Previous Post Yes, since nobody is posting anything, it's time for the traditional cleaning out of my hard drive of story snippets left unfinished long past their relevancy. This one comes features Vizh's and Hallie's adventures in the Mythlands in the quest to retrieve Naari (aka Magweed). It follows various chapters of Untold Tales, as well as the posted story where Vizh has a conversation with Dancer (complete with tutu and strap-on fairy wings) in a dream thanks to a feather supplied by Quoth. I believe I scrapped this work in progress because the mood was quite subdued and the narrative wasn't really leading anywhere... it was mostly all recap. Plus it wasn't funny at all. But there's a sweetness to it that's kind of... well, sweet, I guess. In the end, I started over and we got the "Hallie as a centaur" story instead. I don't *think* this ever got folded into another story, but it might have, or it might have been posted in a previous cleaning of the hard drive. If so, I apologize for the repost. And remember... it doesn't go anywhere. It'll just end abruptly. But hey, it's free... “Why don’t you get some sleep…” Visionary suggested as he came up on the nodding woman, curled up against a tree trunk. “I’ll take over the watch.” She blinked to rouse herself with some embarrassment. “Oh! I was just… um… sorry.” He smiled wearily as he eased down to the ground next to her. “Don’t be. It’s been a long… week? Month?” he scratched his head. “I have very little idea of how long we’ve been in Faerie any more. I try to keep track… to count the days Naari’s been gone, but…” “Time keeps slipping away from you” she surmised. “Fleabot thinks it’s in the nature of the land… His theory is that it’s such a primeval place of story that time here is relative to the significance of the narrative. Large passages of unimportant story drift by quickly, while key moments linger and are stretched out. Plays havoc on our mundane perceptions.” Visionary nodded. “Fleabot’s a clever one.” “Mmmm” Hallie answered noncommittally. “For real entertainment, ask him how this might relate to the way the Shoggoth perceives time. He popped a spring just thinking about it.” She glanced over at him. “So… any luck with Quoth’s feather?” The Regular sighed. “No. I’m beginning to think I imagined that meeting with Dancer altogether.” He had been placing the black raven quill under his head every night he had slept in the mythlands, but he had been unable to reconnect in dream with his adoptive sister back in Parodiopolis. “It’s better than thinking about the alternatives.” She laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sure they’re fine… Maybe you both have to be sleeping at the same time for it to work? That right there would narrow the odds of a connection…” “She’s supposed to be good at working the odds” Visionary pointed out. Hallie sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m afraid she probably has more pressing matters demanding her powers.” She stared out into the darkened woods as they listened to the crickets. “I’m sure they’re all fine” she repeated, more to herself this time. “They’ll be waiting for us when we come back.” Visionary fished into one of the pouches on his belt, careful not to jostle the emerald-topped head that rested so comfortingly on his shoulder or disturb the jade skinned arm that draped warmly across his chest. He withdrew a bundle of wrapped cloth, and unwound it to produce a shard of glass mirror. Hallie watched as he held it this way and that, until it suddenly caught a bright green light, bouncing it back into the woods and illuminating a path through the trees. “No matter where you go in reality, no matter how far away, or how much may stand between you and it, these shards are part of the Lighthouse and will always reflect back the light of the tower” Quoth had explained the night they had all left for Faerie. “Home is never too far away… Don’t you go forgetting that.” Hallie reached her hand into the beam, catching the light in her palm. “Hello you” she said to it fondly. The effect was subtle enough (and Visionary tired enough,) that he didn’t notice it immediately. Nor was it something his mind would normally register as odd. But as the woods grew slightly brighter around him, he blinked in surprise. “Hallie… are you glowing?” The former AI looked down at her legs through heavy eyelids to see that she did indeed cast a slight green glow onto the bed of autumn leaves beneath her. “Huh” she noted sleepily. She waved her hand back out of then into the mirror light, and the glow to her skin faded and returned. “That’s pretty neat” she noted as she rolled towards him, wrapping an arm about his sweatshirt covered chest to use as a pillow. “I guess it knows its own” Visionary suggested to the sleepy woman. The lighthouse was lit with one of Hallie’s own holograms after all… It was, in essence, a part of her that shone back at them through the glass. She sighed. “I… miss glowing” she admitted hesitantly. “I hate needing to sleep, and to eat. I hate smelling like… like a human that hasn’t had a decent bath since who knows when…” “That pool in the river at the foothills of those mountains, remember? The assembled brownies gave you a standing ovation when you emerged.” She leaned back to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Um... so I heard" he hastily added.

A couple scenes I partially wrote, then scrapped, because I didn't like them later on.
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    Yuki took her leather jacket off, threw it to the floor, and punched a hole through the wall of the Lair Legion kitchen, just next to the entrance door.  Her clenched fist went clear through both layers of plaster, and two layers of wood, to the hallway on the other side.  It was fortunate she wore a sleeveless shirt at the time.

    Anna was in the kitchen at the moment, near the refrigerator.  She jumped nervously at the outburst, and then moved further behind the counter.  She was dressed in an untucked button shirt, jeans, and canvas sneakers.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sorry.”  Yuki apologized, her voice wavering.  “I...I know you’re turned off by violence, Anna, but--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know.”  Anna whispered, lowering her head.  “I heard about Jay.”

    The purple-haired Legionnaire approached the android.  “You sound kind of...muted.”  She glanced at the hole she just created in the wall.  “I guess...you probably feel like doing the same thing, eh?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Wondering if I could have caught, Jay, I suppose.”  Anna wondered out lout.  “If I was there, that is.  I am stronger than most of you, maybe I could have--”

    Yuki stopped her.  “Don’t do the ‘coulda-shoulda’ thing.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m sorry,”  Anna insisted, “But I follow the Lair Legion, watching tragedy after tragedy, and all my advancements are for nothing.  I’m never able to help, never able to prevent things.  Why do you even need me?”

    The Legionnaire smiled tearfully as she moved closer to Anna, and hugged the android tightly.  “That’s why, for starters.”  she whispered.


---


    Chiaki Bushido crossed her living room quickly, fairly agile for someone in sock covered feet, and answered the door of her apartment.  She already knew who it was, and she wore a concerned and worried expression as she opened the door.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hi.”  Lara Night greeted her sheepishly.  “After I heard, I...couldn’t stay in the apartment and--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know.”  Chiaki took her arm gently and helped her into the entryway.  “Shoes, please.”  she reminded the distracted blonde.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.  Sorry.”  Lara pulled her sneakers off quickly, leaving them behind.  She didn’t even notice when she surrendered her duffel bag to the Samurai.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know I could have gone to the Lair Mansion, but that felt just as bad.”  Lara added.  “I’m really sorry about imposing like this.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We can share our misery.”  Chiaki dropped off the bag next to the hallway to the bedrooms, and then she headed to the kitchen to fetch a wine glass.  There was an open bottle of wine on the living room table.

    Liu Xi Xian had just emerged from one of the bedrooms, and looked at Lara, and then at Chiaki.  Her hair was unkempt, and she looked tired.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hi.”  Lara greeted her sheepishly too.  “I didn’t know you were here.”  She turned to Chiaki when a thought occurred to her.  “Do you have enough room for all three of us?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is not a small apartment.”  Chiaki told her with a slight laugh.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I was evacuated.”  Liu Xi told Lara.  “My apartment had a view of the university.  I was woken out of bed and sent away with whatever clothing I could grab.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.”  Lara smiled, but looked a little embarrassed.  “My reason for being here looks kind of dumb now.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, Lara, I understand completely why you are here.”  Liu Xi told her as she hugged her friend.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You want some too?”  Chiaki asked from the kitchen, referring to the wine in the living room.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m not old enough.”  Liu Xi replied.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t care.”  the Samurai replied.  “I can just give you a little.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Okay, I’ll try it.”  Liu Xi said, rolling her eyes.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m glad I have you two as friends.”  Lara headed toward the living room and examined the bottle of wine.