Selene
Kitsune
Victim of the Bermuda Triangle
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Posts: 7
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Post by Selene on Nov 5, 2006 0:27:28 GMT -5
You can learn a great deal about someone by listening to them talk, the huntress mused, and by paying attention to how and when they speak. She, for instance, talks a great deal around others, fast and witty; keeping everyone entertained and properly interested in her but allowing them to forget anything she didn’t want them to remember; but once she’s on the move in the wood, she speaks not a word, allowing her body language and facial expressions to do the talking for her in the rare event she hunts with a group. Ari, it seems, was the opposite. He spoke little, to her, and though his voice was pleasantly smooth and mellow, not to mention the shift from his fluid accent during his endearingly shy introduction to something akin to what she used when he said her name, it contained a certain roughness that was commonly associated with illness, Selene knew it was from disuse. Whoever this man was, he didn’t speak often, and thought a great deal. She’d dallied around philosophers and monks before and they had the same sort of look, men trying to decipher all they’d seen and heard in the past few moments without paying particular attention to what was being said. Lost to the world. Not a woman of intense thought, Selene snorted in disgust, allowing oneself to be inattentive to the now and what might happen in the next few seconds was pointless to her, she never had the patience for meditative thought or scholarly pursuits. She was a woman of action. She did plan, yes, but most actions and decisions were made on the fly, in the midst of movement. Her being burned with energy that needed to be loosed in as many ways as humanly possible…well, not every way humanly possible. She neglected physical human companionship for the past decade for reasons no one knew, much to the frustration of most of the male populace.
At the growl behind her Selene whipped around, dropping into a crouch and snapping her hunting blade out of its sheath on her thigh; she peered through the undergrowth, searching for the beast the growl had emanated from. Seeing only Ari following her diligently she quirked a brow and rose, slipping her knife to it’s home; the man must be really hungry if his stomach sounded like that, so she spared a few moments to toss a length of deer jerky at him before moving on. She’d recognized the simple weave of his clothing, he’d come from the fishing district a ways from the wood, that explained his first accent, but how he’d gotten this far was beyond her. They must make men hungry there, she’d noticed telltale signs of fish surrounding the campfire; perhaps animals ate his food while he was in the tree. Shrugging away such thoughts as the rain sluiced down her back she made her way down the secret paths, nearly invisible trails made by game in the forest, padding softly over leaf and twig until they reached a path close to the rocky hills that adorned the area. Stepping lightly, she moved over the slippery boulders, climbing over the few that blocked their path before sliding down the face of a very large boulder and landing in a crouch on the edge of a hidden clearing. It was empty save for a large moss covered boulder next to the hewn face of the hill.
“This is how you make camp.” She smirked, walking towards the ‘boulder’ and slipping a hand along the moss and opening a small flap, she motioned him inside. Within the rather obnoxiously large tent there was a small fire, the smoke escaped through a series of small holes in the roof, a series of canvas and wooden ‘crates’ and ‘shelves’, a cot, a collapsible workbench, and a wall hanging off to the side that enclosed the bathroom that was currently collecting water from the rain. “Home sweet home!” Selene murmured as she slipped off her cloak and kicked off her boots, setting them aside on a mat by the entrance. Padding softly over the canvas floor she pulled out two soft cotton towels and threw one to Aari, as she used one to dry off her hair. “I’m not sure if I’ve got anything in your size…” She mumbled, voice muffled by the towel as she rummaged around in a ‘crate’ until she found some clean, dry mansclothing for her guest. “Go to the other room and change, I’ll get dinner started.”
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Arikalen
Dragon Shapeshifter
Tranfered Through Interdimensional Portal
Posts: 9
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Post by Arikalen on Nov 5, 2006 0:29:58 GMT -5
Ari took the clothing gratefully, wanting a good excuse to get out of this pathetic excuse for an outer covering. Fur. Fur was always the way to go, but for some reason humans only took the idea to their heads. What advantage was to be found for hairlessness? It never made sense to him. Perhaps he'd find the answer among humans. Perhaps not. Maybe even they didn't know. He remembered his manners just in time, giving her a toothless grin. Even when he tried, he just couldn't manage to believe showing one's teeth was a friendly gesture. He walked in the direction she had indicated, turning the corner into the second room. Cozy. It reminded him of his den in the mountains, but it lacked the whistle of the wind past his Windstone in the chimney. He sighed with sudden homesickness, then pushed the thoughts from his mind. First, to get dressed before she came back here. He slid off his soaked shirt and trousers. Beneath his clothing his body looked less human. He could only base his change off what he saw, and he never had a chance to examine the human body naked. So he improvised. He had no clue how he looked; for all he knew, he guessed right and he looked completely human. But he couldn't take chances - he had to keep his true identity secret. He slid on the clothing Selene had loaned him. It was slightly too short, and it didn't quite fit right, but it was dry. At this point, that was all that mattered. He wondered why she had men's wear handy, but then he realized it was probably part of the kleptomaniac attitude humans had toward clothing. They always seemed to collect more and more, and never even wear some articles! Maybe Selene collected clothing as well. Maybe collecting men's clothing was something human women did as a hobby. Ari smiled to himself. Humans were strange, and any hair-brained ideas he could brainstorm would most likely be wrong, but less strange than the truth. His stomach chose that time to growl impatiently, reminding him that he'd missed out on most of his last meal. Maybe Selene needed help getting ready for supper. Not that he knew what to do, but he perhaps could help anyway. If nothing else, he'd like to see how she cooked. He re-entered the first room and stopped. "Hello, I've put on the clothes. Do ya need any help?" His strange speech slid in and out of accents, even though he was unaware of it.
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Selene
Kitsune
Victim of the Bermuda Triangle
???????? ???? ?
Posts: 7
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Post by Selene on Nov 5, 2006 0:31:58 GMT -5
“Here, you can peel the potatoes.” Selene pointed to a small burlap sack that contained eight wild potatoes, roughly the size of Ari’s fist, a smaller empty burlap sack was next to it with a paring knife. “And for the love of all that’s holy pick an accent and stick with it.” She muttered as she finished cubing the deer meat she’d put to soak that morning, now soft and tender and ready for the cauldrons she had poised over her small but hot fire. She slipped the meat within the now boiling water along with some tubers; off to the side she had two carved wooden bowls with plates of sliced crusty bread and wedges of cheese, along with two ceramic mugs. “Hope you don’t mind mead, it’s all I have to drink at the moment. Brew it meself, I do, it’ll but hair on a man’s chest and chest on a woman’s chest.” Winking slyly motioned to a sealed urn nestled lovingly in a nest of canvas, its ceramic surface gleaming innocently, belying the potent nectar it contained. “It’s strong stuff, so if you want I can cut it with some water if you like. Either way it goes great with stew. Deer stew’ll be for dinner, we’ll cube the potatoes after you peel ‘em and toss them into the cauldron, let ‘em stew for awhile.”
She wiped her hands clean absentmindedly on a towel, talking as she puttered around the tent, pulling on ropes here and there to make the water collection in the room off to the other side more efficient; she took a peak at one of the watertight skins she had collecting the water, noting it’s fullness and shifting the flow of the incoming rainwater to a second, empty sac. What Selene had managed to rig up in her bathroom was rather amazing, the tent was part of her permanent encampment, her home for the past few months really, and could be completely bundled up and strapped to fit in a small cart with room to spare. Tubes of waterproof canvas directed water down to a sloped pocket in the roof and into the water skins she’d been checking, which could be moved to drain water at the twist of a spigot into a small collapsible basin that drained outside the tent, downhill, or to fill a modestly sized collapsible tub that stood empty off to the side and drained in a similar fashion; or to hang above from a rig connected to the frame of the roof of the tent, that connected it to a tube and a sieve shaped bowel, forming a shower like a controlled waterfall. For the most part the water was all either frigid from the weather or room temperature, heating it took extra effort.
“If you don’t mind me ask’n, what the heck is a fisherman like you don’ all the way out here? You seem a might out of place, lovely. Naught but beasties and brigands this far out, none o’ the other hunters come this far into the woods, so I’ve got a monopoly on the game pretty much, ticked me off something fierce when that wolf got away, would’ve made a fine profit off of her. And no boots! How’d you e’er get up in that tree without boots? I’m surprised your feet aren’t bleed’n from strain. Here, lemme have a look.” Ignoring any possible protests she leaned over and inspected Ari’s feet, examining them with practiced fingers, searching out any sore spots and stilling with wonder at finding none. Shrugging it off she moved over to her workbench and pulled out some thick leather hide she hadn’t any use for and started cutting out soles for Ari’s boots. “You gonna stand there and look dumb lovely? Get to work on those potatoes!”
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Arikalen
Dragon Shapeshifter
Tranfered Through Interdimensional Portal
Posts: 9
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Post by Arikalen on Nov 5, 2006 0:36:15 GMT -5
Ari took some potatoes from the sack without comment, looking at them curiously. He knew of them, and he suspected they were a key ingredient in the stews the taverns served, but he had never seen a potato in its original state. It rather resembled a rock or even dirt. How could such an odd object be edible? Experimentally, he squeezed one. It was firm, but after he applied enough pressure it began to mash up and ooze liquid. The water apparently lubricated his hand, for as he increased pressure the potato shot out of his hand and smashed against the neighboring wall. He stared at his hand, covered in the starchy material. Interesting. Ari licked his palm to taste. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't fish. Very dry. Selene was making her rounds about the tent, and talking incessantly. Ari finally realized that her vocalizations were still directed at him and stood to face her. Facing her was quite difficult, as she never stayed in the same location. What was he supposed to do with the potatoes? Should he ask? Humans were definately strange. And this mead...Was it similar to the ale the fishermen fancied? Or was it water? Why did humans have to have so many beverages? And why would he want a hairy chest? Was it poisonous? Perhaps he'd watch her drink it first.....
His musing was cut short as she suddenly turned away from the strange contraptions on the walls to face him. Why was he here? Good question. He wasn't sure he knew the answer himself... "I wanted to explore......" he started to explain, thinking that a reply was necessary. But her stream of talking continued, and his quiet response was swallowed up by her stream of dialogue. Something about his boots? But he didn't have boots... "I don't own any b-" His eyes wide with surprise as she touched his feet, he didn't even finish his sentence. Her fingers probed his soles with purposeful movements. What social gesture was this? He wasn't sure he liked it. Why was she touching him? He tried to think back to how humans had interacted around him. Did the men wear boots to prevent women from touching their feet? Humans were a strange bunch. That statement summed up his experience so far. Finally, she turned away again and busied herself with some other gadget. The potatoes again? What was he supposed to do with them? He looked at the knife, then at the potatoes. Then back at the knife. Perhaps he should have watched the women of the village while they cooked... He thought of asking Selene, but he wasn't sure he could handle any more of her conversation. His head hurt trying to assimilate all of the information already! He looked again at the potatoes. They were slightly dirty. Maybe if he removed the dirt. That'd be a start. He cut away at an edge, the brown skin peeling away to reveal the starchy interior. After some quick fixing he ended up with a patchy potato. Maybe if he just removed all of the skin, it'd look nicer. A few cuts later and all that remained was that pale yellow center. Now what....He didn't want to set the potato on the ground; it would gather dirt again. So he placed it on the other sack and knocked the shavings onto the floor. There. That wasn't hard. He quickly repeated the process with the other six potatoes. There. Clean potatoes. Hopefully that was what he was supposed to do.... Now that the task was finished, he had the chance to admire the tent. It really was an eclectic jumble of exotic objects. None of them were remotely similar to human objects he'd seen in the village. Perhaps Selene would tell him what they were. Perhaps he'd get a powerful headache from listening to her talk...He rubbed gently at a temple, trying to relieve the pain.
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Selene
Kitsune
Victim of the Bermuda Triangle
???????? ???? ?
Posts: 7
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Post by Selene on Jun 7, 2007 20:47:24 GMT -5
“Oh for the love of buggering…here.” Selene muttered as she scooped up the mess of a potato from the wall and dumped it in a rig with the scraps from Ari’s peeling. “You don’t cook much aside from fish, do you lovely? Never mind, never you mind. Cube the potatoes, like this.” Instead of coming around in front of Ari she knelt behind him, putting her hands on top of his and went through the motions of cutting a potato in half and cubing it, then left him to place the cubes of starched vegetable into the cauldron. “Can you do that to the rest of them? Good. Get to it or you don’t eat.” For once leaving it at that she went back to work, patching together hard soles and soft but durable buckskin sides for Ari’s boots, they’d be twins of hers save made to fit his feet, knee high to keep muck out and lace up to have them fit properly. Selene was nothing if not a craftsman. She took great pride in her work and focused intently whenever she was bent to a particular task. The tent they were snug and dry in took the better part of a month to create, and that was just the main room. Everything else was added on over the course of years and any other hunter that had the fortune to see it wanted her to make one for them just like it. Most often these requests were denied, mostly because it would take so much time for her to replicate the tent and that was time better spent hunting.
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Post by wowposter on Nov 6, 2008 1:47:56 GMT -5
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