Alpeana

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Alpeana, sometimes shortened to Alpy, is a being native to Kennet known as a Mare.<ref name=":0">Alpeana
Type according to Matthew: Mare
Appearance: Filthy hair, totally black eyes, ragged clothes.
Appearance with Sight: Same?
Awakening: Thread → Gave oil, took molasses → Thread
Friends with Faerie Girl
Climbs a lot. Sticks to shadows
Shy?
Avery: gets the feeling ‘Alpy’ might not give up much information because she seems secretive.
Verona: Says Alpeana smiled at her & Avery after the molasses. (relevance?)
- excerpt from Notes on Others </ref>

Personality

As befits her species, she seems to have a habit of sitting on people's chests, making it hard for them to breathe.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" />

She's seemingly pretty content with her life.<ref name=":10" />

Relationships

She's seemingly friends with Maricica,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">The woman with the wings hadn’t actually unfurled her wings. She’d hopped down from the branch with them still wrapped around her. She smiled in a way that suggested she had secrets as she glanced at Lucy, even as she wandered on her own. The teenager with hair like the matted, moldy black stuff in a gutter stuck to the trees and stuck fairly close to the woman with the wings, crawling across branches and staying mostly hidden.
[...]
The girl with the filthy hair moved like a spider did, her movements too quick and jerky, her body low to the ground.
[...]
Charles and the Others were there, in their arrangements, and she assumed friends stuck by friends. John with one of the goblins and the giant. The filthy-haired girl with the faerie with wings.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2 </ref> and lives in Maricica and Guilherme's cave, sleeping there during the day.<ref>“Alpeana,” Maricica said.  “They woke you.”
The mare emerged from the dark, hair messier than usual.  She lurked at the very edge of the light that entered the cave, wincing at the brightness of it.
“Gotcha,” Lucy said.  “I got you, okay?  Relax, relax.”
-Stolen Away 2.3 </ref>

Like all the Others of Kennet, she's sworn not to harm Lucy Ellingson, Verona Hayward and Avery Kelly and to give them power.<ref name=":2">Alpeana’s mouth yawned open, and black fluid oozed out, multi-layered, thick with debris that could have been anything, but with

shapes like rotted leaves turned black by a winter spent under the 

snow, or the stringy guck pulled out of drains.
Her hair turned liquid, doing something similar, just in much

greater quantities.  Drainstuff, rot, mold, mixed with liquid as thick 

and black as oil, refusing to flow straight down so much as it stuck to itself.
“I had a bad night. I’m not in the mood for this,” Lucy said. As the stuff reached down from the ceiling and toward her head, she grabbed

a spare pillow and held it up in the way.  “You’re not allowed to hurt 

me, by the deals made.”
The stuff touched her sheets, just over her chest. Heavy, soaking in and pressing down.
It touched her pillow, that she held up as a shield and barrier to keep it away from her face. Strings, rivulets, and clumps oozed down around the edges, sides, and more of it piled on top, making the pillow difficult to hold up, even with both hands.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.6 </ref><ref>“Provisions, of course,” Miss said, taking it in stride. “We pledge you safety. We will do you no willful harm to body or mind, and we will

do what we can to give you a long and full life, and avoid barring you 

from such. Agreed?”
“Yes,” Lucy and Avery said, in near unison. Verona was a bit late.
“If enemies from without would stand against you, we pledge our intent to stand with you, those of us here available as bodyguards, soldiers, distractions, or counsel. You three shall not be alone against any threat. Agreed?”
“Yes,” Lucy, Verona, and Avery said. In sync this time.
“We pledge to give you our power and our knowledge without reservation, provided that power is taken in goodwill and without undue harm, or taken with the will of the majority here. Agreed?”
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2 </ref> Avery seems to find her cute.<ref name=":3">“Alpeana showed up in my room in the middle of the night. She said she stopped by to see you two, too. So you know, like… I assume your houses are locked up, but she’s showing up while you’re asleep. Let that sit with you for a second.”
“Was she nice?” Avery asked.
“She was… Scottish, I think? Didn’t expect that. I think she said she spared me from an especially bad dream.”
“Aww.”
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.6 </ref>

She's delivered messages for Miss.<ref name=":4">A white shape pressed into the curtain of black stuff that draped down from the pillow’s edges. It took Lucy a second to realize it was a face, poking through, with eyes as dark as anything.
“Ye’re due a nightmare, lassie,” the Mare said, her voice young, but thick with a Scottish burr.
“No thanks,” Lucy answered. The stream from above had eased up. The

curtain of dark liquid had pooled around her, soaking into her sheets 

and pillow, but now that what was coming from above wasn’t so thick, she

could see that what had piled up on her stomach and chest was the rough
silhouette of a person.  Alpeana’s face lifted up to find a home 

roughly where the head should be.
“Yeh,” Alpeana said. “Tha’s wha’ I thought. I’ll spare ye that.”
“Okay.”
“Can’t go and say ye won’ have a bad dream now, but it won’ be a fancy Mare dream like ye might be havin’ if ye were’n protected. I’m suppose ta pass on a message.”
“Pass it,” Lucy said. In her efforts to keep from freaking out, she was holding her head so rigid that her chin was rising by fractions. Her breath came in small intervals, with the weight on her chest.
“Miss wants ta talk. Get an update on yer findin’s and all tha’.”
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.6 </ref> As well as this, she immediately called upon Miss for assistance when she found the eyeless ghost in the old man's house.<ref name=":8">The back door opened.  All three girls jumped.
But it was Alpeana.  She looked alarmed.
“What’s wrong?” Avery asked.
“Miss!” Alpeana called out.  “Miss!  Miss!”

-Stolen Away 2.5 </ref>

Appearance

She appears to be a teenage girl.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">There was a slender woman sitting on a branch, and what looked like maybe they were wings, draped around her like a blanket. A teenage girl

with eyes black from corner to corner, hair matted with filth. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref> She has solid black eyes.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":0" />  Her hair is incredibly filthy,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> long and dark.<ref name=":6">The time on the clock changed to gibberish, then flickered.

She could hear it. Scrabbling and thumping, elsewhere in the house, rapid, almost like a lunch table worth of hands drumming at a table in anticipation of pizza.
[...]
Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump.
A face appeared at her doorway. Pale, framed by long, dark hair. Alpeana, peering in from the upper corner of the door, face at a diagonal. The face rotated two-hundred and seventy degrees.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.6 </ref> Her face is pale.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":4" />

She speaks in a Scottish accent.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":3" /> She wears ragged clothes.<ref name=":0" />

Her skin is cold, dry and slippery.<ref name=":9">“Aye.  Can do.  One of ye take another by tha hand.  I can only tug ye along with usin’ my hands, unless ye want to take hold of this hair of mine.”
“Uhh,” Avery said.  The hair was very greasy and had a lot of stuff in it.  Alpeana was cute in her own weird way, but not so cute Avery wanted to hold her hair.  She took Lucy’s hand.
Alpeana’s hand was cool to the touch, and slippery without being wet,

in a way that made Avery’s hairs stand on end.  Alpeana took Verona 

with the other hand, and then tugged.
Avery’s stomach was left by the shore, as they made the quick trip back to Verona’s house.
They were dropped onto the stairs.
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.5 </ref>

Abilities

Her approach can mess with electronics.<ref name=":6" />

She can crawl rapidly on ceilings and walls like a spider.<ref>Alpeana lunged, crawling across the ceiling with rapid movements. Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump- Crawling across the ceiling to a point directly over Lucy’s bed in about a third of the time it would take Lucy to walk from her doorway to

her bedside table.

She hung there, suspended, fingers straining, curved backwards as fingertips seemed to dig into the ceiling itself. Her head twisted, rotating, like she was trying to get a better view.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.6 </ref><ref name=":7">Alpeana leaned forward, darkness pressing in close to Lucy’s head.
Then she scampered up the wall, then to the ceiling. As she pulled away, the rags and dark strands of her hair pulled up the stains and dark gloop that she had left behind her, leaving the bed and everything pristine.
“Alpeana,” Lucy called up.
The girl, already at the door to the bedroom, turned around, then sat

down, positioned upside-down, bare legs and dirty toenails visible. 

- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.6 </ref> She seems to be impossibly flexible, able to rotate her head at any angle.<ref name=":6" />

She can generate streams of black filth from her mouth and from her hair<ref name=":2" /> which she can seemingly move through or transform into a copy of her.<ref name=":4" /> This matter seems to be a part of her and can be reabsorbed, without leaving a mark on her surroundings.<ref name=":7" /> Alpeana is capable of turning into a sludgy mess of what looks like black hair in order to sneak under doorways. She appears to be able to turn into this form and back at will.<ref>Alpeana slipped beneath the door, the entirety of her body squishing down into the stuff like tangles of pubes and hair pulled from the drains, dyed black instead of red and brown. - Stolen Away 2.5 </ref>

Her species are apparently responsible for delivering nightmares to people, although she notes that even if she chooses to let someone be, they may still have a lesser bad dream - it just won't be as "fancy".<ref name=":4" /> She is instictively guided to targets by the higher powers of the universe. For example, the Spirits might send her to carry out a curse by implanting certain ideas in people.<ref>“…There’s a chance the curse I set might get lifted pretty soon.  She’s going to reach out to Paul.  I think he might actually pick up and

answer her, after yesterday.  I nailed the coward curse in three times,
if he can overcome that and overcome his natural instincts, he’s free 

and clear.”
“Oh, aye?”
The three of them turned.
In the shadows by conifer trees with long needles, Alpeana crouched.
“Hey.  We came to see you,” Avery said.
“Telling me my night’s hard work is all for nothin’?” Alpeana asked.
“Night’s hard work?” Lucy asked.
“Aye, it’s like subcontractin’, innit?  Spirits and whosits haf got a

bunch of minds to put to gradual change, dreams are a way to go about 

doin’ it.  Spent the better half of last night plantin’ subtle ideas in people’s heads, this guy he cannae be trusted, he’ll turn tail and run. 

Ain’t it so weird he spent so long livin’ at home with his ma?  What’s 

goin’ on there?”
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.5 </ref><ref>“Sometimes Fate or Time or Economy have a wee wrinkle and they need to nudge someone or somethin’, or tha cosmological balance sheets don’ add up and they need somethin’ like me ta take a peek or pull some things apart to sort out why and how. [...] No boss, not so far as I’ve ever met.  I work with instinct and nobody’s

ever said I should do elsewise.  Give a small child a dream of her da 

dying before ‘is time, stretch it so it feels like tha dream goes for weeks?  Leaves her changed, after, even if she dinnae remember half of it. [...] Might be tha she hugs her da a little tighter, after.  More likely tha wee bit sleeps uneasy, has some bad days, but the invisible wheels of tha world turn a bit righter, a bit straighter.  If I didn’t, the snarls

might become doors and the wrongs in the cosmology might become right 

problems. [...] Sometimes I take what’s there an’ I move it around, or change a wee detail, sometimes there be a need, an’ I need to use what’s out there to

build or fill in, an’ sometimes there’s a wrinkle or a snarl and I fix 

it an’ go on my nightly way.  Lately, this past month and a bit, wha’s there is bloodier, messier.  Wha’s missing is raw at the edges, an’ when

I go to get materials, most of wha I have to work with is blood and 

chaos.  Wrinkles and snarls?  Same idea.  Means I need to go further afield to find what I need.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3</ref> It costs her energy to envelop a person and enter their dreams, energy which is then repaid - and more - by the universe on completion.<ref>Alpeana barfed blackness and drainstuff.  Her hair extended, reaching down, like it was liquid.
It buried Mr. Hayward’s face, extended into his open mouth.
Smothered him.
Verona shifted her footing, arms folded.
He twitched, turning his head, as if to escape it, then moved his hand, reaching up lazily, with no sense of what he was fighting against.
An arm, thin, feminine, and strong, reached out of the tide of black stuff and grabbed him by the wrist, pinning his arm down to the bed.
“Stop!”
[...]
“Costs me a wee bit of somethin’, reachin’ in.  If I’m not finishin’ the job I’m not getting me pay from the cosmic tide and bellow, aye?  I cannae be stoppin’ and startin’ all night.”
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.5 </ref>

She can teleport across town, and bring people with her by touch.<ref name=":9" /> She has the ability to travel to other realms, such as the Ruins, where she gathers materials to make more impactful dreams<ref>“How many places are adjacent to Kennet?” Lucy asked.  “Or types of places?”
Maricica smiled.  “A good number.  Some are adjacent in a way that would put them outside Kennet, such as the Abyss or the Courts, and some

are far, far away, like the Paths.  That said, the spirit world, the 

ruins, the basest parts of the warrens are adjacent in…”
[...]
“If you want to know more,” Maricica said.  “Alpeana could be an escort.  She knows ways and routes.”
[...]
“That is possible.  The goblins could have stowed it in the shallow parts of the Warrens, for example, Edith could have taken it to the spirit world, or Alpeana could have taken it to the ruins.”
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3 </ref><ref name=":10">“I haf a purpose, lassie, I don’t go hungry, I haf friends and I go interestin’ places.  It’s nae so bad.” “Interesting places?” Avery asked. “Yeah,” Verona butted in, from Lucy’s arms.  She craned her sinuous neck around a bit.  “Going back to that, where do you go to go further afield, for resources or materials?” Verona asked, again.  “I’ve been wondering about power sources, or resources, and how it’s all put together.”

Now I know how Lucy feels when Verona derails conversations, Avery thought.

“I dinnae have names for where I go.  I just go,” Alpeana said.  “Maricica comes, now and then.” “I need materials sometimes,” Maricica said.  “Glamour is strongest when you build on a solid backbone.  There are places you can go that are more Other than human.  Many are hazardous.  The ruins, the abyss, the warrens- detestable.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3 </ref> such as echoes.<ref>“Interference,” Alpeana said.  “Someone got here first.”
“Another Mare?” Avery asked.
“Och, no,” Alpeana said.  She looked agitated, crouching down.  “The echo I should’ve used to answer his dream.  Someone tore it apart for pieces, aye?  Took tha eyes.  They’re lookin’ in.”
[...]
The girls entered the bedroom.  A man, face covered in blackness, was lying on a bed, shirtless and sweaty.
Beside him, flickering, was the ghost of the woman that had to be his

wife.  Her eyes were missing, with only a slash of darkness in their 

place.
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.5 </ref>

She can smell glamour.<ref name="2.3e1" />

Weaknesses

Alpeana is seemingly weak to sunlight, and it hurts her if she is exposed to it. Because of this, she only likes to go out at night, and sleeps in the Fae's cave during the day. This is most likely due to her nature as a Mare.<ref name="2.3e1">Alpeana rubbed at one eye.  “I dinnae do nothin’, I was only sleepin’, and she comes runnin’ up smellin’ like sunlight an’ glam.  Glam’s hard for me ta ignore, but sunlight?  I might as well be allergic.”
“It burns you?” Avery asked.
“Makes tha eyes water.  Every bit of ye recoils and wants to put up a fight, but you can’t be fightin’ the sun, lassie.  Not many sorts can.  Leaves ye hurtin’ in little ways all over.  Like allergies.”
-Stolen Away 2.3 </ref>

Chronology

Origins

Alpeana, some time long ago, was a human girl in a family that got an illness. She was the only member to not get ill, and ended up geing Lost to the world, as they all lost track of her. In tune with her family's nightmares, she felt a higher power calling her to her new task.<ref>“I don’t rightly know, lassie.  I used to be a wee girl, not tha I was much of one, we had so little.  I dinnae remember the particular details, but I remember standing watch over my ma and da’s bed.  If I shook them out of a fitful sleep, they treated me kind.  Then I did the same for my brother and sisters.  Got a feel for when a bad one was coming.  Then neighbors, only I dinnae wake them up.  Then, some time later, I’m up in the cabin rafters, watching careful while my family got themselves sorted to go to church.  They wondered where I went.” “So many of them they lost track of you?” Avery asked. “Five sisters and one brother.  They dinnae forget me as much as they forgot everythin’ for a bit.  They got sick, I was the only one who dinnae get it.  It was the first church outting after.  Then I got the call, like an instinct tha’s not from me to me, but from somethin’ bigger to me.”

-Stolen Away 2.3 </ref>

Lost for Words

Alpeana was at the awakening ritual of the Kennet Trio, and participated in it. She entered through the thread, gave oil, and took molasses, finally leaving through the thread. She appeared to smile at Verona and Avery after the molasses, and otherwise mostly stayed out of the way of the trio.

Later on, Alpeana would visit Lucy Ellingson at night, to deliver information to her that Miss wanted to have a talk to the Kennet Trio about what they had found so far. She also admitted that Lucy was due for a nightmare, but said she'd skip over it. Lucy was not happy with Alpeana's appearance. <ref name=":7" />

Stolen Away

While the Kennet Trio are at the Fae Cave, Verona glamoured into a weasel runs into the cave, before running out in shock after accidentally waking Alpeana. Alpeana emerges, and has a chat with the girls, where she explains her job and purpose to them as part of their investigation.

Alpeana is later called on for an interview by Verona, who is attempting to interview the remaining Others. Alpeana takes the girls on her nightly trip, and begins to give Verona's Dad a nightmare, though Verona stops her. Alpeana then continues onto her next target, but is stopped when she finds practitioner interference, and calls upon Miss. <ref name=":8" />

After having a discussion with Miss and the Kennet Trio, Alpeana heads off into the Spirit World with them to attempt to track down the invader. As they head through the Spirit World, they find a group of omens outside the town dance studio, but the group leave it eventually. They head into the Ruins, Alpeana as the group's navigator, where more damaged Echoes are discovered, which greatly irritates Alpeana, as she needs them to make her nightmares. Alpeana then mentions becoming the familiar of one of the girls if the disturbances continue<ref>“If this keeps doon this sorry path, I’ll be crossin’ these fingers o’ mine tha ye girls decide you want me for a Familiar.  Would sure be nice ta get a wee vacation when yer work has gone unwiped erse over fanny.”

-Stolen Away 2.6 </ref>, which prompts a discussion from Miss and the group. <ref>https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/stolen-away-2-6/</ref>

Eventually, the group returns, with Alpeana guiding them back into the real world. <ref>The mare jerked them to another place, much as she’d delivered them to the hall outside dad’s room, then to the ‘auld codger’ Clay’s place.  From torrential rain into light rain.  From cold into dull, humid heat.

-Stolen Away 2.6 </ref>

Trivia

• A mare is a mythical creature said to sit on people's chests and give them nightmares, the origin of the word "nightmare". In real life they're thought to be inspired by sleep paralysis hallucinations.<ref>Wikipedia - Mare (folklore)</ref>

References

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