| abstract | - Kel: So! Valt finishes her meeting with Jenny is now outside her 'office' in the casino. Valt: Valt heads for the Hedge entrance in Swiftly's room. Kel: Valt enters the hedge! The path is a bit less thick than the last time they headed through there--it seems to have been cleared out a little by their passage. Valt: Valt looks around, trying to discern a path that leads deeper without screwing her over. Kel: The one obvious path leads back toward the lake... and is probably her best chance of finding hedge fruit in her experience, but, well. There's the squirrel. Valt: She grunts under her breath and starts off that way. "...hope he's not there..." Kel: Valt finds the lake as peaceful and quiet as anything in the Hedge ever is... which is to say, the water still seems to be infinitely deep and sloshing around as if moved by something beneath it and unseen animals flit around in the trees, but hey. Valt: She crouches low and starts to shuffle around the edges of the lake, far from the water, trying to find some fruit. ...and petting the weird turtles, if they're still there. Kel: The eggshell turtles seem to not be present today. There's still plenty of hedgefruit, though. A few things that seem to be dried-out husks hanging from brittle-looking stalks, along with a few blooms of some sort of flower that is constantly shedding and regrowing petals. The pulsating blue plant Jenny requested doesn't seem to be anywhere nearby Valt: She goes ahead and picks one each of the fruits. Kel: Valt now has two fruits! A few other paths branch off of the lake, but she has no clear reason to pick one over another... and, of course, there's still plenty of lakeshore. Valt: She creeeeeps down towards the lake and peers into it! Kel: The lake is downright black. It's not very inviting. Valt: She... pokes it. 'tard. Kel: It seems like normal water. Or at least, close enough. A bit cold, but that's it. Valt: She shrugs and looks around the shore, checking for anything else of interest. Kel: The path gets a bit more overgrown with thorned plants and such to the left, but that probably also means more fruits... just less places to escape to if something corners her, too. To the right it gets more open and she can see a knobbly stick-thin tree that still seems to somehow be growing nuts of some sort, which are covering the ground under it. Valt: She goes over to one of the nuts and takes it, before heading back towards the other, overgrown path. Kel: The path is skinny enough that Valt can't avoid but get her clothes nicked and torn by the thorns, but it pays off. Before long, she hits a stockpile of new fruits--the blue ones Jenny mentioned, looking like nothing more than squirming apple-sized blueberries, along with some sort of potato-like fruit sticking up through the ground. Valt: "Aha!" She snags two of the blue ones, then eyes the potato things curiously before tossing away the husk and plucking one of them out. Then she continues on! Kel: The path to the right area is far deeper into the hedge than Valt's ever needed to go before. It seems like it's at least a few hours of walking, but really, in the Hedge, who can tell? Before long, her clothes are practically tattered, and the path just seems to keep getting narrower and narrower. Kel: Her first hint that she's on the right path is that it starts getting rather quiet. The ever-present of unknown beasts off in the distance slowly die away until it's absolutely silent. As she keeps going, the scene around her starts getting more and more contrasted, the colors fading and the shadows growing darker and darker. The sign that she's found where she wants is probably when she steps on the shadow of a sharp-edged leaf... and the shadow cuts into her shoe to nick the sole of her foot. Valt: "A-ow!" She jumps backward, away from the leaf-shadow, and looks fervently around. Kel: She still seems to be quite alone... or so it seems for a few moments, until she notices that her shadow, splayed across the ground, is in an entirely different pose than she is. Valt: When she catches sight of her shadow acting out, she turns to face it and bends down. "...hello." Kel: The shadow's head area gets skinner, as if it's turning to look at her. Valt: "Do you know who I am?" Kel: The shadow suddenly shifts so that it slides up the wall of plants next to her, until it's at eye level with Valt. It nods. Valt: Valt smiles at the shadow. "...good. Um. I... need your help." Kel: The shadow hesitates for a second. A bit slowly, two holes appear in its head so it can make eye contact with her. It stares at Valt rather flatly. Valt: She blinks in surprise a few times before... making eye contact with her shadow. Creepy. "Do you know what's been going on with my fetch?" Kel: The shadow shrugs. Valt: "...um, well, she's broken, and... the Professor says that it might help her get fixed if you go to her." Kel: The shadow shivers for a few moments as a split runs down its face to give it a mouth. Its voice is quiet and sibilant--but still recognizeable as her own--as it replies. "There isssss no advantage for me..." Valt: Valt looks a little surprised, but recovers. "Well, she'd be getting in a lot less trouble than I do." Kel: The shadow shrugs. "Not a real person. Lesss of a shadow..." Valt: She runs a hand down her face. "...what do you want me to do for you?" Kel: It slides down the plants and runs up her legs, feeling rather cold and slimy like it's pulling her into a possessive hug. "The light... we hate it. Hurt the light..." Valt: "A-ack. How?" She... tries to return the hug, rather awkwardly. Kel: It hisses thoughtfully for a few seconds, as if thinking. "Break lights. Make ssssshadows. ... kill electricity in whole city for a day... might be worth it." Valt: "...I'm... not sure if..." She scratches the back of her head. "...okay." Kel: The shadow's face slides up her palm so that she can see it grinning widely. A painful chill runs through her heart, like being stabbed with an icicle, and Valt is suddenly shadowless as it rips away from her to run up her arm arm and pool in her hands, a thick, slimy, cold, black mass of goo. Valt: "A-aaaghh..." Valt squeezes her eyes shut, black tears prickling at the corners. "...thank you. I... I owe you, for everything you've done for me." Kel: The shadow sort of bubbles in response, seemingly rather inanimate at this point. Valt: She sighs in loneliness before shuffling back towards the way she came in, cupping her hands around the shadow. Kel: The sound and color slowly seeps back in until Valt finds herself standing by the lake again. Valt: She looks around to see if anything's changed, and if she cacn find the first path. Kel: It seems unchanged and even relatively safe, so Valt can leave the hedge whenever she chooses. Valt: She fleeeees! Kel: Soon, Valt is back in the real world in the hallway that connects all their rooms! Kel: Holding a double handful of black goo, with five hedge fruits to boot. Valt: She moves down the hall to deer guy's room and sort of... awkwardly knocks on the door with her elbow. Kel: Her fetch opens the door with a grunt and looks up at her impatiently. She can see the deer guy sleeping on the bed in the background. Valt: "...hey." She offers the shadow. Kel: The fetch looks at it cautiously. "... what's that?" Valt: "It's... my shadow." Kel: She reeeeeeaches out and dips a finger in it. "What do I do with it?" Valt: "I'm... not sure. It told me it'd go to you." Kel: The fetch looks skeptical, but holds out her cupped hands for it. Valt: She pours the shadow carefully into the fetch's hands. "...there you go." Kel: "What am I supposed to do with i--" The fetch suddenly stops as the shadow suddenly starts squirming in her hands. Valt: "Whatever you're doing, I guess." She watches curiously. Kel: "I'm not doing anything..." Despite her protest, the shadow grows more and more animate. After a few more seconds, it starts spreading out to cover her body. She gives a sort of 'eep.' Valt: "Iii... don't think it'll hurt you..." Kel: She nods, but as it spreads out a bit more, she suddenly tenses up in pain, giving a soft whimper. She holds up her forearms, showing off one of the spots with two rocks embedded in her arms... which the shadow seems to be aggressively attacking, pointed bits of it lashiing at the rocks and slowly coaxing them out. Valt: "...it's working!" She lights up, clapping her hands and doing a little victory jig. Kel: "It hurts!" The fetch falls to her knees and there's a short ripping sound as one rock flies free, then another. Soon, all over her her body, there are the sounds of her flesh being torn, the debris filling her flying away with small spurts of blood. Valt: Valt squawks and drops to her knees as well. "...Amp! Are you okay?!" Kel: She shakes her head fervently, but it does seem to be working, ripping out more and more debris and then flowing in to patch the holes that are left behind. Valt: "It... it's working, just... it'll be over soon!" She looks like she wants to hold the poor girl's hand, but is clearly unsure if she's allowed to touch her. Kel: The fetch has no such compunctions--the second it's out, she grabs Valt's hand and squeezes it hard enough that it feels like she could practically break it. She seems to be calming down a bit now, though. Valt: Valt wraps both hands around the fetch's, wincing. "...it's okay, it's okay. Don't worry." Kel: Soon, the fetch's cries of pain slow down, making her just hyperventilate a bit as she keeps calming down. The last of the holes fill up, and she suddenly coughs. A few more seconds of this make her hack up a glob of bloody sticks and rocks onto the ground to join the small pile of other debris around her. Valt: "...ew." Valt wrinkles her nose. Kel: The fetch finally calms down a bit and straightens up, looking at her forearms--now free of any sticks. "... did it work...?" Valt: Valt reaches out and carefully pulls the fetch into an embrace. Kel: The fetch doesn't resist, but she doesn't exactly hug back. Valt: "Does it hurt?" Kel: "It... it doesn't hurt..." Kel: She seems rather incredulous at this... and a bit more emotive than she usualy is. Valt: Valt practically glows with pride, nuzzling her fetch's hair. "Good... I'm so happy it worked..." Kel: The fetch looks a bit freaked out by this, but she's still practically stunned from seeing herself repaired. Valt: "...how do you feel?" Kel: "Okay, I guess..." She looks down at the small pile of rubble that used to be part of her. Valt: "...wonder if I could turn this garbage in to the people who want fetch parts." She scoops up the pile of stuff. Kel: It's still rather bloody and seems to have been entirely divorced from the fetch--probably not very useful. "... take it. I don't want it." Valt: She wrinkles her nose and dumps it in a convenient nearby trash can. "So. Um. What now?" Kel: "I don't know." Valt: "..." She looks up to see if deer guy is still asleep. Kel: He does, indeed, seem to have managed to sleep through that. The pile of empty beer bottles in front of him would provide a hint to why that is. Valt: "...the guy who's taking care of you is a drunk?" Kel: "... I guess?" Valt: "Has he even been paying attention to you?!" Kel: "He braided my hair and stuff... I, uh, don't think he really knows how to deal with kids." Valt: "...I'm going to have words with him." She stands up and stomps over to deer guy's bed and... punches him in the head. Kel: "Fuck!" That brings in out of it rather quickly. He pushes himself over to glare up at Valt. Valt: "You're drunk!" Kel: He rubs his head. "... yeah. I am. ... tryin' to sleep, too." Valt: "What about her?!" She jerks her thumb at the fetch. "You're supposed to be taking care of her!" Kel: "She can take care of herself for a few hours!" Valt: "She's a little girl!" Valt: "What if she learns from you?! What if she thinks it's okay to be a... a... a deadbeat?!" Kel: He grumbles a bit. "'s not that little." Valt: She crosses her arms. "...anyway, I fixed her. In case you care." Kel: He sits up and looks down at the fetch, looking a bit incredulous and even smiling a little. "Hey. Looks like you did." Valt: Valt looks at the fetch and gently musses her hair a little. Kel: The doc pushes himself up onto his elbows. "Good. Means you can give her back to her parents and I can get outta this town until the lynch mob gets tired." Valt: She blinks. "...I don't know if she wants to go back." Kel: The fetch looks a bit confused. "... I hadn't thought about it." Valt: "You could stay with us..." Kel: "But... if I went outside or anything, they'd think I was kidnapped..." Valt: "...well... you could go back with them and visit here." Kel: "Um, yeah. Probably better." Valt: Valt strokes her hair gently again. "...I'm glad it worked."
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