04. Rain, rain, go away

[chirrutsluck]

WHO: Baze Malbus and OTA
WHERE: Outside the inn and around the village, 6I side
WHEN: October 3
OPEN TO: Any and all
WARNINGS: Miniature thunderstorms

At first, Baze is relieved that no one saw him stop in his rounds of the snares that morning to try and pick the round and ripe-looking melon, only to have it disappear as soon as he straightened up again. He's still not sure what exactly happened, but if no one saw it, then he doesn't have to explain it to anyone until he's worked that out.

It isn't until he walks out into the sunny morning, out of the dappled trees, and notices he's still standing in shadow that he realizes that something even stranger happened. He's standing on the edge of the village, underneath a tiny dark cloud, three feet in diameter at most, looking baffled and annoyed. The cloud rumbles with tiny crackles of lightning, and starts to drop a fine mist of rain on his head.

And it doesn't even go away as the day progresses, and he attempts to do normal things like making mud bricks for Clint's smokehouse or whittling some arrows down for drying out while underneath a cloudshadow or, worse, more rain. It isn't very conducive to getting things done, and it's doing a number on his mood-- which, with Chirrut in the village, has lately been better than usual. BUT NOT TODAY!

Comments

[clandestin]

At first Aurora had assumed, as any sane person might, that the cloud was a mere trick of the light. A smudge of shadow that happened to look like a tiny storm cloud hovering over the hulking figure ahead, and wasn't that a funny thought? But then the figure moved and the cloud moved with him, hovering in the cool sunshine.

Lightning crackled, illuminating the cloud from within, and Aurora blinked.

She approached cautiously and stopped a safe distance away, head tilted. "Is this a new development?"

[chirrutsluck]

"As of this morning," Baze answers grumpily, trying to hold the sticks he's setting out to dry away from the threatening shower of rain that's already made his hair frizzier than normal. At least the grump is not directed at Aurora, specifically, just at this whole... situation. "It even follows me inside." Which would, in fact, be why he is not inside right now helping with lunch.

[clandestin]

From the outside, the situation is more than a little amusing, but it's easy enough to see that it would be a lot less so if she couldn't even go into her house without the threat of flooding the place. Baze seems to be bearing up, but Aurora is careful not to laugh, not to show even the mildest amusement — It would just be salt in the wound.

"What were you doing when it started?" she asked instead, her brow creasing in sympathy. There was no shaking the thought that this was some sort of practical joke — As beyond belief as it was, so much else about this place was even less believable. Why wouldn't their captives be this cruel for the fun of it?

[chirrutsluck]

"Checking my snares." He shrugs helplessly. "Out in the woods. The only unusual thing was I found a melon on a vine next to one of them, but it disappeared when I tried to pick it up." Which sounds crazy even now, but probably on the same level of crazy as being rained on by your own pet cloud.

[71st_victor]

Johanna's been out trying to make sure that all the wood that she's previously chopped is secured away enough now that the weather is turning for the worst, trying to get the logs into a dry place in her house. She's in the middle of one of these trips when she sees a familiar face. Looks like he didn't die from that illness, so good for him, she supposes. Eyeing him warily, she sees that something's going on. Something is above his head and Johanna's squinting isn't really helping her, so she has to get closer.

Once she's close enough to see what's going on, the bark of laughter is cruel and definitely not hushed. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," she demands, eyes sparkling with the humor of someone else suffering, because that means it's not her. "Is this what happens when you get cranky?" she deadpans, mocking him with little sympathy in her words.

[chirrutsluck]

"I've been cranky a lot in my life, and this is the first time it rained because of it," Baze answers, giving her a scowl that isn't exactly as unfriendly as it could be. If he weren't the one getting drizzled on, he might find it funny, too. Except he is, and it's not very pleasant.

[71st_victor]

"You do seem like the type that's permanently sour," she says, but it's not in a critical way so much as faintly pleased, because she much prefers to be around realistic people who have a shade of cynicism to them. It's exhausting around the relentless pulse of positive people.

Glancing at the cloud, she keeps a step back because as much as she might like to prod and poke, she doesn't want to get rained on. "When did it start?" she asks.

[chirrutsluck]

"Not permanently," Baze protests, but without much strength to it. He is sour a lot, he'll admit. "It followed me out of the woods this morning. Has anything like this happened here before?" Since she's been here longer than he has, it's a vague hope that she might understand it. Even in the time and place of space ships and laser swords, he's never seen a tiny, personal raincloud before.

[71st_victor]

Her eyes are still drawn up to the raincloud with heavy amusement, seeing as there's definitely nothing like this that she's seen before, but she's really amused by it. It's like a personal show, honestly. "Nope," is what she replies with a wicked smirk. "This is unlike anything I have ever seen before," she says. "But I have a good use for you," she says, idea clicking in her mind.

"Come on," she encourages.

[chirrutsluck]

He might as well be useful while he's also being annoyed, since Clint chased him and his mud-melting water away from the smokehouse bricks. "What's the use?" he asks warily, but he does fall in behind her because he's curious, and he really has no reason not to. "Am I going to be watering a garden or rinsing off some clothes with this magic cloud thing?"

[71st_victor]

"Look at you, getting it on the first go," Johanna says, almost a little impressed even though she only lets it show in the brief flicker of her eye. "I have a poison garden," she says. "They've been getting less water than I like lately, so I could use a man of your bad luck to help out."

She eyes him speculatively, as if curious. "You think that it's fresh rainwater? I've got some half barrels you could fill, too."

[chirrutsluck]

He snorts at her comment, because it wasn't that hard to guess, after all. "It's fresh," Baze answers, because he'd tested that inadvertently when it fell on his face. "There isn't that much of it, though." It's a light rainfall, not a downpour. Watering the garden he can do, but filling her barrels would take days.

[71st_victor]

"Well, if you keep raining, there will be," she feels compelled to point out with a smirk in his direction, gesturing for him to follow her with a crook of her finger, heading in the direction of her house. She knows that she doesn't want to give up a location so easily, but it's a small town.

He could find out without her giving it away. "Just make sure you don't touch them," she advises. "They're healthy little poisonous things, but they're still plenty thirsty."

[templelessguardian]

It's a bright and sunny day, Chirrut's picked up on that much. A bit of a breeze, but there's plenty warmth for him to know it's good weather. So when he crosses paths with Baze again, after keeping himself busy while he was out tending to the snares, he can tell there's something off when the distance closes. It suddenly changes from clear and warm to cooler, and the sound of lightning, and a scattering of droplets, which causes him to frown, since weather doesn't typically change that quickly. A step back, just to see, and the warmth returns, a step closer and the rain resumes, and the amused chuckle is quick on its heels.

"Did something follow you home on your trip?"

[chirrutsluck]

"I have never seen anything like it," Baze admits grumpily, folding his arms over his chest and sounding sour but grudgingly curious. "It is raining... but only right over my head. A step in any other direction, and there is sun."

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi's preoccupied when he stumbles across Baze, accompanied by the dog and toting a pack full of some of the season's last wild greenery. He and Aurora are getting along better these days, and the sleek black dog sticks a bit closer to him than she used to, but the novelty of rain in just one spot gets her attention anyway. And Bodhi's is drawn in turn.

It's weird. Weird happens here--the extremely nonsensical nature of this weirdness doesn't even set it apart that much after stinging shiny bugs or specific amnesia or weird force-powers manifesting at random. He's entirely too used to weird.

He's not used to looking at Baze and laughing, but it happens before he can stop himself, gather up the intimidation and quiet shame that always dogs him when he's around the man who has every right to despise him. Before he can remember how rarely he laughs anymore. Quiet contentment with his friends is one thing, but laughing feels like it belongs to another life. Past fear and resignation and self-doubt and the chill of not trusting himself to enjoy things--

For once he just laughs.

[chirrutsluck]

Baze, standing just outside the woods still and trying to sort out how he wound up with a personal raincloud, looks over at the unfamiliar sound and manages not to roll his eyes at Bodhi. At least he doesn't scowl at him. "I suppose it is funny," he grumbles. "When you are not being rained on."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"I... I think it would still be funny then," Bodhi says, his voice a little uneven because he's trying to keep from giggling rather than the usual reason. It isn't just this sight. Things have started to feel better for him lately, like he's remembering how to really be a person again, and that makes laughter come much more easily. It's unfamiliar.

But the end result is he's entirely too amused.

[chirrutsluck]

Baze considers that, and allows, "Maybe if I were you, it would be funny to be rained on. Chirrut would laugh." And this time, it doesn't come with the melancholy, because Chirrut is here and not still dead like the rest of them-- and Chirrut probably will laugh. He doesn't mind a whole lot making Chirrut laugh or, at least right now, making Bodhi laugh. He's never heard it before.

[onlyeverdoubted]

Not many people here have, but this is definitely working. He snorts inelegantly and stops trying to hide his smile. "I don't know about you, but... but no matter how long I'm here, I'm still not used to the weather. This is just, um, a little more so?" No, will not stop being entertained, thanks.

[chirrutsluck]

"I think this may be unusual even for here," Baze comments dryly. "I have never seen anyone get rained on this personally before." And while he hasn't spoken to everyone around, he does still have eyes, and this would definitely stand out.

[onlyeverdoubted]

"True, it's usually... pretty impersonal." That's part of why it's funny. There's so much awful, horrible shit, and it all just feels like it might as well be a force of nature. Such an absurd inconvenience... Well, maybe he's too cooperative a prisoner, but he can't help thinking it's a nice change of pace by whoever's in charge.

[chirrutsluck]

"I only hope it goes away soon," Baze sighs. "I can't go inside." Well, he can, but he'll get the floors and furniture all wet, and nobody wants that. So if it doesn't go away, he'll have to spend the night outside, and that's just unpleasant. Even he prefers a real bed, or even a floor, over sleeping on the ground.

[pretendtoneedme]

After his usual hour of gathering sticks for arrows - they're going to have enough to equip the Mongol empire if he has anything to say about it - Clint's heading out to work on the smokehouse, dogless now that he's going to be doing heavy repetitive work instead of ranging and hunting or foraging. Having him take Arado while he's out on whatever rounds he's doing that day and Wanda take him while he's being a semi-common laborer seems to be working out well, and it's just not fair to make an active dog like Arado stand or lie around while his master is pounding things with a rock.

But when he reaches the spot where the smokehouse is being assembled, all he can do is stop and stare. What is going on here...

"You know, if you wanted to be Eeyore for Halloween, that's probably taking things a little too far."

[chirrutsluck]

Baze is frustrated. He keeps trying to add bricks to the smokehouse, but the rain dripping down on him is making them too soft, and holding them at arms' length means he doesn't have the leverage to wedge them in properly. He shoots Clint a glower for his comment, stepping back from the mud structure now that he has company, not wanting to make things worse. "Clint, I don't know what either of those things are."