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Temperance had figured that since she knew special Ashdown was a place and not just a dream, she should try to get in it. She'd been told that it wouldn't work and only some people could enter at will, but surely if she jsut applied herself enough, it'd work out. It was like getting good grades in college. She studied, and she applied, and she got an A. Did the addition of magic make it any different?

Two hours later, Temperance would have to say 'yes'. Through archways, door ways, weird little alleys that led only to dumpsters, she'd wandered fruitlessly, umbrella clutched in one hand. She didn't find anything except disappointment. Temperance frowned and fished out her cellphone, starting to text Zac while walking. Maybe it was time to give up. She cracked her next, typed another word, and walked around the corner into the rain.

She eyes flew open wide - what, how, when? Hastily shoving her phone away, she opened her umbrella with a whoosh of noise. "H-how the ******** did I....?" Because this was definitely not normal Ashdown, she supposed. Temperance bit her lip. In all her wandering, she'd not considered how she would get back out afterwards. Well, that was a problem for future Temperance. For now, she intended to snoop.

Temperance froze stiff, eyes wide and unblinking. Her heart picked up it's pace, her pulse beating a fast tattoo in her bare neck. Then, Temperance did what she does best.

She screamed.

Okay, so screaming did nothing. Temperance shut her mouth with a harsh click. She simply stood there for a bit, trembling, as she debating ******** booking it before it could eat her. Maybe it wouldn't eat her, maybe it was nice. Her eyes flicked to Zac's face. Maybe nice was stretching it.

"W-what are you?"

She breathed out a sigh of relief when it retreated a bit. The whole 'I am that I am thing' just made a phrase ring through her head: 我は汝…汝は我…. It wasn't the same, not by a longshot, but still. She didn't snicker, but it helped her relax a bit. Temperance was still on edge, of course; but she rather thought she was doing a great job of not running off screaming until this version of Ashdown decided to dump her back on sunny Main Street. She deserved a gold star.

And apparently this thing was some sort of creepy owl fortune teller. "I... I think that I do try new things. I move a lot. I try new places. But wherever I go, I am still me." She had no idea why she was answering this thing's question, but her words contained her true feelings. She couldn't change that she was a gangling disaster of a girl who couldn't keep friends for longer than a whistle and fel the need to run rather than set down any kinds of roots. It was simply how things, and how she, was.

"Unspoken - in speaking it aloud, your name defies itself." Temperance sucked in a sharp breath, thinking that maybe that should have been a joke left unsaid. She shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling the familiar metal of her kitty key ring. "Temperance. Remaining alive is less of a burden than dying, so it is easier. Are we on even ground?" She didn't think so, not with freaky owl goop staring at her.

She flinched at the laugh. Well, that certainly hadn't been what she was expecting at all! She supposed she should be glad about Unspoken liking her, but could one be really happy about an oozy bird taking a liking to them? It was better than dislike, though. She'd take it and be glad for it, she told herself fiercely.

"I suppose your own, um, corporeal body has adapted to serve its p-purposes? I certainly can't melt like that." She had watched Unspoken's body change and shift and swirl forward with impossible galaxies. "Do you ever leave bits of yourself behind?" Bits of Unspoken that dropped off and never returned, tiny oil slicks of star systems lost forever. Like dead skin cells, or shedding hair - did Unspokne leave their invisible genetic imprint on the world around them, or did that even matter? She raised her eyes from their not-wings and looked Unspoken in the face.

"Ah, but you had asked if I will answer a question for you. I will." But Unspoken had not specifically asked for a truthful answer, and she held that tiny escape to her chest in case it was not a pleasant question.

"Oh!" she said. Clearly, Temperance had not expected such a question. Zac had told her there were big, bad things here, but maybe this one was okay. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped into the album. Swiping a few times, she found the picture she needed. It was of a small tree, maybe a foot and half tall, blue tinsel and covered in lights and ornaments and popcorn garland.

She turned it outward, so Unspoken could see. "Like this? It's a Christmas tree. We're not, um, hypnotized, really. We just like them. It's a part of Christmas, but not all." Temperance hummed thoughtfully for a second, unsure how wise her next suggestion would be. "It's... it's not Christmas yet, but I could bring you a little tree? So you can have a bit of Christmas too?"

"Yes, um-" Temperance was startled by Unspoken's outpouring of enthusiasm. "I can bring you little bits of all of it? Ah - can you... leave this version of Ashdown? Like just on special occasions, for Christmas." Well, her mother never told her not to invite weird goopy owl creatures into her apartment for Christmas in May. The rattling had been nerve-wracking, although she was trying to ignore it.

"Or.. I can just bring. It'd be easier." Unspoken's whisper was almost... childish, in a way, and Temperance smiled. "Well, you shall have a Christmas first, and then he can have one later. You could show him! There are presents and santa and lots of food and eight reindeer, but one has a glowing nose, you see, and snow." She paused. "Does it snow here - or only rain?"

"Ah, um, can you... n-not call me that? I have a normal name..." Temperance looked down at her feet uncomfortably. Self-hating one. Just because it might be true didn't mean she wanted it as her name.

She quickly sneaked a peek back up at Unspoken. It seemed unwise to keep her eyes off of it for too long. "I can bring you something Christmas-y, sure. It will be fun. B-but can I ask you... why is Zac on you?" She pointed to the porcelain mask with Zac's likeness.