Weak little scavengers (Rayage)

[Bob Barton]

36th day of Fall 511 AV

Things just keep getting better and better don't they? At least if you know how to make use of all the bad things that happen in Sunberth. Floods? Just stay at home with your rats. Fog? Just hide out at home. As long as it was not you who disappeared then who cares? Now it was the storms. Bob didn't care much because he is not much of a seaman unless you counted when he was forced to go to Sahova for some personal reasons. But the reason why he was so interested in looking around the seaside spots of Sunberth was because he heard that the storms washed a lot of strange things in Sunberth.

That means...lots of interesting things to find if you looked hard enough. Bob unfortunately is not that good and that was why he brought along Jinsen. He just hopes that today Jinsen won't be looking for food. There was no way of teaching a dog how to find mizas but...but...that will always be what Bob will try to teach it to do. "Yes Jinsen, now off you go!" releasing the dog to get on with its task. "Find something nice and make Bob happy" he shouted out behind it since "its not time to play yet!"

While Jinsen went sniffing around looking for whatever it thought it was supposed to look for in its little doggy brain, Bob did the same for looking around. For obvious reasons he kept away from the corpses. Not that much of a waste for him since even he could see it would be the common lowly sailor with the ragged clothes and bandanas. An indicator for him that it was not worth it to actually touch them since they would have nothing. The only people worth touching to search for loot would be the captains but as far as Bob could see there was no one with any pretty clothes or pretty shinies on them here. "Might have been just one day too late" after everything good has been picked dry he mumbled to himself.

Because of this Bob had to contend with looking under the debris and wreckage. "I'd be lucky if I find something uncrushed!" he screamed in frustration. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Even trying his best to not go near any corpses there were some crushed ones underneath the wreckage and those were a whole lot worse and messy than the normal ones. After one puking session later, Jinsen started barking excitedly and Bob rushed over to see what it found. Hopefully it had better luck than he did. Then he picked up the pace shouting "Jinsen! No eating corpses!" because that dog just ate anything.

[Rayage]

The storms that have ravished Sunberth seemed to have no end. They just kept coming, and with that came rumors of treasures washing up on the shore. What kind of treasure, you ask? Well, the best kind, surely, the rumors ranged from gold to fine garments, to isurian steel sabers to enchanted armor. Yes, it seemed the more storms there were the wilder the hearsay got and the better the loot was for all. If this was real or not, well, is up for speculation. Though some rumors had roots of truth and so they were at least worth checking out, and it seemed Ray was not the only one checking out the merchandise that had washed up from ships.

When he got to the beach it seemed that it had been combed dry, all that was left was rubble, bodies, and splinters of wood which were scattered on the shore. Nothing looked too impressive and the obvious stuff was already taken. With such rumors who was he not to be surprised. It was obviously part of the humans condition, looking for treasures and taking that which is not theirs, but as some people say in Sunberth: it would be a shame to waste it. Ray was in Sunberth so why couldn’t he partake in their ways and customs? It seemed like a grand learning experience, yes, grand indeed, but also could it be an excuse to let loose? Of course not, the nuit would ever do that.

Combing the beach, he started at the obvious starting point the shore near the docks and started walking from there. Near the docks, or somewhat close, was already bone dry, even the good pieces of lumber from the wreaked ships were taken no doubt in the spirit of the town. Having only been here about twenty days he was rather enjoying himself, and thought, numerous times, that he would not mind coming back here more often. Right now though was not the time for thinking, he had to be searching, looking, and looking hard to find something these scavengers could have missed. It was obvious to the nuit that normal combing would be of no use, and so picking up H1-A from his shoulder he set the furry lizard down on the sand and let him loose to search as well. What was the harm? The creature could help too.

Going to some rubble the mage put a foot loosely on the side of one board and flipped it over with a fluid motion. What was under board number one? Nothing, err, well, sand, yes, wet sand to be exact. Nothing to exciting he has seen sand before. Sighing he thought maybe he was a couple days too late, but that was talk for people who were going to give up. He would just have to look harder than anyone else had and find the things that no one else had. Being a mage he had a trump card, yes, a cheat, one that he could whenever it convenienced him. He had Auristics.

Turning inward he stared at the sand, the Djed connecting his mind to the auras beyond, and slowly as the Djed connected him to the rest of the world the auras began to show themselves. Though only able to concentrate on one at a time when he was in that state the world appeared in many different colors, though it took focus and concentration to really get anything. Turning his gaze to the ground the sand emitted a reddish aura that seemed to move upwards in wisps of red smoke before abruptly disappearing when the aura reached its end point. Looking down at the sand where he had flipped the board he saw a slightly different color within the red, under it. Curious he began to dig, but it was not deep. The wet sand somewhat stuck to his decaying hands, but once it was moved out of the way it revealed a gold piece. Grinning, someone must have dropped this. Picking up the gold piece he shoved it away with the rest of miza, it was better than nothing. Gold meant a lot to the living, and it was something he could abuse. One more piece could make all the difference.

His celebration was cut short by the barking of an animal, a dog. There was a good reason that Ray experimented on dogs… Watching it the dirty animal seemed to have found something, and that something seemed to be H1-A. The lizard did its best to hiss and act vicious to try to scare the obviously bigger and stronger animal away, but the dog kept on barking. Looking across the sands someone was coming towards the dog, the owner perhaps. Rushing over to the H1-A’s defense ”Hey, get away from there.” Ray yelled at the dog. He would sooner be gutted than have a dumb animal rip his precious experiment apart. H1-A was his stepping stone and he needed to watch, observe the creature throughout the aging process. ”Get away” the nuit said again sending the emotion of fear along with his words to try to ward away the dog from his prized possession. He has magic and he will use every ounce of it to protect what is his.

[Bob Barton]

Jinsen would have also eaten that strange lizard creature it came across. Yes, the dog might not have found something valuable like Bob wanted but it did find something equally interesting. Bob ran towards his barking dog ignoring the rest of the debris and corpses to find that Jinsen was facing ff against the furry reptile. There were a lot of strange creatures around in the world especially after the Valterrian in the form of mutations and monsters and this was without a doubt one of them. Maybe if he could catch it he can sell it for some mizas? There could be people who wanted to keep a freak of nature for themselves or dissect one for fun...maybe even eat it like Jinsen wanted to. All Bob would need is to find a buyer and get a good price out of it.

"Good! Keep it there Jinsen until I can catch it" be told the dog. Jinsen was by no means intimidating or vicious but it was easily excited so Bob knew that with enough emotion in his words the dog will pick up and do something. Something he could never predict but could always hope to work with. So Bob continued to shout excitedly to encourage the dog more telling it "thats the way! That weak looking lizard has nothing on you Jinsen!" unless it had poisons but if it did it would have attacked earlier instead of cowering away from Jinsen with its poor attempts to try and intimidate the dog.

Unfortunately it was this way in Mizahar. Everyone except Bob had the cool things where all Bob had was his dog which was why he had a lot of pride in it. Paying lots of attention to how he took care and trained it with what he learned at Killroy's because it was all he got beside some other demented rat trinkets of his own design. Which was why as soon as that newcomer came, trying to claim Bob's prize he shouted back telling him "no way! I was here first and that beast is mine. Go find your own you creep." From the distance Bob could not tell that like the lizard, there were certain unnatural qualities to this man but from the myriad of colours from his robe a safe assumption is that he was rich. Rich people don't last long in Sunberth especially not without bodyguards so that means that this was a newcomer that was alone and of no threat to Bob unless he had some other hidden surprises on him.

Bob would have thought differently if he took the time to observe this one more but his eyes caught hold of Jinsen wavering. Its paws kicking up dust in the sand ready to escape from that lizard or the newcomer coming to claim it. Fear was at work on his dog but...how can Bob allow that? A dog is a reflection of its owner and if the dog runs now its will show that Bob is a coward. A lot harder for him to get that new creature if that happens so "you're not allowed to run Jinsen!" he shouted and pointed to his bared teeth with more advice like "you're a dog, how that thingy some teeth and anger!" because those are the things about dogs which scared him too.

He was not going to use hypnosis but that does not mean that Bob could not help his dog the same way Mr Rich Rare Animal Collector was helping his lizard. Jinsen alone even if following Bob's advice was not that scary either so if you are going to scare a monster, pretend that you are a bigger monster. "Hold it over there" he commanded his dog while he approached with spread hands on the top and spread legs at the bottom, stomping to be as loud as possible and going "RAWRRR!" Combine that with the barking and snarling dog and any dumb animal would be scared unless they were an even dumber predator like direrats but Bob has beaten those before too.

[Rayage]

This show infuriated him. The stupid dog was barking at his lizard and then the equally idiotic owner was going to capture it. There was no way he was going to let that happen. That lizard represented years of work, years of theory, and years of his life. He was not going to let that so easily. No way, no how. He continued to storm over there, the sand raising as he walked around him, hurrying to the lizards defense. This was a product of Alchemy, a beautiful work of art, a masterpiece, and to have it snatched from him. Ha, by this buffoon?

Muttering to himself did he really have to carry the thing everywhere so he didn’t have to worry about it being stolen, but then again there are some bold people that would take it right off his shoulder. His eyes were trained on the man; the hate present in them seemed unreal as he marched through the sand. The human was encouraging the dog, which is why his hypnotism didn’t work to scare the beast away. Annoying, but he should have tried to scare off the owner first. Sometimes in hypnotism was the best way to handle things like this. Even if it wasn’t subtle if the man had no idea Ray was a hypnotist he would have no idea where the thoughts or emotions are coming from. It could be used so greatly. The nuit grinned planning out how he was going to mess with the man that was messing with his creation.

It was only when the man would call out to the nuit to go away and directly confronting him did he really blow a gasket. ”Why don’t you go away?” he yelled back using hypnotism to back up his words, the poisonous influence of Djed on the words trying to drill the question, more of a command, into the mans mind. Along with that was accompanied the emotion of fear, a creeping inkling of terror that was trying to persuade the man to turn the other way. Both of those a combination of the most basic tools that a hypnotist can have, but also the most stealthy.

The show the man was putting on to encourage the mutt was impressive, funny, but idiotic at most. He had spirit, Ray would give him that, but sometimes stupid just runs deep in a person, and stupid is hard to cure. Again, having tried his magic on the owner, he would turn his attention to the dog that was barking at his lizard, H1-A seeming confused and backing away, and tell the dog again to go away once more accompanying the verbal command with the emotions of fear, dread, and anxiety. The three emotions swelling up in the animal to discourage it once more, the dirty beast, from getting his lizard and holding it in a confused status.

Now within paces of the lizard and the dog he called to his experiment to come, but it wouldn’t. ”H1-A” he called again to it, but the presence of the dog and the other proved too much for the thing and it remained in its place. Duly frustrated he looked at the other and the dog and scowled trying to decide how far he was willing to go to scare these individuals off. It was going to take some time, some clever wording, a bit more magic, but he was determined. He half wondered if the guy was here for the same reason he was, and if so, did he find anything? So far all Ray found was a gold miza, a single gold miza.

[Bob Barton]

The years of work, years of theory and years of life to a nuit could be just the same as days of work, days of learning and days of life to Bob. Time after all was only relative and while both of these people may have a different grasp of it, they found that what they used their time on was valuable and here it was represented by the lizard and the dog. Both of them have conflicting plans for the results of their time. One wanted to keep his lizard he worked on so hard and one wanted his dog to earn its keep for once this season if not its entire life. There might have been easier ways for them to achieve them if the vain nuit actually stopped to tell about the lizard and the lazy midget looked through the bodies his dog sniffed at but human nature will always make things harder for no reason.

Which was why the attempts of hypnotism on Bob failed. He was far to excited to think what he can get from this creature and he knew that he had the advantage. If this stupid interloper thinks he can come and steal Bob's prize from under his nose, he had another thing coming for him. It could be the sword that Bob always had hidden on him or it could be Jinsen. Everyone who knew it would know that the dog won't really hurt anyone unless it needed to but at least Bob knew it could keep the man busy. Keep him busy long enough for Bob to take him down. Even if he would lose the lizard in doing so the man in his robes looked rich enough. Normally Bob would frown on mugging but everyone does it and it would only be fair to do it to someone who made him lose out on a profit. He'd call it reimbursement because it would sound a lot nicer than mugging.

With all the advantageous factors Bob could not lose and so he shouted back "why don't you go away? You don't want to get hurt in the beaches of Sunberth you know? Its not like Syliras!" The stupid foreigner better learn to take a hint and back off before Bob had to start making more direct threats but for now he still had his attention on his dog. "Bark Jinsen, get angry...get hungry!" That dog can really bark to get Bob's attention when it wanted food but not when it needed to like now. "Louder Jinsen" he commanded gradually raising his voice as he repeated it until he shouted "louder!" Both lizard and dog would be in shock at the tone. Bob knew Jinsen was as it yelped and barked at the lizard at his command.

But it was too much. Bob was already trying to make his dog obey through fear. More fear in him than in the lizard and it should be alright. If dogs were as smart as humans, they can be taught the same way. Bob remembered that his uncle could be a real nice man until he really wanted Bob to get something so he did the same with Jinsen. However, then Bob was aware of why his uncle was trying to scare him. Now Jinsen would know that Bob was trying to scare it to go against the lizard but what about the hypnotism? Together it scared the dog more than ever and Bob could see signs of its wavering resolve again. Something which will cause Bob's defeat in this strange arena of loyalty.

He thought he could push it again but his final command proved to be the breaking point. "Stay there until I come Jinsen!" pointing to the lizard as he advanced but the dog misinterpreted his signs or was acting on pure instinct. Perhaps one of the reasons why Hannah used verbal commands only? Something to be explored next time when there wasn't a furry blob bounding straight for him. "Stop Jinsen! Turn back!" he shouted until the dog was nearly upon him. Was it going to attack? Bob was a nice owner wasn't he? Forget turning back, just "stop!" but all the dog did was hide behind Bob's legs.

A funny display that the nuit could laugh at if he was not already experiencing the same with his lizard. Bob saw his attempts to command it but HA-1 was not a word he was familiar with. "Petching foreigners..." he mumbled as he stormed up. Jinsen was still scared and tried to buried itself in the sand until Bob told it "follow right behind me and hide there if you want" because even if the dog was useless he felt a lot more safer with it. He stood at where he thought would be the same distance the nuit had with his lizard thinking that it was the safe zone to keep away from a lizard attack and issued his challenge. "Only one of us is going home with this treasure today, and it'll be me because I found it first!" and have a dog and weapon he was confident with using. More with the weapon actually especially since he saw that the figure before him lacked any unless it was hidden beneath is robes.

[Archelon]

Grading Time! Rayage : Intimidation 1 Hypnotism 1 [table] Lores: [table] Dogs are irritating sometimes. Bob Barton : Animal Husbandry 3 Intimidation 1 [table] Lores: [table] Things that are strange might be captured for profit. Thanks for your time, Feel free to pm me with a *nice* pm if you have any questions.