[Video]

[flickerflash]

[She'd been waiting for hours to see if they'd turn up.

Just a little after dawn on the 25th a piece of smudged notepaper gets carefully tucked into Katie's journal, and then she tosses the whole thing into the hollow log she's sitting on out in the forest.

The video clearly picks up the message. It's not very long.]



   Gone fishing.
Everyones invited
   except Raine.
  No drowning.



[There won't be any replies. She's gone.]

Comments

[flickerflash]

I try not to forget things. My mum always said it was very impolite to forget. {Terrifying. The world is terrifying? She supposes to a human, it is.] Would you rather pretend none of this existed?

[wise_maiden]

Honestly, I think I'd be able to appreciate it a little better if it were drier. I suppose it's more that knowing that the things that I do find frightening are here because of me. And at the same time... It's like being a little inside your head, isn't it? I don't have the right to deny that.

[flickerflash]

[...that's a very good answer. Katie relaxes a little, even darting Raine a proper smile.] Do you think you'll ever not be afraid of water?

[It's a pity. If Raine's fears were more ... solid, more like a villain, she could at least try to do something about them. There's not much to be done about water.]

[wise_maiden]

... I was hardly any older than you when I first started being afraid. I've spent time since then mostly denying it, later on trying to accept it, and I even tried to learn how to swim last summer. Sometimes I think it's starting to get better, and then I'm reminded that it isn't, not really. ... Maybe it just needs more time. I suppose I do have a lot of that to spare.

[flickerflash]

Why are you afraid?

[wise_maiden]

I fell off a ship, and was swept away by the currants... [Her voice is soft, distant. The water pooling around the village turns dark, harsh with fresh rolling waves.] I thought I was going to die. I know that not all boats or bodies of water are the same, but those feelings just...

[flickerflash]

...

Feelings are hardly important. [Her accent is more rounded than usual, and Katie glances down at the dark currents below.] Water can hurt you at any time, after all, sneaking around after you, following you everywhere. You could slip off the roof here and now and this fear would be enough to make you drown. Are you afraid?

[wise_maiden]

One could drown in an inch of water, let along a hundred. I know all the ways. [There's a pause, a hint of chill wind blowing despite the summers day.] ... I am afraid. But I knew it would be there, all the same.

[flickerflash]

It's very silly of you to be afraid. [But she smiles, glancing down at the water.]

Do you know what a promise means to cats?

[wise_maiden]

Very silly. [She agrees, but the fear is there anyway. Shadows pass under the surface of the darkened water, using it as cover.]

I get the feeling that they aren't made lightly.

[flickerflash]

They're made very lightly. A cat has no attention span, always chasing after the last, lost pieces of light. But if you bell the cat, they will always hear it ringing.

[wise_maiden]

[That sounded... tricky. Very tricky. Opposites? Metaphors? Katie was always full of little tangles like these.] So it's the bells that are the reminders?

[flickerflash]

As long as it's heard, I can remember my promises and my vows. Until death do us part, but I'm too young to be married. [And that requires churches anyway. Katie knows she's making less sense than usual. She's not trying terribly hard to be clear. Except for the important part, a depth and gravity behind her words that might summon up images of being sealed in stone:]

A belled cat will never let you drown.

[wise_maiden]

As long as it's heard...

[But even bells can stop ringing, or grow rusty, the promise lost, forgotten. Or is that taking the metaphor too far? Is it based on trust, perhaps? ... It was almost ironic. Not very long ago, she was the teacher helping the girl, but those roles felt almost left behind in another world, as it were.] You promised that you wouldn't let me drown, and I believe in you.

[flickerflash]

You should never believe anything I say. [Katie giggles a little, still watching the water. If Raine does believe it, that should at least keep this echo manageable until it fades from view again.] I'm a frightful liar.

[wise_maiden]

Keeping up with you can be a challenge. Your words and your intentions can be very different things. [The water turns a little lighter and less stormy once Raine's stopped fixating on it, though the shadow slowly makes its way up the shade of the building.]

[flickerflash]

[...that shadow is a little peculiar. Katie watches it climb, trying to make it out.] I plan it that way, you know. All of life is a little game.

[wise_maiden]

[The shadow is very long, though the movement still subtle for now.] Hm. I can't say I share that particular opinion. Calling it a game seems to gloss over all of the little things that come together... and not everyone plays by the same rules.

[flickerflash]

That just means the world is made up of orderly people and cheats. Games are all about little things coming together. All those different dice rolls to get you over the finishing line.

[Perhaps it's a snake. It's a reaction to Raine's presence, her echoes, and so Katie keeps her eye on it.]

[wise_maiden]

The finish line?

[The shadow seems to twitch slightly at that, but still retains it's subtle position, flat and harmless as it rolls onto the roof's surface.]

I don't know if there's really a finish line to it. Certainly, there are little goals that a person has, from time to time, and sometimes when they feel that they've reached it, there's no more that they can do, but... it just seems too complicated to call it a true game from start to finish.

[flickerflash]

[Katie sighs. Raine is taking things too seriously and not-at-all opposite, but really more of her attention is taken tracking the shadow. It's probably harmless, but at the same time she's a cat and it's moving.

And on the roof. She points.] Do you know what that would be?

[wise_maiden]

Hm? [At first she's glad for the distraction--she really was taking the discussion too seriously, and it wasn't at all pleasant. Until her eyes fall on what the distraction actually is, and the shadows suddenly thicken before her eyes and in less than a blink, lunge forward to coil around her.] -- Oh, this is --

[flickerflash]

[It isn't until the shadows thicken that Katie finds its coiling movement familiar, and her eyes widen as she grabs reflexively over her shoulder for the hilt of a sword...which she doesn't have. Well, that's irritating. And coiling around Raine makes it complicated to get rid of.

This is recent. He attacked Raine too, did he?]

You're very rude to interrupt, Helios. Hold on. [She puts out her hands to touch the coiling shadow instead.]

[wise_maiden]

[Katie called it Helios. Did that mean --

... well, there wasn't much time to peruse that thought, despite a connection slipping into place. For now there was that pressing thought of how certain things could kill you here if you weren't careful - and she certainly knew how dangerous that shadow was. Katie was doing something though, so she tries to remain as still as possible, watching the girl take hold -]

... i-it's a demon. Or was a demon. [A God, it had called itself, but mostly she just remembers everything growing cold and numb and spinny as the mana was drained right out of her.] Be careful, please -

[flickerflash]

I'm always careful. [It's an echo. A ghost of a nightmare, and if she had her sword here she'd just fight it in the good old-fashioned way, because that would be fair. Her other option is an extremely disconcerting one, but no damage would really be done. She reaches her other hand across to Raine.] Would you take my hand, Professor Sage?