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Date & Time: 5th April, evening
Location: Disciple's apartment
Characters: Disciple, Helmsman and Nepeta
Summary: Disciple wants to introduce her descendant to her best-friend-who-doesn't-remember-he-is.
Warnings: None, I think!

"I'm really glad you said you'd meet her!" Di babbles at the Helmsman, clearly excited and a bit nervous over the meeting which was about to take place. When he'd been going to meet Sollux she'd been more worried about how the younger yellowblood would act, but with Nepeta at least she felt reassured that she'd be kind and friendly towards the Helmsman.

She just hopes it won't be too awkward. When she'd first told her descendant about her dear friend and what had been done to him she'd done her best to explain how he was now, and not to expect so very much in the way of friendliness perhaps. That his appearance would scare her is another concern, but then again Disciple has such a high opinion of her young descendant that she feels sure she'll rise to the occasion.

All she wants is for them to get along, and that maybe Psii, what little or a lot remained of him inside the Helmsman, would see how proud she is of Nepeta, and how much it means to Disciple for him to get to know her.

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Di sighs. Well, at least it had been worth a try.

"Those are his words, something he liked to repeat. To remind us all that no matter what, we aren't alone. I wish you could meet him, Helmsman. He has a kind word for everyone, always gives his time to anyone who might want it, no matter how tired he is. He's the kindest person I have ever met, the warmest..."

Edited (gdi posted before I was done) 2013-04-22 21:03 (UTC)

The Helmsman keeps listening, the words sinking in. There's a subtle change to his body language, almost like he's... like he's relaxing, like he's forgetting the biowires implanted into his nerves and tissues and letting his body rest for the first time in lifetimes. It's almost like he's there and present in his body for the first time, instead of it being a sack of meat he drags around with him.

Almost.

"And the best friend?"

A grin tugs at her lips. "Oh, him. He was a complete and utter pain in the nook! He was brilliant and either entirely too sure of himself or else certain that he was a complete and utter failure. He used to drive me mad."

She sighs, looking at him fondly. "But he was loyal, and so caring in his own way. He'd always be there for me when I needed it. We helped each other to be better trolls, and if there was one thing we always agreed about, it was looking after Signless."

Okay, the best friend character is boring, and the Helmsman dismisses him. "What happened to user Disciple'th friendth?"

They obviously aren't here.

Dammit, these aren't characters in a book, Helmsman! She is not sure why he's just passing over the description of himself - she's pretty sure she doesn't want to know why, actually. She puts it down to him being just as contrary as Psii himself in his own way.

Sometimes, one of the worst parts of him being a Helmsman is that she cannot just relieve her feelings by pouncing or punching him the way she used to. It's sad.

"They're still on Alternia, I suppose - in my time, at least. They weren't...weren't brought here along with me." It's true enough, after all.

The Helmsman would not respond well to being punched or pounced on, it's true. Unless Disciple wants to find out what it's like getting flung through the wall with psionics, she would do well to not do either.

The Helmsman takes a moment to comb through his databanks again, and is unable to find what he's looking for. "Query: userth Disciple, Dolorotha, Signlesth, and best friend are not in system'th databankth. System hath recordth of every troll who hath ever lived. Why are thethe trollth not found?"

It is more because she would feel bad. But not getting turned into minced cat troll is also a good reason not to.

"I...I don't know, Helmsman. I think they might have had us all erased from your memory." It takes a good deal of control not to let the tears fall at that, and even then it's only because she closes her eyes tight for a moment.

"Why would userth be erased?" That makes no sense, he has a record of everyone!

"They...wouldn't have wanted you to know about us. I don't know if I can explain it in any way that will make sense to you. I'm sorry." She wants to explain more than that, she really does. She...just doesn't think it will do much good.

"System ith the most advanced helmsman system in all of Alternia." Sounds like bullshit to him.

The Helmsman lays down another card, a diamon this time. "Symbol for moirallegianthe," he tells her, a little testily.

"You are. And they wouldn't want to jeopardize that, would they? They wouldn't...wouldn't allow you memories that interfere with your functioning."

She doesn't want to play anymore, but she doesn't want to cut him off either. She's already pretty sure he's getting into one of his moods. "Moirallegiance. Trolls fated to meet. Fated to be able to trust each other with anything, protect each other through anything..."

Her voice lowers, to the point where it's likely hard to catch. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't."

With his technological superiority acknowledged, the Helmsman's mood clears up. He's pretty sure her idea that he has memories that might interfere with his functioning is complete nonsense, but then, Disciple hasn't exactly proven herself adept with computers or technology, so that's to be expected.

He blinks, once, as her last comment. "Why? What happened?"

"I don't know," she replies, her eyes fixed on the diamond on the uppermost card. "Not really. It hasn't happened for me yet. But...I know that things went terribly, horribly wrong somehow. I...I promised someone I'd cull him before allowing them to take him alive. But apparently I couldn't even do that much right."

"Wath it user Signlesth?" This is the Helmsman's gentle way of prodding her, trying to get her to tell him more about Signless.

"No. I don't think I could hurt Signless even if he asked me to..." Di has to admit. "I just...I couldn't. I love him so much, and he's so gentle. Pain is the last thing he deserves." She pauses, having caught on to what the Helmsman is doing. "Would you like to see a picture of him?"

The Helmsman will say later that he only wants to see this mysterious troll's face to record it, so he has a record of his existence. That doesn't change the fact that his eyes light up at the offer, almost sparkling, and responds with uncharacteristic urgency.

"Yeth, pleathe."

She nods at him as she gets up, smiling to see his face lighting up that way. It only takes her a moment or two to fetch her precious book, and she flips the pages over until she comes to a drawing of Signless she particularly likes, before placing the book on the floor and pushing it over towards the Helmsman.

The Helmsman hovers over the book, his psionics pushing his upper body forward so he can see it better. And then he just... hangs there, staring at the picture, completely drinking it in. He doesn't even notice when he starts glitching and moisture wells up in his eyes.

"You can pick it up if you like?" she offers when she sees the way he's leaning over to see it. She's not sure if he'll even hear her though, with the way he's so completely focused on the picture.

She was losing count of the number of times her heart could break in this place.

"Thank you." He does just that, carefully picking up the book with his psionics and bringing it close to his face. Bringing it close just allows him to see it better, and the glitching continues, the moisture spilling out of his eyes and trickling slowly down his cheeks. Absently, he uses psionics to brush it away.

"Thith ith user Disciple," he says after awhile.

Disciple finds herself needing to rub away some tears of her own too just from watching him. What she'd give to know what's going through his mind at that moment...

"That's right. I couldn't draw it from life, of course, but he used to hold me like that all the time, if I was tired or cold or just wanted to be close. And it's exactly what he's like...sheltering people, not just with his cloak but with his words and his kindness."

A lot of confused, conflicting messages, mostly.

"User Disciple loved user Signlesth." He doesn't really need to verify this, because she's said as much, but he does anyway. "Did user Signlesth... love... anyone elthe?"

He has no idea why he's asking this question, only that it's very, very important that he gets an answer.

"More than anything," she says, simply and as though it's the most certain thing in the world. And it is. "Signless cares about everyone, but...besides me, there are two others he loves. Loves so very, very much. I've already mentioned them to you, Helmsman."

"Yeth. Userth Dolorotha and the best friend." Once again, he deliberately skirts around the issue of the best friend. He doesn't know why he's doing that, only that he's very, very afraid of what the answer might be.

"Doeth user Disciple have imageth of user Dolorotha?"

Disciple nods at him. "Yes, that's right, the two of them." She's eying him rather curiously by now - she couldn't help but notice that he's really taking pains to skirt around the issue of who the best friend is. And she's not about to push it either, or give him more information than he's ready for just yet.

"Of course! I have lots of them - here, let me see." She takes the book back, flipping through the pages until she's nearly at the beginning of it, finding the particular painting she'd been thinking of and holding the book back out to him.

I made half the first part up anyway XD

in Languish or CWP or somewhere, we had a complete Lord's Prayer for trolls!

OH. that's right! we need to find it mO.Om

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