ioduanlogs | How do You Solve a Problem like Meira?

Entry tags:

How do You Solve a Problem like Meira?

Characters: Valdis and some open
Date: August 2018 (ish)
Location: Around Aifaran
Situation: Various
Warnings/Rating: In Headers

Valdis was tired. Between the return of the Narrakra and the discovery she could return ruins to complete something would have been bad enough without the memory of the visions or what she had seen soul-walking inside that corpse. Aside from that, the knowledge that she could move the Void with more power than she believed had sparked a new determination to harness its power without fear. The events of the last week had been eventful, what with the short term Dreamfolk that had arrived only to vanish once the damage had been done. Admittedly most of them hadn’t left much of a mark, but some had. She hoped that things would calm down for a few weeks at least.

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Valdis helped pull him up, then let him retrieve his sword, considering his solemn reply. Valdis would have been lying to herself if she denied her concerns when Devin had told her X had run into Bobby. But aside from Devin's overreactions to Bobby, it had ended just fine.

"Mine is Restoration," she replied, taking several steps back to reset. "It led to a very interesting time aboard the Narrakra. Pity I couldn't fix Bobby's face with it."

Not that she would, but the memory of that particular event did bring a small smirk with it.

"What does yours do?"

No matter her willingness to stay with him, Devin was probably going to have to figure out some ground rules about also staying within line of sight or... something. He needed to do research.

"Alright, alright," he said, faintly amused by her enormous amount of energy. "We're going." Devin hesitated and then gently patted between her shoulder blades. "Just promise me you won't run off where I can't find you, okay?"

Once that was agreed on, Devin opened the door and released her into the urban wilds. There were some pedestrian-only streets nearby and a decent-sized park they could visit for a start.

Trahearne looked back over his shoulder at hearing the mew, and despite the dreary topic, he couldn't help but look delighted as Anani approached them. "Why, hello," he greeted the cat, gladly scritching over his forehead and behind his ears. To his credit, Trahearne wasn't the type to baby-talk Anani, even though he happy to spoil the cat in every other fashion.

"That's too specific of an item to be a coincidence. Sometimes I wonder if the odd events the Dreaming springs on us are some sort of... reaction to our thoughts or feelings." He looked back over to Valdis, saying in a thoughtful tone, "It could be a sign that you should keep it. Having it close might help you hold onto those snatches of memory, if nothing else."

The conversation went badly. Zephyr was scowling when he shoved the yimo back into his cargo pants; but he softened when he looked back at Meira where she was pressed against his leg.

Hard to be mad at that face. "Right," he said. "I let him know. What did you need off the table?" Since all he had to go on were yearning puppy eyes and paws.

Anani arched his back, clearly pleased with the attention. Valdis didn't reach toward him, the cat would come over eventually and Trahearne seemed to appreciate having him around.

"The Dreaming is fluid, and it is known to act in such a manner." It wouldn't be the first time things had appeared based upon thoughts and feelings. "I'm sure those in the Aisling Tower knows more about how it functions, but I'm not inclined to engage in conversations regarding their experiments."

She would hang on to the unicorn though.

"How old are you, Trahearne?"

X meant to answer, he really did, fingering the sword in his hand like it was somehow causing him pain to hold it, but Valdis's casual declaration snagged his full attention.

"What do you mean?" he asked. He didn't know whether he should be amused or afraid. "What did you do to Bobby's face?"

Valdis looked at the tip of the wooden sword, considering it with an almost sly look in her eyes. "You know of Revelations. It was forged with holy light and responds to the strength of my soul. It will only allow certain people to hold it and even fewer to wield it in battle."

She flipped the wooden sword, catching it by the hilt again.

"It is also the only weapon I know of capable of killing me," she glanced at him, "But you know all that. You also know that the sword banishes darkness and Bobby is a demon. It didn't just slash through her flesh, it burned it."

She couldn't help but sound amused, "I would have killed her if Devin hadn't told me to leave her be. In the end, she owed me a life, but I never got to collect."

Meira bounced back around at his question, grumpy conversation completely forgotten.

Food, she chirped, I want to see the menu!

She bounced in a circle, then seemed to realize she needed to be a lady. So she sat back down, and reached out with a paw to place it on his knee.

Please.

Trahearne did briefly run his hand down Anani's back before returning to petting his ears, considering what Valdis had told him. "That's quite alright. I can always take another visit to the Tower to ask about it. At times I'm tempted to think that the Dreaming might in some way be sentient, but I don't want to make assumptions like that without proof." This place wasn't like his own world, and that was what made it so difficult to keep from treating it that way. Trahearne was far more used to being in a place with stronger magic and different rules for how everything worked.

"I saw twenty-six years before I arrived here," he said next, "Which I realize sounds young. I'm still the oldest of my kind. Sylvari are quite new to my world in the scheme of things," he explained with a faint smile.

It wasn't an unexpected answer, but something about it surprised X nonetheless. Maybe it was his reaction; he felt both disgusted and vindictively satisfied, emotions that didn't exactly complement each other very nicely. Life as a reader could be an adventure.

Devin was wrong. Someone else did get hurt; and yet, X couldn't quite bring himself to care.

He lifted the wooden sword he carried, one fist wrapped around the hilt and the other tapped lightly on the side of the blade. A second later, the sword cracked -- once, twice, and then splintered altogether.

"That's my talent," X said with a wry smile. "Glass, and wood, so far."

Her aversion to the tower might be mostly from paranoia, but the Dreaming had never really been kind.

"I'm not sure its so much sentient as it is a force," Valdis replied, considering the possibilities of Trahearne asking the questions. It could be more fruitful to have someone with less suspicion visiting the tower.

She glanced at him, surprise in her eyes when he stated his age. "You speak with far more wisdom than any twenty-six year old I've met. The races of my world are ancient. The youngest is still twenty-three hundred years old."

Valdis shot a glance at X, one filled with confusion. The disgust, surprise and satisfaction didn't harmonize in any way. Perhaps that was the cost of being what he was, a constant battle to remember who he was. She watched him as he decided to change the subject back to his ability, her own surprise showing as the wooden blade splintered and fell to the ground in pieces.

"You know I need to return that, right?" she said dryly holding her hand out for the hilt, "I don't think the Dojo near my place will be impressed with splinters."

For one so gentle, it was an odd ability, but perhaps X had some sort of destructive nature that he himself didn't realize. Her own ability could restore the blade, maybe, but she needed that hilt and as much of the sword as she could get.

X froze. "I -- I'm so sorry, I didn't think --"

What did he think, that Valdis had carved the wooden practice swords herself? X knew better than that. The part of him encompassing Valdis's reactions knew better than that. Perhaps, even now, he was still that unaccustomed to having an entire community of people to rely on, even people he'd never met and didn't know.

He handed the hilt over to Valdis immediately and dropped to his knees to gather up the splinters. "I can help carve another one," he said mindlessly. "Or I can pay for -- I can help, I can do something to help."

Contrary to X's horror, Valdis laughed, taking the hilt and waving him away.

"Don't touch them," she scolded lightly, "You might lose some pieces."

She knelt down, dropping the hilt among the shards. The blade had broken so similarly to Genesis. Some large shards and some small, but none so tiny that they had vanished into the grass. She held out her hand, laying it on the largest shards like she had the bones on the Narrakra. Focus. Valdis closed her eyes, feeling the connections between the shards and picturing what it once looked like in her mind. The last was different from the events on board that ship, but perhaps it would help.

The wooden sword slowly began to reassemble itself.

"Sure, okay." That was very polite for a puppy and should probably be rewarded. Zephyr leaned over to lift the menu, waving it back and forth a few times before leaning down.

And then promptly changing his mind and settling cross-legged to the ground. He held the menu up for Meira so she could read off it, and then something else occurred to him. "You can read, right?" he asked, just for clarity's sake.

Look, he didn't know what telepathic puppies were capable of.

X obeyed her instruction and gesture without objection, but with a great deal of confusion. Had she been joking, before? Did she actually carve the sword herself?

Then the confusion vanished, to be replaced with shock and awe. It looked like telekinesis, but X didn't remember anything about Valdis having that ability. Her talent, then? But no, it couldn't just be telekinesis, because there wouldn't be any point to this -- the sword would still be broken.

X dropped to his knees, the better to see what she was doing. "You can fix it?" he asked quietly.

The wooden pieces seemed to move as if time had reversed, just as with how she healed, the shards moved seamlessly together, until the blade looked as if it had never been broken.

"Yes," she replied when she was finished, "I think it will hold, but I haven't done this often."

Valdis picked up the sword and smiled when it didn't fall apart, "Looks like we are opposites in yet another facet of life," she commented, "Though this one is perhaps a bit unexpected."

Meira slipped around behind him when he settled on the ground, dropping her head over his shoulder so she could see the menu.

Of course I can read, she sounded slightly offended, I'm ten, I learned to read a long time ago.

She didn't know what everything on the menu was, but noodles with cheese sounded yummy. Meira hummed, poking his cheek with her nose before dancing around to the front.

The cheese noodles, she declared, then added, please.

Oh, wow, that was a cold nose. Zephyr twitched at the prod.

"Ten whats," he wanted to know, because she did not at all look like a ten year old dog, at least to his moderately limited knowledge of dogs. But he nodded, and took a few moments to look over the menu himself.

Finally he unfolded his legs, getting up to put the menu back on the table. "Cheese noodles it is," he said solemnly. "You gonna stay put if I go order?"

"Restoration," X breathed, his gaze fixed on the repaired sword as he finally made the connection about the branch of talent Valdis possessed. He exhaled slowly, then smiled, small but fierce. "I think it suits you."

She was right about it being unexpected, but at least for Valdis, it made a poetic sort of sense. If that meant admitting it must make a poetic sort of sense for X to have a destruction talent, then... well, he wouldn't be averse to admitting that. Just mildly disappointed in himself.

Valdis rolled her eyes, "At least I can try to fix what I break."

She didn't know how long the sword would hold together. It was possible it would be fine, but she didn't have enough practice or knowledge to be sure.

"I should get these back to the Dojo," she continued, "we can practice self defense again later." She eyed the blade, "Maybe without the swords for a bit."

Edited 2018-08-30 23:18 (UTC)

"Can forces not be sentient? There's a realm of sorts that exerts influence upon my own people. It's a bit of a long explanation, but I can at least say that the Dreaming here isn't very similar." He had yet to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He missed the touch of his world's Dream, of feeling the presence of his siblings.

To her other comments, Trahearne's smile turns a bit sheepish. "I suppose I'm what I needed to be. It's much the same on my world - every other race has been there for many, many years. We had a bit of a rough start, but since then sylvari have become widely accepted, despite a few bumps here and there. It's my hope that we'll be able to survive to the point of being as ancient as the other races are."

Ten years!, Meira chirped, jumping away and spinning in a circle when Zephyr unfolded his legs, bouncing up and down a few times.

I can stay. She replied, sitting down as if to prove that she could, Are you going to eat with me? It's always better to eat with friends.

Edited 2018-09-01 22:15 (UTC)

"That's not what I --" X stopped, because that was exactly what he meant, and he shrugged with a sheepish smile. "Alright, yes, but I prefer to think of it as a chance for redemption. A demonstration that breaking things is not your only skill."

He wasn't sure if he could say the same for himself and his destruction talent, but at least practising with it made it feel less like a burden or a handicap.

X nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Out of curiosity, though, how much later is 'later'?"

Valdis gathered both blades, throwing a sly smirk in X's direction, "It's just the one I enjoy most."

It was a lie he would likely notice. It may have been true once upon a time, but her affinity for chaos, her talent for disruption, wasn't something she felt pride in.

"I have time next week," she added, "And we can do this weekly if you wish. I do expect you to practice in between sessions though."

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How do You Solve a Problem like Meira?

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