(no subject)

[awakenerd]

Who: anyone
When: day 57, afternoon
Where: anywhere it's a mingle

[This is a mingle but there is a comment in a Chain Chat to the whole train!]

Rean: A while ago some of us were discussing a festival where every team puts on a production, game, booth, whatever, maybe based around team bonds or interests.

What do people think? Maybe it's a good time to to talk about it again?

[Feel free to discuss with each other! Or just mingle as usual.]

Comments

[featherbeaned]

[ She doesn't smile or say anything in response. She doesn't even look at him. ]

[ But she holds his hand tight and doesn't rush, doesn't run, not yet, no matter how much her instincts scream at her to go go go. Mao's with her. That's good. That helps. ]

[ She lets go once they're finally outside, seamlessly shifting from human-shaped to her true, significantly more massive, self. All of her feathers are bristled. All of them. ]

Will you wait for me? On top of the train? Safe there.

[beeknighted]

[Walking with her at her pace, he's worried but she'll deal with it as she needs to. Mao is keeping an eye on her, and nods when she asks him to wait.]

I'll be here. I'm not going anywhere, whatever you need.

[featherbeaned]

[ Leans down her head to nudge it gently, affectionately, against his. Thank you. ]

[ And without another word, she's gone, taking one running leap and launching into the sky. This is what she needs — wind in her feathers, freedom, the thrill of adrenaline as pulls trick after trick after (possibly death-defying) trick. It clears her head, lets her breathe again. Up here, like this, she's the one in control. ]

[ Nothing else. Nobody else. ]

[ By the time she comes down to land nearby, some twenty minutes later, she's panting hard. ]

[beeknighted]

[Clambering his way up on top of the train to avoid any more surprise gingerbread ambushes, watching her soar.

This is how Meri should be. Free and unbound and strong. He doesn’t like violence much, but he wants to punch whoever put her in that cage in the face.

Mao shuffles closer when she lands, letting her catch her breath before speaking.]

Those were some impressive moves.

[featherbeaned]

My first memory was flying.

[ Sits back on her haunches, her tail draped over the edge of the carriage. It thumps, ever so gently, against the side of the train; a swish here, a flick there. ]

Flying and singing, over mountains and meadows and rivers.

[beeknighted]

Those are the types of things you should remember. You belong free in the air, wherever you want to go.

I'm sorry you had to experience that, Meridian.

[featherbeaned]

[ She nods, because yes, he is absolutely emphatically correct. There's no better place to be than in the sky, with the wind in her feathers. ]

I hate them. Whoever they were. I hate them.

[ Her tail gives a harder flick, lashing once. ]

... Still. Free now.