Summary: Ahh, sunny rocks are so much fun to nap on! Deis and Calamity talk about things.
|
The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC).
This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved.
Questions should be directed to staff.
|
It's a bright and sunny day at the beach, warming up with the onset of spring but not yet blisteringly hot from the summer sun. The sand is pleasantly cool to the touch, and the waves a bit on the chilly side despite their sparkle. There aren't many beachgoers this time of year, but it's still a fine place to relax.
One person who has decided to spend their day here does not appear to be relaxing, though. A tall, anthropomorphic basilisk lizard, light blue of skin and wearing a set of gauzy green drapes over her shoulders and hips, is standing at the edge of the waves with what looks to be a tuning fork with hooked tips in hand. Rapping her knuckle on one of the prongs produces a resonating, crystal clear tone that can be heard across the beach, and a moment later, the lanky lizard's surprisingly mezzo voice sings along to it.
"Cryyyyyyyyyyy, I made you cryyyyyyyyy..."
Holding the fork aloft, ocean water begins to swirl and spiral into a ball above where the prongs meet, growing to roughly the size of a basketball before stopping. This is soon followed by a series of dance-like motions, swooping the fork through the air as the sphere of water follows, moving in fluid arcs while she leaps and spins, webbed flipper-like feet splashing in the surf.
One might wonder what the purpose of all this is.
There's a nice, flat rock not too far from the shore -- far enough that one would have to swim out there, though -- and this is a perfect place for a snake to sun. And it just so happens that there is a snake sunning on the rock. Well... half of a snake. The other half is human-like.
To be more specific there's what would be called a 'lamia' loosely coiled upon the rock, human half laid out upon those coils. There's a lot of blue and green on the beach today, and miss lamia here isn't derailing it much -- her snake half is green, lighter where it joins her body and darkening as it travels down to the end of her tail. The hair on her human half is blue, and bound up in a ponytail. Her clothes are purple though, so there is a little derailment of the blue/green theme.
As Calamity starts to sing, and the water starts to churn, she snorts, startled awake. She stretches, yawning, and rubs an eye. "Wha?" She pauses as she watches what's going on, the water answering the call of the singer, and grins broadly.
Oh, and because THE GODDESS HAS AWAKENED!, her power might be sensed more clearly now. Deis was worshipped as a goddess of magic and secrets. Maybe not something one would expect to be out in the daytime, since those tend to be night-time/moon aligned, but here she is nonetheless.
Calamity is caught up in her dancing and singing, though her voice isn't being put to words now, rather simply humming along with the tone of her tuning fork, which upon closer inspection appears to have some sort of green glow about it as it directs the water. After a time, the lizard woman finishes with another arcing flourish over her head, the ball disintegrating into sparkling mist as it spreads above her, leaving a beautiful but sadly short-lived rainbow behind.
Panting slightly from the workout, she then turns her head in Deis's direction, the red eye not covered by her frill regarding the goddess curiously. Another strike on the fork's prongs, and the waves suddenly coalesce underneath Calamity, carrying her forward until she alights on the rocks next to her audience in a cross-legged sitting position.
"Howdy." she waves, her long prehensile tail grabbing her fork and holding it behind her, leaving her hands free. She cracks a smile and asks, "Enjoyed the performance, eh?"
Deis shifts her coils to make room for Calamity on the rock, half coiling herself up. "Hi there," she greets with a smile. The question gets a nod. "Not something you see every day, that's for sure. Which is kind of sad, that was pretty great. And you seem to have a natural talent for it. Like it's part of you." Which she could be picking up, or something she just noticed. Here she offers a handshake. "Name's Deis, pleased to meet'cha," she offers by way of introduction. No title or even a last name.
Calamity takes Deis's hand and shakes it heartily, no holding back on this girl. "I guess it ain't too common where I'm from either, least not as lively. I gotta keep in practice though, eh. Keeps me fit too, so double the benefits." she explains, then props her hands on her knees, elbows bent outward as she looks Deis up and down. "Chalchiutlicue, most folks call me Calamity, yadda yadda. Feels like I'm givin' that whole spiel a lot more lately. So, you a spirit or somethin'? Don't look human, at least, half of you don't."
Deis is tough enough to stand the hearty handshake. In fact she seems to like this, as her smile widens just a touch. Her handshake is pretty strong too, so that's probably not surprising. "Good to meet'cha Calamity," she replies. Yeah, that other name is a bit long and complicated for her. Deis likes things simple, ironically. As for having to give the spiel a lot more? "This is a weird place. No doubt things aren't like they were where you're originally from. You might not have much in the way of fame here. But that can change, I'm sure." She smiles. The mention of her not looking human gets a nod. "I'm not. It's a little complicated to explain, so I just say I'm a goddess."
Though speaking of, Deis also notes, "You don't exactly look human yourself. Basic shape, but a bit scalier than I've known them to be thus far." And a chuckle here.
Calamity chuckles a bit at the mention of 'fame'. "Oh, I wouldn't say I'm famous where I'm from either. More like... infamous, least in the town where I grew up. I was one o' them 'problem childs' who didn't like followin' rules set down by hoity toity eggheads." She does nod at the goddess explanation though, just taking it in stride as if it's the most natural explanation in the world. At the last comment, she speaks up again with a small grin. "Oh, yeah, I'm human, just got a skin condition, eh. Nasty stuff, might be contagious." A moment later, she waves off her own joke and continues, "Nah, I'm a spirit. Raised by humans with my brother Ichabod, but not much else in common. Supposed to protect and guide 'em so they don't off themselves, and all that stuff. Hard to do when the ones with guns don't even think spirits are real."
Deis chuckles at the mention of Calamity's infamy and being a 'problem child'. "Oh, I can understand that," she notes. "My sister made some stupid decisions and her people decided she was right and I was wrong, so I became something of a devil to them." A wave of her hand. "Humans are fickle, you know." Though she gives a mock gasp at the mention of a 'contagious skin disease'. "Oh no, I might catch scales? What ever will I do?" She is clearly teasing. After all, she HAS scales.
And she laughs heartily at the mention of humans not believing in spirits. "They tend not to, when they have their own technology. I think that's partly what my sister was afraid of. But then again, the reverse isn't much better -- when they believe they're not capable of surviving on their own, but instead of trying, they bicker like particularly idiotic children to be 'mommy's favorite'."
Calamity grins along with Deis's own stories of childhood naughtiness and playing along with the joke. "Oh, yeah, humans can be real dumb. Got these two towns I live close to- or did, before I came here anyway- called Hatfield and McCoy, they're always fighting and tryin' to mess with each other. Seem to think if they stop, the other one'll wipe 'em out, so tryin' to make peace is a nightmare. My friend Huey lives closer to Hatfield, and they're always asking him for blessings and stuff. It's just silly."
Deis nods. "I suppose they have to be that way to survive... but boy it sure does get in the way of their own survival sometimes," she notes. "I get wanting to take the easy way out, I really do. But the desert isn't the place for 'mommy liked your drawing better, I'm gonna punch you now'. That place is a wasteland now because they were stupid. And they had every advantage -- oh, did your world have technology, perchance? Because that makes it even dumber. They have the tools to survive on their own, but they fight instead."
Calamity shrugs. "I dunno what started the whole mess, but it gets real tirin' dealing with 'em." she remarks, leaning back to lay with her arms folded behind her head. "They live in the plains though, so I guess they can get away with it more than most folk. Lots o' herd animals and room for crops, plus an easy road to Hollow- that's where I grew up, by the way. Big city... sorta." She takes a deep breath and heaves a sigh. "Hollow's where all the eggheads live. Comin' up with dumb inventions like glass bulbs that light up without fire and balloons that carry people in baskets. Just seem like disasters waitin' to happen."
"Aha!" Deis proclaims. That does put the technology level at a place she can trace it, though. "Imagine how easy a city would have it if they had mechanical servants to do all their work, could push a button and get food, make everything they need with a few presses of buttons, and have farms the size of whole cities planted, watered, and harvested with minimal effort," she describes. Caer Xhan had been an almost completely mechanized city before its fall.
"That's what I mean by 'they had every advantage'," she continues. "I guess that's part of the problem, though -- more free time, more time to be stupid. One of them was trying to bring the dead back to life. Noble, maybe... but he did horrible things to try to achieve it, and failed anyway."
Calamity listens with some measure of disbelief, but then again, given how this 'Twisted' place is, maybe she could see it. "I dunno, sounds like they'd get pretty bored. Maybe that's why they did stupid stuff? Just got bored, up and decided they'd wipe themselves out. Guess not much changes with humans."
The bit about bringing the dead back to life gets her attention, though. "You don't say? Huey made this big puppet out of chupacabra skeletons once, and it came to life all of a sudden and attacked us. Icky said a little patchwork girl came and took it away after it caught him. Maybe she figured out the secret, eh?"
Deis nods to the mention of getting bored. "Maybe. Though I have a feeling it was less 'bored' and more 'spoiled'. My sister gave everything to those people. When humans don't have to work for things, they don't understand the value of the thing they're getting. So they wanted more and more, better than their neighbors had. They were just spoiled children, and Sis didn't apply the stick as often as she needed to."
As for that skeleton puppet? That gets a blink. "...There are lots of better things to use to make puppets than bones. That just invites disaster," she replies, nonetheless sounding amused. "I don't know details, I just know the idiot used sap from the Tree of Life, and ended up making several mutants in the process. Bad stuff, y'know?"
"Well it wasn't just bones. Had some scarecrows in the mix too, you know. Borrowed 'em from Kitty, she's this fox spirit who lives north o' Hatfield. She's nice, little stuck up though, kinda reminds me o' Mom. Anyway, we used a pumpkin for the head too, carved a face in it and stuffed these glowy caterpillars inside to make it all spoooooky." She waggles her fingers on the last word, then tilts her head toward Deis. "Mutants? The guys at the Institute talked about those once. What, like people with six fingers on their hand or whatever?"
"Oh, that makes a little more sense," Deis notes, to the mention of the other ingredients that went into the construction of the puppet. She wrinkles her nose a bit at the mention of someone being stuck up, but doesn't comment on it beyond that. And she snickers at the 'spooooooky' wiggle fingers. "That sounds like it could have done real well for a decoration on that holiday where everyone dresses up as something scary," she notes. "Aside from the whole 'trying to kill everyone' thing. That's a bit much."
The question of mutants gets a shake of her head. "Nothing nearly so beign, unfortunately. These were plant monsters that were dangerous to basically anything living around it. Though one ended up befriending the kid who took Sis down, so they're not all bad. Just mostly."
"What, Day of the Dead? Nah, it ain't supposed to be scary. Well, usually. Just lots of honoring those that've passed on and all that. Some folks like to have festivals too, to celebrate with the spirits of their ancestors. Paula- big bear girl, hangs out with Kitty a lot- does it every year, lots of dancing and things." Calamity further elaborates, then chuckles as she realizes something. "Heheh. Real appropriate a puppet made with bones would come to life on that day, eh? Never thought about it until now. Heck, maybe he was just really vigorous about celebrating."
The further elaboration from Deis as well gets Calamity biting her lip at some unpleasant memories. "Yeesh. Sounds kinda like this stuff we dealt with when we were kids. Spread like wildfire, only not so bright or warm. Lots o' viney tendrils though, like some kind of overgrowth. We called it the Black Ick."
"I've seen a different one besides 'Day of the Dead'," Deis notes. "It's less somber reflection and tribute, and more... 'spooky scary skeletons, send shivers down your spine'." She does not sing this, no. But she's heard it before. "Eating lots of candy, and scaring each other." A nod to the mention of that puppet coming to life then. "Could be an ancestor spirit decided to have a little fun. Or maybe a disgruntled one wanted to make their displeasure known."
The description of the 'Black Ick' gets a frown, and a disgusted look. "Ew. No, these things weren't nearly that bad. It was just a monster or two... tough, but not apocalyptic. The one that wasn't a homicidal plant monster was actually kinda cute. It was this giant onion-thing, with feet, and it made this high-pitched 'pukyuu!' noise a lot."
Calamity raises an eyebrow at the mention of this... mysterious other holiday. "Really? You got me curious now. If it takes place in October though, well... it's still a long way off, eh." she says, tail curling inward to hold the tuning fork up in front of her face. "At least it sounds like your mutant monster plants had some redeeming qualities. I wouldn't call anything to do with the Black Ick 'cute'. Everything it touched was sent into a deep sleep, unwakeable even by the best shamans we had. It sucked the life right out of the land itself... and it took some pretty hefty sacrifices to seal it away, I'm told. I don't remember that part, since I was one of its victims."
Deis nods to the mention of the timing of this holiday. "There are enough humans here that they'll probably have some kind of festival for it," she notes. "So if you're still here by then, you should be able to check it out. And hey, we both already have costumes!" she adds, with a chuckle. Humans never expect lizard-people or snake-people! Then again most of the regular denizens here are used to the weirdness, so they may have to work a little more...
She listens to this mention of the Black Ick's powers, and shakes her head. "Yeah, that's... I don't even think there's ever really been anything that bad in my world. There are demons and all there, but most aren't really what you'd call 'organized'. It's ironic and kinda funny, but the biggest threat to the humans of my world has really been themselves."
Calamity is suddenly enveloped in light, her tail disappearing and her body taking on the form of a dark-skinned young adult woman, though her hair keeps the yellow-to-blue gradient of her frill in lizard form. Her eyes still have yellow sclera and red irises as well, and she appears to be bald save for the line of hair that flops over one eyes. "Eh, I can just go as a human. Keeps to the spirit, still no effort. More fun than the usual reason I use this form, anyway."
As she transforms back, she nods along to Deis's words. "Heh, demons, eh? Never seen 'em in my world, but there's always legends and such. Guess the Black Ick could be seen as something like a demon, 'specially the beasties it started spawning. One of 'em attacked me and Icky while we were trying to escape Hollow, and I gave it a good kick right in its stupid face to keep it off my brother. But see, you remember how I said 'everything it touched' yeah? Yeah. That's when it took me."
Deis tilts her head as Calamity becomes human. And she grins, and claps. "Ah, wonderful! I can appear completely human, too, but my top half looks the same, so it's not really a disguise. Though... this is where we run into the dilemma -- humans look like that normally, so they dress up like not-human things. So, would a not-human person be fine in going as a human? Or does the human disguise need to be further disguised?"
Though she winces at the story. "Ouch. I guess that's when you came here?" she inquires. A moment of thought. "Hmm... I guess I had it relatively easy, in my world -- I did get sealed away for five or so centuries, but that was by my sister's warriors. And I did get to hit one of them several times after I woke up, so I guess it wasn't so bad. Definitely not anything like what you talked about."
Calamity grins as well, making no secret of her pride in the adulation her transformation has garnered. "Eh, I still look different enough from most folk I've seen, it'll probably be seen as a costume anyway. Humans don't usually have multi-colored hair." she says with a shrug, then gets back to the other subject with a shake of her head. "Nah, that was years ago. I must've been about... eh, I forget. Four? Five? I was a little girl back then, not so little now. Icky said that Kitty was able to wake me up for a few minutes with her song, but I don't remember it."
A moment later, she snorts. "Heh. Sleeping for a few days doesn't sound near as bad as a few centuries though. I like my naps, but damn."
"Oh, that's true," Deis notes, to the mention of multi-colored hair. "Though that reminds me. There's a lady around here, she looks human, but she's got this very pretty rainbow-colored hair. Her name's Rayne." The clarification of the incident gets an upward tilt of Deis's head. "Ah, I see! It was a while back, then. That 'Ick' sounded particularly nasty, I'm glad you survived your encounter with it."
As for the centuries-long nap? "I've been known to sleep a few centuries when belief or magic gets particularly low in the world," she notes, "but... yeah, that was pretty long of a nap, even for me. Better? On my back, on a stone floor, under a pyramid of light, in my human form, naked. For five hundred years."
Calamity sits up again, peering curiously at Deis. "Really? You think it's dye, or is she a spirit or goddess or whatever too? It'll be a lot more fun with more of us around." Then, with another small grumble, she acknowledges the Ick again. "Ugh, yeah. I remember everything before falling asleep as clear as day. Sort of. They said I fought it for hours before it claimed me, but after touching the stuff, everything kinda became like a bad fever dream. I hope I never have to deal with anything like it again."
The explanation of Deis's 'nap' gets a laugh out of her though. "Hahahah! I bet that wasn't too comfortable, eh? They couldn't even give you a real bed or anything, huh? Think you had any gawkers, or were they too scared of what you'd do when you woke up?"
"I'm not sure," Deis admits, regarding Rayne's hair. "I've never asked her. Seemed like it'd be rude, y'know? If it IS dye, I'd still say she was a goddess, though -- the amount of time and precision it'd take to get it exactly like that, and to make sure it stayed exactly the same, day in and day out, would have to be legendary." And of the Ick, she notes, "Well, from what I've seen, the only place it might show up would be out in the wastes. And something that dangerous is likely to trip every safety measure this place has. So you're probably safe here from it. If not, none of us are."
And she grins at the laughter. "Nope! Not even a bed. But at least I know nobody was gawking at me. The place was where my sister's warriors laid to rest the bones of the dragons they murdered in her name. The place was guarded pretty well, because they didn't want people wandering in and disturbing the spirits of the 'evil' dragons."
Calamity chuckles lightly at that. "Dunno how humans deal with it. All that hair seems like a lot of trouble if you ask me. Much easier when it's a fin, that way you can just dip your head in the water and wipe it clean, easy as pie." Preferring to leave the subject of the Ick for now, she simply nods and says, "Yeah, I hope so."
The rest of Deis's tale of the Nap of Centuries gets some further laughter from her too. "Heheh, least you had company, eh? Bunch o' dead dragons are better than nothing, I suppose. Never seen any back home though, only heard of 'em in stories. Guess they only live in faraway countries or something." This is soon followed by a yawn, as the sun's warmth takes its toll on the lizard woman. Laying back down on the smooth, sun-heated rock, she sheathes her tuning fork in the broad, tightly wrapped cloth belt that holds her 'skirt' in place and says, "Anyway, speaking of naps, I think... I'm gonna go ahead and take one now..."
And there she goes, snoring away without a care in the world.
Deis raises her hands and fluffs at her blue hair a little. "It can be a pain if it's not taken care of," she agrees. "But yeah, all that complicated styling, that's not for me. I'm way too lazy." She grins. Hey, at least she owns it. When Calamity settles down to nap, Deis agrees, "Yeah, it's lazy-time." A chuckle, and she coils back up. Yup, she's going to sleep right there, next to Calamity. Reptiles can share heating rocks!
|
Enable comment auto-refresher