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're the fuck who turned his god damned nose up at my hard fucking work before even that!" Jo snapped back. "If you can't help getting pissed off when people take your shit the wrong way, then maybe you should go hang yourself upside down in whatever fucking batcave you came from, smartass!"

[tosaveyuu]

"What are you even talking about?" Mika's genuinely not following where she's going with the conversation, though it comes across as just more annoyance. Which, of course, makes him all the more prone to responding in kind. "Or do you always babble on about nonsense that has nothing to do with anything?"

[hairsay]

"It's got everything to do with this fucking second," Jo snarled. She'd been questioned one too many times in the last few weeks and it was all boiling over now; the mannerisms, the colloquialisms... when she was confused and upset she fell back on old, familiar language. Where she came from it earned her upper ground. Here it just eroded her confidence and left her prone to snapping.

"You, you little shit, you came up to me and asked what the fuck I was doing, and the answer is I'm building a fish trap because unlike some hypothetical fucking blood-suckers, some of us need to eat around here and nuts and berries aren't fucking cutting it. I tried to fucking joke with you, but you're such a sullen little asshole all you can do is turn your nose up like a little fucking aristocratic shit-stain over me and my sacrifices because you're somehow fucking better than me."

"Fuck you, fuck off before I throw this rock at your fucking snaggle-toothed face!"

[tosaveyuu]

Truthfully, Mika had asked because he'd been genuinely curious, as he hadn't seen anything like it before. Living in the vampires' underground city for the past eight years tends to limit one's exposure to things, after all. But when he hadn't caught the joke initially--how could he? he is a vampire and is used to being treated as such, after all--the resulting confusion had simply spiraled out of control.

The true irony is that he might have even considered helping. It's not like he has much better to do around here, anyway.

"Then maybe you shouldn't try to make fun of someone who just asks a question," he says, looking at her coldly. He's unfazed by her threat; it's not like a rock is going to hurt him, after all. Well, it would hurt, but something like that isn't nearly enough to truly injure a vampire. He's tempted, briefly, to simply dash in and knock it from her hand before she can react, just to make a point, but even that doesn't seem worth the effort.

[hairsay]

"Are you fucking shitting me?!" Jolene snarled. This little shit had the gall to stand there with a stick shoved so far up his ass she could see foliage sprouting out his ears. "It was a fucking joke! It's not like I was gonna fucking burn you at the stake or anything?! Calm your fucking tits!"

[tosaveyuu]

"It sounded like you were thinking of trying something like that just now, too," Mika points out. He wasn't oblivious to her defensive posture even without her overt threat a moment ago, he just knows there's nothing she could do that could truly harm him. Besides, she's the one getting the most worked up over it, not him, as far as he's concerned.

"Whatever. There's no point in talking to you."

And with that he turns to go.

[hairsay]

Jolene, worked up to a high foam, throws her rock on the ground with an unsatisfying thud, then caterwauls like a banshee as she stomps in the opposite direction. Any work she was planning on getting done today is over with, at least until she can pull her head out of her own ass. DAMNED FOOL MAGICAL KID ASSHOLES WHAT IS EVEN WITH THE TEENAGERS HERE WHY IS LIFE SUDDENLY SO DAMNED HARD?!