Take what is lovely, leave before the rain hits [OPEN]

[cosmompolitan]

[The short version is: free yacht!

The long version, for the narratively curious, is that this time the Joyous Nerd Convention made the mistake of trying their summoning ritual on a boat. When Dr. Lalonde's confused, but affable attempts at conversation led to the appearance of chains, she promptly noped out of that non-consensual clusterfuck and threw her summoners overboard.

She left them a life raft, but she took their champagne and other victuals. A woman has needs.

Now, after a day spent lounging on a deck chair in Pearl Rock Bay sipping bubbly right out of the bottle, Dr. Lalonde's making harbor in the port of Arcrion. She's not terribly fussed, winking and flirting outrageously with any sailors who come to help her tie her new boat (to be rechristened The Rosie once she gets some paint) and paying for their trouble with the cash she found aboard, but it's also clear the woman knows her way around a boat.

No, it's stepping onto the dock that's a problem. She is super drunk. Giggling and somehow still the picture of class in her lab coat/dress and heels, she staggers her way towards the city proper, holding onto various passersby's shoulders and smiling brightly up at them.]

Thanksh, sailor! Hic!

[She laughs and pats their backs and continues on her merry way. After all, what port city doesn't put their finest drinking establishments close to the docks? Brawny seamen and abundant booze. This must be her eternal reward.]

Comments

[cosmompolitan]

Sure! Come on down to the party boot. Boat. Haha, what am I, Canadian?

[She waves for him to follow and sashays (or maybe just sways) her way to the open platform at the back of the yacht.]

All aboard!

[And she just--yup, she's just going for it. She just jumps. She lands like a pro, but what the fuck, Dr. Lalonde. Who left you in charge of a child for thirteen years?]

[planetary_bonds]

[Holy shit.

Doc Lalonde, you're a pretty cool mom. Yuusei, no.

Anyways, give him a sec and he'll jump right after you because if an eighteen year old daredevil of a child wouldn't try that shit out after seeing someone else do it then Yuusei'll join you in drinking that gross alcoholic stuff.]

So this is it, huh?

[A small boat like this...?]

[cosmompolitan]

This is it! The U.S.S. Rosie. Which will be what I name her, soon's I get the opportunity.

[She gestures widely to the contents of the boat.]

Make yourself at home, darlin'. I'm afraid I wouldn't know what to look for. Never had much dealin's with cults, being a science girl myself.

[She takes the nearest seat and crosses her legs neatly.]

Oh, I did find their booze and cash stash and some eats, but thassit. Probably they were just taking a day trip, not livin' here.

[planetary_bonds]

Hah...

[Wow, that was actually kind of a laugh. Nice job, Doc.]

To be fair, I've never seen much what cults do, myself. Some summonings...but they weren't anything like this, I don't think.

[He hopes they weren't like this, at least.]

So this might have just been an attempt at a more isolated summoning?

[Maybe they heard about the escape of Yuusei and the others and tried to create more favorable conditions? Hmm.]

Can you show me which part of the boat they tried to summon you at?

[cosmompolitan]

Oh! Yeah, 'course.

[And up she goes again, throwing the over-long end of her scarf over her shoulder and leads him further inside the yacht. Within, there's a large space that looks like usually it's well-furnished, but the couches and such have been pushed aside to make room for the summoning circle and its various arcane inscriptions. Dr. Lalonde points to a set of fat candles which were carefully blown out hours ago and placed near the sink.]

They had these at some of the focal points of that doohickey. [Gestures to the circle.] Definitely more Rose's thing than mine. Anyway, I didn't want to burn down my new boat, so I put 'em away.

[planetary_bonds]

Summoning circle, is it...

[He doesn't recognize any of this, as expected. But at least he can take pictures with one of the phones he'd snagged and repaired earlier! Bless smartphones.]

Thank you. This really doesn't look like anything I've seen other than in storybooks. [He blinks at it.] It's surreal.

[cosmompolitan]

[She paces the circumference of the circle, examining it more thoughtfully than she had earlier.]

It's the sorta thing my daughter was interested in. I mean, me too, to a degree, 'cause, dear, let me tell you: I love me some wizards. But the eldritch beast majjyks? Classic Rose.

[She kneels to press very carefully at a line and rub the material between her fingers. Chalk.]

But, again: not my field of study. I'm an ectobiologist, not some kinda sorceress. [She smiles up at him.] Nice phone, bee tee dubs.

[planetary_bonds]

Mmm. The ones I've witnessed only required the mass sacrifice of hundreds of souls during battle-nothing this elaborate.

[Bee tee dubs? Is that supposed to be him? (What the heck is that supposed to mean...?)]

It serves its purpose.

[cosmompolitan]

. . .

Does that happen a lot, where you're from? Sacrificing souls and all that?

[planetary_bonds]

...

Presumably it's happened in ancient history before, but I only experienced it myself recently.

[It wasn't fun.]

[cosmompolitan]

...Yeeick.

[She makes a face.]

That takes all the sex appeal outta the majyyks, you know. I don't wanna kill people just so's I can get my magic wand and a ticket to Hogwarts.

[She spreads her fingers over the floor just outside the circle.]

Though it doesn't look like any kind of sacrifice was made here. No blood. That stuff's impossible to get out of the floor.

[planetary_bonds]

Most people wouldn't.

[He grimaces at the design drawn in chalk before them.]

Unfortunately, the small percent of people who would are the ones giving us grief now, if our presence here is any indication.

[A sigh. It doesn't rule out the possibility of stealing souls, but there aren't any soulless corpses here that he can see. If they weren't thrown over the boat or something. Yikes.]

At least we have that small comfort.

[cosmompolitan]

Could be worse.

[No, Mom, no, don't say it--]

It could be raining.

[THE JOYOUS ORDER BROUGHT HER BACK TO LIFE FOR THIS?]

[planetary_bonds]

...

[There might not be a cloud in the sky, but Yuusei's brief expression of disbelief is thunderous enough.]

...Right.

[...Maybe he'll hurry up with more of those pictures. Just in case it does start raining. Even though they're inside.]

[cosmompolitan]

[She moves back to let him work, dusting imaginary dirt off her skirt.]

So who else is here? You said there was a "we" involved in these wenanigans.

[planetary_bonds]

[He nods absentmindedly.]

I want to say there's at least a dozen of us, all from different worlds and times. A seemingly random assortment, too. There are some similarities, but I think only a few of us knew each other from before this.

[Snap. A few more pictures taken, before he pockets the phone and turns to her.]

A fair amount of us managed to run into each other after we escaped the summoning, and we ended up congregating for a bit before separating. Some of us came to this city, since it's apparently the biggest one in the country. We thought maybe it'd be easier to find information here.

[cosmompolitan]

[She nods along.]

Mmm, mm-hmm. Good thinking on all accounts.

[She lets her hand flutter over her head.]

Are any of 'em exhibiting the same post-summoning symptoms as you? The horns. Anything else.

[planetary_bonds]

[He frowns, thinking.]

We've all gone our separate ways, so I haven't seen much of-

[Hold on.]

No wait, there's one thing. A girl from my world, but a future time. She started exhibiting teleportation powers.

[A strange arm, too, but that had come from Zarc...hadn't it?]

[cosmompolitan]

[Ah. Now that gets Dr. Lalonde's attention in a different way.]

Powers she didn't have before? Or maybe couldn't'a had before? Powers even a thing in your world?

[planetary_bonds]

Ah, they are. Rarely expressed, but they exist.

[Yuusei just happens to be the boring leader of their little magical warrior group that has no powers of his own. Sucks.]

She expressed surprise, and she admitted it had been happening uncontrollably, it exhausted her without giving her a chance to eat.

[cosmompolitan]

Oh, no.

[Genuinely dismayed, Dr. Lalonde touches her cheek.]

Is she all right? Is she young like you?

[planetary_bonds]

Younger.

[His expression hasn't changed, but somehow he looks more worried than before.]

I've been doing what I can for her when she shows up, but she has a habit of...disappearing. Even before this teleporting nonsense started.

[cosmompolitan]

Oh, oh no. How old is she? If she's younger than you, then...

[Too young to be on her own, at best. Dr. Lalonde stands still for just a moment before making her way over to the yacht's kitchenette, finally putting her bottle down and washing her hands.]

Well, if she can't control it, we can 'least help with the meal part. Wash your hands for me, will you, dear?

[She pauses on her way to the hand towel, looks at Yuusei, and makes something of a face to herself.]

Really, your whole everything could use a wash, but we'll just make do for now. How're you at slicing bread?

[planetary_bonds]

...I'm not sure, but she honestly doesn't look older than ten or eleven.

[She's a baby, Doc.]

I gave her some food and means to keep in touch the last time we met, but otherwise I'm not sure how she's doing.

[He looks on confusedly when she asks him to wash his hands, but...]

I know my way around a knife.

[Now he gets it. Time for handwashing, then!]

[cosmompolitan]

[Sweetly, she smiles at him.]

Thanks, cutie. Do you think she likes the crusts cut off? Maybe we should do that anyway.

[From various places in the kitchenette, Dr. Lalonde retrieves a loaf of unsliced whole grain bread, a jar of peanut butter, and some kind of fruit preserve. Marmalade, it looks like. And is that granola?]

'S really too bad they don't have any grape jelly, but oh well. Ooh, apples. Perf.

[She puts a bag of apples down on the counter, then places a bread knife next to Yuusei's hands and takes the sharper chef's knife for herself.]

What's her name? [...Actually. She glances at Yuusei and snorfles a little into her sleeve.] What's your name, dear?