Closed Old Pranks on New Friends (Typhos)

[Alea Davenport]

53rd Winter, 512, very early morning

Something woke Alea, and she wasn't sure what. The darkness outside her window suggested that it was still night, but she got up and dressed in her warm furs anyway. She climbed down the ladder and went outside, just in time to hear a quiet 'meow' and see the tawny tip of Tom's tail disappearing around the tree trunk.

Alea smiled to herself, remembering the days she had chased that cat around Avanthal, worried for his safety, or perhaps imagining he might never come back if she let him escape. She had since learned that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and besides, the Spires were the safest place she knew. Assuming one knew not to fall to their death. Which she trusted Tom to know. Hmmm, maybe she should go after him after all, in case he found a tree branch he couldn't get back from...

It only took a few steps for her to hear the slight crunch of snow under her feet. She instantly flashed back to her last winter (which, having been in Avanthal, was indistinguishable from any other season, but still), and remembered that time she had pranked the library where Coren worked. She was feeling particularly delightful and mischievous, so she figured she might as well treat herself to a bit of fun.

But there was a slight problem. She didn't know anyone in the Spires that she hated as much as Coren. As she wandered around the Petal, she glanced at the houses of her neighbors. Maybe she should prank one of them? She could think of no reason not to. Besides, she had no idea how late (or early) it was. She might not have much time til morning.

Picking a house at random, she began assembling snow. Using snow-assembling methods she had figured out the previous year, she rolled a tiny snowball into a huge snow-boulder. She rolled the first one up to the door, blocking it about a third of the way. It was such a narrow entrance, she imagined she could block the door with one stack. She got to work on another boulder, heaving it on top of the first when she was finished, grunting with effort. By the time she started on the third boulder, there wasn't much snow left in nearby reach, and the sky was starting to get lighter. She only managed to make a boulder a little bigger than her head.

Shrugging, she stacked it on top of the other two and stood back to admire her work. By this time, the sun had filled the canopy with a verdant glow, and some of the earlier risers were leaving their houses. Her snow-blockade, she decided, looked almost person-shaped, what with the head-sized top block. She hurriedly darted around the petal, looking for acorns or twigs or other wits that she could use to make features. Soon, the snow-person had eyes, a nose, three acorns in a small straight line for a mouth, and two twigs sticking out of its torso for arms. Alea stood back to admire her handiwork, trying to decide whether she was satisfied.

[Tythos Everstorm]

Typhos was suddenly brought to consciousness from his dream sleep by a jolt of cold that rushed down his spine. "Gah" He exclaimed as his hand searched the empty spaces of his bed for his absent blanket. With every empty grasp of his hand the memories of his dream began to fade away. The shadows of sleep that idled around the edge of his vision clearing. After turning over in search over to search for his blanket, Typhos had fully awaken. SItting up on the edge of his bed, emerald green eyes glanced towards the burning hearth fire in the corner of the room infront of his bed "Wake up lad." Talking to himself as he stood to his feet and rose his arms into the air to stretch. Lowering his arms are out to the sides, flexed at the elbow, he began to flex his biceps. It was second nature to examine himself each morning, watching the definition and shape in his arms as well as his musculature of his abdominals and upper body. It eased him into a personal meditation. Tilting his head to the side to watch the magnificent green hue of his left arm. Due to living in the spires, he spent no real time being industrious in forging crafts from metal. So he honored Izurdin by keeping his strength up, proving he was grateful for the gifted arm to him at birth. With a sudden lean forward, the shirtless pale blue isur toppled to the ground like a falling tree. Landing on the palms of his hands to support his body upright in a push-up position. The soothing crackling of the hearth fire reminded him of metals struck by falling hammers. It was a sound he focused on while working out in the early morning times. Bending his muscled arm, Typhos lowered his body to the floor. "One." He whispered before lifting himself back to the starting position push-up postion. His silent workout came to a sudden close, even before he had begun, upon hearing someone beyond the thick blue curtain that hung in front of the entrance of his home. Looking up at the tall blue fabric, he slowly stood to his feet wondering who could be in front of his home. "Who goes there?" Musing curiously as he moved the curtain aside to see who was there. The figure he saw standing before him cause his mouth to gape. Luckily the surprising snowman had stopped him from gawking too hard and he decided to simply play along with the surprise. Looking to the side of the snowman he noticed a young women looking at the snowman. "Greeting, are you responsible for this?" He smiled and stepped through the narrow space the snowman had not blocked, joining the girl outside. The cold air nipped at his body since he wore no shirt. A mistake he regretted instantly and folded his arms to warm his upper body. OOCSee "Possessions" section of Typhos's Character sheet for an image of his home and Layout.

[Alea Davenport]

A frown flashed across Alea's face; The point of blocking a door was so that people couldn't get through. She obviously hadn't done a very good job. But that was what happened when you lost focus of the original goal and started having fun making snowmen. Then her brain caught up to her and she realized the person standing in front of her was...blue!

Well, blue and green, but mostly blue. It was a faint tinge, but unmistakable. Alea had heard of blue men before. In her excitement, she managed to ignore his question completely, which was good, because if she had tried to deny her involvement, she probably wouldn't have been very convincing.

"You're blue!" she exclaimed. "Are you from, oh what was that city called? Riverfest, River..flight? Riverfall? Riverfall, that was it! The city of blue men! Is that where you're from? I was going to go there, but...then I didn't." She looked away, a slightly pained look crossing her face as she failed to elaborate. But soon, her bright, curious eyes were back in full force as the wonder of meeting new and exciting creatures and races returned, and she was reminded once again that THIS was what she had left home for in the first place.

"I've never seen a blue man before. Or a green one for that matter. Why is your arm a different color that the rest of you? Aren't you cold without a shirt on? Or are you marked by Morwen like the Vantha?" Alea could hardly stop the tide of questions even had she wanted to. She realized eventually that he wouldn't be able to answer any of them if she didn't give him time to speak, and so she clapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself. She thought of several more questions, but managed to wait until he spoke before she asked any more.

[Tythos Everstorm]

Jade eyes had laid themselves upon the figure of the girl, they saw a vivaciously nescient individual that was fascinated by something she had never encountered before. Arms clasped themselves around his body; his fingers lightly rubbing along the insides of his chest under his arms to gives himself warmth from the friction. "Haha, I am no Morwen marked. I am just a shirtless blue man freezing in the cold while standing in front of a snow man." His smile slowly started to grow warm and encouragingly on his lips. "Lassy, I am no Akalak either. My name is Typhos Everstorm and I am an Isur from the Isurian Kingdom of Sultros." Turning his attention from the little girl, he faced snowmen to examine it closely. "Fantastic." Typhos muttered through a smile in amusement. "My arm is green because of my 'Izentor'. A mark gifted to all Isur at birth from the god Izurdin." Typhos tilted his head to the side as his smile switched into a smirk. Typhos knew it was a playful prank since no harm was done, he treated her work as a gift. Turning back towards from her to give the girl an interested gaze; it was a stare that a person made when trying to give a gift- An expression of impending wonderment. "Feel free to ask what you wish, Lass."

[Alea Davenport]

There was so much new information to take in. Alea wasn't used to people answering all her questions at once, much less inviting her to ask more. Usually they just tried to get rid of her. The thing that stuck out the most was his apparent lack of the sense to wear clothes in winter. She shook her head. "I thought only kelvics were dumb enough to walk around in the snow without clothes. And they have an excuse; they usually start out with fur. Maybe I should start wearing my spare cloak again," she mused to herself. At the moment she was dressed in lynx fur, with a matching hat and gloves.

"Well, since I don't have a cloak for you to borrow," she said a bit louder," we should go inside." She ushered him back past the snowman, into his house, following without invitation. She figured that the invitation to ask whatever she wanted extended to permission to go inside... mostly because if he was nice enough to offer one, she didn't see why he would refuse the other.

Almost before she was past the curtain, she started talking again. His answers had only led to a lot more questions, and she wanted to get them all out before she forgot one. First things first though, "My name's not Lass, or Lassy. It's Alea. Alea Davenport."

She didn't recognize the term Akalak, and Isur was only vaguely familiar. She knew it meant something, but had little idea what, other than that apparently they were a race blessed at birth by a god, much like the Vantha. Only instead of having color-changing eyes, Isur apparently had colored arms. Did all gods mess with the natural coloring of their chosen race? She wondered what sort of god this 'Izurdin' was, but she decided to ask that later. In fact, the only strange name she recognized from what Typhos had said was, "Sultros. Isn't that the place Denval was trying to build a road to? What are you doing out of your mountain?"

Alea still wasn't sure what to make of Typhos's apparently warm welcome and smiles. She knew form experience, it was only a matter of time before he got tired of her, and was more worried about keeping her out of trouble than entertaining her curiosity. She had to get as much out of him as she could before she lost her chance. Otherwise she might have to find out answers to all her burning questions from--ugh--books.

[Tythos Everstorm]

Having no qualms about exiting the cold, he haphazardly smiled at her as he moved back into his home. The entire live quarter filled with brown earthen tones from the lumber the tree was made out of. The hearth fire burning in the corner of the room brought a relaxing warmth to the isur's skin. Quickly tidying up the place by picking up his long lost blanket which had fallen off of his bed, which was the reason he had woken up in the first place from his dream. Tossing the blanket onto his bunk. "Oy," He called to get the young women's attention again. "Lassy." Once the endearing term for a girl slipped from his lips, he quickly corrected himself. "… I mean Alea. The only reason I went outside without a shirt was because ya made a snowman in front of my door while I was in the middle of my exercising." At the mention of exercising, his right hand rose as he motioned a thumb towards his body building equipment. A set of circular metal barbells weights were stacked to the left of the entrance from ten to two hundred pounds. In front of the weights was a singular twenty five pound metal bar which the weights were set on to be lifted. Next to the weights were a verity of coiled heavy ropes and chains lined up against the wall. To the right of the entrance a heavy thick leather punching bag hung from the ceiling which was packed tightly with sand. Ty ad turned his home into a personal gym, giving him the option to work out whenever he wished. "Denval?" He said curiously. The last time he had thought about that place was during the Spring when the odd mushroom shaped cloud of dust and flashing light came from that direction during the Djed storm. It was a spectacle that he himself had seen when he from the spires during the chaotic time. "Is that where you are from? Denval?" Turning away from her, he stood in front of the punching bag. Taking up the main orthodox fighting stance of a boxer; his feet stationed just outside of his shoulder width, ensuring that his feet are slightly offset and at a comfortable distance apart. His left, Izentor marked arm, was used infront as his jabbing arm. As his most powerful weapon, he liked to throw hard landing jabs in quick secession; Keeping his normal arm up and back to block his face. He began to throw straight right punches against the leather bag. "I love Sultros. I am proud to have been born there, but my family enjoyed hunting and venturing out side of the mountain to test our mettle. And so I fell in love with nature, and the spires seemed like a perfect place for me to be." The rhythmic thuds of his right fist against the bag began to grow louder as he punched harder. The force of his blows increasing as he kept his knees bent, shifting his weight onto the balls of the feet to distribute his weight equally. Another loud thud echoed as his right heel pivots outward, accelerate his straight right cross punch that landed against the bag. "Oy? You never did answer me either about who built the snowman."

[Alea Davenport]

Alea shrugged as she looked around the Isur's home. "You seem to have it figured out. What do you want from me, some sort of confirmation? As if I'd ever admit to any such thing." At this, she turned her head toward Typhos and sneakily stuck out her tongue.

When he'd mentioned Denval, she had turned away, pretending not to hear. She did not want to talk about Denval. Not on a day when she was supposed to be having fun. In her effort to look for something distracting, she had caught sight of the strange equipment he had pointed out a moment before attacking the bag hanging from the ceiling for some reason. Prancing lightly over to it, she examined it closely, mostly as an excuse to change the subject.

But then she found herself getting curious about the strange disks and chains. What did they do? "What are these for?" she mumbled aloud, a habit she'd gotten into when she realized that being curious out loud tended to get her curiosity sated faster. She stood in front of the row of disks. They didn't look like much, maybe like over-sized dinner plates. She picked up one of the larger ones...

...or tried to. The disk didn't move when she casually pulled at it. Frowning, she set both hands to it, and pulled harder. She barely managed to lift it a hair from where it was resting before it became apparent that the disk was far to heavy and she would have to set it down.

"What the petch," she muttered. Not even the beams she'd carried around to build her house had been that heavy. Alea frowned, a frown of great concern. She new there were people in the world stronger than she was, Jamoura specifically, but it had never really been brought home to her like this. She didn't want to be weak. She wanted the power to lift things! But how did she get it?

[Tythos Everstorm]

"Those are what I use to build, and keep my strength." Typhos mused as he arched an eyebrow, briefly glancing back to the girls direction when she tried to pick up one of the larger barbell plates. It was interesting, if almost amusing, to think that someone had never seen a set of body building equipment before. Throughout his entire life he had grown up with the concept of weight lifting and the fact that someone was so ignorate made him smile. Not because of stupidity, but becuse of sheer innocents. "I lift steel so that I may become as strong as it." Turning away from the punching bag he walked over to his weights as he contemplated how much weight to set onto the bar. Green eyes began to observe at Alea's body to roughly gauge her sheer physicality. Crouching down to one knee hr picked out two ten pound disks and set each of them onto both ends of the iron bar on the ground. Clamping them each into place. In total, the ten pound weights and twenty five pound bar weighed exactly forty five pounds. "This is a dead lift. It is a simple moment to work the entirety of your body, lassy. After several repetitions you shall feel a burn in your torso, abdomen, back, legs, and forearms." With feet flat beneath the bar, he squatted down to grasped the bar at a shoulders width apart. He suddenly lifted the bar by extending his hips and knees exploding into a full stand. Pulling his shoulders back at the top of the lift. He then repeated the lift by squatting back down, letting the weights touch the ground before lifting them again as he stood up. "Try it." Said as he slowly lowered the wights back down to the ground and stood back to watch.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea raised an eyebrow at the display. What was the point of lifting something only to put it back down in the same place? He wasn't even moving anything out from under it, or vice versa. It was completely pointless. Still, Alea had nothing better to do at that moment, and saw no harm in humoring the strange, short, bulky man.

Shrugging, Alea bent over to grab the bar. She then tried to stand up, but the bar wouldn't move. She frowned. That Isur had made this look easy, the jerk. She put a little more effort into it, but all that did was make her back hurt. She tried a few more times, half-heartedly pulling but not wanting to hurt herself. She found she could roll the thing along the floor easily enough, but lifting it was out of the question without causing probably sever damage to herself. Finally she just gave up and walked a few feet away.

"That's impossible, and what's the point anyway?" she snapped in frustration.

[Tythos Everstorm]

Typhos had clearly miscalculated the girls weight as he watched her struggle to pick up the bar of weights. It was the racial difference that threw his observations for a loop, simply because the Isur themselves were small in size dispute the fact the girl was a solid three inches taller then him. Once the girl had given up her attempt to lift the bar he glanced to the weights wondering how heavy she was to begin with. Since even he knew it was rude to ask a women their weight he decided to take the matter into his own hands. Literally. Walking up behind her, he set his hands on her hips to quickly lift her one foot off of the ground. It was a sudden jerking lift that did not last longer then a few seconds before he set her down onto the ground again. As soon as he set her down he walked back towards the bar of weights and spoke to her as he glanced over his shoulder. Immediately he felt like a fool for trying to get her to lift so much weight since the girl was practically a feather, weighing next to nothing. "Lifting weights is a way to increase your physical strength, but it is not just about strength lassy. It is a lifestyle devoted to living a healthy life. The body can be trained and taught to adapt to whatever you put it through. If you are constantly taking care of it with exercise and healthy eating, your body will adapt. In turn, it will reward you with the fruits of your labor by giving back the benefits of all of the hard work and dedication you've put in to it." Pausing for a moment he chuckled as he turned back to face her. "Speaking of healthy eating, you should really eat more to put some meat on those bones"