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Jump to the second update
It was just after nightfall when the youth staggered into the tavern. He had the look of someone who wanted to appear common, but had absolutely no idea how to go about it. His shirt was far too white, to start with, though it was plain and unruffled. The cream colored waistcoat he wore over the top of it hung open, brass buttons shining without a hint of tarnishing, and his trousers, though a simple brown color, clung to his thighs and hips, creasing only at the knee where they tucked into his boots. His knee-length black leather boots that were polished far beyond any that might have experienced any of the sort of normal wear and tear, although traces of mud clung to the bottom of the feet. That, the circles of sweat at his armpits, and the bedraggled state of his blond hair was any indication that he'd done anything remotely physical in his whole life.
And then there was his hat. Though it sported no fancy decorations, just a simple red scarf wrapped around the band, this was off-set by the fact that not only was it purple, a color rarely seen on anyone short of royalty, it was a large, sweeping cavalier hat. It caught Dimo's attention the moment he glimpsed it out of the corner of his eyes, and held it as the boy, who couldn't have been more than thirteen – fifteen, if he was being generous – dragged his feet across the floor whining melodramatically the whole way.
Which was probably not a bad thing, when all was said and done, because the boy made a beeline straight for the nearest chair, which he happened to already be occupying.
“Unnnngh, I have never walked so much in my whole life!” he moaned as he plopped down on the bemused Jaegermonster's lap, his arms folding on the bar's counter top just in to catch his head as it dropped to it. “I am never taking another step ever again.”
For a moment, Dimo simply sat there, staring at the dandy-boy now using him as a chair, then he glanced to the side, where a rotund, strawberry-blond man with a shaggy hair and a red fez sat, laughing.
“Looks like you made a friend!” Ognian chortled, his grin wide as he jabbed a finger into Dimo's shoulder.
“Yah, looks like,” the Jaeger agreed, chuckling himself as he leaned down, hovering his face right by the boy's ear, dropping his voice to a low, gravelly rumble. "Hyu comfortable, sveethott?"
Immediately, the body in his lap stiffened, a bright, ice blue eye snapping open and staring up at him from above the crisp white lines of his shirt. “Uh-”
And Dimo grinned, revealing twin rows of jagged, sharp, uneven yellow teeth, lids coming down heavily over his pupilless golden eyes. This did not comfort the boy at all, his shoulders hunching up reflexively, although Dimo couldn't POSSIBLY understand WHY, and neither did the arm that snaked around his waist, pulling him back against the Jaeger's chest. He was just being friendly, see? After all, it wasn't often something so pretty just fell into his lap like that. But the boy didn't seem to think the same and jerked upright, elbow jerking back towards Dimo's stomach.
“Let me go! Unhand me!” he yelped, looking over his shoulder with a mixed look of fear and indignation.
“Oh, come now, sveethott, hyu iz de vun who sat down here!” Dimo cajoled, giving him a little squeeze to the sound of Oggie's snorted chuckles. “If hyu deedn't vanna be friends, hyu shoulda sat elzevhere!”
“Hee! Not like there's many open seats left!” Oggie chirped, and the boy whipped his head around, eyes growing wide as he took in the rest of the tavern. Not many seats left was hardly an exaggeration, it was an understatement. The hall was bustling with Jaegerkin and human alike, all of them rowdy and bearing the mark of the Heterodynes. The only exception were the women peppered among them, who looked just as unsure of the situation as the boy, but far more willing to indulge boisterous crew. They served beer and sat on laps, but most importantly, they didn't occupy a single chair, if only because there were no chairs left for them to occupy.
This realization caused the boy to splutter, falling back against Dimo's chest as he flailed his arms in denial.
“But you can't be here!” he protested, looking back at Dimo as he gestured to the room. “It's impossible!”
Snorting in amusement, Dimo and Oggie shared a look, the former dropping his chin into his hand with a smug look.
“Kind of silly to say that when we're already here, don't you think?”
“No!” the boy blurted out, then paused, huffed, and looked up at the ceiling with a long-suffering look on his face. “Okay, yes, but that doesn't MEAN anything! You still shouldn't, couldn't possibly be here!”
“Und vhy not, sveethott?” Dimo asked, arching an eyebrow, pressing his claws lightly into the boy's belly. To his credit, the blond didn't visibly react to the pinpricks, but the Jaeger felt his muscles twitch, stomach curving inward to lessen the slight pain. “Ve iz Jaegerkin. Not many vould tell uz no hif ve vanted to be zumvhere.”
“But that's precisely it,” the boy insisted, brushing Dimo's hand away with a look of annoyance. The Jaeger waited a moment before he put it right back into place, this time curling his fingers a bit, catching the fabric of the shirt on his claws. “You're JAEGERMONSTERS. You don't go anywhere without leaving a trail of destruction and mayhem in your wake, and news of your location travels between villages like wildfire. The fact that you made it all the way here, within a day's march to the Count's castle, without anyone knowing you were coming...”
He paused, shaking his head in disbelief and pushing at Dimo's hand again while the Jaegermonster chuckled in amusement. “Well, it's astounding, really.”
“And would you stop that?” he snapped, his voice rising in pitch as Dimo's hand once more crept across his stomach, nimble fingers inching towards the buttons of his shirt. “How old are you, twelve? What do you even think you're doing?”
“Sixty-two, but who's countink?” Dimo quipped, grinning toothily. “Vhat about hyu?”
“I'm sixteen,” he huffed, exasperation tinging his voice as he glared moodily over his shoulder at the older male, eyes flicking over to Oggie, who looked fit to burst with laughter. “And honestly-”
That was all Dimo needed to hear.
“Ho, vell, in dot case,” he interrupted with waggle of his eyebrows, outright shoving his hand into the open space between the button's of the teenager's shirt, causing him to cut off mid-sentence with a shriek, all but launching himself out of the Jaeger's lap. Dimo and Oggie roared with laughter as he rammed into the bigger blond, then tumbled to the floor, hat going askew on his head.
“That's not funny!” he snapped, face red in embarrassment as he leaned back on his hands so he could kick out at Dimo in anger, his heel catching him hard on the shin. He got a yelp for his efforts, but it was so mixed in with the Jaeger's laughter that it hardly assuaged his ruffled emotions, so he did it again and again as the monster and his friend kept laughing. He continued his assault right up until a strangled shout of “Jaegermonsters!” caught his attention.
It caught Dimo and Oggie's attention as well, and while they jerked their heads around, the boy peeked around the legs of Dimo's chair, his eyes going wide at the sight another boy, not much older than himself, wearing a mix of chain and platemail framed in the doorway. “Oh, shoot.”
The moment lasted all of a second, then the tavern door slammed shut, and the blond flopped onto his hands and knees, scrambling in the opposite direction.
“Hoy, where you going?” Oggie asked as he scooted past, looking down with an owlish expression. “We was just starting to have fun!”
But either the boy didn't hear him, or he was outright ignoring him, because he kept on going, not looking back once as he was swallowed up by the crowd.
“Huh.” He looked back up with a pout, exchanging shrugs with Dimo. “Wonder what that was about?”
“Dunno.”
“Hey Dimo?”
“Yah?”
“Your Jaeger pin is gone.”
Dimo looked down as Oggie pointed to the lapel of his jacket, the pin containing the symbol the Heterodyne's monstrous regiment suspiciously missing from its usual position. Swearing colorfully, Dimo jerked to his feet quick enough to knock his chair to the ground, glowering in the direction the purple hat had disappeared. “Dot leedle shit-!”
He was just about to take off after him when the door slammed open once more, and this time, every head in the building turned to look. Framed in the entryway was an imposing figure, a complete, polished set of platemail covering from neck to toe. The face peering from above the armor could have been considered handsome, very strong and angular, with a neatly styled mustache adorning his upper lip. Unfortunately, a contemptuous sneer twisted its features, making him ugly and unpleasant looking. It was a shame, he had a really nice hat, too. A nice red barret with a bronze house sigil off to the right – a torch flanked by sabers, from the looks of it – with a large, fluffy gray ostrich feather sweeping backwards from behind it.
"Jaegerkin!" the guard bellowed, spitting out the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth, bracing hands on his hips and puffing out his chest. "Tell me, where is the location of your master? I would have words with him."
Snickers bubbled up from all over the crowd, Jaegers and humans exchanging smirks and eyerolls. It took a bit for someone to speak up, but when they did, the man did not like it. “Yah, sure, und who are hyu?”
"I am Bastian Von Schmittelfritz, Captain of the castle guard!” he snapped, puffing his chest up even more. “Recently, Count Adalberht's youngest son, Maximilian has disappeared. We presume he has been abducted and YOU lot are the prime suspects.”
He paused, sniffing imperiously, tossing his head, and folding his hands behind his back. “As such, it is to your benefit to cooperate.”
This time, Dimo was the one who spoke up, arching an eyebrow skeptically. “So what's dis kid ve zuppozed to haff effen look like? Hyu gots like a picture or zumting?”
The Gaurd Von Schmittelfritz whipped his head around, glaring daggers at the green Jaeger. “He is sixteen years old, with blue eyes and long blond hair. Does that jog your memory at all, MONSTER?”
“Sounds like my oldest boy!” Oggie chimed in before Dimo could speak his mind, which was probably for the best, all things considered. He certainly expressed the exact same sentiment in a far less offensive manner. “His name is Gerhard, though, and he's not here, he's back with his mamma, helping her watch the bitties. I keep telling him to cut his hair, but he's always says “No Pappa, long hair is the fashion these days, girls like it!” And while I'm very pleased that he's doing so well with the ladies, I would really prefer that he didn't look so much like a ponce.”
By the time Oggie stopped talking, veins started popping out on Schmittelfritz's neck and forehead, his entire force going red as he grit his teeth, fists clenched at his sides. His eye twitched as he ground out, “Yes, thank you, that is absolutely unhelpful and completely irrelevant to the situation.”
“You're welcome!” God bless Ognian Foglio, the one man who could upset someone so much while being so obliviously pleasant. Dimo patted his shoulder, then turned back to the guard and flashed a toothy smile.
“Vhat my friend here means iz, hyu gonna hafta be more specific den dot, ain't dot right, boys?” he called out, gesturing to the crowd at large. He got a few assorted “rights!” in reply, but by now, most of the pack had turned back to their women and their drinks. Dimo and Oggie had this under control, sitting and watching would be much more fun than getting involved.
However, a few bets were going around regarding whether or not Schmittelfritz's head would explode before he left or not.
“Hey, does he have a nice hat?” Oggie asked, nudging Dimo enthusiastically. The Jaeger's eyes lit up, and he nodded along, smiling brightly at the guard.
“Ho, yah! Hats iz a goot vay ov identifyink pipple.”
For a moment, Von Schmittelfritz looked like he was about to tell them off, but then he paused, considering this. After a moment, he just let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head. “He has a lot of hats. It's impossible to know which ones he taken with him.”
“So... no hat?” What a shame.
Throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation, the guard snapped, “Just tell me where your master is!”
“That way!” Dimo and Oggie answered in unison, pointing in different directions.
“No, no,” a lizard like Jaeger with far more metal in his face than was ever appropriate and a leather helm, interjected, pointing in a completely different direction. “Em priddy sure it vos dot vay, brudders.”
Dimo grinned as a few more chimed up, and then even more, all of them pointing different directions, all of them unable to reach an agreement as to where their masters were located. They all knew exactly where they were, of course, but this was funnier, and more likely to cause Von Schmittelfritz to blow up.
Unfortunately, rather than suffer these shenanigans, the guard simply turned on his heel and stormed out, to the disappointment of the entire room. Before the door slammed shut, they could hear him bellowing to his men, “SEARCH EVERYTHING. FIND THE HETERODYNES.”
“But what about-”
“AND MY STUPID, DISOBEDIANT LITTLE COUSIN, YES, THAT TOO.”
Next section
Jump to the second update
It was just after nightfall when the youth staggered into the tavern. He had the look of someone who wanted to appear common, but had absolutely no idea how to go about it. His shirt was far too white, to start with, though it was plain and unruffled. The cream colored waistcoat he wore over the top of it hung open, brass buttons shining without a hint of tarnishing, and his trousers, though a simple brown color, clung to his thighs and hips, creasing only at the knee where they tucked into his boots. His knee-length black leather boots that were polished far beyond any that might have experienced any of the sort of normal wear and tear, although traces of mud clung to the bottom of the feet. That, the circles of sweat at his armpits, and the bedraggled state of his blond hair was any indication that he'd done anything remotely physical in his whole life.
And then there was his hat. Though it sported no fancy decorations, just a simple red scarf wrapped around the band, this was off-set by the fact that not only was it purple, a color rarely seen on anyone short of royalty, it was a large, sweeping cavalier hat. It caught Dimo's attention the moment he glimpsed it out of the corner of his eyes, and held it as the boy, who couldn't have been more than thirteen – fifteen, if he was being generous – dragged his feet across the floor whining melodramatically the whole way.
Which was probably not a bad thing, when all was said and done, because the boy made a beeline straight for the nearest chair, which he happened to already be occupying.
“Unnnngh, I have never walked so much in my whole life!” he moaned as he plopped down on the bemused Jaegermonster's lap, his arms folding on the bar's counter top just in to catch his head as it dropped to it. “I am never taking another step ever again.”
For a moment, Dimo simply sat there, staring at the dandy-boy now using him as a chair, then he glanced to the side, where a rotund, strawberry-blond man with a shaggy hair and a red fez sat, laughing.
“Looks like you made a friend!” Ognian chortled, his grin wide as he jabbed a finger into Dimo's shoulder.
“Yah, looks like,” the Jaeger agreed, chuckling himself as he leaned down, hovering his face right by the boy's ear, dropping his voice to a low, gravelly rumble. "Hyu comfortable, sveethott?"
Immediately, the body in his lap stiffened, a bright, ice blue eye snapping open and staring up at him from above the crisp white lines of his shirt. “Uh-”
And Dimo grinned, revealing twin rows of jagged, sharp, uneven yellow teeth, lids coming down heavily over his pupilless golden eyes. This did not comfort the boy at all, his shoulders hunching up reflexively, although Dimo couldn't POSSIBLY understand WHY, and neither did the arm that snaked around his waist, pulling him back against the Jaeger's chest. He was just being friendly, see? After all, it wasn't often something so pretty just fell into his lap like that. But the boy didn't seem to think the same and jerked upright, elbow jerking back towards Dimo's stomach.
“Let me go! Unhand me!” he yelped, looking over his shoulder with a mixed look of fear and indignation.
“Oh, come now, sveethott, hyu iz de vun who sat down here!” Dimo cajoled, giving him a little squeeze to the sound of Oggie's snorted chuckles. “If hyu deedn't vanna be friends, hyu shoulda sat elzevhere!”
“Hee! Not like there's many open seats left!” Oggie chirped, and the boy whipped his head around, eyes growing wide as he took in the rest of the tavern. Not many seats left was hardly an exaggeration, it was an understatement. The hall was bustling with Jaegerkin and human alike, all of them rowdy and bearing the mark of the Heterodynes. The only exception were the women peppered among them, who looked just as unsure of the situation as the boy, but far more willing to indulge boisterous crew. They served beer and sat on laps, but most importantly, they didn't occupy a single chair, if only because there were no chairs left for them to occupy.
This realization caused the boy to splutter, falling back against Dimo's chest as he flailed his arms in denial.
“But you can't be here!” he protested, looking back at Dimo as he gestured to the room. “It's impossible!”
Snorting in amusement, Dimo and Oggie shared a look, the former dropping his chin into his hand with a smug look.
“Kind of silly to say that when we're already here, don't you think?”
“No!” the boy blurted out, then paused, huffed, and looked up at the ceiling with a long-suffering look on his face. “Okay, yes, but that doesn't MEAN anything! You still shouldn't, couldn't possibly be here!”
“Und vhy not, sveethott?” Dimo asked, arching an eyebrow, pressing his claws lightly into the boy's belly. To his credit, the blond didn't visibly react to the pinpricks, but the Jaeger felt his muscles twitch, stomach curving inward to lessen the slight pain. “Ve iz Jaegerkin. Not many vould tell uz no hif ve vanted to be zumvhere.”
“But that's precisely it,” the boy insisted, brushing Dimo's hand away with a look of annoyance. The Jaeger waited a moment before he put it right back into place, this time curling his fingers a bit, catching the fabric of the shirt on his claws. “You're JAEGERMONSTERS. You don't go anywhere without leaving a trail of destruction and mayhem in your wake, and news of your location travels between villages like wildfire. The fact that you made it all the way here, within a day's march to the Count's castle, without anyone knowing you were coming...”
He paused, shaking his head in disbelief and pushing at Dimo's hand again while the Jaegermonster chuckled in amusement. “Well, it's astounding, really.”
“And would you stop that?” he snapped, his voice rising in pitch as Dimo's hand once more crept across his stomach, nimble fingers inching towards the buttons of his shirt. “How old are you, twelve? What do you even think you're doing?”
“Sixty-two, but who's countink?” Dimo quipped, grinning toothily. “Vhat about hyu?”
“I'm sixteen,” he huffed, exasperation tinging his voice as he glared moodily over his shoulder at the older male, eyes flicking over to Oggie, who looked fit to burst with laughter. “And honestly-”
That was all Dimo needed to hear.
“Ho, vell, in dot case,” he interrupted with waggle of his eyebrows, outright shoving his hand into the open space between the button's of the teenager's shirt, causing him to cut off mid-sentence with a shriek, all but launching himself out of the Jaeger's lap. Dimo and Oggie roared with laughter as he rammed into the bigger blond, then tumbled to the floor, hat going askew on his head.
“That's not funny!” he snapped, face red in embarrassment as he leaned back on his hands so he could kick out at Dimo in anger, his heel catching him hard on the shin. He got a yelp for his efforts, but it was so mixed in with the Jaeger's laughter that it hardly assuaged his ruffled emotions, so he did it again and again as the monster and his friend kept laughing. He continued his assault right up until a strangled shout of “Jaegermonsters!” caught his attention.
It caught Dimo and Oggie's attention as well, and while they jerked their heads around, the boy peeked around the legs of Dimo's chair, his eyes going wide at the sight another boy, not much older than himself, wearing a mix of chain and platemail framed in the doorway. “Oh, shoot.”
The moment lasted all of a second, then the tavern door slammed shut, and the blond flopped onto his hands and knees, scrambling in the opposite direction.
“Hoy, where you going?” Oggie asked as he scooted past, looking down with an owlish expression. “We was just starting to have fun!”
But either the boy didn't hear him, or he was outright ignoring him, because he kept on going, not looking back once as he was swallowed up by the crowd.
“Huh.” He looked back up with a pout, exchanging shrugs with Dimo. “Wonder what that was about?”
“Dunno.”
“Hey Dimo?”
“Yah?”
“Your Jaeger pin is gone.”
Dimo looked down as Oggie pointed to the lapel of his jacket, the pin containing the symbol the Heterodyne's monstrous regiment suspiciously missing from its usual position. Swearing colorfully, Dimo jerked to his feet quick enough to knock his chair to the ground, glowering in the direction the purple hat had disappeared. “Dot leedle shit-!”
He was just about to take off after him when the door slammed open once more, and this time, every head in the building turned to look. Framed in the entryway was an imposing figure, a complete, polished set of platemail covering from neck to toe. The face peering from above the armor could have been considered handsome, very strong and angular, with a neatly styled mustache adorning his upper lip. Unfortunately, a contemptuous sneer twisted its features, making him ugly and unpleasant looking. It was a shame, he had a really nice hat, too. A nice red barret with a bronze house sigil off to the right – a torch flanked by sabers, from the looks of it – with a large, fluffy gray ostrich feather sweeping backwards from behind it.
"Jaegerkin!" the guard bellowed, spitting out the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth, bracing hands on his hips and puffing out his chest. "Tell me, where is the location of your master? I would have words with him."
Snickers bubbled up from all over the crowd, Jaegers and humans exchanging smirks and eyerolls. It took a bit for someone to speak up, but when they did, the man did not like it. “Yah, sure, und who are hyu?”
"I am Bastian Von Schmittelfritz, Captain of the castle guard!” he snapped, puffing his chest up even more. “Recently, Count Adalberht's youngest son, Maximilian has disappeared. We presume he has been abducted and YOU lot are the prime suspects.”
He paused, sniffing imperiously, tossing his head, and folding his hands behind his back. “As such, it is to your benefit to cooperate.”
This time, Dimo was the one who spoke up, arching an eyebrow skeptically. “So what's dis kid ve zuppozed to haff effen look like? Hyu gots like a picture or zumting?”
The Gaurd Von Schmittelfritz whipped his head around, glaring daggers at the green Jaeger. “He is sixteen years old, with blue eyes and long blond hair. Does that jog your memory at all, MONSTER?”
“Sounds like my oldest boy!” Oggie chimed in before Dimo could speak his mind, which was probably for the best, all things considered. He certainly expressed the exact same sentiment in a far less offensive manner. “His name is Gerhard, though, and he's not here, he's back with his mamma, helping her watch the bitties. I keep telling him to cut his hair, but he's always says “No Pappa, long hair is the fashion these days, girls like it!” And while I'm very pleased that he's doing so well with the ladies, I would really prefer that he didn't look so much like a ponce.”
By the time Oggie stopped talking, veins started popping out on Schmittelfritz's neck and forehead, his entire force going red as he grit his teeth, fists clenched at his sides. His eye twitched as he ground out, “Yes, thank you, that is absolutely unhelpful and completely irrelevant to the situation.”
“You're welcome!” God bless Ognian Foglio, the one man who could upset someone so much while being so obliviously pleasant. Dimo patted his shoulder, then turned back to the guard and flashed a toothy smile.
“Vhat my friend here means iz, hyu gonna hafta be more specific den dot, ain't dot right, boys?” he called out, gesturing to the crowd at large. He got a few assorted “rights!” in reply, but by now, most of the pack had turned back to their women and their drinks. Dimo and Oggie had this under control, sitting and watching would be much more fun than getting involved.
However, a few bets were going around regarding whether or not Schmittelfritz's head would explode before he left or not.
“Hey, does he have a nice hat?” Oggie asked, nudging Dimo enthusiastically. The Jaeger's eyes lit up, and he nodded along, smiling brightly at the guard.
“Ho, yah! Hats iz a goot vay ov identifyink pipple.”
For a moment, Von Schmittelfritz looked like he was about to tell them off, but then he paused, considering this. After a moment, he just let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head. “He has a lot of hats. It's impossible to know which ones he taken with him.”
“So... no hat?” What a shame.
Throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation, the guard snapped, “Just tell me where your master is!”
“That way!” Dimo and Oggie answered in unison, pointing in different directions.
“No, no,” a lizard like Jaeger with far more metal in his face than was ever appropriate and a leather helm, interjected, pointing in a completely different direction. “Em priddy sure it vos dot vay, brudders.”
Dimo grinned as a few more chimed up, and then even more, all of them pointing different directions, all of them unable to reach an agreement as to where their masters were located. They all knew exactly where they were, of course, but this was funnier, and more likely to cause Von Schmittelfritz to blow up.
Unfortunately, rather than suffer these shenanigans, the guard simply turned on his heel and stormed out, to the disappointment of the entire room. Before the door slammed shut, they could hear him bellowing to his men, “SEARCH EVERYTHING. FIND THE HETERODYNES.”
“But what about-”
“AND MY STUPID, DISOBEDIANT LITTLE COUSIN, YES, THAT TOO.”
Next section
