#also delayed posted so i'm not completely clogging up tags

[conditionaljewel]

An Aria for Imogen - Chapter 2

(Chapter 1)

About a month passed since Imogen and Laudna welcomed baby Aria into the world. Born with misty purple eyes and already showing signs of having similarly colored hair, Aria had been nothing but a blessing for the Temults ever since she arrived. With the nursery prepared for her arrival, and Pate on his best behavior, the first handful of weeks went by like a breeze.

That is not to say that it did not have it’s troubles. While parenthood was a new concept to both of them of course, childbirth did have its impact on Imogen, and left her feeling quite weak for a handful of days thereafter. Laudna did her best to care for Imogen and the baby all at once, and even had the help of Fearne for a few days, after she got antsy and wanted to come meet the baby and shower all of them with gifts. The girls had graciously accepted and welcomed her into their home, and Fearne took to Aria quite quickly, allowing Laudna to help Imogen get back to her full strength.

Ever since the night Imogen had opened her mind and heard Aria’s thoughts for the first time, she had decided she was going to treat her just like she would any other person — by blocking them out, but only once they became coherent. During those first few days and weeks of having Aria, Imogen had taken off her Circlet and allowed her mind to remain open while Aria was feeding. For the first time, Imogen was hearing Laudna’s melodic harmony from wherever she was in the house in conjunction with their daughter’s beautiful, albeit simple vocalizations. There was no words, no ideas or phrases, not even imagery to go off of at first; just an out-of-pitch song of noises that did sound displeasing.

After Imogen and Laudna had discussed the matter, they had agreed that only while Aria was a baby and toddler, and until she could better understand the world and communicate her needs clearly, would Imogen open her mind to Aria’s thoughts. Only if she absolutely needed to — in case of emergency, essentially. These first few months were different, they had reasoned with one another, because while they acknowledged Aria is her own person, judging by these first few days of exploration, she wasn’t yet able to formulate a coherent thought, and so there was not much to grasp onto. Imogen didn’t view it as if she were invading her privacy, which is how she often felt when she would hear others’ thoughts before she discovered the Circlet, and before she learned to control her innate abilities.

As it were, Imogen’s powers had its benefits in helping to raise a baby, as Imogen was able to pick up insight into moments when Aria was crying or being particularly fussy. They both knew that a day would come when Imogen may finally hear something that she didn’t want to, or need to, but until then, and just in Aria’s best interests, she would only listen in when it was absolutely called for, and only until Aria could communicate on her own.

In a matter of just two short weeks, Imogen fully recovered and was back on her feet to her typical extent. They began to welcome a rotation of guests through their door in small groups purely out of happenstance. Fearne stopped by a few more times, including once with Ashton, FCG and FRIDA all in one visit. Chetney and Deanna also made time to travel from Uthodurn to the Heartmoor to meet Aria, with Deanna gifting her a beautiful woven blanket. The border coloring nearly matched Aria’s eyes, and the decorative portrait that had been woven into it featured Pate holding hands with Sashimi in front of their home. Laudna absolutely adored it and thanked Deanna up and down for days for it.

The last visitors, and the most awaited visit as a result, were Orym and Dorian. They had planned it for weeks in advance, because it would be Dorian’s first trip to the Heartmoor, having been unable to join the Bell’s Hells on their first journey here those few years prior. Orym had visited the girls here several times before the baby was born, like most everyone else had been able to in between their everyday lives, but Dorian had become quite busy back home that for a period of time, he found himself unable to leave the Silken Squall if for no other reason than he had simply missed it all that time while he was away.

But now, time finally afforded both men the opportunity and the occasion to make their first joint trip to the girls’ home. With that mindset, Imogen communicated with Orym several times a day discussing plans for their stay. They wouldn’t be able to stay long, so they had decided on two nights in town given the rest of the boys’ itinerary and plans around the region. Orym insisted that he and Dorian would stay at an inn, not wanting to impose on the new moms or the baby, even despite Imogen and Laudna’s insistence that they wouldn’t be imposing and that they had the space.

It was moot, however, as Orym and Dorian’s first stop in town was the Sodden Grange Inn to find a room and put their things down. They didn’t linger there for long, wanting to arrive at the Temults’ home before night began to fall, and it was already well past midday. They paid up their coin for the room for two nights, scampered up to their modestly prepared corner suite, and quickly freshened themselves up from their long journey to best look presentable for their friends.

Meanwhile, across town at the Temult homestead, Imogen and Laudna were separately preparing for their expected guests. Aria was sound asleep in a bassinet just off to the side between the dining room and kitchen, which is where Imogen currently was. She hummed to herself, milling to and fro about the kitchen collecting spices and other ingredients for their evening’s meal. As she traipsed through the space on light and airy feet as she danced to her little song, her path carried her around to the back of the kitchen where a large bay window looked out over the garden. She stopped in place there and peered through the windowpane to see Laudna crouched low in one of the beds of soil plucking a few fresh tomatoes off their vine.

The light was fading as the late midday sky started to transition to night, but from her vantage point Imogen could still see pretty clearly. It quickly became obvious to her that Laudna’s bushel was nearly full of tomatoes and other vegetables that she’d plucked. Imogen watched as Laudna reached for and took one last tomato from its vine, only for one of the tomatoes that had already been placed in the bushel to fall onto the ground. Laudna was quick to pick it up in the same hand that held the freshly cultivated one, and brushed the dirt off before she put them into the bushel, both now perched precariously on the edge and tempting the fates to fall once more.

Laudna stood from her crouched position in the tomato bed, carefully now as she didn’t want any more of her produce to fall and hit the ground. She used her free arm to cautiously hold everything in place in the bushel as she rose, ensuring their safety thus far. She caught Imogen’s gaze in the window looking out at her as she turned, and flashed her a smile. Before taking another step, and sensing the gathered goods were secure, Laudna reached down with her free hand and grabbed the hem of her skirt. She bunched up a fistful into her hand and pulled it up, exposing her long, ghostly white, rail-thin legs to the cool night air. She started to step carefully through the soil bedding trying to avoid stepping on anything still growing, taking little steps one by one.

Imogen watched as her raven-haired belle daintily tip-toed through the maze of the bed, Laudna’s bare feet sinking into the fresh soil and loam of their garden, allowing her to feel the dirt between her toes for a second. As Laudna neared the edge, still holding the bushel close to her with her forearm, she began to playfully hop from foot to foot through the rest of the garden; like a ballet dancer leaping across the stage during a performance, the bits of Laudna’s skirt that were free flowed behind her as she leapt, taking the shape of her leg as it rode up in her stride for the last two steps of her exit. A completely unnecessary show when she was already so close to the grassy edge, but she couldn’t resist the urge to have a a little fun.

Laudna landed gracefully outside the bounds of the garden patch, and dropped her skirt back to the ground. Imogen grinned as she rose her hands and gave a small round of applause as Laudna began to trek back toward the backdoor of the homestead. Imogen turned on her heel and walked through the house in the same direction as Laudna toward the back door.

As Laudna entered the house, brushing her feet off on the rug laying just inside the doorway, Imogen met her to collect the gathered goods from her arms. Having closed the distance and seeing her in the light now, Imogen let out a little giggle as she saw dirt tracked all over Laudna’s forehead and cheeks. “How in the Gods’ names…” she said in a playful exasperation as she licked her thumb and placed it up to Laudna’s forehead, wiping the dirt clean. “You’re like a child, I swear,” she said as Laudna laughed unashamedly while Imogen made her best attempt at grooming her.

“You act like I’m caked in mud, darling,” Laudna said as she raised the bushel up a little higher in an effort to get Imogen to turn her focus elsewhere. “It’s just a bit of dirt, though I do love your touch, always.”

Imogen trailed her hand down Laudna’s cheek and across her lips, Laudna giving her a soft kiss as expected. In the same motion, Imogen reached up from underneath with her other hand and braced the bushel from under Laudna, and began to gather it in her grasp.

“Go wash up, darlin’,” Imogen said while Laudna relinquished her hold on the bushel, slipping her arm out from its handle as she felt Imogen’s arm sliding in opposite hers. In doing so, Imogen stood up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Laudna’s cheek. “Go on,” she added.

Laudna gave Imogen a light tap on her butt as Imogen turned away to return to the kitchen and started to rinse the produce that Laudna had retrieved. While Imogen did that, Laudna followed her as far as their path would allow until deviating toward the hallway and down to the washroom. There she took a few minutes to clean herself up, even taking a moment to touch up her makeup for dinner.

Meanwhile, Imogen removed the vegetables from their bushel and started to wash them off as she counted just what Laudna had brought back. She had only needed two tomatoes and “however-many carrots” Laudna could carry. For the latter, Imogen could not fault Laudna for what she had returned, as carrots are forever troublesome; there were six carrots in all that Laudna had pulled, and while four of them were about as long as Imogen’s arm, none of the four were thicker than the size of a copper piece. The remaining two were of acceptable thickness, but quite short in length and were not nearly long enough to be of use.

“There’s a metaphor in here somewhere,” she sighed as she chopped up the longest two, judging them to be the best since she were planning to dice the carrots for their stew.

The tomatoes, meanwhile, is where Laudna got a bit carried away. Somehow, “two” had turned into “twelve,” and now Imogen had a dozen perfectly ripe tomatoes on her counter. One by one she rinsed them of their dirt, minding the one that Laudna had dropped that now presented with the softest of bruises.

“I said ‘two’, how’d she get ‘twelve’ from that…” Imogen wondered. “Did she not hear me right?” Imogen shrugged and continued to rinse off the collection of crops.

Just as she placed the last tomato down beside its counterparts, Imogen dried her hands off with a cloth towel that was hung off the doorknob of a low cabinet. Completing wringing her hand dry in the red and white striped strip of cloth, Imogen heard the raspy, thick accented voice of Pate call out from the corner of the room. “Imogen~! The baby is up!”

She turned and saw Pate bouncing up and down gently on the mobile that was attached to the bassinet where Aria had been sleeping. Well, he was less bouncing, and more flying in place as he clung to the mobile as it was now oscillating vertically from his hovering. Imogen placed the towel down on the counter and walked over to where the bassinet sat in the corner of the room, where the kitchen meets the dining area, to find a cooing and squirming Aria having aroused from her nap.

“Well hello, little darlin’,” Imogen said with the brightest smile and biggest eyes as she looked down on her bundle of joy. Aria squirmed in place, her hands and feet covered in the little mitts of her onesie that had been gifted to her from Orym’s mother on one of his previous trips ahead of her birth. She cooed as Imogen reached down and picked her up, cradling her in her arms and giving her a kiss on her forehead.

As Imogen began to walk away back toward the counter, she heard Pate cry out “What, no thank you’s for Pate?” Imogen sighed and dropped her head before giving an understanding chuckle, a small grin growing on her face.

“You’re right, I’m sorry Pate,” she said as she turned around and walked back over to Pate. “Thank you for letting me know, you’re a very good baby sitter.” Pate straightened his composure as Imogen reached out and pat him on the head while she gave him his requested praise. He beamed with joy.

“Pate, we have talked about this,” a voice came from around the corner. Laudna had emerged back into the kitchen, herself wringing her hands dry on a separate cloth towel that she had brought from the washroom with her. She had changed outfits and was now dressed in a very elegant but simple black and purple dress with lacy patterning made out to look like tree branches and blooming leaves. There was also embroidery around the neckline of purple flowers, and she wore black shoes with a little lift on the heel that had similar looking purple flowers on their face to match the neckline. “We do nice things not because we want to praise, but…”

Pate sighed and joined Laudna, as well as Imogen who chimed in at the end, “but because it is what’s right.” Laudna stood beside Imogen as they all finished speaking in unison, now acknowledging that she was holding a bright-eyed Aria.

“You’re right,” Pate continued on his own, before looking over at Imogen, as she began passing Aria off to Laudna. “I’m sorry.”

Imogen cracked another smile and pat him once more. “You’re a good boy Pate, don’t worry.” She gave him a wink, and returned to the counter to finish preparations of the vegetables for the stew.

Laudna now held Aria in her arms in the middle of the kitchen. Pate settled down into the bassinet, taking up the space that Aria had previously been laying in, curling himself up and taking little snooze of his own. As Imogen diced and sliced away at the last of the tomatoes she needed for dinner, Laudna began to bounce on her feet in place as she began to sing a little song to Aria, who was now firmly grasping a fistful of Laudna’s hair. Laudna played with Aria with her free hand as she sang,

The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout Down came the rain and washed the spider out Up came the sun and dried up all the rain And the itsy-bitsy spider went up the spout again

Laudna lightly tickled Aria’s tummy, walking her fingers up her little torso to her chin in tune with the song, and presenting the tiniest bop on the nose when she arrived on “again,” eliciting a joyful laugh from Aria. She yanked at Laudna’s hair, prompting Laudna to whimper the quietest, most patient “ow” as Aria pulled once, twice more. It was less that it actually hurt, but more that Laudna was worried Aria might pull her hair out with something more, and didn’t want to startle her. Laudna delicately tried to get the baby to loosen her grip or at least give some slack on the strands she held, but Aria was unyielding in her grip and refused to relinquish any footing. She was locked in for now.

Imogen put down the last of the tomatoes into the stew, having decided to not let them go to waste by adding a third to the pot instead of the two as intended, and gave it a big stir with everything now in the melting pot. “There we go,” she said as she put the lid atop it’s opening and put another piece of kindling in the wood burner. Laudna turned around, directing both hers and Aria’s attention to Imogen as she cleaned her hands and the counter of her mess. “The stew should be ready in about an hour or two, I think. I need to go finish getting myself ready, though” Imogen declared as she dried her hands once more and met her two favorites in the middle of the kitchen.

“I’ve got our little dearie,” Laudna said as she tickled Aria again, prompting another coo as Imogen moved in to steal a kiss. She gave Aria a few playful nibbles on her cheek, making her laugh out in delight, Laudna beaming from ear to ear.

“I’ll be right back,” Imogen said as she peered up onto her tiptoes to kiss Laudna’s cheek one more time before bounding down the hall. She untied the apron that adorned her body and tossed it over a chair as she exited the kitchen, only for it to fall off the chair and slip to the floor.

Laudna shook her head at this, before she turned her attention back to Aria, saying “come on you, time to get you dressed to meet your uncles” as she proceeded down the hall toward the stairs, heading up to the nursery to get Aria changed.

In the downstairs washroom, Imogen splashed some cool water onto her face and arms and proceeded to take a few minutes to herself to freshen up and unwind. She looked herself in the mirror before closing her eyes, as she opened her mind up and proceeded to listen in on Laudna and Aria, having heard them move upstairs.

From here, as she took a moment in this private space to herself and listened in on her wife and their child, the symphony that was playing in her mind were comparable to that of the symphony that they’d heard a few months ago when they were vacationing in Yios. The strings, the woodwinds, the percussion, the range and tones and overall sound of the vocals, all of it coming together at once; Imogen thought it was the most beautiful music she had ever heard in the world, and she recalled making such remarks to Laudna that night as they returned to their inn that night.

What Imogen could hear now beat that performance. Hearing her beautifully scary wife’s hauntingly beautiful mind presenting such a sweet melodic symphony in unison with the voice and range of their daughter’s mind, their radiantly sweet and joyful daughter, overwhelmed Imogen and brought her to tears. She recalled that night a few months ago that she’d first heard Aria’s mind, before she was born, and how she was moved to tears then. This just intensified them.

Imogen sat and listened just for a moment as Laudna continued to get Aria dressed upstairs. She hummed to herself a little tune, unbeknownst to her the same melody that Imogen was currently hearing, as she slid a fresh onesie on Aria. This one a soft creme white color with little pink dots and bigger purple dots all across it. Aria didn’t fuss much for Laudna tonight, cooperating largely for the most part as they completed this complex ritual they’d come to be very familiar with.

Laudna began to put the finishing touches on Aria’s outfit, adorning her head with a little bow headband, and giving her a little kiss on the nose after she was done. “You stay there for just a second,” Laudna said to her as if Aria were about to suddenly hop up and walk away. Laudna kept an eye on her as she spun out of Aria’s sight, cleaning up the mess the was made. She put the soiled clothes into a hamper in the corner, and put away the lingering effects of baby care. Once everything had been cleared, Laudna pulled a black and purple harness sling out from the top-most drawer of the chest that Chetney had built for them, and began to put it on over her head and shoulders.

Aria was familiar with this sling, having been placed in it many a time by Laudna when the three of them go for their little strolls throughout the neighborhood. Aria had come to recognize it a little bit, seeming to understand where she was about to be put when it came out, but there wouldn’t be any walk tonight. “No no, tonight it’s just for cuddling,” Laudna said as she picked Aria up and began to insert her in between the sling’s support band and her own chest. After just a few seconds of scooting Aria into place one leg at a time, situating her against the framework of Laudna’s chest comfortably, she craned her head down and kissed Aria once more on the crown of her head before she left the bedroom and headed back downstairs.

Just as she reached the base of the stairs, she turned the corner to see Imogen emerging from the washroom, patting her face dry and slinging the towel over her shoulder. “Oh!” She exclaimed as she spotted Laudna and Aria coming toward her, before sighing of relief and giving a smile.

Laudna closed the distance as Imogen moved to do the same, walking toward but then past her before turning the corner to go upstairs. “Wait, where are you going,” Laudna asked as Imogen began to ascend the staircase.

She bent over the railing of the stairs and kissed Laudna on the forehead. “I need to change after all, I’ll be right back,” she said as she finished rushing up the stairs. Laudna heard her footsteps scamper quickly down the hall and into their bedroom, the door closing behind her.

In their bedroom, Imogen quickly changed out of the dress she had been cooking and cleaning in all day, grabbing the hem and pulling it up over her torso and slipping her head through and out its hole, tossing it to the floor in the corner. She had completely missed the dirty clothes bin she was aiming for by about a foot. She further hurried over to the closet and opened the doors, and began to rifle through the wardrobe’s options until her eyes landed on what she was looking for. She smirked and grabbed it, along with a pair of shoes that were laying on the ground just below that, and made haste getting dressed.

Knock knock knock. “Hello, Temults?”

Laudna heard the rapping at the door following by the calling from Orym a moment later as she was sat in the lounge, watching the fireplace. Their knocking having called Laudna to attention, breaking her out of the trance that watching the flames dance across the logs had put her in, she called out to those behind the door, “one moment!”

Laudna rose to her feet, holding Aria close to her still wrapped in her sling, and swished and swayed around the furniture that dotted the lounge, crossing through the threshold that separated the room from the entryway. Laudna craned her body up the staircase, propelled by one foot off the ground as she lurched around the banister and shouted politely, “Oh Imogen~, they’re here darling.” She said dropped back to the ground as she round in place and took the handful of steps toward the door.

Just as Orym and Dorian had stepped across the threshold and Laudna was closing the door, Imogen exited the bedroom and made for the staircase. The three of them below were in the middle of exchanging pleasantries when the sound of block heels knocking on wood interrupted their greetings, as Imogen began to descended the stairs. She had indeed changed as she told Laudna she going to, and was now wearing a beautiful soft violet dress that fell to just above her ankle, with a pair of black sandal heels that were adorned with a handful of jewels all along the various straps that bound to her foot. They were a pair Laudna recalled Imogen having received a a gift from Fearne’s friend, and Dorian’s friend as it were, Opal; Laudna then further recognized this outfit immediately as the one from their date night in Yios.

“Oh, my,” Laudna said out loud, respectfully, as she put a hand to her lips in sheer delight as her beautiful bride reached the bottom of the stairs and waved to their newly arrived guests.

Orym and Dorian even let out gasps of awe and admiration; “you look very pretty, Maude,” being a direct compliment paid by Dorian to her as he greeted her upon stepping inside. Imogen was immediately caught off guard and laughed at this loudly, before giving Dorian a playful punch on the shoulder.

“Oh, I missed you Dorian, c’mere,” she said with a laughed as he gripped the place where she punched him, feigning discomfort, before she pulled him in for a hug. “It’s so good to see you again.”

His face lit up with a bright smile as he embraced Imogen, “it’s so nice to see you too, Imogen.”

Dorian was sporting a suit appearing to be of semi-formal attire, a dashing blue jacket with matching pants — and a bold choice to not be wearing an undershirt, but something that Dorian was pulling off well given his physique. For Orym, his appearance this evening was heavily inspired by earth-tones, as he’d chosen to wear soft shades of green and brown in the form of tight fitting slacks and a button down shirt that left a few buttons undone to show off some of his chest hair.

Imogen led their guests into the lounge and offered each of them a seat. “Would you like something to drink? We have a few delicious bottles of wine that we were saving for special occasions like tonight, if y’all were in the mood?”

Orym and Dorian both nodded and Imogen left to prepare a few glasses. Laudna entertained them as they waited, beginning to exchange commonalities and mundane pleasantries. How are you’s, how’s Zephrah this time of year, where is the Silken Squall and how are your parents, has anyone heard from Dariax or Deni$e, the banal topics. Imogen soon sat down and joined them in a drink, sharing a toast to themselves and their comrades.

“To Bell’s Hells; hopefully, we can get all of us together sometime. Wouldn’t that be a treat?” Imogen said as the others took their sips, before taking her own.

Laudna set her glass down and began to remove a fussing Aria from the sling. “That it would be, wouldn’t it” she said as she lifted Aria up from the sling, as though she were being asked the question herself. Now that she was freed from her containment, Aria cooed and began to give grabby-hands at Laudna as she gave her a smile. Just then, a spit bubble started forming slowly and Laudna knew what was about to happen; being a learned parent now, she was quick to catch Aria’s spit-up with a handkerchief and managed to clean her up quickly, without any issue.

Imogen excused herself to check on dinner, which gave Laudna the opportunity to ask Orym and Dorian which of them would like to hold Aria first. “We didn’t want to play favorites, so you two can decide amongst yourself,” Laudna said.

Dorian was quick to deflect to Orym, but not as quick as Orym was to deflect to him first. They both spoke over one another: “You haven’t visited them in so long, you should go first;” “right, I haven’t visited them in so long, so you should absolutely go first instead.” They politely went back and forth for just a few seconds before Laudna interjected: “Gods, where’s Letters to flip their coin when you need them?” She stood up and walked over to Dorian and extended her arms, presenting Aria to him.

Orym gave a slight grin, figuring he had won that round, and gave a little chuckle that no one else seemed to pick up at the moment.

As Dorian took the baby into his arms and pulled her in to his chest, holding her close, he began to rock back and forth softly. “Hello little Aria,” he said as he presented a finger to her. She gripped it in her hands and held it tight and firm.

“Careful, she’ll pull it off,” Laudna cautioned playfully, motioning to the bit of scalp that it turns out had come loose during Aria’s earlier tug-of-war session. Dorian laughed at the comment initially, before he saw Laudna’s motion. His laugh turned to a grimace at the sight as Laudna patted the skin flap back down into place; Orym kept his eye focused on Aria, only watching Laudna out of his periphery, not quite keen on wanting to see it directly.

After a few minutes, Aria started to get fussy. Dorian attempted to get her to calm but was finding it to be futile, as she began to squirm, kicking out and arms starting to flail, hands getting grabby. Laudna encouraged him to keep trying and holding her, knowing that sometimes Aria is just working out new people and situations. Just as she began to act up a bit more beyond that however, Imogen returned and announced that dinner was nearly ready. She noticed that Aria wasn’t behaving well anymore, and walked over to Dorian and put her arms out. “It’s okay hon, I’ll take her from here, she’s probably just hungry.”

Dorian shifted Aria around in his arms and brought her head up to his lips and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead before passing her back off to her mother. Imogen smiled as Aria’s uncle embraced her for the first time, thinking to herself how happy she was with their little found family of so many aunts and uncles that their baby now had.

Imogen held Aria close and sat down in the chair she previously occupied, beginning to lower just the top of her dress to expose her breast. “Orym, is it alright if I feed her before you take her,” she asked as she lifted Aria up to it and placed her gently at her exposed nipple, trying to get Aria to latch and begin feeding, which happened rather quickly. Imogen shifted both their body’s weights so they were both comfortable before Orym could even answer.

Orym smiled and nodded, “oh of course, you don’t even need to ask. There’s plenty of time, and actually…” his voice trailed off as he hopped down from his spot on the couch besides Dorian and walked back over to the entryway. “We brought some gifts for you all.” Orym grabbed a bag that he had set down just inside the doorway and came back into the lounge, reclaiming his seat. He opened the pouch of the bag, which was a moderately sized brown satchel with a buckle clasp on the front, and stuck his arm inside. It must have been a Bag of Holding, because Orym’s entire arm disappeared into this bag, and while Orym was not the biggest person here by any means — Aria would soon outpace him surely — this bag was not that tiny, either.

After just a moment of reaching, Orym first emerged with an envelope that he set down at his side. “That can wait a sec,” he said as he plunged back into the Bag, seemingly reaching deeper than before. His tongue was exposed between his lips as he searched before finally a tiny “got it” was uttered, and he pulled his arm out once more. “Ta da!” He exclaimed upon revealing what it was that he had pulled out: a small gift basket full of various trinkets, lotions, spices, and odds and ends from Zephrah. “This is from me, from home. There’s a little bit of everything in here,” he said as he passed it off to Laudna. “I thought it might help to serve all of you.”

Laudna examined the items up close as she was handed the basket. It was chock full of jars and tiny pouches of spices for cooking and baking, a cookbook of recipes from Zephrah housewives, soaps and lotions for washing and cleaning; Alma, Orym’s mother, even packed in an assortment of colored onesies and cloth diapers, as well as some wooden toys and dolls for Aria specifically.

Tucked away beneath all of that however was a special stone that had the iconography of the Ashari on it. “It’s special,” Orym explained as Laudna plucked it out from the basket. “It’s a sending stone. It works once a day, but it’s always working. It won’t work again after this for today, but —“ he picked up the stone and waved his hand over it once, twice, a third time “—just listen closely and tell me what you hear.” As his hand passed over it the third and final time, a sound began to play. It was quiet at first, but as he passed the stone over to Laudna and she put it to her ear, she could hear it.

“Is… is that Zephrah?” She asked.

Orym smiled. “Yeah,” he was beaming. “It’s the sounds of Zephrah. It’s always listening, so once a day, you can turn it on and listen to the ambiance for a little while. I thought Aria might like it in her bedroom.” Orym turned back to where he’d put the envelopes down and grabbed them in his hand. "But here, I have another gift for you both,” he said as he handed the envelope out to Laudna, face up. “There’s one in here for another place, as well as a special message.”

Laudna looked over at Imogen a bit puzzled before taking it in her hand. Imogen returned her look, confused herself as to what it could be. She averted her gaze down to Aria briefly to check on her as she fed. No problems. She looked back up as Laudna now had the envelope in her hands, and turned it over to reveal to wax seals adorning the flap keeping them secure. Laudna inspected the seals closely; one she recognized as a symbol of Vox Machina, from when Bertrand showed it to them on his lapel all those many moons ago. The other took Laudna a moment to recognized, but then it became clear to her because it was the first time she had actually seen this: it was the new (to her) Chamber of Whitestone seal.

Laudna’s mouth opened for a moment in surprise. “This… is from Whitestone? From … “

“The DeRolo’s,” Orym said.

[ahauntingwewillgo]

Sometimes I come across a post of someone being like "here's a list of things I didn't like about the super limited scope of the da4 game trailer" and like no one asked :)

I remember when people made wank tags to wank about nonsense so it didn't clog up the general tags so people could just enjoy themselves and fan works without having to also read some killjoy's screen rant rejected think piece.

Things to remember: the game is slated for fall 2024 but given the climate of the industry I'm willing to bet we will see a delay. Delays are almost always expected now a days. Also, what we saw could look very different when the game is released and In Fact! That was stated On The game play trailer itself. I think even complaining about stuff you don't like is a kind of getting your hopes up about the game, a kind of hype.

So sure, over think the very limited information we have in the grand scheme of things and completely taint your opinion before you've even given the game a few hours of your time. That'll probably not just give you a repeat of everything you've ever over built in your head that ended up being a major disappointment.

Like I just want people to manage their expectations about things too. It's unreasonable to expect every dragon age game to sound, look, or feel the same. If they did the same kind of stuff all the time 1) it would get boring and 2) there would be no room for growth for the devs. Ofc you don't like the combat system bc your knee jerk reaction is to reject everything that isn't exactly what you expected and honestly yall, it's exhausting.

Put your wanks in an appropriate tag, not the main tag.