The Last Piece

[Vega]

88th Ashan, 718

She was so happy she could cry. The emotions which swirled in Vega were matched by the colours which did the same in her eyes, but every one of them positive. "Will you stop eatin'? Yer gonna get fat an' then I'll have to dump you for a new guy, an' that sounds like all sorts of bother I could live without." Vega grinned at him, thumped him on the shoulder when he sauntered up and started to walk with him. Just them, walking together. Walking. "Come on, you. We're gonna have to get some kind of bottomless sack what's filled with food, jus' for you. Mind you," her grin when she spoke then was wicked, slightly crooked and her eyes took on a different look. "You work it off, too. I should be like a rake." In fairness, there wasn't any fat on her, but still. "You might be beyond all 'uman need for sleep, but I'm gonna 'ave to start layin' abed in the mornin' you know." It sounded like a grumble, until she added, "I could stay till the afternoon, too, if you like." But then, with a sudden laugh, Vega skipped over to him and took hold of his hands, swinging around like they were dancing. "Come on! Let's go explore."

Because this? How long had it been since they did this? She didn't know the numbers, but she knew that it was too long. As she considered it, she realised. It was the Tower, on Scalvoris. That was the last time they'd tromped off into the wilderness together. As they walked, she ignored completely the slight aches she felt because, frankly, her emotions totally outweighed any residual aches and pains. Jonas was looking after Zyqat, her puppy who thus far Vega had looked after exclusively. She'd told him she would, after all. But then, it had only be a few trials. Still.

"So," she said, as they walked together. "Tell me about the stormlands, then?"

As they walked, Vega noticed the marks on the floor, seeing tracks that she wasn't used to, that kind of thing. Each time, she knelt down to examine and then continued on. "So," she wondered. "Are we talkin' cannibal loincloth-wearin' tribes who wanted to give you to their women before cookin' us, or tentacle-things? What sort of level of danger are we thinkin'?"

There were vast expanses of farm lands and Vega didn't hesitate to stop and rest a while if she needed it. She did, now and then, but less than if they'd tried this even just a few trials ago. Because now, all she was doing was building up muscles, of course. Although, that too came with it's own flaws and pitfalls. "Hey, look," she said, and cartwheeled, simply because she could. "Did you see that? Huh? I was upside down an' then down'side up. Or... whatever. "

Farmlands eventually gave way to more scrublands and over in the distance there was a small woodlands. "Shall we go over that way an' set up camp?" Vega asked, glancing at him. As the breaks had gone past, she'd calmed down and stopped bouncing about but her delight at doing this, the two of them together again was evident the whole trial. It was, in many ways, the last thing which she had been unable to do. It was the last piece of the jigsaw of their shattered life. The picture had remained, they'd just needed to put the bits back together, one by one. "Oh! I signed up at a school," she said, remembering suddenly. "It's a school fer women, an' I'm gonna learn ballet. Jus' five sessions like, but still. Be good for my leg muscles." Motioning towards the woodland still a break away, at the speed they were going, she glanced back at him. "Shall we?"

[Arlo Creede]

It was generally the case and always had been, when Vega was happy, Arlo was happy. This trial was different. Just seeing her up and walking without something to help her, without wincing in pain and him seeing that, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, was more than enough. It wasn't really that long ago that he'd carried her out of a collapsed building in his arms, battered and broken, and freshly back from the dead. And now? Body and mind, she was mending at a much faster rate than either of them had expected. He grinned though but wasn't apologizing when she told him to stop eating.

The current snack in his hand, close on the heels of the last one, jerked, dried and spiced venison, probably wouldn't feel like enough. Nothing had been enough, of anything, for a time now. "There'd only be more of me to love," he'd shot back. Though she was right. He worked it off as fast as he put it on. And he had some help in at least one of the ways he did it. "We could both stay abed all trial," he suggested when she took his hands and danced around him. Although if it was on board the Wanderlust, her family might start gathering up on deck, wondering it they ought to send in a search and rescue party after them.

But going, exploring, now that she was well on her way to being completely mended, there was nothing he wanted to do more that trial. So he'd outfitted and armed himself as usual, and filled his sack with any number of things they might need. They might plan to be gone a trial or a handful, but it was rare than anything they did went exactly as planned. It had been some time, besides, since he'd last been in the Stormlands. Whether it was a city or wilderness, time had a habit of changing things. Who knew? Of course technically their camp was already set up there. But being not so distant from the gates or Rharne, they'd settle din a much more civilized area.

"A lot of it is plains and farmland, like around my stepfather's homestead," he told her, while Lyova settled down on the brim of his hat. But there were vineyards in the south, Ywyngyll forest and Lake Lovalus too. "Mistral Woods, Isle Vyrelle, and all sorts of strange creatures you don't see anywhere else," he added, taking a break from eating their stores. Probably only a brief one though.

Arlo wouldn't rule out tentacled creatures, he teased her. But they could probably, reasonably expect that there wouldn't be savages. He hoped. "I've never seen one, but people used to talk about enormous cat like animals that were big enough to ride. Zephyrus," they called them. There were Veshla's at the lake. Sort of lizard-ish, aquatic things. And the fenrix, that somehow looked like a cross between a fox and a peacock. He did though believe that they ought to set up a camp, so there'd be no rush to return to the other at the end of the trial. And in fact while they'd walked, he'd been looking for a good spot to do it.

"Don't overdo it, Vega," he warned, but grinning too, and proud, when she'd turned a cartwheel right in front of him. But as long as she didn't go tumbling across the plains end over end, he couldn't complain too much. "Ballet?" Arlo said suddenly and stopped, staring at her. He knew she liked to dance, of course. But ballet? Then again, it might be good exercise to help strengthen her legs again and she might enjoy it too. When she asked him should they though? Grinning, snorting he asked her, "Ballet or setting up camp?" He knew what she meant though and was quick to add, "I see a good spot over there near that copse of trees. Let's go put down stakes and we can do some exploring."

[Vega]

88th Ashan, 718

Ninety trials. Exactly. That was how many it had been since he'd rescued her from a burning, crumbling building. The same building where she'd died, consumed by flames after having her legs shattered and her body dragged through the earth. Ninety trials of helping her, caring for her and working alongside her to regain the use of her legs, eighty nine nights of worry and concern and she wanted nothing more than for neither of them to have experienced it. But from the trill she'd screamed his name and his arms had scooped up her broken and battered body to this one, Arlo had been besides her. He must be exhausted. She grinned at him, though and answered, as quickly as he'd answered her, "I couldn't cope with any more of you. Yer all the man I can handle." They could both stay abed all trial? Vega chuckled and shook her head. "I need to sleep sometimes, Arlo Creede." There was not the slightest hint of complaint in her voice, and the way she kissed him told that she was quite content with their situation, thank you very much.

Having asked him, he told her about the stormlands and Vega drank it in. "Sometimes, when I was a little girl," she said with a smile, "I used to lay on an 'ammock on the deck an' look at the stars an' wonder what it was like, bein' able to explore all of a place. To know somewhere, like 'ave a den or a tree house. I always wanted a tree house." Shaking her head, she grinned. "An' no, the crows nest is not a tree house. But I used to think, what it must be to step out of your house, or off yer boat, an know people. Recognise 'em. It's funny, cos now it sounds well borin'." Mostly, Vega said quite genuinely, she'd come to the conclusion that people were irritating. Like Stu and Jeannie, they'd been annoying as heck, or maybe that bloke in Viden who'd been from the Oder of the Wolf. Either way, irritating.

"I worry a little bit, sometimes, jus' for a minute," Vega said with a lopsided grin. "I mean, I think you're the first person I've ever really liked. Even before I started really likin' you. I mean, Ti'niva I s'pose. He was a'right." His description of the fauna around here, though, that was fascinating to her and she raised an eyebrow at the description of the fenrix. "That sounds lovely, that does. I don't want one, jus' cos we've got a dog, an' Henry is waitin' in Ne'haer, o'course. I mean, I'm not sure that I should be allowed a dog, but I'm doin' my best." She grinned at him.

When he warned her not to overdo it, Vega grinned, thumped him and then wrapped her arms around him. "But I was plannin' on. Later. I was jus', you know, warmin' up. But ok. No overdoin' for me." She skipped away, a broad grin on her face. But then, she frowned, "what's the matter with ballet?" Now, granted, Vega didn't entirely know exactly what ballet was like. But she thought it was like the formal ball-gown wearing sort of dance, and that would be good exercise she figured. Besides, she wasn't telling him that she didn't know what it was, exactly. It was dancing. Surely, dancing was just dancing? "Yer not invited it's ladies only," she informed him, primly, turning her nose up in a faux-huff.

So, they made their way and she looked around with interest. Just over where he'd suggested there was a stream nearby and some very old stone ruins, any notion of what they'd once been long gone. "You wanna set up an' go explorin' after? I was thinkin', you know, I wanna learn more acrobatics, an' dance an' try an' combine them with my sword." She frowned, then, a sudden and genuine darkening of her expression for a moment. "They told us, even if I walk a'right an' stuff, that I might not be as good at stuff like that as I was before. Well, they're right." Her eyes lifted to him and she beamed. "I'm gonna be better. Much better." Starting to put their temporary camp together in a routine they'd long since perfected now, Vega sighed slightly. "Alright, I'll bite," the curiosity was killing her, she meant. "what's ballet like?"

[Arlo Creede]

It was much more than ninety days since he'd pulled her out of that building and carried her away to safety. More the number of trials that he'd spent at her side. Arlo hadn't been counting. The number was meaningless to him. He'd have been at her side by a lifetime, on or off her feet, and would for a lifetime more so long as Vega wished him to be. "Am I now?" he'd said, bumping her shoulder when she claimed that she couldn't have handled more than just him. "That's a good thing cause I'm not wanting anyone else but you."

But a crow's nest was as close on board ship as could be, wasn't it? "I'll build you one, one of these trials," he promised as they'd walked. "And when we move on and leave it behind us, the next person will wonder who it was that put it there, and they'll add their name to it too." She was right about people though. He'd grown up in Rharne and had known pretty much everyone for miles around his stepfather's farm. Some of them he avoided, and some of them he'd helped with odd jobs or just spent time with. "I guess I look at it from a storyteller's perspective," he considered. Each person you met you in your life, Arlo told her, came with their own story whether they said it out loud or not. Their story changed your own story just a little bit, and you carried them with you while the stories grew larger.

"Makes me one of a kind then." The only one she'd ever liked? "Makes me lucky too." A fenrix though did sound like a very interesting creature. He'd heard about them all the time he was growing up. Hadn't seen one though he might like to. Still, "You're right. We've got the horses, the dog, Henry, the kittens already. None or some of them might not care for a creature like that, then we'd have chaos on board." When she thumped him though, Arlo snorted and grinned. "Ballet's for girls. Silly looking frills round their middles, tiptoeing everywhere. The men that do it in their tights are...well, it's not for me is all."

When they arrived at a good spot, Arlo set about making up their camp and explained that when he was little, there was a small group putting on a performance in town. "Turned out it was ballet and my mother was keen to see it. She was keen for me to see it too, saying it would show me some culture. I figured it was just because Jonas refused to go with her. But she put me in a suit with a stiff collar, slicked back my hair and thumped me for laughing or nodding off through it all."

They'd set up camp so many times by now, in so many places, that it was an easy and quick process for them now. A good spot too, well protected from the wind. But when Vega asked him what ballet was like, with a mischievous grin he dropped what he was doing and made a ridiculous show of twirling and hopping round the fire pit on his toes, arms above his head, leaping and such. And when he stopped, he grinned and bumped her shoulder. "That's ballet for you."

[Vega]

88th Ashan, 718

In many ways, Vega was a simplistic soul; in others, she was incredibly complex. This was very much how things were for her with Arlo. It was a complicated and messy thing, this relationship malarkey. There were rules she didn't know about until he broke them and she got mad, or until she did and he did and she'd have to admit that the former happened a lot more than the latter. There were all these feelings and she found herself confused by him, by her reactions to him. The intensity of it sometimes was so much that she couldn't put it into words or hold it in her heart; sometimes, she felt like she might burst. And yet, it was simple. "No one but me? That's right handy that is, innit?"

He'd build her a tree house? Vega chuckled and shook her head. "You don't need to do that. Though, it'd be nice. We could sleep in it an' have a midnight feast. That's what Reese told me landlivers do in 'em." One of the things about living on the seas was that there had to be people above decks all the time, so the idea of being awake at midnight wasn't really such a strange thing. As a child, she said, she'd been as likely to be up and running about at midnight as she was at noon. "Did you have like, bedtimes an' stuff?" Those sounded completely strange to her, but then there was no doubting that their childhoods had been very different indeed. He'd done the things she'd dreamed about, she said with a smile. Living in a house with walls and animals as pets and being in one place. She'd been laying on a hammock on the deck of the Dreamer wondering about what it was like to do what he was doing before they ever met. How strange.

"I guess Stu and Jeannie became part of our story. Ti'niva and Officer Floppybits, too. Yeah that makes sense." But she snorted and bumped his shoulder as he said that he was one of a kind and lucky. "I was more worryin' that I'm incapable of makin' friends. It's not all always about you, you know," she teased. She did worry, sometimes, that she largely found people just annoying. Equally, though, that was because they were. "I mean, I like Papa. I love them all, but I like him, too." She turned a serious gaze to Arlo and caught sight of his expression. "Shurrup. You're right vile you are. Wart." Her elbow in his ribs was swift and sharp and she huffed.

No, no more animals, she said. There was nowhere on the ship where they could go that didn't have something with legs underfoot, whether it was two legs or four. And no, the dog did not count in that number because he was a perfect little pup. "Gonna be fierce too," she said. Though quite where she got that from might be open to debate since the pup was about as soft as they came and turned into a squirming, wriggling ball of fluff at the slightest indication of a scratch or belly-rub. Vega was spoiling it outrageously and would hear no different.

They found their spot and moved, together. It was something they'd done so many times, now, that they were good at it. So, she got going on the tent and he started on the fire pit as was usual. It was part of them, part of their routine, which meant that they knew their roles. They were more or less done when she asked, and then he showed her. Vega stopped what she was doing and she stood, watching him as he jumped around, twirling with his hands above his head and her expression was amused, incredulous and delighted all at once. "Yer a madman you are, Arlo Creede. But, you know, yer my mad man an' I love you." Watching him dance like that had made her realise something. "Arlo. There's somethin' I've been meanin' to tell you. Before the weddin', cos there'll be a party an' stuff after. An' people will play an' sing an' stuff. An', while I was recoverin' you know I was learnin' to fiddle?" He knew because she'd told him, but other than some very early screechy scales, things had been fairly quiet. "Fi helped me hide it from you. Whenever you were over on the Dreamer, she'd come down an' tell me." And the thing with having two ships and a small crew on both was that they were back and forth a lot. "An' that was when I practised, cos I didn't wanna embarrass myself. But I can play, now. Like, properly." With a slight shrug, she motioned back to him. "Is that really what ballet's like? I might not bother, you know." Looking at him with a very serious expression, she explained. "Because frankly, you looked like a right plonker."

[Arlo Creede]

"No one but you," Arlo confirmed when Vega mentioned it, and there was a world of meaning beneath the surface of such a simple but sworn promise. "Not ever." He guessed that was where him and Cassion parted ways just a little, in spite of the blood that ran through his veins now. At first when the Immortal had referenced dozens of women, and presumably dozens more children scattered around, the devotee and traveler had been skeptical. Not now so much. He was fully aware of the impact that Cassion's blessing had made on him. He thought now that the claim was probably more truth than fiction. And yet, he maintained that Cassion had never been lucky enough to have taken up with a woman like Vega. Then, one would be all he'd ever need.

He'd had set bedtimes, he told her then. And he'd flatly ignored them, slipping out of bed as soon as he figured that his mother believed he was sleeping. Some of his best ideas and adventures happened at night when the house was quiet, back then. If only in his imagination. "I'll build you a tree house," he promised. But she was perfectly capable of making friends, Arlo insisted, even when she jabbed him in the ribs and he ducked out of the way. "You're just discerning, is all."

But the pup wasn't a bad one, he had to admit. Though he wouldn't give the creature too much praise, considering that he hadn't been keen, once upon a time. She'd tease him if she thought he was beginning to like the newest addition to their crew. In spite of him tripping over the pup more than once while he was trying to prepare a meal. Thing was waiting for a handout no doubt. He snorted though and grinned wide when he ended his ridiculous dance, and she laughed at him. "I was a little kid," he added when she asked, was it really like that. "It looked that way to me. Besides, I didn't want my friends, who'd also been dragged there by their mothers, to think that i didn't mind being there." He hadn't minded. But it was only for his mother's sake that he didn't.

When she told him though that when he wasn't looking, she'd learned how to play the fiddle, Arlo looked at Vega with wonder and sat down by the fire pit he'd just built. "Why would it embarrass you? When I was learning to play it didn't sound very good. Everyone's got to start at the same place in that regard. I'd have been just as proud of you then as always." It wasn't easy to learn an instrument, he told her, and he knew it first hand. But now that she was telling him, he figured she must have improved a great deal already, which made it all the more impressive. "Play something for me then," he said. "And by the way, I think you should take the dance lessons if it's what you want." His parody after all hadn't been because he disapproved, not in the least. Only that it was what he'd seen himself many arcs ago, through the eyes of a boy young enough for stiff collars and slicked back hair.

[Vega]

No one but her, not ever? Vega looked, for a moment, completely serious and she reached to put a strand of his wild hair behind his ear. "I know." Her eyes told the truth of her words as she looked at him. "I don't doubt it. Not even for a trill." He'd had every opportunity, after all. She'd more or less tried to get him to bed Fi when she was first injured, worried that the nature of his Cassion blessing would mean that his increased appetites in all things would just make things more difficult for him. He'd been incredulous and disbelieving and then he'd yelled at her. She smiled at him as she remembered that. Then, he hadn't left her side as she healed. He'd carried her, helped her wash and changed her dressings on the wounds from the surgery. He'd even had a woman with a frankly beautiful face and enormous breasts come and more or less throw herself at him. He hadn't cared or noticed. She'd been all he saw, all he focused on and for all that the blood of the Immortal flowed in his veins, he'd kept his focus. What she'd failed, utterly, to take into account was the fact that his love for her ran deeper than any physical needs he had, increased appetite or not. "I think they made me jus' for you, you know. An' vice versa."

She believed that completely. Everything about them worked in tandem, they were simpatico in every way and for all that their tempers and temperaments were feisty and fiery, both of them, they fit together in every way possible. "It doesn't get this good by accident, you know. Must 'ave been Cassion an' Xiur, I reckon. Right nice of them, if it was." She chuckled though at the thought of a bedtime. What a strange thing those who lived on land were. Children should be free, she firmly believed. That had been how she was raised, anyhow. But he'd build her a tree house, he repeated and she beamed at him. "I look forward to a midnight picnic with you in it." She didn't doubt he would do just that, but she guffawed when he ducked away from her and told her she was discerning. "Well, as my only friend you would say that, wouldn't you?"

His dance, description of it and assurance that, should she want to do it, she should caused a range of reactions from her. Delight and amusement at the sight of him prancing about, a softer and more gentle expression as he told of the time his mother had taken him to see it and then, a shrug. "I'll try it once, if I don't like it, I won't go back." It was simple enough to her. She told him about the fiddle, though and Vega looked at him, "Right, yeah. I'll play you somethin' for sure, but you know, learnin' to play the fiddle makes some Immortals' awful screechin' sounds. Like the kittens make when you step on their tail,but not as pleasant on the ears." She moved over to their tent and got out the fiddle Joq'an had bought for her when her legs had first been shattered. "My uncle, he played. Everythin' pretty much. He was a prodigy, Papa says." Vega's eye roll probably told him that her father had used the same words about her. As she spoke, she held the instrument and was tuning it by ear. Her head tilted towards the fiddle, listening as she plucked one string, then another, made a tiny adjustment and seemed, eventually to be happy with it.

"He used to play this, my uncle," she said as she put rosin on the bow, focused on it in a way that she very rarely was. She looked like she did when she'd been learning to read, but relaxed. "It's called the swallowtail, an' that was what he used to call me. His swallowtail. So, yeah. Sorry if it's a bit crud," she smiled as she lifted the fiddle and nestled it against her shoulder. "I'm still learnin'." Closing her eyes as she lifted her bow, the moment that the bow touched the strings, the violin in her hands began to glow with starlight. Her Nalos mark just seemed to happen whenever she played and she was only peripherally aware of it.

Joq'an had, indeed, used the word prodigy to her and although Vega would argue it, there was no doubting that he was right. She played the piece flawlessly, although she realised that having an audience - even him - made it feel different but it was different in a good way. With her eyes shut she allowed herself to feel the music and it more or less seemed to play itself, to her. When she'd finished, she lowered the instrument and shrugged. "Papa makes a fuss, but I do enjoy it. It feel right, you know? Like I found the third thing I was born to hold in my hands. My fiddle, my sword an' you." With a grin, she shook her head and shot him a wicked smile. "Best not get them mixed up or we're gonna 'ave some really confused moments in our future." That all said, though, she popped the fiddle back in to the case and asked, quite matter of fact, "So, you wanna go explorin' or wait till the mornin'?"

What she plays

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo remembered all too well Vega trying to maneuver him into bedding Fi. Definitely not one of the finer moments, he had to admit. But even though his own contrary response had been swift and left nothing to be misinterpreted, he'd also understood why she did it. All sorts of worries and insecurities were going on in her head at the time. It was history though, and that's where it stayed.

She was right though, they'd likely been made precisely for each other. It wasn't as if Arlo was blind and didn't notice things like deep cleavages, come hither glances and swaying hips. He was all male, and he was human after all. But when it all came down, no woman would do but Vega, and Vega alone. "Cassion and Xiur?" he said, considering it with a lopsided grin. "Maybe, but don't forget U'frek too." But fair enough. She'd try a ballet class or two and if she didn't like it, then that was that. Arlo suspected she would, since surely the ability to move that way would benefit her in other ways. Her handling of a sword, acrobatics. Any number of ways.

It would teach them to stay out from underfoot, maybe. Arlo had heard that sound before from different places on the ship. Not her playing. The kittens, and not just him inadvertently doing it. They'd probably run afoul of everyone aboard by now. On both ships. "Play then," he said with a grin when she picked up her fiddle. "And show me that the apple hasn't fallen far from the family tree. I bet that it hasn't." Because from Arlo's perspective, there was nothing that Vega couldn't do, so long as she truly wanted to. A swallowtail? Interesting, he'd need to remember that. But then she started playing and he fell quiet and watched her, listening.

It was a toe tapping tune. But more than that, she played as well as anyone he'd ever heard playing a fiddle. And if she'd only tried the first time after she'd been knocked off her feet, then she'd learned quicker than most others would. The extra time she'd had on her hands was one thing. But some people, no matter the arcs of practice that passed, never mastered an instrument at all. Suffice to say Arlo was impressed and when she lowered the instrument and looked his way, he smiled. Proud of her, no question about it. "You're a natural Vega. Your father's right. That was fantastic." He was equally impressed that she'd managed to keep it a secret till then.

As for what then? It appeared that they might have lingered too long, setting up camp and fiddling around. The sun was cruising to the horizon and beginning to cast long, tree shaped shadows across the ground. "I think that maybe it's better we get a fresh start in the morning?" he suggested. And in that case, he could fix them a good meal and they could spend the evening together under the stars, playing their instruments as they sat round the fire.

[Oracle]

Well that was just lovely! I always adore the sweet chemistry between you two. It's the wonderful teasing and jokes that make Arlo and Vega such a perfect pair, and they know it too! Beautiful job setting the scene and including the music. I loved the parts about ballet, and the image of Vega in pointe shoes made me laugh. Also has been so wonderful and supportive through Vega's entire healing process, even being patient with her when she mentioned Fi taking her place in the past. Well done both of you, and enjoy your rewards!

Arlo

Points

XP:15
This cannot be used for domain magic.

Renown

None

Loot

None

Injuries

None

Knowledge

Acrobatics: Spinning around a campfire
Acrobatics: Leaping to pretend to be dancing
Storytelling: Childhood stories
Storytelling: Each person you meet adds to the stories you tell
Non-Skill Knowledge

Vega

Points

XP:15
This cannot be used for magic

Renown

None

Loot

None

Injuries

None

Knowledge

Acrobatics: A cartwheel
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Tuning by ear
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Use one string to determine the pitch of another
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Playing a fast-paced jig
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Closing your eyes allows you to block out distractions
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Playing for an audience feels different than playing alone. Non-Skill Knowledge