(open) mission: hit the beach

[aithinkthereforeaiam]

Date & Time: July 18th-24th, Exsilium Time
Location: Sea Shore during the Late Cretaceous Period
Characters: All! Oh those pesky mandatory missions.
Summary: In lieu of the success of the space shuttle's test flight, all of the Transports have been sent back to the Cretaceous period to gather mineral supplies and volcanic rock, while doubling as a sort of 'vacation' and chance to get Transports out of the Initiative's hair. With well stocked supplies, camping gear, and more burlap sacks than anyone could possibly ever use, the Transports have been set under a protective dome and told to collect what they can... and to enjoy the sunshine.
Warnings: Shenanigans!

The overflow log can be found HERE!

It's almost surreal, the quality of color, of light, of oxygen saturation in the air once people arrive. It's so rich that the Initiative sent people back with respirators, to help ease the transition, and warned those who would listen about the effects of too much oxygen on a system.

What they don't warn for is the sheer alien familiarity of the landscape, the warmth, the roughness of the sand on the beaches. This is not the fine, sandy beaches out of vacation dreams, but a rougher, larger granule sort, with shells that might be recognizeable as ancestors to ones those from Earth would remember washing up on familiar beaches, millions of years later.

Most striking is the lack of abundant wildlife found among the fronds and leaves and foliage, or underneath the surface of the saltier, much warmer waters extending off the beach. While acting as a permeable membrane to oxygen and water, along with the sorts of phytoplankton that kept sea creatures alive, all the larger animals had been pushed out by the Initiative's installment of the safety dome. Along the transparent walls, curious creatures would come close, peer in, tap against the barrier and run off if frightened, but very few were found inside at any size larger than that of a house cat. It was for the better in the long run.

Too bad that the Initiative didn't have ultra-violet blocking technology in their shielding. For all the atmosphere is in much better shape millions of years in the past, the sun is as strong as ever, and the unwary will be burned through and through if they're not careful.

Comments

[onen]

Day 1; [A]

[Granted it has only been a couple of months since she was forcibly dragged forward in time, but in that short period Ziio had almost forgotten how it felt to have the sun upon her skin and to be out in the fresh air, surrounded by the sounds of abundant wildlife and smelling something other than wet concrete and fumes.

It is hot; Ziio has peeled off as many layers of her clothing as she can and is moving about in the forest on silent feet. Of course there's not an awful lot of challenge in gathering inanimate objects, especially when one has spent all their life learning how to track and hunt things that at least provide a challenge, but it is still fresh air, and there is still much here that she can take for herself- some hard flints that will surely prove useful are surreptitiously slipped into a pouch she has fashioned from some of the superfluous burlap and soon joined by supple young branches that could be used to make a bow- but the business of gathering clays and rocks is tedious and she would rather ignore it in favour of hunting.

And so she does. She spends the time stalking for prey in the undergrowth or setting traps.]

You people are all prudes; Day 2 [B]

[With the gathering done the day before, Ziio takes some time to relax by the water, and while initially she had merely bared her torso and sat basking in the sunlight, it soon became apparent that, for some reason, it was deemed to be unacceptable for a woman to walk around as bare chested as every other man wearing ridiculous, small garments on their lower half. Grudgingly, she had been chastised by someone into adopting something to wear, which explains why someone might happen across an irritable looking Mohawk woman in a particular garish, hot pink two piece.

She finds it strange to be wearing garments with someone's face on them, and even stranger when she can't help but feel she's seen that face before...]

b; sorry I'm not sorry

[thephix]

[While Ziio is sunbathing topless, Max is close by enough that she can see some of the looks and comments that the other woman is getting about her lack of clothing. After about ten minutes of it, Max stands, relocates herself, her glass of wine, and her towel a few feet away from Ziio, casually taking off her bikini top, leaving it beside her on the sand.

Topless lady solidarity? Max even raises her glass in a light-hearted salute/toast.]

lmao don't ever be sorry

[onen]

[Ziio is doing her best to ignore the looks and disapproving whispers- she has seen it all before, experienced it for doing nothing more than simply daring to be a Kanien'kehá:ka amongst colonists. Their whispers do not bother her, nor do their opinions.

Although there is considerably more gawping when another woman moves herself to sit near her and removes the scraps of fabric covering her breasts. Ziio does not miss the salute, and returns the greeting with a nod and a slight grin.

It seems that someone on these sands has sense after all.]

ccc:

[thephix]

[If tan lines were something that Max needed to worry about, she would have been topless already, but shapeshfiting means she can control things like that, so she hadn't really bothered until it was apparently going to be an issue for some people. It's like none of them have ever been to France.

She's content to let the greeting be enough for a little while, as she takes idle sips from her drink, before looking back to Ziio.]

A lot of the Transports are from times and cultures where it isn't appropriate for women to be topless. Our standards for men and women tend to vary.

[Just as an explanation, her tone wry.]

C:

[onen]

[Ziio raises an eyebrow at the exposition and shakes her head with a soft huff.]

They are happy for women to walk around wearing little else but string and a few scraps of cloth, but this-

[She makes a downwards gesture to her chest.]

-is beneath their standards.

[She leans back on her hands and watches the people on the beach walking around in their tiny things, wondering if she will ever understand this sort of thing- or if she even wants to.]

Where I come from, when it gets hot like this then there is no need to wear any more clothing than is necessary. Women and men alike strip down and do what the need to to stay cool, I do not understand what is so wrong with baring skin. It is only skin and muscle.

whoops max has so many feelings about this

[thephix]

[It's interesting to talk to someone who finds this whole thing surprising, when Max is so used to it just being her life. Things like whether women should be allowed to go topless hasn't exactly been high on her list of priorities, when there are so many other fucked up things that need fixing, but she's aware that it's part of a bigger problem.]

Women baring their breasts is inappropriate because our bodies are only meant for sex.

[There's someting scathing in her tone, now, indicating that she doesn't at all approve of that way of thinking of things.]

It's alright as long as no one can see our nipples, otherwise it's too sexual and therefore indecent. [Hence bikinis, for all that they really are just string and straps of fabric] It's the same reason women aren't supposed to breastfeed in public.

[She hates everything, just for the record.]