WHO: Iris Amicitia and Abi Blyg WHAT: A beach walk turns into a meeting with a mischievous water elemental WHEN: August 16-ish WHERE: The Vallo shoreline WARNINGS: N/A
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Abi hadn’t gotten to where she wanted to take walks in the woods yet. She used to love them, but since the night of horror at Hackett’s Quarry, she mostly preferred to stick to the city. The beach, though…she thought she could handle the beach. Nothing had tried to kill her on a beach. It would be a good start on getting back into nature.
Still, she didn’t want to go alone. She didn’t like to do much of anything alone anymore; her therapist said that was okay, that she could work toward it, that being okay alone in her room when she knew other people were in the house was a good start. Going for a walk was the kind of thing that was just more fun with a friend anyway.
So here she was with Iris, walking through the surf with her shoes in her hand, occasionally pausing to wiggle her toes in the sand and take a deep breath of salt air. She was doing that now, eyes closed, a smile on her face despite her recent losses.
“I swear, water’s the only thing that makes the summer bearable,” Abi said. “It’s—hey!” She laughed as the splash of water hit her, sure that Iris was the culprit.
The first thing to notice was that Iris had already put herself between Abi and the actual culprit. Every time that they had gone out, whether it be bars and clubs or just the park, Iris had always had her trained senses open for any kind of threat to Abi and Kaitlyn. And to Nick and Dylan when they'd been here. She'd learned what they'd had to deal with and understood trauma only too well, so whether they'd needed it or not, she'd taken on that responsibility. Have a damn good time, but constantly be ready to protect them if she needed to.
This time was no different. Minutes ago, hell, seconds ago, she'd been smiling up into the wind and talking with Abi as they'd strolled in the wet sand, letting the water wash up onto their feet as they'd walked, and then there it was, that subtle feeling of a threat. The shift in her expression and stance was clear - the Daemon Slayer was on alert.
The Daemon Slayer was promptly splashed with seawater, an act of war followed by a giggle. Not Abi’s, though—she was staring agog at the shape forming in front of them. It wasn’t really human, but it was human-ish, rising out of the water with a big grin on what passed for its face. Then, in case they hadn’t gotten the idea, the creature lifted both “arms” and commanded the water to splash both girls.
“Oh my god, you little jerk!” Abi laughed again and reached down to scoop her hand through the surf and attempt to splash the creature back. “Have you ever seen anything like this?” she asked Iris.
Iris blinked a few times and then laughed as well. She'd faced elementals back home, though they were generally classified under the catch-all of 'daemon' there. But she'd also been in Vallo long enough to know that not everything is as it appears. Which meant, in turn, that she hadn't been shocked at all, but was actually both humored and relieved that there was no malice here. Honestly, she preferred the fun days over the violent ones and she preferred to only patrol on her actual patrol days anyway.
"I have," she answered, laughing and quickly moving to flank their enemy with Abi before scooping water on her own. "We'll have to divide and conquer if we want to win!"
“And we may as well get on in if we’re going to get soaked anyway,” Abi agreed, turning around to throw her shoes back onto the dry sand. She was a lot better at throwing than she used to be, she noted, just like she was a lot better at walking long distances. All her training with the boys and running with Kellach was actually paying off bit by bit. She still wouldn’t want to get in a real fight with an elemental by herself, but a splash fight with Iris by her side? That she could handle.
She moved in another couple of feet, putting herself just over knee deep in the waves, and made another splashing shot. The elemental suddenly dispersed into seaspray just before it hit, then reformed just to the left of where it was, giggling once again.
"Ah, so it's a cheater, eh?" retorted Iris, moving in tandem with Abi into the slightly deeper water. She allowed herself a little mysterious grin and waited until it seemed the elemental had its attention on Abi before reaching out to feel the water with her own elemental senses. Sure, her affinity with the elements wasn't as strong as her brother or the Chocobros (which did NOT bother her, because she could heal and they couldn't), but she could still make it work.
With a gesture, she scooped up a few gallons of water and dropped it on TOP of the elemental - it certainly wasn't looking up. It worked perfectly, of course. There was a big splashing sound and the giggle got a little louder, the elemental clearly enjoyed the challenge. "Favor returned," added Iris, smiling triumphantly.
“Yes!” Abi pumped her fist in the air with enthusiasm while the elemental readied its next shot, a wide spray of water aimed right at the middle of them. It gave Abi time to get another good splash in. She was relegated to using her hands, what with her total lack of magic powers, but she managed to hit the angle just right and get a little spray on the elemental this time. Not that it really affected a being of pure water, but still, the important thing was that she’d scored one.
"Go Team Abiris!" shouted Iris, proud of her friend for getting a solid shot in. Yeah, she knew as well that there wasn't any way to 'win' this, but the fun was just in the act of play. Honestly, with how things had been in Vallo over the last handful of months, this was just the destresser they needed.
Letting herself enjoy the moment, though, she hadn't truly noticed that the creature only had one tendril of water splashing towards Abi until the other sprouted up behind her, spraying directly down onto her head. She ended up standing there a little dejected as she basically got a full-on shower before she pushed the wet curls out of her eyes and smiled as brightly as the sun above them.
"Okay, that was a good one."
Abi laughed and tried out essentially making a water wheel with her hands, churning them through the surf to deliver splash after splash. Fun, but it didn’t go nearly far enough. The elemental dumped a shower on top of her as well. Apparently it was willing to consider that a victory, or at least it was bored with the girls: it bubbled and burst into a scattered spray of water, rejoining the waves.
“I think if it retreats, that means we win,” Abi said, giving Iris a grin despite being soaked to the skin.
"Even if it doesn't, I'm calling it one," answered Iris, grinning back at Abi. She had to admit, it was nice running into a monster (creature?) that didn't want to kill them. Vallo certainly had all types.
"Though I think ultimately, having a water fight with a creature made of water wasn't our wisest move. Then again, I haven't always been known for wise decisions." Accenting that last comment, Iris aimed a double-palmed splash of water at Abi with a bit of a smirk.
“Oh my god, you’re the worst!” Abi laughed and splashed her back. “Though I guess we’re already soaked through, so it doesn’t matter. Iggy’ll probably make us towel off before he even lets us in the door.”
The latter was said with the utmost fondness. Abi’s jokes about Ignis being a better mom than the one who raised her weren’t really jokes. She adored him and his partners more than any blood family she’d had.
"That's if you go back to Iggy. I don't mind tromping wet into my brother's old apartment. We can towel off and grab a change of clothes there without having to deal with Iggy's sighs, that light touch to his temple that he does, then the lecture that comes with the towels."
“Good plan, let’s go with it,” Abi said with a decisive nod. Less trouble for them, less trouble for Ignis…it was brilliant. “You think there’s any clothes there that would fit me, though? These—” She made a circular gesture around her chest. “---need kind of a lot of shirt.”
"We'll either find something, or you'll be getting a lot of attention in the neighborhood." Iris laughed and moved to bump shoulders with Abi. "Seriously though, worse comes to worst, I do have a dryer in the apartment and there's plenty of dumb stuff to watch while we wait."
She paused to think for a second before continuing. "Though I may be low on snacks."
“That’s okay, we can take care of snacks at the house afterward,” Abi said. “Let’s head to your place for now - maybe we’ll dry off a little on the way.” Making her way to where she’d flung her shoes, she was already regretting the choice of denim shorts—they were a lot less comfortable now that they were soaked through.
"Too bad the waypoints don't offer drying services," mused Iris, stomping along behind Abi. Thankfully, her leggings had no struggles with the water though she was sure there'd be a swamp crotch situation before too long - if they didn't get cleaned up. Thankfully, Vallo tended to lean towards the 'just right' temperatures, so that was a blessing.
"But I promise not to ogle while you change!" she piped in, cheerfully.
“Thank you,” Abi laughed. She was used to Iris’s brand of jokes by now and didn’t get flustered anymore. She wiggled her flipflops back onto her feet and flashed Iris a smile. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
"All right, but I want to do this again. We can grab all the boys and make it a thing." Iris gave one of those forward nods to show she meant it. She'd really enjoy splashing and dunking all those idiots. Those loveable idiots.