Posted by Civilian Karilan Massat (Owner, Quill and Parchment Books) in The Quill & Parchment: TMODJ (PRSIM)

Posted by Civilian Rafael Torres (Resident) in The Quill & Parchment: TMODJ (PRSIM)

Posted by Civilian Karilan Massat (Owner, Quill and Parchment Books) in The Quill & Parchment: TMODJ (PRSIM)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Back inside the bookstore, Karilan walked slowly back to the coffee bar and looked at her new employee. “Mr. Torres…” She began softly, “…I… I’m so sorry. I know you and Mr. Jones were close. And that was no way to find out. Please, have a seat. I’ll make us both something.” She gestured to one of the tables and then went about making a special coffee fou d only on Delta III.

Raf pulled the last bag out of the crate and then collapsed the container, sliding it to the side. He moved to the table and sat down with a sigh.

She set a cup in front of Torres and took a seat. “How do you feel?” she asked gingerly.

Karilan

His hands slipped around the mug, soaking in the warmth just until the point where it became uncomfortable. “He and I… we’ve lost a lot of the people we’ve known. Dash was the only one who truly made it out when he was younger.” Raf lifted his gaze to meet Karilan’s. “And honestly I’d rather have heard it from her than from some news report. I guess… I just never thought Dash would go before me, ya know? Given our lives and all.”

~Raf Torres

Katilan watched him closely and opened themselves up to what Torres was feeling. “Our fates are not set in stone, Mr. Torres. They are shaped constantly by our choices and actions. Mr. Jones seemed like a good man. And I know many will feel his loss. But right now, I am only concerned with how that loss impacts you.”

Karilan

Raf sipped his coffee, letting the steam waft on his face for a moment. “Dash was always like a younger brother to me. We grew up together, but didn’t really become friends till that ass of a father of his died. Then Dash was always around. I took him under my wing, but I can admit I wasn’t always the best big brother. I didn’t look out for him the way I should have. I regret that. I wanted to make it up to him somehow. I guess if he could see I was really trying, that things would be better between us.” He ran a hand over his head, dragging his nails through his scalp. He could feel that tension inside, that gnawing that he could never could get rid of. Oh, it had been better since rehab, but he knew all too well how easily it slipped back in.

He dropped his hand and looked at Karilan, eyes full of despair and sadness. “It’s not fair,” he said quietly. “For him or myself.”

~Rafael Torres

Karilan looked at him for a long moment and then said “No. No it is not.” She sipped her coffee, staring into the cup for a moment before saying “What was Eela asking you about, Mr. Torres? I do not mean to pry… but I want to help you. I do not wish for your past… or the past of Mr. Jones… to further complicate things for you. I want to try, if you will allow me, to do what I can to insulate you from the pressure this… occurrence… is bound to bring to you. I do not want to see it hamper your recovery… or your continued sobriety.”

Karilan

He frowned. “I’m not quite sure. I can tell by context that she knows about stuff from before, and I can’t presume to know how much, but…” His hands tightened around the mug. “Dash came to see me when I was in prison. He had finished his community service and was still attending a special boarding school. Something had happened and he wanted advice. I understood that he wanted me to be his big brother and so I tried. I told him to not let himself get derailed because of a bad decision. That he had a future to fight for and opportunities other weren’t going to get.” Raf actually broke into a sad smirk. “I also told him he better make good use of those opportunities or I was going to come kick his ass after I got out of jail. He laughed, even if he knew I was serious.”

Torres sighed. “The thing is, as far as I know only myself and one other person know about that incident, that bad decision. I don’t know if it has anything to do with anything at all that’s going on, but if he was worried about something and was having such a hard time telling her that he wanted to wait? Karilan, it can’t be good. It has to be pretty big. Dash doesn’t worry about little things.

~Rafael Torres

Karilan weighed the options before them and finally took a deep breath. “Mr. Torres… tell me what the ‘bad decision’ was. I am no expert in political machinations, especially at that high a level, but I think you and I need to both cover our proverbial backsides. Secrets are like a glitch in the computer code. If you leave them buried, the entire system will become compromised at some point.”

Karilan

Raf froze and then shook his head. He pushed his chair back and rose, moving back towards the coffee bar. Karilan had stopped Dasca from asking him more, and he understood why. The woman was upset in her own way, and wanted answers. If he thought his answer might have helped, he would have told her. Did that make him weak? Untrustworthy? He already felt uncomfortable telling Karilan that much, but he owed her so much already. The admission that he and Dash had talked about stuff going on in his life seemed okay. After all, it hadn’t bene the only time they had touched base.

He braced his hands on the countertop, his fingertips tracing the lines of the polished wood grain. “I… I made a promise. One of the very few I’ve ever kept.”

~Rafael Torres