No.759115[View All]
>>759054Sir Pent slithers off of your arm and crawls over to Sparkler, and bumps his head against her arm until she relents and gives him a pat. Sir Pent soon bites off an old scale, one already on its way to falling off, and holds it out to her. Curious, Sparkler takes it, and after some deliberation, starts to mash it in a pestle while her healing takes its effect.
>>759052>>759053*Click click* the beetle continues, patiently awaiting your questions with its forelegs folded up together in a professional posture.
>>759056Your shark senses tell you there's something worth taking in this room… but it might be a nap.
Juniper flings herself into the pool outside the room, and Cycle follows suit. Juniper then climbs out and steps through the doorway with no issue.
"Looks like the Mechpriests would have had to purify themselves with a ritual bath before entering here," Juniper says. "But for our purposes, just stepping into the pool is enough to enter one of these kinds of chambers, I suppose."
>>759057"Yeah…" Chiu mutters, but she does not sound very sure.
1007 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view. No.767301
>>767221Two Tons charged in, aiming to try and punt the ball with a hard kick of his metal hoof.
[1d10+1] Kick!
Roll #1 5 + 1 = 6 No.767302
>>767221Cerulean gets ready to try and do better this time. She also goes for a kick, trying to use her large body and a show of force rather than try to be graceful.
[1d10+1]
Roll #1 9 + 1 = 10 No.767303
>>767302>>767221"Good luck! I know you can do it!" Alder chirps, waving his forelegs excitedly.
No.767304
Splendid seems to be trying harder this time! [1d10+2]
But Auspicious Sign just looks happy to be included and is taking it easy. [1d10+1]
Roll #1 3 + 2 = 5 / Roll #2 10 + 1 = 11
No.767305
Forgot Cycle Kick!
[1d10+1]
Roll #1 7 + 1 = 8
No.767306
Cerulean comes out of the gate strong, intercepting Cloud's quick shot toward the goal. Before she can line up a shot, Two Tons kicks the ball aside, but Cycle Kick narrowly saves it, passing it back to Cerulean! She shoots clear toward the goal, but Auspicious Sign, flexing his ninjador training, jumps into the line of fire, pivots in mid-air, and kicks the ball right as it flies toward him, pushing it in the very same direction as Cerulean shot it, through the goal! By the principle of who-touched-it-last, the point goes to him. The leylines in the arena flash a dark amber, after the color of Auspicious's hair.
Splendid passes the ball back to the Sun Serpent, who wastes no time launching it skyward again!
No.767307
>>767306With a point for their team, Cloud pumps a hoof in the air in celebration. But its short as the ball is tossed up again quickly. Cloud zips up into the air to chase after it, really getting into the game now as he goes for a kick!
>Kick [1d10]Roll #1 1 = 1 No.767308
>>767306Two tons went with a flying torpedo headbutt.
[1d10+1]
Roll #1 8 + 1 = 9 No.767309
>>767306"Come on! You can do it this time!" Alder shouts, flicking his tail and waving excitedly at Cerulean and Splendid.
No.767310
>>767306Cerulean went for a leap out of her natural, sharky habits. Though she might have gotten too into her habits as the leap lead to her trying to chomp down and run with the ball.
[1d10+1]
Roll #1 7 + 1 = 8 No.767311
Splendid (getting competitive) [1d10+2]
Auspicious Sign (chilling out) [1d10]
Cycle Kick (a little awkward around crowds but his special somepony is watching so he has to put his best talon forward) [1d10+1]
Roll #1 2 + 2 = 4 / Roll #2 3 = 3 / Roll #3 7 + 1 = 8
No.767312
Rerolling CK [1d10+1]
Roll #1 7 + 1 = 8
No.767313
Cycle Kick nearly intercepts Cerulean, but realizes way too late that she's on his team! Between that faux pas and the presence of the audience, he withers away from sheer embarrassment. Unfortunately he still threw her off some, because that mix-up gives Two Tons a chance! He leaps and headbutts the ball, banking it off the wall of the arena through the goal! The leylines of the court flash a deep brass hue in celebration.
"Two-ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh once mooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the Sun Serpent cheers, as he collects the ball again. But he's quick to look aside, and you see the reason why: Kukulcan and Two Reeds are setting out the first pieces from the barbecue onto a giant serving plate. "Food's up, get it while he's hot!" the Sun Serpent calls. "Here, hold this for me," he adds, and tosses the ball Cloud's way. Cloud, having pulled a wing on that last one, nearly gets bowled over, bumping into Splendid and Auspicious Sign.
While the first of the barbecue gets served, those meat-eaters in the audience start heading down to get some for themselves. Though, with there being only two cooks, some of the more generous among the crews will end up joining as secondary chefs to help speed along the food production.
No.767314
>>767313Alder snatches the ball out of the air, seeing as it's abandoned in favor of food. "Should we, ah, do another round? Or go eat?"
No.767315
>>767313Cerulean was looking ready for another round of playing ball, but as soon as the smell of freshly cooked meat hit her nose, a bunch of different neurons went off. The sharkpony is fully distracted and going off the field now and towards the food.
"Oooo~ Smells great! All this playing made my appetite bigger!"
No.767316
>>767315Alder giggles softly, before saying "I suppose that is that, then- fair enough. Splendid, what about you?"
No.767317
>>767313Cloud flops back to avoid getting trampled in the food rush, stretching a bit to ease up his wing.
"Should've warmed up a little more before that. At least I'm still in one piece."
He waits for the firsts in line to get their snacks before getting some himself to take a breather.
No.767318
>>767313>>767313Willow smelled the cooking and did slip over to enjoy some of the more vegetarian composed dishes, though he did liberally apply sauce.
>>767314Two Tons for his part went to continue balling with Alder
No.767319
>>767318"A-Ack! I am not balling! I was waiting to see if we were going to!"
No.767320
>>767317>>767316>>767318"Go ahead and get us a plate," Splendid says. With a chuckle, she swipes the ball from Cloud with her wing. "I'm not leaving the court 'til I score a goal."
>AllWhatever else you might say about Kukulcan and Two Reeds – whether regarding the nature of their souls, the state of their minds or the honesty of their character, you cannot honestly call them poor chefs. The
Thunder Serpent's larder has clearly been stocked with herbs and spices from a great many islands, for those of you who eat the barbecued meat recognize many flavors, and are treated to many more new ones. As the audience goes to get their food, multiple lines open up, separated by vegetarian or carnivorous preference. A few who have already eaten or are content to wait retrieve instruments, and begin to improvise from those shanties and tunes commonly known across the three crews. Others figure out what other pick-up games they can put together, whether traditional board and card games, arm-wrestling, or flyting. Those interested in the village go with the monkeys to help hunt and fish some more to help serve everyone.
>you have all gained a +1 to future checks involving athletics>you may start another game, or RP with NPCs as you see fit, but beware: this will be the last chance for a while to relax with NPCs before the raid on the Vault…Meanwhile, Auspicious Sign, Cycle Kick and Splendid practice shooting hoops. Occasionally the arena's leylines flash as one of them scores a goal; dark amber, a reddish maple, and gold.
No.767321
>>767320Two tons scurried of to join them, understanding the confusion with Alder and wanting to slam and jam.
Willow on the other hand scanned the area as he munched, looking around for someone who might share an interest in tech like himself or might otherwise make a good attempt to socialize.
No.767322
>>767320Alder turns to leave, before stopping and twirling the ball on one of his talons experimentally. "W-Well, I can wait for you- I think they will have enough food for us to be a bit late! If you would like to wait, then I will too."
No.767394
>>767216Which likely means that whatever the Crimson King is planning, everything is still going the way he wants it.Cutlass watches Schnitzel with an amused expression. "Why you became a pirate, I will never know. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and appreciate your company. But, hardships and calls to action don't really seem to be your… things."
No.767395
>>767322>>767320Cocking his head to the side, Alder frowns a little bit in thought.. but, maybe it;s best to bring up a little later.
No.767396
>>767394Schnitzel, having gotten a plate of his namesake, returns your amused expression with an annoyed one. "Didn't realize I needed your approval to be a pirate!"
"You did, you liar," Ossie says. "She is the captain, after all."
"Tch," Schnitzel says. "Not like living by society's expectations was doing me any better. It's how a lot of people get their start in this 'career' – step out of line once, forget to pay a bill, say the wrong thing to the wrong person, perform self-defense a little too well… catch a prison sentence for damn near half your natural lifespan."
Right, Make Believe answers.
He wanted an alliance with the Bee Queens of Kaco Island so that they'd give him the easy route to the Heart of Gold. We have no reason to believe that goal has changed, but he agreed to Cerulean's challenge to do things the 'hard way' like he did back when he was a pirate… now we run into him again here, helping Kukulcan drive the Vault away from Cuauhtemoc. The key to getting to the Heart of Gold… must lie somewhere beyond the Vault's sealed doors.>>767321>WillowWhat catches your eye is a tough-looking older donkey among the crew of the
Beesting. You've overheard the fellow's name before, Etch it seems. Most of his front half has some scar, burn or another mar, not from battle, but from long hours in workshops and forges, smithies and perhaps even kitchens. He's just gotten out of line for food with a heaping vegetarian plate, but was hard at work just recently, for you see he still wears his toolbelt. He finds seating in the shade, and though he's off by himself he doesn't seem an unfriendly sort.
>>767322When Splendid gets another goal, celebrated in gold, she tosses the ball toward Little Miss Sunshine, who had been watching with eager attention, and splits off toward the food line.
No.767398
>>767396Alder frowns a little bit and hurries off after her, landing on her back and giving her a soft, polite tap on the head. "Uhm… Splendid? I-I wanted to ask you something- something seems a little, uhm… off."
No.767399
>>767398"Hmm?" Splendid asks, poking you playfully with her head-crest. "Whuzzat?"
No.767400
>>767399"Well, when everyone was scoring goals, the lights would glow… well, a color they have, right? Yours was, ehm… gold. That seems, I do not know… weird." Alder remarks, frowning a little.
No.767401
>>767400She blinks at you as if you just began speaking backwards. "Hmmmmmmuh? What are you talking about, gold? The lights in the arena? They were blue."
No.767402
>>767400"T-They, uhm, were not- I was certain I saw them glow golden. We could go ask another who was watching, if you do not believe me. I am just… it is strange, I suppose."
No.767403
>>767396Willow opted to join him after a moment, taking a seat near him "Greetings, I hope I'm not intruding."
No.767404
>>767402"Not that I don't believe you," she responds, sounding a little hurt at the implication. "It was blue. Th-there's just no two ways about it."
Splendid, suddenly looking off-put and awkward, gives her place in line to another, and looks up at you with honest confusion.
>>767403"Ah, not at all, lad!" Etch says, scooting over to give you some room. "And you must be the young genius who gave life to him over yonder," he says, pointing at Two Tons tearing it up on the court. "Pleasure to meet you. It's Etch," he adds, offering his worn and gnarled hoof.
No.767405
>>767404Willow took it in his own slightly cloven one "Willow Wisp, and that is true. I built him when I was but a foal, and I don't think I've ever topped him if I am being honest." he said allowing a warmth to his normally reserved tone as he took a seat.
No.767406
>>767320Taking a breather from more games, Cloud gets two plates of food. One for him, and one for Chiu as he heads to the stands to sit besides her.
"Had to go easy on them, couldn't have the game end too quick," Cloud jokes on his so-so performance for the game as he hands her a plate.
No.767407
>>767404"I… hmm. W-What could have made me see it different, then?" He hums, thinking on it a little… before thinking back to something he'd found earlier. He'll try peering through Splendid's plumage for a golden feather… he'd found one on himself at some point, right? Maybe she has one placed on her, too. "I… think I might know what it is. A-And, I did not mean something bad by it. It was a strange comment for me to make."
No.767408
>>767396"I didn't say you DID need my approval to be a pirate. I was just curious," Cutlass retorts. But, even as she does, she gives Ossie a curt nod of appreciation for jumping to her defense.
"Society's expectations DO generally… suck," Cutlass responds to Schnitzel with an understanding nod. "Especially when everyone is just waiting for you to mess up. EXPECTING it, even. What landed you in jail, anyway? I don't think you ever gave me a straight answer."
No.767409
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG7G9HhZwtYThe musicians among the crews perform relaxing beats to play ball and converse to.
>>767405"Hah!" Etch laughs. "You can't just introduce a story like that and leave it there. Go on, tell me the res– ah, wait. Only if you're up for it. You've not been with our crew long, so you may not have heard. Cap'n Bee Holder holds privacy in high regard. Many of our crew have stories they keep to themselves, as is their right on this ship; don't feel pressured to divulge it all on my account."
>>767406"So merciful," Chiu jokes and pokes your stomach. "This generation of pirates has gone soft."
>>767407You do not see any golden plumage amid her head of blue feathers.
But… the one given you by Prisma… you still have it. You'd have to compare it again…. but wasn't it of a pair with her feathers? In texture, in thickness, in length… all but in color, indistinguishable.
"You know?" Splendid asks. "What is it?"
>>767408"Seventeen counts of postage stamp counterfeiting," Schnitzel answers. "And I'll do it again too."
Ossie arches a brow. She, and the other Gates of Justice members surely know the truth of his crime, and his sentence, if you wish for the truth, here and now – but it wouldn't be from him.
No.767410
>>767409"I found, ehm…" he digs around in his pouch for a little, before pulling out the gold-colored feather. "This, before. Well, Prisma did. It did not fully occur to me at the time, but it is… well, identical to yours, except for color. I have helped care for your feathers often enough by now that I remember how they look very well. It just seems… I do not know, too similar to be someone else's?"
No.767411
>>767409"Hey I got an excuse, I'm in recovery," Cloud retorts with a flip of his wings, putting one around Chiu.
"Starting to realize I'm gonna have to work on that after today."
No.767413
>>767409Cutlass sighs the sort of sighs one sighs when witnessing a child do something predictably, pointlessly troublesome. She turns to Ossie.
"Surely you know the truth. You were assigned to his cell."
No.767414
>>767411"Good… good," Chiu says. "I'll train with you, as much as I'm able… I'm starting to sense that things are going to get a lot more hectic here soon, even after we're done on this island."
>>767413"So… this one was a lie of omission," Ossie says. "The postage stamp thing? Very true, very guilty. But that's not quite what gets someone on the Gates of Justice's list. It was the mutiny, and the three hundred counts of murder."
"I was… gonna get to that," Schnitzel lies. "You don't just give someone your whole life story in a single sitting! You space it out!"
>>767410Splendid looks at the feather. Her worry turns into… well… perhaps she is so confused that even her worry does not know what to become, whether confusion, disappointment, amusement, or otherwise.
"Alder?" she asks. "That's… blue."
For a split second–
Aura.
A flat matrix of Aura, centered upon Splendid. Grey in the center, black along the edges, with white squares running along the edges in intervals. Here, and gone again, as quick as the flash of a picture-box wielded by the pictomancers of the newspapers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c56YDp2WuRUThe feather in your hands is blue, just as Splendid says it is.
No.767415
>>767409Ah yes, I am willing to share. I am from a village of kirin that chose to give thier voices up in a bid to achieve a greater harmony, though I was a child and thus spared given the choice to do so when I was an adult. The silence of everyone else around me was nearly maddening, and it drove me to build him as a way of having both a companion and someone to talk to. He's never truly grown up but I am content with that to be honest. I must admit I am surprised I built such a competant athlete and combatant when I was but a very eager foal trying to make a friend."
No.767416
>>767414Alder lets out a nervous warble as, after a split-second burst of Aura, the feather sitting between his talons is… blue? It wasn't, though, but… she doesn't seem remotely aware of it. Is it
her aura, or is it someone else's? He frowns a little, as he mulls over what to do… nervously tucking the feather away, he makes a note to go ask, well… someone? Who? the Captain? Prisma?
"I, uhm… did you just, uhm… did you feel somethign, just now?" Alder asks, curiously probing the larger griffon's… aura? Does she have any?
No.767417
>>767414"Yea…" Cloud agrees. "Even if everything here goes smoothly, we gotta get the ship all the way back up to the surface. It's not gonna be easy going forward. And at some point I have to find Obstinance to help him for helping with Stone Cold too."
No.767418
>>767414"The what now!?" Cutlass says a little too loudly, surprised by this news.
"You know, I have a… thing about mutineers. Bad history," Cutlass says looking toward Schnitzel. "But, I guess I shouldn't be surprised with all the lying. The murder, on the other hand… What in the world happened?"
No.767419
>>767415Etch nods with respect. "I see… perhaps you might call it one of those happy accidents of engineering. I have my share of those, time and again… usually when I smack the material I'm shaping a little too hard with the hammer or crank it too far with the wrench. I heard you and he were separated by happenstance, and reunited when Cloud brought you down here. Shall you continue with us on our journeys through the seas after this? On every island, we have seen some depart our ship, having found what they went to sea to search for. And others have joined us, just the same, to seek what they have not yet found on land."
>>767416Her Aura feels unchanged from the last you examined it – strong, yet strangely dormant.
"Confusion… and lunchtime cravings for barbecue," Splendid answers, honest as ever. She frets a little. "W-was this a test? Is this what you Aura-users mean when you talk about trials and breakpoints? Did I pass?"
She pokes a little at the air with a flat palm, making a "pew" sound. Nothing happens.
>>767417"And here I thought ponies went to sea for a vacation," Chiu jokes. "Seems like we always find no end of work, island to island."
Granny, floating nearby, scoffs. "Even hiring me couldn't reduce your workload – it just freed up more time for you all to find trouble to get tied up in."
"Yup," Chiu says. "Guess that's life on land and sea. Maybe we'll find a vacation in the sky…"
>>767418"I don't wanna talk about it," Schnitzel says. For once, you sense he's telling the truth. This one must be an especially difficult memory for him.
No.767420
>>767419"I shall probably be along for the ride for a while, and thus Two Tons shall as well. I have no real destination in mind other than studying this bizarre place and growing as an individual. Finding fortune is always nice though."
No.767421
>>767419"Guess its karma for my slacking before, heh," Cloud jests at their increasing toils.
"We could find that cloud nine everypony talks about," Cloud plays off for their sky vacation. "Once we get back to land we'll have our vacation, or at least a short honeymoon."
