June Event 2020

{Morbane Misadventures! (Finished!)}

Drifting casually through space in her ship, Laelynn had uncharacteristically decided to change up paces, her planned activity neither some petty heist, random tinkering on a new invention, crashing leaderboards in a video game, nor binge watching different shows. Instead, she planned a day trip to a nearby planet with a well known beach scene, reportedly "one of the most beautiful beaches in the galaxy." Whether that was the case, it was also the beach she found a discounted day pass online for, making the trip most importantly, cheap. Normally, such frivolous activities went under her radar, but as usual, P.A.L, having noted the galactic calendar in summer, the time denoted in honor of humanities home on earthland, began asking her questions on human culture and interactions. Annoying and pointless as they were, they did remind Laelynn she actually never once saw the beach, or if she had, it was in a time before memory, before the Exodus where home was left a long, long time ago. Surprisingly, it was something she was actually looking forward to, that is, until as they got close to their destination...

"P.A.L, what the actual hell is this?" She sharply asked the ship A.I, folding her arms crossed, very clearly annoyed. "I believe it is known as a "Swimsuit" Miss Morbane. From my scanning of various pictures and articles, they appear to increase beach satisfactions levels by 16±5%, presumably due t-" "Yeah, I know it's a swimsuit P.A.L! I mean, where did you get it and why does it look like "this?!" She raised it up to the ship's camera system, revealing a form fitting, two piece, yet modest swimsuit. "Like...why purple of all things? I like cyan more..."" She said with a minor blush, turning her said to the side, muttering the last part quietly to herself. "It came to my attention through my scans through the Etherweb that two piece swimsuits and floral colors are popular with many females, especially in ones within your age group and biometric scale. Additionally, I fabricated it using the robotic arm you gave me access to, and took the liberty of preparing it for you by utilizing a small portion of adaptive matter from your spare stockpile." 

"Wait, you broke into my adaptive matter stash?! Do you have any idea how expensive that stuff is?! Just for this crappy thing?!" Gently placing P.A.L's gift on the ship counter, she blew a loose bang hanging over her eyes back behind her head.. "I still would have preferred Cyan..." She pouted, her mild blush still remaining, a small silence falling over the ship as the camera above her zoomed in, scanning her body language, facial expressions, and tone. "...My sensors indicate a release of adrenaline and widened capillaries, yet no fight or flight hormones, and my analysis of the human condition and behavior has indicated biologicals, especially of the female variety can be self conscious about the appearance of their outer shell. Could it be you are embarrassed about the size of your br-"

Clang! With cat-like reflexes, Laelynn grabbed her trusty wrench, recklessly whacking the dashboard of her ship "Say one more word, and I'm turning you into a toaster P.A.L! Got'it?!" Silence falling over the ship once more, P.A.L. went inactive, only for a mere beep to occur, the words "Understood" appearing on one of her various monitors. Dropping the wrench to the floor with a clang, Laelynn crossed her arms over her chest, her blush even more apparent now. "I swear, I should have made a sandwich instead of you." She remarked in a half annoyed, half pouting fashion, taking a deep, long breath. "I'm going to play a game, send me an alert when we are ten minutes from landing..." Taking up her controller and booting up a game, the silence between the two would continue, both due to Laelynn's annoyance, and P.A.L's desire not to be turned into a household appliance. 

Despite the troubles along the way, Laelynn finally made it, now dressed in brown shorts and her signature black sleeveless shirt, draw strings tied into bows as they usually were in casual situations, a cyan beach tote strung over her right shoulder, making her way through the crowd in sandals as she approached the boardwalk and piers. "Wooow, so this is the beach...the real deal..." As she finally got within shore distance, her eyes went wide, voice completely floored. The ebb and flow of the waves, the squawk of various seabirds, the smell of salted air. Laelynn had always seen pictures online, but never before imagined the actual experience to be so overwhelming and, well...beautiful. A smile growing on her visage, she went out to the first thing on her mind...finding some traditional beach food.~

Finding herself at a local beach shack style restaurant, she quickly found herself a seat at the bar, eventually taking up a menu, completed taken away by the list of delicious and exotic (To her, anyway) dishes. "Um, Iiiii'd like to geeet...um...No, no...Alright! I'd like the clam chowder, an order of the crispy fish tacos with guacamole sauce, root beer, extra ice, and um...the shrimp appetizer with the house sauce.~" Giving her order with little rhyme nor reason beside pure whimsy, she observed the sites in an amused way, and so far, things weren't going terribly wrong like they almost always did when she left her ship, knock on wood.~

After a very satisfying shrimp appetizer, and her first time ever enjoying clam chowder, Laelynn had finished up her rootbeer rather swiftly, deciding to enjoy the rest of the meal during a boardwalk stroll, take out container in hand. With a light crunch, taking her first bite, Laelynn was uncharacteristically blissful, a very satisfied grin crossing her face, far opposed from her usual logical, cynical, and straight forward demeanor. "Alright, this, was a good idea.~" Taking another bite as she strolled through the crowd, Laelynn propped herself down upon a bench facing the beach, taking in the sun and breeze with each bite of her meal. Yet, this peace didn't last long, a few seagulls landing near her feet, staring at her and beginning to squawk at her. "...What? This is my lunch, scram!" Yelling out as she kicked her leg towards them to scare them off, this only seemed to regalvanize the gulls, fluttering back and calling louder, summoning a few more in the process. "I said get!" Closing her take out container, Laelynn stood up in an almost instant fashion, attempting to scare them off for good. Yet instead, the gulls took exception to being denied their "share," fluttering up and beginning to peck and scratch at Laelynn repeatedly! "Oh, that is IT!" In a flash of sparks, she manifested her signature suit, and before the seagulls could register another strike, she activated the discharge system!

Crack!

In a bright flash, the crackling of electricity rapidly ripped though the air as each seagull made contact, resulting in a situation very similar to when a bug hits a bug zapper, immediately cracking down to the bone as a heap of charred, charred, crispy seagull corpses dropped to her feet one by one, much to the surprise and horror of the nearby crowd as her suit was commanded to disappear once more. "Hmph!~ I'm not cleaning this up." She scoffed, rolling her eyes, having little remorse for adding Deep Fried Seagull into her list of many inventions. At least with that over, she was free to move to the restrooms to wash up and clean her seagull wounds, leaving what little of her meal that was left behind. 

After the seagull incident, Laelynn was soon washed up, and after having dropped by a local ice cream stand, enjoying that, and stopping by the changing areas, finding herself sun bathing with the swimsuit P.A.L. made for her, sunglasses casually worn and a smile on her face as she stared to the bright blue sky above at the farthest corner of the beach, far away from the majority of the crowd for some peace and quiet. "Setbacks aside...still been a pretty good day. I think I could really get used to beach days like this..." Taking deep breaths and closing her eyes, Laelynn allowed the subtle sounds of the beach, the waves, and those accursed flying rats lullaby her into a deep state of rest, respiration slowing, and slowing more until...

SPLASH!

Violently woken up from absolutely nowhere, Laelynn screamed as ice cold water was tossed over her face, leaping up in panic, expecting some threat or danger, yet instead, she noticed the sky had changed, nearly night as the last of the sun set, the faint glow of starlight beginning to show in the sky. The second thing she noticed however, was immense, searing pain, not just from the salt water entering her seagull wounds, but a full, complete body pain across almost every inch of her body, except for her eyes, scalp, and the areas covered by the swimsuit. Peering down to her arms, legs, and body, yep...as she suspected, during her long siesta on the beach, she had obtained a moderately harsh sunburn. Luckily, not too severe nor scarring, but the bright red tinge across her entire body was a tell tale sign she had obviously slept too long. "Alright, I'm calling this!" She yelled out in an annoyed manner, recoiling as the pain on her skin increased. Having been attacked by seagulls, having her lunch ruined, being soaked against her will by the rising tides, and burnt to the point of looking like a barely cooked steak, she was done.