|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2026 7:02 pm
Choosing somewhere different this time, Hohenheim sat staring at the fountain as it bubbled and broke the otherwise silent night air. There weren't many people out this way, considering the festivities he expected people to be a part of with Valentine's Day having happened the night before. With that thought in mind, he hesitated on texting Ekstrom for a few more minutes. They seemed like someone who would be on a date or with someone this weekend. It wasn't something he personally dealt with, which he was fine with. Debating back and forth, he typed, deleted, then retyped the message four times before finally hitting send. Quote: I went to Mercury, it didn't go well. I have some questions if you're free. I'm by that new fountain they put up last month, the one that has the mosaic tiles beneath the water. Snapping a picture of it to send along as well, he set his phone down next to him as he looked back up at the sky. Mercury wasn't as easy to see among the stars, from what he could remember from his astronomy course in undergrad, but it was worth a shot to look in the general direction of it.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 2:28 pm
Well. Mel had been on a date on Valentine's Day evening. It had even gone well! Up to a point, anyway, which was when the man, by some unfortunate chance, got his hand very thoroughly slammed between the car door and its frame as they were getting out of the Uber that they'd taken back to his hotel. So. Rather than spending a nice evening in good company, maybe over a couple of glasses of wine and eventually, perhaps, even some dessert, she had spent it instead at his bedside in the emergency room until his friend—the one he had mentioned he was visiting—came to relieve her of the responsibility of caring for a perfect stranger. She left after a brief goodbye, during which she skated around a subtle request for her phone number because she had noticed the way they were holding hands and she couldn't help but wonder who the woman actually was.
She subsequently spent most of the following morning at the gym, punching and sparring the stress and frustration away, and after getting home she spent the hours just hanging out with Lulu while baking and binging the latest season of a docuseries a friend had recommended.
The text came just as she was pulling one final batch of cookies from the oven. She frowned at the first sentence, then quickly typed and sent, "Be there in 15, 20 at the latest," before going down her safety checklist to make sure everything in the kitchen was off. Five minutes later she was getting dressed to go out, and fifteen minutes later she was coming up on the fountain, along the way having ducked into a dark alley and emerged as her knight self.
"Sorry, I was baking," she said, offering him a small smile and summoning a small pouch that she had taken an extra minute to pack with some of the fruits of her day's labor—a small handful of assorted mini cookies, including chocolate chip, butter, sugar, and snickerdoodle. "Had to make sure everything was off before I could leave."
She extended it to him once she had closed the gap, and asked, "So you were saying. You went to Mercury. What happened? What'd you find?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 2:30 pm
While he didn’t exactly clock-watch, he was pleased to see they kept within the expected time. The extra excitement she usually had wasn’t exactly growing on him, but he could manage it as the price for figuring out what was going on.
Looking at the pouch, he accepted it and peeked inside. Sweets were something that he grabbed from a convenience store or from the vending machine, and he could scarcely remember actually having something homemade. His opinion of her was leaning further from annoyance and more towards acquaintance as he took a moment to inhale one of the still slightly hot ones. A cloud came out as he tried not to burn his mouth on the sweet.
At least she was careful, having enough thought to make sure her home didn’t burn down. He’d heard enough about students nearly burning the dorms down, forgetting to turn off a hotplate, or microwaving something they shouldn’t have.
“Yes, I went, and it was…” frowning as he tried to navigate how to politely say it had been the shittiest exploration of any site he’d ever been a part of, he continued finally, “some sort of complex or bit structure.”
He hadn’t gotten far in it, but as he thought for a little longer, as he chewed on another cookie, he managed to figure out the order of questions. “It was all locked down, though there was one sort of blast door that seemed to be damaged. I managed to squeeze through. It was all dark, lots of metal, and some of it twisted as something had exploded in some places.”
Shrugging as he munched another cookie, he thought about the totally not a body. “There was a thing there, I’m not one who deals with tech, but it was some sort of mannequin or something, and it had those same circuits on it that seemed to be engraved into the floor. I got stuck between more doors that wouldn’t open, and how can I… not freeze? Cold was an understatement. I cut my hand, and it almost froze to the screen pad I tried to use on the outside of the place.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 2:39 pm
She took the seat beside him once he took the pouch, a satisfied look about her as she got comfortable and waited for his reply. Ekstrom hardly knew what he might have expected her reaction to be, but when he finished speaking her smile was as steady and as bright as ever.
"Sounds a lot like mine did at the start," she said, hoping there would be some reassurance in the words. At least for her, when she learned that there were plenty of knights who shared such experiences toward the beginning, she took comfort in it and she was able to eventually settle into a steady rhythm of progress. "Freezing cold, locked down, and damage everywhere, not to mention it was pitch black."
It was hard to believe how different it was now by comparison, and she felt the invitation scoot toward the tip of her tongue. Before that, though, she looked thoughtful for a second at his last question, and then gave a slow little bobble of her head. "Actually, maybe. I heard about some kind of thermoregulating device or something a while back. Or maybe I read it...but anyway! I completely forgot, but I can start digging into it again if that'll help?"
"You might be able to look into it on your own too, actually." Her eyes flickered to his hands for a second, as if looking for something. "Were you able to find your ring?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 2:41 pm
The fact that she was smiling about things as he explained his struggles wasn’t exactly surprising; if anything, it solidified that whatever happened, this woman seemed to be unflappable about the whole space magic rundown building thing.
Munching a bit more, he wasn’t sure how he felt about things having been the same for her when she’d started it all up. It wasn’t normal, but then again, nothing about any of this had been normal, so maybe the fact that there was a pattern was a relief. At least it hadn’t been worse; outside of the freezing cold, there hadn’t been any monsters chasing him like before.
“Thermo….regulator? What? Tech isn’t something in my wheelhouse. So, can you explain it in layman’s terms?” He loosely had an idea what the word meant, though what kind of thing it actually was went way beyond what he knew about. Unless it was like the space heater under his desk, though that thing was older than him and probably not up to safety code since it stayed on even if it fell over.
“Ring? The only thing I found was a bunch of weird mannequin things and a lot of torn metal and blown-in snow. Whatever that place was, it’s just kind of locked down now, aside from the broken door I got through. Speaking of that, do you know anything about tech? I have no clue about what to even look for.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 2:50 pm
"Sorry," she said, though she was smiling in light amusement as she said it. There was something about people not being super in line with technology that gave them a sort of charm, at least in her eyes, even if Hohenheim exhibited it in a slightly grumpy fashion. Even that, she thought, was charming in its own way. It wasn't like he'd said anything personal against her anyway, so she took it as more his personality than anything else.
She could more than handle grumpy; it was meanness that gave her trouble.
"A thing to help regulate your temperature. Like a personal little HVAC or heater. I'll look into it and let you know. I could swear I read or heard about it somewhere..."
Ekstrom looked thoughtful for a second, as she tried to remember. When nothing came to her over the next few seconds, though, she let it go and refocused on the Page. Soon she nodded at his question, and offered her hand to him, where her own signet ring fit rather snugly around her gloved index finger.
"Ring! Every knight has one of these, and it's basically what'll open up your means of communication with me and other knights, or even senshi with the right upgrades. You also get access to a database. Everyone does what they can to contribute. I need to spend more time on it, to be honest, but I think the communication part is the main point."
And then she turned her attention to his words describing what he found. "I know a lot of tech on my Wonder, yeah," she said, blinking curiously at him as she processed the information he'd given. It really did remind her of her own place, save for the blown-in snow. "Kind of an intuition thing, I think? But it's never been handy for anything outside of my Wonder, which is why I say that. If you mean in general, though, I'm...thinking about studying up."
Which she had! Not that she was overjoyed at the prospect of more school, but given her Wonder and everything it seemed like the sort of thing she ought to at least try to pick up.
"The first thing I looked for was a light switch," she went on, happy to skip over chattering about her personal plans. She had a feeling he wouldn't be too interested anyway. "Or at least some sort of way to bring the power back. I had...help. From the Code Piece on my Wonder. A hint, sort of." And then she pursed her lips, again considering. She had meant to invite him on a trip to her Wonder, but...
"Well. If you want, I could come along the next time you go? See if there's anything I can see, since I have a little more experience?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
