[Voice/Action]

[flickerflash]

[This is a very comfy forest, really.  The sunlight's warm, and Katie curls up near a fallen branch and near faceplants into a patch of new spring flowers and waits for Snow White to maybe come dancing through her dreams, or Bambi, or maybe a couple rebel fighters on an awesome speeder bike chase that she can help with.  Ewoks, even.  Look, it's her dream, okay.   She'll will one of these things into existence if she can manage it.

It takes her a long while to realise she's not actually sleeping, and that's ... a little concerning.  Because to her knowledge she doesn't make a habit of going to sleep anywhere other than her very cozy bed, and she doesn't remember why she'd be out here. 

Sleepwalking.  All the way out here?  Kidnapped.  Her parents aren't rich.  By aliens.  That's a little better, but still kind of worrying.  There's a distinct level of nervous settling over her now because she's entirely alone in the middle of a place she doesn't recognise, and she's just not adventurous enough to want to be out here without any obvious way of getting home.

It's not her fault, is it?   She can't get into trouble if it's not her fault.  (Is today a school day?)

It's when she staggers upright, still yawning, that her foot catches on the edge of something and she thumps back down to earth with a startled sound, turning to glare at whatever she'd touched (why are her feet bare?), and stares at the journal lying in the grass with her name stencilled on the front.  And Katie reaches for it, because if it has her name maybe it has an explanation, and... the sight of it touches off muzzy memories of its own.  Familiar, somehow.

So she opens it.

Oh.  She knows what this is.]

[Voice]

...hello?

Comments

[chibiremlover]

Um... [Vash lowers his head, his stride shortening slightly as he lets his feet drag and kicks at the ground. He hasn't really told anyone but Knives before about Steve's actions.] I dunno... he just hates me I guess.

[flickerflash]

[Katie sniffs.] Well, hate him back, then.

[chibiremlover]

But he's not bad! He's just scared! [He's quick to come back and defend Steve. He's part of the crew and an important member! He can't be all bad!]

[flickerflash]

That's no excuse to be a bully!

[chibiremlover]

I dunno. He's not all bad. [Yet this time his defense of Steve is a little more forced. As he thinks over what she says. He really doesn't like it when Steve hits him.]

[flickerflash]

Neither is any bully I know.

[chibiremlover]

[Vash is quiet for a moment. Thinking it all over.] But, if I show him he doesn't need to be scared of me. Then I think he'd stop being mean.

[flickerflash]

Why would he be scared of you?

[chibiremlover]

I guess because I'm different and not human. I just wish I knew how to tell him I'm not scary.

[flickerflash]

What do you mean, you're not human?

[chibiremlover]

I'm a Plant.

[flickerflash]

[Blink blink. She frowns.] No, you're not. You're a girl.

[chibiremlover]

What!? I'm not a girl! I'm a boy!

[flickerflash]

[...really?] But your hair is long.

[chibiremlover]

Why can't boys have long hair?

[flickerflash]

Because it's girly. Unless you're in a band.

[/80s child]

[chibiremlover]

No it's not! Rem doesn't think so!

[flickerflash]

It is! I thought you were a girl! That makes it girly!

[chibiremlover]

Does not!

[flickerflash]

Does too.

[chibiremlover]

Does not! [And being the more mature one, Vash is going to go ahead and stick out his tongue to prove his point even more.]

[flickerflash]

[OH YEAH WELL SHE'LL DO THE SAME, GAWD. But seriously.] Don't you get picked on at school?

[chibiremlover]

No, I don't really go to school. I just started here and on the ship it's just me and Knives. Rem teaches us stuff, but it's not really a school.

[flickerflash]

Wait, you live on a ship? And you know someone called Knives? [Instant cool points!]

[chibiremlover]

Yeah, he's my brother.