| Logs |
2004 November 07
| Idlewild |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
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| Realms: Idlewild Logs |
November 7 (b)
After over a week of travel with an unpleasantly heavy backpack, Lauren's unimpressive muscles are getting used to it. The pack is still heavier than she'd like, but she has an ace in the hole-- Crenshaw. The melon mare has healed nicely from her shoulder wound due to some elfin treatment, and has surely spared Lauren being the slowest vegetarian traveller EVER by taking on about half what Lauren would otherwise have had to carry. As they trudge along in relative quiet now, a few hours to evening yet, the group is comfortably spread out so that no one has to talk if they don't feel like it. The usual pods have formed-- Aiden, Sol, Steven and Seodil are alternately ranging ahead in four-legged form, or coming back to chat with each other. Zhi and Melierel are walking near each other but not together, and not actually talking. Kip is walking beside Anisaire, talking quietly. Grennit is just now coming back to Lauren from walking by Ayali, with a sigh. She arrives and looks sidelong at Lauren. "He's moping because you're avoiding him."
"He is?" Lauren looks back, guiltily. "I didn't MEAN to, it's just...you know, with the porridge....it was wierd...you know? He's not mad, is he?"
"No," says Grennit wryly. "I don't think he knows how. He's just sort of soulful. The eyes get big and he looks like somebody kicked him in the nuts and he doesn't understand why."
Lauren laughs, sort of. Uneasily. She looks back again. "I have no idea what to do about him. That whole thing only happened because I--" she checks Kip's direction furtively "--was hoping for Kip, and that didn't work, and then I wanted Meli, and THAT didn't work, so....I got Ayali. I feel terrible about it."
"Ooh." Grennit looks thoughtful. "What did happen with Meli? It's been quiet for days, but back at the Foxcatcher camp I was wondering if you were going to go for each other's throats, or just go find a tent. What did you do to him? And what do you want to do with Ayali? Normally people keep talking to him after sex. "
Lauren shrugs, chewing a lip. "Nothing happened with Meli. He said he didn't actually want me. Everybody heard it. So I guess that's that. D'you think I should do something with Ayali?"
Grennit raises a fine strawberry-blonde eyebrow and pokes Lauren in the short ribs with a dainty finger (though not as dainty a finger as possessed by little Anisaire, who remains the prettiest even while pregnant). "I think Meli's full of horseshit. He kept touching you for awhile. He doesn't touch anybody else much." She visibly considers the other thing. "Well. I think you should do something to un-confuse him, whichever way you want to go. Boy's concerned you don't like him, and Ayali's not exactly used to that sensation. He said you pulled him down and started it, and then you wouldn't look at him after you woke up. He's worried he hurt you somehow, and that his goddess has deserted him."
"There's goddesses for this sort of thing? Oh wow. COOL." Lauren enthuses for a bit before business rears its head. "Um Grennit. Speaking of all that. I um. Need an anti-baby thingy."
"Of course there is." Grennit snorts. "Ayali's a priest." She blinks, eyes widening. "Oh. Oh..." She looks around and checks that nobody else is paying attention again, before elaborating. "'Cause I don't have any since it was in the car and I don't want a baby and I hope to god that I'm not pregnant right now and...god damn it, I just need something."
Grennit blinks and says, "Well. I can get you something to piss on and see if you're already pregnant, but I'll have to make it after we stop tonight. That make you feel better?" Reaching out, she puts a warm arm around Lauren's shoulder and half-hugs, unselfconscious about touch. "Then I'll make you whatever you need, ok?"
Lauren bobs her head and rests it against the other elf's shoulder, looking relieved and mournful both. "Th'nks Grennit. I'm so sorry about ALL this stupid mess. Don't know what to DO. You've been so nice."
Grennit says in practical tones, whilst being cuddly, "I like you. Nearly everyone else hasn't got the stick taken out of the butt yet." After a squeeze, she adds "Far as do, I suggest talking to people. Then maybe sex. It clears the mind."
Lauren detaches herself from Grennit hastily, at that suggestion. "Can't," she says lamely. "Well, I mean I CAN. But...what about Kip?"
Grennit doesn't appear to understand the question. She looks quizzical. "What about Kip?"
Lauren stares at Kip's back, several meters in front and not far from Anisaire's. "...kind of stupid. Was hoping, I dunno, that...eh. Things were going well. I thought we might um. And then Ani and the porridge happened and now I'll never have him and I'm fucking miserable about it." She looks hopefully at Grennit. "Maybe I should have him anyway?"
"The porridge didn't happen," Grennit says sagely. "You happened it yourself. You need to learn how to do it more precisely if you're going to go doing that sort of thing. One has to be careful. People get very touchy. Consider it a lesson in the need for accuracy and stealth." Grinning at Lauren, she adds "Miserable? You have it bad. You planning on travelling with him awhile?"
"Probably." Lauren makes tiny 'pop' sounds with her thumb and her navel. "Going to just go into his tent and drive Ani out with a stick one of these days." Ani's back gets The Look. "A big stick."
The navel thing appears to have a hypnotic effect on Grennit for a moment, but then the words sink in and Grennit snickers rather heartlessly. "Well. If you weren't staying together I'd suggest you dose just him and get it out of your system, but you've already made it all too obvious that that can happen and I think they'd kill you if you did it again. I'm afraid you might have to actually talk."
"Got a lot of talking to do," Lauren says glumly. "Probably sex too. Never going to have enough time." Grennit sighs and whacks Lauren on the arse. "Cheer up. Some people are capable of both at once. You might get it all done." She then snickers again, looking not at all repentant. Ahead, Kip moves away from Ani and walks over to Melierel. After a moment, Ayali moves to Ani.
Lauren eeps and snickers a grin. People keep smacking her on the ass--at least when Grennit does it it doesn't sting s'much. "There's both of 'em alone," she notes. "God they're pretty. I hafta go collar one of 'em before I lose my nerve."
"Practically a matched set," Grennit notes with a distinctly pervy tone. And beams.
"Never EVER even thinking about it. That's incest and it's gross." Lauren flounces up the line a bit, the flounce dropping off by increments as she gets closer to the chocolate brothers.
"I meant for you," Grennit snorts. Then, even more quietly, she murmurs "Or me!" with a wicked little grin as Lauren flounces out of earshot. The dark, bitter chocolate hair of Melierel swings in mirror image of Kip's richer, slightly milk chocolate as they both turn to see who's coming. They both look, for a moment, a bit surprised. Meli covers it much faster.
The difficulty of collaring one of 'em before she loses her nerve becomes evident: which ONE? Hadn't thought about that. "Hey," says Lauren, stalling. "I um. Need to borrow..." Meli said he didn't want me. "Kip."
Kip looks vaguely alarmed for a moment, before his face settles into a good approximation of Meli's serenity. He nods. "Alright. Where?"
"Over....there." Lauren points. It's a completely random patch of space with a few meters of air and Ayali between it and Anisaire. It's out of Meli's reach, too. "And stop worrying. I'm not going to DO anything."
Kip's spine straightens indignantly. "What could you possibly do that I'd worry about." It's not really a question, more of a defiant little fluff. He walks as though trying to look relaxed while he's not. They arrive. He waits for her to speak.
"Could knock you down and um," Lauren suggests neutrally. "Do I ever get to do that again? What's up with you and Ani?"
Kip blushes. It's a lovely shade of coral pink. He stares at his toes for a few moments when he walks, and says in much less confrontational tones, "...do you WANT to?"
Lauren lets the dodged question slide. "...yuh-hm. I mean, geez. Yeah. Of course I do."
Distinctly pointy Kip-ears get a shade darker."Oh. It did start when we were fighting. I wasn't sure. You argue a lot."
"I also put drugs in porridge," Lauren points out. "I'm stupid, I know. Are you getting red because this is okay or because it isn't?"
Kip's ears finish getting about as red as they can probably get, and he flashes Lauren a dirty look-- not the good kind. "That was pretty fucking stupid, yes." He pauses, says "It might've been okay. It would've been okay. Then you did that. And Ani was there. I should probably thank you, we had to talk after that, and it helped a lot." As he speaks, his face pales slowly back to just a little flushed.
Carefully, Lauren folds her arms. "You didn't just talk, though. Right? Should I just go away right now?"
"Of course we didn't just talk," Kip says rather bitingly. "We fucked like rabbits. Carefully. And we've been doing it again every other night or so since. I'm just considerate enough to be quiet about it."
"...right. Okay. I'm going." With a sigh Lauren hauls her shoulders back up. "All done. You can go back to your brother now."
Kip reaches out and catches Lauren's sleeve, keeping her there. "No, we're not done. You needed to say some things, so did I. We're not done yet." A pause. "In any way. Ani and I aren't going to be a couple."
"You've got a baby in her, you're fucking her, and you seem pretty happy," Lauren says coolly, tugging on her sleeve. "If there's more, I'd love to hear it."
"You drugged my porridge," Kip says pleasantly back. "You don't seem to have a problem with things other people don't consent to, so why don't you get off the high horse about the things that weren't your idea? It's your fault I'm fucking her now. I wasn't going to. But we are, and we've talked, and it's only friendly. Speaking of which, how's Ayali?" He smiles.
"Ask somebody who's talked to him in the last week," says Lauren. "Hell if I know. So it's my fault you fucked her ONCE, just like it's my fault the whole Ayali thing happened. Once. I haven't done it again. Is there anything you wanted to say to me other than 'nyeah'?"
"You asked me to talk," says Kip calmly. "What did you want to find out? If Ani and I are going to be a couple? I told you. We're not. Friends? Yeah, we're working on it. I could do the same with you, but it would involve talking to me more than once a week."
Lauren fidgets in silence for a few mintues. "Just trying to figure out what I should do," she says eventually. "Wanted to be more than friends. Don't want to be Ani's ugly understudy. Dunno."
"You're not ugly!" Kip says with clear and immediate indignance. "I--" he stops. Starts again. Says, "If you want to be more than friends, you really ought to work on 'friends' first. Lately you're not much of one. Porridge. I like you, Lauren. But if you want me to trust you, you could give me a reason. And reasons to keep liking you wouldn't hurt either. If you'll come halfway to meet me, you'll find me in the middle waiting for you. I'd like to be friends with you. I can handle arguments. But no drugs. There are things you can't take. Only persuade." He pauses, having drawn them off to the side a bit, and stops walking to give her a serious and rather melting look.
"M'uh..um." Finally Lauren sprouts a blush. "I'll try. What're you mean, persuade...?"
Kip leans forward and puts a gentle, almost-chaste kiss on Lauren's lips. Then he leans back, steps away, and smiles. "Take it a day at a time and try being nice. Might get you far."
"Day at a time," Lauren repeats, a little dizzy. "They use that for alcoholics back home..."
Kip's smile gets a little wicked. "I think alcohol and us might be a bad mix for awhile. I want you to like me when you're thinking clearly." He puts a finger briefly on her nosetip. "If that goes well, maybe we can talk about things that make one think less. And I think we'd better catch up to the rest now."
Lauren nods, head buzzing with all SORTS of wacky things that need to be filed properly, and scuttles back to Grennit and Crenshaw. It occurs to her, in the midst of all this, that Kip never said anything about objecting to a little supplementary fun with Ayali.
All at once....life is kinda good.
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