#technobaby

Phil, after scolding Techno for killing all the chickens: Do you have anything you’d like to say?

“Welcome aboard the Zephyr,” Puck grins, alighting next to the gangplank and bowing so low his hair almost brushes the snow.

Ignoring him completely, Lena bounds up the slats with a bright, “Hello again, Zeph!”

Aster adjusts her bag and studies the airship again. She…has no idea what she’s looking at. Objectively she sees a narrow, deep bottom - hull? it’s called a hull, right? - with an odd veiny…material branching through the boards and two wings of various sizes and placements, presumably on either side. It’s hard to see the deck from the ground, but she thinks she can count one mast and the top of the upper deck. It looks like it was built to be pretty, from the white wood to the spring-green trim to the swirls and stars carved into accents.

Next to her the Master picks up one of the bags Aster had set down and starts up the way after xyr daughter. “Thank you, Puck. How soon before we get back?”

“About a day, counting the time I need to rest. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

And now it’s just Aster, with her bags on the ground, standing next to Puck at the foot of the rest of her life.

Fen is standing behind her. Watching.

She refuses to turn around.

She cannot move.

“I don’t trust that you can get us there in one piece,” she shoots at Puck.

He has the audacity to wink at her. “First time performance anxiety? Don’t worry - I’ll be gentle.”

She punches him.

His grin only widens, even as he rubs his sore arm. “What, don’t believe me? I promise I’m very skilled at this particular activity, and everyone I’ve ever done it with will agree - just ask L—” he cuts himself off with a laugh and a light leap into the air, just in time to avoid Aster’s next swing. “Gotta catch me first!” he calls through his giggles, vanishing aboard the Zephyr.

Growling to herself, Aster snatches up her remaining bag and starts up the gangplank. She’s being baited and she knows it, but she doesn’t want to mind. She’s almost grateful as she steps onto the gangplank.

Almost. She can’t let him get away with it. Good thing she has all the ammunition she needs coating every inch of the ground. All she has to do is carefully stretch herself into the ice and snow and gather a few snowballs.

Puck is still laughing to himself as Aster joins him, Lena, and the Master on deck. She notices he’s keeping both Lena and the Master between them, which is good - it means he doesn’t expect the three snowballs to come flying up over the railing, whacking the back of his head in rapid succession.

“AAAA THATS COLD—”

“Puck, what did you do?”

“He deserved it.”

“Oh I don’t doubt that,” Lena laughs. “I just wanna know.”

“I just said I’d be gentle with her, seeing as it’s her first time and all,” Puck whines, brushing snow out of his hair and yelping every time stray clumps make it down his back.

“That’s what she said,” Lena blurts before ducking. Unfortunately for her, Aster is still surrounded by enough of her own element to shoot as many snowballs as she wants.

The deck itself is clean and neat, save for the stray snow at Lena and Puck’s feet, with skillfully carved green railings and more of that veiny material snaking its way down from the upper deck. The sails, neatly furled on the mast, are the same spring green as the railings, the stairs, and the doorframe under the upper deck. There’s no wheel on the upper deck - it looks more like a control panel, from what Aster can see. Even as she takes it in, Puck starts for the control panel, absently running his hand along the railings of the ship.

“Can one of you help Fen take in the gangplank?” he asks as he goes.

“Aye aye cap’n!” Lena salutes, darting back to the entrance.

“You’re gonna want to sit, or at least hold onto something,” the Master says before disappearing through the door.

Aster takes the hint and drifts to the side, close to where Lena and Fen are raising and stowing the gangplank. A hum starts, thrumming through the air and the soles of her feet - turning around she sees the veins in the boards are lit with a bright green light, and Puck at the control panel on the upper deck with a strange half-smile.

The hum changes frequency, the breeze stutters, and the Zephyr slowly - slowly - lifts off. If not for the fact that Fen’s waving figure is slowly but surely getting smaller, Aster would hardly know they’d left the ground at all. Sooner than she expects they’re above the trees, and Lena slides into place next to her.

“Attention, passengers,” Puck calls, focus never leaving the controls in front of him, “this is your captain speaking. I strongly recommend you hold onto Zeph and your breakfast, because we are outta here.”

Haha!

Markers

• Puck has prescription heart-shaped glasses with a strawberry chain to hang them around his neck

• Davey dislikes him, not because he’s with her ex, but Just Because (I like to think Puck rolled really really bad on his Charisma check when he met her and she never forgot)