mapping party mapping party

[rebells]

Who: a bunch of less-than-upstanding nerd boys
Where: along this route
When: Day 8, or thereabouts
Open/Closed: closed to mapping party; pm rebells if your character would have icly asked to come!

[So you may have gotten a telepathic message a few days ago about an expedition to map the coastline . . . or maybe you were invited along by a friend. Whatever the reason, it's bright and early this morning, and it's time to set out!

Characters would have gotten a further telepathic message from Jay with a date and time to meet outside the shacks. They'll be heading east along the "shore," tracking the coast, and then heading directly back towards base camp . . . who knows what they'll find along the way?]

Comments

joint prompt;

[windeity]

[Getting ahead of themselves and the rest of their group, John and Dave begin to follow the stream mostly on John's whimsy. He'd spoken to someone a few days ago about finding streams and water sources and though Dave updated him on some of the other things he saw their attention lay in following the new path.

Upon coming to the lagoon though they both stop, staring at the water and listening to the croaks of frogs around them. Looking at his feet, John's carefully shuffling to make sure he doesn't step on any of them and though he can't be sure, he thinks Dave looks interested in a large pair of frogs not too far from them. Anyone who also approaches the lagoon will witness Dave asking:

"Hey. What happens when you merge two pieces of illegal contraband together?"

For all that John looks affronted and protests, he too finds himself looking at the pair of frogs. Coming through the clearing of the lagoon, anyone who approaches will find Dave on the shore of the lagoon and John creeping forward toward the frog, attempting to pick up both of them at the same time. The Vrillyhoo, John's hammer, sits to the side near the water's edge as both frogs are picked up and he looks at them, holding them up.]

I don't know if I can. They're sort of. You know. Alive?

[Please stop whatever the hell they're doing.]

[ooc: tag order of you, Dave, John!]

[splinten]

[Dirk was going to leave Dave alone for the rest of the mission but John is going to fuse frogs.]

Egbert, that's the kind of mad science I don't know if even Ro-Lal would go for.

[HE WON'T STOP HIM BUT.]

[parodeity]

Any two items doesn't specify organic or inorganic or alive or dead, bro. [ dave's arms are crossed as he let john just. catch the frogs without help (he has done his frog catching time) and refrained from giving advice. he sounds mostly amused in the lowkey way he has, though his gaze flicks to dirk and back to john when the other strider approaches. ]

Technically you probably can, you're just wonderin' if you should. You know you totally wanna, though.

[ he's a cat shoving a glass cup off a counter to see what'll happen, as per usual. ]

The illegality of combinin' illegal contraband is completely beckonin' to you. It got into a lowcut top and caked on the makeup and everythin'.

[windeity]

[SAVE THE FROGS? But no okay first, before addressing Dirk, he shoots Dave an annoyed little look that doesn't quite meet his eyes. Somehow he's used to this kind of jackassery and though the frogs ribbit in his hands he shakes his head.]

Shut up. Items usually sounds like inanimate objects. Also they're alien frogs, technically, so merging them could maybe go really, really bad. [And yet he's back to eyeballing the frogs before he grins lightly at Dirk. It takes him a moment to place who Ro-Lal is supposed to be though.]

I think she probably would, actually. She seems like she'd at least consider it. [Why? Because Roxy's similar to Dave and she's curious and also John has assumed that the mutated cat did not come from Rose but rather Rose's mom, who is Roxy, so. YOU KNOW.]

[splinten]

[YEAH LOOK HE'S AWARE OF ROXY'S HABITS. But her mutant cats aren't actual mergers of living things with living objects.]

If this produces sad mutant frogs unable to move or function, I reserve the right to spare them from a long, slow death from starvation.

[parodeity]

I will not shut up until and unless you bribe me to do so, and you have yet to hit upon a bribe worthy of that. [ perfectly happy to have gotten an annoyed look, apparently, dave continues to cheerfully not shut the fuck up. ] For the record, I am acceptin' as bribes apple juice to absurd quantities, slumber parties, and mad science snackage. If you ever hit on like, the eternal Utopian blended snack, I mean. I will sell out for nothin' less than perfection, because I am clearly worth that. The doreoes did not live up to the hype. I mean, they technically did since we both knew it was gonna taste like ass, but still, there was a .001% chance that maybe they would not and yet that chance was not fully realized. Or even partly realized. Any at all realized.

[ then, because john probably would not like to create something that would need to be destroyed: ]

What about two bugs, then? To start with.

[windeity]

I'm going to shove one of these frogs down your shirt, how's that for a bribe? [Or a threat?] Besides you are already getting some of those. [Why are Striders this way? For one, Dave is rambling like he always does but also, Dirk, why would you say that? That is the saddest thing he's ever heard and his eyes drift down to the frogs again.]

I don't want to produce sad mutant frogs, but maybe they would just fuse into one large super-frog? Don't kill my frogs. [Great. He's adopted more amphibians.] I guess bugs would be okayish though. [But okay.] What do you know about mutation anyway?

[He's curious if Roxy's told Dirk anything or if Dirk has his own thoughts mostly.]

[splinten]

A large super-frog would be incredibly cool, I'll grant you. My only concern is for the sad mutant frogs that none of us want to see.

[Or. Well. He assumes? He doesn't want to make frogs into sad mutant frogs. John probably also doesn't want sad mutant frogs? This is why Dirk brought it up.]

I know what Roxy talked about regarding her own projects, and obviously I understand the basic idea of it behind evolutionary development. I also dug up all the research left behind on the Condesce's experiments in mutating humans.

[parodeity]

[ frustrated noise. ]

Will you stop adoptin' everythin' you so much as look at?? [ he heard "my frogs" as the possessive. ] What about crabs? You don't like the crabs anymore right we can fuse them into a giant mutant crab. Also not sure ectobiology has a whole hell of a lot to do with how your shit works.

[ ...also. ]

Also, if you try to shove a frog down my shirt, I will be forced to try to kick your ass. Assumin' you catch me first to even manage the first part.

[windeity]

[John may look stupid, but he's fully aware that Dave's mostly answering him and casually bantering with him to leave him to field Dirk. If it's on purpose or not he can't say but he also doesn't let that go unnoticed. It's something to think on later because this is more important. Also judging by the fact he's not putting the frogs down that is also debatable, sorry.]

Both of you lost your speed. [Mildly put.] I'm not creating sad mutant anythings. I still don't know if my power allows for living objects. A lot of people's powers seem limited to items only. I tried concepts once and that did not exactly stick. Crabs would be acceptable though, but with our luck they would just double the amount of legs they have.

[...he shouldn't ask, but:] What kind of research did you find?

[splinten]

She wanted us to have different blood colours, like her trolls. That was also how she wanted us to reproduce. It didn't go well.

[His eyebrows flicker up.] There's an easy way to test this on a living thing, dude. Grab two plants of the same kind and see how they fuse. If the results are decent, you can probably make a mutant frog without a stain on your conscience and deep personal regrets.

[Like there's still Doubt, it could go badly wrong, but at least it tests the fusing-living-things options without potentially damaging actual lives.

He doesn't know how to talk to Dave, so he is doing his best effort of just dealing with John.]

[parodeity]

Still faster than you, jackass. [ he doesn't say he's stronger, though, since that's patently false.

dave grimaces. ]

I hate the hemospectrum and I don't think Johnny boy understands it, so let's gloss over that topic entirely. Also not sure that troll reproduction is a thing you're clear on, bro, since you literally threw a message through a portal in a bucket at the trolls. Good job causin' one of the top ten biggest hissyfits on the damn meteor, btw.

[windeity]

[What if he just nudges Dave in the ribs? Shut uppp. But at the same time like. He's right. John's not on the up and up about a lot of this kind of stuff so instead Dirk gets a very curious and also mildly confused look.]

That seems like a lot of effort and also not exactly a thing that is easy to accomplish. [Why would that be a thing, what the fuck.] And I forgot that they have a weird thing about buckets, okay? That was an accident. [Huff.] I didn't think about plants though. You think maybe the reeds would work in that case?

Re: joint prompt;

[rebells]

[Sorry, if you wanted to be dissuaded you probably should have gotten someone other than this asshole.]

You might as well try it eventually. Would a frog and a frog just make another frog?

[parodeity]

Personally I am hopin' for a super frog.

[ HI JAY. ]

[windeity]

[Don't encourage this jackassery, why this??? John's still holding the two frogs and shooting a mildly annoyed look at Dave, even if it's not that annoyed.]

It might actually make a very large frog. I know I told you I can't merge intangible objects with real objects, but frogs are pretty tangible? But they're also alive so I'm not sure if they will mutate or what.

[rebells]

A double-headed frog, perhaps? I admit, I'm curious as to whether it averages traits or duplicates them.

[And to John:] Can you still not control it at all?

[parodeity]

He semi-purposefully made a pretty cool thing the other day.

[ actually. ]

[windeity]

Pretty cool because you got to keep it. [But he does grin proudly.] But it is getting better? I ended up with a chain of six, I think, and it turned out pretty much the way I wanted it to. I'm still working with small stuff but I'm working up. The frogs are about the right size.

[rebells]

Why not try it, then? [He motions to the frogs.] Do you just concentrate on what you want the items to fuse into, or is there something else?

[parodeity]

[ dave glances at john. he hasn't questioned this before so he doesn't know the answer? ]

[windeity]

I mean...I try to concentrate but it doesn't always work. Sometimes there's a tug and it fuses into something else entirely. I don't want to hurt the frogs just in case that happens with living things, too. [There's a look upward.] I think it is also based on make-up of the objects themselves, which is weird to say.

[rebells]

No, that makes sense. If there's some sort of logic to how the items are fused . . . it's possible that there's only so many ways a particular set of items can be fused according to your power, and either you're hitting on one or you're not. Of course, you could also just need more practice.

[He shrugs.] If you're concerned about the frogs, you could try fusing two copies of something else first. Or you could have him draw you some frog figurines. [He motions at Dave.] Though living objects might work differently.

[parodeity]

I can definitely draw frog figurines if you want, bro, but yeah. They're not gonna be alive. I...have never drawn an alive thing? We both know that would like doom whatever the fuck to a tortured badly drawn existence.

[windeity]

It could be both, but practice does not hurt I guess. Frog figurines aren't living, but what about the brain? That was sort of alive and it fused fine, but at the same time it kind of wasn't? [Hm.] You might want to practice drawing alive things first.

But Jay has a point. Fusing two copies of the same thing...I don't think I've actually tried that yet.