[Santo - The Beach]

[walk_ins]

[ master post]You have to walk down a ramp to get to the sand. The ramp stretches over sand dunes, with sea oats dotting them, blowing in the near-constant breeze. On the same level as the ramp: a boardwalk, dotted with places to get sketchy-looking fried food, to try your luck at a number of games of chance, to watch performers, to ride roller

Comments

[bad_in_latin]

To Simon: "Think they got real cotton candy here, or passin' off spun protein again? After Verbena, I don't think I'll ever stomach protein processed like that."

[simon_doctor]

Simon gives a one-shoulder shrug. "They've got enough of an industry base that protein shouldn't be easier to get than refined sugar, here."

He's looking at the stalls.

"Do you want to find out?"

[bad_in_latin]

After a moment's consideration? "Nah. Get all sticky in the heat."

Because with the perpetual dirt and grime on Mal's hands when he's been walking around all day, he's a paragon of hygiene.

"Most of the stalls have actually closed up by now, except -- shensheng de gaowan."

[simon_doctor]

"What?"

He turns to see what the captain's looking at.

[queenofmay]

Once she gets off the ramp, Marian dawdled at its end telling the others to go on ahead while she looked at the slice of blue. It glittered magically, almost blindingly, in the light.

That was the reason she rubbed her eyes, then widened her hand to shade her vision as she went on staring as she began to walk toward it. She didn't stop (except to remove her shoes) until she was standing in the surf.

They'd both said she needed to see a real ocean.

Well, she wasn't about to miss it this time.

[bad_in_latin]

There's a dude.

Sleeping.

Also? Purple suspenders.

[queenofmay]

The strength of the siren song of the surf took a while to break. Walking back, her hair was a collection of wind tangled curls and skirts drenched to upper calf, when she spotted the sleeping figure.

He is quite unlucky. There is a picture snapped with a soft laugh.

(The camera can be blamed on Ingress. No one could talk about vacations to her without ending up newly educated in modern English and Wizarding cameras.

Marian just might be in love with the idea of them, too.)

[bad_in_latin]

"You're mean."

Oops. Maybe not so much with the sleeping, but he's smiling even if he's still got his eyes closed.

"If you wanted a capture o' me, all you had to do was ask.

[gonna_live]

And when it's dark out, the beach changes.

The boardwalk leads down, eventually, to a series of restaurants -- some shacks, some a little nicer. Music comes from several of them, and at least a few of them have floors set out leading down to the sand, with torches illuminating dancers. Up by the bars and the restaurants, people laugh, talk, chatter, deal, drink, dance, play. Down by the water -- it's less crowded than it was during the day. It's also low tide, with a full moon hanging heavy.

There's room for Simon and Kaylee to walk down where the waves come in, barefoot, shoes in their hands.

(She'd nearly had a meltdown earlier that afternoon, when she realized that when Simon told her to wear something nice -- nothing fit right any more.

So then she went out, alone, and when she got back she kicked him out, and didn't let him see until she was ready to go. We're already sneakin' out, she told him, might as well let me make an entrance somehow.)

"You got no idea," she says to him now, "how glad I am I'm wearin' flats."

[simon_doctor]

He's been waiting for this since they talked the other day.

It's a beautiful night, and Kaylee's radiant enough to outshine the moon.

(When she stepped out of the room, the sight of her actually stopped his breath for a moment. The new dress -- something full-skirted in green -- was part of it, of course, but what drew his immediate attention was her smile.

And the handmade shell necklace around her neck.)

"So where shall we go first? There's a lot of places to choose from."

[gonna_live]

She shifts her shoes off, one-and-two, and holds them in one hand.

"You got to play in the water earlier," she says -- looking close to impish. Certainly younger than she has in months.

[simon_doctor]

"I'm not dressed for it now," he points out ruefully.

"But if you want to...."

[bothbutneither]

The last time he was at a place with this much sand -- with dunes like these -- it was very different and he still can't believe they were able to leave the bar behind. He holds Faye's hand, protective, as they make their way along the ramp. Every now and then he stops just to feel the stinging of sand against his face.

(On Titan, we were all comrades.)

There was nothing like this on Titan. Some might say sand is sand, but he knows better. This is no desert: it's the ocean -- the beach -- and the place is mercilessly devoid of cannon-fire and the sound of choppers overhead. Scorpions lurking in the rocks. Enemies dropping down in front of them.

No, this is lovely, and so is Faye. If he hadn't played his sax out by the lake that night he never would have met Kaylee and if he'd never met Kaylee, he wouldn't have had this opportunity to leave, even for a few days, and... look at how predatory Faye is: he's never seen her in a place like this before and he thinks that maybe every measured step of nonchalance she takes, every breath of

[anythingbutblue]

There's nothing fake about this place.

It's another world. It's not some bar at an asteroid at the end of the universe that has a fake landscape behind it and a door that disappears so you can never get back home. It'd be enough to make her feel sad if she had the time for that kind of thing.

But she doesn't.

"Just follow me, Mister Saxophone." There's nothing that isn't smug about the smile on her lips, and on the way to the spot she's picked out, she sheds her cover-up without the slightest care.

The sun's warm on her skin, and the air is almost salty. This sure isn't Mars.

They lay out some towels, she puts her beach bag down, and she promptly stretches out and makes herself at home, pulling out a pair of sunglasses to shield her eyes.

"Some place, huh?"

Try as she might at times, it's hard to hide the fact that she's wanted this so badly.

This time she digs into her bag for her suntan lotion.

[bothbutneither]

She's definitely in her element here: staking a place, going for exactly what she wants, and he can't help the little intake of breath that might just be audible when she bares her bathing suit-clad body to the world: she's stunning. He won't be stripping down to enjoy the sun on his chest, but that sure doesn't mean he can't appreciate watching the light grace Faye's.

Like a good boyfriend in the service of a queen, he holds his hand out for the lotion. "You just let me know where you want it and I'll be happy to oblige." His fingers are trained in the expert application of a great many things. Sometimes, being a musician has unexpected perks.

[anythingbutblue]

She'd been in the middle of opening it herself, but she turns the lotion over to him when he holds his hand out for it.

"I need it everywhere, you know. I don't want an uneven tan, now do I?"

She rolls onto her stomach with a careless kind of grace and then gives him a small smirk over her shoulder.

"Don't enjoy yourself too much. We are in public."

[young_tmriddle]

After their adventures in the marketplace, Tom and Door returned to the beach to relieve Mal of Ingress-watching duties and to relax.

For Tom, some serious sunbathing is now in order. He reclines on a towel, sunglasses and bermuda shorts the only thing between him and the warm sun. A happy family, both now and in the future, a chance to relax, and this glorious beach.

This is the life.

[smallestopener]

Ingress is a mischievous child at heart. Especially with Tom. She can get away with anything when it comes to him.

So this is why she's sneaking up from the water's edge where she's been splashing about, ready to drip water on Tom's recumbent form.

[young_tmriddle]

Tom's eyes might be closed, but there's nothing wrong with his hearing. He hears the approaching footprints in the sand, so he's not too very surprised when-

[smallestopener]

SHAKE!

Ingress shakes her wet head vigorously, splashing Tom with cool droplets of ocean water.