Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

[bc56]

Team Quest
Batsael drifts away, reappearing atop one of the crude towers they built earlier and thereby avoiding a few explosions. She pulls out her pistol and fires a burst of disruptive Information at the goblin pirate, to make limbs lock up or spasm.
Selekhael is less lucky, taking a barrel of gunpowder to the face, which of course then explodes. She slams into a wall and slowly gets back to her feet, the curious feeling of her health bar dropping abruptly fixed in her mind.

[Ironsmith]

Codebreaker's Home

CB grins extra wolfishly. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear! Good that that confidence is still there." He's feeling too charitable to remind Kyrie that he's more of an XXL or XXL than a Large at the moment. But he thinks it and he can laugh at his own joke in his head.
"So what now? We still have ten hours to kill."

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Hm..." Kyrie's eyes wander over to a nearby shelf full of unseen movies, unplayed games and unbinged shows. "What, indeed."

And so fun times were had by all.

Okay, half of all. Kyrie is still a grump.

[Lord Magtok]

[War Machine]

Quin waits until the Janus engine begins its swing, then adroitly dodges the massive machine's fist. Despite his size, he's still quick, and as the fist passes him, he fires a pair of blasts from his chest cannons at the passing limb.

"I won't leave a corpse if you manage it. My data will simply cease to be, fractured and deleted." He says darkly. "I am a sentient program brought into your reality; given physicality through an unknown means. I do not know if it's even possible if you could replicate the manner in which I process damage."

Magtok frowns at the scorching holes left in the arm by Quin's chest cannons. This is...less than optimal.

"That's as intriguing as it is incredibly...disappointing. So I have nothing to gain at all from fighting you, then," he sighs, sounding more let down by this revelation than anything else. The Janus Engine even backpedals a step or two, rather than maintain its assault. Is Magtok sounding the retreat, then? Has he been bored into dropping the fight, convinced that trying to punch Quin with a giant robot is too expensive to keep at it? How incredibly bizarre.

[Earl of Purple]

Team Quest

Mishnehel builds a wall in front of her to block the barrel cascading towards her, which takes the brunt of the blast and doesn't survive. Some of the shrapnel has glanced through her and injured her slightly, but it mostly worked. She's angry now, so she expands out into the form of a creature that's part buffalo, hoofed and horned and hunch-backed, part magpie with black-and-white feathers and wings, part oak tree and covered in bark, leaves and acorns, and with far too many fingers and hands amongst it all. She fires the Metastatic Mitrailleuse as she charges forwards at Barfstain, ready to put it away and bring out her sword to replace it.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Follow Your Nose

"Well, you're welcome to try it all after we get out. Which can be now or later. This is honestly the first time I've used this pool in ages..." But they can't stay in for too long. Eventually their fingers will get all shrively! Even if they won't be able to see it because they've got hairy paws for hands. Well, at least one of them does all the time.

[Follow Your Nose]

"Reckon it'd be a waste if I didn't get at least a little exercise in first." Atreyu replies, pushing away from the side and putting his big wolfy muscles to use in effortlessly gliding through the water.

He's not particularly trying to show off, but it probably still looks that way a little.

"Even a little swim does ya good, if yer feelin' up to it, Kid."

[Deathkeeper]

Follow Your Nose

CB attempts to do a basic breast-stroke after Atreyu, but runs into two problems. One, he knows how to swim but isn't used to doing so with his new legs and general shape or his new level of bouyancy and it comes out looking extremely clumsy. The other thing is that he's winded after about twenty seconds. He's quickly left clinging to the side again.
"Oof. I think he really oughta taken better care of his heart. No wonder this place was so clean. I used to be able to run a mile in the morning." he gasps, wiping water from his face (rather unsuccessfully).

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Follow Your Nose]

"Hmm. Well, if you're feeling that short of breath from swimming, I reckon it'd be a good idea to get ya doin' some amount more exercise, fer your own health. Important to take care of yerself, eh?" Atreyu leans backwards slowly until he's lying on his back in the water. "If y'wanna take it a bit easier, swim on yer back. You can go at whatever pace ya want like that, still works the muscles but y'can do so without pushing yerself too hard."

[Deathkeeper]

Follow Your Nose

Codebreaker, grumbling, flips himself over.
"I know how to swim. I'm just not used to this." he insists.
"So what now? You're welcome to stay a while. I need someone to vent to anyway now that I've gone and told you." They could certainly spend some time playing with his predecessor's fancy stuff.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Good morning, sir." Owena says stiffly as she pulls open the curtains, letting the first rays of sunlight into the room. She cursea quietly to herself and withdraws her hands, which she'd managed to burn in the process; this is what she gets for showing up a few minutes late like that. In total fairness to her, she'd been unusually busy last night, dealing with a previously-elusive intruder who was, as of right now, sound asleep on one of the couches downstairs. That was not an easy task to manage, and Owena looks especially tired this morning, her normally well-kept hair and clothes both visibly dissheveled.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB blearily pulls himself from his dreams, sitting up.
"Owena you really don't need to keep doing that when it's literally hazardous for you." mumbles the wolfen as he sits up. He has compromised slightly and started wearing pajama shorts to bed. He can still manage to get up on his own even if he still has to drag himself out of bed. He certainly hasn't managed to make it any easier for himself to do so.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Owena manages a rueful smile. "I heard you the first twenty times." She jokes, wrapping her hand up in her dress. "Breakfast is ready for you downstairs. Buckwheat crepes and trimmings." She gives a hasty little nod and lets herself out of the room, skipping her usual (completely self-enforced) morning update.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB nods. He's already told her that she spoils him enough. She certainly can't deny that she isn't at least a small part of CB's inability to undo any of the damage his predecessor did to their health. But he also eats her breakfasts quite willingly. She's simply a good cook. So he wobbles off to the kitchen with that ponderous gait of his and likely spends his usual extended breakfast time eating and reading.
"So, any news from the night? You look like you wrestled a raccoon." he mumbles between bites.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Owena gives a long-suffering sigh and takes a seat at the table opposite him. "Yeah, we... had a visitor. Have, more accurately." She produces one of the money envelopes from her pocket and sets it on the table, then reaches down and pulls up Siana's sword-cane, leaning it against the table where Codebreaker can see it. "Care to guess at the relationship between these two objects?"

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Oh, you finally caught her doing it? I was wondering how long it was going to take for her to slip up." He raises a bite of his breakfast up to his mouth before stopping at Owena's gaze.
"What? No one but her and your uncle have ever insisted on paying me money I didn't ask for, and if it was Kyrie he'd just do it in person despite anything I said."

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Owena blinks in surprise, but recovers quickly enough. "Well, if we're being that transparent, no, she was never all that sneaky about it. I just didn't stop her because I sort of approved. She was taking responsibility for something she did and trying to set it right. I thought that at worst, you'd insist on returning it to her and she'd have inadvertently created a college budget for herself, and oh no wouldn't that be a tragedy." She straightens and gives a little frown.

"No, the reason I stopped her this time is because she hasn't been home in over a week. When I saw her, she was wearing a hoodie from a band she's way too young to know about. Autographed, even." Her frown deepens into a scowl of disapproval as she continues. "Which makes it look like she snuck off to one of those multi-day music festival things and just left the rest of us worried sick while she was gone. I was planning on taking her home with me today, but... I'm a little worried our uncle might overreact. You know how he is about... everything."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"You can't ever keep teenagers from information. Especially not when the internet exists." CB chuckles.
"You want me to talk to her? It's true that the only thing un-serious about your uncle are his looks and his guitar hero obsession." And Kyrie still glares at CB whenever he tries to poke fun of the former as much as CB mocks his own appearance.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Owena gives him a little smile. "I wasn't going to ask you to; it's not really your problem. But I would appreciate it. I love my sister, but... well, I'm still her sister. There are some things she might just not talk with me about." She gives a rueful smile. "She's on the couch in the living room. The one with the green throw pillow."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

CB nods and finishes the last couple bites of his breakfast. Then he pulls on a flannel shirt (but doesn’t bother to button it. This is his house) and sits down next to where Siana is sleeping. He moves gently, letting her wake up without doing something as drastic or risky as shaking her.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Siana doesn't move at first; she's still sleeping peacefully on the couch, snoring softly despite not apparently needing to breathe. It should be immediately obvious to Codebreaker that the sleep isn't natural; the flickering blue aura that indicates Owena's magic dances across the teenaged vampire's eyes.

As Owena said, she's dressed up in a grey hoodie and jeans, the latter with the hood pulled down past her forehead. The hoodie has a quartet of horned, winged silohuettes standing in a line, with the text "NOT GOING HOME" written in blocky letters beneath them.

Owena's hand pokes around from the kitchen, giving a little flick to dismiss her spell.

Siana's eyelids flutter open as she stirs slowly, looking a little confused and disoriented. This slowly gives way to the realization of where she is and who's sitting across from her. She lets out a little eep and sits up, tugging her hood down further, shaking fearfully as she stares at Codebreaker, wide-eyed. "...I'm in a lot of trouble, aren't I?"

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB leans back, looking rather unimpressed.
"I mean, not really. I'm not your dad. I'm not even your uncle. Though if I was, I'd be your cooler uncle." Not better. But he's totally cooler than Kyrie. If only for being more self-aware.
"You wanna talk about why you've been skulking around for ages?"

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"...Not really, no." Siana replies quietly. She was being honest, at least, but that response wasn't going to make Codebreaker's talk with her any easier. She looks out towards the window and notices that the sun's come up, giving a little groan. Time was not on her side here. "Son of a Br- I shouldn't still be here." She says with a frown, shaking her head. "I need to go now. Like right now."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker shoots Siana a pair of finger-guns.
"That's where you're wrong, kiddo. Sun's already up. So you and your sister and stuck here for the day. I don't know how this family keeps doing this, but here we are. Make yourself comfortable because you're gonna be here a while." he drawls, grinning.
CB has possibly been one of the more supportive figures in their lives. But he's not good at being serious. It comes with knowing the universe probably thinks you're a joke.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Siana hobbles toward the window, looking up to see how far into the morning they were. "Only just." She concludes. "If I leave right now, I should be able to get back to M-" She stops to amend her statement. "To cover of some kind. Where's my cane?!"

Not even a smile at the finger guns. Normally, a day spent with Codebreaker is an exciting prospect for her. The kind of thing she'd mark on her calendar and circle at least three times. Getting one spontaneously, even more so, just for the surprise factor.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"I have no idea, ask your sister. Not that I'll be letting you go anyway. It would be a tight run to your place, let alone whatever hideout you're talking about. I can't let you take that risk because you're embarrassed about whatever it is you've been doing. I'm not going to have to explain that to your family." CB tells Siana, face growing more serious for once.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Embarrassed?! You don't- wait, wait." Siana holds up her hands, gesturing as though she could physically coax the conversation into slowing down. Embarrassed at what she's been doing? That's what Codebreaker was worried about? He must not have gotten a good look under her hood, then. "...You haven't noticed anything... different, at all, about me?" She asks, in an attempt to confirm her suspicions.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Well, yes, you haven't laughed at any of my jokes and you're being a paranoid wreck instead of the cheery girl you've been every other day I've known you. But I don't think that's what you're insinuating is it?" Oops, by asking that question Siana has drawn attention to herself.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Siana stiffens. On the one hand, it was a relief to know he hadn't noticed her horns yet. On the other, she might have just spoiled that for herself. "Um... w-well, I..." She stammers, fiddling with her earlobe as she tries to figure out how to avoid spilling her secret. She doesn't want to lie to him, but she can't really afford to tell him the truth, either. And if she tells him nothing, she risks rousing his suspicion further. What to do, what to do...

"I... I don't mean to imply anything." She says finally. "I was just asking. I've been out for a while, so... I must look a mess, don't I?"

There. All technically true, really.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Yes, you are. But you're also hysterically trying to keep me from knowing something. Siana, you're sitting on my couch about thirty feet from the spot you literally tried to kill me. Do I really seem the judgy type?" asks the wolfen, leaning back with his arms crossed.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

At the mention of that incident, Siana glances over to the spot near the garage where said near-homicide occurred. Codebreaker had a point; he'd already forgiven some pretty egregious stuff from her. Were the implications of her horns really any worse?

She slowly shakes her head, not making it entirely clear what she was saying no to; her own question, whether Codebreaker was judgy, or whether she was going to tell him anything.

Eventually, her gaze settles on the kitchen, where Owena's working. It shouldn't be hard to guess what's on her mind.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB follows Siana's gaze, resisting his desire to roll his eyes.
"Owena, as your employer, would you agree to a request that what happens in the Codebreaker's house does not leave Codebreaker's house?" he calls. It feels weird to use that expression using his first name. But "he" doesn't have a surname.