WHO: Terra and Miranda WHAT: Terra's pen is off exploring again WHERE: Outside RATING: low STATUS: in progress
Most of Terra's animate menagerie of things had been laying low since Terra arrived at Crestwood. On their best behavior, as they should be. Terra had a roommate and housemates and she knew the importance of first impressions, and she'd tried to impress that on her friends. Many of them had even listened.
Sly was an exception. Sly was always an exception, and there was just no getting around it. Sly thought it was the most important of Terra's friends, and when Sly was being cooperative, there was no denying that it was Terra's favorite for drawing. When Sly wasn't being cooperative...
Well, Terra knew the best thing to do about that. What Terra didn't know how to deal with was Crestwood itself. It threw her off, this place where everyone talked about powers like it was normal and expected, like they knew how it all worked and had it down to a science. Power sets and casual inquiries?
It stood to reason that a place like this would take it for granted, but it was just different enough from Terra's experience to make her feel off balance. A little less at home within herself, for being somewhere that didn't feel like home? She wasn't sure, she just knew she was feeling a little defensive, a little prickly. Not enough for a stranger to notice, surely, but inside her own skin, that's what was going on.
And Sly wasn't making it any better, wandering off like it was feeling more at home here than Terra herself, and she the one who'd made the choice to come here. Complicating things, leaving scribbles where scribbles shouldn't be--
Terra sighed, walking down the path with her eyes wide open and scanning for a mahogany pen. But she heard Sly first, shouting from the top of one of the pretty trees -- the ones with the white bark and the golden leaves. Terra loved these trees, but she couldn't quite figure how Sly could have climbed one.
"You always were a precocious one," she said, sitting down with her back against the tree.
Time passed. Terra's thoughts began to wander. "I wager you're thinking think I ought to stay," she said eventually. "You don't think it's strange here, and why would you?" She didn't notice whether there was anyone close enough to hear, she was talking to Sly, but with it up the tree, that wasn't at all obvious. "It's all fun and games for you," she said with an indulgent smile. "Isn't it?"