[open] ROCK LOBSTER!!

[hairrands]

CHARACTERS: AJ Harris and Algidus and YOU!
LOCATION: Encampment
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Two new arrivals return to camp triumphant and ready to barter with the biggest river-pig yet.
NOTES:
1) Backdated to several days after the September batch of newbies arrived. September 15 or so.
2) Catch-all for setting up some trade. They're looking for tech, trading for sea-bacon. Try to start some shit and the bit ice alien will end it.






When they finally arrived back to the outskirts of the encampment late one afternoon, AJ Harris was a sweaty mess of grumbly frustration, but she forced a wide grin on and picked up her step from the moment she spotted the camp's first inhabitants. Algidus had held up his part of the bargain by catching this monster. Now she had to hold up hers. "This way," she encouraged him, meandering through onlooking survivors as they gawped at the massive tentacled beast carted between the two of them. Soon the pair were flanking a two-meter long rock lobster--missing several bony plates near the back of its massive jelly eyes--showing it off as best as possible for would-be connoisseurs. It was so big that AJ had had to fold its now frosty tentacles over on itself, lest they trip up passers-by.

Luckily, they had no incidents as they approached the clearing developed for bargaining, gathering, and shouting, and the long-haired human was pleased to finally take a position over the olde shouting rock to holler up some attention. She waited until Algidus had finished placing their catch on the ground before them before he withdrew to menace any who thought to slip in and poach, then got down to business. She had recently ripped the sleeves off of her standard issue jump suit, so now she wiped her hands off of one wedged over her belt before raising her sweaty guns to the encampment at large.

"Me and my big friend here have icy slabs of calamari just waiting for anyone who wants a bite, but she was a bitch to wrangle out of the river, so they're not gonna be cheap! You want a slice, this could just be the start of some beautiful business!"

She pointed down at the rock lobster with both hands, two fingers apiece, hyping up the catch by flagrantly flexing her pipes. "Who's sick of eating leaves? You are! Who's sick of climbing trees? You weren't born to be a fucking monkey! Who wants to eat cooked fucking meat without a throat full of nasty gecko bones? You, right here! This is one-hundred percent triple A-grade natural river-fresh meat right here, and if you got details about how we can get off this fucking rock we got a place for you at the front of the line! I want parts and supplies, I want gas and a generator, I want whatever passes for alien federation mind-meld voodoo that got that thing up there!" She pointed first to the wreck looming in the distance, then up to a low-hanging moon, then brought her fist back down, a show of force as her grin dropped into a sneer. "And neither of us are gonna be fucked with, so don't think of bumming any fake shit; neither of us are neanderthals who are gonna be spoon-fed a bunch of horse turds and believe they're apples!"

Hopping down off the rock, she did her best to saunter. Showmanship was never her strong-point, but by god she was trying her hardest here. She really owed Algidus if she expected him to keep hunting for her.

Comments

[thecoldshoulder]

"That's because no one else is as adaptable as me," Algidus puffed up, trying to find new ways to show off since he wasn't going to be allowed to at the expense of that dirty-looking man. It suited him quite well, honestly; if no one else was fishing the river that meant he would have his pick of those meat-rich creatures that lurked underneath the water's surface. "Stick with me, I'll make sure you have plenty to trade for whatever else you might need and have enough to keep you eating well."

[hairrands]

For a half a minute, AJ thumbed her nose off in the general direction of the man who'd left, but then a thought struck her, and she couldn't help but go in for the kill. "You trying to tell me you think I'm going to go running off on you? You worried that a human doesn't trust you?"

[thecoldshoulder]

Algidus deflated, swiveling his head back to face her and blinking. "W-what? No!! That's not what I said at all--I don't care what humans think of me! You'd be foolish not to trust me once I've given you my word, that's your own damn problem!"

[hairrands]

That had struck more of a nerve than AJ expected, though really she wasn't sure why she had expected any less. She elbowed at him, though of course with his bulk and armor she didn't expect to put him further off balance. "I'm fucking teasing you, smartass."

[thecoldshoulder]

The teasing little gesture did not throw him off balance, though the alien did glare at her elbow and then just--took the tiniest little step away, as if that alone would be enough to discourage her from attempting again. Then he lifted his head back up and squinted at AJ. "Why. What are you--I said I would help."

[hairrands]

"You got your ass all flustered," AJ gloated, folding her arms together as she sauntered all the way over to the shouting rock and leaned against it. "You don't trust me." It would appear that her gloating was short-lived, because now she'd resumed her usual, squinting glare.

Just picture the guy in this icon as AJ sauntering past him

[thecoldshoulder]

"I wasn't flustered!" Algidus retorted sharply, sounding awfully... well, flustered at the prospect. Curses! "I trust you, so long as you don't give me a reason not to! So--there!"

Hint, it was always AJ. >:)

[hairrands]

"Oh, come on, you fucker, you're covering over the fact that you think I'm gonna fuck right off any second. I showed up this morning when I said I would. You didn't think I would. What else are you waiting to see is gonna fall apart, huh?"

She does have a way of making him bristle~

[thecoldshoulder]

"No! That's not--I will hold you to your agreement!" Algidus was practically squawking right now, being completely unused to a human of all things going on the offensive with him like this. Clenching his fists, he stamped one foot as he straightened up to ram-rod straight posture--completely rigid. Then he took in a deep breath and expelled it, huge plumes of freezing mist billowing out of all of his gills as he visibly tried to calm himself. "Nothing will fall apart. I have chosen better than that... haven't I?"

Don't look like no hedgehog!

[hairrands]

"You're going to have to wait and see," AJ threw back, not liking the way that he was so easily able to calm himself. It was really, truly awful to be poking the only source of food she had, especially one who had otherwise proven himself to be so reliable, but there was something in the way that Algidus made assumptions that was already beginning to piss her off. Maybe it was about the way he spoke derisively about just about everything on their walk up here from the river, but she was having trouble believing that his double-think about humans was actually translating to her, even if she was a half-assed refried 'bein herself.

He is no swine!!

[thecoldshoulder]

"My hearts pound with anticipation," Algidus replied dryly. He had folded his arms over his broad chest now, trying to do his best not to respond to her verbal prodding. Getting worked up was so... unsightly, but his frustration levels had been high ever since he realized he was trapped on the planet; his explosive hissy fit over the discovery of the acid river was proof enough of that.

She's hedging her bets on that one!

[hairrands]

AJ tossed her head at him even as she rolled her eyes. "Oh, fuck off."

She pushed away from the shouting rock, made a show of leaning one foot on the frosty, crispy shell of Algidus' catch. Resting her elbow against her knee, she cast him a considering look. "I'm still on your side. You look like you're trying to power up your lasers, glow like that. Save it for night time or something."

/slow clap

[thecoldshoulder]

"I don't need lasers," the alien huffed--though the idea of being able to literally glare down someone that offended him was a satisfying one, as was the thought of giving Ultratech's death machine a taste of its own medicine. "Anyways, I know you are. You know I'm your best shot at figuring out how to break the tether and get off this planet, since most everyone else is apparently too busy sitting on their rears around here. You wouldn't throw that to the wind."

[hairrands]

"You know I'm not..." she clacked her mouth shut just then, realizing that he'd maneuvered her into a line of conversation that she was not going to go down just now. He knew she wasn't just doing this for the fact that he was her only connection. Maybe she was baiting him because she was beginning to feel like she had to rely on him, but that was not what had brought her back to the edge of the river this morning.

"You're scaring off customers," AJ spat, instead, and pointed down the path to a tree at the edge of the camp as though it was some kind of time-out. "Give me a few minutes to work people back again, would you?"

[thecoldshoulder]

Algidus looked in the direction she was pointing and tilted his head, then looked at her and glared protest when he realized what she was getting at. The thought of a human trying to order him around had hit a nerve. "I haven't been doing anything, I've just been talking to you! Besides, I thought being intimidating was part of my role in this."

[hairrands]

"Well you're being too intimidating," AJ spat... she was about to add more, but there were some event horizons of unfairness that she was unready to cross. Picking dirt out from under her nails as she leaned a little harder against the corpse, she glared at him and waited.

[thecoldshoulder]

And Algidus glared right back, seeming for a moment like he might be unwilling to cooperate. After a few moments, however, his mandibles tensed and his operculum quivered before he tossed his head and spat out a grudging, "Fine." He started to stalk away, halting in his stride just long enough to turn around suddenly and shake a finger in her direction. "But don't think this is because I'm going to let you order me around. I am simply letting you play out your part of the agreement!"

With that he spun on his heel and walked off to the tree she had pointed out, folding his arms and glowering as he leaned back against it. There's your space, AJ, you'd better appreciate it.

[hairrands]

Oh, she was appreciating it. While his back was turned (and only while it was turned, mind) she brought both fingers up. Yes, those ones. It was a strictly human gesture, at least from his stand-point, but AJ was fed up and feeling out of sorts and she needed to vent some of that. It was also a short-lived gesture; showing divisiveness between them like this was not going to help their cause and she regretted having done it instantly.

That said, anyone coming to see the goods was going to get a relatively grouchy but terse woman for an advocate, at least until she had cooled down.