we're tuning in for your regularly scheduled changeling screaming

[runs]

[Not long after the return to Liminal, in a timeframe better measured in minutes than anything else, Kitty starts broadcasting. It's quiet at first but quickly gets louder as she's clearly working herself into a fit, dropping any ability to filter from the network as she goes.]

sheshouldnotbehereSheShouldNotBeHere

SHE SHOULDNOTBEHEREsheshouldnotbehereSheShouldNotBeHere

SHESHOULDNOTBEHERENOT HERE

NONONONONONODREKDREKDREKDREKTECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

SHESHOULDNOTBEHERESHESHOULDNOTBEHERESHESHOULDNOT[...and so on.

(To those who'd actionspam at her instead of responding on the network, she's just standing rooted to the spot where she arrived, staring at a moose-sized dragon opposite of her, who seems to be rather unsure of how to help her, considering that she dodges every time the dragon tries to get closer, without ever moving away further. Her whole body is tense, her fingers curled, and those who can see through masks will notice that her whole body language resembles that of a thoroughly spooked cat.)]

Comments

[galvanizer]

[Clearly the best way to diffuse this situation is to have a 7 foot tall woman with horns and another dragon draped over her shoulders approach, right?]

You're screaming on the network, you know.

[Just going to lean on her staff as she watches Kitty and the dragon.]

Brought a souvenir with you?

[runs]

NO!

[Her body language doesn't change one bit, but she is changing towards the new arrival.]

I didn't, I didn't mean to, I tried- [she stops abruptly, biting down the last words, and continues instead with:] I didn't mean for her to be brought here!

[galvanizer]

Calm yourself. Take a deep, slow, breath. [Asa stops far enough away that she can't be an immediate threat to the girl.] What did you try to do?

[runs]

[Kitty glares at her, but the focus on someone not Cynthia does let her centre a bit.]

I didn't want her to bond with me!

[triggerhappytraitor]

[[Normally, Tachibana would block that and the network out in a hot second... but as he recognizes both the voice and what likely triggered the freakout...]]

She decided she wanted to come with you, even knowing the situation?

[runs]

SHE DIDN'T!

I DIDN'T!

THEY DID!

And it's my fault it's my fault I shouldn't have let her get close I shouldnt' have let her

[Yeah, the filtering of her thoughts from the network is still not working well, too freaked out.]

[triggerhappytraitor]

Kitty.

Calm down.

[[The words are forceful, but kind, very much the tone of a parent as he tries to break through her panic]]

Is she upset to be here?

[runs]

[There is a moment of calm, and it seems like she's calmed down, but when she responds the pause in her panic doesn't last.]

She SHOULD NOT BE HERE!

[dino_zarf]

Loud!

[Rose is mostly glad the network is back, but she has opinions about people screaming in her head]

It's not your fault that she's here.

[runs]

YOU'RE LOUD TOO

[she might be in a state of panic, but that doesn't mean that she can't get sidetracked. Which actually nets Wash a reasonable answer.]

Only not directly.

[dino_zarf]

You started it

[Do not get into an argument with a toddler that way lies madness]

We can't control who gets dragged along for the ride, we just have to try to do right by them while they're here.

[runs]

YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT BEING LOUD FIRST

[She's seven and also very frazzled, what are the chances of her standing down?]

[breakaleginhalf]

Putain d'enfer-- [French quickly switches to English.] Kitty calm down, why are you screaming? Where are you??

[runs]

[She doesn't speak French, though she recognizes it easily enough, one of the two Kitties having spent most of her life near the French border - or would, if she had tbe mind for it.

Gil actually makes her calm down a bit, because it's Gil, because he will understand, surely, because Gil is safe or as safe as anyone here is and... and, mostly, because if it is someone she trusts to that degree, she can do information exchange and chain of command communication even when freaked out. Concentrating to keep it at bay for the moment, she does her best to describe her location and then adds:]

Cynthia was abducted because I got too close to her and she is here now and I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to bring her back with me, she should not be here.

[breakaleginhalf]

Okay, I'm coming alright? Just stay calm. Deep breaths, nice and slow. [He's trying to keep his mental voice even as he portals over to where she described, and finds her standing there.

With a dragon.]

...uh. What.

[runs]

[Kitty is circling around the same issue again in the time that it takes Gil to portal over, but she stops when he arrives, though she stays where she is, frozen in her spot between Gil and Cynthia, not wanting to get close to either and at the same time wanting to be close to both.

In the end she points at Cynthia accusingly.]

SHE SHOULDN'T BE HERE!

[The dragon just... stands there, already having learned that Kitty won't respond well to her coming closer right now.

And Gil will find a weak telempathic message floating into his brain, images informing him of Kitty having been worried about this happening since she learned that it was possible.]

[morethanashadow]

[WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING.]

Kitty, what's wrong?

[runs]

CYNTHIA IS HERE THEY BROUGHT HER BACK WITH US I DID NOT MEAN TO BRING HER HERE I DIDN'T SHE SHOULD NOT BE HERE!

[morethanashadow]

[ooooh he is not good with yelling children.]

Ok, first of all, yelling won't help anyone. Second, who is Cynthia? Is she a dragon?

[thezerothlaw]

My companion, Lady, is a gryphon and not a dragon, but perhaps it may aid if I pass along her own thoughts? Some translation is necessary, of course, as she speaks little, and in rough grammar, but her meaning is clear.

Her opinion is that her place is with me. She protects me. She would not choose to be anywhere else. If there is danger here, then that is all the more reason she should also be here.

[runs]

Her place could be with me if it wasn't here.

THIS PLACE IS BAD!

[thezerothlaw]

[There's a pause, while he considers.]

Perhaps so, but it is her choice to make. Love is not always rational.

[failgoyle]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Screaming in solidarity seems like the thing to do.]

[runs]

I DID NOT MEAN FOR HER TO COME HERE I TRIED TO MAKE IT NOT HAPPEN!

[failgoyle]

CAN YOU PUT THAT THING BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM?