Mission: Vacation [Elrick, Raen]

[Fate]

Don't you dare make this impossible.
[August 2, 2010]
--

Three days passed since Elrick, Raen and Lillian escaped hell alive. All three were beyond exhausted from all the fighting, emotion, more fighting, nearly getting killed-- did she mention fighting? All for a good cause of course, leaving Orpheus weakened and, more importantly, Elrick was alive. And they were never going back to Eurydice. Ever.

She had chosen to fly for now, right now just trying to find a place to land and relax. Worlds were mentally crossed off her list as they went past them. Twilight Town? Nope, Elrick destroyed a wall there. Agrabah? Too hot. Radiant Garden? Too many people. Deep Jungle? No people. Land of Dragons? Actually... that sounded like a good idea. And they said they were going to go there after Eurydice. Even though Lanying wasn't with them anymore, they might as well.

"Captain, Jack Frost" she said, her nicknames for Elrick and Raen for today, "Prepare for landing on Land of Dragons." She started the ship's smooth descent and positioned it to land softly on the ground outside of the town.

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[Lagunamov]

This is some well deserved break.

The last couple of days of travelling after the events at Eurydice flew by in the blink of an eye for Elrick. Of course, that was only natural, since he stayed for the vast majority of that time inside his quarters, resting, waking up only to deal with basic necessities such as food or a bathroom trip, or for something more important, like changing his bandages. Thankfully, by the third day it seemed he’d no longer need to do the latter. Now he’d just need to deal with his sore back.

He had been napping in the cockpit when Lillian finally decided to land the ship. That alone woke him up, putting his coat and hat on, as well as picking up the rest of his equipment. “Next time, how about we switch to one of our smaller ships for world entry?” he commented as he finished getting ready. Truthfully speaking, the new vessel was humongous enough and hard to conceal. But this was, luckily, a world with enough open spaces. Still, they had gone and picked up their old ships and stored them in the larger one’s hangar, so they might as well see some use.

Lil had landed the ship outside of town, which would make the trip quick enough. Looking out the window, he saw the mountains filled with snow, and green pastures in their surroundings. The town appeared to be lively behind enough, even if it was surrounded by walls and a large gate. Probably to keep unwanted things out. Either way, they were here to relax. A city protected from heartless or beasts would be the perfect place for that.

It’s not like this could possibly be another Eurydice, right? Right?

[Nothingness]

Nah--it's safe. No, seriously, it is.

Raen had been out and about the ship, checking the various sections of it, when Lillian landed it. The ship was massive on the outside, but absolutely gargantuan inside. He found himself getting lost on more than one occasion. Still, they'd been flying around for a few days, so he wasn't entirely sure what world they just landed on. Frankly, anything would be better than Eurydice. Unless is was inside that damn whale, Monstro. That would be just about as bad.

He found himself presently surprised, then, when they all disembarked and he found himself on a pretty familiar world: the Land of Dragons. "Thanks for the nickname, Lillian. Jack Frost--funny." He mumbled just loud enough for her to hear, busily looking around. "Maybe we'll see Lanying at some point." There was no denying he hadn't been at least a little worried about how she was doing since Elrick evacuated her from Eurydice.

[Fate]

I thought it was funny.
--

"Fiiiiine," she replied to Elrick, taking a look around. It was a rather peaceful looking world. Hopefully. Please. The gash on her stomach was pretty much healed and the burn marks were almost gone. If they could get through one day without having to fight demons or soldiers or Heartless or dragons and just relax, she'd be happy. And Raen and Elrick probably would be too.

She didn't catch whatever Raen mumbled, or if she did she made no indication of it. "That'd be good. Hopefully she's all right." Lanying probably was, but it'd still be nice to see her after Eurydice. "We can see her, and then we can relax-- or do that and then see Lanying. We need it either way." She started walking a bit, looking around again. There was the town. There were mountains. And there were trees.

"Whatever you guys wanna do is fine by me."

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[Lagunamov]

The clash of cultures.

Finally outside, the scent of fresh air filled Elrick’s lungs. He was surprised how glad he was he got to smell grass again. It seemed almost dying some days earlier had made him appreciate the smaller things in life. For about ten seconds, then he became distracted by something else. In this case, the weird architecture for the buildings in town. “I dunno, I just say we walk around and see if we find anything interesting,” he said, starting to walk into town, looking around.

The place was lively, with grey brick streets filled with people and buildings built almost entirely out of wood, painted in bright shades of brown, gold and red. The red was particularly prominent on the roof tiles, meaning the city probably looked like a gigantic red block from the air.

Moving towards a stand, drawn by the smell of food, he stared as the cook behind it fried some rice and chicken balls on the spot. The sight of that alone made Elrick hungry, so he asked for a bowl of rice with some of the latter in it for an extra something to pick on. Money and disposable bowl were exchanged, walking back to his group as he started to dig in… or so he would have, if he hadn’t had so much trouble with the chopsticks.

“Doesn’t this place have forks? I’m too white to deal with chopsticks,” he complained a bit, struggling to get a tiny portion of rice into his mouth. The taste was good. He was just missing quantity thanks to his poor skills with the mysterious instruments.

[Nothingness]

Wouldn't it be nice~

It was indeed nice here. It was sunny, there was a cool breeze, people were out and about living their lives, and, most importantly to Raen, no one was trying to kill him or his friends. Yup, it was as nice as it could be. It was even nicer being in such familiar territory, though he didn't particular recognize anyone, nor them him. Still, no one was trying to kill them. And that's all that matter.

Not only did the smell of food attract Elrick, but Raen, too. He lazily drifted over to a stall on the other side of the street and got himself a nice piping hot bowl of ramen. He gave Elrick a friendly laugh at the trouble he was having with the chopsticks. "Yeah, I just stick with noodles here--much easier to pick up with chopsticks." Raen noisily slurped up a thick hunk of noodles, holding the utensils absolutely incorrectly, but they served their purpose well enough. "Ended up spilling an entire bowl of rice on the ground last time I was here. Don't ask how, I still don't know."

[Fate]

Yeah, it'd be nice if we didn't all suck at this.
--

Figures that they'd both go for food first. Though, she was hungry too so she couldn't complaiin too much. She followed both of them and ordered some noodles herself; like she was about to try and make things purposely difficult for herself like Elrick did. And, just like both of them, she had no idea how to use the chopsticks. Once the noodles were put in front of her, she tried. There was a certain way to hold chopsticks, right with one hand?

Yeah, whatever that way was, she was failing at it. She managed to get a hold of a small bit of noodles before they dropped back into the bowl. Attempt number two got her one noodle. Attempt number three a few noodles and attempt number four just one again. "Not much easier," she said to Raen. This was hard. "Lanying would be laughing at how much we suck at eating with these things."

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[Lagunamov]

Nepal style. Suck it chopsticks.

It became quickly comforting to see that Elrick wasn’t the only one who sucked at dealing with chopsticks. It was even better not being the only one eating, making him less of a glutton now. Raen had apparently had similar issues in the past, and the sight of Lillian struggling as well with her noodles made him feel less of a moron.

Of course, by the time she had commented on the whole thing, Elrick had already removed his right glove and started eating with his bare hand. Next time he would bring a fork. “What?” he said, his mouth stuffed with rice. “I know a World where they eat everything like this,” he tried to justify his methods, but didn’t really care. At least now he was getting food.

Now, with that advantage, he finished off his bowl first, throwing it into a trash can a couple of meters away. “So, Raen…” he started, sucking on his fingers and then cleaning them with a napkin he had taken from the stand. “Can you suggest any place to hit next and try to relax? Seeing as you are more familiar with this place and all that,” he asked, looking around the place himself as he put his glove back on. The city appeared large enough for them to spend hours looking through, just trying to find something.

[Nothingness]

I know this place?

A place to go to next? Raen finished off his noodles while he thought, but came up with nothing. He realized that he hadn't done much hanging out whenever he came here. First he was here fighting Heartless and Kadaj, the second time he mostly flirted with Lanying's lovely friends, and even that ended with him getting his ass handed to him by himself. "Uh...I know where to meet some beautiful women. Although, the only person we know here wouldn't be too pleased about that."

[Fate]

Yeah I don't swing that way. Sorry.
--

Well now Elrick had resorted to eating with his hands and Raen had finished-- yeah she was going to be the last one eating wasn't she? She was determined to finish these noodles with these chopsticks. Now she had decided to tip her bowl and shovel into her mouth, this method proving to be faster and sloppier-- though she didn't really care about the latter that much.

She finished and listened to what Raen said about what they could do here, rolling her eyes the next moment. "Yeah, sounds like something I'd love to do," she quipped sarcastically, "Watching you two drool and attempt to flirt would... actually be really funny. Let's do it." It was probably a tiny bit mean to say, but she didn't really care-- there was some truth to her statement. "And maybe they can tell us about things to do that's not that."

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[Lagunamov]

And it was such a promising idea.

That suggestion from Raen had caused Elrick to raise an eyebrow, surprised at the suggestion, quite interested in going through with that, before realizing another certain someone was standing right there. The sarcasm in her voice was almost palatable. Which was a shame. Having her join and also flirt with beautiful women would have been… entertaining, to say the least. And possibly feed the two males in the party with enough mental pictures for the rest of their lives.

“So, that’s a no, under penalty of emasculation? Gee, it’s just like back home!” Elrick scratched the back of his head. “Would have been nice if you were also up for girl hunting, though” oh yeah, he was gonna pay for that. Probably in a very painful and humiliating way. “Do you want to suggest something to do, Lil? And don’t say man-hunting. If we can’t go ogle at girls, you can’t go around checking man-buts.”

[Fate]

You never let me have any fun.
--

Oh this conversation was getting better and better-- definitely back to normal. She gave a swift kick in the shin to Elrick for that, not even bothering with a glare. Then she gave an exasperated sigh. "You suck. The only man-ass I've gotten since I started traveling was thanks to you, and it was horrible. Still mentally scarred by the way." Yes, completely polite conversation. Raen would figure out this was normal soon.

She crossed her arms. Now she had to think of something? She stood up, looking around the world. "Think they have hot springs around here somewhere? That's what we did back home and it was great. Unless you have a better idea than girl ogling."

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[Lagunamov]

Well, that'd explain why I woke up so relaxed all those mornings.

Damn, that kick to the shin hurt. Elrick was probably going to develop chronic pain there just from Lillian kicking him so often down there. It was certainly nice for things to return to normal, after all the hell. “Yeah, yeah, I’m so…” he stopped mid-sentence, confused over something she had just said. “Wait, what man-ass?” he raised an eyebrow, crossing his arm and looking at her. Then something clicked in his head, or seemed to have clicked, followed by a long gasp. “What exactly did you do at night on my ship after I went to sleep?” he asked in a mixture of shock and amusement.

Moving back to a relatively more serious topic, Lillian brought up the prospect of hot springs. That sure would be relaxing enough. “Hot springs work. We can always go ogle girls after. We’d be extra relaxed, so things ought to work better,” he smiled, standing straight again and trying to look for some place like that. “So, lets get moving?”

[Nothingness]

Not gonna ask...

Raen wasn't really sure if he wanted to know about what those two did in their free time, and he wasn't going to ask. Although, it was humorous seeing Lillian nail Elrick in the shin. "Good idea. Let's just hit up those springs before you two kill each other." He said, laughing.

[Fate]

Yeah it's better that you don't.
--

"Nothing," she said in a less-than-innocent tone, "Nothing at all Captain." Of course it really was nothing. She had just been talking about that one time on Costa del Sol. But sticking to the truth of the matter was just far too boring. Poor Raen was stuck listening to the two of them bicker too. She couldn't imagine this sort of talk happened between him and Lanying; the pair didn't have the same sort of sarcasm that Elrick and Lillian relished in, especially when the two were bored.

That wasn't here or there though. "Yeah, hotsprings. Let's go." She started walking ahead, not really sure where she was going. Forest maybe? Yeah, that made the most sense. Once they were found, they could relax, maybe nap, and then do whatever.

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