|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:50 am
After a few hours lying in a sickbed that wasn't actually a bed Harmony felt restless. Lying for hours, idle, did not agree with her. She couldn't stand lying there even with the pain. It was probably because Hygiea's herbs numbed her that she was feeling this restless. Without the pain there was nothing to remind her that she shouldn't be up and walking. She wanted to get out and do something though she didn't know what that was yet and a pesky voice in the back of her mind said she might hurt herself worse.
Besides, wonderland needed to be explored, didn't it? That's how Alice got home. She had some hope of getting home herself. She didn't want to spend another minute in a place where she was in this much danger from things she'd never seen before and couldn't explain. She actually missed her mom, wondering what was happening with her and how she felt. How would she explain being gone this long? She knew better than to try and make this a joke.
She got up and ignored the sharp stab of pain that she felt momentarily when shifted at an odd angle. She was trying to sneak off to explore, taking fleeting looks around just in case someone decided they wanted to stop her. She snuck away from her secluded place on her sleeping bag and went to explore the outpost she was at. The style appealed to her, at least. She wished she had a camera for the tenth time that day.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:38 am
Camelot certainly couldn't blame someone for not wanting to remain in a hospital bed. Even if this one was makeshift and even less comfortable than the real ones. At least there was magic in the air, which Tony hadn't had when he was in hospital not a week ago.
His leg was healing marvelously well in this place, and for that he was very glad. A fortuitous turn of events for him, though he would have to explain to his coworkers and friends how he had healed so quickly once he got back.
Or fake that he hadn't.
The Knight of Earth was doing his rounds, checking on those who had more serious wounds and were still healing, when he spotted someone who should have been in bed doing just the opposite of that. What with the standing and the sneaking. He followed her quietly.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, in the perfect approximation of a father's voice. It was probably something he had said to Nathan a thousand times.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 1:03 pm
There it was again. Dad voice. She didn't have to ask who it was when she heard the voice and cringed knowing she'd been caught. It came effortlessly to Camelot and she knew he had to be a father. Did that mean, likewise, that possibly he was just a normal guy? That he had a kid and a life away from this wonderland? If he did he knew how to get back.
She turned.
"I couldn't stay there alone. I want to go home now. Wonderland just isn't for me. You should understand. You have a kid somewhere. Do you see them?"
She paused and looked down, no longer asking if he had a kid, or several, but simply making it fact between them. She knew parent voice. She could hear her mother's as stopped and listened to the silence between them. Time passed funny here. She didn't know she'd been gone nearly a week. She just knew she was gone.
"My mom's probably freaking out right now."
She managed to sound full of regret now for that. All the pranks she'd pulled asking her mother to freak out and get upset was nothing compared to the feeling of knowing this wasn't a prank and she wasn't going to come out to declare it the best joke ever.
She also had no idea he was friends with her mother and she'd been at his house crying over her already, beyond any kind of comfort that the only child was missing. Kyndall already feared her daughter dead.
"I can't stay still. I need to get home. If you won't show me how you'll just have to let me go find the rabbit hole for myself."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:43 am
"I know what you mean," he said with a sigh, "it's difficult to stay in bed when you feel compelled to something else. Going out and being useful, or just going out to see if you can get yourself home. But we're trying to help you as best we can. All you can do is be patient."
He winced at her question about his son. What would he have done if Nate had been dragged here? As far as Tony know, Nate had every chance to be pulled into space, since he was just a normal young man. A giant attitude, sure, but he was like Harmony, and if that were the case...
Camelot wondered what kind of stress Kyndall was in at the moment.
"You can't go home, though. We don't know how to do it, and if the owners of this realm can't figure it out, just what do you think you'll be able to do? Just calm down and let yourself heal: you should be taking advantage of this magic. You were badly injured, but your body is healing much faster than you would be on Earth. Asking you to rest for that much shorter period doesn't seem too unfair of us, does it?"
He smiled warmly, moving to her side.
"I know you're scared. And I know you're worried. But we're doing everything we can to help you, I promise."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:13 pm
“It’s my mom.”
She felt horribly guilty. All she could think about was getting home to her. Like the boy who cried wolf too many times the wolf finally came and no one was there to listen to her anymore. She felt awful for all of the pranks she used to pull on her mother, one like this very stunt though not nearly for this long. She looked at Camelot and got tears in her eyes.
“I always do this to her. Except this time? I’m not trying to. I was just thinking what if I never get to tell her that. What if I never get to tell her how much I love her?”
It was hard to explain how she felt about her mother. Yeah, she was selfish and her mom was never there for her but it was her mom and underneath if she thought she was going to die she didn’t want her last interactions with her mom to be that way. She wanted them to be nicer. She wanted her mom to know she loved her. She listened to Camelot and physically growled, throwing her hands up in the air.
“I can’t just sit here! I can’t! I have to do something to get back home.” She paced back and forth, restless, and practically yelled at Camelot. “I didn’t ask for this. I’ve already had my ribs sticking out of my skin for this and I don’t think it’s too much to ask to just want to go home!”
She sounded like a child throwing a fit. But, underneath that, she sounded like a very scared and worried teenager who wanted nothing more than the only family she has left. She looked at him.
"Alice got to go home. Why can't I?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:08 pm
Camelot looked at her, nodding his head slowly.
It occurred to him then, for the first time, that he had power in this situation. Maybe he couldn't tell Kyndall what was going on as Tony, but if she met Camelot, there would be no reason for her not to know what he did. It would take some explaining, but she would never know it was Tony, and it might offer her some comfort.
At least with Harmony, here, he could offer more comfort than he could with her mom on Earth.
"I know your mother," he said, hoping that fact alone might distract her from her anger and her fear. Like derailing a train, he hoped. He held his hands up as she yelled at him, motioning with them slightly in an effort to get her to lower her voice. He knew she was upset: she certainly didn't have to yell at him.
"We're trying to get you home, the knights and the senshi here, believe that. In the meantime, you must be patient. I know you're worried about your mother, but I will find her and pay her a visit. I'll let her know. If you want me to pass a message on to her, I can do that. We might not be able to tell her everything, but I can at least give her something to hold on to, to give her hope. And you, in seeing her again."
For Tony, helping people didn't stop at saving their lives or fighting off their troubles. It involved making them comfortable, making them happy, just as much as it did making them safe. He could protect them from a multitude of things. Pain, danger, death. Sadness, worry, loneliness. And whatever he could do, he would try, regardless of what he had to do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:42 pm
Harmony did indeed stop dead in her tracks. She looked at him as if he'd just said the sky was falling and she couldn't decide whether he was full of crap or not. Her look was nothing short of suspicious as she came closer to him.
"How do you know my mom?"
Her mother didn't have much of a social life outside of the drama club. She went to shows occasionally and karate class but that was it. She didn't date. She didn't have a lot of friends and she spent most of her time at home buried in a book or screenplay. The only adult she hung out with in any sort of regularity was Mr. Darrow from the library and that's cause they were doing one of the drama club plays together.
"Do you know her through your kid? When's the last time you saw her?"
If he did he'd be impossible to narrow down. Her mom had to many students to keep track of that way. The idea that he could find her and give her a message made Harmony almost want to break down and cry. She gave him another long look, wondering if he was telling the truth and wondering why he'd lie to her if he wasn't. In the end, he had nothing to gain by lying other than making her calm and even if it was a matter of faith, like god, she had to hold onto it.
"Tell her I love her and I'm sorry. This isn't a joke. Tell her I will be coming home and when I do she owes me one night to do whatever I want. Tell her I want Apply Dapply. She'll know what that is."
She hugged the knight, crying on his shoulder for a few minutes and feeling very very heavy with the weight of all of this hanging over her head. She very much felt like a victim right now, even moreso than usual. But at least Camelot was trying to help.
And her side was aching rather a lot at the moment. She was probably overdoing it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:12 am
Camelot balked a bit, wishing he hadn't said anything. What had he been thinking? Kyndall had not met Camelot, and Harmony did not know Tony. There was literally no way for him to cover his tracks effectively, save for lying in full.
He didn't like to lie, but when he found it necessary he did his best. This aversion to it was mostly borne, however, of being an absolutely terrible liar. Particularly when he was thinking about it too much.
Like now.
"Er. Uhm." A good start, "She... she is often at the library and I... I patrol around there. I've seen her, and I've heard her... speaking... I've learned her name."
That was a great way to put someone at ease. He basically told the girl that he was a creepy stalker and was following her mother. That was not what he had hoped to turn this conversation into. He blushed and looked very tense, grinding his teeth together for a thoughtful, self deprecating moment as his mind filled with creative insults to fling at himself.
Then, of course, she gave him a reason to know her and he had absolutely blown it. He stayed looking at her, tight lipped, for a long moment before finally letting out a breath of air.
"I'll tell her, I promise. I'll remember your message."
He let her hug him, his paternal instincts flaring like an open flame on gasoline. He rubbed her back reassuringly, trying to soothe her without condescending to her. But she was just a kid, in his eyes, and she needed to be protected by a knight and a man who knew what it was to be a father. At least, that was how he felt about it.
"Let's get you back to bed," he said softly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:36 pm
She gave pause when she heard him lying, the words sounding weird in her ears. She looked at him, quirking an eyebrow and giving a quizzical look. Oh, it didn't matter to her if he kept his secrets. The important thing was that he knew her mom and he would see her and let her know she was alive. She was more indebted to him than she could explain.
"Camelot..." But words failed her. As he lead her back toward her bed she didn't bother him with his lying and didn't pester him about the truth. "Are you named Camelot cause you like it or cause you've been there? My mom loves those stories."
She was all too familiar with the stories. You didn't grow up with Kyndall Rosen without knowing all about classic literature and theatre. She knew Shakespeare and Homer, The Canterbury Tales and Ivanhoe. She knew all of it and liked the Arthurian legends the best out of all the classic literature with the tales of the Odyssey coming in a close second. She was more a child of mythology than one of faith, in any case.
She thought about living in the middle ages and thought she liked the idea of indoor plumbing. And she honestly had no idea how his power worked. He could be immortal for all she knew or was able to time travel. He seemed to be able to travel effortlessly through space and anything in Wonderland was possible. Or so it seemed. She held onto him as they walked, feeling weak and sleepy now that the adrenaline was gone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 10:27 am
Camelot was really going to have to get better about lying. It was fairly key to his survival as a man living two lives, and saving many others. Some days he was better at it then others. It really depended on the situation.
He was glad she didn't press the issue.
"I'm named Camelot because that's what I represent. Where my power stems from. I'm connected to that place, those people, in some way. Though, to be honest, I don't know the whole of it. I'm still learning, and it can get fairly complicated. In fact, I probably should have just said that I just like it."
He laughed, shaking his head.
Supporting her until they got back to her bed, he helped her to lay down. He smiled at her softly.
"You need to rest a bit more, before you're up and about, exploring. I'll keep you up to date with anything I know."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:20 pm
"Thank you, Camelot."
She settled onto her makeshift hospital bed and winced as her body complained about the use she'd been adding on to it before it was ready. It didn't seem to like her level of activity. Her eyes were drooping in front of him even as she tried to fight sleep. She shifted away from her hurt side and mumbled with the last bit of consciousness she had left.
"Give mom a hug for me, too, ok? A big one."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
