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

[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.