at the sea [open!]

8/9/2019 At the Sea [open!]

1/8

At the Sea [open!]

ThomasOpaque V i l lager

17 Apr 2010, 2:46am

The sea breezes blew strong here, whipping Tom's hair aroundhis face. It was warm, luckily; otherwise he wouldn't be here atall. He had a better tolerance for cold than some people, maybe,but swimming in a freezing ocean was just no fun.

He had only begun to consider coming out here within the lastweek. For all that the Weyrd still startled and bewildered him atevery opportunity, the American had actually begun to settle insomewhat. He had a room of his own - or something closeenough, anyway. He had a job. He had disposable income, even!And, strangest of all, he had some Bonded creatures. It was stillsomething of an alien experience, but one he was finding heenjoyed. Back home, he never would have considered such aclose relationship with an animal - was that the right word? - toeven be possible. But this place had a way of expanding yourhorizons, very quickly and only somewhat forcibly. That wasn'teven a critical statement in his mind anymore. He really wassettling in, enough that he'd felt comfortable enough to come

find this beach he'd heard about for a nice morning swim.

The ex-soldier glanced up and down the beach. He couldn't seeanyone nearby. He was all alone here, it seemed; not even anyof his Bonded ones had come along. He kicked off his boots andstripped off his outer clothing, quite unselfconscious for themoment. He'd had quite a time trying to find an appropriateswimming outfit - the worker at the clothing store in town hadkept trying to offer him these tiny pieces of cloth, insisting thatmany people wore them and it was perfectly normal, really. Tomcouldn't imagine who would wear such an immodest costume togo swimming in, but then, this was the Weyrd. He'd finallymanaged to find something that covered most of his body, andthat was what he was wearing now as he waded into the water.He also had, dangling around his neck on a leather strap, a tinygreen frog-shaped pendant. He'd found it out in the fields -actually, it had hatched from an egg, which was odd, but he'dkept it anyway.

The human went a ways out into the water and began to swimalong parallel to the beach, calmly. A rare moment of peace atIsnit Weyrd.

((Swimsuits in the 1800s looked like this. So he's probably

wearing something like that...only hopefully he doesn't look

quite that silly. XD))
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2/8

Updated by Thomas on 19 Apr 2010, 12:19am

PIFMyster ious Power

19 Apr 2010, 12:34am

The 'Jaws' theme might have been appropriate at this juncture.Below Thomas, something lurked, sinister and watchful. Itsgigantic yellow eyes surveyed the man's progress as he swamabove it. It hadn't had much excitement lately--why not spicethings up a bit?

Algae and other bits of underwater debris fell from its massivemantle as it dislodged itself from the sea floor. Carefully, withperfect jet-propulsion, the giant squid (which had been broughthere by the PIF recently and was probably on the verge of death

from being in such shallow waters) extended a tentacle. Itwrapped around Thomas's leg and pulled him under, the suction-cups leaving circular, burning wounds that might scar if theywere not tended to later.

The squid's beak opened as it pulled Thomas towards its body.Weakened from its PIF-transportation, it wanted food. AndThomas looked delectable.

Actually, the PIF wasn't done with Mr. Squid quite yet, and justas it was about to devour Thomas whole, it disappeared with agigantic 'GLOOP'. The 'gloop' was the huge air bubble that hadbeen caused by its vanishing. Floating in front of Thomas's face

instead of the monstrosity was now a glass bottle. Inside was abill of 100 monies and a note: "Have a nice day!"

Updated by PIF on 19 Apr 2010, 12:35am

Rilowe AnavariOpaque V i l l ager

19 Apr 2010, 1:10am

If it was a day good enough for a swim, it was most certainly aday good enough for a stroll. While Thomas took to the sea,Rilowe found himself preferring the ( somewhat more) stableaspect of land. He kept his hands tucked in his pockets, closinghis eyes and enjoying the sensation of the sea breeze blowinginto his face. While Rilowe had always been a child of the pavedstreet and buildings that touched the sky with their tallesttowers, going to the Ocean on his home world had always beena rare, satisfying treat. There was something utterlymagnificent about an endless expanse of beautiful green-bluethat had always comforted Rilowe, had allowed his mind toexpand beyond the tight confines of streets and society and all

the trappings of life.

so what if the Ocean inspired the pretentiously philosophical
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3/8

side of Rilowes tiny lizard brain? It was still an absolutegorgeous day, and he was having a lovely walk in an open space

where nobody could sneak up on him and ruin his time out inthe sun. (And he would be damned if he would tempt fate and

go into the water. His mother hadnt raised that much of a fool,after all.)

As he strolled, Rilowe found himself encountering another lifeform, and thankfully, it wasnt paying attention to him this time.A man was having a swim (poor fool), likely enjoying the day

much the same as Rilowe was. He was dressed a littlepeculiarly, but Rilowe had always prided himself on his manners,

so he managed to keep his snickering at the unfortunatecreatures choice of adornments behind his arm, concealed in a

cough. It was just a normal, beautiful day, with another oddlydressed member of this weird, oftentimes unpleasant world,

there was nothing to be alarmed about.

until the man disappeared under the water in a very abruptfashion. For a split-second, Rilowe reasoned out that the man

had simply done a surface dive, but then his logic caught up,

pointing out that there had been no twisting, no effort atdownward propulsion with a fanny in the air as its last hoorahbefore the body sank underneath the waves. The other man had

been pulled? perhaps, sliding under the waves (which hadoddly dark spots to them, almost like there were small schools

of fish entertaining themselves close to the shore) in anunnatural, uncanny fashion. Rilowe recognized the downwards

lurch from his childhood, remembering how schoolmaters (andsiblings) had pulled each other (and him, sometimes) under the

water at the local pond during the hot, sticky summers.

Rilowe looked up and down the shore, wondering if perhapssomeone else had seen something and were on their way to

help, but the beach was empty except for him. Another part ofhis mind protested getting involved, saying that tempting fate

by going near such an obviously weird occurrence was juststupid..

And then the part of his mind that wasnt piloted by an

apathetic, self-serving sociopath kicked in, and Rilowe foundhimself sprinting down the beach, shucking his coat as he

neared the shore-proper, wading in up to his knees as he triedto catch a glimpse of the man (or perhaps what had affected

him in such a manner.) Hey! Are you all right? He continuedwading in up to his waist, ready to dive in or help pull the

person to shore as soon as he spotted him (if he spotted him, ifhe was still there and hadnt been eaten by this godforsaken

place)


19 Apr 2010, 1:50am

Well. Thomas might have known that things couldn't stay nice

for very long. One second he was just peacefully swimmingalong, listening to the seabirds crying overhead. The next, the

birds were gone, and it was quiet.
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4/8

Tom barely had time to process this before something wrappeditself around his leg and pulled him under the water. He gasped

reflexively, filling his lungs with salt water, and kicked andflailed ineffectively. Whatever this was, it had a tight hold. He

twisted around and saw it - a giant yellow eye, tentacles, agaping beak. Oh God. He was going to die. He began to flail

even more as the fleshy pink tentacle wrapped around his calf

pulled him in. Ohgodohgodohgod - wait. Suddenly the pull onhis leg went away. Tom floated there underwater for a second,paralyzed. The sea monster was gone, and in its place a glass

bottle bobbed past him on its way to the surface.

Tom was suddenly aware of the burning pain in his leg and his

lungs, and shot to the surface as quickly as he could manage,grasping blindly at the bottle on his way up. Gasping in panic

and spitting sea water, he was hardly managing to keep hishead above water. But he heard a voice shout, and though he'd

gotten stinging salt water in his eyes, he could see Riloweapproaching. He began half-swimming, half-sinking towards the

person - his leg still hurt and wasn't quite working the way it

ought to. "Sea monsters!" he gasped. Run, person, run! Andhelp him while you were at it!


19 Apr 2010, 3:01am

Rilowe began to panic after about thirty seconds. What if the

person had been taken by the HellPIF or whatever they calledthe malevolent force that ruled this place, and what if he was

tempting it to take him next by searching for the other? Heducked towards the water, squinting to try and see without

dunking his face in, continuing to call, hoping to hear or seesome sign of life. "Hello?! Are you okay?"

... okay, so maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to be hollering

when somebody had been sucked under the waves by amysterious force (or a riptide?), but Rilowe wasn't good under

pressure, truth be told.

He was just about to talk the plunge and dive in under thewaves when the man surfaced, gasping and flailing like a

frightened rabbit dropped into a bucket of water. Rilowe couldn'tblame him, really, but... he did still look ridiculous. It was okay

to call an apple an apple, wasn't it? Rilowe lunged then,swimming out to where the other was and grabbing his arm,

beginning to haul him towards the surface. "Are you serious?!"

This place got worse and worse with every single passing day,he swore... "It's all right, man, relax! I've got you!" And

then he got a mouthful of salt water, and found himself gaggingon it as his feet touched sand and he hauled backwards, trying

to pull the other man out of the grip of the ocean. "We'realmost there, alright?!"

Updated by Rilowe Anavari on 19 Apr 2010, 3:02am
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5/8

ThomasOpaque V i l l ager

20 Apr 2010, 12:19am

The man in the surf splashed out farther and grabbed Tom'sarm, hauling him upwards and dragging him towards the beach.

Tom nodded breathlessly, turning his head away from Rilowe tospit out some more seawater as they went: yes, yes he was

absolutely serious.

When the two reached the beach, Tom collapsed into the sand in

relief. For a few moments he was silent, coughing and shivering.Then, after he had calmed himself sufficiently to speak again,

he looked up at Rilowe. "It was a giant squid or something.It's not there any more...I think it turned into this." He

held up the bottle as he spoke, looking at it as if he had justremembered that it was there. The young man turned the glass

bottle over in his hands a few times, then popped off the capand shook the contents out into his hands. The 100 monies bill

was mostly ignored; he gave it a cursory glance before unrollingthe note. He read the note once, then again aloud. "Have anice day?"Tom balled up the note in his fist and rubbed histemple. "God, this world hates me," he muttered to himself,

somewhere between tears and laughter.

Then, remembering his rescuer, he looked back up at Rilowe

with a somewhat more composed expression. "Thank you foryour help, sir. I'm Thomas - " Tom's speech was cut off with

a hiss of pain; he had tried to stand to introduce himself, but

immediately fell back into the sand, one hand flying to his rightleg. His eyes widened at the sight of the ugly red circles."Oh..."

Updated by Thomas on 20 Apr 2010, 12:19am


21 Apr 2010, 11:57am

Rilowe hauled the strange man up onto the beach proper with astrength he didnt know he had in him. Most of Rilowes upper-

body strength had been built up from carrying around heavyobjects, or pulling himself onto platforms and ladders; simple

tasks that needed to be done to get to a treasure haul (andthen to get it out of where it was being hoarded at). These

things were not proper preparation for dragging a flailing humanbeing out of the water, as far as he knew, but Rilowe moved like

a man possessed, pulling the other onto the beach until the surflapped at their feet and Rilowe found himself slipping and

plunking down on his rump.

Sand was a treacherous ground, especially when wet.
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6/8

He tried to help the strange man remember how lungs worked,pounding on his back so he would spit up the sea water he

might have drank in his outing with watery doom, murmuringlittle reassuring tidbits like there there, mate, youre all right,

see? and Ill even be nice and only charge you a fourth of whatmy normal life guarding fee is; things that were easy on the

ears that warmed the cockles of the heart. Rilowe fell quiet,

however, when the man got it in him to speak. His eyebrowsattempted to breed with his hairline at the mention ofgiantsquids (this world still sucked) and at the uncorking of the

(previously, to Rilowe) unnoticed bottle. A sympathetic, manicsort of grin twitched onto his face at the other mans

mutterings, and he chimed in with a (hysterically) cheerful Oh,you too?

This world hated all of them. Rilowe was still of the opinion that

they were all dead and this was eternal punishment in the formof squids.

Dont worry about it, boss, all in a days--hey, are you all

right? Rilowe had been shifting onto his knees so that he could

get up, but then the other man--Thomas--was collapsing, andRilowe found himself kneeling at his side, wincing at the markson his leg. Damn, it did a number on you He worried his

lip a little as he tried to figure out how they were going to getback to civilization unaided. It wasnt like Thomas was pocket-

sized, or Rilowe was muscle-bound, after all Uh, do youthink you can walk at all and use me as a glorified, meaty

crutch, or should we try like having you sit on my jacketand Ill haul you across the sand like a sledding dog, only

much more handsome and inspiring? He gave a thin smile,trying to warm the situation with humor, before remembering

his manners. Rilowe Anavari, at your service. Quiteliterally, too.


23 Apr 2010, 1:45am

Tom gave Rilowe as much of a smile as he could manage, giventhe circumstances. It looked more like a pained grimace, but it's

the thought that counts, right? The humor probably would haveworked quite well with Tom normally. Right now, though, he was

a bit distracted. Now that he'd gotten out of the water andwasn't immediately concerned with drowning, he realized that

his leg hurt like hell, and the sand that was starting to cake allover the wet wounds probably wasn't helping any. He did the

best he could to clean them up a little bit as he replied toRilowe. "I don't think sledding would work too well...I can

walk. Just let me lean on you."

Only about half of this was bravado. Tom tried once again to

stand up, gingerly favoring his wounded leg this time. He almostmade it up this time, before his legs slipped out from under

him, sending him plunking unceremoniously back on his behindin the sand. "Damn." A good thing it hurt so much, perhaps; he

hardly had time to be embarrassed that way. Heaving a sigh, hecraned around to look in the direction of the Weyrd,

reconsidering. It was a pretty long way to walk on one leg, or


7/8

with someone using you as a glorified meaty crutch, for thatmatter. Rilowe could maybe go for help...but who would come,

anyway? There wasn't much of a police force, and Tom onlyknew a few people there. Evan sure as hell wasn't going to be

able to carry him home.

"Alright, let's try this again," he muttered, reaching out forRilowe's arm to help haul himself up. "Don't suppose you'vegot any Bonded about? My camel could probably carry me,

but she's back in the stables." In retrospect, he probablyshould have at least brought one other being with him, even if it

was just Sunny. The little Shafa couldn't do much to defend him,but she was quick and perfectly capable of going for help.


28 Apr 2010, 4:55am

Eh, it was a shot in the dark with a blindfold on, but I tried?So sledding was out, but possible glorified meat-crutching might

have been in. He shifted to help get Tom up, hands on his arms,but soon found his world toppling over as the other mans fall

upset his balancing and sent him back to the earth too (thoughhe did his best to twist so that he wouldnt land on the already

injured man, that wouldnt be much of a useful thing, nowwould it?) Oh, bollocks, he muttered, dusting sand off of

himself as he got to his knees, chewing on his lip. If Thomascouldnt get up, well, Rilowe wasnt exactly the most physically

fit person on this forsaken hunk of hell and earth

One more time with feeling, he returned, presenting hisarms easily and moving to help Thomas up at a slow, but steady

pace, shifting to get his shoulder under the mans arm.Bonded? He repeated, squinting a little at Thomas as he tried

to place the word, eyes lighting up as it clicked into place. Oh,you mean like shinies or whatever the hell everyone calls

them? I have the bonehead, I think, if he, Rilowe paused,frowning a little in contemplation. It? If the bonehead didnt

decide to be a jackass and wander off on me. Riloweturned a little, raising his voice as he called over his shoulder.

Bonehead! Cmere a second, and yes, Ill help you picksand out of your joints, you prissy little bag of bones He

trailed off into a mutter, watching as something stirred on theedge of the beach, a large bestial skeleton shaking itself off and

moving towards them at a reasonably quick pace.

You know you dont have to yell for me, right? Riloweshrugged a little, looking between Thomas and the approaching

Maubaine. Thomas, this is Feste, Feste, this is Thomas.Play nice and let me borrow one of your legs, Fes. Im

pretty sure it could be used as a much sturdier crutchHe contemplated for a moment, before shrugging and looking

over at Thomas once more. Or do you think you could hangonto its neck well enough that it could walk you back?

Feste seemed to eyeball the men (though whether this was thecase or not was entirely up to interpretation, the skeleton

lacked the facial muscles necessary to emote a properexpression).


8/8


30 Apr 2010, 9:45pm

Tom had been right to point out the helpfulness of the shinies;once Rilowe realized what he meant, he called out for one of his

companions. At first, Tom was relieved. Then he noted exactlyhow large the approaching shape was. And finding that it was,

indeed, a Maubaine didn't do much to hamper his nerves. Onone hand, Maubaine were intelligent and not likely to rip your

throat out immediatelyupon meeting you. On the other hand,his Fyrhund liked setting fires practically everywhere he went,

and his Maubaine was occasionally dangerously unbalanced.

But Feste, as Rilowe introduced the bony beast, seemed mellow

enough for the moment. "I...think that might work," he saidcautiously, eyeing the Vargul's bony frame. There wasn't much

there to hang on to, but the Maubaine was large enough thatmaybe Tom could cling to its rib cage for a while, and it would

certainly be able to support him much better than Rilowe could.He shifted his weight, preparing to transfer himself to the

Maubaine, when he noticed a strange sensation in the back ofhis mind. It didn't take him long to identify it; he groaned

immediately, looking even more pained than usual, and turnedto see yet another large shape approaching from afar, this one

at a breakneck pace.

Before he could give Rilowe so much as an explanation, the

second Maubaine reached them, coming to an abrupt halt in

front of the two men and Feste, which sent a shower of sand allover the others. Volos didn't notice this; it had lowered its headto inspect Tom's leg with glowing blue eyes. Mmmm, see?This

is what happens when you go swimming without me.

"...Rilowe, Feste, this is Volos," Tom introduced with a vague

eyeroll. At least the Maubaine wasn't being violent today."Volos, this is Rilowe and Feste."

The other Maubaine glanced up at the others. Charmed.

at the sea [open!]

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