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

[planetary_bonds]

A...ah.

[He takes the sandwich, looking it over bemusedly before starting to package it. He's not unused to people telling him to take care of himself, but actually getting him to follow through with such a thing is kinda...]

I suppose I can't come back to them if I don't, can I?

[cosmompolitan]

Nopers. Self-care is the first step to taking care of anybody else. You can't do anything if you're not in shape for what gets thrown at you, you know?

[Do as she says, Yuusei, and not as she does.]

You really oughta take a shower, too. If those horns grew in all of the sudden like you say they did, there's probably dead skin all up in your hair. Tooootal breeding ground for lice, cutie.

[planetary_bonds]

[He will...try. He's gotten a little better at listening to people when they are justifiably worried about him, at least.]

Mmm. I managed to rinse off in a river once, but finding a place to stay with soap...

[Temples, Yuusei. Please use the temples like you did the first day you were here (and didn't fucking shower then, either). He looks around the yacht aimlessly.]

You don't think there's something like that here, do you?

[cosmompolitan]

A shower? On a yacht this size, probs not. But...

[She strokes her chin, despite not having a lovely wizard beard to really give off the proper effect, then walks off to the small bathroom the boat contains. When she returns, it seems she's bearing--ah. A boxed bar of soap. She places it triumphantly before him.]

This boat really has everything, Yuusei-boy.

[planetary_bonds]

[He raises an eyebrow. Nice. Maybe if there's sleeping quarters around he can raid them for clothes. It's not like the cultists will need them anymore, right?]

I see. This'll prove useful.

[As in that entire bar of soap will probably be used just to get how many layers of grime off him and his clothes, lord have mercy.]

[cosmompolitan]

[The captain's quarters are totally a thing. Rummage away, Yuusei. The world is your yard sard.]

I'm sure.

[SON, YOU ARE FILTHY.]

D'you need some pocket change, too, in case you run out of essentials again? [Because surely, that was the problem, here.]

[planetary_bonds]

[but moooooooooooom]

What, you have this world's currency here, too? They must have really been planning to vacation here for a while...

[cosmompolitan]

That or they wanted to be prepared for anything! Or maybe they planned on taking a cruise all along the coast. Maybe there's casinos in the hotels around here, I don't know.

[If there are, maybe she'll find out.]

Speaking of which, are there hotels around here? I mean, the captain's quarters are nice, I guess, but I want to sleep somewhere with a shower. And a mini-bar.

[planetary_bonds]

I'd assume so, since this is the largest city around, presumably. I haven't been here long, though...

[A...A mini-bar...]

There could be a temple here, too...I don't know if they run on the same charitable principle, though...

[cosmompolitan]

[Or a big bar! Doc's not picky.]

Well, I got a little cash to live on till I find a way to s'port myself, at least. Folks're always looking for a girl who knows her way around machines.

[planetary_bonds]

[Bar...mom pls]

Ah. I'm finding the inner workings of these machines a bit strange. They seem to run on as much magic as they do technology.

[cosmompolitan]

[Gasp.]

Tell me more.

[planetary_bonds]

[Ah.]

They seem to regard magic as its own individual force of nature here, and can be used accordingly-like electricity. It has its own laws and everything-fascinating, really.

[cosmompolitan]

Ooh. That's positively fascinating! Though of course, makes a whole lotta sense, if society grew up around magic as a given.

[As another scientist in another major nerd canon might exclaim, this is the most scientifically interesting community in America spacetime!]

Hey, hey. Is it a particle or a wave, do you know?

[planetary_bonds]

[Yuusei frowns speculatively, trying to remember himself. Amateur physicist, this one, even if he prefers mechanics. It's in the blood, it seems.]

I think there's sound theory for it being both-like light.

[cosmompolitan]

[She muffles a squeal into her hand.]

Yes! Perf! Aw, man, I wonder if they'd let me study it! Pain in the tuchus, though, trying to break into the scientific community without my papers...

[planetary_bonds]

Well, I can't think of any place better than here to try.

[Biggest city and all that.]

[cosmompolitan]

Guess I might have to go back to my lab tech days, since I can't just pull the Dr. SkaiaNET card when I don't have the card on me. Oh well.

[...]

Oooooooorrr, I could set a lab up on my shiny new boat.

[planetary_bonds]

[This is also a viable option and Yuusei sees no problem with this. Somehow.]

That could work...I'm looking for a place to set up some kind of workshop myself, so I know this boat wouldn't work for that.

[The Doctor gets a half-smile.] Perhaps if I make any headway in figuring the mechanics of this world's magic out, I can share my findings.

[cosmompolitan]

Please do! I...

[She reaches for a purse that isn't there and deflates when her fingers touch air.]

Ohhh. I musta left my phone in another dimension. Nuts!

[planetary_bonds]

Ah...

[Hold up, give him a second. He's...going to one of the couches. Apparently he'd left a small bundle of cloth there. (Please tell him this ship has a rucksack or something he can steal. this is getting tedious.)]

[cosmompolitan]

[No rucksack, but he might be able to find a stylish tote if he sticks around.]

? Yuus?

[Congrats, Yuusei, you have a nickname.]

[planetary_bonds]

[At least it has handles.]

Someone had the idea of getting phones so we could all keep in touch. I've been...acquiring...some used ones.

[Hope you don't mind trash phones, mom, cause that's what's being unwrapped. But at least they're fixed up nice. Some of them look barely used, even!]

[cosmompolitan]

[Narrowed eyes.]

Son. [Uh-oh, that's a mom voice.] You din't steal these, did you?

[planetary_bonds]

No.

[His marker's for trespassing, not stealing.]

I got these out of a scrapyard. It didn't take long to figure out how they worked and to reactivate them.

[So he's not stealing...but he sure is hacking. Oh dear.]