So, the big tiger-looking guy needed food. Oliver knew he could grow that food, so here he was, in the little tunnel between Cepheus and the broad expanse of Pegasus beyond. He hadn't wanted to mess up Cepheus's gardens, but somehow the idea of possibly leaving remnants of plants lying around here felt... fitting. The tunnel was already formed of twisting foliage; surely a little more would only add to that.

Oliver crouched partway down the tunnel, mostly hidden in a little, empty alcove that he'd chosen. It seemed secluded enough for him to focus without much fear, and so he did.

The plan was to make a bunch of fruit, then carry it back to Cepheus: so he got started on that now.

A moment's focus, his clawed wing-limbs cupped carefully before him--and a banana sprang into being, all glorious yellow and rubbery skin.

"Oooh," he said, blue eyes widening a tad, impressed somehow that his own magic had actually worked.

...Awesome!

Oliver's growing some food plants for the Be Our Guest quest thread! Anyone who would want to is welcome to join, intervene, or whatever!

There had been traffic through the faerie woods as of late. Rain's little lair was tucked within the trees, and from their hiding hole they'd spied a creature wandering through. A creature somewhat like a big, black dog, although it had wings where its front paws would have gone. A yellow thing suddenly appeared in his hands, and Rain's eyes lit up. What had he created? Their antennae waved -- it smelled sort of like food. Not like creature-food, but like plant-food. Some of the faeries liked that, they recalled.

And besides, it was poor manners to bring food into a faerie's home and not offer them any.

The trees unfolded as Rain shuffled forward, their arrival heralded by the thump of footsteps on the floor. They bore new attire -- smooth, off-white beads in various shapes strung around all of their ankles with a cord that, upon close inspection, seemed to be made of dried intestine. In fact, if inspected especially closely, the beads might reveal themselves to be bone. They had a thin, translucent membrane like a gauzy cloak draped over top of their head, flattening their fluff a little bit. Over top of that they bore a soft, white cloak made of deer hide that was surprisingly warm and still smelled slightly like its own preserving fluid.

While they looked quite ghastly if assessed closely, as it were, they had foregone the antlered mask made of the deer's skill. Instead, they just looked like a somewhat strange but very well-dressed child who was very curious about what he was doing. When they spoke, their voice was high, sweet, and feminine. "Hello!" Rain cooed, shuffling forward with their scythes drawn over their chest rather like a mantis. "What are you doing? Is that a food?"


@oliver

One banana down, however many to go. He was working on creating further food--a pumpkin fruit, something to start a second food pile with--when soft footfalls alerted him to the quiet approach of a stranger.

Oliver looked up, blinking, blue eyes guileless. He briefly studied the newcomer--and didn't seem to judge them, but rather inspecting them, as if to see if he knew them. He didn't. He hadn't, in fact, ever seen anything like Rain, before. But they were friendly, and Oliver offered a bright and happy... expression; one could hardly call a dog face a "smile" but his lip-corners pulled back, eyes brightening, his ear-tufts pricking up.

"Hello," he greeted softly, as if in agreement with the mantis's own. He sat back, head tilting, and gestured to the banana--oh! and to the fat orange pumpkin that had popped into existence beside it. "I'm just making some fruit, for an um-..." (How to explain the chef?) "Well, in the next cave, there's a palace. And in the palace there's a Gembound asking for food so he can do a--a party or something? I think. So I'm going to help him. I make--uh, fruit, and grow plants and stuff, with magic?" His voice, throughout, was soft, so that this pause seemed almost a hesitation, a question; it was as though he were asking, without asking, whether Rain understood. Or, even, if his explanation were right.

After a moment, though, the brighter, happier expression returned. "I'm Oliver, anyway; I like your, um--arms?" (Were they arms? He wasn't sure.) "Oh, and if you wanted to come to the party thing, I think anybody can," he added.

There was a worried moment where the smile vanished in realization, where he blinked, and then he asked "Oh, this isn't your home, is it? I'm not--uh, intruding?"

@Rain

Rain's eyes sparkled. A party? In a palace, with food? Well, Cepheus was a funny place where the rules were different, and Rain didn't really like being a guest somewhere else, but any nice dinner was a chance to cause chaos. Although... Cepheus did give them a bit of pause. Instead, they eyed the way Oliver's shoulders moved, the stretch of the tendons in his heels, every perk and shift of movement. Fascinating. They would have rather liked to take him apart, but they didn't have their scythes from the Collector yet.

"I live here," she said sweetly, not quite answering his question. Her eyes blinked, all five of them, and she looked back down at the pumpkin. The Queen could do that, too! So it was just magic, then. Common, if interesting. They glanced back at Oliver and, for the sake of making conversation, mulled over their words for a moment before speaking.

"The Palace of Kings has many nice things for taking," Rain would have grinned, but their mandibles still in their mouth like teeth, "but beware of the lion, or your bones will soon be breaking." They paused, displeased with the rhythm of the rhyme, but didn't try to make another one. "Do you like games, Oliver?" they asked, feeling the word on their tongue. Names had such power. How foolish to just give it up like it was nothing.


@oliver

Well, this creature seemed nice. Of course, he'd introduced himself, and they hadn't given him a name in turn--and despite what they thought, no, his name held no strange power. It was just a word, sounds and nothing more; he had no idea of Rain's bizarre beliefs, or that they had perhaps deliberately withheld their own. It was with this obliviousness that he asked the obvious: "Well, it's nice to meet you--what do I call you?"

Ooooh. It lived here! "Oh, it's--a nice home," Oliver offered, glancing around. And it was; very pretty, very natural, in a way not often matched in the caves. "I can go, if you want, though--I don't want to be in your way." The mantis hadn't said if he were intruding, or not, and he didn't want to step on anybody's toes.

"Is that what they call it-? The 'palace of kings?'" Oliver squinted, for a moment, pondering the meaning of the words. Palace he understood well enough, but kings-? Those were leaders, yes? Was it a palace, then, for the leaders of the groups? Maybe that was where Rift had gone. But-... Lions? He'd met those, once or twice. None particularly aggressive, though. "I didn't see a lion there--is it mean? Do you know why?" Maybe it was hurt, or something. Or--and Oliver briefly studied Rain, here--maybe it hadn't realized this bug-creature wasn't food?

As for games, Oliver was woefully inexperienced. "I haven't had time to play a lot of games," he answered, with a non-committal shrug. He looked down at clawed wing-hands again as he focused on his work.

Nothing came of this attempt, and he sighed softly, studying the empty space lingering between his 'hands.'

Then, he looked back up, blinking to Rain. "I have to help with the palace, for now, or well--with food. But what kinda games do you play?" It was a friendly tone, and his words, too, were curious.

@Rain

They squinted, and hummed lightly. Hiding behind an alias, on the other hand, well -- that was quite a bit different. "Sometimes I am called Walks-Like-Rain. Others just call me Rain." They thumped a foot against the ground, the beads of their bracelet rattling together but the thump still being heard. When they all walked together, it sounded like raindrops.

Rain gave a small laugh as he looked around at the trees, covering their face and unable to stop it. How many other faeries were lurking in the wings, waiting to follow Rain's lead? Probably not many, now that they thought about it -- today was kind of slow. Still. "What is a way but a path for a stray? This tunnel is..." they paused, thinking for a moment. "Multifunctional," is what Rain decided on, pleased with themselves.

As for the lion... "Positively beastly is she," mused the creature, really getting into this rhyming thing, "honestly, it's best to just let her be. Snakes on her tails and blue fire for scales -- she's the keeper of the palace, and insufferably callous." Her eyes lit up. "Beware of the caretaker, my dear fruit-maker!" Oh, that one was fun.

Then he was expressing that he hadn't played many games before, and Rain pouted. How miserable! Making things go pop was so much fun. But that wasn't what she was trying to trick Oliver into. Her eyes lit up, excited and just a twinge sinister. "A game with a special toy and an obstacle course," they said, scuffing the shape of a tuning fork into the dirt. "When you hit it, it rings. Noises and pretty things. Then you run away when your friends try to catch you. You play it in different caves until you win." It was a bad explanation, but Rain was making it up on the spot -- one couldn't expect too much from them.


@oliver

"Walks-Like-Rain!" Oliver exclaimed, delighted, eyes widening. "That's such a pretty name!" He'd never thought of having a name like that--descriptive, beautiful. And it took him a moment, but at last he realized that Walks-Like-Rain was rhyming! "You're rhyming, too. I didn't even realize, sorry. Is that hard? -Why do you do it?" he added, curiously. Ear-tufts pressed forward, his full attention on the mantis, for a moment. They were fascinating, and he made no attempt to hide that--why would he? He was entranced, as he so often was meeting someone new and unique--and everyone was unique!

For a moment, he focused again on pumpkins; they seemed to like the soil here better, or something; something about the magic, the tunnel, its resonance. One slowly began to form, out of nothing, before him. And the bug-creature had said nothing about him intruding--hadn't answered him, in fact, so he assumed he was safe to be here. "Sorry to hear about the lion. I didn't know. It sucks when people are mean," he added, with solemn empathy. "Uhh--she didn't actually break any bones, did she? I can heal wounds, if you need me to."

He didn't quite grasp the nature of the game that Rain was describing, but he offered a sort of polite and agreeable response nonetheless--it didn't sound like something he was interested in, but surely others would enjoy it! "It sounds like you have fun, then?" he offered, glancing up again with a sort-of-smile in Rain's direction.

@Rain

It wasn't a name, not really, but Rain still preened at it being called pretty. It was. They were pretty. A faery should be nothing less! At the question about rhyming though, they gave a vague shrug. Rain took a moment, trying to think of a rhyme for what they wanted to say, before breaking the scheme and just saying, "It's tricky to do for long, but it's fun, isn't it?" Rain held a scythe up to cover their mouth for a moment, as if to hide shyly behind a fan or something. "What better reason to do anything, than for the sake of fun?" And oh, hurting innocent little things like this was so much fun, but she didn't have much backup and he hadn't actually been rude or anything.

Actually, he was being quite nice -- he might have made a decent pet if he were smaller. "Not that I knew," she said primly, glancing back towards the trees. "I was only warning you." After a beat, they continued, "You say you are a healer? I am..." They paused, their inflexible face contorting as much as it could into a frown. What in the world rhymed with healer? The only words that came to mind were ones that Oliver probably wouldn't take kindly to -- squealer, peeler, sealer. Feeler? That didn't work. They made a vague gesture. "Me too." Probably not in the way he meant it, though.

Unfortunately, Oliver didn't take the bait regarding the task, and Rain just nodded. "My friends and me, have fun to any degree. Our games can take us to wonderful places -- and we can see so many different faces." And eat them. Or steal them. That too. But Rain didn't add that part -- they were still playing up their facade.


@oliver

Oliver was almost beaming--as best a dog-bird could, anyway. He liked this stranger, and it occurred to him that some of the nicest Gembound he'd met were bug-like--Venari and Ziosite foremost among them. He mentally added Walks-Like-Rain to this list.

"Yeah!" he agreed, enthusiastically--to the topic of 'fun.' But there was no malice in him, and if he noticed any in Rain, he gave no sign whatsoever. "It's all we've got, really, isn't it-? Being happy, you know? It's good to be happy. To have fun," he clarified, blinking up at them. "And I'm glad you guys have fun! You and your friends, I mean. Meeting new people's great, too, the uhh--different faces. It's really nice getting to know new people, I think." Oliver'd never really met anyone--bar a few attackers in Eridanus many, many cycles ago--that he wouldn't have called 'friend.' To the bird-dog, everyone had hidden facets, and something to teach him.

Speaking of which-!

"So um--what kinda healing magic do you know? If you don't mind me asking. It's always good to learn more, I think--maybe we could teach each other something?" he ventured, glancing up almost shyly as he worked.

A banana popped into existence between his claws, and he set this aside, offering the mantis-creature yet another 'smile.'

@Rain

Honestly, Oliver was getting a little boring, and Rain was becoming increasingly less interested in his pile of fruit. He was... nice, more or less. Innocent and sweet. He didn't look very dangerous, but then, neither did any of the faeries. Rain's blank face tilted, doglike and curious, as though mirroring Oliver when he asked about magic. What was it with Gembound and assuming things that nobody had said?

"I did not say anything about magic," Rain said, eyes sparkling with a sinister edge. "Though I can keep wounds disinfected in a pinch. Make them feel better." That was about it, but Rain knew that they had more or less the same capabilities that the Queen did, since they had the same type of magic. Rain just hadn't bothered to practice it very much. They tilted their head to the side. "I would not mind learning some, though."


@oliver