paixaorpg | The Road Goes Ever Ever On [Completed]

Entry tags:

auron,
the prince

The Road Goes Ever Ever On [Completed]

Character(s): Auron, the Prince
Content: Auron and the Prince have a look-see around Paixao.
Setting: Outside the Actua Are [F3], then on to Yevon-Only-Knows where.
Time: Friday afternoon-ish
Warnings: None (yet).

There was always something inspiring about taking that first step out the door. No matter what the reason, it was always uplifting to exit a place and set his feet to walking again. He still felt a measure of it here, even if he knew that this strange domed city wasn't Spira. ...with a sudden half-hearted growl, Auron shook his head. He had to stop comparing this place to his birthplace. No matter what the case, he would likely never see it again, and Paixao would never magically 'become' Spira and restore that small bit of comfort and familiarity to his heart. So, enough with the heartsickness and the forlorn moping. He was undeniably fond of the whole 'story' metaphor, wasn't he? This was a new chapter. Hell, this was a whole damned new book.

Second chances aside, there was still the matter of the energetic and perplexing blonde child to be taken care of. Auron stood outside the Actua Are, Shiranui strapped to his back, with all his usual bells and whistles attatched. Gesturing briefly with the hand slung inside the fold of his coat, Auron turned his good eye down to his companion in exploring, an eyebrow raised. "Are we ready to go?"

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The hardened explorer prepared to make the toughest journey of his life. His boots strapped and his hat donned, he jumped over the door's threshold and onto the ground. Yes, this was the wild! He raised his hand to his forehead and looked around. Left, right, and left again! Nothing moved. The coast was clear.

"Yes, sir!" he responded sternly to his leader's question. Yes, they were explorers, out to see and map the great expanse of this place know as "Pie-sow." Strangely enough, he hadn't seen anything related to pies. He wished he had, since he was getting awfully hungry again, despite having eating a Hardy Explorer Breakfast!™ just moments before.

As for the area they were to be exploring, it was very quiet. Almost too quiet. As any explorer knows, a safari involves looking for and finding animals. Well, The Prin-explorer was looking, but he wasn't finding any. None at all.

"Have you seen any animals here, Mr. Auron?" The Prince asked, forgetting the game he had been playing.

"Animals? No. Haven't seen any." He gestured with a nod of his head. "I don't think there are any here. Look. Even the grass is fake." Auron started down the cobbled path, an indication that their 'journey' was starting. "Besides, I'm more interested in the people."

((ooc: Gah. I suck tonight. *flops over*))

This would have been the perfect time for The Prince to resume his safari game, as their journey had just begun, but The Prince found his heart just wasn't in it. With no animals, what was the point of playing safari? Besides, he was curious about Auron's comment.

"Why's that, Mr. Auron?" he asked while hopping from rock to rock on the path. He didn't want to step on a crack and break his mother's back after all! "The Prince finds animals and people equally interesting. The only difference is that people are much louder."

[ ooc: That's ok! Where do you want them to end up? Anywhere in particular? ]

((ooc: ^^; And I don't have the foggiest idea as to where they're gonna go. ._. *cough*))

Auron smirked behind his collar, his steps even-paced as if he were carefully thinking of where to place his feet next. "Because, Prince, I did a little asking around when I left Jenet and yourself earlier. The people here are far more interesting than animals. I have some questions I want to ask them."

He could only imagine how rediculous the pair of them looked as they walked down the street. Completely mismatched and unlikely, the grim old man and cheerful young boy. He'd once been like the Prince, youthful and optimistic (although not quite as silly). But time had a way of changing a person - Auron could only hope that it would be kind to the little Prince.

The Prince furrowed his brow, which made him look comical at best. That sort of thing only worked for adults, but The Prince thought he might as well give it a try. He had no other way to display his confusion. But if Mr. Auron said so, it must be true! The Prince smiled and went back to hopping on the stones. Yes, it was perfect logic. After all, The Prince knew a thing or two about logic. ~~Except he didn't.~~

The Prince soon tired of his stepping-stone game, and began to focus more on the scenery of Paixao. "Oh, look there!" he cried as he ran over to look inside a house window. In his excitement he completely forgot his manners. It hadn't occurred to him that looking in at other people in their homes might be a tad on the creepy side.

[ ooc: Guess we’ll have to figure that out, huh? Maybe they could go on a train ride or something, just for kicks? ]

Auron stopped in his tracks as the Prince ran to the window. Well, this was shaping up to be a fine journey. "I'm sure it's fascinating, Prince, but it's quite rude to, well, stare through windows." His eye closed as he smirked again. "And we don't need any more trouble. I'll be causing enough of that as it is."

Flipping open his little machina to the map of the city, Auron glanced at it for a bit. There wasn't much in the way of noteworthy shops or stores, at least within walking distance considering the Prince's age. That 'train' sounded vaguely interesting. Sounded vaguely like a Paixao equivalent to an airship. He craned his neck to look at the Prince, and hope he wasn't still peering in windows like some sort of underaged pervert.

"Do you know anything about this thing called a 'train', Prince?"

Oh. That's right. It was rude to stare into windows, wasn't it? "Ok, Mr. Auron!" The Prince called out to Auron, and pulled away from the window just as a man from inside the house was coming to shoo him away. Well, more like shoe him away. He was instantly reminded of Jenet's pointy heels, and quickly fled over to Auron's side. The man was certainly not going to shoe Auron!

But The Prince put the evil man out of his mind when Auron mentioned the train. "Oh yes, The Prince knows about trains! He once rolled one up, and then he rolled up the track too, and then he rolled up the station, and then..." and then quite suddenly The Prince lost his train of thought. More like crashed it really. But, as was his nature, The Prince quickly began talking again.

"Are we going to ride a train? The Prince wants to ride a train! It will be so much fun!

"It makes sounds like this! Chooooooooo chooooo!" The Prince began to choo and chug and wave his arms in a very un-trainlike way. Well, he did try.

He ... rolled what? Pausing for a moment, his thoughts almost completely grinding to a halt listening to the Prince speak, Auron studied the map a bit further. At least that way he'd have time to look like he was doing something important. In reality he was pondering just what he'd gotten himself into.

After a few brief moments, while the Prince was making a startling assortment of noises Auron'd never had the priviledge of hearing before, he closed the journal with a click.

"Fine then. We'll take the train. Does that sound good to you?"

The train, the train! They were going to take the train! The Prince had never been on a train before. "Let's go Mr. Auron! We might have missed it! Or it might not have come yet. Or we might have missed the train that we already missed before we missed it." The Prince had no idea what he was talking about now, but he was growing quite fond of the word "missed."

Except The Prince had no idea what direction the station was in. "Is it that way? Is it that way? Is it that way?" he asked, pointing in several directions. Auron would definitely know, since he seemed to know almost everything. And 'almost everything' was good enough for The Prince.

Auron began his most dignified walk (as dignified a one as he could manage), indicating with no words at all that their trip to the train was beginning. The Prince was a quick-witted lad, Auron didn't doubt he'd catch on. Honestly Auron had no idea what the train was, or what it did, aside from it running on tracks and the Prince rolling it up. Or whatever that meant.

He'd supposed it was some sort of machina, given the noises and mention of track and things like that. He'd seen some of the strange creaking things Cid and Rikku had built, and there was no shortage of amazements in Zanarkand. "Follow closely, Prince. I don't want to get separated."

Oh, they were leaving now! The Prince had been spinning around in circles and pointing in various directions, when he made a sudden stop to follow after Auron. Unfortunately, as many may know from experience, the world did not stop when The Prince stopped. Instead it kept on sloshing around before his eyes in great swirls of colors and shapes, which The Prince's jostled mind found quite pretty.

"The Prince is coming!" he called out, looking out for the great span of red color that he identified Auron with. He found what he was looking for and walked toward the swirling red of Auron's coat. However, he misjudged the distance, finding that he had been much closer to Auron than he had previously thought. He ended up walking right into the man. Well, at least he was following closely right?

It probably didn't help the Prince's dizzy predicament when the sudden *BONK* of something hitting slightly below his midsection caused Auron to stop dead in his tracks. Turning his head to look curiously at the child, Auron stifled a chuckle, looking plainly amused.

"I said to follow closely, not share my skin. Unless of course you'd like a ride. ...to the train, anyway."

That was Auron for you, Guardian and part-time Shoopuf.

The Prince stepped back and his eyes finally began to adjust from the spinning and whirling. Shapes started to come together and there stood Auron, looking back at him. The Prince clutched the sides of his head and shook it a little, hoping that would get rid of the rest of the dizziness. The Prince liked to think it helped somewhat.

He was delighted when he heard Auron's offer. "Oh, The Prince does want a ride!" he said, jumping up and down in front of Auron. This probably wasn't a very good idea, as it began to bring back his dizziness, but that wasn't about to stop The Prince from expressing his excitement! Unless he fell down of course. Wow, what an amazing day! The Prince was going to get a ride from Auron, and go on a train! And The Prince was very curious about what he would see from Auron's height. The world looked much different when you were close to the ground. Which he found himself even closer to, after a series of excited jumps landed The Prince on his bottom.

Auron was aiming to scoop the Prince up in one motion and settle him on his shoulder, when said cargo toppled over onto the ground. Auron canted his head with a small snort. "You alright?" Well - kids were resilient nowadays, but it couldn't hurt to ask. With a brief adjusting of his accessories (alcohol, Shiranui, journal, that sort of thing), Auron quickly and gently plucked the Prince from the ground, settling the boy on his right shoulder.

Granted this put him on his blind side, but at least if the Prince started with his energetic flailing it wouldn't startle him. (...not like much startled him nowadays, but it was always good to plan ahead.) Keeping a steady grip on the lad so that he wouldn't fall off, Auron started forward with his long loping strides. He found himself humming quietly, like he'd done on the first Pilgrimage with Braska and Jecht. Jecht had tended to take up most of the conversation (and not let anyone else get a word in edgewise). The Hymn of the Fayth rumbled deep in his chest - low and reverberating enough to make a Ronso proud.

"Oh yes, The Prince is perfectly fine!" he replied as Auron picked him up. Wow, the world really did look different from up high! The Prince looked all around from his perch on Auron's shoulder, at least as much as he could without falling off. There was just so much to see and behold and The Prince was in awe. Even the most mundane things caught his attention. (Such as a trashcan, which The Prince proclaimed had been the just the sort of thing he found his nose cozy in.)

Presently The Prince began to quiet down in his excitement and as he did so he heard Auron humming. The Prince smiled. There was just something about it, The Prince didn't know what it was, but it certainly calmed him down. Maybe he would just sleep for a bit... on Auron's head. Yeah, he would do that. Auron wouldn't mind, right? The Prince couldn't exactly stop his eyes from closing now. Must have not gotten enough sleep after last night...

There was one thought that lingered in The Prince's mind as he finally fell asleep. 'Safe.'

The Prince cozying into his somewhat-bushy hair made Auron turn his eye skyward for a moment, as if to see what his little passenger was doing. After a good 3 minutes of silence, Auron figured that the boy was either out of things to say, or stone-dead asleep. And given that the Prince talked enough for a small army, Auron was leaning more towards the latter.

He snorted a soft laugh, one of his more warm ones, feeling a measure of his stature as a protector returning. If the Prince felt secure enough to doze off while with him, it was a reassuring sign to Auron that he hadn't lost his touch.

...either that or he had become painfully boring.

The Prince woke from his strange dreams to equally strange surroundings. But as he sat up and readjusted his hat he remembered where he was. He was in that pie place! Of course! The Prince thought himself very smart for remembering such a thing.

He looked up and let out a joyful cry. "Oh, Mr. Auron, it's the train!" he said, pointing to the station with one arm and waving around the other, "The Prince wants to sit near the window!" He was flailing around so much that he threatened to fall off. This was of no concern to The Prince, who was far to excited to worry about causing harm to himself. Even that short nap had given The Prince an extra boost of energy, and all his little frame wanted to do was run, run, run!

[ ooc: I had The Prince wake up when they reached the station, so I skipped some time. I hope you don't mind! ]

((ooc: It's all gravy. I'll close this up then, and we can start a new scene on the train or at a new destination or some such thing, okeedoke? We are frightfully far behind, and I apologize for that. This whole computer thing piled on my schedule is making for crap RP time. ;_; ))

The Prince's excited flailing and cries about the train made Auron laugh quietly. He hadn't quite realized they were at the train itself - Auron had thought the station itself was just another building. That was until he got a good look at the train itself. And he wasn't half-wrong; it did resemble one of Cid's loud raucous machina, right down to the screeching and bellowing. The machina were usually well-behaved (usually), and from the look of things, this train couldn't go anywhere else but on that special section of street.

With a noncommital shrug, Auron plucked his little shoulder-mate off, setting the child down steadily on his feet. "We'll need to pay a fare for passage, right?" His hand slipped inside his robe, withdrawing the Gil on their knotted cord. The other establishments had accepted the money with no problem.

Once again his assumptions were right, and the tickets were bought and paid for, Auron and his charge ushered onto the noisily-puffing machina. The Prince had said something about sitting near the window, so Auron complied, settling for aisle seat, Shiranui settled carefully between his knees. Well, so far, so good. Problem was, he didn't know where this 'train' went, and didn't know when they'd next get off. Eh well. He'd just have to improvise. It would certainly spice things up.

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The Road Goes Ever Ever On [Completed]

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