Random Drabble
Jul. 16th, 2015 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dethoratsTitle: Anniversary
Character/Pairing: Vivi-centric, faint NaVi
Rating: G
Word Count: 743
It didn’t rain but the mood was still jubilant despite the oppressive heat of the capitol. The weather had returned to normal months ago and the aquifers and irrigation trenches were at expected levels. Vivi had put on the dancing girl costume, the one with the full skirt that didn’t flatter her the way the purple and blue column skirt did, and slipped a scarf over her hair. The people, her people, filled the streets with music and laughter and the scents of sizzling meat and heady spices. She slipped away from her watchful shadows easily when they good-naturedly assented to help with one of the few remaining reconstruction projects in the lower city. Vivi smiled and chatted and listened and passed largely incognito as she paced through Alubarna. She felt restless and guilty for it amid her country’s joy. Respite came only at the last possible minute, as the shadows over the great market stretched towards the palace and she knew she had to return for the evening ceremonies. An import stall had exotic nuts and fruits, including some dried candied mikan slices. They were pricey and wouldn’t be cool and juicy and tartly sweet like she remembered, but they would do. Vivi dropped the coins into the owner’s hands and then had to head back home at a pace Igaram would have deemed unseemly.
Once the sun had sunk halfway below the horizon and the heat began to break, Vivi joined her father on the main balcony. They stood together, looking out over the gathered ranks of citizens, and then Cobra stepped up to the broadcast microphone that had been anchored to the parapet. As had become his habit of late, the king of Alabasta spoke only for a short while. He talked of reconciliation and restoration, of rebuilding lives and the nation. He spoke to the past and the present with gentle humor and genuine warmth. And then he surrendered the stage to his daughter. Vivi glowed in the last orange rays of the sun, the light glinting off the rounded metal peacock feather she often now wore at her throat. The princess of Alabasta had inherited her father’s brevity but not his focus on the past. Vivi touched lightly on all the good she had seen in Alubarna that day and on the work the country had accomplished and then she turned to the future, to all that lay ahead for her and for her people. She spoke of hard work and perseverance and faith in one another. She spoke of unlikely allies and unexpected friends. And she spoke of dreams and of doing one’s best. And at last, as darkness fell, she spoke of celebration and stepped back from the microphone as the first of the evening’s fireworks blazed a trail into the sky.
Pell and Igaram and Chaka and her father and even Kohza, who had come back with his father for the celebration, managed to keep their princess from feeling isolated or melancholy that evening. The palace opened to Alabasta and Alubarna in turn welcomed the palace. Soldiers and former rebels alike danced together around fragrant bonfires or lost money betting on the evening’s moonlight camel races. Vivi laughed and talked and spun around with groups of children who knew the best treats always came from the door by the palace’s back wall. Carue stayed by her side that night and Eyelash, and the kingdom finally (finally) felt as though it had healed.
Later that week, Vivi and Carue snuck out at midnight and headed for Nanohana. Eight hours later, the princess stared out over the sparkling waves and absently ate her candied mikans. They were too sweet and stuck to her teeth but they were what she had chosen. Her fingers traced their sign over her left arm and, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Vivi reflected on her choices. The loneliness and the longing still lingered, made worse by the silence brought on after the War at Marineford. But the regret had finally begun to fade, perhaps prompted by the joy and peace she had shared with her countrymen several nights ago. Vivi sat until the noon sun beat familiarly down upon her head and then mounted Carue to head for Alubarna. Toto was still at the palace and Vivi had concluded she had some questions to ask the expert about trying to grow citrus trees in the desert.
Character/Pairing: Vivi-centric, faint NaVi
Rating: G
Word Count: 743
It didn’t rain but the mood was still jubilant despite the oppressive heat of the capitol. The weather had returned to normal months ago and the aquifers and irrigation trenches were at expected levels. Vivi had put on the dancing girl costume, the one with the full skirt that didn’t flatter her the way the purple and blue column skirt did, and slipped a scarf over her hair. The people, her people, filled the streets with music and laughter and the scents of sizzling meat and heady spices. She slipped away from her watchful shadows easily when they good-naturedly assented to help with one of the few remaining reconstruction projects in the lower city. Vivi smiled and chatted and listened and passed largely incognito as she paced through Alubarna. She felt restless and guilty for it amid her country’s joy. Respite came only at the last possible minute, as the shadows over the great market stretched towards the palace and she knew she had to return for the evening ceremonies. An import stall had exotic nuts and fruits, including some dried candied mikan slices. They were pricey and wouldn’t be cool and juicy and tartly sweet like she remembered, but they would do. Vivi dropped the coins into the owner’s hands and then had to head back home at a pace Igaram would have deemed unseemly.
Once the sun had sunk halfway below the horizon and the heat began to break, Vivi joined her father on the main balcony. They stood together, looking out over the gathered ranks of citizens, and then Cobra stepped up to the broadcast microphone that had been anchored to the parapet. As had become his habit of late, the king of Alabasta spoke only for a short while. He talked of reconciliation and restoration, of rebuilding lives and the nation. He spoke to the past and the present with gentle humor and genuine warmth. And then he surrendered the stage to his daughter. Vivi glowed in the last orange rays of the sun, the light glinting off the rounded metal peacock feather she often now wore at her throat. The princess of Alabasta had inherited her father’s brevity but not his focus on the past. Vivi touched lightly on all the good she had seen in Alubarna that day and on the work the country had accomplished and then she turned to the future, to all that lay ahead for her and for her people. She spoke of hard work and perseverance and faith in one another. She spoke of unlikely allies and unexpected friends. And she spoke of dreams and of doing one’s best. And at last, as darkness fell, she spoke of celebration and stepped back from the microphone as the first of the evening’s fireworks blazed a trail into the sky.
Pell and Igaram and Chaka and her father and even Kohza, who had come back with his father for the celebration, managed to keep their princess from feeling isolated or melancholy that evening. The palace opened to Alabasta and Alubarna in turn welcomed the palace. Soldiers and former rebels alike danced together around fragrant bonfires or lost money betting on the evening’s moonlight camel races. Vivi laughed and talked and spun around with groups of children who knew the best treats always came from the door by the palace’s back wall. Carue stayed by her side that night and Eyelash, and the kingdom finally (finally) felt as though it had healed.
Later that week, Vivi and Carue snuck out at midnight and headed for Nanohana. Eight hours later, the princess stared out over the sparkling waves and absently ate her candied mikans. They were too sweet and stuck to her teeth but they were what she had chosen. Her fingers traced their sign over her left arm and, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Vivi reflected on her choices. The loneliness and the longing still lingered, made worse by the silence brought on after the War at Marineford. But the regret had finally begun to fade, perhaps prompted by the joy and peace she had shared with her countrymen several nights ago. Vivi sat until the noon sun beat familiarly down upon her head and then mounted Carue to head for Alubarna. Toto was still at the palace and Vivi had concluded she had some questions to ask the expert about trying to grow citrus trees in the desert.
