Around the Island, Sunday Morning

[firstofitskind]

Friday's distractedness had morphed in to Sunday's restlessness, it seemed. Normally, Liam would deal with that excess energy by heading to the gym, but with the seasons turning soon he figured he might as well spend the time outdoors while the weather was nice enough for it. So, a jog around the island it was.

That it was also a convenient excuse to surreptitiously check in on the various stashes of food and weapons he had about the island was just convenient, really.

[ooc: existence of sekrit stashes nfb, everything else totally okay. also, please entertain me, it's rainy and gross here and i'm boooored.]

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[spectre_alenko]

His self-imposed exercise restrictions lifted, Kaidan went for a jog Sunday morning. It felt good to run again. He frowned a little at the very slight muscle tone loss. Well, that'd be fixed soon enough.

Catching sight of Liam, he sped up a little to catch up. "Hey Liam. How's it going?"

[firstofitskind]

"Uphill," Liam deadpanned.

He was hilarious.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan pulled a face at him. "You're hilarious. Ha. Ha. Ha," he deadpanned right back. Then grinned. "How's Verity and her, ah, friend?"

There were squirrels. If they didn't know about the Aeslin mice, they weren't finding out from him.

[firstofitskind]

"She's not much of a morning person," Liam grinned. Unlike Liam, who really only needed about three hours of sleep a night. Hooray for part-alien circadian rhythms. "So I've been tasked with bringing back coffee after I'm done being 'disgustingly active for this time of day'." Airquotes included. And as for that friend... "The words 'Hail the Fetching of the Coffee' may have been uttered as I left."

It's possible the mice (and Verity) had a slightly different interpretation of the main purpose behind this outing than Liam himself did.

[spectre_alenko]

"... Do they drink coffee?" Kaidan asked, a small amount of horror dawning in his voice at the idea of caffeinated Aeslin mice.

[firstofitskind]

"Oh, no," Liam assured him, because yes, that was a terrifying image, thank you. "But their rites and feasts revolve around things that happen to Verity and her family, so all sorts of things can be worthy of a 'hail!'."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh thank god, I was just imagining.."

Liam had probably already gone there.

"Do you bring them pastries from the coffee shop?"

Because he totally would. Shut up.

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded. "Or J,GoB, sometimes. They're terribly spoiled." That last was said with a note of fond exasperation.

[spectre_alenko]

"The snobby bakery?" Kaidan asked, amused. "They are spoiled. Wonder whose fault that is."

He didn't wonder. He was looking right at Liam.

[firstofitskind]

“Now who’s saying things without actually saying things?” Liam asked pointedly, because he saw that face, Kaidan. “And I’ll have you know they were spoiled long before I met any of them.”

[spectre_alenko]

"And yet, that's not a denial that you're guilty as charged," Kaidan smirked lightly.

[firstofitskind]

“Well, no,” Liam admitted. “But my point is, I’m hardly the only one and besides, once you get to know them, it’s hard not to.”

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan grinned at him. "Oh, I'm well aware of my own limitations. They'd be the size of billiard balls within a week if I had any charge of them. They're so cute it shouldn't be legal. Good thing you're the sheriff."

[firstofitskind]

Less cute was the way they'd swarm just about anything cat-sized or smaller that dared to intrude on their territory.

(Liam, the one time he'd been transformed in to a cat, being a notable exception thanks to Verity's extremely firm instructions on the matter.)

"Not that that matters at all to them," Liam said dryly. Even a recent elevation to Godhood had only made them slightly more inclined to consider his requests.

So long as they were made with the appropriate offerings of cheese and cake, anyway.

[spectre_alenko]

"Well, no, but then again, you're not a mouse," Kaidan pointed out, "At least, not this week. Next week, who knows? This island is wacky fun."

Little bit of sarcasm, that last sentence. Little tiny bit.

[firstofitskind]

“I’ve been a cat once,” Liam reminded him. “That wasn’t so bad.” Though he didn’t disagree with the sarcasm, in general.

[spectre_alenko]

"Yeah, I hear that goes around sometimes. We'll see what animal I turn into if it hits again, I guess."

He threw Liam a grin, "You were adorable as a cat, by the way."

[firstofitskind]

“You saying I’m not adorable now?” Liam asked, arching a brow at Kaidan.

[spectre_alenko]

"I'd use 'handsome', not 'adorable'," Kaidan agreed.

[firstofitskind]

"Good answer," Liam decided.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan grinned at him. "Helps that it's true."

[firstofitskind]

"It's probably somewhat egotistical of me to say 'I know', but," Liam shrugged. Back home, he'd existed somewhere in that nebulous area between 'public figure' and 'minor celebrity', so. He was aware, yes.

[spectre_alenko]

"You?" Kaidan made wide, faux-shocked eyes, "Never. So humble."

I mean, Kaidan assumed he had a mirror.

[firstofitskind]

"Just self-aware," Liam laughed. Of course, the minute anyone showed genuine interest in him, he tended to get more than a little flustered... but that was something else entirely.

[spectre_alenko]

"That, also," Kaidan agreed. "Is it wrong I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what animal I'd be?"

[firstofitskind]

"Nah," Liam said, eyeing Kaidan thoughtfully. "I have a feeling you'd be... some type of dog. One of those big, fluffy ones."

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan laughed, "Well at least I know a lot of people who like dogs!"

[firstofitskind]

"Exactly," Liam nodded. "I mean, just imagine if you turned in to like... a porcupine or something."

Still cute, in a weird sort of way, but not terribly cuddly.

[spectre_alenko]

"I wouldn't have to worry about predators," Kaidan mused.

[firstofitskind]

"I feel like the gremlins would find a way," Liam pointed out.

And who wanted to see a gremlin-bit porcupine?

[spectre_alenko]

"I think they'd regret it," Kaidan mulled the thought over, "and really, having one of the little buggers full of quills would be sort of payback?"

Then he sighed, because even he couldn't be that mean. "Then there'd be hell to pay because we'd need to catch the bloody thing and bring it to the vet to have them all removed."

[firstofitskind]

"See?" Liam said pointedly. "Big. Fluffy. Puppy."

If Kaidan ever found himself transformed and Liam ended up being right, he was definitely getting an "I told you so."

[spectre_alenko]

"Come on, Zack's a friend of mine!" Kaidan protested, "You think you could look him in the eye and tell him you left a gremlin full of porcupine quills running around in the wild? Go on, I dare you. He'd be out there looking for it, probably get bit, and then we'd have someone full of gremlin venom and carrying an 8' sword."

[firstofitskind]

"You say 'we' like you wouldn't be obliviously... doing whatever it is that a porcupine does," Liam pointed out. "When we all know it's me that would probably have to deal with that particular headache."

[spectre_alenko]

"Eating pine nuts and sticking quills into gremlins, I guess," Kaidan grinned at him. "You could always delegate, Liam. You do have a deputy."

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah," Liam barked out a laugh. "Because siccing Rosa on him would end so well."

[spectre_alenko]

"I hear she has a way with woodland creatures," Kaidan grinned.

[firstofitskind]

"Well, she certainly has a way with an axe," Liam pointed out.