Karen scanned the beach as she trailed after her sister towards a table at something that might be a restaurant. The fact that she did this in near perfect silence was, strictly speaking, not a needed clarification - she hadn’t said anything for years. Which was both a blessing and a curse. A curse because she literally could not speak, and a blessing because it meant she got to spend time with her sister. And also she could curse inside of her head as much as she wanted to with no risk of it ever slipping out.
Because holy shit what the fuck. Karen was a Dawn. The strong sword arm of the Unconquered Sun. Her sword was so big she had to fold it in half to reasonably carry it around. She should not be getting casually outclassed by any kind of mortal. Like, okay, sure, they were a half caste sidereal. That's not as good in a straight fight as a full sidereal, which is only sometimes as good in a straight fight as a full solar. Not discounting caste specialties or psychological warfare, like putting Misho up against Nemen.
But no, some random mortal that Nemen blackmailed into joining the competition just absolutely made everyone eat shit and die a little bit inside. Which sort of made sense, Nemen was obviously cheating, but at the same time... Karen can't do that. Marena can't do that. Ten Winds, as amazing as he is, can't do that. Hell, someone who knew all of the charms they'd used and was able to use them all at once miiight be able to do that, but they'd never be able to pay for it. The girls essence hadn't even flickered. That was normal for her, and that was fucking terrifying.
Which is part of why Karen had to resist the urge to jump into the air when the mortal in question slipped into a chair at the table she was sharing with her sister. Behind her followed a number of others. An abyssal - non participant, not currently a threat, another half caste sidereal - twitchy, potential violence, and a pure mortal - the girls mother. Lurking just behind them was another Alchemical.
Meanwhile, Karen and Marena's company was Ten Winds and Thimia. ...Misho may or may not count right now as he had been dragged into judging by Costora. And unlike Nemen, he probably wouldn't blatantly favor his circle the way she would the other sidereals. Either way, the balance of power was in their favor. Three full exalts and a demon against an exalt, two half exalts, a mortal, and maybe another full exalt, depending. If it came down to a fight, at least.
"So, Messier..." Marena began ever so subtly. "How'd you do that? Because that was pretty fucking cool."
Sun damn it Marena there was no way she would ever answer-
"I just copied all of the go fast charms everyone else was using and used them for myself."
...WHAT THE FUCK.
Karen goes rigid. Ten Winds looks at Messier and raises an eye. Marena blinks and sputters. Thimia just nods, as though that makes perfect sense. To either side of her, the other half caste blinks in confusion while the mortal completely misses how impossible that's supposed to be.
"How much experience did you have saved up?" Marena whispers, a faint note of horrified fascination in her voice. "And how much of it did you spend?"
"Enough. And too much. I can't do that again, if that's what you're asking." The fucking freaks voice is exhausted, which all of a sudden makes perfect sense.
"Ah... excuse me?" The mortal woman interjects. "May I ask what exactly that means? I'm not exactly martially inclined, or knowledgeable about the use of essence."
Marena goes to respond, and then pauses, unsure. Karen gets it. How do you explain a character sheet to an npc? How do you explain color to someone who is blind. After a moment, Ten Winds takes a sip of something that Karen doesn't know what is or where he got it from. Which is pretty much all his alcohol, really. He sets it back down, fiddles with the tiny umbrella, then speaks up.
"You may not be knowledgeable, but I'd wager you've heard many a story about it. Monks who train on top of mountains or under waterfalls, looking for enlightenment. Swordsmen who stood beneath trees to cut every falling leaf. Moments of extremity, for the purpose of bettering yourself."
The woman nods along, frowning softly. There's a brief pause as one of Costora's servants delivers a number of drinks and some simple food to the table, before vacating the premise rapidly. Ten takes a sip of his new drink before continuing.
"Normally, throughout this process, skill is acquired. With every swing of the blade, you're ever so slightly more competent than before. For Exalts, however, this isn't always true. Sometimes, we gain nothing from the first nine hundred and ninety nine swings, and it is only the one thousandth that gives us anything. And, sometimes, the thing we gain is totally unrelated to the task at hand. Those thousand sword swings might serve as the catalyst that causes us to grow more skilled at archery, for example."
"But", the woman stutters out in confusion. "That doesn't make any sense? How can practicing the sword make you better at archery? Those two things aren't connected at all!"
This time, it's Messier who speaks up.
"I turned off my ability to learn and grow. In the process of turning it back on, I basically spent a year and a half worth of study and self reflection in the span of about twenty seconds, which meant I learned almost everything about what was going on around me. Including the charms they were using."
That's... not really right, but Karen supposes it is easier to wrap your head around than talking about banking exp to spend later when you need an extra emergency point of whatever. She herself tried to keep enough on tap to afford an excellency at all times, just in case.
"That sounds dangerous?"
"Not really. It's basically perfectly safe" Thimia interjects. "Basically everyone here is doing it, though I'd wager most of them aren't holding it for more than a week or two, so they can spend time accumulating the growth factor - we call it experience - in ways they find easy to work their way through, and then spend five minutes on something they don't like training to suddenly get better at that."
"We're off topic though", Messier says blandly.
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"We are", Marena agrees.
"We are?" Est echoes confusedly.
"So, I don't particularly care about the key. At best I'd like to hold it for five minutes just to say I did, but after that, eh. My team will spend most of the competition sabotaging everyone else, so you guys just hit it as hard as you can. I have half an idea for how to end it without immediately putting you guys on the run again, but I'm still working on how feasible it is, and I need to run is by Misho anyways."
"Not Nemen Yi?" Ten Winds inquires, asking the real questions.
"I don't give a shit about her opinion. She's getting what she paid for, which is fucking nothing."
"In short, you want to team up."
"Pretty much."
Ten Winds side eyes her, and Karen shrugs. She doesn't trust the girl. The explaination of what she did doesn't cover HOW she did it, because that still should have been impossible.
She flickers her own eyes off to the side, towards Marena, and shrugs. Her sister nods faintly, and then three of them look towards Misho's wife, Thimia. She fiddles with her ring faintly, before shrugging.
"I think Misho will be fine with it." And with that, they're a team.
...Probably the second biggest team, actually. A solar, a lunar, a dragonblood, two half caste sidereals, a demon, and a mortal. Debatably an abyssal, though she's not competing, and maaaybe the alchemical who has been spying on them this entire time and nodding along absently while pretending to drink a mixer. They've certainly got the largest spread - the other two major teams are just eleven dragonbloods and six sidereals.
Before they can work out any further details, a shiver goes through the air.
>"The second round of the tournament is about to begin! This will be a test of Bureaucracy. Each contestant is required to create a list of at least five of the major abilities, excluding Athletics and Bureaucracy, and how one might prove their skill at them to the god of the beach. That's it, that's the test. You have until sundown to hand in your answers."
Karen pauses for a moment, before squinting up at the sky where Costora's voice is echoing. Did he just? From across the table, Est bursts out into giggles. Yeah, he absolutely just did. Damn lazy god, why the fuck are you making us design the competition that we'll be competing in.
"So, I'll point out he didn't say this wasn't a team event." Messier muses blandly. "And did say 'at least', which means we can turn in more than that."
"We're all handing in complete sets, then?" Thimia says, smiling faintly. "With eight of us, it should be fairly easy to get there."
"Mhmm. Remember not to take things too seriously. This is the god of the beach, not a god of war. Naturally, Craft should be a barbecue."
"Oh, that does sounds good. Should we also have a volleyball tournament for war?
"That sounds like something he would enjoy."
Making the mute the pov character might not have been the best idea, but at least I'm writing again.