I looked until my luck ran out, and then I saw your face [Open Thread]

[liberatingamble.livejournal.com]

Characters: Setzer and any potential gawkers.
Progress: Ongoing~ (but if there's no biters, it can work as a solo log)
Summary: Poor, luckless Setzer's down and out in Burmecia and about to make (yet another) unpleasant discovery.
Location: Burmecia.
Date: backdated to Feb. 12th, 1804
Warnings: Potential for mild language? Really I don't foresee anything objectionable happening here.



What a world, indeed.

When Setzer had ascertained that the device was clearly not going to be of any more use to him, he'd folded it back up (clever little hinges, Edgar would love it), steeled himself, and stepped back out into the rain. Time to find an inn, and hope the innkeepers weren't the kind to charge what few pitiful travelers they did get an arm and a leg. ...Though, he thought as the damned, damned, damned bird nibbled at his hair yet again, Maybe they'll take a chocobo in barter.

As it turned out, the innkeeper was indeed not the type to overcharge. She was, however, a rat. Not merely with rat ears, like Mjrn, but seemingly an honest-to-gods rat, white as any pet rat one could care to find. Trying not to stare (it's impolite to draw attention to a lady's shortcomings), Setzer paid for room, board, and a stall for the chocobo (against his better judgment--but if she had an owner, he hardly wanted to be held liable for a replacement due to the stupid creature catching her death of cold following him around) and with a hefty tip--recompense for staggering in like a tramp. Gods, were he an innkeeper, he wouldn't have tolerated himself.

Inquiries about a laundress were met with a blank stare, so with a sigh and another mental note to find a tailor whenever he got out of this place, he laid the coat over a chair back to dry and set himself outside once again. There was a covered area over by chocobo enclosure, and even though it was cold, especially in just his shirtsleeves and those wet to boot, he hurried over there. Precisely one thing was going to assuage this particular headache and tension all through him, and now that he had a moment to himself and out of this rain, he was damn well going to have a smoke before sleeping off the remainder of this hangover.

Back against one of the posts, ignoring the stupid bird once again gently headbutting his shoulder, Setzer took the match tin (he kept cigarettes and matches alike in a waterproof tin; one too many ruined boxes had lead him to that choice) out of one pocket, the cigarette tin out of the other, almost reverently he opened the case...

...and found, instead of concoctions of dried tobacco leaves, an assortment of fresh, leafy greens.

Lo, the mysteries fall away, and the morning stands before him, explained.

"Kweeeeeeeh?"

Dumbly, he offered a leaf to the chocobo behind him, and when she took it with a delighted wark, he offered another. So what if he was just encouraging her to follow him? The way his morning was going, he might need her to beat a hasty escape anyhow.

Comments

[liberatingamble.livejournal.com]

Now that was the kind of reversal he needed. Although... "Sounds like Kefka's been up to his usual tricks here, then," Setzer said, a little more exhaustion in his voice. He hadn't really expected otherwise, but it's one thing to suspect and another to have suspicions confirmed.

He offered her a small smile and a nod in thanks. "It's much appreciated, m'lady...?"