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 Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 6:09 pm
chronologically occurs on Dec. 25th, 2015It was warm. Warmer than the weather had any real business being for December and winter time, and Titan felt gross. He had looked forward to the supposed promises of a chilly season where he didn't feel obliged to wearing clothes out of public decency concerns- seventy degrees was making him consider removing his shirt and pauldrons altogether in order to make it more livable. The evening before had been more action than he wanted in a poor way, leaving a plethora of blackening bruises from the winter prince's hail, as well. It meant no job for the new year, but having a large store from working so many months with no rent or bills other than a gym membership, some food and very rare surprises meant a comparably large savings set aside. He’d already purchased the very few gifts to offer to fewer contacts if and when he found them. He found his way just so, carrying what amounted to a beach umbrella to ward off the dismal rain with a gift bag in hand in sparkling paper and tufts of tissue and two drinks steadied within, on his way to the bench to see if Hvergelmir, Knight of Cosmos, was keeping her vigil even on a holiday. Part of him hoped that she wasn’t- that she had friends or family to be spending the evening with. The rest of him hoped to see her and share some time by her. It had been over long, as with nearly everything anymore, but time in company with friends had a way of easing even long partings with new cheer. Or so he hoped it would be, if she would receive him. Koselig å hilse på deg. Titan walked the familiar path and felt outward if there was a clean shimmer of incredible strength nearing.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 3:51 pm
A year ago, the weather had been freezing, this time of year. Hvergelmir's vigils had been difficult, swaddled in her cloak -- she'd had to shorten her time outside significantly, and take frequent breaks to stomp around and keep her circulation going, or to fetch a hot drink for herself, even with the increased physical resilience her powered form granted her. A year ago, a boy had come to her bench and kissed her. Her first kiss. It had chased all the cold away, left her with more heat in her veins than she'd known what to do with. In the ensuing year, she'd figured out -- with him -- what to do with it. And now, a year later, the boy had come back to her bench. Like a Christmas gift to her: this warm night, this man, this moment of peace. Some nights, she might have gotten up from her bench to meet him on his approach. Tonight, she didn't. Titan came into view -- silhouette unmistakable -- and Hvergelmir allowed herself the undiluted pleasure of watching him approach. She put her chin in her hand and stared, unabashed. Every part of him was a marvel, every smallest movement a joy. He had carved himself for power and beauty, and that was appealing on its own to see. Of course it was. But in his movements and his gestures, there were the secret undertakings of the human soul: the little intentions that influenced his every motion in subtle ways that spoke volumes. The softening of his step so as not to offend the grass underfoot; the teensy muscle movements in his face that proved his smile was wholly genuine; the care with which he picked anything up in his great, wide hands. The way he looked at her, which was . . . which was everything. What a happy experience it was, to love another person. What constant pleasures it provided. Despite all that was going on, seeing Titan, Hvergelmir could not be unhappy. "A knight errant approaches," she said aloud, conversationally, when he was within earshot. "Does he seek a quest on this day? Or perhaps he is in pursuit of one already."
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Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:44 pm
A constant gaze, leveled with emphasis of an appled cheek against a delicate palm, made the last of the walking approach, and his breath, feel slowed. Each raindrop sounded a drum against that of his own heart. May it remain pleasing, the sight of me. Always. As lover or friend or anythign at all. An opponent at cards or snowfights, but not an enemy. I hope never an enemy. "The lists say to love well, I must always chase and never really catch. It is a happy thing, to ..." Pursuit. That was chase. It was a noun. A thing. What was the verb word? Purse-no. Pure—no. Spur, spurs, rue, ruse— "Pursue." To love without caging or owning. "Your smiles are a high quest without ending." Titan halted his steps outside of his own arms length, even hammer's length were the thing summoned. Between umbrella and bag, though, there was no room beyond hammer-space. Not leaving the thing in sight, out of reach as was his custom, pricked at his spine. If she accepts the bag, then I can set it out and aside. I will not have it near and a threat. This is a safe space." It is many holidays many places. I brought a gift and drinks...if you would accept them. If it is alright. " Shazari Beneath the shiney tissue and the two drinks in the gift bag is folded up a rainbow chevron and white lap quilt in cottons. It's been prewashed a couple dozen times so that it isn't stiff/scratchy the way new quilts can be sometimes.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2016 2:18 pm
"A knight that seeks love has chosen the highest quest of all," Hvergelmir answered, her smile broad, "for nothing makes the universe richer or life more bright." She held out her arms, eager for the gift: she had none of her own to give, as she often didn't, but she set her self-consciousness about that to one side, to be worried about later, instead of now. Hvergelmir could fret over her meager finances when she was back at home, Jenna and Laney curled into their tiny little living space and always saving up for something bigger. "Come sit with me," she insisted, eyes sparkling up at Titan while her hands began rifling through tissue paper. Teeth grazed over her lower lip. "There are better drinks than those that come in cups."
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 10:05 pm
Does it mean all loves? That saying? That idea? Acceptance, open armed and even eager, bettered only by such invitations. A wide smile broke over his labret and beard, crinkled all the way into his eyes. It drove thoughts of his weapon away, how her small hands rifled and then the curve of her neck into her jaw, her lips upturned. I know this one. Cups are wine, are drinks, are thirst, are kisses. Thirst and hunger for things that aren't food or drink for the body, but for the lonely soul. He shifted, tipping the umbrella as he did so that it did not dump drops onto Lady Hvergelmir as it came over her, the bench, and the gift. Her wish is plain and easy, and right to be given. I need to stop smiling. Even a little bit. If I can. A tall order for leaning down, and one he didn't quite manage at first, leaning in hoping to at least brush his lips across hers in play. "Here is better. " What I do not have myself, I would be happy to find for her. If she wanted other drinks. Does she? How would I tell her so? Or would it make her angry? Or worried? It is like mentioning how much I miss her, in the time between. It is my fault. And it might make her feel guilty. Or waste time both of us thinking about the days apart instead of now. It can be said with action and care in a way that is not guilt....it must be. Even worrying, the smile stayed. "It is too warm this season. It is not so good a gift, after all. But it is a useful thing. " Shazari Let me know if I need to edit at all! ( assumed a success on the smooch, but it doesn't have to be~)
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:46 pm
Hvergelmir obliged the lightness of the kiss, as Titan was settling himself -- she might have taken more, in a less transitory position, but it was suitable enough. It would do for now, she decided, with a delicious frisson of pleasure up her spine for the very notion of deciding something like that for herself. He didn't mind for her to make decisions like that. He let her. It pleased him, she was fairly certain. Nephthys had known well enough how to coax a lover to her will; long experience and indulgence had given her a steady hand on the reins of someone else's submitted control. Laney, in a life restarted to a different shape, was still finding her footing. It was fortunate Titan made it so easy -- and carried an intimidating weight of harm to be done, if she failed in that trust. But not now. Not with something so simple as a kiss. This much was easier than falling off a log. She returned to the task of unwrapping her gift, lifting a heavy, folded cloth free from the bag. For a long moment she stared, brushing her fingertips over the rainbow array of cloth squares. Laney's parents had never purchased things like this. The home she'd grown up in had been half Crate & Barrel and half Ethan Allen, and never the homier-looking aspects of either: just clean, polished surfaces that had to look new and impersonal even if they had 'weathered' built into their designs. Personal, cozy furnishings had never been their style. They'd never have let her choose something that looked as warm and friendly as this -- they grumbled enough about her clothing choices. She pressed the folded quilt reverently to her chest and smiled, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "It always gets colder toward February," she said, a little choked up. "And our radiator's on the fritz. This is so beautiful -- thank you. I've never gotten a gift like this." Hvergelmir looked back up, smile and tears both tempering into a resting look of affection, the happiness of just being near someone she loved. "We've been parted some time," she said. "Tell me how you've been faring."
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 1:01 pm
"I am glad you like it. I will have to match it if I have time with pillows." Never was a terrible word for gifts from friends and lovers. A blanket was so simple-the stores carried many kinds with faux sherpa side and bright colors for all of fifteen dollars around the holidays. Home and Garden magazine even had a brand of them. He hadn't gone that route, wanting something hand crafted, something with as many of the colors reflected on her as possible, and which would not lose it's softness after one year of use. Cotton, unlike fake plastic fur, would only get softer with age and use. "News from overseas is hopeful." Which was essentially the answer for how he himself was doing- far distant hope. Europe had never seemed so far away before. Airplanes had been a staple of childhood summers. It was hope and dread that waited for a letter from Hakon that was marked 'last', signifying that the family was arranged, off-grid, and making the best of it. "Things run together. The holidays are nice. The lights and song everywhere are welcome. " She said 'our' radiator. She lived with others? Hopefully friends, or teammates, or lovers. Someplace with safety and more privacy for a few hours than the bench, where she could recuperate energy and willpower to do what she did— sitting in the open speaking to agents of chaos, looking for answers to what caught them all up as fish in nets. It was better not to ask more specifics, even if he wanted to know all about her. He could happily spend lifetimes in the effort of 'know all', accepting that it was impossible. Except for being part of a war. I hope she wears no new scars under her glamour. "You? Lady Hvergelmir...how have you been?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:14 pm
Hvergelmir let her mind linger on Titan's simple answer for a while. News from overseas is hopeful. He had loved ones far away. He had a whole life, however fragmented by the Negaverse, that she couldn't reach or touch -- but still, she spent hours on end wondering after him, thinking of him, wishing him well. Was there someone to welcome him home at the end of the day? To hold him in their arms and promise him the world was full of good and beautiful things, and that all life's storms eventually passed? Did someone comfort him? Or was his family far away all he had now? She didn't know -- but it was Christmas, and the person Titan was with was her. So maybe he didn't have anyone . . . or maybe he just wanted to see her. "Things run together for me too," she answered with candor. "I love the holidays, but -- this life is hard, it keeps everyone busy. I don't see people for regularly, and I wonder what happened to them. If they're safe, if they're happy. If their lives have any bright spots in them. It's a difficult thing, to keep someone in your heart but not in your hands." She thought of Titan when she answered -- but she thought of Ida, too, who was missing. Where was she? No bodies had turned up on the news. "I used to listen to Christmas music all during the year," she said conversationally. "I've always liked this time of year. It's the only time so many strangers all seem so happy -- even in a tragic city like this. And fewer people come to my bench in the winter. I always hope that means they're doing well, and not just that they're too cold to venture outside." She smiled. "How will your family be celebrating?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 6:42 pm
‘It's a difficult thing, to keep someone in your heart but not in your hands.’ It felt like a sentence that summarized his life to this point, driving his eyes own and his lip in a slow drawn drag through his teeth from piecing to freedom. It had been so hard to breath after the first of the nightmares, and still was sometimes. There were echoes of that suffocation in the words ‘tragic city’ and the name Destiny City, in ‘used to’ and ‘too cold.’ “Autumn is my favorite time of year, but Winter is not so far behind. There are so many reasons why, it is hard to remember them all. The sky is so clear in winter. It is like seeing forever. And the lights above Torneträsk...it is a lake. They are so clear. It’s like being able to breath for the first time, to see them. “ The last words came out in a slow pan from the shimmer of hair and earring to her eyes, looking at the Knight of Hvergelmir. He carefully arranged the beach-sized umbrella with a push into the ground just behind the bench so that it could continue its duty of keeping her and her new gift dry. Then Titan lowered himself to a kneel facing and alongside her, one arm up casually on the bench. “Eating pepparkakor and lussekatts all this month. But today, my cousins will have set out a lunch julbord. I have many cousins, because my mother has many brothers and sisters. They’ll eat risgrynsgröt in the evening, with whatever warm fruit they found and liked at market, and exchange presents. It is always limited to things made by hand, oneself or an craftsman- it goes back a long way. Longer than anyone remembers who made it our tradition. A gift has to be made by hands, not machines, so all the care that went into it will hook on and go with the gift.” “ They’ll watch some cartoons, and my mother will make everyone help her make candy goats. To turn into ornaments for the tree. Once it is dark they’ll all go outside for a fire and blankets, and hot mulled wine. To look at the stars. Someone will pick a book from the shelf, and they’ll take turns reading it outloud until everyone has fallen asleep. ” “Do you have traditions you like? What is your favorite christmas song?” Listening to them all year was something. She listened to music. Or, had. ‘Used to’ “Or do you not listen to any, anymore?” There could be a reason. He hadn’t really wanted to listen to anything, sometimes. Music became hard. Many things became hard, that should have been enjoyable, under certain circumstances. Their lives often filled those check boxes. He hoped it was something much simpler, like a broken iPod. Or dead batteries on a CD/Radio device.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:02 am
Hvergelmir listened with fascination, picturing the settings and family activities as Titan described them to her. In her mind's eye, she pictured a family that all looked generally like Titan himself: generous hair of spun gold, huge statures, welcoming demeanors -- all the men and women huddled round a roaring fire in the snow, wearing different colored scarves but otherwise generally of the sort of cartoonish uniformity the mind tended to suggest. It seemed happy and welcoming: full of traditions and relatives doing things together. It was the kind of family she'd always longed for, huge and close. It sounded good. "I'm sorry you can't be there," she said, guilty that Titan was instead here with her, just her. That he'd given up so much, and was willing to give up even more. "I've always wanted a family like that. Lots of relatives, people to be near. My family was never much for traditions. My parents hired someone to do the tree." The Sutton family tradition, the one Laney remembered, was that her parents always hung the ornaments she made at school from a magnet on the refrigerator for exactly two days before throwing it out. Not one glitter-filled ball or construction paper snowflake had ever gotten the honor of the tree. That wasn't their style. "I still love Christmas music," she answered, reaching for a cheerier topic. "I just don't have a big collection of it like I used to, and not a lot of internet access. But my favorite? Oh gosh, there are -- I don't know, so many! I tried to narrow it down once and I couldn't get farther than a top three. There's O Holy Night, there's the Cherry Tree Carol -- which is a little more obscure -- and then there's -- Fairytale of New York . . . which is a more modern one. O Holy Night's just a beautiful song, but I like the other two because they've got a bit more story to them -- I always like songs that tell a story. Are you familiar with any of the three? Do you have a favorite song?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 2:38 pm
Hired help to do decorations sounded lonely, rich, climbing. It sounded like some of the people that went to the restaurants that Anna had cooked for long ago, before moving to Destiny City. It sounded like a name that should be hyphenated in London, and manor houses. “Here is a place I am welcome, and here is as much a home for the heart. “ She liked music and no longer had a collection or internet access. These were things he would have to try to remember-glimpses in conversation to what the Lady liked, enjoyed, and would like more of and didn’t have. These were things that someone who loved her could bring and see her smile. These were important things. Music- did she have a computer? A phone? A player of any kind at all? If she didn’t have internet regularly, she might not be able to afford it, and used the library or Panera or McDonalds. It was a thing other students at Hillworth sometimes whispered about, those who huddled together with poor home lives that offered less regularity than the harsh school had. Maybe music with a player, too. He didn’t know the Cherry tree Carol, or Fairytale of New York, but they must be available somewhere. He’d heard O Holy Night plenty. He couldn’t sing it from memory, but if it started playing, the words often popped to mind in time. “I hear O Holy Night in shopping centers and grocery stores. It is on many CDs from many singers. I don’t know the others, but I will look for them. If you like them, and they tell stories, they will be worth it to listen to. “ But she had asked more than one question. silver…
and gold...Anna’s voice was high and clear, but no more trained than singing along to favorite tunes. It didn’t hold long notes, but clipped them like keys touched on a Casio and released. It had never been a grand piano, but it didn’t have to be, because that was her cooking. Her voice had been home, wisdom, encouragement, and grounding reality. It had invited him to sing along, with Burl Ives if they were home and packing gifts into the mail to arrive before they did on the plane for winter break. It joined the chorus of all his cousins and everyone ruffled with affection her short feathers gone silver, then tugged his braid teasingly at ‘Gold’. How do you measure
It's worth?It didn’t seem like it was a real answer, not a real piece of holiday music in the way the titles she spoke were actual music people sang in churches or out in carolling. Titan had already mentioned that his family watched cartoons together, as adults and children, as part of their traditions. Just by the pleasure it
Gives here on Earth“It is a song by a snowman in an old show. It isn’t a cartoon, but it is like them. It is about Silver and Gold. Maybe that is the name? I’ve never heard the name, or seen it on a cd. Just in the show. I think the man who was singing it was famous back then. “
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