guess I'll circle while I'm waiting for my fuse to dry
Veronica always returned to the sea. She couldn't have said why, couldn't have explained, if asked, why she so often found herself down by the shore at the spot where she'd first arrived. Sitting there by the water, if she closed her eyes, she was almost back in Neptune; and she couldn't have told you if she liked that anymore than she could tell why she was there. One of these days, she thought, one of these days, she'd close her eyes at the wrong time and open them to the Pacific Ocean by accident. She'd blink and be home. Well, maybe not home. Not anymore. Someday she would disappear.
For now, she was there, digging her bare feet into the too real sand beneath her. It was hot still, the grains almost sharp, and she pressed her hands down on either side of her. There was something relieving about the intensity of sand on skin, too real to be imagined. Sometimes this whole last year felt like that, untouchable and strange but too much to deny. Leaning forward against her bent legs, she buried her head against her knees and listened to the ocean. If anything was reliable, it was that: the persistent crash of waves. It was here and it had been in Neptune, where she could hear it if she stepped outside her apartment, see the ocean if she just leaned against the balcony outside the door or looked through the living room window.
It was comfortable, just sitting there. She'd been jogging earlier and followed it up with a training session for Taser, who was wandering around nearby, exploring tidepools with all the vigor a puppy could manage. She was learning fast and growing, too. She'd be huge eventually, and Veronica thought maybe she'd teach her to attack on command. Sooner or later, the way the population grew around here, she'd probably need that. For now, Veronica was content to let Taser do her thing, while she sat slumped over herself, hugging her arms around her legs, relaxing with her cheek on one knee so she could look out to the water. There was something hypnotic about the waves. Curled up there, she just looked, watching the sky as the sun began to set.
[No thoughts, no voiceovers. Tiny Blonde One could use the company, guys. Late tags welcome.]