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Scottish weather in winter is something Rabastan is long used to. And normally he would never have spent more time than he had to out in it, today the sun was shining and a lovely chinook had made the afternoon much more enjoyable than it would be for a January. Even if the land was still covered in enough snow to make getting about on foot treacherous at best.

So he decided not to go about on foot but on feather.

Milliways looks serene from way up in the sky. A shame he can't manipulate a camera like this.

Next time he'll take a broom.

But like all good things the afternoon draws to a close and even a warm breeze can't chase away evening cold.

So he heads inside and heads to the bar. For a cup of cocoa. With little fluffy marshmallows in it.

Mmmmmm cocoa.

Oh, botherable too.

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Rabastan might have noticed a young boy while he was outside. Said young boy had just discovered the demon bunnies outside and, when they made to attack him, he responded with some epic stick-bashing and PK Love.

~~You know, normal leveling up.~~

He's just come back inside, bundled up against what is unseasonable cold for him, and ready to have something to eat. By coincidence, he ends up taking a seat next to Rabastan and makes his order.

"Can I please get an omelet? A real big one filled up with ham and cheese and vegetables."

And once he gets a whiff of Rabastan's cocoa...

"And a big mug of hot chocolate."

The boy is practically drooling when his order comes up, the omelet so big that it's difficult to see the plate underneath and the mug of chocolate requiring both hands to properly hold it.

The kid clearly has the right idea, doesn't he, Rabastan?

~~Somewhere out there is a gamer wondering how his character suddenly managed to jump five levels.~~

Oh yeah, you have no idea how good an idea it is. For Rabastan, an omelet that big is an engine starter. He might even be wanting his own right now.

"Did it suddenly turn cold? I can feel the chill coming off of you."

~~"Oh sweet! Lucas knows OffenseUpα now!"~~

The boy looks up at his company.

"It's way colder out there than it is at home right now," he explains. "But I'm staying here for a while 'cause I gotta be ready for what's at home. So I was outside taking care of some of those bad-looking bunnies."

He takes a nearby bottle of ketchup and puts some on his already-bitten-into omelet.

Rabastan quirks a brow.

"What sort of things?"

Pause.

"If you don't mind my asking?"

Lucas finishes the bite of food in his mouth and washes it down with some cocoa.

"I'm lookin' for a friend of mine," he says. "There's a band in town and I heard their new bass player looks just like him, so I'm gonna go see if it really is him."

Okay.

"So how do the demon bunnies play into this?"

Game mechanics go over his head in a wide arc.

"There's some dangerous animals on the way to where the band is performing, so I gotta be ready to protect myself."

He thought that was kind of common sense. But then, he's never been anywhere besides Tazmily before he came here.

Kind of like how it is for everyone else. Then they find out others don't have that kind of common sense.

"Dangerous?"

Demon bunnies are nasty, and some of the fauna of his world [home and adopted] are also nasty, but what's Lucas' definition of dangerous?

"Yeah, dangerous. They can hurt my dog Boney and me if we're not careful."

Should've been more specific.

"These animals are running loose in your town?"

Isn't that, well, unsafe to have vicious wild animals roaming where people are?

"Not in Tazmily," he says. "Except for those pesky slitherhens that nip at my sheep. But even they've become rare."

Yes, he did just say slitherhens.

"But there are some huge cattlesnakes and muttshrooms on the way to the factory, which is where I have to go first. I can't afford a train ticket, so I gotta walk."

Which sounds a lot like Slytherin. He wonders if he's going slightly deaf.

"They're just roaming the land between cities."

It sounds like a zoological minefield.

"Yeah. Like they used to before we had cities."

Those were better times, in his opinion.

"What do you have now?"

For the killer wildlife to roam between.

"Well, I guess Tazmily's a city now. And we've got the factory and the nightclub behind it, Club Titiboo."

Yes. Club Titiboo. It's not as dirty as it sounds.

"The band's gonna be at the club but you gotta be a factory worker to get in. They're hiring part-time work at the factory now and I could use the extra DP anyway, so I'm going to do that."

Rabastan thinks it's as dirty as it sounds, yet is better than some of the names he's heard of.

"Will the demon bunnies help you with factory work too?"

He's now got the impression that a lot of things depend on What Lurks Beyond City Limits.

"Not as much as actually getting there, I think," he says between bites of omelet.

And before he forgets any further, he says, "My name's Lucas."

Offering his left hand to shake,

"I'm Rabastan."

Lucas takes it with a smile.

"Pleased t'meet'cha," he says.

And then, quite plainly, he asks, "You're not from Tazmily, are you?"

It's just his way of asking where he's from.

"Nope. I live in Vane. Mia's world." Pause. "I used to live in England when I was younger."

"Is Vane nice?" he asks. "And who's Mia?"

"It's a very lovely city," he says, "and Mia is the Guildmaster. Also she's become family to me."

"She's become family to you?" he asks, mouth still working on some omelet. "Does that mean you're married to her or something?"

Rabastan lets out a sudden laugh.

"No, she's married to my nephew, Draco. That makes me her family too."

"Oh, okay," he says in understanding.

Then he takes another sip of cocoa.

"Do you have a lot of family?"

There's a bit of pondering for a moment. Pureblood families tend to be related to each other due to the insular attitudes of many of them.

"Not really," he says, settling for the immediate members. "Mia's family is really the only one I've got now."

No need to get into convoluted stuff about his brother and sister-in-law. Or his parents.

"Though I could include all of Vane if I wanted to."

"Tazmily used to be that way," Lucas comments. "And some people still are that way. So I guess that means we both have a lot of family."

This is said somewhat wistfully.

"Yeah. You tend to find them in the unexpected places."

"Yeah."

That's kind of what he's hoping for now, isn't he?

"So what do you do?" he asks, jumping on a new subject.

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