[PRP] A Frog in the Hand (Wander & Athera)

[saedusk]

 

[saedusk]

It was a dark night. Not stormy as luck would have it, but thick, rolling clouds blocked the moons on and off, making the already dim forest near-pitch on occasion where there was no artificial light. Even so, Athera roamed around undaunted, her feet bare like her lusus, her hands dirty with mud. She crawled up one of the many large roots surrounding her treehive and stood, expression victorious, though pre-maturely so.

A loud, deep-bellied croak cut the night air and that's when Athera pounced, down off the root, back into the mud. "Got you!" she cried, but her fists were both empty when she threw them to the sky a moment later.

"Aw, noooo." If disappointment could be palpable, it would be in that moment, like a cartoonish fog rolling in over the horizon. Athera climbed back up to a pathway, looking disappointed and absolutely bullfrog-less as she splapped onto her bottom, feet kicking over the edge. Somewhere in the swamp, another hopbeast croaked loud and clear. If she didn't know better, Athera would've claimed they were mocking her.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Wander didn't like to be out when it was so dark. At least she was still in the village, so she could see the lights of people's homes, but she'd be terrified to go out beyond into the swamp proper. Even now, she walked through with a flashlight. Just in case.

Abby, meanwhile, chilled on Wander's shoulders as per usual. Few things got under the lusus's skin. The duo were total opposites right now, in outlook and demeanor. And as relaxed as Abby was, she still didn't manage to reassure Wander much. But then, she was more interested in humming than outright saying anything helpful. It'd be fine.

Wander, meanwhile, was on edge either way. She scanned the underbrush as she passed it. Then she turned, hearing a voice. As she stopped, somthing hopped out of the brush and croaked. Wander, not expecting this, fell back with a scream. She shot off a reflexive firework for good measure. Abby leaped away with ease, to sit on a nearby root.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

A scream?! Athera leapt to her feet like lightning, spinning a 180 to face the path back towards a row of well-lit hives. In quick succession, her eyes darted from one thing to the next, from assailant (bullfrog) to victim (Wander) to firework (ooooh). She didn't know what the spark and pop had been, not really, but she wasn't the type to startle easily. Besides, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"Get back," she commanded, leaping between frog and girl, hand held out in a stop sort of motion. Said hopbeast looked either wholly uninterested or oblivious—how was one supposed to tell?—and disappeared right back into the bush from whence it came.

Turning to Wander then, she stooped right down. "Hey, hey, are you okay?"

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Another figure jumped in, speaking comprehensible words. A fellow troll! Oh...jeez... That meant someone else got to see her be a weenie. As Wander watched the frog disappear from the light of her flashlight, her face warmed up in shame. Just a hopbeast. Could've started a fire...over that... Uuuugh.

Wander's shaky hand rolled the beam of light up Athera's form bit by bit. "U-um." Oh, this was a swamp troll, huh? "Y-yeah..."

She should probably get up off her butt, but honestly she'd rather be in a sink hole and go right down to the bottom.

"Th-thank you... That w-was r-really silly of me, though, huh....."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"No problem!" Athera said boisterously, obviously proud of herself for intervening despite the minimal threat. "Don't worry, it happens. You didn't know what it was, yeah? It coulda been a monster!"

On monster, Athera popped back to full height and even hopped a couple inches off the ground. She held a hand down in offering to help Wander back up.

"Did you see that flash thing a second ago, though?" she asked, not understanding Wander had been the source.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Monsters...? Wander wasn't sure about that. Maybe wildlife, but she knew how to avoid the dangerous ones... And Abby would fight anything that might come after her, anyway. The orangeblood was just so embarrassingly jumpy, that's all.

Still, she mumbled a quiet yet doubtful, "M-maybe..." Wander meanwhile let Athera help her up, because, well, she couldn't just let Athera's polite gesture hang. "Thank you... U-um..."

Standing up again, she got to dust herself off. "The f-flash? Oh. Sorry. Th-That p-probably wasn't a good idea... Ahhhhh... I-I know it's a fire hazard..." She didn't think to give any further context.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"It's a fire hazard? I mean... yeah, I guess." Athera seemed to consider this as she rocked on her heels. Enthusiastic or not, she was smart enough to know if a fire caught in the swamp, it could easily pass from one flammable treehive to another with ease. Just because they were built over water and muck didn't mean they'd get off scot free.

"It was still cool, though." A short pause and- "Whoa, wait wait, you're acting like it was your fault or something. Did you make that flash?"

Curiously, she leaned closer.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

She chuckled, a little flustered, and scratched the back of her head. Wander looked away sheepishly. "Um... Y-Yeah. I h-have ps-psionics..." She refocused so she could show off some sparks in a safe way, making the sparks with a snap of her fingers. "I sh-shouldn't be shooting them a-at anything that m-makes me jump, though. S-so that's embarrassing..."

"Um... I-I'm Wander, by the way." Another swamp kid she had never met before! Wander needed to work on her socializing a little more.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Athera's eyes lit up, literally and figuratively, the shimmer of the spark flickering in them as they grew even wider. Now that was impressive, she thought. It didn't make sense to her that her new friend seemed so sheepish about it.

"I wish I could do something like that..." she admitted wistfully, "I bet you could do some really cool stuff with them, y'know? What's it like to be a psionic, anyway??" Internally, Athera had other questions, too. Why were some trolls born that way and others not? It was the same for her, being born different... Lost in thought, she almost missed the introduction.

"Oh, dang, sorry- I'm Athera! Nice to meet you, Wander."

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Wander felt some amount of deja vu, being told that her powers were cool. For Wander, it was always a little different. "I-I guess it's j-just normal for me, to b-be like this... It's all I know how to be. I s-see so many other trolls not be psionic a-and it just makes me think 'oh they d-don't have to worry about s-starting fires'..." she shrugged. Athera looked so excited, that her response might just ruin the mood. Oops.

"B-but! I-it's pretty fun to make fireworks and sparks! I don't hate it or want to not be psionic..." She didn't call it normal. Wander didn't want to. She was different enough and ostracizing herself for something she kind of liked about herself deep down would just make her feel worse.

Though, she did think of greater Alternia outside of the swamp, and how being psionic folded into that environment. "It w-would p-probably not be as nice i-if I lived on the Outside. Psionics a-are used f-for space ships, and they've been trying to get back up there... I-I'm glad I don't e-e-ever have to be worried about being used." That would be rough.

"Instead I g-get to use it for w-whatever I want! H-hopefully at the end of magic shows someday... Th-that would be nice."

"I-is there anything y-you want to do w-w-when you're older, Ath-thera?"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

It was a sobering thought, but Athera understood. Her own viewpoints aligned at least somewhat with Wander's, but she was still a child and pretty, sparkly psionics were exciting and fun when not put into context. Now that they were, she calmed a bit.

"We can't change the way we're born," she said, "All we can do is try our best to be who we wanna be and not who anybody else tells us we gotta be." Athera couldn't tell Wander about her blood—her own secret that made her very different—or the way it made her feel, and that was frustrating, but she could support the orangeblood as best she could. Some night in the far off future, Athera hoped beyond hope that she'd be accepted despite her differences, too.

"You could do soooo much with your powers as a magician, I bet! You can do it! Promise me you'll let me come see one of your shows some night? That's what I wanna do when I'm older." She laughed, meaning it wholeheartedly, but knowing it probably wasn't the answer Wander had been looking for.

"I also wanna travel the world when I'm older, though. I wanna see every corner of Alternia so I can find all the really cool plants and bring some of them back."

Gl!tch~