You Asked For It: The Beach Trip

[magicademymods]

Be Careful What You Wish For: A Beach Adventure Crowded Quarters To the joy and delight of the Sundered students who feel joy and delight over going to the beach, the Sundered students get to go to the beach in celebration of their completed midterms! Professor Trammel has graciously paid their way on the local airship, which runs regular routes on summer days to the ocean some 45 minutes away, and so every student who so desires can pack up and head onto it to enjoy a fantastic day of fun and adventure! Slight downside: the airship is small and packed, as it keeps its fees low by relying on volume to turn a profit. The crowded travel compartment is standing-room-only, and even those who are lucky enough to get seats won't find themselves with much shoulder room. Some people may even find themselves in the lap of a fellow student, which only the most cynical and bitter of minds would abuse as a way to ship-tease (right?). The trip isn't long, just hot and stuffy. You can make it, students! Wave Your Hands If You're Shore The beach at last! Though the hot sun beats down from above, a gentle breeze blows in from the ocean and the water itself is delightfully cool without being icy cold. Waves run about five to six feet in height, enough to be forceful without dominating like some giant curl suitable only for surfing. Though scores of people have set up tents, umbrellas, blankets, and towels across the sands, the Diatu contingent has plenty of space to conjure up tables and chairs, an awning and plenty of shade. Professor Trammel politely deploys Spells of Sunscreening, as well as directing students to the swimwear the school has obtained and the screened canvas changing areas where they can don them. Helpfully, he's obtained all manner of suits to fit any taste, so... choose wisely? Baskets of sandwiches and drinks kept magically chilled offer sustenance for the busy swimmers, and all manner of balls, nets, and beach toys to enjoy. The Sand Castle Contest Early in the afternoon, Professor Trammel announces that a sand castle contest is open to all participants! The rules are as follows: 1. Headmaster Birony is forbidden from competing. (At this, Headmaster Birony sulkily turns Makerion Keep back into stone and sends it back to the Magicademy Campus. Ka students will be finding sand in odd places for a while.) 2. Students may work in teams of no more than 2. 3. You will have an hour to work with any of the sand-castle tools available. 4. Judging will be on creativity, quality, and durability. 5. 'Bedmaster Hirony' is forbidden from competing. (Headmaster Birony rips her fake mustache off and throws it to the ground in frustration.) You have a few minutes to form pairs and get ready. Who will win the competition? Teachers' Day Off Some of the Professors, too, have taken the day off! Students are treated to the sight of Professor Trammel digging a hole in the surf so his own knocked-together sand structure goes up against the waves, leaving him to improve its walls and channels each time to make for a better hope of surviving. Professor King is teaching anyone who will listen about a new game she calls Sunder-inlota, which involved lobbing a ball through portals to get it into the other team's goal. Headmaster Birony occupies herself doing a Sorcerer's Apprentice thing with the waves, making them smash and crash against each other with glee, while Professors Porfsin and Trent fail to put campus politics aside and both spend the day trying to attract an audience with their own personal performances. And Professor Kith just... swims and enjoys herself, like a normal human being, which is probably in violation of the Adequate Wackiness In Teaching Staff Proclamation, but no one seems inclined to call her on it. Fire in the Sky As darkness falls over the beach, swimming comes to an end as the gathered people move to get home, their day off done. The Magicademy, however, still has some tricks up its organizational sleeve. With fires conjured along the sands, the Professors take turns cooking -- simple fare like sausages and hamburger patties, that even the less adept among them (coughCamBironycough) can't screw up. And as the last vestiges of sunlight vanish behind the horizon and the beach and ocean are both swept in darkness, Professor Trammel pulls off his final flourish: a Discovery of beautiful lights exploding in the sky, a mixture between fireworks and aurora borealis that paints the night in glory. All in all, not a bad day.

Comments

[unswervingcompanion]

"Too much salt would be unhealthy. Would it be simpler to somehow drain the salt out of it?" He was just trying to be helpful here. And if he'd known she was trying to come up with these things, he would've gone to the marketplace and procured the things she'd asked for.

Still, Hendrik would be here to try and help. So he nodded. "I can start gathering the seaweed if that would help you."

[darkenedmoon]

"Gathering seaweed would help, yes!" Yotsuyu did ponder whether simply ridding the water already there of the salt would be easier, and decided not, with a shake of her head.

"I haven't the proper materials to properly distill the water and get the salt out of it. Were we closer to the school, indeed it might work, but we are not, and so what I can do will simply have to suffice." More work, but if that was what made her balk at a task--well. She wouldn't be who she was.

[unswervingcompanion]

After Yotsuyu went over the logistics, Hendrik nodded. If there was seaweed hunting to be done, he would go and do it.

"Consider it done."

So he turned away from her and walked along the shore. The knight had no idea how much he should gather but he would get as much as he could and if she said more was needed, he was most certainly hers to command.

[darkenedmoon]

"Green is probably safe, no brown or red!" she called after him. Yotsuyu wasn't certain how much seaweed the knight might have come into contact with in his life, as it were. Being that Doma was close to the Ruby Sea, she'd had some experience, but even she didn't consider herself an expert.

As for the rest? She'd make do, and started to make the rice for the rice balls. Yotsuyu planned to do her best to make them good, not tasteless lumps of stickiness.

[unswervingcompanion]

He looked back over his shoulder at hearing Yotsuyu's instructions and nodded to let her know that he had heard and understood her instructions clearly.

Hendrik had spent time training in Puerto Valor as a boy under Don Rodrigo and watching those endless roiling waves taught him much about the harshness of nature. So seaweed he was familiar with.

The green was easy enough to find and he knelt at the seashore, trying to wash off anything off that didn't look up to his standards. But eventually, he got enough in his eyes to bring back to her.