The Deck, Thursday evening

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully had gotten back after class, taken some time to debate starting to pack, then grabbed a soda from the Common Room fridge and gone out on the deck to type on her Netbook. It was too nice a day to stay inside.

Apparently, the flowers around the deck agreed. "Do you believe in magic?"

"...what?"

"In a young girl's heart!" sang one of the peonies.

"How the music can free her, whenever it starts!" chimed in the tulips, swaying, leaves flapping and petals moving in time.

Scully stared. Then looked at her Coke. "...damnit, doped again."

[open, as decks with a chorus of flowers are]

Comments

[intraspective]

"Wee sibling!" Ino carolled when she spotted Scully. She hopped up on the deck, grinning when the flowers crooned a greeting. "Hello to you too."

What? If they were talking, she had to talk back.

"Isn't today lovely?" Ino, you know Scully thinks this is insanity. Stop egging her on.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully observed Ino saying hello to the plants with a jaded expression.

"It is lovely. And I'm on drugs."

Hi to you too, Ino.

[intraspective]

"What?" Ino asked, glancing at her. "'Cause of the flowers? That's not drugs, promise. That's just the island."

Clearly she was not particularly bothered by the lack of hellos.

"I did warn you it was weird, right?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully stared at her, then back at the flowers. "...what?" Think, Scully, think. "They don't even have lungs to sing with!" Well, she had to start thinking about it somewhere. "And you did. And I owe you an apology for not believing any of it, but how can I not be on drugs? Are you sure I wasn't bitten by one of those gremlin things?"

Just to be sure, Scully pulled up the edges of her jeans to check for bites.

The flowers broke into a chorus of Always Look On the Bright Side.

[intraspective]

Ino bit her lip and very carefully didn't cackle as the flowers serenaded them.

"Oh no," she assured her. "If you'd been bit by a gremlin, then you'd be doing ridiculous things. Not thinkin' that everything else was the crazy around here."

Ino smiled at the peonies, reaching over to straighten one that had gone a little lopsided with gentle fingers. "They maybe don't have lungs," she conceded, "but they've got personality. Don't you think it's okay for them to get a voice now and then?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Well, sure, Ino, but..." Scully had no philosophical objection to flowers singing. In spite of their playlist. She had an objection to effects without causes that were perceivable. She peered more closely at one of the poppies, which broke into, "~Say a little prayer for youuuu! Forever! And ever!~"

"How can you take this so calmly?"

[intraspective]

"Well," she said, humming along with the tulips as they wandered into a rendition of '~Somewhere over the rainbow~!'.

"Guess it's 'cause I've been here for so long? This September will be three full years--I started as a freshman and I'm a rising senior now."

Which was huge and scary and Ino wasn't sure she wanted to think about that.

"You get used to anything, given time."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Which was another kind of terrifying for Scully, but after one gulp, she put that idea aside as too big to deal with.

"...so this has happened before?" Scully asked, fascinated now. "Or something like it?"

"Bluuuue biiiiiirds flyyyyy..."

[intraspective]

"Singing flowers? Not this exactly," she said, considering that. "But we've had glitter rain, a day when everyone had their own personal weather systems over their heads."

She wrinkled her nose. "And that reacted to our moods." Fun times, that.

"I've had a ribbon turn into a human before," she added. "Eventually you just stop blinking at it."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully gave her an incredulous look for that. The marigolds broke into a little do-wop version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight which had her involuntarily humming along. "Is there any reason why it happens at certain times, at least? Any reason to wake up on certain days and expect... I don't know. A million monkeys typing Shakespeare?"

[intraspective]

Ino gave that a long considering pause.

Um.

"... If the fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night, you might want to bring an umbrella? We tend to get some really weird weather during fire alarms. Last time was chocolate syrup and marshmallows."

... It was kinda sad that that was the best she could do to nail things down, yes.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully's head was in her hands, and she wasn't sure whether to be glad or worried that she was almost starting to believe this.

"... I was in a rain of frogs, once."

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

Simging. Flowers. James facepalmed. "Is this some sort of spell mishap?" he asked.

[intraspective]

"Nah," Ino said lightly. "It's just the island. Smile and enjoy it."

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

He tilted his head slightly. "I'm not sure I can enjoy this. It's unnerving."

[intraspective]

"... they're cute," Ino pointed out. "And harmless. They just want to babble today."

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

"They are cute," he agreed with a slight nod. "Think I should send some back home?" he asked with a sudden grin.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I don't believe in magic," Scully said absently, answering him, or maybe the flowers, as she was still staring at them. "So I don't see how." She paused. "You are seeing this too?"

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

"Yes." He stared at her, then back at the flowers. "You doubt you can see this?" he asked, gesturing at the ... singing flowers.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I've been drugged before and seen things that weren't there," Scully said stubbornly. "Maybe you're drugged too?"

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

"I would hope that I could tell when I'm drugged," he said, twitching his shoulders in a slight shrug. His bump of trouble wasn't acting up, so...

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I would hope so too." But Scully's experiences indicated this wasn't always the case. "Or under the influence of hypnosis of some kind. Or possibly another... manufactured illusion." She scowled, then admitted, "But I can't think why anyone or anything would use singing flowers."

"You are the sun, you are the rain..."

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

He could think of several reasons. "Distraction. Focus on the flowers, and not on the troop buildup on the other side of the island or the bashers moving in to take your purse." He shrugged again. "Not my preferred method."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"You snatch purses? Or move troops?" Scully asked, reaching out to stroke the petals of one tulip. OOooo! That tickles! Then snatch her hand back.

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

"Not anymore," he said with a smile.

Let her figure out which was true.