I wanna know about these strangers like me

[treesurfer]

Characters: Tarzan and OPEN
Content: Tarzan is meandering about the ship. In his loin cloth.
Setting: The Winding Way
Time: Mid-Day
Warning: Um, nearly naked man? So, PG?

Comments

[the_tank_girl]

Having spent most of her time below decks of late, Tank Girl had decided that today would be a fine day to check out the rigging and see how it was all put together. You could have some killer fun up there, she suspected, especially if you could put together some sort of zip line and go from mast to mast. Dressed in green coveralls cut off so that they ended at the knee, a screamingly red dress shirt whose sleeves had been replaced with bright blue ones, and her usual sturdy black boots, she eagerly clambered up the rope ladder that led to the crow's nest.

Halfway up, though, she noticed a person that she hadn't seen on the ship before. And she knew that she would've remembered this one. He was only wearing a loincloth. "Hey!" she shouted over at the new guy, "where in the hell did you come from? Don't know that the captain would've let you on like that! You must be a sneaky one, to get past him like that!" Thinking quickly, and smiling at the thought, she added, "you the new entertainment for the ladies?"

Personal space is something he doesn't know

[treesurfer]

Tarzan tilted his head quizzically at the odd woman. With a practiced jump and good grips, he was on the very same ladder peering down at her, their faces very close. Bright blue eyes blinked and stared as he processed her words. He'd been on the ship long enough to get a large grasp of their language, however he could not speak it so well.

"Not sneaky," He said. "Entertainment for... ladies?"

She doesn't have much of a concept of it, either.

[the_tank_girl]

"Ladies. You know--frilly hats, lacy hankerchiefs, way too much perfume, faint at the sight of a mouse." Tank Girl scrunched up her nose as she peered closer at the man with the startingly blue eyes. He didn't move like a normal human would. His movements were too fluid and too precise. If she didn't know better, she'd guess that he wasn't from what anyone else would call a "civilized" place. Having been raised in the Badlands by demihumans herself, however, she didn't think that it was such a bad thing. Cities were all right, but she did miss the desert. "Eh, nevermind," she replied dismissively, shaking her head. She didn't seem put off at all by the closeness, and stared right back at him. "New, huh? So am I."

Haha :3

[treesurfer]

Tarzan peered closer as well, until they were nearly nose to nose. He didn't understand her descriptions of the ladies. He studied her, noting how different she looked to the other females on the ship.

Then again, every human was different.

He tilted his head. "New? What is... new?" He didn't understand the concept of being a new person on the ship. Tarzan had been on the ship for a while, this was just the only time he didn't have to make sure no one saw him.

[the_tank_girl]

Holding tight to the rope with her right hand, Tank Girl waved at the ship with the left, indicating the entirety of it. "New. As in, you haven't been here long. As in, you're still learning about the rest of the people." Though her position seemed precarious, her grip remained strong, her weight evenly distributed on both feet. How else to explain "new"?

She scratched her mostly shaved head. "New, as in I've never seen you before, and I wonder where you're from?" she added hopefully.

[treesurfer]

Tarzan continued to look down at her from his own precarious but sure position above her as he mulled over this. So, his hiding had been successful for awhile then, had it? It looked at as if the Captain had never revealed to the crew that he'd been a stowaway before.

Should he say so now? Tarzan wasn't one to lie if he could help it (which meant it was rare for him). He made his decision.

"I am from the jungle," Tarzan spoke slowly, carefully. "I here many..." How did they tell time again? Oh, that was something he didn't really pay attention to... he searched his memory for the word that seemed most accurate. "weeks?"

[the_tank_girl]

"That long, huh?" Tank Girl asked, the surprise evident in her voice. How had he managed to stay hidden for that long? Or was she just not that observant? "I'm from the desert, myself. Still getting used to all this green."

[treesurfer]

"Yes," Tarzan nodded. "That long."

"What is desert?" He asked soon after, there were so many things he didn't know! There was never a time that he wasn't finding something out, and now that he could actually ask questions was pushing his curiosity further.

[the_tank_girl]

Whether he admitted it or not, the guy was sneaky. Tank Girl couldn't decide whether that made him that much niftier, or whether it unnerved her. She could think about that more later. Right now, though, her arm was getting sore. Climbing up past her curious new shipmate, she clambered up to the crow's nest, motioning with an insistent hand for him to follow. Sitting down on the curved edge of the structure, she said, "Ahhhh! Much better."

"Now, desert's made up of sand. Sand and rocks, without many plants. It's hot enough during the day to make you sweat like a pig, and cold enough at night to freeze your ass off. But it's prettier than anything I've ever seen. It's all red and orange and brown--colors like the sunset." She eyed Tarzan quizzically. "You have any idea what I'm saying? You don't seem to be that good with words, mate."

[treesurfer]

Tarzan followed right behind, jumping from the ladder to the balcony ledge, sitting on it in a crouch. He listened to her words, carefully trying to decipher them as best he could.

He understood the basic gist, trying to imagine this vast land of sand, rocks, and no plants. It was hard, he couldn't do it very well. "Sand and rock, no trees or plants," He said slowly. "Prettier than... anything."

"Different than jungle," Tarzan continued, then he thought over Tank Girl's question. He nodded to her. "I learned. Myself. Still learn...ing." He added the last bit as an after thought, as the difference nuances and grammar tended to confuse them with their wide variety.

[the_tank_girl]

She was definitely startled by that. "You taught yourself?" she asked, leaning forward curiously. "What do you normally talk in? You're doing pretty damned good for having taught yourself!" Brushing the wispy bright green forelock of hair that graced her head out of her eyes, she added, "And yep. You've got it right about the desert. It's in the Badlands. Lots of kangaroos and other wild beasties there." An almost wistful look entered her eyes as she mentioned the kangaroos. "So what's the jungle like, anyhow? I've never been there."

Short tag is short D:

[treesurfer]

"I observed," Tarzan said simply, almost child-like. "Jungle is pretty. Trees. Water... Family."

[the_tank_girl]

Observed, had he? Tank Girl wondered exactly where on the ship he'd been staying, but decided not to press to closely. That was his own damned business, anyway, and if she for some reason needed to find him, she didn't think that it would be too difficult. Mostly naked men tended to be pretty obvious.

"Your family lives in the jungle? What kind of people are they? My parents kicked it a long time ago, so I got adopted by someone else." Visions of natives with spears and witch doctors filled her head. In a rare moment of thoughtfulness, however, she kept her big mouth shut and let him speak.

[treesurfer]

Tarzan nodded. "Yes. My mother told me." He paused, trying to think of the words to describe his parents. His real parents had died when he was a baby, but his current parents were not human. How was he to say that? Tarzan was still learning all the different words and their meanings, only the most basic, common stuff, were easy to remember.

"She told me... human par-rents died," He stumbled over that particular word, it wasn't something he heard often and forgot that it meant his mother and father. "By Sabor. She... raised me as her own. My father, Kerchak, is the leader of the pack."

[the_tank_girl]

"Pack? Like, wolves or monkeys or something like that? Crazy!" Tank Girl wasn't sure whether he was just stringing her along with a good job of acting, or whether his far-out story was actually true. It sounded like it, and he seemed pretty guileless. On the one hand, she didn't know whether she should entirely believe him. She'd seen plenty of strange things living with the ragtag group of demihumans that had adopted her, but someone living with animals seemed a little out there, even for her. On the other hand, again, he seemed honest

[treesurfer]

"Your family?" Tarzan said, looking at the pictures drawn on the wood. His fingers touched it, sweeping across it to examine it further. "My... family do not look like them."

He took a crayon and, as best he could as he never drew before, tried to draw his mother. He hoped what he drew looked like a Gorilla, he certainly thought what he drew looked like Kala.