knowing a trifle about everything

[patration]

In the time since Zhuge had arrived on the island, he'd managed to learn a great deal in a number of subjects. Language had, of course, been his very first priority upon discovering the magical bookshelf in the rec room, which was handy in supplying countless dictionaries and other aids for his perusal. Though he wasn't a great fan of limiting

Comments

[yeah_wow_lovely]

It's surprising to find him with a weapon. She's not really thought of it, how dear Liang made his living at home, but he's so gentle. Not only in the way he speaks to her, but with his animals, the baby horse and his lovely birds, in everything, from his measured nods to his quiet smiles. Not once has it occurred to Cassie that he might need to defend himself, and neither has it occurred to her that anyone could ever want to do him harm.

"But," she says, slippered feet all but silent on the forest floor. "Where did it come from?"

[patration]

Back in his world and his time, war is nothing more than a fact of life. Sometimes, it's hard for Zhuge to remember that other places aren't the same. Every land has their periods of peace, it's true, a brief span of time when people respect authority- or, at the very least, fear it. When they are content and able to believe that a leader has their best interests at heart, and in addition to that, has enough strength and conviction of will to maintain it. But underneath all of that always exists some level of fear, of tension, knives hidden under pillows and fires carefully kept burning, just in case it should all tip over at the flip of a coin.

The island is most strange to Zhuge, not because of the seeming magic that has pulled everyone there, but because people on the whole trust one another.

Which is why he doesn't expect to see quite the expression that Cassie wears, as she approaches him from the side. Zhuge looks calmly from her to his weapon, then back up again. Where, he understands. But, he understands

[yeah_wow_lovely]

Cassie comes close enough to touch, pale fingers on the wood of the crossbow, pressing and falling away. It's very well made. Cassie puts bits of paper together sometimes, bends and twists and shapes and folds, and at times it's intricate, but it's never useful. Not like this. Nice, clean lines, each piece of wood fit together to perfection. Strangely, it makes Cassie's stomach rumble to look at.

"I like...boar," she says with a tiny smile. "Is that why you've made it? Hunting?"

[patration]

As much as Zhuge knows that Cassie's made efforts to protect him, often found somewhere in his periphery with her eyes wide and watchful, more often than not Zhuge feels that the impulse to shield her in turn. In some ways, she's like the flame on a candle, beautiful and bright, shining a light on everything around her, but delicate enough that a strong gust of wind might put her out. When it comes to people, Zhuge isn't necessarily the most perceptive, choosing to spend more of his time on their behavior as a collective on the battleground than individually in their private lives, but it's a feeling that he gets from Cassie nonetheless. She's not a very ordinary girl.

Carefully, he tries again for her words.

I like. Is that why you? Hunting?

"Yes," he says, watching her fingers fall away from the wood as he holds up the weapon. "Yes, hunt. And protect. You like..."

He unearths his dictionary from the hidden pocket in his sleeve, looking to Cassie for help in finding her words. "Boar?"

[vestalstone]

Pierrette had looked, but in no part of the island she had seen so far had she found an olive grove. In fact, she hadn't even found a singular tree. In her exploration she had found various fruit baring trees and ripened berries wild on the vine, edible roots and tubers and even some sweet herbs. But as she completed sweeps of the island looking for that one familiar piece of home, she stumbled across many people. Men working, women talking, children playing. But this was the first time she had stumbled across any one person with a weapon, and she had walked across the man just in time to watch the arrows take flight.

Standing off to the side she watched, eyes wide and cautious. The man was more of a stranger to her than anyone she had met so far, his features strange and foreign. When he did not reload his weapon, she took quiet steps forward, her curiosity outweighing her caution.

"Is it broken?" She asked, looking to where the arrows had ricocheted into the grass.

[patration]

In pressing times, Zhuge's focus honed, his eyes fixated on some distant point while all else around him faded into the background. His every sense sought out what it was he needed to achieve his goal. But on the island, he found the opposite to be the case, that there was so much that was new and foreign to Zhuge that he couldn't spend too much time on any single task or detail before turning to the next. He noticed the young woman from a distance, a few seconds before she spoke, her careful nature much like his own colt, cautiously glancing from among trees too easy to disappear among.

He looked up with a smile when she addressed him at last, and upon seeing the skittish expression on her face, made sure to carefully place his weapon down on the ground- the only polite thing to do around a woman, let alone someone unarmed.

"Sorry," he apologized first, hands pressing together while he bowed his head. "My English not too good. Say again one more time?"

[vestalstone]

Pierrette responded to his bow by clasping her hands and dipping her head in the way Anselm had taught her. In private he rarely ever expected such formality from her, but when the townsfolk began bringing his patronage in return for his help, she had been required to learn how to show him respect in front of the gens.

The man's accent was unfamiliar to her, and with her lessons in language she found herself surprised by it. She supposed she should be ashamed for thinking such thoughts, and to think herself an expert on anything was arrogant. But neither his face nor his accent could be placed with the languages Anselm had taught her.

"Ah," she hesitated looking between him, the weapon and the arrows. "The arrows do not work." She tried. "Is your weapon broken?"

[patration]

Some people reacted to Zhuge's bows with complete confusion, or others insisted that there was no need. The fact that the girl dipped her head in turn was a slight surprise, and one that made him think of home, though the styles did not completely match. Trying to do her as much respect in return, he leaned forward slightly, brows knit as he attempted to follow every word and syllable, also tracing the progress of her gaze.

Arrows. Do not. Broken.

His brows raised in comprehension as he shook his head, picking up an arrow from the small pile he had left and running the pad of his thumb against the point.

"Arrow," he began, before pausing to leaf through his dictionary. "Not enough sharp."

[phoinikothrix]

Despite (or perhaps because of) Camilla's continued delay in finding her own place to live, and despite the fact that the island is only so large, Francis considers it remarkable how easily she's able to slip away for hours at a time. Knowing she often went back there--to read, or to think, or to find a way back home, he doesn't know, and wishes he did--he'd headed off through the jungle towards the pool she'd appeared at when she first arrived.

That is, until he heard the faint whistling coming from nearby, followed by a handful of meaty thuds as something collided with something else. He walked closer to investigate, stopping short when he saw the tall robed man brandishing a weapon.

"Were you shooting something?" he asked, raising his hands in the hope that the man wouldn't turn the crossbow on him next. "Where on earth did you get that?"

[patration]

Perhaps it made him an unsympathetic person indeed, but there were very few emotions that Zhuge enjoyed observing more in other people than panic. That said, it was mostly a mixture of curiosity and nostalgia which drew him to excitable people, Lu Su still a strong memory in his mind (and a person he sorely missed for the constant support and bewilderment written over the older man's face), and fear being an emotion that Zhuge did not feel very often. Disasters, negative turns of events, these were all so commonplace for a war strategist that Zhuge was a bit desensitized to it all.

Panic was unacceptable in a man of his profession.

So he turned with a slightly quirked grin to face the man who raised his hands, apparently a universal sign for surrender, palms empty and bereft of weapons. Slowly, Zhuge followed suit, setting his weapon on the ground and thinking more carefully about the words he caught.

You. Something. Where?The words didn't come together quite so smoothly

[phoinikothrix]

"I should say not," Francis muttered under his breath. Cautiously, he lowered his hands, still half-expecting the other man--the armed, non-English-speaking, foreign man--to grab the crossbow from the ground and shoot him anyway, despite his assurances to the contrary.

Slowly, he moved closer to the tree, taking in the crudely painted target and the scattered arrows nearby. "Hunting?" he asked, perhaps a bit more slowly and loudly than necessary. "Or just practice?"

[patration]

The other man approached with such hesitation that Zhuge could only laugh under his breath, shaking his head, wondering if there was any part of him other than the crossbow that was even remotely threatening. On the bright side, the redhead was still trying to make conversation, which was enough incentive for Zhuge to pull his pocket dictionary out from his sleeve, trying to sound out the words he'd just used.

"Ah," he nodded, smiling as he flipped to the correct page. "Hunting, yes. First, make arrow good. After, hunt." Shutting the dictionary shut, he peered at the other man.

"You hunt?"

[lastof_five]

Helen had never really been the sort to get into engineering, her talents laying solely in the biological sciences and genetics. Henry, however, had been a very clever engineer and created all sorts of weapons on behalf of her and the Network. Prior to Henry, there'd been Nikola, and there had never been a reason for her to learn it herself.

"Ni hao, Zhuge," Helen said in greeting, wondering how the man's English was coming along.

[patration]

As soon as Helen stepped out from the distance, Zhuge's face split into a glad smile, his hands slowly lowering his crossbow to the ground- while he doubted that Helen would feel half as intimidated by the crossbow as most of the people on the island, it was still a sign of trust from his end, one he wanted to offer a friend.

"Hello, Helen," Zhuge replied in turn, slowly sounding out the words, hoping to practice and better his English. "And how are you today?"

[lastof_five]

"Your English is really coming along!" Helen said brightly, pleased with his progress. She'd know Zhuge was intelligent but she'd never picked up on a language herself quite so quickly and it was astounding to see in someone else. She drew a little closer, intrigued by the crossbow.

"You made the bolts from bamboo?"

[patration]

"My English is really..." Zhuge paused, tilting his head in confusion, wondering if he'd heard the last part of the sentence incorrectly. One of the greatest shortcomings of dictionaries on the whole, and one that Zhuge had certainly expected when he decided to take up the second language, was the fact that they could only help so much with turns of phrases, with sayings which didn't directly translate from one language to the next. "Coming along. Coming along? I'm not sure what that means, precisely. Your expression and your tone tell me that I've just received a high compliment, for which I am ever grateful, my lady, but I'm afraid my progress isn't quite so great yet."

Watching her draw close, he held out the crossbow for her to hold. "I fashioned these myself. Some from bamboo, others out of wood, some a combination of both. The type of wood available here is very different from what I am accustomed to."

[arrownomore]

Even despite the punishing cardio class, Cissie still made herself take some time out to practice her archery. It wasn't as if she particularly needed to keep up with it, but that wasn't really the point. If she didn't use it, she'd get rusty and if anything happened, there would be trouble. More importantly though, it was a matter of pride. This was something she was very good at and she wasn't going to settle for being second best.

She caught sight of Zhuge on her way to the butts and veered over to greet him. When she got closer and realized what he was doing, her eyes lit up. She'd had a few crossbows in her time but not a repeating one and it didn't matter that not all of the arrows hit the target because the whole idea of the thing was just really cool.

"Did you make that yourself? That is amazing!"

[patration]

There had been a number of people who passed by along the main path to the Compound some distance away, but Cissie was the first to stop, the pattern of her steps drawing Zhuge's gaze up in curiosity until he noticed the familiar face, smiling lightly at the girl. What he found most interesting was how excited her gaze was, glancing at his weapon- he hadn't known very many girls her age who were interested in weapons and combat.

Although he couldn't follow her words very closely, the tone spoke volumes. He raised the crossbow and held it out towards her.

"Want try?"

[arrownomore]

"I would love to," Cissie said excitedly. She carefully set her bow out of the way against one of the palm trees and accepted the crossbow. It was a work of art and no mistake about it, she thought as she carefully held it for a few moments, getting used to the weight and feel of it.

She gathered the crossbow bolts up and loaded them, her movements very precise and professional. For a moment, there was nothing but her and the target in the world and she fired. Not all of the arrows hit the target, but that was more of a thing with the arrows and less with her aim.

"I like this," she grinned and carefully handed it back. "I like this a lot."

[patration]

It was immediately clear from the girl's stance that she had a fair amount of experience with the bow, and he felt another slight pang of nostalgia, thinking to the way that Sun Shangxiang had also taken up the bow and arrow as her weapon of choice- likely a result of her brother being protective, and of the fact that women were so rarely allowed anywhere near the front line itself. While Zhuge hadn't exactly come to pine for anyone in particular from home (Liu Bei being the sole exception), he still couldn't help wondering how each one of them was faring, how the years to come would treat them.

Fortunately, in the meantime, those on the island were just as fascinating to watch and occasionally mentor.

"You very good," he praised with a wide smile. "I am happy you like bow. I maybe make more, you okay take one."