Summaries

[Vega]

62nd Vhalar, 720
Early Hours of the Morning

Sitting on the windowsill, cradling the mug of hot chocolate in her hands as she watched the sun begin to peek over the horizon, Vega turned and grinned as Arlo walked back into the room. She'd washed all the make-up off her face, brushed her hair out and was wearing a loose shirt over a long green skirt. Her eyes were swirling violet, pink and green as she watched him and she pulled her legs up closer to herself as he sat opposite her. The feeling of his toes and hers touching together caused her to relax just a little more. They'd missed each other, she didn't doubt that for a moment, but for her it had been a lot longer than it had for him.

And such a lot had happened.

"So, you remember the pumpernickels?" Vega asked this, knowing full well that he thought that word meant a food stuff. "Well, it turns out there's a whole load of different types of them. So, we've gone with Pumpernickels as the sort of overall species, then they split into types. There's blobernickels, which explode when you kill them, wolfernickels, stagernickels, an' all sorts. It's been a right scuffle here." Gesturing around, she motioned to outside. "There's this place, what was just fallin' apart when we got here. An' then, there's all these people." Her brow knitted as she spoke about the people.

"There's Wardens, the Wardens of Lovalus. I'm one o'them. Remember Lovalus? She were with us on Isle Vyrelle, where you got turned into a raccoon?" He remembered, she had no doubt. "So, yeah, there's those. An' then there's the Lightning Knights. I got made into one o'them, too. They're desperate, I reckon. I'm in the Justicar branch, which is the group of us who look after the outskirts, the stormlands, you know, the bits of Rharne that aren't the city itself. Well, I skipped out on bein' a squire, an' they made me a Ranger. But then, when Ilaren came aroun' an' put me in charge of Numbnuts, she marked me an' I got promoted, too." Yes, there was a lot of information in there, but Vega was so busy telling him about the issues with the groups, that she didn't really focus on how much about her she was informing him for the first time.

Nor did she extrapolate on just who - or what - Numbnuts was.

"An' of course, there's the Priestesses. Well, add in to that, there's a whole bunch of civilian volunteers, an' you've got four really mixed groups. An' there's people in charge of each group, but they weren't actually talkin' to each other, an' when they did it were only to discuss how hopeless the whole situation was. It right flibbertied my gibbet, Arlo. I mean, we're bleedin' an' dyin' out there, an' that bunch of Doodads are grumblin'. So, me an' Gennadiya gave them a talkin' to." Did he know who Gennadiya was? Vega didn't really consider that.

"It's been hard," she said, her voice quieter now, "an' when we finally started workin' together, it didn't get easier. They'll tell you, or you'll hear, about the Storm Wastes Massacre. I led them out there, Arlo, an' I were the only one that came back." Sighing slightly, what she felt would have been obvious to him as a man who knew his wife, even if they hadn't been connected by the marks which bound them together. She was exhausted, emotionally and physically - the make-up she'd worn to the Mummer's Ball had hidden the dark circles beneath her eyes, but they were there. It was more than that, though; Vega was tired in her soul. Yet, she was also who she was, and her face lifted in a grin. "It's had it's good bits, though. I mean, we're workin' together better now, an' the place is built up an' everythin'." The thing that terrified her, though, truly terrified her?

"But Arlo, those pumpernickels, they're well clever an' everythin' that we've been through. All the deaths. That's jus' them findin' out how hard we are to kill." There was no doubt about that in Vega's mind. What that meant of course? "Which means, I think, that they've been keepin' their biggest hitters away. The attacks have all got progressively worse, an' that one I found in the massacre? That were big an' scary that was." Vega put her foot, bare and clean and still slightly warm from the blankets they had not long risen from, over his. "I've missed your feet," she said, quite seriously. "I like the way they touch mine when we're in bed, an' the sound of them on the floor. You've got good feet, Arlo Creede." And sometimes, that needed saying, she thought.

"So, before I go off on a long tale of what's happened an' what's to come, " it was a long tale, she had to admit. "Are you sure you're al'righ'? " He was, she knew, but that was just a lead in. "An' what in the name of Raskalarn's ruffles was yer father thinkin'? Was it somethin' we did wrong, or upset him? If it were anyone except Mr Creede, Arlo, I'd be punchin' them."

[Arlo Creede]

So much had happened in such a short time. It had felt that way to Arlo. Just a few trials inside Maste's Maze with Jonas. But meanwhile, the real world, Vega's world, had just kept on turning for much, much longer. As it ought to. And apparently she'd managed to squeeze a great deal of trouble and strife into just those tens of trials.

He'd been back home for breaks now, but during the Mummer's Ball hadn't seemed like the time or the place to do their catching up on events. It was only now they were getting the chance, in the comfortable privacy of their own home. "I remember, yes," he said as she sat down beside Vega on the bed. Pumpernickels. In spite of a yearning to remind Vega once more that pumpernickel was bread, not some fearsome creature, he knew it would do him no good at all. So merely grinned and inwardly shrugged. Resistance was futile.

Nonetheless he had to bite his tongue while she recited the long list of other sorts of ...ernickels. Besides, apart from the ridiculous nature of their apparent names, which he suspected she had something to do with, the idea of so many dangerous subspecies, of those things, was worrisome. But yes, he was familiar with the Wardens and he remembered Lovalus all too well. And his time spent in the guise of a raccoon.

"It sounds like you've racked up all sorts of local and regional authority," Arlo interjected, if briefly. "And you've been very busy." Though something did grab his ear that he thought he'd revisit shortly. Just for the curiosity of it. There were other names he wasn't particularly familiar with. But again, adding travel to Desnind and back and even time in the maze together, his absence from his own perspective had been a short one. For Vega, much longer. And while he chose not to point out the obvious, or the way in which it concerned him, she looked exhausted.

"Well I come from a long line of good feet, apparently," he said with a chuckle. Though to be honest he'd never paid a bit of attention to his mother's feet. Or Cassion's either for that matter. "I've missed all of you," he said more seriously. "Every little bit from top to bottom and in between." But there was more? Hmm. Well of course there was. When she asked about Jonas and his reasons for running off like he had, Arlo groaned tiredly and laid back on the bed, arms drawn up, hands clasped behind his head.

A long few trills passed by before he tried to explain. "Competition. Or trying to prove something to me, or maybe to himself," Arlo finally said. "Needlessly. We were halfway home before he'd ever admit it. But I'm partly to blame. At least in regards to the where of it. I told you about Maste's Maze?" He'd been inside that maze hunting for some elusive treasure back in Desnind, just a short time before he and Vega had met. "I'd told Jonas about it too when he asked about any adventures I'd had, and he'd seemed fascinated then. All kinds of questions. It didn't surprise me that that's where he went."

"Maybe I could have done better to reassure him when I learned that Cassion was my father," Arlo considered. "So maybe I'm partly to blame for the why as well." Although it had take him longer to get his mortal father to admit to his motives in that regard. "Cassion is the one that dropped in with all the fanfare and flash. And when he's done it, he whisks me off to strange locations and big adventures. Jonas figures I must be dazzled by that and in comparison, in my view, he's just a farmer." Frowning, Arlo shook his head. "Except that I've never seen it that way. At least not since I was old enough to know better."

"I guess he wanted to prove that he could laugh in the face of danger too, or get out of any calamity mostly unscathed." And then Arlo grinned and shook his head again. "Except that he can't. He's more a danger to himself with a weapon in his hands than anyone else. What he does have is a real knack for stumbling across the sort of beasties and ne'er do wells that I'd managed to completely avoid during my first time there. I told him if he ever wanted to do something like that again, tell me, and not to go off on his own like that. I'm hoping I got it through his head that I see him as my father in every way that matters. Cassion drops in when it pleases him to do it, and he took his own time at that. But Jonas, I told him, was the one that taught me how fish and hunt, all the things that fathers teach their sons, he taught me to be a man, and he loved my mother."

Hopefully Arlo had driven the message home well enough to his father, and there'd be no repeat performances anytime soon. Still, there was still that little thing that she'd said. "So who's numbnuts?" he asked.

[Vega]

62nd Vhalar, 720
Early Hours of the Morning

"I know they're cake," she said of the Pumpernickels. That had been it hadn't it, cake? "But they're terrifyin' Arlo, an' I refuse to name them anythin' other than right stupid. " The slow swirling of her eyes was unusual, but Vega was relaxing with him; and she was tired beyond the telling of it. But, still, there was too much to do for her to stop. "I need to... " she was about to say something else. Something that she'd say to anyone other than him. But, for all that he'd been gone for so long he was him and she was her. "I need to be the crazy, big-mouthed redhead who jus' don't stop, you know? Because it's hopeless here, Arlo, it's impossible what we're facin', so we need larger than life... an' louder than loud ... to be hope." That was what she was, she knew. Looking at him, she smiled and leaned forward, kissing him softly. "I've been right obnoxious, I have." He'd be proud, she didn't doubt.

Yet, he looked worried and Vega wanted to reassure him, to let him know that she was fine. But she wasn't - things were beyond difficult. "I joined the Knights," she said, her eyes meeting his. Vega didn't hope that Arlo understood all the things she didn't say. She didn't hope he did, because she knew he would. "We've worked miracles since it all started, but everyone's tired an' they need someone loud an' determined an' who won't give up." She gave a crooked smile. "So, they're Pumpernickels, all of them. But they got names, each. Wolfernickel, dogernickel, blobernickel.. they're all different types of animal Arlo, except, there's this one. He was talkin' Arlo I swear. An' he looked like a child, but a Pumpernickel. So, I called him Bob. An' then, there's more of them. So, they're Bob, Bobby, Bobbity Bob an' Bibble."

Vega frowned, suddenly. Very aware that they were somewhere together, just the two of them. "They're all animals, Arlo. All except Bob. An' Bob, he or she looked like a person." Her eyes met him. "If the wolfernickels are mutated wolves, an' the blobernickels are mutated birds, an'... the ones that look like a humanoid? What if they're people, or used to be? I need to... tomorrow." She smiled at him. "Tonight, I'm gonna relax with my husband." She commented on his feet and he said that he'd missed all of her. Vega's eyes swirled colours, and she put her hand into his as she whispered. "I know. Me too."

But, Immortals forbid that they got mushy or any such thing and so, Vega asked him about Mr Creede and Arlo answered. She frowned as she listened to him and her thought process was not speedy. "Oh, Arlo, is he alright now?" Vega worried. "Maybe he jus' needed to know that you'd come after him, you know?" She didn't think that was it, really, instead she believed that he was right. "Is he here?" Vega asked, and her frown deepened. "It's not safe for him, Arlo. If I thought you'd all go an' let me deal with it, I'd do it." But Mr Creede should not be here, of that Vega was sure. Her own Papa, and the family members were missing still. Yet, Vega was quite convinced that they were fine and that she'd see them again, soon enough.

"I missed you, you know," Vega said softly."You're the only one who don't take any of my nonsense, Arlo. An' I don't like needin' anyone, but I need you." It might well sound like she was about to have a pop at him for chasing his father. But, of course, this was Vega. "I'm righ' sorry I didn't come with you. It's jus' I had a duty here. I have to be obnoxious an' argumentative, an' never doubt for a bit that it's gonna be alright." A duty for him and a duty for her, but she didn't like it when those two things weren't the same thing. "An' Numbnuts is a name for a bloke called Patrick, who apparently betrayed Faith in that war of hers," he'd helped her, Vega knew. "Ilaren popped in an' gave him to me. He's a bundle of whinge bag." That was an understatement and then some.

"So, we've got to 'ave a victory here, Arlo." She said to him what she would not say to anyone else. "The best we've managed righ' now, is to not lose, an' that ain't enough." So, her fingers entwined with his and she asked, simply. "Will you help?"

[Arlo Creede]

"Bread," Arlo quipped dryly when Vega seemed to defend the ridiculous monikers, or even officially adopted names, of the beings that were giving all of Rharne and it's surrounding areas so much trouble. He was sneezing into the wind, however, and he knew it. It was a battle not worth fighting. Besides, it amused him that Vega herself was likely responsible for the wide spread acceptance of it all.

And when had she ever been anything other than unstoppable and outspoken? "I wouldn't have it any other way. No reason to change that now," he said, settling in on the bed more comfortably. Obnoxious? She most certainly would have been at some point, or more, during his absence. And he loved her all the more for it. "I'm a glutton for punishment. They'll learn to love it too," he mumbled, deliberately under his breath but so she'd be sure to hear it, and he grinned.

But then of course the names became all the more ridiculous as the 'nickels' were broken down into subgroups. "Bob?" He considered that and then ventured. "What earned it that name? Old flame that crossed you?" Arlo teased. Of course it was all well and good to tease, to relax and to question. But that didn't change the fact that what Vega was describing was in no way humorous in and of itself. The things seemed worthy of striking terror into the hearts of even the most hardened of individuals.

"Jonas is alright," he said when Vega asked. "I don't think he ever thought about me coming after him. I think he got it in his head that he'd go off on a grand adventure, then return and tell us all about it. He didn't count on the fact that in Maste's Maze, no matter how many trails of breadcrumbs you drop behind you along the way, once you follow them back again, more of them than not lead you straight into a dead end." Arlo frowned and shrugged.

"I'm partly to blame for telling him the stories. But I'd never thought he'd go there himself. At least not alone. He's here. And he's promised to stay put, or at least ask us to come along next time." Arlo of course hoped there wouldn't be a next time.

But she had been needed here. Arlo knew that. And besides, "You know, if not for missing you so much, and suspecting that time was racing by outside the maze while we wandered and fought our way blindly, I think it was good. I know him better than I did before. And he knows me." As for Numbnuts, as she put it? He shrugged again. "He sounds like a real ass." At any rate, he'd been gone almost an arc by all accounts, and this business with the nickels wasn't over.

"Of course I'll help," he assured her, but then hastened to add with something of a grin. "But don't expect me to follow orders to any great kind of letter. I'm not one of your Lightening Knights." He was also Cassion's spawn, and in that regard he was very much his father's son. Rank and file, strict discipline and regimented order? Hardly.

[Vega]

62nd Vhalar, 720
Early Hours of the Morning

"Bread? I thought you'd said cake. I wish you'd make your mind up." she said with a grin. She knew, of course she knew, but that didn't make the slightest difference to them in the moment. Nor, in fairness, would it. The reason why they had become such a ridiculous name - or rather so many ridiculous names - was because Vega believed that was needed. But his comment about being a glutton for punishment, mumbled underbreath for effect while still being very much loud enough that she could hear? That caused a chuckle from her. "Yer a daredevil, Arlo Creede, so you are," she said and, because it wouldn't do for him to become complacent, she gave him a thump.

But why Bob? Vega shook her head, slightly, almost despairing. "He were called Bob after the Spurmalurmawumpa in Desnind, remember? The one what turned out to be a girl an'," shrugging slightly, she glared at him rather angrily - although that was a million miles away from what she felt. "An' you jus' sliced it open an' I went up an' down the wall at you, an' you made screwy loose in my head gestures, an' I got right angry at you." She shrugged slightly. "I was in love with you, even then you irritatin' little dweeb, an' the thought of you gettin' hurt made me want to pound your face." A strange way of showing love? Maybe. But then, that was fine with her. He knew what she meant, as she did with him. They communicated in their own way, and for them it worked. "An' I was right afraid, I thought I was goin' to die," she said, her eyes slowing their swirling as she remembered. "An' I couldn't do that to you again, I couldn't. So, I called him Bob an' I decided that he was goin' to be in bits too."

As he spoke about Jonas, Vega leaned forward and rested herself against him. She felt her body relaxing as his arms enveloped her and Vega closed her eyes, listening to his words, his tale of how things had happened with his Papa. There was no doubting it, she felt the tension leave her body and she gave just a slight sigh. It was the only outward sign, but it marked a moment for her where Vega allowed herself to let go, to rest. To be, just the two of them in the moment and nowhere else. So, when he said that he wouldn't be joining the rank and file, he felt her smiling against him as she nestled there. Then, she lifted her head and looked at him and her eyes sparkled in delight. "I don't know Arlo, I reckon you'd look well good in a uniform, you know,"

With a sudden wicked grin, she added, "An' if I do say so myself, I don't look bad in one. But yeah, you wouldn't like it. People get..." she waved a hand and spoke - but even though the words were the ones she used when she was angry, Vega just sounded tired. "It righ' flibberties my gibbet, sometimes. People who are more concerned with the chain o'command an' nonsense like that. Rather than jus' gettin' on an' working together." Vega shook her head. "It's like that stupid woman at the ball, you know? It's like the whole world is made up of people whoa re insistent on bein' either bullies or victims an' I..." She stopped and shook her head. "I'm tired, Arlo. I'm tired of fightin' stupid people, defendin' ungrateful people, an'.. people. " Leaning forward, she kissed him gently, her lips brushing against his and then she sat back. "I punched the Quartermaster in the nose an' all sorts. But I were grouchy," she added, lifting up a raggedy and well-loved stuffed bear and dropping it into Arlo's hands. "He snores, see. An', well.." She leaned forward and put her nose against his. "well, he's not you."

[Arlo Creede]

Bread, cakes, pumpernickels or biscuits. There was no arguing with Vega, if the goal was to win either the war or one of any number of skirmishes. Arlo knew it all too well and always had. He did it, because most of the time it was fun, and he liked to see her get hot in the cheeks now and then. At least it was fun when the topic for debate was a lighthearted one. But even if it wasn't, it was almost always an exercise in futility. He truly was then a glutton for punishment. This time however he let the subject drop, grinned and shrugged it aside for the moment. But it wasn't necessarily forgotten.

"I guess that's a good a reason as any," he considered when Vega supplied the logic behind giving the creatures such a ridiculous name. "If only they'd follow suit and live down to their names instead of rising above them," he muttered. Though truth was, most of what he knew about the things thus far, was from word of mouth and not personal experience. But no, there'd be no dying, again, he agreed, wrapping his arms more snugly around her shoulders and pulling her close.

As for him, he glanced down at her and grinned again. A uniform for him? "Well I can't argue with you there. I'd be dashing and gallant and all those other fairytale words. But...no." Definitely, no uniforms or rank and file positions for him. "I wouldn't mind seeing you in yours though," he teased, though part of him entirely meant it. "But this chain of command stuff, ranking and so on is exactly what I'm not suited for. In that regard, I've inherited Cassion's ways for sure." He liked it that way, to be honest. Kept things interesting.

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" he asked, hardly missing a beat when Vega revealed that she'd punched the Quartermaster. "You've punched me. Why not him? What came of it?" At the end of the trial, it was all that needed saying about that. It really didn't matter what the man had done, specifically, to get under Vega's skin. At any rate, she was right. That wasn't him. Not now at least. Lifting the stuffed bear up to meet it eye to button eye, Arlo then tossed it over his shoulder and away while pulling Vega closer still. "Well no more snoring then, unless it's me that's doing it. I'm back now."

[Vega]

62nd Vhalar, 720
Early Hours of the Morning

He wouldn't mind seeing her in her uniform? Vega snorted, apparently in derision but he knew her better than that. She was pleased. The danced around each other a little more and then he pulled her close to him, even as he... "hey, that's Bert. Don't be mean to Bert," she whispered. Their noses touched and Vega's eyes flooded a shade of indigo which only Arlo ever saw, because her eyes only ever turned that colour when the two of them were alone. "Damnit, Arlo, I missed you," she mumbled, wrapping her arms around him.

~~~~~

It had been dark when she sat on the window sill, a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. Laying in his arms, tangled up with each other and the bed sheets, the sun was a full break into the sky and the contents of her mug had long since gone cold. She smiled as he pulled her close and kissed her forehead and she was quite content in the quiet. However, she couldn't resist teasing him and she lifted her head and looked at him with an earnest and thoughtful gaze which she knew wouldn't fool him for a minute. "It were the thought of me in uniform, weren't it?" Then, though, she sighed slightly and her gaze become more genuinely serious. Vega knew that he'd hear from someone, so she figured that it might as well be from her. Besides, he'd asked. Albeit, some breaks before - and no matter that she'd ignored him. After all, she figured, they'd had some other things on their mind at that point.

"So, I punched the guy," she said. Her voice was soft and she was thinking as she spoke. "This were after Ilaren came an' brought Numbnuts to be in my care, an' ... ok. So there's a story here. Let's have a hot drink, an' I'll tell you it all?" She pulled her nightgown back over her head and ran a brush through her hair while he went to make the drinks. When he got back she sat so that they were at a right angle and she draped her legs over his as she first sipped the hot chocolate and declared it delicious, and then sighed slightly.

"When we first got here, this was. It's the run-up story. There was this kid, diggin' up this patch o' land, used to be a garden but now it's just a place what used to be a vegetable patch but what's had the same wall crumble on it a half-dozen times. There was a scabby lookin' potato there, wasn't much more'n a root, but he was diggin'. He looked so afraid, Arlo," A deep frown crossed her forehead, but she carried on. "So, I danced." He knew, when she danced she had an ability granted by Daia which meant that when she danced, things grew and became whole and the prime of their life. It would have made a massive difference to the decayed vegetables. "An' he looked hopeful, Arlo. So, I offered to teach him to dance, he were jus' a kid, an' kids should do things like that." Holding her mug with one hand, she wrapped her fingers around his.

"Then, they attacked. Ramernickels an' Blobernickels. So I sent the kid to go get one o' the knights." She didn't want him there, he'd know that, she was worried that it was going to get nasty. Vega shook her head and dismissed the fight that followed - she had no need to over emphasise what she had done. Instead, she summed it up. "We beat them," she said, but the important detail came after that. "An' the kid - but the kid died, Arlo. An' I couldn't let that happen." She'd been more than upset at the time, and she recalled it now. "So, I used my Domain, an' I sang until he wasn't dead. But he shouldn't have been here in the first place, you know?"

Lifting her hot chocolate to her mouth, Vega savoured the taste of it and considered telling him that she'd missed his hot-drink making nearly as much as she'd missed him. But, she figured, he knew. "So, then there was the day when these two kids, Tiddle an' Wink, they came up to me an' say they've signed up to the Stewards. The twins tonight." Her nieces, it turns out, though she didn't know then. But they'd been told they had to fight, she said, even though the Stewards are meant to be support. The frown which crossed Vega's face told of her feelings about that and she shrugged. "I went an' saw the Commander, an' told him it were wrong, he told me to chill back an' go tell someone else. I told him to shove it." As summaries went, it was short. It covered the main points, she thought. "An' then, I were leavin', an' I heard the recruitment blokie, he was tellin' these kids that they had to fight, that they had to put their lives on the line. They're jus' kids Arlo, an' they're scrawny like string, so I punched him."

There was something she wasn't saying, but she looked at him and then admitted it. "I kicked him, too." Vega propped her chin, resting it on her hand. "So, they court marshalled me. They took me an' I got put in shackles, an' then got taken to Skywatch keep. Where I said it how it was. They found me guilty, an' I've got to have etiquette classes. But you'll hear people talkin' about it. An' that's fine. Because they agreed that it's stupid, an' so I get to work with Vivian an' put it right." Shaking her head Vega looked at him. "I'm a Warden o' Lovalus, an' a Lightning Knight, an' I'm learnin' military etiquette. So, yeah, come on then Creede," she nudged him gently. "Commence the tormentin' of yer wife, an' lets get the teasin' over with." She knew that he probably took it far more seriously than that, but she needed to make light of it.

[Arlo Creede]

"It didn't hurt," Arlo teased Vega, there in the early morning light, both of them tangled up in the sheets. Of course she knew as well as he did, that he hadn't needed any extra encouragement. Sure, uniforms stripped off and tossed in a heap on the floor were nice to think about, but he hadn't needed any more inspiration or encouragement than he'd had already. After all, they'd never lacked for passion, but this time he'd gone nearly an entire arc with no one for company but Jonas and his newfound talent for attracting mischief and trouble.

But already there were other things on Vega's mind, and he didn't have to ask or wonder for long, before it all spilled out. "You punched him?" She'd provide the answers to that soon enough. But taken alone, the idea that Vega had punched someone who may have been asking for it, or just suggesting as much, wouldn't really have surprised him. Nonetheless he'd make quick work of her request. Chocolate for her, coffee for him.

He didn't need to ask for clarification along the way. Vega, in her own unique, and colorful way, provided all of the details he could ask for. In vivid color. The fact that children were being signed up and made to fight creatures that from what he understood, were already an outsized menace to even adults with exemplary fighting skills, was disturbing to say the least. "Sounds like them being used as canon fodder," he muttered quietly, and there wasn't the slightest bit of humor in his tone. Again, it didn't surprise him to hear she punched someone who'd dismissed her concerns or even justified the practice. He might have too, under the circumstances.

"You punched and kicked him?" he asked, and as a male himself he couldn't stop himself wondering just where she'd kicked the man. Nonetheless, he added dryly, "Leave it to you to be thorough." Teasing yes, but also serious business. Arlo hadn't the remotest desire to join up with any sort of rank and file organization. But he also knew, and in fact it was part of why he wouldn't join any of them, that etiquette, chain of command and codes of conduct were frequently if not always, all the rage.

But if he'd been there when they'd put her in chains, and when they'd put her on trial, he'd have cleaned a number of clocks and rearranged more than a few faces himself. And probably received similar treatment for doing it. All worked out, he guessed, but he couldn't help but grin a little at the last. "Etiquette classes?" He snorted, but she'd know the teasing was meant lovingly. "They're not afraid you'll be a bad influence?" Arlo asked her, but then leaned it to give her a quick kiss. "Now that I'd like to see." Not literally of course. He'd be no more inclined to attend etiquette classes than to put on a uniform himself.

[Vega]

62nd Vhalar, 720
Early Hours of the Morning

Leave it to her to be thorough? Vega grinned. "If I were bein' thorough, I'd have kicked him somewhere else. But he was only annoyin' me, I weren't really angry, just ... ticked off." She shrugged. He teased her about her etiquette classes and she pulled a face, but she forgot that as she returned his kiss. She had missed him, dreadfully, and she was pleased beyond measure to be with him. More than she really managed to tell him, she knew. But she also knew that it was alright. Because even if she didn't tell him, he knew.

"It'll be a sight, that's for sure, but I've seen others jus' as good if not better." Vega raised one eyebrow at him. "Like, I was at this party, last night? It were nice, I enjoyed myself more'n I've enjoyed myself for ages. But then, some dweeb had to go an' spoil it. Turns out, there were like, Immortals there. But you know what?" He knew what was coming, she didn't doubt. "You know what really amazed me? There was this fella, an' he punched an Immortal in the gob." Shaking her head slightly, Vega regarded him with an expression which told of her pride in him, but her words? "I mean what kind of steamin' idiot does that?" Nothing more needed to be said, she was sure, but she had to make the point.

One of the things which Vega truly appreciated about Arlo was that he didn't push. He wasn't the type to be all fawning over her and checking on her, which was good because she hated that. Equally, she was very much in the 'not needy' category of person. The time when they'd conflicted the worse, had the most arguments, had been when she'd died and been revived but not healed and had needed to learn to walk again after a long period of healing. Memories swirled in her mind in parallel with the colours which swirled in her eyes as she looked at him. Her hand reached out and she slowly, deliberately, intertwined her fingers with his. "Jus' like this story I heard of a fella whose missus ended up with shattered legs. Ran righ' into a collapsin' buildin', scooped her up an' saved her, he did." Her fingers tightened slightly, mirrored by a speeding up of shifting shades in her eyes. "but I think the thing what I heard about this fella which impressed me the most was that he was jus..." she searched for the right word, and then she found it. "really annoyin', an' a bully, an' mean an' cruel, he was. Forced her to heal, to not let worries get on her, an' he wasn't havin' any of it when she felt sorry for herself." Vega grinned, then leaned to kiss him gently. "What a beast of a man, eh? I'm right glad that you're so careful an' not at all a nutter," the elbow which dug into his ribs served only to emphasise her words. However, "It works well with my meek an' mild nature, it does. Oh, speakin' of which."

Casually, because that was the way she'd only ever be, Vega continued. "I changed my name to Vega Creede. I reckon we're at the point that your Mama wouldn't mind there bein' another missus Creede, an' besides," she shrugged slightly, then lied outrageously, "Jus' in case you were dead or never came back, I wanted to milk the sympathy an' people can't spell Lei'nox. If we ever have a daughter, lets call her Nella Lei or somethin', that way, she'll be the name of both our mothers." Vega rarely spoke about them having children. She wanted to, sort of. They both did - sort of. But it hadn't happened after all this time and Vega believed that, as the Mortalborn of Children, it was more than ironic that she couldn't have them.

But, of course, there was always hope.


Resting her head against him, she sighed. "It's been hard, an' I don't know if we can win, Arlo. So many people have died, an' I jus'.... there's no end to it, you know?" Vega felt tired in her bones, in her heart and in her soul - but she wouldn't allow herself to wallow. It simply wasn't her way. "So, what shall we do today? Wanna come fight some pumpernickels with me?"

[Arlo Creede]

When Vega pressed the point that she might've at least considered kicking the official in question elsewhere, Arlo grinned, laughed and shook his head. "Well speaking as a fellow male of the species, I can say that so long as he may remember the exchange, it would have been a great deal longer, if you had." When she brought up the events of the night before, however, there was no question that her summary was putting it mildly. "I would say that where two or more Immortals are gathered together, there's bound to be trouble," he said thoughtfully, though he'd never really considered it in those terms before.

"Surprised that my own father didn't turn up in the mix. Then again, I've only ever known him on his own and in his own terms." Maybe it wasn't so surprising then after all, that Cassion hadn't been there. At least no so far as Arlo could tell. But him? "Don't try and tell me you were genuinely surprised," he scolded, or rather teased her while grinning and pulling her tighter into his arms. "When have I ever shied from the prospect of charging in with yet to be half baked plans?" He was no more likely to opt out of the fray as Vega was. Chances were, given his parentage, it was in the blood. "And don't tell me you'd have rather I'd cowered beneath the nearest table, and engaged in a clutching my pearls moment."

As for all they'd been through, it had been through the fire, literally, and back again. They'd probably do it again in the future, more than once. The previous night was no exception. "I couldn't have been prouder of you. Am, was, always will be. I know you didn't want what happened. But people, even Immortals, can only be redeemed if they choose to be. Syroa? Was never going to happen. It was lives saved. Not just last night, but given her nature, future lives destroyed or taken." There'd been no other choice so far as Arlo was concerned. It was Vega who'd delivered the killing blow. But the will was already there with Varlum, Vivian, even himself. None of them would have stopped short.

When the topic shifted however, Arlo smiled again and nodded. She'd taken his name, and it pleased him more than he'd have anticipated it might. "I think my mother would be very happy if she was here, and I agree with her wholeheartedly. Your name, and, fates willing, a daughter's name. Just don't expect the Creede name to gain you a large estate in compensation, was I to unexpectedly shuffle off the mortal coil," he said, teasing her again. "Half a boat, and half of not much else in material goods." Which he couldn't complain about, not in the least. He had Vega. All that mattered.

Pumpernickels. Right. Those things. The things that had the sort of sticking power, knack for surviving overwhelming force, that defied logic. "They've definitely risen above their humble moniker. Such as it is. The bread that shares their name at least has the good grace to eventually turn to mold." But if there was fighting left to be done, then yes, he'd be there to fight beside her. Why not? It sure beat babysitting Jonas to make sure he didn't wander off to mischief again.