Whale of a Tale

[Akatala]

[The following plot can involve humans and other folk hidden amid modern society in the Seattle/Salish Sea area, water and forests and cities included. Just tell which location your character is in if it's different from the posts above yours. Fan-based characters welcome as well as original characters like the one I'm playing here, but let's keep the violence mild. I'm sorta aiming for comedy with my drama here. lol Romance is purely optional, not required.]


[Location: Seattle, WA]

The moment his shift ended at the Seattle Aquarium, Brendon CrescentMoon rushed through the employee locker area to swap out his work shirt and shoes for his backpack with his street threads and sneakers. At a height of 5'8, he was rather on the short end. The mildly muscular frame was just enough to keep him from looking like a complete scrawny dork. He dressed with a style that was either an intentional eye-sore or a conversation starter. His favorite look, one of many wildly colored Hawaiian shirts (or similarly wild t-shirts), dark slightly worn jeans, and a pair of equally rowdy hued sneakers. Today, he positively looked like a rainbow had explosive diarrhea on him. But, then there was his face. His was the face that looked like a teenager though he was well into his twenties now, with raven hair slightly longer than his shoulders, and tanned skin on features that showed an interesting mix of Native American, Polynesian, and Japanese. The hair, he re-tamed just enough to put it back into loose ponytail before strapping on his bike helmet. How could anyone miss a guy wearing a blue and dayglo orange helmet?

It was a rather short ride from the Aquarium to a restaurant next to the famous Pike Place Fish Market to feast on the best fish dinner human hands could serve this deep in the city. He got a double helping of the daily special to go, not really caring what it was. Into his Mario insulated lunchbox in the backpack, it went. Then he was back on his bike to head to his favorite comic shop that was only a mile or so from the marina that held his cabin cruiser / home. Since the weather was fair for once, he stopped at a small park to paw through his latest acquisitions over one of the two packages of seafood and a cola from a near by vending machine.

The gulls were rowdy as always, but the noise of the city didn't seem as bad today. Then again maybe many folks were out enjoying the nice evening of mostly clear skies and a soft breeze off the water. The noise of the city was the main reason why he now lived on a boat that he could take out to quieter places when he needed to. He had learned quickly in the few years after he reappeared from who knew where with his new "condition" that not only was he sensitive to sound, he could also feel the emotions of others as easily as a sight allowed one to distinguish colors. So he'd used a bit of the money left to him from his late parents to buy a boat just big enough to make a suitable bachelor pad and left apartment life behind. Now he worked jobs either on the water or at public display of the water's critters to help him deal with urban life. The water, it always helped.

For the moment, it was starting to light up with the reflection of the setting sun against the alpine mountains, visible from the picnic table he sat at that looked out across the last stretch of land to the Sound. Fish dinner, a scenic sunset, and manga. Too bad his buddies were all busy.

 

[Anglkate]

Current Location: Murky Forest

Shit, shit, shit, shit! The only thing going through Lita's mind as she ran through the murky forest with rain pelting her and a group of shadow-like creatures on her tail. This hadn't exactly been the 'plan' for her grand escape. On the bright side she wasn't dead--a blast of black fire spewed over her head as she ducked and rolled down a slight incline narrowly missing having her head singed off--yet. All she wanted was to sneak into a Shadow Beast lair, take the soul shard they worshiped, and escape without a hitch. Was that too much to ask?

Lita was a young woman of about 20 years of age who stood at 5'4" with an athletic frame, a splash of freckles across her pale skin, and bright red hair. Her eyes were different hues, one green one blue, and both very vibrant. Clothing wise she wore a loose long sleeved shoulder shirt (crimson) with black underbust vest and short black skirt. A pair of dark knee high boots finished her outfit. It was a rather revealing outfit, but she was always most comfortable that way. Over this she wore a damasc cloak with a hood. She was a magi in training, but didn't quite have a grasp of her abilities like her talented sister Lani.

Where Lani was top of her class and had near perfect control of her abilities, Lita was at the bottom of her class and often had difficulty with even the simplest of spells. Usually the spell that she cast was the complete opposite of the spell she had intended. Which sometimes went in her favor, and sometimes didn't. However, in the most stressful of situations she did occasionally get things right, which was the only reason she was still alive. As luck would have it she soon came to a dead end. "I thought stuff like this only happened in stories" she muttered as she looked over the edge of the cliff.

The beasts never slowed down, their growls told her that she was about to be food for thought. "Hope this works" she prayed as she turned, took a few steps back, and suddenly plunged herself over the edge of the cliff. While free falling she gripped her staff tightly, "please work, please work, please work, just this once!" she muttered, "Teleport!". There was a sudden blinding flash of light and when it cleared, Lita had vanished.

She had intended to teleport herself back to the safety of her guild hall, but once more her spell didn't go quite as planned and she was thrown a little off course. Just above where Brendon sat eating his seafood dinner, a white light would appear and start to grow bigger and bigger, like something out of a comic book. From the opening, Lita would come falling through screaming from her death plunge off the cliff. Her eyes were closed as she waited for impact, the breath nearly knocked out of her.

 

[Tutorial_Boss]

[Location: Seattle, WA]
Several military trucks sped by along the streets of Seattle, each one with a Toxic warning symbol on the sides. Before leaving, the last one had hit a bump in the road and swerved to the side before getting back on track and disappearing into the distance. However, a large, metal, cylindrical barrel had jolted it's way out of the back of the truck and fell onto the road unnoticed. It had a dent on it from the impact, and kept rolling until it hit the sidewalk curb. From the dent, a crack had appeared. The gooey, most likely toxic contents of the barrel poured into a nearby storm drain and into the sewers. By the time anyone noticed the barrel, it was already empty.

Down under, a thick, blue sludge fell from the sewer drains and plopped into a filthy pile. At first, the goo pile just sat there, unmoving. However, two black dots suddenly appeared on the goo's "face" as it started to move around. The pile of goop was about a foot tall and a foot wide. It weighed around 3 pounds at the most, and it seemed to be more liquid than solid. Looking around curiously, it started observing every feature around it, from the musty brick walls to the filthy stream of feces next to it. Eventually, the goo saw a bright light from above, a sewage drain, similar to the one that lead it down here in the first place. It pushed against the wall in a futile attempt to reach it, when suddenly it stuck itself the wall. The slime now slid up the wall and reached the sewage drain.

It peeked out into the busy streets, surprisingly unphased by the whirring motors and wheels whirling along the road. Without thinking, the slime starting slithering across the road, causing some to swerve past it and honk, thinking it was an animal of some sort. However, one car came to a screeching halt before it, causing cars behind it to crash. As the drivers got out and started arguing with each other, it listened to the voices of the angry drivers, noting their speech patterns. Infact, it's hearing became enhanced, as it listened to hundreds of voices from those around it , picking up simple words and phrases. However, it heard a scream from nearby which startled it and grabbed it's attention. The slime slithered across the street and towards the nearby park, now feeling curious as to what made the loud noise.

 

[Akatala]

Brendon's expression became deer-in-headlights as his eyes snapped to the portal upon the sound of it registering loud and clear in his ears. He gulped hard as something started to emerge from it but could only stare frozen in place as that something became a girl falling from the sky. With the impact of her, he fell off the picnic bench, his legs getting awkwardly stuck between the tabletop, the support poles, and the bench. He hit the ground full of rocks and tree roots on his back with his teeth gritting, his eyes squeezed shut the moment of collision, and his breath forced out with an, "Oooph!"

The pull for air was filled with the foreign sent of a woman and the sound of fluttering clothing echoed in from his ears like a rush of wake waves breaking across the face of his orca form. The sounds drowned out the feel of the rocks and roots in the ground digging into his back. Sensations of touch resembled the familiar rush of water that was often entrancing. Especially when his back was smacking into the surface of the water after a playful leap into the air during a block party with the other resident orcas. He relaxed under the sensations, lost in them for a moment as this was the only way his unique mind could process what just happened. His feet lodged in the picnic table were forgotten, and his eyes left closed as he clearly felt he was dreaming the smell and feel of a woman pinning him to the ground with her luscious curves and other textures of clothes and hair. The sensory overload left him dazed.

His ears detected the sound of something slithering in across the terrain from the distance, but frozen in place, he treated it like a common snake and ignored it for the moment as his mind was busy cartwheeling from being so suddenly knocked on his ass by a woman who'd just fallen from the sky without a parachute. It wasn't like he could move at the moment anyway, with his brain so tied up in knots of thoughts and feelings clattering around like bingo balls in a tumbler.

 

[Anglkate]

She didn't bother to open her eyes until after she'd landed--rather hard to say the least. When she did open her eyes and orient herself she wasn't expecting the situation she was in. She now sat straddling a young male who appeared to be passed out, and she was in some strange land. There were sights and sounds she wasn't familiar with and people seemed to gawk and point at her as if this was out of the ordinary. Okay, so maybe her falling from the sky was a bit odd, but their looks screamed something unnatural, which she certainly wasn't.

Still sitting on her landing pad, she bent forward to look at him and make sure he wasn't dead. It had been a rather rough landing, "Helloooo?" she chirped some and lightly tapped the side of his face. There still seemed to be no response. "Heh," With a heavy sigh she got up and brushed herself off, the cloak wrapping naturally around her as she peered around trying to figure out where in gods names she might be, "I'm certainly not in Phatasmia anymore."

She quickly began to do a check of herself to make sure nothing got 'left behind' or 'misplaced' be it item or body part from the teleportation spell. Everything seemed in working order and--her hand sifted through her belongings to find the soul shard she'd worked so hard for--everything was in its place. "Good." she smiled confidently before she heard the slithering sound in the grass. Drawing her staff she got on guard as she eyed the slime creature she had never seen before, "Stay back! I'm warning you!" she cast a warning fire spell, which turned into a small rain cloud over her head. Instead of blasting fire, she was blasted with a downpour of water over her head.

"Seriously!" she shouted to no one in particular as she stood drenched before all to see.

 

[Tutorial_Boss]

The slime finally found the source of the commotion; a girl in strange clothing who had fallen out of nowhere and landed on a boy with even stranger clothing. Not that it could comprehend any of that. At least, not yet. It was a simple life form, just brought to life by who knows what. The slime was curious about everyone and everything around it.

It approached the girl and started slithering towards her nonchalantly, unaware of the threats she had given it. However, when the drops of rain from the miniature storm touched it, the slime let out a hiss and retreated back a couple feet. This new sensation was so sudden and different to it, that the slime wasn't sure what to do. It continued to sit there, shivering and confused.

 

[Akatala]

The confusion of the one who'd landed on him bled through the haze and his mind cleared as quickly as it had clouded. He felt a tap to his face, then heard the woman speaking. Blinking open his dark chocolate eyes, he watched as the strange situation proceeded to get even stranger. He felt the mixed feelings of passers-by, and the swift replacement of the girl's confusion with slight irritation directed at the general response to her appearance. Then there was that something else that approached. No, it wasn't a snake. It radiated the emotion of curiosity on the scale of a young child seeing a new place for the first time and trying to process all the wonders of said place.

Surely he had to be dreaming. Grunting, he sat up only to snap attention to the girl pulled by her sudden flash of aggressive defense as she shouted at the slime creature whilst waggling her wand. He jolted in surprise as it immediately started to rain in just this area. He heard her shout in ire at apparently a spell gone wrong, and felt the emotional yelp of the slime creature. Then as he tried to wipe water off his face, he bolted to his feet and lept to cover his brand new manga books with his body on the picnic table.

"Really, woman?! I only JUST bought these!" he blurted as he shoved the books into his waterproof backpack (this was Seattle after all) as well as the mario lunch bag with the other half of his dinner.

Then he spun around to take stock of the scene. "A magical girl who gets her magic backwards and an extra from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Ooze. Yeah, totally have to be dreaming all this."

He dashed out to stand between the slime critter and the girl. "Okay, look, since Slimer here is just as confused, if not even more so, as you and I. Let's all just try take a chill pill and play nice for a moment."

He blinked and looked at the slime creature with a tilt of his head. After studying it for a moment with curiosity almost equal ti it's own, he turned his attention back to the agitated woman.

"I think I suddenly understand how all of my dates must have felt when I fubarred their evenings with my own fumbling," he mused to himself once more.

 

[Anglkate]

As soon as the downpour ceased, she stood there like a wet rat, her attention drawn away from anything and everyone else. Instead, she muttered under her breath about her perfect sister Lani, her bad luck, and catching a cold now from being drenched. Unhooking the clasp of her cloak, she let it slide off her shoulders, unaware that the male had gotten up and was speaking to her now. Wringing out some of the water, she sighed again and shivered, "Well, this won't do."

With water still dripping off her clothing, she took her staff and suddenly slammed it into the ground. The gem at the end would swirl and glow white and suddenly a whirlwind would surround Lita, drying off her clothing. As the wind dispersed, it pushed outward with great force knocking a few people over. Brushing her now dry hair from her face she smiled, "Ah, much better!"

Looking up she finally noticed that the man was still alive and now standing between her and the small slime thing. Leaving her cloak laying on the ground she walked forward toward him. Getting up into his face a bit she scrutinize him carefully, speaking as she walked around him slowly.

"Hmm, you don't look so tough. Kind of scrawny, and too much flare. And what is in that lump on your back?" She poked it a bit and was surprised it gave.

"Surely someone like you couldn't be the Master of this guild." She shook her head.

"No, no that can't be right. Now you!" she walked over toward the slime and crouched down to see him, "You seem intelligent. Somewhat small, but easily molded. I'm sure you have great power hidden in you, it's always the small ones to look out for! So, can you please tell me where I am?"