Open How to Befriend a Monster

and a racoon.

(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy role play forum. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)

Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Sybel on July 30th, 2013, 8:13 pm

Image
Was she Svefra? Sybel laughed lightly. It was true, she did look remarkably close to the seafaring type. How far from the truth that really was – to the contrary, boats made her pointedly ill. ”No, not Svefra. I’m a Benshira, from the vast deserts of Eyktol. Those are south.” She pointed in a southward direction, hoping to provide some context.

At the remark about swimming, she grinned. ”Who said anything about staying here?” Sybel wanted to swim for a while and then maybe later, lie out upon the rocks. It would make for a rather liberating afternoon. As the Otani sang, she stripped, flinging her clothes out behind her. Boots, socks, pants, shirt and finally, her undergarments fluttered through the air and onto the sand. She’d heard the song before, but it sounded even better in Uleru’s sweet, carefree verse.

She plunged into the water, the cold thrilling against her bare flesh. ”I meant, what is it like to fly?” Sybel could barely contain herself. ”I’ve never flown before, so I can’t imagine… I’d love to, though.” The idea of soaring through the skies… Sybel sighed before diving headfirst into the icy depths.

As she resurfaced, she turned to find their Otani friend. ”So, how will you show us the deeper waters, hmm?”
Image
Image

"I am wild, full-blooded and a trifle reckless." - Ser Arthur Conan Doyle
User avatar
Sybel
I drive a hard bargain.
 
Posts: 443
Words: 310247
Joined roleplay: October 14th, 2012, 4:53 pm
Location: Anywhere but Yahebah
Race: Human, Benshira
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 4
Featured Character (1) Featured Thread (1)
Overlored (1) 2012 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Uleru on August 1st, 2013, 5:36 am

Image
Benshira, how exotic. She knows those people only from stories and a few blue-eyed travelers. She's been to the deserts coast, but what wasn't a sun kissed avatar with more hands than is strictly necessary was a slave. And though she would never admit it to this new young woman, the resident race didn't paint her particular breed of human in a very favorable light. Kelvics didn't escape their scorn either, though she has seen too few of their 'pets' down by the water to know the extent of their scorn.

"Eyktol eh? Been there once. Didn't like the locals much. Then again, they didn't quite like me either." Now waist deep in the clear water she has her shifting abilities back. And with it she grows two extra sets of arms, positioning the hands in various poses of boredom (cupped under her chin, resting on her hips and crossed over her chest) in what is an unmistakably Eypharian way.

"This magnificence of the ocean, its beautiful creatures and all its wondrous mysteries bore me" she drawls in an insultingly exaggerated, but surprisingly accurate, Eypharian accent. "So", she Otani clips back in her own waterborne voice, smug smile on her face "I dragged the lovely lady out of her boat so she could have a better look at what she was missing. I've had a bad reputation with them ever since."

Laughing like a child, the moulding throws up all six of her new appendages to splash Dust with a great spray of water.

"Its not cold! Its perfect. Come along, you'll get used to it." she wades over to her new friend and takes both her hands in a pair of her own, leading her into the water a few steps at a time. She's learned that almost every animal can naturally swim. It's the humans that complicate the motion and end up drowning themselves with their insecurities. So, logically, Kelvic's are better swimmers, right?

Once the two are shoulder deep Uleru takes Dust by the back of the head and pushes up the small of her back with another, getting her to float on her back.

"See? Piece of cake. Now don't move your arms like you're flying, imagine that the water is a bunch of gravely bits or sand and you're trying to pull it towards you. Then you'll glide right over top." Not being the best fixed-form swimmer, nor the best teacher, this explanation is quite lacking. But she tries her best to guide the Kelvic through the motions.

At this point Sybel swims up behind the pair and asks, with an unreadable spark in her eye, how Uleru is going to show them the into deeper water. The Otani's smile turns positively impish.

"Like this, come on" she disappears under the water and swims further out from shore, surfacing a few lengths away, and turning back to Sybel. "Now, open your mouth. A nice small 'o'" she demonstrates, opening her own mouth to a kind of shocked expression. "I'm going to pull you under water and when I do I want you to breath out nice and steady. Ready?" she asks, but moves on before she receives an answer, "one, two, three, deep breath!"

She pushes the Benshira under the waves by the shoulders, and follows right behind. Sybels browned skin sparkles under the fractured light, and her dark mane flows above her in a way that incites a familiar pang of jealousy out of the Otani. Oh how she's always loved human hair! Keeping one pair of hands on her shoulders to battle her natural buoyancy, the other goes to the sides of her face to hold her steady. She pulls dijed into the cavity of her chest, distending it sightly as she pulls much more than is necessary, and it looks for all the world like the moulding is filling with a pearly white gas. But it doesn't take long for the dijed to dissolve into colorless air with her Reimancy.

Then, with a quick motion and no warning, the Otani locks her mouth onto Sybel's and gently pushes the air into the Benshira. While to anyone witnessing the exchange it would look like an unconventional kiss, a more fit comparison would be a strange kind of CPR. The violation of personal space and the poor woman's state of undress is completely lost on the Otani. But she herself enjoys a secret pleasure from the solidity and heat the woman's body has that her own sorely lacks. The awkwardness to the moulding comes from this being a uniquely sexual pleasure for her, but here is no other delivery method she can think of. Perhaps it was best that Uleru dragged her underwater to demonstrate, lest leering Akalak or Sybel's beloved are watching.

While she has done this Reimancy trick before (to the same boy she played the horrible prank on, no less) she is always scared of giving too much air and hurting them. So she backs off once there is a slight play of resistance.

Still holding both Sybel's face and shoulders, Uleru still has an extra pair of hands with which to give a thumbs up. A short-hand for 'are you ok?'. She points down then, bringing her attention to the landscape of coral beneath them. Still being relatively close to shore the reef is not terribly far away, and Sybel could have swam there herself with just a lung full of air. But with a few breaths every few minuets from the Otani the Benshira could stay under and explore as long as she wants.
User avatar
Uleru
Laviku's most faithful Otani
 
Posts: 345
Words: 236852
Joined roleplay: March 7th, 2013, 5:54 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 2
Artist (1) Donor (1)

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Dust on August 18th, 2013, 5:41 pm

Dust laughed at Uleru's imitation of an Eypharian, applauding the reshaping of her form which accompanied it. "Oh, I saw those in Ahnatep! They sounded just like that. And that's really neat, how you changed to tell the story!" She didn't blink at her mention of dragging the woman under the water.

She did blink when the Otani saw fit to inundate her, voicing a laughing shriek and raising both hands in utterly futile attempt to ward the spray off. Shaking soggy hair back out of her eyes after, Dust stuck her tongue out at the water-creature, who then grabbed her hands and tugged her deeper out into the water. The Kelvic sprawled out on her back, a little leery at first, but then finding that the water really did hold her up. "It's kinda like laying on a pile of leaves," she observed thoughtfully. "Except, you know, leaves are a little more solid!"

While she floated, Dust's thoughts went back to Sybel's earlier question. And quickly found out that turning to look towards her friend... well, that was a bad idea. "I don't really know what it's like to not fly," she pointed out to the woman, once she'd stabilized in her float again, keeping her eyes turned towards the sky -- even if that also meant squinting against the sun. "It's... I guess... kinda like running, but you go up and down too. And you can see a lot farther."

Then, per the Otani's instructions, the Kelvic moved her arms in the water. Up and down and back and forth; it didn't make sense to 'pull' water from below, she quickly found, but if she curled her hand and pulled it down from over her head, she went 'forward'. If that counted as forward. If she pulled more from one side than the other, she turned in that direction. But slowly! And with quite a bit of splashing as she tried to figure it all out. All told, Dust was too preoccupied with that puzzle to really notice (or wonder) what Uleru and Sybel were up to over there... for the moment.
User avatar
Dust
Player
 
Posts: 293
Words: 160562
Joined roleplay: October 21st, 2012, 7:31 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 1
Donor (1)

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Sybel on September 17th, 2013, 6:17 pm

Image
Sybel grinned, thinking of how the Eypharians must have looked at Uleru. Their imagined disbelief was priceless. ”Nicely put,” she replied, still chuckling at the Otani’s impersonation. The tale was splendid indeed. She could think of nothing more satisfying but to drag an Eypharian into the ocean, kicking and screaming. Their imminent friendship was no longer imminent.

As the creature taught Dust to float, she acted as the example, bobbing along the tide. The sun caressed her bronze flesh and crept into her bones, alleviating the chill of the sea. It was such a lovely day, all things considered. Sybel had not thought it would turn out so well, given how it began. Dust seemed to grasp the concept of floating rather quickly and as soon as she did, she elaborated on how to fly.

”That makes sense,” she replied. It would be difficult to explain to someone who didn’t fly, after all.

The focus shifted back to her more rapidly than she would have thought. Sybel blinked but complied, mouth mirroring the Otani’s and before she could gasp down a true breath, she felt herself pushed downward, swallowed up by the frigid waters below. Uleru guided her with one pair of hands while the other cradled her face. A forbidden shudder wrenched her spine – the intimacy of the gesture was not lost on Sybel and with a blissful expression, she relished their aquatic kiss.

Her lungs expanded, lips twisting into a knowing smile. To be touched by a creature of the water went beyond description and further, it seemed the same pleasure was felt on either end. How odd and unexpected, she thought to herself, flashing a thumbs-up back to her partner-in-crime. What magic did she use? Sybel thought she’d seen pearly tendrils flicker through her breast, but couldn’t be sure. Had it just been a trick of the light?

Her crystalline eyes darted below to the expanse of coral and her heart sang. So Uleru meant to help her explore? How she wished to have done so in Mura! Not one to pass up an opportunity, the woman dove deep, body rippling with athletic grace. She marveled as her hands brushed the rough, rosy surface of the organism. She swam along the side, eyes traveling back to Uleru every so often, seeking another gratifying breath.
Image
Image

"I am wild, full-blooded and a trifle reckless." - Ser Arthur Conan Doyle
User avatar
Sybel
I drive a hard bargain.
 
Posts: 443
Words: 310247
Joined roleplay: October 14th, 2012, 4:53 pm
Location: Anywhere but Yahebah
Race: Human, Benshira
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 4
Featured Character (1) Featured Thread (1)
Overlored (1) 2012 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Uleru on October 23rd, 2013, 7:37 pm

Image
Uleru follows Sybel through the clear water with a smug smile on her face. Feeling pleased and slightly superior that she can do this for the Benshira, and be one of the few who can. Though she arranges her face carefully to hide just how much enjoyment she is getting from her enjoyment whenever she looks her way.
 
And for the next few chimes chimes Uleru becomes a very enthusiastic tour guide. She motions to interesting and beautiful creatures, flushing out the ones that hide. She names all the little treasures Sybel finds in the haughty Charoda language. Insisting the Benshira touch the feathery polyps and the brittle coral she finds. And sometimes slapping her hand away when she tries to run her fingers over one of the stinging anemone, or too close to anything poisonous. Occasionally she steps on the small of Sybels back to battle her inherent human buoyancy. Twice she turns her back when she goes too deep and is within imminent danger of popping-ear pressure. And, every few chimes, she gives her another breath.

 As they swim beneath Uleru can look up and see Dust above them by her glowing white skin. And by the frankly irresponsible amount of water she is kicking up as she paddles across the surface, making it look like she is borne up by a cloud of bubbles. The Kelvic is getting the hang of it, anyway. She truly does look like a bird when viewed from beneath. Though she assumes the bird creature Dust was earlier is much more graceful when flying. 
 
Once it seems like the Benshira is tiring Uleru motions to the surface and smiles, swimming behind her and taking her from under the shoulders like a toddler. Truly not giving her a choice in the matter as she tows her back to the surface. She suspects that, given the chance, Sybel wouldn't come back up at all.
 
As they near the surface the Otani sees another chance to play as she watches Dust poodle around above them. So she slows their assent and turns Sybel around by the shoulders. She gives her one last breath, guiltily lingering a second more than is necessary, and her hands holding tight on her face, shoulders and waist. Then she lets her go with a little push towards the surface, putting her fingers to her lips in the universal sign of 'quiet' and winking playfully.
 
She watches her rise for half a chime and then follows. But she is aiming for Dust instead. Half a body length beneath the Kelvic the moulding starts to change. Exchanging the smooth contours of her back for short, bristly spines and a serpentine tail. And slowly, ever so slowly, she rises beneath Dust and, in a manner similar to a cat, and brushes past her legs.
User avatar
Uleru
Laviku's most faithful Otani
 
Posts: 345
Words: 236852
Joined roleplay: March 7th, 2013, 5:54 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 2
Artist (1) Donor (1)

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Dust on November 20th, 2013, 11:16 pm

Dust lay on the surface, cushioned by the fluid, her eyes closed against the sun. It was very peaceful, this floating on water, and very comfortable too; lulled by the quiet and Syna's warmth, she started to feel very much like taking a nap. Except for the whole 'on top of water' part. If she did fall asleep, would she keep floating?

Probably better not to find out.

It was fun to kick around and direct where she went in the water, not just bobbing up and down as the tide deemed fit. Even without looking -- maybe flying was more like swimming, the way there was nothing between here and there but air, or water as the case might be. The water had more substance to it -- air could never hold her up all by itself, not even in bird shape -- but... that seemed like a better analogy. One she needed to share!

Cracking her eyes open and half-turning to where she remembered Sybel's voice being... Dust promptly got a face-full of water. She spluttered, and leaned back until her balance returned, oh-so-carefully scrubbing the water out of her eyes. Then the full measure of the quiet sank in -- no voices, no splashing except from her own two feet.

Nobody else around at all...

...except for the coarse and sinuous thing which snaked past her legs.

Dust yelped, and bolted upright, except that there was nothing solid for her to bolt against. Her feet went straight down, arms flailed in a torrent of splashing, and her head sank beneath the surface, an event she wasn't at all prepared for. Fortunately, the girl bobbed right back up, coughing and spluttering seawater all the way. She just didn't know how to stay there once that happened.
User avatar
Dust
Player
 
Posts: 293
Words: 160562
Joined roleplay: October 21st, 2012, 7:31 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 1
Donor (1)

How to Befriend a Monster

Postby Ragdoll on September 24th, 2014, 1:26 pm

Image
Fur your hard work...


Sybel and Uleru-if you ever return to Miz, shoot me a PM and I'll be more than happy to grade your portions of the thread. c:

Dust :
Skills
Skill Points
Observation 4
Socialization 3
Swimming 2


Lores

  • Race: Otani
  • People are Made of Water, Too
  • What Otani Feel Like
  • Racoons: Set Food Down, Then Back Off
  • Swimming: Staying Afloat
  • Swimming: Move Water to Move Self
  • Swimming Technique: Back Float

Comments

There really wasn't that much to award here, but it was a fun little thread. c:


Though I try my hardest to award you what you deserve, I may occasionally mess things up! If there's something you'd like to discuss about your grade, then please don't hesitate to send me a PM and I'll be happy to work things out with you.
Image
Riverfall - Behind the Waterfall - Mod Request Thread - Codex - OOC
Because of RL issues and a lack of energy that I can devote to Mizahar, I've decided to step down as an AS. I'm sorry to leave so suddenly, but it's truly been fun while it lasted. Hopefully I can come back some day.
User avatar
Ragdoll
To err is human; to forgive is feline.
 
Posts: 239
Words: 53704
Joined roleplay: May 15th, 2014, 2:19 am
Location: AS of Riverfall; Sea of Grass
Race: Staff account
Office
Scrapbook
Plotnotes

Previous

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests