(2018-10-09) Mystery Light
Mystery Light
Summary: Log Summary
Date: 2018-10-09
Related: Related Logs (Say None if there aren't any; don't leave blank. You have to use full URLs, like http://coralsprings.wikidot.com/logtitle)
NPCs: Players go below, other chars that deserve mention can be listed here
Scene Runner: Who ran this scene, NA if no-one or mutual
Players:
ashton..bronwyn..buddy..madison..quinn..shades..

The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks and the distant bark of harbor seals settling down for the night down the beach are the only things that break the silence at the tide pools. At least until a group of teenagers arrive. The light from a full moon provides some decent illumination, and the island is far enough from the mainland that a blanket of stars can be seen from horizon to horizon. The island, with its lighthouse ruins is a mere shadow to the northeast.

But why are these students even out here at the tidal pools during dark evening? For a science of course! For some it may be an assignment, for a higher grade simply extra credit. Whichever it is, the assignment is catalogging the animals in the tide pool on this side of the island and comparing it to the tide pools on the other side. Fun!

"This is so incredibly not what I thought superhero school was going to be," Shades grouses to himself, gingerly picking up a beshelled multi-legged thing from one of the pools. "I found another blue shell!" he shouts. His shoes, socks, and umbrella are set off a little ways away, while his slacks are rolled up to his knees.

Science field trip? That was interesting to Buddy but that is mainly because many things are interesting to him. Getting outside was definitely nicer since he enjoyed being outside more than being inside. When he found out that they were going to explore different types of animals, the shifter got visibly more excited which was something. "Oh, this is so great. Isn't this great? I hope I get to talk to them. As he gets to the pools, he points at one of the seals and says, "I've never tried being any of these before, but I've been a sea lion before. They are fun. There are some cool differences. The sea lion walks more on its flippers and has tiny ears while the seal wiggle around on their bellies and don't have ears." Trust him to know animals.

As it is after hours and by the water, Ashton is definitely not in uniform. In fact, he's in a pair of board shorts, tennis shoes, and vintage Led Zeppelin shirt - faded black with the the old man and lantern print. He snorts slightly at Shade's assessment. "Many things aren't what they appear to be here. But regardless, it's high school first and foremost, which means every lame subject from high school, plus the superhero stuff… " He pauses and squats down, "And we have clams over here."

Bronwyn does have an interest in science, and not just because her mother is a famous physicist, but tidal pools…in the chilly dark. Not really her scene. Rugged up in a jumper and coat over her uniform, she is delicately picking her way over the rocks, sweeping them with a flashlight. "It's soooo cold" she moans to no one in particular. A look of confusion at Buddy's enthusiasm before she notice some living creature at her feet. Crouching down to peer at it more closely, she suddenly recoils in horror and takes a few steps back. "Cockroach! Disgusting!"

<FS3> Madison rolls Zoology: Success.

Dressed in a pair of loose fitting swim shorts, Quinn was here because he was trying to learn more about 'science'. He didn't bother wearing a shirt because he didn't like the way shirts felt when they got wet. He was barely able to take the shorts when wet. "This is similar to how I was taught about the world." Quinn says in a way that suggests that he is very fond of this method, instead of sitting in a classroom. His blue eyes look around as he considers what's there before he points to some algae,"What is the word for this?" He doesn't seem to have an idea about all this.

Shades grins up at Ashton. "Hey, I'm Shades. Nice to meet'cha." He drops the crab back in the water, then stares dubiously at the water in the pool. "Do we need to get the fish, too?" At Buddy's comment, he perks up. "Whoa, wait, you can turn into animals?" His grousing voice evaporates away. "That is so cool! Can you like, turn into any kind of animal? What about plants? Can you talk to animals, like, when you're normal shaped?" A sudden thought seems to go off in his head. "Wait, can you just *ask* all these things what they are so we can be done here?"

For Madison it was an assignment. She was good with that, she is good with anything have to do with animals, she can't quite communicate with the denziens of the tide pools, but that is just a minor inconvience. She has a notebook in hand as well as a pencil, and a headlamp around her forehead so she can see what she is writing "Blue hermit crab." she states as she writes that down and heads over to where Ashton is peering at the clams and scribbles those down "Quahogs and razor clams." she starts at the sudden disgusting exclamation from Bronwyn "You sure it wasn't soem kind of crab? This really isn't the ecosystem for roaches." she notes a few more things "Anyone find any purple seaurchins or sea stars yet?"

<FS3> Quinn rolls Alertness: Good Success.

The tide continues to go out, new water coming in to refill the pools of water where the small sea creatures live in relative safety since the creatures that prey on them are either asleep or stay away thanks to the students. All manner of small sea creatures have found refuge in the pools, if someone is lucky they may even be able to locate a sea slug or anemone.

<FS3> Shades rolls Alertness: Success.

<FS3> Buddy rolls Alertness: Success.

<FS3> Bronwyn rolls Alertness: Good Success.

<FS3> Ashton rolls Alertness: Success.

<FS3> Madison rolls Alertness: Good Success.

<FS3> Buddy rolls Alertness: Good Success.

Buddy's head snaps around at Brownwyn's exclammation. "Actually, they aren't too bad. In fact they are pretty durable and strong. I've not tried becoming an insect though." He smiles looking back at Shades and nods his head. "I can communicate in whatever animal form I am in though not all forms are interested in communicating. It is hard for me to speak 'human' when I'm in animal forms though. There are also only a couple forms that I can talk to in human form. I was a dog, cat, bunny, and bird for a long time so those are a bit easier for me to talk to and in. I can only do it in a couple forms. I can't turn into plants though I do like eating them in some forms." He laughs rather happily at his own joke. "Oh, I'm Buddy!" He then notices the next tide that comes in and goes running off to the new forms scene. "Lookie! Its an aneminie, animaone, anni…" He ends up just laughing as he keeps messing up how to say it. He then puts his hands around his neck with his fingers pointing outwards to look like the anemone. "They are cool. They are predators. Rar."

Ashton looks over to Shades, "Nice to meet you, Shades. I'm Ashton. I'm sure you already got Kaylee'd but welcome to Coral Springs." He walks over to Quinn, shoulder checking him playfully. Glancing at what he was looking at, "It's some sort of algae… Yeah, this is more of a naturalist approach…" He grins over at the proto-Celt, "How're you doing, Quinn?" He looks up at Bronwyn's exclamation of disgust.

Bronwyn braves another look at the horrible beastie. "I guess it could be a crab" she sullenly admits to Madison's theory. "Still disgusting. It's all slimy and stuff." Not that she dared actually touch it. At least the water is going out. She wraps her arms around herself to try and keep warm, rubbing at her arms. How is there a boy running around without a shirt on! Bubby's enthusiasm is admirable…but not contagious. "Can't we look at the animals that are here in the daytime?"

THe playful check doesn't really do much to the ancient blond teenager other than make him smile. Quinn looks around the tidal pool not quite sure what the words they mean. "What does she mean?" He asks in a whisper to Ashton clearly uneasy with the words. His blue eyes flicker towards the various people in the tidal pool trying to figure out. He breathes in slowly for a long moment. "This doesn't make a whole lot of sense on what people are saying." He says scratching his head a bit.

"Anemone." Madison supplies as she walks over to the most recent discovery and crouches down to take a look at it and write it down "Uhm,Tides change every twelve hours or so." she starts to say to Bronwyn, the hand with the pencil in it going up to tug at one of her braids, "The next low tide we are going to be in the middle of class." she explains to the other girl, deciding not to argue that crabs are neither slimy or stuff. "Uhm, I'm Madison." she introduces herself to Shades since that seems to be the thing to do.

It's subtle, the orangey glow that can be seen in the distance coming from one of the ruined lighthouse windows. The lighthouse hasn't been used for a long town, probably not even in this century and the island the school is on and the surrounding islands and ocean area are supposed to be off limits to anyone that isn't involved with the school in some form or fashion.

Shades flashes a grin towards Madison, but his hands are back in the water. "And I think I've got a starfish- yes!" He pulls the slowly curling critter out of the water with a triumphant. "Nice to meet you and *please* tell me that means we're done now and we don't have to, like, identify all the different like, microscopic whatsits in the water." Half a beat, as he glances around. "I mean, unless someone could do that. Cause that would also be, like, really cool." His eyes glide over the lighthouse cause- I mean, maybe it always does that. Shades is new here.

Buddy notices Bronwyn rubbing her arms and takes off his own school jacket which he was wearing. As he takes it off, the fact that his tie is mistied (which is normal) and his shirt is misbuttoned (which is also normal) is even more obvious. He runs up behind her playfully and puts it on her shoulders. "That should help, dragon lady." He bounces on his toes a bit and goes running off to see Shades discovery. "Cool." He then looks over at Madison and asks, "Can you talk to them too?" Following Shades gaze up to the lighthouse, Buddy points out it and says, "Hey, look at that. Does someone live there?"

Ashton chuckles softly to Quinn "Don't worry, you're not the only one. We just have to identify as many different sea creatures as we can find." As Buddy points out the lighthouse, Ashton tenses up and stands tauntly as he looks in that direction. "No, Buddy… no one lives there, at least no one is suppose to be living there. This area is reserved only for the school."

Bronwyn smiles as Buddy gets all gentlemany and drapes the jacket over her shoulders. Though she is then immediately confused at being called 'Dragon Lady'. Was that an insult? Thankfully, she is soon distracted by the light…in a lighthouse. "Let's go check it out then" she states with much more enthusiasm than she has for creature identification. She's already on her way over.

"But there is light there." Quinn says as he looks towards the lighthouse. "Should we go investigate it? If someone is there perhaps they're in need of some sort of assistance." He says running fingers through his hair and takes a nice deep breath in. He wasn't sure what the deal with all of this was and while the life was interesting, he wonders about someone being where they shouldn't be. "There is a lot of life here. However, much of it sounds quite similar." He says smiling weakly.

Madison shakes her head at Shades "Not unless you have microscopic vision." she tells him "Do you?" she hasn't been at the school long enough to learn peoples powers. And there is no way she could memorize the powers of 300 plus students anyways. "She hrms at the question from Buddy and reaches out to take the seastar from Shades, or at least touch it. She has no problem doing either. "Uhm, no." she shakes her head at Buddy "Uh, I mean I know it is communicating something, but its like listening to a foreign language." she gestures in the direction that the seals were barking in "I could understand the seals easy. Mammals yes. Sea creatures, not so much." she surveys the area for more tide pools her headlamp lighting up the areas she looks at but the orange glow in the distance is noticed "You don't think its poachers?" she asks worriedly after a few comments about the light from the ruins.

As it is watched the glow grows brighter, flickering and dancing like that of a fire. Brighter and bigger and looking quite like a fire. As it grows the glowing seems to dance and flicker out of the window and along the outer walls of the ruined lighthouse.

The tide is still going out and it isn't low enough to make walking to the lighthouse doable. So unless one wants to swim a mile in a half, through rough, icey waters in the dark, an alternative method to get there will have to be found. And there don't seem to be any boats around the area either.

Ashton frowns, knowing that it could well be something far worse than just poachers. "Normally, I'd say yes, but given the location, means that there isn't an immediate threat to the school, but it could be, I'd suggest that when we get back to the school, we tell one of the faculty. If they want the students to investigate, I have no doubt that they'll send some of us out. If it is something more dangerous, us going without letting anyone else know what's going on is just stupid and a rookie mistake."

Shades looks up towards the lighthouse. "Nope, just shadow stuff. And, wow, yeah, if that light's not normal we have to go check that out. Could be almost anything! Like-" a brief hesitation until Madison speaks. "Yeah, poachers! And those're bad, and we should definitely go and check!" He's already scrambling out of the water, shaking off his feet and tugging on socks and shoes. "Com'on!" Once he's re-dressed, Shades starts to slowly lift off the ground, the nighttime gloom seeming to solidify beneath his feet- until Ashton speaks. "What, really?" He huffs out a breath. "Laaaaaaaaameeeeeeee." He sets back down, fingers flexing. "But, uh. We're still like, good on the tide pool stuff, right?"

Buddy seems eager to investigate despite the long distance; however, when Madison asks if it is poachers, Buddy starts to growl. Even though he is in human form the sound is identical to a large dog growling. Before he can go and put those poachers in their place, he hears Ashton's directions. He turns and looks at him and gives him big puppy dog eyes. "But what if they are dangerous to the little animals here? They can't protect themselves." He then mumbles under his breath, "Let's see them mess with this animal." Even when he is in human form, Buddy sees himself as an animal.

Bronwyn watches the 'fire' as she nears the edge of the rocks. "Isn't there some girl here who does fire stuff? Always getting in trouble. Could it be her?" She's all set to activate her armor when Ashton starts giving orders…and Bronwyn gets all sulky. "By the time the teachers do anything, whoever it is will be long gone" she grumbles under her breath. Though, will this mean they get out of looking at animals?

"Perhaps it will be good to create some form of warding? That way if it is something evil, we will have warning." Quinn says softly and looks towards Shades as he calls Ashton Lame, which gets a curious expression,"What does that mean? I assure you that Ashton is in no form impaired in his movements." He says sounding rather surprised by the whole thing. "I do not think we should be rushing in headlong as that leads itself to bad things like people dying. While I am living on borrow time, I do not wish an end to it yet." He pauses for a moment,"What if they have something that would negate your abilities?" He says helpfully. The ancient teen was not always super cautious but he was a bit 'superstitious' about some things and a ruined building with glowing lights is too much like ghosts and he's NOT up for those tonight.

"If it is poachers they would be after the seals that hang out on the shoals and beaches." Madison tells Buddy, trying to sound assuring but its hard because she feels the same way as he does about the thought. She looks around at the others "Ashton, right?" she glances at him she thought that is what he called himself "Is right, we should at least tell someone before we act stupid." once more she looks at Buddy "We can go around and warn the seals and other animals, while they do that." she suggests to pacify him a bit.

Ashton looks at Shades, "Dude, six months ago, I was abducted from the amusement park in town by a paramilitary group working with a demon. Trust me, it could be something a lot worse than poachers. Don't you think a school for empowered teens is likely to attract some really, really bad attention, like demons, murderous faeries, blood crazy cultists capable of murder, pissed off gods. All of these things have been problems here before. We have had a student murdered and part of his heart cut out of his chest for some sick, perverted ritual. It isn't being lame, it's being smart." The young sorcerer's blue green eyes have not yet left the glow from the lighthouse, as he chews on his lower lip. "I can't stop you, but I wouldn't advise it."

Shades sticks his tongue out at Ashton before turning towards the path back to the school, resting his umbrella on his shoulder. "I'm just saying, when they turn out to have been like, evil seal eating poachers, you're gonna feel like, super bad."

Buddy nods at Bronwyn and says, "Yes, she is nice. She helped rescue me from Granger and Shocky Man. She is Fire Girl." Madison's great idea causes Buddy to turn around suddenly and say, "Awesome. We can totally do that. Let's go!" He starts running towards the seals so he can warm them though three steps away he starts to fall towards the ground like he tripped though nothing tripped him. As he falls, a rippling effect rolls over his body and within a moment he has turned into a seal looking just like the other seals except that there is a faint blue tint to his right eye and a light green tint over his left eye. As he wiggles and waddles to the other seals, he starts barking at them.

As the students discuss what to do the orange glow becomes to become more and more fire like, but only fire-like, the way it moves just isn't normal, and since when do mason walls actually burn? But then the glow just suddenly stops, like a lightswitch was thrown, no more glowy, orange fire, just the light of the moon reflecting off the water.

<FS3> Buddy rolls Transform: Success.

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