Beach Filler Episode (OPEN)

[Dust]

Like Dust hadn’t been beaten and bruised enough, but he’d been the target of some powerful serves until the other two had grasped the game. The whole time he was a good sport, patient, compassionate, careful, and understanding. If anyone on this side of the field was going to be hit, he wanted it to be him over the other’s. True to his nature, he even put himself in danger for Molly once in the game. It had been the flying cat, Piqui, who had spiked the ball pretty hard. His heroics were unneeded, but he still felt pretty good saving Molly from a smack to the face.

The game had been great, everyone had a great time despite the numbers being almost the same the whole game. He worked up more than just a little sweat, as well as a good appetite especially given he hadn’t been full when they began. He was also tired, he couldn’t remember his last nap. After it was called a tie, Dust did the only natural thing he could think of and flopped into the sand with his eyes closed. He felt it cling to his sweaty body but didn’t care. Letting out a loud sigh for his efforts.

Takezo moved over this his friend and nonchalantly poked the big mark on his chest that he’d been responsible for with his sheathed sword, making the larger man flinch and roll over to guard it with a grunt of pain. This put a smirk on the ronin’s face, but he didn’t do it again. “Is this really the giant man that I fought with on that island, reduced to a crying child after just one poke?”

Dust responded with a groan that matched the image, then looked up with as much expression as he did with his smiles though in a pout. “There is a time to pretend it doesn’t hurt and a time to lick your wounds, Takezo. Now that the battle is done, I will baby myself as I please.”

The man who was centuries older than Dust let out a small laugh. Dust had more than once proven himself worthy of peace while tending to his wounds but that was hardly one needing licking by the shapeshifter. His almond eyes settled on the X on Dusty's back, 4 large claw marks in two sets over lapped once on the muscles. Apparently the sand has already settled into the still fresh wounds, they would be just another scar on the already weathered warrior. “Gildarts and the child have gone to collect wood for a fire, let us go sit by that boy you have picked up.”

Hoseki came back to his mind, and Hokori stretched out his large neck to look at the spot he’d left the kid. There the doll remained, still nibbling at the last bit of his sandwich and his juice in his other hand. The setting sun reflected in pinks and purples on his silver hair, and he looked almost normal. Dust knew better..

“Sure.” He said, rolling onto his belly and picking himself up off the sand, joining his friend in the short walk over to the Doll. Brushing off the sand on their way. He sat down beside Hoseki and inspected his progress, finding that at least in the past hour he’d finished most of it. He didn’t push him to eat anything else, instead he grabbed a handful of snacks and a bottle of water before settling in to talk to his old friend.

Dust was probably the only person, besides Hoseki, to not go slacked jaw when Takezo talked about smacking decapitated heads around a field of bodies. In fact, he was curious, but the younger man didn’t ask about that. They could talk about gore stories another time. He instead wanted to know what happened after he got culled. The ronin was overjoyed to share every bloody detail in his own way. Apparently he’d fought Deadpool and Jak, both who Dust knew from his brief time together in a group.

Ookami shared his story about fighting another shapeshifter. “I felt drawn to this little thing in the middle of the water, and when I got there, I was not disappointed. He had to be as big as I am in that form, maybe bigger. I’ve never fought another beast like myself.” He explained, but Takezo would see just as much excitement from him as he felt when he told his stories of bloodshed. Well, maybe not as much, but close. “It felt like it only lasted a few seconds! That’s when we were teleported.” He said, then he frowned as a thought gripped him. “Now that I think about it… I think that guy was in the cafeteria with us, I remember that scent.” He claimed, but then shook his head, his messy hair falling out of place and back in. Then he stopped and looked up at his friend with surprised eyes and a shy warmth in his face.

“What?” Takezo asked simply, noticing his companion’s look.

“He kissed me.” Dust said, but with the same tone as you used when you explain you’ve dropped something. Takezo knew about his contract, so if there was any confusion it was because the shapeshifter seemed so struck by it. Reading between the silence, he continued. “No, I mean he kissed me. After the fight.” He clarified, then tilted his head one side and the other as if he might be leaving out before adding: “Then he punched me, of course. But the point is that it confused me.”

Takezo lets out a chuckle at his statement, but doesn’t comment on it at all. There was a bit of silence as the ronin looked the feminine like male who seemed to only stare at the ground. “Who is this?” He finally asked.

He looked in the Doll’s direction where Takezo was pointing to with his chin, and suddenly didn’t feel like talking. He took a big bite of a spare sandwich and looked away, at the waves of the ocean, the dying sun was sparkling along the backs of them as the eventually curled into themselves, becoming lumps of moving water and flattening against the beach.

Dust was still not sure how to explain Hoseki.. He turned back to face his friend though, if anyone was going to accept the truth with grace it would be Takezo. Still.. How do you word this? “I’ve named him Hoseki.”

“Named?” Takezo wasn’t going to pretend to understand, between this place and the people he meets, he wasn’t the person to ask about anything.

The taller Prime nodded, then looked down. This was a little sensitive, and he hoped Takezo would keep that in mind. “As far as I can tell, he’s a Doll. Dolls, back where I am from are humans, who the government - for all I know - strip the emotions of and give them clairvoyance powers. In theory he would be able to help me spy on people if the need ever arises. But..” He stops and looks Hoseki over, who just barely acknowledges a stray crab that walks over his leg. “He’s effectively dead inside.” Dust said, feeling awful. He remembers his life before this, the Doll beside him had it worse. “I.. Accidently summoned him.”

Before Takezo could say much else, if he indeed wanted to touch on this subject, they were interrupted by a bag of shells landing right beside his tip jar full of money, Piqui floating down and resting a moment on Hoseki’s head. The Doll only looked up briefly to show that he felt it, then went back to his staring. “I’m tuckered out!” She said, bringing attention to Gildarts and Molly’s return. Both men left it there as they watched Molly and Gildarts interact.

The fire that they made was more than big enough for the group and extra people. Which was good, because a couple of unfamiliar faces came close carrying someone that Dust had met twice in Dante’s Abyss. He watched for a moment, but just as he was getting the idea to come help, the strangest one called out to him. Although she could have been just as easily talking to Gildarts, Dust noticed the wink in his direction.

Hot faced and willing to help just about anyone, he moved from his resting place to go pick up Jak. Clearly he’d been distracted or he wouldn’t have rag-dolled the obviously drunk elf-guy. Even hero’s made mistakes, but not many made ones that left them covered in vomit..

He heard the devil-girl restrain her laughter from being so loud, but clearly she thought it was funny. Glad someone did, Dust ignored the liquid running down his chest and helped Jak over to the fire. The stringy male slurred apologies as he did, but Dust repeated this: “It’s fine Jak.” With a tone that brought relief to the drunk man. He sits him down and then immediately excuses himself. The red robotic asking if they had any water and the lilac looking demon just standing in place and watching him.

Wolf sits in the shallow end of the water and rinses off his upper torso, free of the sticky substance over his chest and the sand that still clung to him. He makes a note to take a proper shower as soon as the option was available, and tried to ignore the layers of filth on him. He was happy to see Jak also made it out of Dante’s Abyss, for whatever it was worth. But he glanced back just the same, wondering who the other two were.

Meanwhile, introductions were had. Ash turned to the group and watched as a happy few people gathered to be happy together. Her eyes narrowing and her mind darkening. She was still buzzed, but she could focus just as easily if she hadn’t been. She watched as Desman introduced himself to the littlest girl, he was friendly and only slurred a little bit despite not being able to get drunk on the wine-cooler levels of alcohol. He was being respectful but silly, and it seemed to take the edge off the group as a whole. She knew that two fo the three Chippendales knew Jak, but they accepted the two strangers on the word of a drunk wastelander.

Trust was high. She wasn’t used to it, but she accepted it as a fact. She still expected people to look upon her with suspicion despite nobody knowing her heritage or its details. But despite the piercings and the mesh like material of her swim-suit no one seemed appalled by her. Not even the pony, not even the child. Though, the child hesitated just slightly. Taken aback by her metal work and horns probably, though she greeted her with a smile as sweet as sugar. It made the demoness’ stomach curl and she thought about barfing.

Instead she offered Molly a general smile as she introduced herself, Ash answered politely. “Mah name... is Ash!!” She said cutely back, with a little slur. Her tail coiled around her legs like bindings as she tried to look as unimposing to the 10 year old as she could looking the way she did. It served its purpose, Molly giggled to herself and then went back to entertaining the rest of them.

By the time SW-808 returned Molly was setting up for her class. He heard them talking about ‘more’ of something. He was obviously not the only person confused by this term, Takezo would have even less idea of what it was than him, and Gildarts seemed just as lost as the two of them because the crash mage had the same look on his face as the ronin.

Their new company settled in just as easily as if they were there this whole time. The most talkative of the three was the robot, the woman was attractive and intimidating which made Dust blush softly, and Jak all found a place to stay. Either by coincidence or by an unsaid plan, there was just enough space for him between the girl and the robot. There were other places to sit, but he didn’t feel like leaving Hoseki’s side. So he settles in between the two and waits as the lesson begins.

As the marshmallows were handed out on skewers and Takezo asked if it was safe to eat it raw, Dust was already sniffing the white cylinder on his stick. It didn’t have a particular smell, just kind of hinted at vanilla. When Molly suggest they eat a raw one for comparison, he had already opened his mouth and wrapped it around the skewer tip, freeing the marshmallow with a twist of his mouth before sinking his teeth into the soft treat. He got looks, much like the one’s Takezo had gotten the few times his visuals got a bit gorey, and with a mouth full of fluff: “Mmah?”

Molly shook her head at how cute her crush was, curiosity really looked good on him. She then passed a fresh marshmallow his way, before Pinkie Pie grabbed the whole bag and devoured half of it.

Dust’s opinion of the uncooked morsel was that it wasn’t terrible but he couldn’t see how cooking it would improve it. It was soft and chewy and solid but also sort of like a liquid in can dodge his teeth at times. He paid attention to Molly a bit more carefully after impaling the sweet treat on the skewer.

389 got help with his ‘smores but after a bite of the melted chocolate and cracker, he could have spit it out. He seemed like the type of person who would love sweets, but he could actually pass on almost everything packed full of sugar. Admittedly, the roasted marshmallow had a unique taste compared to the uncooked version. It was some how even more sweet and stuck to everything. He took his bitten into ‘smores and carried it over to his spot between Ash and Desman, unaware that the two have been plotting while they were by themselves. He offered the cracker sandwich to Ash because he didn’t think Hoseki could eat it, but he was on the same train of thought as Gildarts. He’d much rather eat something more savory than this. “Did you want mine? I don’t like sweets.”