voidtreckerexpress | [closed] 2 medieval fantasy guys and 1 city dweller

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[closed] 2 medieval fantasy guys and 1 city dweller

Who: Tidus, Inigo (

fivemilesdeep)
Where: Kitchen
When: Jelly 2
What: Inigo killed twenty feral bears with his wild hands. This means he has to cook at least one a month, alright.
Warnings: inigo is the shia labeouf meme (no) (but this is about bear meat and bones)

There is never a best time for dealing with the bears packed away in one's hammerspace. And while one might suggest, just get a job over and done with all at once! -- when that job requires deboning whole bears, which they still have about eighteen of? Yeah. Yeah. You go through eighteen bears at once, pal.

This time, Tidus is getting the bear-menace himself to help deal with this month's lunchbox essential. Last time Senku had to suffer them (not that he really minded), but Tidus isn't going to ask the guy a second time!

"Senku's gonna want the fat and bones." For whatever the dry delivery of that means. Actually, translation: This is gross and is always gross. Look at that bear head just sitting there on the counter!! Ugh, he should just move it into the pot for stock already, huh...

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Ryo is headed to the kitchen to look in on the bread he and Senku had made the night before - if it's still there, that is. He wouldn't be surprised if it wound up in Senku's arms band for storage, but he's still interested to see how it turned out.

Senku isn't in the kitchen as he approaches, but his Sense tells him there are two other people there - one familiar, one not. Peeking in the door shows him Tidus and someone else he's not familiar with...and also a dead bear.

...ah.

"I don't think that'll be big enough," he says, and immediately backpedals because he should not be interrupting a conversation with a criticism what is he doing- "I mean- maybe there's another one?"

Before Inigo can even fully enjoy the show of charades Tidus is performing here, there's suddenly another voice in the kitchen. An unfamiliar voice at that.

Inigo turns his head to look at the guy, his eyebrows raising. Though not with offense as much as just with surprise, since he certainly didn't expect someone else to be weighing in on this whole bear guts conversation.

"Seems like you've got competition to be my assistant, Tidus."

He's just joking, okay! A very gentle tease! At least take this one this time, dude. It's not as if he's seriously planning on drawing this random stranger into this, after all.

For the crime of Ryo's interruption, Tidus stares at him. Stares down at the pan he holds in one hand, lid still in the other, pointing it so the empty insides can be clearly seen.

...

And bahs, throwing up a look of exasperation, turning on his heel back to the cupboards and its row of saucepans.

"How many guts can a bear have?!"

He's complaining, but at least it's not directed at Ryo or anyone, at least not intentionally. The pan gets slid back while the hearty amusements of Inigo is - not ignored, actually!

"You replacing me already? Well, maybe you should!" For reasons he doesn't feel the need to express currently, when the exaggeration of his complaining gets dialled down completely and Tidus, looking over to Ryo asks, "How you doing? You hungry?"

For a moment, Ryo quails under the twin stares. He messed up- he messed up- he shouldn't have said anything-

But the moment passes, and they continue on, and Ryo relaxes, just a bit. It slowly dawns on him that he recognizes this - the bickering, the exaggeration, the jokes. This is familiar-

Because Orion and Endon do it all the time.

The trepidation is gone, replaced with a homesickness so abrupt and all-encompassing that it leaves him breathless. Oh gods, he misses them- he doesn't want to be here-

But-

But Tidus is talking to him, and he needs to get a hold on himself. Whatever he's feeling, it isn't either of their fault - they shouldn't have to deal with it. "I-" He swallows. "I'm fine." He gestures to the bear carcass. "Did you- want help? With that?" Please, please give him something to do that isn't thinking about home, he does not want to collapse again like he did yesterday.

Talk about looking nervous. It's so obvious that there must be a lot going on inside of Ryo's head right now - Inigo can tell just by looking at him, seeing the same nervous habits that often plague Inigo when he gets in a similar mood.

And it's not like he's the type to just abandon someone, especially when they're looking like that. Inigo may not know the guy, but it doesn't matter. If he wants to join in, and if that may make him feel a bit better, then let's just go with that plan.

"Sure! I could use two people's worth of help, actually," Inigo says. Then glances over at Tidus. ".. Two." He repeats, with a bit of a whiny edge to it. Come on, bro, he didn't mean to replace you for real!

Inigo glances at Ryo again.

"Tidus can hold the pan, then you can help hold the bear's body down while I grab and take out the guts. It's easier that way. Less blood getting everywhere." Does this sound like a calming activity yet.

Messing with the cooking pots, Tidus isn't as observant to any of what Ryo exhibits until he's picked out what's needed, the following reply to his mild inquiry. He takes it with some small amount of confusion, but nothing that displays beyond a small blink, in how he doesn't react to the task handed to him. Well, maybe he grimaces some at his job...

"Sure, join in! We wanna get two of these things done with before the next mission. You ever cooked a bear before? 'Cause all I know to do with the stuff is stick it in a stew. Inigo here's the...bear-eating guy."

That's totally how you say 'the guy who comes from a world with bears in it'.

The moment he gets the go-ahead, Ryo steps fully into the kitchen, already tying back his hair and rolling up the sleeves of his hoodie. Something else to focus on. Thank the gods.

"All right." He doesn't miss Tidus' grimace at the assignment. "I can hold the pan if you'd rather hold the bear," he offers. Tidus looks like he's got more physical strength than Ryo as it is, and...well, viscera doesn't bother Ryo.

He shakes his head at the question as he finishes rolling up his sleeves. "Not bear, no - usually just deer and rabbit-"

Which is about when the last bit of Tidus' commentary sinks in, and Ryo freezes for a moment. Wait. Wait.

He turns and looks at Inigo, eyes wide. "Wait, you're Inigo? How did you kill twenty bears?"

There's that question coming from Ryo.

And it makes Inigo glance at Ryo, something about Inigo looking obviously baffled. He then glances over at Tidus, in that silent 'did you tell him, bro??' kind of way. Because Inigo wasn't aware that he somehow has had a Reputation about him spread across the train otherwise. Especially since most of the newer people wouldn't even know where all the bear was coming from..

Not that Inigo seems offended at all that this new guy knows. More just confused about where he heard it. And even moreso why it's such a big deal.

"Erm.. I just.. did..?"

Is it that hard to believe?! Inigo sure doesn't seem to think so, and he's not really able to provide a more elaborate answer with how baffled he is at this sudden attention.

"You sure?" follows the offered exchange, and Tidus won't mind making the switch; not really seeing the upsides to it other than 'hey, I won't have to catch the guts!'

--Which, actually, that's a pretty good one!

But who could have guessed what would really get everyone stuck. The sudden bafflement from Ryo, and Tidus catches Inigo's look his way and the confusion registering, but just meeting with his own. Was there something about bears...

Oh-?

"Are they rare?" He asks it to either of them, though his gaze lingering on Inigo like, bro, did you kill twenty rare animals?! That's twenty bears. That's as many as two tens!

And that's terrible.

The conversation grinds to a confused halt, and it's all Ryo can do not to bail. Oh, gods, he did this, he made it terrible-

No. No, it's- it's okay. Nobody's mad - they're just confused. Just explain. It's okay.

"No, they're just...hard to kill." Good. Okay. "I...thought it was impressive."

...that is somehow not any less awkward. His nerve gives out, and he turns to Tidus. "Um- the pan, please?" Maybe, if they get to the task at hand, nobody will have to think about how Ryo just killed the conversation dead.

The moment Tidus gives him that look, there's immediately a 'dude, you serious?' kind of look from Inigo. There's no way bears of all things are rare! They're bears! They were all over the place back in Irivar, and it's not like Inigo didn't already know they were plenty common from experience back home. So what if this one guy happens to be from a world where bears are maybe..

..

Oh. Apparently that was not why Ryo was so surprised. Though now it's Inigo who turns his head in Ryo's direction to blink at him.

"Impressive? I mean.. It's just bears."

Inigo has fought worse, so it doesn't feel all that special to him.

"Pretty much anyone who has been trained to fight could probably take on a bear."

This is a learning experience about bears. Tidus passes over the pan after a small 'oh', freeing up his hands to hold the carcass of the creature as he needs to. Paying some attention to the both of them, but the apparent tone from Ryo.

"One of the other worlds we had a mission on did have problems though. Remember Gyueran?" He looks from Inigo, but then to Ryo as he explains. "There was a creature there, or- I guess they were calling it a monster. Everyone kept saying it was like a bear with a shark's head on it. None of the people on the island really knew how to fight. They kept the place safe with a kind of magic."

Is he hoping to make it not sound weird that Ryo's world has trouble with bears?? Maybe!

He would really, really like this conversation to end now, please. He has no way to do that aside from leaving, and he can't do that since he's volunteered to help, and he just-

He feels foolish, being impressed over something that's an accomplishment in his world and apparently isn't anywhere else, and-

Oh.

Maybe that's it.

"I think," he says haltingly, looking from Tidus to Inigo, "maybe we just have different bears." Never mind that the bear carcass on the table looks pretty similar to the ones back home. If another world has shark-headed bears, who's to say that the bears that Inigo's used to aren't just...easier to kill, somehow?

(The fact that wildlife on other worlds might not be magic-resistant the way it is on his hasn't quite occurred to him yet, but he's getting there.)

Well, Tidus does make a valid point. Although Inigo knows that, just like Tidus says, the main problem back on Gyueran was that those people had no idea how to fight in the first place.. Is this other guy's world like that?

Inigo considers it for a moment, but then realises he should probably really get to work here. He glances from Tidus to Ryo, making sure they're ready, before grabbing the knife again to start cutting the bear's belly open. It takes a while, so of course he's just going to casually talk on as he's working - though he's at least being safe enough about it to keep his eyes on the blade, even as he speaks.

"Why, does your world have bear sharks too?" .. A pause. "Shark bears..?"

What do you even call those weird, weird things anyway. He's mostly asking Ryo, but. You know. Considering the weird way wildlife works in Tidus's world, they may as well have bears-sharks-bears for all Inigo knows.

"The ones in mine are just like these from Irivar. They're just big, mean, fluffy animals."

Tidus gives Ryo's reasoning a small affirming noise, not really having any reason to dismiss it. Different bears, same bears - it didn't really mean anything to Tidus, and he wasn't feeling the need to get defensive over Inigo's bear slaying capabilities (of big strong bears). Did Ryo even get involved with bears much? ...This sure is a lot more thinking about bears in a different way than Tidus was expecting today...

But that wasn't really a question directed at him, and he doesn't have interesting commentary or facts on animals he wasn't familiar with, so have at it, guys. Tidus will just make an initial face about the whole gross part of bear gutting, but otherwise be quiet about it.

It's an out - in terms of explanations, at least; he's pretty sure by this point that he's not getting out of this conversation at all - but it wouldn't be accurate. Plus, he's honestly not sure his world could handle shark-bears. "No, the ones in mine are also- like this," he admits, nodding to the bear on the table, as both hands are occupied holding the pan. "It's just- magic doesn't work very well on them, so they're...hard to handle." Took him a while, but he got there eventually.

Thankfully Inigo is much too focused on his task here to notice anyone's face doing much of anything. Cutting a bear is certainly different from smaller animals, so a lot of his focus does need to be on it to make sure he doesn't screw up.

But he can at least talk, even if he can't really turn his eyes away much from the work he's doing.

"Well," he even lets out a small laugh as he says it, "That isn't too much of a problem for me. I don't really have any magic to use against bears to begin with."

.. He's thinking about it now though. If someone who could use fire magic threw a fireball at a bear, would it not only slay the bear but also cook it? True interesting mysteries.

"I just took all of these down with my sword! I mean, what else was a guy like me going to use?"

"Do most people use magic where you're from?" Tidus asks Ryo. His place in the kitchen isn't stopping the random scrunches of his nose when he forgets to breathe in through his mouth initially, but he soon enough fixes that.

Plus, the talking does help. He could do this even without a distraction, but hearing about different worlds interests him, has his eyes settled on the other guy with a curious hold.

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[closed] 2 medieval fantasy guys and 1 city dweller

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