Open Post: What a yarn

[sporesprouter]

There's still quite a bit of winter yet, according to the calendar, not to mention whatever Dark is, and Tress got an idea for a project fairly recently. It's appropriate and it gives her a chance to stretch out a skill she hasn't really gotten an opportunity to use in a while.

So she's in a cozy parlor, sitting curled up in a big comfy armchair right by the window, a basket of yarn at her feet, and she's knitting. It's still too early to be immediately obvious what it is she's knitting, but she's moving with the easy confidence that indicates it's definitely not a new craft she's just now decided to take up.

Sometimes, after all, it's nice to go back to something old and familiar.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad isn't looking for her specifically, but he has been wanting to sketch her for something he's working on, and he has got his sketchbook with him, so when he sees her he immediately detours.

Hi! he signs.

[sporesprouter]

She grins brightly and sets her work down in her lap for a moment to sign Hi! right back. "How are you doing?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He considers the question seriously. "I'm well." And then-- Claudius adores Tress, but it's not quite the same as it is with Laertes, and Galahad doesn't feel that Claudius should have first right to break the news, so he adds, "Claudius and I are engaged."

[sporesprouter]

Her eyes widen and she immediately climbs to her feet, setting her knitting in the chair behind her. "Oh! Congratulations! I'm so happy for you! Can I give you a hug?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad smiles quickly and holds out his arms -- still a little shy, but warm.

[sporesprouter]

She goes over and gives him a tight hug. "Oh, you must be so happy."

[onthewillowsthere]

That gives him pause. He hasn't seriously considered the state of his happiness for a while, but he was, he thinks, happy before he asked Claudius to be engaged to him. It was because he was happy that he wanted to ask -- if he hadn't been happy being with Claudius, he wouldn't have wanted to do something that bound them closer together. It's a covenant, he thinks, as he did then. But betrothal is usually a covenant for the future, because couples aren't truly joined together until marriage. He and Claudius already live together and sleep together and take care of each other. They've promised something to each other that they were already giving. For the first time the size and shape of that truly sits with him: he hears Laertes' words from the day before, there is nothing that he would have in place of thee, like a scrap of a psalm, like a molten drop of glass in the center of his chest.

"Yes," he says softly. "I'm very happy."

[sporesprouter]

Tress steps back with a smile. "Good. I'm glad. You deserve to be happy. Both of you do."

[onthewillowsthere]

He has also never considered whether he deserves happiness before, but he puts that particular mental digression aside for now. "When you see him again, admire his ring."

[az_fell]

It would be easy to say that Aziraphale has primarily been wandering about in an insufferable honeymoon-phase daze. In fact, it would be so easy that there's no particular reason not to do so. Aziraphale has primarily been wandering about in an insufferable honeymoon-phase daze.

He brightens when he sees Tress, though. A) He quite likes her. B) He does feel a kind of kinship with her now, as they underwent something quite alarming together. They have absolutely been in the trenches.

"The lovely Tress," he say cheerily as he sees her. He then pauses for dramatic effect. "I hope."

[sporesprouter]

Tress looks up at him with a little laugh. "Yes, it's actually me. And I hope you're actually Aziraphale?"

[az_fell]

Aziraphale spreads his hands with a little smile. "I certainly hope so, too. I prefer this to our last meeting, I must say."

[sporesprouter]

Her face settles somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "Oh, that very much makes two of us."

[az_fell]

"Shall we endeavor to forget it ever happened?" Aziraphale offers charitably. "You can tell me what you're knitting. In as much detail as you'd like, if that will help."

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, I'm knitting some gloves. For Galahad. Because there's a lot of winter left and he has cold hands."

[az_fell]

"That's very kind of you," says Aziraphale, quite sincerely. "There are all sorts of troublesome little discomforts associated with being human, aren't there?"

[sporesprouter]

"I suppose, although I don't know if I would have ever thought to put it that way, exactly."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh!" says Susan, dropping a banker box full of odds and ends on the ground. "I do beg your pardon, I didn't realize anyone was in this parlor."

[sporesprouter]

Tress looks up, a bit startled. "Oh! No, that's all right. Susan, right?" She stands up, setting her knitting to the side. "Let me help you with that."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I'm fine, as long as you don't mind the company," Susan says. The box is already on the floor, and she's sinking down next to it. "Yes, I'm Susan. And you're Tress, yes?"

[sporesprouter]

She nods and sits back down. "Yes, I'm Tress, and of course I don't mind the company."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan gives her a small, distracted smile, and starts unloading the contents from the box. They're - eclectic, to say the least. Most seem to be junk: broken toys, queer machines, things like that.

[sporesprouter]

Tress glances over curiously as Susan unloads the box. "What are you working on?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I've decided to start categorizing the contents of the sheds behind the orchards," says Susan, holding up to the light something that seems to be a thin sheet of plastic of unfathomable purpose. "But it's too cold today to do it out there. What do you suppose this is?"

[sporesprouter]

She frowns thoughtfully as she looks at it. "I have no idea. How strange. Maybe it's a cover for something?"