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 Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 2:59 pm
As had become her habit, she barely had time to fill her lungs with clean Garde air before she was filling them as Elaine, and not Joy. She looked a little better-kept than her wont, however, as if she'd actually paid some attention to her hair - and was clad, rather incongruously, in a velvet and fur cloak over her usual sweatpants.
The Garde looked a little more austere under a greyish winter sky and with half the branches around it stripped bare - giving a view to the water - but this only served to make the bright colors of the banners on the roof and in the windows more vibrant. Gone, too - as Ekstrom already knew - was the oppressive silence, replaced by birds and by the long-awaited gulls. A new addition, too: the ringing of a bell somewhere upon their arrival.
Gouvernail was, as always, waiting to meet them where they stood atop the curtain wall, and they had exchanged that same formality of his pretending to kiss her hand - detached, thoughtless, unemotional - when Elaine turned to smile a dimpled smile at her friend as the bell's chime faded.
"Started doing that recently," she said. "Isn't it nice? You remember Ekstrom, of course," she added to Gouvernail, who was already making his silent bow.
"Well," she said, addressing her again, "I have a lot of stuff to show you and a lot of stuff to pick your brain about, like I said back there, so we can just go ahe-"
She drew up short, though, in the process of looking over the bailey, and grabbed her friend's arm in a sudden clawing grasp. "Oh my god," she said. "Look, look."
She pointed across the courtyard, where on the further wall a little bright figure was outstretched in the closest thing that the cloudy skies provided to a patch of warmer sunlight: an orange cat, which obligingly rolled onto its back as if to display its innate cuteness.
"I didn't know I could get cats!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 3:28 pm
The Garde was certainly beautiful, Ekstrom thought as they arrived. It was chilly, but nothing like the DC that they'd just left, still with all the snow and ice and everything that came with that. The sounds of life only added to the loveliness of the place, and she took a second to look around and take it all in, though snapped her attention back to her friend as she spoke. "Very nice," she echoed before returning Gouvernail's bow with one of her own. "Good to see you again," she said in greeting to the still very solemn looking man. She fully expected him, now having finished with the usual niceties with Elaine and any guests, to very expertly melt into the background until Elaine called for him again, but she always felt it was good to be polite regardless how short or long an interaction. With very, very few exceptions, of course. "Yeah, pick away," she started to say as she summoned a small bag from her subspace and dismissed her shield immediately afterward. A second later, she was wearing the very cozy outfit centered around a blue and gray cardigan that she'd put together before heading out for a "late night stroll" as she'd recently been referring to patrols, at least in her own head. "I brought snacks, and–" She cut off when Elaine suddenly took hold of her arm, though the surprise faded quick when she spotted the orange cat. "Lucky," she said, expression now soft as she watched the cat paw playfully at the sky, or maybe at something buzzing just above where it was lying down. "The most I've spotted at my place are bones." She reached down to pick the basket up before linking her arm with Elaine's. "You should bring Petitcru along sometime. I'm sure she'd get a kick out of being here. I can bring Lulu, too, and they'd have all the room for zoomies and stuff."
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 3:52 pm
"Oh, I did when it was warmer, but I feel bad subjecting her to it now," she said, linking her arm in Mel's and very decidedly setting off in a catwards direction. She wanted to see if that thing was pettable. "She likes to play with Pal. I thought she'd be scared of her, but I think she registers her as a sort of dog. It's so cute how gentle Pal is with her. You really should bring Lulu - the three of them can play. You've never seen zoomies til you've seen a Questing Beast have zoomies. We'll have to cut through the keep, but I want to show you what I'm working on over there." Nail, surprisingly, did not immediately vanish, but it was apparently only because he was anticipating the question he then got - whether the cat was tame (he did not know, it had only just showed up when she did). Having given this useless lack-of-information in his usual tone of quiet formality, he then did, accordingly, seem to banish himself as the girls stepped into the shade of the keep to cross the empty main hall. The enormous window was still missing half its panes, but the ones that remained were brighter, clearer, depicting their little scenes of romance and hunting pursuit. "I also wondered," she said after he had disappeared, with a glance over her shoulder to make sure he had, "if you knew anything about - like - some of the weird items we find. Usually the stuff I find seems pretty at-home here but I got my hands on something that seems so out of place. It doesn't really look Mercury, exactly, but it has some sort of technology in it, so I thought I'd ask. It's like - sort of a camera?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 8:16 pm
"Maybe in the Spring?" She looked thoughtful, and realized not for the first time that her schedule was far more open now that she was finally out of school. Since the start of grad school, for the most part her initial thought to such notions was to consult her calendar to make sure she was actually free before suggesting anything. Now, with a far more predictable work schedule, planning ahead was a lot simpler. "Or closer to Summer. I'm kinda curious how she'll react to Pal, but if Petitcru likes her I'm sure it'll be fine." Mel set her eyes on the cat in the distance as Elaine consulted Nail about it. She glanced toward his ghostly form in quiet curiosity, quite honestly surprised he stuck around for as long as he did this time. Did he guess that Elaine was going to ask, maybe? Or is it because Elaine had a guest with her? Though she let the thoughts fall away as they entered the main hall. Her eyes immediately leapt to the window, sweeping over the various romantic scenes and wondering about their origins and what stories were being depicted in each. Elaine's voice brought her back to the present, and she mimicked glancing over her shoulder at...something...before finally looking toward her as she spoke. "Camera?" If it didn't look too Mercury then she doubted it looked like the one she found, but for all she knew it was just in a different skin. "I mean, maybe? I found one in my wonder maybe a year ago now? It looks...I don't know. Retro Mercury?" She smiled at this, finding it amusing for whatever reason. "Anyway, it's pretty cool. It prints pictures as I take them, and they come out on glossy paper and everything. I use it to take shots of rooms as I find them, and it took a while for me to notice but in the pictures you can tell that it's playing a little loop. Maybe a few seconds before, during, and then a few seconds after the shot. I tested it on Lulu once, so I have a framed picture of her on the nightstand in my quarters there. It's such a cute picture, too! I'll show you next time you come up."
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 8:45 pm
"Oh, I really will have to get Petitcru out, then," she said, enthusiastic. "We can have a little photoshoot, like we did that one time. I was sort of - like I messed with it a little but it came with some film and it keeps, like." She paused, both verbally and in her steps. "Is it weird to say the camera is inviting the film? But anyway," she continued, resuming as they passed through a room fairly carpeted on every surface in antlers, skulls, pelts, and various other trophies, "I was sort of afraid to point it at anything. It looked a little sinister, you know? And then I was afraid - well - if it's benign and does something cool, what if I run out of film? But I have this weird feeling like it doesn't need the film. I haven't put any in. Did yours?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 9:27 pm
"Inviting?" Mel repeated, brows knit together in a rather thoughtful expression as she sat on the thought for a few seconds as they continued walking. "I don't think it's weird, but it's not really normal either," she wound up saying after a beat. "Maybe 'magical' is probably a better way to say it." And then she turned half of her attention to the very carpeted room they were passing through. It wasn't really her cup of tea, but it felt very on brand as a style of room she expected to find in a keep or castle. To the question she shook her head. "I'm not sure, but I don't even know how to put film in mine." Mel laughed lightly at that, and gave a little shrug. "I've found some film before, but the camera hasn't run out yet so I just have them tucked away for safekeeping." No sense in wasting them, after all. She'd found two so far, and was half hoping to find more as she made her way through the myriad of rooms throughout the Wonder. "But going back a sec. What do you mean by 'sinister' exactly? Mine just looked like a retro sort of thing with some data line like pretty much every other Mercurian thing I've found."
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 10:06 pm
They had passed through the room and were standing at the threshold of a door to the ramparts, but she paused, reaching into subspace and procuring the camera, which she handed over to Mel, her nose wrinkled in consternation. "Maybe they're not the same thing, then," she suggested, given that the item she'd handed over was all sleek, seamless gold under with flourishes and sporting both an unsettling eye and an equally unsettling finger. "But - I don't know - you know how sometimes things take on different shapes, but work the same for us? Like the signet rings. Or Nail says he knew other people with these -" she gestured at the whistle hanging from her belt " - that did the same thing but looked different. Give it a look over and see if it seems familiar, maybe?" As she asked it she pushed open the door, and they emerged once more on the ramparts - this time within reach of the cat, which sat up with leisurely, unconcerned feline curiosity from a safe distance. Joy immediately put out a beckoning hand, making kissy noises which were met by the cat pointedly beginning to wash its face in a show of apathy. "I swear to God if we have cats and I can't even pet them." And then, after a pause, in a lighthearted tone that nonetheless seemed to be feeling out something complicated: "Good Maus deterrent, pun intended. You've met him, I think? He mentioned you."
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2026 10:03 pm
"One way to find out," she said as she took the camera and inspected it, slowly and carefully, with her usual curious eye. "If you don't mind me snapping a random picture of something, I mean." As she turned it over in her hands, Mel quickly came to realize that sinister felt like an appropriate one-word description of it, what with the eye and the finger, but the gold and flourishes were at least very attractive. Maybe the creator of it just wanted to balance the pretty out with something? Mel followed Joy without really looking where they were going, her focus still on the camera that she was now pointing at random. She never hit the button to snap a photo, and didn't plan on it without Joy's permission. She eventually turned it toward the cat, and she looked between it and Joy, a little amused that it didn't look the least bit interested in them. "I know zero things about cats except that they're absolutely nothing like dogs. It's still an animal though, so maybe food might be a good way to try and get in its good graces." Her thoughts floated briefly to Lulu, who was currently likely snoozing the day away or something, but the smile that had been about to stretch itself across her face died before it got the chance. "Twice now, I think," she said after a second, her tone suddenly drying up. She pointed the camera at Joy for something to do to try and hide her irritation at the name. "Punched out one of those winter wolf things, and then took out a cat youma thing a little after that." Thinking back, he had mentioned the fact that he hated cats as he led the way toward it. "How exactly are you friends with him, anyway?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2026 10:19 pm
"Friends is a strong word," she said, abandoning her attempts on the aloof cat for now. She hesitated, uncharacteristically troubled as she weighed how much it was possible for her to ethically divulge. She wanted to warn her away from him - wanted to tell her that if Mel hated Kay, Ekstrom ought to cut a wide berth around Maus - and had no idea how to do it. It would be wrong to tell her to avoid Maus without context - would make him seem worse than even he was, as low a bar as it was. "I helped him," she said simply. "And then I guess I felt responsible for him. You know how it is - when you get handed an obligation." And, probably, whether she was aware of it or not, she probably had some pleasure in having some small piece of sovereignty over someone else; some tiny kingdom to rule over. "He sort of threw himself on my mercy, I guess, and I didn't want him to - it felt counterproductive to let someone loose into the arms of Order when they were going there voluntarily and not at least cushion the landing for them, you know?" Talk of the camera was momentarily forgotten. She turned her eyes restlessly over the half-barren trees. "He told me who he was to convince me he wasn't some sort of trap. His agent name, his real name. Just put himself in my power. Begged me for help, wanted out so bad I think if he hadn't managed it he'd have - anyway. I hate him for it," she added bluntly. "I wish he hadn't. But I can't do anything about that now." And then, after another leery pause: "We aren't friends, me and Maus. Don't - feel obligated to like him - if you don't. I mean, don't even if we were friends. But we're not. Maybe it's better if you don't like him. Even if he did try and make himself useful." Elaine realized, in that moment, that she might have to ask Kay how much she was at liberty to divulge. He certainly seemed more cavalier about his identity than she was - even reckless, when he was drunk and maudlin about not having one to begin with - but it wasn't her place.
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 6:45 pm
The muscles in her jaw and shoulders and back visibly tightened as she processed everything Joy had just shared with her about how they met. The word "agent" shadowed most of the rest of it—it didn't surprise her that Joy would help someone out in that situation. In her own way, anyway, which helped all the same! Taking this new information with the rest of what she knew about him, Mel found her irritation with him only growing because, yet again, she was forced to see and acknowledge something decent about him. "Good," she said flatly. "And I don't like him." She lowered the camera so she could meet Joy's eye. "Though I guess I like that side of him better than the other, lying b*****d si–" and she cut off there, realizing a little too late that she might have overshared about the man in her slightly irritated mood. Mel cleared her throat awkwardly and turned to face the cat, raising the camera and readying to take a picture again. She held her finger over what she assumed was the button, but didn't press it. "Can I take a photo of the cat?" she asked in what was maybe a sad attempt at changing the subject. "Look, it's loafing perfectly. And we can see what this thing actually does."
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 7:07 pm
She was looking at her a little oddly, now, on the heels of that other lying b*****d comment. She longed to ask, and let it go. If Mel knew, all for the best, and so much the less for Elaine to have to painfully navigate. She'd text him later, maybe, and feel around. But for now it was good to be sidetracked, or perhaps brought back from the sidetrack and onto the main path. She seized it gratefully. "Hold that thought," she said. "I have actually been meaning to - to get a picture taken. Of myself, I mean. And I needed a second pair of hands to do it - a selfie won't cut it - and I can't ask Maus, ******** obviously, and I can't ask - well, the only other person I'd ask, it'd be weird. Don't ask," she added flatly, recalling that she was still, even now, feeling a bit bristly when it came to Myth's reaction to hearing about herself and Gouvernail. "But you'd be willing to make sure I look hot and everything right? Well. I mean hotter," she added, with a vague gesture as if to indicate that a photo of her was never going to be anything else. "I'd need to power up - since it'll be on display here and I don't know who all might see it - but I need to make some adjustments." She looked absently at the loafing cat as she spoke. "Because I don't wanna look like a knight when it's taken. I wanna look like a lady, you know? A smoking hot lady."
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 7:49 pm
It worked, somehow. Or maybe Joy was happy to let it, which was perfectly fine with her. Mel moved the camera so that her friend was again the subject of the picture she had yet to take, her smile turning to one of amusement as she started to relax again now that they had wandered away from the topic of Maus. The smile only grew wider as she listed off why she was asking her for help and why she couldn't ask certain people. The "only other person," she guessed, must have been Gouvernail. Naturally, she thought, because he wouldn't be able to hold the camera, but Joy had shut that down fast so she left it alone and lowered the camera instead and beamed at her. "You are a smoking hot lady," she said. "And of course I'd be happy to immortalize that with a magical picture. If this is anything like my camera, though, it's gonna be a small picture. Were you planning to put it up in a hall or something? 'Cause it'd be way too small for that." Mel looked thoughtful for a moment, her mind going between answering the question of "what's the picture for" and "where's a good background" as she started to look around. "I think the by the river would make for a great background scene," she went on after a beat. "Smoking hot lady coming out of the river, maybe? That's a picture I think anyone could appreciate, Gouvernail included." She shared the passing thought rather absently, and was still looking around as she asked, "He'd see it the most, right? If you're leaving it here?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 8:15 pm
She hesitated. Her blood had run a bit cold when Ekstrom had mentioned Gouvernail, only to warm up a second later when she explained why the thought had come to her. Things had gone so badly with Myth - to her own eyes, at least - that she had not brought herself to divulge the truth of her strange situation to anyone else. Maybe it would be better to let people find out the same way she let them find out about her job - gradually, indirectly, to head off the usual suite of uncomfortable, repetitious questions (and maybe, a niggling voice told her, judgments - something that it was easier to shun about her work than about this thing for which she also judged herself). "It's for him," she said, already turning to head back the way they'd come, to go down to the river. And then, moving past it: "I'll be damned if I am getting into the river in this cold, though, magical weather armor or no, so we'll have to take it on dry land. But you're right. It should be by the river. With some seagulls in it, if you can manage it. I got this - did I show you the comb? I don't think I've shown you the comb." She procured it from subspace as they walked, leaving the cat behind, holding it up to show her: elaborately carved ivory, a beautiful little thing, as most of the items scattered around the Garde were, if they weren't strictly utilitarian. "It does this cool magic trick." She ran it through her hair, which rippled in the wake of it, shading from its bleach-blonde to a light chestnut brown that notably was without roots. "Oh no," she added, deadpan, lampshading how obvious it was that she got her hair out of a bottle, "now you know that I'm not a natural blonde." A secret she was comfortable divulging, at least.
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Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2026 8:57 pm
It took a second to process the three words, said quite so nonchalantly that it took Mel enough by surprise that Joy was already several steps ahead of her. She jogged to catch up, camera still clutched in both hands, though glanced back briefly to catch one more glimpse of the still loafing cat. "For him?" she asked, soon falling in step with her. "As in, like a gift for him? That's thoughtful," she went on, though. "And fair enough about the whole being wet in this cold. Okay. So by the river, hopefully with some seagulls." A thought came to her, but she cut it off in favor of the newly mentioned comb. "And no, you didn't." Mel looked on at it, leaning in a little and smiling her quiet appreciation. Her mouth then fell slightly open with a little gasp when her friend's hair changed colors. The deadpan admission pulled a laugh out of her and she replied, "Oh no, I've been fooled," in an equally deadpan tone. Of course, her smile betrayed her. She moved a little bit closer to try and get a better look at the comb first, and then her friend's hair. It was tempting to reach out and touch, the question of permanence settling in the back of her mind but going unasked. "Does he like a more natural look?" she asked instead. It was for him, right? Which meant she would be trying to take something that was more to his tastes. Phrased as such, it...maybe begged a few more questions, but they could probably wait. "Oh! And I had a thought before the comb. But is there maybe a dock or something we could use in the background? I don't know, maybe just as an option? You'd be the main subject, obviously he's gonna be looking at you when he looks at the picture, but a good background is always nice."
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 4:46 pm
"Not a dock, exactly," she said, leading her down the stairs again to head towards the river, "but I think I know a good spot. I guess I'll need to retake this one day, when it's sunlight and the trees are greener. But this'll do for now." She pointed, as she said it, towards a broad flat rock that jutted out over the water - her favorite place to sunbathe, in warmer weather. And she paused, in speaking if not in walking, and gave Mel a sideways glance. She wasn't asking questions. That was good. Nor was she acting shocked, which was even better. The looking at you comment could go either way. Either she wasn't thinking about it, or she'd figured it all out some time ago and was choosing to be diplomatic. Regardless, this was a relief she hadn't quite banked on having, and she clung to it with silent gratitude. "But I don't know anything about photography. I trust your judgement to put me somewhere the light is good. I guess being overcast is good for that, at least. Princess tells me that direct overhead lighting is homophobic." As they walked, she changed again, her clothes rippling back into Joy's - her hair going blonde again, as well, which at least answered the question of permanence, although she kept the comb in hand to use it again - and she started shedding little bits of it as they walked. It was a very buttoned-up, cumbersome sort of ensemble even with that thigh-high slit in the skirt, and she never felt entirely like herself when she wore it. She felt, instead, like a Queen, and while that was a lovely sort of feeling to have - and not entirely wrong for something intended for Nail - it was less suited for her purpose than she would have liked. Very convenient, therefore, to simply be able to drop a cloak here and a sleeve there and know that they'd magically gather themselves back up as soon as she powered down.
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