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 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:04 am
After the disaster that was her fight against Merope in that tournament, Avalon did not want to talk to anyone. So she'd blown off her planned meeting with Babylon Squire and gone off on her own, to fight youma where she could find them. And she had found them, in Numbers. Two of them, actually, a split pair, and it'd been a bit of a close thing but she'd won and now she was going to sit on a park bench and wait to catch her breath again. Coming down off an adrenaline high left her with a fierce, overwhelming desire to move, but she knew from experience if she did she'd hate herself in the morning. Muscle cramps from here 'til next Thursday, like she needed all those problems on top of everything else.
Still, as her breathing leveled off, she picked her head up just enough to focus in on the approaching light aura--well, she said light aura, it was more of an Order-ish aura, wasn't it?
She pushed herself up, trying to sort out where she'd felt something like this before. Wasn't Babylon, because he'd already be shouting, and whoever was coming was actually being... pretty quiet. Hum. Probably not a threat, then, but why did it feel so... familiar.
God damn it. Avalon got up and straightened her tunic, still looking off towards the approaching aura. "Who's there," she called--couldn't people just announce themselves, or something? Of course not. That'd be too easy.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:31 am
She was greeted with a yelp of surprise. Apparently the owner of the aura she felt had not been paying attention to auras himself, and hadn't realized anyone was there. It explained, at least in short, why he hadn't introduced himself.
He cleared his throat, before he appeared around a corner of trees. He had been walking, paying no attention to anything, in his own little world.
"Ah, hello," he said, looking embarrassed.
The Squire of Earth rubbed the back of his neck, trying to come up with a good excuse for the almost girly noise he had let escape him. It wasn't really something a knight should do, was it? Let himself get startled. No matter how long he had been at this, he doubted he'd ever get everything right. He couldn't shake Tony, after all, even if he was Camelot.
He had been thinking about his home life, his family, his friends. With work still busy and his nights usually filled with youma fights or negaverse run ins, he didn't have much time for personal stuff, and it caught up to him tonight. He was just lucky she hadn't turned out to be a bad guy. Unless she was trying to mug him or something.
"Are you alright?" he asked, noticing that she looked a little worn down.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:38 am
He was a knight, and one she'd seen before, and that must by why he felt familiar. Although she was pretty sure it was only during the Surrounding fight, and how could she have sussed out just one aura? Well, there hadn't been too many knights. Had to be that. Occam's Razor and all, it'd rarely ever failed her. Also, he'd made a pretty girly noise but she figured since he wasn't a Negaverser trying to get the drop on her she could forgive him for it. By which she meant, not bring it up unless he did first. "Hi," she said, giving him a bit of an odd look. Poor guy, he looked pretty embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm just fine. There was a spot of trouble with twin youma, but nothing I couldn't handle with my trusty apple." Heavy sarcasm on her weapon description, but she didn't pop it out so the armored knight could see. No point, really, since... well, it was a bit embarrassing, wasn't it? Apple weaponry.
The knight was just a couple inches shorter than her, and she didn't doubt that it was only her heels that gave her the advantage. (Amazonian height nonwithstanding.) "Avalon Page," she said after a moment, spotting the Earth sigil on his uniform--they shared a planet, which meant she could trust him, right? "You're an Earth knight too, aren't you?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:17 am
"Two youma? That's never fun," he continued to look worried about her, as if suspecting she was hiding an injury from him or something more serious. If only because he had recently encountered multiple youma in a fight, and it had not gone very well for him, either. But then, he generally assumed everyone was better at fighting than he was.
It was a young person's sport. That was it. Except that made him feel old. There was really no winning for him, no matter how he tried to justify things. He was either weak or old. Awesome.
"Your weapon is an apple?"
He thought he had a rough time of it when his shield had been made of wood, and liked to break. But at least it had still been a shield. Now it was reinforced, and at least he had the crystal to aid him when he really needed it. All in all, he wasn't bad off when it came to his own defense or the defense of others. But an apple? Did it rot? Could she actually eat it? How does one fight with an apple?
He didn't think asking her about it would go over well, judging by the look on her face and the sarcasm in her tone.
his eyebrows lifted when she said she was the page of Avalon. He smiled, finding it amusing, offering her his hand. "Camelot, Squire of Earth, yes."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:31 am
"They were really weak," she said after a moment. "If I had to guess, I'd say maybe they got away from someone else before the finishing blow could be dealt, and then it was just me." Plus, she wasn't all that bad at fighting youma. It was just fighting people where she seemed to forget all her hand-eye coordination and die miserably. She let out a little exasperated breath, remembering the gladiator game battles, rubbed the side of her face and then, finally, nodded. "Yeah. My weapon's an apple, like... the kind you eat. Red Delicious, if I had to guess. Only, you shouldn't eat it--" The auburn-haired page's eyes went wide with recognition when he introduced himself, and she shook his hand only after she'd remembered to close her mouth.
Nimue had told her--warned her, really--about the connection of Avalon and Camelot. Just... now, actually seeing Camelot Squire, she wasn't sure she should ask the thing she'd been told to. But this was her only chance, wasn't it? She was still henshined from the recent trip, and she didn't know that she'd be able to convince Camelot Squire or even find him later. "My ancestor told me about you," she said finally, "She said I have to ask you a favor... it's a little complicated, though. But... the long and short of it is, I need your help, and it has to be your help."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:54 am
Camelot nodded his head, glad, at least, that she hadn't been hurt. He hated letting youma get away from him, always worried that they would just go off and hurt someone else, and hearing that she thought this was what had happened for her made him tense. They hadn't come from him, of course, but he still felt a little vindicated in his efforts to dust every youma he came across and nothing less.
Even if an encounter with a negaverse agent had shaken his resolve a bit.
His expression echoed hers when he saw her eyes widen, though his was borne of pure confusion. he had found the connecting interesting, but she seemed to have a deeper thought on it. When she spoke, he blinked in surprise.
"Your ancestor?" He knew that they could speak with their ancestors, he just hadn't gone back to Camelot yet to see his own past. He was sure it'd happen sometime... when he figured it out... probably. He was always late to the party, he often reminded himself, considering his age for being awakened.
He listened as she explained that she needed his help. That got his attention and pretty much hooked him.
"What do you need from me? What did your ancestor say?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:07 am
She crossed her arms over her chest, tucked her hands into her sleeves as best she could, and sighed. "She said I needed to ask you if you'd help me get back to Avalon. Basically... This is the last time I'll be able to henshin for... well, I don't know how long." Avalon shrugged a little bit, a wry smile on her face. How to explain this? It had seemed so reasonable when Nimue had explained. Plant the apple, head home, find Camelot Knight (because Avalon Knight apparently never awoke before Camelot, she didn't know) and tell him (what if it was a girl? But apparently that never happened either) that he needed to help you find a way home?
Sure. Okay. That didn't sound crazy at all.
"In a few weeks, I need you to take me to Camelot so I can get back to Avalon and get my weapon back. Or, well, make myself a new one. I guess that's what I'm doing." She wasn't actually sure. Nimue hadn't explained very well. Plant the apple, head home... "I can explain it in greater detail if you want, but, that's the long and short of it. I won't be able to get back on my own." ...find Camelot Knight.
Well, she'd done those three steps. If she could just get him to agree to what apparently was a normal thing between Avalon Knights and Camelot Knights, then she'd have completed the fourth. "No one else can do it. No one else has the connection to Avalon that's needed for me to be able to jump from their home to mine. I know we have literally only just met and wonders are really personal, but this is the only way Nimue and I know of."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:25 am
Camelot listened with interest, looking very surprised. Connected to another wonder? He hadn't heard of that before, but of course, he had only heard of maybe two trips back to the past from his fellow knights so it wasn't like he was a fountain of information here.
He blinked.
"I... ah... I... well, I've never been to Camelot," he said at last, looking down at the floor and seeming very chagrined. "I don't know how to go. I know you're supposed to find some quiet place, and there's a phrase? But I haven't ah... well, I suppose I haven't had time, and it hasn't... happened yet."
Why did he feel like the teenager admitting he hadn't hit puberty yet? He always felt a little behind everyone else, an old man constantly struggling to catch up and play like the young kids play.
It was embarrassing, some times, and an absolute hindrance other times.
"I want to help you, though. If we're connected through our wonders then it's my duty to serve you, Avalon," he bowed on instinct, smiling at her. "I want to help you but I am not sure... how."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:40 am
She patted his shoulder after a moment, feeling a little terrible for springing all of this on him at once. For all he was clearly more experienced than she was (well, look at him, all Squired up, of course he was) it looked like she'd figured out a few things about being a knight a little faster. While his words didn't exactly imbue her with confidence, she knew she could walk him through it. "It's not hard," she said, "the damn phrase was nearly beating my head in by the time I actually used it. Um... I could tell you it now, if you wanted to go there ahead of time or something."
Her words had the tone of someone who didn't quite believe what they were hearing, and honestly, Avalon couldn't. Why wouldn't you investigate every single bit of power you were given?
Maybe he'd just been busy back on Earth. "It's probably not that big of a deal," she assured him. "And I know how to do it, like I said, so when the time comes I can walk you through it. No big deal." After a moment, she added, "And thank you, for agreeing to help me."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:59 am
Camelot looked at her in wonder. He tilted his head to the side as he thought about it.
"Would that work?" He asked. He had imagined it to be personal, that the words would come to him in time. He didn't realize he could just ask someone for them. He would have done that a lot sooner if he had figured that one out. Sometimes he felt like he was as thick as a post.
He smiled.
"Well, if you're willing to help me, then we'll be even at the end of it, won't we? I'm certain we'll be able to get there." He nodded his head. He was actually excited by the idea now, as he hadn't been giving much thought to his past with his present in such disarray, and his future uncertain.
He nodded his head, not feeling too worried for once. Myabe he was gaining confidence, even if he was a bit behind everyone else.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:41 pm
"Should work. Same words for everyone," she informed him. "Well, most of them, as I've learned of it." She didn't want to acknowledge that they'd be very, very uneven--but she would have, if he'd made her. Instead, she smiled a little and traded phone numbers with Camelot--then she turned and disappeared, citing the need for sleep at last.
[FIN]
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