The Cream of the Crop

How can one avoid sunburns in this new world? It's easy! Just pretend you're salad!

Uta
Overworld - -36 - 15 - 0

The beach festival is in full swing! As opposed to the other day, when Estelle was around, in which case it was in full foxtrot.

But I digress.

Young people play about, Lander children run to and fro, tossing beach balls, or building sand towers, which then they proceed to fill with toy monsters.

A few adventurers patrol the place, to ensure safety. Beachside stands offer snacks and beverages.

Uta, still in her white battle bikini with a pastel slime design, sits on a stool, hands clasped together, businesslike grin ready to cheerfully meet any potential customers. She is behind a small table with a few small bottles of oil on it. A nicely calligraphed writing on a wooden sign nearby proclaims, "SUNSCREEN -- 5 Coppers per bottle." Inside an add-on 'jagged explosion' add-on to the sign, still wooden, informs that "also great as a condiment or for rusty hinges!"
Kita
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For someone who normally wears somewhat revealing clothing, it is likely no surprise that Kita would be taking full advantage of the beach festival. She's likely gone to see Gwen, as the outfit she has is just a little too well made to be the result of Lander skills. She has a two-piece black swimsuit on, which is accented by a pair of elbow-length fingerless gloves and sandles.

She has her usual witch hat, if only because it keeps some of the sun out of her eyes. "Does that stuff really work?" Kita asks, looking over in Uta's direction, lightly tipping her head up, but remaining relaxed on a towel laid out on the sand.

Uta did have a tendency to be a bit too trusting, so it's no wonder Kita might be a bit wary. Afterall, who knows what the potion might do if she got it from some back alley peddler or something.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade is out for a swim today, enjoying the summer weather and the water, swimming parallel to the shore just out past the breakers. Because she's swimming, she's wearing a white bikini. Because the world is what it is, she's wearing a pair of crossed scabbards on her back, the hilts of her swords poking over either shoulder. Woe unto any shark she encounters. There is a black towel on the beach with gold-colored geometric designs, and a small bag of the things she's not swimming with because that'd be a bit too strange.

She's not particularly skilled at swimming, another reason she may have divested herself of her pack, but she's doing well enough, swimming breaststroke in the salty water. She's skipped Uta's suspicious sunscreen, but luckily she's got at least a base tan, or perhaps her natural skin tone is a bit dusky? She's an outdoors sort of person in any event, so she normally gets out in the sun a lot. Or, well, it was an option in the character creator.
Kauchemar
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In much the same sense no one should be surprised that the boisterous and showy Bard is wearing a swimsuit that.. well.. it gets as close as it can to the revealing lack of cloth as she can get away with, let's leave it at that. Her long mane does help keep things appeasing and appropriate to the ratings at least.

She's also doing as one would expect a bard to be doing, sitting and playing Oldies Rock surf songs and other beach appropriate music.

Yes the 'other' includes a certain Jamacian sounding showtune about the joys of underwater life.
Uta
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"Well, I'll... I'll be pretty honest. It's the first batch I've made. But I did plenty of research! And according to research, it seems like the best in-world substitute for sunscreen is this oil made from white sesame seeds from the South of the Fourland Kingdom." She looks away and fidgets with her fingers. "I... I was not really into science outside the game, but...", she admits, but then turns to look at Kita straight on, with a smile. "...but I knew my stories and literature, and if there's a thing I've learnt, is that rule number one of mad science is that you experiment on yourself." She gives a satisfied nod. "I know that that would be insane in /regular/ scence, but if you think about it, this world is built on narrative topoi, so I decided the only way to do it was to cover myself in it and-" She looks down at her arms. "-I got no torubles, life is the bubbles, under th-" She shakes her head. "Sorry, got carried away. This tune is dang catchy...", she trails off, props her chin up with one hand, and looks away at Kauch, lost in thought.
Kita
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At the very least, there is some reassurance in the fact that Uta has used the product on herself. "Sure, I'll give it a try." Kita slowly pushes herself up, using her delicate fingers to access the menu and pull out a handful of coins. "I like the sun, but I would like to not come back to my beloved looking like a cooked lobster."

The girl stands up, walking her way over towards Uta before offering out the coins. As a musician, herself, she can't help but look over at Kauchemar's playing, murmuring with some appreciation, "You know, that is going to get stuck in my head and I won't be able to get it out for days..."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade casts an amused glance back at Kauchemar, when the strains of the Jamacian showtune float over to her. She vaguely remembers seeing that with her grandkids some time ago. Or something similar, anyhow. She watches Uta, ashore, amused as she starts to sing along. Having completed her last lap, she'll turn shoreward, catch a breaker, and bodysurf towards the beach and the others, skimming along the crashing wave until she's in the shallows, then rising to her feet and walking back up onto the beach.

"The water's nice," she declares, heading back to her towel to dry off. She's got a second one folded up in her pack, and she uses it, then folds it back up and places it at the top of her towel.
Kauchemar
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Kauchemar looks over at Kita and Uta as she finishes the song and just smirks mischeviously at the 'get stuck in my head' remark. "That's why it was an Academy winner for Best Original Song. But I think it is time for a break, or I'm gonna start breaking strings," she muses as she sets her instrument aside.
Uta
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Uta has to force herself to stop humming the tune. "Gah. That's... an insidious melody, yes. Anyway. I agree with you, I'll leave the whole 'looking like lobsters' schtick to Were Fangs. I'll stick to looking like a mosquito." She smirks. "That will- wait. It's summer. Do we have mosquitos?" She scratches her head. "Do we even have the little spiral things we can burn to keep them away? And if not... does one need Alchemy or Pharmacy to prepare them?" She taps her chin. "Probably alchemy..." She turns to Goldenblade, and distractedly replies, "Water's too salty. Tried it. Was hoping that water and salt would count as separate ingredients, and since nobody crafted it, it would taste of soggy crackers, but-" She shakes her head again. "Sorry, I kind of lost track there. What were we saying again, Goldenblade?" Without waiting for an answer, she punches her fist and turns to Kauchemar. "Right! A break! Come and try our beverages! They-" She frowns at her bottles. "Wait, no, beverages was yesterday. Today is sunscreen." She resumes her cheerful pitch, "Right! A break! Come and try our sunscreen- wait. You're a were fang. You probably do the 'looking like a lobster' thing."
Kita
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A soft laugh follows as Kita shakes her head with amusement, "I still prefer the intensity of rock music better, but I imagine we're a long ways off from being able to develop that in this world." The Imp mage has been seen with her own accoustic guitar, which is as close as she is going to get to her days in the spotlight.

Pushing her glasses up on her nose, Kita seems to take in the way that Uta's mind works, her lip quirked, "I'm sure there's some herb or plant that would keep insects away, but I'm no herbologist. I'm only out here today because Jurou wanted to get in some running during the nice weather." Her eyes search the area around them, then come back to the others.

The look is cast between Goldenblade and Uta, with some measure of confusion, "Why were you drinking the sea water? Or do I just not want to know?" Her Imp tail flick along her ankles.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade looks over at Uta, confused, and says, "It's seawater, of course it's salty. That's how you know it's seawater." She's confused, then ohs. "It's nice to /swim/ in, Uta. You don't drink seawater." Goldenblade doesn't, anyhow. But sometimes you have to be very clear. "Haven't swum in the ocean in -years-," she says wistfully, grinning to herself. "Now if only I had fins and a snorkel. That'd be pretty sweet, I think. Then again, with magic, someone could probably make actual scuba gear." Air magic, then?

She smirks at Kita's comment, and admits with a chuckle, "I think I don't want to know." She hrms, "I wonder if there's something like mysterious shipwrecks that could be investigated or salvaged. We'll have to ask the Landers, maybe? Someone that's been a merchant for some time might have an idea of what ships have been lost. And that makes me wonder if they have like carrier pigeons here? But I guess not, if there's chimlink?"
Kauchemar
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"I can mimic a few things through magic I've found," Kauchemar replies to Kita. "But a proper rock instrument is, yes, a bit out of reach yet." Then chuckles a little at Uta. "Despite my dislike of certain extremely bright parts of the day, my complexion is dark enough to contend with it."

She pauses, then smirks slyly and waggles her brows. "Unless someone wants to risque the social boundries by rubbing it on~" she teases playfully.

A flashy somantic gesture conjures a large bubble in one hand. "There's Water spells that can help with underwater activity, though you probably don't want to go too deep on a spell alone. And remember, there's entire lost Undine kingdoms down there, somewhere, too."
Uta
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Uta pulls back and puts her hands forward. "Yikes no. I've been menu-applying the oil to myself, thank you very much." Wait, is that even possible? Or is she that confused? Either way, she shudders.

"I wouldn't mind some proper rock, no... and I was tasting sea water to... well, investigate this world. People focus on looking and listening to things. Maybe touching them. But not many people smell or taste them, and it's really a pity, we could be missing important clues. For instance, whether things are crafted properly or not." There is some silence, another startled return to attention, and she continues, "...I havent' swum yet, Goldenblade, now that you mention it. Been too busy fighting monsters and worrying about... things." She looks over her shoulder, literally, at her shoulder blades. "I wonder how these wings will get in the way of swimming...". Each hand reaches for the corresponding pointy eartip. "Or these ears. They're pretty much a pair of handlebars. i wonder how they'll affect hydrodynamics..." A blink.

"...but it'd be nice to figure out. Anyone has any map to lost underwater civilizations of the Undine?"
Kita
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"The bubble spell is pretty good if you want to do some underwater exploration." She pauses, "Or Aero." Kita suggests, then lightly reaches up and tugs at the brim of her witch hat. "But Kauchemar is right. You wouldn't want to go down there by yourself. I've heard it's a pretty high level monster area. Not to mention the Leviathans."

That's a risk that Kita doesn't seem to keen on taking. Instead, she seems to latch on to the bard's words, "Mmm. Maybe you could teach me a few tricks sometime. I haven't had much time to flex my musical skills in this world. Scale keeps me pretty busy in Tolbana." Her artistic skills tend to be put to work on a number of buildings, shrines, statues, or other projects that the Alliance throws her into.

The smirk spreads into a grin, "Oh, I don't know. I would imagine more than a few people who wouldn't mind that kind of risque." Then, she laughs, giving a playful wink afterwards.

The talk about underwater explorations and swimming has her lightly rolling her shoulders in a shrug, "I suppose there's probably something worth finding down there. It wouldn't be much of a game if there wasn't hidden dungeons or quests there."
Kauchemar
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"Probably something to ask an Undine about." Kauchemar strokes her chin. Then gets up from where she's seated. "Well I may not be a kelpie but Water is one of my stronger natural elements, maybe I should go try impersonating one... Just without the drowning part." What other 'parts' she could still try are best left up to the imaginations. And that's the way she likes it. Sometimes one's own mind can come up with much better, scarying ideas than she could ever implant."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade nods to what Kauchemar says about water spells and diving, that makes sense. "Water or air, yeah. But 10 meters is the limit for safe snorkeling, if I recall my scuba course correctly. Past that, you need to breathe pressurized air. It's to do with partial pressures, whatever those are and ... I took the course years ago, you're lucky I remember that much," she says with a laugh. She has no idea what a kelpie is, though, so can only shrug.

"Though I guess Undines are special, with regards to pressure?" She can only speculate at that point.

She says to Uta, "I don't expect your ears will do much, with regards to swimming. Though I imagine a swimming cap would help if you were really worried. The wings ... probably you'll have to take those into account with swimming, if you submerge fully. It'd be more like flying underwater, with water instead of air pressure. If you swim on the surface, I don't expect it'd matter." She can only shrug about underwater Undine kingdoms.

She hrms as Kita mentions two powers she can't use. Guess she won't be scuba diving soon. She winces at the mention of Leviathans. "Yeah, those are bad news," she agrees. "But can they go in the shallows? Or even the shelf?" She does not about underwater hidden dungeons. "That seems logical."
Uta
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"Don't worry, I'm not going for underwater explorations any time soon." Uta looks down and grumbles. "Water. Why does it have to be /water/."

"Hey, how about we get together a bunch of bard types and have a jam session?", Uta suggests, suddenly cheerful again, looking between Kauchemar and Kita. "Maybe we could compose songs. Tell stories. I'm sure there's plenty of stories that just beg to be told in song form..."

Her reaction to Goldenblade's explanation is to look once more at her back, where her wings connect, give them another couple of flutters, and comment, "...I have fancy fins..."
Kita
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"I tend to avoid the underwater levels, at least after what I heard happened up in the tower." Kita is likely referring to the glitched White Whale monster, and it's strange effects on memories. "It is one of the things that makes me thankful for that Fey Mood that struck me. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened."

She folds her arms across her chest, lightly tapping the fingers of one hand on the gloved forarm of the other. "Honestly, I don't know much about Leviathans other than a couple of close calls during the Ezzo evacuations." Kita catchers her lower lip between her teeth, thoughtful.

The suggestion of getting musicians together does seem to brighten her expression a little, "I'd like that. We could even get together at the amphitheater in Tolbana. It has great acoustics."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade nods to Uta about fancy fins. "Underwater, they would be. Your basic fishing birds don't normally fly underwater, so I'm not sure how it'd work. But they do dive briefly. Long enough to catch their meals and get back into the air. So there's got to be a way." She nods to Kita about the glitched white whale. "That was worrying," she agrees vehemently. "Though I have to think they're not common, or no one would sail, ever."

She grins about the musicians thing. "Now that'd be a thing." But she's not as much into modern music as most of the playerbase is. "Ah, now if there were a Glen Miller-style band..." she muses.
Kauchemar
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Kauchemar mmmhmms softly, tilting her head a little to the side as she thinkins, banging partially curtaining her face. "It would be nice to get a taste of what some of the other musically inclined use. Everyone has their own style when it comes to music, but I have yet to find a style that can't be woven into harmony with others. Especially with how Landers seem to react so... intently, even when the lyrics are of concepts they do not... understand. They'll still respond to the rhythmn, the harmony, even the underlying impressions."
Uta
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Uta points out, "Hey, don't we Japanese listen to English-language music? And there are opera and J-pop lovers among our English-speaker fellows..." She shrugs. "I don't see why it couldn't work. We all do. It's inherently human, isn't it?" Her brows lowers slowly into a perplexed expression. "...or Spriggan. Or Were Fang. Or Imp." A deeper frown, immediately followed by two large popped eyes. "People! Spriggans are people too!" She turns to Goldenblade, "We could weave in some trumpets. I mean if we start with something like opera-rock-techno on traditional instruments, I don't see why we can't weave some brass into it." But it's Kita who gets the biggest display of interest: "Wait, there's an /amphiteater/ in tolbana?!" She taps her lips as her gaze gets lost in the distance, "That explains that huge circular-ish structure... it all makes sense now..."
Kita
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"When I used to play, I sang both Japanese and English language tracks." Kita answers, letting her arms drop down to her sides. There is an almost anxious movement to her fingers, as if they were absently making the motions of playing an instrument. "We played J-rock, but we did covers of American music sometimes."

She lets out a breath that is almost a laugh, "Seems like a lifetime ago, though." The young woman motions with one hand, "I'm sure I can arrange some time for musician practice in the amphitheater. The Alliance owes me enough for all the time put in on building up the city."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade looks curiously to Kauchemar. She hasn't really paid much attention to Landers' reactions to things, so this is new to her. "That's interesting," she says, intrigued. She nods to Uta about the brass being important. Though clarinets are important, too. They can really carry the melody." As to Tolbana, she can only shrug. She's followed groups through the Tower, but never really gotten to know her way around. Plus, it's been some time, now that she thinks about it.

She admits, "Growing up, it was stuff like Glen Miller or the Dorsey Brothers or Woody Herman. All those guys," she sighs wistfully. "Japanese music is OK, but those were what I grew up listening to."
Kauchemar
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Kauchemar chuckles softly at Kita. "The same. Since much of my time growing up was in the States, I've found an appreciation for both styles... and foreign music is always popular on the night scene. During the internet 'dark age' a club was about the only place you could easily hear such music, if a DJ was good enough to be able to get it."

She doesn't mention by what methods. She has never confirmed (or denied) that she may of used some... legally roundabout ways to aquire things during that time. She certainly isn't going to start now.

"But a jam session sounds like a wonderful idea. And will sound wonderful in a place with good acoustics."
Uta
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The snowballing of energy gets back to Uta, amplified, and she does nothing to stop its flow, quite the opposite: "See, see, maybe we could even finance our endeavours by letting curious landers in during the reharsals. I doubt an informal get-together of musicians that just want to have fun would be the kind of thing one could charge admission for... but we could make a profit by some other means. For instance, by teaming up with someone with brewing skills and coming up with our original soft drink. And selling it to the audience. I can see it already!" She steps in front of the group, and so starry-eyed she'd make Estelle proud, she sweeps the air in front of her. "The Bottle of the Bards!"
Kita
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"I'll see what I can do, then." Kita confirms, swiping her hand in the air and then removing a jacket from her inventory. She pulls it on over her swimsuit, buttoning it in front. "Until then, I should probably figure out where Jurou is. It's safe enough near the beach, but I hope they didn't wander too far afield."

Giving a nod to each of them, she tucks her hands into her pockets. "I'll see you all around, okay?"
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade smirks at Kauchemar, laughing, "Dark age? Well," she says, "before the internet entirely, there was radio. But they mostly played children's music, lately. But you used to be able to find good music on the radio. Clubs that played Glen Miller-style tunes were few and far between, sadly."

She smirks at Uta's suggestion, and says, "I wonder if we could convert some space into a bandstand someplace. You could make a whole nightclub." She smiles to Kita as she prepares to leave. "Take care," she calls.
Kauchemar
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"Take care Kita." Kauchemar pauses to stretch a bit. "And the rest of you as well. I am going to go get some actually swimming in." She waves to the other girls before turning and strolling towards the beach, tail swishing behind her in synch with the swaying of her hips, until she finally strides into the water and slips out of view beneath it.