I'm 12 and what is this? [Ira/Ulv]

So this was the mayor's place, eh? Pretty nice, Ira couldn't say he'd ever spent much time around mansions like this, though he'd have thought it might be a little...closer to the ground. He'd meant to run by sooner, but it seemed like any time he wanted to talk to this lady she was either busy or out of town. Just his luck, eh? Well, he wasn't just gonna sit his ass around town forever, no sir! It'd been more than just a little longer of a walk than Ira might have been ready for (perhaps in no small part because he still wasn't used to this much shorter stride or undeveloped muscle), but in time he found himself at this authoritative-looking manor, if rather exhausted by the trek.

He'd have used the knocker, but it turned out it was a little out of his reach, so in the end he just rapped his hand against the door.

"'Scuse me, Miss Mayor? Ya here? Hopin' I might be able to learn a thing or two from ya!"

Crossing his arms and taking a decidedly masculine posture, Ira simply looked around as he awaited a response. Assuming he got one, anyway. He'd feel like a real ass if he was here knocking on the door to an empty house after that whole journey here.

Now, there were a lot of things Ira had expected from the mayor, and he had seen her before in the news reports. But he didn't quite anticipate seeing her in this light, and the suddenness of it made him laugh. To say it was an incredibly strange sort of laugh was an understatement, as it was a hearty, boisterous laugh from the depths of his chest. It would have sounded like any exuberant old man's laugh, if not for the fact that it was the voice of a young girl.

"That's quite a first impression, Missy! Well, don't feel the need to cover up on my behalf. The name's Ira, Ira Holyfield! I'm lookin' to learn a thing or two about gettin' strong!"

Extending a hand with a wide grin, Ira studied the woman before him curiously. It wasn't exactly hard to discern that she was strong, and even if not for having seen the video of her in action, he would have had no doubt that she could have pulverized him even in his prime. She'd make a perfect teacher, and she wasn't bad to look at, either. A good bonus, that.

"Ah, don't worry about that, these old bones have seen more'n that! Well, maybe not these bones, but ah... You get the idea."

The mention of said bones, and perhaps more pressingly Ulv's mention of a sick bed, made Ira's cheerful demeanor drop more than just a touch. Not that he was annoyed with her or anything, but it was still a relatively fresh wound. And even if it weren't, the loss of a granddaughter wasn't something one got over quite so easily. Still, he'd come here for a reason, and his voice retained its confidence, definitely conveying his years in a way that his actual appearance quite simply could not.

"Whole life would be more accurate. I can sure try to explain all this to ya if you've got the time, but I'm not the sort ta take no for an answer. I'm not gonna let this body go to waste! Don't wanna break it, but there's too much goin' on for me to sit around and hope I stay safe. You get my meanin'?"

"Aha, I heard about that! That was all over the news for a while, ya know, big stuff. Read about it in the paper."

Ira took the greeting, and the travel to the kitchen, all in stride. It wasn't that he considered the whole thing normal, he just wasn't too worried about it. Weird world they lived in, weird things happened. He'd gotten used to it after a while.

"The very beginning, huh? Well, born and raised in Florida in the good ol' US of A. Spent most of my life on the docks 'til I met my wife Louise, beautiful lady she was. After that I ended up spendin' most of my days at sea to pay the bills, but whenever I came home I loved that woman to death."

There was an obvious light in Ira's eyes as he spoke about his lost wife, a pride even in those few years he'd been able to spend with her.

"Well, we ended up havin' a little boy together, but Louise bringin' him into the world. Did my best to raise him, but bein' a single father's not easy, ya know. Miles was a good young man, I was proud as could be when he found a wife of his own. Mm...it was harder to lose him than Louise, truth be told."

Fingering the rim of his teacup as he looked into the drink for a moment, Ira quickly shook his head, looking away once more as he saw his reflection.

"But he had a little girl of his own, and I took her in too. Wouldn't be right not to. Ada was the sweetest thing in the world, ya wouldn't believe it. But I couldn't stop sickness, ya know. I could pay for treatment, but it wasn't enough. Girl barely made it to 12 years old... A real fuckin' shame."

The tone in his voice had definitely turned even more bitter now. Of course it was, given the circumstances. Ira didn't expect to be able to magically cure sickness, but he still wanted to do what he could. He still missed that girl every day.

"Well, ya hear all sorts of rumors when you're a man of the sea. I'd heard of some mystical mumbo jumbo that there was some spring on an island that'd give your life to the dead. Didn't know whether it was real or not, but I was suring willin' to try, so I took her after she died and went right into the water. Didn't work."

He gestured to himself then, a simple little motion toward his face- Ada's face.

"And here we are. My life went into her alright, but it didn't work like I'd wanted. Now I just wanna live a life in her memory, do right by it. Would've liked for things to be peaceful, but it doesn't seem like the world's gonna let that come easy."

Ira ran a hand idly through his hair, grimacing a touch at the reminder of the drastic difference in anatomy. It'd taken a while just getting used to things like balance, let alone...other stuff.

"Believe me, I've learned awful quick that I'm not exactly the man I was. Can't go haulin' marlin onto the decks with these, now can I?"

Flexing his rather pathetic biceps as if to illustrate his point, Ira chuckled quietly to himself, a tinge of sadness accompanying the earnest amusement. It was heartbreaking, knowing she'd always been confined to that bed of hers. What he'd have given to take her to sea just once.

"Well, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some expert on all this. That's why I thought I'd make my way here, learn from someone else who's got a rough idea what I'm workin' with. I'm not expectin' some secret sauce to turnin' this body of mine into a weapon of mass destruction or anything like that, but I'll put in the work I gotta put in, learn what I gotta learn."