[The Bean] Starting New Things [Archailist]

by **Ball** on December 17th, 2014, 5:27 pm

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball watched as the squirrel debated on which direction was the right direction. Must be the coffee… There was no reason to shrug or make a comment beyond a mental observation of it as he waited. Once his fellow squire had determined where to go and the direction to take, Ball followed with Imass, he had no way to keep up with the squirrel as the bugger bounded from one person’s head to another – Gonna have to yell at him I think for that, we shouldn’t be using the civilians as stepping stones. Ball sighed at that though, he had no urge to yell at a fellow squire of abusing some completely unaware members of society.

Well, if no one is complaining I guess I can’t say much. I know if I tried that they would be hating me something fierce. After what seemed a few more minutes Ball was about to ask the Squirrel if he remembered at all, or had the coffee addled his mind. Yet there it was! Hidden amongst some of the other merchant stalls, Ball could see the small Pycon sized stall.

”Squirrel…” Ball pointed at the stall, ”That is?” Nudging Imass gently he made the lovely little dog move closer to the stall, hoping it was indeed what it was. There sat a small clay man, somewhere between Archie and Ball’s heights and leaning in a barrel beside the stall was a number of long poles.

Yes that must be them. When he got to Archie’s side he pointed again, ”There. I think we found it.”

Credit :

by **Archailist** on December 17th, 2014, 6:28 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

If Arch heard any of what the other Pycon said, he did a very good job at hiding it. If there were any complaints made by those that found themselves used as bridges to get from one stall to the next in his lightning-quick passing - and indeed there were more than the squirrel could count at that point - they reached deaf ears, because by the time they'd recognized what'd happened, he was already three stalls down and going strong. A few brooms were knocked over by the squirrels tail as he flicked it around to one side, in the hopes of changing his direction before whacking straight into the leg of one of the tables, but it failed and he still struck into its side with enough force to create a wobble that shook up everything standing on top. More yells, but the squirrel turned and kept going.

At least, until Ball managed to draw him out of his little manic spree. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Here it is." The haze was beginning to fade by now, and he could see the small assortment of dark-brown and light-orange poles standing against the wall, bending with the pressure on their heavy metal caps. "Looks pretty good, I gotta say. Though.. hmm." It seemed he was finally gaining control over himself, at the very least. When he dropped down from the larger stalls and approached, the other Pycon apparently running the stall gave a bit of a grin. Arch didn't know why - he'd never seen the guy in his life.

"Haha, see you're interested. Made 'em meself, I did." That accent was atrocious. It sounded like he couldn't be more Sunberthian if he tried.. and Arch unfortunately knew Sunberthian. He'd been there at one point, after all, and almost cringed at the thought of trying to go back to the rat-infested Hai-hole. "Knowing what you want, light 'n' sturdy, yeh?" Even before Ball or Arch had said a word, he'd turned back to the line-up of poles and picked out the first one he could get his strange humanoid hands on to lift up for them both.

It looked alright. A light orange hue, with a thick metal cap at the end and a good length, similar to that of Arch's own pole. "May I?" He gestured for the pole, and the vendor passed it over to let the squirrel get a decent feel of it. Poles weren't like human weapons - they needed to actually hold a Pycon's weight, and be able to take the strain. This one was, just as the vendor had promised, exceptionally light.. it could do quite well for the smaller, lighter Pycon. "Hmm. Try it, Ball. Test its weight." He held out the stick, offering it to the other Pycon, while the vendor looked on eagerly.

by **Ball** on December 17th, 2014, 8:38 pm

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Taking a hold of the pole Ball looked at the length of it. It was like three times Ball’s size and thin. Insanely thin at that. It didn’t feel right, something about it was off. Maybe I am holding it wrong? Shifting the pole as safely as he could, it was an extremely awkward and funny set of motions to watch the pycon utilize before he had shift the pole the other direction. Still it felt funny, no matter which side the metal cap was resting on, right or left, the pycon just didn’t feel comfortable with it. With a shake of his head Ball returned it to the merchant, “This one feels all wrong.” Ignoring the attempt of the merchant to decide on another one Ball looked at the bundle of poles. They all looked pretty much the same, some were thicker, some were a darker, other poles had flat metal caps, some with round caps, and there were even some that had slightly pointed caps. There even appeared to be a few of that had two caps, one on each end.

The next one Ball pulled from the barrel was a brown hued bit of weaponry; it had a flat cap on one side and a pointed cap on the other. The stick felt weird in his hands, but with both ends capped the weapon didn’t feel weighted funny and Ball could see himself using a weapon in that fashion. Yet there was something off even about this one. He could see his hands weren’t quite wrapping around the pole’s diameter and it made the weapon just uncomfortable to wield, not heavy or awkward really, just uncomfortable.

Another shake of his head as he shoved the pole back into the barrel this time the merchant managed to pipe up with a “’Ey, be gentle with the wares,eh? I need to make a livin’ ya know.” Ball turned his single eye at the merchant said nothing before he looked once more into barrel.

Reaching once more into the barrel the squire pulled out yet another pole, it was thicker than the first one, but not quite as thick as the second one. On one end it had a sharp point, the other end had a flat cap, almost as if it was designed to be stood or sat upon. Ball could just feel his fingertips touching his palms in a feathery way and nodded. This pole had an almost mahogany appearance to it and smelled faintly of pine and fresh sap. It brought a smile to his face as his single eye followed the length of it.

One… Two… And… A Half of my body height. His mind mental calculated as he stood the pole on the ground, flat side down and looked up the length of it. Ball nodded and looked at the pycon-merchant.

“How much?” The merchant sputtered and muttered, trying to make the price up as he went. “Twenty.” Ball paused and looked at the man, with a head shake he made a popping sound close to ‘pah’ and went to slide the pole back into the barrel slowly, watching as the merchant’s face cave as he watched a sale just fall away like that.

Credit :

by **Archailist** on December 18th, 2014, 5:45 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel nodded, thinking quietly, and stretched out a paw to pick out another pole and offer it instead - but before he could, and before the merchant could get a word out, the smaller Pycon simply reached over and picked out a different one. "Your call." There'd be no point in trying to force a pole on Ball if the Pycon didn't want it, after all. He could only stand, arms folded carefully over his chest, and watch the other slowly adjusting his grip on the pole to find a firm hold. Another pole, another one abandoned. They could stand there all day and let Ball run through every single pole in the barrel, but it might be that none of them actually suited his needs. This is why a Pole should be made by someone close to the user. Arch didn't even know if Ball's parents lived on this side of the world though.

After his attention had long shifted away from the group, he finally heard a bit of satisfaction and turned back to see the little Pycon smiling at the new pole, and even the merchant nodding knowingly. Apparently he'd made a sale, and they were all ready to go. At least, that was what he thought. Just as he turned, they began the bargaining process. "Twenty." The offer wasn't cutting it, and by the looks of things, he was about to lose out on the one sale. "Hey hey! S'negotiable! I mean, mayhaps I'd chop off one or two Miza's, if you're being that unhappy with it all." Apparently he was really looking for a decent sale - one could hardly blame him, considering how many Pycons wandered through the Bazaar, and how many of them would even be interested in weapons at all.

"Suppose I coul' go as low's.. fifteen, 'cause really 'swhere I'd be stretching myself. I mean, honestly, you ain't going t'find anywhere else doing this stuff like I does." The squirrel, for once, actually had to agree with the Pycon merchant - there weren't going to be many others that made these things, other than the one stood right before them. Arch was lucky in finding what he did, where he did - at the hands of his own father. Sure, materials cost, but hey, that was life. "Even if yah do, yah won'ts be finding anyone else's with as good selection as I got 'ere, I'll be telling you that." Another good observation.

For all the trouble, though, the squirrel wasn't going to intervene. More so because of the lethargy slowly pushing through his nexus, making his little clay eyes sag in their sockets. I need a nap.. a nice, long nap.. Failing that, more coffee. That stuff was wonderful, but when it was gone, he felt like a piece of his clay had been ripped straight out - all over, it just felt like he'd lost something big, and now he was just working overtime to get it back. "Urgh.. wake me when you've got the pole, eh?" With people still pushing to get past in the background, the squirrel turned and laid his back against the nearest stone wall, right next to the stall, for support.

by **Ball** on December 30th, 2014, 6:19 pm

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball looked at the merchant, his one eye narrowed in thought before he responded. “You expect me to buy this pole for fifteen? How about I knock you out and take it for free instead? You are conniving fool, I am a member of the order and you are trying to bugger me for a bit of wood and steel.” His hand placed on the booth, flat palm against the wood. The coffee’s effects have fully worn off now and Ball was getting agitated and annoyed.

“I will take it for ten, no more.” That was Ball’s final word. He knew he had the ten mizas somewhere, with Imass surely. The merchant screwed up his face and fell silent; it was a clear image of this man being cowed into taking the price cut of half and taking what he can get, or trying to get Ball to take it for more. “I thinkin’ eleven… Ya bein’ a member of da order should kno’ how hard it is for a merchant to get business.”

The squire made zero attempts to confirm or deny the merchant’s statement he just waited. It took a few sighs and hemming and hawing before the merchant took the cut in price and Ball turned his mount. “Fine.” The merchant released, aggravated and annoyed. Ball nodded and turned to his mount, there was no pouch or bag to carry his gold that was when the squire recalled he had swallowed large amounts of gold today. Coughing and struggling a bit the Pycon finally coughed up the gold he needed.

Turning back to the merchant Ball dropped all the coinage on the booth. “I am taking my pole now. Good day.” He turned back to the squirrel as the merchant was busy counting his payment.

“Let’s us go.”
.

Credit :

by **Archailist** on December 30th, 2014, 6:48 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Though it wasn't visible, the squirrel disconnected his eyes and other extremeties from the nexus in order to bring a few moments of much-needed peace. Not as much as he would have liked.. but it'd be enough for now. Hopefully the next few bells would wake him up a little more, but he was at least thinking straight after the buzz wore off. After Ball's words, the squirrel finally reanimated and shook his head to clear whatever dust remained on his head. "Hmm? Excellent, yeah.. guess it's time now for the fun part." Well, more likely that it was fun for the squirrel over Ball. Still, who knew?

"Suppose we'll head to the Training Grounds for this, then. You'll be thankful for the obstacles.. they give you a bit more bounce, and that's exactly what you'll need when you're using these." In fact, the squirrel was quick to draw out his own pole again and tap the ground with it. "When you use these things right, they'll throw you wherever you want to go. When you use 'em right, anyway." Since the squirrel didn't have a mount, he'd have to walk all the way over to the Training Grounds. Or, on the other hand...

With the tip still pressed against the ground and the metal tip shoved into a small crack between stone slabs, the squirrel stretched the pole and bent it down to build up tension along its length. He could feel resistance growing, especially around the butt. When an innocent bystander stepped out in front of the path, he hopped in the air and let the stick do the rest - immediately flexing back over itself and giving him just the boost he needed to rise up and grab onto the bottom of the human's shirt with one paw. The other kept hold of the pole and tugged it after him, dragging it up to its rightful place at his back while the man kept walking - either oblivious or simply uncaring, since he still had plenty of other things to carry.

"See you at the Grounds!" With that, Arch began a steady climb up the man's back. Eventually, he'd make it to the shoulder and begin a little game of stepping stones.. moving from one shoulder to the next. Good luck to Ball if he wanted to try and keep up, though! With the length of the strides of the humans, Arch wasn't exactly going slowly. If anything was going to wake him up before they had their little training session, then a race was going to be near the top of that list. Besides, it'd be a good warm-up.

by **Ball** on January 14th, 2015, 4:39 pm

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

OOCI am making an assumption about you going to the woodland training sections.

A Bell Later

Ball and Imass finally huffed themselves up to the rooftop training grounds, it was sometime after Archie would’ve made it there and Ball wasn’t too pleased to see that he was essentially a slow squire. Even though the grounds were currently preoccupied by squires and knights training, resting, and other things the pycon squirrel was pretty obvious to spot, it appears that even the clay squirrel acted like regular squirrels… Bloody squirrels. He grumbled and made his way towards the grove of trees

“Hey squirrel, get down here and teach me this damn pole. Don’t make me come up there and toss you from that tree.” Ball growled loudly up into the tree. It was clear from his void that he was hoping to not have to come up there. Holding up the pole he was talking about Ball looked at the pycon and grumbled, turning he held the pole in both hands, the weapon felt awkward but the squire wasn’t going to just wait around.

Shifting his legs apart Ball could feel what he thought was a solid sturdy base to swing from and yet when he did swing the pole in a slow arc before him he stumbled with it and fell to the ground.

Credit :

by **Archailist** on January 14th, 2015, 5:26 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Getting to the Grounds was the easy part. Spending years of ones life practicing had given the squirrel what he could only call a sixth sense as he hopped merrily over heads and across shoulders - judging the right distances, the right times, the movements and his surroundings. Even with all of it, he wasn't always right in his judgement. A few people whom he'd expected to be a little more friendly had promptly waved the squirrel off before he could even settle into place. Once or twice, a sudden move would throw off the balance and suddenly the jump that a few ticks before had seen all-too-easy became impossibly far - he found himself plummeting into a mass of big feet and uncaring passers-by as he hopped between their legs to find sanctuary - a wall, a stationary person, a stall, anything that he could climb back into eye-level with the humans that dominated every square inch of the castle and beyond.

He'd lost sight of Ball well before he'd actually made it to the upper tier, and the Grounds that stood high on the roof. Other places were taken by other squires and knights that didn't even bat an eyelid at the squirrel at this point. He chose out his favourite place of all - the small grove of trees currently unused - climbed to the top of the highest one and sat with the Py-Pole over his lap comfortably. He even began to toy with it after a few chimes, stretching out the flexible resin pole and contorting its shape until the sudden deep tones of Ball from below made him release one end of the pole, smacking it harshly against one of the branches. "Eh? Oh, you're here at last."

He didn't really pay attention to any of the threats, but chuckled heartily when the other Pycon struggled so much with a weapon practically crafted to suit his body. "No offense there, but you don't really look like one that could climb a tree. Let alone catch me and throw me out. Then again, that pole might be able to help you, if you learn how to use it right." From what he could see, it might take a while though. Arch soon slipped off the branch onto the next one lower down, hopped to the third, and from there dropped down to the ground with a little front-flip for little more than a bit of fun.

"You're not going to get up the tree by swinging it around like a sword or a club, though. That's not what this is for." He'd have to start from the beginning, the squirrel supposed, since apparently the other Pycon really didn't have a clue how to use one of the poles. "What you do, is you push the pointed cap down into the ground. You build up some tension, so you bend it back.. all the way back, because you don't need to worry about it breaking.. and you have to learn how to time your jump just right, when the tension is at its peak. Too little, you won't get over the stick. Too much and you'll go flying over your target."

He demonstrated by swinging the Py-Pole around and digging the sharpened metal cap down deep into the soil that held the trees, and begun walking backwards with his loose grip on the shaft drawing it backwards while the tip remained in place. Slowly, a curve appeared running along the middle of the pole that stretched out to a forty-degree angle. He was purposefully charging it up for a good jump, though he could feel that the strain was really pushing on his arms. "You just need to get comfortable using it. I got comfortable by using it to jump over large gaps on streets in different cities." All of his weight was beginning to really pull back on the pole as it slowly crept farther and farther back.. he could feel that it was going to go at any moment. Eventually, he let his weight slump forwards and jumped into the air, letting the pole do most of the work afterwards.

It lifted him up, swung him over in a wide arc and slammed him back down into the ground again because he'd refused to release the tip. Last thing he wanted was to accidentally slam into the back of some of the training squires.. which was quite a possibility with the pole. At least his balance meant that instead of landing on his head, the weight of his body quickly pushed down into his feet and meant that they kept pointing down to the ground as he went over. When the squirrel landed, his feet squashed down and condensed to absorb most of the impact. "Now you try. It may not look like much, but a good kick thrown from one of these will throw a man back like he's been shot by a boulder. My father used to be really good at it."

by **Ball** on January 14th, 2015, 6:08 pm

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball stopped when the squirrel finally came down from his tree and made mention as how the smaller pycon could use the pole complete with a demonstration. Shifting the pole in his hands so he was holding it like a spear the pycon shoved the pointed end into the ground, burying it up to the metal tip’s end . When Ball went to follow Archie’s example of slowly walking back, pulling the pole down to create an arc out of the resin based pole the small pycon’s pole slipped from his grip about three-quarters of the way up the pole’s length and snapped back up straight with a wobbling and humming.

Not thinking though Ball reached forward with both hands to grab the vibrating pole and proceeded to be shaken, rattled, and abused by his own weapon. Releasing it with a gasp Ball wobbled around a bit more and then stopped. Flopping to the ground he moaned and then fell silent, watching as his pole completed its course of wobbling and humming before he stood back up and grabbed a hold of it again.

“So I dig the point into the ground like it is… Then I slowly…” Ball started talking, making his knowledge of using the weapon like the training squirrel was telling him, “… Walk back with the weapon…” Once again Ball made it three-quarters of the way up the pole’s length and the tension of the pole proved too much for the three inch, five pound pycon and it released violently, this time though Ball had managed to stay a hold of it until it proved too much for even Ball and the pyken artist found himself airborne, rocketing straight into the ground less than a few inches away from his pole.

Sitting up he groaned and looked back at the pole. It wasn’t quivering like it was before and Ball stood up and walked towards it. “Stupid piece of shyke I ought to break you in half…” He growled at the pole and punched it as hard as he could. The pole proved it was strong enough to withstand a substantial amount of force being brought upon it and rebounded back at Ball where it proceeded to smack the pycon across the top of his bean shaped body, putting a lovely little dent in the shape of the pole’s body.

“Ugh.”

Credit :

by **Archailist** on January 14th, 2015, 6:53 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Arch knew that he shouldn't be laughing at his new student - nobody started out perfect. That didn't stop him from doing it though.. hard. He was laughing too hard to really call out any warnings to the other Pycon as he struggled to control the pole, or really do anything against it. By the time Ball had prepared himself for a second attempt, the squirrel's sides were beginning to hurt and he wheezed out a few encouraging compliments.. up until it petched up again and the smaller clay man was thrown straight down onto the ground again. A good distance really for a first attempt, just the dismount to deal with. Snickers returned, but they soon grew to a whooping laugh that became uncontrollable as he fell backwards and begun to roll about in the dirt.

Man, everyone always said how frightening Ball was.. yet he couldn't even beat up his own weapon! His roaring laughter was enough to draw the attention of a few squires and knights that fought within viewing distance, who begun to snicker as well before they were ordered back to work by their superiors and the stern Weaponsmasters that stood their ground and shook their heads at the poor performance and immaturity. "Oh... oh Ball, pahahaha.. please, haha.. please stop, you're going to make me split in twoooo!" Eventually he gained control and rolled over again, clutching where his stomach would be with one paw to stop the aches radiating from it every time he tried to breathe. "Ooh.. ooh.. Sylir be good, that. That was just.. pahaha.."

It took a few more chimes for the squirrel to regain the ability to speak and stand upright. "Alright.. it looks like perhaps catapulting yourself isn't going to be something for you. At least, not now.. so, let's try and do some other stuff before we move on." The squirrel's pole was still lodged in the dirt, but with a firm tug he lifted it up into the air and spun it down so that the tip pointed straight at Ball and the shaft was held with both paws shoulder-width apart, legs spread, tail stuck out and balancing the weight of the pole. "Let's try a bit of swinging and stabbing. It's not as effective as using your entire body, but it can come in very useful nevertheless. I want you to look at my body, copy what I'm doing. Try and stab at me, see what I do."

He couldn't really think of what else to do, so this would be the easiest. A few basic deflections and attacks using the metal tips of the pole for damage. In reality, it'd be so much better if they had a larger person to use it on. Fighting face-to-face with a Pycon in this way wasn't really going to tell Ball about how he should be using the weapon.. after all, Arch wasn't the same size as a human. He needed something like a test-dummy to try it out with. They'd have to work with what they had for now. "Just remember, this isn't like one of those silly human weapons. This isn't a lance or a spear or anything, this is a pole. It bends. That can make all the difference in a fight like this."

Closed [The Bean] Starting New Things [Archailist]