|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 12:40 pm
Stirling had come down for her weekly provisions, and a meeting with Dering, and after filling her stomach with some pizza from the 7-11, she gave a pleased sigh and leaned back against the bench they sat on. “I guess I should be heading back up. I’m glad that I got to see you again, I like hanging out with you.”
She missed people. A lot. She was still working on getting everything straightened out but…right now?
Right now they were still up in the air, and so was she.
Stirling was coming along though. It was much cleaner and so much more home like, which made sense as she had been living there for nearly four months now. She hadn’t really…fixed anything that was broken, but…still.
She had done good.
With a sigh, she gave Dering one last hug and then pulled away, her bag of supplies in her hand as she closed her eyes and mentally recited the words to get back home.
Only.
…Nothing happened.
Stirling frowned a little and opened her eyes, looking at Dering still standing beside her. “Uh. Okay. Out loud then, maybe? I pledge my life and loyalty to Lysithea, and to Stirling. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.” The words were said with earnest, as they always were…but again….
Nothing happened.
“I…Dering? I think there’s an issue…”
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 9:05 pm
Dering had enjoyed sitting and talking with her, even if Stirling seemed a bit stubborn and unrelenting when it came to staying on Earth for longer. It wasn’t that he wished she would stay with Lysithea, it was just that he wished they could guarantee she wasn’t so lonely up there all on her own.
He let her hug him because he knew she didn’t have many other people that could, and tonight wasn’t even a bad night for touch aversion. He was doing his best to cover it up but he suspected Luke and Talia both–very physically affectionate people–might have picked up on the way he accidentally clammed up more often than not.
He was trying! He wanted to be better! It wasn’t their fault.
He’d drawn away from Stirling like he always did and waited for her to vanish in the air, but when a few seconds passed and she was still there he wondered if maybe she’d forgotten something.
She said her pledge out loud–something he’d never heard, and his brows furrowed with a bit of confusion and uncertainty, but beyond that, when she was still here, he still hadn’t quite pieced together what the issue was.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, immediately ready to help.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 9:31 pm
Stirling shook her head, scowling slightly. “It’s not…working? I don’t understand, I haven’t gone up since a week ago yesterday, I’m always sure that I…plan my timing right…ah…”
Reaching up, the Knight tugged at her dark hair, staring at her feet for a moment before trying to figure out if she said something…wrong. “I pledge my life and loyalty to Lysithea, and to Stirling. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.”
That was…what she was supposed to say, right?
When repeating it once more still didn’t have her back up on Lysithea, she chewed her bottom lip, looking…
Almost scared. “Am I saying something wrong? It’s not letting me go home…”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 1:01 am
“Um, no, it sounds right to me,” Dering tried to reassure, but the fact that he was certain she was speaking it correctly didn’t really bring him any relief. “I would give you a ride up but I just went to my Wonder the other day, I don’t think I can go up again so soon.”
The apology was heavy in his voice already, but he didn’t want to see her panic.
“It’ll be okay,” he insisted quickly. “Maybe you’re just overthinking? Take a breath, I’m sure it’s just a little hiccup. Are you carrying too much, or…?”
No, that didn’t make sense, she’d definitely had more than that before.
Even if she couldn’t get up there–if he couldn’t, he knew Lysithea could. “Try again in a minute, and if it’s still not working, we can go ask Lysithea? I know she’s still awake right now.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 7:40 pm
“That’s all right…I…yeah. It’ll definitely be okay, I’m sure it will…” Stirling drew in a breath and struggled to calm her suddenly pounding heart. If she couldn’t get back up there…what then? She could maybe stay with Talia…or try to call Dagon? See if she could crash there for a bit? Maybe if she stayed with Talia she could talk to Soleiyu about the things she had meant to talk to him about months ago but…
Drawing in another slow breath, the Knight began chewing at the skin around her thumb and closed her eyes to summon her rapier. She felt better having something to fiddle with, and chewing her fingers to bleeding didn’t…seem like something she should do.
All of her band-aids were back on Stirling, after all.
The unicorn horn rapier…didn’t…come when she was trying to summon it, or rather…
It did, but it was folded over as though it were made of marshmallow and for a long moment, Stirling simply stared at it and then cleared her throat, and tried to dispel the weapon, but all that did was….
Well. The braided blade fell off and onto the ground with a squelch.
“...Um…”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 8:09 pm
“Stirling,” Dering whispered, and eyed the damage she seemed to have already done to her thumb. He had bandaids here, in a small first aid kit of supplies he’d cobbled together for emergencies. He pulled out a plain bandage and then dismissed the box back to subspace.
Just in time to see the rapier fall apart.
“Oh.”
Maybe that was a little more concerning.
“That’s okay!” He quickly insisted. “Sometimes my lute breaks a string or two, or–all you have to do is dismiss it and summon it again, it fixes itself.”
…He hoped. He didn’t want Stirling to panic even worse.
A hum in the back of his mind was weighing heavily on him, like someone was watching–judging. He felt like he was just seconds away from being scolded, or worse, but he was too terrified to look behind him and tried to focus on Stirling instead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:19 pm
Stirling looked at Dering, her expression utterly hopeless for a moment, but she nodded and drew in a breath, closing her eyes and trying to summon her rapier again, and again, it limped, folding in on itself and seeming to just drip to the ground, making a puddle of former twisted horn. Again.
She swallowed and drew a shaking breath, looking over to Dering, tears starting to pool in her eyes. “...I don’t…did I do something wrong? Is…can you try…I mean…”
He mentioned that his lute sometimes broke…but.
“Can I see your lute? Is…” She shrugged, unable to finish, unable to really focus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:53 pm
Though Dering didn’t know what she could do with his lute, he was quick to tug it over his shoulders. In his haste, he didn’t notice the buckle that fell off, or that the strap seemed to tear like paper.
“It’s okay, Stirling,” he insisted quickly. Her tears made his stomach twist into knots and he desperately wanted to find something to comfort her. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Here,” he said, presenting his lute in both hands.
“We’ll figure it out, maybe it’s just something weird going on. Maybe it’s–”
He swallowed the lump in his throat; he didn’t feel any Chaos signatures, but he felt uneasy.
“Maybe someone’s using magic on us or something. That makes more sense than you doing something wrong. It’s okay, we’ll figure it out.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:54 pm
Stirling closed her eyes for a moment, and she had been watching him closely, and had noticed when the strap broke, and watched as the buckle fell to the ground.
Slowly, she shook her head. “...Your strap just broke, and it looks like something just fell off of it…it’s not trying to…melt too, is it? Does that happen often? Like…I’m just…”
She was absolutely off kilter. This was a whole lot of odd things and she couldn’t deal with it. There were no auras nearby at least, and she closed her eyes tightly and withdrew her powered side but…
It tried to stick to her, like it didn’t want her powering down…that. Was so strange. Like she was a piece of velcro, and ‘Stirling’ was sticking fast.
Finally though, Brooklyn stood there, brows furrowed. “...I guess…yeah let’s go find Talia?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:55 pm
Dering was too worried about Stirling to panic. The fact that his own weapon seemed to be having troubles only confirmed what he’d first suspected–magic. Or a curse, or something. It wasn’t her. That was the important part.
“Yeah,” he said, and though he briefly looked at his lute, he dismissed it and his uniform.
The act alone took a surprisingly massive amount of energy, and Julian stood before her pale and disoriented. He swayed just slightly but caught himself, and raised a hand to his temple as he tried to dispel the dizziness.
“We–yeah, we should go see Talia.”
He was okay, he just wasn’t used to transforming feeling like it sapped so much out of him.
“She can help.”
And if she didn’t know how to, they could find someone who did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
