04th Anomaly . spam

[dinosize]

[ Stephen never quite relaxes. Even though he's in his element, even though it gives him a thrill every time breathing in the thick, pure air. Even as he finds himself smiling at the sun trickling down through the leaves. He can't quite stop expecting a monster to break the spell.

Find him:

At night, he makes campfire. Flickering light and shifting shadow. Follow the sight of the flames, the smell of wood smoke and cooking fish and meat. He will be close by his pack, rifle within easy reach, curled up in a hollow or against a log.

During the day: fishing. Careful hunting, making sure the shots he takes are to animals, not the little sentient bears or people from the Barge. (Try not to get in the way of a bullet, please, everyone.)

He pushes out and explores the forest.

Wades in the streams.

Swims in the pools, not particularly worried about nakedness. (This is probably the only time the rifle ends up away from his hands.)

Once, early on, he finds he's being followed by a group of creatures like little bears rustling the leaves around him. He calls out hello, and they burst out of their cover, brandishing spears. He raises his hands, slowly. - Help him? ]

Comments

[dinosize]

[ Stephen's worked pretty hard on this fire. He's gathered enough dryish wood - there was a fallen tree not far away - that he can make it last for several hours. Kindling of dried leaves, bracken. Okay, he had the lighter to produce an actual flame, but still - he could have done it with flint if he'd tried.

He currently has five smallish fish wrapped up in the coals, baking. They smell delicious. ]

Be my guest.

[ He says this somewhat distractedly, as he has never seen Riddick's eyes do that particular sort of glow. ]

Build it up, if you need. I'm using the coals.

[with_my_teacup]

I'll use the coals, no worries. Just have to get everything thin enough.

[He crouches by the side of the fire. With a combination of a hard knife and strong hands, he butterflies his two birds, flattening them out so that a coal bake will cook them through. He pops the hearts into his mouth thoughtfully as he works, and separates the kidneys into their own little leaf rolls.]

Thanks. Want any-?

[He wipes a bit of heartblood off of his mouth with his knuckles.]

[dinosize]

[ There's certainly no disgust from Stephen for that. More like curiosity. He shrugs, like, why not. ]

You're welcome to mine, too.

How's the heart?

[with_my_teacup]

I'll try some.

Heart's tough-- real robust, more like venison than a lot of avian species. [He tries a bit of the half-cooked meat.] Flesh like turkey, though.

[dinosize]

You should try the little ones, the ones that pretend to be bushes. I thought they'd be like turkey. Meat was actually a bit spicy.

[with_my_teacup]

Huhn. That's interesting. Something in the diet, you think?

[The liver cooks quick, small and tight wrapped; he pulls it out before it overdries, the thin little leaf beginning to brown around the edges. One for him, one he offers to Stephen.]

[dinosize]

Might be the same thing that turns the feathers sort of green.

Thank you.

[ He's careful not to burn his fingers, but he takes it. ]

[with_my_teacup]

There's a goofy looking terran bird I heard about that gets a bright colouring off of plankton, I think.

My color vision isn't what it used to be-- I wondered if the little brushbirds were camouflaged better than they looked.

[dinosize]

Flamingo. It's the shrimp.

It's hard to notice them, with color vision. Once you spot one, you can spot all of them.

[with_my_teacup]

Could be a similar little microanimal-- don't know how many plants have that much concentrated pigment in'm. Then again, I don't know too much about the plants here.

Run into anything bigger than the birds? So far, I haven't come on the track of any big predators.

[He gently lifts one of his baking birds out of the coals on the flat of one of his long hunting knives, and sniffs experimentally. Puts it back in. A little longer.]

[dinosize]

[ Stephen shifts forward, and starts to slide the first fish out of the fire. One, two, three; he's been timing them, mentally, and as he cracks open the tinfoil, he sees they're done just about to perfection. He brings them out onto cool stone and lets the fiercest heat from the coals fade. ]

Something a bit like deer.

[with_my_teacup]

Wonder if the natives have taken over top slot. Or maybe there's a seasonal predator that hibernates until a cull-- I've seen stranger.

[dinosize]

I haven't seen any signs of large predators. You'd probably spot something - bones, maybe.