10-21-2013, 03:00 PM
The night that they told Melantha, they forgot to buy her ice cream. She didn't mind. She prefers s'mores, which Erich probably considers ridiculous when one can eat ice cream, and which seems very odd when -- to appease, perhaps, some strange attraction to the color on Charlotte's part -- she brings home pink marshmallows to roast. Pink and blue and green ones, all fluffy and pastel and looking actually a bit disgusting when paired with the deep brown of the chocolate and the pale brown of the crackers and oozing all over their fingers.
They told her that the rite existed, and then what it entailed, and what it would mean. Melantha did not tell them why she paled. Nor does she need to. Because when Erich and Charlotte returned and told her that they found one, that they were found, that some spirit out there which the land remembers better than humans because the land has a longer memory accepted them and will accept her, too, because there is honor and wisdom in speaking without fear --
she did just fine when Charlotte pushed the need and thread through the thin skin of her knuckles. Even though it took several tries. Even though every time, Melantha was left with those tiny lacerations far longer than either of them because she would bat at Charlotte when Charlotte tried to heal her because that's silly, and maybe Charlotte snuck up and healed her in her sleep because she just can't help it or because they were both asleep and Charlotte's spirit reached out to Melantha's body without Charlotte's mind being involved at all. Regardless: every time they try and it doesn't work, Melantha steeled herself and took the needle without so much as a flinch. The first couple of times she even watched, watched the blood well up and the skin break and even though she felt incredibly light-headed, that's all that happened.
--
One day, it works. And she closes her eyes as something does not settle over her but comes rushing up from underneath her, throwing her skyward and outward and connecting her at once, somehow, with both the core the spinning earth and the shield of the whispering atmosphere and all the many, many layers of air and rock and earth and water in between. There is a moment when she feels the turning of the earth, its madcap rolling through the galaxy, centered on a tiny molten mirror of sunfire, and when she feels every foot on the ground and every rock that was once in another form. It takes several seconds, a minute or more, before she reels back enough to feel the blood dripping down her fingertips. She looks for Charlotte and Erich and finds them first in her mind, before her eyes even focus on them.
VolcanopleasetellErichandCharlotteIsayhellothankyou flutters from one mind to another. It will take some convincing to get Melantha to accept that she does not have to address Volcano directly and say please-and-thank-you every time. She is suspicious at first when they tell her so, and tries to argue that maybe they shouldn't be so rude, and you begin to understand when you see her arguing with a Theurge and Ahroun about the temperaments of spirits why they wanted this rite at all. Why they are a pack... Melantha included.
Even when she is completely, totally wrong about whether or not Volcano will think she's rude.
[SEVERAL tries!
Melantha Argyris @ 2:16PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 7, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 3 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 4 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 6 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:49PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) VALID ]
They told her that the rite existed, and then what it entailed, and what it would mean. Melantha did not tell them why she paled. Nor does she need to. Because when Erich and Charlotte returned and told her that they found one, that they were found, that some spirit out there which the land remembers better than humans because the land has a longer memory accepted them and will accept her, too, because there is honor and wisdom in speaking without fear --
she did just fine when Charlotte pushed the need and thread through the thin skin of her knuckles. Even though it took several tries. Even though every time, Melantha was left with those tiny lacerations far longer than either of them because she would bat at Charlotte when Charlotte tried to heal her because that's silly, and maybe Charlotte snuck up and healed her in her sleep because she just can't help it or because they were both asleep and Charlotte's spirit reached out to Melantha's body without Charlotte's mind being involved at all. Regardless: every time they try and it doesn't work, Melantha steeled herself and took the needle without so much as a flinch. The first couple of times she even watched, watched the blood well up and the skin break and even though she felt incredibly light-headed, that's all that happened.
--
One day, it works. And she closes her eyes as something does not settle over her but comes rushing up from underneath her, throwing her skyward and outward and connecting her at once, somehow, with both the core the spinning earth and the shield of the whispering atmosphere and all the many, many layers of air and rock and earth and water in between. There is a moment when she feels the turning of the earth, its madcap rolling through the galaxy, centered on a tiny molten mirror of sunfire, and when she feels every foot on the ground and every rock that was once in another form. It takes several seconds, a minute or more, before she reels back enough to feel the blood dripping down her fingertips. She looks for Charlotte and Erich and finds them first in her mind, before her eyes even focus on them.
VolcanopleasetellErichandCharlotteIsayhellothankyou flutters from one mind to another. It will take some convincing to get Melantha to accept that she does not have to address Volcano directly and say please-and-thank-you every time. She is suspicious at first when they tell her so, and tries to argue that maybe they shouldn't be so rude, and you begin to understand when you see her arguing with a Theurge and Ahroun about the temperaments of spirits why they wanted this rite at all. Why they are a pack... Melantha included.
Even when she is completely, totally wrong about whether or not Volcano will think she's rude.
[SEVERAL tries!
Melantha Argyris @ 2:16PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 7, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 3 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 4 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:48PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 6 ) VALID
Melantha Argyris @ 2:49PM
[Willpower]
Roll: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) VALID ]
my whole life is thunder.