2.5, mini-adventure: Pretty women

Mihai takes his shirt off.

As soon as he does, something is seemingly odd with his torso. His body is riddled with scar tissue. A large one on the left side of his chest, trailing a line across it is the most noticeable, but not by much, as another sizeable one trails across his right shoulder from his chest to his back. Another seems shared by his right bicep and his ribs, and his back and abdomen are otherwise criss-crossed with scarred skin.

The marks are old, and apparently not from combat. They are burn scars.

"By the elements what happened to your back?!" says Steve in surprise.

Burn scars. Konrad was no stranger to the pain that left them. But for them to leave a pattern like that, these were not simply the remainder of battle wounds inflicted by a very angry mage. Or perhaps it was an enchanted blade during a battle. But could anyone make those kinds of marks on skin during a fight?

In any case, Steve had asked the question for him.

Fedler isn't surprised by this, of course. Zelk barely raises an eyebrow. Aemilia however is a little taken aback, but the initial jolt is quickly replaced by understanding, then perplexity once Steve expresses his shock.

"Are scars really that unusual for a mercenary?" she asks genuinely.

"Probably not." - he replies to Aemillia - "But then, i haven't met that many." - then his tone shifts just so that it's clear he's talking to everyone - "Either way, i doubt we came all the way out here to talk about scars."

"Sure, Mihai, whatever you want. But we will talk about it, right?"

Mihai shrugs - "Don't know what's so interesting about it, but i guess."

"Well, from here it looks like someone whacked you on your bare back with an oversized heated metal flyswatter," Konrad chaffed.

Mihai ignores Konrad.

"That's enough Konrad. He doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to."

"............"

Konrad nods. "What the hell, I'll join you in the water."

He looks at Zelk again as he stands up, sinking his feet into the sand a little and working it between his toes. "Who else?"

OOC
I feel like I haven't mentioned this yet, but Konrad is in some blue formfitting swim trunks that go down to above the knees. His shirt is off, revealing his expansive burn scar. As it shows, he has playfully remarked, "ouch", to level off the surprise some may feel from seeing the entire thing. It doesn't bother him.

OOC I wish you had mentioned it before. I would have reacted appropriately. I'll try to keep it in mind in their future interactions.

"I'll go. I could use a swim." He doesn't say to clear his head but it isn't hard to figure out. "Who else?"

"In a minute. I still need the sunscreen."

Fedler glares at Konrad when he makes his joke, and returns her attention on Mihai only after he mentions that he needs sunscreen. Her hand grabs the bottle, and she begins to apply the sunscreen on his back.

"I'm going for a walk on the beach," she states. "I'll go swim later."

With nonchalant apathy, Zelk stands up and with her eyes focused on Steve, she says, "I suppose I should make sure you don't drown."

This elicits a smile from Aemilia, whose demeanor has now switched from prudent consideration to teasing snoopiness.

"I didn't know you were also a lifeguard, Zelk," she comments.

"Without me, he would be hopeless," replies the black mage with a matter-of-fact tone.

Mihai will join Fedler.

Steve nods solemnly in complete agreement with Zelk and then deadpans, "Yes, it's for the best. I'd probably end up joining the circus between here and the water or try to befriend a shark with this cheese and crab I stole from an empty table on the way out of the restaurant." He pulls said cheese and crab from his pockets and tosses the wads onto the shady part of the blanket. "Hell, I honestly have no idea where these swim trunks came from. I was browsing the racks when all of a sudden she marched up and thrust them into my hands, she says "cats" and that was the end of that. We then spent the next 20 minutes making out in the changing booth. Which was awesome. She ordered me not to tell anyone so make sure you guys don't tell anyone outside the group, okay?"

"Ok."

Aemilia raises an eyebrow at Steve's latest antic, unlike Fedler who doesn't even flinch when she hears about the alleged make-out session. Even Zelk doesn't seem to mind, until she approaches Steve, grabs his ear with her right hand, and drags him away towards the sea - it hurts a lot.

"That's enough of your fantasies," she tells him.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Steve cries out in pain. He follows her down to the water quickly. No joke is worth losing an ear over.

The rest of the afternoon at the beach was peaceful, and mostly quiet. The families and small groups of friends usually kept to themselves, and there was no sign in the sky of an impending storm that would arrive to spoil this day. Some people in the party might be relieved by this, but even Songbird had not made an appearance. Peewee kept playing with Breeze and the children, but after an hour or two, he expressed the need to return to his companion, and said goodbye to the blue-haired girl and her workers. His efforts were not in vain however; the castle was now almost complete, and the two kids made sure to thank him for his help.

Zelk was mentally incapable of just paddling in the water, finding this kind of activity to be "aimless", and quickly attempted to challenge Steve into a race. Finding out who among them was the best swimmer appeared to be a much better use of their time. She was also convinced that she would win.

Aemilia however found it easy to relax by just floating in the water, and kept quiet for the most part, unless Konrad or someone else spoke to her. She also lamented the fact that the waves were not as strong here as back home, in Emerald, where she used to surf every time she went to the beach.

Fedler and Mihai initially went for a walk on the beach, and talked about some of their plans for when they would go back to Highwind. She also made an off-hand comment about how little she knew about marine wildlife, as it was not necessary to learn as a Hunter, and she wondered if anyone had any expertise about such a topic. Soon enough, she expressed her desire to take a dip, but quickly became reluctant to the idea once she put one foot in the water. "That's really cold."

As for Breeze, she declared herself the Lady of Dust Hill, and gave the tile of Knights of the Square Table to her two loyal workers. She somehow managed to make herself a little flag, on which an emblem resembling two fairy wings was sewn, that she then attached to a chopstick she took from the Loyal Shark. The banner was floating with proud on top of the sand castle.

OOC:

Zeiss wrote:Fedler and Mihai initially went for a walk on the beach, and talked about some of their plans for when they would go back to Highwind. She also made an off-hand comment about how little she knew about marine wildlife, as it was not necessary to learn as a Hunter, and she wondered if anyone had any expertise about such a topic.

Mihai talked about the kind of fish he'd see at the docks back in Villevielle. There was enough game for rod fishing right on the banks, and seeing the occasional Flathead Grey Mullet jump out of the water wasn't that uncommon, but the real impressive catch was from the fishing ships, that would offload to a specific part of the harbor. Everything from sardine, tuna, cod, even shark, depending on the ship and crew. The smell of salt was hard to forget, and he reminisces how fish used to be a big part of his diet, even if he was never much for seafood. He would mostly buy canned, since it was far easier to fix up and eat, as cooking had never been his strong point, except for one particular dish he'd remembered how to do. He'll quickly shut up about it though, and if pressed, he'll just tell her it'll be a surprise.

Fedler wrote:"That's really cold."

"Helps if you wet the back of your neck first. Or just don't think about it and jump in; only takes a second and then you're fine. Just don't hesitate for too long, or you'll only lose your nerve." - he offers - "Or we can just go back to the shade, if you don't feel like it. It's alright."

Konrad gets in and swims without a care. "On the water" and "in the water" are different things, and he'll tell the others that he liked to go swimming as a boy in Myr, although he didn't often have the opportunity. It's still relaxing and energizing for him.

He shows interest in Aemilia's surfing days and asks how high she can go. "Have you ever wiped*?" As he says this, he scoops his hand into the water. (If she says yes, he'll say, "so you know what it's like to get splashed..." He intends to start a waterfight.)

After a while he stops swimming around and starts diving to look for TREASURE, arrrrr! But really just making a fun game out of looking for cool stuff, and he'll challenge Zelk to help him out, noticing early on how disinterested she looks while she's just paddling.

If she dives with him, he'll try to find an opportunity to speak to her where the others can't overhear. Away from Steve, if he dives with them too. Actually, at one point, he'll challenge Steve to go looking for as long as he can hold his breath, and he'll try to multitask by counting while talking to Zelk.

* - I mean "wipe out", which I believe means to fall while surfing?