2023-04-26: Napping On a Park Bench
- Log: 2023-04-26 Napping On A Park Bench
- Cast: Loren Voss, Lan Lilac
- Where: Sylvaland City - Market Borough
- Date: April 26, 2023
- Summary: Nobody catches all forty winks, but Loren asks Lan for a favor while he's going to be back in Etrenank.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
As cities go, Sylvaland is kind of weird, in Loren's estimation.
Not just in the way that almost all surface (or lunar, can't leave that out) cities are strange, though -- it has a whole different level of oddness to it. Sure, there are cities near forests across Lunar, and sure, Guadosalam sort of has a whole tree-adjacent situation going on, but Sylvanland is an entire city built among the trees.
Well, partially. Fine, if someone wants to be a pedant! But this is certainly the case in the area of the city he's within now.
It's little more than a stopping-off place, a position he's occupying before he does the thing he doesn't really want to do... which is go back home.
He's overdue. He knows that one, even if his mother probably won't be there and his father is only going to be sort of there. But he's still put it off far too long. And...
And, that's about it. He's just delaying the inevitable until he heads back, his reward for diligent service (e.g., arrested again) a sizable amount of time off. ...Which, somehow, his parents had caught wind of, and in record time at that. Someone must have told them, and he's got a pretty good idea of who that might have been, all considering.
But this time is his, which is why he's spending it... well, asleep on a bench in a small park tucked in by the lakeside, the book he'd tried and failed to read (Guardians: A History Of) halfway off his lap because it'd been pushed aside by the tiny bear that has taken up residence there.
His head is tilted at an uncomfortable-looking angle, propped somehow against the back of the bench. And yet, he's out like a light.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The Celesti Wastelands aren't someplace Lan particularly enjoys. They're not like the scrublands she calls home, or even the desert Badlands that encroach on Little Firelight's doorstep, closer and closer every year. No, the Wastelands had once been a normal kind of place, full of people and life, but that was before war had destroyed it all.
It's much easier to feel optimistic about things in a place like Sylvaland, with so many trees. It's way bigger than the orchard back home! More majestic too. Of all the places in Aquvy, it's her favorite.
Fresh back in town after a long night of walking, she's really looking forward to making camp somewhere on the city outskirts and getting to work, either making more lace or maybe fishing for dinner, but a walk around town to enjoy the scenery's a nice little treat that Lan totally deserves! Plus she thinks that if she pitches her tent this early she'll end up napping all afternoon, and being awake all night again.
But she is tired, and her footsteps drag a little bit as she passes through a park. Maybe she'll take a load off for a couple of minutes. Just take a seat on a park... bench...
"Lo-" she starts to call out, footsteps a little lighter as she starts toward him, "-ren..." Is...is he asleep? Just right there, out in the open? He must be tired too... or bored, she notes a bit wryly, sneaking a peek at the title of his book. It's a little touching. Even if it's probably for his work.
She can have a seat her and wait for him to wake up. Easing her knapsack down off of her shoulder, Lan carefully plunks her butt down on the bench next to him, a hand offered to the cloudbear as she gets comfortable. She hopes he isn't asleep for too long; his neck's going to kill him.
About ten minutes later, Lan herself is fast asleep, one arm resting carelessly behind his neck and her head tilted against his shoulder.
The chiropractors in Sylvaland must make a killing.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
How long has Loren been asleep? It is a mystery.
He wakes in due time, which is to say, the sun's casting mid-afternoon rays across the lake. He comes to slowly, aware vaguely of the weight on his lap (the bear is light but has a distinctive presence all its own) and the weight against his...
...shoulder?
Someone's leaning against him. Someone's leaning against him! Emperor, if he passed out here and ended up with some vagrant using him as a pillow, he's going to... to...
Slowly -- though not as slowly as his awakening, he lifts his head (oh, agony of agonies) to regard whoever is leaning against him. "..."
So, he has a lot of questions, starting and ending with, 'just what in the world is going on'. If it weren't for the decidedly real (and literal) pain in his neck, he'd almost wonder if this was some disturbed dream of his. But no, no, this is definitely happening. And she's still asleep.
"..."
It's the neck pain. And the awkwardness, really. Perhaps there would be more tactful ways of approaching this (like shaking her awake gently or just waiting it out) but they would either require him to be thinking straight or not being in some sort of agony.
So what Loren does is this: he sits up straight rather abruptly which likely has the effect of shaking Lan off his shoulder and definitely has the effect of causing his book to fall onto the ground, soon followed by the bear. It complains, noisily. Hunching his shoulders he leans forward and rubs at his neck. How can this hurt so much!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Oh no! What if it's some unsavory Drifter who spotted an easy mark, and then fell asleep in the middle of picking his pocket?! Or worse, someone who's going to expect him to be besties with them after sharing the intimacy of a nap?!
But it's just Lan Lilac, mouth slightly open, possibly drooling on his sleeve just a little bit. If this were a dream, would she still smell like apples and a hard day's walk across a desert? Her knapsack, made of leather and brightly patterned canvas, is wedged between her foot and the leg of the bench, so she hasn't even made camp or gotten a room anywhere yet.
He sits up straight, effectively dislodging her; Lan makes a noise that's all vowels and sits up herself, before gingerly lifting her numb arm off of the back of the bench and resting it in her lap. She can't move her fingers!!
Rubbing her arm with the hand that can still actually move, Lan looks from him to the bear to the book and yawns. "Huaaaaaaaa~! Mmloren, good morning," she greets him with a sleepy smile. Give her a second. "...Or, afternoon?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are a lot of things that could have gone awry, falling asleep like this in public. He's fortunate, in a way, that it's instead merely an extremely awkward moment (for him, that is).
...Forget this being even remotely one of his dreams. She's drooling. A little bit, sure, but this is definitely not...
And that, especially coupled with the reality of his stiff neck, is as far as he lets that line of thinking get. It's definitely Lan, it's definitely real, and this is definitely already a chain of events he deeply regrets having come about--
And to top it off, Lan makes a sort of sound he's previously only heard emitted from stray cats. He turns towards her, wide-eyed, otherwise frozen in the act of rubbing his neck.
'Good afternoon', she more or less greets him with, once she's set about getting herself sorted out. Oh, and worked out what time of day it probably is.
"...I don't even know where to start," Loren deadpans, and only then realizes that his glasses sure aren't on his face anymore. "...Uh," he starts, shifting carefully on the bench as he tries to look around himself, lest an errant shoe destroy them outright.
He should know. He's done it before.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan, naturally, seems to suffer none of his discomfort or regret. It's probably some shade of unfair. She's even got the nerve to look happy to see him!
Somewhere in the middle distance, someone chuckles. Maybe at them, maybe at something clever their companion said. Lan doesn't pay it any mind, because even if they are getting laughed it, they probably do look kinda funny. Everybody's been in a position like this at one point or another, anyway. She raises both arms over her head (the right one with a bit more difficulty than the left) and streeeeeeetches. "Mmmmmmmmf! I wonder how long we were out... I was just going to sit down and wait for you to wake up." But, obviously, that plan didn't quite work out the way she thought it would.
It hasn't occurred to her yet that his glasses are missing. Of course he'd take them off to sleep - but definitely not to read. "What's wrong?" She looks around for the cloudbear, leaning forward to peek underneath the bench. She can at least hand the book back over to him, and maybe stop the bear from wandering too far...
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Someone in the middle distance laughs a little bit. Speaking of cats, if he had cat ears, they would have already swiveled in that direction -- but as that's not at all the case (thank the Emperor, he would have been disowned at the very least) he instead freezes in the moment, listening intently for some derisive comment or another. But this exercise fails to immediately bear fruit.
"What...?" he asks of her, clearly distracted. Loren turns his head, grimaces, then rubs at his neck. "And that included 'falling asleep on me'?" It's mean, and unnecessary, but perhaps he can be forgiven for it, given his current state of pained, muddied hyperawareness.
And then another crisis presents itself.
"My glasses," he says, gesturing towards his bare face. "They must have fallen off... uh," he trails off. Unwilling to move his feet, he continues to gingerly look about, certain he'll be rewarded with a hearty 'crunch' of glass and metal. ...It wouldn't be the end of the world, but the fewer times he has to replace equipment, honestly, the better. He already knows the supply team is taking bets on when he next needs replacement gear.
Fortunately, luck is on his side this day: Lan finds them on the ground halfway under the bench and perilously close to his feet.
By contrast, the bear has just slipped into a nearby hedge. "..." Loren vocalizes, making a face as he watches it go. You know the one.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
There's no theoretical comfort to be found in the fact that Lan would've found him immediately more adorable with cat ears.
"No, that part was an accident," Lan admits easily, voice sounding a bit funny from halfway beneath the bench. She sits back up with his glasses held carefully, and offers them back to him. The book gets deposited in his lap. Now that she's aware enough to note that there's no immediate trouble, Lan would really... kind of like to go right back to sleep. She gives his shoulder a glance...!
And promptly yawns so hard her jaw cracks. "--Ow."
She leans back against the bench instead of against him. "I was traveling all night, and haven't slept yet. You can't be upset with me for being sleepy!" It's totally unfair and even a bit irrational! "Why were you asleep on a bench anyway?" Not that it's not nice to see Loren with his walls down now and again. "Was the book that boring?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Gingerly, almost as if he were afraid they would detonate the moment he took them from her or something, he accepts his glasses. Briefly, he inspects them for any obvious scratches or scrapes then unfolds the arms and slips them on. The book, meanwhile, is returned to its proper place on his lap.
His fingertips find the cover and trace the title, as if he could feel it out by touch. "Huh," Loren vocalizes, when Lan explains that she'd just been traveling and that she hadn't had a proper rest yet. "...Guess you're due one, then." He doesn't apologize, even if he ought to, but then, that's often been a failing of his. Nor does he directly answer her remark about him being mad at her and instead shakes his head--
Ow, ow. Ow. He regrets this, too, as his expression well betrays.
"I don't know," he answers her, instead. "I was... reading this. And..." Well, it was extremely dry. All he'd wanted to know was more about the Guardians' power, especially since there's nothing at all of note among Solarian reports and scholarly studies (that he has access to). "I was thinking... about Moor Gault and the others." About fire. About his fire. And everything else.
He's silent, his index finger still worrying at the cover absently.
"...I'm going home soon. --Not for good. But I won't be here for a while," he says, staring off into the distance.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
He's so funny about things like that - although Lan has to admit, if she needed glasses too, she'd probably be worse about it than he is. Glasses are probably really easy to get in Gebler. One of her aunts just leads a very blurry life.
"Darn right I'm due one," Lan nods firmly, but she's smiling. "And a good washup and a good meal." She's been snacking on apples and jerky for two days now, it'll be really great to stop and eat something cooked. "I was gonna camp out, but I saw you sitting here." So naturally, she stopped.
She watches the bushes rustle quietly where the cloudbear's semisolid body occasionally moves a branch. "There are definitely things about the Guardians that I don't know. But I'm always glad to try and answer questions." But Lan isn't always around, and it can be a pain to use the Memory Cubes to hold conversations - they just weren't built for that, as far as anybody can tell. The fact that he's going home for a while is bigger news than that, anyway. "Back to Etrenank? How long has it been? Tell Mirza I said hi-- oh. I guess you can't," she amends a bit sheepishly. He's not supposed to be hanging out with Lan at all, after all. But Mirza had been kind to her.
His neck's really bothering him. Lan frowns a bit and reaches out - hesitates a moment - and rests her hand, warm and solid, on the back of his neck. "Maybe you were tired too," she suggests.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's a lot easier to get glasses in Gebler -- or in the cities proper of Filgaia. Which is not to say that he needs them, either -- it's more that they help. Doing his sort of Ether (well, his specialty, that is) works best if he has an assist, something to help focus where he lands, so to speak. His raw talent had started out fairly impressive and has only gotten moreso over the years, so it really does help. Too much raw healing Ether in the wrong place can almost lead to more harm than good in the long run.
But even so, there are limits to what he can do. Even on Drive, he's found, there are limits to what he can do, even in his own area of expertise. And outside it, well, forget about it. Maybe he'll always come in second to the likes of those as van Houten.
People never remember the person who patched them up the way they remember the person who won the day, he can't help but privately grouse.
"So that's what happened..." Loren sighs. His attention shifts briefly to the hedge and the way it rustles occasionally. Is he going to have to go in there and fish it out before he goes? ...Probably it would come bounding after him if he actually left it behind, but...
"Mm," he says, noncommital. "Maybe." It's not just rudeness. Some of the things he's worrying after are a bit personal. And what isn't, well...
He's still trying to work out what it all means. Guardians are real. They spoke to him. One of them saved him from himself. He's borrowing Dinoginos' power. There should be some way for this to slot together somehow and it just... isn't gelling.
"Years," he answers reflexively. Not since he had been brought back half-dead. He'd seen his mother since, of course, but his father -- and housemaid -- not at all. Which, speaking of. "...I'll tell her you spoke about her, once," he offers, as if that's a worthwhile exchange.
Her hand rests on the back of his neck then and against his will, he stiffens against her touch -- her hand: warm, solid, real.
The urge to jerk away is overpowering, nearly. But he doesn't do that.
An almost equally large part of him doesn't want to do that.
"Maybe," he allows, still tensed against her.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Only if it won't cause trouble." Lan doesn't know what, if anything, they would have told Mirza about her. Nobody seemed to... have actual conversations with her? Except Lan, who had had nobody else to speak to for a month in that luxurious prison in the sky. "When you come back, tell me about how she's doing, okay?"
Of course, that may mean Loren has to chit-chat with his housekeeper...!
More pressing than that, however, is the serious crick in his neck. He tenses the instant she lays a hand across it, warmth radiating from her palm, and Lan nearly draws back. "I... sorry," she says, but doesn't remove her hand yet. The muscles are tight, and she can't remember their names anymore but she remembers the pictures from the medical textbooks he'd shown her in Etrenank. The large one that attaches behind the jaw and crosses over diagonally to attach again at the collarbone, the smaller muscles that mostly lay underneath that one.
They were all called high-something... "High-oid?" she remembers out loud. "And my hand's on the trapezius." That one had been easier to remember, because trapezes are a thing that exists. She doesn't go for the pressure points at the base of the skull, or try to fix him - partially because she still has some pins and needles from napping wrong and partially because Lan thinks that maybe she's overstepping his boundaries a little. Like, in a different way than normal.
She thinks of this, and the frailty of the human body, and she remembers that Leah is dying and she can't tell him. Her hand slips from the back of his neck, returning to her lap. "...Sorry."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
A few years ago, he wouldn't have even bothered to offer. What business is it of his if Lan has some connection or another to his housekeeper? To be quite honest, he's never had a real conversation with Mirza in ages -- not since he was old enough to learn that proper First Class boys don't talk with their housekeeper like she was of the same rank as them. Everyone has their place in Solaris, and only by knowing their places can...
A lot of that has left him. Lambs aren't some degenerate fallen people. And the First Class aren't the elect of the elect. They'll all just people. First Class, Worker Bees, Second Class, Lambs... it's all just labels they've tagged people with. They're all just people.
A lot has left him, but not all of it. Even if he knows this... then what? He'd told Lan he was going to try to change Solaris, but it's the same as it was -- as it might continue to be. And sooner or later, something's going to give. However it goes for him, it won't... go well, to say the least.
He's going to lose something -- someone -- he loves dearly.
He'd slept in a bad position. Of course the muscles had seized up and continue to report their agonies. With some coaxing and heat, perhaps they could be set on a path towards not being in such a state, but...
Her hand's warm. It seems to take up nearly his entire universe in this moment. He doesn't know how -- or what -- he's supposed to think about that. Or do, or say. Instead, he remains like that, his head bowed forward, frozen in space.
"...Suprahyoid and infrahyoid," he sighs, the spell finally breaking. "But they're in the front. Above and below the hyoid bone."
She moves her hand. Again, she apologizes.
The back of his neck feels, implausibly, cold.
He doesn't say anything at first -- just sits like that, not looking at her.
"It'll... be a while," he says at last. "Until... I'm back," he continues, pausing for a moment as if to consider how strange it is that he's come to think of 'here' as the place to which he'd be returning instead of his actual home. He rises to his feet and with a sudden sharpness of movement, approaches the hedge and kneels before it. Plunging his arm into its depths, he retrieves the cloudbear. It squalls.
"...Can you take care of Runeberry?" he says, having turned back to face Lan. He averts his gaze. "Sorry. I know it's... a lot. But I thought about it and... it's probably better that it doesn't go with me."
The bear continues to fuss, noisily.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She'd just thought that he was hurting, and even if she couldn't fix it, she could help a little. Be there for him. And then she'd remembered what she promised (sort of) not to tell, and while Lan is still tired, her cheerful mood is all but extinguished.
Is it mean of her, to wish briefly that Leah hadn't told her either?
She'll try not to worry about it. Maybe, if she tries really hard, Lan can forget one more thing.
"Suprahyoid and infrahyoid," she repeats, because he had gone to so much trouble to teach her - and being honest, she'd gone to the trouble of trying to learn! But even if she's forgotten most of the names with no reason to remember them, Lan is confident that their efforts weren't wasted. It's helped her treat her own injuries, if nothing else.
It'll be a while, he says. "How long?" It's not like they run into each other that often anymore, but the chance of it is something that Lan can look forward to, these days. He gets up off of the bench and retrieves the cloudbear with a practiced motion. It is unimpressed. "Gosh, don't fuss so," Lan can't help but say to it, getting up off of the bench to go to them. "I can watch it for you-- Runeberry? You finally picked a name?!"
Oh she is thrilled. "It's cute!! It'll grow up gentle with a name like that!" She reaches out to take the bear from him, holding it as if it were a cat, or perhaps a very squirmy infant. "I'll be happy to babysit. Uh... bearbysit?"
Congratulations Loren, you cheered her up...?
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
If only it were possible to blot out one's own knowledge of things. Loren has learned much that he'd wish to unlearn himself, but ah-- isn't that why the Primarch's power had taken such root in him? He was such fertile soil for the unbridled power of water, if one doesn't mind mixing such metaphors (but then, earth and water are his primary sources of power). Even now, a part of him still wants for such -- to be cleansed and start over, fresh.
But ultimately, such a desire is selfish. One might forget and begin again, but what of those left behind? What of those who can't -- won't forget?
What of those who have been forgotten?
There is nothing he can do but remember -- but to continue forward, regardless of what awaits. To willfully forget and turn back would almost be worse than a crime.
So he stands, he moves ahead in his own way, and asks of Lan that favor. Taking the bear to Etrenank would be highly risky. He had already been wondering what he was going to do about it but it would seem that fate had interceded for him.
"About a month, I guess," he tells her, halfway smiling and grimacing. "Family," he adds, in almost a 'what can you do' sort of way. Most of them won't even be there, but... they'd still wanted him home. Still, for some reason.
Maybe it'll be another pitch for him to quit Gebler. Maybe...
...But he can't really quit. Then that would be the end. He'd never leave Etrenank again.
"...Well, er... yeah," he answers her then, on the topic of the bear's name. "I was thinking... raspberry and Runa? And it sort of..." He seems a little sheepish. "I had to name it something!" he blurts out, briefly on the defensive.
But it doesn't last. "Still... um. I appreciate it."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
A whole month...? "A whole month of home-cooked meals and goofing off!" Lan gets Runeberry properly settled into the crook of her arm, petting it idly as she tries to imagine the things Loren will have to do to occupy his time. "You'll be sick of building model kits and reading by the time you can come back." His parents aren't around a lot, she remembers. His father had been polite to her, the few times they had seen each other. "I hope you get to spend lots of time with them. Your family."
She's a little envious, but she's happy for him. The two emotions can coexist; it's not hard!
And it's good to see him smile.
"Wha- I just said it was a good name--" she protests, but it's marred by the immediate and huge yawn that forces its way out of her right after. "--ugh." Even if it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, the bench calls to her...! So does her bedroll, or a room at an inn...
"Don't suppose you'd want to take a walk with me? I think if I sit down again I'm going to fall asleep. Plus I don't think the people here will let me set up camp in their park." It'd be a repeat of the atrium at Damzena all over again!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
A whole month, end of story.
"I suppose," Loren says, frowning faintly. Perhaps if he were much younger, an entire month might have seemed a reprieve from the rhythm of life -- a chance to catch up on this and that or meet up with friends or rest and do nothing as he pleased.
But life has become a lot more complicated in recent years. Of course his duties are by turns harrowing and boring, as it is for anyone serving, and of course, like anyone else of his age and rank, he looks forward to -- relishes -- the days of reprieve from service. But there's a difference between his time off spent on the surface and his time off spent at home, and it isn't the (non)presence of the rest of his family--
"Guess we'll see," he tells her. "It depends if mother can get time off, too." It's even a 'maybe' for his father, though he has the suspicion that he'll try, at least to attempt to convince him again to stay at home.
...He's probably going to bring up the incident where he vanished for like, a month, isn't he, Loren realizes, feeling nearly entirely ennervated at the prospect of that conversation.
Maybe he would have argued right back even in spite of her (continued) agreement, had she not then yawned. "Seriously? You're about to pass out," he grouses, reaching a hand out for her. "Come on. Do you have to sleep outside? I can get you a room," he says, shaking his head as if in disbelief. "--Of course they won't just let you camp here!"
...Which isn't at all what she just said, but...
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan is fine! Lan has only been up for, at maximum, thirty hours! Sure, she wouldn't really want to try and get in a fight right now, or have to do more than the most basic or basic math, but she can walk and talk and carry the cloudbear just fine. At least until a little after sundown, when it'll be a totally normal time to flop down and pass out until morning.
She really just doesn't want to wake up fully-rested at three AM with nobody to talk to and nowhere to go.
She's not even sure why they're arguing (it seems a safe guess that Loren is just being ornery). But he reaches out to take her hand, grousing the entire time, and it makes her smile. "I was gonna," she protests half-heartedly, because just this once he can be right. "I stayed at an inn just a few days ago! I don't wanna waste money on staying someplace fancy--"
But he offers to pay, so maybe he's worried. Or maybe he just doesn't trust her to set up her campsite when she's falling over. Lan snaps out of her moment of thought and grabs for her knapsack, shrugging it over her non-bear-holding shoulder before taking his hand and letting herself be led on tired feet.
"...Fine. If you'll stay with me a little longer before you go."