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Post by nasrin on May 27, 2008 18:04:26 GMT -5
Following the bartender's instructions, Nasrin made her way down to the edge of the dock that jutted out into deeper water and listened carefully as the man tried to explain the basics of a good cast. She listened half-heartedly, which was still about 50% more so than usual. And after then man demonstrated a textook cast of the line, Nasrin gave it a shot on her own.
However, her inexperience was apparent when she didn't time her release of the line with the flick of the rod. The hook and sinker pivoted around, making her duck down to the side to avoid losing an eye as she held the rod out to arm's length. After letting go of the line, the hook dropped straight down into the water just a few feet off the dock. Nasrin stood up a bit straighter, opening her eyes now that it was safe. Somehow, despite the sudden jerking movements, she had managed to keep her expression rather docile.
"That wasn't too bad," the bartender said politely. He was stepping a bit closer after having wisely put some distance between them before the casting attempt. "And some fish prefer the shelter of the docks so you can still catch something even this close to the edge. In fact..." The man paused and leaned a little over the water, staring at the line. "...I think your're getting a nibble there."
Nasrin glanced down at the line where it disappeared into the water. She couldn't see much past the surface, but after a few moments she noticed the tiny movements in the line.
"Now, just wait til you feel a big tug and then pull back hard."
There was silence for several seconds as the line continued to dance around slightly. The bartender seemed slightly excited, anxiously staring at the water with a hand raised as if waiting to give a signal. Meanwhile, Nasrin was glancing over at Manju and wondering if the Igni girl was as bored with fishing as she was already becoming. Sure it was a new experience, but that didn't make it worth trying for more than a few minutes...
"Ooh! You got one," came the call of the bartender. Nasrin felt a slight tug on the pole that persisted for more than just a second, and that was enough to sluggishly draw her attention back to the water. "Pull back," the man said, miming for her to yank the fishing rod toward her. "And reeel him in."
Nasrin obliged. With a sharp tug, she yanked the pole toward her and pulled the fish straight out of the water with a respectable splash. The sandbender had neglected to rell in the line as she did this, and so the fish fell to the dock, flopping around in its struggle to get free,
"Good job," the bartender congratulated her, "Now use the reel to lift him up."
Nasrin shifted her attention to the reel and started turning the crank. However, after several seconds she realized that she was feeding more line out instead of coiling it back onto the spool.
She reversed the direction of the crank and then hoisted the fish, which was a tiny sunfish not worthy of a single serving, up into the air just as it flopped over to the edge of the dock.
"That's got to hurt..." Nasrin mused staring curiously at the fish as it dangled in the air, occasionaly thrashing about. A hook through the face just couldn't feel very nice, she imagined.
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Post by manju on Jun 3, 2008 13:31:59 GMT -5
"Fool's luck," she grumbled, seated at the opposite edge of the dock.
Manju was perturbed that the fellow she found attractive was being monopolized by Nasrin, especially since she was certain the sandbender would lose interest and probably fall asleep by that point. Seeing Nasrin catch a fish only made Manju loose an impatient sigh. Feet dangling an inch above the water, the Igni had yet to catch a single thing. Not even a leather boot snagged her line during their little outing. Naturally, it burned Manju's fuse down to a tiny sprig. She was ready to snap at anyone who interrupted her, really.
Venting her frustration would require a target, which Manju had no motivation whatsoever to find. However, she realized that Nasrin's catch wasn't much of a deal, and making fun of her and the puny fish would make the Igni feel better about herself. Grinning smugly, she turned her head to Nasrin sitting across the dock. "Nice job! Maybe next time jou won't suck!"
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Post by nasrin on Jul 5, 2008 15:31:05 GMT -5
Nasrin continued to watch the dangling fish with mild interst until the bartender motioned for her to swing it toward him so he could remove it. As the man slipped the hook from it's mouth, though, she glanced back at Manju for a moment. It was strange seeing her in such a sour mood. The Igni girl threw out verbal jabs and insults all the time, but this was probably the first that Nasrin could actually detect some bitterness to her tone. Usually it just seemed like she insulted people purely out of habit.
Even though it was vaguely amusing to watch the younger woman act so immature over a man that Nasrin had no real intention to pursue, the sandbender figured that it would probably be best for the remainder of their travels if her companion wasn't holding a grudge against her.
"There you go," the bartender said, pulling Nasrin's catch free of the hook. He held the fish toward her so she could see it, but then went on, "He's a little too small to make a decent meal though. And since you guys don't seem short on money we'll just toss him back for now." He leaned over toward the edge of the dock and dropped the fish in the water.
Nasrin looked at him for a few moments, not seeming to react to his slight smile. After a brief uncomfortable silence she said, "I think I got the hang of this now... How about we just fish here for a little bit longer than then drop your stuff off at the tavern?"
The bartender looked at her for a moment, then glanced over at Manju. It seemed like he was trying to read their personalities to determine whether he could trust them not to run off with his gear.
"Here," Nasrin said, taking the man's hesitation for what it was. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a few more silver pieces. "Four more silver as a security deposit. You can hold onto it and give it back when we return your stuff."
That seemed to put the man's mind at ease and he nodded. "All right then... Keep it to an hour though. I'm heading home after that." He took the offered money and then said, "Enjoy the rest of your fishing, and try to bring everything back in one piece." He gave them a parting bow and then started back down the docks.
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Post by manju on Jul 13, 2008 19:26:53 GMT -5
Manju experienced a mix of emotions seeing the handsome barkeep get up and walk away. She wasn't keen on her eye candy leaving, but found relief that Nasrin was no longer hogging his attention. Manju couldn't stand being ignored for long amounts of time, especially when there was ample reason to pay attention to her. Who wouldn't? She had tattoos! And piercings! What wasn't there to stare at with your dreamy face for hours, wearing only a loincloth with a single red rose between your lips?
Letting out a sigh, Manju dangled her feet in the water for a few seconds longer. Now that uncertainty had faded - as did most emotions Manju felt in a five-minute span - she was beginning to feel irritated and bored again. As if there wasn't a reason. There were no fish at all on her side of the dock, and nothing else to do than stare out at the sea. That may have been fine for Nasrin, whose personality was easily comparable to a rock, but Manju yearned for more. In fact, that may have been the reason why, during her musings, she had put down the fishing pole and started walking around the pier on her hands. Just maybe.
If the hard wood of the pier left splinters in her palm, she couldn't care any less. There wasn't a need to cry over such things, but she did see a need to make some snide statement to Nasrin. She deserved it, since her little ploy panned out probably exactly how she wanted. Upside-down, arteries bulging and skin reddening as blood rushed to her head, Manju scowled at the sandbender. "So, he leave jou feelin' all tingly?"
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Post by nasrin on Aug 27, 2008 19:08:48 GMT -5
Nasrin barely managed to lift her arm to offer the departing man a slight wave before ignoring him completely. Her gaze fell back on Manju, whom she figured had been tormented enough. It was a little strange how easy it was to get under her skin, but if the sandbender knew her companion at all then she would be over it as soon as something shiny caught her eye.
The fact that Manju was already walking around on her hands made it seem that she didn't even have to wait that long.
"Like a sunburn," the older woman replied to Manju's question in a slow, emotionless tone. Nasrin allowed her gaze to wander off for a moment, and she focused her attention on the open sea. It reminded her strangely of home, only looking through an azure veil. The rolling waves and vast expanses of water were just like the dunes of the desert, only slightly more damp...
A sigh escaped her tanned lips as felt an unusually strong pang of boredom. Fishing was new, but even for someone who'd never experienced it before in her life, it was already growing old.
"So what do you want to do now?" Nasrin asked, though she seemed devoid of any real excitement for change.
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Post by manju on Aug 28, 2008 12:50:02 GMT -5
When presented with that very question, Manju never had any clue what to do. She guessed that being put on the spot like that wasn't quite conducive to randomness, yet she also had to wonder if Nasrin was being purely rhetorical in her question. Although, since she had shown a whole other side of herself, Manju kept wondering how much more of the woman's personality was about to be revealed or changed, even, much like how her clothes were different from the first time they met. Was Manju's influence that strong, or was the sandbender yearning to break free of monotony and apathy?
Either way, Manju now knew exactly what to do. If Nasrin wanted a change, she'd get one. "Hmm. Ever gone swimmin'?" Manju said, peering upside-down at the tall sandbender. There wasn't much time for a response as the Igni's foot descended to Nasrin's mid-back region and pushed with all its might. At the very least, Nasrin would lose her balance, and at most, she'd fall off the dock. Fun, fun. Manju herself fell to her feet and dove into the water, as well, without daring to see if Nasrin fell in. The loud splash of her own body in the sea was good enough for her. Then, salty water still clouding her vision, she reared back her head. "'Avin' fun yet?"
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Post by nasrin on Aug 29, 2008 22:44:48 GMT -5
Nasrin knew that by default, simply standing near Manju carried with it certain risks. But even so, she wasn't prepared for the hard shove on her back. The sandbender took a step forward to try and catch her balance, but the leading half of her foot landed over the edge of the dodge and she sudden;y lurched forward even more. She arched her back and threw out her hand to try and stop, even managing to spin halfway around, but it was to no avail.
Uttering only a strange sound halfway between an exclamation of "Holy-" and an expletive, Nasrin could only shove off from the edge of the dock and hold her breath. She hit the water with a splash, and almost immediately began to sink. In 27 years, the Si Wong native had never actually had occasion to jump into a sizeable body of water. Her knowledge of swimming and its technique was almost nil, and her lack of any real body fat didn't lend itself to bouyancy.
That being said, she sank like a stone.
Most people when faced with such a situation might have flailed wildly or panicked in fear. Nasrin, however, was perhaps just too apathetic in general to really be shaken by the fact that her life was in jeopardy. Instead, she simply did her best to orient herself into what felt like an upright stance and wafted her hands upward. After a few more seconds, her feet finally touched the sandy bottom of the sea floor and she then brought both hands in close. Nasrin thrust her palms skyward, and the sand beneath her surged upward to propel her toward the surface.
After a few more moments of rising rapidly on a mound of sand, Nasrin's head broke the surface of the water and she gulped in a large lungful of air for her burning lungs. She sputtered rather unflatteringly and began paddling her hands to try and keep her balance on the narrow spire of sand.
"Bleh..." she spat out, expelling some seawater from her mouth and rubbing her eyes clear. The sand beneath her was rapidly falling apart from the ocean's natural currents, and before long she was forced to hop off the sand and awkwardly doggy-paddle her way to the wooden support columns of the dock where she could hold on more steadily.
Nasrin finally managed to turn her focus back to Manju, and after spotting the igni swimming easily nearby, she called out, "I think I lost my sandals..."
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Post by manju on Aug 31, 2008 12:56:00 GMT -5
Swimming backward, forward, sideways, and every other direction possible, Manju was quite content to have plunged herself into the sea once again after so long. The water was a bit colder than in the Ignis, but it was a petty detail she could've ignored. When she surfaced one of many times, her black hair sopping wet, she heard Nasrin mention her sandals. No, not a complaint about falling in the water, but a statement as to the whereabouts of her sandals. So strange, Manju thought.
Shaking her head, she paddled a bit to stay afloar. "Uh, jou're a eart'bender. Why jou need shoes anyway?" She wasn't trying to be crass, but truly did wonder why Nasrin had invested in a pair of sandals in the first place. Manju herself hated having her feet confined by footwear, and figured someone like Nasrin would feel the same way. When they first met, Manju could have sworn Nasrin was only wearing bandages on her feet, or something like that. In fact, Manju figured every Earth Kingdom person who went shoeless was an earthbender, by choice and not necessity. There were a lot more benders in this land than in the Ignis, after all. She only felt right to assume.
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Post by nasrin on Aug 31, 2008 21:41:28 GMT -5
Still clinging to the support beams of the pier, Nasrin didn't really have an immediate answer for Manju. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure why she'd decided to get the sandals. "Good question..." she said, taking a brief pause to ride the sudden increase in water level as a low wave rolled lazily by. "I guess because people in the bigger cities wear shoes more. Or at least that I've seen. When in Ba Sing Se..." she ended with the first half of that familiar proverb of conforming to the ways of the locals wherever you travel.
Another wave rolled by, and Nasrin came to realize that she had no real way of getting back up on the pier. She needed to either sink down to the bottom to collect some earth and lift herself back or, or find a way to make it to shore.
"So," she started to say, "How exactly are you doing that?" Nasrin wasn't too kean on the idea of this trial by fire, er... water, but she figured that knowing how to swim couldn't hurt either. She could then have bragging right as one of the two or three people in the entire desert who could stay afloat.
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Post by manju on Sept 1, 2008 21:26:16 GMT -5
Manju almost thought it amusing how Nasrin was embracing a pylon holding up the pier, unable to stay adrift as Manju did so expertly. When the sandbender asked her how she could swim like that, it wasn't a priority for her to teach the desert native to tread water. Besides, Manju knew she wasn't a good teacher. Period. Even Nasrin's patience could be tested by the nigh-overwhelming number of sarcastic remarks she would make whenever her pupil made a mistake. It seemed like that was how it would be. Manju was neither effective, nor willing to instruct.
"Uh, you move jour arms an' legs," Manju said plainly, like it was a matter of fact, "like dis." Smoothly, she swam about the water like it was no great deal. Really, to her it wasn't hard at all. On the Ignis, you basically learned to swim before you could walk, unless you were missing an arm or something. But, Manju did take that opportunity to flaunt quite a few things. She even went to the point of swimming backwards straight in the sandbender's line of sight. "Am I goin' too fast for ya?"
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Post by nasrin on Sept 1, 2008 22:06:21 GMT -5
Her dark sepia eyes watched carefully as Manju swam effortlessly by in the water, and Nasrin was beginning to decipher some of the technique. Her perpetually listless demeanor could sometimes lull people into thinking she was simply too slow to catch on to the goings-on around her, but in truth the Si Wong native was one of the most observant people they'd ever meet. Typically, she just didn't care enough to put much effort into things, but this was one occasion where she figured it would be prudent to give it an earnest try.
After staring hard at the movement of the Igni girl's arms and legs, and ignoring her attempts to get a rise out of her, Nasrin finally dared to let go of the wooden pole that kept her afloat. Initially she started to sink, but the sandbender extended her arms and began flapping them like a bird trying to fly. Simultaneously she began working her legs in a sort of running motion, and the end result had her bobbing consistently with her face just above the surface of the water.
Nasrin kept that up from a few moments, for some reason finding that it required a conscious effort to remind herself to breath. But after she started to get the hang of it, she slowed down the frantic pacing of her arm-flailing and managed to find a steady rythm of kicks that kept her head above water.
"Okay..." she said, spitting out a mouthful of salty water after a passing wave put her head under for a moment, "Now how do I move that way?" Nasrin jerked her head toward the shore and then quickly used a hand to wipe the hair out of her face.
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Post by manju on Sept 3, 2008 13:24:00 GMT -5
When something was so obvious to one person - case in point, Manju's ability to swim - it was hard to describe exactly how it could be done. Teaching by example was the best way to accomplish her feat in this case, but Manju was awestruck at how someone simply couldn't grasp the concept of moving their arms and legs through the water in the proper direction to go where they want. The Igni simply couldn't put it into words what she knew the sandbender wanted to hear, yet still didn't know how much of what she did was 'lost in translation', so to speak - not regarding a specific language, but terms that the sandbender probably had never heard growing up in the desert.
"Move jour arms like dis," Manju said flatly, like before, "Nice an' slow-like." Gliding through the water slowly and carefully, like handfuls of water were pushed away with each stroke, she turned to watch the sandbender try and do the same. She figured a simple front-stroking movement like that would suffice, since Nasrin wasn't about to enter any advanced swimming competitions. At this point, she really didn't care if Nasrin was the butt of her joke more so than getting her to clam up and stop asking so many stupid questions. "I dunno, like jou're pushin' jourself forward or somet'in'."
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Post by nasrin on Sept 3, 2008 20:04:49 GMT -5
Manju's ability to convey instructions was almost as awful as her taste in facial accessories. Nasrin was left with hardly a helpful word and once again had to rely on pure observation to try and teach herself how to swim. From her limited view of the finer points of Manju's technique, she could only really gather that one had to just angle themselves sideways and try to do the same motion that kept them afloat.
Taking a deep breath, Nasrin leaned forward and began kicking her feet while using her hands to paddle in a semi-awkward fashion. After a few moments of struggling to stay afloat, though, it seemed like she was beginning to actually move toward the shore.
The sandbender decided that she would prefer her swimming lesson in shallower waters, and so she didn't spare the effort to call back to Manju as she plodded away through the water. With any luck, she could make it the 20-something yards to water where she could stand without drowning.
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Post by manju on Sept 5, 2008 14:42:00 GMT -5
Nasrin seemed to somehow pick up on Manju's instruction and try to swim herself to shore, even if the Igni was certain she had nothing to do with it. In fact, as far as Manju knew, Nasrin was joking all along. She had to admit, though, in that case, that the sandbender was a very good actress. She played the part of 'drowned sand rat' very well. If anything, Manju was vaguely impressed one way or another. Vaguely.
Deciding it was high time to shut up anyway, Manju back-paddled herself in the same direction as did Nasrin. Slowly and gently, each flap and stroke of her arms carried her with the tides. Even if her pace was quicker than that of Nasrin, nearing her to the shore sooner, she didn't much care. She convinced herself to enjoy the cool waters once again, so much like home, so much of what she missed. It wasn't long before the tides brought her onto the shore, back on the sand, waters washing over her front with each ebb and flow. Arms sprawled out to the side, eyes closed, Manju sighed contently.
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Post by nasrin on Sept 6, 2008 23:27:25 GMT -5
Nasrin was aware of how ungraceful she was in the water, but she didn't care that much. Truly she was just happy that she wasn't drowning. In fact, any day in which she did not drown could technically be chalked up as a win for her.
About 50 feet from the shore, Nasrin finally felt her feet kick against the welcome solidity of the ocean floor. Ducking under once more as a wave rolled over her from behind, Nasrin managed to get her feet beneath her and stand up. Surprisingly, the water only reach her midsection, and the Si Wong native felt foolish knowing that she probably could have stood up a good while ago.
Nasrin trudged up onto the beach, paying no heed to the lounging Igni girl. She seemed content to just lay in the surf, but Nasrin had sand in place it ought not to be. Unlike the sand of the desert which managed to creep its way into one's clothing, this beach sand was much coarser and interspersed with tiny shards of shells. And with the waves swirling up the mixture like a sandstorm, there was no avoiding a good deal of irritation.
With a hefty sigh, Nasrin lifted a hand up and unclipped the buttons to her shirt. They were still near the town, but there weren't so many people immediately around, and she didn't really care much at the moment. She was soaked to the bone, and her clothes felt clingy and heavy. Within a few moments she slipped off the sleeveless shirt and flicked it hard a few times to try and shake out the sand.
Then, after twisting the shirt up tight and attempting to wring the water out of it, she asked Manju, "You got anywhere to go from here?"
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