Onsen Omake (Semi-Open OOC Welcome)

[Kage]

Kage's eyes sparked with mirth.

 

"...It's not the whole truth. So I guess you could say it's a lie."

 

His ears flattened against his head. "There are limits to what I'd do. Anything and everything... they're a hyperbole. I would rather give my life than do certain things for my loved ones."

 

Kage finished his drink, not wanting his mood to completely deteriorate.

 

"I will say that Natalie is telling the truth. I'd wager she has limits to what she's willing to do if they affect a large number of people."

 

He sighed, "Can't we do something straight forward or ask different questions? This is getting to be too much like a cloak and daggers game and I'm not too fond of them."

[Unnamed Mercenary]

He agreed. A heavy conversation was not vacation discussion material.

 

"That would be nice. How's this, what's your favorite drink?"

 

It should be a harmless question.

[111]

She nods, "Aye let's scrap that one. As for my favorite drink, Milk."

 

Natalie grins.

[Kage]

Kage narrowed his eyes, "I can't accept that as anything -but- a lie. For my own... rum!"

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Laughing a little. "I think you're both lying".

 

If Natalie were more of a milk-drinker, she probably wouldn't have started a bar fight, or had a hangover on their next meeting.

 

And hadn't Kage always ordered sweet water? Or just an ale?

[111]

"I think Kage is lying as well."

 

She laughs, "As for me, it's true, but I had to give it up." She shakes her head sadly, "It makes me so sleepy."

 

"Oh, and the gas" She clears her throat, "Anyway, your punishments, you both have to say something nice about each other."

[Unnamed Mercenary]

 "Anyway, your punishments, you both have to say something nice about each other."

 

He was still getting comfortable with the notion that someone else's life and memories were floating around in his head and Natalie had to pick that of all things?

 

There were certainly a large amount of qualities to choose from. But at the same time, take away the Fhranz, and what would /really/ be left?

 

"...he's consistent," as Merc turned away, avoiding eye contact.

[Kage]

Kage blinked, blurrily narrowing his eyes at Natalie. "How could your favorite drink be milk with so many issues. And you drink -ale- all the time!"

 

He sighed, before glancing at the other before muttering under his breath, "He's persistent."

[111]

She grins, "I haven't had milk for many years, but it's still my favorite." Natalie sighs and reminisces, "A glass of iced milk on a hot day... curling asleep in the shade. Life doesn't get any better." She frowns, "Except for what it does to my stomach these days."

 

"Good, perhaps their is hope for you two yet." She taps her jaw, "Since I won, I'll ask the next question, "What race has the most attractive..... Men."

 

She laughs and awaits their response.

[Kage]

Kage immediately shook his head 'no'. "Nat you can't be seriously asking that question."

 

He sighed, "This is the truth. I am attracted to who I am attracted. Male, female. Roegadyn, Miqo'te, Lalafell... Well... I am -not- attracted to Male Roegadyn."

 

He shook his head once more. "No, sir."

[Unnamed Mercenary]

He spat out the ale he had been drinking when Natalie asked a question. "Excuse me?!"

 

Natalie had asked a completely foreign concept. Between what he assumed had to be a strict national Garlean upbringing (that he wouldn't know) and a very conservative Ishgardian upbringing for a someone else, there was no answer to the question.

 

Natalie must have wanted some fun from this, and he got an idea. Striking a studly pose, "clearly, my people do." That ought to get a decent reaction out of her.

[111]

Natalie taps her jaw thoughtfully, "Kage is... telling the truth I suppose. I thought he only like male miqo'te until I saw you two together. Perhaps his transformation changed his tastes."

 

She looks at Merc, "Your people? It's the extra eye isn't it?" She shivers, "What do you... do you put things in the...?" She shakes her head, "Never mind, I don't want to know. Truth."

[Unnamed Mercenary]

He had no idea what she was talking about. "Do we what?! It's /just/ an eye. Why are all you Eorzeans so caught up on it? I don't question why miqo'te have tails. Or why lalafell and elezen have pointy ears. ...is it really that alarming?"

 

Maybe the ale was a little stronger than he thought. Or it was just Natalie being herself. He was getting worked up over something completely pointless.

 

"And how do we keep getting back to an impossible topic? I'm quite sure Kage is about as attracted to me as I am to him. Which is to say not at all. That is to say, I'm sure I had a happily married wife at some point. Hells if I know now..." Muttering under his breath, "eorzeans are weird >_> ".

[Kage]

Kage shook his head furiously, the blood pounding in his head. His ears flushed. He crawled over to Natalie and cooed a bit. "Nay! Not with him..."

 

He blinked. "Wait, miqo'te males? This is just over my friendship with Salem isn't it?" He blinked more.

 

"How... what?"

 

He clenched his eyes feeling quite too warm now and just leaned his forehead against Natalie's shoulder.

 

"Of what you remember, do you have any siblings?"

[Unnamed Mercenary]

"Of what you remember, do you have any siblings?"

 

Merc knew not of his own family, but Frhanz certainly did. He couldn't bring himself to think of the Ishgardian family he wasn't technically related to. One, if he /was/ married back home, it would be adulterous. Two, the idea of thinking about Frahnz's sisters felt....incestuous, even if he should ever meet one in person for the first time.

 

"Are we still playing this? ...Frhanz had some sisters, I guess. That count?"

[Elyscia]

Warren grinned to himself at her audible complaint of him trying to look after her, briefly amused he was doing so by specifically not looking at her at all. There was the telltale splash of someone exiting a body of water and Warren counted off.

 

She's shy, she barely came above the surface at all, there's people around.

 

He turned around before finishing the thought and was pleased to have guessed correctly; She was already wrapped in her towel and shuffling away when an excitable man with shuffly eyebrows approached her. He was clearly trying to offer her a drink and Warren grumbled.

 

"Oh, you're gonna scare her you twit." He waded across the pool with a broad, performing smile and stood up next to the diminutive miqo'te.

 

"What've you got there, drinks? Oh, yeah. I'll take 'em." He laughed garishly, taking the tray from the smiling-but-startled man. He was only a hyur, and a short one. Warren wondered if his armor weighed more than he did.

 

"Oh, but we're not 'sposed to g-give out-"

 

"Hm, these look great. Thanks!" Warren didn't wait for the protest to finish, lifting the tray and making a show of tensing his arms while doing so.

 

"Uh-uh-uh-thank y-you?" the man weakly proclaimed. Warren led himself and Ely away from the scatterbrained fellow, shaking his head.

 

"Never been thanked for taking drinks before." He debated one, then refrained. He caught a woman by the elbow as she went by, asking in his most cordial tone "Oh, would you be a dear and pass these out for me? Drinks for everyone."

 

The blonde in the ponytail smiled and took the tray, getting only a few fulms away before catching herself.

 

"HEY! I'M NOT AT WORK, I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ON VACATIOOOON!"

 

Elyscia remembered just how bloody tall Warren was; she barely was above his stomach.. or wherever his stomach ended and where his muscles began..  Gods, that's a lotta muscle..

 

Ears splayed against her head as the loud and large man made a show of himself in comparison to the just-as-dwarved hyuan midlander server, and the miqo'te girl couldn't help but snort at his reactions.

 

 Tilting her head to gaze-up at the man, Elyscia followed Warren like a child and watched that same blonde pony-tailed girl be the source of their shenanigans.

 

They walked further out through the crowd and it seemed neither of them knew where they were walking to, but she at least wanted respite from the busy area. However, she knew better than to go out on her lonesome with a stranger, so making sure she was still in plain sight she plodded near the entrance to Camp Bronze Lake and plopped herself down by the edges of the plateau, hanging her legs off the side.

 

"Y'were bein' ah wee bit mean t'him."

[Warren Castille]

"Not mean. Just wanted him to buzz off." Warren stood idly by and scooped from stones from the ground, casually flinging them off into the distance away from the commotion behind him. He squinted against the brightness of the sun, holding a hand up and gazing out at the ruins off in the distance.

 

"I figured you didn't appreciate him being in your personal space."

 

He regarded the girl for a moment, watching for her reaction before turning back to the horizon and tossing another rock. He wasn't about to leave the girl to wander off alone, even if there were people nearby. Old habits die hard.

[Elyscia]

Elyscia didn't atually reply, but she did faintly smile and shrug at him.

 

Eyes locked onto his stone throwing and she stood up carefully, making sure to keep her towel wrapped around her tightly, "Hey, Mist'r Warden, what're ya doin'?"

[Warren Castille]

"Oh, this?" He holds out the small handful of stones, shrugging. "Just throwing rocks. Used to do it as a kid. Works a lot better with a pond, you can skip them across the surface and count the bounces." He lobbed another one off into the distance then dusts his hands. "Not much chance to do it back in Ul'dah. I hadn't thought about skipping stones for years and years now."

 

He looked mildly taken aback by the nostalgia, smiling softly to himself.

[Elyscia]

The girl meekly takes a few steps up to him and then twists her toes idly into the ground, asking in a low tone,

 

"..Can.. can ah try..?"

[Warren Castille]

Warren laughed, unsure why he was being asked permission for something as free as throwing rocks around. "Sure you can!" He knelt down and picked up a handful of small-but-heavy-enough stones and handed most of them over, keeping a few for himself.

 

"You need to let it go sideways, like this." He winged another one out in the distance with a good side-armed throw, the rock spinning left to right and arcing through the air. "If this was over deep enough water it would bounce. Give it a shot."

[Elyscia]

Elyscia thought she was being mocked when he laughed and so she furrowed her brows at him. Being offered stones by hand made her sigh out; at first the miqo'te actually reached to take one but she hesitated, and ended up kneeling down to take her own bits of stone.

 

Copying what he was doing, she positioned her throwing arm and kept looking over at the man to see if she was doing it right, then threw the stone!

 

Plop

 

... ... ... whoosh!

 

Plop

 

Glaring at where the rocks sunk, the kitten made a deep and disappointed growl murmur from her throat. Being stubborn and determined, she knelt down to find more rocks, better rocks! And threw at least three more until one of them skipped.

 

A much more excited squeal left her this time as she jumped up in joy, "Ah did it! It skipped! Did'ja see that?" Turning around, she felt a bit embarassed and slumped her shoulders on the spot, staring out into the horizon until something orange and round caught her eye.

 

"Hey, wha's that..?" 

It was the Beach Bomb that Warren had launched into orbit earlier on, wedged in-between some broken down pillars that the miqo'tes keen eyes could see. Yes, Elyscia was probably smart enough to not go anywhere by herself, with strangers.. but boy, was she easily distracted.. and so she ran down to fetch the ball, yelling out, "That lass's s'gonna bleedin' kill ya if y'don' get 'er ball back!"

 

Without any regard for whatever Warren had to say, Elyscia hopped over ponds, and rubble, and small critters, and climbed up to reach the ball. 

 

"Ah've got it-aaahhhh_{hhhhhhhhh........!!" CRASH}

[Warren Castille]

"Hey, hey wait!" Warren stepped off of the shelf to follow her. There had been stories of a leering Mamool Ja in those parts and while Warren didn't SEE any, it didn't mean they weren't waiting to leap out from behind a rock and make lewd gestures towards wandering miqo'te.

 

He watched her scamper up the pillar to retrieve the ball. "Hey, that thing's cracked-?!" His warning was cut short by her meager weight proving to be just enough to send the ancient column cracking in two, tumbling to a weakened spot in the ground and taking the girl with it into a subterranean hideaway.

 

He called her name and rushed to the edge of the pit. Sunlight streamed in and it didn't seem terribly deep, but he couldn't see Ely at all. Without a moment to think, he jumped down into the hole.

[Elyscia]

It all happened so fast.. were these the situations, the things that her partner had always tried to keep her safe from? Was she going to foolishly die because of some Godsdamned Beach Bomb? AND WHILST IN A BIKINI?!

 

Stupid lass.

 

But the stupid lass survived, and momentarily lost self-awareness in those quick few seconds of falling down the hole as it took her mind to register where she was, the feelings of pain, and for her eyes to adjust how dark it was even with the meager amount of light that peaked through.

 

"Miss Rose?!" She heard echo.. it sounded almost distant.. Lifting her head from a pool of wet, the miqo'te girl tried to move her body - pain!

Wincing out loud and swearing, she felt the pain down one leg, and sure enough rocks and debris had crumbled on top of her ankle.

 

"M-Mi... Mister Warden..?!" She mewed out with a groan.

As she looked around, she rubbed the back of her head and checked her hand; it was thankfully just a pool of dirty water and not blood that had soaked her hair.

 

Then, a dark figure dropped down from the top where she had fallen through and heavy thud echoed loudly that made the poor, distressed miqo'te girl shriek.

[Warren Castille]

Warren landed in the black, eyes squinting to see what he was falling onto when suddenly a banshee accosted him. He staggered back then realized what had happened.

 

"Miss Rose?! Are you alright?" He felt around for his surroundings and began to move debris and the like away from the direction of the scream, trying to discern the girl's actual location.