fandomhighdorms | The Icklest Koala, Thursday Night

Current Mood: hungry

Entry tags:

The Icklest Koala, Thursday Night

Cabins! You know, Rikku had missed campfires so much. You could make s'mores and mountain pies and hot dogs and then you could all sit around chatting and watching the fire and how awesome was that? Severely awesome.

So Rikku had piles of goodies and pie irons and sticks and she was having a grand old time. And the Icklest Koala campfire? Was so, so open to anyone who wanted some campfire food. Mmmmm, campfire food.

(OOC: I have not had a mountain pie since the fourth of July, woe! OPEN CAMPFIRE IS OPEN.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Romeo had a very, very important question on his mind as he approached the campfire.

And that question was: "Rikku? Do you know what an icklest is?"

Edited 2008-08-08 03:16 (UTC)

"Nope!" Rikku said cheerfully. "Luke said maybe they were just making up words. I called him, for his birthday. Do you want some s'mores?"

Rikku's ADHD was switched to: ON.

"Yes please," Romeo said, settling himself with his hands in his lap. "They probably are making up words at that. How is Luke?" Not that he'd more than met the man, but it seemed worth asking.

Rikku passed Romeo some marshmallows and a handy stick. You could get those metal prong-things but really, sticks were old-school.

"I bet it means cute," she decided. "Awwwww, ickle chocho. Which Reno totally was, even if he doesn't think so. Luke's good. Blowing things up and all that."

"He was precious," Romeo agreed. "Has Dojima showed you the last few photos we took of him? We accessorized him."

This was possibly the least manly series of sentences recently to issue from Romeo's mouth.

"Oh my gosh, no!" she giggled. "Was he pretty? Did he eat any of the accessories? He ate everything. He was like Petey in bird form."

"I think he thought his scarf was food," Romeo nodded. "It was hysterical. And he hated us after he turned back, of course, but I think it was worth it."

Edited 2008-08-08 03:49 (UTC)

"It so was," Rikku sighed, happily. "I sent his boss pictures. I'm horrible. I so need to see these pictures. How is your girl, anyway?"

"Not as well as she has been," Romeo admitted, stabbing a marshmallow with a stick almost violently. "Her father had some unwelcome news for her -- it's hers to tell you about, but he made a decision for her without her consent."

Rikku stared at him. "No way," she said. "That's awful! Is she mad? Can she take it back? He's not, like, making her marry some creep, is he? Wait, you said it's her news. Sorry. Is she okay?"

"It is, yes but resigned to it so she doesn't ruin our last year here, she doesn't think so, and no." For which, at least, he could be grateful. "She will be. Enough."

He stared into the fire, then: "I asked her to marry me." It should be clear from his tone that his proposal had not been a success.

Edited 2008-08-08 04:44 (UTC)

Blink. Blink. Blink.

"You did?" she said softly. "Because ... because of all this stuff with her dad? Or ... like, you'd been planning it and the timing was just way off?"

At least he'd known her longer than two days?

He blinked back at her. "Because of her dad, Rikku. It seemed a way for her not to go home, if she needed one."

Mildly irritated, he added, "I'm not actually in a hurry to be married a second time, you know." Well. Not that much of one.

"No," Rikku said quickly. "Of course not. Totally."

Since he proposed and all. Totally reasonable assumption that he didn't want to get married again.

"Did, uh. ... Did she freak out?"

That got the slightest of imperceptible smiles out of Romeo, who was otherwise occupied lighting his marshmallow on fire. "I just meant I wasn't planning. It just .... came to mind."

He glanced up at her. "She didn't, actually. She very firmly let me know it was not a helpful solution, but she did it without calling me an idiot."

"That's good," Rikku said. Trying not to sound as relieved as she felt. "I just mean. You know. That's a kinda huge step. Very sweet. And helpful. But if she was nervous about dating, I mean. She might be the type to get all panicky about it, just, BAM, out of nowhere."

"I'd never done it before," Romeo said almost casually, pulling the blackened marshmallow out. "With Juliet it was more like ... she made it clear she expected to be wed" -- at least if Romeo wanted anything interesting to happen --"and I was too lovestruck to argue."

He put the sweet in his mouth and added, "I have no idea how I would react, were I on the other end."

He would say yes.

Edited 2008-08-08 05:04 (UTC)

"Sometimes that happens," Rikku said. "The lovestruck thing. I mean, I'm guessing. I've never ... asked, or been asked. I mean, I crashed a wedding once. 'Cause Seymour kidnapped Yunie, and was gonna force her to marry him? Which is seriously gross since he was dead and all."

Well. He was.

"I don't know how I'd react, either. I think ... I'd be flattered? But ... you know. Dojima's always been kinda nervous about the whole dating thing, so I would be worried that she'd flip out. It's kinda cool she didn't, right?"

This was an attempt at a silver lining.

"It is cool," Romeo had to agree. "Except now she has to go back and be her father's little pawn and how can marriage be worse than that?" (Montagues: Going from zero to emo in no seconds flat.)

But he wasn't that upset, so he considered her story and asked, "Was he like the zombies at Caritas?"

"No, he was ... he just didn't stay dead," she said, giving a light shrug. "Sometimes our dead don't ... move on. They turn into monsters. Or if they're really strong-willed, they still look like themselves, they're just kind of bending things around them. It's something to do with pyreflies. My world's ... kind of not like this one."

Understatement of the year, right there.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be anybody's, just herself," she added softly. "She can find a way out of it, and be ... yours, 'cause she wants to, not because she's gonna be yours instead of his."

"So death in your world means more than one thing," he summarized as he reached for another marshmallow.

It was into the fire before he felt ready to answer the rest of what she said. "I want her to be her own too," he all but whispered. "Girls aren't, in my world, not really. And not in hers, either. The more time I spend here, the less I understand that."

"It's complicated," she said, which ... could really have been intended for either of their discussions. "And ... I know you do. And she does, too, I bet. And I'm sure there are other ways to help her. Not that you asking wasn't helpful. It'll be okay, yeah? We can ... do we need to go beat her dad up?"

She wasn't above that sort of thing. Really.

"It wasn't helpful," he said flatly. It would be if she had said yes, but she hadn't. "A nbice thought, at the most."

"And no. For one, the man all but goes to the bathroom with armed bodyguards; for another, it would serve only to make things harder on Yurika."

"Not that I wouldn't do it had I half the chance."

Rikku shrugged, watching the fire. "Nice thoughts are helpful," she said. "I mean, she knows she's got options, now. She knows you're always gonna be there for her. That means a lot."

She shook her head. "And if you do decide to go after him, call me, 'cause I'm in."

He nibbled the charred edges off his second marshmallow as he thought about this. "I would do anything she asked," he resolved. "I hope she knows that."

With a sight smile, he added,"We wouldn't go with out you, especially as you've yet to see Tokyo."

Inara found herself missing some people, both missing from Fandom and from Shinon, so she decided to try to be social at her own campfire. She took a seat in front of the fire and greeted Rikku, "Hello. Have we met? I'm Inara, just in case we haven't."

"Hiya!" Rikku said, grinning. "Ooooh! No, I don't think we have? But you're Gavin's girlfriend, right? I'm Rikku, I was his big sister and all that."

... it only struck her after the words were out that that was gonna be a really tactless way to start if Inara and Gavin had recently split up.

"Yes, that's correct," she nodded, captured by Rikku's pure enthusiasm. "You were Gavin's big sister? How'd that turn out?"

"I hope I did okay?" Rikku said, considering it. "I made sure he was settling in, at least, I think I did, and then my summer got all weird and he seemed to be adjusting totally fine and so maybe I sucked at it? But he's awesome, anyway. Um. And if he thinks I did a crappy job, tell him I'm sorry and all that. Did you want some s'mores?"

"What's a s'more?"

Rikku stared. "You've never had one?!" she gaped. "I mean! It's okay! I hadn't before I got here, either! This is going to be an experience!"

She grabbed a pointy stick and handed it to Inara, along with a bag of marshmallows. "Here. Roast one of these until it gets all toasty and I'll explain the rest."

Inara glanced from the stick in her hand to the bag. "You want me to burn food? In a fire?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Icklest Koala, Thursday Night

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject