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Juniper Golding ([info]juniper_golding) wrote in [info]mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-10-22 09:41:00

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Entry tags:arrival, complete, day 19, juniper golding, legolas greenleaf

Who: Juniper and Legolas
When: Day 19, early afternoon
Where: Near the plaque
What: Juniper's arrival
Rating: TBA
Status: Incomplete



It was just another day. Another space of time between time and place, where Juniper lay stoically on her bed, doing her best to not think of what she'd lost. Of the good soul that had risked his life to save her own. Who had taken his own life to appease the Fates. It was useless, and Juniper knew it. She was meant to die; by fire, as she'd already survived the water, and nothing that Dylan could have done could have prevented that. And now he was lost, just as assuredly as she would be, in a mere handful of months.

Closing her eyes, Juniper let out a steady and long breath, centering herself. It was time to go. To find some other space where she could hide, just for a few hours. Until the next wave of distractions broke through her concentration, useless but well-meant attempts to pull her out of her stupor. Egypt maybe. Yes, that's where she'd go. It would be nice to feel the blistering sun instead of the constant rain of London. Egypt was a good distraction. Spying on pharaohs was always entertaining.

She felt the familiar pull as her soul ripped from her body, the comforting pressure of passing time and space while her physical self remained on her bed. But then, there was a flash of light. Not the warm, golden light of the desert sun, but something darker, more permanent.

Opening her eyes, Juniper stared. She was in a vineyard. This was not the plan. Where were the pyramids? The Sphinx? There were just grapes and vines, nothing to tell her where she was. So Juniper started walking, determined to figure out this mystery. It wasn't until a brush of her arm knocked a bunch of grapes to the ground that she realised the truth. This wasn't a mistake of her own making. This was something else. Her body was in this place, as well as her mind.

Just as she started to panic, imagining her mother's reaction when she found the house empty, no note, and no return of her daughter, something appeared in front of her. Before she had the chance to question it, she was wordlessly guided to a building, and pointed toward a plaque on the side of it.

"Welcome to Mirage," Juniper read. "This is your new home. Your every need will be fulfilled. You will have a place to live. You will have food and clothing. You will have entertainment. You will have company. You will not be able to leave. You will not kill. Ever. If you have questions, ask my assistants. Love, The Planet."

"Wait, I need to go home!" she cried, turning toward the silent figure. But it was gone, and she was alone again.


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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 02:54 pm UTC (link)
Juniper had to blush at the kiss to her hand, and she tried to wave it off as best as she could. "And I you, Prince Legolas. But please, just Juniper works. Or Juni." The nickname came out automatically, but caught in her throat a bit, so obviously that she knew she'd need to explain it. "A friend of mine - my best friend. He used to call me that," she said with a sad little smile. "He passed last spring."

Her eyes popped and Juniper wanted to play with that immediately, but he was already heading out. "Wai--" she started to call him back, but decided that she could play on her own time instead of wasting his.

Hurrying after the elf, Juniper caught up and made her way through the door to the outside again, and gave him a smile. "So what? Do we concentrate on an archery range?" she asked with a little laugh, interested in how these things worked. Her eyes moved around a bit mischievously for a second and then she smiled and closed them. An apple popped up into her palm. "Niiiice," she grinned, taking a bite out of it and laughing.

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 03:04 pm UTC (link)
"Juni..." He smiled and nodded slightly. "I like the way that sounds, and it suits you. I am sorry about your friend. If it would not cause you too much pain, I would call you by the name he did." He paused and turned to look at her, wondering if he was crossing a line. But he just simply wasn't that good at knowing how to be tactful. "When did he recieve the Gift of Men?" Belatedly, he realized she might not know what that was. "Death... it is what the elves call it on my world."

He smiled, though, as she made the fruit appear in her hand. "I never thought to try that..." He glanced around, nodding. "Just think very hard about an archery range, and a bow for you. Mine is slightly large..." He did as he suggested, thinking about a range similar to the one he and Susan had had their friendly competition on. Sure enough, it sprang into being. An assortment of targets, including the standard bullseye, and a variety of bows and several quivers of arrows.

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 03:11 pm UTC (link)
"Thank you," she said, nodding. "And it's fine. I suppose that I need to start trying to move on, now that there's nothing holding me back," she said, gesturing around to indicate the world she'd found herself in. There certainly weren't reminders of Dylan here.

"I wouldn't call it a gift," she said almost tersely, shaking her head. "About six months ago. In a car accident that was meant to take me," she told him, her jaw tight as she struggled to not cry. "He killed himself to save me, the fool." She looked for anything to distract herself and settled on his phrasing. "You can't die?"

While she waited for his answer, Juniper looked around at the range and then went to the bows. They were of all sizes, and Juniper held up a couple, trying to figure out which one would be best for her. "How do I tell which one to use?" she asked, shifting her grip on one so she could wipe under her eye with the back of her hand.

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 03:31 pm UTC (link)
He grinned, a mischievious twinkle coming into his eyes. "Perhaps I shall call you Lady Juni, then. A comprimise between my world and yours." He was trying, in his own way, to make her feel better. He didn't know if it was working, but he could only try.

"Death is a gift, for elves must linger on, unchanging. Men have the fortune to move onto something better." He smiled. "I am unlikely to die. If someone did great injury to me, or if I got very sad, I would fade from the world, but to truly pass on? That is reserved for the Humans. To the elven folk, this seems like a great gift."

He walked over to her and hesitated before placing a hand on her shoulder. It was exactly the sort of thing he would do for any of his friends if they were upset, a sort of show of support between comrades. "Hold them all, and find one that has a bow string that will pull back with some effort, but that doesn't require too much of an effort."

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 04:13 pm UTC (link)
"Works for me," she allowed, giving him a smile. But it faded quickly, and Juniper shook her head. "Sadness doesn't kill humans," she said thickly. "It just makes you wish you were dead. Besides, there isn't anywhere to go. At least, not for me. I just...keep having more lives," she shrugged, not sure if he'd understand. "There's no heaven, at least, not one that I've found."

She smiled at him and the comfort, and then focused on the task at hand. For Juniper, choosing a weapon was just as important as choosing a friend, and she took it very seriously. It also didn't hurt that she could - in her mind's eye - already see the one she'd use, if she concentrated hard enough.

It wasn't long until she pulled a bow from the back of the pile and smiled, testing the weight in her hands. "This is it," she said, before she'd even tried the string. And when she did, it pulled back just easily enough. "Yup, this one."

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 04:44 pm UTC (link)
This wasn't a concept he was familiar with. There was no rebirth in Middle Earth, at least, not that Legolas knew about. It was said that Aragorn had the look of his forebearer, Isildur, and that the Evenstar Arwen looked like Luthien the Fair, but that was it. He frowned and shook his head. "I fear I do not understand... how is it that you can have more than one life?"

He watched as she rummaged through the weapons. "For the elven folk, sadness can send us to the Halls of Mandos, where we must stay for many years. Only once we have been purified may we return to Valinor, our home." He was getting used to explaining this stuff, since he basically had been doing it since he first came to Mirage.

When she picked, the elf took the bow from her and nodded. She'd picked a good one, light enough for her to use, yet sturdy enough that it wasn't delicate. He smiled at her in approval. "A good choice, Lady Juni." Holding his own bow easily, he walked over to a bullseye. Close enough that she stood a chance of hitting it, he stood and took careful aim, just to show her how it was done. "Stand as I am."

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 04:53 pm UTC (link)
Juniper wondered how to explain it to someone with no concept of reincarnation, and so took a minute to think. Then she got a spurt of inspiration. "When a flower dies, it decays, goes into the ground, right? Then, the next spring, that same flower feeds the others that grow in it's place, is reborn as a part of them," she paused, waiting for him to acknowledge that he got it. "It's the same with me - or people - I'm not sure if everyone goes through it or not. I die, but my soul doesn't. Eventually, I get a new life, a new start. It's only because of what I can do that I know that this happens. I have memories of times and places that I've never actually been before. My past lives."

She watched him take his stance, walking around him once as she slung a quiver of arrows across her back. She remembered watching him shoot before, and though the movement had been quick, she'd caught the important bits. As previously mentioned, she was a quick study.

Taking a breath, she stood next to Legolas and planted her feet, aligning her body to the target, and held up the bow. After testing the string, Juniper pulled an arrow from behind her and fit it to her finger, drawing the string back and letting go. It hit the bottom edge of the target, which made her scowl. Juniper expected nothing less than perfection from herself. "What'd I miss?" she asked, turning to look at Legolas expectantly, unaware of any surprise that might have come from her jumping ahead in the lesson.

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 05:29 pm UTC (link)
To his credit, he listened to her all the way through before he spoke, and nodded to show he understood. "I do not understand, however. When a flower dies, does it not lose all of it's quality of being a flower? It goes back into the dirt and becomes dirt once more." He shook his head. "I do not think I understand, Lady." It wasn't that he was stupid, just that there was no similar thing on Middle Earth, no culture there that believed anything similar.

His eyebrows rose as she shot, and he shook his head, a wide smile on his face. Playfully, he reached over and pushed her hair back from her ears. "Are you certain, Lady Juni, that you are not an elf? Never have I seen a human take to the bow as quickly as you have."

Quickly recovering, he stood behind her and nudged her leg slightly into a position of better balance. "From this stance, you may either shoot or break into a run. This is important for an archer." He watched her closely. "Pull an arrow, and put it to the string. The arrow should be at the level of your eye, for easier aiming."

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 05:39 pm UTC (link)
"Yes, but a part, a little piece, of it remains, right?" Juniper asked. "That's what I mean. That little piece of me - my soul - it sticks around. When I come back, it's never the same body, just the same...me," she shrugged. "It's hard to explain."

She laughed when he checked her ear and shook her head. "I'm a fast learner," she shrugged. "You should see me with a sword," she said, and allowed herself a little bit of cockiness. Sure, Legolas could probably fence her into the ground, but she'd gotten so good back home that her instructor had stopped teaching her, so that had to count for something.

Adjusting into the position indicated, Juniper fit another arrow onto the string and drew it back slowly, watching her eyeline. Once she was sure that she had that part right, she let go of the slack and then drew it back again with the intent to fire this time, instead of a slow-motion deal. The arrow hit the very outer edge of the bullseye, and Juniper cheered. "You're a blinding teacher," she beamed.

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 05:55 pm UTC (link)
"I suppose." He shrugged a little, not really fully getting it. But then, he didn't quite get how Marcus could sail in a ship from star to star, either. It didn't mean he didn't believe it possible, just that it went beyond what he could understand. "It seems, then, that you are truly immortal. Just as I am."

The elf laughed softly and shook his head. Ahh, the arrogance of the very young. Of course, people accused him of that all the time. Other elves, at least. "I am not overly skilled with a sword, but I am more than competant with knives. Someday, we shall spar."

He watched critically as she drew back and fired, and nodded in satisfaction. "I am not so much a good teacher, as you are a gifted learner. It is rare even among elves to learn this skill so quickly, and you are no elf."

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 05:59 pm UTC (link)
Juniper chuckled somewhat darkly. "Maybe, but I'd prefer one real life. Dying over and over and over again isn't fun. Or comfortable."

"It's a date," Juniper said with a nod, grinning. Even if she got her ass handed to her, it would still be fun. She coloured up a bit at the praise and looked at the target. "It's nice to be good at something useful," she allowed. "Well, sort of useful," she shrugged.

Fitting another arrow to the string, Juniper fired again, and this time, truly hit the bullseye. "I feel like I need to teach you something now," she said with a little laugh. "Or do something for you. How can I repay the lesson?"

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 07:42 pm UTC (link)
"Perhaps so." He nodded. It made sense to him, even if he had no experience with it himself. But he was clever enough to be able to get it on some level. Who would want to die over and over? From what he'd seen of Boromir's death, it wasn't a particularly pleasant process.

The elf laughed. "It is a piece of fruit?" He'd never heard the term before, not except for the tropical fruit which he'd tried while here on Mirage. It didn't make a lot of sense to him. "Archery is very useful, for the wood elves it is the basis of how we survive. Here, I suppose it is little more than a game... or that was the case before the kidnapping..."

He turned to her, eyebrows still raised. "You are talented. I am pleased to have taught you." His head tilted to the side as he considered. "You could teach me much of..." He struggled with the unfamilar word "Technology. Do you have this on your world? On Middle Earth, we have very little."

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 07:49 pm UTC (link)
Juniper laughed lightly and shook her head. "No, not the fruit. Um...it's uh...a plan, I suppose. When two people make a commitment to be together at a certain place and time," she explained awkwardly. "Sometimes it's used under a romantic context, but I didn't mean it that way, of course," she said quickly.

"What exactly happened?" Juniper asked, interested, instead of fearful like she probably should have been.

Juniper nodded. "I can do that. What do you want to learn about? I mean, there's so much, and I'm not sure what you had so I don't know what to base it off of," she said, turning with the intent of going back to her room, where she could apparently materialize a computer if she wanted one. But then she paused. "What do we do about all of this?" she asked, gesturing to the archery range. "How do we...clean up?"

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-23 08:23 pm UTC (link)
"I see." He looked at her and shook his head. "Humans have such strange words for things. Especially here." He was teasing, of course. At one point, he had had a bit of a complex about feeling that he was better than humans, but that had faded long ago, with his exposure to the short-lived race.

The elf sighed, and a different sort of expression came over his face. While he seemed fairly easygoing most of the time, when speaking of the kidnapping, a sort of darker cast came over his face. "People were taken. My King, and a close friend Giselle. They were taken, and I believe the plan was to sacrifice them."

He looked at the stuff and shrugged. "I suppose the Planet will clean it up." He smiled. "I do not think much on it. Perhaps the golems will come to get it. Or it will simply disappear." When she turned away, he made to follow her, slinging his bow over his shoulder.

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-23 08:29 pm UTC (link)
Just as jokingly, Juniper's jaw dropped. "Hey now, mister. You're one to talk. You and your Valar and all that nonsense," she teased, nudging him playfully.

Like Legolas, Juniper sobered immediately. "And they were gotten back successfully, I'd assume?" she asked, and immediately went into a barrage of questions as they walked, the mess they'd left behind them forgotten. After all, she'd been stolen to this place, the least the damn Planet could do was clean up after her.

"Who was behind it all? Or did you not find out? Have precautions been made to prevent it from happening again?" she asked, rapid fire, battlements and boobytraps already springing up full-grown in her head.

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-24 10:10 am UTC (link)
He gasped, but couldn't stop the grin that showed he wasn't really upset at all. "The Valar are not nonsense!" There were elves that would be freaking out right about now, but Legolas wasn't one of them. Elrond was, but Legolas had never taken things as seriously as the lord of Rivendell.

The elf nodded solemnly, and sighed just a little. "Yes, I believe all those who were kidnapped were taken back. The bid for power failed." He shrugged as they walked back toward the building where they both had their lodging.

"You know, it is quite odd, but I do not believe anyone asked. We should find out, so that it will not happen again. As for whether it would happen again, I think not. It was too much work, and all for nothing. No one would go through that again, I do not believe. And we are all on alert now."

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-24 10:17 am UTC (link)
Juniper just grinned at his reaction to her teasing and then focused on the kidnapping bit as she held the door to their building open again.

"Call me crazy, but that would have been one of the first questions out of my mouth had I been on the rescue party," Juniper pointed out, though it wasn't chastising or anything. Just saying. "Hopefully it doesn't happen again, but I think that some precautions should be taken at any rate. Especially if you can find out who was behind it, and what exactly they want. Otherwise, eventually, another attempt will end up being made. I'm sure they didn't go to all that trouble for the fun of it." And with Juniper's luck, she'd be the first in line to be slaughtered like a sacrificial lamb.

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-24 11:43 am UTC (link)
Yes, they were definitely taking turns with the door holding. This amused him. Of course, it wasn't like it took a whole lot to amuse him, although he was sure some of the people in his world would have been shocked that a woman would hold a door open for a male, and an elf at that.

"There were..." Legolas smiled softly. "Other concerns. Friends were reunited, you see, and that seemed more important than..." He shook his head. "But you are correct, my lady. We must be on our guard, or else it could happen again."

As he lead the way up the stairs toward their rooms, which were very close together, he frowned. "This must not happen again... Lady Juni? Where are we going?"

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[info]juniper_golding
2008-10-24 11:49 am UTC (link)
"My room?" Juniper half said, half suggested, looking at him with a furrowed brow. "You wanted to learn about technology, and I wanted to play with the set up anyroad." She shrugged. "Seems like the best place to do it, given that I'm going to want a computer and the like at any rate."

She had her hand on her doorknob when something occurred to her. Juniper didn't know a lot about this guy, but what she did know was that everything he did seemed to be very appropriate. And well, perhaps he thought being locked up in close quarters with her was less than that.

"Are you uncomfortable with me, Legolas?" she asked, looking up at him with a highly innocent face that didn't need to be put-on. "Would you rather I teach you in a more public arena?"

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[info]princegreenleaf
2008-10-24 12:07 pm UTC (link)
With a nod, he kept following the girl, quite happy with this arrangement. It did make the most sense, and whatever a computer was, he was pretty sure it was going to be out of place in his own room.

To be honest, he was quite surprised by the girls question. It hadn't occured to him that he should be uncomfortable. Sure, the humans of Gondor and Rohan had some odd ideas about what was appropriate behavior, but he didn't pay them much attention. Elven behavior was quite different.

"Uncomfortable?" His eyebrows rose questioningly. "I do not see any reason for that." He grinned teasingly. "Should I be?"

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