After the disturbing events of the tea party, Eve suggests doing something fun and relaxing - going for a swim! This eventually leads them all to the top of the tower, where there is not a swimming pool. The Duchess - being that age where it's not really appropriate to go without swimwear - is wearing a red-and-white striped swimsuit that consists of a skirted pair of shorts and a frilly-sleeved shirt. "My brother hates getting wet," she notes, as she goes to the cable post and opens a large box near the base. "It'll be nice to swim with some folks that like water for a change!"
Lin looks around, confused. "You said we were goin' swimming." She says hesitantly, "We're at the top of a tower an' there's no water in sight. Do you have some kinda enchanted thinger that makes air like water so we kin fly like swimming?"
Aviri, in a stunning turn of events, looks a bit nervous at their altitude, peering over the edge of the tower carefully, then at the line. "Suppose the water is that direction," he says, gesturing toward the far post.
"This is really high," Trilup notes, peeking nervously over the edge. "Rilly rilly high."
Eve extracts some strange apparatus from the crate. It looks like a harness of some sort, but there are wheels involved. "This is the best way to get down," she explains. "You just buckle this around your waist, see, and put your foot into this stirrup at the bottom, and wheelie-bit goes over the cable.."
The Lapi peers at the device as though it might grow teeth. Or hair. "Is it safe?"
The Duchess gets a confused look at the question, and looks at the harness again. "Uh... it's fun.." she claims.
Lin picks up one of the harnesses and examines it. "So, how d'ye slow it down at the end? Or is there somethin' soft ta crash into?" She asks.
Aviri gulps as his eyes drift back to the wire. "'D rather not go first," he says sheepishly.
"Oh, at the end there's this stuff on the cable that slows you down," Eve says. "Let me strap you all up, then you can watch me go!"
"Stuff..." Lin echoes then holds up the harness she's holding and waits for instructions.
Eve straps one around her own waist, so the rope part is in front of her. She drapes the top end with the wheelie bit back over her shoulder, and ignores the stirrup for now. "Who wants to go second?" she asks.
Aviri pulls a harness from the box, letting it dangle from various points in an attempt to hazard out it's operation until he just follows Eve's example.
Lin struggles into her harness and cinches down the waist strap. "Kin I go second?" She chirps.
"I get all your stuff if you die," Trilup tells Lin. "Agreed?"
Eve checks to make sure everyone is strapped up properly.
"I dunno, Tril. The hat might look better on Aviri." Lin retorts, "Though he'd need a swashey sword to pull it off right proper."
Aviri nods to Lin's request, figuring that if the Duchess does it it's gotta be safe. "I tend not to wear hats," he says, pulling at his left ear. "Messes with my hearing."
"As if ya can't just knock a couple holes in it fer your ears." Lin follows Eve's directions as they banter then adds, "An Tril, If I don't make it through this, take good care of Waddles an feed it jam every now an' then."
"All right Linny-hoo-ha!" Eve says, getting up on the dip in the battlements next to the cable. "Watch close!" She steps into the stirrup, then hooks the wheel-bit over the cable, she leans back until the harness line goes tight, and lifts up her legs. "Whooo!" The feline is whooshing down the cable in a blink.
Lin scurries to the edge of the battlement and watches Eve's progress. She especially keeps an eye out at the end for this so called "stuff" that slows the rider down.
Eve is already down and unhooking her harness by the time Lin gets a look. She even waves back up at the tower and makes 'come one' gestures.
Aviri nudges Lin, in a way that wouldn't push her over the edge, obviously. "You're second," he says.
Lin starts at the nudge then hops up on the battlement where Eve showed them. She sticks her foot through the stirrup, hooks the wheel onto the wire, leans back, and lifts her legs. Just as her feet lift off the stones, she shouts, "Geronimo!"
Aviri watches Linyala's slide down the wire with more than a little apprehension. He gulps again, and looks to Tril. "You wanna go next?"
"I thought you dumped that guy.." Trilup says, but the whoosh of air past Lin's ears masks most of it. It's almost like falling. Just with some horizontal movement added. And then the wheels hit something on the cable that starts to slow them down. Or it may just be that the cable is thicker. There's a burning smell that goes with it. But the Akwavi is only moving at about a jogging pace when she gets near the end.. the part she didn't see. Maybe she's supposed to just walk as soon as she can reach the ground with her feet?
Once everything's slowed down enough and she's near the ground, Lin pulls down on the harness strap and kicks her foot out of the stirrup. She touches down and takes a few steps to come to a complete halt. "That was awesome! Ye should find a way fer somethin' like this ta end right above yer swimmin' spot!" She chirps at Eve as she unhooks the wheel contraption from the line.
At Aviri's suggestion, Trilup goes next. She screams the whole way down.. and being shorter has to wait a bit longer before she can stop properly.
"Oh, I've got another way to get to the swimming hole," Eve claims with a grin.
Now alone on the tower, Aviri takes a deep breath, sets up the harnass, double-checks that everything's hooked up properly, and again all of his better judgement, tips off the edge of the tower.
After the terror surge of adrenaline passes, the Lapi manages to hit the ground running and stop himself easily, even if there are spots in his vision as a result.
Aviri squeaks as his feet touch the ground, and he pulls himself to a stop. He lets out his breath in a woosh, unaware he'd been holding it in the first place, and opens his eyes, as somewhere between the tower and the ground he'd sealed them shut. He's shaking slightly, but otherwise unharmed.
The harnesses go into another box. Apparently someone collects them later, possibly Ysnor. Eve heads down a side path into the woods, saying, "Follow me! Try not to throw up. It'll make you dizzier."
Lin tags along with Eve. "Now, you were sayin' about some kinda monster trap over your swimmin' hole?" She prompts with a little circular hand wave.
Aviri follows, trying to shake himself sensible again.
"It's not a trap.. really," Eve says, but doesn't really give details. After a hundred paces or so, they arrive at another.. thing. It looks like a box on wheels, and the wheels are on rails. A sturdy pylon has a complicated looking clockwork catch that the rolling-box is secured to, and there's a long, taut cable that it's holding against. The cable stretches to two tree-trunks further along the track, making it all look like a giant sling-shot of some kind. There are spindles that might be for tightening or loosening the cable. "Ah, here we are! Everyone get into the cart! I think we can all fit."
"Fit?" Aviri asks, looking at the cart. He touches one of the cables, testing its tension. "Not gonna fly, right?"
Lin stops and stares at the strange contraption. "This looks like somethin' one of the kadies back home made when 'ee went right off his nut. His had feathers though. What's it do?"
"Oh, it doesn't fly," Eve claims, climbing in. "Although the first few did flip over a lot. But this one has little guides that keep it on the track! I think we can all fit if we sit in each other's laps.."
"I'll sit in your lap, Lin," Trilup offers, being the shortest.
Aviri climbs in, too, assuming that he'd be on the bottom due to his size.
Lin hopps in behind Eve. "Perfect, that way if everythin' goes horribly, horribly wrong, I'll have somethin' squishy to land on." She sticks her tongue out at the other otter.
Trilup sticks her tongue right back out at Lin, and climbs onto whoever is on top. Eve turns slightly and reaches back past Aviri to pull on something, which starts the clockwork. Then she hunkers back down and grabs the sides of the cart. "Hold on to something!" she advises.
Aviri ducks down as low as possible, trying to turn himself into a puddle of lapi-fur.
Lin follows Eve's example and grabs the sides of the cart.
A lot of things seem to be happening. The spindles are turning to increase the tension on the 'bowstring', then stop when there's a little chime. A second chime follows.. and the latch releases. There's a surge of acceleration unlike anything the travelers from Stonebarrow have experienced - it could take one's breath away! And the cart is zooming along its track.. which isn't straight. There there are dips and climbs and rattling sections of trestle and angled turns. Eventually, some unknown distance later, it hits another cable which spools out to slow it down, until it bumps into another end pylon and latches to it.
When the cart comes to a stop, the puddle of Lapi-fur moves, and looks up. "We're not dead!" Aviri says, surprised.
Lin catches her breath after a moment then hew brow furrows and she says, "It keeps looking like it's crazy dangerous, but then it doesn't kill us. Eve, I think I'm startin' ta trust you." She does not seem entirely comfortable with this revelation.
Eve climbs out rather quickly. "Oh.. of course you should trust me!" she claims. "And get out of the cart right away because sometimes it explodes at the end."
Trilup jumps straight up and does a handstand on the edge of the cart in order to flip out of it faster.
Aviri looks around, stunned at the revelation that explosions are a thing that could happen, and hops out, backing away from the cart a few paces warily. "Could have said something about that before," he says quietly.
Lin slithers over the edge, then scampers away from the cart on all fours with all of her fur standing on end.
"I don't have guests very often," Eve says, pouting a bit. "I never had to explain before.."
The Lapi stays where is stands, hunched over slightly, ready to bolt. "Er ... when's it stop being ... able to explode?"
"Or why don't we go on to the swimming hole an' not hang around the maybe explodey cartapault?" Lin proposes as she smoothes down her fur with her hands.
"Oh.. uh.. I guess it isn't going to explode then," Eve notes. "Usually it's a problem with the bowstring.."
The kitten spins around, and heads down the next path. There's an obvious clearing up ahead, and the scent of water.
Aviri follows tentatively, walking backwards, warding off an attack by the cart with his forearms until he's sufficient distance away to walk properly.
Lin gives Eve a sidelong look and walks a little ahead so there are some bodies between her and the cartapault.
The swimming hole is.. not at all natural. It's rectangular, for one thing. There is a flagstone covered path that goes around it as well, and a larger stone-covered area at the end of the path. There are also the rails. These run along the long sides, and past the ends. This is so the device that runs on them can clear the pool on either side. It looks a bit like a rolling pin covered in spikes and hinged, swinging hammers.
The anti-monster sweeper thing is mounted higher at the ends, where the rails curve upward so there's a slope at each end to help the thing get going.. to to slow it down on the opposite side.
Aviri stops and looks at the whole thing. "You said there are monsters, right?"
"Sometimes," Eve says. Oops and Uh-Oh appear from behind the sweeper and wave.
"And that the spiky monster thing kin be secured properly?" Lin adds.
"And it's sure to take out any monsters?" Aviri adds also.
"You guys sure are paranoid," Eve says, and gestures to the Titanian brothers. They each get on one side of the sweeper, release some chocks that hold it in place, and roll it down into the water using some poles extending from the sides. Then it's pushed across, the hammers flapping over and smashing into the water along with the spikes. It doesn't take long, and then they're pushing it up the rail-slope to the other end, sticking chocks in to keep it in place.. and using a shovel to peel free something that looks like a giant frog with extra legs that's been impaled on it.
"Don't have good experiences with monsters," Aviri explains. "And that certainly isn't inspiring confidence in me to go swimming."
"Cool!" Lin chirps, going over to check out the thing that got impaled on the spikey log. "An' we're not paranoid. Remember where we come from? Not all the stories are made up. Make o' that whatchya will."
Eve ignores the monster, and goes to another big wooden crate. She starts pulling out limp.. things. Both the shapes and material are strange looking.
Trilup is already getting out of her clothes in anticipation of swimming. "It's kinda like the reezie-vore behind the dam back home," she notes to Aviri.
The Lapi shudders and pulls his eyes away from the frog-thing and follows Eve. "May I enquire...?" he asks, gesturing to the things.
Oops proudly shows the frog monster to Lin, wagging his tail.
"What?" Eve asks the Lapi, and blushes because she clearly doesn't know what 'enquire' means. She's holding up something that looks like a flat, thick 'O' with other shapeless bits dangling from it.
Aviri raises an eyebrow at Eve's blush but does't comment on it. Again he gestures to the thing. "What is that?"
"It's a floatie," Eve says. "Don't you have those in Stonebarrow?"
Aviri shrugs. "You'd have to ask them," he says, nodding toward Lin and Tril. "They do all the swimming."
While Oops does his best to impress Lin, Uh-Oh comes over to Eve and Aviri, and pulls a bellows-like device from the storage crate. He connects one of the 'floaties' to it and starts pumping it up.
Lin, meanwhile, has been grilling Oops on the kinds of monsters they get in this area and where they come from. Finally, she rejoins the rest of them with a couple of the pointier teeth from the monster in hand. "They have really neat critters here!" She chirps then ditches her vest and shorts a little ways back from the edge. The lockpicks and pair of teeth from the monster go into her vest pocket.
The first one inflated turns out to be a sort of narrow mattress, but has flippers on the sides, a tail, and the curved neck and slender head of a Serendip. It looks like a cartoony version of Old Swampy.
Aviri takes a step back when the thing starts to get inflated. He jumps when he realizes what it is, the Lapi letting out a little squeak of fright before composing himself. "Sorry," he says to Eve.
"What's wrong?" Eve asks. The floatie is disconnected and chucked into the pond, where it floats, of course. The next one is the donut-shaped one that has frog limbs sticking out of it.
"Just had an encounter with an undead Serendip," Aviri says, easing toward the pond, eyeing the floating thing. "It's fine, though," he adds. "Just startled me."
"Hey, an' the spiky thing is pretty well secured." Lin chirps, "An' it'd only wreck half the swimmin' hole if it did somehow get loose." She takes a few steps back then sprints towards the pool. "Last one in's a mouldy frog kisser!" She calls as she cannonballs into the pool.
"I've never even seen a live one," Eve claims. Then she too runs and jumps into the water with the Akwavis. The pool isn't that deep, but also doesn't have any mud or plants to get tangled up in. A few pre-inflated balls are tossed in as well.
For Aviri, swimming had always been a tool, a task to be endured to accomplish another goal. He stands near the edge of the pond, more curious than anything that the Awkwavi and Duchess considered the activity recreational.
The toys help with the image of recreation. There's a big soft inflated ball to throw around, floaties to climb onto and pilot around like boats, and no fear of anything else being in the water with them. The size of the pond is just right for racing from end to the other as well, since it's uniform.
A bubble ring floats up and breaks the surface from around the middle of the pool, shortly followed by Lin. "It's a lil' shallow." She notes before going back under to attack Eve's ankles.
The kitten eeeks at the ankle-tickle and clambers up onto the Serendip floatie to escape.
Aviri sits down cross-legged, adjusting his shirt to sit more comfortably, watching the girls play.
And Trilup pops up near the edge where Aviri is, and drops back down to splash him.
Lin gets under the serendip raft and starts spinning it.
Aviri acks and tries to get clear of the water, and fails, ending up on his back against the stone with his clothes wet. He pulls himself up, mock-anger on his face, and kicks water back at Trilup.
The otter-girl just swims on her back out of range of the kick-splashes.
"Heee!" Eve squeals as her raft begins to spin! "You guys are fun!" she claims, "not at all crazy kleptomaniac sex fiends like I've been told!"
Aviri glares at Trilup and stands, trotting slightly away from the edge. He takes off his shirt and lays it out on the stone to dry, returning to his seat by the edge, but keeping a keener eye on the Awkwavi.
Lin pops her head out from under the raft. "Only when we're older, drunk, or Emmett." She retorts, her expression half serious. No, really. She's got half her face in a manic grin and the other in a stoic deadpan.
"Hah!" Eve replies, and tries to swap Lin with her tail.
Meanwhile, Trilup taunts Aviri. Using her flexible spine and ability to swim backwards while floating, she raises up her tail and curves into a Serendip-like neck. "OOooo-ahh! I'm coming to eat you this time Aviri! Ooooo!"
Aviri laughs and scoots forward so he can again aim a water-kick at her.
Lin ducks under the raft again and reverses the direction of the spin as fast as she can for several turns.
The laughing causing Trilup to flounder a bit after the splash hits her. She goes under and vanishes.. mostly. Since the water is clear it's easy to see her torpedoing towards Aviri's feet.
Eve squeals again, and falls off of the raft.. onto Lin, of course.
Aviri pulls his feet up expertly into a cross-legged position, the dripping fur getting his pants wet, but he doesn't seem to mind that.
Lin untangles herself then makes a mad dash for the serendip raft. "I claim this raft in the name of Lin, the conqueror!" She giggles.
And then Trilup launches up out of the water to tackle the Lapi! "Ahahahah!" she war cries, just before getting the breath knocked out of her because she lands on Aviri's knees.
"Hah! Usurper!" Eve declares, getting into the frog floatie and kicking her feet to try and ram Lin.
When Trilup breaks the water Aviri leans forward and catches her, in an attempt to prevent her from tackling him, but inadvertantly managing to save her from impaling herself on his bones. "Ha!" he laughs, unphased by the water that does succeed in its tackle-attempt. He lightly tosses her back into the pool, aiming the splash toward Eve and Linyala.
Lin lies on her belly and uses her tail to try to maneuver out of the way of the inbound kitten.
The budding naval battle is interrupted by the cannonball caused by Trilup hitting between them.
"Use'ly it just the ball get tossed," Uh-Oh confides to Aviri. He and Oops are still near the storage bin.
"Not in Stonebarrow," Aviri replies with a chuckle, as though otter-tossing is a popular passtime back home.
Lin uses Trilup's cannonball as cover for slipping off her raft and hiding beneath it. She reorients her raft towards Eve's frog and accelerates to ramming speed.
"Hey, where'd.." Eve starts to say, before the impact capsizes her smaller floatie. Trilup pops back up and squirts water out of her mouth. "How come you don't come in?" she calls to Aviri.
"I'm not as good a swimmer as you," Aviri claims. "Plus, I'm getting just as wet out here!" He laughs and flicks his hands in their general direction, sending a spray of droplets.
Lin clambers back ontop of the serendip floaty. "Victory for Stonebarrow!" She gets up on her knees and cheers, giggling.
Eve surfaces and shakes water from her whiskers. Then she too notices Aviri trying to sit it out. "You aren't having enough fun!" she declares. "Oops.. Uh-Oh! Give him a hand!" And with that, Aviri finds the Titanian brothers on either side of him, with firm grips on his shoulders.
Aviri freezes up, eyes wide. "Said 'a hand'," he mutters. "One. Not ... four."
Linyala, still not used to the names of Eve's servants, dives for cover when the Dutchess says Oops.
It takes surprisingly little effort on the part of the young (but incredibly strong) wolfoids. Aviri is lifted, swung a bit, and then flying out over the water!
Before he can adjust his tumble, Aviri splashes down.. awkwardly. He's upside down and facing backwards, which means his head hits first and drags the rest of him down into a massive splash. With his legs sticking straight up at the moment of impact, the force also yanks off his pants.
Aviri's eep as he's tossed is lost in the splash he makes upon impacting the water. The loss of his pants is immediately felt, and he scrambles through the water to grab them whilst remaining submerged.
Of course, the pants aren't giving up without a fight! That fight coming in the form of Trilup, who's got one end of them.
Lin hears the crash as Aviri hits the water and turns, wide-eyed, to see him flailing around after his missing pants. She lets out several large bubbles of laughter then heads for the surface where she continues laughing histerically.
Eve laughs a bit, but is more concerned about all the splashing so close, as she's still trying to get to her floatie.
Aviri continues the fight, keeping his body as upright in the water as possible, though quickly realizing he'll probably not win an aquatic battle with an Akwavi.
The Lapi is bigger.. and has the advantage of being able to stand up in the shallow pool with his head above water. Trilup doesn't have that sort of leverage.. so has to give up before she runs out of air. That doesn't prevent her from swimming around behind Aviri to pinch his butt though before fleeing a safe distance.
Aviri yanks the pants down and puts them back on, ducking his head under and wrestling with the wet fabric before finally popping back to the surface and trying to wring out his ears. "Thanks for the assistance," he says to the Titanians
"T'ot you'd go farther!" Oops declares.
Trilup breaches at one end of the pool, near the ball, and so of course tosses it back towards the others near the center. "We can have teams now!" she declares.
Lin jumps up and whacks the ball towards Aviri. "Catch!" She chirps.
The Lapi is midway through squeezing his ears free then the ball is hit. He seems frozen a moment, and then drops his ears to catch the ball, having to jump slightly and fall back under the water to do so.
Aviri comes up, sputtering slightly, holding the ball over his head. He tosses it to Eve.
"Ah!" Eve yelps and manages to bat the ball away back towards to Lin. Trilup dives under again and tries to get back into the action.
Lin does a hand stand and tries to hit the ball towards Aviri with her tail.
Now more alert and prepared, Aviri bats the ball back toward the Duchess with a single fist, managing to not submerge himself again.
"Hey, how come you don't use your ears to hit it?" Eve asks as she catches the ball, and then flings it towards the just emerged Trilup.
Trilup head-butts the ball back at Lin.
Lin boops the ball with her nose and bounces it towards Aviri. "We've got enough fer two teams. An if Oops an' Uh-oh come in, we kin have some kinda proper game!" She chirps.
"My ears aren't stiff enough," Aviri says. They stand on-end and he makes to hit the ball with it, but his ears just flop down and let the ball pass on. He wades backward to pick up the ball and tosses it to Trilup.
"Oh, they can't swim," Eve explains. "They're too.. uh.. dense? They can't float."
The smaller otter tries to flip over and hit the ball with her tail, but misses and has to swim after it.
"Still.. water-dodgem with teams of two could work!" Eve claims. "But the otters can't both be on the same team!"
"Alright," Aviri says. "So ... Trilup with me and, er, what're the rules?"
"Me and Aviri!" Trilup declares, bringing the ball back by pushing it with her nose.
"An I get Eve!" Lin chirps and scoots over to float next to the Duchess.
"Are we gonna play for a prize?" Eve asks.
Lin ponders for a moment then exclaims, "The winning team gets piggy back rides from Oops an' Uh-oh?"
"Agreed," Trilup declares. "Losers give up their pants!"
"No way!" Eve counters.
Aviri casts a glance to the Titanians. "Sounds good," he says. "Though the Duchess could get mine, when we win." He flashes a toothy grin at them.
Trilup swims over to Aviri's side, and raises up the ball. "Seven points for the win?" she asks.
"Woah, hold up now," Aviri says. "What are the rules? The Lapi botanist is a bit unclear about aquatic sports."
"Each point is gained by the ball hittin' the water on the opposin' team's side of the pool. Sound good?" Lin proposes.
Aviri narrows his eyes at the other side of the pool. "Alright, agreed." He rubs a hand down the back of his head, flattening his ears and looking to Trilup. "Ready?"
"Ready!" Trilup says, and lobs the ball towards Eve and Lin's side.
"Your pants are already ours!" Lin cackles and swats the ball back to the other team's side.
As the game goes on, with much splashing and flailing, Aviri doesn't even realize he's having fun. Even when Oops and Uh-Oh become cheerleaders for Eve, and Trilup farts underwater after spiking the ball. All in all, a decent aftermath to losing your pants..