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

[hairsay]

You know what, if you're so big on proving it, then bring it.

[In any case, she'll be down by the shore when he arrives, hauling more rocks. The water doesn't filter into the weir in the way she likes, yet, but the toiling has left her a little too tired to put up a real sour front like she's given him over the last few meetings.]

Alright, you want the fish, most of them are out in the middle of the stream. We have to lure them in here first before we can catch them, unless you're going to dive in like an osprey or something.

[bestworstdad]

[When he shows up, he's instantly ready. But also smart enough to peel off his cloak and take off his shoes and socks. No sense in worrying about his pants since he wades in, going about as deep as allowed.]

Just keep a close eye on me. And yeah, this requires a bit of patience.

[hairsay]

"You going to fetch the rocks from the bottom of the river and bring them up, or what? Now Jo has folded her arms and is watching him with a kind of impatient curiosity. At least he's actually taking... some kind of initiative!

[bestworstdad]

He just gives her a wink in reply. Talking now would only scare everything away. No, he just raises his hand, looking a lot like he was going to karate chop the water. Which would be entirely unhelpful, which is why he doesn't. Just to keep from being too rude, he holds up a finger to Jo, just to let her know to hang on for a moment. Patience, patience.

[hairsay]

Even if he was holding his fingers up, Jo was having none of it. "Look at this samurai bullshit going on here," she jeered, "you waiting to channel the force or what?"

[bestworstdad]

She might be complaining but he turns his head and winks. Yes, he is the master of being infuriating. Especially when he takes a moment to slash his hand down into the water and, with an oomph, one fish has been served up, flying into the air towards the 'shore'. He is a freak of nature doing it like a grizzly would. Except....a lot smaller.

[hairsay]

"Holy shit!" She doesn't mean to curse, but seeing the minnow fly up out of the water, fully a similar size to a carp were she her good old height, Jo can't help but be amazed. She jumps on the flopping little fish a moment later, not to be left frozen by panic!

"You smooth mother fucker!" she crows, reaching for a rock and dashing it before she can think about it too much. The flopping stops and Jo grabs the bloody mess by its tail, holding it up and crowing worldessly.

[bestworstdad]

"And you didn't believe I haven't gone through all that ninja trainin'! I'm almost hurt." Except judging by his laughter, he wasn't really. No, there probably wasn't much of a way someone would hurt him verbally, since he was enough of an idiot to not get too sucked in or take things personally.

[hairsay]

"Well you're not smarting," Jo sniped back, but for once in their stormy acquaintanceship, she was joking again. "I'm going to keep this," she added, waving the fish around bonelessly!

[bestworstdad]

"That it then? You don't want more?" Just to make sure. And yes, Nagi wasn't in this for himself, despite what some might think. Nah, he was always in the business of helping others.

[hairsay]

"What, you're after more?" Jo crowed, dropping her arm in surprise. She'd thought the showing off was over now that he'd proved himself... but her surprise didn't last too long. A challenging grin crept over her features. "How much you want to bet you can get out of here?"

[bestworstdad]

"Only if you want more! Don't let me hold you back." In short, he wasn't particularly interested to forward his own desires here. In a roundabout way, he was definitely the sacrificial type. It just took certain situations. "Dunno about bets when you're concerned about food and all."

[hairsay]

That was unexpected. Jolene settled the limp, slick slab of fish over either hand and looked down upon it, then over at Nagi one more time. Her eyes were narrowed, as though she was trying to gauge his reactions.

"Well, if you're really willing, how about a couple more so we can share for the people who really need it? I don't know where we're gonna store more, but I can guarantee that if we bring a quarter dozen these thing's'll be gone in no time flat."

[bestworstdad]

"Quarter dozen? Sheesh. Wouldn't it be easier to say 'three'. Really."

She sounded like she was being a smartypants so he just moaned about it in return just like that. Rather than make things flashy anymore, he just simply exerted a bit of his full speed and nabbed two fish with both hands and walked back up to the shore. Soaking wet, of course.

"Here you go, bucko."

[hairsay]

"Because saying 'three' doesn't suggest that I'd take a full dozen if I thought the fat faces living here could handle that much fish meat in their faces," Jo happily sniped back. She set the dead fish on the rock, waiting now for Nagi to get back to business like this was a game.

She'd been expecting him to toss them, but when he walks out soaking with wriggling minnows held up by the tails, she can't help but give him a death glare. "You fucking calling me 'Bucko'?!" It was the only thing that came to mind. She was of a mind, actually, to grab both of the fishes and run again. Her face felt hot.

[bestworstdad]

"Gimme a better nickname and it'll be yours." Always a barrel of laughs, this one. And still is entirely enjoying himself. Whelp, the fish were hers so he deposited them with her before walking over to his cloak. Mostly to give it a quick shake before throwing it on. Handy to have when wet but he really needed something to swim in now that he had actually gone through with it.

"Mission successful, yeah? We gonna end up making this a regular thing?"

[hairsay]

"Well, Jo works ninety-nine percent of the fucking time," the woman rallied. The temporary and very inconvenient spell was broken when she caught one of the minnows attempting to flap its way back into the water. Making quick work of them was decided the opposite mental image of a muscled man emerging off of scintillating water to do her bidding; good.

"If we do this regularly then I'm bringing something better to brain these fuckers," she grumbled, but she had to give it to Nagi; that was probably more efficient than Jo would have been, even were the fish trap funneling minnows in and she had all the time in the world to go waddling through water to chase them. Maybe she should leave the actual catching to all of the quasi (or full on) magical people around here.

After a hesitant, awkward pause, she asked, "you want some when they're cooked, or what?"

[bestworstdad]

"If you'd do me that favor, it'd be pretty great!" In response to the food, that is. Nagi can cook it over an open fire but getting any more taste out of it than that is beyond him. One of his partners always didn't the cooking, especially since that guy was a complete perfectionist when it came to food. And angry when it was interrupted.

"Got some cookin' skills?"

[hairsay]

Too bad that open fires aren't even an option for the likes of them. Jolene is not going to explain that she's discovered her home's resident firebug likes to slap its ass to food to heat it up, because she's really not sure how she feels about it, but she can with some authority say, "I'm the best cook in my foster-tree-home, so yeah, I guess I have some skills. What part do you live in. I'll leave some for you, or something, I don't know."

[bestworstdad]

"Oh ho, really? Instead of tellin' you that, I could just visit you. Save you the trip and all."

He might sound considerate here but he's kind of alone at the moment. Which means his place is an entire mess. And Nagi knows that's completely embarrassing and doesn't need someone ragging on him or playing house-maid. No, that's the last thing he needed.

[hairsay]

Similarly, Jo doesn't necessarily want Nagi to know where she lives; she can see Evan pausing just now to watch her with a hint of knowing in his eyes that suggests she is going to get ragged on later, and the idea of this athletic asshole showing up on her doorstep to Evan, or worse, the kierrcat Arj, answering and drawing connections that aren't there...

"How about I just leave some on the food table and hope you get there first?" she replies, looking off to one side in an effort to shake some ratty hair over her shoulder. She wishes her hands weren't completely full just now, this is horrifically embarrassing and she could use them to cover her face and possibly run away again, possibly screaming.

[bestworstdad]

If Jo has never seen someone suddenly start sparkling, well, this would be her first time. Though this was definitely sparkles of mischief as ideas started running through his head. Mostly on how to tease her without actually pissing her off too far or making her run for her life. It was seriously a difficult balance.

"What's this? Do you not want to show off what your place looks like?"

[hairsay]

"I'm a fucking bachelor, buddy; unless you want to see what assholes trying to nerf one another with nut crumbs looks like and slip in a puddle of cat barf, you're better off using your imagination."

Shit, that's not what she meant to say. She tosses her head, giving a grimace. There's no way he's sparkling, that's just the sun reflecting off of the stream behind him in a fucked up way, for all she knows. She's seen kids pulling spears out of thin air and jerks walking on water in the last little while, this is... this is pleasantly ignorable.

"Anyways, all these houses look the same. It's wood and mossy bark and shit, it's nothing fancy."

[bestworstdad]

Nope, he just steps closer, his face taking on a more serious look. But it still has his patented smile just barely showing on it. For all his idiocy, there were legitimate reasons as to why he has a massive fanclub back in the Magic World. Namely, the ability to act cool when he wanted to, despite being a huge, violent loser.

"Uh-huh. You're hidin' something, aren't you? That's okay, little ol' Nagi ain't gonna reveal any secrets."

[hairsay]

One of the minnows, still alive if not well, flapped against her as Jo stood awfully agape at his proximity. She knew by now that for all he was built leanly, he still had the staying power of a shit brickhouse, and that wasn't helping anything. She snapped her wrist to dash and kill the fish that wanted freedom, sputtering. "Do I look like the kind of shit who hides secrets?!"

Even if she'd had one, and right now she was thinking of a lot of analogies that she didn't really want to be, she couldn't put it to mind.

And this was getting absurd. She backed up a pace, trying to gather all three slippery fish in her arms so that they wouldn't fall down her front. She looked like the only thing that was keeping her from fleeing was the fact that, even dead, they were sliding through her arms.