abraxaslogs | [ CLOSED ] spring break babeyy

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[ CLOSED ] spring break babeyy

Who: Ciri, Julie, Nadine & Jaskier
When: early May to... like May 20?? who knows.
Where: Aquila, Andromeda Bay
What: a roadtrip and a beach vacation with the girlssss (+ Jaskier). what better way to cope with all the bad shit happening than to just. bounce. bye.
Warnings: drug use and drinking, lbr; discussion of eating various animals

[ Frankly, by this point, they've all well and truly had it.

After the stress and unpleasantness (trauma, even) of sharing memories without anyone's permission, losing more of their number (the loss of Rinwell stings the most, for Ciri), and suffering an all around shitty past few weeks, it's time for a change of scenery.

Ciri talks to Jaskier first; he could also use the distraction. She tells him how she'd promised Julie a view of the ocean, which apparently Julie's never seen. She calls in a favor or two with some merchants she'd helped guard on the road and back a few times, helping Jaskier secure them all a wagon and horses for rent. She tasks him with inviting Nadine and goes in person to tell Julie, figuring out the best time to leave (as soon as possible, in fact).

If any of them seem a little desperate to get away, at least none of the others will judge.

The trip takes about a week, but with the comforts of the wagon, plenty of drink and familiar company, it passes by quickly. Ciri rides alongside on Nixie while they travel, or occasionally ties her to the back of the wagon on her lead, letting her walk around while Ciri sits and chats. She hunts for meat to add to the provisions they've brought, desert rabbits roasted over a fire, the occasional small fowl.

When they arrive, Ciri shows them the inn she and Sephiroth had found last time they were here, a cheerful little place decorated in brightly colored tapestries and fish-centric motifs. They could have stayed in the wagon, but between her and Jaskier at least, they've got the coin for a bit of a splurge. And besides, the inn is only a short walk from the bay. ]

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[After crying himself exhausted a few days, drinking several bottles of reserve out of heartbreak, and staring at the ceiling for at least five hours straight at one point, Jaskier was also convinced he should, perhaps, go elsewhere. The idea had already been lingering after his talk with Quilleth some time ago -- if he was to tour the Free Cities, he should know all of them just as well as Cadens -- and now, with fresh heartbreak, the idea he may visit one with close friends is appealing.

It is not his first heartbreak, after all. But it is not any easier, even if he still has a few things of Hector's and Rinwell's to remember them by.

(It would never be enough.)

He scoops Mog into a satchel that rests on his hip, grabs the lute Ciri gifted him, and hires a wagon for all of them. Luckily he's always been a light traveler. He wears a bone amulet he found in Hector's room around his neck, and has one of Rinwell's books with him. It feels only fair they should come, too. He would have... they would have invited them both, wouldn't they?

Unfortunately, a bottle of wine makes its way into his lute case, cradled against its neck. For later.

Despite their own loss -- or possibly because of it -- for Nadine and Julie, he makes sure to be extra jovial.]

After all that running, I must say, it's blessed opportunity to finally travel for the mere fun of it.

[For all of them, he suspects. Julie and Nadine (and Lloyd)'s long journey to Cadens. He and Ciri's own escape from Thorne. Even better it is with company.] Now, dinner will be my treat. I'm sure an inn this fanciful must have its own kitchen. I say, for the first few nights, we should at least spend it half-drunk. It's the only proper way to start a true vacation.

[Hah, see. He's a master of modern terms now.]

[ In the afternoon of their first full day saying at the inn, Ciri is eager to go down to the water while the tide is low. Anyone who was around when she left would have also been ushered out excitedly.

She's wearing the short, soft dress she got last time she was in the area, made of some sort of light and breathable dyed fabric, and some sturdy leather sandals with straps wrapping up around her calves. For once, she doesn't even have her belt or dagger, only the wolf's head pendant Geralt gave her hanging by a cord around her neck. On another, longer cord so it sits beneath the pendant, she wears a new trinket, a small commission from Jayce and Viktor's shop that contains a few things in a convenient and easy to carry form. (Yes, she's definitely shown everyone on the trip by now her new toy.)

Ciri makes her way along the beach to the rock outcroppings currently half uncovered by the low tide, climbing up to take a look around. ]

This is the perfect time to dig for clams and mussels. Maybe we can even find an octopus!

...though we'll need to find a bucket first.

Edited 2022-05-10 20:22 (UTC)

You know, I've never traveled just for the fun of it before and you're right. It's nice.

[Besides just going for the occasional day or weekend trip, Nadine's never taken a proper vacation. Jaunts to Sculptured Rock Park down in Grotton or the ice caves aren't really vacations. Nor were fieldtrips. This is a real vacation. And one, despite all surrounding circumstances, she's looking forward to.]

And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're also right about the drinking.

[She's never been much of a drinker, and even since coming her, she usually only drinks in the Horizon. There have been a few times she's indulged in the real world, usually at Julie's urging, but it's still habit not to. Too many years of abstaining for fear of dropping her guard or saying something she shouldn't.

Those days are behind her, though. She's at the seaside with good friends and her boyfriend, she can indulge. Let herself go a little. She's even tried to make sure her wardrobe is a bit less practical and muted, her satchel packed with the things Julie's helped her pick out.]

We're here to relax, after all.

[ Even late in the day when they'd arrived, Julie had first insisted that she go to the market. The dresses she normally wears in Cadens are actually fine here -- she's not much for the corsets and bustles so much as the lightweight desert caftans -- but the shoes there are geared more toward city life than roaming on the sand. It didn't matter if anyone went with her to buy things, but she was going to get better sandals before she did a damn thing else.

She came back forty-five minutes later with not just sandals, but several different inexpensive, lightweight dresses of varying lengths and styles, most of them draped more than tailored, all simple and soft. They're thrown atop the more intricate ones she brought from home, and it will have quickly become apparent that she's the one of the group who will be taking up most of the wagon space for their return trip.

Just before sunset, she'd gone to the beach for the first time. Again, it didn't really matter if anyone went with her; Julie is not someone who requires handholding when she wants to experience something. She knew what the ocean looked like, of course. Her whole life, she's seen pictures, movies, shows of it. It didn't feel like something that should inspire any kind of surprise. But she remembered the first time she saw the lake in Nott, how astounded she'd been at the size.

Standing on the dunes, she'd momentarily lost her breath at the vastness of it all, the sheer enormity of water that didn't end, disappeared off the edge of the horizon under the setting sun.

She stayed on the shore until well into the night, sitting in the surf, just looking at it.

In the morning, she didn't even eat before she went back. She just got dressed and walked out of the inn. She'd wound up sitting on a driftwood log, watching some early morning swimmers. As often happens, she fell into conversation with one of them, a sweet woman who then insisted on Julie letting her create designs in something akin to henna, all over Julie's hands and feet as they talked about Aquila. She learned where they should eat, what they should go see, what booths to avoid in the market.

She came back late morning and fell back to sleep, still sandy.

When she wakes, Ciri is rallying everyone she can find back to the beach, and Julie has no problem accompanying her, carrying her sandals in one hand as she walks in the tide barefoot. Looking up at Ciri with her nose wrinkled, Julie laughs, kicking gently in the water. ]

An octopus? I thought they live deep down. Where can we get a bucket?

[ Ciri had joined Julie the previous night, for a much more relaxing time just watching the water, mostly in silence. They'd watched the sunset together, and then the stars on the water.

See? I promised we'd go together, Ciri had said with a smile, looking at Julie looking over the water, pleased with how things have turned out despite the lingering losses dampening some of that joy. It is what it is; they have to keep going, and she can only hope that Rinwell is safe and well with her friends on her own sphere, the only explanation Ciri is willing to consider for the people she loses here. Rinwell had wanted to go home, at some point, besides. The four of them here -- they've all chosen to stay. Ciri hopes they can.

Now, the mood is brighter, less pensive and more excited. Ciri touches a knuckle to her chin thoughtfully. ]

Oh, sometimes they like to hide under rocks and get trapped when the tide is low. Have you ever eaten octopus? It's good! We'll grill it over a fire, you'll love it.

[ Probably. As for a bucket... ]

Inn might have one. I can run back. Or... [ She lifts her skirt, forming a loose sort of pseudo-bag in front of her. ] This might work. There's a lot of material. I can tie it to the side. [ She demonstrates. Please imagine her with a skirtful of clams, Julie. At least she didn't start shucking the whole dress (yet). ]

[ Vacation is a term Ciri's been newly acquainted with as well, and she's embraced it whole-heartedly. They've settled into their rooms -- one for Nadine and Jaskier (yes, they are being encouraged to have privacy), and one for Julie and Ciri -- and now that they've freshened up and reconvened, Ciri is all for getting some food and drink. ]

The inn has food, but there are some restaurants nearby too, and some proper taverns. They have excellent seafood. Honestly, I think I could eat a whole dolphin right now. ...d'you think dolphin is good to eat?

[ All this delivered while she's got her whole arm in Mog's satchel, half leaning on Jaskier. The mini-gryph is holding onto her with his front paws and nibbling at her loose shirt sleeve, apparently in an attempt to groom her nonexistent feathers. ]

In any case. Drinks, definitely. And plenty of them. See, even Nadine has no excuse.

[ Julie, on the other hand, does not travel light. Did she haul three entire carpetbags full of clothing and wine with her? She sure did. To be fair, one of the bags was really more so that she'll have more space to carry new purchases back, but she figured she'd take advantage of the empty bag on the way by stuffing it with bottles of wine.

After all, it is a week in a wagon. What else can she be expected to do?

When they arrived, Julie did little more than set her bags down before she left to go shopping. She'd returned within an hour with several dresses and two pairs of sandals, one of which she'd handed over to Nadine, as the only other one who hasn't already visited this city.

Already mildly buzzed, Julie turns all her attention to Ciri, nose wrinkled and grimacing in disgust. ]

I mean, I know everyone was always tryin' to make the Japanese stop eatin' 'em. Dolphins are like, as smart as little kids. It's weird to eat anythin' that smart.

[ "Yeah, you did," Julie had agreed softly, her chin perched on her knee and her arms wrapped around her shins as she looked out at the waves. She had never really thought she'd see the ocean at all before Abraxas; before the plague, she'd been doomed to spend her life languishing in small town Kansas, and after, it just so happened that neither of the remaining hubs of society were anywhere near the ocean. It had simply not seemed to be in the cards, and sometimes that's just what it is. But now, here she was, and it was so big.

Julie watches Ciri hold her skirt out like a beggar child under an apple tree, and she has to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She does love this strange little bridge troll friend of hers. Finding a larger rock, she rests against it. ]

I know people do eat octopus, but I ain't ever had it. Where I'm from is so far from the ocean that the only seafood most people ever eat is frozen and deep fried. I've had calamari, that's squid? And like popcorn shrimp and fish sticks, and once, I had lobster mac and cheese. That was really good.

I can't say I've ever indulged myself, but is it not just an extra large fish? [A bit differently shaped, of course, but. Maybe the fins? Honestly, he's rather starving himself. The trip here was nicer than most he's taken, given he can grow fresh fruits in perfect condition on the way, they were well-stocked with water and wine, and the wagon had some rather comfortable seats, but it's still far too bloody long stuck in a wagon.

Even with very lively company.

Jaskier is dressed-down for Jaskier, which means a cream-colored tunic embroidered with blue flowers, curls of chest hair showing where Hector's amulet and the bone ring hand from gold chains. He still wears boots, and considering what Julie is handing out to Nadine, he may be, perhaps, a bit overdressed.

His feet are sweltering a bit.]

The Japanese are... a people? [As good a guess as any.] Wait, what? Since when are fish intelligent? Or perhaps children from your world are very dumb?

[He's mostly kidding. Then he pauses. Not Jim, he mouths at Nadine. In case she has yet to tell the others about him.] Well, what do you all enjoy? Tuna? Crustaceans? At this rate, I'll eat a limping horse if it gets too close.

[Nadine is quick to change her footwear when Julie offers her more vacation appropriate footwear.

And her expression mirrors the other woman's and she shakes her head. Different world, she reminds herself. And Ciri and Jaskier just apparently don't actually know what dolphins are. Why would they? She doubts marine biology is a booming industry in their world.]

No, dolphins aren't fish. They're mammals. And they're really smart, they have a complex language and problem solving skills and they make and use tools...they have social structures similar to humans and they use names for each other, and they've shown signs of actual self awareness. A dolphin can look in a mirror and understand that image is him reflected back. They also rescue sailors in trouble.

[Eating dolphin is absolutely not on the menu.]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd love a real lobster. Nott didn't have lobster, just crayfish. Or clam chowder...I come from the land of clam chowder.

Beach

[The beaches here in Aquila are nothing like the rocky New England shorelines Nadine grew up with. She's actually excited to be here, to take a real vacation for once. She's even found a two piece suit she feels very cute in. It'll be nice to just relax for a little bit in the company of some of her favorite people. Her main goal is to try and not be so responsible and practical for the time they're in Aquila.

But that doesn't stop her from taking an afternoon to stroll along the shoreline and a venture into the tidal pools with her satchel and her ingredients box, collecting plants and critters. And encouraging her companions to join her, even if it's just for the company. Tugging up seaweed and digging weird clams out of the sand isn't everyone's idea of a fun time.

The rest of her time on the beach is spent in a more leisurely fashion. Either stretched out on a beach blanket with a drink or actually swimming, and at one point asking if anyone else would like to build a sand castle - it's a traditional beach activity, after all.

At some point, emboldened by alcohol and whatever else is on hand, Nadine decides the beach might be a very enjoyable place to spend some time in her other shape. She's done it a few more times, either in private or just in Jaskier's company, and she's grown more comfortable with it. Julie and Ciri both know she can do it, and she trusts them. Random strangers also enjoying a seaside trip? Well, she doesn't care and they live in a world of magic anyway. A chick turning into a wolf probably isn't that out of the ordinary. She's already decided she's going to push her boundaries and not care as much about everything on this trip. It's not like she has anything to be embarrassed about - it's an objectively neat thing she can do. And anyway, Jaskier always seems delighted by it.

So she excuses herself to a changing stall and returns in full four legged and furred glory - her bathing suit held in her teeth and her tail sweeping from side to side.]

Nightlife

[What's a vacation to a beautiful seaside city without a night on the town? Aquila is a vibrant creative place, full of galleries and chic little restaurants and entertainment spots. Nadine's not sure what the sword and sorcery version of a nightclub is, but whatever it is, it's probably here. This is another aspect of adult life that's mostly been a mystery. There was no nightlife in small town New Hampshire, and teachers at wealthy private elementary schools couldn't exactly go clubbing on the weekends anyway. Not if they wanted to keep their jobs.

She's even dolled herself up in something Julie had helped her pick out - she pretty much automatically trusts the other woman's fashion recommendations at this point - and used a dark blue glittery nail color on the tips of her horns. It almost feels as though she's wearing a costume, but...she likes it.

What even is there to do in the evenings in Aquila? Nadine isn't sure, but between Julie and Jaskier, she imagines they'll be able to find the 'hot spots', so to speak. The night is clear and the breeze coming in from the sea is fresh and there's just a good energy in the air.]

I wonder if there's anywhere to go dancing...

Wildcard

[Have an idea? Go for it!]

[ Ciri snorts, shaking her head. But she honestly loves when Julie tells her about stuff from her world, especially things to eat or drink. ]

Squid, I know. Never heard of calamari. Half those things barely sound like food. Which part of the fish is the stick?

[ Deciding she doesn't want to go back for a real bucket, apparently, Ciri begins to climb onto the rock outcropping trailing into the water, balancing on the drier parts and hopping over pools of water already trapped by the receding tide. But this is too close to shore, so if Julie wants to go looking for seafood out here, she'll have to come along further out on the rocks. ]

I think I've seen popped corn at the market... What's a mack? Mackerel?

[ Ciri's still in her leathers. Someone please make her change. ]

People eat all sorts of beasts, even smart ones. [ She points out, lips pursed in amusement. Sometimes, Julie and Nadine's sensibilities baffle her. Horses are definitely smarter than fish, but they aren't uncommon as food if necessity strikes, simply more valuable for other reasons. ] Folks'll eat anything if they're hungry enough.

But clam chowder sounds just fine, so long as there's plenty of it. And some big fish, of the stupidest variety we can find.

[ Mog will surely agree, right? She scratches under his beak, at the fluffy feathers beneath. ]

You shouldn't eat any animal that mostly eats meat. That's how you get crazy fuckin' diseases spreadin' from animals to people. And it's like, psychopathic to go huntin' somethin' rare and endangered 'stead of just whatever's actually there. No one catches a dolphin by chance. Japan was the only place I ever heard of that hunted 'em, and everyone else in the world thought they were barbaric as hell for it.

[ Julie is from the heartland, grew up surrounded by pretty much every domesticated kind of livestock that exists. To her, intentionally going after something like a dolphin or an ape or an elephant, it's the mark of someone genuinely dangerous. There's simply no reason to do it other than pure, unadulterated cruelty. Why go through the effort when there's a cow or a chicken right next door? It would only be because the person wants to hurt something smarter.

She makes a face, seemingly disgusted by the idea of clam chowder. Because she is, actually -- having lived so very far from any real source of seafood, Julie is extraordinarily wary of anything from the ocean that hasn't been breaded, fried and flash-frozen. ]

Ain't that clams and like, milk? That honestly sounds like a recipe to throw up.

Calamari is just squid that's battered and fried. It's real common. And a fish stick is white fish that they cut into little blocks and then fry. Sometimes they get called fish fingers, but it's the same thing.

[ She laughs again, climbs atop the nearest rock and walks along the little jetty until it ends and she jumps back down, the water up to her knees now. Julie doesn't really know how to look for things worth eating, so she's much more captivated by tiny crabs and other creatures. ]

Well, popcorn is different from popcorn shrimp. Popcorn shrimp are these real tiny fried shrimp, but they're called that 'cause you can eat a whole handful like you would with popcorn. That's all, there ain't any corn in popcorn shrimp. And no, mac like macaroni and cheese. It's pasta in cheese sauce, and you can add all kinds of stuff. Meat, vegetables, a bunch of different kinds of cheese, breadcrumbs. It's like a comfort food, so there's lots of versions. And in my world, lobster is real expensive, so some people put it in macaroni as a kinda... gourmet thing? Like, to be fancy.

[ It hadn't taken much for Nadine to get Ciri out of the inn. She'd asked for some assistance picking up ingredients for potions that would be hard to find in Cadens, and Ciri had happily agreed to join her, as she's rather familiar with sellers of exotic alchemy materials around the city, having supplied half of them herself.

They're out for a couple of hours, until Nadine seems to decide, a bit suddenly, that she's gotten all she needed for the day and suggests they head back. Helping to carry the supplies they've gotten, Ciri leads the way, filling the time by recounting the story of how one of the shopkeepers they'd spoken to always gives her discounts now after she saved his little dog from a predatory bird the last time she was around. ]

Why is everything where you're from battered and fried?

[ Ciri snorts, amused, but honestly she'd eat it. All of it sounds pretty good, actually. ]

I'm familiar with stews that use macaroni and various meats and vegetables. Perhaps cheese. It sounds good. We can put lobster in it if you can make the rest! If we find any lobsters.

We'll see what's here. Most likely mussels, but we might get lucky.

[ Where Julie is wading deeper into the water, Ciri stays on the rocks, deftly keeping her balance despite the slipperiness. She leans down to peer into the pools of trapped water on occasion, and when she finds something interesting, she shows Julie: lots of little hermit crabs, sea snails, small fish.

At one point, she gestures Julie over to climb up with her. ]

Come look at these! [ These being anemones. Big, colorful ones that curl up when you poke them, which Ciri is currently doing with great fascination. ]

Hey, I don't make fun of y'all's important cultural foods! [ But she says it through laughter, clearly joking. ] Nah, not all of it's fried, but I told you, I come from really far from the ocean. Seafood goes bad faster than we can get it, unless we fry and freeze it first. Or else it's real expensive, 'cause of how much it costs to ship and stay fresh. There's other fried stuff, but most beef, chicken, pork, that stuff? We don't hafta fry it unless, y'know, it's the recipe. Nadine, she's used to seafood, she comes from real close to the ocean, so it was cheap and everywhere for her.

[ Julie hoists herself back up onto the rocks, looks at every single thing Ciri points out. She scoops up several of the hermit crabs and lets them scuttle across her palms as she giggles. When Ciri calls, she comes over and squeals, covering her mouth. ]

Oh, they're Nemo houses! Wait, don't touch 'em, you might hurt 'em.

[ Which is, of course, a completely nonsensical reference to probably everyone in this world who isn't Nadine. Nadine definitely knows Nemo. Julie bites her lip and quickly crouches on the rocks, puts her palms facing down to them. With a rose-colored glow surrounding her hands, she conjures two pencils, both printed with little cartoon fish, and gives one to Ciri before she uses the eraser of the other one to gently poke an anemone. ] Use this.

[Honestly, Jaskier is on Ciri's side of wondering what the benefits of not eating dolphins is, whether fish or mammal -- and he really wants to argue about the mammal bit, but he went to school for the seven other literary arts, none of which were marine biology -- besides, Nadine going into that sort of teachery voice is sexy and he invites more of it.

Jaskier blinks politely at Julie's going hunting something rare comment, which is a terribly sweet sentiment and exactly the sort of reason why dragons are so rare that Jaskier once thought them fable entirely.]

Well. If they're so smart, I imagine they don't get caught very often, then.

[He has no idea. The closest to open ocean he's gone on is the waters near Skellige, and dolphins are not something you're watching out for. Namely, you're watching for the sirens that would much rather eat you.]

Oh, you know, we used to eat poached fish in a spot of white wine. That might attune to your tastes more than shelled things and milk.

[Though he has nothing against chowders. Who doesn't love a nice, thick soup?]

Okay, that's the worst description of clam chowder I've ever heard.

[She's laughing as she says it.]

It's a cream based broth that has some milk in it, but it's mostly chicken stock and butter and flour to thicken it. And there's potato and bacon in it, too. The really good kind uses wine in the broth.

[Of course there's other kinds of clam chowder, but as a New Hampshire native, those don't count to Nadine. She really hopes it's the right kind of chowder they make here.]

And the best kind is served in a bread bowl. With extra butter. It's delicious, and I'd probably pay a ridiculous amount of money for a bowl of clam chowder and a lobster roll. But I'm sure we'll have plenty of options, this feels like the kind of place where food is considered an art.

[The sort of place where chefs are trying everything, and attempting to one-up each other's menus. They probably serve dishes none of them have ever heard of before. Made with ingredients that don't exist anywhere but here.]

Plus they probably have fish and crustaceans and things that don't even exist in either of our worlds. They had some fish I'd never heard of, back in Nott.

[Jaskier has visited plenty of coasts in his lifetime, but something about this trip feels particularly memorable. Of course it's his first on a whole other sphere, but it isn't that, either. It's the company. A lover, their mutual friend, and Geralt's grown daughter.

People from other spheres. A woman he should not know at his age. Impossibilities, stacked on top of each other.

And yet these impossibilities can do the mundane: he can take his lute to the beach and lay out a blanket. He plays while Nadine walks past, giving a wave when she looks up, a sandy box with shells inside. Eventually he leaves the lute with Ciri and takes a walk along the shore with her, Mog following at their heels.

The best moment, he thinks, is when Nadine transforms again. Since the first time she'd showed him (and how that already feels years back, when their relationship had... shifted, so to speak), he had not asked to see again. It had been for that moment alone. But now she does it with ease, even willing to do it in public, when she had feared it so.

Jaskier laughs to see her, looking so much like the wolf he'd once created in the Horizon. He bends to kiss her snout.] I could carry those for you, if you'd like? [As he offers a hand, Mog carefully peeks around his legs, freezing when he takes in the rather giant white wolf -- when compared to his size, anyway. His head starts tilting one way, then the other, bird-like, trying to figure out who she is.]

Oh, don't be such a coward, Moggie. It's only Nadine.

[It's still strange to interact with people like this. Nadine can't physically do so much of what she can in human form. But she presses her nose against Jaskier's cheek in lieu of a kiss and drops the little bundle in her mouth into his hand. Maybe she should look into some sort of carrying pouch she can wear around her neck when she's like this. She can hold this form for longer now than when she began - she could only keep it for minutes at the start - but she's pushed that to a couple of hours. And maybe with time she can push it even further.

There are some situations where she could see this form would be useful.

The reaction from Mog isn't one she'd considered. But of course the little griffin would be wary of a larger predator. She lowers her head and the front of her body, trying to look non-threatening, and extends her snout out towards Mog slowly. Do griffins understand canine body language? Nadine doesn't know, but she sweeps her tail back and forth anyway and keeps her ears perked forward. That's how dogs show they're happy and friendly, right?

It would be so much easier if she could talk in this form. Maybe there's some magic that might allow it...]

[ Ciri, growing impatient around all of Julie's sudden weird rules about what can be hunted and eaten, latches onto the idea of soup quickly enough. Which Julie also dislikes for some reason? She's pickier than Ciri realized. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Ciri makes a 'let's go' gesture for Nadine to lead the way. ]

I'll eat whatever chowder or fish they've got. I'm famished.

Might even swoon. [ Deadpan. She gets that from Geralt. ] Come on.

[ Ciri laughs and offers an appeasing shrug. ] I didn't say it sounded bad! Where I'm from, we didn't have any means of easily freezing meat, except in winter, or even transporting it very far unless it was salted and dried. I just happened to grow up near the sea. Visited family friends on an island nation nearby every year, too-- it's where I learned to swim and catch clams and ice skate.

[ The twinge of nostalgia makes her voice go a little thick. Ciri trails off, instead watching Julie inspect the anemones with a happy squeal that makes it all worth it. She looks so overjoyed, Ciri can't help but grin back so wide her cheeks hurt. ]

Oh, we call these anemones. [ what's a knee mo. ] It won't hurt them.

[ As far as she's aware. But Julie's already handing her a pencil. ]

I don't see how touching them with a finger is worse than poking them with a stick.

[ WOW Ciri, it's not picky to be suspicious of foods that would be spoiled by the time you ever got the chance to try them. And she has no problem with soup, she just thinks it's weird to mix dairy and seafood, and she is not odd in that belief. Guess whose next new food is going to be Rocky Mountain oysters and lamb fries.

Julie snorts, does actually roll her eyes, and follows them. ]

I never said we couldn't go, I just said I don't wanna eat dolphin or chowder. That seems completely normal to me. Don't get huffy.

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[ CLOSED ] spring break babeyy

near the beginning of the trip!

at the beach.

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Various Points During The Trip

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ciri's birthday party!

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Beach

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