4 Monster Friends [Action/Voice]

[wildlittlegirl]

[ When Arietta first comes back to the village, she doesn't think much of it. Sure, there are a few new faces around, but she was kidnapped right before another New Feather cycle.

But as she makes her way back to House 47, things seem a bit strange. Dated, even. And they only get stranger when she finds out just who else is in House 47.

Finally she decides enough is enough, and goes for the journals.

Anyone who's met Arietta might notice that at the moment, she seems a bit... well. Older. ]



Hello. Um, I was wondering. Is Yushen listening to this? Or Wiz? [ Who else has been in Luceti for a long time...? ] Cloche?

If any of you hear this, I want to talk to you...

[ Where have all her Luceti friends gone 8'( ]


(( Arietta has been aged-up nine years in an alternate Luceti as detailed here! ))

Comments

[blessingone]

[ Chances are low that Fenimore would come to the conclusion that this somewhat familiar girl was a much older Arietta from just a glance, so it's likely that they would have passed by each other none the wiser had Fenimore not had a follower who is less concerned about the fine details of recognizing people.

Ques the peepit has been under Fenimore's care since he was a chick less than a foot tall two years ago and has thus lacked a proper peepit role model in his life. As such, now that he's over five feet from the tip of his head to the bottom of his long tail feathers, he generally tends to hop like he did as a tiny chick rather than fly. Today, he's hopping along behind Fenimore, who is...mostly ignoring him, really. This is pretty normal. All she needs to be sure is that he is moving about to try to work off the excess food that Grune stuffs him with. He's mildly plumper than the picture would suggest.

Unlike Fenimore, Ques stops to examine Arietta, tilting his head back and forth. He doesn't really know much about people, but he's only seen one with pink fur before. ...Maybe. His memory isn't very good. But he remembers she was friendly and he also remembers that peaches are also pink. He likes peaches. Grune gives him plenty. Maybe this girl was colour-coded pink because she also has peaches. It's a tenuous connection. But Ques is not exactly the most intelligent of beings. It's good enough for him.

He hops in her direction to greet her. Fenimore will probably notice his absense behind her eventually and come back for him, but for now Arietta gets to deal with the peepit. ]

[wildoldergirl]

[ omg Ques you are the cutest thing

But Arietta doesn't take long to notice the large monster hopping towards her.

And oh goodness aren't you just so precious come here and let auntie Arietta love you ]

Hi there! I haven't seen you before.

[ Can she pet you on the head? She is taller and can actually reach now. ]

[blessingone]

[ If Ques were better about understanding human language, he might be confused that she doesn't seem to remember him. But his understanding is rudimentary at best, so all he gets is that she's greeting him. He warbles a greeting back.

And he heartily agrees with this head-petting idea. Head pets are great and if she reaches out her hand to do so he may even bump his head against her hand to indicate that this is something he is totally down with. ]

[wildoldergirl]

[ Oh, she likes you already. Well, she liked you already for being a monster, but now she likes you already even better. ]

I haven't seen a monster like you before. Are you all alone here?

[ /pet pet ]

[blessingone]

[ Yaaaaaay petting! Heck yes.

He chirrups a response, but it's more or less the bird equivalent of "mmhmm." He recognized there was a question in there somewhere, but why pay it any attention when there are pets to be had? I mean, really.

He can instead leave answering the question to Fenimore, who has since noticed that she's no longer being followed and has come to investigate. She's glad to see he's ingratiated himself to a (strangely familiar) woman rather than getting into trouble. ]

If you mean if there are any other giant birds around, well, I certainly haven't seen any.

[ Which isn't entirely true. There is a giant owl around Albert somewhere. But Fenimore doesn't remember that at the moment. ]

[wildoldergirl]

[ She turns to Fenimore just long enough to briefly size her up.

Not a familiar face. ]

Oh, really?

[ ... And people continue to be less interesting than monsters, so Arietta's attention will be back on Ques once she's digested the information Fenimore has provided. ]

That must be really lonely... Do you have any friends?

[blessingone]

[ Ques tilts his head back and forth. His ability to understand words is pretty limited, but he recognizes the word "friend." His cooing response is basically a yes, but only because he's completely misunderstood the question. It's more to say yes, you are a friend because you have given me pets you are going to continue to do that right that would be a good plan.

Fenimore is not any better at understanding birdspeak than Ques is at understanding humanspeak, so she has no idea that this is anything other than a random noise from the bird. ]

He's not going to be able to answer something like that, you know.

[ Okay, so that might have been a little snippier than she intended. She's a little annoyed at getting ignored in favour of the bird as a conversation partner. ]

[wildoldergirl]

Yes he can. He told me he does!

[ Yay being able to understand monsters! Which... unfortunately does not extend to reading monster minds, so she doesn't realize that he's answered the wrong question.

Her understanding is also shaky at best given that he's not an Auldrant monster and wasn't brought up around other monsters to boot, but "yes" is a very simple idea so she can get that much. But of course pets will continue, because Arietta always loves new monster friends.

Which means back to talking to the big bird now that she's done being snippier at Fenimore in return. ]

That's good. Let's be friends, too, okay?

[ Fenimore and future!Arietta are getting off to a great start, aren't they... ]

[blessingone]

[ They are going to be the best of friends; I can just feel it. ]

...You speak bird.

[ This isn't exactly beyond the realm of imagination for Luceti, but given that the conversation is going so wonderfully, both her tone and expression are flat, as though she doesn't believe her.

Meanwhile, Ques is a little confused why the same question is being asked with different sounds (well, at least the word "friend" is showing up again), but he just repeats the cooed yes. After all, the really important part is the petting, awwww yes. ]

[wildoldergirl]

I can talk to all monsters!

[ For some definition of "all" that encompasses all the monsters on Auldrant and tenuously includes others from other Tales worlds similar enough worlds.

But Ques is just the sweetest thing okay, can she take him home pretty please. ]

My name's Arietta. What's your name?

[blessingone]

...Huh.

[That's all Fenimore has to say about that. She's not sure she believes it just yet, but...huh. (Also Fenimore would probably tsunnishly say that she could take the bird off her hands, but she wouldn't mean it.)

Meanwhile, that's...kind of a difficult question for Ques. He mightn't even recognize the question from most people, but Arietta is good with monsters. Still, he knows the name that all of the humans call him, but there's no way he can pronounce it and he doesn't know what it means, so he's kind of out of luck there. He'll try a chirrup to sound like his name, but he's no parrot. It sounds nothing like "Ques."]

[wildoldergirl]

[ It's okay. Arietta will just take that noise as his name, because this is how monster names work.

Totally close enough. ]

You're a really nice monster, [ and then she makes a sound which is actually a really close approximation of the noise Ques made. ] I'm sorry you can't be with your friends from home, but I hope you like it here anyway!

[blessingone]

[ Fenimore bursts out laughing when Arietta pronounces Ques's "name." Sure, it's remarkably close to the noise Ques made, but she still thinks it's hilarious.

Ques is a little confused by the latter sentence -- he was much too young when he came here to have any idea that he comes from anywhere but here or that there are others like him -- but he is totally on board with being called nice. That means that he deserves a treat, right? Does this nice pink person have food? He'll begin to prod his beak at where he's determined are the most likely places for pockets. ]

[wildoldergirl]

[ Which means Fenimore is going to get a glare. What, do you think his name is funny? It's not! It's a nice monster name.

And Arietta doesn't have pockets, so she'll just keep petting Ques, not actually realizing what he's up to given that she is distracted by being angry at Fenimore. ]

What's so funny?

[blessingone]

[ Fenimore gets her laughter mostly under control and replies merely with a terrible immitation of Arietta's immitation of Ques before laughing again. ]

[wildoldergirl]

[ HUFF ]

It's not funny just because you can't talk to monsters!

[blessingone]

Does that really count as being able to talk to monsters? Asking them questions and then repeating back whatever noise they make?

[ Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but to an outsider observer who doesn't understand monsters (especially one who is a little uncharitable), there hasn't been much of a difference from a normal person talking to their pets. ]

[wildoldergirl]

It's a part of it. Besides, most monsters here can understand me when I use human language just fine. Being able to understand them is really important, too!

[blessingone]

It's hard to tell if you really understand them if you just get back a bunch of chirping for a name. I mean, I guess I can take your word for it, but it's still hard to tell.

[wildoldergirl]

That's because you don't get it!

[ /HMPH ]

[blessingone]

Maybe I don't, but I'm not too worried about missing out on talking to monsters.

[ Even if she currently has a monster pet, she's not too fond of them in general. ]

By the way, his name is Ques. [ Well, that's the name she gave him, at least. ]

[wildoldergirl]

Monsters make better friends than people do.

[ Usually. Ion gets to be an exception ok. ]

[blessingone]

[Wow, that seems...really sad to Fenimore. She can't see how that could be true unless the people she'd met had been terrible. She attempts to conceal her look of pity with moderate success.]

Maybe you haven't met the right people yet.

[wildoldergirl]

Maybe you haven't met the right monsters yet!

[ THIS TOTALLY GOES BOTH WAYS ]

[blessingone]

[ She highly doubts it! Monsters are dangerous. But she doubts she'd get anywhere trying to argue this. ]

Maybe, but making friends with monsters is completely different from having people as friends. Everyone needs a few people as friends.