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It’s way too hot here. This cycle as the Starblaster descended into the prime material plane, it tore through a lush canopy of trees and into an old forest, setting down beside a pool of clear water feeding a stream. But what everyone noticed was the heat.
Lucretia has never felt so sweaty and gross without moving in her life. Sure, sometimes she’ll go out with Merle to catalogue the flora on a plane or with Barry to scope out the local scientific situation and she’ll find herself in need of a shower, but this is inescapable. She feels like she’s been running a fever for two months now. It doesn’t help that the Starblaster is made of metal; it traps heat and is largely uninhabitable. The whole crew has been spending their days out in as much shade as they can find, fanning themselves with some of the big leaves off of some plants that grow here. Fortunately they had found the Light quickly; it had fallen within about 6 miles of the ship and Taako had seen it come down as he was smashing open some of the unfamiliar fruits he’d found trying to figure out whether they would go better raw or in a pie. Magnus and Davenport had simply walked over and scooped it up, and now boredom was starting to become the number two challenge for the year, second only to the heat.
Today, Lucretia is at loose ends. She can’t really chronicle, because nothing’s happening. She can’t bear the thought of going back into the Starblaster and doesn’t really want to walk or move too much at all. So she grabs an extra blanket from the supply closet and heads out to a little knot of trees next to the pool. Even with the sun straight up overhead, the water is still fairly cool, and what little breeze comes off it makes it about the coolest place she’ll reasonably find. Lucretia spreads out the blanket, and lies down in the shade of the trees, trying to count their leaves. She’s asleep before she reaches 125.
Lucretia awakens with a shriek that startles several birds out of the tree above as a wave of cool water drenches her. As she sits up, she hears laughter and as she rubs the sleep from her eyes she sees Lup swimming toward the middle of the pool as fast as she can, howling with laughter. Lucretia spits out a mouthful of water and sputters, “Lup? What are you...why? Are you kidding me?”
Lup starts to swim back toward Lucretia, still laughing as she climbs up and out of the pool, water streaming from her braid and down her back. She wrings out her hair and Lucretia starts to cough. Lup’s face instantly changes to concern as Lucretia doubles over, coughing harder and harder. “You ok, chica? Oh Luc, I’m sorry, I just thought you might wanna cool down, I wasn’t trying to drown you! What can I do? Do you-”
Before Lup can finish her sentence, Lucretia drops down and hooks her arm around Lup’s ankle, knocking her back into the water. Lucretia stops coughing and a smile spreads over her face. “Booyah!” she yells, splashing in after Lup.
Lup ducks as Lucretia splashes a huge wave toward her, then dives down and pulls Lucretia’s ankles to drag her under, too. The whole scene quickly devolves into watery chaos, with the two of them chasing each other around the pool, each one trying to get a bigger splash on the other. It’s the best time either of them has had so far in this heat.
Before too long, a voice from the ship interrupts Lucretia before she can get in one more splash. “Yo, chucklefucks! They have mango here and I made sorbet! I will eat it all myself if you don’t get back here now!” yells Taako, levitating a stack of bowls as he spreads out a blanket under the big tree where they’ve taken to eating al fresco. Lup grins and starts heading for shore. “Come on, babe,” she calls back to Lucretia, “I brought an extra towel!”