002 - feeling a little down in the ducks-- i mean dumps. down in the dumps.

[toheirishuman]

Who: John Egbert, Casey the salamander, and you
Where: The park
When: Early afternoon to evening, whenever you feel like chatting
Style: Starting action but I'll match
Status: Open!

[Anyone who just so happens to be taking a stroll through the park today just may catch sight of a boy dressed in blue sitting on the edge of the pond. Next to him sits a yellow salamander dressed in a black cowl with a purple-striped scarf, though it's quite a bit bigger than your average salamander and it is...quite literally seated next to the boy. Clearly this is not your typical salamander, but the boy doesn't seem at all perturbed by this. In the boy's lap rests a bag with at least half of a loaf of sandwich bread inside. Occasionally, he takes a slice out and rips it up into tiny pieces, tossing them into the water.]

[Just skipping work to feed the ducks, apparently. Real productive use of his time here.]

[At one point, he holds out a handful of bread chunks to the salamander.]

Here, you can throw a few too.

[The salamander looks at the bread, "glubs," picks up a few of the piece, and........attempts to eat them herself.]

Ack! No, Casey don't eat it! Throw it! Fuck you'd better not get sick from this...

[And isn't it just a little bit sad that this is the high point of John's day at the park?]

Comments

[darkasnight]

[He was just taking a walk around the lake, his black overcoat unbuttoned and his red sword case slung over one shoulder with his hands pocketed. For everything being underwater this wasn't so bad.

That salamander though.]

Yeah, I think you've probably fed him enough to last three lifetimes by now.

[toheirishuman]

Huh? [He looks up from his half-tussle with the amphibian.] What no! No, this was all went to the ducks. I don't think salamanders are supposed to eat bread. They eat like...you know, bugs and stuff.

[darkasnight]

Do all salamanders get that big where you're from?

[toheirishuman]

[It's about this time that John realizes how uncannily this guy looks like one of his housemates. Well...save for his eyes, really. John hesitates before answering, trying to decide if he should address this first or answer the question.]

No and yes. On Earth? No, they don't even get this big normally. On the Land of Wind and Shade? Yes, in fact they get a little bigger even. Casey here is only a baby.

[A beat.]

...You wouldn't happen to be Rin's twin brother, would you?

[darkasnight]

Land of Wind and Shade, huh... Pretty cool name for a planet. So it's an alien? [He grins down at Casey. At least it was a cute alien?]

[The grin drops. Oh boy.]

Nah. He's just blessed to look anywhere near cool as me. [Shrug!]

[rainbowarch]

[Cutting through the park was a great way to go back to the base and after a day at work, Cielo was in the mood to see a little more greenery on his way home.

Passing by the pond, he's just in time to hear John scolding his...lizard...thing.]

Hey uh...you need help, bro?

[toheirishuman]

Nah, I got i-- [Wait...that voice sounds familiar. Kind of hard not to forget something that distinct, even if John didn't actually have much of a conversation with the owner of it last time. He looks up, fairly confident that Casey is done trying to eat the bread crumbs.]

Ah! It is you! Cielo, right?

[rainbowarch]

[Oh? This guy knows his name? But Cielo has never seen, much less introduced to himself before. Unless...yes! Then this must be the batbro!]

Ja! And you're John.

[toheirishuman]

Hehe, yup! That's me! What gave me away?

[rainbowarch]

Because I didn't recognize you! The only way that would be possible would be if you were the little bat I met.

[Recognition via no recognition. Go figure.]

So this is what you normally look like?

[bethehugejerk]

[John skipped work? Wow, really? No! Can't be! There's certainly no coworker-slash-friend who might have been called about it, who promptly told them that no, he's not coming in to cover for his truant ass. It's his day off, and he has things to do! (He's a model employee, really.)]

[And as it so happens, things to do encompass going to find this missing friend and figure out what's up. He was totally planning this the whole day. No, really. Time shenanigans are why the effect precedes the cause, honest!]

[But dropping pretenses, Karkat has heard that Rose is missing, courtesy of the recently returned Jade (whose absence he didn't quite pick up on either). End result: he's going to check his SFC regularly from now on. He dropped the habit back when absences got too frequent and depressing to keep up with; now, while still unpleasant, repetition has taken much of their sting. But to lose someone you love to an unexpected disappearance... That never gets easy to handle.]

[He makes the guess that John won't be at home, figuring someone would bother him about ditching work, but it isn't until he finds him that he's sure. And it was a search. By the time he hits the park he's wandered through different areas of town, checked any local theater he can find for spottings of a dumb-looking kid with buckteeth and glasses (movies are his own go-to for bad moods), and peered through the windows of a few shops along the way. The park is not the quickest search either, but when he spots that weird salamander, he knows it has to be him.]

[Karkat strolls up behind the seated pair, looking out at the pond instead of down at them.]

Nice job skipping work on me, asshole.

[But if John listens, he may hear that his tone is not half as sharp as it could be.]

[toheirishuman]

Huh? [He tilts his head back a little to get a look at the owner of the voice. Sure, he's heard Karkat enough to recognize his voice without problem but it never hurts to be sure. Seeing the troll's face really makes the comment sink in though.]

Oh shit! It's Monday, isn't it?! [Okay, so maybe playing hooky wasn't ENTIRELY intentional. Though he probably would have skipped even if he had actually remembered.] Fuck...I'm sorry, Karkat.

[bethehugejerk]

[Did he just... Really...]

[Karkat looks down, but it only lasts a moment before his palm hits his face.]

You ditched and it wasn't even on purpose? Once again, it is proven that even I can overestimate your competence. And I spent this whole time looking for you, too!

[toheirishuman]

Sorry, I just...I don't know.

[He'd say he has a lot on his mind, but he doesn't. It's really just one thing. Maybe one and a half things.]

If you want to, you can still yell at me for ditching though. Purposefully or not, I still didn't show. That way your search won't have been a waste.

[bethehugejerk]

[His hand lowers. But John, really? You're actually inviting him to?]

[He takes a deep breath.]

Yours is a stupidity heretofore unknown by human, troll, beast, or the nebulous "other" of unknown species inhabiting the many and countless universes. It is something so grand and profound - if only in the sense of its mindboggling awfulness - that it demands a new word be created for it. To merely pull something off the top of your head would be an insult to what a complete lack of intelligence it is. Experts, surely, would have to be assembled from across space and time, past, present, future, and doomed timelines alike, sampling from places neither of us have ever heard of. Centuries would be spent to craft this word, and when you, immortal god moron you are, come to the conference held to announce this accomplishment of word-crafting, to hear it grace your weird, round human ears, your sole response would be nothing more than "Haha, what?"

That, there, is how dumb you are.

[And with that exhausted, Karkat steps around John to sit beside him, opposite Casey.]

Tell them some emergency came up that had you so tied up you couldn't call in. I'll say I heard about it later - after they called me about you - and corroborate it. You owe me hugely for this, by the way.

[echigo_wargod]

[ the samurai visited the park often. It was peaceful.

But someone feeding ducks and a salamander certainly would make things interesting today. ]

Are lizards fond of bread?

[ because honestly Kenshin never really paid much attention to lizards before. ]

[toheirishuman]

Well Casey is a salamander, not a lizard so technically I don't know! I've never had a lizard before, hehe. [Smartass kids.] But this is the first time she has tried to eat it so I don't know if she is. I think she's just hungry.

[It's really kind of hard to tell with consorts sometimes.]

[echigo_wargod]

[ not that salamanders were common in Echigo... ]

Interesting. [ smartass. ] What would she normally eat?

[toheirishuman]

Bugs, I think. But Casey isn't an Earth salamander so she eats some other things that might be atypical in addition to that. Like mushrooms and onions.

[echigo_wargod]

Quite the interesting diet. [ the same could be said for Kenshin's sake and rice diet... ]

[heartandsoul]

[Maka's kiiiind of been needing to get out more after that whole debacle with her scythe. Sure it's been days since that happened but fresh air and sunshine never hurt anybody.

At least she thinks it's never hurt anybody.

--Hey look, is that baby brother?]

Hi, John! Hi Casey!

[toheirishuman]

[Casey is the first to turn her head, blowing an affectionate(?), happy(?) bubble in Maka's general direction. John, on the other hand, needs a few seconds to come back to the bubble since he went space case for a few minutes after getting the bread away from Casey. But he too, turns in the direction of the voice, smiling when he sees who it is.]

Hey, Maka!

[heartandsoul]

[Whaaaale, if there's no objections, she'll just seat herself right on next to them.]

Feeding the ducks, huh? Mind if I join you?

[toheirishuman]

[John puts on his most affronted and offended face. Which is actually incredibly fake because of course he doesn't mind.]

Oh my god, how dare you. How dare you expose me and these poor ducks to your awful girl cooties. I am so offended right now, you don't even know.

[heartandsoul]

[...And she actually believes him for a moment.]

S-sorry, if you'd rather be al--

[Wait.

Oh god he was just kidding. Of course he was, he's John. Excuse her if she turns away blushing like an idiot.]