I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in.....

[Vega]

1st Ymiden, 718
Where it will go....

"So," she said, putting the box of equipment, tools and so on that she was carrying down on their bed which she had covered with an old sheet, and then getting out of the way so that he could do the same with the larger one he carried. "What I thought we could do was to make a door in the ceilin' just here." Glancing around she spotted a piece of chalk in a pot on the bedside drawers and used it to mark, roughly where she meant. "Then, put a ladder on this wall, or if we're feelin' swish, we could have a sort of slidin' foldin' flippin' flappin' set of steps, so we can go up on to the roof." The roof of their cabin was a flat affair and already had a hammock large enough for the two of them out there. "Which we'd 'ave to fence off in case the kittens or the dog follow us."

She'd been thinking about this for a while, in fairness, but Vega was coming close to crawling out of her skin and she needed to do something. Since Arlo had woken with a shout in the early breaks of this morning, recalling the events of Cassion's quest for him where he'd changed, again, she'd done nothing but fret about him, aloud and about them, internally. So many changes, she thought, from the young man who'd been sitting in a tree and swinging his legs. Twice marked by Cassion, not to mention the marks from U'frek and Jesine. There was also the ageing potion he'd drunk, too - though that had just aged him a few trials. The Cassion mark had changed him, fundamentally. He was more. More hungry for life in all its aspects. It hadn't been so long ago that she'd found out that Cassion had marked him a second time just before she'd died. He hadn't told her at the time, which really flibbertied her gibbet, but there was no point having that conversation. "I thought we could give the place a lick'a paint, too. If we feel like." If they wanted to. If they had time.

"An' of course," she said with a grin and threw a doorknob to him. "You can get to fixin' what you've broken, Arlo Creede." Whatever had happened when he went with some weird and funny looking old bloke called Schubert, who had been very polite and almost old-fashioned in his manners, it had changed him physically, no doubt.

Again.

And what worried Vega, more than anything she'd thought ever could was the thought that he kept changing, becoming more and more while she seemed to fight to stand still. He was changing and then changing again and she was dying and learning how to walk. It just made the gap between them wider. "I thought we could 'ave like a pull down hatch sort of thing, an' when it's warm then, if we're in here, or if we're not, we can leave it open so long as it's not rainin'." Deep and dark shades of purple dominated the eyes which looked at him, but she smiled and meant it. She couldn't deny that she was worried about them, but equally there was a bottom line. "I'm right proud of you, you know. I don't think I said it in all the kerfuffle, but I am." What worried her was that she was going to hold him back, stop him from experiencing the life Cassion was giving him. She loved him too much to ever hold him back. She moved the bag he'd put on the bed - he'd found a pile of stuff, too, when they got back down here this morning. How that happened, Vega didn't entirely understand, but she didn't question it either.

The physical change which had happened to Arlo was more than easy on the eyes, she had to admit. He'd already been chiselled and muscular, but his muscles seemed to have increased again. Looking at him as he put the box down, Vega's lips lifted in a crooked half-smile. "I think we might need to buy you some new shirts an' stuff. Things're lookin' a little snug. See? I told you I should have learned to sew." Her expression turned serious as she thought about the conversation they'd been having then and she opened up the first box, "Right. So you wanna do the hatch or fix the doorknob?" With a glance, it occurred to her that she should point out. "I can do both, you don't need to if you'd rather not. An' we don't need a hatch in the ceilin' either, if you don't want one." She put the chalk back down and gave a rather rueful grin. "What'cha think?"

[Arlo Creede]

Standing in the middle of their cabin, looking up and watching while Vega drew a chalk outline in the ceiling, Arlo couldn't help but struggle to suppress a grin as he teased her. All the while, looking as serious as the world was round...Or at least some crazy scientist back on Scalvoris seemed to believe that it was. "Slidin', foldin', flippin', flappin'...I don't know. I mean, that's some pretty technical sounding stuff there you know?" he quipped, as if it seemed impossible that they could actually pull those things off. More seriously though, Arlo grabbed a sheet of paper and folded it in three, accordion style. Stretching it out, folding it in again, he quirked a brow at her. "That what you mean?"

Some things never changed. Arlo always got a kick out of teasing Vega and the same could be said in reverse. They could only do it that way, Arlo figured. Or at least that's the way he envisioned it. "On the farm we had an attic. There was a panel in the ceiling that pulled down with a cord, and a ladder folded out. But when it was closed and you weren't up there, there'd be this folded up ladder that would be in the way. The ceiling isn't thick enough to do that without getting in the way up on deck. We would't necessarily need to fence in a hole," he suggested.

What they could do, is make that accordion style ladder in sections, that when raised would fit up fairly well into the rafters, out of the way. Then there'd be a hatch up top in the ceiling to go through, and close again once they'd passed through. "Something like that?" he asked. If it was what she wanted and she'd drawn the outline where she wanted it, Arlo would grab a saw, a chair to stand on and get to work. Of course before he could do that, Vega tossed him the doorknob. That he could also do.

And painting. All of it was a good distraction from what he'd woken up to past midnight. It was all fresh, still all too new. A little physical labor was always good for clearing the mind and setting it up for straighter thinking. Luckily, when he'd broken the doorknob it was only the metal hardware that had given way, and the wood hadn't been damaged. That would have required a completely new door. This he made quick work of. A new brass plate, lost screws replaced, pin and receiver realigned.

"It would be good for letting a breeze in during the summer, and a little sun in the winter," he figured when Vega suggested that at times they could leave the hatch open. And good for watching the stars too, which they'd be able to see from their bed. There were times he felt a little claustrophobic in the cabin, and it wasn't just Cassion's mark that caused it. It was that by nature he preferred the outdoors. A view of the night sky would be a good thing when they could have it.

Something more was on Vega's mind though than broken doorknobs, fresh coats of paints or folding ladders. Her eyes told him they, but Arlo didn't need them to know for sure. He just did. And after all, it had only just come back to him. It was as new for her as it was for him and of course it would have knocked her off her feet in a manner of speaking. "I know," he said, smiled and took her hand when she said she was proud. "You don't have to say it in order for me to know." For that bit, he left it at that.

He grinned and shook his head. "I popped a button off my shirt this morning. It's disconcerting." Which was probably why at the moment, he was opting not to wear a shirt at all. But he wanted the hatch, the ladder, all of it. Things needed doing and besides, hard work was good for body and mind. An added bonus was that it was time spent with Vega. "So I think we should do it."

And saying that, he turned back to the door and set himself to the job of fixing what he'd broken. So really, it was almost casual the way he spoke up again, except that it wasn't really. There was something bothering her. "All this is a bit of a jolt you know. Not just for me. I know you well enough by now Vega. What's bothering you?" he asked.

[Vega]

"You talk well funny, you do," she shot straight back at him with a grin. "I wish you'd learn some proper diction or somethin'. There's at least four g letters you've lost there." She looked at his bit of folded paper and frowned slightly. "Yeah, but that's jus' foldin' an' flippin'. You missed the slidin' an' the flappin'." Somehow, she too managed to look completely serious. When he explained what he meant, though, she nodded her head. "Works for me," she said and grinned at him. "I was thinkin' we might try an' get some more windows in here. Stars above us. But then, we've got our own space on deck an' the hammock. I reckon with the weather turnin', we could move out there some nights." Aboard a ship, after all, walls were just an illusion of privacy and they both preferred being outdoors.

"Yeah, keep lookin' at me like that an' we'll get no work done on the cabin an' plenty on each other. Behave," she said, grinning at him when he took her hand. "You wouldn't be able to concentrate if I was shirtless, you know. What makes you think I can when you are?" It was a fair point as far as she was concerned, and it had to be said that she appreciated every bit of him.

He wanted to make the hatch and the whole thing, he said. "That's good. Idle hands do the devils' work, so someone told me." They got busy, though, and Vega got about the job of constructing the ladder. She was good with woodworking and it was a surprisingly technical job so she was sitting, cross legged, on the floor and measuring out individual pieces which would go together to make the sliding, folding, flipping, flapping ladder. But then, he he talked about what had happened, how it had been a jolt. He knew her well enough by now, and what was bothering her, he asked. "Nothin'," she lied in an automatic response and then realised as soon as she'd said it that it was a lie. She didn't lie to Arlo, not ever and it was rare that she lied at all. "It's a jolt, yeah, that's a good word for it."

But what was bothering her? Vega looked at him and then lowered her head back to the wood in her hands. Satisfied that she had all the pieces she needed, she marked them and started making the second round of measurements. For maybe three bits, she didn't speak. "I dunno, Arlo. It's a lot of change an' quickly. It's hard to keep up, is all" If she even could, which she really wasn't sure about at the moment. The last thing she wanted to do was slow him down or, worse still, stop him from doing what he could and should be doing. She remained quiet for another few bits and then, out it came.

"The cliffs in Viden are botherin' me." Possibly an odd thing, but there it was. There were other examples, lots of them. Always, the same thing was true. "I want us to do everythin' both of us, together." Putting the wood down and giving up on pretending to do things with it, Vega looked at him. "I've spent the last two seasons bein' the reason we couldn't do stuff, an' I'm worried that this change is jus' another way that I'm gonna be that. An' I know you're not bothered, but I am." That was the bottom line of it. "I can't keep up, an' I don't know if I can live with bein' what slows us down." She smiled at him, the hues of her eyes not changing as they swirled in shades of purple. "I can't leap chasms like old grab'n'snog who doesn't bother askin' forgiveness or permission. An' neither of us are goin' anywhere if we don't go there together, so how does that all work?" Vega had scowling down to a fine art but there was no denying that she was worried, and deeply so. "I can't keep up, so you'll go at my pace like the poor ginger with the gammy legs, an' never once will you complain but there'll still be those cliffs an' you still won't be climbin' them an' it'll be because of me you patronizing dweeb." Apparently, whatever crime he might commit in the future, he already had. Or something.

"I'm worried about feelin' like I'm jus' slowin' us down Arlo, and bein' right while I'm at it." She looked up and her smile was genuine. "An' to be clear, I said us. All the way through. You've changed, an' that impacts us. Together. So don't go thinkin' nothin' stupid because where you are, I am an' that's the end of that." She was worried and frustrated, there was no doubting it, but she also was in no doubt of where she would be, as long as he wanted her there. "I'm not gonna go runnin' off hidin' up a mountain, or tryin' to pimp you out. I jus' don't like feelin' like this. I don't know. I'll get over it. Have you fixed that doorknob, there, Muscles?" Motioning to it, she added, for good measure. "If not, get a move on an' stop lollygaggin' about, I want my flippin' flappin' hatch." She looked at him and smiled. "I'll work it out. You don't need to be worryin' about it. You worry about yer buttons" She'd work it out or learn to live with it, she guessed. Those were her only options.

[Arlo Creede]

"Well any more slidin' or flappin', that ladder will have itself tied in knots in a Scalvoris bit," Arlo quipped, as serious as he could manage under the circumstances. But it was good. Even with the weight of what had happened just past midnight and beyond, they were able to tease and toy with each other in their own way. And all in all, it was very good medicine. A distraction that was very much needed, to avoid the folly of sinking into entirely too much deep thinking. Which Arlo would say that he wasn't at all prone to doing, while Vega was. Time to time. He didn't say it though. That would be foolish.

Windows would be good, he agreed. No so much during spring and summer when they could just sleep outdoors under the stars. But during the coldest trials of the arc when being outdoors too much was akin to being a glutton for punishment? It might be nice to be able to let a little more natural light into their cabin below decks. That might be for another trial though. They'd bitten off plenty already for this trial alone.

"My eyes, are up here," Arlo teased her again with a relative gesture, when she accused him of being a distraction. Truth was, she was right in one sense. If she was going topless, they certainly wouldn't be working at carpentry. But as a matter of principle, he believed, a different matter entirely. Not the same. He really wouldn't complain however, were they to get nothing else done for the rest of the trial. Idle hands indeed. She started on the ladder however, he finished fixing the door and then got up on a chair in order to saw a good hole in the ceiling. He needed to take care that the spot that was chosen, didn't weaken the supports any that held things together and in place. It wouldn't do to have a ceiling collapse on them, the first good storm that came along.

When he asked what was bothering her though, at first it appeared that Vega didn't want to talk about it. Arlo didn't push or ask again. It was her way, she would when she was ready. Or she wouldn't at all. And prying at her would get them nowhere. And then? Well, she was Vega. It all eventually came tumbling out. "The cliffs of Viden?" The truth was, he'd never given them a second thought. Hardly a first one in fact. Frowning curiously, he seemed to focus on his work and just let her work it out herself. And then if any correction was needed, from his point of view, that would come later.

It was a lot. And how did it all work? There was a time that she wouldn't have asked a question like that. He didn't think. Arlo wouldn't have either. Now? Clearly the question was weighing heavy on her and for a few trills, he began to worry that these changes that he'd cycled through so quickly were too much. That she might view them as too much. That it, he, was entirely too much trouble. Or something. But then of course she appeared to put that worry to rest as well. Good thing he'd a line of nails gripped between his lips while he worked. Those he'd pulled out the ceiling in order to create the hatch. He couldn't interrupt or argue without dropping them onto the floor.

She'd work it out? Maybe she just needed to say it. But Arlo still believed there were some things needing said. Climbing down from the chair, two feet on the floor, he was still frowning in thought. "That's an awful lot of telling me what I'll be thinking and doing, Vega, when I don't even know what I'll be doing or thinking myself. But I am who I am and who I've always been at the bottom of it all. There's never been a sense for me, not ever, of you not keeping up, or holding me back or whatever it is that worries you. Loving you and you loving me, is a large and looming part of who I am and what I do, why I do it. It's not all about Cassion you know. that part of me hasn't changed. And it's a lot of what ifs too," he added.

"Since when have either of us worried about the what ifs?" Those what ifs had always worked themselves out without being questioned or worried about. No reason for that to change now.

[Vega]

"I know where your eyes are," Vega said, but her own didn't lift to meet them. Not for a few trill, anyhow, and then she looked at him with a slight frown on her face, shades of purple swirling in her own gaze but darkening to a deep indigo. "I know exactly where they are." She really didn't know why they were fixing this stupid door, or putting a hatch in place. If she was honest, there were a hundred other things she'd rather be doing, and they all revolved around a single theme. Him. But he worked on the door, so she got on with the ladder and at least things were getting done. Having a door which locked would be no bad thing, in truth, but still. His eyes were up there, indeed. Vega maintained that if she shed her top, he'd forget that she had eyes at all, so frankly she was doing well.

They worked, he asked her a question and she answered it. He said nothing, but that was because he had a mouthful of nails and then he climbed down and spoke. His answer caused a whole new shade to swirl into her eyes, the indigo a thing of the past and crimson flecks making their way into her irises. She breathed in, carefully put down the tools she was working with and then looked at him, irritation on her face. "When did I tell you what I thought you were gonna be thinkin', Arlo?" She was quite serious and she played it back in her head as she spoke, checking that she was right. "Was it when I said, I know you're not bothered, but I am? Or when I said I'm worried about feelin' like I'm slowin' us down. Me feelin it. I'm glad you had a gobful of nails so you couldn't leap to point out what I didn't flippin' well say to begin with." This was about her and how she felt, not him and she'd been as clear as she could have been in what she said. "You've got a real tendency to hear stuff I don't say, you know. To read into what I'm sayin' an' assume the worst." It wasn't the first time he'd done it, after all. Was his opinion of her really that poor?

And then? It was a lot of what ifs? Since when did either one of them worry about what ifs? "Jinkies, Arlo, I dunno when I started worryin' about what ifs. When do you think?" Standing up, she moved over to him and wished - for the first time in a long time - that she was taller than him again. "It's alright for it to be botherin' me, an' good for you that you're not worried, but last time I checked you weren't me so why is that relevant an'... an... oh, you DWEEB!" Usually, she'd punch him then, but she didn't - she turned away in frustration.

Vega closed her eyes and she shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and she just sounded upset, not angry. "You asked me what was botherin' me. I told you. It was about me, an' how I feel. You turned it into about you an' Cassion." In his quest to tell her that it wasn't all about the Immortal, he'd done pretty much the opposite. Because it was, or it seemed to be for him. And as for the 'what ifs' question, she didn't even give that credence. "If I tell you how I feel Arlo, try not to tell me off for tellin' you how you're feelin, an' then go on to explain how wrong I am, would you? It really bakes my biscuit." It was unusual, but her temper had deserted her and Vega looked at him, no more red in her eyes and the colours in there pale. In that moment, she had no more fight and that wasn't a situation she ever found herself in. "Forget it. I'm sorry I said anythin'." She realised that she was, genuinely. It had been on her mind, she'd been concerned and worried about it and now she was that and a whole bunch of other stuff which she really wasn't in the mood to deal with, which she couldn't do with him standing there and the walls closing around her. "I jus' need to get out of here. I'm gonna go for a walk. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause all this. I'll see you later." A brisk walk on the beach and some rocks to sit at was just what she needed, she reckoned.

[Arlo Creede]

Predictably, Arlo thought, something that shouldn't have by any rights, did turn into a disagreement by virtue of him saying anything at all, and he was at a loss. He should have known better. He should have learned by now that when Vega was feeling sensitive about something, and he was trying to help by adding his own perspective to it, things tended to go south. He thought for a trill about pointing out the many instances in what she'd said, where she had assumed what he'd be thinking. By telling him that he'd choose not to do something because somehow she thought, that he thought, she couldn't keep up or that she'd slow him down.

In this rare instance, he didn't say it at all, but kept his impulses at bay by focusing on cutting a hole in the ceiling. Or...on second thought. "You didn't just tell me what you'd be feeling. You said I'd slow down or not doing some things because I'd believe or think it too." Nope, he corrected himself and suppressed the rest of it, putting another line of nails between his teeth as he'd need them. All the better, because when she said that he heard things she didn't say...but she had, and had also predicted the worst case scenario would be true for him, it was almost too much for his impulses to take.

"That's not fair Vega," he said then, unable to resist in and the handful of nails dropped to the floor round the legs of the chair. "I wasn't making it about me and Cassion. I cared how you felt and I was trying to help. I never said you were wrong." But then she was gone, just like that, leaving the cabin and going off on her own. There were other times he'd follow her and try to talk things out. But in this case, she wasn't hearing it. And if she thought he hadn't heard what she was really saying, the same was true for him in reverse. And for the next break or so, he took out that frustration in the work of installing a hatch in the ceiling.

To mixed results. "If you think I'm not hearing you right," he grumbled to himself while he pounded in nails...and in one instance bent one of them and cracked the wood too...then had to replace it, "how do you think you know it if I don't say it aloud...so you can tell me I'm wrong," he added, and only one of the kittens that had wondered into the room with him, peered up at him curiously with tilted head and blinked.

"Maybe I should always just assume I'm wrong and save everyone the trouble of explaining it," he added, grumbling to the cat. Eventually though he'd done all he could in the cabin, and needed to get out of it himself. He hadn't fished in a while, and it was a good pass time for clearing the mind. The back of the boat was always a good place to fish and there by himself, Arlo settled in and dropped his line in the water.

[Vega]

She'd sat there, quiet and still for the last two and half, near to three breaks, perched on the rocks, looking out at the boats coming in and out of Rharne harbour. Vega sighed slightly, watching the waves in their eternal dance against the hull of an unknown ship. She was agitated and upset because they'd argued, but also because she just hadn't bothered to fight, just walked away. Vega always fought. All the time. But in that argument they’d just had, she couldn’t fight his opinion of her, how he translated what she said; and somehow, rather than scrapping with him, it had led to her feeling that there was no point talking about it. But the thought of the phrase ‘no point’ in the same sentence as Arlo was new to her. It wasn’t something she felt, ever, and she needed to work it out.

So, Vega sat on the cool rocks, watching the world go by and she wondered. Maybe it was the change after change, she thought – but as soon as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t that. With a deep sigh she looked up to the sky and she whispered a prayer. ”Right, Xiur,” the redhead said, frowning deeply. ”I feel right at odds with myself, an’ with him an’ I don’t like it.” Looking at the twinkling stars, Vega realised that she should probably go back soon. She wasn’t ready to yet though. As she ran her hand through her hair, tugging at it, Vega exhaled again. "Right well this is stupid an' I'm not doin' it any more," she said to no one in particular. "What's the actual problem here? Is it that he changed? No. Because he hasn't, not in any way that matters." She sat, on the rock as the sun melted down into the sea and she chatted to herself, asking herself questions and answering them. She figured she probably looked a little crazed but if she could care less about that then she wasn't sure how.

It was another half-break before she made her way back to the Wanderlust. Her father, her cousins, they were nowhere to be seen and as she glanced over to the Waking Dreamer her eyes swam in dozens of bright, vivid shades as she saw them, but not Arlo. So, Vega made her way to him. He'd be outdoors by now, she knew and sure enough, there he was. Fishing off the back of the boat. When she saw him, Vega stopped in her tracks some distance from him as her breath caught in her throat and her emotions hit her in the chest. She looked at him and spoke, her voice shaking with emotion. "I love you. Only you an' always you. I don't care how much you change, how much food you need to eat or how many chasms you wanna leap over, cos I'll be right there with you. An' if I can't keep up?" This had been what was worrying her, what the argument had been about - at least initially. "Well, we'll work it out, because I'm in your blood like you're in mine. I know that, Arlo. I know it in my heart an' my soul an' every drop of silver in me. I don't doubt it. Or you, or us." Her eyes were locked on his, "An' as for all your increased strength an' passion, well if you ever want an' need me too much, I'll let you know. Because for all you want an' need me, right back in your face. I can't think straight when you look at me like you do. The sight of you makes me tingle righ' down to my toes an' when you touch me, my freckles fizz," she grinned slightly, yet was trembling with anger and desire mingled in about equal measures.

"But you're an idiot. You are." Vega didn't really understand if there were any rules to arguments and to her mind jumping from tingling toes and fizzing freckles to him being an idiot in the space of a breath was both reasonable and reasoned. "If you ever hear me tellin' you what you're gonna do, say or think, then by Moseke's gums, Arlo, I'm jus' tellin' you I'm worried." She looked at him and was entirely serious when she said they both just seemed to talk in absolutes when they started to argue. "I wasn't sayin' you'd slow down. Or I wasn't meanin' it. I was tellin' you that I was worried because you've changed an' I'm concerned that I can't keep up." She admitted, though, because it was only fair to. "An' I know you weren't makin' it about you an' Cassion. That wasn't fair of me to say."

Her eyes swirled in strange, mixed colours. Red, blue, purple and pink all vied for dominance, it seemed, but all of them dark shades. "I wanted to thump you, I was so angry," this was not a surprise to him, she knew. But what had taken her the last however many breaks to work out had been one to her. "I couldn't do it. You needed me not to touch you earlier, that was fine an' different." He'd woken up and it was all falling in, she understood that, she said and that wasn't what she was talking about here. "Since then you've been all gentle an' careful. I hate it. It's what you were like when my legs were broken, an' I only suggested the stupid hatch cos I've been gettin' more an' more wound up all trial an' started to feel like I was crawlin' out of my skin with all this dancin' around an' not touchin' an' bein' careful. I can't do it." She looked at him entirely seriously and explained what had taken her so long to realise. "I'm not prepared to start not bein' physical with each other cos you changed. No matter how strong you get, or how tall, or if you get hairy like a squirrel, yer eyes go pink or you sprout a pair of fluffy ears an' a bushy tail. I don't care. I want an' need you, Arlo Creede. Only you, all of you." She was trying to be clear. As clear as she could ever be, anyhow, she knew her own limitations. "Because no matter how much more of anythin' you get, I can damn well keep up." There, right there, was the crux of the matter, of course. "An' you were half naked, too. Frankly, fixin; the door an' a hatch in the ceilin' were the last things on my mind. I'd rather we both got a few bruises an' scrapes where we fell off the bed an' didn't notice, cos we're fire an' passion an' I can't be not thumpin' you. I thump you, Arlo." Romance, commitment and a deep abiding love, it seemed, were best expressed in a thump.

She'd been fragile, Vega said. He'd carried her gently, like she was the most precious thing in the world, and it was important that he understood how much she appreciated that, how grateful she was for it."More than I've got words for an' I've got a lot of words. I needed it an' I know when you hold me, you hold your most precious treasure." She didn't doubt it, never for a trill. "But I don't need protectin' from you. I need your hands on me an' mine on you. You're pig headed, argumentative an' arrogant an' damnit, man, why aren't you here an' kissin' me?" She'd stopped some distance from him to talk, but as she asked the question, if there was even the slightest indication that she was welcome in doing so, she was moving to close the gap.

[Arlo Creede]

The fishing was good there at the back of the boat that late afternoon. At least something was good, Arlo had thought sullenly as he'd pulled in one large bass and then another. Later, he'd clean them, stuff them whole with herbs and other things, wrap them closed with flavorful strips of streaky bacon and broil them in the wood stove. It They'd feed a crowd and cooking was one of the things he could do reliably well. Unlike navigating the sometimes temperamental firestorm that was him and Vega together. Lyova, glowing blue in the oncoming twilight, was perched on the end of his pole, bobbing up and down as the boat did on the water. As if the diri with no real physical form actually had to sit anywhere.

He'd finished the work that they'd started in the cabin after Vega had stormed out. At least, storming out was the way he interpreted what had happened. He'd knocked a few extra holes in the wall in an attempt to install a new beam. It would take some time to acquaint himself with his own strength, that had increased by half overnight. Arlo had been no weakling before then.

At any rate while he'd sat there alone, he'd thought once or twice about going after Vega. But then caught himself and opted not to. Better to leave her to sorting out her feelings for herself. She'd come back when she was ready. In the meantime, the pair of kittens had wandered over and were loitering nearby, hoping that he'd at least share a couple of the minnows he was using for bait. He did, and they got their fill.

And eventually, Vega did come back, and Arlo turned round at her voice, pulled in his line and set the pole aside. She had a lot to say, and he'd let her say all of it before he responded in any way. Even when she called him an idiot, he resisted the impulse to speak up. He stayed quiet to the end, and just listened. Of course that meant that once they were there, he couldn't possibly supply his own answer to everything that she'd said to him. Somewhere along the line he was about to get it wrong. About the small things, or about the things that really mattered.

So instead, something struck him. Maybe it was the hairy like a squirrel quip, or the idea that he might sprout a tail out of the blue. Who knew? But he shook his head and grinned a little before closing the distance between them and taking her into his arms. He kissed her, then pulled back just slightly to look in her eyes. "You talk a lot, you know," he teased her gently. "And I love you. I know you can keep up, I've always known it. And if you think that there was any part of me not touching you, that had to do with anything gone on before..." Her death and re-emergence from death, that temporary brokenness, "then you can think again."

She was no more fragile that way than the beam that he'd cracked down below with a hammer, or the knob that he'd ripped off the door. In fact, she was leaps and bounds stronger than that. Physically, spiritually, all of it. "You remember, once you were up on your feet again? It took some time, getting accustomed to your land legs all over again. You didn't stand up and take off running. You tested your strength...You dipped a toe in the water before plunging in." Keeping his distance to some degree had nothing to do with keeping his distance from her, Arlo told her. He was simply coming to terms with a body that had changed over the course of a few bits in the middle of the night. "That's all, and don't you forget it," Arlo warned her as once again, he pulled her close and kissed her.

[Doran Cooney]

Eva "Vega" Lei'nox

Knowledges
Psychology: Change can make you feel out of sorts
Psychology: Associating strange feelings with someone is disconcerting
Psychology: Considering why you're feeling what you are.
Psychology: Arguing leaves you feeling discombobulated
Psychology: Sometimes, it's hard to work out why you do and say what you say and do..
Woodcraft: Making ladders
Woodcraft: The tools for making hatches.

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

Arlo Creede

Knowledges
Construction: Replacing a doorknob
Construction: Setting a hatch in the right place so as not to weaken a structure
Construction: Repairing damage you've done.
Fishing: Minnow are good bait
Fishing: The back of a ship is a good spot
Fishing: Late afternoon is a good time.
Woodcraft: Making ladders and hatches.
Woodcraft: The tools for making hatches.
Woodcraft: Fixing doorknobs

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

---

While I was expecting Vega to pop off the handle and do as she does, getting all fussy with Arlo and over upset and putting words in his mouth, I did not expect her to come back and essentially apologize! It's really neat to see her struggling with stuff and actually realizing that sometimes she's wrong. Arlo not running after her wasn't as unexpected, but it was a really good point for both of them to make for each other; that they can take time to cool down away from each other and it's not a personal insult to either of them! Also building stuff because you're anxious and/or semi-rage filled? Very cathartic haha.

Please edit your grade request, thank you!

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[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=7932[/img]Doran Cooney[/center]