Perspective

[Vega]

74th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717
following this

The trial before, Vega had been to see her father and had spoken with him. When she'd got back to the camp they shared, she had told Arlo about the whole thing. So, they were waiting for Joq'an and Vega glanced at Arlo and grinned. "What're you cookin'?" she asked, standing up to move over to him. "We can go boat shoppin' tomorrow, if you fancy?" She stepped into his arms and wrapped hers around the back of his neck. The last of the light was leaving and soon it would be night time. Soon enough, night time would be a permanent situation. As she thought that, she remembered something, "Oh, it's Papa's birthtrial on new arc eve. He wants to jus' spend it quietly with us lot. We should get 'im a gift, but I can do that an' say it's off both of us." She seemed much more focused on kissing him, her hands on him. They had two early warning systems now, after all, both Lyova and Iris were able to spot her father's approach, and so she could enjoy the closeness.

"Do you two ever do anything else?" Joq'an asked and Vega physically jumped in Arlo's arms. With a grin, she looked at her father unapologetically and said, in all seriousness. "Yes, Papa. Quite a lot of other things. This is usually jus' the beginnin', in fact. You probably don't wanna go there." Joq'an looked at her and tried to adopt a serious pose, but did not manage it, grinning at them both. Vega stepped out of Arlo's arms, having lingered to plant a single, almost chaste kiss on his lips with an air of determined not to hide anything for anyone else's benefit. Then, she moved over to her father and hugged him. He returned the gesture and then moved to shake Arlo's hand. As the males greeted each other, Vega glanced at the branch where the flunny / rainbow lorikeet hybrid which was her familiar sat, although only her eyes saw the spirit. "Iris thinks it's beneath 'er pay grade to be a lookout for us," she said with a motion of her head towards where the tree was. Joq'an shook his head at his daughter, then spoke in a serious tone. "I was hoping to talk to you, Arlo, before we all sit together to speak. Walk with me?" Vega frowned slightly and looked like she was going to argue. But then, she glanced at Arlo and sighed. "If you two get lost an' one of you end up down a sink'ole, I'm gonna laugh," she said, but said no more.

Assuming that he went, Joq'an waited until they were well out of earshot before speaking. "It is Eva's birthtrial in a few days," Joq'an looked at him as he spoke. "And I think she is concerned about her clan name, and what she thinks I am doing in regards it. Is she?" He looked at Arlo and his eyes were a swirling mass of colours. "I would never forsake her as my family did to me. I would hope that she knows that."

[Arlo Creede]

Roast pig underground, Arlo had said when Vega asked what he'd be preparing for her father when he joined him. In fact, the cooking was well underway and some of the preparations had been taken care of the trial before. He'd started not long after she'd told him about their plans. He'd dug a deep pit well away from their campsite, gathered the stones he'd need. He'd gathered plenty of firewood and more to spare, gathered corn husks and cabbage leaves.

That morning he'd seasoned, for the second time, the hog that he'd butchered several trials before and had stored under a layer of snow, and got a roaring fire going in the pit before the sun had even come up. And now? The thing was well on it's way to being done, along with the roast vegetables he was serving it with, a crusty loaf of bread and the berry desert he'd pull out afterwards. It was a lot of work, that roasted pig, took a good deal of endurance and strength to pull it off. But he'd been wanting to try one for some time now.

"Tomorrow?" he asked when Vega mentioned the boat, and he straightened from his work, happy to take a break if it meant having his arms wrapped around her. "I'm for that." But maybe she could do it for both of them, he agreed when she mentioned her father's birth trial. He wanted to do something in that regard, some kind of gift. But she knew her father much better than him. Besides, at that moment he was more interested in how they could spend their time, waiting for her father to show up. Dinner could watch itself, and the kiss, the roaming hands, both of them, it had a great deal more appeal than watching a hole in the ground.

And Lyova was supposed to be keeping watch. Although Arlo had long suspected that she told him she would, and then failed to warn him sometimes because she enjoyed the start it gave him in instances like this. She'd have warned them of course if it was a man eating bear sneaking up on them. But Vega's father? Not so much. He started when her father spoke from the edge of the camp. But while Vega chose to engage, give as good as she got, he actually blushed a little, then grinned and shrugged. What else would they do? It was a long, cold winter after all.

Reaching out, Arlo took Joq'an's hand. "Welcome. It's good to see you again." Of course he'd known in advance that there was probably going to be a talk at some point. But now? Well, he had no objection at all. "Of course," he said, and then turned to Vega with a grin. "Well you can laugh all you like, so long as you come up for air long enough to pull the bread out of the coals. A quarter break, if I'm not back before then," he told her, and gave her a kiss before he and her father walked away from camp.

A nearby pond was always a good place to go. It was fed by a spring from deep underground, so while ice formed round the edges near the bank during the coldest of weather, for the most part it didn't freeze over and in fact steam rose from it, looking strange in the middle of a white landscape. He hadn't known it was there when they'd first set up their camp. But it had been a lucky find and was a source of hot bathing water when they wanted it. "She's told me," he said, when Vega's father mentioned her birth-trial. "But only after I subjected her to an inquisition. She's forbidden me to do anything about it..." he said but let that bit trail off. Because naturally he'd be choosing to break that promise. If only just a little.

It wasn't the reason that Joq'an was asking though, Arlo didn't think. "She told me about the clan name thing too," he said as they walked, and reached the edge of the spring fed pond. "I've got to admit that I don't really understand it all, or rather the why behind it. But it's a way of doing things that aren't familiar to me is all." And which he still thought was unreasonable, ridiculous, but Arlo wasn't about to say that. "She tells me she's concerned because she doesn't want you to be in a position of having to choose," he explained. "And I think that's true. But when she tells me that it doesn't bother her for her own sake and how she feels, well, I think it does."

So maybe she was concerned because she didn't want her father being forced to choose, didn't want him put in that position, Arlo considered. But as much as she wanted to deny it, he was sure that it bothered her as well for her own sake, though she'd never admit it. He didn't say any of that though, only that, "I didn't think that you would. I think she knows that too and maybe that's the thing. I think she'd just rather that the pressure wasn't there at all, for you."

[Vega]

That Arlo had worked hard on this roast pig was not in any doubt and Vega was more that grateful for the efforts he was putting in. His relationship with her father was important to her, and she knew that Arlo made more of an effort for her father than he would for almost anyone else ~ and she knew that he did that because it was important to her. So he dug and he carried heavy things, he seasoned and spiced and he knelt in front of a hole in the ground. Yet, for all that she was pleased and delighted, she wouldn't mind if the pig burned as his hands moved over her and their lips met. In fairness, though, she wouldn't much care if the volcano erupted or the rest of the world fell down around them. "Damnit," she mumbled against him as her father spoke and she literally left the floor for a brief split trill.

Was he blushing? Vega looked at Arlo in some surprise as she realised that he was. She grinned at him as he kissed her just before they left and she nodded. "A quarter break. I gotcha." A brief squeeze of his hand and a smile meant to encourage and then the two of them were walking.

Joq'an listened when Arlo said that he knew about Eva's birth-trial and that she had needed to be subjected to an inquisition to speak of it. That caused a frown and a slight sigh to come from him for all that he understood it. Then, Arlo explained Eva's concerns about her name and Joq'an nodded. "I understand. I think." When Arlo said Eva didn't want him to be in a position of having to choose, Joq'an sighed and nodded his head. The pond was interesting, Joq'an looked at it with a deep frown on his face and his eyes swirled colours just like his daughter's did.

"It must seem strange to you," he said, not looking at Arlo but gazing into the pond and following the rising steam with his eyes. "To not celebrate a birth, especially of someone you care for." They never had, but Joq'an knew that Arlo was aware of that. "She told me that she did not wish to celebrate her birthtrial this arc, because it was too close to your mother's death. Is that what she told you?" Joq'an was very firmly of the opinion that his daughter had some strange notion all linked with her birthtrial and her clan name. Everything Arlo said seemed to suggest it to him. Turned out that Vega and her father had the same expression of stubborn determination. What Arlo was saying to him made up Joq'an's mind, but before he could act on what he had come here for, there was the young man in front of him.

"Eva has some plan or another, I do not doubt." He considered what he wanted to say, how he wanted to say it. "I delivered her." Joq'an considered that was probably obvious since her mother and he had been alone when she was born. "She was tiny, even for a newborn, and she fought for every breath." He looked at Arlo without smiling or mirth, it was what was, and that was that. "I see how you look at her, how you are with her. I see how she is, since she met you and since you two became lovers and I know that you make her happy. But." Everything before the 'but' was meaningless, how many times had he told Eva that? More times than he could count, certainly. "But you are a young man, and I was once a young man. Young men are prone to changing their minds. The decisions Eva is making, those she has made already, they will change the rest of her life. Do you understand that?" He looked at Arlo and he sought to see into the boy's soul, if he could but do so. "I worry for her heart. I never thought to see her give it." But if she was going to, Joq'an considered but did not say, then it was always going to be to someone who saw her for her, and was not concerned with the biqaj and their ways, or the sev'ryn and theirs. No, if he had but considered it he would have known that Eva would choose differently.

[Arlo Creede]

Jo'qan had a lot to say apparently. For the most part, through the most of it, Arlo just listened and let the man have his say without interrupting. He'd mostly expected one of those 'if you break my daughter's heart I'll break your knees' conversations. And there was a little of that too, maybe. Eventually he grinned a little when Jo'qan said that young men were prone to changing their minds. "I thought that was a woman's prerogative," he said. But the man's concerns were serious and solemn ones, and deserved to be answered in kind.

"She didn't tell me that," he admitted when the man revealed that part of Vega's resistance was due to his own recent loss. He might have guessed but hadn't. "It's no reason at all. Maybe I'd have felt that way right at first, but I'd have been wrong," Arlo said. "My mother loved living and she loved celebrations of all kinds. She'd hate it if anyone was to stop doing those things cause she was gone." And he guessed, he'd added, that the reasoning Vega had given him, well, he had difficulty seeing it that way. But then his mother hadn't passed on his birth-trial. "She was a miracle when she was born. That's something to celebrate."

Vega made him happy too. There was no but in it for him. But her father had concerns of his own and Arlo understood that. "I love her. She makes me happy, and that changes my life too. I don't want it any other way, and so long as she feels the same, I'm in it for good," he said earnestly. And he guessed that hadn't made it easy on her where her family was concerned. It might have been easier had he been Biqaj or her, not. But the differences didn't matter to him or Vega either one. He couldn't fault her father for wanting to make sure though. So would he, was he in a similar position.

[Vega]

That his daughter had not told Arlo about her reasoning, or part of it, for not celebrating her birth-trial did not surprise Joq'an. "I told you, did I not? She is like her mother. I swear, she was an unsolvable puzzle." The emotion on his face was impossible to miss as it always was when he spoke of his wife. He nodded at Arlo's words but then considered what he would say. "She is used to not celebrating, so there is nothing to lose. For someone who has a family death on their birth trial, like Eva, the twenty first is the first one to be celebrated. It is our way." He frowned as he said it and shook his head slightly. "Many of them seem.. " whatever it was, he didn't continue, but he sighed and moved on.

Arlo was clear, though, about what was happening between him and Vega and Joq'an smiled. It was almost sad, but at the same time it was a smile and a genuine one. He patted the younger man on the shoulder then and nodded. "That is good. I have a proposition for you, that being the case." He didn't, of course, do anything like tell Arlo what that was, instead he motioned towards the camp. "Shall we go back?"

Vega, meanwhile, was trying to persuade Iris to go and spy on Arlo and her father. Iris, however, was having none of it. Vega had tried to explain that it was really for both their good, since it would make her happier and therefore, would make Iris happier too. Iris was remaining staunch in her refusal. Mostly, as she told Vega, this was because she really didn't care what they were saying.

When they got back to the camp, Vega was just putting the bread out on the side and she looked up and raised an eyebrow at the two of them. Standing, she moved over to them and slipped a hand into Arlos. "Everythin' a'right?" she asked, looking at them both. Joq'an smiled and moved to sit down. "I'll 'elp you, come on." And she would help, in whatever way he wanted her to even if that meant, not at all.

She fussed, getting her father a drink and settled, then she ran out of ways to fuss and not ask what they'd said, choosing instead to sit down and wait for someone to tell her. Her father waited, of course. He waited, in fact, until after they had eaten and he had been sure to compliment Arlo most sincerely. "Huw and I are looking forward to eating more of your food, if we travel together." Joq'an handed Vega his plate, which she had stood up to take and she smiled at him, then collected up Arlo's as well with a moderately determined. "Will you sit down for more than a half-bit, an' let me tidy up?" The time and effort which had gone in to the cooking, preparing and serving of this meal was not lost on her.

"It seems we have a problem," Joq'an said and poured them each a serving of whisky from the bottle he had brought. "Eva, you will be twenty one, soon, in just a few trials. But before that happened, you have made a choice. This man here, he is your Qy'akot, yes?" Vega, who by now had come back to sit next to Arlo, her hand in his as she leaned against him, nodded. "Clan of my heart. Yes, Papa, but you know that, I told you." Joq'an nodded and considered a moment. Then he spoke again.

"I will not declare you Ej'qy, Eva, nor would I ever. Nor will I forsake your mother's name," Vega frowned slightly and spoke as she saw it. "But Papa, it's a choice between those two, innit? I mean, there's no other option." Joq'an shook his head. "If you were biqaj, Arlo, it would be different," he said. He then went on to explain that, if Arlo was biqaj, Joq'an would invite him to join the clan, so that they could continue their relationship how they saw fit. The young women marrying Shon and Reese, he explained, they would join the clan automatically, but in this case, Joq'an would invite Arlo in, were he biqaj. "But, that is only relevant for a biqaj. Only biqaj are invited into Clan," Joq'an said. He was quiet for a moment more and then he expelled air as he seemed to come to a conclusion.

"So, I am faced with adhering to traditions I do not agree with, or breaching those traditions. I choose the latter. I ask you to make no promise to each other, it would be pointless to do. I see what is between you and it needs no promises." He smiled at them both, then turned his attention entirely to Arlo. "So, I have thought and made a decision to invite you into our clan. Not as a biqaj, as a human who has won a biqaj heart. That is not an easy prize, nor one to be treated lightly." He smiled at Vega who was looking at him rather dumbfounded, it must be said. "Especially not that one."

Off Topic

So it's recorded somewhere. I've deducted
2,500gn for her half of the schooner.

[Arlo Creede]

"I like a good challenge," Arlo admitted with a good-natured shrug when Jo'qan remarked on the conundrum that his daughter was. "Especially the ones that I'll probably never master, like Vega." In fact he'd be happier was he never able to do it. He'd keep trying, failing, and enjoying every bit of it. Even the rough patches. "Maybe it's part of being a follower of Cassion, it's the nature of it...and mine I guess. It's the journey and the wonder of it, and so on," he explained and trailed off.

Maybe Joq'an wasn't as fond of some of the biqaj traditions as Arlo had assumed he might be. It seemed like the case, in fact, considering the choice he was making in regards to denunciation and such. A proposition though? He looked aside at the older man curiously, and yet if there was one, Jo'qan wasn't telling just yet. Rather than press, he nodded and turned back towards camp. Once they got there and Vega took his hand, he grinned when he said, "Did you think we'd come to blows or something? Everything's just fine," he said. He'd take the help though, getting the rest of their supper up and ready to serve.

The pit after all needed to be uncovered and the hog hauled up. It was no meager feat, the thing was heavy and while he could have lifted it on his own if it had been any other shape and size, what it was made it awkward and it would require their combined strength to wrestle it up and onto a large flat wooden plank that he'd put together earlier that trial. After that? The meat that glistened with moisture, having roasted all trial at a low heat would literally fall apart in their hands when served along with the vegetables. And then afterwards, dessert.

"It'll be different," he considered when the topic of cooking on board a ship came up. "I haven't done a lot of cooking in a galley. Mostly I've cooked over the fire or in, even beneath the coals. Never really had a proper kitchen before." He'd cooked in a kitchen, a handful of times. But not so many times that it wouldn't take some getting used to. He looked forward to it though, he figured as Vega insisted on taking his plate. And if Joq'an wanted to tell her what they'd spoken about, well, that was for him to decide.

He was a Qy'akot? He couldn't remember if Vega had used the term before, but he could figure it out well enough without anyone explaining it. And he thanked her father for the drink. Clan of her heart. He smiled and decided he liked that. But no, he wasn't biqaj, and that was the problem, the rub that made it difficult for all concerned, though he still wasn't convinced that it should. "You can do that?" he asked, looking at Vega, then Joq'an in surprise when told how the man would be dealing with the problem. But then? "Well I guess you can, can't you. Your clan, your rules."

He grinned a little at the thought, thinking that somehow it seemed a little like him and Vega, but in reverse maybe. No rules, until one of them ran afoul of something that would then become one from there on out. There was no question that Arlo would agree with the arrangement, and take the offer, if he felt that it was up to him completely. But most important to him, was that it was what Vega wanted. She'd already know it in fact, that it was the way he felt. "What do you think?" he asked, looking her way.

[Vega]

"Schnizzle my snoot, Arlo, this things 'eavy," had been Vega's exclamation as they lifted the cooked pig from the pit. It was heavy and she couldn't quite help the, "make sure you bend yer knees, don't lift from yer back." Before she glanced at him and grinned rather apologetically. "My grandparents are dead, else I'd be teachin' my grandmother 'ow to such eggs, you know." It was awkward and required some maneuvering and they needed to work together to do it, lifting at the same time and putting equal pressure and force, holding still when the other did and so on. It was totally worth the effort and the food was delicious. She told him so, too, echoing her father's sentiment.

It was typical of Joq'an, Vega knew, to wait until they'd eaten and then each of the three of them had a glass of whisky in their hands to talk about what he wanted to. Once she'd cleared away the plates, she sat back next to Arlo and listened to her father's words. He was mostly talking to Arlo, she thought, although she translated the phrase 'qy'akot' for him, when she answered her father. Clan of her heart, yes, that was it entirely.

Then, Joq'an explained, quite calmly, what he was going to do and Vega's eyes grew wider and wider. Arlo was right, in one way, it was Joq'an's clan and they were, therefore, his rules. Would there be a consequence for him, though, of breaking tradition in this way? Vega genuinely did not know and her mind was reeling. Any consequence would be with the other Clans, she knew and she also knew without a doubt that her father mostly did not care two copper nel about that. He was asking Arlo to join their clan, as a human.

Looking at Arlo, she smiled. The emotion in her expression on her face was enough to tell him just how pleased she was, she looked close to tears of delight. "It's up to you," she whispered, not quite trusting herself to speak at full volume. "I don't want you to do it cos it's what I want. My choice ain't changin' Arlo. My choice is you, an' that's that." Jo'qan smiled at his daughter as she said that, pleased that she took that stance, but very pleased that it was what she was happy with, too. "I think it'd be great, but it's up to you."

But then, once he'd given his answer Vega turned to Joq'an. "What about the boys?" They'd have something to say about this, she was sure. "I can tell 'em, if you want." She didn't want her father facing the kind of bigotry she had from them, even just last season. Though, she had to admit that things had settled down and they had made peace with Arlo, for which she was grateful and pleased. Joq'an, though, shook his head and chuckled. "They already know."

Vega looked rather surprised. "I made accepting it a condition of accepting the boat," he said with a grin. "It was why Huw refused. He said that he would not have even a suspicion that he had taken the ship because of that. He accepts you both happily and does so without payment." Joq'an shrugged and said that apparently, Huw had thought about what life he wanted for Eva, and in thinking about that he realised that he wanted her to be happy. Vega smiled at that, it had been a conversation the two of them had and she had asked Huw that question. However, that led to a different realisation. "But the twins took it?" Joq'an nodded. "Do not judge them, Eva. They have their own future to think of. They could have left the clan, but they have chosen not to, to stay and stand with us. All of us, it seems."

Turning to Arlo, Vega took hold of his hand and looked at him, searching his expression to make sure that he was happy with this. "You sure? Cos we're a right feisty lot an' that's takin' on all of us, not jus' me." Her eyes showed her pleasure and she turned back to her father with a smile of contentment. "Thank you, Papa." Joq'an shook his head, waving a hand dismissively. "It is not a hardship for me to welcome a new family member, especially not one who makes my daughter so happy." Vega grinned and squeezed Arlo's hand. "Now, do the same back and let him celebrate your birth. He is very happy you were born, as am I." Surprise crossed Vega's expression and she looked between the two of them. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Joq'an raised a hand, which silenced her. "Now, I must go. Thank you, Arlo, for the meal. Two nights from now, I will treat us all. The Knight's Rest. All of the family, yes?" He looked at them both, then stood, hugged his daughter and shook Arlo's hand, before turning and leaving. At which point, Vega turned to Arlo and kissed him softly before whispering. "Well, that was unexpected, weren't it?"

[Arlo Creede]

"Yes ma, right you are, ma," he teased Vega when she fussed at him about lifting styles and mechanisms. Next time, if he cooked this way again and probably would, he'd build some sort of leverage mechanism that would help out with the heavy lifting. He's slung many a bale of hay when he was younger, helping his stepfather look after the stock. But while those had been heavy, they'd been tied up tidy and compact, not at all awkward like a dead weight hog with it's head and limbs still intact. "Bossy," he teased her again and bumped her shoulder after they were done, and he'd straightened and dusted off his hands.

As for Joq'an's proposition, Arlo had known what she'd want before he'd asked. You never could be completely sure with Vega, her temperament being what it was. But he'd gotten pretty good at anticipating the tricky spots too. He'd asked though because, well, so far as he was concerned no matter his thoughts on the topic, it truly was up to her. Hearing her say it however was all that he needed to know. "Alright then," he said to her quietly. But there was more to say between her and her father.

So her cousins already knew Joq'an's intentions. He hadn't guessed so much as he wasn't really surprised. Glad though that they'd seemed to accept it. Would make things less awkward for everyone he guessed. "Course I am," Arlo said when she asked if he was sure. And he maintained that so far as anyone being feisty, he'd already sparred with the best so was fully prepared. "Thank you sir. I'm honored you've asked and pleased to accept," he said. So a family dinner. That was alright with him and when the topic of her birth-trial came up, Arlo only looked back at her with a stubborn smile while standing and shaking her father's hand.

And when he was gone, Arlo sat back down beside Vega when she whispered to him. "It was. I couldn't have guessed he'd have that to offer. But I'm glad he did," he admitted. It seemed to him it was the perfect compromise after all. Everyone apparently satisfied and nobody on the outs, or put out. All in all, her father might have a habit of turning up out of the blue at the most inconvenient of moments, But in this case, Arlo could hardly complain and wouldn't begin to.

[Muse]

Your review is ready!

Clearly, your little companions need a stern talking to. Ha! I thoroughly enjoy the NPCs that you all have brought around the Velo relationship—Vega's family is especially humorous and challenging.

Also:
"I like a good challenge," Arlo admitted with a good-natured shrug when Jo'qan remarked on the conundrum that his daughter was. "Especially the ones that I'll probably never master, like Vega."

Awwwww, guys. Stahp it.

Vega

Points

XP:
15 | These points cannot be used for magic.

Fame:
N/A

Loot

N/A

Injuries + Overstepping

N/A

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge:Discipline: Putting an end to a line of questioning with an unwanted answer
Discipline: Waiting to find out what's happening between your father and boyfriend "having a talk"
Investigation: Use your familiar to eavesdrop. If she will.
Strength: Lifting a pig out of a pit
Strength: Working together to lift a heavy object
Strength: Bend from your knees, don't lift with your back

Arlo

Points

XP:
15 | These points cannot be used for magic.

Fame:
N/A

Loot

N/A

Injuries + Overstepping

N/A

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge:Cooking: Roast pig underground
Cooking: Using a pit to cook
Endurance: Digging a cooking pit
Endurance: Maintaining a cooking pit in winter
Negotiation: Having "the" talk with your girlfriend's father and not messing it up
Negotiation: Answering your girlfriend's father, without giving him your opinion.
Strength: Lifting a pig out of a pit
Strength: Working together to lift a heavy object
Strength: Bend from your knees, don't lift with your back

If you've got a question or concern or if I've missed anything, don't hesitate to PM me!

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