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[ She watches at the game accommodates for the difference in size, her head snapping back up to look at him. ] Round two!

[ Pyra whips her own line out into the water, and the bait falls a good distance away. ]

It's just a matter of time-- ah! [ A bite! It nearly pulls her fishing rod right out of her hands too. It must be a decently sized one, at that! Bracing her feet against the edge of her boat, she leans back. Steady, steady. ] Ooh, Noct, this one just might beat yours....!

[ --Bold words for someone who hasn't even caught her second fish for the game, but she's doing it! She's hauling this in...! ]

If it does, I'll pass the crown with pride. ...Until I take it back.

[He's not gonna lose so easily! Now that the game's going properly, he's already trying to snag his next catch.]

Turn the rod towards the fish as you reel, and don't fight as it struggles. It's easier if you let it do half the work for you and tire itself out.

[ She does as he suggests, turning the rod to the side as she begins to reel the catch back it. Water begins to splash during its ascent, breaking at the surface furiously. Pyra squints through the spray— almost there....!

It’s a boot.

She’s caught a sopping wet boot, tangled in kelp.

Very clever, game. ] Wh...

[ She bursts out laughing, beginning to unhook it from the line. ]

Is this a negative point?

[Pffft. Nicely done for the troll, devs. Noctis smirks a little.]

It's a secret accessory. If you wear it on your head, even more fish will flock to your line.

[Is he BSing her, saying it with such confidence? Who knows... (He is. He is absolutely doing that.)]

Oh..? [ ........And there she is, with a boot atop her head.

Noctis is so nice, giving her tips like this....! ]

[ —He’s helping her, when they are competing and he’s already given her a handicap by pointing her towards an easy fishing section.

...........That sure is kelp falling over her face. ]

Noct!

[ Architect, she actually fell for it! ] You...!

[ She’s going to gently toss the wet boot at him. Take that! ]

[Cue a big, shit-eating grin on his face; he ducks under the boot, though the wet kelpy spray gets him as it flies overhead. Her "punishment" does not seem to have done a thing to affect his smile.]

Now that would've been a perfect photo.

[ She attempts to stifle her laughter. Okay, okay, she can admit that was a good trick. ] You’re lucky we’re not in the middle of a fishing game!

[ Pyra huffs while wringing out a lock of her hair, but she fails to present herself as anything intimidating. ] Or I would have given you the boot off this boat.

Talk about the punishment not matching the crime. Where's your sense of justice?

[He continues reeling, pulling up another fish- a normal sized catch that quickly goes to the bucket. When he casts again, he avoids the direction where the boot had fallen back in, just in case.]

[ She tosses her line back out.

She jokes, ] The true injustice of this game is that we cannot make dinner out of what we catch.

[ Oh, a bite? Go, her! ]

I've already shared that grievance with the devs, but my complaint fell on deaf ears. Or... whatever robots have for ears. Microphones.

[Honestly it's like they aren't co-developers now! Where's the peer-to-peer respect.]

What would also be cool is if we could program in fish from other worlds, like we did with monsters in King's Knight. You could try your hand at catching a Vesper Gar.

A vesper gar...?

[ Her new fish is more eel-like, about the length of her arm. How curious, she’s never seen a creature like it. Into the bucket it goes, adding an additional point to her score. ]

Yeah, another fish back home. I kept bumping into this pro fisher who'd challenge me to catch one local to the area. Gars only come out to eat at dawn, so for me, catching one was a big challenge.

[ Challenging not because of the fish itself, but just because it appeared at dawn...

Was a big challenge, at that. ] Oh, but you did catch it! I hope you celebrated instead of going right back to sleep.

Nah... I wish. We had to wait until dinner to properly celebrate, so it was nothing but hunts the whole rest of the day. Worth it, though, Vesper fillet's amazing. Even got me to eat peppers with it.

[ Another memory of his. He shares them so easily.

...Is it easy? ] Anything you haven't caught yet, that you would like to?

[A fish he's never caught... the ones he hadn't heard of yet, is the truth. He never had the chance to fish beyond Lucis, the ocean, and Accordo. The world is so much bigger than all that he's seen. It's not just fishing- there's so many things in his life that he'd still like to do. But... can't.

The turning of his reel slows down, as he weighs the true answer against the one he can actually offer her.]

Mm... Bismarck, maybe.

[ She had thought that turning the conversation away from a memory— that she could never replace, mind, with catching a vesper of her own— to a possible new memory with a different fish would be better.

From his reaction, this probably was the wrong decision. Or maybe she’s reading too much into it. Carefully, ]

Bismarck...?

Edited 2020-04-17 03:01 (UTC)

Yeah, he's a whale.

[Said with an entirely straight face.]

[ She whips her head around, twisting her body to look at him. Is he— it seems like he’s completely serious.

The shock in her voice is apparent, ]

You want to go fishing.... for a whale?

That's enough of a challenge, right?

[The serious expression lasts just long enough for her to react - and keep buying it - until he smiles faintly and ducks his head.]

Just kidding. He's revered as a god of the sea in Accordo- a blessing for anglers of open waters. Hooking that guy would probably curse my line for life.

[Both figuratively his family and literally his fishing line. He pulls in another catch, more of an oversized guppy than anything, but a fish is a fish so into the bucket it goes.]

I would like to see him again, though. He was so cool.

[ Thank goodness he’s not serious about fishing a deity— ]

You... saw him before! [ Why is she surprised? She shouldn’t be surprised! He’s already been marked by multiple gods.

Pyra shakes her head, smiling regardless of her surprise, and looks back out to her side of the lake. ] Well? You can’t just say that and not tell me how he looked. Was he coated in barnacles?

I didn't see any barnacles, but he was covered in these big, sweeping white runes that looked like waves. He was huge- bigger than a sailing ship, with a giant spiral horn on his nose.

[He taps his nose, finger spiraling outwards to demonstrate how far (comparatively) it stretched.]

He's not a real god of the sea- that's Leviathan. But he's ancient enough to have earned himself a legend, and the story goes that if you cast a line where he guides you, you'll run out of space to put 'em before you run out of fish to catch.

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