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 Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 8:17 am
Gehenna would have been lying if he said he wasn't nervous. It wasn't that he found Hvergelmir to be physically scary, or even unkind - she couldn't lift a finger to hurt others unless they were attacking her and she was damn near the most understanding person he'd ever met besides. No, he didn't fear her in the traditional sense. What he feared was her uncanny ability to look right at a person and understand not only what made them tick but what they needed to heal their hurt. Gehenna didn't want her looking at soul, not tonight, but he couldn't refuse her request. It wasn't only Hver he did not want to disappoint (further) but that constant lingering image of her in his head, seared into his every waking thought by a vision of Gehenna's dead wife. This was a task as clearly defined as the others. "Ida, Denebola, Hvergelmir," he chanted softly under his breath, watching the puffs of his words in the cold February air before they dwindled out over the bridge's wooden railing. Gehenna was bent over with his forearms braced upon it, so that he could watch the bubbling creek underneath, illuminated by the bridge's hanging lanterns at either end. Even for their enchanting park, it was charming. He didn't know if she had picked it for it's calming air or because it was pretty far removed from any of the major pathways, giving them their privacy even in a frequented, public domain. It suited him but he was still growing exhausted with his own anxiety. The page sighed to himself and let his head hang between his arms. Those dark eyes closed and he focused, instead, on the babble of the creek - but he really did wish she'd hurry up.
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:39 pm
Hvergelmir had never been particularly inclined to give herself credit for the work that she did. It was, in her opinion, very little to do with her. As she'd always seen it, most of what she did was really just a matter of study and planning and advanced preparation. She observed. She listened. She learned. Then, armed with all the information she could gather, she went out and attempted to contribute to the world. There was no special magical technique to it, no trick of genuis. It didn't take special keenness of mind to look at a man standing on a footbridge, head slumped low over his hands, and see that he'd been tormented for some time. It wasn't hard to put that together with the other things she'd learned about him over their interactions and come to some basic conclusions. And it was far from rocket science to deduce that the fact that he'd been a squire before and was now a page again was wrapped up in it all: a key component of the narrative, of whatever had been going on with Gehenna. It didn't take any kind of remarkable intuition or sixth sense. It did, however, sometimes take a bit of unauthorized stalking. While Laney was by no means a terrifically punctual person in her everyday or her powered lives, in this case, she was not late to her meeting with Gehenna by virtue of any accident. She'd come early, not powered up, and camped herself out among a darkened copse of trees nearby to watch and wait for Gehenna's arrival. To take the measure of him unobserved. And in all this, she'd absorbed the information in his expression and in his posture, in the lines on his face not hidden in shadow -- and she'd drawn all the simple conclusions that absolutely anybody could have drawn. Hvergelmir's techniques weren't complicated: but she did rely on them. And presently, Laney powered up into Hvergelmir Knight of the Cosmos -- and took the direct approach. She stepped back into the overhead park lights, crossing toward the bridge. "Gehenna," she greeted him, cloak drawn around herself to ward off the cold. "I'm glad you came. I've been worried about you."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 4:10 pm
The burly man tensed the very moment an aura burst onto his radar, feeling it blink into existence so suddenly that he had no doubt it was Hvergelmir. The chances of another third ranking good guy finding him obscured among the park trails was slim and he was almost certain it was heading his way, even if he was arguably s**t at reading such things since his demotion. This was where she wanted to meet and it was where she was headed - he just didn't bother to move until she finally called his name. When he turned to face her, the worry in his face was overshadowed by a forlorn smile. It faded as he gave her a disbelieving laugh, shaking his head lightly at her. "I was afraid you were going to say that." The dark page leaned back into the railing that had been supporting him and crossed both arms over his broad, exposed chest. It was defensive even if she had made no move to the offense, the natural state of a man that felt like he might find himself in a cage at any moment. "You shouldn't worry about me, I don't need it." Or deserve it, he thought, but he knew she'd counter that if the words actually left his lips. They remained unspoken, hanging over him like a shadow, coupled with the self-loathing that shrouded him as surely as any cloak. He wanted to tell her to expend her energy elsewhere, to find someone that was hurting more than they were hurting others. He knew it to be a useless effort; Hver did as she felt she needed to. Instead, his eyes dropped to the weathered wooden boards beneath his boots, tracing the whirls in the grain like they were the most interesting in the world. Then, quietly: "And I really wish you wouldn't."
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Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 10:44 am
It was Gehenna's honesty that always seemed to comfort Hvergelmir, to stir her faith in humanity and its capacity for self-improvement -- but it was also the thing that always felt like it broke another small piece of her heart off, on his behalf. Two years on, and since she'd met him, he seemed to only slide further toward depression and self-blame. Was he really so alone? So without friends to listen to him and help him make sense of his own heart? Hvergelmir laughed in response, as quietly as he had. "Yeah," she said gently, casually, closing the space between them. "I'd sort of gotten that impression." The pose she assumed mirrored the one Gehenna had been holding a few seconds before: forearms braced on the railing, fingers loosely clasped, her gaze drifting out over the water. She let the moment hang between them briefly, giving him the opportunity to stay where he was or step back; then she turned her head sideways to study Gehenna's handsome, tragic profile. "I have to wonder, though," she began, her voice punctuated by half a sigh. "Are you really doing better on your own? Do you actually talk to anyone about how you're feeling?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:07 am
Despite the itching between his shoulder blades telling him to move and keep the distance between them, Gehenna schooled himself to still as she stepped up to lean into the railing at his side. It put her in his peripherals, shimmering at the edge of his vision, bright even in the thick of the night around them and not just because of the silks draping her entire form but, too, because of the heart that controlled her every concern and bled from her as surely as the current beneath their feet. "No," his honesty answered, again. "I can't say if it's better, but it's easier not to involve people, Hvergelmir." The arms crossed over his chest unwound so he could brace them on the railing he was leaning back into, allowing him to more comfortably turn his head to look at her bright eyes. Even with his armor, he felt like she was looking too deeply at his secrets. "They've all gone, one by one, anyway. I don't have family left and my friends.." he trailed off with a tightening around his eyes. "The ones that are closest to me aren't a part of this war. They don't deserve these burdens." But now he was looking at her, considering her and, maybe for the first time, who she might be beyond her duty to the lost and misguided. Who was Hvergelmir under it all, what type of life had she led to make her care so deeply about those that had never done her any kindness? Not for the first time, Gehenna felt that magnetism he always did in the face of someone wholly better than he was. Not the soldier, but the person. "Why does this matter so much to you?" Why do I matter so much, his thoughts echoed.
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:42 am
Hvergelmir shook her head, like this was the wrong question to ask -- or, perhaps, like it was a question she wasn't quite ready to answer. Not directly, anyway. "I don't have any family left either," she allowed -- more of an admission than she offered with most people, save for Orah and Tara, who already knew. "Things didn't really work out with them, in the end. People like us are the only family I have now -- all that's left. And even then, well." She laughed, but there was something dim and self-deprecating in it; the sound was wistful. "I guess you could say I don't exactly fit in." There was a leaf that had fallen on the railing near her elbow -- some oak leaf, or something or other. All her work at Farrah's Garden hadn't made Laney much better at botany -- but she lifted it between her fingers and twisted it slowly by the stem, watching it glaze yellow in the lamplight. "Most people don't really agree with what I'm trying to do. I mean, not just in the sense that they think it's pointless and it won't help, but -- when it comes down to it, making the choice to help a Negaverse agent and abandon one of our own . . . that's not a shade of gray, to most people. Or to me. If you hadn't been there, my decisions would've cost Ida her life." She shook her head again, this time at herself: then dropped the leaf and watched it fall, spiraling lightly down to the water below. Hvergelmir sighed. "I'm not going to tell you that you didn't do something wrong. I know how it feels when it seems like you're the only person who can admit that you did. It's -- " Hvergelmir looked down at her hands. "It's lonely and it's frustrating, and it makes you feel like the people around you have to tell themselves you're better than you are, because they know they couldn't accept you if you weren't." Hvergelmir paused. Maybe that was saying too much. "I won't tell you you did nothing wrong. But what I wanted to say is: even if you do something wrong -- something really wrong -- maybe it doesn't have to end there."
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