After Childhood's End
Apr. 23rd, 2016 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
All childhoods must, at some point, come to an end. Magically induced ones end more abruptly than the regular kind.
Abe no Seimei wakes with a start. Not that he was sleeping until now. He was...what exactly was he doing before he found himself here? And where is here, anyway? Who is that person off to his left?
He leaps back from the stranger, leaves crunching under his feet, and gets a defensive spell into place - all before he quite realizes that he's done it, or that the stranger he's reacting to is just as startled as he is.
Abe no Seimei wakes with a start. Not that he was sleeping until now. He was...what exactly was he doing before he found himself here? And where is here, anyway? Who is that person off to his left?
He leaps back from the stranger, leaves crunching under his feet, and gets a defensive spell into place - all before he quite realizes that he's done it, or that the stranger he's reacting to is just as startled as he is.
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Date: 2016-04-23 08:16 pm (UTC)"I say," she says. "Where were we?"
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Date: 2016-04-23 08:59 pm (UTC)He could have said 'a forest' and that answer would technically be correct, but it would also be obvious and no more helpful than 'I don't know.'
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Date: 2016-04-23 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-24 05:38 pm (UTC)"I believe you are correct, Madam," he says. After a moment's consideration he bows to her, polite but wary. "I am Abe no Seimei," he introduces himself.
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Date: 2016-04-24 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-25 11:27 am (UTC)Alas, the spark dies before it can catch on anything.
"Please excuse me, lady. I must still be muddled from...whatever happened." Pause. "How did you figure out that we're in Milliways?"
Once she suggested it the conclusion seemed obvious to him, but he doesn't know what prompted her to suggest it in the first place - and he's curious.
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Date: 2016-04-25 11:46 am (UTC)Pause.
"I do feel I have seen you before. The name Dôji comes to mind?"
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Date: 2016-04-25 03:20 pm (UTC)"I used to be called Dōji, Lady Margolotta, but that was a very long time ago."
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Date: 2016-04-25 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-25 07:32 pm (UTC)Maybe it was one of Bar's holiday celebrations, although if it was, Seimei has no idea which holiday was being celebrated.
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Date: 2016-04-25 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-26 04:00 pm (UTC)Seimei's eyes - which can see very well in the dark, albeit in monochrome - fall on something off to Lady Margolotta's side. A depression in the leaves coating the forest floor, and in the middle of that depression, a twig snapped in half.
"I think I have just found the way we came in," Seimei says. "If you will permit me, Lady Margolotta, I will retrace our steps back to the bar."
If they're observant and a bit lucky, they may find some edifying clues along the way.
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Date: 2016-04-26 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 03:24 pm (UTC)Giving the matter some more thought, he tilts his head to look up into the treetops. "Although if you prefer, Lady Margolotta, I can try to get the lay of the land first."
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Date: 2016-04-27 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 11:15 pm (UTC)He steps over to the nearest tree - a tall pine - and puts his hand on the trunk. He summons forth a small cluster of shikigami. They're invisible to the naked eye, but stir the twigs and needles of the pine tree as they swarm upwards.
When they band together at the top, Seimei is able to see the surrounding landscape from their perspective, as if he himself were perched on the tree. To his vision, everything appears in shades of silver, grey, and black - but it's quite clear.
Seimei calls most of the shikigami, save for one that he sends arcing out of the forest to the peaked roof of the air temple. It will serve as a beacon, so he can sense his way and won't get turned around. "It's about two kilometers to the edge of the forest." He points. "That way."
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Date: 2016-04-27 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-27 11:53 pm (UTC)"Perhaps we were following something, or searching for something." Seimei rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if something mesmerized us. That would explain why we don't remember how we got here."
He hopes that's not the case, though.
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Date: 2016-04-28 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-28 02:38 pm (UTC)He also sends a scouting party of shikigami ahead of them - towards the one sitting on the air temple - to scout the ground ahead. There isn't exactly a clear path here, and neither he nor Lady Margolotta are appropriately dressed for contending with underbrush, mud puddles, etc.
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Date: 2016-04-29 08:03 am (UTC)"Useful, to have that sort of spirits," she says.
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Date: 2016-04-29 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-29 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-29 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-29 08:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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