ciɳɗy (ciɳɗɛʀɛʆʆɑ) ѵɑkɑʀiɑɳ (silvershoes) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-02-06 21:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, bubbles, cindy cendrillon (cinderella) |
Who: Cindy & Bubbles
What: Going on a hike, and then Bubbles accidentally laser-eyes a tree
When: This weekend sometime
Where: A mountain path
Rating/Warnings: Pretty low! Tree branches are singed, RIP
Status: Complete
Bubbles was ecstatic. She was going to spend more time with Cindy. Ever since their encounter at the market, she was absolutely sure that her and Cindy were bound to be best friends. But then, that’s how most things with the people she was friends with now started: a very strong belief that they were going to be friends. Today’s adventure was hiking. Bubbles didn’t hike all that often, but she was sure that she would love it because Cindy was going to be there and they were totally bonding! (Yay! Bonding!) She had gotten all new clothes just for the occasion and she was totally going to have fun. Plus, being super adorable was an added bonus. She had a backpack full of things, but not so full that she would be dragged down by it. “This is the BEST DAY EVER!” They were walking along the trail and really, she was pretty easy to please when it came down to it. “Are you having fun? I’m having fun!” Cindy liked hiking. It was good exercise, and for as much as she bitched about OC weather (and it was pretty frequent, because this place was prone to weird ‘climate change’ effects), in all actuality it was some of the best year-round weather you could find. The warming glow of the sun was nice, the beaches too, but sometimes she just enjoyed getting in touch with the more rustic side of things. It was easy to forget about all this nature when you were trapped in an office or in a cubicle farm. Like today. Today was a good day for getting in touch with nature The path was a slow ascent but it was beautiful, dotted with wildflowers general scenic wilderness; when they reached the apex they’d get to the mountain station, and relax with hopefully coffee or hot chocolate at the restaurant, part gift shop. Seeing reminders of human civilization was interesting too - they’d already passed an abandoned school bus, like, what the hell. “Of course,” she grinned; Bubbles’ exuberance was cute. Cindy tended to err more on the cynical, bitter side of life - so she liked peppy people, they were good foils for her. “It’s so nice out here. Can you hear squirrels swearing?” She imagined they’d be pretty chatty. Bubbles could, in fact, hear some animals chatting. It was strange to be able to know what sort of animal it was just by hearing it speak. She could never have imagined it in all her life. Until now, really. “They are very chatty. So are the birds and pretty much every animal around. It’s kind of strange.” A pause. “Meaning that you’d think that nature would be quieter, but it’s about as loud as being in the city. Only it’s people and not animals.” She focused for a moment on the sound of two chipmunks arguing over a nut. “Apparently someone stole from someone else. Apparently this happens every time they collect their food and they need to let go of their food now.” She pressed her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling. It was funny how similar to humans animals could be at times. They weren’t as awful to each other as humans could be, but they bickered just as much as any human she’d met. “I’ve been wondering a lot recently about if I can talk to underwater animals, too! I just haven’t had time to test it. The water is a little cold for me right now and it isn’t like you can really see in the ocean. I don’t think the aquarium would just let people swim around in the tanks, which is why I haven’t tried there.” She wondered, though, if there was a way to get them to. There was someone on the network that worked there. Maybe he could help her get the chance. She guessed it couldn’t hurt to ask. “No swearing just yet, though. I guess we’ll see.” If they were around the horses, Bubbles knew that there was a lot of swearing. “Wow, squirrels are catty bitches,” Cindy laughed. They seemed pretty high-strung too. But it was interesting hearing about the animal kingdom from a whole new perspective - humans just didn’t really get that, so lost in their own worlds they were. “I bet you can talk to fish and squids and stuff - it’s not just limited to mammals, right?” She assumed that reptiles, amphibians, the sea creatures down in the depths of the ocean would be fair game too. Though would fish have anything interesting to say? Maybe not unless they were Dory or Nemo. She adjusted her pack on her shoulder, reaching for her water bottle to take a swig. Her cheeks kind of burned; it might be a good idea to re-apply her sunscreen also. “There are places where you can swim with dolphins and whales - might be fun to have a conversation,” she said. Dolphins were smart, at least. They were so majestic. Cindy didn’t know much about whale intelligence, on the flipside, but maybe they had some smarts going on too. Bubbles laughed a little. “They are always fighting over food or chasing each other around. It’s kind of funny.” She liked to see the differences and similarities. It was pretty great. “I really hope so. No, I can talk to birds and pretty much anything that I’ve run into so far. I mean, I don’t really do that in front of people, but it’s really super awesome!!” She loved it. But she hadn’t tried to talk to every animal. Mostly just the ones that she worked with and ones that she happened to run into along the way. “Oh! I hadn’t even thought about that! You’re so smart!” She clapped her hands together and only thought about how thirsty she was when she saw Cindy pull her water bottle out. She followed suit and took a couple small sips. “Dolphins are THE BEST! I definitely want to do that! It would be SO MUCH FUN!” She held onto her water bottle and practically skipped the next couple steps. A soft chuckle was the response to Bubbles’ enthusiasm - and hey, Cindy would take the praise. How nice to be noticed, when it came to something going up upstairs in the ol’ noggin. “We blondes have to dispel the stereotypes about us,” she teased. “That sounds fun though, swimming with dolphins. Maybe we could do it sometime.” She’d have to look into where the best place to do it was, how much it cost, things like that. But it seemed like a neat activity for friends, something unique and different. “Okay - what do you say to a granola bar break?” she asked, finding a good rock to sit on, taking her pack off her shoulders. It was starting to feel heavy, and she needed some rejuvenation. “I’ve got ones with peanut butter and honey, some with berries, cinnamon - whatever’s in the box,” she said as she rummaged. “Then when we get up to the restaurant, I might eat a shit ton of eggs for the protein.” Pancakes. God, that sounded good. She doubted they had vegetarian bacon, but pancakes? Those would do. Bubbles nodded at her suggestion. Yes. Yes, they should toooootally do that sometime! She was already planning all the things that she might be able to say to the dolphins. She had so many questions. She wanted to ask them about everything!!! It was going to be THE BEST! She was sure of it. “Yes yes yes! Let’s do that!” Even if she didn’t have all of the money, she knew that some pouting got the Professor to give her things she wanted. She was clearly the Baby Spice of the family. “Sounds good to me!” Bubbles was pretty sure she could stand to sit for a little while. Even if she wasn’t exactly tired, but it was for the best to fuel up! She took her pack off, sitting it next to her and peeking at the box of granola bars. She grabbed one of the ones with peanut butter and honey. “Thaaaank you!” Because she knew it was rude not to thank someone when they gave you something! “I am hungry,” Bubbles agreed. “I can’t wait till we get there! It will be GREAT!” There was a small sigh as she allowed herself to take in her surroundings, squinting to see something. She was pretty sure there was something just to the side of one of the trees...if only she could see it a little better. And then a tree branch suddenly fell after a bright light hit it and Bubbles jumped. “Um.” Being out here, appreciating the view and the chirp of birds and squirrels, the quiet sounds of nature - that was all very centering. Cindy could focus on stress relief, just taking deep breaths of fresh air that tasted of pine, and enjoy her granola bar in between sips of water. They didn’t have anywhere to be, not right away - there was the whole rest of the day to finish the hike and revel in the accomplishment. She reapplied her sunscreen too, dabbing some more on her nose and cheeks, when all of a sudden there was a loud crack - and the sound of a branch from a nearby tree hitting the ground. What looked like a laserbeam too, Cindy had caught that. Don’t think she didn’t, Bubbles. “Okay, I’m pretty sure that was you?” she said after the initial shock wore off. “Because last time I checked, I couldn’t shoot stuff from my eyes.” What the hell. “How did you even do that?” She remembered Bubbles saying that she had powers which involved lasers - guess the time had come for them to arrive. Bubbles closed her eyes and covered them with her hands, not sure if this was something that she could control without things suddenly GETTING SHOT DOWN BY HER EYES!!!! She made a small noise, a pout forming. She was supposed to get warnings about these things!!! WHY?! “I don’t know. I didn’t even mean to!” There was a slight whine to her voice, hands still pressed over her eyes. She didn’t want to open them and then SHOOT LASER BEAMS AT THINGS! This was not okay. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Are you okay? You didn’t get attacked by hornets or something else weird that could maybe happen if a tree branch fell from the sky suddenly?” Of course, once she’d said it, she knew it sounded absolutely ridiculous. If a swarm of hornets had attacked she’d know about it. “What?” Cindy couldn’t help but laugh a little. That was just...so not what she was expecting to be asked right now. “Nope, no hornets. I’m fine, I promise. Here - “ She scooted closer to Bubbles so she could remove her friend’s hands from her eyes, which were still closed. May as well face this head on, right? At least if another laser beam happened to go rogue and shoot off, it wouldn’t strike another person. It was just them out here, being one with nature. “Open your eyes, slowly, but in your mind picture taking that power - whatever it looks like to you - and stuffing it in a box for now.” Not like she expected poor Bubbles to have perfect control right away, but you had to start somewhere. Besides, Cindy didn’t have any Cyclops-esque quartz glasses handy or whatever the hell they were. She doubted things were that dire anyway, that they’d be necessary. Bubbles pouted as her hands were removed. She didn’t open her eyes, though. She knew it wasn’t something that happened all the time or they’d have all been in trouble. But that didn’t mean she trusted herself to know how to shoot lasers out of her eyes. It was NOT OKAY! Plus, she wasn’t expecting that one. Not that she’d expected the others, but the most she’d done with her super strength was break stuff...like the door and handles and various other things. No one had gotten hurt by it! A voice in her head reminded her that no one here had been hurt by this either. She really did want to make sure that she didn’t keep lasering things by accident, though. Poor trees. They didn’t ask for this. She would have to hug them in apology later. Still, she did what Cindy said and very slowly opened her eyes. Nothing happened. But how did she make them work? How did she just know how to use these abilities at FIVE YEARS OLD? She just DID IT. Without any training that she was aware of. “I don’t know how to make it work and not work,” she whispered. “The dreams didn’t go into this part. They just had me using them. At five.” Yeah, age five was a little young to be using laser eyes. Cindy felt for the girl - it must be some terrifying shit, to know that you hd wild and crazy powers that could detonate at any moment, and that had appeared so suddenly. “I personally don’t have any abilities like that,” she frowned a bit. “So I don’t necessarily know the mechanics of turning them on and off - but it’s probably all in your head? You get to the point where if you focus, it happens. And otherwise, it doesn’t.” Just a guess. But maybe it was a straw to grasp at. She put her arm around Bubbles, giving her shoulders a squeeze. There, there. Everything would be fine, even if it didn’t seem that way now. “You could always ask your sisters for advice too? I’m also guessing a lot of people’s powers are largely instinctual. It’s like learning to ride a bike, or something.” Bubbles frowned and scooted herself even closer to Cindy, leaning against her. This was totally allowed because friends always let other friends lean on them. She knew all about it. Or she was willinging to argue it until everyone agreed to it. “They don’t have these powers yet. I’m just glad I didn’t blow up the house or something. We’ve been working with Buttercup on the superstrength, though. So she doesn’t kill people or break things too much.” She frowned even more at that. Buttercup’s whole life shifted because of the superstrength while hers stayed largely the same. “She’s a professional fighter, so she’s probably not going to be able to be now. But I don’t think anyone else has laserbeam eyes yet.” She thought maybe Cindy was right about the focusing part, but there wasn’t a way to know that unless she tried it again. With a hint of a sigh, she scooted away again before focusing on a tree limb. This time they fired, only this time multiple trees suffered instead of just the one that she’d meant to hit. “Oops.” It wasn’t out of control lasers everywhere so that was something? Bubbles just needed to get used to how it all felt - like a baby doe learning to walk, aww. “That wasn’t bad,” Cindy encouraged. “Maybe calm down a little too? If you’re anxious, you’re probably firing a little stronger than you mean to.” Hey, just a guess. Then she got up and arranged a few targets in Bubbles’ line of sight - mostly rocks, a few downed branches, things that were placed apart and that she’d be able to aim for instead of just randomly aiming for trees. “Try to hit these,” she motioned to the first one. “See how you do.” But she also got out of the way because accidents, aimed right at her, didn’t sound like much fun. “That was pretty bad,” she said quietly, looking out at all of the damage. Poor trees. She didn’t know if there was any apologizing to them now. She would probably have to do something nice for them later. It probably wouldn’t make it up to them, but she’d feel bad until it was done. She frowned slightly, but nodded. Calm down. How hard could that be? Except apparently very difficult. She took deep breaths and tried to think soothing thoughts. Only she was worried about what would happen when she wasn’t in the middle of nowhere and she had to do this. She worked with animals! What if she focused too hard and hurt one of them? WHAT IF SHE HURT THE PROFESSOR OR HER SISTERS?! Cindy’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked at the arranged targets for a moment. Okay. She just had to focus and...well, that hit too far to the side of the first target and she was pretty sure someone was going to notice a hole in the ground. Frowning, she tried to focus a little more on the target, which sort of worked, but she still got some of the ground. “This feels impossible.” “It’s not impossible,” Cindy made sure to remind her. “It only feels that way because you just discovered you could do this like, ten minutes ago. You’ll be fine, Bubbles. I promise.” She didn’t want to tire the girl out or frustrate her, so, maybe they’d put the kibosh on the intensive training for now. The more she relaxed, the better off she’d be - and perhaps the rest of the hike would help get her in a better headspace, so she wasn’t sitting here stewing over things. “Come on, we can head up?” she suggested. “I’ll give you more targets on the way, so it’ll be more practice. Then when we reach the end of the trail, hot chocolate is on me.” That was the least she could do. That was probably true, but it didn’t make it feel any less impossible. Pouting a little, she got to her feet. She would have to figure this out eventually. She couldn’t accidentally laser someone or something. It meant she would have to see if Blossom’s friend could maybe show her somewhere to practice. Here was one thing, but she was panicking a little too much. “Okay.” She took another sip of her water before putting it back into her pack. “I think Blossom knows someone who knows a place to practice dangerous powers.” She hoped that she’d figured it out sooner rather than later, bus she guessed that it was a little too much to expect that she’d be able to use it immediately. It had taken a really long time to get used to her superstrength and stop breaking things, too. She was just lucky that Stefan was very much a vampire and didn’t hurt easily. “I think I need a hot chocolate.” But she gave Cindy a small smile, something much less than her usual 100 watt smile. “Thanks for not totally freaking out about it and helping me out and everything.” “No problem,” Cindy returned the smile and looped her arm around Bubbles’ arm, in a show of blonde vegetarian solidarity, as they continued their trek along the nature trail. They had to stick together, after all, because what kind of friend would Cinderella be if she just peaced out when a bit of a roadblock was tossed their way? “Like I said before, I know someone who went out to Death Valley to blow up rocks when she wanted to practice the more destructive powers. There are places for you to go, and you’ll totally get a handle on this.” She would be there. And make sure that Bubbles didn’t hurt anyone, because no doubt she’d beat herself up over it. Maybe it wouldn’t be simple, but that was alright. They’d find a way. |