abraxaslogs | A much deserved vacation day!

Who: The Free Cities Summoned
What: Beach Party Episode, aka the Summoned take a break and enjoy the new portal
When: June 6thish, post Nocwich weekend. We can timey wimey it folks.
Where: Aquila!

[ooc: these are just suggested prompts, please feel free to roll with any ideas you have! Thanks to Hannah for sharing the code. Descriptions about Aquila are taken from the settings page here and credited to the mods. A player-made Pinterest mood board was created here for inspiration, but keep the world of Abraxas in mind for the reality.]

The Aquila Portal / Time to Go!

An invite shows up on the network from Jesper Fahey to the Free Cities Summoned stating the following:

Hey everyone, I managed to score funds from our money makers to have a group outing through the Aquila portal. We deserve it, don't you think? We did vote it into being after all. So get out your beach day clothes (or lack thereof) and meet at 9 AM tomorrow. If you come later, I'll let the portal people know the list allowed. They've got chairs and such to rent there, so don't worry if you don't have anything helpful.

Let's party like we're in the Horizon! If you need some extra cash while there I know the people to beg.

PS - No arguing, Crows. (That means you Kaz.)

True to his word, Jesper will be waiting at the newly opened portal to mark the Summoned so they're allowed to get through with the money he's collected. He'll smile and wink at them as they go through. He is dressed casually himself for this outing and in high spirits. Summoned can meet up here and go through together if they'd like or maybe be persuaded if they're not really sure about it.

Welcome to Aquila!

Aquila is the world's fastest-growing economy and the scenery in Aquila is also considered some of the most beautiful, with both the mountains and beaches of Andromeda Bay nearby, making it a popular destination for vacationers.

The beach may be exciting, but it isn't the only part of Aquila to enjoy! The massive public market takes up most of the city's center. Anything you might want can be found here. Countless booths and stalls and carts fill the town's center, and traders from all across the nation congregate to offer their wares. From raw materials such as fabrics, dyes, exotic wood and stones, to finely crafted artisan everything. Furniture, clothing, foodstuffs, weapons, art, magical oddities, it's all here. The market opens at sun-up and shuts down sometime after sunset - plenty of sellers will linger, hoping for one last sale of the day.

Art and fashion thrive in Aquila. Studios and galleries of art are scattered all over the city and artists sketching or painting out on the streets or on the nearby beaches are a common sight. This is the time to go looking for new clothes as seamstresses and tailors are all looking to outdo themselves and create the next big fashion statement.

But if it's the beach fun you're looking for ....

Fun in the Sun!

It's more crowded than usual in Aquila thanks to the emergence of the portal, but the Summoned will manage to camp out their own area on the right side of the beach and have freedom to enjoy themselves alone. Nearby one of the entrances of the beach is a local business called The Wave Palace. There people can buy or rent chairs, cloth to sit on, hats, and other beach items to feel more comfortable.

Once settled onto their spot on the beach, the Summoned can enjoy a full day of various activities to either relax or be active. They can swim or race to see who is the better swimmer, do the same on a sand race, and head up to a popular nearby cliff that is perfect to jump off of. Challenge each other to the perfect dive or laugh if someone ends up belly-flopping.

Anyone can lounge comfortably in the sun or maybe they want to get creative and build sandcastles. They can rent bowls and sticks and other instruments at the shop to gather sand correctly. Maybe your castle is remarkably impressive or dismal at best, but the point is to have fun. If you're feeling mischievous you can bury a friend in sand, or even a stranger if you want to test fate. You can find rocks or shells to collect and bring home as a reminder of the trip here.

There is a bar down the beach called The Wave Crash Pub where people can sit and listen to live music or carry drinks back to their chair. At some point in the day, someone suggests playing a game of volleyball or something similar, and a net and ball can be found to set it up. Test your might against each other and no cheating! (Just kidding, cheat away.)

As the day comes to a close, stay long enough to watch the sunset together or do some night swimming to cool off. When it's time to go home, don't forget to either return your rented items or decide to buy it. See if you can convince a friend to get a keepsake or ask their opinion of one on the way out. Hope you all had fun in this beach day episode!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She gives a soft giggle in response to that. A real, proper kind of giggle, the ones she doesn’t actually have a lot of some days. “You’ll regret it later if you don’t…” she warns him in something of a songish tone.

The slow, cat-like arch of her back only accentuates the hard lines of her body as she stretches out against the blanket underneath her, arms lifted high above her head. She laces her fingers behind her head and angles her gaze over toward him.

A tiny smile flutters unbidden and easily across her lips as she looks at him, decked from head to toe in the very non-traditional beachwear. She understands that this isn’t easy for him, but he’s still here. Making compromises for them, despite his own struggle with anything that reminds him of the harbors that rebirthed him all those years ago.

It is a concession she’s sure he wouldn’t have given back in Ketterdam, a gesture small enough it could be missed if one didn’t know to look for it— but that’s always been Kaz’s way of showing he cares, hasn’t it? Actions. Gifts. Only things that are nearly tangible in the weight they carry.

“It wouldn’t kill you to pretend you’re having fun, you know,” she reaches carefully with her foot to nudge his leg, something completely covered with no chance of contact between them, her movements clearly telegraphed in that way she’s so used to doing for him. He could stop her, or avoid the touch if he needed to, and she never felt bad if he pulled away; she understands it, perhaps, more than some might.

Despite the fact that it's at his actions and words, there's something about that sound that Kaz finds both delightful and nearly frightening. This place has to work for them, he has to find his footing here because she deserves this. She deserves to have friends and a home and to actually be able to genuinely laugh and not constantly fear the stadwatch and others who would come for her because of their actions. Because of his.

It's exactly that reason he's out there on the beach with them. Not just because he's yet to discover the secret to actually relaxing but because it's living a normal life. Their normal life and he will live it beside them.

Because she deserves to stretch like a cat in the sun, looking elegant and breathtaking and completely at peace. He'd endure however many days in the sun it took to be able to see that smile regularly.

"Do I not look like I'm having fun?" Given the dour expression and the cool lift of his brow, he knows the answer. "I am here, Inej. I'm watching the three of you run about like puppies. That's as close as I'm going to get here."

The water is much too close, the sound of the surf familiar in ways that made his stomach turn. He doubt that in the entirety of his lifetime that the sound of waves splashing against bodies wouldn't be one of the worst sounds he could imagine. Even if these bodies are willingly in the water. Or that its likely he's imagining the sound, unable to truly hear it from where he's sitting.

“I suppose,” she says with a tired sigh- playful and over-the-top. “You might scare the locals if you smile, all those shark’s teeth. She grins up at him, making the tease all the more obvious as if everything else in the moment might not make that crystal clear already.

"Oh but if only. I miss the days when my smile was terrifying to others," he admits with a long drawn out side. He might be playing it up but the truth was, he did still miss it. He missed his reputation and all it afforded him.

He's also smart enough to know that building the same reputation here wouldn't buy him what he wanted. The locals wouldn't have it and the Summoned all played much too nice with one another.

“I’m sure some people are still afraid of you, on imposing figure alone.” He does cut an intimidating stature when he doesn’t look as out of place as he does in this moment. Tall, dark, all sharp angles and taut lines.

Still. This day isn’t about that. Or reputations or empires or the past, either. All they can do is keep moving forward with their lives, and with each other. Today, though, is all about fun and relaxation.

“Come on,” she taps his knee with her foot again, “There must be something you want to try, or see while we’re here,” she says, trying to get at least a hint. She’d do anything if it meant he’d get some fun out of this day, too.

He gives her a look for that. "Thank you," he murmurs softly, actually appreciating it. Intimidating is one of the things he knows how to be, so he might take a youthful glee over her saying that. Such as glee is for Kaz.

He considers that, giving her a look. "I'm not going into the water," he says, tones flat. "So what else do you have in mind?"

He's willing to try. For her sake. Except the water.

Her eyes light up with the smile she gives him. “You’re welcome,” she says, her tone just as soft to match his own. As reactions go, it’s fairly subdued, really, but it’s pretty much what ecstatic looks like on Kaz.

“I didn’t say we needed to,” she counters lightly, eyebrows arched. Surely he knows her better than to think she’d even suggest it. Not knowing what she now knows.

Still. There are other things to do in the city, even right here on the beach, that have nothing to do with the water at all. “I saw some people playing some sort of game earlier, with a net and a ball… I’ll have to ask for specifics, but from watching, it seems like you try to keep it in the air as long as possible. But if it falls on the opposite side, you get points?” Volleyball, she saw some people playing volleyball but she has no idea what it actually is. “Or there’s the shops with shiny things further up town?” she’s not sure which he might choose, but options are better than demands.

Perhaps it isn't what he should be grateful for but he has yet to adjust to even in the months he's been here to not having the reputation he counted as being so much of his life.

"I know you didn't. Just... clear boundaries and all."

He has made strides with both Inej and Jesper. This one, in an open body and not say a pool or tub, he doesn't think he's going to easily find his way free from. Not the memories of that night.

He's here though and he hopes that says more than he can sometimes find words for.

He considers that. "Are you looking to play their sports or shall I take you shopping?"

She understands the importance of that reputation. It's one piece of all of his layers of armor she does not expect him to let go of; he had cultivated it for far too long to let it go by now, and she thinks she can live with that. He's working on the rest.

She nods, a small smile on her lips. She knows those sort of things still make him feel like his misstepping somehow. Too new, still, even all these months later, to be so...open. But he's doing it, the effort is all that really mattered to her when she gave him that ultimatum. She simply refused to be left in some kind of eternal limbo with him.

"I don't care," she says simply, shrugging a little. "I just want to do it with you, whatever it is." That's the part that matters the most: the time she gets to spend with him. What they're doing, how that time is spent? Doesn't really matter at all.

A much deserved vacation day!

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