thehometree | 03 Amber | Downstream of the Boat

[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?

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Go and rest, Jolene, so you can better admire my strength!

[She makes a show of rolling up her sleeves before she squats and grabs the first pebble. It's not the largest, but she wants to make sure she can accurately gauge the strain they'll cause her before she starts any heavy duty hefting. She shuffles it to where Jo had been dropping pebbles in and plopped it into the water]

Ahh! It's no different to a stroll on a summer's day!

[She rushes back to grab a larger one]

[Standing to one side, Jo can't help but grin at the pale-haired young woman. Celena's always bragged about her strengths, both overtly and simply by the sort of suggestions she's made in the past. Seeing her own up to them like this was gratifying in a way that simply being shown in some arbitrary display would not have.

Jolene eventually joins in again, finding decent sized rocks and bringing them up to the knight to pass off. That way she and Celena can outstrip Evan's pace with little effort.]

Hey Evan, pick up the pace, huh? We're going to finish this first row of rocks way before you!

[Evan, clad only in his boxers and working on the row of stones that would make up the other side of the weir, looks up when he hears his name. He's carrying one of the bigger pebbles in his arms. He pauses for a moment to give her what could only be classed as a shit-eating grin, and calls back.]

Dream on.

[He makes it to the end of his line of pebbles and bends to deposit the stone in the water, easing it down till it's submerged and he can drop it properly. He's still grinning when he straightens.]

Hey, Celena. Come to help out this slacker?

I've come to show you both how real work is done!

[Showing off, she squats and grabs one of the larger stones and hefts it to her chest]

Evan, I think this rock is about as heavy as you!

[She huffs again and lobs it into the water. Her enthusiasm means it doesn't land quite where it's supposed to, but she figures someone can move it if she's too off centre.]

I'm no fucking slacker! [to Evan] but you're insane if you think you can outwork us!

[Jo, none the wiser, is no longer waiting by the side. She hefts another stone and passes it to Celena, the better for the woman to hurl it into the water alongside the others!]

[Evan, paused in his work briefly to stand in the waist-deep water, whistles as Celena hefts. Okay, that's downright impressive... but then she makes a crack and he scoffs.

It's to Jo's chide that he responds, pointing at the lanky woman and grinning.]

We'll see! Either way, remember that you had to bring in backup just to keep up.

[The smug young man then turns, wading back through the stream to the opposite bank.]

[She throws the stones that Jo passes, grunting with the effort and grinning at the fun she's having pushing herself like this.]

When you stop being so proud, Evan, I'll come and help you too!

Oh yeah, and I'll come helping, too, [Jo was panting now, working hard to pile up more rocks by the shore's edge before Celena could take them all.] 'Cuz you're going to be throwing your back out now any second, fucker!

[Evan flaps his hand at the pair of them -- yeah, yeah -- rather than holler as he reaches the other shore. His cocky grin hasn't budged, and he makes a bit of a show of going about picking appropriate pebbles.

Then, somehow, it seems like the young man has gained some serious lift power in the last few days. He hefts one without apparent issue, stacking it on his shoulder over one arm, then goes for a second...

...but the jig is up when he fails to keep a good enough grip on the first rock and it begins to lazily float upwards.

This doesn't seem to fuss him, though: he's still grinning like a doof. Now that he's no longer trying to be a massive show-off he just starts wading out into the stream again, pushing the pebbles through the air in front of him. It's been a really good day since he started using float powder on the rocks.]

[Celena gapes open-mouthed for a second, full of chagrin as she wonders if she'd been wrongly assuming Evan's just a normal human...

But then his prank is revealed. She squawks at him]

You cheat! You're going to be as soft as a little girl forever! [She grabs a fist-sized pebble from the shore and hurls it at his rocks]

[Celena isn't the only one pelting Evan with rocks. Jo, never one to miss out on hooting and hollering and making a fuss, is rank with embarrassed fury over Evan's prank.]

You little shit! You've been doing this for the last week and didn't fucking tell me?! My fucking back is killing me like an eighty year old man and you couldn't think to fucking pass along the fucking clue?!

What the fuck, Evan! [He's getting an epic splash as she wades over and officially scoops up armfuls to wallop him with.]

[He's still laughing when he ducks behind his pair of floating boulders, though he stops in order to yelp when the well-aimed pebble Celena hucks ricochets off of one of them. It's nowhere near him, but hey.]

Hey! You laughed when you saw sparkles on one of my boulders this morning. I would have told you what it was for if you'd asked!

[He's still in good humor even as he stridently protests Jo's fury in particular. Admittedly he's found that he gets great entertainment out of tweaking her nose!

One of those swooshing waves catches the boulder on the left, swamping it -- and washing off the float powder. The boulder falters in its lazy progress forward and falls with a plunk into the stream proper and Evan has to splash backwards lest it fall on his toes.]

Hey! [He ducks behind the other boulder] Foul! That was perfectly good float powder there!

03 Amber | Downstream of the Boat

Action

Dragging in Evan for a moment!

:B

Re: :B

:D

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