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revryebread · 4 months

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Soak Up The Sun - A Non-Canon Interstitial Infinity WIP Beach Episode

It started as a serene sight- a golden beach, stone outcroppings, and a white stone building sitting free standing on edge where the rocks met the sand. The building had two red doors, marked clearly with an “exit” and “entrance, but otherwise was unremarkable, outside of a small window for concessions.

The entrance door dinged, the handle twisted, and as it opened a veritable legion of teens poured into the room. Baseball uniforms changing to beachwear as they crossed the threshold. Shoka Sakurane looked out from under her huge black sunhat and whistled. “Finally, one of these cars doesn’t suck.”

Excited other kids ran by her as she soaked it all in- Link with his hand on Mob’s wrist pulling him haphazardly towards the sea, Carrie immediately shirking back into the shade and Trish putting an arm around her, that HOMESTUCK freak wandering yapping at Steve as they walked to some chairs. She stretched, as felt her body jerk as she was shoulder checked by Jason. She stumbled forward and shot him a death glare.

“That’s for trying to throw the game.” He hissed at her, and she rolled her eyes. She hadn’t tried to throw the game, but she took credit for it because she knew it would make him mad. Either way, fairs fair. “Fine. We’re even then?” She asked, shifting her weight and leaning in in a way that was somehow demeaning.

Jason considered his options, “For now. But you have to chill out.” He pointed his finger at her like he was accusing her, and she feigned offense. “Me? Chill out? As if. If I don’t keep my head on a swivel you’ll run out again.” She meant it as a joke, but she could see him flinch.

“Real nice, Shoka.” He glared, and she was feeling herself begin to lash out again, cursing herself for doing it. She didn’t mean to get under peoples skin sometimes but she still managed it. Which made her more mad, which made her lash out more, and she could feel a jeer coming on until a voice from behind her spoke up-

“Hey guys?” Jason and Shoka both twisted their heads to see Roxas standing there with three ice creams in his hands. He had the pained smile of someone trying to deescalate a situation on his face, and he held them out. “It’s the first time we’re all together again since- I mean,. I thought- If you wanted to-”

Jason reached out to grab one of the ice cream bars and tried to ignore how much Roxas reminded him of any of the Robins Bruce had dragged into his line of work. “Good thinking.” He doesn’t smile, but a grin does hit him when he sees the reaction this gets from Roxas.

Shoka sighs and grabs the other extra one. Roxas’ smile was contagious, even as Shoka tried to look the other way from him she couldn’t help but feel more at home. The blonde boy behind her made another noise as if he was afraid of asking for more, and Shoka looked back to see him looking up at a cliffside. She sighed, and tried to sound disgruntled. “Ugh, fine. Elevator going up.” She grabs both the boys shoulders and they disappear, the three of them reappearing seated on a ledge overlooking the beach.

Back down on the beach, Link was standing in knee deep water signaling to a talkative Shigeo to get in.

“We just did alot of exercise and I’m not sure- I haven’t done any stretches yet and the body improvement club says that if you don’t do proper stretches when switching workouts that you could get cramps. And there’s no lifeguard on duty, so what if I-”

Link stood there and tapped his foot, arms crossed. He sighs, closing his eyes and shaking his head before rearing his leg back and kicking up a huge splash of water at Mob, who covers his head in vain to avoid the water soaking him. Link laughs and Mob pushes his hair back out of his eyes, now dripping wet. “Ok- if that’s how you want to be about it-”

Link’s laughter was interrupted by Tatl bouncing off his forehead to get his attention, and once he had his eyes open, he could see that he was floating off the ground about three feet. Shigeo with his hands out and a mischievous smile that betrayed the fact that he was a teenager getting a chance to goof around with another.

A pained noise came from the boy in green and Mob launched him deeper into the ocean it was his turn to laugh. He let the cackle last, and then he sat there with a smile on watching the water where Link went under. A small mounting fear began growing. “Link?”

He didn’t see any bubbles, and was looking around the beach. 70. Oh no, there was no lifeguard. Who could he turn to? 74 He whipped around and had lost sight of Audrey and Trish- Al was talking to Winry, even Shoka was doing something, he looked back at the water again. 78. And now, on top of it all, there was a shark fin racing at him. 80. A Shark fin!?!

Link’s hand grabbed Mob’s ankle and pulled him under. The initial fear Mob felt was shaken loose- he had seen Link’s Zora form before, and he tried to yell “That’s not fair, you scared me” or something to that effect but was just greeted with a Rush of sea water. He scrambled up to his feet and gasped for air, coughing harshly. Link had popped the mask off and looked around the other boy to make sure he was ok- Mob swinging more water around and splashing.

Al had- at the beach, risen from his seat on the ground next to Winry & Audrey when Mob went under, and once he came back up his posture relaxed. He locked eyes with Trish from across the beach and nodded. She had also prepared herself to spring into action, clearly, and this was serving as the “All Clear.”. He plopped back down into the sand, using his arms to steady himself looking between Audrey and Winry. Audrey shook her head. “That kid gets himself into too many situations, man.”

Al nodded, letting his eyes canvas the beach, trying to make sure everyone was safe and accounted for. Winry punched him in his shoulder, snapping him out of it. “Looking for someone?” She asked, and he sighed and shook his head. “These train cars always have a catch to them. Some kind of weird mess-with-your-head feature. I guess I’m just having trouble accepting that this is a Beach Car and that’s it.”

Audrey nodded. “Maybe it’s like a siren or something- some fish singing to us to come out to it or something?” Al considered it, picturing a mermaid in his head. “Or maybe it’s like a “city in the sea” situation? Except it’s like- fish versions of people we know.”

Audrey took a moment to consider a fish Noah, a mermaid Emma, and shook her head. “That’s probably too on the nose. Even for the train.” She shifted in the sand to lean back more. “Maybe it’s just a break? The arts and crafts car was just a break. Maybe it’s giving us a chance to just … breathe?”

The blonde boy nodded slowly, trying to convince himself. “I guess we were the ones who made the arts and crafts car stressful…” Was it just a car to have a nice time? Was that even possible? Winry was watching the two of them talk back and forth, knees pulled up to her chest and resting her chin. “What have you two been through to be stressed like this? As far as I know, the train is just a restaurant, baseball, and some kind of weird club with loud music.” Audrey snorts, covering her mouth as a moment too late. Al turns to raise an eyebrow, and then looks back at Audrey.

“Is it wrong that I’m a little jealous of her?” This actually makes Audrey laugh. “Easy street over here-” Winry makes a noise of protest but the roast has begun- Al and Audrey taking turns roasting her for her easy time on the train. There was a distant ding, and Al looked at the door across the way as it opened, feeling the stress mounting back into his body.

“I don’t think this is right.” A large green turtle covered his eyes as he entered, followed by three other individuals, the closest of which to them had been switched into a big shirt that said had some sort of gamer lingo on it that made Audrey snort laugh again. That individual was checking a large white device and was flipping through it, adjusting their glasses.

“Hmm. You’re right, this should be the vault car but it isn’t. Something’s wrong, they must have moved the trains again.” The turtle groaned in response to this. Head in his hands, looking up. It was then that Audrey clocked who that was-

“As I live and breathe, is that Raphael?” Jason’s voice called from the top of the cliff, where he had just finished his ice cream, looking directly down at the turtle with the red bandana. “No shit- Jason Todd?” The turtle- Raphael, called up, some recognition clearly happening.

Al let himself relax, clearly these two knew each other and at the very least it wasn’t hostile. Well, he thought that for a second at least, and then Jason jumped from a baffling height and immediately began swinging on the turtle.

The two of the fell to the ground and ducked and dodged each other's punches for a moment before Jason was able to get Raphael in a master lock, holding his arms up over his head, and Raphael cackling tapped out. The two parted and gave each other a hug. Shoka’s were huge at this. Jason Todd happy to be around someone?? She looked over to Roxas who was making the same face as her and shrugged.

“What are you doing here, Todd? After the loot too?” Raphael asked him, Jason shaking his head, “Whatever weird gambit you have going on, leave me out of it. I was prescribed a stay on the therapy train.” He said, pointing at his hand. The gamer among them came around the side, taking a picture of Jason’s hand with the tablet and beginning to talk. “So the numbers are important! I was right! I knew it I- Obviously, it’s important. The research said that you needed these to get off, but I guess I never assumed that you just had them when you got on I-”

Raphael coughed, and thumped Pidge in the shoulder, stopping the ramble. “Hey! Point taken, I guess. I’m Pidge! Raph and I are… business partners.” Jason nods slowly, “Criminals. Got it.” Pidge looks back to Raph quickly to see him laughing it off and decides to laugh it off themself.

“Are you gonna stop us, hero?” One of the others that came in with the gang circled around Jason, who looked at her with a very clear distaste. “I don’t really care what you do here, if it’s a Raph job I know it’s thought through.” He looks up from the woman trying to get his attention to Raph. “Right?”

Raph nods. “That’s Veronica, and the other one is the newest recruit, Lyra and Pan.” The younger girl and her animal approach next, Jason looks at Raph disapprovingly. “She’s a kid,”

Raph shrugs. “So are we. So is everyone here. She’s safe, don’t worry.” He tried to look confident, and Jason made a note in his head to check back in with him later. “Sure. Well. This is a beach. So, feel free to hang out or whatever.” He turned to walk past Raphael to the concessions, where Shoka and Roxas had gotten to. Pidge looked to Raph and shrugged. “It makes sense, we’ve been moving for a while now. We might as well take a moment.” The two of them nod at each other and relay the information to the rest of their crew, who begin to disperse amongst the crowd.

Trish watched more people file into the train from her perch with Carrie. She had decided to give her space, the girl obviously needed it, but she wouldn’t let her be alone. Maybe Trish didn’t want to be alone, either. She looked back to Carrie, who was sitting in the darkest spot of shade she could find. “Can you… swim?” Trish asked her, training in her ears to hear the other girl mumble and answer and shake her head.

“Do you want to learn how? You’ll be safe with me.” She reached out a hand and the girl slinked away from it a bit, looking between her hand and the water.

“How can I trust you?” Carrie squeaked out, and Trish’s eyes willed her to hold the gaze.

Trish shrugged. “I can’t make you, but… the more you and I do together, the more chances for you to trust me, right?”

Carrie nodded slowly, like she was piecing each part of the sentence together.

“Come on.” Trish stood up, cracking her knuckles. “If you want to, that is.” Carrie regarded her like she was an open flame, but tentatively reached out and took her hand, Trish pulling her up out of the shadow.

“If you feel like it's too much, let me know- we'll get you out of there.” She began to follow the path down closer to the coast line where Shigeo and Link were talking with the girl and her shifting animal. Carrie stared at it, wide eyed, and Trish realized that her pace had slowed. “Oh, don't worry about that. It's probably some sort of-” she cut herself off and thought, “you know what magic is, right?”

Carrie inhaled sharply. “If it helps- it's probably not related to what you think of as God.” Trish shrugs, and Carrie lightly crosses herself as she passes Lyra and Pan, over hearing their conversation with Shigeo.

“So your dad is trying to Kill God? Like, the God?? The god in the sky??”

---------

Over the next several hours, the Beach car became more and more packed, and the sun had moved from morning to afternoon. It seemed like every person the crew had met was here in this car- Mary from the Casino, Rachel from the Colosseum, so on and so forth. Someone had either found or procured a speaker and music was playing.

Audrey had gotten up from talking with Winry and Al- giving them some time to catch up amongst themselves, and made her way over to an umbrella where Carrie was sitting. Her swimming lesson with Trish didn’t go disastrously, but it wasn’t very long. It did it’s job though- and Carrie was now sitting closer to the group and not off in the corner.

“Carrie- right?” Audrey feigned like she didn’t know exactly who she was. Carrie looked up at her, jumpscared by the voice outside of her thoughts. She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Audrey. I don’t think we actually met-met.” She nods at the towel on the beach next to her under the umbrella. “That spot taken?” Once Carrie shook her head, Audrey sat down next to her. Audrey knew she had to treat Carrie with kid gloves a bit. It was frustrating, sure. But the alternative was killing everyone in a psychic maelstrom. So, frustrating was fine. She just wanted to make sure the kid was getting socialized.

“So…” Audrey was bad at this particular kind of small talk, but felt responsible for Carrie now. She knew Shoka and Trish were keeping an eye on her, but that was like saying two coyotes were babysitting a child. “Is everyone treating you right?” It’s not that she didn’t trust Trish, but it’s also not that she trusted Trish. That woman would do exactly what she thought was right, and wouldn’t consult with anyone in the meantime.

Carrie was, frankly, baffled by the question. “What do you mean?” It was the clearest Audrey had heard her speak, and it kind of threw her back.

“Is everyone being good to you? Like- Is anyone giving you trouble, are you feeling cornered or anything?” Audrey gesticulated as if that was the problem with Carrie understanding her. “I’m just- “ She sighed. “If anyone is upsetting you, let me know, and I’ll help you.”

Carrie looked at her wide eyed, and Audrey groaned again. “Not like- hurt them. We’ll just get you out of there or whatever.” She could hear herself getting short with her, it was reminding her of being back in Lakevale, hearing everything she said taken in the worst possible way.

She sighed, and tried to center herself. “I’m going to get a beer. Do you want anything?” Carrie looked at the ground as if the mere idea of someone getting her something put her into choice paralysis. “I-.”

“I’m getting you a snowcone. I don’t know if they had those in the fifties. They probably did. Whatever.” She tried not to storm off, but moved quickly in the direction of the concessions.

“Well if it isn’t the Beast.” Shoka was already in line, looking at the blonde girl in front of her.

Rachel turned and regarded Shoka with an eyebrow raised. She fought so many people in the Colosseum that it was hard to pull up specific individuals. “Pretty far from your cage, aren’t you? Is someone taking you on a walk or should I call animal control?” Ah.

She looked Shoka up and down for a moment. “That’s it,” She snapped her fingers as if in recognition. “I thought there was something rotting somewhere but it’s just you, isn’t it? What was your name again?” Shoka’s brow furrowed.

“The Big Leaguer attitude may work for the boys but it’s not going to work on me.” Shoka crossed her arms. “Are you taking title matches now or do I have to wait until you wander home to kick your ass again?”

Rachel weighed in her head if killing Shoka here would cause a problem, and ultimately decided against it. She was settling on a light maiming when she heard a voice off to her left. “Rachel! Hi!” She ignored it for a second and then closed her eyes to sigh, looking to her left while keeping her facing to Shoka.

Alphonse was coming up to her- She remembered his fight with Audrey enough. “Alphonse Elric?” She had to work to remember his name but she figured Shoka would take it as a slight so it was worth the extra effort. “How are you doing? Beat up any other dads recently?” Al blushed and Shoka looked at him with widened eyes. “Excuse me?”

Al and Rachel ignored her and continued their conversation- “Turns out that next car was a Fight Your Dad Car, so, we all had to work through some stuff. It was good!” She smiled at him and he felt it. “Yeah, that one’s always polarizing with people, did you have a good time?” Al looked pensive for a moment before deciding- “Yeah, yeah I think that was good. I think it worked for me.”

Rachel nodded. “Are you getting in line for concessions?” Al nodded, and looked to the back of the growing line. “Don’t worry about. You can cut in with me. I’m sure…” She turned around to look at Shoka with malicious intent that would startle Trish. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind?” Al followed her gaze to see Shoka. “Oh! Shoka, is that- is that ok?” He seemed chipper, and like he genuinely hadn’t seen Shoka there, which only made the girl madder.

She sneered. “Whatever, stand with your girlfriend, I don’t care,” Al blushed and Rachel rolled her eyes, pulling Al into the line and beginning to listen to him talk about the day they’re had since the Colosseum. Shoka just sat and stewed, she heard stifled chuckles behind her and whipped around to see Audrey with an eyebrow raised and that shit eating grin. “Hard time in line, Shoka?”

Shoka makes a noise of unrivaled indignance and storms off. “I didn’t even want anything. Fuck this.” Whoever found themself in her path now would rue the day. Audrey shook her head and stepped forward in line to be behind Al and Rachel.

There was a sharp whistle that drew everyone's attention, and Mary- the girl with the gambling issue Shadow had talked to in the Casino car was standing on a chair. She waited until all eyes were on her and then began to speak “Hello everyone! :) Would anyone be interested in playing some Volleyball? We could gamble on it if we were really feeling exciting.” There was something about her that set Al on edge, but he couldn’t pinpoint what. Jason and Shoka had gathered together to move to the net, and were closely followed by Trish and Raphael. Link and Shigeo gathered on there side too to complete their team.

On the other side, Rachel had talked Al into joining up with Audrey, Winry, Mary, and Roxas. Audrey pulled Roxas aside as he approached, and nodded to the other team- “Don’t you want to play with Jason and Shoka? I know your a group, or whatever. We can switch it up if you want.” Roxas replied to her with a dead eyed stare. “Absolutely not. Those two get…. Weird.”

Audrey followed his gaze to see Shoka and Jason both finishing a beer together and throwing it into the sand, Jason clapping to get people in a proper formation and Shoka assigning positions to people. “God. They’re freaks.” Audrey muttered.

Shoka stood across from Shigeo, sizing him and his little friend up. “Green kid. Are you more athletic than Mob?” Link looks to Shigeo and nods, Shigeo hangs his head but agrees. “Cool, how much do you know about volleyball?” Link shrugs, Shoka pinches her brow.

With Shoka organizing the motley crew in front of him, Jason turns his attention to Mary- “Ok, so if you’re the organizer here, are powers allowed or are we supposed to keep this clean?” To which

#interstitial infinity #its not finished gamers so just #live with it

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