event } look at this stuff - isn’t it neat?

[seeingyou]

WHO: All y’all on Navi.
WHAT: A festive visit to a quaint seaside resort town.
WHERE: All over Bruzoria - and on Navi, if you want.
WHEN: The rest of this month - and year! (Dec. 4-31).
WARNINGS: Add these to your comment subject lines as needed! And if you literally drown in the fun, please report it on the death page.

Rise and shine, passengers! Navi has a very important announcement for y’all:

Hello, passengers!
And many enthusiastic greetings to you all.
I’m delighted to inform you that we'll soon be landing on the planet Linzi’iri, near the seaside resort town of Bruzoria.
My knowledge banks inform me that we’ll be arriving two days before the commencement of the week-long Festival of Ipliopron.
How exciting!
A highly suggested attraction for visitors to Bruzoria is the Secret Waters Cafe, located adjacent to the Temple of the Secret Waters. This cafe is housed inside an old ferry ship that ran aground many years ago and was converted to its current form by the Saints of the Secret Waters.
If you purchase and consume a famed Transformation Tonic, you’ll have convenient access to the water once you begin to change into a creature capable of communing with the sea.
Doesn’t that sound lovely?
I will open a tab at the cafe, so please enjoy a transformative experience on my credits.
Ipliopron’s blessings upon you!
Please stand by for atmospheric entry.

Sounds like someone is still a little bit high on angel juice, eh?

But as Navi said in their message, any passenger who wishes to partake of a Transformation Tonic at the Secret Waters Cafe can charge the bill to Navi’s account. Navigems will also be distributed to all occupied cabins shortly prior to arrival, and passengers will find a bank counter just past the docking terminal, where Navigems can be exchanged for credits (the universal currency).

Enjoy the local festivities!

Comments

Alex Reagan | The Black Tapes Podcast | OTA

[11calls]

Alex still isn’t quite sure how she feels about beaches and water anymore. After all, it seems like so much of her issues are born from a primordial chaos goddess back home and it probably doesn’t particularly bode well that there’s so much chaos going on in the mythology of what’s happening here. Still, this is where Navi had landed, so this is where Alex Reagan is going to get out and stretch her legs and try and figure some stuff out. She’s still not sure about the blessing pool, because given everything she knows and the wealth of things that she still doesn’t about what if any connections she has with Tiamat, Alex doesn’t want to chance anything. So instead, she’s sitting on the sand at the edge of the beach on a blanket, her knees curled up to her chest so just her toes can burrow into the warmth that the sand provides. Given her fair skin, she’s wearing a broad sun hat and so much sunblock that she probably will never be able to get a uv streak on her skin again.

On the sand next to her is a picnic back which does include a drink. Not one that would turn her into a mermaid or anything, but it’s definitely fruity and alcoholic. Alex is definitely trying to work up the wherewithal to go swimming (she is wearing a bathing suit and a cover all, of course) but she’s definitely still open for conversation.

[bilocates]

You know who Alex hasn't seen in a while? Simon. Because Simon's been hiding in his room away from all the shenanigans and new neighbors. Didn't they realize the hallway was haunted to keep them out, not to encourage them in? Sheesh, you'd think people would have more sense.

Since they were docked on a planet and he did miss actually touching grass, even if he'd never admit it, he did decide to go out for an explore. Turning into a mer-person sounded like it might be fun and he might try it out for the hell of it later, but first he had to check on his favorite podcast reporter.

Alex. Simon being Simon, it didn't take him too long to find her. For his part he found a different way to dodge the sun. Namely, an oversized hoodie with the words "Eating more than 5 people is prohibited" in a stately font and some absurdly dark sunglasses. He, of course, does not like being out in so much sunlight.

He also went and got himself some kind of strange fruity tea that was almost definitely more sugar than hydration and do you think he feels guilty about that? Not even a little.

"Hello, Alex." Always gotta be a creep, even while dressed like a lunatic.

[11calls]

Honestly, Alex had expected that Simon was gone. Given how many people were missing from the ship, it's a pretty reasonable assumption to make. It's especially so considering how they had been (at least at one point, which feels like a thousand years ago now, and honestly it could have been given everything) crashing on each other's floors in order to make sure that Simon was safe and had better control over all of the demons and everything else that was going on with him. Really, she hadn't realized how worried about him she'd been until Alex can feel at least some of the tight knot of worry within her chest begin to loosen. Whereas once that familiar greeting would have ended with a roll of her eyes and a sigh, this time however it inspires a smile that turns into a grin when she realizes just how ridiculously he's dressed. Well, that's definitely something that she'll never not be amused by. 

"Hello Simon." Does Alex want to get up and give him a hug? Yeah, she sure does but she also knows that it's probably a terrible idea. It's not that she's suddenly touch shy or anything like that, but she knows that Simon can be and she doesn't want to give him any reason to withdraw from everyone (especially her) again. Maybe it's selfish, but sometimes it's okay to be selfish when it comes to people that you care about and consider your friends--even if Alex Reagan back home never would have believed that she and Simon really could be friends like they are now. It's amazing what the perspective of being on a ship in space will bring you when it comes to missing people from home.--and she knows it. Still, she can't help but to ask him quickly: "aren't you hot in that hoodie?" She knows that she would be if the situations were reversed. But then again Simon has a lot more going than she herself does. 

There is that whole pesky demon thing, after all and they'd all learned early on that it doesn't go away just because of the fact that they're not back there in their home universe, no matter how much they'd like it to be so. 

[bilocates]

Not gone, at least not completely. Simon just had a terrible habit of sometimes withdrawing so completely he fell off the map entirely. Alex had encountered this at least a couple times, though those times were more driven by safety concerns than emotional distress or being overwhelmed. There have been a lot of strange people and happenings he just didn't want to deal with any of it. She can't really blame him, though he did perhaps go harder than he should have this time. And of course, in true Simon fashion, he showed back up like he hadn't just been hiding for months.

If Alex wanted to hug him, he'd be very surprised by that. He's still not completely acclimated to the fact that they have become more friendly since their time on the ship. It never would have happened back home, here all bets were off.

Simon moved to settle down on the sand next to her, careful not to spill any of his precious excessively sugary tea. "It's not too bad," He's a little warm but not too uncomfortable yet. "Better than a sunburn. Enjoying solid ground?" He'd not realized how much he missed it until they were out in space for so long. He was really missing the sunsets.

[11calls]

"And that is why I wear sunblock," Alex counters with a grin, gesturing to the bottle of it that's sitting there on one corner of the blanket, helping keeping it grounded in a place where her weight isn't resting on it. Sure, it's probably overkill, but she's someone for whom most of the trips that she's taken to the beach in the last few years had been the wind-swept ones that dotted the coast of the Pacific Northwest so she's learned from experience. "Definitely nice to be on a planet that's not trying to murder us. It feels like that's where we've been the last few times you, know?" Yeah, there had been a few good moments before the shit had hit the fan before, but she's trying really hard not to think about that happening here. All the better for everyone aboard (and for Navi themself) if nothing terrible happens for once. There's been a lot and all of them could use more than a little bit of rest and relaxation, and even though Alex isn't really big on thinking of things that she deserves--at least in a good way, anyway--right now she's thinking that they all deserve some good things, especially Navi. 

"I am, actually," she says after a second, with a little bit of a smile. "I mean, I was a little bit worried that it'd be a bit like sea legs where I'd be tripping and falling face first after so long, but I'm adjusted. And it's nice to be able to see the sky and the sun and everything I'm glad for it. I'm sure that you are too."  While she doesn't actually come out and say 'sunsets' Alex is still pretty sure that Simon is going to know what she means anyway, after all it's not like it's a big secret or a surprise that she would remember something like considering the conversations that they've had, not just back home, but here on board as well. It's especially difficult to forget when you consider the fact that Alex had realized a long time ago now, that Simon tends to lump her in along with those sunsets. 

Well, at least she thinks so, it's not like she's going to come out and ask or anything, especially after how awkward everything was when she was a teenager who had kissed him. Yeah, she'd not forgotten that, and her ears turn as crimson as the sunburn that she's trying to avoid. While she's not apologized for that (there was everything that had happened in the aftermath of that, then there was the way that they'd been asleep for god knows how long, and then she'd not thought that he was still on board) Alex doesn't know if she's going to. A part of her feels like she probably should, but this is Simon, so she doesn't think that he's going to want to think about that anymore than she does. 

So, instead Alex moves onto safer ground (hopefully) and asks: "how are you doing?"

Tim Stoker | The Magnus Archives | OTA

[pawnish]

Tim has been keeping himself kind of scarce lately, as he's still working on discovering how much bullshit he can handle and how much he can't. It's probably not the best start to meeting people, but he's still a little bit embarrassed about how badly he'd reacted to everyone aboard. Who can blame him, really? Tim definitely can't blame himself for it even if he does slightly. Kayaking is kind of a thing for him, so a beach planet definitely seems like it was almost personally designed to make him more chill with all of this madness, and Tim is going to take full advantage of that. (And of course the chance to stock up on a fair amount of booze to replace all of the stuff that he's been drinking at the piano bar that is the closest that he can come up with to a pub.)

Dressed in a not-quite Hawaiian shirt but definitely close enough that Timothy Stoker finally feels more comfortable in rather than the borrowed leftover clothing that he'd been wearing, he's also slathered in a not inconsiderable amount of sunblock. Look, he's an extremely white Brit who doesn't see the sun all that much, and he's not taking any chances that he might end up with the sort of sunburn that is the stuff of nightmares. He's already got enough nightmares that he needs to deal with as is. Besides, it's been a long time since Tim's hooked up with someone, and he's got priorities. Priorities that probably should be arranged a bit, but he's definitely been in a constant state of fuck it for far too long so a nice, uncomplicated hook up seems just the thing that the doctor ordered, even if he needs to write the prescription himself. 

But he's also not so much of a prick that he's going to keep letting things be awkward between himself and the people that he's trapped in this lunatic asylum with. Never let it be said that he doesn't learn things, given what happened with how he was almost left out of the Unknowing. It was a mistake, one of many that all of them had made in the aftermath of what happened, but he does understand why given the intense paranoia that everyone had given the way that Elias fucking Bouchard had been pulling at all of their strings like a demented puppet master. So, when he sees someone who looks familiar from the ship, Tim raises the yard long plastic cup that he'd purchased and quickly says. "Sorry for being a jackass, mate. It wasn't my finest hour when I got here." 

[albatrossomen]

Given the complicated nature of the relationship between Tim and Jon, Murmur had made a point to avoid the other on the ship. It wasn't that he minded being snapped at, that was fairly normal all things considered, but the awkward he did not understand. It didn't seem like a subject he should pry on so he hadn't. So far he was trying to respect whatever was going on between the two by not asking and just keeping his distance.

With that in mind it did come as something of a surprise for Tim to approach him. They hadn't met officially in person just yet, but undoubtedly he'd been spotted at least once making tea before pulling a vanishing act. Tea, it just so happens, is also why he's out. Sampling this world's version to see how it stands up to other forms he's tried thus far. At the call out he glanced up from his own cup, expression faintly puzzled until he realized he recognized the voice. "Ah, yes, well. That is to be expected." The concern was dismissed, there were certainly worse arrivals in the past, all Tim did was be rude. And Murmur was far more interested in his very strange cup. "I beg your pardon but... what is that drinking receptacle?"

It looks like a cup, but what in Heaven's name could it be for?

[pawnish]

For a moment, Tim just looks down at the cup that he's holding onto, now roughly half filled with a mix of neon colored drink in bright green, blue,. white, pink and red (though the stuff on the bottom is more of a murky brown than anything else. That's the problem with getting a frozen drink this big when it comes to a place that's as hot as this one is right now.) Then he shrugs and lifts the plastic straw to his lips and takes a long pull of it, though it's mostly the brown and tastes of sugar more than the other flavors that he'd chosen to try when he'd begun. Oh well, that's all part of the experience when one is drinking something like that, and besides he's had enough of the high proof alcohol that the taste of it no longer matters just as long as it happens to be cold. Thankfully, this still is so he's just going to go with it.

However, what is more tricky now that the person that he'd thought was a man had spoken, Tim had realized a lot of things. The first is that this is probably the person he'd spoken to on the network. Research is something that Tim is good at and has always been good at honestly. Being here doesn't change that fact; maybe some of the Eye got into him more than he wants to admit or to think about. Things are already bad enough that he doesn't need that bullshit, so he just takes another long and sweet sip. Going back to what he was thinking about before, even if it's a bit fuzzy in a slightly pickled brain, he's been able to look at the network to get at least some of the lay of the land. If nothing else, he's gone back over his own messages again and again and there's something in the ones that were exchanged between this angel and Jon that remind him all too much of Jon and Martin if they'd managed to get the hell out of their own way. It's not something that's lost on Tim that it probably could happen for Jon here versus back home because he's made the decision to stay here, such as it is.

Does Tim have any fucking clue if it's going to work? Not a single one, but it still feels familiar as hell anyway. 

"It's a novelty cup filled with booze and sugar," Tim offers after a few minutes, and he punctuates the  thought by taking a long sip of it. It's almost too long, and there's a hint of proper brain freeze that Tim relishes honestly. How can he not when it reminds him that he's actually alive. With that dealt with, and his face skewed up from the brain pain, he can't stop himself from asking: "are you here to give me some sort of shovel tag about Jon? Because I don't care who his boyfriend is if it's not Martin." Yes, unsurprisingly after watching the two of them be complete morons, Tim is still rooting for them and he lowkey always will be because Martin is (was?) a friend despite everything. 

[albatrossomen]

The novelty beverage did smell like an absolute mess of sugar and mixed together flavors that Murmur is quite certain even the most sensitive of human tongues couldn't differentiate. Even with his sweet tooth he's not certain that concoction would be amenable to his own palate. As he watched while Tim mulled over explaining his drink Murmur remained patient, head cocked very faintly to the side not unlike a curious bird, though he never quite fully made eye contact. Ever staring just a little bit past Tim's shoulder.

"Fascinating. Mortals do find increasingly creative ways to make poisoning themselves for fun more palatable," He'd get it more if he were capable of experiencing the same thing, but alas only the faintest inebriation is possible even with this more potent alcohol. With the following accusation, however, his eyes do dart to zero in on Tim, finally bothering to take him in properly. There's of course something strange about being more directly under that piercing green gaze, a weight and peeling both. It doesn't last long, and neither his expression nor tone gave any inclination toward his own inner thoughts.

"I feel compelled to remind you that you approached me," He sipped his tea, made a faint face at the flavor, and sipped again. He's not certain he likes this one, more data needed. "What a peculiar declaration. I am familiar with the idea of jealousy but I cannot say I have encountered it on behalf of another party." He sipped his tea again, still not entirely sold. He is also neither confirming nor denying Tim's accusation. "Does this hostility well from personal investment? I was given to understand you and Jon were not necessarily on the best of terms."

Despite there just being something generally odd and disconnected about the man, he was giving exactly no impression that he were anything more than politely puzzled by Tim's aggression toward him.

[pawnish]

Something definitely grates about the comment of poisoning himself. Maybe it's the left over anger from being around people who aren't human and definitely think that they're better than others because of it (fuck you, Elias) or maybe it's because that's basically what he's doing, but Tim's jaw tenses tightly before he takes an extremely long sip of the drink defiantly. There's also the possibility that it's because Murmur doesn't look him in the eye, even if intellectually he understands why the angels doing it. Angels and human brains are probably not the best mix, and the last thing he wants is his gray matter to be scrambled up into some kind of soup that Navil can't fix. All and all, it's just the sort of mix that feels like a bad idea to him, even if the angel is right and Tim is the one who started all of this. 

Never let it be said that Jon was the only person on hashtag team archives that was stupid in his decision making. 

"You're right, I did come over to talk to you, I just didn't think..." It would be this aggravating isn't something that Tim's saying, but he definitely is thinking it quite loudly indeed. "And you're right we're not on the best of terms," that probably isn't a surprise to anyone given their history, even if they are on much better ones now that they'd talked about what had happened between them. "But it's not jealousy, mate." Somehow it's much harder to explain than that, even to Tim himself. "It's anger on behalf of my friend." The friend who is not Jon, but who loves him to the extent of enabling to such an extent that it really had fucked things up between the two of them. "He deserves better than the man he loves just disappearing on him, especially when he was in a coma for months before hand." 

For a long moment, he's silent other than the obnoxious slurping of his drink as he thinks about it. "I'm not saying that Jon owes him love or anything like that. That's stupid and no one owes someone affection just because they care about him. But he does deserve an explanation, especially considering what he was doing in order to try and stop Elias. I'm dead back home. Sasha's..." When he's saying her name, Tim's voice drops a little bit, the pain that comes from it as always leeching through the cracks. Even here he can't actually remember what she looks like, or who she was other than she was different. "She's gone and it's not Jon's fault but it's still a loss. God knows what happened to Basira or Daisy if Jon with all of his avatar shit ended up actually dead for a while." A thin smile because Tim can't stop the joke from coming. "But he got better." Then he's more serious once again. "Martin will blame himself for it, and it's the sort of guilt that's going to eat him fucking alive." Because Tim knows Martin and he remembers what happened when the three of them were separated in the tunnels, and when Martin found out about Jon's kidnapping and everything else. 

Then softly he adds: "wouldn't you want to know if your positions were reversed?" 

[albatrossomen]

Either Murmur doesn't notice the attempted act of defiance, or he simply doesn't deign to react. The consequences aren't his to bear, after all, and Tim is always free to make his own choices. The wording had simply been one of accuracy, not an accusation nor judgement. Tim isn't the first, the last, or even an odd number out to behave like this as though somehow he expects an angel to care in any particular way about what he chooses to do with himself. His ire goes unacknowledged.

At least, for the most part. There is something of a brief flash of teeth, not a smile that reaches his eyes or even looks anything outside of predatory but there's definitely something that could just about suggest he's aware of how aggravating Tim finds this. Something Murmur may just find a touch amusing. If he has to suffer through Tim lashing out at him over something out of everyone's control he'd much prefer Tim hate every moment of it.

As Tim continues his eyes dart, first moving toward him on their own, followed by his head turning to face him in a gesture entirely just a little too strange. Too deliberate. There was a weight to that gaze, one that Murmur held just long enough for Tim to start to feel like his very atoms were being picked apart and analyzed before he finally looked away again. Up toward the sky, brow furrowed in a mildly perplexed expression.

"Is that not how it is for your kind? Your offspring sent off to war, possibly never to return. A family member disappearing on a trip. Someone goes out into the water, never again to rise to the surface. Death is inextricably linked to life, the natural conclusion to mortality. How is this, then, any different from him simply not awakening from that coma?" That gaze is back, sharp and piercing and expectant. "Who is to say that is not exactly how this series of events will play out, in the timeline this Jon inhabits?"

Again he releases Tim from the hold of far too green eyes that peel and pierce and unnerve to stare out toward the crowds of aliens that inhabit this world.

"I cannot say. Humans dying is hardly anything out of the ordinary."

He's been around forever, longer than humans have existed and he'll outlast them still. If he attached himself to every one of them there would be no time to mourn before the next was gone. Tim is asking an extremely alien creature that was never human to empathize with the plight of something that, honestly, sounds to him like a problem Martin will have to deal with on his own. He's not here, there's no way for Jon to send a letter telling him he's pissed off to a new universe, and there's no way to know how things change or even if they do change as far as anyone back in their home knows. And frankly he doesn't consider it any of their problem to concern themselves with.