11-10-2017, 09:20 PM
After Kelvin had finished instructing her about where to go, Jade took Rebecca aside to talk at the corner of the raised stage area where the musicians played.
Garlands made from shiny baubles and grapevines festooned the stage, creating a curious mixture of both lavish and modest. Puffs of baby blue flowers, sweetly-scented orange blooms, and purple flowers shaped like fluttering, wispy moths blossomed from a crystal vase at the center of many tables, their stems stirring seemingly in harmonious accord with the music.
“You aren’t listening to me!” Rebecca whispered loudly, stamping her foot on the ground. Several partygoers turned to look at them, all of them looking just as startled as Jade felt. The Little Sister’s fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles burned white, her face crumpling from a mixture of sadness and fear.
Now that got Jade’s attention. She had never witnessed such an outburst from Rebecca before. The little girl had always been cheerful and complacent, sometimes unhappy and pouty about certain happenings like this one, but never passionate enough about something to get so… so angry. It occurred to Jade that this was a good thing. A very, very good thing. It hadn’t been healthy for Rebecca to be so thrilled about everything all the time, the mental controls on her mind having made it impossible for her to feel anything but mindlessly contented for so long— something which Jade was only just becoming fully aware of as new emotions broke free. Tearen had removed that psychological deadbolt, so to speak, and now all of the ordinary reactions a small child might have to things like change and different circumstances were flowing out, slowly but surely and without much direction.
But, such expressive reactions were few and far between. Since Jade was only just picking up on this change now, she recognized that the Little Sister was likely experiencing these fluctuations in mood gradually, surges of emotion making themselves known one at a time. Wasn’t it only just that morning when Rebecca asked if Jade was okay, concern and worry and all sorts of intrusive emotions bleeding through? Hadn’t Rebecca been scared about going on the hunt for Rapture, but simultaneously determined to learn of her origins and the place that had shaped her? She felt monumentally stupid for not noticing Rebecca's struggle earlier.
Jade knelt before the other girl, hopeful that being at eye level would help her many frustrations abate. It seemed to work well enough; Rebecca’s hands relaxed, her shoulders slumping as she reached up to rub at her nose. A quiet sniffle broke through and Jade’s entire bearing wilted in shame.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jade said, a regretful grimace on her face, but confusion still permeated her expression. “I just… I don’t get it, Rebecca. What’s wrong with Kelvin? Why does he make you feel bad? I thought you were getting along fine with our new friends… you guys played card games and stuff, right? What brought all this on?”
“It’s not them— not Espera and Montes. It’s him. Just him.”
Jade nodded, quietly mulling over this information. “Okay. Did something… happen? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She wracked her brain for times that she might have been separated from Rebecca in the past two days, but couldn’t come up with anything substantial. There had only been tonight, at the start of the party, when Rebecca had run off to play with a few other children and left Jade to watch the fireworks alone. Rebecca had run into Kelvin then, but surely he couldn’t have hurt her, threatened her, or worse while around so many people, right…? She didn’t know what she’d do if he had.
Kill him, an ugly, dark part of her said, but was quickly swamped by a firm shut up! from the rest of her mind.
Giving her head a slight shake, the young Witch of Space turned a narrow-eyed look toward the dancing grounds again. Kelvin had vanished from sight, but a quick second of nudging around with her spacial sense revealed that he was over by the buffet table, gleefully speaking to an elderly woman and munching on a handful of powdered donuts, the white powder dusting all over the front of his clothes. He certainly didn’t seem very threatening. Even less so when he reached over to get the old lady a cup full of cherry red punch, smiling a beatific smile.
As if sensing her scrutiny, Kelvin’s eyes flitted up and met her own from across the deck. His expression immediately lit up. One of his hands, the one not holding the punch, raised in a friendly wave.
Belatedly, Jade returned his wave and was promptly reprimanded by Rebecca’s frustrated sigh. Welp.
“No, but can’t you see? He doesn’t even have to try, and suddenly you like him more than you like me!” Rebecca seemed devastated by this admission, her eyes brimming with tears and all the signs of an incoming breakdown making themselves known.
What? Jade looked at Rebecca, thinking fast, her green eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. She certainly hadn’t noticed that happening. She was just keeping an open mind, and that was it! Not every stranger was out to get her; Jade needed to start acting like it!
Still, Jade nibbled at her bottom lip, stuck deep in thought. When she finally spoke, her words were slow, the dog-eared girl taking the time to carefully articulate the words-- more for herself than for Rebecca, to be honest. “I’m sure you don’t mean that, ‘Becca. I think Kelvin’s an okay guy, but I definitely like you more. Do you really think I’d ditch you for some random person I’ve just met?”
With an irritated sniffle, Rebecca crossed her arms over her chest. “It sure feels like it.”
“Oh, ‘Becca,” Jade sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I have to go and do this on my own— it’d be too dangerous for you to come. And even Kelvin isn’t going since he’s so scared of the deep water, so I’m not abandoning you to go on cool adventures with him, got it? I’m going it alone, I’m taking a lot of precautions, and if all goes well, I’ll be back before sun-up. There’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Rebecca seemed to turn this over in her head for a while before speaking. "...And you'll be okay? You'll come right back?"
"Mm-hmm," Jade said, the simple hum as good as a promise.
Rather suddenly, Jade had an armful of a still snuffling Rebecca, a soft 'oof!' leaving her as the girl's arms were thrown around her middle in a tight hug. After a moment's hesitation, Jade returned the hug, sighing as Becquerel crowded in close as well to lick her face.
"Don't worry so much," Jade murmured into the other girl's hair, leaning over to give Bec a welcome pat on the head. "It'll all turn out for the better, just you wait."
It had been a while after Jade had left, the fireworks in the sky resuming their fiery show. Rebecca stared up at the flashing and exploding lights in awe, her yellowish eyes eerily bright whenever the rockets burst. She had never seen anything as pretty, and felt pretty bad that Becquerel didn't really have any eyes to look at it with. She tried to point each starburst out to him and turn his muzzle in the right direction, but it didn't really seem to work. The wolf-dog would just huff and snort, apparently totally unaffected by the view.
A big green tongue licked at her face-- Bec had evidently decided that she wanted kisses and hadn't been trying to help him. The Little Sister giggled and bopped at the enormous barkbeast's snout, trying and failing to turn aside the onslaught of goofy puppyish behavior.
"No, doggy, no!" she shrieked. She wrapped her arms around the woofer's large head, smoothing down his ears and the tufts of fur on his cheeks with her hands.
"Worff," said Bec, flopping over onto the ground like the furry behemoth he was. Rebecca was pulled along for the ride, tumbling over the smooth wooden planks and laughing delightedly at their new game. As the two wrestled, all thoughts of Jade and whatever dangers she might face below fled from her mind.
Abruptly, Bec stilled, his ears snapping to attention as he craned his head to look at something behind Rebecca, electric yellow tongue still lolling out of his mouth. Turning, Rebecca saw that another young girl had approached them, standing at about her height and with curly brown hair that curled up like a pom-pom around her scalp. She was wearing a small red petticoat and several block-like copper bracelets on one wrist.
"Hi," said the other girl, looking shyly at her feet. "Can I play, too?"
Rebecca's brow crinkled in confusion. "Huh?"
The other girl winced, scrubbing at her arms with her fingers. She had big round cauliflower ears, Rebecca noticed, and her dark, russet brown skin was only a shade healthier-looking than her own. She also stumbled over her words, like she was embarrassed to even be seen speaking to her.
It was kind of sad. The Little Sister didn't like to think that someone would be worried about just talking to her. She hadn't really tried to interact with any of the other children aboard Le Dauphin, so she hadn't been outright rejected by anyone, but she had noticed some strange looks from young and old alike. Rebecca knew, at least on some very deep, sequestered level of her consciousness, that there was something about her appearance that put people off.
"It's okay if you don't wanna," the other girl said, shrugging. "The other kids don't want to, I'll understand if you don't, it's just the first time I've seen anyone with eyes like mine. People don't like 'em."
The two girls made eye contact, the other girl seeming hopeful while Rebecca was just confused. Her eyes were just fine, she couldn't see why anyone might have a problem with them! They were big and round and had black pupils with the brightest golden irises, and if Rebecca could be bothered to say so, she'd say they were the prettiest eyes ever. Seriously.
Turning to Bec, Rebecca silently asked for permission to play with another person, to which the wolf-dog merely whuffled quietly. A bright grin splitting her face, Rebecca turned back to face the other girl. "Sure! I'm Rebecca and this is Bec. What's your name?"
"Elizabeth. But my mom and pop call me Eliza," Eliza said, a small smile working its way onto her face. She joined Rebecca where she was seated on the floor, reaching a hand out to let Bec sniff it. After a moment of snuffling, Bec licked her fingers, to which the other girl giggled happily.
"That's a pretty name," said Rebecca, nodding solemnly to herself like she was the universal authority on such things. "What do you wanna play, Eliza?"
Eliza seemed shocked to even still be sitting there, but she took Rebecca's question into careful consideration. After a moment of thinking, her face brightened. "How about... pirates!'
"Pirates? How do you play that?"
"You make things up, you know. Pretend! Look over there," said Eliza, pointing towards a table draped in heavy, shimmery cloth. "That's a spoooooky cave. I bet we'll find treasure in there."
"Whoa, you're right! Now we have to go check that out." Rebecca exclaimed, surging to her feet with purpose. She could do this; she could do something to take her mind off the entire reason behind this voyage. While she was still worried about Jade, all her worries and cares squirming like ugly, cold worms at the back of her mind, she could do this.
With that, the two pirates eagerly ran off to explore, Becquerel always loping a few steps behind.
Garlands made from shiny baubles and grapevines festooned the stage, creating a curious mixture of both lavish and modest. Puffs of baby blue flowers, sweetly-scented orange blooms, and purple flowers shaped like fluttering, wispy moths blossomed from a crystal vase at the center of many tables, their stems stirring seemingly in harmonious accord with the music.
“You aren’t listening to me!” Rebecca whispered loudly, stamping her foot on the ground. Several partygoers turned to look at them, all of them looking just as startled as Jade felt. The Little Sister’s fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles burned white, her face crumpling from a mixture of sadness and fear.
Now that got Jade’s attention. She had never witnessed such an outburst from Rebecca before. The little girl had always been cheerful and complacent, sometimes unhappy and pouty about certain happenings like this one, but never passionate enough about something to get so… so angry. It occurred to Jade that this was a good thing. A very, very good thing. It hadn’t been healthy for Rebecca to be so thrilled about everything all the time, the mental controls on her mind having made it impossible for her to feel anything but mindlessly contented for so long— something which Jade was only just becoming fully aware of as new emotions broke free. Tearen had removed that psychological deadbolt, so to speak, and now all of the ordinary reactions a small child might have to things like change and different circumstances were flowing out, slowly but surely and without much direction.
But, such expressive reactions were few and far between. Since Jade was only just picking up on this change now, she recognized that the Little Sister was likely experiencing these fluctuations in mood gradually, surges of emotion making themselves known one at a time. Wasn’t it only just that morning when Rebecca asked if Jade was okay, concern and worry and all sorts of intrusive emotions bleeding through? Hadn’t Rebecca been scared about going on the hunt for Rapture, but simultaneously determined to learn of her origins and the place that had shaped her? She felt monumentally stupid for not noticing Rebecca's struggle earlier.
Jade knelt before the other girl, hopeful that being at eye level would help her many frustrations abate. It seemed to work well enough; Rebecca’s hands relaxed, her shoulders slumping as she reached up to rub at her nose. A quiet sniffle broke through and Jade’s entire bearing wilted in shame.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jade said, a regretful grimace on her face, but confusion still permeated her expression. “I just… I don’t get it, Rebecca. What’s wrong with Kelvin? Why does he make you feel bad? I thought you were getting along fine with our new friends… you guys played card games and stuff, right? What brought all this on?”
“It’s not them— not Espera and Montes. It’s him. Just him.”
Jade nodded, quietly mulling over this information. “Okay. Did something… happen? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She wracked her brain for times that she might have been separated from Rebecca in the past two days, but couldn’t come up with anything substantial. There had only been tonight, at the start of the party, when Rebecca had run off to play with a few other children and left Jade to watch the fireworks alone. Rebecca had run into Kelvin then, but surely he couldn’t have hurt her, threatened her, or worse while around so many people, right…? She didn’t know what she’d do if he had.
Kill him, an ugly, dark part of her said, but was quickly swamped by a firm shut up! from the rest of her mind.
Giving her head a slight shake, the young Witch of Space turned a narrow-eyed look toward the dancing grounds again. Kelvin had vanished from sight, but a quick second of nudging around with her spacial sense revealed that he was over by the buffet table, gleefully speaking to an elderly woman and munching on a handful of powdered donuts, the white powder dusting all over the front of his clothes. He certainly didn’t seem very threatening. Even less so when he reached over to get the old lady a cup full of cherry red punch, smiling a beatific smile.
As if sensing her scrutiny, Kelvin’s eyes flitted up and met her own from across the deck. His expression immediately lit up. One of his hands, the one not holding the punch, raised in a friendly wave.
Belatedly, Jade returned his wave and was promptly reprimanded by Rebecca’s frustrated sigh. Welp.
“No, but can’t you see? He doesn’t even have to try, and suddenly you like him more than you like me!” Rebecca seemed devastated by this admission, her eyes brimming with tears and all the signs of an incoming breakdown making themselves known.
What? Jade looked at Rebecca, thinking fast, her green eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. She certainly hadn’t noticed that happening. She was just keeping an open mind, and that was it! Not every stranger was out to get her; Jade needed to start acting like it!
Still, Jade nibbled at her bottom lip, stuck deep in thought. When she finally spoke, her words were slow, the dog-eared girl taking the time to carefully articulate the words-- more for herself than for Rebecca, to be honest. “I’m sure you don’t mean that, ‘Becca. I think Kelvin’s an okay guy, but I definitely like you more. Do you really think I’d ditch you for some random person I’ve just met?”
With an irritated sniffle, Rebecca crossed her arms over her chest. “It sure feels like it.”
“Oh, ‘Becca,” Jade sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I have to go and do this on my own— it’d be too dangerous for you to come. And even Kelvin isn’t going since he’s so scared of the deep water, so I’m not abandoning you to go on cool adventures with him, got it? I’m going it alone, I’m taking a lot of precautions, and if all goes well, I’ll be back before sun-up. There’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Rebecca seemed to turn this over in her head for a while before speaking. "...And you'll be okay? You'll come right back?"
"Mm-hmm," Jade said, the simple hum as good as a promise.
Rather suddenly, Jade had an armful of a still snuffling Rebecca, a soft 'oof!' leaving her as the girl's arms were thrown around her middle in a tight hug. After a moment's hesitation, Jade returned the hug, sighing as Becquerel crowded in close as well to lick her face.
"Don't worry so much," Jade murmured into the other girl's hair, leaning over to give Bec a welcome pat on the head. "It'll all turn out for the better, just you wait."
-
It had been a while after Jade had left, the fireworks in the sky resuming their fiery show. Rebecca stared up at the flashing and exploding lights in awe, her yellowish eyes eerily bright whenever the rockets burst. She had never seen anything as pretty, and felt pretty bad that Becquerel didn't really have any eyes to look at it with. She tried to point each starburst out to him and turn his muzzle in the right direction, but it didn't really seem to work. The wolf-dog would just huff and snort, apparently totally unaffected by the view.
A big green tongue licked at her face-- Bec had evidently decided that she wanted kisses and hadn't been trying to help him. The Little Sister giggled and bopped at the enormous barkbeast's snout, trying and failing to turn aside the onslaught of goofy puppyish behavior.
"No, doggy, no!" she shrieked. She wrapped her arms around the woofer's large head, smoothing down his ears and the tufts of fur on his cheeks with her hands.
"Worff," said Bec, flopping over onto the ground like the furry behemoth he was. Rebecca was pulled along for the ride, tumbling over the smooth wooden planks and laughing delightedly at their new game. As the two wrestled, all thoughts of Jade and whatever dangers she might face below fled from her mind.
Abruptly, Bec stilled, his ears snapping to attention as he craned his head to look at something behind Rebecca, electric yellow tongue still lolling out of his mouth. Turning, Rebecca saw that another young girl had approached them, standing at about her height and with curly brown hair that curled up like a pom-pom around her scalp. She was wearing a small red petticoat and several block-like copper bracelets on one wrist.
"Hi," said the other girl, looking shyly at her feet. "Can I play, too?"
Rebecca's brow crinkled in confusion. "Huh?"
The other girl winced, scrubbing at her arms with her fingers. She had big round cauliflower ears, Rebecca noticed, and her dark, russet brown skin was only a shade healthier-looking than her own. She also stumbled over her words, like she was embarrassed to even be seen speaking to her.
It was kind of sad. The Little Sister didn't like to think that someone would be worried about just talking to her. She hadn't really tried to interact with any of the other children aboard Le Dauphin, so she hadn't been outright rejected by anyone, but she had noticed some strange looks from young and old alike. Rebecca knew, at least on some very deep, sequestered level of her consciousness, that there was something about her appearance that put people off.
"It's okay if you don't wanna," the other girl said, shrugging. "The other kids don't want to, I'll understand if you don't, it's just the first time I've seen anyone with eyes like mine. People don't like 'em."
The two girls made eye contact, the other girl seeming hopeful while Rebecca was just confused. Her eyes were just fine, she couldn't see why anyone might have a problem with them! They were big and round and had black pupils with the brightest golden irises, and if Rebecca could be bothered to say so, she'd say they were the prettiest eyes ever. Seriously.
Turning to Bec, Rebecca silently asked for permission to play with another person, to which the wolf-dog merely whuffled quietly. A bright grin splitting her face, Rebecca turned back to face the other girl. "Sure! I'm Rebecca and this is Bec. What's your name?"
"Elizabeth. But my mom and pop call me Eliza," Eliza said, a small smile working its way onto her face. She joined Rebecca where she was seated on the floor, reaching a hand out to let Bec sniff it. After a moment of snuffling, Bec licked her fingers, to which the other girl giggled happily.
"That's a pretty name," said Rebecca, nodding solemnly to herself like she was the universal authority on such things. "What do you wanna play, Eliza?"
Eliza seemed shocked to even still be sitting there, but she took Rebecca's question into careful consideration. After a moment of thinking, her face brightened. "How about... pirates!'
"Pirates? How do you play that?"
"You make things up, you know. Pretend! Look over there," said Eliza, pointing towards a table draped in heavy, shimmery cloth. "That's a spoooooky cave. I bet we'll find treasure in there."
"Whoa, you're right! Now we have to go check that out." Rebecca exclaimed, surging to her feet with purpose. She could do this; she could do something to take her mind off the entire reason behind this voyage. While she was still worried about Jade, all her worries and cares squirming like ugly, cold worms at the back of her mind, she could do this.
With that, the two pirates eagerly ran off to explore, Becquerel always loping a few steps behind.
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Gamzee Makara Wrote:S’aight. After all, dogs have a tendency to motherfuckin’ bite.