(open) like rolling waves

[hundredpower]

WHO: Barnaby, Ciel, way too many kids... and you?
WHAT: Special beach episode!
WHERE: The seaside just south of Achamoth.
WHEN: 21 Visoseri.
WARNINGS: THIS IS A CHILD FRIENDLY SPACE. except there are spiders


With things as difficult as they were in Venera, and wanting to keep his mind occupied beyond the grind of training or research, Barnaby had begun to spend a lot of his free time volunteering to help the orphans in the Citadel. It was the closest thing to his life back home that he had here, even if he's still a stranger to the kids here, and they to him, he still sympathised with them and wanted to help improve their circumstances. He'd wondered if there was something he could do to help expand their horizons even a little bit, with Achamoth largely being unsuited for young children, and so he sought permission from the Regent to take them out of the city for the day on a trip.

Their destination isn't far: the beach directly south of the city. While he initially floats the idea to Ciel, who has been helping with the organising and preparations, he'll offer for other Aions to come along if he happens to bump into them. Provided, of course, they're on their best behaviour and willing to ensure the children don't come to any harm, as per the Regent's strict orders.

1. TRAVELLING TO THE BEACH (cw: spiders)

Although the beach isn't far from the city, and close enough that the trip can be made on foot, there's one particular hazard on the way: giant spiders. The group have to cross a small woodland before they can reach the cliffside route that will take them down to the beach, and Barnaby pauses at the edge of the woods, spotting white silk webbing strung between entire trees, more than capable of snaring unsuspecting travellers not paying close attention to where they're walking.

The spiders themselves are nowhere to be seen... yet, and a lot of them have been dealt with in the days leading up to the trip. But it was impossible to eradicate all of them, and the forest canopy overhead is thick and ripe for ambushes, if they're not careful, so Barnaby addresses the group.

"If anyone who can fight is willing to volunteer to scout ahead, please take the lead. I suggest you take someone else and go as a pair."

Barnaby would go himself, but he'd much rather stay and keep an eye on the children. You're up, team.

2. THE BEACH

Once they're safely on the other side, a rocky cliffside path leads down to a private beach. The beach itself is fully secure, as Ciel, Barnaby and Eustace had worked to ensure it was safe in the days running up to the trip. For anyone who arrives early with the group, Barnaby will be giving swimming lessons to those who don't know how to swim, and for most of the rest of the day, will be keeping an eye out from a lifeguard tower they'd had an Achamite workman construct a few days before.

There's enough of a breeze and the waves are choppy enough that you can try your hand at surfing, if you don't mind the old-fashioned surfboards on offer. For those who don't like the water but don't want to just bask in the sun all day, there are buckets and spades for building sandcastles (sand Citadels...?) and balls for playing ball games, either in or out of the water. Food, snacks and refreshments are provided for the children throughout the day, courtesy of Ciel.

3. EVENING

The children are allowed to stay long enough to watch the sunset, before they pack up and head off with Barnaby and Ciel for the evening. For anyone who chooses to stay well into dusk or longer, there are dry branches and driftwood piles suitable for starting a bonfire. If you want peace and quiet by the sea, or to crack open the booze properly now the kids are gone, this is the best time of night for it.

Comments

beach

[affal]

( ooc: let me know if you mind the late tag-in! i thought it would be a fun follow-up since we now have an idea how their last run-in shook out... )

( if asked, makoto would reply that he was here out of a sense of goodwill, or duty, or some nonsense like that. in actuality, though, it's not as though he could find one particle in his body about these children. he cannot fathom the Regent's protectiveness over them, considering they soldiered ever onward toward a future in which every life in this iteration of the universe would be cut short so that something new might be ushered in. but it's not his place to argue with their machinations, and so he goes, not for the benefit of the youths but instead because he had been challenged to. J had given him perhaps the most inane and infuriating challenge of the entire month, once he had found out about the trip that barnaby had planned: "go with them, and have a good time." it might technically be makoto's "choice," but it's no choice at all. so now he's here, trying to slouch into the easiest victory condition he can find for this challenge.

unfortunately for him, it would not be so easy. amos wasn't the only one who had fallen victim to the urgings of the children — makoto had just spent the better part of an hour or two filling out one of the teams for a game that several of the older youths were playing in the sand with one of the balls that had been brought, and... it had gone exactly as well as one might expect for someone like him. the best part of it had been when they finally dispersed to go play in the ocean, freeing him from his time as a press-ganged player.

he could have gone back to where he'd been before that, but he stops by where the supplies had been set up to get some water. and then... he instead walks over to take a seat next to amos, who was taking a momentary rest nearby in-between play-times with the orphans.

makoto doesn't even know if he recalls what had occurred between them in venera. he had been cautious around gen at first as well, but he truly didn't seem to suspect anything. they had both been out of it, but amos had been far more lucid than gen had been — delusional, but not lost within them. in the end, it doesn't really matter; he'll get a sense of whether or not he recalls soon enough, he thinks, and either way is the same for him.

on makoto's part, he doesn't seem to bear any ill will — certainly not with the amiable smile that spreads across his face. )

They certainly seem content to run us ragged, don't they? ( his tone is light with amusement, though secretly he's pretty peeved about the whole thing... makoto is not fond of kids, and it's probably for the best. )

yessss makoto time

[baltimores]

[ See, Amos just assumes everyone's here out of goodwill for the kids. Anything less would be difficult for him to fathom, so it just doesn't occur to him at all.

It's with a surprised blink that Amos first greets Makoto — because shit, yeah, he remembers everything, first and foremost the complete ass he made of himself. He doesn't blame Makoto for a single thing he did, right down to the raised scar visible along junction of arm and shoulder (on the very same side Makoto took up beside him, as a matter of fact. And not like Amos has a ton of scars, but his skin is certainly blemished; this is just the newest to the collection). He'd have probably done the same thing in his shoes. Maybe worse.

But Makoto approaching him is also something of a relief, like for as idiotic and dangerous as he'd been, that's all behind them now. So that blink morphs into something content, a smile gracing Amos' features to match Makoto's as he sits up straighter, muscle exertion feeling genuinely good in the movement. ]

Sure do. Wonder when the last time they got to come out here was. [ Because this really is some pent up energy kind of stuff, and he finds he can't blame them. ] It's good though, right? Giving them the full day to just be kids.

[ Yeah he loves them. Every single thing about Amos in this moment is probably painfully obviously sincere — and though unintentional on his end, probably serves as a good contrast between what Innocence's priorities were and what his are. This isn't a contagion taking over his brain; this is just him, now, for better or worse. ]

[affal]

( it only takes seeing his reaction to understand plainly enough that he recalls with good enough clarity what had occurred between them on the streets of venera. that's fine. when it comes to himself and amos — who, apart from that one fraught altercation, he has no personal problem with — he would prefer cards be laid on the table and moves be made from there. he has no grand scheme to architect against the man. he feels as though their brief interactions have given him a decent enough window into some of his faults and weaknesses, but that's no deterrent to a demon; it's always worthwhile to have insight into how to better manipulate someone to his advantage.

in the end he thinks it would be a detriment to himself in the long run to allow things to stagnate and grow cumbersome between them, either for his own personal benefit or in the instance that they might have to work together for their common cause.

the demon doesn't really hide how his gaze lingers for a long moment on the raised scar at the man's shoulder, though his expression is chimerical enough that it's hard to tell whether he's feeling regretful or simply admiring his handiwork (or perhaps a little bit of both?). regardless, what's far more pleasing to him is how quickly and easily the other man shifts into a state of easy rapport, as if more than glad to bury the hatchet before it had even been fully formed. makoto's all about it. it's in the nature of demons to stabbing one another in the back one day and welcoming them to a feast the next, ever locked in an eternal waltz up and down their social hierarchies — humans struggled to imagine how such cordiality and animosity could exist in equal measure, but so long as he didn't have to try to explain it, it's fine by him. )

Considering the full security detail they required to even make it here in the first place, probably not in a very long time. ( if ever.

he spares a moment to look out to the ocean where a half-dozen of the kids play in the shallows, some paddling out into deeper water to attempt surfing on makeshift boards. the sun is warm, the breeze is cool, and the silence is filled with wind, birdcalls, distant shouting and laughing, and the endless roar of the surf crashing against the sand. he reaches into the pit where his heart had once been and finds... nothing. even if he could feel for them, fostering some inward investment in where the flickering candle flames of their lives might go... was that not just inviting future pain, some strange exercise in twisted cruelty? each and every one of them were seeking to bring the curtain falling down on all existence, these included.

maybe that's a contradiction that this demon simply can't parse. )

You care for them. ( it's a quiet, judgment-free musing, the kind one might make when trying to mentally work their way through a puzzle. because as much as makoto doesn't particularly feel moved by what he sees, he knows that amos does. he can practically feel it radiating from him, a contentment he might feel envious of if he didn't know it would be anathema in his veins. ) Is that brave or foolish of you, I wonder?

[baltimores]

[ Shit, Makoto's free to look at the scar he created. It's not the kind of thing Amos would have done — he doesn't regret any time he's hurt someone else. Doesn't think about it at all. What's done is done, and if someone else wants to keep prodding at it, it's not gonna be him — but he's also well aware that he's different from other people. And that he doesn't know Makoto well at all.

Though the part where Makoto clearly has as much interest in rehashing what had last happened between them as he does certainly boosts him in his books. Amos is just a regular human. Or, rather, was, before all of this Aion stuff. Didn't know shit about demons, but apparently would've fit right in. Would've been better off, in some ways.

So longer term bodes well for getting along just fine.

A soft exhale at his observation regarding security details as Amos follows Makoto's gaze out towards the kids, because yeah, that's a good point. This had ended up being a wholeass excursion, and as happy as Amos was to take part in it, it does beg the question of if this would have ever been possible before Aions had showed up again. He'd lean towards no. It's not the best thought, but knowing how well they're cared for in general back at the Citadel, it's not the worst one, either. And besides... they're here now, and that has to be enough, doesn't it?

It's with a wistful air that Amos turns back to him at the question, brought back down to reality. ]

Neither, probably. [ Because for as obvious as Amos knows he can be — and considering how emotionally invested he is in these kids' wellbeing, this is peak obviousness — this is the first hint he's getting that Makoto might not be feeling the same way. Which is kinda incomprehensible to him, so he'd rather ignore it at first. ] Nothing foolish about it. Nothing brave, either. It's just something you're supposed to do, you know? Every kid's supposed to have someone in their corner. The more they got, the better.

[ If he was able to boil down his life's philosophy into a single sentiment, that'd be it. Not the part where he knows he needs someone to guide him, so he doesn't fuck up, do the damage he knows he's capable of. That's important to Amos, but nowhere near as important as this. His lot in life has been decided. He's disposable. Kids, though? Children, who still have a chance? They take the utmost priority. Always will. ]

[affal]

( regret is a rather useless emotion, isn't it? he doesn't necessarily feel that either — what's done is done, and it's not as though feeling conflicted about what he'd had to resort to doing to get away from amos in venera was going to change anything about it. change is dependent on choices going forward. it's a rather complicated question if makoto had felt guilt or regret when walking away from the brothel he had once worked at, having orchestrated the mental and emotional destabilization of a man who had, admittedly, been a very kind and patient employer, who had probably taught him more of the direct social rules of hell than J had and who had always demanded dignity and respect for those who worked under his care. when makoto had left him behind, he had had his establishment stolen out from under him in his pathetic state before being made to work there himself.

he feels nothing about it, certainly not now that datenshou was as dead as any other demon from his version of hell but for himself and J, but had things proceeded differently... perhaps he might have done something to make up for it, if the opportunity ever arose. less out of guilt, and more out of consideration for what he owed the man for his former kindness — all so long as he didn't pose a threat to makoto's plans.

but that's all hypothetical. none of it matters now, and what had happened in venera is much the same. dust in the wind.

amos is very direct, cut-and-dry. at one point, makoto might have thought that dull — certainly too dull for him to sharpen his tongue against, convicted that he could only continue to climb in demon society so long as his wit was cleverer and fiercer than anyone else's. but that didn't matter so much here, and he actually... finds it bizarrely refreshing, in a way. directness... it's not like it's something he can ever expect from J. )

"Supposed" to? Hm. ( it's probably something most people would agree with, that children were meant to be protected, supported, guided. he doesn't like prescribing moral imperatives to anything, though. his childhood had been an architecture of harsh expectations that were never met and highly conditional love he'd never really achieved. he had been a macabre disappointment, a budding future family embarrassment. still, even if there had been anyone to be supportive of him, he doubts it would have changed a damn thing. ) That's rather idealistic, isn't it?

I mean, it's not as though they will be spared the same end we would promise everyone else.

( it ends up seeming like a shepherd, kind to his flock, even as he leads lambs to a slaughter. does it matter much, in the end? )

[baltimores]

Guess I'm an idealist then.

[ His voice is dry, an almost playful sarcasm lacing his tone. He's much more of a pragmatist, so the idea of him holding an idealistic view is kinda funny. And yet — in this one specific department — he supposes he does.

Amos looks out across the kids playing by the water, his voice lowering when he speaks again. Quiet. ]

I know that's not the way the world works. [ Fuck, does he know that, and intimately. While he may have had what Makoto lacked — unconditional support from a parental figure — that wasn't enough. Not when she couldn't really do anything to change the systems, the life that stunted him, ended things before they began.

(Not when she herself took her turn abusing him, too, except by then he was so far gone that he didn't see it as abuse. Doesn't see it as abuse now.)

But it had helped. ] Just that that's the way it's supposed to, is all.

[ He's silent a moment longer before turning to look back up at Makoto, tone returning to normal. ]

That's what we're here for, ain't it? To make a world where it's like that. And I know they won't see it. But not like there's any reason to make them suffer while they're here. Let them have a good time while they can. [ A beat. ] I'd've appreciated it.