Mingle: For a limited time only...

[hearsthesea]

Who: Everyone!
Where: Anywhere on the hub
When: Days 134-139
Open/Closed: Open mingle goooo!

[Copper, lizards, and vines - oh my! With the recent installation of 9S and co.'s scanning equipment and the also recent, significantly wetter rainstorms there's quite a lot to check out on the island right now. Plus, the monitor robot still needs a name. You're not going to leave them nameless forever, are you?

Too bad Genette's put out word that everyone's about to be moving location soon. That means these are the last days the coven has for a little while to get everything in order, whether it's to take things to the next destination or to leave them behind. Get your bags packed and your huts cleaned, everyone!]

Comments

[sharpestsword]

A—copper crafting

[ Having done enough mining for the day, Julieta sits with her supply of raw material on a blanket outside her hut. She concentrates on the metal, pulling it out until it's thin and wraps it around an improvised spool. Previous attempts at shaping wire, too uneven to be useful, lay in a pile. It might not be the easiest thing to make but it seems like something that could be good to have. ]

B—target practice

[ It's time to experiment. Julieta has found herself a secluded clearing in the forest. This could be dangerous. She's brought with her an assortment of metal pieces, some of which she's shaped into projectiles, others left as scraps. Her objective is to try them out and see which is easiest and most effective to work with by flinging them at trees using her ability. She's alert to watch for anyone passing through. Any critters she finds, however, are likely to become a target. She pauses what she's doing when she hears a noise. ]

( b )

[enflame]

( Critters, eh? A particularly large lizard might catch her eye. The large, yellow thing is crawling about the foresty area, occasionally trying to walk bi-pedal and investigate anything that catches their eye. So many interesting things, so few limbs to play with them with.

Their eyes have landed on these shiny pieces of metal -- for as dangerous as they might be, they're equally interesting to the tiny thing that's clamouring to put their clawed hands all over them.

Trailing behind them is their caretaker, not quick enough to keep up with the lizard without getting winded. )

Lisko...! Lisko, leave those alone!

[sharpestsword]

[ A lizard! For a moment she considers what it might taste like until it's followed by what would appear to be its owner. She'll leave the lizard be. It's about time for a rest anyway. ]

Is this a pet?

[enflame]

( Yeah, please don’t eat his alien child. That also explains the answer to the question as he scoops them up, their claws grabbing at the air. )

Sort of...? It’s complicated, I guess. ( He’s a single, stay-at-home lizard father. ) What’s with all the metal?

[sharpestsword]

This? I'm trying to figure out how to use my power.

[ She watches the lizard, amused at how it flails. It's time to gather her resources so she can start again. Some pieces are embedded in trees, others further away hidden in the underbrush. She draws them toward her, as many as she can at once. ]

b!!!

[finagles]

Julieta Juris.

[ It might alarm her to suddenly hear the voice of McGillis Fareed in her mind. The noise that she heard was a rustling in the bushes -- from there, a rather large white wolf emerges.

He eyes her with a human-like intelligence, perhaps cluing her in to the connection, and remains neither defensive nor aggressive, despite the presence of weaponry. Out hunting and practicing his own skill, stumbling on her training session has happened purely by accident.

Well, now's as good a time as any to square up the continuing truce with Gaelio and confirm her participation. ]

I'd heard news of your arrival. How are you finding the transition?

[sharpestsword]

[ His voice was alarming on its own. Unwelcome in her mind. She's already on edge by the time the wolf appears. This is a forest so she was prepared to encounter a wild animal. Yet this one seems different. It's enough that she pushes back the instinct to get away. Attacking something that large at her current skill level wouldn't be ideal. She watches closely, listening for others, but as far as she can tell, they're alone. This wasn't just her imagination. Her gaze shifts from side to side with metal tight in her hand. She just needs a moment to figure out what to make of this. ]

I'll handle it just like I always have.

[finagles]

[ He pauses, standing on all fours, keeping a gap between them in the clearance. He sure doesn't discount the possibility that the metal in her hand might go whizzing through the air in an attempt to impale him.

McGillis watches her movements very carefully. ]

Little choice in the matter but to adapt. For the time being, I have no interest in continuing our strife. It would amount to nothing here.

[sharpestsword]

[ The thought crosses her mind and lingers there for a moment before she dismisses it. She's content to keep plenty of distance between herself and those jaws. They don't need to be near to communicate anyway. Given that the first person she encountered on the island was a shapeshifter, it doesn't take her long to draw her own conclusions what's going on here. It feels better as long as she has something in her hand, but she won't actively threaten him either. ]

Is that so?

[ She really is asking, for all that would accomplish. It seems awfully suspicious to her. ]

[finagles]

[ As a show of sincerity, after a pause, he sits on hind legs and flicks ears towards her. She is truly asking, but that edge of suspicion (and it is fair) must be handled with care. ]

You've spoken with Gaelio, correct? I assumed he would have communicated this to you.

[sharpestsword]

That's right.

[ She's open enough to allow him to speak but everything else about her is closed off. This was not part of her training. It was something she had given some thought to after her conversation with Gaelio but she did not come out to the forest at all prepared for something like this. She wants to get back to her training. Her newfound magic is at least something she's beginning to understand. ]

[finagles]

[ And yet, he's not going to let her get out of it... ]

Are you in agreement?

a

[reckoner]

[ A stroke of luck, that another coven member had disappeared, freeing up a hut for Julieta. With Gaelio's attempt at a cabin in shambles, time not spent attending to his daily duties or trying again with Yamato, has been increasingly with Julieta. With her, there is stability. In the month before she arrived, he could not easily place or define it, a sense of lack. More easily attributable to Ein, to much else.

Yet, many were the days she had sought him near Kimaris Vidar and engaged, a constant of conversation. Remembering it with her.

After accompanying her mining, he leans against the hut door, arms loosely crossed, watching from above and behind as she gathers and winds the copper. ]

What will you do with the scraps?

[sharpestsword]

I was just going to keep making more wire until it was all used up, unless you have a better idea.

[ She's open to suggestions. Hopefully it can be used for something. If nothing else, shaping the metal like this is steadily increasing her skill and fine control. This sort of work requires a lot more concentration than it did to mine it from the vein they found. ]

[reckoner]

Not with wire, no.

[ As she can create other metal, might as well put the copper toward conductivity. They might bring it to 9S or Dirk. ]

So you'll start over with the uneven strands?

[ Not intending to distract, but he'd found it useful when practicing himself, the effort to maintain a conversation simultaneously. ]

[sharpestsword]

I'll just fuse them back together and try again. As many times as it takes.

[ Which is exactly what she does to show him. She presses the tangled mass between her hands and slowly it begins to form into a single block. It's practically a different skill entirely from what she was doing before. She's beginning to find how versatile her power can be. Though she can't really do it indefinitely. She'll need to replenish her energy at some point. Having someone watch really has her focusing more on her accuracy. ]

[reckoner]

Hm.

[ Leaning, a touch, to better observe the metal morphing. ]

Do you have to consciously think of the shape, or is it more reflexive?

[sharpestsword]

Kind of a vague idea.

[ The strand she's working on is getting quite long. A personal best she can be proud of. It's easy to keep going once she's started. Maybe even a little relaxing now that she's less stressed about getting it right. ]

Have you been practicing too?

a.

[distained]

[ He was passing by, absorbed in his own thoughts with a finger to his chin, but stops a step past her, glancing down. ]

Excuse me.

[ He's crouching next to her, one lowered to the ground. ]

What is this?

[sharpestsword]

[ She noticed his presence, but doesn't pay him any mind until he stops. Maybe he wants some. She wouldn't be opposed to that if he has an offer. Or just keeping her company. ]

I'm working on making it into wire.

[distained]

Is it a magic of sorts?

[ That, at least, isn't an unknown to him. Even if he's no mage or god or demon by far—he's been around magic his entire life. ]

[sharpestsword]

It must be. I don't really know how it works.

[ She holds it taut in her hands and looks up at him. Since he's here maybe he wouldn't mind helping. She points at the pile of scraps. ]

Would you mind crushing all that together?

[distained]

Oh, of course.

[ It's more or less his job to do things for people, after all, so he's ...pausing, considering the job at hand.

Haha, at hand. Since he's missing a hand, this is going to be... strange. ]

Ah, but I'll need a moment.

[sharpestsword]

[ She goes back to working. When she concentrates it turns out quite well. But she's kind of running low on material. When she glances over, it's then that she notices. ]

Oh, your hand.

[distained]

[ He's lifting it with a half smile. ]

I lost it a decade ago. I had something of a replacement until my arrival, but it didn't seem to make the trip.