(no subject)

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen is seated at a corner table, Liranan napping at her feet.

She's got several books piled around her, along with several notebooks, a small dry-erase board, and a tablet.

Someone is attempting to conquer applied differential equations.

It's just the thing after first being introduced to eigenfunctions as they relate to atomic models. If only every atom was a hydrogen atom.

Wait.

Comments

[boston_bruiser]

There is a familiar face nearby!

Do the Wardens have topographic maps? Because right now Voodoo is trying to plot a route to Saint Louis on one that won't ending with them all dying a horrible, horrible death.

(Mostly that means staying away from deathclaw dens.)

[freedom_is_grey]

If Grey Wardens don't, the dwarves almost definitely do. Or should.

Anyway.

"Ah," she says, looking up from the equations on her tablet after some small time. "Hard at work, are you?"

[boston_bruiser]

"Mmmmhm. 2,000 miles between where I am and where I wanna be, and only about two or three routes that won't end with us as snacks for the local wildlife."

He traces a route along the map.

"Most of it's flat terrain. Real flat. Used to be farmland. I don't like it."

[freedom_is_grey]

"When you say 'local wildlife', do you mean something like bears, or something more like dragons?"

Those are two distinct categories, at least. It's a start.

"And are you not expecting any human enemies?"

[boston_bruiser]

"I mean something like deathclaws and yao guai."

He scratches at his temple.

"Picture dragons that can't breathe fire or fly, but that can outrun you and with razor-sharp claws about - I dunno, this long," he says, spreading his hands about a foot and a half apart, "capable of cutting a dude in full armor in half at the waist. And then picture a bear with parts of their flesh rotting off that attack anything outside of their immediate family."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Well, that last one is bereskarn, so I don't need to imagine. The first one -- mm, sounds like drakes to me, minus the lack of fire, of course. How large of a troop are you bringing with you? Because if you're trying it alone -- how do I put this -- it's been nice knowing you, I guess?"

She's just saying.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo gives her the flattest look he can give.

"The day I walk this kinda road alone is the day the Sox win the World Series."

HAHA JOKE'S ON HIM IT'S 2003 IN HIS ORIGINAL WORLD.

"We've got five plus me. Four rifles, two light machineguns. -I guess a Gatling laser ain't really a machinegun, but it's still a support weapon."

He turns a page in the map book, adjusting it so Ysalwen has a better view.

"We might run into some local kooks, but I don't anticipate us hitting any large concentration of bad dudes before Legion territory. Right around here," he says, tapping Denver.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Some people have more balls than sense, and you do give that impression."

What?

"I'm glad it's at least a partially-misleading one."

Seriously, what?

"Do either of these predators of yours travel in packs or swarms? Or move at night? Because if all of your party is human -- forgive me but your night vision is awful."

[boston_bruiser]

"Yes they travel in packs, yes they move at night, no not everyone's a human. We got a supermutant in our crew on the Gatling - name's Fawkes. Somethin' like eight feet tall, strong as an ox. Could probably rip the yao guai's head off, if he wanted, but he's got this Zen-Buddhism thing going on."

He rolls his eyes at the dig at human night vision. "Our night vision's fine. And sound travels better at night."

[lifethatisscratched]

Ratonhnhaké:ton is also nearby, taking the opportunity to sharpen his arrowheads before he heads back home.

His technique and movements on the waterstone do not mark him as a novice, but neither is he a master. He is somewhere in between, of respectable aptitude.

[freedom_is_grey]

Not being Dalish, Ysalwen has had little cause to watch anyone make arrows as she grew up.

Lately she's had more chances, but Ratonhnhaké:ton's process is not much like what she's seen.

Different worlds and different times, right?

She'll watch anyway. And if he ever looks up, she'll smile.

[lifethatisscratched]

He does look up, eventually. And when he does, he stares.

Not in a malicious way, but more in a wide-eyed speechless way. Her eye tattoo, her dog, her ears - it all combines to make her a very curious figure, in his mind.

(Ysalwen is the first elf he's seen here, you see.)

[freedom_is_grey]

"Preparing for a hunt?"

Sometimes battle is like a hunt, too. Or so Ysalwen hears.

(And sometimes it's kindest not to make someone staring start off the conversation. Maybe. A little.)

Liranan, meanwhile, lifts his head from her foot and barks once, cheerfully.

Hello, medium-sized arrow-maker!

[lifethatisscratched]

Hello, Liranan!

"Yes," he says, finally. "Clan Mother has requested that a friend and I go and fell two deer apiece. -they are hard to get close to."

A beat.

"Forgive me, but - you do not look like anybody else I have seen here."

[freedom_is_grey]

"You're good at moving quietly, then, I take it? I have friends who are much the same, though I haven't seen either of them here."

This is probably better for here, but Ysalwen would like to see them all the same.

Alas.

"Huh. Is it the ears? It's usually the ears. Maybe the face tattoo?"

[lifethatisscratched]

"It is both," he says, nodding. "I have never seen such markings on someone's face, nor such pointed ears. -and I am. Good, I mean. At moving quietly."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Well, I'm an elf, so that explains the ears. The tattoo -- that's teenage rebellion, right there. The Templars were not pleased that I found it, or that I also found someone to actually put it on me."

Serves them right.

"I was terrible at moving quietly in the Circle, though. I like to think I'm better now, but I still wouldn't rely on me in a hunt. Are deer plentiful where you're from? Otherwise two seems a lot per person."

[fantasticfireferret]

Mako is doing his best to ignore the unappetizing mess his noodle-and-lentil soup has become. Instead, he idly stirs them with his chopsticks, pondering strategies to use against the Koala-Otters a week from now.

The thing about buying ingredients on the cheap? They look and taste the part. And if something goes wrong with the recipe, he has to suffer the consequences. Hard-knock life, all that.

[freedom_is_grey]

Well, if he is not going to eat it . . . .

Liranan eventually shifts his head off of Ysalwen's foot, sniffing at the air.

Food? Food!

He barks once, delightedly, then moves to stand up.

Begging is usually acceptable, and maybe there will be scritches!

[fantasticfireferret]

That's a big animal. -bigger than the tiger-cat Ms. Otomo keeps at her dumpling stand, anyway.

He looks to Liranan, then his bowl, then Liranan again.

"I - guess you can have it, if you want," he says, setting it down on the floor.

So he'll have to dig into his overtime pay for something with Bar. Just this once.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Liranan," Ysalwen says, sounding wearily fond.

"What did we talk about in regards to begging?"

Liranan hangs his head and whines.

He is not supposed to do it! Except to Ysalwen and Ysalwen's friends. But this person was not eating, so it is fair game, right?

Right?!?

[fantasticfireferret]

"-I'm guessing he's yours?" Mako says.

Another awkward moment. What does he do with the bowl now that it's on the ground?

"He's - big."

[freedom_is_grey]

"More like I'm his, but essentially yes."

Ysalwen smiles crookedly.

"Will it be comforting if I tell you he's not really any bigger than the rest of his kin?"

She's guessing no, but. Well. She tried!

Liranan, meanwhile, is sniffing near the bowl, but not so near that dog germs get on it.

Because that would be rude. (Since some people do not like dog germs. Weirdos.)

[fantasticfireferret]

"-not really."

You are correct, Ysalwen!

Meanwhile, Mako will hesitantly move to pet Liranan.

"My name's Mako."

[freedom_is_grey]

"I'm Ysalwen, that's Liranan. I'm pleased to meet you, Mako. Rest assured this one is, too."

Mostly for the food, so far. But that could change.

Because: pettings!