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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

"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.

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.

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?"

"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."

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."

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.

"Just so you know, this conversation would be easier if you weren't actin' like a skittish deer."

The kind that looked like it was going to make a break for it but was still debating about it. Yep, now he wondered if he was scaring her, which was definitely a problem. Heroes should be pulling that except with bad guys. Yeah, then it was acceptable.

Jolene would not have argued herself as a bad guy, unless she was trying to brag... but with Nagi that did not pan out well, as she had learned for herself. She reacted immediately, however, not so much as gulping to swallow her words before she smacked him with one of her over-sized minnows. "Do I look like a skittish deer?!" She wasn't sure to be offended or glad to be shaken out of her distress.

And he went right into having a bad attitude, red mark spreading over his face. He really should have expected that. Really, really.

"I was gonna say skittish deer are cute but screw that."

Jo, rallying finally, gave a scoff of a laugh. "At least I know your secret weakness. And you put the weapon right in my hands." If the fish was a bat she'd throw it over her shoulders... but the idea of it draping over her neck and back was enough to give her the squeeblies.

She instead did her best to gather all three of the fish in her arms before turning on her heel. "Listen, I'll make up for it. You'll get your food and I'll get a chance to rip guts out of these little fuckers to feed my cat. It's a win win."

03 Amber | Downstream of the Boat

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