A Small, Unassuming Dig Site on a Largely Abandoned Asteroid, Liara's Universe, Saturday

[fewer_explosions]

Liara had done her field work well; it was a knack she had learned from her mother. The internship she had managed to arrange was at a project that had only one archaeologist assigned, and Sarana did not have a reputation of showing much interest in anything other than Prothean studies. Yeul and Caius were of a strange species, yes, but they were not Prothean artifacts, and therefor Sarana barely paid them any attention at all.

They had had to spend the first few days setting up their beds and storing what few possessions they had brought. Liara had brought along a fair share of books, both from her universe and from Yeul's, just in case Yeul ever felt a need to read them.

But it was not books that kept them preoccupied today.

It was time to notify anyone who cared to know about their current situation. Liara was not someone who had a great circle of friends, but between her and meticulously picking through a list of people who might wish to know Yeul was alive, it was an afternoon's worth of work.

[[ nfb due to distance, but open! if you think liara and/or yeul would have called you: they did. feel free to ping yeul directly! ]]

Comments

[pulseof_life]

Well, Caius was liable to enjoy the books anyway. He'd always been more bookish than she was.

Yeul had mostly watched the proceedings with her usual calm and tried to stay out from underfoot. At her physical age, it wasn't like she could help unpack very well.

Now she was... mostly doing the same thing, watching Liara more than she was trying to figure out who to call, though she'd managed a few calls here and there. It was just hard to be proactive about such a thing. Her feelings were mixed, even though being with Liara was pleasant.

"Do you know how much time has passed on the island?" Yeul asked, during one lull in poking through contacts half-heartedly.

[fewer_explosions]

"I am not entirely certain, but I believe time there has moved slower than it has for us," Liara said. She looked thoughtful. "A few months, perhaps?"

[pulseof_life]

Yeul smiled at that. "So, by there time, I should not even be born again yet."

[fewer_explosions]

"I suspect many of them may find your reappearance... anticlimactic, yes," Liara said.

Though she said it with a smile on her lips, as well. It was entirely possible that had she waited back home, the time span would have been as short-- but if she was entirely honest, she preferred it the way matters had gone.

[pulseof_life]

"Would it have been better to be dramatic?" she wondered. "I do not think I would be very good at that."

Yeul would be terrible at that.

[fewer_explosions]

"I do not believe it would be better, no," Liara said. "Though some of our acquaintances back at the island may secretly find it more appropriate."

They were a rather dramatic bunch at Fandom, after all.

[pulseof_life]

They were! And that was what had made people watching there so interesting.

"I suppose they will have to be secretly disappointed then," she said, a bit amused at the thought, really.

[fewer_explosions]

Liara's mouth formed slightly more of a smile. "Yes," she said. "And I, for one, would have been concerned, had you returned to us six months later in a display of grandstanding and pyrotechnics."

She'd gotten a little better at cracking jokes on the island. There was that human influence, at least.

[pulseof_life]

Yeul giggled.

"Would I have a cape?" she asked. "I believe I would almost have to have a cape, in such a situation."

[fewer_explosions]

"Are you partial to capes?" Liara wondered. "It seems like a very specific item of clothing to insist on."

[pulseof_life]

Yeul was mostly partial to the same style of clothing she'd been wearing for hundreds of years, quite honestly.

"People always seem to wear capes in stories when they want to be properly dramatic," Yeul explained. "I have worn a cape to stay warm and dry before, but never for such an impractical purpose.'

[fewer_explosions]

"Ah, yes," Liara said, "Then you will need a cape. Otherwise no one may be able to tell that you are acting out of character."

She put her phone aside.

[pulseof_life]

"The pyrotechnics would not have given it away?" she said, smiling again. "Are you done with calling people?"

[fewer_explosions]

"I did not have many friends or acquaintances on the island," Liara said quietly. "And I have not been able to speak to Karolina for some time."

She shrugged gently. "Most of those few people I care about are here. Mother, on Thessia. And you and Caius."

[pulseof_life]

"Caius will be pleased," she offered, though Caius was likely to be much more ambivalent than that. He was warming up to Liara slowly, though he had not admitted as such to her yet. "To be considered someone you care about."

Yeul was pleased too. It was still a strange and unusual thing to her.

"I am sorry you cannot reach Karolina."

[fewer_explosions]

Liara had grown slowly fond of him, though at somewhat greater speed. He was grumpy, and often taciturn, but then she was not drawn to interaction with other people on such a regular basis as it was.

Sometimes peaceful coexistence, and caring about the same person, went a long way.

"I have had this problem since she left," she said quietly. "I have... let go of it."

[pulseof_life]

"If you say so," Yeul said simply and, since it was Yeul, it came out sounding more calm and sincere rather than sarcastic. "Were you able to reach people on the island?"

[fewer_explosions]

"Have you?" Liara asked.

She wasn't lying about having few friends on the island. She had largely been listening to radio podcasts.

[pulseof_life]

"I left a handwavy message for Professor Starsmore," Yeul said, after a moment. "I reached his voicemail, which implies that the island is reachable."

[fewer_explosions]

Liara nodded. "I managed to download several podcasts, so their servers are also still functioning," she said. "The island appears not to have been swallowed up by the sea."

[pulseof_life]

"That's a start," Yeul said lightly. "We may yet hear back from someone."

If they did, or if they didn't, it was truly all the same to Yeul. She had not expected to see Liara again, let alone talk to anyone else, though she'd be glad to do so.

[fewer_explosions]

"We may," Liara agreed. "And if we do not, we have tried to reach out, and we may let it be as it is."

She was all right with following Yeul's lead in that; she had not been lying when she had said almost everyone she cared about was already here, accounted for.

[pulseof_life]

"Yes," she replied simply.

Yeul wriggled around until she managed to get off the bed. She wobbled a bit on the landing, but didn't fall.

"Caius should be back soon." If he wasn't, that was fine, but he had said he would be.

[fewer_explosions]

"He should," Liara agreed. She stood up as well, largely to make sure Yeul didn't hurt herself. "Unless this asteroid is rather less secure than we were led to believe."

But she found that unlikely. And if it wasn't, she had her biotics. Between her and Caius, no one would harm Yeul.

[pulseof_life]

Yeul was... probably the greatest danger to herself at this point, yes.

But then, that was generally the truth of it, no matter what the situation was.

"A fight?" Yeul asked, tilting her head up to look at Liara. "If that was happening, we would hear it. But he might have got distracted."

Time wasn't something they fussed about, really, and with Liara here, Caius was able to have some of it to himself. Yeul didn't begrudge him that, especially when that was the biggest factor in her supposing that he was fond Liara.

After all, he trusted her to stay safe with only Liara watching her.