[Day: Tuesday, Ramuh 3rd, 1360.] [It's about noon on a lovely day, the beginnings of what may be a storm tomorrow just barely beginning to show. But, for the most part, it's sunny and clear if a little cool. We find Leran out in one of the lightly forested grasslands protected by the crystal. Why? He's catching the council lunch.] [They gotta eat, you know. Especially when the one who told you to do it can brick up your room.] [Mini Start.] * Leran is currently hiding behind a bush, long sword in hand, waiting for a rabite to get close enough to stabbity. He's still wearing two shirts - one over his ripped one. And stupidly, not a coat. [The rabites frolic in the field, bouncing and nibbling at bits of grass and leaves. One starts making its way closer to Leran!] * Leran watches it veeeeeeeeery closely. [It gets closer. And closer! And just when it's within striking distance, something goes crunch behind Leran, and it bounces away!] Wait! Come back! Dammit, it doesn't hurt that much! * Leran sighs disgustedly and turns around. [Okay, now it's totally not coming back.] * Nikki smiles almost sheepishly as she waves. She's the one who made the crunching noise, after all. "Hey Leran." Today, Nikki's dressed about as plainly as usual: cloth pants and shirt, and her leather boots, and her duster. And a backpack, for whatever reason. * Leran frowns, looks like he's about to complain, then just shuts his mouth. It's only a rabite, after all. Hey, Nikki. * Nikki looks around, then has a seat in the shade. She deposits her backpack next to her. "What're you hunting for?" Lunch. * Nikki blinks. Can't you just go to the butcher's if you want meat that bad? Granddad said go catch it. So I'm trying to catch it. Was, anyways. * Nikki tilts her head. "What, is that part of your audition or something? I thought it was over." I thought so too. Maybe he's making me do a little extra training. * Leran gets behind the bush again. "If I get one or two and get the rest from the butcher I'll be okay." He's whispering! Woo, whisper. * Nikki snickers. "Good idea." She opens her backpack, looks in, and pulls out darts and a rope. [Rabites frolic! Frolic, rabites, frolic, with your little rabite lives.] * Nikki starts tying said darts to the rope. The knots aren't very good, and she has to redo them every once in a while. * Leran looks over at her like she's lost it. "Uh, Nikki?" * Nikki doesn't look up. "What?" You had your audition, right? Yup! Did they hit you on the head extra hard or something? You're acting awful weird. Huh? No, the audition went fine. I think. I have a hard time telling. Well, I'm pretty sure they think I'm a wimp and stuff, but that's kind of normal. * Nikki fumbles with a knot, and she frowns. Alright, but you're just being awfully quiet today. And plus, you haven't insulted me once. * Leran frowns too. "Also, you're tying a rope to a dart." * Nikki looks up at Leran and raises an eyebrow. "I'm gonna go fishing for rabites." She sounds perfectly serious. "Don't you know anything?" And I'm really just broken up that my duster's got holes in it now. Not like that's gonna stop me from wearing it, but I have to get it fixed. Fishing. For rabites. Yup. * Leran reaches out and puts his hand on Nikki's forehead, with a mildly concerned look. "Did my granddad throw rocks at you, and you didn't dodge, or something?" You don't have a fever. * Nikki bats Leran's hand away. "No, I just wanna see if it works." * Leran pulls back. "Okay, if you're sure." He sits back and watches. "Was it Gwesus with you, too?" * Nikki drops her darts and rope, then hurriedly picks them up. She clears her throat. "Uh, yeah. I don't think Mona's mom likes me very much." I don't think she likes anyone. What technique did she do? She used a pentathrust on me, but then she threw me into the WALL. * Leran rubs the back of his neck. "It hurt like hell." * Nikki screws her face a little, then shudders. "Uh, I dunno. All I know is, at the end, I kinda realized my feet couldn't touch the ground." * Nikki drops her darts and rope, then pulls off her duster, tossing it to Leran. The back's ripped up really badly. * Leran winces. "Ooh, tough break." He looks up at Nikki, and wisely shuts up just in time for him to catch it. "Wow, yeah." Yeah. * Nikki is quiet for a sec, then she says, "I don't know if I'm getting on the caravan." * Leran looks through the holes at Nikki. "You can't have done any worse than Mona. Plus, you can do that summoning thing." * Nikki pshes. "Mona? Please, she's Gwesus' *daughter*." They'll totally take her. For the good of the caravan. Yeah, but Gwesus is only one vote. And Mona can't do much. Plus she's totally wussier than you are, for sure. * Nikki snickers. "No way. She's got that whole 'please set me on fire' thing." Plus, she knows all sorts of junk about monsters. And languages. And other stuff. Hey, we can learn that on the road. Granddad says every caravan needs a summoner, for the really big stuff. Yeah, I'll throw dogs at monsters. * Nikki sighs and stretches her legs. You could make them sick with cute from that ... what-cha-callit, the Carbohydrate or whatever. Carbuncle, Leran. His name's Carbuncle. It's not that hard. Easy for you to say. Your brain's not full of stuff about rocks. * Leran folds Nikki's coat and sets it beside him. * Nikki laughs. "Yeah, rocks. Hey, did they ask you about rocks?" Uh. Squenix kind of did. Really? She gave me a piece of paper to read about rocks. I have no idea what that was all about. * Nikki shrugs. "Who knows what anything Squenix did is about. She drank myrr, y'know. That'd mess anybody up." * Leran blinks. "She _what_?" * Nikki looks around, then leans in towards Leran. "Drank the myrr." She nods. "At least, that's what I hear happened." Why on earth would you drink myrr?! Beats me! I'm not gonna do it. ... I wonder what it tastes like. ... Okay, that'd be one reason. Man, that's creepy, though. Maybe it made her better at blowing stuff up. Oh! Maybe Gwesus drank the myrr, too. That's why she and Squenix were the only two that came back. .. that would explain some stuff about Gwesus. * Nikki nods. "Sure would." * Leran grabs the rope and pulls on it, drawing the dart nearer. "I bet her brain's all full of magic and there's no room left for sense. She likes to eat, though." * Nikki giggles. "Yeah. She gave me cherries. I got to eat my house." * Nikki lets Leran do that. She's not really thinking about fishing. She offered me a cashew but granddad said it'd look better if I didn't take anything. * Leran coils up the rope as he pulls. Really? I dunno if that has anything to do with it. Don't either. Sometimes he's as nutty as Squenix. * Nikki grins. "Which would explain the cashews." * Leran arcs the dart over the bush and out into the rabite field. "Hey, yeah, it would." Hey, why are we using a dart? * Nikki watches Leran do that. "'Cause that's all I was supposed to have." Thing they asked you, huh? * Nikki nods. * Leran pulls on the rope slowly, trolling for rabite. I was kinda stuck for an answer. I mean, I suck at knots, I don't know about traps, I couldn't move, and it's not like I can charm animals with my singing or something. ... And I can't aim. * Nikki frowns a little, then laughs. "I guess those aren't good things for a caravan." Doesn't matter. Other people can do those things. * Leran feels the rope jerk a little, and stops pulling on it. He tenses up. ssssh. * Nikki nods and looks like she's about to say something, then shushes. * Leran readies, then gives the rope a MIGHTY YANK. [A rabite, looking incredibly surprised, goes sailing over the bush to land between Leran and Nikki. The rope trails out of its mouth.] * Nikki laughs. "It worked!" And then the rabite more or less sails past Leran and into her. * Leran quickly pulls out his sword and bops the rabite dead. "Hey, yeah, it did. That's awesome!" * Nikki giggles, looking over the dead critter. "It is. I bet with bait, it'd be faster." Yeah. What do rabites eat? Carrots? Um, carrots. Greens... * Nikki blinks. Greens! I'll be right back. * Nikki jumps to her feet and runs off. * Leran looks at her go, and works on skinning the rabite. * Nikki returns just as Leran finishes. She's a little out of breath, and she's holding a small bundle of greens commonly used for chocobos. "Here. It's fresh, but... the cheap stuff." She plunks it down. That's okay, I don't think the rabite cares. * Leran wedges the dart in the middle of the greens. "Look good?" * Nikki flops back onto the ground, still catching her breath. "Yeah..." She shakes her head, then peers at it. Looks good to me. * Leran nods, then wings the dart and bait over the bush again. He hunkers down and waits, but he's grinning at Nikki. * Nikki grins, too. This totally beats chasing them around. There's a moment of silence as they wait, and she loses the grin. "Hey, Leran..." Yeah? Do you think it could happen again? I mean, the thing with Gwesus. * Leran looks confused. "Well, yeah, it could. I mean, that's why they did it, right?" Yeah. * Nikki bites her lip, then she blurts, "I don't take that stuff very well." Her face is actually a little red. "They talk about it, but it's another thing when it happens." * Leran is looking upward, listening for the rabite. "But you don't have to worry. You've got me to hide behind, like always. I didn't mind it so much, so it's not a problem." How can you not *mind*? It's- it was- * Nikki waves vaguely, then just throws up her hands. It _hurt_, yeah, but after that it was kinda peaceful. I mean, now that I think about it. I was kinda upset when it was going on. * Nikki bites her lip again, thinking about that. I didn't think it was very peaceful. Kinda floaty. I guess it's not for everybody. * Leran grins. "But like I said, you don't gotta worry about it." Nah, it was empty. I could get lost there and- * Nikki shifts her position, then shrugs. "Yeah, I guess not." * Leran tenses. "I think I got one..." [The rope wiggles!] * Leran gives it a yank, and another rabite comes sailing over the bush! This time it lands on Leran's head. Ahh! Hold still! Getitoffgetitoff! * Nikki scrambles to her feet, gets one of the darts, and smacks the rabite with it a couple times. While it's chomped down on Leran's head. It falls off. Euck, now I've got rabite drool in my hair! Yeah, that happens when they bite your head. * Leran shakes his head like a dog, spraying it all over. * Nikki gets some on her and aughs, falling onto her butt. "Eew!" See! Now you know! Nasty! That's so gross! * Nikki wipes it off on Leran's shirt. * Leran looks stoic and refrains from sliming more on her. * Leran then sighs and quickly skins the other one. "Let's get to the butcher and get the rest of their lunch so I can go wash this off." * Nikki looks down at the rabites, then nods. She gathers up the fishing supplies and shoves them back in her backpack, along with the greens. We've probably gotta wait for them to finish with whoever they're interviewing now. Yeah. Who's in there now? And don't tell me you don't know. * Nikki pulls on her tattered duster, then her backpack, and climbs to her feet. * Leran grabs up the rabite skins and flesh, stands, and waits for Nikki's answer. * Nikki checks the sun. She squints a little, then grins. "Probably Mona." * Leran grins back. "Lucky her. Lucky us, maybe we'll catch her on the way out and get to laugh." * Nikki giggles. "Aww, that's not nice. We have to *pretend* she's got her privacy." ( which day is this? ) (Ramuh 3rd.) Oh, all right. Let's go and get some fixings, maybe the council will be okay with sandwiches. (For the record, Sai Link goes tomorrow.) Hey, rabite sandwiches! I wonder if Squenix likes gravy. * Nikki starts heading off, letting Leran hold the carcasses. "We could sneak into your house the back way. I bet your family's too busy minding the shop to notice." Gods, I bet she does. I bet she eats bowls of it. I bet she drinks it COLD. * Leran nods. "Probably. And EW." Yeah. ... Let's not give them cold gravy. No. I hope Gertrude is out playing or something, or she'll give us away. Bah. If she's there, leave her to me. Gladly. * Nikki keeps smiling as she heads off to the butcher's. Yay, butcher's and cheating! (woo!) * Leran follows Nikki! [Mini End! Clavat are teh win!]