no_fastolfe | 18 - Future history

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18 - Future history

[Necessarily generous friends filter: if you've had one non-hostile conversation with her, you're on it.]

I have graduated. [She still sounds kind of surprised about this, a little lost.]

In three days I will be leaving to visit some of my friends who have left the barge, and to return to my household on Aurora to implement what I have learned. In the meantime, I would like to see you again. Many of you have been important to me.

[It's stiff and formal, since she still doesn't know exactly how and what to say, how to convey how important her friends have been.]

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You'll be going then. Going home.

... but I will see you again. As I promised. [He's shoring himself up somewhat, especially after his conversation with Castiel, but sounds determined.]

Please come visit me in the garden?

Of course. I'm on my way.

[She arrives there at a brisk walk, with nose filters, without gloves. It may be the last time she sees most of these people and the risk of skin-to-skin contact is tolerable, considering her regimen of immunosupplements.]

[Dracula is in his gardening clothes, a deep blue dress shirt rolled to his elbows and black jeans tucked into his usual boots. His hair is loose and still a bit mussed, and his fingers are dirty.]

[He shifts around, holding in his hand a small pot in which is a low-growing plant with clusters of pink flowers.]

[She smiles, to see him looking so disheveled, a strangely casual side of him.]

Vladislaus.

[It is the first time she has not addressed him by a title. Though the formality is a sign of her respect for him, this is a sign of friendship.]

Vasilia. [A brief soft smile, and then he somewhat awkwardly motions with the little pot.]

These are...Alpine pinks. I cultivate a little patch of them. They bloom very early in spring. The original flower was given me by a close friend, and so I give a portion of its descendants to you.

Lovely. [She accepts them carefully] I'll make a place for them in my estate.

This-- I had no idea it would be so soon. As much as I've wished to leave this place.

Ah, excellent. Please accept my congratulations on your accomplishment.

It was not worth the harm you experienced, sir. I wish it had not come this way.

[He starts cleaning his hands carefully in a floor fountain near the entrance.] I won't lie...I'll miss you very much. But what I told you is true. I will find a way to visit. I will earn the ability.

I know you will. [There is a certainty in her voice, a spark of intensity.]

I ... there is the option to return to the barge. I must weigh my alternatives.

Doctor, you have my forgiveness, and my admiration for pulling such an accomplishment from the jaws of so horrid an experience. As for me, I have if nothing else a firm goal now. I will graduate and become a psychotherapist here. It is sometimes only in extremis that we truly find our best selves, and it seems we both have.

I believe that you could do a great deal of good here. You have already. In making peace with the T-X unit you did more than I could bring myself to. You kept me, then, from some very rash actions.

[He swallows and looks down.]

Take your time making the decision. There is no reason to be hasty. Either way I'll...see you again.

You will.

[She sighs] We both have our futures before us. I could have wished that we could be partners in research-- but neither of us can leave our timelines.

...Partners in research.

Of course.

[His smile becomes a bit ironic.]

Well, never say never. We are both very long lived, after all.

[Her own smile becomes a little pained.]

Were you a woman, count. Perhaps in more than research. I am sorry.

[An awkward dynamic, one poisonous to her for so long. Now only regrettable.]

Graduated? [Hmm. It's not really that surprising, he supposes; she didn't seem like the type to stay here all too long.]

[See her, though? It is quite apparent that the girls seems to see him as a friend far more than he sees her as one (also unsurprisingly, considering that he never sees people like that when they aren't Omega ~~except for the Doctor and Narvin and Atia and maybe Rose a little bit~~) but.... Hmm. A bit of companionship surely wouldn't be remiss. He is, after all, quite the social creature, even if he has taken to isolation recently.]

When shall I come?

[An acquaintance more than a friend, really, but she has so few of those that she isn't going to quibble.]

I can come to you if convenient, or we could meet at the deck. However, I know that you are one less likely to be affected by my absence than others on the filter; if you lack the inclination, a simple goodbye over the Network can suffice.

[She's not unaware of her own lack of significance to him, as much as she has in times past enjoyed his company.]

[He pauses, taken aback by her awareness regarding their relationship. Still...]

I see no issue with a meeting on the deck if you wish for one; your company has been enjoyable.

[For a human especially. And the people he has pleasant conversations with are so few and have quite the tendency to leave.]

{{OOC: I managed to catch a cold ten days after I had the last one so I might be pretty slow. If you'd rather assume their meeting, I have no problem with that.}}

I would say I preferred to say goodbye. You were one of my first acquaintances here, and that has not been unimportant to me.

[I'm good with slow-time]

...oh.

Well, that just figures.

Worry not about it. Your friendship satisfies me well enough.

I love as I can. [Said without guilt, but with some regret.]

Once I would have denied the word even applied to my feelings. But if a robot can find meaning in the word then I must admit some variant to myself.

[She shifts the pot of flowers into one arm to reach for his hand.]

Your friendship has been defining. I would have you in my circles only for that, but it seems even more selfish than ambitions of research.

Then by all means, be a little selfish. [He clasps her hand very gently.]

You hardly need tell a Spacer! [She squeezes tightly.]

Come, Count; you must tell me how to care for this plant. It will be on a strange planet, after all.

Ehm...well...it requires full sunlight and is used to stony soil, so it prefers a great deal of drainage. The blooming time is brief on a normal world, but it grows very well if tended.

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18 - Future history

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