[Agremmon Fields] Hunting Wabbits (Eridanus)

[Bob Barton]

The good thing was that it was all Eridanus money that was being spent so all Bob had to do was get the benefits only needing to invest his time into the whole endeavor. Time...and sanity because he really hated doing dirty jobs like this and if he thought that washing the dead duck was bad enough he was going to have to do something even worse because Eridanus did not seem to know how to count. "Here is a math lesson for you my friend. Rabbits have four legs but ducks have two so it means six legs to share between us in total. So why is it that I only have one rabbit foot and duck foot while you have the same? I don't think the rabbit needs its other two feet where it is going" he asserted holding the dead bunny by the ears and swinging it towards Eridanus so that he would have a better look at it as some little droplets of blood started flying around and he did not stop there continuing to swing the bunny until it slipped from his hands with the wet ears it had from washing and headed over towards Eridanus face. "See you will only get an attack" from Bob through the bunny if you would not listen and taking back the rabbit he told Eridanus that "i will now do something that you do not have the stomach for."

Which was kind of odd because if Eridanus was seen as the coward, what did that make Bob? Unfortunately he brought himself to this position and it was something that he had to go through with. The blood flowing from the bunny's rear did not make it any better for Bob either and he decided to do this in one quick slash. "Just think of something else Bob...just think of something else..." he mumbled to himself to try and avert himself from the horrors of this and like he was taught and liked to do why not happy thoughts? Unfortunately the most happy thought he had was the day of the rat races which was pretty great when he started thinking about it. Going off to the Slag Heap fire with his two stars and waiting with his friends to make a ton of money. Bob was really getting to the good part where he told his friends his brilliant plan of rigging the rat races with the poison and in a fresh breath of confidence he raised his sword in preparation to strike but as it were, the show had to go on. It did not stop there and went to the arrival of one Darik causing troubles again and in caught up in the frustration he felt then, Bob let down the sword immediately and completely missing the rabbit.

Yes, Bob's attempts to chop the bunny without worries has completely failed but at least the failure for him angry enough to find an outlet without thinking. It was the exact same poor bunny and Bob plucked one of its remaining legs and held it upwards bringing his sword close to start sawing away before continuing on. His lack of concentration made it really messy and it ended up with two very strangely cut stumps which might not be good as lucky rabbit's feet anymore. But Bob could not admit defeat and tossed the shorter one to Eridanus because "here, this is yours" and as he left the bunny for Eridanus to do his dirty job with, Bob tried his best to try and flaunt his rabbit foot in front of the vantha by holding it in a way that would suggest that it's size is where the prize is at. "For your information, the count is not right by all counts. Six legs, from two animals which are distributed unevenly when one gets four and one gets two is not six legs for two people distributed evenly with three each. We do all the work so we should by all counts get all we can instead of losing out on two" he said rather pleased with his calculations and if Eridanus can understand that greed is good!

After all of that, Bob let Eridanus do his preserving thing that he wanted. Even if Bob was looking at Eridanus carefully of what he was doing he got a little fixated with the bunny only able to see that Eridanus has punched a hole in the bunny by stabbing it with a dagger and then he told Bob to follow suit. As the vantha tried to take the duck to pluck Bob held on tightly to that plump soon to be meal and forcibly pulled it back because "what sort of idiot cannot even pluck the duck? You must think I am some schmuck." and making a big display at Eridanus, Bob slowly and dramatically put the feathers in between his fingers and pulled on them one by one until even he would not stand the time he was wasting and just started grabbing on the feathers as he did earlier only a lot faster. Due to the intensity of it Bob was more of taking at airs rather than taking any feathers at all and forced himself to go even faster until he thought he heard someone laugh. Was it Eridanus? That was not good at all and that brief pause was able to let him know that he was going a little bit out of it and he was pretty much sweating profusely and the knife on his hand was wobbling a lot from the tremors.

That has not happened since...Bob was a kid actually when he accidentally messed up his uncles place with the reimancy and he was at a loss with what to do. Sure his uncle came soon enough to get him back but by then the damage was done and Bob was in an extreme state of shock like he was now. How did his uncle get him out of it? All he did was keep telling the nephew to start breathing in into his diaphragm and take his own time to breath out. This is all Eridanus fault and that ghost of his with what they did that day, digging out all that and I am sooooo going to kill..." wait, stop! Bob reminded himself that only losers kill and he was no loser. "Everything is going to be fineeeeee"and all Bob should think about is happy happy thoughts about what he is going to do. Nice plans of Eridanus spending all his money or else! Bob is going to go home with his duck and the bunny that was rightfully his. Yes that was all he needed to do and the more he thought about it the easier it was for him to calm down to pick up the duck with a steady hand to toss it at Eridanus saying that "plucking ducks is not something that I can do" returning to his ugly grimace momentarily when he also mentioned that it took "special kind of talent to do it."

When Eridanus was done Bob took back the duck to show that he could actually do something and he held out the knife to the duck and held it to the chest...then the stomach and then the butt before he gave up being rather confused to ask Eridanus "I know how to do it, I just forgot a little that's all" because of the incident earlier. When the vantha pointed out what needed to be done, Bob pinched the skin at the stomach looking back at the vantha to see any sign of confirmation before poking the dagger into the duck to make the hole and stuffing his finger in to give a tug to tear the skin off. While it was not a loss for the duck, "rabbit fur is pretty good you know and you pretty much damaged it." Well that loss will be taken out of the vantha's share of what Bob won't say as profits but more of the meal itself.

Bob thought that they were finally done and gave back the dagger but to his disappointment they were going to do it again but learning his lesson from earlier Bob decided to watch Eridanus do his work. After all how bad can peeling the skin...off..."urgh Eridanus! You are going to do that?!?" That was something so disgusting that it would be better to pay off someone else to do it especially when the money was not his. Bob could barely hold himself seeing Eridanus pulling out that long string of...he could not even look at it anymore and covered his eyes with his hands until he was told that he was going to be next. "I don't suppose you will let me off since I did so much already?" but in truth at this point Eridanus did a lot more and Bob had to do the task of getting squeezing his finger...and then the hand into the stomach to feel for the long squiggly thing until he could start on pulling it but he did not do it with the same calculated refinement as Eridanus. Bob quickly pulled out his hand and started quickly alternating between pulling with each hand until it was out and tossed the thing away to wash his hands on the stream.

"Can't we ask someone else to do that?" Bob asked almost pleadingly so that they could just stop when he saw Eridanus taking out the innards but the vantha was fixated to do it probably out of pure malice to get back at Bob especially when it was his turn yet again. Like the stomach, Bob wanted to end this fast quickly giving a slash of the dagger at the stomach not caring about taking precautions against the damage because it just did not matter to him and because Eridanus did not tell it to him properly. His hands just went in as quickly as possible reaching in and grabbing on to whatever he could putting it on the same pile as the rabbit's innards where Bob went to wash his hands loudly proclaiming that "I only know how to take care of living animals. I do not know how to find those infections!" Clearly Bob had enough and was prepared to go now but if Eridanus was going to show him how the infections look like for the future, he would reluctantly take a little look.

Now that Bob had gotten back his knowledge on magic like reimancy,he also remembered some of the techniques that he uses for it. Like Eridanus a lot of his tricks required him to be discreet because getting caught cheating is a no-no. However it was only a suspicion that Bob could have due to the way Eridanus was lighting the fire and he decided against asking anything which might get a little more than answers and asked about "how long" their meal would take. Since Eridanus had some more of the things already, Bob agreed to just show him since there was no harm in that and the idea that the vantha has been trying to show, that there was power in what he did only made Bob feel a little curious. If it was similar to anything that he already knew how to do, he would say that it is glyphing.

[Bob Barton]

First they were going to have to plan what they wanted. As Bob was taught to do this artform is a way to preserve or record what is related to the subject. A good thing for a self proclaimed trophy hunter with an inferiority complex to know. "Here is a sheet of paper. Put on it what you plan to put on your foot. What you know about your rabbit in your case how it died or you can just put the general things about what you know about them which I know is the lucky feet for me. I prefer drawing but you can write I guess." Saying that Bob decided to show what to do. He drew the picture he wanted to use since pictures give a thousand words in one glance instead of wasting time like a whole piece of literature. He tried drawing a bunny first with one big oval orb and an 'm' on to the middle of the body from the bottom to represent ears. "It is a bunny..." Bob will tell Eridanus if the vantha was stupid enough to ask. All that only represented a bunny. But what else could Bob do to represent luck? He could write...but...thinking back the rabbit was only unlucky because it got caught but what about before that? It was able to run fast enough to escape the trio of Jinsen, Eridanus and Bob for quite some time and that was pretty impressive.

He decided to use that information to start off which he assumed to be the point before Eridanus caught it but now Bob needed to give more information. A thing which could be best described as luck would be..."Eridanus, have you ever heard of lucky four leaf clovers?" Yes as a gambler Bob was very fixated with the concept hence probably the reason why he had the mark on his arm. As he told Eridanus about a story he heard he drew a path leading away from the bunny in the shape of a clover until it was about to reach the bunny again. "It is a very interesting story. Two people suddenly found themselves stranded on a mountain without anything on them but their clothes and nothing around them except the clovers. Without being able to do anything for days, the they started plucking clovers to kill the time until they reached a four leaf clover." which after he said he put three shapes on the other pieces of clover without the bunny to represent those who failed to catch it. "Ignoring the extra they threw it away to be taken flying by the wind but one of the bored ones decided to follow it to explore" Bob explained finishing the circle that was supposed to surround the clover. "At the end of it they found something good. A concealed cave leading them down and down until they reached the exit. It is a pretty interesting story right?" Bob asked when he was done. Adding the finishing touches which felt so natural now that his memories which included glyphing returned. Around the circle he wrote a ring of barriers to say "good luck for a good run" over and over.Either the glyphing might augment the capabilities of the lucky rabbit's foot or make it a very pretty design.

But how is he going to get the malediction circle on the bunny foot? Lucky he kept one of the big legs for himself and he took out the needle and thread along with the protective gloves used for he borrowed from the medicine box to start sewing the picture on the foot. "Damn it Eridanus, this is tough" to press the needle at the angle to get it back out to continue. "I should have listened to Unc- OWWW!" he yelled when the needle pricked his finger despite the glove which was only good enough to absorb the blood. Once he was done stitching the shape of the clover and the bunny and circles he realized a flaw in his whole design. "How am I going to get this writing on it?" Maybe Bob can figure it out for another time or better yet since there were two rabbit feet, "here you go Eridanus" he offered tossing the finished product over to the vantha because "they say that the luck can only be given to another person and not yourself. Since I have given you a pretty nice design I am going to expect something nice in return" and with that said Bob passed over the needle, thread and gloves as well asking Eridanus "how are you doing with your story?" After he had looked over the vantha's inferior work Bob would give some opinions and get back to work. If Eridanus did not know yet, Bob would tell him that "it is all about what you want to portray Eridanus. Remember or look at the example." Scrapping the paper of the previous design, Bob took out another paper to try and make another design for himself.

Since he already tried a lucky rabbit's foot then why not an unlucky one which as Eridanus would say was the unlucky for being caught? Now the problem for Bob lay on the fact that he did not know how the bunny was ended and he did not want to try something that he already used which meant another design. He put like earlier two oval shapes across each other, one with spikes and another with the 'm' to represent Jinsen and the rabbit repectively. Then sides besides both Bob added new circles to represent himself and Eridanus only they were touching Jinsen. That made the rabbit detached from the group and Bob's finale on this unlucky rabbit is to use the stalk to represent the killing drawn to be stabbed through the rabbit. Yes, this is probably on the same level as what Bob did earlier. Both his "masterpieces" in their own right displaying a different theme. One of victory and one of de feet. Now that the torn four leaf clover was finished with a dead rabbit to represent what Bob thought was unlucky since three is always less than one Bob drew a circle around it. No glyph barriers here to attempt. After the previous foot, Bob did not want to waste his time and started sewing on the picture to the leg which was just as frustrating that "the duck can wait for another time" like next spring or summer which Bob would hopefully lose by then. The hardest part was as always getting a well rounded circle and that consumed a lot of time for Bob which when he was done he gave Eridanus the unlucky foot because "I think I want the first one" he asked with a smile. Just what sort of idiot uses an unlucky charm? When he did he saw that Eridanus did not use the needle and thread opting for a dagger. "Why didn't I think of this before?" Bob mumbled unsatisfied and carefully held the tip of his sword with his glove protected hand to try and at least squiggle around the circle of the lucky foot "good luck for a good run"

Now that it was all out of the way, Bob could focus on the tasty smell which had him distracted the whole time. Just turning it every now and then was not enough for it and since Eridanus was nice enough to buy the salt, Bob took many pinched and sprinkled over each side of the meal. Bob took a whiff again and it still missed something because salt alone does not make the taste. "Say Eridanus...do we have any of that alcohol left?" and it was not Bob's intention to drink it. He was thinking of using it to cook the meat better as he had seen other people do before only with his inexperience it will turn out ruined. Eridanus better say no to that if he knew what was good for them but he had his priorities on the feet. Bob had his own priorities too now that he was done with the feet and it was not to be de feeted by his dog "Jinsen! This is not for you. It is for me" holding it on the ground with two hands fighting the hunger that the dog had currently with all the running around today. Speaking of which "do you need any help...or?"

[Eridanus]

Eri listened carefully as Bob explained what they were about to do next, and he watched patiently as Bob demonstrated with his own rabbit foot, spinning a story about what he wanted the foot to achieve while drawing it on a piece of paper as he talked. When he was done, he finished by lettering the picture with sigils.

Eri's eyes narrowed as he recognized the glyphs, and he stared at it thoughtfully as he tried to decipher it, finally reading it as saying "Good Luck". It was a meaningless glyph, one that would not work in terms of djed manipulation, though Eri supposed that it might do something. It was a guess, of course, for he could not know with so little data to work with. Bob did not seem to know the exact science of whatever he was doing, and he did not even knew the name of whatever they were attempting.

The vantha made a mental note to discreetly ask around with regards to what they were doing, or at least get a name so that he would knew where to start in terms of research.

When Bob was done, he took out a thread and needle and began to sew the pattern on the foot. He took a while, but he finally gave Eri the finished product as an example to start working. The vantha declined the thread and needle, and instead decided to use his dagger to carve a pattern into the foot instead. The flesh would be wet and soft from the soaking, and he would be able to penetrate into the bone more effectively. Besides, he felt that he could work better with a knife (due to his carving background back in Acumen Asylum in Alvadas) than a thread. He was not the sewing type.

Bob reminded him that it was a story he wanted to portray, and that was where he shined, tapping into his innate vantha gifts for the dramatic. He began to tell a story, more for himself than for anyone as he drew a series of shapes on the foot, abstract patterns to be sure but somehow making sense when the verbal component of his story accompanied it.

It was a simple story of the gifts the rabbit had from its ability to escape from its hunters for so long. It was a story that praised the guile of the rabbit for being able to tactically dodge and weave while running away. It was about the thrill and excitement that came from escaping its predators and outwitting them with agility and wit. Eri turned the story into a vantha like one the way the people of his race did, upping the dramatic factor and turning a simple story like this into an epic passage of the excitement and thrills of adventure. All the while, he drew abstract lines, circles, shapes that made no sense on its own but would make perfect sense should one watch him draw and speak at the same time.

He took his assassin's dagger, and picked up his rabbit's hind foot. Looking at the paper for reference, he began to carve the pattern he drew on the paper into the foot carefully, for he had an even smaller space on the foot than on the paper to carve his pattern. As he did so, he repeated the story in his mind as he carved the squiggles into the foot, the shapes given sense and meaning by the story he was repeating in his mind as he worked silently, as if he was telling this story to the foot. As if it was something only the two of them knew.

It took him quite a while when he finally ended his tale, lifting the dagger from the foot which was mostly covered with the 'story' he carved, a series of seemingly random lines and circles. He turned it around and found a tiny space that he left empty. He took a page out of Bob's book and he bit his lip as he gripped the dagger once more, carefully carving a small bunch of sigils that would say "Ability" or "Power", depending how one wanted to interpret it. It was a nice finishing addition to his story, and he did not use luck for it was not a story about luck like Bob's. It was one of natural talents and gifts, of cunning and dexterity.

By then, Bob passed him another foot, taking back the original one that the midget gave him to study, and he began working on the frontal limb. He did not use the paper this time, as he already an idea of what to work with. He did not know that Bob gave him an 'unlucky leg', but Bob would not know that this was exactly what he had in mind too. Strangely what he said about the rabbit being unlucky stuck to both of their minds which resulted in what happened next.

Bob went to sprinkle some salt on the roasting meet and he began to carve into the new leg, this time spinning a story of tragic loss and misfortune. He spun his tale in his mind, using plenty of vantha words where common words cannot properly express the magnitude of what he wanted to express, carving this time a block-y design. Unlike the previous one where there were more circles, this one had more squarish shapes and curt, abrupt endings in the pattern. It was a story of how the rabbit just could not tear away from its pursuers, and despite its valiant attempts to escape it was finally caught. It tried to escape, but in the end it met its demise.

Eri knew how the rabbit died for he was the cause of it, and he ended the tale with one of horror as the rabbit slowly felt itself being suffocated, of being deprived of air as its life slowly ebbed away. There was more free space in this new foot due to its squarish designs, and he decided to edge a glyph in the middle of the foot just like he did the previous one. This time, however, he carefully etched a sigil that simply said Destiny. He knew that Bob would be able to read glyphs, and so this one would just mean to follow the destiny of the carvings. Due to the abstract nature of the patterns Bob would never know what it meant, and Eri would not say. He would look out for signs of any ill fortune approaching Bob to see if his item had any effect.

Finally, he looked up to see Bob asking if they should add alcohol, and he shook his head in distaste, "You want to soak our food with this alcohol after its been used to soak and preserve raw animal parts?"

"Is the food cooked yet?" He would ask, and regardless of reply he would continue, "Here's your lucky charm," giving Bob the second, hopefully cursed, one that he made, "You'll need to get highly concentrated alcohol and soak the parts in it for forty-eight bells if you don't want it turning rotten."

He thought about the duck feet that they had convenient forgotten about, and he looked at the feet, realizing that it would be harder to do whatever they did due to the lesser amount of mass, and therefore space. Either that or the story and pattern he wove would have to be shorter and simpler.

"You want your duck feet?" He would ask, and if not he would keep the feet for further use. For now, the smell of cooked meat was wafting over and his stomach growled. Walking over to the roasting meat, he would scrutinize the rabbit's flesh to see if it was cooked. Stabbing his eating knife into a corner of the flesh, he would use the assassin's dagger to lop off that part, tentatively taking a bite. It was rather bland, though the sprinkle of salt that Bob added helped a bit, but hey as long as there was food to nourish himself he would not complain.

[Bob Barton]

Indeed there were a lot of strange things today like Bob's horrible sewing only able to do because his uncle forced him to learn the basics to try and stitch wounds. It was the same about the exact science of whatever he was doing whether it was the glyphing that was taught to him by an adolescent godling or the malediction taught to him by a strange practitioner of Legacy but he at least knew the procedure of how to make them and the principles of why he should do what he does. Those were at least enough for him to do them at least until he felt that he is sufficiently experienced enough to take an interest in bringing the works to a higher level. For today, malediction is just a method to bring out the hidden potential which is left over from a life, whether its legacy was good or bad and the glyphing might be able to help focus the power of the item into the circle hopefully to strengthen its effect. So there was really no reason to put a trigger for the glyph unless Bob wanted his lucky charm to explode into a fiery bomb but "I put a lot of detail and thought into my work" so he might as well make a simple glyph for bombs. The reason he told Eridanus about his work was so he can boast that "yours immediately shows that you did not put in the same effort" because just what was exactly was Eridanus trying to give?

Granted Bob would not know what the squiggly unfinished lines and the edgy shapes meant for the vantha but...as a person with a proper Zeltivan education and exposure to the arts in Syliras and Ravok he can critique that "it is lame..." What a nice way to show someone your appreciation of teaching you something new, by giving them a piece of crap. The first leg with the nicely rounded shapes and proper lines look so much in harmony that that other chaotic work and "I want that one" which if Eridanus did not know yet is "your first work since I taught it to you. Just like I gave my first work to the guy who taught me." It was a lie of course. Bob's first work was actually a prize gotten through gambling because a loser still needed to do some work instead of getting it handed over to him. "It is nicer too" but Bob thinks he could understand why Eridanus wanted to keep it. After all, the second foot Bob gave Eridanus was not as complete as it looked compared to the first. The other three rabbit feet had glyphs all around them which made it look like the glyphs are a stable to the work.

This was the reason why Bob told Eridanus to "give me a moment" and took back the unlucky rabbit foot to "finish" it. This time he also borrowed the assassin's dagger because as he tried earlier, the sword was just too big and troublesome to use quickly. Bob wanted to finish this off to taste the meal which was giving out a nice aroma so the dagger giving less trouble would be faster. Of course he needed to think on it a little bit since he cannot put it so clearly that it was unlucky. Clyde told Bob once that symbols can also be used instead of words in this type of situation so just what sort of a symbol can Bob use? Bob took a cue from the explanation of his first work and decided to use card symbols which he began to carve on the foot. The symbol which fits best to this work in his opinion is the clubs since it was so similar to a three leafed clover which was done all along the circle except four points up, down, left and right. At those points Bob drew three spades each with one pointing straight to the direction in between another two which was diagonal. "Don't you just like the black suits?" Bob asked Eridanus as an excuse to the new three leaved clovers when he gave the vantha back the foot.

Now that the finishing touches were out of the way, Bob looked at the first rabbit foot that Eridanus made expectantly. The choice was with Eridanus anyway but he should know that Bob would be very unhappy if he left today knowing that he had an inferior product which was why when Eridanus suggested that he wanted Bob's duck foot he will loudly shout "no!" The nerve..."you already have your own so don't be greedy." Just for that Bob is going to take a nice long time to think about how he can make an awesome story about the dull method of catching a duck just to rub it in Eridanus face that the vantha was not worth the foot. Bob had all the time in the world for that but now was the time for cooking and he could only think of the food. "Did I say soak?" Bob asked because what "I want to pour the alcohol into the fire so it can rise up with a heat so intense to do the perfect man-type barbecue" which Bob saw being done before and is something a pretty boy would never understand. "Now unless you know what we can use for seasoning instead we will be stuck with the boring taste of salt..." which Bob tried sprinkling again on all the sides for a stronger taste.

"Yes, it should be cooked" and Bob made way for Eridanus to take his share as he thought on more because with the amount of salt he had put in without anything else it was going to taste very salty. "Leaves? Twigs?" No, no, no. They are just unnatural meals for people. Remembering how the duck was caught and rushed for the cage to see if there was any of the bait they used left and to his delight there was. Bob took whatever was was left of the barbecued meat and tasted it which was "too salty" as he had thought which was why "I am going to eat it with this" bringing out a handful of corn bait and eating pieces of meat together with them. It was not a perfect taste but the corn was able to reduce the salty effect of the meat making the taste more tolerable. "Do you want some too Jinsen?" he asked the dog which was staring at the food. The dog can have it if only it would "beg" for Bob's amusement. "You don't remember? If you cannot ask for it then I am going to finish it" Bob said holding up the meat at his mouth and slowly enjoying the meat until Jinsen started whining as it sat. "Not like that. The way I taught you" which as it started doing was to bounce around in place with a mixed noise of barking, whining and whimpering. "Good boy" Bob said tossing a piece over to Jinsen with a little pride telling Eridanus that "you should get a dog too. They are fun unless you want a violent one. Killroy has all sorts anyway" trying to convince the vantha that he should spend even more money.

And that was the end of it now that they have made the charms and traded some after eating their meal. Bob would leave too but they are forgetting something and that was the blood. But that was something that Bob was not comfortable about malediction only doing it when Eridanus reminded him about it and dropping a few drops on the ones that he had confirming whether "it does something? If so how do you know?" It did not matter that the vantha wants to admit or explain but after doing humoring Eridanus Bob will ask "what is the difference now from earlier?" Is it "activated" now as Eridanus had put it during the cane sword but even with Eridanus knowing that "you still have no idea exactly what they do...do you?"

[Eridanus]

Bob took back the foot he gave Eri and added more things as Eri chewed on the meat, the food sliding down his gullet quite satisfyingly to calm his complaining stomach. He took another bite as he watched the midget add more stuff, but this time borrowing his dagger instead of sewing, finally showing him the new design added. "Not a card-playing person myself," Eri replied to Bob's comment, shrugging in apathy.

The midget continued with some story about giving him his first ever work, and alarm bells rang in the vantha's mind. Only he knew the exact purpose of his designs, and there was no way in the world that he would give Bob the good one he made for himself and keep the bad one. He had do deflect this attempt masterfully and without suspicion, and so he decided to draw upon something foreign that Bob would not know just as Bob tried to do so with Eri.

"In vantha culture we view our first ever products with pride, and so we keep it to remind ourselves of our humble beginnings," He informed Bob, placing his hands on the good foot he made in the event Bob would try snatching it. "I'm sorry, it's tradition," He finished, shrugging as if he he wanted to really give it to Bob but he owed it to his vantha heritage to follow ancient customs. Ancient customs that were probably nonsense. It might be true of course, but as far as Eri knew he came up with these lies on the spot and his understanding of Avanthal culture was not good enough for him to know if it was really true or not.

He felt relief when Bob said that he wanted to pour the alcohol into the fire. He had not really thought of such a cooking method before, and so he let Bob continue. If he wanted to do so he could continue by all means, since Eri would be taking advantage of Oktuberia to get more alcohol - which would be cheaper because of said event - to properly preserve his animal parts. Bob obviously did not want to give him his duck foot and Eri shrugged in response. No biggie there, he already had his own.

After Bob did some funny dog-things with his pet while Eri watched half-amusingly while chewing on his snack, he came to the important point of it, which was the blood. He took his dagger back from Bob, and put it on top of the fire that he made watching the tip slowly becoming glowing hot. He did not know exactly why he did it, but he remembered a healer telling him that it was a tradition whenever one wanted to induce wounds on oneself for whatever reason. He supposed that it was probably habit.

Lightly pricking his finger, he released a drop of blood each on the two feet he made, one for himself and one for Bob. Watching Bob do the same, he motioned for Bob to hand the feet to him as he began to concentrate deep within himself. He had been thinking along the same lines as Bob, and unbeknownst to Bob he was actually as curious as the midget as to whether the glyphs would do anything. Regardless, he would be looking out for the red djed scar that appeared on Bob's rat skull after the incident the day before, or at least something similar.

Eri breathed deeply as he slowly cleared his mind, peeling away one distracting thought away one at a time as if he were peeling an onion. He wanted full concentration and full focus to study the products of their experiment and so it was important that his mind was fully engaged on the task. He might not be able to figure out other things that their 'lucky' feet can do, but he would try to garner as much information as he could about it.

Channelling the djed within him, he gently allowed his astral energy to fill his eyes so that he could do the same thing as he did to Bob's cane sword earlier. He would attempt to magically analyze the various items arrayed in front of him one at a time, disabling his aural detection and resting for moments in between before starting anew with another item in a new session. He was not sure if the djed in his body allowed him to work auristics on so many items, and so he was quite prepared to simply stop and continue the analysis on another day if he felt that he did not have enough djed to finish analyzing all the items in one day.

He would try his best to discover what they did and to take note of anything that he could discover, maybe telling Bob if he felt like it or just giving some some bleh information. It would depend on what he found out... or his mood. Either way, their task is mostly done for the day, and after that it would just be enjoying their food and packing up. Eri was glad that he was finally done with the troublesome midget, though he knew that he would have to pay him back somehow.

The End (of today xD)

[Archelon]

Moderator Intervention! “It’s Okay! You Can Do It. You Just have to work a little harder!” Have you had your daily dose of being Yelled At today?You’re Great! Really! Just a great person for coming to our abode! I thank you, thank you, Thank You! You’re Awesome!(I seriously mean this!) Don’t let anyone get you down! And keep up the great effort! I’m glad you’re here! We’ll have so much fun, together!” However, I have a few Requests of what I ask you to start fixing so we can get you on your way to the fun stuff! ^_^: An Honest Explanation: : Eri 1. You do not have reimancy yet by this threads date >.<. You do not possess any Res in your char's bloodstream/body to have your djed help its production, you would not be able to use it all . 2. The above would invalidate any xp you'd be able to get for glyphing as well. Glyphing at the lowest levels for storage, equates the volatile essence of all magic, an reinforces the general idea that you won't really be able to do much till you have at least 10-15 pts of the skill . In fact storing for a novice is more a hail mary act. If you wish to use glyphing use it instead to enhance for a while, not store >.< until you're ready at competent as it's only at competent would it a glypher's works start to be stable. Once again- Hail mary >.< potentially terminal failure >.<. Burning burning, ouchies... yada yada yada You get the idea 3. Auristics: A novice auristics user would be lucky to be able to sense auras with a single sense at a time. Surging djed to your head would likely be a one way course for brain damage via fast overgiving >.< 4. Flux... okay, I can see a bit of flux use here that was way too fast in the cooldown when applying other magic use in short succession is simply cruising for a bruising. Ntm that... rabbits are fast and Eri's present skill level >.< don't quite mean amazing bursts of speeds. In fact >.< he's not a whirling tornado, he's a very naughty boy D: ! Who if he attempts to keep up that speed and change direction while he does it to catch a little rascal wabbit might get his muscles burst like firecrackers D:! In short... portrayal of flux needs a little work. Bob: 1. Bob has malediction; but no idea of the tenets of malediction yet >.< it is highly unlikely until he picks up a book and reads it that he'll get any grounding in the craft enough to teach another. You wouldn't even be able to train eri up past your own skill pt value of it; and I'm unsure if your charrie even knows how they're activated with blood >.< You can scrawl and engrave on bones all you want, but without that final step it can't really be malediction. You two have just created duds, upon duds, upon more duds with little to no, effect. I see you marked the items with blood, but are sketchy on the circles used. I'm not even sure Eri should know to mark something with blood for malediction yet or if Bob would via koffurn's sketchy training. So get a book and start training! >.< I'll give you guys a week or so to fix this, then the grading will be done with a few penalties, such as no points awarded for reimancy,etc. If you have any questions, concerns, or any complaints; you may send a joint pm to all 3 Sunberth mods. Levi, Archelon, and Ink for further explanations and review. If a sufficient time that we deem proper has passed, it will simply be marked as is. Please fix D: !

[Ink]

And in the Aftermath . . . The Rewards are Revealed. Eridanus : Eridanus Auristics 1 Glyping 2 Seduction 1 Rhetoric 2 Navigation 1 Flux 1 Stealth 1 Running 1 Hunting 1 Food Preservation 2 Butchering 2 Assassin’s Dagger 1 Skinning 2 Cooking 1 Carving 2 Lore: “Bob” is not a good trigger word -2 sm (cost of alcohol) +2 rabbit feet, 1 duck foot NOTE: I have given you the glyphing XP. DO NOT use it like this again until he is more experienced. Eridanus is by no means proficient enough in glyphing to actually use glyphs to store magic. Not to mention he hasn’t got the proficiency to use triggers. While beginners of glyphing usually learn how to trigger things right away, I graded your glyphing thread and know Eri learned no such thing. Additionally I have revoked any XP you might have gained in reimancy because Eridanus was not initiated into reimancy by this date. You used Auristics over your level and I have scaled back the XP to signify this. You need to read this and this More notes: You overgave so much in this thread I don’t even know where to begin.This is your warning. In the future if you continue to overgive without at least mentioning the consequences I will be instituting more severe overgiving effects. overgiving: two days of blindness Bob : Observation 2 Rhetoric 3 Seduction 2 Intimidation 1 Tactics 1 Brawling 1 Animal Husbandry 3 Trapping 1 Stealth 1 Running 1 Acrobatics 1 –Fancy falling counts Tracking 1 Food preservation 1 Mathematics 1 Butchering 1 Storytelling 1 Sewing 1 Carving 2 Cooking 1 Lore: Women Love Animals, Dog Training: Positive Reinforcement, Greed is Good - 1 sm 6 cm (cost of salt) +2 rabbit feet, 1 duck foot Written in the ink : I saw very little changed in this thread, and certainly nothing to warrant making the magic use viable. Consequently, all items maledicted in this thread have no effects. I have revoked all malediction XP due to use of metagaming in a previous thread to gain the knowledge necessary to complete the malediction process. As a reminder, neither of you have the knowledge that blood is needed to activate a maledicted item. This will be further explained in the thread in which the transgression occurred. If there are any concerns or problems with my grading please feel free to toss me a PM. I am more than happy to explain my reasons or reevaluate them if you feel I've been unfair.