Not Even A Mouse;

[thalassino]

Characters: EVERYONE
Location: ALL AROUND (but mostly in the plaza)
Time: MORNING - NIGHT??? (aka all day)
Style: Whatever suits!
Status: OPEN

T'was the night before Christmas and all through Vatheon

Comments

[withoutasign]

Psii!

[Guess who has a squeaky and completely excited troll jesus pouncing all over him right now?]

Psii, wake up, I've got something for you! Come on, come on, get up!

[psiinusoiidal]

[ What.

Signless is going to find himself neatly picked up into the air by a firm psionic grasp while the Helmsman looks up at him in a mix of bemusement and alarm. He actually falls asleep, and this is what he gets. This is his life. ]

...what?

[withoutasign]

[Signless squirms in the air, completely unbothered by the red and blue light that's holding him up. He's used to being picked up and moved around by psionics; this is actually a pleasant reminder of the things they used to do together.]

It's up on the roof! Come on, put me down, I'll go show you!

[psiinusoiidal]

[ Give him a second, he's just going to remind himself that somehow this is the man that led a revolution that shook Alternia to its very foundations. Darkleer actually went to the trouble to confirm that it wasn't some mass delusion, by the way, which makes it all the more fascinating.

He vaguely waves his hand as he floats himself up, setting Signless down on the ground once more before rubbing at his eyes. ]

If you inthitht.

[ He has all of the confusion, but he'll follow along. ]

[withoutasign]

[Accidentally revolution. It took him by surprise too.]

Come on!

[Gently taking one of Psii's narrow wrists in his hand and pulling him after him, Signless trots happily up the stairs at the end of the hallway and to the roof.]

There! See?

[There's what looks like a wooden box, about four feet high and two feet across, with a big yellow bow on it, sitting on the roof.]

They're sleeping right now because it's cold, but when the weather gets warm they'll be all over the place.

[psiinusoiidal]

[ Sometimes the Helmsman feels like some sort of strange primary colored balloon with the way his friend pulls him about, but he never protests it. When they get to the rooftop, they see something he recognizes for what it is immediately even though, really, apiculture shouldn't have been one of the topics he retained in his databanks. ]

A movable comb hive.

[ There's a certain profound surprise in the quiet way he makes that statement, as if he just inexplicably rediscovered some strange fragment of himself he didn't know he had. ]

[withoutasign]

Yeah, that's right.

[In his excitement, Signless misses the fact that a helmsman system would have no need for that knowledge, and that Psii is pulling from his own memories.]

There's a queen and about four hundred workers in there. Once it gets warm again, they'll wake up and start reproducing, and then you'll have lots of bees to take care of.

[He leans in close, shifting his grip so that he's holding Psii's hand instead of his wrist.]

Do you like it?

[psiinusoiidal]

[ No, I do not find them 'cute.' Beeth jutht hold better converthathionth. He'd huffed, his cheeks burning yellow. He had not been caught grub-talking to a stray honey bee that had landed on him while they took a break from their travels. That was nonsense.

And then he snaps back to reality, catching only half of what the other man said. His throat feels tight and his head aches, not that there's often that it doesn't, and suddenly he's just looking down at the ground. ]

Yeth. Yeth, I do.

[ There are yellow tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, and he's not entirely sure why. ]

[withoutasign]

I'm glad.

[Signless gets in front of Psii so he's looking up at him, and if the other troll will allow it, he'll put both hands on his face and cup it gently.]

I thought it would be nice for you to have something to take care of, you know?

[psiinusoiidal]

I... yeth. I underthtand.

[ His voice comes out very small, unsure and strangely fearful. He knows this is the wrong response to the gift, but he can't stop the tears from spilling over and tracing down his cheeks and he still feels oddly detached even as they do so. He lowers to touch the ground, a psionic glow still holding him upright. ]

[withoutasign]

[That's good, because now Signless can reach him more easily, without having to stretch up as high.]

[Gently, he uses the edges of his cloak to wipe the tears off Psii's face.]

[psiinusoiidal]

[ He doesn't resist. He rarely does, always submitting to the Signless's care. This is so much more than a mood swing, something that could be leveled by his friend's attentive nature, and he's not sure what is wrong with him.

He swallows. ]

Why beeth...?

[withoutasign]

[Because Psii had always liked bees. Because even though he never said anything about it, Signless knew that that was one of the things that made their nomadic lifestyle the hardest for him... that he could never have a hive of his own. Because anything that reminds the Helmsman of the troll he had once been is a good thing.]

No reason. It just seemed like something you would enjoy.

[psiinusoiidal]

[ He's quiet again, a very long moment. When he speaks, it's in a voice hardly a shade above a whisper: ]

Did I enjoy apiculture? In the patht?

[withoutasign]

[Oh, Psii... that pained little whisper almost breaks Signless' heart, but he keeps his expression calm and placid, keeping his hands gently on Psii's face.]

You did. Very much, in fact.

[psiinusoiidal]

[ The nomadic lifestyle hadn't bothered him that much. He could always take note of feral swarms, of apiaries in the towns they passed through. Sometimes he spent hours on notes of how to construct computer networking through properly trained and programmed hiveworks and combsystems.

If he had ever settled, he would have never been nearly as fulfilled as he was at the side of--

That was where the fragment of memory skipped out, a glitched fragment. ]

I am thorry. I am tho thorry.