Seeking Refuge

• Character: Ivo Galvan
• 4 days ago

 The cool sea spray douses the lingering sense memories of flame as Ivo deftly pilots the SaGa out of sight of the burning Korotean vessel. The party has had time to settle themselves as the minutes have passed since their frantic and relentless raid on the frigate. Flechette is bandaging Zuna's injuries, lecturing her taller partner as the warrior, not seeming especially attentive, leans to try to peer into the sack of loot that the sniper purloined from the captain's cabin along with her new blunderbuss. This task has been rendered more difficult by the ragged-eared stray cat's decision to curl up on top of said sack and begin taking a nap there.
 "There they are," Ivo announces, pointing off into the horizon. "Looks like they're mobile, but barely."
 Their Cosmopolitan pilot had torn off into the waves in whatever direction made it easiest to break line of sight with the Koroteans, and now he has circled about to intercept the damaged refugee vessel. The ship is moving, but it is low on the water line, clearly still taking on water from the punctures it sustained during the pursuit.
 "I expect they'll have to make landfall soon," he continues, expression calm, though perhaps he is simply numbed after their chaotic assault. "We could continue on to Isla Sacro ourselves, but I expect that is where these refugees from Lomphan are heading, too."
 He glances towards Roseline and Tulip.
 "I'd like to escort them the rest of the way," Ivo concludes, "having gone this far for them already. I don't know what to expect there, so the more friends we have, the better... however vulnerable they may be. Is that acceptable?"
 This may be his ship, but he has never attempted to behave as though he is in charge. Roseline is a more experienced captain in any case. And Tulip... well, it's useful to have her involved in deliberations, if only because she's more willing to do reckless things.

• Character: Laineth
• 4 days ago

  Roseline stands on the deck of the SaGa, her arms crossed as she looks out over the waves. She was at first watching the Korotean vessel to make sure they weren't followed, but after a few minutes, she finally saw fit to relax. Sigh. Well, that was a reckless and stupid plan, but it somehow worked out. Barely. That captain lady would certainly be a pain in the ass down the line. Hopefully not to them again.

  But that's neither here nor there at the moment.

  The redhead eyes Ivo when he manuevers his way into finding the Lomphan vessel. Indeed, it does look worse for wear. Will they make it to land? Possibly, but there's a chance they won't. Roseline eyes, shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders. "We've already stormed a Korotean vessel, busted it up, and fought their captain for these people. May as well see it through."

  It would be a waste of their efforts otherwise.

• Character: Tulip
• 3 days, 23 hours ago

  Now that the main event is over Tulip finds herself free to relax. "Now to get this annoying thing off.." she grumbles as she unwinds the makeshift face covering from around her face. In hindsight, she probably should have done something about those tall bunny ears too. They'll totally know that there was a beastkin among the boarders!

  "Uh? I kinda thought we were gonna keep helping them from the start." she says as she settles herself down upon a box. "I mean...Rosey's right, right? We've already made enemies, so we may as well keep going." she keeps going as she props her chin up on one arm that's in turn propped up on her leg.

  "That sword of hers was pretty interesting. Did you see it properly Ivo? How do you think it worked?"

• Character: Ivo Galvan
• 3 days, 23 hours ago

 Ivo smiles slightly at his companions' affirmations. Though a bizarre series of events brought them together, he's already grown quite fond of them. He wants to see this adventure through with them, with consensus on their path forward, and not just because Roseline's mom has tasked him with a quest he is now utterly dedicated to complete.
 "It *was*, wasn't it?" he replies to Tulip as he guides the SaGa closer to the refugee vessel. "I wish I'd had more time to examine it, though I think I made the right call in focusing on the grapples." They were able to get out of there just in time. "Obviously, she can redirect incoming aether and store it up to a point in her blade, but must expel those energies if they exceed a limit. But I don't think we've seen the full extent of her capabilities. At the end, there, it seemed like she didn't have to wait for her opponents to target *her* with aether, but could charge her own blade with aether and so amplify it, as though reflecting an attack upon herself. I wonder why she didn't just do that more to begin with... perhaps there's some other limitation on that, too."
 He thinks for a moment, cruising in silence.
 "I expect that a technique like that would be all the more dangerous with an allied sorceror," he continues. "Someone specialized in offensive magic, who could either target us directly or target her to... you know, alley-oop a spell." Very eloquent. "Tulip, your technique disrupts magic, right? Do you think that you could also use that offensively in a similar way? Say, deliberately destabilize an ally's magical attack to set off an even more dangerous chain reaction? I'm just thinking about how flexibly the captain seemed able to use her reflective ability... and if we could match that somehow."
 Though the party succeeded with flying colors when it came to their stated goals, Ivo does not seem in any way to be resting on his laurels. If anything, he seems nervous about the prospect of encountering the Koroteans again. Granted, the party did have several strokes of luck in rapid succession.
 "Looks like they've picked a spot," he then says, noting that the refugee vessel is sailing into what looks to be a decently well-protected cove of a small island, seeking the shallows in a white beach strewn with palms. "I'll take us in."

• Character: Laineth
• 3 days, 23 hours ago

  "Right. That sword..." Roseline muses aloud after Tulip and Ivo get to talking about it. "The things she did with that sword were pretty familiar." It was almost like looking at a fusion of Ivo and Tulip maybe. "She was already annoying to begin with, but the possibility that her absorbing and redirecting aether was her essentially 'holding back' doesn't inspire confidence."

  Roseline's confident enough in her martial prowess, but at the end of the day, she is a pirate and not a strictly trained military veteran.

  The mention of replicating what Yisao did does make her think though. "...Hmm...." Could they do it? Maybe something similar? They'd have to test it out, but theoretically... Well, those are thoughts for later. Seems like they're heading in after the damaged ship. Roseline leans against the guard rail and peers out at the other ship as they draw closer.

• Character: Tulip
• 3 days, 23 hours ago

  Throughout Ivo's explanation over just how he thinks that sword worked, Tulip is just staring blankly as it all washes over her. "Uh...so it holds onto stuff, and then kinda...tosses it back out?" she says as her forehead scrunches up in thought. "I dunno..I mean, when I break a spell it usually just spreads out all the aether, but that makes it weaker even if it does manage to hit me after. I'm not sure how I'd make it useful. Maybe if we did it as like...breaking someone's spell and adding some power of my own, and making it spread out less but towards an enemy? I suck at regular magic, so.."

  Here she shrugs, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

  "If you guys taught me some more about how it all works, we could pull it off!" she says, followed by a little "Ah.." as something seems to occur to her. "Just how much of the work d'you think the sword was doing? Maybe she can't use a spell on herself to power it up and send it somewhere else cuz she's already doing something?"

• Character: Ivo Galvan
• 3 days, 23 hours ago

 Ivo nods to Roseline, his lips twisting slightly. Perhaps it is a lingering lack of confidence in his own prowess, despite his new life of adventuring and the successes his parties have had, but to his mind, he is far from the most talented wielder that Hauteclare or similar swords have had. Someone who can approximate his style of fighting intimidates him. Realizing that, he wonders if that is the deeper reason why he has come away from their victory feeling more unsettled than heartened.
 "Oh? Good question..."
 Having drifted off into these melancholy thoughts, Ivo startles and then brightens at Tulip's question. Shaking off his own reflections, he seems struck that he hadn't thought of this line of inquiry first, maybe distracted by his stirred emotions.
 "I feel as though we don't have enough information for me to answer that with confidence," he replies to Tulip, "but if there's some synchronicity between her weapon and her own aetheric arts... what if the solution lies in magitech? If I can run some tests on how your technique works, Tulip, I might be able to develop a medium for your abilities to, say, diversify their possible interactions with Roseline's magic..."
 The thought of a new exciting invention on the horizon gets Ivo grinning again as the SaGa cruises into the shallows of the small nameless island. The refugees on the ship have already unloaded landing boats to help ferry them to shore and are organizing themselves. Though a motley group who seem ragged from their journey, they are quickly setting up a rudimentary base camp, preparing a working area for construction and repairs, with some setting off towards the surrounding tree line with axes, saws, and rope. As the party approaches, it becomes clearer that the majority of the refugees are beastkin, primarily of herbivorous bent. And in the thick of those that seem to be leaders is Dipang, speaking with them avidly even as a medic tries to tend to his injuries. Said medic looks frustrated when Dipang, espies the SaGa, raises his arm to begin to wave vigorously, smiling ear to ear.
 "I've heard the Lomphan faith extols emotional detachment," Ivo quips as he brings the SaGa as close to the beach as is possible, where the water is thigh-deep. "Perhaps our champion there didn't get the memo."
 "My friends! Thank you for everything!" Dipang is calling, as the others look on. Some are smiling with relief and gratitude, while others look a little more circumspect.

• Character: Laineth
• 3 days, 22 hours ago

  Roseline puts on a bit of a wry smirk at Dipang's cheerful demeanor as he greets them, much to his carer's irritation. "...Detachment, huh?" Maybe he's working on it. He snorts to herself and shrugs. Well that's not for her to criticise, is it? "Looks like they're already getting down to business over there." She observes, watching some of the refugees head into the treeline with axes.

  They probably have it handled. The more immediate concern are the few wary looks they're getting. Understandable given what they just went through. But maybe a bit rude also, considering what she and the others went through to keep these people going. Tsk tsk.

  Well, it's not like Roseline did any of this to be praised.

  "On one hand...I'm curious to know what's going on here. On the other... I have my doubts that this will tie into our broader goals." She says, mostly musing aloud. What do they have to do now? The overarching goal is to figure out the Tempestquell, and to start, they're looking to meet the Beastkin elders or the Catgirl mafia, hence why Zuna and Flechette are hanging out, but then this happened...

  A crooked smile forms. "Never a dull moment." The redhead murmurs to herself.

• Character: Tulip
• 3 days, 22 hours ago

  "Hey...that could be pretty interesting! Maybe something like a set of gloves, since I'm already using my hands to break spells?" Tulip muses as they make their way into the shallows. "How are you gonna find out how it works though? I, uh. I don't really know how to explain it! It just kinda makes sense to me." Something that just comes to her naturally then, like moving one's limbs comes naturally.

  As the trio makes it closer the bunnykin peers out at the little camp that's been put up. "Huhh...how much help do you think they need? Looks like they have it under control. I guess we could share some stuff with them?" she wonders out loud as she hops off of her box to wander over to the guardrail.

  "Guess he's not all that observant." she says as she plants one hand on the guardrail and quickly vaults over it to land in the water with a loud SPLASH. Then without so much as waiting for the go ahead she makes her way through the shallow water onto the beach proper. "Heeeey!" she calls out, waving with one hand high over her head. "We're gonna help out some more! ...oh!"

  Something seems to have occurred to her.

  The rabbitkin turns back to the SaGa, pointing right at the feline duo they've managed to pick up. "You two are helping too!"

• Character: Ivo Galvan
• 3 days, 22 hours ago

 "I'm sympathetic to your doubts," Ivo murmurs back to Roseline even as he smiles and waves back to Dipang, his demeanor like a politician, face saying one thing and muttered words another. "I regret to say that associating with refugees might be more trouble for us than it is beneficial, depending on how Isla Sacro responds. My understanding is that it is an island welcoming to refugees, but... such sentiments can shift."
 He does not mean to cast aspersions, genuinely unaware of the social and political climate on the island nation, but cynically, he would not be surprised if those who have found safe haven on Isla Sacro are all too willing to turn around and reject more arrivals, having gotten theirs, as it were.
 "I'll have to observe your techniques more closely in a controlled environment," Ivo then says to Tulip, brightening again, this topic clearly of interest to him. He doesn't only craft outrageous outfits, after all. "We'll experiment with how aether responds to your attempts to disrupt it when it is of different forms and natures and consider what might best complement it... when we're in the proper setting to do so."
 He's accustomed to setting up improvizational laboratories at this point, but he's not likely to be able to assemble one right here on the beach. Isla Sacro, however, might be an option.
 "You are ever generous, my friends!" Dipang calls as Tulip approaches and Ivo rolls up his trousers, preparing to descend from the SaGa. Zuna moves to join, making no protest to Tulip, and Flechette promptly begins arguing with her, the Catgirl Mafia apparently divided on if to offer assistance. "We were just about to begin fishing to prepare a proper meal! Join us, as a fraction of deserved recompense for what you have done!"
 Flechette's protests conspicuously cease, and the two begin to disembark as well, Zuna splashing down heedless of her bandages and Flechette picking the right moment to leap gracefully far from the ship so she might land neatly on the sand.
 "But I have not properly introduced myself," the refugees' human champion says. "I am Dipang Chao Phraya, a minor lord of Lomphan, alas expelled from my lands by the Eurenan hordes." He uses the old name for the empire now known as Korotus.
 "My lord is too modest," a wizened older man with bovine horns supplies. "You fought bravely in our defense, allowing us to retreat through the jungles and make our way this far."
 "Yet I could not have shepherded you further without the aid of our friends!" Dipang replies, a hint of frustration behind his exuberant warmth. "Truly, I cannot thank you enough. Though my lands and riches are now lost to me, you have my endless gratitude."
 "The safety of you and your people is more than enough," Ivo politely replies, his gaze curiously roving among those assembled, gauging the relationships as best he can, before looking towards the sound of chopping wood. "May we assist with repairs to your vessel?"
 "No need, no need!" Dipang jovially says, though some of the beastkin look as though they might appreciate help. "Please, relax! It is the least we can do. Unless you would enjoy relaxing by fishing! Ha ha ha!"

• Character: Laineth
• 3 days, 22 hours ago

  "Hm... Well, that sounds familiar." Roseline murmurs in response to Ivo recalling that Isla Sacro is friendly to refugees... or was, potentially. Nova Luria is the same. Minus the 'was' on that refugee point. They generally accept anyone on the run from greater authorities from landlocked countries, who are willing to apply themselves and contribute. That does give the island nation a bit of a meritocratic air, but it works out. Mostly because of Iris, but it works.

  That aside, the redhead shakes her head, golden gaze narrowed a bit down at the makeshift encampment on the beach. Well, sidequests are a part of life, right?

  Similar to Flechette, Roseline waits until the beach is closer before she hops off the deck. She wraps herself in a modest air current to aid her descent to the beach and lands neatly before walking up with her arms crossed. While Ivo speaks, she sweeps across the beach with her eyes again, and... Well, it does look like they could use help here and there, despite what Dipang says. But for now, she focuses on the conversation. "Roseline LaViere. A pleasure." She states plainly, but with a modest, generic amount of kindness.

• Character: Tulip
• 3 days, 21 hours ago

  Once she's out of the water and on the beach proper Tulip shakes off her legs, now quite glad that she's wearing the shorts that Roseline picked out for her rather than the pants that she used to wear. "...wish I could do that." she mutters to herself as she watches Roseline's display of magical expertise. Ah well.
   With a grin she turns to the assembled refugee. "I'm Tulip!" she says cheerfully, jabbing a thumb at herself by means of introduction. "Roseline you know, that guy's Ivo. The big cat is Zuna and the shrimpy one's Flechette." With each name she points a finger. Shrimpy. Big talk, coming from her.

  It's curious that she didn't give a last name to the refugees like Roseline did, though.

  "Y'sure you don't need more hands? I dunno much about ships, so I guess I might not be all that useful...but Rosey used to be captain of one and everything!" she says as she just wanders right on up to the refugees like it's the most natural thing in the world, being much less careful and polite than her companions. She doesn't even seem to care about some of the looks the group is getting!

  Or maybe she just hasn't noticed them.

• Character: Ivo Galvan
• 3 days, 21 hours ago

 The politician's smile on Ivo's face quirks in amusement at Tulip's genial approach, glancing between her and Flechette, whose nose twitches at the bunnykin brawler's words.
 "Shrimp? Where?"
 "Perhaps some might be found in the creek!" Dipang exclaims, nodding further down the beach, where water flowing from inland carves its way through the sand and some of the refugees have already drifted to resupply. It seems that the young noble shares Flechette's enthusiasm for fishing-related activities, which is to say, eating seafood. "You are all too generous, but if you wish to assist, I certainly will not stop you! We have subdivided into crews gathering wood, carving boards for repairs, and finding--"
 "Crayfish!" a distant voice yells.
 "There we are," Dipang brightly adds. "Not shrimp, but--"
 "Giant crayfish!!! Help!!!"
 A chorus of cries erupt from the creek down the beach as Lomphanian beastkin scatter, a sizable crustacean emerging from the sands with segmented shell gleaming wetly and pincers snapping. Ivo sighs quietly, with the long-suffering air of one who has fought too many crabs and crab-adjacent foes for a single lifetime already, while Flechette's catlike eyes shine with barely repressed glee.
 "Perhaps you might assist me in *this* endeavor," Dipang concludes, his purple robes rippling as he unslings his meteor hammer from his belt and begins to idly whirl it as he moves in the direction of the fracas.

• Character: Laineth
• 3 days, 21 hours ago

  Roseline doesn't miss that Tulip doesn't give a last name. But she only quirks a brow to herself and doesn't actually call it out. She simply files it away in the folder of odd little things Tulip has done in her mind. "Hm. Yeah. Used to." She says, looking mildly bitter.

  If she ever sees that Shadowguard captain again..... gods give her strength. Because she'll use it to send that *bleep* flying into the stars.

  Ahem. Anyway-

  A sudden cry of 'Giant Crayfish!' interrupts the proceedings. Welp, so much for peace and quiet. Roseline rolls her eyes and then turns to go help fight the thing. With everyone going after it, this surely won't take long.

• Character: Tulip
• 3 days, 21 hours ago

  "Wood, huh? I guess I could pull that off. Trees are pretty easy to break once you're used to it!" Tulip declares cheerfully, looking like she's about to head off towards the treeline without even picking up an axe. About to, because it's as she's juuuust about to turn that the Giant Enemy Crab appears. Well. Similar to a crab, anyway.

  "That's...not a shrimp." she declares as she stares at the interloper. Unlike the other beastkin here she's not running away from it. Rather she balls up her fists and punches them together, flexing them afterwards to limber them up in preparation for another action scene.

  "Wonder if there's some plants and stuff on this island that'll go good with this.." she mumbles to herself.