driftfleet | March Planet Mingle Catchall

Entry tags:

March Planet Mingle Catchall

Who: ~~Isabela~~ Summer and YOU
Broadcast: None
Action: Water planet shenanigans! Starters below
When: As long as the fleet is above Mafik.

[A. Shopping in Dasil'di]

Summer is rather fond of all the little trinkets they are selling and even buys a few to adorn her room. But mostly she's buying clothes and some useful gear. Her shopping trips are spread over several days so she never has too much stuff with her at once, and on one of the days she has a red beta fish following her that she just purchased.

[B. Kelp Connoisseur]

Summer is all about the night life. The one advantage to this place is how having fun pays for itself. So she can be found sampling Kelp at street vendors, chatting up locals and hanging out in kelp bars. She's decided she wants to sleep with a fish alien just to say she has, so she's pulling out all the charm and swagger. If you catch her at the right time, it'll be right when she's sealing the deal and maybe you'll get invited to a threesome.

She'll also enthusiastically attend some Buoya games, being extra loud and rambunctious and shouting down players and team management for making terrible calls. She'll also be trying her hand at Air-diving, especially if she can find some faint-of-heart fleeters to drag along, to maximize her own entertainment.

[C. Spelunking]

Sunken temples full of danger and treasure? Where do you think Summer will be???

>> C1 - Currents

The room is a series of closed pipes that have currents blowing through them. Make one wrong turn and you'll be pushed right back to the start of the chamber. Make an extra wrong turn and you'll be pushed into a dead end of stone spikes.

>> C2 - Moray

The next chamber is locked, and it becomes clear that the key to it is attached to the tail of a very large Moray Eel that lives in a massive hole in the center of the chamber. Who the hell put that there???

>> C3 - Treasure!

At long last they have gotten to the treasure room. What's inside for you?

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_{[ After their battle aboard the Tourist, Kirk had a grudging respect for Isabela, and he wasn't so much angry at her as he was still mildly irritated. Fenris had explained her reasoning, or at least tried to, which still didn't make him happy with her being in his vents, but he wasn't nearly as pissed as he had been at the time.

And when he had wanted to go exploring a new temple, old grudges wasn't enough to stand in the way of joining with an experienced and talented partner. They had made it through the current traps, and now... this. ]}

So do you think that was on purpose or just happy circumstance?

The key? You know what I always say, never attribute to coincidence what you can to someone thinking 'this is going to be hilarious.'

[ Note: she has never ever said this before. ]

So stick to the plan- [ Note: they have not discussed any plans. ] You go distract it, I'll come around and grab the key.

[ If you want to object, too late, she's swimming to flank it. ]

_{[ The look he is giving you right now, Isabella. Are you sure you're actually a captain of anything? Seriously, how do you keep people alive?

Still, by this point in the trial, he has learned to go with her rather than fight. He has raised objections before and made his displeasure known, but he figures until this blows up in Isabella's face, she'll just do what she wants. Again, not that he wants that per say, but it might make things easier down the road.

For now, he would bank on luck and swim to do the distracting. He took a water resistant flash light out of the back he kept on his hip, flashing it to get the creature to lunge for him, hopefully just out of its reach. ]}

[ You can't make an omelet unless you make the cook balance on a rolling pin while he's making it. Well you can, but why would you?

Anyway, if things go wrong it'll be Kirks fault for not following orders properly.

...even though things don't quite go according to plan pretty much as soon as it starts. She greatly underestimated how fast something this big moves, and as it lunges out of the hole to investigate the flashing lights, the suction from the sudden vacancy of the whole sucks Isabela in, leaving Kirk to fend for himself for a bit. ]

_{[ Oh yes, clearly his fault. Always his fault. You had better tell this story right when they get through this Isabella.

Kirk managed to dodge the first strike, but he's definitely at the disadvantage here, and he might not be so lucky the next time that thing decides to strike. Which is - now. Because he still has the flashing light. Damn it, you better get that key fast, Isabella, Kirk is not aquatic by nature! ]}

[ The possibility of her telling this story the way it actually went is so close to 0 that you can't use real numbers to illustrate it.

She finds herself in a pile of junk- apparently the hole this thing was holed up in was some kind of structure so there's broken barnacle-covered furniture about, overgrown kelp and also a variety of other random bits and bobs.

Including a Harpoon Gun. ]

Handy.

[ She grabs it and swims to the opening again, using what she learned from Riona about iron sights, and braces it up against her shoulder to aim at the monster eel. She fires and the spear stabs into its tail with a bubbling roar. It whips, ripping the gun out of Summer's hands, and fortunately getting wedged in between two large rocks, which halts the Moray's attack on Kirk momentarily.

She grabs the rope and starts 'climbing' it towards the Moray's tail. ]

_{[ That sounds like a challenge. He shall have to get Chekov involved.
Surely he will know a way. The boy was good at math, after all. As it was,
he found himself trying to dodge, using various bits of debris as places to
hide and push off of to gain speed or change trajectory rapidly before
Isabella got the beast tangled up. And now the woman is climbing towards
it. What -? ]}

What are you doing?! Did you find the key or not?!

_{[ Seeing as she is going for the Moray now, he pushed off a block and
made for the hole, not waiting for a reply. ]}

Finding it was never the issue, love-

[ She points at the Moray's tail, where the large metallic key is strung through some of it's ragged tail fin, just a few feet from where the harpoon stabbed into it. ]

Just hold out for a few more-

[ A sudden jerk as the rock the harpoon gun was wedged in gave way. Summer held onto the rope, but its' movement was no longer constrained by the rope and Summer was riding along behind it as it chased after Kirk again. She still had another ten feet to climb at least. ]

You should probably think of something better than hiding!

_{[ Oh please, Isabella, you did not know it was there this whole time!
And if you did, that's just going to piss Kirk off because they really
could have come up with a better plan in that case. He would have thrown
here a rude gesture had there not been a giant moray eel currently hunting
him. Why did things with teeth always come after him?! ]}

Any other obvious suggestions?!

_{[ He kept swimming for the hole though, knowing he had one chance at
this, and if he failed - well, it was going to cost a literal limb at the
least. He moved himself right in front of the hole bracing against one side
of the opening, waiting, waiting - NOW! He pushed off hard, barely throwing
himself out of the way in time for the eel to charge into the hole, it's
own momentum to great to change. ]}

Get the key before it works back out!

What were you just saying about obvious suggestions?

[ It's a good thing she's That Good, or the sudden change of direction would have whipped her off of the rope. As it was, she was still struggling with a buckling giant eel.

She pulls out a dagger and sinks it into the Eel's flesh for a better grip, and then her second dagger slices off a chunk of skin, releasing the key and also a chunk of fin. Blue black blood starts to seep into the waters around them. She gives the key a kick towards Kirk. ]

There, happy?

_{[ He pushed off from the wall, grabbing the keys, resisting the urge
to make a face as he gripped the flesh mixed with metal. Now they just had
to get out of here before that eel wriggled it's way out of the hole. He
was going to bet they didn't have to long before it did so, either. That in
mind, he got up on the wall again and pushed hard for the door. ]}

Come on, before that thing figured out how to work itself loose!

_{[ He reached the door and slotted the key in, twisting hard and
shoving at the heavy door, grunting with the effort. He might need some
help here, Isabella. ]}

[ Swim swim swimswimswim SWIMMING INTENSIFIES.

She rolls over in the water as she approaches the door at full speed, kicking the door open with her full momentum, kicking up all sorts of stale muddy water at them and knocking the door loose. ]

_{[ He could care less about the mud. He flung himself through the door
and down the hall beyond, wiping at the bits of grit in his eyes. He hoped
that creature didn't follow them down the hall, or at the least couldn't
fit properly. He paused to catch his breath and work the grit from his
eyes. ]}

Is it following?

_{[ Because no, he didn't really trust Isabella to tell him if it was or
not on her own. ]}

"Make a friend, did we?" Adalwolfe has bounced back from his harrowing visions on the ring world - or is doing his best approximation of it - and has taken to this underwater wonderland quite well. At least, he did once he stopped panicking about drowning and melted the magic block of ice he'd nearly encased himself in. Casting as a panic reaction is definitely not a good thing.

He flits over, flicking the fins he's got on his feet to go greet Isabela more properly. He hasn't been made privy to her name change just yet. "Please tell me your named your fish something awesome, like Knight-Commander Bubbles."

Isabela lifted a finger up to her new fish, which swam round it and then flittered off a little distance.

"Well, it hasn't run away. Swam away? Yet."

She smiled but shook her head. "That's definitely more an Anders thing. If I had to pick a name it should be something distinctive but with its own kind of dignity. Like Jezebel."

"Jezebel has dignity?" Not that he's a good judge; he has a dog named Ser Drools so clearly he ascribes to the Anders School of Pet Names.

"In any case, you'll need to get your Jezzy a tank on your ship if you want to take her with you. Do you need any help with that?"

From what I'm told they don't need tanks at all.

...although fish do shit right? I'll probably need to figure out the logistics of that... unless Shinji's little robot swarm will take care of it for me.

"They will when we leave, won't they? I mean, it's not as if your ship is going to be filled with water all the time."

He cocks an eyebrow, not really sure what she means about the rest of it. "Shit-cleaning robots...?"

"No, I mean they're supposed to be able to float in the air. You know-" She waggles her fingers in the air in perhaps an intentionally offensive way, considering she knows Hawke is a mage. "Magic shite."

"Yes, shit-cleaning robots." She felt the name didn't really beg elaboration.

"Are they? I hadn't heard that. Can they breathe air, then? I don't know if there's a spell for water breathing - there probably is - so maybe one for breathing air does make sense if it was developed by people who normally breathe... water..." He trails off, certain that Isabela - Summer now, as she said - is giving him a Look.

"I'm more concerned that the shit problem is so bad on your ship that you need robots to take care of it."

"Well they don't just clean shit. Sometimes they get confused and start trying to clean random people that may not fit conventional hygiene standards." Not speaking from personal experience.

"Is there a spell for muff-breathing? I am interested in the potential of sitting on someone's face for hours and never needing them to come up for air."

That earns a barking laugh out of surprise at first, then an honest guffaw. He'd missed her dirty jokes! For awhile there the only one around to make them was him and he's not very good at it. "Not that I'm aware of, but I can do some research. Could be good for deep throating too, after all."

"Oh absolutely. Get Anders in on it, there's nothing you two can't accomplish if you put your heads together."

"Right, one head from the top and one a bit lower." He gives a conspiratorial eyebrow waggle.

"Yes, that's exactly how it works, you explain the joke and it becomes funnier."

[Well, this is super duper fun. The best fun, in fact. Fenris grumbles as he moves, largely leaving the cleverwork to Isabela. This is rogue work, not something all that suited to a warrior. ]

Is there any end to all of this?

We could throw you in and see if you clog up the whole system.

Your spikes will probably catch on something. You'll be fine.

I'll...pass, if it's all the same to you, I would rather not drown.

[He gives her a sidelong glance, a slight smirk crossing his lips. ]

Don't tell me this is a trap you can't think your way out of?

I don't think you can drown in this... but I admit I don't know the rules. Maybe they have pockets of 'drownable' water down some of these pits.

[ Summer scoffs. SCOFFS. ]

I'm just ticking down the options in order of which ones would be most fun to watch.

[ She scans some of the tunnels. ]

Does that look like a marker to you?

[ She points down the tunnel to a fork, and there seem to be some marks on the walls- hard to see without getting caught. And they aren't as simple as arrows. ]

I would not be surprised if that were the case. But thank you for the deep concern you're showing me.

[He doesn't trust the rules Atroma play by. Not even a little.]

Hm. Perhaps. Now the question is if they lead the way we want or are, in fact, a trap.

If I had to take a guess, one type of rune is the right way, and the other is a trap. Perhaps we should have brought a native to translate?

[They all look the same to him, quite frankly. ]

Do you think they would have helped us even if we did?

...Suppose we will have to pick one. Law of averages says we'll be half right.

Well, you take the left and I take the right, report back?

We'll have to figure out some way of- oh right, we have these.

[ She taps the little button communicator. ]

Sounds like a plan.

[He huffs, amused. ]

I am sure you will eventually get used to the technology here.

Useful, but they lack the romance of messages in bottles, don't you think?

Well then, try to get a good glance at the symbol as you pass it.

Alleyoop!

[ Down a tunnel she goes, leaning right. She notes that her symbol is a highly stylized conch shell. The current pulls her and she has difficulty keeping straight as it dives down and left. She twists so that her back hits the smooth walls instead of a more easily broken limb.

There's another fork up ahead without time to focus, neither of the symbols she saw before are on there. One is a nautilus shell, the other a bundle of seaweed. ]

Fecking hell.

[ She swims towards the nautilus shell, and she guesses it was a good decision since she's pulled into another winding tunnel. ]

I wasn't aware you had such strong feelings towards romance.

[Fenris, meanwhile goes slamming into a few walls, being deposited back down into the the room with a wet SPLOT.]

Ugh.

[He looks down into the tunnels again. ]

Any luck?

Oh, I'm very fond of romance as long as it doesn't involve me.

[ Another intersection. She looks for the shells and spots it, swimming towards it, only to realize too late that both options are shells, but the one she'd chosen was a snail. ]

Shit.

[ She pulls out her dagger, just in time as she spots the tunnel ending in a spike-lined vent. With everything she has, she stabs the side of the tunnel with the dagger, sinking several inches into the stone and giving her an anchor to hold onto. ]

One kind of luck, anyway.

It seems like we should pick the shells, but they have gotcha's mixed in.

Naturally.

[He gets back into the tunnel, following her instructions. ]

This seems needlessly complicated.

You say that about everything.

And yet... that armor. You know, I still have the scar from the first time I tried to take that off of you.

[ Carefully picking her landing spot, she lets go of the dagger and lands spryly between the spikes on the grate, the water current keeping her planted to it like gravity. She kicks a few spikes to loosen them and break them off and give her space to crouch down and examine the thing more precisely. ]

[He eventually lands beside her, letting out a low, rumbling laugh. ]

Honestly, that was your own fault. You were far too impatient.

Can you blame me for wanting to see how far down those scars went?

Also you took a wrong turn. You were supposed to go down the other tunnel, with the drill.

[ There's no screws or anything she can find on this grill. Nothing to shimmy open or anything. ]

So I guess we're stuck here together. I don't suppose you brought a pack of cards?

I suppose I can allow you your curiosity.

[He rolls his eyes, sliding down to sit a little. The lyrium flickering to life. ]

I'm sure I could get us out of here.

And no. I don't have a pack of cards underwater.

Are you telling me that not every elf has an ancient set of stone-carved wicked grace cards?

Everything I've ever been told is a lie.

[ She backs up into a corner to let him work. ]

[His hand passes through the grate, as he feels for something, anything to pull it free. ]

I'm deeply slowly to have destroyed your grand view on elves in general. Better me than Merrill.

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March Planet Mingle Catchall

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