ataraxionlogs | [closed] It's raining children, hallelujah

The rustling from the trees tip her off immediately.

All Rey had planned that day was to drop in at the camp to do her usual check-ins. What she didn't plan was looking up to find a falling child from overhead.

"Shi--" Rey starts, but she's cut off with a jerk as she intercepts Muscovy's crude landing, catching the boy in her arms. What seems like a graceful catch is actually not that easy when she starts losing her grip.

At least she still has the reflexes of an android soldier. Not many normal humans would be able to recover so easily.

That...

Was not the landing that he expected, at all. Nicer than crashing into the ground, which could have been moss or stone or any kind of ground, really, and probably harder than Rey's arms which at least gave in some to accommodate for him hitting them.

For a long moment, he just stares up at her in shock, still somewhat expecting to hit the ground any moment, and then he reaches out belatedly to cling to her shoulders so she won't drop him now.

Okay, he's holding onto her now.

"Are you--" She stops a moment, taking the time to adjust her hold of him before kneeling down to set his feet safely on the ground. She huffs. "Are you all right?"

Of course, she has other questions, but that one is the most current concern.

He winces a bit when he carefully moves his arms - some of this will definitely bruise - but for all that he can tell nothing is broken or otherwise seriously damaged, so he nods.

"I didn't break anything."

Sure, he is under shock a bit, but he wouldn't consider that not being all right, because "shock" is a concept that he can't grasp and that makes no sense to include in medical contexts for him.

It does mean that he is hesitant to let go after she puts him down and holds on for a bit longer than is strictly necessary before releasing her and taking a step back.

Giving Muscovy the time he needs, Rey doesn't peel him off her or anything akin to that. He may not understand the concept of shock, but she does, and can sense that in his tension -- he's going to feel a lot more of that later.

After he lets go, so does she. She then gives him a look over to see if anything was hurt when she had caught him.

"Good." She looks back at him, placing an uncharacteristically gentle hand over the top of his head for a few seconds. "What were you doing up there, anyway?"

He looks up at her and then turns his eyes towards the tree. "I was building a house." More or less successfully. ...Less, really. For the moment, he has managed to place all his belongings in and on and against the branches of the tree, more or less safely, far enough from the ground to not be visible unless someone comes looking for them, and build something that resembles a nest for sleeping in. No protection against rain except for the thick fur coat that is apparently covering the parts that wouldn't survive much water.

As he talks, Rey looks up as well at the pitiable shelter Muscovy had started for himself. She makes a face, jaw clenched. For his sake, she hopes he hasn't been trying to sleep up there yet for the long haul.

"Have you ever built anything like a house before?" Rey asks cautiously.

"They always said that I am too little to help with the actual building." He'd always been given groundwork tasks instead. "And all the materials that I know of can't really be found here." Well, wood can, but he doesn't have the tools to work that. And everything else...

"Ah," Rey says simply at first, before looking back to Muscovy. She's still kneeling, and at eye level with the boy. "You don't want to live at the camp with the others?"

It shouldn't sound too strange to her. After all, she lives away from the camp as well. Unlike her, however, Muscovy seems to be the type who prefers to be around a lot of people. Even with the stampede that came through recently, not everyone was quick to start building houses in the trees as well.

"I will be safer if I live in a tree a bit away from the camp, because I will be harder to find if there is a surprise attack and big animals trample through the camp again they won't run over me even if I am asleep, yes? And I can still go to the camp during the day." So it's not like he'll be completely cut off from everyone.

There's no arguing that it's safer, in some sense. For Rey, anyway, she can keep an eye on the outskirts of the camp from above, and be safe from ground dangers such as the bear-like creatures or the stampede.

But Rey is an adult and knows a bit about wilderness survival. Muscovy here hasn't even been able to build his own shelter, let alone make it on his own.

She squints, her lips tightening into a straight line. "Do you have anyone you can perhaps stay with? It'd be better if you don't live alone."

He shakes his head. "My lady aunt is not here anymore." He's been living alone ...almost since they arrived on the planet, really. It wasn't too bad - he's managed well enough that nobody noticed, which he counts as doing quite well on the front. He's used to surviving alone, both as a nation and as an individual. As long as he has an adult that he can point to when people demand to know the one responsible for him... but he doesn't have that here anymore, so his position is always a bit more precarious.

And he doesn't like living alone. It's just a necessary evil to be treated as a an independent person so unless someone that he likes and trusts enough to enter into the kind of dependency that adult-child relations seem to imply (he's still figuring out how exactly individuals, how exactly he as an individual, would do a relationship like that), he will try to do this alone.

Without even realizing it, Rey's expression softens at Muscovy's reply. "Oh, sorry to hear that."

Truth be told, she doesn't even know who this 'lady aunt' is, or was, but she's heard enough people have been disappearing that it's not surprising. None of it was all that surprising back on the ship, either. In fact, people going away has become pretty commonplace that she doesn't know how to really react to it anymore.

"So you've been living by yourself all this time? Is that what you want?" Even Rey has been taken to living with someone else after being on her own for so long. She wonders if Muscovy misses it, too.

"She will be fine, she is very scary and though she can be silly I don't think that she will get into more trouble than she can survive wherever she is now." He nods very earnestly. He's pretty sure that that goes for his whole adopted family. ...On second thought, maybe not.

He nods and then shakes his head at the two questions, because they are easy enough to answer, but then adds: "I can look after myself, though."

"No doubt..."

It was Muscovy that Rey was more worried about. At least before, she knew that he had someone around to look after him, keep an eye and make sure he was safe. Moreover, he wasn't alone. She knows how much it sucks to be alone.

She looks at him then, solemn for a moment. Then, she exhales. As though she were breathing out the part of herself that made her act like a monotonous robot, her tone becomes gentler. Like-human. "You know, I've been staying with Firo in this house we've already built. There's room for one more. If you'd like."

The offer comes as a surprise, and for a good long moment, he simply looks up at her, wonder and surprise mingling on his features while he tries to process the order and make a decision.

He would like to live with people; he's just worried that it will be seen as him now being fully dependent on them. But Firo and Rey are friends; and thinking back to his conversation with Firo, they really have a similar status to Galadriel. Family, even though the structures are different. And it will be good to have adults to point to when people start asking, that was always very helpful in the Drabwurld and on the ship...

And it will be nice to live in a place where he isn't alone and where his things will be protected from rain.

"Where is your house?"

It's a surprise to Rey that he doesn't immediately refuse. She doesn't know why she was expecting that she would need to convince him when he's never given her a reason to think he would oppose to the notion.

Well, not everyone is like her. It took some convincing to get her to finally stop living in the gardens on her own, back when they were all on the ship. Because it just seemed safer back then, keeping her distance from people. Things are different now. Strange as it all is, she has to keep reminding herself of that.

Calm, she nods to herself, and gestures towards the way she had come walking from. "About a mile and a half that way. It's made out of wood, and was able to reinforce it using the material from the ship."

It also helps being able to weld said metal with your hands.

He doesn't immediately agree to it, either. He's simply... not refusing, and that for good reasons. He'll give this idea a chance, because this is Rey and Firo and because it would be nice to live with them and because he would rather not fall out of the tree.

...A bit out, but not too far to walk the distance whenever he wants too.

There is another important, much more important question, though.

"Why are you offering?" People usually want something when they offer things, and he wants to check if he is ready to give that first.

Rey balks at what Muscovy would perceive as an important question, almost as though he expected an ulterior motive from her or something. And perhaps he did. She just blinks slowly at him, having not really taken the 'why' part into consideration.

After a brief moment, she shrugs. "Does there need to be a reason?" She even takes the opportunity to drop the monotone to tell the kid this. "I like you, and am sure Firo would also feel better if you weren't living alone."

Or falling from the trees Muscovy's attempting to build houses in.

"Most people have a reason when they offer you to stay with them. Unless..." OH. A smile spreads over his features, replacing his confusion. "My people sometimes offer without wanting anything out of it." And Rey is one of his people now.

Maybe it is that! Though there seems to be more, and he considers the implications of 1. Rey saying that she likes him, 2. Firo being worried about him living alone and 3. Rey worrying about Firo worrying about that. He'll have to ask Firo why he would worry that Muscovy lives alone, later. For now point one is the most important.

"I like you too. You are very nice." And if she really doesn't want anything out of him moving in with her, no control and no work... He can believe that, because she is one of his people. It still isn't to be taken for granted, but it is to be believed.

He nods very serenely. "I will move in with you." It sounds like Rey is the one that the house belongs to, anyway.

Even if Rey did want something out of it, she has no idea what she would expect of Muscovy. Not that she doesn't think he has nothing to give, but she just doesn't have the heart to ask anything big of him. And though she mentioned that Firo would be worried, Rey herself would worry as well.

Damn these feelings and giving fucks about people. Especially when it comes to children, which one would find odd if not for the fact that she's always had a latent soft spot for them.

She almost laughs when Muscovy tells her she's nice. Considering what she's offering, she can't really argue the contrary. "At least you think so."

It doesn't matter to her what other people think about her, so long as Muscovy believes her.

"Good to hear it." Her arms drop to her sides, her face bearing a soft smile that not many get the luxury of seeing. "Can take you there, so you'll know where it's at."

"I know that you are nice." At least she hasn't done anything that would tell him differently yet. Not where he can see it, anyway. And even if she's not always nice, she's always nice to him, who is too weak compared to her to really be able to defy her, and that is a very good start, if you ask him.

He peers up at the tree. "I'll take the harp along now, I just have to get it down from the tree first, yes?" And then the other things after, but the harp is the most troubled by rain, so having it under a roof has a higher priority.

The fact that Muscovy would be seen as small and weak doesn't entirely register to Rey. Not that she thinks about that sort of thing consciously. In reality she would instinctively run into a burning building after something that is too small to help itself, whether it be an animal or a child. Rey is strange like that.

She forces a shaky chuckle. "Well, just don't spread it around. Have a reputation to protect."

Actually, she doesn't really have much of a reputation that she's aware of at all, beyond being 'that scar-faced first jumper lady' and 'that scar-faced first jumper who sent a guy into the white room and might have caused the ship to get caught by a corrupt government', but--

You know.

Details.

"Yes. If you toss it, can slow it down and catch it for you. Safer than climbing down with it." Sadly, she's not at the point where she can lift very many heavy things yet. Like children.

...Well, now that is great. If he lives with Rey and Rey is considered an adult and has a reputation (whatever she means with that, exactly, but from context it probably means that people will think twice before crossing her) that means that telling people that he belongs to her will be quite useful and protective.

So he nods earnestly; he will help Rey to protect her reputation, even if that means that he can't tell people that she is nice.

"There is no chance of you not catching it?" Because as useful as that suggestion sounds, he'd really rather not see the harp break. Not only for the emotional value - Maglor got it for him and taught him how to play it - but also for the practical value. He heavily doubts that it can be replaced on this planet.

One can always consider having a guardian who is over a century old and can control fire to be quite useful and protective.

Yes.

"That's right. Have been able to make things move without needing to touch them, which helps with getting things up and down the treehouse. You don't need to worry about it dropping and breaking."

Just one more tally on the board of Things That Are Quite Useful And Protective when you're friends with Rey.

"Have you always been able to do that?" Considering that he hasn't always been able to create things from nothing (and that would then return to nothing) but he's starting to be able to do bigger things like that now, and for longer, too.

He'll get on climbing the tree in a moment, but he is curious now. What Rey can do sounds even more useful, maybe he could try to learn that, too...

"No," she says decisively. "Learned how to do that sort of thing here."

Just like other weird psychic things she's been subjected to in this place. Some of them useful, others just end up complicating her life even more. But being able to control things' movement with her mind? That's pretty damned useful.

"Then I can learn it too!" Being fairly short, it should be fairly useful for reaching things that he cannot reach by himself. "How do you do it?

The new place to stay is good, but this is a lot less ambiguous. More useful powers!

"Suppose so, if that's something you'd like to learn. Can teach you how once we get settled in. It's fairly easy once you get the hang of it."

Despite being a busybody recently, Rey still makes time for stuff like that, especially if it's for a friend. And there are so few that she actually considers as such. At least, Muscovy is sort of a friend. She thinks.

He nods, smiling cheerfully - that sounds lieka great prospect, learning how to get things out of high places and places that feel down to a place where he can't reach them anymore, and things like that. And, well, maybe there are additional uses for it.

With that, he'll turn and start to climb the tree. It takes a bit, but eventually he vanishes in the lower branches and shows up a moment later with the harp. "I will throw it now, yes?"

There are plenty of advantages to it, Rey must admit. While she may not be that small, being able to lift things from one place to another has proven useful when she had been constructing the tree dome. It's pretty awesome, would recommend.

She stands aside and watches as Muscovy climbs upward, arms out and ready in the event that he slips and falls again. When it makes it up to the top, she nods. "Yes," she confirms. "Just drop it. Won't let it break, promise."

And Rey takes her promises seriously.

And the harp drops down.

It isn't all that large - small enough to be reasonably handled and carried around by Muscovy, but still roughly half his size - but still heavy enough.

Muscovy will reappear a bit later with his backpack and carefully climb down the side of the tree. He still isn't the most skilled climber, but he's gotten a lot better since they arrived here.

There is no flashy theatrics. No wave of the hand or gesticulation. But as the harp falls down, something does change.

It slows down, continuing its descent until it falls into Rey's open hands. She's holding it by the time Muscovy returns with the rest of his things, and there's a slight hint of a rare smile.

"Told you it wouldn't drop," she says lightly before she starts heading towards home. She can always go check in on the camp later.

He smiles back up at her and if she keeps carrying the harp, he'll reach up to take her free hand while they walk. She's nice and warm and while there is no good reason to hold her hand there also is no good reason not to.

The unexpected contact almost makes her jump, but then Rey looks down as if to remind herself that it's only Muscovy, and it isn't like she's never experienced this kind of physical interaction before. So her limp right hand moves to wrap her fingers around his, giving it a squeeze as she guides the boy into the jungle.

For once, she feels like things are all right.

[closed] It's raining children, hallelujah

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