MARCH 2015

[thecanopycrew]

Uncertain if this is a game for you? Curious to see how your character would act in it? Testing the waters? Then take them on this very first Home Tree Test Drive! directions ❀ Don't forget to read the Introduction , our Rules and the F.A.Q ❀ Post with your character with their name and canon in the subject line. ❀ Use the prompt(s) given here or make up your own! ❀ Both prose and comment spam format are welcome. ❀ Tag around! Make friends. Don't be afraid to discuss OOCly while tagging. ❀ The Test Drive Meme can be used for your application's first person sample. ❀ This meme is is considered as OOC and not part of the game's canon. prompt Welcome to the Faerie Feast! After your have gained your wings, you are met by a feast on the second floor with all that the forest can offer you. Tables and chairs are set up everywhere along the walkway between the houses, allowing the new visitors to meet and greet - or try to hide in the corners and eat berries all by themselves. Try your new wings to be the first to grab those delicious crumbs of walnut bread? Or say hi to your party lights, courtesy of some excited glow worms and flies that just want to be your best friends. Explore how your new gem works, try put your leaf clothes or decide to head further into the tree, seeing just what kind of place your have stumbled into. Maybe you will even get a glimpse of those hairy legs on the fourth floor?

Night Gem Wing Inspiration ❀ Day Gem Wing Inspiration

Comments

[braavado]

[Korra's own wings--a soft, translucent, silvery blue in color-- give a flutter of surprise when Kuvira confirms her suspicions.]

Yeah, I was. Now I'm recovering. [Her voice goes a little curt at the reminder. The sting of Toph's accusation, that she wanted to stay in this half-healed state to escape her Avatar duties, hasn't quite faded yet, and it sharpens her tongue.]

Or I would be, if I wasn't just dropped here all of a sudden! Where the heck is this place anyway?

[betterthanwu]

[Sore spot. Kuvira has no idea what's going on. She hadn't had much to do with the Avatar on her visit, or during the mission to the Air Temple, but the impression she'd had had been different from the young woman before her now.]

...I'm sorry, Avatar. I spoke without thinking.

[Well this isn't good news. For an instant there Kuvira had been relieved - even if the Avatar isn't the bridge between humans and spirits anymore she's had experience with them.]

I thought this was the Spirit World. You've been there - isn't it supposed to be stranger than this? [Wings and giant trees and people looking different are *weird* yes, but the only thing that doesn't look like it should be talking and is is a giant white bird.]

[braavado]

[Korra instantly draws back, feeling bad for snapping at her. She might like that Kuvira's doing her job while she's been struggling to find her footing again, but she can't blame Kuvira for that. This is a poor way to treat someone who'd saved her dad in battle before.

Korra looks to the side, jaw clenched.]

Sorry. I'm just...frustrated. It's not your fault.

[Korra gestures to the area around them, brows furrowed.] This isn't the Spirit World. At least, it doesn't look anything like it. [Then, she looks over her shoulder at the wings.] And I sure didn't have these the last time I was there either.

[betterthanwu]

No harm done, Avatar. [Kuvira nods. She's had experience with people she's holding as superiors snapping at her during difficult times. They're difficult times, though.]

You'd know more about it than me. I think spirits are supposed to be able to mutate people though. [Her jaw sets a little, though Kuvira's calm stoic guard face is good. Not cool, spirits. Not cool.]

If you have any ideas about what to do, I am at your disposal.

[braavado]

Oh, they can. [This much she can explain, and it seems to make Korra feel better. Feeling useless is something she's gotten extremely tired of lately.]

If your spirit's in that world, they can change you pretty easily. I got turned into a kid once. [At least, she assumes that was the spirits...] If you're physically in the Spirit World, they'd have to possess you before they could change your body.

[She remembers what had happened to Yao and the hunters in Wan's memories all too well.]

That's why I don't think this is their doing. [Korra makes a gesture at her and Kuvira's wings.] You got these after you touched one of those stones down there, right?

[betterthanwu]

A kid? [This is... probably a Korra from the future? How far in the future? She would have thought just a few years, but if she reverted to being a child she could be old indeed.] It's alarming to think they have power like that. So far it seems that they've been peaceable in our world. I hope this isn't the start of a change.

[Well, Suyin will probably have something to say about spirits rearranging people like Huan rearranges sculptures, if that is what it is after all. Privately Kuvira thinks she's at least as good as her mentor though.]

[She can't help the way her wings flick as they are acknowledged.] Yes, I did. The lighter one. You think those weren't connected to spirits?

[braavado]

Yeah, a kid. [Korra seems to catch onto Kuvira's worry when she glances at her, amending her statement hastily.] Oh, don't worry. I changed back to normal the same day. I just accidentally stepped on some spirits and made them angry when I first got there...

[Now a pout forms on her lips as she remembers that particularly disastrous start to the trip from years ago.] It's kind of a long story. Anyway, I might still have trouble with the spirits sometimes, but I'm pretty sure this isn't them. They don't need stones like this to change us, if that's what they wanted to do.

[She isn't liking where this is going.] ...I guess that means someone else is responsible for this.

[There's a tight knot of worry in her chest, and this realization doesn't loosen it at all. She hasn't figured out what's wrong with her yet--what if she isn't ready for whatever this new threat is going to throw at them?]

[betterthanwu]

I... see. [Spirits are weird.] That's good to hear, I think.

[The Avatar is here but ultimately has no more idea of what's happening or what to do than she does. So much for that. Now they have to figure things out from square one - still, if Korra is here, she will be able to do something about it. Kuvira has, maybe, a twinge of resentment for Korra not being around as infrastructure starts crumbling in the slow wake of the Earth Queen's death, though she knows it's not something she can help. She can put it aside.

Kuvira hesitates before reaching out to touch Korra's shoulder, cautiously.]

You'll figure something out. You've come out of more extreme situations than this one before.

[braavado]

[She looks up in surprise when she feels the touch on her shoulder, expression a little conflicted. Though this is a less than ideal way to be found again, part of Korra knows that the past six months on her own have been hard and lonely. It'll be nice to be around people again, no matter how much part of her dreads not living up to the expectations they might have. A memory surfaces--the old man and woman staring down at her with disappointment and confusion, asking Are you sure she's the Avatar?

Korra pushes that thought away. She'll just have to work harder and prove them wrong. She'll prove that Toph was wrong about her, too.

Korra hesitates, then covers Kuvira's hand with her own briefly.]

Thanks. If there's someone behind this, we'll find out who it is, and make them return everyone where they belong.

[betterthanwu]

[After the contact is acknowledged Kuvira withdraws her hand and resumes clasping both of them together behind her back, businesslike again.]

Whoever it is they'll probably need some convincing. [There's a sharp look in her eyes. 'Convincing' could well involve violence and she is completely okay with that.] This seems a lot of effort to go to for it to be accidental.

[braavado]

No kidding. Shrinking people and giving them wings? Who the heck even does that?

[Korra doesn't blame Kuvira for thinking the spirits were involved--it's crazy enough to sound that way. She makes an agitated swipe at her hair when it falls into her face.]

We'll have to find out what all this is for before we leave, too. In case they get any ideas to just get other people in our place.

[betterthanwu]

And why. This is like the plot of a discount mover.

[...she can imagine Varrick coming up with this. The villain will be a normal-sized person with a butterfly net.]

Of course. Without the root issue taken on nothing will change.

[braavado]

[Similarly, Korra's thoughts jump to Varrick, too. She even glances up toward the sky...where all she can see is the mist.]

No sign of Varrick or Zhu Li, or even those cameras.

[She sighs.]

Maybe we should check the area and see what we find. It could lead us to some clues.

[betterthanwu]

Even she would have some trouble adjusting here. [Kuvira seems calm, but she rarely doesn't! Her guard face is strong.]

Absolutely. We need to run reconnaissance

[She hesitates - but if the Avatar seems uncertain, maybe Kuvira's got to be the one taking charge.] Korra - feel the earth past this mist. I can't move it.

[braavado]

[Korra's too grateful for any kind of direction to be questioning it.]

The earth?

[Curious to see what Kuvira's concerned about, Korra drops down from the branch, wings fluttering to slow her descent. She walks right up to the mist and tests it, frowning and drawing back when she can't seem to pass.

Next she tries for the earth, just like Kuvira had suggested--that doesn't work either.]

It's--it's not working. What the heck?

[betterthanwu]

[Kuvira follows, forcing herself not to look for a place to connect a cable to before she steps out and lets herself half-fall. She does enjoy that part.]

I can feel it extends past the tree, but I can't bend it. I'll try to make a tunnel. [They're more Suyin's thing than hers, but she knows how. Kuvira takes the stance, and a patch of ground before her, within the mistless bubble, trembles and sinks down.]