means she gets a good look of a mangled fairy meeting Yellow's description sobbing on the floor while another fairy, stockier and steel-winged and enraged, stands over him. Thanks to Canary, she is not adding to the mangling right at this very moment! She is just glowering at Yellow.
"You ready to tell me? Because it took me fifteen years to make what you defaced and I can keep this up that long until you're ready to pay me back for that," she tells Yellow.
Yellow's response: incoherent sobbing!
"You ready to tell me? Because it took me fifteen years to make what you defaced and I can keep this up that long until you're ready to pay me back for that," she tells Yellow.
Yellow's response: incoherent sobbing!
wormcan
Does the other one have claws? That's the important question here.
If not, she can keep singing, run through some of her other songs when she finishes this one. As long as neither fairy changes the status quo, they'll both get gradually more susceptible until she can get in, get out, and get on with it.
If not, she can keep singing, run through some of her other songs when she finishes this one. As long as neither fairy changes the status quo, they'll both get gradually more susceptible until she can get in, get out, and get on with it.
She doesn't have claws.
Apparently she's not non-aggressive enough to not sit heavily on Yellow. "I'm not a cruel master," she coos. "It'll all be over when I have your name..."
Sob. Sob. (Continues Yellow.)
Apparently she's not non-aggressive enough to not sit heavily on Yellow. "I'm not a cruel master," she coos. "It'll all be over when I have your name..."
Sob. Sob. (Continues Yellow.)
wormcan
She glances around, checking for other fairies. It shouldn't take long, minutes at most if she's trying, before they're in a daze. But they're really tense minutes, and her mental state matters here.
No other fairies are in evidence.
Of course, if she's invisible so could anybody be! Isn't that comforting?
Of course, if she's invisible so could anybody be! Isn't that comforting?
wormcan
Not really, no. It's almost but not quite entirely unlike that. Her voice catches again when she thinks of that.
She moves around to the door, making sure she's loud enough to be heard without the window directly between her and her audience. (Yes. Audience. That's what this is. No different from singing under a spotlight in front of a crowd, certainly not anything scary.)
She moves around to the door, making sure she's loud enough to be heard without the window directly between her and her audience. (Yes. Audience. That's what this is. No different from singing under a spotlight in front of a crowd, certainly not anything scary.)
The fairies, one sturdy one crushing one manifestly fragile one under her weight, stay where they are.
The female one yawns.
The female one yawns.
wormcan
That's as good a sign as she's going to get. And Paige's voice is still charged from the song.
"Get off him. Move over there." She gestures, then remembers. "Across the room."
"Get off him. Move over there." She gestures, then remembers. "Across the room."
Across the room goes the steel-winged fairy.
Yellow whimpers.
Yellow whimpers.
wormcan
Yellow doesn't look like he's in a state to be ordered to walk. Can she carry him? Enlisting the torturer's help is probably possible, but that's the last thing she wants to do.
He's little. And weighs less than he looks like he should, about twenty pounds altogether. Maybe he weighs more when he has all his blood in his body?
wormcan
That's not a thought she wants to be having right now. Too late.
She picks him up—so much blood, how is he still alive, there's a reason she isn't a cape—and tells the other fairy "don't follow us." Then she resumes singing on her way out.
She picks him up—so much blood, how is he still alive, there's a reason she isn't a cape—and tells the other fairy "don't follow us." Then she resumes singing on her way out.