|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:57 pm
 |
|
|
|
Engrav whirled around the small office like a tornado. There was dust here, a speck there. A scuff on the wood flooring. That lamp needed to move a couple centimeters to the left, so he could let in optimum moonlight. Should he put down a rug? Maybe open up to door to his workshop? Or lock up Morrimom for the night? Her room was a pile of trash. Literally a pile of trash. She squawked at him as he closed the door, obviously unpleased that he was letting ANYONE nearby, let alone a highblood. The yellowblood paused for a second, peeked back in. His feathermom was preening herself, picking her feathers into the right configuration. Hopefully that would take her a while.
Engrav wiped down his desk one last time, then one more time after that. He felt... nervous? Nervous. The inventor knew that his office didn't come close to comparing to the standards of the Seadweller, but he was proud of it. Moonlight glinted off the immaculate desk, the antique lamp, the grubtop he called his own. It shaded itself over the rows of books on his bookcase. Engrav tapped his toe impatiently, smoothed down his vest, and pulled his hair back from his face.
Gog, he didn't feel prepared at all.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:28 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:33 pm
|
|
|
 |
"Oh... That sounds feasible." Rent.... Right. God had she screwed up with that comment? If it was up to her, she'd help all the trolls she knew with their "rent" but, she knew that wasn't really her business. She never had to worry about rent, she owned her hive. Polair turned to the sound of glass glass being tapped, moving slowly until she felt Engrav's hands. "It's alright, thank you Engrav. I prefer it at room temperature as I also take the chance to..." Polair trailed off, looking for the right word. "Breathe. Water, I mean. Breathe water."
Spending so much time on dry land wasn't really good for her as it tended to be dehydrating but she needed to get used to it. Life underwater was always solitary for her. A tour sounded nice though. "That sounds nice, I'd like that." Polair took a drink of water and smiled reassuringly. She understood his doubts on the matter. How to show around your home to someone who couldn't see at all? She took her shades off, feeling more used to having her them off around him. She needed to be honest with him, such adaptations always made her anxious.
"Don't... don't stress much about it." She smiled some. "You don't need to consider my d-disability. I... I can manage actually! Environmental and sensory "Clues" usually help me out, it's like a puzzle for me."
"Just do it in a way you feel most comfortable with."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:34 pm
|
|
|
|
Engrav Setlar
Breathe water? Engrav kept getting little reminders of quite how different he was from Polair. He couldn't even imagine what that would be like. "I just meant, since you were kind enough to show me around your lab, I'd do something similar." He was proud of his little space, even if he was sure it wasn't up to the seadweller's standards. "If, I guess, a good deal shorter. Can I take your hand?" The yellowblood pulled up Polair's hand gently, guiding her through the respiteblock. "Desk here." In front of the windows, where he could see the stars. "Bookcase." Books mostly on coding and electrical engineering. A smattering of other subjects. He drew polair's hand across the spines gently, letting her feel the textures.
"Nutritionblock's over here," the yellowblood continued, guiding her through the small division. It was small and mostly unused, but he still guided the seadweller along the cabinets and the protein refrigeration apparatus. All it had in it was grubsauce, but she didn't need to know that.
"Down the hall here, retirementblocks at the end of the hall. My lusus on the right, me on the left." He guided her to the doors, but didn't open them. The yellowblood flushed a little, biting his lip before he continued down the hall. Polair definitely didn't want to see his retirementblock. It would be... inappropriate to guide her into it. "And finally, my workshop." He guided his guest along the impeccably clean desk, the labeled drawers of components and tools, the projects currently lining the walls.
"That's pretty much the place, honestly. Small, but it's mine." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:36 pm
|
|
|
|
Polair couldn't help but smile a bit. He didn't have to but it was a nice gesture and it meant a lot coming from him. Engrav did have troubles with trusting others, so it really meant a lot. "Thank you for your kindness and for your hospitality."
Deep down, the highblood wondered what had she done for him to trust her this way. She hesitated at first and took his hand, allowing him to guide her around the hive. Her cane hanged from her wrist and her free hand touched the objects in the blocks whenever she was near one. She loved the feeling of a clean desk and dusted books... The cabinets and refrigeration device... It was all stimulating. Not entering the retirementblock made her curiosity spike a little. She wondered what could he have there besides the basics. But of course she wouldn't ask that. Inappropriate.
"Think I've seen your lusus before." Polair mumbled. Entering his workshop was an experience though. God, for a lowblood it was pretty good. She gasped as she felt the tools and projects. "You must spend a lot of time in here. Just... Retreat from the outside world and surround yourself with productivity." Yes it was small, but it was practical. It had what he needed, lowering the risk of being distracted.
"I love your hive. Such a shame I can't truly appreciate it with all my senses but I really like how it is organized and pretty much distraction free. In all honestly I have always waned to opt for a minimalistic hive but, my lusus says that I should behave like a proper seadweller. Take advantage of the luxuries and enjoy them." She placed a hand on his shoulder with a sigh and later a smile. "Thank you, I really enjoyed the tour." Pretty short but fun! "And my apologizes for taking your time, um... I guess I really wanted to see you again after that last time. I'm still sorry for the, uh, daywalker blood thing..." That was so embarrassing. God, she couldn't imagine what the tabloids said regarding their outing. "Really want to make it up for you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:42 pm
|
|
|
|
Engrav Setlar
Engrav smiled as Polair put a hand on his shoulder, leaning in just a little. "Well, usually distraction free. Right now? Not so much." The inventor put a metal hand over the seadweller's, letting it rest for a moment. Wait. That was too much. To forward. "UM. Sorry." He let go, letting his hand fall and hers fall with it. "It really wasn't... so bad." The inventor said, not believing it in the slightest. He'd gotten daywalker blood in his mouth. IN his MOUTH. "I mean it wasn't great but at least it was in enjoyable company. I- you don't have anything to make up to me."
"If anything, actually, I've been wanting to actually run an experiment with you. Um. If you want." The yellowblood pulled a file from his workshop desk, handing it to the seadweller and pulling a few odds and ends from a drawer. "I was actually wondering, if it's not to forward. I was curious what it would be like to try... being you. Or I mean, not being able to see." STUPID, his thinkpan kicked him. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Just go ahead and call attention to it and don't bother to soften the blow or anything and why would you do that. "ER. I mean, how you operate without sight?" Oh gog that was worse if anything. "I-I just mean I'm fascinated by the ingenuity it must take to perform certain tasks! I was hoping you could show me what some of that was like."
Yeah, that was probably worse. Engrav wanted to punch himself right in the lobe stem, shut off the idiot sounds that were flowing from his facehole for a moment.
"Er. The instructions are in the file for you, I mean. Just a few short tests to see what it must be like for you. I'll try to complete each of the challenges blind, and you time me, and then we'll reverse, and I'll be able to see how much experience factors into our respective speed." He could feel himself sweating under his collar, little prickles running down the back of his shirt. This... had not been well thought out. Nothing else for it but to proceed.
"Um, I guess if you wouldn't mind?" he said, holding out a piece of black cloth from the drawer. "Blindfolding me, I mean. Can't really get a good knot on there myself, and I think that would ruin the objectivity of the experiment." Maybe she wouldn't notice the drips of sweat all over his face. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:56 pm
|
|
|
|
Was he implying she was the distraction? Oh god, she was! Given the circumstances it all suggested the she was distracting him right now, keeping the other teen from productivity. Polair pressed her lips together, thinking about it more than necessary. Why did she felt he was a tad closer? And was that his hands on hers? Polair was about to apologize when he had apologized. "No, no, no! I should... I should be apologizing, not you I--"
The right words weren't coming out of her mouth, geez. "I mean, I am distracting you and, um, I..." It was a terrible idea. But even so, it appeared he enjoyed her company. Her face heated up some as the highblood processed this. "I really want to..." She confessed with a resigned sigh. "I really do. I can't stand the fact that I made you go through that without trying to make things right." She had thought that dragging him out elsewhere would make things better but, where could she take him? Dinner? To a museum exhibit? Polair was unsure, hopefully she'd figure it out later on.
It appeared an opportunity opened up for her! An experiment... What could it possibly be. "Sure, what is it?" She smiled once more. Only this time it faded with his proposition. Engrav couldn't be serious, could he? With shaky hands Polair took the blindfold and felt the cloth for a few seconds.
"So... You want to feel what it's like to be me?" Wording it such a way made her feel strange like she was some sort of specimen. "I mean, there's nothing good about it but, if you really want to experience blindness then, sure... I'll participate in your experiment." She opened up the file and felt the text off it. Polair wondered, just how much time had he spent thinking about this... Why did he want this in the first place? Was it truly him being curious about her condition or something else?
Polair took a few steps forward so she'd be able to tie the blindfold on the other. "Well... I am blinded. I open my eyes wide and only see, well, nothing." She sighed before touching his face lightly, making sure she wouldn't tie the cloth too low or too high. "Although it pains me to admit it, I am quite familiar with this. And this familiarity is due to the fact that I spend far more time pitying myself than overcoming my blindness." The seadweller tied the black cloth around his eyes, making sure it wouldn't fall off during the experiment. “What good is there in being blind, you may ask? Well, maybe it's to see the beauty on the inside without being vainly distracted, or superficially blinded, by the ugly on the outside.”
With another wishful sigh, Polair tugged the cloth noting she'd fastened it well. Perhaps too good. Loosening it seemed a good idea. He sure was sweaty though. "Are you nervous?"
"Don't be afraid of the dark." She tousled his hair tolerantly with a smile. He couldn't see it so she tucked the corners of his mouth gently to let him know she was smiling. "Shall we begin the experiment?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:06 pm
|
|
|
|
Engrav closed his eye as Polair tightened the blindfold around his thinkpan, tensing as he did. The pressure around his skull was odd, new. He would have felt nervous if it had been any other troll, but for some reason he trusted her. He knew she wouldn't hurt him. "I'm not afraid," Engrav said, "just a little... apprehensive. Cautious. Please, let's begin." Still, he tensed just a little as Polair finished, her hands so close to his face. She was so close to him. The inventor opened his eye just a crack, saw nothing but darkness. Good.
Ok, so Polair was to his right, sitting on the armchair there in front of the desk. He could hear her breathing, the small intakes of a slightly higher pitch and timbre. He pulled his stopwatch from this vest, handed it to the seadweller. "It should beep every minute," he said, finding the activating button with a thumb and reaching until he found the seadweller's hand as well. Hopefully, that wasn't too... forward. It was hard to tell with the highblood. "Start button's here," Engrav said, placing her finger on the small device. "There's a smaller beep for seconds, but you'll have to count them. Could you hand me that first puzzle?"
She handed him the small wooden box, started the timer. Engrav ran his prong over the rough surface of the wood, feeling the grooves and grain and trying to build a mental image of the piece. It was hard. His thinkpan didn't want to cooperate, the shape his his head fuzzy and distorted. Lengths and exact positions escaped him. After what felt like forever, he finally managed to slide a piece of wood away from the side of the box. Then another. Then, finally, one more large piece, and the box fell apart, dropping a small wooden ball into the inventor's hand. "Time?" he said, dreading the answer.
Slow. Much slower than he'd thought. How in the world could she focus like this? Engrav had barely spend a few minutes not relying on the visible world and he already found it maddening. He slipped his hand back into hers, squeezed briefly, a casual grasp of reassurance. His? Hers? Engrav wasn't quite sure. "Thanks." he said, feeling the warmth of her palm on his, their fingers touching. It was so interesting the way they curled into his, almost natural. Like that was what they were meant to do. The inventor shook his head, smile slowly fading. He had data to collect. "Sorry. Next test please?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:09 pm
|
|
|
|
Polair wanted to chuckle a bit. If he weren't nervous,he wouldn't be so sweaty! "Understood." Polair nodded as she listened carefully,remembering which button she had to press,which sounds she had to watch out for. Her chest tightened as she felt her hand in his. She let out a sigh, trying not to think about it much.
The highblood did as told and handed the other the puzzle, starting the time as soon as she heard him struggle. She did expect him to be... Distraught. This wasn't at all easy,more coming from someone who could see. "Seven minutes and fifty five seconds." Not so bad.
Hands were intertwined once more and Polair tried her best to make him feel better. "I think you did fine Engrav. Back then, as a newly blind, I probably would have done it in ten minutes. Now... I'm not sure. Let me see that. If you want, take off the blindfold as I try to solve this. After ten minutes you'll start feeling sick." She handed the yellow blood the stopwatch and signaled him to begin. Her hands first explored the surface of the box, trying to find any tactile clue that would serve as a guide to know which face she was manipulating. Calculating the distances she moved the slabs wasn't tedious. Polair just needed to keep in mind those numbers that would help her solve the puzzle. With a final flick on her wrist, the box opened up and the ball fell on her hand.
"Time?" She panted, feeling as if she overworked her brain. "How did I do?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:26 pm
|
|
|
|
Engrav Setlar
Engrav folded up the blindfold from his eye, squinting as the moonlight hit the gander bulb again. "It is very dinconcerting," he said, pressing against it with a finger, trying to clear his head. "It's almost like I'm swimming. Hard to tell which way is up or down after a while." He handed Polair the puzzle, watched as her deft hands found the panels much faster then his. Engrav told himself that he was observing for scientific purposes, watching those graceful hands press explore the surface of the box, but the inventor just couldn't quite tear his gaze away. Finally, the surface clicked open and the small ball fell into her hand. Engrav stopped the watch.
"Two minutes." he said, amazed. "And twenty-three seconds. Almost three times as fast." Engrav wasn't upset at his time being beat, just amazed at how well Polair had adapted to her condition. She said she'd spent too much time pitying herself, but it was clear the seadweller had a huge amount of practice in overcoming the disability. Engrav flushed a little, wondering what it felt like to interact with another troll like that. To have to feel everything carefully, touch what you could just for every possible nonverbal cue. He cleared his throat carefully. "UHM. That was amazing. Almost three times as fast as I finished!" Carefully, he helped Polair set up the next puzzle, a series of tiles with matching textures on the back. Their hands met a couple times as they did so, feather light touched that expanded the flush Engrav could feel. He had to remain objective, get good data. Polair was really good at making that hard.
As Polair folded the blindfold back down, resetting his vision, Engrav focused. Or at least tried to. Tiles. He picked up one, felt the back. Tried to memorize the texture of it. IT was hard, much harder to keep a texture in mind than a word or phrase. He picked up another, rolled the two of them in his hand. They felt exactly the same. "These?" he said, holding them out to Polair. Nope.
This was going to be a lot harder than he'd imagined.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally found a match. Then another. The process sped slowly as he became more used to it, but it was hard to contain all the textures inside of his thinkpan. If they'd just been characters, he'd have had no problem, but this way... his head ached with the strain of it, and he let out a long sigh of relief as he finally finished. "DONE!" Engrav announced, throwing his fronds over his head in celebration, forgetting himself for just a moment. But that was what he did with Polair. Forget himself. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:30 pm
|
|
|
|
"Never... Thought about it that way." Made sense though. It was amazing how he kept her thinking.it was a good feeling, processing options that seemed to escape her. "Heh, maybe I could help you with that sometime." Polair placed a hand on top of his absentmindedly. "It'd be fun, don't you think?" And definitely she would be able to recollect data on landwellers in the marine environment. A small laugh escaped her lips as she placed the ball back in the puzzle and the puzzle back on the clean desk.
She felt really proud of herself. Two minutes and twenty three seconds... It sounded surreal. "Thanks. I'm surprised of it myself. Never expected to do it so fast." Polair helped get the next puzzle set up, and that one really piqued her interests. Their hands met a couple times, to which the highblood kept apologizing for it. Holding hands with anyone really soured her up some yet a few trolls were an exception to this. Engrav had become an exception. Why? Polair didn't know.
Engrav kept handing her mismatched tiles, which she replied with a simple no and a small giggle. "Concentrate. Do they feel the same? It the pattern the same?" She asked. Five minutes passed and he was done with the challenge. "You're getting the hang of it." She smiled. "Five minutes. You are doing great. I'm proud of you." Polair took the puzzle and attempted to do it herself. Fingers touching the surface of the textile, making sure to find any details that might allow her to find it match. Her hands were quick, registering the textures was something she was already used to and trained for. Stopping at the rehabilitation center had been a good choice to deal with her problem, she could see it now. The final pair was found and Polair pushed her hair back as she asked, "Time?"
This was starting to be fun and friendly experiment. She really liked it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
