#baronyofthesilverwolf

"She saved Coral. Because Coral is an idjit. That whole flock has one brain cell between them, and clearly it wasn't her turn..."

"Eh?" Zelda looks up, squints, looks at the door. "Did she, huh? Well, good." Curt. "Still stupid to grab an open bottle."

Carefully capping all of the bottles they have, or checking that the caps are tightened.

"Well, instinct."

Zelda grumbles, muttering under her breath. "Listen, when we get this together, how you gonna keep the little putzes out of it? I don't want ol' Wolfy pounding at my door because a little glowing nudnik wanted to play jump rope with the accelerant tubes and flamed up half his freehold."

"Well, they can be distracted. We have a Never collector..."

"You collect 'em? I have a theory about batteries..." Zelda perks up.

"Well, they can leave - you just gotta keep their interest."

"Well, that's not really an efficient power source then, innit."

"I don't want to hurt'em."

Zelda considers this. "I suppose not. Cute little things, like fireflies. Knew a kid, when I was small, would chase them with a bat. Lightning bugs, that is. If he struck 'em glowing, there'd be a glow streak on his bat. Not a redcap, neither.... just a kid." She shakes her head. "He stopped after my big brother rubbed his face in the dirt a few times. Shit, memories, yeah? Well, that's not here or there. Come on them. get off yer ass and back over here, I can't try this thing on, if it goes around me then it will fall right off you."

"They're magic. Exactly." She follows Zelda.

She starts tugging and adjusting, straightening and tightening leather straps.

"It ain't DONE. This is... not EVEN a mk1. Call it a proof of concept. Let's go out back."

Danica clears her throat, and Zelda looks over. "What??"

"This is the part where I insist of a fire extinguisher."

"Oh. I guess."

Only a small amount of grumbing before Danica is given a dusty canister. She insists on checking the expiration date, too. An annoying delay, but soon they are out back, where they interrupt a boggan on the back concrete pad behind the storefront, unloading a truck filled with landscaping tools. He almost seems to blur a bit in Thistle's sight as he sinks back to normal speed, sighing as he sets down his rake and wipes his forehead. "It's a scorcher, today. Did you forget we needed to unload after the Henderson's pool removal?" A pointed glance to Zelda, and then a smile to the others.

"Afternoon, Thane, miss. I trust you're not here about that hedge again?"

"Hey."

Danica sighs inwardly. "Not today. Miss Zelda-"

A SNORT from the Nocker at being called 'miss'.

"...is testing out a... self defense implement with our fledge, Thistle."

Adler sweeps his cap off and mops the sweat from his face, and gives them each a polite nod. "You've got the... ah, I see you're prepared."

Nodding at the fire extinguisher! Zelda growls, "We didn't even say it was combustible!" He chuckles, "You didn't have to. I know you, Zelda."

Stepping over, the boggan offers a hand to Thistle. "Adler Stoneschlag, I'm the 'A' of A to Z Hardware and Landscaping. I see you've met our 'Z' already."

"Thistle... I mean, Katrina... I mean... yeah. Hi."

He winks at her, nodding in consideration. "I get it, I'm a bog-standard Brian to the mortals, but no one wants anything "B to Z", you know."

Snerk.