After successfully retrieving the WACKY device for the rebellion faction, the Birds decided to celebrate their victory. Taking his young charges (and their many gerbils) to the Four Fronds, Ganyma brought them to a familiar ice-cream parlour, I. C. licks. A cool and creamy treat would be the perfect reward for all their hard work, not to mention the chilled shop interior made a welcome change from the hot desert climate.
Meanwhile after being pinned in a cave for three nights by some exceptionally WACKY weather, the Fire Wranglers trudged back to base camp, empty-handed. Well, empty-handed as far as recovering the lusus and the weather device anyway. They were not entirely bereft however; they had scrounged up a few golden beetles during their time in the desert which, as it turns out, were worth quite a lot. It was nice to have a kind of compensation for all their trouble, even if that compensation came purely by chance.
Though it was time to go home, Fire Wranglers decided to make one final stop together; they had been through a lot, and it seemed strange to suddenly part though some might have liked to. After a little bit pestering, pleading, and even bullying, the young trolls convinced Alifax to take them to I. C. licks, because what better way to spend the rest of their evening... and beetles?
I. C. licks is a quaint little parlour. It has a chequered floor, swept clean of dirt, and granite counter-tops. Chairs are typically arranged around the tables in threes, but a few larger tables make room for as many as six. The ice-cream display hosts over a dozen flavours, and a blackboard on the wall behind it, lists prices. A female redblooded troll stands behind the counter, doing her best to look perky and alert while a yellowblood shuffles around in the back, washing (or maybe just banging) dishes.
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:03 pm
They called it a lowblood city, but that never meant that lowbloods knew much about it. Alifax, for one, had never really spent much time in the desert, except when he'd needed to. He liked the solitude and relative privacy of Busthind Mountains, for one, and he wasn't familiar with the FLARP network there, for another. So there were more reasons than poverty to hesitate when the kids badgered him for some, uh, frozen comfort food. Well, reasons other than poverty and food poisoning, Alifax reminded himself: no matter how pleasant the sweet frilly frozen concoctions Frossa and sometimes Hazzan consumed smelled, a bite of them had always made his stomach turn unpleasantly. Eventually, though, their badgering grew to a volume where he had to respond: people were starting to look at them!
"I do know a place," he said reluctantly. "In, um, the Four Fronds, if your lusii are fine with that." It was a ways away, but it was surprisingly one of the cities Alifax was more familiar with, even though he felt more comfortable on his own, well, here, or in New Hemisect City. It was just, well, he didn't really go out for ice cream on his own, so all he had for reference was a place the Four Fronds FLARP group had frequented, well, more than a bit. At least he knew it'd let him in: that might be rare in the Four Fronds area, but Alifax was actually a familiar enough sight there that he might get in even if he showed up unaccompanied. Well...he surveyed the group. No, Forera and perhaps Kursha were highblooded enough on their own merit to spend time there.
Decided, the group treked to the rail station, and used their newfound winnings to purchase what was for Alifax an unusual luxury: rail tickets. They made it to Four Fronds and then I.C. Licks in one little mob of children and lusii and Alifax, and he stepped into the store with a nod.
It always made him tense, the moment of entering a store in an area like this. He'd drawn enough strange looks on the way here, although seeing Forera usually made most strangers look away from their motley little group again. But he breathed a sigh of relief as no one said anything. "I'll find us a table," Alifax said, because he had zero intention of consuming anything in this parlour. So he went off to take a seat and fidget awkwardly, waiting for the children to pick their favorite cones and toppings and whatnot. (Alifax really had no idea what went into the consumption of ice cream.)
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Posted: Thu May 01, 2014 11:28 pm
The bulky tealblood pushed the door of the establishment wide open. The group was a sight, and grinning ear to ear, their leader was the biggest eyesore of all. Ganyma's hair was matted and slicked with all kinds of elements, stuck where he had run his hands through it throughout the night. His bare shoulders gleamed still with the fresh work of the desert. He'd kept his hoodie off -- as filthy as it was and as unusually balmy as Four Fronds seemed this season, there was no use in donning the sandy garment. He would have to work hard to wash out the bloodstains from his clothes. But for now, there were more important things at hand. Like ice cream!
It was everything the kids deserved for their hard work in the desert. Ganyma was on his way to Rasali's anyway, so he could make sure that Mr. Stag and Luxara returned to the woods alright. And as for Didero, he'd be back in New Hemisect in no time. Ganyma made a mental note to keep track of time so that the little boy needn't be stranded at Rasali's hive with him for the morning and ushered the kids inside.
There was another group inside. Ganyma surveyed them curiously. One of them looked like he had some serious run ins with the lusus -- Ganyma grimaced a little at the apparent damage to his attire. He looked like a scrappy enough redblood based upon that, and with the apparent guardianship of the children he couldn't help but be impressed. Taking care of kids was a handful, after all. Amongst the youthful throng, Ganyma immediately recognized two youthful faces and did a double take. Forera! She'd grown since he'd seen her last, and looked as bubbly as ever. And... What was that kid's name? Ganyma narrowed his eyes and angled away from the greenblood, shielding his own two greenbloods from his general presence.
Soon, Ganyma made his way to the front of the counter, and without looking at the menu, he announced, "Vanilla, please," and was soon on his way. He stood back to let the kids order, slapping some beetles down to cover their cost.
The big tealblood scratched his chin and began to work at the bottom of his ice cream, taking great care for the dessert not to drip on his new gloves. He hadn't ceased smiling since he'd won them. Ganyma took a look over to the lone redblood at the table and offered friendly discourse. "You out in the desert too, recent?"
Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 12:52 pm
[ Didero bounced around behind Ganyma, since the older troll was too big for Didero to squeak past him into the ice cream parlor. Didero, tired as he was, had received his second wind from their recent victory. It was probably more akin to a second hurricane with how excited the boy was.
His lusus was significantly less chipper about having just been out in the desert and a whole slew of elements. While he wanted to return to the relative safety of the city as soon as possible, Hatoful Dad was willing to allow the pit stop upon realizing there would be wafflecone crumbs in the vicinity. He picked at the patio outside of the building.
Didero and his lusus both looked pretty rumpled and from the adventure. Didero didn't let it bother him though. (Okay, so he was a little gritty. And muddy. And windburned.) It wasn't anything some sleep and ice cream couldn't cure. Especially ice cream. How convenient for Didero they were at an ice cream parlor!
As soon as he was in the building, Didero zipped up to the display case of ice creams and set to work making his decision while Ganyma ordered for himself. After much deliberation (relative to Didero's impatience), Didero popped up in front of the register next to Ganyma.
Moments later, Didero was sitting at a table near Ganyma eating a butterscotch ice cream cone completely swaddled in napkins. The last thing Didero needed on his way home was to be covered in ice cream in addition to everything else. He kicked his legs at his seat, only partially listening to Ganyma chat with the neighboring group of trolls. ]
Kursha's mood had improved radically since they left the desert. He'd had plenty of time to brood on the train, and the promise of food, especially something sweet and cool like ice-cream, had effectively purged his mind of their defeat in the desert. Already thoughts of their failure were forgotten, or at least until the Colonel reminded him of it later, which she surely would. For now though, he got to enjoy a delicious treat in company that he only somewhat loathed.
As he stepped inside the parlour, Kursha was welcomed by a cool blast of air. He shivered pleasantly. It reminded him of the chill back on Busthind. He had not realised how much he missed it. Turning to Dairah, Kursha wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “So Dee,” he purred conversationally. “What are you going to get? I'm debating between pistachio and chocolate. What do you think?”
There certainly were a lot of flavours. Alifax had chosen well. However Kursha was fishing for information more than he was struggling with indecision. Maybe if he could find out some of Dairah's likes and dislikes, he would have a shot at vengeance. Good mood or not, he never forgot a slight.
Behind them the door opened. Kursha glanced over at the newcomers. He was startled to see two familiar faces. One he recognised immediately: Luxara, the troll who he had met only recently–just before the events in the desert in fact. They had gone treasure-hunting together and Kursha had found her presence to be highly annoying. He made no effort to hide his disdain and rolled his eyes.
The second troll took a little longer for Kursha to figure out. Kursha was certain that he knew the tealblood but... from where? Suddenly it clicked. It was the older troll from the Quadrants Day dance and Bloodfest. He had grown a lot since Kursha had last seen him. For a brief moment he felt uneasy, intimidated. Then he shook the feeling off. He had nothing to worry about. This guy was just a mook. Grinning, Kursha waved. “Hey there!” he called in welcome. Seeing as the tealblood was engaged with Alifax though, Kursha returned his attention to Dairah. He could not afford to spend all night socialising, after all.
Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 4:30 pm
Something could be heard nattering away outside, and as soon as Ganyma had opened the door, it went from muffled to understandable. Luxara was in the building. And she wouldn't. Shut. UP. How could she? There was just SO MUCH to talk about. They had WON the THING! THEY DID IT. And, since Ganyma had done most of the work, she was in awe of all of his moves and techniques in taking down such a giant lusus. Of course he hadn't been the only one beating the thing up. But she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, his attacks were the only ones that counted. And there was Did. Who was...okay. But less interesting. But still okay. Like she told her compatriots, not particularly noticing if they were paying attention or not, Luxara had passed by this joint on her way from hive to Chittentown, and while she was vaguely curious about the place, she hadn't expected to go in at any point in the short term. Or the long term. She just didn't give thought to most things that weren't in the now. In that present, Luxara was eating a "meat cone", some slap-dash thing of beef jerky shoved into vanilla ice cream. She had no interest in anything that wasn't literally a piece of a dead body, and to shut her up about her GREAT IDEA to include meat in ALL the flavors, one of the lowblooded workers threw something together, took Ganyma's money, and shooed her the hell away from them.
She was sitting next to Didero (the air didn't seem as smelly in his presence alone compared to another troll in their group) before she noticed anyone else in particular. Her head was just so full of EXCITEMENT. Focusing was hard. After a delay, she started looking for whoever Cap-Gan was talking to. There seemed to be a little group set-up similar to theirs. She was looking at the tealblood girl, staring at the shiny belt for a moment, when she heard a familiar voice...
"Kur?!" Oh boy. There he was! Luxara jumped in her seat. Since she knew so few people, she was just happy to recognize someone. "HEY KUR! Oh man you look like a total MESS. Were you looking for that WACKY lusus, too? We totally WRECKED it."
While she was distracted, Stagdad started tugging at the jerky in her ice cream.
"Well." she conceded. "Gan wrecked it. But we helped! ...Who's your friend?"
Kursha winced at the sound of Luxara's piercing voice. And what was she calling him now? "Kur"? As in a cur? Kursha shot the female greenblood a glare that he hoped had killing potential. Sadly, it fell a bit short.
When she did not drop dead on the spot, Kursha rearranged his expression to one that was a bit more amicable. He could not hide his irritation completely though. Especially not after she addressed his sorry state.
“Of course,” he replied stiffly. “We would have downed it too, if that dratted storm hadn't pinned us down.” Strictly speaking, that was not a lie. Kursha believed without a doubt that had his team not been forced to hide out in that miserable cave for days on end, they could have easily taken out the lusus. The circumstances had worked against them however. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to regain his composure. Though he had momentarily lost his cool, there was still a chance that he could salvage the situation. He managed a confident smile.
“Ah, no one important,” he said when Luxara asked about Dairah. He shunted the orangeblood off to the side, giving her a vaguely apologetic look while his back was turned to Luxara. He was feeling strangely possessive and would rather not share her with his fellow greenblood, not until he had his vengeance anyway. Luxara was liable to meddle otherwise.
“Gan?” He inquired after a moment. He tilted his head in the direction of her large, tealblooded companion. “Your friend?” He asked, curious despite himself.
As she responded he ordered a pistachio scoop of icecream in a cone. Making his way over to one of the smaller tables, he gestured for her to sit. It was not so much a polite invitation as it was an attempt to exercise control over the greenblood.
((I don't believe Sami will be able to join us, so I'll just put her off to the side for now.))
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:15 am
If there was anything Kursha's glares did, it'd be making Luxara smile just that much more. As far as she was concerned, this whole glowering-with-offense-how-dare-you was just some silly little quirk of his. Surely there wasn't anything more to it than that! The annoying troll ignored how annoying she was and moved on with her life.
"Whatever you say, Kurrrr~" she said with an amiable shrug. Luxara did believe the greenblooded boy was capable, she really did...but her group was still better. It was just fact. He couldn't be blamed for not knowing it. Kursha wasn't there, so he couldn't understand. Oh well. "We were hit by the storms, too! Even a tornado! Did any little weird lusii attack you? We sure got bit a few times. But we got so many gerbils out of it and maaaaan, it was so EXCITING!"
She did pause to note how he didn't think the troll next to him was important. He had an arm around her and everything! Chatting like best friends! Was being touchy that casual? Did that mean that if she did the same to Kursha or her new friends, it would be normal? Luxara wondered.
"G-Gan?" The name woke her back up to full function. "Oh yeah! Our CAPTAIN! He kicked lusus BUTT! Not even with a weapon or lusus back-up or anything!" She went on and on about some of his moved and even tried to mime some of the choke holds, somehow managing to not drop her cone in the meantime. To put it simply, the little wild-haired kid was in utter awe of the big galoot.
At the invite to sit, she did, gabbing away as she plunked down. There was just so much exposition to cover and so little time to cover it all! That and Luxara was honestly pretty proud of herself. She felt so...so...IMPORTANT.
Meanwhile Stagdad was giving Kursha his own glare. As if he KNEW. But then, Stagdad glared at everyone whenever they had Luxara's attention. Even trolls who had her best interests in mind.
Kursha's lower eyelid twitched. Before Luxara he did not believe anyone was capable of making so much noise. Even now he could scarcely believe she was still talking. This was not conversation. This was nothing more than a deluge of words strung together in a parody of meaning. He resisted the urge to reach across the table and clamp her mouth shut. Then, succeeding that, he resisted the urge to beat his thinkpan into the wall. It took all his effort just to sit there and smile. He could not stop his hands from fidgeting though. Strewn across his end of the table were tiny pieces of his now shredded napkin. A pile of tiny paper balls sat beside his ice-cream cup.
“You're telling me that he actually wrestled the lusus to the ground... with his bare hands?” Kursha drawled. He stole another glance at the troll she had called 'Gan', and then rolled his eyes. “I don't believe it. I didn't crawl out of the caverns yesterday, you know.” He spooned a glob of ice-cream into his mouth. A large portion of it had melted during Luxara's long and energetic tale but he tried not to mind.
“Besides,” he teased once he had swallowed, “it's not like you can prove it or anything. Unless you got a picture or something.” He snorted disdainfully and flicked a paper ball at Luxara. It bounced off her shoulder and into her ice-cream. Beef-cream. Whatever the hell it was. “Anyway... everyone knows that it was the stinking rebels who got the beast. The queen and her lackeys try to cover it up can try and cover it up all they like, but that won't change a thing. Still, not a bad performance. Maybe next time try to lie about something a less obvious.” He flicked another ball, aiming for her forehead.
Gl!tch~
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 5:29 pm
He didn't...believe her? Huh. Well then. "I mean you can always ASK him, he's right THERE." Luxara said, pointing for emphasis. "But, like, he had all these MOVES that he showed us and yeah okay I GUESS he used some sort of claw things SOMETIMES but I don't think he needed them or anything..." She was desperate for him to understand. Luxara had never seen a troll be so badass in her life. Granted, she was used to higherbloods and fancy weapons and traps trying to kill her, so manhandling a giant lusus would be impressive no matter what. "I'm not LYING!"
She casually swatted the ball as it flew at her, as if it were a fly. Even if she was annoying as hell, her reflexes showed how capable she was despite that. "Of course the rebels got it." Because HER team had taken it down and brought it in. Duh! Had...Kursha been on the opposite side? He would have known otherwise...right? She leaned in a little and whispered, "We kicked its butt so we got dibs. You're not tellin' me anything I don't already know," she added with a conspiratory grin.
Luxara sat back again. With her report taken care of, and not sure how else to convince Kursha besides that, she started back up with, "Soooo you guys were hit by a storm. I got that much. Did anything else happen? Any sharpshooter moments, maybe?" she asked, trying to be amiable. Trying so, so hard despite wanting to yell about her team's adventure for the rest of ever. And it was painfully obvious that she found Kursha's moobeast ranger interests to be absolutely adorable and worth maybe a friendly in-joke. If he got it. Hopefully.
Kursha rolled his eyes at Luxara's suggestion. As if he needed to ask. Luxara was just over-exaggerating like usual. At best, the big tealblood got in a few punches before getting bowled over; no one could take on that monstrosity by themselves, and especially not without a weapon. Regardless, Kursha did not rise to Luxara's bait. She could be annoyingly insistent and if he continued to press the matter, he would just have to listen to her story all over again. He thought he would kill himself if that happened.
As Luxara leaned across the table to whisper in his ear, Kursha's eyes widened. Wait a minute. Did that mean that she was on the rebel side? Was she stupid? He glanced over to where Alifax sat in discussion with the tealblood, anxious. Alifax seemed laidback, but... these were rebels they were talking about. If someone found out that Luxara and her team were working for the independent faction, they could be in serious trouble. It was a good thing the Colonel had been forced to roost outside.
Luxara leaned back to address him casually again, but Kursha was still stuck on the latest piece of information he had received. Glancing around to make sure no one else was watching, he leaned in towards the greenblood.
“Don't be stupid!” he hissed. “You don't want to broadcast that around!” The friendly expression he had worn before had given way to anxiety and irritation. Falling back, he grabbed at his icecream, and poked at it with his spoon. He was in no mood to eat however.
“Al and the Colonel took out a scaly spinebeast,” he finally answered, sulky. His own time in the desert felt so incomplete compared to Luxara's. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. Looking back up to meet Luxara's eyes, he smirked and twirled his spoon between his fingers. “I wrangled the lusus and rode on top of it. I bet you didn't do anything like that, did you?”
&Sypon
A million years later.
&thyPOPE
This thread still exists.
&seekingCylem
Just a general tag.
&quite uneventful
Come, friend.
&Gl!tch~
I'm so sorry.
Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 1:58 pm
The minute Forera entered the ice cream parlor she was practically bouncing from wall to wall.
It made her forget their loss, of course, it really didn't matter at this point-- All that mattered now was that it was caught and away and she didn't have to worry about going out to a sudden freakshow of snow or a desert storm. Speaking of deserts, they were terrible and Forera never wanted to go back to one. Y'know which type of deserts she liked? The food. Like ice cream. Or maybe that was spelled desserts. Whatever. It wasn't spelling was important in eating anyways! She followed after the others with her usual excitement, babbling and giggle-shrieking with the occasional snort tossed in there when they finally arrived at the place and Forera saw someone that made her eyes sparkle.
It was Ganyma!
Man, he'd grown since she'd last seen him! He was like a big huuuge rock now, and Forera was dying to learn his secret. Before she could head over, however, she wanted to order her ice cream-- "Oooooh my goooog, just like, give me like, EVERYTHING!!" She exclaimed, then blinked and stopped before pursing her lips. She glanced around before her eyes settled upon the meat ice jerky thing some greenblood was eating, and the tealbloods eyes gleamed-- That looked amazing."No, no wait, gimme that thing with iiit!! I want them all with the meat thing in it, it looks sooooo delicious!!" She was quieted the moment she recieved her mountain of ice-cream, simply listening to the others talk and scarfing down her ice cream before hearing Kursha trying to talk cool about himself. Releasing a loud cackle, the tealblood strutted right over, mouth sopping wet from dirty way she ate her mountain, uncaring.
"He like toootallllyy wrangled that thingy, alright. It was like the absosuperduper funniest thingamabob I'd ever seen in my like, life." She snorted, giggling loudly before licking her lips and allowing her long tongue to slide to her chin to reach the drops of sticky goodness that'd reached her chin. She dragged her wrist on her dirty mouth, then wiped it on her pants before looking over to the greenblood with a smirk. "He was such a total dweeeeeb, he literally yelled WHAHOO like a NEEEERD!" She exclaimed, giggling loudly and grinning at the other. "And he didn't even like, get ooooff right-- Like, NOOOOOPE!" She was cackling while saying it now, voice practically shaking from the struggle to keep it calm enough to finish saying it. "HE WAS... T-THROWN OFF. He like, HAHAHA, F-FLEEEEEW and everything!!!" She then succumbed to laughter, taking a large scoop of her ice cream and stuffing it in her mouth, humming happily. She always felt better after making fun of someone trying to make themselves sound cool. It was just one of the many joys of life!
