The orc mashes his fists together. "Rip and tear! Or, everyone seems to think I ought to say that. But I do fight with strength before anything else."

Glowy girl all but mutters, "...I shoot things. More accurately than comparably leveled archers."

"Be careful declaring yourself nigh-unkillable. Lots of things think they are, until they are very abruptly proven wrong. I'm Elizabeth! Sorcerer. Focused on battlefield control, buffs, and debuffs, but I can attack too."

"Ah, names. I am K'nak. That's a balanced party, hmm? Strength fighter, dexterity fighter, ranged attacks, support and buffs."

Glowy-girl holsters her gun. "Leaves the other set with three melee and one ranged." She doesn't give her name.

"That's why my first resort is dodging, and my second is this shield," Ame says wryly to Elizabeth, but also to the other two.

Ame glances at the other party, the three melee guys and the archer wolf-girl is kind of an unbalanced party. But trading either K'nak or the still-unnamed glowy girl wouldn't fix that. Ame and Elizabeth would have to split up. She glances Elizabeth's way. "What do you think?"

"It might be more balanced if I went with the meatshield wall. I don't mind. Kind of like doing that actually, makes the strategy simple."

K'nak shouts, "Hey! You three tin cans want a battlefield control caster in exchange for your archer?"

The wolfgirl archer laughs and walks over towards them. "This seems more fun than those squares. Lucky you, big brute, you got three girls to look at on your team."

Elizabeth walks over, high-fiving the archer as she goes, and starts getting to know the melee guys.

"Name's Fal. Fischer girl, shooting contest."

"Pay me. I can't pick up my ammo again."

Fal laughs uproariously.

'Fisher?' Ame doesn't ask.

"And I think Elizabeth prefers the generic hunks. So that works out nicely." She shoots each of her own three group members punctuating, half-serious leers, letting her eyes linger noticeably (and somewhat more genuinely) on glowy girl's glowy parts this time. "Is that an actual gun?" Ame asks her, curious.

She pretends not to notice Ame's gaze, but she definitely did notice. The spots glow brighter in a wave running up from her chest, apparently involuntary. She blushes blue. "They use explosions to fire bullets. So yes. As opposed to... A fake gun?"

"I never understand why anyone uses guns. So fucking loud, and a greatbow like this hits harder."

"Projectile velocity. Accuracy. Endurance." She pulls a short bone harpoon slightly out from the comically large backpack before letting it settle in again. "And I have other relevant skills. I assure you I can fight."

"Ah, don't mind me, I am just griping. What are you doing so far from the ocean, eh? And you," she turns to Ame, "Glad to see more humans resisting the tyranny of clothing!"

K'nak nods. "Not 'tyranny' as such, but I certainly find the notion of covering oneself at all times to be strange and restrictive. Orcs have nothing against wearing furs in the cold, but if you don't need to, why bother?"

Oh, glowy girl, Ame hears your silent cry.

Ame snickers at the 'tyranny' comment, and deadpans, "It's a horrible memetic curse, a corruption of the mind that feeds into itself: by covering the body, one sexualizes the uncovering of the body, and then by sexualizing the uncovered body, one increases the amount of covering required to avoid communicating sexual availability to interested parties. It's a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle that can only be broken by ceasing all attempts to avoid communicating sexual availability, which for some unfathomable reason many people despise doing."

K'nak laughs. "Yes, I am not flaunting myself, I am just comfortable."

Fal scratches her head. "Whaaaaat? I don't get it. Like he said, it's more comfortable." She indicates a set of baggy shorts and a shawl-y sort of thing, all that she's wearing. Though this fact is slightly less obvious because of all the fur.

"Not as bad as the paladin..." Glowy girl mutters not quietly enough.

"I am flaunting myself, but I acknowledge that I'm taking advantage of a form of collective insanity to do so," Ame says in a teasing tone.

Ame sidles closer to glowy girl. "Paladin?"

"Some adventuring companions will try to convince you to give up your personal beliefs. And then threaten you about it."

She looks considering for a moment, then her eyes grow challenging.

"Apparently blood sacrifice is bad, even when it's my own."

"I'm a whore from a city where a lot of people are more disgusted by prostitution than by blood sacrifice. I got plenty of threats like that, too."

Ame offers her a commiseratory smile. "It's never not obnoxious."

"It's never not. The whispering gods don't understand most people but they care, it's just-" She rubs one particular tattoo, an anchor chain on her left arm, absently. "I... Uh, don't talk about it with non-fischerfolk much."

(K'nak and Fal are getting along fine in the background. She's swinging around his axe, while he tries to pull back on her greatbow - arguing which takes more strength.)

Ame simply nods, watching K'nak and Fal's friendly posturing. She snickers. "Well they're getting along."

"I'm mildly curious," she says to glowy girl, "but I'm more curious what you do like to talk about."

"Guns, mostly? And boats. And beer."

"I've never had a gun. Or a boat. Or a beer," Ame says, wry.

She catches glowy girl's eyes wandering again, and almost unconsciously adjusts her stance to give glowy girl a better view. Up close, it's easier to see that some of glowy girl's traits are... aquatic-seeming.

"I'm guessing you don't call yourselves fischer-folk merely because you, like, do a lot of fishing?"

She flares her gills with a smirk. "We are ocean people. Home in the cold and in the depths. I've won lots of bets with people who've never heard of us about holding my breath and swimming. Though, we do do a lot of fishing."

"I'd never heard of fischer-folk before either, but," snicker. "I wouldn't have made that bet, and I can hold my breath for like half an hour, I think."

Ame glances around at the embarking caravan. "We should figure out how we're going to coordinate, to cover angles. Debra didn't assign us posts."

Shrug. "She'll come back in a bit and probably set one group to the front and the other to the back. I've run caravans before. But you have a point. Get those jokers to stop posturing, I guess?"

"But they're being cute," Ame laughs. "Yeah. Hey you two! And you also!" she adds at Elizabeth's group. "We should figure out which group is better on point and which takes rear-guard."

They quickly come to an agreement that since Ameron's group is more mobile and more flexible, they should go in the middle of the caravan, while the melee team should stick to the front.

Debra finds this acceptable.

No rear-guard? Well, Ame is hardly the expert.

As the caravan gets moving, Ame takes up her post in her party of four, equips her shield, and summons a twenty-mana healing slime to accompany them.

It's explained that a few perimeter guards and the two scouts will be watching out for trouble - the inner adventurer teams aren't going to be the first ones fighting, they just need to be ready to be backup. They also don't have to take night-watch as long as they're aware they could be called on to fight at any minute.

Fal walks along with her, but quickly comments, "Well, we could just walk along, but really we gotta make friends in the wagons and find one to ride during the day. Caravans like this sleep for eight hours, spend two hours cooking and stuff in the morning, ten walking with a short midday break, and four in the evening for more cooking and relaxing."

"Oh tides, that would be excellent," wheezes the Fischer girl who still hasn't given her name.

"I'm in," Ame says with a shrug. She smirks. "And speaking of relaxing, I can summon a Lube Slime big enough for four people to sleep on, if we don't mind getting cozy. Just so you're aware."

Ame gives the Fishcher girl a look of concern, though, at the wheezing. Ame offers her hand. "Want a boost?"

Fal shudders. "Gack! My fur cries out in sticky pain already. Pass."

"Hah - Depends. Fischers don't do great at altitude, or at cardio. What's your healing do exactly?" She looks dubiously towards the slime.

"The green ones are Healing Slimes, not Lube Slimes," Ame explains. "They're smaller, but they're stronger, and also, y'know, can heal. And clean up blood. As for my healing, what would you like it to do? You don't even have to tell me. All you have to do is close your eyes and focus hard on the way your body should be, compared to the way it is. But 'not tired' is the most basic thing, that my Skill did when I first got it."

"I'll be tired again in five minutes."

But she reaches out to touch Ame's hand and wants to be fresh, cool, hydrated, relaxed and in the zone.

Her posture changes dramatically, her spots all glow brighter, and her eyes widen in surprise. "Huh. Could get used to this."