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leave her wild - Printable Version

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leave her wild - Everest - 05-19-2023

One benefit of Stormbreak having risen up from the continent to float high above the sea, was the incredible visibility it provided. This was especially true from The Spyglass, and though Everest was not currently in the Observatory, the floating island upon which it had been built provided precisely the type of view the young aviator had been hoping for. Of course, with no cloud cover, it was blisteringly hot, but Everest didn't mind. Or rather, he did, but his work took priority over his personal comfort.

Wearing a button-up shirt which he had (scandalously) unbuttoned the top two buttons of, and with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, Ever sat on a bench as near to the edge of the island as he deemed safe to be. With one leg crossed over the other to act as a brace for his notebook, the aviator was doing his best to try and map out the general shape of the continent he saw before him. Despite his attention to detail and aim toward accuracy, the aviator was certainly no cartographer, and sadly his drawings weren't coming out to scale despite his best efforts.

Frowning deeply and furrowing his eyebrows together, Everest sighed and shook his head disparagingly at his most recent attempt, before flipping to a new page in his notebook to try again.


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-19-2023

Sohalia hadn't done much wandering since The Incident, preferring to stay at home and manage her shop, venturing out only for quick grocery runs, and never farther than Pacifist Plaza. But sooner rather than later, that became quite dull, and her clients became quite antsy, and Soh determined that it was time for a new map, or some new artwork to showcase, or something. So she talked herself into roaming beyond the confines of her quiet little sector of the city and out to the Spyglass, where she'd yet to venture.

She'd dressed in cool, but modest, attire with a white blouse tucked into a red skirt that brushed her ankles as she walked. She wore a new purse at her belt (given that her other had been sacrificed during The Incident) and a dagger in a plain sheath; she also carried her staff in hand, determined not to be caught without defensive options again. A bag hung from one shoulder and carried her journal, her sketchbook, and a variety of drawing implements. She wasn't quite sure was she was looking for, so she'd just settled on bringing it all.

When Soh arrived at the Spyglass, it was to find that she was not alone in her plan. A man sat, seemingly absorbed in his own sketching, and at first, Soh gave him a wide berth, no longer as trusting as she used to be in the kindness of strangers. She glanced over every once in a while as she set up her own drawing station, just to make sure he wasn't going to come after her, and when she'd managed to pull out her sketchbook and a few pencils and there had been no movement from the stranger, she finally began to relax.

With her sketchbook in her lap and her eyes glued to the horizon, Soh began to sketch a rough outline of the land, carefully capturing the scale and distances between notable objects so that she could begin a map of the surrounding area.


RE: leave her wild - Everest - 05-23-2023

Though Everest kept his eyes on his own page, ever since Soh appeared in his vicinity he'd become incredibly distracted by her presence. This wasn't necessarily anything to do with her being a beautiful young woman (that was part of it, to be sure), but more so had to do with his inability to decide if he was obligated to say something to her. Someone else, Mateo for instance, might call out a breezy hello, make some comment about the weather, or even offer up a tension-breaking quip. Unable to do any of these things, the young aviator shifted several times in place, staring blankly down at his paper while trying to see as much through his peripheral vision as he was able, without making any obvious movements.

It would be rude to look at Soh, but..was it equally rude just to ignore her?

So, after having thought it over and over and over in his mind, eventually Everest steeled his nerve enough to quietly clear his throat. (Gods, had that been too loud? Had it been rude?) [say]"Hello."[/say] He mumbled in a voice perhaps too quiet for Soh to have even heard. [say]"I see that you're sketching. Not...that I was watching. I mean, I did look up, it isn't like I have telepathy or anything like that, and.."[/say] Realizing that what was meant to simply be a casual greeting was quickly turning into a crazy amount of word-vomit, the aviator made himself take a breath even as he stared down with wide, panicked eyes at his knees.

[say]"..I'm sketching too. Sorry."[/say]


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-23-2023

Soh was similarly torn on how to proceed in this situation. She'd always been the first to greet a stranger, bubbly and bright and warm, but after The Incident, she'd grown cautious. If she hadn't been so trusting, then perhaps it never would have happened. It had been her fault that she'd been in that situation to begin with, and she was determined not to put herself in harm's way again.

Still, to ignore a stranger out of wariness went against her nature, and as Soh glanced periodically at the man out of the corner of her eye, she warred with herself. He was probably nice. After all, she still felt like most people were inherently good people, even if there were a few bad apples in the bunch. She chewed on her lip, lost in thought as she sketched and watched, her lines coming out shakier than intended due to her split attention. One particular errant line made her scowl, and she painstakingly rubbed it away to try again.

It was then that the stranger spoke to her, and she looked up in surprise and perhaps a tinge of fear. But perhaps it was the man's rambling, almost nervous countenance that brought her down from her own moment of panic. [say]"Are you just sketching the landscape, or...?"[/say] Soh asked, her voice kind and gentle.


RE: leave her wild - Everest - 05-25-2023

[say]"Uhm."[/say] Ever gulped, despite the woman's question being an entirely innocuous one and the type of thing he should absolutely have expected. Though the aviator had grown from a round-cheeked child into a rather handsome man (so said Matoe, anyway), Everest carried on, for the most part, like a child who was nearly constantly afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing.

[say]"I was trying to make a map."[/say] He admits after a moment, sighing out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Without really looking at Sohalia, the aviator holds out his sketch-book in her direction. [say]"I say trying even though I suppose this is a map based on definition alone, it isn't a very good one. Not for flying. The distances are all wrong, and..."[/say] Realizing he'd been rambling again, Ever frowns at his knees.

[say]"Are you just sketching the landscape?"[/say] He wonders, repeating her question back to her.


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-25-2023

The man's rambling charmed Soh in spite of herself, and her resulting smile was friendly as she began to relax. That he was working on a map surprised her, seeing as she knew no cartographers other than herself, and she instantly warmed to his presence, pleased to have found someone with whom she shared something in common. Reaching out, she leaned the sketchbook towards her so that she could look it over. It really wasn't as bad as the stranger seemed to insist, and she hummed softly as she considered it. [say]"It's not bad,"[/say] she assured him. [say]"Distances are tricky to get right."[/say]

At his query, she held out her own sketchbook. The drawing was rough, as she had just barely sketched in the main topographical features of the landscape, but they were mostly to scale. It was clear that she was experienced with this sort of thing. [say]"I'm a cartographer,"[/say] she explained. [say]"I haven't mapped this area before, but I sell maps in the city. For distances, I find it helps to pick a landscape feature and use it as a scale."[/say] She hesitated. [say]"Do you mind if I join you? I can show you what I mean."[/say]


RE: leave her wild - Everest - 05-27-2023

Everest, whose elbows were pulled tight to his body and whose shoulders were nearly touching his ears, visibly relaxed at Sohalia's approval, polite though it might have been. Exhaling and regaining a bit of colour in his cheeks, the aviator nods. [say]"You wouldn't think so. I mean..it's...it's right there."[/say] He says, nodding out towards where Torchline's islands spill out into the sea and where even the crags of the Cordillera could be seen. [say]"Why should it be so difficult?"[/say]

Turning, eyes narrowed slightly against the glare of the sun, Everest was properly humbled to see just how perfectly she'd captured the world around them. Instantly the bloom of colour in his cheeks ignited, turning even the tips of his ears red. [say]"Oh."[/say] It's all he can say for a moment as his eyes hungrily drink in her linework as if he might somehow absorb even just a little bit of her ability. Her question though, along with her profession has him stilling, and then straightening.

[say]"You're..."[/say] Snippets of a conversation reply swiftly behind his blue eyes. [say]"..are you Mateo's friend?"[/say] It's the only thing he can think to say instead of are you the woman who nearly (or did?) kill a man who had tried to rape her..? Blinking quickly in an effort to remember his manners, the young aviator bobs his head belatedly and scoots over on the bench to make room for Sohalia.


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-27-2023

Are you Mateo's friend?

[say]"Oh! You know Mateo?"[/say] Soh asked, immediately relaxing. A friend of a friend was good enough to earn her trust, and she joined the stranger on the bench without any further worry. [say]"He's wonderful, isn't he?"[/say] she continued warmly. Then it occurred to her that Mateo knew perhaps a bit more about her than most people, and she swallowed hard. Desperately wishing she could ask what Mateo had said about her without being rude, she tried an airy laugh. [say]"I can only hope that he was as complimentary about me. I'm Sohalia, by the way."[/say]

In any case, if she was to give an impromptu lesson on mapmaking, she'd do better to focus on the task at hand. She observed Everest's drawing with a critical eye, noting where he'd gotten a bit off track with his proportions. [say]"What I like to do is use something as a ruler. My thumb, or my pencil, or anything with a set length."[/say] She held up a hand, thumb up, and eyed an island on the horizon. [say]"You see, if that island is one thumb-length, then I can use that as a baseline for the rest. The next island, say, is half a thumb over, and so on. So -"[/say] and she lowered her hand to her paper, indicating the island that she meant. It was indeed drawn to be about the length of the first digit of her thumb, and the distance between it and the island next to it was half that. [say]"You can get the basic distances down before moving on to detail work."[/say]


RE: leave her wild - Everest - 05-27-2023

[say]"Yes."[/say] Ever answers immediately, his tone perfunctory. [say]"He's my snow-brother and best friend."[/say] This too is said rather tonelessly, even though the aviator thinks the absolute world of Mateo. [say]"He is."[/say] Everest agrees before a stormcloud seems to darken his blue eyes. What the botanist had said about Sohalia hadn't been complimentary. It hadn't not been, but if the cartographer was only expressing a desire, did the aviator have an obligation to clarify what had actually happened? Deciding that no, he didn't, he instead turns and offers Soh his hand. [say]"I'm Everest Hart. A pleasure to meet you, Sohalia."[/say]

Much more at ease now that the conversation had turned to learning, the young man relaxes and all but turns into a sponge as he soaks up everything he's told. [say]"Oh I see."[/say] He murmurs, holding up his pencil and closing one eye to fix it against one of the mountains in the distance before lowering it to his page. With a spark of understanding, Ever chuckles to himself and gives his head a little shake. [say]"That's so clever. And I suppose you can use anything you have with you. You don't even need any special tools."[/say] Which in his mind, made it all the more novel.

[say]"Where did you learn this?"[/say]


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-27-2023

The distinct lack of a response to her vague desire for clarification let Soh feeling a bit unsettled, but there was nothing to be done about that. What Mateo thought of her - and, indeed, what he had shared about her - was to be left to her imagination, and that knowledge left her biting her lip, momentarily lost in thought. But the knowledge that she had, quite by mistake, happened to find his best friend was all too curious to allow her to lose herself to memory for long, and she smiled as she took the proffered hand, banishing her worries for a later time.

It was easier by far to discuss mapmaking and art, and as Soh explained her methods, she was pleased to see that it seemed to make sense to Everest. She'd never tried to teach anyone before, and for all she knew, she would be terrible at it. [say]"I think I read it somewhere,"[/say] she said humbly, shaking her head. [say]"I do a lot of reading. There are some excellent books on cartography I can recommend, if you're so inclined. Although, for making your own maps, some basic art training can also be beneficial."[/say]

She turned back to her own sketchbook, putting a few more lines down on paper. [say]"The more practiced you get, the less you may need the visual aid - but it's always available, and I use it frequently. And, as you said, you can use whatever you have on hand."[/say] She giggled a little at her unintentional pun.


RE: leave her wild - Everest - 05-27-2023

[say]"Oh, me too."[/say] Ever says, brightening considerably. Typically people who did a lot of reading were people like him. Although Sohalia seemed far too conversational to be like him, that she was academically inclined made the aviator feel substantially better about sharing the little bench with her. [say]"I would like that very much."[/say] He adds, of her recommendations

[say]"I fly skyships. Mateo's mostly, but I'm training to be a pilot."[/say] Well, his training was actually finished. There was just that pesky matter of passing the practical exam, which of course required him to properly deal with people. He had, of course, failed. [say]"The routes between all the normal places are fairly well captured, but...well, Mateo's parents live in the mountains, and there are almost no maps at all of how best to fly there."[/say] Everest explains with a sideways twitch of his lips.

Not unlike his father before him, Ever was far too linear a thinker to understand puns, much to the amused annoyance of his mother. So it was that Sohalia's pun went unnoticed, though the aviator nodded politely at the confirmation that no special tools were needed.


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-27-2023

Soh, too, brightened as Everest admitted that he liked books as well. It had been rare, in her (limited) experience to find academically inclined minds in her travels, so she perked up considerably at the opportunity to discuss with someone like her. [say]"I'll write a list,"[/say] she said, flipping to a new page in her sketchbook and beginning to jot down a few titles that came to mind. [say]"What kinds of books do you like to read?"[/say] She herself was a fan of history and geography, but really any good book was enough to make her happy. Despite her outgoing nature, she was perfectly content some days to curl up in her favorite chair and simply read the day away.

Everest was not the first skyship pilot Soh had met, and she smiled as Everest revealed his profession. [say]"That's wonderful!"[/say] she said. [say]"I love to travel. Always seeing new places - and flying is so fun!"[/say] She, of course, was thinking of her Attuned shift - a snowy owl - but skyship travel had grown on her in recent months, since she'd been doing so much of it.

[say]"Mountains are tricky to map,"[/say] she agreed. [say]"You almost need multiple perspectives, and it's much easier from the air."[/say] She thought of her own attempts to map from the sky and grimaced. [say]"It's harder to get the distances right when you're moving on a skyship."[/say]


RE: leave her wild - Everest - 05-27-2023

Peering over as Sohalia began to write, Ever's mind was so wrapped up in imagining where in the library he might find the tomes she was currently listing that he nearly missed her question. [say]"Mostly non-fiction."[/say] By mostly he meant exclusively, although Mateo made him read a great number of his Nonna's fairytales, so he supposed it would have been incorrect to say he only read non-fiction. [say]"My mother is a doctor, so I used to read a lot of medical texts. And my father used to be the Spyglass, so he was always bringing home very eclectic things to read."[/say]

Smiling politely, Everest does not vocalize his disagreement. He rather hated travelling; new things made him anxious and were it not for Mateo, he'd likely never have left Stormbreak. [say]'That's a good point.'[/say] He murmurs thoughtfully, writing a few notes to himself in the top margin of his notebook. [say]"I have a flighted shift, but then..."[/say] Waggling the fingers of one hand, he smiles shyly. [say]"No hands to write with."[/say]


RE: leave her wild - Sohalia - 05-27-2023

It was funny, sometimes, how fate worked out. She'd just so happened to run into Mateo's best friend, who just so happened to like non-fiction books. The information on Everest's father slid past Soh's attention as she focused more on what he had brought home to read. [say]"Me too!"[/say] Soh squealed. [say]"Although I'm more into histories and books about geography than medical texts."[/say] She shrugged, as if to say, to-may-to, to-mah-to. [say]"As you can imagine, I've done quite a bit of research on Caido and its landscape."[/say]

So, too, did she have her own shift. She smiled again, positively gleeful at all they appeared to have in common. What a nice surprise, to stumble upon Everest - and when she had been so wary of him, too! It was a subconscious balm to Soh's soul; having lost such faith in the goodness of people since The Incident, meeting someone as nice as Everest helped her healing tremendously. [say]"Mine's a snowy owl, so I know what you mean,"[/say] she agreed. Then she made a face. [say]"And mapmaking from memory is not something I'd recommend."[/say] Not that she hadn't tried, of course. It had just ended with a rather useless attempt at a map. It was much easier to draw landscapes from memory - and she did that, selling them as fine art from her little shop when she could only access an area from the air.