friendship was a mistake [closed]

[blue_ice]

They all needed a vacation, he'd said. They should take it together, he'd said.

After that little bit of uncharacteristic thoughtfulness on Kaiba's part, he regretted it almost immediately. But the plans were now set in motion, too far along to stop without undoing the progress he'd been making these last few weeks.

That was how he found himself on Hano Beach, dressed in his casual beach wear (with cargos. rip.) and sitting on a large trunk full of Stuff. His smaller Pokémon are nearby, playing in a shallow puddle he'd carefully dug for them and stuck an umbrella over.

There's a table with Anela's famous berry smoothies, also with an umbrella over it, and chairs for the humans to sit and relax. Have fun. Try not to kill each other.

Comments

part one: busting on the beach

[blue_ice]

Come enjoy a smoothie, lounge a while, go for a swim, or chat amongst yourselves. It's all about that chill life.

part two: rain rain go away

[blue_ice]

Various messes happen in quick succession. Peace is destroyed. Lives are ruined.

part three: welcome to hotel hell

[blue_ice]

Somehow, they've secured rooms at Hano Grand Resort! Not enough, and that's a mess on its own, but let's sort that out. And maybe play some tunes. Do try not to disturb the other guests.

seto: before the disaster strikes

[blue_ice]

...okay, so the mess is already in progress. They've showed up with more guests than he'd planned on, and he's not sure the tents are big enough. Really, Zahra should've made them bring their own if they were going to spring a surprise like that on him.

He's decided to blow off steam by hitting the waves sitting on a surfboard with Kisara balancing on the edge, urging her trainer to take her into the waves so she can practice her new tricks. He obliges, and...yeah, Kaiba can surf now, even if he's not a pro at it yet. He's just the balancer while Kisara flips and waves, though.

Passersby should also watch out for Goliath. The sneaky Sobble is using his camouflage ability to turn invisible, then shoot streams of water at passersby. He chirps happily every time he manages to hit someone.

part 0.5: get in, loser

[bloomingdespite]

Maybe the Ring-Spirit was having a perfectly reasonable day with nothing exciting happening. Maybe he was plotting something nasty. A Nasty Plot. Maybe he was torturing small Pokémon in an alleyway. Who knows?

Whatever he was doing, it's no longer relevant, because a pair of metal d10s are sailing towards the back of his head at an irritating-but-not-injurious velocity.

"HEY, DWEEB! CATCH!" Zahra's voice is half-filled with genuine affection. The other half is schadenfreude.

TENT PHASE

[luckydragonsfoot]

By the time camping is suggested, Katsuya has diligently decided to just give up on any pretense that maybe, maybe, there's an actual line between him and those pesky past-life memories. Because nope. Nope. That's him babey.

Or sort of. It's weird, but also it's making the Ring Spirit twitchy as heck, and it serves the jerk right for forgetting. So!

"Alrigh'...'s a differen' sorta sand, but what we got here 's gonna be plenty 'nough t' make th' sorta shelter we want t' have a campout! I think they even let y' have campfires here!" he adds, beaming.

It's fine.

Why Is Your Karaoke Like This

[shadowslipping]

Yuume has a hotel room for her own reasons. Separate reasons. Reasons that don't involve her relative and his 'friends' creating chaos.

She is now witnessing chaos as she passes one of the hotel's provided rec rooms.

"Ahhh..." S...She doesn't want to knock or anything, but it sort of sounds like something is...happening? In there??

"...Is everything alright?" She doesn't work here but she's worried guys.

[blue_ice]

"...they're screeching like dying cats, but otherwise fine," her uncle answers, opening the door a crack. He looks like he desperately needs rest.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group is belting their little hearts out.

[improvking]

The Spirit... is usually called things a good bit harsher than 'dweeb', but he knows who the shout's directed at all the same, and looks to the source - in time for both dice to smack into his forehead. "Tch!" ok first of all,, RUDE,,

He scowls, and responds at the same volume. "WHAT?" The demand is irritated, but he's willing to tentatively assume this is in fact heading somewhere.

He does recognize Zahra... as, 'that one Haunter-Storm whoever',, ...He's distracted though, looking around for what it was that hit him.

[improvking]

Not the entire rest of the group... for example, the one who abruptly swings that door wide open. "Ya boy can pull off infinitely worse than merely 'dying cats'."

The ...disquieting grin strongly suggests this is one of the major contributors to the current state of the Kaiba. ......Well. The state of one Kaiba. "What are you doing, invite her in!" The Ring-Spirit proceeds to try waving Yuume into her doom the Very Loud Room.

New Kaiba Acquired??

[blue_ice]

"Right. All we need to do is wet the sand..."

And that's all the permission Goose and Goliath need to spray everything down. Kaiba snorts, but rolls up the sleeves of his wetsuit and gets to work.

"Bases for the tents and a central structure?"

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

“That... May be a bit too wet.” Hey guys, he’s here too. “But I guess...”

Ryou is happy to help in whatever way he can. He’s just happy to be here. With his egg in his hands, he is just watching the two work.

“I didn’t realise so much planning went into putting up a tent.”

Just happy to be included

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

Beach hat: On. Bathing trunks: On. Giant legendary egg: on the beach towel. Watermelon: ready to get smashed.

Ryou didn’t go to the beach often but he did know people go to the beach to swim and enjoy the sand. He also knows they’re here to enjoy the food. Besides the watermelon, sitting there humbly next to the volleyball, Ryou has brought a bunch of supermarket snacks and is chomping away at some malsadas.

“MMmmm... these are so good...”

You should join him!

There also seems to be a weird purple glow around him. Maybe you should check it out even if you aren’t hungry...

[bloomingdespite]

"Whole gang's going out for a trip on the beach, and I figured that you'd relish the chance the screw with 'em." Zahra gnaws on a toothpick from atop their Ride Arcanine (their long-suffering Jenny's, technically, but that's semantics). They're wearing khaki shorts, no shoes, New Year's sunglasses, and a floral-pattern Alolan shirt that would cause psychic damage in Monster World.

"You in? Dropped your dice, by the way. By your feet."

[bloomingdespite]

Despite their gangly, awkward appearance and the strange air of ancient wisdom they can give off when they feel the need, Zahra is obviously too young to get served drinks at the bar.

Which means there must be an entirely different reason why they're wearing their floral shirt backwards. Hopefully.

(It was a dare. Of course it was.)

"C'MON, KIRAKIRAKID!" zahra yuume is older than you "JOIN IN ON THE FUN!" Zahra peeks over the Ring-Spirit's head, raising a non-alcoholic sparkly water.

[blue_ice]

"They're a little too enthusiastic," Kaiba chides gently. "But if anyone has a Fire Pokémon that knows Sunny Day, we could correct that."

He gives Goose and Goliath each a pet, already sliding the poles through one tent to prepare it for pitching.

"Grab the other one?"

[improvking]

"...Yes?" No hesitation and the most 'why is that even a question' tone possible.

Who is this 'the gang'? Doesn't matter, of course he wants to screw with them. Even better, it's a suggestion from a third party, and someone (who tried to apocalypse-steal, cough) dressed like a vacation-themed fever dream at that. There is no part of this that does NOT sound like a disaster waiting for him to happen.

He glances down at the mention of 'his' dice. "You threw dice at -" wait what the - yeah he's snatching those up now "-these are d10s? Where the hell did you find these?" They don't sell these here! ...He doesn't know how or why he knows this, nor what makes that fact matter? It's undeniably a Thing He Knows though, so he mentally shrugs and accepts it. The details will either become clear to him later or remain irrelevant for all time. Meh.

[shadowslipping]

Initially of course, Yuume just chuckles- of course Seto would be saying that after all, but-

"They sound excited at least," she compliments, leaning around the other to raise her brows at the ring spirit in amusement. And then-

Zahra. Why. In response to their shout, Yuume chokes. "AH- H... Since when did I tell you how to spell my name..!" she shouts, already halfway into the room thanks to the more 'villainous' one's request.

[blue_ice]

"I hate all of you," Seto grumbled, but he wasn't leaving. He was just here to make sure no one got themselves killed...somehow, jealously guarding the snack table to prevent chip throwing.

"But who knows. Maybe you'll liven it up."

[bloomingdespite]

Zahra reaches inside their shirt, and-

JingleJingClankKlinkCLANKCLANKCLACK

-takes out a horrendously noisy leather bag stuffed to the brim with metal dice.

They waggle their eyebrows and shake it, like somebody would shake a feather pole toy in front of a cat.

[bloomingdespite]

"Hey."

Zahra flops down next to Ryou, laying in the sand and looking up at the sky.

It feels... weird, being with Ryou instead of the Ring-Spirit after all the time they've spent together. Hell, Zahra has been friends with the Spirit for longer than they've been friends with the Ryou on their world.

Which was kind of fucked up? And probably needed to be fixed.

"I'm Zahra." They offer a hand towards him.

imagine that i have a noa icon for this

[bloomingdespite]

Somebody hands Kaiba the other tentpole.

"Hello, brother dear. How are you doing?"

[blue_ice]

Kaiba nearly drops it in shock. That voice---that face. It's his stepbrother, no doubt about it. But how.

Okay. He actually knew how, sort of. He'd gotten the impression from Zahra that they had saved Noa from his fate somehow, and his stepbrother was along for the wild ride, but he's surprised to see him manifest. Kaiba doesn't usually have the 'spiritual inclination' for this sort of thing.

He takes up the pole and slots it into place. "Surprisingly well, considering the degree to which my plans have been upended."

There's a swirl of emotion in his chest that he's not ready to examine too closely. They had battled fiercely, there was deep hurt and regret...yet in the end they'd been on the same team, in a sense. And now they were again.

"I did ask to talk...I just didn't think you could do it this way."

[improvking]

Somebody plops down on the sand in front of Ryou, facing him. ...Somebody who uh. looks like another Ryou? A Ryou with two horn/antenna-things of hair. The new-arrival steals a bag of crisps and starts munching on them, watching original-Ryou the whole time.

"What's with the purple." His tone is carefully neutral, but yeah that is definitely the Ring-Spirit's voice. No Ring in sight, but. that's him.

[gm_of_my_own_soul]

The young man stares at the unfamiliar child and Seto and then shook his head. Well, he feels he’s interrupting something important and weird. Thankfully, Ryou is very accustomed to being at the wrong place at the wrong time so he just sort of fades into the background. Yup.