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Post by King Tidal Wave on Oct 23, 2013 15:42:54 GMT -5
The sharcampus seemed to brighten up as Eight Cups decided to go ahead and buy a bundle of seagrass. "He's old," the cashier answered, scooping the bits forward and beginning to count them. "And his bark is bigger than his bite. Never really crabby at anyone, just crabby in general."
"What did you want to see him for, anyway?" the gray-scaled hippocampus continued, opening up the cash register to store the bits. "Tarpon doesn't get visitors, or go looking for trouble. Having someone ask about him was unexpected to say the least."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 0:12:03 GMT -5
Eight Cups chewed idly at the seagrass, still recovering from the disappointment from earlier. His ears perked a bit as the sharcampi revealed just how rarely this octocampus had visitors. Maybe this has something to do with why he was so crabby?
"Well, truth be told it's a bit of a weird story. I heard from a few hippocampi back home that there was a strange martial arts teacher out this way. I got interested, gathered enough funds from my folks for the trip and started swimming up this way. I asked around and found this place, and everything points to him being that very teacher...except for his attitude. That is *not* an attitude of a teacher, that's just the attitude of a crabby old 'campi," Eight Cups responded before taking another bite of the seagrass.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Oct 24, 2013 15:15:57 GMT -5
Eight Cups would discover that the seagrass was rather stale. It would be impolite to spit it out, but wow did it taste terrible.
The cashier nodded in understanding. "I don't think Tarpon's taught martial arts for a while. Not since I started renting him the back of the store at least. But you found the right hippocampus at least. He's certainly strange enough," he spoke, ending with a half-forced chuckle.
"As far as attitude goes, being crabby doesn't make him a bad teacher. When I was a guppy, I had this history teacher who would give us extra homework every time we got a question wrong in class. You wouldn't think an attitude like that is very conducive to teaching, but it certainly made us pay attention! Only history class I ever got an A in."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2013 0:02:17 GMT -5
Eight Cups almost cringed as he tried to chew into the seagrass, this was awfully stale and yet...he dared not spit it out. It was already a given that spitting out food someone else had put the time and effort into making was rude enough, but now he was in the middle of a conversation - presumedly - with that very campus.
He moved what he could into his bags, "I'll just save those for the trip home," he practically muttered. "I'm sure he's a good teacher and all, but I'm really only doing this martial arts stuff to have fun and learn new things, and if it's not going to be entirely pleasant then I'll just look elsewhere for lessons. It really is a shame though to have travelled all this way for, well, this to happen," he replied to the sharcampus, "I'll consider coming back someday when I can tolerate his, uhh, 'attitude' and see about making my way home soon."
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Oct 29, 2013 17:10:23 GMT -5
The sharcampi shrugged. "Fair enough. No point in doing a hobby if you don't enjoy it."
"You should check out the lift before you go. I mean, it's one of those tourist things, but it'd be a shame coming all the way here and not even getting a look at it. Ooh, you could even bring back a post card," he said, nodding with a grin towards a rack of tacky postcards near the counter. They all had a picture of the large hydraulic lift or some other site in the town, with BAY LACHANCE scrawled across in big, goofy font.
"There's also the museum; my sister works there in the afternoon. And if crab's your thing, there's this restaurant down the street that serves portions the size of your head." The cashier spaced his hooves out to emphasize his point before letting out an awkward cough. "I'm uh, I think I'm starting to sound like someone from a tourist office. It'd just be a shame if you came all this way for nothing."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2013 0:47:37 GMT -5
Eight Cups nodded as the sharcampi continued, he was most certainly right in just about every aspect there. He did indeed sound like a tourist booth attendant, and it would indeed be a shame if he had come all the way out to the Bay for nothing.
"Sounds like a great idea to me," he started, "The lift's got me interested, but how do I get there from here? Also, do they charge anything for entry? I didn't exactly come out here with too many bits in my bags..."
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Oct 31, 2013 19:04:47 GMT -5
"The Lift's on the Trottingham side of town, as far as you can go. Keep heading North and you can't miss it," the cashier answered. "As far as charging goes, they don't really let campi 'ride' the thing. Mainly used for getting cargo from the floor to the surface and vice-versa. But it's definitely worth getting a look at it. There's a reason why they call it one of the hippocampus-made wonders of the world."
"They're pretty consistent about moving the thing every twenty minutes, which gives you... about fifteen until the next one. They'll have a place you can watch with seats and one of those history plaques."
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2013 2:13:34 GMT -5
Eight Cups smirked, this place was sounding ever the more interesting. Sure it was probably going to be littered in tourists, but at least he can go home saying he not only saw the lift...but that he hadn't come all the way up here for nothing.
He started to swim out of the building, quickly getting his bearings and figuring which direction he needed to go, and waved a goodbye to the sharcampi. "Thanks again, have a good one!" he called as he left the building, quickly starting to swim towards Trottingham and keeping his eyes open for the lift.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 6, 2013 20:07:12 GMT -5
Eight Cups could tell he was getting close to the lift as the amount of activity around him increased. Large cargo containers were being hauled towards and away from the direction he was heading. They came in all shapes and sizes, and pulled by a variety of creatures ranging from large fish to giant crabs. The one thing in common they all had was that they were being tugged along the sandy sea floor, too heavy to transport by any other means. The roads had long since widened to accommodate the increase in traffic, and several lines of transport could be seen moving towards and away from the direction Eight Cups was heading.
Finally the lift was in sight, a massive circular platform with a floorspace the size of several buildings. Large open spaces branched around it where cargo was being grouped together to be loaded onto the lift. There were check-in stations, hippocampi with and without bright blue vests on swimming around with clipboards, and assigned plots on the lift where containers were being moved. Everything was moving at a chaotic, frenzied pace, yet mystically organized and running without collision and interruption.
Meanwhile, the Trottingham seawall loomed ominously directly behind it all: a massive obelisk connecting the landmass to the ocean floor.
Close to one of the outer edges of the lift, Eight Cups could see the seats the cashier had mentioned. They were situated a fair distance above the hustle and bustle below, carved out of a large stone structure planted firmly into the ground. Within it seemed to be a floor or two of some very small sort of miniature museum.
There were three or four rows of seats, each looking like it could seat at least twelve hippocampus. Not that it mattered, considering there was hardly anyone there. Eight Cups could sea a dull purple octacampus in the first row, drawing the scene in a sketch pad. Two green cetacampi, an adult and child, were seated a few rows back. The younger of the two looked bored out of his mind.
A large plaque was located several feet in front of the seats, with an image of the lift and a hefty amount of text embossed into the black and gold metal.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2013 8:15:10 GMT -5
Eight Cups looked about in wonder as he made his way towards the lift. Everyone was all over the place here! Hippocampi moving about in all directions, moving heavy cargo containers in an astounding industrial rush. He had seen traffic and activity similar to this in his home town, but rush hour traffic never did quite match up to this.
Finally he had made it to the chairs, rather surprised that he could actually see someone in the group that looked bored about this whole matter. Why would he be bored, though? It was clearly a sight to behold, the lift and the activity both...and yet here he was, clearly bored out of his mind.
He shrugged off that thought, figuring he must've been from this town and had seen it before before taking a seat. He had come all this way and seen the activity of the workers, he might as well see the lift in action.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 20, 2013 21:51:01 GMT -5
"When's it gonna do something?" Eight Cups could hear the younger cetacampi behind him ask.
"I told you, when the big hand is pointing upwards," answered the older one, referring to a clock on a free-standing tower nearby.
"Why's it take so long?"
"They have to move everything from the surface off of the lift, then move everything from down here onto it."
The child let out a bored sigh, ten or so seconds of silence passing before he spoke again. "Hey mister, what are ya drawing?"
"Drawing the lift," the purple octocampi in front of Eight Cups answered without turning around. Shade could see a sketch of the scene in front of them being worked into the octocampi's notepad. It wasn't surprisingly realistic, even if it was finished yet.
"Isn't it hard with all the campi moving around?"
"Takes practice."
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2013 1:07:19 GMT -5
Eight Cups couldn't help but look to the campi around him as they spoke, his curiousity getting the better of him. As to be expected, the younger one was itching to see something happen and asking several questions to those around him. He smirked to himself, remembering how he wasn't all to different when he was that young. Oh, he would ask *so* many questions of his own parents at far too many points of the day.
The octocampi caught his attention more than the cetacampi, though. He found himself at least a bit surprised someone was deciding to draw this apparently well-known lift. Maybe he had something in mind for the design? Now even he had to admit he had a few questions he would've asked, yet he dared not approach the artist. He wouldn't want to distract or annoy the octocampi when he was in the middle of sketching, so he simply adjusted in his seat and continued to wait for the lift to take action.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 24, 2013 17:01:10 GMT -5
No dialogue passed between the four hippocampi as the minute-hand made its way closer to the top of the clock. As it did, the traffic below them began to change. Hippocampi and cargo already on the lift stayed in place, while those in the area around it focused on moving to the large open spaces branching around the circular platform. About two minutes before the hour, a warning bell rang for a few seconds, alerting campi that the lift would be moving soon.
"What happens if it breaks?" the younger cetacampi behind Eight Cups asked.
"I don't think that tends to happen," the older one chuckled. "They run maintenance on it overnight and do a complete test run in the morning before they start."
"Think it's broken less than twice in the last thirty years," the artist added, continuing to sketch.
"Exactly. They've gotten good at keeping it working."
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