PILOT'S LOG 1.01 ✈ VIDEO; console

[merb]

[ The feed opens with Stork tapping one long green finger on the screen, looking a bit sheepish. He's not unfamiliar with the level of technology here, just the specifics. In the background, a public cafe and several irate looking kedan glaring at the Merb's back. In the foreground, some telltale purple bio-mechanical goop. ]

So... note to self: don't try dismantling these things, they melt like a bad batch of Globs. I, uh, I'm probably going to have to pay for that other one, aren't I? I've probably contracted Raztorian poisoning already. Only a matter of time before I start going blind in one eye...

Can someone tell me what passes for a crystal depot around? Someone mentioned the Earth Sector, but when I showed them the Cinder crystal I had on me, they said they'd never seen anything like it.

[ He turns his head to look over his shoulder, not at the kedan but upward, to the sky; the metal earrings move as he flicks one long ear, listening for something while looking uneasy. ]

Is the sky always this quiet here? I don't like not being able to hear even a single airship. If there's going to be a cataclysmic blast cloud coming to wipe us all out, I'd like some time to get a fresh copy of my will prepared.

Comments

Video

[seismometrics]

[Learn to do a good nose picking, man. Does wonders for stress. Toph listens idly to his non-freaking out-ness with full skepticism, eyebrow raised.]

Okay, I just heard "blah, blah, blah, flailing, blah." Just about none of that made sense. Which probably means it doesn't exist here, and definitely doesn't where I come from.

What's probably pretty safe to tell you, though, is that your ship isn't here. Period. Most people don't come with stuff that big.

Welcome to the giant floating Turtle. With no way off until he drops us off at random.

[If she sounds wry, she is.]

Re: Video

[merb]

[ Merb bristles a little when she mocks him, because it feels very different than when his squadmates do it. ]

Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. Aren't you like five?

[ Shush, he's bad at judging human ages. ]

So late, sorry. @_@

[seismometrics]

[Less mocking, honestly, in this part, and more wryness -- though given all the rest of what she's said, he could hardly be blamed for taking it that way.]

[He earns himself a very flat, deadpan expression.]

Are you even serious?

And just because I don't understand it might mean it still makes sense . . . but it still means you're out of luck. Trust me. I know rocks.

no prob!

[merb]

... what do you mean, you know rocks?

[seismometrics]

[She reaches forward to something off-camera as though she already knows exactly where it is, not glancing to look for it. (And actually, she's retained a single, unfocused "stare" point throughout the entire conversation.)]

[Her reach produces a sizable rock, a little bigger than a fist. While she would normally use the space rock coiled around her arm for what she's planning, it's currently being used for other purposes -- namely holding the gem that appeared with her when she re-appeared on the turtle. Deprived of using that as a plaything, she's secured another -- because having something to mess around with when bored is important.]

[She cups the rock it in both hands . . . and begins to bend it, her fingers shifting their grasp. The rock rises off her palms, shifting into a multitude of shapes almost too fast to take in. Twists. Cubes. Complicated, spiky stars. A sphere so smooth it would have been an impossibility in nature.]

I mean I know rocks.

[merb]

[ Toph may not be able to see it, but Stork is completely making this ecstatic face. ]

Can you do that again??

[seismometrics]

[Not exactly the reaction she was expecting, but she can hear the enthusiasm in his voice, so she'll take it. Admiration is something she can always take.]

[Obligingly she sends the rock through another chorus of shapes, a small smirk taking over her features.]

[merb]

Are rocks the only thing you can do that with?

[seismometrics]

[Huh. Again, not the reactions she expected from the flail-y guy, but. Definitely works for her. The rock bounces back into her palm, and her fingers close around it.]

Nope. I'm good with metal, too. Still working on that a little, but I'm the first one to ever do it, so. Kind of making it up as I go.

[A little preening here, because darnit, she's proud of the metal work. For the most part, she still needs her hands on it -- though she's making headway with no hands. Right now metalworking is her baby, and she's going to push it as far as she can.]

You into this kind of thing yourself, or what?

[merb]

[ She can shape metal she can shape metal this is the best thing Stork has ever seen. ]

You're hired.

[seismometrics]

[Left field comment comes from left field. If Toph could stare, she would be, the stone forgotten in her hands.]

Wait, what?

[merb]

[ He's pretty good at that. ]

I said, you're hired. I'll pay you anything you want if you'll shape some metal into specific some tools for me.

[seismometrics]

[Excuse her while she indulges in a little more eye quirking.]

. . . You kind of just got here. Do you even have money?

[Not that she wouldn't mind the challenge. Actually, she'd love it. But he did say "hired" and "pay anything you want." And some part of her is her father's daughter.]

[merb]

[ He does, actually, have a bit of Atmosian currency on him and then whatever small amount he was doled out with his arrival, but it's hardly enough to pay her exorbitantly. ]

Fine, I'll build you whatever you want. Better? What's your name?

[seismometrics]

Yeah? What do you build?

[Again, she'd probably do this for free, but no need to give that away. Plus this guy has become potentially more interesting.]

I'm Toph. You?

[merb]

I'm a Merb, I can build anything.

[seismometrics]

Going to have to take your word on that. We don't have Merbs here.

So contingent that you can do all that . . . deal.

[Not that she really knows what she wants built, but hey. She's sure she'll think of something.]

You're going to have to draw them in the dirt for me or make some kind of model, but should be doable.

[merb]

I've been getting that a lot. Why does every place seem to have humans, and nowhere else have Merbs?

In the dirt?

[ ew unsanitary ]

I guess...