[SE] Just hanging with the buoys

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

LongNight might have held some horrendous threshold for many regions, but it couldn’t quite compare to Torchline’s constituents of bonfires and booze. Even the new-fangled, impending game of jousting was something to look forward to, rather than all the nuances of dreaded evenings and twilight that never ended.

Hands on her hips, she pulled the sunglasses over her eyes and stared across the endless, blue horizon, then back at the piled buoys, made to resemble the fluorescent aspects of under the sea constituents. She’d long since pinned her hair back so it wouldn’t crowd into her face when they were amidst the water, Ludo-detailed swimsuit already in full force with cats and the herald’s masks sharing coffee and cocoa lined on the print. Turning to face Kaisel, she granted him a grin that was either mischief embedded or sincere and she’d let him figure and parse through which. “Congrats on your upcoming wedding. Flora was telling me some of the deets.” Grabbing hold of one of the buoy lines, she sighed and huffed a breath, glance narrowing behind the shades. “How far apart should we make this?”

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

the rumpus and ruckus are comfortable now

Having now experienced a full Torchline Longnight once already, he's prepared this year, and he has had thoughts on how to make it bigger and better. A whole list, in fact, which he's slipped to Flora nearly daily with a growing amount of absurdity. He's slipped it into her piles of work papers, into her purse, at her nightstand under her glass of night water, and even mailed it to her with a few ghost writer names that she saw though far too fast to be fair. Although this particular feat isn't his idea entirely, not exactly, he likes to think he wore her down with enough insanity that she became inspired by all of it and with some courtly brainstorming and a few hot takes, arranged this.

Flapping his arms to continue untangling the end of the buoy lines they've begun to unroll and stretch out, Kaisel finally manages to free the last bit of this one and can fully glance up at her as she speaks. "Oh yeah?" His eyebrows reach for his hair as he regards the Honeybee with a smile that he gave no permission to but found its way quite comfortably on his face at the mention of marrying Flora. Might half be the secret of pulling off their private ceremony into a public one, and might 80% be the fact hearing her name still does this to him as if she's his classroom crush he's too shy to approach still. "What might those deets be?" He is a miserable failure at nonchalance, but he tries for it anyway in the hopes it might make her spill the tea all that faster to better capture his attention, expecting that she, like him, enjoys the spotlight of focus and favor.

Dressed in board shorts that are black at the top, they gradually fade into a golden bottom where small text reads The honeybee. A faintly visible honeycomb pattern is made on the yellowed ends with an inalid subtle shimmer of fabric. With them, Kaisel stands equally ready to romp into the sea. He's already stripped his button-down blue shirt and cast it aside, and despite the temperate beach, the season blows a cold coastal breeze once in a while that makes him shiver faintly. "Mmmmm," Kaisel considers her question, stretching his arms out as wide as he can on either side and glancing between them. "I thiiink, three arm-lengths. Gives them enough room to fall off and not get tangled."

Kaisel

everybody come hang, let's go out with a bang

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

In the mood to be irritating, she tilted her head at his inquiry, though her eyes narrowed slightly at his shorts, uncertain if she should be offended (like within the underwear debacle) or wondering if she could bully Iskra into wearing a pair. She took more than a few moments, grin managing to slip into something nefarious and mercurial, untangling another line at the end of buoys and string. “Shouldn’t you know the details of your own wedding?” Of course, both of them knew Flora, and the potential for her to just make things up on a whim and have it wholly encompass a ceremony were not out of the realm of possibility. Throwing him a bone, she shrugged her shoulders, because it wasn’t a lie and she thought it’d be funny. “Flora said that if Sah makes an appearance there I can kill him. Might be good luck and all that.” Winking and leaving that for him to ponder, she shifted upwards, stretching her arms and shoulders, pretending to be nonchalant about the trunks. “Where did you get those?”

At the notions of distance and measurements though, she nodded; if left to her own devices, it would’ve been tossed out to sea in haphazard order, and may fortunes be in someone’s favor, because she wouldn’t given a single fuck. “Sounds good,” came instead, a shrug to follow, before she began to tug and pull the portions along the shore and sand. “Though it’d be hilarious if they did get tangled,” in case he wanted to change his mind.

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

the rumpus and ruckus are comfortable now

Kaisel can't hold onto the short laugh that rises in quick response to Mel's query. "Have you ever planned a wedding before?" He can safely say he hasn't until now, but his brow arches up all the same at her over the strands of rope and floating balls. "The details are more slippery than a greased up glotter." They've said lots and decided on little, and the things that get said keep growing while the decisions remain fairly the same. Maybe not every wedding unfurls the same, but this one surely is on track (which is to say, all over the track) given the bride and groom at its center and their propensity for going the extra mile.

What he hoped was that Flora might have told Mel something she'd be too worried to say outright to him. Not that he feared she kept secrets, but there is no denying that truths settle differently depending on who's ears are available. A sure offered his way at an idea could be a hell no to Melita, and he'd very much like to know if that's the case.

Kaisel's untangling stops abruptly, his fondly dipped smile splitting apart over a sharp "What!?". His head lifts up from the buoys so fast it pops. "Don't kill anyone at our wedding!" he sputters, features climbing rapidly into disbelief until he catches her wink. Immediately his breath flops out and he rolls his eyes, getting back to task. "Oh I see. Well you can metaphorically kill whoever you want whenever you want."

Glancing down at what's in his hands as if she's referring to something obvious, but having only the buoys, he doesn't immediately know how to respond. His merch is such a routine for him that it doesn't even register that she means that, not at first. "What, this?" he lifts up the rope, buoyant bits bobbing. The shiny thread of the shorts catches with the movement. "OH!" He realizes, folding back his snarky remark about a shed and mermaid bondage, his grin racing out shark-like now that he has the upper hand in the conversation. "Got them last Longheat. Why, you waaaaant a paaaaair?" He drags it out in a teasing manner, imagining her decked out in her own line (which he would absolutely do if he had any to his name).

With the more serious matter of erecting the course, he snorts in response to her pursuit of mayhem. "Just what we need, someone drowning in the dark." Maybe she could enjoy it, but he'd be working patrols to manage public safety again on and off throughout the span, and if this particular addition to the festival proves disastrous than he's sure his other ideas will be ripped apart next time. "Isn't the jousting enough to satisfy your chaoslust?" he wonders as they begin to work on dragging the line out to the sea. His bare feet meet the surf, and immediate shiver racing up his leg. The water still might be bearable compared to most, but it is still Deepfrost season and he much prefers the sea when it's Longheat's temperature.

Kaisel

everybody come hang, let's go out with a bang

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

At the inquiry, she burst out laughing. “Gods no. Though I’ve tried to stop some.” To no avail – one could ask her uncle about the Spite Wedding for reference. Opting to give him a brief modicum of peace, she tapped at her chin, dragging the line along as they chatted. “Flora mentioned something about distracting dragons…and a list of shitty people not allowed.” Her grin grew bigger, brighter, watching as he fumbled around with the buoys at the mention of her impending crimes. “Great! Then I have permission from both of you!” Which, even though she waltzed around with her own ‘I’m a Ludo demigod’ license, it was nice to be able to tease and taunt and speculate vengeance and murder, even if it wouldn’t come to fruition. A girl could dream.

Though at his inquiry over the boardshorts, she rolled her eyes. “Obviously,” as if they might be for herself and not something she would bully Iskra into wearing. Whether or not he answered, she could probably find out in various other ways from someone else – tugging along towards the shoreline and waves with her nose only slightly higher in the air.

Though his snort made her rally, turning her head back crisply and swiftly. “Ahem, I believe someone channeled someone else before and nearly let them drown in the dark,” and then she suddenly had a wondrous level of revenge concocted in her mind, if they hadn’t already come to blows about it beforehand. Did double jeopardy play a part in this world…eh, best left to contemplate on a later coil, though with the way her smile wove into something wicked, she wouldn’t rush away from the subject and ability if it came up.

As for jousting, as she dove into the water and offered a breath of relief, she dove underneath, pulling the lines along before resurfacing, back into familiarity and strength. “I don’t know what you mean. You can never have enough chaos.”

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent