[014] OOM - Aboard the Free Ship, Perdita

[tristranthorn]

Tristran finds himself thinking of everything at the top of the spire of cloud he sits upon. There is a sense of perspective, sitting here. Everything is so simple, so...straight-forward, so...small from up here.

His stomach growls and he can't help but think that while adventures are well and good, there is certainly a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain, like the pain he feels right now. He wishes he had his rucksack, or somehow they could open some mysterious door to Milliways again, if only so he could get something to eat. He doesn't need anything elaborate. He'll even take a plain loaf of bread. His hand throbs with heat and pain, and he wishes there were something he could do to stop it, but it's useless, no matter what he thinks.

Still, he is grateful to be alive with the wind in his hair and the fantastic view spread out before him, so wide he could never fully take it all in. The sky is so blue, so different from the way he might have viewed it from earth, and everything felt different to him from all the way up here. There is a sense of nowness.

Most of all, it is terribly quiet in a peaceful sort of way and it makes him want to ... disturb it. Just because. Standing upon the cloud spire, he calls out, "Halloo!" several times, belting it out as loudly as he can. It feels strangely exhilerating.

He wants to laugh. He wants to feel that pulse of adrenaline run through him and act like a fool. And when he does, he feels ... free. It's a nice sort of feeling, even if he does it by himself (not that he isn't used to doing things by himself, as that was what his childhood mostly consisted of). As he clambers down the length of the spire to return to the 'ground', his footing slips and he falls at least ten feet, landing shortly after into the misty softness of the cloud.

And then he laughs quietly to himself.

Comments

[tristranthorn]

Tristran laughs a bit.

"I would manage," he tells her seriously. "Shouldn't be a problem."

[an_evening_star]

"Shouldn't be a problem," she echoes, tilting her head to mimic his posture as well as his words.

A lazy smirk.

"I do not think that you would last half way," comes the reply, simply stated and entirely factual.

[tristranthorn]

Scoffing, Tristran gives her a most incredulous look.

"Do you think that badly of me, that I would not have the energy to finish such a task?"

[an_evening_star]

"That badly?" she leans forward once more. "Well ..."

Pausing, she presses one cheek to her shoulder and lowers her lashes. (She has sisters, she's seen all of these things put to practice. Admittedly, she hasn't had much practice herself, but really, how hard can it be?)

"You," the star murmurs, before a significantly more Yvaine grin breaks across her face. "Couldn't even carry me to the door."

[tristranthorn]

"I certainly can," he says confidently, then adds quickly, "of course not right now, as my hand is still injured. But on any other day, I can."

Then he laughs.

"Maybe one day I can prove it."

[an_evening_star]

"But my point still stands," she says. "You can't."

Arguing, she finds, is much more entertaining when the other person actually bothers to argue back.

She lets herself flop back down, one hand waving dismissively, "We shall talk of 'one day' when we get there."

[tristranthorn]

"Well all right, maybe I can't if you're speaking of right now," he concedes, "but it still stands that I'm sure I can if I were completely healed."

Perhaps arguing is fun for Yvaine, but Tristran isn't very much a fan in the end.

[an_evening_star]

That's just because Tristran's a sore loser.

"Of course, Prince Charming," she drawls sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"You know, that would have been the first question out of my mouth when I was younger, 'Are you a Prince?'" a quiet snort. "Well, perhaps after inquiring as to whether or not you were a boy - but that, at least, has become self evident."

She would like to believe that that is some sort of indication of self-growth. Or of ability to pay attention for more than five minutes. Either one.

[tristranthorn]

Sore loser? Pfffffft...

Tristran smiles. Somehow her words feel very familiar. Almost like they happened in a dream...but when would he ever have dreamt something like that?

"Well, I was quite certain that a prince was what I was going to grow up to be," he says.

[an_evening_star]

A sore loser and a baby.

She turns her head, nose wrinkling at the prickling something, and peers over at him inquisitively.

"And now?" she asks. "What do you want to be now?"

[tristranthorn]

"And now..."

Tristran pauses, taking the moment to contemplate what his life had more or less been, and what it's become. He'd done quite a bit of nothing significant during his childhood (merely going to school, helping his family, coping with life as a teenager). Only when he'd met the star had his life been turned into one great adventure after another. He learned quite a bit about himself, about his limits and a thousand other little things he didn't know before.

Still, one thing remains quite clear to him.

"Happy," he answers simply, shrugging.

[an_evening_star]

Happy - she rather likes the sound of that.

"I think that I am still going to take over the world," she offers flippantly. "It is, perhaps, easier to do when on the world, after all."

Her voice quiets a bit with an easy sort of seriousness.

"But happy isn't a bad thing to be while doing it, I would suppose."

[tristranthorn]

Tristran grins.

"I think being happy is the most important thing of all."

[an_evening_star]

Yvaine hums out a quiet noise of consideration, smiling softly again.

There are just some things that you don't argue against.

"Perhaps," the star replies after a few moments of silence. "There are worse things in all the world than you, Tristran Thorn."

[tristranthorn]

Tristran lets the smile on his face linger for a moment before a sudden bout of very strange Awkward overcomes him. (And he does not notice, but his heart is beating a little quicker.)

He clears his throat, expression becoming neutral once more, and straightens.

"Well, I suppose I should leave you to your rest," he says, standing.

[an_evening_star]

Yvaine's cheeks color abruptly and she frowns, resisting the very tempting urge to slap a palm over her face and groan miserably.

She's going to go to bed and she's going to wake up normal. None of this lazing about socializing and being friendly stuff. This whole liking business will not be effecting her anymore than she can help.

"I suppose," she replies neutrally. "Yes."

[tristranthorn]

And Tristran is going to go to bed and ... think of Victoria. Right. That is what he's going to do; think about his true love. Because that is what dashing young heroes do when they are on a quest for their lady. They think and dream about them whenever they get a spare moment.

"So -- um..." He begins to cross towards the door before turning and glancing in her direction. "Good night, then. I'll see you in the morning."

[an_evening_star]

"Of course you will."

Her head tilts back a bit and she spares him a glance of his own before settling comfortably once more.

"I'm not running anywhere, Tristran," she quips with a wry twist of her lips, sighing lightly to herself. "In case you have not noticed, we are rather high in the air."

[tristranthorn]

"I know," he says, nodding. "I know that. I was just --"

Shaking his head, he turns back to the door. "Never mind. Good night."

He reaches for the latch and pulls it towards him, opening the door. He doesn't recognize anything that should belong in the ship.

"Um...Yvaine?"

[an_evening_star]

"Yes, Tristran?"

One eye blinks open slowly, followed by the other.

"Fine. That was rude, yes," she allows, propping herself on her elbow and turning toward him with a slightly exasperated roll of her eyes. "Good night to you too, of cour-- oh."

Well then. Different story entirely.

[tristranthorn]

"It's the bar," he explains, gesturing her to come and see for herself. "The bar is in the ship."

[an_evening_star]

"Well, it has been in an abandoned shack - and near a tree," she reasons, sitting up and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed a bit stiffly. "I see little reason why it should not be in the ship."

After a slight stumble when she stands her chin tilts determinedly and she limps over to join him, peering through the doorway and looking rather impressed.

"It is rather good at being wherever it pleases."

[tristranthorn]

While that is true that the bar tends to show up everywhere, they are high up in the air. It still seems all too unrealistic for a bar to be in a flying pirate ship.

"I wonder if the pirates might have seen it," he says, passing a hand through the door, then slowly withdrawing it. "But -- well, we cannot possibly go now. There is a lot to do."

He begins to close the door, hoping the bar will disappear once it is shut.

[an_evening_star]

Her arm reaches out - hand closing over his for a moment and halting the motion before she withdraws it hastily, fingers still tingling. Mission accomplished though, she reasons, the door is still open.

"Maybe you cannot possibly go," she says reasonably enough, stepping in front of him the slightest bit. "I find myself to be an entirely different story."

The rules of here shouldn't really apply to there.

"Perhaps you will freeze while I am gone," she grins over at him. "The sun did, after all."

[tristranthorn]

"But you said that where I go, you will go too," he argues, hand frozen, still clutching the door.

The tingling is gone, now.

"And we really must get to Wall. You understand. We're almost there, I'm sure."