OPEN LOG: A beach party.

[bouchonne]

WHO: Everyone.
WHAT: A beach party.
WHEN: On a very hot day. At some point during the month.
WHERE: A beach just outside of Kirkwall.
NOTES: It is a beach party.

During a particularly hot and oppressive week in Kingsway, the Diplomacy division announces it will be diverting some of its funds to organize a party on a nearby beach. Kirkwallers are invited as well - a relationship-building sort of effort - but the party is mostly intended for morale boosting for Riftwatch itself.

The party features the following:

• Transportation to this lovely beach from the Gallows and from Kirkwall.


• Sunbathing and swimming in skimpy (or non-skimpy, if you're a fuckin square) bathing suits.


• Live music and dancing.


• Delectable grilled meats (and some vegetables, if you're a fuckin square).


• Rum drinks served in hollowed-out fruits.


• A sandcastle-building competition.


• A swim race.


• A few fun little sailboats bobbing around out on the water.

Does all that sound too wholesome? Great! There's also a cave system in the cliffs next to the beach. These little grottos are full of nooks and crannies and are perfect for a bit of sinful action after dark; in one cavern, there'll be some gambling games where some of Kirkwall's citizens are losing money; in another, you're likely to run into people making out.

Have fun! Soak up sun! Don't get in trouble! Or do, whatever, it's a beach party.

Comments

kostos, otcko

[exequy]

i. generally/wildcard

[ Despite acting and sounding vaguely vampiric, Kostos is neither pale nor sparkly. And saying he looks comfortable on the beach might be overstating things—he's unwilling to just let sand happen to him, for example, instead of being constantly pissed and brushing it off—but he also doesn't turn to ash in the sunlight or cower under cover. He spends the whole day shirtless, and a while wading hip-high in the water with a drink in hand, and a while longer sitting on the beach and openly making eyes at the least clothed people in his vicinity, and then a shorter while in the make-out cave with one of the locals, before ultimately finishing the night watching the gambling. Watching and not participating. That's character growth!

Or he's just broke. ]

ii. small children.

[ For about three minutes, the scene borders on heartwarming. Kostos, rescuing a crab from two local children and their sticks. The children, actually willing to listen to him explain that it just wants to be left alone. (No symbolism intended.) It turns into an actual conversation and everything. There's banter. Perhaps Riftwatch is not scary. Perhaps there is hope for mages coexisting with Kirkwallers. All that's missing is a rainbow.

But then the banter turns sharp—hard to say who's at fault, honestly, Kostos or a mouthy crab-torturer—and suddenly one of the children turns and runs, face all crinkled up with suppressed tears. The other says, ] Asshole! [ and follows after her, and Kostos stands there, looking not quite confused. More like of fucking course. ]

ii

[thereneverwas]

[Having been enjoying this heartwarming scene while sitting in the sand nearby, his own shirt off with a drink in his own hand, Barrow smiles sympathetically at the As-Of-Yet-Unidentified Averesch when the children flee from him.]

What have you done? [Barrow calls, cheerfully.]

[exequy]

Fucked your mother, [ Kostos says—maybe not even loud enough to be heard, with the waves and gulls and shouting children, depending on from how far away Barrow is doing the calling.

But his lips are easy enough to read. ]

[thereneverwas]

Andraste's tits.

[He's impressed-- the sheer level of hostility, from zero to fucked your mother, is truly a thing to behold.]

[exequy]

[ Has he considered not being a Templar?

Kostos doesn’t have anything to add about Andraste’s tits. He’s going to get a drink. Doing so requires walking past Barrow, but he won’t stop unless stopped. ]

[thereneverwas]

[Kostos passes uninterrupted, but he does get a curious look thrown his way. Either this is the other one, or Nikos is in a worse mood than before.]

o. cameo.

[glandival]

[ There's a nice set of legs nearby, of a figure stretched out and sunning herself. One is stretched out along the sand, the other is bent, crossed over. Pale and so probably will pickle pink in the sun before not too long, but maybe sooner to freckle. Nicely toned, shapely, and bare up until a light fabric shift worn about the waist obscures view.

Then a flat belly, and a freckled bosom gathered into a fitted top, but it's probably around then that Kostos will realise who he is looking at because Sabine is relaxedly raising her middle finger to him, eyes shielded in Riftwatch patented sunglasses. ]

[exequy]

[ His interested eyes narrow.

But they stay interested for a few seconds, narrowing and all, before he looks away. He still totally would. ]

ii

[muckspout]

[Edgard witnesses the whole scene and marches his way over. He doesn't like a bully.]

Are you scaring children now? Pick on someone your own size.

[exequy]

[ Kostos looks away from the fleeing children—he really hadn’t meant to—to consider Edgard. Table man. Right. ]

All right.

[ A once-over. ]

You look like something someone fished out of a city canal with a hook.

irl laughter at this

[muckspout]

[Edgard doesn’t even flinch.]

You look like a fancy dessert for a noble woman’s dog. And anyway, at least, I don’t pick on children whatever I look like.

[exequy]

[ They started it is not something Kostos is going to say out loud. He has that much self-awareness. But he still scowls. ]

Have you ever met any children?

[muckspout]

Yes. More than you, at any rate, it looks like. What did you say to them?

i.

[sulahnan]

Missed a bit.

[ Despite all her jewelry, she still manages to sneak up on Kostos, appearing at his side to brush some conveniently placed sand off his back. It's definitely real sand there, too, not imaginary sand that she's using as an excuse to touch him. ]

[exequy]

Ugh.

[ He hold still, because he fully believes her about the sand, because the sand is everywhere. The sand is pervasive and insidious. Fuck all sand forever. ]

This is why people should live in towers and never leave.

[sulahnan]

[ She laughs, and spreads out her cover-up like a beach towel beside him so she can lay on top of it. ]

Careful, keep talking like that and people will start to think you don't know how to have a good time.

i.

[galvanising]

[ Nell was pale to the point of sparkly, but it's late summer now and also late in the day, which is more than long enough for her to instead have turned decidedly pink, though with enough of a freckle layer for her to claim it's a tan with an undertone of burn rather than the other way around. Except for her nose and forehead, which are indisputably burned. She is self-medicating with what surely must be one of the last of the coconuts, sucking on a straw as she drops to a seat beside Kostos in the cave, head tilting to watch the card table. ]

What, you lose everything already? Or do they know you too well to let you play?

i

[tender]

"Careful," comes Derrica's voice. "There's a drop off there."

Treading water slightly ahead of him, her lazy drifting along with the current having carried her close enough to make him up and necessitate making some effort to keep from drifting directly into Kostos.

"What's in your cup?"