Anarion

Return to Thellamie

Yuki is taken into the DEN OF EVIL (did she get the lilt right, she doesn't think she got the lilt right). Gold was pretty, and so were tapestries. It wasn't even that Purnima had a bad eye for beauty, she was just very very self-centered. Yuki clicks her tongue once, sighs softly at herself, frowns because she signed, and finally offers Purnima a large bow with the upper half of her body nearly sinking into the coils around her. "My apologies, I fear I have already offended your hospitality" she says formally.

She lets herself remain down because it's easier. Head resting on one soft arm resting on strong but pleasantly springy coils all around her. Purnima indulges in her size in a way that Sulochana doesn't. That's good, Suli's self-conscious because she worries about how she impacts others. But Purnima is proud of herself and Yuki can quite literally feel that strength pressing into her. And while Purnima may have taken that pride to an extreme, that core wasn't a bad thing. No, there was a lot to think about. And she did have the mirrors covered at least. There was that.

"mmm" she says as Purnima runs through the options. "Mmm, neither. Everybody keeps asking me like I know the answer to this question. But you're framing it wrong for Hazel. Maybe this is why the giant weird crow picked him? Like, he's just really not someone who can be bought or...uh...seduced that way." She does not say it out loud, but neither can she entirely keep out the raised eyebrows that say and even if he could, you wouldn't be up to the job. Not just because that would be rude to her captor, but Yuki's legit mad at herself for jumping to that conclusion. But jump she did, for better or worse.

"Like, look, you...the perfume you're wearing is the best thing I've ever seen you do for Hazel. It's not perfect. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are good, he likes pumpkin spice, but I'd suggest you add a little scent of vanilla and maybe tone down the nutmeg a little. I think Hazel is...well I don't know if he's ever told me his favorite coffee, but if I had to guess it wouldn't be pumpkin spice, it would be a small latte with oat milk and vanilla. Small because he wouldn't want too much caffeine. Oat milk to go easy on his digestion and because it's a little sweeter and mellower to balance out the acidity, which I think is a bit much for him. And then vanilla because it's simple and sweet and just a little elegant."

Yuki flicks her ears, twists herself a bit to pick herself back up without the help of her lower body. "If you have no idea how much I just helped you, I'm sorry, but I think that's actually more insight to tame your faun than anything I gave Suli or the Serigalamu if you understand it."

"Hazel's not like me. I'm a lot easier to tame than he is actually. He likes pumpkin spice more than me, but he likes simple sweet flavors even more. Me, I like pumpkin spice just fine, but I like a little more on top, maybe a little chili with my pumpkin spice. Do you follow me?"

Yuki looks right at Purnima. Right at that face, right into those Nagi eyes and dares Purnima to take her up on her offer for something spicy. [Entice: 2+6+2=10. One string and one option please.]

Return to Thellamie

Before the heartblade can strike: "Indeed, I surrender!" Yuki shouts. Stopping partway through the elbow strike that would have resulted in the guard holding Yuki doubling over just in time for the incoming heartblade to hit his head instead of Yuki's breast.

The action freezes, the guards uncertain. Yuki relaxes in the grip of her new captor. "I surrender to you, Purnima Karn-Pasha." She says the name with emphasis. "I am the prisoner of Purnima Karn-Pasha" again, she emphasizes the name. Purnima, not anyone else. Only Purnima. "Through willing surrender in a duel of heartblades. I will provide my service as the prisoner of Purnima Karn-Pasha as agreed upon in battles of heartblades, until I complete the service demanded, until I am rescued by my allies, or until sufficient time has passed that I may fairly escape. This I swear to Purnima Karn-Pasha"

A knight's oath, and a maiden's, and oh Yuki is staring at Purnima and the guards, and she is this close to kicking that piece of shiny armor under the table if need be. But she will not need to because they will, of course, accept her terms.

Return to Thellamie

"Are you kidding me?!" Yuki ducks the butt of the blade, noticing that the two guards are not actually stopping their assault while she dances around. "Why would you...a-any of this?"

She kicks one of the guards in the face, though she still hasn't drawn her heart axe. This isn't the right kind of threat and she doesn't want to hurt these people in the way it hurts to get really hit with a heartblade. She could probably just run, should just run, really. There's just something...she feels like Purnima actually needs help. A knight doesn't abandon someone in need that way.

"No they do, those decorative necklaces" she shoulder slams the second guard while the first is recovering and flicks out her food knife, quick cut to pull off the gorget and hold it up, then tossing it to the floor below Purnima's decadent table setup, shadowed from the evening sun. "Too polished, too dangerous. Whatever I did, you can't kill a star. Do you understand? Same deal with whatever's powering up Hazel, or the Rot Star that attacked here. Can't kill a star."

Yuki's looking at Purnima for a moment, while the two guards collect themselves from her acrobatics. She's looking at the smug smile, the face, a glance at whether her face moves or twitches. Does she get it? Is there any flicker of doubt at all?

Yuki's price is both very low and very high, you see. There's no bribe that Purnima could offer that would get Yuki to give herself up. No magic sword or pile of gold. But can Purnima Karn-Pana actually be persuaded? Is she open to the kind of advice that isn't just telling her the best way to get what she wants? That's it, that's all Yuki wants to know. Show her even a sliver of real doubt crossing Purnima's face. If maybe Purnima will really think about what Yuki has to say, then she'll come along now believing she's fulfilling her knight's duty. But if Purnima is so petty and self-centered that she can't let anyone in...then, then she's an enemy to be fought, and Yuki will not give up.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki feels lighter than she did before. A good cry can be like that, and a hug with Aadya is something special. She'd offered to stay with her friend while she went chasing leads, keep in touch with Suli later, but Aadya had shaken her head no. After a meal like that, they each needed time to think and besides Yuki had said she was committed to Sulochana's cause, so she needed to go check in with her.

So she's stepping lightly and taking in the world. The high towers of Vespergift, the way the sky weaves in and out of the stone, the silly gargoyles and the interesting murals, and the hints of trees and leaves that the city could never quite escape even before it had been blown wide open by a plant zombie dragon girl invasion.

When the first trident thrust comes at her, she's still light on her feet and she twists backwards, her mouth forming a "hey whu-?" that gets cut off when she nearly throws herself into the second one. It's lucky for Yuki that they both were using long-range weapons. If the second snakegirl had been using daggers, Yuki would have thrown herself onto them. But instead, she ends up flinging herself with a twist into the arms of the second snakegirl, right past the halberd. And before that heartblade can come back in, Yuki's leaping into the air with all the surprise and startle that a cat can muster. Get up, get high, long tail out for balance, parkour off the stone and then twist back in. Yes in, it's not safe to try and back off from two polearms, so she has to use the snakegirls, dive back into the personal space of forked spear so that halberd can't get a clean swipe off, push around her, and then when she tries to clear herself, dive into the chest of halberd in turn and spin around her.

Back and forth. Back and forth. No time for personal space, though a flush rises up Yuki's cheeks as she dodges past coils and dances along tails before they can grab her. She uses her mail to take glancing blows from the heartblades so that she can keep getting in close. Eventually the tingling at the edges of her forearms will catch up to her, but she's got time, and time will give her a chance to come up with an escape, or at least slow things down.

She doesn't draw her own heartblade though, not yet. Something about this doesn't add up and she doesn't want to knock them out, she wants answers. So she dodges. Dodge, dodge, dodge.

"Hey so..." Yuki starts between flushed breaths. "Uh, who are you, why are you attacking me, and why do you have mirrors?!"

[Figure out a person(s): 5+1+1=7. She's asking the questions she said out loud. And since it's over crossed swords, they should let slip how Yuki can help them with their problems in the course of answering. They get a question back.]

Return to Thellamie

Did you know that over 70% of mining accidents are caused by gayness? Oh mother, I cannot clean out the ventilation system because I am too completely trashed by pining for a hot girl to do any work. Boom, mining accident. This has been a Yukifact.

There are not many other facts going on Yuki's head right at this moment. Warm. Good. Strong. Safe.

Aadya knows how to give an apology, and hugs are meant to be accepted. For many seconds it is wordless, quiet, nothing but the slow up and down of a heaving body and the warmth of tears pressed into a body. The slow hum of breath drawn through wrapped arms and the spreading warmth of that breath pressed against skin. It is an oasis, it is perfection, it is forever, and then it is over because we cannot and should not try to freeze time.

Yuki leans her head up, and her shoulder into the crook of Aady's arm, so that she's looking up at her friend's face. She breathes in, and out. "Thellamie is a good place, Aadi. Full of good people. It...it's not perfect, and we have to fight to make it better. B-but not every problem has to be our problem. Not your problem, not my problem." She breathes again, in and out, taking in the strong scent of her friend, the warmth of her arm.

"We're going to have to roll with what the world gave us. Because Gandalf (he's a wizard) was right, even when it hurts and it's unfair. So...so I'm gonna help you. And Suli, and Juni! U-until this thing sorts itself out. And we'll find your maid and you'll figure that out too."

And she looks up with her eyes still sparkling with tears, but full of hope too. That's what a good hug does for you.

[Aadya gets a string of course]

Return to Thellamie

Yuki's hand trembles. Is it a shiver of fear? Of anger? She puts down her teacup carefully, so carefully, but even so it clatters against the saucer, a ring of little tremors as her hand shakes.

Then she just loses it. "Aadya...what the fuck? How am I supposed to even start on this? What, do you want me to tell you something wise?! I've got the quote, first thing I thought of is Gandalf telling Frodo that we can wish all we want to have had different times but that all we can do is decide how to use the time that's given us."

Yuki balls her fist, slams it on the table. The teacups rattle again. Some people look over and then quickly look away. "I know what I'm supposed to feel, Aadi! So do you! But fuck that. Doesn't make it hurt any less! No, I don't know why it wasn't me, why it can't be me. I guess I'm just not the right person for the job this time. Fate decided that whatever I had when I was twelve, I don't fucking have it now. Or fuck, maybe I do but it's the wrong thing to beat the...I dunno who are we even fighting, the rot star maybe? Whatever, doesn't matter, whatever beat Azaza isn't gonna win here, so it's not me, it's Hazel."

She takes a deep, shuddering breath, holds up a hand to stop Aadya from talking. "I am doing the best I can, the absolute best I can to be happy for him. He deserves to be happy. He deserves this adventure. Who the fuck am I to tell him that I deserve it more than he does, huh? So...so why would you want it to be me then? You want me to try and take it? Join the hunters? I'm not doing that to Suli and Juni! I won't, I refuse!" She pounds the table with both hands palm down.

Then she stares at Aadya. A part of her is aware that Aadya just beat herself up too. That Aadya can't imagine a world where she's not pushing herself to her absolute limit all the time until it breaks her. Yuki should reassure her about that somehow. But, she doesn't have the words. She doesn't have any words left. All she can manage is to slide over next to Aadya, hold onto her arm, and cry as she remembers again what it felt like to be filled with starlight.

Return to Thellamie

Mmm sparkle tea! And it tasted faintly of ginger. Yuki wondered if it was actually ginger or something that tasted like ginger. Nobody ever thought to ask about that sort of thing. You didn't see the Narnia kids looking at the wardrobe and going "well it's great in there, but we better check if they have ginger before we really commit to years in the place."

She looked up at Aadya. "Does Thellamie have ginger?" she asked, stirring her tea. "It's what this tea tastes like, besides the sparkle. But maybe you have a different name for it? Well, you can tell me after I answer, just curious." She stirs the tea with her little spoon, flicks her ears.

"Well, you know I threw in with Suli and her team. I mean, that's tons of fun, but I also think she'd do the best job of everybody I've seen so far, y'know? Like, Oles...ya isn't bad but she's a step removed from Juni and seems like she doesn't always think stuff through herself, which I think would be a problem for a queen of light. Suli can get distracted on little things, but she always remembers the big picture when it counts, so she's honestly the best I've seen for the job so far."

Another sip of tea, the last bite of toast, a chance for Aadya to tell her what Thellamie calls ginger. Maybe it's ginger? It would be a really interesting linguistic thing either way.

"But that's not what you asked, right? Not who I'm backing, but who I think Hazel is going to pick. And...honestly Aadi, I think the answer is nobody. At least...not right now and not for a while? Hazel's like...he's not ready to commit to anybody, I think. I mean, we're all still young back on Earth, so it's not like he needs to be in a rush or anything. But he's...like, he hasn't even started trying I don't think? I told other folks that as long as I've known him he's never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend or anyone special like that. That makes this all really hard for him. Like...ugh, I dunno if you know what I mean either? Like...I think he likes Thellamie and he seemed really happy at the cafe in Vespergift when I met him, maybe even likes being teased from that outfit he was wearing~" She chuckles and you can hear the tilda in how she said it.

But she keeps going..."but that's like, it's...it's him working a job with rules he can imagine in his head and...and boundaries he doesn't have to worry about crossing. That makes it different. This contest, I don't think he's ready for it because if HE picks someone, he's gonna hurt all the other someones. And not just cuz there's only one queen of light, but like...Aadi, he hasn't realized that the more contests he holds, the more he's going to get to know all these girls and the more they're going to get to know him. And that means that if he picks one that he really likes, that he really feels like has tamed him, he's going to hurt the hearts of every single other candidate."

She pauses, breathes, sips her tea again, holding Aadya's gaze. "I just don't think Hazel is up for that. He's going to end up unable to decide and pick nobody. That's my money bet."

Return to Thellamie

Yuki pours a few drops of hot sauce onto her eggs. Not too much, but she likes the tang of it. Then a couple extra drops on top of that because she's not going to be getting the salt and pepper shakers from Aadya so she has to compensate for the lack of salt with a little extra. She nods at her food, maybe also at Aadya, it's ambiguous. Then takes a bite, savors, swallows. Adds a bite of bacon to it as well. Mmmm, that's good, but for all that Thellamie offers, she's had better hot sauce at the little Thai place three blocks from her parents' house. It may be a hole in the wall, but it had really good hot sauce and curry.

"Mmmm" Yuki says, chewing on her egg. She swallows, dabs her face. "I don't know how much you can really trust here, Aady. I mean, did anyone you talked to even give you their real name? Like, okay consider. Let's say that the person you met yourself is Eclair, or at least that's what she said her name was so we'll use that. Well that's your firsthand account. But you didn't see the whole two places at once thing, you just heard that account from someone else. So you didn't see what the second Eclair looked like. So...like...maybe they were just two different people who both claimed they were Eclair? And one of them was telling the truth and one of them was lying. And then the question would be why they'd lie. Like, I mean the one who attacked Civelia might have lied because who wants to attack a freaking goddess and then give their real name, right? Like if you were gonna take a shot at a goddess and you thought you might miss, maybe you'd lie about your name so that everybody chases the wrong person. Or at least so they don't know who to chase. The one you met...well I dunno why she'd lie. Maybe since she said she was doing an investigation, she'd lie because she didn't want people to know she was doing an investigation? So she'd give a fake name instead to throw you off maybe?"

Yuki cuts herself a piece of toast, lots of butter and strawberry jam. This was better. She didn't have fresh bread very often, if ever back on earth. Mostly she just bought sliced bread at the market, or she didn't really think any restaurants near her were also baking bread. And the closest bakery to her family was over a mile away so they didn't go there very often. But this was definitely fresh-baked and just-toasted. Mmm, it smelled so good and it was so soft when she bit into it. The feeling of the strawberry and butter just melts in her mouth.

"I mean, like, no matter how you cut it, of the two people in Crevas, at least one of them knew the other one, right? Like, there's literally no way that they'd give a fake name that just so happened to match the other one out of pure coincidence. So I think that the best plan is to just find Eclair, like the real one, and ask her who the other person was that might have been using her name."

Return to Thellamie

The brush of Hazel's hand felt like velvet on her skin. Cold tingles buzzed on her palm, out to her fingertips, and then they warmed. And warmed. The warmth spreading up her arms and through her shoulders and into her chest, her lungs, her heart. It felt like she'd been holding her breath all along until just now. It felt like she had been looking at the world in black and white until suddenly someone turned the lights on and she got to see real colors for the first time.

Yuki does nothing but breathe. All the anger that had been burning in her heart dissolves away in the spreading starlight, nothing but a distant memory faded to dust. What was a star dragon or a deceptive plant girl, or any of the challenges and annoyances from aches and pains and bruises in the face of pure starlight?

She should be joyous! She hadn't felt like this since she'd left Thellamie.

She saw herself as she had been: young but already as tall as she was going to get, far too thin and gangly for a frame that was tall for a middle schooler but short for an adult and without any of the muscles she would build into it. She saw those thin arms as they pulled her sword triumphantly, freed from her chains by a foxgirl double betrayal. She saw them as she pressed down, ears alert, tail offering balance and stabbed Azaza with her sacred blade. She felt all the starlight within her crow in triumph and rush to seal Azaza within the mirrors. A star's power within a star. Fantastical celebrations and then a departure in fading golden light. She had been so happy, so relieved, so overwhelmed that she hadn't started crying until the third day home.

She sat alone that night and looked at the night sky through her room's window where Orion's belt was shining brightly. She saw those three little stars twinkle, but she couldn't feel them or hear them and she just felt cold. She cried, too afraid to message anyone about it, and put her head on her pillow until she fell asleep, tears still on her cheeks.

She awoke from the dream to a sudden wide pressure on her chest. Tears sparkled on her eyelashes. The same tears that had flowed back then, and that had flowed again when Hazel touched her with starlight. Not hers. Never again.

She doesn't look at Aadya, doesn't show her those tears. "yes Pasenne, it's fine!" She yawns and she makes a great motion of wiping her face with her sleeve, brushing the sleep and the tears out of her eyes, checking her tablet next to her while pretending that the woman on top of her does not exist. This was going to be a tease, but her eyes widen when she reads the tablet.

>[.snowkitten]
>@eclairespoirviolet
>sounds great, I'll look for you at the ball, if not earlier while I help with an investigation

Then, and only then does she actually look at Aadya. "You made it Aady! A jog sounds great, let's go. Tell me all about Eclair!"

She smiles, all sunshine and morning energy. She liked racing Aadya and it was a wonderful chance to make up for not getting to spend any time with her in Crevas. She believed Eclair, so she just needed to figure out where all this confusion was coming from. And Eclair said that Aadya had an alibi for her, so this would be a great start!

Return to Thellamie

Yuki sighs. Then sighs again. Then paces in a circle around the gathered hunters who are all sorted out on solid ground at the base of Vespergift facing the now empty courtyard full of rubble. Then she sighs again for good measure.

"Oh my god you have got to be kidding me?! Do you people not do magical item attunement or something? Why did the handmade golem charge such a huge loan if anybody could mess with the thing once Hazel touched it?!"

She stares at Suli, at Oley and Juni. "Okay...first thing. Juni, you will also swear that you're going to help Olesnya to the best of your ability. I know you're like oathbound to work for her anyway, but I want you to swear it to me that you're going to help get Hazel to the ball, in one piece, and more or less untormented. I mean, I'm not asking the impossible here, a little torment isn't the end of the world." She says it with resignation, but she finally has a grin that's just for Juni on that one. Blink and you missed it. Oh and she's given up on dropping the nya in Oley's name, hopefully everyone thinks it's cute.

"And both of you..." she stares at Oley, then back to Suli, then Oley again with a glance to Juni for good measure. "...both of you please, by all you hold sacred, stop asking me to switch off between you, for god sake. As far as I can tell here, one of the two of you is by far the best choice for winning this contest. Better than crazy evil tree girl by a lot. A LOT. And I don't even know who else got marked, but I'm sure there are a ton, probably some of them foxgirls who are going to eat up that million mark loan for breakfast. So, truce. Big truce, we are team Crevas plus Khanate Truce, okay? Plus Aadya whenever she digs herself out of the pile of rubble that fell on her, but I'll yell at her later if she's a problem."

Yuki glares again, every which way. "We're family, we're going to win this thing, and then we can sort out the whole last woman standing part of it if that's even how this ritual actually works. If you want Yuki's help, that's the deal. Got it?"

She puffs out her chest, wincing through all the bruises, and her Kel armor, unharmed despite all her battering, gleams in the evening sun.