Beach
Paulidas' deep voice boomed, “Focus.” Rosario sat on the warm sand on his knees, his hands resting on his knees, eyes closed, sweat dripping from his forehead. He tried to clear his mind, but the sound of waves and voices calling out in amusement broke his focus. Paulida put a hand on his shoulder, “Let's take a break for now, you did well, you can almost use basic enhancement.” Rosario opened his eyes. “I can't get it, I feel like it's just out of reach.” Paulida's face filled his vision, giving him a thumbs up with a smile, “You did well, for now you've almost got it, don't give up.” Paulida walked off towards a small thatched hut with a sign on top that said “Beach bar.” he turned to Rosario, “Want something?” he shook his head and said, “No thanks.” Rosario stood up and walked over to the umbrella, casting shade. Carmilla was lying in a beach chair, unfolded, “I thought your kind had trouble with the sun.” She pulled down her sunglasses. “Vampyr being weak to the sun is kind of a myth, granted, our nature does make us paler and more susceptible to sunburns and the like, but my personal theory is that the common misconception is that it's tied to how early humans viewed holy magic, as if it were the sun therefore leading humans to form the misconception of it being harmful” Rosario sat down on the sand next to her “with all do respect I think your bathing suit may be a little too small do you need to buy a properly sized one?” She turned over to look at him. “Why would you say that?” he gestured off loosely pointing to a group of four boys standing a distance away, “because pubescent teenagers are looking at you like you're the best thing since sliced bread.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “This is the best your half-elf had in her possessions, and I'm more for the purchasing of overwear than under, personally.” She smiled, looking over to Senarre, who was building a sand castle with kian her hair tied into a high knot. “Shes got a nice body and is tall, but lacks some filling in some areas if you catch my drift, no shame if that's your cup of tea, but back in the day, Lorean nobility had some tastes for some more meat on the bones.” He cringed and looked at her flatly, “I'm not one to be moved by outward appearances.” She flicked the sunglasses back over her eyes, “Yeah, yeah, whatever, that's what everyone says.” “But is that what you say?” she smiled, her gaze unmoving. “You've a sharp tongue, Cousin, so I will award you this one response to your question. Copulation and feeding are two interlocked processes for the aristocratic undead. When I was living, I would've had a straight answer for you, but now it's more of what can provide a more nutritious meal, “and what constitutes a nutritious meal to you then?” She scratched her temple. “Something with a lot of mana, usually men are my poison of choice, women will do too, but I hesitate because that was the modus operandi of the monster in my memories.”
“So how does feeding or whatever work for you in that case?” Rosario asked with a curious expression on his face. Unmoving, she said while moving her hand in front of her face, “The nature of my condition is that the body is incapable of producing its own mana, well,l that's technically false. My body still makes mana, just not enough to sustain itself. In my limited research, I think it should work similarly to how less ATP should be produced in a hypoxic environment.” He looked confused at her statement. She said to him again, “Vampyr need to supplement their own mana with outside sources. Blood is usually the safest choice, but any living organic matter is good eats. Humans and humanoids usually also possess a significantly larger amount of mana than, say, a mouse, so it makes them the ideal candidates for feeding.”
Paulida sat on the barstool listening to the radio while enjoying the view and the downtime. The bartender walked over and brought a large drink served inside a hollowed-out pineapple. He tucked one of his dreads that had come out of its hair tie behind his ear. “I didn't order anything.” The bartender stopped and said, “Those women on the other side of the bar sent it to you.” He picked up the drink, raised the straw to his mouth, and gave a small wave to the women on the other side of the bar. He drank the flavour of sweet pineapple and citrus mixed with coconut filled his mouth, and the burn of alcohol followed. The two older women walked over. They were both beastfolk with ears like a mountain lions; the one on the left introduced herself as Paum, and the other as Conco. “We saw you from the other side of the bar and liked your vibe. We're going to go out to another beach bar, wanna come ?” He smiled and said, “No thanks, I think you guys think I'm much younger than I actually am. In fact, I'm here with my kid today.” The two women looked shocked. One of them said, “Which one is your kid?” the two women watched him raise his hand to point expecting to see him point to one of the many children or teenagers on the beach and were shocked to see him point at Senarre who was chasing Kian and Rosario around with a large pump powered water gun “those ones the young woman is my daughter and that's the taller one she's chasing is her friend and the little one is his friend”
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“What about the woman in the tight bathing suit on the chair? Is she your partner?” He smiled, “Nope, she's my daughter's friend's cousin.” He reached into the pocket of his swimming trunks and pulled out a small wallet and unrolled a series of pictures. He pointed to the pictures, the first one was of a small child with semi-elven ears dressed in wintery clothes, “This is her first day of school.” Still with a smile on his face, he pointed downward at the roll of the pictures, “This is the first time she met her uncle. The picture showed the same child, older, standing next to a man in a duster coat with a brown western hat on his head. He pointed downwards, “This is the first time we taught her how to shoot.” She stood posing, smiling with her two front teeth missing, holding a revolver in her hand. He pointed down again, “This is from the year she wanted to go to a festival of souls party and got so scared she had me carry her the whole time.” The picture was of him holding a child in his arms, her face buried in his jacket; he was visibly trying not to smile for the picture he pointed down to another picture “this one was when she turned ten” the picture showed a little girl sitting next to her and plate of xiao long bao in front them.
The two beastfolk women looked at him with sad expressions. He looked up from his pictures and said, “Do you have your kids here with you today, too?” The one on the left identified as Paum. “We don't have kids,” he frowned and said, “that means I take it you're here to meet much younger men?” The one on the right, Conco said, “Yea that about shakes it up right.”
Rosario sat next to Senarre on the beach, looking out to the sea. Both had a popsicle in hand, enjoying the peace of the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore. “Your eyes look better. Has the training helped with the nightmares and visions?” he looked at the back of his hand and closed his fist. “I think it has. The nightmares are still there, but they don't sting as much. I think they still hurt, but it's not like they feel like I'm there anymore, like my mind can understand now that they aren't real.” She smiled, “That's good, I was worried you were looking really bad for a while there.” She exhaled a deep sigh. “What's wrong?” she looked up at the sky. “I'm grateful for the life I have. If Paulida hadn't found me when he did, I would've died years ago, probably with my family, but sometimes I get this feeling, I always feel dirty when I think it, but what if I was just a normal person, what if I just went to school with Jiawei, what if? Would I have gone to one of the institutions, perhaps Morriak, maybe Dreynas?” he looked up to the sky, the sun dropping on the horizon, painting the world shades of orange. “I don't buy into fate or anything, but I think we all eventually find our way. I also think that we are shaped by our environments in some way and that if, say, you were a noble and I was a hunter, we wouldn't be the same people we are now.” She fell silent, popsicle melting, droplets of sweet citrus onto the sand. He spoke, tripping over his words, “I didn't mean anything by it, I'm not trying to offend you. I'm sorry if it came out that way.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I accept your response.”
“Hey, hey auntie, wake up.” Kian was pinching at Carmillia's nose, she shot up, “Wha-what happened? Are we being attacked?” Kian smiled, “It's time to leave, it's getting dark.” he ran off laughing. She strained to get off the beach chair; the umbrella that once shaded her was closed, and she stood up. Her skin felt hot and tight, she looked herself up and down. Her arms, legs, and belly were covered in shapes that looked like seaweed. “That little shit put patterns on me with seaweed while I napped,” she said out loud to no audience. She whispered under her breath, “I'm gonna strangle that damned cat.”