trans_9 | Yesterday's holiday [Semi-open]

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Yesterday's holiday [Semi-open]

An appetizing aroma drifted out of the kitchen of the Susono Inn this afternoon, making its way up to the second floor. Not one that was particularly familiar, for Zouichi, but one Howard might recognize from the time he'd spent before the FAYZ had cut Perdido Beach off from the rest of the world. Though it might not be Thanksgiving anywhere else in the multiverse, Howard had decided it might as well be Thanksgiving now... and he'd coached Zouichi on the basics of the holiday as he remembered them.

[First thread is for residents of the inn only, characters passing by that notice something's up can show up in the second thread]

Zouichi had spent most of the morning setting up for the surprise meal while most of the others were out and Howard, in a gesture of unusual magnanimity, had offered to share some of the food he'd been stockpiling. They'd even found a nice tablecloth to drape over the table in the main hall, upon which each of foods was set: turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread -- even some homemade Swedish meatballs for Allenby (they weren't really a Thanksgiving food, apparently, but she'd requested them some time ago).

Of course, many of these had been canned or created from mixes -- easier to store, and much easier to make. But food was food. Now it was just time to wait for everyone else to show up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm still troubleshooting nicknames for you. Maybe Cueball will stick. Maybe it won't."

Yes, Zou, but Howie makes him sound like an 8 year-old or a one-hit-wonder soft rocker famous for 'Collide'.

"You can't have substitutes for that sort of thing?" Howard rolls his eyes that they're encouraging his cat's bad habits. Emergency Rations, for her part, gives Cedric's fingers a probably-painful little love bite.

"Ced's teaching people to fly on brooms and chase hummingbird thingies."

"Just be careful. If you pick a bad one I won't answer to it," Cedric teases, wincing a little as the cat bites. "You're hungry, aren't you? Here, but this is all you get."

He passes down a bigger piece of food, broken up into smaller pieces.

"I won't bore you with the details, but that's the general gist of it. It's more fun than it sounds."

Like Zou is any better. It sounds like... well, he didn't know what it sounded like. 'Elephant', for one thing.

"Sounds exciting." Zouichi was pretty sure he'd look ridiculous doing it, though. Besides, who wanted to play sports with the superhuman bioweapon? No one, that's who. "Not actual hummingbirds, I hope?"

"Oh, no. How will I live with myself if you're not answering to me?" He rolls his eyes. "You're teaching my cat to beg, by the way."

As if she can understand Howard's words, Emergency Rations lashes her tail a little bit while eating.

"No, balls that are kind of like hummingbirds and dodgeball and stuff. I volunteered to ref." Howard grins; the idea actually excites him by now.

"Sorry," Cedric says guiltily. "I just like cats. You're a good one...Emergency Rations," he says slowly, tripping over the name. "If anyone needs a nickname, she does."

He confirms the information about Quidditch. "No, it's just an enchanted ball. Quidditch was played with real birds hundreds of years ago, the Golden Snidgets, but they nearly went extinct when wizards were too violent with them. That's when the Snitch was invented, it's designed to mimic a Snidget as much as possible."

Because Quidditch trivia is clearly necessary in every conversation. "We're glad to have you, Howard. You're welcome to watch a training session if it interests you, Zouichi," he offers.

"Oh, she has one," said Zouichi. "It's Spot." Which was obviously a much better name than Emergency Rations.

He frowned at the mention of the birds that had almost gone extinct so people could play a sport; that was kind of a new one on him, though enough animals had met their demise to supply fur, feathers, and horns that he guessed it shouldn't have been a huge surprise.

"I might come by and watch, but I'm not sure how well I'd fit in with the other players. I don't think I'd be particularly great at broom-riding, either."

"At least Emergency Rations is accurate! She doesn't even have spots. She has stripes." Howard's loathe to change the cat's name; if anything, it's a way he can convince himself he doesn't care too much about the cat, and that if worse comes to worst reason and desperation will win out over sentimentality. "If you need to give her any name, I think Rat's a nice short-form of her real name."

Howard waves a hand at Zou. "You'd probably be better at it than I am. I was too scared to get up above ten feet for like, half an hour." But he does sound proud that he managed to get over that fear as the practice session went on. He'll never be one of those daredevils on the brooms, doing flips and barrel rolls, but he isn't quite as scared of falling off anymore.

"Accurate?"

The horror slowly dawns on Cedric's face. How could he even think of...

"I think I'll call her Spot, thanks. And try to keep it unnecessary for her to live up to her name."

Quidditch is a much cheerier subject, and he nods enthusiastically. "You did a fantastic job for your first lesson! I know some students who never got off the ground. And we have a number of players. Not all of them are human. Have you met Alastirra?" he asks innocently.

One more for Spot. Yesss.

"Rat?" Zouichi gave Howard a skeptical look. Look at Emergency Rations! Look at that beautiful coat! She definitely deserved a nicer name than 'Rat'. Maybe 'Josephine' or 'Cordelia'. Hmm.

He blinked briefly at Cedric's question, surprised. "Yes. Alastirra is a... friend of mine. Did she volunteer to join your team?" If so, all the more reason to let her have her space.

Edited 2011-11-28 23:33 (UTC)

Howard's face visibly flushes, but he narrows his eyes at Cedric with a look that says something to the effect of 'just tell me how messed up it is to name my cat that, I dare you'.

He drops his gaze back to his food. "Yeah, well. That's why we keep a pantry."

He pauses for a second, considering whether or not to poke fun at Zouichi and expose the fact that Zouichi and Alastirra were romantically involved. He decides to respect Zouichi's discretion and hey, it's really none of Cedric's business. "What's she going to do, be the Beater? Because she could be pretty good at that."

Cedric sighs and offers Spot a hand. Hmph. The cat's just fine by him.

"Alastirra's not on the team, no one is yet, but I'll be having tryouts and assigning positions when the other captain comes back. And I'll try her for Beater."

This was going to be great!

Wow, Howard, what? You're passing up an opportunity to mock Zouichi? Is this... the FUTURE?

"I'm sure she'll be an excellent choice for... what is it that Beaters do?" It sounded violent.

Only for you, Zou. Only for you. And only because he'll tease you in private about it later.

Howard snaps his fingers under the table and clicks his tongue against his teeth, calling Emergency Rations over. He's suddenly jealous of the attention the cat's giving Cedric, and needing a bit of creature comfort. Which is funny, because why should Cedric's horror bother him? Cedric's just some naive jock, right?

Emergency Rations jumps up on his lap. He dips his index finger in a spoonful of gravy and lets her chew and lick on it.

"The Beaters are the numbskulls who end up with the broken bones, or so I'm told."

Cedric sadly waves goodbye to the cat. She's a good cat. He suddenly wishes he could adopt a pet of his own, someone to keep him company. It helps stave off loneliness when you don't have any close friends to turn to, not yet.

"That's right. Most of the action in Quidditch revolves around the teams tossing a ball into hoops, but we have two enchanted balls called Bludgers to make things more difficult. They're extremely heavy balls that focus on attacking players. It's the Beater's job to protect their team and hit them into attacking the other team."

Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

Zouichi frowned a little. "And you fly around while doing this? Sounds like a lot of broken bones." Of course, he supposed with magic around, you could just heal any injuries, but still. Balls that purposefully attacked players?

~~Then again, Shoutarou might finally find that ball he'd been looking for~~

"That's why the ref's also a medic, at least on this team." Not that Howard hopes anyone gets any broken bones while playing. At least, not anyone he likes.

He keeps petting the cat's head. "Anyway, it's basically enchanted dodgeball crossed with basketball crossed with like, golf or something. While flying. I hate all those sports, by the way."

"Yes, that's good!" Very good. Cedric is pleased to have Howard along.

"No one's asking you to play, don't worry. It's not for everyone. But it's incredible when you've got the hang of it. Even if you don't try the game, you should fly at least once."

Ah, flying. His favourite pastime.

"Ah, of course. They should have ref-medics at every game." Well, actually, wouldn't it make more sense to have referees and medics separately? That way the game wouldn't have to stop every time someone ended up clutching a fractured clavicle on the field.

"I do fly, but as a Variable Fighter pilot. It is quite enjoyable." Cedric, flying on a broomstick is okay, but. It will always be a distant second in Zouichi's heart to zooming around in a transforming jet plane that goes Way Too Fast and fires a billion missiles and makes things explode.

Howard raises his eyebrows and strokes his chin. "I kind of think you guys should race. Zou, on your bike, and Ced, on your broom. Or you can be in your fighter, Zou, whatever. I can call time."

Even if someone loses by a mile and a half, it should at least be entertaining to watch (and Howard will never let the loser live their defeat down).

"Will we be allowed to discuss the maximum speeds of each beforehand?" Just a question! "The fastest broom I know of can hit 150 miles per hour. It'd hardly be fair if there was a large discrepancy."

"Approximately 620 miles per hour," Zouichi said. That bike went fast.

...the Variable Fighter went faster, though. "And sorry, but I already promised someone the first race."

"We can handicap the bike or something. Put a little speedometer on it and eliminate Zou when he gets that road rage." Howard winks. "Or maybe we can make it full of ground-based obstacles."

Cedric looked envious, but it was a fleeting feeling. He already knew that speed was not for him, thanks to Lash's mad driving.

"If it works, I suppose that would make it fair. But are you sure? I don't want to risk damaging anything."

Certainly not a precious vehicle. They were well loved by most, whether broom or car.

Why was Howard so into this race thing, anyway? And Cedric, were you implying the bike wasn't sturdy?

"...I guess that would work. But it'll have to wait until after the jetbike race I promised someone."

Just because no matter who wins, Howard gets to make fun of someone he enjoys ribbing. He has just created a win-win situation for himself!

"So it's settled! Pistols at dawn or whatever. Wait, who are you racing on a jet bike?"

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