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| Home Again, Home Again; [p] Vivianne | |
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| Topic Started: Sun Oct 2, 2011 3:18 pm (509 Views) | |
| Shan Orison | Mon Jan 2, 2012 6:07 pm Post #31 |
 
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"I understand that urge, though it's much easier to make them think they're trees for a time," Mistress Cullin said, stirring several sugar cubes into her tea. "Less magic expended, since you're not changing a body, just a mind. Human minds, at that." She sat down across from Vivianne, stirring her tea as she stared into the fire. "I hope you don't begrudge your parents too much. Fear of the unknown is rather built in to our minds, and we can act in rather...extreme ways to it. Takes a great deal of training to accept the unknown as something to learn about." She turned her gaze back to Vivianne, her blue eyes dancing in the firelight. "Thankfully, you at least had someone to help you, and a witch at that. You don't seem to have a great deal of magic, young Vivianne, but to be able to do what you did at such a young age and with no training at all..." She paused to take a loud, long, slurp of tea. "That is quite an interesting thing." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "...So..." Shan said, drumming his fingers on the glass. "This is some good juice, Paverty. You were...angry about something?" "It's fine, Shan," Paverty said, looking to the side. "Girl was just upset about you coming home after leaving so abruptly," Nanny Tuttle said, letting the sharp looks Paverty shot her bounce off her hull of amusement. "Seems she felt that the least you could do before taking off was tell your cousin about it. I just helped her channel that anger into something nonflammable." "It's fine, Shan. I'm over it. Your back home, safe and sound, and that's what counts, right?" "Right," Shan said. "And I am sorry about just...heading out, but, well, things at home just got..." "It's fine, Shan," his mother said, sipping her own juice. "I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner, really." "But...I'm guessing you'll be heading back out again, aren't you?" Paverty asked. "Well, yes," Shan said, trying to shift his feet and failing thanks to Hermes' bulk. "I mean, I really do like being a bard, and I'm pretty good at it, and I've made quite a few friends while traveling." "Like Vivianne?" Nanny said, pulling a pipe and some tobacco out of a pocket. "She's quite cute, wouldn't you say? Heard you two make a good looking couple." "What? Um...yes, I suppose." Shan said, turning red again. He should have known the eternal gossip that was Nanny had heard about their cart ride. "We're not a couple though. She's a friend, and I'm helping her out." "Really? Are you happy with that?" Nanny asked, grinning as she lit her pipe with an ignited thumb. "Well, yes. She's nice, and a powerful borrower, or something, and she cares about animals a lot." He could feel his face turning redder. "So," Pavery said, joining in the act. "Did you want to have more than friendship with her?" "What?" "I approve of it, if that's what you need, Shan," His mother said, grinning like a cat. "No, I mean, well, she's really shy and frightened of people and prefers animals to people, really. I mean, she probably hasn't even thought about...that...Not that I'm saying there's anything at all happening between us..." "Boy, your skin's turning hotter than Paverty's oven," Nanny said smiling from ear to ear, the wrinkles stretching to accentuate her grin. "It melted one time. Can we move past that?" Paverty asked. "You melted your oven?" Shan asked. "It was an accident! The recipe called for high heat and, well, I learned that's not the melting point of cast iron. Can we move on?" "Yes, let's," Ms. Foster said, setting down her glass with as much aplomb as a ten year old could manage. "Shan, I have a question for you." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Could you describe to me what 'skinsharing' is like?" Mistress Cullin asked Vivianne, giving her tea another stir. "I understand if you'll need to take your time to find the right words; our language isn't exactly built for such a thing. Just, as closely as you can, describe how you go about it, what it feels like, what you do when you're sharing minds. I've done it more than a few times myself, so a close verbal approximation should be enough." |
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| Vivianne | Mon Jan 2, 2012 9:47 pm Post #32 |
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The skinsharer started at the unfamiliar question. The old witch was perceptive, there was no doubting that. She had not thought of her parents in years and tried to recall a memory of their appearance, but none came to mind. Jeyne had never revealed their names or the location of their house, and the hedge witch had later admitted to her that they had die in an accident. "I h-hold no grudge. F-F-From what I have b-been told of them, they were s-simple people. A w-w-woodcutter and his wife. T-They did not expect a c-child such as me." In truth, she was almost thankful that she had been raised by the witch instead of her biological parents. They would not have been able to share all of the advice and knowledge that the kind witch had possessed and would have attempted to repress her abilities instead of letting them flourish. "When I s-skinshare..." She lapsed into silence, trying to think of a way to describe a process that went far beyond words. She held her wrist up so that Artemis could hop onto her hand, lowering her arm to stare into the raptor's fierce eyes. Vivi raised her other hand to absentmindedly stroke the bird's tail feathers, speaking softly and hesitantly, as if she had never tried to vocalize this before. It's n-n-not actually sharing. M-more like... h-h-hijacking. I can e-enter their body, control t-t-them totally. Even m-make them change their n-nature, if I'm desperate." She could recall guiding Artemis in such a fashion, instructing the peregrine falcon to five and claw at a bandit's face that had been threatening her life. A normal avian would never interfere like that. "It leaves m-my body empty. It b-breathes, but nothing else. L-like everything that makes m-me myself has been t-transferred. I b-become the animal. I c-c-can feel its t-thoughts and instincts u-underlying my own, g-g-guiding me. B-but my choices a-a-are my o-own." She ran her hand up the bird's spine to softly pet its skull, smiling slightly at the crooning noise it made. "L-like my mind is n-not constrained to one b-b-body. I can s-share myself with my f-f-f-friends." Vivi looked up at Mistress Cullins, hoping the witch understood what she was saying. She had never met another person with gifts like hers before. |
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| Shan Orison | Sun Jan 8, 2012 7:11 pm Post #33 |
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"Hmmm," Mistress Cullin mulled, tapping a boney finger on her knee. "That, Vivianne, is not Borrowing." She leaned back in her seat, face relax except for the eyes, which continued to pierce with the same intensity as the sun. "Borrowing is a skill witches can learn, though there are those who are better than others for the simple reason that everyone's mind isn't build to do it. There are those who simply cannot separate themselves from their own heads enough to Borrow, such as Mistress Foster, and there are those who can Borrow, but have a great deal of difficultly when it comes to returning to their selves, such as Mistress Tuttle. And then there are those like myself, who can hold the balance and experience the night as an owl, the stream as a fish, the woods as a wolf. You know the joy of that, as well. "However." Mistress Cullin leaned forward. "Though it seems on the surface the two are the same, there's too many differences for me to comfortably say you're a Borrower. Firstly, I have never heard of anyone doing it instinctively as a mere tot. Babies that age are very selfish and focused on themselves, since that's the only way they'll survive. Selfishness, as you can guess is one of the things that binds you to your own head and keeps your self from wandering into, say, the family horse. "Second, a Borrower does just that with an animal. They borrow. Never take over, never override the natural mind. We simply ride along, an unnoticed passenger, at most moving a thought or too to guide the animal where we wish to go, but never ruling over it. A Borrower is a guest, not a conqueror. "And you, Vivianne, have admitted to doing these things, things a Borrower can do but shouldn't because, quite simply, I am not a fish or an owl or a wolf. I cannot take over their mind and still operate. I don't know how to fly, how to hunt, how to swim with fins. Those animals would become agitated, confused, changed by my meddling into something they aren't, shading them with the complex nature of a sentient mind. Such creatures must either be cared for by the witch in question, always a danger since they're no longer wild then but feral, or they die, unable to cope with the stretching their minds have endured, not having their pure instinct nor the knowledge to deal with their change. Borrowing is dangerous, and normally, if you were a young witch of the Hills, I would order you to cease what you are doing immediately, for the good of the Hills as well as your own mind." Mistress Cullin paused her tirade to slurp down the last of her tea. "However, as I said, what you do isn't Borrowing. You do it by instinct, no instructions needed. From what I understand, you care far more for animals than people, so if you did cause such an effect on the animals you...overshadowed, you would have discovered this yourself quite quickly and ceased on your own. Beyond that," She nodded to the dreadsnout and the falcon. "I don't know of any Borrower who can control two bodies, let alone four. We too appear as if dead when we set our minds to wander. Caused more than a few scares before I finally got a sign made up to ensure people knew I was just out for a bit, not dead. You must in control of your own self, and I bet you've overshadowed these creatures more than once, and yet they are loyal to you, listen to you, and stay with you. I'm betting if I attacked, they'd defend you as well with little prompting from you. "Animals don't sit well with evil or those that would ill use them. They trust you as you trust them, and there ain't no evil where that love sits. I'm thinking that old hedge witch that raised you was brighter than most fools who call themselves mages, recognizing that you weren't a Borrower and well, I can't think of a better name than "Skinsharer," because I really think that may be what happens. You don't overshadow your friends. You blend with them, become one with them, lending your knowledge to their instinct and leaving them unharmed. "So," She said, winding down. "You are a Skinsharer, quite skilled, no hatred toward the poor folks that let fear rule them, even beginning to overcome your fear of people, if your coming here is any judge of that. So what, really, was your reason for coming here?" |
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| Vivianne | Thu Jan 12, 2012 11:41 pm Post #34 |
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Vivi leaned forward at the witch's explanation of the process she called 'borrowing.' It was clearly a different kind of skill than her own, but it was still interesting to hear about. She had no idea how strange it would feel to have her consciousness inside an animal's without having full control. The concept was just completely alien to her; she had been skinsharing as long as she could remember. When Mistress Cullin insinuated that she should stop using her ability she froze, feeling her blood run cold. In the months since first meeting Shan, she had used her gift rarely, but it was still an important aspect of her life. She could not imagine going the rest of her life without soaring with Artemis's wings, or charging through the woods in Heffy's thick frame, or staling her pray through the shadow-dappled underbrush as Hermes. She only started breathing again after it was clear that the old crone would not try to stop her. Vivi felt a rush of gratitude to not only the elderly witch, but also towards Shan for having introduced her to the woman. "I h-have never thought ab-ab-about it... Because I-I don't have to. I know h-how to do all those t-things. As s-soon as I move into t-t-their body I just... k-k-know." She ran one hand along the bird's neck, staring into the bird's fierce golden eyes. Even now she could remember the sensation of flapping their wings, soaring on the thermals above the verdant canopy. "As s-s-soon as I skinshare I have a-a b-b-bond with that animal. I c-can feel where t-they are if they d-don't go too far. They... t-trust me." Even as she sat inside the hut with Mistress Cullin she could feel Hermes and Heffy waiting outside, probably bothering Shan and the rest of the coven to no end. She wondered for an instant what would happen if she tried to take over an animal that a Borrower currently occupied, but she doubted the crone would appreciate the inquiry. When the conversation turned back to her reason for being her her smile faded, replaced with a small, somber frown. She shuddered once then looked directly at Mistress Cullin, meeting the woman's fierce gaze. "S-S-Shan and I met a d-druid who was c-corrupting the forest. She h-had to b-b-be put d-down." Her stuttering grew more pronounced at the admission, but Vivi kept talking resolutely, refusing to let her shame or embarrassment overwhelm her. "B-but... She recognized m-my mind in Hermes' b-b-body. And she c-called me an ab-abomination. And I-I was w-w-worried she was right. Since t-then I d-d-discovered I can... W-well, I l-like to call it skinshaping..." She closed her eyes, her breathing slowing to a point that almost seemed dangerous. The first change that became apparent was a pattern that spread across her skin, a feather-like motif. Her clothes seemed to sink into her skin as she rapidly shrank, actual feathers sprouting out of her flesh. Her nose and mouth melted together, protruding from her face and hardening into a curved beak. Her fingers stretched out grotesquely, flesh spreading between the bones as feathers grew over them. Within minutes a peregrine falcon was perched on the girl's chair, slightly larger than Artemis. The only difference between the two raptors was that one had emerald green eyes, staring intently at Mistress Cullin with a keen intelligence. She hopped back and forth between her talons for a moment before returning to her own shape in a display that would undoubtedly make someone with a weak stomach nauseous. "I... I-I-I worry that I'm n-not... natural." |
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| Shan Orison | Fri Feb 24, 2012 4:37 pm Post #35 |
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Mistress Cullin stared hard at the girl after she shifted back. "Changing your shape from the one you were born in at will, especially since you ain't a werewolf or something of that sort? And you worry it's not natural? Of course it's not natural, girl. Why would you think it otherwise?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Have you met any girls that...you might be interested in?" Ms. Foster asked with a quiet smile. "I mean, you write home about all these interesting people, but you don't seem to have a romantic interest in any of them." "Mother..." Shan groaned. "I don't need to be 'romantically interested' in anyone, you know. Maybe I'm happy with just having a group of good friends." "My experience, a boy your age likes at least one 'special girl' about," Nanny Tuttle said, her grin trumpeting her thoughts loudly. "Or perhaps there's a boy instead? No shame in that." "No," Shan said, flatly, shutting down that line of thought quickly, though not before a small flash of thought about Ahriman formed. "I'm not interested in guys like that, Nanny." "Fair enough," Nanny Tuttle said. "Just saying there's no harm in it, at least, there better not be on my watch." "Well, what about that Diane woman?" Paverty asked. "You've written about her a few times." "You read my letters?" Shan asked. "Well, they are rather interesting, and I care about what you've been up to, dear cousin." "Yes, what about Diana?" Ms. Foster said. "We..." Shan said, his mind recalling the many disastrous meetings between himself and the murderous, thieving vampire. "We don't have that sort of relationship, and I don't think she'd be interested in one." "How about Emily, then?" Ms. Foster continued. "...Mother, she's thirteen." "I'll ask again in five years, then." Shan sighed. He didn't want to bring up now that Emily was going to be thirteen in five years time, at least physically, due to her being dead. "Fine then, what about Vivianne? She's nice, around your age, cute, strong in magic. What's your objections about her?" "Vivianne?" Shan asked at his mother's question. "She...We're just friends." "That blush suggests otherwise, Shanny boy," Nanny laughed. "It...It's not like that...It's just...She's lived alone most of her life, and she's...she's still scared of people...humans, I mean. It took a lot for her to work up the courage to come here. There's...I don't see her ever really...We're good friends, and I'm happy to stay that way with her." For Shan, at least, he felt that there was no way Vivianne would ever feel comfortable enough around other people to ever have those sorts of emotions toward him, let alone express them, and Shan bringing up the subject, he was certain would lead to her running into the heart of Calmonah and never emerging. It was better, he told himself, that they stay friends, and he was fine with that. "So," Ms. Foster said, resting her head in her hand. "No grandchildren in the forseeable future? How disappointing." "Mother, you were way older than I am to get married," Shan said. "True, so I suppose I have no room to talk." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "But," Mistress Cullin said before Vivianne could feel too disheartened. "There's just a problem with that word: Natural. People forget what it means, including you. It's unnatural for humans to change shape, but it's also unnatural for us to sit on chairs in a cottage sipping tea. Have you ever seen a Chair Tree? How about a naturally occurring fireplace with convenient hooks for hanging the tea kettle on? A Biscuit Bush? If we humans went about doing only what was natural, we'd be hanging out naked in trees munching on grubs. And I'm too old for tree climbing. "So the question really is, Miss Vivianne, do you feel it's wrong? That what you do is not right? That it is evil? Forget what madwomen and shortsighted men say, and tell me how you feel about it." |
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| Vivianne | Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:55 pm Post #36 |
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Vivi pulled back slightly at the witch's tone, her smile faltering at the response. She folded her hands together on her lap and stared down at the table, feeling her stomach sink. It was true then, what the druid had said. She was an abomination. She clenched her fingers into tight fists, her knuckles turning white from the pressure. Now that her question had been answered she felt the need to flee from the house, to burst out of the window and escape with her pack of animals. She wasn't meant to be around normal humans. Vivianne was all prepared to leave the hut when the old crone kept talking, obviously trying to reassure the skinsharer with her words. The girl's shoulders relaxed slightly as Mistress Cullin spoke. Although her smile did not return in full force, she was no longer on the edge of her seat. "I h-have no way to p-prove if this is natural or not, Mistress C-Cullins. This is all I have ever k-known." She shrugged, setting her teacup down on the the table. She dipped one finger into the liquid, absentmindedly drawing on the table's surface. Vivi sketched out the shape of a bird in flight as she spoke, her verdant eyes fixated on the table instead of the witch. "One of m-my earliest memories is b-bonding with Artemis. I've b-been with him s-since I was t-three. This is m-my life. If y-you're asking if I think it's w-wrong..." Vivi shrugged, still refusing to look up from the table. "How c-could I? That's im-impossible." Vivianne finally looked up, staring at Mistress Cullin with a small smile on her face, obviously searching for approval in the old woman's features. "H-How can I think my en-entire life until n-now was wrong? E-Evil?" She folded her hands in her lap once more, ignoring Artemis's sound of protest as the movement forced him to regain his balance. "B-but what I t-think isn't all that's im-important. I need to k-know how other p-people will react t-to my a-abilities. Or else I-I can n-never l-leave the forest. And I... I c-can't stay h-hidden forever." |
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| Shan Orison | Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:17 pm Post #37 |
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Mistress Cullins's face softened. "Well, if it's a second opinion you want, I believe the Mistress Jeyne who raised you gave it when she helped you grow into your abilites. You want three more, look to your animal friends who stay by you even though you have no physical or magical means of holding them. A sixth opinion? Shan certainly doesn't see you as evil, and he's a boy who tries to steer clear of it. Whether he succeeds or not is another matter, but then you have a seventh in Annabelle Foster's treatment of you, and Nanny Tuttle and myself can't see anything evil about you. Could you use what you do for evil? Certainly. Magic has no morality. Don't mean you have to, though, and you haven't. All these years you could have gone bad on your own and you haven't. Doubt you will now." The old witch paused to give Vivianne a fresh cup of tea. "Now, as to other's opinions? Around here, common folk will be shocked at first, but they've seen stranger. Stay long enough and you could pop in and out of animal form and people will act like it was as mundane as hanging laundry. You're always going to get folks like your parents, who fear magic for learned or personal reasons. Can't do much about that except help teach the ignorant and avoid the stupid. Give folks enough time, Vivianne, and they'll get used to anything. And, if they're smart, they'll see the value in what you do, and how it can help them. Yes, help. Because if you really are worried if what you do is evil, then the best way to prove it's not is to help those around you." She sipped at her tea. "Don't expect you to rush out and interacting with people immediately, of course. Those around you are the animals you live with, too. So take it slow. Meet with people one on one. Drag Shan along if you feel the need. Doubt he'll say no. Do what you can to help people, even in small ways. If they get to know you and trust you, they won't shy away. Men are just like any animal when it comes to taming them, really. Just stupider since we can think. Like I said though, it's a thing to take slow and when you're ready." She settled her cup and saucer on her lap and stared Vivianne in the eye. "Don't know if that's what you were looking to learn, but it's what I got to say. If you want more, or if I'm off the mark, feel free to ask." |
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| Vivianne | Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:32 pm Post #38 |
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Vivi listened to the crone's words, nodding at the proper moments. She could tell that Mistress Cullins had learned about many things in her long life and understood people better than the skinsharer ever could. She spent so much of her time secluded in the forest that she would never be able to analyze a situation like the old witch. Then again... She will never swim up creek with a school of salmon, never soar above a mountain on a thermal, never hunt through the woods with the pack... These people can have their interactions with each other. I would choose my friends over them any day. She only wished that everyone could be as understanding as the members of the coven. The few interactions she had with humans always seemed to end poorly. People rarely traveled into the depths of Norwood unless they were meaning to harm nature in some way, so Vivi's view of the world was markedly skewed. However, she much preferred her life of solitude and relative peace to the frantic lives most humans lived. "T-That should be all... Let m-m-me think..." The girl took the refilled cup of tea and blew on it to cool the liquid before taking a drink, using the pause to gather her thoughts and try to decide if she had any more questions for Mistress Cullins. Now that an objective outsider had heard about her situation and sat in judgment, she was feeling much better. In fact, she couldn't wait to go outside and see her pack again, to know that she could share their bodies without committing a crime against nature. Vivi was about to admit she had nothing more to ask when she remembered an incident from a few months ago when she had encountered a group of poachers that tried to shoot down Artemis. She set the cup down, leaning forward and meeting the witch's eyes. "W-Wait... Do you k-know what would h-h-happen if one of m-my pets died w-while I was sk-sk-skinsharing? Or if m-my own body was s-somehow injured?" She had been injured while in her pet's bodies before and knew that she would experience any pain they felt, although it usually vanished as soon as she returned to her own form. "T-there are b-b-bad men in the f-forest who like to h-hunt animals... And s-s-sometimes we can't av-avoid them." Vivi did not admit that she sometimes hunted down these groups and forced them to leave the woodlands she considered her home. Such men and women were a blight upon the world; they deserved no better. |
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| Shan Orison | Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:54 pm Post #39 |
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Mistress Cullin's brow furrowed in thought. "Now that," she said slowly, "is something I don't know. Hate to admit it, but, well, this is something I can't just lie about. If you were Borrowing, I'd be on firmer ground, but, well, Skinsharing and Borrowing seem only superficially alike, so what would happen is a mystery." She stirred her tea absentmindedly, the spoon clinking against the sides of the cup as she thought. "I can offer what happens with Borrowing, but I'd only use that as a rough guide. Might be similar, might not. Probably'll never know until it happens. With my own experiences, I've been injured a few times while Borrowing, and even had the animals I was in killed. Granted, the killing was usually by some predator when I was Borrowing in a small mouse or fish, and it's surprising how quick that is. Since I was Borrowing the mind, and wasn't really part of it, I just snapped back to my body. Injuries, funny enough, happen less and, yes, it's usually at the hands of hunters and the like who hit their prey without killing it. Damn thing smarts, like you got hit in the leg with an arrow instead of the deer. Gave Young Arsesnic Willems a wallop for hurting that thing and letting it run away injured. Had to find it and heal it myself. He's a much more careful hunter now, I can tell you. "However, things would be different in your forest than here. Here, those who hunt know that what their hunting might have a witch in it, watching them, so they better do it right or not at all. Your forest hasn't had generations of witches living there and generations of men and women who know about them. You're more likely to get the cruel and reckless sort who let their prey bleed to death or just hurt it cause they feel they can. Injuries for Skinsharing, I'm guessing, would be similar to Borrowing, but dying?" Mistress Cullins shook her head. "I can't say I'd suggest testing that out. You connect far more deeply than any Borrower can or should. The animal dying with you in it...My best advice would be to get out as soon as you can. Even if you survived it, you'd have that death trauma stuck in your head forever. "For your body, if it was injured or killed....Well, for a Borrower, the body dying due to, say, an unfortunate misunderstanding and burial...we don't know. They're dead, you see. Can't tell you what the dead think. Maybe they continue living in the head of the animal they were Borrowing, until the human mind fades and they become just another part of the animal's mind. Physical injury....Dunno how closely you're tied to your physical body when you skinshare. Borrowers are totally out of their bodies when they Borrow. Can't tell anything about what's happening there. Course, few would actually decide to attack a witch, even one that seems near dead. That's at least something you could test. Have someone prick you with a pin when you're skinsharing and see if you feel it or react at all." |
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| Vivianne | Sat Mar 17, 2012 3:38 pm Post #40 |
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Vivi was surprised to hear that Borrowing ended up transferring the pain of the injury to the witch even though their own body hadn't been harmed. Although their techniques did seem similar, this was a clear and definitive difference between them. That meant that Mistress Cullins probably couldn't shed any light on the matter of death, either of her animals or her own body. Physical trauma isn't transferred via skinsharing... But there must be a mental price to pay if you feel the body you inhabit die. But if my body dies... Will I be lost? After all, my body is basically dead when I'm bonded with my pets... Vivi shrugged, returning her attention to the crone and the conversation. "I n-never plan on f-f-finding out. D-death is... so f-final. And I'll t-try out what you said." She finished off her cup of tea, waiting to see if Mistress Cullins had anything else to share. When the crone stayed silent as well, the skinsharer stood up and smiled at her awkwardly. "T-thank you M-m-mistress Cullins. You've h-helped me... s-so much." She glanced towards the doorway, reaching up a hand and stroking Artemis's wing feathers. She made no move to exit the hut, her smile fading slightly. "Shan... h-he's a nice m-man, isn't h-h-he?" Her cheeks flushed a little as she spoke, but she seemed committed to the inquiry. |
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| Shan Orison | Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:31 pm Post #41 |
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"Yes, he is a good boy," Mistress Cullins said, standing and stretching her back. "Tries to do good, at least, and that's more than many." She smiled and gave a wry look at Vivianne. "Though, if you're interested in getting more intimate with him, I'd suggest getting advice from Nanny Tuttle. She's a gossip, but she'd keep something like that quiet, if discretion is something you're worried about. That area of life, she's more experience than me, if five husbands and seventeen children are any indication." Standing tall, she walked over to the door and stood next to the skinsharer. "So. if that's all, let's rejoin the others before they start worrying I turned you into a goose." She opened the wooden door, and the firelit darkness of the cottage gave way to the dappled sunshine outside her hut. There, the three sat around the table, Hermes still wrapped around Shan's ankles. Someone, probably Paverty, had brought out some slightly burned cookies they were drinking with the juice. Ms. Foster looked even more like a child as she munched on a cookie with two hands, swinging her legs under the table. The conversation didn't sound like one that one would want to expose a child to, however. "-and I told him, that sort of thing, you can't just ram it in there, not without something to grease it up, if you know what I mean," Nanny was saying with a giant grin on her wrinkled face. "Don't know what sort of damage you'd do, and it'd be a bugger to pull it back out. Does he listen to me? No, of course not. I'm just his old mum. No need to listen to me. Then he has to call up Our Thomas when he finds his- Oh, Granny! Had a good talk, did you?" "Nanny Tuttle, are you sharing dirty stories again?" Mistress Cullins said as she walked over to the small table and sat in an empty seat. "Paverty, find another seat for our guest." "Right away," Paverty said, walking away from the table to go inside the hut. "Now, Granny," Mistress Tuttle, the grin growing wider. "What's dirty about a man fixing a butterchurn and finding out you can't just shove in the churning paddle willy nilly?" "You know how it sounded, Hanna. Don't act different." "Hi, Vivianne," Shan said. "Did you want a cookie? They're really a lot better than they look." Shan smiled nervously. The talk earlier, before Nanny switched subjects to her children's antics, made him blush internally a bit. Vivianne really was rather...well, he knew how much courage she was showing just standing there and not running away. He wouldn't say anything. "Did Granny help you out?" Paverty said, returning with a fifth chair from inside the cottage. "I hope she did. Have a cookie. They're cranberry oatmeal. Just chew them a bit. They're fine to eat." |
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| Vivianne | Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:03 pm Post #42 |
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The girl walked out of the house with the crone, staring at the ground and her cheeks a bright shade of crimson. Mistress Cullins' parting words had been remarkably accurate, a fact that she did not appreciate. Luckily, the timing couldn't have been better for Vivianne: Mistress Tuttle was in the middle of a story that it would have been impossible not to blush during. She took full advantage of the situation, keeping her eyes locked on the ground as she approached the table and avoiding everyone's eyes. Shan was the first to greet her, and she managed to stammer out a reply without bursting into flame. "T-t-t-thank you Shan, I-I would l-l-love a c-cookie." She sat down in the offered chair, picking up one of the singed treats and biting into it hesitantly. Surprisingly, it did taste a lot better than it looked and she didn't think she would lose any teeth from chewing it. Eating the cookie thankfully saved her from having to reply instantly to the young witch's words, giving Vivi more time to gather her thoughts and courage before speaking. "Y-Yes... She w-w-was very helpful." The skinsharer smiled shyly at Paverty, picking up a second cookie. Instead of eating it herself, she crumbled up the confection and made a low clucking noise in the back of her throat. Hermes opened one eye lazily and rolled off of Shan's feet, lithely rising to his feet and padding over to the girl. He sniffed the morsels suspiciously before nibbling out of Vivi's hand, purring contentedly. Heffy trundled over as well to get his portion of the wafer, and even Artemis pecked at a cranberry that was left. "Y-You're a good c-cook, Paverty. T-they all loved i-it." Each of her pack-mates made a small appreciative noise as well, and the dreadsnout went so far as to breath out a few sparks. Vivi quickly admonished the boar for almost setting the tablecloth on fire, but she couldn't keep her smile from growing slightly wider. She looked up at the coven before speaking again. "R-really... Thank y-you. All of y-y-you. You're to k-kind, helping me l-like this." |
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5:29 PM May 22
