finding the way

[msmortal]

She's a four-year-old girl, and people (especially her Dad) insist she's a boy.

Not that she isn't sometimes. She is. But not today! Today she's a girl. And Dad keeps saying that's not true, that God made her body perfect and she shouldn't second-guess God's plan for her. God made her a boy, so she's supposed to be a boy. And on the one hand that kinda makes sense. God doesn't make mistakes, right? So if she were really a girl sometimes, then she'd... what? Her body would change, she guesses. But on the other hand, she knows she's a girl. She's a girl with a peepee, that's obvious. She'd prefer not having a peepee when she's a girl, but it's not the worst thing ever. And if God doesn't make mistakes, God also didn't make her feel like a girl sometimes on accident, right? It must be part of His (because God is always a He, even though God made everyone, boys and girls, in His image, he's always a He, Dad says) plan.

She tells Dad that, today, and Dad gets angry, and yells at her, and she doesn't know why he's yelling. It makes sense to her! But he won't explain why she's wrong, he's just yelling, Dad's so mean, she hates him, and she's not crying, shut up, you're crying!

And now Mum's coming and she's talking to Dad, and that usually makes Dad stop yelling and go away but he won't stop now and Sadde's angry and afraid and hurt and she's running away. A part of her thinks that it doesn't make much sense to run away, the park is pretty open and she can't really hide anywhere, and she'll have to go back because she'll get hungry (not now, though, she just ate a sandwich).

So she runs until she finds some bushes where she can hide, and she hides there, and she doesn't cry, and she spends a long time not crying. Mum and Dad don't come after her, though, and after she's done not crying she doesn't wipe her eyes and her nose, and she comes out the other way of the bushes she was hiding in.

And she's pretty sure that's not the park.

Comments

[msmortal]

"Why do you think so?"

[alicornucopia]

"Because you're not very good at this."

[msmortal]

"Yeah," she admits, because, well, she isn't. "But how is my not being very good at this going to influence the plan if it depends on you yourself acting as if you'd captured me?"

[alicornucopia]

"I didn't have a plan for capturing you and now I haven't captured you so I have to pretend and it'll look weird."

[msmortal]

...she sighs and shakes her head. "Alright, nevermind that plan, don't pretend you've captured me, I'm just gonna be honest and such."

[alicornucopia]

No reply.

[msmortal]

She considers letting him order her to be honest with him so they can have a conversation but- not a good idea. Nope. She'll be silent and be led.

[alicornucopia]

It's a really fucking long walk. At one point they have to go around a wide lake.

[msmortal]

"How much longer will it take?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know, I don't walk this route."

[msmortal]

"How long would it have taken flying, and can you carry me, and if so how long do you expect it to take that way?"

[alicornucopia]

"Four and a half hours, no."

[msmortal]

"...duck. Okay, uh... I have enough stuff to survive here for three days, let's see..."

She looks around for somewhere secluded where she could stay mostly hidden.

[alicornucopia]

Yellow can't lead her if she's not following; he lands.

[msmortal]

"You don't need to lead me anymore, by the way, just help me find a good place nearby for me to stay mostly hidden."

[alicornucopia]

He looks. Inefficiently.

[msmortal]

Ugh, whatever, she doesn't- ugh. She needs to work on order design.

She finds a little nook a ways from a small stream and shows it to Yellow. "What's the best way to get your vassal- Promise here?" she asks, taking in as much detail of her surrounding as she can: temperature, wind, light, time of day...

[alicornucopia]

"I can fly there and order her here."

[msmortal]

She sits cross-legged.

"Before performing these orders, listen to them all and then tell me how you expect this to fail, taking into account Promise's mentioned ingenuity, and wait for me to patch any holes needed. Fly there and order her here, taking no actions you do not honestly believe I would fully approve of, and come with her. If I'm not here when you return, wait with her until I'm back, once again taking no actions you do not honestly believe I would fully approve of, and extending that restriction to Promise herself. In particular, do not give Promise my name nor attempt to become her vassal by any means or to make her into my master in any way you might know how or she might devise, and do your best to respect the spirit of these orders as you honestly understand it, including preventing Promise from breaking it."

[alicornucopia]

Yellow's silent.

Maybe he doesn't expect it to fail.

[msmortal]

She decides there's no such thing as too much paranoia. "Do you not see a way for this to fail, or did I unwittingly phrase this in such a way as to allow you to not tell me if you had?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't see a way for it to fail."

[msmortal]

"In that case, perform the actions as described."

[alicornucopia]

He flies away.

[msmortal]

And she has to wait.

They'll be back in approximately nine hours, and she's quite sure something will go wrong, because of course it will. So she starts studying the harmonics of the area to see if she can make a gate to her place.