f l o a t i n g

reasons why you don’t go into the ocean

Make sure she doesn’t-

Caleb gave a small sniffle, scampering quickly up to Walani’s legs on all fours like some sort of dog,  “You really think you can find them, Miss?” He questioned, sort of nervously for a small corpse child, “Knowing them they might be in some hard to reach places… I mean… That, and they might not see you as…” He trailed off for a while, trying to come up with the right word, 

“Well, what kinds of places are they usually? We can start there,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she could find them, but the look of determination written bright and solid across her features made it clear this woman was on a mission. She had places to be and people to help and the darling little corpse was in distress. Perhaps she was projecting her own desires to find her own family.

Make sure she doesn’t-

He just… burrowed. He burrowed like a moleworm, darling terrifying little undead creature. He didn’t seem to be phased by any of this, and soon enough he was snapping a bird up and consuming it with the kind of voracious hunger that she only associated with angry hounds. He was much faster than she had anticipated, what with Caleb being a corpse-like child and all that-

“Things… uh… can and do kill normal grown ups in the dark out here,” she told him, tried to keep it all light and normal and not-at-all terrifying because she didn’t want Caleb to think he wasn’t normal. Goodness, no! He was just… um… is a dessicated scary corpse thing and he just ate a bird whole.

“Goodness, you really haven’t heard the stories, have you?” The tone that he said that in was a typical childlike condescending voice- the one that little kids used when they felt smarter than adults, which typically was rather rare,  “A long, loong time ago, what was the year….” He nibbled on his finger in thought for a second, “1924, I think- That was the day our house burned down, yeah yeah. Mommy died in the fire, Benny told us to leave her there, said that she was ‘corrupted by sin’ or something all religious like that. The rest of us ran away, yeah.” He nodded again, like he was so used to doing, finally pinning the feather to the ground,  “But I think the smoke might have hurt our eyes…? Who knows, we don’t like light anymore, especially Timas…”

She hadn’t heard the stories? Walani shook her head no, tipping her head to the side and observing the child while he played with the feathers floating through the air with the lazy lilt that feathers always seemed to be floating. It was in 1924. The… the same year that she disappeared, the same year that she came here, and she tried to pull any kind of information she had seen in newspapers.

“Uh huh! My siblings, yeah.” He nodded, glancing around, signaling to the environment around the two of them, “They just love big forests to run around in and protect- ours was quite small, after all. The graveyard and the bridge took up to much space- not very fun for playing games or keeping watch.” He lifted up his hand like a curious cat, watching the light little object as it was carried away into the darkness with a gust of wind, 

“Well,” Walani started, rubbing the back of her neck and trying to get her thoughts in order. Caleb was a sweet boy for sure, or at least he seemed to be (unless he was steadily plotting her demise and Walani was utterly unaware of the dangers lurking for her) but the idea of more children wandering about the forest at dark past their bed times spurred on her now rather under utilized responsible instincts, “there is plenty of forest here and I’m sure they would love it. There might not be a town but we do have plenty of trees here.”

What’s in the box?

There was a slow glimpse down that followed back upward at the woman’s sly expression. He flattened his mouth and lowered his brows curiously.

“Uh, it’s a basket,” obviously, she was grinning ear to ear and soon enough plopped herself down in front of her companion. Walani plopped her hands in her lap and looked at the taller man expectantly. 

Another flat look. Of course he knew that part.

“Open it!” Walani beamed.

Oh, god. Now it was making noise. And moving. Oh god.

When he opened up the box honor was met with a pair of large, almost glowing eyes. They were a shimmering opal color, stark against the bright pink insides of its ears and the dark banding across its eyes like a little bandit mask. The creature was almost entirely fluff with its little ringed tail and its deceptively large body. The basket was opened at the kittykit pawed the edge of its little prison before making that strange cooing pigeon noise that somehow felines seemed to make.

“Juno,” Honor mumbles simply. “He reminds me exactly of Juno…”

“Juno?” she cocked her head to the side, having only caught the edges of what he had said, but was more content in watching his face and trying to decypher how he felt and if this was, in fact, a good idea.

He’s very compelled to smile, or to just pick the cat like creature up as to cradle it. However, Honor continued to stare downward into the basket.

Seeing the smile on her companion’s face and the kittykit’s plight in trying to get up and out of the basket, the young Hawaiian woman decided to take matters into her own hands. She took hold of the little fuzzball and, without hesitation, she plopped it down towards Honor’s chest where the little animal decided to try and cling to his front and meow at him. 

What’s in the box?

There was a slow glimpse down that followed back upward at the woman’s sly expression. He flattened his mouth and lowered his brows curiously.

“Uh, it’s a basket,” obviously, she was grinning ear to ear and soon enough plopped herself down in front of her companion. Walani plopped her hands in her lap and looked at the taller man expectantly. 

Another flat look. Of course he knew that part.

“Open it!” Walani beamed.

Oh, god. Now it was making noise. And moving. Oh god.

When he opened up the box honor was met with a pair of large, almost glowing eyes. They were a shimmering opal color, stark against the bright pink insides of its ears and the dark banding across its eyes like a little bandit mask. The creature was almost entirely fluff with its little ringed tail and its deceptively large body. The basket was opened at the kittykit pawed the edge of its little prison before making that strange cooing pigeon noise that somehow felines seemed to make.

“Juno,” Honor mumbles simply. “He reminds me exactly of Juno…”

“Juno?” she cocked her head to the side, having only caught the edges of what he had said, but was more content in watching his face and trying to decypher how he felt and if this was, in fact, a good idea.

What’s in the box?

There was a slow glimpse down that followed back upward at the woman’s sly expression. He flattened his mouth and lowered his brows curiously.

“Uh, it’s a basket,” obviously, she was grinning ear to ear and soon enough plopped herself down in front of her companion. Walani plopped her hands in her lap and looked at the taller man expectantly. 

Another flat look. Of course he knew that part.

“Open it!” Walani beamed.

Oh, god. Now it was making noise. And moving. Oh god.

When he opened up the box honor was met with a pair of large, almost glowing eyes. They were a shimmering opal color, stark against the bright pink insides of its ears and the dark banding across its eyes like a little bandit mask. The creature was almost entirely fluff with its little ringed tail and its deceptively large body. The basket was opened at the kittykit pawed the edge of its little prison before making that strange cooing pigeon noise that somehow felines seemed to make.

What’s in the box?

There was a slow glimpse down that followed back upward at the woman’s sly expression. He flattened his mouth and lowered his brows curiously.

“Uh, it’s a basket,” obviously, she was grinning ear to ear and soon enough plopped herself down in front of her companion. Walani plopped her hands in her lap and looked at the taller man expectantly. 

Another flat look. Of course he knew that part.

“Open it!” Walani beamed.

What’s in the box?

There was a slow glimpse down that followed back upward at the woman’s sly expression. He flattened his mouth and lowered his brows curiously.

“Uh, it’s a basket,” obviously, she was grinning ear to ear and soon enough plopped herself down in front of her companion. Walani plopped her hands in her lap and looked at the taller man expectantly. 

do you smell that?

There is an entire roller coaster of emotions for Walani, starting with delight (yay warly soup!) to relief (Wigfrid is okay) to concern (bad news?) to utter despair.

5, Your muse roughly grabs my muse's arm (workaholic-winona)

She wanted to leave. She wanted to leave now. And soon enough Walani crouched and placed her still trembling hand on Winona’s shoulder. She gave her a good, solid shake before looking around. Charlie was still Winona’s sister, still a person underneath all the terror and strength but at her core she was still also a being which could at any moment flay Walani alive if she were not very, very careful. That threat was very real- if she didn’t leave now, there may not be the chance.

She grunted quietly, as if she didn’t want to wake up, but opened her eyes, pushing up off of the ground with haste-  “A-ah! I fell asleep again! W-why didn’t you-” She then blinked, recalling the events before she went to sleep, as well as listening to what Walani had to say,  “O-oh… Yeah, yeah-” She scrambled up from the ground, brushing herself off and looking around, “Yeah, we should get you back- yeah… Sorry for keeping you here- I… I don’t really know what happened there… Something with…”

She looked at Winona and grinned a playful, albeit edged and tired, grin. Her ears burned and her heart was racing. With the best of gentlemanly posture, she offered Winona her arm, “want me to make you dinner when we get up?”

“Would yoo~uuo let your hair down so I could braid it?”

“My family was pretty simple. There was me, my parents, and my brother. My mother was the child of some French aristocrats, and she did her damndest to try and raise me to be a lady. It, uh, didn’t work out.”

“Holy crap, seven dollars?!” her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the mere mention of those heels. Walani tried to turn around for a moment only to remember that Willow was braiding her hair. Her hands plopped back down in her lap and the surfer straightened up to continue looking forward and not disturb the whole process, “they’re so pretty…”

He just… burrowed. He burrowed like a moleworm, darling terrifying little undead creature. He didn’t seem to be phased by any of this, and soon enough he was snapping a bird up and consuming it with the kind of voracious hunger that she only associated with angry hounds. He was much faster than she had anticipated, what with Caleb being a corpse-like child and all that-

“Things… uh… can and do kill normal grown ups in the dark out here,” she told him, tried to keep it all light and normal and not-at-all terrifying because she didn’t want Caleb to think he wasn’t normal. Goodness, no! He was just… um… is a dessicated scary corpse thing and he just ate a bird whole.

“Goodness, you really haven’t heard the stories, have you?” The tone that he said that in was a typical childlike condescending voice- the one that little kids used when they felt smarter than adults, which typically was rather rare,  “A long, loong time ago, what was the year….” He nibbled on his finger in thought for a second, “1924, I think- That was the day our house burned down, yeah yeah. Mommy died in the fire, Benny told us to leave her there, said that she was ‘corrupted by sin’ or something all religious like that. The rest of us ran away, yeah.” He nodded again, like he was so used to doing, finally pinning the feather to the ground,  “But I think the smoke might have hurt our eyes…? Who knows, we don’t like light anymore, especially Timas…”

She hadn’t heard the stories? Walani shook her head no, tipping her head to the side and observing the child while he played with the feathers floating through the air with the lazy lilt that feathers always seemed to be floating. It was in 1924. The… the same year that she disappeared, the same year that she came here, and she tried to pull any kind of information she had seen in newspapers.

5, Your muse roughly grabs my muse's arm (workaholic-winona)

She wanted to leave. She wanted to leave now. And soon enough Walani crouched and placed her still trembling hand on Winona’s shoulder. She gave her a good, solid shake before looking around. Charlie was still Winona’s sister, still a person underneath all the terror and strength but at her core she was still also a being which could at any moment flay Walani alive if she were not very, very careful. That threat was very real- if she didn’t leave now, there may not be the chance.