concoursec | So hot they make steam look cool

Entry tags:

So hot they make steam look cool

Characters: Thatch and Selphie
Location: Balamb Town
Rating: Pg-13, just in case
Open/Closed/Finished: Open
Summary: Because every party needs a shopping trip to come first.

Thatch leaned against the car. His own that he'd spent a great deal of gil to build custom to his (and Namur's) larger frames, and almost about as expensive to ship from Trabia to Balamb. Still, it was worth it... Especially when they didn't want to get permanent cricks in their necks and knees from Garden transport. Since it was a relatively nice day, he'd reinforced his hair and decided to drive with the top down.

Now just to wait for the girl, though while he waited, he went through his mental shopping list, ticking off items they would need and balancing it against what he wanted to get but wasn't essential-- and wondering if he would have time to look for cigars. Though he wasn't sure if Selphie liked that kind of thing. Well he could get them later, probably.

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Selphie didn't feel like wearing her customary yellow jumper on that day as she emerged at the gate in a pair denim shorts and yellow tank top. A breeze blew her hair into face, making her wish she owned a decent hat or like Thatch, had pulled her hair back. Her eyes however landed on the car and figured that worrying about her hair wouldn't be a problem.

She'd probably need a booster seat in order to buckle up her seat belt properly. Was it even possible for a car to make someone feel short? Marco was probably on the right track at calling her the cutie shrimp cocktail. Feelings of shortness aside, Selphie would follow Thatch anywhere he wanted to go.

Just as long as he slowed down his pace so she could keep up.

"Thatch!" she called with a wave.

The joy of adjustable seatbelts meant never having to say 'I don't fit'. Though she might feel a little dwarfed. He smiles as he spots her and returns the wave with a lazy gesture.

"Good morning, Miss Selphie! You are a spot of sunshine on a winter's day." He opens the passenger side door for her and bows elegantly. "After you, madame."

The adjustable seatbelts are a godsend as Selphie makes her way over to the oversized car. She might just feel a little bit dwarfed sitting in their car but she'll get over it with an excited look as she runs over to the car. She giggles at Thatch's comment before she climbs into the car and seats herself comfortably.

"Why thank you good sir! You're looking awfully sunny yourself." She says cheerfully despite feeling like a little kid sitting in the car for the first time without a car seat. "So! What's on the menu?"

"I am but the moon, reflecting your charm." Thatch got in on the driver's side, pulling his keys with the fluffy white kitten charm out of the glove box and slipping on a pair of sunglasses. He turned the engine before answering, taking a moment to feel his baby purr to life. Ah, sweet bliss.

"Fireworks first, since if you wait til nightfall to get them, vendors think you're desperate and prices go up. Then gifts, favors and food." He starts out of the garage, rolling down the window to lean one hand on the door and let the breeze play with his hair.

"Anything else you have in mind, sweet Selphie?"

She laughs at his comment, recognizing a shameless flirt when she hears one and hopes that her laughter is masked by the car rumbling to life.

"Well," Selphie begins without a hitch. "If we're having a birthday party, then we need a cake but if everybody from Garden comes we're gonna need a lot of cake so cupcakes might be better for that. Food though, we gotta have hot dogs obviously and hamburgers too. But, I know there's a lot of vegetarians at Garden too so we need to cater to them as well. As for the fireworks, I betcha if we get there early enough, we can haggle 'em down quite a bit."

She pauses to peer up over the edge of the window and stares at the scenery passing them by. Everything is a big blur of colour and that's okay with Selphie. She's walked to Balamb Town enough for a lifetime so to watch everything go by at the rate they are going is amazing to her. Sure, she might be a teenager and all but that doesn't mean that she can't act like a kid.

"Gifts? Well, I don't really know Namur that well but I think I can leave that in your capable hands. Party favours though, I did have an idea. What if we gave everybody a small bottle that they could fill up with whatever they wanted as a memento of the fun they have at the party?

"Also," she continues, "I want ice cream."

"I think sub-commander Pink has a cupcake cannon. I wonder if she actually uses ones that are edible." Since he's already going to blow a fair amount of gil on this already.

"But cake is a definite must. I shall leave the firework haggling to you." Of course there were vegetarians. He hadn't thought of that. Then again, shipboard, there wasn't always fresh vegetables to be had. Just a lot of fish sometimes. "Fish, too. Fresh ones. I don't think we can get seal this far south."

He watches her looking out the window. She's so tiny, damnit. And so young. Freshed face. It makes him feel one step closer to a-- well nevermind. He likes it, too, in a way. But is she the future? Or is she the past? With this time compression bullshit, it's hard to tell.

"I suppose you do a lot of party planning between this and the GFC. How did you get into it?"

"Oh yeah! I'll ask Pinkie if she can bring it along." Selphie says cheerfully.

When the questions turn over to her beloved festival committee, Selphie's more than happy to chat about it. It's one of her favourite memories of Trabia and helped her to meet a lot of people. Personal traumas aside, it really helped Selphie become the person she is today.

"The GFC? Well, they were looking for new members and at the time, only cadets could join. I dunno if they still do this at Trabia but I had an older cadet who was my buddy when I was younger. They encouraged to come to a meeting with them because they were involved with the GFC. After that we rose through the ranks and co-ran the GFC until I transferred out of Trabia."

This older friend was one of the ones who had been killed during the Galbadian missile attacks but Selphie's not about to mention that. It's nice to be able to remember her friends for what they did and not for how they ended up getting buried. There's more layers to Selphie than a lot of people might realize but given that she's herself from what is technically the past of her world, she's doing a pretty good job of rolling with the punches.

"Sounds like a good time. We had something a little like the GFC in a way. Or maybe it was the same bunch of clowns always looking to start a party." Oh there was usually a party going on somewhere on any given night, true. You can't really have 1600 guys without festivities breaking out at one point or another. But the bigger ones had to be planned. Money had to be saved. Marco had to be convinced that massive fireworks were the best idea, because half the time--Thatch sure Marco just liked to be convinced.

"What made you choose Balamb over Galbadia? Or do you just have a thing for outworlders." And he wiggled his eyebrows, though didn't put too much into it. After all, she couldn't even be twenty yet and even he wasn't quite that bad.

"Sounds pretty lively if you ask me! I think I would've liked it." She liked a good party and with that many people around, something was bound to happen. Usually though, when it came time to planning events with the GFC, she was usually coming up with one scheme or another to get the SeeD and cadets to part with their hard earned Gil to fund events and what not. Her current train of thought is derailed when the question of why she chose Balamb over Galbadia.

"Huh? Oh, you're thinking that I came here from Trabia recently. Nope, this was way before offworlders started appearing. Balamb was the only Garden where you could take the field exam to become a SeeD back then. I was lost in Time Compression for 22 years so all the offworlders are as new to me as they are to the rest of the world. Unlike the rest of the world though, I believe in giving people a chance.

"Besides," she continued before sticking her tongue out and turning her hand into a thumbs down position. "Galbadia can kiss my ass."

"I have no doubt you would have," he said with a laugh. "Though it was a pretty dangerous life aside from all that."

He listened to her story. Just another dandelion seed caught in the flow of time... on her own world even. How strange must that be to see how everything turned out ahead of you? He swallowed and tried not to think about it, instead latching onto the other topic and admiring her spunk.

"They can kiss mine, too." Same goes for half this world, really, but he wouldn't say as much. "Giving people a chance is important. That's what my Pops did, you know. Welcomed any scallywag in the four Blues-- Seas" he corrected himself. "So long as they really wanted to be his son. We're a heady mix of people, but we're also some of the strongest in the sea." Locked arm in arm with Red-hair, and even a nudge stronger, no matter what anyone said.

"Balamb is a little like that, I suppose." Though more community than family.

"And being a SeeD isn't?" Selphie shot back with a playful punch to his arm.

She turns his little story back on him, genuinely interested in learning about the other worlds that others have come from. She knows a little bit about Digimon so why not learn a thing or two about the world of pirates?

"So would your Pops take on a daughter or two then? Honestly though, that's what's really awesome about Balamb. Everybody keeps an open mind here and we can generally go with the flow. So it doesn't snow all that often. I can live with that as long as everybody here keeps that open mind. Between you and me though, before we went to Esthar, I thought that they were aliens from outer space. Really just goes to show that appearances can be deceiving."

Then she looks over at Thatch with a cheeky grin on her face. "Kinda like these gigantic pirate guys I'm becoming friends with."

"SeeDs don't generally have wanted posters, miss," he said with a grin. Being a pirate was a might more dangerous in his opinion. But also a hell of a lot more fun. They were closing in on the town now and he sighed inwardly, shoring himself up for the inevitable hunt for parking space. It was a wonderful car to drive but parking was a considerable pain.

"Pops calls everyone his sons regardless of gender. Though there aren't very many women to be sure. But women pirates aren't all that common. Granted, I've yet to see a crew that doesn't have one or two on board-- Whitey Bay has several I think, but being a woman herself that stands to reason."

Her cheeky grin is completely adorable and he can't help but grin back. She's going to be a heartbreaker if she isn't already.

"I can see why you would think offworlders were aliens, aye. It seems like there aren't many--" he tries to think of a word... "Types here. No Fishmen or Longarms or the like. Or giants either. Back at home I'm about an average tall. Pops is easily twice my size. Not to mention Oars Jr who is about fifty feet if he's an inch. He does border on the entirely too massive size, though."

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So hot they make steam look cool

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