Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party!]

"Thanks Genevaaaa" calls Nick Jr as he slithers his way into the shallows to go find his new(?) friend.
Meanwhile, stuff setup? Nick does his best to help with the umbrella.
"Did you know that person?" he asks, having seen that look Geneva made. He isn't sure which person she was looking at. Maybe the demony looking person? She does look very noticeable and in the direction Geneva was looking.

[Rebonack]

[Beach Party!]

"That's Sekhmet, I met her at the Thanksmas party last year. She didn't look like that before. Or at least less like that. Less demon-y," Geneva replies. She sounds concerned. "She's had some pretty terrible things done to her. I've been giving her weekly flying lessons and doing my best to be a good friend. She... missed the last one. She said she wasn't feeling well. I can see why..."

Despite the worried tone a small smile tugs at the corners of Geneva's beak.

"I'm glad she's out in public, though. The whole... devil thing makes her very uncomfortable. She could have just retreated inward. Sequestered herself away. But being out here means she's healing."

Geneva tilts her head at the fellow with her.

"Not sure who that is, though. Maybe her boyfriend?"

She had mentioned other people who were important to her after all.

Meanwhile out in the surf!

"GUH!" gasps Khannie as she suddenly pops out of the water, her hair dripping. Because of course she's disguised as a human. That's just how she rolls. She's wearing one of those cute little one-piece girl's swim suits. "How do you hold your breath so long it's weird."

Who's she talking to?

A little bronze wyrmling surfaces nearby! That's probably who. "I don't! I can breath under water it's super-swell."

"You can breath under water AND talk to crabs!?" Khannie gasps incredulously. "You have all the coolest super powers!"

The wyrmling looks a bit downcast at that. "I would trade 'em for being able to look human like my sis..."

Khannie pats the wyrmling on the head. "Aaww... it's okay Navvy. I bet you'll be able to figure it out! Oh! There's Nick! HEY NICK! THIS IS NAVVY HE CAN TALK TO CRABS ISN'T THAT COOL!?"

Maridia, meanwhile, is sleeping on a large black rock nearby striking out of the surf. Looks like a good place for a fairy dragon to sun herself.

[bc56]

Beach Party - Prumathe and His Girlfiend

Sekhmet glances back at Geneva and whoever is with her. Is that her husband? They're watching her and talking. She feels a little unhappy with the attention. What are they saying? Prumathe will probably notice that Sekhmet, although she's still following him, is not paying attention anymore.

[Purple Eagle]

[Beach Party]

Teen loves

"Let's find out." Karasu takes a bite of the halloumi cheese, moaning in pleasure as the delicious food item melts in her mouth. "Mmm... mmm delicious... Where has this been all my life?" She says in enjoyment.

She leans back into Natalie, doing the same thing she does to anchor herself. "The sand is lucky." She quips with a grin.

"So you've told me about your forms, but what's new with conjuration?" She asks, enjoying the food and company.

Jack & Chidi

"I can manipulate sound and its properties; and use it for offensive, defensive and utility purposes. Like, silencing loud noises or using soundwaves to make things vibrate." Chidi says, smirking cheekily at his sneaky flirting.

"A tour guide? I could use a tour of the Nexus. I've been to Trog's, MERC and recently did some superheroing with a friend in Inside's Commercial District. What's a groundpounder, though?" He asks, confused.

[Shadowcaller]

Approaching the Crystal Pinnacle

The harpoons aren't fired at the crew- they're fired at the ship, to hold it in place as engineers and security start boarding. Anyone holding a gun is likely to be shot by the security teams, though their weapons are primitive- each security officer is wearing a metal breastplate and helmet, and are armed primarily with shotguns, swords and a few mismatched rifles captured elsewhere. The engineers don't have the armour, but they carry heavy-duty tools; rivet guns, circular saws, massive hammers, powered shears, and are well-experienced with their use. Mostly they want to start dismantling the destroyer to recycle its parts. Any goblin that is captured will be disarmed and taken off to a holding pen elsewhere in Beverly-in-Hull's Gut.

Once the destroyer is inside the town, the Jaws shut and the town speeds up. They're heading straight ahead, the mayor trying to escape with his town without getting sunk or destroyed. The two steam guns, one on either side, fire at the other boats in the goblin fleet, propelling primarily incendiary and fragmentary bombs. They aren't especially accurate, relying primarily on rate of fire than accurate shops.

[Operation Seaslug]
"No, we're not. And while I might certainly be pleasant and nice, I wouldn't imagine I could call myself good." Titania points out, holding the book and shrugging while she follows along. "I don't know what sort of demon I am. I was a golem first, then...changed." She explains. Another look up at the Gate and she shudders visibly, disturbed at the sight. Whatever was coming through, she had a feeling she definitely didn't want to be involved. Not if most demons were like the mindless insects she had fought or were as insidious as her classic literature collection told her they were. "You don't have a middle name of Faust, do you?" She asks Will, taking a glance at him. "Just making sure."

Moonwell: Keep Talking and No Feline Explodes

Blanche only catches a glimpse of the massive skeleton starting to materialize in the looming glow that flares from the moonwell as she rushes downstairs, forcing the terrifying sight from her mind before she can dwell on it. There's nothing she can do about it at the moment. She needs to focus on what she can do, what matters now.

The catgirl slows as she enters to let her gaze dart through the room. Two hostile constructs, one stunned and the other on its way out as Geneva engages it. Another ally incapacitated, holding- her eyes light up at the sight and she lowers to snatch up the contraption as she moves into the room. She looks over it, finding for the activation... there! - before swiftly arming it, winding back her arm and throwing the device square into the metal construct's face. Hands immediately go to her new rifle as soon as the throw is made, toggling the safety - or reaching for one that isn't there, making Blanche silently frown and judge its construction - and pulling the trigger. If that stun wears off, hopefully a couple rounds will keep the thing's focus occupied before it can notice the explosive about to detonate in its face.

[Moonwell: Keep Talking and a Demon Probably Explodes]

Oh good.

Help is here.

Geneva isn't totally sure what the purpose of the device on the demon's face is, but she's guessing it probably isn't something friendly.

Is that a bomb of some kind?

It sure looks like one.

Hopefully it doesn't cause the other bomb to blow up.

Geneva alters the shape of her barrier from a sphere to a teardrop shape, causing the pressure to launch her free from the demon like a watermelon seed. As she zips away she reaches out with her telekinetic grasp and pulls the unconscious halfling away likewise, before warping the enclosed barrier into a wide hemisphere. With any luck it should be able to catch any stray shrapnel from the face-explosives.

And with luck?

They'll still have time to get the bomb off the ship.

Approaching the Crystal Pinnacle

"All hands on deck! Prepare to repel boarders!" The captain of the destroyer calls out through the comm system onboard.
The crew have retreated inside by now to have at least the hull between them and whatever awaited them inside this strange ship. Now weapons are starting to be handed out among the crew.
Meanwhile the soldiers with more than just basic combat training onboard are already armed and have taken positions on higher altitude near the locations on the ship which the invaders have decided to board.
They're using weapons similar to the M4 carbine often modified with a accessory weapon system akin to this which makes their weapons shotguns in practice. They should be more than enough to punch through the armors the boarders are wearing.
While the main contingency forces are near the breaches the sharpshooters of the unit have remained further back to snipe off key targets. In this case meaning anyone carrying more advanced weapons such as the shotguns.

Meanwhile, the ship will only get a few more moments before the destroy opens fire on it.
Due to the sheer size of the Beverly-in-Hull it isn't afraid of display it's full range of firepower either as it fires off a full complement of both missiles and torpedoes.
The missiles are aimed for the rear where the ships engine is likely to be while the torpedoes are aimed at the waterline of the ship.
Several drones are now being deployed by the seawitch too but they should still be outside the range of the Beverly's turrets as they're quickly starting to catch up with the enormous ship. While the Beverly likely was fast for a ship its size it was unlikely to be able to compete with the drones in the terms of speed.

Above the moonwell

More and more of the dragon starts to reform as skeletal pieces appear out of the swirling purple vortex that surrounds it. While it's in a constant state of grinning it still manages to align it's jaws to grin even more. It's not staring at the VIGIL ship however, it's staring right into the vortex as if seeing something it likes within it.

[Moonwell: Keep Talking and a Demon Probably Explodes]

((Gonna try to simplify things a bit so they're easier to keep track on. As an experiment.))

1. The metal fiend loses its grip of the ball-like barrier Geneva is hiding inside as she darts away.

2. It turns to Blanche and gets shot in the face as the catgirl also throws the device at it.

3. Trying to stabilize itself it gets hit in the face by what was thrown which then explodes as Blanche's second shot hits its mark, the primer.

4. The explosion that follows isn't especially large or loud but its bright. So much so that anyone looking in it's direction (unless Geneva's shield also protects them from light) will be temporarily blinded.

5. Anyone that isn't blinded will see the metal fiend collapsing on the floor shortly followed by parts of its head which seems to have been completely blown off by the explosion.

6. Furthermore, anyone still able to see might also note that the demonic bomb has started to glow red. Probably not a good sign.

[Moonwell Convergence]

Anika is currently a bear and bears don't have strong opinions on other people's faces unless it's regarding how eatable that face is.
Currently Anika would give Laz's face a 1/10 rating, would not eat.
She turns her attention to the hatch that she totally just found on purpose and swipes her paw at it. This is completely ineffectual and even she probably realized that as she didn't really try that hard as it likely would hurt her claws more than it would damage the hatch.

Laz attempt to open it is more effective however as she can feel it starting to loosen with a loud sound of metal breaking. She's going to have to pull again but eventually it does open up just enough for her and Awen to slide down through it. Underneath it is a shaft with a ladder carved into it that's illuminated by faintly glowing red orbs in-between each step.

But before they climb down the ladder they might notice something, the carvings displaying open lidless eyes have all mysteriously changed into simple lines as if they just closed while they weren't looking. This seems to suddenly turn the entire ship, the hatch they just broke open included, invisible.
The shaft is still there but it now looks like some kind of weird rift in reality that they would have to climb into.

If they do, they will find that it's uncomfortable warm inside the obelisk ship. The temperature well above that which most humanoids are comfortable with. It probably won't bother Laz but Awen might need a spell to not be drenched in sweat or have trouble breathing down there.

Of course, once they've either just jumped/flied down into the hatch or started climbing the ladder they will notice that the sunlight coming through the breach Laz just created suddenly disappears. Did the hatch close? Nope.
It's just a bear trying to come through and not quite fitting.

A transformation later Anika still struggles a bit as she's larger than both of them even with all that armor Laz is wearing. "Stupid... okay, there! I'm throuuu-"

And so the druid falls down the hatch.

[Operation Seaslug]

The gnoll boy sticks out his tongue in disgust. "Good." He agrees as he gestures for them to keep moving. "But duh. Of course I'm worried. Why you think we're going outside the city? When the demons come they always go deeper inside since they know people are dumb and run for their homes. They're clever enough to not follow a single person into the wilderness. Too many hiding places, not many targets, too much wasted time." Indeed, just a couple of steps outside what seems to be the city limits the jungle quickly takes over. While there is signs of civilization here as well, such as bottles and cigarettes laying on the ground, the foliage is rather dense.

"By going to the hill we both get to see in which direction the demon is gonna go and we get to escape the crowds. The demons always go for the crowds." He explains before suddenly stopping when Titania asks for his name. "I'm Leopold Da'thang Blackfur." It sounds like he's been training to just say that name by how smoothly he puts it while also elegantly bowing before TTN. "But you may call me Leo." He looks between the two. "So you really are new, huh? We always get a lot of demons visiting. Though they usually don't come through rifts, and certainly not as big as that one." He taps his head twice. "That's why you need to read ahead." He proclaims proudly as he buffs up his little chest a bit.

[Arkhosia]

Moonwell: Keep Moving or Everybody Explodes

”Agh, [shist]!” Blanche staggers as the device explodes, ears ringing a little - it may not be very loud, but it’s still in an enclosed space, and her ears are still sensitive. Luckily it seems like she’s able to shake off the brief amount of flash that got to her eyes.

”Geneva! Get that [canoodle]ing thing out of here! Toss it at the Moonwell if you can but don’t get yourself killed trying it!” Blanche orders, moving over to check the halfling for injuries.

[Recaiden]

Sunbathing Superheroes

Jade shakes her head. "No, I'm an electrical engineer by profession." Although she does dabble in many disciplines as part of her heroism, biology is not one of them. "You know, two weeks ago, I would never expected to find myself here, doing this." Lying on the beach in a bikini, trying to embrace her femininity, and talking to an self-proclaimed supervillain. Things have really changed.

"And I don't know anything about electrical engineering." So that matches up well.
"Things can change really suddenly, but this doesn't seem...that surprising? You never visited the beach?"

[bc56]

Beach Party - Sunbathing Supers

"No, I've been to the beach before. How is it not surprising? How could I have expected that I would go into a bar and come out with huge boobs?" Jade responds, incredulous. What kind of world does Skye come from, that such an event is unremarkable? "How could I, a man, have predicted that less than two weeks later, I'd be sunbathing in a bikini?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party]

Nick shudders. He's very much not a fan of demons.
"Well, I can see that being uncomfortable, yeah. Glad she found someone, maybe." he suggests. "Though I think demons and devils are different. Sometimes." A few have yelled that at him while spitting fire at him.

-Meanwhile-

"Khannie!" cries Nick, who proceeds to doing the normal Nick thing of jumping up to his friend and trying to curl his long snakey body around her in a mighty snakey hug.
"Oh hey, you have that too? You must be another kind of water dragon. I'm a river dragon." he says to Navvy regardless of whether Khannie lets him hug her.

[Operation Sea Slug]

"Ok. So. What I'm hearing is that we should be worried. How were you planning on getting to this place you were telling us about anyway? Because arena or not anywhere sounds better than here." Unless it's by a little rowboat. That probably wouldn't be safe during a demon invasion.
Will just wanted a shower. Now there's another horde of demons! And these aren't even bug-sized. This day just keeps going and getting worse all the time!

[Recaiden]

Sunbathing Supers

Skye has lived in this Nexus, or at least a closely adjacent world, for her whole life.
"Oh. You meant 'being female' and not 'being at the beach'. I understand." She gives a nervous laugh.
"Sometimes you change sex, or species, or your home gets buried under a glacier. You need to, uh, 'roll with it'."

[bc56]

Beach Party - Sunbathing Supers

"Believe me, I'm trying. It isn't easy to live with a whole new body." Jade's practiced a little with women's clothes, and she really came here for more practice being a woman in public. "I'm not going to let this ruin my life."

[5a Violista]

Beach Party - Suddenly, Robot Kittens!

Suddenly, somehow, a set of robot kittens begins to fan out across the beach and approach various partygoers. Each one is covered in a translucent layer of some sort of polymer, that renders them proof against sand and water. Upon approaching a group, they will pop up a menu of items to order - food, drink, swimwear, sun potions, beach towels, etc. - and mew once.

[Beach Party]

Nemo, leaning against the sand, calls one of the robot kittens over.
"Hey," she says. "Pspspspsps." She waves her fingers on the sand. "Shwshwshwshw." She tries that too.

"Hey hey hey." Rather than ordering something, she instead tries to grab the robot kitten so that she can pet it and scratch it. "Pspspsps."


[Moonwell Convergence]

Awen, hearing that, stops preparing the spell. "O-okay," she says.

She probably thinks Laz is some kind of orc with a bad skin condition.
Either that, or she's thinking through what spells she has, since she has dealt with and controlled undead before. All the useful spells that would strengthen Laz would also either put her under Awen's control like a puppet - that seems squicky and gross - or would make Laz lose her self-control. Both options seem counterproductive, except in really emergency situations. That's not to mention the nearly useless spells, like making Laz appear not-undead. Once again, Awen decides that she's kind-of useless in this situation. Since that Blanche ditched and stayed on the other ship, what was even the point of Awen coming over here? Since there's really nothing helpful she can do...

While being lost in her thoughts and while waiting for the hatch to be torn off, Awen looks around and notices that GIANT DRAGON SKELETON. "That...that doesn't look good."

Okay, Laz has gone in. Awen flies over to the opened hatch...it's too small to fit her broom in as-is. And she can't just get off. So...after thinking for a moment, she moves the broom so she's no longer riding on it side-saddle (but with one hand on it) and holds it vertically like a pole. She wraps a leg around it to hold it steady.

She slowly flies down the hole, with the broom like that - and leaves it like that, to make it easier to maneuver in the hallways down there.

Forget about dark, the worst part is how hot it is here. Awen doesn't directly have any spells to solve that - besides, of course, trying to freeze everything - so she tries, at first, to just deal with it.

...
However, it's still too much.
She blows out air and mimes grabbing the air. Awen then stretches out that breath. Moments later, there's a light breeze going down the hallway, especially around Awen.
It's...not perfect but at least it's not awful.

"I...I'll follow," she says to Laz.


[Marlick Bay]

Wow. All this stuff happened while they were down there?

Luckily, it seems there's not anything that requires immediate attention. Injured people are standing so they're probably good for now. No active combat going on. That means he can...

Zophiel goes after Sekhmet, back down the stairs. He taps her shoulder: "Hey, where are you going?" he asks, since she seems really out of it.

[Rebonack]

[Moonwell: Keep Talking and Hopefully the Ship Doesn't Explode]

Nah the barrier is good at keeping physical force out.

While Geneva COULD polarize it in such a was so as to minimize light blasting through it she would have had to know that was something she had to defend against and as such she's seeing spots now.

Blinking away the FLASH she wraps her barrier around the demonic bomb and takes off at full speed away from the ship! She's moving pretty darn quick and heading in the direction of the island. Once she feels like she's a comfortable distance away she whip the barrier-and-bomb around like she's winding up for a hammer-toss before lobbing it in the direction of the moonwell!

Pchooo!

Away it goes!

Hopefully she managed to get it out of here before it blew up because that would be a real drag.

Geneva doesn't like getting blown up.


[Beach Party!]

"It seems different with each world," Geneva admits as she stretches out on her beach towel. "I haven't really asked Sekhmet about it. The whole subject makes her pretty uncomfortable. I'm just glad she's feeling well enough to be out and about."

She gives Nick a look.

"When did you have demons breaking fire at you?" she asks. This is a work story she hasn't heard yet.

Meanwhile in the surf!

"No wait don't tou-"

But it's too late.

Khannie gets a hug.

It is immediately obvious that her appearance doesn't match up with her shape. She looks human, but she doesn't FEEL human. She feels like something that's roughly human-shaped, but definitely NOT human.

She does make a cute "URK!" noise when she gets squeezed, though.

But despite this she manages to keep the illusion working! She's been getting better at that part at least.

"The pearl Grandpa Koi gave me got broken by this dumb ogre," Khannie laments. "I learned a spell to make me look human but it isn't really real."

Navvy, not really sure what that's all about, confirms Nick's suspicion while paddling around in the shallows. He's got a frond of seaweed draped across him but he doesn't seem very concerned about that.

"Oh yeah I'm a bronze dragon! Bronze dragons are ocean dragons so we get lots of swell ocean stuff like breathing under water and talking to animals! And we can spit lightning," Navvy adds. "I'm not super hip to what lightning has to do with oceans but that's okay! It's still pretty keen and I can make people's hair stand up!"

[Earl of Purple]

Approaching the Crystal Pinnacle

In addition to boarding from above, some of the engineers are tasked with cutting a hole in the side of the captured destroyer so they can attack from below as well as above, particularly as the security teams are taking pretty heavy fire. A steam cannon brought into the gut for repairs fires an incendiary bomb at the destroyer's upper deck, hoping at least to start forcing the goblins to keep their heads down and possibly even retreat. There's several explosions and the whole town shudders; those at the front of the captured destroyer can see the furthest of the six triple-expansion steam boilers used as power disintegrate as a hole opens in the town's hull. More explosions follow; fired from outside, Beverly-in-Hull's hull is ruptured in several places and it's not impossible for one of the torpedoes to damage the ship inside.

Beverly-in-Hull has six engines, each one directly linked to one of the massive paddlewheels- though there are two of those wheels at the back. One of the wheels is utterly destroyed, as is the engine behind it- the explosions cause a lot of damage, and the wheel on the opposite side is no longer powered either. The raft-town starts to veer off to the far side, turning as water drags on the immobile wheel as engineers try to either cut the whole thing free or restart that engine. The torpedoes also hit, and more engineers and townsfolk panic as the other two wheels on that side of the town are damaged and water starts flooding in. The steam cannons change target, firing a large quantity of incendiary bombs filled with fish-based oil and fragmentation shells at the destroyer, whilst those steam cannon that can't be pointed far enough down to fire on sea-based targets start firing at the approaching drones; the inaccurate weapons trying to fill the air with enough flaming oil and high-speed shrapnel to cause some casualties- though the drones aren't the slow-moving hydrogen-filled airships the guns were designed to fight off.

Beach Party
Prumathe & Girlfiend

Prumathe does notice, and turns to look at what Sekhmet's looking at. "What's up Sekhmet? Who're they, why have they disturbed you like that?" Prumathe doesn't recognise Geneva, since he's never met her. He will, however, try to hug Sekhmet to make her feel better. I'm not entirely sure Prumathe can tell the difference between Nick and Geneva at the moment; he doesn't know any griffins.

Teen Loves

"Cyprus, I think. That's where most of the halloumi comes from on my earth, anyway. Not sure about yours." The rest of the Levant also makes cheese similar to halloumi, in that it has a high melting point so it can be grilled or fried until it goes black on the outside and squeaks when bitten. "Not too much, actually. I'm pretty good at the smaller stuff, now, it's just a case of moving on to bigger things with my object teleportation. Mostly I'm working on my summoning of creatures." Since Earl has decided to stop using Yu-Gi-Oh! creatures and instead use Magic: the Gathering ones, which he finds easier to search.

Jack & Chidi

"All I can really do is tickle people, with these." She holds her arm out and black feathers sprout from it. Not particularly tickly-looking ones, but large flight-feathers. Probably explain the 'bird person' thing, as well as the 'not human but look it' thing, too. "Vibrations would be fun. Anyway, I don't do the whole Nexus- it's too big for that. I work as an independent tour guide in Inside. I don't know Riverside very well, I've only been there once. And that's more often than Skyside or the big organisations." She shakes her head; a tour guide for the whole Nexus would be like a tour guide for all of a continent, at the least. With its ever changing geography, the Nexus is big. "A groundpounder is... Well, it's someone who pounds the ground. A pedestrian, a walker. Somebody limited to seeing Inside- or any city- in just two dimensions, when it's really built in three." Possibly four, if you count some of the subterranean spaces as well, like the molemen kingdom in the sewers and the kraul hive. Jack knows nothing about those, as she doesn't explore under Inside's streets- just above them.

[Purple Eagle]

[Beach Party]

Teen Loves

"It seems our earths are similar geographically. It's probably from there, but I've never had it until now." She continues to savour the taste of the cheese for a few bites before continuing to eat at normal speed. "So, soon you'll be able to summon an army of creatures? Cool! For me, I'm trying to boost my power output, generate more ink to manipulate... but then I'm always doing that. Mainly, it's back to ninja school, I plan to become a ninja medic... so if you go on an adventure and get injured, I can fix you up." The next time Natalie tries to put food in her mouth, Karasu will take it from her, insisting that they feed each other.

"Now that you know there's nothing to worry about, you must have questions." Beyond what she already revealed the day they got back together, anyway.

Jack & Chidi

"That's a bit reductive. You can also fly and see through an extra pair of eyes." Chidi points out. "An independent Inside tour guide, eh? I could use a tour to see inside as a whole, while not working. Let's do that sometime." That does make more sense, considering the scale and geographical entropy of the Nexus.

He frowns when she explains what a groundpounder is. "Ah, so it's a slur, a derogatory term blaming people for lacking the ability to fly." He notes, lips pursing. "That is not a nice thing to say, people aren't 'less than' for lacking vertical movement and having to rely on technology."

[bc56]

Beach Party - Prumathe and Girlfiend

Sekhmet shakes her head. "Just someone I know." Is she crazy for feeling weird because she got looked at funny by a friend? She expected that after her last transformation. She accepts the hug gladly.

[WarKitty]

Beach Party - Robot Kittens

The nearest robot kitten - a black model with a purple clear outer coating - is very easily picked up. It mews softly and adorably, and pops up another price screen. This one simply says Robot-o-Mew Companion, 5000 gold. Installment plans available.

[Recaiden]

Sunbathing Supers

"Believe me, I'm trying. It isn't easy to live with a whole new body." Jade's practiced a little with women's clothes, and she really came here for more practice being a woman in public. "I'm not going to let this ruin my life."

"Oh, I know. I've had to deal with the 'whole new body' thing a couple times now. Actually it's bold of you to come out like this so quickly."
Look at all those robot cats going by. She ought to go catch one! But...not right this moment.

[bc56]

Beach Party - Sunbathing Supers

Jade smiles. "Thanks." She's trying to be brave about the whole woman thing. "It was a big step. But I figured I should immerse myself in femininity. Get used to woman stuff, since I'm stuck as one." Even so, it took her a half hour to work up the courage to put on this bikini. "There are still some things which make me uncomfortable, but at least it's not like the first few days. Each morning I would wake up, feeling like it was just a bad dream. Then I would start to get up and get the shock of being transformed all over again."

[5a Violista]

[Beach Party - Robot Kittens]

Wow.
That is way too much money, Nemo thinks.

But, on the other hand, it's really cute.

Nemo holds up the kitten to look at it.

"It is a lot of money..." she says. "But if the Nexus is destroyed then it won't really matter..."

She thinks about it more.

She places the cat on her head. "Okay," she says to the kitten. "Installment plan, then. I'll go with the installment plan."

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

"What's in it for you... Hm. I'm not really very good at this type of thing, but if you tell me where the nearest relic is, I will release you from your bindings and let you go instead of keeping you bound and taking you home to bleed you for power." Which is something Benedict's allies won't like very much, though fortunately the ones he thinks would protest the most are upstairs and out of earshot for his threat.

"There's more? Interesting." Benedict diverts attention away from the bound elf for now, drawing another symbol in white light. This one creates a lens that isn't quite xray vision; looking through it simply reveals how thick various surfaces are. He'll use that lens to examine the walls, floor and altar, hoping that one of those is thin enough to suggest hidden door.

Beach Party
Prumathe & Girlfiend

"You know them, but I don't. And it's bothering you. I can tell. You don't have to tell me, though. Not if you don't want to." He wants to help her feel better, but he's not sure how- besides hugging her and maybe continuing their journey to get food. Actually, that latter might be a good idea- hug first, though.

Teen Girls

"Well, maybe not an army. Larger things are proving tricky. And I can only summon one at a time, and they don't stay around long so far." She leans away from Karasu and holds her hand out, red card symbols falling from her hand and arm as a four-legged hawk appears from a flash of light and more symbols and settles upon Natalie's arm. "This is quite easy to summon, but not particularly dangerous." The suntail hawk moves so its forelegs are on Natalie's shoulder and it can look over her head at Karasu. It might be glaring, but hawks always glare.

"I have one major question. Can you make your ink stain things? To use it as writing, or does it not last and fade away? Also, a ninja healer? So you sneak up to someone and fit a plastercast on their broken leg without them noticing?" It seems an odd combination of abilities, sneaking and healing.

Jack & Chidi

"I... guess it is. I'm sorry, I hadn't really thought about that." Jack frowns too, upset at the connotations she hadn't realised. "I don't think you're less. The gull who told me the word in the first place doesn't have thumbs, so she's probably insecure." Gull, or girl? Bit of a question when talking about Jack's flying friends. "I can totally give you a tour, when's your next day off? And these eyes... They see magic and all kinds of things, and as I didn't hatch with them I'm still struggling to figure it all out." Which is really useful, until you realise that they're feeding her with a whole host of information that she can't parse together into a coherent whole very well, unless she concentrates and tries to figure it out which can take a while.

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party]

"Oh, just the occasional work hazard. Team Nightmaere angered some demon's realm by recruiting from his undead minions and so his minions pop up every once and a while to make a mess of things. And there was another demon lord that I probably annoyed when I came here by giving him faulty weapon schematics. That was ages ago, when I was still using my callsign." No one's really called him Cal since that plot. Probably because folks kept bringing up a certain undead when he used the name.
-meanwhile-
Nick detaches himself from Khannie, grinning.
"That's okay, Khannie. Being human is lame anyway. I don't miss it." he says with a nod. Though he doesn't push that point; he knows it means a lot to Khannie.
"Is it all animals or just the swimming kind? I only get to talk to fish." Except Geneva's magikarp friend. Anyone can talk to him.

[bc56]

Beach Party - Prumathe and Girlfiend

"It's okay. Uh, she's a friend," Sekhmet explains. She shudders. "The way she was looking at me. Ugh." She didn't like being looked at like that, especially by someone she considers a friend.

[Purple Eagle]

[Beach Party]

Teen Loves

Karasu observes the summoning with interest, excited when she sees the bird. She likes birds, after all, and this is a bird she's never seen before. "You can use that for scouting if you can communicate with it or see through it's eyes, though."

She sips out of her iced tea, nodding before the first question is finished. "Ink adheres to materials, so yes I can. Part of my powerset is manipulating the properties of ink, however, so I can make it not stain things if I want... that's harder to do underwater. I can also undo the stain, but that's kinda hard to do without having to absorb the ink. I still have a lot to learn."

The second one is so funny she almost spits out what's in her mouth. She manages to swallow before bursting out into laughter, finding the image funny. "Don't worry, I'm not lauging at you, my love. Being a ninja field medic means a ninja with medical training. I'll provide medical care to other ninjas and locals, especially emergency and trauma treatment; both on the field and off. Of course, I can and will also defend myself if need be, but I'll be primarily a support unit." She feeds Natalie some sausage, expecting to be fed in return. "So I'll follow on missions as a non-combatant unless it's necessary. Like... a cleric without the spells, I suppose."

Jack & Chidi

It sounds like 'gull', and birds don't have thumbs, so that's what Chidi assumes she's saying. "It's okay. That's probably it... we all have our strengths and weaknesses, regardless." He smiles once again and puts his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

He thinks about the best time for a tour. "In a couple days, say... Wednesday. If nothing changes, that is. Do you have a communications device like a phone so I can contact you?" He looks at the eyes again as they're explained. "Could you see soundwaves? Wait, you hatched? Can you turn into a bird?" He asks, interested.

[Morty]

[Beach Party]

"Good afternoon, ch- Commissioner." Michalson was passing by Nick and Geneva on the beach and it seems he decided to say hello to his boss. And he managed to call him by his actual rank instead of "chief" as he was prone to at first. "The party seems in full swing."

[Earl of Purple]

Beach Party
Prumathe & Girlfiend

"If she's a friend, that look is because she cares about you, not because she's scared or horrified." Prumathe is thinking well of somebody he's never met, but he knows Sekhmet and how lovely she is, and how unlikely it is that she could inspire fear or revulsion in those that know her.

Teen Loves

"I can go scouting as a robin. That's less obvious than this, and easier." In other words, Natalie either can't or hasn't figured out how to share senses with her summons. The suntail hawk is about the size of a small cat, and moves across from Natalie to Karasu. "Oh, good. Because that's the mental image I had of a 'ninja medic'." She said it expecting Karasu to laugh; the idea was pretty ludicrous.

Jack & Chidi

"I've got three, none of them work any more. No idea why." The batteries died. "Do you know where the park with the statue of a tree is? Stonetree Square, it's called. I'll meet you there, about... lunch time?" So not a very accurate time, but Jack could maybe be convinced to a specific time. "Yep, I turn into a bird. A jackdaw, because my mum lacks all imagination. Everyone at the Clattering does. Dunno about sound waves, I don't think so. That'd be really weird, seeing sounds." Jack steps forward a little and tries to turn the hand on her shoulder into a slight hug.

[bc56]

Beach Party - Prumathe and Girlfiend

"Yes, but the other one with her... Brrr." Sekhmet shivers. "Let's get some food and stop thinking about it. Mmm, that smells good " She begins running towards the food tent, possibly dragging Prumathe along after her if he doesn't let go or keep up.

[Purple Eagle]

[Beach Party]

Teen Loves

Karasu happily allows the bird to climb onto her, stretching out her arm for it to climb on. "There's a good bird. Hawk is cute, Talie. We should name her... or him."

"Oh, you're so bad!" She laughs again at the ludicrous idea Natalie first came up with, and kisses her on the forehead.

Jack & Chidi

"They just stopped working? Did you charge them after the battery died?" Chidi asks. Thinking about a more precise time, he replies. "Stonetree Square... I don't know where that is, but I'll ask around. Let's say... 2pm. A jackdaw, and your name is Jack. I feel like there should be a Daw in your name. Maybe Jack D. Aw or something. Is the Clattering all bird people, or all jackdaws?" He sees what she's doing and puts his arm around her.

[Hattish Thing]

[Beach Party - (Free!) Sunscreen Stand]

A throng of beach-goers have gathered outside a small cart parked out in the sand. Behind the cart, a slightly overweight man passes along small pamphlets, his gangly arms burdened with several bottles labelled "Sun-A-Way!". His outfit is eclectic to say the least, consisting of a stained labcoat worn over a ratty Hawaiian t-shirt. His hairy legs are almost fully exposed to the sun, for he's wearing little over his lower half apart from a pair of khaki shorts. Beige socks and sandals complete the look. The man appears to be in his late thirties, with a strangely proportioned body and stark facial features.

Long hair falls over his face in greasy curtains, and his dark brown eyes are surrounded by darkened circles which suggest a lack of sleep. A comically small pair of sunglasses rest upon his nose. As he passes out small samples of sunscreen, he shouts out down the strand. "Try Sun-A-Way! First come, first serve!"

[Earl of Purple]

Beach Party
Prumathe & Girlfiend

"It does, doesn't it? Smells like... burgers, and fried onions, kebabs and halloumi. Lots of good things." Probably not pork sausages, though, since it seems Sam's providing the food and doesn't like cooking pork. Other sausages may be available.

Teen Loves

"Well, there's... not much point, Karasu. I don't know for sure that I summon the same hawk each time, and it won't stay around forever. An hour or so, I think. Or until it's banished by an external factor." Like violence directed against it, for example. "I might even be able to summon another right now, and my books don't make it clear if I'm summoning another suntail hawk or if I'm summoning the same one twice, which might be possible since I'm pulling it from another world. I could pull it from one world, then pull it from another world split by a historic event like a war or a king's assassination or something. Or even split by the fact that in that world, I didn't summon the hawk here." It's confusing and hard to understand, and quite a lot of her summoning would really only work in the Nexus, where there's less metaphysical barriers trying to interfere.

Jack & Chidi

"I tried, I plugged the cables into the phones but nothing happened. They still didn't work." The other end of the cable might not have been plugged into anything; Jack doesn't have a clue how electricity works and treats it as just another magic obeying its own weird and esoteric rules. "Right, two o'clock. I think I make it there on time. My surname is Door. As in, the thing you use to get into a house that is closed behind you to stop people following you." Now she's holding him and being held, Jack grins and tries to lead Chidi off to the beach proper, either to sit and chat or go swimming.