Beach Escape!

Just finishing up, Lyntael ran hands over her face and behind her ears again, then scrubbed her fingers through her hair and over her scalp to clean the last of the cream from her fingers. She jumped as Sparky decided that enough was enough, and made for the waves, then broke into a merry stream of giggles as Eternalis gave chase. She slipped everything that was loose back into her shoulder bag and set it against the tree, at the head of her towel, then grinned back to Aurora.

"All done? Race you!" She started running without giving the other woman a chance to respond, gleefully taking an early lead as she crossed the sand towards the water. As her feet touched the sea and she began to splash in, the slime layer rippled out from her wrist and ankle cuffs again, restoring the full suit in a matter of moments and Lyntael paused to look at it, before shrugging to herself and continuing to splash deeper. She could still feel the water against her skin, sort of. It was a bit odd. She didn't mind wearing what felt like an ultra-light wetsuit, in effect, but not all the time. She wanted to actually feel the water on her properly after all. She'd probably disengage it in a little bit, unless it ran out sooner.

Once she was up to her waist, Lyntael jumped forward, diving in properly and getting the rest of her body wet; despite the warm sun, the water itself was cold and refreshing, and she'd guessed it would have been a fair shock if she hadn't taken a preparatory rinse int he showers before hand. As her head went under the water, she closed her eyes, then opened them again, preparing herself for a slightly blurry vision of the sand below the waves, but when she did, she found that her sight was clear. If tinted. There was a bluish wash over everything, more than she expected form the waves alone, and she could feel something around her head. She surfaced again, treading water to examine it, but the gel covering receded again as soon as her head broke the surface. Odd, but effective, she supposed. Her hair felt wet, despite it, but after ducking her head a few more times, she was sure that a slime mask cover was covering her eyes and mouth any time she went under, creating an air pocket. She swam over to where Eternalis had dived in, waving to him as she caught up.

"There looked like there were some really colourful reefs over that way, off to the left! Do you want to go see? Look, this thing does adapt for me if I dive after all!" She demonstrated by beckoning to him, den dropping smoothly to the sandy floor and waving to him. It was only a foot or two beneath the water's surface, at this stage, but sure enough, the slime mask swiftly encircled her features again, keeping her vision clear and her mouth free. The air pocket was only very small, but whatever water had gotten in was quickly filtered out, and as she carefully took a few tentative breaths, she found that it wasn't growing stale at all. The gel had to be filtering the air for her somehow as well. After a few moments she popped back to the surface and shook her hair out, flinging water droplets everywhere, then giggled and splashed Eternalis more deliberately for good measure. She turned the splash on Aurora as well, if the other woman had caught up to them by now, then quickly dived away with a laugh, beginning to make long strokes towards the reef.

One part of her, in the back of her mind, felt guilty for indulging in something as thoroughly relaxing when Rogan believed her to be 'training', or whatever else he expected her to get out of the task... but it was only a very small, quiet voice. the rest of her was excited to be focusing her attention on something as frivolous and non-threatening as this moment. She needed this, really, she did. She kicked onto her back briefly and waved at her new friends with both hands, calling for them to catch up, then turned over and kept swimming.

"Hey! No fair!" said Aurora, running after Lyntael. Having the sands beneath her bare feet felt different from the usual. Without the protection of her boots, it felt odd to her to have sand stuck in her toes and sole, but the sense of freedom still felt enjoyable. She broke into a sprint as well, quickly reaching the edge of the water and splashing about before properly jumping in for a full freestyle stroke.

Further out in the water, Sparky was paddling about excitedly, though the force of his little kicks was much more than was needed to tread water--the pup was racing around at an incredible speed around Eternalis, who looked a little defeated by the time Lyntael swam over to him. Half-submerged in the water, the slime monster-like Navi's blue color intermingled with the water, looking little more than a blob poking out of the surface between two orange floaters. If one were to look below the surface, it would be hard to distinguish his body from the rest of the blue depths, though a faint outline did show through if examined closely, showing that he was simply floating and not really exerting any effort to tread water. As he spotted the girl waving to him, he returned the gesture.

"Hey, water's pretty warm," said Eternalis, through a slightly tired-looking smile, ostensibly from attempting to catch Sparky. The revelation of his Cross's benefits widened his smile, and he watched the demonstration with curiosity. "Wha--hey!" he exclaimed, as he got a splashing right afterwards, though he quickly returned the splashing twice over, by slamming one of his palms onto the water. "That'll serve ya, haha!" he grinned mischievously. At that moment, Aurora arrived at their location after slowly coming to a halt--only to receive a combined splash attack from both Eternalis and Lyntael.

"Oof, hey, no, stop it!" she exclaimed, in the middle of all the splashing. Thankfully, it stopped soon after, ending in an angry-looking Aurora. "Some welcoming party!" yelled Aurora, though the mirthful laughing that ensued after the senior of the three returned the splashing made it clear that she wasn't at all mad about it. She shook off the water in her hair, treading water for the moment. Around them, Sparky began to slow to a halt, having spotted Aurora as he paddled over to her with some eager barking.

"Over here, boy! Come on!" she called out, which Sparky was happy to oblige, swimming over to her and nearly knocking her over in the water. After the dog gave her his share of happy lickings, Aurora managed to pacify the pup before turning to the other two in the gathering.

"So, I assume we're looking at some reefs or something?" said Aurora.

"Yeah, Lyntael said there's a few over to the left there," replied Eternalis, thumbing over in the direction indicated earlier.

"What about Sparky?" asked Aurora, looking down at the pup in her clutches. Evidently, the dog was able to swim, but whether he was able to dive was another thing entirely.

"Oh, right... We'll figure something out. We can take turns or something," said Eternalis, while Lyntael seemed to be off in her own world, already beginning to swim off in the direction. "Come on, let's head over."

Content to just go with the flow for the moment, the three set off for a swim, with Sparky excitedly (and loudly) paddling to the lead towards Lyntael, with Aurora trailing shortly behind on her fast stroke. In the rear guard, Eternalis was leisurely floating over at his own pace, though not at an overly slow pace either. With the time they had, their time in the sun would still go on for some time, Eternalis thought, having quite completely forgotten about their initial situation.

The honest laughter and giggling that escaped amidst minor splutters during the short splash fight must certainly have presented an entirely different young girl to the one they'd met in other circumstances, but Lyntael was, for the most part, not conscious of just how dramatic the change and difference was. Rather as she stroked out ahead, followed quickly by sparky and her friends, she was focused on occasional glances beneath the water's surface to keep herself on track to the shapes she'd seen below the water from the shore.

In line with where one of the rocky buffs pushed out into the ocean, the rocks swiftly gave way to a raised ridge of coral growths beneath the waves, and as she drew closer, the structures could be seen to extend in a radiating paten across the sea bed, before linking up with a more structured reef, further out in the water. A bird's eye view would show that the outer reef formed a strong coastal barrier that protected the shoreline, and created wide pockets for smaller creatures to live, sheltered from the harshest movements of the tide and larger predators... and presumably from the majority of sea-dwelling viruses as well.

Beyond the first few breaker structures, the coral formations made a vast array of colours and shapes, with many spires curling up in the more familiar forked shapes, while other broad plates spread out in fans of reds, greens and pinks, to soak in filtering sunlight and drifting nutrients. Tall waves of sea grasses sprouted in between the more prominent structures, and covered much to the sea floor amongst the reef formations. In amongst the regular flow and ebb of the tide washing through the area, small reef fish and other squishy-looking critters darted about or hid at any disturbance in the water, small flashes of greens, blues and yellows zipping between the corals while slightly less mobile shellfish crept across the formations, trawling for food.

Lyntael dove beneath the surface once she was close, sinking down just enough to float near the sea bed and look around; the shapes made all sorts of passages and overhands, and a myriad of other nooks and hidden places to explore, and sheer volume of exciting and fascinating things for her to look at all at once left the girl feeling slightly dizzy and overwhelmed. It was still a bit of a mental effort to remind herself to breath normally; the impulse to hold her breath remained strong as she started to explore, swimming carefully. At one point, her eye caught on something in particular and she reached down through the waving grass before returning to the surface with her find.

It was a broad, curved shell, like an elongated dome and perfectly smooth. The underside curled in to make a seam along the base, leading into where she guessed a creature must once had lived. the possibility that, being a net-scape and designed for viewing, such shells might have been created and generated without ever having been lived in didn't occur to her; instead she stared bright-eyed at the patterning; the surface of the shell was a deep grey-blue, almost cloudy, and it was cut through by a lattice of yellow lines that zig-zagged back and forth along the length of the shell, which was small enough to fit across the length of her palm. After a few more moments marvelling at it, Lyntael looked up and around, waving and kicking back towards her companions.

"Look!" Was all she managed as she swam up, slightly breathless and in a hushed tone, to hold out the tiny treasure to both of them, showing it off. She could feel herself beaming as she glanced at them.

As Lyntael swam forward away from the group, Sparky began to catch up to her with his highspeed dog paddling. However just as the pup was approaching her, the girl took a dive into the water, causing him to stop suddenly, confused as to where she had gone. A few barks out into blank space didn't answer his confusion either, as Aurora caught up to him. Unlike Sparky, she had seen Lyntael dive into the water, and was able to see the girl exploring through the reefs through the crystal clear water, so Sparky's confusion only made her giggle.

"What's wrong, Sparky? Are you looking for something?" said Aurora. The dog replied to her with a couple of barks, before continuing his search. Meanwhile, she kept an eye towards the seabed, gently treading water as she did so. Shimmering reflections of the water's surface danced across the colorful coral constructions that spread out underneath them, with their light taken in by green sea grasses waving about in the water's gentle currents. A small school of golden-colored fish passed by them, though they disappeared just as quickly that Aurora wondered briefly whether they were actually tangible or merely projected images.

Eventually, she became aware of Eternalis, who had floated up to her. He started looking around as well, mimicking Sparky's behavior just seconds ago--the pup had resorted to doing small laps around Aurora instead. The similarity caused her to stifle a small chuckle, though she wasn't able to stop her amused smile. Oblivious to Aurora's amusement, Eternalis asked, "I guess Lyntael already dived down?"

"Yeah, she's right below us, if you couldn't tell," said Aurora, gesturing downwards with her eyes while she corraled Sparky around her. Eternalis followed her cue, just in time to see Lyntael break the surface to show off the results of her brief spelunking session. Her ascent was greeted first by Sparky, whose joyful barks elicited some laughter from his two owners. "Ahaha, I guess he missed you," said Aurora, holding Sparky back from splashing everywhere with his little paws.

"That's a pretty cool shell! Might make a good decoration for your room," said Eternalis, his smile practically about as glowing as Lyntael's. "I'm gonna get one for myself!" he said, before he effortlessly sank into the water, slipping out of the orange floaters on his arms as he did so. If they were to observe his descent, they would only see his pair of orange-patterned shorts and sun visor sinking into the water around his very faint outline, only showing up as his translucent blue when he came up against one of the colorful reefs.

While Eternalis took his dive, Sparky looked down with wonder, before struggling out of Aurora's arms, much to her surprise. "H-Hey!" exclaimed Aurora, as Sparky attempted to jump into the water and propel himself downwards to go after Eternalis. Unfortunately, all he ended up doing was kicking up a large amount of seawater, which Aurora had to shield herself from with her hands. "Sparky! Hey, stop! Come here, boy!" called out Aurora, after which the frantic splashing slowed down and turned into a slow circling motion, with the dog's eyes turned downwards towards his master.

In response to the pup's antics, Aurora could only giggle. "Honestly, those two are so impulsive," she said, looking out towards the water at the pup and his master, affection lingering in her eyes. She then turned to Lyntael. "So how was the dive? I'm not sure if I can do it myself, since I don't have anything like your Cross to help me dive. Makes me kind of jealous, really," she said, ending it with a mischievous-looking smile and a sideways glance.

Lyntael grinned and nodded again, elated by each of their remarks and continued to clutch the shell close to her chest with both hands, without really having anywhere else to put it. The excitement still had her a little bit out of breath, and there was a flushed glow in her cheeks.

"It's so pretty down there, and there's so much to see! I wouldn't want to take much away, but just one shell would be ok, right?" She found it easy enough to tread water while she caught her breath, even with her hands occupied, and stayed with Aurora as Eternalis went exploring. She couldn't stop herself giggling even so, as Sparky's valiant struggles bore only further splashing. She was wondering briefly at his apparent inability to dive deeper when Aurora's own comment made her look up, startled.

"You... can't? I mean, it's only a little way down, really... I, um, I think you'd probably only really need to think about equalising if you went right to the sea bed. you could probably just hold your breath, right? I'd give you my breather, but I don't know how to take this one off..." She frowned, thoughtful for a few moments, then giggled and swam in closer, leaning in with a conspiratorial smirk.

"Hey... I bet Eternalis could share air with you!" It was a stage whisper at best, and she giggled after it as well. Some of the flush on her cheeks had blossomed into a naughty blush. She wasn't quite sure how much of a thing the two were — The last time she'd tried to ask their conversation had been interrupted, but she was sure at least there was something there, and the suggestion was one part tease and one part girlish romantic, in her mind. "That's a thing that happens in books and movies, right, hehe... Oh, but..." Her blush grew brighter for a moment and she turned her face down, growing quickly shy. "I guess that would only really be fun to try if I wasn't about, right? sorry." She backed off again, biting her lip, then kicked back onto her back and let her body drift on the surface, the shell still clutched to the middle of her chest. She looked up at the blue of the sky above for a few moments, then closed her eyes.

"Hey... Aurora..." Her voice was quiet and a little distance, and the questioning tone dangled for a few moments as she groped for the right words to form what she was thinking. "Harke... cares about you and Eternalis, right? I mean... as people, and friends...?" She kept her eyes closed, feeling the sun on her skin and the cool water beneath her, her head tilted just enough to keep one ear comfortably above the surface so she could hear properly. she wasn't really sure, exactly ,where the line of questioning was going, but she'd started now, and she promised herself to walk it through regardless.

Lyntael's reaction to her comment made Aurora raise her hands above the water, waving them about as she tried to assuage the girl's concerns. "Ah, no, it's not because I can't hold my breath or anything, I just can't see very well if I dive, and we didn't exactly bring any goggles out here... Can't go sightseeing if you can't see, after all, right?" corrected Aurora, laughing slightly towards the end as her eyes trailed downwards once more at the diverse spectacle of life just under them. Under the dancing light reflections, she could make out a few blocks of orange--Eternalis's beachgear--weaving in and out of the reefs in exploration.

"I'm glad you had fun anyhow, but yes, one shell wouldn't be missed, I don't think. It's easy enough to replenish, after all," said Aurora mostly to herself, as she watched Lyntael happily clutching her little treasure to her chest. Sometimes it was the little things that mattered in thee kinds of experiences--even if, by some chance, they wouldn't be able to do this sort of thing any longer, at least she had a memento to remember it by. The line of thought somewhat depressed her, and Aurora directed her sight towards the horizon, watching the waves go by, with Lyntael and Sparky in the foreground to allow her previous thoughts to wash away.

Of course, just in time, Lyntael was there to completely blow away her moment of tranquility with her 'solution' to her predicament. "S-Share air?" Aurora's eyes widened at the suggestion, and her face immediately turned bright scarlet at the thoughts that naturally resulted from it. It was true, she had read at least one or two... slightly lower-quality pieces of literature that depicted such a technique, though it was generally an excuse to lead into much more lurid situations. Normally, she would have her own chair in the PET's living space to quietly sink into in flustered self-indulgence. However, out in the middle of the sea, presented with such a question, Aurora had no recourse but turn as red as a beetroot, flailing about as her thoughts began to spill out involuntarily out of her mouth. "N-No, I-I mean, I--I did say earlier that I don't have a problem with air... a-and I don't think I could ask him something like that! I-I think I've asked enough from him already--Oof!" she sputtered out, before being interrupted by something--a couple of barks and a sudden impact on her chest delivered an unexpected end to her panicked tirade.

It seemed that, at some point, Sparky had gotten concerned about his owner, thinking that she had been drowning or something of the sort. Before her, Sparky's hoverboard form spread out underneath her top half, supporting her from her earlier 'drowning'. Aurora sputtered and coughed from the impact, as she steadied herself on the board, while the pup's head, poking out from its front, continued barking at her in concern. She managed to make Sparky stop with a silently raised hand as she caught her breath, and calmed herself down. "Ha.. haa... s-sorry about that, I think I've calmed down a bit," she said, receiving a small lick from Sparky's rotated head. She returned it with a wry smile and some light patting.

The quiet that ensued afterwards allowed her to calm down further, as Lyntael kicked back to float freely on the water with the shell on her chest. As she laid her head on the board, Lyntael's question came forward, and she mulled over the question for a little while. The answer was obvious, of course, but the words were a little difficult to articulate. "Mmm, he does. The whole family, really. It's less like friends, it more feels like we're a part of their family as well, even if our worlds are so separated," she said, closing her eyes as she recalled her memories of events past. A few moments passed before she realized who she was talking with, and snapped back to attention. "A-Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to... um," mumbled Aurora, an expression of guilt written on her face. "Well, if nothing else, you kind of feel like a little sister to me now. I've never really taken care of anyone like this, so it makes me feel a little warm inside--eheh." Aurora's face turned red again slightly, as she buried half her face on the board, turning her eyes down.

Further explanation both solved Lyntael's curiosity and left her blinking briefly as she realised her mistake. The visual difficulty under the water hadn't occurred to her. She pondered the problem, wishing that she had thought to bring a separate pair of goggles or other eye wear with her, while she glanced down at her shell and listened to the lapping of the water and Sparky's errant splashing. One hand had darted up to her mouth to hide a fresh gale of laughter as Aurora reacted to her vaguely naughty suggestion. She was glad that the other woman hadn't taken the suggestion poorly, but she hadn't quite expected her to become that flustered; it took her almost as long to recover from her giggles as it did Aurora herself to calm back down. The transformation of the enthusiastic dog from puppy to flotation device once again caught her off guard, but she brushed it away after a few seconds and relaxed.

"Really?" She's been about to reassure Aurora about talking of her own family, but the admission from the other woman at the end of her apology gave Lyntael a soft jolt through her chest and she came upright again in the water with a small, startled splash. "You mean it...?" the words were a small, gasp, and even if she was turning her own eyes down, Aurora would certainly hear the guileless hope in the girl's voice. "I... I don't, I mean—" There was a breathless fluster before she continued, hands clutched tight around the shell at her chest while she tread water looking towards Aurora; her cheeks had flushed brightly again an she leaned forward towards her unconsciously, unaware of the tension and shock making the top half of her body tight. "I just... thank you! I don't know what to say, um.. thank you for saying that! really! I, um—" now it was Lyntael's turn to trip over her own words in a panicked fluster of embarrassment, though hers was grounded in unexpected elation more than anything else. For anyone else it might have been something of an over-reaction for a friendly side comment, but Aurora had seen her circumstances first hand at this point, so maybe it wasn't too surprising. After a few moments of breathless swallowing, Lyntael realised how much she was over-reacting and fussing and tried to regain something like decent composure, swallowing a few times.

"Thank you so much for saying!" she managed at last, in a calmer tone of voice. "You don't have to apologise for the rest, it's alright, really..." recalling to the more sombre part of the question, she quieted again; she smiled and shrugged, trying to keep the hints of sadness from her voice as she reflected on it. The smile was genuine, at least, buoyed up by the moment of joy. "I mean... that's normal, isn't it? That's how it should be, right? Family, and friends who love each other?" She lifted a hand to rub at her neck, glancing away a she pushed off embarrassment. Eventually, she slipped back onto her back and smoothed her features again, closing her eyes.

"The way it is with Rogan... that's not normal, right? I mean... He cares. I... think he does, maybe... Only, he really does believe that caring is misplaced, on me... so he doesn't want to, and tries not to, and acts like he doesn't, and then convinces himself it's the sensible way to act... that's not normal, right?" She realised she's said it twice, and sought other words quickly. "I just want him to see me, you know? He's... important, um, to me..." recently cooled, her cheeks blushed again. "But I can't even show it in a way he'll believe is 'real'." Unconsciously, her fingers began to trace across the yellow lines zig-zagging across the back of the shell; there was no texture difference, or any other sign, and with her eyes closed she couldn't see the pattern, but her finger tips moved with an unwary grace and delicacy. While she drifted, if aurora was watching, the metallic cuffs and anklets, as well as the other solid parts of her cross outfit took on a vaguely translucent shade, as the form came towards the end of its engagement. Lyntael herself wasn't aware of the sensation, lost in her own thoughts as she was, but even if it disengaged, she was still wearing her normal bikini underneath, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The reactions from Lyntael after her brief confession took her slightly by surprise, though mostly by its abruptness. Half of her had already anticipated the kind of emotional response from the girl, though it still made her smile that she was so happy about it. Floating along with the board, she playfully flicked a little water in Lyntael's direction, somewhat smaller than a full-on splashing, but just enough to spray against her face. "Hey, calm down, you'll tire yourself out like that," she laughed.

The next few words quieted her down again, as she wasn't able to give any sort of answer that she felt appropriate. Losing herself a little in her thoughts, she tried to piece the situation together. From what she could see, Lyntael had more than a mere 'worry' for her operator; it was more likely that the girl was in the same boat of 'love sickness' as she was. It was hard to deduce to what extent their relationship was from the scant few interactions that she had witnessed earlier, which didn't particularly give her a good image of the operator. Love was blind, they say, so Lyntael's own descriptions of Rogan, while they gave her an image of how the man looked to Lyntael, wasn't a great point of reference for the man's actual character. She began wondering whether the emotion had been genuine, or had been pre-implanted into her somehow--it was hard not to dismiss the notion when Lyntael's design itself had seemingly no point to it, besides perhaps to induce some concept of empathy.

It wasn't at all logical, but she thought--maybe, maybe she could help somehow in making that relationship less rocky. It was the least she could do, barring straight up spiriting the girl away, and she didn't think Harke would consent to that idea. "... About that, you know how you can make stuff in your PET now, right? You could try making something for him later--maybe you could even put in something useful into it so he can use it as a tool. Before this you were only able to do things that he asked you to--maybe you could take the initiative!" said Aurora, perking up a little, before laying her head back on the board, playing with the water in front of her as she swished it around.

"... Sorry, I can't really think of anything else. At least, that's what I did when I was trying to get closer to--" she began, before stopping suddenly. The reason was her hand feeling a strange resistance in the water, as it had collided into something. That 'something' was a pair of bright orange swimming trunks, along with a translucent orange visor, that had floated up from under the surface.

"..." Aurora's face had a confused, indecipherable look on it, but before anyone else could react, a loud splashing broke the surface of the water a little bit to the side, revealing the blob-like Eternalis poking his head of the water.

"I'm back!" he exclaimed, raising something in his hand high into the air. Clutched in his hand was a brilliant-looking piece of rainbow-colored spiky coral reef, varying its colors through all seven colors of the rainbow. Its spikes, radiating in all directions, looked slightly blunt, and shone in the sun. "Check it out! It took a little bit to pry this thing off but it was worth it!"

She had been hoping for a more direct answer, but after the short pause, and the way Aurora jumped to thinking about solutions and ways to help, she wasn't entirely surprised. It was confirmation enough, in its own way. The unspoken confirmation that Rogan's treatment of her was neither normal nor healthy was at one time a small relief to her, but also another point of sadness and worry. She tried not to brood on it as she listened to the other woman's suggestions, focusing on her voice through the sounds of the sea in her other ear.

The idea of making something that Rogan would actually find useful struck her as a really good idea, but the problem was in what... she pondered the thought silently while aurora chatted. it was hard enough to get him to look after his physical needs, and there wasn't anything she could do there that wasn't a function she herself should already be filling, if Rogan would let her... the same mostly went for the kinds of work he would normally have her do, but there had to be something...

Her eyes flicked open as Aurora trailed away, glancing over her way to see what had interrupted her. The sight of Eternalis' swim trunks made her sit up immediately, putting one hand to her mouth to cover a vaguely mortified giggle of laughter. One part of her knew that it wasn't really embarrassing and indecent, all things considered, but she still felt the natural reaction to the situation making her respond that way and she kicked once to glide around behind Aurora, peeking at the place where the owner of the lost swim wear surfaced from over the other woman's shoulder.

Her mostly feigned shyness evaporated completely, however, when he showed off his own find, and she clustered in quickly to get a better look at it, cooing softly with a broad grin.

"Wow...." The word drew out for the length of a breath. "I saw a lot of really nice formations but that's so perfect! It looks beautiful! There's the full spectrum right across it, like some kind of travel photo!" Leaning in closer to inspect, her face an eager grin, it was at about that moment when the fading of her cross outfit finally disengaged, and the gel covering disappeared along with the metallic cuffs. Lyntael gasped softly; the suit had felt mostly like it wasn't there, and the feeling of water on her skin had been almost indistinguishable, but not quite, and the fading of it still produced a subtle change in the sensation and a slight edge of cold as the water moved in.

"Ack! Ugh, bad timing!" Pushing away from Aurora slightly, Lyntael splashed and flailed for a moment; the cross had faded and left her in her simple bikini, minimal as it was, but in its place it had also reverted to the dress she'd been wearing when it engaged the first time, and the garment was now soaked and dragging at her slightly. Fortunately, the dress was thin, light and without nay extravagant tailoring, so it wasn't too much of a problem, but Lyntael still found herself splashing a little as she struggled to deal with it. "Should have thought of— sorry, it's fine, just a second..." she took a breath and ducked below the surface, letting herself sink enough to free up her movements. It only took an extra second or two to let it straighten out in the current, then pull her arms in and slip out of it, catching the garment up in her spare hand and returning to the surface again.

"Sorry... Wasn't expecting that... I'm ok, just..." With an effort, she tried to fold the dress over a couple of times, wondering what to do with it, out from shore as they were. Two small snaps of sparks jumped between strands of her hair as she shook the water off her head, and she blushed. "That's kind of inconvenient..." it was a small mumble while she tried to fold the garment further. she glanced to the two of them, putting a small amount of water between herself and her friends unconsciously as she did, and gave them an apologetic grin.

"I guess I can try the other one now, for a bit." Her features brightened as another thought occurred to her on top of that. "Oh! Then I can give you my breather and eye mask too, and you can have them for a bit!" This, she directed to Aurora, beaming just as suddenly. "I know how to take that one off, from the other cross, so I should be able to give it to you just fine, I think! Want me to try it?" In her mind she was already thinking and reaching for the sensation that she knew was tied to the brief friendship she'd formed with Di; they hadn't really swapped details, and she'd never encountered the friendly figure again, but it was always nice to recall an unexpected friend in a time of need.

Having triumphantly displayed his find, Eternalis grinned as he held the piece of rainbow coral, right before he had something thrown into his face. "Oof!" An orange color completely obscured his vision before he peeled it off with his other hand, finding it to be a pair of brightly-patterned swimming trunks. Shortly after, an orange sun visor came spinning towards him and hit him square in the forehead, thrown by a very amused-looking Aurora, with a bashful-looking Lyntael hiding behind her.

"Alright, alright, no need to throw 'em at me!" laughed Eternalis, as he set aside the beach attire in one hand, while Lyntael came in for a closer look at the rainbow coral. Turning it around, he let the brilliant piece of sea life shine in the sunlight from a few angles. "Nice, isn't it? Honestly it kind of looks like a lamp--I wonder if these spines are translucent," he said. Right as he did, however, Lyntael seemed to have a wardrobe malfunction, though thankfully more in the opposite manner, as her sundress reappeared from her cross disengaging. "Oh, speaking of which."

"Lyntael!" called out Aurora, before the girl mentioned that she wasn't in any danger, and dove into the water to extract herself from the weight of the dress. She breathed a sigh of relief as Lyntael resurfaced with the dress in hand. "Don't scare me like that..." she said. Seeing that they were out in the middle of the water, however, the dress was going to be a problem, with nowhere to store it. Then, she had a small idea, and held out her hand to Lyntael. "Oh, you can give me the dress, I can put it on Sparky before we go back to shore. He'll keep it safe, at least in this form," she said. Sparky's head turned at the mention of his name, and he barked happily in response.

Then, Lyntael brought out the idea of trying out her other Cross. "... Oh, that's not a bad idea. At least, if you're sure you can do it in the middle of the water," said Eternalis. Aurora agreed, and added her own comment. "That'd be nice, yes. I'd hope it's decent, too, at least. There aren't any coconut trees for Eternalis to look at out here," she joked.

Even water-logged, there really was barely anything to the slip of fabric that made up her dress, but it was still enough of a hassle to be an annoyance, this far from shore. Lyntael nodded quickly to aurora's offer, and floated the garment over to her with a rueful grin, careful not to let herself come too close to the other woman; she'd felt the jolt in her charge from the moment of shock, and heard the snaps in her hair, even if it had only been for a brief second, and she was wary of excess current slipping through the water. Despite her caution, Aurora's warning still made her giggle and she nodded.

"Don't worry! I made this one myself! Well, I mean," her head tilted slightly as she considered. "That is, I designed it for fun one time, and I was really thinking about it being worn by someone attractive and sexy-looking, you know? I wasn't ever really thinking about wearing it myself..." she shook her head, blushing lightly and casting her eyes at the water before continuing. "But then this cross used it as a template the first time it activated. That's sort of how I worked out how to tweak and edit cross appearances, really, just by reverse engineering what happened that time." One finger on her free hand had risen in the water to trace a small circle around her emblem as she mused; aurora and Eternalis had seen the unconscious behaviour a few times now, though it didn't seem to mean anything.

"Anyway!" She looked up again and grinned. "I just need to focus. I'm still learning how to do this, sort of..." She frowned down at herself in the water, then looked about, her eyes settling on Sparky. "Um, could I climb on for a second?" She glanced back to Aurora and Eternalis for permission, then kicked over to the Sparky surf-board rather than continuing to tread water while she concentrated. The board was at least large and stable enough for a girl as small and light as Lyntael to hoist herself up on without any trouble, and she sat upright on it side-on and with her knees together, feet in the water, then closed her eyes and focused.

The first most obvious change that actually started to happen was that her hair dropped flat again, along with the faintest sensation of wind dropping around her. It was almost like a faint ripple and as it fell down across her body the other changes followed. Underneath the small bikini top, a slim, snug-fitted chest band formed, made of a thin blue wetsuit material and trimmed with a yellow edge along the top and bottom. It pinched in slightly at the centre of her chest, and again at the sides, under where her arms rested, though the back remained broad. It was fastened by a front zip at the centre — an undeniably racy choice of placement- as well as a zip at the back. Both were protected by fabric cover-guards, though the quick-zip design at the front only had about four teeth to it, so a single sharp tug on the tab would probably unfasten it. On the whole, the top was modest by definition — it showed no cleavage and covered the chest area properly and completely — but at the same time the design itself was clearly designed to entice and suggest, as well as being flattering on a woman of small endowment. The other bikini top remained in place as well, a little bit loose over the new one, which was hugging and supporting her chest more firmly now.

The ripple continued downwards, passing over her navel and leaving the small yellow sunburst piercing there untouched, before it reached her hips and gave form to a new, equally snug bikini bottom, made of the same thin wetsuit material as the top. As before, this piece formed underneath the stringy bikini she was already wearing, and it matched the style and design of her top, with a down-curving yet still modest modest cut at the front and a straight cut at the back. The bottom piece thinned down substantially at the sides, where it sported a matching pair of quick-zips on each hip, in complimentary opposed placement to the zips on her top. Like the the zip at her chest, these ones were positioned at the thinnest point at her hips, and each was only about four teeth long, but they were also covered by protective fabric fold-over guards that would prevent anything less than a deliberate tug on the tab from causing problems. Once again, the result was a piece that was entirely modest, technically speaking, but nevertheless was sexy, suggestive and complimenting of a slight figure.

Oddly, while the bikini that she had been wearing remained in place over the new outfit, the dress, that had been placed on the board alongside her, disappeared again as the change completed. Lyntael opened her eyes and let out a breath, then looked down at herself and felt her cheeks pink again slightly. She was getting more used to wearing this one, but it still made her blush when she contemplated it. She looked up at Aurora and Eternalis then grinned and held her arms out.

"All done! Oh, I should... one sec..." She leaned back on the board for a moment, then pulled her legs up, and carefully stood, taking just an extra second or two to steady her balance against the rocking of the water. Fortunately, she was small and light, the board was large, and Lyntael's own balance was fairly exceptional when she wasn't stressed, so getting her balance was no real problem. Once she was up, she wrinkled her nose at the still-clinging string bikini and quickly pulled the ties on both pieces, pulling them off now that they were only getting in the way. She giggled briefly, then presented herself again and turned around once for her friends to see.

"What do you think? I was going for a sporty look!" Once she was sure they'd both had a chance to see her design, Lyntael dived off the board and back into the water. When she came up, she carefully placed her shell on the board, alongside her discarded string bikini, then turned and moved across to Aurora and Eternalis.

"So, the breather and the visor work like this..." She focused mostly on Aurora once she began to instruct. She turned her head and lifted her hair to reveal a small compact pod behind each ear. She tapped them once each together, and a slim blue visor expanded outwards to cross over her eyes, in matching style to her outfit. Another tap, lightly in the centre of the visor, at the bridge of her nose, made it recede back into the ear pods again. Next she made a slightly different gesture, this time running her fingertips over the back of the pods instead of tapping them. The action caused a slim breather to unfold down across her jaw and over her mouth, and repeating the action retracted it again. Grinning, Lyntael reached up and pulled the two pods away from her ears and then held them out to Aurora instead. "They'll attach snugly on their own once you put them in place. You won't even feel them once they're there!" She was beaming happily at the solution to Aurora's diving problem, white teeth bright and neat as she handed the device over.

"Now you can dive too! It's really amazing down there, you'll love it!" She debated mentioning that, aqua cross or not, she still wouldn't be able to breath or see clearly underwater herself without the visor and breather, but held her tongue on that score; she would much rather Aurora get a chance to see the reef like they had.

"Sure, go ahead. Ah, could you stay still for a bit, Sparky? Don't run off with her," said Aurora. Sparky barked lightly in affirmation, and oriented himself to allow Lyntael to make her way atop the canine-powered surfboard. She would find it surprisingly stable, due to the pup's efforts to account for the waves as well as Lyntael herself. As the transformation took place, all three of them turned to watch, with Sparky's head rotating around completely in order to face in reverse. Thankfully, the change went off without a hitch, and both Eternalis and Aurora internally sighed in relief, at least considering the previous events.

"Oh, looks good! Pretty speedy-looking," commented Eternalis, his blue hand rising from the water to flash a thumbs up.

"Same here. Blue and yellow makes for a pretty nice combination, if I do say so myself," agreed Aurora with a giggle. The third member of their party had less to say about the new outfit besides yapping in excitement at the strange 'new person' that had suddenly appeared on the board. His new rider didn't seem to want to stay for very long, however, as she jumped back into the water after discarding her previous outfit. As Lyntael stored her belongings on him, however, Aurora mentally noted that the dress that she had accepted earlier seemed to have vanished. Perhaps it was a side effect of the override system that Lyntael's programming had unwittingly induced. Her brief distraction was cut off by Lyntael parting her hair to retrieve a pair of earpods from her ears.

"Oh, thank you," said Aurora, receiving the twin earpods. "Alright, let's see..." she muttered, examining them briefly. They looked a lot like her own ear protectors, though she hardly ever took them off without changing overrides entirely. Sure enough, once she parted her hair to put on the devices, they fit on exactly like her own, and she intuitively found the controls similar to her own that she used to activate her communicator and heads-up display visor, albeit with the former replaced by the face mask. She dunked her face into the water for a few moments, and found that she was able to breathe normally, before resurfacing.

"Alright! Seems to be working fine. I'll see you guys in a bit, then," said Aurora happily, though her beaming smile was less visible through the mask. With one smooth motion, she dove into the water. Eternalis and Sparky turned their view downwards, following her swimming motions through the crystal clear surface. While Sparky's panting was pretty much constant, Eternalis in comparison was relatively quiet for a little while. A slightly subdued sigh escaped through his soft-looking smile, before he turned back to Lyntael.

"Man, it's really beautiful down there, isn't it?" he said. Then, as if catching himself, he raised his head, hurriedly adding, "Ah, I mean, the reefs and all. The fish were really colorful, too. I tried to see if I could catch one, but they're a bit too slippery for me. Wonder what they taste like."

Pleased with the compliments to her design, Lyntael was mostly relieved that that neither Aurora nor Eternalis had baulked or reacted to it as being 'too' sexy for her to wear, like one or two others who had seen the outfit had. She had to admit that she still felt a bit nervous wearing it where others could see — it took a little while to stop being conscious of just how easily the different parts of the swim wear could be undone, as at least one embarrassing moment had shown last time she wore it. She grinned and nodded as Aurora confirmed that the breather and mask were all working properly for her, and waved as her friend dived under.

She let her eyes follow, unconsciously tracing out the more feminine curves of Aurora's figure and banishing a small sigh before it could surface, then grinned again and turned back to Eternalis with a giggle and a small splash of water.

"Liking what you're watching, hmm? Hehe..." she splashed again, biting her lip as her eyes danced with amusement. She relented after a moment, letting the joke go, and calmed, ducking her own head down for a bit and looking at the suddenly much blurrier shapes moving about below. When she lifted her head again she kicked over to sparky and carefully climbed up again, now sitting side on once more, knees together and feet in the water.

"Do you think they're edible? I never thought of it. It's kind of strange, really..." thinking about food and eating drew her thoughts to the topic like an arrow, and with a strange amount of clarity, and the girl let herself ramble in a contented voice. "For the first few months, I never really ate anything... It was just..." She paused, thoughtful, her brow furrowed, then shrugged and leaned back a bit, hands behind her. "It never came up. I'd make sure Rogan ate when he needed to, of course, but, I was always just in the PET, or I'd just watch him eat, and I didn't ever ask because I knew he'd just scoff at that, but it didn't really seem to matter..." She shook her head then turned a bit so that she could lie flat on the board on her back, eyes closed against the sun light. Her feet moved so that one of her knees went off the side, into the water, but the other stayed close to the edge, keeping a somewhat decent pose.

"Then, about... a few days ago? I think? I was helping someone with a problem, on a cruise ship, and one of the pirates fed me because she thought I looked skinny, and it was..." For a few moments her voice trailed off, and there was a small visible wriggle across the rest of her body as she recalled the somewhat indescribable sensation of tasting food for the first time. "I mean, I don't really know how to put words on it. I know what it was; it was a lemon tart. And I know all about theory behind qualia, and why I can't describe it, you know? But that doesn't really help me communicate what it was like!" She shook her head without opening her eyes, but lifted her foot to feel the sensation of the water receding from it, then wriggled her toes at the edge of the water, focusing on the feeling that it gave.

"But... Ever since, I've started to get this strange feeling, and sometimes it's stronger than other times, but it hasn't actually gone away at all." She pulled one hand up to press it softly against her middle, where the distantly uncomfortable feeling nestled. "I think it must be hunger — but I don't really know. I've never felt it before, and I haven't said anything to Rogan because he'd just dismiss it anyway. It always gets strongest when I think about food though..." True to her words, the sensation was back again now, and she felt the vibrations in her hand at the same time as the tell-tale sound of an unfed stomach reached her ears. Despite herself, she blushed slightly and tried to move on from the moment as quickly as she could, sitting up again and looking back to Eternalis properly. She sat astraddle the board now, feet in the water on either side and with her hands in front of her. She reached out to rub at Sparky's head and pacify his enthusiasm a little.

"A-anyway. I'm sure it's nothing important... but if you're going to try a fish you should probably cook it first. I'm pretty sure that's important if you don't want to get sick." She grinned suddenly struck by an absurd thought that reduced her to giggles the more she thought about it. "Or you could..." she lost the thread and fought to stifle more giggles.

"Or you could swallow them whole, and they'd probably be fine, and we could watch them swimming around inside, hehe!" The sheer ridiculousness of the mental image that had been conjured reduced her to another gale a giggling, and she glanced down at the water again, half looking for fish and half checking on Aurora. She could feel the sun on her back as she looked — she'd probably have to reapply her sunscreen soon, a side thought occurred to her.

Making her way down into the water, Aurora took in the sights in front of her with wonderment--she had never actually ventured far into the 'natural' simulated areas before. At least, not outside of Sharo's network, and that was mainly a lot of winter and not a lot of life. Here, however, she was able to feel the warmth of the water as it teemed with life, with seafloor plants, corals, and fish spreading out in a harmonious display of color. She breathed in sharply, taken in by the beauty around her that the fact that she was breathing normally didn't register to her.

Kicking down towards the seabed, she experimentally touched one of the soft-looking corals that dotted the landscape, and it wiggled about in response. Another one was less responsive to her touch, as its skeletal exterior wasn't as soft. The seabed felt as smooth as the beach sand as well when she touched it, letting it filter through her fingers and wash away in the underwater currents. A little giggle could be heard through the breather mask as she kicked off again, slinking through a nearby forest of kelp.

Meanwhile, on the surface, Eternalis was floating along with Lyntael, using his buoyancy to simply stay in place instead of treading water. "Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't!" said Eternalis, laughing in response to Lyntael's joke. Then, as he brought up the topic of food, the reception from Lyntael was more than he'd expected, with even Sparky listening attentively, holding himself steady for the girl to sit, and eventually lie on. He looked up at the bright sun, and donned the sun visor that had floated up to the surface a little while ago while Lyntael told her story. He left the shorts floating about for the moment, as he figured he could just drag them offshore and put them back on there. Lyntael's story was punctuated with a few gurgling sounds, which signaled the truth of her tale.

Eternalis let out an amused chuckle, while Sparky nuzzled himself against Lyntael's hand, receiving her patting enthusiastically. "Hungry, huh? I guess that's not so strange, considering your circumstances, but--Navis don't have any notion of eating as a requirement, as far as I know. Though the first time I tried it, it wasn't bad. It was some kind of street food they serve in Yoka, converted to a similar form in the Net... I'd take you there, but it's a bit far off as far as I know. Maybe they have something similar here, if we can find it," he said. Lyntael then continued the conversation, making a suggestion about how they would prepare the fish. The slime monster-like Navi laughed heartily at her jest. "I don't think they'd taste very good while flopping around like that!" he replied, with Lyntael's giggling infecting him with mirth as well.

At that moment, the surface of the water broke, and Aurora resurfaced, shaking her hair slightly. She drew her hair back while disengaging the visor and mask and breathed in the surface air. "Whew, I'm back! That was pretty fun. I didn't bring anything back up, though, I figured Sparky's running out of room," said Aurora, her joyful smile evident from the experience. "--though, what were you guys laughing about?"

His laughing dying down a little, Eternalis managed to calm down enough to respond to Aurora's query. "Hahaha, ah, no, sorry, it was just some joke about how I eat. Speaking of which, do you think they have anything to eat? I want to try it again," said Eternalis.

"Oh, that's a good idea! Lyntael?" asked Aurora, turning to the girl seated on the board.

As the two chatted on the water's surface, Lyntael thought again about Eternalis' answers, and the things she'd heard from others, and from Eric. The more she met other navigators, the more she saw what she'd only very vaguely understood at first; that the little details that were just life for her, were more unusual for others. She knew that most of other navis didn't really need to eat, but more than that, to fully understand that most didn't have any particular notion of it being a thing that was important, was strange for her... and yet here she was, feeling these sensations ever since she had first done so, and, if she was completely honest wit herself about it... feeling like her skirt and her vest were just a little bit looser about her hips and shoulders than they had been a week ago. Parts of an authentic life, maybe... but she wouldn't have said that Aurora, or Eternalis, or anyone else she knew, were any less for not having those needs, like she did.

Her thoughts were broken by Aurora's return and she grinned and waved to her, glad to see that the mask and breather were working out as intended. Eternalis beat her to the answer as another faint sensation from her middle made the smaller girl blush again and rub at her neck in embarrassment.

"Now that we're thinking and talking about it, it's actually getting really, ah... pointed, I guess?" she put a hand to her middle again and ducked her head in apology. "The feeling quiets down normally, if I don't think about it, or distract myself, but now it's on my mind..." She frowned softly, then poked at her belly with one finger a few times, like she was scolding it, leaning back on the board with her other hand as she did. "There might be somewhere around if we look, I guess. Not many places are ever too far from civilisation if you look for it, right?" She looked up to glance between the other two, then grinned and shrugged.

Shifting her position so that she wasn't indecently straddling the board with her thighs wide any more, and instead pulling up so she could sit back on her heels with her knees mostly together, Lyntael picked up her shell and the other things that had been left to rest on the board, then leaned forward to pat Sparky's head again and point towards the land.

"To shore!" It mostly came out as a giggle; she didn't actually know how self-mobile Sparky really was in this form, but there was only one way to find out, after all. Depending on how self-propelled he turned out to be, Lyntael moved to lie forward and pitch in with her own arms, if it seemed necessary, otherwise she was more than happy to sit back on her heels and enjoy the breeze.

By the time they got back to the beach, her first few steps were to wade out of the surf and towel off quickly. Once she was mostly dry, the next step was to wring out her other bikini and lay the pieces of it on her towel, over her shoulder, and reclaim the beach towel from the sand, shaking it out. The beach towel went into her shoulder bag, and the bikini got wrapped up in her drying towel, and stowed in a similar fashion, before the girl finally tucked her shell neatly into the bag, applied a fresh coat of sunscreen, then put it away as well. The whole process would probably look considered and thought-out to the others, despite the fact that they both knew Lyntael had never been to a beach properly before. There was a clean, sensible and neat method to her pack-up. Eventually she slipped the shoulder bag over one shoulder and put her sun hat back on, though the sporty, form-hugging swim-wear from her cross was still engaged. She took a long breath and let it out again, wriggling her toes in the sand and enjoying the freshly dried off feeling now that she was out of the water, then beamed at her companions with a happy smile.

"Which way should we head? There might be something further around the bluff... It looked like walking track started there, and I think there's usually shops and cafes and things at the ends of those... right...?" Her head tilted a little, unsure of the source of that particular impression.

As Lyntael's stomach complained audibly once again, all three of the remaining beachgoers turned in her direction, most likely only serving to amplify her embarrassment. "Oh, that makes two of us, then," joked Aurora, unaware of Eternalis's sympathetic smile -- he had tried to breach the topic without directing attention to their new friend, after all. "We'll go and take a look around, then," he said. He turned to survey how far they had gotten away from the shore--it was a fair distance away. Swimming back would take some time, especially considering Aurora was still catching her breath for the moment.

"To shore!"

However, when he turned back, Lyntael seemed to have had other ideas, mounting Sparky and urging the pup forward. The living hoverboard seemed to have no qualms with the idea, barking happily at Lyntael's command. The board's thrusters whined to life before erupting with an explosive noise, sending it clear across the surface while splashing out an enormous amount of water everywhere. When the splashback cleared away, Eternalis saw that Aurora had the foresight to re-engage the visor and breather mask that Lyntael had given her, protecting her from the splash. She shook away the water from her hair while the mask disengaged. He himself wasn't affected by the splashback, due to his elemental alignment, but he had still turned away from it, due to the sheer force.

Both of them looked at each other briefly before breaking out in laughter. "Well, that was something. Hope she doesn't fall off or anything," said Aurora, wiping away a few tears of mirth.

"She'll stay on, at least. Sparky's made for that. Whether she's fine after that, though, we'll have to see for ourselves," said Eternalis.

"Oh, yeah, we'd better check on her, then," said Aurora. Then, a thought came to her mind, with a mischievous grin to accompany it. "... Want to race?"

Eternalis's eyes widened for a moment, before his expression changed to match Aurora's. "You're on."

---

Towards the end of Lyntael's tidying up, she would hear a loud pair of voices bellowing at top volume coming from the water, accompanied by the sound of water being kicked up en masse. Then, the blue figure of Eternalis lunged out from the water, running at top speed with his arms up in the air. "Yeeeeeah, I win!" he cried out, laughing uproariously as he did so with nothing on but the orange sun visor he had on earlier--it seemed like he had forgotten it behind.

Trailing shortly behind, Aurora dragged herself out of the water, breathing heavily as she did so. While she had been defeated in the race, she seemed to be smiling regardless, her body glistening from the sun reflecting off of her skin. The water seemed to interfere with the greenish pattern on her sarong as well, causing it to swirl about erratically in an eye-catching manner. "Hah... guess I can't... a water elemental... in the water... heh," she said, grinning as she drew her fingers through her wet hair.

Eternalis, meanwhile, seemed to not have as much of a problem with being soaked, as the water simply trickled off of his body, though he seemed to be also recuperating from the impromptu race. With his arms at his sides, he looked around Lyntael, and noticed the absence of the beach towel, and the packed bag slung over her shoulder. "Oh, you already finished packing up? Yeah, we can head out that way. Don't worry about us, we'll catch our breath along the way," said Eternalis, turning to Aurora, who merely nodded in agreement, still somewhat out of breath.

Sparky's zeal for self-propulsion probably shouldn't have come as a surprise to Lyntael, given what she'd seen of him in combat already, but regardless, the sudden splash was met with a startled shriek that mostly broke into laughter as she clung on across the remaining water to shore. she hadn't actually meant to leave the others behind, truth be told, but the excitement of the sudden speed ride swiftly got away with her.

By the time the others had caught up and Lyntael had packed up her beach things, the thoughts about getting food were making the consistent feeling in her middle gnawingly pronounced. She grinned and waved to the pair as they emerged, out of breath in Aurora's case, then crouched fora moment to fuss at Sparky's ears with a giggle.

"Sorry, hehe... I didn't think he'd go so fast! But you went really, really fast, didn't you?" The latter was mostly directed to the pup, of course, along with a continued helping of pets and ruffles. That taken care of she stood again and fell in step with the other two, walking towards the track that led around the bluffs, further up the beach.

The path itself wound around trees and rock rises as it made its way up the headland. It was shady and sheltered from the brightest of the sun, but the breeze still rushed through the least-resistant channel formed by the pathway, cool, and with a hint of fresh sea in it. The boards underfoot were built well enough that very little sand came through, and most of it had faded to solid ground by the time the board walk crested the first bluff. The path continued across an open space and down the other side, but a section of flat land had been marked off with a fence, to create a look-out at the top of the cliff.

Lyntael couldn't help herself from rushing across to the rail as they reached the midway point, leaning on it a little to look out across the beach and the sea on either side and draw a long deep breath of the higher air. She vaguely wanted to lean out in the breeze a little more, but the railing itself came up to her chest, and she didn't exactly want to climb on it. Instead, she shifted along a few feet to where a bench had been placed against the rail, for relaxing, and climbing on that instead, kneeling on it so that she could put her elbows on the top of the rail, and rest her head on her hands with a contented sigh.

"I don't really want this afternoon to end..." she murmured, to whichever of her friends were close enough to listen. "It's so nice out here, but then I think about having to go home again, and I think about how I'm not even supposed to be here, because Rogan wants me to be 'training', and I just... I wish I could stay this way for a while longer." As the breeze ruffled her hair, Lyntael closed her eyes; if not for the feeling of hunger still niggling at her, she thought she might almost have felt drowsy, after the swimming and the sun. It was just so pleasant. Without opening her eyes, she rocked her head a little, feet kicking slightly as the rest of her body swayed back and forth. "Why can't it always be like this...?"

The view from the small look out was fairly spectacular, giving a good side perspective of the long beach, with its many secluded coves and inlets, to one side. To the other side, a longer stretch of pure white beach with a single broad curve continued for almost as far, with a boardwalk visible across the dunes, serving as the main path front for several beach shacks, swim-wear shops and businesses that offered everything from tropical drinks, to pub meals, to beach-cultural options from about a dozen different cultures from other parts of the world. Juice bars looked to be mixed in with more serious cocktail bars, all with enthusiastic signage, though most of it was hard to read from this far away.

Closer to home, anyone looking directly at Lyntael might notices the beginnings of a fading shimmer about her sporty swim-wear — it had probably been engaged for about as long as her first outfit by this point, and without active combat routines to keep it engaged, was likely running out of time. Lyntael, still with her eyes closed took a few more seconds to rest her head and yawn while she enjoyed the breeze around the bluff.

After having transported his rider successfully, Sparky happily panted in happiness as he was rewarded with a generous patting and ruffling session. He reciprocated in kind, reaching up to shower her with enthusiastic licks and barks, before Lyntael stood back up again, out of his reach. Fortunately, he had Aurora's company shortly after, running around her feet excitedly as she started to catch her breath from the intense race, while Eternalis led the way with Lyntael.

"Well, it's not like we can't sneak in some 'training' while we're here. I'm quite surprised we haven't met any viruses; they've got to show up sooner or later," said Eternalis, looking out towards the rolling waves from the small lookout that Lyntael had let them to. It was rather strange that they hadn't found any hostile viruses just yet--it was as if the little nook was secluded from the rest of the network somehow. An idea came to his head, as he attempted to bring up the heads up display that Aurora's visor had bestowed on him before, but it didn't come up when he tried.

Slightly confused, he turned behind them to ask Aurora herself about their current location--but there was a surprise waiting for him: the girl and their canine companion were nowhere to be seen. He looked up at the sky briefly, wondering if they had flown up ahead of them, but the airspace around them was empty as well. However, before he could worry more about the two, he (and by extension Lyntael nearby) would register a high-pitched cry of excitement.

Snapping to attention towards the source of the noise, Eternalis saw a huge black beast leap up into the sky and land onto the lookout with a crash, just behind where Lyntael and Eternalis had set themselves out. It appeared to be a large canine beast, with wild, smoky black fur, with light red streaks across it. Black armor with dark red trim protected its body, and menacing claws and serrated fangs completed the scary-looking ensemble.

Or, well, what it should have been.

Instead, a happy-looking expression clearly showed itself on the beast's face. Its glowing green eyes, which would have looked menacing otherwise, happily sparkled as its tongue hung out in excited pants. Atop the beast, a familiar face waved out at them.

"Hi, guys! Sorry for the scare!" said Aurora from atop the beast's back. "Let me down, please, Sparky," she continued, after which her ride gently lowered himself down to allow Aurora to leap off gracefully. Sparky then took the chance to drench Eternalis in drool with a few enthusiastic licks, punctuated by his master laughing and pushing the pup-turned-wolfbeast away.

Meanwhile, Aurora hopped over to Lyntael with her hands behind her back, while Eternalis was left to deal with Sparky's scaled-to-size enthusiasm. "Had to one up you somehow," she grinned, wiping away the sweat from having rode Sparky's large form up the cliff. She surveyed the area quickly, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand. "What a view! Did you find any places? We'll be able to get anywhere nearby pretty quickly if we all ride Sparky."

"I'm glad nothing has tried to attack us..." Lyntael's relaxed murmur answered back quietly as Eternalis chatted to her. She didn't look up or open her eyes, but keep talking softly as she continued to enjoy the breeze on her skin and the cool of the shade. "I'd only really want to run away again, and find somewhere safer. It's not their fault they're like that, mostly." Now she did open her eyes and look up again, though it was to look out over the sea and the beach head, rather than facing Eternalis directly. The relaxed tone of her voice took on a slight wistfulness.

"I've met some viruses that were nicer and more friendly than some navigators. I... at least they're never... malicious..." she hesitated on finding the right words. The initial instinct had been to say that at least viruses didn't try to force themselves on people, but she bit that back and settled for something more tactful. "That is, I mean... I've been hurt worse by other navigators, than I ever have by any virus... I don't really see why I can't just avoid them."

She was about to turn back towards the others, to keep moving, but what started as a slow turn to clamber down off the bench became a startled jerk and a brief tumble backwards as Aurora's loud shout and the sudden appearance of Sparky's massive, dark form got everyone's attention. Lyntael managed to catch herself as the shadow passed over them and landed with a crash, twisting to land even as she reeled back, to still get both feet and one hand to the ground neatly. That was about as far as instinct took her, however, and her voice tightened to give only a short squeak of surprise as she pressed herself back against the railing as she took in the huge creature.

The shock lasted a few extra seconds while her mind processed everything that her eyes were taking in, and between eventually registering that Aurora was on the creature's back, and that Eternalis didn't seem worried, she looked closer at the beast. Her chest still rose and fell in a sudden shallow pant but wide eyes took in more details and she swallowed, putting the connections together. When Aurora announced her dismount and sidled over to her, Lyntael glanced up at her with a shaky grin and put a hand to her chest, feeling the beat of her heart and trying to slow it with a few longer breaths. She didn't have any words right away, but managed a somewhat nervous giggle that gained strength as she focused on the apparent monster's expression and his enthusiasm for Eternalis, and realised that, giant intimidating form or not, this was still sparky, only now with more drool. She stilled her giggles to give Aurora a grin and a nod, confirming that she was alright and not too shocked.

"I had no idea he could change so much... how does that even work? I had to do some real careful manipulating to get two separate outfits into a single override... how does he even manage that... or is it something else...?" She shook her head, giggling again at Eternalis getting his licks. "Oh but yes, it looks like there's a bunch of things down the far side of the bluff. Maybe that's why there aren't any viruses around?" She glanced back across and down to where she'd seen the shops and food places already, then back towards the giant pup. He certainly looked large enough for the three of them to ride safely, as far as she could guess. She walked forward cautiously towards him. As she stepped away, Aurora might also now notice the beginnings of shimmer at the edges of her swim wear, but Lyntael reached up her hands, oblivious to this as she tried to say her own hello to the much-grown support program.

"Sparky...?" She started with an attempt to ruffle his fur, but with a barely restrained giggle was quietly bracing herself for when his attention turned her way. If he did turn her way, it would be with a similar sort-of-trying, sort-of-not effort that she 'fended off' his likely tongue-heavy response. Her laughter was giggly and high-pitched and she was fairly quick to let herself be overcome once she was sure that this really was Sparky and that she was safe. When the tongue was as large as she was, she quickly ended up going down underneath, on her back while she laughed and spluttered and ruffled at his cheeks and neck all the while. She was at least trying to keep the tongue away from her own mouth, as best she could, but was mostly a futile effort anyway, at this stage. Small feigned protests and denials punctuated her laughs.

After a few moments of this, however, Aurora might catch sight of something odd that she hadn't seen before; up on Sparky's now much larger back, the thin dress that comprised the main part of Lyntael's beach outfit had reappeared in more or less the same relative place she'd left it before. By a twist of fortune, it seemed as though it had reformed in place 'on Sparky's back' rather than out in the ocean where he'd been when it had disappeared, but the presence of the dress raised an immediate worry. Lyntael's sounds of amusement suddenly took on a more serious, firm tone.

"Hehe... Hey, no... hahh.. ah!? Wait... sparky, no, ack! Wait.. stop, stop! That feels like my.. eek, Sparky! No, just..." Lyntael was left with both of her arms straining up and over her head to one side, face turned away, to keep the whole of Sparky's eager head and tongue up and away from her as she pushed herself to her knees. This left Aurora, however, and possibly Eternalis as well, with a full view of the girl, knees spread wide for balance and arms up over her head, covered head to toe in extremely excited canine slobber, but now not a thread else. The dog's slimy drool coated and dripped off her, but did nothing to cover the poor girl's predicament. Aurora would be able to see that her hair had sprung back again, and the water drop was back to a stylised lightning bolt down below, but Lyntael herself was far too busy trying to convince Sparky to let up, well aware that something felt wrong, but unable to look or see herself just yet while she fought to push him away.

"Ah, I'm not quite sure myself how it works--Eternalis is the one who programmed him, so you could ask him yourself," grinned Aurora, as she leaned back against the railing and watched Lyntael approach the big dog. She tilted her head up towards the sky, feeling the wind blow her hair about and the sunlight warmly caress her skin. At the moment, she let her thoughts drift aimlessly, simply enjoying the warmth in peace.

Meanwhile, Eternalis saw Lyntael approach, and moved back from Sparky's affections to give her some space, while he dealt with his own body being drenched in doggy drool. "Careful, it's a little sticky, it seems," he laughed, swatting away some of the strangely viscous saliva from his hands to adjust the sun visor on his head. While he would generally be able to direct impurities away from his body by making it impermeable, there was quite a lot of it, and it rather impeded his progress of getting anywhere.

Sparky was quite happy to give Lyntael the attention that she wanted, barking happily before 'assaulting' her with a relentless amount of licks, until the girl went down on the ground. The way she laughed and responded to his affection was also an effective catalyst for the big pup to intensify his efforts. At that point, both Aurora and Eternalis were indulged in their own thing--Aurora with her daydreaming and Eternalis with trying to get himself out of a sticky situation.

It wasn't until Lyntael's laughter turned into panicked exclamations that both of them thought that something was strange, and looked up to see the damsel in distress spread out underneath Sparky's huge body. In a flash, both of them rushed to her side. "Sparky, hey, down, Sparky! Down!" "Sparky, let up!" both of them cried out, though it took Eternalis physically pulling the beast back to really convince him to retreat. As soon as he did, however, he turned his face away hurriedly, while Aurora stood over the girl, having been dumbstruck at how the girl had somehow managed to lose her decency twice within such a short span of time. Regardless, she crouched down to support the girl, holding her by the shoulders.

"Hey, are you okay, Lyn?" said Aurora, looking around frantically for something to cover her with. This time around, there was no conveniently large beach towel lying around, and the shoulder bag that Lyntael had been carrying around had mysteriously vanished; neither Eternalis nor Aurora realized that it had been dragged under one of Sparky's feet, who was standing back from the two girls with a rather flustered Eternalis. Their canine companion was rather confused about the entire situation, and kept looking back and forth from Eternalis and the two girls with his ears down, having no knowledge of what he had done.