World War Boats: S3

[12:13:27] * Oxford changes topic to 'A patriot lends his strength to his country - a rebel only keeps it for himself. Do your part the right way: Join the Cimbrian Army!'
[12:20:19] <@Oxford> The ferry to Glasholme sways in the light surf. Out on the car deck, the summer sun beats down relentlessly, but the heat is tempered by a cool breeze. At the railing, Lily and Cille watch the island approach slowly, their conversation masked from listening ears by the sound of gulls overhead.
[12:22:24] <Cille_Lund> "...It'll be time, soon." "Time for some food, right? You're hungry." "You know what I mean." The uninitiated might think she was talking to herself, and that...might still be true, honestly. If it's hard to hear HER, hearing those voices is pretty much impossible.
[12:23:02] <Lily_Blevins> Lily rests her arms on the railing, looking over the sea.  "You're in a hurry, aren't you?"
[12:27:04] <Cille_Lund> "...I am, though I haven't forgotten that I would draw you something beforehand. I've only the finishing touches left to make on it." She rests her own head on a hand, which has an arm rested on the railing. "...Somehow, the only one that doesn't know where I'm going is Rosalyne, now. Coincidence is funny like that." "One said she cared, and we forced the other cause you'd have been a huge jerk otherwise." Cille lets the crystal on the side of her face be. It seems they've worked SOMETHING out, at least.
[12:31:32] <Lily_Blevins> Lily nods.  "Well, however it goes, I'll make sure you're not leaving on your lonesome, or get lost.  It's mostly just that I'm not sure HOW I'm going to make things go down and that's really bothering me and UGH."  Lily cuts short her rapid-fire speech.
[12:34:45] <@Oxford> The sound of children nearby, laughing, can be heard over the waves against the ferry's hull. A pair of girls playing tag with a younger boy. The girls can't be that much younger than Cille or Lily, but are on the other side of puberty. The days of careless play like that seem ages ago.
[12:36:57] <Cille_Lund> "...While I might not be actually doing the act of leaving alone, it does seem I have to go alone. Henriette didn't want to join me, Naida joining me would be a disaster, and if you let them be alone, it would also be a disaster. More than half the girls here need a babysitter...Henriette in particular. I'm not quite sure what she plans on doing once she gets back, but...it'll definitely be something." She looks at the girls for a moment, and then turns back towards the sea. "FORLORNED SIGH."
[12:37:49] <Cille_Lund> Cille herself doesn't actually make one, but it's not hard to tell that she could easily make one at this point.
[12:40:16] <Lily_Blevins> Lily stares off at the sea a bit, quietly, before speaking.  "What was it you were hoping to do here, anyway?  Before the whole magic thing."
[12:46:49] <Cille_Lund> "...Before this? Before this..." She takes a moment to ponder. "...There wasn't anything directly before the whole magic thing. It's why I let myself sit for so long, hoping there was something I could do, and entranced with the idea of being able to do things that others couldn't do, as if there was some way I could use this useless life. A long time ago, I'd wanted to be an artist, but...let's just say I fell into a bad crowd without turning bad myself, and was violently expelled into space. In a metaphor sort of way."
[12:48:36] <Cille_Lund> "If I had any hope for doing anything at all, I wouldn't have been here to begin with. At least willingly. The ones that dragged me into this were very, very suspicious seeming folk, but I didn't care at the time."
[12:49:42] <Cille_Lund> "...So, I guess this was all for the better, but it's not exactly hard to get better than back then. Still, I actually do have some direction now, thanks to Loewin making me think."
[12:50:22] <Cille_Lund> "You know, just in case things go south, or we judge our situation as completely unsafe to live in and are feeling up to fixing that."
[12:53:05] <Lily_Blevins> "I might've mentioned this before but I wanted to be a field medic for the army because I wanted to help the war effort but I didn't want to KILL people and I actually knew a bit about medicine and figured that'd be a good way to get a full education would be through on-field training and I know they don't let girls into colleges too often but I wanted to study botany and maybe if I knew
[12:53:05] <Lily_Blevins> a bunch about medicine that'd be a foothold or something but now I'm commanding a group of girls who can blow up a whole building like nothing and I'm just wondering where it alllll went wrong."
[12:58:43] <Cille_Lund> "It went wrong when Albaea found a cheap, renewable source of mass destruction, and easily manipulated people agreed to be the mass destruction. You should know this by now!" Voices got a point. "I do remember hearing about you wanting to be a medic...of course, the moment you're magically capable, bam, welcome to the draft, who cares about what you want when you can blow up planes."
[13:00:30] <Lily_Blevins> "Mmmmmmwhatever."
[13:04:39] <Cille_Lund> "And the easily manipulated accept their role! Number three is acting up, so we'll relay, like, a word. 'Disgusting'. That's why we don't let her out, you know." "...And hence, my urgency. If I can't simply live in peace, first order of action is to actually figure out what the hell pendants even are, preferably by going to where they're made or whatnot."
[13:05:25] <Lily_Blevins> "I can agree with that, I want to know more as well."
[13:05:27] <@Oxford> The parents of the playful children stand against the same railing, some distance from where the girls talk, gazing out at the sea as if remembering their younger romances. They pay their frolicking offspring no mind, knowing that no matter what twisting paths the children choose, they can't move beyond the small island that is the ferry, plowing on inevitably towards the port.
[13:07:30] <Cille_Lund> "But...you're stuck. Unless you could get them all to agree with you, and somehow maintain the safety of the town even if you wanted to leave, you seem pretty stuck. If it's groundbreaking, I might actually come back to let you know what it is, but..."
[13:08:55] <Lily_Blevins> "Responsibilities suck."
[13:09:02] <Lily_Blevins> "Growing up sucks."
[13:09:05] <Lily_Blevins> "It all sucks."
[13:11:06] <Lily_Blevins> She finds herself grabbing onto Cille and giving her a tight hug, burying her face in Cille's shoulder.  "Tell me you're gonna' be all right."
[13:12:43] * BigTentacruel is now known as Henriette
[13:15:54] * @Oxford ([email protected]) Quit (Excess Flood)
[13:16:07] * Oxford ([email protected]) has joined #WorldWarBurst
[13:21:13] <Cille_Lund> "They're bonding!" "Are you making a joke?" "W-wait, they started hugging? Actually, there's something back here..." Cille finds herself returning the hug as much as she's able for completely normal reasons! The small peck on her forehead Cille gives Lily after the fact gives strange implications though, especially considering what she says next. "I'm...gonna be alright." "She's n--" They cut themselves off hard.
[13:26:38] <Oxford> From back by the truck, Henriette can see the whole thing. Naida seems to have Rosalyne well under control for the time being.
[13:27:31] <Lily_Blevins> Lily doesn't seem to react much, she just relaxes, holding on to Cille and closing her eyes, smiling.
[13:37:13] <Cille_Lund> ...Cille lets herself be tightly hugged until someone says otherwise or Lily lets go. Or maybe after like, 10 minutes.
[13:37:55] <Henriette> Henriette sits quietly, thinking back to her conversation with Cille before and then with Loewin. She tries to steel herself for whatever decision is about to happen and mumbles something unintelligible.
[13:48:22] <Henriette> "Do you girls want to go to the park when we get back?" Henriette asks suddenly. "We could have a picnic or go swimming or... or something."
[13:49:45] <Lily_Blevins> Lily jumps up and lets go of Cille.  "Y-yeah, sure!"
[13:53:02] <Henriette> She was still looking out the window, so the movement catches her eye and she giggles. "Sorry to startle you, ma belle." All of a sudden, it seems strangely apparent that she's older, a mature young woman in her mid-twenties instead of a teenager
[13:53:06] <Henriette> *.
[13:53:53] <Cille_Lund> W-whoa, when did she get there and how long did that last? "...T-the park..." "Oh, look at this nice thing that can be ruined with magic use by other parties, a timely raid, an awkward meetin--WE HAD FUN AND THAT'S WHAT MA--" Cille plucks off the ever growing crystal off her face, and puts it in a pocket. "That sounds nic--wait."
[13:58:05] <Henriette> "Is it the wrong time of year to swim, you think?" she jokes.
[14:01:24] <Cille_Lund> "There's something else that's the wrong time of year." ...That crystal grew back quickly. In fact, it wasn't hard to see it grow like, a second after observing Henriette. "And according to the earlier conversation, it sucks."
[14:06:39] <Henriette> "Did you say something, Cille?" she asks, completely oblivious of the crystal voices. She probably doesn't even see the crystals themselves. They're not important.
[14:06:58] <Oxford> Back in the car, Rosalyne waits out the trip with her forehead leaned against the window, a sullen look on her face. What to do with the rebellious - or rather, perhaps, insufficiently rebellious - girl is another matter that needs to be addressed.
[14:07:38] <Henriette> Oh, right. That's a thing. Henriette had already dismissed Rosalyne from the equation. She wants to stay positive, but it's so hard!
[14:08:24] <Cille_Lund> "...No, and any voices that sound like it aren't me either." "We're sort of you! Third one is more you than anyone cares to admit. We still don't let that one talk."
[14:12:55] <Cille_Lund> "Certainly a good time to swim, though." Beach episode? Maybe not quite. Might be a swimsuit episode, though!
[14:12:55] <Henriette> "What?" Henriette looks genuinely confused. "Who is that?"
[14:14:07] <Lily_Blevins> Lily playfully plucks off a crystal.  "Her mutation."
[14:14:17] <Lily_Blevins> She holds it up for Henri to see
[14:14:51] <Henriette> "Oh, how... fascinant..."
[14:16:26] <Cille_Lund> "Wait, we're actually, legitly, being noticed--gaaah" "Yeah, for some reason, the voices that had plagued me a while back have resurfaced, clinging onto the crystals now growing on my face.
[14:17:01] <Cille_Lund> "Thankfully, it means I can quiet them. If they're not on my face, they don't talk, and I can just...pluck them off!"
[14:17:14] <Henriette> "That sounds painful. Is it painful, ma belle?"
[14:18:37] <Cille_Lund> "Not really. What's more painful is how they're aware they're tied to the crystals, and would rather they stay on my face, along with them being...tied to my head, somewhat. They're perfectly capable of talking too much. Even now, they press my limits."
[14:22:37] <Cille_Lund> It eventually grows back a bit. "Ow. Ow. Being plucked off by someone else is a strange experience." "Aye, so it is."
[14:23:04] <Henriette> "We have not discovered if we can reverse une mutation... You know, dames, I still feel that it is possible." She mumbles, drawing in the dusty window with her finger.
[14:23:37] <Henriette> "Maybe that would be a suitable occupation..."
[14:23:48] <Henriette> Oh, who is she kidding. She's a pretty dim bulb.
[14:24:42] <Lily_Blevins> "Oh, that reminds me, when we first remet Loewin, I saw she didn't have a tail!  I asked her about it, and...welll...."
[14:24:48] <Lily_Blevins> "She had to get rid of it the hard way."
[14:24:57] <Henriette> "How awful!"
[14:29:13] <Cille_Lund> ...All the more reason to stop such things from even coming about in the first place. But such insights would probably kill what little good mood there's left. ...She does shudder, though. Even if she doesn't have one, having a tail cut off is kind of terrifying.
[14:32:09] <Cille_Lund> ...And the thing mentioned before it... "Hey, hey, reversing this stuff, not exactly nice to hear about." "...Could be possible, but...the question is if the attempts to do so would bring about...more of these mutations."
[14:35:12] <Henriette> "Mais the pendants have to work somehow. I think we could build something that works opposite to them, perhaps."
[14:36:02] <Lily_Blevins> "Well, you say that, but...I've still had issues spring up from using pendantless magic."
[14:37:04] <Cille_Lund> "We certainly can't do that until we know what pendants really are, at least not without having to get lucky. We're lacking details on that front."
[14:37:25] <Lily_Blevins> "Liiiike..." She points at Cille's dress where her arms had been.  There's a lot of green accents and flowers embroidered in.
[14:37:38] <Henriette> "How would we test them?"
[14:38:29] <Lily_Blevins> Lily's dress, for those who were paying attention,w as the same white dress she got from Loewin's boat, but now it's green, with vines and flowers about as accents and embellishments.
[14:42:38] <Cille_Lund> "Leafy greens!" "...Ahhhh. And then th--aahhhh." Cille realizes a few things at once! "Testing a potential...let's say, nega-pendant, would probably be a risky thing." "So you make Henriette do i--" Cille plucks off a crystal without a second thought. Voices, pls.
[14:45:07] <Henriette> "I could. I have the most mutations of any of us..." she offers hopefully. She also has probably the strongest raw power, too.
[14:46:06] <Lily_Blevins> "It's a neat idea, but I don't think any of us actually know pendant science."
[14:46:31] <Cille_Lund> "Hence why finding out about them properly is a high priority for me."
[14:48:36] <Henriette> "It would be nice to put my strength to something other than violence, myself," Henriette offers. "When all of this is over, one way or another, I wish no one would have to suffer these difformites as we have."
[14:49:46] <Cille_Lund> "...If it were possible to reverse these things, and it got out, that would probably encourage more reckless fighting."
[14:50:07] <Henriette> "We wouldn't have to tell anyone!"
[14:50:25] <Henriette> "They obviously don't know! Or maybe they don't want anyone else to know either, so..."
[14:50:39] <Oxford> The ferry is pulling into the port, now. Crewmen on the deck shout to their counterparts on the dock, throwing lines back and forth to secure the ship for unloading.
[14:51:38] <Cille_Lund> "It would be far better to somehow allow us to not need to fight quite like this in the first place. And that...I see much less hope of looking into, but I might anyway."
[14:53:28] <Henriette> Henriette shifts uncomfortably in her seat. Where is Cille planning to do this? When she leaves? Without them? Without help? "Can I help you, Cille?"
[14:55:21] * Lily_Blevins also shifts a little uncomfortably, although she keeps quiet.
[14:58:39] <Cille_Lund> "We thought Henny was going to turn h--" Pluck. "...Being in enemy territory...hostile territory in general, actually, is dangerous either way. It could simply be safer to reason with any real threats, but reason is hard to find, especially when we don't speak the same language. I think we might have talked about the help part earlier, but...I think you had other plans."
[15:02:41] <Henriette> "Well, plans may change. I have... done some thinking lately. I do not know what to do anymore. The waters are still murky, as they say."
[15:02:52] <Henriette> She frowns and stares out the window again.
[15:09:32] <Cille_Lund> "...It won't be long now. If you plan on doing anything, you'll have to decide quickly."
[15:16:26] <Henriette> Decision-making was never Henriette's strong point. She sighs and looks back at the dockworkers settling the boat into place. It's a grim reminder of a certain someone. No matter what, it seems unlikely that she'll get her ideal life. It seems unlikely that any of them will now.
[15:17:52] <Henriette> There is a Gaulian saying that goes, "A man may sow his field under a cloudless sky, but he knows nothing about the lake fog."
[15:18:02] <Henriette> </session>