[Forest] Practising

[Jake Gobien]

The Rogue encampment looked diabolical to outsiders, an absolute shambles really, it was therefore lucky that few outsiders saw it to take back the tale of their disgraceful messiness. It was in fact organised chaos though, there were female Rogues who kept the camp ship shape, and there was Gobien too. At first he had tried to keep the camp organised and clean, in a military fashion nearly. But that had failed utterly with complete disinterest from the Rogues. He hadn't pressed the matter, they needed to solely follow his orders when it really mattered. In life and death situations he needed them to react tom any order given from himself or De Conti, in order to survive. So he didn't keep them strictly enforced now, or they'd likely rebel, Rogues were very good at that.

Lazing about the Rogues were in various states of wakefulness. Gloria cooked their breakfast over a roaring fire that Ricky had started with his secretly spoken words. Nobody else managed to keep the wood aflame in such a fashion, and Gloria insisted on a woodfire to perfect her cooking. Gobien hadn't even tried to stop them sending smoke up into the air, he wouldn't dare go up against Gloria. Only George really had, until Fiona had reminded him who patched them up when they inevitably received an injury. George had gone surprisngly mum on the subject of fires since. Now George snored loudly, stinking feet hanging over the large crate he occupied, and had transformed into a makeshift bed. Fiona too slept fitfully, swinging in her hammock strung from tree to tree. Danielle was the worst for sleeping in though, and had demanded that Ricky bring her a bed, which he had actually done just to shut her up. "I can't take no more of her whining," he'd told Gobien when he'd asked why he'd done it.

Ricky had already arisen at the crack of dawn, and had already taken a number of "young uns," as he called them, along with him hunting. While Gobien lay awake, sat motionlessly upon a crate staring listlessly at the cooking fire, watching the flames dance with a dazed expression. Until Gloria rapped her spoon down upon his knuckles, "stay with us love," she whispered, handing him a chipped plate, stacked high with a full english breakfast. "Get that down you before anyone else gets jealous." She trilled beaming at him, then shuffling off to prod Fiona awake. Or rather tip her straight from the hammock as she always did. "Aaah," screamed Fiona as she landed heavily upon the ground, "I'm gonna kill..." she abruptly stopped on seeing who had awoken her and the plate now hanging in her hammock.
"Thanks Gloria," she cried happily, swinging agily back into her hammock and beginning to wolf down her breakfast. As Gloria turned back to the frying pan once more, she tossed a blurry eyed Rogue a sausage sandwich as ran a hand through his tussled hair, "your fav Adam," she stated, he murmured his thanks then fell back into his pit, munching upon his food. Gobien shook himself, beginning to pick at his food with little appetite. Gloria noticed instantly, she had a way with such things, "you'd best be eating all my home cook..well forest cooked food, it better not be going to waste," she wafted her laddle towards him, swapping it for a knife to poke into the bacon and turn it.
"It's lovely Gloria, honestly, only I'm not feeling hungry..."
"you may not be right now, but you need your strength. I want that plate licked clean I tell you," in her usual way she placed her hands upon her hips and gave him a shrewd look. Gobien couldn't help but laugh,
"ok ok I'll get it down me gullet." As she went back to her cooking a figure approached from the treeline, Gobien looked up seeing their watchman letting them through. Sticking a sausage in his mouth he smiled around it as the figure came right on into their midst, stepping over the many sleeping bodies.

[Simon Ellison]

It was the day like today Simon wished he had a roof over his head and did not have to worry about being attack as he lay in bed. That is if he had been laying in bed as tonight had been his day to be duty and watch over the forest and make sure they did not have any unwelcome guests. As per usual the night past with out event, the odd rain storm caused him to have to spend the rest of the night in wet clothes getting colder by the second. His only relief was when the first rays of light began to break through the forest canopy over the mountain side, which was his call to go back to camp.

The smells of Gloria’s cooking only made the journey seem longer as his stomach growled for food, his dry mouth begged for drink and his eyes dropt in the want of sleep. And as he entered the camp he could not help but grumble at the sight of most the other rouges still asleep. ‘Lazy sods’ he grumbled to himself as he stepped over them making sure not to kick any too hard and wake them up. However his frown soon finished as he approached the warmth of the fire and the food and with an innocent smile at Gloria Simon pleaded for his food.
“Gloria? There would not be any food left for me would there?”
“There is some bacon left and seeing as you were up all night there is a brew in it for you as well.”
“Oh Gloria I love you.”

Simon embraced the witch in a hug and kissed her on both cheeks before skipping over to pick up a bacon sandwich and a cup of lovely warm tea. Taking a rather large bite out of the sandwich Simon looked around for somewhere to sit and noticed Gobien sitting by himself looking grumpily at his breakfast. So with another mouthful of food Simon walked over towards the man he saw as their leader and sat down next to him.

“If you are not going to eat that I will.”

[Jake Gobien]

Seeing Simon trudge into camp, looking rather disgruntled, and rightly so after having to stay awake all night, Gobien couldn't help but grin. He would have waved but he knew that the lad would soon be over pleading for more food. Gobien always joked that the lad ate like a horse, it wasn't true, but Gloria did tend to give him bigger portions. When George had complained loudly, Gloria had stubbornly retorted "he's a growing boy, he needs strong bones and muscles, so one day he'll beat you with a stick George." He'd soon gone off glowering at that remark, shaking his fist when he'd seen Gobien ruffle Simon's hair in his usual fatherly way.

Watching with amusement as Simon easily won over Gloria and received a bacon sandwich for his troubles he laughed that Simon had a way with women. He'd claim with pride that the boy had learnt all he knew from himself, but really he just had a bit of a knack. Too much time with Gobien would turn him into a complete flirt, something his girlfriend might take wrongly.
Coming out of his reverie Gobien grinned at Simon, as he sat by him. "More than my life's worth giving my grub away." He replied quickly, as Gloria shot him a look with her beady eyes, exclaiming, "you're not handing on my food are you?" Her eyes narrowed though she smiled still.
"Certainly not madam, I wouldn't dare."
As Gloria turned back to flicking bacon and turning the eggs, Gobien whsipered "see what I mean." Laughing aloud as Gloria heard easily and retorted "I heart that."
"I know you did you old vixen you." Gobien chuckled as he drove a fork into his bacon and nibbled upon it, savouring the meaty taste.

"How was patrolling then?" Asked Gobien, guessing it had been pretty dismal given the atrocious weather conditions, "see anything out of the ordinary?" He just had to ask, just in case. He was nearly always on edge. Fiona lept from her hammock to join them, bringing the remainder of her scrambled eggs on toast, four tiers of toast with egg plastered between each. "Hey handsome," she called to Simon with a wink, being the younger ones they tended to share such banter, but Gobien easily jumped in.
"Morning gorgeous," with quick relfexes he set aside his plate, grabbing Fiona by the waist and setting her upon his knee tilting her to nearly shove the red head into the dirt, "whoo," he cried, giving her a peck upon the cheek before he let her just sit on his lap. Laughing she cried, "let go of me you brute," but stayed there nonetheless pulling a mock exasperated expression at Simon and asking, "can't you save me from him?"

Seeing an opportunity Gobien chuckled, jokingly saying, "no, no don't set Simon on me," in a completely exaggerated way. With a laugh to show he didn't mean it, Gobien kissed Fiona's neck affectionately, asking Simon, "so is that how you grab a hold of your girlfriend then?"
"I should hope not," answered Fiona for him, "he's a gentleman, Simon wouldn't treat a lady like that, would you Simon." She smiled shaking her head at Gobien as he shook her about, elbowing him in the ribs, he still found the breath to say in an anguished tone, "I'm a gent."
"Well you don't act gentlemanly like Simon does, he's gallant."
"How'd you know?" Demanded Gobien with a grin at Simon, "haven't been spying on him have you?"
Instantly Fiona coloured, "well I had to make sure he was alright, she coulda been a hag, dead nasty to our Simon, and we didn't want that now did we?" She defended herself righteously turning to Gobien and poking him in the chest. Turning back to Simon she shrugged, murmuring an apology, "sos Simon, was only protecting ya." Pulling a face Gobien added, "oh yes, course, only for your protection." Her cheeks burned nearly as red as her hair now, but she still elbowed Gobien hard to shut up.
"Yeh I didn't know what she were like, looks dead nice though, when are we gonna meet here properly?" She demanded with a girlish grin.
"Yeh when are we going to her Simon? Eh?" He demanded only now noticing his plate of food had vanished, Simon hadn't scoffed the lot while they bantered had he?

[Simon Ellison]

Yes he was cold, yes he was tired and yes he was hunger then a dragon but when the camp acted like this he did not want to be anywhere else. It was a untied family, they could laugh and joke with each other even with all the threats to them, it was almost like the muggle stories of Robin Hood, a group of outlaws living in the woods fighting for the better cause and going to many lengths to achieve that but in the process having a dam good time. However as Gobien always did business came first and straight away he asked Simon about patrol and all Simon could do was shrug as he continued to eat his breakfast.

“It was alright. Got a bit wet but it seems the forest creatures are keeping away from us did not hear or see a single thing. Although at one point I was convinced I heard your snoring.”

With a laugh Simon noticed that Fiona was walking over towards him and as usual greeted him a compliment. However he was sure his current appearance was not all to handsome seeing as he was picking bits of bacon out fro between his teeth and then as normal he did have a chance to respond seeing as Gobien had pulled Fiona onto his lap.
He watched on laughing as Jake continued to taunt the poor girl and even as she asked about saving him Simon merely shook his head and reached out to take hold of Gobien’s breakfast. As Simon saw it he was currently engaged with other matters and leaving it to go cold seemed such a waste. Stuffing the last forkfuls of egg into his mouth he just managed to place the plate back down when Gobien turned to him asking about his girlfriend.

He could feel his cheeks ready to burst with the amount of food he had crammed into his mouth and he dared not open it so yet again he shock his head and quickly started to chew and swallow the food as yet again Fiona stepped into the save him. Although the more Gobien teased her about following him to the pub Simon started to feel slightly disheartened. Fiona in her own way was a good looking girl with a good personality to match and if he did not ready have someone special he imagined he might have hooked up with her after all she seemed to like him. But both seemed strangely interested in meting Girty.

“Do you think I am going to let you guys lose on her? Anyway Gobien you have already met her and from what I hear you tried to chat her up. But then you would chat anything up that walked on two legs and had a pulse right?”

[Gabriella De Conti]

((I hope it's alright that I join))

"I'm sure he would," said Gabriella bitterly marching towards them, apple in hand. She was in no mood to socialize with anyone civil so she thought she ought to come and torment these two. "Gobien would flirt with a bloody chicken if it could talk."

She glared at Simon's plate. She was most certainly tempted to go and grab some real food, something she had been lacking for days, but that required effort that she most certainly lacked. She glared at him and scoffed, "Men."

A few days alone in the woods surviving off of packaged meat and spam combined with general exhaustion had rendered Gabriella more than incapable of being nice to anyone. She was being petty and ridiculous as she had certainly survived worse and had rougher nights in the woods but even she allowed herself to be grumpy for no reason on occasion-it was a war after all.

"So what brings you lads out at such time in the morning?" she said keeping her tone even. She sincerely hoped one of them would pick a fight with her. She shook her head-that was never a good thing to hope for, being her. She smirked, she was definitely going to do something stupid today. She rolled her eyes at herself-she severely doubted she had ever met a more foolish person than herself. "Maybe I should knit," she said, more so to herself than anyone else. "Knitting is a nice wholesome thing to do."

[Simon Ellison]

Simon was sure that Jake would flirt with a chicken even if it could not talk and it merely look at him in that special way but the Simon would never say this out loud to Jake, after all it was Gabriella’s job to torment the man. So instead Simon just watched on as the witch rolled her eyes and started to mutter under breath giving both him and Jake an evil glare. With a small chuckle at her question Simon leaned further back on the hammock and closed his eyes for a moment half tempting to go to sleep in the middle of the conversation.

“I have not even been to sleep yet to be woken up. I have been on watch all night long getting cold and wet and I am looking forward to a dry set of cloths and a nice long doze.”

Opening his eyes slowly he glanced at the other rouges almost to ask if they had a problem with that idea and the protests to start flying in. But it was then Simon could have sworn he heard Gabriella say she was going to do some knitting and this was something that he had to jump on. Sitting up straight and with a boyish grin filling his features his eyes where fixed on her face.

“You knit? That is classical.” He glanced over at Fiona and Gobien before turning back to Gabriella. “Do you make scarf’s and jumpers or are you more skilled in that area and make cuddly toys?”

[Gabriella De Conti]

She smirked at Simon, knowing he was choosing to keep his mouth shut. He was apparently smarter then her.

"Hasn't everyone. I've been out looking for who knows what over the last three days and the only thing I found was a Slytherin and a fat over the hill ministry worker. Not even a good fight." She replied bitterly as she plopped down on the wet grass. "That, my friends, would be lovely." She said smiling slightly at Simon's suggestion of sleep.

"Any news from the watch?" she asked curiously, unable to really contain herself.

Gabriella glared at the young rogue."And no, I don't knit, just thought it might be fun to learn. I hear lots of wholesome happy sort of people knit. It might de-stress me or something..." she finished fully knowing that anything involving two sticks and some yarn become something beautiful was highly likely to stress her out even more. She had never been a patient sort of person.

[Jake Gobien]

Looking around in dismay for his food Gobien saw the last remains of his delicious grub shovelled into Simon's mouth, pulling an exagerated exasperated expression Gobien rolled his eyes at Fiona declaring passionately, "and you call him a gentleman? He scoffed all my fodder without even asking. Can't call that all nice and polite now can you?"
"You were nibbling at it anyways," retorted Fiona with a laugh, "it woulda taken you all day to finish it, only took him two ticks."
"Very true," replied Gobien tickling Fiona for no apparent reason, "oh and Simon it wasn't me snoring, I've been told my manners in bed are superb, whereas George hasn't such a sterling reputation." Laughing Gobien looked up in time to see Gabriella storm into the camp, "look out everyone she looks ready to bite heads off," laughing he instantly received a come back as she joined Simon commenting about his somewhat flirtatious manner, "as a matter of fact..." chuckling he finished "no you'd rather not know the details, trust me." Grinning Gobien manner was still lively but his eyes showed he was concerned for Gabriella as she seemed somewhat agitated, and more than normal. Then again everyone had their off days, Gobien included. Hearing the muttered 'men' he wondered what he'd done, naturally he assumed it was either him or George, unless she meant all those Ministry officials, no it wasn't a Ministry rant today it seemed. Puzzling over the knitting comment Gobien couldn't help but share Simon's bemused expression. "You never know she might knit a hat to shove in that gob of yours Simon," giving the lad a playful punch he chuckled knocking Fiona off of his knee and turning to De Conti.

"Something tells me knitting won't be your forté Gabriella, jinxing our asses in a duel is more your style." Chuckling Gobien couldn't resist his next jibe, "if you're wanting a decent fight I could always stop going easy on you?" Fiona's eyebrows instantly rose Gabriella, and she muttered, "yeh...right." Just loud enough for De Conti herself to hear too.

Gobien let his challenge float in the air wondering if Gabriella would leap upon it, if not then there was something seriously wrong with her. "I'll take Simon as my number two, you can take Fiona if you want, see if women are really better?" Laughing he added, "we already know the answer to that though don't we?" If it wasn't for the women here the entire Rogue operation would fall to pieces, Gobien had to admit he tended to respect the women more, if not just for their common sense.

[Gabriella De Conti]

"I'm positive no matter how much food you gave these two they would complain," she said smirking slightly.

"I'm sure most people already know the details you braggart," said Gabriella as she stood up briefly to grab a large cup of coffee. She shook her head slightly and sighed as she took a sip. It'd been a while since she'd had coffee and she'd forgotten just how good it tasted. "I'm quite glad we have this camp business, coffee and food and such. Makes the end of the day, or any part of the day rather, seem that much more appealing." She said quietly, her voice still a little tense but she was calming down none the less.

"You never know, I might just have to become a professional knitter," replied Gabriella. "Or I might just have to send knitting needles flying towards your head; I think that might be mildly entertaining." She said twirling her wand around in her fingers.

She took another swig of her coffee and smirked. "For those comments I might have to stop going easy on you during our bouts though it could prove costly if we were to lose you in such a manner but then again things might run a little smoother." Gabriella grinned wickedly. She knew that without Gobien's leadership and battle logic things would hardly run smoothly. But still, no use not rising up to the occasion. And perhaps a little duel would take her mind off other things.... "Simon against Fiona? Really? That's hardly fair know is it. Poor Simon would hardly know what to do with himself; I'd almost pity him."

[Jake Gobien]

Taking out his gun and giving it a quick check over Gobien replied tersely, "me complain? Can't remember ever doing that." Considering their circumstances he really hadn't, his manner was all jokes and fun, until the danger arrived, then he was steely calm and controlled. He'd seen fighting long enough to know how to deal with it, only De Conti and Ricky knew what it felt like, they were the real war veterans; on the run for a long period of their lives, well trained from the outset for such eventualities too.

"It's a good job we're getting regular supplies now then, you'll have to thank Addis heartily when you next see him, we'll need a little talk with him soon." Shooting De Conti a look that said they needed to sort that soon, he decided not to bring it up directly, it would only bring down the atmosphere; growing serious.

"I've had that happen to me before," chuckled Gobien, "it was an old bat though, not a pretty young thing like you," ducking just in case Gobien chuckled as he surfaced. Pocketing his gun he watched with amusement as Gabriella twirled her wand; she was always ready for a fight, but not raring for one so much thankfully. Some of the youngsters acted a little rashly, Simon sometimes included when it came to eagerness for a fight.

Smiling now with Gabriella's bantering comments Gobien stood, and stretched flexing his muscles in readiness for moving quickly, for he needed lightning reflexes when it came to duelling De Conti. "Ah you were going easy on me was it? I knew one of us was being too kind, I should have known it would be you."

Laughing at De Conti's next comment about Simon Gobien stood next to the lad playfully ruffling his hair, "oh I already do pity him, the bruises he's about to receive are gonna be painful by tomorrow, let alone mine, too painful to even imagine." Grinning he stepped aside from Simon, settling into an easy duelling stance, a relaxed poise with a slight bend of the knees and wand arm forward with his other at his side ready to break any falls.
"No rules I presume?" He asked with a smirk, "when you're ready, ladies should always go first." Some would think that chivalrous attitude a mistake, but he was already tensed to dive aside, words prepared to conjure up a shield to deflect her first shots.

"Bring it Gabriella," Gobien whispered; loud enough for her to hear, his smile teasing as he inclined his head. Taking a few steps back Gobien awaited the first blow.

[Gabriella De Conti]

"Everyone seems to be carrying guns these days, the new rogue, that scoundrel type guy that I don't really trust," she said chuckling slightly. They weren't a great many people she did trust. "He carries one too."

She caught his eye for a brief moment and replied, "Yes, I must certainly thank him." She hadn't seen Addis in a while, not since they fought together in the last full scale battle. She avoided frowning but truthfully she was worried about Addis.

She laughed lightly, "I must thank her some day for sparing myself the trouble. Although I do think you'd be much more attractive yourself with knitting sticking out of your ears.

"Well you know me Gobien, I'm always far too kind-it's in my nature," she said smirking as she stood up. "Right up there with humility and such."

She nodded her head, "You needn't worry; I'll try to avoid to do too much damage." She smiled, she really did enjoy fighting Gobien. They were well matched and loved the battle banter that they exchanged constantly. It always made fights more interesting.

"Always the gentlemen Gobien," she said smirking as she locked eyes with him and wordlessly sent a furnunculus hex towards his face. "It's why I enjoy our time together so much; you always make me feel like such a lady."

[vampireangel]

((is this thread open to students?))