06 Milkshake
a/n: My old boy Roo, Yelv, Alexa, Lin and Tatsu are having a quick snack. Roo has an ulterior motive: arts and crafts.
Insects, pretty harmless, but still.
All the good things belong to Monolith Soft; Roo the Pathfinder is my very first Cross.
"Okay, I think I got what I needed," Roo said, juggling a total of five milkshakes in a cramped cardboard carrier.
"Thirsty much?" laughed Yelv.
"What's your poison?" Roo asked. "I got vanilla, strawlenny, coffee, hazelnut, and godmelon. Please don't say godmelon, please don't say godmelon, please don't..."
"GODMELON!" shrieked Alexa. "Gimme." She grabbed for the cup that hinted at its sunset-colored contents, complete with slight glow.
Roo sighed with regret, and for a moment the wrinkles around his eyes suggested age rather than laughter. He lifted the carrier up high, away from Outfitter reach. "Before I hand it over, one thing: I want the straws at the end. No chewing, okay? I have a plan."
The small team got down to the serious business of consuming the milkshakes. Yelv clearly wasn't enjoying the hazelnut, but he sucked away bravely. Lin and Alexa swapped their shakes mid-way. Roo and Tatsu were neck and (total lack of) neck for first to finish. At the end, Roo collected the straws and disappeared into the cafe's restroom. He returned a few moments later with five relatively clean straws and a gleam in his eyes.
"You know, you could probably have asked the cafe to give you straws. They might charge a little, but the Sunset staff is pretty nice."
"This way is more fun," Roo muttered. He'd pulled two rolls of electrical tape, some ovis fur, and a biocontainer from one of the pockets of his cargo shorts. He bent his head over the straws and started crafting.
"What's in the jar?" asked Yelv.
"Glow bugs. Got them from a level 3 insect nest this morning. That's why we had to have those milkshakes before lunch. I only want to keep them for a little longer, then we gotta let them free. But first I want to try a thing." While he was talking, he began to wrap one end of each of the straws with the black tape for a couple of cm, making a base. He paused to hand the fluff to Alexa. "Could you twirl this into a loose cord? We need enough for half a straw's length for each of them. It'll help diffuse the light."
He lined the straws up, admiring his work, then trimmed the crude yarn to his satisfaction. He cut five strips of clear tape and made a fringe along the table's edge. "Now for the tricky part. Let's hope Coco doesn't notice or she'll yell at us." He lifted the cap off the biocontainer, revealing a sort of dropper tip. He squirted a puff of insects into the first straw, quickly threaded the yarn in after them, and closed the tip with a waiting piece of tape.
"Ta dah! Tiny beam sabre." He waved the straw in the air, and the plastic straw was transformed into a tiny glowing sword.
It was an excellent craft. The team enjoyed it as much as (if not more than) the milkshakes. They left before Coco could confirm her suspicions that they were up to no good. Alexa got a great video of Roo and Yelv play sword fighting. Lin ordered Tatsu not to suck his straw empty like a pixie stick. And the insect were released with probably no harm, although they may be harboring a grudge so be careful when collecting biological treasures.
a/n: There are instructions for this kind of craft, but using small battery lights, not glowbugs. Another nice suggestion from OnePirateWolf96.
Next up: I found a most excellent prompt list by Mia Botha, so I will be bouncing between suggestions and that list.