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 Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:43 pm
 The sun was slowly setting, lighting up the water of the river with brilliant flecks of reds and oranges that drifted and changed with the lazy ripples of flowing water. The sound of the water itself was almost drowned out by the muffled chatter of creatures moving along the banks. Those that didn't move along well-trodden paths around reeds and river plants were moving through the water, lighting up lanterns on their boats as the cast their nets for one last catch before returning to their homes for the day. Crickets were starting to play their music as the more nocturnal creatures started to stir into wakefulness. Against this backdrop of peaceful living Versailles was bored. He sat on a bank while looking up at the darkening sky, trying to ignore the gradual tug of sleep at his eyes as he chewed on a reed from a patch nearby. The sound of an irritated dragonfly hovering nearby was ignored as that bushy tail twitched, shaking the warmth from his fur as the air slowly started to cool. A rock was almost lazily kicked into the water by an aimless foot paw as the squirrel made a soft humming noise to himself. "Another day, another sunset and another boring night ahead of me." He muttered to himself as he got up slowly, brushing out his cloak before tugging the hood over his ears.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:04 pm
 As a counterpoint, Tsaika Te'Ah was hardly bored. Or, at the very least, he was no longer bored.
Boredom had a very nearly terrifying effect on the odd bat, read, terrifying to anyone who encountered the consequences of such a happening. After all, boredom is the mother of invention. Don't let anyone tell you it's necessity, and you might avoid some trouble.
That said, the particular boredom that gripped Tsaika had done so earlier in the day, and that grip was so harsh that it squeezed all ability to sleep right out of him. Insomnia carried him through the hottest parts of the day, and his fevered ideas carried him along to this very point--
A dead gourd, presumably filled with air, shoots out of the water with a jarring splash, and a soaked, pitiful, goggled mess of flippers and fins never meant for water follows after, gasping, floundering, sputtering and for some reason...
Proclaiming a complete success between splashes. Tsaika floundered to shore and tripped on everything he possibly could on the way up, owing to waterlogged wings and goggles that held more than their share of the river.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:03 pm
 Imogen had taken another long walk, as she often did, but this time she'd made her way all the way to the edge of Woodhaven and had decided to rest by the river. It was getting dark and she knew she would need to head back home soon, but it was such a nice night she couldn't bring herself to leave that spot.
That was until she heard splashing and gasped shouts of success. Having done her fair share of testing for inventions, she was almost certain that that was what she was hearing. When she looked across the water to find the source or, as she assumed, the inventor, her eyes fell upon a flailing bat. Both of these things heightened her curiosity to the point that she had to know what was going on. She absolutely had to.
But how? She didn't have much of anything to offer to the ferries, or at least she didn't think she did. She rummaged through her bag to check, just in case. Aha! She did have something. She had found something on her walk that day that she had picked up mostly because she wasn't quite sure what it was. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she was willing to part with the unknown object, before approaching the edge of the water and offering it to one of the ferry's captains. She had to know what was going on. When asked what it was, she was quiet for a moment before saying, "A rare artifact. I've never seen anything like it." She knew she wasn't good at telling lies, so she just made the truth sound more interesting. Though the captain looked at her skeptically for a moment, he took the item and told her to climb on board.
As the ferry took her to the opposite shore, her eyes were focused on the bat that was making his way to the shore as well. Once on the other side, she excitedly rushed over to him, not bothering to think that she may have been bothering him in any way, and said, "You made a great discovery, didn't you? I could hear you across the river. 'Success!' What kind of success? I bet you made something that will change everything as we know it. Oh, I wish I could make something that amazing." Her words left her mouth so quickly that it was as if she had a time limit in which to say everything that she wanted to say. When she was done, she held out a paw to the drenched bat standing before her and said, "I'm Imogen, by the way," an excited smile on her face.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:23 pm
Tsaika sputters again, but puts one wing around the she-mouse and point to the river, where his gourd was spinning and slowly sinking. "My dear girl THAT is a success! Almost! I believe I have invented a successful diving gourd! It just needs a few bugs worked out!"
The gourd itself was very large cut in half, with some string hanging from it, presumably a strap for an attachment of some sort. It didn't look "seaworthy" in the least, and should one use it as a diving apparatus they would face the problems of pressure and quick resurfacing, as Tsaika had, and in addition to that there was no way to see where it was steering. Despite these problems, Tsaika looked entirely pleased and did not hesitate to shake Imogen by the shoulders.
"This could mean the beginnings of communication with fish! Imagine the discovery! The diplomacy and tribal relations! IMAGINE THE ADVENTURE, if you would! Also, my name is Tsaika."
At last he lets go and empties his goggles.
"... I didn't realize it was so early."
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:40 pm
Imogen followed the bat's outstretched wing to the spinning and sinking gourd. She listened intently, nodding when he said that it needed a few bugs worked out. It looked as though it did, possibly more than a few, but the idea amazed her. A diving gourd. Why hadn't she thought of such a thing? When the bat explained that it could be the beginnings of communication with fish, she stared in awe at the possibilities. Could they maybe one day be asking the fish to pull them across the river instead of paying for a ferry? Or have a fish dive further down to get something for them? She was so wrapped up in her imaginings that she almost missed his introduction. "Huh? Oh, Tsaika, okay. It's nice to meet you," she said, and it truly was. She didn't have many people to share ideas with, most of them not understanding a thing she was saying halfway through. Maybe this fellow inventor could be added to her very short list of friends. Maybe.
What he said as he emptied his goggles confused her, though. "Early?" she asked, looking up at his, brows furrowed, "But it's getting dark." She hadn't conversed with many bats in her life, at least not long enough for them to mention the time of day (or rather, night), and so she didn't think about the fact that they were nocturnal.
She looked back at the gourd as it continued to sink, a thought coming to mind that hadn't before and pushing the confusion from her face. "Don't you need that?" she asked as she pointed to the diving gourd, wondering why he had left it to sink. Wouldn't he need it to improve upon? Or did he plan on rebuilding it from scratch?
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:55 pm
Versailles coughed a bit, looking a touch irate at the pair conversing in front of him. He had reason to, all of Tsaika's flailing and splashing had gotten him soaked and the squirrel was none too happy about it. His tail twitched back and forth as he tried to wipe off the water before finally shaking, his cloak falling this way and that as water splattered off of his fur. There was an almost sulky look on his face as he stopped, tapping his footpaw a little before finally talking.
"How can you talk to fish if you can't hear them." His response was less than enthusiastic, as to him fish were for eating and not conversing. The idea of holding a conversation with a fish was about as appealing as chewing on rocks.
Blue eyes finally looked over the pair, giving them both distinctively judgmental looks as that sulking expression seemed to grow.
"Are you a fish, or a bat?" Was what he finally said, seeming to actually think this over before looking at Imogen with an almost curious expression. "And you aren't from around here."
Well aren't we Mister Obvious.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:29 am
"Yes, it's early, it's almost time for the stars to surface, I'd say my bretheren should be getting up right about now." Tsaika's green gaze follows Imogen's and locks on to his precious invention. "Oh. OH, right right right. Gourds can be replaced but I shouldn't waste! Be with you in a moment, friend squirril, I have a craft to catch. Then we can discuss the nuances of sub-surface communication!" Tsaika's one-track mind was on a roll. Wonderful.
With a few flops he was airborn and skimming the water, and considering his usual way of going about things he crashed into the river trying to pull the thing out. It takes a good lot of paddling with his flimsy wings to get back to shore again, panting and dripping.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:26 am
Imogen listened, confused for a moment as she thought, Bretheren? but she soon caught on and said, "Oh, bat, right," with a small laugh at her own misunderstanding.
Then, she heard another voice near by that seemed to be directed at them seeing as how it was inquiring as to how you could talk to fish when you can't hear them. She looked to the squirrel, who she noticed was also wet but didn't think that it had been because of Tsaika, and said, "Inventions can make anything possible," with a smile.
She then watched as Tsaika went after his diving gourd, watching him fly and then crash into the water. She was about to try to help in some way when the squirrel mentioned that she wasn't from around there. She turned to him and said, "Ah, yeah, I'm not," while rubbing the back of her neck a little nervously. She knew that invading another tribe was looked down upon and gave the inhabitants reason to attack, but she hadn't thought about that on the ferry trip over. "But, I come on friendly terms," she said, hoping to keep things civil, "Promise."
She glanced back over to check on Tsaika only to find that he had made his way back. That made a smile grow on her face. She wasn't sure if bats had a better chance in water than birds, or if Tsaika was just a different kind of bat, but for something with wings to be able to get through water like that impressed her.
Looking back to the squirrel, she remembered that she she probably say where it was that she was from, and so she said, "I'm from Woodhaven, by the way. You're from here, though, right?" He looked like he was from Fleuve. If he wasn't, his cloak sure was. It looked expensive, far more expensive than anything she could afford.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:15 pm
"Hah! Yeah, I thought so. Your accent is different." Regardless of whether this was true or not Versailles seemed to believe it, grinning at the mouse with another twitch of his tail. He almost preened, stopping himself before finally continuing. "Really? You'd invent something to talk to fish? I've never thought of fish as anything more than something to eat."
He mentally scoffed at the thought, but said nothing as he followed Imogen's gaze out over the water. The squirrel laughed, watching Tsaika's clumsy flailing in the water as the gourd was retrieved. He tried to muffle the sound with a paw, finally turning away from the "show" to look at Imogen with an amused expression. Now he did scoff, openly at that.
"What? Really? I don't care if you're from somewhere else, or not." He felt that he was more than safe in this little riverside community, regardless of who came through here. He looked proud of the fact that he lived in Fleuve, that smile still in place before he finally shrugged and chuckled again. "What are you gonna do, right?"
He turned back to look at Tsaika now that the laughter was out of his system, adjusting the clasp on his cloak as blue eyes caught the mouse's gaze.
"Born and raised. My father was the tailor and my mother is the best weaver in the area."
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Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:53 am
Imogen looked slightly confused when the squirrel said that she had a different accent and said, "Do I?" She had never thought that she had an accent, but it sounded exciting to her, to sound different from other people. He didn't sound different to her, though. Maybe he was just an accent expert or something. Yeah, that had to be it. Then he asked if they'd really invent something to talk to fish and she said, "Well, why not?" That was her typical answer for why she did things, but she would still explain, "It could make the ferry captain's jobs a lot easier. And they could possibly dive down and get things for us. I mean, imagine if you accidentally dropped something expensive into the river. Wouldn't it be nice to have somebody to get it for you?"
When he said that he didn't care that she was from somewhere else, she was relieved, but she was a little offended with what he said next, as if she was a harmless bug or something. She frowned slightly and said, "I could fight if I wanted to... to protect myself or something," adding the last part so that he wouldn't see it as a challenge.
Her frown disappeared as he talked about his family, though, a smile replacing it as she said, "Did they make that cloak for you? It's really nice." She had her hat and her bag, which had been gifts from her parents and her mole friend, respectively, but they weren't as nice as the squirrel's cloak. Of course, that was partially because they had gone with her everywhere since she'd gotten them, but they also hadn't been quite as nice even then.
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Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:59 pm
"I suppose so," He said in response to her comment about having fish finding things dropped in the river. He continued to smile before shrugging a bit, laughing softly to himself. "If you say so. Really, I just let things stay in the water if they fall in."
He was watching her with a flick of his tail, reaching up to adjust the clasp on his cloak subconsciously before once more shrugging. Whether he was telling the truth or not was hard to tell, blue eyes focused on the mouse in front of him as she spoke. He couldn't help but notice how plain she was, and the squirrel wondered if that came from traveling so much or just bad luck with genetics.
"I'm sure you can fight, really." No, he didn't believe her and his tone of voice said that. Even the flippant little paw gesture he made seemed to go along with "don't you worry your pretty little head about that", the subtle undercurrent of that statement. "I'm just not worried about you here. After all, there are lots of us and one of you."
He paused, stroking the edge of his cloak as she asked that, looking down at it for a moment before shrugging.
"Grandmum made this for me, and then I helped Mother dye it. It was... a group effort, so to speak." And he was the best, of course. "Why are you here?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:19 pm
Imogen hadn't been on the river enough times to know what she would do if something fell in, but if it was something she cared deeply about like her hat or something she needed like her glasses, she'd be happy to have a fish grab it for her. She looked out at the water, then, wondering if all fleuvians thought that way about their possessions. If so, she imagined the bottom of the river was covered in lost treasures. "Well, they could get others' things, then," she said before looking back to him.
When he said that he was sure she could fight, she could tell he didn't mean it and it bothered her a bit. She thought about a possible friendly fight to show that she could, but she didn't really like to fight unless she had to and the squirrel had a good point. Though the critters of Fleuve were rumored to be weak, there were a lot of them and she was only one mouse. She had no idea how many friends he had, but if any of them saw them fighting, even if it was a friendly fight, they might gang up on her and that wouldn't be good. No, she would let him think what he wanted for now.
"Oh, well, you did a great job on it. You and your family did," she commented on his cloak with a smile. Then he changed the subject, asking her why she was there. "Oh, well, uhm. I go on walks a lot and today I walked to the river and I was relaxing when I heard Tsaika here yelling and splashing. I'm an inventor, so I can tell an experiment when I see one, or.. uh.. hear one, and I had to see what his great success was," she said, talking a bit faster than normal as she usually did while explaining things and then saying, "So... just curiosity, I guess," smiling yet again.
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