NARRATIVE: hardwear

It had been a busy day for Dee. Doing errands, having a meal with her sisters, making sure that Cricket was well walked, doing laundry. It had also been a day filled with surprises. Boston was a multicultural city but to be walking through Chinatown to meet her sisters for dim sum instead of brunch and able to understand every sign and everything on the menu as written in its original language was more than a little disconcerting. All the extra conversations in the background were equally disconcerting, especially the comments she could now understand. Some of them were downright offensive, but the biggest surprise was when she answered, very loudly, that 'I know what you're saying and that's really kind of rude, please knock it off' in fairly flawless Mandarin.

Her sisters had stared. She mumbled something about using Rosetta Language services and silently cursed Diana a lot, because clearly this was all her doing. It had to be another one of her wonky powers that the comics hadn't really touched on. She was going to have to Wikipedia a lot more stuff. And Reading made her head hurt.

Her wrists chafed against her new 'jewelry' and she ignored the voice in her head telling her not to do it as she found the almost invisible seam top open and take them off. For her there was a relief--maybe the rules about them didn't apply to HER because she didn't feel like she was about to go on some insane killing spree--but she did notice something about her tattoos. The Greek lettering, her name on her right wrist and the word 'Amazon' on the left, gotten almost two years ago now by Diana--they now had a sort of silvery outline, as if she had them shaded recently with some sort of metallic ink. As if the bracelets had left a part of themselves on her to keep to the 'rules' that an Amazon always needed her bracelets to remind her not to fall victim to the lies of men again. Sure enough, she could see the faint outlines of the words in reverse on the inside of the shackles--as if the items had deemed Diana's efforts to symbolize them satisfactory and gave Dee a permission of sorts to eschew them for everyday wear.

Her head was buzzing. She didn't use words like 'eschew'. What the hell else did this suddenly knowing Chinese and Spanish do to her brain?

She headed into her bedroom to get changed, not noticing at first her dog's reluctance to enter the room. she did pick up on the low growl and then the sharp barks. Danger! She gripped his lead a little tighter and scrabbled around to look for a weapon; all she could close her hand around was the broom and she flt sort of silly with it but it would work in a pinch. There was no-one in the bedroom, but there was an odd, lavendar-y glow coming from her jewelry box. Glowing things weren't ever really good, and with Cricket growling the way he was, she was nervous about opening the box that had been a present from her ex Alex. It wasn't very full, mostly with earrings she had made for herself, the tiara ring she'd gotten for a Christmas present last year, bangles and beaded necklaces. Next to the ring that was a replica of Diana's tiara was a strange violet ring. It looked like it was made of some sort of crystal--an amethyst maybe? Dee turned on the light of her room and set the broom down. Cricket was still nervous, his whole body in 'alert' stance. "Shhh, it's OK," she told him, reaching down to pet him. "It's just a ring, boy, it's not gonna hurt me....I hope."

It's a Star Sapphire ring. The words came unbidden from her mind and she had a strong memory--not completely Diana's even--it was from one of the crazy weeks. Diana and Max and using the ring with the lasso. She knew that the story about Diana and the ring was in her pile of comic books in her closet...it couldn't hurt...right? If it had chosen Diana, she would be fine since she was sort of kind of Diana.

She was always more impulsive than what was good for her. She picked up the ring to study it better and suddenly she was enveloped in light. Everything in her line of sight was lavender.

Diana Prince of Earth

"WHOA." Dee already knew she was in over her head, she tried to put the ring back down but everything around her was--solid? What the hell was this!? "OK, this isn't funny anymore!" she cried out. She could hear Cricket barking loudly and she called out to him not to touch the barrier. "Crick NO! Don't you hurt my dog you dumb thing! Cricket NO---SIT." She sighed in relief as the dog calmed down, sat with his tail wagging. "Listen, um, really, I think you have the wrong person, my name is DEE--"

Calm yourself, my sister. Let the ring do its work.

You better be right about this, or we're gonna have problems, Diana. Dee held the ring a little tighter, hoping that she wouldn't run out of air in this--cocoon that it had made around her.

Diana Prince of Earth. You have great love in your heart.

Dee felt compelled to put the ring on her right index finger and it settled there as if she'd had it her whole life. The barrier around her closed in and she started to panic. "Wait a minute, hold on, HOLD ON I SAID---" She felt warm all over as whatever this energy was settled on her skin.

Welcome to the Star Sapphire Corps.

Dee opened one eye. Everything seemed the same as before she'd come into the room. Albeit, a bit drafier. She was wearing long, shimmering violet gloves but it wasn't until she looked down that she started swearing in the now multiple languages she had access to. Because if Diana's 'uniform' was bad, this get up was something out of a terrible Sexy Halloween Costumes store. She looked at herself in her standing mirror, horrified. Oh my God is that UNDERBOOB!?!?! "No, no NO FUCKING WAY GIVE ME MY CLOTHES BACK YOU STUPID RING!!"