#this got rambly because i had to concieve a reason for ADIRA to be hyper

[shadowweirdo]

Cotton Candy High ~acutelyaarachnophobic

Cotton Candy High: My muse is extremely hyper and your muse tries to calm them down.

Things had begun as they did most days when the group had to resupply. The group broke off into teams, got their supplies and returned to the camper without problems. They got all of the usuals- Fruits, veggies, barrels of water that would surely be contaminated by Shorty taking a dip in them later. But one item wasn’t quite right. The tea. 

Eugene had insisted that he grabbed the right one from the market- That ‘All tea is the same’ and that Adira could ‘suck it up’ and not have fancy tea this one time. Well, as it turned out, not all tea was created equal.

“ ‘High Energy’ ?” Rapunzel questioned, reading the jar of tea leaves, “What do you think that means?”

“I think it means it’s made for a high energy person.” Eugene rolled his eyes, waving it off as he put away their grocery haul, “The way I see it, we give an extra dose of that to Adira and she’ll fall right asleep. Maybe we won’t have to listen to more of her amazing stories tonight.”

“I dunno, Eugene... Doesn’t that seem... sneaky?”

“Rapunzel... This is Adira we’re talking about. She’s the sneakiest person we’ve ever met... It’s fair.”

The princess disagreed but she also knew that if this ended up being a huge mistake, sometimes Eugene had to learn the hard way. 

Little did she know- the true extent of this error.

“Have you guys ever seen a six legged horse? They’re spoken of in ancient legends and believed to be myth- But if you know where to look you can absolutely find one. But not harpies. Those aren’t real. I tried to find them once and it turned out that they were just very eccentric old crones who wore feather cloaks.”

Adira spoke without pausing for BREATH  as they sat around the fire. her stories flowing together so fluidly it was hard to tell where exactly one ended. Did they end? Was this all one long story that stretched on for hours?

Lance looked on in a confused mix of amusement, adoration and bafflement. He’d never seen Adira so chatty. At least not with the REST of the group. He’d also never seen her fidget so openly where she sat. Drumming her fingers against her knees, bouncing her legs. 

More apparent was how little ADIRA was used to it. Even as she rambled on and on, her expression swapped from lively to uncomfortable. She’d never experienced such a rush of energy so late in the evening. Now were the hours when it was time to relax and rest her body. She made a point not to over exert herself in the evening hours. To allow her muscles to rest and heal so she could move in the morning... But she just.. couldn’t. Sit. STILL.

“Adira? Are you feeling okay?” Lance chanced to ask, not sure if he should reach out and put his hand on her shoulder or not.

“What? Me? I’m fine.” She answered abruptly. Her hands curling into balled fists as she looked at him. Not because she was UPSET but because she was trying to suppress the urge to fidget further. 

“You sure? You seem a little.... high strung.” Lance tried to lower his voice, as if the others hearing might embarras her in some way. Not that they hadn’t all noticed- Rapunzel was giving Eugene quite the look on their side of the campfire.

Lance had eaten enough sweets in his life to recognize a sugar rush when he saw one. Or maybe caffeine? Either way, Adira was clearly hyped up on something. The former thief exhaled and gave the warrior woman a smile.

“Hey- You wanna go for a walk? I gotta stretch my legs.”

Adira blinked at him, not sure what he was planning. He couldn’t see in the dark as well as she could. Nor was he as immune to the spooks that hid in the evening shadows. Why would he want to GO anywhere?

“... Sure.”

The pair set off into the forest together. Wandering aimlessly but briskly through the tall columns of trees around them. Adira continued to chatter, regailing him with her stories of heroism and the horrifying creatures she’d happened upon. He listened as eagerly and politely as ever. Interjecting only to ask her more about a detail she nearly flew right past. Though she didn’t fully understand his motive, Lance knew that she needed to get this energy out of her system. He knew he had to get her to let it out if she was ever going to sleep. If ANY of them were.

And soon, any moment, the inevitable would happen.

She’d crash.

“Then I traveled across the volcanic lands of-” Adira’s latest tangent skidded to a halt after many hours as the long awaited event happened. She stopped to yawn. A deep, sincere yawn that left her like a lion’s roar.

Lance was barely holding on. Dragging his feet as he walked beside her but hanging in there for her sake. His yawns came in big waves, crashing over him like an ocean of exhaustion.  But he could do this. He was going to support her and make sure she was okay. He was going to get that energy out of her system in a way that was comfortable for her and make sure she made it back to the camp safely.

“Sleepy?” he asked, his tone almost hopeful as he considered her.

The white haired woman blinked, her paces slow and lethargic as they circled back toward the camper. She didn’t know what happened to her... But now she just felt AWFUL. Drained completely of whatever energy had found its way into her body.

“No, no, I-” yaaawwwn- “I’m fine. But we should... get YOU back to camp. You’re tired.”

Despite her attempts to cover herself, they both knew the truth. She wasn’t going to last much longer.

When they returned back to the camp, the fire was smoldering and dying as the rest of the gang lay already tucked in their bunks. Adira helped Lance lift his sleep heavy limbs up into his bunk before taking a seat at the table below him.

“how are you feeling?” The man chanced to whisper, leaning over the edge of the mattress to look at the shadowy outline of her below. 

The only answer he got from the darkness was Eugene’s snoring and Adira’s peaceful breathing. 

The next day the group decided that the evil tea was BANNED from dinner time from then on.

@acutelyarachnophobic