TDM #5 - Paradesium

[pumpkinhollow]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette March Issue

[Find our plain text version here!]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette

3/8/24 | TDM #5 - Paradesium
Content Warnings: individual CWs found per prompt in "Further Details"
Forecast: Partly cloudy with a chance of rain

WELCOME TO PUMPKIN HOLLOW!

By Yorick Aberdeen

Apparently the ferryman needed a bigger boat!

ACROSS TOWN - Since June of 16:53, a steady stream of new arrivals to our sleepy little town has flowed in by ferry, emerging from the fog. And it seems this trend is due to continue, as this March is due to be on record the highest number of new residents in a single month!

We are incredibly grateful for all of you coming to our home and filling it with life once more, even though the dangers of our local curse have significantly increased since all of you began arriving. This reporter isn’t complaining--- additional harm to my own person notwithstanding!

If you are a new arrival, please report to Town Hall at your leisure so that we can help you find work and permanent lodging. Or don’t! The Oak & Iron is happy to rent you a room for as long as you need. Best of luck to all of you, and as we say in Pumpkin Hollow, may your lanterns always be lit!

CHARITY DRIVE ENCOURAGES CULTURAL EXCHANGE

By Cecil Gershwin Palmer

One of the charming toys created during last year's Doll Picnic.

FESTIVAL GREEN - Preparations are underway for the upcoming annual Doll Picnic. A charity event sponsored by the Artisan’s Guild, this picnic is an Anwyllic tradition that was brought to the island and continued with love. The first Doll Picnic was organized by Dame Meredith Idlewild of the town of Glyn Rhuthun on Kora’s Haven, with the toys being donated to the local children’s hospital after a massive landslide engulfed a local school.

The Artisan’s Guild has baskets of material available for making dolls, including fabric, yarn, stuffing, buttons, and the like. However, tradition states that sourcing materials from the natural world (for example, acorn husks to use as buttons or deadwood to carve for doll arms and legs) results in the toys being blessed by Serrenai, who will watch over the children who play with them. The toys will be donated to local children after the picnic, including those who are ill or whose families can only afford necessities.

Newcomers are explicitly invited to join in the making of toys, and the resulting picnic. As a personal note: the locals have never heard of a teddy bear before. This reporter expects to see several, as we introduce our traditions to their traditions.

PLANTING SEASON BEGINS!

By Yorick Aberdeen

After a difficult winter, the appearance of spring's sprouts lifts our spirits.

NORTHWEST HOLLOW - The spring thaw is in full swing! That means it’s time for our local farmers to begin planting. Town Hall is offering a small reward to any of our newest arrivals who would be interested in assisting with planting season for farms less than a year old.

Anyone fresh off the boat interested in making 100 Brass should seek out Eddie and Angel Kasbrak, Arthur Morgan, Cèsar Salazar, Mairi Miann, Ylva Wolfsdottir, or Muriel and offer assistance with tilling and planting. We look forward to rewarding you for your contributions!

HOT SPRINGS OPEN FOR RELAXATION

By Yorick Aberdeen

Photograph provided by the Safety Board!

CRANE'S RIDGE - After a recent earthquake opened up a hot spring on the lower portion of Crane’s Ridge, a small portion of the Pumpkin Hollow Damage Claims Assessment Corps has been working to get the area cleaned up and safe for use by the general public.

Following its recent approval for compliance by the Safety Board, we are pleased to announce that Porter’s Spring is now available for public enjoyment! It can be accessed by taking the train to the North Station or by following the central trail out of Northwest Hollow, though the Safety Board does not recommend making this journey on foot due to its proximity to Lake Sal-Co-Penn. Enjoy!

STRANGE CAVERNS DISCOVERED BENEATH CRANE’S RIDGE

By Yorick Aberdeen

A small glimpse into this world beneath our own.

CRANE RIDGE - In addition to the hot springs, the earthquake can also be credited for a major cave-in in our Crane’s Ridge mines. A large tunnel was completely buried in rubble by the inexplicable natural occurrence. For the past several months, our mining team has been chipping away at the cave-in to try and regain access to the blocked tunnels in the lower area of the mountain.

In one of these tunnels, however, the team discovered a shocking surprise as the rubble was removed! Apparently, just beyond the mine walls, there has been an entrance to Hepogaia--- a subterranean nation running below our own fair country and many others. It seems that this particular portion of Hepogaian territory is also trapped within the barrier. Brief attempts at scouting by the Safety Board have noted a plethora of subterranean wildlife, both familiar and unfamiliar. This incredible new environment, hiding just out of sight beneath our island, is so full of wonder and splendor that it has earned a fitting name--- “Paradesium.”

A recent ecology study and expedition run by Pumpkin Hollow’s own Dr. Elias Coldwood has redirected their efforts to this new location, but those interested in exploring and scouting out this fantastical new discovery independently are encouraged to pack thoughtfully and travel in groups of two or more! Any information obtained during excursions into Paradesium would be appreciated by the Pumpkin Hollow Board of Safety.

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Further Details...

Charity Drive

The Doll Picnic Charity Drive will run throughout the next two months during our TDM, and there will be an event later on involving posing the dolls for a picnic. Once a photo is taken, the children will be allowed to come picnic with their new toys and take them home after!

There is absolutely no way this could possibly go wrong. Absolutely no dollmakers will be jumpscared or attacked by possessed dolls. None at all. (Okay, maybe some of them. But it’s fine. It’s for a good cause.)

[Mod Note: you can just make a doll without it coming to life and trying to kick your ass, that part is optional. Also the dolls will be blessed at the picnic and rendered unable to attack children.]

Planting Season

Any brand-new characters will get 100B extra on their stipend if they submit an AC-length thread with one of the existing farmers on their first Activity Check! This will be available regardless of whether the character qualifies for normal bonuses, but can only be redeemed by those who app in.

For reference for new players, threads are considered AC-length if they are ten tags in length (meaning 5 of your own tags and 5 from your partner.)

Hot Springs

Porter’s Spring is a perfectly normal and safe hot spring! However, you can encounter any number of perils on your way there if you decide to travel on foot, allowing new players to revisit some of our earlier events.

Check out our bestiary (pending update to new format) for more information on creatures such as Brutoks, the River Walker, and the Pine Devil, or stumble on Lake Sal-Co-Penn for a nasty surprise! Brutoks may also steal personal items from spring-goers on occasion. Don’t chase after them alone unless you want to be turned into a tree!

The Tristitia

In addition to the creatures in the wild, in town after dark characters may also encounter the Tristitia, Pumpkin Hollow’s newest cryptid.

She is a wraith-like spirit which haunts the island. Wearing tattered black clothes and colored all in shades of gray, she appears as a woman who walks around weeping with a caved-in chest, covering her face with her hands. Harmless if given a wide berth, but if she is set off, she will take out her desire for empathy for her grief on her target. She does this by embracing them and drawing out their own grief and trauma, leaving the target catatonic before she fades away, temporarily assuaged.

Into Paradesium

Crystals, golden with light and raw magical energy, cast what looks like sunlight down into the cascading cave. For every foot lower that the ground curls down from the entrance, the trees stretch ever-higher, carrying the raucous cries of animals unlike the surface of Marrow Isle had ever heard.

A jungle, so lush with life, sprawls ahead of any brave enough to venture into it. But what is there to see?

For Paradesium specifically, the bestiary has received a significant update. Creatures featured in prompts have their links to the accounts by Dr. Coldwood and his team marked with stars for easy location.

Below are multiple prompts for some encounters to be had in the jungle, but feel free to create any of your own encounters with any of the creatures listed! If the descriptions are short, feel free to write the creatures' behaviors however makes sense.

Welcome to the Jungle

Swallowed by dense canopies and noise, the jungle is quick to swallow any who travel within it whole.

Eyes are quick to find you, however. Perching in the treetops are a variety of small wyverns in vibrant colors, heads tilting as they try to comprehend what you could be. They squawk, chatter, and some of the bolder ones draw closer - if you sit anything aside and leave it unattended for too long, some even bolder than that will pilfer it, taking the object into the trees to admire with its companions.

Reptilian hunters with bright, keen eyes, the Plommon, consider you with much of the same interest. This interest increases tenfold if you happen to feed them.

If the prying eyes are no bother, then the forest's bounty is ripe for tending and taking. Bananas hang off trees, colorful citrus fruits catch light on their waxy peels, and bulky cocoa beans are jostled by movement in the branches above them. Even the broad leaves of the plants prove extraordinarily useful, whether you're looking to come in and quickly leave, or intend to push further within.

Wherever you go, those curious eyes follow you. Perhaps even out of the cave, should your attempts to shoo an adventurous creature away. What an odd way to gain a new team member.

Down a Few Notches on the Food Chain

(CWs: Potential for death, gore, or animal death)

Unfortunately, not all can be pure bounty and new friends in a place like this.

With the cavern sprawling widely and massively, there are many significantly larger creatures in this space, and some seem to be keen to take up opportunity for new prey. As you explore, there's a new feeling of eyes upon you, and the silence that overtakes the surrounding trees spells nothing good to come.

Any one of the massive predators in the wood has you in it's sights.

Escape is difficult, but manageable, as is fighting back. Creatures can be challenged, and hides, bones, and other spoils can be claimed from them, should there be success! If not, this is a good opportunity for familiarization with the Death page.

The silkhide chimera specializes in persistence. The longer and further you go, the more exhausted you'll get. A break is an opportunity that it will be keen to take.

The greenstalker excels at ambushing and high-speed pursuit. At top speeds of 30MPH, your party will need strategy and skill on their side to keep this beast at bay. (Or, alternatively, a source of fire.)

The elephant raptor does neither of these - the beast's sheer length of reach does all it needs to. Water and mud soften the sounds of the gargantuan creature's approach. Stay alert, and be sure that you hear it before it's upon you.

Safe travels become more difficult to manage, the further in you go. Deep, rumbling snores tell you that there's a chance you're just getting to the greater threats this paradise has to offer...

Fragments of the Past

Through great distances traveled, this "uninhabited" cavern begins to show signs that may speak to that not having always been the case.

Ruins of homes, crumbled bricks and tiles, can be found at the deepest reaches of the cavern. These dilapidated buildings, though worn with time, tell a story: the people who left his place, one that could be identified as a stenholm to any familiar with dwarvish culture, did not leave it on good terms.

Essentials were clearly taken with them, as the ruins of this place lack tools or clothing. Valuables are still scattered throughout, however. Large objects with too much history to have been left behind by indifference dot the collapsing homes. Ritual circles still waft radiant energy from them.

In the remains of a temple, an altar stands, cracking with age and covered in plants as the cavern reclaims it. Old candle-stands have rusted with age, but still stand, undisturbed.

Just before the altar, folded onto its side (as best as one can be, when only pieces remain), lies a skeleton. The clothes are tattered remains of stained whites and dulled blues, and the wildlife have cleaned flesh from bones, but it's remained undisturbed by time.

There's a quiet sadness to this place that lingers, even with the people who inhabited it so long since lost.

Should you linger too long, however, there comes the distinct feeling of not being alone.

Clair de Lune

(CWs: Long-term isolation, extinction)

Golden eyes of a human face follow your every moment, and the moment you lock your gaze onto them, the face emerges from the darkness, partially covered by spilling dark hair.

What follows this face, however, is not a human face - but, rather, a feline body with sprawling, grey-flecked wings.

There's a long, tense silence, as it emerges fully. Standing easily at eight feet tall while on all fours, the size of this creature becomes more and more apparent as it emerges from the dark of the collapsed wind.

Unlike the other animals of the cavern, though, there seems to be an anxiousness to its look. The lion's chest rises and falls with short, nervous breaths.

And then, in a hushed, woman's voice, hoarse from disuse, it speaks.

"Who are you? Why have you come here?"

-------------------

The Sphinx is a new NPC available for characters to interact with, should they delve deep enough into the caverns to find the stenholm. She's wary of all the new faces, and tends to be somewhat flighty, but seems cautiously interested in what new humans being in Hepogaia have to offer. For the sort looking to understand this place, it's people, or intend to trade, she can be communed with.

To interact with her, comment on the TL provided from beastsofthehollow with her icon, and if the initial introduction isn't your speed, feel free to encounter her however you like!

Comments

[astrogator]

In return, she gives him a firm Tradeline handshake, her left hand briefly clasping his forearm. Tayrey is careful, ready to steady him if he needs it, but among her people it's polite to provide any needed assistance unobtrusively, not to draw attention to any disability. Wounded spacers are a very proud lot.

And that's just what he is. In that moment, Arilanna Tayrey learns that she is not the only spacer lieutenant in town. She makes the necessary deductions. Former. Of course. Damage like that, they wouldn't have kept him on, and knowing it's a hazard of the job doesn't make the reality of it any easier to bear, she's sure.

His introduction gets a nod. 'I'm second astrogator on the Tradeline Starship Prosperity - with about a half-year of seniority.' Which makes her about as junior a lieutenant as it gets, not that it matters much here, where she's the only Tradeliner.

'I never stayed planetside more than a handful of days in a row since I signed my first spacer contract,' she says, sympathetically. 'They seem to be using steam power here; we'd have to spark an entire technological revolution just to break orbit. But it's not... bad here. There are worse places, yes? And if we fulfil our contracts, we'll make it back home.'

[not_a_traitor]

His small smile goes crooked at that. "Much worse," he agrees. "I'm, ah. Not actually sure how going back home will be an improvement over this, whenever it happens."

Earth is as dead as the Colonies. The Admiral has allied with their murderers. And Gaeta himself -- well. He doesn't envy how many strings the white-haired woman will have to pull not only to save his life, but make it one worth living.

(Sometimes, as he ponders his initial thought -- you would have to go so far back -- he thinks of standing on the patio of his childhood home, looking up at Picon's clear blue sky.)

He tries to cover with a deadpan joke: "But ask me again in six months when I'm trying to carve a working computer chip out of acorns and drawing blueprints for a steam-powered rocket."

[astrogator]

For Tayrey, once a suffering prisoner and now in temporary exile two whole universes away from where she wants to be, home has acquired a perfection it never had before. She misses everything. The most annoying people, the most tedious duties. She's certain she'll never complain about anything ever again if she can only get back to her ship.

She sees clear enough, however, the error she has made here, and she looks at him with sympathy, concern, and a little regret. Home wasn't kind to him, and yet he still made the deal, still chose life over death.

The words of comfort she has for him fade away as he makes that joke, because that's a clear signal. He doesn't want to discuss his pain with a stranger. She respects that, and forces a smile.

'I'll be right there with you. Someone's working on a telescope already, you know? Very brave and ambitious of him. But never mind a rocket, I'd settle for a proper laundry processor. Everything takes so much longer here!'

[not_a_traitor]

"Oh, gods, I know, right?" he groans, with a touch of melodrama and a tiny laugh. "Washing all my clothes by hand again, trying not to set anything on fire when I just want some extra light, no phones -- well, we've got those sending stones, I guess, but..."

But they're a little weird. He always feels ridiculous just, you know... talking into a rock.

"It's like -- " He breaks off, and a complicated flicker of emotion passes over his face as he realizes what he almost said: It's like I'm back on New Caprica. He changes course. "We're on a brand-new settlement in the middle of nowhere, with no auxiliary supply line."

[astrogator]

Oh, now Tayrey's smile is genuine. She grins at him, and reaches out to pat him on the arm, as if he were Lowell or Chernova back home. Solidarity. 'I hear you, Lieutenant. That's exactly what it's like, and we might be the only ones planetside to know it. Like that or... a slow-ship colony from centuries back, all alone and cut off by relativistic time dilation.' She shakes her head. 'I never wanted to be a pioneer colonist, and I'm fairly sure these days they bring the right technology and put themselves within reach of a trading line anyway.'

It feels good, talking to someone who understands, even if he's as out-of-sector to her as the rest of them. 'And those stones!' she exclaims. 'I don't trust anything I can't take apart and make sense of, or at least... read the manuals.'

[not_a_traitor]

The more Tayrey talks, the more Gaeta relaxes. He's thinking much the same: the vocabulary she uses may not be identical, nor is the technology she's talking about, but it's close enough to sound no worse than a different accent in Colonial Standard after days of hearing Old Gemenese. And gods, it's nice after getting so much polite bafflement from the locals (and almost all the non-locals, too).

"Yes!" he agrees, fervent. He even takes one hand off his crutches again to gesture emphatically. "I mean, clearly there are forces at play that either don't exist back home, or that they call magic here and we call something else, right? And I can accept what I'm seeing with my own eyes. I can accept if I talk into a rock, somehow, some way, it'll transmit that audio to another rock." He flings his arm as wide as he can without losing his balance, and he's starting to laugh with incredulity. "But how?!"

[astrogator]

'I can't understand why they don't question it!' she agrees readily. 'If someone back home found rocks that could transmit signals there would be teams of scientists all over trying to figure out how it worked and what it meant for our understanding of the universe. Even allowing for different natural laws here there's just... not that same curiosity. That spirit of inquiry wanting to know how and why. Just it's magic and no further.'

And that, in a nutshell, is why Tayrey detests the term. Not because she denies what she can see in front of her, but because she longs for an explanation that makes sense, even if it's built on different foundations from those she's used to.

'I'd prefer something simple but explicable. Radio. Even a signal light system.' She laughs. 'But if mysterious rocks are the worst we have to deal with, we're doing well, right? I am doing my best not to complain. Probability smiled on me, to bring me here.'

[not_a_traitor]

"Exceptionally well," he says. "The fact that I can get a cup of coffee alone, and booze that didn't come out of a jury-rigged engine still?"

Gaeta would say he'd died and gone to the Fields, except... he kind of literally did.

"But... probability smiled," he echoes, thoughtful. "I like that. Better than 'luck,' or 'the will of the gods.'"

[astrogator]

'I never came across any gods worth believing in,' says Tayrey. She hadn't. Only beings who thought their advantages made them superior, and she didn't have time for that. Unless she's agreed by contract to take orders from someone, she's treating them as her equal, strange powers or not. 'That smile's been a long time coming, probability gave me damn good kicking first, but at least it's not to blame.' The idea of some god choosing to ruin her life is exponentially worse.

She's trying not to think too much about how she died, and the hell she went through first, so she grabs hold of something else. 'You're telling me your ship didn't allow booze? I can't imagine the troubles the Tradelines would have with recruitment if they held to a policy like that. But I've got to say, the coffee here is awful. And I know, because they grew good coffee on one of the moons of my homeworld. I used to have it imported shipside.'

[not_a_traitor]

"Neither have I," he says, a twist of cynicism in his voice. "If the gods really are out there, they have a frakked-up sense of humor."

Four years of searching, four years of signs and portents that almost, almost made Gaeta think something more might be guiding them... and then, well. So much for that.

"But I'm glad probability eased up on you. On both of us," he adds. "It wasn't that we weren't allowed booze, it's just that we couldn't get any. No supplies except what we could make, or what we had on hand four years ago. The coffee I was drinking before this? It wasn't so much 'coffee' as 'water with some stims and burnt algae in it.' Anything's an improvement."

[astrogator]

She takes that in. Four years without access to normal resupply. It's hard for her to imagine how a ship could keep flying under those conditions, or how it could have happened in the first place. Catastrophic L-space astrogation error could do it, but that would be making far too many assumptions.

'I'm sorry,' she settles on. 'That must have been... I cant imagine how you ended up so far out, but it's to your credit, and your ship's, that you survived it, and you deserve all the booze and coffee you want now.' Tayrey chews on her lower lip. 'I'm aware,' she says carefully, 'that anything I have to say about provisioning you'll already be painfully conscious of, but I suspect some of the people here, at least, are complacent about it.' Some from the prison ship. The locals know enough about isolation and self-sufficiency that she's hoping they have better sense. 'I've already started building up private stores and I'd recommend doing the same.'

[not_a_traitor]

In the understatement of the millennia, Gaeta says, "It's... been rough, yeah."

She's right, though: they did survive. If only by the skin of their teeth, by the tips of their fingernails, by whatever other metaphor one can choose when a civilization finds itself living with nothing but what was in the air at the time of immense destruction. Still, survival is a binary trait. The particulars shouldn't matter as long as you're alive.

(Enduring those particulars is another matter entirely. Exhibit A: Gaeta himself.)

"Extra food stores aren't a bad idea," he murmurs. "I was never in charge of my own rationing -- " or his own cooking, for that matter, won't that be fun -- "so I'll have to figure that out once I've moved out of the inn." Vaguely, he gestures in the direction of the Oak & Iron. "Been taking them up on their hospitality until I figure out what I want to do around here. Have you decided?"

[astrogator]

'I'm working construction for now,' she answers, 'but only because I could take it up immediately, not too many questions asked. I didn't want to stay at the inn, and it's something to do while I find something better. I'm in talks with a couple of mercenary groups, see if I can make myself useful that way. There's not much call for piloting here, or... anything else I'm trained for, really.'

The words might be negative, but her attitude isn't, because she's fixedly determined to make the best of this situation. 'Provisioning, I know how to do. Had to do the calculations in training, how to resupply a ship of two hundred for travel along certain routes. Not an astrogator's job, but they like lieutenants to be versatile. I guess you have to be, to be command-qualified.' Something else she and the others had joked about: what kind of improbable catastrophe would leave a half-year lieutenant in command of a ship. They laughed, because taking it seriously would have made that improbable possibility seem all too real.

'A lot of it's common sense,' she continues, 'but it's something we could support each other with. If you wanted.' No pressure. She knows she shouldn't make the assumption that a man she's just met will want anything more to do with her just because they're both spacers. Still, it feels right to offer. 'What were your potential ideas for work?' she asks him, assuming he's thought about it at least a little.

[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta nods, thoughtful. "I'd like that," he says. "In theory, I know it's all common sense; in practice, I'm just..." A wry huff as he realizes what he's about to say. "Out of practice."

Gods bless the mess cooks for figuring out a hundred different ways to prep algae, including a few things that almost didn't taste like literal swamp water, but Gaeta is very glad that was never under his purview.

"Honestly? I'm not sure yet." There's a crooked tilt to his mouth now; a glance at the charts-in-progress on Tayrey's slate. "Kind of in the same situation as you. Serving on a battlestar was the culmination of a lot of very hard, very specialized work. I haven't done anything else for years, I think I'm done with military or law enforcement, and I can't do any physical labor in the meantime." He shrugs, awkward. "I don't know. Maybe someone's looking for an apprentice. Or one of the doctors will let me pass them a scalpel and a sewing needle during surgery. Either that, or I really will build that acorn computer and be the resident eccentric inventor in the woods."

By the last, he's almost managed to smile again. Almost.

[astrogator]

If Tayrey looks slightly dismayed, it's only because she believes he's selling himself short, and she doesn't want that for him. He, like her, strove for excellence for many years, and she doesn't want to see him pushed backward. 'You can do better than being someone's apprentice,' she says firmly. 'You're qualified.' Her only frame of reference for apprenticeships is the teenage trainee officers shipside, and she certainly thinks he's past that.

'You'd make amazing profits if you managed to pull this place up the technological scale, but in the meantime - what about finance? Administration? Or... I'd bet you'd make a fine draftsman. Plenty of work needs the attention to detail without so many physical demands. Not like they're going to require everyone to be capable of handling firearms and running damage control.' Not like they did on a Tradeline ship, no matter what your job was.

'We'll work it out,' she assures him. 'There's got to be something valuable for you here, and you'll find it.'

[not_a_traitor]

The idea of profit didn't even enter Gaeta's mind, and there's a blink of confusion when Tayrey brings it up. Cubits haven't been good for anything except Triad chips for years. There's no need for wealth; just something to keep his mind and his hands busy.

But the sentiment's appreciated -- more than appreciated, really -- and he finds himself brightening further. "We will," he agrees. "Draftsman; that might be fun, actually. I, uh -- " he chuckles, faintly self-deprecating, "I had a phase where I wanted to be an architect as a kid. Among about a hundred different phases, but that one managed to stick for longer than a month. Of course, I also thought the height of architectural genius was restaurants shaped like food, so my brilliant designs might not go over so well here."

(A pang, then, as he thinks of Gaius, smoking and drinking with him on his last night. How Gaius let him ramble for hours without interruption; how, despite everything, Gaeta felt more at peace than he'd felt in years.)

[astrogator]

Her eyes light up in amusement as he explains his fleeting childhood ambition. 'You know,' she tells him, 'on the central worlds out my way I bet they'd love restaurants shaped like food. Or on the commerce hubs where you've got visitors speaking so many different languages? It makes the main dish you're offering really clear. Of course, doing it properly and making it look good would be expensive, which is probably why they don't, but my point is the idea isn't terrible. You were a creative kid! I just wanted to be a Director like my dad, only I couldn't decide of what. Director without portfolio - but with plenty of shares,' she jokes.

'Then we both ended up spacers instead. Strange, how things work out.' A pause, as she considers what could have been, if not for Saratha Cordain and the fears she'd incited. If not for the Carringtons. If not for little Arilanna Kittredge's fears for her future.

No regrets. Not about that, at least. Joining the Tradelines was a good decision, badly executed. She tells Gaeta, with enthusiasm, 'I'll look out for any vacancies of an architectural nature. There's sure to be something.' She wants to help; she wants him to feel the pride in having a job to do, doing it well, and making a tidy profit.

[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta laughs then -- it's small, constrainend like so much else about him, but heartfelt. "I knew I just had to find the right audience," he says. "But yeah, the way I designed them, they probably would've fallen down as soon as they built the second floor. I was convinced an ice cream cone building would stand up fine, even though the foundation was ten feet square, tops. Good thing I learned basic physics pretty soon after."

Still -- what would his seven-year-old self think if he saw him now, exhausted and broken but talking about being an architect like it was a real, genuine possibility? It makes his heart ache, half longing and half wistfulness; it makes him say, "Yeah. Yeah, I bet there's something around. I'd -- really like that, if you find anything."

He glances to Tayrey's slate, then back to her face.

"Do you want to get a drink in the meantime?"

and wrap?

[astrogator]

Tayrey grins, envisioning this physics-defying building. 'You'd have to put your ice cream in a tub. Or in orbit. At least you had ideas! I remember my father asking me what I'd do to improve the Company and I suggested a market bridge. Literally an extra bridge between Towers, two hundred floors up, with market stalls along it. I think he expected me to have looked at the quarterly reports.' She shakes her head. She'd done her best for a kid with an age still in single digits who still saw the Company not as a business but as her home.

When he suggests getting a drink, she doesn't hesitate to agree. As much as Tayrey tells herself to be cautious around people, to curb her natural tendencies since she knows only too well that not everyone here respects contract, she can't help but want to trust Gaeta. He's a spacer lieutenant, that counts for something. They're both very far from their own people, far from home. He's easy to like.

'Sure, let me pack this up and we'll go! The tavern's not far from here.'

wrap! <3

[not_a_traitor]

"Great."

For a fleeting moment, his smile blossoms to a full-out grin. It aches, a little. He hasn't had much reason to grin like this in a while.

A new face alone is a novelty after years around the same group of people. Someone who talks a bit like they're from the Fleet, yet doesn't know anything about Gaeta, or the Cylons, or the fall of the Colonies -- it's almost like he stepped back in time four years. He isn't deluding himself. Tayrey's not from home. But gods, she's close, and they can just... talk, in a way he hasn't yet managed with anyone else around town.

Together, once Tayrey's packed up her things, they head over to the tavern.