On Golden Sands

[flangirl]

characters: anyone!
location: beacon, above the waterline
date/time: mostly an open post for everyone who didn't go to the station july 8 - 15th, but open for july in general!
content: a catchall and mingle (and idle hand-wringing for the rest of us)
warnings: the usual: mark your subject lines as needed

the open event post is a little daunting and full of top-levels for those who went undersea sailing, as it were. i figured i'd make a space off in a corner for anyone who wants to hit up other topside folks without wading (heh) through the event text - and also give space for threads before and after so as not to flood the event!

i'm turning off emails on this entry for my own sanity but i'll check periodically for toplevels and put up my own toplevel a little later in the day!

come on in, the not-the-water's fine!

Comments

OPEN - post-raid party

[pure_havoc]

Frankly, it could have gone a lot worse, but it also could have been a lot better. When the submarines reappear on the lake shore, it's a sign that everyone didn't actually all die down there, but the survivors stumble off either with tales of how bad it actually was down there...or no word at all, not wanting to talk about it.

Within an hour or two of landing, though, Cao Pi puts out word that he has the cure for what ails nearly everyone. The spirits gifted him with a bottle of wine that never runs out. It's decent wine, made from grapes (his favorite!!!), though it may take more than a few glasses for the hard drinkers to get really drunk on it. The nice thing is, it literally never runs out. So he will play host at the Invincible, pouring a glass or ten or twenty for whoever wants it. No judging. No carding. Where he comes from, wine is for everyone capable of sitting at table with their peers and elders alike. This is truly special, as far as he's concerned. Grape wine is rare, a gift from the West to court the Wei Emperor, so to be able to pour it constantly with the bottle never emptying is truly, truly a blessing.

Come drink whether one glass or too many. Drink to celebrate or drink to forget. Cao Zihuan is your host and he takes his hospitality very seriously.

worst birthday yet

[callada]

Somehow, Rosinante had a fleeting optimistic idea while down in the station. Maybe, just maybe they'd blow the beast up with Weaver's bomb and it would all be over quickly, and they'd get to come back and celebrate.

Instead, Law was nearly killed (again, so soon) and while Rosinante himself wasn't injured badly, he knows there's something wrong. He can feel it - that strange, horrible craving he wishes he could ignore. Law smelled so strongly of blood as they brought him out of the room, and he hates that in that moment, and now in his memory, it was something he liked.

So here's to another awful year in this awful shitty place, he thinks, as he comes down to join Cao Pi. Alcohol might not actually help but what else is he going to do? He needs to get away for a bit, let Law rest, maybe bring food back for him but so much for them drinking together when alcohol and painkillers are a pretty bad idea (even he knows that much).

He sits at the bar and rests his chin in his hand, elbow on the wooden surface, then reaches for a drink. The dark red is kind of enchanting.

"Is this the stuff you ordered with the portal?"

that's a hard standard to top

[pure_havoc]

He wouldn't have blamed Rosinante for making himself scarce for a while, but Cao Pi is somewhat glad to see him. "No, actually. I do have that, but this is from the special bottle I was given." He reaches over and grabs said bottle, setting it neatly so that anyone can see the liquid inside. He's been pouring it and yet it's still mostly full. In fact, he'll pour himself a glass to match and...lo, still full.

"...how is he?"

watch, next year brings worse than cannibalism urges and law almost dying

[callada]

"He knows better than I do. ...I'm not planning on staying long," he adds, just to be clear. The struggle between wanting to get his mind off everything that just happened and wanting to be at Law's side every moment isn't one he relishes.

"But I think he'll be all right," he says, as he has a sip of the wine. Maybe it's purely idiotic optimism, but he refuses to consider any alternative.

The wine tastes off. Not watered-down, for it has the body that wine should have on his tongue, but it tastes weak. He frowns and tries another sip, but it's no different.

bet on it

[pure_havoc]

Cao Pi notices the change in expression. "Something the matter?"

Just in case, he roots around behind the bar and finds one of the actual precious bottles of wine brought there on request. If something is wrong with his magic drink he can try a different variety, but...hmm. He sips and finds nothing wrong with the glass he just poured himself. Oh well, not his problem unless Rosinante asks for something better.

[callada]

"Just thinking," he says, shaking his head. "Wine's pretty good. Who would've thought the spirits could come up with something like that?"

Now, he doesn't require food be especially tasty in order to just eat it and move on. He's had his fair share of meals that were just rice, or overcooked white fish - but there's still a difference between those bland flavors and the emptiness this drink seems to have. At least it's not bad, so he'll drink it. He does still want to get at least a little drunk, and maybe that will help. Maybe he'll root around in the storage later and see if he can't find some leftover roast from one of Soldat's group meals. Maybe that will be good enough.

[pure_havoc]

All right then. Zihuan prides himself on being able to read people but Rosinante has been notoriously hard to read all along, and now there's the added stress of literally everything, so he shrugs it off as needing to calibrate his reading ability. Also possibly wine.

"I wonder where they got it," he says honestly. "Between this and the man with his enchanting string instrument, it's quite unusual. The spirits haven't been in the habit of giving us items both enchanted and useful." A sniff. "It's definitely not my birthday, so..."

Hang on, birthday. That reminds him of something. Hmm. Where's his tablet, what's the calendar?

[callada]

No, it's not Cao Pi's birthday, but Rosinante doesn't offer up that it's his. It's not out of some desire for nobody to know, he just doesn't want anyone acting like he deserves something for being present on a date. It's not like he's even alive for it. Good excuse to drink, though.

"I got a compass," he offers instead, and retrieves it from a pocket and sets it on the bar. "Points to the bonfire from wherever I am. We've been here a year, you know," he offers as a possible explanation. Why the spirits care or would mark such an anniversary, he's not sure.

[pure_havoc]

That hint leads him to figure out exactly what's nagging at his memory, thanks man. It takes a moment, but then Cao Pi gets that universal look of "aha" dawning on his face. "Yes, we have," he acknowledges. "It's been a year since we witnessed each others' deaths." And that's when his eyes come up, with a pointed look. "I believe at the time I said something about the date being terribly unlucky. I had no idea it could get even worse a year later."

[callada]

"Yeah," he says, drawn out as a suffering sigh of acknowledgment. "At some point I have to figure the universe just has it out for me."

It does not, of course, for he's nowhere near significant enough to think the universe cares an ounce about how good or bad things are for him. Maybe the universe just has it out for all of them. Darkly, he wonders if the world eaters are some sort of solution to that problem.

But no, of course, life is a gift and all that. Just hard to be positive about much today. "Cheers," he says anyway as he lifts his tasteless drink.

[pure_havoc]

Cao Pi sets his tablet back down and takes up his glass to match that toast. "We're not as dead as we could be." That's all he's got at a time like this. After watching Matt's lantern just vanish, he's totally not down with anything anymore. Just drinking for now.

[callada]

"And there's plenty left to do with our un-lives." But right now he feels less motivated to think about all that lies ahead of them than usual. Law gravely injured, others dead, and this monster that destroys worlds was trapped and not fully developed. He's not feeling extremely optimistic.

He downs another gulp of the bland wine and doesn't fully manage to hide his grimace, but at least it goes well with the subject. "Guess I'd be twenty-eight."

[pure_havoc]

Yes, a decent enough topic. "Is that so? We are roughly the same age, then. Though, I mark the passage at the new year, as is customary, and that was a few months ago." Nothing big, really. "I like the idea of continuing to keep track. Without a reset, we could go on to brag about being hundreds of years old, perhaps."

[callada]

"I guess it counts if the soul lives on, even if the body is dead." It's a sort of life. He goes back and forth with himself as to how much it counts; how alive he really feels. But his mind is intact enough to ask that question, so maybe that's good enough.

"I can't imagine leading an entire empire at my age. I feel like my career was still just getting started." The career he'd abruptly bailed on, but such is life.

[pure_havoc]

"Hmm." Something to muse on over a sip of wine. Rosinante may not taste much but it'll still get him blitzed pretty well. "Well, if Solis was an indication, these half-life bodies do not age, so at least we'll still look good."

Not reminding himself that Dr. Solis is probably dead for good now...

"I suppose for us, in my time, there was a sense of urgency," Zihuan sighs. "My father's true death, in our original timeline, was at sixty-five. If one waits until fifty to take control, one misses out on some prime years of ruling." That smirk, again. "Or in his case, never taking the throne at all. Seize your opportunity, and all that."

Some part of him is aware, thanks to the folks from Wa, that he himself never even saw 40, but that's even less auspicious than the current topic.

[callada]

Yeah, there's certainly a reason he's still drinking it. If anything, it's more dangerous. Easy to forget it's not just water. As for bodies looking good, well - he'll just let Cao Pi gloat even if that isn't his intent. Most here don't have the skeletal issue he currently does.

"Suppose so. I'm probably just not cut out for it. Ruling's no goal of mine, never has been. A small command is fine."

[paletteswap]

There's something incredibly improper about having an Emperor pour his own wine, let alone pouring it for others, but right now Kuai doesn't care. That's how bad things are. Everything lately has been a disaster. Even the small gains they make are marred by even more setbacks. And while he wants to know what happened beneath the lake, he can tell by their faces that they likely don't want to speak of it.

Not yet anyway.

"I'm glad to see you returned." He eyes the wine, wondering if he should drink himself into oblivion. He generally doesn't just because of how much it takes, but if the bottle never empties... Well no reason to be modest in his consumption.

"A fine gift you've received." That seems a safe place to start.

[pure_havoc]

It's totally improper and he knows it, but when everything is shit, even Cao Pi can see the merits of telling etiquette and manners to go fuck themselves. He's not even going to insist someone else pour his, he's already got that covered.

"Isn't it?" A slightly-forced smirk. "It seems as though the spirits have noticed my wine consumption. Part of me thinks I should take it as a sign to cut back, but this..." He taps the magic bottle. "...says otherwise."

[paletteswap]

This breach in propriety goes straight to Kuai's delicate sense of honor. But to hell with it right now.

"I doubt they're aware enough to make any judgement." He shakes his head, the spirits made little sense even at the best of times. For every time he thinks he's starting to understand them, there'll be some new horrible turn of events like the Aurora that reminds him he knows nothing about how they operate.

"Are you drinking to remember? Or to forget?"

[pure_havoc]

The easy answer is obviously not for memory, but Cao Pi mulls over something more clever that would deflect even more attention away from his thoughts. "Perhaps I simply drink because it's what one does at a time like this. Then again, we were down there for far too many days. I missed out on a good week of time without my gift in hand, I had best make up for it."

There, that explains absolutely nothing, just as planned.

[paletteswap]

Wow that's a suspicious non-answer that even Kuai notices. But fine, he won't pry.

"I suppose we cannot argue with customs." Drinking after a hard day, with an emperor, those customs.

He looks askance for a few moments, trying to come up with a way to phrase the question of how it went at the station. There's no tactful way to put it however; though he tries, "Were you expecting a shorter excursion than what happened?"

That's almost like asking: why did it take so long. If you squint.

[pure_havoc]

Bro he sure gets it, given the heavy frown. "I certainly did not anticipate a week. A handful of days, perhaps, if the place turned out to be a labyrinth and every corner needed to be searched for survivors, but..."

Nothing like being unconscious for a day and a half as part of that, ahem. Cao Pi stands there for a moment with glass in hand, contemplating what else to add to that.

"...it isn't as though we sat around wringing our hands wondering how to handle it. That part only took a few hours at most. The rest...it was the best we could do with what we found."

[paletteswap]

Considering how many fighters and seasoned warriors they had he'd be surprised if the battle plan took more than an hour. He arches an eyebrow, "None of those who went seem the type for hand wringing."

"From what I gather they had it trapped in a portal but couldn't finish it off?" He wants all the gory details, because it might be important later if more of these show up. But it seems rude to straight up ask how bad it is. "Anything you learned fighting this that might help us to prepare for another would be beneficial."

[pure_havoc]

Since he's still grappling with flashbacks (and thus, drinking heavily to prevent nightmares), Cao Pi takes a moment before deciding how to dish the bad news.

"What I learned," he says heavily, "is that we have no chance against a fully grown, hale one. Swords will not pierce it. Even getting close to it will result in death for everyone involved. Trapped, wounded, and smaller, it still simply killed by sucking the light from a lantern. The long-range weapons Dr. Solis spoke of would be our only chance, but we may still all die."

It is, quite frankly, a lot more hopeless than it seemed when they had less info to go on. Maybe in a week or two when he's processed everything and the nightmares wear off he'll be more clear-headed and less fatalistic, but...that look in his eyes says it all. They're pretty fucked.

[paletteswap]

What Cao Pi is saying confirms Kuai's worst fears. There's a difference between assuming everything is hopeless, and being confronted with the truth. Still, there's nothing they can do but fight back. Not unless they want to lay down and die, which has never been his way. He'd fight till his last breath, till everyone's last breath, that's what he'd trained for his whole life after all.

"Then those will become our primary objective." A firm, solid goal to work towards rather than floundering along in despair. "I suppose it's useful to know when we should run rather than stand and fight, if it's truly so deadly. Unless we can find a way to safeguard our lanterns that is, but I fear we don't have the time to try anything new - we'd be better off building on what has come before."

Even saying the words 'running away' makes him tense and antsy. He hates this.