Costa Del Drunk

[Dust]

Dust wasn't sure how to react to the new person just rolling in and acting like he owned the place. Obviously he didn't, as the Island had been abandoned at best when they arrived. He'd been pleasantly surprised to find a female accompanying the green armored man, but chose to stay out of it. She seemed far more interested in what he was doing to even notice Dust of all people.

Ookami was not a small man, but he seemed to shrink away at the intimidating presence of a military man. Given how he stood chest out and ready to attack Gildarts if the situation called for it, it probably had nothing to do with the power radiating off the man. He was no coward, that was the last thing you could consider calling Hokori Hoshi. But he felt the ingrained lessons of the Russian military influence his actions as he stepped back and away from the group.

Hoseki stood like a mannequin while his Prime snuck out from under the nose of the party while the mystery stranger and Gildarts began the conversation. At some point, Shinmen also ducks out but as to where he went of too no one could really say. When the Doll realized his Contractor was gone, he begins to walk like the zombie that he effectively was and away from the group of people who were swapping war stories and drinking tales.

The pale man was almost ghost like in the light of the moon, as close to glowing as the hesitant fireflies. The Doll known as Hoseki lingers in the area around the smoldering pig before absently wondering where to go next. Without a single sound or motion to look, he finds the bare-footed man's footprints in the sand, and slowly lumbers afterwards. It was easy to assume these belonged to his master as it was the only large prints that went towards the waves and not away.

The silent man follows behind the ghost of his contractor, fully aware of what was at the end of the trail. He stepped onto the beach and watched the giant wolf-man as he just sat there at the water’s edge…

Dust was sitting much like a child did at the beach when they were told that the family was leaving soon and he should be ready to leave the fantastical world he’d discovered behind. Staring out at the magically dark water while the large and swollen nearly-full moon beams down on him. While he closely resembled a werewolf he did not require the moon for his transformations, just a kiss. Not always a simple kiss, but always a kiss. That said, something inside of him sighed with relief and pleasure from the moon’s borrowed light. The muscles in his straightened back relax, but his posture stood tall still.

He noticed he was being approached and prepared himself to tell Gildarts that he was fine and that he just needed a minute, only to be joined by Hoseki. It was the oddest thing to him, a doll moving on its own and in its own directions. Then again, he hadn’t had a lot of experiences with them. He offered a smile at the silent stalker, then ruffled up his silver hair.

“Did you also feel overwhelmed, Jewel?” He asked, but then let his mind venture back to the party. He wondered briefly how Shinmen was fairing, but found it impossible to think the older man would be bored or out of place with a man that smelt of blood and accomplishments. “Heh..” He left it at his short chuckle and turned back to the water. It still called to him, somewhere deep in his body he could feel the urge to dive in and never come back.

Where he had the rational thought not to go swimming in the ocean at night, Hoseki didn’t. After some time of just staring, he stood up and waded in to his knees, the torn skinny jeans he wore soaked a little higher than that as he began to play in the water. Dust was both concerned and confused and stood at the bank, worriedly watching him. “H-Hey. What are you doing?”

No sooner did he manage to ask did something happen. He watched as Hoseki tensed up so hard that he locked up entirely. Dust was already stepping into the cold water when his Doll fell and went under. The tension returned to Dust’s body as he watched this, and then sprinted into action before diving in.

Submerged Dust looked out into sea in search of his Doll, bringing his arms up and over his head in order to speedily reach him. Fear of what might happen to the Doll spurred him, but in flashes of light he was transported back to the little island from Dante’s Abyss.

Darkness and cold surrounded his physical body which kept swimming towards its objective while his mind swam through the memories of his last few days. Like the urges that drove him into the water after Hoseki, he remembered being drawn towards that little hut on the water where that beast - that man - had been waiting for him. He ventured backwards into time to recall what that strangely dead looking man had said. To come find him in Tier Five if he wanted to continue the confirmation.

More accurately he had also invited him to finish the kiss as well...

And while it brought a burning sensation to his face that he felt even in these frozen waves it brought other memories from the depths of the ocean that was his mind.

Desman specifically. The funny little red robot that had made all the kids laugh with his story of the hairy man, but also the little guy who’d grabbed him abruptly before kissing him. Or.. The closest to kissing as a robot can. He wondered now why red wonder had done something so random.. Ash had teased him about it, and he hoped he would not regret giving the demoness permission to give his number to the strange and exotic robot.

Exotic… He was no stranger to that anymore.

Ash did come to mind when this topic was brought back up, but the cemented picture of Tamsin burned his soul. She was indeed very exotic, and she just did something to him and his soul. He felt the same as he did with the full moon on his back while he was around her. Now she was lost to him, gone to the underverse for whatever reason she had felt it was necessary to venture into the underworld without any aid. He was close to worrying about her when he realized he could not see Hoseki at all.

Surfacing with a heavy breath he looked all around him, but nothing was in sight. No island, no Doll, no boat, nothing.. Just a bunch of rolling waves that were highlighted by the moonlight. As if the ocean swallowed him up and spit him out somewhere new. But surely that wasn’t the case?

Dust turned around in the water, still looking for anything and anyone.

He dropped into the ocean below and looked around while underwater. It was just a vast space of blackness, dark. He couldn’t see anything other than emptiness. It got philosophical, and quick. How the empty ocean resembled the night sky, how lonely it looked when there was just one star there, swimming by himself. It was dangerous too, anything could be lurking about. He’d be more concerned if it wasn’t well into the night. Most aqua life that he could fear were probably sleeping soundly.

A logical way of thinking about things, wouldn’t you say? And indeed, it was. As expected from any contractor. Except it didn’t prevent the newly awakened mind from considering the fact that he was obviously in a more abstract place than he was a few months ago. How he wasn’t just on earth, how there could be things of nightmares lurking down here and waiting for him to stop looking.

He surfaced before he could let the waves of an imagination sweep him away to far, only to consumed by a casted shadow. He looked through the wet strands of dark colored hair and into the sky, a set of clouds were drifting by and past the moon. His feet kicked and his arms waved while he waited for his source of light to resurface while he looked around again for something, anything.

He noted the waves were entirely too big in his opinion… That was when he noticed something floating in the center of a wave that looked like it would turn whatever floated in it over and suplex it. With no direction elsewhere and still concerned for Hoseki, Hokori began to swiftly swim after whatever floated precariously in the wall of water. As he did, the storm that was but a breeze and a few rocky waves turned ugly.

Lightning flashed across the sky without warning, and then thunder assaulted his ears spurred him to hurry. He was heavily panting, his fingers and toes have gone numb from the cold, several body parts were actually, He was too focused on his goal to worry about it, he didn’t even notice how very large that wave has become… He felt the currents trying to wash him off his path, but he fought on.

The rain began to pelt him and the water around him, crashing into the ocean and began to drown out every other noise other than the booming thunder that closely followed behind the flashes of light in the sky. Still he swam on. Waves all around him swelled with the pull of the moon, his body was but an autumn leaf at this point, but he remained focused in the illusion that he was not totally in danger. Or attempted to as the water began to pull him higher and high in the air. He did not start to panic until he was frontal swimming was now aimed straight down and he saw the surface of a dip in the ocean in front of him. It lifted him even higher and spun him around before the pull of gravity folded in on itself and he was forced down into the darkness once more.

Dust spun, twirled, and rolled around in the water, he held his breath for dear life. When it felt like he had stopped, Volk only sought out the surface. He could see the lightning dancing across the sky from under here, and kicked desperately in that direction. When he thought he couldn’t hold it any longer he broke the surface of another wave. He coughed up some sea water while the rest of the ocean lazily carried him to and fro.

SW-808 looked around while he hacked and spit, looking for that mysterious thing in the background. The ocean bound man rocked and bobbed up and down at the water’s mercy. Finally he glimpsed something pale. Wasting no time, he chased after it again.

Fighting the ocean, again and again, left him tired and turned around more than once, but he made his way towards the ghost drifting just outside his reach. It has long since gotten old, but despite his inability to breath anymore, he had no other choice.

Ookami could just make out something about the pale thing in the sea, but before he could really look at it, another wave began to pull him up and up, and up… He fought to keep his head above the growing water’s surface and better prepare himself for the unavoidable ‘must come down’ part. Weakened his head bobs down into the ocean more than once, and he swallowed more salt-water than he would like to admit before he resurfaced for another gulp of air.

He saw the sky one moment its brightening sky yet terrible sky yawned for him, the next he saw the abyssal waters above his head past his heavy lids. There was a moment when fighting the wave was too much, and he tried to let nature run its course.

Once again he was surrounded by darkened waters where mysterious eyes watched him. He heard his heartbeat racing in his ears but was not aware at what point when his consciousness succumbed to exhaustion and he blacked out instead of just staring into nothing.