Scale-Hunting, iu: delphina; iso: mop/whomever he choos

everybody, come outside
d e l p h i n a

Knee-deep in water, Delphina was focused on something just below the surface. She was sure her grandfather would freak out at her when she came home, but for now, it wasn't that important -- her skirt would dry and she wouldn't catch a cold, even though he'd load her up with dried herbs and potions anyway. She always hated that... he knew she wasn't 'special needs' like he liked to play. They had actually managed to have full conversations... nearly impossible for the level he liked to pretend.

Delphina sighed then, trying to shake those thoughts from her head. Her grandfathers' negativity spread without him even there now, and she could feel her aura dimming out just thinking of him -- no no, she needed to focus now. Lifting a hand from the water, she traced it through her hair and tucked a wild piece behind her ear, returning to the water. Dancing around her feet were a few upstream fish, but she only needed a specific one, the one with the red aura and scales. She had planned to make a specific alchemy mixture, for her grandfather, actually. He was so slippery and inky; she figured if she spread the powder she'd make from this into his pillows, and it would help soak him up -- a bit of a chalk bath, if you could imagine.

"Come on now," she whispered to the fish. He seemed particularly obstinate, continuously passing through her legs, circling her. Delphina was beginning to become very irritated. "I really need you to help me. Just a scale, come now." She leaned closer, submerging her arms further in the water -- other fish came to her but she shooed them away; it had to be this one. Finally, it passed by her, laying itself into her hand.

"Thank you!" She said excitedly, clasping around it gently. "This will hurt, I won't lie. But it will be quick." She muttered, freeing one hand to retrieve a small utility knife she kept tucked into her skirt. She flicked it open and gently pried underneath a scale, and then plucked it out. She did the same for about three other scales, frowning as she did it. "I'm sorry," She said to the fish. "But you've really helped me!" Letting go of the fish, she closed her hand around the slimy scales. Good, essence of fish... now all she needed was a bit of limestone, a few seashells, and of course, substance -- but she could melt that down from anything.

out of your caves, out of your foxholes

Theodore hadn't gone to the falls yet. He had visited pretty much all the island and it was certain that he'd start a new life here, as some kind of rich boheme with an orange grove. That would be awesome. Infinite amounts of oranges, a nice little cottage by its side and the only thing he always wanted, some kind of tranquility. For his age, Theodore really had the ambitions of a grandfather, even though he'd probably never have kids. Just looking at him go around women were enough of a turn-off for any woman not to want any children with him. Poor guy, he'll never know the joys of being a father. Besides, he was probably too irresponsible to have any.

It was still Summer, the days seemed to last eternity, compared to the nights. He only felt like himself at night, really. The darkness being a real medication to his problems with people. There were also far less people outside, far less squirrels too. These evil little creatures, he'd freak out just at the sight of them, either running away from them or making a fool of himself trying to chase them away.

As he was going to the falls, he actually found himself face to face with a squirrel, and simply began running, and running and running, without even looking forward. He simply ended up at the falls in a matter of minutes. Damn did he run fast. What he didn't actually know was that he was on the upper ledge of the fall, rather than the lower edge, were the water was falling. If only inertia wasn't such a bitch, he probably could've stopped in his tracks in time. But no.

His body was propulsed by his own footwork into the pond beneath the waterfalls. He could see himself getting hurt if he didn't do something. He extended his arms and gave a big slap with each hand on the water before splashing all around himself. When he peaked up at the surface, he was still wearing his mask, saw a young redhead. He was so surprised that he decided to dive down again. As he was underwater, he spoke out loud. If it hadn't been of the water, someone could've heard : ''Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!!! Why now... why this... why why why... okay calm down Theodore. You can talk to her... wait no you can't your pen and paper is ruined!!!'' he resurfaced, looked at the girl again, then dove again. ''Okay... okay... you've done it twice so far, you said a few words to people, you can do it.'' He resurfaced again, only up to his nose and went towards the girl, a bit like a swamp monster. ''Uhhh........... hai.........''

everybody, come outside
d e l p h i n a

Delphina had waded away from the center of the water now. She took her bag from the shore and tucked the scales away gently in the front pocket, before sitting down -- still partially submerged, to think, and talk, and consider. She enjoyed water, as it always had an interesting effect on the things not actually meant to be inside of it. Fish's auras had adapted to the currents, making them easily seen by her, but when Delphina immersed herself, her aura went all wavery, shimmery, and sometimes pieces were carried away down the river -- she loved seeing that, because they would eventually find their way out and come zooming back to her. The obscurity was easy to read if it were herself, as she was the easiest thing to detect -- all green, all the time, tinged with whites... calm, and apathetic.

"Limestone", she was considering. Where would be the best place to find that? Delphina had never seen any around Saffron, but she very rarely had time to explore, unless it was the forest. She couldn't recall ever even going to the beach. It was a low chance, but she figured she'd try there -- afterall, she had to grind some seashells down. I have plenty of failed alchemic creations, I'll just re--

"Ahh!" She squealed, being sprayed with a heavy blast of water. Her hair instantly became limp. "Oh my," She said, glancing around -- she couldn't really see anything, only a strange dissipation in the water that hadn't been there; it was too hard to make out what it was. As she leaned forward to investigate, a strange white object came peaking up -- along with the colors. Green and purple -- nervousness, whatever it was, was incredibly uneasy. The white object however, was a mask, with eerie eyes and what she thought was an unfriendly smile being skewed below the surface.
Uhhhh..... hai.... It spoke to her, and Delphina, slightly horrified, could not take her mind off that mask. The way this mans colors churned was slightly uneasy, as well. It's human, she reminded herself.
"...Hello.....?" She whispered back. "You're underwater." It was all she could say to him.

out of your caves, out of your foxholes

Theodore's clothes were pretty much ruined now, at least for the day. They were filled with water, wet and damp, three of the adjectives he hated the most. What had happened to him. Incidents such as that never happened to him, he usually was control freak, knew everything ahead of time and never made a false move. Oh wait, he had been scared by a squirrel. That damn squirrel, malicious, evil and most of all completely stupid. They never cared about anything, they left their nuts all over the place... yuck nuts.

The masked man quickly went towards the lady, swimming swiftly up the shore to find himself leaking water from every angled for a minute. He couldn't say a word, not since she was so close. His mask was his only protection right now. His nerves could only take so much, especially with all this wetness surrounding him. What did he think running towards the falls like that. The squirrel wouldn't have caught him, right? Rationality didn't really matter when squirrels were around, all that mattered was getting the hell away.

''Hum...'' he managed to say, his clothes still very dry. It would take about an hour to dry, with this sun, it helped. ''Your hair...'' he added, before sitting down on a nearby dry rock. The water had made her hair quite damp as well, her clothes a little too. In a pornographic movie, that would've been the moment where they both removed their clothes and had sex for no reason other than the fact that they were wet. Wet. Pornographic logic was pretty weird. The water in her hair actually made it less fiery, a bit into the darkside of oranges. Thank god, that would help him establish first contact.

''I'm... I'm... I'm... Theodore... Theodore Graves...'' he stuttered. ''I'm sorry... for you hair...'' he added. The feeling that was coming out of him was genuine, he really was sorry and he really felt embrassed. His nerves would need to calm down, he couldn't really take much more. ''Did... did I interrupt something?''

everybody, come outside
d e l p h i n a

Hum... Your hair, the man only responded, wading out of the slow current towards her. Delphina moved over a bit, just to make sure he had room, but mainly because that mask unnerved her slightly. Now that he had emerged from the water, she could see his aura clearly -- it weas very strange. All sorts of feelings came from him, churning sickeningly slow like multiple whirlpools -- white, green, violet, red, black, gold, it was all there. Complex, she thought, and it made it hard to look at. She was already blinded enough as it was, but this man seemed to overpower most things. She kept her face down to protect her eyes, but would ocassionally glance up -- she couldn't help it. The way the colors moved were interesting, odd... special. She liked to study, and she wanted to figure out the reason for it. She immediately felt it had something to

"My hair?" She repeated from him, reaching to touch the heavy locks. Delphina was strangely unaware of most things, including the status of her own body most the time. It had also never occured to her to remove her skirts before entering the water. As a result she was already relatively soaked before Theodore's splashing entrance. "Oh yes, it's wet," she stated before gathering most of the scarlet strands together, wringing them out. She tossled it a bit between her fingers, allowing it to fall in thick twists on her back -- it's air-dry quickly in the summer sun.

I'm....I'm...I'm... Nervous, she finished for him, with a small, amused smile. Every time he spoke the whirls behind him pulsed as if they were being stabbed into. Delphina could not figure it out. Theodore. Theodore Graves.... I'm sorry...for your hair. Delphina felt a little laugh bubble into her. Sorry? "No matter," she told him, leaning her head back, tilting it from shoulder to shoulder. She kept her eyes closed towards the summer sun, before settling their unnatural largeness on him. "Delphina Coliquet." Her name was barely murmured -- she was very clearly distracted by him, or something through him. She kept staring, watching his colors -- they seemed to flare violet when she settled on him. He was shy, that was definite. Did... did I interrupt something?

"Oh no, nothing." She smiled, turning her head away. Delphina finally dragged herself from the water -- her long skirt, a deep olive-y green, was brown-black with water, and clung tightly to her emaciated frame. She gathered the end and pulled it up just past her knees, twisting the water out. "I was gathering ingredients, but I am done here." She dropped the rest of the fabric with a heavy slosh.

"You scared away the fish," she told him, her voice blank despite her displeased feelings. She had hoped to watch that little red fish, to make sure he had recovered, but he was far downstream now. "What made you jump?"

out of your caves, out of your foxholes

Theodore's inside animosity couldn't grow bigger. He had trouble saying anything to this big-eyed redhead. He felt like she could see through him and that really put him in a state of paralysis for a moment. All his thoughts were meddling. Should he just run away, should he just keep saying nothing. He really didn't know how to act or feel at this point. His current personna really didn't help anything. His nerves were killing him slowly. He's probably get a headache after speaking to her for too long, his neural system only capable of some much.

He calmed down, took a few deep, but innaudible breaths, his bloodstream completely out of control. The water helped him cool down from all this stress, even if the dampness of his clothes really made him want to remove them all. This position being the worst possible, he simply decided to go to a nearby rock and sit down. As always, his knees up to his chest, his arms around them. Being a foetus seemed to be the best possible position at this point, especially on a warm rock, heated by the direct sunlight.

She had said a few things, her name for instance, Delphina. What a weird name, he thought. It sounded like dolphin, in a way. Was she some kind of water people, like nomads that travel the sea as a way of living. Probably not, she seemed to be some kind of alchemist, from what he heard at least. She was gather ingredients on fishes, no one really did that, besides alchemists. The oils some fish produced were miracle cures to some problems, when ingested or applied to skin. That was probably it.

''Hum...'' he wasn't really sure if he should say the truth or simply try to avoid it. He never really liked to talk about his fears or his behavior about his obsessive compulsive disorder, that made him quite uneasy. ''I was... scared...'' He only gave minimal details about his little adventure and wouldn't give anything else, he wasn't so generous with his words.

''Are you... new here... I've never seen you... before.'' he said, the mask slightly muffling his already quiet voice.

everybody, come outside
d e l p h i n a

A splash of red bubbled up behind the man, in the middle of the whirlpools of his aura. It threaded out as they turned, spreading slowly, snakily, through the rest of his colors. Delphina generally associated red with anger, or hatred, but it was hard to tell because of the rest of the man's colors. He was... uneasy, and it reflected on her as felt the immediate need to scoot away from him, but decided against it. He didn't seem dangerous, but Delphina was not a good judge of character, only of auras, and some people were able to mask theirs easily. She had once been beaten within a few inches of her life at the pier once, by a few thuggish brutes who wanted the contents of her purse. She was relatively okay until they realized her purse was stuffed with alchemy reagents. Then they really took to her. Delphina couldn't always tell what people were planning or doing, but she had grown a bit wary of people as a result.

Her companion crouched into himself, which made Delphina a bit calmer herself. He was stuck in a fetal position which required some unfolding -- and since he was still in the water, it would slow him down, if she needed to run for whatever reason. His aura was alarming enough to put the idea in her head; she could not relax until he did. His new position hid the mask from her view, and so she stared at him with a renewed interest -- to detect changes in him. I was... scared... he answered, and Delphina weighed the answer carefully. Scared? Of what? Delphina could think of very little things that would cause her to jump off a waterfall cliff -- her grandfather, violent spirits -- she wondered if maybe he could see what she could, too; otherwise, what was scarier than that drop? "Oh." She responded, still watching, unblinking.

Theodore changed the subject before she could even continue -- she had wanted to ask him what it was, but he didn't seem to like it. Are you... new here? I've never seen you--, is what it sounded like, but Delphina had a hard time making out his voice behind that thin veil of wood and is inward position. She leaned forward a bit, her soft voice floating just behind him, eerily gentle.

"No," She told him. "I've been here for a while... a couple of years." The girl smiled behind him -- it wasn't shocking, if he lived here and hadn't seen her before. "My grandfather doesn't... he doesn't approve of me being alone." Delphina explained, with a small shrug. "Are you from Saffron? I haven't seen you, either."



out of your caves, out of your foxholes

The wetness of his pants really helped with the cooling off. He felt as if his body was boiling from both the scare and the uneasyness of the situation, she did have wonderful hair after all. It made him nervous, just the color, the way the sun passed through the fiery hair just made very odd for Theodore. Probably his primal instincts of beauty were trying to get out of their chains, he had never unleashed them, really.

''No... I'm a.... used to be a traveller.'' he said calmly. He was finally getting a grip of this, not looking at her, the mask and the cold really helped him into controlling his stress. All he needed now was an orange. Out of nowhere, as always, he simply took out an orange, from somewhere inside his shirt. That was probably why he always had loose clothes, only to hide stuff from people. Maybe that was why the squirrel was following him, the scent of the orange. Theodore himself had a strong scent of orange, when he wasn't in water.

''I'm settling around... I'll be... planting orange trees in a grove...'' he added. He decided to add another comment, after a short silence. ''Huuh.... you're.... you're not alone now, I guess.'' He really didn't know how to put it without saying it like a retarded person. His mental process really wasn't at its peek. ''Why doesn't he want you... to be alone?''

((OOC : Sorry for the short post, really uninspired at the moment :S))

everybody, come outside
d e l p h i n a

So the man was a traveler -- that was a good reason as to why she hadn't seen him. Delphina spent a lot of time watching people, from the apothecary shop -- but it was very rare that she actually saw strangers, as travelers usually didn't need medicine from a small 'natural methods' shop. She could tell you the names of most of the elderly on the island, but when it came to anyone else, she felt very much like a traveler herself. It had only been recent that she was suddenly interested in people: call it a late bloomer's syndrome, but she was a teenager, none the less. I'm settling around... I'll be... planting orange trees in a grove. Delphina's eyes lit up momentarily -- oh, a cultivator! Delphina always felt like she could get along with people like that. She had grown up on a farm, and her current job was something of a cultivator, she had always thought. "I'd love to see it -- your orange grove." She commented mindlessly, though she did mean it. She was good with plants, and was secretly hoping he would invite her. Delphina could really help his business out.

The conversation turned to her again, and delphina sighed a little -- she didn't want to tell some stranger about her family woes, but she had inadvertently set it up that way. She stayed quiet, her eyes on him, while she figured out a better way to explain the situation to him. Telling Theodore Oh, you know, my grandfather thinks I'm retarded and I can see the spirits of trees, animals, and people, oh and I can talk to them, too, so it makes sense didn't quite ring as the best way to describe herself. She would have to veil most of that.

As she chose her words, the man seemed to calm down, a sprig of green beginning to leak it's way through his whirling colors. Delphina watched it and used the movements to help string together a sentence. Seeing her usual colors there helped her, "Oh, he's just... a bit protective. And concerned. The way parents can be," she said, even though it wasn't true. Delphina didn't think that Thaddeus had a light in his soul that could shine love or caring -- he was more concerned with poking fun of her than anything. "He doesn't think I'm very capable," she told him, regretting it almost instantly. The word 'capable' had implications she hadn't wanted to reveal.

"What title does someone who owns a grove have? A grover?" She asked, quickly, to try and cover her own slip of words. She knew how ridiculous her attempt sounded, but it was the best she could do.

out of your caves, out of your foxholes