First Spell // Action - Voice

[anita_hero]

[Action]

[Anita wakes up halfway and considers staying that way until she comes to the realizations that A) she seems to have fallen asleep sitting up, B) she managed to do so outside, and C) her back is killing her. At this point, she jerks to full consciousness and flinches when her back grinds into the surface behind her.

Oh. That...isn't right.

What follows is a panicked flailing at the vicinity of her back that probably looks hilarious to any observers and ends when she catches a handful of feathers and yelps in pain. She scrambles to her feet and looks around wildly, and...oh. Fountain. She was sitting next to a fountain. The sky is gray, but the water is still enough to see her reflection in, and...

Oh. Oh. That definitely isn't right.

Caught between a mild state of shock at her wings and a slightly more pronounced one at the fact that she's in public and someone took her clothes and replaced them with a dress she's never seen before, it takes Anita a moment to notice the book at her feet. It has her name on it, which is disturbing, but at least it's something to go on.

She picks it up, resumes her seat at the base of the fountain (taking care of her inexplicable new appendages), and cracks open the journal.]

[Voice]

Okay...I'd be lying if I said this was the first time I woke up on a strange world with my clothes missing - unfortunately - but this a little too much, mon. For one thing, there was usually someone around that I knew... I don't suppose there's anyone here who knows me?

My name's Anita Fite, but if you're from Earth, you might know me as Empress. [No harm in revealing her secret identity if she doesn't have family here to protect, although, shockingly, knowing that they're not here doesn't make her feel much better.] If you do know me and you want to find me, I'm in this place called Seventh Heaven, because it was a little chilly outside considering - well, I hate to sound like a broken record about the missing clothes.

I'll be the girl in the corner with the white dress. I would have worn a corsage, but I thought it was a little much for a first date.

[She closes the journal halfway before a tiny flutter of hope compels her to say one last thing:]

And, by the way...does anyone know of absolutely any way at all I could get some kind of message back home? I just...want my parents to know I'm okay.

Comments

[anita_hero]

Great. I have almost no leads, the leads I do have probably won't help, I'm not being a very efficient superhero today and...I just realized I still don't know your name. I'm sorry.

[markofthewise]

Sokka. That's my name. And don't worry about the... superhero thing. [She's a superhero? And royalty?] We have all our bad days. They just happen pretty much every day when you're here.

[anita_hero]

Sokka. That's a neat name. Nice to meet you, Sokka.

I'm trying to stay positive. So far that mostly means remembering that the kids somehow managed to knock over an entire floor-to-ceiling storage shelf in the garage and that I really wasn't looking forward to cleaning it up and explaining to my uncle what happened to his car, but now I don't have to.

[markofthewise]

[It's a VERY neat name. He should have added Thunderaxe too. A missed opportunity.]

... well, that's a plus. Are they... your kids? [Because it sounds like it. But she doesn't seem to be much older than him.]

[anita_hero]

[She slaps her forehead, because she had really meant to come up with some sort of usable explanation for her parents that covers all the main points while remaining brief, but sadly, she has not yet gotten around to it.]

Um, no, they're not my kids. Not exactly. They're my parents. They died and then my evil grandfather reincarnated them as babies a few years ago. And before you say anything: I know.

[markofthewise]

[... what the hell.]

That's... uh. Wow. [Reincarnation is a familiar concept. But that's just. Mind blowingly weird.] Do they even know who they are?

[anita_hero]

Yeah, they understand about as well as they can for their age. We couldn't just not tell them; they'd want to know about grandparents, and why they didn't have a dad, and we had to explain to doctors and to get them registered for daycare and everything anyway. [Boy, that was a fun...month or so.]

Besides, I didn't want to lie.

[markofthewise]

So that means they don't remember, though?

[anita_hero]

No, but you can already tell they have the same personalities. It's...weird, but I think it'd be weirder if they didn't.

[markofthewise]

Huh. [He can't imagine having to take care of his dad in baby form. It would blow his mind so much...]

Do you uh... think they'll get back together when they grow up?

[anita_hero]

[Anita's mind is still blown, man.]

...Well, they've started doing that four-year-old thing where they've decided they're going to get married when they grow up, but I've known little kids who wanted to marry their parents or siblings and obviously grew out of it. They don't really understand it at that age, you know?

If they did, I'm...not really sure how I'd feel about that.

[markofthewise]

Yeeeeah, you might end up with a little brother or sister that's more like a grandkid to you.

[anita_hero]

I'm really hoping not to have to even think about that until I'm way older.

[markofthewise]

But think of the family reunions!

[anita_hero]

Forget that; think of the babysitting.

[markofthewise]

Well, you won't have to do much of that here. Our infant population is pretty much one.

[anita_hero]

Oh, yeah - I was talking to the new dad. Mr. Wolfwood, right?

[markofthewise]

Yeah. That's the guy. The new dad around here. {Sokka does not sound... entirely comfortable talking about him.]

[anita_hero]

[None of her business, but...]

...Not a friend of yours?

[markofthewise]

I wouldn't say that! We barely even know each other.

[anita_hero]

I barely know him either, but he seems nice. Of course, I barely know anyone here, and most people seem nice.

[markofthewise]

Yeah, well, welcome to Luceti. You get used to the niceness.

[anita_hero]

I guess it makes sense. People have to help each other out when they're banding together against a common aggressor and stuff.

[markofthewise]

Well, there's that. And there's the fact that this place is pretty much packed with people who save towns and countries or the entire world.

[anita_hero]

[Guilty as charged.]

Yeah, I guess there's that, too.

So what do you do, Sokka? Are you the world-saving type?