pluviosa | [Open] I'm On A Boat

[Open] I'm On A Boat

Who: Casper and ???
What: Boat shenanigans! Digging! Trees!
Where: Several locations
When: Day 3-4ish
Warnings: One prompt has a dead body, one thread is getting into some serious/dark subjects.

Jungle Cruise

[Casper does not have many weapons - certainly not the kinds of powerful magical options other people on the ship have. But he's not out of all options. He heads down towards the bottom of the ship - or at least what he can reach. Deck 9 is about it, so he starts there.]

[The water is a problem. The water might be too much of a problem for him to handle - so he freezes it. At least a good chunk around him is frozen, so anyone coming down there might need to be careful not to slip. That done, he starts digging. He doesn't have a shovel or any tools so it's just him pushing at dirt trying to find some kind of bottom.]

[This is probably not going to work. Come either mock him or help him?] (See next prompt.)

Kill it with Fire

[Casper has been digging and he absolutely does not like what he's found. He's read enough horror books and seen enough horror movies to know that letting this thing spread is an incredibly bad idea. He keeps looking around for anyone, covered in dirt and mud and probably other things with his hair all wild.]

Do you have fire magic? Or the ability to make a fire that's really hot?

[He needs a hand, because a campfire is not going to do it. He needs extremely high temperatures in an extremely controlled environment.]

On the Treetops

[He likes to be up high. Some of these trees are gigantic so he's having fun climbing them. It's very much an easy thing for him - he's just scrambling up them and jumping from tree to tree. He's making a lot of noise though so he might be being too disruptive. Either way he's having fun and it's not like there's a whole crowd to bother.]

[Occasionally he rests, and stares out at the barren wasteland around them. What could be out there? He wants to know, but he also doesn't want to die again.]

Night Sky

[Casper is enjoying himself just chilling out on the deck at night. There are no constellations that he's familiar with, so he starts making up new ones.]

That one's the Cat. That one's the Rabbit. ... Maybe that spot on the moon is the Monkey? It's definitely not the Bunny.

[He's mostly talking to himself - Bob is asleep in his hoodie pocket - but he'd welcome company, if you'd like.]

[Wildcard]

[Got another idea? Either grab me on Discord (artematthew) or Plurk (

atrypical).]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The voice is far-off at first, but its frantic tone is unmistakable. Alisaie looks up from the sign she'd been attempting to decipher and breaks into as fast a run as she can manage without slipping.
When she makes it up the stairs, she recognizes the friendly man who had run into her that first, horrible night. Casper? He looks bedraggled, covered in mud and gods only know what else. His hair is wild and his expression even more so. Alisaie inches closer, worried about what he's found.

It seems she was right to be worried. It's horribly overgrown, plants digging into every part of it, but the corpse is still recognizable for what it is. She's seen enough of them.]

"Oh, gods..." [She can't help the exclamation as she draws close. Whoever this was, they can't have died peacefully. Under normal circumstances she'd be delighted to show off her prowess with fire, but right now the feeling of dread is far too prominent]

"I can conjure fire. As much as you need, probably."

Yeah...

[His voice is a little rough - he's tired and he just wants to deal with this shit and he just wants to nap. He just had the desire to dig through stuff - he was not prepared to deal with this even if he's possibly the most qualified.]

I appreciate it. I don't know that you can get it hot enough to cremate without damaging the ship - but at least hot enough to kill off any plantlife....

All right. You should stand back.

[She grits her teeth and prepares to cast. Verfire might work, but for something like this she needs it to be the hottest fire she can manage. Scorch it is, but building up that aether doesn't happen fast.
Thankfully, the flood of adrenaline that rushed through her when she heard Casper's panicked call is doing its job, opening up aetherial pathways that she normally needs the rush of combat for. The fire is building within her, but where she would normally release it she forces the aether to stay where it is, coiling and growing hotter for its confinement.
This could hurt. If Casper is watching for it, he might be able to see the way her face twists with the effort - and yes, pain - of keeping a spell this powerful contained. Almost ready now.
She's glowing, fire threatening to spill out all over her body as she forces it out and forward directly at the body. Whoever they were, she will give them the rest they deserve.]

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! [The fire tears forth, a scream ripped from her throat along with it. All she can do is hope it will be enough as the flames consume the sad, withered shape in front of her.]

[He pulls back, climbing out of the hole and pulling backwards so she can have room. He sees her pain, wishes he could help - but he doesn't want to get in the way. He'll help her afterwards. He can see her glow, starting to get a little concerned - but then she cries out and flames consume the body.]

[It's probably not going to be enough to reduce it to ashes, but he can see - and smell - the body charring.]

Hopefully that'll be enough to stop the growth of... those things. ... How are you doing?

[[He approaches her a little gingerly, reaching out to help her up if she needs or wants it.]

[The fire leaves her and takes much of her energy with it. The toll on her aether is nothing to sneeze at, but it needed to be done. She eyes the body warily, watching the fire curl over it, hoping the one casting will be enough. With a place this damp, it's hard to know.

She considers ignoring the outstretched hand, but politeness wins out over stubbornness. And she really is tired. It takes effort not to wobble as she gets to her feet. Behind Casper, the fire still smolders. From what she can see, the growth has been forced back. Whether it will last in the long term is another question entirely, but that's not a question she needs to answer right now.]

I'm fine. I just normally take more time to build up the aether I need for a spell like that. [She has no idea if the explanation will make any sense to him, but from what she's seen so far he's pretty willing to accept events outside his understanding. If only everyone were.] That should be enough. What should we do with the body?

What we should do... gods, I'm tempted to just pitch it overboard but I'm not sure if that would work or if it'd get stuck in the bottom of the barrier around the ship. But leaving it here is also a bad idea given that it might be a seedbed again.

[He thinks for a moment, crouching at the edge of the hole.]

I mean rain can pass through the barrier. Maybe it's only a barrier for living things?

"It's certainly worth a try," she says. It feels a bit disrespectful, but so would just leaving it here. Perhaps it will be able to rest if they get it off the ship. "The two of us should be able to lift it." She's small and he doesn't look very strong, but between the two of them it should be doable.
The leaves rustle around the body as she moves back toward it. Why does she feel so uneasy? It's never pleasant to be around a corpse, but this is hardly her first. But something, a sensation of wrongness, lingers in the air long after the last of her flames have burnt themselves out.

"Oh, I can - I mean I don't mean to insinuate that you can't carry it, but I've... uh. Lifted quite a bit heavier. And I grew up handling corpses."

... Wait that sounds wrong. "For uh, context - I grew up with a father who has the profession of caring for the dead. It's a whole... industry where I come from. So I grew up helping him." After the flames die down he reaches a hand towards the corpse - it's warm but not dangerously so, and so he jumps down and puts the corpse over his shoulder. Another leap and he's out of the hole without breaking so much as a sweat. "Honestly, living people scare me more than dead people do, even the ghosts."

He picks up what remains of the corpse without any visible effort before she can object. A little bemused, she follows him out of the hole. "Not the strangest profession I've heard of. I did...something similar, once. Caring for the dying, not the dead." She hadn't ever been fully comfortable with it, the reality of death almost a physical presence at the Inn. Knowing everyone there was bound for the same fate and feeling powerless to stop it.
Until she had stopped it. After all, none of the light-touched souls at the Inn were dying natural deaths to beasts or plague or old age. And whatever this ship holds, she can't help but feel there are no natural deaths to be had here either.

"That's... a difficult job. I'm not sure I could do it. I'm good at explaining to the dead what happened, that they need to move on. I don't know if I could ease a person across. I know there's gates to the Underworlds that appear but that's not the natural way people move on." To be honest he's not quite sure how it happens, just that they fade and seem to be at peace.

Patting the back of the corpse gently he nods. "Let's find somewhere that this person can rest. Maybe see if we can throw things out of the barrier around the ship? It... seems a little rude, but it's the best equivalent to a 'burial at sea' that we're going to get here."

Shang Qinghua hears the sounds of... something in the trees? Knocking them around quite a lot? Heading out onto the deck and looking up reveals enough of a flash of hoodie and jeans among the branches to be sure that it's Casper and not some kind of monster turning up.

...He isn't great at climbing trees, but he has his own way to get up there. Casper seems to be sitting still for a moment, so he pulls out Kao Ci, steps on, and carefully rises fairly slowly into the air, making sure the spiritual energy here isn't going to knock him out of the sky before he risks going high or quickly. It seems basically fine, though, so he flies up to hover next to the branch Casper is sitting on.

"Hey." Lame conversation starter, so sue him. "Hell of a view. I'm glad we woke up in here and not out there."

Edited (typo) 2024-02-27 01:30 (UTC)

"Neat trick." He grins at Shang Qinghua and pats the branch next to him. It looks pretty sturdy, as long as the other isn't a lot heavier than he looks. "But yeah, it is. ... I don't think we'd be talking if we woke up out there."

Hmm... he swings his legs under the branch and kicks them a little. "Maybe whatever brought us here has a failsafe to make sure we don't show up somewhere where we'd die immediately?" It's possible, at least...

"One of the cooler parts of being a cultivator, for sure. I was so pumped when I got my own spiritual sword finally and I could fly." He carefully maneuvers around until he can perch on the branch next to Casper and summon Kao Ci to his hand, stowing it back in its sheath. "Man, I don't know the last time I was up a tree."

"Depends whether it was aiming for this planet in general or for the ship in specific, I guess. Or maybe it just covered the whole planet in people and most of them died. Sorry, that's a horrible concept, I should have kept that inside my head." He shifts his weight, testing balance, but he's managed to sit pretty solidly, and therefore most of his attention can go to Casper.

"Same with my wings." Bob is up in a higher branch, pretending to not notice the two of them. "Trees are fun. Good for sneak attacks, too." Which it's... sad that he has to think about it, but it's useful knowledge.

He doesn't seem bothered by the thought. "... No, no. I think it's a good train of thought to consider, though uh... probably the ship? I'm guessing the ship. If you've got the ability to drag people through worlds then you're probably good enough to select a destination. I'd think so, anyway."

“Wait, wings? I don’t see wings tell me about wings. I mean, uh, if that’s okay, but I assume you wouldn’t have mentioned it if you didn’t want— I mean. Yeah.” Yeah his mouth is just Going. He has gotten too comfortable with Casper and now the filter is Gone.

“I mean, and if you’re hauling people around transdimensionally, you probably have, like, a purpose in mind, and people are more useful alive in most cases? Not that the assortment of people here gives me literally any idea what purpose there might be. I mean, did you see fucking Super Mario? I’m like, at peace with being fictional, but like, holy shit. Mario! Does make me wonder if more than just me and him are fictional, but I dunno how we’d find out, I don’t recognize anyone else, but they could be from media I never consumed, or something that came out after I died, or… yeah. I mean, Wet Justice and company look pretty anime, and so does the kid with the cat, but that’s not very conclusive.”

"Huh? Oh. I can sprout wings - or talons, or whatever - by channeling my power through Bob. It's a lot of fun. I don't know if I could carry someone while flying - probably? I'm not sure." What's a filter? Never knew 'er.

"Yeah. Yeah I definitely saw Super fucking Mario. And I mean in the great multiverse of whatever maybe? I was mostly a books and movies kid. I never really got into anime and stuff... not even that one with a lot of yelling that all the guys seemed to like. And video games were basically just 'whatever I could find online' since buying a console was definitely out of the question, and I only have a cell phone because my dad wanted it to call me for work whenever. Which basically just meant yelling at me to get home..." ... Anyway.

On a slightly more positive note... "I've seen people uploading video game stuff to YouTube?" He says it... not confidently. "But I dunno if that site's gonna stick around, I've seen a lot of places come and go."

“Oh, sick, that sounds really neat. We could fly together! I mean, there’s not a ton of space to do much, but like. Man I do not take advantage of being able to fly as often as I should, I’m always too busy working. And I wrote cultivators using fucking carriages and horses most of the time because I’m a boring idiot, so we barely even fly to travel.”

“I am, was, like a horrible otaku, I was all over anime and manga and video games, but I also like, am from China and from later than you, so the availability was probably better.”

“Oh dude Google bought YouTube and it is huge now, people make bank uploading themselves playing video games. They get like, brand sponsorships and shit, it’s wild. God imagine if a brand sponsored my shitty webnovel. It would have to be like—a condom brand or something, and oh my god I’d have to write Luo Binghe using a condom that is the funniest concept in the world, I have to tell Cucum— oh. Right, I can’t tell him about the concept of his husband’s dick selling condoms, he’s not on the mystery leg boat. Anyway.” Airplane might have gotten a little used to having a transmigrator bro around. “Uh. Yeah, I dunno, anything could be fiction. Scary Ouji Lawyer got mad at me for trying to avoid saying she might be fictional, but I don’t want to give anyone, like, an existential crisis? I’ve known I was fictional for sixty years! But it probably hits different in these circumstances, yknow?”

"Yeah. I mean, now that you don't have to work... you can have some actual fun with your abilities." Flying on a sword is pretty neat. Isn't there a comic book character who surfs between planets? He can't quite remember.

Hm. "Makes sense. Isn't there a lot of censorship there, though? ... Though I guess people find ways around it." Also what. Okay there was some information in there and then Shang Qinghua went off on a whole tangent and... Casper just puts a hand on the top of the other's head to calm him for a moment before taking it away. "Yeah, it probably does. It... feels impolite to say. As for being fictional..." He sighs and closes his eyes.

"I can feel the wind. I can hear the breeze through the trees. I can smell the leaves. I don't know what makes something 'real', but isn't this real enough? This moment we have? And if the moment's real, why can't we be?" He blinks slowly and smiles, his cheeks coloring slightly. "Maybe that's corny, but if what we experience is all we have then... I think we're real enough, based on that. Being fictional doesn't mean it's not 'real' in a way? If they experience things like you do..."

"Fun... how novel. I've had to work my ass off this whole time to make sure I achieved what the system demanded I do, and then that required being in positions where a lot of people are relying on me, and... there's always more work. When it's not Cang Qiong, it's the Northern Desert, or Luo Binghe's court."

"Yeah, there's censorship, but plenty of stuff is like, inoffensive enough to make it through, or there's like, ways to get through the firewall. But we get a lot of imported media anyway. Got." It's weird to think about China as sort of frozen in time for him in 2015--time has moved on for him, subjectively, but judging by Cucumber-bro's arrival, it hasn't gone forward back home at all.

Casper's hand on his head is super effective, Shang Qinghua's jaw snaps shut until he removes it again. He blinks and tries to get his train of thought back to something other than how warm Casper's hands are and whether his cheeks feel hot.

He smiles at Casper, ducking his head a little. God the younger man is cute when he blushes. "Real enough to carry on with, anyway. It's not like I haven't been fighting all these years to stay alive, because it sure feels like a life, even knowing that I'm being Shang Qinghua and he's some asshole I made up. I'm still walking around breathing and sleeping and... feeling." Feeling quite differently than usual, right now.

"Sounds complicated. Both of those things." He grins sidelong at the other. "What do you think myths are? What do you think gods are? Something someone just made up. And then they believed in it enough to make it real."

He'd nudge the older man but he doesn't want to startle him out of the tree. "And you seem plenty real to me. We may not be able to move the world as much as we'd like - well you can't anymore, at least - but if someone can believe that there's goat piss rivers in the underworld hard enough to make it real, we can maybe try to believe in ourselves enough to count as real, too."

Kill it With Fire

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On the Treetops

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Night Sky

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