THIS PARTY IS OFF DA HOOK...

[implying]

[ ...So here is an overflow log for the Versailles Masquerade ball! The last one is approaching 3000 comments, which DW asks communities to try and avoid going over, so you're welcome to move your threads here if you're having issues loading the big fat log.

NEW CHARACTERS: YOU ARE STILL WELCOME TO TAG IN! Just refer back to this entry for all the pretty HTML and setting set-up and such. Set up a new root comment, or continue individual threads — whatever's easiest for y'all. ]

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

( from here! )

( Collette looks down when he says below, though it's not where she finds him. Blue's a surprising sight, made unearthly by that soft, faint glow around him, as he flies to the height of her window.

It's amazing -- astounding, relly -- and she's absolutely enamored that he can do what he's doing right now. Envious too. THere's no point in denying that, so she doesn't, mentally nodding to the emotion before shuffling it off to the side.

Amusement tinged with embarrassment meets his statement. )

I'm not that obvious, am I?

( Impatience to be doing and not just watching, to get out and move even when she's just on the side of tired that means it would probably be a bad idea anyway. Limitations were bothersome. She had to acknowledge her own, but it didn't mean she always accepted what she knew.

It was better to live and push for more where she could. The benefits were amazing. )

You have no idea how amazing what you're doing is. I'm so jealous!

( The only exaggeration being the "so." It's a point of interest her mind keeps coming back to, Collette looking down to assure herself his feet aren't standing on some hidden ladder, leaning to one side in order to ensure he doesn't have some massive set of wings there that were just not causing a ruckus with the wind they'd have to generate to keep him hovering at her level. )

Have you been out there all night?

( She bets it would have been fun to coast around as a bat. Manic little fliers that they were, there was something exciting in the particulars of how they moved. Different from the power behind the eagle, or the easy rise and fall of the pigeon. )

[firstroar]

[Collette's emotions are practically palpable things of their own, living and shifting at her will and impulse. he can't help but smile in the midst of it all – jealousy, wonder, delight...raw and real things. human things, unfettered. it's marvelous.

perhaps those flashes of ideas of creatures is what makes it more special when it's her. Blue knows little of her ability save for those glimpses, those moments with her, the coyote. the extent of her power is beyond him.

smiling throughout, he bows his head in greeting.]

For a time. It is easier to think out here, to have sense of the things within without becoming lost.

[her enthusiasm is what spurs him, lifting a hand off the sill, to her:] Will you come with me? To see this place, outside.

[whatsupcroc]

( Her first reaction is a stillness as she hears what he says, followed by a surge of desire -- oh, she wants to, yes, if that's an honest offer (and she feels it is) there's very little else in this world she would like more than to say yes right then -- )

Will I? Of course! I can't believe --

( -- and as she knows she wants to say yes, has in fact already said it, the part that tries to be responsible catches up and makes her look from his hand to his face. )

I mean, if it's not going to be a strain or anything.

( If felt polite to qualify that for all her genuine enthusiasm, there was also the awareness of burdening. Half a dead-weight was a lot to be responsible for. Was it too taxing?

But it's so cool... and I already said yes. )

[firstroar]

It won't. [thanks to Ashraf. he's not sure how long that will hold out, but with how he feels now?

he's certainly well and capable enough. really, even if he was running on fumes again, Collette seems to have enough energy to sustain him further.

Blue ducks his head (despite the window being like 8 billion feet tall) as he leans in, stretching both hands out to her.]

This power of mine will carry you, too.

[whatsupcroc]

( One never knew, he might inexplicably bang his head on the top of the frame through freak psychic flying accidents. Psychics. Finding new pathways to old problems!

This time, she doesn't hesitate longer than it takes to flip on her breaks. Collette prefers her chair not take off in the meantime, pending someone physically doesn't wander along and decide to take her wheels for a spin or report her apparent suicide attempt out the open window. (As if!)

She reaches out, laying both her hands on his. She's not sure if she should be grabbing hold, or getting a grip on his wrists. Collette waits for some indication from Blue before shifting to match whatever he was asking.

She has no idea how his power works, not really, but it sets her pulse starting to race and her smile can't help but betray some of that edge of giddy anticipation.

This is different from Preston, who was showing off when he'd set her wheelchair flying. She'd known to an extent what he'd been doing, and her excitement had been real, stifling down the fear. Collette doesn't like being entirely out of her own control among strangers. Among friends, it was still hard, but the kind of hard overcome by trust.

Trusting Blue, trusting what he says is true, it settles that uncertainty into a quiet voice whispering at the back of her mind that they all needed to be careful. )

As long as you say so!

[firstroar]

[as always and before, the simple sense of touch does things to the Mu that merely standing in company does not allow: it's a door flung wide open, making him present to those things he cannot resonate with from afar. already, his own heart and mind are quick to alter, to synch to this girl's, and though from far different worlds, there is much to relate to.

it's very seldom he's tapped into the giddy uncertainty of youth, even back with those rescued children. their days are so mundane in Shangri-La...surprises were few, often unpleasant. and his long sleep had kept him far, far from the discoveries and joys on the settlement of Nazca...the children...

needless to say, it's a good pain, having this feeling. his hands close around hers, already pushing his desire to carry her forth well ahead, giving her a glow of her own.

he doesn't know much of things like Peter Pan or fairy tales, save for what's been told of Jomy's laments and flickering notions from the fleeting memories of Mu children. but yeah, it's a similar kind of thing.

so he smiles, and as he leans back out, the girl lifts away from her chair without any fleeting regard for gravity, out the window.

it's not a complete bubble against the air, so more's the strange: there's still the gentle rustle of breeze and the smells from outside overtaking the ones in the building, but it's a state of mind he's well used to. that assurance he gives freely, coaxing apprehension away as he pushes his feet off the sill and pulls them both away.]

[whatsupcroc]

( His coaxing takes what little apprehension stirred in her soul and lays it to rest, far underneath the excitement and enjoyment that comes out of something new and unexpected. The uncertain element of danger lends toward enthusiasm rather than steals away from it, heart rate picking up as she grins and tightens her grip on Blue's hands even as she looks away.

Collette looks up first before looking down. It's strange to be part of this ethereal glow, yet so clearly surrounded by the night as she understood it - no asphalt here, no tang of tar, but the sweeter scents of the garden and of manure and coll air paired with the heat and scents of food and sound of laughter winding between the chirrups of insects and the quiet solitude of the protected night.

She's flown in darkness before, as a bat and as a bird, but it's nothing quite like this. Collette never expected to see the world quite like this. Not as herself, at any rate, and it didn't disappoint her in the way it used to make her look away and think of the reality that could have been. )

Blue...

( She says at last, turning her attention to him, looking away froom the lights and darks that illustrate this moment in the world; )

This is amazing!

( And overflowing with something very much like awe, touching on a great joy that seems to spill past the bounds of her chest and make breathing difficult, with her heart still beating faster than it should, Collette meant her few words. It was amazing, and it was, to her, a gift. If it weren't exceedingly impractical in the moment, she'd have wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him for the unexpected -- experience of it all.

Instead she squeezes his hands again, hoping that communicates some of what she feels, past whatever she's already communicating. Her smile is wide, but no wider than her eyes. She doesn't want to miss a thing. )

[firstroar]

[it's a message received quite loud and clear. her awe and joy is as palpable as it is intoxicating, gives him a fairly giddy smile of his own as he exchanges the squeeze before releasing one of her hands. better she see more of this landscape than himself before her, after all.

oh, and that hug? the impulse flickered by, and that's nearly as good. it's very flattering, comforting. like the children back at the Shangri-La. a very good thing, indeed.]

I'm not certain, but the barrier in place around the perimeter may apply to the air above. It will be in our best interests to remain close to the height of this building. [which is pretty flippin' tall, mind.]

[whatsupcroc]

Oh, right, stay close to as tall as this palace is. That's totally close to the ground!

( He'd let go of one hand, and for a moment, her heart rate had picked up sharply, but it steadies out as everything remains okay. Part of that being directly influenced by Blue. )

Do you like being like this?

[firstroar]

["being like this?"

it's a funny kind of question. like this? flying? or...simply himself.

either way...]

I hadn't...for a long time. Myself, others like me...We're not safe in our world. Hunted and despised.

[a slight tug of his arm lets her drift forward before they circle a small segment of garden.]

But the longer I am here in this place, among these people...I feel I had found a great deal more joy in my powers. Perhaps myself, too. [looking at her:] And it's not bad, right now.

[whatsupcroc]

( Himself, and energized and capable of flight. All of it blurs together into a greater concept of Blue and Blueisms. She looks down, amused at how differently her eyes see these dark gardens compared to what she almost expects for a moment -- no eagle eyes right now. Owls would be better situated for the lighting, but she doesn't mind. It's all got that glow in a way, and who knows what that'd do to other eyes.

What he says, on another hand, that takes her focus from her other scattered thoughts reacting to environment and focuses them on him. What he says -- she believes it, but she dislikes it intensely even as she finds it unfair. )

I'm glad.

( Fiercely glad, if how she feels is any indication. )

No one should be hunted. No one should be hated just for being who and what they are.

( She smiles, even if the emotion behind that is much stronger and filled with more fire than the good humor she shows outwardly. Even that softens, is less of a spike in her thoughts as she adds: )

You're doing something amazing here, and you were back on the battlefield, too. I mean... amazing and scary that you can try to take in all those things people feel and the people who were there and aren't the same as they were before. It reminds me a little of Mahdi, only I think what you do is way more intense, and it's.... It's good. You're here and we're not going to hunt you.

( Her thoughts gloss over Dean, taking his face and pushing it to the side with a note of, "And if he dares, he's getting croc'd again." Morphing reptile in someone else's bed to shock the spit out of them for making threats against friends?

Not something Collette was above doing. )

You should feel good about being who you are!