OPEN | Too Much Sunshine

[nadasharillen]

WHO: Nari, Lexie, Myr, Korrin, Kylo, You!
WHAT: Catchall for my gals (hmu if you want a prompt)
WHEN: Pre-Tevinter Solace
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: on a scale from Lexie to Nari, what's your work ethic?

Nari

I. Working (Gallows)

Despite the hot, sticky, relentless weather, there's still work to be done, and Nari is doing it. Sometimes in a loose light cotton tunic and sometimes stripped to a breastband and shorter leggings (she'd added the breastband after the casual habitual strip of her shirt she'd employed at home seemed to be vaguely distracting), but whether in the oppressive closeness, but shade, of the workshop or out under the blaze of the sun when it manages to peek through the haze, she's out in the Gallows at the constant repair tasks as well as light deconstruction on the finished pieces of the obstacle course to prepare for their move to the Wounded Coast.

Currently swearing and trying unsuccessfully at one of the boards securing the latter—her team had perhaps been too effective—it looks like she could use either help or a break.


II. The Beach Episode (Korrin, OTA, let's all go together)

Okay, maybe some time for leisure. As devoted as she is to working herself into a tired stupor on a daily basis, spending time with Korrin is always something that will make her take a pause. That, and it's a rare nice day. So, off they go to the beaches outside of town with some blankets to spread across the sand, some food, and the intention to heap sand on top of sand and purposefully cover themselves entirely in water that isn't falling from the sky in sheets.

It's gonna be a good day.


III. Wildcard!

She's around~



Lexie

I. It's Hot Up Here, A Lot up Here

Each day of unfavorable weather—which is to say, most of them—finds Alexandrie lounging out on the balcony of the apartments that faces the Waking Sea in dresses with fewer layers, lighter weight fabrics, and less corseting than she would wear out in society. Her hair is up more simply than usual and she looks alternately vexed and content depending on whether or not the breezes are currently blowing past her off the water.

All things considered, it is not a poor place to spend the afternoon. Do come play cards, or read, or chat about current events, or drink, or watch the late afternoon storms roll by in their brief cacophonies.

(Or be smugly used to the heat, you Tevene savages.)

[ impromptu group activities welcome :3 ]


II. Wildcard

Catch her outside painting on the two non-garbage days this month. Sit in the Memorial Garden. Something else!

Comments

Re: Beach Episode!

[gatheringstorm]

"This." Korrin pulls off a ring, holding it up for inspection. It's finely crafted, of a wave motif that speaks to Rivaini influence. "I thought you might want to try out something I brought for myself. This ring lets me breathe underwater for up to half an hour at a time. It's probably too big for a finger, but maybe your thumb would do. Want to try it out?"

Re: Beach Episode!

[nadasharillen]

Nari leans in as Korrin holds the ring up to her, nodding her approval at the craftsmanship, and then raising her eyebrows to hear the effects. Korrin always has the most interesting things.

“I absolutely want to try it out. How does—“ she cuts off with a chuckle and shakes her head. “I was going to ask how it works. I, uh... assume magic.”

[gatheringstorm]

Chuckling at that, Korrin nods. "It has an enchantment, that's all I can tell you. I guess a land surrounded by sea would have plenty of use for one, right? Anyway, just slip it on and wade in. I'll have the rest of the picnic ready when you return to tell me what you think."

[nadasharillen]

She does so, using her thumb as Korrin had rightly suggested and heading on into the water after balling up the light cotton tunic she'd worn and throwing it back up towards the blanket. It gets about halfway there. Good try!

By this point in the year the sea has warmed to the cooler side of comfortable, and it feels exceptionally nice given the run of hot and sticky days they'd been having. Once Nari's in to her waist she leans down close to the water and... can't quite bring herself to stick her face in to test whether or not the ring works. Something something survival mechanisms.

"You'll come rescue me if for some reason I end up choking and spluttering, right?" she calls back over her shoulder to wherever Korrin's got to.

[gatheringstorm]

Snagging the thrown tunic to place on the blanket, she flashes a grin at Nahariel, nodding. "Of course! I've played lifeguard before, so don't you worry." Then she waves her off encouragingly before getting the beach feast set up properly. She made certain to note her friend's favorites before and include them along with her own.

[nadasharillen]

Nothing for it but to try then! Nari takes and holds a reflexive breath despite everything and sticks her head in the water. After a moment she lets it out in bubbles and then proceeds to have a wrestling match with the animal part of her mind that is frantically scrabbling against the idea of taking a breath while surrounded by something that, historically, is absolutely not to be breathed in.

Eventually she wrinkles her nose and forces herself to take a shallow exploratory breath, aaaaand... nothing happens. Nothing terrible, in any case. Her animal brain is flummoxed by this new development, and cautiously allows her to take a second breath, which also just happens. Nari opens her eyes to double check that in fact she is under the water, and she is. She then pulls her head out of it and hollers "What?!" in shocked delight.

[gatheringstorm]

Hearing that, Korrin laughs as she looks over. "Weird, right? But awesome, too. Swim around a bit and see what you think. Trust me, it's worth it." Korrin's done her fair share of swimming and diving before without the ring, but not having to worry about needing air -at least for half an hour- gives her the chance to explore everything in leisurely detail, something she bets Nari will appreciate too.

thanks tevinter prep! and ren faire work! I'm here!

[nadasharillen]

"I'll bring you the strangest thing I can find, then!" Nari calls back cheerfully, followed by a splash as the elf disappears beneath the waves.

She does, as it happens, appreciate the chance to explore everything in leisurely detail. Being able to move about in the water as normal and yet breathe it in as if it were air is the closest Nari has gotten to being able to fly, and it's absolutely elating. Without the distraction of timing out her breath, the parting from the elements that such awareness requires, she's able to do things like pay actual real attention to how the sand floats when it's stirred, how it lifts and falls and is carried by the water. How the plants do the same.

In essentia, the ability to really observe the breath of the sea itself. And that's before she kicks off to explore what might be found.

Being Nari, she emerges with an armful of particularly interesting driftwood, but there's also a nice flat nearly perfectly round stone and a handful of half-shells with unbroken pearlescent insides.

"You should take this back," she calls up the beach, carrying up the dripping load of found things with a half-grin, "or I'm going to go live down there."

[gatheringstorm]

Expecting Nari to be excitable and distracted, Korrin does her best to keep track of time on her end. She doesn't have that much to do after setting everything up, after all, stretching out under the sun after she's finished. Her gaze drifts over to the water often, and she grins when Nari emerges with her findings. That prompts her to move over and have a better look at them.

"It does come in handy for the naval presence project, I admit. That isn't to say you can't ask to borrow it from time to time, though. Heh, this is exactly what I ended up doing, when I first submerged alone. There's so much to see don't there, you know? It's enough to turn me into a hoarder, if I had the space."

[nadasharillen]

The findings are not unlike what a child might decide was exciting, and Nari is seized with the same sort of youthful deliberation as she looks at the blanket, then the sand, then the blanket again as if having difficulty deciding whether getting sand on them and having to clean them later or taking up blanket space with soaked wood would be preferable.

She finally decides on the sand, the blanket being Korrin's, and tries to remove as much of the water on herself as she can before joining her friend on it and heading back into the food for more berries.

"How is the naval presence project?" she asks, slightly muffled through strawberry and then covering her mouth with amused guilty embarrassment. "I admit, I haven't paid much attention to the goings on in other projects." Nari's a little single-minded and easily absorbed into her work.

[gatheringstorm]

"Heh, same. I don't go poking my nose into the other projects if I don't need to or unless it's thrown in my face." Even the Northern Powers project has taken a backseat, Korrin spending much less time there. Looking over the driftwood, she shrugs. "One on of our recent patrols. I helped rescue a stranded noblewoman and her maidservant, with Norrington and Prompto. We were lucky the weather held and that we got there before the bandits, or would have been a giant pain in the ass."

[nadasharillen]

Nari's brows quirk upwards at that. "How did they end up in the sea?"

[gatheringstorm]

Heading over the pitcher set aside, she pours them both some of the iced lemonade made before the trip. "They were on the way to Kirkwall with some trade goods, but bad luck with a storm meant their ship had mostly flooded. Supposedly crew went looking for help, but they either chickened out or pirates got them. Either way, it was just the two when we got there."

[nadasharillen]

Iced lemonade, fresh berries, excellent company, sunshine, basically flying, new fun wood to experiment with; this is a good afternoon. Nari leans back on her elbows and stretches her legs out, accepting the offered lemonade with a smile.

"A good thing you all were there, then. I'm sure her family was pleased." And then, interestedly, "Do you know what kind of trade goods? Worth salvaging from the sunken ship with that ring of yours?"

[gatheringstorm]

She takes a moment to finish her long sip, leaning back afterward. "Maybe? It was wine, spices and the usual sort of things one can get from the north. I'll never say no to more of either, that's for sure, and there probably would be a reward for retrieval. We only had a small boat at the time, though, so there was no room."

[nadasharillen]

Nari shrugs as best she can with her elbows braced on the ground, "Maybe not worth the effort then." She grins. "If nothing else, I bet the sea around it tastes decent now." And then, with a wider grin, "You know, if enough spice trading vessels sink, we could start dipping soup out of the harbor. There's already fish in it. If we just peel several hundred bushels of potatoes and throw them from the cliffs, we could end up with a real feast."

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin throws back her head and laughs, vastly amused by the image Nahariel provides. "Finally, enough spicy soup to go around! Knowing the south, I'm not sure enough would appreciate it, but I'd do my damnedest to make up for them and their lack of taste."

[nadasharillen]

"And that, my children, is how Korrin Ataash ate the entire Waking Sea," Nari says in the sonorous tone she uses for storytelling, then chortles. "Make sure to write up a report for Araceli."

[gatheringstorm]

"Eating the sea--she'd never speak to me again, you know." Korrin shakes her head, pretty certain such an action would be deeply blasphemous to her mermaid in human form.

[nadasharillen]

Nari chuckles into her lemonade. "I suppose we better not sink all the spice ships then," she says, as if everything that followed would be a foregone conclusion.