03; Video; UN: Wildflower

[madcuriosity]

[Alice presses her lips together and is surrounded by many trees. Her eyes are a bit red and she swallows and takes a deep breath. She's clearly trying to have a "stiff upper lip" as it were.]

I... don't mean to worry anyone...

But I do believe I'm lost.

If I show someone everything around me, might you please point the way back, perhaps?

Comments

[angel_of_death]

[That is... unfortunate.]

You have a point. It could get very dangerous if you lost control of it.

[A little girl lost in the forest is still better off than a little girl trapped in the middle of a forest fire.]

[madcuriosity]

I could make something with the earth, or a tree, perhaps?

[angel_of_death]

Something that stands out from the area around you would make it easier to spot you.

Can you influence the colour of what you make?

[madcuriosity]

That's very simple. I can make it terribly large as well. Perhaps a single sunflower, all on its own? Those can be terribly tall. [The problem is, here, is that Alice is TINY so while sunflowers can get very tall, she's thinking of one rather standard in size.]

[angel_of_death]

[Well... why not. It's a start, and even if the forest can play tricks with magic, a sunflower seems something rather difficult to make go wrong in any way that could be dangerous.]

Go ahead and give it a try.

[madcuriosity]

[Alice crouched down, placing her hands on the ground and then, promptly, caused a massive sunflower to sprout up in between the space in her hands. She kept her hands there and the stalk kept getting higher and higher and higher and higher, towering well over 10 feet tall and then stretching it up to 14 feet tall before the petals all fell open and the bloom sought out the sun's light, turning in the direction of the setting sun.]

[angel_of_death]

Good work. It looks good.

[Nice and big. Easy to spot even from a distance. Something to distinguish the rock from other rocks underneath the forest canopy, aside from its shape.]

[madcuriosity]

[She blushed at the praise and looked up at the sunflower.]

You really think this shall be alright?

[angel_of_death]

I do. It's large and brightly-coloured, and not in a spot you would normally see a sunflower in. It will help.

[madcuriosity]

Well, at least I did one thing right today. [She sniffles and wipes at her eyes.]

[angel_of_death]

The day isn't over yet. I'm sure you'll manage to do one or two more before it's done.

As for the future, maybe you could keep a totem or two on you just in case you get lost again. Do you know about totems?

[madcuriosity]

No, sir, I do not know what a totem is. Will you please tell me?

[angel_of_death]

You can use them to get to different places in the blink of an eye, so I hear. You're supposed to burn them and walk through the smoke. There is one type you can buy around Camelot, but the traders from Elphame that come around every month sell instructions for making others.

[madcuriosity]

That sounds like an incredibly useful shortcut. Like the doors in Wonderland. They're somehting like that too.

[angel_of_death]

I expect it is. It would save you a lot of trouble.

[madcuriosity]

And I can just pay for one?

[angel_of_death]

That's right. Though you do need a way to burn the totems in order to use them. You said you weren't so good with fire magic, so that's something you should talk about with the people you live with. They might be able to show you how to use a lighter or matches safely.

[madcuriosity]

I suppose it might not be wise to give me a box of matches. But I do think I could manage well enough. I wouldn't play with them or anything.

[angel_of_death]

The biggest problem, so long as you do not play with them, is that you will have to keep the matches dry. They don't light very well otherwise.

And strike-anywhere matches can be dangerous even if you don't play with them, so it would be better not to get that kind if they do decide to give you a box of matches.

[Even adults will sometimes set their pockets on fire with those things.]

[madcuriosity]

I wish I knew why fire magic was so difficult! I've gotten the other ones well enough.

[angel_of_death]

Unfortunately, I can't tell you. I don't have elemental magic. But I do have a lighter. I can show you how to use it, but I don't know if they sell anything like it here.

I haven't checked.

[madcuriosity]

Oh, I know what a lighter is. But that seems terribly dangerous to just carry about in my pockets. [1800s lighters were... unique, to say the least.] Not very ladylike either.

cw: Walter calling out old-school misogyny. Also, references to smoking. It was common in his day.

[angel_of_death]

That's just something people tell girls so that they grow up to be dependent on men.

To me, it doesn't make a woman any less of a lady if she has a lighter. And I daresay a true gentleman would offer a lady a light if he had one to offer even if she had a lighter of her own.

In hers too

[madcuriosity]

But I would want one for the totem. I have to get the totem first, don't you think?

[angel_of_death]

That's right. Once you get one, then you can think about getting something to light it with.