smashrising | Excitory Synapses (Open)

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Excitory Synapses (Open)

It was an odd blend of skills that Gordon had collected since he left home. He never thought, for example, that he'd learn to fish, nor would he ever guess that it would actually be useful later. For a couple of days during the week, he'd take off into the woods in the early morning, and by midday three or four cheep-cheeps would be left in the kitchen, stuffed in a fishing basket.

Anyone who follows him out in the morning might be surprised as to his methods, however.

One of the streams leading to the rim of the island, almost large enough to be a river, flows through the woods. His shirt and shoes are resting on the rocks nearby. He's standing in the slow moving water, spear in hand--

Wait. A spear?

Yes. A spear that is the kind of thing that only could make. Metal, cords, warning labels, duct tape, and exotic conductive metals are involved, with a spring-loaded handle that he cocks like a shotgun. The metallic ringing sound it makes rises in pitch to a high whine of electric charge. He finally throws, and it discharges with a flash of light and yields a fat, wriggling fish. You see, he's gotten better since Ziio taught him, but manipulating the magnetic field to make the fish curious... it helps.

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When who, dear reader, should walk into this scene but one Maximilian Justice Powers, likewise shirtless, and likewise freshly returning from a successful hunting-and-gathering expedition?

Strewn across his impossibly broad shoulders, like a mink stole made out of bears, was a greyish-colored bear, which lay, mink-stole-like, across the broad expanse impossibly termed his shoulders.

He was a bit -- actually several bits -- covered in blood -- not his own -- and the stream had looked to be an appealing place to wash some of the gore off of his person.

"Hey," said the bear-draped bara bro, once he saw Gordon.

The fish Gordon had been studying swims off, startled, when the bearman cometh, and Gordon looks up with the light daze of someone focused to the point of meditation. It's worth mention that it was the quiet and the space to focus and think that he liked. Bringing back food was merely a bonus.

...but now suddenly he's staring up at a larger man that has netting more food than him. A scenario like that can cause even the most disused caveman competition circuit to sputter to clumsy, dust-covered life in the back is a guy's mind. In any case, he straightens up and lowers the magnetospear.

"Hey... So, uh, what'd you catch that with? Rifle?"

Edited 2016-04-24 22:21 (UTC)

"Hit it with a tree," replied the bearman. "I mean, not the whole tree, just a lot of it." The bear shifts slightly as his traps tense with the memory of the action. "Spear fishin'?" he asks.

Jeezus God. Yeah, why bother with weapons when chunks of the landscape will suffice, right? He can't help a glance over his shoulder to the cheep-cheep-stuffed but comparatively teeny fishing basket sitting on the shore.

"Yeah. Figured I'd, uh, contribute to the protein stores. It's a skill that I want to keep sharp, as well. Something I'm not quite ready to forget."

"You've got survival experience?" asked the epitome of masculine virtue. "I, uh, never saw you as the type."

Shantae loved the water, and she loved fishing. That tended to happen growing up in a fishing village on the edge of the ocean. The fact that Gordon kept coming back with fresh fish to eat meant that he found a good spot to go, and she was determined to learn where he was going.

She didn't expect to see him spear fishing with an electric spear.

Shirtless.

"You know, if I'd known, I'd have brought a bikini," she told him.

He's particularly good at survival, in that he's gifted at living through weird calamitous science bullshit. He knows that's not what Max means, however. He wades a bit closer to hear Max better over the water.

"Connor gave me some tips on how to hunt. Fishing came from Ziio. Hell, thanks to her I could probably truss together a longhouse, if I had enough time."

The wiry, pale man looks up, lowering the frankenspear and, in an odd dissidence of gestures, fidgets his glasses back into place.

"...I should have guessed you'd find me out here eventually." He begins, starting to smile. "And naturally if you were going to bring a bikini, I would've told you all about it."

"I would have, except I can't really find any around here. Not to mention I'm sure swiming while your boyfriend is tossing an electrified spear at fish isn't a good idea," she teased. "How's that going, by the way?"

Rene was out fairly early to set up the laundry and possibly hunt for wildly unseasonable mushrooms, but noises from downstream caught her attention. Still carrying the laundry basket, she followed them...

...Spearfishing in a river. Yep, that was totally what she expected to see. It was as if Avan was right with her.

She'd caught him just as he impales something, but instead of the colorful critters he'd been catching so far, he pulls up a belligerent barracuda-looking thing. He boggles at it for a second or so before the fish seems to explode in a nasty puff of blue smoke, the kind that probably carries some kind of ancient curse, but we'll not dwell on that for now. He coughs and waves away, finally noticing he's not alone.

"... ...Huh? Oh, hi. Erm. Don't mind me. Just. You know. Fishing." He begins, hefting his magnetospear indicatively.

"Exactly as I planned. The fish don't know what hit them. Not only that, but the magnetic field it generates actually attracts a few species."

He steps through the water to join her on the shore, laying said weapon tilted against the basket.

"There are probably easier ways to fish... hell, I could probably just apply a current directly to the water and pre-cook every fish in a ten-foot radius, but I kind of like doing it this way."

She crossed her arms under her chest, chuckling. "It's probably for the best too," she said. "Better to leave some of them around so that there's something to fish for later!" She smiled up at him. "I didn't know you knew how to fish, let alone spear fishing!"

"We had to make a log cabin for woodshop class one time," mused Max, who did just that. "Was supposed to take all semester, got it done in like an afternoon." It's helps when everyone doing this has absurd physical skills like "can lift trees" and "can summon the aid of elemental beasts from technologically-unexplained balls," and the like.

"I learned it about a year ago back at the Academy."

Read: He learned it from Ziio. However, that thought doesn't sour his expression like it once did. It was a good memory, he realizes, and he's going to keep it in his mind that way. He hopes she doesn't mind the sweat and drapes an arm over her shoulder, indicating the river with the other hand.

"It's not easy. You have to stay very still for several minutes while the fish get close, and you only get one shot to hit them. But... I like that. I hadn't focused that hard in maybe a year."

"You know, that doesn't really surprise me anymore..." He admits. "When was that? Back at the Academy before it got destroyed, or earlier than that?"

If she minded, she didn't show it, smirking up at Gordon as he came in close and slid his arm around her. She was enjoying their closeness now. It felt nice.

"Believe me, I know. Scuttle Town was a big fishing port. Some of my earliest memories are Uncle Mimic teaching me how to fish!" she explained. "I haven't been fishing in a long time though. You looked like you were really in the zone."

"Back when I was a student, yeah. Like. Five years ago. Flint and Lighter ran the class. It was Lighter's class, but Flint helped to run it."

Where was Lighter now? What man was he secretly pining over, never allowing it to be fully acknowledged? What long, firm piece of wood took his attentions in the place of that unspoken desire? What interpersonal disappointments crowded around him in his new life?

"Holy...what just happened?" she blurted, coming closer. "What was that thing? Why did it blow up?!"

"Your guess is as good as mine!" He replies, stabbing the butt of the spear into the river as he peers thoughtfully at the water. "At least it only blew up in a fine powder, and not actually explode. Considering the fauna around here, I wouldn't put it past 'em."

The man takes that as a cue to stalk back towards her and the shoreway. "Wait, I've seen you around the mansion, haven't I?" He hazards with a glance to her, as he checks the basket of fish.

"...You want to try this?" He asks. Having wiped down his glasses, he picks up the spear again and offers it. "The device itself is completely safe. Well... as safe as any spear is, rather. I'll show you how."

"Sure thing!" She said, taking the spear from him and tossing it quickly in her hand to test its weight. "All right, show me what to do. I wanna zap a fish!" Maybe she was enjoying the thought a bit too much.

"Alright, come over here into the water."

He leads her into the shallows, where the water is up to her knees or so. He shifts. so that he's standing very close behind her, still holding the spear.

"Okay, this looks right. Get comfortable; we're going to be standing here for a while. Here."

He takes up her right arm and rests the springy, floating grip of the spear into her hand, wrapping his fingers over hers and bringing the weapon up a little.

"...How does that feel?"

"Probably. You look familiar too, but I don't think we've been introduced." She held out a hand. "I'm Rene Randall."

"Gordon Freeman." He replies, shaking her hand. "So how long have you been on the island?"

"A few months, I think. Hey, Shantae told me about you!" She smiled. "She and I were picking bananas on the beach."

Shantae rolled up her pant legs and stepped out of her slippers before getting into the water, and nodded as Gordon placed the spear into her hand. It felt good having him that close... But she was focused on more important things.

Like the fact she was now holding on to an electrified spear.

"Feels good to me," she said, winking back at him. "And don't worry. I'm plenty comfortable." She emphasized that by leaning back against him a bit to tease him.

She leans against him, and his free hand automatically rests on the bare skin of her middle to keep balance. It stays there, fingers shifting to feel her skin, for reasons completely unrelated to staying upright.

"Okay. I think that one's headed this way." He says in a low murmur, indicating with a nod of his head to an inquisitive white blob rippling under the surface of the water. "Wait for it to get close..."

Shantae nodded, grip on the spear tightening as she watched the outline of the supposed fish inquisitively approach the pair. Gordon held her steady as she followed it with her steely blue eyes. She fished a lot as a kid. She had a sense of how fish moved, how they reacted.

"I see it," she said quietly, lifting the spear and tilting the tip down towards the water. "Almost..."

As soon as it was close enough, Shantae jabbed down with the spear!

She hits! Gordon makes a congratulatory noise and leans around to see what she's got.

And his grin fades when he sees that white ripple was actually a blooper that now looks far more pissed off than they usually do.

"Oh wait shit these tend to--" BLOOFH!

His warning is interrupted by a greasy splatter of ink that hits both of them with surprising force.

"What--?!" And suddenly, a blast of ink fired at the pair of them. How did a little squid like that spit so much ink?!

Shantae's grip on the spear loosened, and the blooper took the opportunity to dislodge itself, jumping back into the water. Shantae, for her part, wasn't taking this lying down.

"Oh, you wanna fight, huh? Fine!"

Stepping out of Gordon's grip, she performed a few quick dance steps, and when she was done, bam. Mermaid Shantae. She dove into the water after the blooper to exact her revenge.

"What're you--"

Gordon, suddenly finding himself without a girl in his arms, blinks through the film of ink on his glasses that coincidentally covers most of the rest of him as well.

Mercifully the spear sinks in water, which means it hadn't been washed downstream by the time he regains his composure and fishes it out of the river.

"Shantae!?" He... Thinks he saw a mermaid tail? Maybe? Is the river upstream even deep enough to accommodate a mermaid? All good questions, and the only safe way to find out is to dive in after her.

Screw the rules, she had green hair.

And she didn't take kindly to the indignity this blooper decided to inflict on her. It swam and swam as hard as it could, but the vengeful mermaid was after it. And it didn't take long for the magic bubble attack to be flung at it, KOing the poor squid and allowing Shantae to snatch it, upper body emerging from the water, grinning with sharp teeth as she held aloft her prize.

"Got it!" she declared. "...Gordon? Where'd you go?"

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Excitory Synapses (Open)

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