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Sometimes, people move bulky furniture to dumb places. Sometimes those places are rooftops, and sometimes, it happens to be Autumn. Distant storms rumbling past with no intention of approaching; cool winds bordering on cold whipping across the skyline; and Jackies- or, at least one Jackie- sprawled on an unreasonably clean and intact sofa that she almost certainly ensorcelled to a more conducive and comfortable state like a queen at repose over the night around her.
Ylva had been a little on edge all day and so had been chatting with Vorp and now she was on a rooftop in the middle of the city slumping down next to the end of what she can only imagine was a moth eaten couch.
"Heya Vorp." A gentle wave. "Hey."
"-is for horses." Jackie drawls lazily. "My mom always used to say that. She didn't want me to sound like those- heh, "common hoodlums" on the street." She lazily droops her head over the side of the couch. "So hey to you, too, Ylva. Sup?"
"Is this where I repeat hey several times to annoy both our parents."
She says with a chuckle a hand reaching up to stroke Vorpals face.
"Hey, it's been a week. Nice to see you."
The velvet swoop of wings is hard to hear in the darkness of night. It's sort of part of the purpose of the whole thing. A shape curves past in the sky, wings swooping past. That shape lazes downward, adrift on the rising warmth of the city, and then an owl lands on the building's edge, some short distance from the couch.
"Eh, mine are several decades too far gone to care. But feel free to flip yours the bird as many times as you like." The sensation of shadowskin was odd. It was difficult to tell if you were touching cool skin or dipping your fingers into it. "I hear you on the been a week bit. I'm still not really up to a hundred per-"
She stops as the owl alights and blinks at it, sighing and holding up a finger. "This is a bad time to be playing- well. Not PLAYING but. BEING owl. If you're an owl that's a fox, I request audience with any selection of other assorted fox-selves. There is an ancient Roman vampire ghost owl about and I can't go stab it and I am quite thoroughly cross about the whole matter. And you're not a NORMAL owl so. Please be something else or prepare to have something thrown at thee forthwith."
She does in fact flip the bird in the general direction of Texas.
Before tensing up as Vorpal does. On edge already and not in the mood for more.
Owls not only turn their heads over 180 degrees horizontally, but when other animals do that curious 45 degree headtilt? Owls go for 180. The bird spins its head back towards Vorpal, then turns its body towards her, and swivels its head in a curiosity tilt that makes its head almost the entire way upside down. It ruffles its feathers, and then alights from the building's edge.
The body stretches and morphs like someone undergoing an extensive full-body sneeze, wings pulling outward into red-furred limbs with black socks, tail lengthening and poofing out as the feathers become hair, changing their keratinous construction, and then that tail gets curled around the Orphan as she blinks her gold-green eyes slowly. The voice emerges not from the movement of her mouth, but simply exists in the air, as if played from a hidden speaker right behind one of her triangular ears. "A what now?"
"Whoo. Spooky speech. Love it. It's cool, Ylva. It's just Little Fox." The wind almost carries their words away. It's pleasant enough, but it'd be hard to hear if they weren't so close together. Vorpal pats her belly to invite the fox nearer. "Ancient; Roman; Vampire; Ghost; Owl. Also known as a Strix, apparently. And from what I can tell, the asshole that got sent to drag me back to Thembuktu hired her to come after me. Which, points for creativity, but the OWL made her Vampire thrall turn some poor girl just to bring her along for the fight, and she died, and I feel like shit cuz I didn't even -consider- that she might notta been there of her own accord."
Ylva goes a little wide eyed at the transformation before squeeing a little bit, internally and externally.
"Glad you found out more information atleast that's something." Her hand continues stroking Vorpals shoulder as she kinda sits up.
"Nice to meet you Little Fox."
Fox does this thing where she sits still and her front paws just sort of... prance in place for a minute. It's a very canid gesture, this little happy-feet thing. Dogs do it, but don't tell that to Fox, who is definitely not a dog. After a few seconds of this sort of thoughtful little happy-foot dance, she says, "Hello, Ylva," and then crouches. One wiggle, two wiggles, three, and then she poing
and lands precisely on the patted spot on Vorpal's belly. So delicate.
Hold on, gotta stomp some to make sure there are no snakes on Vorpal's stomach.
One second. Little more stomping. Turn around a little. Smack Vorpal in the face with tail. Little more turning around. Three more stomps. (Might be a snake! You don't know! There might be! Or a scorpion! You can't say there's no chance ever! It could happen!) Okay one more stomp. Now sit down, jaw hanging open in a pesky little smile.
hehehehehe
It's only after all the stomping that all the words sink in. "Did you all take care of the dead girl, or do you need our cleanup crew? Her family know and all that?" Of course that's what Fox thinks of first. Her happy little grin fades to a neutral expression. "Good to meet you, Ylva."
Ylva squeels a little more wiggling as she watches Fox.
"Hey." Another bird flipped in a general Texan directing before she cringes about the girl. "Nice to meet you." (edited)
Vorpal makes the appropriate "oof" and "Whoof" sounds as she's stomped and kneaded by the fox, all in good fun, and settles when she does. "The other Vampires did, and apologized that one of Their Problems spilled over. Apparently it's something they deal with. The girl was literally just... a face. For the Owl. A body. And none of them were the least bit concerned when she died." Vorpal, clearly, was and Is Concerned. She's not over it. "I'll ask if they notified her family. And arrange something if they didn't. I've- not been on top of things. I don't. Uh. Usually."
Kill people. Only monsters.
A little wink at the squealing Lost, one of her golden eyes closing and opening lazily.
The little red fox stretches up towards Vorpal's ear and snuffles at it, a familiar gesture. Upon closer inspection, there's a small white dot on her left forepaw, and a soft auburn shadow at her throat, a little out of the ordinary for a red fox. But -- well -- she's no ordinary fox, clearly. "Hmm." This displeases her, this 'oh well, no feelings about that' from the vampires. "Vasya can help," she offers. "Might even be willing to. He used to redact problems, before he stopped all that." A beat.
She turns her attention to Ylva then, and queries, "So Jackie trusts you, clearly. But like -- are you one of her people? I don't see a Twilight friend with you so I don't think you're one of Simon's, and from the way she's talking about vampires in front of you I don't think you're one of them, and I haven't seen you at any of the Secret Wizard Meetings."
She blushes slightly at the wink. Not sure how to feel about someone seeing her squeeee so openly.
"Yeah. I'm, Lost. Just new at the whole thing. Hi."
She waves a hand and a tail as she speaks.
"To be clear," she tries to amend, "It wasn't the locals that didn't care. It was the Owl and her flunky. The locals were appalled and deeply apologetic. And if Vasya is willing to assist, I would adore his help. Love your, ah. Adornments. By the way." Jackie offers, smiling. "And yes, Ylva is one of ours. And, if I may, I would like to state for the record that I am VERY SLIGHTLY off-put that I cannot learn enough Secret Laws of the Universe to be in the Secret Wizard Meetings. But all the more adoring of you and yours for hanging out with me anyway~" There's absolutely zero animus. She's being a dork. She understands boundaries.
"Oh ho ho," agrees the little fox's floating voice, and she offers another one of those broad grin full of little sharp teeth at Ylva. "Congratulations on your freedom, then." She snuffles at Vorpal a little bit more, and then sits up straight on her belly, stretching her head upward a bit and kneading at the Elemental's stomach with her paws. Yes indeed, she is a clever and pretty fox who has cleverly incorporated her belongings into all of her forms."Well you can always ask him. He likes to be asked even if he can't help. I think everybody likes to be asked." She twitches her tail, snickering softly. "But I can't spend a lot of time in your weird psychoactive garden place, so there are trade-offs here." (edited)
"Thanks. I guess. Sorry. Still processing well everything."
She looks up a little light going on behind her eyes.
"Oh I ran into Klaire. One of my lovers. Turns out she can teleport and she ran into me because she was worried. It's been a week."
Dark, slender limbs lift to stroke and pet the fox in just such the most amazingly fluid ways. The ways that make you wonder if the rest of the world is on 10FPS. Another hand for Ylva's head. How many arms does she have?
As many as she has shadows.
How many of those does she have?
Try counting.
"I think I shall ask him. Maybe it'll help me feel a little less awful. Which feels weird to say. Cuz I sorta feel like I deserve to feel awful. If I'd been more careful, she'd still be around, but. I thought she was acting of her own accord, and she tried to make me kill my friends, and she almost succeeded and I was so fucking scared I wasn't careful. I just meant to knock her down. I thought vampires were tough for stuff like that."
A slow breath. A slow sigh. "I'm sorry you can't stay long in our place. It's really quite amazing in its own horrifying, right-next-door-to-literal-hell way."
A blink. Two. "She- found you because she was worried? I'm not sure I follow. The teleporting at least is a single thought I can grasp."
The fox goes quiet, then, her gold eyes half-lidding because she's being petted. "I probably could, you probably just wouldn't like what it would do to your nice places. I'm tougher than I look like, but I am a Wild thing." It's possible for both of them to hear the capital W.
Her eyes open fully again, and she turns her attention to Ylva, the streetlights catching her eyes and briefly flashing eyeshine towards the new Lost. "Yes, please explain."
"Well, I'd been putting off talking to her. Only so many spoons in a day. But I was ironside and she called me like 10 times while I was drawing in the woods so I picked up."
She shakes her head slightly thinking for a moment.
"What did she call it, scrying. She scryed on my while we were on the phone and teleported to my location. Came through looking like a lobster too. I think she called that Apportion? I think."
There is a nervous look on her face as she speaks, feeling like maybe she shouldn't have.
"... huh. That's- handy? Except for the part where she arrived- scalded? Injured? Is she okay?" V can't help but ask. "What sort of experience was it, did she say? Like a travelling through another place, or just like. Shoving the two places together and getting all scuffed up going through the joint?"
"A Wild thing. See... now I'm curious. But the cautious curious where I look up how it works beforehand. You're probably right, though. When I'm there, I can do things similar to the stuff you and yours do, change the world and all. CAN. I don't. It's-" She searches for the word. "Somewhere in the realm of "unnecessary" and "arrogant."
And awesome.
But mostly the first two."
She hops down from Vorpal's chest after leaning up to snuffle at her ear again, an affectionate little gesture, and in the process of leaping down, she stretches upwards. Five foot tall in her bare feet, wearing worn-out cut-off jean shorts and a black t-shirt about four sizes too large for her which says NEVER FEAR, THE UKRANIAN IS HERE on it in big block lettering above a Ukranian flag; it's been cut off to make a sleeveless crop top because of course it has. Fox's lanky black locks fall loose around her shoulders, and she reaches up to adjust a carved wood necklace of a fox with emerald eyes on a leather thong. The white blot on her left forepaw corresponds to a beaten silver band paired with a smooth steel band on her left ring finger. She's cute, if you like tiny dirty wild things.
"Well," Fox offers, absently scratching at her cheek with stubby, dirty fingers, "that sounds like things my people do, except ... not with the getting hurt part, unless she's doing it wrong. I've never heard of Paradox burning people, really. But I guess it could manifest that way. Usually it's more like bruising." She plops her butt on the roof, leans back against Vorpal a little bit. "You? Arrogant? Never."
She looks just a little offended at the idea Klaire could be doing it wrong but lets it slip.
"She said she'd be okay in a few days. That's all she can do. So I'm not sure if she is magicy wizard lady or just has a few tricks im not sure how that stuff works."
Ylva leans into the head scritches starting to look a little sleepy.
"I better head home in a bit though. I don't know where this random roof top is gonna come out."
"Oho. I-" She paused. "Actually, you and yours are probably some of the only folx that appreciate how incredibly satisfying it is to will the world to change in ridiculous ways and just watch it happen. I've carved trods through the Hedge that connected entirely different parts of the world and traveled them in seconds. Which- I mean, you all can teleport, but trust me, it's quite impressive~!"
"If she's still hurt, we could get someone to patch her up. If she got hurt coming to help you, seems the least we could do. Or would you rather not introduce her to us?" Sitting humanish foxes still get petted.
"Ah- I don't usually recommend just. Hopping into any old door for that. Do you know any doors near here that go someplace you're familiar with, Ylva?"
There's a little shrug from Fox at Ylva's brief expression of offense. "I've raised ... mmm... I think I'm at fourteen apprentices. I've been doing this a long time." Kind of an odd thing to say for someone who barely looks thirty, but who knows, maybe wizards have some sort of wild anti-aging thing going on. "There's nothing wrong with doing things wrong, a lot of the time that's how you learn to do it right."
She doesn't comment on the Hedge travel thing, but nods once. "It's pretty easy to heal someone who's a Sleepwalker or some other sort of -- one of us. I don't even have to be sneaky about it."
"I do but." She pouts. "Its like four blocks away but yes I should be careful."
Leaning back and looking up reaching her hand up again.
"I don't know how I feel about yall knowing her honestly. She knows I'm something but not what. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to tell her, what she wants to know."
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