Author Topic: No rest for the weary [DragonSong] (Read 7426 times)

Marjorie · « **Reply #80 on:** October 28, 2019, 10:29:35 am »

Raf cracked a smile. It was the first time he'd smiled in a real genuine way, in a long time. "Of course you can," Raf said.

He flagged down the waitress. "Keltcy, can we get two orders of caran nuggets and cheesy beer bread, and I'll take a beer, and some fresh fruit if you have any, and..." he gestured at Ava, to place her own order and order something to drink for Val.

DragonSong · « **Reply #81 on:** October 28, 2019, 10:36:14 am »

“The tamales for me, please, and some water,” Ava replied quickly with a smile. She handed the menu over and added with a nod toward Val, “And a glass of pimont juice, I’d you have it?”

The fruit was one of the rare few native to Edanith, and though a little tart Val still loved it.

Though the little girl didn’t seem to be all the interested in listening to what her mother was saying. She was looking around the restaurant curiously, eyes bright and wide as she tried to take in so many new things at once.

“Mama. Mama.” She tugged on Ava’s sleeve, drawing her attention. Lowering her voice, the girl whispered, “Is that person a cyborg?”

“Mm?” Ava glanced up. “Looks like they are, babe.”

“Whoa...”

Marjorie · « **Reply #82 on:** October 28, 2019, 06:12:41 pm »

“Let me show you how to eat this,” Raf said, “you have to dunk the nuggets into the cheese sauce.” He demonstrated, making a lovely mess with the gooey, stringy cheese sauce. He didn’t care it was fixing delicious.

The waitress, noises they had the juice, and some boden fruit that had just arrived the other day. That fruit was native to the near by planet of Reglis. It had a taught skin that snapped when you fit into it and the inside was gushy and sweet. So sweet the smell of it almost made Raf’s teeth hurt.

When they were done eating, Raf paid the tab. “Medical supplies next?” He asked, and as they got up, he glanced at Ava, “not a lots regulated here so you can get about anything you want here. Also,” he added, looking away from her, “if you can fix me up something... not sleeping pills, but for the other thing. I’d ah, appreciate it.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #83 on:** October 28, 2019, 06:26:51 pm »

Ava chuckled watching her daughter try to mimic Raf's way of eating the snack and winding up with cheese sauce smeared over her face. She leaned in to wipe it off, ignoring the girl's protests and squirming.

It was...nice. And surprisingly relaxing, aside from the occasional twinge from her injured side.

And she'd never complain about free food. She managed to shoot Raf a grateful look when he picked up the tab, but she was a bit distracted trying to wrangle an excited and now thoroughly sugar-high Val.

"Oh." She paused, one hand holding Val's wrist as her daughter babbled away about want to see everything on Cancer, and glanced over to try to meet Raf's eyes. Voice a little lower, softer, she murmured, "I think I can manage that. We should, um...talk about some particulars later though? Just...how you should take it and such."

Marjorie · « **Reply #84 on:** October 29, 2019, 12:12:48 am »

Raf wouldn’t look her in the eye, but nodded. “Yeah, later,” he said. “Alright kiddo, we’re going to the med store now,” he said, after the girl grasped his hand, placing herself between him and her mother again.

Raf led the way off to what was mostly a legitimate medical supply store. “You should be able to get just about anything,” Raf said ad they stepped inside. “Even... harder to find things.” By which he meant they carried some things that were either controlled without tracking them or were slightly illegal. It didn’t mean they wouldn’t or couldn’t legitimately be needed.

DragonSong · « **Reply #85 on:** October 29, 2019, 08:58:21 am »

"Mm." Ava acknowledged that with a small nod. She didn't necessarily like the idea of black market goods, but she'd be willing to do what was necessary.

Besides, mood stabilizers were expensive off-world.

As her mother began striding down one of the relatively clinically clean aisles, Val hung back, tugging on Raf's hand as she glanced toward the door. "It's boring in here," she complained with a small pout. "This is all just Mama stuff. Can we go look outside again?"

Ava paused and glanced back over her shoulder, debated a moment, then sighed and relented, "If you don't go too far, and you promise to stick close to Raf, sure. But just for a few minutes, I won't take long."

The words were ostensibly for the girl, but she was looking at Raf as she said it, an odd combination of exasperated pleading and firm wariness behind her eyes.

Marjorie · « **Reply #86 on:** October 30, 2019, 02:04:48 pm »

“Don’t worry am,” Raf teased, “we’ll be good and we won’t go far.” He reached down and picked up Val then, and put her up on his shoulders again.

“What do you want to see, kiddo?” Raf asked as they headed out of the medical supply store. There were storms, bars, restaurants, and lots of different walkways and alleyways. Some led to residential areas and others to nightclubs and other forms of entertainment.

DragonSong · « **Reply #87 on:** October 30, 2019, 02:11:58 pm »

Val squealed delightedly, clinging to him, and Ava gave them a roll of her eyes and a last quick look before turning her attention to the task at hand.

"What's that way?" Val asked almost the moment they'd stepped outside again, pointing down a walkway that seemed to lead to some sort of entertainment district. It was difficult to make out much from their current position, but the girl's attention had clearly been caught by a variety of bright lights and the occasional burst of laughter that emanated from the area.

Marjorie · « **Reply #88 on:** October 30, 2019, 04:16:23 pm »

“Street performers,” Raf said. It wasn’t quiet a carnival, because of the space limitations, but it looked like a band of traveling Gypsies. There was someone breathing fire and another was balanced upside down on one hand. Near by three musicians were playing lively music. In time to the song, the acrobat lowered herself down on that one hand and the sprung up landing on one foot just to flip over in a back flip. On the other side of the walkway was a mystic reading palms and telling fortunes, next to him was a mage doing can trips as she told stories of myth and legend, not unlike one might preform a puppet show. There was also someone selling candies and other sweets that had come from, if the man advertising them was to be believed, all over the known universe. Raf did recognize treats from at least three different planets though.

DragonSong · « **Reply #89 on:** October 30, 2019, 04:40:48 pm »

"Oh, can we go? Please?" Val, apparently with some effort, resisted the urge to wriggle for fear of tumbling off his shoulders, looking around at the different performers and occasional vendors with wide eyes and a massive smile.

Street fairs were not exactly in abundance back in Reckless.

Attention caught by the scent of sugar, Val suddenly tried to scramble down Raf's back, snatching his hand up to tug him in the direction of the sweet seller. "Mama said I could have something sweet if I ate "real food" first," she pointed out with a far-too-innocent smile.

Ava had of course said no such thing, though it was entirely possible her words had been twisted to mean such in a seven-year-old's mind.

Just a bit behind the candy stall, sort of tucked away into a slightly dimmer side alley, a smaller, flickering neon sign read: A Strange and Wonderful Universe. Beneath the large printed words was a smaller advertisement for "a walk of oddities and attractions", with an arrow that pointed toward a small, temporary shop of sorts that seemed to have been set up between the two larger buildings at the end of the alley.

Marjorie · « **Reply #90 on:** October 31, 2019, 05:11:37 pm »

Raf, strikes a little. “Of course,” he said, already starting them in that direction. When Val attempted to climb down from his shoulder, he caught her by the hips and lifted her before settling her on her feel. He chuckled softly. “You pick one,” Raf said, “just one. Whatever you like.”

The street bender smiled amiably at the grim and showed her all the sweets giving exciting accounts of where they came from and what they tasted like. Raf bought whatever she chose plus a few extras he stuffed in his pocket for Ava and Val to take with them when they parted ways.

He gestured at the oddities shop and looked at the vendor selling the sweets. “You think that’s too scary for little girls?” he asked.

DragonSong · « **Reply #91 on:** October 31, 2019, 06:16:08 pm »

Munching happily on some sort of caramelled pastry, Val screwed her face up at him and tried to look fierce.

The powdered sugar on her lips and smeared over one cheek probably mitigate that effort somewhat.

"I'm not scared of nothing," she proclaimed proudly--and for all appearances she seemed to mean it, as though the ordeal of her kidnapping had never really happened. Either she was in some sort of deep denial, or she was a damned resilient kid.

Grabbing for Raf's hand again, she tugged him down the alley toward the oddity attraction. "C'mon! Unless you're scared."

Val's bravery seemed to falter a moment as they actually stepped into the small shop. The lighting was dim and flickering--either by design or because the proprietors of the street fair couldn't afford to hook the attraction up to the main Cancer electricity system. Her steps slowed and she looked around the space with an equal combination of curiosity and nervousness, pressing a little closer to Raf's side and clutching his hand tighter.

There were quite a variety of attractions set up under the flickering lights; most seemed to be odd bits and pieces of creatures from "far away worlds", as the plaques proudly declared, but there were quite a few gadgets and artifacts assembled as well--some claimed to be thousands of years old, or even possess lingering magical properties.

Val's attention, however, was drawn to a back corner of the space, a slightly crooked pole stretched across an open door frame just barely managing to keep a threadbare curtain in place. The sign just beside the door read, See a remnant of a bygone era, living before your eyes.

The girl bit her lip and took a cautious step forward, then another, almost as though she was drawn toward the doorway. Her hand slipped out of Raf's, and she took another step, then suddenly ran to dart behind the curtain.

Marjorie · « **Reply #92 on:** November 09, 2019, 10:47:24 pm »

Raf chuckled when the girl suggested he might be scared. Tough as nails that one was. Even for a little squirt like her. He'd seen her handle herself better than some trained soldiers in the face of a bomb, it was no surprise to him, she'd not be denied a 'scary' carnival attraction.

The flickering lights seemed, to Raf, to be part of the design. He gave Val's hand a little squeeze when she scooted closer to him, but let her lead the way past the various curiosities. Until her hand slipped from his and he darted off. "Hey!" He moved after her quickly. "Val!?" He slipped behind the curtain as well. Her mother was going to fucking murder him if he lost her.

DragonSong · « **Reply #93 on:** November 10, 2019, 08:59:35 am »

The small side room Val had entered contained only a single, massive tank that took up nearly the entirety of one wall, nearly eight feet from end to end, and probably four or five feet deep and wide. For an aquarium it would have been ridiculously large.

For its current occupant, it was clear that it was barely enough room to turn around.

Val stared in dumbfounded silence at the creature floating in the slightly murky, greenish water, and the creature stared back, black eyes bright and intelligent in an almost-human face. She was used to people gawking at her by now, but it had been quite some time since she'd seen a child.

Still moving as though some external force possessed her to do so, Val took a few shuffling, hesitant steps toward the tank. The mer-creature flinched back toward the further corner of her tank, but the best she could manage was to press her back against the glass and attempt to curl her long, sinuous tail in toward her body. Those large black eyes flickered from the girl to over her shoulder, toward Raf, and back.

Val had reached the tank, biting her lower lip as she stood awkwardly before it. She sniffled, feeling hot tears prickle at the backs of her eyes, though she didn't entirely understand why. Slowly, carefully, she raised a hand and pressed it against the glass.

Something like recognition flickered in the mer-creature's eyes and she hesitantly uncurled herself from the corner, drifting forward until she was only a few inches from the glass herself, multicolored hair floating gently around her. Movements just as cautious as Val's, she lifted a webbed hand and placed it on the other side of the glass from the girl's.

Ava found herself a bit at a loss as she stepped from the medical supply store and didn't catch sight of Raf or her daughter. She turned in a slow circle, frowning--then caught sight of the lights and noise surrounding the street fair. Not to mention the distinctive scent of baking sugar that hit her nose.

"If she's on a sugar-high, I am going to throw him out his own airlock," she muttered as she set off down the street.

Marjorie · « **Reply #94 on:** November 10, 2019, 05:48:40 pm »

The thing - species Raf couldn’t name - looked distinctly intelligent. Raf wondered if hand if it was even legal to have such a creature in captivity. Not that he was dumb enough to ask around about that slavery was rampant all over the universe. He wasn’t the hero that was going to try and end it. Far from it.

It was the creature though, not Val, that held his attention, once he’d determined that Val wasn’t in any danger. He took up the girl’s free hand almost absently. He moved closer as the met-creature moved closer to Val. It was a sad existence. Not even a normal slave’s life - to be locked in a box like that. Raf knew what it was to be locked in a box like that. His had been endless darkness.

Fuck.

Raf’s heartbeat and breathing had kicked up a notch. The acrid tang of rust, stale air, and chemicals filled his nose and he coughed like someone was choking the life out of him.

No. No. It’s not real. He screamed at himself mentally, but the world was already spinning. Blackness. He was back in that box. There was nothing but the echo of his own screams. Then the sound of booted feet. He turned, frantic, which way was the door? How long had he been left in this blackness, confined so tightly he couldn’t sit or lay down, but so tired he could no longer stand. He just snagged against the cold metal confines of the box.

Back in the real world, a cold sweat broke out across Raf. His fingers went limp and Val’s hand slipped from his grasp. Some how he’d wound up in a corner of the tiny room, banging on the walls.

DragonSong · « **Reply #95 on:** November 10, 2019, 06:42:17 pm »

She heard the pounding noise before she heard the shouting, and Val's high, thin little voice. An instinct she didn't even entirely understand kicked in and Ava found herself whirling on the spot, racing down the narrow alley and into the curio shop like a hound on the scent.

The proprietor--if he could indeed be called that--of the establishment had appeared from some back room or another and was storming his way toward the room veiled with a thick curtain, where the noise was coming from.

Ava nearly beat him there, already calling, "Val!"

"Mama!"

Her daughter had grabbed ahold of the hem of Raf's shirt, was futilely trying to tug him away from the wall. Her eyes were wide and scared, tear tracks marking her cheeks. "Mama, help!"

Hardly even noticing her surroundings, Ava felt her training kick in. She moved forward with clipped, steady steps, until she was close enough to place herself between Raf and the wall. "Hey. Hey." She caught his wrist, hoping to draw his attention back to the present. "Raf? Raf, look at me. I'm here, okay, I'm real. This is real. Val is real. Can you hear me?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #96 on:** November 10, 2019, 10:31:34 pm »

Raf didn’t even hear Val’s calls and sobs. The moment that Ava touched him though, Raf lashed out. Wild and thrashing like a caged animal. It took a moment before he registered the sound of Val’s voice... he couldn’t make out the words, it was like being underwater. Her tone was soothing though and he recognized her voice. He stopped fighting her and he came back slowly.

Raf slid to the floor and wrapped his arms around himself. He was exhausted, sore from banging on the walls, and mortified. It wasn’t real. He reminded himself. Repeating it over and over in his mind. It isn’t real. That was years ago. He’d been rescued and he was never going back. He was free and he’d kill himself before he let himself be captured again.

DragonSong · « **Reply #97 on:** November 10, 2019, 10:58:33 pm »

Raf lashed out, his hand connected with her cheek and her head cracked back against the wall. Ava gasped, seeing stars for a moment, but she refused to release her grip on his wrist.

“It’s okay,” she repeated firmly, and meeting his eyes she though she saw him starting to come back to himself. “You’re alright, Raf. This is real, this right now. Val and I are real. It’s okay.”

She knelt slowly in front of him as he sank to the ground, finally letting go of his wrist. Val, who was crying in earnest now, though doing her best to swallow back the tears, ran to her mother and threw her arms around her neck, hiding her face against her shoulder.

“Shh, shhh,” Ava soothed, stroking her daughter’s hair with one hand while the other rested her fingertips gently on Raf’s shoulder. “It’s okay,” she told them both, and hoped they believed her.

...Fuck, her head hurt.

The owner of the oddity attraction was standing behind Raf in the doorway, ranting about them disturbing the shop, and Ava lifted her eyes to glare at him tiredly. Gods, where even were they?

Marjorie · « **Reply #98 on:** November 10, 2019, 11:18:35 pm »

Raf’s heart still felt like it was beating out of his chest, but the room had stopped spinning and his breathing had slowed. “I - I’m ok,” he said softly, barley able to look at Ava he was so ashamed of his outburst. “I didn’t...” he glanced at Val who was sobbing, “I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?” He knew what he’d thought had been happening a moment ago, but he didn’t rightly know what he had done at all in the real world.

He looked past Ava and Val to the shop keeper. “We’re leaving,” he said a touch irritability, to him, “we’re leaving. Don’t worry.” Raf struggled a moment but got to his feet. Fuck he felt like he hadn’t slept in days. Probably because he hadn’t except for a few hours earlier. Gods damn. He felt like he’d taken a beating too.

DragonSong · « **Reply #99 on:** November 10, 2019, 11:27:20 pm »

Before her mother could say anything, Val snapped shakily, still sniffling, “You hit Mama.” Ava winced as the girl clung tighter to her neck.

“It was an accident,” she murmured into Val’s hair, stroking her back a few times before she got to her feet with her daughter balanced on her good hip. “Come on,” she said tiredly, holding a hand down to Raf. “We should go...”

Her eyes flickered up to the shopkeeper, then passed him to the other side of the tiny room. She went very, very still as she saw the “curiosity” properly for the first time.

The mer-creature had watched the whole affair with one hand pressed against the side of her tank, dark eyes watching them with a combination of wariness and pity. Ava felt her throat go dry, and her grip on Val tightened until the girl squeaked and her own injured side protested vehemently.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking her head even as she took a step back toward the curtain. “I’m so sorry.”

Her hand grasping for Raf’s, she tugged him to his feet and whirled for the exit, clutching Val against her chest with her other hand. “We are leaving now.”