Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-28358106-20170609225054/@comment-28358106-20170612195028

Cyndwella starts to say something to Imperia, but thinks the better of it. She simply sighs and shrugs.

"What I really want right now is cake and ice cream. And a lot of other stuff they wouldn't allow on church grounds, but I'll settle for as much sugar as I can stuff in my face."

Inside the chapel's cloister, Asja moves to a chair and sits down, carefully folding the pleats of her dress. Thomas follows and sits next to her.

They are silent for a time, contemplating the moment that is now very close. Thomas speaks first, his even voice the only sound in the room.

"Asja," he folds his hands and leans forward. "I...have to tell you something before you go through with this. I...I haven't been very fair to you.  I've broken my cardinal rule."

She looks to him, her face expressionless. "Please explain."

He refolds his hands, not looking up. "When the Regent requested for me to create you, I did so without thinking that I might have to play a part in your life. It just...never occurred to me.  When you turned out like you did, I treated it as if it were a disease to cure.  Not as if you were a person who had specific needs."

She cocks her head slightly. "You gave me runic adjustments to counteract the effects of the sensory overload that would have otherwise incapacitated me. How else would you treat it?"

"As if you were my daughter, and not a machine to be fixed."

The words hang in the air, like a curse long feared, but finally spoken. He continues.

"I approached it clinically. It never occurred to me that you might be helped by human contact.  That despite your...condition, you might best be served with stability.  Human stability.  Not a closed environment.  And Cire came in and did what I didn't even think to do.  He looked past what I thought was my only vision of how things should be."

Asja pauses. "To be fair, Doctor, I did not make it easy for anyone to get close. And if I have any say in the matter, I will keep it that way until I deem it necessary."

"Fair enough."

Thomas' voice is quiet as he stares at the floor. Asja speaks again, this time in a conciliatory tone.

"If it...helps, I never thought of you as a father."

His brows drop. "That doesn't help at all."

"No. Not as a father.  But you will always be my creator.  And that is something that I will always be grateful for, in ways I will never be able to adequately express."

As Thomas looks up in surprise, Asja stands and crosses the room. "I suppose this is as good a time as any," she says. "I have something for you."