deercountry | A Merry Jaunt Upon The Sea

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A Merry Jaunt Upon The Sea

Who: Delilah Dirk, Luz, and Varian
What: Charting and exploration using Delilah's flying boat.
When: Early afternoon, start of October.
Where: Darcmouth, Pthumerian Ocean

She spent her nights in her small bunk on her boat. It had all she needed, really. A tiny little kitchen, somewhere to sleep. A few books of poetry, from the old world. Mostly in Greek. In times past, she'd sail her little ship from port to port - the entire Mediterranean Sea had been her playground, and she'd known every inch of it.

This was new territory, and while she missed the sun-kissed days and the bluest waters - there was new adventure to be found here. Though the vast ocean beyond was...different. There were things about it that she couldn't quite put her finger on, couldn't quite put words to. Things were different. It was far more than the different, starry sky she looked up at some nights, when laying back on the deck.

But today, well, today was going to be an adventure. She'd received word she'd be having guests aboard. She hadn't cleaned up - there was little enough on the boat that it hardly made much difference, really - but she had worked on breakfast. Pan-made biscuits, breakfast meat, and some fruit - and juice, of course. Because the Turkish coffee - or the closest ersatz she could make, anyway - she was brewing was...potent.

She would be easy enough to find, and hadn't bothered with directions - after all, how many sailboats tied up at the dock were there? And how many would smell of breakfast?

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"Got it," Luz said, sure she was glad that she didn't have to try and go down toward the beast just yet. She did use her for glyph to feed the ship's sails though, and wished she could help with the currents. The fire would at least kept them steady though.

Luz watched Varian throw down his bombs and watched as it sunk down lower.

"I'll have my staff ready, just in case."

"Just don't set the sails on fire, or else we're going to be outrunning this under the worst circumstances ever!" she calls, wheeling things back over as the boat moves unpredictably on the new air currents.

"How high do you think that thing can breach?"

"Okay, but let's avoid flying out to it if we can?"

That's the Luz, the talk about the staff is worrying, please don't get eaten mid-air, Luz. He keeps his eyes on the clouds, he can hear it rumbling under there.

"It's pretty big, unless it can actually fly, there has to be a limit, right? But WE can't get high, Luz had that problem. "

"Wouldn't we have to fly down lower if we were actually trying to put ourselves in danger?"

Which, for right now, they weren't, right? Luz was just using her fire glyphs to try and direct the air flow.

"So we're basically going to have to ride steady, and keep away from that thing as much as we can. But if it gets too close, Varian and I may have to incapacitate it. But maybe we'll get lucky and it won't give us any trouble!"

The sound from below them is...not good, really.

"We'd have to to gain speed if it's catching up for us anyways," she replies to Luz, spinning the wheel. "Right, heading back towards the coast. Maybe it only likes deep water."

There is another sound from below, and the thing launches itself up out of the water, and it's...far closer below them than she'd like. She gets a sense of the thing - big, greyish-black...are those scales?

"Someone get a good look at it, tell me what the hell it is! And if you can set it on fire, I'd really appreciate it!"

"Okay, that works, definitely closer to the shore please."

Because something that big surely needs deep water to stop from beaching itself, right? Right? Except it's breaching way, way too close and Varian's grabbing a flask of his Flynnolium again, reaching his hand out to Luz.

"Okay, slap a glyph on it and I'll...huck it and see what happens?"

Luz had not known it was going to leap out like that, but at the very least, the leap to try and grab them was enough time for the girl to react. She slid down toward the staff and jumped on, kicking herself toward the leviathan and slapping a glyph on it.

A big spark of flame ignited and the beast roared loud, knocking just about everyone off balance. It hit the water with a big splash, and it looked like they were going to have to brace for the ensuing splashback they'd get now.

"Toss it Varian, quick!"

"Stop trying to eat my boat!" she yells over the side, swinging the craft around again. She's definitely going to have to find a way to fly higher on average. It's a bit of a problem, really - she could dive to gain speed and push away from it, but that brings its own problems.

She tries to steer in a zig-zag back towards the shore - and hopefully the other two can at least deter the big-ugly-thing.

As much as he'd rather Luz be out of harm's way, he knows she can handle herself just fine, and he's glad for the areal acrobatics. He hucks the bomb at the creature and as soon as it hit the beast and all the fire- water or not- the whole thing went up in a big BOOM. There would definitely be some air to ride from that. Also fire, but that's how it goes sometimes.

"I think that did some damage at least? But yes- quickly to the shore I think."

Yup, good job on that Varian. It was lucky Luz was already on the staff, and she had an ice glyph ready if they needed on more thing to keep that monster fish down. She hopped off the staff and steadied herself as the explosion gave them the boost they needed.

"It's not coming back up, is it? "

"Bloody he-"

That kaboom definitely causes some air to ride on, nearly flipping up the rear of the boat and shoving them upwards as if by a giant hand.

She barely holds onto the wheel as the flying boat rocks crazily for a moment before steadying onto the air currents again.

"What in the hell was that?!" she asked Varian, working between confusion, awe, and upset - "nearly singed us."

"I don't think it is. I think it's down."

He's peering over the edge just in case, still a little worried. It's definitely gone though, and he heaves out a breath, turning to look at Delilah, his smile turning a little sheepish.

"Sorry, it...it can be pretty powerful. It's Flynnolium, an explosive of my own design."

Luz gave Varian an appreciative glance. He was still amazing in her book, and was glad she didn't have to get any closer to that crazy fish thing. That was definitely scary.

"It's really good though, isn't it? How well it works, even if the shockwave is pretty intense! That must be some of the creepy things that live in the bottom of the sea."

She stared down below though.

"Nothing yet!"

"I want some!" she said, of the Flynnolium. "I need and want kabooms, thank you kindly."

"We weren't even that far out," she reflected, starting to bring their altitude in as they reached towards the shallows. "Hopefully it's the biggest out there, but...who knows."

"See? It can even help with propulsion. I mean, I do use it in engines too, so-"

It's obviously super safe. He nods at Delilah.

"Sure, I can mix you up some batches! However many you need," he glances over the edge, squinting at the water. "Well...if nothing else, we know what's out there now. I call that progress!"

Luz continued to stare into the bottom a bit. She didn't know why, but something told her there was a lot that was old and possibly evil down there, and it would only be a matter of time before it tried to make its presence known to the people above it.

Maybe that land canon idea that Ruby had was not as crazy as she thought.

"We know a little of what's out there. I wonder if there's more than just that big guy. What if there are several of them? If there's a way to explore of what's down there without getting hurt, maybe we should try checking the waters again."

Though not for awhile. Luz needed to calm her nerves and stay on the just-as-eventful shore of Trench.

"You mean like one of those steam engines?" Things are very different when she's from.

But she turned her attention to what Luz was saying.

"Well there has to be at least a few of them. Let's just hope that was the top of the food chain."

"That's something I might be able to work on," Varian stares at the water for a moment before turning his attention back to the city as they get closer to land. "It'll need some serious reinforcing though. But yeeeaaah, let's hope there's nothing bigger out there."

"Hey, you'll show me some of those steam engine things too, right? That's obviously before my time, but I wouldn't mind lending a hand there either."

Luz looked back a moment.

"What might be worst is vicious smaller somethings."

She really wished she remembered what happened that night she and Fern went to the light house. Apparently, she'd been possessed.

"Big ones are easier to see coming, though," she replied, casually, starting to drop their altitude. "One time, I was in Brazil, chap who was trying to kill me slipped during our duel and fell in with the piranhas - do you know what those are? Little bitey fish things - turns out they aren't as fast as they say in the stories, but he didn't make it to shore, that's for sure."

So she points at Luz.

"She knows, see?"

"Yeah, of course, I will, You know I'll show you any sort of machinery you want."

He's always happy to teach anyone anything new after all. At the comment about size, he snorts lightly.

"Oh yeah they can be pretty ineffective so long as you move quickly," he rubs the back of his neck. "That said, some of the worst things we've dealt with in the dream were...little things. Innocuous right up until they weren't."

"Thanks. I know that stuff is mostly your bag, but that doesn't mean I don't want to learn a few things now and then!"

Of course she needed to learn magic, but that didn't mean she was going to ignore everything else she had access to!

"Like what? I mean, can you tell me without having some battle fatigued flashbacks?"

She concentrates on bringing down the ship to just above the waves, skimming in towards the shore. It doesn't appear that anything has followed them, for the moment. All she can hear is the calling of strange birds.

"There were the flower rats- those were pretty awful. I managed to avoid getting bitten by them but I saw them causing a lot of trouble."

He exhales once the ship lands, turning to smile in Delilah's direction.

"Thanks for getting us out of there, that was some fancy flying."

"Ok, you have to tell me about flower rats and how they're actually a bad thing someday," Luz declared.

But once they were on shore, Luz was practically stimming.

"Are you kidding? We just had a bonafide high seas adventure IN THE SKY! We have to totally do this again!"

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