EVENT | LANDFALL | EVIDET

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: January 28th to February 11th
Location: Evidet
Situation: Tu Vishan has washed up near the coastal city of Khatronma.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.



The suddenness of the looming cliffs takes even the kedan by surprise, in spite of a number of them trying to plot their course with as much knowledge of the ocean’s currents as they already had. Tu Vishan makes landfall without any of the grace shown in previous times, bumping into the cliffs before finally coming to rest on the reef and rocks at the low tide around Khatronma.

Most of Khatronma's shores consist of steep iced cliffs, and once it becomes clear there is no threat, the residents of Khatronma oblige by establishing scaffolding across from the walls of their city to the turtle’s back. A customs area is quickly set apart, and the residents of Keeliai welcomed -- with some slight confusion. The Khatronmans are just as surprised by the unexpected docking as the kedan.

---

LINKS
Khatronma's Landmarks | Launch Day! | The Emissaries | Item Retrieval | Special Location (initially closed) | OOC Post

OOC
Please direct questions to the OOC post!

Comments

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery turned, surprised that the disturbance in the air currents coming down the stairs was Solomon. Coming down the stairs, so he wasn't returning home, unless he'd somehow learned to fly in the last month. Coming from... Raine's.

Had the pair actually moved in together yet, or were they still making nightly visits to each other's bedrooms?

"You, as a matter of fact." Skulduggery moved away from the door to follow Solomon down to the kitchen, where he was presumably headed with the empty mug. "You haven't been to Khatronma yet. Would you like to?"

[peacefullywreathed]

Since Skulduggery was joining him, Solomon turned to continue his original path. "I haven't slept in that room for nearly two weeks," he pointed out. "Could it be that the great Skeleton Detective is slipping, even just a tad?"

The fact that Skulduggery had missed that seemed especially incongruous given he'd been tracking Solomon's movements enough to know he hadn't left Keeliai. "Are you stalking me?" he asked, torn between feeling coddled, exasperated and strangely reassured. "How would you know where I've been lately, otherwise?"

[skeletonenigma]

"Of course not," said Skulduggery. "I made an educated guess, and you just confirmed it for me. You also haven't answered my question. Would you like to come with me to Khatronma?"

It was always possible Solomon had prior plans with a certain white-haired young intellectual. Skulduggery wasn't lying when he said he hadn't been stalking Solomon; stretching the truth a little, perhaps, but not lying. It was easy to discover whether someone had left a city. It was a little harder to know what their every move was - or, for that matter, where they were sleeping.

[peacefullywreathed]

It seemed like a simple question--but since it was Skulduggery asking, it probably wasn't. "Why are you asking?" Solomon returned, raising an eyebrow. "You're interested in my personal well-being, now? I'm unsure whether that's a sign I should die more often, or it's a punishment for doing so."

[skeletonenigma]

"I'm both flattered and insulted," Skulduggery returned. "I'm very interested in your personal well-being, and if the only reason you find palatable is that I'd rather you not fly off the handle again, then it's because I'd rather you not fly off the handle again. Would you like to invite Raine? I'm sure no one would mind."

[peacefullywreathed]

"What other reasons might there be?" Solomon asked with a raised eyebrow as he went into the kitchen. He knew, in some way, that there were some; but it was in much the same way that he knew Raine had them. He didn't quite like to think about the whys and wherefores, because they usually didn't make all that much sense. Whatever he and Skulduggery had shared in the past had been a very long time ago, and their first meeting upon Skulduggery's return could well be explained as an outlier due to Skulduggery's unstable state of mind at the time.

"I already have plans with Raine." He didn't, but he could very well make some, and had fully intended to do so once the initial rush off the turtle's back had passed. He just wasn't going to do it on Skulduggery's suggestion, as if he couldn't think of it himself. "Why do you believe my personal wellbeing is invested in visiting Khatronma?"

[skeletonenigma]

He was going to make this difficult. Granted, asking questions wasn't difficult by the strictest definition of the term, but it would have been much easier for both of them if Solomon had simply said 'thank you, but I already have plans', and left it at that.

"Alright," Skulduggery said, lingering only temporarily in the kitchen doorway. "Perhaps not your personal well-being. I hope you and Raine have a splendid time."

He meant it, too. Without a trace of facetiousness. A fact which might have been belied by his turning to leave a moment later.

[peacefullywreathed]

Solomon sighed, picked up one of the wooden cups, and threw it at the back of Skulduggery's head. "I said I already have plans with Raine," he said. "Not that my plans with Raine encompass the entirety of our stay in Khatronma, however long that might be. Did you only want to talk to me to make sure I was courting her properly, or are you making the suggestion for some heretofore reason left unnamed due to an over-abundance of ridiculous mystery?"

[skeletonenigma]

The cup never actually made contact with the back of Skulduggery's head, due to bouncing off a compacted wall of air instead. It clattered harmlessly onto the floor, but it did recapture Skulduggery's attention enough for him to turn back around.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, an uncharacteristic note of confusion in his voice. "When I say 'let's go to Khatronma' and you say 'I already have plans with Raine', it doesn't leave much room for alternative interpretation."

[peacefullywreathed]

"You said 'let's go to Khatronma'," said Solomon, retrieving the cup when it bounced near his foot. "Then you said 'You can invite Raine if you want', and then I said I already had plans with her. As in, there is no need to invite her on this occasion because I will be going with her to Khatronma at a later occasion, in response to your very pointed secondary offer, made only tangentially related to the first. For a man who claims to be a genius, your ability to properly parse verbal subtext is abysmal."

[skeletonenigma]

"I do apologise," Skulduggery muttered. This particular flash of irritation was very, very familiar where Solomon was concerned, unfortunately, and the only thing which stopped him from turning around and writing off the entire request as a mistake was the strange dichotomy between this meeting and their last.

Extenuating circumstances, of course, but that didn't preclude the potential.

"Let me try this again," said Skulduggery. "Would you like to go to Khatronma with me?"

[peacefullywreathed]

"I'm flattered, Skulduggery," said Solomon dryly, "but you know I'm a one-woman man." Then he shook his head, setting aside humour to seriously consider the request. Skulduggery still hadn't explained why he wanted Solomon's company. For a job? For enjoyment? The thought was practically amusing in its own right, and a year ago Solomon would have dismissed it entirely.

It wasn't a year ago. Solomon considered Skulduggery for a moment, considered his propensity to be an emotional moron and his inability to say what he actually meant, and how Solomon as an eighteen-year-old had been conned into thinking it represented. "Alright," he said finally. "Did you have anything particular in mind?"

[skeletonenigma]

"Nothing whatsoever," Skulduggery replied. It didn't quite contain the amount of cheer it likely deserved, but he could fix that - and did, with the next time he spoke. "But I'm sure we can stir up some trouble somewhere. They are, as a whole, entirely too trusting."

He paused, and then added: "They don't guard their ships very well, either."

They did, as a matter of fact. Ships seemed to be their specialty, and the one they were about to launch was impossible to get near without the proper authorisation. But that wasn't the point of the statement, and with any luck Solomon would remember what that point was.

[peacefullywreathed]

"Do they not?" Solomon asked with some degrees of both amusement and intrigue. They did, of course. That line felt eminently familiar, in the way of a memory long forgotten and still not quite--but almost--returned. It felt like something Skulduggery had said many, many times, and even though Solomon never believed it, because it was always inaccurate, he still carried on as though it was true.

Solomon was far more experienced these days, and yet ... and yet.

"It would be a pity to berth in a port-city and not examine their ships. Maybe--" So very dryly. "--we'll even find one that sails itself for you."

[skeletonenigma]

"They already have boats that can sail themselves," Skulduggery reminded Solomon. "Motorboats. Not much of a challenge. I'm much more interested in the large paddle-steamer sitting in their harbour, and how they intend to sail something so large next to such steep cliffs."

He could always ask someone, or possibly even attend the ship's scheduled launch day. But where would be the fun in that?

"Ready to go?" Skulduggery asked, gesturing to the door.

[peacefullywreathed]

"Motorboats still need to be steered, Skulduggery." Solomon sighed a touch dramatically. "Oh, very well. Let me get my shoes. And something to bribe people with. And possibly some snacks so I don't starve when you inevitably forget to give me time to eat ..."

For all that he was teasing, his preparations didn't take all that long and he met Skulduggery at the door, satchel over his shoulder and straightening his coat. "Now we can go."

[skeletonenigma]

"You have something you can bribe people with?" Skulduggery asked, but a fraction too late. He didn't mind; he'd meant it as a hypothetical question anyway.

Once they left the Hotel, it was a hop, skip, and a jump - so to speak - over the turtle's back and into the cliff-side city of Khatronma. It would have been even faster as the crow flew, but Skulduggery deferred to Solomon's walking pace, partly to be polite and partly because he hadn't actually gone into Khatronma on foot before. The cliffs seemed much taller from sea level, as could probably be expected, as though all of Asti had been surrounded by sheer glaciers of ice. The positioning of the scaffolding meant that the paddle-steamer was visible in the bay before the city was.

"They're launching it soon," said Skulduggery. "Within the week, I believe."