It took Chaz a half hour to get ready. He packed up what he thought fishing poles looked like, a bucket with a bunch of worms in it, a lunch, and some hooks. As he walked to the river he got nervous, for some reason.
His instincts insisted he should know how to do this. And yet he never learned. He could take apart a combine harvester, make a cotton gin work better, he'd improved the function of his own artificial heart....but he realized as he stared at the water that he had no idea how to fish.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
Letting her mind wander as usual, she hopped through the forest, not really focusing on a destination. In the midst of her thought, she caught a glimpse of Chaz near a river. He looked troubled... Landing close by, she approached him carefully.
"Um... Hello... C...Chaz, was it...? Are... are you alright...? You... s... seem a bit... lost... C... can I help...?"
She stared at him for a second. Her? Know how to fish? It had been all she had been doing for a long time now... No, I'm not going to think about that right now... She didn't want her life to get in the way of what was happening now.
"Y...yeah... I do."
Approaching Chaz, she reached for the fishing equipment he seemed to have put together. Making sure that it was visible to Chaz, she placed a worm on the hook.
"Here... first... you have to load the hook with bait... if you don't... fish won't likely consider coming after a hook..."
Facing the river, she brought her arm up, and cast her line after tying the line to the hook.
"Then... you'll want to cast... make sure to get it in a spot not too close to the edge... you don't typically find fish there..."
With the rod still in her grip, she slowly sat down onto the ground.
Tallia cracked open an eye and saw as Chaz struggled to get the worm on the hook. She could smile back, as her eyes closed again and she regained her focus...
Ow! He hissed, shaking his hand in the air, then sucking on his fingertip as he looked back to make sure Tallia hadn't seen his mistake. He cleared his throat.
So, uh....how do you...get the worms on again? Is there a trick to it?
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
She let out a sigh, as she placed her rod aside a nearby rock, and hoped nothing would tug before she got back. Walking over to Chaz, she gently placed her hands around his.
"Like this... here..."
Making sure that he had enough control of the situation himself, she led the worm into the hook.
"Just... like that..."
She gave him a nod and a smile and headed back for her rod, sitting quietly.
He stared at the hook a moment, trying to figure out how she'd gone it. Then he shook his head, giving up, and tried to cast it like he'd seen Tallia do. He pulled the pole back in one hand, then swung it forward. He looked expectantly at the water for a moment, and then looked up. The hook was stuck in a tree. Chaz stared a minute, then facepalmed.
Fan-tastic.
He walked to the tree and started to climb it, silently, fuming a little.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
Tallia giggled as she heard the sound of a tree rustle nearby. She could certainly tell it was from no animal... Looking up towards Chaz, she called out.
"You... you aren't doing this... on... purpose... are you...?"
Chaz's ears slicked back and he blushed a little as he attempted to retrieve the hook. The tree stretched over the water, and he looked down uncertainly at it as he inched closer.
N-no. Why would I do this on p-purpose? This is a terrible thing to do on purpose.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Tallia "There are some things... that we all can't escape from..."
Yeah, w-well... He could almost reach the hook. He was now hanging all the way over the water.
When you grow up never doing...any of this stuff... He reached forward, his body stretching out, tail straight behind him to try and counterbalance.
It's...a little....hard...to learn.
He grabbed it and plucked it off the tree, bringing it back with a satisfied grin and throwing it to the ground. He was about to climb back down when the branch cracked. There was a single sickening moment where he froze, and then fell into the water. He flailed silently for a moment before realizing it wasn't that deep. He stood up in the river, looked down at himself, and sighed.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.