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Hiromi	There are several reasons to heed the invitations sent out on behalf of the Archwolf. Someone might want to see what she meant by 'playing' with sand, or have a feeling of concern about what might happen if it were ignored, or just want to take up the offer of free food and excuse for a beach party. It is, probably, a beach party. Right?     Upon arrival... yes, there's definitely food. At least, there's a bonfire lit under a crustacean that's several stories tall, cooking in its shell, and it smells an awful lot like crab while plausibly being under some other taxonomy entirely. Beneath it, there's a tall woman with dark hair, sharp canine ears on top of her head, hair pulled back in a pony tail, and a shrine maiden's style of baggy red cloth pants -- though her top is bunched down around her waist to reveal a sarashi. This miko is not Hiromi, but the resemblance is stronger than either of the other two present.     Sumi, that being her name, has been seen by some people before, though she wore a mask during the (former) Mount Feather trials, where she was a mobile obstacle. Without it, the whitened scars on her cheeks stand out more.     While Sumi is tearing out pieces of crab meat to put elsewhere, she's not letting anyone who comes in actually have any. This is, she will explain while smiling yet terse, not allowed, and 'comes later.' The portions, sized for some sort of giant Monster Hunter, have an innate allure to certain types of people. Others may be more interested in the cauldron-sized soup(?) pot, or in the large, round slab of stone nearby, propped up by several smaller pieces and lit underneath, which has gotten hot enough beneath the summer sun to fry everything transferred to it.     Hisako is here, a brunette wolf-miko in more typical attire, ornate bronze gauntlets hanging by knotted ropework around her waist and hair likewise in a long ponytail, hers with bright red ties. She is tending to the frying while deferring to Sumi, who comes by every few minutes to rub her head. Hisako doesn't shift her attention when this happens, but her tail does wag. She does shift her attention if addressed, and is less naturally terse. She has open packs of supplies that are mostly vegetable, and is methodically sorting and mixing them for skewers.     Chie is the last miko present, a younger-looking girl with wheat-blonde hair that doesn't quite reach her shoulders, whose hakama is actually a skirt, and is the only one with detached sleeves. She's not been put in charge of tending to anything, which means she is instead running across the beach -- at implausibly high speed. There's a spray of sand whenever she stops or turns. The only reason she isn't talking throughout this is that the other two are busy.     Hiromi, the Archwolf herself, is also here, less immediately obvious only for having taken the least sensible position to wait for anything by any sane measure. Still, it makes sense for her. Until there's some unnamed quantity of sufficient gathering, she sits on top of the maybe-crab monster and watches the sea.
Storm Investigators	How did these invitations reach them? When did they reach them? Did they receive these invitations by accident? Whatever the circumstances are, Marcus and Greta Hofmann have each gotten a hold of the Archwolf's invitations. It had taken some convincing on Greta's part to get Marcus to go- "P-Party? But what about our assignment?" "We already finished it." "What about the... Oh! The reports?" "Not due for two weeks." -despite attempts to escape it, but the senior investigator is still committed to getting her charge to socialize more. It helps that they've both got positive enough impressions of Hiromi already, so  the pair do eventaully arrive at the part in beach-appropriate versions of their usual clothes: Greta in a light linen button-up and darker pants, and Marcus in a thin blue beach coat and shorts. The size of the food has both of them staring, of course, with Marcus holding her hands over her eyes to shield them from the sun while Greta gets out two pairs of sunglasses for both of them. The spectacle of the crab, combined with Sumi keeping anyone from actually eating any of it, is a little disappointing, but neither complains with the understanding that it'll happen eventually. Probably. Instead, they've got time to see who else is around and what's going on, pausing again to watch the sprays of sand following in Chie's wake. Suspecting that her path may not be the best place to set up shop, they instead looks for a spot in the shade of the big crab to plant their sunburn-vulnerable selves down. "What speed... I wonder what kind of land speed records she could break back home. Or how she was able to achieve such-" "Plenty. You there. Do you have a minute? Marcus wishes to speak with you." "A-ah?! Why me...?" Marcus trembles at being put on the spot like that, but Greta's sure it'll be good for her. She holds a hand up to try and beckon Chie over.
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: Get in here     Roaring, shouting, eager, Arthur is ALREADY yammering about how he totally needs a full stomach to encastle some sand at his best, but Sumi can keep him away from it, despite the salivation. He's got his trunks and his sunscreen and his competitive spirit and his startlingly deep understanding of sand and its construction. He *doesn't* have his cool building software but he *does* have his various gameplay systems that will surely make this work just right.     And all *kinds* of buckets, and shovels, and wirey tools, and flat things, and weirdly-shaped trowels, and all kinds of other suchlike. > Arthur: Chill it out, relax somewhere near the beachparty     Grumbling about crab meat, he takes a minute to shunt some wet sand into a bucket, slam the bucket hard onto the ground upside-down, and take a seat in a relaxed, confident way. His sunglasses actually have a purpose right now!
Ember	Ember is a young man with long dark hair and leather clothing that clings to his form.  Ember has a sun-kissed complexion and a fairly fit build.  The most notable thing about him is the claw mark tattoo across the right side of his face, done in blue pigment.  Ember was only half listening to the conversation that had led to this event, and was surprised to have gotten an invitation to it. When arriving, the first thing to catch his attention was... well, the massive creature that looked a lot like and smelled a lot like a crab.  Not that Ember had had much experience with the ocean, the nearest one to Mythril was a good hundred miles away from there, and he had only made the trip a handful of times for supplies.   He also considers the massive amount of people that could be fed from the crustation, but puts that aside for now.  Especially with the strange man (Arthur) being deflected away from it by Sumi, who claims it is for 'later'.  Whatever that means... So he decides to approach the strange man first, looking over at what Arthur seems to be doing with the bucket.  "So what are you doing there..?" he says, before speaking up again, "My name is Ember, by the way.  Nice to meet you."
Regulus	Regulus is taking a day off from THE RESISTANCE to build sand castles, get free food, and maybe see some crazy wolf lady build a giant mountain sized sand castle because that'd be totally sick. Of course, maybe it'll be a little bit rough to actually be up close to the mountain sized sand castle but Regulus has left APPLe behind to protect THE RESISTANCE by standing guard for the Suitcase while she takes a much needed summer day to unwind. She has sunscreened up and is wearing a two piece swimsuit with olive green swimtrunks and a many-colored (blue, orange, green, yellow) striped swim pullover with a fold and pair of blue buttons near the collar that sort of evoke the visage of a casette tape, albeit one matching the striped color scheme. In addition she's wearing a sunhat with an apple-core pin and a peace-sign pin fastened to the side and she's wearing her sunglasses too. Not to protect her eyes from the sun, but so that she looks cool, but her sunglasses MAY prove helpful due to the protection of glare it affords her! She's got +1/+1 when the beach land is in play! Naturally, Regulus's first instinct is to approach Sumi, excitedly saying, "Woahh! That smells delish! May Regulus have some?" And then ends up told that it comes later. "No sweat! Looks good though! Smells great!" Her stomach grumbles. The lack of immediate food lowers Regulus's stats by -1/-1 but she will persevere. rBut naturally, Regulus's attention is immediately drawn to Marcus who is shielding her eyes from the sun. Regulus reaches into her bag because she is prepared for situations like this, grinning confidently as she offers her BACKUP SHADES to Marcus. "You gotta come prepared for this sort of event, love." Oh she's worried about Marcus being able to see properly? "You gotta show everybody how cool you are! Are you entering the sand castle competition?" She wraps an arm around Marcus's shoulder and says to Chie, "Hey!! Marcus wants to speak to you about something!" in case normal volume wasn't cutting it before she looks back to Marcus. "This is perfect turf for double jump practice. I'll have you know I'm getting pretty close. You've been practicing right?"
Haseo	An invitation? To a beach party? From a person he doesn't even know? Yeah. Fat chance he's going, it's probably some scam or a cult recruitment drive. Ryou's moments from just throwing the invite away, but a small spark of curiosity has him looking into the name of the sender.      ...      It's another Concord member. Shit. He's supposed to be nice to his fellow members, or at the very least play along, and he can't really think of a way to wiggle out of it that doesn't sound like an awful excuse. 'Yeah, sorry, I need to spend the night grinding levels in a video game and then work my job at retail' is probably the worst reason he could give. With a defeated sigh, he flops into his chair, sliding on his VR headset as he begins logging in. It's quicker to just get there through The World than take a train to one of the warp gates, and he's not exactly ready to do an in person meetup with people he doesn't know. Not that he expects anyone to really complain about the method he arrives in, it's not like they really know him either.      Haseo arrives, having swapped his usual bodysuit, belts, and armor plating with generic black swim trunks with flames and meaningless tribal tattoo patterns that he definitely didn't pick up and switch into at the last minute as he looks the place over. That's a crab??? He thinks anyway. That's the food. He assumes the weird wolf folk are related to Hiromi in some fashion but isn't about to bother them to ask. And that's a person building a sandcastle.      Wait. Those sunglasses... Haseo walks on over to Arthur, looking at the work he just started as he crosses his arms.      "Dude, that looks like crap."      He knows he probably just started, but he's going to belittle his work anyway because he's a petty jerk like that.
Petra Soroka	Petra knows the Archwolf, and knows well enough to expect that 'building sandcastles' will inevitably mean some kind of physical contest or fight to go along with the ritual. 'Building' with sand is, as she understands it, pretty much equivalent to a holy activity, and for something to be holy, it has to also involve extreme amounts of strength! So, she understands this, and this makes her *more* fired up for the beach party rather than less.     She's got her swimsuit on, but there's a t-shirt covering it for decency's sake until she actually sets up properly on the beach. This completely fails in its intended function, because upon contact with the beach, Petra's first action is to spring into an excited cartwheel, flinging one of her sandals off accidentally, which she narrowly catches, and then she fumbles around hopping on one foot to pull the other one off to match.     Her outfit is somehow made of much more fabric than a bikini, while still coming across as way sluttier. She has a dark green bikini top, matching her baggy swim trunks, both of which have thick and prominent elastic bands reading CALVIN KLEIN. Her hair's all pre-touseled for her wolf cut, with sunglasses up on her forehead, arms tangled in her hair securely enough that they didn't budge at her impromptu acrobatics. Trailing behind her is a comet trail of floating Silver beach tools, which continues to grow in length as the borble of morphmetal splits off smaller bubbles that squish into more buckets and shovels.     Petra is, before even taking in the whole crab and beach situation, already in an ecstatically good mood, pinned between her two companions and chattering to both. "I mean, like, last time I saw her it was this whole obstacle course thing, so really I'm expecting either a 'build your own obstacle course'-- 'cause Hisako did say something about Hiromi wanting them big-- or like, some kind of sand fighting arena. Like fucking Fortnite, you know. Martial arts Fortnite."     Petra does the whole course of waving around to all the miko, since she's met them all and talked personally to all but Sumi. She reconciles her grumbly stomach at the smell of seafood by remarking out loud that 'if it's for later, that means it's a reward,' and therefore redoubling her determination to win whatever it is the Archwolf actually wants them to do. "This is perfect turf for double jump practice."     "Right. Since it's soft." Petra gravitates in the direction of the two arcanist girls, restlessly social while waiting for instructions. She's not actually *using* any of the sandcastle tools she's made, but they passively orbit around her at the ready anyways.
Storm Investigators	"You gotta come prepared for this sort of event, love." Between Regulus' and Greta's shades, Marcus is spoiled for choice! Being the sort that's thoroughly unwilling to make either of them feel bad, she opts to put Regulus' offered shades on right over Greta's. Now she's got the opposite problem of barely being able to see shit! "Cool? I... I don't think anyone could make that mistake with me." She answers with an awkward, highly self-deprecating chuckle. She looks over at Greta briefly to ask-with-her-eyes for her to answer, but just gets the older investigator observing her silently and waiting for her to answer. "Y... Yes, we are. Madam Hofmann said it would be a good opportunity to socialize even with all this sand and sun and water." She explains in the hopes of making it clear that she's been forced here against her will. She lets out a strained noise when Regulus gets that arm around her, and that turns into a more panicked noise when she calls out to get Chie's attention like Greta had done moments ago. "Not you, too! Augh..." Still bracing herself for  more conversations, Marcus eventually settles down enough to answer. "Y.. Yes, I've been practicing as well since before leaving on assignment. I have started getting the timing for kicking the board without slamming my hands into the ground, but the upward lift is... Er. Still non existent." She admits with a troubled sigh, then looks up when Petra provides input. "It is? Oh, because it would shift if we fell... Hm. But I did not bring any boards to use since I was not expecting to... Er. Practice that here."
Hiromi	'You there. Do you have a minute? Marcus wishes to speak with you.'     Chie reorients in her run, toward Greta and Marcus. She gets closer. And closer.     She's grinning. She's not stopping.     The impact is with force distributed between her head and both forearms to Marcus's center, flipping backward and arresting her own momentum as part of the knockdown attack. She lands with maximum smugness, then just moves on and doesn't explain at all. "Hi! I'm Chie. Who are you? You must've been invited but I haven't seen you. I think?"     She begins to circle and sniff the air. "What did you want to talk about?" She hops foot to foot, a wellspring of energy, while she talks.     Petra gravitates in the direction of the two arcanist girls...     Spotting another target, Chie repeats her barreling knockdown attack on Petra. There is 'warning' in the sense that she obeys physics to the extent of taking nonzero time to build up speed before trying to drive her into the sand for reasons that must make sense to the other wolfwomen, since not one of them feels like this requires comment.     Several people ask after the food. Sumi answers, "You look like you need more training, first." She says this to everyone, punctuated with a side chest pose, bicep flexed. Judging by her own conditioning, meeting her standards might be difficult. Or maybe she's messing? It's hard to tell. 'Drill instructor' her vibe is decidedly not.
Ember	'Dude, that looks like crap.' Ember, who was asking Arthur what he was doing, turns to face Haseo with his arms crossed.  "That's an awful rude thing to say to someone, especially without it even being completed," he says, brushing a hand through his hair to get out the sand.   "Are you just looking for a fight from him?" he asks, without knowing anything about the two.
Chuyao He	Chuyao arrives in an airy white robe, though it is decidedly not the elaborately wrapped shenyi which he ordinarily wears. Rather, it is much lighter and looser on his frame, suggesting that it is an inner garment typically worn below whatever else he's wearing. When the wind blows just the right way, it reveals his collarbone or the line between his pectorals. His hair is all the way down, reaching almost to his lower back, and there is a woven hat on his head to shade him from the sun. A pale cream has been applied to his body in places, like some early offshoot of sunscreen. Slung over his shoulder, his traveling pack bounces with his merry barefoot gait.     Arriving before the crab, his attention is not on the meat, nor is his intention to grab it. Rather, he plants a fist into the opposite palm and bows. "As summoned, I, Chuyao He, earnestly wish my name to be reported to the officer of communication." Of course, Hiromi could have seen him approaching, and no doubt, Chie recognizes him on sight--but it wouldn't do to be impolite. Once the matter of introductions and invitations is settled, he turns and waves to Chie.     "Hello, sister Chie! Your speed is most impressive!"     It's then that he notices Arthur and Ember turned away from the crab--and Arthur's sour mood. "Brother," he gently consoles Arthur, approaching after Arthur stomps over to his spot, "In fact, the meal is being prepared. Mencius writes, 'Whenever Heaven invests a person with great responsibilities, it first tries his resolve, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, leaves him destitute, and confound his every endeavor. In this way his patience and endurance are developed, and his weaknesses are overcome.' Can one listen to music before it is composed? Patience now will make it all the sweeter." Dude, that looks like crap.     "Ah," Chuyao alights with interest. "The brother with the fiery inner garment is perhaps a little hasty, but, is it so that you have an interest in the arts?"
Lilian Rook	Whatever Lilian expected out of 'playing with sand' is entirely informed of what she knows of Hiromi; which is more than most but still not nearly so much she'd choose to interpret for her if anyone else was available. As such, she had steep reservations about the idea of 'a beach episode' (despite pulling that one at the Dragon's Garden a couple of weeks ago) hosted by the Archwolf.     After days of indecision, her mind was made up by Oreshnika catching wind of the whole thing and insisting on going. And unlike Sakura, there's no actual social apparatus keeping her at home; only 'that's where all my stuff is'. So . . .     A second blonde accompanies Petra. A little shorter and younger, considerably paler, wavy hair benefitting from nearing-four-years of conditioner use, distinctly unathletic build benefitting from eating real food at the same time, all beautiful blue eyes and can-do attitude with a complete lack of learned fear of Elites; Here Comes the Oreshnika.     ''cause Hisako did say something about Hiromi wanting them big-- or like, some kind of sand fighting arena. Like fucking Fortnite, you know. Martial arts Fortnite.'     Engaged in her best sagely nodding and corny sensei speech rhythm, Nika says "I see then . . . the time has come. Today, young grasshopper, you ¶explode into towers¶." Curled finger and thumb to chin, she nails her very well practiced 'mm mm' nod. Then she blinks twice, and opens her eyes wide. "Oh! I totally didn't finish making the Squirrel Killer 9000 ¶recreation/facsimile/image training¶ in Little Big Planet! Ah! I can't forget again!"     When Nika was told this was a game of some kind, she showed up prepared to win (even though Petra is really her dog in the race). The competition probably has nothing to do with swimming, so wearing a high-end one piece competition swimsuit (paid for by Lilian) wouldn't really help either way, but it's in her favourite white/blue/yellow combo, with gacha characteroid colour stripes, so she's automatically thriving. The pockets are all in the big stupid winter jacket for mountain climbing that she probably brought exclusively as pocket space. She has to rush over to Lilian to retrieve it, so she can write down her important memo on a touch screen.
Storm Investigators	Bracing herself as she sees Chie approaching, Marcus bows her head slightly in a greeting while she's still unaware of the imminent danger she's in. "Y... Yes. Um. Hello. I am.. I was wondering-" She starts, looking at the ground for a moment before glancing back up and noticing that Chie sure is coming at her really, REALLY fast. Her eyes go wide, and Marcus only has enough time to get one palm up with a terrified "W-w-wait!" At least she's somewhat solid for a split second of that impact. Her footing's ass, though, so she gets bowled right over and lands flat on her back. Greta's almost worried about that, but she settles back into lounging once she sees that Marcus is just dazed and not actually injured. "H... Huh? Oh. My... I am Marcus. Ow, oh. We met-" Breathing out and holding in a quiet whine, Marcus sits up before gesturing over at Hiromi atop the crab. "During a prior mission. Er. Event? Madam Hiromi, that is. And I was wondering about your speed. Um. How..." It takes her a moment, but she's back up soon enough and even gets her thoughts reorganized after the spill! "How did you become so fast? Were you born with that kind of natural speed, or did it come from something else?"
Lilian Rook	Lilian came carrying the duffel just because she has all of the arm strength by a country mile, and appears to be slightly more anxious than apathetic about carrying Nika's accessories. The beach skirt and wrap top don't afford her any more storage space than Nika.     Underneath, she decided not to be an outrageous showoff herself (that's scary) and opted for a something close to a short tankini with multiple sets of straps that technically in-vogue as fashion but are really just for her own peace of mind. She has finally relented to the pressures of black/grey/gold because her bare back is going to show anyways and so she might as well coordinate. Other than the usual black iron necklace and hairpin, she has warily kept her number of accessory slots to zero.     'This is perfect turf for double jump practice.'     "Oh god. You're still doing that?" Lilian looks over in the midst of the handoff to Nika. "Do you two even have a direction to go with for learning?" Nika, in the midst of taking notes with a plastic stylus, murmurs "Oh double jump? You just jump and then jump again in the air.", matter-of-factly.     "I think they know that."     "But that's all you do?"     "I think the 'jump again' part is the issue."     "Why?"     "For the obvious-- Hm. I suppose because they're . . . approaching air like 'empty space'?"     "Ohhh. You've gotta pay attention to the ¶medium/VFX design¶ though. That's where all the ¶lore/technique/narrative conceit¶ is."
Regulus	Regulus says, "Woah... you might be a trendsetter, Marcus." to Marcus as she puts on two pairs of sunglasses simultaneously. Because she literally was helping call Chie over, Regulus deftly steps slightly out of the way to not get in the way of any potential bodying going on. However, this does stop her from reaching into her bag to drink a Dr. Pepper in defiance of a highschooler so she's saved from that embarrassment. ''Right. Since it's soft.'' One of the last things Regulus heard from Petra was how it was sick that Forget Me Not was blowing people up but she really really really wants to relax today so she's not going to think about that or bring it up even though it makes her think she's losing her mind a little or maybe the world is losing its mind a little. She's not really sure but she eventually settles on it just being that Petra wasn't there to see it. Yeah. Sometimes Petra's a supervillain but she's still Petra at the end of the day. "Mhm! 'Cause it's soft." She agrees, lecturing Marcus on doublejumping, probably while she's face up in the sand from Chie's attack or something. "I'm gonna give it a go when I get a chance--" but for now she collects her shovel and pail from her bag, sets it down and-- --jumps a foot into the air as Chie barrels down Petra. "A double attack?!" Regulus is offbalance! Chie might be able to make it a triple and she already spent her moxie getting out of the way of the first strike! ''Do you two even have a direction to go with for learning?'' "Yeah! I practiced and made it work--" Whether she needs a minute to recover first though really depends on if Chie headbutts her in the gut and incapacitaes her for a few minutes.
Haseo	"Are you just looking for a fight from him?"      "Pffft. Maybe? Not like he has as much of a chance. Last time it took him and everyone else to beat me." That's cope. He knows it's cope. But he's going to say it anyway because it soothes his pride.      "You have an interest in the arts?"      "Not really, but it's not like you need to be versed in that crap to know when something looks bad." He looks over Chuyao, and scoffs. "What, gonna lecture me about how I'm wrong now?"
Ember	'Patience now will make it all the sweeter.' Ember nods at that. Hard work always makes water and food taste better.  "You should listen to the scholar here..." he says and turns towards Chuyao.  He offers a hand to him, "Ember.  Nice to meet you," he says politely.  He remembers what Regulus and Vertin informed him of on his first day in the Watch, and that was being polite to people. 'Last time it took him and everyone else to beat me.' "But they beat you," Ember says, immediately towards Haseo.  "If you're going to act like that to people because you lost to them, then you're immature at best." It was about this point that he noticed Chie speed up at the group and barrel into Marcus, and then Petra.  Hilarious!  Also, she seemed as fast as he was with a summoned guardian.  Was that distressing?  No, it was really interesting.   "So how do you move so fast?" He asks Chie, not sensing any magic from it.
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: What are you doing there?     "CHILLIN'." > Arthur: Nice to meet you     "HELL YEAH DUDE." Arthur immediately leans towards him, and then starts dapping, bumping, gripping, grabbing, low-fiving, high-fiving, twisting, turning, wiggling, and otherwise handshaking Ember thoroughly, enough to leave a lesser man shaken. > Arthur: That looks like crap     "IT'S SITTING DAWG." He does a little "huh" sort of gesture. "You a CHAIR REVIEW guy? C'MON." He laughs obnoxiously. "We can do ART COMPETITION if you're so hard." He jerks a thumb as the sand, which happens to be a thumbs-down. "YEAH? That's not gonna be a FIGHT though, that's gonna be ME BEATING YOUR ASS."     With a big, wide gesture, "Remember? I'm ART, BRO." > Arthur: It starves his body     "BRO-THER," Arthur hits him with the hyphen. "It SURE STARVES. I'll WAIT, I just gotta make sure I'm a SHITHEAD about it, otherwise nobody knows the FOOD'S GOOD. How're they supposed to feel APPRECIATED if they don't got IDIOTS BOTHERING THEM?" He jabs a thumb at himself. "I'M IDIOTS."
Petra Soroka	"Today, young grasshopper, you ¶explode into towers¶."     "Exactly! Yes! I've been praticing!" Petra claps her hand on her bicep smugly, increasing all of her super meters with each time Nika or Lilian address her. "So we're ¶sure to win¶."     The inherited trait of Nika's strange direct-concept-expression speech is in full expressive frequency for Petra today, with her mind fully engaged in Nika-mode. Today, the earth is her friend, and to impress both Nika and Hiromi, she must exhibit mastery in communicating with it. ". . . but the upward lift is... Er. Still non existent."     "By saying that out loud, you've set yourself back by months." Petra really isn't sure why these two have fixated so much on her offhanded double-jump comment in the radio, but it's circled all the way around from being something that she mean-spiritedly encouraged because she thought it was funny that they'd fail, to kind of hoping they figure out some way to manage.     Really, the fact that they're *still* talking about it is the entire reason. Anyone can make some stupid vapid comment about random nonsense, and Elites do this constantly, but it's been, like, over a month or so, and Regulus and Marcus are *still* jumping. It's not like *Petra* got the ability for any reason besides wanting it, and being luckier than nearly anyone else in the multiverse. It's a little heartbreakingly sympathetic actually, to have allies in her distaste for physical law.     So she decides she has to become their instructive sage sincerely, for once, instead of just making fun of them. Pointing at Marcus suddenly, she says, "You have to take advantage of the benefits you already have! And you have to believe in them totally! What do you even do? Like, magically."     To demonstrate, Petra hops once out of the sand, and though she doesn't need to, the Silver darts below her feet to flatten into an instantaneous platform that she jumps off of a second time, flipping before landing back on her feet. "That sort of thing counts too, you know. It's about, like, freedom of motion, to align your psychological assumptions of movement through space with physical reality. You've gotta do whatever it takes to win."
Petra Soroka	"I suppose because they're . . . approaching air like 'empty space'?"     "Right. I mean," In the company Petra's in right now-- mostly Nika, though Lilian can jump really well too-- she can't consider herself as much of a unilateral expert-in-the-room on double jumping as she normally would. With Nika here, the lesson to Marcus and Regulus has become a *conference* instead, a socratic meeting of the greatest scholars the sector has to offer.     "The problem, I think, with the default mode of movement for people, is that there's a weird immediate ¶learned helplessness/just following orders/ragequit¶. If air is 'nothing', then the moment you're in contact with it and nothing else, you become helpless to the forces exerted on you. It's the same as running, or balancing. The outline of your body is the same when you're Y-shifted, your movement controls are all the same, it's just that because it's invisible, you expect that you won't get any feedback from them, so you, like, go limp. You can't do that. You already know how to jump! So just do that twice!" "Hi! I'm Chie."     "Ah! Chie!"     Marcus is killed instantly! Petra, rather than attempting to dodge, scampers around in a wide circle to build up speed, and in wordless understanding of the prompt, revs up to ram into Chie in return like jousting bucks. When they make contact, Petra is instantly flattened, thwacking into her and toppling backwards into the sand as Chie triumphantly charges past her.     "Ack-- ow... you're all so much stronger than me still."
Hiromi	'As summoned, I, Chuyao He, earnestly wish my name to be reported to the officer of communication.'     Sumi nods, and then lifts her chin toward-- "Hisako."     She looks up. "Oh! Yes." And stands up, after using a pair of skewers to flip a piece of meat on the frying stone. Returning the salute -- almost the same gesture, to the extent only someone like Chuyao could notice a regional difference -- she says, "You're welcome to wait anywhere here for the Archwolf to speak."     'Hello, sister Chie! Your speed is most impressive!'     "It's the villain, Chuyao He!" Chie waves. "You came!"     Sumi gives him a hard to read look. "That sounds like a story to tell."     A few more arrive. Arthur begins building. Hiromi waits until the last arrives -- either because there are no more invitees or because she's intuited who won't be arriving is unclear -- and conversations have already started up between the earlier arrivals before she leaps down. It looks like leaping, but she contacts the giant shell in three places on the way, and the sand hardly stirs when she lands. The air, impossibly, does. Everything in her immediate presence feels -- not 'heavier,' quite, or even discernibly different in a way that would show up on film, but somehow different when taken as a whole, as if jumping into relief in three dimensions, more visible and known and attention grabbingly foreground-important. "All are here. We begin."     With a sweeping gesture, she communicates approval of Arthur's little muddy sand tower. 'Approval' is crystal clear even with unfamiliarity of the gesture because she is, as usual for those who've encountered her in the flesh, impacting directly beneath the language processing center of every mind in attendance. "You will build. You will show your <wisdom>." Knowledge, foresight, creativity. The senses of words overlap. "You will be tested. You will strive for victory. You will feast. This, your <reward>." Incentive, a right granted.     "It's simple, yes? Even 'words' are enough, to understand." There's a sense that some of what she's said doesn't fall under 'words,' even if she could be heard saying them. A distinction drawn. "I am Hiromi. You know this, but not what I've done. The mountains where I lived, digging, clawing, guarding. You know other things, yes? 'Castles.' Show me your <castles>." A home, a territory defended, a place that can be kept safe from enemies. There is also a sense of 'stone,' and of rising and falling. The underlying meanings are harder to put into words, the further one thinks about it.
Lilian Rook	'I have started getting the timing for kicking the board without slamming my hands into the ground, but the upward lift is... Er. Still non existent.'     "That's a shocking amount of coordination for you." Lilian comments on Marcus with a surprisingly sincere look of (mild) interest. "But you're doomed if you keep chasing it that way. The force of kicking off is split between yourself and the board based on your respective mass-- it's not really, but think of it like it is."     Nika, scurrying back over to slip her electronics back into the dangling pocket, perks up an ear and turns her head to sneak her way in on this public conversation. She has a look about her, when Lilian gets her elbow on her palm and starts going into tutor mode with bossy little finger gestures. "The board is much ligher than you, so it takes very little push to lose contact with it; what sends it flying only budges you an inch. You can think of it as if 'the board weighs one tenth as much as me, so I'll only get one tenth of my jump'. You'd need something much heavier; or rather, something with higher inertia, to . . ."     Lilian, aware of the staring, gradually slides her eyes towards Nika. As if explaining away being caught in the act of something, she says, "It's important field knowledge. You can't just kick off of everything you'd like." "Like anime." "I'm talking about real life!" "Okay but you're comparing it to when the guy jumps off all the falling rocks in anime though." "If that's how you choose to interpret it, then sure, why not." "Don't worry Lilian. I think it's cool you know ¶physics/sports theory/game mechanics¶."     'Dude, that looks like crap.'     "And you look like a teenaged boy's first virtual reality chat avatar." Lilian says, unknowingly. Which makes it worse, because she must have assumed Haseo's avatar is a real person who actually chose those tattoos.     ''Whenever Heaven invests a person with great responsibilities, it first tries his resolve, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, leaves him destitute, and confound his every endeavor. In this way his patience and endurance are developed, and his weaknesses are overcome.''     Nika, enthralled by this and not whatever bullshit Haseo is doing, inches over towards the talk of--     "Hi. That sounds cool. Um. Which ¶Heaven¶ are they writing about?"     Oh no. She exited the bubble around both Lilian and Petra for a second. Now she's nervous. Look at her glancing around and wringing her hand! You can't just walk up and tell some kind of fancy ancient Chinese philosopher 'oh that's like an unlock condition'! Or so she assumes!
Hiromi	Hisako, who is apparently 'the communications officer,' picks up as soon as Hiromi stops talking, responding to some silent gesture of toe to sand. "To explain! You may use any tools you like, but you may also use these."     She holds up a paper talisman. Apart from the writing style being entirely different, it's not entirely unlike things Lilian has used, courtesy of her wife. Same medium, different tradition. "These will cause the earth to listen to your commands, for a time. Only for... well, soft earth, but you'll understand if you try it."     She lacks the ability to be mind-affectingly clear in her speech, but it will be clear to anyone who tries. The talismans let the earth 'answer' to directions and flow in the way it does for Hiromi, in a way that will only be slightly familiar to one other person here.     "Remember that there's 'a test.'" She doesn't expound on it more than that.
Lilian Rook	''Exactly! Yes! I've been praticing!''     "Menacing. Sentences spoken seconds before disaster." Lilian says. It'd help if she weren't casually staring at Petra's bicep after the gesture. "For her or for the ¶bad guys/away team¶?" "Either. Both."     'The problem, I think, with the default mode of movement for people...'     Petra knows that she's on the right track because her fellow scholar of Athens is sidling back up into her personal space again and nodding every two sentences."Yeah it's not the same as like ¶belief/determination/manifesting Christmas¶ because you can't just jump exactly-the-same-style because if you do that then you just kick your legs into air because you're kinda just thinking it's empty anyways."     Nika stops to count the number of uses of 'because' in one sentence, mouthing out the numbers, and firmly decides it's fine. "First you gotta think about the ¶little ritual¶ for jumping off the air and then practice. Like I bet you're already thinking about jumping 'up' both times but did you notice that your feet aren't even like actually pointing down down like against the ¶objective plane/anima mundi/horizon level¶ when you're doing it?"     She points directly at Petra as if it means anything in particular. Except it kind of does? She manages to trace the exact up-down-stop-up-down double arc of the jump she just completed a couple of seconds ago. "Because then you're just gonna sideways jump or jump down at the ground or whatever right?"     'Ack-- ow... you're all so much stronger than me still.'     Nika breaks out into a fit of giggling. Lilian winces. "Christ. For a second I thought that'd be the end of you." she says. Weirdly, she just sort of . . . casually waves to Hisako? While moving a little bit out of the way to set up a chair, just as a place-claim for the 'luggage' to be dropped next to, and so she can remove her outerwear as well.     'It's the villain, Chuyao He!'     "Villain?" Lilian raises an eyebrow over at Chuyao; which causes her to hesitate in stripping down to her swimsuit. And it's even less revealing than she'd usually choose!     'All are here. We begin.'     . . . . . . . .
Regulus	Regulus wants to be able to do cool things. Double jumps are cool. This is her level of thought that has led her down this journey of learning how to do the double jump. But ultimately the big breakthrough she had was that she COULD make little glowy notes that had physical tangible presence so really, all she needed to do, was to expand her understanding of that incantation. She also had a lot of time to herself sitting around waiting for things to happen so she really had nothing better to do than to keep jumping. And the fact that Druvis has sort of turned the Foundation building they're in to something that's kind of already an obstacle course, she's had more space and reason to jump than ever before. "Yeah...! I've got something-- I've been working on the timing. I can show you--" She has managed to avoid getting headbutted in the gut and murdered so she starts walking back a few few feet after setting down her pail and shovel. And then she takes a running leap forward, spinning her finger in a circle--and summoning a shimmering flat platform in the air with a o/~ on it. It's just barely in the air because Regulus can't jump that high but she jumps on it-- And it makes a xylophone plonk noise as Regulus summons a second in front of her, leaps off it as the first platform vanishes towards the second platform-- --but misjudges the jump, slamming her face into it, being thrown back in midair so that she lands in the sand, knocking the shovel up as she hits the sand with enough force that it hits the pail's handle, sending it spinning up into the air and then landing with a THUNK onto Regulus's head. "Owwwwhhh... Double jump...I did it..." She flops onto her back afterward. ''You will build.'' "'kay..." Regulus says. The bucket on her head prevents the world from seeing that she's teary-eyed from the pain of smashing her face into her own summoned platform but you don't need to see it to know it.
Lilian Rook	'Owwwwhhh... Double jump...I did it...'     The applause is Lilian's. It's a slow clap at best, but not the sarcastic type. "Well done." she says, with poor little Regulus sniffling inside her plastic bucket. "Your basic fitness is pitiful of course, but limiting ourselves strictly to the realm of 'performing a double jump', the result is inarguable. I especially appreciate the little bit of cinematic flair you employed with the sound effect. Keep practising and it may eventually be useful."
Hiromi	'How did you become so fast? Were you born with that kind of natural speed, or did it come from something else?'     'So how do you move so fast?'     "I'm always pl--training!" She was about to say 'playing,' wasn't she? "You need to do that more. You're sitting inside a lot, aren't you? I've heard about people who always sit inside! They don't even stand up! Are you like that, too? You have to get better at that. Look, when someone tries to knock you down, you have to put one foot behind the other, like I'm doing now, see?" She demonstrates. "Like this! Then you lower your center and lean into it. If you p--trained more you'd know this, wouldn't you? But it's okay, I can teach you! Like this! Do it this way!" She's about to put her hands on Marcus to help her posture.     Regulus is offbalance!     An opening! Marcus is saved for the space of time it takes to instead 'demonstrate' (the lack of) proper form by pivoting instantly into knocking her down. Why she's doing this still hasn't been stated.     'Ack-- ow... you're all so much stronger than me still.'     Chie is doing so good! This is the best! She glows with triumph, but still helps Petra up because this is proper. "But you're trying! That's important. You always have to be trying. You have to be always moving and running and jumping and working harder than ever before. That's how you keep moving up, you know? Even if you panicked and fell like she did, that's even more room to move, right? Because she's got so far to go!" She's not trying to diss Marcus. That's just the state of things.
Chuyao He	You're welcome to wait anywhere here for the Archwolf to speak.     "Thank you." That sounds like a story to tell.     "If it would please this unrefined scholar's hosts," says Chuyao with an expression as neutral as Sumi's is hard-to-read, "Then I shall be happy to tell it. To make a long story short, I used the self-address <villain>, because a petty man thought to wield shame against me." What, gonna lecture me about how I'm wrong now?     "In fact, there is little need, brother, as we may both see the piece is unfinished," Chuyao offers with a diplomatic smile. Ember. Nice to meet you.     "So it's brother Ember! How pleasant to meet you in person so soon after our introduction. I, the scholar of the late generation, Chuyao He, respectfully greet you." He plants a fist into the opposite palm, lifting them and bowing his head. How're they supposed to feel APPRECIATED if they don't got IDIOTS BOTHERING THEM? I'm IDIOTS.     "I will demonstrate the proper method in due time, brother, and you will understand that there is no need to associate with or emulate 'idiots,' as you call them." Which ¶Heaven¶ are they writing about?     This delights Chuyao, and it is visibly evident. "Ah! What an excellent question. Schools of thought originating from the Central Plains, dating many hundreds of years before my own state of Song, speak of 'Heaven' and 'Earth,' which may be understood as two poles of reality. 'Earth' is where you and I reside, but 'Heaven' may be many things!"     "Some consider it an afterlife, others a holy world home to a great host of gods, others still an all-encompassing will that exerts itself upon Earth--some even personify that will as a supreme deity," he says, drawing the character in the sand with his toe. It looks like a stick figure, right down to an emphasis on a flat 'head,' so there's little surprise people would anthropomorphize it. "In the passage I quoted, Mencius speaks of it as a will without a body, a kind of plan for creation and all within it which we defy only with great effort and at our own peril. I have heard philosophers in other parts of the world speak of 'life' in a similar way--such as the phrase, 'life had other plans.'"     "Have you heard this phrase before, sister?"
Regulus	As Regulus is recovering from her 'successful' double jump, she gets bowled over by Chie just as she's starting to get up, spins over once, and then ends up back in the seated position afterwards but now utterly covered in sand. "Ogggh..." She says. She salutes Lilian by which I mean she salutes like 45 degrees off from saluting Lilian, still with her plastic bucket on her head. "Yeff ma'am." She says. "I'm noffh giffing uphffh." She takes a breath to try and explain her process. "Iffh ith noff musffical iffh nofth me." She's not taking that bucket off until she's recovered her spiritual and emotional energy. It's as much for her safety as it is for her safety.
Storm Investigators	"Patience now will make it all the sweeter." Marcus knows precisely one person that speaks that way. She almost forgets her general social anxieties, too, as she glances around, but remembers them all just after she raises an arm to awkwardly wriggle her arm in a really stiff wave to Chuyao. "Oh, Brother Jianya is here, too! And Mister Lowell over there, and..." She's not sure what to make of all those hand things Arthur's doing with Ember. Just seeing the shmoovements are enough to intimidate her into shrinking back down again. "Do you two even have a direction to go with for learning?" Wilting a little more at yet more people engaging her in conversations, Marcus nevertheless manages to hold it together enough to actually respond to Lilian! "N... Not really, no. I had thought using the board as something to propel myself with would help, but a board in empty space-" She pauses, nodding at Nika slowly and pausing to register a new unfamiliar face. "Would it be possible to fix it in the air? In empty... Ehm. To use that empty space as a solid surface?" She asks, looking between Nika and Lilian now in the hopes of getting some kind of much needed insight on what she and Regulus are missing. "Yeah! I practiced and made it work--" Or just what she's missing. Regulus gets an awed look from Marcus at that revelation, and even Greta tilts her head slightly to keep an ear alert to what might be revealed. Part of it's also to make sure Marcus doesn't get hurt trying something particularly stupid, of course, but if there is some inkling of truth in any of it... Maybe it wouldn't hurt to observe them at work. "You have to take advantage of the benefits you already have! And you have to believe in them totally!" "That's a shocking amount of coordination for you." "It is? We do? Oh! Um. Th.. Thank you, Madam Rook. Thank you, Petra. " Although Marcus is confused by the sincerity and compliments, she still finds herself giggling bashfully at the two. It's enoguh to actually have Marcus standing up straighter, and her gaze even manages to stay on them instead of drifting aside after the first second. "Magical.. Ah. My ability is to read things. To draw information from them, to understand their histories, to find out everything I can about what I'm looking at." She answers without a single pause, not even realizing that she's really gotten more fired up from that encouragement. With Petra's demonstration underway, Marcus squats in place to really watch what she's doing. The Silver coming out doesn't even startle her with how focused she is on observing the technique and trying to absorb what's being said.
Storm Investigators	"The board is much ligher than you" "You can't just kick off of everything you'd like." "freedom of motion, to align your psychological assumptions of movement" "That makes... Far more sense, yes. I don't know if my abilities would let me alter reality in that kind of way, but perhaps my way of thinking could be changed. Or if movement could be changed to ... Disobey physics?" It's a lot to wrap her mind around, but she's not throwing in the towel just yet. "Just do it twice.... Even if the air is nothing, just do it twice. Jumping involves not just pushing with the feet, but an impulse on the rest of the body to rise. Perhaps the board was the wrong way after all, so focusing on that upwards impulse..." Marcus scrunches her face up harder as the thinking intensifies, her rational brain at war with the sheer concept of double-jumping and the encouragement of so many people. "Or not upwards... Forwards. If gravity is not a concern, then forwards could become upwards. Then..." There's a lot for her to digest with this, and her brain's going a mile a minute already trying to solve that particular part of the puzzle. "If I could thrust forwards with just my neck and chest, perhaps...?" "I'm always pl--training!" "You need to do that more." "Not as much as I would like." Marcus admits, briefly confused by Chie's question before realizing her mistake and then shaking her head. "Oh! No, I... I would not mind more time to sit inside and read, but I also need to train and become more well-rounded in... Erm. All aspects of physical fitness." Not realizing how roundabout that answer might have been, she instead finds herself listening closely to Chie's explanations of how to stand properly. With directions right in front of her, Marcus shifts her feet around on the sand, putting her left behind her right and glancing downwards to make sure she's mimicking Chie's at least somewhat properly. "Like this? And then lean..." She's halfway to getting on one knee, but stops about a foot short of actually hitting the sand with that knee. She doesn't even take Chie's observation as a diss, either, since she knows the score! It's real bad, and she does seem to be having trouble maintaining that lowered stance, but she's trying extra hard not to complain about it even if she's sweating a lot from all the movement already. And the talking. So much talking! That's probably got her sweating more than the physical movement.
Ember	'HELL YEAH DUDE.' Ember is caught off guard by the 'greeting' that Arthur gives him.  He, however, for some reason, can't stop and is forced to go through the entire ritual of various handshakes, high fives, fistbumps, and other hand-related greetings.  He feels a little dizzy afterwards, but shakes his hand afterwards.   "Oh, you're the loud man from the radio.  The one who called my home 'dirt times'," he says, perhaps a bit sourly.   'I'm always pl--training!' The very idea that someone could become so physically fit that they could break human limits without magical assistance seems ridiculous to Ember.  Then again, for him, magic is just another muscle he has to work.  "I see.  Well, I am often training my body and mind.  I just did not think it was possible without magical augmentation." 'And you look like a teenaged boy's first virtual reality chat avatar.' Ember does his best not to laugh at the comment made towards Haseo.  Especially after he's gotten at least SOME explanation of what an avatar and virtual reality are.  Though he has no reason to believe that Haseo isn't a person either.  "Oh come now, we all make mistakes when we are young," Ember says, bemused.   'It's the villain, Chuyao He!' 'I, the scholar of the late generation, Chuyao He, respectfully greet you.' Ember gives Chuyao a look, "Villain?  I am assuming there is a story behind this accusation?" However, the two meet.  Ember isn't prepared for the bow and is unfamiliar with the way Chuyao greets culturally.  However, he makes do and returns the bow as close as he can to the other man. 'Regulus' double jump.' Ember, familiar with Regulus from her voice, watches the attempt at a double jump.  He winces when she mistimes her jump, having remembered his own dexterity training in the resistance.  "You okay?" he asks the now bepailed Regulus.
Ember	'Hiromi' To say that Ember isn't disturbed by Hiromi's presence of strength would be a lie.  It's the first time he's met her, and it's a presence that isn't magic, which is even stranger for the young man used to a world where this kind of pressure is only felt by the magically inclined.  It also doesn't help that she speaks, and the meaning of some of those words doesn't come across exactly.  More a feeling than an exact meaning.   Disturbed, but also not wanting to be mocked for his misunderstanding of the being that laid down the rules, he decides to focus on what his 'castle' will be.   Hisako explains the actual rules of the contest, insofar as they can use whatever tools they wish, and also the paper talismans.  He tilts his head at this, assuming it's some sort of magic in the tools offered.  Instead, he waves a hand.  "I don't need them, but thank you..." he does ask, a bit softer to Hisako, "What is she?" motioning towards Hiromi.  Better to ask one of her disciples than someone who won't know.   Now it was time to make a 'castle'.  The first thing he'd need was more wet sand.  So he walks a bit away from the main meeting place so that he has space to work with.  As they were going to build, and then have some sort of 'challenge' afterward, he decided to throw off his shirt.  His various tattoos are on full display.  The image of a demonic-looking beast, the image of an avian-looking monster, and the image of a moving mountain are revealed.   There is a glowing light coming from him, followed by a burst of wind elemental energy.  His body also changes, his hair grows longer, his skin develops green feathers, and his hands turn into claws.  Also, two wings grow from his back.  He bursts into the air and over the water.  Seconds later, a localized wave, larger than the rest, washes over the sand.  More follow, making sure he has a lot of wet sand to work with.   Now he moves over the large patch of wet sand he had created.  Spinning, he lands on the ground as he dismisses the first transformation with a flourish of wind.  Almost immediately, he transforms again, this time into a half-man, half-rock transformation.  He grows significantly taller and a lot harder-looking.   He dives into the earth, like it was water, before coming back up.  With him is a giant mound of wet sand.  Almost way too much.  He seems to tap his chin for a moment, before... His hands reach into the wet sand, starting to sculpt it like clay.  First, he creates a large wall.  He seems to force it to spread out, and then up.  As it rises, it seems to gain definition.  Lines forming in the sand, almost as if they had become bricks themselves.  Once done, he starts making an inner 'cidadel', shaping it to become larger than the walls themselves.  Once more, it gains definition as it rises into the air.  It's still a rather large building.   Once he's satisfied with the castle and its walls, he leaps back.  He seems to consider the building for a moment.  Then, with a nod, it starts to transform back into a more normal form.  The elemental energy is once more disbursed into the area around him.  A massive sandcastle now stands in front of him.
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: You're the guy who said Ember was from Dirt Times     "WELL," He gestures at the sand as he begins to twirl some tools around. "Now we're doing DIRT WORK so maybe I'm the STUPID ASSHOLE here, huh? Ever think about that? Ever think about how maybe DIRT TIMES is GOOD? People GROW STUFF in DIRT!"     "I mean, not this dirt, obviously. This dirt's for sitting on or building or running around or whatever." > Arthur: Enjoy Lilian Rook's powers     Arthur yells, "HAAAAAH," And then, "BURN!" Dating himself to be approximately the same cultural year as Haseo, most likely, when Lilian brings him some smoke. He gets up off his seat, cracks his knuckles... Then there's a firm nod. "BUILDING!" He says. "I KNOW my BUILDING. And you ain't even SEEN IT." > Arthur: Get to building. There's a test.     This won't just be some simple test like, 'can Hiromi knock it over'. He *knows* it's going to be more complicated. More abstract. More *fundamental*, if not necessarily spiritual. So he immediately says, in earshot of Haseo, "Bet this is gonna be some stuff about, CAN HIROMI OR ONE'A HER PALS KNOCK IT OVER EASY." His hard grin is wide and obnoxious. "BET MINE WILL LAST LONGER."     Fucker. > Arthur: Build     His twirling tools flick into place in his hands. He vanishes in a burst of green light and there is a weird jolt in the ground. It's completely unclear what happened, if anything at all.
Haseo	"If you're going to act like that to people because you lost to them, then you're immature at best."      Haseo narrows his eyes at Ember, his brow furrowing as if angry. That expression doesn't last long though, as his face twists into a sneer as he holds back a contemptuous laugh.      "Yeah, whatever man. I'll take that to heart or something."      "We can do ART COMPETITION if you're so hard."      "And you look like a teenaged boy's first virtual reality chat avatar."      "I was seventeen, get off my back. Sheesh." Honestly, even at his current age, he'd still design his PC the same way, but nobody needs to know that. Torture couldn't get that information out of him, actually.      "In fact, there is little need, brother, as we may both see the piece is unfinished,"      "Look. You're correct, but you also don't get it. This is between me and him."      "YEAH? That's not gonna be a FIGHT though, that's gonna be ME BEATING YOUR ASS."      Haseo briefly adopts a stance as if he's ready to fight, before catching himself and running a hand through his hair. He's not going to let this guy get under his skin, he's gonna get under his instead.      "Screw the sandcastle crap, I'm not some Apkallu poster. We're doing arm wrestling or tug of war like real-"      Hiromi finally speaks up, and Haseo cuts himself off to listen. Talismans that listen to your will? Maybe he could actually fairly fight Arthur then... Assuming Arthur actually has any artistic talent. He assumes he does, given how much shit he was talking, but maybe it was just bluffing? A new problem arises, though...      He's got several ideas in mind already for what he'd make, but it's all stuff that's deeply personal to him, and if he's forced to explain the meaning he will actually kill himself in front of everyone. This is why he only BROWSES art forums and doesn't post on them! He hates sharing! He hates being vulnerable!
Hiromi	Weirdly, she just sort of . . . casually waves to Hisako?     Hisako smiles and waves back to Lilian with a kind of casual familiarity not present elsewhere, before getting back to the mass production of food being moved from 'cooking' to 'warming.' There's going to be so much of it. Just a tremendous amount. Who could even eat this? But Sumi doesn't stop supplying her with more.     'To make a long story short, I used the self-address <villain>, because a petty man thought to wield shame against me.'     First nodding for him to continue, Sumi then takes a silent moment to consider this, and then -- one could call it a grin, but it far more resembles a snarling animal's than Chie's earlier smiles. It is, though quiet, as far from nice as it is suddenly intense.     It is also, just as clearly, not directed at him. Sumi's eyes have slid off to one side, focused on the memory of something. Her lips still haven't quite relaxed when she says, "So, you took that from him. I see, now, and that tells me something about the kind of man you are."     Visibly relaxing, "If only a little bit."     'I just did not think it was possible without magical augmentation.'     "Magic? Doesn't it take lots of time to learn magic? You'll use up your energy doing that, but I think it's okay if that's your goal, maybe. Some people have to do magic, after all." It's unclear whether Chie understood Ember, and unclear whether their understandings of 'magic' are at all alike, either.     "You could practice your writing more, too, little sister." Hisako calls out from the side.     "I--! Well. Um, yeah." Called out and deflated from her triple-triumph, yet unable to talk back, Chie sways on her feet. She reignites with, "Anyway!" and pushing Marcus around, aligning and straightening her posture toward a basic martial artist's stance.     "Like this! You have to hold that straight. If you can't, then don't lean in as much. It's okay to throw yourself down before you get knocked down, too, since it's better to be on your front than your back. But only if you have to! It's better to just not get knocked down at all."     'What is she?'     "She is the Archwolf." Realizing instantly that this won't explain much to Ember, Hisako adds, "The greatest and strongest of wolves, the ruler of all territory from the southern rivers of the Celestial Mountain and down to the Sea of Death, our teacher, and... do you have great spirits, in your world? Gods, or, immortals?"
Petra Soroka	"And you look like a teenaged boy's first virtual reality chat avatar."     "Ah! Look!" Petra points at the gathering around Arthur as if it's somehow the first time she's noticed all of them, which might genuinely be true because of the gender makeup of the group. "They're flocking!"     "Booooooooyyyyyssss!" Petra cups her hand around her mouth and hollers in their direction a short ways across the beach. It's intoned like the equivalent of a farmer shouting 'soo-wee' to summon the attention of pigs in the field. "Whatcha talking about over there?? Why are *two* of you wearing *leather*?!"     Nika's brave voyage across the no-mans-land is maybe, literally, the most adventurously social choice she's ever taken in her entire life, at a purely social gathering with people that she doesn't know and doesn't live nearby. So, Petra finds it *unspeakably* cute, and also, incalculably precious, meaning it must be protected at all costs. Floating behind Nika and hovering menacingly higher than her head is a comically big baseball bat made of Silver that points down at Chuyao and the others like a warning finger telling them not to fuck this up. "Because then you're just gonna sideways jump or jump down at the ground or whatever right?"     When she's pointed at, Petra points right back at Nika for no reason besides some impulsive shared wavelength, poking the tips of their fingers together. "Yeah! And that's useful in ¶space/pools/ghost controls¶ but not when you're still ¶relative/in conversation¶ to gravity." "For a second I thought that'd be the end of you."     "Nothing will ever be the end of me." Petra extremely confidently declares from the ground, then sits up and shakes her head violently to dislodge most of the sand. She takes Chie's hand to pop right back up to her feet, shaking off the impact damage by stretching alllll the way up, and then all the way down to touch her toes. "You have to be always moving and running and jumping and working harder than ever before."     "I'm *literally* always saying this!"     Petra's only really met Chie once before this, but in playground-communication, this one act has cemented them as friends. Her energetic orbiting expands to encircle Chie too before she runs off again, fired up like she's considering another joust, but not wanting to run it back so shamelessly soon.     "If you're staying still then you're not doing anything! And you're alive to do things!"
Petra Soroka	"'Castles.' Show me your <castles>."     "¶Got it/Begin¶!"     Petra gives Hiromi a big thumbs up, and then runs around in a big circle and drags her foot through the sand to claim her territory. To Hisako, she very proudly and performatively refuses the offered talismans, instead miming rolling up her sleeves and grabbing one of her floating Silver shovels. "No, it's okay! I've gotta do it myself this time! I've been ¶grinding/making friends/cultivating¶ about this!"     At the center of her circle, Petra finally comes to a stop and closes her eyes. She takes a breath, invisibly attuning herself to a mindstate embodied in the warm salty air, and when her mouth moves, the syllables that come out don't match any shape she makes with her lips or any coherent language, but some stripped-down fragment of the essential meaning impresses itself on the listeners' minds.     ¶O cracked mud and sterile stone, to this I beckon thee / To shape and settle alike the waves of brown and arid sea. / Thy glow and gold doth preside to thee / Sturdy and awesome in effigy.¶     The sand around her ripples, then it seems to pause for a moment. She opens one eye to look around, as the sand within her radius uncertainly compresses into stone, which rises up underneath her feet into a moderately sized solid mound, surrounded by crenellations that are just sprouting out of the ground.     "Aw, come on! ¶Sorry!/I'll try harder¶! Eh...."
Ember	'Now we're doing DIRT WORK so maybe I'm the STUPID ASSHOLE here, huh?' Ember shrugs; he assumes this is the closest that Arthur can come to apologizing.  It's like trying to talk sense to a madman sometimes, so he decides to let the past be a past thing instead of carrying it forward.  "People, in fact, grow many things in dirt.  It's pretty important." 'Yeah, whatever man. I'll take that to heart or something.' Ember isn't culturally aware enough of the modern era to say 'Cope. Seethe. Mald' to Haseo, but he would be if he could.  Instead, he gives the angry kid without a cause a stare.  He scratches the back of his neck with a hand and shakes his head.  Especially when he says, 'He was only seventeen'.  This only causes a smirk to cross his face.   'Magic? Doesn't it take lots of time to learn magic?' "About as much time as it takes to learn anything else, I suppose.  It's a muscle, like anything else.  I am just not used to others being able to surpass their physical limits without it." 'She is the Archwolf.' Hisako explains who Hiromi is to him.  Eventually, he gets it, though Hiromi is /considerably/ more powerful than the Guardians of the Tribes.  "Yes, I am familiar with the concept.  There are three great Guardians of several Tribes in my home.  I channel them for my magic..." he says, motioning towards his castle.  "I channeled Garuda and Titan.  Summoning their aether from the great beyond, and channeled it into my body.  Though I suppose the Archwolf is a league above them.  We have other beings that some pray to beyond the Guardians.  Gods of crafting and the like.  I put little stock in these gods myself." 'Booooooooyyyyyssss!' Ember looks at Petra.  He just stares at her oddly for a few moments, because he's come to recognize her voice from the radio.  The guy hater.  "Because I make my own clothing.  Why else would I wear leather?  It's also comfortable and provides good protection from the sun.  I shouldn't have to explain that."
Regulus	''You okay?'' "I'm okay..." Regulus says. "Wait, no! I did it! I'm great!!" She throws the pail off her head, her nose is bleeding a little but that's fine. She doesn't seem worried about it. She's only bleeding from one nostril because of just how her face impacted her own platform. With this, she gives Marcus a big thumbsup. "Heh heh... You better hurry, or the Foundation will be at a critical shortage of doublejumps, the Suitcase Rebellion will be doublejumping all over you!" Maybe this is the pirate's way to encourage Marcus. She picks up her shovel and triumphantly starts shoveling sand into her bucket. "Ember, you gotta make a sandcastle before it's too late...! You gotta represent!" Once her bucket is full she turns it over and puts down a decent bucket-formed bulk of sand before she starts working on the SECOND bucket-formed bulk of sand.
Arthur Lowell	> [S] ==>     Arthur remains gone. It seems like he's just vanished completely. All seems normal for about 60 seconds. At that point, a weird, vague rumble occurs. At 1:10, Another thudding rumble. Hisako is going to be the first to notice something odd: There are grains forming in the frying oil. 1:30, Regulus' keen sense of light might note that the sun has flickered. 2:00: Ember might suddenly note that pieces of the sky appear to be magical. 2:30 or so is where bits of the sky start peeling off in sandy chunks. A bit of cloud thuds into the beach. The sun sags very slightly. At 3:45, distant mountains are very, very clearly crafted from sand. At about 5:00, the food, as well as all implements used to cook it, has clearly shown that it is made from sand.     At about seven minutes in, the slightly-droopy sand-sun hanging in the sand-sky remains the sole source of light in what appears to be an entire earth and heaven crafted purely from sand. All matter of all objects is made from wetted sand carefully sculpted. If examined at a microscopic level, one could find microbes hand-made from grains of sand and rigged to move based on sand-based internal mechanisms. Distant mountains of pure sand retain the shape of the real worls, while a sea of sand is precisely composed and shaped by various short-range high-intensity winds to simulate the movement of water.     If one got sick enough of all this and tried to leave, they would find themselves returning to the warpgate nexus they took to arrive here, also composed entirely of sand, with sand-sculpture people occupying every area that was previously crowded, and warpgates built and carved out of wet sand, which might lead to home, a replication of their homeworld rendered purely in sand, sand, everywhere, it's all sand, everything is made of sand this is made of sand it's all SAND SAND SAND SAND     Some water from an incoming wave washes over a segment of Arthur's sandcastle, instantly disrupting the structure of part of the sandverse -- specifically an equivalent to the Orion Arm. None of that was real and everyone is still exactly where they were, on the beach. Arthur doesn't focus on the part of the sandverse that got washed away, instead seemingly refining the minutiae of what looks like a floating galactic core out of sand, failing to notice the annihilation of the equivalent of a chunk of Sector Zero of the superplanet, which he has, thankfully, chosen not to replicate.     The food's still fine, he just made sand replicas of it for the benefit of the Sandverse.
Lilian Rook	'Ah! What an excellent question.'     Yesssss! Nika scored a good grade in talking to someone who hasn't been inextricably tied to her by the vicissitudes of fate and the inescapable collective destiny of Earth! She jolts to attention as if Round Two is coming and now she has to defend her perfect score.     'Have you heard this phrase before, sister?'     Nika nods six whole times to be sure that the input registers. She considers trying to elaborate on his own description, then gives up on that quickly because she isn't Lilian. Instead, she cuts straight to the prompt burning in her own mind. "Doesn't that mean that when someone gets great responsibilities without a whole ¶unlock process/heavenly trial¶ then it's against ¶God/the mandate/nature/Intended Experience¶?" Lilian does turn her head, though, and raise an eyebrow approvingly; which is like bonus points.     'Iffh ith noff musffical iffh nofth me.'     "Well, you've got spirit and determination." Lilian says, politely dodging 'talent' or 'the right idea'. "So I'll believe you can get it down eventually."     'Or if movement could be changed to ... Disobey physics?'     "Disobey?" Lilian says, archly.     "Daddy physics." Nika says, smug-giggling.     'Oh come now, we all make mistakes when we are young'     Lilian squints, tilts her head, and says "How old are you?" Nika chips in with "Not me though."     'Now we're doing DIRT WORK so maybe I'm the STUPID ASSHOLE here, huh? Ever think about that? Ever think about how maybe DIRT TIMES is GOOD? People GROW STUFF in DIRT!'     Nika leans around Lilian's side to watch Arthur score a triple S rank in DARVO. In tones of slightly disgusted awe, still halfway occluded behind an older woman, she says "Wow . . . You're so annoying . . ." and then gives him a huge thumbs up.     'I was seventeen, get off my back. Sheesh.'     "Oh god. I hope those come off." No she doesn't. She's holding her hand in oujo shock for dramatic effect.     'We're doing arm wrestling or tug of war like real-'     Lilian very slowly and emphatically mouths 'little boys' at him.     . . . . . . . .     Lilian has had days to prepare for this. Since hearing the Archwolf's senior miko trying to juggle expectations about her drive-by on the radio, she has had ample time to assume that this is a challenge she will have to face in the future; on a beach, with sandcastles.     And she is such a fucking sweatlord about it.
Lilian Rook	In her excess downtime following the horrendous one-week crunch, itself following the two and a half days of emergency no-contact, Lilian has been frothing at the mouth for any means by which to feel as if she's actively preparing for the future instead of letting it get ahead of her. With a very limited range of chores to attend to, given her immaculately delegated schedule, there was only so long she could go before being reduced to sketching out elaborate geomantic prep-work for a sand castle competition with the same seriousness as an array that she'd use for work.     So when the signal is given to go ahead, she blips over to a piece of the beach all her own, invokes the first few signs of an accumulation array on thin-air, and then uses the smouldering black-gold finger-sized circle like a combination of a brush and a blowtorch. Aimed down at a shallow angle to her feet, she drags the on-off beam like a long stick along her footsteps, just on the inside of the circuit. Manual precision and kinesthetic dexterity, ever her forté, are bent to the sole task of glassing perfect lines of black fulgurite into the ground as if she were drawing an elaborate series of nested-overlapping magic circles in--     "Okami!"     "What?"     "Oh I have to show you after because it's this for real!"     "Oh. Um. I'd love to?"     Nika is . . . taking it considerably easier for now. If she intends to compete, it'll be at the very last minute, because-- well, Arthur and Petra know. Instead, she paces around Petra in wide, repetitive circles, intentionally crossing over her footsteps and slowly speeding up as she goes, until the spirit of Chie has infected her with the need to run around. It somehow feels less disruptive than hanging out over her shoulder.     'If you're staying still then you're not doing anything!'     "Or you're ¶fishing¶!" Nika chirps, giggling to herself in surround sound. "But then the boat is ¶moving¶ you, so you're not really ¶apart from motion¶ anyways." Zoomed out, her footsteps are starting to form an obvious spirigraphic pattern in her uneven circuit.     'Aw, come on!'     Nika still responds with a giddy little "Oh!" and a rapid clap of her hands that somehow lands at the exact middleground of an excitable little sister and Petra's well-meaning but slightly patronizing mom. "No no, not ¶harder¶, trust me! Using more ¶words/text/status awareness¶ just gets you ¶stuck in quicksand¶ deeper! It's always like that with everything right?"     She holds up her hand in Instructor Figure pose, popping into the corner of Petra's screen. "It's gotta be ¶short/easy/catchy¶ enough to ¶memorize after hearing once/visualize the entire rat¶ and it's gotta be ¶interesting¶ enough to get ¶that certain something/above and beyond/happy memories together¶ with your ¶new friend¶! Don't worry about if you look like you're trying hard! ¶No one¶ is worrying about if you ¶deserve it¶ but you!"
Ember	'I'm okay...' Ember looks a little sympathetic at Regulus.  He gives her a 'thumbs up', a new motion for him, but something he's come to understand (and like) between people in a new culture to him.  To Marcus, he shrugs, "Or don't.  Let the rebellion free your organization." 'Ember, you gotta make a sandcastle before it's too late...!' Ember, exasperatedly points behind him to the large castle of sand he just made.  "If you want, you can join my team for whatever 'game' Hiromi and her... priestesses have planned." 'Ember might suddenly note that pieces of the sky appear to be magical.' "Huh...?" He looks up, trying to get a feel of what magic was being used, because the sky shouldn't just become magical suddenly.  Ember is now confused because it seems that the entire world has been replaced with sand replicas.   "What in the nine hells is this?" He suddenly exclaims to Arthur.  "Put the world back to what it was, you're supposed to make a castle!" 'How old are you?' "Twenty-Seven seasons," Ember responds to Lilian, once more familiar with the voice.  However, he's NOT familiar with Nika, he turns to her and smiles.  "Well, good.  Try to avoid those mistakes if you can.  I'm Ember by the way."
Storm Investigators	"Like this!" "Ah! Oh. L.. Like this, then. Enough to... Oh, the balance is shifting towards.. I see!" With Chie showing her physically how to stand, the theory that Marcus has only read about in years past is finally being put into practice! Literal practice, even, since she's feeling that different in stability just from having her knees bent the right way with her feet in the right spots. She's still a little wobbly the longer she maintains the stances she's being pushed into, but moldable enough thanks to the surge of confidence from having so many people around her! Wait, so many people around her? That's much scarier than anything else that could be happening today. Just thinking about it is enough of a distraction that Marcus throws herself on the ground before Chie finishes that part of her explanation. Still, it's still an opportunity to feel the difference between flopping on her front now and getting knocked on her back like before. "The lesser of two evils... Oh. I can push myself-" Marcus still has to struggle a bit to do a pushup. "-up... Like so, but not so if I was on my back. What a practical demonstration.. Thank you, Miss Chie." "Disobey?" "Daddy physics." "To... To just jump, yes?" Marcus doesn't seem to get why Nika's giggling, looking between her and Lilian a few times and failing to comprehend. Greta, meanwhile, takes another mental note on what to explain to Marcus one (very distant, very far away) day. "Booooooooyyyyyssss!" "It's also comfortable and provides good protection from the sun." In the middle of tipping her hat to Chie (she's totally wearing a hat), Marcus hears Petra's sudden excitement over that a way, and she looks over to realize that there is, in fact, more leather than she'd expect at a beach! "Is it truly comfortable in this kind of heat?" She asks, looking towards Ember with a confused, but genuinely curious tone. "I would have expected the heat to make it suffocating..." Marcus nearly misses Hiromi's directions in the middle of all that, but Greta's split her attention enough to actually catch what the task is. She waits until Marcus returns to their shaded spot before speaking with a hint of amusement coming through her otherwise even tone. "It sounds as though you've made some breakthroughs with everyone." "We might have? It's still easier said than done, but..." "Do you want to keep going?" "Y... Yes!" "Hm... Alright. But before that, did you hear what Hiromi said?" After an inhale that might as well be telling Greta 'no', she explains what their task is along with gesturing at the few tools that they had brought along. It's not going to be a particularly lavish sandcastle, of course, since Marcus has just never done it before, and Greta's got more of an idea to work with than raw skill at making it happen. It doesn't take long for them to get a fairly standard sandcastle built up between Greta's manual skill and Marcus using her reading ability to detect weaknesses in the structure that they can shore up with more packed in sand. It ends up being quite a small castle and none too pretty, but it's modestly solid! It's just not really anything to write home about, even with the bucket fitting neatly on a little raised circle around the castle to really keep it 'protected'. "Maybe... We should have joined a team for this?" "We'd have to build outside of the shade if we did."
Storm Investigators	"the Suitcase Rebellion will be doublejumping all over you!" "Ah..! Do not worry, Miss Regulus. I will be practicing with all of today's new instructions in mind." Marcus asserts with something vaguely approximating (but not quite reaching) determined fistpumps at her sides, and then she pauses once she realizes the other thing that was said. "... Then what we heard about on the way back was real, then? You're in open rebellion against the Foundation?" That has Marcus looking a lot more worried, and she's staring right at Regulus like she's hoping to hear a refusal about that. Apparently, She's still somewhat out of the loop!
Regulus	Regulus pauses, and looks up towards the sky, she blinks behind her shades, and then looks back down. The multiverse is weird so suns can be weird. It's fine. she is also determinedly ignoring the crazy ass sand worlds and maelstroms of sand doom and mountain sands and whatever else to doggedly make her completely normal sandcastle. This is a test of WILL and she WILL finish her sand castle without being stymied by all the ridiculous sand castles!! She does have enhanced_senses***:Thumbs Ups though and she does give Ember a thumbsup back while not looking at him. Nor does she look at the massive sand castle he's made though to be fair he hasn't made a SAND SUN so, like, maybe she's just being a bit stubborn here. "Oh, uh, sure, I mean. I don't know what else is going on besides sand castles. I'm not gonna look at the other sand castles until I finish building my own. My sand castle might not be the biggest sand castle but it'll be ''my'' sand castle." She doesn't want to interrupt the lessons that Marcus is getting from Petra and Nika at the rest and she's not sure she wants to investigate Petra's reaction to her 'successful' doublejump too closely, she might tease her!, but she's willing to give it another go once she's finished her castle. "Yeah--oh! Wait, you didn't see the concert? Dang." She sighs. "But hey...you know...maybe you and Greta can be on our side like Ember said. I mean, you don't have to join the Rebellion but it'd be totally fab if you considered the Team Timekeeper Proposal. I guess you wouldn't know if it's been passed around yet, but I think it'd be marvy of you to believe in it." She lowers her shades and winks at Marcus which probably would've been more effective if she didn't have a nosebleed right now. "They've got Vertin under lock and key being kept asleep in Laplace but the Rebellion will last until Vertin comes back and the Team Timekeeper proposal is passed!" She's trying to feed Marcus rebellious sentiment while Mesmer can't stop her!!!
Chuyao He	Show me your <castles>.     Had it been someone other than Hiromi who had uttered it, Chuyao would struggle to connect it to something he knows of. There are fortresses, garrisons, fortified residences, towers and city fortifications, but no 'castles' in the feudal sense that most seem to mean. When she says it, however, he understands that it could mean any of those things, and there are a wealth of examples to choose from.     Chuyao strokes his chin thoughtfully, now entertaining several notions. *Before I can decide on what tools must be used, I must first decide on what is to be built. There is the story of Mozi breaking the siege with superior planning. Ah, but that would hardly be proper for an adherent of the Master such as myself. The Great Wall...* He shakes his head, brow furrowed. *Too obvious! Too grandiose a project for the statement I wish to make.*     Inspiration takes him, then, his brow lifting as he quickly reaches into his traveling pack. The steel fan, Two Rivers, comes out, its folded-up form slightly longer than the distance from the tips of his fingers to his inner elbow. With a flick of the wrist, he unfolds it, revealing the damascus patterned motif of the giant Kuafu chasing the sun across the two rivers for which it's named.     One hand, index and middle fingers raised, swipes outwards and behind him as a counterbalance to the sharp, severe swat of the fan. "Tss!" A hiss escapes Chuyao, too controlled to be on accident. A furrow shoots through the sand to the water, forming a trench that gradually fills with seawater thanks to the gradual incline enticing gravity to do its work.     "Hoh!" His upper body sways like a willow, as if he were deflecting a flurry of blows from assailants all around him. A gust of wind kicks up in response, lifting loose grains and deliberately placing them in accordance with his guidance. The various little dunes and disturbances made by his and others' footsteps instead become the foothills of a mountain range. Beyond those foothills lie the mountains themselves, and with furrowed brow, Chuyao's fanwork coaxes water from the trough to carefully sprinkle it over the mountains, creating rivulets that run down the side and give the appearance of a venerable peak's thousand-year striations.     Next, he widens the trench, once and once more, until the space between it and his mountain range becomes a coastal plain, a 'natural' choke point. It's here that Chuyao pauses to engage in deep thought. *This is the pass. Now, how would I protect it from the armies of Jin? First, I would make use of the water...* Two more furrows shoot out, coaxed by two flicks of his wrist, creating a river delta.     His choice for the fortress is in the foothills, *so that anyone coming through the 'pass' to assault it would have to deal with water on three sides and hilly terrain in front of them.* Nodding to himself, he takes one of Hiromi's talismans, and, after a gesture of thanks, allows himself some time to test how it conveys his wishes to the earth.     Holding the talisman flat against Two Rivers, Chuyao wills first a set of steep stairs up the foothills to a gatehouse, where beneath the swept roof, oil pots wait to be overturned. Through the gatehouse, built atop a rocky cliff face, is a walled courtyard flanked on all four corners by guard towers. A fortress occupies the center, its stone walls rising high above the exterior walls, large enough to garrison a formidable number of soldiers.
Chuyao He	Arched stone bridges lead from the peak of one hill to another, allowing not only movement between complexes but valuable vantage points for crossbowmen en route between postings. As a final touch, the sand sprouts simulacrums of bamboo thickets and dense vegetation characteristic of coastal locales, making ground assault all the more difficult for a massed army.     Chuyao lowers his fighting stance, closes his eyes, and fans himself reservedly with Two Rivers.
Regulus	Regulus eventually finishes her sand castle. It is four main towers on the corner with parapets connecting them. She uses her arcane skill to carve in little chess-rook like indents along the top, carefully using her skill to carve out little doors and windows in fine detail along the sand. There is a center tower too, also with a window, with a conal roof. Regulus studies this for a moment before sticking a little black flag into that middle tower. The flag has the visage of APPLe on it. It's pretty neat for a normal sand castle but it is, naturally, a very normal sand castle and it doesn't have some kind of sand sun and she didn't use the power of an earthquake to make it. But she still smirks as she stands herself up, dusts herself off, and says, "Done! The great Regulus sand castle is complete!" She hums happily as she turns around and looks at the other sand castles. She keeps on smiling as she sees the nonsense and miracles before her. "Yeah, I mean." She tells herself. "Those are really big." She didn't take a talisman because a bucket was on her head at the time.
Chuyao He	Doesn't that mean that when someone gets great responsibilities without a whole ¶unlock process/heavenly trial¶ then it's against ¶God/the mandate/nature/Intended Experience¶?     "Indeed it does," nods Chuyao approvingly. "This is, in part, what is meant by 'the Mandate of Heaven.' When a ruler is said to have lost this Mandate, it would not be inaccurate to say that he has forgotten what stripped him of his weaknesses, and has instead returned to those failings--"     Everything is made of sand, or so it would seem, and this does see Chuyao blink owlishly. "Brother, this is truly remarkable! The attention to detail, the intricacies... this unrefined scholar did not know such things to be possible! You have even replicated the crab." He frowns, then, disappointed bordering on sad when he realizes that something is missing. "Where's the castle?" That was what they were asked to make, and as incredible as this technique is, Chuyao can't seem to see one.     "Unless... you are making a statement with this... Heaven and Earth Sand Substitution Technique?" He taps his chin thoughtfully. "It is written, 'all warfare is based on deception.' Could it be that you intend to defeat your enemy before the fight has begun, by misleading them about the very nature of what they intend to attack? This..." Chuyao laughs breathlessly. "This is a truly formidable strategy."
Lilian Rook	'Heh heh... You better hurry, or the Foundation will be at a critical shortage of doublejumps'     "Please. I'd just challenge Matilda to do it and watch as Sonetto develops the ability spontaneously."     'Twenty-Seven seasons'     "So are you six or do you just skip three out of the year?" Nika says, still near Lilian, and thus Lilian-ly.     'I'm Ember by the way.'     "Oh." The spell breaks. Nika's eyes go wide. She pops up on the balls of her feet to instinctively look a little bit taller. "Oreshnika. Um. Hi. I think your belt charms are cool."     'made of sand this is made of sand it's all SAND SAND SAND SAND'     Nika comes to a dead stop. Cold sweat breaks out on the back of her neck, quickly warming in the sun trapped beneath her hair. Staring wide-eyed at the part of the sand where her aimless running had nearly completed the full spirograph, she whirls around, points accusingly at Arthur, and yells "Don't do that you ¶butt¶!"     Lilian, about this time, finishes the last absurdly convoluted 'brush stroke', painted on the sand like ink (it's black glass), and is a huge sweaty showoff about physically spooling the magic through the contact point at her fingertip like wire, snapping it off with a flick of her wrist, and snapping her fingers to create a shower of black-gold sparks, which added another minute of prep just to do, but it lets her smugly pose with her had on her hip as the sand rumbles upwards behind her, rising in rapidly layered step-stair fashion like iron filings being drawn up from a magnetic table.     The homogenous material makes it pretty easy to do 'detail' (with the amount of prep work that could have produced something useful instead). The stupid little moat hardens at its interior edges to feel like the inside of a swimming pool before the seawater floods in; as do the outer walls of . . . what actually looks more like Castle Cinnuint rather than something historically proper. It's . . . actually just that. But an itty bitty four storeys tall, in that you can walk around inside on four floors.     There was no reason for her to make it that exact size if she didn't plan to have to go inside of it. The 'first level', underground, is only really hinted at, in the form of a cave pocket shaped with a bridge over 'chasm' in the middle (eight feet tall), and lit by her usual ghost lights, which she adds manually shortly after. There is no bridge. You'd only be able to get across if you could . . . double jump.     Lilian first looks to Nika for validation, but Nika is too busy jumping up and down and clapping at maximum volume for Chuyao's refined and classical styles to turn around until she tries to do the two-finger annoyingly loud whistle and fails utterly.     "Hey Nika."     "Yeah? Oh wow--!"     "Mhm mhm. First, pick which sandcastle you want to see me knock down."     "Wait what? Can you--"     ". . ."     "--You're so ¶right/perceptive/real for that one¶. We're inventing ¶tech¶ already . . ."     Lilian laughs. Nika stances up as if on the deck of a ship, imagining herself waiting for the moment to direct the cannons to fire. Like this, even little Oreshnika can dare someone to run their mouth.
Hiromi	'And you're alive to do things!'     "That's right! That's right!" Chie repeatedly nods her approval. Totally supportive of her new buddy (subordinate to her because she was knocked down, which is the quickest and most accurate method of determining hierarchy), "If you're not doing anything, that's the same as being dead. If you're not growing, you're dying! You get it!" Even with death as the topic, she's no less cheerful about it, perhaps because she is, emphatically, moving.     'Or you're ¶fishing¶!'     "Fishing! Do you have fish? Have you caught any? I want to eat fish, too! Hisakooo do we have fish?"     "You can go and catch some, if you're quick about it. You just have to be back before the castles are done."     "But, getting through the water is so slooow." She's not ready to chance that, apparently.     'We have other beings that some pray to beyond the Guardians. Gods of crafting and the like. I put little stock in these gods myself.'     "They don't answer when you pray?" Hisako looks at Ember with sincere and genuine pity for... something.     "It is like that in some worlds, I know." She's being polite, because today isn't about getting into that.     While Hisako looks dangerously closely at the frying food, then her utensil, Hiromi walks toward where Arthur disappeared. Her movement is menacingly slow, but that's just her default. Something that big shouldn't be that quiet. In this case, he might not notice, anyway.     Specifically avoiding passing judgment that could be related to how it will be tested -- avoiding giving out the answers -- she says, "Your method, broad. Your <understanding>, is it broad, or narrow?" Interpretation. Transformation, from intent to action. She stalks onward, just as that wave arrives.     ¶O cracked mud and sterile stone...¶     "You speak differently, now. I hear you." Hiromi sounds -- rather, she clearly communicates that she is, in indescribable manners of motion and position and touching the sand -- interested. This is inherently menacing up close, but Petra's seen enough of Hiromi to possibly compensate with familiarity. "This <speech>..." A means of communication, of transferring intent, between oneself and not-oneself. "Did you learn it? From..."     Oh no. She exited the bubble around both Lilian and Petra for a second.     ...until the spirit of Chie has infected her with the need to run around.     "You, taught her this." Petra has that familiarity. Nika, however...
Storm Investigators	"I'd just challenge Matilda to do it and watch as Sonetto develops the ability spontaneously." "They could be more sources of insight for your training." "That's not a bad plan at all... And it would even out the numbers. Er. Perhaps?" "Wait, you didn't see the concert?" "I... We heard about it happening." Marcus tries to reassure Regulus a little, although working with incomplete information does temper that somewhat. "And of the... Broadest strokes of what you are doing." Marcus sounds a little uncertain even saying that much, partly because she isn't even sure of what happened. Greta, too, seems to be paying some much attention at that topic being brought up, although she doesn't interrupt their conversation in favor of seeing where it's going. She especially needs to see where Marcus goes with it. "That proposal of yours... Would this truly convince those in the positions power to adopt it? OR would it..." Marcus frowns worriedly. "Does the Timekeeper know about this plan already?""
Hiromi	'Like so, but not so if I was on my back. What a practical demonstration.. Thank you, Miss Chie.'     "Right! If you're on your back you could just get mounted and pounded. It's really hard to get away from that." Chie nods, sagely.
Ember	'Is it truly comfortable in this kind of heat?' "What I am wearing today is lighter and breathable, and it is also tan, so it reflects the sun's rays.  I also specifically created these with water crystals, making sure that they cool the body instead of letting the sun heat it."  Ember explains to Marcus.   'So are you six or do you just skip three out of the year?' "Oh, sorry, I guess that doesn't translate well.  We usually indicate a 'season' when we complete a harvest.  I think the equivalent is a year in other cultures?" Ember explains to Nika.  When Nika compliments his belt charms, he smiles brightly.  "Thank you!  I made them myself.  Nice to meet you, Oreshnika." When Nika yells at Arthur and calls him a butt, this causes Ember to become amused.  "I'm with her, don't do that." 'Chuyao's castle' Ember can't help but be impressed with the castle.  It's such an attention to detail that he didn't have on his.  He could be mean and try to tear down the man for his building, trying to cover for his faults, but he simply can't do that.  The artist in him simply rebels at the very thought.  "Very well put together..." He compliments Chuyao.   'Lilian's castle' Once more, attention to detail outshines his by a fair margin.  If one would call his style anything, it would be closer to Roman.  However, hers is a very detailed castle that is of a design he's not familiar with.  He wonders if he should add anything to his, but he'd be defending his castle so probably no need for that.  "Impressive.  I like the lights." 'They don't answer when you pray?' Ember, remembering something just then, shakes his head and, for a brief moment, looks upset about something.  "If they have ever answered anyone, they have never answered me.  The guardians answer their various tribes, but they are weaker than I am," he says evenly.  He nods to Hisako, "It is true, in many words, divinity isn't real or doesn't answer when called upon." Ember agrees that today is not a time to talk about that or his feelings on that, so he lets it drop there. 'Regulus' Castle' He puts a hand on his hip and looks at the normal-sized castle made with normal buckets and tools.  "I think the bucket on your head caused you to miss the explanation about the talismans..."
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: Put the world back to what it was, you're supposed to make a castle! > Arthur: Don't do that you ¶butt¶!     Arthur shitty-grins wide, peeking up from his galactic core. "Huh? The WORLD was ALWAYS WHERE IT WAS." He says, laughing. "I can't go and BREAK IT or whatever." He leans out of frame, jabbing a thumb downwards to rows of color that have an unclear nature and purpose. "And SEE? I don't got ILLUSION PIPS." Whatever that means. "It was HARMLESS! Might'a got you for a MINUTE, TOPS. Oh, shit, I should'a done it a few feet THAT'A WAY. Ah well. SANDCASTLES ARE TEMPORARY." > Arthur: You are making a statement with this? > Hiromi: Your method, broad. Your <understanding>, is it broad, or narrow?     Arthur gestures at the sand. "What'dya think I am? I'M DUMB AS SHIT." He says, flicking his eyebrows obnoxiously. His eyes close and he paces around, gesturing with his little trowel. "Lotta shit I can MAKE OUT OF SAND, but none of it's gonna be," He points at the demolished section. "ACTUAL PROTECTION, right? That ain't CASTLES. I dunno how to make ANYTHING PERMANENT or ANYTHING DEFENDING. Don't matter how BIG or PRECISE or ROUGH or FINE it is, NONE of it gonna be STANDING AFTER TIDES. RAMPARTS UP AS YOU CAN GET 'EM, WATER'S GONNA WIN." He winks. "So make it SNAZZY while it's STANDING, people gonna LOVE IT when it's GONE."     The tides lap away another galactic arm.
Lilian Rook	'Fishing! Do you have fish? Have you caught any? I want to eat fish, too! Hisakooo do we have fish?'     Topic engagement! From Chie, who is Petra's friend! It's deeply ambiguous what kind of little animal ears are swiveling around on top of Nika's head, but they are most certainly, spiritually, there.     "Yes! I always liked fishing lots but I never got to go ¶fishing¶ you know? So I decided I just really wanted to do it because staying ¶on the same level¶ forever is kind of sad and boring and I made Petra do it with me and it's so so fun and kind of addicting so now I'm gonna catch every fish!"     'You, taught her this.'     Hiromi is a bit different from Chie. It's not that Nika feels threatened by her or anything-- everyone here is automatically a friend until proven otherwise-- but Chie had automatically familiarized herself by singling Petra out and metaphorically marking her with wrasslin' and horseplay. Hiromi is like . . . her bestie Petra's new friend's lady-who-runs-the-orphanage. So she looks a little more . . . testing the air about it all?     "Hi. I think she actually kinda learned it from me instead of me really teaching her but that's like ¶stealing the technique¶ so I guess that makes her a ¶pupil/disciple¶ anyways? But it's ¶cute/important/rewarding¶ to see her ¶play/grow¶ so I wanna help teach a little too."
Haseo	"Whatcha talking about over there??""      "We're talking about how much this guy sucks." Haseo points to Arthur for emphasis. Actually, only he's talking about that, but fuck the other guys. They want to weasel in on his beef they can get lumped together with him.      "Oh god. I hope those come off."      Haseo just rolls his eyes at Lilian, half of his attention currently devoted to figuring out what the hell he's going to make.      "I hope those come off??? Huh??? Oh, you're talking about the wave symbols. Look, I'm not paying for a character edit to remove something most PCs have."      Everything then becomes a SAND universe for a moment, which, after it stops doing that, causes Haseo to groan.      "Dude, just piss off already! We get it, you have a big c-" he cuts himself off, mostly because he still has a tiny shred of class and the ability to feel shame.      He then looks down at the talisman and back at the sand. Right. It's a sandCASTLE contest, not a sandSCULPTURE contest. Which means most of the embarrassing things he had initially thought of can safely be thrown out. So what does that actually leave??? Some sort of Tokyo landmark? No...      Screw it, he honestly doesn't care if making something from a video game is uninspired, he just wants to say he made something. With that in mind, he gets to work, erecting large rectangles and squares that later get more details added to them, like implied windows, pillars, and pointy triangular roofs until it resembles some sort of cathedral. Which it is. It's supposed to be one, anyway, but he's going purely off of memory with no reference, so there's a lot off about it. But that's fine, he's the only one here who plays the game it's from, so who's going to point out it's inaccurate???
Lilian Rook	'That's not a bad plan at all... And it would even out the numbers. Er. Perhaps?'     Lilian begins to snicker, stops to second guess whether Marcus is even in on the joke she's making, and then reapproaches more cautiously. "Numbers? Are you having some sort of jump-off? I have to be the most athletic person at the Foundation already, so what are you planning?"     'Does the Timekeeper know about this plan already?'     "That's a nasty accusation." she says. Monotone. Apathy, fake. Warning.
Regulus	''First, pick which sandcastle you want to see me knock down.'' Regulus sits down protectively in front of her castle! ... But honestly she's mostly hoping that the bigger castles are more fun to knock down and thus hers will be the last castle standing!!! Then she's distracted by another thought. "Wait, can we eat now?" ''Please. I'd just challenge Matilda to do it and watch as Sonetto develops the ability spontaneously.'' "Matilda's arcane skill is actually unlocking new abilities for Sonetto..." Regulus murmurs. ''That proposal of yours... Would this truly convince...'' "I don't know." Regulus admits to Marcus. "I couldn't even begin to tell you about the intricacies of the politics of the Foundation at the adoption of policy level." Regulus admits. "But I'm not gonna speak as to what Vertin knows, just there's a proposal that'd be real fab to get through about making Team Timekeeper a formal organization with operational independence." ''I think the bucket on your head...'' Regulus rubs the blood off her face. "Yeah? I mean I guess. But it's more fun making the sand castles yourself. If I use arcanum to do it, that's cool and pretty and all, but it's not really my sandcastle is it?" She looks back to Marcus, and then to Greta. "But we're not doing this rebellion just to cause trouble, there were so many ways that the business of usual got in our way during the last Storm. Yeah, it's for a better life too, but it should help everyone." ''That's a nasty accusation.'' Regulus actually isn't sure if she's supposed to say it's Vertin's plan or not, I mean they have to know it's Vertin's plan right? The proposal at least if not the rebellion, but her instincts tell her to not confirm that it was Vertin's plan because, well, she largely just doesn't want to get Vertin into trouble. "It'd be pretty tough for Vertin to know about much of what's going on while she's stuck sleeping forever, though." Regulus says. "We couldn't plan with her even if we wanted to."
Petra Soroka	"Or you're ¶fishing¶!"     "Mhm, mhm." The true nature of 'fishing', of course, encompasses a slice of the concept of meditation, so Petra doesn't need to belabor that definition in conversation with Nika. "You just need a ¶delta¶." "Why else would I wear leather? It's also comfortable and provides good protection from the sun."     "Dog, I'd fucking *die* wearing that!" Petra decides to take it upon herself to argue with the self-acclaimed world-class leatherworker about the properties of leather. She's here in her cute little two-piece and some guy she's never met in person before shows up in a *leather jacket*! It's an indignity!     "Make your clothing out of something better sometimes! Leather gets so gross when you sweat into it!" Hastily, she adds, probably not really addressing Ember anymore, "Not that leather doesn't have its place where it's the best actually!" "I did it! I'm great!!"     "You're so great." Petra isn't entire insincere with her praise for Regulus, but now that Regulus has actually succeeded a little bit, it's fair game to bully her again. ""If Regulus starts double jumping all over you, Marcus, make sure you wear a helmet." "Oh come now, we all make mistakes when we are young." "Not me though."     "You're *so* right bestie." Petra easily gasses Nika up as a secondary action to anything she's doing, as automatic as with Lilian but with a different tone. Ember's comment, though, is clearly meant in good faith but irritates Petra deeply for some reason. "Well, good. Try to avoid those mistakes if you can."     The big baseball bat, still floating behind Nika, thwacks into a globule of Silver like a palm. Petra narrows her eyes, then disperses her hostility for the most part by saying to Nika not-quietly, "Really, he should be asking your advice. He's only six years old, so he's got lots of mistakes to make still." "¶No one¶ is worrying about if you ¶deserve it¶ but you!"     "Right, right, yeah." Petra is extremely attentive to Nika's explanation, settling down into crossed legs over top of her failed little mound. She presses her hands into her thighs and leans forwards, rocking back and forth on her butt to hype herself up. "I've been practicing ¶trimming/grinding/washing¶ like that."     "It's just--" Petra makes a gesture with her hands that communicates exactly nothing at all to anyone besides Nika, who can divine the entire meaning of 'the impenetrability of describing a painting from a dream' from a helpless little wiggle of her hands. "Right?"
Petra Soroka	She closes her eyes again to focus, just as Arthur's bullshit starts filling the world. She's focusing so hard on honing her paracausal linguistics that she doesn't notice the physical changes of sand world at all, but straining herself to listen to, specifically, the sand, makes her debilitatingly vulnerable to Arthur anyways. Over the next couple minutes, she tenses up tighter and tighter, until she's ducking her head between her knees and pressing her palms to her ears, drowning in noise inaudible to anyone but herself and Nika.     When it recedes, Petra opens her slightly teary eyes with a gasp, teetering on the sand. She's not in pain, but the effect was so jarring that she feels sure she fucked something up. "¶Huh?¶ ¶Are you alright?¶"     A few seconds pass, where presumably the sand answers her. She blinks, mollified, and rubs at her face with her forearm. "¶Oh/Okay¶. ¶Say hi to the in-laws/Get well soon¶ for me, please."     With that out of the way, she shuffles around and synthesizes another incomprehensible and yet infinitely coherent incantation. ¶Immeasurable mercurial thee, I beseech this place to be / A fortress of stone, adorned with a throne / Between the devil, the sea, and me.¶     The sand wriggles again, and Petra suddenly sinks down into the softened-stone she was sitting on, getting stuck for a moment. She flails and then grabs one of her Silver sandcastle buckets out of the air, holding it up triumphantly while stuck, as all around her, the sand rises up to meet her request. Walls form in lateral layers simultaneous with completely unnecessary rooms, building up like 3D printing material, as an ornate castle formed out of a single, uncarved piece of stone lifts Petra up several stories.     She is not, in fact, on any kind of throne; she's just sitting on the roof of a central tower, legs wrapped around a sandstone flagpole that can't flap. The throne room, as any sandcastle must have, is inside, past nonsensically complicated hallways that blur together nonspecifically due to her lack of attention to them. She also has not constructed any weaponry on it, but with her Silver having served its psychologically-stabilizing purpose, she repurposes it for that.     Petra scrambles up to her feet and emphatically points. The Silver loses its surface tension in the air, softening into a big blob, and then reshaping itself into a smooth cannon. "Hahahahaha! Yes! We're ¶in the game¶!"
Ember	'If I use arcanum to do it, that's cool and pretty and all, but it's not really my sandcastle is it?' Ember stares at Regulus as if she had a second head for a minute.  "Yeah?  Of course it is.  It's still /your/ arcanum.  It's still a part of you that made it, just because you have powers others don't have doesn't mean it's any less valid for using them to get things," Ember says, shaking his head.   'Make your clothing out of something better sometimes!' "Get better leatherworkers," Ember counters, not even really listening to Petra.  He explained the properties of his leathers already, and isn't about to do so again.  "I can hear you, you know that?  If you're trying to whisper, you're doing it wrong." He states to Petra, who is also growing more annoyed with her. "I explained what a season is already from where I am from, try and keep up," he comments, already becoming annoyed with Petra.
Hiromi	'Screw the sandcastle crap, I'm not some Apkallu poster.'     Possibly having been thinking about it since earlier, Hisako asks, "What's an Apkallu?"     'I think she actually kinda learned it from me instead of me really teaching her but that's like ¶stealing the technique¶ so I guess that makes her a ¶pupil/disciple¶ anyways?'     That's confirmation, of a kind. Hiromi still needs confirmation of other things, however. "Did someone teach you? Did you teach yourself? Or..." She finishes not by speaking, but that only makes it easier. <Have you taken//bound a law from the foundation//origin of your world//creation into yourself?>     Without waiting for an answer, Hiromi picks Nika up in both hands, holds her up in the air -- about five feet off the ground -- turns her around once, leans in to sniff her shoulder, directly behind her heart, and--     Chie is suddenly below Nika, looking up with expectations, and her hands up. Exactly like she's saying 'me next.' To hold her? To be picked up? She's bouncing on her feet a little.     Hiromi puts Nika back down. Chie resigns herself to not getting whatever it is she wanted right this moment.
Regulus	Regulus is so sunny about this that even Petra's bully afflatus 100 percent penetration incantation can't take her down! To be fair, the fact that she busted busted her nose hard enough to get it bleeding hasn't stopped her either. She throws both her arms in the air and it sort of looks like when APPLe does it but with arms that aren't stick-figure thin. Regulus may be kind of lazy and disdainful of work that doesn't appeal to her but she still enjoys it when her work and practice DOES pay off. She sways happily from side to side. Or maybe it's a concussion. ''<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Regulus. Do it again. I'll film the clip."'' "Alright!" She gives a thumbsup to Lilian as she walks away from her sand castle so she can have some space. She just needs to be extra careful this time so she doesn't slam face first into her own platform. She spins her finger around, summons the first platform and leaps on with a musical PLINK. And almost as soon as she lands on it, she bounces off it, summoning a second platform midair, landing on it with a musical PLONK The first platform vanishes away once Regulus leapt off it, and Regulus throws her arms into the air triumphantly on the second platform, before realizing that she's not sure exactly how she's going to land it's looking pretty high up here now actually. The second platform vanishes from under her feet and Regulus, like a cat, manages to land on her feet this time. Though one of her feet lands directly into her bucket. "Yeah!" She says, starting to spin around in place triumphantly but her foot is more lodged into the bucket than she thought so she ends up tripping over her own bucketed-foot and falls flat on her face.
Petra Soroka	"Fishing! Do you have fish?"     "We can get fish!" Petra shouts down at Chie from atop her powerful post, using both hands to amplify her voice. The way she says it, it sounds less like 'I'm offering to get you fish' and more like 'I have an exciting technique to Show You'. "We practiced!" "You speak differently, now. I hear you."     "Right! I did learn it! From ¶Oreshnika/Nika/Unchosen of Fall¶!" High up on her perch, Petra plants her hands on her hips proudly. Being praised overrides any other aspect of an interaction, and so being menaced while being praised is not only perfectly fine, but means that she's earned praise from someone *menacing*! Which is extra good! It's actually especially good to be praised by Hiromi!     She stomps on the roof of her castle, which makes a solid sound. The unformed bits of Silver hanging in the air around her squiggle and vibrating in odd spiral patterns, somehow evoking tail wagging. "It's good, right? I've been ¶growing/working out/carving from stone/falling in love¶ more every time we've met, you know." "We're talking about how much this guy sucks."     "Well you're right! He does!" But that's not a satisfying topic! Petra knows Arthur better than she knows this fucking guy, so to make up for agreeing with Haseo, she also balls up a bunch of Silver in her hands and then shoves it into the mouth of her 'cannon'. "But you can get sent to gamer hell together at my hands!"     Pyeeeeeeeeeeeeew-- there's no combustion or anything, so the Silver cannonball is propelled by the same amount of force as she ever has behind the Silver. Which is to say, a pretty hefty amount, and it rockets towards Haseo's castle as he's building it and punches a basketball-sized hole through the walls. "If you're trying to whisper, you're doing it wrong."     "I've never whispered in my life!" Shouts Petra, who has been pretty much constantly shouting ever since successfully coaxing the sand into a castle. Ember is subjected to a pew-pew-pew-pew rain of Silver flak that buries itself in the walls of his castle, then does more damage when it telekinetically reverses course to rip its way back out. "I've got nothing I'm worried about you hearing, Wet Leather Boy!"
Ember	Ember watches the silver flak embed itself into his walls.  He frowns.  It becomes a bigger frown when it telekinetically pulls back out.  They're thick walls, so it's not terrible, but it's not good either.  She's obviously going before the battle even starts.  He could turn the other cheek and instead focus on his own castle. However, Ember is annoyed by Petra and her shenanigans.  His body glows yellow for a moment before the rock armor takes shape again.  He turns towards Petra's castle and smashes a foot down into the ground before summoning a circle of quicksand underneath the walls of her castle, aiming to sink an uneven selection of them. He doesn't say anything sassy to follow up; instead, he lets his actions speak for themselves.
Hiromi	'Wait, can we eat now?'     "That's the first step. Chie? Wait, she's busy. Hisako, get the cloths."     "But--"     "I'll watch the food."     Hisako moves off, disappearing behind the monster crab. She'll be back in a moment.     'If I use arcanum to do it, that's cool and pretty and all, but it's not really my sandcastle is it?'     Looking over in-between flipping meat, Sumi says, "Do sandcastles only come out one way if you use that kind of magic? If it's not rote, then it's yours. If it is, then..." She shrugs.     'We can get fish!'     "Now? Can you get fish now?!"     "After," Hiromi says. Just the one word.     "Okay!"     'Right! I did learn it!'     'I've been ¶growing/working out/carving from stone/falling in love¶ more every time we've met, you know.'     "I've seen this." Picking up things like 'sincerity' from Hiromi is redundant, but moreover, picking up 'approval' is categorically easier than tone. It's like the tags are all right there, if visualized that way, and her feelings about 'growth' are both well-known and reflected down into what Chie has already said, today. Still, she says it. "Climb slowly, or quickly, but never stop."     It is, however, hard to tell if she pauses because she's simply done talking, and has the capacity for being still as a stone, or if she's just thinking about something. Time will tell.     The one to comment on Petra already fighting with Ember is Sumi. "In a rush, aren't you? That hungry?"
Haseo	"What's an Apkallu?"      "Huh? Oh, it's an internet art forum. Art forum probably would have been enough for most people to get the idea, but he feels the need to clarify it's on the internet with Hisako. Hopefully he also doesn't need to explain what that is too.      Haseo watches as a hole's blown through his castle, frowning incredibly deeply as he turns towards Petra.      "The hell's your problem, you crazy brat!? If you're understimulated or whatever pull out your freaking tablet or something."      Despite a part of him nagging to return fire, he ignores it. Or rather, he grapples with the impulse to freak out hard like he normally does and does his best to bury it. Instead, he decides to focus on repairing the damage to his castle while adding a few more details that he noticed he missed.      "First HER, then a hag, and now a brat. What's my freaking luck with women lately? Why can't they be more like..." His complaints start off as muttering that only people close to him can hear, to completely silent as he just silently mouths it instead.
Regulus	Regulus is having a cannon pointed at her! That's scary! So she takes a talisman, but she can't help but look a bit skeptical about it. "I don't know, I never used this kind of magic before." She says, wiggling the little talisman slip. Will she use the talisman to do some silly sandcastle thing?! Find out next episode in... Sandcastles Pt 2: Petra Shoots Regulus With A Cannon!
Lilian Rook	'Oh, you're talking about the wave symbols.'     "Is that what those are?" Lilian scoffs, eyebrow raised. "You look like an absolute tosser."     'Look, I'm not paying for a character edit to remove something most PCs have.'     "Oh right. You were one of those." Lilian says. "Oh that's so embarrassing."     'We get it, you have a big c-'     She snorts.     'Matilda's arcane skill is actually unlocking new abilities for Sonetto...'     "Her arcane skill is divination." Weird hill to die on, correct or not. "Sonetto is very competent, and Matilda is very competitive."     'You just need a ¶delta¶.'     "Oh I really really like that! ¶Delta¶ . . ." Nika repeats after Petra, glowingly satisfied.     'Dog, I'd fucking *die* wearing that!'     Lilian considers it-- she really does-- while watching Petra tear into a professional leatherworker about leather, but she decides not to voice the obvious. Petra being mean to boys is kind of like, almost a sort of enrichment, even if she knows it isn't that simple. "As if you've never suffered for fashion." she says instead, as if she can think of any examples off the top of her head. Wait-- "Miss 'slutty pirate'."     'You're *so* right bestie.'     Nika, despite being firmly within the realm of 'poster girl for Russian propaganda about family values' of blonde, manages a near-perfect mean California girl smirk following Petra's cue. "I'm built different~" she says, style-switching to copy Lilian mid-combo. Her giggling at the six-years-old comment is mostly her normal variety, though; making it a double style switch if you think about it!     'Right?'     Petra's nonsensical hand gestures receive a patient little nod from Nika. Arbitrarily, she decides to shuffle a little more, and complete the spirographic trail of footsteps after all. It does absolutely nothing. "Right." she says, patient-commiserative. "I had to learn it too. I'm just trying to help." she says. "I think it's really cool that you're ¶trying/showing interest/getting out there¶ at all."     For a change of pace, she finds Petra the cutest thing ever when she starts talking to the sand again. Nika presses both hands over her mouth and gasps, jumping up and down by a hair.     'Hahahahaha! Yes! We're ¶in the game¶!'     "We're so back! We're ¶gaming¶!"     Lilian, meanwhile, is filming Regulus doing a triple jump while getting herself in the picture so she can give the middle finger to the recipient. Nika's ears prick up at hearing Petra speak her name, but she doesn't decide to ask yet.     'It's good, right? I've been ¶growing/working out/carving from stone/falling in love¶ more every time we've met, you know.'
Lilian Rook	"Sappyyyyyyy~!" Nika hoots, very much approvingly.     'I've got nothing I'm worried about you hearing, Wet Leather Boy!'     Lilian chased Petra's attack! "Soggy chaps." activated!     'The hell's your problem, you crazy brat!? If you're understimulated or whatever pull out your freaking tablet or something.'     "Do you remember hearing a rule prohibiting inerference, dumbass?!" Lilian puts both hands around her mouth and hollers. "You should be grateful I'm feeling sporting today! Otherwise I'd have laid you all out and won by default!" Instantly, she looks to the side and says "Not you Nika; obviously." Nika nods.     'First HER, then a hag, and now a brat. What's my freaking luck with women lately? Why can't they be more like...'     "Your mom? Looooseeeer!"     'Did someone teach you? Did you teach yourself? Or...'     Nika, oddly, thinks about this for a good long while. And after she's done, she says with no small amount of pensive confidence, "I'm pretty sure it's the last one."     Then she freezes up like a cat being picked up by the scruff. Arms stuck out to her sides over Hiromi's hands in a slightly comical A-pose, she silently entreats Lilian with her big ol' powder blue eyes. Lilian inserts herself between Nika and Chie, locks eyes with Hiromi, and then gently but firmly takes Nika off her hands. Putting her back down, she pats the blonde on the shoulder without really thinking about it. "Ask nicely." she says, unclear in her target.
Regulus	''Her arcane skill is divination.'' "Yeah, I'm playing along with the bit." Regulus points out. ''Miss 'slutty pirate'.'' "Huh? What? Of course I--" Regulus naturally assumes she's the slutty pirate before looking over to Petra. Oh. Regulus frowns uncertainly. As a member of the free love movement, is it OKAY for her to NOT be the person someone thinks of when they think 'slutty pirate'? She's going to have to think about this for a long while. She instead decides, fuck it, and activates the talisman after examining it and determining they are like Tamamo's and concentrates. She's still, honestly, not too interested in making her sand castle as ridiculously huge as the others. In fact, she's leaving the sand castle that she made right where it is and is instead building up everything around it with the talisman's power. The sand shifts around the central sand castle, forming into 'waves' like one might see in the open sea, she builds among those waves a little SandAPPLe boat and an orca. Regulus is kind of going more for prettiness than combat capability, but she still builds a sand barge around her normal sized sand castle, building protective walls and ceilings around the the normal sized sand castle and then swishing them around with other walls and ceilings to further obscure the presence of her precious normal sand castle. And she seems content with that, letting the swirling 'sand waves' be the bulk of her 'defense'. But of course she's really not invested in the whole 'sand castle war' at all so maybe that's to be expected. "Alright that's my way." Regulus says, content with that.