[PQ] (RQ) off the coast

A panther in the night, a fire burning bright. Ray waved Sunjata over. "I think I've got something. The vegetation over here is more dense. Maybe we can follow this trail? It seems to lead into the jungle." She suggested. Her eyes ran over the barely discernible path up the beach as it wound until it reached the edge of the jungle. Ray walked over, her eyes never leaving the trail. Once she got to the jungle's edge she tried to follow it in. It was difficult however given the jungle vegetation covered it partially. "Are you able to follow it? I'm going to shift and try my luck." Ray asked Sunjata. She shifted into her panther form and began sniffing, trying to pick up the trail. Ray called Sunjata over to help her follow the trail into the jungle. r a y The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. —Albert Camus

JACK

Jack understands the instructions given by the Mer in the water, but of course he can't do anything about chatting to her when some seaweed has reached up to snag hold of him. His curses come in streams of bubbles as he hunches down to try and disentangle himself, squinting periodically through the water to see if he can spot where Delta has gone.

Fingers try to seize hold of the slimy stuff, ripping it away from his leg and batting it away through the murk for good measure. Providing he's able to wrench himself free, he will swim to the surface to see if he can spot where he is relative to the shore. "Spy anything good?" he calls, unsure whether or not the Mer is even anywhere nearby.

---

Jack tries to free himself and figure out where he is and what's going on with the groynes.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Who knew I'd make her so blue

Delta’s absolutely lucky for once in her life and manages to find the perfect spot! Popping her head above the ocean, she gives a good look around before swimming back down. It takes a bit of inspecting but sure enough, this is absolutely the perfect location!!

Unfortunately this is also when she notices Jack’s predicament. Should he have freed himself, she will swim to the surface. Here’s to hoping he does because assuming he does, Delta responds in turn. ”Yes! I can show you.” And just like that, Delta will return to the spot and point it out to Jack, clearly proud of herself.

Sending a mental message towards Sunjata, Delta hopes it reaches him. We found the first spot.

---

---

Assuming Jack frees himself, Delta shows him the spot.

No matter if Jack freed himself or not, she also tries to use the bond to tell Sunjata that she found the spot for the first one.

Delta

just take your time wherever you go

As Melita hissed, Saiden glanced over at her. Then his eye trailed to her fabric, which was blowing away from them. He didn't laugh or grin, but his lips may have twitched before he turned to look at his own cloth.

Nodding at her question, he pointed in the direction of the wind. "That way." He stepped forward. As he did, he firmed his grip on his little flag. If the breeze shifted, hopefully he'd be able to tell.

He would keep walking forward. As he did, he would drag a foot in the sand. It would hopefully leave a pathway for them to trace the curve of the wind.

---

Saiden takes a firmer grip on the cloth and walks forward, using it to keep tracking the wind. As he does, he drags a foot in the sand in the direction of the wind.

SUNJATA

the flood

anyway, you say you're too busy
saving everybody else to save yourself

Distracted from his helpless attempts, the attuned drifts toward Ray as she calls over – his spiral horned head nodding to her in agreement, before lowering to the ground to follow the trail. And soon enough, the prey drive within him starts to fidget as Ray shifts into a panther – something both familiar and intriguing, and he can’t help but to shift into his own panther shift as well – offering her a cheeky, feline grin, before following the trail. He’s successful in his attempts to follow the trail, drifting into the jungle and finding the line of where the nutrients typically pooled in a sense. Ray has a harder time, the trail she follows branching off into dead ends. Now that they’ve found it, they just need to mark the space for it and help the group with placing the rocks down.

Poor, poor, Jack. He manages to get himself unstuck from the seaweed, to roam toward the surface and call to Delta. But the pair doesn’t seem to do well enough, it seems. The marker is placed for the first groyne, but on the pairs attempt to swim to the next place to figure out where the next one would go, a shark begins to head toward the duo – the fin daunting in the distance and approaching quickly.

Saiden and Melita end up having a bit of a better time, the marking made to show how the curve goes. And now, given the space that Delta and Jack have marked, the two can start moving the rocks into the water, to start curving the path of the first groyne.

---

Round 3!!

Sunjata succeeds in finding the full trail, Ray ends up branching off into dead ends. Now they just need to mark it and they can help Saiden and Melita with moving the rocks!

Jack and Delta place the marker for the first groyne, but encounter a shark on their way to the second!

Saiden and Melita mark the curve and can start putting rocks into the water to follow the curve!

No post order <3

and you don't want no help, oh well
that's the story to tell

Melita

Eating fire is your ambition
to swallow the flame down

At the very least one of them had figured it out, and so she nodded, eyes glinting in the direction he pointed towards. It was smart, clever, to drag his foot and mark the sand, and so she and Fangorn followed suit, ensuring it was an emboldened line for all to see.

Then, all they’d need to do was start maneuvering the rocks. The honeybee shifted her mood back to some plausible, good-natured emblem, rolling her shoulders, and obtaining some gloves for the next interval. Her hands grabbed and snagged for the stones, one by one, instigating a pattern of movement and motion, assembling them towards the water, to go along with the bend and sway of curves.

--

Melita attempts to move rocks!

to be lit up from within, vein by vein
to be the sun

A panther in the night, a fire burning bright. Ray shook her head in amusement when Sunjata shifted into a panther as well before she followed her own trail. Feeling frustrated at her failure, Ray glanced back at her companion and upon seeing his success, trotted over to him. She grinned and stretched up, leaving claw marks on the trees surrounding the area. Not large enough ones to cause permanent damage to the plant life, but enough that it would hopefully be easy to find the location again later. Finished she shifted back and glanced down the beach. "Should we go help with the rocks? That'll likely take the most amount of time and effort." She asked Sunjata. r a y The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. —Albert Camus

just take your time wherever you go

Once Saiden felt he had a good grasp of the direction and intensity of the wind, he put his little cloth away. Turning to grin at Melita, he nodded as he saw her lugging rocks into the path he'd outlined. He trundled off to do the same.

Given that she was far stronger than him, he felt his cheeks flushing from more than the exertion as he tried to put the stones in place. However, he gamely kept at it, huffing out air as he bent down to hoist them up. Belatedly he realized he could probably have just found lighter rocks, but at least these would be visible from a distance.

---

Saiden attempts to move rocks!

JACK

Well, at least they'd had a bit of luck. With one marker in place and his legs blessedly free of seaweed, Jack dives back beneath the waves so they can swim towards the second location. As he surfaces again, it's to see a very ominous looking fin cutting through the waves directly for them. And the captain isn't stupid enough to try and reason with a creature like that, so he nods to Delta. "Got anything that might be useful right about now?" he asks.

If not, it's no issue. Jack's got something - and as far as the Mer beside him is concerned, it's just a clever little item he's picked up in the form of one of the woven rope bands around his wrists. In reality, of course, it's air magic, and he sends a blast of it tearing through the water right at the shark, intending to interrupt its course.

---

Jack tries to tell the shark to fuck off with air magic!

Air manipulation: Can create and control the air. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Who knew I'd make her so blue

Unlucky must be Delta’s middle name because of course stuff goes wrong.

First, she fails to actually place anything. Thankfully, Jack succeeds and the two are able to complete that. She hopes that’s the end of her bad luck, but of course, it’s not. This time it’s a mutual thing shared by the two of them: a shark.

Glancing over at the man, she frowns. ”No- but I doubt it’ll attack us.... I think.” Just in case though, Delta hopes Jack has a plan. And he seems to, using his... magic? Delta didn’t know the guy was an Abandoned but she knew exactly what he was using. Now, yeah, it could be the wrist things, but it could also be magic magic. Delta wasn’t sure but she wasn’t about to waste time and ask.

Delta

i am on a journey to discover what it's like to be free of all my demons

Agreement is made swiftly with Ray to round back, now that they know where it begins and she’s marked it perfectly so that they could find it again, turning back toward the rocks to help carry them into the water to fit them all in the first groyne. He shifts to his dragon shift, able to grab a few of the larger rocks to place them and take care of most of the work. Ray also succeeds in moving quite a few of the rocks into place.

Jack’s magic works wonders in driving the shark off, the air booping it right on its nose and sending it away for an easier meal. This leaves Jack and Delta able to find and mark the second spot with ease. Now, there’s just one more for them to move to, to mark the last one further down the beach toward the other pile, easily spaced out with the others to where it’ll all work out as planned.

Saiden and Melita both struggle moving rocks over, but with the help of Sunjata and Ray they all manage to get the rocks lined up and down the first groyne, leaving room for the second one to be started and hopefully finished just as Jack and Delta get to finishing up the placement of the third groyne.

---

ROUND FOUR!

Sunjata and Ray both manage to move quite a few rocks into the groyne until it’s completed.

Jack and Delta drive off the shark and have placed their second marker, they just need to place the third and they’ll be done!

Saiden and Melita struggle with moving the rocks, but with the help of Sunjata and Ray, the first groyne is completed. Now onto the second while Delta and Jack place the third!

No post order <3

SUNJATA

Melita

Eating fire is your ambition
to swallow the flame down

Today had been, admittedly, not her best. Between struggling to move rocks and losing her fabric out to the wind, Melita had been a bit of a clusterfuck from one event to the other. Determined not to lose whatever vestiges and fragments of her patience she had left (granules, really), the honeybee breathed, clenched her fists tightly together, and sent out a lower, slower exhale. Fangorn grumbled towards her, and she shook her head, maneuvering to the next portion of stones. Tenacious, obstinate, and striving not to clench her jaw or pout, the youth maintained a very stony expression that might have revealed her inner workings, and attempted to move the rocks again, towards the second imagined groyne.

--

Melita moves more rocks!

to be lit up from within, vein by vein
to be the sun

JACK

Yeah, it could be magic magic, or it could be shut the fuck up Delta oh my god. Jack seems satisfied with the shark's departure either way, shaking out his wrist for show (see, not magic magic) and nodding to the Mer beside him. "C'mon, let's get this done," he says gruffly, wasting no time in slipping back beneath the water to head for their third marker. The manta jewel works wonders, he's finding, and he silently kicks himself for not getting hold of one sooner.

As they arrive at the finally marking place, he nods to Delta. "D'you want to do the honours?" he asks, treading water and squinting back towards the beach. "These things gonna affect you lot, d'you reckon?" he adds, meaning the groynes. It probably won't be as bad as for ships, but who knows what the work will do for the merfolk beneath the waves.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

just take your time wherever you go

Not bothered by his difficulty in moving rocks—the Hali would be the first to admit his muscles were mostly for show—Saiden grinned as they managed to maneuver some of the stones into place. Walking beside Melita, he glanced at her as she exhaled. "Easy." He smiled at her. "This is a group effort, and the crew is doing well." He gestured at the broader group, which was almost done with the task before them.

He went to the remaining rocks as well, grunting as he lifted them. Taking deep breaths and trying to ignore the burning in his muscles, he headed towards the site of the second groyne.

---

Saiden moves rocks to set up the second groyne.