Schneider gets his fish cooked.

Schneider and the rest of the Scale party has led Tri Edge on a merry chase, sort of, and has wound up on the sixth floor, in the town of Stachion, just at the top of the stairs. With no signs of pursuit, the party considers itself safe and disbands, people going where they need to go. Schneider, though, still has a fish stuck to his ass, though as he was wearing pants when he was bitten, the problem is more embarassing than indecent. Still, he's got to burn his big regen from time to time, so he's like to get it removed. He's heard that Vertina can do this, so he's asked her to pause here in the town, where they can get any supplies we might need to do this. As long as they involve mushrooms or rocks.

Vertina gives him a moment to pump his HP back up. "Well now I see how you've gone this long with that little nibbler stuck. You'd die of embarassament first." Says the Salamander in a frilly maid outfit. But Vertina has this to focus on so she's not in the mindset to fuss about it. "How's the the head feeling?" she asks idly, while squatting down to inspect the piranha-like fish on his posterior. "Last time it was just on someone's arm. This might be a little more tricky."

Schneider is not going to say a word about embarassing to a six-foot lizard woman in a maid outfit. What happens in Carmina Gadelica stays in Carmina Gadelica. "My head's fine," he says in reply to her question, though. "I feel like I can put a more critical burn in my fire, is the main thing. I just kind of /know/ how to do it." Which is what comes of messing with strange game artifacts. As far as the fish on his ass, he nods about it being complicated. "So yeah, what, do you just make a fire and I sit down on a camp stool with my ass hanging off the back?"

"No, but you do probably want to sit down. Or lay on your stomach." Fortunately Vertina did come prepared, in case they were on that flight long enough she had to try and make food for them, retrieving a fillet knife from her inventory. "These bastards lock their jaws down even as they die from being out of water, that's why it keeps 'nibbling' on your health as it were. I need to skin it enough to break the jaw loose.... and then yes, I can cook the resulting meat drop."

Schneider has basic camping gear in his inventory, and he pops out a basic camp stool, just a simple folding X-frame with a leather seat top. Concentrating, he says, "You know, I can help a bit. Hangon." He screws his face up in a look of concentration and casts, "Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell!" Whic doesn't sound like something for cooking. "HALLOWEEN!" he concludes, pointing at a spot on the ground, and because of how he focused, he makes a very intense fire in a very small area. It gives off an unsettling aura, but is a somewhat typical fire, as fires go, other than not needing fuel to burn. He sits down on the camp stool facing away from the fire, scooting back so his rear hangs off the back, at a decent height to work with, if she sits on the ground next to the fire.

Vertina lets out an appreciative whistle. "That's some fine control you've got there." Usually she sees that move as a big blast of flame, so this is really precise. "That'll help." Vertina squats down cross-legged next to the fire while Schnieder settles himself on the stool with his butt sticking over the back just enough for her to get to the fish. "Now just hold still." She holds her fillet knife in the flames for a bit to heat it up, then starts working on slicing into the piranha's scaley flesh. "So, these were hidden Undine ruins huh?" She heard part of the story from Kaydon while removing his fishy fiend.

The heat might be a bit uncomfortable so close to his rear, but Vertina is doing his best to only slice the fish and not stab her ally in the butt.

Schneider smirks about fine control over Helloween, and says, "Yeah, but it's probably burned a hole ten feet deep. We'll leave something over it when we leave," he suggests. He nods about the Undine ruins. "Yeah, I was hoping to find some stuff there that'd help with some of the old Alvish songs I've been working on with Uta," he explains. "But there wasn't anything like that there. Still, there's some interesting ancient mystery type stuff floating around in the game." Any discomfort he feels as Vertina does the thing with the fish, he doesn't mention. Best not to think about it, was how he was told to think of sports injuries in school. Don't dwell on it, it just makes it worse. Think of someting else. "Still, going to check out some other ruins soon, too. Got to keep looking. You never know."

Vertina would agree with that sentiment, for similar reasons. She was the sort that wouldn't worry about hurtning an ankle until after the game was over. Right now she's focused on the fish. Managing to cut a few layers back, but the weird position is slowing her work a bit. But it's for much the same reason she keeps up the conversation, to give him something else to talk about. "Music does seem to be a pretty big thing around here. Goes over my head though.. ah!" A pause. Some light muttering. "It's okay! Caught my finger in one of its gills. Damn, even those have an edge on this little bundle of sharpness."

Schneider nods about the music, agreeing, "I never expected how big a part it would be, or I would have maybe built the character differently. But I can't hold a tune in a bucket in real life, so maybe just as well. But I'm looking for enough Alvish to try actual cryptography alorhythms on, I think that might lead to a translation. Uta's worked on Alvish, but just the singing side, it turns out. So I think it's a new angle." He winces as Vertina mention catching her finger, and he says, "Yeah, they were a huge pain in the ... well, you can guess."

"Never hurts to look at a problem from more than one angle. Even I know that, and I'm terrible at puzzles." Vertina cuts a bit deeper with the heated knife, trying to get where she can get at the jaw joint. "And Uta is always an... interesting experience... Okay. Hold still. You're probably going to feel this." Vertina jabs the point of the knife just behind the fish's head where she's striped most of the flesh back, and slams the heel of her other hand into the butt of the knife handle. Schneider would feel the jerk from the force... but it's followed by a cracking sound and the pressure releasing as the jaws break apart.

"Got it!... Ack!" Vertina quickly stabs the knife into the fire to retrieve the fish meat drops from the fire before they burn entirely. Pulls a proper frying pan out, tosses them in and sets that over the fire. "Well, now we've got a meal for the trip back to Tolbana."

Schneider winces for a moment as Vertina finally cuts the fish free. "Ah, yeah," he says. "More than one angle." He's not sure whether the subject now is songs or fish? But then the pressure is gone, and he can breathe a sigh of relief. "Ah, thank you," he says, and as she starts cooking, he'll stand and turn around to watch, surreptiiously rubbing his sore backside. Still, not the worst he's had. And a cooked meal for the road, to boot. "Thanks!"

"Glad to help... if I'd known you were needing that sooner I'd said something." Now that the fish is cooking over the fire properly she scoots back a bit so she's not almost in the flames herself. "This is proving to be a useful skillset, really glad I decided to pick it up properly." She gives her head a light shake. "Too many extra mouths to feed in Tolbana for the hired staff to keep up with."

Schneider nods quickly, "If I'd known you could, I'd have come to you instead of going outside the Alliance," he admits. "But yeah, everyone's coming to us when NWA has put their ... when they've found out that the world isn't happy and joyful and sparkly like when we were six." He shrugs. "I'll bet they're glad we've cleared the Tower floors now. But I wonder how tough the Palace Landers are. I wouldn't mind facing off against them."

"It's been a rude awakening for many of the more idealistic people. But other than the crazy that tried to storm the entrance they haven't shown much interest in the Tower so I guess we're the safest place to be for the people not wanting to fight." Vertina gives the pan a light shake over the fire to get the fillets flipped to cook evenly. "I'm not complaining! It's been great for business in the Tavern. But we're short on proper cooks that don't have to rely on the menu options. See a need, fill a need, something like that... and it does go good with the other skills I already have."

Schneider makes a face at the rude awakening comment, and laments, "I'd be almost OK if it /was/ an awakening. A few of them are still all 'I don't want to /fight people/'." He says that in a sarcasticly falsetto tone. "I'm thinking, we're all stuck here. You stuck your d... hands," he changes what he /had/ been going to say at the last moment, "in the masher, you ought to do something about it." He nods, though, about business booming, "That's a bright side, at least," he agrees.

Vertina snickers a bit, she picked up exactly on what Schneider almost said. She wouldn't of cared, but some people are sensative about ratings and what not still. She lifts the pan from the fire, giving it a moment to cool off, before turning and offering it towards Schneider. "Take a few for your trip off to wherever next, it'll help you get your strength back up without draining that magic of yours."

Schneider is still young enough that he's in the habit of watching what he says. Particularly in front of women. When she offers him a couple of fresh fish filets he won't say 'no', reaching out to touch one, adding it to his inventory rather than trying to handle it with bare hands. Because that'd be weird, and probably burn him. "Thanks," he says earnestly. "And thanks for getting rid of that thing. It was getting to be a pain in the ... well, you can guess." After Vertina takes her share, he will summon a small earth elemental and order it to fill in the firehole. It does, but the fire keeps on burning when the elemental has expended himself. "Fire's too much for it," he says weakly.

Vertina actually chuckles a little. "Your fire is almost too good." She uses her geokinesis to draw up a much larger lump of dirt and rock, and drop it right on top of the firehole. "If that doesn't smother it out, it will at least keep it from spreading."

Schneider's evil hellfire is smothered; it had nothing to burn but the air, and without that, it fades out. He smirks as she praises his fire, though. He is pretty proud of it. "Ah, perfect," he says. And then we can get the hell out of Dodge.