[AQ] A Golden Stag [ Aoife/Yukiya ]

[Aoife]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}A Golden Stag, Don't Spend It All At Once!
+Description: The Bug Enthusiasts Club of Seiyo Academy is on the hunt for a special specimen! They've realized quite an odd description of what is...supposed to be a type of beetle but it sounds more like some sort of small bird. They're offering some items from the school store as a reward to the person who can bring them the most beetles they can find, including the rare one they have their eyes on! Are you up for the task or are you going to pass up the chance and let it bug you later?
+ Go on a wild bug chase and find as many critters as you can gather!: -1 Guardians, +1 Faberge, +2 Roost
+ Bugs are so gross, you can't possible even attempt it...: +3 Guardians
+ You don't mind looking for some bugs, a few might get squished while you're looking though: +1 Guardians, -1 Faberge, +1 Roost
+ Forget collecting bugs for someone else, you're going to unleash some upon others!: -2 Guardians, +2 Roost
Requirements: None
Submitted by Catrifer and Kingmochi

Aoife was very unhappy. She wasn't sure why the hell she'd volunteered to help collect bugs. But she said she would - so she really had to. She'd have felt like a total liar if she made up some excuse to get out of it at that point and Aoife really, really didn't like lying about anything. 
So there she stood - knowing that she'd have to start going after bugs at some point soon even if she didn't really want to. The girl rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and readied herself. She could do it! She really could!

She let out another sound - louder than she'd intended and pulled a face. Her tongue stuck out slightly but she was totally ready after doing it! She rolled her shoulders slightly and turned her attention to the trees around her. She had a little net - which would hopefully mean she wouldn't actually have to get that close to the bugs that she was going to catch. 

Okay! She was off! She was going to catch this really weird bug she'd been asked to find that she'd totally already forgotten the name of! Something bug like and as big as a bird definitely made her think of something like a faery - but it totally wouldn't be. Not if it was actually called a bug and people actually knew about it.
Really - she was far too obsessed with faeries...and she knew they weren't real! They totally couldn't have existed. Nope. She was lying to herself obviously and just thinking about it had her yanking rather aggressively at the metal band around her wrist.  

It took her a moment to realize. 

She had no idea how to catch bugs.

Yukiya

[Yukiya]

Yuki hadn't caught bugs ever since he was a kid with his cousins. It was just a past time they had when Yuki went to their house in another part of Otonoki after they watched the newest Beetle Knight sentai show. They tried to look for bugs from the show - a stag beetle, a ladybug, a grasshopper - but then ended up covered in dirt. His aunt, stricter than his own mother, scolded all three of them for getting so messy, but after they washed up made these huge green tea cookies that were her specialty. These days his cousins and him lived their own lives, although when he had a spare Sunday he'd still visit them to watch the newest seasons.

He thought about all that after he signed up for a bug hunt. He didn't even know there was a bug enthusiast club until he saw the flyer advertising a hunt for a giant stag. He went to the place where the stag was supposedly seen last - and saw a jittery girl tat looked lost..? Or scared?

"Uh, hey. Looking for bugs too?" he asked. She was a Seiyo student, right? And he couldn't think of a better reason why she'd be here except to go look for a bug. "You might wanna tie your hair too if you are. It gets pretty messy."

[Aoife]

Aoife just about jumped out of her skin the moment Yukiya spoke to her. She hadn't heard him approaching her at all. She was just glad that she hadn't actually screamed. She turned her head a little to actually look at him, her eyes wide and her hands shaking the smallest amount. That was not okay, what he had just done was not okay. He hadn't meant to totally scare the hell out of her, but he'd still done it. 

She let out a huff and turned herself to face the boy, a hand on her chest as if to calm her heart down. It was fine - she was okay. It was just a normal looking person. She pulled a face when he said she should tie her hair up. She could understand why it would be a good idea yes, but... she looked very stupid if she ever decided to tie her hair up. Considering how long the parts towards her face were compared to the rest? She could not do that. Not to mention most of the time it would just fall out after a certain amount of movement.

"Uh, yeah." She nodded her head slightly, finally voicing her answer. "I thought I'd try it out." Bug catching wasn't something that was practiced often in Ireland. Mostly due to there not being all that many interesting bugs around the island. Aoife was sure that unless you really had a interest in bugs you never really went looking for them. "I'd tie it up if it wouldn't fall out a few minutes later."

[Yukiya]

Yuki just raised an eyebrow. She didn't respond right away. In fact, she looked scared? He scratched his cheek, and just waited for her to calm down. Usually things turned out better when he let people respond on their own time.

"Try out...bug catching? You didn't do it as a kid?" was the first thing he said, but wait, she was a girl. And possibly not fully Japanese. Maybe they weren't into that kind of stuff in other places? He took a better look at her hair, and yeah maybe it was a bit big to put in a hair tie. Hopefully the bugs didn't get into her hair.

"Well, let's just get what we need. I've got a jar and a net here. I just want that bird beetle thing...rumor says that you get lots of free stuff. Do you want to go look for bugs with me? I could teach you how to catch the easier ones?" he asked. Somehow he was getting excited. Or nostalgic. It wasn't exactly very cool, but the excuse of getting bugs for free stuff should make sense for other people, right?

[Aoife]

"Um. No." She shook her head a little - even if she'd wanted to try catching bugs at home she'd been way too scared to go into the woods behind her house. Before the incident she might have done it but she couldn't really remember. Not to mention Aoife hadn't exactly been the most 'tomboy-ish' of girls so it just wasn't something she'd ever really thought of doing until she'd come to this school.
She really didn't want to think about bugs getting caught in her hair. She really didn't need to think about it. 

"Hm." She tilted her head and tapped her chin. She supposed she could join him considering she really didn't know what she was doing. She hadn't even thought about bringing a jar or anything to hold the bugs that she caught. She tilted her head back the other way - giving him a bright smile. 

"I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm sure you can see." She waved her little net at him. "I'm sure I'd only hold you back, but I'd love if I could join you. And if you could actually teach me -" Well that would be a bonus she supposed? It didn't seem like that overly a useful skill, but it wasn't like she had anything else to do.

[Yukiya]

Something told him that she might not have wanted to really catch bugs. Probably the fact that she was scared and barely talked. So, she must be here to get some free stuff, right? "Don't worry about a thing! We're gonna find all those beetles and get lots of good stuff as fast as possible. And you won't hold me back, I promise. ...I mean, if you scare the bugs away, you might, but as long as you stay still you should be fine. Even if it goes on you," he said.

Close to them was a patch of tall grass. "Let's start here. I think I see a dung beetle." Lo and behold, a dung beetle was in the grass, thankfully without its signature pile of poop. He held out his net. "Now you just slowly approach it - and then get it in the net. Try to make it walk into the net if you can. You think you can do it?"

[Aoife]

Stay still. It was mostly a foreign concept to Aoife - she really wasn't sure she could stay still all that much. She was already pretty sure that she was going to be awful at actually catching anything at all. The girl could just about do keeping quiet. 

Aoife wasn't sure why she'd decided doing this was a good idea.

"Dung beetle -" Ah no - really why had she decided to do this? It wasn't going to be pleasant. She knew that she had her own net really - but it was small and there was no way she was going to get that close to a bug that rolled dung around. She carefully approached said bug a little more nervous about it than she thought she would be. 
The net moved slowly too - carefully catching the bug. Oh - okay that hadn't been as difficult as she thought it would be - although the actual scooping up of the bug was a little more difficult. 

But she'd done it! 

She turned to the boy with the net and a great big grin on her face. Clearly pleased with herself.

[Yukiya]

Yuki could only watch as this jittery girl tried to catch a bug. Would she do it? "Yeah, it's a dung beetle," he repeated. He'd catch it himself, just to show how it works, but she already pulled her net out and went to the grass. She'd finally calmed her nerves, and she actually got the bug.

"Well look at that," he said, opening his jar for her to put the beetle. Now that she wasn't so nervous, she had quite a cute smile. "Your first beetle! Now, let's go look for another."

He closed the jar, and went ahead of her, trying to spot more beetles. He found another dung beetle nearby - although he had to keep it away from the poop it was holding. "There might be some flying beetles here. They're really shiny, but easy to catch if it lands close to you. But remember, the big prize is the bird-like beetle, all right?"

His eyes sparkled with the possibility of free things. He heard a rumor that free lunch coupons might be at the store soon, and he wanted one! Even if the lunches at school didn't compare to his dad's cooking, free food was still free food. He turned back to the girl. "Uh, now that I think about it. Did I catch your name?"

[Aoife]

Okay - okay - she might have been like way too excited about just catching a stupid dung beetle but she couldn't help it - she'd never done it before at all after all and she just...was overly excited, yes. She should calm the hell down. She sucked in a quiet breath and let herself settle down although she continued to smile away. Aoife was glad she was able to do it - but she could get more right? She'd put the bug in the jar at his prompting and followed after him when he moved as well. 

"...flying beetles?" That sounded horrifying. Like flying ants, but also totally worse. Beetles were way bigger right? The ones they'd just caught were definitely bigger than any ants she'd ever seen. Aoife had thankfully just gotten over the fear of the bugs and had continued to just follow along. "But yeah, birdbug is the main aim." She nodded her head a couple of times fast. Once they got that one - well they'd be able to leave the rest of the bugs alone. 

"OH -" She totally forgot about giving her name. Ah, the was so rude of her. Aoife felt a little bad about it. "I'm sorry - Nagumo Aoife - But you can call me V if you want." She gave him another smile - her head tilting slightly just to look beyond him. "It's nice to meet you - but is that another beetle?"

[Yukiya]

"Yeah, they're pretty big. About the size of...um, half of your middle finger, I think. Or it might be bigger than that," he said. It'd been a while since he'd went outside properly but he was sure they came out during this time of the year. "They sometimes fly really close to you, so watch out, but catch if it you can!"

He went further into the grass. If he was a rare bug, he'd probably be hiding somewhere where no humans could try to find them. He turned back to the girl, hoping she'd follow him. "Aoife...?" he asked, although his accent garbled his pronunciation. "V, huh? Either way, your name is really unique." He turned back, but a large flying beetle sped right past him and toward Aoife's face. "You're right! That's the one I was talking about! Think you can catch it?"

[Aoife]

O-kay. Way bigger than any bug she'd ever seen back in Ireland...unless you counted spiders, but the girl was aware that that people were...kind of touchy about that kind of subject. Spiders not being insects and all. But all the same. "That sounds horrifying." And it really did. While she wasn't exactly squimish about bugs, well one that big flying around her? That didn't sound like any kind of fun she wanted.



"Unique huh? I suppose so." She really thought it was more annoying now. It had been okay back at home because everybody knew everybody so by proxy they just knew her name and how to say it. Sure the spelling sometimes threw people off but otherwise it had always seemed okay. She pulled a small face at herself. She was complaining too much for her tastes - even if it was just in her own head.



The girls reaction to his next words were probably fairly amusing. At the realization that the bug was flying right at her she swung her net up, hitting her own face in the process before it swooshed down. Ah - hopefully she had also caught the bug. "Wow Aoife. Wow. Beautiful moves right there." 

[Yukiya]

"Ah, believe me, I thought they were too as a kid. But they're pretty much harmless," he said. "Kind of gross when you smash one on accident, but..." he added. Ah, he shouldn't tease her like this, but it kept happening. Maybe it was better than hitting on her? But the important thing was catching more beetles.

"It is!" he insisted. She looked more irritated at this, so he thought he'd encourage her. "It makes you easy to remember later on too." He gave the girl a thumbs up, when he found the the beetle flying around. Said beetle was unfortunately too slow to escape Aoife's net, but it was good for the two of them. Its colorful shell reflected the sun around her. "Oh, look, you got it...but, um, looks like you got your own face too. Whoops," he said, scratching his head before grabbing the beetle jar. "Time to put it in here then."

[Aoife]

The girls lips curled up at his words and she tried desperately to not think about squashed bugs. Ew. As much as bugs were not cute she really didn't want to imagine them being crushed or anything. Aoife really didn't want to like...squish anything. That would not be cool at all. The girl pulled a face at the boy before her lips quirked up again and she was smiling once more. Not something fun to smile at but all the same -

"Easy to remember huh?" She rose an eyebrow and let out a small snort. She supposed he was right - but being remembered wasn't always the best thing sometimes...but she supposed that she could take his words for the good that he meant them. "I suppose you're right." She nodded her head a little. It made sense yes.
The girl found herself staring down at the net for a small moment. She wasn't really pleased with it - but a moment later she let out a small snort of laughter. It might not have been overly funny but the fact that she'd done it did tickle the girl a good amount. "Okay, okay!" She moved towards the boy and his jar - a large smile still on her face. "In you go sir." She nodded to the beetle a little bit as it fell into the jar. She was very glad she wasn't totally awful at this. 

[Yukiya]

"Yup. Most Japanese people have similar names, anyway," he said with a shrug. He just observed as she put the beetle into the jar slowly, but was surprised as she laughed. Oh, was the bug tickling her? It was just sort of random that she laughed and smiled. Ah, that was good that she was starting to enjoy herself. He shut the jar again and they went off to find more beetles. He was able to grab a ladybug off a bush at least. They were technically beetles right?

But still no sign of that bird beetle thing. He didn't think it was gonna be easy, but he was wondering if they were in the right place. He tried googling it, but since he didn't have the exact name he couldn't find it at all. "If I were a rare bug, where would I hide..." he mumbled to himself. Trees? Roofs? But then the birds would eat them. "You'd think a beetle like that would be easy to spot, right?"

[Aoife]

Aoife let out a hum herself - it should have been pretty easy to see. Bird sized beetles sounded like...horrifying creatures but considering the climate of Japan for a good portion of the year it wouldn't really surprise her that something could evolve to a size like that. 
"I mean...if you were really that big..." She tapped her chin a little again, a small smile on her face now. She was having more fun than she thought she would considering they were just hunting for bugs. "You probably wouldn't hide all that much would you?" Or at least she didn't think so - if you were the size of your most obvious predator than why would you need to hide yourself away, right? That was what made sense to her anyway.

Her eyes caught some kind of movement behind the boy. "Oh - hey what's that?" She had no idea - it looked bigger than the other things they'd caught so far - maybe not as big as they were looking for. But...she wasn't sure that the bug they were really looking for actually existed. There was a high chance that they might have just been sent out on a wild 'bug' chase. She shook her head a tiny bit. Not the time to think like that! Big bug, right behind them!