This Is Less Of A Shock Than It Could Be, Really

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Daphne is not in the relatively safe areas of her hometown or college campus, so it isn't really all that surprising when she suddenly is in a random forest instead of walking back to her car.
It's a little surprising; normally she is permitted to enter random forests of her own will. But not that much.
She starts walking, looking for whatever inane plot she will be required to participate in/thwart this time.
Eventually she sees a cottage. She makes for that--random houses in the woods are prime weird shit locales.
She knocks on the door. "Excuse me! I don't know what's going on here but I'd rather get it over with sooner rather than later so I can go home!"

Comments

[imeanforever]

"Does Jawbreaker actually break jaws?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"No. There's a kind of candy called a jawbreaker because you're supposed to suck on it instead of chewing and it's supposed to be so hard that if you try to bite it anyway it'll break your jaw, and they're one of his favorite things."

[imeanforever]

"Oh."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"You are not the first person to ask that question."

[imeanforever]

"The candy isn't very popular?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"It's fairly popular, but before he got his act together he used to be a member of a particular cultural group known for violence."

[imeanforever]

"Oh."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Yeah. Plus the story of how I had to break a chainsaw murderer's face with a baseball bat to keep him from murdering me with a chainsaw didn't help much."

[imeanforever]

"I... see."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Getting dropped in Fairyland was pretty far from the first perilous thing to happen to me."

[imeanforever]

"I didn't realize the mortal world was so dangerous for mortals apart from the whole mortality thing."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I have a worse time of it than most. Most people go through their lives never encountering situations like I deal with on a regular basis."

[imeanforever]

"Why does it always happen to you?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"We're not sure, exactly...we think it might have to do with something I found out about myself a little less than a year ago, but that's pretty private and I'm not really interested in sharing it with as many people as it would take to make serious headway on figuring it out."

[imeanforever]

"Okay."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Dorm! Dorm room!
Little Bird writing Overbite's brother an email requesting his presence and a nickname that won't make him throw a hissy fit!

[imeanforever]

Promise sitting somewhere out of the way, thoughtfully staring into space!

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Do you want to read a book or something?" Little Bird asks, finishing the email and hitting Send.

[imeanforever]

"That would be nice, but it would be even better if I could borrow something to draw with."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Uhm...Okay, I have a mostly-blank notebook and some pens and pencils."

[imeanforever]

"That'll do."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Here. I'll go fetch Jawbreaker."

[imeanforever]

"Thank you."

Promise draws.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

And Little Bird fetches Jawbreaker! This takes a little while because she doesn't know exactly where he is but she finds him sooner rather than later.

[imeanforever]

"Hi," says Promise, when Little Bird and Jawbreaker show up.