01<@Ardweden> [Day: Saturday, September 25. Time: ?] 01<@Ardweden> [Imp, Hien, and Susano-O are in a city by the waterfall: almost a Venitian affair, with small rivers and canals running through the city, quaint shops, and cobblestone walkways. It's also overrun with greenery. It's beautiful, if largely deserted. I say "largely" because tiny motes of light are swirling about, and they were even talking to them a bit ago! Joan had just left to pursue a shadow that was following them, but she should be back any time now.] 01<@Ardweden> [They're looking for Hien's sister, Natalie! Or her dream, anyway.] 01<@Ardweden> [Session Start!] 06* Hien closes her eyes for a moment, trying to get a lead on Natalie. Yeah these guys were...... 06* Imp stops himself and frowns. "They were helpful in their own way." He was forcing it out, almost gagging on the "nice". 06* Hien attempts to resist a smile. She'd likely quirk an eyebrow, if she had them. 06* Hien opens her eyes again. "I don't feel anything in particular. Let's just keep going this way." And they were. 06* Susano-o looks at Hien, unsure, but nods. "Okay. There's nothing at all?" 01<@Ardweden> [The three lights that haven't gone charging down the streets cheer and give the distinct impression of high fiving.] Not at the moment, no. The little guys will hopefully let us know if they find anything? 06* Hien addresses the lights. "Do you have names? Or something you like being called?" 01<@Ardweden> ["Oh, do we?" "I don't know! I haven't come up with a name before." "Um! I like Willow!" "Oh, Willow's *good*! That means I can be Buffy!" "Xander!"] How about one name for all? 06* Hien laughs. "Well, hopefully we won't be encountering any vampires, but if we do, we'll be in good hands." Then she sobers a bit. "But I am still trying to find my sister. I don't think she's a dragon here. She might be a human girl. I guess maybe she could even be something else?" 01<@Ardweden> ["We see a lot of human girls," the one that self- identified as Willow tells Hien while he-she-it dances in front of her face. "You've got to be a little more specific." 06* Joan shows up around that time, shining like a lightbulb. "Did someone say vampyrs?" 01<@Ardweden> [The three lights shoot straight up. "She did!"] Joan, welcome back! Did you find anything? And we were just talking about old TV shows. 06* Joan shakes her head. "We are being watched, but I do not know zee purpose. If even zere is one." General dream weirdness, maybe. Let's keep it in mind. 06* Hien looks up. "Willow?" 06* Imp bamfs up over on Hien’s head, stretching up there. 01<@Ardweden> ["Yes!" Willow squeaks.] 06* Hien reaches up, removes Imp, puts him on her shoulder, and continues. "My sister has black hair that comes down to her chin, brown eyes, is shorter than..." She catches herself. "Okay, shorter than me when I'm human, and definitely shorter than me now. Um... I forget the exact value. Sometimes she wears glasses, but not all the time." 06* Imp looks up at Hien but doesn't say anything. I don't know what she'd be wearing... maybe her pajamas, maybe a t-shirt and jeans, maybe something weird because it's a dream. 01<@Ardweden> [Willow zigs and zags, then confers with the other two, murmuring in a glowing little huddle. They break after a moment, then say in unison, "We'll go look!" and zip! they dart off at the speed of... well, light.] * Hien calls after them. "Thank you!" 06* Imp mumbles. "See I'm not the only one that don't know my friends well enough..." He sounds hurt. 06* Hien looks at Imp. "What?" I couldn't trace Tony and you kept saying how I should know him better. 06* Imp sounds bitter as he looks down. "look, whatever, we need to find her." 06* Hien growls. "Yes, there are things going on lately between me and my sister and our relationship isn't the greatest it's been but I don't need a lecture from you right now." 06* Imp keeps looking down, and then bamfs off Hien. He's not saying anything. 06* Hien exhales a bit of smoke and starts stomping forward down the street. This will surely go well! 01<@Ardweden> [IT CAN'T POSSIBLY END POORLY.] 06* Joan follows that dragon. 06* Imp hops behind Joan. 06* Susano-o follows along. "For her, it seems more normal. With her skills with directions. I didn't think," he says, mostly to Imp. 06* Hien continues to stomp. Stomp stomp stomp. Sulking dragon, ahoy! 06* Imp glares daggers at Susano-o, and struggles a bit before he can't stop himself. "Look I'm fucking saying it wasn't fucking easy for me and it's not fucking easy for her. Okay?" 01<@Ardweden> [A light zips by to call, "Three girls in pajamas!" and another zips the other direction, calling, "Forty-eight so far with black hair!"] 06* Hien stops. "Oh." She exhales. "Crap." 06* Susano-o backs off a little, putting a step extra distance between them. "Okay." He looks ahead, and says, "What happened?" 06* Hien yells. "Why can't I do this? Why can't I find her? This is important! I *should* know. I should know her better than anyone. But I don't! I don't know what to look for and I never know where to go and I can't find her and I *need* to! We've wasted enough time, dammit!" She sniffles, which as a dragon sounds just plain weird. "Nat, why don't you want me to find you?" The goatboy and the statue. 06* Joan puts a hand on Hein's shoulder. That very large, scaly shoulder. 06* Hien looks at Imp, then at Joan. "I'm sorry. I'm just very, very frustrated." 06* Joan nods. "I understand. If it was my sister..." She thinks for a minute. "Can you think of anywhere she might 'ave gone? Like how Tony went to see his father?" 06* Hien looks back at Imp. "You think they're keeping us from finding her?" I think it's possible. They're asses. 06* Hien then looks at Joan. "Well, our parents are still together, so it's not quite that..." Vacations? The park? Our grandmother's house, before she died? There are a lot of places and I don't know where she'd go *now*. 06* Susano-o nods, and looks around. "We could check both." Can you feel her at all? One moment. 06* Hien closes her eyes and concentrates. Concentrates *very* hard. Oh. The opposite direction of how we were going. Of course. 06* Hien opens her eyes and points. "That way. And then to the right, and..." She starts walking very quickly. 06* Hien says, quietly, "Please keep working with me, Nat." 06* Imp moves out of Hien's way and just hops along behind. 06* Susano-o picks up the pace. "So you got her?" 06* Joan follows that dargon. "Zis is good, oui?" I think so. And I think so. 06* Susano-o steps along quickly, staying quiet now. 01<@Ardweden> [Hien speeds off, leading the others through the city. She'd better watch where she's going, though, because she's not being tugged in the straightest of lines and she finds herself teetering at the end of a canal.] 06* Joan pulls Hien back. "Don't fall in zat." Uh. Thanks. 06* Hien shakes her head. "Too much concentration this time. Need a lift?" 06* Imp just hops up and bamfs across waiting for the rest of them. 06* Joan eyes the canal. "Zat would be perhaps ze best thing." 06* Hien looks back to Susano-o. "I can carry you both across." 06* Susano-o nods slowly. "I can do it myself. But if it's not too much for you. It might be easier." Sure thing. 06* Hien carefully tucks Joan under one arm and Susano-o under the other and flies across! Then she gently sets them down and resumes following the tug, hopefully not pitching headlong into canals or other hazards this time. Hopefully. 06* Susano-o makes sure all of his armor bits stayed where they were before. 06* Joan is cargo 01<@Ardweden> [Hien carries a full-grown warrior in armor under each of her arms! Good thing she's a dragon. The tug is still strong.] 06* Susano-o ascertains that he is still fully covered and protected. "Thanks." 01<@Ardweden> [The other side is covered with moss.] 06* Imp looks around, constantly hopping from foot to foot. Moss is damp and he doesn't seem to like it. 06* Hien feels a bit bad that her foot claws may be gouging the moss. She tries to be careful as she continues on. 01<@Ardweden> [Hien's claws do, and as she continues, she leaves a clear trail of dragon-prints in the soft moss behind her.] 06* Susano-o follows in the prints as best he can. 06* Imp will keep up the best he can. 06* Susano-o looks down at Imp. "Is it hard for you to walk? On this? You can ride if you need it." 06* Imp looks up as Susano-o and after a few seconds will bamf up on his shoulder. 01<@Ardweden> [Susano-O's shoulder is considerably less roomy than Hien's. Imp has a hard time balancing.] 06* Susano-o hunches forward a bit to provide some extra space, and keeps on walking. 01<@Ardweden> [Despite the extra space, once Susano-O starts walking, Imp teeters off.] 06* Hien steps as softly as she can. "This feels familiar... like a place we went when we were younger." 06* Imp lands hard in the moss oofing and glaring up at the world. 06* Hien is too lost in thought to notice poor Imp's plight. 06* Susano-o stops, and looks down at him. "Sorry. I... maybe it's easier with Hien. I tried to make room." 01<@Ardweden> [As they continue, the city deteriorates even more, becoming less like a standing if abandoned place and more like ruins, with crumbling stone staircases, ceilings, and even walls; even so, life is clear, as vegetation increasingly takes over. The moss gets *everywhere*, and green canopy towers overhead.] 06* Imp just gets up, slowly, and starts hopping to catch up, not saying anything. He seems to be struggling to be quiet though. It wasn't the ruins of a city, it was a park up north. We spent the summer in Maine. 01<@Ardweden> [A twinkling light zips by. "Still looking!" Xander calls.] Maine? Zat's practically Canada. 06* Hien calls after him. "Thanks! We'll keep going this way." 06* Susano-o looks around at the cityscape and all the moss as he follows along in her footsteps. "And it doesn't have ruins. I think." It really is. We didn't go, because no passports, but that was okay because there was a lot for us to see. In Maine, I mean. Nat and I spent as much time running through parks as we could. Our parents had trouble keeping up with us. 06* Imp frowns a bit more. "I... why here then?" 06* Hien looks back at Imp. "She really loved it, I guess. More than I realized. I mean, I liked it too, but... I forgot, really." It is pretty memorable here. 06* Susano-o pauses. "But it wasn't like this. Right?" 06* Imp shifts a bit more looking around. "We need to keep moving or you'll lose it." It wasn't ruins. 06* Hien starts walking again. That might be from a book. She likes fantasy novels. Maybe from that? The last time I asked her what she was reading she hid it in her bag, so... It's not like I would have made fun of her. Even if she was reading Twilight. If we are dealing with fucking glitterpires.... I'll stab them right with you. That was a waste of the few books I get around to reading. Glitterpires? Sparkling vampires. I can explain when we're awake. 06* Susano-o cocks his head, walking. "You don't have to." That's fair. This could be Lord of the Rings, maybe? I know she likes those. I got her the movies for her birthday last year. 06* Susano-o follows again. "But it could be fantasy," he says. "It feels like that. Like an old abandoned elf town." Yeah. It feels kind of elfy. 06* Joan boggles. "'Elfy'"? Like... there should be elves? Elfy. 06* Susano-o nods. "Yeah. Elfy." 06* Imp just kind of looks at every one in disbelief. 01<@Ardweden> [They continue into a grove, for lack of a better word, that grew out of what was once a courtyard. Before them is a castle that looks like it's straight out of a fairy tale, with spiraling towers, stained glass windows, and even a moat with a drawbridge. It, like everything so far, is covered in vines and moss.] 06* Joan looks it over. ".... Pretty sure zey don't 'ave zat in Maine." This is going to be girly, isn't it? This is impressive. And we are both girls. 06* Susano-o looks up at the castle. "That is not for elves." 01<@Ardweden> [Session End!]