The quiet can be disconcerting ((tag Clark))

[slayers_desire]

It has been a few hours since Clark took April home. In that time, she fed. She bathed. And she tried to lie down for a little bit.

But she can not close her eyes for long. She can not go into a deep slumber. The quiet in her mind is like a blank canvas. Plus, it just gives her more time to go over and over again everything that she experienced.

Slowly, she is remembering the others using her fears against her. The claustrophobia. The flames and the heat of the fire. The fear of losing her children.

"Clark?" He was checking on the children for her, when she got cleaned up.
But April knows that she doesn't have to call out loudly to get his attention.

Comments

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Daphne," Clark greets her with a nod. "I didn't want to have to destroy you. I'm glad it wasn't necessary."

[slayers_desire]

"Well I am glad you didn't. Those nice ladies said I might be able to help, once they were gone." Daphne balances on the tip of her toes while she speaks.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"You spoke to the Fates?" He's not really surprised. This is all in April's mindscape, and they're part of her, as is Daphne.

[slayers_desire]

"I did. Right before you came to bind them. And those icky bats were covering me..." Daphne hugs herself.

"They said it was no longer fair for the gift to be split into three different personas. That it was time to be one person. One voice."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"They did?" That seems like a big change. "I'm guessing they didn't mean that voice should be Maloker's."

[slayers_desire]

"We should be one." Daphne nods again. "But I can't do it alone."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"What can we do to help?"

[slayers_desire]

"The Fates left me gifts. They said if I could activate them, that I would become the One. But I don't understand them." Daphne has the childlike innocence of Clotho about her.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Maybe we can help you understand them together. What kind of gifts?"

[slayers_desire]

"Oh I knew you would!" Daphne wraps her arms around him for a hug. She has the love for him, since she is a part of April herself.

"Clotho gave me this." She holds out a cocoon.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

She's a part of April, so he doesn't think anything of returning that hug. Then he looks at the cocoon. "Did she say anything else about it?"

[slayers_desire]

"Make it become a rainbow." Daphne shrugs.

April touches the cocoon gently. "If there is a butterfly inside, perhaps that is what Clotho meant?"

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"We have to hatch it." That's what he suspected. But how to make the cocoon mature?

[slayers_desire]

April concentrates to place a psychic shield around the cocoon, and then once it is sheltered in that, she holds it out to Clark. "Low heat vision, keep it warm."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

He puts his hands under hers, so they're holding it together, and gently turns the warmth from his eyes onto the little cocoon. Not too intense, not too hot, trying to nurture whatever lies within.

[slayers_desire]

It is not clear if it was their combined love and support, or the heat vision itself, but soon the cocoon breaks, and a rainbow-colored butterfly emerges.

"A butterfly!" Daphne claps excited.

"Lachesis gave me this..." She holds out a golden acorn. "She said it holds the key to his heart. Whose heart?"

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark smiles a little as the cocoon opens and the butterfly comes out. As far as trials go, this one is a lot better than some of the things they've had to go through in the past.

His attention is drawn by the acorn. "Probably mine."

[slayers_desire]

"Then how do you get the key out?" She shakes the acorn, and there is a sound of something inside of it.

April touches Clark's shoulder. "Clotho's test was one of innocence. Something that a child would want to discover."

"Lachesis is the mother. I think she would want Daphne to discover... love."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Jonathan and Laura." Their little acorns, destined to one day become strong oaks of their own. "Maybe we should plant it."

[slayers_desire]

"I think that is exactly what we need to do." April smiles. This is definitely a lot more pleasant that the previous trials. And she kneels down, to show Daphne how to dig a hole to plant the acorn.

Daphne watches, and copies, as if she is learning for the first time.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Once the acorn is planted into the earth, and covered up, Clark shows her how to water it. "And now, we wait for it to grow."

[slayers_desire]

"How long do you have to wait?" Daphne's hand are covered with dirt, and she sits down to study the mess on her fingers.

"A seed could take month to grow... but here..." April concentrates, thinking of her children, of Jonathan and Laura, and sends her love into the ground where the acorn is buried.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark senses what she's doing through the bond, and adds his own loving thoughts of their children.

[slayers_desire]

Their love does what they intend, and within moment, the buried acorn produces not one -- but two little sprouts. Daphne claps her hands in excitement, and throws her muddy hands around Clark's neck out of pure joy.

"You did it. You are amazing!"

"Atropos was the most confusing. She said that pain must be paid, and it must hurt."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Well that sounds... slightly more ominous. He frowns a little. "Did she give you anything?"