fandomtownies | The Park, Saturday Afternoon

Entry tags:

The Park, Saturday Afternoon

If you thought that Arthur would be staying indoors and sticking to speeches now that precautions could be taken, you were utterly mistaken. He'd been outside for the better part of the day - not alone, either, as he was taking his own advice - keeping the creatures occupied. Or dead.

Mainly dead.

Unfortunately, he had yet to succeed in capturing one either.

He'd just gone out on his second patrol of the day when he stumbled across the park - and what seemed to be a group of five baby godzillas, conferring. "...Be very, very quiet," he told his companion.

[[ arthur's thread for one and a couple of beasties; open park is open for your unrelated business! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gabrielle had a long and illustrious career of avoiding being eaten, thank you very much. Okay, it was neither long nor illustrious, nor was it a career, but she had a record of escaping being eaten, that was the point!

"Nice claws!" she yelped -- no, really, lizard, the swipe she took at said claws with her staff? Part of the compliment. Honestly. "Very nice claws that belong in places other than tearing my flesh, thank you very much!"

But he loved tearing at flesh. It made him so happy! You want to make him happy, right?

Might he suggest something in a "standing there and getting eaten", perhaps?

Gabrielle had no problem with making the lizard happy in theory, but there was a whole thing where she preferred her own flesh intact. This was a perfectly reasonable stance, she liked to think.

He was welcome to suggest that, but she was -- sorry -- inclined to reject it on general principle. By the way, jabbing at the lizard's chest . . . sort of area . . . with the butt of her staff was the stamp of rejection.

Oh, now she had hurt his little lizardy feelings!

And also his chest. Enough with the poking already!

He smacked back with his tail.

You know what was kind of sad?

The fact that, despite getting a bruising whack to the stomach (oh noes, the abs!) Gabrielle actually meant it when she gave the lizard a regretful look through her mask and informed him, "I'm really sorry we couldn't reach some kind of agreement."

And then, you know, tried to sweep at his lizardy knees. Well, that part wasn't sad. Maybe.

Yes, if this had been a Broadway musical perhaps through poignant song they might have come to understand and love one another.

But that was not this weekend.

The lizard tipped over with a roar, slicing out with his claws and he fell toward her.

No, and it was a while yet before Gabrielle was going to end up getting tossed over a cliff and find herself living the Rider-Waite tarot deck in the land of Illusia.

She let out a sharp yelp and swiped with her staff, trying to hit the lizard in the side of the head (but not where she would kill it! Hopefully that principle worked the same as it did on humans?).

Which . . . cost her the second or so she would have needed to get out of the way of a tipping-over lizard, so going for the knockout blow? Not your best idea, Gab.

Especially since the knock-out blow connected and now there was an unconscious (and oh-so-hungry) lizard falling onto her.

Sorry, Gabrielle.

Oh, she was sorry, all right. Or she would be, once she stopped seeing little multicolored pegasuses (pegasi?) flying in circles over her head.

. . . the gas mask had gotten knocked off. This might be a problem.

Taking a walk in the fog was not the smartest thing Aphrodite had ever done. But there were monsters, and if the students could go out and fight them, she certainly could as well. Even if it meant throwing love bolts at the creatures. It usually made them at least docile, and two of them were now cooing at each other several blocks back. She didn't think they'd be dangerous for a while yet.

The fog hadn't affected her the previous night, but suddenly she wondered if it truly was making her hallucinate.

"Um. Gabrielle?"

Gabrielle cracked one eye open and waved a hand weakly in the direction of the voice, even though from this angle she couldn't make out the figure.

It looked vaguely reptilian, though.

"A little help here, maybe? I seem to be somewhat trapped."

" . . . Riiiight."

There was a voice in 'Dite's head telling her to just help the girl and let it be. But that was being drowned out by several more that couldn't help but tease.

"Gee. What would Xena say?"

"Before she helped me up or after?" Gabrielle asked, sounding more than a little grumpy about it now. "I can think of several options either way, none of which are as important at the moment as get this stupid thing off me."

She wasn't asking why she understood the lizard, or why it knew Xena's name. Sometimes, you just didn't ask these questions.

And now there was a full blown smirk on the face of the goddess.

"Gabrielle. What were you doing out here in the first place?" She nudged the lizard creature pinning Gabrielle to the ground. "At least you managed to knock it out before it knocked you down."

Gabrielle scowled, but scrambled out from under the unconscious lizard, peering up at the . . . other lizard.

"Oh, you're being friendly, I see. Maybe I should have negotiated with you instead of your friend here," she noted, groping for her staff. She came up with the strap of her gas mask instead, and sighed, making to toss it aside. "Well, that won't help."

'Dite moved to stop her. "Uh, is that a gas mask? Maybe you should put that back on. Dinah told me the fog makes you hallucinate." She tilted her head, considering. "Not . . . that that's a bad thing at the moment, but you should definitely put it back on."

"What, this thing?" Gabrielle dangled the gas mask from her finger and looked at it like it was a token of affection from Joxer. "I'm not hallucinating aaaaaaaaanything. I haven't touched nutbread in weeks. I'm fine."

She finally found her staff and pushed herself back up to her feet, leaning a bit heavily on it. "See? Fine -- just keep those claws away from me, you hear me?"

'Dite had to smother a giggle. "Okay. Tell you what. Put on the gas mask and I'll put the claws away. Otherwise . . . " She loomed in, hands raised.

"Rawr."

"Oh, no. Uh-uh. No rawr," she warned, waving an index finger, but that warning was short-lived with the inevitable moment of celebration looming.

"I knew it!" Gabrielle declared triumphantly, already fiddling with the mask straps. "I knew I could get through to one of you if I tried! I love being right some --" And the rest of the word 'sometimes' got muffled by the gas mask going on.

There was the requisite eye-rolling. "Uh-huh. And now you head for the school to celebrate. Let everyone know of your success."

I really shouldn't encourage her, but oh, well.

"You," announced a very pleased and almost smug Gabrielle, "are surprisingly intelligent for a lizard-creature. Can I count on you to spread the idea of reaching a truce among your fellow lizard-creatures, while I go do that?"

"Oh, absolutely." 'Dite nodded emphatically, no longer hiding the smirk on her face. "But when you tell everyone about your success, don't forget to tell them you lost your mask, okay? That's important." She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Go on, now. Back to the dorms."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Park, Saturday Afternoon

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject