[PRP] A conch-cious choice (Shiloh & Jamie)

[saedusk]

Blissfully unaware of his weirdo ghost water message, Jamie continued to pick at the bottom of the stream. The small rocks he dislodged tossed and tumbled in the gentle undertow, most of them eventually coming to rest elsewhere. Something had to be buried, he thought. It was pirate treasure.

Well, it was Beel treasure, and Beel wasn't exactly a pirate, but close enough. Jamie was having fun.

"Whoa!!" he exclaimed and the water beneath him rippled even wilder than before, whiplashing like a whorl downstream the same as it had done before. Again he didn't notice. This time he was too distracted by the glittering prizes he'd found.

"It looks like aquamarine," he commented, turning one of the small gems over in his palm. "Sapphire, too, and... is this real diamond??" His hand was full sparkling jewels, blue and white like the ocean.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Are you sure you 'stocked the stream'?"

Beel was sitting in his plastic throne, now equipped with what appeared to be a Sudoku book. He gnawed on the end of a fancy looking pen, and then proceeded to scribble down a few numbers, and then after a moment he picked up the notebook again and scribbled some other things down. "Jamie's already found something."

"Why are you making this a competition." Shiloh gawked, "How do you even know?"

Once again, Jamie's voice had traveled downstream; "Is this a real diamond??" Beel looked smug, or as smug as a fetch without any visible lips or eyes could. "Anyway, you're the only one making this out to be any sort of sport. I was just nudging you both in the right direction. Besides, shouldn't I push for my patron to be the best?" He tilted his head, looking a little bored now, "The Madame was undoubtedly perfect in every way, and you are her ex-tithe. Not to mention that she'll cease to exist should your ploy with the charter come to pass."

He looked a little sad.

"And I shant see any of Ezra's brood taint the hierarchy of the Court. Then again, I'm not sure what Lady Lady and her tithe are doing either... This leaves you, Thorne and his ex-tithe as well, Lord Algernon." Beel tapped the pen to the notebook, "And he's deeply committed to Lord Mercer. Do you see my point?"

"Not really? Everyone can work together, you know."

Beel shook his head, "I mean to say they're weak, those that were ascended into these halls by those other than the Spinel Lady. She chose you, and you need live up to it. It would sadden me to see this Court fall into disarray after all the blood, sweat and tears poured into it, even if I myself wish to be freed. It is the home to my family. Besides the fact that with the Madame gone, there will be quite a few fetches without guidance. It will be split between her tithes, and you need to be ready to accommodate for them."

Shiloh snorted.

"Well? I'm just clarifying. None of this will even come to pass if you don't get looking." Beel went back to his infinitely more interesting Sudoku pages.

And it was left at that, for a while. Shiloh waded out of any discernible eyesight, his hands searching around aimlessly in the shallow depths. Something pearlescent caught his eye, and he quickly fished out a few clam shells—no, wait—abalone? He didn't know his sea life that well, but Jamie probably would. The real issue here was that Shiloh wanted scales, but how was he supposed to get those without harming the fish?

Cue Noble Beaumont wrangling small slippery otherfish with his bare hands, only to painstakingly scrape the shed scales off of his hand into one of the abalone shells. This was tedious, and easily the very definition of the things I do for love.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The discord between Shiloh and Beel, as minor as it was, remained a mystery to Jamie as he finally stood up and began waddling (or maybe something a little more graceful) back down the stream. He remembered leaving the two of them around here somewhere. The hunt for treasure had thoroughly distracted him and he hadn't even realized how far he'd gone.

Good thing finding them didn't take long, he was chomping at the bit to share his exciting experiences.

"Shiloh... Shilooooh," Jamie called insistently. "I've gotta tell you about this fish I saw." Presumably the bonefish, though he had seen a school of the chubbiest, cutest otherfish he'd ever seen on the way back. That was something he wanted to talk about, too. Oh, and the gems. That was the most important even if not the most exciting to someone who adored fish over almost anything else.

"Hey, what're you doing?" There was curiosity in his tone as he tried to peek around. A wild, wiggly fish escaped Shiloh's hands at that very moment and Jamie looked at Beel—wait, was that a plastic lawn chair?—and back to Shiloh again.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The fish was clearly starting to get distressed, but Shiloh was letting it live, so y'know. He brushed some more scales off into the shell; all things considered, he was starting to get a collection. Then again, he probably didn't need that many in the first place... He spun around at Jamie's presence, "Oh, there you are."

He blinked.

"I heard you all the way from upstream. Your voice I mean." He swallowed, "But like, not in my head." Not like this; their thoughts brushed together for a moment like he mind wanted to intermingle, but it slowly backed off. "I'm trying to get some scales. Beel's being a d**k."

Beel shrugged, "I'm playing Sudoku."

Shiloh shook his head, "I got to thinking too; maybe we can like... take all this stuff and grind it down? Try to infuse it with the shell that way? We should collect some actual beach stuff too though, like sand..." He looked over at Jamie's hands, "Hey, you got somethin', don't you?"

A big ol bullfrong (or... what looked like a bullfrog and probably wasn't a bullfrog) hopped into the water. Rather than splashing in, a lilypad formed underneath it the second it hit the surface. It watched the duo with unblinking eyes.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"My voice from upstream?" he asked, not quite understanding. "I was kinda far away, are you sure it was me?" Though as he looked between the two of them again, Jamie realized there weren't many people it actually could've been. Getting in here wasn't exactly a walk in the park when the door only bothered to show itself to friends.

"Oh-! That sounds like a good idea, though. The whole infusing thing," as he emphasized the word, he bumped back at Shiloh's mind. A playful jab at their bond, their own (in)fusion. "I found some really cool stuff. Gemstones, look!" They were still wet and glittery in his hands as he held them out for everyone to see. "Aquamarine—I know that one 'cause it's my birthstone—and I think these are sapphires and diamonds... They seem real, but I dunno. I don't know anything about this kinda stuff."

As he was climbing back onto the bank, in fact he had one foot out and one foot in, the bullfrog made its entrance. Jamie froze, but eventually stepped back down into the water. "I think it's staring at us," he said, stooping to get a closer look.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh did a double take, "You found precious gemstones?"

"Now that explains a lot." Beel set down the Sudoku book to peer over the bank, "I had a growing collection, but I had noticed some going missing. It seems I've invested in a thief among the ranks of decorative fauna by mistake." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well, that won't do when we're housing the Charter here... granted I can only assume the creature was drawn to their sparkle."

He looked to the bullfrog in tandem with Jamie.

"But yes, I was audience to the voice as well." Beel... was... on his hands and knees as he stooped over at the otherworldly amphibian, "I wasn't quite as startled as Shiloh though."

"Look... it just caught me off guard..." Shiloh was holding the abalone shells precariously, as to not lose the scales he painstakingly acquired. "Why... are we all staring at this frog?"

"Doesn't it seem suspicious?" Beel sounded inquisitive. "But I suppose you're right. The both of you have more than enough to get started, I think. Well done. We'll have you leaving with a mastery of magic yet."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

When the heck had Beel gotten down on all fours? It happened so fast, Jamie barely noticed, and ended up double-taking before he really had even a basic grasp of the situation. "Wait, you think one of the animals stole your gems?" he asked, looking at his decent handful. They weren't huge stones, but he assumed they were still decidedly valuable, especially this many. "Could it be...?"

The only reason they were staring at the bullfrog, Jamie decided, was because it was suspicious, just like Beel said. Everyone else might be ready to move on to the task at hand, but he just had to test something first.

"Is this what you want?" he asked the frog, holding up one of the sapphires between his thumb and index finger. He twisted it slightly in his grip so it shown brilliantly. "Are you the culprit?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Everyone was undoubtedly waiting on baited breath. Jamie held the stone up; Beel gasped, Shiloh shook his head with a tiny "N-No!"

But then the frog croaked and nothing really happened.

"Well, I guess it wasn't him." Beel said as he lifted up to his knees.

The frog's mouth opened to reveal its tongue, but rather than the appendage snatching out lightning quick, two mandibles (they looked like tiny arms, with tiny fingers and tiny thumbs) slowly lifted out, palms up. Each arm was slicked back and red like the exposed under layers of flesh, the fingers like tiny nubs that were missing a joint or two.

"No." Beel looked betrayed.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Wow, I thought for sure... Well, I guess that's that, we oughta get started." And that really would've been that, should've been that, but the saga of the mysterious bullfrog was suddenly ratcheting up faster than the climax of a B grade horror flick. Jamie's face was contorting into looks he was sure he'd never made before now.

"What the... ********?" he huffed, trying to decide if he was outright offended or just really wanted to reach out and touch the gross little arm tongues instead. He opted for some weird half-way-to-doing-it-but-not-quite limbo with his arm held out and finger pointed.

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't be that surprised, have you guys seen some of my fish or what?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The bullfrog shook Jamie's finger with its tiny hands, but it didn't seam satisfied. The hands were held out again, one of them impatiently tapping the palm of the other.

"How rude! He thinks he can get away with it too, because you're not a noble I bet." Beel observed this peculiarity staunchly. "Greed is a sin, not a virtue."

Shiloh was just sort of growing in increasingly weary. "Well I mean... we don't need all the rocks, do we?"

Beel was taken aback, "So you're going to reward it's actions? I don't understand you sometimes."

"Beel it's a ******** frog."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Jamie's eyes were actual, literal saucers. It's not that the bullfrog's tongue was anymore unpleasant than it should've been; it was slightly sticky and wet, but that was it. The surprise was what made his eyes wide. Who expected a hand-tongued frog to shake their finger? No one.

"Nice to meet you..." he mumbled out of a strange sense of common courtesy, then looked at Beel and halfway shrugged. "I think you're being a little too hard on him. I mean, Shiloh's right, he's just a frog."

Look at him. Totally innocent.

Without another second's hesitation, Jamie set the small sapphire into its waiting hand.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Though the frogs expression hadn't shift (it hadn't this whole encounter), it still seemed pleased somehow when it accepted the sapphire, its arms retreating back inot its voluminous mouth. Suddenly it croaked again, the skin of its throat expanded as the hands could be seen moving and shuffling around, and then it opened wide to produce a gift in return.

It was another sapphire. It was also definitely different because it was rough and it wasn't shaped the same, but it was undoubtedly still a sapphire. The hands deposited this into Jamie's still open palm, closed its own mouth shut with its fingers, and then hopped into the stream to swim away.

"I've seen many things in my time as a fetch," Beel said, "But none quite as bizarre as that."

"I think it was smart to curry favor with it though." Shiloh crept closer to lean over Jamie's shoulder, their bodies definitely wet and definitely touching. Have some ******** decency Beaumont. "Even if it was... pointless. Anyway, you wanna go get started?"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Wh- huh-?" Jamie was baffled and it was written all over his face. Hell, he could feel his own eyes blink slower than they'd ever blinked before. He had received Sapphire x1.

"Favor, right..." he murmured, standing back up as the frog hopped away. Shiloh was at his back and it only served to press them closer. If Jamie minded the skin-on-skin, he definitely didn't act like it. "I'm... glad I could help him." Closing his hand, all the precious gems held safely in his palm, he made a gesture that looked something like real determination.

"Alright, let's get started," he agreed, giving Shiloh a big, dumb smile.

Melancholies

fin!!