Streets Near the Rocky Bits, Thursday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

Atton was quickly starting to learn there was nothing more damning than taking a stroll around here. There he was, barely out of the gates, minding his own business on his way down Loon Drive-- bars weren't open yet, but he could grab some of that pizza stuff-- when out of nowhere, a goat appeared and sank its teeth deeply into Atton's fanny pack the pouch on his belt.

"What the--"

The goat tugged it off his belt and began gnawing on it.

"Give that back, you oversized mynock!" he snapped, reaching for it and giving it a tug. The goat... didn't let go. In fact, it tugged harder.

"You stupid--" Atton made a pissed-off sound in the back of his throat and lashed out with the full extent of his Echani training-- which, okay, he'd cop later might have been a little overkill, but the stupid thing was trying to take his fanny pack pouch-- and punched it straight in the forehead.

His pouch promptly dropped to the ground.

"Huh," he said. "Well, what do you know. Guess--"

Another goat leaped off the Rocky Bits and promptly scooped up his pouch.

"Can't a guy go on a damn walk anymore?!"

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Comments

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

And that would be the not-too-distant sound of a goat whining as it was kicked in the leg. "What the fuck," April was saying. "That's my phone. God."

Thus triumphant, she turned, aiming to continue her walk, and then spotted Atton.

"Is it just me or are these things really annoying?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton - who was in the process of whacking this goat in the face, too, and hoping for the best - didn't answer.

At least, not until the goat had evaporated and he had triumphantly scooped his fanny pack pouch off the ground. "Yeah, it's really not just you," he said, and fumbled around for his blaster. Just in case.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

And congratulations, Atton, you'd managed to surprise April. Just a little. Not that she looked all that surprised, really, but. There it was. "Whoa," she said. "Big gun."

Yeah, she was going to come on over. Being around the big gun just made sense, you know.

"You know, you'd think if they were gonna throw talking ponies and evil goats at us right after another, there'd be some kind of announcement that these ones are okay to kick in the face," she commented. "Not radio-worthy, apparently."

[suitably_heroic]

"It took my pouch," Atton said, sort-of-defensively. "Even if it was a student, I wasn't going to stand here and take that."

Not that he needed to give an explanation. But, you know, sometimes it worked.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Hey, right there with you," April said. "If a kid drooled on my phone, it'd be a punch in the face plus no drinks at the bar forever."

Said drool-covered phone was now being wiped on her jeans. Gross.

"I'm April."

[suitably_heroic]

"Atton," said Atton, giving her a not entirely subtle once-over. Girls his age were kind of in short supply around here, and she definitely wasn't ugly.

He slung his pouch back around his hips. "They're going after your phone?" Beat. "My comm's in here. That explains it."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

And that once-over was getting returned, because look, she was barely nineteen; she was allowed to side-eye cute guys if they looked around her age. Even if he might or might not be a student.

"In your... fanny pack thing?" Sorry, Atton. "Stylish."

She was judging. Just a little.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's a pouch," Atton said. Not at all defensively. "These pants don't have a lot of pocket space."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I didn't say anything." Not that she'd done much to hide the judgment. Or the amusement, really. "I never criticize tight pants."

This was true.

[suitably_heroic]

Oh. Well.

Atton shrugged idly. "That's what I've got them for," he said. "I'm just giving people something to look at."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Considerate of you." Well, it was. "That must be where the fanny pack comes in."

Because it, too, was something to look at. But also to snicker at privately behind one's hand.

It was a fanny pack, Atton.

[suitably_heroic]

It was not. It was a pouch. For guns. And communicators. And other stuff he probably shouldn't be talking about.

Atton shot her a chagrined look. "Pouch," he repeated. "Why do I keep running into the girls who think they're comedians?"

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"I don't think I'm a comedian," April deadpanned. "Maybe I work in a fanny pack store. I might know these things."

[suitably_heroic]

"Not a fanny pack," Atton said again.

He brushed off his fanny pack pouch and shot a glance around just to make sure there weren't anymore goats inbound. "You don't look like you'd work at a fanny pack store," he continued. "Which you can take as a compliment, just to figure out how those work."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," she said dutifully. "And you don't look like someone who would really have a need to carry one around, since... you're not a forty-year-old mom and this isn't Six Flags."

Also a compliment! Kind of.

[suitably_heroic]

"Do I want to know what Six Flags is?" Atton wondered.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April shrugged. "It's a place for people who like being loud and outside," she said succinctly. "There's rides and stuff for people have fun screaming while hurtling downhill in tiny carts."

Guess if she was a Six Flags fan. Go on, guess.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shot her a look, and drawled, "Don't get too enthusiastic on me now. Not that I can blame you. Give me a bar and a good card game any time."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Tell me about it," April said. "All the dubious fun of social interaction, none of the screaming kids."

Priorities.

[suitably_heroic]

"And if you play your cards right, you even come out walking out just a little richer," Atton said. "I'd question why places like your Six Flags even exist, but it sounds like they're keeping the kids away from the rest of us."

You were supposed to be pretending you were seventeen, Atton-- well actually that kind of worked for it.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"That'd be the one," April confirmed, shooting a little finger-gun in his direction. "That and they're probably the leading seller of cotton candy worldwide."

Anticipating a question on that, she explained, "Puffy colorful balls of sugar. Too sweet for anyone over ten years old to eat."

[suitably_heroic]

"They really corral those kids in, don't they?"

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah." Very, very gross. "Anyway, that's where you'll normally see... pouches like yours. On the forty-year-old moms who don't want their stuff flying everywhere when they go on the rides."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shot her a look. "I keep my blaster in this," he retorted. "You know. In case we get attacked by evil comms-eating mynock wannabes."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April didn't really have much of an objection to that, really, so long as the blaster was functional. It did, however, raise a question. "Mynock?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, you know," Atton said, slipping his blaster back into the pouch so he wouldn't be tempted to start waving it around like an idiot. "Ugly, stinking, like to stick to starsh--" Beat. "Never mind. What are those things?"

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Goats." Simpler name, if you asked her. Though slightly less badass. Now she was wondering if 'Mynock' would make a good band name. "They don't normally steal stuff."

"You're from somewhere really different, huh?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Different galaxy," Atton drawled. "I wasn't exactly planning to wind up out here, but I'm not complaining."

Much.

... shut up.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Huh." Well then. "Like it here so far?"

[suitably_heroic]

"They feed me, give me a place to sleep, and there's a bar in town," Atton said, shrugging. "I've been to worse holes in the ground. Though not much crazier, I can tell you that much."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Craziest place across multiple galaxies," April repeated thoughtfully. "They should put that in the travel guide."

Or not, because it'd be a bit of a deterrent to visitors who weren't nuts. You know.

[suitably_heroic]

"'Things to do while you're in town: turn into a pony'," Atton said. "That'll rake in the tourists. Though I'm sure there's a market for that kind of thing somewhere."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April snorted. "You were a pony?"

Shush, she was picturing it.

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, hey, lots of people were ponies," Atton pointed out. "It was the popular thing to do."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. Sure it was, Atton. Everyone loved being a pony.

"Were you colorful?"

April, don't be mean.

[suitably_heroic]

"Were you?" Atton shot back.

Atton, that was pretty much 'so's your face'.

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

"Nope," April said. "I was a person."

BE JEALOUS, ATTON.

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, well, I wasn't colorful," Atton said, crossing his arms. "Not like some of the people I ran into. At least one of them was bright green. She looked like someone had thrown up on her."

[hatesmoststuff.livejournal.com]

April snorted. "Gross."

That was the most amused 'Gross' ever.

"I saw... a pink one and a bright blue one," she recalled. "I was gonna start a drinking game at the bar, but there were only ponies to drink with me."

Sad, that.