Woods Surrounding Camelot, Wednesday Morning

[bitchprince]

After the feasts of a few weeks back, Arthur had fallen into the routine he preferred above all. Training, training, and more training, interspersed with some talks about minor adjustments in grain dispersion and the occasional audience for the public, as well as the odd hunt.

But he was hunting for something else today; he was hunting for contact with Fandom, or rather, his friends both on and off it.

As it turned out, having his old routine back made his thoughts about the island far kinder than they used to be.

[[ for phone calls, yes! ]]

Comments

[bitchprince]

"Fair enough," he allowed. "I'm... glad to hear you are well, at least, and that the situation has been resolved. Not quite as pleased to find out Fandom's still up to its old tricks, however."

[raspberryturk]

"Fandom is gonna be Fandom, no matter what we think about it, yo." And that, so far as Reno was concerned, was just the way things were going to be. He didn't seem to concerned about it. And, until the island got it in its mind to take actual casualties while he was around, he probably never would. "How you been farin' out there?"

[bitchprince]

"Everything's settled back to the ordinary," Arthur replied, idly. "Most of the knights have finally attained something closely resembling a decent shape, though God help me if I ever find too many brains between them. And we caught a massive stag during the hunt the other day - certainly worth celebrating."

[raspberryturk]

That moment's pause there suggested that Reno needed to take this opportunity to remember what a stag was, beyond just those kinky parties that guys went to before getting themselves hitched.

"You eat those, right?"

Be kind, Arthur. He's Gaian.

[bitchprince]

"A male deer," Arthur said. Dryly.

Very dryly.

He didn't do kind.

[raspberryturk]

"Which you can eat!"

See! Reno was smarter than he looked, sometimes! Kind of!

"A hunt don't sound like half a bad time, though," he added. Because... Because it nicely drew the conversation away from the fact that he had to actually think about what a stag was, yes.

[bitchprince]

"Of course it isn't," Arthur said, all blase, "Though it's more of a chore with Merlin ambling around spooking half the game. But the best stories hail from hunts - in fact, I think Sir Leon is going to spend quite some time trying to avoid stories of that boar that nearly drove him up a tree."

[raspberryturk]

And at that, Reno snorted.

"Man, I gotta meet these knights of yours sometime, man. I feel like I'm missin' out, havin' to behave myself around the students now, yo. Seems to me like it'd be fun to give your buddies there a hard time."

[bitchprince]

"It's good for their character," Arthur said, solemnly, "Of which they need quite a bit more. Especially if it involves boar trunk marks on Leon's bottom."

[raspberryturk]

"See, that's exactly why you need guys like me around," Reno decided. "Because I don't let shit like that just slide, man. Lettin' it go ain't no damn fun anyhow."

[bitchprince]

"Only if discipline demands it." Arthur leaned back against a tree, and fixed his eyes on his horse. "How are the reserves doing?"

So much for chit-chat.

[raspberryturk]

"They're holdin' up," Reno replied, shrugging even if it couldn't be seen. Use your powers of imagination, Arthur. "I don't wanna go steppin' on no toes or nothin', but if you want I can swing by next week an' see how they're doin', yo."

Which was to say that, no, he really didn't go to them all that often, anymore. Shame, Reno. Shame.

[bitchprince]

"Do," Arthur said. Firmly. "They could do with a touch of your experience, if I remember what the three of them are like." Really, now. "Let me know by text message how it turns out?"

[raspberryturk]

"That I can do," Reno decided, amiably enough. "You figure you can handle my top-notch text messaging skills?"

Or, his 'top noch txt msg skllz,' for that matter?

[bitchprince]

"I don't know, Reno. Can you handle the existence of vowels?"

[raspberryturk]

"Those are them ones that sometimes include 'y,' right?"

Yes. Yes, he was totally joking, there.

[bitchprince]

On the other end of the line, Arthur sighed in exasperation. "I can handle anything you can throw at me," he amended. "Don't take that as an excuse to send me pictures of your posterior."

[raspberryturk]

"What, you don't wanna see?" Behave, Reno. Honestly, now. "I'll try an' keep it on topic, then. Anything you figure I should be lookin' out for when I crash the meeting, at least? Give me some direction, yo. Or else I can't promise you won't get sent a bunch'a photos of the duck that moved into my bathroom."

... He hadn't really tried to get rid of it, after a while. Whatever.

[bitchprince]

"Attendance, subject matter, leader involvement," Arthur rattled off, quickly. "A duck?"

[raspberryturk]

Attendance, subject matter, leader involvement. Sure, Reno could handle that. Hell, he'd even use proper grammar and punctuation and spelling and shit, just to throw Arthur off when he did so.

"A duck," he agreed. "Made a bet with one of the Rookies that she couldn't catch me off-guard, yo. Got a painted ferret and a kiddie pool fulla ducks in the kitchen to prove me wrong, yo."

Really, he'd been asking for it.

[bitchprince]

That wasn't really an answer Reno got over the phone next, no.

Just laughter.

Lots of it.

[raspberryturk]

Hey, Reno couldn't fault Arthur for laughing. He'd thought it was pretty damn funny, too.

And that was why he was laughing a little, as well.

"Managed to get most of 'em out, yo. One just kinda figured it liked livin' indoors better. He gets along with the ferret good enough, at least."

And with Petey. Reno had a bit of a menagerie on the go, there, that he hadn't planned on in the first place.

[bitchprince]

"And neither of them is any good for hunting, I gather," Arthur said, once he'd scrambled back from his laughter. "I would have liked to see you deal with my knights, if it was possible. If nothing else, at least it'll mean they won't be the most ridiculous thing on the training field for once."

[raspberryturk]

"Heeey," Reno laughed. "They gotta keep up with me first, you know. Bein' ridiculous don't make me a pushover, yoto."

At least he had no illusions about his own level of ridiculousness, here.

[bitchprince]

"No one ever called you one," Arthur agreed, dryly. "Though it would amuse me to see it."