[Open] I'm On A Boat

[helborn]

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).]

Comments

[helborn]

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....

[vermillionpledge]

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.]

[helborn]

[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.]

[vermillionpledge]

[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?

[helborn]

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?

[vermillionpledge]

"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.

[helborn]

"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."

[vermillionpledge]

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.

[helborn]

"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."