This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Promise is on her way from the library, where she has been allowed the privilege of an hour's study of sorcery - directed in topic, but she was allowed to take (relevant) notes, and read (relevant) books, and was only lightly supervised.
Thorn sometimes likes to butter her up, such as it is, before calling her to his room. She thinks he's running elaborate multivariable experiments on what puts her in a marginally more or less cooperative mood. The obvious confounding factor is that after having been buttered up she has to walk to his room. Also, on this particular occasion, she was not allowed to heal herself of her (relatively minor, but still painful) injuries before she went to the library. She did her research with shredded wing-edges and a black eye and an almost decorative crosshatch of bright red cuts down the backs of her legs. This is Thorn, so it wasn't thoughtlessness, but she hasn't speculated much on what it is instead, besides - Thorn.
She walks carefully -
There's a ripple in the air. She walks right into it.
And then she is elsewhere. She can no longer make meaningful progress towards her appointment, so she stops walking. Her eyes flick left, right -
Well. It would be hard for this to be worse.
imeanforever
bright_and_beautiful
"...fine. Shed, now."
Followed by a shamefaced, sulking Anne, Jenny walks into the shed, and stops dead in shock. The noise she makes is completely incomprehensible, but definitely surprised.
Followed by a shamefaced, sulking Anne, Jenny walks into the shed, and stops dead in shock. The noise she makes is completely incomprehensible, but definitely surprised.
imeanforever
Promise didn't want to consciously apply names to boys, but she couldn't help it. She has those names now, snapped to where they go.
This older human she doesn't know a name for. She blinks up at her, from her sitting position that doesn't put her cut-up legs directly on the ground.
This older human she doesn't know a name for. She blinks up at her, from her sitting position that doesn't put her cut-up legs directly on the ground.
bright_and_beautiful
"You're- you have wings!" Jenny says blankly. "How are- what- what are you?"
She is ignoring Anne's insistent "fairy lady" from behind her. Fairies aren't a thing, they're a story.
...She'd thought.
She is ignoring Anne's insistent "fairy lady" from behind her. Fairies aren't a thing, they're a story.
...She'd thought.
imeanforever
Still not allowed to talk. Cannot communicate "yep, fairy" in nodding. She flaps her wings slightly, not enough to sting the still-healing ragged edges.
bright_and_beautiful
"Aaaagh. You can't just- just- sit there and be mysterious," Jenny says in exasperation. "You... Somehow have wings? And have been hanging out with my siblings, apparently! Why? What are you? Who are you? Say something!"
imeanforever
"Something," blurts Promise unexpectedly -
(the little mortals must have taken some food from this one at some point it must have been hers enough to count)
"I'm a fairy," she adds quickly before the leeway of "something" wears off, "called Promise and right now I can only talk if you personally directly tell me to."
(the little mortals must have taken some food from this one at some point it must have been hers enough to count)
"I'm a fairy," she adds quickly before the leeway of "something" wears off, "called Promise and right now I can only talk if you personally directly tell me to."
bright_and_beautiful
"She talked!" Anne exclaims from the door. "She's never done that before!"
Jenny puts her face in her hands. "I have no idea what's going ooooon," she moans. "Okaaaay, then. Anne, wait outside please. I'll shout if I need you, all right?"
Anne leaves, reluctantly, to slump sulkily against the outside wall of the shed. Jenny takes a breath. "Now. Er... Promise, right? You can- okay, eek, I don't know how to do this. Or what this is. Or, like, anything, geez. So... I, personally, directly, am telling you to talk. Like... what's going on?!"
Jenny puts her face in her hands. "I have no idea what's going ooooon," she moans. "Okaaaay, then. Anne, wait outside please. I'll shout if I need you, all right?"
Anne leaves, reluctantly, to slump sulkily against the outside wall of the shed. Jenny takes a breath. "Now. Er... Promise, right? You can- okay, eek, I don't know how to do this. Or what this is. Or, like, anything, geez. So... I, personally, directly, am telling you to talk. Like... what's going on?!"
imeanforever
Promise takes a deep breath. "Sometimes natural tears between Fairyland and the mortal world open. They're basically impossible to detect and I walked into one and wound up in the yard out there with the little mortals and they put me here. I can't fly right now so I didn't leave."
bright_and_beautiful
Jenny looks around in alarm. "Is it still there? Aw, geez, Anne's not going to fall through or anything, is she?"
bright_and_beautiful
That's... quite a face. If Anne ever made that face, Jenny would probably become extremely violent at whoever caused it. Despite the fact that Promise looks a fair bit older than she is, she's shorter and winged and Jenny is allowed to be irrational about her surprise background fairy.
"I mean. You can't stay in our shed for ever and ever? But you don't have to go back if you don't want to... er, I mean, can I help at all?"
"I mean. You can't stay in our shed for ever and ever? But you don't have to go back if you don't want to... er, I mean, can I help at all?"
imeanforever
"...If you could just repeat the sentence I rescind all your orders that would be enormously helpful."
bright_and_beautiful
"...is that in any way dangerous? If you had four kid siblings you loved to itty bitty pieces next door who you were responsible for and had a surprise fairy in your shed asking you that, would you do it? Honestly?"
imeanforever
"I can't do magic here. I can't even fly. I'm pretty harmless in terms of what I can do even if you don't want to trust what I would, and you'll still be able to tell me what to do afterwards, anyway."
bright_and_beautiful
Jenny sizes up Promise consideringly. Tiny, sad, sporting visible damage. The black eye is fading, but it's still in the 'gaudily colorful' end of 'fading'. Jenny sighs, feeling bad. This girl, fairy or no, looks like she has had a horrible few weeks. "I rescind all your orders."
imeanforever
Promise relaxes substantially, but does not do anything else, let alone anything threatening. "Thanks. ...If you want to order me not to order your siblings to do anything I won't really object."
bright_and_beautiful
"You can-! Don't order my siblings ever!" Jenny says, panicked and horrified. "Why can you order my siblings?! Can you order me? How do I fix it?"
imeanforever
"I can't order you because I don't know your name. If you think I'll run across it go ahead and tell me not to give you orders either just in case. I know their names, because they said them, but I couldn't talk before and now I can't give them orders, and I wasn't going to anyway," Promise says. "You can order me, probably because they took some food that belonged to you when they were feeding me or something. I was under orders not to take food that would vassalize me like that but it's safe to take food from people who are already one's own vassal so as long as the girl was handing me everything I could accept it, since I didn't know any of it was yours; if I didn't have her name I would have been just - not eating, the entire time."
bright_and_beautiful
"...so that's where my gummy bears went," Jenny murmurs exasperatedly. "Okay. Don't order me or anyone from my family, then, I guess. Er, can I turn the order thing off? I don't know where you could go that you won't, like... have to eat, or hear people's names, or whatever."
imeanforever
"You can't turn it off. It's just part of being a fairy. I can take mortal food from you without making anything worse, and I can take mortal food from your siblings without that doing anything at all."
bright_and_beautiful
"So if you leave, you just- can do this to other people? Or they could do it to you?" Jenny isn't really that horrified- Promise has been reasonably nice so far. It doesn't seem like a threat. But picturing Promise ordering her siblings makes it very clear that this is still a scary, scary idea. "I wouldn't send you back to someone who beats you or anything, but is there anywhere you can go? Er, anywhere safe?"
imeanforever
"If I could get back to Fairyland I could go somewhere he probably wouldn't find me. But I don't know where to find any gates on this end, and the tear is gone and it might take thousands of years for me to run into another one."