Fourth little lie ♰ 'Cause I'm half-sick of shadows, I want to see the sky

[beingdifferent]

[Once again it's a video today, and Esther is fresh-faced and bright-eyed, obviously not too disturbed by recent events. Her communicator is set up on her bedside table, catching the gauzy canopy of her bed behind her and allowing her to use her hands to sign.]

Excuse me. I would like to ask a favor.

Some of you are teachers for the older kids. I don't want to go to school, but is there anyone who could teach me something fun? How to make something or play something. This place can be so boring sometimes. [She quickly amends, so as not to offend anyone:] But I like the library and the art room and the kitchen. During the port I learned how to fish, and I liked that too. Sometime, I'd like to do it again.

Do any of you know how to do things like that?

[OOC: Esther is affected for the flood and has memory dates with Lua, the Emperor, Dent, and Ned, though everyone is welcome. CW: The memory threads may involve themes of violence, death, and sexual abuse, and are marked.]

Comments

[Video]

[deadly_ned]

Um.

Well.


If you like baking.

My girlfriend Chuck came up with the idea of cup-pies.

Cupcake-shaped...pies.

We could make those.

[Video]

[beingdifferent]

Tiny pies? [Her face lights up. Few things are as irresistible to small girls as regular things in small sizes.] I would love to try that!

[Video]

[deadly_ned]

Yes. Tiny pies. In size only. Not in flavor.

I'm in the kitchens now, if you'd.


If you'd like to come up.

[Video -> spam]

[beingdifferent]

I'll be there as soon as I can!

[That isn't long, as it turns out: she's fully ready from making the post and only has to lock her door before running to the kitchens and knocking on the doorframe.]

Mr. Ned?

[spam]

[deadly_ned]

[The Piemaker, up since five this morning and thus far unaware of the unfortunate flooding happening, is standing by a kitchen island rolling out dough. He looks up with a hesitant but genuine smile, happy to see an inmate who doesn't immediately make him anxious. The list is short]

Esther?

[spam] [cw: sexual abuse, violence]

[beingdifferent]

[And it’s about to get shorter. Esther clasps her hands in front of her and returns Ned’s smile. It’s calming to meet a man who is genuinely friendly and never speaks to her the way her father did, not even when she was very young and he’d cooed reassurances to her and stroked her as he cradled her through the pain. He’d taught her to handle it, of course, and handle it well, but those early days had frightened her and the later ones had angered her.

When he’d realized what she was, and had taken her home.

A stepmother. The perfect woman, everything his daughter would never be, everything she couldn’t give. And they’d shamelessly paraded their new love in front of her, entirely disregarding her. Insisting she be happy for them.

Well, she had been happy once her “new mother” lay splayed and broken at the foot of the stairs, her already battered body decorated with a litany of crimson stab wounds. She’d been happy watching her rotten father’s blood pour out of his ashen body through the slash on his throat.

Her smile fades at the memory and she suddenly feels strange, awkward, as if she’s let someone get uncomfortably close to her. She stares at Ned for a moment before hurriedly remembering to put on her mask again.]

Yes, hello -- it’s me. [A beat.] And how are you?

[lawofthejungle]

Well I ain't sure about things like that, but I got a few things I know how to do, sure.

[private]

[beingdifferent]

And you know I'd love to learn.

[private]

[lawofthejungle]

Get a pass from one of the clowns and I'd be more than happy to teach.

[private]

[beingdifferent]

I'll see what I can do.

[NOT HERE]

[routemistress]

[AUNTIE IRIS IS WATCHING THIS SO HARD]

[THANK YOU ADMIRAL]

[NOT HERE]

[beingdifferent]

[You are such a buzzkill Iris >:/]

[private]

[lawofthejungle]

Let me know when ya do.

[private]

[beingdifferent]

You should not have to wait long.

[video]

[heisrisen]

[Teach me something. It's his one great weakness, after cats.]

Do you know how to make a radio?

[video]

[beingdifferent]

[Esther shakes her head, eyes bright.] I bet I could put one together, but no. Do you?

[video]

[heisrisen]

Oh yes. Not the first thing I learned how to make, but it was close.

[He barely notices the slip into the singular pronoun. Sometimes thinking of his childhood does that to him.]

We could go for something more complicated, if you'd rather. But radios are probably the most universally useful.

[They still use them five thousand years in the future - in his, at least. It's just such a basic component of the universe, that segment of the EMS.]

[video]

[beingdifferent]

[If Esther knew to, she'd have taken careful note of the pronoun. Her attention now is too much on the offer and the person giving it -- he may not have been entirely her type, but she was allowed to look.]

Maybe we could start with a radio and move on to something more complicated?

[video]

[heisrisen]

We'll see if we can't round up some supplies. Would you like to meet anywhere in particular?

[video]

[beingdifferent]

Wherever you'd like is fine. I haven't even seen all the ship yet.

[surrenders]

[By now, she's picked up a lot, and if Jesse or Anya let her out of their sight for a minute, she roams in search of as many people as she can. She's known almost all of them so far, but she hasn't seen the little girl yet.]

What did you do when you were bored?

[beingdifferent]

[It's not an odd question, considering Lua seemed so interested in her painting the last time they spoke. Esther gives the woman a warm smile before answering.]

I'd like to paint, or to read. Sometimes I would sing for the Sisters at the children's home.

[surrenders]

You cook for real yet, or do you still have someone showing you?

[This Lua still doesn't remember the questions she asked her, where she found out the kid wasn't old-fashioned at all.]

I want to see you, anyway. Think I want to see everyone here.

[beingdifferent]

I can cook a few things! In fact I learned pancakes not too long ago. [But she doesn't answer the question, indicating that she's still learning.

She's perfectly capable of cooking her own meals, of course, but nobody needs to know that.]

That would be nice. Could we walk in the garden?

[surrenders]

If you don't want to practice.

[Maybe that's where she'll remember, learn more. If the little girl picks, it might be somewhere important, and place and position help her remember almost as much as whoever she's with does.]