not_the_last: (Default)
not_the_last (Cassandra de Rolo) ([personal profile] not_the_last) wrote in [community profile] come_sailaway2023-09-11 12:48 pm

wake me up when September ends [OTA + closed prompts]

Who: Cassandra de Rolo, OTA + closed prompts
When: September
Where: Around the Serena Eterna
What: Flowers and their curious effects
Warnings: Game-typical angst; further content warnings in headers as they come up. The prompts below are occurring in no particular order over the course of the month.

1. summer has come and passed; the innocent can never last

Vivid purple-blue and yellow pansies nod at her from where they've twined up the banister along the stairwell, almost brushing her shoulder as she hurries by.

Later -- well, Cassandra isn't in large crowds very often these days, is she? But someone at the buffet on this particular morning may overhear the murmur you don't need more than one slice; someone in just the right part of the Promenade a little later may overhear there's a clear path to the stairwell if he comes this way; someone passing by Sundries in the next five minutes may overhear still need to talk to Valdis about the gun.

2. ring out the bells again, like we did when spring began

In a corner of the library there's a spreading cluster of the tiny white flowers of baby's breath, looking sweet and harmless.

On a comfortable chair not very far from that point is a pile of cloth that might, on closer study, resolve itself into a dark grey skirt, a white blouse, a blue and grey patterned waistcoat, and a leather belt with a bag attached on one side and a sheathed rapier on the other. The pile is oddly arranged, as though the person wearing the clothes had vanished from inside them while still sitting there; as though to support this image, a pair of sturdy brown boots is on the floor in front of the chair.

On top of the pile is a two-inch-tall Cassandra, bundled in in the stiff and voluminous folds of a dainty silk handkerchief, struggling to press buttons on a phone that is now bigger than she is.

(The screen currently reads ERIN ITS CA)

[Note: this prompt is not closed to Erin! Anyone is welcome to happen upon tiny Cass while she's trying to text.]

3. drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are [closed to Phil]

A patch of poppies has sprung up on the rooftop that's one of the Serena's highest points, where few can climb. With the number of passengers that can fly, that's less a guarantee than it might be, but Cassandra still seeks solitude up there every so often -- and today, that means she falls asleep there, with vivid red petals pooled around her dark head.

In the dream she's twelve again, lined up with her brothers and sisters in their finery, excited about the visiting strangers and the welcome feast that's about to begin.

4. seven years have gone so fast

Wildcard! If you want to talk to Cassandra at a point where she is not affected by flower nonsense, feel free. Message me here or on discord if you'd like an individual prompt.
goodweather: (30)

we breed an animal with the right to make promises

[personal profile] goodweather 2023-09-11 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Phil's sleep has been slowly becoming more regular for the first time in almost a year, but the emphasis here is on slow. Some nights are better than others.

He doesn't necessarily seek high places, usually. Just hidden ones. But tonight he figured he may as well; the view is nice and it's quieter than most places, and silence is still a valuable commodity for him these days.

But when he wanders upwards, it's not very quiet; there's a heart beating there with the slowness that comes with sleep, and when he mounts the height, there lies Cassandra. With flowers about her head, sprung from the metal.

Oh, dear. Here? He stoops down, fingers brushing past the flowers as he tries to feel if she's got any kind of pillow, and... no, it doesn't seem so. That can't be good. So he disappears, and returns with an armful of pool towels to fold beneath her head, and wonders for too long if he ought to move her.

But by then, the exhaustion's catching up to him, and. Well.
yourexoduslaughing: (big grin)

ring out the bells

[personal profile] yourexoduslaughing 2023-09-11 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh. My. GOD!"

There is a giant crouched over this tiny person in a mount of clothes. She's trying very hard not to clap with excitement for fear of blowing her and her little handkerchief clothes away. "You're like a Borrower! Oh we gotta get you away from that Baby's Breath before it makes you even smaller! Hey do you want something a safety pin to hold that together for you?"

These questions are not separated in the slightest, though Flan does put her hands out so the tiny lady in her adorable silk handkerchief can climb on board and they can keep her from shrinking away to nothing.
crushed_pearls: (Default)

2.

[personal profile] crushed_pearls 2023-09-11 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Erin answers the vague but highly concerning text summons immediately. 'By the chairs', okay, but which chairs...

Eventually the faint but familiar scent of Cass gets Erin to feel around the chair with her clothes on it out of sheer confusion.

Erin stops.

Takes out her phone.

And dictates a text aloud: "Love as much as I am conceptually into surprise naked hide-and-seek I am gonna need some immediate evidence that you haven't been possessed by Scanlan, Lady Vex, or, I dunno, Crabb."
goodweather: (29)

[personal profile] goodweather 2023-09-11 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Phil blinks twice. The dream runs deep, and as dreams often do to people, he's become someone sideways of himself; he is in Whitestone, and Cassandra is older now, and there is a sense of his having been here that whole time. No more being pulled around, no more abrupt shifts and cutting up of his life. Three years ago he arrived in their orchard on a spring morning. When summer came, he was still there, and then for three summers more. Phil is a professor and a musician and a scientist who put himself on friendly terms with almost everyone in the castle. Now it's winter.

He has no appetite for the meat on the table.

Phil blinks again, his third eyelid slow to recede as he does. He keeps casting glances upwards towards the high table, at the Lord and Lady and the kids, and the strangers in their company--all of the castle feels hotly familiar except for them. To be expected. They're guests. Strangers. But even strangers don't carry that feeling about them. That absence, like holes punched through the veil of Whitestone's comfort.

But he remains where he is. He has no high position in the court and he has no real reason to break propriety other than a feeling that runs up the nerve in his spine.
Edited 2023-09-12 01:12 (UTC)
crushed_pearls: (Default)

[personal profile] crushed_pearls 2023-09-12 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
Very, very slowly

Veeerrryyyy slowly

Erin puts a hand into the boot, palm up.
yourexoduslaughing: (falling)

[personal profile] yourexoduslaughing 2023-09-12 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
"We can get you one! Don't panic!" Flan says, and promptly cups her hands tight together, making sure there's no possible way for the tiny lady in them to fall out. Because Flan promptly plummets through the floor and the teeny tiny adorable woman is kept securely in her cupped hands.

She lands on the floor of Sundries and brings her hands up, carefully taking the top off. "Here we are, we can get some from Sundries! I bet they're over there!" And once established on the direction they're walking in (slowly, or as slow as Flan's capable of), she beams down at her. "I'm Flan!"
saltwaterlungs: (Side-eye 2)

1 (with special guest angels trumpet for darce)

[personal profile] saltwaterlungs 2023-09-12 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
Darcy's being pursued by a tiger. Slowly, non-threateningly, but it's sure right at her heels, ensuring that there's a wide berth around her while she navigates the buffet. Darcy has nothing to say to Cass, hasn't had anything to say since before the last excursion, but she bumps up against a pansy and loudly her voice chimes-

Rich parasite.
crushed_pearls: (Default)

[personal profile] crushed_pearls 2023-09-12 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Erin waits patiently and only when the small weight is done getting comfy does she lift it from the boot and -

- make a noise only audible to dogs, Phil, and Daisy -

"Ohmygodyou'resofuckingtinyCassyou'resosmall - oh your clothes didn't shrink." Beat. "Fuck me your clothes didn't shrink are you okay?"
goodweather: (18)

[personal profile] goodweather 2023-09-12 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
Sometimes he wishes he had certain modern amenities like Xanax again. It's an absent thought he has while he tries to shove it down, the feeling that makes his heart thud a little too hard and fast and his breath come too faintly. Red, it's red, it's--he knows red-not-red. He knows red-not-red. Differently, faintly, but it lives beneath his nail beds, in the back of his nose, the gums between his teeth. It lives above his hands and in his broken, clouded eye. Something's not right. It's all right.

When dessert comes out, his first thought is what a shame that little Cassandra was sent away before she could even grab one thing from the plates, but something more pressing has him by the neck. So though he excuses himself as well and picks up a little plate of a cream cake as he does (something about... something, it suffices), it's Anders who he pursues first, following the trail of his steps down the hall.

"Professor Anders," he calls from behind. "There's something strange going on. Those Briarwood folks... something's off. You feel it too, right? Should we tell the Lord and Lady?"
yourexoduslaughing: (big grin)

[personal profile] yourexoduslaughing 2023-09-12 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, you're Cassandra!! Yeah yeah, you're April's roommate! I've been meaning to meet you too!" Flan walks them over to the wall, taking a moment to look over the items until she spots a package of safety pins in assorted sizes. "I lived with April for like, three months? It was AWFUL. We're great friends but suuuuper incompatible as roommates!"
saltwaterlungs: (Default)

[personal profile] saltwaterlungs 2023-09-12 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
And a coward too, where was this when you were screeching at me? Darcy's thoughts continue unbidden. On the outside she winces, face screwing up slightly.

"When I knew you, you'd say it to her face. You know she's chickenshit now, huh?" the tiger addresses Cass in retreat, "all bark. Come back here and I'll show you."
crushed_pearls: (Default)

[personal profile] crushed_pearls 2023-09-12 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
Erin nods before carefully setting Cass on her shoulder near the collar so she's got something to hold on to. "I've got spare cloth in my room, we'll get you..."

Beat.

Beat.

Beat beat beat.

"Cassdoyouwanttohavetinyadventures?"
goodweather: (33)

[personal profile] goodweather 2023-09-12 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
"I don't... know."

He's been a colleague of Professor Anders for years. Not many, sure; three is a paltry number in the face of his lifespan, but three years still matters, and Anders has come to be someone he trusts. If he doesn't sense anything, then...

Phil wilts a little, backs down a little. What could he say? What's worth interrupting the feast between the nobles of Castle Whitestone and their honored guests? Just because the air in there has been making him feel suffocated all night?

"It's more than just their being foreign. I mean, look at me." He gestures to himself, to his wings. "Yes, they've been perfectly polite, but I think something's really wrong, Professor. I keep..."

I keep looking at them and I keep tasting copper in my mouth. I keep feeling the air part just above my skin.

"... or maybe I'm just coming down with something. But I'm not feeling feverish, and I ate all the same things you did."

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