More fan-fic
Ficklet that I wrote during class a few days ago. I don't think it came out all that well, but I really liked the mental image of Kael, V. and the childsoldiers spending an afternoon surrounded by books being a 'family'. The bit after the "---" is what I added tonight, more of an explanation than anything else.
They once spent an entire eventing (or as close to an evening as possible on Uran S'Varek) trying to define the word 'love'. Both had become fed up with the constant allusions to this inexplicable feeling and decided, quite independently from one another, to find the truth.
Half a day later found them cluttered in a common room, surrounded by everything from romance novels to encyclopedias, no closer to understanding. As the day had progressed they had gained a bevy of children, each of which would eagerly pipe up with quotes from favored cartoons and shows. What had originally been a short, solitary break had turned into a lengthy discussion forum.
Of all the people gathered, it was Vara who had the most experience with the subject. So when she poked her head into the room and fired off one of her cryptic remarks it was simply accepted at face value.
"If you haven't found love yet, you never will."
Karakael sighed, and placed his copy of "Stranger in a Strange Land" back on the table. It was beginning to seem like a hopeless search. But the Visitor refused to give up, prompting him on in their search for a single definition.
"We should at least be able to define it, even if we'll never feel it."
Vara smiled quietly to herself, and left them to their pointless quest. As she left the room she glanced back, looking at the couple, buried in books and surrounded by grinning children, heads almost touching as they bent over a shared notebook. It was true, neither of them had ever had any experience with traditional 'love' but...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As Vara shut the door she heard Ellora give a short gasp and quote something, to which Karakael responded with a low murmurer which dissolved the entire group into laughter.
Vara had her own definition of love, one that had to do with responsibility and debt. Yet she had considered the best kind of love to come not from the heat of lust, or the chill of politics, but from the genuine affection that grew from family.
There could be no lust between those two. Despite the parody of human emotions that the Visitor portrayed, she was instinctively sexless. She took up arms against injustice, but could never quite understand the motivations behind so much of it.
And Karakael...Vara had never spoken to him of it, but she was almost certain that sex had always been a chore for him. Another way of gaining power, of asserting control; necessary but never pleasurable. Physical contact in general was repulsive to him, a quirk which was likely Varas fault.
Yet neither of the two shied from contact with the other. Nor did they hold the cool demeanor that, as diplomats and spokespeople for their respective races, they should have held.
They once spent an entire eventing (or as close to an evening as possible on Uran S'Varek) trying to define the word 'love'. Both had become fed up with the constant allusions to this inexplicable feeling and decided, quite independently from one another, to find the truth.
Half a day later found them cluttered in a common room, surrounded by everything from romance novels to encyclopedias, no closer to understanding. As the day had progressed they had gained a bevy of children, each of which would eagerly pipe up with quotes from favored cartoons and shows. What had originally been a short, solitary break had turned into a lengthy discussion forum.
Of all the people gathered, it was Vara who had the most experience with the subject. So when she poked her head into the room and fired off one of her cryptic remarks it was simply accepted at face value.
"If you haven't found love yet, you never will."
Karakael sighed, and placed his copy of "Stranger in a Strange Land" back on the table. It was beginning to seem like a hopeless search. But the Visitor refused to give up, prompting him on in their search for a single definition.
"We should at least be able to define it, even if we'll never feel it."
Vara smiled quietly to herself, and left them to their pointless quest. As she left the room she glanced back, looking at the couple, buried in books and surrounded by grinning children, heads almost touching as they bent over a shared notebook. It was true, neither of them had ever had any experience with traditional 'love' but...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As Vara shut the door she heard Ellora give a short gasp and quote something, to which Karakael responded with a low murmurer which dissolved the entire group into laughter.
Vara had her own definition of love, one that had to do with responsibility and debt. Yet she had considered the best kind of love to come not from the heat of lust, or the chill of politics, but from the genuine affection that grew from family.
There could be no lust between those two. Despite the parody of human emotions that the Visitor portrayed, she was instinctively sexless. She took up arms against injustice, but could never quite understand the motivations behind so much of it.
And Karakael...Vara had never spoken to him of it, but she was almost certain that sex had always been a chore for him. Another way of gaining power, of asserting control; necessary but never pleasurable. Physical contact in general was repulsive to him, a quirk which was likely Varas fault.
Yet neither of the two shied from contact with the other. Nor did they hold the cool demeanor that, as diplomats and spokespeople for their respective races, they should have held.