TLoZ ~ Daybreak Desires (Darian & GeneticMess)

[Darian]

"Easy now, easy now..." Empah pauses and supports the rotund man. "No need to show off for a nun, y'hear?"

Talon takes a moment to recover, then gives Empah a faux-sheepish look. "Well, it's hard for a man not to flex a little when he sees a beautiful young woman."

Empah laughs and gently pats the man on his shoulder. "Tempt me not, mister! Not till after we've had dinner!" It's so... WEIRD to see Impa respond so easily to flirting, even joking like this! "How about you put my nephew to work while you work on how yer gonna try and charm me!"

Talon laughs happily. "Ah, I've got a chance! C'mon boy, let me show you the cuccos and pump you fer information." Still, he waves Nusso along with him. "Specifically, what your lovely lady likes to eat!"

Empah smiles and waves Nusso along... uh oh, looks like he's on his own!

"Now, Ingo, was it? Lets get these bales loaded up!" Empah's deep voice easily drowns out any grumbled complaints from the man.

[GeneticMess]

Nusso winced a little on the inside as the two started to have some "chemistry", not sure how he felt about that... but knowing Impa, it wouldn't go anywhere. As he was brought up, the boy scrambled out of the cart, feigning some struggle to not give away how nimble he truly was, before standing attentively before the farmer. "Yessir!" He enthusiastically follows the man into the barn, although on the inside he was getting all kinds of nervous. He was flying solo for the time being... he'd have to improvise. And hopefully not get Impa stuck with a dinner not in her favor.

The man would lead him into a barn, that was filled nearly to the brim with incessant clucking and shed feathers all over the straw and wood floor. This was different from the farm back in Kakariko, which didn't have nearly as much livestock and instead mostly invested in carrots and pumpkins as crops for trade. "You said your name was Talon, right mister? I'm Nusso, and that's my auntie Empah. Pleasure to meet ya, sir!" He jauntily holds out his hand to shake, like the energetic, outgoing, polite young boy he was. Was supposed to be, at least.

[Darian]

(so, to get back into the swing of things, the idea I had here was to have Nusso meet Young!Cremia by helping out with the cuccos. She gets a bit suspicious of him when she catches him pulling some ninja shit when he thinks she can't see. She starts casually asking about how everybody loves talking about secret ninja agents, and wouldn't it be cool to meet one... She keeps this up through dinner, and Impa rightfully guesses that Nusso has screwed up. Still, she gives him a chance to play it off... and then sends him through another test at night. This time counting the milk jugs in the farm. Which is when he gets caught by a cow or horse and Cremia has to save him while simultaneously going 'AHA! you ARE a ninja!' Which is why she remembers him.)

"Well, ain't you just a chip off the old block!" Talon laughs as he walks along and opens the door to the barn revealing MANY cuccos. "Well, here they are! Listen, these little balls of feathers are supposed to be in that pen over there. We let them out to roam a bit, but it's evening and feeding time." Talon points to the pen off to the side. "Cremia, my eldest, should be here to help you finish up, but the little things wander everywhere."

Talon walks over to a slow cucco, picks it up, and tosses it into the pen from a few feet away. The cucco bounces and bawks for a moment, then starts idly pecking around again.

"They're tough birds, and they might wiggle, but they won't peck or scratch if you pick em up firmly and they don't mind being tossed." Talon says knowingly. "Just..." He glances at the boy. "Just don't ever hit em. They'll gang up on you if they think you're dangerous or you tick them off."

[GeneticMess]

((Sounds good! I was wondering how them meeting would play out, and this sounds like it'll be... interesting for them to remember as they meet each other again in the present. I'm all for it!))

At his compliment, Nusso gives a toothy grin, looking at the many cuccos as Talon shows them to him. He's given some instructions to help crowd them up for the night and put them back into a pen, on the other side of the barn. He watches as Talon demonstrates, then nods attentively. "Can do, sir!" Nusso enthusiastically responds, approaching the pecking hoard, but looks back as Talon gives him another warning. Hurt them? Why would he ever hurt them? Maybe with that crooked man working here, he had to give out that warning for a reason. "I won't hit them, I promise, sir."

After that, once Talon gives him the okay and presumably leaves, Nusso rolls his shoulders for a moment. He didn't handle wildlife often, and now he was a decent bit afraid of ruffling one of their feathers enough to perhaps set them all off on him. But after a couple moments, he approaches a cucco, one that doesn't flee from his slow approach at least, and kneels down to pick it up. "Easy now... I won't hurt you, I promise." Nusso mutters to the bird without putting up any kind of facade at the moment, trying to keep the Cucco calm as he walked towards the pen, and then lightly tossed it over into it, surprised to see it glide as much as it did. Quick on their wings, those things. This shouldn't be too hard, at this rate...

[Darian]

(Argh. Sorry I've been so quiet. Been a bit sick and busy with the holidays.)

Talon does leave, citing the need to prep dinner for the new guests on the farm. The cuccos are squawky birds, but besides wiggling, they bounce into the pen with little effort. The weird thing is... they wind up in the darndest places. Behind a wood pile, buried in a haystack... one got sealed in an empty barrel! The latest one was actually stuck in a pot, whose neck was far too narrow to get into. Seriously, the cucco's head was sticking out of the neck, and it looked like a potbird.

How the heck was he supposed to get that bird out of the pot without breaking it?!

"Ahh, Occoco got stuck again?" comes a voice from the door. Standing there is a cute girl in a white dress with blue embroideries. She has shining blonde hair, so blonde that it's almost white. "Tricky little things aren't they?"

She has an open smile and bright blue eyes, white skinned, and a bucket in one hand.

"I'm Cremia. Want me to show you the trick to getting her out?" she asks, putting the bucket aside.

[GeneticMess]

That warning had still scared Nusso straight, and as such he's very delicate with the flock as he gathers them up to put into the pen. Some loose feathers fly all over the place as they incessantly flap whenever he picks them up, but prove to not be too much of a fuss to handle. It's just a particular few that are absurdly hidden. Was this the crooked man's doing as well? He picks up a pot with a Cucco's head sticking out of the top, the rest of it stuck in the jar. He looks around and sees nobody else around, before starting to bump the jar against the ground with slowly increasing intensity, figuring he might need to break the thing to get the bird out... he freezes as he hears a young girl's voice, and luckily hadn't even gotten close to cracking it yet.

"I dunno how this one even got in here..." He sighs aloud, before looking up at the girl proper. He freezes again, heart pounding a bit faster all of a sudden. Her bright eyes and smile, her hair that looked as pure as the heavens, and the way she carried herself looked so carefree, innocent and young. The young boy's face flushes red, but he doesn't have his scarves right now to hide it, so he just lightly tugs on the neck of his shirt to no avail. "N-Nusso. Y-yes, please." Nusso nods shyly, handing her the clucking pot as she puts down her bucket.

[Darian]

Cremia smiles cheekily, takes the pot-bird... and yeets it over the fence to smash against the wall, dropping the freed cucco to land amidst a small pile of pottery with a 'bawk!' The bird blinks for a moment, then starts pushing the shards into something resembling a nest.

"We have a BUNCH of cheap pots just for Occoco," Cremia explains with a giggle. "Silly bird just loves pottery, and we have no idea why. It at least keeps her from running off too far and popping up in weird places, like the pantry."

Cremia looks around, and starts looking up, and groans. "Ugh, now I need to get a broom... I think some of them have gotten up into the rafters again. Just keep listening for the clucks, and let me know if you spot them..."

Cremia heads out the door for a moment... but now would be a good time for Nusso to jump up and grab those high up cuccos himself! He's a shiekah agent in training, after all, and he's gotten pretty good at catching the cuccos... he can probably catch the birds and get them down before Cremia gets back!

(I think it would be funny to have Nusso do this and make Cremia suspicious of who he is... in a cheeky kid kind of way. And if it seems reckless- it is, and Nusso is a young boy and Cremia is a pretty girl. It's all up to you though, we don't have to have Cremia suspicious of Nusso to see him get utterly humiliated at night.)

[GeneticMess]

He watches her take the pot... and then takes the most blunt option he could image, chucking it into the coop before it smashes into the barn wall. It... worked?? He guessed??? Nusso looked on completely dumbfounded, but found himself too charmed by the girl to question it too much. He just giggles with her, before she looks up and... oh. These birds seemed to end up in the strangest of places, he started to wonder if it really was the crooked man who put them all over the place, seemed like too much effort on his part.

"... O-okay." He nods as she leaves for the moment to get a broom to scare them down. But, with nobody watching, he had a better idea. Nusso cracks his fingers, a cheeky smile on his face as he thinks how thankful the girl will be for him getting these Cuccos down without breaking a sweat. These casual clothes weren't the best for climbing, but Nusso grabs one of the supporting beams of the barn, and starts to sidle up it with little effort for a normal kid his age. He gets up onto the rafters in seconds, and... there were a lot more up here than he thought. No matter! He just starts grabbing them and dropping them down over the pen. They would flap their wings and flutter on down to safety their selves while he dealt with their brethren.

((Yep, he can't resist showing off at least a little bit! He'll just explain it away as being really good at climbing trees, haha. Humiliation later in the night is still in the cards, though, to counterbalance however cool Cremia might think he is before then, lol))

[Darian]

The cuccos in the rafters don't make this easy, and it's clear they're used to being up here. They hop around the narrow beams with ease, and some of the faster ones manage to dodge around Nusso's feet! Thankfully, Nusso has actual ninja training, but an ordinary kid would not be able to stand on the beams and chase after the birds... not without loosing their balance and falling. As it is, it's an exercise in frustration... catching a cucco takes a while without doing something REALLY excessive.

As Nusso is gathering the cuccos that have decided to try higher perches, the door to the barn swings open and Cremia returns with a long handled broom. "Okay, I got the broom-whoa!"

Her eyes go wide as she looks up at Nusso on the roof beams. "How'd you get up there?! be careful, the birds up there are really tricky, and you might fall!"

[GeneticMess]

The birds prove to be trickier than he thought, and that's when the kid gloves come off. He darts around with incredibly agility and precision. Though narrow, these rafters were nothing compared to some of the feats of athleticism he's had to perform before. He almost has them all, but freezes as he hears the barn door swing open, and Cremia sees him standing up in the rafters like it's nothing!

"U-uh, I'm just really good at climbing trees, so I thought I'd come up here and help! But the Cuccos are being stubborn..." He feigns incompetence trying to catch this last one, letting Cremia get it down with the broom as he grabs the support beam and slides back down. "Sorry if I scared you any! Aunty Em! Taught me to climb trees back home, and I've been practicing whenever I can, hehe!" He feigns the laugh of an innocent child, desperate to hide his actual abilities. Okay, maybe he got a bit too cocky there and almost blew his cover... but a farm girl like Cremia wasn't anything to worry about. He just... hoped she thought it was cool he could get up there like that...

[Darian]

Cremia did not, in fact, ooo and ahh at Nusso's explanation. Instead she watches as Nusso slides down the support beam, her gaze focused. When Nusso feigns his childlike laugh, her eyes narrow.

"Sure... that big lady I saw hefting hay bales taught you to climb trees..." Cremia drawls, her suspicion obvious.

Then, all of a sudden, her attitude completely shifts. She gives Nusso a big smile.

"Ooooh, but you looked so cool up there Nusso! Like some kind of acrobat!" She idly twirls one lock of her blonde white hair around a finger, and sidles closer to Nusso. "I've never met many Shiekah before... is it true that you get trained as secret agents of the crown?" She bats her eyelashes at Nusso as she tilts her head, her smile all charm.

Uh-oh.

"That sounds so interesting! How'd you learn how to do stuff like that?" Cremia asks with doe like innocence. She leans forward and almost sways side to side to show off her cute dress.

Nusso is very lucky that Cremia currently isn't much older than he is, because she isn't much better at pretending to not be fishing for information. As is, she's still very cute... and who knows, maybe that's enough. Still, better to play dumb... right? Nusso is in disguise!

[GeneticMess]

"... Heh... yeah." Was she seeing right through him? Nusso panics a little inside, but his concern then seems to have been all for naught as she brightens up and compliments him! She talks about how cool he was up there, how he got up there all on his own, how she never met a lot of Sheikah before-

... oh no.

"I'm a what?!" He plays up his surprise, although some of the shock that she found out was used to help bolster his performance. "I'm... not a Sheikah... I just really like playing outside and all!" It's hard to concentrate as she gets all close, that smile of hers hard to look away from. She doesn't seem to budge from her stance, but Nusso knows he can't crack THAT easily. Not against a little girl his age, to boot!

"Look, miss, I appreciate your compliments and all, but I'm no Sheikah. Don't know anything about them... sneaky folk." He shrugs, trying to play it off as how an ignorant Hylian boy would describe the Sheikah. Her cuteness was still making it hard to concentrate. "Sorry to disappoint! But hey, I think we got all the Cuccos now, right?" Nusso tries to change the subject and save his hide, but knows that won't be enough to shake Cremia from her suspicions. He's going to have to play dumb for the rest of the night, ugh... a shame, he kinda wanted to get to know her better, but now this'll be all she's focused on...

[Darian]

"Hmmmm... sure... but you don't look quite like a Gerudo, you know..." Cremia seems unconvinced at his bumpkin-esque manner of speech and his excuse.

(I'm counting the sheikah as a sub-race, like they're only technically Hylians. White hair and red eyes are quite distinctive, after all... maybe it's a trivia thing, but villagers in BOTW recognized Purah as a sheikah despite not seeing much of her. Every Shiekah doesn't have to be a Shadow... but it is very much the highest honor anyone still IN the clan has. I guess Cremia is just assuming from a few features she's seen of Nusso.)

Still, she puts the broom away and helps shoo/toss the rest of the cuccos into their pen for the night. "Come on then, we need to wash up!" Cremia leads Nusso to a nearby well. "Can't eat if our hands are dirty, that's what mom says!" She takes a deep breath and sniffs the air. "Smells like dad is already cooking."

[GeneticMess]

((Yeah, biologically the same as Hylians but just a different, ally faction from them. iirc I think I gave Nusso red hair rather than white, but could be misremembering. White hair with red eyes is a good look for him though, might just keep it/retcon it in if it wasn't already the case. Cremia doesn't have concrete proof, but she has suspicions that are right, which Nusso's trying to dodge...))

He... doesn't have much of a retort there, not saying anything to fire back at him with as the two of them get the rest of the Cuccos back into their pin, the slippery rascals. Cremia then leads Nusso to a well of water to wash his hands at, where he gets them nice and soaked to clean off the filth those birds' feathers may have carried. There was some tension in the air as Cremia no doubt still had her suspicions... but he tried to sway her away from those with some more small talk.

"What stuff does your Pa usually cook? Auntie and I haven't really had a proper meal these past couple days, just snacked here and there while on the road..." Nusso was trying to keep track mentally of everything about the facade Impa had created thus far, as to not contradict her or himself and raise further suspicion. He'd already got cocky and got Cremia hot on his trail...

[Darian]

(He can still have red hair if you like, just saying, Sheikah have a certain look to them. Up to you though, he's your character.

Also, I'm thinking of doing a small time-skip here. just to get things moving a bit faster and easier, I'm thinking we skip the dinner. We can do it if you want though.)

"Eggs and vegetables. We've got plenty of both, but we might have some beef, if you're lucky!" Cremia gives him a big smile that is very cute and almost definitely means she won't be finding a way to grill him about his past over dinner.

Spoiler: that's practically all Cremia does. With a big smile and framing the questions in an 'oh i'm such an ignorant-yet-curious country girl' manner.

Talon laughs it off, saying that his daughter is such a curious lass. Empah laughs too, and when Nusso starts to have trouble with the girl, actually manages to distract Cremia by explaining that yes, Nusso did learn how to climb trees... and Empah tells an VERY embarrasing story about how Nusso ended up on the wrong side of a beehive in a training accident framed as a youthful misadventure. Inigo sort of grumbles halfheartedly through dinner.

At night however, the pair of them set up in a comfortable spot in the outer barn. When they get thier bedding out, Empah turns to give Nusso a knowing look.

"It seems you made an impression on Cremia, Nusso." she says in her deep, serious normal voice. Still so strange to hear coming out of that friendly body!

"You do remember we are supposed to be unobtrusive, un-memorable travelers?"

[GeneticMess]

((Hm... I think we can retcon it in, the idea's grown on me, a silvery white, almost platinum blond.
Time skip's fine! Don't think dinner will be too eventful beyond what's going on right now.))

"Mm, sounds good!" There's some slight unease in Nusso's voice that he tries his darnedest to let surface. But Cremia was also just a kid, and as such, was only so good at hiding her own intentions with a smile that tries way too hard to look innocent.

And then comes dinner. Nusso deflects any of the questions she brings up, or simply doesn't respond to them and lets the topic of conversation move elsewhere when possible. His "aunt" just laughs along, helping his masking efforts somewhat. And slightly punishes him by bringing up that one day they trained just outside the village, and he'd managed to stumble back into a tree and knock over a beehive. His face beams a little red in shame, which at least helped sell the facade further.

The moment he's no longer in good company, and instead left with just his mentor, Nusso's heart sinks. He'd find himself struggling to look Empah in the eyes while they set up a makeshift bed in the barn, his body obviously tensing as she calls him out in her normal tone of voice.

"Y-yes, Impa..." His voice quivers, as if he was talking to a mentor that would punish him very harshly for his error. Not to say Impa was soft, far from it, but she wasn't THAT harsh either. "I... I was just trying to... help. But she saw me at a bad time..." His face flushes red, as Nusso's probably being harder on himself than his mentor. But in his eyes, his goof was nothing short of a failure, and this training was all for naught.

[Darian]

"For all your powerful masks, you still have much to learn about hiding your true face... your true nature, as it were." Impa says softly. "That is the main lesson I wished you to learn here. It's much trickier than you imagine... but it's essential to stealth, and investigation as well. Hmmmm..."

The disguised woman thinks for a moment.

"I have an idea. I want to know exactly how many milk cans are inside the Lon-Lon cattle barn. You are to count them yourself and tell me."

Oh dear. It's one of these tasks. Little more than a goal and one qualifier, Impa gives no other directions and judges Nusso's entire approach to the situation. It's especially infuriating because it's near impossible to do any of these tasks right... but Impa says that's why they're lessons.

Worse, now he doesn't have any ninja tools...

At the very least, sneaking into the cattle barn at night won't be hard... Talon snores like a rockslide!

[GeneticMess]

It was true, he'd leaned too heavily on his heirlooms for the purposes of deception, now that he was forced to not use them, he was having a harder time keeping things on the down low. Impa's offer of another test to prove his skills lightens Nusso up a small bit, a newfound glint of determination in his eye. It would be tough, forced to approach the ordeal his own way, and his way would no doubt be the wrong way... but complaining wouldn't do him any favors. He'd just have to put in his all to make up for his screw up.

"Yes, Impa." He nods attentively, slipping off of the bed and peaking out the barn door. Nusso didn't have his usual Sheikah garbs on him, which helped lighten his footsteps and all around blend into the shadows better, so he had to make due with what a Hylian commoner would be working with. He slips out of the barn and keeps his back to as many building walls as he can, keeping an eye and ear out for anyone that might be up at this hour. Talon's snoring actually makes the boy jump at first, before he realizes the sound signified he was unheard rather than not. If anything, it helped masked the sound of his foot steps for a little while...

[Darian]

The cattle barn is locked, but for someone like Nusso, it's easy to climb into the hay loft rather than pick the heavy lock.

Nusso is instantly greeted by the musky smell of several farm animals. Still, cleaning the barn is a daily task, so the smell isn't too bad at this point. This is actually a very big barn... on one side are a large amount of very big horses, and on the other are cows... both things the ranch are famous for. The animals haven't noticed him yet... most are sleeping standing up, as they lock their legs to do so.

Now though... his goal is on the other side of the barn. there are a bunch of milk cans there, all stacked up!

[GeneticMess]

Rather than fiddle with the lock, Nusso finds it much easier to climb up the side of the barn and climb into the window leading into the hay loft. The inside of the barn is significantly warmer than outside, probably from all the big animals that stayed here. The smell is... well, different, but not entirely unpleasant. He slowly climbs down from the rafters and to the ground level, trying his best to be quiet as to not spook any of the animals and bring attention to him. Despite the dark, Nusso is able to spot his goal, and very carefully sneaks in that direction. He doesn't need to get all the way over there, just close enough to see how many milk cans are there and to count them. Hopefully none were hiding in a way where he needed to move them around to see them all...