2019-07-14 - When Water Runs Red

Minerva's seated on the beach by herself at the moment. Her hat is on her head and her glasses are off, showing the patch she has over her eye on most days. She had been watching the kids run back and forth, but that moment is over as they disappear. She reaches forward to pick up her book again and goes back to reading for the moment.

August is walking along the beach, trying to use the familiar setting to clear his head. It's been a rough few nights, and the coast is always a welcome breather. In a highly rare instance of him in something not a pair of jeans and workboots, he's in Tevas and black cargo shorts, along with an old, dark gray, UW hoodie and a black David Bowie t-shirt. He's watching the water, not paying much attention to anything else.

The beach is terrible most of the time, but semi-tolerable at night. Though who knows why someone like Edison, clad in a black suit with thin lapels, black shirt, and a subtly textured black tie, is sprawled out on his elbows on the beach, occasionally taking a drag from a cigarette. His long legs are crossed, ankle over knee as his pointed boot bobs on occasion. He looks both very out of place, and completely in his element. For whatever reason, he must not have noticed Minerva previously, but her motion of reaching for her book is enough to make him turn and watch her. He notes August walking along as well, while he's at it.

Lyric had worked already this morning and now that she had the remainder of the afternoon and evening off, she had come to the beach. Wearing a swimsuit, an old fashioned one piece looking thing, it leaves plenty, plenty to the imagination as modest as it is. Most of her time here was spent in the water but now she was getting out and wrapping the least sandy towel around her. The one kept in her bag so it's still pretty clean. Lifting a hand she finger combs her hair into some semblance of order so that it's not slicked back, and she looks around to see who all had come while she'd been obliviously floating in the water.

Itzhak came out to the beach in hopes of getting some solid brooding time in, but there's a ton of people here. How can he get a really good brood on like this? Oh well. Unlike August, apparently nothing can pry him out of his jeans and workboots. He steps lightly over the sand, heading to Minerva. "Irvriya, hey there."

Just out past the break sits a tall woman on a yellow surfboard playing chicken with her own nerves. Love's wetsuit is black and covers her ankle to neck to wrist. Her long grey hair is pulled up into a messy knot atop her head. She had been watching the sun sink, but now as it really started to darken, she makes her way back in to shore, paddling in long, calm strokes. The waves aren't all that impressive on this stretch today.

Minerva looks up when she feels someone watching her and there's a finger wiggle wave to Edison, but there's a look up when Itzhak comes towards her. "Itzhak!" she smiles brightly as she greets him. "Didn't expect to see you out here. How are you?" she asks him.

August sees Edison about the same time Edison sees him, and gives him a long, considering look. That moves on to Minerva, and then pauses at Itzhak. He gets a look on his face, and moves in their general direction, though not too close. Close enough that Itzhak might notice him, not so close and to appear over anyone's shoulder and ask for an introduction. (The threat of this is strongly implied.) As he gets closer it's possible to see the tail end of some sort of dark tattoo on his left calf.

The sun is going down, which means there just aren't anymore rays to soak in. She's stretched out on a portable beach chair, bikini clad and sitting up, removing her sunglasses and reaching for her shrug as she prepares to pack up.

Lyric pulls on her swimsuit cover even though her swimsuit covers well enough on its own. First, a terrycloth cover that reaches midthigh then a pair of sweat pants beneath. With her hands free, she pulls her wet hair back into a messy bun. A wave goes to Julia, since everyone else seemed kinda glomped into a group and she doesn't want to interrupt but it was getting dark and alone was scary after dark. "Hi," she tells the lady, herself packed up with her bag over an arm.

Not everyone here is glomped onto a group: Edison is still sitting just where he was, though he does fingerwaggle back at Minerva. He's still sprawled out on the sand, smoking. Watching everyone and everything closely.

Julia turns to look over her shoulder. "Oh, hi!" She offers Lyric an easy smile as she starts to fold her beach chair up. "Lyric, right? Hope that chicken parm was good." She is, as they say, minding her business. Like you do.

"Uh, good!" Itzhak says, like he had to remember what the proper response is to being asked how he's doing. He smiles back a little shyly at Minerva, oblivious to August stalking him, and to most other things too. "How's by you?" When children come swarming up from the water, he glances at them, but doesn't think anything of the fact that they're one short. Kid's probably distracted. He was always that kid.

"Yes," a smile blossoms, "Lyric." Pleased at being remembered at least. "It was really good, much better than it looked once I piled everything on it. The chicken was even cooked all the way through." Hearing someone call for kids she looks over, but had mostly been in the water. But so had the kids earlier when she'd seen them. And the dog. "Looks like they're missing one. Want to go help look?" Because that's what the townsfolk do right? Help each other? Notsomuch.

August is distracted from the ripe opportunity to harass Itzhak by the change in number of kids, and the lack of the dog. He listens, waiting to hear for a response to the man's call, or a dog barking. Then because he's on edge from literally everything in the last couple of days, he gets suspicious, and starts sensing around for anyone who might be injured. Who knows, it's probably nothing.

Love paddles in to the break and, though the one wave that finally comes along is kinda sad, she pops up on her board anyway, riding it in on her feet, yellow board propelled by the water. She comes it at an angle to the shore, rolling her feet just enough to adjust her board and ride that baby wave for all it's worth, throwing in one roundhouse cutback before she loses momentum, crests out of the wave, and then sinks down to belly down on the board, hands to either side. She paddles in like that until she's lost enough momentum that it's just easier to stand and walk it out.

Edison watches the dog and the children, and then he watched Love. She's kind of mesmerizing, though his facial expression barely changes as his eyes move from one target to the other. Cigarette finished, he flicks it out into the sand like a dirty, filty, rotten litterer.

Minerva smiles to Itzhak, "That's a good thing. I was going to text you earlier about seeing if you wanted to do dinner sometime." she admits to the man. Then she gives a look past Itzhak and there's a wave to August, "Hi there." she greets him. She noticed the kid missing and the dog as well, but she's hoping they turn up in a few minutes.

"What, you wanna subject yourself to my awkward texting?" Itzhak says to Minerva, poking fun at himself with a crooked half-smile. "Sure, I'd love to." He glances over his shoulder, eyebrows popping up. "Oh, uh, hey there." CAUGHT. "Irvriya, this is my buddy August. August, Irvryia." He shoots August a look informing him he'd better behave himself. Then August's distraction distracts him, and he follows the other man's line of sight. "What's up?" he says, quiet, growing tense.

"Not...really." Julia admits reluctantly, adding, "White people don't generally react well to brown people trying to help them." But something draws her attention for some reason wavers toward August. Him again? She frowns, and begins to amble forward.

Minerva stands up and gives a look up to Itzhak, "My three o'clock cancelled on me so I should have texted you then, but I get to see you now." she smiles to that. Then there's a nod to August and she offers her hand, "It's nice to meet you, August." she tells him with a warm smile. "Wait, do you own branch and bole out on the outskirts of town?" she asks.

"Oh." Lyric just looks confused a moment. "Wait, what?" There's a quick shrug before she turns to look at August. Finally she ambles over in that direction, taking note of him AND Itzhak. "I keep meeting you both at all of these auspicious occasions." A grin is offered the whole group of them. Until she notices the kid. And the blood. "No.. not again." The last is whispered as the grin fades.

August is fantastically slow to respond to Itzhak spotting him and introducing him, but he recovers in time to accept Minerva's handshake. "Nice to meet you." His handshake is firm and friendly, his hand calloused from a lot of physical labor. He feels, less than sees, Itzhak's 'don't you DARE', and clears his throat rather than say anything like 'Itzhak has told me so much about you'. Who needs a black eye this early in the day.

He sees the kid on the approach, looks back towards him even as he answers Minerva. "Yeah, guilty as charged." He stares for a long second. "That blood's not his," he says, tone absent.

Love carries her board out of the sandy surf nearer shore, tucking it under her arm. She pauses to pull the cord from her ankle, then wanders on in with only a little tension in her shoulders, though that's likely hidden to the casual observer because: wetsuit. She walks up to dry sand, well out of the pull of the waves, and drops her board, then promptly pulls the zip on her wetsuit to her waist and peels the very pale top half of her body out of it, revealing a lot of tattoos: throat to shoulder, two full sleeves, chest, foliage across most of her back, and a gold bikini top. She ties the sleeves of her wetsuit around her waist. She glances across those nearby on the beach. Soon, she'll likely notice that their gazes are all turning to the same commotion.

Julia has stopped about halfway there, eyeing the kid. Does he looked frightened? Angry? Confused? She seems unwilling to get into the middle of this without more information, or a tangible threat.

Itzhak says wryly to Lyric, "And I still never got ya name." Then...things are happening that ping all his alarms. He thwaps August in the shoulder as a silent 'c'mon' and springs into a lope, heading for the family. Seems he's not shy to stick that big nose of his in people's business.

"Lyric. Like in a song." Her name is offered with a half smile to those three gathered. But like the others, her attention goes back to the family and she winces. Parents arguing? Toooo many memories of growing up. Watching as Itzhak seems to be heading off in that direction, she looks to see if August will be backing him up, or Minerva. Either way, she follows anyone going over, but she's damned sure not leading.

Minerva's smile fade's and there's a look down the beach and then back to the family. When Itz lopes off there's a soft smile after him, but she takes off at a job towards where the kid left. Because that's the likely place to see what happened, right?

"Hey lady, your kid's in shock. Looks like something happened to your dog." Julia is still maintaining her distance, eyeing the father. "You gonna go look? You might need to get it to the vet."

"Yeah," August says, following Itzhak and Minerva. He pauses, letting them get ahead of them, to glance at Julie, then shifts to watching the kid. It might be a vain effort, be he tries the same thing he tried on Itzhak: to calm him down some. He's safe, his family's here. Mom and dad, siblings. He's going to be okay. He can go home now. Nothing will hurt him.

Like a little parade, Lyric follows along with the other three, tag-along that she is and she doesn't call out or try and soothe anyone. In fact, she's curious and just has to see what is happening, where the blood came from and if there's more danger. She doesn't question what she will do if there actually is danger. Just waltzes headlong right into the possibility. Towards the blood! Or the dog. Or one and the same.

Julia for her part decides to go ahead and help. Tucking her shrug across her body, she trudges forward, brows lifting as she's increasingly alarmed. "This is becoming increasingly sanguine." she says warily.

Itzhak's lip curls as the blood smell grows thick. Either that dog is torn apart or something else is. He follows the trail of red upstream. That several people are behind him, he just kind of accepts.

Love rummages around in her bag on the beach to find a water bottle and watches several people move off down the beach. She makes her way over toward the little family, crouching to distract the youngest of kids for a moment, crouching in the sand. She's late to the game, but knows something Not Awesome is going down. "Could you watch my bag, sweetheart?" She nods to a colorful woven hobo bag on the sand by the surfboard nearby. "There might be some gummi bears in there if your Mama says it's ok." And then she's up and walking along the beach too, after offering random small kids candy. What.

August gives the family a last look, moves to join the others. He flicks a wry look at Julia for her joke, winces at the blood coming downstream. "If that's the dog there's no way it's still alive." Which would explain why August couldn't sense any injuries. "Gotta wonder why anything that could do this came out on a crowded beach, thought." And what would it even be? A wolverine? A bear?

Well. Sounds like they're about to find out. He grimaces, feels around among the biomass to check for something familiar. Because he doesn't want it to be something unfamiliar.

Those sounds, he bone snapping, something being eaten, are quickly followed by the unmistakable echo of a dry heave as someone about throws up from those sounds alone. Another one follows and Lyric slaps a hand across her mouth. That was a sickening sound! Or she's much too girly!

Julia wasn't making a joke, at least not from the look on her face. "Anyone got a flashlight?" She digs into her bag, pulls out her cellphone, and turns on its flashlight. Whatever she's gonna see, she's braced for it to be horrible.

"Anybody can't take a hit, you stay the hell back." Itzhak tosses one sharp glance over his shoulder at the others. When Julia's flashlight hits that awful sight, he grunts as if slugged in the gut, going green around the gills, but he stands his ground. "August, what the fuck is that," he says, voice strained.

Love arrives within hearing range of a bone snapping. Just the one. Just one bone snapping. And. She stops walking. The woman in the bikini top and wetsuit turns around, "Peace." She literally says peace, and then she turns around to remove herself from the situation before being greeted with the sight of any used-to-bes. There is one major benefit to bringing up the extreme rear of the pack, and this, my friends, is it. "Not today."

"That's not just some animal," August says, voice low. And wow, does he regret what he sees when Julia's cellphone light lands on it. "Shit." He swallows. Who'd have thought he should bring his damned shotgun on a beach walk? "I have no fucking idea." He blinks. "Not friendly, though." He hears Love opt out of the situation, licks his lips. "We can't just leave it here, though."

"Are you fucking serious?!" Minerva hisses out. And then she sort of powers up like Raiden from Mortal Kombat. Electricity arcing between her fingers. "Run!" she whispers to the others. "That thing hasn't noticed us until...well...now." she gives a pleading look between the two men. "I'll cover us. But for the love of all that is good and holy run." she starts to back up.

Julia lets out a shrill, sharp scream, and she starts backing away. She starts rambling in Spanish, shaking her head. "No me muero por una familia de gente blanca de clase media!" By the end of that, she's turned and booked. Love has the right idea.

At least Lyric didn't throw up or anything right? Finally, she managed to maintain and keep up. Looking ahead, she tries to tune out the sound but then KJulia helps with the flashlight thing. Illuminating the creature. And her face pales, and you can just feel it building. Like in slow motion, her hands go to her cheeks as her mouth opens and she looks like she is about to scream. Except no sound comes. None. She just sort of.. wilts in a pile of beach towel and swimsuit cover, right there to die by monster.

"It caught the dog today. It'll eat a kid sooner or later." Itzhak kind of double-takes when Minerva fires up. Then he gives her a grin that can only be described as wicked delight. Love and Julia run, Lyric faints, and Itzhak--well, all he does is tap out a beat on his thigh. ONE-two-THREE-four and he whistles something and a large boulder abruptly unearths itself and hurtles into the giant monster. CRUNCH.

August blinks at Minerva. Covered in lightning as she is, he still says to her, "No way, if we leave, we leave together." He sighs as Lyric collapses like a card table, moves in front of her, because he can sense what Itzhak's going to do--'attack the hell out of it'--before he even speaks or flings a boulder at it. "He's right, we can't just leave it here," August says in agreement. He reaches out for the thing, seeking its bones and trying to break as many as he can manage.

"We'll leave together then." Minerva states as she crackles a bit. Because she has defensive things she is prone to doing. She watches as August and Itzhak make a good go of hurting the big thing, but it finally takes off. "I hate that walking against the wind bullshit." she sighs out. Then she's stepping forward to go collect what's left of the dog, "We'll take what's left of him back to them..." she whispers.

Maybe it was the whistle but Lyric wakes with the same fear and scurries backwards, all sorts of embarrassed. Ashamed. "Sorry, I'm sorry.. I've never done that before." Not knowing what fear there was to be had, but no one seemed afraid anymore. She just keeps backing out not wanting to face anyone after her debacle. "Thank you," she adds sort of last minute.

Itzhak digs a bootheel in, eyes intent, and just launches himself after the monster--and it's fucking gone. He catches himself on a tree trunk, and spits a curse. Out of adrenaline and anger he punches the tree instead. Then he has to stand there shaking his bloodied hand, teeth bared, breathing hard. He needs a minute. When he turns back to the group, he looks pissed off but relatively sane. "You okay?" he says to Lyric, and shakes his head. "You got nothin' to be sorry for."

"Fuck," August says when the thing just up and vanishes out from under them. "It's fast." Which is bad, becuase now it's pissed off. He tries to stop Lyric before she heads off (with that thing running around! in the sark!), but she's a bit too fast. "Hey, wait--damn it." He flinches when Itzhak punches the tree, gives him a tired look. (For needing to heal the tree, or Itzhak? Probably both.) Shaking his head, he moves towards where it was eating the dog. Pulling an LED flashlight out of his cargo shorts, he says, "Maybe we got some fur or blood from it, we can check it out...somehow..." and shines it around, peering.

<<Don't!>> Minerva tries to stop Itzhak before he launches off and there's just wincing from the one eyed woman. She looks a bit ashamed, but, she's NOT going to go tug him back to the group. She knows people and their tempers. "Let's go before it decides that we're more of a threat and gets the drop on us." she whispers as she shakes her hands and starts to head back towards the beach with the dog...what's left of the dog left in the jacket she was wearing.

August pokes around for a few minutes, striaghtens with an aspen twig covered in blood. "Bingo," he says, turns it this way and that. He pulls an empty sandwich bag out of a shorts pocket, wraps the twig in it. "Someone's gotta know a zoologist around here," he says, absently. He nods at Minerva, walks up to Itzhak and holds out his hand. "Let's see it."

Itzhak wipes his forehead, leaving a streak of dirt and blood. "Yeah." He winces a little, too, when Minerva's mental voice hits him. He jogs back, waving off August. "My fault. I'll wear it."

August rolls his eyes, jogs after Itzhak. "It's your hand," he says, in a 'that was a one-time offer' tone of voice.