[Open] The end of one story is simply the start of another

[meanmonkey]

Who| Sariatu and anyone who wants to say hi!
What| Finding her way around, meeting some people, all that new person jazz
Where| Legion World, various common places - the mess hall, near the crew quarters, and on the observation deck
When| ...Now? Obviously after Kubo's whole autobiographical storytime dealio.
Warnings/Notes| This is a moon lady who turns into a monkey. Also spoilers for Kubo and the Two Strings I guess, if Kubo himself somehow didn't spoil you.

Sariatu is not sure about this whole "super hero" thing.

That's not to say she doesn't approve, at least theoretically, of what they're doing here. It's a noble quest, and an important one if what the Legion says is true, about all worlds being in danger. Still, these... code names and tight costumes and all that? Silliness that she's not intending to partake in.

She can simply be Monkey, apparently, if she has to fight. She can just use her name. All the rest of it-- well, Hanzo probably would've enjoyed it. Kubo, too. She, however, couldn't give a damn. So for now, she is wearing her own robes, when human, and has promised she'll attempt to work with the costume makers over the next few days.

In the meantime, she has a lot to get used to: technology, reminding herself how to fly (and with this entirely new way of doing so, thanks, ring), find her way around. Today, she's spending time in some of the more heavily-trafficked areas. Anyone near the crew quarters might run into an unnaturally large macaque, walking slowly through the area, looking critically and rather intelligently at its surroundings.

In the mess, one might notice the tall, regal-looking woman in the red and gold robes, frowning at the chef who's handing her a bowl of rice with vegetables and some sort of tofu. "I don't understand how a civilized society can not have fish," she mutters, none too quietly, as she glides away, her expression shifting to "slightly uncertain" as she surveys the large room and the many filled tables.

The same woman can be found, a bit later, on the observation deck, staring out at the shattered moon and the planet below. Her expression is relatively peaceful, and strangely smug and satisfied as she looks at the moon. She's feeling almost friendly, and will smile in acknowledgement at anyone she notices come near her.

Comments

[meanmonkey]

She smiles slowly, realizing what it must be before she even takes it, but does indeed draw it, careful not to cut Kubo or anything.

"The Sword Unbreakable," she says with... well, it's not reverence, exactly, but there's a weight to it. The weight of memory, perhaps. She does a couple of fancier movements, then sheathes it, looking satisfied.

"I'm glad you were wise enough to keep this with you," she says. "I'm also glad to have it back in my hand." She unfolds herself out of Monkey's form again, using the ties to attach it to her own belt, under her outer robes. Not the best option, but it will do for now. Especially since she'd rather be a human right now, with Kubo.

She reaches out to take his hand. "Thank you for letting me use it. Though there's a young man here I may let practice with it. He said he would need a sword that wouldn't break before he got sent out, and while he can't have mine, it wouldn't do for him to fall too far out of practice. He was a kind young man." She pauses a moment, pursing her lips. "Odd, but kind."

[turntex]

"Mine's the meteor over that way," he says, pointing to where the tops of some grey metal buildings are just visible over the top of someone's forest. "'Course, when it's not actively flying through paradox space it's more of a lump of spacerock with a bunch of ugly buildings built into it."

It was always pretty quiet there anyway, so it doesn't feel weird that it's mostly missing the other residents he shared the place with the last few years. Hell, there were stretches of time early on in the trip, before he and Karkat started hanging out, where he didn't see any of the others for more than a week at a time. And of course, Karkat's here now to chill with, so it's almost like nothing's changed.

[bachido]

"What was his name?" Kubo asked without jealousy. He probably knew the young person, and he was glad to hear that people had already been kind to his mother.

"I'm glad you're here to take it," he countered, wrapping his hand around hers, eager still to take it. He pressed his lips together. "Ultimately, it didn't really do very much good in my hands."

His shamisen had served him better. His love for her had served him better.

But that didn't mean that he could go on with the rudimentary swordsmanship he had when he was in a situation that called for every skill he could possibly strive for.

"Mother . . . I know I wasn't always as attentive during our sword training lessons when I was a child, but would you give me a second chance to be your student?"

It wasn't as though he actually expected her to say no. But after two years to think about what he could have learned from her, if they'd both had time, if he'd been as interested in the sword as he was in the shamisen . . . after his breakdown the last time he practiced the little he knew, he only wanted her to know how much he had come to value what she'd already been able to teach him.

[blue_flame]

The way Sariatu holds herself makes it clear to Azula why she at first mistook the woman for Ursa. They had that same calm demeanour that never seemed fazed by anything.

"A few months," Azula admits after a moment.

[notthatjason]

He'd much rather deal with one of those.

Her reminder of his discipline makes him smile but he shakes his head, "This is...an independent study I guess you could say, so there isn't so much a risk of running late. Besides, it would be bad manners for me to offer and then not follow through." He may have been raised by wolves but that didn't mean he always had to act as wild as that. "Or we can compromise. I'll show you the places along the way to the training gym and that way I'll be on my way to training and still show you around a little."

[kingtyrantranger]

He shrugs and tucks the banana back into his bag, biting off the bit of his that was already in his mouth and swallowing. It sort of says something about his life at this point that he considers the fact that the monkey refused the banana more unusual than the fact that it can talk.

"Yeah, they're pretty good like that." Shame about the meat, though. But monkeys don't eat meat, right? "Sorry to bother you, then."

[meanmonkey]

"I'm not sure I understood all of that," Sariatu comments with a small huff of laughter. "What is a paradox space? And why would a sweet boy like you have anything to do with space? It's cold and heartless and no place for mortals."

[meanmonkey]

"I think it was... Dave? All these strange names, it's hard to remember them all, honestly." She purses her lips. "I'm almost certain it was Dave."

And then Kubo's going on about sword training and Sariatu is so proud that he wants to actually take his training more seriously. She resists the urge to cuddle him for it this time, though, schooling her face serious (but not too serious).

"If you promise to be on time to your lessons and practice on your own as often as I tell you, I would be honored to have you as my student again."

[meanmonkey]

She gets fazed. She just tends to get defensive and angry when that happens. And she's pretty good at keeping her emotions in check.

Sariatu watches Azula for a moment, while she answers. "You would be able to tell me if being here is too good to be true, then, or if it's always this easy. Yes?"

[turntex]

Dave can't help the scoffing laugh that escapes his as he ducks under a low-hanging branch. Hell, he couldn't even decide what was the funniest part of all that. Calling him a sweet boy? The implication that home was less cold and heartless than the meteor? Trying to figure out how to explain game mechanic bullshit? Hoo boy.

"It's like...space, but it exists in multiple universes at once? Fu--udge," he hastily corrects himself, because wow it is actually difficult as all hell to watch his language, he barely even pays attention to what comes out of his mouth most of the time, "I don't know, my sis would have been able to explain it better."

Ack. He needs to stop doing that. It's a little embarrassing how much he's starting to miss Rose.

"And the mortality train has long since left the station, it's on its way to Kansas or some shit now. Ugh, whoops." Waving off his slipup with a lazy gesture, Dave just shrugs. "Earth got thoroughly wrecked and then I blew myself up in the birth of a sun and now I'm a god. Or was, maybe, I dunno. Haven't really experimented to test the limits of my mortality here. Sounds like a dumb way to die, yup Dave was trying to figure out if he was still immortal and it turns out he isn't, so that's one mystery solved."

[meanmonkey]

"That sounds like a story for a rainy day as well," Sariatu comments, and she almost sounds impressed - if he's telling the truth, that's a sort of story she's never heard tell of being true.

"I've never run into a human who'd become immortal," she comments. "Though in my experience, even an immortal can be killed if the circumstances are right."

A pause, then, "So it's probably for the best you don't test it for now. If you're going to die, you should at least have some dignity." She suppresses most of a smile, but catches his eye and winks. She can understand the strange morbid humor of that sort of talk very well, having both been immortal at one point and dead twice over.

[meanmonkey]

They do tend to be preferable to Juno, it's true.

"Ah, self-driven," she says, with a knowing nod. "I appreciate your courtesy, and I accept your compromise. Especially if it allows me to see where I can train." She steps forward so he can lead and she can fall into step with him. "Do they have swords at this training... gym? I wouldn't like to fall out of practice."

[turntex]

"'S not that complicated a story," Dave says with a shrug, and wow doesn't that sound familiar? He feels like he's said almost that exact same thing to someone else recently. Weird. "Suicide mission ended in deafh, shockingly enough. We were just lucky enough to die in the right way so we could roll back onto the scene like guess who's back and godtier?"

He certainly doesn't look very godly, even with that knowledge out their to alter one's perception. He's still a lanky, pale teenager with shitty posture and some very comfy-looking but definitely undignified-looking pajamas. And the shades, of course, those don't really do much for the godly image.

"But nah, you're right," he says, nodding absently. "Rules like that are probably a universal constant. For us it pretty much boiled down to immortal unless the death is heroic or just but for the fishwitch it was more immortal unless you use a certain kind of weapon and hell if I know how some of our friends dealt with the immortal green skullmonster. Now that I think about it, there was a whole lotta immortality going around back home. More common than the cold after a while, I think I knew less mortal people than immortal ones by the end there. Granted, most of the mortal ones died so I guess we should have seen an outcome like that coming..."

[blue_flame]

Easy. That wasn't a word Azula had heard used to describe this place before. "What do you mean?" she asked. "How is any of this too good to be true?"

[bachido]

"Dave is my friend! He's a really good friend. He helped me with these machines - Mother, they can make a recording here of something that's happening, and show it over and over again. So I can tell a story once and it's told forever, but since I don't know how that works, Dave helped me - "

His excitement faded a little, too many topics tumbling over themselves in his head, all trying to get out at once.

"Is he going to train with us?" he settled on. He'd get to the other important things later. Excitement at the prospect of training with his friend and his mother bubbled up in him, almost too much to contain.

[notthatjason]

So the woman who can transform into a monkey can also use a sword? Why isn't Jason more surprised by these things? Jason begins walking, "Just so you know, before we get too far, these are the crew quarters. You can sleep in the rooms here and there should be one set aside for you I think." He gestured over his shoulder, figuring he should point that out before the moved on both in topic and in tour.

As for her question, "I think I've seen some that are for training purposes. I've used them a few times when I didn't want to run the risk of hurting someone with a real sword. Back home, my sword usually doesn't work on mortals but I guess here some of the properties changed. I have to be more careful with it." He hadn't had a chance to test it on more magically inclined beings, but he hoped it would still serve its purpose in that regard as well. Otherwise his former Legion would not be happy to hear that one of their Imperial Gold weapons was now just a normal sword without the ability to hurt monsters.

"How long have you used a sword?"

[onei]

"I really can't feel comfortable in most of the styles here," Ina admits. "It all feels so...exposed."

She's had the logic explained to her, of course, and some of it she'd guessed on her own anyway. Less things to be grabbed in a fight, and once they'd showed her how the transuits worked, it made sense that flowing clothes would be far harder to get them on over - but she'd never thought it was possible to feel so naked with hardly an inch of skin showing.

slides in here fashionably late if you'll have me

[good_bamf_ugly]

McCree's still new to the station and makes rounds of moseying about at his leisure. It's the best way to learn the lay of the land. Shame he can't do it in a saddle but the light jingling of his boot spurs as he comes and goes will have to suffice. He's not hard to miss boots aside; he's got a bright red serape over his shoulders and cigar smoke trails behind him as he walks.

Or the fact he's not shy about taking in an eyeful. Yeah not every day (even on intergalactic superhero space station extraordinaire) you see a giant white macaque wandering around. If she catches his eye he'll be polite about it and tip his hat in greeting.

"Howdy." The greeting is amicable enough, but then he overthinks it. "Ape? Uh... Monkey?" Smooth. "Creature." Super smooth. Shoot--Winston would get his goat right now wouldn't he...? Maybe it'd understand anyway and wasn't about to be offended.

always!

[meanmonkey]

Monkey turns to give McCree a very obviously unimpressed look, one eyebrow raised in an expression of bafflement - 'wow, seriously?'. That was impressively awkward.

Every teenaged boy she's met so far in this place has been smoother than him. That's quite a feat.

Still, she's not currently in the mood to turn down conversation, especially with an adult, so she plows forward, hoping this conversation will not prove to be as uninspiring as its beginning.

"Monkey," she says dryly, as she unfolds into her human shape - regal bearing, long robes (beautiful but worn), and long greying hair that would drag on the floor if her robes didn't have such a long train. "But you can call me Sariatu, as that is my name."

[good_bamf_ugly]

To be fair McCree is generally much smoother than this, but sometimes a giant white macaque in space will give a stumble. Or apparently not even that--his eyebrows go up and hide high under the rim of his hat as she transforms, like that isn't the weirdest part of this encounter so far. (It's weird). But not unappreciated as he tips his hat up again in a more impressed gesture.

"Jesse McCree. 'Fraid what you see is what you get with me." He winks, warm and leisurely taking back any of the awkwardness from his initial greeting. "Ain't seen you around these parts, unless Monkey isn't all that you do."