Work Text:
The camera flicks on.
A decently sized, dark room came into view, illuminated by multicoloured lights. A bed sits in the distance, decorated by pillows of all colours and sizes, notably a small flower shaped one sitting over all of the others, a white comforter under it all and a grey cat cake sleeping at the foot.
In the left corner, there appears to be a silhouette of a glass balcony door, and on the right, a plain wooden closet, protruding from the wall.
And, in the middle of it all, sits a girl with two-toned purple hair and stained glass eyes hidden behind prescription glasses, decorated by a strap with star ornaments hanging loosely on her shoulders. She stares attentively at a notepad in her hands, attempting to appear studious, even though she was the one who started the recording.
“Okay, this-” the young girl turned around the notepad she’d been holding in her hands to the camera. Inside the notepad were various sketches of triangles and arrows pointing in several directions, colored messily using highlighters that seemed like they’d been left uncapped for over a decade “Is the plan for now.”
She pulled the notebook away and set it down on her desk, her glasses shining in the lights of the room as she turned her head back up to stare into the camera.
“I learned from uncle Screwllum, that, in order to pursue Aeon research in Herta Space Station, I’m not gonna have to do a lot of fieldwork, but there are still areas occupied by dangerous monsters such as the propagation or the antimatter legion!” her eyes lit up with a strange fascination as she listed them off “You think they’d have gotten rid of the monsters in the station by now-” she added in a hushed tone, judgemental, it was a whole space station after all, “But every time they clear it, more just pop up! And I thought:” she pushed her glasses up in an attempt to look more formal “Such a peculiar phenomena deserves to be studied up close! But…”
Placing her hands on the desk in front of her, she pushed her rolling chair away, just enough to stand, taking a few steps back. She was dressed in casual clothes, a t-shirt she’d been gifted by Robin in one of her concerts and simple purple shorts that stopped right above her knees.
“I’m not exactly muscular,” that was true, she wasn’t exactly slim either but she certainly didn’t have the muscles for anything other than running around and writing things at slightly above average speeds “and if something goes wrong, I need to be able to handle it myself,” she walked forward and sat back down, not bothering wheeling her chair forward “so, I decided I’m going to make a self defence system!”
Her fingers snapped to highlight her sentence, her chair rolling slightly back “And, after I decided that a self defence system was necessary, I started thinking about what I’m good at!” she paused, looking off into the distance, looking slightly guilty “Of which there are… few, aside from research and speed reading and telling when Mr. Wiggles is upset.” She glanced over at her bed and on the cat cake sleeping sleeping peacefully on top with a fond look on her face “So I did the logical thing and asked baba! He’s good a understanding people, so I thought he’d give me an idea to start off with at least.”
“So,” she reached forward and retrieved the notepad on her desk “ after a bit of back and forth, he reminded me that I’m really, like really good, at Whirl Twirl Riot!” a popular dancing game in the entire universe, beloved by all. Baba had introduced it to her and was the one who taught her all the techniques. She assumed she’d inherited his talent “Uh, TM.” She added hastily. If these logs were to be published at any point in time she’d be knee deep in copyright claims “Of course, I’m not going to steal the game from the developers or… rip it off and claim it as my own, Aeons no!” she lifted her hands in faux surrender “ I’m just going to replicate the style of the movements- like…”
She leaned over and ducked under the table, shuffling around with something before our of view for a few moments, resurfacing with a medium sized board made from wood and some kind of sheet metal, along with arrows pointing out on either side of the board and smaller ones on the points.
“The board” she placed the board down with a thunk next to her chair and grabbed the notepad one again “and the arrows! And the way in which they fall along with the music and the general code and…” she paused, a realization of sorts dawning on her, her mouth hung open and she slowly set the notebook back down “Oh, it really does sound like I’m ripping them off, huh… w-well, I’m changing the music at least!” it wasn’t that she hated the original music that came along with the game, of course, but she much rather have her own tracks, especially the ones she liked dancing with her baba. She hoped they would serve as a pleasant reminder while she was mulling over her research a considerable amount of light years away from home.
Herta Space station was really really far, wasn’t it? She’d never really had to go that far away from home at any point in her life. Thinking back on it, the farthest she’d been away from the comfortable walls of the apartment she and her dads lived in was the Knights of Beauty headquarters once or twice when visiting a friend there. Of course, she’d visited Herta Space Station once before but it had been with her dad, who’d brought her along when he had business and baba couldn’t take care of her.
She sighed. Living so far away from familiarity felt like a strange prospect, but she hoped it wouldn’t be a bad one “Whatever!” she waved the thoughts away, suddenly remembering she was recording. “That’s the plan, so now I need to keep mulling it over until I have more than a basic outline. Now, things to remember.” she spoke aloud, more to herself.
“Number one: don’t stay awake past two AM, nothing good happens after two AM.” She spoke as though she had past experiences in the matter, “Number two: refill your water regularly.” A tip she’d probably received from her dad “Number three: if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it, don’t be stubborn about it.” Another tip she’d probably received from her baba this time “And number three: if something isn’t working, drop it. Let it marinate for an hour or two, even better for a whole night. And if it still doesn’t work, try a different approach.”
A smile tugged at her lips proudly. “Yeah, that seems reasonable- what do you think Wiggler?” she glanced back at her bed, the cat cake meowed softy upon being adressed. “Yeah, I think so too.” She returned her gaze to the camera and pushed her glasses up, acquiring a more formal look -well, as formal as it can be when you’re wearing a shirt that says Robin on it with an elegant font and hair that looks like you just got out of bed- then cleared her.
“Kassiopeia Helen Ratio, log one, over and out.” She smiled brightly and gave a military esque salute.
The video stops here, the screen turning black.
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