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 Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:07 pm
Carson - sorry, Triumphalis - was taking a careful approach to knighthood. He'd already given six years to one war, which was more than long enough to know he didn't want to give the rest of his life to another. Elke had reacted poorly to his newfound powers (that was an understatement, really), which was definitely another factor against powering up and getting out into the world. She'd come around, though, and given Triumphalis some names to get in contact with, other Chronos knights to add to the ones he'd already met. Soldier Virgo wouldn't be joining him - couldn't be joining him, as he understood the situation - but she could at least send her regards in the form of stress baking. Apparently, sending her boyfriend off to meet a teammate was enough to inspire half a dozen lavender cupcakes covered in candy flowers and vanilla buttercream, all packed up in a cake tin and tied with a bow. It was fortunate that Triumphalis was secure in his masculinity and liked his girlfriend a lot a lot, because otherwise he would have felt very, very silly standing in the middle of the park, holding a platter of flowery cupcakes and waiting for Celsus to show.
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:18 am
Celsus was, perhaps, a little unreasonably excited to be meeting with another - a new Chronos knight. But it had been so long since they'd had any fresh faces at all within the Zodiac, not to mention just a long time in general since anything at all had occurred to make Celsus happy. Hearing that there was not only a new knight, but also one in connection to Virgo, was something that made him extraordinarily pleased.
He hurried to the designated meeting place, and found, to his utter delight, the young man in question standing in the park, and had not his arms been full of something that Celsus didn't take notice of at first, he most likely would have just dragged him into a bear hug. So it was either very fortunate or very unfortunate (most likely the former) that there was a buffer between them, Celsus coming to a stop in front of the new knight.
"Good evening," he said, somewhat breathlessly, and grinned widely. "You must be the newest addition to the Chronos knights, it's an absolute delight to meet you."
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 11:43 pm
Triumphalis moved quickly to avoid the cupcakes being squished in the hug. Elke was a real artist with an icing bag, and he'd hate for her handiwork to be destroyed before he could deliver it to her intended recipient. "Yeah," he said, smiling back at Celsus as they separated, though not quite as widely. "That would be me. Triumphalis Page - it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He wasn't an expert or anything like that, but he could tell power when he felt it. Celsus was stronger than Pharos or Bifrost, although Virgo had prepared him for that. Triumphalis was still trying to figure out how the hierarchy all came together; surely he was at the bottom of the rank and file, but how did everyone above him stack up? He'd never cared much about pomp and circumstance before, but maybe it was time to start. Or something. Dear god he wanted these people to like him. "Virgo sends her regards," he said, holding out the cake tin. "And cupcakes. Lavender-vanilla."
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 6:19 am
Celsus' grin could not have been wider, or more filled with pure and utter happiness. For the first time in a long time, he felt truly glad, and it had everything to do with the arrival of a new Knight, of a new possible friend that was on their motley little crew.
"Triumphalis is an excellent name for a new Page of Chronos," said Celsus, beaming. "You are most welcome here, honestly, I can't tell you how utterly thrilled I am to meet you."
Or perhaps it didn't need telling, since it was written all over his face. Celsus expression softened at the mention of Virgo, and he said, with sincere affection and respect laden in his tone, "Please give her my regards back, she is always in my thoughts, and I do hope she is doing well."
The cake tin was given a surprised look, but Celsus gave a little sound of pleasure as he peered into it.
"Those sound delicious," he said brightly. "Shall we sit and eat, then? You can tell me all about yourself."
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:19 am
"Yeah, that sounds good," said Triumphalis, omitting the part where Elke had already made him eat more cupcakes than any person should ever consume in a day. He took his position as her official taste-tester very seriously. "I'll let her know that she's in your thoughts," he added, waving Celsus over to a nearby bench. "She feels very guilty that she might be committing dereliction of duty, but I would hope that everyone understands that it's a matter of health. This war nearly killed her once - she doesn't want to chance it again." He uncovered the cake tin and extended it to Celsus. "You can pick first," he said, "Though they're all the same flavor, and she has a very delicate hand with the icing bag." The cupcakes were almost perfectly identical - Elke had found somewhere to channel her neurotic perfectionism. "I'm not that interesting a person," he confessed, which was a lie. "I was in the US Army until about a year and a half ago, then someone went and dropped a hillside on me and wrote me a one-way ticket to physical therapy and a medical discharge. Got to Destiny City in March, got into the knight thing in August." When I was eight, I was adopted by a wealthy Republican politician who recently failed to run for president, he thought. It was probably one of the more interesting parts of his biography - and one of the more closely guarded ones. Triumphalis hadn't asked for that life, and now he was doing his best to reject it. "Can't even be too pissed about the IED," he said, selecting a cupcake and lifting it carefully out of the tin. "I mean. Things have been looking up since I got back stateside."
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 7:11 pm
"Please do," said Celsus; and then a startled expression crossed his face, and he lifted a hand, waving it hastily.
"Oh, good heavens, no she's not committing anything of the sort," he said quickly, aghast at the notion that Virgo had even considered it. He followed Triumphalis to the bench and sat down beside him, coins jingling with every movement. "She's completely entitled to the rest and care that she deserves, I don't want her to think anything negative, I only hope that she knows how much I hope she is doing well."
His respect and affection for his Captain had not abated, every word of what he was saying quite true. Celsus peered into the tin with interest - they really were quite lovely - and debated for approximately three and a half seconds before he reached in and plucked out one to the left.
"Nonsense," said Celsus at once, licking icing off of his fingers. "Everyone is interesting, regardless."
He bite into the cupcake and experienced a wonderful deliciousness that had him sighing in pleasure, Celsus' eyes closing momentarily. He opened them a second later to take another bite, his gaze curious as he looked over at the page.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear about the hillside thing," he said, wincing slightly. "That can't possibly have been fun. But I still maintain the fact that you are hardly uninteresting, the fact that you are a human being and also a new Chronos knight alone makes you quite fascinating, and also these cupcakes are bloody fantastic."
Celsus took another bite, savoring every morsel.
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 9:00 am
Triumphalis laughed, feeling reassured by Celsus's understanding of Virgo's situation. He hadn't mentioned their connection to Pharos and Bifrost out of fear of reproach. Elke's feelings that she had abandoned her team were a major source of anxiety, and he didn't want to confirm that the others felt badly about her. "I'll let her know you send your regards," he said. "It'll come as a relief that you're not angry with her." He trailed off, watching Celsus take a first bite before starting on his own cupcake. Elke was a deft baker, her cakes light and moist, the icing sweet without becoming cloying, the flavors perfectly balanced. "I was her taste tester on these," said Triumphalis, carefully peeling the paper away from his cupcake. "I'm her taste tester on everything. Gives me a reason to keep active." A thought crossed his mind. "Everyone I've met so far seemed really fixated on the idea of a new Chronos knight. Are we not all that common? Bifrost said she thought the only ones there ever would be awoke on the Surrounding four years ago - were you part of that group?" He paused, brow furrowing. "I feel like I should know this already, but - what's the Surrounding?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 3:17 pm
If nothing else, Celsus' respect for Virgo extended far beyond the simple fact that she was his Captain. It was Virgo who had helped him understand his position as Celsus in the first place, Virgo who had taught him to fight and defend himself. She was a mentor and a friend, someone that he would not have abandoned or left behind for any reason, and hearing that she was taking the time to recuperate was enough for Celsus.
"I could never be angry with her," he said, with a shake of his head, so that his red hair fluttered around his cheeks. "Not unless she was truly dead, and then I would be quite furious that she had left us entirely. But no, this sort of thing - I can only send my best regards that she is safe and sound, and please do let her know that I am thinking of her."
He was always thinking of the Zodiac, regardless of whether or not they thought of him at all. Celsus ate another bite of his cupcake and felt as though it was melting into his mouth, closing his eyes briefly at the taste of it all.
"Oh, so you've met Bifrost, then," said Celsus with a smile, and then he laughed, a little sadly, toying with the now empty cupcake wrapper in his fingers. "Well...common, no. Not really. It's been a long time since any of us have gotten another one, and even now, of us that have been awake since that time four years ago, there are only a scant few. Our numbers are sadly dwindling."
He drew in a breath and turned to look at Triumphalis, smiling.
"The Surrounding is our corner of space, per say," said Celsus with a laugh. "It's a place where Chronos was meant to be protected, along with the rest of the Zodiacs, where their outposts lay. My Wonder is there as well, between Virgo and Leo."
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Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 11:07 pm
"Bifrost, yeah," said Triumphalis. "And Pharos, too. Helped me out of a jam. My first night on the job, actually. One of those, um, Negaversers? God, that sounds like a team of cartoon villains if I've ever heard of one. Anyway. Punk kid tried to mug me, they showed up, I ran off and got all magical, came back and we kicked his a**. Not bad for my first ten minutes of superhero work." He laughed. "Then it sank in that I'd gone and gotten myself involved in a ******** gang war and I felt... significantly less good about it. Virgo took the news better than I expected her to when I finally got up the nerve to tell her." He pursed his lips together, considering the question on the tip of his tongue, and then decided to go for it. "Do you know anything about this reincarnation business? Or anything about my, uh, the last me? Or me from earlier? Or do I just have to get my a** to space and figure it out for myself?" He frowned. " How do I get my a** to space?" asked Triumphalis.
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 10:40 am
Celsus laughed good-naturedly. "They're quite the villains, aren't they?" he said, as he licked leftover frosting off of his fingers like a little kid. "Nasty little buggers who keep getting involved in things they shouldn't, but there's no helping that - and that's why we're here, after all."
He smiled fondly at Triumphalis, and then blinked a little, head tilted to the side. "Not...not about you, unfortunately," Celsus answered, a little ruefully. "I've met my own ancestor, the previous me, before; his name was Aurelius, and he helped me a bit my first few days as a knight."
Folding up the wrapper, Celsus let out a small laugh. "Most of that you have to figure out yourself, yes, I think. And have you not ever been to space at all, to visit your Wonder?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:28 am
Triumphalis laughed - a lot of knighthood seemed to be a figure-it-out-yourself kind of deal, and he knew he'd be even more lost if not for the built-in network that being a knight of Chronos brought him. If he weren't dating Elke, how would he have ever found all these people? "Never," he said. "I mean, I kind of knew it was a thing." He'd met, like, Castor, and yelled at him a lot. <******** jackass. "But I don't know the first thing about getting there. There's not a secret password or a magic ritual I need to know?" Ancestor. The word gave him pause. "I thought there was only one way to do this," he said. "So you mean there's a possibility that I'm not a reincarnation of Virgo's handmaiden who had a big unrequited crush on her back in the dark ages?" He wasn't sure whether he was relieved by that or not.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:13 pm
"It is a thing," said Celsus with a good natured laugh. "I mean, trying to figure all that out is like trying to navigate a maze. It's rather difficult to try and decipher everything all at once, but admittedly, I wasn't on my own when I awoke, or when I went to space for the first time."
He swept a hand through his hair and turned to look at Triumphalis, a little smile on his face as Celsus folded up the empty cupcake wrapper into little squares.
"There is," he said. "You'll know it, I think. No one told me what to do or say when I first traveled to my Wonder, it was like I just...I knew. If you concentrate hard enough, I think, you should be able to get there and back rather easily."
He started shredding the wrapper squares and laughed, his smile stretching into a grin. "Yes, that is a possibility," said Celsus, sounding amused. "I'm not a reincarnation, so it's quite possible that you aren't either."
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 10:52 pm
Triumphalis smiled, not sure whether he was relieved or not by the possibility that he wasn't reincarnated. It would be nice to not be constantly worrying about how the past and present intersected, but being in love with the same girl that his great whatever grandmother had pined after seemed... tricky. Either way, he was trapped in some kind of weird, predetermined loop, it felt like. "Gotta figure it out myself," he said, nodding slowly. "Right." Celsus had been tremendously helpful, he decided, but he was fairly useless on the topic of space travel. Maybe that was just how the subject was: vague. Metaphysical. Easier to understand once you'd actually tried it. He'd give it a shot later, he decided. "Are there many others I should know?" he asked. "Other knights of Chronos? Or Zodiac senshi? It seems like there should be twelve... Virgo didn't say much about them."
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 11:15 pm
He gave Triumphalis a slightly apologetic look. "Sadly, there's not much in terms of trying to do things as a group, at least not when you start out initially - it's mostly just learning by yourself, which is rather annoying, I will admit, but once you get the hang of that, it's much easier and everything becomes second nature.
Celsus relaxed back against the bench and gave a little laugh, though it sounded rather sad.
"There were twelve, I was told," he said, sounding a mixture of rueful, resigned, and disappointed. "I've only met Virgo, and Leo, alas. The rest seem to be out of my reach, though I would like to try and reach out to any that I can. As for the Chronos knights, yes there are several of us. You've already met Pharos and Bifrost, they're quite lovely. Conchordia is another one, she's rather shy, but once you get to know her, she's very intelligent and capable. I recently stumbled across Troy again, he's quite the addition."
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:59 am
Conchordia. Troy. Triumphalis nodded at the names, making note of them for later. Maybe Elke would have their contact information somewhere, written down in an old notebook shoved in a desk drawer where she tried to forget about it but couldn't. Or something - she was always doing things like that. (He didn't blame her.) "Thanks," he said, getting to his feet. "I'll see about getting in touch with them. Anyway - you can keep the cake tray. I'm sure I'll have a chance to get it back from you later." He nodded, patting down the sides of his jodhpurs for pockets and finding none. "This was good. It was really good to meet you. I'll see you around, yeah?"
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