Closed One Fish, That's not a Fish. Red Fish, Blue Otani. [Uleru]

[Syl Serin]

Syl Serin 15 Spring 513 The Sunsets from this part of town are quite entertaining to watch. Syl thinks as she looks across the bay while finding a place to perch along the back wall of the northern edge of the city wall away from view of most if not all of the citizenry of Syliras. The place she had found all but a few days ago was very secluded, very safe from others, and very quiet except for those damned seagulls. Gah, those seagulls and their shrill noises! They ruin this place. Oh, well here in a minute or two they'll be nesting in for the night and maybe I can score one or two of them. She then raised her right hand and clenched a fist into the air waving it at the seagulls while keeping three appendages sticking to the wall. "You hear that stupid birds!? Come over here and squawk squawk squawk for a moment and see what its like to be silenced." Happy and infused with a bit of relief of her frustration of the seagulls interrupting her somewhat melancholy view of the natural sun cycle she looked to her left and noticed a tug at one of the trot lines she had spun a sturdy branch from the cobalt forest into a web-like fixture connected to the exterior of the wall via webbing with a fishing string of about twenty-seven feet in length tied to it. "A bite!" Syl quickly scurried along the wall and tended to the line winding it up with a combination of two sticks she rotated around in a circle. She wound, the line tugged back, she wound some more not letting up, the line tugged back harder, and she wound some more finally pulling out the first catch of the day. Winding the rest of the string the rest of the way she grabbed the fish and bit into it with her mouth injecting venom into it to break down the molecular structure of the tissues into a paste-like substance before attempting to ingest the fish. This would be the first meal of this excursion as well as the kickoff to hopefully a good night for fishing. She tossed the remains of her meal back into the ocean to feed any of the other creatures in the sea as well as possibly attract more fish to fry. The fish body sifted at the top of the almost clear water if it weren't for the slight misty look of the lower depths. She was unsure just how deep the water went here in this place, and she wasn't about to go ahead and jump in to find out. There could be creatures living in there that might be dangerous. Though if she did fall into the water she would have to swim all the way back around to a dock which was about two hundred yards away. Getting wet would ruin her ability to scale the wall she was perched upon, gladly there seemed to be little chance for rain. Though if the rain did come she would have a better shot at trying to get to the top of the wall before falling into the waters below. Then a tug at the furthest line to her right began to bend under a strain of tension. Syl began to make her way over to it. Halfway there the line was pulled out from the webbing causing it to fall into the water. "Well, I guess that one isn't coming back." Syl looked to the water below where the stick had fell trying to catch a glimpse of what had pulled her line if it decided to swim to the surface.

[Uleru]

Well, this is odd. The Otani floats on her back six feet under the churning waters surface, watching a woman scuttle across an impassable cliff face on all fours, checking tuglines that appear to be suspended in solid rock. And if Uleru wasn't so bewildered she would find it within herself to be impressed by the dexterity in which this strange woman conducts herself. But she is mostly just bewildered. A fish wanders by in pursuit of tasty nibbles below the reclining moldling, and Uleru watches with mild interest as the fish hooks itself and goes wizzing out of the water like a revertive suicide drowning. The spidery woman catches hold of the silvery fish and the Otani watches with gruesome fascination as she... well, she doesn't do much with it, actually. Uleru leans forward so that her face is just beneath the surface like a child pushing up against a glass window, but all she can make of it is that the woman is either chewing on it whole, or else is gleaning some sort of satisfaction from licking the scales. Its only until the woman tosses the remains of the fish back to the water that the Otani really understands what she was doing with it. She pulls the strangely empty skin down and discovers that the carcass seemed to be melted from the inside-out. Remains of gooey paste sticks to the skin and most of the fine bones seem to be missing. Yes. Very, very odd. She wants to meet this woman. The curiosity of her too tempting a bait. And seeing as the pale woman isn't coming down to the water, the Otani figures she will just have to go up to her. Tugging on the lines would be the obvious method, she reasons. And she has done so before. Usually out on the docks she would pull on a lonely line as soon as the fisherman was getting bored, only to let go and flash an enormous fin or a rolling, scaly hump, leaving behind wild 'the one that got away' stories and soiled pants. So, out of force of habit and not a little mischief, when she does approach the line its only after she has folded herself into the scariest and most revolting fish she can manage; like a cross between an angler fish and the gnarliest shark to grace the sea, her colour the exact shade and consistency of dirty dishwater. The first line she tugs on, to her great disappointment, snaps under the pressure of her new jaws. She files away a reminder to apologize for that. Shrinking her size to about the length of a mans forearm she tries again, giving gentle, encouraging nudges to the line to wheel in her victim.

[Syl Serin]

Syl Serin 15 Spring 513 There were other lines though that needed a tending to along the wall. Syl turned away from the line she could no longer place much care in because the creature of whatever pulled it down into the water was no longer there. She had hoped to see what it was but, also in the back of her mind figured that if it were big enough or strong enough to break the line, that the fish was too big for her anyways. Besides she would have to carry the catch all the way back to the fish market on the other side of the harbor to be processed for human consumption if it were such a large fish that even her poison would be useless. All, she wanted was enough to feed her over the next few days in the Bronze Forest as little fish snacks. The next line over looked slightly bent. Syl then looked at the way the string turned in the air and where it broke the water. The stick did not have as much bend in it as before meaning that perhaps this fish was to be of the appropriate size to fit in the bucket she had found on the way here. So, Syl made her way on all fours over to the pole and began to use the two sticks to pull the supposed catch up out of the water to place in the bucket on the top of the wall that had a small amount of swimming room for maybe four or five fish the size of the first one she had caught today. Then the fight began between her and the fishy creature on the end of the line. She tugged as it tugged back yet, somehow this struggle felt slightly different as if this particular fish had a lot more energy and spirit for staying in the water. "Today, is going to be your unlucky day if you insist on taking the bait, fish."

[Uleru]

Pulling and tugging, Uleru plays this strange game of tug-of-war with indecent pleasure. She eyes the line and the spidery woman gripping the other end, the setting sun casting strange fiery shades across pale skin. And it must be the sun thats making her eyes seem so red... With a spurt of energy in the game she makes a showy leap from the water, flashing dirty grey fins and showy teeth before flopping back under the water like the ugliest sausage in the fryer. Then making another bid for fishy freedom in a completely different shape, this one an eye-watering shade of yolk yellow. She goes through this strange show a few times before settling for her usual humanoid shape and giving a gleeful tug on the string, which threatens to snap under her exuberance. "Come down!" she calls, holding the hook through slightly transparent, royal blue, hands. "Come down and play! What are you? What could you possibly be?!" she laughs and gives another tug, making the wooden rod shudder ominously.