Dinner for three!

[Vega]

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20th Saun, 717

Vega wasn't in the slightest bit concerned or bothered about her father coming to the camp. Nope, not at all and she was quite sure of it. After all, she hadn't been concerned that he and Arlo were going to end up disliking each other; that didn't matter to her at all and she was going to skin alive anyone who suggested differently. It was just a pure coincidence that she'd slept poorly last night, it hadn't been anything to do with this and, come to that, she was wearing a new dress because she felt like. She'd gone off hunting earlier and come back with more than they needed, but the repetition of casual violence had been soothing to her. At least, she thought to herself as she looked at the rabbits, aye-aye and flunny she'd managed to kill, wild animals were consistent. They, unlike her father, were not hard and difficult and tricky to live with.

She'd gone for a wash, brushed her hair and then got changed into her new dress. Then, she'd taken to pacing back and forth, stopping every now and then to kick a stone or something equally fruitless. When, finally, she'd spied the figure she was craning her neck to see, Vega was off like a rabbit, running to meet him.

He was taller than her, standing two inches over six foot tall and the man was lean and fit. His long hair was once black but now streaked with silver and grey. As Vega reached him she jumped into his arms and he swung her around in a circle, like she was still a child. He did it with ease. Then, they walked back to the camp, hand in hand and Vega couldn't hide the grin on her face. As they walked in, chatting together easily, Vega and her father both had bright green eyes.

"And this is where we're staying. Pappa, this is Arlo. Arlo, this is my father, Joq'an Lei'nox." Joq'an turned to inspect Arlo and thick eyebrows furrowed together as the eyes beneath them darkened. They didn't really look a lot alike, although there were similarities to them, but Vega's scowl was a perfect match to the expression her father wore.

"I've heard a lot about you. Eva tells me of her adventures with you." Somehow, the description of his only child having 'adventures' didn't entirely sound positive. Arlo might notice the slight nudge into her father's ribs which Vega tried to hide from him. However once she had done that, he nodded. "Thank you for inviting me to your camp. Eva tells me you do the cooking?"

"I actually said I'd 'ave starved if it weren't for Arlo, Pappa." Vega smiled at the two of them and her father seemed, if anything, more unimpressed.

"I miss your cooking," he said and Vega laughed and shook her head, then poked her father in the stomach.

"That isn't true, Pappa." The biqaj man smiled at her and when he did the two of them looked much more alike. Then, however, he reached into his bag and handed Arlo a bottle with a nod. Vega raised an eyebrow and looked at her father. "You brought rum? You've changed your mind there."

"I no longer control what you do, Eva." Joq'an said, rather regretfully. "So, Arlo. Tell me about yourself."

Off Topic

New blue dress = 20gn

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo couldn't for the world figure out why Vega was so jumpy. Like a frog on a hot tin plate, she just couldn't be still. It was making him jumpy too, though he was convinced that it was the only reason why. Because it was contagious. It couldn't at all be because he'd be meeting her father for the first time, and that he was a man who might just not like him on principle alone. After all, why should it bother him? Arlo wasn't about to think too long and hard about that. She looked especially nice in her new dress though, and he'd told her so. But it was just as well she'd gone off hunting when she had. Some of what he was going to be serving to her father for their meal took a good deal of preparation in advance, and he'd already ruined a small batch of ground venison by seasoning it twice by mistake.

Once he'd gotten started though, there was a particular rhythm that he fell into when cooking. And there was a lot to do. For their meal, there'd be venison, barley and mirepoix boudin sausages first boiled and then browned and seared in seasoned butter. There'd be a sweet cabbage slaw on the side as a contrast to the spice, and smoky red peppers stuffed with rough minced crab and prawn for something light and cool. For dessert, a pear tart with a whiskey and candied pecan glaze drizzled over the top. It wasn't as plain a meal as he usually served by the campfire. But, he'd have insisted if Vega had asked him, it was only because he'd been wanting to try his hand at venison sausages, and not because he was trying to impress anyone. Secretly though, as he tested and tasted his way through the process, Arlo couldn't have been happier with the results.

By the time the man arrived, he'd just finished up most of the work and had tidied up enough to confidently offer his own hand in return, and offer up a grin. So that was how Vega had gotten so tall. And while he wouldn't exactly call the man's expression a scowl...though it might border on one, Arlo imagined the man could put quite the scare on, was he to decide it was needed. "Welcome mister Lei'nox. It's good to meet you." It was strange, hearing her referred to as Eva. He'd heard it so rarely that he'd almost forgotten she'd ever told him before. "Make yourself comfortable," he added with a gesture towards the center of the camp, where he'd dragged up an extra log and made sure it was a comfortable one.

"I do a little," he said, regarding the cooking and then grinned again, just a little. "Vega makes a hearty porridge. Sticks to your ribs." It was code really, a reference to a substance that he often thought could work handily as the stuff that held stones and planks of wood together. There was some tension there, he thought. It was apparent enough considering the man's comments about her doing as she pleased. And it was in the air. But Arlo had no intention of making it worse. At least not on purpose. "Thank you," he said, almost surprised when he was handed the bottle of rum. A housewarming gift of sorts? "It'll make for a nice drink after the meal."

But him? What was there to tell? "Well, until an arc ago I was living at home in Rharne. My parents have a little farm outside the city and raise, goats, sheep, chickens. But I'm a follower of Cassion and I'd have made a poor one if I'd never left home. And a poorer farmer by far if I'd stayed. I met up with Vega in Desnind and mostly we've traveled together since then. Adventuring, like you say," he added while pulling their meal together. He'd even managed to put together matching plates and utensils. "How are you liking Scalvoris?" he asked. "You plan on staying a while?"

[Vega]

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When he'd told her that she looked nice, Vega had thrown a towel at him and said nothing. Her scowl had told him quite clearly that she was not in the mood to be teased, thank you very much. Still, she appreciated him cooking and she had said that to him. He didn't need to go to all this trouble and she was pleased that he had waited to try the sausages till her father was coming. It was good of him and she expressed that. She nearly got to the point of actually saying thank you, but she had to draw the line somewhere, so she didn't go that far.

When she walked into the camp hand in hand with her father, Vega grinned slightly at Arlo's greeting, whereas her father frowned more deeply. "Call me Joq'an, Arlo. Tis my name, after all." It didn't seem at all strange to her to be called Eva, it was what he always called her, after all. More than that, she supposed, it was her name. Still, she led her father to the newly placed log which Arlo had pulled up and she sat down on the log next to him. Her face revealed her tension although, when Arlo spoke about her porridge, she couldn't hide the grin. "Shurrup, you'd be glad o'that porridge if you was starving, you know." Or, she knew, if he was laying bricks.

Joq'an listened to Arlo's comments and he nodded. He sat back for a moment, looking at Arlo and examining him, it seemed. "Eva tells me that you helped her in Desnind.You have my thanks for that." His eyes swirled a deep purple, but flecks of pink appeared as he turned to look at Vega. "Although some of the adventures sound more dangerous than I would like my daughter to be drawn into."

Vega's expression was clear; she rolled her eyes. "Pappa, you worry too much. I'm fine. Arlo doesn't draw me into things. 'alf the time, he's draggin' me out. Besides, we're havin' fun an' no one gets hurt." That was, she realised as her father turned a withering gaze towards her, the wrong thing to say. So she said nothing further on that topic. Yet, she looked down at the plates and raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know we had three plates that matched. When'd that happen?" Joq'an glanced at her and the briefest of smiles crossed his face. It was such a fleeting expression that it would be easy to miss it, but it was there and then gone again.

As they ate, though, Vega looked at Arlo and her eyebrow raised. She gave a quick smile and a nod, but didn't say anything. Joq'an, however, did. "This is very good, Arlo. If you cook like this, I am not surprised Eva is fond of you." Vega snorted and shook her head.

"Firstly, he's a much better cook now than when I met 'im, although he was always pretty decent, but Pappa, you know me better. I wouldn't 'ang around with someone because of their cooking." Another ghost of a smile crossed her father's face but he said nothing and Vega frowned a deep frown. "Pappa! You're being a tease. Don't listen to him Arlo." Joq'an ate his meal without more comment on that topic.

As they ate, he asked Arlo about Cassion. He explained, quite seriously as he seemed to do almost everything, "we follow U'frek who made us and Xiur whose stars guide us. Eva has been raised around these Immortals, in story and song. Cassion is a traveller by land, yes? I do not know much about him?" It was a question, or at least an invitation for Arlo to talk, if he wanted to and Joq'an listened intently. When he handed back the plate though, which he had emptied, he spoke some words in their shared language which caused a slight smile to cross Vega's face, although it quickly faded. His expression remained disapproving, though. "So, Arlo, the answer to that question is not straightforward." As to whether he was staying in Scalvoris or not, that was. "I am staying here whilst Eva is here, certainly. I feel that it is appropriate and necessary that I do so. How long do you plan on remaining here?"

Vega rolled her eyes and looked at her father with a gaze which Arlo had seen more than once. Exasperated, fond and irritated. "Pappa, I'm travelling with Arlo cos I choose to. We're staying in Scalvoris as long as we want to. It'll be my choice how long I stay an' if you stay too, I'll be well 'appy, but I'll be that way because I love you an' like seein' you. You don't need to protect me, I can look after myself."

Joq'an sighed and shook his head, but he didn't entirely argue with her. Instead, he turned to Arlo and asked an apparently entirely serious question."She is this difficult with you? Argumentative, bossy and over empowered?" Vega's eyebrows shot up as her father asked that question and she started to blurt out an argument, but a raise of her father's hand gestured her to silence and she contented herself with a deep scowl. Joq'an, meanwhile, seemed interested in Arlo's answer.

[Arlo Creede]

Joq'an it was then, Arlo agreed. It was more than apparent as they sat down near the fire, the three of them, that if Vega had seemed jumpy before, it hadn't changed much since her father had arrived. He couldn't quite figure out why, but then decided that things between fathers and daughters must be different than sons and fathers, or sons and mothers. Then again, when he'd introduced her to his mother back in Rharne, he'd already known that they'd get on well enough. It did seem though that the older man wasn't just looking at him, but into him too. It was the eyes, Arlo was sure.

"She's helped me as often as I've helped her," he said as he handed her father a plate, and smiled. "For example she pulled me out of a gaping chasm I'd discovered in Cassion's name." Chasm sounded much more impressive than sinkhole, he'd decided. More a fitting thing for his Immortal of choice. Same for discovered, rather than swallowed up on the quick. "You know me," he added when Vega asked about the plate. Like misplaced playing cards and other trinkets, I pick things up along the way.

The banter between Vega and her father reminded him a little of that between him and his mother. Though in a sense it reminded him of what he'd lacked as a child. His stepfather had been a good man and still was. But unlike him, Vega knew why she'd grown so tall, why she looked and acted the way she did. At least in part, by half. And there was no denying the similarity in and around the eyes. "Food, and the sharing of it for Cassion, is a form of worship," he explained. There were other things of course, but it only seemed right to try and master it. "It's tricky sometimes, cooking over a fire or in the coals rather than in a proper kitchen. But I like the challenge."

"Vega's told me a little about U'frek," he revealed, while serving each of them a good helping of dessert. "I don't know as much about Xiur except that hope is one of his domains, though I've been reading up lately on navigation by way of the stars and moons." A strange time of the arc to do it, the young man realized, considering it was Saun and the stars would be hiding away for the season. "One of Cassion's domains is travel, sure," he added, finally putting his plate down and grabbing a few cups for the rum Vega's father had brought. "Not sure it's explicitly by land though. He's rumored to have traveled farther into Emea than even others among the Immortals. He talks of travel by sea as well. Exploration, along with discovery might be a better description."

But not just travel, he pointed out. There was hunger, and storytelling too, which Arlo reasoned allowed seemed to make perfect sense. Who better to carry Idalo's legends and stories from one end of the world to the other, than Cassion's followers? And U'frek's too, he imagined. But the man would stay in Scalvoris so long as Vega did? It gave him pause to be honest. He wondered, was it because Joq'an wanted more time with his daughter? Because he hoped she'd leave with her family when they eventually sailed away? Or was it because he was worried about the company she kept? He wasn't about to ask aloud. Especially in light of the exchange between the pair.

Still, Arlo grinned. "She's bossy sometimes," he admitted, and stopped short of adding that now, he could clearly see where that tendency had come from. "But as often as not, she makes good sense." As for how long he'd be staying in Scalvoris, he expected that similar to the others, that was a loaded question. He glanced at Vega and smiled a little. "The thing about following Cassion is that there are no real schedules set in stone. But I'll stay at least for Saun." He'd almost included Vega when he'd said it, though naturally the choice of where and when to go, if they went together, was hers alone to make. She knew however,that he'd rather together than not. "Maybe a little longer though. I'm taking a class at the university here on the island. History of the Immortals. As I understand it, a letter requires two seasons to complete. Rum?" he asked, offering the man a freshly filled cup.

[Vega]

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When Arlo described the sinkhole he'd fallen into as a 'gaping chasm' a brief expression crossed Vega's face and she lowered her head to her plate, examining the food there most carefully. Best had, after all, before her natural inclination to torment him embarrassed him in front of her father; Vega would not like to do that at all, but equally the urge to mock him at his choice of words was almost more than she could manage. His quip about matching plates she also ignored, but that was because she didn't believe it for a moment. Joq'an, meanwhile, watched the two of them as they got the food out and so on, observed how they worked together. For reasons Vega really didn't understand, her father sighed.

The discussion on Cassion, U'frek and Xiur caused Joq'an to lean forward and listen with care. He nodded when Arlo said he had been reading up on navigating by the stars. "If Eva's blood were all silver, she would know the constellations, the stars in a way that is in our veins. We all do, those of us whose blood is all biqaj, that is." Vega said nothing on that, simply ate her food and seemed to be quite busy not noticing, although her eyes shifted colour to the very silver her father spoke of. Joq'an seemed not to notice, although he did that a lot, in truth. "Perhaps your Cassion has travelled the seas, too. It is possible." He seemed pleased at that idea, before turning to Vega and putting an arm around her shoulder. She smiled at him, though she kept quiet.

Even when her father asked about whether she was bossy, she couldn't hide the glare she gave to Arlo, though it was half-hearted at best and truly more of a token effort than anything. When he said she made sense, the half glare turned to a smile and there was no doubting it, she'd use that later. When Arlo spoke about how long he was staying, Joq'an simply nodded, apparently content with the answer, although his daughter seemed far less so and for a brief moment her expression showed it. He was going to stay as long as he did? She'd just purposely stood firm on travelling with him being her choice and consciously used the word we and there he went. Sometimes, Vega considered, everything her father and her cousins had ever told her about boys was wrapped up and presented to her in the form of Arlo Creede.

Still, quick enough that passed and she handed back her empty bowl."This was good, really good," she said with a smile back at him, her eyes a mismatch of colours. Joq'an nodded his head in agreement and, having taken the cup of rum he raised it to Arlo.
"A good meal. Worthy of the Immortal you follow. Immortal History, you say?" Joq'an nodded. He wasn't a learned man, not by a long shot but he could appreciate that Arlo wanted to formalise his study. "What of you, Eva? Are you planning on studying at this university?"

Vega shook her head, a grin of self depreciation crossing her face. "I'm all good, Pappa. So're they without me tromping around in their big halls and learned conversations. Besides, I don't know enough about anythin'. Nah, I'm goin' to find this familiar. She's here, I know she is." Vega shrugged and gestured in a rather wide, sweeping gesture. "Somewhere." It was frustrating, almost painfully so and she wished that she understood the dreams she was having, the flashes of things, currently just colour and noise, yet she did not. One trial, though, she would.

Joq'an shook his head. "It seems odd to me. An imaginary friend. Sev'ryn ways are strange. They are a strange people, so I thought. Your mother was not like them and she had no familiar friend. Are you sure that this is a real thing, Eva?" He turned to Arlo with a raised eyebrow, very like his daughter. "An imaginary friend. Have you ever heard of such?" Vega rolled her eyes and said nothing to her father. To Arlo, though, she gave a slight shake of her head. There was no point, she tried to say without speaking. He was so set in his ways, so determined that the Sev'ryn were the crazy ones that there was no reasoning with him.

[Arlo Creede]

If the man seemed perplexed or...something, about Vega's and his way of being together, Arlo was equally becoming convinced that maybe her father didn't know his own daughter as well as he thought he did. Then again, neither of them, Jo'qan or Arlo, were getting the full picture or knew all. Or the extent of it. Arlo only knew what Vega had told him, and what he'd observed over the course of a break. Jo'qan? Well, much the same could be said for him.

What the young man had learned however was how to read Vega's shifting posture, her expressions, and the shifting colors in her eyes. She was one of the most talkative people that Arlo had ever met, and as much of it was said without words, as with. So when she glared at him, not once but twice, Arlo frowned curiously behind the rim of his raised cup. He figured he knew the cause of both. But why? He was young, true enough. But he figured no matter how old he got, no matter how experienced or worldly, like any other man he'd never be able to completely untangle the workings of a woman's mind. He glared back, just for a trill, just for good measure. Here he was on his best behavior, making it clear that while they traveled together, tended to arrive and leave together, the choice was hers without pressure from him. The sort that might upset her father, was he to think it was the case. Women.

"Thank you," he said when they both complimented the meal again and Arlo raised his cup once again. It was his first time tasting rum...or at least drinking it. And though it was good enough quality, he decided it wasn't his preference. Far too sweet and too thick. Better to use for cooking. For sweets, he thought. As for his class at the university, and Vega's objections, Arlo grinned and shrugged. "This one isn't at the university, mostly," he explained. "It's out and about. Like viewing ruins and relics off on Immortal's Tongue, that sort of thing."

Of course, as soon as Jo'qan referred to familiars as imaginary friends, Lyova, who'd been lingering near the group and watching curiously, narrowed her otherwise enormous eyes and let out a disgruntled 'pfft', that only Arlo could hear. It took everything in him not to snort in amusement. But also made him wonder again just how well the man knew his own daughter. Not just who she was, but what she was. Naturally he caught the warning glance and gesture from Vega, and completely ignored it. "The Sev'ryn are different," he agreed. "But they've never struck me as the sort of people to dabble in flights of fancy. I believe in their familiars, and have reason to believe that Vega's has been close by any number of times."

Of course he was pushing it, since he wanted the man to like him and couldn't exactly say why that was. But Arlo thought that this at least was important. "Dreamwalkers who are marked by Jesine are given a diri. A companion, a teacher, a guide. Outside of Emea, and then only if the diri wishes it, nobody sees or hears them except for their dreamwalker. They're not seen. Doesn't mean they're not there. Besides, I've seen lots of things that shouldn't be."

While they'd been in Desnind for example, he explained, he'd explored a mostly ruined maze that was open to the air and sky at the top. He had a map and yet somehow, despite it being impossible he'd fallen into other places. "Not just rooms or chambers or corridors," Arlo told Jo'qan and Vega both. "But other worlds far away from Desnind's forests. There was a glade that was like stepping into an oil panting that wasn't dry yet, so that all the colors...the blues of the sky and streams, the greens of the leaves and the reds of the flowers rubbed off on trousers and boot heels."

"Another...like a deserted island that was completely still. Gulls suspended in mid air, waves mid swell...utter silence. Until like a maestro conducting an orchestra I moved and it moved with me. And when I found my way out and looked back, those places were gone and all that was left behind was a ruined maze." None of that should have existed, he told Vega's father. Any logical person would argue that it just wasn't possible. Except that it was, and only the Immortals knew why.

[Vega]

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Strangely, she was a little relieved when Arlo glared back at her. She'd been starting to think that should her father tell him that up was down, he'd agree and be done with it. However, his willingness to glare are her meant that Vega relaxed a little, more content and usual, somehow. She would have, if she'd spoken about it, told Arlo in no uncertain terms that her father wasn't perplexed, just obnoxious. Vega adored her father, there was no doubting it, but she also knew him and saw him with honest eyes. So, whilst Arlo inwardly bemoaned the workings of the female mind, the female in question felt a lot better because he'd glared at her.

Go figure.

Arlo might notice that Vega didn't drink the rum; she accepted a small amount but didn't even lift it to her lips. Joq'an watched Arlo, though, checking to see if he did drink it and he seemed content when Arlo sipped. Vega said nothing more on the subject of the university and the course Arlo was doing, but she was fairly clear. When it came time to have to do writing, she'd be scuppered. He was welcome to it.

Her father seemed moderately impressed with Arlo's qualification, though, and Vega had to admit she was pleased about that. True to form, though, spoke of his opinion on Sev'ryn, imaginary friends and the way of the world in Desnind and Vega tried to get Arlo to shut up. But no. He saw her shake her head, she knew he did the annoying little critter, but he had to put his oar in. The thing was, Vega knew her father and his opinions.

Did he know her, or her Sev'ryn heritage? No, Vega would have to admit that he did not. He hated all things Sev'ryn except her mother and her. Whatever they had done, all those arcs ago, it had embittered him to them in a way that Vega couldn't break past. He looked at Arlo and considered the young man's words. Vega felt her heart sink, they were going to argue, she knew it. Her father was going to mock Arlo's beliefs, Arlo was going to dig his heels in and then it was going to just be awkward in the extreme.

Yet, that didn't happen. Instead, Arlo told a story of the maze in Desnind. As the young man spoke, father and daughter both sat and listened. It transpired that Joq'an had the same expression on his face when he was fascinated that Vega did when she was. The storm that had been building in his eyes faded and instead, he just listened. When Arlo finished, Joq'an gave a slight smile.

"I suppose I'm biased. We weren't welcome there," he said. Arlo knew Vega more than well enough to know that she was surprised at how open he was being, even in those few words. "We'd wanted Eva to be born there, but we weren't welcome." He'd never told her that before, never spoken of it and Vega looked surprised and horrified at the same time. They'd been on the water when she was born, father had always said that he'd tried to get them to land, but they'd been a few trials out - which was surprising considering her father's skill she'd always thought. Had that been because the Sev'ryn had turned them away? She didn't ask because she knew better than to do so and her father shook his head. "It was a good meal. It's a pleasure to meet you, I should get back. My nephews are barely able to row a paddleboat without me." Vega grinned at that lie, and Joq'an smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead.

Then, he stood and offered Arlo his hand again. "It was good to meet you, finally, Arlo. I hope that we will see you again soon."

"Shall I walk you back, Pappa?" Vega asked and her father laughed and shook his head. If she did that, he said, he'd have to walk her back and that would be very silly. So, instead she grinned and kissed him, then watched him walk away. When he had, she breathed out deeply.

Glancing at Arlo, Vega admitted how she was feeling, in a rare show of honesty about such. "I don't know whether to hug you for that meal an' bein' so good with him or thump you for takin' the bait about Sev'ryn." Her grin told him that she was much more on the side of hugging. "What do you think?" Vega's expression was curious. "How'd you think it went?"

[Arlo Creede]

Vega didn't need to worry. Arlo had rarely done what anyone had told him to do. Unless he'd have done it anyway of course. And because of it, it would have been silly to think he'd have ignored one warning or preference, just to turn around and heed the next. It would have been equally silly to assume the reverse.

From the looks of it, she didn't appear to like the rum any better than he did. Though the young man implied he did, as much as was possible without choking on its syrupy sweetness. He appreciated the gift however and the spirit behind it. It would do in a pinch, should his yearning for a stiff drink in the moment overcome his distaste for the source. Otherwise, it would make a fine ingredient for some sort of dessert.

If he'd stopped to think, and wondered if Vega's father would disagree with him or criticize his beliefs, Arlo would have said it all anyway. He wanted to make a good impression, but if it meant not being able to speak his mind, then better they'd not been introduced. But Vega seemed so tense, so full of worried anticipation, that it surprised him a little when it didn't come to pass. What Jo'qan revealed however brought a fresh frown to Arlo's face. "I'm sorry to hear that. If it's any sort of bias, considering the source then it's understandable." He could only assume that the reason they hadn't been welcome was because the Sev'ryn didn't approve of marriage outside their own. But because Vega had never mentioned it, and he didn't know enough about the Sev'ryn tradition, then he'd only be guessing.

Still, when her father stood, Arlo thrust out in return. "It was a pleasure to meet you, sir. You're welcome any time." As for Vega when she returned from seeing her father off? He grinned, then shrugged when she referenced thumping him. "No bait no bite. It's a simple matter. You're not the boss of me." He was teasing, but completely serious both at once. "He's not so bad. And I figure he decided I was alright maybe. Unless I'm wrong and next time, he ties an anchor to my foot and tosses me over the rail of his ship." All in all though, Arlo thought that the trial had been a great success. Or at least it could have gone worse.

[Yrmellyn Cole]

Thread Rewards

VEGA

Overview

Lovely thread. I admit I feared your text a bit, but the flow is so natural and it's incredibly easy to read it despite how you write on a quite advanced level. There's nothing like a first time family meeting where you are worried that the people you love will not like each other and there's a risk for social gaffes by parents and partner alike. I shared Vegas tension. How would it end? It was an exiting read !

Points

15 points. These points can not be used for magic.

Loot

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge
Negotiation: Managing two difficult males.
Negotiation: Keeping clear boundaries.

ARLO

Overview

Again, lovely thread. I had a feeling Arlo wasn't nearly as nervous as Vega because he wasn't concerned with "being right" but expected to be accepted as he is. An entertaining guy and a good cook too, I thought the dinner was worth +1 for a general good deed ^^ It' s the same with your text as with Vega's. Advanced writing but till easy to read, which I guess is two sides of the same thing. I love Arlo now.

Points

15 points. These points can not be used for magic.

Loot, Fame, Injuries

Fame +1 General good deed for Vega's father (cooking him a meal

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge
Cooking: Venison Sausage
Cooking: Sweet cabbage slaw
Cooking: Stuffed red peppers
Cooking: Pear with candied pecans
Negotiation: Dealing with difficult women and their parents
Negotiation: Saying it how it is
Storytelling: A little exaggeration goes a long way.
Storytelling: Using your skill to distract another
Storytelling: Ensure that you have a captive audience

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