[Nexus] The Frescot House

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

"That was like, at least ten years ago. Probably more." Sakura shakes her head. "And besides, what were you like as a teenager? I bet your mom and dad have all kinda of stories." She pauses, looking contemplative. "If you were any worse than you are now I feel so sorry for them."

[Murkus]

[Pre-Gathering]

"Any worse than I am now? What's that supposed to mean?" Adir says, apparently offended. He wags a finger at her. "Why, I was the picture of innocence. A paragon. In fact, that sorta ended when we first met..." The stag's brows rise, as if in understanding. He points a finger, gasping in apparent astonishment. "You're a bad influence!"

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

"I'm a bad influence?" Sakura arches an eyebrow. Oh, he's gonna play it this way. "Really now? The picture of innocence opened up with a joke about his rack when he first met me?" The dryad smirks.

[Front Door]

"Oh that's fine, I'm just glad to meet you now. Everyone's out back right now. Adir cooked a little something, but I'm sure everyone's still hungry." The dryad says. "Do you wanna put that stuff in the kitchen?" She gestures at the bag he's holding.

[Shadowcaller]

[At the Barbeque]

Cessie is there, she have taken a seat around the table and put some food on her plate, waiting for the man to introduce himself properly to the others. She vaguely recalled Jon to be Adir's mentor of some sort. Would probably be interesting to meet the man who trained the stag.

[Murkus]

[Front Door --> Kitchen]

"By all means, lead the way," Jon says, likely following after the dryad. "Nice place. That boy's come a long way from loincloths and treehouses." Jon sets his things down on the counter.

[Pre-Gathering]

"It was the sight of you. Of course I'm gonna say something stupid," Adir says, smirking like an idiot. "I was awkward as hell too, if you remember."

[Gullara]

[Kitchen]

Sakura giggles and nods. "Yeah, it's so nice. I never imagined having a place of our own before. I just love it." Sakura herself was probably even a step back from Adir in civilization, though not a big one.

[Pre-Gathering]

"I don't think I remember that part. All I seem to remember is wondering what this cute, funny guy wanted to talk to me for." Sakura gives him a silly little grin.

[Murkus]

Kitchen

"I'm sure you do," Jon says with a warm, simple smile. He gestures towards the patio. "Would you introducing me, before I get started with dinner? I feel like I'm intruding."

[Pre-Gathering]

"You thought I was funny then?" Adir asks, somewhat surprised. He mimes scribbling something on his palm, much as he can move his hand with Laela around. "Favorite... things... about Sakura... low standards..."

[Gullara]

[Kitchen => At the Barbeque]

"No, not at all. It's awesome to have you here. Come on, I'll introduce you." Sakura leads him out back without further ado.

"Hey guys, this is Jon. He's a friend of Adir's, so he can probably introduce him better than I can." The dryad says once they've arrived outside.

And look, a clearly relevant picture of Sakura. This must be what she's wearing at the moment or something. *nodnod*

Spoiler

Show

[Pre-Gathering]

Sakura laughs and lightly swats at his 'writing' hand. "Oh shush you. Maybe it just took me a while before I realized just how bad your jokes were."

[Halae]

[The Barbeque]

Harnel waves from his seat, "Hey there, Jon. Pull up a chair."

I imagine the several babies here have high-chairs. If so, Harnel will be sitting next to the Mithar twins, so he can make sure they eat properly.

[Lost_Deep]

The Barbeque

Kirin will put Laela in a high chair, if one is available. She's not really sure what to say to this new person. Just wait to be introduced...

Kirin will eat some more of the snack she brought. Musn't eat all the good food... even if that crustacean is so good.

Maybe she'll try a kabob...

[Murkus]

[At the Barbeque]

"Jon!" Adir says with a grin, holding his arms out as if for an embrace.

Jon gives him a mocking pat on the head. "Hey kid." The old soldier glances around, and will in fact sit. "How ya'll doin'?"

The stag takes this in stride. He turns, bowl of crustaceans still in hand, and grins. "This, guys, is Jon Gale. He was the first civilized person to tolerate me for more than a couple hours."

"Actually, it was because he wouldn't leave," Jon says, smirking mildly.

"Jon, this is Harnel, Cessie, Kirin, aaand you already know my wife Sakura. The kids are, uh, Bastion, Cora, and Laela." The stag gestures at each person as he goes along.

[Pre-Gathering]

"Really? I think they've improved," Adir says, smiling triumphantly. "You still laugh, anyway."

[Shadowcaller]

[At the Barbeque]

"Greetings, it's nice to finally met you. Adir have mentioned you at numerous occasions." Cessie replies with a slight nod. Feeling to it be a bit rude to start eating without Jon at the table. She wasn't all that hungry anyway.

[Gullara]

[At the Barbeque]

"Apparently Jon's going to be cooking for us. I'm gonna guess that Adir learned to cook from someone else." The dryad says teasingly, despite the good food Adir's already made.

Uh oh, when Kirin tries to put Laela in her chair, the baby stubbornly clings to her clothes. Oh no!

[Pre-Gathering]

Sakura giggles. "Okay, you got me there." Defeated! Adir wins this round.

[Halae]

[At the Barbeque]

"You know, I can't say I'm surprised that the tolerance comes from Adir's not leaving. He's got that 'growing on you' quality," Harnel grins.

Cora and bastion try to grab for Adir's hand when he points at them. Nevermind that they're way far away. Instead, Harnel reaches over to the kids and gives them each a hand to play with. Bastion grabs his father's fingers and starts shaking, while Cora immediately starts sucking on a claw.

[Lost_Deep]

At the Barbeque

Oh! Kirin will try to calm Laela down, rocking her a bit. "We're going to have food! Don't you want to eat? Come on, let's sit down."

[Murkus]

At the Barbeque

"Has he now?" Jon asks, replying to Cessie. He glances at his former pupil, brows risen. "I hope it was all good."

"Mostly," Adir says with a smirk, setting his food on the table for everyone to try. Jon decides to take a bite out of one, apparently pleased.

"I dunno, Missus Frescot. Adir might be good enough to cook for us these days. Could always make him do it," the soldier suggests, mouth still half-full.

"Whaaat?" Adir complains.

"Come a long way. He once tried to cook meat over a fire he built with sticks and lightning bugs," Jon claims, breaking his shellfish apart.

"Yeah, when I was, like, five!"

"I remember you sayin' twelve, son." At Harnel's remark, he just gives a little nod and a roll of the eyes. "You don't gotta tell me."

Pre-Gathering

"Funny and cute and smart... I'm just the whole package," Adir boasts, pursing his lips haughtily. He glances down at Laela, finally giving her some attention, and pokes the baby's tiny nose. "Iddnat right?"

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

"Gwah!" Laugh exclaims and then giggles. She grabs at Adir's finger and tries to hold it fast.

"I dunno, I think someone might be a little full of himself." Sakura tries to poke Adir's nose and her face splits in a wry grin.

[Shadowcaller]

At the Barbeque

"He seems to respect you greatly." Cessie tells Jon with a smile before she slowly decides to eat a bit, nibbling a bit on some of the meat of her stick. She will likely not finish all the food on her plate by the looks of it. "It sounds like you have had a close relationship."

[Gullara]

[At the Barbeque]

Sakura laughs and gives Adir a little nudge in the ribs. "Lightning bugs, huh? I bet that worked well." She gives him a kiss on the cheek and whisks over to Kirin.

"Here, she's just being grabby. Let me help." Sakura will try and open Laela's little fingers so Kirin will be free to put her in the seat. "There you go, Laela. Now no more giving Kirin trouble." She babytalks.

[Murkus]

[Pre-Gathering]

"Nothing wrong with that," Adir says, smirking at Sakura despite the sudden poking. He laughs. "I'm just better than most people."

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

"Well I guess you had to be if you wanted to get my attention." She turns her nose up at the world, managing to keep a straight face for all of five seconds.

Laela, meanwhile, tries to gum at her dad's fingers. Hopefully he's washed his hands at all recently, because Laela sure doesn't care.

[Murkus]

Pre-Gathering

Adir makes a little 'snrk' noise with his mouth and nose. "That's right baby. High-class people, we are." He smiles. "And don't you think high class people need servants?"

As for Adir's fingers, well, they're fairly clean. He's washed them since touching Maggie, so hopefully that's enough. He beams at Laela while she gnaws on his hand fruitlessly.

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

Sakura chuckles. "Oh, we're back to this are we?" She raises her eyebrow. "Okay, let's say I humor you for a second. What kind of servants do we get?"

[Lost_Deep]

At the Barbeque

"Thank you, Sakura"

Kirin is mostly staying in the background of the conversation right now. This is all very interesting, but she doesn't have anything to add.

[Murkus]

[Pre-Gathering]

"Oh, I dunno. A cook? And I know I clean, but we could use someone to scrub Maggie or do other chores nobody wants to," Adir says. His armor, for instance, is a pain to clean out. "Maybe someone to help you, when the other kids come?" He smiles tentatively. "Y'know, if I'm not around?"

[At the Barbeque]

Well, I wanted to wait for Harnel, but...

Jon, while generally fairly mellow despite his ribbing, seems to sober up a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, you could say that ma'am," he says, giving that up at least. "I mean, I put a year of my life into teachin' him, I should hope I got some respect out've it."

Adir, meanwhile, is nudged. He flushes a little, though his darker skin makes it less visible. The stag grins. "I didn't know, man! Everybody kept callin' em fireflies..."

[Gullara]

((Whoops, I was supposed to tell you to skip him this round. =x))

[Pre-Gathering]

Sakura's face is completely neutral. Adir couldn't guess what she's thinking if he tried. "Mm..." She's just not so sure about this. "I'll think about it, kay? Not making any promises, though."

[Murkus]

[Pre-Gathering]

"I'll take what I can get," Adir says, smiling in a particularly mellow manner. His finger still in Laela's mouth, the stag leans forward to kiss Sakura on the head. "I probly just want more people I can order around. Like at Watch, only I can't tell the new recruits to wash my car." He purses his lips, rubbing his chin in thought. "Hey, wait a minute..."

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

Sakura giggles. "Something tells me that that's not part of the job description when they signed up." The dryad looks down to tickle under Laela's chin. The little fey laughs and releases Adir's finger. "We just need some kids to grow up so we can put them to work. It's that right, Laela?" Laela just tries to grab Sakura's hand.

[Murkus]

[Pre-Gathering]

"Clean windshields save lives," Adir attests dramatically, right before looking down to watch Laela laugh. Gods he loves hearing these two laugh. "Yeah, work. This one'll be taking care of allll her little siblings. You can count on that. We'll sit on the patio, holding hands, while her and her brothers n' sisters chase the littler ones around the yard."

[Gullara]

[Pre-Gathering]

Laela tilts her head back to peer up at Adir with those big eyes of hers. She reaches up toward him, her little fingers grasping at nothing.

"Oh boy, that sounds like a lot of responsibility. Are you sure you're up for it, Laela?" Sakura babytalks.

"Baaee." Is Laela's only reply.