| IC date: | Summer 77, 1008 |
| OOC date: | September 5, 2013 |
| Location: | Portside |
| PCs: | (players) |
| NPCs: | Barnaby Krakinus III |
| GM: | Salty |
It's a nice cool evening in the harbor, and down by the ocean, it's almost even…cold! But, of course, not THAT cold: not Windigo-cold. Just breeze-off-the-ocean-after-the-sun-has-set cold.
Okay, enough about the weather.
Ponies mill about, and one cartpony is pushing his little candy cart along the sand. "Chocolates! Cotton candy! Taffee and s'mores! Come getcher candy!"
Page goes 'ooh!' when she hears the sound of the cartpony with his hawked candy. She still has a modest sum of bits left from her allowance and is indeed interested in sugar. But what kind of sugar? "Hmm. Hmmmm." She peers at the cart and its wares. "I'll have… chocolate? No! I mean, a s'more. No! I mean, yes!" She pulls a few bits out of her (heavily-loaded) saddlebags, but then thinks about it again, paralyzed by indecision.
Not everypony minds the cold. Rising Chaos does just the opposite, and is often to be found somewhere near the docks or beach later in the evenings. While there she reads, scowls, does paperwork (so much paperwork), and ignores ponies wiht carts selling candy. Though in this instance the loud shouting prompts a small frown, without interupting her work, which is what's eating at her time today.
Slowly, carefully, a pony peeks out from around a corner, intrigued- if not yet attracted- by the sound of rollin' cart wheels and the announcements of snacks and whatnot. It's a pony with a red hat and a blue mane and a green horn and she may be a longtime resident of the town, but she's done a remarkable job so far of staying out of sight and avoiding danger. Because those are very much a valuable skill for Harbor residents to have. Merryweather squints at the cart for a moment, before ducking back around the corner and pressing up against the wall.
Okay! Okay. Candy. So far so good. Probably not all crazy like that hearts and hooves candy that was making the rounds. The unicorn gulps and leans back out to squint at the cart, takes a deep breath, steps out into the open, and approaches.
Halfway there she realizes she doesn't even know what she wants. Her approach veers off to the side and she plays it off as if she totally always intended to just walk on by instead of stopping at the cart. Phew! Close one. Until she thinks of what she wants and has to come back! Oh, no! That'll look totally weird of her!
"How about a chocolate-covered s'more?" grins the cartpony as he starts to assemble this delightful treat, winking to Page. It's a HUGE s'more, honestly. Like, three gooey marshmallows, and four things of chocolate and holy wow. It smells amazing. And he's dribbling it in /chocolate/.
Page is probably going to have to go to the orthodontist again after this.
At any rate, the gentleman floats it over to the foal. "That'll be five bits, little missus!"
if he spies Merryweather, he doesn't seem to react.
To Rondeau, this isn't cold. It's downright close to balmy, when you grew up in a mountain range. It is, all in all, a rather unfamiliar place, and there's so much to see!
In any case, those things to see apparently didn't include Merriweather turning around. Oops.
Page's eyes go wide as she stares at the thing in front of her. She counts out five bits, somewhat painstakingly, and sets them on the counter. She smiles. "Thank you, mister!" And with that she attempts to take it out of his 'grasp:' it wobbles a bit on the hand-off but now it's limned with her own orange glow. Merryweather gets a shy little smile and a wave from the filly.
Merryweather doesn't seem to notice the smile or the wave, busy, as she is, with going end-over-end to avoid tripping on Rondeau. "Whoop!" says the unicorn, managing an almost elegant forward somersault- almost, because it ends with her landing on her rump and sprawling out. Her hat skitters away. "S-sorry!" she says, to the sky, en route to re-orienting herself with the ground.
Okay, now THAT'S noticeable. "Oh! Sorry! I, um, I, are you okay? He skitters after the hat, grabs it, and somewhat awkwardly hands it back.
"Oh, dear," the candy salesman says, blinking at the craziness going on beside his card. And he's about to comment when the waves start sweeping slowly back, retracting into the ocean as more and more sand becomes visible. This can't be good.
Merryweather accepts the hat with a grateful smile and reaches up to tuck it back on her head. "Aside from being an utter gollumpus, yes, though I fear that's a terminal condition, ha ha!" She finishes sorting herself out, and only now observes Rondeau properly. "Oh! A wee griffon. My stars! You appear to be the picture of health, though, that's good! Not stepped upon at all. Wouldn't want to, ah, anger griffons, now." Her eyes dart about.
While she's able to ignore ponies falling over themselves, interesting tidal phenomena are something else. Rising Chaos frowns, putting down her clipboard and pencil for a moment. "Something's wrong with the water," she reports almost casually. As if 'problems with the water' is specfic and doesn't sound like any catastrophic events ever to happen in the Harbour. She doesn't seem bothered by it, at least.
Page looks with confusion at the ocean, distracted from Merryweather's reaction by the bizarre behavior of the waves. She peers. "That's quite strange," she says. Well, no. What she says is 'Thsh qu'shrj," because she has a mouthful of s'more. With a nimbleness far greater than she's previously shown she opens up her saddlebag and pulls out a book seemingly at random, opening it up. She swallows. "Tidal behavior, tidal behavior." Pages flip by.
Rondeau looks confused for a moment, then realizes what Merryweather means. "Oh, no, we're, um, not all like /that/. I've got a bit of gallumpus in me myself, on my father's side.." That last part completely deadpan. Gallumpuses aren't a real creature, are they?
The water slides back and a dark shape appears in the resulting shelf of water that's sure to become a terrible wave. This shape is huge. Enormous. Dark and terrible and ominous, as a low, terrible sound, like a Lovecraftian foghorn, peals from the terrible oncoming monstrosity.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," says Merryweather, smiling to Rondeau. Anything further will have to wait, though, as she sits up with a start. "Qu'shrj?!" The unicorn whirls about to face the water, stares for a moment, then starts to scoot back a bit, eyes wide. As the monstrosity emerges and lets loose its terrible cry, Merry tumbles backward, doing another little somersault, one that leaves her sprawled on her front, hat upended nearby. She quickly scrambles upright, nabs the hat, stuffs it on her head, and zips over to cower behind the candy cart. "Not again!"
Moonglow looks up from her book. Ooh! She hops to her hooves and trots out to get a better view! You don't see something like this every day! Okay, a few times a month, maybe. But still.
Rising-Chaos raises an eyebrow as the shape appears. Well this is rather interesting isn't it. "Does anypony have any ideas, perhaps, as to what it could be?" It looks, and sounds dangerous, but is it magical? Rising's horn sparks to life so that she can check, because this thing is big and scary and this is a serious situation. So serious, in fact, that she even puts the clipboard away. "Ah, hello Moonglow." At least there's a pony here she knows.
Rondeau looks up and startles. The tide rolling back, hey, you don't learn much about how oceans do their oceany thing up on top of a mountain range, maybe that's normal. But the monstrosity is.. less likely to be normal. Huh. His feathers ruffle up a bit, fight or flight being replaced by "stand there petrified or run awaaaaaay". Right now, "stand there petrified" is winning.
Moonglow looks to Rising. "Oh, it just looks like a minor terror from the deep. I don't recognize it right off, but this is a pretty small one. And it's cuuute!"
A few moments later, a rose-colored aura winks into being and attempts to lift the stricken Rondeau up and slide him over to safety. Merryweather peeks out at the wee griffon from behind the cart, horn all aglow. She sees a promising-looking rainbarrel he could probably be tucked inside!
Rising-Chaos looks at the thing momentarily. "Ah, well that's alright then." Out comes the clipboard, and a sheathed sword, but msotly the clipboard.
The water parts, an enormous leathery /something/ coming through! It lunges forward and— falls flat on the sand. It's a…whale? No. A squid! Wait. A whalesquid? It lets out a low chiming whistle sound, as though someone took a normal whale call and slowed it waaaaaaaaay down, as the water starts a slow-motion crash back to shore. Everypony run! Small-scale tidal wave!
Page lets out a startled yelp and, tragically, drops her s'more (but, thankfully, not her book) and trotting back. "What is that? There's an index on sea monsters in here, but what phylum should I be looking under?" Once she thinks she's far enough she starts flipping through the pages again.
Flight wins. Ron pops up into the air, away from the incoming tide. And so does Moonglow, though she doesn't take her eyes off the creature.
Water beats paper, nine times out of ten, so rising chaos gets up as well. She's not getting out of sight of the thing, but staying to get soaked is out of the question. "Moonglow, after the wave passes, would you like to investigate?" Don't want it getting in to town, and it might be interesting.
(OOC) Salty: Everyone make me appropriate roll with +roll/skilled, +roll/unskilled, or +roll/talent for getting out of the way fast enough!
GAME: Moonglow made a skilled roll with an outcome of Great.
GAME: Rondeau made a skilled roll with an outcome of Good.
The magical aura trying to lift Rondeau up winks out as the griffon takes to legging it himself. Winging it? Legwinging it. It appears a moment later between Page's s'more and the ground, catching the sweet treat. While Merryweather continues to cower, she floats the s'more back over to Page, sets it on the younger unicorn's head, then pops up to call out to the beach. "RUN!" Pause. "Like… like you're doing already! Good show! Yes! b-bravo!"
GAME: Merryweather made an unskilled roll with an outcome of Bad.
GAME: Rising-Chaos made an unskilled roll with an outcome of Abysmal.
GAME: Page made an unskilled roll with an outcome of Okay.
The tremendous wave that had belt up from the thing's arrival CRASHES to shore. The candy seller screeches in terror and grabs his cart in his hooves. And with an almost supernatural speed, he hitches himself up and high-tails it away from the edge! Both Rondeau and Moonglow take to the air, vaulting out of harm's way just in time, which unfortunately leaves Merryweather and Rising to take a face full of seawater.
At least Page is okay: she jumped at just the right time to manage to somehow ride the wave safely. You go, Page!
The whalesquid, meanwhile, pokes its head out of the water, a few tentacles waving behind it. "AAAUUUOOOOOOOO?" it whistles.
(It is probably at least the size of a house.)
GAME: Rising-Chaos made a skilled roll with an outcome of Bad.
(OOC) Rising-Chaos: NO MY CLIPBOARD
(OOC) Salty: Hahaha!
You cna almost see the water steaming as Rsiing gets upset. Then she reigns her temper in, and sighs. She looks at the clipboard which was hastily pulled away and downards under her cape to avoid water damage. It's soaked, all the way through. All her hours or so of work was lost. This time, her sigh is a lot deeper, and a lot more frustrated.
The monster gets a very dirty look, it's no bigger than the whale o wisp (and she made friends with that) and now Chaos is mad.
The end comes not with a bang, but with a squeal. Where once there was Merryweather, nothing remains.
That's because she got carried away by the surf! That's all. Minty green hooves flail about above the water as the wave surges ashore and down the street. As it subsides, it reveals a dripping wet Merry hanging from a lamp post, like a sloth. One hand keeps her hat clutched to her head. Her short little cape and her mane hang all wet and bedraggled, and slosh about as she twists her head back to get an uncomfortably upside-down view of the monster on the beach. "What is that thing!?" she shouts. "And doesn't it know we're the ones that should be asking questions?!"
Camilla chirped and flew out to the beach at the sound of strange noises. EH! she flies up sharply just in time to avoid a face full if water. what the-? "Hey! who tried to splash me?!" she scowls.
Page is screaming at the top of her lungs, successful evasion and chocolatey treat notwithstanding. She spins around to face the monster, still rifling through Silver Compass' 'Sea Monsters of Eqwuestria: a guide to Spotting and Ettiquette (new edition for the curious foal)' and trying to find this thing. "Lesser Spiny Sea Turtle? No. Reticulated Scylla? No. South Seas Warbling Urchin?" She peers, turning the book. "I should read about these later." Flipflipflip.
Tentacles reach haphazardly into the air as the whalesquid beaches and wriggle-flops with MIGHTY THUNDEROUS THUDS that shake the beach. "UUUUOOOOOOOOO," it whistles, a tentacle outstretching toward the candy seller and snatching his cart right off the sand. Big brown-black eyes regard it thoughtfully, before its mouth opens way, way up, a yawning maw seeking to devour EVERYTHING.
Or, you know. Maybe just candy.
Meanwhile, Page finally comes upon an entry: it's a kraken! The lovable scamps of the sea.
This kraken is about to get a piece of this mare's mind.
Rising Chaos storms toward the beast, her horn flaring with power (although isn her case, 'power'). It doesn't take her long and an angry pace, and so she's waving her ruined clipboard around ebfore the kraken can eat it's stoilen goods. "Do you know hwo much time and money you have just cost me? Do you have any idea?" Can it talk? does Rising care right now? Then she sees what it's trying to do, and narrows her eyes.
"Put that stolen candy down, or pay for it." The sword comes out, because THAT'S threatening. "Right, now."
Page says "Oh my goodness! I was wondering if that's what this was!" She peers at it from her perch atop a bench, then starts cross-referencing. "Kraken - phobias, Kraken - known weaknesses, Kraken - table manners…"
The thunderous thumps set Merry to swinging from her perch, then losing grip with her hind hooves- forcing her to let her hat fall off her head AGAIN as she reaches up with both front hooves to seize the pole- only for her to slip and tumble to the ground anyway. "Oof!" The unicorn winces as she sprawls out on the soaked cobbles, starting to feel a bit sore from it all, and picks herself up slowly. After retrieving her hat and putting it back into place, she starts slogging her way towards the ponies gathered about the kraken. (After a few tries, at least, what with her mane hanging in her face.) "Do we… do we stop it? Maybe it's just a bit peckish?" Rising Chaos seems to be on the case, and Merry winces slightly as she looks across to her. "I'm not sure it's got the scratch…"
Moonglow has circled around to within earshot of Page. Books! Yay! She flutters down, eyes still mostly on the lil Kracky-Wacky, to offer some unsolicited Kracken trivia.
Camilla growls. "Hey! I said-OH CELESTIA! WHAT IS THAT?!" she points wildly to the strange creature.
That seems to make the kraken pause, blinking a few times, candy cart suspended over its open maw as it stares at Rising in confusion. The candy seller, now soaked from head to toe, looks quickly between the mare and the terrifying creature.
"U…u…uuuuuooouuuouu…" it stammers, as if to say 'But…but the candy…'
Page, meanwhile discovers that kraken have terrible table manners, most likely to grab food from your plate or indeed just swallow your entire plate — nay, your entire boat — whole. How inconsiderate. But their weakness seems to be sweet food, hugs, and playing fetch! And their phobias are a very particular shade of yellow. Moonglow also knows that krakens are sometimes kept as pets for fleets of boats, since they're just so lovable!
Rondeau arrives too late to catch Merriweather. Given their relative sizes, that's probably just as well. Noticing that she is walking back TOWARDS the thing, he figures it can't be that dangerous and follows.
Rising-Chaos narrows her eyes, staring the creature down. Apparently she's in no mood to be intimidating by a creature the size of a house which could crush her without a thought. "I said put it down, now. If you had asked you may have gotten some." She still seems completely obvliious to how this sounds ridiculous. "However, you have cost me a lot of money, potentially hurt that nice mare over there," she points at Merriweather, she noticed Merriweather. "And ruined my paperwork."
Page blinks. "Really? Okay, I guess." She concentrates, lifting the s'more off of her head and bringing it over toward the kraken: her glow flickers a little, almost dropping for a moment but she manages to hold it up. She waves the treat back and forth in front of the kraken and then waves it off to one side, over in the direction of the pier. "Heeeere kraken! H-heeere kraken! Go get it, boy!"
Merryweather smiles hesitantly. "I'm not hurt! R-really!" Actually no, her butt hurts. It hurts a lot, right above the tailbone. She can't just SAY it, though. "Bobbish and ready to go! Here, uh- how- how much was all that candy worth…?" She looks about for the vendor, then reaches up to pull some of her soggy mane out of her eyes to make this easier.
Abashed, the kraken lowers the candy cart to the ground with a sad 'uuuaauauauuuuuu.' It shrinks back like a dog who's been caught gnawing on something it oughtn't have.
Then again, the enormous lug perks up as Page offers it a snack, and its tentacles bunch up to help it hop in place. Hop! Hop! "Ooouu! Ooooouuuu!" As she starts waving it toward the pier, it gallumphsploshes that way, so excited!
The vendor, meanwhile, is shaking like a tree in a hurricane. He looks to Merryweather with wide eyes, then over to his crunched and ruined cart. "Muh…I…nuh…guh… th…buh!"
Hesitantly the griffin cub flies out over the water. "What the…are you REALLY eating that candy?!" she asks the weird water thing. "Um…hey sweets aren't good for you, you know."
Page waves the s'more back and forth and then, concentrating, flings it out towards the water! "Go on! Go get it, boy!" she says, wondering briefly if it might be a female but not in a position to check out the coloration on the gill slits to be sure.
Rising-Chaos watches the display, not losing her balance as the giant monster literally hops around, somehow. With a deep scowl she watches the treat being thrown away. "I wanted it to apologize."
though the anger is receeding, because it /is/ kind of cute. not that Chaos likes many cute things, but still.
Merryweather stares at the vendor for a moment, before making a face. Fine, if there's going to be an open tab, it'll have to fall to somepony else to pay! She sits down- gingerly- on the sodden boardwalk and sighs, watching the beast frolic about at the promise of a treat. The s'more is so tiny, and it is so huge! This makes no sense. "I'm not sure it has the vocabulary…" She watches a bit longer, then looks to Rising. "Do you… do you want help drying out your paperwork? I've got a hoof towel."
She digs it out of her saddlebag and holds it up, smiling. It's soaked. Her expression falls.
"BAAAUUUUUUU!" the kraken crows, gallumphing and flopping and finally flinging itself after the s'more with a terrible splash. When it reemerges, it is +1 s'more on the inside. It gallumphs back, wriggling excitedly, though it does blink in confusion at Camilla and cants its massive cetaceous head.
Camilla huffs. "bad!" she emphasises. "their BAD for you!"
Page blinks and tilts her head to the side. "I… think that worked? He doesn't seem to be upset anymore, at least. Is everypony okay? I have a handkerchief?" she says, pulling the item in question out of her bags.
Bad???? The kraken fairly wilts, eyes getting big and watery(…ier), and starts bawling. It's a horrible, indescribable sound.
Seriously, I'm not going to even try.
Rising-Chaos turns her scowl on Merryweather. "Then it will have to learn, but I suspect it doesn't care. I don't have a way to make it care, either." She throws the clipboard on to the sand. "It's not worth the effort, the pencil and pen has all run and become illegible. I'll have to get copies from home and find a way to get another copy of the many things I am missing. Thank you, though, I don't believe we've met." She composes herself, at least somewhat. "I'm Rising Chaos, matron of the orphanage. Who are you?" and then the bloody thing starts crying, to make every matter worse.
Camilla winces. "Hey! Stop that!" she clamps her paws to her her head. "My hearings sensitive!" she wails and starts crying herself.
Rondeau just watches, wide-eyed. Is this.. normal here? Spoiler warning: YES
Page makes a little face and hops down off of the bench, nervously trotting closer to the beast. "It's okay," she says in what she hopes is a soothing tone, "she didn't mean it. It's okay, there's no reason to be upset." Wow this thing's scary.
Merryweather wilts a bit further as Rising goes into a little tirade, remaining tight-lipped through the duration of it. With a bit of magic she wrings out the hoof towel and tucks it back in her saddlebag. "I'm, uh, M-merryweather," she stammers. She does a little curtsey; her bag sloshes. "Nice to meet you. I heard about the orphanage- congratulations?" She reaches over to start delicately pouring water out of her bag, from the corner. She glances up, then, and calls over to Page. "D-don't feed it too much! It might take a liking to you and try to follow you home!"
Moonglow prepares to cast Summon Cake, then remembers she's not a unicorn and stops. But hey, a cinnamon maple muffin's almost a cake, right? And she has one of those in her bag.
So, following Page, and then approaching a little closer, and then remembering that the shade of yellow they're scared of is, unfortunately, pretty close to her own, she pauses to smear some mud on her feathers, then slowly, gently, calmly approaches the beast.
"BUUUHUUUHHUAHAHAGHGHGHHAUHDUAHHAGHHHHH," sobs the kraken. Tentacles curl around its eyes as it boohoos. Page finally catches its attention through its cries and it gives her a big-eyed, sniffly look, and then looks behind her to Moonglow and freezes!!! … But oh, false alarm, that's not the right shade of yellow. Whew!
Sufficiently distracted, the kraken rolls over and flails its tentacles, lolling a terrible, many-wriggling tongue. Its gaze just seems to beg for belly rubs.
Page looks back to see what it was so startled by but sees only Moonglow. She hesitates for a moment but then reaches out and strokes the underbelly of the beast. A bit slimy, odd to the touch. But not revolting. "S-see? It's okay."
Camilla sniffs and pauses. oh? so it's just hungry. she pulls out some fruit from her own little bag. a banana! that's healthy! "Um…here?" she waves the banana as an offering.
Rising-Chaos bows in returns the Merryweather being polite. "thank you, It's a pleasure to meet you Merryweather. What is it yo- Oh for the love of…" she works with kids, she's not allowed ot say bad things anymore. However, the sight of a pony rubbing the belly of a kraken, no matter how cute, is straining that self imposed rule. "Sometimes I wonder why I live here. I'm going home."
Merryweather is thoroughly confused. "Bye?" she says, to the grouchy unicorn, watching her go. She makes a face and sits up as she turns back towards the kraken and its little entourage of ponies. "Wouldn't think a sea monster getting its belly rubbed would be enough to make a pony throw a wobbler, but…" She shrugs and approaches.
The short unicorn clears her throat and calls out. "Does it have a tag? Maybe it's someone's pet that got lost?"
The kraken squirms cheerfully, panting and flailing its tentacles in a very … tail-waggy sort of way. It's a strange life in Horseshoe Harbor, it is.
As Moonglow approaches with a maple spice pancake, and Camilla with a banana, it squirms in the sand, still on its…probably its back. Those snakey, weird tongues snatch out and SNARF, grabs em both and swallows them.
Apparently thus satisfied, it wriggles back to its, uh, belly, thankfully NOT squishing poor Page or any other pony. "BAUUUUUUUU," it calls, using those tongues to thoroughly lick the faces of every creature there in sheer gratefulness.
Congratulations, you now smell a lot more like wet, smelly ocean detritus.
Camilla winces and tosses the banana. "This is NOT bad. bananas are GOOD. eat the banana! good boy!"
Page giggles a bit despite the horrible smell. "Well I'm glad you're happy, then, but now I think I need a bath." Her mane has a truly epic cowlick going on now. The book goes back into her saddlebags and she turns around, heading in the direction of her house.
Merryweather is left slightly greener than usual by the passage of the tongue, her face all screwed up in as tight a lipped grimace as any pony has ever managed. She keeps her mouth zipped shut as she gradually shifts from stiff-legged shock to a wobbling gait that carries her towards the shoreline. Bath time now yes.
Moonglow is slightly less muddy now. But still really needs a bath.
The kraken, thus giving its happy gift to the ponies, rolls its way back into the sea. And by rolls, I mean it squirm/gallumph/sploshes in the most unnerving way until the great shape is only a shadow under the water, and then nothing at all.
The candy seller, finally, gives an incoherent babble, and faints dead away. Yep. That's about right.
Camilla gasps. oh no! that poor pony! flying back to shore she lands and proceeds to start poking the dead looking pony. "Hey! hey! you okay?"
Rondeau is starting to see why he was sent here. These ponies don't seem like the type to let tradition and small-mindedness get in the way of innovation with the cooking arts. Either that or this was a particularly undertaloned attempt to get him out of the Aerie's hair, but, um, nah. Probably the former. He can't wait to get settled in!