a reincarnating bell becomes caretaker of asteroid AQ-27
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Asteroids are not quite so common as some people think. Yes, there are thousands of rocks in the sky. But only some of them are proper asteroids. If you take out a telescope, you will find that under sixty percent of astronomical bodies contain any plant or animal life, and even fewer are inhabited.

That number does grow, however. Every once in a great while, an asteroid will reach conditions appropriate to habitation, spinning the three-millionth mote of astronomical dust into itself that pushes it over some barrier, and when that happens, poof! - an inhabitant may very well appear.

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She's on a rock! It is small. It is round. She is much smaller, but not as round. The air is breathable. There's some fairly lush grass, and a little apple tree, with some apples on it in various stages of ripeness.

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She attempts to osanwë Mandos and this doesn't work at all.

She's out of guesses.

She... walks over to the apple tree.

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It is an apple tree.

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She never did figure out if she can starve. She supposes she will discover one way or the other if all she has to eat is apples.

She picks a ripe one and bites it.

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It's one of the kinds of apple that actually tastes good, which is nice. Not mealy, not too sour. Very juicy.

Her sensory radius encompasses her entire rock and also a good amount of surrounding space, which is why it might come as something of a surprise when someone walks into it. He's a bit taller than her, but not enough to be an adult. Might be a big kid, or a very small teenager.

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"Hello," he says. "Is this your home?"

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"It wasn't yesterday but I don't see a way to get anywhere else."

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"Ah," he says. "That does not make it home, I do not think - but it is something."

He walks down in spirals through the empty air and finally sets foot on her rock. "Do you know what you are, yet?"

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"I appear to be a small child for some reason."

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"Ah!" He sketches a bow. "Hello, Small Child. Welcome to our world. I am the Little Prince."

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"That's not my name, my name is Annie."

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"Your name?"

He says this in very much the same tone one might say "your flange?" Gentle confusion, not at all discounting the possibility one has completely misheard.

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"Do you only have your title and not a name?"

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"Yes, I am just the Little Prince... is a Name in case you meet another Small Child? I suppose there could be several."

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"Small Child isn't actually my title either. I was just referring to the fact that before I appeared here I was roughly twice this height and more physically mature."

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"Oh! Were you a Woman? I have met Women - a Queen, and a Doctor, and once an Amazon, though she did not like me. I do not think I was anything before I appeared, but I could have forgotten..."

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"I was a woman, yeah. For hundreds of years."

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"How strange. I do not know how long I have lived. I have slept some few thousand times, I suppose. ...do you know if your Tree would give me an apple? She has given one to you, but I do not know how close you two must be for such intimacy."

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"We've only just met. As far as I'm concerned a ripe apple is for eating, and I've already got one." She indicates her half-eaten apple.

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He lays a hand on the tree's trunk and closes his eyes. After a few seconds, he gently plucks an apple of his own and takes a bite.

"She is very kind," he reports. "She shares your view, that an apple should be eaten. Some Trees, you know, they are so haughty... I suppose when there is only one thing you can give, you might guard it close. But she is happy to help."

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"Does the tree... talk?"

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"-yes! You do not hear her?"

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"Not so far..." She puts her hand on the tree trunk.

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