dull turned to light - hay balloons

[fulzanin]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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//For October's CDC hay prompt!

Her plan had been, originally, to put helium and water in the same balloon. In her mind, that would create floating water balloons of hilarious doom. Then she'd get everyone together for a massive water balloon fight. It would be amazing. It would be hilarious. Everyone would have a good time. They'd laugh and smile and all would be perfect in the world. That was what she wanted the most. Everyone to be happy, everyone to be smiling and enjoying life. That was her purpose. It was the one thing she existed for in this world. She had to make everyone else happy and joyful so that she could be, too.

Her biggest issue was that she was rather terrible at focusing on one task for a long amount of time. Feza's thoughts were terribly sporadic. She could be doing one task, barely have an idea for another, and immediately change topics. It had happened before, where her idea to create reefs had turned into that horrific bell-windchime incident. She still stiffened at the thought. That hadn't been one of her greatest feats. Which was fine with her. Trial and error was a must! Not every party could be perfect. She had to capitalize on what went right, and what went wrong. That one, though? Nothing good had come out of it. It hadn't made anyone happy. Instead the group had come down upon her. All Feza could remember about that festivity was how badly shaken she had been afterwards, and how terrified she was. It hadn't resulted in joy and happiness. Instead it had brought gloom and doom to her mind, and to other's. She had to improve. She had to grow and make the greatest party she was capable of throwing. She was Tanglewood's great party thrower, after all. It was her duty. She hadn't seen anyone else throw as many festivities as she did. It was a title she sought to keep, and she couldn't keep it if they didn't work!

So her concept of floating water balloons got derailed when she came across a strange item. Feza hadn't had many encounters with hay before. It wasn't really common up in the mountains she had been born and exiled from. There hadn't been any reason to gather up such an item. When she had been scouring about for her lost canister of red paint she had come across the strange, fibrous tissues. An idea came to mind as she turned them over between her paws, testing out their attributes very briefly. A grin lit up on her face, her ears raising. She gathered up some and snatched them in her jaws, then turning and bolting back to her home. She went back and forth a few times over, carrying as much as she could manage. More so until the corner of her home devoted to creating her festivities was absolutely littered with hay.

Opening packages of confetti was hard. She could never get them all back into the same bag. If she didn't capitalize on their first use, it was about a done deal. She couldn't get that bag back. Feza wasn't naive enough to not comprehend that she had a limited supply of materials. She only had what was in the store. Once it was used, she could never get it back. Each and every usage had to be perfect. That was where this newly found hay came in. It was small, and thin. Feza was rather certain that with a little use of creativity, she could use this strange material to replace the usage of confetti within her parties. The hay was colored in vibrant hues with dots of glitter glue present as well. Feza also knew to dry the glue of question before shoving them all together. More so it took creating a heaping glob for her to realize that such had been why they were sticking together. Then she stuffed the colorful hay into balloons before blowing into them. She used her kazoo for such a task: it was such a useful tool even when it wasn't being used for music!

It took a while, but eventually she had a decent hoard of balloons at her disposal. Feza began punting them out of her home with swift swats of her paw. It sent them tumbling out the door and rolling along the ground. They were light, and the faintest breeze began rolling them away. "Oh. I should have gotten them tied." The vibrant feline noted, watching most of the balloons whisk away from just before her home. It didn't dampen her attitude. That just meant she didn't have to spread them about manually! Her wings pumped a few times, lifting her onto her toes. She fished out the rest of the balloons, watching the breeze carry them away. She was unaware as to how unstable and old the balloons were. They likely wouldn't even last an hour before they popped and flung their self-made confetti everywhere, and onto whoever would come close to inspect them.

The snow leopard began tying together the few that had remained on her makeshift lawn. When one of those popped loudly and sprayed hay all over her, Feza only briefly winced. "That's likely the one bad egg," she said with a shrug. In her mind there could only be one bad balloon out of the bunch. She had devoted such care and expertise into this task. It was bound to lighten everyone's day! She grabbed another piece of yarn and began tying down another balloon, biting with her sharp teeth to tear off another string from the roll.

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

[wormwood.]

As time went on, Wormwood had begun to just steel himself for Feza's antics, rather than just hoping they wouldn't happen. No matter how much he yelled at her, and no matter how much other members of the clan lectured her, she would never stop trying to pull off her odd little tasks meant to "brighten" everyone's days. Truthfully he wasn't sure he had seen a single one of her little events actually brighten anybody's day, but he was pretty sure if he pointed that out to her, she would just shrug and say something like she just hadn't found the perfect event yet, or that people weren't realizing how happy she was making them. It frustrated him to no end, but after seeing how fearful Feza was of him after the whole yelling incident and the spar and everything...? He had no desire anymore to go screaming and snarling at her, mainly just because he didn't want one of his clanmates to be terrified of him. Unbeknownst to Wormwood, it wasn't entirely his own fault that contributed to why Feza was sp scared of him – there was also a healthy dose of her own nightmare scenarios – but he had definitely added onto it with his rageful words and fiery glares. So this was why, for the most part, Worm just tried to avoid Feza, and whatever nonsense she had going on this time, but he was never actually able to. It seemed as though he was almost exclusively the first one to be affected by Feza's nonsense.

The lion had been resting in front of his house after a hunting patrol, letting the sun beat down against his back as his eyes fell shut, ready for maybe just a short nap to regain his energy. However, his nap was interrupted when something distinctly bouncy and round knocked against one of his wings, coming to rest beside him. The chaser blinked in confusion at the balloon that was sitting against his side, before gently prodding his nose against it, caught off guard by the faint scent of hay that he could smell from inside. He tilted his head to one side, wondering what the hell the balloon was and where it had come from, when another one came flying at him, this time being carried at full speed by the wind. The balloon collided almost violently with his side, its contents exploding out and splattering all over his wing and side. He let out an aggravated grunt and shifted, lifting his wing up to inspect the mess that now covered half of him, his mouth clenching in anger as he saw the vibrant multicolored hay that was now sticking to his feathers. Shaking out his wings vigorously, Worm slowly got up to his paws and sighed, already pretty sure he knew where the balloons had come from. Batting the still unexploded balloon away from himself and back into the wind, letting it bounce off onto the next unsuspecting fucker that would have to deal with it. He then turned his head towards Feza's house, heaving a heavy sigh before beginning his trek towards her strange home in the old party store.

When Worm finally arrived on the scene, he sighed at the sight of Feza laying there, clearly making even more of the little ticking time bombs to spread across the world. It was pretty obvious from the hay that was still clinging to her multicolored fur that she top had fallen prey to her own vibrant creation, and Worm wandered over to sink his claws into one of the balloons, watching it explode into hay that slowly fell down to the ground. Worm wrinkled his nose a bit at the scent – he had gotten far too used to the scent of hay as of late thanks to his training dummies, but that still didn't mean that he enjoyed it. Turning his head towards Feza, he questioned softly as he gestured with a paw to the exploded balloon, still flicking his wing that had gotten sprayed with the hay before, "Feza, what even are these? You know you're supposed to fill balloons with helium, right?" He didn't really sound angry, maybe just... tired, really. He had been getting not enough sleep for dealing with Feza's bullshit right now.

[glow=black,2,300]THE FREEDOM OF FALLING[/glow]

[fulzanin]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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"There is helium in them," Feza's first response was. Her first verbal one, at least. As she had been the past few times that she had come into contact with the lion, she recoiled back. Her movement was attempted to be hidden by grabbing one of the balloons behind her, and to begin stuffing it with hay. "I have, I, I've improved on the purpose of them though." She continued. Her blue eyes lifted from her task, trying to gauge the other's expression. Was he in the mood to lash out at her again with his sharp words? Something about the exhausted expression reminded her of when they had met at her kazoo class. It reminded her that she was going to be doing another one of those sometime soon. When? She hadn't solidified that yet. For a moment the vibrant feline seemed absent, then twitching and bringing herself back to attention. Her sporadic thoughts truly did get the best of her, setting the balloon aside and then snagging another. "A mobile confetti unit to, to, to- to go and spread happiness and pep to everyone."

Her blue eyes then turned to look at where one of the balloons had exploded and remained stuck to Wormwood's pelt. That had to be why he was here. It'd popped on him and he was angry about the festive joy that she was trying to spread. For a moment there was a flicker of anger. What was his problem with her attempts to spread colorful joy to the other Tanglers? She knew her activity was why he was here: it was always why he came around! He didn't even like parties! Why did he keep showing up to degrade on her attempts if he, himself, didn't like them? Wasn't that biased? Did he hate her that much? To go beyond his hatred for parties to his further hatred for the partymaker? A small twitch moved her tail to the side. "Hay is a very good, it's a good replacement for confetti." Feza's head then tipped. "I don't have a, a name coined for these yet. I'm thinking 'better party balloons'." She batted gently at one of the finished balloons, bringing it closer. She grabbed the string to begin tying more of the balloons together, fetching the needle she was using to tie them together. Needles and balloons, the worst combination, but so far it seemed that she hadn't had major catastrophes with her method. Her anger dissipated as swiftly as it came, her blue gaze lowering back to her work.

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

[wormwood.]

If Wormwood were a more bitter or hurtful soul, he probably would've just admitted that he thought part of the reason that he was always the one to show up on the scene of Feza's events was because nobody else wanted to deal with her nonsense. However, they were all just too cowardly or felt too bad for her to tell her that her efforts to make others happy always backfired and did nothing but annoy people. However, Worm did have an ounce of self restraint, and of he was being entirely honest... he did feel bad for Feza after everything that had happened with her being fearful of him. Hell, he could still tell it was effecting her from the way that she stumbled over her words, her stammering adding on yet another layer of annoyance, although he ignored it since it wasn't exactly anything that she could control. When Feza said that the balloons were meant as a "mobile confetti unit" for everyone, Worm felt the first telltale signs of bubbling anger come up, but he shoved it down, a heavy and heaving sigh leaving his lungs. He shifted one of his wings to flick off more pieces of hay before he rumbled, shaking his head a bit from side to side, "A mobile confetti unit...? You know that confetti is generally made so that if it gets on people, it doesn't cause issues, right? If you use hay instead of confetti, then that can cause problems for people. It can hit them in the eyes and cut them or cause irritation, and hay can also activate allergies as well." He knew that at this point he was sounding like a disappointed Dad, lecturing a disobedient child, but he didn't know what to do anymore. He kept showing up on these scenes, and he kept telling Feza what she was doing wasn't actually accomplishing her task of "bringing joy to everyone", and yet she just kept doing these things, over and over again.

Once he had gotten out his first little bout of annoyance, he then grunted softly at Feza, shaking his head at her as he pointed to the needle she was using with a paw, "You are also aware of just how fragile balloons are too, right? For one thing you shouldn't be using a needle to tie them together, and for another thing, they're so vulnerable that they're going to end up exploding a over people everywhere, and some people are not going to like one. I already had one explode on me, but thankfully it was mostly just my wing and side, so I could get it off easily." He held one of his long wings out to one side, a small frown pulling on his muzzle as a few more small pieces of hay fell to the ground. He knew it wouldn't be long until somebody like Crow came along and lectured him about being "mean" to Feza, or something along those lines, but he honestly wasn't trying to be a cruel person. In fact, if he honestly and truly didn't give a shit about Feza's feelings, he would be spitting with anger and telling her every little hurtful thought that popped into his head. But no, instead he tried his best to just take a deep breath and speak to her calmly and logically, and yet that still set her off, just because he wasn't being fun enough. Eventually there was going to be a certain point where he actually snapped, and he could only hope he would he able to take a deep breath and walk away without doing anything stupid before then.He truly didn't hate Feza, despite what she thought or had heard, he just wanted her to tone down her... Feza-ness, just a bit.

[glow=black,2,300]THE FREEDOM OF FALLING[/glow]

[fulzanin]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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Feza tended to ignore how much the lion sighed when he was around her. He was always doing that. When he approached, when he spoke. The sigh of disappointment, irritation. Her teeth helped the needle tie the bottom of the balloons that were filled with hay. She continued working on her small festivity, raised ears truly being the one sign that she was listening. “It’s- it’s a substitute. So I can save the confetti for the, the, the greater things. I’ve got big plans. Don’t want to go, to- to waste all my supplies so soon.” Her initial response was. Her tail swung to the side, an absent movement as she finished tying another one of the balloons to the absolute mess of ones that were already tied together. Her head then raised, and her face scrunched up. “Huh. They didn’t have hay where I used to live. It’s covered in paint so the edges are round. It’ll be fine.” She waved a paw nonchalantly: brushing it off. She did that a lot with things that were serious. Feza didn’t care for things that were serious. Parties and smiles, those were the two things that got the gears in her brain turning. Any and everything else fell prey to her sporadic thoughts, which tore them until they, too, were festive and joyful.

Then she watched him shake his head. She had stopped working now to listen, and found her teeth baring together. “Oh, I shouldn’t be using a needle?” Her voice grew sharp, dropping from it’s usual high pitch, “Maybe I should use the stick in the mud instead. I think someone else has that shoved up their butt right now, though. I’ll stick to the needle.” Feza’s tone was icy, her eyes narrowing. Yet despite her anger, it was only brief before her fear swiftly took over. Stupid. She shouldn’t have said such a thing. Her vibrant form winced, and her attention turned swiftly back to her task at hand- not caring to notice another balloon go whisking off in a strong breeze due to her tying methods being less than decent. “They’re mobile happiness units. When they explode they make people happy. That’s what they do. None of that hurting stuff. They don’t like it because they’re too sad or angry. It’s, it’s trigonometry, really.” The vibrant feline rambled in her usual way, a paw pulling the roll of string closer. “They’re supposed to explode on people. Then they’re, they’re gonna think ‘wow, this is so colorful and cool! I’m so much happier now! All the troubles of my life are gone now that I’ve been showered in happiness!’” Feza elaborated, a wing raising away from her fluffy form to waggle as if it would some how contribute to her statement.

//mobile

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

[Crow Roux]

[align=center][div style="width: 55%; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]
Although Feza sometimes did not think ahead about any potential consequences of her antics, Crow knew her intentions were not ill-willed in the slightest. He couldn't possibly get angry with her for any of the things that she did. Wormwood, on the other hand, seemed to dislike her, and had it not been for Feza's admirable ability to hold her own, the tabby would have intervened more than he did.

"It's alright, Wormwood," he spoke as he walked up to the pair, eyeing the balloons that tumbled across the ground. Then he turned to Feza, blinking sleepily. "Just make sure they don't pop in anyone's face. Don't want hay gettin' in someone's eye—that won't feel too good."

"What if ya dyed the hay? Then it'd be colourful..."

[wormwood.]

Almost as if Wormwood's hindsight had been 20/20 right from the beginning, Crow arrived on the scene just as Worm had expected him to eventually, just like several of Feza's other antics that went horribly wrong. The chaser found himself rolling his eyes as Feza made the comment about him having a stick up his ass, and he wanted to point out that he didnt have an issue with fun, he just had an issue with Feza's version of fun. Still, he knew that this endeavor would probably end up fruitless, since Feza just kept trying and trying and trying, no matter what knocksd her over. It would have been almost admirable if it weren't for the fact that she chose to use this iron will to do a bunch of ridiculous nonsense that annoyed Worm and several others to no end. Upon hearing Crow's words, the chaser mumbled softly as he sighed heavily, trying his best not to seem too overwhelmingly irritable. His tail twitching from side to side, Worm rumbled as he glanced over at Crow, a small frown pulling at his muzzle, "Alright, well, you can deal with this then. I have to go and get this stuff off of me, and then hide inside my house so that I don't get hit with another one." His feathers were fluffed up irritably, although he smoothed them out, and he turned to walk off towards his home, having no desire to stay here and listen to whatever Feza came up with to make her balloons full of hay even worse. There was really no reason for him to stay, since he knew he wouldn't be able to get Feza to stop whatever she was doing here.

( wormy out !! )

[glow=black,2,300]THE FREEDOM OF FALLING[/glow]