get your towels ready, it's about to go down

[yourattention]

Who: Whoever would like to have been picked up after March's event.
What: We're on a boat. No, seriously. That's the whole pitch.
When: Very late on March 19th, presumably.
Where: The middle of the ocean, my friends.
Warnings: Y'all can handle that.


On paper, the plan was simple: get a boat, sail everyone back. In practice . . . It was a lot less simple.

Getting the boat had been something of an ordeal, but it happened. Nobody has to know that the blind man stole it, because Connor is the one sailing it. He is sure as fuck sailing it back to Enso, despite the fact that he has never in his life actually sailed anything as big as the boat they stole and may have lied a little when he said he could "sail." Nobody had to know that either, okay? Nobody had to know any of that, because he is going to sail this boat back and the Jormun are going to fucking help him.

Hours 1&2
Unfortunately, Connor was in such a hurry to, like, leave? That he did not exactly ask the Jormun what the best route back was. He just kinda picked a direction and went which has led to a run in with some new shit from the bestiary: lightning eels. To quote the bestiary:

Considerably territorial, lightning eels range between four to eight feet in length. Sleek grey, their pointed, though rather small teeth may convey a sense of little threat- until they begin to spark, that is. Lightning eels are highly conductive to electricity and store up to a lightning bolt's worth of electricity in their small frames; whilst they won't release it all in one go, those close by them will certainly find these slithering creatures to be quite... shocking.

Have fun with that. The lightning won't really do much to the boat itself, so just don't fucking fall in, yeah? Seriously. Please don't fall in, Connor did not actually complete his lifesaving merit badge and only has a vague idea of how to perform water rescues.

Hours 3&4
A decent chunk of the way into the journey back, Connor will point to something in the water and say "Oh, they're here. We're going the right way." In the water is a group of sea otters. If you ask nicely, the Jormun will catch a few so . . . you can all eat. Unsurprisingly? Connor did not think to pack food for this hastily assembled rescue mission, so if you're hungry, sea otter is all you're getting. Bone apple tea, everyone.

Bonus: sea otter pelts. They're very soft and warm. Sea otters have fur up the wazoo.

Hours 5&6
Do you want to sail the boat? Great, because Connor is about to hand the wheel over to whoever's closest because he has to go talk with the Jormun about something. It's fine. Just keep the boat straight for ten minutes, you won't crash anything out in the open sea. If you want to listen in, Connor and the Jormun are discussing a type of plant known as lightroot. It can be picked and will act like a lantern for a while, but what they're actually talking about is cultivating it as a kind of . . . underwater landing strip. Don't worry about it. I'm sure this will never come up again.

Once Enso is in sight, Connor will actually sail around the island until he reaches the cove in D8. He's just gonna leave the boat there, like 20m/22yd out in the water, so. If you wanna swim to shore, that's fine. If you can't swim or don't want to, he'll come back with the boat from islet 2 after he swims to shore. Y'all are responsible for getting your own asses home after he brings the boat, though. It is not his responsibility anymore? He got everyone home, he's out.

Comments

[byhalves]

[This boat ride should probably be a reprieve - after all, they're getting the fuck away from all of the terrible bad no-good of that weird island with it's awful, awful rules buuuut-

Boats kind of suck. Who would have thought?

While he'd much rather spend the boat ride wallowing in misery, he can't help but notice the guy with all of the knapsacks, and when he sees one with a familiar name...]

What are you hoping to find in there? [Treasure? A reason for being? Shouto's got neither of those.]

[ungrieved]

[Gabe, this horrible boy, this no-good gremlin, this awful being, only pauses briefly to glance up, survey the asker of the question, wonder ever so briefly if this knapsack might belong to him, and...goes RIGHT the fuck back to rummaging through it, utterly brazenly.]

[He's terrible. Please destroy him.]

Uh, anything I can use? [Obviously.]

[byhalves]

I don't think my uniform would fit you.

[Terrible. Awful. Worst boy - except this pales in comparison to some of the emotional babies he's had to deal with so far, so he's not yet reached a point of being actually bothered by this.

Or maybe he's just still dealing with that whole "arrested for existing like some sort of abomination" thing.]

[ungrieved]

You have a uniform? [Shit man, he's gonna start looking for that right now because that sounds fascinating.] You go to a private school, or something?

[byhalves]

Of course. [What kind of school doesn't have uniforms? Geez.] Though public and private are kind of dated terms, aren't they...

[aka i can't remember if they ever specify beyond "really tough entrance exams" it's fine this is fine]

[ungrieved]

Dated? [That prompts a snicker.]

I guess I won't call any of this, [he gestures at the contents of said knapsack with a fluid opening of a hand,] "private," then.

[byhalves]

[Shrug.] The system changed long before I was born.

[The advent of superpowers does wonders to change a society.]

You've been looking at it all for a while, it's too late to be concerned for my privacy. [Not like...there's really anything that needs to be hidden or anything.]

[ungrieved]

[YEAH SO GABE HAS NO IDEA WHAT ANY OF THAT MEANS. He doesn't care either, because he's a horrible person.]

You don't seem to care that I've been going through your stuff. [Which makes this about 50% less fun than it was before. Why you gotta spoil the fun, Shouto.]

[byhalves]

[Honestly, rude. So rude.]

I don't see why I should be. Most of that wasn't mine to begin with. [Most of the things he has were just...whatever boons were there to begin with.

Also he spoils the fun because that's what's fun for him.]

[ungrieved]

So you don't care if I take...I dunno, all of it?

[He will. He will if you let him, Shouto. Don't let him.]

[byhalves]

[Yeah, that's not happening.]

I'd like to keep my chances of survival up, so I wouldn't recommend it.

[ungrieved]

Oh yeah? You gonna stop me?

[GABE IS NOT SMART.]

[byhalves]

It wouldn't be that hard.

[You really don't want to do this, Gabe. You really, really don't.

But look, he's a nice guy. He'll give you the option to back down.]

[ungrieved]

[A subtle narrowing of his eyes, and he straightens with his shoulders rolling back.]

What's that supposed to mean? [He is not challenging him directly, okay. Maybe just...obliquely.]

[byhalves]

[s i g h

Shouto places his hand on the boat, and it happens quickly - ice spreads across the wood, before branching up to encase one of Gabe's hands.]

It means that.

[ungrieved]

[A crust of rime slinks up over his hand. He tries to yank back, but the ice has feathered across his skin and stiffened it onto the wood.]

[It's cold. It's cold. He's shivering in the snow. His lips are tinged with blue. Muffet tells him that he needs a coat. Mom tells him to wake up. Mom tells him to wake up. She's screaming, and he's not screaming, but he's trying to bite down and not panic and not panic and not ]

[He doesn't have anything to say to that.]

[He's too busy trembling.]

[byhalves]

[He didn't anticipate this - and isn't that just the story of his life. He never thinks things through before he acts and that makes things worse than they would be if he tried to stay calm and rational and think things out.

He doesn't know what's happening, or why, all he knows is that he's done something wrong. Unexplained guilt eats at him as he scoots across to the kid, other hand reaching out - and though all he does is touch the ice his touch is still hot - blisteringly hot - and the ice will start to fade and melt.

He doesn't say anything, because what could he say? He has no idea what's happening, but seeing someone tremble - someone afraid because of something he's done-

Maybe he's not afraid. Maybe he's shocked, but that-

Does that really matter?]

[ungrieved]

[As soon as it's formed, the ice starts to bubble away. It only vaguely registers that the other boy is just as responsible for that little quirk as he is for the act of freezing his hand on the spot in the first place.]

[He can't speak.]

[He doesn't.]

[He snatches his hand back at once and jams it into the crook of his elbow opposite, rubbing at it to warm the blood, to fight away the chill compressing his veins, and if Shouto was expecting some sort of verbal response or any response at all, to be honest, he's not going to get one.]

[Gabe has gone completely and uncharacteristically silent, and no longer seems to have registered that Shouto is even there.]