• Solo • A fox and an elephant, sitting in a tree......

[Vega]

35th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

Soon, they were going to be giving each other gifts - three of them according to Scalvoris tradition, each trial a different type or theme ~ and Vega had a very clear idea of what she was going to give Arlo for the gift of knowledge. Whatever Rose in the library chose for her. Sometimes, Vega thought as she opened up her toolkit and placed everything out where she wanted them, laid neatly on the table in the room which had been her bedroom, sometimes she wished that she could read. It hadn't bothered her until she met Arlo, except even as she thought that she knew it was a lie; it had always bothered her. But she couldn't deny that her father, Huw, her uncle, they had all tried. She had concluded that she simply could not do it.

"Something is on your mind?" Joq'an, her father, asked her. He was sitting on her bunk, watching her as he read a book. Vega shook her head, "Nuthin' important Papa." He smiled slightly, knowing his daughter far too well for that to be something he fell for. However, he also knew her too well to approach it directly. "Tell me, what are these gifting trials, and what do you plan?"

"Well, they're three trials. Each one, you give a gift which symbolises somethin' specific. Knowledge, laughter an' love." Joq'an nodded his head, thoughtfully. "For knowledge, I'm gettin' him two books. Star charts an' ocean maps. This is gonna be for laughter, and I'm gonna give him the shell." Joq'an looked up in some surprise and Vega glanced at him and grinned. "You surprised I've still got it, or I'm givin' it away?"

Joq'an said nothing for a few moments and then spoke. "I remember that trial so well. Your eyes were enormous as I told you the story of the magical mermaid princess. I don't know where all the time went, Eva." Vega looked down at the things she had laid out on the table and she shrugged, slightly, moving her hand forward and picking up one of the small squares of sandpaper. "I don't know, Papa, it's taken me a lifetime to get 'ere." The rough glass was almost reassuring against her hand. There were things that Joq'an wanted to know, Vega understood that and he wouldn't ask.

The question was, she supposed, whether she would tell him.

"I want to make a tree, Papa." That was easier, for now, "with a 'umanoid fox sittin' on the branch, chewin' off one leg an' swinging the other. Then, 'anging from the branch, there's an elephant wearin' 'er ears as a hat." Joq'an chuckled and shook his head, moving over to sit next to her. "Is this a story Arlo told you?" Vega shook her head. "It's 'im an' me. He's the fox an' I'm the elephant." Joq'an looked at Vega in some surprise. "You are the elephant?"

Vega's laugh was genuine and she turned to look at her father feeling love almost overwhelming her. "Only by the flaps of my 'at what look like elephant ears, Papa." Reaching out, she patted his arm. "It's a'right. No need to go pointin' out the error of Arlo's ways to 'im. Just the ear flaps on my 'at." Joq'an chuckled and reached over to pick up some parchment, to begin drawing.

"I was not going to point out the error of his ways, Eva," her father was entirely serious when he said that. "I was going to ask who you were and what he had done with my daughter."

595 words
Carpentry: Choosing the right tools for the job beforehand, helps
Persuasion: Reminding your father that he doesn't need to charge off and thump your boyfriend.

[Vega]

35th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

Vega shot a grin to her father as he said that, but said nothing on it. She wouldn't be taking any nonsense ever, but that was fine because Arlo would never give her any. They teased and tormented each other and always had, from the very first time they'd met. Equally, they'd had each other's backs since that time, too and looking back on it, Vega recognised that there had been a tension between them from the moment they met. They squabbled, they picked at and on each other and they were more than prepared to be vile and violent. Yet. Glancing at her father and smiling, she didn't say any more because she couldn't explain it to him in a way that he would understand. Maybe, she thought, she wouldn't have to. Apparently her parents' relationship had been volatile, explosive and filled with passion.

"What do you think of this as a design?" Joq'an asked and Vega looked at the drawing he had made. Taking the pencil he offered her she lowered her head and made some changes to it. It was just about the relative sizes, the plan of the thing itself. The details, she would do as she was going. Joq'an looked at his daughter, picturing the little girl she had been as she chose the pieces of wood for the job and laid them out together, making sure that the proportions were roughly accurate.

"Do you think it is a little soon to give him the shell?"

Vega glanced up from her work and smiled at him. "Yes, Papa. I think I shouldn't do that for at least another two arcs. It's why I did it." Joq'an frowned deeply. "Do not be sassy with me Eva Lei'nox. You are not too big, you know." He didn't finish the sentence but Vega grinned at him. "Yes, I am, Papa. You've never raised an 'and to me as a child. You're not gonna start now, are you? Besides, it was a daft question." Her father's deep chuckle was honest and he had to admit that she was correct. It was.

"What you mean is that you think it's too soon. I want the elephant to swing, tied on ropes, like, am I gonna need to cut some off this?" Showing her father the piece in question, he looked at it. "Think about what you will have to do in order to give it moving parts." Vega considered and strummed her fingers against the desk and then practiced by tying the middle of the piece, working roughly where the balance point would be. As she did that, he sighed a sudden deep sigh and placed a kiss on Vega's head. "I think it is too soon, yes. But maybe not for you, Eva. Maybe it is too soon for me."

Vega looked up at Joq'an in surprise, her hands held still in the movement which she had suddenly stopped. "For you, Papa?" She looked at him without comprehension in her eyes. Why would he even begin to think that? Joq'an saw that look at he let out a laugh. "Do you remember the trial we found it, Eva?" Vega nodded, of course she did. She had been entranced, amazed and delighted. "It seems so long ago to you, does it not? It feels like a million arcs ago. To me, it was yestertrial and somehow, you are still that little girl." Vega grinned. "If you've still got those dungarees Papa, I can try 'em on an' I think you'll see 'ow much I've grown?"

595 words
Carpentry: Small details can be added later
Carpentry: Getting proportions right is important.

[Vega]

35th Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

For a long while, Vega was quiet as she worked. Joq'an watched her and how her hands moved over the sculpture which was taking shape. She was learning, he thought, and more than by technique, she was developing her instincts. "That's good, Eva. Why are you marking it so lightly, there, not just carving?" Vega didn't even really look up. "I need to feel it first, Papa, make sure that it's a'right on the wood itself. Sometimes, you think you've got the grain an' then you 'aven't, you know?" Joq'an smiled as Vega continued to work. The improvement in her technique was undoubted and he watched her with interest. But, there was still that something on her mind. It would come, he knew, it was bubbling below the surface.

"We named the boat, Papa. The Wanderlust," she said and he smiled. "That is a good name, Eva. I am very much looking forward to spending time with you. And on a boat where you are not being sick." Vega chuckled and nodded. "It'll be a new experience for you, Papa." She stopped speaking as she wiped down the small wooden fox she was working on, using the cloth to get the piece clean so that she could ensure that there were no small lumps or bumps where she did not want them. Then, she could carve the delicate, small details as she needed to.

"Why is it, do you think, that you are no longer sick on boats, Eva? You have been your whole life, after all."

Vega sighed slightly, thinking about it. "I think, Papa, it's.. it's complicated. It's all about me, an' how I feel an' that doesn't mean I'm right, you know that. I made things 'arder for myself than I needed to growin' up. Much 'arder." Her father put her hair behind her ear with a smile. She still tended to hide her pointed ears, he thought, even though her eyes and the silver of her blood was obvious. "I know you, Eva. You have no need to worry about my feelings. I know what your childhood was." Vega leaned her head against her father's hand for a moment and then smiled at him.

"I think, Papa" she said, thinking about her words as she allowed her hands to follow the slight pattern she had made on there already. "I think that I was fightin' my blood. I wanted to be biqaj, but every time I wanted to be, I was denyin' half of me. I didn't talk about bein' sev'ryn, I didn't admit it. But I am it, an' when I deny it, like I spent my childhood doin', I can't be all of me." Vega shrugged slightly. "An' all of me is cantankerous an' difficult. My temper is my mother as much as it's you, Papa. That part of me, the part of me what's 'er won't be denied an' so, it comes out an' reminds me that I'm not biqaj" A seasick biqaj, after all, was a ridiculous idea. Truly, ridiculous.

"Or it's not all I am, an' when I try to be anythin' other than all of me, I can't do it. It's all of me, an' I'm all in." Vega grinned at him, then. "It's like with Arlo. It's all of me, Papa, an I'm all in. When I was denyin' it, it was uncomfortable, an' not me. But now? I'm where I belong an' I know both of my parents a bit better. I used to think you was the two 'alves of me, but you're not. You're the people who made me, an' I'm all myself."

It had happened, Joq'an realised. The trial had dawned where his daughter made her own choices. Good ones, bad ones and those lumped under "indifferent" - she made them and whilst she looked to him for advice, listened to his words, the choices were hers. It was this moment, he knew, that he found out who she was and, who he was to her. The culmination of every sleepless night when she'd been ill, every tended cut and also stern words over refusal to eat vegetables, stubborn insistence on manners. And, of course, every mistake he had ever made. They combined in this moment and he found out if his daughter walked as an adult with, or without him. The gruff biqaj man gave a slight shake of his head at his own thoughts, as though thinking it would make it happen here and now. Then he looked up as Eva spoke to him.

"Papa," she said, quietly. "I'm real glad that you an' Huw an' us are goin' together. I missed not bein' with you."

Joq'an smiled. "I missed you too, Eva. But now, you are done and you should put those away. Do not put them down, put them away." Vega looked at him and grinned, fondly. "Yes, Papa."

817 words
Carpentry: Check that your pattern goes with the grain
Carpentry: Clean off regularly while engraving to avoid unwanted bumps and marks

[Arlo Creede]

Vega

Knowledge:
Carpentry: Choosing the right tools for the job beforehand, helps
Carpentry: Check that your pattern goes with the grain
Carpentry: Clean off regularly while engraving to avoid unwanted bumps and marks
Carpentry: Small details can be added later
Carpentry: Getting proportions right is important.
Persuasion: Reminding your father that he doesn't need to charge off and thump your boyfriend. Points: 10 (No points for Hocus Pocus) Comments: I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy reading solos with Vega interacting with her npc family. Seeing where and who she comes from, the relationship with her family provides a very nice perspective of who she is and why. Nicely done.
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