TEL VISHAN BEACH PARTY

[akito]

Characters: OPEN
Date: Saturday, August the 9^th
Location: The Shell 'Coastline' nearest the Water Sector
Situation: Baby Turtle Beach Party!

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At the edge of Asti's shell there are coastlines of natural deposits that make up the closest thing to a 'beach' that they'll ever find in Keeliai. It's here that the official Tel Vishan Beach Party is set to take place. All turtle 'parents' will have gotten a message from their respective hatchlings about said party (perhaps a nice change from the whining and the temper tantrums).

Temporary shaded areas built with poles and sheets for weary parents or hatchlings who do decide to come, and some simple snacks and refreshments have been set up as well. There's a fishing net set up to act as a volleyball net for the day, and a ball waiting in the sand for some players.

The rest is up to those who come.


((ooc: feel free to comment under the headers, or start your own top-level comment!))

Comments

slightly before sneaking away from festivities

[ruinsprofessor]

[Oh, hey, she definitely knows that guy. How's he been doing? She should find out.]

[In the interest of at least pretending this party is someplace she wants to be, Raine heads Jackie's way, stopping several feet before she's in any danger of getting wet. She doesn't at all look like she's ready to get wet, either; while she may have abandoned her jacket in concession to the heat, she hasn't otherwise changed her style.]

[She waits for Jackie to be facing the shore, waves a friendly sort of greeting at him.]

[jinzhong]

[If Jackie didn't respect Raine so much, he might try and splash her. He won't, though. He likes her too much and she doesn't really look like she's dressed for the beach.

He waves at her, grinning.] Hey! Raine!

[ruinsprofessor]

[His enthusiasm is some kind of infectious, and Raine keeps right on smiling back. She takes a couple of small steps closer in the interest of being polite and friendly before stopping again, now as close to the ocean as she really ever wants to be.]

Hello, Jackie. How have you been?

[jinzhong]

[He shrugs.] Doin' all right, you know, survivin'. What's up, not a fan of the ocean?

[ruinsprofessor]

[Her smile freezes for a moment, her expression becoming fixed. This is absolutely not a conversation she is having. But she likes Jackie, so rather than going elsewhere, redirection is the order of the day.] No, the ocean is... fine.

[As long as it's not touching her.]

I don't own suitable clothes for it. [An afterthought, for justification. Not her best reasoning. Quick, a distraction.] Your tattoos. Why a firebird?

[jinzhong]

What? Oh. [Man, everyone's up in his grill about his tattoos today!] 's Fenghuang. Symbol of yin. Virtue and grace and all that stuff. Theoretically. [Noooo, he's not cribbing that from his talk with Anton earlier, not at aaaall.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[Well, they're really quite obvious at the moment. And besides, she can already tell the symbolism is vastly different.]

'Yin'? [Raine peers a little, trying for a better look without being too rude. Not being from an Earth means occasionally missing things that must seem blindingly obvious.] ...Theoretically?

[She hesitates only briefly, then offers, as explanation for this curiosity,] In my world, firebirds don't carry much symbolism. They're elemental monsters which congregate in places with high concentrations of mana, usually fire or lightning. [Annoying to fight off, too, but that part doesn't bear mentioning.]

[jinzhong]

[He shrugs.] Well, it's not like everyone who gets this tattoo is full of virtue and grace. So, theoretically.

[Wow, firebirds sure are weird! Jackie immediately latches onto the salient point.] You've seen one? Like, a real one? [COOL.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[She follows his meaning now, more or less. Especially given that he said his tattoos were a good identifier of less-than-savory activity, if her memory serves.] Ah. Theoretically.

[She has definitely seen one. She has seen multiple ones from far too close, in fact.] Yes-- in the ruins of a city destroyed by fire. They're... beautiful, I suppose. [She'd never thought much on it, beyond noting their weaknesses and their tendency to swoop.] A wingspan perhaps the width of your spread arms, constantly alight. They're more agile than you'd expect, though, for such a large bird. Likely because they're partially immaterial.

[jinzhong]

[Jackie looks amazed.] That's amazing! Wow, I'd love to see one up close.

[YOU REALLY WOULDN'T.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[Probably he really wouldn't, no. Though she does know a lady who can provide protection-from-element artes.]

It's a rare experience. They are fairly aggressive, unfortunately. Still, that's never stopped my students, and there's enough smiths that make fire-resistant armor that it's not impossible.

[jinzhong]

Huh. If they've got all that fire around them, you'd think they wouldn't need to be aggressive.

...do you know any smiths who do that here? It might help for, uh, in case stuff goes down in the future.

[ruinsprofessor]

[A little dryly:] All of the other monsters in the immediate locale are also associated with fire, save perhaps the Fakes. [Wait, he probably won't know what those are.] Mimic monsters, which appear as wood or stone until touched. It may be that aggression is necessary in that context to hold their own, or it may have been engendered by the fading mana. I didn't get enough of a chance to study them.

I don't wear much armor myself, so it isn't something I've pursued here. It may be worth asking around the markets, however, or with those who are practiced in close combat. Something like that certainly could be useful.

[jinzhong]

[Raine, he got maybe one word in four there. Monsters? Mana? Engendered? SLOW DOWN WITH YA FANCY WORDS.]

Why don't you wear armor? [Jackie is not familiar with the "mages don't wear armor, you nitwit" RPG by-law.] Too heavy?

[ruinsprofessor]

[She's familiar with the look of a person whose head she's just talked right over, and so she takes the explanation down a level or two.] They live in fiery areas, so fighting fire with fire doesn't help them survive other monsters. It's also possible that they were affected by the loss of something important from the environment.

[Even if he isn't familiar with that particular bylaw, he's more or less hit the nail on the head.] For the most part, yes. I'm a mage, so in a typical fight I keep to the back. If a monster gets by everyone else, I'm better served by running, or a magical shield.

[jinzhong]

Oh. [That makes more sense. Elemental correspondences have never needed to be his thing, though. All he knows is gun beats knife - sometimes.]

Right, okay. Gotta keep the strategists and so on behind battle lines. [That he is familiar with. Even if he wasn't one of the organizers himself or even close, even though he was nothing more than a grunt, one picks up some basics.

Per the above, you don't send a dude with a cleaver into a warehouse full of 18K with submachine guns. Not his strength, and not Raine's strength to be in the thick of the fighting.]

[ruinsprofessor]

Exactly. [He does catch on, he just doesn't have all the terminology. She can work with that. Much better than just patent disinterest. If he's not careful, ]

If I do find a smith who can do such things, I'll let you know. Light armor might work well for you.

[jinzhong]

[Jackie's interested in loads of things!]

Yeah, thanks. Might be kind of my speed, you know?

wow it does help when I finish my sentences oops

[ruinsprofessor]

[...if he's not careful, she really is going to start trying to teach him.]

Yes, I thought it might be. [She makes a mental note to do that, because while he's no bruiser he could use the extra protection in a fight, and wonders if she's been here long enough that she can get away with slipping away from the beach. Probably.] I'll leave you to your swimming, then? I'm sure I'll run into you again.