System Glitch: In The City: Ship Ahoy! [location: Osten]

[theextras]

The day of July fourth was spent dealing with annoying, static-ridden transmissions from the tablets. Hisses, bleeps, pops, and occasionally what might have been an indistinguishable voice saying something unintelligible. The interruptions ceased in the evening, and the city went back to being quiet and empty.

The fifth brought more of the same, but shortly after noon something curious happened: if one consulted the map, they'd note a dot out in the ocean. Zooming in on the dot showed that it was not one but many dots, each with a familiar name attached, and observation would show that the dots were headed toward a never-before-used ferry terminal on the Osten waterfront.

Go meet your people, Taxon, and send them to get showers post haste!


ooc: The ferry terminal is a proper building so our vampires aren't in danger of going foom.

And that's that! Thanks everyone, this plot's been ridiculous fun, now back to your regularly scheduled hijinks.

Comments

Long! <3

[electro_girl]

She smiles herself, genuinely, and steps back so her shadow is no longer darkening him. "Morning, sunshine," she says, waiting for him to adjust to the light.

"It appears we are," she acknowledges with a slight nod, looking off toward land. "The big guys upstairs really threw us in a jar and shook us around, didn't they. Everything but the kitchen sink." A pause--ever the cynic. She doesn't want to jinx it. "Hopefully they hold onto that a bit longer."

unlikely bffs blah blah

[imperial_long]

"Sinks," Mayland echoes happily, perhaps not 100% completely awake enough to follow her statement. Yawwwn. Stretch. "Sinks are lovely things. Sinks and, and... showers, and... tubs- oh heavens yes, tubs."

Someone is thinking happily of the bathtub back in his hotel room. Ooh yes.

Something occurs to his mostly-awake-now brain and he stops, turns, gives Gwen a wide-eyed look of horror in case this supposition turns out to be true. "--you can enjoy the wonders of a bathtub, can't you? That would be beyond cruel if your abilities made that impossible."

running toward each other on a beach arms wide

[electro_girl]

Whoops. Someone needs a meal and maybe some time out of the sun. Gwen doesn't blame him. She really, really hopes the hamsters didn't take her house away. Her own big comfy bathtub, maybe some scented candles, nice bubbles, a glass of good wine...

She barely even hears his question. "Wait, wh--Yes, I can bathe. It doesn't work like that. It's not like..." she pauses, a little indignant and a little insecure all at once. Someone needs a meal and maybe some time out of the sun. "Wait, do I smell? Do I look like I don't bathe?" She touches her hair, completely wild, and sprayed with salt. Great. She sighs. "Can we get off this goddamn boat, please?"

the orchestra swells

[imperial_long]

"Oh. Oh, that's good," Long says as Gwen hurries to correct his misconception.

He stands there, continuing to blink, as Gwen asks him questions.

Long has only been a human man for six years but there is a certain level of cunning that lets him know there may well be no safe way to answer such a question as do I smell? or any form of how do I look?

"No, no, you look-- fine-- off the boat, yes, that's a splendid idea, let's do that." Far better than trying to extricate himself from this conversational quicksand.

[electro_girl]

She nods, kind of satisfied. Damn right she looks fine. Her skins blotchy and her legs are all scratched up from hamsters and her hair probably has a leaf or two hidden underneath, but that's just...she pulls it off, okay?

"Good idea," she says, sounding very exhausted. "Remind me never to book a tropical paradise vacation again. Tahiti will never be the same."

[imperial_long]

Long is so not going to argue. Women. Good heavens.

He moves for the gangplank. The initial rush has faded; they can actually get off the boat alright. Ever the gentleman, he offers his arm to Gwen although he's sure she doesn't need it.

"Tahiti would preferable. Tahiti has hotels," he sighs. "For myself, I am deeply craving a meal that has nothing aquatic to it whatsoever."

[electro_girl]

"I already swore off seafood twelve hours ago," says Gwen, lightly and carefully laying a hand on his arm. Enlightenment or no, she doesn't think he'd forgive her so easily for electrocuting him just as they've finally reached salvation. But it feels nice, at least, nicer than she's willing to admit, to have someone even willing to offer an arm.

"I don't even think I want a glass of water." A beat. "Too dramatic?"

[imperial_long]

It hadn't been something he'd offered unthinkingly. The memory of being, well, fried to death was something that wouldn't fade any time soon. But perhaps that was in part why he'd offered-- to show he was willing, and not afraid of Gwen; to reinforce what he had said to her about it having been out of her control.

"As long as you do not become dehydrated," was his thoughtful, pragmatic reply. "Sadly, man-- nor woman-- cannot live by liquor alone."

[electro_girl]

"Sadly," she repeats softly, and turns her head to favor him with a fond smile. It feels odd, stepping onto land--something solid and unmoving, not sand or water.

"This feels weird," she admits, almost uncertainly. "It feels like coming home." She pauses, trying to decide what that means. "That's...so annoying."

i am the worst and slowest

[imperial_long]

Long has good balance but he too has a hitch in his step for a foot or so after disembarking. He had just gotten used to the rock and the sway.

"Not to me," he sighs. "But I am used to being an exile, as it were. San Francisco or Taxon, there really is very little difference.

"Where did you live, before coming here, Gwen?"

Nope me

[electro_girl]

She gives him an odd, considering look. She knows what it feels like, to not belong.

"L.A," she answers, even if now it feels so far away, so long ago. "Moved there myself as a kid. Lots of business there. Plus it has a habit of collecting...the oddballs. People who would pay for services a freak like me could provide."

She gives him another look. "You think we're in the same universe?" she wonders.

I THINK IT'S STILL PRETTY CLEARLY ME but i love you

[imperial_long]

"Why do you do that?" Long asked suddenly in the wake of her first statement. "Refer to yourself as a... 'freak'. I doubt you were the most anomalous individual even in your own world, and certainly not here. And even if you were..."

He shrugs one shoulder, slight displeasure crinkling the corners of his mouth at Gwen's word choice for herself.

"I do not know. I suppose I have heard nothing so far of your world that might rule it out... but it was only 1983 in my world, when I left it." His lips curve into a thin, slightly-teasing smile, and he gives her a sly sidelong glance.

"Were you even born yet, you impudent child?"