It had been one absolute misery of a night and Scylla was growing more and more exhausted; yet she didn't dare risk going home at the moment. She was a mess, and the ribbon Hver had given her was still working on healing some of her wounds. She didn't want to try and explain any of this to the staff, much less to Elzo when she tried to pick up the kids, or pass out on the couch. She was freezing cold, covered in her own blood, bruised, limping...
And it was Thursday. She was supposed to meet Caedus on Thursdays. She had missed 3 of the last 4 thursdays being out of town, and she couldn't miss this one. Though, to be fair, she would have missed it if she was dead.
She had come prepared for this. (No, she hadn't.) Lifting her cell phone to her ear, Scylla placed a quick call. 15 minutes was the usual turnaround this late in the evening, and they wouldn't ask any questions so long as she paid cash at the back door. Not a problem at all. The place was usually pretty good on the food front, and not many places did 24 hour food anymore, what with the senshi and the negaverse fighting a war after dark.
But armed with a bag full of freshly made food and a pot full of fresh, hot coffee, with two styrofoam cups and a ******** of sugar packets, all paid for in cash, she made her way to the forest, and then deeper inward. Caedus would feel her coming, and forgive her for not having brought any proper gifts this time. All of his souvenirs would have to come next week.
Scylla limped her way to their usual meeting place, and settled onto a stump, groaning. Hver's ribbon was no longer spilling magic up her arms, and while she looked a lot better, she was still clearly not entirely herself.
The Space Cauldron
I warned you this was coming
Quote:
Stardust Ribbons (distributable item): - Not rechargable (one-time use only) - Holds 30-45 minutes of charge - After 5 minutes, minor cuts/scrapes/bruises are healed, sprains are numbed, blood flow stops from moderate cuts - After 30-45 minutes, moderate cuts/sprains are healed - After use, ribbons become just pretty trinkets and cannot be used again.
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:03 pm
Caedus did not always know who was coming, but any Eternal Order Senshi on a Thursday night always made him think of Scylla. Generally he was more careful to stay hidden until he had a better idea of who was out there, but he was particularly willing and curious tonight—especially when he noticed the figure in the darkness was limping.
He approached with caution but not so carefully that he was wasting time.
He recognized Scylla well before he had reached her—and once he had, his strides seem to lengthen quickly. He did not often move fast, and despite the creaking of his bones it seemed that he could. When he wanted to.
“Scylla,” he said, both a greeting and a question. “What has happened, are you all right?”
It was clear that she wasn’t; her injuries seemed to concern him and he reached out, as if he wished to help her. He hesitated but pushed through it and moved close. “Why have you come here and not sought medical aid?”
It was damn cold. She really should have thought this through just a little bit better. At least she wasn't bleeding on the food, or into the coffee; both were securely wrapped, and the ribbon had healed the worst of it. She just looked messy, with sore, aching muscles. But it was so cold. But home would be so many questions. First world problems, when you had to worry about the opinions of your staff.
Scylla.
The familiar, gravelly voice saying her name made her shoulders relax with some relief, and she turned her head to take in the alien as he approached her, lifting a hand from her stump to wave weakly. "Caedus." she couldn't keep the breath of relief from her voice, any more than she could stop her automatic smile.
"There was a bit of a scuffle," she told him as he reached out, moving closer to her. "A friend needed my help, and then there was a bit of drama with the Negaverse. Luckily enough help came that we sent them away without any losses, but we may have made a new enemy or four."
Shifting, she addressed the next question with a soft grunt. "One of the knights saw to the basic first aid." she tapped at the powerless ribbon tied to her arm. "Most of the mess will be gone when I power down, but I wasn't ready to go home yet. Besides, it's Thursdays. I brought dinner. I've been out of town, and missing my language lessons, glynd."
The Space Cauldron
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 10:08 pm
“I have missed you,” Caedus confessed but didn’t seem to know what to make of her in her current state. “But you look like you need to sleep. Are you cold?”
He did not like to make physical contact but he wasn’t sure he could trust her for an answer; he reached out to brush his fingers against hers. He was cold, but he was used to it. His body seemed to naturally be that temperature, regardless of whatever chill Destiny City brought him.
“You are cold,” he decided for her, which set him into another. “There has been a cold wind tonight. You are in no condition for that.”
He did not ask her to leave, though; he faltered, watching her for a moment, and then sighed gruffly. His fingers moved to the clasp of his cloak. “I do not have any blankets nearby or I would offer you some. And I apologize that I have only this to offer. But I hope you will accept it, at least for as long as you keep my company.”
The clasp was undone and he held the fabric for a few long seconds before he reluctantly shrugged it off.
It was a cloudy night; it wasn’t easy to see, but Caedus was keenly aware of what image he was presenting her by removing the cloak. His hair was in the same loose braid, though it seemed he might have rebraided it recently. It looked neater now. For a man living in the woods, he seemed like he was clean enough. He did not ask for permission before he draped the cloak over her shoulders, tucking it carefully around her to keep away the chill.
He did not meet her eyes; his lips were pursed and he seemed a bit uncomfortable. It was not a state he was used to being in, and certainly not one he enjoyed, but he would not see Scylla in this state, tormented by cold that wasn’t affecting him.
Oh. Oh. He had missed her, and he wasn't her child, and he had missed her. Ugh. At least someone had. "Sleep is the last of the things I want to do right now. I'm not- I don't want to go home." Was she cold? It was something she didn't have to answer as he reached out and touched her fingers gently.
Apparently the contact made his decision for him, because he seemed somewhat displeased as he made his decree. His gruff sigh amused her. "I'll be fine," she said after a moment, not wanting him to worry. But he came closer, and she considered him with a sigh as he touched the clasp of his cloak. "What did you do with the clothes I left for you on Palentine's day?" she asked, and there was only mild amusement in her tone. "I told you I was going to find something that fit you."
He shrugged off the cloak, and she tilted her head back to peer up at him as he settled it over her bare shoulders and back, tucking it around her carefully. He wasn't looking at her eyes, instead looking distinctly.... hmm. He seemed a bit awkward, so say the least, and she lifted her hand, touching her fingers to his own briefly, hesitantly, then settled them more firmly. "Thank you, Caedus."
He seemed neat enough, and apparently he was doing quite well on keeping clean; as Scylla pulled the cloak more tightly about her, it didn't smell like a man who had been in the wild for a year and change- it smelled.... like a storm, she supposed. A hint of ozone tingling her nose, and that fresh scent to the ground that came with rainfall. She had been expecting something... different. "Oh," she breathed after a moment, having forgotten- "Caedus, I'll get blood on it." she started to pull back off his cloak, to pass it back. "I can manage for a while."
The Space Cauldron
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:47 pm
Caedus kept his eyes on the tree line and grunted a response. When he noticed her pulling back the cloak, he turned to face her. “No,” he insisted. “It can be cleaned. Vanity is a luxury I am cannot afford.” Though, he tried to manage, when he could. “I have other fabrics. If the damage is too great, I will find something else. I do not care about blood.”
He sighed heavily; one long ear seemed to twitch, though the movement was faint. “I apologize for not changing. The pants are…” He paused for a moment as he sought for appropriate wording. “…Very tight. It will take more time to get used to. But I hope you did not come here to talk about fashion. Are you all right?” he prompted again. “You should not be afraid to go home. You should have people that love you there.” He paused, and seemingly less sure of himself, asked, “Should you not?”
A grunt. The warm little bubble in her chest found its way to her mouth, and her laugh was short, sharp. A hand clapped over her mouth. The noise was just so very human, and it gave her a little fuzzy warmth in her chest.
"Okay," she agreed with him, "I will keep it on." Caedus was surprisingly firm in this- she hadn't seen that level of insistence from him over something so minor. Perhaps he was growing more confident. "I can make sure it gets cleaned. I may even be able to get it patched up for you, if you want." Scylla curled herself into the cloak, pressing it to her cheek and relaxing into the warmth it provided.
Vanity was a luxury he could not afford, he thought, but Scylla thought he just underestimated his friends.
"If the pants are too tight," she told him, peering up at him from where she was drowning in his cloak, "I can get you a bigger pair. I did a rough estimate- modern fashion leans towards a bit more fit, and the material is probably not as stretchy as a robe."
Scylla gave him a lopsided grin.
"No, though. You're right. I... I'm fine. Just injured. A bit achey." she looked away; looked up. "It isn't that I'm afraid to go home. I just... I have two wards. My mom died, so I got the kids. I was just gone for a month, they shouldn't have to wake up to me looking like I had a bad date. But I can't stop being Scylla."
Not again.
"I guess I just needed someplace to go to center myself to face it. Maybe borrow a band aid."
The Space Cauldron
Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:37 pm
When Scylla laughed, Caedus raised a brow but even he couldn’t hide the faint smile that drifted to the corners of his lips. “I do not think I could part with that,” he nodded to the cloak, “For so long. But if a mess is made of it, it will give me something to do. I have few hobbies. One of which, I think, should not be trying to decipher your modern fashion.” He shook his head. “So impractical.”
It was not a topic that was particularly meaningful to him, but he was using the time to try and read Scylla better. He did not want to push too hard and chase her away but neither did he want her to get the impression that he wasn’t more interested in her health and well-being. “I am sorry to hear about your mother,” he said; his voice sounded a little heavier. “Your wards,” he prompted. “How old are they?”
He leaned back a bit; he was hunched over still but it almost looked as though he was attempting to stretch without drawing too much attention to it. He wasn’t trying to shield his face—at least, for now.
He wasn’t quite comfortable but recognized that his cloak had better purpose on her than it did him.
"I could bring it back tomorrow," she said after a moment, pulling it tighter around her and trying to hide just how much the action bothered her, "But I would hate to deny you any more of your hobbies. I know I owe you a new book or two- did you listen to anything of the music I left for you?" Bright eyes flicked to him and she said coyly, "I could always bring you a fashion magazine to help you figure out a little bit of our modern sense of style."
He sounded just like a thousand-year-old alien now, and she used her humor in that to try and distract herself from her aches. "You would have hated some of the stuff I've spent the last month looking at. Haute couture can be terribly tragic to look at. More times than not, actually."
I am sorry to hear about your mother, he said, and Scylla's lips pursed, and she leaned her head back back to stare up at the sky for a moment. "They're six," she answered him, focusing on the easier question, "And they are disgustingly adorable sometimes. Do your people have kids? I mean, like humans do? You said your people are long-lived and everything, so not sure if you guys have some kind of population control." She tried to sneak a look at him sideline in the dark, glancing sidelong through her lashes.
The Space Cauldron
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:49 am
Caedus had a particular way about choosing which topic he focused on. His lips had pursed when she mentioned the cloak—and fashion magazines, and oat coup tours. But those were irrelevant; he gave her his full attention when she mentioned the children and asked about his kind.
“I was a child once,” he said; a faint smile grew on his face. “A very long time ago. We have no need for population control. Perhaps, once, but in my youth we became a dying breed. Our numbers dwindled rapidly once our world was invaded. When we made our new world, repopulation was a concern but pursuing a sustainable environment was our focus. When we had stabilized, there was a short period of time where there were many children. And then, much fewer. We usually focus on raising one at a time. Multiple children in a household is uncommon, but I think I would have liked it. Not the competition for your parents’ affection, but someone you could trust.”
He sighed, almost wistfully, and allowed his eyelids to droop lazily. “I would have liked that. But I was an only child and there were few close to my age. I did not play with others often.”
His mind wandered to some far away place; he did not seem to be entirely lost in his own world, but he finally closed his eyes and seemed to relax a bit more.
He was remembering home, and the life he used to have.
"It must feel like a thousand years ago," Scylla chirped to him teasingly, snuggling deeper into the warmth of his cloak, her eyelids heavy but unwilling to close. "I don't remember... who invaded?" her brow crinkled. She remembered his world was synthetic, and that at some point, something had happened, but she couldn't remember who had managed to invade such a powerful-seeming world. Had it been Chaos? Who else would have been capable? The Mau had been believed to be the pinnacle of technology; surely a regular senshi world wouldn't have been able to damage...
"Siblings are excellent," she said after a moment, eyes softening. "My mother had two sets of twins, so while I was an only child for a while, they never have been." And Lucas had dealt with three older sisters with a little boy's grace. "If it ever comes up for you- buck tradition.Multiple children is lively, and wonderful."
His eyelids drooped, and Scylla took the opportunity to stare at him with open interest, trying to place him in the scheme of whatever. He seemed to be wearing parts of a (clearly magically maintained) uniform, combined with random pieces of cloth he had likely been getting from others. She could see no skin on his hands; he was trapped up well but for his face and pieces of his neck. Seemingly without weapon; he had once told her knives were a primitive weapon, and likely his opinion had changed only little, if at all.
She let the silence fall between them, and then slid her foot out from under the cloak, sneaking its way towards him, poking him gently with one sandaled foot. "Tell me a story from your world, or more about it? Or teach me another word, glynd?"
The Space Cauldron
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 12:38 am
There were parts of his history that he was obviously reluctant to speak of; when she asked who invaded he seemed like he was struggling to determine if that was a question he wanted to answer. Thankfully, she gave him other things to respond to.
He cast her a curious glance when she poked him and raised his head just slightly. “Which world?” he asked, and then seemed to catch himself. “I had two. Technically.”
Caedus crossed his arms over his chest and drew in a thoughtful breath. “Once, my people had a planet like Earth. I don’t remember much of it, only a red sky before the attack. I feel foolish to say that I do not know the name of those who invaded. We did not speak the same language. They were powerful, though. We did not stand a chance. They stayed for months, destroying everything. Most of what I know, I know from books. I was too young to understand at the time.” He shrugged.
“My father was very valiant though. And my mother very clever.” He seemed proud but did not dwell on the topic for long. “Many people survived because of them. We would not have made it off the planet if it weren’t for them. There were many stories of them, but I do not think they are the stories you are requesting. The stories of building our new world, our synthetic world are probably not interesting either. Very technical. I spent a lot of time in a small room attending to my studies. Perhaps it would be more entertaining if I taught you a word? What would you like to know?” he asked; he tried to keep eye contact but seemed distracted by picking at a few loose threads on his sleeve.
He didn't seem to flinch away from the contact, which was a massive improvement from when she had met him previously, and her lips quirked up into a warmer smile, head falling to the side, resting on her cloak-covered shoulder. "The original world and the artificial one you made," she confirmed the two he said he'd had. Which World?
"I always thought Mauvians were supposed to have been a pinnacle of technology. If you were powerful enough to have taken a scattered community and built a whole new world, after being attacked by someone who could take your planet in the first place... I suppose... There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." she certainly hoped he'd read to that part in the Shakespeare book she had brought him. It would be odd, if he thought she was calling him Horatio. The idea of that kind of power out there-
Had his world not had allies? Or had the enemy simply been that powerful, or overwhelming in number?
My father was very valiant though. And my mother very clever. There were many stories of them. an innocuous suggestion, though after a thousand years, would Caedus be considered an orphan? Or did he mean stories of the invaders, not that his parents had died? growing up under parents who were- or who remembered as- legends who had saved many people could be a lot of stress on a person. And then, to come to Earth...
Scylla leaned in, considering him. Who are you, Caedus? Who are you really? the words lingered at her lips, on the tip of her tongue, and she opened her mouth to speak them before pausing. "I suppose it depends. I like history. I like old things." her lips quirked at him, eyes crinkling at the corners. "I like stories, even if I don't fully understand them at first." Scylla shifted, pulling herself closer to her friend, stopping short of tucking herself in near, or coming closer than arms-reach away. Her own skin hunger- a need for contact, for little things like closeness- was no cause for pushing the bounds he set more than a wriggle at a time.
Having company was balm enough.
"How old are you, exactly? Long-lived species, born at least a thousand years ago- are you an old man by your planets standards? A young whippersnapper who should still have his nose in his books? Don't think I won't get you to teach me a word, too, but I'm curious."
The Space Cauldron
Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 8:13 pm
Caedus wore a thin smile; he might not have recalled any specific line, but it seemed he had comprehension enough to understand what she was referring to. He seemed particularly patient and more relaxed than usual, listening thoughtfully. When he finally spoke, he seemed contemplative. “I am not so old, I do not think. I am not young, though. There is never an age where your nose should not be in a book, though. I am old by your standards,” he confirmed a moment later. “I have lost time, though. Time I should have been spent growing wise and knowledgeable. Developing myself into a better person. Instead,” he seemed bitter, “I have only learned to hide. I have survived, but I do not feel like I have much to show for it.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and drew his knee up to rest against it.
Caedus wore a far away look for a moment and then turned his gaze to her “Is that why you like me?” he asked; the corner of his lip was upturned, twisted into a faint half-smile. “Because I am so old? I suppose I know many stories. Stories of myth and legend, and history. I wish I had books to share with you. There is so much of my world, my culture, that I would share with you. The culture of other worlds fascinated me. I traveled a lot, and met a lot of people. I miss that.”
He sighed and tucked his chin into the crook of his elbow as he rested it atop his knee. “I was so accustomed to being a welcomed guest. Now I am an unwanted burden. I have lost so much time. If I had not come to Earth to speak with Beryl…I cannot help but wonder how different things might be. There was so much I had wanted to do,” he sighed.
"You have survived, and that's more than most. I'd say that is plenty to show for it." hadn't he said, once, everyone he had come to Earth with had been killed? That put him a step above what anyone else in his group could offer. There wasn't much more consolation to offer- he had lost time, and even in the long-termed life of whatever he was, a thousand years surely could not be blinked away. "Your time spent hiding could one say prove invaluable, Caedus. Every day is a school day, every lesson counts." it had to.
She watched him quietly, letting what knowledge she had gleaned from him settle in her mind, returning his half-smile with a mischievous, toothy grin. There was a lot that weighed heavy on her friend, and Scylla was at a loss of how to help him when she could hardly help herself. She had to be less than a child by the standards of his planet, and the possible span that they could live. "I suppose once you are so old you go blind that your nose isn't the one in the book, you just hire someone else to read to you." Not so old, not young. "i'm going to put you at the intergalactic equivalent of 40," she told him dryly.
Her purple eyes were bright with mischief. "Is it bad to confess that I don't have an actual reason for liking you? I just do. You're kind, and clever, and yes- you're very old and know many stories. You have taught me words in a foreign language not just anyone else can speak, and you have indulged my attempts at friendship with an open mind, considering the civilization and time period gap and my absolute lack of respect for personal boundaries." there was so much she wanted to know, yet, and she knew her thirst for knowledge was probably stark on her face. "I am more than willing to listen to anything you want to teach, Caedus." her lips twitched again, brief, before settling down.
"You're no burden. I can't imagine anyone thinks so. My biggest concern is that someone is going to find you before you can go home. There has to be something more I can do to try and help you- you've suffered so long, and you deserve a little victory."
