SPRING BREAK, Cyseal, Tuesday Evening

[nookiepowered]

As night falls, so does the temperature, but the tavern is warm, and so is the light from the bonfires dotted here and there, for those who choose to linger around the town or venture back out after a nice hearty supper. (Mmm, cheese bread, beef stew and apple pie.)

[OCD: Morning post | Rooms | King Crab Common Room | King Crab Bar | Cyseal | Marketplace | Legion | Nighttime Walks | Outside the Tavern | Outside Cyseal | OOC]

Comments

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

"Oh, yes, lovely time. Well, unless you got one of the more unsavoury beings. That was how I found the place. You really are all dreadfully unprepared for any sort of attack, aren't you?"

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

Sparkle gave a derisive snort at that.

"Depends on the attack. If it's something you can punch, most people have that covered. If it's something like that, we're all basically fucked. I got possessed by this little round marshmallow-looking jerk called, get this, Boo."

Boo. Why the hell did he have to get possessed by the ghost with a sense of humour?

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

Bob frowned in thought. "Boo..Boo...Oh, the big sort of...blob thing?" He shrugged. "Wasn't much for conversation; didn't know him that well. Still, could be worse. You could have gotten Starsmore's 'guest'."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"... Do I want to know about Starsmore's guest?"

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

"No," Bob answered firmly.

To which Hannibal added, "Perhaps, but it wouldn't be safe; his name summons him."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

Sparkle wrinkled his nose at that while he mentally adjusted to hearing two people talking from the same mouth. Okay, he could handle that. He did know a girl who shared her body with her two sisters, after all.

"... Fair enough. I'm going to just assume he was a nasty piece of work, then."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

"Very." Bob nodded. "And not at all charming like me."

That's debatable, Hannibal ribbed him mentally.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"Oh, yeah. Charming is totally the word I was going to use," Sparkle snorted. "I mean, especially with the whole 'insulting my intelligence' thing you did back there."

Bob was a master of first impressions, wasn't he?

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

Bob rocked first impressions. If you asked Bob.

"When?" he asked. "Oh, with the -" He waved his hand dismissively. "Not your smarts, just your learning."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

Sparkle was ever-so-cheerily giving Bob a smile, holding up his fist with his carrot tucked between two fingers in what looked (unsurprisingly) like a rude gesture.

"School of hard knocks, address somewhere between the streets of Toronto and a juvie cell. Before coming to Fandom, anyway, where Earth history has to contend with the whole rest of the multiverse. I learned plenty that mattered, and not a hell of a lot about fine arts and frilly collars. But thanks for your concern about my education, bud."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

"Oh, please." Bob rolled his...well, Hannibal's...eyes. "Is that the best you can do? Maybe I should teach a class in insults next term."

There was a pause as Hannibal filled in the fact that Sparkle wasn't a student anymore.

"Can alumni audit?"

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"Don't do me any favours," Sparkle replied, rolling his eyes right back. "Hey, I'm not a student anymore, maybe I can teach a class, too. How to tell the difference between an insult and 'fuck off.'"

Which, at least to Sparkle, actually did happen to be two distinctly separate things.

Was this weird to be saying to Hannibal's face? Sure was. Was Sparkle terribly inclined to care?

... Not particularly. He always did take issue with strangers talking to him like they knew what was wrong with him. Apparently even dead ones.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

Bob visibly jumped as Hannibal poked him mentally, then sighed. "All right, all right," he grumbled. "I apologise for the insult," he said only slightly grudgingly.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"Oh, yeah, you are the very picture of repentance," Sparkle snorted, shaking his head a little. "But fine, consider yourself forgiven, for now anyway."

Until... possibly the next time Bob opened his mouth?

Until possibly then.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[nuclear_snide]

"I'm trying!" Bob protested.

Very, Hannibal answered in a dry mental voice.

"Oh, fine, gang up on me." Bob threw up his hands. He put his head in a hand and engaged in a brief but expressive discussion with Hannibal, then sighed. Still, Hannibal was doing him a favour by this, and beating a strategic retreat seemed like a better idea than being forbidden any more rides.

"I'll see you back at the inn."

There was a swirl of golden light rising from Hannibal's skin, then it headed toward the inn like a rubber band snapping back.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

Sparkle watched that golden light until it was out of sight, wrinkled his nose a little, and then looked back at Hannibal.

...

"You are Dr. Lecter this time, right?"

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[sharp_as_knives]

"I am," Hannibal answered. He offered Sparkle a smile. "I threatened not to let him back in if he continued being rude."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"I'm kind of impressed you agreed to let him ride along in the first place," Sparkle admitted, gesturing toward the inn with the remains of his carrot. "He doesn't really strike me as the kind of guy who'd know 'polite' if it bit him on the ass."

Not that 'polite' could do that, since it was an intangible concept, and Bob was... well... just intangible.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal grimaced. "He can be quite polite, when he tries. Unfortunately, much of his experience with others has been...adversarial, to put it kindly. He isn't terribly used to trying."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

Sparkle eyed Hannibal for a moment at that, and then sighed, apparently mollified some by that answer.

"If you say so," he replied. "It isn't like I know the first thing about the guy, either. Except that he's dead, I guess."

Hell, Sparkle hadn't even caught the guy's name.

He was just going to call him Ferdinand or something.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[sharp_as_knives]

"He was a sorcerer," Hannibal said. "He came to town for the convention, and then returned to teach."

He pondered what more to say; he saw no reason to make apologies or excuses for Bob, but he didn't want his own judgment in hosting him brought in question, either.

"He's been dead for over a millennium," he settled on. "No body or way of interacting with anything."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"... Okay. I'd be pissy, too," Sparkle conceded. "Doesn't mean I need to enjoy his company, either."

Sparkle still hadn't really grown out of that 'holding a grudge' thing he did so very well.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[sharp_as_knives]

"Not at all," Hannibal agreed. "I let him use my body occasionally, and he repays me with a bit of magic, but as you see, you can tell the difference. Particularly now you know it's a possibility."

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[myownface]

"God, yeah," Sparkle sighed. "I'll be all paranoid about it. Though... I guess he's probably pretty harmless when he's not possessing people. Or something. If he can't, like, directly interact with people, I mean?"

He was just a jackass. Sparkle could cope with jackasses.

Re: Cyseal - Marketplace

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "When he isn't possessing anybody, he's completely harmless. Apart from the insults."

Which was the reason for them, really.