Relocated
Posted on Friday October 30th, 2020 @ 12:10 hours by Alexandria Farron & Lozen Nachtnebel & Kari Pahlmihr
Edited on on Thursday February 11th, 2021 @ 09:29 hours
Mission:
Safe Passage
Location: Lozen's private quarters
Timeline: After: Disjointed... Literally
1653 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure
Lo felt more than a little bad about Alex's arm, though she wasn't exactly certain if she had been responsible for it with all her pulling. So, after the capitalistic doctor (two words Lo absolutely felt should never be combined) finished tending to the dislocated shoulder, to which there had luckily been no tendon damage, Lo insisted on bringing both Kari and Alex back to her quarters where the Pulsar Sword was on full display atop her coffee table.
"Well? What do you think?" she asked, feeling oddly nervous. Something about awakening her own inner kid brought with it a whole host of anxieties that warred with her internal image of herself as a serious adult. Draped over the side of her bed was her Commander Carter costume, too, and Lo felt distinctly that she'd taken too many liberties by mixing the seasons one and three designs.
Alexandria was very glad to have her arm fully functional again, as that had not been a pleasant experience. As a former Olympic athlete and gold medalist in table tennis she'd been concerned that her competing days were over. Well, actually they were over, now that she was banned from the sport, but it would be nice to actually play a game and have a chance of winning with her shoulder not falling out of its socket again.
What the navigator was not glad about, however, was the excuse for the injury. The best her friends had been able to come up with was that she'd hurt it doing yoga. That didn't sound very badass. And why did everyone think she did yoga? Yes, she did wear leggings and fitted tee shirts practically every day, but she preferred to not act like a human pretzel, for reasons that were now perfectly obvious. But the doctor apparently didn't much care how she got hurt, so long as he got paid. That didn't bother her nearly as much as it seemed to bother the others. Few doctors would be willing to replace perfectly good synthetic organs with new, bleeding-edge models with no questions asked, and it was nice to actually know a doctor who might.
But as soon as Alexandria got two steps into Lo's cabin, she forgot about all that. She saw the sword, and in that moment, she really didn't care about anything else. It was awesome. Beyond awesome. She stepped closer for a better look. She didn't realize she was letting out a menacing squee.
In truth, Alexandria knew very little about swords, and what she did know was through her very recent research into recreating the Pulsar Sword. It was essentially a Medieval crusader sword with a modernized hilt and cruciform guard. It was a slightly scaled down version, basically a lean, one-handed arming sword, but with a hybrid hand-and-a-half grip. The Pulsar Sword was a two-handed longsword, but Alexandria had to face facts that she would not be able to handle a sword of that size, and it would've looked ridiculous strapped to her back or hip (the game gave the player the choice of how to wear it). The sword had a banded tiger-stripe pattern from tip to hilt, probably a by-product of using the warp coils in the forging process. It looked similar to Damascus pattern steel, though the process was likely entirely different. It was a darkened, blued steel, and it looked like all it needed was the electrostatic glaze coating that would make it appear as if it was crackling with energy.
Alexandria reached for the sword, but her hand stopped short, as if reaching an invisible force field. Then she looked at Kari expectantly.
Kari was impressed with the craftsmanship that had gone into the sword, it looked really nice. She saw Alexandria reach for it and then suddenly stop and looking at her. She frowned a bit, wondering what the hesitation was. It was almost as if she was asking permission to pick it up. From her. The navigator was a profoundly weird woman, "What are you waiting for? Give it a swing!" She encouraged her.
Lo watched the exchange and failed to keep the wide grin off her face.
"Oh... ah... in the game, Princess Saya Iridalis bestows the Pulsar Sword, and title of Knight of Lumnara upon the Star Crusader." Alexandria said sheepishly. With her all hyped up over the cosplay and her imagination in overdrive, maybe Alexandria had a moment of difficulty in separating fantasy from reality. But Kari did kind of look like Princess Saya...
Alexandria picked up the sword. It made a *shiing* sound as shifted against the desktop... a sound straight out of the holovids. It was heavy, heavier than she'd been expecting, but the balance felt good. Her shoulder protested a little, but was able to manage the weight. The blade was not sharp, of course, as the authorities on Betazed no doubt frowned upon wearing a real sword in public. It looked sharp though. She spun the blade in a few tight arcs with a few deft flicks of her wrist, but didn't actually swing it around. The cabin wasn't very large, and her friends were right there with her. Plus they were in Lo's cabin and she didn't want to accidentally smash any of her stuff. The navigator did strike a pose though, turning around to face her friends. It probably looked ridiculous, given how she was dressed not as a star crusader, but in her usual fake yoga hipster style.
At that point most people probably would've asked how they looked, or said thanks for such an awesome thing. Those people weren't Alexandria, however. She was still in a state of shock and hadn't gotten around to thoughts of vanity and gratitude yet. With the sword in her hands, she was just starting to realize that she might actually stand a chance of winning the cosplay competition!
"I'm going to look so amateurishly underdressed with you wielding that," Kari chuckled a bit, she still had some last-minute stitches to do, but they weren't at Betazed yet, "Does the princess get a sword?" She should've read up more on the character beyond the way the outfit looked that she had picked.
Alexandria's mouth went agape for a moment. What was Kari talking about? Princess Saya was perhaps the most popular character in the game. She had the most fan-art by far. The female star crusader was not a very popular cosplay in the franchise, as most of the other women in the game had more interesting and flattering outfits than space armor and a glowing sword. When they arrived at the convention, everyone was going to be looking at her. Alexandria didn't really know whether she should say that though. She didn't really think Kari would believe her. After all, she'd told Kari that she was married several times, she still didn't seem to believe that.
"I've never seen her with a sword... except for when she presents the Pulsar Sword." Alexandria shrugged. "She wears a small belt knife or dagger at her waist, and a small pocket laser stashed somewhere." In one scene she pulls the laser out and shoots at Xorplu's minions during her kidnapping, but the weapon just seems to appear in her hand after she brushes it against her skirt. A lot of the fan-art liked to show the princess plucking the pocket laser from her garter, but that would be impractical, as reaching under long skirts in such a manner was far easier said than done. "As far as I know she isn't armed while wearing the wedding gown though."
Lo watched the exchange with a smile playing around the sides of her mouth. Alex made for a somewhat unlikely friend, if only because of her more neurotic tendencies, but Lo realized just how much she'd come to like the Navigator during the last week. If she were being honest with herself, neither Alex nor Kari seemed much like what Lo expected when she took the job. They were... good people. Now, staring at them while they chatted about the details of Alex's favorite game, holding a sword that she, Lo, had spent several long hours crafting (using not-entirely-Starfleet-approved methods of plasma forging), she found within herself a feeling that she hadn't experienced much in some time: happiness.
"How long until we arrive on Betazed?" Kari looked over at Alexandria, as the navigator she probably should know this. It was clear that she was eager to get there, and Kari started to realise that in order to show that she was really supportive of Alex she needed to do a bit more work on her own costume. Time was running out for her.
For a moment Alexandria felt like she should know the answer to that, but she didn't. Not for certain, anyway. "Idunno." She mumbled with a shrug. "Captain May won't let me back on the bridge until I stop sneezing everywhere." Anything could've happened in the time since her last bridge shift to now, as she did not fully trust the ship's autopilot. Alexandria only then realized that she had stopped sneezing. That sneaky doctor had probably slipped some allergy medication into her hypospray cocktail when she'd gone in for her shoulder. "Fourteen hours maybe? Should be enough time for me to fashion a scabbard for this." Alexandria said as she held the sword with reverence, before placing it back on Lo's desk. She'd said it still needed some finishing touches.
Alexandria still didn't know what to say about all her friends had done for her. She should probably say something. A simple thanks just sounded kind of lame. As she thought on it, some form of instinct kicked in and instead she just stepped forward toward Kari and Lo in a rush, and with an arm around each of them, pulled both into a semi-awkward hug.