[Changeling] A Gathering of Mists IC

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande stares, wide-eyed, as Rose scares away the mugger with just a piece of wood. She'd moved with such poise, such grace- she always did, of course, she was beautiful, but there was sudden confidence there, confidence that attracted and even frightened her.

She begins to slowly clap, smiling giddily at Rose. "Bravo!" One might notice that her tail is wagging happily.

[PhoeKun]

Rose sighs and shakes her head, lowering her new found weapon but not releasing her grip on it.

"He kept the knife. I should have broken his arm. I should have..." she halts as her gaze falls on each other other three women she's deigned to travel with. Safe and without a scratch. That's good enough, isn't it?

"...Keep going."

[Anarion]

The group continues a few more blocks, following Stephanie's route towards her house. Despite the passage of time, the area looks much the same and Stephanie has no trouble figuring out where she's going. If anything, the area looks too much the same. No new coats of paint, no new construction, and the exact same potholes in the streets. It's like someone just forgot this neighborhood was here. Or chose to forget.

After turning off Mission street, you travel another block over, turn and then find yourself on a corner with a few small shops that are part of 3-5 story buildings. On the other side of the street is a small market, and as you were walking down you passed a coffee shop called simply "Bill's Coffee." At the end of the block is a thrift store, and between the two, where you're standing now is a bakery. The smell of baked bread is faint in the air even at this time of night, and in the streetlights it looks like the place has a navy blue awning with strong white lettering that reads "Rosen Bakery." To Stephanie's notable surprise, the place appears to be well-maintained. The street in front is clean, the store-front doesn't have any chipped paint, and the window drapes behind the metallic shutter locking the place up look new, with posies printed on them. The upstairs windows are dark and it seems like everyone is probably asleep.

Looking to the space between each building, the fire escape route that Stephanie is used to using appears intact, dropping off in a relatively clean alley with a couple trashcans and not much else.

[Thanqol]

It was actually kind of... disappointing to see the bakery still there, still cared for. It was a strange feeling. Like she would have preferred it to close down or be replaced with something else, or hollow out and leave a scar...

But there were more important things right now.

"Well, this is it," Stephanie said with a brief smile, "I don't have my key, so I'll climb up the fire escape and let you in from the inside. Just wait right here."

She started running, kicking off the wall, jumping up to catch the base of the ladder to the fire escape. She flipped up onto it and ghosted up the metal stairs, towards the window to her home.

The motion was so familiar it brought a different flavour to the night air. She felt warm, safe, exhilarated. By this point she was already home, these were just the last few motions that needed to be made. Home.

[Anarion]

Stephanie has no trouble vaulting onto the fire escape and she flows up to the third floor like water flowing through a stream.

However, when she reaches the level, she finds that the window is locked and dark. It's difficult to see inside at all, and it occurs to her that something might be blocking it, so complete is the darkness.

[Thanqol]

After a moment's hesitation and a reflexive grab for her improvised lockpicks - long gone - she tapped on the window and softly called, "Hey. Helley. Let me in."

[Anarion]

You see something shift in front of a window. It looks like a black cloak, but you don't see any person. However, you do hear a voice come from the window, a mix of fear and restrained anger.

"Get out, now, or I'll call the police."

[Thanqol]

Well, that didn't sound too encouraging. "Uh, does Helen Rosen still live here?" she asked. "If she doesn't, could you tell me where she is now?"

Wouldn't notice I was gone my foot.

[Anarion]

The black cloak shifts again. You notice there seems to be a coat rack to the side of the window that the cloak is on. There's also a black top hat on the top of the coat rack.

"Who, what the hell are you? You stay away from her! She never did anything to you."

[Thanqol]

"Well, yeah she never did anything to me. I'm her sister." Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. "I'm Stephanie."

Top hat? Why was anyone who could afford a top hat living here?

[Anarion]

"Her sister? Is this some kind of prank? Did Sam put you up to this or something? What the **** kind of friend wakes people up in the middle of the night? Look, whatever it is, it's not funny. Just get out of here."

[Thanqol]

"Yeah, like Sam would have the brains to do something like this," Stephanie said flatly. "Okay, all right, I've been gone for a while but I'm back. And I'm also freezing, broke and hungry and I'd really like to know what's going on here."

[Anarion]

The coat rack seems to shift position a bit. You still don't see whoever is talking.

"Yeah, that makes two of us because I have no idea what you're talking about. But if you think I'm letting someone that looks like you in here, you're insane. I don't even want to think about what kind of store sells a costume like that. Now seriously, get out of here or I'm calling the police."

[Thanqol]

"You wear a top hat and you're making fun of how I dress?" Stephanie said, scandalised.

[Anarion]

"Got it, crazy person at the window. Cops will be here in a few minutes. They're pretty slow in this neighborhood, so you have time to run if you want."

You're pretty confident you're hallucinating, but the coat rack, top hat and all, walks away from the window.

[Thanqol]

Wait, was that coat rack - had she just been talking to a -

- Costume -

Ohhhh.

It could see her true shape! And she could see it's shape!

Maybe if she...

Stephanie focused, pulling all the mist and smoke around her close together. She focused on making sure not one wisp of darkness, not one tendril escaped her body. She tugged her collar straight, knocked on the window, and said "Hey! I'm not crazy and you don't need to freak out. Let's just talk about this."

[Point of glamour to strengthen the Mask, 4/10 remaining]

[Anarion]

The coat rack turns around...and drops the cell phone it was holding onto the kitchen floor, with the distinctive crash of glass shattering.

You hear faintly from inside the apartment a voice that Stephanie has not heard in a very long time
"Stephie, is everything okay?"

[Thanqol]

"Yeah, I'm fine," Stephanie called from the window, suddenly enormously encouraged. "Your friend just dropped her phone though." She waved.

She did wince to see the phone break though. Those weren't cheap.

[Anarion]

"My friend, whuh?"

You see a blond teenaged girl walk out of the bedroom and towards the window and the door to the kitchen. She's wearing a long flannel nightgown, presumably to keep warm in the chilly summer weather. Helen looks similar to how you remember her, but she's gained a few inches and she cut her hair pretty short, sort of a pixie cut actually. She still looks sleepy and appears to be looking from the kitchen to the window and back in bewilderment.

[Thanqol]

"Hi! Let me in?" Stephanie said brightly. "You wouldn't believe the day I've had."

[Anarion]

Helen seems confused, but before she can act, the coat rack lets out an animal-like snarl and shoves her back into the room before running to block the window.

[Thanqol]

"Woah! Calm down there, hatsy," Stephanie said, raising her hands but not backing away from the window. "Like I said, we can talk about this."

[Anarion]

"Talk about this? **** that. This is just like my dreams. I always thought there was someone else out there. I've had too many dreams of jungles and temples and whatever stupid kid's games Helen wanted to talk about.

And all the time, I saved up my money. I worked 12 hour days. I fixed up the bakery. It was me. Me, me. You think this place just keeps itself working? You think Helen feeds herself?

I don't know what the hell's going on here, or why you look like me and why you're in my head. But get out. Get out! Get out! Get out!"

[Thanqol]

"I'm already out!" Stephanie shouted back, "And you were just keeping my place while I was gone! I'm back now, so you can just - just -" Stephanie faltered, stumbling over the end of that sentence. "- just go away." She finished weakly, losing all traction and conviction.

[Anarion]

The cape and hat shift a bit at an angle and you have the distinct impression that the coat rack is sneering.

"Keeping it while you were gone? No, I don't think so. I don't understand how you look exactly like me, but whoever you are, you abandoned this place and went off to have your adventures. It's mine now. I made it into everything it is. Helen would be starving on the street without me. You were never supposed to come back."

[Thanqol]

"Well, I'm back. And you're nuts if you think I'm going anywhere." Stephanie said firmly. "Don't make me break this window down. I know they're expensive, and you've already broken your phone -" she said, quickly losing any chance of being intimidating. "But I'll do it!"

[Raz_Fox]

Most people would be nervous in a bad neighborhood at night, especially while they were wearing the most dapper suit you'd ever see. Marchande, however, was running high on the thrill of protection. She had a guardian angel; everything was fine forever. So she stands in the alleyway, arms crossed, looking upwards as Stephanie tries to talk to her sister. Here's where we'll get answers, she thinks to herself, answers to questions that we need to know. When are we - how long have we been gone? Not too long, probably, from the look of things. Maybe even just a day in the real world. And why aren't people scared of us?

Then the conversation goes bad. Stephanie starts arguing with the person on the other side of the window, and... and someone was keeping her place while she was gone. A family friend, Marchande rationalizes. No need to jump to conclusions. No need to be nervous. Someone came to look after Stephanie's little sister, the inspiration for Stephanie's return... and they didn't believe that Stephanie was really back. Or they were bitter. Didn't want to let a negligent sister back in.

Changelings. They steal a baby, and they leave a baby in the cradle - but it's not really your child. It's a thing from that place. It screams, it hollers, it's ill-tempered and cruel if you let it grow up. And it never really learns what our world is like. Isn't that what those fairy tales said?

Just a family friend. That's all. No need to get agitated.

[Anarion]

The coat rack seems about to answer, but them turns around. "Helen, get out of here. Go back to bed, this doesn't concern you."

Helen ignores the coat rack and walks back into the bedroom. "Who are you, and why do you look just like my sister?"

[SiuiS]

She just doesn't know what went wrong.

He demanded money. She demanded safety. And then there was yelling, and he came closer, and then... Kalina. She plucked a childs sword from the woods - no, that wasn't right, she pulled wood from the ground as though 'twere a sword... Right? She pulled out her 'sword' and told the man to drop his weapon, and then she pushed him and he ran away with the moon cradled in his hands. And Kalina was upset. Had she wanted the moon for herself?

Charlotte follows Kalina's lead, of course. She was magnetic. And Kalina followed Stephanie (wasn't she just in the back? she thought) and so the walk continued, and through it all was the pressing, smothering feeling. Failure.

ChRlotte had made a simple deal, and offered it to their attacker. He refused. Deals were not refused, not... Back there. In the thorns, in the darkness. Charlotte had stood there with her head up and her foot off the cliff like the fool on the card, and the world moved around her, it would always move around her, the world would goon and I'd she couldn't find her place then the best Charlotte could hope for was to be a standing stone in a moving stream. She had nothing, and even Stephanie had a home, Stephanie of all people had her home and her heart, Kalina had her sword and her charms, and Marchande had her suit and her smarts, and...

Freedom! Charlotte brightens - visibly, thanks to her hues - at the thought, clings to it like driftwood in the sea of her thoughts. I am free, she thinks, and I have nothing but myself to give, but that is enough. And then there is the bakery, the alleyway, with it's too-clean paint and too-neat rubbish bins, and Charlotte realizes she had been lost at sea, Stephanie was already going in, or trying too, and now she was... Shouting? At herself, from... Inside?

Shaking her head, she focuses on calming herself. Her thoughts are too scattered; she was a creature of poise. She would not be unbalanced by something as simple as being a bad friend!

One breath. Two. Focus.
Marchande, beautiful suit, straight and tall. Tail wagging; happy. Kalina, a storm cloud with with a beautiful halo. Passionate and composed at once, the light rustle of feathers under her newfound coat. Stephanie, a swirling blackness with violet brightness turned toe-headed and wan as Charlotte herself and the budding hurt of strange violet eyes.

...

Charlotte blinks. This will be harder than she thought...

[Thanqol]

"Uh, 'cause I am your sister," Stephanie said with a 'well duh' look on her face as if it would simply never occur to her that there were any other answer to that question, even as she was in the process of staring down her magical clone. "Short version is that magic is real and I've had a really long day."