68th of Summer, 513
11th Bell
On a remote little corner of beach outside of Riverfall a sandcastle is being built. Its a sturdy thing, made with the simple physics that every child knows. The bottom is made of heavy, packed wet sand to make a sturdy base from which to build. And the walls and three spires are carefully crafted to hold their own weight, lest the tide or a belligerent gull decides to test its defences.
Despite the simplicity of the project, the Otani architect is quite proud of her work. And she circles the structure with her hands hovering like a mother fixing her child's dressing. She's human today, pressed and moulded into her most recognizable shape. And naked as always except for a bright purple scarf tied around her waist in the style of the Svefra. The thing is heavy and dark with seawater and clings to her legs, but she adores it anyway. She bites her lip and plans methodically and carefully over her little structure, and she sings a jaunty tune as she works:
"When I was a lad in a fishing town
My old man said to me:
"You can spend your life, your jolly life
Sailing on the sea.
You can search the world for pretty girls
Til your eyes grow weak and dim,
But don't go fishing for an Otani, son
If you don't know how to swim"
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail"
Using her hands as spades, Uleru completes her castle by digging a crescent curve in front to act as a moat. She steps back to admire her creation, turning her head this way and that, causing the sun to ripple through her back and cast a liquid reflection on the overhanging lip of the low cliff. This needs something else, she's sure. But she's doesn't know what.
Wringing her hands absently, she scans the beach for inspiration. What does it need? Until a little "Aha!" of triumph signals that she has found the answer. The Otani disappears down the beach and comes galloping back with hands full of sea shells. They are the empty, half-husks that used to be part of a living creature, she knows, but they are still so pretty. Perfect adornments to little castles.
Carefully pressing and balancing the trinkets into the walls of wet sand, she starts up the song again:
"So I signed aboard of a whaling ship
And my very first day at sea
There I spied in the waves,
An Otani reaching out for me
So over I jumped and she pulled me down,
Down to her seaweed bed
A pillow made of tortoise-shell
She placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist was just to my taste
But the rest of her was a fish
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail"
The Otani quickly runs out of decoration, and so she steps back once again to admire the finished product. "Much better", she voices aloud, hands on her hips and smiling delightedly. Who cares if this is a pastime for children. There is just something really absorbing about building sandcastles.
But thats not what she came here for. This was nothing but a bout of procrastination, really. And with her distraction complete there is nothing to justify her attention wandering again. So with nothing more than a resigned sigh she turns her back on the castle and tries to focus on the task at hand: Reimancy.
Its not a skill she is particularly good at, but one which she is desperate to improve. She starts by pulling Res from the palms of her cupped hands, forming a shallow opalescent pool. Pulling her hands away from it, it still hangs suspended like a glittering jewel. Brow knit into very human lines of concentration, the Otani then pushes the untransmuted res away from her body. Small circles at first, only a few inches away, but they gradually get larger and larger as she tests the boundaries of her control.
Once she tires of the trick, she catches the res in her hands once more. And using her hands as the physical equivalent of her will, she tries to compress the substance.
Mentally and physically straining with the effort, the Otani's gritted teeth work into a smile, and she is singing again. The rushed crescendo of her effort is lowered to the pace of the song, increasing pressure little by little to the beat of the tune. Working towards the peak where body and will cant hold it any longer.
"Then one day, she swam away
So I sang to the clams and the whales
"Oh, how I miss her seagreen hair
And the silvery shine of her scales”
Then her sister, she swam by
And set my heart awhirl
From her head to her waist was an ugly fish
But the rest of her was a girl
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I did not like the upper part
And that's how I get my-"
A sudden cloud of sand and shells erupt into the beach like shrapnel as she loses control of the condensed gas. It had shot out of her hands like a watermelon seed and hit the sandcastle with a crack of snapping air and and explosion of carefully constructed sand turrets.
The last of the sand settles and the Otani throws up her hands with a rather undignified whoop of glee, delighted with display of force she managed. The front of her body is coated with sand turned to mud on her wet flesh, and there is more than one jagged piece of shell stuck in her face, yet she is nearly beside herself with glee.
Still humming with delight, she kneels in the wreckage to build another castle.
11th Bell
On a remote little corner of beach outside of Riverfall a sandcastle is being built. Its a sturdy thing, made with the simple physics that every child knows. The bottom is made of heavy, packed wet sand to make a sturdy base from which to build. And the walls and three spires are carefully crafted to hold their own weight, lest the tide or a belligerent gull decides to test its defences.
Despite the simplicity of the project, the Otani architect is quite proud of her work. And she circles the structure with her hands hovering like a mother fixing her child's dressing. She's human today, pressed and moulded into her most recognizable shape. And naked as always except for a bright purple scarf tied around her waist in the style of the Svefra. The thing is heavy and dark with seawater and clings to her legs, but she adores it anyway. She bites her lip and plans methodically and carefully over her little structure, and she sings a jaunty tune as she works:
"When I was a lad in a fishing town
My old man said to me:
"You can spend your life, your jolly life
Sailing on the sea.
You can search the world for pretty girls
Til your eyes grow weak and dim,
But don't go fishing for an Otani, son
If you don't know how to swim"
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail"
Using her hands as spades, Uleru completes her castle by digging a crescent curve in front to act as a moat. She steps back to admire her creation, turning her head this way and that, causing the sun to ripple through her back and cast a liquid reflection on the overhanging lip of the low cliff. This needs something else, she's sure. But she's doesn't know what.
Wringing her hands absently, she scans the beach for inspiration. What does it need? Until a little "Aha!" of triumph signals that she has found the answer. The Otani disappears down the beach and comes galloping back with hands full of sea shells. They are the empty, half-husks that used to be part of a living creature, she knows, but they are still so pretty. Perfect adornments to little castles.
Carefully pressing and balancing the trinkets into the walls of wet sand, she starts up the song again:
"So I signed aboard of a whaling ship
And my very first day at sea
There I spied in the waves,
An Otani reaching out for me
So over I jumped and she pulled me down,
Down to her seaweed bed
A pillow made of tortoise-shell
She placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist was just to my taste
But the rest of her was a fish
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail"
The Otani quickly runs out of decoration, and so she steps back once again to admire the finished product. "Much better", she voices aloud, hands on her hips and smiling delightedly. Who cares if this is a pastime for children. There is just something really absorbing about building sandcastles.
But thats not what she came here for. This was nothing but a bout of procrastination, really. And with her distraction complete there is nothing to justify her attention wandering again. So with nothing more than a resigned sigh she turns her back on the castle and tries to focus on the task at hand: Reimancy.
Its not a skill she is particularly good at, but one which she is desperate to improve. She starts by pulling Res from the palms of her cupped hands, forming a shallow opalescent pool. Pulling her hands away from it, it still hangs suspended like a glittering jewel. Brow knit into very human lines of concentration, the Otani then pushes the untransmuted res away from her body. Small circles at first, only a few inches away, but they gradually get larger and larger as she tests the boundaries of her control.
Once she tires of the trick, she catches the res in her hands once more. And using her hands as the physical equivalent of her will, she tries to compress the substance.
Mentally and physically straining with the effort, the Otani's gritted teeth work into a smile, and she is singing again. The rushed crescendo of her effort is lowered to the pace of the song, increasing pressure little by little to the beat of the tune. Working towards the peak where body and will cant hold it any longer.
"Then one day, she swam away
So I sang to the clams and the whales
"Oh, how I miss her seagreen hair
And the silvery shine of her scales”
Then her sister, she swam by
And set my heart awhirl
From her head to her waist was an ugly fish
But the rest of her was a girl
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I did not like the upper part
And that's how I get my-"
A sudden cloud of sand and shells erupt into the beach like shrapnel as she loses control of the condensed gas. It had shot out of her hands like a watermelon seed and hit the sandcastle with a crack of snapping air and and explosion of carefully constructed sand turrets.
The last of the sand settles and the Otani throws up her hands with a rather undignified whoop of glee, delighted with display of force she managed. The front of her body is coated with sand turned to mud on her wet flesh, and there is more than one jagged piece of shell stuck in her face, yet she is nearly beside herself with glee.
Still humming with delight, she kneels in the wreckage to build another castle.
