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theirohana·:

         She responded with a polite immediacy, ❛ Oh, um, sorry, I haven’t. ❜      

        Nani lowered herself to full kneeling height in front of the little girl. It wasn’t an unfamiliar position, given her status as a sister and legal guardian. The child addressing her even appeared to be approximately around the same age as Lilo, possibly a year or two younger given her petite stature. She easily stuck out on the beach with her bright, blue eyes, a large pink bow tying back her red-orange ponytail. The necklace was an especially attention-grabbing accessory given its constant tinkling.

        ❛ Do you remember where you lost your… friend? ❜ Nani prompted, knotting her brow lightly at her choice of words. Keiki, regardless of where they came from, sure had a way of speaking their mind. The accent was difficult to pinpoint too.European, far as she could guess. ❛ Or anything else to describe them? ❜

     "Well, if I did, then perhaps I might have been able to go off on my own to find her,” Ninny grimaced, “But... well, it is the oddest thing, isn’t it? When you are in a new place, it becomes terribly hard to distinguish locations! At home, I can look at a cluster of trees in the forest and know where I’m at. Here, each palm tree looks the same as the next.”

      Ninny chewed her thumb. The woman wouldn’t be able to see her pointed fairy ears, nor her fanged teeth; in the same vein, her missing companion’s fae-features would also be missing to Nani. However, poor, sweet Ninny had little experience with humans and didn’t clearly know the standards between mortals and fair folk.

      “She’s got great flippered feet, my friend,” She innocently added, her round eyes even wider than before, “Big, clawed feet, and her fingers are webbed for swimming. She’s an excellent swimmer, Too-Ticky. She turns into a seal, you know, so perhaps we ought to look if there are any seals around. Have you got many seals on this island?”

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seaclawed‌:

     “I am just fine now that I’m here. Everything’s better here!” Too-Ticky chuckled, “All selkies have padding, how else are we going to survive that cold cold water! I guess France is pretty warm seeing as you don’t have any padding, Nin.” She reached out, tickling Ninny quickly before laying down on the bath house floor. 

     She looked up at the clouds through the skylight, thinking about just how beautiful it was in Moominvalley. So much more beautiful than her last home. She traveled so far and finally made it to a place where she felt happy and comfortable. 

     “So, what else do you want to do today?”

      Ninny shrieked, her tiny fangs glistening in her mouth like pearls. She playfully fought back, knowing the size difference between the two made it useless but having too much fun to give up without trying. Her spindly limbs flailed, unable to protect herself from being tickled, before collapsing into giggles besides Too-Ticky. 

      “No, Falaise is a warm place,” She shook her head, still wheezing slightly. “No need for lutins to be padded like selkies. We also prefer to not go in water.” She grinned, knowing Too-Ticky might find that funny-- when Ninny had first come to Moominvalley, she had a horrible fear of the ocean. 

      “Perhaps we could go apple-picking. If I sit on your shoulders, I bet we wouldn’t even need a ladder.”

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Call me whatever you like; I am who I must be.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (via kiraahachi)

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Porter Magazine May 2018 Elle Fanning by Benny Horne

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origcmibird·:

      THOUGH HE ALWAYS HAD TO STRAIN HIS EARS TO HEAR HER, he always kept smiling. Kubo let the male stag beetle slowly crawl its way up his sleeve and onto his shoulder, probably aimlessly searching for food. It tickles him, and he giggles, trying to fight the urge not to get it away from his neck.

      “ IT’S OKAY, you don’t have to like him. ” He reassures. The few times he has shown his love of insects around other children, most of them didn’t agree with him either. “ But I assure you, he’s not mean. He’s actually a lot more harmless then you and I could ever be. ” With a gentle hand, the youth guides the beetle onto a low hanging branch, back onto the tree where he had initially found it. “ Although, the one I made friends with was a LOT different than any other beetle. ”

     "But it’s terribly impolite and rude of me to-- to-- you know,” She feebly protested, not quite sure what point she was making. No being rude to the beetle. The lutine did doubt, however, that the beetle was ‘a lot more harmless’ than she could be.

      “My kind of fae,” Ninny tried to explain, “We have, um... we are very good, most of us, at speaking with animals. I, unfortunately, am... I am not so talented. Probably the animals could sense I was frightened and decided it was not worth their time. I have never spoken with any animal except for my selkie friend as a seal.” She shrugged her thin shoulders, nervously tugging at her invisible hair. “How was, um, how was your friend different?”

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Emma and Aine photographed by Betina du Toit, Paris, 2016.

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seaclawed·:

     Too-Ticky didn’t talk much about her life before Moominvalley. She hadn’t shared much of her Scotland adventures with anyone. A few words with Moominmama here and there as she was the best listener. She looked away from the lutine, into the horizon. 

     “Well, Scotland isn’t much as it’s cracked up to be. It’s very cold.” She tried to be as vague as possible. She sighed before talking again. “I never really fit in. I tried to but wasn’t really much of a crowd pleaser there. I think that I fit in much better here, where no one really fits in. Everyone is so different here. In my pod, everyone was very much the same. I can be myself here.”

     Too-Ticky looked back at Ninny, trying to gauge the smaller girl’s reaction to what she just said. She felt nervous, something she hadn’t felt in a long time.

      "You aren’t a crowd pleaser here either. Which is good, I think. Those types aren’t so fun.” Ninny arched her back, stretching her shoulders. Snorkmaiden and the Mymble’s daughter were both lovely girls, but they were for sure crowd pleasers. No, Ninny couldn’t imagine Too-Ticky doing something just to appeal to the popular crowd. With her ragged clothes, bare feet, and shaggy hair, the selkie seemed an eternity away from the girls that followed trends. 

      “I never thought Scotland was cold! But I suppose it’s awfully north, isn’t it? No wonder you’ve got all this padding!” She teased, poking Too-Ticky’s belly. It was all in good fun to joke about the larger girl’s past until Ninny looked at her friend’s face-- she looked apprehensive, something rare for the usually calm Ticky. 

      “Are you alright, Tuuti?” Ninny sat upright, tilting her head to the side worryingly. She looped her arm through Too-Ticky’s, squeezing them together. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s okay. Whatever makes you happy!”

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Journal d’une femme de chambre (2015)

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sinnhelmingr‌:

      Nodding at the thanks, Hel allowed her attention to drift back to the tree and its bounty. Everything in this valley seemed so alive, so vibrant, though she could not speak to whether it was a truth or simply her perceptions. When the child looked at her, she did not look back, focusing instead on sunlight drifting through the boughs. There was a reason she came back after all, try as she might to be pragmatic about it all.

         It seemed at first that she might not have heard Ninny, quiet and still as she was. Then, voice as even as before, “I would not mind at all.” Reaching out, she kept at her work, humming as the girl continued to speak. “The more the merrier, yes?” The idea was sweet as the apples she picked on her tongue, a house full of people and the rich scent of a freshly backed pie. Her mothers had never been the type to bake, and so she stood with a certain nostalgia for a childhood that hadn’t even been hers.

      Offering the three finest apples she had been able to find, the queen kept two of the great red fruits dangling between her fingers by the stem, one balanced neatly in her pale palm. In her other hand, she held one for herself, unable to resist the call of such delicacies. “Your mother,” she begins, “Is she a good baker?” She remembers, again – My mothers were not. She keeps it trapped behind her teeth.

     "Oh, yes. My foster mother is a good baker.” Ninny politely responded, soft-voiced as a fawn, taking the apples as they were handed to her. Her face may have been missing, but her hands and knees were within sight-- her outreached fingers, porcelain pale, looked even more ghostly against the vibrant red of the fruit. Perhaps her new mother had dressed her in bright colors, with the crimson frock and sunshiney bow, to brighten and cheer her appearance up a little; unfortunately for Ninny, it only made her all the more faint in comparison. 

      “She bakes, um...” She trailed off, trying to think of what Moominmama made. “Pies and, um, pancakes. She makes pancakes for breakfast. They are very good.” As quiet and shy as Ninny was, there was a certain kind of miracle in her voice at the mention of pancakes. The child had been left alone for so long that being served fresh breakfast, made specifically for her, was a startling surprise every morning. She hadn’t been used to breakfast at all. 

      Now she was unsure what to say. The woman had picked her some apples, and it would be rude to walk away-- but Ninny was only just learning social skills after an isolated childhood, and she was hardly sure what to say next. She uncomfortably stood still, clutching her apple-basket so tightly that her tiny knuckles went white. 

      “My, um-- My name is, um, Ninny.”

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ninny with sharp teeth like from the original book…… chomp chomp watch out mean auntie >:~0 !!!

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sigrvif‌:

❝ He would! ❞ Her own laughter mimicked that of the girl. She imagined then her husband, bald and eyebrow-less. What a sight! He would look like an egg – the handsomest egg in all the realms. The image of it kept the laughter flowing, and Sigyn thought she might not be able to stop it. But the girl had more questions — about Loki’s powers. Those fires and flames; and the way he controlled them. 

Luckily, no one had gotten hurt. And all that wild hair remained imperfectly in place. Loki’s wild shenanigans with the flames had only cost her the loss of a few good towels and a charred cabinet. Certainly not the worst damage he’s ever done. 

❝ Oh, he’s usually much better. ❞ She reassured the girl. ❝ You see, Loki is a fire giant. He is… sort of made of fire. In one form — his true form. Though I’ve rarely seen it. He doesn’t wear that face too often. But he’s incredibly talented with fire. And usually much better about keeping it contained. ❞ She leaned a little closer, her smile widening at the mischief behind Ninny’s. ❝ I bet he would teach you a bit of it if you’d like. Though fire can be tricky. ❞

      "Fire giant,” Ninny repeated, feeling the words on her tongue. Fire giant. Was Loki gigantic, then, and ablaze? Perhaps he was like a firey version of Märran-- the Groke, the huge ice monster that crawled through her valley, looking for live prey as she moaned from her scratchy throat. Or Jäaröuva, even worse! But the Groke and the Lady of the Cold were evil, according to Moomin, and Ninny did not think Loki was evil. He was no saint, for sure, but not intent on horrible misery. Probably. Hopefully.

      “Fire can be tricky,” Ninny agreed, showing Sigyn one of her tiny hands. Really, it was remarkable how small the girl was-- she was a living doll, porcelain framed with rusty red hair. “Right here, once I got burned. It was an accident. I was heating water for tea and did not think it was as hot as it would be.” She scowled down at her hand, even though the mark had healed without a trace. Her aunt had smacked her upside the head for that mistake, even though it had been Ninny, crying and very young at the time, who’d been injured. It had been earl grey tea, Ninny remembered, her petite brow furrowed.

      “But fire is good for keeping warm. When Too-Ticky took me away to come here, it was nighttime, so it was terribly cold. She made a fire with some sticks so I wouldn’t freeze. I thought it was awfully clever, being able to heat yourself with just some twigs, but I’ve never been able to make fire!” She playfully scrunched up her nose. “Does Loki keep your family warm when it’s cold?”

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anxiety be HITTIN so im gonna try and clear out all my drafts to distract myself ahsdf

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seaclawed·:

     “Well, Netty isn’t the best. People will start calling you nettles or netipot, and we don’t want that! Let’s stick with Nin. It’s cutest anyway!” She smiled, turning back to her instrument.

     Too-Ticky put her arm around the smaller girl, rubbing her back softly. “Y’know what, Nin?” She continued to crank the music box slowly until the song ended. “Moments like these are my favorite parts of Moominvalley. I’m so glad I moved here and met you! Moving from Scotland was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” 

     She smiled softly and gave Ninny a soft kiss on the head. She meant what she said about moving. She was miserable before, and now she had so many friends. She felt safe. As safe as one can be.

      “I’m more than certain that Moominpapa would call me Nettles if he thought of it.” She beamed, shining with pride. Poor troll father-- he’d received his fair share of sharp teeth and sass from the most recent Moominvalley resident. 

      Oh, Ninny couldn’t even hold eye contact. Perhaps she had found her newfound confidence in this Finnish valley, but Too-Ticky still gave her such butterflies at times like this, didn’t she? Attention from the selkie could make stubborn little Ninny dissolve into herself with flushed cheeks. 

       “Me too,” She shyly nodded, unable to not widely grin. “I like being in Moominvalley too. It’s better than the old times, that’s for certain.” The lutine timidly took Too-Ticky’s hand, strong and callused but soft, in her own tiny one. “You haven’t ever told me much about your life in Scotland, though. What was it like with other selkies?”

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crepvndia·:

“It’s never too early to perfect them. A good threat is an art form, and if you’re creative enough, you needn’t be of any danger.”

      "Never too early? Teach me, then! Tell me how to scare people!”

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