milliways_bar | (no subject)

Alene and the other houndeyes are at home at the moment. Shephard has other things to do tonight, most of them involving beer and ignoring people.

Or, you know. Waving to people he's met before, that's good too.

Liranan lifts his head and barks at about the same time Ysalwen smiles and waves.

"Shephard, right? I'm sorry not to see Alene here, but -- would you care to join me?"

Her mouth twists into a crooked smile.

"I'm trying to convince myself not to poke at the fish in the fireplace."

"Yeah, she'n the rest of the fleet're back home," says Shephard. "We were out huntin' today. They earned themselves a nap."

He settles in at one of the chairs.

"I got no fuckin' clue how those things do it. I've seen some weird shit at home'n in Xen, but the fire fish're way the fuck outside the usual run of things, less'n they're from that bending world'n they're some kinda firebender fish."

"Was this hunting for your dinner table, or hunting enemies of your people?"

There's a very slight difference between the two.

"I'm still impressed you have a fleet, by the bye."

She grins.

"Now I'm tempted to see what happens if I throw a little fire their way. Or -- hmm. Maybe I could scoop one up and look at it more closely?"

Ysalwen might even start to get up from her chair. Curiosity may be the death of -- those around her.

Someday.

"Six of one, half a dozen of t'other," says Shephard. "Bullsquid're nasty bastards the size of ponies that'd eat a man as soon as look at him, but if you git 'em soaked in their own venom a while'n hang 'em up'n smoke 'em they make damned good bacon. Last thing I need's wildlife that looks at people or farm critters as somethin' to eat."

He eyes the firefish a moment.

"What're you plannin' on scoopin' it up with?"

"Now that's handy on both ends. Apparently there's good eating on a bronto, too, but I've never tried. Well, not on the brontos wandering the Deep Roads, anyway. Terrible plan."

She laughs a little, quietly.

"I was thinking of using my hand. Protected by magic, of course. I always did like playing with fire."

"If that don't work I might be able to help," says Shephard, and holds up his gloved right hand. "I ain't too sure how fast the heat'll git to me, but this ain't meat under here."

"I hope it's not just bone, either. Is it metal?"

She seems intrigued, looking from the gloved hand to his face.

"I only ask so I can maybe estimate the heat transfer. Sorry. Though I suppose I can protect your hand with magic, too, if it comes to that. Either hand."

"It's silver," says Shephard, "or mostly silver, anyways. Fella who made it used a couple impossible things along with the metal, I know that. I c'n stick it in there a little, see how long it takes me to start hurtin'. Pain ain't no big thing."

This is why Alyx looks at him funny. A lot.

"Well, you know yourself best. We could both try it, and whoever has to pull their hand out fastest loses."

She laughs a little.

Possibly she's mostly kidding?

Shephard grins crookedly and peels the glove off. "I'm willing if you are," he says. "It's worth tryin'."

"I rarely say no to a dare I myself have proposed."

Ysalwen tucks her up own sleeve, magical barriers springing into place with a thought.

She also lets her hand, palm and back both, be coated with flame.

Just to provide a more hospitable environment to the fish.

"Shall we?"

"On three," says Shephard. "One, two-"

It will probably hurt quite a bit when the heat travels up the metal part to the meat part of his arm, but the thing about pain is that it eventually goes away. No permanent damage? Go for it, is his way of thinking. And anyway, he has caught forty-pound catfish before by waiting for them to bite down on his meat arm and then grabbing them from the inside.

"-three."

On 'three', Ysalwen slips her hand into the flames, holding it very still, palm-down, in case a fish would like to swim underneath it.

It's warm, certainly, but not unpleasant.

Not yet, anyway.

Shephard, on the other hand, has his palm turned up; he's wiggling his fingers ever so slightly. Makes 'em look more like something that might be worth nibbling on.

He can't feel the heat in the metal part of his arm. He's waiting for it to reach the stump where it was fused on by the Mastersmith.

Hmm. He seems to have the right of it.

After watching him for a few seconds, Ysalwen turns her hand over, as well.

With maybe a slight increase in the amount of flame sheathing her forearm and hand.

There's a little bit of sweat on her brow, from being so close to the fire, but no reddening in the skin of her arm.

"Y'know," says Shephard, taking nice, even breaths, "this ain't quite as bad as I was thinkin'. I ought to thank Jecinaldo next time I go visit his people."

You learn things about controlling your reaction to discomfort when there are bullet ants involved.

"Jecinaldo?"

Ysalwen sounds half-distracted as she says that, pouring a little more mana into the magic protecting her arm.

It takes focus, that.

And energy, too.

"Tuxaua of a tribe my people're allied with," says Shephard, who is now looking for the fish and looking for them extra hard. "His people, they got some nasty-ass rites for the boys who're lookin' to become men. Had to go through a couple of 'em to git some of his people to come join the Marine Corps, otherwise they wouldn't respect me. Makes not mindin' the fire easier, a little, some of that stuff."

"This was the ant thing you mentioned?"

There's a faint hint of grit in her voice, now, a little bit of a ragged edge.

"On my part, this is definitely not as bad as dragon fire. Which isn't quite the same way of handling it, I don't think."

"Yep," says Shephard. And: "Ain't been on the receiving end of dragon fire. I know a dragon. Ain't gonna piss her off."

The heat's definitely starting to get through; he's just... not going to let himself mind it, not yet.

nope.

nope.

"I've found as soon as they catch sight of you, it's probably too late. At home, anyway."

She bites her lip, brown eyes focused on the flame with a new intensity.

"I think I'm about to cheat, so you know."

"Naw, this one's a friend of mine. Shape changer."

That... may not have been the wisest thing to say. Not that he knows that.

"You go on'n do that. I ain't too sure I'mma stay in much longer myself."

"Oh? What other shapes does she have? And -- does she have a name? This friend who turns into a dragon?"

Ysalwen is curious. And maybe a little wary.

But since that is neither here nor there when it comes to the flames --

"Here, fishy fishy."

She sends out a quick flare of magic, an arcane shield twisted to her purposes and herding one of the fish into the palm of her hand.

Ysalwen removes it from the fire post-haste, though she keeps the flames curling around her palm and lower forearm.

Just to give the fish somewhere to be.

"Would you look at that," she says, wonderingly.

She's got a fish? She's got a fish. Okay then.

YOINK.

Shephard's gonna spend some time over here, holding his arm as far from his body as possible so it can cool down while he takes his vocabulary out for a run.