fairynuff | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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TEST DRIVE MEME #4

TEST DRIVE MEME

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OPTIONAL SCENARIOS

01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD.
The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks!

02. THE STATION.
Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms!

03. WILDCARD.
Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

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[She bobs her head, understanding the magic of Gates well enough even if she herself had never been through one. Her eyes are large and her pupils almost non-existent as she gives a soft pant of stress, nodding her beak.]

The Sssstation... [She nods again, and there is movement from her end of the locket. She stops within the Ron of mushrooms, the fairies alighting into the air around her as she does so. Her gaze lift, beak parted slightly as she follows them with her eyes. A moment later she looks at the locket, clearly anxious.]

You will find me, Aubrrri?? [The fear and uncertainty in her voice is unmistakeable as she addresses him.]

[He's beginning to understand that this Zhaneel is not the one he knows in the present; she's too anxious, too frightened, to be the self-assured gryfalcon that can keep Skandranon in line.]

I will find you. It takes some time to travel, but I am not too far from a ring myself. Soon, Zhaneel.

[Oh, Aubri... Zhaneel has so very far to come yet before she's that fine example of a gryphoness you left in White Gryphon. Pulled from before she'd even proved she could successfully navigate an obstacle corse of their design... Pulled from before she'd stood up to Winterheart and taken that first step in really speaking up for herself. This Zhaneel didn't have any idea of her worth yet and wouldn't yet for a time.

Her eyes pin and dilate again and she shifts nervously before nodding her beak once in reply. She'd do as be told her and see him soon.]

I will meet you at the Ssstation.

At the Station, then. I will come shortly.

[He closes the locket then and begins winging his way toward the nearest fairy ring. If he pushes himself, it will only take a handful of hours.]

[Aubri's image vanishes from the locket and all Zhaneel can do now is hope that he arrives quickly. With guidance from the fairies, their small forms flirting about her and zipping around to land and ride on her back. Once inside the fairy ring, they've left her alone and wave, their voices and giggles soft tinkling sounds. She speaks her destination cautiously and what follows is not something the gryphon will ever consider 'enjoyable'.

She appears in the Station and stumbles slightly, recovering her footing with slightly splayed feet and fanned wings. Her eyes widen and her beak gapes a bit as she takes in her surroundings, very much overwhelmed by the very modern surroundings.

Don't mind her, but she's going to do some low key exploring right about now, because technology is not something the gryphon is really familiar with at all. She will, however, be remaining close to the area she arrived and after a short while it becomes a bit much and she huddles off in a corner, away from everything.]

[Aubri hates the Fairy Rings. To him, they are unreliable, just waiting to fail somehow simply because the fairies are so proud of them. The fairies are not the most reliable of creatures in the Drabwurld. Upon arrival, he shakes his feathers out and huffs almost indignantly. He hates these things.

He flies to the perimeter of the Station and then walks in, wings folded tightly against himself -- the Station is made for bipedal and smaller, rather than the larger gryphon that Aubri is. It only takes him a handful of minutes to find Zhaneel after he arrives at the Station. She has a lovely corner -- and that rather solidifies his suspicion that this is the Zhaneel of old. He hops up onto the patio, shakes himself off, and grins, beak gaping, at her.

Hi.]

[Zhaneel will agree with you 110%, Aubri; there is a reason gryphons have wings and one of those reasons was so that they could fly and not use Gates.

The gryphoness kept to her out of the way corner, watching as all manner of humanoids traveled across her path. Some gawked and others pointed, some made a point of avoiding her and others ignored her completely. She huddled in her corner and tried to reason why they'd chosen her... there wasn't anything special about her.

She remains there until she feels his presence and looks up, lifting her head to see him gaping at her... happily.

She doesn't even consider her next move, acting simply out of duress and a need for comfort and closeness to something and someone familiar. She scrambles forward, claws and talons scrabbling against the stone floor, until she bumps into Aubri, burying her face into his chest. Her wings tremble faintly as she breathes in the essence of his his scent that is solely him.

Hi yourself.]

[Well, this is surprising. Aubri's wings lift and flare at the sudden contact but he recovers quickly enough. Zhaneel, before she found her voice, was just another member of his Wing -- he never really subscribed to the misborn thing and if she had been, at least she flew faster for it but he also never addressed it either. The depth of her insecurity had never quite reached him, though. He found out after, through conversations with Drake and Skandranon and Zhaneel herself. If this is truly that Zhaneel, then she needs this.

Skandranon would kill him if he turned her away now. (Also might kill him if he got too close but she's trembling and he's willing to risk that.) He reaches down, gently runs his beak through her feathers.]

[There might be a moment when she'd consider what she was doing right now and be embarrassed by her actions, but right now she just needed and craved this comfort... to be grounded and reassured that she wasn't alone in this strange world where they'd been brought to fight someone else's war. It seemed an unfortunate reoccurring theme for the gryphons.

When he doesn't pull away, she allows herself several beats and breaths to just be... and then she feels him gently preen through her feathers and she sighs. Affection was something the smaller gryphon wasn't used to, and that included something as simple as touch. She been forced to go through many a seasonal molt without the help of anyone, as she'd been the pariah of her Wing; and there wasn't ever much connection to other Wings with the rare exception of family or friends... neither of which Zhaneel really had,

So, with her face buried into his downy chest, she nibbles tentatively in return and the trembling in her wings comes slowly to a halt and when she speaks, it's slightly muffled but still audible.]

Why have they brrrought uss here, Aubrrri? Iss it really to fight a war? [She'd been listening while she waited, and what she'd heard hadn't made her feel any better about being here.]

[He lets her do what she needs, but he does pull back a little when she speaks.]

That is what we are told.

[She pulls back a bit, worried that for all her need for comfort that she is overcrowding the soldier. Her ear tufts flatten against her skull and she lowers her head at his reply, body posture radiating unhappiness.]

Do you fight for them, Aubri? [Her gaze flits up to the brand above his eye, ear tufts flicking forward and back again.] Is that how...?

[It takes everything in him not to turn his head self-consciously when she asks after the brand. For all that he cannot hide it, there are days he certainly wishes that he could. It's a reminder -- not just to himself, but to everyone who looks at him -- of his failure and humiliation. His ear tufts press flat against his head.]

That came because of the war. [But not because he was fighting it. In fact:] I have tried to stay clear of it.

[Zhaneel might have any number of issues, but amongst them is not the inability to acknowledge social cues. She sees his ears pin and a tightening around his eyes and neck and she sucks her head, nares flushing in response. She had not meant to upset him and her wings flutter as her own tiny ear tufts flick back.]

I am ssssorrrrry... [Her words are breathy beneath the apologetic hiss. All of the Wings knew what happened to the gryphons caught by Ma'ar's armies and it seemed it was no better here. She lifts her gaze to meet his once more, her next words intense.]

But you rrreturned alive and for that I am grateful... [She lifts her beak and nibbles under his chin, a bold move, but one she thinks is needed. Perhaps, she wasn't the only one in need of familiar comforts.]

[He lifts his head, letting her provide what comfort she will for a moment. He has good friends here but there is a decided lack of other gryphons around and it's nice to have someone familiar nearby. He pulls away after just a moment, though -- he doesn't want to linger on it.

He doesn't correct her: he did not return so much as he was let go and then limped to safety, bloody and beaten. Thought he won't pursue this particular conversation, it's good to see her looking, if not confident, then a little bolder, a little more intense.] So I did.

[It's all he says before delving into the next subject.] What questions do you have, Zhaneel? I have some answers.

[Well, she done it... she'd overextended herself and she knew better, but hasn't been able to help herself. She wasn't exceedingly close to Aubri, but she was far closer to him then she was anyone else with the exception of Amberdrake and Gesten (possibly Vikteren). It seemed, however, that she had overstepped herself and she silently pulls back into her shell that little but she'd been out.

She shouldn't have made any sort of assumption just because her been supportive of her obstacle course and was of her Wing.

It's okay, she was used to it.

Then he shifts and asks if she has any questions, to which she nods. Lack of confidence aside, she was so curious about this place.]

Where are we? Is this place anywhere near our home? [She doubted this, but there was still a degree of hope that they were just some distance from their home but not wholly removed.]

[And that gives him just the opening he needs to figure out this time difference - she is a timid thing and has not asked after Skan or the twins at all, so his suspicions are almost confirmed. Even so, he'd like to know for certain just what exactly she remembers.]

They call this the Drabwurld and it is nowhere near either Urtho's tower or White Gryphon. [He gives her a considering look, seeking recognition in White Gryphon.]

Drabwurld... [She tries out the word, rolling it over her tongue. Then she blinks, looking at Aubri as she sits up a bit.]

White Gryphon?

[Yep, no recognition from the smaller gryphon. Sorry, Aubri... :( ]

[Aubri nods once. He had been expecting that.]

What is the last that you remember?

[If she knew that her reply had been disheartening, she'd feel even worse than she does. However, his question proves an ample distraction and she sits properly, tail curling over her feet as her wings partially can and retold along her back. If you were to tell her that she was mated to Skan and had kits by him in your timeline, she wouldn't know what to make of it; she couldn't make anything out of a crush when it would clearly just be blowing things way out of proportion. Skandranon, the Black Gryphon and she?!

She takes the question at face value, however, and thinks to the precise moment everything went upside down.]

I was practicing my obstacle course... I was partially through when everything seemed to tilt...

Your obstacle course... [Over ten years ago now. That much time stood between he and she? She hadn't even started to really take up for herself.

This is a young Zhaneel.] I remember that course quite well.

[Seeing as how he'd been right in the middle of it and everything, the old bird who couldn't even fly at the time.] I was the useless lump right in the middle of it.

Yesss. [She gives her head a half bob, turning her head to study the soldier. Her wings give a half flutter as he mentions his part in the course.]

I was nearly at you when... [Shed been yanked here. She hadn't even been able to prove the effectiveness of her course... she hadn't been able to finish it... who knew if she'd really have been able to.] I was pulled here... [Softer.] It was a foolish idea.

[The she glances back at Aubri, pulled out of her thoughts.] Sketi! You were willing to help which was more than nearly anyone else offered. I'm only sorry I wasn't able to pull you out as planned. [Wait... That was another thing...] Aubri... How long have you been here? [Because she'd only just been in the course, set on his 'rescue'.]

[Aubri clacks his beak once, in mild frustration.] It wasn't foolish. It was a good idea.

[Which brings him to answering the next few questions. He's heard of such issues, among other people before, but he never thought he'd be one dealing with it. It's... difficult to find the words he needs to explain this.] Zhaneel, it has been some ten years since you 'rescued' me in that course, but I haven't spent those years here.

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TEST DRIVE MEME #4

Re: Not at all!!!! Look how late responding -I- am!

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Sorry Aubri :(

it's okay. he understands.

She would feel like an even bigger failure if she knew :(

Re: She would feel like an even bigger failure if she knew :(