driftfleet | It's Party Time [ Open ]

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It's Party Time [ Open ]

Who: Jim Kirk & You!
Broadcast: Nope
Action: Yes, Planet-side @ Alloy Lake
When: Sometime in the evening

While it wasn't broadcasted, between how many people were told and the fact it wasn't exactly a private affair on a very public beach, anyone was welcome to come to this little shindig. Kirk's feelings were mostly that they all could use a break and a chance to relax together as friends, family, teammates, or any other word you chose to assign to the relationships you had on the Fleet. It was a nice break from working in projects too. It was nice to have something to occupy yourself in a creative and useful way, but it was always a good idea to take a break and refresh the brain now and then.

Which was how he came to the idea of a party on Alloy Lake.

He scouted a scrap of land near the water to set up on - beach towels, a cooler with drinks, a mocked up grill to cook some food. He went out later in the afternoon to start with more than enough light to enjoy some swimming, though it would be dark soon enough for certain members to join without being uncomfortable. At which point, a bonfire was built. What? A lack of sunlight is never a reason to stop partying! Especially not with such good company.

_{[ ooc: It's a party on the beach! Make your own starters and have some fun! There's drinks - alcoholic and non - food, a couple of games or make your own, a bonfire later in the night with of course means some kind of smore, swimming, and more. In terms of invite, you can assume you were directly told by Kirk, or told by someone else, or the grapevine. It's open to all, so don't worry to much about it. Have fun! ]}

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[He swims through the formations, some of them fragments of ship hulls stripped of most of it useful parts. Fish that have taken refuge in these shelters scatter as they approach, the Dancing Lights glinting off multicolored scales. Taako takes a slow roll between two towers of junk covered in algae. As he slides through, he sees something crawling along the left tower, extending long tentacles through the scrap metal.

In this his whale brain and his elf brain are in sync. He pulls around and stops, watching as the creature camoflauges.

Octopus!!!]

[She sees it almost at the same moment as he does, catching sight of a limb as it fades into the terrain. She squints, her vision still not great now that it's phased, so she gestures with her hand to relocate the Dancing Lights to give them a better view of the area where it had vanished, and taps Taako's back, leaning forward.

Get closer, I'll see if I can get a shot off.

It'll be tricky if they want to capture it without damaging the tentacles too much, but so, so worth it.]

[Taako doesn't have to be told, he's already swimming closer, inching in to where he last saw the octopus. Killer whales are named that for a reason though, and when he sees movement, he snaps at it. Just a fish, but hey - tasty.

Wait no, raw. Raw not sashimi fish. Gross, gross, gross.

The movement causes the octopus to flee, however, and it shoots up in the water, trying to get away. Unfortunately, its path takes it right in front of Lup.]

[Well, isn't that just perfect for her? It's a simple matter to reach out with both hands, palms glowing brightly with a fierce red energy of a spell, and grasp at the creature's big head as it tries to swerve around her. Fire is less effective in water, which means it won't completely immolate the damn thing, but heat works just fine with direct contact, and the damage is enough to shock the octopus out of escaping, legs flailing wildly in pain. If she could smell underwater it would probably reek like a fishery, and with a satisfied bubble of a laugh she kicks it back towards Taako's maw.

How about fried calamari instead?]

[He really, really has to use every ounce of will not to just eat and swallow that octopus. But for once, he's so glad that Lup is here because it continues his trend of being helped and/or saved by competent women. Taako sees the movement out of the corner of his eye and snaps his head around, jaws clamping down once the octopus is in his mouth.

Which? IS NOT A GOOD FEELING.

The octopus is still alive, shocked as it is, and its tentacles grip his teeth and cling to his tongue. Taako whips his head to the side and starts shaking his body, wrestling with the octopus trying to pry its way out of his jaws.]

[oh my gods what is he doing

Lup snorts, hands lifting to cover her mouth, but she can't help it; more bubbles burst between her lips as she starts laughing, watching him flail about. She'd hoped that he would catch it, but this... it's a bit much.

She pushes off his back and swims around to face him directly, reaching out to press her hands to his nose as he jerks it about.]

Stop, stop! You dingus, hold still so you don't bite my hand off, I'll get it.

[There's a couple of wriggling tentacles sticking out of his mouth, but there's no way she's reaching for them until he chills. Those are some big teeth he's packing.]

[Trying not to choke and die because this octopus can't decide if it wants to murder him or escape, that's what he's doing.

The sensation of suckers trying to rip your skin off from the inside is wholly unpleasant and Taako thrashes, clamping down harder in protest until Lup swims around the front. With her hands pressed to his nose, he wriggles, but calms. The octopus on the other hand? Starts wriggling harder, suckers attaching to his lips and pulling to try to get out. Whatever Lup is going to do, she better do it soon or Taako might end up chewing this thing to death just to stop from dying himself.]

[She's still laughing as she moves closer, grabbing the octopus by one tentacle to tug herself in where it's head is pressed between the whale jaws. She whispers a bubble in its direction, magic weaving in her words, and immediately the creature goes limp, tentacles sliding off of Taako's skin. Lup gives him another pat, gesturing for him to open up again so she can pull it out.

It is quite literally the most overkill of overkills for one dumb giant octopus, but it's the fastest way to get it away from Taako's flailing before he ruins their material components. She really wants those tentacles. It's not like there's a plethora of danger around this planet, anyway.]

[There's a bubble from her mouth and an overwhelming sense of power, and the octopus goes limp. Its suckers peel off from inside Taako's mouth and tongue, and for a second a thrill of fear runs through him as his mind catches up to what just happened. He knew she had access to some high level spells, but that one? It's a bit terrifying to think that she has access to a spell like that.

Thankfully? Whale brain is a lot simpler than his wizard one and it's just happy that the octopus is no longer trying to French kiss him to death. He opens his mouth and spits the octopus at Lup, rolling to the side to get away from it.]

[She might be able to excuse it away later - it's just an octopus, after all, can't have that much life to drain away - but Taako's lack of reaction makes any concern she might have had to vanish from her mind. She does make a mental note to maybe go through her spellbook and see if she'd stolen any more of Barry's lower level spells, though. Necromancy isn't her style - lich stuff notwithstanding - but it was made for this type of situation.

Regardless, the octopus issue's resolved, so she wraps it up around itself as best as she can and tucks it under her arm, gesturing around and glancing at Taako before swimming over to her spot on his back again. Keep going, or was octodoom enough for him?]

[His whale brain is just glad that he's no longer in danger of suffocating to death. His elf brain is also glad for this, but it's also turning over the spell he just felt vibrating through his skull. She'd used it to help him though so he can't really complain so much as just be wary for the future. It has quite the build-up so at the very least, he knows he has a bare minimum of time to get away if necessary.

With the octopus vanquished and Lup back on his back, he continues his rolling dive away from the tower. There are a lot of other things they can search for, but the spell components are the most important. Could they find another one maybe? Does he really want to wrestle another freaking octopus?

He corrects his dive and starts climbing. Whales can stay under for a long time, but they're still mammals. He needs a breath of air after all that struggling.]

[Lup holds on tightly as they rise, both to Taako's fin and to the octopus. With all eight limbs intact, they could get a fair number of casts out of this one, and if they dry it out properly it'll last a good long time, too. There's bound to be plenty of other interesting things to be found under the surface, and Taako's got this shape for a while yet before Polymorph wears off. If she hadn't just blown her 9th level slot she'd offer to trade with him once it's finished, but she didn't prep the lower level version today. Oh well, this is plenty for her.]

What's the plan? Do you want to go back?

[As he rises to the surface, he concentrates on forming a single word in his mind. It isn't easy to use speech, even telepathic speech, when your mind isn't made for Common or Elvish or anything other than animal chitters and whale song. But while the silence stretches between them, he manages to get a single word out to her just before they get to the surface.]

Air.

[He breaches and lets out a relieved breath from his blowhole, spewing a light spray of water into the air. He coasts along the surface until he goes beyond the towers of junk they'd just explored. He goes a little further and then slaps his tail against the water.]

Down?

[She lifts the octopus over her head as a makeshift umbrella to spare herself from the spray of his blowhole, with mixed results, before giving his back another pat.]

Down! Let's see if we can find something with less tentacles and more fun.

[In retrospect maybe it would have been more helpful to cast Water Breathing on him when she'd used it on herself, but oh well. The lake isn't so deep that he can't make it back up in time when he needs to.]

[At her response, he arcs his back and dives. The water grows dark around them again as he heads toward the bottom where any of the interesting looking creatures or leftover salvage might be. As they go, they pass by schools of brightly colored fish and sea grass covered mounds that gradually begin to grow in height the deeper they swim.

He's counting on her to cast Dancing Lights again as the light gets dimmer down here. He can make out hulking shapes, skeletons of old ships and tall towers of trash. It'd be beautiful and haunting if it wasn't actually trash. It's much of the same here for a long stint - colored fish, empty husks, sea grass, weird looking creatures with two heads, things unrecognizable to him - and then he notices several undulating lights deeper below them swimming lazily along undisturbed by his giant shape passing overhead.]

[Dancing Lights peppers their path downwards, revealing more and more of the scenery, mostly scraps and vessels or creatures of little interest or use to them. She can't help but be reminded of their journey to the lower levels of the world with the broken civilization, and all the robots, nearly a century ago. Taako doesn't remember, of course, but that had been such a turning point for all of them. The secrets those depths had revealed... she can't help wondering what else people might think to bury under the deep waters.

The bobbing lights beneath them doesn't catch her attention immediately - she'd caught them in her peripheral as just a reflection of her own - but Taako's movement makes her look twice, and with a gesture she sends her cantrip downwards to light it up. The two hover next to one another for a long moment, the magic orb revealing some kind of bioluminescent bob on a string- until abruptly a pair of jaws rise up out of the dark and clamp down around the Dancing Light with surprising quickness. It makes Lup jerk backwards, twisting her wrist to set the remaining lights spinning around the creature just out of range.]

What the hell was that?

[Whoa, holy shit. Taako tilts slightly so he can see the display a little better and is equally as surprised when jaws snap up out of the gloom. It's ugly as sin with rows of jagged teeth poking up over its top lip. Giant, milky eyes are staring out into the darkness and the light bob is still flicking in front of it. The Dancing Lights show mottled gray skin, the color blending into that of the water.

That's a nasty looking predator and it's nearly as big as Taako himself. It turns its head toward the Dancing Lights, snapping at them in turn, then turns its head upwards toward them.

....Well fuck.]

[......ah.

Should've saved that spell, maybe.

Lup gives Taako's back a frantic couple of pats, shifting position so she can face backwards instead of front.]

Go, go! Lead it around, but keep your distance! I've got your back.

[It looks hefty and dangerous, and she doesn't want Taako anywhere near those big teeth, but they've definitely faced more dangerous creatures than this. That giant purple worm comes to mind. She weaves her hand through the water and clenches down into a fist, catching liquid and silt stirred up by the creature's movement, and uses it to cast Storm Sphere around the sea monster, trapping it momentarily and searing its back with a bolt of lightning. It won't hold it for long, but it ought to give Taako enough time to get up to speed.]

[He doesn't need to be told to move - when he sees the head swivel up their way, he's already flipping his tail to take a sharp turn away. He can feel a spell form behind him and fire off, but he's ignoring everything in favor of escape. He really hopes that Lup is holding on because he's going to try and get to top speed to put as much distance between them and the creature as possible.

Down below the sea creature thrashes inside the sphere, smashing against the sides as lightning scores its back. The Sphere doesn't last long though and with pain in its hide, the giant fish puts on a burst of speed and lunges for them from the depths, jaws open.]

[Okay, cool, that just made it angry. It's not like she'd expected it to drop dead, but she'd sort of hoped it would at least have second thoughts about chasing them.

That suits her just fine, though; she bares her teeth right back at it, returning its challenging snarl in kind. It's not intimidated yet, but she'll make sure it regrets this before day's end.

It hadn't much liked the lightning, but she lacks the components to fire off a more specific bolt, so instead she points her spoon downwards and casts Scorching Ray. Her aim isn't helped any by the fact that Taako's bouncing her around with every stroke of his tail; one of the blasts bounces harmlessly off its armored hide, another sheers through the string of flesh keeping the glowing orb attached without causing much damage, but the third goes where she'd intended it to go- right down the monster's throat. And that makes it pause, pace slowing down as it thrashes in anger and pain, and they've successfully fended it off for another round.

She laughs noiselessly, punching her spoon-wielding hand above her head. This is fun.]

[How she can be enjoying herself when a fanged horror beast is chasing them through the water is beyond him. Taako can't cast magic so he's basically defenseless right now, which means his only recourse is to flee. His teeth are sharp, but nowhere near as big as that thing's teeth and he is not going to test them to find out who wins.

Another spell fires off behind him and Taako veers around a tower of trash, sending the fish swimming around it into a panic. They flee and Taako zips on by.

The fish thrashes below, the orb cut from its face, and disappears into the depths again. Without the light, it's hard to see where it is, but a flurry of fish fleeing toward the surface might give her a good idea. It's still chasing them, but slower and from behind and below now.]

[Time to get creative. Her eyes scan the terrain, taking note of how the fish veer out of the way, keeping close watch for when the creature gets too close. What little light the ball had offered, alongside her Dancing Lights, showed that it was some kind of weird combination of snake and whale, longer than Taako's form but not as wide. Based on its size she'd probably have made a more appealing morsel than Taako, but now it's just angry and out to kill them both.

Works for her- they're better as a team, anyway.

Once she gets a good enough eye on the worm, she adjusts her grip on Taako's fin and hangs off the side, hand bent in a throwing position, her focus between her teeth. The creature is catching up to them, getting closer... closer... its teeth are barely a foot away from Taako's tail... there!

She flings her hand out, channeling her power, her aim far more precise at this close range, and a blade of ice tears right through the creature's tongue. It falters with a bubbly shriek, giving them just enough time to put some distance between them and it before there's an abrupt explosion inside of its mouth, tearing off bits of flesh, the dark water around it growing clouded with blood and ichor.

Lup climbs back up onto Taako and glances over her shoulder. Still coming, huh? The damn thing is persistent, she'll give it that- even with a corner of its jaw hanging loose.]

[The shriek is clear to him through the water and he risks a curve around another leaning tower of overgrown trash to see what's going on behind them. The creature has its jaw hanging off in one corner, but it's still freaking coming and it's way too close for comfort. He wishes he had access to his spells now, but no hands and no vocal cords really puts a damper on that.

He starts weaving through the towers of trash and the fish follows, but much more clumsily. The blood and ichor clouds its view and its eyesight isn't as keen as Taako's at this depth. He zips to the right and the monster crashes into the pillar, slowing it down. Bits of dislodged salvage rain down and he pushes forward, trying to get it to hit more and more towers as they go.]

[Lup tries to assist with the pillars, firing off a few more low-level Ice Knife spells at the more study-looking ones to make their support structure explode and fall on top of the worm, but it has mostly mixed results, and it's too inaccurate for her liking. What she also doesn't like is how long this is taking; if this goes on like this, either Taako's going to get tired or the Polymorph is going to wear off, and then they'll both be sitting ducks (with Taako unable to breathe underwater, besides). They need something better. The broken wreckage is slowing the creature down, so maybe they can try a more risky maneuver.

She flicks her wrist and tosses Dancing Lights out again instead of an aggressive spell, lighting up a path just ahead of them: a circle of wreckage on the edge of an underwater cavern, stones and the bend of a sunken ship creating something of a precarious roof. She pats his back and makes the lights flicker, drawing attention to the route where she wants him to go.]

Lead it inside and circle around- we'll bury it there on the way out. Just watch your tail!

[Son of a bitch.

This thing is relentless. Even with Lup helping and slowing it down, it's apparently pissed enough that it doesn't care about the falling debris or the pain. He takes a sharp turn around another tower and feels the slaps on his back. For a brief moment he panics, thinking that the debris or the monster has somehow caught him. But then her Message comes through and he gives a positive response, peeling off toward the flickering lights.

Between the overhang and the towers is a long stretch of clear water. Taako bursts out into it, scattering fish every direction. A few moments later, the monster is hot on his tail, pushing towers of trash over as it goes, uncaring about the damage its causing to itself. He's getting tired, but the pure adrenaline rush of "I don't want to die as a fucking whale" is enough to keep him going.

He dives toward the lights, dodging to the side as the monster follows, and slides into the cavern.

Do it!]

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