Let’s go to the beach!!

[breakin_ur_lore]

Who: Med’an and Hythlodaeus
Where: coast off Rumpitur
What: reviewing the scene of the battle for more octopus creatures! Probably getting attacked by an unrelated thing! General dumbass shenanigans!
Warnings: nothing yet


It was right around here, I think.

[It’s a week or so after the defeat of the corrupted monster, and Med’an has led Hythlodaeus out to the site of the battle. They’d ran into each other at the inn yesterday; apparently both of them were the chatty type, so the topic of the beast that William’s team (including yours truly, the one and only Med’an!) caught and cleansed had quickly come up. Hythlodaeus seemed to have quite an interest in creatures, both mundane and exotic, which Med’an appreciated. He’d always liked animals as well. So he was happy to try and describe the monster for Hythlodaeus, and once the older man had found out that Med’an could shorten the trip back to the coast via teleporting…well, the plan had rapidly coalesced after that.

(He wasn’t able to teleport them the entire way there, though he’d made larger jumps before back home. He still wasn’t certain what was affecting teleportation magic here. But at least he’d cut the trip down to more of a day excursion.)

It was a somewhat loose plan, with just the two of them taking a peek around the shore to see what they could find, but Med’an was fine with that. He was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind anyway.]

It was definitely octopus-like. Or…I guess it could’ve been a squid. I think there were eight tentacles.

[He looks around the now-peaceful beach, hands on his hips as he considers the best way to find an octopus(-like beast).]

Comments

[weenwoon]

[Hythlodaeus, too, is glad to spend time with a fellow chatty enthusiast - he loves Hades, of course, but sometimes it's just nice to have a conversation partner who can say more than three words at a time and doesn't sigh grumpily over every single one of Hythlodaeus's suggestions. Not to mention that Med'an's open and spontaneous nature, well, reminded him of another friend...

Hythlodaeus peeks around the beach with interest, then looks out at the sea itself.]

Only eight? I suppose we should be glad of that. I've had people suggest to me that octopusses deserve to have, oh, sixteen, twenty-four, thirty-two arms, or even more... We should be glad it wasn't a creation of one of those geniuses, hmm?

[breakin_ur_lore]

[Med'an's expression turns from happy to confused to vaguely horrified. He's seen some weird abominations of nature before, but he's still having trouble imagining what Hythlodaeus is describing. Eventually he says in a worried tone; ]

I don't think I could move around well with thirty-two arms.

[He'd make sensible creations...at least more sensible than that...]

...what do octopusses eat?

[(He's looking out at the sea now. They didn't have to try and lure the octopus out when they were fighting it, but...)]

[weenwoon]

That's what I tell people, but they hardly ever listen!

[Hythlodaeus sighs dramatically. He really doesn't know what it is that makes people think that more limbs = more good, when it comes to creations.

Fortunately, there's something else for him to focus on.]

Majority of octopodes are predators! So they eat just about anything else smaller than them.

[Pause.]

Which might explain why we were attacked.

[breakin_ur_lore]

Hmm...[He glances down at his hands, thinking about the corruption that had taken over the octopus beasts as well as many of the Chosen - including himself. Now that the corruption had been cleared away, he can look back and see that he'd been acting a little odd. Not "trying to murder everyone" odd, but maybe he just hadn't gotten to that point yet?] Yeah...but it seems like it'd be easier to attack the other sea life than come out here for us. We'll have to see if we can find any other creatures too, maybe.

[Speaking of...as he looks back up at the ocean, he thinks he spots a flash of something a few dozen meters out. Something round, bobbing up and then back down into the waves? Maybe it was just his imagination.]

Well, if we get in the water, maybe they'll come try and get us again? [He sounds more chipper about that than he maybe should, but he thinks he can take a couple of octopus now that they're not all evil and corrupted.]

[weenwoon]

[Hythlodaeus notes the boy's moment of thoughtful hesitation and the glance at his hands. So he was one of those affected... He can't help wondering if it worries Med'an, but if his enthusiasm for wandering into the sea to lure in some octopus monsters is anything to go by, then the boy must be doing fine. (Hythlodaeus might have a strange idea of what counts as "fine".)]

Hmm... I suppose they could, but we probably need to get pretty far in, and we would be more likely to attract some predator fish... But it's worth a try, is it not? And who knows what other marine life could pose danger to the locals?

[... Well. He said it semi-jokingly, but now he's actually thinking about it. Hythlodaeus stares at the sea, frowning.]

... For all we know, there may be some source of that rot deep under the sea. In that case, another attack is inevitable... and octopuses are far from the most dangerous marine creatures. [Pause.] Some of the most intelligent, however, which can be a danger of its own.

[breakin_ur_lore]

[(“Willing to cheerfully run headlong into danger” definitely means that he’s fine. It’s his default state of being!)]

Haha, maybe we should’ve asked the locals what stuff they usually see around here. Oh well. [He’s already taking his boots and socks off so that he can wade into the surf a little. His expression turns a bit somber again at Hythlodaeus’ comment about the rot, though he doesn’t stop moving.]

I was wondering about that, too. We’d have to…go down there or something and take care of them. [He makes a face to indicate that he has no idea how they would “go down there or something”. ] We have a lot of strong fighters, at least….

[As he splashes a few feet into the water, he spots that weird round thing again in the distance.]

Did you see that?

[weenwoon]

[ Hm! One would think that maybe, seeing a weird thing that makes you ask "Did you see that" after an attack of corrupted sea monsters may, in fact, signify danger! But at the same time, how can you tell without getting closer?

Hythlodaeus scans the surface of the sea; unlike Med'an, he's not yet ready to get his feet wet. In fact, he's wondering if they could find a boat, or make a raft to try and sail further out... ]

There is definitely something there... We would need to get closer, though. Do you plan to swim?..