dejah_thoris | Entries tagged with oom

Days like today, time moves strangely.

The morning's events had driven them into the darkest oubliettes of memory and they'd each needed help finding their way out. It had stretched and pulled them to pieces and they'd spent the rest of the day quietly putting each other back together. It was time well spent in her book, even if it meant napping away the afternoon. They were alone together and that's all either one of them really could handle at the moment.

The day finally shifts into twilight and her stomach rumbles. She opens one eye to peer up at him. He looks so much older than he did, even yesterday.

Tomorrow I'll tell you everything.

Tomorrow. He'd left her earlier, assuring her he only needed to clear his thoughts. He was doing this for her. And for him, she would listen and try to understand.

She'd tried to read, but her thoughts kept coming back to their conversation and the shadow that loomed between them. Eventually she'd cleared a spot in the floor and worked through all 108 forms of her sword kata. When she was through, she was drenched with sweat and her mind was clear. She showered and managed to get a few hours sleep.

When the light touched her windows, it found her wide awake and staring at the mural over her bed. The pale light of Cluros and Thuria lingered in the silks like the memory of his kiss, his hands -- his hands around her waist. She rose and dressed for the chill lakeside. Khakis over boots, a long sleeved blouse and a long sweater Bar insisted she try. It was soft as down and had pockets inside and out. She left her hair down. She was not Jeddak today. She was just Dejah.

And he needed her. That fact alone kept her nerves calmed. Perhaps her expression was a bit stern, but this was a battle she was walking into, wasn't it.

She headed down to the bar and saw him sitting at a table with Edgar. Something told her to wait for him. A moment later, he joined her, his expression as haunted as the first day she met him.

Immediately, before opening her mouth to say anything, she gave him a warm smile and slipped her hand into his.

[After this.]

Dejah wakes and eats her breakfast on the terrace, looking out over the city. When she's done, she finds herself pacing the floor, waiting for the door to Milliways to show up again.

The moment the sun hits the far wall, it reappears in a shimmer of dust motes. Dejah smiles with relief. She grabs up the copper-clad box with the data crystals, and a few of her notebooks. She starts over the threshold, and at the last moment, she whirls around and grabs Curtis's hat off her pillow.

The whole place is bustling, so she looks for him in his usual place at the bar.

It was after dinner and she'd finished up her work for the day. She shook out her hand, stretched the muscles of her fingers, hoping that the tendon would stretch with it. It hurt more and more with each passing day, but she had other things to worry about. Curtis was supposed to meet her after he'd worked out and checked on Edgar.

That was two hours ago. She finally broke down and touched two fingers to her bracelet. It pulsed blue and she got the sense he was in his room. Strange. She touched it again, just to be sure. No, he was there. Alive and attached to the pendant.

She decides to go down and say hello, find out if everything's okay. A few minutes later, she's knocking at his door.

"Curtis?"

After a long day in the forge, and a long night of pacing the corridors of the bar looking for Curtis, Dejah had come back to her rooms and tried to work on the prostheses. She'd made significant progress, building the initial layer of isolates and imprinting the neurological signature she'd recorded the very first day onto the layer itself. It took an incredible amount of focus and when she was done, she lay her tools on her work bench. Bleary-eyed and exhausted, she made her way to the bed.

She didn't wake for many hours. Not even the recurring image of Curtis's shy smile melting into the leering grin of Matai Chang could manage to stir her from sleep. It was late in the day when she rolled over and peered at the window. The sun was going down. Or was it coming up? She couldn't tell.

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Dejah Thoris

You let me know when it gets dangerous

Entries tagged with oom

[milliways] In the Still of the Night

[milliways] Through Shadows Into Light

[milliways] Through The Looking Glass

[M'ways] Room 1001

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May 2019

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