|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:09 am
"Sweet. So you have a new atyp? That's way better than dud." Rochelle lowered both hands slowly, taking the time to tuck the egg back into the sand before she tried to get down their blanket. "I mean, it's a brand new pain in the a** but you can always make it a study to see how atypical firelizards are like atypical dragons, just as fragile or thicker shells given a curve with the size or... something. Right? Or, I dunno."
Shards if she knew. Rochelle barely kept up with Carltis' vocabulary and Alecks experiments as is - alecks experiments when they were younger, anyway. Technobabble wasn't really her thing.
"D'you think Dad misses me?" The words popped out without her thinking them, Rochelle promptly starting scritching at sassy until he crooned. "We write but he hates scribes and can't hold a pen too well. It's been a while."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:23 am
As the blanket was pulled off his head Bereck dropped his arm gratefully back down onto the bed. Setting the glow aside he curled his hand around the flitt heap and frowned thoughtfully.
His brain began happily running off on plans to measure all three eggs, note all the differences between them and so on. "Mmh, yes," he nodded, "well that's my best guess anyway, I'll make notes on-"
Then his brain registered the rest of what she'd said and he stopped talking. How long had it been since she'd seen her father? Had she seen him at all since he'd been taken to Healer Hall? "Of course he does," Bereck replied after a brief pause, "he's your father." In every way that counted. Rochelle's comment that she might adopt from the crèche one day finally registered properly, and it made sense. Who said you couldn't choose family? And just being blood related didn't make you family, of that at least he was adamant.
Whenever you got it from though family was important.
Bereck shifted into a slightly less uncomfortable position and cleared his throat. "Once I'm released from here I'm going to have to go to Healer Hall to sort a few things out. You'd be welcome to come along, if you'd like to pay a visit."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:49 pm
"You never know. He had, like, thirty turns before he got me, so eleven with might not be as big as that. Or something. He got me when I was five... yeah, eleven. Well, fifteen now, I guess, but I haven't seen him in a while. Probably two turns ago. He grumbled about me taking a sevenday off to visit," She grinned a little, plucking Sassy up to deposit in her lap. "Blah blah blah, journeyman. Typical dad stuff. So I didn't visit after, got transferred here before I could, figured I would after but..." She shrugged.
"Least I sent him notice I walked the tables before everything went between in a handbasket. So just in case..." He died, all that fun stuff. Sassy got himself a little pet between the eyes. "And -- wait really?"
Owlish eyes blinked up at him. "You would take me?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:16 pm
Bereck gave a brief 'ha' of laughter and shook his head slightly. "You don't know very much about being a parent, do you?... Well, obviously you don't. You'll just have to take my word for it, and I'm sure he was glad of your visit before even if he did grumble." Not seeing Aleck for years at a time was completely unthinkable; he wasn't sure how Rocham could stand it.... Well if it was what he thought best for her, dedicating herself to study and not seeing him so ill too often, then maybe he could understand.
"And yes, really, I wouldn't have offered if I hadn't meant it," Bereck went on after a moment, taking off his reading glasses and putting his normal ones back on so that Rochelle came into focus. "It's not inconvenient, Berath can take two as easily as one. I can tell the candidatemaster I require some fit young thing to carry my big satchel of papers, to get you our of whatever menial chore they had lined up for the day."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 2:18 pm
The corner of her mouth curled up further, Rochelle huffing in what she guessed to be a laugh. "One thing I have not done is have a kid, so no. I totally don't. I know what it's like to miss people, though, so it might be the same thing?" She shrugged and slid off the bed to give bereck a bit more room when he shifted around. She leaned back in her chair, Sassypants once more dozing off in her lap, and did her very best not to squeak.
Instead, she grinned, full blown, all the teeth, eyes bright and dimples on her cheeks. "I would hug you, but I might break you in half!" She said, doing her best not to squeal. Rochelle squirmed instead. "I will totally carry satchel of papers. I promise to tone down the annoying and loud. That would be awesome."
Gleeeee.
One day, if she Impressed, she'd visit Rocham every sevenday. She knew Healer Hall, what it looked like, how to get there, and they would go and be glorious. Awesome. Until then, she beamed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 2:27 pm
Bereck gave a tired lopsided smile and nodded. "Yes, same sort of thing. You miss him, he misses you; family is family regardless of how you came by it. Mmh, and you probably would damage me, but thank you for the thought." Another reason to hurry up and get well (not that he needed another); she just looked so happy that... well, it was good. He might not be demonstrative most of the time but that didn't mean it didn't make him happy to make people he liked happy.
"It'll be a while yet," he warned her after a moment, "but the offer stands regardless of how long it takes. You'll just have to be patient." And so would he, which was a lot easier said than done.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:20 pm
"I can be patient," She sniffed in mock insult, fingers curling along the line of Sassy's neck. The smile died somewhat, only because it hurt to smile so much for so long. "And like you said, s'the thought that counts. So yeah, thank. That would be awesome, you have no idea."
Another squirm before Rochelle glanced back up at Bereck, smiling having failed to fade in its entirety. "Another plus at having a dragon or knowing people who do. All the visits to people around Pern if you know where things are and have the time." Time always seemed the problem. Maybe Rocham had sent her away but he always had her come back for visits and things until he got sick. She could run and frolic and still have him to come back to. He never yelled.
Well. He'd been there until he got sick, and no one could blame him for keeping quiet. Unable to write for very long and hating scribes limited ones ability to discuss things with family in the outside world.
But she had Sassy now too.
"Any more visitors planned for the day?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:45 pm
"Mm. Never enough hours in the day," Bereck sighed slightly and shifted again. Never enough hours was usually his problem, but the reverse was true at the moment. It would be nice if days could just flash by as they usually did, but they dragged like trying to sprint in waist depth water. "Regardless though, I'll need to visit Healer Hall reasonably regularly as always for meetings and suchlike. I expect I can excuse taking you regularly somehow or other." Why not? It would make two people rather happy and as he had said it didn't inconvenience him; it might actually be useful to have Rochelle carry things as well. That depended on how well he did heal in the end.
"Aleck will be back soon enough," Bereck went on after a moment with another faint, rather wan smile. "He never leaves me alone for long." He felt horrible guilty for taking up so much of Aleck's time, and often having so little to offer his son in the way of conversation when he was around. He couldn't bring himself to ask Aleck to come less often though; he needed him around, for the comfort of company and to constantly remind himself that Aleck was safe and well. He knew he was irrationally paranoid but he couldn't help that, couldn't change it. Fear had sunk its claws into him even deeper than the wher, and the marks showed no sign of fading yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:16 pm
"Ain't it the truth?" Rochelle sighed as if she were twice her true age, feigning boredom until Bereck shifted. Eyes narrowed in on him, looking for busted stitches or exhaustion or any of that. He looked tired but nowadays, he always looked a bit under the weather. She grinned, and half-squirmed, fingers tapping a happy tune against her knee. "I'm in shape, shardit, and I'm alright with heavy things. Don't let the fluffy throw you off."
So the conversation rolled back to Aleck. How sad - all of it was either Aleck or Rochelle. Bereck needed more visitors but... really, she didn't know any other people well enough, save for maybe Carltis. "I can stay with you until he gets back?" She offered, fingers having paused their little tap. "I ******** hate the quiet, can't imagine chilling out in it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:24 pm
While he appreciated the offer of company he could feel sleep creeping up on him again, and he didn't want to trap Rochelle for an indeterminate period of time in the quiet which the ever couth girl so '******** hated'. He didn't want to just reject her offer though, there had to be a way to redirect her.... Mmh, yes, that would do.
"I appreciate the offer," Bereck said with a small incline of his head, "but I think Berath is rather more in need of company just now. If you've got some free time would you spend it with her?" Berath was lonely, and part of that was his fault. He kept shutting her out, he knew she didn't want him to but... but she was just going to have to deal with that. He didn't want her to share in the pain so he had to keep her at arms length; he'd never recommend it to a young pair, but as long as they had been together their bond could stand up to some distancing for the time being. Even so, it did leave Berath lonely and if Rochelle had the impulse to do something helpful then going to the big green certainly fitted the bill.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
