beatojuice | Noctium Inbox

[At least the mood had lightened albeit it wasn't by much. But at least Mikasa wasn't just keeping her stony silence. But now all they had to do was wait.]

That's more mundane than I thought. [She kinda figured the other woman was some rich eccentric with how she talked. Not that Mikasa had that much experience with such people. Everyone she knew was varying levels of poor.] I only brought what we couldn't grow. [Though she'd not been a farmer for a long time now.

No comment on the eerie joke though.]

[ Something was still clearly weighing on her mind. But Beatrice suspects it wasn't the kind of thing she could do much about. So she waits. How funny for a witch that hates boredom to do something that consisted mostly of waiting, but there was a pleasant sort of focus that took over the mind. Maybe that was alleviating a bit of that weight for Mikasa too. ]

Magic is often found in the details and elaborations. You can spin the simplest of things into an Endless world. [ A rich eccentric wasn't quite wrong, at least for a couple miserable years. ] Well, at least with my magic. But even humans can learn the base form of that magic.

... I don't think I could. [Learn a base form of magic. Something like that hadn't existed back home, if it had then it'd been beyond her.] I'm not good at that kind of... [She waved a hand, letting it flop slightly.] Artsy stuff. [Ah yes, 'details and elaborations' were artsy.]

My friends tell me I'm bad at lying... Even if the adults believed me. [Though it'd been several years since she'd needed to lie.]

Perhaps. Not everybody takes an interest in the pursuit of artifice and illusions. But if you did, certainly passion would transform your desires into magic.

[ But if she had no interest in it, little more could be said. ]

Nevertheless, creating life from the earth is a magic of its own, I should think.

[Okay, that got a snort.] So I'd be shit at it... [So bluntly. But really... She had very little in the way of passions. She was a boring person according to some of the people she'd met.

Still, Beatrice did managed to get wring a wry smile out of her.]

You think that? A lot of people back home thought the farmers were cowards. Even though everyone needs food and the shortages...

[She'd never seen any shame in being a farmer. But many had.]

Perhaps, perhaps. [ Unimaginative people did exist after all. But there's no judgement in her voice. ]

But that sentiment is utter foolishness. Without those "cowards," nobody else would be alive. It is those most basic forms of labor that give rise to human civilization, and all of the varieties of culture.

[ She could sympathize, as somebody who had been meant to feel like invisble, barely even a person when she was working as a servant for a wealthy family. But without her, their mansion would be nothing more than some oversized filthy shack. ]

You'd have thought that... [It was what Mikasa had always thought. She gave a shrug.] But my friends wanted to fight. A lot of the others just wanted a high rank so they could live in the safer areas. Even though all the farms were outside of the central districts.

[Really, Mikasa was a little interested to know what the rich folk's plan was for food was if Wall Rose had fallen. All the money in the world couldn't help if there was nothing to buy.]

Take it, things are different where you're from?

[ Mikasa's world sounds absolutely hellish, really. Life had dealt her a brutal enough hand that she almost doesn't want to think about living through war and hunger on top of that. ]

They are. When and where I come from, though life is not easy, but most have enough to eat.

A load of us woke up here at the same time... It was strange... [She sighed, falling silent again as she focused on her fishing. Checking the floaters.

Now it was just her.]

[ Oh... she's able to read the implications. Right now, that's what terrifies her perhaps more than anything. If she vanished, it was hard to think of how others might mourn her absence. But it would be far worse to be left all alone. Again. ]

...Everything's strange here. [ She stares out at the water, hoping a foolhardy fish will break the melancholy. ]

It really is... [And the silence one out, Mikasa not having anything else to say.

But then they got a bite. Or rather, Beato got a bite. The float bobbing and dipping under the water. Small splashes of water being kicked up as the fish pulled.]

You got one... [No shit.]

Aha! [ She did it!

The witch starts pulling on the rod, and soon enough some kind of trout surfaces from the water, scales gleaning in the sun. ]

Ah, do I reel it in?!

Yes. [Then it was time for the awkward part. The part Mikasa wasn't even sure how to describe. She wasn't the best with describing things at the best of times, especially not feelings.]

But don't be too rough, the line'll snap if you are... But it'll get free if you give it slack.

But some people like it when I'm rough! [ That dirty joke deployed, Beatrice makes a valiant attempt at reeling in the fish, yanking the line back with jerky suddenness. She has no idea what she's doing, and it shows when the fish escapes after a few seconds. ]

Accursed beast! You shall be in my cookpot soon enough!

[The joke......Goes completely over Mikasa's head. Didn't even register as a joke, let alone something dirty. Congratulations Beato, you have found The Densest.

She just sighed.]

I don't think that one will risk it again... They're not that dumb. [They weren't smart, but they did have some sense of survival. But also...] Do you know how to gut a fish then?

[It was messy.]

[ This is going to be an unstoppable force vs. immovable object kind of relationship, won't it? ]

And in doing so it only brings ruin upon all of it's be-scaled nation! Come, my thalassian friend, let us become the avatars of piscine death!

[ She reaches for the tub of maggots, and this time has much less difficulty affixing one, and casting into the water. ]

Anyway, I've seen it done. I'm certain I could disembowel any fish easily enough!

[Mikasa had no idea what most of those words meant. But she was getting the impression that she may have made a mistake. This was a little too much enthusiasm.

Blinking, she kept waiting. Giving her rod a little wiggle. Trying to incite the fish...Nope, nothing.]

...If you say so. [She was still just staring.]

[ A fair bit of that boisterousness was for show, but Beatrice really did relish the feeling of being utterly carefree, or at least pretending to be, embracing the entertainment of any given moment. It was a nice escape from all the thoughts and memories that cut her like glass hidden in the nooks and crannies of her brain.

But there's not a lot to do once her rod is back in the water. This was a hobby based on patience, after all, no matter how strong her drive to win. ]

It's revenge, revenge! I won't let them show me up.

Noctium Inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject