Something Fishy - RPLOG
From Rusted Promises
Participants
Date
16/3/477
Log
The beach is rather crowded this fine evening as fires roar, providing both light and dancing shadows as folks murmer and talk. Many folks seem to be soaking wet, as if they'd just come out of the water. The few clouds in the sky do nothing to block a marvelous display, the ocean is rather well lit by the fire and the moon, although something seems off about it. A few rugged looking folks pant on the beach, drying themselves off as best they can manage. "Come on in! The waters fine!" calls a dugong in a top hat, smiling from behind his moustache. "I've got so much in store for you, come now! Who's next? Is this the best Firmament has got?" he cries and to this a few of the crowd replies with a very well timed "NO!".
Selena settles down a fair distance from the store. "Swimming?" She ponders, yawning quietly and taking a sip from a bottle of some kind of drink - probably cider knowing her habits - though she doesn't seem to intend to move further towards to the waterline.
Upon hearing that there is a contest going on at the beach Bleddyn couldn't help but visit, being the good sailor he is. The large wolf stops by Selena and leans over to smile at her before turning to the water with crossed arms. "Lon' time no see lass, don't suppose ya remember me but do ya got any idea wat's goin on here?"
Siyu will step onto the beach, he stays far away from the sand, he's dressed in silks and lot of it at that point, he's certinally not going to go to the sand and to the water, he'll just watch for now, what in the world is going on?
The dugong recieves yet another "NO!" from the crowd and a big grizzly steps foward, flexing for the crowd and shouting out "My form desires to proceed!". The dugong chuckles and guides the bear to the waters edge. He then takes a box, which sloshes about as he moves it and dumps it into the water, and a glowing fish emerges. As soon as it hits the water it begins to slowly swim away, the bear taking off after it. He makes graps as long as he can before he's forced to take to the deepr water, swimming in vain as the fish darts away.
Selena raises her head and tilts head, peering past the crowd for a few moments. "Well, I'm glad I'm not there. Hello, Bleddyn. And Siyu! Good luck. I caught wind of that petition." She notes. "I'm glad there's no mandatory participation here."
Bleddyn purses his lips together in thought as he watches that bear amble around in the water. "That... didn't quite answer my question Selena, I mean... what are these land-lubbers trying ta do? Eh?"
Siyu looks over to Selena and he bows his head, "Thank you, I thank you, I think it's going well and it should be good, it should work excellently" he smiles and nods. He looks out to sea, and is certianlly NOT going to participate in this, no water, nope!
Competition! And competition can mean prizes. And prizes can further mean food, or perhaps money to buy said food. Anything event by the beach is calling for a good soaking, so Dio leaves his gear and coat within his room and promptly speeds over to the location at leonine speeds. Or at least Dio speed, which may involve some distractions and detours. "Am I late lads?" A panting lion shouts out as he joins the crowd. "I'm 'ere to win the whatever competition! What must I do to obtain the prize? Is it swimmin'? I 'ate swimmin'. Leads to a soggy mane I'll tell ya, but if it's fer food o' somethin', perhaps I won't mind a good evenin' dip."
Running a little late perhaps, the tigress hoped that she hadn't missed the mystery contest - the last one had been quite amusing after all. Armour not donned this time, the feline arrived on the beach in just her vest and tattered pants with her hair gathered and pinned up. Gazing out across the crowd, she heard the splashing but didn't quite make it to the gathering in time to see the box or the shiny fish. "Mmm..what is the event..?" Kaelli murmured, thinking out loud more than anything else.
The bear grumbles and kicks some sand as he walks off, being greeted by his wife who pats his back. "You did adequate dear." she says as she looks back to her book. "You didn't even see it did you!" he groans, a few more crowd members raising their hand. Dio is greeted by a well raised cane, prodding him. "YOU look like a tough one, care to try your hand? Wager you a prize you can't!" the dugong says with a smirk. A few vendors who have begun setting up wave to a few of the crowd members, one of them pointing to Selena, Selena, Siyu, and Bledyn. "Hey! Fresh fish cooked before your eyes! You like?" a sardine man says with a smile.
Bleddyn shakes his head towards the vendor in a polite denial and waits for Selena to reply to him before he heads over to where the two Dugongs are throwing their contest, having taken it into his mind to attempt to try his hand at this particular game.
Selena sighs quietly and looks back at the crowds. "Well, I'm assumig there's some kind of swimming competition judging from... Well, that." She replies to the other wolf. "What else." The wolfess shakes her head politely as the sardine offers her fish. "I'll pass. Dio, Kaelli. Hello to you two as well. Wait. Dio, did you just say you wouldn't mind a swim? In water?"
Siyu shakes his head, "No no I'm going going to enjoy this, no nonot at all, good day to all of you, but I don't think this is for me
"Do I care?" Immedietly, Dio takes to raising his shirt over his head and dropping it to the floor in a crumpled heap, leaving nothing more than his dangling soul pendent upon his upper body. The lion rams his fists together and lets out a excited leonine roar to get himself pumped up! The spirit of a totally not old lion soars! "Let's do it, lad! What do I gotta do? Is it a race? do I gotta find somethin'? Catch it? Whatever it is, let's get started! An' it ain't like I'm scared o' water o' nothin'. It's just annoyin' having yer mane drip an' bein' all heavy. It's heavy 'nough, lass! Trust me."
"Hunger is..ah..powerful motivator," the tigress commented, coughing softly in a weak attempt at concealing a laugh. A smile was directed towards Selena, however, and the feline offered a polite bow of greeting before straightening. "Hullo!" Looking between the aquatic competition field and the lion that had arrived just before her, Kaelli's featured shifted into a wry smile and she shook her head slightly at the over the display that was Dio.
Bleddyn is greeted by another one of the Dugongs, giving a smile and speech to him. "Well you might come this way, and you might be taxed beyond belief as you try out your aquatic prowess." They offer to take Bleddyn to the beach and meet the second dugong who is leading Dio, and give eachother smiles. "Well I bet this coud be interesting, would you like to make it a race, AND a catch?" they ask as they turn to the two. Dio is given praise from the dugong who scouted him, a "Well I bet this one could easily tackle yours, he's so buff." they say with a high influcuated tone. The second diagrees physically then verbally, offering a "Well I believe this one here will be spry as a frightened piz." The fish vendor nods and turns to the crowd, passing out cooked fish as he's paid.
Selena chuckles quietly. "Well, I've heard a few things about cats and water among other things." She replies, tapping her nose. "Well, there's something to be said about Dio's enthusiasm at the very least." She murmurs to herself, waving to Siyu as the mouse departs. "Well, take care."
Bleddyn looks rather suprised as he is approached by one of the Dugongs and led towards the competition area. Once her finds himself standing next to Dio he lifts his eyebrow at the feline. "Ye sure ya want ta be doing this lad? That mane o'yers'll be nothin but trouble. A complete drag'n the water." The Wolf shrugs of his top clothing and then removes all the weapons and any other drag from his belt. He chuckles after he tosses his equipment off to the side and then sticks his hand out to shake with Dio. "Gud'luck lan-ubber."
Dio bangs his knuckles together once more and lets out a small competitive laugh. "I'm up fer the challenge, lads. I'll race a thousand beings at the same time!" The lion rolls his golden shoulders and cracks his knuckles and neck, preparing himself for the competition before him. "My mane? Consider it a handicap, lad. An' why not make this more interestin'?" Suddenly, the energy charged feline turns around and points a clawed finger directly at Kaelli. "I challenge ya, lass! A rematch from the battle over at the hay pile. If I win, ya gotta bake me on' o' those pies ya've been tellin' me 'bout. If ya win, then... Well, what would ya want?"
Kaelli purses her lips as she watches the pair corral their chosen 'champions' for a little competition. Laughing softly without hesitation this time, the tigress nods lightly and glances over to Selena. "Yes," she comments, "He has much energy. But, I never understood the dislike of water. Personally, I enjoy swimming." Glancing around, the woman was curious as to how long it would take for a betting pool to kick up. Her cursory scan of the interrupted as the lion's exuberance was suddenly turned in her direction. Blinking and giving a small start, the feline cants her head to the side slowly with a bemused expression upon her features. Soon, however, she gives another of those bell-toned laughs and spreads her hands in a placating gesture. "Yes, yes..fair would be fair," she concedes, stepping forward. "If I win..you are making dinner again."
With a laugh the dugongs nod. "WELL we have it folks, a three way between this tigress, this lion, and this wolf! We'll see who can grab it and get it out first! He says as he motions them over towards the waters edge. A moderate sized box is carried by one of the dugongs to the water as he holds it closed. He looks to the contestants and says "WELL! Get ready, get set, GO!" he says, slowly at first, then he quickly speeds up between the end of set and the final go. A fat ball of blubber who happens to be a porcupine heavy folk sits down by Selena, offering them a smile. He smells a little like fish, probably because he has some grilled fish on a stick in one mitt.
Selena chuckles quietly, reclining again and chuckling as the announcement is made. "Really..." She mutters, smiling slightly. "Good luck, you two." She murmurs to nobody in particular, continuing to watch from a good, safe distance.
Bleddyn dashes foreward into the water with a dive, the water rolling off his fur as he darts through the water from the initial dive foreward towards said fish. The Water clan Wolf trying his best to beat the two felines to the glowy fish.
"Good! Very good!" Dio shouts and laughs, getting into the moment. "I like yer competitive spirit, lass. I look forward to eatin' some o' that pie!" Hearing the word 'GO', the lion instantly spins around and sprints towards the water and dives right in! Using the best swimming abilities he can muster, he starts swimming towards the objective before him.
Kaelli winks at Dio then perks up and turns to look at the box as it's moved along to the water. Mismatched eyes fixing on her 'prey', the tigress subconsciously rolls her shoulders and shifts her stance as she prepares to pounce. Not a glance was spared to the wolf or the lion that she was competing against as she tracked the motion of the crate and then the shiny fish that emerged. Kicking off from the sand, she took a running leap before diving into the water and chasing after the shiny thing!
The lion and the wolf take ahead of the tigeress, the fish keeping a fair distance ahead of them. It sways back and forth, it's light illuminating the ocean below it as it attempts to escape the pursuit. The crowd cheers loudly. The porcupine gives Selena another smile and moves closer, offering her a bite of his fish. "Hey would you like some girl?" he says in a deep rumbly voice.
Selena shakes her head, looking back to the porcupine. "No thank you. I'm not particularly fond of fish."S he replies politely, tapping her cheek. "It's nice to see beings all together like this outside of the inn for a change, though." She replies, finishing her cider and continuing to watch.
Bleddyn takes a deep breath and dives down into the water after the slippery fish, because why the heck not? He came here and by the creators he's gonna go as far as he can. As he dives beneath the water he keeps his eyes open, following the glowy fish as he swims as steadily as he can to conserve the oxygen he's got... man he wishes he had some gills right now.
Not a bad start! Dio swims forth into the open blue and heads straight for his prize. The actual competition is a large part of the prize itself after all. Taking heavy breaths, the lion attempts to increase the speed and power of his strokes, vision tunneling upon that mysterious fish that had eluded the previous contestants so well.
Seeing her quarry getting further away, Kaelli growls softly and tries to get ahead the pair that are closer to her prize. Streamlining her strokes, she attempts to make herself more..hydrodynamic? As she splashed through the water. Catching sight of the lion's tail, she couldn't help but wonder if biting the other contestants was allowed.
The wolf pulls ahead, catching up to the fish as it ducks towards a pile of rocks. The lion is close behind, and the tigress makes a decent stride foward but cannot seem to catch a break at the moment. As the fish reaches the rocks, three more appear in it's place! All of various sizes, at first glance theres no clear indication of which one was the one they were chasing! The porcupine says "Inn?" as he tilts his head and looks over Selena. "OH you're one of those soul... gifted! Yeah thats the word." he says catching himself. "It's a nice Inn, they have great services... hey let me ask you something, do you like art?" he quizzes as he chomps on his fish. "And you know I bet you can get some kebobs if you want."
Selena chuckles quietly, shaking her head a little. "Soulless, gifted, I don't really care. I'm another being, that's all." She replies simply. "Art... Well, it's nice. It wouldn't be the same without it either. I might pass on Kebobs too; I've already had my fill." She replies, raising an eyebrow as the contestants compete for their prize.
Bleddyn smirks beneath the water as he pulls ahead and as he reaches the rocks he reaches out for one of the fish to grab and clamp between his jaws, simply hoping it was the proper one. No sense in staying down here too long thanks to the Oxygen restriction.
Dio swims and swims until he reaches the rocks, looking about for his ticket to pie-town. However, it wouldn't be that easy! His muzzle shifts about and finds more than one fish, causing a bout of confusion. If he took too long trying to find the real fish, he'd lose too much time. Instead, he tries to grab one of the fish and hopes he might get lucky.
As the fish reached the rocks the tigress gave a low and rather waterlogged sound of surprise at the split! But, then again? What should one expect from a prismatic fish other than a prismatic split. Swiping at one fish with a clawed hand, she redoubled her efforts and turned her head slightly in mid-stroke to snap her jaws at another just hoping for the best.
The wolf, the lion, and the tiger all get a catch! Dio seems to have a rather small fish, and Bleddyn seems to have a fish of the size they were initially chasing! Kaelli on the other hand lets her teeth sink into something far less fishy and more liony. "Now they have their catches, it's time to pull them out!" says the dugongs. The porcupine pulls out a folded parchment of paper, and when he unfolds it a dozen or so drawings in a strange texture coat it. They are all a colorful red, and they look rather childish, yet very unique. "I try to have my hand at it, what do you think?"
Selena looks over the images with noticably more interest than the race - after all, at a distance and with water in the way it's rather difficult to see, pausing for a few moments. "...It's a nice departure from portraits and beings aiming for more realism in their art." She comments with a smile. "Though... The things you've used to draw this make me think of sealing wax, not paint. I'm curious."
Bleddyn whips around, keeping a tight grip on that fish in his jaws and heads for the surface and then to the beach, letting out that pent up air through his nostrils and then taking in another breath through those nostrils of his as he starts to swim towards the shore.
The fish, or perhaps just a fish, was finally within his cluthces. Handling his meal ticket, he starts to swim up and back towards the shore until a sudden stinging sensation runs through his body. The lion breaks for the surface and yells out in pain. "'elp me!" He shouts, waving his arms about. "Rabid tigeress tryin' to eat me! I didn't know ya 'ated makin' pies that much!"
Kaelli closes her jaw soundly around her prize! ..But why did this fish taste all..fuzzy? Fish weren't typically fuzzy.. All the same, almost as if on reflex, the tigress brought both hands together to take possession of her 'fish'. It took awhile for the flailing and shouting to break through her focus and prompt her to recognize what her catch actually was. Emitting a less than dignified squeak of surprise, the tigress released the poor lion's tail and got a mouthful of water instead as she dropped beneath the water in attempt to hide from the rather embarrassing mistake.
The porcupine smiles. "Well it rubs off into such a nice look... I just think it looks better than trying to paint with.... paint, or stains or anything like that. It looks nice I think, a bold difference from Ink. Do you draw?" he inquires. A few of the crowd members dash off to help the lion, fearing some sort of sea beast must have gotten hold of him. The wolf has much better luck, taking his catch towards shore easily. "It looks like we'll have a winner! I just hope the other contestants are alrigh!"
Selena shakes her head. "I'm not an artist. The closest thing I do is take some lectures at the academy on spellcrafting." She replies, rubbing her cheek. "I'm fairly fond of paint, but I'm sure you could do something interesting with that as well." She replies, laughing loudly as Dio starts to call out and yell. "Somehow... I don't think he's in real trouble." She chuckles.
Bleddyn pulls himself out of the water, removing the fish out of his muzzle as he gets back to the Dugongs. Handing them his prize he turns to the water to watch for Dio and Kaelli. "I think the lass bit the poor lion lad is what oi think." He turns to the dugongs and nods. "I'd rather wait'ntill they get back before we do anythin anymore."
After a few moments, Dio decides to stop his show and suddenly breaks out into a large fit of laughter, giving the water a good slap in his comedic fit. "Sorry 'bout that, lass," he says, trying to calm down with some practiced breaths. "Couldn't 'elp myself. I knew ya were competitive, but bitin' is somethin' else! Suppose I gotta admire yer spirit, even if yer spirit hurts." A free hand attempts to pat the submerged tigress on the back. "Let's get goin'. Maybe I can even cook this 'ere fish up." With a leisurely pace, he swims back to shore with his fish and starts shaking his head about to fling water from his heavy mane.
Pondering the possibility of suddenly developing innate waterbreathing, Kaelli did her best to remain under the water as Dio had his laugh over her poor aim. When the need for air finally forced her to surface, the pale and soggy tigress tries to make her tall form as small as possible as she sheepishly slinks after the laughing lion and his abused tail to stand at the opposite side of the contest organizers. Head bowed and gaze averted, the feline scuffed one paw against the sandy short and looked rather like a child that had just been scolded.
The dugongs smile and the crowd cheers to see that everyone is okay, and they examine the two fish. "Why these are BOTH some of ours! You've won this round wolf!" says one as he secures the fish. The other quickly replies with "And you've won the bears prize!" to the Lion. They murmer to eachother and nod, before saying "You get a runner up prize!" to the tigress and they start dishing out gifts. The porcupine looks up and smiles at the going ons, looking back to his drawings he hands it to Selena. "Here you can keep it. Maybe we can meet again sometime, I do enjoy painting too you're quite right. If you ever need a modest drawing, you can give me a call. I'm Lester." he offers a hand to them.
Selena looks back over the crowd as they cheer, calling out her congratulations to the three - not really paying too much attention to WHO won before nodding, carefully rolling the picture up and placing it in her bag. "Thank you, Lester. I'll certainly keep your name in mind. I'm Selena." She replies, taking the hand and shaking it politely.
Bleddyn grins, his tail wagging as he reaches his hand out to shake Dio's hand. "Good show Lion, good show that was... For a lan-lubber." He laughs and gives a bow to Kaelli before turning to the Dugongs once more t recieve the prize.
Dio hands over his fish, kind of wanting to cook it instead of giving it up. At least there were plenty of other fish around to eat, but that one looked kinda tasty. "Oh! A prize," he proclaims, taking it under his arm." As Bleddyn comes up to him, he takes his hand with a strong grip and shakes it up and down a few times. "Not bad, lad! We'll 'ave to give 'er another go in less dangerous waters next time, eh?" He chuckles, turning around to head towards the soaking wet tigress. "Now if ya'll excuse me..." Coming up behind Kaelli, his arms surround her torso and give her a tight squeezing hug! "Don't be so down, lass! Ain't nothin' that can't be laughed off along with a good drink o' two. I'll tell ya what. Ya bake me a pie, an' I'll make... somethin'! It'll be a dinner trade."
Kaelli returns the wolf's bow and is quite surprised to then be handed something by the organizers. Not wanted to compound her embarrassment with the shame of ingratitude, the feline offered another polite bow and murmured soft thanks along with a tiny attempt at a smile. Despite her state of perceived disgrace, curiosity rose as she examined the item she had been handed. Blinking rapidly, the tigress found her examination interrupted by the enthusiastic hug. Her tail lashed about a bit before she realized what was happening. Laughing softly and feeling quite silly indeed, that tail soon came to curl around Dio's waist lightly. "A-Ah..yes, that sounds lovely.." she replies meekly.
The porcupine leaves Selena with knowledge of his address, for art purchase or visit, and the dugongs depart with their prizes to the competitors, smiling and waving up the next to try their hand. The night is still young, why waste it? The fires will blaze into the morning, folks taking time to enjoy the side venture.
