Earth Tourism, Tuesday 5th period

[unusual_sith]

Lana met everyone with her usual calm smile when they got to Portalocity. "We've been focusing on natural interest recently, so I thought we'd go to a city this time. Venice is a place in Italy - that's on the continent to the east of us. It was built over and around over one hundred islands, with canals interspersed as well, so there's a lot of water travel and quite a few bridges."

Their portal opened and she ushered them through. "We'll be taking a boat tour to see the most of it. And we'll have just enough time beforehand to grab some food to go from a local coffee house. Sorry it's not quite the culinary experience eating in would be, but we're strapped for time."

She grinned. "So, follow me!"

Comments

Boat tour!

[unusual_sith]

Inside or out, you can have headsets to hear the guide.

Re: Boat tour!

[wildgalegirl]

This waws awesome! Charlie was having a great time!

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden grinned at Charlie. "Having fun?" she teased, since she was pretty sure that Charlie could have fun pretty much anywhere she found herself.

Re: Boat tour!

[wildgalegirl]

She would be absolutely correct in that. "I am, yes!" Charlie grinned at her. "Not as cool as the top of Everest, but still pretty awesome. You?"

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Better than Everest," Arden said immediately. "No need for oxygen tanks--" she wasn't sure that even her sylph-powers-that-would-not-be-mentioned would have been able to keep her going through it, "--or giant warm-weather gear."

Re: Boat tour!

[wildgalegirl]

"Eh, a charm could fix that," Charlie said. "But that view! And knowing that so few people had ever been there! That was awesome!"

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Your magic remains baffling," Arden said, shaking her head. "Are there any rules about how charms work or what they do? Like, how do you know what charm to put? Did you memorize a 'breathe at the top of Everest' charm for some reason? Are there special glyphs or sigils that do different things? How does it work?"

PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR MAGIC, CHARLIE, IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Re: Boat tour!

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie shrugged. "Some things you learn and some things you make up as you go. I'm pretty good at making up as I go."

Maybe it was a little like German. You just took all the parts of the different words and smushed them together until they said what you wanted.

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden just shook her head with a smile. "So, just like you, huh? Follows its own rules and does what it wants?"

Re: Boat tour!

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie grinned at her. "For me it does. But then, I'm wild."

And sometimes charms didn't work out quite right the first time, but that's why you just kept working on them.

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Everest seemed a poor place to tinker, though.

"So things might be a little more structured for people who aren't?" she asked.

Re: Boat tour!

[wildgalegirl]

Ah, but the thril, Arden! The thrill!

Charlie considered. "THat's about right. I mean, anyone can create a charm, but I'm especially good at throwing them together off the cuff."

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Of freezing to death and suffering from altitude sickness? Hard pass. This girl was wired for survival, kthanks.

"I bet that drives the Aunties crazy, too, huh?"

Re: Boat tour!

[moreofaponchoguy]

Don't mind Cal gazing into the water. He could do that and listen too.

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden came up and nudged him gently, unsure if he was being melancholy, contemplative, or just quietly chilling. "Enjoying the view?" she asked, voice soft.

Re: Boat tour!

[moreofaponchoguy]

Cal broke into a grin and nodded. "Yeah. There's a lot of sand planets in my universe, so getting to be around water is always nice. It's why I like the beach so much," he said. "A whole city of water is pretty cool. How are you? Sore anywhere?"

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"We should go swimming," she decided. "Since you can do more with water than just look at it." He got another nudge for the question. "I'm fine, thank you," she said. "Takes more than a little paintball to knock me off my stride."

Yeah, she had a little bruise, but it was safely hidden under her shirt where he wasn't going to see, and that was pretty much the price of admission when it came to paintball battles anyway, so she wasn't fussed.

"But, hey, before anything else...congrats on your ultimate win, Kestis."

Re: Boat tour!

[moreofaponchoguy]

"Thanks. It only took what, five weeks?" The summer was flying by, which he wasn't going to think about too hard. "It helped that everyone took out Master Skywalker quickly again. I almost felt bad for him this week." The memory of the cicadas meant he wasn't fully sorry. "You were a worthy adversary."

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I have no sympathy," Arden declared. "I punched something called a Hutt this morning and it's an experience I didn't need in my life."

She grinned up at him. "It was fun," she said. "It being down to us at the end and getting to play cat-and-mouse." Who knew, maybe they'd get to do it again for the final, since they'd be missing next week. "So, the important questions for you: where am I taking you out and when?"

Re: Boat tour!

[moreofaponchoguy]

"Well, we didn't get to have the picnic we wanted to have on the school roof. Maybe we could get some takeout and eat on the beach?" he asked. "I don't have anything going on tomorrow or Thursday."

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Thursday sounds great," Arden said, giving him a soft smile. "I'll set everything up - though you do get to choose the takeout. Thoughts?"

She was secretly betting on Thai, for spicy reasons, but she wasn't gonna say that out loud.

Spice.

Money on Thai for spice reasons.

Re: Boat tour!

[moreofaponchoguy]

"You like spicy food, right?" You knew him so well, Arden. "Because I want more food from the thai place, but I don't want you to suffer eating it, that's not the point at all.0

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I'm insulted you even have to ask," Arden scoffed because eating spicy food is a Nuance power fantasy. "You wanna order everything on the menu with chilly peppers next to the name? We can do that. You, me, beach, all the spice you can handle, Thursday?"

Re: Boat tour!

[moreofaponchoguy]

"Oh good, it's--" Nope, he had to watch himself here to not say the wrong thing. "It's a plan. I'll work my weather magic to make sure it's a nice night." After a moment, he added, "That was a joke, I can't actually do that, but I realized it sounded plausible."

Re: Boat tour!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

As per usual, Arden could be found outside, taking everything in with wide, excited eyes. Venice. One of the most romantic cities in the world unless your hotel room is down a murder alley and also you get attacked by a seagull who ruins your croissant. She'd never imagined she'd end up here, even for just an hour.