crowschild | (no subject)

Tess gives Rory a faint smile. Frankly, this is just what she needs right now - to get away from anything that might even remotely make her think about Joel.

"Suddenly I feel like the girlfriend going to meet the family. Does my hair look alright?" She pats at it with an exaggerated look of worry. Because being flippant is something else she needs.

"You don't want to be the girlfriend. Those tend to get tossed off the roof and into the compost heap," Rory says tossing her one of the bracelet thingies. "The crown prince of Erie almost got tossed off by Dara, but Calvin pushed Dara off first."

But, to be at least somewhat of a gentleman reassuring type, he says, "You look fine. No worse than the rest of us."

"So, what you're saying is, your people don't stand much on ceremony," Tess says with a little smile. She puts on the bracelet, almost curiously.

"Now what?"

"Not one bit. The fact that we were all civil during Calvin's coronation was the talk of the tabloids. Some people said we were drugged or bribed." He's probably kidding.

"Well, I believe I push these buttons here and we go Fllooosh."

Fllooosh is a technical term.

"You ready?"

"Let's go," she says. Why the hell not, right? "I get the feeling I'm going to like your family."

"Right. I believe that the password today is sardine tuna jellyfish sandwich." And with that non-squeitor Rory pushes the Fllooosh button.

There's the moment of displacement sort of like what happens when someone fluxes in. They arrive in a forested place that seems almost like it's out of a fairy tale. The trees are exceptionally green with an excessive amount of crows and ravens in them. Sunlight streams down in hard shafts of golden light.

Up in the trees something rustles.

Then something pink drops down to the ground. It's a girl, she's about five. She's wearing a pink princess dress, with sparkles and ruffles. She's got Rory's green eyes and red hair. In her hair is a sparkly tiara. In her hand is a spear covered in pink and sparkles. There is a lot of pink and sparkles.

"PASSWORD! OR DEATH!!!" The little girl yells and brandishes her spear threateningly.

The whole thing leaves Tess feeling a little off-balance, a little dizzy, and she grips Rory's arm as a forest materializes around them. It all looks pretty normal to her - she isn't sure what, exactly, she was expecting from another universe, but a regular old forest was kind of low on the list.

That is, until a little girl approaches. A very pink little girl.

"Uh," Tess says, blinking at all the sparkles. "Sardine tuna jellyfish sandwich?"

The little girl deflates a little. "Awwww... Uncle Rory told you, didn't he?" she demands, crossing her arms sulkily.

"I did not. You know I'... Hey! isn't that my spear?" Now Rory's the annoyed one.

"Auntie Grace said that since you were being a [Insert something very rude sounding here in Gaelic] and going into space without her I could have your spear."

"She can't do that!"

He makes a grab for the spear, but she runs off down the path screaming, "RORY'S HERE WITH HIS FRIEEEEEND!! RORY'S HERE!!! AUNTIE GRACE!! RORY IS HERE! YOU CAN BEAT HIM UP NOW!!!"

"Um..." Tess was about to try and introduce herself to the girl, but then - nope, apparently that's not happening just yet.

His friend. Tess doesn't really consider herself a person who has friends. Business contacts, enemies, competitors, people she works with, for, and against.

But for the longest time, Joel has been the only thing approaching a friend.

Now, she's got almost more friends than she knows what to do with. She gets a faint smile on her face. "I think you forfeit your property when you leave it behind," she points out to Rory.

Grace hears the shrieking and stands from the garden, brushing off her knees and heading to greet Rory and his guest- and not to beat him up. At least, not in front of company. She crosses through the forest instead of going down the path and, as a result, meets up with them just a minute or two later.

"Hi, you must be Tess. Don't mind Ceilidh, she's... I'd say she's going through a phase, but she's honestly been that loud since the day she was born and she doesn't look to be stopping anytime soon. I'm Grace, it's nice to meet you." Grace's accent is almost invisible, compared to Rory's. She's worked at making it that way. They're not at all identical, despite the similarity of red hair and green eyes- you wouldn't take them for twins at third glance, let alone first.

Edited 2014-07-12 00:33 (UTC)

"Hey! Why'd you give Ceilidh my spear?" Rory demands, hellos clearly aren't important. "It's still mine!"

Or this could be a hello. It's hard to say.

Tess gives Rory a Look - like let the grown-ups talk now kind of look. "Hi, Grace. Nice to meet you. Nice place you've got here."

She means that, too. It is really nice. Tess is envious already.

"Oh, thanks. I'm sure it'll appreciate you saying so." She pats the tree she's standing next to, her expression about as close to fond as it gets. She's not exactly demonstrative.

She finally spares Rory a glance. "Siobhan said she was old enough for a spear and I figured you wouldn't be needing it, since you left it behind when you went to space and all."

The two of them are like night and day, really. Which is why they make a formidable team.

Continuing to act like an adult, he throws his hands up into the air with a disgusted noise.

"Who's home?"

Tess mostly just hangs back, for the moment, watching the siblings interact. It reminds her a little of her own brother, dead for twenty years or more. Her lips twitch a little, into an almost-sad sort of smile.

"I really appreciate you having me over," she says, suddenly remembering her manners from all those years ago, too.

"Mum, Da, Grady, Maeve, Aiden, Aoife's got some haunting thing, Siobhan's on her summer tour... oh, Annie's here and she's really sad because her dance camp got cancelled this week. Talia and the boys are doing state things in Dublin." It wasn't a full house in the slightest, but that might be for the best. All the McCallums at once could be overwhelming.

"Oh, we're all really excited to meet one of Rory's friends from space. You'll have to tell us all about what he's been doing- I'm pretty sure he makes half of his stories up." She laughed. "Do you want to look around the place or get something to eat or... something else altogether?"

"Aw. Damn. I was hoping to introduce her to the Queen of Eire," Rory says, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah, this is your day. What are you up for? Food, tour, whatever?"

"Tour first," Tess says immediately. "I want to walk around some, take a look at things. Work up an appetite."

"Why don't we look around outside first? The rose maze is safe to go into today."

Yes, that does imply that there are times when it isn't safe.

"The rose maze is amazing. It's really old... not as old as the Hall, but definitely one of the older pieces on the property. When you can get into it there's a nice fountain in the center. We're not exactly sure where it get the water from, but it's great during the hotter days in the summer," Rory says, also adding to the implications that some days it's not safe to go into the maze.

They walk out of the woods and into a clearing where the McCallum's home, Thorn Hall as it's called, stands. It's definitely a house that's been around for a while, well taken care of but worn. Though two stories it doesn't look big enough to hold thirteen plus people. It does feel very much like a Home though. This is somewhere that's been lived in for a great many years by a great many people. Patched and repaired and perhaps added on to over the generations of McCallums living there.

Scattered out in front are the remains of a very violent battle between bright pastel colored ponies and action figures. One of the victims is being eaten by a fat and fluffy grey kitten. Just beyond the grounds is an apple orchard with hints of something moving in the trees.

On one side is a blocked off outside area clearly used for weapons training of various sorts, from the archery targets and an older girl, about ten, practicing with a stave. She's also got red hair, but not quite the same shade as Rory and Grace's.

There's also a herb garden visible and behind the Hall the hints of the spoken rose maze.

Finally there's the woods.

They look like perfectly ordinary woods at first. But looking deeper into them there's a darker gloom in the distance and it feels like if Tess were to go into them Things would whisper promises to her... promises that were dangerous to accept.

The place has a weird feeling to it, that's for sure. Something more than just age. Something that doesn't exist where Tess comes from.

But she can push that aside, to focus on what she can understand - that this place is a home, with a family, and a lot of love. She can't really imagine why Rory would want to leave something like this behind, but then again, she's been alone in the world for twenty years.

"This place is beautiful," she says after a few moments of looking around. "You guys are... really lucky."