Grayson was enjoying time in a hard to find shady spot on the Volcanic beach when he felt it.
Isaac? He was at home, laying in bed, attempting to rest despite his constant cloud of microscopic pixie companions.
Rick was out giving a surfing lesson to Fiona, on the water, on his board.
Volya and Mila were in Volya's van down by the river, enjoying some private, couple-centric time.
Grayson, Isaac, Rick, and Volya all felt it. There's a tingle, low in their belly. Something like.. a strange sort of warmth that slowly builds to a pressure instead of a burn.
Grayson immediately tried to figure out what it could be, then picked up his glass full of milk and pixie children to hold them protectively against his chest.
Isaac figured he had to pee. When he went, his urine was a glowing, bright green.
Rick attempted to get himself comfortable on his surfboard to handle it, and tried to focus on teaching Fiona how to surf while he felt funny.
Volya thought things might just be going well...
Next, all of them felt the sensation of pressure in their lower abdomen tightening significantly. Like a giant fist wrapping itself around them and squeezing.
Grayson was pulled tightly back to the earth, almost slammed, but not quite.
Isaac managed to stand strong against the pressure, but texted Vee that his urine was bright green and something was wrong.
Rick managed to stay on his board but something was obviously wrong, Fiona came over to investigate, reaching out to help him.
Volya realized just how wrong things were when her phone vibrated at her while she was midway through a nice night with Mila. She noticed how the sensation was building and started planning a way to stop it.
As Grayson feels himself pressed tightly to the earth, there's a faint, almost inaudible 'POP' that could have been about the pressure relieving suddenly, or could have been about something else entirely. Between the space of a heartbeat and a blink, he's no longer laying on the shady spot he'd found on the Volcanic beach, but somewhere else entirely.
Every surface of this deep, V-shaped ravine is a prickly outcropping of beautiful, spiky crystal, in shades of every color imaginable and some that have yet to be discovered. What light filters down through the translucent spires is a wild, shifting kaleidoscope of pattern and hue.
The canyon floor is treacherous and made of up-jutting crystal that can only be traversed by skipping from stone to stone. Some crystals are worn smooth by passage of feet and time; some still bear dark stains of missteps by those who passed before. Horizontal croppings of crystal prohibit a straight, easy passage across the stalagmites, and force travelers to duck or hop the obstacles to make it through this area.
Isaac began feeling the tighter grip, threatening his consciousness, and mistakenly believed he was in the throes of giving birth to an ALIEN. It freaked him out severely.
Rick was pulled down into the water, his surfboard being dragged down with him as the grip tightened around him and threatened to make him pass out. Fiona held tightly to him, going down into the water with him in an attempt to save him from drowning.
Volya called up a magical circle around the van of pure flame. She fought back the pull long enough to allow herself and Mila to get dress, and grab weapons, before she let the circle fall and the grip resumed with a vengeance around her.
Grayson's first priority is sitting up. The second priority is working out where he is. 'Not in Kansas any more' is fairly obvious, but then he's never been to Kansas so it wasn't very likely anyway.
As Isaac is pressed back hard enough against the wall of his bathroom to feel the Sheetrock start to give way, there's a faint, tearing sound that could have been about his body being jerked right through, or could have been about something else entirely. Between the space of a heartbeat and a blink, he's no longer in his bathroom, but somewhere else entirely.
Grayson, for his part, would see Isaac suddenly come into existence on the ground, not far from him.
Isaac is not in a great state right now, his mouth is frozen open in fear and he's half naked, his phone clutched in one hand as he scrambles to pull up his pyjama bottoms. Obviously pulled away from one hopes the bathroom, he's wearing fluffy slippers and a loose fitting white t-shirt to go with the pants.
Clutching at his stomach, he finally manages to get a breath, the sound of the inhalation like someone coming up for air after almost drowning. Blinking tears out of his eyes, he slowly pulls up his pants after a brief check that the equipment is still there.
The grip on Rick's abdomen is beyond insistent, and as he's dragged further down into the water, the ocean closing up against the sky as both he and Fiona are fully beneath the waves, the water starts to bubble. Almost like it's boiling, but without heat. Maybe it's an air pocket of some strange creature? Either way, between the space of a heartbeat and the blink of an eye, while they're struggling to avoid being dragged down to a watery death, things change.
With a loud, very wet splash of at least 100 gallons of sea water, Rick and Fiona flop down to the ground, Rick's surfboard leading the way as if they'd fallen from 3 feet up. There are a few fish flopping around as if they were caught up in the section of ocean that Rick and Fiona had just left.
It should be noted, the moment that people arrive here, the pressure in their lower abdomen immediately alleviates.
"Good morning," says an Oxford-accented voice, belonging to a man clad all in black. Grayson has a glass of milk in one hand, and with the other he pushes himself to his feet from a sitting position. "Try not to get too excited. This place looks a little... sharp. I don't think we're in Kansas any more, but then since I've never been I wouldn't know."
Rick hits the ground hard, and what little air there was in his lungs leaves him in a soft *whoosh*. He lies there on the ground while he attempts to catch his breath, and he stares up at what is no longer the sky, but something totally different. It's several seconds before he groans, and struggles to push himself into a seated position, wincing a little bit as he moves. "What the fuck?" he finally manages to say, reaching up to rub his eyes in an attempt to rid his vision of...well, whatever it is he's seeing. "Fi?!" He looks around quickly for Fiona.
He hasn't seemed to notice Grayson even though he has spoken, but to be fair he still thinks that he's had a nervous breakdown or something of the sort.
When Fiona's dumped like a salmon on the ground, she lays stunned for a moment, blinking up at the brilliant colors that are definitely not the water she fell from. At Grayson's words, she jumps, sitting up, despite his words, head turning around to find the voice, and also Rick. "Here," she gasps in response as she tries to make sense of the colors and people she sees in the strange location. "What happened?" she asks, pulling her bare legs closer to herself -- she's in a aqua bikini top with short black board shorts. Definitely not planning a trip, this one.
Finally having some air in his lungs, Isaac manages to yell out one word. "ALIENS!!" It takes him a moment or two after this brief announcement to get his stuff together. He is still in the process of getting his pants back on and after a brief check of his stomach, he manages to satisfy himself that there are in fact no aliens about to burst out. Then there is sea water and a surfboard followed by two more people. What fragile grip he did have on reality seems to leave him at this point. Shortly after this, the reason why he had his pants down becomes readily apparent as a stream of day-glo green urine arcs over and splashes against Grayson. Letting his head roll back, Isaac lets out a sound that is pure relief. "Arrghhh. That is so much better!" Then he lets his head fall ball as the sea water soaks him, at least having the presence of mind to pull his pants up when he is finished.
Again, eerily silent in this place, save for the soft breeze making gentle, musical noises over crystals. Well, except when people talk, or decide to dump some ocean into the area.
Grayson looks at Isaac, looks at his outfit and looks at Isaac again. "You total, utter, fucking /wanker/," he says, with that particular ring to the words that only an educated English accent provides. He glares at Isaac for a few moments, then looks at Fiona and Rick. "Welcome to wherever the hell we are, population us." And then he's striding towards what's left of the ocean in order to at least try and do something about it.
Blinking in the dim light, Isaac looks up as he hears a familiar voice but then is attention is drawn down to his feet and more importantly his bunny slippers. "Oh no...they're ruined!" Looking more than a little moist, he's currently dressed in loose fitting cotton pajama bottoms, a white t-shirt and a pair of bunny slippers that look like they've just been through a car wash. Realizing he still has something in his hand, he pulls his phone up to eye level and then curses silently when he notices that there is no signal. Sitting up, he looks over to Grayson. "Wait, what?" Then there is a moment of silence after which he adds, "Sorry?"
Rick eventually sees Fiona -- since it's not like she's that far away. He relaxes when he sees that she's here and at least she didn't drown, but it's only a little bit, since they're still not where they're supposed to be. "I don't know," he says, and he shivers, wrapping his arms around his bare torso and suddenly wishing he had worn his wet suit instead of just board shorts.
Of course, that's neither here nor there since no one can hear what he's thinking.
Whatever he was going to say next is cut off by Isaac's...shot? "Jesus," he exclaims, and he moves back, even though the stream is not coming in his direction. Just in case, you know. His eyes move toward Grayson then, and they widen, before he looks back to Fiona, and then his hand goes to his ear. There's a little moment of even more panic, before another slight relaxing of his shoulders and an exhalation. "What the fuck?" Yes, again. But it still applies.
Fiona glances at the other two. "Summer," she says to Isaac, with a little nod, before glancing at Grayson. "Awesome. Here we go again." She looks at Rick. "See? I told you I'm cursed. You're lucky you didn't drown," she says, and it's all very flippant, matter-of-fact which means she's probably not actually processing it very well. She stands up, pulling off a bit of seaweed from around her ankle, and begins to look around. "At least there aren't any of those fucking dolls this time," she murmurs. Isaac knows which she means. "You guys weren't in the water, but somewhere else?" she asks Isaac and Grayson. "Nice pjs."
The sensation around Vee's abdomen comes back full force when she drops the circle, only it's like it's gotten more insistent. Her ribs feel like they're likely to crack under the pressure when she's quite literally jerked backward against the bed, dragging Mila along with her. Just as the breath leaves her body and her vision fades to the smallest of pinpoints, blinking her eyes leaves her in some new place entirely.
For everyone else, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Volya is laying on the ground with Mila on top of her, and Mila is calling out a very worried sounding "VEEEE?!" the moment they arrive. Volya, of course, is soaked through her back by the seawater layering over the crystalline-covered floor.
Just after the most recent arrivals to the area make their appearance, something changes. Truly. The quality of the air shifts and the scent of pine, amber, and moss can be smelled quite strongly. Shimmering in the distance, a few hundred dots of light can be seen as they pass behind, above, and around different colored crystals. The lights themselves are vivid green, and nowhere near as small as the tiny specks of shimmering mote-glitter the people in the area might be used to. No, the smallest of those approaching are easily the size of a large-bulbed Christmas light, and twice as bright. There are at least 100 yards of jagged terrain for the bouncing, moving lights to pass through before they reach the rough gathering of Grayson, Isaac, Rick, Fiona, Volya, and Mila.
"Yes, I always take a glass of water swimming," says Grayson drily to Fiona. "And wear boots, as well. Every time. I find seawater conditions the leather beautifully." And then he's measuring his length in what water is left, trying to wash off the dayglo green. Thank goodness he's wearing black. That done, he gets back to his feet, looking around to see what just changed. By the time the lights arrive he's standing and facing them. "Good morning."
Slowly getting to his feet, Isaac gives the little cord at his waist band a tighten as he tries to retain some dignity. "Hello again!" He offers to Rick and Fiona, waving in greeting. Turning, he blinks at the arrival of Mila and Volya. "Oh wow, the gangs all here. Looks like your breakfast was ruined, I was busy erm, not doing my teeth." Isaac steps over to Mila and Volya, lifting his feet high to save his bunny slippers from further damage. "Need a hand?" He says, offering out a hand to each of them. Turning to look over to the glowing presence, he glances down to his trousers. "Ah ha. We've got company, do try and behave."
Rick gets to his feet and wraps his arms around himself, rubbing his upper arms a couple of times to try and get some warmth going. "You're not cursed," he says to Fiona, but it sounds a little bit absent, like he's distracted. Probably by those points of light that are coming toward them. However, he does look over at her briefly with a grateful expression. "Thanks," he says quietly. "For, like...trying." Then his eyes are drawn back to those lights, and he falls quiet, watching them approach.
When Mila and Volya get dumped into the impromptu gathering of misfit toys, Fi backs up, eyes widening. She glances at Grayson, though, brow lifting. "To each their own. Who'm I to judge?" she says, dryly, back. She's already noticing the green lights that are coming toward them and takes a step back. "Anyone here able to tell if those are friends are foes? I don't have that kind of mojo, myself," she murmurs.
At Rick's little aside, she smiles at him. "Of course. You're my friend. Even if I have to pay you to hang out with me."
Mila reached up to accept Isaac's hand, gripping it to bring herself up to standing immediately so she wasn't putting more pressure on Volya laying over shards of crystal than she had to. In her other hand, Mila was holding a Louisville Slugger firmly around its handle. "Well..." She looked around at the people there and nodded once. "Aloha... everyone. Mahalo, Isaac." She tapped the head of the bat to the ground once, then shook her head. "Man, I'm glad you noticed this soon enough to get us dressed and ready, Volya. You alright, pupule wahine?" Mila looked down at Volya and offered her a smile before her brown eyes were drawn to the bouncing, glowing flickers of incoming green that didn't seem all the daunted by the distance. They were coming pretty damn quick, really. Flight and all that.
As a note, Mila was actually dressed. Wearing a pair of stretchy, short, black shorts good for yoga. For a top, she had on a bright pink, racer back style tank top and had even managed to find the time to pull on a pair of black, thong style sandals.
The greenish blonde laid in the water letting out a soft moan, the edge of her mouth curling in a half-smile. "Mila, baby... I think we broke the van." She hummed a giggle before reality came back, and her eyes flickered open, revealing an emerald green glow to her irises. The woman's hair had luminescent streaks of pinks and purples running through it. Dressed in a loose pink tanktop and overall shorts, she had all of one sock on. When her hand lifted from the water, she had a 6.5 foot long spear in it. Blinking her dilated eyes, her mouth curved into a frown as she focused on Mila. "Oh... Someone interrupted the wrong festivities and I--" Lifting her head, she took in her immediate surrounding, letting out a short growl that likely didn't reliable frighten kittens. "--I don't know if crystals burn, but I will damn sure try!" She slapped the water, "And your water! I'll burn your water!" As her volume built, a warm Summer breeze built into a swirl around her. "You ask! You're supposed to ask first!" The woman was livid and more than a little irrational, when again, her hair was disheveled and her skin flush as she got to her feet using the spear for leverage.
Amid the flickering, bright green lights that were dancing along, coming rapidly into the very area that everyone seemed to fall into, there was another form. It followed behind the initial wave of flickers, and it wasn't tiny. Nor was it glowing. It also wasn't flying. Instead, the creature coming along was enormously tall, easily 7'+, willowy, and built like a lithe, humanoid, woman. She had some curves, but mostly she was all length. On her head were a set of curving horns that looked like thick deer antlers given to a demon to shape. Her feet were not feet but delicate, deer-like hooves that made sharp, clacking sounds as she took massive, long limbed, running strides over the ground and its crystals. Some of them cracked and broke to crystalline dust beneath her as she moved, others remained whole.
As she came close enough to easily speak to those gathered, the woman-ish creature stopped with a skid of hooves along crystallized ground, causing shards to fly forward like dust to shimmer in the light breeze. She was nude, but there were clumps of moss and bits of lichen growing on her tawny-skinned body that covered some of it, if perhaps not all of the more scandalous bits. She looked between those gathered, lifted her chin, and sniffed the air, her eyes glowing a bright, vivid green that matched the glow of the smaller pixies around her. Nodding to Grayson for the greeting, which allowed the foliage that made up her hair to twitch and move, little fern fronds dancing as they shifted, the deer woman spoke to everyone in a strange, tonal language that didn't sound like it should come from a human.
While people were checked out by the tall, deer-woman, pixies that were quite clearly pixies, as everyone could see wings, and bodies, nude and glowing green, came around and started spinning around each of the people there. Excited, high pitched chatter could be heard, though it was in an entirely alien language, nothing even remotely human sounding.
Grayson clears his throat, tucking his glass of milk into his pocket and then murmuring a quiet, "Aloha," to the other humans or parts thereof nearby. He lifts an arm to shield his eyes from the crystal shards the demon-deer-woman kicks up, then lowers it again when she's stopped. He returns her nod, then bows to her and the large glowing things. "Aloha, and thank you for inviting us to your beautiful valley."
Isaac's mouth drops open as he watches the approaching figure, it taking a couple of moment to get himself together enough not to openly stare. "Oh my..." He watches with interest as the full grown pixies approach him, muttering quiet greeting to them and suddenly watchful of any of his children that came through with him. "Greetings fair lady, may I ask why we were brought here?" He lowers his head in a bow, doing his best to judge the appropriate distance and quite possibly getting it wrong. "I'm curious though, is it not protocol to invite someone first?" He does his best to look presentable but it's a losing battle. The drenched pajamas don't quite cut the look he was after and his bunny slippers probably aren't helping.
Rick manages a smile for Fiona's words, but when that tall figure starts to come closer, anything else he might have said goes out of his head. He stares -- or at least until he has to shield his eyes from the fragments, too. As soon as they stop flying, and she starts speaking, he looks back at her again. His mouth is slightly open, not quite jaw on the floor wide, but getting there. 'Awe' is probably an apt description of his expression. "Aloha," he murmurs, and while it's not exactly eloquent, the reverent tone in which it's said manages to convey that same feeling quite well.
Backing up a little more, Fiona reaches for Rick's arm -- to protect or be protected by him, it's hard to say -- as the green lights continue to move their way, accompanied by the tall deer woman. Her eyes narrow as the faun comes skidding close, guarding themselves against the shards and sparks brought up by the hooves. Fiona does pick up on Grayson's and Isaac's postures. She dips her head, as well, her dark, wet hair tumbling forward to veil her face so she can peer up and watch as well as she can.
When the little lights -- no, pixies -- come close, she raises her head a little, wide-eyed as she watches them spin and chatter, their lights reflected in the mirror of her dark eyes. She's a bit awe-struck as well, quiet, wonder struck.
Mila, if she'd been intent on saying anything, stopped with her mouth open and watched as pixies came near to start spinning and dancing on the air among the humanity gathered in the valley of crystals. The colors and shimmering glow had her blinking her dark eyes, and then she turned to the side and lifted her arm ahead of her own face and neck, and Volya's in a protective stance, when the shards of flying crystal came driving off the ground from the stopping force of the Deer-woman. She looked back once the little spires stopped flecking against her skin and stared openly at the woman with her insane height and horns, then just lowered her head and shut her mouth with a clacking sound. It took a moment before she was able to vocalize a hushed "Aloha, ke mele nani." Her words were decidedly not lacking in their share of awe, and possibly shock. Shock and Awe.
Volya's grip on her spear tightened at the sound of crystal crunching hooves, and the woman whirled around just in time of the horned woman to stop. Blinking, Volya openly stared at the creature, her jaw falling open as her eyes made several passes up and down her form. "Uhhh..." She offered the stellar greeting. And a moment later, Vee started to grind her teeth, rubbing and scratching at the back of her neck as she dance around in a circle. A nervous laugh spilled out and she turned to face the woman, pointing to herself. "Mila..." Blinking, her pointing index finger found the right person, "Mila." Clearing her throat, he pointed to herself again, "Volya..." She pointed to Isaac, "Isaac, and... Rick... People?" Her eyes moved to Grayson and Fiona before she started to drink in the woman's form again. Sipping in a breath, she offered with a quiet rasp, "May not be in the correct head space." Twist on a socked foot, Vee rested her head on Mila's shoulder, whispering, "Sorry..."
As the Deer-Woman stood in one place, moss started to grow. Then small, winding vines started to come up out of the ground, breaking through the crystal layer with audible, small, cracking sounds. She cocked her head to the side, fixing her glowing gaze onto Grayson, her heavy antlers almost making it look like her head would twist too far. Then she smiled, and shook her head. "Not mine. Neutral. Mine is much more beautiful and has grass for laying, or eating." The long arms of the horned woman motioned at the crystals and she looked them over, her eyes flaring brighter for a moment. "Nothing to eat here. Just dead." Her English was good, truly, and she spoke in a rumbling, almost soothing cadence that one could attribute to the swaying of trees in a delicate breeze.
Turning her attention to the other words of Aloha, she nodded to the others gathered, and then fixed her gaze on Isaac, the layer of chitinous moss that made up her eyebrows moving into sharp arches over her glowing, green eyes. "You already said yes. And do not worry. Your matron arrives presently." She eyed Isaac for another moment, then looked at Volya, and in turn Mila. "You lack the seed. But the seed touched you." She came closer and sniffed at the air around Volya even as the other woman turned to hold onto Mila, her eyes never seeming to blink. "Ah, refusal. Do you wish to be immediately returned to where I found you, Volya?" The offer was made plainly, openly.
When her eyes moved from Volya to Rick, then Mila, and Fiona, the deer-woman cocked her head to the other side, those heavy horns moving so oddly, jostling the foliage that was her hair. "Human, Mila, those are your names? Do you wish to be returned immediately to where I found you? Your presence was not intended."
A couple of full grown pixies moved closer to Grayson, and as they approached, his skin began glowing with a mix of vivid green, yellow, and icy blue, in whirls. Likewise, when the green pixies came closer, chittering excitedly, Isaac began to glow green like a beacon. Rick, on the other hand, when a Trio of brilliantly geen pixies started to come closer, began to glow yellow like a buttery version of the sun, bright and warm.
Grayson smiles, inclining his head to the deer-woman and conceding the debate in doing so. Apparently this is a point where one doesn't argue. "James," he asides to Volya, then looks to the full-grown pixies. His eyebrows raise as his skin starts to glow - his clothing doing the same - and he looks down at his arm with a faint smile.
"Well that's that cat out of the bag." Isaac mutters as he raises a hand to inspect it. Looking over to the lady, he inclines his head. "My matron? Oh..." Biting his lip, he tucks in his shirt and slicks back his hair. "So the 'yes' was from before? Okay, erm...ah." His gaze flicks from Grayson and then to Rick, a faint smile turning up the ends of his mouth as he finally figures out what is going on. "I though you looked tense back in the woods, grand job on the stiff upper lip there Rick." Grinning to himself, he looks over to Mila and Volya, mouthing the words 'Are you okay?' as he does so.
Rick doesn't pull away from Fiona's grasp, and for a moment it seems like he might just not have noticed it, but after a second, he puts his hand on hers, too, and leans toward her to murmur something low to her. Whatever it was, it's quick, and he turns back just as Volya says his name. He nods; yes, that is his name. It seems to be directed both at her, and somehow inwardly. He's still here, and still himself. Probably, anyway. He isn't totally sure at this point.
His gaze shifts to the deer-woman as she starts to speak English. He doesn't say anything more, though as those pixies come close to him and start to glow, a small smile touches his face. It's certainly nice to get some of that warmth, but it's not just that. His hand moves from Fiona's to his ear, touching it briefly as he lets out a little laugh, glancing at Isaac when he says this. "Well, you know, like..." He shrugs, a little embarrassed, but then just nods. He turns to his companion again then, when she's asked if she wants to stay, or go. He doesn't tell her to stay, but from the look he gives her, it's clear he hopes that she will.
At whatever it is Rick whispers, Fiona's eyes widen a little more, but she doesn't say anything back. "Not quite," breathes out Fiona when the deer woman asks the question of her name, "Human," a slightly wry tone underscoring the word for reasons other than that her name is Fiona. The other question, however, gives her pause. She looks to Rick, noticing the glow spreading over his skin, and she bites her lower lip. She glances over at Mila, apparently the other hitch hiker, and then back, her eyes low, respectful.
"I beg your pardon if this question is rude. I don't intend it that way..." she says quietly, swallowing, her nervousness practically palpable. "Are they in any danger? I do not wish to leave my friend in danger. I did not mean to come uninvited."
Mila blinked, looking in surprise at the offer of being allowed to leave, then looked back at Fiona. She took a slow breath, her one hand still firmly on the handle of the baseball bat, her other arm wrapping around Vee. "I'll stay if Volya stays, I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror again if I left her here." Mila nodded to the woman after she managed two false starts at finding her voice. "Mahalo for the offer, ke mele nani." She looked back over at Grayson, then at Isaac, and at Rick, her eyes widening as she realized they were all marked... "Is everyone else stuck here?"
Volya droned another long syllable when she was sniffed at, lifting her head once more. A breath laugh escaped her. "As I understand things, saying a name repeatedly here can be... Annoying, so may ask for a title in which to refer to you as? As to the refusal, I'm uncertain, but as in the ways of going home, I must politely..." The woman actually paused again as her vision drifted down the Fae woman. "And so..." More nervous laughter broke out, and she thumbed to Isaac, "As per certain arrangements, I have to aid him in these sort of affairs, and there is a matter of next of kin, but it is like definitely wrong for his pixies to be uncared for. So in that, I sort of have to stay to ensure he stays in one piece... Unless Isaac wants to release me of that duty here and now for the... Time frame?" She groaned again, "Which still sticks me watching over his pixies, unless someone else has accepted that charge."
Putting on a nervous smile, Vee wiggled her fingers in greeting to James, "Nice to meet you, James." Her eyes visibly twitched as she stared solidly at Isaac, shaking her head slowly in reply. Her hand jumped up, as boggled the spear, controlling it enough to point at Fiona's question, "And a perfectly valid question, thank you." Volya's nostrils flared as she pulled at the scents in the air, leaning a bit closer to Mila.
Coming from the opposite direction that the Deer-Woman had done, a glowing, yellow mass came over the horizon behind the gathered group. As it drew closer, this mass of sunshine turned out to be hundreds of bright yellow glowing pixies. They were moving swiftly, but a bit unlike those of the green variety, as they were bouncing around, literally springing on purpose from one shard of crystal to the next, and turning it into a real game. The end effect was that of watching tracers bounce to and fro as they traversed the distance. In the very center of the wildly playful pod of yellow pixies was a tall, lovely woman with a set of gigantic yellow wings stretched out behind her.
How tall she was might be hard to figure, as she was flying, but while the pixies around her ranged in size from large, outdoor Christmas bulb to 2 feet tall, she was decidedly taller than those. Her wings looked more like spun sugar and sunlight than anything load bearing, but they carried her along just fine as she laughed with undiluted joy at watching the tiny, glowing creatures play. Her laughter was the stuff of happy moments and laying in the sun, the stuff of caramel oozing from an apple before it was bit into. The stuff of chocolate melting on your fingers to be licked clean. As they approached, the stunning, lily-white quality of her skin was visible, like she was literally formed of the petals of a flower, and her vibrant, purple and red hair danced in the breeze created by her own wings.
Scents flooded into the area preceding the yellow pixies. Roses, sun-warmed grass, watermelon so sharp it made the tongue dry and the salivary glands begin to spurt. The bubbly, spirited voice of the bright, shining, largest winged creature was filled with glee as she spoke "I beat her here! I knew I would! She's too busy being all stiff and weird to make it here fast. And now I'm here! I get to have first pick!" She giggled brightly, spinning up into the air easily 40 feet before she drifted back down, smoothing the petals of the impossibly large daffodil that was her dress. "Ooooh! TWO! Oh gooodie. And one with options. Oh man.. she's going to be SO PISSED!" Cackling, maddened laughter left the spunky Fae as she fell backwards, nearly flipping over if her wings hadn't caught her.
The Deer-Woman just looked at the arriving sunshine yellow and wiggled her nose like the smell was a bit more than she preferred. "Be calm, if you would, Adena. Eira will arrive presently." She looked over at Volya and nodded to her. "Artio. Do not call unless you know what you are calling, child of the sun." Turning her head to Fiona, Artio cocked her head to the side and frowned. "They will not be eaten."
Artio looked at Mila and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "They are moving, not affixed to anything." The questions coming from the humans seemed to boggle her slightly, as if they were asking things she wouldn't expect from a toddler.
Grayson looks up, eyeing Isaac and then nodding to Rick before looking to Fiona. "Nothing and no-one here is safe," he points out. To Volya he offers a smile, and then he's turning to look at the new arrivals. He watches the new large woman fly up and back down again, but at something the deer-woman says his eyes widen. "Definitely not Kansas," he murmurs to the others. "It sounds as though we'll have representatives of all three Courts when the others arrive."
"All three?" The colour drains from Isaac's face at this news, the young man standing a little stiffly now and clearly unhappy. Looking over to Volya, he bows. "I'm touched by the concern and certainly would mind another friendly face about. I've always figured the Pixies would head for your caravan anyway, they're someone mad for the honey." He looks over to Mila and smiles, gesturing with his head towards Grayson. "He's not fibbing, it can get super bad here." After this, he turns his attention to Rick and Fiona. "Brave, a rather fetching quality." His smile starts to fade then but it is hard to keep his attention from the new arrivals, the question of 'first pick' has him raising his eyebrow and looking meaningfully to Grayson and Rick.
Rick gives Fiona a grateful smile at her words, even as he's surrounded by those glowing pixies. He starts to say something else, but the arrival of the flying woman stops him, and he turns to her, staring with wide eyes. He no longer feels the cold -- between the pixies flying around him and everything to think about, he's at least not wishing like hell for a sweatshirt. Or even any shirt. However, the words do not seem to make sense to him, and he blinks, then squints, tipping his head to the side. "Uh...what?" He looks over to Isaac in time for the meaningful expression, though his own just seems confused.
Grayson's words make Fiona grimace a little -- she clearly was hoping that there was no danger, wherever it is and whatever is happening to them. "Some might call it stupid," she says to Isaac, but her hand on Rick's tightens when she sees him get more nervous. "I'll stay until you can go," she murmurs, though apparently they can go -- not tied down and all. "How, I don't know," she adds, glancing around for an exit.
To the new inbound fairy woman, she dips her head in that semblance of a bow, trying to show respect, but curious to look and listen at the same time.
Mila nodded surely, then looked over at Artio, offering a slightly wavering smile. "There you have it, I suppose that if you can fit two.. well three more into the reservation, we're here to support the others." She swallowed, holding a little more tightly to Volya with each word she spoke. The impending daffodil-laden Faerie spinning around and laughing in the air drew Mila's attention, and she stared at the summery being with her smile actually growing to something real, until the infectious laughter caught her and she began laughing as well. Her rich, brown eyes were alight with Mirth and she shook her head. "You sound like my sister so much when we're racing..." She shut her mouth sharply then, realization that she'd just spoken so familiarly to a freaking Sidhe causing her to turn her head to stare at the ground, exhaling a long, slow gust of air.
Volya's dust devil of warm Summer air seemed to accelerate as Adena. "And boom goes the dynamite." Vee dotted the air with her index finger, though nothing more happened save for her breaking out into a sincere belly laugh. Keeping herself upright with Mila and her, she shook her head, gasping helplessly, "And don't even know why I'm laughing." And the laughter continued as she oozed down to sit in the remaining seawater that had all but spread out and disappeared between the cracks between the crystal. Holding her side, she was helplessly and red-faced from laughing, snorting for breath as she dropped her spear to slap at Mila's thigh.
Finally, as if the arrival were waiting to be heralded, Darkness began leeching the color and light out of the sky and terrain, coming from a third direction, heading toward the meeting place twixt green and yellow. Glowing, icy blue points of light could be seen, and as they came closer, these, too, were pixies. They darted here and there, but on the way across, they were smashing colored crystals and shattering them to dust in a sort of carpet for the creature that followed.
She wasn't as tall as Artio or Adena, in fact, she looked to be maybe 5' if she was lucky. As she walked, a rime of frost spread from her out across the shattered crystals and turned them into a layer of solid, sparkling ice. Around her, light seemed to be sucked away, leaving her white dress sparkling and clean, and everything else dim and gray. Long, twining hair ran down the entire length of her body to drag on the ground, looking more like it was formed of icicles than of keratin. As she came closer, it was clearly noticeable that her eyes were solid orbs of black that reflected absolutely no light whatsoever. When she stopped moving, the sound behind her as ice cracked and light started to return to where she'd touched was a horrific, shattering crescendo, much like one might imagine it would sound if an entire shelf broke free of the arctic coastline. "I'm here. I see that /she/ is here. Let's get on with this before my hair melts and I grow weary." Her voice was hollow. Utterly hollow. Nothing about her was thrilled at the moment, and the gaze she leveled over to Adena was something that could have frozen the heart of the most beguiled servitor. Ice spread out across the water that was left over from Rick and Fiona's entry into the world as she stood her ground.
Adena laughed uproariously when the ice maiden arrived. "Eira's here! OHHHHH look how tiny she is. It's not her season, but it's always her time of the month!" She cackled loudly and spun, glowing even brighter now that the wintry influence was around, as if she was doing it just to piss the other Fae off. All around Adena, bright, summery flowers were growing from solid crystal and blooming, giving off more scent of her seasonal affinity and nearly choking the air with the fragrance.
Artio's eyes moved to watch the wintry Fae's approach, and when she was close enough, the Deer-woman nodded her head. "We are the Matrons of Pixie. All Pixie. Those rulers of their season, their time. Their lives. Their hunts. Their Demise." She looked at all of the humans gathered, her glowing green eyes burning like verdant fire against a black backdrop. The moss at her feet continued to spread out, and now little ferns were popping up, their feathery leaves opening and turning toward the direction of Adena, who acted like the sun to their need for nutrients. "Our season of mating has gone on for far too long. It must last until the final pixie is filled with seed, and we have a pixie that has hidden herself away, or been taken, and is unable to be given a child." Artio's words held a dire sort of formality. "Unless we are able to get this little one with child, the Matrons are to give birth yet again this season, and this will be our 100th child during its cycle. It is unbearable." The Matron Pixie Artio looked truly depressed at the thought, rubbing her abdomen like she might be highly valuing the fact that it wasn't currently distended.
"All three," Grayson confirms to Isaac, before meeting that raised eyebrow with one of his own and turning it on Rick in turn. There's a nod for Fiona, and a faint grimace, and then another for Mila and a blink at Volya's laughter. And then he too is inclining his head politely to each of the trio of Fae in order of arrival. "Ladies," he says, before pausing. "There are things I cannot do. If the lady is unwilling, I may not touch her."
As soon as 'seed' is mentioned, Isaac goes a little wide eyed and almost takes a step backwards, stopping himself at the last moment in his rush not to offend. He finds himself glancing at his shoulder, staring at something there and then back to the three ladies. "I find myself in charge of quite the brood and so must decline." There is more to it though, Isaac making a decision to take himself out of the running, or so he hopes. His skin starts to ripple as he frame beings to shift, his hair lengthens and his chest fills out, his shirt or perhaps her shirt is it's becoming rather obvious as to the final shape.
Smoothing out her shirt and inspecting herself carefully, Isaaca nods, apparently happy with the transformation. Looking over to the three ladies, she regards them with pale green eyes, doing her best not to frown but showing concern at their plight. "I'm still unsure as to what agreements we have entered into beyond caring for our children?"
"Thanks," Rick murmurs to Fiona when she says that she'll stay, because it's clear he still hasn't quite made the leap. Or any leaps. Mental leaps are not his forte, it seems -- or maybe it's just because this is so outside the realm of his experience that he hasn't wrapped his head around it yet. He had been feeling the warmth of the pixies swirling around him, but when that third woman comes, he flinches at that cracking sound, turning his head away to shield his eyes from any stray crystals again.
When he looks back, though, his eyes move between Grayson, and Isaac...who is now no longer Isaac. "Uh...hold up." He turns his head back to the three women, and while his voice is hesitant, he does speak up. "Sorry if this is rude." Taking his cue from Fiona, it seems. "But...do you want us to, like, //find// her? Or..." He waves his free hand vaguely in the air.
Mila's head swiveled a bit with the chilly inbound Eira, her eyes fixing to the woman that was actually shorter than /she/ was. "Oh.. wow." She murmured the words, then looked away as she noticed the black orbs of Eira's glintless eyes. When she heard Artio speaking of their plight, however, Mila lifted her head and looked up at the ever so much taller Deer-Woman and allowed her jaw to hang open for a moment. "You've had almost 100 children in this mating season? Oh... my... Akua." She looked at the woman for a moment, and then shook her head. "I've got to say, you look FANTASTIC. I never would have even guessed you had one." She glanced back at Adena, then over at Eira. "Rick's got a great question, though. What is it you need from Isaac, Rick, and... James?" She glanced at Grayson, verifying she had his name right. "And.. can any of the rest of us help at all?"
The wintry fae draws Fiona's attention -- a sort of awestruck gaze, held for several moments, before she finally breaks it, turning instead to look at Adena after, as if to fill her vision with sunshine after so much dark and ice. When Artio explains, she lifts a brow.
Isaac is suddenly shifting, and she gasps just slightly, surprised despite having caught on to his supernatural essence. His words though make her smirk just a tiny bit, before she looks back to see how Artio will respond to his metamorphosis and Rick's question.
Volya was still vibrating with laughter with tears rolling out of her eyes, the slapping at Mila's thigh become more or less a weak pawing. The ice building around her and shock of cold death should have been more sobering, but Volya made no other sound than a series of snorts as she begged for breath. Her hand left Mila's leg to slap at the ice form. There was a sudden and loud whooshing sound as a sudden flashfire sparked to life and rolled in a wave over the ice. Granted, with Volya being the closest by virtue of sitting, managed to singed several of her own more free-floating hairs. The spark of Summer magic just compounding with the fragrance lingering in the air. It managed to break up the ice in immediate area around her and Mila, adding to the unfrozen territory of Summer, and it made little headway towards the frozen ground near Eira. Sucking in another gasp of she craned up an arm. "I'll look!" The rest of her breath poured into more laughter as Vee shambled onto her laughs and knees to start crawling in an uncertain course.
Adena let out a triumphant laugh as fire bloomed up around Volya as she laughed on the ground. She spun in the air and fluttered her sunshine and honey wings rapidly to force more scent of summer toward the icy form of Eira. "Ooooooh, I love my little Nymph! OH! MY LITTLE NYMPHS!" She cackled madly as Isaac shifted into a female. "If you wanted to carry a baby you should have said so! I'll get sweet little pixie for you." She cooed at Isaac, then blew him a kiss, the smack of summer heat hitting Isaaca clearly on the cheek, leaving the imprint on a mouth on his skin. Summer lipstick.
Eira stiffened, if that was at all possible for the winter Fae, and turned her flat black gaze to Volya, her eyes not even refracting the firelight. If anything, her jaw set, but she didn't open her mouth to speak, just stared with her inscrutable gaze at the summer Nymph as she started to crawl on a supposed path to finding a missing pixie.
Artio sighed and looked over at Grayson, shaking her head. "Come time, none of us is unwilling. But I'm not asking you to chase down and rape a pixie. It would be impossible to even try. They aren't exactly easy to force into anything, let alone sex." She shivered slightly as the fire and the ice met, but stood her ground, remaining on her nice, soft bed of moss she'd grown under herself. "Come a fortnight, we will be eager to mate again. If you volunteer to give yourself to one of us for the night in question, you will father a child. However, I, and even these two quarrelsome creatures, would prefer that not happen. We believe we know where the Pixie is, but there's not a chance of us intervening and bringing her home." She looked at Mila for a moment and smiled, Artio's obviously self-loving nature coming to the forefront. "Delicate words, from one so rough hewn." To Rick, Volya, and Fiona, Artio nodded. "You may of course help. It's ultimately why you were brought here. We need help that is not... Us." She motioned to herself, the other two Matrons. Looking over at Isaaca, Artio spoke quietly, and slowly, as if attempting to explain why a child shouldn't touch an oven. "You agreed to father pixies, it is why you were brought."
Grayson doesn't turn a hair at Isaac's change. Whoever he is, apparently this isn't his first brush with weirdness - although a man wearing black in Hawaii may well not be quite sane. He looks from human to human to human, with a nod for Mila at the right name, then looks to the matriarchs again. He inclines his head to Artio at the confirmation. "Thank you. So. What information do you have on the missing pizie?"
"What?" The word comes out as a squeak, Isaaca's eyes going wide at Adena's suggestion. Oddly enough, the blown kiss rocks Isaaca where she stands, her eyes going even wider as she starts to sway. Sinking to her knees in a mostly graceful heap, it takes her some moments before she is able to properly respond. "That was not actually my intention my lady, I was perhaps confused. I've no wish to carry a pixie in this form although I appreciate the offer. I'm more than willing to help look though." She bows her head deeply as she says this, awkward as it is from a sitting position. Isaaca sneaks a glance at the Winter Fae, enough at least to see where her focus is at the moment. Trying to steel herself, she sits upright, putting on a face that at least appears attentive. She responds to Artio's statement with a nod and then glances to Grayson.
The fire suddenly springing from Volya elicits another flinch from Rick, though it's no more strange than anything else that's happened so far, and less than some things. He nods at Mila's last words, and then turns back to the matrons, in time for the further explanation. "Well, yeah, we'll help find her. Sure," he says, and he nods a couple of times, turning to Fiona as though for confirmation of this. She already said she'd stay, right. He puts a hand up to his ear again, an absent touch this time, more like something that's on the way to becoming automatic than something requiring too much thought. He nods again when Grayson asks his question, and adds, "Yeah. Where is she?"
"I'm the wrong court for all of this," says Fiona murmurs to Rick a little wryly, watching everything with those wide, sloe eyes of hers. "Sure, I'll help. Where was she last seen? Does she like anything in particular that we can lure her out with?" she asks, though she pats down the pockets of her board shorts, which don't hold much. Nothing in there but some pineapple lip gloss, which she pulls out to peer at, and a purple hair tie. She makes a face, then glances at Isaac. Isaaca. "Go get 'em, daddy-o."
"Please, tell us, we'll do what we're able to do in order to help out. Especially if it means you don't have to suffer more, and the guys won't be repeatedly asked to have more babies. The thought of babysitting for Isaac is already sheer insanity." Mila nodded her head, then glanced back at Isaaca, grinning since he was wearing such a pretty face. "Even when he looks like that, I'd be hard pressed to say yes if he begged. Well.. maybe if she begged... naked or something." Mila snickered and looked down at Volya, watching her crawl and raising her brow. "Pupule wahine? I think we should wait for the location before we start crawling, this place will shred your knees, babe." She brushed her hand over Volya's shoulder softly.
Volya continued on her seemingly drunken laughter and crawl for a few more paces before dipping her face into the water, causing a bubbles to break the surface. It wasn't she sucked in another water-laced breath did she come up coughing and choking for air. Managing to clear her throat, she waved her hand in the air with a helpless gesture. Wheezing for several seconds, the woman started snickering as the hand in the water aimed, and flicked a shard of ice away toward Eira's area. Flushed and wordless, she glanced from Grayson to Isaaca to Rick and back to Adena, a wide grin appearing. Coughing once more, she nodded to Mila, indicating the ground with a wiggling index finger. The mention of begging brought out the giggles again and Vee covered her face with her hands.
Adena let out a chortling sound as Isaaca refused to be inseminated. "Alriiiiiight. Though you might be sorry, I have some really, REALLY, delicious guys. Like... mmmm mmm GOOOOOOOD! Not like you'd have to worry about them freezing and breaking off, like you would with her get over there." Adena jerked her head toward Eira, not even bothering to look her direction. Licking her fingertips, she reached over and wiped the 'summer lipstick' off Isaac's face after she floated her direction. Of course, the saliva left on Isaaca's cheek smelled like rosewater and hops, and likely made her eyes burn a little. She looked over at Rick, then, and giggled. "Heeeeeeey there cutie. You can choose me, OK? You look all bright and shiny, so you know.. if you guys fail and everything? We can go swimming and have fun, and you can tottttttally get me pregnant!"
Eira finally took her eyes away from Volya and turned them to take in the other humanoids, her gaze fixing on Grayson, long and quiet, watching the colors that glowed and played on his skin. She tilted her head to the side, the ice that formed her hair shattering at her shoulder, and then growing back into the mass of her hair as it refroze solid. Her pale, white hand lifted and she motioned to him to come closer to her, just a subtle, delicate move of her fingers, palm toward her chest.
Artio nodded again, those heavy horns of hers and the greenery that was her hair moving through the air rather mightily. "We believe her to be in the care of the Hoarfrost. She is of his court, therefore he has much hold on her. Eira cannot go against him as she is of his court as well, and he maintains more power throughout the eternities. Neither myself nor Adena are strong enough to challenge him. He needs to be bargained with, and he would never accept a bargain from another Sidhe." She glanced at Isaaca and chuckled softly. "Don't feel left out, you have enjoyed the touch of the Wyld already, and the Wyld enjoys all seasons, without shame, Nymph. And without care of gender." Taking a breath, inhaling all the chill and flowery summer in the same moment, Artio shuddered softly. "His will come to the name Hoarfrost or Rime. But you cannot be in this place to speak to him. He would never be willing to come to where our selves have touched so recently."
Grayson looks from Adena to Eria to Artio; at Eria's gesture his head tilts a little to one side, his eyes narrowing and eyebrows lifting. He nods, the movement tiny enough that it'd have to be watched for to be spotted, then looks to Artio again. "I see," he says, eyes narrowing further. "And do we deal with this power of Winter on your behalf, Lady, and if so, what do we offer for the pixie's safe return?"
"Oh I'm good." Isaaca says, a dreamy smile on her face as Adena approaches. She finds it hard not to snicker as Adena's attention is drawn elsewhere, her hand going to her cheek to feel where Adena just touched. Tilting her head, she looks with some confusion at Artio, "I did? Now I feel like a totally floozy for not realizing." Turning then, she looks over to Mila and Volya, grinning when as she watches Volya's antics. Locking eyes with Mila for a moment, she raises an eyebrow, mouthing the words 'naked and crawling?', the expression on her face showing some consideration taking place before she turns her attention back to the ladies.
Rick sticks his hand into the pocket of his shorts, too, but when he takes it out, it's empty. He doesn't have anything to bargain with whatsoever, and then Adena is talking to him. He looks back over at her, and he reaches up to scratch his head, glancing away with a smile that's probably equal parts pleased and embarrassed. "You're real cute," he says, which is probably the understatement of the evening. "But we should try to find her first, yeah?" Something seems to strike him then, though, and he turns to Fiona again, his smile fading. His voice lowers when he speaks again, his words directed to her. "I don't think you're supposed to make bargains with, you know."
Fiona's cheeks flush a bit as the matrons seem to choose their mates. "I feel like I got invited to the wrong party. Am I the only not-a-fairy here?" she asks, glancing over at Mila, who seems to be the other outsider in the group, brought by chance rather than design. At Rick's words, her brows knit, and she nods, slowly. "Sort of makes it hard to help, yeah," she agrees, putting her items back in her pocket. "Which way is that, and we'll go look for her, I guess?" she says, regarding the Hoarfrost, reaching up to shove some of her hair, now drying in odd waves, behind an ear.
Mila's eyes widened to the point that they looked almost perfectly rounded. "Ooooh...wait. You mean... Oh my Akua." She shivered slightly just thinking about who they would have to talk to. Hearing Fiona, Mila turned her gaze toward the other woman and offered a slight smile, wan as it was. "I actually think it might be important that we aren't... If he would more likely come to someone that hasn't touched the courts at all, I think that's just.. us." She moved her hand to motion between herself and Fiona, then let out a hollow laugh. "But hey, we hoped we could help, right?" She blinked finally, her brown eyes obviously needing some hydration. When Grayson asked what they could possibly trade that would be of value, Mila looked at him and nodded. "That's the potentially trillion dollar question, right?" She attempted not to stare as the pixies chose potential dance partners, worry knitting her brows. "And if we fail to trade, the men.. well.. I mean those three, they come back and make a baby with... you three?" She asked Artio the question straight, making sure she wasn't misunderstanding.
Volya sucked in her breath through her nostril with the occasional burst of raspberry giggles. Her dilated eyes darted from person to person as they spoke. Sucking in a breath, she just held it for nearly a minute before blowing it out in a rush. Arching a brow, her eyes danced between Mila and Fiona, "He'd show if someone called him, though with various degrees of happiness... Maybe degrees of contempt?" Giving a quick nod to herself, "Should we talk about this here considering mixed loyalties and purpose... I'll figure something out... Maybe." Her eyes narrowed at the word as she grinned, the look entirely too mischievous to be good or helpful. "Someone has to know... Wait!" Her voice hushed to a whisper, "Should we trade phone numbers?"
Adena preened, if such a thing could be said of a humanoid figure. She shook her head and her hair turned from a reddish and pink to a bright yellow and pink as she moved a little closer to Rick. Staring at him with her mouth slightly open, her strange violet and vermilion eyes shimmering. "You are just the sweetest little thing I've ever seen. Thank you!" She fluttered with pleasure at being called 'cute' of all things, then tittered into laughter as she fell to the side and spun around, liquid sunlight threatening to spill from her wings to the ground. "I agree! YES! Let's! Let's! Let's!"
Eira blinked her eyes once and gave a nod to Grayson, her hand resting back against the soft, bright white fabric of her long skirt. "Agreed." Her words were simple. The meaning behind them carried a weight that caused the ice under her feet to actually fracture.
Artio looked to Grayson and smiled slightly. "He has desire of our favor. You may trade your places with us to him. But do try to negotiate, or you will seem weak and he won't continue to find you interesting. You should only be afraid of him if you ask for something he cannot give you. Or for something beyond what our trade would reason. Then, you have to pay with something of your own. Pay with this, the womb we offer for your seed, and you are taking what we have to offer." She looked over at Mila and nodded. "I agree to the terms." The swishing of a heavy wind came then, causing all the intact crystals in the nearby area to let out a high, keening sound as they were all rung with the swift gale. Artio looked to Grayson, then Isaaca, then to Rick, waiting. The wind continued to blow and howl, as if someone left a window open in a hurricane.
Grayson grins at Fiona. "Oh," says the Englishman, "I'm a total fairy, but only for the right men, ducky." He winks, then shakes his head. "But I've never really dealt with the real thing before. Well, not to talk to, anyway." He returns Eira's nod, then looks to Artio again. "We trade the missing pixie, if needs be for your favors. To those terms I agree."
Isaaca nods as well, then voicing her agreement. "To those terms I agree." She pauses then, looking from Artio to Eira and then finally resting on Adena. "My friend made an interesting point, do you have a phone number. You know, just in case?" She smiles then, risking a look into Adena's eyes before averting her gaze. At Grayson's comment, she can't help but laugh. "Ah, so that end of Oxford." She says, grinning to the taller man.
Rick's eyebrows raise at Fiona's words, and he shakes his head a little bit. "I'm not a fairy," he says. "I'm just a guy. I mean, human. That's it." It may be slightly stretching the term, but in his mind, it's the truth. The extra stuff is just...well, he's never really been sure what it is. His eyes drift back to Adena then, too, and he can't help but smile at her, proving that he is, in fact, just a guy. "I agree to what he said," he adds, pointing a thumb toward Grayson.
"Maybe, yeah. But aren't humans never supposed to negotiate with Fae?" Fiona says softly to Mila, though really, there's no keeping their speech secret from the ubiquitous faerie. "No offense," she adds to Artio, before glancing over at Rick's and then Grayson's responses to her question and chuckling a little at the latter, despite her fear and unease. She points her finger at Grayson. "You do the talking, because I'm sure I'll fuck something up. It's almost a given at this point that something'll go wrong around me." She glances over to Volya, then the matrons. "What's the timeline?"
Mila took in a slow breath and nodded. "So then. I think at the very least those of us here that plan on visiting this icy fellow should share numbers..." She glanced at the tall, deer-like Artio, then over at the bubbly Adena, then finally looked back at the chilly, icy Eira. "If they or we need one of you while the whole agreement is in effect... can we just call you by name? Is that why you gave your names to us?" She blinked, then looked down at Volya then chuckled. "I imagine we'll talk more later.. not here. A good bit. A ton. Hours."
Volya stuck out her index finger and raised a thumb to make a gun out of her hand, taking aim at a chuck of ice that cracked off in agreement. Dropping the 'hammer', another wave of Summer magic spun across the surface of the water, forming into a miniature flaming dust devil to collided with the ice. The water around the ice hissed and steamed under neither the ice or fire remained. "I think I may have a reason to be irrationally angry..." Cocking her thumb back with her other hand, she dotted the air with the 'barrel'. "I may just be that I'm sitting in water... It may be the wrong sort of humidity..." A series of popping noises started as she pressed and opened her lips repeatedly. Arching an eyebrow, she glanced at Fiona. "That's sort of the lesson, but most people forget the fine press. It's better to get things in writing... And have a lawyer. Like a Fae lawyer." Vee tilted her head and stared at the movement of ice.
The wind was still blowing like crazy, like the window was still left open, and Artio looked at Grayson for a long moment. "You cannot actually trade our favor, that would be impossible. But you can trade the place of your seed in our wombs, to the agreed upon recipient. Nothing more is yours to give. Provided that's the understanding you've come to, then the agreement can be sealed." Naturally, she only addressed Grayson with this, as the other two men had agreed to whatever HE agreed with.
The other two Fae Matrons were simply waiting, Eira standing still, though her eyes had gone back to staring directly at Volya, and her jaw was tightly closed enough that her HAIR was cracking from it. Adena, well, she was busy... spinning around. Giggling, playing on the wind that was blowing through like an insane gale. All of the smaller pixies, of all colors, seemed to be dancing on the wind frenetically, above everyone's heads, behind them, around them, though there was a clear line of green pixies between the yellows and the blue.
Grayson inclines his head to the Fae trio. "My apologies," he says. "Euphemisms are not always appropriate. Trade seeds in the womb, rather than favors. Done." He bows formally, to each in turn.
When Grayson made the agreement, the wind suddenly stopped. Like it had never been there, and the pixies all fluttered back to being around their matrons, less ecstatic and flighty.
Isaaca nods as well, keeping the formal air to the proceedings. "I agree." Pausing for a moment, she eyes Adena and after clearing her throat asks, "Are you busy later?" She offers Adena a warm smile, still a little bleary eyes from the brief touches earlier.
Oh, what the hell. "Yeah, okay." Rick has already agreed to what Grayson has said, so why stop now? "I agree." He looks over to Fiona, a little apologetically, before turning back to Adena right when Isaaca asks that question. His eyebrows raise, and he looks between them, to Artio, and then back down at himself. He starts to say something else -- but then just stops, shaking his head a little bit, and whatever it is, he lets it go, sticking a hand into the pocket of his board shorts again.
"Or not," Fi says, when Artio corrects Grayson, but she nods her understanding of the agreement as it stands. "Um." Regarding cell phones, she glances at the others. Clearly her digits are not so easily won. "Rick knows how to get a hold of me. And I work at the Tiki Hut. The club, you know. Not the smoothie place and not the strip joint." There's a lot of Tiki Huts, so let's be clear. She glances up. "How do we get out of here... and are we going to drown?" she asks Rick, moving to grab his surfboard.
Mila took a breath as her hair stopped whipping around like she was riding a 12 foot wave. "Ok... Sure. I'm easy to find, you know. Waimea. Rick, I'll see you there again I'm sure." She looked over at him with Fiona and gave them both a smile, and then turned her head to Isaac. "I know where you live, and vice versa." She looked at Grayson. "James? I don't know how to get ahold of you. Do you have a number? Or somewhere to find you? or do you come watch surf competitions? Or surfing in general?" Mila looked slightly hopefully, as she shifted over by Volya, sighing in relief as she no longer touched icy waters. "That's nice, Vee, way to keep the hot tub going, babe."
Volya stood up, keeping her eyes on the ice as her own jaw clenched tightly. The half-nymph was not all that happy at the moment. Striding over a few steps, she bend over to find her wooden spear, raising it from the water and checking the tip. "Well, it sounds like the people that needed to agree, have agreed, so I guess we have that..." Raising her hand, she wiggled her fingers at Adena, "I respond to sugar a bit more nicely, maybe a warm urging next time?" She winked at the Fae before taking another step to stand by Mila, slipping an arm around her. A giggle slipped out, and she nodded to Fiona, "Not the strip club, even when you have the bod for it." Taking a gasp of breath, she looked back to Mila grinning, "I'm behaving... Mostly."
Adena giggled brightly at Isaaca and shook her head. "You can't smell like me when you're supposed to have Artio's favor, you silly little cutie pie! Oh my gosh, you'd be so confusing!" She laughed and spun around, looking at people.
Artio looked satisfied, and nodded her head as the wind died completely. "It's Struck." Then she moved her hand. Volya and Mila were immediately just gone, finding themselves back in Volya's van, standing and or kneeling or sitting together on the bed where they'd started from. Fiona was gone. Finding herself suddenly in the ocean, just a few feet below the surface, so easy enough to kick up to in order to get air.
Once the three not trading valuable body fluids had left, the three trading were left over. Adena bounced around along the mid line of the three then moved in front of Rick, smiling to him sweetly. "I choose you, you sweet little adorable man thing! I hope you win, but I hope yo lose, too." She leaned in and took his chin into her hand, kissing him slowly, until a glow from the sun started at his forehead. He had her favor now. Once that was done, Adena burst into a million particles of light and flittered away, her pixies joining her in a swift retreat from the crystalline valley.
Artio moved forward on sure hooves, heading toward Isaaca with purpose. When she bent over, as she had to with her height, it was to rest a hand on Isaaca's shoulder. "I choose you, of the confused genitals." She grinned, then leaned forward and gave Isaaca a slow, deep kiss that tasted of peat moss. A stead, green mark burned brightly on his forehead. When she was done, Artio stepped back, not quite leaving yet.
Eira moved in toward Grayson then, holding her hand out to him, and beckoning he come to her. She lifted her chin, not bothering to stand on her toes, and offered him her mouth. When the kiss happened, it was silent, quiet, and darkness enfolded the man entirely when her lily-soft lips touched his. Once she was done, a bright, blue light glowed on his forehead, illuminating the darkness as the Matron of the Ice turned around and walked away with the sound of crunching snow under her feet, heading off.
Once it was over entirely, Artio moved her hand again, and the three chosen were sent back to their original locations, hearing the sound of running hooves leaving the crystals behind.
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