Royalty has Arrived

[Shipfish]

You graciously let Aruale have the ointment before Lerena could grab it. You didn't comment, but the smelling of the gel was completely unnecessary since it just smelled like the medical ointment it had been alchemized from, a common thing to find in any troll's home, used to disinfect minor scratches and abrasions.

You winced just a tad when Aruale wasted a fingerful of the gel by wiping it on her pants, but again you decided not to say anything. Besides, one jar was worth five or six major wounds, and the amount she took was small. The jelly was quite expensive, though! But well worth it.

Lerena was visibly mulling the healing gel over. She took it from Araule and proceeded to put it through a closer scrutiny than the uniform gel necessitated. You suspected she was thinking about your motives, but you had no idea. "Zo," she said, "what doez it do?"

You stepped forward to take the jar from her again. "It heals yyou, of course. I wouldn't use it for minor little scratches, since the principle on which the jellyy operates requires a unique activation process." You screwed the lid on tightly, just to keep it safe from spilling, and bent to pick up the knife you had previously dropped, to assist Aruale in removing her bandages.

"Can I help, please? Undoing them with two hands is easier." You were careful not to approach her knife-first though, in case Lerena got jumpy.

[Quakerlol]

"Can I help, please? Undoing them with two hands is easier."


"yeah, sure." Aruale offered her bandaged arm to Kyanas, receiving a glare from Lerena. "what? she's helping. not my fau)t i (an't pu)) off therse goddamn bandages myse)f." Lerena rolled her eyes and consigned herself to watching for a possible betrayal.

"Zo," Lerena, asked, "exactly when are you from?" Aruale rolled her eyes right back.

"wow, )erena, way to arsk )ike the one querstion she (an't answer," she said, exasperated. "te))ing urs wou)d probab)y (aurse a paradox or something )ike that, duh."

"Well excuze me for not immediately underztanding time travel, having never done it before-"

"(ome on )erena, it's (ommon know)edge. have you never read a s(i-fi nove)?"

"You know very we)) that-"

"whatever, jeez jeez okay." Aruale turned to Kyanas. "what's thirs weird a(tivation method you were ta)king about?"

[Shipfish]

You were quick to step up to Aruale's damaged arm when she gave you permission to help. You were under careful scrutiny by Lerena, who seemed to still think that you were untrustworthy. You were sure they would get used to different versions of yourself popping up where they were needed.

As for Aruale's bandages. You carefully slipped the knife, dull side towards Aruale's skin, under the wrappings near her wrist, where she had loosened them. Nothing more than gentle pressure cut clean through the bands, for the knife was extremely sharp. You never had to sharpen it, curiously. An older you gave it to you, and you suspected it was from Isaard's collection of magic paraphernalia.

You were very, very careful to cut on the side of her arm opposite the gash. Within a few seconds, the bandages were cut off, but they were still stuck to the wound with the suction of the congealing blood. You murmured a quick warning and pre-emptive apology, and slowly lifted the strips, one at a time. Aruale was still finishing up her conversation with Lerena, which was becoming a bit heated.

Just as you finished removing the last of the cloth strips, Aruale turned again to you and asked you a question. "what's thirs weird a(tivation method you were ta)king about?"

"It's reallyy actuallyy best if I just show yyou. Don't worryy, it's not embarrassing or gross or anyything." You specifically failed to mention that it would hurt a bit, and sting her pride.

You gripped her arm, again careful not to touch the wound. With your free hand, you unscrewed the jar (one-handed, no mean feat) and set it down. You scooped up a bit of the jelly and smeared it on Aruale's arm, being gentle but thorough, making sure that all areas of the broken skin were covered completely and thickly. You sincerely hoped you were not causing her much pain.

With that you stood back from her, put up the knife and the jelly, and held her by the shoulders and positioned her directly in front of you, making a big show of keeping them an exact distance apart.

"Ok," you said, "Close yyour eyyes and concentrate on thinking about yyour wound being gone."

As soon as she closed her eyes, not even letting her take a breath, you slapped her with the palm of your hand, right on her cheek. Right before the slap connected you felt really sorry about how this had to work out.

[Quakerlol]

"It's reallyy actuallyy best if I just show yyou. Don't worryy, it's not embarrassing or gross or anyything."

Aruale nodded and let herself be ministered to, Lerena watching warily from a short distance away. She winced a bit when Kyanas accidentally prodded a bit of the wound too hard, but it wasn't too bad. The gel itself was cool and a little tingly. It certainly didn't feel like it was healing anything. Aruale allowed herself to be positioned by Kyanas and obediently closed her eyes, expecting some sort of weird healing process.

Instead, the moment she felt the slap land, her instincts kicked in. She lashed out with a foot in the general direction of Kyanas' legs, and felt it connect, using the same motion to throw a punch as her eyes snapped open. The combination of the blow and the kick knocked Kyanas over, and Aruale was on top of her, fist raised to deliver a precise blow to her face, before any of the three of them had time to consciously process the series of events. Lerena took a moment to process the situation, barely even seeing Aruale knock Kyanas over. She took her knives out of her specibus in case a fight broke out, but Aruale seemed to have things well in hand.

Aruale blinked, and everything came into focus again. She lowered her fist a little, suddenly realizing that the aches and twinges from her wound were gone. She examined the arm, and found that the skin was exactly how it had been before. There wasn't even a discoloration of the skin. The gel was gone, too. She inspected it for a bit, and then realized her free hand still had a deathgrip on one of Kyanas' arms and that she was still pinning her to the ground.

"whoops," she said, rocking back into a crouch. "sorry about that." She stood up and adjusted her jacket, pulling her sleeve over the previously-wounded skin. She stepped back and offered her hand to Kyanas. "instin(ts, i guerss. no hard fee)ings?"

[Shipfish]

You were so dreadfully sorry you had to slap Aruale so hard and unexpectedly.

You suppose that meant you didn't protest too much when she knocked you down, leaving a good size bruise just below your knee. And the punch that guaranteed your fall had been quite a beauty, seeing that it had been aimed while her eyes were still closed.

You found yourself pressing awkwardly onto the stony rubble that littered the ground, one of your arms held tightly and firmly down. The other one, however, was held loosely to the side, ready to misdirect the magnificent punch Aruale was aiming at your face. You had the pleasure of seeing the instinctual aggression die from Aruale's eyes, which is when her hand held up in the air relaxed and she noticed her wound was gone.

A heartbeat after that, she let go of your arm and rocked back from the position that had let her drive your spine uncomfortably into a large and pointy rock. After sliding her sleeve back down over her unblemished arm, she gave you a hand up. You had been too busy inspecting your two new bruises, the one on your knee and the one shaped like fingers on your upper arm.

"instin(ts, i guerss. no hard fee)ings?" You accepted her hand and agreed that there would be no hard feelings. As you dusted yourself off you sent a cheeky smile at Lerena, forgetting for a moment that Lerena had no reason to be jealous of your and Aruale's uncomfortable closeness.

[Quakerlol]

As Aruale hauled Kyanas up, she noticed the bruises forming on her lower arm. Ouch. She hadn't meant to grab her that hard. She hadn't meant to grab her at all, but sometimes stuff just happens, you know? She let go and let Kyanas dust herself off, catching the cheeky grin she shot at Lerena. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Lerena had much the same reaction, albeit a bit more suspicious. What would prompt Kyanas to be that offhandedly cheeky to her? Was Kyanas thinking of something that happened in the future? What could it be? Did it have something to do with a fight in the future, perhaps? She would have to look into this. If only there were some way of communicating with her future selves! Goodness, time travel is confusing and infuriating. She made a note to herself to keep interaction with Kyanases not of her time period down to a minimum, to eliminate headaches. Ugh. Hopefully her aspect, and those of the rest of the party, would be far less confusing.

Meanwhile, Aruale was prodding at her healed arm. "so what the he)) wars that?" she asked Kyanas. "that... a(tivation method thing. what did s)apping me have to do with that ge) working?" To tell the truth, Aruale was a bit embarassed. Her first time meeting Kyanas and she punched her in the face and knocked her over into rocks. What a great way to meet someone. She hoped that when she met Kyanas for the first time from Kyanas' point of view (they were really going to have to figure out some way to distinguish between Kyanas' timeline and the normal one) it went over a bit better. And that Lerena wasn't such an untrusting bitch about it.

[Shipfish]

When you stopped introspecting about how silly that little grin was, which you immediately regretted letting come onto your face, you recalled that neither of them were 'old' enough to appreciate that little joke. Which sort of made a light green tinge appear on your cheeks.

Anywho, Aruale was poking at her arm and speaking to you.

"so what the he)) wars that?" she asked you, politely as she was able with the adorable way she was so invested in looking at her arm and not you because you were certain she would be blushing after that little tussle. "that... a(tivation method thing. what did s)apping me have to do with that ge) working?"

You smiled broadly. You were rather proud of this.

"It's based on a scientific principle about the speed and position of particles. Basicallyy it sayys that byy looking at something, or remembering it exists, yyou affect it. So if yyou smear the gel on yyour skin and completelyy forget about the injuryy, it ceases to exist." You cut off the rest of the explanation before it go too technical. You started to fiddle with the hem on your shirt, vaguely aware that your purpose here was served, but unwilling to leave without reason.

"I could send yyou both the codes, but I alreadyy know that onlyy I have them until a few hours from now. YYou'll have to wait until then."

[Quakerlol]

Something clicked in Lerena's mind at that explanation. "Oh," she said, remembering a particularly obtuse education nodule, "the Troll Heizenberg Uncertainty Principle?" She looked at the gel, then to Aruale's arm, then to Kyanas. "Zo you have to forget about the pain from the injury long enough for it to heal, and the zlap facilitatez that. That makez zenze." She nodded her head, proud of herself for remembering something from a subject that had not been her favorite. Let's face it, the history of the Alternian Empire and political machinations were far more interesting than any physics jargon her schoolfeeder had tried to cram into her thinkpan. It was really quite the miraculous occurrence that anything not related to history, politics, or electrical engineering had managed to stick with her long enough to be remembered at a convenient time such as this.

She looked over at Aruale, who was staring at them with a blank expression on her face. Oh, right. Aruale had always been quick enough to grasp the intricacies of combat and FLARPing, but she hadn't really ever had access to higher-up education nodules because of her caste. You'd tried to lend her some that you found particularly interesting, but she'd never really taken to them since most of them were way out of context for her. She caught you looking at her and closed her mouth, shooting you a glare. Well what in the world was that for?

==>

Yeah, okay, so maybe you didn't get the best and most expensive schoolfeeder nodes. Maybe you never really paid attention to the nice ones that Lerena tried to give you because she was 'concerned about your education' or some dumb shit like that. Whatever. That's no excuse for Lerena to look over at you like she feels bad for you, you poor ignorant rustblood. And you're sure as hell not going to ask Kyanas and Lerena what they hell they're talking about. Just make you look like an even bigger idiot. Wow, you are making all sorts of great impressions today, way to go you! High-five for you, you provincial clod.

Aruale rubbed the back of her neck. "yeah, so, uh. wars there anything e)se you (ame here for? )ike, any advi(e or shit )ike that, i dunno." Lerena nodded.

[Shipfish]

You saw the look that passed between Lerena and Aruale as Lerena realized what the gel's name was a reference to. You suspected some personal history was inherent in that glance, something you were not privy to. Aruale's comment, however, made you start.

"Oh, no, I could hardlyy give yyou advice. That's for yyou to discover." You glanced around for anything you might leave behind, because you were starting to feel like your presence here was intruding somehow. Perhaps these younger versions of your friends did not yet feel comfortable with you, or something. These past social politics were as beyond you as the future ones were.

"Um, I'll just go now. YYou two have things to get done, I would assume." You fished around in your bag for your anastrophic lenses, and pulled your lantern out of the modus as well.

You looked at the time in the glasses, nodded at nothing in particular, and waved at the pair (though you could have been said to be right beside them) all while adjusting the time dial and opening the shutter.

A half-second and a peculiar jolt later, you stood in the same place, except a few days later. You unpacked your flying machine, sighing to yourself in happiness at being solitary for a moment. Crouching to jump for that crucial first few feet, you pondered your destination. Perhaps Isaard's hive? You still had planning to do.

[Quakerlol]

"Um, I'll just go now. YYou two have things to get done, I would assume." Lerena nodded, and Aruale shrugged, arms folded. "i guerss."

They both watched with some measure of incredulity as Kyanas put on her ridiculous bi-colored glasses, took out a lantern, and zapped herself out of time. Lerena and Aruale looked at each other, both at a bit of a loss. Aruale broke the awkward silence.

"so now what?"

Lerena twitched her shoulders in an almost imperceptible shrug. "I don't know. I already got my quezt. We could proceed on through my gates, I zuppoze. Or you could go back to your land and work on your quezt."

"what, you wanna get rid of me so qui(k)y? i jurst got here, wow rude." Lerena was about to reply defensively, but Aruale grinned at her. "yeah, why not keep going. what, your next gate irs kyanars' )and?" Lerena nodded. "so )et's go meet up with the (urrent kyanars."

"Time travel iz going to give me a headache," Lerena sighed. Aruale rolled her eyes in agreement.

"anything e)se here you need?" Lerena shook her head. "then )et's go." Aruale strapped on her copter pack, and Lerena hopped a little ways into the air to kickstart her sandals. They lifted off to the roar of the copterpack's engines. They flew for a ways through the chilly upper air, occasionally executing barrel rolls for no other purpose than to show off. Soon enough Lerena's hive atop the castle came in sight, and Lerena motioned for them to touch down. Aruale nodded and pulled into a steep dive, racing Lerena down.

It ended in a tie, with both of them a little giddy from the headwind and oxygen deprivation. Aruale collapsed on the stone and covered her face with her arm. "whew! shit, )erena, you need to s)ow the fu(k down."

"Excuze me," Lerena replied, grinning and sitting down on a parquet stone, "you ztarted it."

"did not."

"Did too!"

"whatever," Aruale laughed. ")et's jurst get whatever you (ame here for and go."

"I don't know, I juzt thought we zhould regroup before we go gallivanting off into zomeone elze'z land. Zhould we at leazt azk her firzt?" Aruale snorted. "What?"

"ga))ivanting. who even says that." Lerena rolled her eyes and Aruale sneered good-naturedly at her. "yeah, sure. )et me (he(k pester(hum." Aruale pulled up the window on her goggles, and blinked. "hey, (he(k thirs out." She pulled her goggles off her face to show Lerena the screen. ")ooks )ike stebia sent out a group message."

[02:59] -- philosophersBones [PB] began pestering anonymousWavelength [AW] at 14:59 --
[03:00] PB: Hello?
[03:00] PB: Is anyone there?
[03:00] PB: This is a group message!
[03:00] PB: I need some help!
-- anonymous Wavelength [AW] is an idle chum! --

"Anzwer her."

[03:00] AW: hey stebia
[03:01] AW: you okay?
-- philosophersBones [PB] is an idle chum! --

"dang. hope she's a)right."

"I'm zure zhe iz. Zhe's remarkably rezilient."

[Shipfish]

==> Pester Ky about how to get to her land.
==> Get to LOCATION.

[Quakerlol]

"oh hey she's pestering me, guerss she's okay"

[06:06] PB: Hey!
[06:06] PB: Yeah, I'm fine, I just got res(--ued.
[06:07] AW: oh that's good
[06:07] AW: wait by who
[06:07] PB: Kyanas!
[06:07] PB: But Kyanas from the FUTURE!!!
[06:07] PB: She (--an time travel!!
[06:07] AW: yeah i know
[06:07] AW: )erena and i jurst met another one
[06:08] PB: You're with Lerena?
[06:08] AW: yep
[06:08] AW: went into her )and, we hung out, then kyanars showed up and hea)ed my arm
[06:08] AW: whi(h got hurt in a fight with a monster
[06:08] AW: you sure you're okay?
[06:08] PB: Yep!
[06:09] PB: The Kyanas I met healed me up too.
[06:09] AW: oh that's (oo)
[06:09] PB: Yeah!
[06:09] PB: I gotta go now though, she's still here
[06:09] PB: Bye!
[06:09] AW: okay bye
[06:09] -- philosophersBones [PB] ceased pestering anonymousWavelength [AW] at 18:09 --

==> Pester Ky about how to get to her land.

Aruale related Stebia's information to Lerena. Lerena frowned slightly. "Zo Kyanaz haz already helped Ztebia az well? Interezting. One wonderz if there'z any part of paradox zpace in which zome iteration of Kyanaz iz not prezent."

Aruale shrugged. "doers it matter?" She snapped on the band of her goggles. "i'm gonna try to ta)k to ky now. you get whatever you came here to get." Lerena nodded and briefly went inside, returning with some provisions neatly captchalogued just as Kyanas came online.

herobound.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pester2&thread=97

"Tell Kyanaz hello."

"ok ok )et me ta)k to her"

"Ztop delaying and azk her what you were zuppozed to azk her already!"

"sheersh woman (a)m down"

"Don't end zentencez with prepozitionz, it makes you zound ztupid."

"oh my god did i arsk you to nitpi(k my grammar no i did not"

"ok ky said we (an (ome over now, )iftoff time )et's do this."

==> Get to LOCATION.

Aruale and Lerena strapped on their respective flying apparatuses (apparati?) and rose into the air, Lerena a bit more gracefully. Aruale led the way through Lerena's second gate as they left LOCAL.

[Shipfish]

==> Look at Ky's hive! It's not a bad hive.

[Quakerlol]

THIS THREAD WILL CONTINUE IN "REUNIONS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS" ON LOCATION.