Secret Santa RP log~
Who: loudest_egan and foxy_hervey
What: SEKRIT SANTA ...oh, the irony, Hervey. Really.
Skald Egan was not going to make the trip up to the manor without his arms laden with gifts, since he wasn't going to go back down to the inn to pick up anything he forgot. Not with that ice out there. Bernadette and Kyle weren't the only people he was hunting out, he also had a certain pirate to find. He prowled toward the tavern, first, figuring that was the safest place to start looking.
Hervey was wandering around with socks on of all things, looking a little agitated as he glanced out the windows every now and then. When would this damn weather die down? It was a pain in the ass losing his boots, and the fact that they'd probably be ruined beyond repair by now was like insult to injury. "... This sucks!"
Ahh, there was no mistaking that voice. Skald turned and stalked up behind Hervey, figuring he'd be heard coming tramping in his new winter boots, but yelling anyway. "Hey! Pirate!"
Suddenly knocked out of his 'thoughts', Hervey blinked stupidly as he spun around, not too enthusiastic about hearing that voice while bootless. "Oh boy, you've gotta' be kidding me..."
"Heh!" Skald strode up to him, grinning. "What's the matter? Up to no good, are we?" He noticed, then, that Hervey was not wearing any boots. "...sneaking around sock-footed? That looks mighty suspicious to me."
"Suspicious or stupid?" Hervey looked down at his own feet, considering them carefully... or, well, as carefully as Hervey could ever consider something. He then shrugged a little uselessly, sighing just a little. "I ain't up to something, old man. I just..." He swallowed his pride. "... lost my boots. In the snow."
Skald raised one thick eyebrow. "Eh? You mean to tell me you were outside when it happened? You all right, then?"
"I'm fine!" Hervey waved a hand quickly, a little awkward about matters concerning worry. He waved in the general direction of his body for a moment, mumbling a little. "A bit of a burn, so it hurts like hell to move, but I'm used to that, y'know?"
"A burn?" Skald looked alarmed for the briefest second, but it quickly faded into one of his more normal frowns. "Huh. I see. Well, at least you're not still stuck out there, you had enough of a mind to get out of your boots. Why are you still running around without a borrowed pair, though? Nobody fit your size?"
"... Sigurd's feet are too big for me, and I'd rather die than ask certain other people." Hervey grumbled, though he looked a little more good-natured again now. "So who do you think owns good boots, huh?"
"Hm...that's a good question," Skald said ponderously. "I got two pairs now, but I'm pretty sure that if Sigurd's feet are too big, mine will be even more so. Heh!" He chuckled a little. "Too bad that isn't what I've got for you!"
"... What?" Hervey said it stupidly, not really getting the sudden jump from boots to that. Why would Skald of all people have something for him? Unless it was a ticket to the cells, of course. "Wait a second, I ain't done anything..."
"What makes you think it has anything to do with your shenanigans?" Skald challenged. "Except that, well, technically, it is your fault, Hervey. You told me so yourself."
"... What?" Hervey echoed himself unwittingly, and just stared. "Right, now you're starting to freak me out a little, old man. What're you on about!?"
Skald grinned broadly. He loved doing this to people - the fact that Hervey fell for it almost as easily as Bernadette was too much. "The secret santa, you idiot!" he roared, laughing loudly. He brought out a package from somewhere under his cloak.
It took a few seconds for that to sink in, and when it did sink in, Hervey's expression was caught between wanting to punch a kitten and pleasant surprise. "... Wait, seriously? You got me?"
"That I did," Skald snickered. "You didn't guess? That means I'm good at the secret part. Heheh!" He waggled the wrapped parcel tauntingly. "It's not going to help your footgear problem, but a present is a present, innit?"
"You're right, but..." Hervey eyed the package suspiciously, still unable to believe his luck. ... He had pretty interesting luck when it came to these damn exchanges and dates. The suspicious look slowly changed to one of defeat, sort of. "... ahhh, man, now I feel like a jerk!"
"Huh?" Skald looked genuinely confused. "How come? You didn't sneak something bad into my shoes when I wasn't looking, did you?"
"No, no I didn't!" The pirate quickly waved his hands in a gesture of no, but the guilty look remained. "I mean... I was kinda' a jerk to you, and you were the guy giving me a gift, y'know...?"
"Tch! It's not like I can't take a little ribbing now and then." Skald waggled the parcel again. "You gonna open it, or not?"
"O-okay! Okay!" He sheepishly reached out and took the parcel, and self-consciously began unwrapping it, eyeing the present anxiously in case it turned out to in fact be a joke.
Skald grinned again, waiting to see the reaction. "I saw it in Vinay del Zexay and thought you could probably use it." It was a thick tome, a book attributed to "Gordon" titled The Gentleman's Guide to Etiquette. "Girls see you carrying that around, they might think you were trying to better yourself."
"..." Hervey could only stare, absolutely dumbfounded, and... speechless. Hervey was practically never speechless, so this had to be something of a freakin' feat. ".......... Uh, really?" He couldn't even muster an expression of appreciation he was so damn muted. He looked up at Skald, and tore the rest of the wrapping back to examine the book further.
Throwing his head back, Skald laughed long and loud. That was pretty much the look he was fishing for, and he got it. When he could catch his breath, he suggested, "Take a look inside." It was actually hollowed out, with a lead-glass captain's flask hidden inside, but he figured he'd better warn Hervey or else the pirate might never open that particular book.
"A look inside?" Hervey gave Skald this withering look at the laugh and the suggestion, but he sighed and played along anyway, grudgingly opening to a few random pages... until he found that the book didn't have any actual pages, and he was suddenly staring at this flask. A startled sound left him, and his previous expression was replaced with a broad grin. "... Damn!"
"I did say girls would see you carrying the book, didn't I?" Skald said smartly. "I never said anything about you reading it."
"Heh!" Hervey had to admit to himself (like hell he'd ever admit it verbally) that he appreciated Skald's crazy style of humour. It was pretty refreshing, and Hervey sure had been caught out. "Well, I don't know about the carrying thing, but..." He picked up the flask with his free hand, laughing. "... this is perfect."
Skald folded his arms proudly across his brawny chest. "If there's one thing I know from experience," he said, "it's how to keep your captain from knowing where your secret stash is. I know it's an old trick, but it's a good one."
"Well, I guess it ain't too suspicious having me keep a book like that, huh?" Hervey grinned wryly, once again looking over the book. Who the hell was this Gordon guy? If he ever found him he'd make sure to hit him over the head or something... with his own 'book.' "Seriously, old man, this is great. I didn't know you had it in ya!"
"And you can tell everybody all about how ol' Skald Egan has this horrible sense of humor and gave it to you for the secret santa, and no one will be any wiser." The admiral grinned boldly. "Well, there you go. I hope that's better than your past problems with this little gift thing you do?"
"Way better!" This gift was up there with Juan's, that was for sure. He could use it and it totally suited him -- the flask, that was. The book, well... good cover. "I almost wanna' give you something in return, old man! ... But I'm broke and I've lost my boots, and this weather ain't too flash for shoppin', eh?"
"Well, that's not how the gift exchange works, is it? I gotta wait for whoever got my name in turn, right?" Skald waved a hand. "Not to worry. Just make good use of it, all right?"
"Heh, damn right I will!" Hervey grinned before placing the flask back into the hollow of the thick volume, and then stuck his hand out towards the other man. "Thanks, Skald."
He took the hand and shook it with his usual strong grip. "Happy holidays, Hervey. It was fun, trying to think of what to get a wily pirate."
Something suddenly clicked in Hervey's mind as he returned the strong grip. "... Wait a second, now all that questioning you did is starting to make sense."
Skald's eyes narrowed in a sort of grin. "How do you know I wasn't just yanking your chain for the fun of it?"
Hervey laughed, shaking his head a little. "... I guess that's pretty plausible, too, knowing you. But I'll stick with productive questioning, thanks!"
"As long as the productive questioning isn't me trying to get you to 'fess up to some criminal activity," Skald chuckled in that dry way that hid whether he was being serious or not.
Hervey almost cringed at that, but held it back in favour of a smirk. "Oh yeah? We'll see how that goes down the line! ... I ain't done with piracy, y'know."
"Once a pirate, always a pirate," Skald laughed. "I kind of figured! Just 'cause I like you doesn't mean I won't stop you, though. Heh! This could be kinda fun..."
He paused. "... You know what I said last time about if you were a girl...??"
"Whaaaat? Don't tell me you're not itching to have a real nemesis for once!" the admiral smirked. "Someone to match wits with, to try to outsmart? Give a real run for their money? Hmmmmm?"
"If you're talkin' about being a rival, you're gonna' have to wait in line." Hervey grinned again, looking pretty casual. "Man, I must be a popular target lately or something!"
"Tch. Rival." Skald smacked him across the shoulder. "You've got enough rivals. A nemesis isn't the same. Or how about 'adversary?' Rivals compete for the same thing, nemeses try to stop each other."
Hervey stumbled forward a little -- he needed to start expecting those around Skald or something! "H-hey! ... I guess you kinda' got a point, though I would've thought you'd wanna' be my captain's adversary!"
Skald shrugged idly. "That too. Unless you're not going to sail under her flag, and then I can have two nemeses. That'd be twice the fun."
"Pfft, like I'd ever betray her! If you think splitting us up would make us easier targets, you got another thing coming!" He looked a little smug for a moment.
"Good!" Skald's grin was a little scary. "I like a challenge. Bring it on, pirate."
"I'll bring it on, alright, right when all this crazy weather stuff dies down!" That briefly reminded Hervey of his stupid shoes again, and he looked out the window and sighed. "... I hate the cold."
Skald heaved a sigh. "Yeah, me too. How many more months we got of this? Solstice was last week, so..."
"About a month or two, right?" Hervey shivered just thinking about it, incredibly wistful for the hot sun and cool lake again. "That's a month or two of being cooped up on land, and then a few painful weeks of checking how the boats survived the elements... sheesh."
"I don't know how I'm ever going to survive." Skald folded his arms again. "I've never actually wintered a ship before. You know what it's like in the Islands...winter just means more storms. Looks like we'll have plenty to do come spring, but until then..." He raised an eyebrow speculatively. "...how about we drink away the winter?"
"Heh, better than spending it trying to stay alive from crazy rune monsters." He paused. "Actually, that's kinda' debatable, huh?"
"Kinda. Yeah." Skald tossed his head. "What do you say? Want to have a drink with your soon-to-be-nemesis, or you gonna go find some shoes?"
"... Something tells me I gotta' find some shoes first." Hervey sighed a little, not even wanting to imagine getting drunk and then just wandering out there only to have his feet freeze off or something. "I don't wanna' end up like you with wet socks, man."
Skald threw back his head and laughed again. "Hey, I learned my lesson! I've got proper boots now." He stuck out his feet to prove it. "I hear you, though. Life is never so hard as it is when your feet are wet and cold. Go on, get out of here." He winked, then. "And make sure the ladies see you trying to better yourself."
Hervey shook his head, that sheepish grin right back on his face as he began backing away as he spoke. "... Thanks again for this, eh? I'll give the whole book-demo a try someday, and then you can laugh at me."
"Anytime." Skald waved over his shoulder as he turned and went the other way, glad to finally be in the same building as the tavern. All things considered, he really did need a drink.
What: SEKRIT SANTA ...oh, the irony, Hervey. Really.
Skald Egan was not going to make the trip up to the manor without his arms laden with gifts, since he wasn't going to go back down to the inn to pick up anything he forgot. Not with that ice out there. Bernadette and Kyle weren't the only people he was hunting out, he also had a certain pirate to find. He prowled toward the tavern, first, figuring that was the safest place to start looking.
Hervey was wandering around with socks on of all things, looking a little agitated as he glanced out the windows every now and then. When would this damn weather die down? It was a pain in the ass losing his boots, and the fact that they'd probably be ruined beyond repair by now was like insult to injury. "... This sucks!"
Ahh, there was no mistaking that voice. Skald turned and stalked up behind Hervey, figuring he'd be heard coming tramping in his new winter boots, but yelling anyway. "Hey! Pirate!"
Suddenly knocked out of his 'thoughts', Hervey blinked stupidly as he spun around, not too enthusiastic about hearing that voice while bootless. "Oh boy, you've gotta' be kidding me..."
"Heh!" Skald strode up to him, grinning. "What's the matter? Up to no good, are we?" He noticed, then, that Hervey was not wearing any boots. "...sneaking around sock-footed? That looks mighty suspicious to me."
"Suspicious or stupid?" Hervey looked down at his own feet, considering them carefully... or, well, as carefully as Hervey could ever consider something. He then shrugged a little uselessly, sighing just a little. "I ain't up to something, old man. I just..." He swallowed his pride. "... lost my boots. In the snow."
Skald raised one thick eyebrow. "Eh? You mean to tell me you were outside when it happened? You all right, then?"
"I'm fine!" Hervey waved a hand quickly, a little awkward about matters concerning worry. He waved in the general direction of his body for a moment, mumbling a little. "A bit of a burn, so it hurts like hell to move, but I'm used to that, y'know?"
"A burn?" Skald looked alarmed for the briefest second, but it quickly faded into one of his more normal frowns. "Huh. I see. Well, at least you're not still stuck out there, you had enough of a mind to get out of your boots. Why are you still running around without a borrowed pair, though? Nobody fit your size?"
"... Sigurd's feet are too big for me, and I'd rather die than ask certain other people." Hervey grumbled, though he looked a little more good-natured again now. "So who do you think owns good boots, huh?"
"Hm...that's a good question," Skald said ponderously. "I got two pairs now, but I'm pretty sure that if Sigurd's feet are too big, mine will be even more so. Heh!" He chuckled a little. "Too bad that isn't what I've got for you!"
"... What?" Hervey said it stupidly, not really getting the sudden jump from boots to that. Why would Skald of all people have something for him? Unless it was a ticket to the cells, of course. "Wait a second, I ain't done anything..."
"What makes you think it has anything to do with your shenanigans?" Skald challenged. "Except that, well, technically, it is your fault, Hervey. You told me so yourself."
"... What?" Hervey echoed himself unwittingly, and just stared. "Right, now you're starting to freak me out a little, old man. What're you on about!?"
Skald grinned broadly. He loved doing this to people - the fact that Hervey fell for it almost as easily as Bernadette was too much. "The secret santa, you idiot!" he roared, laughing loudly. He brought out a package from somewhere under his cloak.
It took a few seconds for that to sink in, and when it did sink in, Hervey's expression was caught between wanting to punch a kitten and pleasant surprise. "... Wait, seriously? You got me?"
"That I did," Skald snickered. "You didn't guess? That means I'm good at the secret part. Heheh!" He waggled the wrapped parcel tauntingly. "It's not going to help your footgear problem, but a present is a present, innit?"
"You're right, but..." Hervey eyed the package suspiciously, still unable to believe his luck. ... He had pretty interesting luck when it came to these damn exchanges and dates. The suspicious look slowly changed to one of defeat, sort of. "... ahhh, man, now I feel like a jerk!"
"Huh?" Skald looked genuinely confused. "How come? You didn't sneak something bad into my shoes when I wasn't looking, did you?"
"No, no I didn't!" The pirate quickly waved his hands in a gesture of no, but the guilty look remained. "I mean... I was kinda' a jerk to you, and you were the guy giving me a gift, y'know...?"
"Tch! It's not like I can't take a little ribbing now and then." Skald waggled the parcel again. "You gonna open it, or not?"
"O-okay! Okay!" He sheepishly reached out and took the parcel, and self-consciously began unwrapping it, eyeing the present anxiously in case it turned out to in fact be a joke.
Skald grinned again, waiting to see the reaction. "I saw it in Vinay del Zexay and thought you could probably use it." It was a thick tome, a book attributed to "Gordon" titled The Gentleman's Guide to Etiquette. "Girls see you carrying that around, they might think you were trying to better yourself."
"..." Hervey could only stare, absolutely dumbfounded, and... speechless. Hervey was practically never speechless, so this had to be something of a freakin' feat. ".......... Uh, really?" He couldn't even muster an expression of appreciation he was so damn muted. He looked up at Skald, and tore the rest of the wrapping back to examine the book further.
Throwing his head back, Skald laughed long and loud. That was pretty much the look he was fishing for, and he got it. When he could catch his breath, he suggested, "Take a look inside." It was actually hollowed out, with a lead-glass captain's flask hidden inside, but he figured he'd better warn Hervey or else the pirate might never open that particular book.
"A look inside?" Hervey gave Skald this withering look at the laugh and the suggestion, but he sighed and played along anyway, grudgingly opening to a few random pages... until he found that the book didn't have any actual pages, and he was suddenly staring at this flask. A startled sound left him, and his previous expression was replaced with a broad grin. "... Damn!"
"I did say girls would see you carrying the book, didn't I?" Skald said smartly. "I never said anything about you reading it."
"Heh!" Hervey had to admit to himself (like hell he'd ever admit it verbally) that he appreciated Skald's crazy style of humour. It was pretty refreshing, and Hervey sure had been caught out. "Well, I don't know about the carrying thing, but..." He picked up the flask with his free hand, laughing. "... this is perfect."
Skald folded his arms proudly across his brawny chest. "If there's one thing I know from experience," he said, "it's how to keep your captain from knowing where your secret stash is. I know it's an old trick, but it's a good one."
"Well, I guess it ain't too suspicious having me keep a book like that, huh?" Hervey grinned wryly, once again looking over the book. Who the hell was this Gordon guy? If he ever found him he'd make sure to hit him over the head or something... with his own 'book.' "Seriously, old man, this is great. I didn't know you had it in ya!"
"And you can tell everybody all about how ol' Skald Egan has this horrible sense of humor and gave it to you for the secret santa, and no one will be any wiser." The admiral grinned boldly. "Well, there you go. I hope that's better than your past problems with this little gift thing you do?"
"Way better!" This gift was up there with Juan's, that was for sure. He could use it and it totally suited him -- the flask, that was. The book, well... good cover. "I almost wanna' give you something in return, old man! ... But I'm broke and I've lost my boots, and this weather ain't too flash for shoppin', eh?"
"Well, that's not how the gift exchange works, is it? I gotta wait for whoever got my name in turn, right?" Skald waved a hand. "Not to worry. Just make good use of it, all right?"
"Heh, damn right I will!" Hervey grinned before placing the flask back into the hollow of the thick volume, and then stuck his hand out towards the other man. "Thanks, Skald."
He took the hand and shook it with his usual strong grip. "Happy holidays, Hervey. It was fun, trying to think of what to get a wily pirate."
Something suddenly clicked in Hervey's mind as he returned the strong grip. "... Wait a second, now all that questioning you did is starting to make sense."
Skald's eyes narrowed in a sort of grin. "How do you know I wasn't just yanking your chain for the fun of it?"
Hervey laughed, shaking his head a little. "... I guess that's pretty plausible, too, knowing you. But I'll stick with productive questioning, thanks!"
"As long as the productive questioning isn't me trying to get you to 'fess up to some criminal activity," Skald chuckled in that dry way that hid whether he was being serious or not.
Hervey almost cringed at that, but held it back in favour of a smirk. "Oh yeah? We'll see how that goes down the line! ... I ain't done with piracy, y'know."
"Once a pirate, always a pirate," Skald laughed. "I kind of figured! Just 'cause I like you doesn't mean I won't stop you, though. Heh! This could be kinda fun..."
He paused. "... You know what I said last time about if you were a girl...??"
"Whaaaat? Don't tell me you're not itching to have a real nemesis for once!" the admiral smirked. "Someone to match wits with, to try to outsmart? Give a real run for their money? Hmmmmm?"
"If you're talkin' about being a rival, you're gonna' have to wait in line." Hervey grinned again, looking pretty casual. "Man, I must be a popular target lately or something!"
"Tch. Rival." Skald smacked him across the shoulder. "You've got enough rivals. A nemesis isn't the same. Or how about 'adversary?' Rivals compete for the same thing, nemeses try to stop each other."
Hervey stumbled forward a little -- he needed to start expecting those around Skald or something! "H-hey! ... I guess you kinda' got a point, though I would've thought you'd wanna' be my captain's adversary!"
Skald shrugged idly. "That too. Unless you're not going to sail under her flag, and then I can have two nemeses. That'd be twice the fun."
"Pfft, like I'd ever betray her! If you think splitting us up would make us easier targets, you got another thing coming!" He looked a little smug for a moment.
"Good!" Skald's grin was a little scary. "I like a challenge. Bring it on, pirate."
"I'll bring it on, alright, right when all this crazy weather stuff dies down!" That briefly reminded Hervey of his stupid shoes again, and he looked out the window and sighed. "... I hate the cold."
Skald heaved a sigh. "Yeah, me too. How many more months we got of this? Solstice was last week, so..."
"About a month or two, right?" Hervey shivered just thinking about it, incredibly wistful for the hot sun and cool lake again. "That's a month or two of being cooped up on land, and then a few painful weeks of checking how the boats survived the elements... sheesh."
"I don't know how I'm ever going to survive." Skald folded his arms again. "I've never actually wintered a ship before. You know what it's like in the Islands...winter just means more storms. Looks like we'll have plenty to do come spring, but until then..." He raised an eyebrow speculatively. "...how about we drink away the winter?"
"Heh, better than spending it trying to stay alive from crazy rune monsters." He paused. "Actually, that's kinda' debatable, huh?"
"Kinda. Yeah." Skald tossed his head. "What do you say? Want to have a drink with your soon-to-be-nemesis, or you gonna go find some shoes?"
"... Something tells me I gotta' find some shoes first." Hervey sighed a little, not even wanting to imagine getting drunk and then just wandering out there only to have his feet freeze off or something. "I don't wanna' end up like you with wet socks, man."
Skald threw back his head and laughed again. "Hey, I learned my lesson! I've got proper boots now." He stuck out his feet to prove it. "I hear you, though. Life is never so hard as it is when your feet are wet and cold. Go on, get out of here." He winked, then. "And make sure the ladies see you trying to better yourself."
Hervey shook his head, that sheepish grin right back on his face as he began backing away as he spoke. "... Thanks again for this, eh? I'll give the whole book-demo a try someday, and then you can laugh at me."
"Anytime." Skald waved over his shoulder as he turned and went the other way, glad to finally be in the same building as the tavern. All things considered, he really did need a drink.