My unicorn got run over by a tractor

Jack was out for a walk. She'd had a talk with Atton earlier and now she was taking a walk. Perfectly normal. The boat was new. She blinked a little. "Fuck me, there's actually a boat at one of the docks? Huh."

From:

[[easily visible and accessible from land, but what of SEA? AH-HA!!!]]

Sidon did feel that perhaps he should be doing more to meet and get to know some of the newer students so recently arrived, but he had the whole school year to do that! With fall right around the corner, and, after that, dreaded winter!, he felt a much better use of his Sunday would be getting in as much swimming as he possibly can. There weren't very many swimming days left for him, after all, he'd best maket he most of it while he could!

Of course, one of his favorite spots to return to after a good venture out into the ocean was the Port, which provided the best view of the island from the water, but what's this? Something new added to the wonderful panorama of the island! Someone had brought a boat! Marvelous! Of course, he'd have to swim up and say hello!

"Hello, there!" he called out, once he was a bit closer, waving his arm from the water. "Fine day for swimming, wouldn't you say? Or for...are you grilling? Then, yes, it's a fine day for that as well!"

A boat! In the port! Fantastic!

Edited Date: 2019-09-01 10:04 pm (UTC)

From:

Duke looked up from his grill with a raised eyebrow. "Surprised the hell out of the management when I pulled up yesterday too," he said. "Which -- this is an island. I'd've thought boats should be standard."

To be fair, he assumed boats were standard anywhere that wasn't entirely landlocked. And he wasn't really clear why anyone bothered to live in landlocked towns.

From:

[IT IS EVEN MORE SO FROM SEA OBVIOUSLY! :D]

"Holy shit, you're a talking shark."

Duke didn't even manage to sound shocked. He was possibly too shocked to sound shocked.

Also, there was that weird creeping feeling of not-quite-deja-vu again, like sapient creatures from the deep had actually shown up in his life before. . . .

". . . You want some? I've made enough to share."

With the talking shark. Thing.

From:

"Yeah, you'd think," Jack drawled, "but this island's anything but standard all the fuckin' way through. If you haven't met Fjord yet, you will. He's gonna dig on this, there finally being a boat here." Paused a second and then asked curiously, "You arrived yesterday? You a student or a teacher?" He looked too old to be a student but maybe he was a senior. A nod that was more a lift of her chin. "I'm Jack, one of the teachers but I'm takin' this semester off."

From:

"A talking Zora, actually!" Sidon corrected, sounding terribly amused. "And not just any talking Zora, either! I am Sidon!" And, of course, he pumped his fist across his chest, sending a winning, shining, toothy smile up toward the boat. "The Zora Prince! What a pleasure it is to make your acquaintance!

"I certainly shouldn't wish to intrude," he continued, "and I do rather appreciate the offer, but I believe I shall pass. I've had quite my fill from my thrilling excursion today; you find only the best fish out there in the very deep! But thank you all the same! Did you just sail in? Are you to be one of our new teachers?"

From:

"Met a Magnus who was pretty excited about it," Duke said. "But, uh. No Fjord."

He gave her a Look at the "teacher or student" question. He was in his thirties, thanks. "Yeah? You get press-ganged into it too? I hear that's the school's favorite recruiting tactic."

From:

Wow, that was a lot of teeth. Or really just a lot of . . . a lot. Duke wondered idly if he'd been slipped something back in Rio. Or if possibly he was just kind of losing his mind.

Well, either way, there was no way out but through.

"Duke Crocker," he said. "Got in yesterday. I know about those fish. Been living on them for awhile. Figured I'd give myself a 'turf' option today instead of 'surf'." But then, he wasn't a giant shark-thing. He didn't suppose giant shark-things got sick of fish. "And -- why exactly does everyone think I'm a teacher?"

Did he screw up somewhere and accidentally start looking reputable?

From:

"Ah, my apologies, your grace!" Because, of course, Sidon was a prince. Why wouldn't he assume he was talking to an actual duke? His head dipped in the best approximation of a bow as one could manage when half in the water. "A student, then? I thought you looked a bit older, is all, but it is still rather difficult for me to get a good guage on age with humans and human-like people! I suppose...you could also just be visiting, or perhaps attending to business in town? It's just that, with the welcome picnic having just occurred, one's mind rather does tend to lean toward attributing any new faces to the role of either teacher or student. Perhaps you've been gone on a long voyage in your fine vessel here, and you've only just returned? If that is the case, well, then, allow me to wish you a hearty welcome back! You've managed to miss one doozy of a summer, I can assure you of that much!"

Edited Date: 2019-09-01 10:45 pm (UTC)

From:

"Ah, Magnus," Jack smiled, "He of the shirtsleeve allergy and the biceps for days. I can appreciate a guy like that. Fjord's great, salt of the earth kind of guy. Works at Caritas on Fridays behind the bar. Big guy, black hair. Not Tino, Tino's a total shithead you should never trust with your drinks. Fjord pours good measure." Which she deeply appreciated.

She met his look and arched a brow but didn't call him on having the babiest of faces. "Nah, I volunteered. I'm a teacher back home too for kids that're different and some might consider dangerous. I get how they might need someone like me here and I got idiot family here someone had to come look after. Lots of people just get dropped into the shit though, that part's true enough. So you got press-ganged, huh? Sorry about your luck."

From:

Well, in a few years he'd start going gray at the temples and jawline. Maybe that would help.

"Different or dangerous, huh? Ended up in a class or two like that in my time." Or, rather, in juvie. He shook his head. "'Got press-ganged' implies that they've succeeded. I make my own choices, thank you very much."

The moose in the front office was going to eat him alive.

From:

"I'm thirty-three!" He did not look like a student, dammit! "Business, yes. I needed to resupply and this place looked nice. . . . What do you mean 'doozy of a summer'?"

From:

The grey might help the look but wouldn't do a thing for Jack giving him shit about it. She was a brat.

"Yeah? Did you get decent teachers or did you get the sorts of assholes who made you feel like you were a waste of everybody's time?" she asked, actually interested in the answer. "I usually get the kids who've had the latter sort in their past. I try to make a point to be the former." She smiled a little, "Anyone told you anything about this island yet? Cuz I'm guessin' not if you don't think your ass won't be plunked into a classroom on whatever day and time you were assigned a spot."

The moose was really gonna eat him alive. Jack almost felt sorry for him. "What'd they assign you to teach anyway?"

From:

Admittedly, being from Maine, it wouldn't actually be the first time a moose had intimidated him into doing something.

"Definitely the latter. More power to you for trying, but I'm not sure the former actually exists." Duke had been let down by basically everyone in his life before he'd even made it to 18. The only reason he'd finished school at all was to get to keep pulling Nathan's pigtails.

He picked up one of the finished kebabs and pulled a bit of lamb off with his teeth. "Apparently I've been chosen to teach 'So You Want to Be a Pirate'." He jabbed the skewer into the air a few times. "Arrr." He nodded to the grill. "Want some? I've made plenty."

From:

Humans aged so quickly, though! You blinked, and they were ancient! Thirty-three would still be a child by Zora's standards! Sidon himself hadn't been thirty-three in forty-four years!

It was all terribly relative.

Sidon chuckled, beaming at the opportunity to tell the duke all about it. "Well, you see," he said, "the island decided that it wanted to take itself on its own lengthy adventure, which meant dragging all of us along with it! There was something new and different and sometimes horrible, almost always exciting happening at nearly every turn! At one point, this whole place was submerged under the very ocean, protected only by a thin, fragile bubble of glass!"

That one had been a personal favorite, though he understood he was rather on his own there.

"One week, it was a land entirely of boxes and squares, including ourselves, with a different challenge every day! Another week, random rifts in reality were opening up all over the place, wreaking havoc on your ability to be one person one minute, in one place the next! We've had to deal with irradiated wastelands, turning into nightmarish monsters that only cared for desctruction, having everything in black and white, the town turned into an ever-changing labyrinth and people were kidnapped by goblins and trapped in bubbles....why, some of us even turned into vampires!"

Well, technically that had been before the summer, but could anyone really blame Sidon blurring the details a little and lumping that one right in there with the rest of them.

"I even ceased to exist for an entire week! No one else! Just me!"

Still hadn't figured that one out.

"I didn't care for that one very much. My girlfriend had planned a date for us to go visit this absolutely incredible-sounding aquatic world in her galaxy for that week, and, as you can imagine, it rather fell through the cracks, what with me not even existing.

"It seems to have settled down these last few weeks, though," Sidon concluded, not even a bit breathless from all that, though he looked apologetic for a moment before his bright grin flashed again. "But no worries! You didn't miss all the fun! This place is almost always pulling some wild adventure out of its metaphorical sleeves!"

From:

"Sounds . . . troubling."

Duke managed not to shudder, but it was a near thing.

"Evi definitely slipped something in my tea, didn't she."

From:

"The former exists, it's just pretty damn rare and that's a shame. It's more common up at this school, though. Most of the teachers are people who've been through their own sort of shit and they don't dish it out on the kids. They don't make the classes easy or nothin' but they don't tell the kids they're garbage or try to make 'em feel that way. Which is a step up from most."

She smirked a little. "Pirate huh?" She wandered up onto the boat with a shrug, "I could eat. You got a name or do I just call you 'blackbeard'?"

From:

"I'm sorry," shouted Sidon, "did you say Evie?"

Between the water and the waves, it certainly sounded close enough.

"Why, that's my newest little sibling! Do you know her? Does she not have some of the most magificent hair you've ever seen? Then again, I'll admit to having a particularly strong bias toward blue!"

Edited Date: 2019-09-01 11:26 pm (UTC)

From:

Duke rolled his eyes to the sky and gave a resigned shrug. Then grabbed a plate and served up some a couple kebabs and some rice. "Duke Crocker." He offered her the plate. "Yes, really."

From:

". . . Evi," Duke corrected, with a shorter "e" sound. "Short for 'evidence'."

Because of course he'd married a woman named "Evidence".

"If I'm not hallucinating, then she's about five thousand miles from here. And her hair's not blue. It is pretty great, though."

From:

Jack thanked him and took the plate. Then she gave him a funny look, "Why 'yes really'? Is that first one a name or a title?" She wasn't making fun of him. She honestly didn't know.

From:

"Ah! I see!" said Sidon. "Wonderful! I don't believe you're hallucinating, your grace, but, of course, I couldn't tell that for certain. I'd be quite willing to wager a significant amount of rupees, however, that you are indeed not."

From:

"Name. Which usually nets me jokes about rednecks and/or dogs." And those like the woman at the picnic yesterday, who'd just sounded vaguely appalled. "Don't think I've ever been mistaken for actual gentry before though."

From:

thatwaslucky

This wasn't the first boat that had ever been out here in Rey's time, but it had been the first since she ~~was played with regularity~~ started coming around this area more. She'd come out after work to find someplace to practice with her staff, but she maybe had to slow down to check out the boat.

Some things she just liked because she didn't see them much.

From: