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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

[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?

[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.

amber;

[bestworstdad]

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

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.

[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!

[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. ]

[hairsay]

"Really, you of everyone out here?" Jo prodded, completely unaware of his impediment. She was still operating on cat bias, here. Still, she pointed out the tumble of huge rocks that deer had knocked over earlier in the week, giving Arj a cheeky grin. "Want to roll some of those out where we could use them?"

[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!

[hairsay]

Where's a kid like you get loads of ordinary spears!?

[Jolene will ignore the refusal to lift rocks for now in order to poke fun at this little blonde asshole.]

[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.

[hairsay]

[Jo's face comes back into view and when it does, Celena gets the full brunt of a possum-y wide grin.]

I'm almost ashamed we're countrymen or whatever you want to call it, but he's been hefting rocks with me every couple of days for the last month, so there's something to be said for Albertan ass-kicking.

[The word she was probably looking for was 'resolve', but then again, this being Jo, perhaps not!]

Don't make fun of him; he'll stop and cry about being watched if you don't do just as much work.

[kingpika]

Kids like me have all kinds of secret hidey-holes, miss!

[ He reaches his hand off the amber's "screen" and pulls a weapon into view. It's too big for him, but it's an actual pole-arm. ]

No wait, that's a halberd.

[ He tosses it over his back and gets a proper spear this time. You can't have too many extra bits when you're fishing. ]

[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.

[celena]

I don't intend to make fun of him, I intend to encourage him along while lifting twice as much so he'll be forced by his pride to keep up with me!

[The view behind her shifts as she gets up and begins striding towards her home]

I'm going to change into my blouse and then I'll fly down to you.

[donotmail]

"Yes, me." She doesn't know, does she? Oh Archetypes, say she doesn't know. Did he say? No, he wouldn't do that. Did she see him practicing?

He relaxes a little when she points to the rock pile. "Yes indeed!" he says, and strides off to investigate. He'd have no hope of moving them normally, but if she can roll them to the stream...

He picks one and pushes it along, rolling it in great thumps over the ground by pushing his whole weight against it. Kiarrs don't sweat, but he can feel his ears flush with blood. He's gasping and panting by the time he reaches the stream, but he still manages to stand up straight. "One rock," he says, before bobbing his head and lapping at the water. Hard work is thirsty work.

"A lever might do the trick in moving the rest," he says, looking back at the pile. "Or rollers?"

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]

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.

[hairsay]

You know what, kid, where I come from boys your age got trucks and plastic swords and video games and shit. Where on earth... or I guess wherever this place is, did you manage to find those things...

[And her face lit up just now]

And can I have one?!