Off in the gardens on the west side of Torn Elkandu, the trees were shrouded in calm and quiet shadow, brightly colored flowers belying the false light of the Ethereal Plane growing around their feet. A nearby fountain bubbles, its trickling the only sound that can be heard aside from the distant sounds of people talking on the streets and the occasional twitter of birds.
Fantasia tended to work on whim and whimsy most of the time. It was all part of the muse that led to music and kept it fresh for so many years without it growing dull. Still did, that muse kept her moving and roving about when she wasn't at 'work' in one way or another, and today she'd found a need to get away from the bar for a bit after having yet another run-in with the barkeep's wife.
The woman really had no sense of humor! Well, none that a fox scurrying quickly out the back door with a rolling pin hot on her heels could detect anyway. At least the pursuit had gone no further than the end of the alley as the woman had realized that the streaking form was moving much faster than she could ever hope to. Oh well, there were hours left yet til her shift anyway, poking her nose around town would help them pass.
Gardens weren't generally a high point in places to hang out in, far too quiet and devoid of interesting life to interact with, but peace and quiet had its advantages too... sometimes. Occasionally. The small white fox scampered from the cover of tree to tree, and upon spying the fountain dropped by for a quick drink before looking around a bit more.
A shadow moved within the trees and she spotted the large, dark form of a black panther crouched on a sturdy limb overhead, peering down at her with emerald green eyes that seemed fairly out of place on such an animal.
Lapping the cool water, Fantasia didn't immediately respond to the newly arrived presence other than watching it with glittering black eyes. Not likely to be seeing a wild animal this close to a city, not that much at ease and without causing a panic, so probably a shapeshifter like the Bagheera from the Bastet.
She settled to her haunches, looking up at the cat curiously, then melded to the half-human form and folded long legs beneath her. "And who are you?" she asked, head tilting and a foxish grin creasing her muzzle.
The panther cocked her head at the fox and hopped down from the tree smoothly and casually shifted into the form of a female wood elf, dark hair, pointy ears, and the same green eyes. She gave a nod of greeting and said, "Thorn."
"Fantasia," she replied in greeting, grinning still and the curve and sway of the multiple tails lending to a cheerfully at-ease impression. "Haven't seen another shapeshifter since coming out this way, though from the ears I'd have to guess you're native rather than what I thought you might be. Probably a good thing, Bastet are too smug and secretive to make good conversationalists anyway."
"I'm from the Elkandu world of Daresa," Thorn replied. "What's a Bastet?" She quirked an eyebrow.
"Bastet? Well..." Fantasia scratched under her chin, eyes turning upward in deliberately thoughtful mode. "Let's see, they're smug and secretive, already covered that, the rest of it's pretty dull stuff like what species they were born as." She chuckled lightly, ticking off fingers. "They've got lynxes, tigers, lions, jaguars, cheetahs, whatever the hell the Bubasti are, and panthers of course. They also lump the Ajaba, were-hyenas under them for some bizarre reason. I think it's gotta be some kind of joke, personally."
"Oh," Thorn said, smirking faintly and not even trying to make sense of how hyenas were related to cats. "My brother's a weretiger... But he's over in Daresa still. I kind of miss him."
"Just be glad he's not from where I am," Fantasia replied. "The Khan, the weretigers, had absolutely no concept or understanding of humor. Though it was great fun to tweak their whiskers now and then, so long as you remembered to be moving away very fast right after."
"Well, half-brother technically, as his mother was an orc and mine was an elf... but never mind that..." Thorn snickered softly.
"Sounds like your dad got around about as much as mine did," Fantasia smirked. "Though I doubt there's any orcs hanging from the branches of the family tree."
"Yeah, we had another half-brother called Asterian but I haven't heard what might have happened to him in ages... he was supposedly a 'pureblood' whatever that's supposed to mean..." Thorn shrugged faintly.
"Probably supposed to be some sort of straight vanilla shapeshifter," Fantasia replied. "Though that's all that you get back where I come from. But hey, what more do you really need when you've got kitsune about? We're foxes, what more needs to be said?"
Fantasia struck a pose, echoing the hauteur of some of her pureblood kin, then ruined the illusion by giggling.
"I don't know," Thorn said. "Apparently my father was from a world with a lot of shapeshifters... never told me just where or even what it was called though. Guess he was afraid that I might want to visit or something. Can't imagine why, though."
"Psht," Fantasia retorts, waving a hand dismissively, "They're not all they're cracked up to be anyway. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! What a pain, they're inevitably gonna run around bashing each other's skulls in and generally not getting along unless someone steps up and makes em stop."
Things were well on the way to that when she'd skipped out, just about done really, no way in hell she'd have taken on the job of babysitter for all the unruly shapeshifters!
"And my father could turn into anything he wanted... he said it was because he was of the nobility or something... I don't get it." Thorn shrugged. "I think that's what he meant about my other brother, though, that he could turn into anything too."
"Oh..." Fantasia replied, looking suddenly and unhealthily interested in that little tidbit. "Anything they want to? Oh my, can you imagine the fun that could be had with that?" She could, and light danced merrily in her eyes as she thought of the possibilities.
"Yeah," Thorn said. "Even things that don't really exist. But I haven't seen my father since the Temporal Convergence, and nobody around here knew or would tell me whatever happened to him. Although I suspect a couple of them might have known... They got a bit nervous about the matter when I asked, but refused to talk and claimed to know nothing." She sighed.
Leaping lightly to her feet, Fantasia grinned and in a bad accent said, "Ve haff vays uf makink you talk!" Returning to normal speech, she went on, "What? Come on! You can't tell me that you settled for someone hiding something from you! Half the fun is poking your nose into places that people don't want it to be, then not being there anymore when they decide to get cranky about it."
"Well, generally I don't feel like pressing the matter when the person involved could incinerate me into small free-floating bites of ash with a thought or rip my mind inside out if I annoyed them."
"But but but..." Fantasia replied. "That's the other half of the fun! Not knowing when to say when, but when to say 'I'm outta here!' before they get the drop on ya!" She chuckled and shrugged. "But hey, that's just me and my approach, your mileage may vary."
She'd gotten more miles out of that than she could remember, generally because they were spent at high speed with something snapping at her tails.
"If you say so," Thorn said. "Apparently there was another version of myself before the Temporal Convergence who was apparently killed or something. But I haven't been able to find details on that either. Also, time travel sucks."
"Y'know, I bet every Trek geek out there would agree," Fantasia nodded. "Nothing but trouble comes out of traveling through time, not that the idea wouldn't be tempting now and again just to see what fun could be had with it. Can you imagine going back to the sixties and sticking a 'You are Here!' flag at the landing spot on the moon? They'd have a cow!" She snickered, knowing that it was a good thing she couldn't do that.
"What?" Thorn said in confusion, scratching her head, clearly entirely failing to get the joke. "I must have missed that planet, sorry."
"No biggie," Fantasia chuckled lightly. "I'm sure earth got paved over for a galactic highway or something in this universe, no big loss really. They seem to have made up for it and then some with the oddities that're wandering around this place."
"If you say so," Thorn chuckled. "There's plenty to see in this universe regardless. I don't think I've even seen the half of it. Daresa's a nice place... the stars are pretty..."
Tucking her tails in, or at least that was how Fantasia thought of the odd ability all of her kind had to hide all but one of their tails, she crossed back to sit at the edge of the fountain. "So what's on Daresa?" she asked, "Shapeshifters, obviously, and stars..." she yawned broadly, "booooring! So how's the nightlife?"
"Well, there's a city called Fesirya Kren, the Silver Towers, that's on an island off the main continent, that has these huge towers spiring into the sky, with millions of people living there... but mostly elves, some humans. Aitur tried to wipe out all the non-elves at one point..."
"Elrond, Agent Elrond," Fantasia said seriously, drawing a pair of black sunglasses from somewhere and setting them at the bridge of her muzzle, "Humanity is a virus, Mr. Hobbitson, I can smell it, I can taste it..."
Thorn stared at her in confusion again. "What?"
Fantasia tossed the glasses aside with an exaggerated sigh. "I'm in a land of cultural barbarians! At least the Glass Walkers made the Matrix, the original mind you, not the schlock sequels," she clarifies with an outthrust tongue in distaste, "part of the required viewing for the kiddies, and who hasn't seen the Lord of the Rings? Eh, oh well. Heh, as you were saying, Barnabas?"
Thorn blinked a bit more and looks at her as if she was speaking Portuguese. "Er, I'll take your word on that, I think... Suppose I've hung around here long enough, I don't know what I'm still doing here what with Chaos gone, as I'd originally come to fight it... I wonder what Kax is up to back home..."
"Heh," Fantasia sighed again, grinning a bit still. "Fair enough. I surrender and won't use bizarre pop culture references anymore. Well, much anyway. As for what you're doing here..." She shrugged, the grin brightening. "I've heard a bit about these Chaos weirdos, but since they're gone maybe you're hanging around for the bustling party scene that still seems to be clinging on around here?"
"Meh, that's calmed down since then lately too," Thorn said with a smirk. "Things were really wild here for awhile, so I hear. But not so much anymore."
"There's always something to be found going on," Fantasia snorted lightly in reply. "People might be laying low a bit after the fracas that left all that trouble in its wake, but they'll wake up to it again soon enough. Barring that, sounds like you're thinking about heading for home anyway, why not take advantage of that then? Can't be any worse than being bored and drifting aimlessly."
Thorn gave a shrug. "Hey, Daresa's a nice place. Except when people are trying to kill you and when people are starting wars over stupid things and crazy people are running around like mad and doing crazy things.."
"Let's see," Fantasia replied, ticking off on her fingers. "Trying to kill you, check, stupid wars, check, and crazy people, triple check. Heh, sounds like home, to me." She chuckled lighly and dipped a hand into the fountain, cupping a bit of water for a quick cooling sip. "Sounds like anywhere, really," she added, looking back to the other woman. "And at least you don't have to worry about being shot for what you are."
"I'm sure some people have tried that at various points, but they all kind of blended in with the ones who were shooting at me for being in Tempest, or shooting at me for being where I happened to be at the time, or shooting at me for looking funny..."
Fantasia grinned. "Have a habit of finding yourself at the sharp end of pointy things too, huh? Not so bad when you get the trick of how to avoid the real nasty part of that down, and really there's nothing more fun than making someone stop taking themselves so seriously for a minute, even if it means laughing and running like hell afterwards."
Thorn smirked. "Well, if you like, I could give you the guided tour of Daresa or something... It's a nice place, really it is... kind of... for the most part..."
Returning to her human form with a quicksilver rippling, Fantasia smiled and looks over at the water in the fountain, splashing at it playfully.
"Much as I'd like to take you up on that offer," she said, "There's something I have to take care of here first, and not sure how long that's gonna be. All depends on paranoia and sneakiness." It would be fun to see someplace new, but...
Thorn chuckled softly. "What's that, then?"
"Just some old business," Fantasia replied, the smile quirking to a more normal mischievous grin. "Just doesn't sit quite right when someone skips out on a command performance before the grand finale, y'know? Besides..." she added, face contorting to a comical expression of disgust. "You don't even want to know what could be going on until it's taken care of. Ew." She could guess, and wished she couldn't. Ew again.
"So what're you doing here instead of taking care of that then?" Thorn said with a faint grin-smirk.
"Er, well, see..." Fantasia's grin returned, though vaguely embarrassed. "I've been doing a little work on the side, pay the rent and that sort of thing, and well the boss's wife got a little ticked off about some of the things I've been up to. Decided it was a good time to make myself scarce for a bit." She wasn't about to mention the nature of the conflict, not in polite company at any rate!
Thorn continued to look confused. "'Pay the rent'? They have rent in Torn Elkandu? Well, I suppose if you're not a High Elkandu... I wouldn't know, nobody ever came up to me and demanded money... well, aside from the fact that I'd rather sleep in the garden anyway, it's much nicer out here..."
Fantasia chuckled lightly. "Just a figure of speech, old habits die hard when you're raised by a Tribe who has a totem called O'-Mighty-Dolla." She shrugged. "It gives me something to do and keep under the lights, entertaining a bit now and again when I'm not busy on the run."
"I imagine, but then it's not like she could actually do anything to you. Well, unless she's a Catalyst or a Chronomancer or a telepath or something, that'd be bad to tick off, yeah, but then again if she were you'd probably not be here talking to me..."
"Well no..." Fantasia replied. "But that's not really the point. I don't necessarily mean to get into trouble sometimes, it just kinda... finds me sometimes. I can't really blame people for getting ticked off about it, even if I could make them regret it. I save that particular brand of fun for those who deserve it."
Thorn chuckled. "Well, that sounds like every other Elkandu I've known, especially former members of Tempest... Like Azale..." She smirked broadly.
"I mean, how was I supposed to know they were related?" Fantasia muttered, then rolled her eyes and looked back to Thorn. "Anyway, yeah, I've heard some of the horror stories going around about these Elkandu, and even if I can do some of the same things, doesn't mean that my father or all the people involved raising me wouldn't kill me if they found out I did."
Thorn smirked. "'Elkandu' is really a very general term for anyone capable of channeling or utilizing the Ethereal Plane. But it's generally more specifically applied to said channelers who are native to this universe of late, as random people from other universes don't tend to like to be called Elkandu for some reason, even if that's how the term was originally used."
"Considering what I've heard about em," Fantasia smirked, "I wouldn't want to get stuck with that little label either. But hey, each to their own and all that, as long as they remember that there's people out there that might take notice sometime and give em a cosmic wedgie."
"I'm technically an Elkandu, too," Thorn said. "I tend to fall under the category of 'illusionist'." She smirked a bit.
"Shhh," Fantasia replied conspiratorially, looking around with a suddenly suspicious gaze, and whispered, "Don't tell anyone, but so do I." She snickered and stuck her tongue out. Magic was very, very foxy to the kitsune, and illusion was about the best it got as far as she was concerned!
Thorn chuckled softly. "But I don't tend to rate as 'high' as 'true' Elkandu, since it only works if I'm around plants. Meh."
Fantasia blinked, looking confused. "Plants. And illusion. Uhhhh, how does that work exactly? And is it even worth doing? I mean I've done some pretty nifty and outrageous things with it, that's just what kitsune do after all, but unless you're being chased through the woods by a horde of homicidal Gurahl out for your head for singing the 'Teddy Bear Picnic' at one of their get-togethers, I don't see where it'd be really useful."
Yes, that was one of her fonder memories, in fact, the opportunity having presented itself at the paws of one of her fellow band mates at the time. She missed that band. Heh.
Thorn blinked for a moment. "What's a Gurahl?"
Fantasia grinned and whistled a spritely tune that Thorn would likely never identify, though Bear would have laughed and gotten into his dancing rhythm at the opportunity provided by the 'Bear Necessities' from the Jungle Book.
"Hehe, Gurahl are werebears," Fantasia replied after a moment. "Solitary, generally cranky, and take themselves waaaaay too seriously. They can sure move when they're annoyed, though!"
Thorn smirked faintly, and spun around and vanished. "Like so," she said, chuckling again as she dropped the illusion again. "Thankfully, potted plants and the like are usually enough, too..."
She laughed lightly, shaking her head, then walked around the elven woman after seeing her display, eyeing her thoughtfully. "So, what, you carry a houseplant in your pocket so you can keep up the illusion?"
"Oddly enough, some people I've talked to seem surprised that I wasn't turning into a potted plant. But no, I generally don't bother. Because, thankfully, that isn't the only ability I possess." She winked.
Grinning, Fantasia nodded. "There's something to be said for getting a bit of a boost from putting on a tailor-fit fur coat, beyond the obvious that is."
"Nah, not that," Thorn said, chuckling. "Although that is handy at times. Nah, nah. Watch this!" She rubbed her hands together then held them out, and a multitude of brightly colored flowers grew up in front of Fantasia and opened.
"Well that's handy," Fantasia admitted, ducking down to snag one of the flowers, then looking back to Thorn with a grin. "Some of the Glass Walkers would have loved to get a hold of you, crazy people wanting to set things growing everywhere in the city. Like the weeds weren't enough!" She sniffed the flower and chuckled lightly.
"Unfortunately, it just tends to be fairly conspicuous when a kudzu randomly starts growing in an office..."
"So?" Fantasia smirked. "If you have a sudden need for a bit of sneakiness to get out of a jam, what's wrong with adding a little green to the world? Lot better than adding a bit of red, don't ya think?"
Thorn chuckled. "My brother would take exception to that... but then he was always the kind to claw first and ask questions later."
"Ick," Fantasia replied. "Don't get me wrong, sometimes you gotta do some wetwork, just ask the wise guys, but that's not normally the kind of thing you should be going around looking to do. Besides," she added with a twisted grin, "If you break your toys, what are you supposed to play with from then on?"
"Eh, he's a half-orc, what do you expect? He's a good deal less temperamental than most of them. That is, he doesn't randomly raid villages and such."
"And you said you're what, half elf?" Fantasia asked, then snickered. "Sounds like you definitely got the better end of the deal. Let's see... tall, dark, bad-tempered, and ugly, or tall, fair, elegant, and good-looking? Hmm, tough choice there..."
Thorn chuckled. "Hey, orcs aren't all bad... ... at least they're honest. Unlike humans a lot of the time."
"Hey now!" Fantasia replied. "We humans are perfectly capable of being honest and forthright..." she grins, "It's just that it doesn't always work in our best interests to do so. Can you imagine a complete run of honest politicians? I think the universe would implode!"
"Although when orcs are honest, it's generally being honest about wanting to kill you..."
"That kind of honesty I can generally live without, thanks." Fantasia blahed, "Like there aren't enough people out there wanting to shoot, stab, maul, skin, and hang my body out as shark bait already!" She shivers at a sudden thought, "Eek, yeah, great shark bait, just what everyone needs, Rokea nightmares."
"Maybe I can pass on visiting my brother for a while..." Thorn commented, reconsidering that.
"Family's great and all, but sometimes ya just gotta know when to say no," Fantasia agreed. "Besides, even if he's the most soft-hearted and cuddly of the homicidal orcs, what about the people he's hanging out with?"
"They tend to leave me alone primarily because I could claw their eyes out if they didn't."
"Well yeah," Fantasia laughed. "But still, there's always one blockhead in any crowd." She shrugs, grinning, "Sounds like an interesting group to poke a stick at anyway, provided you've got your running shoes on."
"Eh, they could never catch me." Thorn grinned. "And even if they caught up to me, they could never find me."
"That's the whooooooole point," Fantasia nodded in emphatic agreement, returning to the furred hybrid form and dancing around while jabbing with clenched fists at an invisible opponent. "Jab and duck, stick and run, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, oh yeah!" She gave up the silliness with a giggle and walked back to sit near the fountain again, tucking the single flower absently behind one ear.
Thorn chuckled faintly and went and sat across from her. "So what're you gonna do then?"
"Not sure," Fantasia replied with a shrug. "Been kinda at loose ends since coming here, other than keeping an eye out for that loose end. Other than that, probably end up poking my nose here and there as the whim strikes."
"Well, I certainly don't know. And no jokes about curling up in the sun or batting around a ball of yarn, either." Thorn snickered.
"Oh don't get me started," Fantasia snickered, remembering a particular Khan who'd been born as a feline and had been readily distracted in just such a fashion. "But I'ma gonna make an offer youse can't refuse..." She looked at Thorn with a quirked grin, then just chuckled as the reference shot overhead and dropped the horrid accent. "Let me see if I can't finish up what I have to, then I'll take you up on that tour if the offer's still open. If nothing else, sounds like there should be a few things just dying to meet me over there. Heh."
"Heh. Sure thing, sounds like a plan to me." Thorn chuckled again.
"Sooooo," Fantasia stood again, bouncing on her toes a bit as she looked around. "You mentioned preferring the outdoors, that mean I can sneak over this way and probably find you here? Well hey, unless you have a cell phone or something, speaking of which I need to figure out how to hook up with a new plan out here since I'm waaaaaay out of the network."
"What's a cell phone?" Thorn scratched her head. "Well, I'm not really hiding or anything, but then if people want to find somebody they generally ask a Seeker, or if they want to send a message to somebody they ask a telepath..."
"Shhhhh! You'll give a Glass Walker a heart attack talking like that!" Fantasia said, then laughed. "Still getting used to the idea of magic being the next big invention here, though I'm going to miss some of the conveniences... not that the added possibilities don't make up for a lot of that." she finishes with an unsettlingly cheerful and maniacal grin.
"What's a Glass Walker?" Thorn wondered. "Oh, but I think there's magic devices that'll do what you want, too..."
"Ummmmm," Fantasia thought about that one a sec, then tilted her head in a light shrug. "Glass Walkers are one of the tribes of Garou, the wolf shapeshifters. I was raised by them, they're a bunch of normal people with tech fetishes, combining really nifty abilities and their gadgets. They'd probably love to see some of the stuff possible here, since fetishes that allowed things like flight were only possible in the Umbra."
"Umbra?" Thorn wondered. "You mean the Ethereal Plane or something?"
"Yup." Fantasia nodded "That's what it amounts to here, though there's a few differences about it that seem to be pretty specific to where I came from. Heh, that's another thing that the shapeshifters pretty much all had in common, being able to step sideways into the Umbra and make a break for it if things got hairy... or back to the real world if things got too ugly on the Umbra side." She shrugged. "Strange place, but it was home."
"Well, only dreamwalkers can do that here, though most people can manage limited teleportation..."
"I haven't tried it here," Fantasia replied thoughtfully, the idea not having crossed her mind really as it was something that tended to come up when she was on the run or was deliberately looking for something on the other side. "Huh, have to look and see if it still works, or if that was some specific bypass granted by Gaia. Teleportation, well, Gizmo had a few things to allow for that, but the Boss nixed me ever getting one. Heh."
"Then again, Torn Elkandu is technically inside the Ethereal Plane at any rate... And I'm hardly a Seeker to tell you what you can and can't do, anyway..."
Fantasia shook off the momentary seriousness like shedding water from her coat and grinned. "No worries, I'm still looking around and seeing what's what around here, there's still a couple things to figure out... like who the heck is this Shazmar people keep muttering about?" She shrugs, "Time enough to find out, that's what the tails are all about."
"Oh, Shazmar? He's got a temple somewhere around here if you really want to find out..."
"I think I'll do that," Fantasia replied. "The times I've heard him mentioned have really made me curious. Heh. Anyway... It was nice meeting you, Thorn. Hopefully I'll be able to settle things out before you decide to head back home."
"Uh... have fun..." Thorn said, looking at her as if she's crazy for actually considering it, then just shrugged and shifted back into cat form and curled up for a nap in the grass.
"Oh I will!" Fantasia replied brightly, shifting back to fully foxish form and ambling over to lick the cat on the tip of the nose before darting off into the foliage.