[Closed] Souls for soles

[lezard_valeth]

Characters: Lily Ivory and Lezard Valeth
Location: Maine
Rating: PG-13?
Time: August 12th, noon
Description: Red-skinned whales have been eating fisherman, and it's time to track them down and clean them out!



Many missions required investigation, tracking skills and overall knowledge of the immediate land. But what was one to do when faced with a foe that lived in the sea? Do they get their hands on a boat and risk the lives of the captain and their crew? Surely none were foolish enough to offer their aid, but Lezard wasn't exactly a bleeding heart. If they wished to be eaten, who was he to say no?

Then there was the risk of soaked pages in his Weapon form. The mage frowned at the thought, but he supposed such things were par for the course when you didn't turn into a blade or something along those lines.

"...I suppose we'll swim and hope we bump into a whale," he offered loftily with a grin, shrugging.

Comments

[vintage_magic]

Lily huffed but kept her focus on guiding the boat back towards the dock, being careful not to go too fast in case she had trouble stopping. They last thing they needed was to wreck the boat after taking out the whale without any damage to it!

"That's fine with me. I never fancied making those reports much." The witch still preferred to keep talking to the folks at the school to a minimum when possible.

As they neared the pier, some of the excited chatter drifted over to them from the group on the beach.

"Did you see that?! Those sea serpents killed the whale!"

"Sea serpents? That's nonsense. You must have imagined it!"

"There were sea serpents! I got it all on camera! I wonder how much the news will pay me for the video..."

"Daddy, can we go swimming now if the whale is gone?"

"I don't know, honey. It might still not be safe."

"Of course, it's safe! The whale is gone!"

"Land sakes! Those folks saw our snakes from all the way out there?!"

[lezard_valeth]

Blowing on one of the windows of the boat, he wrote the numbers with his finger against the condensation.

"We did produce quite a bit of power, Lily. I suppose it was only a matter of time until they were seen in their magnificence, although it is a great deal sooner than I expected. Tell them it's swamp gas or something equally ridiculous." The true explanation was far too complicated. Still, when a Shibusen representative appeared in the reflection, he offered his report.

He would leave the ogling masses to Lily for the moment.

[vintage_magic]

Lily glared at him for leaving the crowds to her. Hadn't he realized she was terrible at lying by now?

Still, the crowd on the beach rushed over as she pulled up to the dock, demanding to know if she'd seen what happened out there. Did sea serpents eat the whale?

"Um, there weren't any sea serpents. It was just swamp gas..." she answered weakly, fiddling with her neon life jacket.

"But it's the ocean!"

"Yeah, what really happened to the whale?"

"Well, it just jumped out of the water and thrashed around. Looked kind of sick to me. Maybe, it ate something bad."

But the crowd wasn't so easily convinced.

"But there was something else out there!"

"I got it on camera too!"

"Um..." This wasn't going well... She looked over at Lezard, wordlessly begging him for help.

[lezard_valeth]

Distracted by the time he'd finished the report, he turned and realized he was being watched. Were the people truly so interested in the affairs of demons when they themselves lacked the capacity to deal with one? That must be why the hellish creatures fed so well-

"...What occurred is Shibusen business. Regardless, the water has been cleared and you are free to make use of it however you wish." He paused, shrugged.

"Of course, what follows is just another measure of safety. You've all touched the water, have you not?" He looked among them, nodded and reached into his jacket.

"You all have choices two: See to your chosen medical professionals immediately to assure your clean bills of health..." With a lofty, theatrical sigh as he produced a very large hypodermic needle that Lily had most definitely seen before.

"...Or I inoculate the lot of you. Shall we form a line?"

[vintage_magic]

An alarmed yelp. "You mean we might catch something from the water?"

"But I don't want a shot!" cried the little girl who had wanted to go swimming.

"Don't cry, honey. That strange man isn't going to give you a shot." Her father gave Lezard a dirty look and led her away. The rest also hurried off as if they just remembered they'd left the stove on in their vacation cottages.

Lily just shook her head as she finished undoing her life jacket and tossed it into the back of the boat. "Now that you've scared all of them off, are you ready to go back or did you still want your fish dinner?"

[lezard_valeth]

"You're welcome," he replied with a laugh, tossing the accursed life jacket into the boat as he was glad to never look at another one of those ridiculous things ever again. The needle went right back in his pocket for use another day. Unsurprisingly, dirty looks and the like never phased him. It became a waste of energy to remark on what you've faced a thousand times.

"The report has been made, thus we are in no hurry to return. I say we engage in the phrase 'having a bite'."

[vintage_magic]

"All right. But you'd better not try to scare the waiter with that syringe."

She'd quickly return the keys for the boat and then they would be off. Surely, some restaurant around here still had some seafood to be sampled even if it wasn't local due to the no longer existent whale problem...