|
|
There. Isn't +go nifty? Niko is looking -all- kinds of cheerful. That could be
because he's carrying Riley's birthday gift--something that looks rather like
a skateboard, but has hoverpads instead of wheels. A hoverboard? He's singing
lightly as he troops up the stairs, "So I think I'll need a bandaid (need a
bandaid) or maybe three or four (or five or six or more) and a bottle of that
spray stuff that we just got at the store..."
Clara is seated atop one of the jungle gyms, the park, primarily free children other than toddlers with their mothers. Kids are in school, evidentely. Sitting tailor fashion, she has her elbows rested on her knees and chin on her hands, reading a magazine. The singing does get her attention though as she half-grins at the singer. "No iodine!" she calls over in amusement.
Niko looks up with a grin. "Hey, Clara. Should've known you'd know that song. They made it my theme song, when I was at Evinast." He straps his feet to the ends of the hoverpad, then flips on the various hoverpads and--carefully--makes his way to hover so that his head is about level with yours. "Iodine's a really bad thing, yeah. How're you?"
"Of course I know that song," Clara responds with a laugh, then shakes her head
and closes the magazine and tucks it behind her, hopefully before you see the
pictures of wedding dresses but perhaps not. "Although that's about all I
know of it, to be honest. Iodine smells pretty nasty, too. I'm good, not bad
at all. Glad to have Riley back?"
Niko carefully jockeys a bit closer, and leans against the edge of the
jungle-gym in what would be a studied, casual pose if he weren't way off the
ground. Someone should take a picture. And he does see the magazine and
quirks a brow, but doesn't comment, instead nodding. "Yup, of course. Very
glad. Means I can be evil and do stuff like skip out on work for an hour to
play. And if you like, I've got a recording of that song somewhere. It's lots
of fun."
You can probably bet that somewhere, somehow, Anya or Kathlyn is getting a
picture of this indeed. Clara scoots closer to sit on the edge of the jungle
gym to be able to peer at how you're doing this, magazine being dragged
along. Yeah, it's one of those cheesy bridal magazines that women read, but
never really use. "That'd be great...think I could borrow it? One of the
nurses at Cannerton had it too. And that is -so- neat. Where'd you get the
hoverboard?"
"My favorite brother," Niko replies, with a cheerful grin. "Admittedly, he's
the only one I've met, but -still-. Riley gave it to me for my birthday.
Isn't it -neat-?" He releases the jungle gym and does a circuit of the thing,
ending up where he started. "Took me a while to figure it out, but, hey, I
didn't break myself, nothing but a couple bruises, so Ela was happy." And,
yes, so was he. He nods amiably at the request. "Sure, or I can make you a
copy. See," he adds sheepishly, "Letting you borrow it would mean giving up
-my- copy. There's some music I just can't do without, and these guys are in
that category."
"Hey, he's allowed to be your favorite," Clara responds with an amiable laugh that turns to delighted applause at the demonstration. "That is -so- neat! That actually looks more enjoyable than...well. -Anything's- more enjoyable than flying," she amends with a wry grin. "A copy would be -great- though...is this the recording with that nursery rhyme song on it?"
Niko nods, still looking quite sheepish as he leans against the jungle gym once
more. "Yeah. See, that's part of why I can't give it up. I could probably
find a copy of it -here-, being the heart of the Alliance and all, but,
well... it's mine. Yes, I know, I sound six, but I -like- this music." And he
doesn't really sound six. More like seven. He's amused with himself, though,
so it's okay.
"Naaah, I'd say you sound at least nine," Clara teases, reaching over to
attempt to ruffle y our hair. "A copy would be utterly perfect, though. I'd
rather have that than deprive you of yours. I just remember them being -so-
incredibly cheerful." She snickers quietly and shakes her head, legs swinging
slightly. "Is it bad that we used to dance around the room to some of the
faster stuff? College girls can be odd, I swear."
Niko ducks away from the hair-ruffling with a grin, and--oops, no, that wasn't smart, takes a bit of a nosedive before he regains control of the hoverboard. "Erk. Still figuring this out." With a few judicious twitches of his feet, he regains that altitude. "It's not just college girls who're weird," he says solemnly. "All girls are. Cooties, see." Hey, you -said- he was nine...
Niko ducks away from the hair-ruffling with a grin, and--oops, no, that wasn't smart, takes a bit of a nosedive before he regains control of the hoverboard. "Erk. Still figuring this out." With a few judicious twitches of his feet, he regains that altitude. "It's not just college girls who're weird," he says solemnly. "All girls are. Cooties, see." Hey, you -said- he was nine...
Clara all but yelps at the loss of balance, reaching out for your arm, then
sighing with relief and turning the hand to rest over her heart at the regain
of control. "Don't scare me like that," she chides with wry grin, then smirks
and rols her eyes. "Of course, cooties. Or Girl cookies, as one of the
Sectasslets says."
"Didn't do it on purpose," Niko protests. "I wouldn't do that on purpose. Ela'd smack me around or something if I did," he adds, maybe only half joking. "Besides, I didn't -land-, did I? This is why I should go really high when I use this thing." He's all innocence. A rationale that makes dangerous stuff safer. Yeah. "Girl -cookies-?" he adds, with a laugh. He doesn't say a -word- about eating girl cookies, as his player knows how much blushing that would cause. Besides, he's a knight. Instead, he just shifts back and forth in place. "That's great. Who says that, the little guy with the green eyes? I can't keep them straight, but it seems like there are lots more girls than boys, so it's easier." Of course, that being a racial trait, more female births than males, it makes sense that there are more female kids.
"I know you didn't, Niko..." Clara assures with a warm grin, shifting sideways
somewhat to sit tailor fashion. "Girl cookies," she confirms. "I always have
to suppress the urge to ask if the cookies are made with real girls, since
that'd probably traumatize the poor kid. But he's the little one? With biiiig
blue eyes," she explains, holding hands over her own eyes with fingers
shaping large 'O's in example. "He's a serious doll, that's for sure. The
green-eyed one is from another wife. The whole culture is primarily female.
Can you imagine having five women for every man?" She shudders lightly. "Poor
men."
Niko manages not to snicker and not to grin, though it obviously takes effort.
"Oh, yeah. Poor men. No trouble finding a date. -I- wouldn't mind those
odds." He pauses a beat. "Well, if I weren't already happily married, I
mean," he amends quickly. "Uh... not made with real girls, yeah, probably
best not to ask the kid that."
"You jest, but think carefully before you go trolling for a harem, my friend,"
Clara notes with a quirked grin. "I'll be living with just one woman can get
interesting at times. Consider trying to be a decent husband to five of them,
hmm? I think Riley'd go hide under a rock if he had to deal with five of me."
So would the rest of the Complex. One Clara is good. Five would be the
apocalypse. "How's Ela anyway?"
Niko gets a decidedly wicked grin, and murmurs something about handstands on
the top of the jungle gym. He's not quite stupid enough to try it, though.
"Ela's fine. Busy. Maybe she'll end up getting a promotion soon, though.
That'd be good, promotions are really good. Maybe she'd be able to knock off
a little if she did."
Clara reaches over to poke your arm, rolling her eyes with a laugh. "No handstands this high up. Try it on the ground," she suggests cheerfully. "Promotions are great, actually. Which reminds me I have some personnel to put in for promotions myself. Probably ought to go natter at your brother professionally today. And knocking off a little is -seriously- good." She tilts her head with a grin. "Would you be considering a family, then?"
Niko looks a bit sheepish. He didn't mean for that murmur to be heard, see. "You didn't see me doing it, did you, Clara? Ack, you're going to make Riley fill out -paperwork-, aren't you? Evil, paperwork's evil." He pauses at that query, and shakes his head, cheer fading a notch. "Uh, no, probably not."
"I didn't, and I'm teasing you, silly," Clara offers affably, then nods with a grins. "Lots and lots of paperwork, and then you'll likely sneak into Medbay and shoot me with a foam disc gun a bunch of times for it, but oh well." Her smile fades into sympathy then as she tilts her head. "If it helps...there's -never- a good time to have children. There's always reasons not to."
"Yeah, well," Niko says, with a shrug. "There's -lots- of reasons not to right
now, it seems." He ponders, then. "Hey, think Tara would throttle me if I got
one of those disc guns for Greer? Lots of little foam bits allll over their
place, I think that'd be fun." No, it's not the most graceful of segues, but,
clearly, Niko does not want to discuss children--or, at least, not his
children.
Clara regards you thoughtfully for a moment, then offers an understanding nod
as if this segue were completely understood, and accepted, and breaks into
another grin. "I think she'd laugh herself silly possibly. Isn't Greer a
wonderful kid? I'd have a dozen if they'd all end up like her," she declares,
then wrinkles her nose. "Scratch that. Not a dozen. I'm -not- going through
delivery twelve times," she explains. "If not a disc gun, maybe one of those
ones that shoots foam darts? Thwa-plock!"
Niko grins broadly at that. "The dart guns, yeah, I saw them. Kathlyn got one, the wench, and was shooting me in the bakc of the head the other day. The darts kept getting caught in my hair." Maybe that's why he finally ended up getting that haircut? "I need to get one for self-defense. Maybe I can pick up one for the kid, too. She really is pretty neat, though, yeah."
"Then there's silly string, and silly putty, and slime goop, and toy trains,
and toy rockets..." Clara continues to tick of toys on her fingers, rather
cheerfully, then pauses to look sheepish. "I like the toy store," she admits.
"It doesn't surprise me about Kathlyn, though. Kramer's bad about hitting me
with silly string when I'm not expecting it. You'd thing the entire Fleet was
filled with loonies."
Niko pauses a beat. "What, it's not? Dang, we'd better get a memo out or
something, to let everybody know. Not loonies... wow. Only some of us." He
grins, then. "Navy's loonies, that's for sure, but a particularly superior
group of loonies."
Clara shushes you rapidly, darting a furtive glance around. "They send the worst of us loonies here to the Complex," she explains with mock solemnity, then has to snickers and poke. "No, you're just all high flying loonies. Us Infantry folk are the down-to-earth types of loonies."
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Niko, to demonstrate his highflyingness, gains more altitude. That's fun. But then his wristunit chimes, and he acks quietly. "Ack." See? "Got to run, Clara, got to get back to work." Fortunately, he starts for the ground, apparently deciding to take off his toy before he goes back to the Complex.
Clara looks rather vastly relieved at the chime, considering it keeps you from going high up, and flying is not Clara's favorite thing, no surprise. "No problems, Niko...have a good day, okay? Tell everyone hello for me."
Niko nods as he hits ground and unstraps his feet from the board, then tucking
it under one arm. "Have a good day, tell folks hi, will do. Have a nice day,
too, huh?" With that, and a wave, he starts down the stairs, not even at a
breakneck pace, just a normal trot.