mortevatem:

   _{Talk about embarrassing. They took their eyes off the monster for one moment and it had… whatever a slime did away. Of course, like a snail, it left a trail behind it, so at least it wouldn’t be too hard to track or follow. Footsteps were already taken as Vaan sat in bewilderment, a fist summoning out the card he would need to end its life the instant he found it again.}

   _{”Come on, now. If you want to save it, you’ll have to beat me to it.“ The taunt was called over his shoulder, though it wasn’t to be said that Ace seemed to be going very fast to catch up with it. It may have been fleeing, but flans weren’t particularly fast.}

        _{Replying with a general nod, Vaan began a steady pace behind the already mobile blond. The flan couldn’t have gotten too far. How long had they looked away? A minute or two? Grey eyes followed the trail of slime down to the end of the hallway, where it bent around to another corridor.}

        _{It wasn’t until several strides in that the jelly-sympathizer noticed the appearance of the card clinched in Ace’s hand as if it were some sort of armament. Motivated by mostly curiosity, but partially from the need to jest over the other’s intensity while holding a card, Vaan asked, “Whatcha gonna do? Throw playing cards at it?”}

        _{…though Vaan himself was uncertain as for what actions he would take, should he beat Ace to the challenge.}

indritjis:

  ✠ A small frown made its way to his lips. He had truly hoped that he had not let the other man down; in terms of not seeing what he saw, anyway. With a nod, he took Vaan’s hand and shook it, “A pleasure to meet you, Sir Vaan. My name is Ingus.”

  ”If it is possible, may I request of you to tell me what you have seen?” he mused, a small smile making its way on his lips. “Perhaps it was I who did not see things clearly. Or rather, notice things.”

            _{“Nice to meetcha too,” Vaan smiled as he shook the other’s hand, making note of the Ingus’s name coming to pass.  Despite what flicker of displeasure had shown prior, it would seem that gentleman had moved on to hearing about what exactly had appeared.}

          _{It was kinda large, but it didn't seem too threatening. Unfamiliar with the local fauna and  still unassured by what time he had spent gawking at it, Vaan attempted to describe what exactly he had seen. “I think it might have been a beast of some kind, but it was kind of too far off to tell.”} 

rosannean:

   ᴛʀᴜʟʏ regrettable, it would turn out to be, that Virion had spent much time amongst thieves (or one, in particular) while serving in the Shepherd’s ranks. In Vaan’s case, that was; not so much the noble’s. For in observing the likes of them on the field and elsewhere, he’d gotten a feel for their tactics. Their mannerisms.

   ʜᴇ’ᴅ caught but a glimpse of the boy initially, it was true — not enough to brand him a pilferer, under any circumstances. But in realizing that the boy continuously grew nearer to him in particuar (and hesitantly so, it was noted, so long as Virion was in such a position that he could detect him from the corner of his eye), the possibility had dawned upon him. Once the dustily-clothed blond had drawn close enough, presumably to steal whatever valuables he’d thought to be on the noble’s person, Virion turned to fully face him; faint traces of bemusement detectable in an otherwise annoyed expression.

   ”ᴀɴᴅ here I thought even common thieves had enough sensibility to pick their targets with care.” His own hand had snatched the others’ by the wrist, by then; and drawn it away from the pocket it had been about to empty. His grip wasnot so tight that it would be difficult for Vaan to escape, but it was not gentle, either.
   ”ᴛᴜᴛ-tut.”

       _{He had not noticed the other’s subtle observation as he had approached, his ignorance creating unyielding confidence in his actions.}

        _{Inches from success, the blond could feel his expression of concentration shift to one of despair as he was confronted by his prey’s glower, unsure of when exactly the other had turned to him. His thoughts jumped to potential escape routes, only to find it was too late, his wrists clasped by the hold of the stranger. The pickpocket could sense the stabbing of the other’s words, more chastising than anything.}

       _{Vaan fidgeted in the other’s hold, not enough to break free, but enough to convey discomfort before reaalizing the rightful accusation floating in the air.}

       _{“Thieves? Uh, no, that’s not…” he blundered, knowing his theatrics were failing.} 

       _{“I was… uh…”}

                        _{Getting out of this one would be interesting to say the least.}

       _{“I mean, I would never…” He trailed off. It was a reach to think those half excuses were believable, but they were all he had. Biting his lip, he looked nervously to the other, in hopes of merciful release.}

 _{The sun had been in his eyes.}

                              _{– Or rather, he had been looking at the sky at least –}

        _{The jolt of his over-amplified headphones leaving his ears and the burn of Vaan’s exposed skin scraped on concrete was indication enough for him that he should have been watching the walkway in its place. This won’t help the fact that I’m already late… Reaching for his right shoulder, he inspected to find the scrape was minor, more burn than anything. Honestly, the skin was likely callous from this being all too common. More important to him was the third frayed hole he now had in his jeans.}

        _{Sitting up straight, he reached blindly for his board as he occupied his eyes to find what he had collided paths with. A kneeled blonde girl a few feet away seemed to be hurriedly gathering a white square from the ground. One white square it would seem of many scattered in front of the library.}

                                                                                                        _{I gotta apologize.}

        _{Gripping his fingers onto his board beside him, he realized that his hand had poked a hole through what was not his board, but a canvas? An already bent canvas… that would be my doing… He instinctively retracted his hand, as if doing so would remove the blame from him. Looking, he could see that his board was a few feet to his left, flipped so that the wheels faced upwards.}

        _{He reached back and grabbed the canvas. Then standing himself, he began walking it over to the girl. Readying for reprimand, the longboarder forced a nervous smile,}

                                       _{“… my bad.”}

mortevatem:

   _{Was he being accused of being cruel? He liked animals, sure, but monsters were a completely different issue altogether. Even if the flan was domesticated, he would not be the one to take care of it. There were no books or information on how to raise one, much less would it serve him any use. Chocobos were much more agreeable in this regard.}

   _{But Vaan was squatting next to it, prodding it and speaking of it as if it were just a regular baby. It was a shame, he guessed, that he didn’t find human children or this flan to be particularly cute in the least. His mouth formed a line, and only for a minute had he considered it before he announced his judgement.}

   _{”No. If we release it into the field, it will just end up killed later. Best to put it out of its misery now.”}

_{Now that’s just cold.  True, he could see Ace’s point, and perhaps he should less compromising himself, being that he had gone on hunts and battled plenty of the little guy’s kind, but plenty of monsters were domesticated, like cockatrices, chocobos even. Who was to say that there wasn’t a chance?}

    _{Sighing, Vaan could see Ace would stay stubborn on this point. Crossing his arms to think of another argument, he looked back to the flan – or, where the flan was.}

                                                          _{Wasn’t it just–? He could have sworn.}

                                           _{“Um, Ace?”}

_{A thin line of sludge had traced itself from where the flan had been and drug across the floor.}

    _{“The thing…” he started, trailing off mid-sentence with a frantic look around the room.}

mortevatem:

   _{”We would have heard if a mother flan had been in the school, though. I think it’s by itself.“ There was lots of food brought into the Peristylium, after all. It could survive if it was inside one of the crates, for sure. At least, that was Ace’s reasoning. He was also the last to know things, usually, so for all intents and purposes, Vaan could be correct.}

   _{”Can I kill it now?” Even if it was a pet, though, it was away from its owner and decidedly, that meant he could get rid of it. Monsters weren’t allowed in the building, after all. His shoulders slumped while he waited for permission, something unusual and strange for himself to do for most anybody, actually. In actuality… he just didn’t want Vaan to complain. “If we let it grow up it could just cause problems.”}

    _{That. Did make sense. Perhaps not a mother flan then.}

    _{Still, some bit of the wannabe sky pirate felt sympathy for the jelly. Stretching himself back up to a standing position, he stood near it, but enough back that he wouldn’t accidentally squash it with his feet. It seemed innocent enough, shouldn’t it be allowed to live out its little flan-life?}

    _{“The little guy’s not hurtin anybody. Why don’t we just … let it hang around a bit and release it to the wild or something later?”}

    _{He doubted Ace would respond to that approach, but it was worth a shot. Then, half-joking and half in a final plea, he teased Ace with a child-like whine, “An’ wook at its widdle face.”}

indritjis:

  ✠ “Ah, what was what, sir?” The blond knight turned his head to the side, looking for whatever object may catch his attention.

  …and he only ended up looking longer than he should have. He looked back at Vaan, who still seemed to be looking at whatever was behind him. “Forgive me, sir, but I do not see anything odd. Perhaps your eyes are just playing tricks on you?”

    _{“but-“, just as he was about to contest about the object, Vaan realized that he had just met the guy, and a debate about this might not be the best. Maybe he was just seeing things after all… it wouldn’t be the first time. Though, the thing did seem rather out of place…}

    _{“You’re right. I probably drank too many potions or something…“Biting his lip, he looked to change the subject. ”I’m Vaan by the way, “ he stated, reaching out his hand.}

spirit-of-compromise:

“ ‘Uhh‘ ?” 

That could mean one of two things— that Vaan was stalling, having none of the magic power to do either, or that Vaan sincerely knew not what Larsa meant. Quickly he assumed the former, exchanging glances with the door, sifting his belt for something useful. Easily, the both of them could recover mist by pacing around, however slowly. But whether they had the time was upto the stubborn wyvern beyond the door.

"Do you need an ether?" He offered a slender phial to Vaan. "I doubt it will go away if we wait. Unless there’s something else—?”

      _{Not wanting to admit his lack of magic power, Vaan laughed off his embarrassment as he accepted the phial from Larsa. He supposed that his poor fumble for wording probably had given that away anyways. Feeling the resurgence of mist, he peeked out of one of the airship’s side windows.}

      _{It would seem the wyvern had nested itself just outside the door … but should they sneak up from behind while it still faced the other direction…}

                                                     _{“I think we can surprise it if we stay quiet.”}

      _{He inched toward the door from the window, hovering over the handle and giving a silent nod to Larsa, waiting for his readiness.} 

mortevatem:

   _{”Probably not. Flan enemies and flan are two different things.“ If it wasn’t obvious that the teen was mostly pandering for something sweet to eat, the sigh he gave might have been a help. Either way, there was a glob of a monster that needed to be gotten rid of, so…}

   _{”I’ll just kill it.” Hand rose above it, and with a guess as to what element would most likely put the thing out of his misery, had he started charging a spell to cast.}

    _{Vaan supposed the other had a point, they were different things. Though, it begged the question of why they shared a name.}

                                                             _{… that’s disappointing…}

    _{He glanced at the flan bobbling on the floor, still rubbing his fingers together to rid his hands of the slimy residue. It was kinda cute. But just as he processed the thought, he realized Ace had plans to exterminate it.}

    _{“Wait!” Vaan called out, stalling a bit. “Why’s it here in the first place? What if it’s someone’s pet or something?”}

mortevatem:

   _{”It’s a flan.“ Forefinger extended as he pointed rather suddenly to the jellied form that sat on the floor. Just like the monster, really, but it looked pretty young, considering it was about the size of a piece of cake.}

   _{”I wonder if it’s edible.” Flan is a dessert, too. Curiosity rang in the youth’s features, almost tempted yet again to touch it and see what happened.}

      _{It seemed smaller than most flan Vaan had seen on any battlefield, almost so much, that he didn’t equate it to being one. Hearing the other’s comment on edibility startled him, however. Though most times the jellies were a hassle, they were still alive, and this one young. “You can’t just eat it!”}

       _{He leaned further, mindlessly prodding it with his finger, and almost instantly regretting it as he realized its stickiness.}

                                                                                         _{“—Wait. Can you?”}