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 Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 6:30 am
Hvergelmir nodded. There was a solution to every problem, then -- except the problem of how to get them to realize they had a problem and they wanted help. Wasn't that always the way of things? You could lead a horse to water, but you couldn't make it drink. Humans were notoriously proud and stubborn. Her therapist was always saying so. (Was this what guardian cats did? Answer dumb questions over and over for people like Hvergelmir? If so, how could Hvergelmir convince one of them to permanently live with her? She had lots of questions.) "So where do I find one of these senshi royals or knights with a crystal sword?"
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 9:18 am
"I guess it's tricky, with senshi," Zia answered with a shrug. "Some of them don't like to advertise they have that much power and are usually running around as eternal senshi, but if any of them go full princess form and you're within some city blocks you're gonna feel that aura."
She turned to reach into the canvas messenger bag she usually took along with her on patrol, containing a variety of tools for her various goals. But in one of the front pockets, she unzipped it to let the ********* out, and the spherical analog of ********* weird little face.
"I haven't seen Polaris or Castor in years but Iris is usually running around somewhere. And you can usually get a hold of her via her much friendlier cat, *********. I can can call her with this, though," She said, holding up the communicator which promptly released an obnoxious warbling sound before being shoved back in the bag and zipped into place. A sadder, more muffled warble emitted from under the canvas but Zia only rolled her eyes.
"As far as knights with crystal swords, they can't hide in other forms but I've also only ever known one. His name is Camelot."
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 8:36 am
Hvergelmir nodded along, wishing she had a pen and paper so she could take notes. She tried to memorize the names on the fly -- Castor, Polaris, Iris, *********> -- but she was only adding that to the pile of things Zee was teaching her about that she was trying to remember as closely to word-for-word as possible. The better bet, she decided, was to try and ask Tara what senshi she knew and see if any of them were the ones Zee had listed -- or find out of Tara knew the heebie-jeebie cat Zee was referring to. (Laney was a former spelling bee competitor and had always been a big fan of mnemonics in any form, even in the form of the heebie-jeebies. Iris she could remember too -- it was in The Secret Garden twice. Far too hot, she wailed, see, the iris failed; dig it up and off you go. Polaris and Castor were almost Pollux and Castor, the famous twins -- which would be good for remembering Castor and get her at least halfway there on Polaris. It would have to do for now.)
The last name, though -- that one she knew.
"Oh, Camelot," she said brightly, happy to actually have a reference point for something, for once, in what Zee was saying. Zee was giving Hvergelmir the impression that while she fielded a lot of very dumb questions, few people came to her quite as ignorant as Hvergelmir. It was a relief to be able to actually say something wasn't completely new to her. "He's a friend!"
This was a flat exaggeration. She and Camelot had met, and he'd been very kind to her, but to say they had a friendship implied they were buddy-buddy and hanging out all the time, which would've required Laney to be a lot less avoidant and self-conscious of a human being than she was.
Belatedly she realized that would probably be more than obvious to Zee. If they were truly such great pals, hanging out all the time, Hvergelmir wouldn't have been so woefully uninformed about everything.
"Well, I mean, he's an ally," she corrected lamely. "Obviously we're not . . . I mean . . . " She sighed. "Am I wasting your time, Zee?"
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 9:09 am
"Yes!" Zia had responded with a cheer when the page declared she was friends with Camelot. Mostly because Camelot was usually where she directed knights in need of guidance anyway, and if she already knew him then Hvergelmir had an excellent start.
And then she started to putter out of the assertion they were friends to less, and less, until she asked a question that made Zia's expression drop.
"W- what?" She asked, sounding genuinely confused and a little anxious, wondering if her less than repressed reaction had been the source of the question and had to backtrack in anxiety, going over things she said that might've been rude or too blunt or maybe just mean spirited.
Zia didn't have much of a mouth filter, and usually let out feelings of frustration and being unimpressed as they came without censor, but that didn't mean she didn't feel bad when hurt feelings happened. Some people unlocked tense and defensive reactions, but Hvergelmir didn't meet the requirements for such things.
Maybe it was because most newbies she came across were so arrogantly confident in their ignorance she felt she was in a constant, uphill battle of putting down their mistaken ideas for the 'correct' version. Hvergelmir was different, and it made Zia nervous for some reason. Like she was a fragile thing that could easily be broken by her normally combative method of 'teaching'.
"N-nooooo," She kind of stammered before settling into a coo, drawing closer and delicately reaching out to touch her arm. "I like talking, it's kind of my thing! And it's what I'm here for!"
The more she said the easier time she had powering through before she reached out to offer her hand to Hvergelmir. "And on top of it, it's my job! So whatever you need, just ask."
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 4:11 pm
Hvergelmir took Zee's hand and clasped it between both of her own, feeling somewhat relieved. If there was one thing she had a habit of doing, it was driving people away with her tendency to annoy them. Too much enthusiasm, too many questions, too much -- self-pity, sometimes. People found that grating, especially when they were strangers and it wasn't their job to deal with someone else's sob story. It was easy to put people off of being her friend. She didn't want to do it yet again. "Sorry, I just -- " She struggled for a way to put it to words that wouldn't reveal too much about her or sound too insecure. Something that just said 'I don't want you to get the impression I'm dead weight' without having to say that. "I guess I just feel like you're helping me out so much and I'm not doing anything for you. I'm not even a senshi! I want to offer you something in return, but I don't know what. I want to be helpful to you too!"
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 1:40 pm
“I can’t really connect with senshi anyway,” Zia admitted with a sheepish shrug, staring at her hand clasped in Hevegelmir’s before she submitted and grinned.
The awkwardness in the air was noticeable, but she didn’t find it off putting. Something about battling with insecurities, even if they weren’t consciously talking about it, resonated with Zia on some level. Zia, who usually felt worthless and inadequate and working endlessly in futility could not ever bring herself to do anything but empathize with another struggling individual.
“I like knights! And it’s my job!” She repeated. It was her job, so it was okay. Like some kind of internal mantra. She was being helpful and useful, and so she had purpose. The assurances weren’t totally for Hvergelmir, apparently.
“Well you could help with my index?” She crooned, holding up her smartphone. “I’m collecting data on knights for comparison, and it is sorely lacking in Cosmos knight information. It’s just a couple of easy questions, promise.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 12:22 am
Hvergelmir could understand having difficulty connecting with people. That was how she usually described things to Carmine, when he asked: I have trouble connecting with my parents. Sometimes people weren't interested in what you had to give them, they were interested in what the wanted you to have to give them. Zee was some kind of universe-traveling guardian cat. Hvergelmir wondered if maybe the senshi treated her like some sort of cuckoo baby they'd discovered in the nest (with the exception of Aquarius, whom Hvergelmir knew and who therefore obviously would never). That would be horrible. She resolved then and there that Zee was her friend and an excellent guardian cat and anyone who disagreed could take it up with her. "Well," she said, brightening, "if senshi aren't really your thing, and you haven't got anyone you're guarding and we haven't got any guardians of our own, then by the power absolutely not vested in me by anyone except myself, I hereby declare you the honorary guardian cat of any knights lucky and wise enough to accept your help. Which, today, is me." She let go of Zee's hand and dusted her palms off like she was settling down to business. "Okay, so index me! Five foot six, long walks on the beach, plum, The Princess Bride, cream and three sugars, Team Jacob. I am so ready for questions."
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 9:38 am
"Oh," Zia took her hand back when it was released and fiddled her fingers together. It wasn't that she didn't think of claiming knights before-- in fact she considered a few already claimed as charges-- but it wasn't usually anything said out loud but rather a quiet, secret way in which she considered them.
Because it was weird. And knights didn't have cats anyway.
Sometimes, like during Realgar's purification, it came out. But not one had ever come out on their own and offered and while Hvergelmir might've thought it was a small gesture, it meant the world to Zia who had gone mildly wide eyed and thought her chest might burst with overwhelming feelings of appreciation and gratefulness.
"Okay," Was the understated answer, but Zia was beaming.
And then it was business time. She started tapping away on her phone as the page rattled off random stats and answers to common interview question, but she was clearly typing something. "And what is your weapon, five foot six Hvergelmir page?" And followed by, "Have you been to your wonder? Do you get past life memories or do you get advice from your predecessor? When did you awaken and how?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 1:53 pm
True to Zee's word, the questions she asked were not, in fact, difficult. Hvergelmir could provide ready answers to most of them -- all but the one middle one, which she had to think through for a few minutes. "My weapon is a distaff," she said, displaying it in the air with a The Price Is Right style flourish (trace the outside border on one side with your hand, then do the same with the bottom border, creating half a rectangle in the air! Laney used to practice this as a future career, in her childhood.) "Which is commonly used in spinning thread." She nodded her head at it to indicate that that was what the irridescent cotton-looking stuff on top was for. "Assuming you mean, basically, my um, cosmos homeworld, I haven't been any place like that yet! Just, um, the Surrounding -- but I have the idea, like, the feeling, I guess, that my place is smaller." She tried to remember what she'd told Aquarius without thinking about it, back then. "More like it's toward kind of the middle of the galaxy rather than the outskirts. Should I report back when I've been there?" She shook her head to indicate no answer was needed. "I will." The next question was the tough one. "I don't . . . I don't know if I have, like, memories memories, or maybe just like, instincts or feelings about certain things instead? But I definitely don't have any predecessor helping me out. God, I wish! But I have you, right, and you're like a whole index of predecessors in one if you're keeping a log of all this stuff. Okay. Anyway." When did you awaken and how? How was easy, but . . . when. She dreaded having to answer the when part. Zee would probably not be impressed that Hvergelmir had awoken so long ago and was still such a novice. But this was literally the only thing Zee was asking of her, in return for all her help. "About this time last year. I was out with a friend, and we got attacked by like three huge monsters walking home at night. And my friend's actually a sailor soldier, which I didn't know till then, but even she couldn't take down three monsters all at once, you know? And I just panicked, and I was, like -- you know how sometimes when you're freaking out and something terrible's in the middle of happening and you start just praying to like, whoever's listening for it not to happen even though you know it's not going to help? So anyway, that was me, freakout central, and then basically just poof! and there's my distaff floating in midair, and I grabbed it, and that's when I became a knight." She shrugged, trying to hide her worry that Zee was going to ask so what rock have you been hiding under for the past year? "So, doc, what's the verdict? Is that, like -- normal?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 5:02 pm
Distaff was interesting, and if Zia had not been distracted by trying to record Hvergelmir's answers as quickly as possible with a mobile format, she would've noticed the iridescent cotton substance and wanted to study it.
She glanced up when she mentioned reporting back, but Hver could answer on her own, and Zia grinned. Smartypants. Zia had done a total 180 from her original incredulous impression of the page who wasn't even totally sure about basic Chaos things and it was showing in her demeanor.
"I wonder if there's any way to pinpoint where in the galaxy a Cosmos knight's wonder would even be..." She mused in excitement at the possibilities. And then she leveled a very deliberate gaze at Hvergelmir, trying not to giggle and waver from the topic at hand thanks to the boost to her ego. "I log everything."
Maybe after a few meetings, Hver could make the short list of people who were allowed back at base to see the files and notes and stacks of transcripts and information Zia ferreted away. But the thought of the bright and optimistic page she was seeing so much potential and possibility in leafing through the gory ugliness of Operation Rota or the recounts of bloody battlefields of days past seemed very wrong, because she just wanted to wrap her up and whisk her away and tell her she was the best ever and she doesn't have to go out and see an ugliness or fight anything.
Zia nodded at the story of her awakening, not seeing anything particularly wrong with it. She was recording it as normal until she was asked for confirmation it was.
"What is? I mean... yeah, that's pretty much how all knights awaken?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 5:57 pm
Hvergelmir found she was surprisingly heartened to find herself being given a clean bill of knighthood health by someone. It wasn't something she'd realized she'd been needing -- but there it was. Confirmation that everything was systems-normal and there hadn't been some sort of tremendous cosmic error on the day that she'd come upon her powers. Hvergelmir was not an accident of circumstance. It was just -- an amazing relief. And she had Zee and her index to thank for it. "Oh, I mean, nothing in particular seemed like, too weird, it's just -- you don't wake up one morning thinking you're hero material. At least, not if you're me. I'm like, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen material. But my friend didn't know -- I get the impression Zodiac senshi are just kind of different in a lot of ways, she didn't know what would be normal for me."
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 8:14 pm
"Ah, ha, well," Zia laughed at the explanation and then shrugged. "The universe is super weird and super unfair a lot of the time."
And there she was, blissfully tap tap tapping away on her phone keys until the word 'zodiac' came up, and everything abruptly stopped. Zia's hazel eyes rose to stare at Hver again, and then narrowed. The Zodiac Court was fairly diminished and while she accepted the possibility of a few stragglers, she also felt pretty confident she kept tabs on most of its active and operating members.
And only one of those operating members had expressed upset at a friend awakening around this time last year. Awakening into a Cosmos knight, which she was not allowed to meet 'yet'. Bothering Tara about her mysterious Cosmos knight was frequently at the top of her to-do list, but the answers Hvergelmir had given tonight were too perfect.
She had a hunch.
"Sailor Aquarius?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:21 pm
Hvergelmir brightened at that. Had she and Zee been separated by just one degree of Kevin Bacon all this time and not realized? Hvergelmir didn't really know who exactly Aquarius counted among her powered-up social circle. "Yes!" she affirmed, delighted. "My best friend! Do you know her too?" Carneli i could not see any way to not do this as a short tag XD
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:53 pm
Zia's face took on an odd expression, like she was thinking of a hilarious joke but absolutely could not tell it out loud as she tried to keep her lips sealed and her mouth closed.
Her very first thoughts were of victory. Ha ha, Tara, I found your page all by myself and I did not traumatize her so there. If she didn't keep thinking she might've suggested going to find Tara right now to prove her capabilities in meeting mysterious Miss Cosmos Page and not break her. Look, I made a friend, so there.
The second was worry. Worry Tara would take this as something new to stress about or see it as some violation of her privacy or worse. Worry that a joke or any nose rubbing might be cruel considering Zia frequently thought of Tara as fragile and needing to be handled with care. Which led to feelings of embarrassment.
"Yes! I know her. We're friends, but... Uh. I need to go," She stumbled over her words but she turned off the phone and jerked two thumbs over her shoulder before she became paranoid about everything at once. "Not because of anything you said! I got a thing! That I need to leave. And do. It was really nice meeting you, though, I hope we talk again!"
And Zia bolted.
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:29 pm
That was . . . weird. Weird, who was she kidding? That was worrying. Things had been going along just fine, and they had Tara to bond over, and then suddenly Zee's face had taken on a very different look, and abruptly she had to leave? Hvergelmir stared after the space where she'd been. Did she know something about Tara that Laney didn't know? Was Tara keeping something (something else) from her? Hvergelmir fretted for a while, wondering what had gone wrong, wondering if Zee and Tara were really both okay -- then finally she had to accept that there was nothing more to do here. She went home.
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