[semi-open] 💣 they're gonna clean up your looks

[fullgauntlet]

Who: The PLUS ULTRA! crew & friends.
Status: Semi-open.
Where: The Mighty Explosion God Ship Bomb!! ship that is docked in Eltrut or Elah. Or the small cottage the crew owns in Elah.
What: A catch-all mingle log for March for the PLUS ULTRA! crew and any friends happening by. Some Manta Board quest prompts have been included too.
Warnings: Tba.

⛵ Like the rest of the ships around the docks lately, the explosion of sea slugs has taken over the hero's ship as well. It's covered in what seems like hundreds of playful and colourful sea slugs. They are all over the deck, climbing up the mast and leaving strings of sticky slime all over the place. The slugs will either need to be removed somehow or killed. And the sea slug slime mopped up...

If crewmates and friends are looking for partners to go harvesting underwater pineapples with the ship can also be found in Eltrut waters where the special pineapples can be found. Go swimming or diving to collect as many underwater pineapples for the ship stores as possible.




🌼 If not on the ship, the crew can sometimes be found at their small cottage on the paladin's leviathan, Elah. The cottage is small but happens to be well kept despite four very unruly and busy teenagers living inside it. They have a small garden growing outside as well as various plants and pots all over the terrace.

And they seem to be preparing to build some kind of new addition to the cottage soon too as there is a pile of stone and wood stacked up outside. And an apple-shaped sheep keeps walking around too. Baaah.

Comments

[catsgothistongue]

[He'll start trying harder when Toge gives him a reason to! I.e. not by running away, you coward! Or, well, handspringing. But the fact remains the same either way! Ranma's already rushing at him after the two flips, leaping at the other teen with a jump kick that has Toge's name all over it.]

[cursedwords]

[ The benefit to being short like Toge is, he fights like someone who is. This move is all Maki's. He ducks without any issue, but he also swings around to try and slam a palm into the back of Ranma's knee, intending to put him on the ground. ]

[catsgothistongue]

[You think you're the first short person he's fought before, Toge? He'll have you know he is also a shorty! Doubly so! He knows how short people fight, knock the bigger foe down!

As Toge aimed a palm strike into the back of his knee, Ranma quickly spun on his heel and aimed a strong whip kick into Toge's side.]

[cursedwords]

[ It's a very solid blow, definitely, Toge moves with it and responds with a punch to his solar plexus.

He looks more pleased than anything because now he can take Ranma more serious. ]

[catsgothistongue]

[He'll take that punch, which to his credit, doesn't wind him as much as it does most people. But now that he's got an arm in reach, Ranma's going to grab Toge's wrist in one hand and pull him into a gut punch to send him flying back some. This was just training and Ranma's fighting to match what he perceives as Toge's level. He's not going to give it his all. For now.]

[cursedwords]

[ He doesn't react, in fact, he doesn't make a sound when he's punched. His skill might become more obvious because his stance stops his movement so he doesn't actually lose much distance.

Toge charges back in quicker now, bringing one knee towards Ranma's hip and he'll follow it up with a left handed punch. ]

[catsgothistongue]

[So he's got some fighting experience under his belt. For a moment there, Ranma was worried this'd be over and done with before it even got good. Time to see what all Toge got and kick it up a notch!

Ranma'll take the knee to his hip, buckling some before blocking Toge's punch by raising up his leg. In the same motion, he swipes a kick at Toge that, if connected, felt like he just got kicked ten or twelve times in the gut in spite of that looking like just one kick. Ranma's not going full on out just yet, but he's meliorating his effort into this spar.]

[cursedwords]

[ He does, a lot, and what he's realized in this moment, is that he has underestimated Ranma. Still quiet as a mouse, Toge slides backward from the kick, doubling over, taking a few breaths.

Not as bad as Maki at full strength, but pretty close. Fuck that hurt.

He's fine, he doesn't need his stomach for anything. He can't let that happen again. He swoops in to feint and use his arms and leg to throw Ranma and get him down on the ground. He believes he'd have the advantage there. Sparring is his only excuse for not fully guarding.

Not anymore. Toge has to be serious about it. He'll move cursed energy around to take some of the impact. It's how he jumps from such difficult heights. ]

[catsgothistongue]

[Looks like they both underestimated the other. Ranma really has no excuse to, not after dealing with opponents like Cologne. The only one he could give is this isn't a serious match, just training. With people from different worlds too, meaning he doesn't know if any of them have the same description of training as the ones from back home like Pop or Ryoga and get him be on the ropes.

He fell for the feint, throwing up his arms to block what he had thought would've been an overhead punch. That's not what happened as the slightly smaller teen wrapped his limbs around him and threw him down onto the deck of the ship and-

Is. Is he sitting on him? Toge's earnt himself the flattest, most disappointed look on the martial artist's face staring up at him.]

Really?

[cursedwords]

[ Yep, Toge has definitely parked himself right on Ranma's abdomen. At his incredulous look he smiles and places a palm on his chest, flirting with the collarbone area.

A gesture that suggests he believes he's in control at the moment. ]

Salmon, salmon.

[catsgothistongue]

[Leave that alone, that's where his clavicle is! Ranma huffed and gave an unamused smirk.]

If that's how you wanna play it, salmon boy...

[Ranma placed both of his palms under his back and pushed up to bounce up a small distance off the ground, with Toge in tandem to try and bounce him off him. Reaching out so he can get a handstand...]

Why don't you go take a dip?

[And shoot both feet out like he was a bucking bronco. If Toge wants to play dirty, then so will he and try to kick him off the deck and into the water. Surely Toge knows how to swim.]

[cursedwords]

[ He very much expects Ranma will not take the loss lying down. Toge's usually more situationally aware though, and to his credit, when he takes the kick he's already facing down.

With space, he would've been looking to use his hands to stabilize himself, turn it into a backspring.

Toge does not have space. His wrist hits the railing hard because he's mistimed what he's doing and he doesn't have enough time to get a proper grip. Gravity is not on his side.

He lands in the water with a heavy splash.

Ah. That was careless. Really really careless of him. ]

[catsgothistongue]

[The martial artist sprung back onto his feet, clapping his hands together to dust them off. Stupid salmony jerk. What does he look like, a red velvet pillow? Ranma adjusted his clothing and got the wrinkles from Toge sitting on him out, before walking over to the railing.]

Yo! You good down there? [He called out, looking out to where he watched the other cursed teen land.]

[cursedwords]

[ His relationship to water at home is nonexistent. His arrival here had him landing in the ocean, but he'd been spotted immediately. He hasn't really been in since. Daqiang had handled the water when they hunted sharks, he stayed on the boat.

It takes a moment for him to surface. There's nothing controlled about the movement, he breaks the water, breathes and he's right back under it. He didn't hear the question but okay. He's in the water. He just has to scale the side of the ship. No big deal.

The water is a minor obstacle. He's moving his arms enough to catch another breath. He opens his mouth and coughs, sputtering. ]

Iku- [ Okay. So the water is kind of a major obstacle. If he can just get to the side he'll climb up. Probably. There's no flaw in this plan at all. ]

[catsgothistongue]

[He's taking a while to get back up on deck, and it looks like he's trying to stay afloat. Wuh oh.]

... You can swim, right?

[Let this be a lesson: Do not kick everyone in the water, because they could drown. Ranma's going to have to jump in there to pull him out, isn't he? Whether or not Toge can make it to the side of the ship, Ranma's already climbing over the railing and getting ready to jump in after him.]

[cursedwords]

[ That's a no Ranma, he cannot. He's either going to figure it out very quickly or he's going to drown. He would call for help, but he can't. So Toge is struggling.

He's figuring he's going to have to find a solution here or die. He doesn't want to die. Too many people would like that, and they can kiss his ass, he'll live through spite.

It's exhausting, he's mostly disoriented. He reaches out towards the ship but he's not actually that close to it. Okay that's step one, getting closer to the ship. He can just flail in that direction. ]

(1/2)

[catsgothistongue]

[Oh damn you hindsight.

When it's made abundantly clear that Toge cannot get close to the ship, Ranma takes a dive off the railing and into the water. He wouldn't come up for a good couple of seconds, though one could probably notice the dark blotch undulating in the water, getting closer and closer to the cursed teen. Was it a shark coming to snatch his legs?]

(2/2)

[treebornekettlegirl]

[Nope. It's a pigtailed girl!

She is grabbing onto Toge, wrapping his arm around her neck.]

Why... Couldn't you... Have learnt to swim... Before getting on a ship!?

[Cause it totally isn't the one who kicked him in the water's fault here. It's a good thing she's got experience with dragging people out of the water, and Toge isn't dead weight yet, so she's swimming to the rope ladder dangling off the side of the ship to climb up, with Toge under her arms.]

[cursedwords]

[ A shark would've made things a lot worse, so it's best that it's a pigtailed girl. He knows enough to realize she's helping him and he stops struggling. That should help.

She isn't going to have to haul him up the ladder though. He can do that himself, once he's in reach. He's a bit slow, but actually the wrist that hit the railing is already swelling and his grip is not very strong. Good job him, he at least sprained that if not fractured it.

Toge's a little dissatisfied with his performance. He'll have to get better.

When he gets over the railing, he collapses on his back on the deck, panting. On the plus side - he's not dead. ]

[treebornekettlegirl]

[Ranma'd let Toge climb on his own when she sees him reaching for it. She still helped him over the railing, watching him collapse. Yeah, really regretting kicking him off the ship now. And not just cause of his curse being 'revealed'.]

Phew... [She'd exhaled, though she wasn't particularly exhausted.] So... [Shaking her head and getting the water out of her hair.] That might've been my bad. Sorry.

[cursedwords]

[ Ranma's curse is the least of Toge's worries at the moment. ]

Fish flakes. [ He offers with a shake of his head. No apology needed, he lost fair and square.

Toge does unzip his collar though and pulls it off because wet fabric against his face is gross. He doesn't like it. He'll just lie there for a moment. He's not in the habit of lying around with his cursed marks exposed for a lot of reasons, but it'll be fine for a minute before he gets himself up off the deck. ]

[treebornekettlegirl]

[Now up to this point, she had only seen Toge with something covering his mouth. So when he pulls it down and there's odd markings on his face, it certainly caught her attention. The martial artist blinked her blue eyes, and...]

... Y'know, I know we could've gotten these tattoos anywhere, but didja really decide to get yours done on your face?

[Completely mistook them for the magic tattoos here. She isn't judging him if he did, it's just one of the spots she figured you'd want to keep a needle away from the most.]

[cursedwords]

[ His lips move like he's going to answer her - but he decides he'd better not.

Hopefully, probably, his shellphone is waterproof. He'll let the text to speech do it for him. ]

They're not a tattoo. I have the power of cursed speech. They're curse marks. They're called the snake and fangs, because it looks like eyes.

[ If she comes to get a closer look, he'll stick out his tongue too. There's the fangs. ]

[treebornekettlegirl]

[Indeed she did as he (well, the phone) explained it to her, kneeling down to get a glimpse. Now she saw the fangs part on his tongue. The redhead smacked her lips and nodded her head.]

Cursed speech, I remember now. The one that makes you talk in rice ball stuff. [She still doesn't understand it truly, but that's probably to Toge's benefit. Ranma took a seat and rested her arm on a knee.] Funny, that makes two people on this ship who has some kinda curse on them.

[cursedwords]

[ He's a little amused. ]

Not quite. Those are my safe words because if I say anything else, I will influence everyone around me.

[ It is incredibly, exceptionally powerful, and dangerous. ]

I don't know if you can call it a curse itself. It's a cursed technique that I can use, but I was born like this.