Event Log: The Beach Episode

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The event log for the transition to our new planet!
Where: The city, which has now been fragmented onto four separate islands.
When: May 27th-June 10th
Warnings: Surf's up! If by 'surf', you mean separation from your friends, weird sea creatures, and cold rainfall.

The sun and the sand and a drink in your hand- well, it all sounded pretty nice when you voted for the island planet, but ultimately what you're getting is a bit less glamorous.

The transition takes place instantaneously, with very little noteworthy shakeup, though those of you who are particularly in-tune with the supernatural may feel a bit dizzied or nauseated by the sudden movement. And that's exactly what it is: for those of you who are outside, the change is fairly noticeable, as in the span of a single blink, what used to be miles of desert is now rocky ocean. The city is simply in one place one moment, and then somewhere entirely new a second later.

And that somewhere new is exciting! The islands have plenty of landscape to explore and weather conditions to adjust to, fish to catch, and- wait, how do you get to the other islands? What if your friends or your home or the bar is on these other islands? Enjoy having to figure out who is where and how you're going to get by with only a small fraction of the city to work off of- hopefully those boats will come sooner rather than later...

► This log covers May 27th-June 10th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you drown or get eaten by an alien shark, let us know here.

Comments

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Poor little lonely fish! But no doubt it will soon be joined by others. Law is skilled at whatever he does. XD ]

What happened when you ate the ones that weren't edible? [ He makes a gesture of sticking a finger down his throat and barfing. Speaking from experience, here. ]

Tolerably edible is acceptable! Catch anything big, this close to shore?

[hot_mes]

[nothing so crass, judging by the narrowing of his eyes]

I didn't even need to try one of them, I could tell from the look of it and the odor when I filleted it that it contained bacterial toxins. Probably natural, but around here who knows. The other one just tasted like mud.

The big ones are out there. [with a nod to the open ocean, visible through the channels between islands.] I can sense them, but they won't be here in the shallower water.

[so_dark_a_road]

I threw away a fish because of its color and odor, but then I ate one that seemed perfectly healthy and I got sick. Maybe that one simply contained a toxin of its own, not one that was caused by micro-organisms.

[ He casts an eye in that same direction, the view between the islands, where the distant ocean lies beyond them. There is a little something distant in his eyes for a moment, as he remembers the seas of his own world. ] Big fish that would be edible if we could catch them, or simply big creatures that might or might not be things we'd want to hunt?

[hot_mes]

Not necessarily. If it was something that made you ill after ingestion, and yet passed, it isn't likely a poisonous compound. True poisons need to be cleansed or countered.

[not that he can tell for sure, just on description, but Law is capable of removing poisons from himself or others should they be ingested. So, eating a poisonous fish isn't as dangerous for his tests as it is others]

Can't tell that from here, just with my senses. I can only sense their basic size and power level. They may be dangerous or not, who can say?

[so_dark_a_road]

Well, I'm an Elf of the First Age. We're pretty durable, and that includes being hard to poison. If it was a fish toxin, I may have just sloughed its effects off.

[ Good thing for Hadriel! Someday the gods might decide to poison the residents just to see what kind of emotions might be evoked from such a sickness. Law might be desperately needed. ]

I see. What sizes, then? Do you mean, the sizes of swordfish, tuna, dolphins, whales?

[hot_mes]

All of them. [legit, there's just. Lots of stuff out there.]

[so_dark_a_road]

Good. All the more reason to build more boats. If we can fish these seas for large fish, we won't have to work so hard to feed ourselves. . . and others.

[hot_mes]

[right, fishing. not at all the reason he wants a ship]

Is there enough material to build more? Or are we going to completely denude the park just for the sake of a few ships?

[so_dark_a_road]

[ And fishing is not all of the reason Curufin wants to build a larger boat or ship, either! ]

Yes, there is enough material for more boats. On the map, that forest is called The Park, as though it were just a few trees and a lot of grass. But it really is a forest, and quite a dense one in many places. We won't have to cut the entire woods down in order to make a few more stout boats or ships.

Besides, we can always cut a deal with the gods for more lumber, or for rapid re-growth of the trees. But I don't think we'll have to.

You're thinking of a ship for yourself, Law? I was wondering, because well, you're a pirate and here's an ocean. And who knows what might be out there? Other islands? Maybe whole continents that the gods don't want us to know about?

[hot_mes]

[much as he needs to keep a lot of things close to his chest, Law inclines his head in a vague nod]

I want a ship that might be too much for this place to handle. I won't make any deals with the gods, though. I have enough going on there as it is, it isn't feasible. But the basic fact is... [sweeping an arm in a gesture] The information on the Door Sorrow promised us obviously isn't here. We'll have to look elsewhere for it.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ That's all right, Law can keep his secrets. But if he decides to divulge any of them, he'll find a very discreet confidant in Curufin. ]

I see. You want a ship that can voyage into rough seas, that is big enough and sturdy enough to handle a journey of indefinite length, and so must carry a lot of food and water and be prepared to bring back some hefty cargo, possibly. I think such a ship can still be made from the wood in this forest.

And I would love to make such a voyage. Sorrow did say something about artifacts and information. I want to know about the Door as much as anyone does.

[hot_mes]

Exactly. But to build a ship like that might strip most of the forest and take time. Not to mention an expert shipwright who knows their way around a brig sloop - or larger.

[throwing out the terms as a test, to see what Curufin knows versus what he can figure out with some trial and error]

[so_dark_a_road]

Whether you risk stripping the forest depends on just how large you want to make the ship!

You're speaking of a round-bottomed vessel with two square-rigged masts, with a gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sail attached to the mainmast as well, and perhaps a couple of trysails rigged to the foremast? This type of ship was not known in Middle-earth in my time, but they were built in a later era. I know this because after I died, I was whisked away into a sort of facsimile world, my world but later. There was a dilapidated harbor with various types of ships, all of which needed repairing. I and some companions made a journey there to look the ships over and begin work on at least one of them.

They sail differently than the boats I was familiar with, but the principles are the same. It just takes some experience.

[hot_mes]

[well those terms came out pretty quickly. Law peers suspiciously.]

Something like that. Not exactly, but I guess that means you understand me.

The size of the ship depends on how far we need to go. Even with fishing for food, it would need to carry enough supplies for the journey - going and coming back, it isn't one-way. That's all unknown, yet, there's no reason to pick up a hammer right this instant.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ It did help that Curufin had access to shelves of texts and manuals as well as to the ships themselves. The authors were eloquent and graphic on the topic of ship construction.]

I do indeed understand you.

And the problem, of course, is that we have no idea how far we'd need to sail. We'd have to guess. [ This is assuming that Curufin is invited. Even if he's not, he'd still be happy to build the ship, or to help build it. It's too interesting a problem to turn down. ] How soon would you want to set off on this voyage of discovery? Do you have a timeline, or are you just waiting to see what happens here, before deciding?

[hot_mes]

I don't have a schedule yet. But ships take time to build. It's difficult balancing a desire to get moving before it's too late, waiting to see if the gods deign to give us a hint, and making sure we discover whatever we need before Fear decides he needs to move the city again.

[a lot of vaguery for soon but not instantly, since he knows a ship the size he wants would take a long time to build. Only the well-trained Galley-La shipwrights of Water Seven could build a galleon in a week, and that's when there's forty or fifty of them. He's got one or two carpenters who've never built a brig sloop before. Tough choices.]

[so_dark_a_road]

Indeed, a ship of that size would take more time to build than a longboat. But if you want help on this project, I'm in.

Yes, there is no telling what the gods are up to, until they tell us. I have no idea whether they really want us to discover anything new about the Door, or whether Sorrow was just putting us off with vague promises. And I certainly hope it takes the Null a while to find us, this time. It would give us time to get a few important things done first.

[hot_mes]

I'm not a carpenter. I can't build for shit. So it would be on you, unless you can find others with the skills.

A month. If the gods haven't moved by then, it's for us to take charge. [he decides arbitrarily]

[so_dark_a_road]

I'll look for others with the skills. I'll have to assemble a construction team in any case, because we need more boats even without yours. And we need to build piers on each island to make our nautical lives easier. Would you be willing to be the official project manager for your ship, even the work is done by me and others? You certainly are the person who knows what you want in a ship. We'll need you to help draw up the plans, at the least.

[ He nods. ] A month. That sounds about right to me.

[hot_mes]

Project manager...? [so much stinkeye. He's in his element and it's going to his head already] I'm the captain. Naturally, what I want in the ship is on me to dictate.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Grin. ] Of course it is. I would expect no less.

[hot_mes]

[he's not making any snap decisions now so...]

If it comes to that, I'll be in touch.