Reminiscing about old times | Radley, KH Seph, 4_lumps_of_thread

[crystalmaster]

Radley was nervous but kind of excited. Finally, things had settled down enough that Sephiroth was bringing some friends of his from Lark's home world. Radley had wanted to talk to them ever since Sephiroth had told him about them, but things always seemed to get in the way. At last it was happening and he was pacing, waiting for them to appear.

Sephiroth had never met Lark; she had been sent home right before Sephiroth had arrived in that world. Radley often thought of her and wondered how she was doing. Being able to meet people who knew her from her home was more than a little exciting. He hoped they would like what he could tell them about her.

Finally a portal opened in the apartment living room. He came to attention. "Hi," he greeted with an easy-going smile. He would not show nervousness.

Comments

[crystalmaster]

"Huh. That's a new one."

He laughed at the crack and headed back to the living room. "Here it is," he said grandly, setting it on the table near the furniture. "Dig in."

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Briar set down the other tray.

"Tris, come eat," Daja said. "And stop whatever it is you are doing that is making our heads hurt."

"I'm just looking," Tris said, her spectacles now in her hand rather than on her nose. "The spell structure is fascinating."

Daja groaned.

"She'll be fine," Sandry said, comfortingly.

"Sure, she will, but what about the rest of us?" Daja asked, shaking her head before helping herself to a sandwhich. "Thank you," she said, to their host.

[crystalmaster]

"Sure," Radley smiled.

Sephiroth looked pleased by Tris's interest. "Thank you," he said. "It is quite fascinating."

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"You will explain the theory behind it, of course," Tris said.

"As a heads up, that's Tris' way of asking nicely," Briar said.

"As opposed to what she just said to the rest of us," Daja said, amused.

Sandry smiled at Radley. "We were told you are a friend of our teacher, Lark's?"

[crystalmaster]

"Yes, I will," Sephiroth said. "But not now."

Radley nodded. "She was on this planet, Agra-10, when I showed up," he said. "These aliens were bringing people from all over the place to try to help them fix their planet. We had a pretty wild time when a loco storm made people's magic go berserk, but I was still glad to meet her and we ended up talking a lot before she was sent home a couple of years later. Time was supposed to stand still back home while we were there, so I'm guessing she went back to right when she left. She probably doesn't even remember me or anything that happened. Only the people who were there at the end were given a way to remember everything."

On the Network, he had originally said he did not remember how things had turned out, but that had been more of a hedge at that point, still hurting from everything and not really wanting to discuss the ending.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"I am not certain I followed all of those words at the beginning," Sandry said, apologetically. "But I cannot imagine Lark forgetting someone she cared so much about."

[crystalmaster]

"It sounds pretty nuts, I know," Radley said with an apologetic laugh. "You know, we still don't know how the aliens summoned people? It was some kinda tech, not magic, but that's about all we're sure of. We don't really get why people would forget either. Something to do with being sent back right to the point in time they left, I guess."

And a pause. "Did she have a dog?"

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Briar made a rude sound. "Did she? Rosethorn kept making it clear that Littlebear was our dog."

"Our responsibility, at least," Daja said with a chuckle.

"I don't understand what you mean by Aliens...?" Sandry asked.

[crystalmaster]

"Well, I don't know. He seemed like her dog when he showed up there. Did she have him before she met you guys?"

And a wince. Oh boy. The one thing most difficult to explain without maybe sounding offensive, considering the current circumstances.

"Uh ... well, back home, 'aliens' would be what we'd call anybody from another planet. That ... really doesn't work so well here, though, when we're all from other planets. But so ... yeah, they're beings on another world who were sending for people from even more worlds. Like the situation we've got here, only different since us being brought here was an accident."

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Tris made a rude noise, still fixated on thoughts of the portal. But she heard that much.

"Oh no," Briar said. "Sandry here got all up on her nobleness when she found some kids hurting this puppy, and what dragged in one of us eventually got us all. Daja only really cared about her of all of us then."

"She was and still is my saati. A sister of my choice," Daja explained. "I saw her getting into it, she was weaponless and outnumbered. She'd saved me once, I had a staff and training to use it. Nobels generally don't learn to fight, so I stepped in to help."

Briar nodded. "Then I hear about a scrap up. Kids I was with wanted to help the boys, but.." he shrugged. "They're my mates. So I had to help. It was a proper scrap, and my first since back where I came up, but then Copper curls got involved. Copper curls, you wanna..."

"No," Tris said flatly.

Sandry gave a small smile. "Tris was trying to bring up a wave of water to splash us all to cool us all down, but someone rushing to the fight knocked into her, spinning her."

"Which spun the water spout," Daja said, shaking her head.

"We were all kids ourselves, and new to our magic and stuff," Briar said, shrugging. "If I recall it was Lark who undid the water spout."

Sandry nodded. "It was so impressive, just quietly doing what needed to be done."

"We tried to get out of there," Briar said, "but the soft kids went whining to their mas, and they came after us. till they all found out Sandry isn't just a bag, but a noble. You shoulda seen how fast the adults turned and took away their complaints."

Sandry sighed. "I would have rather resolved things without Uncle's help, but..." she shrugged. "Anyway, we took the dog home and Rosethorn gave us medicines for him, and we raised him."

Briar nodded. "When we went our separate ways for a while, Littlebear went with Coppercurls. Now he lives at Discipline with the new students."

[crystalmaster]

"You guys really had a time of it," he said. He smiled a bit to think of Lark coming to fix the problem with the spout. That sounded like her. "I wonder why Littlebear ended up being brought there for Lark then.... I guess the Agrii didn't really pay attention to ownership and just brought him because he was from her world...."

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"That sounds like it was while we were with her probably," Sandry said, distressed. "How did we never notice she was missing?"

[3wingedangel]

“People are returned to the exact point they left,” Sephiroth said. “For those at home, no time has passed.”

Radley nodded. “I know that’s trippy and weird, but that’s how it was for us too.”

“I regret I did not know Lark,” Sephiroth said. “She was sent home right before I arrived.”