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[Faradae]

Faradae Faradae took Sayana’s dagger and began to sharpen her own stick, careful not to nick her fingers with the blade’s edges. She had to pour most of her concentration into the task at hand, unskilled as she was in working with wood. She shaved off strips and slices more slowly than absolutely necessary, but the result looked very much like Sayana’s own stick. Satisfied, Fara used the same knife to cut fox meat from fox bone, fumbled it onto her stick’s tip and held it above the flame as she’d been shown. Clyde returned with a filled waterskin, and Faradae was temporarily distracted by the questions he asked. “Faradae,” she said without much thought. A name was easily forgotten. “‘Fara’ for short will do.” Then he inquired after her lack of clothing and means of travel. Inaudibly, a coin dropped. Her nature, it seemed, was not quite as obvious as she had considered it to be. She had confronted Sayana with her shift quite suddenly, but the woman had picked up on her nature almost immediately. As a result, Fara had assumed that Clyde would be equally fast to deduce. The corners of her mouth turned upward as she could not help but grin at the unintended strangeness of the comments she had made on her diet. She felt a little sorry for the man, and since there was no reason to keep her nature secret, she quickly explained. “I’m Kelvic. An eagle, specifically. That’s how I travel, and it’s also what occasionally puts me in the unfortunate position of lacking the required clothes to suit social conventions.” While speaking, she had subconsciously lowered her stick precariously close to the flame, and when she remembered it, only a very swift raise of her hand, accompanied by the hurried turning of the meat, kept her piece of fox from turning into coal. It was a little charred now, but looked edible still. While the meal cooked from the other side, her thoughts returned to a comment Clyde had made earlier when she’d asked about his sight. How does one look without their eyes? Her first thought went towards different senses. She knew that some animals who lacked one sense had their other ones improved. Perhaps the man had bad eyesight, but even so, no other sense could help one see a falling object. A different idea struck her mind. In Nyka, she’d heard about a magic once that told you things about ‘auras’... At the time, the concept had seemed too unfamiliar to grasp and she had not put much thought into it. She was not sure whether this was the same thing, precisely, but the memory told her that apparently, there were other ways of gaining information apart from just using your senses, she simply had no idea how it was done. She chose to keep the question silent. For one day, she'd asked enough. Instead, she focused on cooking, pulling first few slices of meat off her stick when she deemed them finished and roasting the next few in silence.

[Sayana]

Sayana carried along with the cooking, occasionally looking over to see how Faradae was doing. The Eypharain now had three sticks roasting, each in a hand which she turned periodically. She smiled when Clyde went off to get some water. One less thing for her to do. But more importantly it seemed to diffuse any earlier tension, even when the mage came back. The hypnotist nearly always had a mind for the current social interactions, especially if she had a general aim or purpose for them.

Sayana was briefly amused at Clyde’s questions but remained silent as she continued with the cooking. The first skewer of meat was starting to look nice and browned. She took it away from the fire and adjusted the other two before sampling a bite of the meat.

“It’s hot, be careful!” She warned after her first bite and breathing heavily with her mouth open to cool the piece of meat. For what she had done, it wasn’t too bad. Although closer to the middle of the stick, the remaining bit of meat was still a little pink. The Eypharian chewed around the outside, finding the meat a little more chewy and tougher than other kinds. But it was still acceptable. Then she returned it to the flame to cook the remaining inner parts longer.

Her second skewer was close to being done and most of the pieces on it were smaller too. However, there was something missing…

“Clyde, could you find my small pouch of salt? This skewer is almost done and you can sprinkle a bit of salt to make it taste better. Just be careful that the center isn’t too raw. We’re not all like Faradae.”

She’d offer the second skewer to Clyde and then begin work on another. The whittling of the skewer was still the trickiest part and it took many careful goes with the dagger to shave off the wood but not snap it entirely. Fortunately, she had now realized that it was only necessary to do one end instead of both. She now cut the meat pieces smaller. It was more time spent on the cutting but it would hopefully result in less cooking time.

Throughout the evening the Eypharian would give the mage finished pieces. Having learned his appetited, she tended to give him two for every one of hers. And with Faradae she’d watch to see that it wasn’t about to burn. Sayana had already asked most of her questions of the bird. There might be more later but that was enough for now.

However, with the light conversation and the cooking to distract the conscious mind, Sayana frequently caught the kelvic’s eye to deliver a faint bit of hypnotic djed. Each suggestion was subtle, nothing commanding, and more importantly there was nothing that went against the current situation.

It is safer to travel in numbers… These are nice people… They know how to find the star… I want to stay with them…

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde heard their new companions name, along with her revelation of her true nature.

Several facts slotted nicely into place, making several other things make more sense than they had when previously stated.

Of course, Clyde had not been given any clear indicator that she was a kelvic, hadn't seen her change form or such, and so hadn't had any clear reason to think she was as such. He could easily explain her situation in several other ways that didn't involve her being a kelvic. That being said in hindsight it did make sense, though likely only in hindsight.

He'd met quite a few kelvics over the course of his life, mostly in Ravok or Syliras. Most had an aversion to clothing, or treated them as a loosely accepted concept more than a necessity.

Her lack of clothing along with how she'd gotten there, flight, suddenly made much more sense and clarified things to toss out several other possible scenarios as to how she'd done so. Her being a spy, running into bandits who stole her things while she managed to escape, and other such considerations.

Clyde wasn't overly hostile, but he did have a knack for getting to the bottom of things. Getting to the bottom of things while keeping all involved happy, that was something Clyde had less of a knack for. He could interrogate people quite well, but that didn't mean they'd be happy to be treated as such. And Clyde, once finding the thread of a question, didn't often stop until he'd found a suitable answer.

“Ah, well why didn't you say so before? You know, its not like one can just figure out someone is a kelvic, I mean unless they see them change right in front of them. I've yet to find a predictable method of identifying kelvics in either form besides seeing them shift. Well except in their animal forms, as they at times act differently than a similar animal would. And I mean, I suppose even normal humans can be nudists, or get their clothes stolen, or enjoy raw food.”

Rising in response to Sayana's request as she cooked, Clyde went sorting through her things till he found the pouch of salt, returning it to Sayana for seasoning purposes. Clyde cared perhaps a bit less about salting, more interested in the food in general and consuming it than perfectly seasoning it.

After Sayana finished with her cooking Clyde took the offered meat stick, quickly devouring it in short order in the same manner one might down a swig of water. Oddly enough he properly chewed his food, but still managed to put it away in short order and was left hungry for more.

He assumed it was a side effect of his magic use, a constant small nagging hunger. Magic after all used djed in a person, at least personal magic. Eating was the most straightforward way to regain djed, Clyde knew, and so as he was almost constantly in need of replenishing this reserve of djed he was almost constantly in need of eating. When he could he ate his fill, something that rarely enough happened, and when he couldn't he got by with what he could.

So long as Sayana continued to hand him food Clyde would continue to put it away in similar short order, until there was none to be given.

As he ate and sat Clyde noticed several times as a bit of djed stirred within Sayana, only to see that djed invade itself into the kelvic. From his own personal experience and knowledge of Sayana he assumed this meant she was using hypnotism on her.

He said nothing, assuming that Sayana knew he knew, simply pondering what she might be-spelling her to believe.

OOC: I suppose this is a good place to end the thread, unless you two want to make another post.

[Karyk]

 

Sayana

Skills
Hunting: 3
Dual Wield: 1
Intimidation: 1
Weapon: Dagger: 1
Carving: 2
Cooking: 3
Leadership: 1
Teaching: 1
Lores
Hunting: A fox in the hand is worth more than an eagle in the bush
Foxes can spread rabies
Hunting: Rabbits appear at dusk and dawn
Hunting: Rabbits are easier to see when moving
Faradae, eagle kelvic
Miscellaneous

 

Notes and Comments

CS Checkmarked: ✓
CS Reviewed by Me: ✓
Previous Season Expenses Paid (Spring 517): ✓

Maybe it was because you didn't have the experience at the time of writing this thread, but it often felt as if you were underplaying your skills. Obviously this is a personal preference and tied into character and writer confidence and such, it just felt that some actions were below your level. Stealth was the most notable.

 

Faradae

Skills
Observation: 2
Hunting: 1
Escape Artist: 2
Socialization: 2
Teaching: 1
Philosophy: 2
Cooking: 1
Carving: 1
Lores
Human form is much safer when in the presence of a huntress
Sayana, the multi-armed huntress
Clyde, the almost paranoid man
Cooking: How to make meat skewers
Clyde can 'look' without his eyes
Suspicion: Clyde can see auras, magically
Hypnotic Suggestion: This is a good, safe group that I want to stay with
Miscellaneous

 

Notes and Comments

CS Checkmarked: ✓
CS Reviewed by Me: ✓
Previous Season Expenses Paid (Spring 517): ✓

 

Clyde Sullins

Skills
Philosophy: 2
Socialization: 1
Lores
Faradae, woman with an aura of blacks and greys and silver
Faradae: Kelvic Eagle
Miscellaneous

 

Notes and Comments

CS Checkmarked: ✓
CS Reviewed by Me: ✓
Previous Season Expenses Paid (Spring 517): ✓

An interesting thread indeed. The debating of semantics was terribly amusing to me. Thanks for the read Please mark the post in the grading Queue as Graded or Remove it.