Well, if nothing goes horribly wrong, Mist can repeat his trick and swing back across.
"Everything's good, Cleo. Let's get out of here."
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Well, if nothing goes horribly wrong, Mist can repeat his trick and swing back across.
"Everything's good, Cleo. Let's get out of here."
The pipes fall silent as Mist lands back on the far side of the snake pit, and Cleo climbs back to her feet.
"I think at this point, the best thing to do is wake up. You've seen quite a bit, haven't you?"
Mist shrugs.
"Uh, I guess so. But what does one have to do with the other?" he asks.
Is his ability to quest limited by how much he's seen in one day?
Well, yes.
"I just think you've seen enough to understand, and the desert was the more dangerous quest, riiiiight?"
Cleo goes to brush a hand across the shoulder of the coat.
"Waking up after finding it is part of what you need to see too. Come on. It's not like we can't get back here."
Mist nods grudgingly.
"Well, I guess so. You know best. How do we wake up?" he asks.
Cleo grins.
"Why, we fall asleep, of course, and climb our way back up. Or we could get outside and find a gateway. Most graveyards have them, and many libraries, and a lot of random places besides."
Mist shakes his head.
"Okay, well let's get out of here first, then look for a hotel to sleep in or a graveyard with a gate." he suggests, looking at the way they came in.
And back they go, winding their way through the maze of a place, the way they came. Until-
A flashlight beam, sweeping its way down a cross-hallway.
Mist flattens himself against the wall, watching the man with the light. Completely silent, he waits to see if he will continue down the hall or turn into theirs.
Cleo doesn't bother with flattening herself to the wall behind Mist. She just takes a slow deep breath and vanishes from sight.
The flashlight, and the man holding it, peek a little way down this hall, but then turn back and move on.
With a smile, Mist continues out of the building. Once outside,Quote:
Originally Posted by Recaiden
"So which charities do you have , Cleo? And how did Leah get her Staff while she was just talking to me?" he asks.
And they're out, heading home.
"Just having the charity isn't enough to make it part of you. Leah's had that staff since just about right after she was born. It was just in that conversation that she grew into its use. As for me? I have-"
Cleo brandishes her chainsaw dagger, which whirrs adorably. A lamppost topple over. "-a Blade."
A flash comes from her necklace's gem. The street is covered in flowers. "-a Glass."
Appearifies a flute in her hands and plays a chord. A number of the flowers turn to butterflies and fly away. -"a Pen!"
She flourishes her cape. Nothing appears to happen. "-and a Mask!"
Mist nods.
"That makes sense. But why do the flowers generally only grow at your feet when you're a dragon? Is that a choice you make? And what does your Mask do?" he asks.
Cleo nods.
"I don't usually bother to keep in in check when I'm in my proper shape."
"The Mask? Don't really know."
"You can't just activate it when you want to and see?" he asks, incredulous. All that effort to get one of these things and she doesn't even use it for anything?!
Cleo looks affronted, and then nods swiftly. She swirls the cloak around her and her eyes go solidly Cleo-colored as she sees what the mask does.
Her skin splits open in a million cracks, releasing a cloud of pollen, sweetly burning, that drifts about the way, and is swiftly sealed up again with deepening bark. In a few moments Cleo is covered in/replaced by a towering rowan tree. Mist may find himself mildly hallucinating if he breathes much around here.
Mist coughs, feeling immediately light-headed, and raps a knuckle on Cleo's bark.
"Well I've got no idea what it's useful for, but now we know. Could you get out of that though, because I have no idea how to get home without you." he says, knock-knock-knocking.
Mist, you are standing there knocking on and talking to a tree.
There's not an answer right now. Just quiet leafyness.
Mist sighs. He presses a hand against the bark, thankful for his fur protecting him from splinters, and focuses his Aspect power, trying to draw out Cleo's dragon-self instead of this weird tree shape.
And if that doesn't work he's just going to get out his dirk and start cutting.
Mist gets a dragon kinda stretched out balanced on her tail and now falling over onto him.
"Aah!"
"What did you do?"
Mist catches the dragon with a struggle, and sets her down as gently as he can (not incredibly gently).
"I used my Aspect powers to draw out the normal you, because I can't get home with a tree guiding me in place. You knew about that power, right? It's what I used to summon Leah's full self and got her turned into a tiger instead of a zebra."
Mist just assumes Cleo knows about anything relevant in his life.
Cleo climbs slowly to her feet.
"Ow. I don't remember every bit of your life, Mist."
"Ugh. Just follow me."
And she storms off down the road.
"Well then don't always act like you do! I'm sorry though, I didn't know how to un-tree you..." he says, following sadly.
Cleo walks quickly away, but then slows down when he apologizes.
"I can understand the concern. Hurry on up. There's an inn off this way just a few blocks where we can wake up comfortably."
Mist nods and follows Cleo, along with any other instructions she might give about what to do.
They go to the inn, Cleo pays for a not-even-seedy room and practically dives onto one of the two beds and curls up.
There's a climb back through the dreamworld, but it's the sort of dreams you don't even remember at the time.
When Mist wakes up wakes up, back in the DFI, he should feel, and be, more powerful. He'll be more fae, having that coat, so his fur color might have changed? His eyes should be fine, not creepy solid-color like Leah's got. And he might well start to notice things. Like how Cleo just knows things about him. Like seeing how the world doesn't just happen, but there's shadowy forces moving just under the surface of the world, arranging everything. And the Coat should have some powers of its own. Infinite knives in its hidden pockets is common.
Mist does wake up, with his coat on and his dirk sitting on his chest. He's a bit shorter, and his coat has lightened again, though still not the bright orange of the Fox King.
"Mmm. Morning. Thanks for all of your help, Cleo." he says sleepily.
If she wants to make clear why she did this, it's probably her last chance to do so.
Cleo wakes up, shivering, blinking away tears.
"Good morning, Mist."
She stands up, stretching to get out some of the cricks and pains of sleeping there.
"You're welcome." She declines to explain. Maybe one day, not anytime soon, perhaps, but one day, he'll figure out why the help.
Mist frowns and kneels down next to her.
"Are you okay, Cleo? Those look like tears. Bad dreams?"
Maybe she just really missed being a tree already?
Cleo turns her face to the side, cheeks coloring in embarrassment.
"I'll be fine, Mist. Nice dreams; not such a nice world to wake to."
Subject change! She tries to put a bit of a teasing tone into her voice.
"Do you know what your Mask does?"