#lucien roche

[louvel-roche]

Prompt #27: Benthos

“She had always wanted to see the ocean; visit a beach like this. We never managed to find the time.”

Lucien’s voice faded, washed away with the ebb and flow of the tide below. Silence settled there between father and son, heavy and somber, like a hemorrhaging wound that neither one knew how to properly stitch up. 

“Think she would have enjoyed it here?” Louvel finally spoke after that silence had lingered, after the waves had lapped up onto the sands over half a dozen times, each new crawl of the tide having brought with it some vague idea of what he could say or ask, and so many times he let the thoughts drift back out to the sea until he found something easier to let free from his throat. 

“Oh, definitely.” The elder duskwight chuckled, a hand lifting to gesture vaguely to a patch of beach below the platform they inhabited. “Allaire would have claimed a spot over there in the sun, no doubt; under an umbrella, one of those fruity drinks in hand, making friends with the locals.” 

A mutual chuckle was shared, both men taking the opportunity to take comfort in that thought, to feel some fleeting sense of ease in contemplating something so blissful. The tide continued to roll in, continued to wash over the sands and before long that comfort was carried back out to the sea. 

Neither duskwight knew what to say; what to offer to try to keep some kind of conversation going. The estranged silence had become so familiar, even when just speaking about mundane topics things were often stilted. To be speaking about Allaire though made the chasm spanning between them suddenly feel like an ever expanding void, far too vast and dense for either of them to even attempt to cross. 

“We should take her something.” Louvel finally offered, mismatched eyes abandoning the ocean in favor of looking at his father. 

“From here?” Lucien considered the suggestion, regarding Lou with a short glance. He struggled to fully meet his son’s eyes; the same eyes of the lost soul they spoke about. “Suppose it has been a while.”

“Then let’s go. It’ll be easy to find some seashells, or a starfish. Maybe get a little jar of sand.” Not a second was wasted before Louvel was getting to his feet, eagerly on the move to get down to the beach proper with Lucien soon following much more calmly in his wake. 

Treasures from the beach would be a nice change of pace compared to the rapidly wilting flowers typically left at the rubble of the cave-in.

(Bonus screenshot)

[louvel-roche]

Prompt #9: Friable

Twitch of an ear. Flick of a tail. Such strange things to observe in this moment of intense focus.

Lucien was familiar enough with miqo’te, but he had never truly sat down with one repeatedly like this. Never took the time to watch, really just watch the way one moved. The little shifts, the little tells those ears and tail gave. Little things that were much more subtle than what he was used to.

“How many have you found?” He asked on light notes, having no desire to startle Inwa out of his focus.

Silence was the answer at first. Thought, review, consideration as Inwa rotated the soapstone in his hands. “Five.” Another turn of the orange sized rock. “No, six.” A nod signaled that as his final answer.

“Good. Now that you have found those fractures, you’ll need to reinforce them. Fill the cracks without risking damage to the rest of the stone.” Lucien grabbed up another chunk of soapstone, running his fingers over all the uneven sides. “Structural integrity is key. You don’t want to change the shape of the stone itself, but you want to change the balance of everything inside it.”

The stone in his hands was snapped neatly in half, the exposed smooth interior turned towards Inwa. A finger traced along a visible crack, then another more subtle fracture. “Closing one could open another.” That slate finger moved over the piece of stone again, pushing the earth around to mend one crack only for the soapstone to crumble in his palm as other cracks opened and spread. 

“It’s a fickle balancing act, but more than that, it’s a threat assessment. You’ve found the fractures. Now figure out which ones need attention and which ones are going to be problematic once you start shifting everything around.” The remaining half of the stone he held was pivoted for Inwa to view.

Lucien waited, once more taking some time to observe his student. What did that particular tilt of the ears mean? Was the pace his tail moved a sign of something good or bad? His gaze lowered to the soapstone in the seeker’s hands, steel eyes following the tilt and turn as Inwa examined the stone again.

“I have found that making little pockets can help. Little bubbles to give you material to work with, without risking making more cracks by just pulling from anything and anywhere in the stone.” Again he drug a finger over the stone in his hand, coaxing tiny little bubbles to form upon the surface, each new dip and smooth dent drawing the cracks in the stone closed. 

“Just be mindful not to go overboard. Now, give it a try.”

(Mention: @daylightrays )