Flashback [Ristage Caverns]Will you be my...(Kit)

[Sosicly Magnolia]

63rd of Summer, 509AV

OOCSosicly is 13 and about 4’5-4’6

Sosicly had been wary about leaving her room. Her brother had left the key but that just meant she could find her way home, and she did not trust the key. So the girl sat and split her glare between the door and the key. It was the idea of Veladra making fun of her for staying in that spurred her into action.

Nervous Sosicly snatched the key and fled the room before she could change her mind, barely remembering to get her knapsack from the floor in her rush. As soon as the door shut behind her she felt the vibration up her arm. The girl slowed a bit, and allowed herself to feel the faint relief at knowing the key did seem to want to be with its home. And with each step the feeling did not falter, it stayed a constant thrum in her palm as she walked, eyeing the streets themselves as if they were out to get her.

As she walked down the ever changing streets she flinched each time something seemed different, not amused by how the people of the city seemed amused. But she continued on, not really sure of where to go or what to do but growing more assured with each step. When the fear gave way Sosicly stood straight, and brimmed with tempered curiosity, turning left and right on streets just to head back and watch them be different.

It was not until a turn brought her face to face with her house once more. Sosicly huffed in surprise then turned sharply and found herself staring directly at a large walkway. Huge arches built up around houses and people, completely natural compared to most of the strange housing in the city. Sosicly stepped forward involuntarily, heart thundering with painful homesickness.

Within a chime she was stumbling into the walkway, eyes wide as she just stared, ignoring both people and everything but the faint feeling of home the curled around her.

[Kit Rowan]

Kit felt a ghost over her skin as she wandered about the Ristage caverns, haunted by the stark beauty of her ancestor's hideaway. The cavern's walls were sheer and rough, like the sides of a cliff, climbed and climbed to a jagged roof of stalactites where wispy azure rivers of light danced, illuminating the cavern with illusions true-false light.

As the rough earthy walls of the cavern climbed down they smoothed and shaped themselves into inverted triangles, Vildani and abstract fractals. She saw stages and figures of dancing figures, half-male, half-female, their true selves hidden forever, disguised by illusion and misdirection until they could have been anything at all!

At walking level and a little higher Kit saw windows and doors, smooth beyond the possibility of carving now, blocked and rough there, each a different style, sharing the long stone path that curved along the side of the cavern.

Kit smiled, ran down the road, let herself revel in the grandiose city she'd grown up. She jogged over a long arch of an unsupported bridge that connected this side of the cavern to another, dodged around this this pedestrian there, vaulting over the chest these two carried here . . . Kit let loose a laugh that echoed across the cavern and danced about the caverns on sure feet, glad for the simple glory of her god and the feeling of motion in her body.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

The laughter snapped her out of her revere and drew her gaze to the designs in the arches, as well as the windows she now spotted up above. But none of them held a face that laughed though many of the faces etched in the area smiled. Even the people did not seem to have been the culprit for they were much too large to have made such a small, giddy sound. Sosicly found the source shortly after in a streak of red, like a faux sunset. A small body headed her way and it surprised her to see one during the day. She had seen some but not all had been so boisterous, and this time of day reminded her of her own schooling she was missing. She wondered if Avladas had schools, her lips pursed, with the chaotic city she highly doubted such a thing. Without meaning too, Sosicly followed the girl. Much slower, and much quieter but trying to mimic the girls path. For such a frustrating city the girl could not understand why all the residents seemed so pleased with themselves. A surge of envy tried to make itself known but was crushed before it got too far. The girl was quick, agile, and pretty in a human way. Sosicly walked faster, trying to catch up now, a shape taking form in her mind. A skip, and a hop past more windows, more people, more strangeness then a clap loud and crisp echoed. Again, Sosicly clapped, almost like applause to get the girls attention. Then she stopped, annoyed and waved her arms until she could meet blue eyes with her own red. And the mute girl wasted no time, swinging her knapsack around to rummage out her book and open it to her standard, pre-written greeting with a too bright grin. I am Sosicly Magnolia. Pleased to meet you. After a moment she pulled her book back, pointed to lips and shook her head to indicate she couldn’t talk. Another awkward moment later, and she struggled to get out her ink vial, and quill before the other girl grew bored and would assuredly flee.

[Kit Rowan]

Kit had seen twelve autumns since the day she was born, her hair tied into a red tail that bobbed and brushed against the back of her head as she ran. Her little boy was young, bearing the slightest the slight twin curves along her breast that told the story of imminent girlhood. She was a small, wispy thing, too full of motion to be delicate, shaped even in her youth by athleticism.

Kit did not trun when she first heard the clapping, sure that it was meant for someone else if it was meant for anyone at all, except when she turned her head and found her path arrested by sudden curiosity.

Kit had seem Symenstra. Darilava, the bitter old creature who hated the world and everything in it, and had taught her to juggle and tumble and more, had been one, But the one Kit saw before her was different. It was a child, wispy, pale and delicate, her steps bearing already the unnatural grace of the spider people.

She seemed friendly enough, though when the spider stepped closer and closer Kit took a step back, keeping at least two strides between them as possible. She had seen the fangs of a spider before, and it was terrifying even when Kit was comfortable with them. This girl Kit was not comfortable with.

So. This girl was a mute. Kit raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, tilting her head a little to the side. A bit like Shy, Kit thought, only spoiled. While the sister thieves had gone hunting under the moon Shy had no paper to translate her meaning, but instead leaned on rudimentary Pavi gestures and body language to tell her story. "Hello Sul-sully." Kit said.

She did not give the spider her name.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

The grin fell a bit at the mispronunciation of her name, and more when the girl did not offer her name in return. For another moment she shifted uncomfortable, and hesitated a bit then kneeled down slowly to write on the floor, hunching over her book for a moment then holding it up to the girl. You are born here? What this place called? The most comfortable I felt since I left home. Your houses are strange. She took the moment the girl read to get a better look at her, glancing up through the fringes of her bangs. Looking at her face closer, Sosicly saw she may even be younger than herself, and it gave her an idea. So young the girl would make a good playmate until she came of age. Then maybe Savidis would like her. Her thoughts went quicker as she latched to the idea, she stood eagerly, sweeping her supplies up in her arms in an awkward but practiced gesture. Sisters, she thought, she had not had a sister. It was then she realized she should have learned more Common before they had left home. Her writing was not what she wanted it to be. Instead of writing she capped her vial, pointed to the girl and echoed the girls raised an eyebrow, silently asking for a name. Feeling foolish for standing there and wishing to impress the girl enough for her to go along with her idea eventually, she shoved her things back in her knapsack and waved the girl to try and encourage them to walk.

[Kit Rowan]

As Sosicly asked about the city, Kit felt pride in Alvadas enough to overcome her wish to have nothing to do with the young Symenestra. "This is the Ristage Caverns," Kit announced, propping hands on hips. Where Alvads hid during the Valterrian, while the world broke." It wasn't so easy to dismiss the rest of what Soscily wrote. Strange houses? Kit rolled her eyes; foreigners were always uncomfortable with the way the city shuffled under them. Either they adapted or they left when they couldn't take it anymore.

As the girl meddled with her supplies Kit found herself looking over her shoulder, longing to get to running again. She remember the things Darilava had said when he was drunk. She was in no hurry to associate herself with noanother spider; Kit had far less dangerous friends already. Kit deliberately misunderstood her gesture to move along as well, in no hurry to tag along to wherever the spider had in mind for now.

But she wanted a name, as well. Kit considered, biting down on her lip. Give the girl her name? No. Give her a name? Sure. "Call me Row," she said. "So, what, you wanted to talk . . ." Kit stopped, wrinkled her nose. ". . . You know what I mean."

[Sosicly Magnolia]

Sosicly nodded, her grin fading completely into a solemn curiosity. It was strange to think hers was not the only that had been changed into something when the world broke. But the grin returned, only slightly bitter, at the girls blunder as it always amused her how people tried so hard to point out her inability to blend. She shook her head, her hair obscuring her face for another minute. Such an odd name but she supposed all surface dwellers had strange names. Not wishing to pull out her supplies again she pointed to her lips and shook her head, she didn’t want to ask her just yet. For a moment the two stood, Sosicly unsure, it was becoming obvious Row did not wish to do as Sosicly wished. Pursing her lips in thought, she tried again, this time pointing between her and Row and moving her fingers in a walking gesture. After she waved her hand, trying to encourage the other girl to go ahead. She had questions but a small part of her wanted to play as well. Without waiting Sosicly turned and gave a little hop, then quick strides. After a moment she tried to repeat the vault she seen the other girl do earlier but only succeeded in stumbling into the wall. She clung to it, a few inches off the ground and turned back to the other with a competitive grin and waved her hand impatiently, and imperiously, trying to get the other girl to play with her.