03 Amber | Downstream of the Boat

[hairsay]

[For once this lanky young woman does not look like she's trying to win a staring contest with a cockatrice when she activates her amber slice. She does look sweaty and tired, but maybe that's actually helping. Behind her the mist is close, a towering wall, but the chuckle of the stream gives away her location before she can even open her mouth.]

Hey, any of you happen to be strong and willing to lend a hand? Me and Evan, [And indeed, the gawky redhead struggling to roll and heft rocks behind her happens to be in the frame as she talks,] are putting together a fish trap. I don't know about any of you but the thought of real meat that we don't have to bargain for with stone doubloons is so tempting we've been building this thing for the last couple of weeks straight.

It could use refining.

[She swings the slice around to reveal a very crude weir along one side of the stream composed entirely of raised pebbles and smooth rocks; it doesn't block the stream because Jo has noted the boat at dock just upstream of her location, but she's making a fair play at funnelling any minnows into it.]

Once we're done we just need some bait and some lucky catches. I never learned spear fishing but I'll bet some of you super freaks has a leg up on that. Come on down, huh?

Comments

amber;

[2wei]

... Um, if you need someone for spear fishing, I know how to do it. Though I use a lance instead of a spear.

[hairsay]

Seriously?!

[Jolene doesn't know what to make of that, at least not coming from a young girl. To be fair, when she was ten she was getting into fist-fights and playing video games, so her experience is severely curtailed by her own background.]

Isn't a lance the sort of thing you throw from a horse or something? How does that work?

[2wei]

Yeah. [ She just nods as if it were an everyday occurrence. ]

Um, well, you don't have to throw it. I usually only need to throw the lance if I want to activate its Noble Phantasm. But I don't really want to, because it can kind of... kill someone.

action

[donotmail]

Arj's ears perked at the word "fish" over the amber. He is, after all, a cat. Though he can live on the nuts and berries the tree provides, the prospect of meat is too much to resist.

Leaving the amber slice on his bed, he checks that the twine holding his gem fast to his foreleg is still in good working order, and hops to the floor. A few bounds down the tree, and he's outside, half jumping, half flying over the roots. The moth wings, he's learnt, are handy for increasing his already considerable turn of speed.

He comes to a stop by the stream, with a sinking feeling his powers are going to be put to the test again. But he straightens himself up anyway, ears and tail raised in attentiveness.

"I heard something about fish," he says.

GOOD KITTY

[hairsay]

Jo had not been expecting people to come literally bounding up to her in the first few minutes of her broadcast, but she's definitely not the sort who'd say no to help when it meant her concept was sound enough to warrant it.

Anyways, long-standing misunderstandings aside, Arj had proven to be a solidly relatable cat; his concerns and the egregious manner in which he voiced them just made sense... and were easily tweakable besides.

"You heard something about building a fish-hell death trap," Jo corrected him, pointing out over the half-built weir. Rocks that were in proper scale pebbles had been sunk into two diagonal lines pointing up-stream, wide enough that minnows could conceivably be scared into the lieu of the stiller water. "Unless you can catch fish out in the middle of the stream, this is going to be our saving grace. Can you help, or do you even do water?" Here, she was thinking of the usual cattish response of leaping as though possessed and then slinking sullenly into some hole to sulk.

Re: GOOD KITTY

[donotmail]

"That's what I heard." He approaches the half finished weir, with his usual slinking, cautious walk, but relaxes when he reached the shore. "We did this once with the streams when it was dry." The Basin had been full of them, shallow brackish things that died away in the heat. Damming them up was an easy way of ensuring the clan had drinking water and could stay put.

He doesn't mention that he had no part in building it. Nobody needs to know that. He's eyeing the weir now, looking at the gaps and thinking that a pebble here, a pebble there would do the trick... but nobody here even knows that his kind have the ability to manipulate rock, let alone his... ineptitude in that department.

The water looks cold, though. His ears lower as he gazes into it, his shimmering reflection looking back up at him. But he's never going to be one to pass up a chance to be useful. Maybe that's what the Tree brought him here for.

"I think I can help patch this up," he says.

Amber

[circleprodigy]

I can't claim to any great strength [hardly, when she's small even for an elf], but I am willing to provide what assistance I can. Garahel would appreciate the extra meat, and I can't refuse him.

[And she won't rely on gifts, not when there's some way she can contribute.]

[hairsay]

You know what, I'm pretty sure you got more under your belt than most people can sneeze at in an entire life time. I bet moving a few rocks around will be nothing for you.

What have you been up to for the last week? Been busy down by the stream, haven't seen you.

[circleprodigy]

[Pondering the issue for a moment, Ivaera then perks up.]

I do have a Grease spell. It's mostly used to slow enemies or cause fire to burn more intensely, but a careful application could make it easier to move said rocks. Of course, we would have to be vigilant to avoid slipping into it, but even so....

[Well, it's a thought. Ivaera's never used a Grease spell like that before, but she sees no reason why it couldn't happen. She smiles, focusing on the question for the moment.]

Ever since I realized that we have a source of glitter dust, I've been appeasing Garahel by letting him fly...and remaining close, to train him and ensure he doesn't become more of a pest airborne than he is on land. He's much happier now that he can roam between floors on his own, though I still have to keep the time limit in mind. We can visit the stream together, if he doesn't bother you.

amber

[kingpika]

Can fish that small even be eaten?

[ Gil had caught himself a trout and gave Illya a big chunk for her party while slowly finishing off the rest, so he was hardly a stranger to fishing. He just imagined it to be somewhat more of an adventure when they were all at this size. ]

I mean, spear fishing is easy enough. It might be fun if I actually have to try using a spear, though...

[hairsay]

I don't know, the ants I bashed tasted pretty okay. I mean I didn't get the shits or anything. [Damnit with all of these kids running around; Jo flushed lightly and clamped her jaw shut; she was going to have to remember to stop fucking around with her swearing.]

All I'm saying is that minnows have actual skeletons and those have got to have meat on them to move. Anyways, nobody's gonna catch a full sized fish when we're this size, so you start small.

You going to tell me that you're another super-kid with super-spears? You sure don't look like you have the strength to lift the kind of rocks we need.

[kingpika]

[ Yeah, best not to mention the trout Gil got during the quest. The only reason why he hadn't gone and caught more was because the river was too narrow inside the mist. He had more than enough equipment left to grab a fish. ]

If they have skeletons doesn't that make them just more bony? It's probably better to try and see what it's like anyway though, so I'm on board!

Unfortunately I don't have any of my super-spears here with me, but if you want loads of ordinary spears, I have those! I don't want to lift rocks though, that doesn't sound much fun.

[ But let it be known that he could. ]

amber;

[bestworstdad]

All that and you didn't even ask me? No need to look any further, love!

[hairsay]

I have yet to see anything from you that doesn't involve standing around and bragging, or reading "Jane Loves Dick, Run Spot Run" live to the rest of us.

But yeah, if you're gonna put your money where your mouth is, come down and finish the shit show we started.

...Just don't fucking kill anyone in the process, okay?

[bestworstdad]

I'll be down there and I'll show you how to fish with your bare hands. Then you'll eat those words. Literally.

[celena]

Super freaks? [Now that earns an arched eyebrow, even if Celena secretly agrees with that assessment for some of the people here.] If you haven't the stomach to kill your own fish, Jolene, you could learn to ask politely.

I'll come down and help. I've missed fresh fish!

[hairsay]

I've got a gut for it, [Jolene jokes] but I'm not going to hoard fish for myself like some hob-gollum asshole when I know there's people other than me who will eat it. Too bad nobody saved the smoulder from that fucking wicked lightning crack or we could have a bake-out.

Anyways, come help me roll rocks unless you're too much of a knight who won't touch that shit! I've already got one guy whipped, check it out!

[This is in a side-stage drawl as she turns the amber to show off Evan sweating over pebbles and Arj, the blue kierrcat, watching from the bank like the over-eager feline that he is.]

Think of it like community service!

[celena]

[She sticks her nose in the air and grin] A true knight is always willing to help out those in need... and in this case, the needy happens to be my own belly.

[As Jo moves the view of the amber, Celena starts and snorts]

Is that Evan? Well done for making him lift rocks! Don't tell him I said this, but he's got softer arms than Queen Millerna. He needs the exercise.

Action

[tosaveyuu]

*he hasn't even seen the post--he left his amber back at the tree--but the construction on the stream catches his notice*

What's that?

[hairsay]

Jo scrubs her hand through her long, ratty black hair as she follows his gaze out to the two diagonal heaps of rocks, then grins. "Fish-catching device. You too busy to lend a hand here, or are you one of those hippie babies who doesn't eat meat?"

[tosaveyuu]

Mika blinks at that--what kind of question was that to ask a vampire? Or do people here not actually realize what he is? It would explain the lack of hostility he's encountered so far, though that thought makes him a little uneasy.

"I don't need that kind of food," he says flatly.

( amber )

[knight_king]

[ A fish trap? She hasn't exactly paid attention to the water since the pond appeared, but she's curious. ]

Is the water deep enough to lure the fish to our end? I do not mind to capture fishes for you if you successfully bait them.

[hairsay]

You go looking out where the main current is and you'll see minnows poking around that ship that a lot of you came sailing in on. I'll bet there's more wherever the stream comes from, too. Only reason we're building these out is to make it easier to net them in... and yeah, I'm thinking on grabbing one of the mounts from Chime's shop to pick out some bugs to lure the little buggers in.

[breakin_ur_lore]

[Med'an is a nice young man and can't not respond to someone asking for help. The sight of them struggling over those big rocks makes him feel kind of bad for them....] Stone doubloons?

I've never gone spear fishing, but I've gone spear hunting, I guess.

[hairsay]

You know, money made of something we actually have access to. [Oh hey small green nerd, Jolene remembers you!]

You serious about the spear hunting? Does nobody here know about gun powder or what? [But at least she's in good humour, grinning at him, mildly impressed.] What did you bag?