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Navigating By the Stars

Scene details

Setting: Under cover of darkness, hunkered against the elements by the shelter of the shipwreck they inhabit, our heroes discuss their next goals on the Isle of Blessed Winds.

Log


  It's night fall. The blanket of darkness covers the sky while the stars shimmer. The wind blows heavily, providing a very chilly feeling for those within the outside. At the shoreline of the island is the wreckage of the Romancing SaGa. It has seen better days, but there appears to be slight progression in its current state.

 Surrounding the gathering is the sight of the ocean, the sandy environment, and the mountainous terrain. At the center of the resting spot is the flames erupting from the gathered wood. It provides a bit of warmth while heavy drapes hang in front to fight off the wind and provide additional comfort.

 Reize is laying on his back, sighing wistfully. He is dressed for warmth, the long sleeved shirt as a layer along with a blanket to cover him. He muses. "... We should get the Romancing SaGa repaired soon and get back to Granse."
 


 Loosely draped in expensive fabrics like royalty fled from their castle, Ivo sits by the fire as the strong winds batter the shipwreck they have adapted into a primitive abode. In lieu of proper blankets, he has made the most of the luxury trade goods they managed to extract from some of the still sealed cargo abandoned here who knows how long ago. Looking out toward his beloved SaGa through the occasional gap in the hull in which they shelter, the older youth furrows his brow even as he smiles slightly.
 "I'm as eager as you, chief," he replies, which may be hard to believe coming from the person who keeps developing schematics for bikinis. "After clearing away the debris, I would say our primary tasks are twofold. First, the hull damage. We'll need our more alchemically inclined friends to develop a sticky tar from whatever materials we can find, and we'll need quality wood. Not the driftwood around here, but the hardier specimens in the humid zone further up the mountain. But to get there, we'll have to pass through the arid zone... the cactus forest."
 And by "forest," Ivo means desert. The peculiar ecology of these isles is such that inland from the coast is hot and dry and rugged terrain until, further in, the altitude begins to rise, with it coming more rain and cooler temperatures.
 "Second, we'll need to replace the engines. We're not clearly in the position to either forge metal or distill aetheric essence as fuel. To break free of the currents and winds here and safely return, we'll at least need to do the former." He pauses. "I'm curious about Flechette and Zuna's vessel, lost in the Twilight Canyon, the one that belched smoke and fire... maybe their kind of engine or kind of fuel would be easier to build under our inclement circumstances. But first we may have to... establish relations."
 The Reizenapping Catgirl Mafia, our heroes' erstwhile antagonists from the initial chase that led here, have meandered down the coast and not been seen recently, seemingly not inclined to mingle with the Star Chasers.
 "And I suppose there is one other minor issue..."
 Ivo's smile turns wan.
 "...the sea serpent lurking in the ocean depths."
 If they try to leave now, would that whale-sized flying-fish-winged coatl emerge again to smash their vessel to bits? Would it have to be defeated? Or could the mystery of its agitation be solved?
 "But at least it's been easy to gather seafood," he quips cheerfully, perhaps making an effort to keep everyone's spirits up, perhaps just not all that unhappy to be trapped on a tropical island in the first place. "Maybe we would even find some tasty crab if we could explore the coral reefs."

Ruidosa La Crima is frumpy and if she never sees the ocean again it'll be too soon, Most of this talk goes over her head. Something something, tar, something something... cactus...forest.

"Fool, do you mean a ''desert''?" she asks when Ivo mentions a cactus forest.

She's glad her mom isn't around to interject about the time she got stuck in a desert.

"Ugh, I say let mom loose on the serpent. She'll eat it for dinner. or something." she says bluntly, as she frumps some more.

  • Character: Daiby
  • 11 months, 1 week ago


Daiby shudders.

For several reasons! One is the chill of the night, which has brought her, currently still clad in what boils down to swimwear or its un-waterproof equivalent, nearer to the warming licks of the fire.

The other is the prospect of the cactus forest.

"Ivo, darling, you're always so excellent at stating things and summating them," Daiby says, looking towards him with half-lidded eyes. "But you know, it's funny that you mention crab."

Daiby raises a hand to rest one dark finger along her temple. "That massive serpent out there... at that size it must be some sort of apex predator. Creatures like that are definitional to the cycles of life! There must be some reason why it's so aggressive here. Ships wouldn't be good food for it, so it either must mistake ships for something else, or be defending something. Hmmm--"

Daiby looks towards Ruidosa with a little gasp. "Your mother would eat ALL of it?!"

Ruidosa quickly interjects. "Like I eat crab." she says. "Probably."


  While Reize listens to Ivo, his eyes remain locked on the stars for a solid moment. In order to push things along, he pulls himself back up into an upright seated position. His legs cross together as he places his hands on his hips. "Do we have anyone besides you?" He frowns, "... Well, I know Lady LaCrima can help...." He gives a bright smile, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. It was Tranquila and her mother that helped make the medicine for him.

 The cactus forest does earn a slight frown from Reize, but he gives a grin. "Can't be helped. We'll consider that idea." Then he brings up the ones who kidnapped him. His expression sours. "... Maybe we can put that on hold for some time..." He grimaces, hanging his head low, antenna hair flopping on his face. "...The tall one was pretty scary."

 Seeing Ruidosa's mood earns a faint smile, then he reaches over to pat her shoulder. With Daiby with them as well! It is good to see her spirits high.

  Folding his arms, he gives a thoughtful look, furrowed eyebrows and his head bowing down. Hmhm. He perks slightly, "I suppose we could focus on getting the harder wood." He pauses, then he lets out a sigh upon reflection, antenna hair drooping.

  "... I guess maybe we should talk to establish relations with the beastkin that attacked us. We need to try to get out of here together, after all."

  • Character: Daiby
  • 11 months, 1 week ago


Daiby doesn't seem to quite get the reference, but a. she may have been polite about not looking at other people's table manners, and b. may be somewhat vapid. She looks towards Reize. "I agree," she says. "It'll be much easier to get wood with all of those girls helping us out!"

"I'm not certain why they're so aggressive," Daiby tells Ivo. "Is there something we could make right? I could offer them money but I didn't bring much *with* me..." She shifts herself, hugging one knee loosely.


 "I'd like to see that," Ivo quips back to Ruidosa, letting the desert comment slide. "I hardly dare to imagine your mother truly letting loose." This castaway adventure could have a worse climax than noble vampire vs. sea serpent. Idly, he wonders if an experienced vampire like the Lady La Crima is able to fight at her full potential without a supply of fresh blood. Well, it's an interesting question, but surely not his business.
 His cheeks flush with said blood at Daiby's very specific compliment, which Ivo seems to find very flattering. "Th-thank you." Does he take pride in his expository prowess? Perhaps it is an important skill for a deuteragonist. In any case, he retains sufficient composure to listen intently, his own scientific curiosity sparked by the eccentric beauty's words. "If only we could approach within a safe distance to observe it and try to understand the causes of its aggression... Do you think you could potentially communicate with it, Daiby, as though it were one of your snakes?"
 He pauses for a moment.
 "Or, say, negotiate with a particularly surly tortoise?"
 Asking for a friend who doesn't want to get hit with any more spat rocks.
 "I think you're right, Reize," he then adds, turning to their fearless leader with a grin. "Let's approach the Catgirl Mafia soon and see if we can find a mutually beneficial arrangement so we can get off this isle together. We can settle our other differences later." Their motives still may still remain obscure, if apparently related to some offenses the party has committed against the legendary elemental Beasts. "We might be able to gather some wood if we can scale some of the larger boulders around the coast... but it'd be better yet if we had the means to cross the desert."
 He crosses his arms for now instead.
 "We could use some of the intact barrels for water, as long as we can transport them... if we could tame some sort of beast of burden, that would be ideal... and tanning leather for waterskins would be helpful too... and we'd need some way to protect ourselves from the heat and sun... and I'm worried about the winds coming down from the mountain..."
 It seems our heroes could overprepare for that venture if they choose.

"I tried to negotiate with the tortoise but it doesn't speak bat." she says bluntly. "Must not be any bats on the island and also, crabs sound good. Let's hunt crabs." she says. Then she sighs and frumps some more.

"Ugh yeah we have to. Talk to those ones. I bet they blame us for the trouble when they're the instigators!" she says as she huffs.

"Ugh, mom probably would have us solve it for ourselves though. I think this is like a vacation for her." she says. "Ugh."


  A hand rests to his chin as he glances over towards Daiby at her suggestion. "We can keep that on hand! Maybe we can pool our money together and have it as an offering for their service." He gives a grin, looking quite hopeful. His head hangs low, "...I don't even remember why they even kidnapped me anyway." He exhales a heavy sigh, followed by an exasperated mushroom cloud.

 He gives a sheepish smile at Ruidosa, "Maybe she's just used to situations like this. But well get through this together, Rui! We'll... just have to form an alliance with the people that we're here with."

 The mention of the tortoise earns a grimace. He barely remembers meeting it, but for some reason, his head hurts at the mere mention of it.

 Ivo brought up a few things about taming the beasts and getting some leather. "Oh! I can handle getting the leather together! It's been a while since I've done some proper hunting...!" He struts his chest. "As for the taming of beasts...."

Flashback to attempting to tame boars: one piglet chomping on each arm and angry momma.
Flashback to attempting to tame Doom Chicken: all of the meteors droppiing down.
Flashback to attempting to tame insert creature...: PAIN. JUST PAIN.

  "Err.... maybe we can leave that to Rui." He has a sweatbead on his face, rubbing his cheek nervously.
 

  • Character: Daiby
  • 11 months, 1 week ago


Daiby considers the question put to her, which keeps her quite for a while. Her eyes turn to Ruidosa and Reize and then she tells Ivo, "The first thing I would do is try to study the creature's habits and habitat, so that I could understand its behavior in a greater way. Given the size of our fellow out there, that might need to be more indirect than anything, we can't exactly send people out to be eaten - we don't have enough people!"

That was a joke, right? Daiby keeps movin':

"After that I would try to acclimate the creature to me. Present good environments and experiences which it could associate with me - their minds can be simple but they really do understand things like kind treatment and, of course, food..."


 "Not nearby, anyway," Ivo concurs with Rui's complaint. "The Zel'rik Archipelago is quite ecologically diverse overall, and somehow I doubt the tortoise travels too far by land... so maybe, if we keep exploring, we'd find some bats that speak tortoise."
 That was a joke too, right?
 "Excellent, chief," the Cosmopolitan then says, resuming his grinning at Reize. "I saw some well-fed marmots among the iceplant that might make for decent targets. I'll see what we can devise in the way of tanning agents. I recall that the ancients tanned leather with solutions of bark and leaves, but of course, I don't know the process myself. How exciting, to recreate civilization from scratch, don't you think?"
 He pulls the fancy fabrics around him a little tighter. Well, not exactly from scratch.
 "Hmm..."
 He nods slowly to Daiby. Her advice is surprisingly sensible for someone constantly swathed in snakes.
 "It would be a battle even more furious than against the King Crab, and without MegaCapo to assist... and I'm frankly just curious as to when the sea serpent started behaving this way and why. I expect we have much more to learn about this isle and its so-called blessed winds."

Ruidosa La Crima makes a face. "Let me tame the beasts." she says.

"Buck" goes the Doom Chicken in her lap.

Grunt, goes the tortise on the other side of the island.

Snort, goes the boars all the way back in Granse.

"Then we're agreed!" she says. "I shall tame some beasts. But not the big snake."

"Diaby. Diaby can handle the big snake."


  The comment of 'sending people out to be eaten' earns a frightened look from Reize. He shudders at the thought and he furrows his eyebrows, "Yeah, that is no good!"

  As Ivo comments about the location of the marmots, he gives a thoughtful look. "Thanks, I'll begin the hunt tomorrow morning." His brows furrow, "... We may have to watch out for the more aggressive wildlife as well. We've seen a few of them so far." With a nod, "So everyone should be careful!"

  • Character: Daiby
  • 11 months, 1 week ago


"We could prepare false people to use as bait," muses Daiby, before smiling at Rui at her vote of encouragement!

"Of course!"


 "Then our priorities are beast hunting, beast negotiation, and beastkin negotiation," Ivo concludes, grinning face bright in the flickering fire, before glancing to Daiby at her intriguing suggestion. "...and see if Fabroxo can invent the Makeshift Mannequin Mark 1."
 Deep down, though, our bold inventor ponders deeper questions. Ruidosa seems to have a striking talent for beast taming, one that he has not reflected on too closely until now. Could this skill blossom in a context like this where animal allies could be a real boon? Perhaps there is some way he could facilitate this process for the benefit of all...

> Ivo is in the process of developing a new Schematic...
> A new craftable weapon associated with the Trainer subclass, "Shadowcat Whip," has been added to the Shadowcat Bikini Set.