#earthrunes

"Well... sluagh."

"Oh yes. Quite" A nod and another sip "So.. your people drive in hearses and yodel?"

"Alas, I have a Volvo."

"A deadly volvo?"

"Ah, no." Regret.

"is it at least a color you like?"

She nods!

"Good" Then to share "I have a Toy Yoda. "Sheepish "It's poop brown"

"Unfortunate. Perhaps you could paint it?"

She considers "Mmm do you think anyone here paints yodas?"

"Oh, likely. There's the Sparrow, and my Earl, and the crafting crew - but what is stopping you from going at it? Fear?"

Sheepish "I'm a chemist so afraid of paints and.." She sighs , a common pooka break when they realize their tongue is twisting on them "Swallhili is SUCH an easy language to learn.. " Zing tries again "My parents bought me that soap bar, if I switch to body wash they may get huffy"

"So aye, fear."

"Fear of being less than perfect, fear of being different, or outlandish..."

Her ears, expressive, show she's on the money "I was never the wild one, always the mild one"

"Ah, but now you are wild."

"You have license to be yourself."

"that's what Kylie was saying even before I went mutual of omaha"

"I think your friend is correct."

"While I savor fear, there is fear that frees and fear that limits."

"You are letting fear be a cage."

"Are you a Fearologist?" Dubious brow

"I? I am fear." Do the shadows somehow loom closer?

"Nice to meet you, Miss F. " Her ears flatten a bit nervously at the shadows

"So.. you were saying?" Definitely attentive now.

"And thus, I know fear."

"You should fear what denying yourself might bring."

"you mean like a vow of chasitty? Uhm.. Vince solved that"

"Meh. More than that - you must needs be yourself, and damn what anyone else thinks."

"but I want people to loath me" a bit of a simper

"Aye. And they should like you. You should not pretend to be a mouse when you are a leopard."

"OH no, Vince is King of the Hill. I'm that guy who talks funny"

"Feh!"

"You are a pooka. You are a dream of chaos and joy and change and freedom. You are a fragment of the great dream of the universe, an avatar, a devi, an immortal!"

A blink, then she asks "Are you..flirting with me?"

"Nay, it seems I must needs muse."

"I may regret this. But.. change is good, and you must find passion."

"I must?" A pause "Are you SURE you're not related to Kylie? On the "DammitZheng" side of her family?"

"Well..."

"Well, my birth mother is a nocker, aye."

"My mother had two of them" She says "So..change passion... regret"

"Would you rather regret doing, or regret having never tried?"

"C" she says, but sighs "Guess I should say Yes?"

Gently. "To deny yourself... Miss Zing, you are but new to our world - but you are a part of it, and thus, are precious. To resist, to try and be what you are not, to suppress all that is within? That could destroy you, and what a loss that would be!"

She blushes "Tanks"

"You could try being other people, but I do not think it will work out."

"I tried claiming i was African American because I blew a vuvuzela with a South AfricaSoccer Team and because the tuition would have been cheaper. " A beat "It did not work out"

But she says "But thank you. You sound like Kylie and everyone else whose been terribly mean to me and ..I appreciate that." A pondering "You know what? I'm going to scratch my car!"

Zara smiles. "Good. I look forward to seeing it when you are done, aye?"

Zing smiles "Aye. Oh... happen Baker's Dozen" And she waves to the spiders... and gives Bronte a soft hug, then goes