DAB does something crazy (and no one is surprised) Redwall log from 6-2-2016
Redwall Abbey's Great Hall.
Badgers: Oz, male.
Mice: LilyMoore, female.
Squirrels: Magramba, male. Aden, female.
Rats: Thorn, female.
Otters: Chud, male.
Random spoofed Dibbuns.
The sun is starting to give way to a sunny afternoon shower; fat, lazy rain drops splatter intermittently at the great windows, and wash the warm smell of rain into the Great Hall as Aden pushes through the door to step inside. She's smacking her paws against her pants, beating the dirt from her paws and blinking the rain from her eyelashes.
Oz has just finished a class on some history of Redwall and the woods with a group of dibbuns "Ok...we can---" And he frowns at the sound of rain, "Well do something inside then" The group of about 10 dibbuns all "ahhhhhhhh..." "No funs..." "Wanna find puddles!" The badger shakes his head, "Not right now, maybe after it stops" This gets some horrays from the young ones.
Right behind Aden is Magramba, with his cane and dance routine. Or, just the cane. Strong fingers ruffle gently through his headfur, dispelling the drops of rain which cling to their tips, and turns abruptly to wipe the moisture across the other squirrel's face. "Got you a present," he teases, already bracing for the slap.
LilyMoore follows closely behind them! Except she's, like, 20 times wetter than the squirrels. Been dancin' in the rain again. She steps just inside the doorway and starts wringing our her tunic, bits of grass sticking to her shoe-less feet and the bottoms of her leggings. When she hears what the Champion says, she looks up (she enjoys celebrating presents with people), then bites her lip to keep from laughing when she sees that he's just teasing. Spotting the badger, she waves a paw at him in her typical friendly way and calls, "Hi, Papa Oz! It's wet out there!" Like he needed to be told. The gosling Dibbun, Grace, is here, clutching her blue blankie, and when she spots the mousemaid, she whines, "Wiwy went outsssside!! I wanna go outsssside, /too/! HONK!"
"It's still too light a drizzle for there to be any /good/ puddles." Aden advises, smirking, as she passes Oz and the dibbuns. "Afternoon, Oz-- SMFFT!" WET. The acrobat turns, batting her paws back at Magramba's show of maturity, and one paw balls up to punch at his shoulder, deviating from the slap he so expected. "You /arse/!" She spits out without thinking, and then her gaze turns, guiltily, to Oz and the troop of dibbuns she just swore in front of. "-Aaaaaaah rooni-dooni!" She ret-cons. Adult role models, kids. Do as they say and not as they do. Thankfully LilyMoore seems to be a good distraction, sewing the seeds of riot within the little ones.
Oz frowns, the dibbuns surely don't need encouragement to go racing out. A dibbun of about a couple seasons all full of innocent looks at Aden and blinks, he then repeats what was said and giggles. Oz clears his voice "That word is not funny..." He sighs "Aden...please do be careful what is said around dibbuns." A mouse smiles "She need time out" The badger chuckles "Prehaps she does, but she is not a dibbun so someone else will have to make her have one"
Someone like... Magramba? No, he's not that brave. The punch hits him square in his bad arm, which his own wife has repeatedly forgotten about when she's committing her daily acts of domestic "affection", and he winces, stumbling just a bit to the right on his gimpy ankle. "Aden, the /shoulder,/ how many times..." Knowing it's a lost cause, he trails off into silence, rubbing ruefully at his arm. "...Anyway. The rain is good for our crops but it's basically canceled outdoor work for the time being, so.... I guess we're stuck inside." Alternatives for constructive indoor occupation are not suggested.
"Ah!" Lily tries to keep the Dibbuns inside, she really does, but the only one she manages to catch is Gracie, who starts wailing as the mousemaid picks her up. Crestfallen, she pads over to where the grown-ups are and looks sorrowfully at the badger. "I'm sorry; I didn't realize they would escape so easily. I tried to stop 'em, but I couldn't." The gosling is trying to whack the mouse in the head with her blankie, but that's not really working. Turning a wide-eyed gaze towards the acrobat, LilyMoore adds, "I could maybe get my Nana, Angela to put her time-pout, if that'd help. She's probably physic 'er, too."
Thorn walks down the stairs slowly. She is limping some and sits at the last step just watching everyone for now. She has been fairly quiet the past couple days.
Aden's expression wrinkles into a guilty wince, first, when the dibbun repeats her, second, when she is scolded, and third, when she further injures her broken husband. "Ack - sorry. Er, yeah don't, uh, don't say that." Turning wide, guilt-ridden eyes on Mag she reaches out, insistently, towards the shoulder she just pummeled, because patting it apologetically always makes him feel better, in her personal experience. "Sorrysorrysorrydon'tleaveme." She placates. "Or put me in time-out, I've lived this much of my life without discipline, young lady -" EW when did she get so /old/?! " - I don't intend on starting now. You keep that devil woman away from me, you hear?" A finger is leveled, threateningly, at Lily.
Oz folds his arms over his chest, luckily some other dibbuns are stopped by Sister Ginny, one does escape but a thunder clap makes them rush back inside and cling to the badger's leg, as the rain gets a little harder now.
"It's alright, just- leave it be," Magramba replies, poking at the splint on his ankle with his cane. He's sick of the whole situation, being unable to walk and move properly; you can tell by the look of distaste and frustration that wrinkles up his face as he stares downward. He pushes it back, though, forcing a smile as the dibbuns do their dibbun-thing of swarming about like a herd of tiny wildebeasts. "So, who wants to, uh, mend the cross-bars on the chairlegs? We've got a few that've come loose."
Gracie gives the Champion a LOOK. He thinks he can do distaste? He's got NOTHIN' on the look she's giving him right now. "I no /care/ 'bout shtupid chairsies--PAPA OZZIE!!" The thunderclap scares her so badly that she drops her blanket on the floor, and suddenly the mousemaid is holding a wailing, sobbing bundle of feathers that is desperately reaching for the badger. Lily 'eeps' and holds the gosling out to the Badger Father. Craning her head around to her neck's limit, she says, ".....help?" She's not an expert at holding wriggling children, obviously.
Thorn frowns, she listens to the rain falling "Least storms don't last too long" She mutters, she would go out but the rain stops those plans.
Aden doesn't just leave it be. Aden can never just leave it be. "You want me to get you some herbs or something? Whiskey? Or... Broken chairs, sure. That could work too. Get this beast some broken chairs!" Keep busy through the pain, Mag! The squirrel shifts from side to side as dibbuns stream past her, not seeming eager to fix any chairs - and /this/ squirrelmaid is not eager to help Lily out with any screaming goslings, either. She steps away, holding her paws up - because she wants /none/ of that. Babysitting Flicktail and Rayen's tiny terror is enough for her. A voice behind her gives her a small start, and she looks over her shoulder to see Thorn. "Didn't see you slip in, hey there!" She takes another step back away from Lily, Oz, and the horde of dibbuns - especially that one wriggly, screechy one. Nope.
Oz reaches out to hold onto the goose dibbun, and he has one on his leg now too. The others stand around and a couple sit down looking bored, not always good with dibbuns.
"What's wrong with fixing chairs?" Magramba's voice is slightly confused, as though he can't understand why anyone wouldn't see that as a scintillating activity. "You've got to carve a new piece, or make a wedge to hold the old one in, and when you're done it's fixed and folks can use it again." That is how fixing things generally works, good job Mag. Have a cookie. "I know we have some that need it, and then we won't have to make whole new chairs. Gives them character."
Thorn shrugs "I...just been quiet, sorry its been a bad week"
As the badger takes the gosling, Lily bends down and retrieves the blanket. Standing back up, she gives the Champion a LOOK. "Are you seriously crazy enough to give the DAB a sharp object?" Some of the Dibbuns, upon hearing this, perk up and say, "We wanna swowdsies!" LilyMoore gestures at them as she hands the blankie back to its owner. "See what I mean? They think that fixing things is boring on top of that; they're kind of....self-centered." Gracie snuggles her blankie close and blinks at the squirrels. "Why squiggles hit 'chother???"
Still staring, shell-shocked, at the chaos of the young ones Aden is, once again, back on the subject of /chairs/. "Everything is wrong with fixing chairs, grandpa." She teases, winking cheekily as she moves to plop into one, herself. "So what's wrong with giving them sharp objects? How else will they learn valuable life lessons?" Like not stabbing yourself. That's a lesson she still has to work on, sometimes. "S'one way to learn." She shrugs, and it isn't clear if she's kidding or not. Kids /are/ self-centered, loud, and demanding... Basically, children are just awful. There's a meaningful look towards Mag as she nods towards the squirming mass of them at the badger's feet. "I think I'm back to 'panicking', again." She mutters to him, quietly, casting a look back towards Thorn. "Well, then have a seat. Company is good for bad weeks."
"Well, I'm gonna go... do that," Magramba answers, with a whispered 'relax' as he goes. "You all behave and don't... stab each other and whatnot." The champion canes his way towards the breezeway to do his work under cover but without spreading sawdust everywhere inside.
Thorn shrugs "Maybe...won't make this week better..."
Chud walks jauntily into Great Hall, looking around and heading for an unoccupied corner for relative quiet. Maybe he shouldn't have come in here if that was what he was looking for...
Oz frowns "No weapons in the abbey and besides there is so many other things to learn. One could make things, work in gardens, help the sick and injured maybe even"
"Not with that attitude it won't." Aden replies to Thorn with a reassuring smile, and a paw swipes out, and fails, to grab at Magramba as he exits. Don't leave me! Aaaaand he's gone. IT'S LIKE THEIR VOWS MEANT NOTHING. The acrobat grumbles as he gimps away, arms folding across her chest, a move which unwittingly saves her from having her paw held. "At least he's not making /us/ fix chairs." She commiserates with the other three, once he's out of sight. Chud's quiet entrance goes unnoticed as she looks, again, to the crowd of young beasts all lumped around knee-height for her. While she may not have the same idea of good life lessons as Oz, she may yet agree that the dibbuns are kind of cute. Maybe. She reaches a paw down, one finger stretched out, and pokes a small mouse in the back of the head. "Ow! Geroff!" He glares at her, spinning about and rubbing the spot. "Hush, I'm bigger than you." She retorts. He sticks his tongue out at her. She sticks hers out right back. He makes a face. She makes a more grotesque one. It takes a moment for her to remember the room full of /other adults/ and she straightens, awkwardly, clearing her throat and trying to look dignified.
"Name's Chud, lass," the otter says, charmed immediately. "Wotcha need, mate?"
Squirrelbabe points to a pillow that's in a chair. "Dat, /pwease/." She gives him her best Bambi eyes, looking all innocent and sweet and adorable and loveable, expertly hiding her devious intentions. Gracie is now wiggling to get down. An infant mole appears on the back of the chair behind the acrobat, giggling as a few more swarm over to where their friend Lily is. LilyMoore sighs, then turns to the adult squirrel, not seeming to mind the baby mouse that just crawled into her lap. "...your name's Aden, right?"
The Squirrelbabe is looking adoringly at the otter.
Chud stands up slowly, sighing. "Awright, then." He heads over to the indicated pillow and picks it up for the cute little squirrel. "'ere y'go," he says, passing it to her carefully.
Oz starts to speak when a Brother of the order comes up to him and speaks to him quietly, he stands and excuses himself leaving Sister Ginny in charge of some of the dibbuns, least the ones not following him.
"What - ? Oh, yeah. Aden, yeah. Lily?" She casts an anxious look towards the mole behind her, and the crowd of dibbuns as they start spreading and mobilizing. Seriously, where do they all come from?! So needy and fragile and easy to break. Seriously. Looking from one small, snotty face to the next, the squirrel stands, abruptly. "I have to go. Uh, gardening. Garden work. Chores. You know." /I can't do this/. The raging storm discredits her with a sudden flash of lightning, but she is already walking back towards the entrance at a fast clip. A little rain never hurt anybeast, right?
Squirrelbabe smiles prettily. "/T'ank/ you!" She then whirls around and runs toward the other Dibbuns, screeching, "PIWOW FIGHT!!!!!!" The Great Hall erupts in a mess of flying feathers as pillows are grabbed and the hitting starts. LilyMoore 'eeps' and scrambles over to the otter, leaving poor Sister Ginny in the middle of the chaos. Gracie left with Oz.
Chud facepaws. "Shoulda seen that comin'. Oh. Hey Lily," he says, giving the mousemaid a tired smile. "How're things?"
A stale oatcake comes flying towards the otter's face! LilyMoore hides behind a chair she overturns. "Crazy?" The Dibbuns are screeching their midget warcries, and poor Sister Genny is failing to calm them down. Squirrelbabe, the DAB ringleader, is in the thick of it all, hitting all the nearby Dibbuns without much care as to who she's whacking and where. A couple of the less-violent Dibbuns sit down on the floor and crying.
Chud snorts, ducking the oatcake deftly. "Yeah...it's been rough lately," he sighs. "Big fight at Camp Willow--'m sure you heard 'bout it..."
LilyMoore nods. "Momma fought in it, and so did my Uncle. I wish I could've helped, somehow.....but I'm not skilled enough....." The DABers run up the stairs, Sister Jenny hot on their heels. The few crying Dibbuns are soon being comforted by some Novices. Lily peeks out from behind the chair. "....that was....exciting...."
"And nerve-wracking...Oh, DoraRose was there? Cool. I must've been in another section of camp. It was crazy," Chud says, not wanting dwell on it too much. "Some storm outside, eh?"
As if on cue, a huge chain of lightning webs the sky outside, and the thunder booms loudly enough to shake the windows. After the storm quiets down, Lily nods and sets the chair back up. "Yeah. She took her axe and her sword. One of the other Redwall Warriors who was there said that she was taunting a vermin who was mauling Lee with his paws." She looks at him curiously, but gets interrupted by another crackling boom of thunder.
"Dunno, heard something like that third-paw by the pond though." Chud remains calm despite the fury of the storm. "Sometimes a storm is nice. Washes out the skies, the ground, everything."
LilyMoore nods. "Storms and rain make me happy. I like to be outside playing in the rain...unless it's too cold. Or if there's hail. Those are no fun."
"Snow is neat, too, but it's dangerous...in fact, 'twas a snowstorm that brought me into this region in th' first place," Chud says softly, remembering his days as a near-Dibbun.
LilyMoore was born, bred, and raised here [at the Abbey], so she's got nothin' to compete with that. Instead she asks, "Wanna talk about it? It sounds scary."
"Sure," Chud says, contently sighing. "Well, me and m'sister, Miremel, don't think you've met her, she's about your age...anyhow, we were travellin' at the spry young age of 6 seasons, as our family's tradition goes...anyhow, we were headed southwest, towards Mossflower an' a blizzard came outta bloody /nowhere/. If we'd been more experienced, we woulda seen the signs, but as it was, we thought we could push through to find civilization. We were wrong," he says, shaking his head. "Got snowed in, at some old shack in the woods, nobody'd been there for quite awhile...Freezing cold, even for us with all our cold-weather gear...Anyhow, I was just about to set out and try to gather wood to make a fire--probably would've been the death of me an' my sister, but we would've starved at any rate if we'd stayed put..."
"...at any rate, just when I was gonna go, a scout from Camp Willow showed up...turned out he used to live in the shack 'till he joined the camp and was goin' back to fetch somethin' or other, a fishing rod I think it'were. He wanted to ice fish in the river, y'see. Anyhow, he shows up, an' we nearly give him a heart attack because he sees us, sprawled out on the floor, huddled together for warmth, and shivering like ghosts. He had firewood on him, clever fella, an' he starts warming things up, gives us some cloaks for blankets, gives us some food an' whatnot..."
"...Anyhow, when we were fit t'travel again--an' the storm had passed--we headed t'Camp Willow, an' ended up joinin' up there. I did it 'cos I wanted to repay the life debt I owed him one way or another, an' Miremel 'cos she goes where I go. I ended up becoming a scout like him...actually, this thing 'ere," he says, pawing at his Camp Willow medallion, "used to be 'is. An' that's how I came to Mossflower," he finishes.
LilyMoore has been listening intently and politely, and when he shows off his medallion, she leans forward to look at it. "That's fascinating," she says honestly. "Your sister sounds nice. Have you ever met my twin, Caleb? He's pretty cool, but not a fighter. He's a Novice here at Redwall."
"Sounds familiar t'me, can't recall his face though," Chud says with equal honesty. "Yeah, my sister was on a trip back Northeast when the invasion happened, so hopefully she's safe." The medallion has the letters C and W etched into it, flanking an inlaid, stylized willow tree. "'d love to meet him, if I haven't already," he says politely.
LilyMoore smiles. "I'm not sure where he is, but maybe you'll be able to meet him soon." She goes to rest a reassuring paw on his arm. "I'm sure your sister is okay. You'll see her again really soon, I'll bet." She smiles.
Chud nods, smiling uncertainly and slowly. "Thankee," he says quietly. "She's got a good 'ead on her shoulders, should be fine. Anyhow...I think the storm's clearin' up, y'wanna go outside?"
LilyMoore bounces up in a flash. "Sure! I love being out in the rain! C'mon!" She goes to grab his paw and lead him outside; her clothes are still a little damp, but, meh. She'll be fine.
Chud heads out with Lily after springing to his footpaws sleekly, a big smile on his face. Whoops, he doesn't have his hat with him...Ah well. The pair go outside and frolick in the rain for hours.
Thanks for reading!
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