Family Gatherings, Expectations and Naming Kittens

[Vega]

92nd Trial of Ashan during Arc 718

Her cousins were getting married tomorrow and Vega was sitting, looking out at the boats in Rharne docks. The Wanderlust and the Waking dreamer both were about as tidy as it was possible to be with bunting and flags and decorations flying from them. Sitting there, with her fiddle case in her lap, Vega looked at her father as he sat opposite her and spoke.

"It will be difficult for you tomorrow, Eva. A lot of standing," Joq'an was worried, Vega knew and she smiled at him as he said that. "If I need to sit down, Papa, I'll sit an' they can like it or jog on. I'm among family after all." She had no qualms about needing to rest if that was what she did. "I figure, I'm allowed a sit down after bein' dead an' snapped an' smashed up an' stuff." Joq'an winced, physically and Vega's expression immediately turned contrite. "I'm sorry Papa. I know I shouldn't make jokes. It's jus'..." Vega shrugged and looked around. "I find it difficult, Papa, to talk about it."

Joq'an frowned slightly, not sure that he liked that. "Do you and Arlo talk about it?" Vega nodded, then shook her head and smiled. "No, not really. I mean, we did, when it first 'appened, but we don't now. Only if I want to, or need to." Joq'an raised an eyebrow, not thinking that it was likely that she did either of those things very often. Vega shrugged. "I still 'ave bad dreams sometimes. He pulls me out, wakes me up an' when I'm awake we talk." But that was them, alone and in the darkness of their cabin or their tent.

"Eva, these sorts of things can fester, you know. Should you...?" Joq'an gestured slightly and Vega couldn't help but laugh. "What Papa? Schedule in some deep an' meaningful conversations twice a trial? There's no need. I died, he saw it. I was smashed an' broken, he saved me. I recovered, he carried me while I did an' changed my dressin's, helped me wash an' dress an' all that. It were horrible an' we both hated it. It was painful an' we both felt our own pain an' each others." Vega looked at Joq'an and she smiled slightly, no mirth in her gaze as her father was struck like a physical blow by just how much his daughter had changed and grown up. "But I walked off the boat to Viden, an' I'll stand with you all tomorrow an' dance with Arlo too." Vega grinned and shook her head. "I don't want to deny it, Papa, an' I'm not hidin' from it, but it happened an' it's done an' I'm not livin' there neither"

Joq'an looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "So, what would you rather talk about, Eva?" Vega grinned and touched the fiddle she had nestled on her lap. "I love this, Papa. Playin' this, it feels right. I feel like... I can't explain it." She looked at Joq'an then and lifted it to nestle in her chin. Pulling the bow across the strings, Vega's fingers moved across the neck, pressing on the strings as the bow moved in one, fluid movement. The sound was a single uninterrupted series of notes, echoing and slightly haunting. Then, moving the bow in the other direction, she played the same notes in a lively, upbeat sound.

"It's the same notes, same movement, an' yet I know 'ow to do that. It's weird." Joq'an smiled at her, knowingly. "I mean, I know 'ow good Uncle was, an' all that, but he played all the time, so I kinda assumed that he was that good because he played a lot. But he played that many different instruments, Papa I don't know 'ow he did it." Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Making different sounds with the same notes.
Psychology: Some people gain immense pleasure from playing instruments.

[Vega]

92nd Trial of Ashan during Arc 718

Joq'an watched her as she lifted the fiddle and it began to glow with starlight and he smiled. "You look like he did," her father said, his voice sounding both proud and melancholy. "When he played I mean. His gaze, his stance, everything. It is most odd to me how you have discovered this now." Vega smiled at her father and shook her head. "I never picked up an instrument before, Papa." Joq'an nodded his head and before he even asked it, Vega answered the question he had in his mind. "I knew I wouldn't be able to read th' music, so I didn't do it. Nose an' face, I guess, as it turns out." Vega shrugged slightly, not bothered about the fact that she hadn't found out that she could play before now. Now was the right time and it had helped her recovery, of that she was sure.

But, they had a job to do right now, so she looked at her father and nodded to him. "Hum it for me, Papa, please?" Joq'an did as she bade him and Vega listened. The tune he hummed was one which was, apparently, a song which the twins had particularly loved as children. Vega had no memory of it, but she listened as Joq'an hummed it.

Lifting the fiddle, she began to play what she heard, first of all concentrating on the notes. She closed her eyes and heard them, trying to turn them into a sound from the fiddle when she did, then she played what she heard. From Vega's perception it was a lot more difficult than she'd expected it to be and it took more than a few attempts to hear it right. From Joq'an's point of view, however, Eva - as he called her - did it without difficulty and in an amazing and impressive span of time. She had no idea just how good at this she was and Joq'an used the word prodigy and meant it - completely. Vega frowned in concentration, making minute adjustments here and there, playing the notes as she heard them.

"Alright, Papa, I think that's as close as I..." Opening her eyes she frowned, her expression concerned as she lowered the fiddle to the floor. "What's the matter?" Vega put her hand on his arm and Joq'an smiled, shaking his head. "You grew up, Eva. I look at you, you are the five arc old with a deep frown and many, many freckles. You hated them," he smiled, reaching and touching her nose where freckles still showed on her skin. "I still do, Papa," she said and he chuckled. "I think they are very endearing. But you grew up, you fell in love and you have become a young woman."

Vega grinned at him and reached out to touch his arm, "Stop bein' such a wussie, Papa. I got bigger, that's what happens. You don't want me to be a child all my life, lets face it. I were right obnoxious an' I chucked up all the time." Startled out of his reverie about her growth, Joq'an looked at her and blinked, twice, then he burst into laughter. "Eva, you are so like your mother."

Vega grinned at him. "Yeah? No wonder you like Arlo so much, Papa. You an' him should set up a support group." Joq'an laughed and pulled her to him, kissing her forehead. "There is no need for support when you are the luckiest man in the world, Eva Lei'nox. He is. Remember that." Vega chuckled and was deadpan when she shot back. "You might wanna be tellin' him that, Papa." and she added, completely seriously. "I already know it."
615 words
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Recognising notes by ear
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Duplicating a tune simply by hearing it is surprisingly hard.

[Vega]

92nd Trial of Ashan during Arc 718

There was no doubting it, her father needed to laugh more. That was the thought which struck Vega as she watched him do just that. He looked younger, then, and she considered what his life must have been like. He raised her alone and she could not have known more love from him than she had - all of her life. Yet he was lonely, she thought. "It must be strange, the boys gettin' wed." Joq'an nodded his head, a thoughtful expression darkening his features for a moment and then he spoke. "It is. It is not as strange, or unsettling, as if it were you but I have watched them grow up as you did."

Vega looked at him and shook her head. "There won't be a weddin' with me in it, Papa. Not as a bride, anyhow." Joq'an looked at her, trying to see the world as she did and failing. "You do not know that, Eva. Never say never, hm?" Vega shrugged, her gaze unconcerned. "Lots of women do it, I know that. Lots of men. Lots of wives an' husbands. But no one else has an Arlo, do they? He's not my husband, he's the part of me what's been missin' an' I'm the part of him what has. What we live is our lives, an' we're already as committed to each other as we could be. What's the point o' rubbish like tomorrow?" She gestured vaguely to the boats where the wedding would take place. "It's a celebration, Eva. An opportunity to celebrate people joining together and family. It's a chance to delight in love, Eva."

Vega laughed and leaned forward, kissing her father on the cheek. "If there's one thing that I learned in Scalvoris, Papa, it's that you shouldn't need an opportunity to do that. Every trial, every bit. I love Arlo, an' he knows it. He loves me, an' I know that. I don't need a trial or an opportunity put aside to celebrate that. From the moment I feel his arms tighten round me in the mornin' until I fall asleep all tangled up in him, we are livin' and lovin' each other. By your definition, ev'ry trial is our weddin', an' by mine, the whole thing is jus' daft" It was true, as far as Vega was concerned. Things like the situation tomorrow were just silly.

"Oh, speakin' of silly," she said, which they hadn't been but she'd been thinking it, so that was close enough. I wondered what you thought of this?" Lifting her fiddle, she played a tune which she'd thought of as they were talking. Her bow seemed to almost bounce across the strings and her fingers danced on the neck. It took her concentration to make a sound which was pleasant, funny even, but which sounded chaotic and frenzied. As she moved the bow, she did so in such a way as to make the sounds almost like the noises made by the kittens as they mewed and fought with Zyqat, her puppy. Joq'an chuckled.

"Have you named those cats? It is inauspicious for animals not to have names," he said and Vega shook her head.

"We'll call 'em strings an' bow Papa, how's that?" Vega asked and she grinned at him. They weren't bad names, in fairness.
552 words
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Advanced bow technique allows you to make sounds like kittens mewling
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Playing something which sounds deliberately chaotic is tricky

[Doran Cooney]

Eva "Vega" Lei'nox

Knowledges
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Advanced bow technique allows you to make sounds like kittens mewling
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Playing something which sounds deliberately chaotic is tricky
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Recognising notes by ear
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Duplicating a tune simply by hearing it is surprisingly hard.
Musical Instrument: Fiddle: Making different sounds with the same notes.
Psychology: Some people gain immense pleasure from playing instruments

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 10

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Neat way of explaining IC an OOC skill jump! The descriptions of her fiddle music were great, and I've always been amazed by my friends who are able to play a song just by hearing it. You had a good balance of trial and error without lingering on it to the point of boring, and there was the added benefit of a touching conversation between daughter and father. The huge difference between their dialects was a little distracting and made it difficult for me to remember she was speaking with her father and not a music teacher, but overall good thread!

Please edit your grade request, thank you!

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[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=7932[/img]Doran Cooney[/center]