FDR Campfire, Saturday Morning

[bitchprince]

Arthur's dreams last night had been full of strange images of old, powerful wolves and golden lion cubs that he chose not to consider further. It was Morgana who got the nightmares, not him; he'd always slept fitfully and where needed.

Still, they had instilled a sudden restlessness in him, and rather than turn to the salle as he generally would, Arthur's travels brought him no further than the campfire that morning. He had no meat left of his last hunt, nor any furry fish to roast, so instead he sat down by the edge of the pit.

He did have some dried meat, and a few more dates he'd nicked off Leto earlier (well, not nicked. Commandeered. Requested, maybe, with implicit permission). They'd do for breakfast until Merlin showed up to get him enough for a proper one.

[[ open like a campfire! ]]

Comments

[solo_sword]

"Congratulations then, I guess," Jaina told her, trying to match her tone. "Having a family order seems kind of hardcore."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"It's a really big family," she explained, "like, ridiculously big. My brother's in a different one."

[solo_sword]

"That would explain not knowing that cousins," she nodded. "Mine's pretty small. I can't imagine not knowing everyone really well." Give it a few generations.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"My mom was quiet about them for most of my life so it was this big surprise on our birthday," she explained.

There were a lot of surprises on her birthday.

[solo_sword]

She could understand surprise relatives, too. "Did you at least get a real present?" she asked, kind of lamely.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She nodded.

"We each got books," she explained.

Book books. Books with fictional stories in them, some of them even containing things that weren't physically possible. And nothing was crossed out in them.

It was totally new.

[solo_sword]

"I'm sorry," she said, not sure what else to say. It was weird to think that people were actually okay with that sort of gift. It also helped that they didn't use paper in her world.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Okay, she was blinking now.

"What do you mean?"

That was fantastic!

[solo_sword]

"I wouldn't think books would be a good balance for the other surprise," she explained.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"We'd never really gotten books like that before," she said with a shrug, "with, you know, 'made up stuff' in them before. I think I read through my book three or four times on the way to San Francisco. I know Eliot did.

"We usually get books but these were special."

[solo_sword]

"Oh. Then I take it back," she said sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She laughed and shook her head.

"No, really. I know the way I grew up is really pretty weird."

She patted her legs.

"My Uncle Henry gave me some money when I came here, though, as an apology, i think. I used it to get lots of nice new clothes. That a little more what you were thinking?"

[solo_sword]

"I'm more of a spare parts type of girl myself, but it's more along the lines of what I was expecting, yeah..."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"My mother is kind of--" emotionally detached? "she doesn't get it. But my Uncle Henry is pretty good about stuff like that. So is my Uncle Aaron. He gave me a gift to go to school with too. I'm pretty sure it's because he was worried about me being here without Eliot."

Hmm

"Spare parts? For what?"

[solo_sword]

"Depends. I used to do a lot of mechanic work as a hobby, so I'd use it to build or fix something. Most of it's organized in the garage now, actually," she explained.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"Boats? Trains? Cars? What kind of things? Or just anything that took your fancy?"

[solo_sword]

"I work on ships a lot. Spaceships. Mostly I do maintenance on my own, or my dad's now," she said. "Otherwise it was whatever I needed or wanted to do. I outfitted the rooms for myself and my brother at school, worked on some of the systems on the bases back home, that sort of thing."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Wow, that all sounded so far beyond her, she almost didn't know what to say.

"I don't know anything about electronics. I'm still working out the laptop I brought. I mean, I know the basics; Eliot showed me that much, but that's about it."

[solo_sword]

"Working on them get easier," she told her. "I just had to take it a step further and see how it was built. I'm fine with computers, but others are definitely better than me. I have go-to people for that now."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She nodded.

"Eliot's much better with that kind of thing, but he's not nearly as good with languages as I am. It's kind of weird being without him, since we each kind of cover what the other one's not as good at."

[solo_sword]

"I'm a twin. My brother and I are like that," Jaina said. "Where's he now?"

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She held up a hand and fluttered her fingers.

"Same here. And he's at another school. My family decided we needed to be educated apart."

[solo_sword]

"Do you get to talk a lot?" she wondered.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"I've called him a couple of times. And asked my dad about how he was doing since Eliot likes to tell our father things and keep quite about them with me sometimes."

Ugh.

"I'm pretty sure he's doing all right. I'm still going to worry because he's Eliot, but I think he'll be okay. He's stronger than he used to be."

[solo_sword]

"Brothers are fun like that, aren't they?" Jaina said with a smile, kind of wanting to call Jacen later.