i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[truthwright]

Kas sighs and hugs his daughter. Petaal flits to Kalavar's side as a tiny hummingbird, then curls up with her as a chinchilla.

[alicornucopia]

Nicoa is coiled around Shura's neck as a long white ferret.

The teacher sighs. "I think we should call it a day, girls; we'll go on tomorrow. Run along."

Inkeri runs along. Kaydi lingers, looking suspiciously at Helen. Shura dawdles.

[truthwright]

Kas sits and snuggles his daughter.

[carillons]

Eventually, Helen turns around in his lap to see who is still there. She's a little red-eyed, but not actively crying.

[alicornucopia]

"How'd you yell like that?" Kaydi asks.

[carillons]

"Like what?" she asks, blinking.

[alicornucopia]

"Like a - a boomy thing."

[carillons]

"Dunno," says Helen. "I just yelled really loud."

[truthwright]

Kas hugs her. Thoughtfully.

[alicornucopia]

"I heard it too, it was different," opines Shura.

"Not normal," says Kaydi.

[carillons]

Helen shrugs.

"I didn't do it specially on purpose. I was just - yelling."

[alicornucopia]

"Can you do it again?" asks Shura curiously.

"Don't!" says Kaydi, clapping her hands over her ears.

[carillons]

Helen considers.

"I don't really want to yell right now," she says.

[alicornucopia]

Kaydi puts her hands down. Lexaryn, on her shoulder as a mouse, chitters.

"What if you did, though?" asks Shura.

[carillons]

"What what if I did?"

[alicornucopia]

"If you wanted to yell could you do it like that again," says Shura.

Kaydi runs along.

[carillons]

"I don't know! Maybe," she says. "Do you want me to try?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah!" says Shura. (Nicoa turns into a box turtle and hides his head in his shell.)

[carillons]

Helen giggles at Nicoa, and un-sits from Kas's lap, and thinks for a moment, and yells, "I'm yelling for no reason!"

It doesn't come out quite right; she can feel it. She frowns for a moment and then tries again.

"I'm yelling for no reason!"

There it goes. She giggles again.

[alicornucopia]

Shura laughs and claps.

[carillons]

Helen beams.

"I did a thing!"

[alicornucopia]

"What thing is it, though? How do you do it? I'm yelliiiiiing," Shura tries experimentally.

[carillons]

"I don't know!" she says. "I don't knooooooooooooow..."

This time she does it without the volume, just filling a twenty-foot radius with her ordinary voice.

"Maybe it's magic," she says more normally. "But it's not in the book anywhere."

[alicornucopia]

"And you didn't verse it. Have you been eating funny herbs or spilling honey in shapes or something?"

[carillons]

"Not even a little bit!" says Helen.