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

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

[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.]

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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.

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?

...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!]

[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?

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.

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.

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.

[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.

[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!]

[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.

[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?

...

[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.

...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.]

"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.

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.

[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.]

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.

Hmmmm.

[Mom nods to herself, then passes a finished sandwich down to Yuusei.]

They'd want you to worry about yourself, too. Make sure you're doing all right out here on your own.

[I.e., eat a sandwich, Yuusei. And take a freaking shower.]

A...ah.

[He takes the sandwich, looking it over bemusedly before starting to package it. He's not unused to people telling him to take care of himself, but actually getting him to follow through with such a thing is kinda...]

I suppose I can't come back to them if I don't, can I?

Nopers. Self-care is the first step to taking care of anybody else. You can't do anything if you're not in shape for what gets thrown at you, you know?

[Do as she says, Yuusei, and not as she does.]

You really oughta take a shower, too. If those horns grew in all of the sudden like you say they did, there's probably dead skin all up in your hair. Tooootal breeding ground for lice, cutie.

[He will...try. He's gotten a little better at listening to people when they are justifiably worried about him, at least.]

Mmm. I managed to rinse off in a river once, but finding a place to stay with soap...

[Temples, Yuusei. Please use the temples like you did the first day you were here (and didn't fucking shower then, either). He looks around the yacht aimlessly.]

You don't think there's something like that here, do you?

A shower? On a yacht this size, probs not. But...

[She strokes her chin, despite not having a lovely wizard beard to really give off the proper effect, then walks off to the small bathroom the boat contains. When she returns, it seems she's bearing--ah. A boxed bar of soap. She places it triumphantly before him.]

This boat really has everything, Yuusei-boy.

[He raises an eyebrow. Nice. Maybe if there's sleeping quarters around he can raid them for clothes. It's not like the cultists will need them anymore, right?]

I see. This'll prove useful.

[As in that entire bar of soap will probably be used just to get how many layers of grime off him and his clothes, lord have mercy.]

[The captain's quarters are totally a thing. Rummage away, Yuusei. The world is your yard sard.]

I'm sure.

[SON, YOU ARE FILTHY.]

D'you need some pocket change, too, in case you run out of essentials again? [Because surely, that was the problem, here.]

[but moooooooooooom]

What, you have this world's currency here, too? They must have really been planning to vacation here for a while...

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