aterat | [Open] The Sun Is My Friend

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[Open] The Sun Is My Friend

Who; Tommy Shepherd, OTA
What; ~~the anime beach episode~~ Enjoying the Beach
Where; The Newly Uncovered Beach
When; Weekends Mid-July
Warnings; N/A

He hears the talk of a beach rather quickly. It wasn't that Tommy had more inroads to the gossip of the city than other people not native to this world that led to him finding out so fast. No, it was entirely just his business. Businesses reappearing and thus reopening around the shore meant goods needing delivered there for beach season. And urgent deliveries meant quick deliveries.

It meant Tommy's delivery service doing some seriously brisk business. Even if he wasn't the most fond of running on sand. But a beach was something he could get behind anyway, even if it wasn't normal to New Yorker life. No, he'd visited Kate a few times in California, which meant he'd gotten even more used to the idea of it, and the idea of something like home made Tommy act.

An ocean that he wasn't living under? Definitely worth visiting. Which was what Tommy found himself doing every weekend when he wasn't working. It hadn't taken much effort to find himself a big beach umbrella, a long blanket to lay upon on the sand, and of course, it was simple to gather snacks for himself too.

Was he wearing anything more than some short square-leg swim trunks in white and green? Nope. Was he absolutely laying there on the back sometimes, umbrella down, sunning so he could enrich his tan? Absolutely. Was there periods of time Tommy laid around, snacking and watching the waves? Totally.

Did Tommy seem likely to go into the water himself at all? Nope. Not without prompting.

But hey, good news: any time anyone at all walked nearby he smiled and offered a wave.

"Hey! Fucking beautiful, right?"

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Mono had seen beaches before, though one could argue he hadn’t really seen an ocean before. Even if the waters he’d crossed between the island where the hunter’s lodge was and the Pale City had been considerable. That said, the boy certainly had never seen anyone enjoying the beach before. It was just… a lot of sand, right? A lot of sand that was kinda hard to run around on where all the ocean stuff washed up on shore when the tides came in and then left driftwood and the like behind when it went out. So… Seeing his boss just laying there was kinda weird, really. “I guess? It’s a lot of sand and water.” He responded simply, crouching next to the guy with his hat pulled low over his eyes.

“Why’re you lying on the sand, though? Are you okay?” He asked, because… Well… He couldn’t really think of why someone would be doing that unless they were super tired or something.

So… Have fun teaching a kid who had a very hard time wrapping his head around the concept of normal fun how to spend the day at the beach! He was, more or less, a blank slate on the subject.

"I'm tanning," Tommy answered. Because that should be obvious, shouldn't it? "Getting some nice color to my skin.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be obvious to Mono. He came from a city blanketed in an endless fog with people who weren’t really people anymore. No one went to the beach, no one went tanning, no one did much of anything anymore thanks to the entity in the signal tower. So Mono had never seen this whole tanning thing. “Oh…” He said simply to the explanation, clearly not really getting it. As long as the guy wasn’t lying there because he was hurt or tired, then, the kid guessed. “Is it… fun?” The kid is really trying to understand!

"Uh..."

Well damn that's a complicated question.

"I guess not? I mean, I'm lying here."

And he's not doing much more.

“Oh…” He said again, sitting down on the sand for a minute and looking around curiously. One might hope the questions were over at that, but… Well? Mono was still confused and feeling a little lost on this whole beach day thing people kept talking about after the beach appeared. “Then why do ya do it? The whole tanning thing…?” He added, tilting his head up to glance at the sky and then back at Tommy.

Slightly more quietly, as if admitting a serious secret, he continued. “People keep saying the ‘beach day’ thing is fun, but I kinda think I don’t get it.”

"To look amazing," Tommy answered. Of course Mono had questions. Tommy was used to that. And used to answering him honestly. "I like looking good."

And what else was he going to do? Go into the water? Hell no.

"They're better with friends."

Which was why Mono had a penchant for finding Tommy when it came to some things. He knew the guy at least kind of understood why he thought or looked at things the way he did. “So the sun makes you look good. Which makes you happy, because you like to look good. I get it, I think.” He responded, kind of… sort of getting it… As much as the kid was going to, probably.

Mono wasn’t afraid of water, but after having crossed a large river on a door with his friend, he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk being carried towards the fog that seemed to reside on the edges of the part of the world they were… confined to. So the kid was content to stay on the shore for now and keep pestering his boss/friend.

“So it’s kinda better to go with people than alone… Unless you’re just trying to let the sun make you look good.” Mono responded carefully. “Is it okay if I ask what kinda stuff do friends do…?”

At least Mono got some of it, and that was a relief. Tommy didn't know how to break it down more than that.

"Yeah," Tommy answered. "People make it a party. You play beach volleyball or splash around in the water and have a picnic and so much stuff. But I never went to the beach with a large group of friends though, so I'm not fully sure."

“You know more than I do. I only saw a beach once, and it was all foggy and empty with garbage and stuff.” And a glitchy looking shadow, but he still wasn’t sure what to make of those. He scooped up some sand in his hands to drop on the beach again and watched it fall. “This beach is kinda nice, though. Are there any things friends can do with just like two people, or do ya think it’s gotta be a bunch of people?” He added curiously, since he wasn’t really a big fan of crowds to begin with. Those were only something he joined in on in specific situations and for people who wanted him to be there.

"Soooo Jersey at the right time of year," Tommy snarked because that sure as fuck sounded like home.

Still, with the kid asking, Tommy's gotta think.

"Well, I could go find a ball and we could toss it back and forth. Or we could splash fight in the water."

Mono was a little confused by the comment. Jersey was like the Pale City??? He hoped it was just the beach, considering what was beyond the beach in the city. “Maybe?” He responded in a rather genuinely uncertain tone.

Playing with the sand some more while he waited, he tilted his head at the suggestions. Mono wasn’t sure why you’d want to fight in the water, so he latched on to the ball idea. Especially since he’d never actually played catch with another person before. Mannequins that probably weren’t trying to play? Yes. People? No. “Could you find a ball? If you want, I mean. You don’t gotta if you’re not done with the sun tanning thing to look good.” He responded, tone still slightly eager. “I never got to play catch with people before.”

"I can go look," Tommy said, standing and stretching. He grabs his t-shirt to haul it on, and the slightly longer shorts.

"You'll stay here and, you know, watch my stuff?"

“Yeah?? Okay!” He responded in a small, excited chirp at the idea that Tommy was up for trying it. This could actually be fun, without any weirdness or potential trouble involved! The boy had been trying to think of more stuff like that, normal stuff that he could learn to play to share with his friend Luna, too.

At the request, though, Mono nodded. “Sure! I’ll make sure nothing goes missing or anything.” He responded, moving to sit a little closer to Tommy’s things. It was clear the boy was serious about guarding the items as best the boy could from anyone who might think to take them.

Tommy was gone in a flash and a burst of sand. And it actually took him three whole minutes to return with an appropriate ball.

"Well that took forever," he said, bouncing the light ball easily over his fingers. It wasn't quite a beach ball as he knew it, but it would work.

"Come on, let's move a little bit closer to the surf."

Mono would never stop being impressed by that, especially in the sand! Sand was all weird to walk on, and super easy to fall over without how it shifted and stuff.

While three minutes was a long time for Tommy, it was still a lot shorter than Mono would have guessed when he was asked to watch Tommy’s stuff. His expression lit up with a little more excitement than usual when the guy reappeared with a ball. It wasn’t as though Mono really knew what a beach ball was anyway, so he wouldn’t have questioned it. “Wow, you found one!” He got to his feet and adjusted his hat slightly to make sure it stayed on while they were running around.

“Okay, that’s gonna be fun!” He responded, trusting Tommy to show him how it went. He did understand tossing a ball back and forth at least, but since he’d never played catch with a person, he wasn’t about to assume he knew exactly how the game was played. He hurried after him, heading down the beach closer to the water.

"That's the intention," Tommy said with a shrug. Fun was something you had to make for yourself because it wasn't like the world was going to provide it for you.

He guided them down to a stretch of the beach that was right for what he was imagining, put himself closer to the surf, and tossed the ball gently for the kid.

Mono wasn’t as used to doing things for fun as he was for necessity, so it was something he’d been learning about more since he got to this world. As Tommy tossed the ball to him, he darted forward to catch it before it hit the ground. The kid actually wasn’t too bad at it, since it was an easy game and he had decent reflexes. He even threw the ball back with perhaps a little more energy than expected.

Not like the energy was going to stop Tommy. He was happy to catch the ball and quickly toss it back.

“You can hit it with your hands too, if you want.”

Mono darted back as the ball sailed through the air and jumped to catch it. “Hit it??” He blinked as he looked at the ball in his hands. Turning it slightly with a curious spin and trying to imagine at least how that would work. Maybe if he batted it with a hand while it was still in the air? “You mean like this or??” Giving it a smaller toss up and whacking it in Tommy’s direction, he waited eagerly for it to A. be returned, and B. for Tommy to confirm if he’d done good or not.

“Yeah, but you hit it sorta upwards. It’s called a bump.”

The whack was a bad choice, because it sank, but Tommy rushed to where it was landing, laced his hands together for the bump, and hit it upwards and forward.

“Like that.”

Mono was slightly disappointed when the ball fell to the ground before it made it back to Tommy, but he paid pretty close attention as the guy demonstrated the what he meant. “Ohhh… I think I got what you mean now!” He responded as he hopped up to catch the ball before it passed over his head. This time he copied what Tommy had done, watching with an excited half laugh as he managed to make it sail through the air back again.

Yeah, it came all the way back and Tommy laughed, moving to hit the ball lightly back.

"On my world there's a game called volleyball. People hit the ball back and forth over a tall net."

Mono let out a gleeful little whisper of a laugh as the ball made it all the way to Tommy, delighted as he sent it right back Tommy’s way. This was actually a lot more fun with a person compared to the last time he tried something like this. Probably because they both knew it was a game, and they were both having fun. “Really? So there’s like a whole thing with rules and other stuff to it?”

It was fun, regardless of if they were just playing catch or something else, though. Which was honestly a bit of a victory, since people kept asking what he liked to do for fun and a lot of the time he wasn’t sure how to answer. At least if asked about the beach, he could come up with an honest answer now.

"Yeah, lots of rules," Tommy laughs, happy to bounce the ball right back to the kid. "And you can do it in the water too, with floating nets. But that's better in a pool so everyone can be safe."

Mono didn’t quite manage to catch it this time, but ran after the ball as it rolled a bit before turning and bouncing it back Tommy’s way again. “Yeah, I dunno if I wanna go in the water. There might be weird stuff there, right?” He wasn’t sure what a pool was like, but if it wasn’t like the ocean, then maybe that would’ve been more fun to go in. His experiences thus far with large bodies of water were with a really gross swamp, and riding across a really wide river on a door. Who knew what was in the ocean?

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