There's a story in my veins, with scars on every page

[notathreat]

WHO: Ellie & OPEN
WHAT: Rifting in less-than-gracefully, a rogue explosion or two, & initial trouble accomplished
WHEN: Arrival and during the first week after.
WHERE: The Hinterlands, The Gallows
NOTES: So much swearing holy shit.

[Arrival.]

The worst part about lucid dreaming is when shit gets a little too real. Especially when it's not the usual kind of horrible. So when Ellie goes from another nightmare about things hunting her in an endless horrible sewer to being sucked into the water, hurtling down through the rain-soaked Seattle depths, she tries to tell herself that she can breathe underwater. She opens her mouth and tries, and the foul water fills her throat-

And she launches out, along with a gush of Seattle sewer water, hits a hillside and goes tumbling.

... and it's steep enough that she keeps going.

Ellie coughs, chokes, tries to scream, and unleashes a garbled stream of hacking, choking profanity.

Maybe you're the unlucky person on the trail she happens to literally bowl into (and possibly take out).

Or maybe you're the one who finds her screaming back into the face of a despair demon, soaked in foul-smelling sewer water, having just hurled a piece of rock shaped suspiciously like a revolver into its face.

She absolutely just called the demon a motherfucker.



[Gallows; Quarantine Times]

A bath, a few square meals and a bit of explanation later, Ellie seems far less... feral. She's dressed in local clothing, a tunic, pants and boots, and has stopped acting like a cat, roaming the stairways in the towers and popping up unexpectedly in places people didn't see her enter.

She shows up near the top of one of the towers, tucked into a window, looking down at the courtyard below.

"... so I heard there were actual griffons roosting up here. Is it true?"


[ooc; HMU if you want a custom starter!]

Comments

[notathreat]

The familiarity is there, but it's not enough to trip her into full recognition. This is a new world, everything is an overload of sensory input, and Ellie's still sorting out what's a threat and what isn't. She's slowly venturing into actual conversation, even if it's in a remote part of the towers and one on one.

The sparkles are new, as is the sudden ability to teleport.

Ellie's green eyes snap wide and alarmed as Glimmer appears in front of her, and touch or no touch, she goes right for her knife. In the next split second she sparks with recognition and aborts the sudden, deadly thrust of the blade, pulling her hand back with enough force to unbalance her completely on the ledge.

Alarm -- recognition -- then alarm again as Ellie's overbalances, overestimates her grip with her weakened left hand, and-

Falls from the tower window.

"Shit-!"

[sparklequeen]

Oh. Glimmer maybe got a little too ahead of herself on the teleporting thing. There's a sound of shock and dismay as Ellie unbalances herself--Glimmer hadn't expected quite so sharp a reaction-and then tumbles out the tower window. In an instant, not even thinking, just doing like she has so many times before, she teleports out after her. As Ellie is falling she suddenly has arms wrapped around her and Glimmer's voice in her ear over the rush of sea air.

"Hold on--!" She teleports again--she can't see into the window they just fall out of, unfortunately and even if her powers are back, she has to make do with new limitations. So instead there's a disconcerting lurch in reality that's probably not terribly pleasant or normal for someone who's never done the whole teleportation thing before with a thud the pair of them land on the stone of the courtyard below. Of course, falling from two feet is much better than, well. However high they were. Glimmer releases Ellie and rolls onto her back with a groan.

"Oh Gods I forgot how hard it is to catch someone in mid-air--" Then, as if remembering, she sits up and leans over Ellie.

"Ellie, I'm so sorry--! I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that, I know better--! Are you okay?!" All concern and guilt and fretting over her friend.

[notathreat]

It's all too much of a shock for her to react immediately. Ellie's fallen before but never from somewhere quite this high, and her immediate, fevered thought as she glimpses the various levels of rooftops and the courtyard below is that she's going to break her legs at best.

Something ignites inside of her, a burning and exhilarated feeling that flares out around her, rushes through her veins, calling every muscle in her body to life in a way she's felt only a handful of times, even if she's never seen her eyes burn gold.

But then Glimmer's voice is in her ear, her familiar arms are around her, holding on tight, and the world gives a hitch and a pop. They spill onto the cobbled stones of the courtyard, leaving her dazed and with her heart thumping, struggling to make sense of it.

Glimmer's face is above her, and Ellie doesn't think. She surges up, reaching for her, catching her in her arms to give her breathlessly tight hug.

(Sorry about that leftover Battle Spirit strength, Glim.)

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer is in a flustered panic, worried that somehow she's hurt Ellie, injured her, maybe upset her--and then there are arms wrapped around her tight and Glimmer wheezes. Oh that's almost too tight. Regardless, her arms find their way around Ellie in return and she holds on as tight as she can. Tears start to squeeze from her eyes--a relief of emotion at seeing a familiar face--any familiar face.

"It's really you!" She manages to say breathlessly. "I--Why aren't you back in New Amsterdam?"

[notathreat]

Glimmer's little wheeze has Ellie loosening her arms, the gold fading from her eyes, along with a little breath of relief. She shifts her hold to be a little more comfortable, but she's not quite ready to let her go yet.

Partially because she missed her, partially because she's not ready for Glimmer to see her face yet. She might do something stupid, like cry.

"Fuck if I know," she sighs, her voice strained, both pain and relief.

"First you disappeared, and then everybody else started to just... I dunno. Suddenly show up missing." Ellie takes another breath. "And then, y'know. Giant-ass green portal and a bunch of monsters."

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer continues the hug, though her absently notes that for whatever reason, the usual flood of emotions and memories isn't happening. Maybe just because there's so much less skin on display here--it was always warm to some degree in New Amsterdam. Here, it's a much cooler spring. She takes a breath and leans back at last, just so she can try and get a look at Ellie.

"Last thing I remember was falling asleep in the apartment and then... portal and monsters and the color green, yeah..." She trails off, frowning. "I just got here, though. Only been a few days."

[notathreat]

Ellie looks more scattered than Glimmer's ever seen her. Most of the time back in New Amsterdam, she had her shit at least passably together. She'd locked up tight, kept herself in check around other people. Now, she takes in Glimmer's face, the familiarity of her eyes, and takes another deep breath.

"Fuck," she whispers, but nods.

"I've been here a few days too. But you- you disappeared weeks ago."

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer sits back a little, runs her hands along Ellie's shoulders and upper arms, like a mother checking over a child who's had a fall. Gods, I'm turning into my mother, Glimmer thought briefly before the conversation arrests her attention.

"Wait, weeks? That's--" She was going to say 'impossible' but she remembers that Adora and Catra had both been in New Amsterdam lacking months and even years of the time she had. Or the time Catra had vanished and reappeared with more of those memories.

"I'm getting really tired of this traveling between different worlds stuff," she groans instead of denying the possibility.

"This happened with Adora and Catra in Meadowlark--I had time they didn't I guess I know what it feels like to be on their end of it, now..." She sighs and runs a hand through her hair (still fluffy and feathery as always, but lacking in color).

"And they messed with my hair again," she adds peevishly. Unlike before, though, she does have a bit of royal raiment--a golden circlet set with a white gemstone on her forehead.

[notathreat]

From most others, the touch would have her skin prickling, but knowing the care that's behind it, the light grazing touches have Ellie settling down. She's fine, just bruised, and that's nothing.

She drinks in the look in Glimmer's eyes, the expressions she makes, the way she groans and messes with her hair and is so very real, and she can't help the smile that creeps in. The feeling of reality and relief. Ellie had quietly resigned herself to never seeing Glimmer again, and then everyone else, too.

Seeing a familiar face here means more than she can say.

"It looks really nice," she says, grinning.

[sparklequeen]

"Ugh--shut up, all the color is gone--!" Glimmer's voice takes on an annoyed tone, but the sort that's more playful than really upset. Having someone she knows here, in front of her and real is doing wonders for settling her down. Grounding her. This feels a little more real, a little more survivable. She slumps a little, fingers pinching a lock of it.

"But if you think it's nice, I guess I can deal with it for now," she says with a wry grin.

"...And my magic is back! Or, you know, some of it? Told you I could teleport." Okay, never mind that it was her fault they fell out of the window in the first place, she's gonna look smug about it.

[notathreat]

Ellie wriggles, fitting an elbow underneath herself to half sit up, returning the wry grin. Even if it's not the pink sparkles-

"Still suits you. Maybe you'll figure something out." Ellie reaches out, flicking a lock of it playfully back, her smile widening.

"I believed you, but holy shit, Glimmer- let's not do that again."

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer looks upwards at Ellie's words and nods.

"Yeah I've done it before but--definitely don't want to do it here any more than I have to. And I am so sorry, I didn't expect to startle you out the window--I feel so bad about that, Ellie..." Glimmer winces, even though they're both safe and sound on solid ground for the moment.

"I was just excited to see a familiar face, that's all."

[notathreat]

Ellie gives her a crooked little smile, then reaches out to punch her lightly in the arm, shaking her head.

"No harm done. Seeing you more than makes up for it, you know. But I could use someone to go with me to have a look at those griffons."

[sparklequeen]

"They have griffons? I had no idea." Glimmer seems entirely enthused by the idea of griffons.

"Up in the tower?"

[notathreat]

"That's what I heard."

Ellie goes bright, her smile wide; nobody else has been nearly as enthusiastic. In fact, plenty of people here seem to want nothing to do with the griffons at all, citing the possibility of being eaten.

Which, y'know. Ellie figures is probably an actual possibility. But she's willing to risk that.

"I guess some of the people here even use them as mounts. Like, they ride them. It sounds so fucking cool."

[sparklequeen]

"That's so cool," Glimmer says with far too much enthusiasm. She pushes herself to her feet and offers a hand down to Ellie so she can help the other to her feet.

"Adora had a horse with wings back on Etheria, but I've never actually seen a griffon. We have to check it out!" Getting eaten is a small price to pay for seeing a cool animal up close, right?

[notathreat]

Ellie reaches up to grasp Glimmer's hand, still bracing for the rush of emotion-sharing. It's both a relief and a loss when it doesn't come. She'd never thought she'd actually miss getting that touch of someone's heart brushing against hers.

She squeezes her hand, pulls back a little shakily once she's on her feet.

"Swiftwing? Or something? The talking one?" Ellie flashes a smile, then nods toward the tower entrance.

"Race you."

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer stills for a moment when the rush of shared emotion and memory doesn't come. It's a shock, a strange sense of loss that she no longer has this connection with her friend.

"...The empathic bond isn't working," she murmurs distantly, then shakes her head.

"And yeah, Swiftwind, the talking one." Wait, a race!

"You're gonna lose--" And she takes off running.

[notathreat]

Ellie's expression flickers -- but it's something to come back to. When they aren't caught up in the excitement seeing each other. When the race is done and they've seen some griffons. When something feels anything other than strange.

She missed Glimmer. She wants these few moments with her before they acknowledge the loss.

Instead she pulls a grin and makes for the tower. The whole way up will be several stories of spiraling staircases, making it much different from a normal race. More a test of endurance. Even Ellie's going to have trouble.

"You wish. See you at the top!"

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer tackles the stairs two at a time at first--she's in decent enough shape but by the time she gets half-way up (okay probably earlier) her legs are protesting and she's gasping for breath. By the time she reaches the top, she's not running anymore and she's had to stop a few times to catch her breath.

"...I'm never racing up that many stairs again." She flops over onto the stone floor with a groan.

"Owwww..."

[notathreat]

By the time they reach the top Ellie's wheezing, and puts a hand to the stone of the wall, even if she doesn't flop down on the floor next to her. It takes her a few breaths to be able to respond, and when she does it's with a breathless laugh.

"Fuuuuck, that was way more brutal than I thought."

She's so out of shape -- those months of soft living.

[sparklequeen]

"If I could teleport like I'm supposed to be able to--I would have just--zapped up here. Poof. Instant win." Glimmer laughs from her space on the floor. Laughing when she's already winded just doubles her up even more and it takes a moment or two for her to finally get hold of her breath.

"Agh. Okay. I'm okay." She starts to push herself up to her feet. "Where are these griffons?"

[notathreat]

"That'd be a cheap shot." Ellie blows a raspberry, but runs a hand back through her hair, gestures up at the heavy-looking wooden door.

"Guess through there. Dunno what to expect or anything, so let's go slow."

She reaches out to open the latch, glances back at Glimmer, and pulls the heavy door open. It smells like a mixture between horse and bird up here. Straw...

"Shit, this takes me back to the farm," Ellie mutters, and slips through the door, gesturing for Glimmer to follow her. They can already hear them above and they sound HUGE.

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer wrinkles her nose and moves to follow into the open doorway, glancing around as she moves.

"Smells like the stables," she mutters quietly. "Mixed with... something else? Egh. I get why you'd keep griffons up here but cleaning this place must be a huge chore..."

[notathreat]

"Chicken coop," Ellie says cheerfully, turning a grin on Glimmer, wondering if this is the first time she's smelled anything like it. She looks more the part of a princess now, even if Ellie's never really known her as anything other than her friend.

"Yeah, I'll just bet. Might as well throw everything out the windows. But that'd suck for the people down below."