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[before Carol can even sit back up with her bag, the reverberation of the car door slamming closed rocks through the car, and the passenger side is empty -- aside from Badou's towel, which he (naturally, not being the type to heed his elders) left behind]

[the boy hesitates for just a moment at the edge of those trees; they grew them from chemicals and science and shipped them out in bulk, back in the City, but never so many, never so close together -- for all that Badou is a wild boy, he's never been a Boy in the Wild]

[maybe he should be, but he's not fearful of it; he dashes in, shoelaces whipping]

[if the car had a roof, she would've smacked her head on it. as it is, she jumps when the bang of the door sounds like a shot.]

Hey, watch the car--

[her precious new car, her baby, she loves the thing so much she's thinking about giving it a name, for god's sake.

badou's off into the wild blue yonder but carol stays a second, slinging the bag over a shoulder to check on the passenger door. it opens and closes just as smooth as ever. no marks on it. the kid is lucky.

when she deigns to follow him into the trees, it's with his forgotten towel draped over her other shoulder and a feeling of great sympathy for the noble pack mule.

she's lost sight of him in the delay.]

Hey! Kid! We don't run off, okay!

['we' might not, but Badou does; it's in his blood, to be running towards (and usually away) from something, and he won't ever stop for anything, not until his lungs burn and his legs ache (never take up smoking, bad boy, he'd always wheeze)]

[he's barely visible through the underbrush, the shadows from the setting sun blending his own away]

[but when he comes over the crest of it, when he finally sees what he's been looking for, unobstructed, he stops]

[it's easily one of the most terrifying things he's ever seen; great expanses of nothing, of space where scum haven't carved themselves into shitty little holes and shitty little lives with other shitty little people]

[but his joys are rough; he runs toward it, across the sand, wanting to hear what nothing sounds like, up close]

[she catches up with him at the edge, where the sand starts to eat away at the green of the brush and the thick lines of tree roots have all petered out. he's a thin silhouette against the rippling blue at the horizon, maybe ten feet away from her and frozen in place, and she doesn't draw any closer than that out of a strange sudden fear that he'll spook.

and then it almost seems like he does -- but no, he's just running for running's sake, because there's nothing around to scare him off that carol can see. except the ocean, maybe.

she slips off her sneakers before she hits the sand and carries them hooked on her fingers, calling after him--]

Take your shoes off, you'll get sand in them! And be careful near the water, I'll be in deep shit if you drown!

[--as she follows behind him at a brisk walk. the sand is cool and soft and slippery underfoot, the occasional stone or remnant of something's shell spiking her so that she has to lift up her foot and brush it off. as the sand gets slicker from the water, she can pick out the occasional tiny crab hole, although she knows she probably won't notice the crabs unless they move.]

[sneakers are vital; as far as Badou is concerned, they are the difference between being able to run away and ending up in somebody's dumpster. he's always heard that gangsters -- not the chumps in his neighborhood, but the ones that made headlines and constantly outwitted the cops -- always made you take off your shoes before you died (well, before they killed you). Badou has fought tooth and nail (tooth and Nails) to keep a hold of his, and in a sense that smells vaguely like mouldy shoes, they're a part of him as much as the thickening scar across his hand]

[but there's no one here to hurt, there's no one here to kill, there's no one for miles and he knows that because he can see everything; until this moment, he's thought 'vantage point' was a place snipers went before picking off victims (duck, duck, splat)]

[so he does kick his shoes off and it doesn't take much effort; the grime-and-blood spattered red converse knock-offs are falling apart at the seams, a stiff sea breeze could have taken them away (and maybe that pointlessness of holding them so dear says something about Badou). he leaves them behind (they're already full of sand, Carol) and digs those angular, awkward boys' feet into the grains like shitty plastic shovels until he comes to the water's edge]

[when he drops to his haunches there, he's out of breath, which is unlike him, and he can feel his pulse throbbing uncomfortably in the place he used to have a right eye (street fatigue and infection have made a gambit out of his vitality, but he'll recover -- Nails men only ever went violently). the salty air burns and bites his cuts this close, and the push and movement of the water before him feels like a pressure of sorts -- not a bad one, like city smog or bookie debts, but something huge and important; like how the bearing stone of a building must feel]

[his voice may or may not carry]

Where the hell does it stop...?

[he's never see anything that didn't end]

Edited 2013-07-11 19:14 (UTC)

[one look at the discarded shoes, the layer of filth coating them, and carol knows there's no way in hell she's picking those up to carry around with her. instead she dumps the bag down next to them, badou's towel and her own shoes placed carefully on top of it to save them from the sand as much as possible. far as the line of sand and salt-water stretches in either direction, there's no one else in sight, so she's not worried about anything getting stolen.

the boy seems busy communing with the sea, or whatever it is a kid does when they've never seen the edge of the world before. it must feel like -- carol can't even imagine.

she takes her time ambling over to him, the wet sand shucking every time she picks up her feet. when she gets there she stops, about a foot from him, feet in the water and letting it rise and fall past her ankles, bringing sand and salt and sea shit in and out, over and over. the feeling is kind of like being a kid again herself.]

You know there's more ocean in the world than there is land?

[kid like this, she figures he might not. if he's even from the same world as her.]

[Badou grunts, and he's suddenly watching her keenly -- what is it that a kid does, at the edge of the world? he doesn't know, and his eye is hungry for the information]

[he falls from his haunches, looking less like an especially pointy beach ornament as he rolls up his (already wet) jeans to his knees, seeking to (subtly) imitate]

[as for the fact -- no, he didn't]

I know. I ain't dumb. S'because of stupid erosion, right? The waves smash everything up...

[he scoots forward, wanting to see what it's like to do what Carol's doing, to let his feet get all sucked up under that pressure -- ]

[and the tide promptly shoots up underneath him, soaking his entire backside]

[the first words he speaks to the sea are]

Ahoohfuck!!!!

[erosion, huh? she glances down at him, a flicker of surprise crossing her face for an instant before she lets it fall away -- that was some pretty smart reasoning he just did there.

it's impressive, but at the same time she wants to tell him, that's not the whole reason, not everything in the world is out to get you, kid.

she doesn't get the chance before he's howling, though, while the same tide that made him do it brushes harmlessly against carol's shins and recedes again. the incredibly ladylike snort she gives him is accompanied by a hand held out to him, done without thinking.]

C'mon, up. I'll show you something we used to do when I was a kid.

[he's flush with embarrassment, and he frowns at the (maybe too easily) proffered hand as if Carol had just wiped her ass with it. he ignores it, sticking his good palm against the wet sand instead for leverage (sand, dirt, blood, burns, bandages, scars; maybe it's affected, but in all likelihood this kid doesn't seem to even notice anymore when something unpleasant cleaves itself to him)]

-- I don't wanna play any dumb kids games!

[but he's up on his feet anyway, obviously ready to be shown something new]

[briefly, because he has that kind of annoying mind (all hastily scribbled notes and names underlined in red ink) he wonders who 'we' is. it might also be the first time he's thought of a shitty cop as having a childhood, which is food for thought]

[it's always a little distorted when carol remembers her childhood, like she was the fully-grown woman she is now, even back then, standing off to the side and watching some stranger's family. a little blonde girl in her brother's too-big t-shirt, holding his hand and standing as still as she's able at the shoreline, her pudgy little sand-streaked face scrunched up in concentration.

wondering if her dad is watching. see, I can do it just as good as he can!

there's nothing connecting carol to this little girl anymore. it's her, but it feels like somebody else.]

It's not a dumb game, shut up and stand still.

[her feet are still firmly in place, and by now only the tops of them are visible, goopy sand covering the rest. she pulls them out and stamps the sand back in place, to start again.]

Don't move your feet, just watch them. We called it quicksand, used to freak me out.

How's that even a game...

[he's grumbling under his breath, but his eye is concentrating on his feet, watching the water wash in and out, the whorls of white and night-dark blue]

[the cogs are spinning, too serious, and then something blessedly basic seems to click, as Badou suddenly -- smiles. it's not at anyone, and maybe that's why it looks easier]

...Feels weird. Ain't there stuff livin' in there?

[his smaller, thinner feet get swallowed up faster, and when he wobbles twice, he finally reaches out to her; not her hand (he hasn't held hands, not even with him, since he was old enough to walk and scowl at the same time), but her forearm, nerves sparking well enough this time to grip maybe a little too hard]

-- Shit! They're pullin' me in!

[his backside's already wet; his frontside is looking perilously close to joining]

There's stuff living in everything, out here.

[the grip on her arm is sudden and unexpected -- she doesn't flinch at it, but she thinks she might have a fingertip-wide bruise or two later. without her powers, without her healing. bruises are something carol has long since grown unused to.

she turns to steady him, ruining her own sinking again in the process, catching him under the elbow with the arm not presently being clung to.

normally she'd have let him fall, splat facefirst into the water to sputter and swear, and she'd laugh, because falling over in the water and looking like an idiot is a part of the experience.

now, though, she feels compelled to stop him. all those bandages, she's worried about whatever the hell's happened to his hands and his eye (especially his eye), what getting sand and grime and salt-water in those wounds is going to do to them.]

Whoa, kid, relax, that's kind of the point. Didn't I tell you? Quicksand.

You didn't tell shit! You were gonna let me drown like a ass.

[in less than 2 inches of water??? okay so maybe he's a little flustered]

[and as soon as he steadies himself (not that she helped, no, that was incidental thank you), he snatches those all-put-back-together limbs away from her, arms going out instead to the sides to steady himself]

[Badou isn't thinking about salt or grime or his wounds; mostly, he's just thinking -- ]

[look, see, I can do it just as good as she can...]

[she snorts at him gently and lets him draw away, watching to make sure he doesn't lose his balance again.

he doesn't, though, and she smiles and sticks her tongue out at him, feeling dumb and immature but not caring too much as she turns her face back out to the line of the horizon.

the sun's disappearing pretty quickly now, a blur of blinding orange-gold just keeping its head above water off to their right. a breeze kicks up off the ocean and tugs at carol's hair, and she reaches up to push it out of her face.

suddenly, she remembers something--]

Hey. You hungry, shortstack?

[he's never been asked that question more in his life until this place; it would figure it would take a kidnapping to start getting the number of meals a day he'd actually want]

[it's strange, but he hasn't said anything yet partially to encourage the habit that followed the question, which was to offer him food]

[unfortunately, his mouth always moves faster than his brain]

I was until I heard that lameass nickname. Don't call me that.

[a pause]

'Re you gonna grab fish outta the water with your hands?

[he's seen it in multiple movies; he's always wondered how applicable it actually was]

[wobble, wobble, steeeeadies]

[she can't help but laugh a little at him, low and unaffected.]

No, dorkus, I brought food. Wait here and try not to fall on your ass.

[with that she pulls her feet up again, swishing them around in the water a little to dislodge the worst of the sand clumps. as a parting shot she kicks up a splash aimed at badou.

then she's off back up the beach at a jog, and bending down to unzip the bag, rummaging around inside it. she yells back over her shoulder]

You want pretzels or Doritos?

[which is all she brought. carol has a distinct lack of experience in what teenage boys like to eat, but that seemed close enough to her.]

Doritos!

[the answer comes immediately; Carol's teenage boy intuition is spot on]

[he pulls his feet out of the gloppy sand likewise, but he doesn't make his way back up to where she is. instead, he sits right back down on his soggy ass slightly higher than where the tide comes up (soak him twice, shame on him)]

[a few contemplative moments (those cogs working too studiously again, for a boy at the beach), and he promptly goes digging in the gloopier sand for sea life. in only a couple swipes, he finds tiny white sand crabs wiggling all over, popping out of their holes and diving away]

[so it wasn't nothing, out there; it wasn't emptiness, but fullness -- stuffed to the brim, even]

[he flops backwards onto the sand after that, not seeming to mind sand in his hair; he can hear it, all that water full of stuff, even when he closes his eye(s)]

[carol returns with the food and a jacket for herself, now that the temperature's starting to go down. the bag of doritos gets dumped unceremoniously on the kid's skinny chest.

stuffing her own snack between her teeth, she pulls on the jacket (a shitty, puffy number in an atrocious olive-drab) and flops down beside him, sitting up with her legs stretched out in front of her.

the packet is opened with a loud crinkle and carol stuffs two pretzels in her mouth at once, crunching down on them.]

All it's cracked up to be so far?

[she asks through the food, hand over her mouth to be polite. not that it matters in front of this kid, but it's a force of habit.]

[sharp elbows dig and lever him up, the chip bag sliding into his lap]

[he doesn't sprawl but contracts, sitting cross legged to dig into the orange-dusted feast]

[and it is imperative, apparently, that he swallow at least four handfuls of chips before declaring]

Yeah. It's really cool.

[another handful]

Why's nobody here? Do people do stuff they don't do in the movies? I saw this one once where there was a big luau on a island an' everybody got murdered. They thought it was the couple who invited 'em all there, like in revenge for a bunch'a affairs an' stuff, everybody's sleepin' with everybody basically you find out, but it was really the guy who ran the resort an' in the end everybody still alive got roasted underground like the pig they had in the beginning that they roasted underground.

I still don't really get how you make somethin' cook in the ground.

[crunch]

[watching a teenager eat doritos is not an experience she would've ever thought of chalking up under "fascinating scientific processes", but that's kind of what it is. she regards badou sidelong as he stuffs them into his maw, carol herself taking it a lot slower with her pretzels.

is he gonna choke? she wonders idly.

she can handle it if he chokes. she knows first aid.

is he gonna slow down, though, is the next question that pops up in her head while the kid chatters away in that way that kids have, and that one she's not so sure about.]

They do it with hot rocks, I'm pretty sure.

[--when he takes a break from his spiel.]

But I don't think I've seen that one. Then again I haven't even seen Ghostbusters 2 yet, so.

[it's a point of contention between her and some friends. but who's got time to keep up with movies when you're out saving the world? seriously.]

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