Spring Festival, 1915

[Styx]

It was rather tranquil out in South City, but it'd really been a long time since Envy had taken the time to drag himself out there...at least twelve years. The 51st annual Spring Festival had made its way to the city streets, complete with flowers, shops, streamers, and scantily-clad women. Styx hadn't wanted to come, but Envy had dropped a short note to Alexei Curtis to meet him out here later in the day...out at the cemetery.

For now, the emerald-haired homunculus kept himself occupied by watching the war reinactment. Sure, it was a lot of fun to watch, but it wasn't anywhere near as fun as watching an actual battle. Already, a couple of people had hit on him (he'd hit them in response), and he'd devoured two cups of shaved ice. With the gunfire, he smirked a bit, enjoying himself immensely. Sometimes it just did wonders to get out and do virtually nothing for a day.

[Kitanna]

Acheron was wandering through the streets of South City, looking in awe at the celebrations going on; however at the age of four years old the little Homunculous hardly knew what was going on.. but whatever it was seemed like fun!
" Is it someone's birthday party?" she said outloud to herself.

Noticing the streamers, the little child grinned and started to run over towards them.
" Wow, pretty ribbons!" she called out as she ran forever closer to them.. the bright colours seemed to draw her in.

[Styx]

Envy's violet eyes widened in delight as a few of the war reinacters fell to the ground, pretending to be dead. Some of the guys stayed down only for brief periods of time, then got up again. Around the beginning, one of the "rebels" fell to the ground and stayed there for the whole battle. Unbeknownst to Envy and the other viewers, the war reinactor out there who wasn't budging had fallen asleep. Some of the other people out there included a rather pudgy Ishbalan professor with a beard, mandala scarf, and cane...as well as a whole swarm of college students. Among them was a redhead with glasses, Marpessa Luchesi the Military Mop Monkey.

In fact, Marpessa had just ended a relationship with the guy running the shaved ice booth closer into the town square, further away from the park. It felt great to be on vacation, even if Maria Ross had opted not to head down South for the rest of her two weeks off.

....

Mortimer Larke had come out here with every intention of meeting up with a couple of his childhood friends. Shou Tucker had chickened at the last minute, but there hadn't been a yes or no either way from Samuel Hunton. That left Julius Loxias unaccounted for...but Morty knew Julius was dead. He checked his watch a couple of times, then noticed a little girl without any supervisors walking down the sidewalk from booth to booth; Acheron. 'If I approach her, she might get scared,' the Abiogenesis Alchemist thought to himself, taking a deep breath. 'I'll keep an eye on the kid regardless, just to make sure nobody gives her trouble.'

[Kitanna]

Little Acheron had finally got over to one of the colourful streamer's and just seemed to stare up at it for a few seconds.

The way the 'ribbons' as she called them, seemed to bob to and fro in the light breeze made her feel as if they were teasing her; saying 'hah-hah bet you can't get us!'

Well...she'd show 'them'! , pretty soon the little girl was jumping up to try and grab a pretty red streamer, although she seemed to miss every single time.. but she wasn't going to give up so easily.

------

Samuel Hunton walked through the streets of South City, after hearing from Morty about the Spring Festival.
He felt a little awkward..not to mention exposed since he wasn't wearing a lab coat for once.

He then grinned when he spotted his childhood friend and called out to him.
" Hey, over here!"

[Styx]

'Cute...Anthony used to do that,' Morty thought to himself as he kept an eye on the unaccompanied child, making sure nobody gave the little girl any trouble. Oh, how he missed being a father. There wasn't a day that passed by that he didn't think about his son; Anthony would be an adolescent by now if he were still alive...and he'd probably have acne, just like his father used to have. Maybe he'd even be a lot like Morty's tenant whom he'd brought to the festival with him...rather he'd taken Julian Luchesi to the festival and dropped him off. Only God knew where Jules was now; probably the kissing booth, being the little pervert he was.

It was then he heard Sam. That alone was enough to get him to jump and drop the shaved ice he'd bought from a rather sulky guy moments earlier. "Thank God one of you showed up," Morty chuckled, waving at Samuel Hunton. "I was getting tired of looking for my tenant; that kid's a handful."

[Kitanna]

Acheron missed a few more times before finally taking one big leap and finally grabbing onto the streamer, however much to her horror..it turned out that the streamer in question was stuck to the metal pole of the booth.

" Awww come on!, that's no fair" she whined with a little pout and started to tug on the streamer; eventually running around it to see if that would loosen it up somehow, such was the determination of the four year old.

-------

Samuel just grinned and did a light shrug.
" Hey it's a guy's day-out, how could I refuse?" he said, chuckling slightly; it wasn't everyday he got to hang around with one of his childhood friends, let alone go to a big celebration such as this.

" So Julian's around here too, huh?" Samuel paused to look around with a puzzled look on his face.
" Whereabouts is the kid?"

[Styx]

"Hey, get a load of the kid..." one of the Sol Invictus college kids said, nudging Second Lieutenant Korsakov (on vacation!) in the back. The androgynous blonde woman looked at the fellow (he was probably her age, give or take a couple of years) and raised both eyebrows. "She's been fascinated with the streamers for a while now and just got hold of one."

"Curiosity killed the cat, I'm afraid," the MP replied coldly as she walked up toward the little girl. The coldness melted to show a rather warm and gentle smile on her princely face. "Having difficulties?"

~~~

"Hell if I know," Morty finally replied. The more he saw Jules, the more he saw a younger (and more effeminate-looking) version of himself...he even saw Jules make some of the same mistakes. It was just a blessing that the thirteen-year-old was too afraid of death to go anywhere near cadavers; he'd rather work on Alchemic Medicine, thank you very much. "Last time I saw him, he was bothering some of the college kids."

[HeavyMetal]

McGriff was on the run but none the less he had to make a stop at this festival, he watched reenactments and couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, which sounded more like a wheeze of air, at times, and at other times pull out his pad and scribble down inaccuracies of a battle that he had been in or had known someone to be in.

After a while he decided he’d go down and get him something to eat, that cold ice shaving thing…He’d never been good with naming things and at the moment the name of this item escaped him, he just knew that one flavor, what ever it was called, went well with a bit of hard liquor which did wonders for soothing the soar throat and the sour mind. However on the way he happened to see a few fellows talking, one of them mentioning a girl, whom he could only assume was the one he had seen talking to a child a bit behind him. So if they where looking for them he figured he’d do them a favor, He slowly tapped one on the shoulder and pointed them off in the right direction. Pointing at where the woman stood now.

[Kitanna]

Acheron looked up as she heard a woman's voice and saw a blonde woman smiling gently at her.
Still being a little shy of people, the small Homunculous blanched and seemed to fumble with the red streamer ( what she had managed to get anyway) as a nervous smile spread across her face.

" H-hiya ma'am..well I-I'm just tryin' to get this ribbon.." she replied before giving the streamer another light pull in the hopes that it would get free... it didn't.
"..But it doesn't look as if it likes me much"

--------

Samuel burst out laughing at that.
" Oh he is, is he?!" came his reply that seemed to be incased between laughs.
" What's the betting that some of those college kids might be girls, huh?" he asked with a sly grin.

He then paused when he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked to McGriff before looking in the direction the man had pointed in; Samuel then chuckled softly and shook his head.
" No, that's not the kid we're talking about.. he's a boy that's staying with my friend, Morty here" he said before motioning over to Morty.

[HeavyMetal]

McGriff nodded at the comment, looking over to Mortimer and giving a slight wave. He reached up and scratched his neck a bit as he leaned against the wall, watching the young woman talk to the little girl. He then leaned forward a bit, and let out a sound that could easily be mistaken for a moan. “Some…party huh?”

After a few moments of scratching his throat he looked back at them and it was apparent that he spoke with great difficulty, “Sorry, for bugging…” He said when he didn’t get an immediate answer, use to people thinking he was deaf and dumb merely because he had an ever fading ability to speak. The muscles in his neck severed, he was lucky to be alive, he could live with the loss of speech, but sometimes it still drove him mad, even with the three or four words spoken his throat burned greatly, the damaged muscles from years ago unable to work they where ment to. If they started a conversation his pad would have to be involved.

[Styx]

"It's not bugging," the MP replied, adjusting the monocle over her left eye. Both the of the platinum blonde's eyes were a pale silver color, making her look completely washed out. Korsakov looked over at McGriff and shrugged her shoulders, still keeping the starched-shirt professional airs. After all, she was still in uniform. "It's a festival; you should talk to whoever you want to talk to." She then bent down and told Acheron that since streamers were inanimate, it neither liked nor disliked her.

~~~

"I don't even want to think where that little pervert's scampered off to," Morty grumbled as he and Sam continued looking around. Soon, he found himself beside the auctioning plot. They had some pretty nifty stuff in there...maybe he could find something to spice up his East City house.

[Kitanna]

Acheron just listened to what Korsakov told her, then just looked at the streamer; feeling somewhat relieved that the streamer couldn't dislike her.. yet sad that the streamer couldn't like her either.

" So it's just a dead kind of thing?" she asked, her violet coloured eyes looking up into the grown woman's grey eyes.

-------

" Awww c'mon Morty.. you know the boy is a lot like you were at that age, I can see it with my own eyes" Samuel said with a laugh; it really did seem like going to places like these brought back some of his youth that had been lost in the sands of time.. or so he'd always thought.

Letting loose with a whistle he pointed out at a few items of various things on the auctioning plot that had caught his attention.

[Styx]

Morty got a good look at the auctioning table and gazed at some of the items. There was a set of bronze candlesticks at the far edge that looked somewhat familiar (oh, yeah; Aunt Moira used to own a pair like that!), several porcelain animal figurines, and even some fancy handmade jewelry. A silver dining set caught his attention for quite some time, until he realized something else among all the kipple...the Luchesi boy was standing there, a rather perverted grin on his young and zitless face as he held up a sign that read My Virginity. "Jules, you idiot!" Morty snapped, slapping the gangly kid on the back of the head. "Do you know how many ways your half-assed idea can backfire?"

Julian Luchesi shook his mahogany-haired head and looked at his mentor with his moss-colored eyes. "I'm just hoping one of the cuties in the halter-tops wants to give me a try." He winked and waved at some college girls in skimpy clothing; they only laughed and pointed at his sign before going over to buy popcorn at a nearby stall.

"What if one of those beefcakes from the military comes over here, wanting himself a little manhandling?" Morty retorted, raising his raven eyebrows. When he saw the look of horror on the thirteen-year-old's face, he started to chuckle. "Yup; that's what I thought. You really need to plan ahead."

~~~

((OOC: I'll be waiting for McGriff before posting Vashti Korsakov; this'll make sure nobody gets left out))

[Kitanna]

(( :: is still laughing at the scene with Jules and Mortimer:: That was excellent Skye XD and okies

- Edit - :: is laughing even more now:: Maww poor Jules XD ))

Samuel just looked over with an amused grin on his face as he watched Mortimer go and smack Jules around the back of the head.
" Ahh kiddo, I'll admit though.. that was a good one" he said, laughter evident in his voice.

He then chuckled even more at what Morty said to Jules and Jules's expression.
" A word of advice Jules, offering yourself up for 'purchase' isn't a wise decision; Morty's pretty much said the reason why"

[HeavyMetal]

McGriff shrugged a bit, before jerking as if he thought he heard someone, for an instant he felt that he was being watched by someone near by. His hand shot into his pocket and felt the red stone to still be there, but none the less he pulled out a shell from his pocket and held it in his fist. He looked at the woman then down to the little girl and he smiled faintly, huffing a bit as the words slowly came out “Thaanks…” he said saluting her in a bit of an awkward way.

He then turned off waving a good bye, he then turned into an alley way and waited, sure that someone had been following him, after him for one reason or another, he was getting tired, and was far to old to keep running and hiding.