[ Action, Video, and Voice! ] Good Golly, Miss Molly .001

[talentsgirl]

[Molly woke up on her side, in pain, and cold.

That's strange. I wasn't asleep a moment ago. Was I?

Also, her brain felt fuzzy. That wouldn't do. Deep breaths, Molly, and she remained still and safe for a moment - movement was a tell, and until she had her focus back she wasn't going to do anything until she was sure she could hide. Then slowly, Molly sat up.]

Woah.

[She was on top of a tree house. In what looked like a tree village, no less. And where the heck were her clothes?]

Let me guess. I'm not in Kansas anymore.

[Molly twisted around to try to see the source of pain on her back, only for bright pink to meet her eye - a single pink wing! With a blue one to match. Oh. Hahahahahaha, this must be a dream. She gave a light tug on one of her wings and the dull pain turned into a shooting one which made her grit her teeth against the sudden flare behind her eyes. OK, girl. The wings stay on. And if this was an illusion, it was a hell of one to sustain that much pain. She glanced around, found, and opened the journal.

Huh.]

...a magic book with my name on it. That's not at all suspicious. Well, I guess I'm already through the looking glass...

Hello, in the book! I'm looking for a white rabbit, he was supposed to give me the time. Or maybe the place? Either way, I'm late for an important date.

[No time to say hello, goodbye... either way, she couldn't sit around waiting for the magic book to talk back. Magic didn't work that way. And it was still here, she could feel it humming but... faint. And very much like it was through a looking glass. Strange.

Either way, she wasn't one to just sit around in a tower - or a treehouse - and wait to be rescued. She held the book carefully opened by inserting one finger in it and closing the book around it in case of a response, not knowing that flashes of video could escape through it as well, and began to make her way down as best as she could in a dress entirely too short for her long legs and thin enough to hint at just how low the thorn tattoo starting high at her neckline curved down. Time to wander the forest in hope of... something. Some kind of clue or direction.]

[Part the Second: Or if you'd rather not rescue/inform a New Feather]

[Clothed in jeans a light jacket, and boots, one tall young lady is poking about all the shops in the square. Maybe you'll run into her there?]

Comments

[greenjacketed]

His face might've coloured were it not so dark already. Spanish tan. Had he misspoke? Too rough? Too lower class?

"Difficult, ma'am." Ah. Bad habits reared their heads. "A difficult time to be had, sleeping in snow."

[talentsgirl]

...and now it was 'ma'am.' She won't call him on it.

"Oh - that makes sense. Maybe it's one of those British/American things?"

...okay, yes, she totally was going to call him on it. "And 'ma'am' is what people call my mother. It's Molly, remember? Molly."

[greenjacketed]

"The British and American have more in common than any of us think, perhaps..." He recalled what Leroy -- loyalist, but only barely -- had told him.

"Either way, I am grateful for the bare ground."

[talentsgirl]

...yeah, he just completely ignored her, didn't he. She huffed a little and continued to tromp along. "Me too. About how much longer do you think it is to town?"

She'd have to figure out another way to get him to drop this.

[greenjacketed]

Of course he ignored her. He couldn't argue the point and yet didn't want to drop it; how else could he avoid the subject?

"Not long now. You can see -- almost..." He raised a hand and pointed at the tree tops. "There. They have these mighty tall structures."

[talentsgirl]

She glanced towards where he was pointing and mentally gauged the distance. "So maybe about a half hour."

And Molly wondered if sitting for a moment would be a bad or good idea. "So... big buildings. Are there a lot of people trapped in here?"

[greenjacketed]

"Hundreds. Which makes it a proper little village, I suppose. With shops and a schoolhouse for the little ones. There are little ones, here. Children."

[talentsgirl]

"Oh." That knowledge felt like a punch to the gut. Not being able to protect herself, that was bad enough, but knowing that there were children taken from their homes and used for experimentation... it was sickening and grievous, and in the distance of her mental landscape Molly felt herself starting to get very angry with a coldness that burned.

That anger will be very well hidden - distant - but it may be enough for Sharpe to detect how that effected her that all her customary good cheer slipped off her face. She looked a touch pale.

[greenjacketed]

He expected no less for he felt the same chilled disgust and derision. Perhaps it comforted him to recognize it only briefly on the woman's face.

"The others seem to look after'em well enough, lass." Soft. Natural. Lass.

[talentsgirl]

"That's... good." Breathe, Molly.

She glanced back down. "That's really good. I mean, they made a school and everything, right?"

...a school. God have mercy. "How many kids do you think are here?"

[greenjacketed]

"That? That I don't know."

He felt bad, now. Dumping information on her when he'd only been here hardly a day. What truth could he offer?

[talentsgirl]

You could offer more truth than she knew, at least. "Okay. I guess there's time to find out."

A quick, fluttering smile, as she tried to dismiss her concern, or at least put it on the back burner. "So what have the people here been like?"

In a more flirtatious mood, she'd ask if they were all as helpful as he was, but she couldn't quite drum it up right now.

[greenjacketed]

"Some are very kind indeed. Some -- some might as well be riddles. Some are French. Some others? American."

He had met an American at the bar last night. He and Harry had enjoyed a few drinks; it hadn't gone badly. The bloke was alright.

"They seem willing enough to lend a hand."

[talentsgirl]

This was so much to take in. Molly had nearly reached her threshold of things that she needed to process, and don't doubt it, she was processing quite a bit. She'd been torn from her home, right before an important battle where Harry needed her, where a little girl needed her, she'd just worked, at his own request, some fairly questionable magic on the man she trusted more than anything, and signed his death warrant by doing it, and now she was in a strange place, with wings, where magic felt - fuzzy - clothed in some stranger's great coat with bandages on her feet and walking towards a village where people were being kept, where children were being kept... she really needed to sit down and study this guide.

And also procure shoes. And her own clothes.

God help me.

"Do you think they'd be willing to lend a cup of coffee? I've been trying to give up caffeine, but I think today calls for it."

Flippancy was occasionally her friend.

[greenjacketed]

"Aye. Or tea, lass."

What? He might be rough, but he was still British. "There are places for that sort of thing."

[talentsgirl]

"Tea. Tea might be good." More calming, as it is. And she needed to remain calm. Zen.

You can't think if you're clouded by emotions, Molly.

[greenjacketed]

"Right. I'll deliver you straight to the shop filled with clothing -- don't know why they still call it a shop. None shop there. And then make certain you get some tea into you."

A mission. Fantastic.

[talentsgirl]

Molly couldn't help but laugh a little at that - all very proper and official. "Thank you, Richard. I think I'd appreciate the company."

[greenjacketed]

And he would absolutely appreciate being that company. Yes. So much so that he now smiled rather fully.

"You would?" A shock of disbelief. "Aye. You're quite welcome." A beat. "Molly."

1/3

[talentsgirl]

Okay, wow, what flipped that switch? She flicked a glance up at him, an astonished and appreciative smile on her face. "Of course I would."

You're the only person I know here, after all.

She tilted her head a little inquiringly, but she's not quite sure what she's asking--

[talentsgirl]

...which really goes to show that she should have been watching where she was going, as she just stepped on something small and pointy. Molly winced and sucked air abruptly through her teeth.

[talentsgirl]

"Okay, hang on one sec--" she stopped walking and lifted up her foot, craning her head to see what had happened to it.

[greenjacketed]

And just about the time she winced and stopped progressing, he reached one arm out to steady her. A light but steady hand on her shoulder. Barely felt, perhaps, through the greatcoat.

"Molly...?" Her warmth and his concern now made titles and superfluous words meaningless. It didn't take much for Sharpe to care.

[talentsgirl]

"I'm fine," it was automatic, but sincere. She neither shrunk away from his hand or leaned into it, simply accepting its presence as she plucked out - Hells bells, that was going to bleed.

"I just stepped on something a little sharp."

Fortunately, she'd kept a scrap of her dress for just such an occasion wrapped around her wrist, so she immediately takes it off to secure it around the wound. This was a bit awkward to do while standing on one foot, and embarrassing, but Molly just focused on the task at hand.

[greenjacketed]

"Here." He nudged her towards an old stump. "Sit down, lass. Let me. You'll topple yourself onto another thorny stick, wobbling there like that."