recolle | [Closed] Bind the red rings, O Sigurd!

Entry tags:

nier: automata: a2

[Closed] Bind the red rings, O Sigurd!

WHO: Kara Ellis and Anna Lehmann
WHERE: Wiffle Waffle
WHEN: March 3rd
WHAT: Obtaining and experimenting with an unusual object
WARNINGS: Language maybe.

It wasn't all that often that Kara went out for breakfast, but today felt like a day for it. She'd sent a message over to Anna, and surprisingly the other girl agreed to it. Maybe it was the offer to buy? Either way, she didn't really want to be alone when she picked up her second package from Retrospec. This one, by the description, was way different than what the cape had been. A ring of some sort? A special ring, if the mail had been accurate. Was she being paranoid? Maybe. But better than doing this alone.

Standing outside of the place, she waits patiently for her friend, thumbing through her phone and looking around. She had definitely there quite early, but surprise, she was a little nervous.

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Maybe Anna just wanted to eat some crappy food after all the mental legwork she'd been doing lately trying to justify all the crap that'd happened that she'd just ignored, before she was part of this whole Retrospec thing. Messed up, all of it, and that wasn't even getting into why the person she used to be had a sword.

Fortunately she'd actually been able to sleep, so when she walks up with her hands in the pockets of her well-worn varsity jacket, she... well, she's not smiling, but she doesn't look full of hate, either. About the best anybody could hope for if they're the first person to see her. She nods in acknowledgement in Kara's direction.

"Yo. You been waiting long?"

Kara looks up from her phone, tucking it away and giving Anna a wry smile of her own. It wasn't too early, or she simply wouldn't be awake, not on a weekend. A morning person she was not, even less so lately. She'd just been exhausted, more or less, since all this started. Suddenly having your world view upended when you had an overactive imagination was a rattling event.

Shaking her head in answer, she shrugs.

"Not at all. Maybe like five minutes. And if you don't mind waiting a sec, I got another code to put into the mailbox. It came in yesterday and I didn't feel like trudging out here to pick up some weird new gift."

"Yeah, I feel it," she says, thinking back to a couple days ago when she'd trudged out here and walked home with a sword. That's currently just kind of propped up against her wall in sight of her bed, in case she needs it for whatever reason. "Take your time. It sound interesting?"

She has to admit, she's kind of excited. It's enough to get her sounding actually curious about what's going to happen next, and it's a nice change from her earlier mindset. Now that she can actually be aware of weird things happening around her, she's much more into it.

"A ring," Kara says dryly, starting to walk over to the mailbox. The cape was one thing, yeah, but this? This was...hard to believe. A ring made out of a new element?

"The little description says it's a 'Legion Flight Ring' and if that does what I think it does, then this is going to either be the most terrifying or most incredible thing I've ever experienced. It also says it's made out of a new element, which sounds like bullshit."

Keying in the code, she waits for the thing to spit out her gift. There's a metallic ping inside the box, and when she opens it, out rolls a small golden band with a distinctive logo on it. Picking it up, she turns it over in her fingers, running a nail along the smooth metal.

"Definitely harder than gold. And the luster is different. Ever seen anything like this?"

A ring. A flight ring? Well, it's not the weirdest thing in the world, but she's definitely not expecting, like, the kind of ring that goes on people's fingers when it comes out. And she's got a good look at it, because she's standing at Kara's side when the delivery gets made, and it really isn't like anything she's seen before.

Well, obviously she's seen rings before, but none of them were ever bold enough to claim that they were made of stuff that nobody's discovered yet. She'll trust Kara on stuff like hardness and luster. "Looks like a class ring," she says. The L must mean "Legion", she figures. "I was expecting something that looked a little fancier than that if it's made of some brand new element."

Kara nods, tapping at it again, running her finger along the inside of the band. Perfectly smooth, and completely without any sort of maker's mark. Interesting, but it definitely doesn't feel like it's made of anything new.

"It's not warm, so I'm going to assume it's not a reactive metal," Kara says thoughtfully, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a handheld geiger counter. That she offers out to Anna.

"Just a hunch that it isn't dangerous, but I brought this to make sure. I doubt that we'd be given anything radioactive. Just run it over the ring a couple of times to make sure."

Spoilers: It isn't.

If she were still being affected by her stone, this would definitely get a full laugh from her. Instead, Anna's mouth quirks upwards as she takes the geiger counter that Kara just has, to examine with, and does what she's seen people do in TV shows to the ring. Which, yeah, just passing over it, right? She's pretty sure she can figure this thing out.

"It's supposed to click a bunch if it's radioactive, right? I think we're safe from our skin melting off." She looks up and smirks. "Every time I think you can't get nerdier. So are you going to put it on or what?" It's a stupid and reckless decision, but what else is she supposed to do with a ring? Even Anna swung her sword a few times before going to the network about it.

If she thought to ask, she'd learn that Kara swiped this from the chemistry department just to be on the safe side of things. She doesn't just own nonsense like this, though she has considered getting one. They aren't the most expensive things, and they have a purpose. Especially if there are new elements that are just going to crop the fuck up on a Saturday morning from a mailbox.

"Well, I didn't want to wear it if it'd make my finger glow," she snorts before plucking it from her palm and sliding it onto her ring finger. It settles, seeming to resize to be just the right shape to fit her, which makes her blink.

"It...you saw that, right?"

And before Anna can come up with anything smart to say about shining fingers or whatever, she sees the ring... resize itself. "Okay," she starts. "That thing definitely made itself fit you." Which isn't as weird as it could be, but it lends credence to the whole brand new element thing. She doesn't know of any that can do that on Earth, not that she knows a lot about elements to begin with.

"So you're leaning towards incredible, right?" she asks, looking up at Kara's face from her hand. Instead of terrifying, she means. Because Anna has a feeling she knows what's coming next and she has to admit, even if it's not happening to her directly, she's pretty excited.

"Yeah. Incredible."

That is her first thought, certainly, but not because of the flight aspect of things. A metal that shifts it's form like that is incredible and a resource that's beyond valuable for things like her work. But this Legion used it to make rings. Nothing lifesaving or helping those in needs, just...rings? What kind people were they, or what kind of society did they hale from where something as miraculous as this could be used for such a trivial purpose.

"I don't know how to make it work. There doesn't seem to be any buttons or anything. I wonder if I should have taken it as literally as..."

As she thinks that, a mental image of herself beginning to float, she does. Her words die, replaced with a croak. She's not high up, and she doesn't rise fast, but that mental image is enough to send her up a good six inches.

"...holy shit."

And again, before Anna can say anything, her words get stolen from her by the reality that's unfolding before her eyes. She straightens her back and stares at Kara's feet, then gets down to her knees and sweeps her hand through that six-inch gap. Like she even needs the proof at this point. "Holy shit," she mutters, then stands up to her full 5'10" height again.

"Holy shit!" she repeats, louder this time, and despite herself, there's more than a hint of a smile on her face, if only for a moment before she forces herself back to wide-eyed astonishment. No matter how cool this already actually is, she's not going to let herself show it so openly. Not yet, at least.

"Holy shit, indeed!" Kara responds with a laugh, twisting around in the air to look down at herself. Bolstered by the fact that someone else is seeing and responding to this, she floats up a little higher. A foot, two feet, until she's looking down at the top of Anna's head.

"This is...incredible. It's like, I think...and then I move. I don't have to exert myself or anything! My god. I'm actually fucking flying! Can you believe it?!"

"You're fucking flying!" she echoes, laughter just barely playing at the edge of her voice. By all accounts this should be a lot of things—scary, monumental, overall just completely off the wall bonkers—but for some reason all Anna can think to do is look up in complete wonder. Christ, she even feels like her eyes are sparkling.

When she gets over herself enough to make more words happen, when the excitement of something so brand new stops crashing over her for a second, she lets that laugh out. "Oh my god, Kara. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. Holy shit."

Still not super eloquent, this girl, but in her defense she doesn't know how else to react. This throws so many doors open for Kara's future, sure, but also Anna's. And it's really just... amazing.

For Kara, the world changes in that instant. For a few moments, at least, she's hovering there staring down at Anna and listening to her laugh with a stunned expression. Not because of anything her friend's done, but because of the effect that something like this has had on another person. It's like a puzzle piece locking into place, an understanding of why kids like comic books and the like. Because that's what this is to her, a comic come to life.

"Jesus. Fucking. Christ. I'm flying!" she cries out, earning a scowl from a passing old lady. And then she goes up, willing herself higher, moving faster, flashing upward a good twenty, then thirty, then forty feet, spinning in the air to get a better view of the city.

"This is so amazing!" she calls down before she starts to feel herself get a little lightheaded from all the excitement. Floating back down, she pats her chest and goes for the purse she'd dropped, grabbing her inhaler and puffing on it once.

"That is...wild..." she breathes out. "So...wild."

Anna flips off that old lady with reckless abandon without ever really taking her eyes away from her friend. Not until she's way too high for Anna to reliably track her without standing there like a turkey in a rainstorm, at least. She waits for Kara to get back down to earth and catch her breath, because there's no way something like that isn't going to take it out of her, before she says something.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess it's pretty okay," she says, smirking harder than she has all day. And though she tries to keep herself casual, it's not working especially well. She exhales and makes her expression as neutral as possible, but can't help the beginnings of a warm smile as she thinks back to one of their earlier conversations. "You can help people with this."

When Kara gets her breathing settled back down, she nods. Yes. Yes, she can. This is something she can use to do more than just fix arms. She's not superhuman or anything, but this is the kind of thing that can be used to help someone out of all sorts of jams.

"I can," she says, still a little hoarsely. "Absolutely I can. But for now, uh."

She plucks it off her finger and holds it out to Anna. No way was she going to deny a friend a chance at this.

"You try. See if it works for anyone, or if our new element is keyed to me somehow?"

Haha, holy shit. No way. Anna wasn't about to ask, but she kind of has to try, right? Poorly hiding her excitement, she takes the ring and slips it on her finger. "It's your thing, so I can't see why it would—"

And then the same thing happens. It fits a little more naturally now, and she looks down at her hand as she tries not to freak out about what's literally about to happen. She's had dreams like this and now it's real? It's about to be real, at any rate.

"So you just thought about it?" she asks, and then does exactly that. Just... maybe not as intense as her dreams. Her eyes shut while she concentrates on floating upward only a few inches at most. And after a moment, she feels her feet dangling, sort of. Like they're not being supported by the ground anymore. And with that, she opens her eyes.

"This is what Nic sees all the time, huh?" It's as subdued a reaction as she feels like she can give, but she's definitely floating several inches off the ground at this point and is focusing very hard on not going absolutely crazy with it. She looks down at Kara and grins. "Guess it works."

Kara watches patiently, practically bobbing back and forth with anticipation. She opens and closes her hands, unable to hide how anxious she is to see if it works. If it does, then it's a thing tied to the ring, and that means other people can use it. Maybe she can find a way to duplicate it in a lab setting with...

And her trainwreck series of thoughts spins out of control and into an excited collection of squeeing noises as Anna's feet leave the ground. She practically bursts with delight, clapping her hands together once, beaming her best smile.

"Amazing! It works. It's a ring that makes people fucking fly! That's beyond outstanding, it's like...I don't even know, but this changes things. This changes things so much. It's so, so incredible I don't even have words."

It seems simple, at least, taking flight. It's not magic like some people claim to have, but it's tangible evidence that there's hope for more. That Kara might actually get her wish. her heart sings, but her breath catches, and she finds herself fighting back a cough with a grimace.

"...Go...see what it's like higher up," she says in a bid to buy time to recover from another mild attack.

Anna reaches out when she hears the hitch in Kara's breath, but stops just short of making contact when she gets told to go higher. Which was in the cards already, sure, but she's worried about her friend. Specifically, she's worried about her friend getting too excited about world-shattering breakthroughs like this one.

"All right. Remember to breathe." She knows she doesn't have to tell Kara that, but she wants to at least show she cares. With some more careful thinking, Anna feels her body ascending even more, and she doesn't think she's going to let herself go as high as Kara but this is still absolutely insane. She can see the roof of the waffle house incredibly clearly, and the only point of comparison she can make is from the last time she was on a plane and how it all looked like she could reach out and touch it.

Except now, she can. If she wants. She guides herself closer to the roof just by thinking about it, which is good because she doesn't want to think about having to strike a pose or do anything special to go in the right direction. She already feels a little self-conscious like this anyway. But she also gets the idea that, well, rooftops might also be a good place to hang out and chill, huh? If they're high enough and isolated enough.

She shakes her head and turns back around; from this height, she's glad Kara probably can't see every last detail of her face. Because there are streaks starting to run down her cheeks and her face feels particularly cool as she brings herself back to solid earth and lands in front of her friend again. She wipes at one with the back of her hand and tries really hard to find words, but nothing is coming out.

Kara stands on the ground, watching Anna and waiting, puffing on her inhaler to catch her breath. It's definitely something, seeing a human being just floating there, moving like something right out of the pages of Amazing Comics or something. She's not an avid reader, but she was twelve once, and if twelve year old Kara knew she could fly in a few years she wouldn't have been able to wait to grow up.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" she asks when Anna returns to earth on front of her. She doesn't comment on the streaks, she doesn't notice them, her excitement making her jittery and rambley. "I can't even begin to work out how this works, but it is the best thing ever."

Holding out her hand for the ring, she waits for it to be returned, so she can get a better look at it. See if there's anything else going on with it that she needs to note.

It takes Anna a second, because she knows the ring is Kara's but she's still a little shell-shocked that her friend let her do this, participate in something that... well, later on she'll probably realize it was almost literally life-changing. For now, once her body catches up with her brain, she takes the ring off and hands it back to her friend.

"This is... the world we live in now," she says, and almost laughs because she can't think of anything else to do. "This is real."

Everything she's done to get to this point seems justified; everything that's happened to her is worth it. Because her friend can fly, and she just flew herself, and everything that she thought was just fantasy is bleeding into reality. And yeah, it's going to bring bad things with it, but for now, she's letting herself have this.

"Oh my god. I don't even know what else to say. Thank you."

Taking the ring, Kara turns it over in her hand, noting that it had indeed reshaped itself to fit Anna. That's kind of miraculous in it's own way, but flying. That's...jawdropping and it takes a lot of will not to just start laughing right then and there. Breaking down into cackling, ridiculous laughter doesn't fit the gravity of the situation.

"Yeah...of course," she murmurs, staring down at the ring in her hand like it might up and disappear. It doesn't, of course, but holy hell. This was the kind of thing people were talking about, magic and all that.

"Now believing in magic doesn't seem so far fetched. Or...god, I don't even know. It's like the rug just got pulled out from under me."

"I know," Anna says, her eyes still on the ring. She's trying not to sound as awestruck as she is, but it's a hard fight.

After a few seconds of what almost feels like reverent silence from Anna, she feels herself settle into her standard half-bored smirk. Which feels comfortable on her face, but also just a little wrong right now.

"Guess I have to figure out what made them give this to you and start getting as much of my own stuff as I can, huh?" Except knowing her luck, it would just be a massive collection of swords. "For real, did you do anything that you know about to get this? Or did they just decide it was your lucky day?"

"I didn't really do anything different. I guess I made that post about the cape? Maybe they saw my photoshop and thought it was time to make it a reality..."

Kara trails off, closing her hand over the ring and goggling for a moment, staring at her closed fist and fighting the urge to cough. This time she's successful, but her gaze turns glassy for a few seconds.

"...Remembered how she got it, too. Some guy gave it to her. Said she'd fit into whatever this Legion thing is pretty well. He was...kinda weird looking. Purple outfit, short hair. Kinda looked like a tennis player turned superhero."

Magno-ball, but she doesn't know that.

"It was a pretty good photoshop." A tennis player superhero. Yeah, sure, sounds about on par with everything else they've both been running into. Good to know that there's probably no actual catalyst for it as far as she knows. But none of that's gonna stop Anna from caring about her friend first.

"You holding up okay?" she asks. "I know your asthma attacked. You need anything?" It looked like she had it under control, but Anna's not about to sit around and not be worried. Which is weird for her and she's not sure if she likes it, but a lot of stuff has been weird for her lately anyway.

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[Closed] Bind the red rings, O Sigurd!

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