Bits of Bob and Bob's in bits.

[Vega]

9th Cylus, 717

       

"So, I think we should call him Bob." Vega said as they sat down together in the camp they shared with Ti'niva. She had laid out the small tarpaulin she had on the ground and then put the body of the Spulmokawarta they had killed together previously. "It's like, he's all dead and everything, but I thought as he was trying to gnaw me to death that he looked like a Bob. What d'ya think?" She was in a rather good mood, considering it was absolutely freezing. Just a little bit too good, perhaps? "So, apparently, the hide of this thing is worthless, the meat is inedible and the Sev'ryn think that they're all off balance because they kill for the fun of it. So my biggest hat fan at the library told me. They're called." Vega paused and frowned then said, very slowly. "Spulmokawarta. In Common, of course. In Xanthea it's a spulmokawarta." She grinned at him and shrugged, but she was perturbed about something, which was obvious.

Vega looked down at it and sighed slightly. "If, however, it was a pregnant female, which there's a fairly high chance of if it's female, then it's amniotic fluid is worth a shed load because it's nasty. It causes mutations, according to the book in the library. If it's the fluid inside the amniotic stuff." Vega pronounced it wrong, having only ever read the word 'amniotic', but hopefully it was close enough that he'd know. "Well, the fluid produces random mutations. Apparently, the stillborn pups make mutations in people, too, but they aren't random." Did that make a difference? Random was worse, but both were bad and that was obvious from the look on her face.

The first thing to do, therefore, was to check the sex of the beast and Vega pulled a face as she did. "Might have been a bit previous naming her Bob." Frankly, she'd rather that it had been a male, because then they wouldn't have to have a conversation. However, "So, since Bob was a lady Spulmokawarta, we need to decide before we check." It was rare that Vega was serious, or serious like this anyhow, but she was. Her eyes were burnt orange flecked with silver and her forehead had a slight frown. More than anything, she seemed just a little hesitant, yet she was determined.

"If it is, then I want nothing to do with it. My vote is that we find out by puttin' a sword through it whilst praying to Xiur because we hope it wasn't pregnant, then wash it clean in water in U'frek's name, tell Ti'niva a story about it in Cassion's, and you talk it over with Lyova and make sure Jesine's happy. Come to that, a prayer to Moseke wouldn't go amiss either." She was serious and stern in a way she never was. "But I've got a dilemma, because that's my vote and if it was down to me I'd do that without all the Cassion and Jesine stuff because, no offence, hadn't really heard of them till I met you. But you were there and watching whilst I killed it." That it hadn't happened quite like that was obvious in her expression. She did her best to remain her usual teasing self, but she felt strongly about this.

As much as she'd like to do differently, it was very important to her that fair trade and proper balance was kept. "So, by Xiur, I'm sticking to what I know is right and that's that we both know and both decide. Apparently, the fluid is up to a hundred gold for a very small amount. If Bob was up the duff? We could be looking at five hundred I guess." That made no difference to Vega, none at all. She liked Arlo and she wanted to believe that he would do what she believed was the right thing to do. However, above everything else she valued freedom and respect and she had to stand by those beliefs.

"So. Have a think, if you need to, and we'll wait until you've decided and then we'll work it out." In an attempt to lighten the mood, even a little she glanced at him. "Also, I had the most embarrassing dream the night before last. You were my brother. Was that you or was I just dreaming about you?" It could just be that, she supposed. There must be times that happened. "Can I just dream about you or is it always actually you? Like, if I dream about, I don't know, our dancing teacher, am I dreaming about her or are she and I dreaming together and we just don't know?"

Apparently, being a dreamwalker meant he knew the answers to all sorts of impossible questions, too!

Spulmokawarta Information and information on still-maka

[Arlo Creede]

Whatever they called the thing that they'd dragged back to camp, it was ugly. Really ugly. A monster in every sense of the word. No wonder the Sev'ryn didn't object to anyone killing the things. They might have viewed it's death as a waste, since the hide wasn't worth taking and the meat not worth eating. Somehow calling it Bob ought to have made it seemed less grotesque. But no, Arlo decided. It didn't.

But if it pleased Vega, the young man shrugged. "Bob is as good as anything else," he agreed. Besides, he could barely pronounce Spulmokawarta, and signing it out letter by letter was a task he didn't relish anyway. "It'd be nice to have the teeth and claws," he said. At least he wanted some of them if only for a trophy. They might be able to craft something useful out of the bones too.

What he didn't know was that it was an important distinction, male or female. A shed load? He'd never heard the term before, but it rang of profit should the creature be pregnant. Then again, that it could cause mutations, wasn't good. Arlo couldn't think of anyone who'd want the stuff then besides those with nefarious intentions.

Still, it was a conundrum, was it the case. He wouldn't want to be responsible for doing anyone any harm, or responsible for anyone having the means to do it to anyone else. But he could sure use the nels. The idea bothered Vega quite a bit. Arlo didn't need to be particularly insightful to know it. In fact she seemed more bothered than him by the prospect. "I don't think this is Cassion's area of interest. Or Jesine's either," he muttered after she discovered the thing was female after all. "But I get your point."

And so, while she'd looked at the business end to discern the creature's gender, Arlo opted to take a good look at it's underside. It's belly. Which was why she caught him unaware with her question. He grinned and shrugged. "More like, you dreamed about me, and then I was there. Can't say why it happens. But it did. That doesn't mean that each time you dream about me, I'm there." Other parts of her question however gave him pause. "Assuming the dance teacher isn't a dreamwalker, you mean? I don't know to be honest. I suppose anything's possible. But I suspect if you dream about her, more likely, it's only you doing it."

"Chances are, Bob's not pregnant. Or if she is, she wasn't expecting anytime soon," he concluded when he straightened back up. "I saw lots of pregnant animals on my step-father's farm. When the sheep got close to having their lambs, their teets stuck out and it swelled around them. I can slice her open stem to stern, just to be sure." But Arlo was fairly convinced there were no pups there.

He did just what he'd said he would, however, with the sword that she'd given him. A shallow cut so that the body that was beginning to swell didn't burst open and spill all of it's contents on to the ground. But deep enough, and as he'd expected, there was nothing to find. "Bob was not," he confirmed, "in the fam'ly way."

[Vega]

       

"Agreed," she said with a crooked grin as he said about teeth and claws. They could be strung on leather, sold for a small amount which could be made larger with a tale of daring alongside it, that kind of thing. Crafting stuff out of the bone might be useful, she agreed and although the hide was worthless, in terms of price it was thick stuff and they might be able to make a use for it once it was off. She was prepared to be optimistic.

Whilst checking out Bob, they chatted about the dream of the other night. "Each time I dream about you? Don't flatter yourself, sunshine. Thus far every time I've had a dream with you in it, it's been because you're gatecrashing." Vega flashed a grin at him, just letting him know that it was fine that he 'gatecrashed' or whatever it was that he actually did. "When Cylus is done and we both leave here, will there still be the possibility of you doing that? Or is it only 'cos I'm nearby physically?" That was an interesting question and she realised something specifically as she said it. "I hope you can. I'd like to know you're alright and haven't killed yourself whilst doing something stupid."

He didn't think that Bob was pregnant and he said he could slice her open to check. Vega nodded and turned to get the cloth rags that she had in her bag. When she turned back, he'd done it and was proclaiming, quite happily, that Bob was not 'in the family way'. Vega's eyes widened in surprise and literally darkened to a deep purple in front of him. "Are you thick in the head!?" she looked at him with an expression which showed just how much his actions, to her mind, beggared belief. "Did you get dropped on yer 'ead when you was born? I told you! If she had been, it would just have taken one drop of that stuff and you could have gotten hurt!" Her hands balled into fists and she really, just for a moment, looked like she was going to punch him.

She really wanted to for just a few trill. "Stick a sword you can't use into something that could kill you? Just casually like!! Arlo Creede you.." whatever else it was she said was a sea of Rakahi but it probably didn't include the word 'sensible'. There were gestures, some pointing, but it was a fairly brief tirade of a couple of sentences. By the end of it her eyes had lightened slightly, although not much and she stopped for breath. Shaking her head again at the impetuous crazy boy, she couldn't help the smile of relief, though it was mixed in with a continued frown of disapproval. "I swear to Xiur, Arlo Creede, you're blessed with luck. Will you try, just try, to think before you just do things like that? I'd never forgive myself if you got hurt." The last words, of course, whilst entirely accusatory were the simple truth of it.

With a shake of her head, she turned back to the beast in question and she sighed in irritation. "But it helps. It would complicate things, especially if you wanted to sell it an' I didn't." Not as much as it would have complicated things if he'd sprouted a second nose or a third, useless arm. Or his legs had suddenly stuck together. Maybe he shouldn't be allowed money she thought, rather uncharitably, he might decide it was a good idea to do something stupid, just do it and think about the consequences later. "Lets try and get the skin off, shall we? With a knife, not a bloody sword."

Having seen it happen now, more than once, Arlo was possibly unsurprised when Vega's temper fell back to irritation and then dissipated completely almost as quickly as it flared. She thumped him, relatively gently, on the arm. "You scared the life out of me, you know. I thought I was going to be responsible for you developing some Immortals awful mutation that was going to leave you a bed bound shadow of your former self and I'd have to look after you." Somewhat dramatic, she knew, but still. "If you were my brother, I'd have thrown you overboard before you were ten. You start that end, I'll go here. Try not to cut yourself open." Taking a swig from her flask first, she turned her attention to removing the skin from the beast they had felled.

[Arlo Creede]

"I'm not sure, now you mention it," Arlo had said when Vega wondered about dreaming, and him seeking her out no matter the distance between them. "I'm not doing it mindfully now. I haven't got enough experience to just yet." As for it being her dreams he was stumbling into so often, it might be proximity. Or it might be something else. Or someone else maybe.

Then the young man shrugged. "After a time, when I'm better at it I might be able to. Why?" Arlo asked and grinned at her, teasing. "Will you be worried about me?" The question was meant as a joke, but it also brought an interesting topic to mind. Once the thaw came, he'd be leaving Desnind and he knew that Vega would too. In the short time they'd known each other, Arlo had found that he liked her, and liked the companionship.

Not a liking in the romantic sense, of course. She was too old for him, him too young for her. It hadn't been and never was a consideration. But Arlo considered her a friend, trusted her more than most. And though he'd had no siblings of his own, he had a sense that this must be what having a sister must be like. An older, fussing, bossy one no question.

He'd traveled alone for nearly an arc now. But it wasn't being lonely so much. He'd spent time with other travelers along the way, shared fires with them and had never thought himself to be lonely. What it was, he'd guess, was that Vega was the only person since he'd left home, that he'd considered a friend. He'd miss her once they parted ways, though he wasn't about to tell her that.

Then though, she turned on him like a she cat, when he was just trying to do what she might not like doing herself. In fact, when Arlo turned back round to look at her after slicing open the beast's belly, he thought she might just try and throttle him. He couldn't get a word in, even, though...Well that wasn't exactly true. He had a few choice ones that didn't require him speaking aloud. His jaw set, his brow raised, a pointer finger spun round at the temple questioned her current grip on her own sanity, while he thought she wasn't looking.

"What's the fuss about?" he challenged her, once he found a place to side in. "I told you I didn't think it was pregnant, and I was right." Women, Arlo concluded. Fickle and temperamental creatures. "I did it so you wouldn't." he added. And maybe it surprised him too that it was part of the reason he'd done it. That, and because he was sure the thing wasn't pregnant and had seen no reason not to. "I'll tell you next time," he said.

But then they were right back to their squabbling. "I know how to skin a kill," he said, replacing his sword at his hip and retrieving his knife. "But now we know it's not pregnant it would be better to pull out the internal stuff first." Much of it would make good bait for traps, he thought as he went about a job that he couldn't begin to like doing. "I'm sorry. I should have told you I was going to." Plainly, he wasn't prepared to admit to any errors in his ways. But it was something, nonetheless. "So where are you planning on going next?" he asked as they worked side by side.

[Vega]

 

"No. I'll assume you're dead and forget about you. Shut up." She grinned at him as he asked if she'd be worried, having come just about as close to nice as she'd be getting any arc soon by saying she'd like to know he was alright when she'd asked the question. He was a good sport and a good kid, there was no doubting it. In the dream she'd spoken of the night before last he'd been her younger brother and, though she had none such, it had felt very right for them, that relationship. He was certainly ticking all the boxes in terms of being irritating, irreverent and not respecting his elders at all. As she turned to get the rags, she considered that the truth was, somewhere along the line Arlo had become her friend. She'd consider telling him except she never would and also, she'd have to admit he was her first one and that just sounded too much like a pity-ditty for the young woman. She couldn't abide that kind of nonsense.

Anyhow, any positive thoughts about him fled as she turned back around, saw the phenomenally stupid thing that he'd done and told him so. She was as calm and as rational as it was possible to be when faced with such reckless foolishness and she wondered at how he managed to stay alive any length of time.

"What's the fuss about?!" Oh that wasn't a sensible question, what was wrong with him. "The fuss is about you behaving in an irresponsible, reckless manner. You did what? What!?" He'd done it so that she didn't have to? Oh U'frek save her, he did not just say that? "Because what? I might faint away in a moment? Slide gracefully to the floor and dirty the bottom of my gown? You listen to me, sunshine. I'm stronger than you, older than you, taller than you and... and... and something else too!" By the time she got to that exclamation she was grinning at him. "And my hat is far superior. Did it so I don't have to? I let you fight, you let me poke dead things, alright?"

Just for a moment, peace resided between them but then they were back to squabbling. "Well if you knew that a sword was a bad idea, why'd you use it?" He explained about traps, though and Vega raised an eyebrow. "I've never done that. Not much call for it in middle of the briny. I suppose it's like fish, though? We gut them an' often use their guts for netting bigger fish. Will you show me how?"

Then, though, of all things he said he was sorry and that he should have told her. Vega smiled and shook her head. "I'm sorry, too. I've got no right to shout at you and you know more about this kind of land animal stuff than me. I was fussing, is all. But yeah," wrinkling her nose as they worked together scooping out the inside of the beast, Vega wasn't in the least bit squeamish about getting in there and doing it, at least. "I'll worry about you if you're not able to gatecrash my dreams. I do now and I can see you." She was half tempted to add in another insult but she let it drop.

Where would she go? She shrugged, glancing at him with a good natured grin. "I dunno. Somewhere new." With a grimace as they sat, elbow deep each in the beast they'd killed, she considered. "Planning seems to be a bit too strong of a word, truthfully. I mean, not here. It's nice here, I might come back one trial and get my hey nonny nonny on for another season, but I've got to keep moving." Her face wrinkled in disgust, but she carried on. "I was thinking I'd just get a map, close my eyes and point my finger. How about you?" Please, by Xiur's shining light don't let him say Augiery, she prayed earnestly. It would be just like him, too. She really didn't want to have to explain to him what they did to men there.

Apparently, even short ones.

[Arlo Creede]

So much to do about nothing, Arlo thought. Or was it ado? Didn't matter really, he was firm in believing he'd done the right thing by slicing the beast open belly to stern, and she was just overreacting. But as he understood it, women tended to do that sometimes.

"If someone wants to be a gentleman, you should let them sometimes. That's all I'm saying," he argued as they got back to their work. Of course, for all the reasons that Arlo had done it, mostly it was because he wanted to. And because he could. "You're not the boss of me you know," he added in good natured fashion as he found himself elbow deep in dead creature's gut.

Why had he chosen the sword to do it with? "Distance," he explained. "Between me and it, just in case. I can show you some traps though, if you want. The scraps won't be any good for luring rabbits, deer and the like though. Only the things that eat meat like wolves, fox...Those aren't much for eating. But the pelts are nice," he added with a shrug, and shook his hand with a frown to dislodge some of the thing's guts that had tangled round his fingers.

But once they'd cleaned out the cavity, they could move on to removing the hide. With his knife, in order to make it easier he'd score the thing around the knee joints, tail and skull. Once they got the hide off they'd need to scrape it clean. And it was long, hard work that he'd take a short break from, now and again.

"I've got a book of maps you can look at," he told her. "and I might go about it the same way. Let the thing fall open. But then let it fall open a number of times," Arlo added with a wide grin, "till it settles on a place that doesn't require a full season or more of travel to get there." Even by boat, which seemed like the only reasonable way to go when leaving Desnind.

"There's Andaris or Rharne," Arlo considered while they labored to peel the hide off the beast. "Ne'haer. Athart or Ivorian...The way I figure it, no matter where each of us goes, we're going to have to board a boat to get there. Peg too, though she's not going to like it," Arlo figured. "But I was thinking, as long as we're headed in the same direction, assuming we were..well I for one wouldn't mind the company."

[Vega]

 

"More's the pity," she retorted when he told her she wasn't the boss of him. "You'd have a much higher life expectancy and a much more sensible boss. Your current boss sucks." She smiled, though and shrugged. "An' I'm afraid I wouldn't know gentlemanly if it bit me, Arlo, so I'll take your word for it. Though, you know, you scrubbed up well. Shame you didn't wear your hat to the dawn ball though." With a grimace as she pulled out something which had gotten tangled in something else, she commented, "Although, as irritating little brothers went, you were born to the part."

On the subject of traps she nodded her head. "That's be great, thanks. Oh Arlo ew!" He shook his hand to get the tangled guts of his fingers and she moved herself away, off to the side as bits of blood and gunk splattered. "You vile little creature, don't shake your hand. Come here, I'll cut your fingers off then it won't be stuck." She would happily help get the stuff off his hand but still, low flying guts was gross. Still, learning to set traps would help with land stuff, she was sure. "I guess hunting and trapping probably go hand in gut and gore covered hand. Maybe I'll get a wolf-skin hat. I could start a collection of hats, each one more stylish the last." She gave a little grin of delight at the thought.

Having cleaned out the creature, it was time to remove the skin and Vega followed suit with him. "Bob was a thick skinned little critter, wasn't she?" Vega grunted at the exertion of it. She was strong, it was true, stronger than she looked, but still it was hard work. Still, when she got to the point that she was tired and wanted a break, she pushed herself a little bit further, trying to take each opportunity she could to build up her strength and stamina.

Peg wasn't going to like it? Vega grimaced, "Peg's not the world's only seasick Biqaj, is she?" She spoke in not much more than a grumble, but it was loud enough. Still, what he said next surprised her, had to be said. "I thought you'd be glad to see my back end. Or, you know what I mean." Not quite how she'd meant to put it and she grinned. "I'd like that. I don't like company, as a rule, but you're alright. Plus, if you need to be close by to gatecrash my dreams, seems like there's some reason you keep turning up in them." Maybe she was there as a test subject for him, for him to teach her something or her, him. Vega didn't know and didn't really see the point in worrying about it.

Looking down at the beast with a sigh Vega added, "If you annoy me, though, I'll do this to you, alright?" They needed to clean off this hide and she was happy to do that, she said, it was much like cleaning the hide of whales and sharks, judging by the look of it. Which would leave him to clean the bones and teeth. Or, she offered, they could do it the other way around, she wasn't really bothered.

[Arlo Creede]

"Well it was you that chose what I wore to the ball," Arlo countered when Vega mentioned it. "Not surprising it would strike your fancy." Still, he grinned and shrugged before adding, "When I was little I wondered what it would be like was I to have any siblings. Now I know. It would have been a bossy lot." She was bossy, implication being. And yet he didn't seem to mind, and enjoyed giving as good as he got.

But when he splattered her with the gunk he'd been trying to fling off his fingers? He looked aside at her, completely unapologetic while pointing out what he could see, and she clearly didn't. "I don't know what you're complaining about. If I got any on you, it matches the bit you've got tangled there in your hair, and smudged across your nose. It was nasty business, after all, though he was accustomed to cleaning his own kills. But this creature and it's innards were more objectionable than any he'd had occasion to handle before. "I think if we ever have reason to kill another one, we ought leave it wherever it falls."

"I've caught a few coons in my traps, time to time. There seems to be a market for the pelts. Fox too. The ladies seem to like them." He snorted though when she mentioned her backside, and made quick to explain what she meant. Of course his mind had wandered in that direction. It would have been the first thing come to any young man's mind. Just friends or not, whether or not he'd looked at some point, he neglected to say.

"There might be some reason," he admitted, where it concerned her dreams, and his habit of wandering into them. "I've considered it before, but can't say why it happens." More and more, Arlo suspected that Lyova knew, and just wouldn't tell him.

Eventually, working side by side they'd have the hide off, scraped and put aside to dry, and were left with a naked, gutted carcass. Standing up, Arlo stretched and shook his feet to work out the kinks in his knees and considered what they had left to do. "I think, since the meat is useless, we should break the thing down in manageable pieces. Or at least focus on the sections we want the bones from." And the teeth and claws of course. Then to make it easier going, he suggested, it might be best to boil the flesh off the bones. "It'll make it much easier to clean them."

That would take time too, and hard work. But when it was done, he stood again and looked at what they'd done. "Maybe, if you want to get those sections boiling, I'll haul off the tarp with the remains on it, and dispose of them well away from camp and the gates. Anything left lying around after all would attract creatures in the night that they didn't want to contend with. But if Vega was agreeable, then he'd do just that and haul the stuff off in order to dispose of it.

[Vega]

 

"Was it?" Vega looked at him with surprise on her face when he said that it was her that chose what he wore. "I don't remember choosing. How does that work?" To her, dreams were a very passive thing and the idea that she had any control over them was a strange one. "You're the one that shapes and walks and stuff. I just.. float around in my head. And don't flatter yourself, I'm just surprised you can look vaguely grown up." She grinned at his assessment of having siblings. "Sadly, Arlo, the reality is that no human could live up to havin' me as a sibling. You've experienced that greatness now, even just in a dream and so it's a blessing that you're an only child." She raised an eyebrow, though, "I'd have assumed that your mum and stepdad might have had more. Though, I guess, once they'd met you...."

He didn't know what she was complaining about? "That's entirely a different thing," she didn't reach up to wipe away anything from her face, she'd just make the situation worse. "Those I put there by choice. I didn't get splattered." No one was believing it any time soon, she knew. "Have I really? I'm gonna have to dip my head in the water and it's freezing. You know, the night we dreamt about the skeeterwampulus? I met a woman when I went walking that afternoon. In the woods, I kid you not. High heel shoes and polished fingernails." Vega smiled slightly, remembering her. "She'd planted mint in pots just across from where all that mint we found was? I found her when she was attacking the potted mint with this warcry. So you save your funny little twirly hand gesture about my mental state that you think I didn't see, sunshine, for the true lunatics who walk amongst us."

Ignoring his snort with a determination not to be pulled into a conversation she might lose, Vega concentrated on getting the last of the job done. "That works, aye. Lets get it finished. Immortals, Arlo, I'm exhausted. You alright?" Vega stretched her shoulders back and winced slightly, feeling the strain in her back and across her shoulders. "You must be worse. You're just a little fella." With a grin, she got on with the boiling whilst he hauled the tarp out of there. "Next time, yep. Leave it where it falls. Though you know, I reckon at the very least we could make a good ball out of the hide and kick it around for trials to come." She'd have to go and wash off after all this, but she figured that at least, at the end of it, they should have the bones, the hide, the teeth, claws and tusks of the Spulmokawarta they'd killed together.

[Arlo Creede]

"It was your dream, not mine. I don't alter the course of your dreams."[/i] Well, alright, he had done it once of necessity when he'd rewound time a little. But there'd been good reason to.

"Your dreams are yours, and when I stumble in I'm a guest there. The only difference is that I'm aware of it and can consciously interact and shape my own part in it," Arlo said, as if it ought to be explanation enough of why it was her that chose his clothing and not him. Of course, as a dreamwalker he could have chosen his own. But there was a particular code that Arlo liked to follow, even if he sometimes got carried away or forgot.

"And why would they want another?" he asked in regards to siblings, and Arlo grinned while cleaning his hands with a damp rag. "I'm sure they knew that any that came after me would be just a pale representation. You can't improve on perfection you know." And then he moved out of reach, in case she tried to pinch him or twist his ear for it.

They'd both need a good wash after this was done. And he wasn't looking forward to cleaning off in a nearby stream. It made him think that they ought to rig up some sort of tarp to duck behind where they could keep a large pot of heated water to wash with. But raised heels and polished nails? The young man frowned curiously when Vega described the woman she'd met and her abuse of the local flora. "It sounds a little like a woman I met during the light walk. Asari," he said, fairly sure that he remembered it correctly.

"Don't you worry about me. I'm just fine. But I think it's the last of these I'll ever want to handle. Too much trouble, too little gain," he concluded. But then he'd leave to work on the parts that they'd keep, while he dragged the tarp and the unused remains off into the forest, well away from the gates and their camp. He was gone a while, making sure it was properly disposed of and the tarp cleaned well in the spring before he returned. But when he did, he'd join in the work again until they were finally done, and had harvested what they'd wanted from the beast when they'd first begun.