apocalypsehowcomm | LOG - July Catch-all [Closed for Now]

The boy who's been assigned to work with her down at the docks looks so young. It's the first thought in Mercy's head because it reminds her of Hereward. His serious expression doesn't help with that impression. She'd offered a chipper introduction, offering her name as Sister Mercy of the Spring Tide before heading down to the docks with strict instructions and a strange grabbing instrument. Mercy is delighted by it and can't help using it on everything as they walk along... even her companion.

"These things are right fancy," she says, reaching for the edge of his shirt with the grabber. Just to give it a little tug! Just to test. "You ever seen anything like them?"

She hadn't swum that far, had she? The thought strikes Mercy as she finds herself sitting on her surfboard, well away from shore with the sensation that she's drifting even further. The instructor had shown her how to duck past the waves, to get out farther where the waves were just a little bigger, but now she's beyond those breaks, the murky depths below her hiding... gods only know what.

This is too far out. She is too far out, and the memories of the kelpies come back to her mind. What if those are out here? What if they see her? She's not a selkie anymore, and she doesn't have the swimming ability that had come with the constricting seal skin.

The panic starts to set in. She's out too far, and while she's a strong swimmer, this ocean is so much bigger than the Abbey Pond, or even Essex Bay. She can't see beyond the horizon. Her heart starts to pound as she lies back on the board and starts paddling hard. Her drift away from shore slows, but she's still not getting closer.

"Help! He-hey! Help, I can't- Help!"

The swimming suits in this world are strange, indeed. It feels more like wearing her undergarments than anything else. But she's been assured by a number of people that they're the common sort of thing people wear here. She's chosen her own swimsuit for the beach barbecue with Aelwyn's guidance. It's a little more colorful than Mercy is used to, but that makes it exciting. She'd just been happy to find something with a mushroom pattern on it.

"Aelwyn, look!" She's coming back after investigating the supplies ADI's providing for people to have fun on the beach, carrying colorful plastic bucket and matching hand-trowels. "They got tiny little shovels. Ain't it cute?"

They could use more cute things, especially after the somewhat harrowing events in Appalachia. They'd won, certainly, but people had still died, and that town... without FYRE, people seemed to be so disheartened.

This isn't quite the typical assignment he's used to, but an assignment is an assignment and he isn't going to complain. His introductions are even improving a little bit! Unlike previous ones, this time he makes sure to introduce himself as the Golden Guard, right hand of the Emperor and head of the Emperor's Coven, but that just Hunter is fine.

It's not great, but it's better than a bad nickname. He's sick of those. It's unprofessional.

... Sort of like his partner is acting right now. He frowns, trying to maintain an air of competency even though he isn't wearing his full uniform today, and tugs his shirt away from her. Flapjack is perched on his shoulder and his mask is on his head, and he's very glad he normally wears heavy duty gloves.

"No," he replies bluntly. "If we needed to move something in the Boiling Isles without touching it we'd use magic. Not... one of those things."

There's a note of frustration in his voice about that.

Nobody asked Ade to play lifeguard. Really, he hadn't even intended to. It's just that once you've spent enough time doing marine rescue drills, it's not exactly possible to just turn those instincts off. So when he spots a surfer fighting the tide some ways out, it catches his attention. At first, he just watches, unsure of what he's seeing. The pounding waves are too loud to hear anything from that far out, but if he focuses, he swears he can see her yelling.

Well. Better safe than sorry. He grabs a bodyboard and runs into the surf, wondering in the back of his mind whether or not c'nataat still has enough juice to give him gills if he needs them. He hopes he doesn't have to find out.

The woman hadn't looked that distant when he first spotted her from the beach but after a few seconds of swimming, Ade realizes that she's further out than he expected—and so is he. He suddenly wishes he had brought more than just a bodyboard. He's almost relieved when he feels the rip current tugging at him—at least that's a known quantity, one that he's been trained to deal with.

"Hey!" he shouts as soon as he's within earshot. "Don't fight it—just let it carry you!" He demonstrates, holding tight to the bodyboard beneath him and letting the current drag him along, focusing only on staying afloat. "Happens all the time. Just stay calm!"

Her next goal is that mask. She lets Hunter get a little ahead of her so that she can try to grabber it. Don't sell her out, little bird!

"Shame we ain't got magic here. Back in my world, we wouldn't have it for things like that, though. It's all more practical stuff a body couldn't do with their own hands or a tool like this." At least she believes in the magic there that she's been taught. "Is that what you could do, though? Just moving things around?

"I heard they got a name for that. Tell... tell a kins? It's something like that. I'd tell my kin if I could do something that fancy."

"It's carrying me out!" She does have enough sense to pause in her efforts, but she immediately starts drifting backward faster, which is alarming. "Don't come out too much farther! You'll get trapped, too." Trapped and carried away out to sea, never to be seen again. She remembers one of her early conversations with Jon, where he'd been sneering about the tides and how destructive they could be. This isn't destructive, necessarily, but it is frightening. Is this part of the Spring Tide? She's fine with being in awe of a god, but the Brother had never frightened her, not until the end, and there had been more disappointment than anything else there.

"I don't- I don't know how to get out of this."

Aelwyn has been having a bad few months. First she killed and tortured a man (he also tortured her back), then Mercy was separated from her (they still more or less lived in each-other's respective rooms, though), then two of her few remaining friends vanished. One of which is a monster, though, which is even more worrying. Who knows what Jeff is up to at this very moment.

She hadn't even cared about the wreckage they left the town in. It had almost delighted her, really. Their hope ruined, their happiness sullied for crawling in bed with the demon to begin with. It's only what they deserved. But she kept those to herself.

So the beach trip comes as a relief. Her own swimsuit is a floral blue and yellow bikini, a bit more revealing than Mercy's, and a pair of sunglasses for sunbathing. Of course, any plans of getting a tan are immediately out the window as soon as Mercy approaches. She looks at the sand castle equipment and indeed, the tiny very cute shovel, and even cuter, Mercy's reaction.

"You can dig tiny little graves with your tiny little shovel for all the fallen fish," She smiles, sitting up. "Would you like to make a sandcastle, darling?"

Flapjack will keep on watching her, though he stays quiet. He won't rat her out!! Of course, that means she goes for his mask Hunter jumps and swats at the grabber to try and wave her off, scowling.

"Telekinesis," he states, and then keeps going because he's a big nerd like that. "The word isn't related to family. It comes from kinesis, which is related to movement or motion. It's a simple spell, one I learned years ago."

It is carrying them out and with alarming speed. Ade does his best not to let his own apprehension show, continuing to paddle out to the woman despite her warning.

"Don't worry about me, ma'am. I'm a marine—this is my natural habitat." He flashes a quick smile, trying to ease her nerves. The worst thing either of them can do right now is panic. "And you don't have to do anything yet. We wait for the riptide to weaken, then swim parallel to the shore until we're out."

Even a strong current like this can't go on forever. Still, beneath his veneer of composure, a different fear prickles at Ade. He can get the woman back to shore—of that he's virtually certain. The only question is whether he'll need her fear to do it.

The way he jumps is maybe too adorable. Mercy holds off on the grabber as they enter into the dock area proper and take a more directed path to the shed they're supposed to be going to. She'll wait until he's least expecting it to try again. She does wink at Flapjack, though. Can he understand? She's not sure, but he's not a snitch, which means he's a good bird in her book. And much better than some of the others around town.

"Reckon it's hard for folk like you. I was only gonna start learning magic back home when I got pulled here. Was heading to the main temple for learning. What were you doing?"

"I don't know what a marine is." Mercy's trying to keep it together, and she's generally okay with that, but the ocean... The ocean really is starting to be a scary place, overall. "But unless them's fish or those things with too many legs, I don't think this is rightly where you belong, sir."

But... parallel. Don't fight it, just go around it. Isn't that the wisdom of gravedigging, too? Don't fight a large stone with your shovel, the stone will win every time. Dig around it, find a place with less resistance.

"Should-should we start paddling to the side now? I don't reckon we can wait much longer, the speed we're going out."

Mercy taps the little shovel to her chin, as if seriously contemplating a mini-fish graveyard. "Sandcastle to start," she says, mock-serious. "We gotta set up our base 'fore we go slaying enemies in our names and putting them in the ground. Thinking I might dig one big enough for some of these birds if they keep up eyeing you. Don't like the way they're looking. Ain't respectful."

And if Mercy's looking a bit disrespectfully, as well... that's more her prerogative. Friends look out for each other and how they look! It's... just the friendly thing to do. Though, her mind turns over that conversation with Martin she had some time back, about her bringing Aelwyn while he brought Jon along on some sort of little trip. That's... what friends do. But it's also what people like Martin and Jon do. Would Aelwyn even want to?

Hunter is grateful that she temporarily lays off the teasing, and tries to put it out of his mind. Flapjack gives a little cheep at the wink, though he pays the bird no mind. They're here for a mission, and he wants to do a good job.

Plus, getting to overdescribe his role back home is always a source of pride for him, so as they approach the shed he straightens up. "I'm the right hand of the Emperor, and the head of the Emperor's Coven. I've been learning magic for most of my life."

Yes, very impressive and everything. Stopping in front of the shed, he looks over at her curiously. "I thought humans couldn't learn it. You don't have bile sacs."

Mercy reaches toward the handle of the shed with her grabber. She's not sure how strong it is, but it's a way to test it. The little metal bits clamp down, and she gives it a tug before noticing the combination lock on the side. Disappointing, but she does recall the person who had sent them out mentioning 13-73-50 as the code for it. She'll let Hunter see to that.

"Didn't think young 'uns your age could be heading up a whole coven. You must've done something right impressive to pull the Emperor's attention like that. We only got humans back in my world, though. And we got magic after our own ways. The Spring Tide's focused on healing arts and potions."

She glances over at the birds with an amused look. They were creepy at first, but she's gotten used to them. It's easier if you don't let them get to you. "Yes, we'll make a sand-ballista for you to defend my honor with as my dearest champion, and a tomb to put the bastard pigeons."

She does notice the way Mercy is looking at her, and it makes her heart flutter a little. Of course, she knows she's attractive, she's used it to her advantage her entire life, and she's more than used to both girls and boys looking at her, but Mercy is special. She tries not to look into it too much, though. Maybe because there's plenty of disrespectful looking to go around.

She gets off the towel she'd been sunbathing on, and starts on the very basics of making a sand-castle. "Have you ever done this before?"

Thankfully, while Hunter doesn't have a grabber he is wearing his usual heavy-duty gloves. When Mercy's grabber doesn't work he'll take the combination lock and put the combination in, careful to keep an eye on his gloves, just in case.

She's right to question his placement as the head of a coven, and Hunter's posture goes rigid. Nepotism certainly had something to do with it, though Hunter has been doing his damnedest to ignore those claims. "I showed him I'm capable of holding the position," he replies bluntly. Once he's unlocked the lock he'll remove it and open the shed up, then stand back.

"We've got two covens that specialize in those things, Healing and Potions. They're both very versatile tracks."

Ade hates seeing women afraid. It makes him nervous—and nervous is not what he needs to be right now. He tries to focus on the ocean around them, on the current pulling them along. It's not weakening, at least not enough to make a surefire break for it—but if it pulls them out much further, they'll be in for a perilous return trip anyway.

Whatever decision he makes, they'll need to commit to it and fast. He pauses for only a fraction of a second before making up his mind.

"Okay. Parallel to the shore now. Follow my lead."

And he begins to kick, swimming to the side as he'd instructed and resisting the urge to cant towards the shore. They'll only wear themselves out fighting directly against the current.

Mercy follows and eagerly begins to imitate Aelwyn, mirroring what she's doing where it seems appropriate. "Naw, the ocean's months away from Evergreen. It's a grand pilgrimage spanning a full season just to get down there from the temple I was heading toward when I got pulled. We had a shore on the pond at the Abbey, but it weren't nothing fine line this." She rubs the sand between her fingers, letting that fall through.

"Most of what I heard about the actual ocean come from Crys. Ain't sure how much of what she said was real for our world, but some of it's true here. She said there were monsters swarming in the water, practically had to go to war any time you wanted to a take a ship out of port."

Mercy's not the most intelligent woman to roam the lands, but she's an observant one. She takes note of the way he stiffens. That's a button, then. It wouldn't be polite to poke with her words, but she's curious certainly. She'll lay off for just a second, though, to address something else that sounds strange.

"Two separate covens? Do they not go together where you're from?" She peers over his head into the dimness of the shed before pulling out a flashlight from her pocket and shining that into the place. There's... junk in the shed. Seeming junk. It's been set in evenly-spaced positions along the back shelves, though, and Mercy has a sense of danger, even without any real supernatural senses at her disposal.

Mercy keeps to her surfboard and lies down flat again to paddle with him. They do start to head to the side, but she can see they're still going, out. She orders herself not to panic. A Sister of the Spring Tide should not fear the ocean. There is nothing in these depths that her new god has not known and created.

Except there might well be. Except Crys had regaled her with tales of monstrous things swarming in the unknowable depths, waiting to pull a body down so far, they could never reach the sun again. Mercy's breath starts to come more quickly. She's panicking. This isn't helping.

"You sure this is working, sir?" she calls before the sense of something touching her leg registers. It's nothing more than piece of seaweed, but in her mind's eye, she sees the mane of a kelpie. They're out here. They're out here and they're going to murder everyone, or worse. Mercy yelps flails, and falls off her board. It's only a second or two before it's swept away from her... and then catched on her cuff and starts dragging her through the water as she struggles.

Focusing on how magic works is a much easier topic for Hunter, and he's at least happy to oblige her questions about it. "No. You can make potions that don't heal, and healing magic doesn't necessarily require potions. While there is some overlap in terms of healing potions, the two are versatile beyond just that."

When she lights up the interior of the shed with her flashlight he'll lean in, adjusting his gloves, looking over the various objects. "It's how the Titan structured our magic," he adds, as if that explains everything. "I'm going to try handling one of these things. Get ready."

And he reaches for what looks like an empty picture frame.

Mercy clacks her grabber at him. "Reckon I got this here thing for a reason. You wanna try with it first, 'fore you go grabbing at things that might be cursed?" Just as a suggestion, but she does raise a brow at him.

"Reckon a clever fella who runs his own coven'd think twice about that sorta thing."

It is working, at least to Ade's mind. Maybe they're still getting pulled away from the shore, but so long as they're still managing sideways movement, they're theoretically getting nearer to the riptide's end. Once they're out, they'll still have to figure out how to make it back to land, but at least they have floatation devices. There's still a good chance they can make it, even without c'nataat—

And then the woman falls from her surfboard and Ade feels his heart leap into his throat. He twists around and now he does fight the current, trying to swim back towards her against the tide. Had something knocked her off? Adrenaline courses through him despite his best attempts to stay calm and he feels the all-too-familiar stirrings of panic starting around his gut.

'After,' he thinks fervently to himself. 'You can lose your nerve after.'

The second he's close enough, he lunges for her board, reaching across so he can grab her and haul her back on. The relentless current sweeps his own bodyboard away in the process but that hardly matters. Ade isn't worried about himself right now.

"Hey, stay with me!" he shouts, desperately hoping that she's still conscious. "We're almost out of this!"

Hunter pauses and sighs, and instead of going for the frame he reaches out to take the grabber. She's totally right, he should have an added layer of protection here, but he can still be salty about it. "I'm sure my gloves will be enough," he says. "But I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry."

LOG - July Catch-all [Closed for Now]

For Hunter

For Ade

For Aelwyn

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I'm sorry my brain is slowly rotting. Gonna refocus on this so we can keep it clipping!

I'm sorry my brain is slowly rotting. Gonna refocus on this so we can keep it clipping!

Apologies for the delay! Gonna try to get back on the horse here after some brainrot.

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no worries! as you can see, i'm pretty slow lately myself

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