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

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...