View source for 2021-10-18 - Free Parking

{{Logsummary|
Title    = Free Parking
|Summary = Parkgoers brave the primal elements as they meet and socialize lake-side.
|Who     = [[Calwa]], [[Kaijin]], [[Kimba]], [[Miwa]]
|Date    = October 18th, 2021
|Where   = Nowhereto Park, Lakeside
|Log=

Miwa is enjoying a nice swim around the lake, just having fun and getting a bit of exercise. After several laps she makes her way to the lakeside and gets out onto land. "It's no ocean, but a nice big lake isn't bad." She comments with a smile as she takes a moment to squeeze some excess water from her hair with her flippers.

You have no idea. or at least most wouldn't. Then again, most can't breathe underwater. A head pops up on the surface from under the water. "Tell me about it." Kaijin says, grinning a bit. The Daughter of Godzilla has a day off from her job as member of the police force. Just how long was she *down* there, anyway?

Four paws beat at the ground before a reddish-furred shape launches through the air in a massive leap that leads to a huge splash.  A water-soggy fuzzy head with a black mane peeks up out of the water before beginning what most people call a 'doggy paddle'.  "Oh, that's a little colder than I thought it would be! B-by Gaia, ha ha ha.  What a-  What a splash."  Circling out through the water a litte, curving, the quadruped seems to be heading back toward the shore already.

Kimba slowly makes his way to the shore, the white 'beast' clearly just wandering around, offering polite, casual nods to the people already there, as if it was perfectly normal. He is even humming some kind of song, head bobbing slightly to some unheard beat, pausing as he spots the figure jumping into the lake and considering for a moment.

Miwa might have gone to join Calwa but she couldn't blame anyone for wanting to get out because the water was a bit on the cold side. Despite being from a tropical climate she'd eventually gotten used to swimming in the lake as it got colder, as she didn't really have much of a choice. "I give it a ten out of ten." She says with a smile. She also offers a wave to Kaijin. "How deep down there were you? I didn't even know you were in the lake before."

For the half-Titan, this city has become less and less of a surprise. Seeing sapient animals who are full quadrapeds is no longer quite the surprise it might have been when she first arrived. She grins a bit at the comment, waving back. "Benefits of being me, I suppose. I think I was all the way at the bottom. Figured I'd see if there was anything interesting in there." The cold of the water doesn't seem to bother her. Possbly another side benefit of the DNA she inherited from the King of the Monsters. "I don't think I've met you, or the redhead who just landed in here, before. Name's Kaijin. Who're you?"

At end, the one lupine quadrup-  No, feline qua-  Uh.  The creature with the red fur and four legs finally reaches the edge of the lake and clambers out, soaked through completely, before giving a good shake all the way from nose to butt.  The long leonine tail also shudders through the motion, but no, the lake water didn't seem to help.  His tailtip is still on fire, but that's no Charmander.  "Brbrbrbrbrr!  Why didn't somebody say the water was so chilly?!  Oh, G-grandfather protect m-m-me." 
 
Padding away from the water's edge, the creature seems to be walking back over to where some leather bags lie upon the grassy ground.  Those are a cross between courier bags and saddle bags; it's what the tail-flamed critter uses for his Candletail Courier Service.  It's not exactly very big or popular, but he's trying.  "Last thing I need is to g-g-get the sniffles and sneezes, but it was-  It was still f-fun," he muses mostly to himself.

Kimba slowly moves to join Calwa, Miwa and Kaijin, being the curious, and social thing he was. Just in time to hear Calwa's comments about the water temperature, and even moving closer to dip a paw into the body of the lake. "Really cold!" he agrees, before glancing at Calwa, "You need to be more careful!.". He speaks to the red furred thing as if he never did anything like that, and even rushes to Calwa's side, carefully moving to headbump, "We need to get you a towel, or some fire to get you dry.".

Miwa frowns to the red furred creature's complaints. "Sorry about that, you kinda jumped in before I could say anything. Maybe we could build a fire to help warm you up?" She offers the idea but has no way of starting one. Next she turns to Kaijin and nods. "That would make sense, pretty dark and even colder down there. I'm Miwa, I'm a Primarina, a water and fairy type Pokemon, and a performer.

With a powerful stroke of her arms, legs, and tail, Kaijin emerges from the water. 'Hmm. If it's a fire you need, I can help. Just uh...don't get too close when I'm lighting it. Radiation isn't typically good for most species." she says. Turns out she was in a bikini, one that allows her spines full extension without damaging her clothing. Anyone who's seen any version of her father can probably pick out what kind of Titan she is just based on that. "Just need some dry kindling and I can get some heat for you in a few seconds." Then she blinks. "Pokemon....right, I've seen the video games and all. I didn't know any of you spoke any human languages outside of a handful of telepaths, that one with the shell on its head, and that one cat that taught itself to speak english."

"Hey, it's K-kimba..."  A foreleg reaches over to tug at the lion's side so that the larger of the pair can give the smaller a grooming social lick over the forehead.  "I'll be okay, I come with my own fire.  Remember?"  The black-maned creature pulls away from the white lion enough to flop onto the ground near his bags and immediately begins licking the water from his forelegs and forepaws in turn.  The Sanuye's tail curls about and the fire on the end burns as silently as ever.  It's warm, but notably a lot cooler than most sources of fire.  A pointed ear swivels to face the direction of the lake-bound conversation. 
 
"Uh, I have no idea what that is, but-  Oh!  N-n-no, I'm okay.  I'll w-warm up quickly en-  Quickly en-  ...soon."

The lion laughs, submitting to the grooming, and even after he is pushed aside, he leans towards Calwa and begins to fastidiously try to groom the larger beast's ears and mane. "Even then, you are freezing, makes me wish I knew some kind of fire trick, I don't think blasting you away with a roar might help keep you warm." he muses. The young lion does stare at the tail, even as he tries to hold onto the stubborn Calwa and groom away the water. The talk of pokemon and such also gets his attention, "Hi!" he greets loudly, "I'm Kimba!, this wet thing is Calwa!" he offers.

Miwa chuckles a bit toward Kaijin's reaction to her being a talking Pokemon. "Well, you're right, not many do. But if a Meowth can learn, I'm sure others could also, they just lack the drive and determination. Singing is second nature for a Primarina, and I wanted to sing songs with words, so I put in the time and effort, with some help from my trainer, to learn." She explains as she moves further from the lake and over to join Kimba and Calwa, leisurely laying on her side, partly propped up with her front flippers. She offers Kimba a smile. "It's nice to meet you all." She says before looking back toward Calwa. "You kind of look like a Pokemon I know with that flaming tail."

The introductions are good. Now she can put names to faces. Luckily, there's a good amount of kindling in the area. Fall is gonna be fall no matter where one is. And with a bit of work, Kaijin's set up a small fire pit next to Kimba and Calwa and Miwa. "Name's Kaijin." she repeats, this time to the lion and...whatever Calwa is. "Step back a few paces for a sec," she adds.

Then, slowly, the spines along her tail begin to light up, moving up along the spines on her back. A low ''vwoom...vwoom...vwoom vwoom vwoom vwoom!'' accompany it.  A burst of silver-blue radioactive fire shoots from her mouth, lighting up the firewood almost instantly. Cue a smile with a little hint of fang. "There. That should help warm you all up a bit faster," she says with a chuckle as she runs a clawed hand through her hair.

Another species with a flaming tail tip?  "Nice to meet you...  D-d-does your, wait, does your home planet have a version of C-cosmo Candle, too?"  It may soon become apparent that the stutering is not a product of the cold.  The grooming from the lion eventually sparks the Sanuye to roll onto his back to playfully paw at the feline while his tail lashes around.  The flame doesn't seem to have any effect on the grass whatsoever.  "I'm g-gonna get you," Calwa 'threatens' of Kimba, but is distracted by Kaijin's appearance as she wanders over with tinder and wood and starts setting up a spot for- 
 
The warning doesn't really bother Calwa too much, but then the light show begins, with sound, and the anxious quadruped wiggles and scrambles to his feet and attempts to grab Kimba by the scruff in his mouth to hustle away more than just a few paces.  His face says: OwO

The lion is quite happy to play back, swatting at the larger quadruped, even purring! There is a chuckle as he leans to nip at the swatting paw, dark tufted tail twitching quickly behind him. He seems just happy to play around!. The further introductions cause him to look aside, nodding to Miwa, "It's nice to meet you too!". Then the light show happens, the lion's ears perking, and eyes opening wide, "Hey... wha... gkt!" distracted as he is scruffed and pulled away by his friend, not that he resists too much, just as surprised.

Miwa does move back, for a moment while Kaijin is lighting the fire, she's not sure what radiation would do to her, but the previous warning is enough to make her worry about it. "Something tells me you could make a much bigger fire if you wanted to." She comments as she watches Kaijin light the campfire, then shakes her head at Calwa. "No, at least, not as far as I know. The Pokemon I'm referring to is Charmander, and their evolved forms, they all have a tail flame. I've often wondered if it hurts or if they just get used to it. Never found a good opportunity to ask."

Blushing a bit and rubbing the back of her head, Kaijin shrugs. "Yeah, I probably could. Though to be honest, I'm nowhere near as powerful as my father. He's a full Titan. The King, in fact." she says sheepishly. "He's also done some amazing stuff. I still get chills when I think about his Burning form when he unleashed it during the Battle of Boston." she adds. "You can sit down a bit closer now. The radiation doesn't linger or anything."

The candletail just stands there about four meters away, mostly stock still, staring while his tail rest lightly curled downward and then back up again.  He seems to forget that he has Kimba held and acted that way purely out of reflex.  Given a wiggling reminder, he'll put the lion down, but otherwise just stares.  He's a bit of a scaredy-cat...wolf...thing.  He has to go back over eventually, though, because that's where his bags and harness are.  It's not just a matter of the display, though.  While Miwa has something her world that is similar to his tail, that kind of ability shown by Kaijin is similar to that of creatures from his home world.

Kimba has very little on the way of reference to... what Kaijin did, he is kind of trying to process it, so for the time being, he is mostly a white lump dangling from Calwa's jaws, staring and blinking a few times, finally snapping out of it a few moments later. "Sorry, never saw something like that." he mumbles, yet not wiggling at all, one has to wonder if the lion was testing how long until Calwa noticed. "Very cool."

Miwa nods. "Your father sounds like a force to be reckoned with. I'll try to stay on his good side if we ever meet. I can do other things like make a strong spray or water or even freeze things, but probably the more interesting powers I have are my fairy type abilities, which are sort of light and energy attacks, and that I can control water with my voice." She explains before demonstrating by forming several water balloons and singing a quick series of vocal scales to make them dance around in the air, before finally making them fly above the lake and explode into a shower of mist.

The water trick gets the attention of the Monster Princess, who seems to find it fascinating. But once the show is over, she decides to weigh in on Miwa's comments. "To be honest....even if you did meet my father, he probably wouldn't pay you much mind. His concern is always with the safety of the planet-- and occasionally humanity. Plus he's....well, he's almost five hundred feet tall and about a thousand-odd feet long so...." Kaijin shrugs again. "He also doesn't talk. At least not in any language humans can understand. I've seen recordings of his vocalizations. Nothing there really translates directly in any human way. Kind of a pain, really. I've never *met* him, so those recordings of him are all I know him by, and I can't really do much to make his desires known because I'm only half-Titan myself."

Planetary Defender with Power and Size like that?  That doesn't assuage Calwa's concerns one bit.  At great length, he finally speaks.  "Wmmwm."  It's hard to speak with a lion hanging from your mouth.  Embarrassed, the Sanuye puts the lion down before giving the gripped spot a lick or two.  He finally tries speaking again after, but his voice volume is very low.  "That sounds a lot like a WEAPON.  I didn't think they could reproduce."  Subdued voice, his stutter is temporarily missing.

Miwa nods as Kaijin explains. "Yeah, I guess unless he visits the Galar region of my world, where Pokemon can undergo a process called Dynamax, where they grow to many times their normal size, he probably won't notice them any more than he'd notice a regular human on the ground. To Calwa's comment, she nods. "Maybe, but people turn anything with power into weapons. Pokemon were once used as weapons for war. It was a terrible time in my world's history which I am very happy to not have lived through." Of course the fact that the battles are now a sort of sport that they let kids as young as ten participate in made you wonder why wars don't still break out, but she wasn't going to get into that debate.

Kaijin snorts. "Anyone stupid enough to try that with father would be in for a rude awakening. He's no weapon. He's a living creature. Probably the most powerful being on Earth. My Earth, at least." After a moment, she gets to her feet, and walks over to a nearby grouping of trees and returns with a holo-projector. "Here," she says. "This is him." And she turns on the device, presenting her father to them, as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZ1ttvRBzA&t=25s

Calwa grunts and cautiously steps closer to the fire and his bags, around Kimba, as he corrects, "N-no.  Not 'a' weapon.  A ''WEAPON''.  Large mo-  Mo-  Mh, large creations with immense power created by Gaia -- my p-planet -- in order to defend it against a planet-consuming alien lifeform whose body is able to radically ch-ch-change and m-mutate people that come in contact with it."  He doesn't give this alien lifeform a name, even though he knows it.  Some with such experience might immediately guess one:  Lavos.  He sighs deeply as he watches the footage shown, ears lain back.  "Your papa looks like a WEAPON...  Our WEAPONs also attacked people, because they were using...the alien...to make b-b-bah-b-bad things.  Papa said-" 
 
Calwa suddenly shuts up like a clam and lies down right next to his bags near the firepit.  He's uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to be rude and leave.

Miwa listens with curiosity as Calwa explains what they actually meant, but by the end wonders if it'd be best to change the subject. "Wow, that's... something. So um, what do you both do for fun? Other than swimming, I like to sing, read, and explore new places, especially when I make new friends while I explore."

"Well, back on my Earth I was an ambassador. But here, I'm a cop. Kind of an odd career change I guess. But yeah, I'm always up for a good book, or movie. Video games can be fun too. Learning that my father's had movies made about him was kind of a trip and a half." Kaijin shrugs. Then looks over at Calwa. "His name is Godzilla. Humanity calls him the King of the Monsters." she grins. "And despite that title, they don't see him as a threat. Like I said, he largely leaves humanity to its own devices. Hell, not long after the Battle of Boston, humans started kind of treating him like a celebrity for awhile."

The candletail lays his chin upon his forepaws and watches, listening, from his flat spot on the ground.  His tail curls around tightly; again, the flame does nothing to the ground or his own fur.  "Well.  That's fortunate.  Must be nice coming from a world without aliens trying to destroy the place.  Not that-  N-n-n-not that all aliens are bad."  His eyes shiftily look back and forth between Kaijin and Miwa.  "I...  I like to read.  And, uh, meditate.  And commune with nature.  And, uh, I-  I deliver parcels.  If you need something delivered, l-let me know, okay?"

Miwa says, "Hmm, never considered myself an alien but I guess here we kinda all are. I like movies too, and being out in nature is nice sometimes also. Videogames look really fun, I haven't found anyone that makes a controller I can work with flippers..." Miwa says with a sigh. "I will indeed let you know if I ever need anything delivered. Maybe I could start selling albums by mail or something. Hmm."

Kaijin begins to chuckle in wry amusement. "Oh we had our own little run in with an alien." she says. "Ghidorah, or as some called him, 'Monster Zero' came from somewhere out in space. The three headed freak could spit lightning and create massive superstorms and tornadoes...." she shudders. "Guy's been dead for years, and he STILL creeps me out. Granted, I was born well after his whole little rampage. Still, that guy is a freak of nature in and of itself. father ripped one of his heads off....and it GREW BACK." another shudder. "That guy gives me nightmares, sometimes."

The story of Ghidorah would make Calwa grow pale if it could at all be seen through the sleek red fur with damp-darkened hairtips.  He's drying particularly well, at least.  "That's just horrifying.  Papa helped fight against different WEAPONs and he was about m-my age at the time.  I can't even...imagine...  I can, but th-that's just..." 
 
The Sanuye lowers his voice a bit.  "The park is fun, but it feels so empty."  There are plenty of people that frequent the park, so it's a strange statement to most.

Miwa chuckles and shakes her head a bit. So much for trying to change the subject. "I'm afraid I don't really have any scary stories myself. Well, there was that one Gyrados that attacked a boat my trainer and I were on, but we weren't the only ones on the boat with Pokemon so it wasn't too hard to fend off, despite being a Pokemon that earns being called the 'Atrocious Pokemon'. Other than that, it's just been dealing with tons of screaming fans, before I came here anyway."

"Hmm. A pokemon who can sing in English *would* draw a lot of attention." Kaijin grins. "Okay, gotta ask. What's your favorite movie or game?" She has nothing else to add right now regarding the Titans. The Battle of Hong Kong is a whole other thing, and honestly there's no reason to bring it up.

Eyes shift from Miwa, ears perking up at the mention of fans with an inclination to ask if she's famous, to Kaijin when she comments on singing and how that's unique for whatever Pokemon are, then back to Miwa when a question is asked regarding video games and movies.  Calwa knows movies.  He watched some with his brother, Chander, and his mom, Deneh.  Sometimes papa would join in, usually to get all cuddly with mom.  "'From the Marsh' was fun but scary, yet I thought it was mostly funny until I s-saw a Zolom's skeleton in a-  In a museum and I realized they were r-r-really that b-big."

Miwa takes a moment to think, she can't play video games so of course the answer is a movie, and it might come off as a little expected, but she hasn't exactly watched a ton of movies. "Moana, I liked the theme because it reminded me of home, and the story was pretty fun too, and of course I loved singing along." She says with a grin. "I can sing in Alolan as well as English actually.

"Nice. Hmm. I think for me, my favorite movie...well, one of them anyway, is Dracula: Dead and Loving it. It's probably my favorite Mel Brooks movie specifically. But it also stands on its own as a great spoof comedy too." Kaijin says with a snicker. "Now, if you're talking more serious films, I think I'd have to go with either Star Trek Generations, or Star Trek: First Contact."

Actually, Calwa hasn't really watched any movies since getting lost from his home world.  Most of the day, every day, is spent trying to make a living and build a future with Chiffon.  When he gets free time, he enjoys reading, and books are easy enough to transport from and to the library.  As such, he doesn't have much to relate to with the others.  This is pretty typical.  Calwa is very socially awkward.  He remains quiet and listens to the ladies have a chat while soaking up the warmth.  He doesn't mind listening.  Lots of people overlook him and Chiffon as just random animals anyway if they're quiet.

Miwa smiles and chuckles a bit as she hasn't seen any of the three movies Kaijin mentions. "I guess I need to start watching more movies. I'll try to see those sometime soon. Never really watched TV or movies back on my world, but it's fun, especially if you can watch them with some friends."

"No argument there." Kaijin smiles. Then looks over at Calwa. "Guessing you're not a movie buff. How's about favorite books then?" she asks.

Eyes lift when spoken to and Calwa follows this with a lift of the head from his forepaws, but only just.  "Well, I thought the treatise on the study of floral chromatics as entoptic composites and their effects on fiends was interesting, but that's-  Er.  That's n-not a local paper so I don't know if you've, if you've heard of it."  Frowning a little, the candletail shifts his position so that he can nudge a nose into one of his bags before carefully pulling out a book with the title Firewing.  The cover has a bat on it.  "Well, I just finished the last book in this, uh, series..."

Miwa just blinks and stares as Calwa gives the first title, that went completely over her head. She smiles though as he pulls out another book. "Oh, that looks fun, though they always say don't judge a book by the cover, or something like that."

"Hmm. I don't think I know that one." Kaijin says. "Could be worth a look later on. As it is, I've been reading the Sherlock Holmes series right now. I mean, I take the occasional dip into other stuff, but what can I say, Doyle writes some great stuff."


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