Tact and Subtlety (Open)

[corvus]

It was hard being a pickpocket during the festival. The guards were always so...vigilant. It was certainly admirable, and because of this, Corvus was not going to try unless the projected success rate was worth the risk, which it rarely was.

For now he was just Corvus, here to enjoy the festival, and pay tribute to the goddesses who had given him so much. It wasn't all fun though, as he mingled through the crowds, through the stalls. There was still something missing.

"If only father could see this." He said softly. His father was still down in the dungeons. Ten years, and no sign of stopping. If they weren't going to release him, why wouldn't they end the suffering? No, now wasn't the time to dwell on such things. Now was a time for rejoicing, for fun. He put a smile on his face and began to stroll calmly, admiring the wares, devious thoughts emerging and diminishing as he went. Maybe he'd buy one, just for fun, something he could actually hang on his wall.

[Leviathan]

It was most strange this festival of the Joor. He could not make heads or tails of it. There were many of them gathered in this place celeberating something about goddesses. Leviathan of course had no idea at int in time just what any of the goddesses were, or indeed any idea what the idea of religion actually encompassed. His life was far simpler than that. There was no grand purpose. No goddesses, no gods, no divine or infernal forces at work within his life. He had been an egg, and now he was not. He had been but a hatchling. And now he was not. How he grew was not determined by some invisible hand, but by how much he consumed, and by how careful he was whilst doing it.

For beasts, life was simple like that. There was the past, which remained there. And the now. Two simple goals. Eat, and mate. Of course the latter was out of the question, so it remained that his only other goal was to devour and to live. But he was not mindless like other beasts. There was, curiousness. And that is what brought him here to the land of the Jul and Joor.To find answers to questions.

The lord of the seas took a swig of the tainted water flask, filled with diluted blood, it helped to ease his hunger pangs. Which at times were frequent and painful. Leviathan walked among these crowds as any of the other Joor would. Taking in the sights and sounds and begining to wonder just what this celebration seemed to represent. There were many of them here and they were happy. But there were also many of the steel skins. A thought from the knowing. It was like a trap, a cage. He felt cornered in all of this. How could they be so relaxed and happy when each of them were being watched at any given time? Was it that the steel skins feared of the paike? Did they know of his coming?

No, this was foolish to consider.

It made more sense that they were here to control the populus of the Jul. He had witnessed them on the oceans, the paike who preyed on their own kind. Perhaps they existed here on land as well. A cautious air arose from him. A monster hiding in plain sight. Yet, despite his caution the Jul seemed to be quite happy about approaching him. One of their females. A smooth ebony skinned one approached him with a flower. " You have beautiful eyes". She would comment. Ah, but if only she could see his true eyes.

" Drem Al Dun, peace and graces to you"

And odd moment, accepting the flower. She blushed and walked away looking back every few steps. Strange humans. Was she expecting him to eat it? He looked down at this flower. Perhaps. He decided it would be out of place if he didn't, so gobbled the flower down.

[corvus]

You could call it daydreaming, you could call it scanning the field, but Corvus was looking around, watching all the people, their motions, their mannerisms, their...hold on a sec, did he just eat that flower? The short Minish tilted his head in confusion. He just gobbled down a whole flower. He...Corvus simply shook his head at the gesture. Who just eats a flower? Perhaps it was a custom he was unaware of.

His curiosity got the better of him as he went over to the man as he stood there, possibly enjoying the flower. He seemed somewhat intimidating, maybe it was a show of dominance.

Tapping the man on the shoulder, he calmly addressed the taller individual. "Excuse me sir, I couldn't help but notice your odd custom of eating the small token of affection given to you by the lovely lady with the embarrassed face. I couldn't help but be confused as to why one would perform such an action." Despite talking to a complete stranger, Corvus appeared perfectly calm, though a hand was not far from his dagger, just in case. There was something about the man that didn't sit right with Corvus, but what it was he could not tell.

[Leviathan]

The flower was rather bland, there was a strange sweetness to the core of it but beyond that there was very little taste to it. He preferred the meat. Then there was a tap on his shoulder. A freezing moment. Was it the steel skins? That point of choice between the instinct of attack and maintaining appearances within this little city of theirs. The latter won out and he slowly turned around to face whatever had tapped him. It was no steel skin but rather a Joor with a question. It seemed that he was questioning why he had eaten the, token of affection it was called. Leviathan understood the meaning of this word, affection , it indicated desire to mate. He looked over the shoulder of the asker, towards the direction where the Jul female had walked.

She had wanted to mate with him? How disgusting. Food wishing to mate with one such as him. One did not mate with what they ate, surely doing so would ruin the taste? But all the while in his silence he thought this might be interoperated as rude, and so quickly thought up an excuse for his flower eating ways. “ In the lands of my people...they say...the best way to a mans heart. is through his digestive system”. Of course this was actually true. A female Leviathan seeking a mate would present to them a kill to prove that they were strong enough to survive the mating process. The male would then devour the kill to gain strength for the long rigorous, bloody and painful process that was mating.

“ I understood that the people of this land eat vegetation as well... I thought it would have been rude not to eat it just because my people prefer meat”.

[corvus]

Leviathan clearly did not understand the mantis, who actually did mate with their food. A good time to die it seems. Regardless, it was clear this man was not from around here. In the lands of his people? That certainly begged the question. Based on what he said, the man was from a land of carnivores. He ran races through his mind, trying to discover what exactly this man was.

"You are certainly a unique individual to make the sort of statements that you have. Is it confidence, or is it foolishness?" Corvus did a quick scan, ready to notify the guards of any threat. Odd, that he, a career thief, would call upon the guard.

Corvus folded his arms and snickered to himself, shaking his head. "A word of advice for you, the next time you impersonate a particular race, you should probably take some time to learn their customs, their culture, it helps when you don't want to be looked at with suspicion. Take it from me, it's best to not arouse suspicion."

[Leviathan]

Ack dammit.

Leviathan’s face turned quizzical. The person had somehow seen through his disguise. Were these people so limited in their cultures that their lands that they did not have a concept of a foreigner? Alas regardless of what happened he had been found out. Yet this one had no real reason to let loose a call of help, unless of course Leviathan made true just what he was and decided to eat this person alive. “ Deva tu,, I see what you say...however that is precisely why I am here...”[. He looked around once again, bringing his flask to his lips and taking a swig of the diluted mixture. It would keep him from thinking thoughts of eating this one just to be rid of a witness and his hunger.

He shook his head, likely by opening his mouth he had made the mistake. Better he should have pretended to be soem kind of mute than to explain things in his voice that sounded so unsure speaking the tongue of the Jul. “ I have come here to increase my...knowing...”. Leviathan seemed to struggle with the words, again this tongue was far more complicated and less direct than his own. So many words that could mean so many things. “ Am I so...stuck like many .thumb sores?.....”.. That was the phrase he thought. Or was it, stuck out like a sore thumb....he could not remember. Likely it did not matter.

[corvus]

Hmm, Deva Tu. A phrase worth remembering. It was kept in Corvus' mind for future reference. So he was here to mingle, to learn. Well, Corvus wasn't worried for him, but training would be long if he wished to learn. But Corvus could give him a few pointers to ease him along. Somebody hadn't been around society long for sure.

"Ah, I wouldn't worry yourself too much. You only stick out like a sore thumb when it comes to eating flowers. I guess some people do, but they aren't very filling. Based on your previous comments I get the feeling you're a hunter by trade, though you do not have any weapons on you. I believe the vegetation you're looking for consuming are fruits and vegetables, not flowers. Example." Corvus dropped a rupee on one of the stalls and took an apple for himself.

"Apple. A fruit. Edible." He took a bite into the apple. Nice and juicy, high quality, quite good. "Of course we eat our share of meats as well, though many buy it from a vendor rather than yourself, who likely catches and eats his own food." Corvus was quite enjoying this little lesson to the odd hunter with the powerful eyes. The sea monster was lucky, he appeared more a nomad with little human contact as opposed to a monster. If anything, Corvus would have thought him a predator Minish, but he didn't have the quirks that were typical of a Minish.

[Leviathan]

And so his lessons began.

Apparently it was not common place among the Jul to eat flowers. There were some vegetation that they ate, and apparently this was not one of them. This one used the word fruit. It was a word that he kenw, the sweet seed carrying things that grew from plants. The one that he had slaughtered on the way here, well the second one had vended these things. They had their own appeal but not as much so as the fresh dripping me-. Another swig from his canteen to calm the thoughts and the hunger. Although it seemed that he was not completely found out, the person believed that he was a hunter. Whilst this was not completely untrue, He did hunt for a living. It was in a far different manner to what this person could imagine. “ Yes, I hunt and eat my own food...but I have seen and eaten of these fruits”. Thankfully he was able to control it with this blood, no doubt he’d have to go refill later on but right now it was coming in handy that he was getting lessons about their society to help him blend in more. He didn’t doubt that he’d have went berserk by now if it was not kept in check.

The idea of buying meat from a vendor hwoever confused him. He understood the fruits, for they did not move. However the understanding of buying meat when you could kill it and eat it yourself was beyond him. Leviathan had seen it before, and had seen the exchange of currency. But it was still something that he didn’t quite get. “ Do these people not know how to....catch...to hunt themselves?....surely these...shiney...things....of worth...value...could then be used on something else?...”. To him his logic seemed simple enough, if these things were worth value to the Joor then why would they use it to buy something that they could easily gain themselves?

[corvus]

The question was fair. For a hunter, the idea of having to buy food was a strange concept. He clearly had little concept of society and how it worked. The weaknesses, the intricacies, it was all new to him.

"Some people, myself included, simply don't have the time to go out and hunt our own food. I certainly could, and have on occasion, but I work for other people, cleaning their houses and such. It's a job that takes up a lot of my time, and doesn't give me food, but it pays fairly well. So since I don't have time to go and hunt for myself, I buy from the stalls.to save time." As a cat, he wished to take a few days off and hunt, it was an instinct of his, but work was work, whichever hat he put on.

"I know this is all new to you, but just play up the nomad thing and no one will think twice. Well, almost no one." Corvus still had his eye on the hunter, though there was nothing to suggest his social ineptitude was anything other than inexperience with humans. Which in its own way was true, but to think this man was a sea monster would be utterly preposterous.

[Leviathan]

So the people of the land had other things to do, it was not simply that they lacked the skills to catch their own food rather that their time was taken up wih other things. This had entered into what Leviathan considered a dangerous trend. If they spent time doing other things and lost touch with their primal and absolute instincts, then over time these very instincts which in Leviathan’s opinion were necessary to survive would dull...and these creatures would ultimately face ext-. Leviathan stopped for a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. To the outsider looking it would merely appear as if he was considering the cat burglar’s words.

He had no idea how long his people had been gone from this world. How long his egg had been in a state of geval, sleep. Dormancy. There were many reasons for extinction. Could it be that his people had lost their own instincts in such a way? He found it hard to comprehend. But the more he walked around here, the more he saw things. Wolves that had lost their killer instinct had become dogs. Pitiful creatures that bade on their masters words. “ I understand your words...Some require time to make these...shiny things..to trade and buy from these..stalls...”.

He understood it yes, but he did not quite grasp it. Surely if this money was only for buying food then they would be as well spending their time hunting as earning? Or was it that these shiney things could be spent on more than just food. “...Kira Vin, I thank you for your wisdom...and your patience....walking these lands is....strange...and lonely...”. Leviathan thought that was the word, he wasn’t quite sure. In his peoples tongue it was better described as “ desolate”. A time when the Mul Dovah were alone in the waters and injured. Whilst he was not injured, the sense of danger from the steel skins certainly provided enough caution to warrant the phrase.

[corvus]

Corvus watched as the man tried to make heads or tails of Corvus' wisdom. As time went on Corvus began to wonder about the man next to him. Even many of the hunters that frequent parts of Hyrule knew some of the customs. It was almost like man was raised by wolves or something.

However he did seem to start getting the hang of it. The idea of a market, people making their money and with time able to buy the shiny things that others made. That was just how society worked. He was missing a concept of taxes, though, understandably since the man never had to pay them in his profession.

"I will say, you're doing a good job. You're quite out of your element and struggling with some of the customs but it's to be expected given the amount of time you've spent away from society." There it was again. Kira Vin, what was that? Would a hunter create his own short phrases to denote certain things? This would require further research.

"I must continue my search. To you, hunter, I bid you good day." With a quick bow, Corvus turned and disappeared into the crowds, falling in line like he did so well.

EXIT[/i][/u]

[Nightmare Darklight]

Because Corvus no longer exists and Leviathan counts as having bailed on the thread under the new thread rules, both parties get nothing.