2nd Floor Common Room, Friday Morning

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina was on a quest!

A journey! An adventure!

There was a naked cat in the bedroom and she needed to find it clothes! There hadn't been any clothes that had fit the cat in the bedroom that had been within reach, which meant that she had to venture out and inspect other drawers and cupboards because the poor thing was going to get cold!

And everyone knew that cats didn't like hats very much.

(The naked cat had really not liked it when Nina had tried to put one on it, at least.)

The naked cat had refused to come with her (Nina had the scratch on her arm to prove it) and the friendly pink jelly blob had made funny noises at her and while she'd been giggling had rolled under the door and away.

Which was just another reason to go exploring! Maybe she could find the jelly blob and make friends with it? That'd be so fun--

But quietly.

If she was quiet, after all, she wouldn't be in anyone's way and no one would notice her and that would mean she'd be a good girl and her game wouldn't be stopped so she wasn't in anyone's way.

Nina poked her head into the open door and, seeing that no one was in there, tiptoed her way over to all the big drawers, ignoring the soft looking couches and the big black mirror things. She peered into the metal box with the handle on it and the metal bars inside of it and opened the humming box that turned out to have some food in it, though she didn't touch any of it because it wasn't hers and she didn't know what a lot of it even was and even the fact that she was able to read some didn't help her out.

What was mar-jar-in anyway?

She found a bag of rice in another drawer, once she'd abandoned the humming cold box, leaving the door ajar accidentally, and then a bunch of pots and pans, which made her think she wasn't going to find clothes in what might be a kitchen but, really, now that she was here she had to check all of them, right?

That was what adventurers would do! Right!

[Open, naturally!]

Comments

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine probably didn't look much like anyone was used to. Her hair was longer, this might be the only time anyone ever saw her natural hair color, armor didn't exactly fit her right now, and also she was much shorter as a five-year-old.

She was also artistically splattered with paint, though, because she'd already gotten into what was in her room, so that was a giant clue.

"What're you doing?"

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina jumped, startled out of her inspection of a pot lid, dropping said pot lid and cringing at the noise before she realized that the person addressing her wasn't an adult or one of the big kids who might as well be adults.

Actually, in fact, it looked like it was someone pretty close to her age? Which was four.

Which meant that they probably weren't big enough to get her into trouble for looking or for making noise.

"ADVENTURING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Because Nina had not yet mastered the art of, er. Anything between super quiet or, well, super loud. After all, if she was really loud then people did, in fact, eventually have to pay attention to her!

She giggled.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Adventuring with a pot?"

It was said, however, in the tone of someone who possibly wished to subscribe to this newsletter.

[bookbeltof_love]

And that, really, just made Nina even happier.

"IT COULD BE A SHIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she explained, giggling as she picked up the lid to brandish about like she imagined knights did. "IN CASE MONSTERS ARE IN THE CUPBOARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She considered the other girl hopefully.

"DID YOU WANT TO ADVENTURE TOO???????????????"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto had been on his way up the stairs, heading to his room after radio, already thinking about the work-out he'd be hitting up in a few as part of his new Friday morning routine, when he noticed a little someone there who probably shouldn't have been, trying to climb up the stairs himself.

"Oh, hey, there, Foomy, little buddy," he said, grinning down at him for a moment as he tried to climb his way up the stairs, before kneeling and holding out his hands to see if Foomy would come to him or if he's have to pick the jelly daemon up. And, since Foomy was in fact going to find Prompto, he happily burbled and leaped off the step into his hands. "What are you doing all the way out here? We better get you home, before Nina starts to worry about you."

And so he headed down the hall toward 221, slowing a bit to glance into the common room to see if anyone was up and about, especially after Foomy started burbling with excitement as he did. He paused, spotting the little blonde girl poking around the cabinets, and tilted his head with a thought, one that he felt Foomy's continued babbling was supporting as the daemons started squirming to be let down.

He considered the baby squirrels. He considered how it seemed to be Bring Your Baby Barista to Work day at the Perk. And then he ventured...

"....Nina?"

[[the Foomster totes modded with permission, too, bros! ]]

[bookbeltof_love]

And, really, it probably said a lot that Nina's first reaction to a big kid-maybe-an-adult voice was to recoil from the cupboard—she wasn't sure if she was, like, allowed to be in there after all—before she even looked to see who the voice belonged to.

"I'M BEING GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she protested, looking up anxiously, since they already knew her name and, in Nina's experience, that was rarely a good sign unless she was in the library or the kitchens.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Ohthankgod," Prompto gushed out, sinking just a little with relief. Not about the whole being good part, but because that was absolutely definitely Nina, he was sure of it now, which meant that the island was doing the whole 'turn everyone into kids' thing again, and it had actually (somehow!) skipped his sad, chubby butt this time around!

But not so much Nina, apparently, and, even if it weren't for the rush of relief, he would be pretty stinkin' amused by that and had to chuckle a little, setting Foomy, who wasted no time in burbling and rolling toward Nina, down.

"What'cha looking for?" Prompto then asked, grinning at her a moment before going to kneel in front of her and inspect what she was up to.

[bookbeltof_love]

She studied him, big blue eyes curious, before her attention got sidetracked by the happy pink blob.

"YOU'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said happily, offering the guy her strainer so that she could pick up the blob. "AND YOU BROUGHT A FRIEND??????????????????????????????"

From the way the blob was very excited then, like, that seemed likely?

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Pew pew," Sabine greeted him, pointing her spatula blaster at him.

...Nothing personal, Mandalorians started early.

[hashtag_chocobro]

And, just like that, this weekend went straight from Prompto's absolute nightmare from last year's experience to being pretty much the best this year now that he himself wasn't all wee and tiny.

(Okay, well, maybe not so tiny...)

"Oh no!" Prompto declared, clutching his chest as he staggered back dramatically. "I've been shot!"

He continued to suffer from this grievous wound until he'd reached the couch, backing up into the armrest and tumbling over onto it in a flail of legs and arms, which then went limp and still as he let out his last groaning breath.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Are you dead?" Sabine asked him.

She was pretty sure when you got shot you just fell down.

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

So far, as far as getting tea went, this person seemed Tisarwat's best bet, since the other kids were all even smaller than her! But there was one very important question she needed answered before anything else.

"Oh, no," she gave the grown-up big, wide, worried eyes. "What happened to your gloves?"

But at least he was wearing some! But she guessed it wasn't as bad if really little kids like these ones were wearing any. She gave hers an important sort of tug.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"What?" asked Prompto, frowning a little as he lifted his hands and inspected them. "My gloves? Nothing, they're how I always wear the--"

Then his brain sort of caught up with who this might be.

"They're supposed to be like that," he offered instead. "They help me work with stuff like my computer and guns a little better.

And they covered up super awkward clone barcodes!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"Supposed to be?" Tisarwat recoiled a little, wrinkling her nose, looking at the grown-up dubiously. "It looks tacky. You don't go out with your gloves like that, do you?"

[legionqueen]

Jules had woken up in a place that wasn't quite like anything she'd ever seen before. Snuggled up with a fluffy cougar cub. Which... if Fandom's magic hadn't been doing its thing, she probably would've found strange for multiple reasons, not the least of which was that even the most talented of naturalists didn't find their familiars until they were at least twelve.

"Helloooooo?" she called out as she entered the room, aforementioned cougar cub toddling along behind her.

[bookbeltof_love]

"PEW PEW PEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said happily, brandishing her wooden spoon at the other girl.

She was maybe not fully understanding Sabine's blasters.

"WE'RE LOOKING FOR ENEMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WANT TO PLAY???????????????????"

A beat.

"KIIIIIIIIIIIITTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[legionqueen]

Jules, being from a world that didn't have blasters, didn't know the correct response to being 'PEW PEW PEW'ed at.

"Enemies?" she repeated. "Like, like, poisoners?" she asked, that last word said in a hushed tone.

"That's Camden," she added, patting said kitty on her head. "She's my familiar!"

[bookbeltof_love]

That was okay, Nina didn't know the correct response either!

"HI HI HI CAMDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Important things first, after all! "ARE YOU A WITCH????????????????? WITCHES'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE FAMILIARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND POISONERS ARE SUPER BAD SO…………………. YES."

A beat.

"SABINE," Nina brandished her wooden spoon-blaster at the other girl in the common room, "SAYS THEY MIGHT BE HIDING IN THE HUMMING BOX."

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she thought maybe if she found someone who could explain things, she'd be okay, so she went exploring, emerging from her and wondering if there was anyone who could make her some tea around here because she really wanted some but couldn't quite make it for herself yet.

She heard voices down the hall and went to investigate, peeking her head into the room, looking around with her brown eyes and frowning, because this didn't look very promising as far as tea went, did it?

[bookbeltof_love]

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, waving at the other girl with her blaster.

Or. Well. Her wooden spoon.

Same difference?

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"Are you all playing some sort of game?" Tisarwat asked, feeling that, if the answer was yes, she wanted to play, too! Even if they were mostly just babies without gloves.

[bookbeltof_love]

They were such babies, Tisarwat. Such gloveless babies.

"YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, beaming at how smart and nice everyone so far had been. "WE'RE SNEAKING UP ON THE ENEMIES IN THE HUMMING BOX."

Yes. Sneaking.

[howareyanow]

Wayne had his breakfast upstairs, but now he wanted to do a little explorin', since it didn't seem like there was much chorin' that needed to be done around here and now everyone was posted and accounted for lol.

For now, apparentleh, that meant just sort of poking his head around the corner and squinting in as he took a look around this common room, which had way more people in it than his common room did.

[bookbeltof_love]

"I FOUND RICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina announced to the boy, since he was a boy and therefore, according to the cooks, had to be always hungry.

[howareyanow]

This little girl was realleh, realleh loud, which made Wayne squint harder and frown because Katy-kat was realleh nice and quiet, and this little girl could take a few pages from Katy-kat's book, if you asked him!

"I'm gonna need you," he said, much more quietly, and with a faint lisp to his word, "to take about fithteen to twenty perthcent off'a there, little thootsth."