Young Writers Society

"I see... and... he wants you to get him one?" Jerica glanced over at Ky, who blushed and glanced away.

"...Hopefully." Ky's voice was barely audible.

"...Ah." She glanced back at Bay, trying to put the pieces together. "... it's... a good idea?" She was sure to heavily inflect a question in her tone, trying to determine what he thought of it.

Bay's mustache twitched minimally. "I'm not qualified to answer such a question." He appeared to be making an effort not to look directly at either of them, though he was doing well at passing it off as professionalism rather than discomfort. It helped that there was no change in his expression at any given time.

(nice new avvie! Same character yeah?)

Jerica glanced at him for a long moment, trying to read whatever it was that he wasn't saying. But she couldn't. He was a goddamn brick wall. All the time. At least that's the foot he'd put forward in the admittedly little time they'd spent together so far -- Derik had been doing a more or less good job of keeping them apart or at least well-buffered so far. Jerica was not good at hiding her expressions. And by now she was fairly certain they all knew it. "...So it's not?"

Ky grimaced and ducked her head.

"... I mean, it might be," Jerica offered lamely, feeling like a jerk. "I... I'm just..." She huffed a sigh. "It feels like there's a hell of a lot of stuff going on up here that no one talks about."

"Ain't that the truth," Ky muttered under her breath, not looking up.

"It's annoying," Jerica announced.

Ky couldn't argue with that one.

(Thank you!! And yes, this is Too-ticky from the Moomins show. It's a really sweet little series based on comics by Tove Jansson. She's one of my favorite characters, plus she's based on the author's romantic partner. They were as married as one can be without being married)

"Northerners tend to bottle up what isn't a desirable conversation topic," Bay observed, then flicked his horse's reins and moved to the front of the group. Sera watched from behind them, raising an eyebrow.

(Aww that's so cute :') )

"Like that?" Jerica observed dryly, not missing him all but running from the conversation.

(She's one of the characters who turns up every now and then but whenever she does she has some really prudent wisdom to share with everyone. And she's just infinitely pleasant)

"Like that," Sera said, riding forward a bit with Rickard in tow. "Very much like that."

(Nice. Gotta love that ^^ )

Jerica glanced over at her, deciding it wasn't worth it to push her luck with ol' Stoneface up ahead anymore. "Why? Not talking about something doesn't make it go away."

"It certainly does, at least in the long-term. That's how you erase something from history, isn't it?" She watched the back of Bay's head. "...I agree that it's not the healthiest practice, but it stems from a long history of oral tradition being our society's form of records."

"Mm." Jerica furrowed her brow, considering this for a long moment. She supposed Sera wasn't entirely wrong... and yet her words still sat wrong on Jerica's gut. She didn't like that opinion. She didn't like it at all. "Seems like a miserable way to live, having to pretend like you don't have things to say when you clearly do. Makes people all prickly and depressed."

"Believe me, I know. You've met Ky's uncle, haven't you?"

Jerica felt a prick of indignation at that question. Ky's uncles were her uncles and she was getting tired of people referring to Zander as Ky's uncle when he was clearly Jerica's uncle... too... but then it occurred to her that they were talking about Northerners, so maybe she meant Ash. Or her mother's brother. "Which one?"

"Lord Ash."

"Oh. Yeah. He's who I meant," Jerica said.

"Jerica," Rek said sharply, giving her a disapproving look as he rode closer.

"I... did not? ... mean that?" Jerica backtracked, glancing over at Sera sheepishly.

Rek sighed, frustrated that she was incapable of keeping her mouth shut. They hadn't even made it all the way to the village yet and she was already insulting their host. And by now they all knew damn well anything said to Sera or Bay was just as good as said to Ash himself.

"I... meant... people like him? But not him?"

Rek sighed again.

"Definitely not him."

"We're not particularly opposed to criticism of nobles in this region," Sera assured them both. "Gaius has thick skin and I'm not him, anyway. Say what you please."

"It's not 'cause he's noble," Jerica said, more than happy to speak her mind. She'd be a hypocrite if she didn't at this point, no? "It's 'cause he's grouchy and pretends like he's cooler than he is."

"Jerica," Rek chided, still distraught that Jerica was running her mouth like this. He nearly threatened to tell Derik, then decided that risked making this worse, actually, with how annoyed she still was with him these days. "Please stop."

"I'm not doing anything wrong," Jerica insisted. "And I'm not wrong, either. Most nobles are terrible by that virtue alone. Ash isn't. He's just... just... a little boy who needs a hug and is pretending like he doesn't need one. But if he actually communicated and got a hug every once in a while then he wouldn't be so... emotionally constipated all the time and stiff and crotched-y-old-man-y."