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[sparklequeen]

@glimmer.moon | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[sparklequeen]

Ellie! Don't die from boba!

[ She is definitely giggling again. ]

[notathreat]

Can you imagine how fucking embarrassing that would be? Announcing that shit on the network?

Glimmer, if I ever die in a really stupid way, just- fucking make something up. Don't tell them I choked on a pudding ball.

[sparklequeen]

I'll tell them you died like parachuting off a skyscraper or something.

[notathreat]

Parachuting? That's a fucking thing here?

[Okay, goals.]

[sparklequeen]

I don't know! I had to make up something off the top of my head.

[ Ellie, no. ]

[notathreat]

[Ellie can't help but laugh.]

Have you ever done anything like that? Parachuting?

[sparklequeen]

I've definitely fallen from incredible heights and then teleported to safety before. Does that count?

[notathreat]

The hell did you fall out of?

[sparklequeen]

Uh, off cliffs. Towers. Teleported a giant robot into midair once. A castle.

[notathreat]

I feel like I could ask you to back up and tell me the story about all these, but-

I really wanna know about the robot.

[sparklequeen]

So the Horde had these new 'bots that would set off these huge explosions after anchoring themselves in the ground, and I'd figured out the secret base they were operating them out of. So I teleported in there and zapped the place up, broke all their stupid new bots and stuff. Of course, Catra was there and we were fighting, and there was a really big bot that was going to go off and probably would have levelled half the Whispering Woods, so I had to grab it and teleport it a a couple thousand meters up. And then you know I was up there too, so I fell.

[ A pause, then she adds: ]

But I teleported back to the ground, no big deal.

[notathreat]

Okay, but- but-

[Deep breath, in and out.]

You're saying "no big deal" like that's not the coolest thing I've ever heard.

[sparklequeen]

Okay, I guess it was pretty cool.

[ Glimmer dissolves into faint giggles. ]

Gods. I miss magic.

[notathreat]

Your magic, or just magic in general?

[Ellie's voice smooths out, going softer, thoughtful. She's always liked hearing Glimmer talk about her world, especially given that she's glimpsed it in her memories.]

[sparklequeen]

Magic in general. Etheria was full of it. It just... it's hard to describe, but it felt different.

[ It sounds silly as soon as Glimmer says it, but she's got no idea how else to describe it. ]

[notathreat]

What's this world feel like to you, then?

[To Ellie it just sounds like the kind of things that have thrilled her since she was small. Magic seems like the other side of the coin to science. A chance to say fuck you to reality.]

[sparklequeen]

Ah...

[ Glimmer pauses, going quiet for a long moment as she tries to work out words that might somehow convey how she feels. ]

It's... kind of like you grew up somewhere with lots of rain and fog and mist and then woke up one day in a desert. Does that make sense?

[notathreat]

Ugh, yeah. That sounds uncomfortable as hell. And... I dunno. Itchy?

[Even if Ellie can't fully understand, she's gonna try.]

Has it gotten any better or does it still feel just as weird?

[sparklequeen]

Itchy is kind of the right word for it. Except you can't scratch it.

[ Uuugh. ]

You kind of get used to it, but it never really goes away.

[notathreat]

[Ellie pauses a little, just... thinking.]

Does your power feel anything like how your magic used to feel?

[sparklequeen]

Not really. It's different. I don't know what makes it different, though.

[notathreat]

[Ellie goes quiet again. She does this a lot, gets lost in her thoughts, twisting and turning and coming back up for air in radically different places sometimes. It's hard to say whether it's better or worse these days, but Glimmer, at least, is a grounding presence.]

When I'm invisible it feels kind of like I'm underwater.

[sparklequeen]

I think I get it?

[ The feeling of everything being a little slower and heavier, the sensation of weightlessness. Buoyancy. ]

[notathreat]

Mmmh.

Like something wrapping around me and pressing in.

[Ellie takes a deep breath, lets it out again. Maybe it's the "holding her breath" part that triggers it.]

I almost drowned, once. Joel said I wasn't breathing when he pulled me out.

Maybe that's it, too. Feeling like I could dive too deep.

[sparklequeen]

Yeah, I bet that would make it feel really weird.

[ Glimmer's never been in that situation before, but it's easy to imagine how horrifying it might have been. The sensation of needing to fight upwards to air and not being able to manage it. ]

It's still weird to me that people don't have magic on their worlds.