rakuen | Into the Woods

Characters: Firifale and France, or anyone else
Format: Any. Starting with prose, but will follow you
This log is: open
Location: On the outskirts of the woods, nearish Fortitude.
Summary: Firifale realizes that he can't remember how to hunt and pitches a fit. Because he's a mature adult.
Warnings: Possible projectile pinecones.

Firifale was perched in a tree like some ungainly bird, his bare feet clinging to the biggest branch as he groped around the smaller ones, tugging off needles, pinecones, and bits of bark and hurling them at the ground. If the ammunition ran out he scuttled to a different branch an continued, muttering as he went.

"Stupid! Stupid thing! With the stupid running, and the stupid ears, and the stupid thump-thump-thump--"

All he wanted from life--all right, at least all he wanted from today-- was a little bit of rabbit. The dining hall food was decent, but he was starting to miss home and the taste of the girl's rabbit stew. The one in the yellow dress, not the one who was sometimes a dragon. (Also stupid that he didn't have their names any more. Had Oliver's name, sneaky snakey stupid man, but none of the ones who mattered.)

Anyway, he thought he could just come out here and get a rabbit. Used to do it all the time! Best of all his friends! Rabbits were easy.

Except that they weren't now. He had no idea how he used to get the rabbits, and now they were all hiding and it was stupid. He grabbed another pinecone and threw it at the patch of undergrowth that the last rabbit had disappeared into.

"Stupid!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alex was bored, confused, and curious, which translated into him wandering the forest near Fortitude, the game's manual in his hands. It let him explore the area around him while figuring out how exactly this game is supposed to work.

The last thing he expected to find was someone throwing pine cones, so of course he was confused one one bounced right onto his manual and barely missed his face. He jumped back and looked around, mostly to see if anyone had seen what he believed to be assault from a tree. That was when he noticed Firifale, but decided to just watch a moment rather than say anything.

Firifale didn't expect to see anyone either, and was rather startled to find that his pinecones had nearly found a target. Panic instantly replaced rage, and he jumped and scurried behind the main trunk. Boy wasn't shouting yet... good, yes?

He peered out from behind the trunk. Boy didn't even look angry. Good! Safe.

"Sorry?"

Alex smiled warmly up at Firifale, "I-It's okay. W-was just surprised's all." He walked slowly a bit closer to the tree the other boy was up, "I-I thought the tree w-was angry at me, b-but I don' think I've done anything ta make you mad, have I?"

Firifale gave a little huff somewhere between laughter and annoyance.

"Tree can't be mad." Then he paused and eyed the main trunk. "...Can't, yes?"

Just in case, he edged further out onto the branch. He had been picking bits off it and throwing them, after all.

Alex eyes the tree as well, putting his hand on it as if that might tell him something. "They c-can't in my world. P-probably not here either. I w-was just joking 'bout that."

Examining the tree, Alex wondered if he could climb it. It didn't look too hard, even if it had been about a year since he had time to practice, he'd also gotten a decent amount stronger in that year. "W-would you mind if I joined you up there, or t-tried?"

Firifale squinted down at him. He he was interrupting a perfectly good bad mood. He seemed nice enough, though, and not too often that other people climbed his trees.

"Come up! Space for plenty. Can lend you a hand."

He scrambled down a branch or two and wrapped himself around a branch, then wiggled both hands to demonstrate.

Alex ran a few steps to get a step or two up the tree, and then tried using the shadow abilities he was so used to having to grab onto the branches above him. It was only a combination of quick reflexes and luck that he managed to grab onto Firifale's hands. "Ah! Shoot!"

"A-ha!" Firifale gripped Alex's wrists as he rocked back and forth trying to balance the sudden weight.

"Nonono. Try-- hmmm! That for this foot, that for the other one... hands maybe go here and over there?" These directives might've been more useful if he could give more specific gestures than a jerk of his head, or if he could reliably distinguish left from right, but it would have to do for now.

Alex used one of the swings to kick the tree, hooking his other foot over the tree branch, resulting in him almost hanging upside-down for a moment, before he chanced reaching for the branch with his hand, letting go of one of Firifale's.

"Ah! I-I think, a-almost..." Even though his heart was beating hard, he started laughing a bit.

Firifale scrambled back to give the young man enough room to climb up, but he echoed the laughter. He may not know why Alex found it funny when he almost fell from great heights, but that was fine. There was a lot of humour that he didn't understand, and laughing felt good.

"Climb like a rabbit!" he laughed, and did a brief imitation of Alex's clumsiness. This proved to be a mistake; he lost his balance and fell down to the branch below him, banging his shin on it before he managed to catch it in an awkward grip.

"...Whoop."

Alex laughed a bit more, securing himself on the branch, then offering Firifale a hand to help him back up. "I g-guess I do! I-I'm used ta having something that h-helps me climb better."

Firifale accepted the hand gratefully and settled back onto the branch next to Alex. He tilted his head, giving him a puzzled look.

"Claws? Tail? Ladder?"

Alex raised his hands up just above his head, making spidery motions with his hands, "Tenticles!" He laughed a bit, "I c-could use my f-feelings to make invisible ones, among other things!"

"Tentacles?"

Firifale may not know tales of eldritch abominations, but he was pretty certain that no good could come of tentacles-- especially invisible ones. If they had to exist and go all wiggly on him, he'd better be able to keep an eye on them. He gave Alex a look of unbridled horror.

"No tentacles in my tree!"

Alex looked surprised and guilty, even hurt, "I-I don't have them h-here, and they're m-more like ropes th-that I can o-only use ta h-hold onto things... Th-they're not th-that creepy..." He was hoping for more understanding here, but he felt like he shouldn't have been surprised. They were innocent things to him, but the connotations were creepy. "I sh-shouldn't've s-said anything...."

"Well..." Panic flashed across Firifale's face. Trouble! That look was bad news, probably needed apologizing. But tentacles were also bad news. Period. What to do? "No tentacles here, right? All right, then."

Never mind that he might be stomping all over trauma and a history of rejection. The finer points of human emotion were still lost on him and, as far as he was concerned, the temporary absence of tentacles settled the matter completely. He thrust out a hand.

"Firifale."

Fortunately, the fact that Firifale decided to not run off wildly was good enough for Alex to let it slide. He takes Firifale's hand and shakes it with a small smile, "Alex."

It still did hurt that he seemed to always be getting that sort of reaction once he talked about using his shadows. Once those things were gone, he was a normal human again, not some monster to be feared.

Into the Woods

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