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 Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:03 pm
The sharkboy was fairly focused on his task, snout angled to teh ground as he kicked debris here and there while stealing glances at the riverflow. Nothing but sunfish today it seemed, and they weren't very palatable, if he rcalled correctly. The thought crossed him that perhaps with a little luck he'd find a mudskipper of sorts, something easy to catch and somewhat edible. Ideas like these reminded him of his childhood days of running barefoot through Ol' McCulley's creek.
Unfortunately his daydreaming cost him his focus on his surroundings and he soon foun himself at a fairly close distance to a strange old man. Staring fo r a moment in blank shock and awkwardness, the punk teen finally let a small smirk cross his features. "Ay." He spoke simply, unsure if the man was friendly by the expression on his face.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:14 pm
"Hey..." he said tentatively, his expression uncertain to match. In that moment he wished he'd overdone it on the drugs just so his reaction would have been... at least better morbid fascination. Realizing he was staring, he forced himself to say something more, be sociable, be cool.
"What're you doing?" He shifted his weight back to his cane as he asked it, casting a nervous glance at the bank just to make sure it would hold.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:21 pm
Alec could see the obvious look on the man's face as they stood their staring dead-on in some visual standoff. Unable to tell what he was thinking exactly, the teen interpretted it as a mix of curiousity and the inevitable shock-horror. The shifting of his weight, aversion of his eyes, it all made him feel self-conscious and somehow very, very small.
"Uh? ... uh... A'm lookin' fo' somethin' t'eat." His voice was uneasy as he replied to what he could only feel was a question of accusation, like he'd been doing something unacceptable. Perhaps it was the obvious age difference that made Alec feel so chastized.
After a pause of silence he'd only feel worse, so the boy cut to the chase and made a suggestion that might satisfy the stranger's disturbed aura. "A'll move on...?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:24 pm
He raised an eyebrow, taken aback by how young the shark boy sounded, and over the question. He shook his head, knocking his messy bangs in front of his eyes.
"No, no, it's cool," he said, laughing with embarrassment. "I just... Ah, you know."
He finally brushed his hair away after he said it.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:28 pm
Alec mimicked the action, his only method of reassureing himself that everything was alright. "Ye, hehe... a' know." It amused him that they both knew what the other was referring to without really having to say it. It was something so small like that that made him almost want to stick around.
"Ay... ye lost? New 'ere?" The boy slurred his accented words as he asked a bit more boldly, initial hesitation slipping away to reveal the outgoing teenager underneath.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:32 pm
"Just exploring," he said, a defensive edge creeping in the words. He backpedeled quickly to cover up for it. "I mean... I just thought I'd take a walk along the river, get my thoughts in order and stuff." He smiled to try and throw in a little more credibility to that, far be it from him to admit he needed to soak his legs.
"But, yeah, still pretty new... It's a nice place, despite it all."
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:42 pm
Alec ignored the obvious signs of anxiety from the older man, mirroring his smile with a rather fang-toothed verison of his own. "A' guess." He responded, still smiling despite the disagreement in his mind. Sure, teh trees were cool, the beack was fun, but none of that could outweigh what really was going on here.
Figuring the guy would eventually decide whether he was going to stumble away in sheer terror or join him for a chat, the shark calmly approached his side of the riverbank and sat down in the loose ground that sloped into the river. He'd let his legs hang out and into the water a he looked up at the man once more. "S'nice n' quie' 'ere, ye. Th'lake is nice fo' tha' too." He attempted small talk, never being an expert at the art.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:47 pm
"Oh yeah? I'll have to check that out then..."
He smiled and slipped his free hand into his pocket, rubbing his fingers over the extra pills he'd brought along, just in case. He was weak, but then again he felt perfectly justified in trying to numb the whole horrid reality of the place along with the pain. It was win-win, but... he slipped his hand yet and decided he'd wait at least a little while longer, help reduce those chances of overdosing. Funny how he didn't want that.
"Look, um, I know this is completely and utterly out of the wild blue, and forgive me but... how old are you?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:59 pm
As he was about to continue in his train of thought of reciting various nice, quiet place to relax, Alec soon found himself confronted with a fairly odd question. "Uh?" He repeated as he'd uttered before, arching a brow awkwardly as he gave a similarly-awkward response. "... Seveh-teen? Why?" What kind of question was that?
Given he'd just been subjected to just about the most blunt and random question ever in his mind, the teen figured he'd at least have to inquire the reason.
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Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:05 am
"I dunno," he said, looking blank for a moment. "It just sort of... hit me is all."
Stupid of him. But the voice, coupled with those looks, and the slurring from the teeth... His mind was not cooperating with the connections involved.
"I just didn't expect..." he trailed off and shook his head, unable to recover from that. "Nevermind."
It shouldn't be so hard. He'd seen a good assortment of islanders already... but that had either been under the influence of something or while he was dutifully working towards being such. The pills were calling.
"Sorry... Not exactly making a good first impression, am I?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:11 am
Alec chuffed a laugh and shook his broad head, taking it all in stride. "Is alwehs weh'd when ye first meet some'un." He muttered in a good-natured tone, swishing a rubbery foot in the water infront of him as he lazily reached in the pocket of his swimming trunks to retrieve the lighter he'd stashed there. "Ye think is wehd though, imagine lookin' 'n th'mirror!" Another small but carefree laugh and he was lighting a cigarette, placing the filter into his odd-shaped mouth to complete a very odd picture.
"Anneh idea wha' theh go' n' sto' f'ye?" It seemed it was his turn for the blunt questions, curiousity prodding him forwards to ask the inevitable as he took the first drag of the cig.
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Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:20 am
Sid shrugged and moved his weight off the cane long enough to flick a nearby pebble into the water. He tried to place where exactly it sank as he answered, "I dunno, I haven't asked... Hell, I don't think I wanna know."
Right, as if that could stop it. He smiled bitterly at the idea, and looked to Alec once more. The cigarette made for the kind of surreal imagery he was almost used to, even led him back to that old hope that it was all some kind of horrible trip or flashback. It also made him wish he hadn't left his own back in the duplex.
He had to quit fooling himself. "Guess I'll find out soon enough."
As soon as he said it the unpleasant question of how soon made him change the topic. Quickly. Just as abruptly as before.
"You know you're the first person I've seen who smokes? I've been here less than a week and already I've been asked twice-" he held up to fingers to illustrate. "To put mine out, seein' as it offends certain folks and their incredibly sensitive noses." He rolled his eyes. "As if they can't just suck it up like anybody else. First time it was some dragon looking guy, second was this wolfman who ended up more wellspoken than I ever conceived of being, but then again it might have been the... It might have just been me." He paused long enough to brush his hair back again, but it wasn't quite enough to get a word out in response before he continued.
"You'd think you'd escape that sort of thing, but no... it's still pointed looks and sneezing and all that s**t. You know what? I'll just be happy if I don't end up with senses like that."
Though if he did he had a nice selection of substances to fall back on. He realized too late he'd inadvertantly fallen back to the transformation problem.
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Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:44 am
"Ye, a' w's like tha'." Alec nodded, puffing absent-mindedly as he paddled the water with his feet. He didn't care how childish the action looked, it was entertaining him for the time being. Just a he was about to begin a thought, he seemed to be cut-off by a random outburst of ranting from the elderly stranger. The boy did his best to listen without cracking a smile, reminded of his senile grandmother who'd go on and on about the spies in Russia before asking if he was the electrician.
By some manner of a miracle the teen was able to focus enough on what he was saying to pick out only the last references made towards islanders with 'sensitive noses'. "Ha! Ye met Zach n' Ambrose..." He seemed proud for a moment that he was able to clarify the idenitities though he'd have never expected Zach to be the type to whine about smoking. "Eh." He retorted in a laid-back and amused fashion. "Theh's no' as much cool pehple 'ere like us then."
Shrugging the thought away (and figuring the old man was finally done his long-winded rant), the sharkboy attempted to draw the conversation back to a more constructive topic. "Anehways... A' figgeh'd i' ou' meself, wha' a' am. Some pict-cheh books n' th'village..." His voice seemed to trail off for a moment as another thought crossed his mind. Before the man could even begin to inquire about the oddity that was his current form, Alec was bent on sparing himself the worry of a reoccurring concern. "Don' ask me 'bout all... this. Fook me 'f a neh." As he gestured to the tough, jagged bark on his limbs and the weird 'foliage', he shook his head and smirked some more. "Ah ye.... an' am Alec, by th'way."
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Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:02 pm
"Name's Sid," he said. "Nice to meetcha." He smiled, which came a little more easily. Maybe it was the rant that helped. As for Alec's comment about what he was, he waved it off. "Man, I don't know what half the people around here are supposed to be. Was never much for animals. One more thing that's gonna have to change, I guess."
For all he knew, the bark was a perfectly natural part of whatever shark-like creature Alec was becoming.
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Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:15 pm
Alec smirked and chuffed a laugh, gladly finding many similarities between the two despite the obvious age difference. The teen had little-to-no knowledge of animal life either, or of anything else for that matter. Afterall, books were like kryptonite. Nevertheless, weird rants aside, perhaps he'd make a smoke buddy out of this crazy old guy afterall.
Resisting the urge to request some food from the obviously ill-informed islander, the punk kid merely slipped further into the water until he was in up to his waist ebefore leisurely letting his curiousity run free. "So ay. Why ye go' a cane fo'? Were ye inna woh?" It would be interesting if he was some war veteran. Maybe it'd be possible to change the subject of his rants to something cooler? Like guns.
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