Small fish, Big Pond [Open]

[Seluj]

Day 15, Summer 512 AV...

Seluj looked out over the sea, his eyes drawn to squint thanks to the glare of the sun off of the water. The whole scene was warming in a way, but the breeze and the spray of ocean water would quickly remind you of the shiver down your back. He was simply observing at first. There was an art to this you know. Fishing was no laughing matter, at least to him. You would have to have just the perfect spot, and just the perfect conditions. If only his skill with a lure matched up to his meticulous ideas of fishing superstition, then he might actually catch something worth mentioning! In truth, he was nothing more than a novice, and like everyone else driven by the truth of scarcity, he was led to the waters edge, knowing that food was only a piece of bait away...

But today he was looking for a new spot then just the ol' twine and stick trick. A trap of sorts! A method in which he could capture a whole swarm of fish instead of just one, with the right practice and timing of course. A design in which a net is cast like a cage out over the sea in shallow waters with a single entrance. As unsuspecting fish wander in, they end up trapped in the shallow waters and unable to fathom the idea of simply coming out the way they came, the net becomes their cage! Fish weren't all too smart after all... The only problem is he didn't exactly HAVE a net, or any of the other resources to pull this off. He would have to buy them, when the time came. He was quick to hold on to his earning when he could, but you know what they say, you have to spend money to make money.

But even then... if it worked out, what would he DO with all those fish!

The gears of his wild imaginations turned in his mind. A single fish could feed him, yes, even if it were just a snack. But imagine! To be a great fishermen and have the abundance of the sea as your resource. A reservoir of a feast. Feasts of feasts even! An endless fleet of food for not only himself, but for everyone that he wanted to share with, and for the right coin, everyone in Zeltiva! Ha. He caught himself. A dreamer dreaming once again as he looked out over the surprisingly calm sea at what he hoped to be the first fish of today. That's where he would start, that one, first fish...

This was the ambition of a young man. It didn't matter what it was... a fish, a dance, a conversation with a stranger... those things that he loved because they were part of him. Just as his Djed defined him, they gave him identity. One day he would be able to share that with the world...

But it all has to start somewhere. And so, though he had visited this ocean side many times before, he would now consider this the first again! And hopefully the first of many! His adventure started today!

He clutched what money was in his pocket, and nodded to himself with a determined look on his face. As though giving his thoughts sound, he spoke in the common tongue softly and too him, though firm and with conviction, "Alright..!"

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock was tromping across the beach, barefoot, her pants rolled up past the knees to keep them from getting wet. She had her sleeves rolled up and shirt partially unbuttoned, the front flaps tied together in a knot just under her breasts, exposing her tanned midriff. It was hot out, and she was sweating, and didn't mind exposing a little skin in order to keep cool. The cold water felt good as it lapped over her feet and splashed her legs with each ebb and flow of the tide. She was humming as she moved across the sand, her pack slung over one arm, Grippy, her Automaton reaching tool in the other hand. She was collecting rocks and shells from the sea, for use in some project or another. Whenever she spotted an unbroken shell, or a smooth, flat rock that had been shaped by the water to take off the rough edges, she aimed Grippy at it and used him to retrieve it. With touch of her finger at the perpendicular handle, the metal arm extended outwards, the criss-crossed X's of the arm unfolding and extending to push out the metal hand at the end. Then a flick of her thumb across the back of the handle closed the hand over the treasure she'd found, and she pulled it back. The large gears on the handle and the hand at the end spun in unison, linked by a long chain, keeping them synchronized. The metal X's folded back up, pulling the hand back, and Tock deposited what she had found into her bag, moving on down the beach. She didn't notice the fisherman down the ways at first. Tock tended not to be very observant of the people around her. She was the type to keep her head down and her eyes on the ground. You found more stuff that way then staring at the clouds, daydreaming uselessly.

[Seluj]

Something happened to a person when they stayed in the same place for long enough. It was like saying a word out loud over and over until it became like gibberish and lost meaning. Those things around you, while predictable, became part of the environment itself. That's something he enjoyed about fishing, that even if he had no talent for it, he could just sit, and be, and think about anything and everything that the world was. It was so big and overwhelming at times that just being in one place, was comforting. To be in the same spot for long enough that even the fist and other living things, fail to recognize you as foreign. To feel at home somewhere, even though he himself didn't have a place to call his own yet...

So when the glint of a metallic object down the shore caught his eye, it was no wonder that he would turn his head if only to investigate out of curiosity. It was hard to make out at first, as it was foreign even to his imagination, but it seemed to be like some sort of mechanical claw? Fact was, Seluj was pretty simple, and it didn't take too much to excite or entertain him. After his brush with magic, he always hoped that 'magic' was the explanation behind those things that he didn't yet understand. He watched patiently as the person slowly made their way down the sand toward him. It became evident that this girl was seemingly collecting things upon the beach with this fascinating device! Though he was surprised that she hadn't even bothered to look up at him. Did she even know he was there?

Granted, he wasn't exactly anything eye catching at the time... Zeltiva was a safe haven for brilliant minds, and this was most likely one of those brains that attended the university he heard about so often. Seluj, a dancer who spend most of his nights entertaining in taverns and stirring up parties among the impoverished, would naturally feel a bit intimidated at first at this assumption. But instead of becoming shy, Seluj pushed through anxiety and made his personality big. 'Fake it till you make it!'... He heard that somewhere...

When he felt that she could hear him without him shouting to her, he spoke firmly, "You know if you bring metal gizmos like that to the shore you'll scare away the fish!" He said in a playful manner, flashing a sarcastic smile.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock scooped up one of those twisty little conch shells, grinning wide as she added it to her collection. She had no idea what she was going to do with it, but she was sure she'd find some use. She kept scanning the beach looking for more, when she heard a voice call out to her. She looked up and saw the stranger, then looked around in confusion, not sure what he was talking about. "Metal gizmo?" she asked. "Where? Oh!" she held up Grippy and asked, "Ya mean Grippy? 'E's not scary..." She didn't think of him as a gizmo. He was an extension of her, made with a fragment of her own soul, and as natural a part of her as her own hand. "Ya want scary, I can does scary," she said, chuckling and waving Grippy at him. She had babies at home that were far scarier than Grippy. He was just for reaching things that were too far away. But she had others that were downright lethal when she wanted them to be. "An who done cares if'n I scares the fish, anywho?" she asked. "Ain't like 'ey done gonna do nothin' 'bout 'er! 'Ey's fish! If'n I don't care none what fer if'n I's scarin' people, 'en as I ain't done gonna care none what as I's scarin' fish, neither, aye mate? Aye." Scaring the fish? Pfft. She shook her head and kept scanning the beach. Like she cared about the hurt feelings of a bunch of stupid fish.

[Seluj]

Boy! This chick was a mouth full already! And when I say mouthful, I mean that Seluj had to almost flex his ears to make out exactly what she was saying! It was kind of fascinating just listening to her speak. There were plenty with the similar tone of voice in the taverns on wild nights, but none of them were little girls! He could just imagine a big burly man, chest full of hair, beard down to his knees, wide as he was tall but with the pitch and tone of a girl. But no matter her accent, he was glad that she wasn't the shy sort! In his mind that gave him license to be just that much more outgoing. He was visually holding back a smile, but only half succeeding, as she spoke.

In spite of her quirky nature, he was so distracted by the waving around of what was apparently a third arm, that he couldn't be too offended that she wouldn't even stop to consider his feelings or those of the fish. Maybe if he were actually a fishermen worth a miza he would care more but he had already fallen in love with this thing she called "Grippy", though it seemed just as easy to bend over manually and just pick something up by hand right? No wonder academics were so squish, they had gadgets do all the work for em! But in any case, he was still curious if what he was looking at was a result of magic.

'Ya want scary? I can does scary!' sounded like an invitation in his mind! Now all he needed was the proper catalyst. She was walking down the beach collecting things, and he had just watched her pick up a rather interesting shell off the coast just before he got her attention. The look on her face as she retrieved the shell was one that he had seen before. It was a moment of actual satisfaction, like when you win a game of dice or a hand of cards; those lucky moments where you truly consider yourself fortunate. Then it hit him! Two can play at this game! His eyes darted to the moist sand at his feet; a shell implanted on it's belly that folded out like a plate. It was a pearl white and about the size of his palm.

"OHH yeah!? Don't care about scaring the fish, eh? Well then let's see if I care about your... shell collecting!" He said, taking a single plant foot forward with his left leg and swinging with the right, kicking the shell up from under the sand and sending it clean 20 feet away into the water, landing with a 'thdunk' and disappearing into the shallow waves. He wanted to get a reaction out of her so maybe she would show him how 'she can does scary'. "Can your 'Grimpy' get that?" He said, holding back a grin still at how clever he was too pronounce the name she had given it wrong. Hopefully this would be enough to provoke an otherwise unsympathetic academic.

She didn't look all that scary but he liked surprises! Worst come to worse he could just run away... right?

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock wasn't the most socially adept person. Sarcasm and subtlety tended to be lost on her. She had no idea what game the man was playing, she just thought he was being rude. Her eyes followed the shell, then she turned back to the man with a scowl and shook Grippy at him. "Oy, whazza big idea, aye?" she growled at him. "An' 'e's 'Grippy', mate. Clean yer bloody ears out, aye?" She stepped over eight feet towards the shell, peering through the water until she spotted it, and aiming Grippy at it. The arm extended the remaining twelve feet, his maximum length, and carefully plucked the shell from the water. She retracted him and plopped the shell into her pack with the rest. "Don't go doin' 'at again," she told him as she walked past, continuing her search. "I ain't done got no patience what fer tight arsed blokes what ain't got no respect fer a girl's work. Ya wanna go play fetchin' games, go git yerself a dog, aye?" She didn't like being toyed with. She was also more than willing to let her ire be shown, especially when there were no witnesses around. This town, safe as it was compared to Sunberth, was a little too uptight about certain things. Such as people getting popped in the jaw when they bloody well deserved it. But as long as no one was around to see, she figured there was little danger of getting in trouble if she decided this man needed to be taught a lesson. Worst case scenario, she also had a dagger on her belt. If this man really wanted to see the scary madwoman, all he had to do was keep pushing her.

[Seluj]

He made sure to pay close attention as to how far that arm thing could stretch. Math wasn't exactly his strong suite, but he could more or less gauge it's range by watching her retrieve the shell, and it seemed a good two or three of his strides; just over a body length and a half maybe. If worse came to worse and she got upset enough with him to lash out at him with that 'gimpy', then he would want to know how far he would need to be to get out of 'arms way'! He was sure that it was the maximum length it could stretch because a squishy academic like herself wouldn't step out into the ocean even one inch further than she had to. If she wouldn't even bother bending over to pick it up, she certainly wouldn't walk all the way out to it.

If there was one thing he did have a talent for, it was understanding what made other's 'tick'. He was a little cautious because while he was happy to mess with her, he didn't want to go and accidentally make an enemy out of her. It was like flirting in second grade when you picked on the girl that you liked; accept this was probably more a nudge more dangerous. You never know what you're going to get when you poke a stick at a stranger. He stood arms folded as she walked on by him and when she mentioned that he was a tight ass it took everything in his self control not to turn and look at his own butt and say 'thanks for noticing'. But he had to be more subtle to get her attention...

"You know, for a girl that plays with toys, you're not much fun!" He said poking fun at her creation as a 'toy' and degrading what she was doing into 'playing'. Girls tended to react to passive-aggressive things like that. To add insult to injury, he bent over slightly to scoop up a good handful of moist sand, packing it between his palms, something like you would a snow ball. With her back to her task of collecting he would throw the ball of sand at her back. It would break apart mid air of course, making a kind of splatter of sand across her midsection. He took a step back just for good measure as he waited patiently for the result, "Tag! You're it!" He said with a broad grin on his face. He knew how childish he was being and was doing it completely on purpose too, which was all the more liberating.

Now if he could only regress this academic to the same childish games, even if she abandoned her current duty for only a moment, he would be satisfied! He would have a story worth telling!

OoC:

Secret :

SO MANY PUNS IN THIS POST!

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

OOCI love puns! Also, don't take Tock's negative reactions personally. She just has a temper, but I'm loving the thread. "'E ain't no toy!" Tock protested, shaking Grippy at the rude stranger. "'E's an advanced work o' magic an' science, bludger! An' ya done best 'member 'at, aye?" She turned away, grumbling under her breath. He thought it was a game! The man had no idea the works of magic and wonder she intended to create with the shells and stones she was collecting today. She had half a mind to teach him a lesson. Then he threw sand at her. Tock had never played 'tag'. It wasn't the sort of game one played in the streets of Sunberth. The streets were too dangerous there for kids to be running around like that. Kids tended to play more rough and potentially criminal games. You were far more likely to see a group of kids having their fun chucking rocks at windows, or picking on weaker kids. So the idea that throwing something at her could be in jest was far beyond Tock's experience. So when she felt the wet sand against her back, she snapped. Growling, Tock turned and aimed Grippy at the man's legs. She thrust the arm forward and clamped the metal hand around his ankle, then yanked back hard to try to pull him off her feet, hoping to plant him flat on his back in the sand. Then she aimed Grippy at his chest to try to pin him down, and shouted in his face, "Oy, whazza matter witchoo, bloke!? Ain't done nobody never taught ya no manners? Ain't nice what fer ta throw sand at girls. Why, I done oughta bash yer little face in fer 'at!" She was red in the face, and set her bag down in the sand so she could free her other hand. She placed that hand on the dagger sheathed at her hip. She didn't know if this man was armed and dangerous, or just acting a fool, but she had grown up in a place where one didn't take chances. She wouldn't lower her guard around a stranger, regardless of the fact that he hadn't really tried to hurt her.

[Seluj]

The growl was the warning that he needed that he had gotten some sort of reactions! But what he didn't expect as how quick her reaction would be, or rather the reaction of the metallic third arm she called grippy. Launched at his leg he would attempt to skip away with some fancy foot work, causing grippy to grab him about his ankle, succeeding in flipping him on his back by pulling up. A little startled he would scramble a she attempted to pin him by his chest. He wasn't exactly purposely attempting to dodge out of her way, but rather was knowledgeably trying to escape it's range. From his back he would roll onto his stomach, just narrowly escaping being pinned, and on hands and knees wriggle forward to his feet before turning to face her. He was literally laughing nervously, in the same way you would after a solid scare or after falling victim to a good prank. It was incredibly strong and too flexible to be something with metal working alone.

He was convinced it was the result of magic! It wasn't something you saw everyday, so he was more than fascinated! That being said he wouldn't make the same mistake of coming into it's range again, at least while her face was flush red like it was. She had quite a temper, but really, he would probably be just as ready for a fight if someone had made fun of the things he loved. It someone dared to mock his dancing, he would happily put their face in the dirt himself! He could at least admire that but he was so curious about the 'grippy' and whatever else that she could pull off that he didn't even pay too much attention to her yelling at him, not that he could even understand her with her sharp accent.

"WOW! That's made from magic isn't it? You're a wizard aren't you! Why else would an academic type be collecting shells if not for some kinda brew or incantation or something! THAT'S SO COOL!" He said, almost yelling back at her with his surprise. He would pretty much blow his cover, switching immediately from being a jerk to complete childish awe. Even the tone of his voice changed as though he jumped from a facade to his actual self. Magic was sort of taboo, and even the person that taught him to utilize hypnosis had stressed how he should only use it sparingly. Thus, any time he saw something he didn't understand or couldn't readily explain, he excessively curious! "You gotta tell me how you do that! What's that called!?"

Perhaps his amazement was a result of his general lack of knowledge when it came to magic. He really was more mature and intelligent then he came off, but acting silly and over the top was more of a habit. He was after all an entertainer by profession!

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock watched as the man danced agilely back to his feet, retracting Grippy and readying to lash out again if he continued to mess with her. Next time she'd aim for his face. Maybe bruise him up nice and good so he'd have a nice reminder not to go around screwing with people. "'Course 'e's magic," she replied with a scowl. "Ain't no wizard, though. Magus. Wizards is old men wit' beards an' bad breath..." She didn't know why everyone insisted on using the word 'wizard' to describe anyone who could use magic. She was a girl, after all. She scowled at him as he suddenly insisted on more information. Why should she waste her time telling him anything? Suddenly she knew how Archimaneus had felt. There was no reason for her to share her hard-earned, difficult to master knowledge with some random boy who hadn't done anything to earn that right. So she just shook her fist at him and said, "I ain't done gotta tell ya nothin'! Whatcha done think 'is is, aye? Ya come down 'ere, toss my stuff 'round, throw sand at me, an' 'en ya done thinks I's gonna tell ya nothin' 'bout my babies? Petch off, ya lousy bludger!" She turned and started to stalk away. She saw no reason to tell him anything. She didn't care about his curiosity, and he hadn't done anything to earn her respect. Magic was something she took very seriously. Something she had earned through hard study and determination. Maybe a few years ago, when she first started her apprenticeship, she hadn't understood that. She might even have been a bit like this man, eager to learn without knowing to show the proper respect to those who had earned that knowledge. But her time in Zeltiva had taught her a thing or two about class and status and the difference between wanting something and earning it. So unless the stranger had some way to earn that knowledge, she wasn't going to give him anything.