A fine day for a fair [OPEN]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: The crew of the Winding Way
Content: It's time for the fair!
Setting: The streets of Shashta
Time: About an hour and a half before lunch
Warnings: Probably nothing worse than silliness.
Notes: This'll be another free-for-all thread, but please try to keep to doing one thread for each booth, unless there's a huge time lapse in between

Comments

[reaperbait]

Rhyme had organized most of the area for the petting zoo, there were cats, dogs, mice and birds all congregated around the small penned off area, and they were all behaving very well.

She sat at the entrance with a fake smile plastered on, even though she was a hair's breath away from tears. Ness was gone, he'd left, and the fact that he had said she and Hana were his best friends made it worse not better.

She sat, taking the occasional coin from the child or parent who wanted to play with the animals, she even smiled and told them all about the animals and even tried to sell some of the kittens that still needed homes.

Fobbie was sleeping on her lap, and she was pretty, but she wasn't a very good substitute for Noise or Hana.

[nosexybodiesplz]

Laharl huffed irritatedly for what must have been the fifteenth time in the last hour. Stupid backwater world without dimensional gates - he had to walk *all* the way to where the Winding Way was carrying his sword (at least he found a strap to carry it with - it was a pain holding it all the time) and the big sack of bandit loot and reward money

[reaperbait]

Rhyme smiled at the boy standing next to her. He seemed like he wasn't in a very good mood. She wasn't either, but some bad moods could be cured with kittens.

"It's a petting zoo," she said. "You pay a small fee-" she pointed to the sign stating the price- "and then you can go in and pet the animals. It makes people happy."

There are a few kids who seem to be enjoying the whole process, most of the parents look bored.

[nosexybodiesplz]

Laharl scratched his head with his free hand. "Pet the animals...wait, they're pets?"

Not as cool as a gladitorial battle, but this could yet be a good show. Sometimes pet zombies back home would get a little ornery and start gnawing on their master, and they'd have to go and get an axe and chop them up until they behaved. Always fun to watch.

He turned back to the girl. "Oh, I get ya. Any of them get annoyed yet?" As if to answer his own question, now that he was actually facing the girl, he could see she wasn't armed.

"Huh...I guess not, or you'd be more eaten. You new to handling pets?"

[beastmimicry]

Since setting up the fair had required a fair bit of work, Shido had left the little girl he was partnered with to watch the animal pen while he went to help with some of the labour. It was probably for the best - he wasn't exactly great with people - but he couldn't shake the nagging sense of guilt because even though he had almost no empathy to speak of he could tell the girl had been upset. Since he didn't keep a very close watch on the network he wasn't sure why, but it bothered him nonetheless

[reaperbait]

"Well of course they're pets." What sort of question was that?

The kid was really peculiar now that she was looking at him. He couldn't be much older than her, but he was wearing a really big sword. He also wasn't dressed like normal, and his ears marked him clearly as a demihuman.

"Why would we want them to get annoyed?" Rhyme scratched Fobbie's head and the kitten purred before curling up more tightly.

"Well I haven't had a pet for very long, but I haven't had any problem with them. It sounds like you're talking about animals that are a lot scarier than kittens."

She took the cake from Shido instantly. "Thank you, Mr Shido." Peanut came over to the edge of the pen to beg for cake but Rhyme stayed strong against the begging.

"Wow, that lion's going to be a big hit .... or scare everyone away."

[nosexybodiesplz]

"Well they're kind of boring just sitting there."

He indicated the small cat in her lap. "I mean, look at that one. All it's done the whole time I've been here is lay there! Zombies are much better."

He snorted, remembering something Aramis said. "People complain that they're messy, but I just have the Prinnies clean up when they get all drippy in the sun, or sew them together when they fall apart."

Then he eyed the lion. "Huh, maybe the one you have was just a baby. These any livelier?" It certainly *looked* like it could be fiercer. Those teeth would be at home on a dragon.

A small dragon, anyway.

[beastmimicry]

Shido opened the gate for the lion, watching the faces of the children light up with glee and those of their parents paling with horror. Still, the big cat didn't prove itself to be any 'livelier' like the boy said. It flopped down quite lazily, not making any kind of threatening move when a few of the braver children inched forward to pet its thick coat.

Shido himself took a seat on the fence, eyeing the boy suspiciously. "Just who are you, anyway?"

He didn't look like he was any kind of threat, but Shido was hear to watch the girl as well as keep an eye on the animals and the boy had yet to fall into either category of 'friend' or 'foe'.

[reaperbait]

"Zombies? That doesn't sound like a very good pet at all! Kittens are just great, they love you and -- never --"

She doesn't start crying, but she does look down at Fobbie and pet the kitten more. She purred and nuzzled Rhyme's hand, obvious to her owner's absence and how sad that made her.

She took a deep breath and gave the boy a smile.

"I'm Rhyme!" She introduced herself, trying to push away feelings from Ness and his stupid running away somewhere she couldn't find him.

[nosexybodiesplz]

"Heh, zombies are great pets. Unless you really pulp them, no matter what happens, they always get back up and keep following you around. They're almost like Prinnies, except they don't complain. And they're kind of smelly."

There was that word, though - "love." Could it be she was like Flonne? Another one of those Love Freaks? If so...whatever was bothering her must be pretty big, because Flonne only got fake-happy when something really bad had happened, like the fight over the pudding.

Stupid Etna.

"As for who I am...I suppose I can forgive people here for not knowing who the great Overlord Laharl is, but come a year from now...no mercy! Haaaaahahahaha!"

Oh yes, he'd be *running* this place in a year. Uh, assuming he couldn't get home before then.

[beastmimicry]

After quickly coming to the conclusion that the boy was frankly insane, Shido decided the best thing to do would be ignore him entirely...or try to, but the maniacal laugh made it fairly difficult. With an aggravated sigh he asked, "Don't you have anything better to do? If you're not here for the animals then leave."

He wasn't entirely oblivious to the girl's distress, but he didn't know what to do about it. The kittens seemed to bring her comfort though. Maybe that was why the Winding Way had so darn many of them? This, at least, he could approve of. Animals were much better, much quieter companions than humans, and not nearly so troublesome.

[reaperbait]

Rhyme listened to Laharl go on about the benefits of pet zombies or something called a prinny. They both sounded really dependable -- and would never leave and --

She pulled her legs up to her chest, nearly squishing Fobbie in the process but the kitten didn't leave just mewed.

She hugged Fobbie tighter and then the tears she'd been holding back all day broke forth and started to roll down her face.

This was the worst birthday ever.

[nosexybodiesplz]

Laharl was about to tell the weird guy with the headband off when Rhyme began to cry. He was the last person to talk to her, so it had to be his fault; normally he'd ignore this sort of thing but somehow - maybe just the mention of love, maybe it was her hair and stature, whatever - she reminded him of Flonne.

He hurriedly reached for something, anything to say to calm her down. The problem was...he didn't actually know what set her off. At a loss, he picked the topic he'd last mentioned - zombies.

"Uh...er...I mean, I guess zombies aren't perfect - sometimes they do run away, but in the end, they usually come back. And if you go looking for them when they do go, they seem kinda happy when you find them...even if you do punish them for it. Almost like they like you more

*LOL* I think we fail at comforting,

[beastmimicry]

When the girl burst into tears, Shido was clueless on how to react, and for a few moment all he could do was stare at her helplessly as the boy desperately rambled on in an attempt to make her feel better. At least he seemed equally stunned by this sudden outburst, but the girl was technically under Shido's watch and he was definitely not equipped to deal with this. His beast whistle was unfortunately not designed to help him summon up other crew members in times of crisis, and he didn't exactly want to leave her alone here with the insane kid while she was bawling her eyes out.

Hopping tentatively off his post, he knelt down beside the girl and put an awkward hand on her shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”

It was probably not the best question to ask, but he was no good with ‘feelings’ and especially no good with little girls. He wondered if he could send one of the birds to go and fetch Giselle, who would definitely be able to fix this much better than Shido ever could.

[reaperbait]

Rhyme was still crying, but between Laharl's assurances that her 'kittens or whatever' would come back and how bad Shido and Laharl were at comforting.

Ness and Hana were way better ---

She sniffled. This was silly, she was supposed to be happy and cheerful and help Kurt and the rest of the Winding Way earn money, not be crying at strangers on the street. Stiff upper lip!

She wiped away her tears and gave Fobbie one final squeeze before she relaxed a little more.

"Did you want to see the petting zoo, Laharl?"

[nosexybodiesplz]

Relieved that the girl had stopped crying, Laharl wasn't quite back to his normal, haughty state of mind, one that would never want to go pet small, furry animals.

"Uh...sure, I guess."

He put down the large bag and rummaged around in it - revealing the contents to those nearby and paying attention - until he came up with the right coins, then handed them to Rhyme.