2025-10-08 - Pixies in Peril!

Trace was on the initial expedition that had first come to Oritora but hasn't been back since, so he was interested in an opportunity to return to this world and get to see more of it. He's alternately spent some time flying above the trees, keeping track of those on the ground through the branches and walking along with the rest of the group. Currently, he's strolling along with the others, large black feathered wings tucked behind him.

He' s dressed in a pair of black jeans and laced up boots, a dark red long-sleeved shirt that's been modified to accommodate his wings left unbuttoned at the collar. He has a small pack slung over one shoulder, tucked beneath his wing. The only other recent addition is a black band around his left ring finger with tiny flecks of stone in it that make it glitter like the night sky.

"So uh...what are we gonna do when we get to the pixie village?" asks Cooper as he walks beside Parker.

Unlike last time, he isn't in medieval attire. Instead, he's wearing a good pair of hiking boots, shorts and a t-shirt with a light military style jacket. He's usually a lot more stylish than that, but this situation calls for practicality. He's also carrying a backpack with water and snacks.

Angelo has never been here before but was convinced to bother wearing a shirt today with some unhappiness, and a messenger bag across his torso. The insectoid pixie wings fold down like a stained glass drape of fabric out of the way. Fingers comb the flop of blonde hair from his face before admitting, "Sadly being a stage pixie has not conveyed esoteric knowledge, my dudes.." Looking to Cooper he says brightly, "Eat. Absolutely." Turning to Trace he grins, "You been before. Anything we should know before Dante and I almost get ourselves arrested again?"

Dante also hasn't been to this world before, but apparently this is a venture to go meet his brother's adopted people, so fine, he's in. Also someone said something about a fairy pegasus prince and he may be a little intrigued about this.

"Isn't not eating food in fairy lands one of those big rules?" he says to Angelo, "If you go all Persephone on us here I'm not taking the heat from Saint." He's probably the one who convinced his brother to be shirted; he himself is as well, though as he doesn't have wings (or, to be fair, abs as impressive as the gymnast's) and likes clothing, he probably didn't need selling on it. Today's is an artfully torn black thing in t-shirt fabric, over something in hot pink mesh, with well-fitted black jeans and some black boots that are actually pretty well-soled for hiking, his sleek bright yellow leather moto jacket, and a black leather satchel that probably contains snacks (among other things), and definitely previously contained a water bottle, because he's taking a drink from that now.

He doesn't volunteer ideas for what they do when they arrive, but does look to Trace for any advice that might be offered.

"We only just stepped in the door when I came here. It was the first trip so we were only given like fifteen minutes to look around the ruins that were right there," Trace explains to Dante and Angelo with a slight shake of his head. "I don't really know much about the place other than we saw some real cute tiny deer critters and that other folks have met a lot more actual people. Oh, we did see the flying horse."

Trace glances over toward Parker and chuckles, "One of them is in love with you? That's gotta have a story. I'm a sucker for a good romance."

"Oh, hey," he says as the approach the ancient wall with its vines and structures. "That looks promising. Oh. Hi." Suddenly there are bugles. He lifts one hand in a bit of a friendly wave.

"In love with you? Bro, am I gonna have to throw hands with a pixie? Wait, was that the one making eyes at you at the World of Warcraft starting area inn?" Cooper digs his hands in his pockets and looks up ahead at their destination. "Oh, some of us were here before and we met some locals. I fixed the inn's still," he says proudly.

"I suppose we didn't die eating the food the last time we came here. Does anyone have magical poison sensing?" he asks of the assembled group. Then as they get closer, he sings under his breath, "Won't you take me to....Pixietoooooown?"

Angelo looks to his brother, Dante and stares. Is that a thing? There's a shrug, "I dunno. I eat everywhere cause I'm hungry everywhere." Gymnasts and their calorie pit of a stomach- Angelo is not immune. Looking back to Parker a grin widens hopping on the end of Trace's statement, "Same, bruh. You need to bring a gift with you then. Good will is always welcome." He falls in line walking with the group, which turns into a bop murmuring back to Cooper "Won't you take me to-" letting Cooper take the dramatic bit. That's going to travel with them a while.

"Love at first flight?" Dante inquires of Parker, and when Angelo stares at him, stares right back. Yes, it's a thing. Someday something's going to bait a trap with a cheesecake and they'll never see Angelo again.

Cooper's remark about last time seems to relax him a bit, however. "If you already did and still got home, those rules probably don't apply here," he decides, though whether he's entirely convinced remains to be seen. Probably around the time any actual offering of food is. The scenery has his attention for the moment, with its various flora and signs of tiny denizens. "What was wrong with the still?"

He doesn't join in the song, though it does get a flicker of a grin. He does join Trace in the friendly wave camp, though.

"Oh, it was busted and we didn't have local currency to pay for food," says Cooper to Dante. So I fixed it, and they gave us food and drink. Just a bit of a pump problem. Some other folks did some favours too."

He eyes the pixies as they approach. "You never know. Maybe flirting is different for them. Maybe they're actually really pissed we're here." He doesn't really mean that. He's not really a suspicious person.

Trace grins a little crookedly and runs his fingers through his hair, rubbing a little at the back of his head. Caught. He chuckles a little at the back and forth between Parker and Cooper and then says, "Fair point" when Angelo points out that he's hungry everywhere.

"I brought a couple of things.. gifts.. if there seems a good time to give them." Dante gets an agreeable nod on his assumptions that if the fae folk let them go the first time, they're probably alright. "Good to know they'll take work and favors in exchange for stuff. I kind of feel like we need some kind of interdimensional currency exchange or something."

"Unfortunately, languages are Enzo's thing, but I don't think he can speak non-Earth languages either," Trace considers.

"Tiny village!" It takes little to make Angelo happy; the wings buzz. Pulling out his phone he tries to take a couple pictures of it. "Aisley is going to be muy furiosa missing thiiiis." Not thinking he tries to send the pic as a text. There's a frown as the technology reminds him there's no damn signal. It goes back in pocket as he answers Parker, "Nah, man. Wings do not enable wearer to onboard the culture and language."

He looks to Trace with a nod and then looks to Dante. "You talked to the pirates. Have a run at it. Also if that happens," he says pragmatically, "Tell Saint I will bring her back a fae-trap flavoured cheesecake. She doesn't have to burn the village down. it's cute."

"Barter; makes sense," Dante says, nodding to Cooper, with another of agreement to Trace's thoughts on interdimensional exchange, though he's definitely distracted by the pixies approaching and buzzing about them. And their glittery garb!

He shakes his head; no, he can't understand whatever they're speaking, and adds to Angelo, "The pirate language was related to our Romance languages, and this definitely isn't. I can't do truly non-Earth either." A beat of thought. "But the notes said some people here speak Sindarin? That, I think I can do..."

And he gives it a try, with a bright smile for the pixies. "Good day! Do you speak this language here?" seems like as good a way as any to start the foray into Sindarin.

As they walk up to the buildings, Cooper sidles up close to Parker. "If you see the one that was flirting with you..." he points at his eyes with two fingers, then out at the crowd. "You point her out to me, okay?" Then he grins and rocks away.

He spins around to take in the whole village. "If I didn't know better, I'd think all this was some kind of crazy trip."

As they make their way closer toward the wall and the little building that is about five feet above the ground, Trace takes in the other little structures on the wall with curiosity, watching the inhabitants coming and going. He smiles when one seems to be talking to Dante, even if he has no idea what either of them are saying. "That sounded.. friendly-esque."

When they come upon the older pixie with the tray of small drinks, he reaches into his pack slowly and pulls out a small cardboard bakery box and opens it up, taking out four cupcakes which are, to be fair, enormous compared to the pixies. He gently sets them down one after the other next to but not too close to the older pixie, not wanting to knock them over! "Gifts," he says as he offers them up.

Angelo looks to Cooper as the other guy declares his conditions to go swinging. "I'll hold your hoops, but a thought, if she's over 65 et it go. Last thing you wanna do is get on the wrong side of a magical granny." Looking back to Parker and Dante he watches as some communication starts happening. His fingers wiggle a wave to Belle.

As Trace says gifts he assists Vanna White style gesturing to them in a ta-daaaa getting old sparkles all over for a moment from the jazz hands. Super helpful. "Dante, in case, make sure they know you're not part of the trade because I don't want to tell Saint how and why I lost you. This is my one job." One.

Dante didn't entirely expect it to work, so the reply gets a blink, and then a smile. "At least as good as mine," he assures Belle, with a smaller smile. "My name is Dante. My friends are Angelo, Trace, Cooper, and Parker," he replies, gesturing to each of them in turn, "We've come to visit from a place we call Earth." A tiny pause, and he adds, "Lovely dress, by the way."

"Arguably it is some kind of crazy trip," he says in English, amused. Probably not entirely by that; the implied threat to Parker's tiny admirer gets some credit too. "This is Belle; she'd like us to come with her." Not that it wasn't clear enough from the gestures, but if he's going to attempt to translate, he may as well make the proper attempt.

Trace's offering gets a tiny, approving lift of brows, and he translates (well, paraphrases) into Sindarin, "We have brought these cupcakes as gifts for you; they are a food we consider delicious. We greatly appreciate your hospitality."

Cooper is about to make some other kind of cheeky comment, but then they're being dive-bombed by toads on the back of...flying squirrels.

"Dude, now I know the edible lasted longer than it should have." But then he shakes his head and looks around for something to grab to swat at the invaders.

Trace grins when the offering that he's brought seems to be positively received. He's about to thank the pixie in return for their offering of drinks when an actual formation fo flying squirrels descends. "Whoah, incoming. I'm guessing this isn't a scheduled flyover." Not from the way the pixies seem to be reacting. "Hey, party crashers, we were doing introductions here," he says, not at all expecting the squirrel to have any idea what he's saying, but he reaches up to grab at one. He's tall.

Angelo flies up, not farther than a few feet off the ground but there's a buzz of wings that generates a column of air that intercepts this flying squirrel diving at the village. Knocking it off course it's now diving at him. "Awww cute!" He can say that, he's an almost 6' pixie shaped man. "What's the rules on taking them home with us so they stop bothering these nice people?"

"What--" Dante starts when the motion he's just barely noticed is joined by shrieks from their hostess-friend, and he throws a hand up in the direction of the incoming squirrels. It's a startled sort of reflex, meant for them all up there, but the nearest of the group is really the one that gets hit with the force of the illusion -- dazzling lights in its eyes, loud sound in its ears, the sensation of the air moving from the wrong side, as if it had suddenly changed direction.

It... sort of works. Well, no. It works. Except that the outcome is that, rather than, say, driving it off, he disorients it enough that even as he's asking Belle, "Why are they here? What do they want?" it's crashing... directly at him. He makes a tiny startled sound as he notices and tries to step aside, and it hits his satchel, giving its head a small shake to clear it and then starting to clamber up his jacket to regain its bearings. "Agh, no! Get off you're going to leave claw marks!" he yelps, starting to pull the coat off even as the critter tries to scamper over it.

Cooper searches around for something to defend himself (and others) with. He ends up uprooting a small sapling in loose soil. It's not the most formidable weapon, but these don't seem to be the most formidable opponents.

He runs over with a very undignified war cry and swats rather blindly at one of the toads coming Parker's way. It's probably overkill.

Trace grabs the squirrel that is climbing all over him and he flings it, with an impressive amount of force, into the trees further away. Where it ends up, he has no idea, but at least it's one squirrel out of the battle for a moment. With that handled, he reaches over to try and grab another one of the squirrel incursion, trying to grab the ones that are directly attacking the pixies and pulling them off the wall.

Dante's coat comes off just as intended, but that squirrel has a heck of a hold on it -- those little claws are good at what they do. "Fuck off you're gonna make me have to mend this!" he snaps at the creature, giving the jacket a good shake to try to hurl the squirrel off and away somewhere else. "Why are-- fuck off!," as he tries a second good hard shake, "--the swamp sprites sendi-- GAH!" The third attempt does dislodge the squirrel, technically. It's more of a jump, and the direction the critter chooses is at Dante, landing in his hair and twining its claws there with an indignant and oddly threatening chitter.

Angel looks like he might go kick a toad back like a soccer ball when he looks and there's a squirrel diving at him. In a last ditch effort to kamayamaya blast the squirrel with air the shot goes wide and the flying squirrel instead fives into the open collar of his shirt and start doing laps around his torso. Will he use this as an excuse to forgo shirts in the future? Oh yes. "Ahhh!!"

"Yesss!" says Cooper. He punches the air as a toad goes flying. "You okay?" he asks Parker. "They're not poisonous are...shit!" Then he sees the pixie get be-frogged and run off. He chases after and swats at it, but the frog narrowly weaves and dodges away from the branches.

Trace grabs for the stumbling squirrel. He nearly misses, fingers catching at fur but not getting a solid grip. "C'mere you," he mutters as he finally gets ahold of it and pulls it up and away from the scattered berries. "What did she say?" Then he looks over and asks, "Who is attacking you with toads?" And squirrels for that matter. He's having a bit of a time just trying to keep a grip on the one that he's got.

"Oh this is--" Dante starts, and, "--some bullshit," another Dante finishes, literally beside himself.

Dante I tries to dislodge the squirrel with his jacket again, which results in squirrel back on jacket but still holding on tight, and the next try at flinging from there results in squirrel on his shoulder and then squirrel down his shirt, as if the creatures have decided if it works on one triplet it must be a good plan on the other. The shirt isn't tucked in, which means the squirrel finds it a somewhat less secure spot than the hair was, digging front claws into the mesh undershirt's fabric and back paws catching against the designer's belt, and resulting in another strangled yelp.

Dante II was probably about to back up the head-dislodgement attempt, but at first that seems to be working, and at the same time, a toad just ate (or at least mouth-caught) a pixie and is heading away; he darts that way, but definitely can't get right there; he throws his copy of the jacket at the thing instead. It probably wouldn't have hit, but the weave away from Cooper's stick puts it right in place to have the leather plop down on it from above. "Swamp sprites!" he answers Trace, which is probably less than extremely illuminating.

Angelo takes multiple efforts to catch the squirrel before grabbing the flying critter and, at least gently, lobbing it like a lawn dart back into the woods. "No ya don't lil guy, you're a seed-o-vore. Vore that way, I'm not actually a Cashew, thanks."

Looking to see if Dante's okay he rushes to his triplet quintuplet brother(s). "They sure toad us so." says Angelo to Trace with a wry grin. Just terrible on the puns tonight. "Coop, you okay there? No new friends got swallowed did they?"

Trace hurls another squirrel, though this one not quite so far as the first. Either way, it's away from the wall for the time being and the battle is very much not in the favor of the toad sand the squirrels, from what he can see. "Everybody okay? Anybody nibbled to death or sticky?" Because really, that second one is a fate worse than nibbled. He smirks over at Angelo at the puns and shakes his head, "Nope. Still talking. You're fine." He's teasing a little.

"No, I don't..." and then Cooper sees the toad swallow up a pixie. "Oh no you don't you little..." he swings with his branch again but that misses. Instead he just glares at it with all his might.

Then something really weird happens - at least for him. The toad stops, backslides, then shoots into Cooper's hand. "Whoah... uh...hey, no!" He pries open the toad's mouth to extract the pixie, then tosses the toad aside.

Then he just stands there, stunned. "I didn't know I could do that."

Dante the First does a rather less dignified wriggle than he'd probably prefer, dropping the jacket to free a hand to grab his shirts and pull them outward while the other hand moves in to try to grab the squirrel itself. Finally, he manages to get a hand around it, and yanks the thing out, hauling back in the same move to throw it as hard as he can in the direction away from the pixie town. The critter straightens out as it goes, catching the wind to glide, and there's a chitter of what may well be eternal enmity that floats back as it goes. "Okay I now hate squirrels," Dante I declares to Angelo, pausing to look around and see whether anyone or -thing else needs immediate help.

Dante II darts forward to where the jacket landed, makes a face and small unhappy noise, and scoops the coat up, careful to get a good hold on the toad beneath in the process, so that he can pry the jaws open and free that pixie, as well. The poor thing is goopy and shivering, which to be fair Dante is pretty sure he would be too, and he lets it lie in his hand while he tosses the toad out of the coat and away with the other.

Angelo chuckles and says "They're very grabby. Hope that guy was okay." He did throw it a bit far. "Oh! Dantes, duck!" while Cooper and Dante assist the nibbles neighbours Angelo sees the next squirrel coming in. Like Jack Frost he flies up, takes a deep breath and blows air at the incoming offender like a chill northwind jet stream sending the furry menace tail over teakettle back into the bushes. All four limbs stretch out triumphant, "Avast YE, Squirrel!"

It's Cooper who says something he catches and there's some amazement there, "You never did that before? Ah m'god are you developing new superpowers realtime? Congrats!" Looking to Trace he chuckles and says "Just wing boop em. It's kinda fun."

Cooper rubs his hands together and wipes them on his pants to get any toadness off his hands. "Yeah...uh, that was...that was new." He clears his throat. "Do any more toads need to be...Jedi'd? Not that I'm...sure how I did that or if I could do it again." He blushes a little and shuffles foot to foot.

Once the squirrels seem to be taken care of and the pixies are back in order, Trace looks around a little uncertainly at that sudden stillness. "What was that?" he asks, still a little suspicious of anything that feels off, and that ripple felt a bit off. "Did anybody else feel that?"

He does seem a bit relieved though when Parker indicates that all seems to be okay. He gives a thumbs-up to that. Smirking a little at Angelo he says, "If I start wing-booping willy nilly people are going to get knocked over."

Angelo promises Trace as he scans for any problems, "Well if you knock me over I promise to be both dramatic in slow motion about it as possible, and totally cool about it." Angelo heals faster than a distracted 5 year old on a playground. Curious he answers, "Yeah that felt weird. Like when you close all teh car windows and the air shifts."

Looking tot he stunned and knowing they probably don't understand him he works on sounding concerned, "Heeey we all good here? We all reassembled? No missing wings?"

Both Dantes do in fact duck when Angelo instructs them too, and they both look up to see if they can see why, too. Dante lifts a shoulder-height fist of triumphant approval, while Dantbee declares, "Nice." The squirrel enmity is fresh and sharp.

Dante's brows lift a bit at Cooper. "New trick? Not bad." But there's that ripple, and Belle's back, and he translates for the others, adding, "Apparently swamp sprites sent them," before switching to Sindarin for, "You're welcome, of course, and I'm sorry we couldn't protect everyone." Or entirely themselves. "Why are swamp sprites sending squirrels and toads at you? And what was that we all felt just then?"

Dantbee also gives Cooper an interested nod at this evidence of a new manifestation, but he's also got a handful of slimy shivering stunned pixie, and moves to gingerly place his ward down among the other injured pixies, where he hopes the others can give some care. "I have some water," he offers, "if you need some for cleaning toad saliva off."

Dantebee gets out his copy of the waterbottle, and does what he can to help get water into something he can leave behind without it disappearing later.

Meanwhile, Dante nods, glancing off to the northwest as Belle speaks to him. "She says they don't know what the swamp sprites want, why they're attacking them, but this is the third time. It's only been happening for some weeks. They were turned back by armed sprites when they went there. She also," he looks to the others, "says they would be very grateful if we'd help find out what's happening, because it might be less dangerous for people our size. Which she might be right about." He probably wouldn't even have gone with 'might' if his squirrel-fighting had gone more smoothly.

Trace looks off to the northwest as well, though he obviously can't see anything in that direction but trees. He pauses as he considers the feeling that runs through him and then nods. "Sure. We can go check it out, see what's going on out there. At the very least, we can maybe talk to them and find out what they want and why they keep attacking." He doesn't know if they can help fix the problem, but there's no reason not to try. After all, they came out here to make friends, right?

Angelo takes this part seriously. They're offering hamster sized cupcakes which makes them besties where fae rules are concerned (circa Feb 2025 when Aisley hosted the kids' pixie party). There's a Hmm and a nod. Looking to the smalls he gestures to himself and the others to indicate they, the talls, with a nod of agreement and points to 'over there', and follows with another nod to indicate this is doable and a willingness.

"I'm with Trace on this. It's a non-issue. We got ya."