[Fin] A Little Fishy

[TawnyAngel]

Makko Town was, according to the pamphlet, 'A Quaint Seaside Town' and this weekend there was a mini festival there where people came from semi-far and somewhat-wide to fish, eat fish dishes, play faire games, listen to live music of the generally inoffensive variety, and drink beer and cider.

All in all it sounded like a pretty good day out for what he hoped would be his last day of freedom. Working at the Meat Palace did not appeal but it would pay the bills... theoretically. Anyway, admission to the festival was free and thanks to Valour he had food he could cook - barbecues were allowed on the beach - and if he was really lucky he might even manage to sell a couple of the sculptures he'd brought along. He didn't have a traders' stall though so he'd have to make sure he was well away from any stalls there were, and hope nobody official spotted him and threw him out.

It was just about lunchtime when Valour touched down on the shore; Taavi slid down from the large bird's back and adjusted the hang of his backpack, a small one he'd picked up a few days ago from a thrift store because constantly lugging around his huge one was silly. Right though, where first? Taavi cast around the lively scene and tried to make a decision, which was a lot more difficult than it sounded.  

[Gwennythe]

A day off and an offer (you know, it had almost sounded like a plea?) to be given a pass to transport off base... Well now, that just meant finding a new place on the island to fish didn't it? Apparently Clancy's lift had known about the festival, and figured Clancy would be be happy enough fishing there among like-minded people.
Clancy didn't like like-minded people. When Clancy was fishing, he didn't like any-minded people... He liked fishing. On his own. With everyone else buggered off.

So he was a little sulky as he cast his line out into the sea, grumbling about everyone he happened to spot.
"Oh, bloody fantastic..." He muttered, spotting a very large bird coming down with a human upon it. "Just flamin' great. Now all the bloomin' fishes are gonna bugger off cuz that big ol' bugger's shadow scared 'em..."  

[TawnyAngel]

Valour, having heard the stranger's muttering, widened his eyes and turned his head from side to side to regard him through each eye in turn? <> He hadn't gone that much over the water.

Taavi, also having heard the muttering, flushed furiously and bit his lip. Should he... say something? Valour had said something, clearly not something polite, so he should probably... something, yeah. "Uh, sorry." Taavi approached the unfamiliar red-head, pulling his goggled down around his neck. "I didn't think we went over the water, I didn't men to ruin anyone's finishing... um, sorry."  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy entirely ignored the bird's actions, choosing to recast as Taavi approached; rather a breach of safe fishing procedure but Clancy, of course, didn't really care.
He'd also probably have complained had Valour not gone over the water -at all-; he'd have found something to grumble about it.

"Yeah, well, ya bloody did." Clancy grumbled and huffed, watching his line with apparent satisfaction. "Ya bloody big ol' bird riders allus takin' off and landin' all over the bloody place wi'out a care in the world. Always puttin' y' damned Pidgmawotsits down where ever you bloody please..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Well... Um... Sorry. I suppose my mind was elsew...." What? Taavi's brow furrowed in confusion. "Uh, Pidgmawotsits? I don't...? Um...?" What? "Err.... Sorry. I'm Taavi. I usually pay more attention than that. Sorry." He ought to know better than to fly over where people were fishing! Ugh, he really was distracted today. He really hoped his interview went okay tomorrow, he'd tried to research the company but all the facts seemed to keep slipping out of his head.  

[Gwennythe]

"Yeeeeah. Pidjiggawots!" Clancy used one hand to gesture vaguely, and dismissively, in Valour's direction.
His eyes narrowed at the line and then he frowned, having thought he'd seen movement and then dismissing it.
"Do ya now? Well, ya bloody ought to! Scarin' all the flamin' fish away..." Nevermind that now Clancy's voice was probably doing just that anyway.

"I'm Carl." The redhead, with remarkable forethought considering previous actions, introduced himself after a moment, as though he was adding it as an afterthought. In reality it had actually taken him several long moments to choose 'Carl' as a name.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Um... you probably shouldn't shout, if you don't want to scare them," Taavi offered helpfully, moving a little closer to the grumpy man because he still felt bad and as though he ought to make up for his mistake. "And, uh, Valour is a Braviary.... Did you mean Pidgey family? Because... well he's not. Err. There's... quite a big difference really. If you look at the shape of the wings he's made for soaring and endurance, whereas the Pidgey family is focused on speed. Ah, it's interesting to see crossbreeds between the two because though they're definitely one or the other egg moves isn't all they can inherit! They'll often be a bit more balanced between the two than their parents." Oh, he'd rambled hadn't he? "Err, but, err.... Were you fishing for lunch? Because I have some fish and... well... if I scared off your catch.....?"  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy grumbled something that probably wasn't audible, and was probably better off that way as it was probably very rude.

"Eeeeh. Peejays, Brassier-fairies.. I don't bloody care. 'E's a flamin' bird ain't 'e, same as they are?"
Unfortunately for Taavi, Clancy's eyes bugged as he mentioned having fish. And lunch.
"So let me get this bloody straight... You went and /brought/ bloody /fish/ to a flamin' competition where people are flippin' /fishin'/?! Are you tryin' to take the bloody mick?!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"W-what?" Taavi took a step back and Valour bristled. "No! I'm not entering any contest it's just Valour went hunting this morning and I thought I'd have my share for lunch! Barbecued! Nobody's going to think I caught it here, it's already gutted and scaled and stuffed!" Aaaaah!  

[Gwennythe]

"Ooooh, so the stuff people catch 'ere 's too good f'r ya, hey? Figured 'I ain't eating their swill!' and 'ad your Brave-dairy catch ya somethin' up instead?" Clancy grumbled and fumed, and brought his line in to recast again.  

[TawnyAngel]

"What? No!" Taavi looked genuinely horrified and upset by the suggestion and ducked his head to break eye contact. "I just... can't really afford to buy food at things like this right now, but I wanted to come here today and see what was going on, so I brought my own food. That's all. I'm sure they catch and make amazing food! I didn't mean to insult anyone." Was Carl related to somebody or friends with somebody who had a food stall here? Now he felt really stupid.  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy stopped as though very confused, or stalled by the notion that Taavi might not have an income to buy food here...

He still didn't exactly sound 'friendly' when he next spoke, but he wasn't ranting and shouting.

"Are ya tellin' the truth? Can't bloody 'fford food? Cuz, ya know, the whole bloody point of these things is ta getcha to spend ya money..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"I know it is! I just! The admission was free and I've not been to Makko before, and I thought I might meet new people and watch what was going on and listen to the music and yes I'm telling the truth!" The words came out in a rush as Taavi shrank away a bit more in embarrassment, which prompted Valour to fluff his feathers up and take a step forward with sharp yellow eyes fixed firmly on Carl.

"I just wanted to have a nice day out, I didn't want to upset anyone," Taavi muttered, trying to avoid making eye contact with Carl in case that made him actually angry.  

[Gwennythe]

'Carl' regarded Taavi with confusion, and then stepped back a little as he noticed the big bird take a step forward.

"'Ey, wotcha damned bird! 'E looks all dangerous... Any'ow, why the 'eck wouldja need to meet new people? Bloody weird..." Clancy muttered, looking back to his line to notice it slack.
He'd /just/ missed 'something' biting and it had managed to slip off. Never mind that it couldn't have been very big or powerful for him not to have registered the tug while he was distracted, he just knew he'd missed a bit.
"Oh for..! Bloody flamin' 'ell! Now I gotta flamin' re-bait and bloody recast and... BOLLOCKS!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh! No, no its okay Val, it's okay, it's my fault." Taavi reached out to put a placating hand on the Braviary's chest, which halted his march forward but didn't make him smooth down his aggressively fluffed crest.

"And I, well I only just moved here so... and... people just like meeting people?" Taavi tried, feeling more and more stupid by the moment; he'd made Carl miss his fish! Carl was right, he was weird, he just couldn't get anything right could he? "I- I'm sorry about your fish. Um. I just...." Why was he even still talking? "I'm sorry."