The Estate, Sidra, Glacia, Saturday Evening (Fandom Time)

[trigons_child]

With all the time differences between Fandom and Glacia, not to mention time spent in other worlds, keeping track of just what day it was could just be asking for a headache. So Raven was very much surprised when one of the staff told her she had visitors, and even more surprised when she went outside and found the wagon and its occupants waiting for her, bearing birthday gifts.

Much later, after making certain that all her visitors had full stomachs and a place to spend the night, Raven retreated to one of the Estate's sitting rooms, Philia curled at her feet. She clutched some of her presents to her chest as she read and re-read the letters from the children. She wasn't crying. The sitting room was just dusty, that was all.

[Open for those in Glacia or text/phone calls, but it's late, so SP will be in effect!]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono nodded, and then closed his eyes and leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers.

//I'm sure there'll be plenty that come to mind,// he admitted. //Mostly 'what-ifs,' I'm sure. I'm excellent at coming up with worst-case scenarios, unfortunately. I'll try to tamp a few of those down.//

Try.

[trigons_child]

Raven sent him the sensation of a gentle kiss as she leaned against him.

"And I am an expert at seeing the bright side," she said. Well, usually. "So I will counter any unpleasant thing you might think of."

Jono being Jono, of course, that was going to be a challenge.

[furnaceface]

//You've got your work cut out for you,// he murmured, returning that feeling with a gentle kiss of his own, //but I suppose you have plenty of experience with all of my chattering little brainbeasts.//

He paused for a moment, and then tilted his head a bit.

//If... you don't mind my asking, what brought this on?//

[trigons_child]

Raven shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I am not certain," she said. "I have imagined what it would be like to be a mother, particularly after times in Fandom when those impossible children appear. Perhaps it is all the time I have spent in the orphanages as of late. Or...just seeing Karla prepare for her own child. It has awakened a longing inside me."

Sparked by no small amount of Envy.

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded a little bit. He could understand that, well enough. He and envy went way back, after all.

//I think about it, you know,// he ventured. //Of, when I'm a little more stable on my own two feet again, not just very good at pretending I am, maybe adopting one or two of the children from one of the orphanages we're familiar with. Hell... almost brought home a little girl from Rapture, once, who was already thinking of me as her daddy...//

She'd gone home with Grace, and that was probably for the best. A forced telepathic connection between Lou and himself had been a blessing, of sorts, in the moment, but he would've worried about what it meant in the long run.

//And then there's Karla and Warren's girl.// He gave another wry little smile. //She thinks of you as The Kindness. It's fairly apt, I'd say.//

[trigons_child]

"She does, does she?" Raven said, smiling. "I like the sound of that." She'd touched the child empathically during her many checks to make certain everything was well, but she'd never had a conversation with her other than whispers of emotion, and she envied Jono for that.

"I have considered adoption as well," she said, a wistful look coming over her face as she thought about the many children she'd helped, and of the surprise they'd sent her today. "And I expect I will do so once I can arrange suitable quarters in which to care for a family instead of just myself and Philia. But I also wish a child of my own body."

Her expression turned a little more serious. "What do you mean, pretending to be more stable?" she asked. She wasn't sure if that was usual Jono-ness or something else.

And Jono-ness was totally a word.

[furnaceface]

Jono-ness was a perfectly apt word, that summed it up very well to anybody who had ever met Jono, absolutely!

//Heh... it shouldn't be that much of a surprise,// he murmured. //I'm doing better. Even in the last year, I'm doing better. There's no doubt about that. But I've got leaps and bounds to go before I'd consider myself okay.//