paixaorpg | You would think sweet pudding didn't make things sour [Completed]

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You would think sweet pudding didn't make things sour [Completed]

Character(s): Etna, Laharl, Flonne
Content: Etna trudges through Paixao after "blowing off some steam" from off-screen fight with Laharl ~~and trying to gain a few levels here and there~~
Setting: Near Muspelheim
Time: sometime between mid-day to evening?
Warnings: Buttheads. That is all.

This was getting her nowhere. This was what, the fiftieth Lumen she came across and killed? They certainly weren't helping her with getting her power back. But that's a whole other story. Suffice it to say, Etna was getting tired far too easily for a demon. She flopped down on the closest thing she could sit on and sighed heavily.

She began thinking about recent events. About fighting with Laharl over, what else? Pudding. So much for trying to not smash him over the head about it. Figuratively anyway. Etna sighed heavily. Perhaps it was time she just went back to Laharl.

"Hmm. Maybe Flonne is pestering him like usual. Do I really want to break that up?"

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Finding Flonne's pastry shop had been the easy part. Choosing a dessert that Laharl now carried all packaged up, had also not been so difficult. Figuring out where the hell Etna had gone? THAT was the hard part. Given they'd been in the hotel in the center of the city, it left too many possible directions for Etna to have gone in.

At least Etna's description was unusual enough that they'd been able to get some idea of the direction she'd headed from the annoying townsfolk. It still was proving to be entirely troublesome. Laharl ALMOST was getting to the point of giving up, and dragging Flonne back to the hotel. It would be far less trouble to let Etna just come back herself, but... that was assuming she even would. Still, this was getting annoying...

"If we don't find her soon, we're giving up for today," he said, looking to Flonne grumpily. Even his stomach was starting to grumble, which wasn't doing Laharl's mood any favours.

"We'll find her," Flonne replied, supremely confident in this claim. In her heart, she felt that Etna would secretly want to be found, after all. There was a bond between them that would always lead them to one another! Or so the fallen angel felt, ignoring her own rumbling stomach to scan their surroundings.

"Ah!" she gasped suddenly, skipping ahead of Laharl in one direction. Several feet away from them, Etna's bright red hair could be spotted through the crowd. "Etna-saaaan!" she called happily, waving her hand as she drew closer. "We've been looking everywhere for you!" She stopped in front of the bench, catching her breath. "What are you doing here?"

There goes her last moment of peace. As soon as she heard her name being called out, Etna looked up to see Laharl and Flonne rushing towards her. "Oh hey Flonne... Prince." she glanced at Laharl and then the packaged he carried before turning her attention back to Flonne.

"Oh, it's nothing, I've just been... busy. It's nothing to worry about~" Of course Etna wasn't going to bring up that she was trying to get some levels back if they haven't figured it out yet. And besides, it really wasn't that important for them to know.

Flonne was really the only one doing any rushing. Laharl came up much slower from behind, his gaze averted to the side as this all suddenly felt oh-so awkward. "Yo," was all he ended up saying.

He would have liked to have had a moment to at least prepare for this, not just go rushing up to her. Dammit. Laharl wasn't sure how to approach this now, so... for now he just let Flonne do the talking, and see what Etna would say. He'd go from there, he figured.

"Isn't this place cool?" Flonne asked, plopping down next to Etna on the bench with a bright smile. "There's all these pretty fake flowers with jewels and gold everywhere! And the people who live here are very friendly, though sometimes I think they aren't very smart because they kind of have this blank look in their eyes. Do you think there might be something wrong with them? Oh! We picked you up something special, Etna-san! It's not pudding but I think you'll like it. We were very careful in picking it out for you, you know." As she spoke, she gestured here and there and at Laharl, not completely oblivious to the tension in the air but hoping to break it by filling the awkward silence.

Edited 2010-02-02 05:21 (UTC)

Etna wasn't entirely listening to Flonne, just nodding every so often, until she got to the part about getting her something. "You got me something, huh? Aww, you shouldn't have, Flonne~ Let me guess, you had to drag Prince out of his little hole, right? Or did he actually decide to come out himself?" It was a rhetorical question but knowing Flonne, she'd answer it anyway.

Etna glanced at Laharl still standing, still looking away awkwardly. "Hey come on, Prince, sit down. I'm sure you want to," she said, scooting a bit for the prince to sit. Maybe it'd lessen the awkwardness. Maybe.

Laharl was cringing on the inside... well maybe a little on the outside too. He hadn't wanted her to find out YET that they had brought her something, dammit. Argh, this was NOT going to plan! Not that he'd had one, but that was beside the point. This was definitely not how it was meant to go. Etna was meant to apologize first, THEN he'd give her the dessert. Leave it to Flonne to mess this up.

"No! She didn't drag me anywhere," Laharl snapped, before he blinked a moment at Etna then the bench. Huffing slightly, he awkwardly stepped over and plopped down.

Well, seemed there was no getting out of this now. Laharl glanced at Etna, before quickly looking away, as he all but shoved the packaged up dessert at her.

"Here. Now we're even."

"Laharl-san picked it out himself, you know," Flonne said conspiratorially to Etna, leaning towards the demons with a sweet smile. "He knew just what you'd like!" She scooted closer to them, ignoring the pointed glare on Laharl's face.

"Open it!" she exclaimed excitedly, clasping her hands together.

"Is that so? Hmm..." Etna stared at the package a bit before she started opening it up.

A cake. A white frosting cake with fruit on top. Well, Flonne was right; Etna did indeed really like it. She turned to Laharl and... just smiled. "Apology accepted, Prince. And I guess I should say..." Etna paused, she knew she should apologize, but it's not exactly something a demon does a lot.

"Sorry Prince. There, I said it."

As much as apologies weren't something demons said, they were almost equally just as hard to hear. As much as he'd wanted one out of her, it was entirely awkward affair, but he managed to give a brief nod to her, though was having a hard time meeting her gaze. Apology accepted.

"Right," Laharl began, ready to push all this aside and get down to business. "Now we can work on getting the hell out of here."

Laharl was the only one of the three now who knew anything about this place. He still was a little skeptical of the whole 'being in a castle' thing, but it was all they had to work with. Still, he hadn't heard anything good news from anyone who'd attempted to leave. He just knew there were some islands or something beyond the supposed door... in... a church wasn't it? Bah. He hoped it wasn't some wild goose chase.

Edited 2010-02-02 19:44 (UTC)

Flonne clapped her hands at the end of the exchange between the demons, happy tears in the corners of her eyes. She was just so moved by the apology (as unimpressive as it actually was) that, for once, she couldn't speak. It was only after she had wiped away the tears and listened to Laharl attentively that she piped up.

"What do we do first, Laharl-san?"

"Got any good plans, Prince?" This is where Etna had to listen carefully. She hasn't heard anything about a way to get out of this place, and from the looks of things, it was going to be hard to get out. Well, for her anyway. Hopefully the Prince had a good idea, if he's been here for so long. Of course he would have a good idea, right?

"If I had any good plans I wouldn't have been stuck here so long," he muttered, wishing he had a good answer.

"Look. This place... is complicated. The Dimensional Gatekeeper can't even seem to be reached, for some stupid reason," Laharl explained, preparing to explain a whole lot more. Neither of them knew anything, so this was definitely going to take awhile. At this point the boy's expression was serious and thoughtful as he glanced between his two vassals.

"All we know is there's this group of annoyances called the Organization Thirteen. They seem to have something to do with this place, but haven't really felt like sharing, and then there was this post... supposedly this whole city is inside some sort of castle. A... castle of memories or something. I don't know."

It didn't make any sense to him, but it's all anyone here had to work with. At least it was something as opposed to when he was first here. Things had looked pretty bleak back then. It was something at least, even if it didn't make a whole load of sense.

"Supposedly if we can find our way to the top of the castle, we can all escape. ...Supposedly."

Laharl clearly didn't exactly believe it, but that was what he knew, none-the-less.

Flonne nodded now and again as Laharl spoke, face the picture of seriousness. However, the more he spoke, the more lost she looked until finally, she was simply blinking in complete confusion.

"H-how is a city...inside a castle...?" she asked, utterly befuddled. It didn't make any sense! Just how big was this castle anyway?

Flonne pretty much took the words out of her mouth. "Yeah, seriously. The castle would have to be as huge as Baal himself. And besides, what's to say these Organization bastards aren't waiting at the top?" Etna questioned as she thought about it a little more.

Laharl shrugged. "I didn't say it was exactly believable, but apparently there really IS at least one other place people have found, so..."

A frown then formed over the Overlord's face at Etna's suggestion. She was right, of course. Who was to say they wouldn't be? That post suggesting they reach the top was there for everyone to see. They Organization would know just as well as everyone else did.

"Hmph, they probably will be," Laharl replied finally. "Unless we can get any chances to take them out before that."

Especially Larxene. Laharl wanted another shot at her more than anything.

Flonne jumped up from the bench, striking what she hoped was a suitably heroic pose. "Laharl-san's right!" she exclaimed, overflowing with determination. "We'll just have to fight! If they block us from finding a way home..." Her pose turned into a fighting stance, hands ready for some karate action. "...we'll just show them why they can't!"

She straightened up, smiling brightly at her friends. "Right?"

Etna twitched a bit. She would like to avoid fighting anything humanoid. Because, as if it wasn't said often enough, these damn low levels won't help them at all. However, the last thing she wanted was Flonne to be worried about her. Laharl she could deal with, but Flonne not so much.

"Yeaaah, of course!" Etna simply nodded in agreement.

"Heh, right," Laharl agreed as well, though glanced at Etna out the corner of his eye. Why was he still getting that feeling something wasn't normal?

"Anyways, let's get back to the hotel anyways. We'll find that second "floor" tomorrow," he then suggested, standing up from the bench himself. They'd been searching around for Etna much of the evening after all, and he was still feeling pretty hungry.

Seeing her two friends in agreement always made Flonne happy. With a satisfied smile that came from a job well done, she turned her attention to Etna's cake. "...that cake really does look good," she sighed wistfully, one finger by her chin as she continued to stare. Her stomach growled in agreement.

Was that really Flonne's stomach growling? Did they real go looking for her on an empty stomach? Unbelievable. She thought Laharl would have at least stopped to get something to eat before continuing. Although, it did make Etna feel happy that they searched tirelessly for her. Just a little.

"Alright, you can have a piece of cake. When we get to that hotel." Etna sighed, "Why not..?"

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You would think sweet pudding didn't make things sour [Completed]

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