REAL BIG PLANS , elliott!

[FINNIKIN DARE]

finn could not see why this bloody valley was so exciting to everyone. woohoo, the wind blew through the long grass and it made an eerie whistling noise. he could do that by breathing through his teeth, it was no big deal, seriously. his pidgeotto made cooler sounds while she was snoring. people would be excited by anything if it were advertised right. he was only here because he had been dragged here, by none other than elliott avery. considering recent events, he thought he owed the guy one - but he had thought one drink, not one trip to a completely underwhelming and unexciting place. but here they were, nevertheless, and finnikin, with a heavy sigh which probably would not go unnoticed, threw his arms out melodramatically and said half-heartedly, sorrow clear in his tone, "ta-daa," the last syllable ending weakly. finn couldn't have been less excited if this were a trip to a peat bog. or a library. or a museum. he shuddered at the last thought; museums were creepy places, full of old dead things and knowledge, ugh. the lard - lulu, his flaaffy - was walking beside him, and she made an unimpressed noise at the amount of walking she would be doing. well, god knew she needed the exercise. pushing the large electric sheep along with a grunt, finnikin looked at elliott and raised his eyebrows, as if to say, are you satisfied now that you've ruined my entire day? but instead of voicing the feeling, finn made an effort to catch up with his buddy, whom he hadn't seen for at least a week, perhaps two - who was counting? "what's up with you, elli? you've been strategically avoiding me, i see." the only thing finnikin would be avoiding was the subject of seraphina, elliott's sister: that could get awkward. it was a subject best left over drinks. lots of drinks. elliott had always forgiven him before, and he'd done far worse stuff than just arresting his best buddy's lil' sis. they'd known each other since they were tiny muddy little poor street rats: they weren't about to friend-breakup now over some battle he'd had with sera, right?

LULU THE FLAAFFY

[michi]

    Elliott had always thought himself a man of grand ideas, which the best plans to accomplish a mission... Unfortunately, he was completely and entirely unaware of the fact that his plans were only successful in his career, in part because Elliott's idea of fun did not seem to match with anyone else's. (This was, perhaps, why his family had fallen apart, he had never had a girlfriend at age twenty-four, and had few friends aside from Finnikin – who, for the record, was more or less obligated to be his friend.) And it was for this reason that they were in some hopelessly gigantic valley, wandering about like a pair of hopeless buffoons without the slightest idea of where to go next or even what to do.

    As for his decision to force convince Finnikin to explore this place with him, well... It seemed as good a place as any to confront his friend about finding his sister in a jail cell, complaining about being treated like a piece of trash. Here, there wasn't really anywhere to run or avoid him or be heard by people who might not be fond of the idea of a Royal Guard having a soft spot for a pirate. Even so, the place seemed nice enough. Perhaps not interesting, but peaceful – certainly not quiet, but silence was unnerving anyhow.

    Grunting in minor annoyance at the nickname (it was a little girl's name, damn it!), Elliott replied, “Nothing much... Just, y'know, found Seraphina in a jail cell.” His tone was stiff, caught between anger and guilt – he was not the type to pick fights, much less with those he cared for. The hound at his feet, however, seemed far less sympathetic and growled. It was no mystery that the Houndoom was loyal to the Avery family as a whole and seeing one of his master's loved ones in a dank cell, and the image seemed to have put the purebred on a rather rabid hunt for a chew toy to release its aggression upon. No matter, gently nudging the beast with his elbow to discourage such behavior, Elliott amended a little hesitantly, “You, uh... Wouldn't know anything about that, would you?”

[FINNIKIN DARE]

it had always amused finn to invent the most feminine nicknames for his friend as possible, because they embarrassed him so. over the years, finnikin had gone through stages of calling his friend - in public, often overly loud so others would hear - elliphant, ellikins, smelliott, umbrelliott and elliana. but above all he returned - and still did to this day - to the easy, familiar favourite of ellie. it was an eight-year-old girl's name, for sure, and finn loved the way it irked him. in a manly, best friend kind of way, of course. it was almost as bad as that extended time between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, wherein elliott had the bright idea of reminding all the girls finn tried to date that his middle name was renae. he was just about to jovially joke about elliott's startled grunt at the nickname when it seemed all the colour rushed from his already pale face. he started suddenly, surreptiously using his foot to push lulu in the way of a growling, menacing vox, elliott's old faithful houndoom, who had taken a fair bit of flesh from finn's backside over the years and no doubt had developed a taste for it. hopefully the dark canine would go for the easy, pink, fluffy prey in front of him rather than the lanky, muscly, stringy royal guard, distracted by mutton rather than fabric and bone. "me? know anything about that? hardly. you know me, if i'd known i would have got her straight out of there! sera? in jail? despicable. i'll keelhaul the man i find who put her there, mark my words." he was rambling, as he did when he was put under pressure, but he found it as easy to lie to his best friend as he did to a complete stranger, and his face - well-trained for years to be perfect at the art of espionage - betrayed not a hint of his true intentions. but elliott knew him better than the back of his hand, and finn had no doubt ellie would realise. it was if he didn't that finn would disrespect his friend; it was only because elli knew how to keep him in check he still hung around him. the moment he could pull the wool over his buddy's eyes, he'd just be another guard, another pocket to pick, another back to stab. FINNIKIN DARE STOP MAKING ME FEEL BAD FOR MAKING YOU feeling a little laugh rise up - finnikin couldn't stay serious, even at this tense moment, for more than two heartbeats - he said, jokingly, the laugh threatening to bubble out at any moment, "is the little munchkin okay, then?" oops, there it went, the laugh spilled out like a flood, unable to be kept in by the dubious levy of finnikin's seriousness.

LULU THE FLAAFFY

[michi]

    Elliott may have been blissfully unaware of the evils of his liege, but he was all too familiar with the ups and downs of being Finnikin Dare's best, and probably only, friend. Finnikin was not always honest, nor reliable, nor compassionate... But who else did Elliott have? As frustrating as Finn could be, he had his redeeming moments, and perhaps it was the rarity of them that made Elliott appreciate them so much. Beggars, after all, could not be choosers – with Finnikin the only thing close to family that Elliott had left, it was only natural for him to stick with him, good or bad.

    Regardless, Elliott was no fool when it came to Finnikin, and neither was Vox. The Houndoom, if anything, reinforced Elliott's suspicion, eliminating those uncertainties that had initially almost kept him from speaking about this topic... But Finn was rambling, chittering on like a Chatot, and Elliott was all too familiar with such behavior. It was nothing but an insult for Finn to think that we could like to his best friend, someone who had known him for – what? Twenty years? Elliott could be stupid, narrow-minded, subject to blind belief, but there were some people you just knew like the back of your hand. As it was? Elliott would go along with this little act, pull Finnikin's evil little heartstrings and make him guilty – so guilty that he might even apologize. (An unlikely possibility, perhaps an overly hopeful thought... At least Elliott had goals, right?) “Munchkin? Interesting word choice. But, uh...” How far should he string this little tale? He was no expert liar, but grand storytelling had never been one of his stronger points, so he said sadly, “She's fine now that she's out. Underfed and dehydrated, but I got her some food from the kitchens and she was gone... Something tells me she's not gonna wanna come back.” Hm, that actually wasn't lying at all – even the last part, because Elliott knew all too well that Seraphina would stay far, far from the palace in all its aristocratic glory. But there was more to be said on this matter and, sighing rather hopelessly, he grumbled, “Looks like I'm gonna have to spend another couple years trying to find her. You'll help, right?”

[FINNIKIN DARE]

why were they still friends? the amount of times the pair had made each other's lives hell were uncountable. from hijacking each other's budding teenage relationships, to stabbing each other with well-meaning musketeer branch-swords, to using each other as practice targets for their pokemon. and of course, there was the unwavering loyalty to seraphina which meant finnikin had never even had a shot at pursuing the feisty redhead, which he definitely would have under any other circumstances. but somehow, through everything, elliott put up with finn's rather demanding stretch on their relationship with patience, and finn dealt with elliott's - somewhat irritating at times - remarkable heterosexuality with exceeding calm. they got along because they had to, he guessed. neither of them had anyone else. wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes with the back of his hand, using his flaaffy's woolen neck ruff to dry them, he tried to be serious for once. "oh, no," he said, still laughing slightly and choking on his words.

he wasn't being serious, he was lying through his teeth and everyone knew it. but the situation was too hilarious for finn to care. "she's not coming back? oh, no," he said, somberly as possible. a snort escaped from him, and he chuckled merrily. if seraphina never came back it would be a day too soon for finnikin. that girl had just ruined all his plans from the first day she demanded to play with them; and elliott was far too protective of her to start with. it might do him some good being apart. then it struck him. "a couple of years? elliott, my man, these are your best years! you don't want to waste them hunting her down again, the girl's probably happier without you breathing down her neck," he groaned, but nodded helplessly. of course he'd aid his buddy in his fruitless search for his sister. if it meant the guy would stop moaning about it, he'd even spend all of his days doing it. elliott's happiness was probably of more importance than his own in the end, anyway. wow. that was a sentence he never thought would pass through his brain.

LULU THE FLAAFFY

[michi]

    The laughter was poorly masked to say the least, leaving Elliott to stare at his friend with clear frustration. Trying to advise Elliott not to be so protective of Seraphina was like trying to teach a pirate how to be a good, honest citizen: pointless. The idea of relaxing, simply dropping everything and just enjoying life was odd... Unwelcome, interesting to ponder upon, and odd. But it was out of the question, in part because Elliott wouldn't even know where to start; even after having said goodbye to his sister, he still worried constantly and wondered what sorts of trouble she was up to. but, he supposed... “Maybe you're right. I think she gets annoyed by me sometimes.” It wouldn't be a problem if she could look after herself and not always pick the most dangerous frickin' profession but – wait, he was getting off track here, wasn't he? This was not supposed to be about his failures as an older brother, but the fact the Finnikin had locked his sister in a jail cell. Huffing with renewed purpose, Elliott's pace quickened slightly and he stepped in front of Finn, turning to look him in a face that was very serious and very – amused? Elliott's lips tightened in a weak attempt to contain his laughter, an index finger raising to point at his best friends face, any idea of chewing his friend out temporarily forgotten once more. Unable to help it anymore, Elliott laughed (a rare occurrence, I know) and managed to say, rather breathlessly, after a moment, “Looks like you've seen Exile recently, huh?” Hell, maybe he didn't need to guilt trip Finn anymore or even lecture him on how low it was to put your friend's sister in jail – the singed eyebrow seemed punishment enough.

[FINNIKIN DARE]

finnikin really should not have enjoyed elliott's frustrated face so much. but it simply amused him to no end to know that elli found him so irksome. he couldn't quite stifle the laughter, but he hid it enough to reply to elliott's self-deprecating comment. the kid really thought he as a failure of a brother if he didn't keep sera safe and secure and wrapped up in cotton wool. he shrugged, saying without a thought as to elliott's feelings on the matter, "yeah, man, you are a wet blanket smothering her entire life. let her go; so what if she gets hurt or something. it's a learning experience." they were walking along at quite a pace now and finnikin almost ran into his friend as he suddenly sidestepped in front of him, causing finn to throw his hands up in a gesture that screamed, what the hell do you think you're doing? but then, with a groan, finnikin realised what elliott was pointing at. when they got here, he had figured out a way to get his long fringe to cover his singed left eyebrow, but he guessed in the windy valley it had messed his hair this way and that and it hadn't remained hidden like he wanted it to. it could have been any creature - a fire type, or even just a flare-up in the guard's barracks' kitchens. but no, elliott had guessed the answer straight away. "he never misses. just like you taught him," he said sarcastically, laughing along very acerbically. "the little runt. i don't care if you gave him to her, i am going to feed him to cloud," he added viciously, speaking to the sky rather than anyone in particular. how were any of his contacts supposed to take him seriously with an eyebrow like this? he could barely go outside without getting any weird looks. this was all sera's fault.

LULU THE FLAAFFY