Older brother, restless soul, lie down

Claudius Aston · 02-01-2012, 11:16 PM

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[/html]Claudius had not anticipated attending the Winter Festival, but after much contemplation, he decided to go ahead anyways. He brought his tools of trade with him in a somewhat-ramshackle toboggan that he had constructed to transport his wares. He had little to trade and hoped to trade what he knew with other craftspeople. As far as his craftsmanship went, it was fairly rudimentary. He very much wanted to advance his rank in AniWaya and make Dawali proud, especially given that Dawali tutored him a bit with the knife. His cuts still weren't as fine as Dawali's and he never got to learn how to weave, so he hoped to pick up some tricks at the Winter Festival.

The toboggan served its purpose even though he'd built it in a bit of a rush. He didn't just have bark lying around to use, so he had to improvise with cloths and pieces of wood he could scavenge. The trek pulling the toboggan from AniWaya was slow-going since it wasn't as smooth as he would have liked, but it worked well enough for him. He hoped that he might be able to fix it up with the assistance of some other craftspeople, too, if he could.

Since arriving, he had haggled over the price of a few packets of seeds with a very loud and boisterous wolf, and although he was glad he had been able to trade some of his tricks for drying plants, his ears were still ringing from the encounter. Somewhat exhausted from examining the traders wares, he took a seat on a snow bank to catch his breath. Still in his optime form and still pulling his little toboggan behind, Claudius let his legs splay out in front of him just barely avoiding his cache of goods. [html]

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Neela Garcia · 02-13-2012, 09:03 AM

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Sorry for the wait.

Word Count → 400

Neela hummed loudly as she wandered around the festival, a pleasant tune escaping her lips almost without her thinking about it, for this was an old tune that she had learnt any years ago and repeated countless times since. The collie was moving slowly around the stalls that made up the festival, gazing down at the wares in display.

A leather sack hung over one thick furred shoulder, the contents clinking as Neela walked; the surplus tools that she was bartering away knocking against the wooden cravings and human trinkets meant for the same fate. A bottle of whiskey was tied down at her waist, thin stripe of leather holding it to a bare patch on her belt, but Neela made no move to open it; saving the alcohol for later.

A chill breeze blew into Neela and the collie stopped moving for a moment to tighten the crimson and gold scarf around her neck. While the collie had initially only acquired the scarf and its matching hat because she thought they looked nice, generally trusting her thick, fluffy fur to keep her warm, the weather had taken a dramatic turn for the colder and she was quickly becoming glad to have them.

Neela let out a quiet snort, watching her breath billow out in a cloud of mist, and continued walking. Being cold was a relatively new experience for the collie; her childhood home had had mild temperatures at worst and any snow that fell was enough of a rarity that Neela's excitement of the occasion drove away the cold, not so here where it had been snowing for longer than Neela had ever seen it do so before.

A stall on the other side of the clearing caught Neela's attention and she started trotting over, head craned curiously. Unfortunately this meant that she didn’t notice the toboggan that lay in her path. Neela's ankle caught on the wood and she lost her balance, arms flying out instantly to regain it; the collie dropping into a half crouch but managing to avoid falling over.

Unfortunately this meant that Neela had to let go of her sack. The leather hit the floor with a loud clang, coming open and depositing tools and woodworks into the snow. Cursing Neela spun around to the sack, dipping an ear in apology to the toboggan's owner. "Dammit. Sorry, wasn't looking where I was going.

Claudius Aston · 02-13-2012, 02:16 PM

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[/html] Claudius had seen the impending fall, but had been unable to prevent it. He saw the girl meander along, her coat bright and vibrant against the white snow, in stark contrast to his off-white fur. Unlike the girl, Claudius blended in much better, and for this reason, he did not fault her for not noticing him. He did not think he had a very commanding presence, so this too contributed to the possible reasons for the fall. Also, and most importantly, she hadn't been looking where she was going at all.

Claudius sat up quickly and waved his hands in front of him, but it was all for naught. She tripped over his toboggan, spilling tools and goods everywhere. He immediately squeaked out a quick, "sorry!" as was customary. He flinched as he saw her stumble because he feared for the worst. But she only stumbled and did not fall, a testament to her incredible balance. He relaxed his shoulders when he saw her straighten up. He let out a sigh of relief when he realized his toboggan had not been harmed.

"Th-a-a-a...ts... okay," he replied. He was still quite shaken. He noticed a hammer lying nearby and picked it up. "I sh-hu-houldn... nt... have... left it... there in the... way. You a-a-a-almost got me w-i-ith... this," he added as he waved a hammer around. He pushed himself off his bum and into a squat and held out the hammer with his left arm. [html]

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Neela Garcia · 02-16-2012, 09:02 AM

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OOC here.

Word Count → 241

Neela grumbled to herself as she crouched down, collecting the scattered tools and carvings as quickly as she could, grateful for the fur hiding her blush at almost tripping over something that wasn't even moving. The snow hampered her efforts though, many of the scattered things having sunk into it and out of sight. The off white wolf spoke up causing Neela to wonder for a moment at the prevalent stutter in his voice. Neela's ears dropped and she let out an apologetic whine when she saw the hammer that was being held up; which was one of her own tools and not one that she had been intending to trade. Neela had had a long time to trade and scavenge her tools and as such the hammer was human made and fairly heavy, certainly enough to hurt somebody if it hit them.

"Sorry," She offered again, ducking her head as she reached out to take the hammer and slip it into the sack, "I should'a been playing more attention." By now Neela had collected most of her belongings and returned her body language to a neutral position as she looked over the wolf. She could see how she had missed him; while he wasn't particularly small his white and light brown colouring blended in with the snow somewhat, especially when he was sat down. Smiling somewhat awkwardly Neela held her hand out in greeting, "I'm Neela, nice ta meet ya."

Claudius Aston · 02-18-2012, 01:08 AM

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[/html] The girl was quick to fetch her items, but retrieved the hammer from him with a slight dip of her head and a quick apology. Claudius shrugged in reply. It wasn't anyone's fault, really; he was just glad his toboggan wasn't ruined and he hadn't been hit in the head with the hammer! In all, he wasn't too bothered at all. Of course, politeness dictated that she reply with an equal apology. When she spoke, he noticed her words had a tramontane accent, likely indicating foreign ancestry. Although he was curious as to her origins, he dared not ask. After all, it was only a curiosity and he was certain he would find out if he was patient enough.

When she introduced herself, Claudius, pushed himself to his feet. He placed his hands on his knees and straightened out, all the while making certain not to trip over his own toboggan. Wouldn't that be embarrassing! Now that they were both standing, he realized that he was a bit taller than she. He took a step back and took her hand in a warm, but firm handshake.

"I-I-I'm Claudiu-us," he replied slowly. "Gatlvs-ska-a -- Cr-a-aftsman -- of Ani-Wa-a-aya," he explained. "It's very... nice to.. meet... you." [html]

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Neela Garcia · 02-19-2012, 07:13 PM

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OOC here.

Word Count → 200

Neela tilted her head to the side as Claudius introduced himself, her eyes taking in the contents of the toboggan for the first time, as well as the toboggan itself. Aside from Temo Neela hadn’t encountered anybody else who worked with wood so far or if she had then they hadn't spoke up about it, since she was sure that it would be a fairly common and useful skill around here.

Claudius's stuttering gave Neela the impression that the younger boy had a confidence issue, though it might have simply been a speech impediment for all Neela knew but her mind went to the most obvious cause, and so her voice was kind, not in itself a massive difference from her normal soft voice, as she spoke next. "You're a craftsman?" Neela asked curiously and somewhat rhetorically, "I do a bit of woodwork myself. Not so much anymore, work as a musician in Ichika, but I used ta work in a shipyard." Neela managed to cut herself off before she could start talking about the Meria, something that generally took her a while to stop talking about, and instead peered curiously into the toboggan, trying to see what was inside.

Claudius Aston · 02-21-2012, 05:39 PM

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[/html] At first, Claudius thought that Neela sounded surprised. Perhaps it was the stutter or his horrible habit of being completely invisible, but it seemed as though she hadn't been expecting him to have such a hands-on craft. Indeed, his craft of choice, dyeing, wasn't so much manual labour as it was a science of timing, calculation, waiting, and gathering. Much of his skill came from knowing how long to let the water boil, which plants yieled the strongest colours, and where certain plants were located. Although he dabbled in a bit of the medicinal uses of plants, they weren't his forte. Dawali had shown him a few carving tricks, so he would love to learn more.

When Neela mentioned she worked in a shipyard, he immediately recalled the battle canoes from the war with Crimson Dreams. He responded quickly, all the while his eyes and expression bepseaking his interest.

"Oh, like canoes? Or...? Wha-at sort of things would... you-ou sha-are? I ha-a-ave... dyes... and a fe-e-ew tr-i-inkets I ca-arved with me." Claudius' words tumbled out as he spoke in a hurry to discover Neela's true talents. [html]

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Neela Garcia · 02-25-2012, 02:55 PM

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Last few days have sucked, sorry for the wait.

Word Count → 301

Neela's tail wagged lightly at the interest shown by Claudius, a smile spreading onto her face. "That sorta thing yeah, though we didn’t tend to make them that small." Neela dropped her bag, gently this time, at the base of a nearby tree and leaned against it comfortably, "The sea was pretty rough where we lived but we depended on sea fishing for food so we mainly built bigger ships that could rough it."

Neela wasn't sure how to respond when asked to share her knowledge. It wasn't that she had a problem doing so, Neela saw little point in keeping the knowledge that she had from others, but simply that she had never been in that position before; back in her hometown she had always been the newest addition to the shipyard, meaning that she was learning and not teaching.

"Umm. Not that I have a problem passing stuff on or anything but a lot of what I know wouldn’t be much use. You already seem ta know carving and the sort of shipbuilding I do isn’t much use round here." Neela made a rather quiet disgruntled noise."Ya typically need stuff like cranes and docks fer boats that size, and a lot more than a single person if you don’t want to spend half your life making one thing."

Neela, taken up by the idea of passing some knowledge on to somebody seemingly less knowledgeable than her, racked her brains to try and think of something to pass on that would actually be useful. "How about bending wood so it stays that way, you know how to do that?" Neela was sure that that could be useful for things other than building boats, maybe furniture or wagon wheels, though she had no clue if this wolves pack even used wagons.

Claudius Aston · 02-28-2012, 11:11 PM

Feel free to powerplay Neela and Claudius walking into the tent and Claudius getting out his things to speed it up c;
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[/html] Claudius' eyes widened when Neela said that she didn't make boats as small as canoes. Small? his mind protested, but the war canoes had been huge! They had to have fit at least ten fully-grown luperci in their Optime forms. What kind of boats had she been building if a canoe was small? Claudius didn't think that was even possible, so for a moment, he doubted whether she was even a real craftswolf or if she was just making all of this up. When she added that the sea had been rough, he couldn't think of something worse than the Bay of Fundy's terrible tides or the crashing of the water in the waters to the east. Where had she lived and what sorts of witchery did she do? Apparently she used things like cranes and docks to build her boats, but the words carried no meaning to Claudius, so he just shrugged them off. He wasn't sure if he liked how she seemed annoyed that their building wasn't good enough for her. One of the things he hated was being judged before someone got to know him and being the stuttering, shy, limping wolf that he was, this happened fairly often.

Finally, of course, she offered one tidbit of knowledge that Claudius could understand. Much of what she'd said earlier was an unintelligible jargon that left him a bit abrasive. He warmed up immediately when she mentioned bending wood. Such smaller, personal crafts, were the kind he favoured. Quickly, he nodded and then gestured beside him.

"Ye-e-es, I think... so. He-ere, I ha-a-ve... my tobo-oggan with me... we ca-a-an find... a tent... and trade some... trade... secrets," he suggested with a chuckle. "I could use... some help... with carving and... woodworking... it's been more of a hobby... since my mentor left me... a while ago... I have a bone knife and so-ome wood with me, if you'd like... to... share your skills." A shy and hopeful smile accompanied his words. He bent down to pick up the rope of his toboggan and took a few steps toward one of the nearby tents. [html]

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