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The Park, Friday Afternoon

Magnus had totally promised Octavia a spar earlier in the month, but things got in the way. Mostly timezones and travel, but not for, like, live shows or anything like that.

So he was making up for it today. Today of all days.

Which was why there was a beefy dude with Starbucks waiting around in the park. He'd made a compromise with a Candlelights sweater over his armor. Sleeves ripped off.

It looked ridiculous.

[open post!]

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After another day of carefully considering what weirdness might have struck the island and concluding that it wasn't likely something that her dog would try to eat, Rosa deemed it safe enough to get the dog out of the apartment and out for a walk. It had worked out well, really, this whole festive weirdness thing, because it turned out that Arlo 2's tendency to try to eat most things was a convenient excuse to be anti-social.

Not that Rosa ever needed an excuse, of course, but it was good to have the option.

And as she headed to the park so Arlo 2 could get her duck-terrorizing quota in, it was pretty much impossible not to notice Meat-on-a-Stick over there with his sweater.

"Please tell me that's an island thing and not an actual fashion choice."

Rosa. You already knew that was not true.

Meanwhile, her hold on Arlo 2's leash was the only thing saving Magnus's feet from being thorough sniffed and possibly licked right now. People's boots were so much more interesting than ducks, after all.

Sorry, was someone talking to him? Because all Magnus could focus on was immediately crouching down to go pet that dog. "Oos a good boy? It's you. It's you!"

He was a dog person. Also an alien space fish person.

And people's hands were just as interesting and exciting as people's boots, especially when those hands were all about giving Arlo 2 pets and attention, so she, with her tail wagging frantically enough to almost knock her over a few times, eagerly took to this dog-and-alien-space-fish-person with eagerness and confused licks, because she couldn't tell if she liked licking the hands more or if she liked getting pet by the hands more, it was really a problem, how couldn't anyone decide on these things?

While Rosa knew she had no way of preventing things like this from happening and would just patiently wait it out and let her dog just do that weird thing that she did of actually liking people that Rosa didn't understand at all.

Did it help that Magnus was now literally rolling onto the ground to get all that good, good doggo time. "Oh!" he said once he finally noticed the dog was attached to a person. "Hail and well met!"

It certainly helped Arlo 2, who was more than happy to take the chance to try to offer a more proper greeting in the form of a face lick, and then who would try to see if that sweater was a comfy as it looked by trying to climb onto Magnus' chest and settle there.

"Was that to me?" Rosa asked because she honestly wasn't sure. "Or the dog? Because the dog doesnt talk," please, island, dont make it so that her dog could talk one of these days, "and we've met before."

And 'well' wouldn't exactly be the word she'd use to describe it, but, to be fair, she didnt know what word she would use, except maybe 'brief.'

"They talk with their lil' wriggles." He was also destined to open a dog training business in the future. It was the best possible outcome for him.

"Is that so?" asked Rosa. There was some small amount of wriggling on Arlo 2's part, too, as she discovered that the sweater was not, in fact, comfortable, due to the armor underneath, but she was clearly staying committed to her new spot. "So what's she saying now?"

"That she's my new best friend," he said, sounding utterly delighted. Rosa. Rosa, take your dog back before he tried to keep her.

Octavia showed up with her sword in its scabbard strapped to her back, no Starbucks and - upon actually walking up to Magnus - a vaguely unimpressed look on her face.

So, business as usual.

"What are you wearing?"

"My Candlenights sweater!" He said proudly. "I flexed too hard and the sleeves fell off."

Why are you like this, Magnus?

"... That didn't happen," Octavia said, knowing perfectly well that it probably had.

"It so did! I nailed that strength check."

"And you're wearing it over your armor, because...?"

She knew there was no real reason. No real acceptable reason, anyway.

"Because it's festive!" Which was a good excuse for this travesty.

"Right." She wasn't buying that. Of course she wasn't buying that. It also didn't really matter, though. "So, sparring?"

"Sparring," he agreed promptly. "Which one do you want to try against?"

HE HAD SO MANY.

Octavia shrugged. "The ax?"

You know, the one he'd left her holding when she'd been about nine years old.

Still better than most of his interactions with Angus.

"Hell yeah!" He shrugged off all the other weapons. It might take a moment.

Octavia was content to wait. Mostly. There was also a quiet sigh.

But she also drew her sword out. The knife she'd bought from Cable was probably also somewhere on her body, but that was the extent of her inventory.

"Have at you!" Magnus said with a dramatic pose as soon as he was ready.

Octavia didn't bother with a pose, nor did she hesitate. Instead, she tried getting the upper hand with a quick strike at him.

And that, right down to the very second, was the moment that her sword was suddenly a pine tree branch. Complete with needles, yes. And a rather elegant string of lights.

"Is that new?" Magnus asked like maaaaaybe it was supposed to do that? Maybe?

The distorted look of annoyance and disbelief on Octavia's face suggested it probably wasn't supposed to do that, no.

She was staring at her... branch.

"No," she said. "I mean -- this island is so stupid."

And she was frustrated by it. That was no secret right now, either.

"Hey, maybe you can try one of my weapons!" One of his many, many weapons. He, once again, offered over the ax to her.

Octavia was already having the sinking feeling that this was going to be one of those inescapable things. But for whatever reason, she still found herself shrugging and saying "Sure."

She tossed her sword-turned-branch on the ground. It looked like a careless move, but she was very aware of where it was. Just because her favorite weapon was made of a tree part now didn't mean she wanted either of them to accidentally step on it and break it or anything.

And she took the ax. "You know you probably shouldn't have left this with me when I was a kid," she noted as she felt the weight of it in her hands, finding the grip.

Edited 2018-12-17 22:24 (UTC)

"...but it was for your protection," Magnus said, scooping up the Chance Lance to give a dramatic twirl before going to swing at her.

And now he had a small Christmas tree in his hands.

"Huh."

"Yeah," Octavia said dryly, resting the ax against her shoulder, relaxing from her very brief defensive stance. "That's about what I figured would happen."

"This is way worse than the peppermint day," he grumbled, shaking the tree for a moment like it'd change back if he found just the right button on it.

"And like that day," Octavia drawled, "I don't think it's going away before tomorrow."

"But my spear!" Magnus said, clutching it to his chest. "What if I need to spear something?"

He'd be shit out of luck.

"Then you'll be shit out of luck."

And she didn't even need to read narrative to make that assessment.

"Better just hope there's not also an invasion today."

"What do you think happens if you punch something?" TREE ARMS.

"I'm not going to try," Octavia said, immediately.

Losing her weapons was disquieting enough, she had no desire to risk full-on body horror.

Magnus was totally staring at his arms like he was willing to give it a shot. But then thought about Merle. "If it happens, you need to promise me that you won't let any Dwarves chop them off me. I won't give him the satisfaction."

"Okay."

She didn't think any sudden Dwarf appearances were likely, but she also wasn't a fan of people's arms getting chopped off if they didn't deserve it. So it was an easy promise to make.

"But you still probably shouldn't try it."

"I'll try not to try." Magnus, no.

Yeeeah.

"What does that mean?"

"I thought I was doing a double negative." Badly. "I'll try to try?"

Octavia was judging him. Just, maybe not as harshly as she might have in the past.

The frown was less deep. "Just maybe say you won't do it."

Which was totally, why he grinned and put an arm over her shoulder. "We can spar tomorrow!"

Because that's how he reacted to people prone to elbowing him in the ribs.

Octavia sighed and rolled her eyes and probably hoped those masked or at least distracted from the way she sort of leaned into that.

Shut up.

"So do we just get coffee today?"

"I think we do. Unless we wanna see who can get the prettiest tree," he suggested.

"Ugh, no," she replied, face scrunching up as she pushed away from him again. "They're all just branches, anyway."

And she'd long since stopped being that girl who ran after pretty things. She bent down, picked up the branch that had been her sword until this afternoon.

"And what if they don't turn back?"

"...then we go on a quest to punch whoever is responsible." BECAUSE HIS CHANCE LANCE.

Octavia shrugged.

"Sounds like a fair plan."

"Which could also be fun," he said. "Been a while since the last one."

So maybe it was gonna be his fault for the snow monsters.

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The Park, Friday Afternoon

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