(no subject)

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche is in the bar, at a table with a large heavy old book, the two dogs under the table on his feet.

Anyone passing may hear him muttering about grues.

Comments

[cook_the_rude]

"Grues?" Jacob says, passing. "What even is a grue?"

He peers underneath the table, and grins at the dogs.

[street_sparrow]

...he doesn't know Dr Lecter very well, but this seems uncharacteristic behaviour. But then, perhaps it's someone who looks like him, Gavroche is used to that.

"It lives in shadows", he tells the stranger amiably. "Given the chance, it eats people."

[cook_the_rude]

"That's horrible!" Jacob says. "Those are really dogs, though? Are they?"

[street_sparrow]

"These are really dogs, yes." He nudges them awake with his foot. "This is Franz, that's Joli, and I'm Gavroche."

[cook_the_rude]

"Hello," Jacob says. "Nice to meet you all. I'm Jacob."

He sneezes.

"Sorry," he adds. "There's this cold, and it seems I've caught it."

[street_sparrow]

"Nice to meet you too." He nods. "I've seen a lot of people coughing and sneezing here tonight, must be going around."

[cook_the_rude]

"It's something to do with contagious multiple personality disorder," Jacob adds. "There were these Frenchmen acting oddly. Also, Sunshine."

[street_sparrow]

"Sunshine?" That gets his attention. "What's wrong with Sunshine? And... which Frenchmen?"

[cook_the_rude]

"Sunshine is quite all right, just sick," Jacob says. "Her name's apparently Edith, do you know that? And the Frenchmen, well, there were two. One is a very unhelpful ex-policeman, but then he decided he was some medieval Englishman instead and became a lot more laid-back. The other, well, he was that tall, shy hunk and helped me up to a room when I got sick, and the next day I saw him in the bar again, in a wifebeater shirt having a hunk-off with an almost identical hunk, with more sideburns and less scars. That was weird."

Beat.

"And people seem to think I'm some kind of doctor. I'm an architect, though. So, perhaps I've got it as well."

[fluffiest_archadian]

That word makes Sherral pause.

A little wearily, and a little horrified: "Grues?"

[street_sparrow]

"You know about them?" he says, glancing up. "We seem to have got one in my city, if I'm right. At least one."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Aye, I worked monster extermination duties for my first assignment after I finished my training. Some of the horse nests had grues lurking in the darker parts."

[street_sparrow]

"...horse nests?" he asks, blinking, then nods. "They move so fast I can't be sure, but whatever it is really doesn't like light."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Aye. The horses of Ivalice are unlike those here, save that they are of the same basic shape. They have sharp, hard carapaces, and they spin vast webs with which to catch beasts to feast upon. They lay their eggs so quickly that we spent more time dealing with them than nearly any other monster."

[street_sparrow]

"...I'm guessing you don't tame them to ride or carry things on", he says wryly. "As it sounds like you know, the horses I'm used to don't eat meat."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"We ride chocobos instead," Sherral says.

[street_sparrow]

"I don't know what those are, sorry."

[a1enzo]

"Dude. What about grues?"

[street_sparrow]

"I think one's set up home around Piccadilly Circus."

[a1enzo]

"Frag," says Enzo, who had thought, or hoped, that they were just a Game thing. Still, infinite multiverse, etc.

[street_sparrow]

"It hasn't eaten anyone yet - I think - the Goodge Street Guildmasters were just talking about things in the shadows. But I had a look around and there's definitely something there, and it disappeared when I shone a torch at it."

[a1enzo]

"Hmph. Any standard procedure for dealing with those in real life? In the Games they're just puzzle-monsters."

[street_sparrow]

"I've never come across one before, so, no. How do the Games say to deal with them?"

[a1enzo]

"Carry a light source."

[street_sparrow]

"So stop them getting near you, not actually... do anything. Well, it's something."