Written Wonderland

"That's not how she tells it." The custodian barked back. "Anyway, I know how your kind likes to play." Their voice trilled with an animalistic growl, contempt vibrating through the air as the shadows around the fae flickered.

"Why were you running around like a wild animal? Did you come to this realm on your own, or did your custodian abandon you?"

There was a slight taunting lilt to that last question, though the fae's expression remained a firm, contemptuous glower.

"That's not how she tells it," the guard said, and Raccoon pouted angrily, narrowing their eyes. "Anyway, I know how your kind likes to play." That, and the fact that Raccoon could have sworn that the shadows around the scary guard got darker somehow, made Raccoon's eyes go wide. They took a step back, almost tripping over the cushion they had tried to sleep on.

"Why were you running around like a wild animal? Did you come to this realm on your own, or did your custodian abandon you?"

Raccoon's eyes were saucer-big now, and they blinked some water in them away.

"I..." they started, but then their face hardened. "Come on, you can't tell me you don't like 'running around.' So far, only Timin has been any fun." They crossed their arms over themself, staring at the ground to the right for no apparent reason.

"I'm not abandoned. I'm exploring," Raccoon said with maybe too much emphasis.

The custodian let a long, uncomfortable silence pass, glower at the human unflinching.

"Well, you should have been warned not to explore in our territory. It's up to the court what happens to you now."

With that, the fae turned to leave, appearing hasty but offering a brief interruptable moment before opening the door.

((OOC: I imagine the custodian is plenty prepared for Raccoon to try to run past them, and Raccoon will likely get tangled in some creepy cold shadows should they try to.))

The guard just stood there for a minute, not saying anything. That was almost worse than when they were accusing Raccoon of... attacking Timin? Absurd.

"Well, you should have been warned not to explore in our territory. It's up to the court what happens to you now." Then the guard turned to leave, their shadows looking even creepier from the back. Raccoon stepped to the side, trying to at least see what was outside the door, but the fae was quick, and Raccoon couldn't see more than a hallway.

Raccoon folded their arms again, huffing. That was completely... completely... grrrrrrrr, Raccoon thought.

The goddess hadn't abandoned them. Granted, she hadn't even know Raccoon was coming, but... Raccoon could have stayed, right? Had she even wanted Raccoon there? But they had been helpful, hadn't they? Yes. And what would the goddess have done if Raccoon hadn't been there? Used Evan, probably. Hmph. Well... well...

Raccoon was suddenly very tired again, and they really did want to cry. They wiped their eyes, truly uncertain of what would happen now.

Squeezing their eyes shut, they whispered, "Deh..." Gods, this was risky. "Dehaljadrun... please. Help. I'm sorry."

((OOC: In a couple minutes, they will probably go lay back down.))

Adrianna was pleased with her custodian's performance. With the stammer in the human's voice about not being abandoned. That alone she would have called a success--the interaction had really been more about setting the stage than getting any real information--but then, her patience as she listened for several moments longer also paid off with the soft whisper the human released into the air in the custodian's wake.

"Deh... Dehaljadrun... please. Help. I'm sorry."

Elated shivers danced down Adrianna's back, giddiness bubbling into her smile almost enough to laugh. Oh, what a find this had been. Granted, it could certianly mean trouble, too, but she had a scape goat or two she could likely burn if she needed. She had some time, still--the queen had at least been holding up appearances of enjoying the party, such that Adrianna likely had at least another hour or two before her plausible deniability would run out, and she'd need to decide to tell the queen something, lest she risk adding (more) distrust to that relationship. For now, though, she would see what else she could learn from the human.

After a quick debrief with her custodian and a little bit to let the human stew on its previous interaction, Adrianna approached the human's room, conjuring a luxe red and gold dress--something that suited her, and would signal status, and, she hoped, would look warm and soft, surely a welcome contrast to her custodian's harsh, bleak appearance.

She dipped hastily into the human's room, looking out into the hallway as she closed the door behind her, as though making sure she didn't see anyone out there. Then, she turned around to face the human, which looked like it had curled up once more to try to sleep.

"Oh," Adrianna placed a hand to her lips, her expression apologetic. "I'm sorry, you must be tired. I'll be quick; I need to leave before the guard gets back, anyhow. My name is Ada," she curtseyed sweetly, also hopeful that the effect of the cheese would be beginning to waft over the human about that point--some vague sense of owing or gratitude that she'd be able to tug on as needed.

"I'm worried you are in danger, and I want to help. Can you tell me about what's happened since you arrived in this realm? With Timin, and also the goddess before that. A lot has happened that I'm trying to make sense of."

There, indeed, was the perfect place to tug on that bond, to whatever extent it had taken hold. Adrianna hadn't simply conjured that cheese, though she could have. Instead, she had traded a favor for it, and the human before her had eaten it, leaving a favor owed. Transparency was certainly a favor that she would happily accept, helping her to make sense of situations she didn't currently understand about the human's arrival.

((OOC: I'm figuring this is a pretty subconscious effect, and Raccoon probably has no way of knowing this is about the cheese. Maybe if they were aware of lore about eating faerie food and self-reflected on it lol. That said, the effect also isn't super strong. So, Raccoon can probably resist the owing or gratitude feeling and answer however they want to, it's just that there is some kind of tug toward wanting to do something for Adrianna. Cuz she's so nice, obviously!))

Raccoon was a bit shaken by their encounter with the guard and gave themselves to a few moments of pacing. If saying the goddess' name had worked, it hadn't worked quickly. Hadn't the stories said something about saying her name three times? Maybe, but Raccoon was not quite brave enough to try. They weren't fully sure that having the goddess here would be better.

They were almost remotivated into working with the magic--they still had the lump of copper in their hand for good measure--but they were truly exhausted. Finally, they laid down on the cushion again, doing their best to curl up and get comfortable.

So, of course, that's when the door opened again.

Raccoon was on their feet quickly this time but was surprised to see a very elegantly dressed woman. Her dress was ornately red and gold with too many sparkles for Raccoon to count. They had never in their lives seen anyone wear something so intricate. What was this person doing here?

"Oh," the woman said with a finger against her lips as though they should be quiet. "I'm sorry. You must be tired. I'll be quick--I need to leave before the guard gets back, anyhow. My name is Ada." The woman then curtseyed--curtseyed--like Raccoon was some kind of traveling dignitary. As if.

"I'm worried that you are in danger," she continued, "and I want to help. Can you tell me about what's happened since you arrived in this realm? With Timin, and also the goddess before that. A lot has happened that I'm trying to make sense of."

Raccoon had a weird pit in the bottom of their stomach as they mulled through a confusing set of emotions. They didn't like confirmation that they were in danger, and they felt uneasy about being treated so kindly after... everything else. But, also, this woman knew about the goddess and wanted to help. She was clearly important by her state of dress, so she was probably putting a lot on the line for Raccoon just now, which Raccoon supposed they should be grateful for. At least somebody cared that they were in a room without windows.

They had a series of competing desires: to curl up on the cushion again and go to sleep, to run up to this woman and hug her for comfort, to turn their back on the woman and refuse to say anything.

But, maybe, maybe, the goddess was answering Raccoon's... uh... prayer by sending this person.

"I didn't attack Timin," Raccoon said in a defiant voice, their arms crossed. But, that posture soon broke, and they sat back down on the cushion, shaking their head in their hands. "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to come here. Evan said don't go through the portal, so of course I went through the portal, and then he said run, and I ran, but I wasn't fast enough, and then there was lightning and a necklace and grapes that didn't taste good and weird purple trees and a sparkly city and people with wings. And the net. Gah, the net. That wasn't nice." That last statement made Raccoon look up angrily at the woman as though she were somehow responsible for what Timin's mom did. But, looking at her, there were few similarities, and Raccoon's face softened as they sniffled.

The human's first two assersions were unsurprising enough: they didn't attack the fae child they'd encountered, and they didn't know they weren't supposed to come here. But Adrianna watched them with a practiced look of sweet curiosity gleaming in her wide, warmly curious golden eyes.

Then, the human said a name. Evan. Adrianna didn't know it, but she filed it away, positively giddy to have learned a name. She was eager to learn this human's name, but, hopefully, that could come later. For now, she wondered if she'd just learned the name of the human who had been spotted with the goddess recently--not one of her blindfolded thralls, but a man operating of his own free will, like this human before Adrianna now, and like the king the goddess had fraternized with a decade prior. If nothing else, it certainly sounded like this Evan human was also here in this realm, having told this human to run.

Why had one human told the other to run? What had happened?

Adrianna cautiously stepped forward, her expression still enrapt as she lowered herself onto one of the chairs by the table.

There was lightning and a necklace, the human said. And grapes, and purple trees, and so on, but the rest sounded like simply an account of the crature having run away from the goddess' vineyards and to the point they'd arrived at now. The lightning and necklace sounded salient, though.

The human gave Adrianna an intersting glare when it mentioned the net--presumably how the mother had captured it--and then, it gave an adorable little sniffle, softening.

"Goodness, it sounds like you've been through a lot," Adrianna said with a sympathetic frown, her soft brow furrowing with sweet worry.

Then, she put on a nice little show of her eyes blinking away, hesitation gently tugging her in one direction and then another before she returned her eyes to the human, her worry doubled.

"Do you know if the goddess is all right?"

"Goodness, it sounds like you've been through a lot," the woman said, and Raccoon nodded, looking down while they raised their eyebrows. To say the least, they thought.

"Do you know if the goddess is all right?"

Raccoon looked up, seeing a genuine look of worry and concern on the woman's face.

"She's terrifying, if that's what you mean," Raccoon said, trying to assess whether they did think the goddess was okay. "But, I think I helped her. And Evan's been helping her."

Maybe if they were nice to this lady, she would give them more food.

Adrianna pressed a knuckle to her lips in thought. The human's answer seemed to solidify that Evan was the name of the man who'd been spotted in the goddess' company, so she was glad to file that confidence away. She wanted to ask more about what Evan and this human had been helping the goddess with, precisely, but that required a moment of strategy, lest her line of questioning get too eager and undermine the rapport she was building.

"It should help your case, that you helped the goddess," she offered after a moment, nodding resolutely as she gently tapped her fist into her open palm in her lap.

"Can you tell me any more about that?"

The lady brought a knuckle up to her lips, looking like she was thinking very hard. It was kinda pretty. Huh.

"It should help your case, that you helped the goddess," Ada said, tapping her fist against her open palm now. Raccoon sat up straighter and pulled their legs up such that they crossed on the pillow. That sounded promising. Maybe they would get out soon.

"Can you tell me any more about that?" she asked.

Raccoon leaned forward a little, "Sure, but it's not going to make any sense." Raccoon gagged then, briefly, remembering the smell that first hit them after the goddess had placed the amulet on them. One part latrine, one part blood, one part singed hair. Gross.

"She seemed... angry or maybe, like, sick, when I got here. And she threw me down on the ground and bound me with... with lightning." Raccoon gestured around their throat and wrists. "She asked me to clean... no, to filter the... necklace she put on me. It was heavy." Raccoon paused there, nodding for dramatic effect. "I kinda blacked out at that point. Or like, I couldn't see anything. But... uck, it smelled terrible." They stuck their tongue out. "And there was a lot of lightning, but somehow I knew it wasn't going in the right place. It needed to stay... in me. So I asked her--with my mind, I guess--to let go. She was holding my hands. And she did, and then I pulled on the lightning, but then I blacked out for real." Raccoon looked at the floor to one side before continuing.

"When I woke up, she was crying. But she also looked happy. I didn't understand. She took the necklace off me--it had changed colors--and then told me about the orchards."

Raccoon looked up at Ada with wide, hopeful eyes. "Was that helpful?"