Take what is lovely, leave before the rain hits [OPEN]

[cosmompolitan]

[The short version is: free yacht!

The long version, for the narratively curious, is that this time the Joyous Nerd Convention made the mistake of trying their summoning ritual on a boat. When Dr. Lalonde's confused, but affable attempts at conversation led to the appearance of chains, she promptly noped out of that non-consensual clusterfuck and threw her summoners overboard.

She left them a life raft, but she took their champagne and other victuals. A woman has needs.

Now, after a day spent lounging on a deck chair in Pearl Rock Bay sipping bubbly right out of the bottle, Dr. Lalonde's making harbor in the port of Arcrion. She's not terribly fussed, winking and flirting outrageously with any sailors who come to help her tie her new boat (to be rechristened The Rosie once she gets some paint) and paying for their trouble with the cash she found aboard, but it's also clear the woman knows her way around a boat.

No, it's stepping onto the dock that's a problem. She is super drunk. Giggling and somehow still the picture of class in her lab coat/dress and heels, she staggers her way towards the city proper, holding onto various passersby's shoulders and smiling brightly up at them.]

Thanksh, sailor! Hic!

[She laughs and pats their backs and continues on her merry way. After all, what port city doesn't put their finest drinking establishments close to the docks? Brawny seamen and abundant booze. This must be her eternal reward.]

Comments

[planetary_bonds]

...

[There might not be a cloud in the sky, but Yuusei's brief expression of disbelief is thunderous enough.]

...Right.

[...Maybe he'll hurry up with more of those pictures. Just in case it does start raining. Even though they're inside.]

[cosmompolitan]

[She moves back to let him work, dusting imaginary dirt off her skirt.]

So who else is here? You said there was a "we" involved in these wenanigans.

[planetary_bonds]

[He nods absentmindedly.]

I want to say there's at least a dozen of us, all from different worlds and times. A seemingly random assortment, too. There are some similarities, but I think only a few of us knew each other from before this.

[Snap. A few more pictures taken, before he pockets the phone and turns to her.]

A fair amount of us managed to run into each other after we escaped the summoning, and we ended up congregating for a bit before separating. Some of us came to this city, since it's apparently the biggest one in the country. We thought maybe it'd be easier to find information here.

[cosmompolitan]

[She nods along.]

Mmm, mm-hmm. Good thinking on all accounts.

[She lets her hand flutter over her head.]

Are any of 'em exhibiting the same post-summoning symptoms as you? The horns. Anything else.

[planetary_bonds]

[He frowns, thinking.]

We've all gone our separate ways, so I haven't seen much of-

[Hold on.]

No wait, there's one thing. A girl from my world, but a future time. She started exhibiting teleportation powers.

[A strange arm, too, but that had come from Zarc...hadn't it?]

[cosmompolitan]

[Ah. Now that gets Dr. Lalonde's attention in a different way.]

Powers she didn't have before? Or maybe couldn't'a had before? Powers even a thing in your world?

[planetary_bonds]

Ah, they are. Rarely expressed, but they exist.

[Yuusei just happens to be the boring leader of their little magical warrior group that has no powers of his own. Sucks.]

She expressed surprise, and she admitted it had been happening uncontrollably, it exhausted her without giving her a chance to eat.

[cosmompolitan]

Oh, no.

[Genuinely dismayed, Dr. Lalonde touches her cheek.]

Is she all right? Is she young like you?

[planetary_bonds]

Younger.

[His expression hasn't changed, but somehow he looks more worried than before.]

I've been doing what I can for her when she shows up, but she has a habit of...disappearing. Even before this teleporting nonsense started.

[cosmompolitan]

Oh, oh no. How old is she? If she's younger than you, then...

[Too young to be on her own, at best. Dr. Lalonde stands still for just a moment before making her way over to the yacht's kitchenette, finally putting her bottle down and washing her hands.]

Well, if she can't control it, we can 'least help with the meal part. Wash your hands for me, will you, dear?

[She pauses on her way to the hand towel, looks at Yuusei, and makes something of a face to herself.]

Really, your whole everything could use a wash, but we'll just make do for now. How're you at slicing bread?

[planetary_bonds]

...I'm not sure, but she honestly doesn't look older than ten or eleven.

[She's a baby, Doc.]

I gave her some food and means to keep in touch the last time we met, but otherwise I'm not sure how she's doing.

[He looks on confusedly when she asks him to wash his hands, but...]

I know my way around a knife.

[Now he gets it. Time for handwashing, then!]

[cosmompolitan]

[Sweetly, she smiles at him.]

Thanks, cutie. Do you think she likes the crusts cut off? Maybe we should do that anyway.

[From various places in the kitchenette, Dr. Lalonde retrieves a loaf of unsliced whole grain bread, a jar of peanut butter, and some kind of fruit preserve. Marmalade, it looks like. And is that granola?]

'S really too bad they don't have any grape jelly, but oh well. Ooh, apples. Perf.

[She puts a bag of apples down on the counter, then places a bread knife next to Yuusei's hands and takes the sharper chef's knife for herself.]

What's her name? [...Actually. She glances at Yuusei and snorfles a little into her sleeve.] What's your name, dear?

[planetary_bonds]

From what I've seen and heard, she wouldn't refuse anything. Not picky at all.

[And if what he thinks about her past is true, then...he can understand why.]

Reira.

[And then, a few seconds later.]

Yuusei.

[cosmompolitan]

Yuusei. And Reira.

[She takes care with the names, not slurring them at all, then sets to coring and slicing the apples.]

I'm Dr. Lalonde. Though that's the science kinda doctorate, not the medical kind. You don't have to call me doctor if you don't want.

[planetary_bonds]

Mm.

[A quiet affirmation of the names, even as he gets to work slicing the bread and debating whether the peanut butter and marmalade would go well together.

Oh well, it probably would. Might as well go for it.]

Doctor...ah. Thank you for your help.

[cosmompolitan]

[Peanut butter and marmalade AND apple slices and granola! It's all going in the sandwich, boyo. A PB&J tartrine, actually. Very fancy.]

Aw, hey. No need to thank me, sweetheart. Just doing my job.

[planetary_bonds]

[I-isn't that a lot to go between two slices of bread?!]

Didn't think an ectobiologist would consider this their job.

[He's smiling a little, though. So he was paying attention to those drunken ramblings!]

[cosmompolitan]

[Look at this sexy sandwich, though.

Dr. Lalonde laughs and shakes her hair back from her face.]

You never know! Ectobiology's fairly interdis'plinary as far as sciences go.

[It's also compleTELY MADE UP. Thanks, Homestuck.]

But I was referring to my other job. [Her smile softens and she goes back to prepping the food.] I am a mother, y'know.

[planetary_bonds]

[Ok, it's a nice sandwich. Still too fancy for Yuusei's tastes, though.]

Is that so?

[Oh, that makes sense sINCE HE'S NEVER HEARD OF IT.]

Ah. [She did mention a daughter, didn't she...?]

Do you miss her?

[cosmompolitan]

...

[Dr. Lalonde doesn't slow or stop in her work.]

Yes.

[Time to start arranging some of these sandwiches. She's gonna make as many as they can before they run out of bread. Little Reira ain't going hungry on Mama's watch.]

She's my world, my Rose. I guess 's only been a day, but. Hell. I miss her so much.

[planetary_bonds]

...Mm.

[Yuusei dutifully helps the process along, mechanically moving as needed.]

...Parents...really don't want to have to leave their kids, do they?

[He sounds...wistful.]

[cosmompolitan]

"A mother will do whatever is best for her child."

[She says it like a quote, almost sing-song, eyes half-closed as she presses apple slices into the marmalade and peanut butter. But she shakes her head, too, and chuckles sadly.]

Depends on the parent, too. Goodness knows I wasn't the best one, but some take to it better'n others.

[Mother of the year she is not, but, man, some people...

She glances briefly at Yuusei, but she hardly knows the boy, and, well. If he wants to tell her, he will. If not, she won't ask. She knows enough about punkass teenagers.]

All I can say is that, for me? I really wish I could've stayed, just a little longer.

[planetary_bonds]

You're right about that, at least.

["Some take to it better than others," is it? He can't help but think of Aki, of the twins. Of a reunion coming almost too late, of another that remains uncertain as to whether it would ever really happen. And his own situation...]

...I think mine...feel the same. I wouldn't know for sure, I never really knew them, but even so...

[There's a wry smile, almost.]

The family I have now...I wouldn't trade it for the world. So there's that, at least.

[cosmompolitan]

[Ah, good. She smiles at him, not wry in the least. As sincere as only people like her can be.]

Glad to hear it, sweetheart. That you've got people around you.

[She's glad for him, and at the same time, she's equally, painfully glad about what it might mean for Rose. She's got that Egbert boy, she's got her other friends. All Dr. Lalonde can do is pray she'll be all right. That she won't be left alone to fight through a dark, empty world.]

You miss them? Your family. [If he asked her, she figures turnabout's fair play.]

[planetary_bonds]

Aah, I am.

[The smile is a little more tender, a little more genuine now.] I wouldn't be here without them.

[He should have expected the question. He did, actually. Yet, he's still a little surprised by it.]

...Mm. I do. I'm worried about them.