Backwater nexus. Base of the cliff. Two girls on the beach.

[firra]

beach: The sky is blue, the clouds are making amusing shapes... but all that seems very, very far away. This is a rocky, gray beach, deep in the shadow of a tall wall of rocky, gray cliffs. There are no birds to make fun noises, no sand to play in, and, for the moment, no one for Haylin to bother.

Haylin: *totally alone, with a picnic basket under one arm and a beachball under the other. She's in a yellow and black bikini, and her hair is up in a high ponytail. There is a swoosh of white suntan lotion on her nose. She looks blank*

Haylin: ...

Haylin: ...

Haylin: *suddenly scowling in disgust* THIS BEACH IS LIES!

voice: *rough and gutteral, and from over there behind the boulder* Looks alright to me.

Haylin: *jerks her head towards the sound and frowns* Pfft. Stupid rock beach. *kicks a rock* What would you know about it?

voice: I know I peed where you're standing.

Haylin: *horrified shout as her wings burst forth and she flaps herself a few feet up*

voice: Relax. The waves probably washed it aw... *blurple* ...way already. Mmm. Starfish. *sound of crunching*

Haylin: *lands on the boulder* Yer gross.

person: *looks up without turning their head or looking away from the ocean or the sky. They can do this, because the entire top of their head is covered with a mass of long, flexible eye-stalks. The being is strongly built, a five foot nine slab of drab pink muscle. One clawed hand holds the remains of the starfish, and clawed feet dangle into the water. Fangs protrude slightly from the bottom of the mouth. There is nothing about the figure to tell someone used to humans and most humanoids that the being is female, yet she is. Her T-shirt says so in about fifty different languages*

Haylin: *proceeds to stare*

person: *snorts and throws the chewed starfish at her*

Haylin: *Haylin dodges, a little spurt of black flame crisps the meat before it hits the boulder* Yer extra gross! Don't throw food!

person: Why not? *chuckle like rocks grating over more rocks*

Haylin: Because, gross. Duh. *she crouches back down on the boulder. She's quiet for a second* So. Some beach, huh.

person: Yeah. I like it. *covered in another wave*

Haylin: Pfft. It's dumb! *she flops back on her butt, splaying her legs out across the boulder*

person: *wave gone. Fish in hand* Hmmm. Do I wanna eat you?

Haylin: ...Can I have the head?

person: *two eyes look up at her* That's the crunchy part.

Haylin: Yeah. ...I don't, like, need it. *shrugs*

person: *considers the fish, and then reaches down and rips a few mussels off the rocks. Pitches the fish at Haylin and sticks a mussel in her mouth. Crunching follows*

Haylin: *flails! Catches the wriggling fish!* Huh! Thanks! *slips two fingers into the gills and snaps the fish's neck quickly and cleanly before tucking it away in her picnic basket*

person: So who are you, anyway? And what's in the box?

Haylin: What? I'm a person. What do you... *she lifts a wing, eyeing the black veins, the mottled golden skin, the patchy feathers* Oh. *She throws her head back somewhat proudly* Oh, yeah, darkness and chaos. Not s'posed to mix. Y'get some totally boss results.

person: *intent on mussels* I said "who", brainiac.

Haylin: *blink blink* Haha! Right. Haylin. *sticks out her foot* Wanna shake?

person: No. Not really.

Haylin: *laughs again, dropping her foot* So, who're you?

person: My people don't do personal names. Don't need 'em. People of other races tend to call me "girl shirt" or "fang face.

Haylin: Huh. *looks at her* Imma call you 'Mussels'.

person: *snorts and flexes*

Haylin: The other kind. *grins and looks back out at the water*

shirt girl: Yeah. *reaches down and gets more* So what's in the box?

Haylin: *frowns at it* Lunch. Mostly sandwiches. Some raw shrimp.

shirt girl: What kinda sandwiches?

Haylin: Nacho cheese, peppers, an' somethin' called 'italian beef'.

shirt girl: How cooked is the beef?

Haylin: *shrugs* Iunno. They cook it an' then slice it really thin. I think it sits in gravy all day? It's pretty cooked. *she puts the basket in her lap and opens it* I got like a bunch of cake ends in here too. *gets a cake bit and starts munching, staring out to sea*

shirt girl: You live around here?

Haylin: Kinda halfway between here an' the docks. You?

shirt girl: Nah. Just here for a cheap meal.

Haylin: No wonder you like this dumb beach. *flicks a pebble off the boulder*

shirt girl: No. I like it because it's quiet, and damp. *deluged by another wave*

Haylin: An', you know. Free lunch.

shirt girl: Yeah. They've only got the processed stuff on board, and I'm too young to hack that sludge. So every two weeks I come sit here.

Haylin: So... yer from, like, a ship?

shirt girl: Yup. Thorn gunship. I'm one of the main weapons.

Haylin: *honestly delighted!* Cool! So you're, like, strong, yeah?

shirt girl: That ain't what makes me a weapon. *studies wiggly thing. Eats wiggly thing*

Haylin: But you are, yeah?

shirt girl: I'm an immature gorgon. The changing colour patterns on my skin paralyse Ko Dan on sight.

Haylin: *disappointed* Oh. *sits back* Huh.

shirt girl: Big, flesh eating lizard men, in total rigour mortis.

Haylin: That's kinda cool.

shirt girl: Means that many less Ko Dan to run around eating people.

Haylin: Yeah, I guess that's cool.

shirt girl: *studies her with a couple eyes for a moment, and then vanishes under another wave*

Haylin: *wiggles her feet* *waits, pondering*

shirt girl: *has a piece of seaweed when the wave goes back* Seriously?

Haylin: *mouth open like she was going to say something* Wait, huh?

shirt girl: *chucks the weed back* Vegetables. *makes it sound like a swear word*

Haylin: Oh, right. Yeah, no kiddin'. So, why'd'they feed you junk you can't eat on yer ship?

shirt girl: Rations are hard to come by. They serve what we can get.

Haylin: *keeps at her hunk of cake* Gross. Y'could just stay down here though, huh?

shirt girl: *snort* I got work to do. Like I said. *looks in the picnic basket. Makes shrimp vanish!*

Haylin: Meh. Work's something other people- *the shrimp!* Hey! They're for- *she frowns* ...Forget it. You can have 'em.

shirt girl: I like workin' better than I like dying. *shrimp vanish into her maw and are crunched*

Haylin: *pokes at the back of an eyestalk with her toe, grinning toothily down at shirt girl* You owe me, now!

shirt girl: Do that again, and you'll be short a toe. I already gave you my fish.

Haylin: Yeah, but those shrimp were already claimed! *sticks out her tongue and laughs* You owe me~

shirt girl: *vanishes under another wave*

starfish: *flies out of the wave and smacks Haylin in the face, sucker side down*

Haylin: MMPH! *flails at the starfish*

shirt girl: *looks up as she absently kills an octopus* Owe that, fuzzhead.

Haylin: *there's a little flash of black, and the starfish breaks off, scorched, into her hands* I thought you liked these things, y'glitch! *throws it back at her*

shirt girl: I ain't taking it back, and I don't owe anybody anything. *munches octopus*

Haylin: Pssh. Yer a real treat, Mussels.

shirt girl: Some of my friends call me Little Miss Sunshine. *flings a tentacle*

Haylin: *flips a wing into the tentacle's path, letting it drop from there into her basket* Yeah, I see why. Real fun at parties I bet.

shirt girl: Never been to a party.

Haylin: You'd be real fun at 'em. *tosses her hair, deciding to throw some good grace at her new... friend??* They're, like, loud. And usually stupid.

shirt girl: *three eyes look up with mild interest* Like you?

Haylin: Nah, I'm rad. *sticks out her tongue again*

shirt girl: *eyes join the others in looking at the sea* You've got a starfish foot stuck to your tongue.

Haylin: Eh?? *scrapes her tongue with her teeth* Blehhhh...

shirt girl: *attention sharpens as something big leaps out in the water, and then she's making a muffled sound as a massive tuna clears her neatly off her rock and smacks her against her cliff face* ARGH! NEMO, you *unprintable*!

Haylin: *jumps up, skittering back from the flying tuna. She glances around, totally confused* Nemo?

Nemo: *has stuck his head out of the water to make sure that the fish went where he'd wanted it to, but when he sees Haylin, he scowls and dives*

Haylin: *flushes almost black, but is it anger or something else?* Wow, so much for not wantin' to come to the beach! *oh, anger. Definitely anger.*

shirt girl: *creatively unprintable as she eats fish*

Haylin: *scowling out to sea* So. You know my fish. I guess.

shirt girl: *BLEEP* that. This is MY fish. *eat*

Haylin: No, you glitch, I mean Nemo!

shirt girl: *looks at her with one eye* He's not a fish.

Haylin: Sure he is!

shirt girl: *snorts and eats*

Haylin: He's close enough!

shirt girl: *muffled* So you're a bat?

Haylin: *gasps indignantly* I'm, like, maybe 25% wing! He's more than 60% fish!

shirt girl: You're screechy too.

Haylin: *tosses a pepper from her basket at shirt girl* Yer mean.

shirt girl: *bleep* straight. *eat fish*

Haylin: Pssh. *but she's grinning again*

shirt girl: *sounds like she's eating spaghetti back there behind the tuna*

Haylin: *to the ocean* Are you just gonna sit out there?

shirt girl: He's gone.

Haylin: He'd better be. See if I give him any of this fish.

shirt girl: *five eyes give her a look like she just said something very stupid*

Haylin: Maybe I'll cook it in front of him. And he'll be like 'nooo, gross' and I'll be like '*REDACTED*'. *laughs cruelly*

shirt girl: I heard him teleport.

Haylin: *a very palpable silence falls over her*

shirt girl: *looks at her with a few more eyes*

Haylin: He can what?

shirt girl: *shows a wrist and the watch-like device on it* Sounded like one of these.

Haylin: Z'at a PinPoint? *kneels down to look*

shirt girl: It's a teleporter. *hand back down as the fish starts to slip*

Haylin: Like, to your ship?

shirt girl: To anywhere I need to go.

Haylin: *buzzes her lips, frowning* Huh. Well. News t'me he's got one.

shirt girl: I hear most people around here do. *wriggles out from under the fish and pulls a box out beside her, then settles down to cutting chunks off the fish and throwing them in the box*

Haylin: Yeah, but he, like, never goes out! When did he... Aww, forget it. What do I care if he's got one. He's gettin' better, he can do what he wants.

shirt girl: You sound like the guy's Owner.

Haylin: Might as well be. He washed up in my garden, he lives in my house. I'm the one takin' care of him.

shirt girl: Okay, I was wrong. You sound like his mother. *chucks another chunk of fish into the box. Which does not look large enough to hold all the fish she's putting into it*

Haylin: Oh, gross!

shirt girl: *snort*

Haylin: What is with everybody in this weird ol' world thinkin' I'm somebody's mama??

shirt girl: I said you sounded like it, bat.

Haylin: *flails a little* Uuugh, it makes my skin crawl!

shirt girl: *snerks*

Haylin: Bleehh. *gives one last shake and sits back down* Gross. Gross. I need cake after that. *grabs another hunk and starts nomming, talking around it* So, like, that's why you know Nemo? He teleports down here?

shirt girl: I know him because he throws fish at me.

Haylin: If y'want, I could show you where he lives and you could throw junk at him sometimes.

shirt girl: I don't have time for that. *nearly has the fish stripped to a skeleton. One with no fish guts*

Haylin: Yeah, cuz of all that important stuff you gotta do. Right. Boring.

shirt girl: *straightens* Boring? Well excuse me for not being a scrawny fuzzhead who takes living for granted.

Haylin: Wow you're hostile! *laughs* What, did I hit a nerve?

shirt girl: And you're brainless. *back to her fish*

Haylin: This's what responsibilities do t'people. You can't even hack a lil' ribbing.

shirt girl: *indifferently* Your buttflap's coming untied.

Haylin: Nobody's around t'see. *ties it, grinning* Didja think I'd blush?

shirt girl: I don't waste thought on drek like you. *stands again to study the fish skeleton, then closes the box and starts eating the bones* But it was probably untied when Nemo was here.

Haylin: *makes a tiiiiiny little horrified noise before she collects herself into her usual irritated pouting* Pfft. Like he even cares. Hey. Why're you even talking t'me if you hate me so much? Why don'cha just tell me to buzz off?

shirt girl: S'not my beach. *crunch crunch crunch*

Haylin: T'think I gave you some o'my shrimp!

shirt girl: *snort*

Haylin: At least we know I can't buy yer affec'shuns with food.

shirt girl: *wipes her mouth and looks at the huge fish skull for a moment with a few eyes. Then grabs it and flips it at Haylin*

Haylin: *shouts, manages to get it into her hands* Huh! ...Are you tryin' t'buy my affec'shuns?

shirt girl: *pounds on her stomach till she produces a sound like rocks being dragged on concrete, then sighs and closes her box before picking it up* No.

Haylin: *bats her lashes* Cuz it works. Absolutely. If y'were. *grinning a lot. Joking, we assume?*

shirt girl: *snort* *stretches* Can't say it's been fun. Later, loser. *vanishes with a swish and a slight flash*

Haylin: *laughs and shouts out to sea, even though she knows she's not there* Bye, y'glitch! ...Whatta *naughty word!*. *but she's still grinning*

white kitty: *knocks a rock down from the top of the cliff onto her head*

Haylin: Not you! Yer worse than a glitch! *grabs her stuff and takes off* Wait'll I get my hands on you, y'dumb- *she trails off into a string of creative but totally nonsensical curses as she flies off, chasing the cat*


((Co-written with random_xtras))