onepassingnight | Hansel and Lethel

The twists and turns of the forest are long, secretive, and closed. But in this one small clearing, there is a house made entirely of sweets. Gingerbread forms the walls, adorned with enormous pieces of candy. The pillars and lampposts outside are peppermint, while the bushes grow marshmallows and slices of pie and cake. Even the paving stones of the pathway are rock candy. A river of pure dark chocolate flows lazily alongside the house, hot enough to be molten.

It's clearly a haven for children. In fact, a girl with pink hair and wearing a soft dress sits comfortably amid the wafer candy grass and nibbles at a handful. She looks up and smiles at the newcomer. Something about the smile is a bit too cold for her greeting, but with so much candy nearby, there's plenty to distract from the expression.

"Come over and try some," she invites. "You can eat enough to have a full stomach." This is a rare and precious thing, in a poor kingdom like this one. "Don't worry, I live here with my sister."

(ooc: story can be looked up here. Lethe is working for the witch to lure travelers in return for herself and Mnemosyne not being eaten.)

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Had the pink-haired girl really been in the front of the house? Because the moment the rod crushed a bit of the gingerbread wall, she was standing in front of the intruder.

"You can help yourself, if you want to eat," she said, a trifle coldly. "However, breaking it is wicked of you."

Oh well, there Pinky was. Little Red glanced at her, but she wasn't worried. "That's right. Guess I'm wicked." She was ignoring the fact that she wasn't supposed to be the wicked one in her story. Anyway, sometimes you needed to be wicked to get shit done.

"I'm not a kid. I don't want some candy house. Anyway, this is probably some evil thing, isn't it? I bust up evil things. Like wolves or whatever. I'm Reno the Red Hoodlum, but you probably haven't heard of me."

And with a satisfying Crack! she struck the candy house again with her rod.

The house, a creation of the witch's anyway, could be repaired or replaced easily. A trap was no good if the bait worked only once, after all, or if there wasn't enough.

No, the real concern was how to get 'Reno the Red Hoodlum' into the house (and, by extension, the little cage).

"This house isn't evil," she lies with ease. "It's a haven for travelers. You can rest here if you like." It may soon become hard to think of reasons to move on if Red Hoodlum stays much longer, but that's part of its... charm.

Breaking things is satisfying, in any case. Her statement about busting up evil things was perhaps a bit self-aggrandizing. And it was arguable that she had succeeded very much, as wolves weren't actually evil.

"No, thanks. That's like--the oldest trick in the book, you know?" She rolled her eyes. "You need to work on your game, sister."

Lethe still acts the innocent. I's an act that works better the longer it lasts, after all - just as her powers become stronger the more they have their chance to act on the minds of her unsuspecting victims.

"You might have heard some rumors about this house," she says. "Can you tell me what they were?"

What were the warnings about this house in the woods, after all? It may be hard to think of them at the moment.

"Huh?"

She shakes her head. "No, it's just, you know what they say? You can't kid a kidder. I never heard any rumors. Not like I'd listen, if I did."

Reno turns to look at her, smiles. In this fairytale form, there's not a great deal for her to forget in the first place, and her will is strong. "So what's your story, Pinky? Are you a witch?"

I'm nothing so scary. [This is a half truth. She is not the witch, but she is the witch's servant, which some would say is worse; and she has her share of her own power.]

I'm not scared of witches. Or anything much. Especially not wolves.

[Not that there's any reason to mention wolves, but they're her natural enemy.]

Any wolves around here, need a beating? And you still didn't answer my question.

I came to live here with my sister when my parents died. We were taken in by the woman who owns this house.

[This is plausible and, while not the whole truth, true.]

Why'd she take you in? [Reno, an orphan herself, is suspicious. People don't do something for nothing.] She work you like dogs or something?

You could say that. [Her smile suggests it isn't all drudgery, though.] We do the cooking and cleaning, and all that type of work. It's worth it to have somewhere to live.

Hansel and Lethel

you are welcome anywhere, anytime. also, i giggled. XD

yay!

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