Open Post: The Arms of the Emperor are Never Idle

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon spends her mornings in the practice yard, bright and early, despite the cold. She jogs and stretches to get her blood pumping and her muscles warm before she draws her sword, and then after drills she brings Tally her coffee, and then after that it's back to more sword—unless Tally hauls her off to some other activity, which she pretends to hate but is secretly devastatingly grateful for. The absolute worst part of this place is all the time. Endless stretches of time, with barely any work to be done.

In some ways it's just like the Ninth—except on the Ninth she knew her exits. They were few, sure, and near-impossible, but she knew them: buy her way out, fight her way out, trick her way out, or truly earn it.

None of those apply, here.

She breaks for lunch, and wanders the halls trying to locate various Clues and Mysteries that might end up giving her a way out, and mostly just finds people. More and more people.

She's not antisocial. She likes the people here, more than she's openly liked anyone in her life, individually or as a group. But a gnawing restlessness keeps her on the move rather than letting her time fill up with idle conversation as so many here do. She's always hunting for something to keep her busy, to wear out her body so that when she sleeps her mind is forced to rest rather than serving her a lovely buffet of the worst things she's ever seen and even worse things she hasn't, the things she was yoinked away just in time to miss.

Sometimes it even works.

[This post is open in perpetuity until something happens to make me close it, at which point I will edit it and say so! Feel free to find Gideon in the morning doing sword drills, or tooling around inside, opening and closing drawers and trying peel the wallpaper off in case there's flesh underneath.]

Comments

[ninth_cavalier]

"Sure," says Gideon. "But—you've been here a long time, right? And Sagramore says you—have someone, back home." Her face shifts, and she sighs, a bit dramatically. "Which was a real bummer for me, I gotta say."

[sporesprouter]

"Almost as long as anyone here, and yeah, I--" She pauses. "Oh. Um. I'm... sorry?" Is that even an appropriate response?

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon grins. "Don't be. I'll just take it as a challenge." She reaches out a tweaks one of Tress' curls. "Just kidding. What were you gonna say?"

[sporesprouter]

"Oh. Just that yes, I have someone at home, and yes, I miss him, and yes, it makes it hard sometimes." She shrugs. "So nothing really surprising, I guess."

[ninth_cavalier]

"I didn't ask because I was expecting a novel answer," says Gideon drily. "You just seem..." She shrugs.

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "I just... I miss home, a lot. But I can't let that be the only thing I think of, either, or I won't be living, if that makes sense."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Having only one thing you obsessively think about is pretty much the only way I know how to live," says Gideon, "especially if that thing is escape. But—yeah, sure, you do you."

[sporesprouter]

"Maybe try to think of a second thing to obsessively think about. And then you can switch between the two for variety, even if it's pretty close to just thinking about one."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon's first thought is Harrow, and she immediately banishes it back to the depths of hell where it belongs. She's not obsessed with Harrow; Harrow is a plague upon her, a weight around her neck, and simply impossible to ignore. "I tried getting obsessed with freeing Tally from her surveillance bracelet, but no one would let us chop off her hand."

[sporesprouter]

"Maybe that's because chopping off her hand is a terrible idea."

[ninth_cavalier]

"It would regrow," says Gideon, rolling her eyes. "Assuming Magnus can do that, which we're all pretty sure he can."

[sporesprouter]

"That's still basing a lot on an assumption."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon sighs. "You know, for a pirate, you don't seem to like taking risks."

[sporesprouter]

"First of all, not actually a pirate. But it's not that I don't take risks, I just don't like to risk other people."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Oh, it was Tally's idea," says Gideon, though she can't actually remember whether it was or not. Whatever; Tally had definitely been extremely willing. "She's kind of nuts. Loves to climb ridiculously tall things and push people off 'em. If anything, I'm the level-headed, boring one in our, uh. Deal."

[sporesprouter]

"There are worse things to be than levelheaded and boring."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon smirks at her. "Levelheaded, maybe, mostly because I wouldn't want to insult my lovely present company. But I think if you'll consult intergalactic law, being boring is actually the worst crime you could possibly commit. Punishable by dismemberment and then life imprisonment."

[sporesprouter]

"Oh no," she says with faux dismay. "That might be a problem, because I promise I've been boring much more often than I've been interesting."

[ninth_cavalier]

"You say this, yet you walk around in a coat you stole from a boat-cop," points out Gideon. "I think you might just think of yourself as boring. Like, describe to me your hobbies, I bet they're not boring at all."

[sporesprouter]

"I didn't technically do the stealing, but okay, I get your point. Hobbies, though... I don't think sprouting counts as a hobby, so... I collect cups?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Collecting cups is, in fact, kind of boring, so Gideon ignores it. "Sorry, what's sprouting?"

[sporesprouter]

"It's my other job on my ship. It's just working with spores."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Spores. Like... mold?" Gideon asks dubiously.

[sporesprouter]

"No, no, from the moons." She smiles a little. "Didn't look at the table?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Oh, right, the table. "Oh, yeah. I did read something about all that, but, uh, I skimmed it." She makes a face. "No pictures, see? You want me to read something, you gotta put hot babes on there."