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 Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:38 pm
With a tiny, supressed whimper, Galatea fluttered to a stop on the dew-dampened grass far beneath the dangling lantern that was her final destination. For a moment, she simply stood and twisted her hands together as she looked upwards, hesitating. She knew that Hadrian had given her an open invitation to visit but it still felt presumptuous and rude to drop in without warning. The fact of the matter remained, though, that she could not think of anywhere else she could go and no one she trusted more than her Hadrian. She bit down on her lip.
The Captain was scaring her again. Ever since that Conference, she had been quieter, more glowering and more tighly-wound. She had felt the tension through their bond and it set her own nerves to twanging. The Captain was displeased, unhappy, restless. Galatea had watched the work-outs increase, the violence in the movements startling. Just this morning, too, the Captain had broken a tea mug by accident and proceeded to shatter another one in revenge.
Which brought Galatea here. With a sigh and a quick hug to her own body, the little blood feien launched herself into the air. Within moments, she landed on the lip of the lantern and delicately knocked on one of the support beams.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:50 pm
The fire feien was sitting in the little room that was the main space in his lantern home, drawing something with a piece of pencil lead on a pile of small scraps of paper.
He turned around with a little blink at the knock, looking for all the world as if the noise had surprised him, even though he really should have noticed another feien's presence before the knock came. The door was already ajar, and Hadrian nudged it open, his face lighting up as he saw Galatea standing outside. "Hi! Come in!"
After an instant to take in her expression and body language, however, concern swept over the light like a curtain, "Is everything alright?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:57 pm
"I... That is, I..." She stuttered to a halt and then, with unexpected speed, Galatea stepped inside and threw her arms around his waist. The strength in her grip was frightening, clear indication that she was in the midst of strong emotion; normally, she regulated her massive physical power with finely tuned care in order to avoid scaring or worrying others. Burying her face against him, she whispered, "I am so very worried, Hadrian."
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:07 pm
The way she was clinging too him suggested that 'so very worried' might be an understatement. It reminded him, curiously, of when she had thought he was falling off the bookshelf, and had caught hold of him for fear of his life. Usually any physical contact Galatea initiated was extremely tentative, even when it was spontanious.
He let her hug him as tightly as she liked, and though her grip was tighter then might be comfortable, he would never in a million years admitt it.
"What happened? What're you worried about?" He asked, in what was really a very quiet voice for him, wrapping his arms around her protectively.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:14 pm
"The Captain" finally emerged from the tight clutch and Galatea lifted her face to look up at Hadrian. There was a suspicious shine to her wide pink eyes. "She's so very unhappy."
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:19 pm
"More then before?" The taller feien asked, failing to think of a more delicate way to ask the question. Galatea had voiced her worry about Captain Rabik before, but she had never been this upset about it. And surely, something must have happened that was worse then the Captain being grumpy or frustrated to upset Gala so much.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:26 pm
Galatea nodded. "Much more," she whispered. Then she seemed to realize how tight she was holding and gasped, abruptly releasing him. "Oh." She flushed hotly. "I'm sorry, Hadrian. Are you alright?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:33 pm
"Of course, its fine." He answered immidiately, his arms still loosely around her. "What happened to upset the Captain so much more?"
He managed, in a rare moment of insight, to not ask if Captain Rabik had done anything to Galatea that upset her. He knew that for Galatea the world quite nearly revolved around her bond, but Hadrian had never seen the Captain treat Galatea with anything much more then polite disinterest.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:43 pm
"I'm not completely certain but the Fleet is no more. The Conference happened and she came home upset and..." Galatea caught herself, took a deep breath, and steadied her voice with steely determination. She brought her shining gaze back up to her friend firmly. "She is no longer the Captain and we might have to move."
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:48 pm
"Oh..." Her friend said, in that tone that meant he was sympathetic but actually still just as lost as before she'd said anything. In fact that whole statement was alot to take in, and the fire feien looked like he was still processing it.
The fact that the Fleet didn't exist anymore was...odd and it was obvious that ought to mean something for a feien...or all feien...but it was to broad a thing for him to quite manage to comprehend all at once. And then of course if there was no fleet there were no Captain's, and he didn't want Galatea to move. In fact he REALLY didn't want Galatea to have to move. And that bit of thought overtook the whole of his thoughts suddenly.
"Wait...what?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:02 pm
A pause answered him as Galatea frowned slightly, nose wrinkling in her effort to not cry. Crying was for babies and weaklings; she was neither. Instead she applied her mind to tracing the meaning of his question. Finally, she looked down, head turning, and studied how his arms were still around her. Somehow that reassured her and she licked her lips.
"I do not know if we can stay in our quarters if the Fleet is no longer the owner of them," she began carefully. In reality, she was guessing. The Captain had not told her one way or the other but she feared the worse. The thought of leaving Gaia made her go cold.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:06 pm
Hadrian pondered this for a moment, still not entirely understanding what was going on, but for different reasons. The solution to this seemed to him to be very simple, and that was to find a new house, or find who owned the house now.
"Who owns them now, if the Fleet just...stopped existing?" He asked, hestitating on the question because he wasn't entirely sure he understood what she meant about the fleet in the first place.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:10 pm
That stopped Galatea in her tracks and she blinked, slightly stunned. "... I don't know," she answered.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:13 pm
"I mean," He explained, "If no one owns your house, because the people who owned it don't...er..exist...then you could maybe just stay in it and say you own it?"
He wasn't at all sure if this was how things worked, but it made sense to him, that if something had no owner it could be claimed by someone. And it made sense that the people living in a house could say it was their's if it wasn't anyone elses...to him anyway.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:17 pm
"Maybe," she agreed cautiously. One of her hands moved to rest at his wrist, another hesitant gesture of trust and faith. "I do not want to move away. I like our house and... I would miss everyone very much. I would miss you."
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