03; text -> video

[seabeast]

a question for ye fine folks this night

what be this

[ hello! yes, this is ferret. she is at her usual handmirror in the bathroom, as near to the light as she can possibly get. she shifts around a bit, then raises her left forepaw. on the main paw pad, in dark ink, is a tiny tattoo. it's dainty, only about a couple of centimeters across, but fortunately this mirror has perfect focus, so visibility shouldn't be a problem as she shoves it towards her audience. after a moment, she lowers her paw and cuts the feed. ]

tis a knot to be sure
and the google tells me tis called a reef knot
but it doesnt signify why its on my paw
answer me this
no blithering numskull chatter if ye please

[ and that's it because another please would most certainly kill her. ]

Comments

[seabeast]

[ she does not know the concept of pulling her punches. haha. ha. ]

cant bring a bite to eat with me then

[argents]

There's a vending machine. What do you want?

[seabeast]

gordettos

[argents]

You're in luck, nobody ever eats those.

[ BECAUSE THEY'RE 50% DOG BISCUIT PARTS ]

[seabeast]

[ BLASPHEMY ]

their loss
more for me

does your library have books about the ocean

[argents]

[ he won't tell anyone ]

Sure it does, there's a book for just about everything. What do you need to know about the ocean?

[seabeast]

what it be
where it goes
accordin to some folks here this tattoo means ive been to all of them

[argents]

All of them? Like a rite of passage thing? Either way, we can get you a ton of stuff on the oceans. You'll never run out of things to read.

[seabeast]

thats the question aint it
readin aint my first choice in understandin all this but least its gettin me somewhere

[argents]

We can't afford to not look at everything we can, it seems like. Anyway, there's no way we won't find something. I'll be over there soon, okay?

[seabeast]

pick up the pace then
theres learnin to be done

[ ................ come ON stella be polite. ]

i appreciate it lad

would the seafaring lady like an action thread or perhaps a log

[argents]

Coming, coming.

And you're welcome.

ROFL i think a thread would be more appropriate here

[seabeast]

[ Stella will be sitting prettily outside of Lyall's door, inspecting the newly installed dog door with her nose. Well... wasn't this ingenious? are you here yet banagher the queen is WAITING ]

[argents]

[ DON'T GET YOUR WHISKERS IN A BUNCH YOUR HIGHNESS

Which is to say there is a little silver car pulling up outside Lyall's place. Banagher wonders, briefly, if he should go get her from the doorstep or just pop open the passenger side door... could she jump up that far? Does she even like being carted around? He doesn't know anything about ferrets! Let alone sentient ones with sharp tongues.

(And, belatedly, it strikes him just how absurd his life has gotten.)

So he does the safest thing and just gets out of the car to wave her over. ]

Hi, Stella. Ready to go?

[ GET SOME GOOGLES. ]

[seabeast]

[ Stella harrumphs a cough, then trills, then best she can communicate her blinding outrage at his tardiness. It probably looks as intimidating as two kleenexes in the breeze.

She lopes over to Banagher. Well, at least this isn't too much of a mystery to her; she stands on her hind legs to be picked up. Trips with Lyall quickly revealed that she was, in fact, hilariously incapable of making it inside the car door. She just hopes that Banagher can follow. FOR THE GOOGLES ]

[argents]

[ Oop, mad. He thinks? Yeah that probably means she's mad. Smiling a little despite himself, he rounds the front of the car and opens the passenger-side door. Never in his life did he think his super emote-sensing would even remotely come in handy like this.

(But then again, she's a little force to be reckoned with.) ]

Okay, up you go. Shotgun it is.

[ Stooping to pick her up gently (shh he's never dealt with animals!) he turns and lets her down into the seat. ]

It's not a very long ride.

[seabeast]

[ frankly, the allotted 80% of conversation reserved for body language probably wasn't enough for miss stella anyway. :> good practice for a body language reader, i guess!

She looks up and nods at him as she hops down on the seat, burrowing herself into the seat material (and not scratching it, no matter how much her instincts told her that it made sense -- it didn't! it absolutely didn't!) and wishing she could see over the great hulking car-thing separating her from the windshield.

... Well, she did nod in understanding about the time in transit, but her ears are perked and she tenses for the car to move again. No matter how much she may wait, it's just not fast enough. For all of your machinery and impatience, she grumbles to herself, you'd think your sort would have figured out how to make everything instant long ago. ]

[argents]

[ Sadly, he hasn't exactly come into any real live mind-reading powers, so the only thing that really gets through to him loud and clear when he returns to the driver's side is... impatience.

Ironically.

And so, TO THE GOOGLES. True to his word, it only takes about ten minutes, padded here and there by early lunch traffic, to make it to the library's parking lot. Usually he'd just take the bus and leave the car to his mom, but he was fairly sure there was no hiding a ferret (a ferret like Stella, at that) on his person for the trip. Parking and killing the ignition, he gathers up his stuff and leans over, motioning sideways for her. ]

Alright, here we go. I'll probably have to carry you until we get all your books.

[ A beat. ]

And food. Then you can sit behind the desk.

[ Sadly, he doesn't have a ton of shoulder room. There is, however, a sweatshirt hood ripe for the taking. ]

[seabeast]

[ Let's be real, that was the only important part of her monologue anyway. FRUSTRATION AND ANNOYANCE.

The main emotions will be relief and satisfaction as she hauls ass up his shoulder and into his hood. Sweet jersey bliss. She will take a moment and pop her head out to sniff at his hair creepily. Have you showered, young man? Her delicate ferret nose will not stand for manstank eau de b.o. ]

[argents]

[ EXCUSE U MISS he is clean, thanks. Leaving her to creep away, he locks up and makes his way into the library. It's an old building of two levels, and smells like ink and paper dust. Sunlight streams in from a few of the high-set windows. Banagher only takes a minute to head behind the main counter — he mostly just did grunt work, so there was no need to set up shop in any of the specialized sections — and stow his belongings.

Now he glances over. Or tries to, anyway. ]

Which did you want to check out first? Just stuff about the ocean? Or boats, maybe?

[seabeast]

[ She nods for both, then snorts. Ok, there are a huge amount of topics she'd like to research and she'd probably just say yes to all of them.

She gets onto his shoulder and motions towards the computer. She did come here to use Google, after all, but she also wants to type at him. Curse this mute life! ]

[argents]

Oh, sure. Hang on. We should probably use mine instead, okay?

[ Leaning over, he fishes his laptop out of his bag and sets it up underneath a shelved corner of the desk, out of sight from the front. Having his laptop wasn't all that unusual, having a ferret using it... a little harder to explain.

He logs in and pulls up a notepad file. ]

Here you go.

[seabeast]

[ see this is why she likes you. LOGIC!!

She clambers down his arm and hops towards the laptop's keyboard, giving it a quick sniff before pecking at the keys with both paws and occasionally her nose. ]

ysee this is why i dont care for travel its like holdin your breath a second longer than ye have to
anyhow yes boats and the sea
history on great britain if you can get it

[ she pauses, tapping on the keyboard and tilting her head to signify that she isn't done, before tacking on one last request. ]

also anythin on the word corsair
or a book on piracy

[argents]

[ Man, if that isn't a sight. He knows this is how he's been talking to her literally the whole time but forgive him if he just watches aptly. Rather than letting her requests sink in right away.

Eventually, he does actually read the words. ]

Corsair... Britain, the sea. [ Piracy???? ] Got it. Hang out here for a second while I go look, and you can Google stuff in the meantime.

[ Again, he mentally counts off the subjects, moving out from behind the desk. ]

I won't take too long!

[seabeast]

[ On one hand, Stella's far beyond getting self-conscious about the things she does - she's been a housepet, getting stared at for doing something unusual is something she's used to. Still, she does look up at him curiously when the beat after she completes her message stretches a little long. What you lookin' at??

She nods as Banagher gets back to being useful, but is a little late to tap out any gratitude for it. Well. Not that it's THAT important, but she was conscious of the moment and its passing.

Anyway, it's a bit late for that. She huddles down and starts exploring Google again. Now, what is this image search? When Banagher gets back, she has pictures of forest animals up by the handful - mice, foxes, hedgehogs, squirrels, and so on. She's also kept the notepad file open to keep track of more terms: shrew, otter, rat, weasel, mole.... ]