Author Topic: No rest for the weary [DragonSong] (Read 7403 times)

Marjorie · « **Reply #60 on:** October 27, 2019, 06:44:53 pm »

Raf started, nearly hitting his head on the bulkhead when Ava spoke. He hadn't realized she was up. It wasn't time for Val to wake her again, yet. Her remark was answered by a string of curses that were not really aimed at her.

"I've tried sleeping pills," Raf said, at length, still inside the sonic shower, "they help me sleep, sometimes, but... they don't, they don't help with the nightmares. They make them worst." Sleep would be a gods send, but still... the nightmares were worst than the lack of sleep. The panic attacks were really the worst thing though, they were so crippling sometimes that he couldn't function at all.

"With the alcohol," he said, "I don't dream... at least not when I black out." Raf didn't rightly know why he was telling her any of this. He was so... embarrassed, ashamed, guilty. The guilt was more than anything else. He obviously didn't know how to deal with his issues, but he also didn't know how to ask for help, which he wasn't asking for now.

He turned off the shower, but didn't get out. He didn't think that he could face her, or anyone right now.

DragonSong · « **Reply #61 on:** October 27, 2019, 06:58:06 pm »

Ava sort of jumped when he started cursing, then realized what must have happened and couldn't help smiling just a bit, lifting a hand to cover the expression even though there was a door between them.

She listened to him quietly, nodding once or twice. She'd heard similar from patients on the frontier--and twice even during her undergrad back in Tynova.

"Well, I've never heard of a nightmare cure that wasn't at least a bit magical--and even those don't always work for long. But sometimes talking about it helps."

She heard the shower turn off and pushed herself away from the wall with a small sigh. She started to move back toward the bed with Val, then paused and added quietly, not even really sure if he could hear her through the door, "You saved my life today. More importantly, you saved my daughter's life out there. I know you weren't exactly planning on making it back from this, but...if I can do anything to pay you back, I'd be happy to."

She paused a moment longer, then slipped away into the bunk, wincing as she settled back onto the bed and lay on her good side, one arm looping around Val's curled form.

Marjorie · « **Reply #62 on:** October 27, 2019, 07:12:48 pm »

"I've tried magic too," he said softly, resting his forehead against the wall. "Like you said, doesn't last long." And it was exorbitantly expensive.

Alcohol was cheap and available everywhere.

"Just live," Raf said, "keep her safe."

"Hey," Raf said sticking his head out the door as Ava left. "Where do you want me to set this bird down? I set a course for the Cancer, but that was just because I had to pick somewhere... do you have a destination in mind, sister?"

DragonSong · « **Reply #63 on:** October 27, 2019, 07:18:01 pm »

Ava paused in the doorway, glancing back over her shoulder at him. "Just...anywhere. Edanith clearly isn't safe anymore--who knows how many people those bandits told about Val..."

The best option would honestly be to keep traveling. But that required a ship, and quite a bit of technological know-how--not to mention a piloting license--that she didn't possess.

And she didn't want to ask him. He'd done enough for them.

"Anywhere," Ava repeated on a sigh before climbing into the bed. Though full sleep seemed to elude her, she was dozing quickly enough, one arm curved around her daughter and the other tucked under her head.

Marjorie · « **Reply #64 on:** October 27, 2019, 08:08:29 pm »

"The Cancer is more like nowhere," Raf said, more to himself than Ava, "but it'll do for now, I suppose."

He took his reeking clothes and stepped out of the bathroom then and turned down the corridor to the other cabin, that one was his. He threw on a fresh pair of pants and didn't bother with anything else. Then he collapsed, face down into the bed. Passed out from exhaustion. He got about an hour of peaceful sleep before Liss announced that she was ready to engage the jump drive. It was the best sleep he'd had in... years. He felt refreshed.

It was... odd.

"Hey, sister," Raf said, coming into the room that Ava and Val were sleeping in, "we'll be at The Cancer in an hour." He'd forgotten he was just in pants... bare feet, and all. His body was littered with scars, a lot of them were from bullets or energy blasts. Evidence of cuts and burns and the like were all there carved into his skin. Even a couple of his toes looked to have been broken and reset - not unlike his nose - a couple of times.

DragonSong · « **Reply #65 on:** October 27, 2019, 08:24:28 pm »

Both Val and Ava groaned and grumbled as his voice brought them back to consciousness, then stretched their arms in a strange little mirror image of each other--at least until Ava pulled at her wound and winced, dropping her arms quickly.

"Okay, I'm up," she mumbled groggily, pushing herself up and looking toward him--and then she paused, blinking, and felt her cheeks flush a bit.

Oh. Oh fuck.

That was...so very inconvenient.

Shoving the flicker of a though from her mind, she shook her head and got carefully to her feet. "You wanna put a shirt on, Raf? You're gonna traumatize my kid."

On the bed, Val giggled, sitting with her legs crossed and her wings flared through the holes in her shirt, haloing her body with cream and brown feathers. She sort of rocked from side to side and her wings moved infinitesimally to keep her balanced. "Where's Cancer, Mama?"

Before Ava could answer, the girl looked to Raf and chirped, "Have you been there before? Are you coming with us?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #66 on:** October 27, 2019, 08:37:37 pm »

Raf looked down, only then realizing he'd just thrown on pants and then passed out until about fifteen minutes ago. Hell, she was lucky he hadn't walked in there naked as the day he was born... He often did walk around his ship naked. This was his home, and he rarely had guests, after all.

"Seems you're the only one bothered," he'd noticed the flush on her cheeks... it'd been, well a really fucking long time sense a woman had looked at him like that.

Raf glanced at Ava then. "Cancer is a space station, kiddo," he said, "I've been there lots of times... and yeah, I'll be there. I'm taking you there." He winked at her, "I'd better go get dressed though, we'll be there soon." Then he headed out of the room and down the hall to his own cabin to finish getting dressed.

DragonSong · « **Reply #67 on:** October 27, 2019, 09:01:14 pm »

"He has a lot of scars."

Ava winced. She turned back to her daughter and started rooting through their packs for fresh clothes. She knew she had at least one change for the girl. "Yeah, chickadee, he does," she murmured, hoping their voices were low enough that Raf hadn't heard. "But y'know...some people don't like to talk about stuff like that, right?"

"Oh. Okay." VAl frowned, evidently confused. "You always said not to be embarrassed about scars though."

She winced again. "Yep, I sure did. And I meant it. But it's...sometimes it's not embarrassment, kiddo, it's... Talking about scars sometimes makes them hurt. Okay, arms up."

Val considered that in silence as her mother helped her shrug into a new shirt, wings once more tucked close to her spine. "But...you can fix that, can't you?" The girl looked up into Ava's face, and she felt her chest tighten. "You always fix people who are hurting."

Ava was quiet for a long moment after that, lifting Val up into her arms and pressing a distracted kiss to her temple. "...Yeah," she murmured eventually. "But the thing is, chickadee, in order for me to help, someone has to want to be fixed."

Marjorie · « **Reply #68 on:** October 27, 2019, 10:19:00 pm »

Well, for his part, Raf wasn't embarrassed about his scars. He wouldn't relish the idea of talking about them, though... he'd hardly be upset about Val just mentioning them. He didn't typically advertise them, but he also didn't really hide them. It was just lucky for him, if he wore clothes, most of the physical scars were hidden.

Raf came back, fully dresses, a few minutes later. He tossed one of his t-shirts on the bed, it was clean, if a little ragged. "I didn't think you'd fit any of my pants, but that's clean if you want it you can have it. We're docking in thirty minutes."

DragonSong · « **Reply #69 on:** October 28, 2019, 08:13:58 am »

"Oh. Um, thanks." Ava took the shirt and turned her back to him as she started to struggle out of her bloodstained, ripped blouse, wincing and hissing every so often as she pulled uncomfortably at her side.

Val watched her mother for a moment carefully, then abruptly hopped off the bed and scurried over to where Raf stood in the doorway. She reached up to take his hand, tugging gently to try to get him to lean down as she rocked up onto her toes and put one hand by her mouth to whisper, "You should go to Mama if you're hurting."

She glanced over her shoulder, saw that Ava was still struggling to get the shirt on without hurting herself, and continued, "She said I shouldn't talk about it because it might make you sad, but I think it's silly not to try to fix something that hurts. She says you have to want to though."

Turning around again, Ava saw her daughter hanging onto Raf's hand and trying to appear conspiratorial and she huffed, moving forward to pull her gently away. "Alright, chickadee, what's up, huh? We can't be bothering Raf right now, he's gotta fly the ship."

Val pouted slightly but took her mother's hand easily enough. Automatically, Ava bent to try to lift her daughter onto her hip, then gave a short, sharp cry as her injured side protested and she had to pause, teeth gritted and eyes clenched shut.

Marjorie · « **Reply #70 on:** October 28, 2019, 08:31:44 am »

Raf turned to the side a little to give Ava some more privacy when she started to change out of her ripped shirt. He let the girl take her hand and knelt down when she tugged it. Letting her whisper in his ear.

He pulled back slightly when she poke though. He looked down at her a moment, and then looked away, unable to meet her gaze. "It's... it's not the kind of hurt that can be fixed with medicine and bandages," he said quietly. He let go of her hand then and quickly turned away from her and headed back up the ladder.

"Be careful you don't pull your stitches," he called down the ladder.

DragonSong · « **Reply #71 on:** October 28, 2019, 08:40:01 am »

"Right, thanks. Wouldn't have thought of that," Ava muttered--more to be ornery than anything else--before looking down at her daughter again. She sort of tilted her head to one side, mimicking the way Val was looking up at her. "What was that about, sweetling?"

Val shrugged, biting at her lower lip, and glanced up the ladder after Raf for a moment. "I dunno," she said eventually with a small sigh, shoulders slightly slumped.

Ava thought about pressing, then decided against it. "Alright then. How 'bout you help me back up these bags again, okay?"

She had no idea how long they'd be on Cancer, so it probably wouldn't hurt to carry their things with them.

Roughly twenty minutes later, Val scurried up the ladder and made her way to the cockpit, navigating the ship with surprising ease considering how little time she'd spent on it. Ava followed more sedately, mindful of her stitches, with the saddlebags now converted to a short of satchel that she wore across one shoulder and on her hip.

"Can I see?" Val was chirping as she scrambled around looking for any sort of window. "I've never been in space before, I wanna see the stars before we land!"

Marjorie · « **Reply #72 on:** October 28, 2019, 08:57:14 am »

"Come in here if you want to see space, kiddo," Raf called from the cockpit. "You can sit right there," he pointed to the co-pilot's seat, "just don't touch anything in here ok."

He pointed out the window, at the lights in the sky. "The stars are all over," he said, "but this here," he pointed out the space station, "is the Cancer. See those lights there? That's where we're going to dock." He flipped a few switches and turned a dial and moved a slide. The computer started counting off the distance to the docking port as they got closer.

Airlock sealed, docking complete. The computer informed him and then he hit a few other buttons and most of the lights on the control panel went dark.

"Alright kiddo," he said, "we're ready to go." He got up and lifted Val out of the chair and put her up on his shoulders. "Liss, set security protocols to maximum once we're off."

Once they got to the hatch, he set the girl down and opened the airlock. "You stay close ok, we don't want you to get lost... this place is a lot bigger than Restless."

DragonSong · « **Reply #73 on:** October 28, 2019, 09:10:57 am »

Val gasped excitedly as she was given permission to clamber into the co-pilot's seat, sitting up on her knees and all but bouncing in place as she looked around, wide-eyed.

In the doorway to the cockpit Ava couldn't help smiling as she watched them, just a little. It was a miracle her daughter seemed as unphased by her ordeal as she did; granted, it was still very new, and a lot was happening, but still she was hopeful that Val could move passed it.

She did sort of start forward when Raf swung her daughter up onto his shoulders, but Val just squealed in delight and hung on, laughing.

Ava's heart lurched and her stomach did a funny little flip. She shook her head, trying to put it from her mind as she followed them out to the hatch. Val pouted to be put on the ground again but didn't complain, nodding quickly when Raf told her to stay close. She was practically wriggling in anticipation, and Ava couldn't help chuckling quietly.

"Okay!" She grabbed Ava's hand, smiled up at her, then reached up to take Raf's with the other. "Ready!" she chirped happily, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Marjorie · « **Reply #74 on:** October 28, 2019, 09:28:37 am »

Raf smiled. He remembered easily how excited he'd been the first time he was in a ship and in space. He'd grown up on the streets, poor, destitute, in an out of child services - such as they were on Edanith. Then he'd joined the military and suddenly so many new things were within reach. He was eighteen at the time, not six or seven, however old Val was... but he remember the wonder the first time he saw space, still.

Raf looked down at Val when she grabbed his hand. He messed her hair with his other hand and then stepped threw the air lock. The docs were busy, with a lot of people and ships coming and going. It was crowded and people pressed in on them as they walked. Raf's grip on Val's hand tightened just a little.

"Do you need anything, supplies, or?" he glanced over his shoulder at Ava and his gaze drifted down to where he wound was before he turned his head back to the front. "I know this place pretty well, if you have a sort of destination in mind or anything you need?"

DragonSong · « **Reply #75 on:** October 28, 2019, 09:37:02 am »

"Ah, yes. Medical supplies would be good, and it wouldn't hurt to grab a few other essentials..."

Ava's voice trailed off as she glanced through her satchel, holding it open with her free hand while Val swung between the two of them, looking around with wide eyes. Wincing slightly, Ava glanced back at Raf over her daughter's head and sort of shook her head once, frowning.

"I...don't exactly have a lot of cash," she mumbled, hoping to keep her voice low enough that Val wouldn't hear. "I didn't expect to just leave Reckless so quickly, I didn't--"

She cut herself off. Shaking her head again, she muttered, "It's fine. We'll make do. Can you point us in the direction of some place to get some basic field med stuff?" Her stomach growled, loudly, and she flushed, then added, "And maybe some food?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #76 on:** October 28, 2019, 09:58:26 am »

"It's alright," he said, "don't worry about it." Money wasn't an issue, he'd been paid well for a job just before he accepted Ava's. "Yeah, food first."

Raf lead the way toward a, oh no, not fir kids... he changed directions and lead them off to a little restaurant. It wasn't a super nice place, but it looked clean, at least. Raf picked a table at random, and about the time he sat in one of the chairs, one of the waitresses came by and walked her fingers across the top of his shoulders.

"I haven't seen you in a while Raf," she said and then placed a couple menus on the table. She arched an eyebrow at Val, and glanced sideways at Ava.

"I'm not here for long, Keltcy," Raf said, glancing up at the waitress. Then he turned his gaze down at Val. "What's your favorite thing to eat, kiddo?"

DragonSong · « **Reply #77 on:** October 28, 2019, 10:06:02 am »

Ava opened her mouth to protest--but then logic outweighed pride and she gave a soft huff, nodding gratefully at Raf as he led them through the unfamiliar station toward a...

Oh thank gods. He'd changed direction.

Val was jabbering away, asking about anything and everything even as they walked into the restaurant and were led to a table. Ava was too busy attempting to get her daughter to hold still in her seat to notice the woman's initial approach, but she looked up when she heard her voice and caught the sideways look in her direction.

Not at all sure how to take that, she shifted slightly in her seat and glanced down at the menu, fumbling in her satchel for a moment before she drew her hand back with a small pill and quickly swallowed it. If they were going to be up and about for the foreseeable future, gods knew she was going to need some painkillers.

"I like starfruit!" Val replied to Raf's question immediately. She pouted a bit and added, "We couldn't get it a lot in Reckless though."

Ava chuckled. "How about something with protein before something sweet, kiddo?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #78 on:** October 28, 2019, 10:13:05 am »

"I don't know if they have starfruit," Raf said as the waitress retreated, "but they have fruit here sometimes... depends on when the last shipment was."

"There's pasta, sandwiches, burgers, soups," Raf said.

"I like the caran nuggets, and cheesy beer bread," he had no idea what kind of meat they were made of, but they were seasoned well and tasted good.

DragonSong · « **Reply #79 on:** October 28, 2019, 10:22:24 am »

Val's eyes widened. "I'm not allowed to have beer."

Evidently she'd harped in on that one word.

Ava snorted into her hand, unable to help herself. "Aw, chickadee, that's very sweet," she chuckled, reaching out to stroke the girl's hair. "But it's actually okay. See, the way they cook things means that what's bad for you in the alcohol isn't there anymore."

"Oh." Easily reassured, Val glanced up at Raf again and chirped, "Can I try that then?"