Anarion

Return to Thellamie

As Yuki hastily straightens her tea, her first thought, absurdly, is that she should have shared more selfies. She is thinking that while blushing. Imagining Aadya's muscular, naked body. And yes, she needs to respond to Juniper, but just give her a second, okay?! It's like, Aadya's still thinking about her like she's twelve, skinny and twiggy and there to be brave and play. Aadya is not thinking about how Yuki will feel about her now. Aadya is dumb as the rock in her name, and all the more beautiful for it. But maybe if Yuki had shared more selfies, Aadya would be seeing her differently now.

She lifts a shaky cup of the chai up to her face, sniffs in the beautiful steam that smells of cardamom and cinnamon. She takes a sip and lets the sweet warmth flow over her tongue and then breathes it out through her nose. Tea was good.

"Your name was Pasenne?" she asks, looking over at the maid. "Did you make this tea? If so, thank you! And if not, please thank the kitchen staff for me, okay?" She smiles at the maid, only still blushing a little bit at her fumble that Pasenne had obviously just watched. She turns down to her tablet, but then on second thought looks up at the maid again. "So, what do you make of all this crown of light, destiny stuff?" She asks.

She looks back down and starts typing, but glances back and forth at Pasenne, doing her best to signal that she wants conversation while she's working.

To Juniper
>[.snowkitten]
>I'm mostly okay. Suli's mostly okay too, she's on the mend, makeup doing a lot of work. 😊 The Khatun's pretty vicious though.
>But yeah, I think you could DM her, but give it a little bit so you're not interrupting her morning routine. Maybe hit her up in like half an hour.
Here she looks down, and if Juniper's watching the messages come in, she'll have a bit of a gap, maybe even respond first
>I'm sorry about last night. I kept seeing someone new and running off. First Suli, then you, then I ran off from you cuz I saw Eclair, that maid knight from all those years ago. I'm glad you're okay at least.

To Aadya
>[.snowkitten]
>I can probably come by. Currently with Suli, she got stabbed by the Khatun last night :(
>But she's almost done getting ready, so maybe we'll both come out together. Let me chat the group, actually.
>...wait hold up. Who managed to beat YOU up?

To Home-away-from-home
>[.snowkitten]
>okay, hi. So like, Aadya needs some help, I'm hanging with Suli, and I jumped over to Juni last night and then dashed off. We need, like, a plan for what we're doing today. And maybe some way to start thinking about what we're doing with the whole magical deerboy thing. Cuz he's my friend and I want to help him too, I left him alone at the festival and he got hit with the destiny hammer and now he's run off somewhere with the fox twins of all people 😕. Not sure what to do.
[Invoking family meeting here]

She's looking back and forth at Pasenne this whole time. Listening between messages. Sipping her tea. Occasionally putting the tablet down to cut herself a piece of sausage and eat some egg. Yuki's absolutely starving, in fact, and seven course breakfast really hits the spot.

Return to Thellamie

Her first reaction was not to wake up at all. Screw the sun, this was comfy! Yuki turns her head the other way, away from the light beams and buries her face in the nice warm coils. Her ear tickles across them and twitches. This is good. This is ideal. She hugs the coils close, scrunches her own body, and tries to go back to dreamland. She holds onto this for a minute or two. No light, no vision. But there's too many things. Her nose wiggles with the smell of chai, she wants some. Her ear keeps twitching with each breath of wind, it's so much more sensitive here, and she can hear the motion of the air in the room, can feel it as much as hear it. The sun keeps moving and even turned away, she can tell the room is a little lighter, the curtains are not trying to be blackout curtains, they just want to smooth it out a bit so it's not too harsh.

She turns her head back to the sun, opens her eyes. Sulochana is still asleep, she can tell because of the slow rhythmic breathing. Sulochana needed that. She'd actually been stabbed last night and then left by the Khatun. That must have had its own special sort of pain. Not being taken, not being cared for. From what Yuki knew of Thellamie, that was considered a bit cruel. Maybe necessary in the big fight, nothing personal in that sense perhaps, but still kind of cold at best. The kind of cold that says that what you're doing is more important than stopping to make sure your opponent is okay. Hmm. The clinical part of Yuki's mind finds that interesting. Quite the contrast with Juniper and Olesnya. Really stands out. Maybe that's just because the Khatun had bigger things on her mind. Maybe that's just who she was. She had attracted Yuki's attention because she'd uniquely observed what was happening faster than anyone else. So...maybe that's just part of who she was and it took something really special to get her to actually care about you?

She shook her head gently, making sure not to tickle Sulochana, but she needed that motion to clear her thoughts out. She could run in circles on the Khatun forever. Lots of data, but not enough to know anything for certain. People were too complex for that. Too hard to get a read on them from one conversation, even one fight usually. You could get something, but not the whole person, and if she let it, she'd just speculate about this forever. What if the Khatun had just been hungry that night since they didn't get to the booked out restaurant that Juniper wanted Yuki to attend? And...yeah, just who knows, right?

She breathes in, slowly through her nose, taking in the scent of the chai again. That was good. She was definitely going to have some chai when she got up. But...not yet. She really didn't want to disturb Sulochana. Her fault, her mistake. So she needed to put Suli ahead of herself and let her rest, at least until she woke up naturally. Then they could plan together. She had to help Hazel too, and Juni, and figure out how to balance the whole competing crowns of light thing. Though like, she knew that wasn't really her problem exactly, but it kind of was because all of them were close to her friends for some reason. And she just knew in her heart that if she didn't figure it out, they'd fall apart over this.

The coils are still warm. It's nice how warm Suli's coils are. It's unfair. Yuki wants to just be held like this. To have someone take care of her, keep her warm, hold her close and safe. But...she's always got to be the one to handle things. It's not...when she thinks to herself it's not like there's any one big trauma. Her parents are together and nobody died or anything. It was just that...her friend when Yuki was like eight who lived down the street never called her. She always had to do it, and eventually her friend started making excuses. She was older, she had other activities to do. Family stuff too. Mom always had Yuki do the scheduling for things. She was good at it! She knew computers! But that meant if Yuki got busy, stuff just...didn't happen. She had booked her own camp stuff because her parents didn't really know how to help and she'd known what she wanted after Thellamie anyway. School clubs, same deal, she'd organized the literature club in high school and when she'd left, she heard a bunch of other people did too cuz nobody planned for how to bring snacks to the meeting or made sure to keep the teacher sponsor forms up to date or anything. Hangouts, weekends. Whatever, Yuki had to make it happen if she wanted her friends to be together. Being held by Suli was the weird thing. If Yuki didn't figure a way out of this, everybody would be at each other's throats.

Another deep breath. She finishes working her arm out of the coils, something that had been slowly happening as she contemplated, the careful shifting kept her body focused while her mind wandered. So, arm out, check the tablet. Message from Hazel. Did he mean Keli and Seli? The fuck? She'd definitely told him about them. They could keep him safe, but they were for sure going to collect payment and if it went anything like Yuki's adventure, they'd happily "turn in" the golden faun for a big reward and maybe have a rescue plan after. If nothing else, they were going to let Hazel build up a big debt of services without even knowing he was doing it. But he was suspicious of her hunter thing too, which was fair enough. No point upsetting him.

>[.snowkitten]
>k glad you're safe, I'm okay, my nagi friend got stabbed though :(
>helping her for now. She's um...also a hunter though. There's a bunch of people that were supposed to get a crown of light but they need you for that I think. I dunno what it means, but just try and stay safe
>oh but, just make sure you know what you agreed to okay? If it's the foxgirls, they might be secretly expecting a bunch of favors without saying that out loud, so just pay attention. Please.
>I...I'll find you eventually and we'll figure out how to make this okay for everyone. ...sorry I left you alone in Crevas.

Yuki taps this all out with her free hand. She hovers for several minutes, thinking about a follow up line. Promises to make everything okay. Promises that she can't keep. She sighs and hits send. Then she curls back into the coils and waits for Sulochana to wake with the rising sun.

Return to Thellamie

Her first mistake had been dropping her heartblade. When she saw Eclair fall (and that had to be Eclair, there weren’t that many purple haired maids, right?), she had tried to rush to her. Her second mistake had been not paying attention to what was in front of her feet. She thought all the firecrackers had gone off! They were all the same length, all the same design, why wouldn’t they all have gone off together?! Her third mistake was thinking she could explain herself and anybody would listen.

No, no, her first mistake had been jumping into the crowd. She was safe and had a little team and she’d left them. For what? So she could run hopelessly into a mob trying to catch Keli and Seli for god sakes?! She’d left her team behind.

No, no that was her second mistake because she’d done the same with Sulochana. Granted, she’d left Sulochana before she knew a riot was going to break out, but she’d still left her when something important was happening instead of staying with her! That had been stupid. Stupid, bad friend Yuki. Jumping off after whatever was happening.

No, no that still wasn’t her first mistake. Her first mistake had been sending Hazel off to enjoy the festival. She shouldn’t have split up with him! He was new to Thellamie. They should have stayed together, he could have come with her, or she could have explained to her other friends she needed to show him around first instead of sending him off to fend for himself.

Her fault. All of them her fault. One after another. Hazel gone and in danger. Sulochana stabbed. Juni abandoned (probably stabbed too? Who knows, not Yuki, that’s for sure!!!). And she couldn’t even help Eclair, the latest in her haring off after the latest acquaintance. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She pounds a fist on the floor weakly, barely enough to make a sound, not enough to even alert the Nagi guard on top of her that she was moving.

Yuki hated being alone. It happened, obviously, but she hated it. She’d just run through all her memories over and over. Mistakes she had made. Occasionally fond memories. Maybe something that tasted good, or something fun she had done. But then she’d just miss it all the more. She remembered Thellamie so, so fondly. Sure everyone had been worried, but they’d worked together and saved it and it had been so wonderful. She never really appreciated the danger last time. How could she, cloaked in light and surrounded by people helping her. Even Seli’s betrayal was okay, things had worked out, nobody had really hurt her. Not really, though Azaza had wanted to, hadn’t she? God she’d never really thought about it like that? Had dumb had she been as a kid? How blind?

She just wanted to come back and see all her friends again. Hang out in person. Try the good food, listen to music, see the world. Was that seriously too much to ask? Were people only summoned to Thellamie for super special emergencies? Why had she even been brought back then?!

When Sulochana arrives, she’ll find Yuki with her face against the floor. There is a small dark spot on the stone, and when she lifts her eyes, they are wet with silent tears.

[Yuki is Guilty]

Return to Thellamie

For Yuki, when she remembers this later, the scene at the Welcoming Plaza splits into two distinct moments. The first is the sight of the maid. The second is everything else.

The sound of the skateboard was so unexpected. She’d told people about skateboards of course! Several people when she was here last time. She liked skateboarding. Yuki was a motion girl, she liked anything that got her moving. The stomach drop on rollercoasters, the wind in her hair when running (even before she had fluffy triangles that could sense every change in the air!), the sudden swift shift of a fencing stance, and for sure the ground rolling away from her when she got on a skateboard.

So, when she heard it, it snapped her head to it, and before her eyes was a maid knight. She’d only met the one, Eclair, last time around. Yuki still remembered her. She had lost her notepad and was looking for it the whole adventure, they kept running into each other. Only, at the end, well, Yuki thought the victory had really been Eclair’s. Sure, Yuki had the sword of legend, infused with light and all that. But she had thrust it exactly one time into Azaza, a single strike that infused the star with so much light that she could not maintain herself and was imprisoned within the mirrors she so loved. Yuki had no expertise, no particular skill at the time. Eclair had taken that duel, had moved like a blinding flash of violet hair and black and white robes. Faster than Azaza. Faster than Yuki could follow. It had been so unexpected. So incredible. It had been like watching a person fly. Azaza had been so utterly occupied, forced to bring all her powers to bear, to use the magic of her star to cheat because she was going to lose to the maid! And so her defenses were lowered, and Yuki was free to thrust the sword of light into her side and consume her and all her reflections in the blinding glare.

So, now Yuki stares. At a new maid with a halo of curly light orange hair and a black and white mask over her face to match her outfit. Well…no, the mask didn’t match the outfit. The maid outfit called for a friendly smile lighting up raised cheeks and sparkling eyes. The mask may have color-matched, but it felt flat by comparison, black and white with no emotion and a sinister curl to the smile painted upon it. Yuki stared as the maid came over the roofs with her skateboard, stared as the “tails” of firecrackers flared into colors. Stared as the maid’s sword fluttered undrawn at her side.

A part of her mind is thinking hottest villain, 100%, gotta see what’s under that mask and kiss it. The rest of her is reacting to the firecrackers, jumping towards Juni and realizing that Olesya is bigger and closer, and is going to get there first.

The second part of the scene is the chaos after the sight of the maid, who hangs still in Yuki’s mind’s eye. The firecrackers going off were like time suddenly going from slow motion to warp speed. Like the orcs flooding past Grond into Minis Tirith (later, it would occur to her that the way the view changed also made her think of this, like a gate having been broken to show a different world past it from which everyone comes flooding in).

Yuki acts on instinct. Realizing that Olesya has swept up Juniper, she pivots so hard her foot slides on the stone tile and her tail whips up into the air for balance. Her other foot steps and pushes, causing her to spin towards the crowd. And she she spins, her heartblade is already forming in the air. A great crescent axe glowing with the cool white of Kel moonlight at the end of a long pole with a sharpened end. Yuki grips it in both hands, her right hand near the base, her left just below the center. And as she completes the spin, the axe forms into a wide sweep already occurring, taking a Nagi and a member of the pack completely off their feet in the same sweeping motion.

That sweep creates the space that Yuki needs to sprint. Not out of the crowd, but into it, coming at it from the side and cutting through at a diagonal. Though her axe is no sword, her fencing training carries her forward, each sweep matched by advancing footwork, the momentum of the heavy axe pulling her into the run to keep up with herself, and the spinning blade either scattering the crowd or dropping them before her.

“Hazel!” She calls, as loud as she can. But her voice can’t carry above the deafening explosions. And no matter how fast she goes, she can’t cut down a whole crowd by herself, nor outsprint the fastest Nagi and Serigalamu. Not with her short little legs. There is no amount of puissance that will let her catch up to Seli and Keli (of all people!) dragging Hazel along and out the gates. Instead, she’ll have to let the crowd dictate where she goes until she cuts her way free. “Hazeeeeeel!” But her voice is even further away. She should never have left him alone.

[Yuki attempts to defy disaster through the crowd with daring: 3+1+1=5]

Return to Thellamie

“You’re laying the traps, not the…uh Baygum?” That one kind of slips out, pure surprise. Didn’t quite seem like it matched up with the relationship, especially the whole ritual life is forfeit thing that Juni had just gone off about. If Olesya was the one marked by light, wasn’t she supposed to lay the trap for capturing the faun so that she could tame him? Or was there a transitive property thing where anything that her captive did was to her credit no matter what? If so, that didn’t seem particularly fair, especially if Juni…no, no it was clear Juni was fine with it. Moving on.

She walks around the Welcoming Plaza. This place she knows. They start parades here sometimes. Open stones laid out in a circle that leads you to the street into the city proper, and cool stone walls. Crevas had a style and lived it. She watches Juni putting the net down, trying to set it up, wondering how she was going to camouflage it into stone of all things. Maybe she had some kind of magic? Or maybe she could just color match it with some loose gravel.

Her mind spins over the last conversation as she watches the pack move about as well, climbing the walls and spreading through the city at impossible angles. Wondering if the Nagi had anything to match that. Winged Lamia guards maybe? Or jetpacks. Had she ever told Sulochana about jetpacks, as a concept? Nagi would probably love jetpacks, they’d be able to pounce someone tail first with them. Maybe powered by magic crystals or something.

But anyway, she was pondering what Olesya said when she saw all the mounts, “also, if she knows what? I’m sorry, but I never really met the Serigalamu when I was here last time, so if there’s something with the goblin mounts and the Khatun, can you spell it out for me?” A guess, maybe a dumb one, Yuki wasn’t even sure what the She was, but Olesya only seemed to care about the Khatun’s opinion, so that was where Yuki was starting with her guess.

A little time passes. Yuki is fretting and checking her tablet. No answer from Hazel, but also no visible Hazel. Could mean he was hiding and unable to safely pull his tablet out. But that could mean somewhere dark, which would mean the whole cut off the entrance plan might not pan out. Did she even want to catch him in a net? She had been hoping that he’d willingly join her despite Olesya’s presence and they’d be able to sort things out more quietly after that. She was ready to heart duel for Hazel’s freedom if she had to, but hoped it wouldn’t come to that, especially if it would make Juni mad.

Yuki taps her foot on the stone streets, and then her ears twitch. What was that sound? That sounded like a skateboard. Distinctive wheel scraping on stone sound. Sensitive cat ears don’t lie about that kind of thing. It was an Earth sound, not at all like the big wheels of wagons or carts, the sound that only came from small hard wheels spinning quickly over an equally hard surface. Her head whips around to look for it.

Return to Thellamie

Juniper is lucky her tail is wagging and she can't hide her glee. Well no, Juniper is whatever. Olesnya is the one that's lucky that Juni is lucky. If Juni wasn't into it and was getting that look, Yuki would have been in Olesnya's face so fast. Like blink and you missed it fast.

Even so, Yuki's tail flicks just once, in irritation. Tails were good for that. You hardly get to give Yuki the same look because she's new and doesn't have the words for it. And if Juni is that sensitive about it, maybe there's something to be sensitive about. Whatever, this train of thought wasn't getting her anywhere.

In a different moment, being asked for her tracking skills would have had Yuki panicking. That wasn't something that she'd learned. She wasn't a girl scout, and her summer camp and after school stuff had been sports related. Thellamie made her fall in love with swords and fantasy. She thought she'd been smart to live that out and get in good shape, and she had. But that didn't magic up a super sense of smell or the ability to know what signs a fleeing deerboy would leave in the middle of a city she hadn't visited in over half a decade. Assuming any of those signs weren't immediately trampled by a hundred racing wolfgirls and snakegirls.

But now, well, Oleysnya had gotten Yuki's goat, so to speak. A challenge, a withering glare that she didn't deserve, and a useful reminder on top of that. ...we track naturally, even in unnatural places. Yeah, okay, she was up to that.

"You're right, I've been going about this wrong. Money bet is Hazel's not smart right now. He's overwhelmed. So...even though he could have lost most everyone by doubling back, he's not going to think about that. He's going to be in flight mode. We saw him turn down that way, and then turn a corner and go out of sight. Let's follow from the roofs, we've got better sight than the pack this way. So ignore the pack, they weren't close enough to see any better than we could and it doesn't matter where they are. Look for the closest clear line of sight the way he ran. We'll either see him, or that tells us that he hid somewhere between where we are and where the view clears up."

And then for good measure, she quickly pulls her tablet out and starts a DM.
>[.snowkitten]
>Hazel, you okay? Know where you are?
>I'm with one of my friends and... a hunter 🙃
>...better than the alternative I think, we can sneak you out of the city, figure it out from there

Return to Thellamie

"Tame?" Yuki hadn't really thought about that part. Everyone had been so intent on the hunt part. She had been too, the Golden Fawn (i.e. poor confused Hazel) was the chosen one, everybody wanted him. Yuki had been focused on protecting him, it hadn't really clicked that there was something about taming him.

That was really different than her experience. She'd drawn the sword from the stone, so to speak. Not...literally, but really close! Her hand patted the weathered blade she wore. A keepsake. Apparently it had been hung up after she left and since it had been a powerful glowing legendary sword, nobody had thought to oil it or sharpen it, so it tarnished over the years, became dull and a little rusted. A good metaphor for how things changed, but she loved it for that, had immediately taken it from Kel on her return, no questions asked, no time to try and fix it up, and she didn't even really want to.

She follows to the next rooftop. It was a good question, and she was glad to have her mind elsewhere. It felt like the city was bewitched as far as directions go and the easiest thing there was to stop trying, let Olesnya decide their route based on what she knows about her pack, and maybe buy a city map later. And some other maps for that matter, she was going to have a different journey this time around, she could tell.

"Hazel is...uh, kind of a sweetie, I think? He's really shy. Like, not about everything. He loves good food, especially sweet treats, he's got a sweet tooth like he's a five year old honestly. Oh man, and one time, we were out and he tripped and spilled ice cream all over his shirt and pants like he was five too. I mean, honestly it was super cute though. And he's not uncoordinated or anything normally! He loves games, especially rhythm games, he's really good at them. I think he's good at learning rules and timing and has good hand eye coordination, that sort of thing, and he tries to be a good boy and do everything right, so he gets really into games until he's super good at them! He just, kinda gets distracted by stuff sometimes when he's out places, so he can make mistakes or mess something up, y'know?" That hadn't come out quite how Yuki meant it to, but with the running and the thinking, her brain was just on gush as far as the part she was supposed to talk about. She was saying out loud and thinking at the same time here, not enough mental energy left for the filter.

"Kind of makes him hard to tame though cuz he's already really tame. Like with everyone pretty much. How do you make someone who's shy and tame and tries to be really proper and polite more tame, y'know? Like, if you caught him, he'd totally just do whatever you told him to. I mean, like, he'd try to escape if you put him in a cell, but if you were just like 'hey, please, this is really important and it'd be rude if you didn't respect my culture' I'm pretty sure he'd just do whatever you asked. At least for a while until he was somewhere safe and could leave with his friends. Though, like, well, maybe not everything? Some of the stuff you've been telling me about, Juni, he'd probably be too embarrassed to do. Far as I know, he never dated anybody in high school, like, not even casually. I don't think he's had his first kiss ever, not that I've heard about. And like, I dunno if I've ever seen Hazel hug anybody who's not his mom, which I shouldn't laugh at him about, he tries so hard to be nice and not offend anyone. But, so like he'd probably be kinda traumatized if you tried to make him a...er...like a slave for you? Um, I mean, I'm not saying you practice slavery, I just don't know the right word, but like, the thing where you catch him and force him to do stuff, like you were kinda saying, Olesnya" (whoops) "like making Juni tutor him whether he wants to or not, I think he'd get really embarrassed about that stuff. But like, I dunno, we're waaaaay off from taming here, not sure I answered your question?"

Yuki blushes, brushes her pigtails back with her hand, resets her footing, keeps moving, staying close to Olesya (ya, bad girl!), tries to see how close they're getting to the city walls, or if the types of roofs are changing or anything. Something, anything that would situate her in Crevas.

Return to Thellamie

A moment to think. Blessed, blessed moment. Yuki looks to where the golden antlers faded. She's breathing rhythmically. Not hard, steadily, her body still ready to keep running. The lightness of the Kel armor is wonderful in this moment. She knew some Kel paladins went for full plate, but she'd picked something that she could wear regular clothes over. Running and jumping like this, she felt that was the right call between protection and agility. Plus, armor vs. heartblades was a super weird thing. She'd wanted it for...well she wasn't sure exactly, but there seemed to be a range of hazards in Thellamie beyond heartblades, and even then there was something to enchanted armor that might at least slow a heartblade down or let her move herself around someone's heartblade. It would at least soften a punch if nothing else. There was also the aesthetics, Yuki wanted to be a knight of Thellamie, not a chosen queen, and not just a random person either.

When she looks back up, it's to glare at Juniper and Olesnya. ...ya, whatever. She shouldn't be mad, but Juni assuming that she knew the way around here. The first time through had been in chains, the second time as part of a festival and it was over six years ago! Maybe if they put up different colored party streamers across all the roofs to direct people between the food vendors and the perfume vendors and the souvenir stands, then she'd know where she was going. Big emphasis on the maybe though, six years was a long time to remember which way to turn without stopping in the middle of a chase!

She blinks. Glaring wasn't going to help, and as the seconds tick by, the hunters and Hazel are getting further away, and who knows what's happening back at the plaza! "Okay what are we...even trying to do here?" Yuki scratches her head, tilts her chin up. She'd started thinking about Hazel chasing plans, but then mentally backpedaled. She didn't have a specific place to be, dinner obviously wasn't happening, and she had at least three different groups she wanted to be with at the moment (Hazel, Suli, and Juni. She could come up with more if you gave her a minute). "If you catch Hazel now, you need a plan to get him out of here super fast or the entire mob is going to drop on top of us, right? And if he's racing away like that, he must already be totally freaked out. So...so, we don't need to catch him, right? What we need is for him to get away from the big group and then we can contact him and figure out what's next. I dunno if he'll be willing to meet up with you all right away. Track him maybe? I haven't seen that many other people here that look like him, maybe there's a unique scent we could follow?"

She looks at Olesnya more than Juniper, doesn't hold her gaze for long, looks around again. Maybe there was something, some landmark that would give her a hint of the best way to go to do this?

[Rolling Been Around for this part of Crevas to see if Yuki recalls an adventure here that's helpful. 2+2+1=5.]

Return to Thellamie

Getting out of here was happening. Good, good! Yuki looks as Juniper goes first, and blushes intensely. Juniper! Gosh! Wear an underskirt or something! She was going to introduce Thellamie to bicycle shorts after this. Gosh, gosh gosh. But, focus, jump. Her feet scuff the pavement, and her armor jingles below her shirt as she hits Olesnya with a solid running start and vaults onto the roof. She's never done this, but there's a practiced ease to her movement. The ease of feeling her center of mass, of hundreds of days spent moving and shifting her weight and being sure to always know how she can move. And the ease of having triangles and the reflexes that go with them. Her whole body was itching for something like this and she leans into it. It's almost perfect as she starts sprinting along the rooftops, pigtails whipping back as she runs.

Almost perfect. It's just, too much was happening is the thing. There was a fight, and the wolf pack vs. snakegirl guards thing was huge and chaotic. The Khatun had moved off away from Juniper and Olesnya, and by the time they rounded back into view, Yuki couldn't see the ceremony anymore. Couldn't see what was happening. Everyone else must have jumped down or off, or gotten mixed up.

She wanted to get her tablet out, start something up in the group chat. Check in with Sulochana and Juniper together, and maybe get Aadya's take too. She would soon, as soon as she could stop and focus.

Poor Suli, poor poor Suli! Yuki had only meant to jump over and ask questions. There had been risks, sure, but, the risk in her mind had been switching who kidnapped her from whom at dinner! Not a giant melee over Hazel! God sake. Suli was going to be so upset about this. It's why Yuki had snapped at Juniper about it initially. She knew Suli, and Suli was kind of uptight. If she wanted special time and didn't get it, she was going to mope about it for days! Or worse, she'd secret mope about it! [Need marked]

But then, the Khatun had relished the fight, Yuki had heard it in her voice. And on top of that, she'd heard how excited Sulochana had been about the crown of light. If anyone else thought like Sulochana did, then they were going to go all out for this too. Which meant that Hazel was...

Yuki nearly trips and falls on her face as her thoughts get ahead of the shift in roof layout to a smaller building with a diagonal A-frame roof as they move away from the market square.

"Where are we going?" she manages as she recenters herself and kicks extra hard on the jump to catch back up with Juniper and Olesnya. "I don't know this part of Crevas! When can we stop?"

She wants to stop. Wants to try and catch up, ask questions, get in touch with people, hit up the chat group, reach out to Hazel, both DM and new group chat. And she doesn't even know the half of what's happened!

And yet, she doesn't want to stop. This is good. Her body is sending her all the good signals, all the endorphins running on rooftops with Juniper and Olesnya. She could do an entire course, run all night until she's sweating and tired and needs to gulp down an entire pitcher of water.

She doesn't...she doesn't know what she wants. Well no, she doesn't want to fall. She starts counting in her head. Feet in rhythm. One two three, one two three, one two three. Like a dance, like a match. Just the counting and listening to Juniper and Olesnya. Run, learn what's next, go from there. One two three, one two three.

Return to Thellamie

Oh, that was totally the Khatun, wasn't it? The one Juniper said was into surprises. Yeah, yeah, Yuki could see it. Surprise like a shot through the heart! A heartbow was really an interesting weapon if you thought about it. In a world where it took time to draw a heart weapon and a hit to the head or the heart completely ended a fight, a bow fired by someone who would not miss their first shot ended a duel before it had even begun. Could you even call it a duel at that point? More like an ambush, or a kidnapping, right? Or, she supposed, like a hunter catching her prey. It was impressive. Though it did make Yuki wonder. How did she fare in an actual duel? She must have had some to become Khatun. They hadn't really interacted with the Serigalamu during the Azaza incident, and while Juniper had been very forthcoming about her hunting and clothing and now her lovely girlfriend, she hadn't bothered regaling Yuki with a history lesson of the Khanate. Somehow, Yuki didn't think the Khatun just crumpled if someone got close to her though. She probably knew how to backflip or something, and fire on the move while she was doing it. She had that badass cool vibe.

Okay, hold on, rewind a bit, a lot was happening and wondering about the mechanical constraints of heartbow dueling wasn't important. After receiving the answer about competition, Yuki looked thoughtful. She was going to say something else, maybe ask why the interpretation was competition and not cooperation, but she could admit to herself that the idea of competition got her heart beating too. She didn't have the chance though, with the Khatun's dismissal, so she settled on managing a brief curtsy with her t-shirt before Juniper and, Olesya was her name, Olesya the Baygum pulled her aside. Fine, fair enough. She hadn't had a plan for after this, she just had that moment of realizing that of everyone watching events, the Khatun had been special along with Yuki in observing the multiple contestants ahead of everyone else and that deserved a chat.

So, she was going to ask Juniper what was up, and ask the Baygum how she felt about things (because, let's be real, she came across as the sort of girl that was enrolled in one activity too many and really wanted some time to just run around without any rules). But then Crowey McCrowerston showed up and like, holy shit things started happening really fast.

First, everybody's heads turned with the wet slap because that is not a sound you expect to be hearing in the middle of a solemn ceremony and it carried. Everybody distracted by Crowey, which he was obviously going for. Then the golden fawn thing. Sulochana was shouting over the crowd, but Yuki was mentally a step of ahead of her because she'd arrived with Hazel and he was the only deer person she'd seen, and it wasn't that much of a stretch to put two and two together. Gah, stupid, she'd sent him to run off. She was looking around, then caught what Crowey was saying and was tracking him as fast as she could and yep, yep there's Hazel.

Ooh, and all wrapped up with Purnima no less. Had Hazel already found a Nagi girlfriend? Wow, good for him! Gosh, she was going to have to explain the politics of this one to him, and maybe let him know that Purnima had been kind of thoughtless when she met Yuki? Nagi were usually pretty good about paying attention to their coils, but she'd given Yuki the distinct impression that she was so preoccupied that she might crush Yuki by accident, and she'd better let Hazel know about that before he got too involved. But she could probably smooth things over with Sulochana. Or well, that thought was true up to like three seconds before she had it because no way was Suli going to let the prize for the whole crown of light thing fall into her local rival's hands.

Also huh, the Khatun had been right about the contest. Good call on her part. Wonder if she'd seen something like that before, gotta remember to ask her later if there's ever a later that involves actually chatting with her.

Oooh antler glow. There is...a moment as the magic flows into Hazel, that Yuki feels a little jealous. Juniper might notice if she's not totally distracted. Just that feeling of Yuki changing her stance, letting her head droop, curling in on herself a bit. She's thinking, oh, this one really is for Hazel. It's not just that she got to return, it's because Hazel is the chosen one this time. And very quickly she thinks that she didn't really want to be the chosen one again anyway, and it was super awkward being a celebrity here, and this was extremely cool for Hazel and she should be happy for him and she would be happy for him. But it's never easy to suddenly imagine yourself sharing a stage that had been all yours until just that moment. She buried that deep down just in time to look back up and see the arrow loosed.

Which brings us back to heartbows and Yuki contemplating them as Juniper and Olesnya, no no it was Olesya, no N Yuki, come on, but oh she was definitely going to mess that one up with how cute it sounded to say it cat style. Anyway, with Juniper and Oley holding her and the whooping of the pack, there wasn't much to do but think about what had just happened. Poor Purnima, taken out in the first instant. From what Yuki had gathered, she was not going to live that one down, and she'd probably never let it go. Blood vengeance on the entire Khanate probably. Whoof.

As the pack and the nagi begin to mix and press, Yuki does look up, almost upside down as she cranes her neck, to Juniper and Olesya. "So, he's from my world. Friend of mine from school. His name's Hazel, really nice guy, like super polite, a little shy I think. I sent him off to go explore the festival when we got here. Maybe instead of this madhouse, we all get out of here and I can introduce you? I've got his chat set up." She gives them a big smile, though there are butterflies in her tummy too. Poor Hazel, was he going to be all right with this? She hoped it didn't overwhelm him.