#linalia

[dicenne]

He stared down at the two cups of coffee with a furrowed brow. It happened on occasion, on those mindless mornings when he was still stuck somewhere between asleep and awake. His wife, Linalia, had passed away years ago, but old habits crept up on occasion. He remembered well that she needed her morning coffee lest she be irritable the remainder of the day, and this certainly wasn’t the first time it had happened.

Smiling to himself, he took both cups out onto his balcony anyways, and set one down on the table near the adjacent chair. It was, after all, her birthday, and she deserved a little treat. Once upon a time, this day would have brought him a lot of great sorrow. While the heartache remained, it had lightened over the years, warping into something more tolerable. There was a sadness in that as well, knowing it had been so long since her passing that the pain no longer sent him into a downward spiral. As if he were doing her some sort of disservice, even though it would be the last thing she wanted. They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of grief is finite

“Happy Birthday, Lina.” He clinked his mug against hers before taking a sip as he looked down over early morning Ratchet. It was peaceful for now and would remain that way for at least a few hours; this was possibly his favorite time of the day. Soon enough the port town would come to life and his comm would start chiming. The mere thought of it already aggravated him, and it didn’t take long for him to decide that he would just not deal with any of it today. Not on her birthday.

The two cups of coffee were forgotten as he went inside to pack a small day bag with swimming trunks, a towel, a change of clothing, and some snacks and drinks. His comm was tossed onto his bed as he headed downstairs and out the door to his mechano-hog. He had no idea where he was headed, but it felt good to get away from everything for a while.

[dicenne]

February DWC Day 6 - Vanity/Feelings

Dicenne sat at the vanity in Kara’s room at his house in Ratchet, fingers tracing delicately along the cherrywood embellishments he himself had carved a long time ago. It had originally belonged to his wife, Linalia; a gift for their ten year anniversary that he made himself. While wood wasn’t his typical or preferred medium, he wanted to surprise her with something different.

Eyes caught his own reflection briefly before focusing on the bed behind him with a bittersweet smile. He would often catch Lina watching him from this mirror during their morning routine, and he would never let on that he knew she was watching but instead just give her a show until she started laughing. They were good memories.

Eyes dropped back down to vanity, opening the drawers to remove the various remaining knick-knacks that Kara had left behind after her move to Silvermoon. Reaching far back into the side drawer, his fingers were met with something that had been shoved to the back. He slid out the crumpled object and turned it over in hand before his breath caught in his throat.

It was a photograph taken at this very vanity itself. Lina was in the foreground with the camera, wearing her favorite robe while mid-laugh. He could almost still hear that musical laughter of hers. Dicenne was in the background standing on the bed in only a towel, flexing while making some ridiculous face. On the back of the photograph, written in her handwriting: ‘Love is…being silly together’.

She did this often: Took pictures of the two together and wrote on the back, ‘Love is…’, with some various definitions of all the things love meant to her. He had collected all of those photographs into an album after her death, but he had missed this one. He had forgotten about this one. 

All sorts of feelings were beginning to bubble up as he smoothed out the creases in the photograph as best he could. Even after all this time there were still moments of profound sorrow, and he figured there always would be. What is grief if not love persevering?

He took the photograph with him into his bedroom and pulled out the album, finding a blank space at the back where it was added to the collection. He admired it for a moment longer before closing the album and placing it back onto the shelf. It was nice that even in her death she could still surprise him.

@daily-writing-challenge

[hunters-assemble-upon-gallifrey]

Linalia as Elsa

[heckyeahcosplay]

Chii from Chobits.

Cosplay by Linalia.

Photo by dio-dio.