thirty-fifth.

[ice_echani]

Stoneface, I do not believe it would be wise of me to patrol today. I must [lots of pentaps] adjust to this new state before I am best able to carry out my duties, although I believe my physical combat skills have not been affected.

Ro Fred, when you are feeling well enough there is something I must speak to you about.

Comments

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

[I'm sorry, Handmaiden, were you expecting a coherent response? The bottom of this page is now severely singed and has hints of a water stain before Stoneface's harried reply.]

Bloody hell.

I don't think things are quite right today, Handmaiden.

[ice_echani]

No. They are decidedly wrong.

[pause. ohwait, maybe that was sarcasm............... wat is going on at the bottom of the page here.]

Are you all right?

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

Lost it, have you? I suppose it's safe [singe singe singer] safer for you not to patrol with it.

It's godsdamned magic.

[ice_echani]

Yes.

I see. You cannot control it?

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

Not yet.

[ice_echani]

[She likes the emphasis on that word.]

If I can help, I will, but I think your own will would make my assistance superfluous.

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

I'd accept your help if I thought you could do anything with this. I hope I can control the damn stuff soon, though. Magic's bad enough without it spewing out of my fingers.

[pompous_today.livejournal.com]

a connection severed? hidden perhaps.

[ice_echani]

I hope that is the case, and that I will find it again soon.

Are you well, Simon?

[pompous_today.livejournal.com]

there are thoughts running through his head over and over from all directions

[ice_echani]

Your head? You have become psychic?

[pompous_today.livejournal.com]

psychic, reader, yes, people speak without talking now

[ice_echani]

Is there anything I may do for you?

[pompous_today.livejournal.com]

Where are you now?

he's been staying with Inara most of the day but she needs her sky.

[ice_echani]

I am at home. Will you be all right coming on your own?

[pompous_today.livejournal.com]

Lots of people down here, I'll find someone.

[ice_echani]

[Oh he's in the Wilderness. Damn.]

Very well. I will be waiting.

[But if he's more than half an hour she'll find him herself. even if it'll be really hard without the Force.]

[pompous_today.livejournal.com]

Should be easy, lots of movements, lots of thinking "I need to go back home for something" to follow.

[cathar-jedi.livejournal.com]

[Sylvar's not going to write anything here, but she'll definitely be asking if Simon's "safe" and if she should leave. She knows him from a distance and doesn't want to be paranoid about Handmaiden's friends.]

[ice_echani]

[Bawww. No, there's no reason for her to leave unless she'd like to get away from thought-reading for a while. Really, HM would like her company just for having someone else who's feeling the same internal crisis she does.]

[burnt_orangesky]

[She finally sees this in the evening (since she ended up sleeping most of the day). Her writing is pretty much back to normal.]

I believe I am as adjusted to the new state of affairs as I can be, Handmaiden. What is it you wish to speak with me about?

[ice_echani]

[taptaptap.]

It is something which should be discussed in person, I think.

[burnt_orangesky]

I see.

[Pause]

Where would you like to meet?

[ice_echani]

[moar pentaps! as she tries to think of somewhere not too open but not the Scrapyard since neither of them seem up to trash golems.]

Is the arena on Melee Island convenient for you?

[burnt_orangesky]

That sounds perfectly fine.

[[ooc: I assume we're quicklogging this?]]

[ice_echani]

Very well. I will be there shortly.

[Assuming this is also long after Simon responds to her entry ffft.

Handmaiden walks to Melee Island warily, eyes constantly watching for any sign of danger. Moving without the Force makes her feel... bare, vulnerable. She doesn't like the feeling at all. Frankly she would prefer to stay inside with Sylvar or Simon and try to adjust herself to this in relative privacy.

Yet she feels she needs to tell Romana that she experienced her memory, and knows that if she waits until it is more convenient time, she may never do so at all. She arrives at the arena, still feeling like a gizka in an open field.]

[burnt_orangesky]

[It took Fred a little longer than anticipated to leave her house; she was feeling vulnerable with only one heart beating. Not to mention the feeling that she couldn't quite catch her breath still hadn't left her, so she had taken the time to repair the hilt of a rather nice sword she had found in the Scrapyard just the week before. It had only taken perhaps eight minutes, since she had been working on this one for a few days already, but she would have to hurry a bit now--she didn't want to make Handmaiden wait too long for her to arrive.

Strapping a scabbard she had found in the same area (and repaired earlier in the week) to her belt, she slipped the sword into it. A perfect fit, just as she had thought.

She slipped out the door with a murmured excuse to 00--"Going for a walk, be back soon"--she started off briskly toward the lift.

By the time she made it to the arena, she was walking quite a bit more slowly, slightly flushed and sweating a little from trying to walk at her normal speed the entire way. She was also trying not to hyperventilate--probably because of the illusion of shortness of breath, she had caught herself doing that several times even when lying still. After that walk, she was having to concentrate to stop herself from doing it.

She spotted the white-haired person standing in the arena almost immediately.] Ah, hello. I do hope you haven't been waiting too long.

[ice_echani]

[Handmaiden recognizes Romana--of course, the last time she really interacted with the woman was in that incident after the Fire, but she's seen her now and then while she's on patrol.

She's alarmed to see how obviously exhausted the woman is and walks over quickly. It looks as though Romana had been running hard to get here.]

I have not--are you all right? We can sit over there if you would like.

[She gestures towards the benches. It wasn't any hotter than a normal summer day--still too hot for Handmaiden, although she knows others are more used to it--but she doesn't want anyone to keel over from heat stroke. She thinks now that maybe she should have just chosen the Wilderness, but the reports of a giant lizard monster made her rather wary about that.]

[burnt_orangesky]

Ah... good. [Fred gives into the temptation to bend over slightly and rest her hands on her knees. Oddly enough, it seems to help.] Mmm, I'm alright. I'm just not nearly as used to this whole being-Human business than I had thought, that's all.

[Fred was finding the day a bit warmer than perhaps she would normally, but she had decided it was an unexpected side-effect of her new situation. It wasn't unbearable, just a bit uncomfortable. At Handmaiden's gesture, though, she nodded.] Yes, perhaps that would be better. Thank you. [Straightening up again, she started walking in that direction.]

[ice_echani]

I would imagine that it is most unsettling to have such a fundamental part of yourself suddenly changed.

[Handmaiden walks with Fred--though she's concerned, her face doesn't betray that as she sits down... it's the same as it ever was. She does sympathize, though. This sudden change is deeply disturbing. Taking away the Force is one thing, but for the Sphere to change a person's entire species? Such an alteration... she finds it hard to forgive.

But this isn't the subject she wanted to speak to Romana about.]

A few days ago, I was... given a memory crystal. [Her tone is cautious. It was a strange meeting, and although she knows Romana is interested in the underpinnings of the Sphere, Handmaiden isn't comfortable talking about it with someone she doesn't know well.] However, the memory belonged to you. I felt that I should tell you this.

[burnt_orangesky]

[Fred only nods silently... for once, she is glad there are no other Gallifreyans in Edensphere. Bad enough that she only has one heart and suddenly needs to eat and sleep a good deal more; it would be horrible to know there was one of her people within the Sphere, and be unable to sense him or her. She fully sympathized with any of the many people who had abruptly found themselves in just that situation.

Sitting, she rests her elbows on her knees and laces her fingers together, prepared to hear Handmaiden out. She quirks an eyebrow at the odd phrasing--'given' a memory crystal?--but doesn't say anything. But when Handmaiden mentions that the memory she saw was in reality Fred's, her mouth falls open slightly. The idea of one of her memories being seen by another is something that Fred had never thought of, though she had known of the possibility of it happening ever since she had gotten Aurora's memory herself.

It takes her a moment to think of what to say. In the end, all she can manage is,] ...how do you know it was mine?

[ice_echani]

[It was a strange encounter, and although she would answer if Romana asked, Handmaiden would prefer not to. She waits patiently as Romana digests the information. Handmaiden can't help but feel guilty for having experienced something belonging to someone else, and something private... from what she could tell, it was not a happy moment in the other woman's life, a difficult time and needing to do something she did not wish to.

But the question she does ask is easy to answer, at least.]

The man addressed you by name, and now that we are speaking I can also say that I recognize your voice.

...I am sorry that it happened. Had I known that the memory belonged to someone else, I would not have touched the crystal. [She's genuinely remorseful over it, wondering now if there was some way she could have discerned "whose" crystal it was before activating it.]

[burnt_orangesky]

[Fred's heart thumped distressingly, reminding her again that she only had one now, as Handmaiden identified which of Fred's memories she had witnessed--only in one had the Doctor called her by name. Which made it... the corners of Fred's mouth turned down slightly. It was perhaps the worst memory anyone else could have gotten, as far as Fred was concerned--she herself had no idea why she would not wish to go back to Gallifrey, which made it the one memory she could not even begin to explain. It still troubled her, on the nights she could not sleep.]

...I see. [She shook her head] I, too, have experienced another's memory before, and the crystal looked precisely the same as a normal one. There was no possible way you could have known. [She looked away slightly, and heaved a sigh, trying to regain her composure.] Thank you for telling me, Handmaiden.

[ice_echani]

[Handmaiden wishes that she had not experienced something so private--even if it had been a seemingly trivial memory, and this had not felt like one. Though she has no idea what was going on in Fred's life at that moment, the lack of context would not comfort her if their positions were reversed.]

It seemed right to do so. [But Handmaiden raises her eyebrows at that. She's never heard of it before--her first instinct is to ask about it, but checks herself immediately and modifies it.] But you say you have also had another's crystal... may I ask how it was you found it? That is, if it appeared somewhere apparently random as a normal crystal does.

[burnt_orangesky]

It appeared just after the fire, during the time I was forced to convalesce after... [She paused and cleared her throat lightly. Talking about her brush with death was a little awkward, even with the woman who had saved her life.] In any case, it appeared in my rations one day, without warning. I touched it without seeing it, so in all honesty I could not say if it looked the same as a crystal that would have given my one of my memories back. All I can say with any certainty is that it did look the same after it gave me the memory.

[spandexisyouth]

It takes adjusting. But it is a challenge. You are all right?

[ice_echani]

Physically, I have found nothing wrong. I will make every effort to adjust to this change.

[spandexisyouth]

I understand. If you wish to spar to make it easier I am available!

[ice_echani]

Yes, I think that is an excellent idea. I must get used to fighting without the aid of the Force.

[SPARRING SOLVES EVERYTHING.]

[spandexisyouth]

I must get used to fighting without what ever it is I use! Energy!

[IT TOTALLY DOES.]

[ice_echani]

Then we shall aid each other in this as allies. This will not defeat us.

[spandexisyouth]

You are correct! It shall not!

[sargeuxa.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMzgVshG6CI

[pachstonin.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMzgVshG6CI