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( nothing about what's happened since nuala made her choice makes a great deal of sense to her. she lives, inexplicably, but there is a wound in her where once her brother was; a hollowness she can't account for, in point of fact the very opposite of what she might have imagined her afterlife to consist of. dressed in strange clothes and adrift in a place even stranger than the BPRD's headquarters, handling truly peculiar technology--

--it is all very small, in the wake of that most important detail. it is, however, a sort of smallness that permits her anything else to think on while she gathers herself enough to, perhaps, investigate its cause. her first contribution to the comms network is therefore simultaneously accidental and very much with purpose: a period of audio recording where nothing much seems to be happening, video of Nuala's hands as she turns the device over several times, of her face as she examines it. audio, again-- an exasperated sigh, a little jostle, and then a startled vocalization followed by a bit of scrambling, and then, finally--

Nuala, having at some point prior to this transmission found her way to the room she's been allocated, looks composed of nothing but determination to be composed. )

Hello.

( ...and patience. she has that, too, in great stores. this is a device for communication. someone is going to communicate with her. eventually, this will begin to make sense again. )

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Yeah. I'm a little confused myself.

[ And okay. She's trying to find a casual way to ask this but really how the hell do you ask this question casually. Faerie etiquette 101 didn't get this far. ]

Are you a faerie?

( --that isn't a question Nuala was expecting, but it's one she's more than prepared to answer. )

I am a daughter of the Earth, Kaye Fierch. My people have been called many things, that among them.

[ Does that mean she is or isn't, then? Does it really matter? It's close enough. And as much as Kaye identifies with humans, the reality is she is fae. And it'd be kinda nice to not be alone.

So she turns on the camera to show herself in pixie form. ]

Close enough.

I was just hoping maybe I wasn't the only one. [ Although it's a double-edged hope. Some fae could be nasty and she probably wouldn't want to see. ]

( Nuala warms in a way that a human cannot quite so readily inspire-- a hint of mirroring relief. in this peculiar place, metallic and alien, Kaye is something recognizable and familiar and there is a steadiness in that recognition that she can build on. )

You are very beautiful.

[ Well.

Can a pixie even blush? She'd bet she would look like a watermelon if she did. She doesn't actually blush, but she shifts slightly, her eyes widening briefly in surprise. That's not something she's actually hear anyone say before. Humans don't respond well to her and other fae seem to constantly judge her. She's more used to that. ]

Thanks.

That's not usually people's first reaction.

[ Ahem. Anyway. ]

Are you new, too? Or have you been here awhile like most of the others?

I have only now arrived - I ... expected someone, but he isn't here. ( with the facts as she knows them, it's the most logical conclusion. it isn't true, but her belief is sensible enough. ) Are you alone, as well?

[ Something about the word 'alone' lingers. Maybe it has to do with how she changed when she saw Kaye as she was. Kaye wouldn't have called her demeanor before that as awkward, but there was definitely a shift. ]

I am. I haven't found anyone I recognize from home.

Who were you looking for?

( in turn, Kaye's brittle response to being so complimented sticks in Nuala's mind, reinforces a decision that she hasn't been consciously making so much as instinctively turning to something to give her purpose. she is aimless in a way that is wholly foreign to her, and the prospect of something on which she can focus her energy is...yes. it's good. she can be needful. )

I hoped for my brother. ( despite everything. despite knowing the argument that would await her, were he present. ) But for now we are apart, and that is as it has been for many years.

( it's different, this time, but that terrifying emptiness isn't something she's ready to discuss. particularly not when she's trying to be composed. )

Would you tell me of yourself? You are a lovely thing, and a glad sight to me.

Does he look like you? [ She assumes so, but assumptions and all that. She can at least help keep a lookout. The people like them don't seem to be as many as the human, or even more human-looking, ones. It shouldn't be too hard to spot him if he shows up somewhere. Since people do seem to show up and leave, judging off the conversations she's been reading.

But as for herself. Kaye's not used to sharing that information. But who would she have shared it with anyway? ]

I'm kind of new to being a faerie. I was raised as a human. [ Which totally goes into this whole thing that while she's not opposed to sharing, she's not going to bore someone with the details of. ] I only found out I was a faerie a couple of months ago.

Very like.

( what Kaye confides, however, is distracting. )

--as a...?

You were a changeling, perhaps? There was a glamour?

I'll keep an eye out. In case he shows up like we did.

[ Kaye nods her head. She wasn't sure she'd recognize the term.

Then she lets the magic fade over herself to make her look human and hide anything strange. ]

Like this, except better. [ Because the queen put it on her. ] The human child I replaced was kept in faerie lands. She's home now, though. We call her Kate.

That is truly quite remarkable. ( the implication that Kaye remains, if nothing else; there are a variety of ways in which Kaye is of particular, relevant interest to Nuala - particularly now - and she is not blind to them. ) I suppose it was very frightening for you both?

( her empathy for Kate is not absent, but certainly more abstract than the way Kaye tugs at her heart. )

[ The question throws Kaye for a moment because when she thinks about it, it was only frightening for about a second. The rest of it just made sense. In fact, it made sense before it was frightening. ]

Only when I saw the real me. It was like looking at a stranger.

Otherwise it kind of made sense. It helped I knew about faeries. I had three faerie friends growing up.

( that, truthfully, makes more sense to her than the hazarded guess she'd made that perhaps Kaye lingered because it seemed alien to her not to. )

I'm glad for that, that they were with you. ( that she had not been alone, as Nuala can't help but see it. )

[ Not so much, but she's not one for pity parties and she doesn't really want to see Nuala sad if she's being honest. ]

Thanks.

Do you have a lot of experience with that sort of thing? I didn't get to ask about it at home, but it sounded like they did that a lot. They just didn't usually forget to go back for their own.

It is not a common practise of my people, though we have not entirely dissimilar ways-- ( sometimes Nuala lured human children to play with her, and then returned them perfectly unharmed, some hours or perhaps a day or two later, and it was totally innocent and adorable and may have scared half to death attentive parents ) --but I know of it, among others. I have seen it.

[ That's still better than what the faeries of her world do. Still, Kaye's been mortal too long to not sympathize with them. ]

What are your people like? Do they all look similar to you? Or do you have hobs and redcaps and shit like that too?

( the very slightly reproachful glance says, eloquently, language, Kaye, though Nuala does not verbalize it. )

There are many fae, but my own people, the Sons of the Earth, share much with me in appearance, yes.

[ Good luck with that attempt, Nuala. Old habits die hard. ]

That makes sense. I mean, I am a pixie so other fae don't look like me. Although, I don't know many pixies, either...

[ Weird thought. She shakes it off, though. ]

Do you have courts? Like Unseelie and Seelie or day and night sh-- [ Ehhhh. ] Stuff like that.

( good save. )

My father reigned above all fae in our world, and the systems by which our peoples were arranged were-- complex, to say the least. I know of what you speak.

( a brief pause. )

I have been told of a darkness aboard this ship - and of a sanctuary from it. Do you know of the gardens?

Edited 2014-01-11 06:13 (UTC)

[ She doesn't promise it every time.

Then Nuala keeps on speaking and Kaye's eyes almost get wide at the revelation that holy shit. Nuala's a princess. Her experience with those has not been great. And the rumors about Silarial and Nicnevin's parents aren't any better.

She's surprised by how... nice Nuala is. But slightly wary of that kindness now. Ethine was nice, and it ruined her. But at least she was nice. Silarial was nice all the time. Even when she was plotting ways to ruin the lives of everyone. ]

I hadn't got a chance to explore.

Do you know where they're at?

I do, and I have been advised that I ought to spend my time there-- I would be more at ease if you would consider joining me, and I needn't fear for your safety.

( it is wise, truthfully, to be cautious of the kindnesses of royalty; Nuala's intentions are always good, but her idea of good isn't always that of those around her. still, there's a sincerity in her now, simple truth in what she says: Kaye is something familiar, and Nuala is inclined to protect her. )

[ Kaye can't bring herself to say she doesn't have to fear for her safety because her track record begs to differ.

Besides, she'd like to visit the gardens. Even if this place isn't killing her with iron, natural things still feel better to her and she'd like the chance to at least go to them when she can. ]

Sure. I'd like that. I could use some green that isn't me right now.

( Nuala is always charming when she gets her way; her beaming smile is quite genuine, as is the relief it carries with it. like her brother, she feels responsible for all fae in a way that is passed down to them from their father - it is easy for her to make it a more personal concern. )

Very good.

[ Kaye would tell her she doesn't have to feel responsible for her. She takes care of herself pretty okay and technically she is the consort of the king so like she's kind of a ruler? She really should find those rules out, eventually, but no one's here from home to ask and it's not really relevant.

Regardless, as much as she doesn't need protection she would like at least one faerie friend beyond Roiben and Lutie, both of which she met as a human. ]

Should I meet you somewhere?

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