palette knife | Glowfic Constellation

It's always nice, trading at the Cumaean Canal. She spends the morning sipping coffee in town while she catches up on surface gossip. She collects various bits of intelligence about who's up to what. She keeps in touch with a few friends.

And then around midday a surface barge makes it through the canal. A Tanned Merchant that she's made an ongoing arrangement with brings a hold full of surface produce, and she has a matching load of darkdrop coffee beans for him. She and her crew haul pallets of beans up from the hold of the Heart's Handbasket, her ship, and wait at the staging area as the Merchant's deckhands unload their cargo as well. She walks up, apocyan and irrigo streaks bouncing gently in her currently peligin curls, and clasps his wrist with quiet smile.

"Pleasure doing business with you as always."

He grins, leathery fingers wrapping around her wiry wrist in turn. "Likewise, carissima. You and yours have been well?"

"As ever," she replies with a smirk. "My ship is one of a kind, and we keep each other safe." She snugs a living wooden sculpture of a woman into her side.

"Good, good. Perhaps one day you two will finally come have a drink with me in Naples."

She shakes her head with a chuckle, dark feathered wings spreading briefly behind her. "And perhaps one day you'll remember that the sunlight won't be as kind to us as it is to you, and instead come down here early enough to get lunch with us."

He laughs, and they exchange various bits of news. The various crews start transferring pallets while the two captains finish their chat. No one notices two stacks of mirrorcatch boxes being exchanged, tucked away among the lettuce and the coffee.

When the conversation wraps up, both captains and the wooden beauty start hauling pallets as well. The job is done soon enough, both holds full once more. The boxes disappear into a hidden compartment, lost beneath pallets of fruit and vegetables.

And then she dismisses her crew for the rest of the day, and resumes chatting and hearing people's stories.

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weather-every-storm

Maya snuggles her delightedly and keeps petting.

rogue-with-a-cause

"Awwwwww!"

weather-every-storm

"Taking care of people we like is one of our absolute favorite things."

Blush blush blush.

"Why aren't there more, then? Am I your first stowaway?"

rogue-with-a-cause

"First we really wanted to keep," comes Sable's answer as she makes lunch, "and the first who wanted to be kept."

"Who didn't want to be kept?"

rogue-with-a-cause

She takes a slow breath, hair burning apocyan and gant and violant and viric with memory and regret and unforgettable costs and surreality, then sets two enormous sandwiches down on the table, one for herself and one for Anselma — they're gorgeous, too, sliced beef, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, mustard, all on sourdough buns.

Sable sits down across from Anselma, a sad smile on her face, tears running down her cheeks. "The ones too hurt to ever trust again. The ones who're in too deep and think they have to hurt others now or they'll keep getting hurt. The ones who've been been chewed up by the simple human horrors of the world and figure any kindness must be a threat. The ones who don't know how to stop running and fighting, anymore, because they never had a break and so it broke them instead."

She takes a bite of her sandwich, face still tear-streaked, and sighs sadly.

Oh no. Hugs.

"I don't...know how anyone could not trust you. I thought I was too hurt to trust, but then I wouldn't've believed someone like you could exist if I hadn't seen it."

rogue-with-a-cause

Hugs! Hugs and tears and bright, lopsided smiles. And good food.

weather-every-storm

So much hug.

"Our Captain really is something special. Love you, Sable."

rogue-with-a-cause

"Love you too, Maya." She sighs warmly and snuggles both girls.

"So...you two are...a thing...and you, Maya, do not object to Sable wanting to kiss me."

weather-every-storm

"We are a couple, yes. And no, I do not object to Sable wanting to kiss you. For that matter, I am also interested in kissing you. Affection is not subject to scarcity or conservation laws. Love has no need to abide rules about only loving one person at a time. We dislike the idea of obligation, or jealousy, or restriction. You can date neither of us, or one of us, or both of us. You can start with one and then try dating two, or you can dive head-first into both at once. This area of relationship types is called polyamory, and the only rules are that we put in the effort to communicate honestly and that we all value each other's happiness."

"There is so much stuff I've never even heard of."

weather-every-storm

"We're quite glad to take our time and teach you what we know and learn the rest together. It's okay not to know these things yet. It's certainly not your fault."

"I don't feel guilty, I feel annoyed. I want to know the things!"

rogue-with-a-cause

Sable cackles. "Damn right you do. The world has never been good at keeping secrets from me, Anselma, and it's not about to suddenly get good at it now. And if you're sticking with us, then I'm damn well going to share all that learning with you as we go."

She gives a mad grin, tearstreaks still drying on her face. "Where's the fun in stealing all the world's secrets if you don't get to share 'em with people you like?"

She gives her a look of wide-eyed awe, then her face shifts to something more thoughtful.

rogue-with-a-cause

"What's on your mind, cutie?"

"--Well, I'm pretty sure I want to kiss you, but since you were freaking out about it earlier I want to be really sure."

rogue-with-a-cause

rogue-with-a-cause

Well, after a moment of shock, how about Sable just blushes vividly and (poorly) hides her enormous grin by eating more of her sandwhich?

...Oh no, cute.

rogue-with-a-cause

Sable's had to cope with Anselma being unfairly cute all day. It looks like unfair cuteness is just something this ship and crew will need to learn to cope with.

weather-every-storm