Small fish, Big Pond [Open]

by **Seluj** on June 14th, 2012, 11:51 pm

Having already blown his cover, he would slowly become less childish in tone and in body language, as though taking her more seriously. Though this was more a reflection of his own thought process. A hypnotist had to be able to understand emotions and the way people thought in order to be effective, and while he had already decided that influencing this girl through magic wasn't going to be his course of action, he still tried to make out the details of her person the best he could. He could feel the reflection of pride in her voice. Her sharp accent only helped bring out the nature of her frustration. Part of empathy was just putting himself in someone else's shoes, but an academic was often so knee deep in a book that they were narrow minded. A tinker like herself, and young as she was, was most likely devoted to her talent. She even called the 'grippy' her baby; and he had seen enough crazy cat ladies to know what that meant!

The only way he could appeal to her now was to speak her language. Not literally, I mean, he wasn't about to start trying to speak with her accent, but if her tinkers were important to her, then he would have to speak... tinker language! Just as a dancer could understand another dancers attitude by movement and body language alone. The challenge was, he himself was 'simple' (as previously noted...) and didn't even know what vocabulary to use. His mind didn't even have words to describe exactly what this 'grippy' was. But then it hit him! Something that would perhaps catch her curiosity as her magic had caught his.

"Jeeze, Relaaax! Sayin' I'm the tight ass one! Look at your ass! It's so tight right now!" He said. Comically mixing up words and meaning. One would say that he did it on accident but implicitly he probably knew how he said it and how it would sound, "I was just curious what it was called! Aren't academics curious to learn thing? Like I'm called 'Seluj'. See! It's that easy. Don't need a whole explanation or nothing, I wouldn't understand it anyway." He said, his person calming now that he assumed himself in the clear from another grippy assault.

"Or if I happened to know a man who had his keys stolen and is willing to pay good money to have someone change the locks on his vault. A complicated vault. But I doubt a tinker like you would be interested in that now would ya?" He said. He was obviously baiting her, for something of a trade of information. Seluj was only twenty after all, and flirting came naturally. Surely some emotional female wavelength would pick up on it! But then again, he never knew what to expect from academics.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on June 15th, 2012, 12:13 am

She was ready to walk away. Ready to just ignore this stranger and go about her business, and never think about this encounter again. She slung her pack onto her back, sheathed Grippy in his holster, and was on her way down the beach.

And then he commented on her ass.

Tock stopped in mid step. She planted her fists on her hips. Her back was to him, so he wouldn't see the look of consideration on her face. They were isolated on the beach. The water would easily wash all the blood away. Sharks would come along and eat the body. Who would be the wiser?

While she was plotting his murder, he started baiting her with some promise of money. She glanced back at him over her shoulder. There was a strong chance he was lying. He didn't look like the type to know any rich folk. Most poor folk in Zeltiva didn't even have locks on their front doors. And even a middle class person wouldn't be likely to pay enough for it to be worth Tock's time. So unless this guy somehow knew a rich man in the city (which she found unlikely), then this was most likely a line of bull shit he was feeding her for another game of some sort.

She turned and walked back to him, thumbs hooked behind her belt, her left hand straying casually close to her dagger. She stopped within arm's reach of him, staring him down with a dark look in her brown eyes. "Whazzer deal, mate?" she asked in a cold tone. "I ain't done got time fer games, aye? Whazzer want, an' make 'er quick, 'fore I done lose my patience an' bleed ya right 'ere onna beach, aye? Cause I ain't buyin' ya damn fool act, an' I done jus' 'bout 'ad 'nough o' ya..."

by **Seluj** on June 15th, 2012, 12:42 am

He was secretly satisfied. He had all but had his fun with this girl who continued to remind him just how little time she had for socializing. He went against his own personal feeling that as she marched back up to him that he could inch away and keep distance. But as she came close he decided to be naive, and trust a stranger with a keep sake. He would only hope that a tinker wouldn't be a murderer. He would hope that an academic wouldn't ACTUALLY attempt to 'bleed him'. He would let her get within arms length being well aware that her 'grippy' would be hovering over the two of them just waiting to slap em' around a bit, and if that arm got a hold of em there wasn't much he could do about it! The amount of faith he put in humanity would most likely eventually be his downfall. These days it was a better investment to put faith in the many gods than in ones self.

Now closer, he could speak less loudly, but still firm, "Tag... it's a child's game. Someone touches someone else and makes them 'It'. Being it is the most miserable of curses any magic user could conjure, but there is still hope. By touching another person, you can make them 'It' in your place. The point is to make sure to touch the other without being caught yourself... That's Tag." He said. Explaining something that seemed mundane and pointless as a child's game, but it wasn't just gibberish. It was more of a riddle. A seed of thought, "I'll be performing at the Kelp Bar tomorrow evening... should be quite the party..!" He said. Once again seeming pointless. A tinker like her would never be caught dead in a place like that full of brute and ruffians, but what a story it would make!

He reached out quickly, poking her by the shoulder as he almost simultaneously took off running in the opposite direction so that she may not readily retaliate violently, "Your It!" He yelled as he darted off, grinning madly as though he was just told a witty joke. He doubted she would run after him, but if fate played a hand in his life as he thought it would, this wouldn't be the last time he would see this small fish in the big pond. Let's hope he didn't scare it away!

Fishing metaphors... is that really what this whole thing was about?

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on June 15th, 2012, 1:01 am

She stared at him like he was crazy, not having the least clue what he was talking about. By the time he reached out and poked her, her patience had worn through. She didn't have time for children's games about fake magic. She had real magic to be working on back home.

She batted his hand away and scowled at him as he ran off. "Petchin' weirdo," she muttered, turning and heading in the opposite direction. She had collected enough shells, and wasted enough time, that she was content to let the man run off. She stalked off down the beach away from the sea, and retrieved her boots from where she'd left them at the edge of the sand. She brushed her feet off so she wouldn't get too much sand in her boots, pulled them on, and then headed off towards the city.

She was in a foul mood. Maybe she'd go home and build something. A nice project would be just the thing to take her mind off this and set her mood straight. She always felt better when she was doing something productive. It made the rest of the world fade away, and she could just focus on her task. She didn't have to worry about life, or people, or anything except the focus and precision needed to complete what she was working on.

That was far more fun than chasing some stranger around in the heat.

by **Paragon** on July 7th, 2012, 7:15 am

Adventurer's Loot

Minerva's Loot :

Seluj's Loot :

Great fun, you played off of each other really well - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.