Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.

[smallestopener]

Ingress had a brilliant birthday. She’s eleven. Eleven is nearly grown up! It’s also the year when children in the stories she’s read come into their own. Adventures begin, schooling starts, worlds are saved… she can hardly wait to see what will happen next.

Her party earlier was such fun. Door was almost nice to Puck; Ingress had worried a little about that after she invited him. But he was very nice and charming, and Tom was nice, too, and Puck helped Ingress steal lots of roses off the cake while Havelock talked to Tom and Door, and it was brilliant.

She ate far too much icing sugar, but Tom had the peppermint potion waiting for her when the party was over. She feels much better now. And she’s eleven!

It sounds so good in her head. Eleven, eleven, eleven.

She should have asked Mary to stay the night with her, she thinks, as she tosses and turns. She’s never going to fall asleep, even with staying up past her bedtime. Tom and Door insisted she go to bed after she started yawning. They can be so silly sometimes.

She tosses one more time, and she thinks, again, how impossible it will be to go to sleep tonight. Her eyelids flutter and close. It is not long before she’s deep in dreams.

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Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

Ingress dances around the chairs and the fireplace, waving to the fishes, and then she pats the dogs from the House of Arch painting on the head. For once, they aren't playing poker. They are all lounging on the sofas or arm chairs.

She plops down on the rug, and Galatea, the House of Arch owl, swoops over her. She circles Ingress' head and then flies down, dropping a packet into her lap.

Ingress opens the packet and lifts out several photographs, some from Wizarding cameras, some not. Bernard and 'Dora, the kids, Sunny, Faith, Arithon, Elaine, Cuthbert - all the friends and family who she rarely, or never, sees any longer.

Pictures don't make her sad. She loves seeing the familiar faces.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[gonna_live]

Kaylee's dress -- in the layer-cake style -- is the color of Tonks's hair, and her scarf is a deep, deep purple. "Nĭ hăo, xiăo mèimèi." There's a parasol, and she's twirling it, making the red and green and yellow and white swirl. "What's the news?"

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"Galatea brought me pictures," Ingress smiles, and now, in place of her tutu, she's wearing the first dress Tom bought for her at Madame Malkans. It's deep red with puffy sleeves and a full skirt. It was one of her very, very, very favorite dresses ever, but she outgrew it a long time ago.

There's only so much a charm can do to expand a garment.

"Are you going to a party? You look like a princess."

As Ingress stands, a couple of little toy robots go marching by, their gears whirring.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[gonna_live]

"Oh, me?" Kaylee laughs. "This is how I always am. It's just that most folks don't see it."

She points. "See?" One of the robots is also wearing a dress. It may not have been a moment ago.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"I love that color, Miss Robot. You're rocking the look!"

The robot turns its head, nods, and then, with a very dramatic clank, slowly comes to a halt.

"Uh oh. I broke it with compliments."

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[a1enzo]

There's a sprite playing by the fire, which is made of shifting pixels, which are hovering ice cubes. The pixelated fish swim around them, unfazed.

Enzo is no older than four, by human reckoning. The building blocks he's playing with are each made of four cubes, connected in different configurations. He's building a wall, but he never gets it more than four units tall without it collapsing.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

Ingress knows it's Enzo right away. How does she know? She just does!

When she walks over to the little boy, her skin turns green. She's not a sprite. She's just green for the fun of it.

"I'll help you build a tall one. If you like."

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[a1enzo]

"Thanks!" Enzo does not seem surprised by her colour. "With your help, I'll win for sure!"

Apparently you can win at stacking blocks. Who knew?

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

It's not long until the stack of blocks is taller than Enzo is.

The fish have swum out to help stack, picking up small blocks with their pixellated mouths and dropping them on top of the blocks Ingress and Enzo stack.

"I bet we could go as high as the moon!"

Or at least the rafters.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[agloriousthing]

A Pirate King starts singing from rafters that are almost a mast, "Oh it is, it is a glorious thing to be a pirate king!"

Then he leaps down to bow at her feet as the music swells around them,

"Happy Birthday, fair lady."

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

A sail drops down from those same rafters, and it billows as if in a breeze.

Ingress has a pirate hat on.

"It is my birthday, isn't it? Would you like more cake?"

She's had enough, really, even in her dream state, but she should offer it to friends.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[agloriousthing]

The Pirate King beams at her as he takes it, "Thank you, the hate suits you."

Then he looks up to a far horizon that only he can see,

"A sail is on the horizon. To piracy with cake!

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

She glances over to the table beside them and gasps in surprise.

"Look!"

There is a very fancy cake there. Of a pirate ship in full sail.

"You should have to first piece before you go."

She serves it up with the little cutlass that sits on the table top.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[gorgonfondness]

There's a hook in the fireplace.

If Ingress follows the hook, she'll find it's attached to a fishing line, attached to a fishing pole, and held by Mia. She's in a yellow sundress and sitting on a dock, though how the Meribian Sea underneath it (and is that Nall swimming in the waters?) is a mystery.

"Ah, hello, Ingress!" she calls. "Happy birthday!"

When she reels in, she lands a huge bass. This gets dangled over the huge dragon's nose and he unhooks it with his mouth before scarfing it down.

"Birthday girl want a ride?" he asks in a friendly growl.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"But of course," says Ingress, curtsying before the dragon. She's followed the line, because how can you not follow a fishing line dangling down into a fireplace?

The fire was certainly ticklish enough to step through, she can tell you that.

"Hi, Mia!"

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[gorgonfondness]

Mia gets up from her spot on the dock and gives Ingress a hug, careful not to hook her with her fishing line.

"Here, up you get," she says, giving the birthday girl a boost up onto Nall's fuzzy neck.

With a great splash, Nall takes off out of the ocean and they soar over the landscape, dotted with labels, borders, colors, some of London Below, some of Lunar, some even of Milliways, and all places precious to Ingress.

"Hang on tight!" Mia calls against the wind and Nall takes them into a corkscrew.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

They are going so so so fast, and Ingress is screaming in delight. It's just like when Tom goes into a deep dive on his broomstick when he takes her for a ride. It's so much fun!

The butterfly flaps past as they level out, and Ingress feels a prickle along the skin of her shoulders. She has her own butterfly wings again.

"Thanks for the ride, Mia, but I have to follow the butterfly."

She kisses Mia on the cheek and waves as she rises into the air. "Bye!"

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[stilljustandrew]

"Hey, Ingress."

It's Andrew, sitting at a table behind a huge pile of books. He's got a gigantic milkshake sitting at his elbow, in a transparent glass; it's layered, in stripes of pink and green and rich brown and creamy white.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"That is the best milkshake I've ever seen," she says with wide, delighted eyes. "Is it made of magic?"

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[stilljustandrew]

"Noo," he says, examining it a little doubtfully, and then nodding more firmly. "Nope. Just deliciousness. Want some?"

There are two curly straws in the glass; one blue, one purple.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"Oh, yes, please," she says, and she leans over. Her necklaces jangle and clank as they hit the side of the glass, but she manages to grab the purple straw and sip.

"Mmm, it tastes of summer!"

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[the_lioness]

Alanna unbuckles her swordbelt and places it on the rug near Ingress, then settles herself with far less care. "Where shall we go next, Lady Ingress of the House of Arch?" As she asks, she flicks her hand in the air and unrolls a map of Tortall that looks far too large to fit up her sleeve. It is old, yellowed and smelling dusty with age, but it moves and shifts with images not unlike her wizarding photographs.

Photographs that have completely captured the attention of the Lioness' daughter. "Oooh. I quite like her hair," Grace says, pointing to Tonks. "And I thought we said we were taking her to Port Caynn?"

"Port Caynn is nice," Thom remarks, appearing on Ingress' other side. His smile is gentle and a little shy.

Jamie's isn't. He thrusts a milkshake at Ingress and grins. "They've got lots of ships there. And maybe pirates!"

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"Hi, everyone! I should like Port Caynn, I think. If it's nice."

She holds out a camera.

"I've no pictures of you, either. Say cheese!"

Ingress isn't sure why you say cheese. You just do.

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[the_lioness]

"Cheese," says Grace, immediately. The look she gives the camera is vaguely calculating, as if she's trying to decide what to do with it if it doesn't produce an image that meets her high standards. Alanna ruins it by ruffling her hair, which makes the girl sigh in frustration. "Ma. It was perfect, and now it's all messed up."

"You'll live," the knight grins.

"Yes, for eternity," a wave at the camera, "looking like this."

"It is a shame about her face," Jamie jokes to Ingress.

"Yours is very similar," Thom points out. "I don't know that it's at all effective to tease her about it since that is the case."

Re: There once was a little girl who came to Milliways

[smallestopener]

"Arch used to tease Door like that," she smiles.

She misses Arch, but he gave her lots of happy memories. And sometimes, she even sees him again in dreams.

"I can take another. Or-"

The camera turns into a bird and flies away.

"Or we don't have to worry about it!"