Work Text:
Around 8:03 AM on a Saturday morning, Gunvolt wakes up to stretch and leave his sleepiness in bed, along with any possible yawning. After finishing his morning routine and starting to prepare breakfast, the Azure Striker noticed there was seemingly no activity from his housemate. His initial concern was that she had been kidnapped by again. He checked in the bathroom, no one there.
In the kitchen where he just was, no life forms were visible. The living room couldn't live up to its name at the moment. Which could be said of the dining room as well. She wasn't in his room either, leaving hers as the only one unchecked.
Slowly, as if in a horror movie, GV turned the knob with the speed of a mole in quicksand. Sumeragi's former Cyber Diva wasn't there either, but the window was open. Motivated by panic and possible devastation, he ran towards the window and looked at the sidewalk below. No remnants of a body or blood was seen.
This was dire now, and Quill would certainly need to be involved. Right after the Team Sheeps member learned why a bubblegum pink earthworm was on the floor in Joule's room. It appeared to be a curious thing and wiggled towards him. Gunvolt picked up the creature and inspected it.
Nothing about the worm seemed off, other than its lack of soil searching and desire to find people.
"Lumen, Joule, this isn't funny anymore. You need to tell Joule that whatever game she's playing is over and she won."
The worm's tail swished when he mentioned Joule.
"Do you know where she is?"
The worm pointed to itself. Gunvolt slapped his forehead while trying to shake the worries from his mind. He was convinced this had to be a prank from the universe.
"What am I saying? You're just a worm, and worms can't talk."
But she wanted to talk. She wanted to tell her rescuer how much she loved him. That there was no reason for him to be sad because she was right there with him. If only she were a parrot, then she could tell GV how she really felt.
Gunvolt was determined to get the worm back to its life on the outside. He researched necessary items for keeping pet worms and brought it with him to a gardening center.
'This is it! My first ever shopping trip with GV! I'm so happy right now I could dance! If only I had the legs to do so...'
A woman in her early 20's approached them. Her dirty blond ponytail stuck out through the back of her red hat. It matched her uniform vest that covered her white long sleeve shirt, but not the collar. A few spots of concrete powder could be seen around the upper thigh area of her black pants.
Joule looked at her intensely, with all the fury of a lion whose food was stolen. You would think that the Azure Striker would be familiar with the fact that earthworms don't have eyes or ears. But since he was focused on its well-being and the aforementioned body parts were too small to see, he wasn't aware. Joule threw herself forward, nearly falling to the floor as her left side made contact with the employee's vest.
GV was able to catch her before she could suffer any harm.
"I'm so sorry about that. I just found this worm in my house and I don't know how to take care of it." he explained.
"I was just messing with some soil bags so that might explain it. You'll need some well draining soil, otherwise your little worm buddy could drown. While we don't sell any dead leaves, I recommend you buy some veggies and place the scraps in whatever container you temporarily re-home it in."
Gunvolt nodded and gave his thanks before going to purchase a bag of topsoil. He also stopped by a pet store and obtained a critter carrier in the largest size available. Its top was a purple reminiscent of Joule's own eye color. Despite his prior plan to make pancakes, GV made a salad with surimi and soy sauce.
The cucumber skin and tomato leaves were placed inside her container. She gave the food the same look Mytyl reserved for broccoli. Banging her tail on the plastic wall, Joule tried to get Gunvolt's attention. On a human size scale, he would've heard the knock.
But on the worm scale, it would have been an earthquake vibration. Not like it would've helped her anyway. After returning to his room, GV decided to let the worm out. He placed Joule in a dirt filled jar lid on his desk.
"I felt so bad seeing you caged up in that container. You remind me of someone I know. Well, I don't know where she is now but I hope she knows this. Her name is Joule.
She's kind, compassionate, caring, understanding, intelligent, loving and very brave. She helps everyone she can and I don't know anyone who doesn't like her. I met her five years after Asimov freed me from Sumeragi. From what I initially understood, she didn't exist.
There was only program data called Lumen which I had to destroy. When I reached the target, that's when everything changed. She was trapped in this contraption Sumeragi had made to take advantage of her Septima. When I looked at her, she reminded me of the situation I found myself in half a decade earlier.
Asimov still wanted me to kill her after hearing the truth. I refused and asked her what she wanted. Joule said she wanted to go out into the world and sing her songs. So, I vowed to help her do just that.
I can't believe she's gone, or that I'm talking to a worm. I'd better call Asimov and see if he has any updates before I completely lose my mind."
If her entire body wasn't pink you could see the blush covering Joule's cheeks. Now that the Azure Striker was making a phone call in the living room, Joule finally had some time to herself. She wiggled to the edge of the desk and viewed the area below. The cushion would break her fall from the floor to the desk.
As for the distance from the chair to the floor, that was a whole other dilemma. While looking around for something to help her reach the floor safely, Joule noticed a pen and some paper. While trying to lift the pen to write her name, Gunvolt returned. He found the worm hitting its tail against the pen and picked up the writing tool.
"Oh, are you interested in this? It's called a pen, you use it to make marks on paper like this." he stated before writing his own name to demonstrate.
If her eyes were visible, he would've been able to see Joule roll them. Instead, she made her tail hover over the paper while making a J shape in the air. Curiously, Gunvolt followed along and wrote the letter. Next, Joule made an O, then a U, followed by the last 2 letters of her name.
In a state of absolute bewilderment, Gunvolt rushed to call Zeno, leaving the Muse worm alone once again. This time, Joule landed safely on the chair's cushioned seat. As if by magic, she was suddenly back to being a normal girl again. After the phone call about intelligent blind and deaf creatures, GV returned to find Joule sitting at his bedroom desk.
He rushed towards her and gave her a hug she couldn't wrestle herself out of, not that she wanted to, either. When he finally pulled back from the hug, Gunvolt had a very serious question for Joule:
"Where were you?"
"Oh, it's a long story," she shrugged. "But it's nothing to worry about now. I do have a question for you though... Would you still love me if I was a worm?"