Who: Krista Landry & Christian Shipton What: The reincarnates of Finnick and Annie visit the ocean Where: Santa Rosa beach, Florida When: Saturday, January 30th 2016 Warnings: Probably not much. Lots of fluff.
Krista had never felt the sand between her toes. It was weird at first, but she soon came to really like the way her feet sunk into the ground underneath them with every step that she took along the stretch of beach. The way the sand seeped in all the cracks between her toes almost tickled, which made her laugh, and at first it became a game of how quickly she could make her way across the sand without sinking too far into it, before she gave up and just let it happen. Because it was still January, even in Florida, the sand wasn't hot enough to burn. It was warm where the water didn't touch it, but not scalding under her bare feet. Krista had never walked bare foot anywhere, at least not since she was a child and could hardly remember it. This was different. This was exciting.
She'd never seen the ocean up close before, as hard as that might be for someone else to believe. Most people had seen some kind of ocean or been to a beach by the time they were in their twenties, Krista imagined, but that wasn't how life had gone for her. She and Garrett had just never lived in a place that was close enough to a beach to go there, and when Krista had first become a reincarnate, she hadn't exactly been in any shape to use the MTN for recreational purposes. Not for years after she became the reincarnate of Annie Cresta, everything had just been too much, at the time. Still, sometimes Annie would make her dream of the ocean in her sleep, and that had started to soothe Krista over the years. She didn't know how to swim herself, but in her dreams she could, and she would do it often. Krista lived vicariously through Annie's memories of being in the water, and eventually, Krista was able to channel that whenever she started to get panicky, the memories that weren't technically hers of waves lapping against her ankles actually helping to calm her.
The water was a clear blue that matched the sky, the sand almost whiter than her pale skin. It was also fairly secluded, like Christian had said. She'd seen maybe one other person since she and Christian had arrived there, but they hadn't gotten close enough to their part of the beach for Krista to be able to make them out beyond a distant shape walking along the sand. She wasn't nervous, here. That was the really remarkable thing. Usually when it came to unfamiliar surroundings, Krista would become nervous and on edge, but not here. Not with Christian. She felt safe here, with him, in the same way that Annie had felt safe with Finnick. It was nice. Krista loved her brother, and she had always felt safe while they were growing up, but Garrett only really understood her. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't understand Annie, because hardly anybody did.
Except Christian. Finding Finnick in Camelot had been as much of a surprise to her as it probably had been for him to find Annie there, but Christian was nice, and that helped. She liked his beach. The ocean was even more beautiful in person, outside of just a distant memory in her head, but Krista was still hesitant to actually get in the water just yet. It was warm out, at least, and Krista was enjoying the sun on her bare legs, wearing cut off shorts and a t-shirt, though she'd still brought a jacket just in case she got cold later. Her shoes were sitting next to her, her toes buried in the sand in front of her where she sat, leaning back against a rock. She was content to sit in the sand and watch Christian go in while she kept drawing something in her sketchbook, but Krista wasn't ready to brave the waves just yet. She was working herself up to it.