snake eyed

{🍀} “Right behind you!” Clover grinned and nodded- Light had picked out a pretty good spot. Not too many people around- and once she got the umbrella up, she wouldn’t have to worry too much about him getting sunburnt. He’d act like she was the one to worry about, but he was more liable to burn than she was.

“Oh, pshaw.” She scoffed at Light’s comment, a smile on her face. “That Light, always wandering off- even if he is good at finding spots on the beach.”

“I am excellent at finding spots on the beach. Between you being able to, oh, I don’t know, see; and my superior skills at detecting inclines, we’re able to pick quite a good spot.” He was in a thin shirt for the simple fact that he would burn.

Turning to her, he raised his eyebrows.

“It’s unlike you to doze off in the sun, though I can’t blame you.”

Most people liked the sun’s warmth, it seemed. Even they had once in the distant past. Still, squeezing some into their palms, Akane relished in the cool paste of sunscreen.

“I’ve been alright,” They sighed with an unseen smile, “I try and keep busy. It’s been quite an adjustment to live somewhere completely new, but I feel my best when I step out of my arrangements. It’s always so quiet… but I feel better when I run into old faces like yours. Especially during festival seasons such as this. It’s pretty cute to see everyone running around.”

“It’s prettysilly but… oh, hey, could you take your shirt off for me?”

“I’m trying this new thing called relaxing. I’ve had quite the time here, back and forth constantly. It’s not been much fun.” And whatever had scared Clover so much, that memory of falling...

“’Old faces’, I suppose it’s true we hadn’t hung out for a bit. In that last place you were usually off with Junpei, and I was either off with Sigma or working to forget his absence,” a soft sigh as he shrugged out of his shirt, letting the thing garment fall.

“Clover, over here.” The sand was warm under his toes, and the spot was more than clear. The sun was not directly overhead, nor was the sand under his feet damp in any capacity, meaning it was far from any shifting tides.

Quietly he regained his bearings - Cotes ward being the most familiar through Clover’s eyes. Right now he was trying to trace her steps to her cafe, to attempt to become familiar with the new location.

However, having too much going on, instructions, watching his sister’s memories, sifting through transmissions and her current chatter, coupled with his inherent blindness, caused him to bump slightly into someone on the street.

“Oh,”

The same out of body experience, and then a rush as he connected with the field in this city for only a few minutes. The connection was a rush, like a faucet turning on at full capacity, which the most familiar feelings rushing out first. Sadness, a memory of falling, and then nothing.

It was right here, the footing, he remembered that much. Hearing many people around, he remained completely still, shuffling through Clover’s memories to find where he was.

She woke up, confused, that last city had gone to ruin, and there was-

“Ah-”

A step back, in the proper direction this time, and he felt solid ground. The connection ceased, snipped off from the field proper, but one, smaller, connection remained.

[Clover?]

It echoed through his mind, and he hoped she was close. 

“Tch,” he hissed lightly in the safe zone, shrugging out of his jacket gingerly. That last monster had really done a number on his good arm. And, well, despite the tears in his jacket, his prosthetic was holding up just fine.

Hearing someone walk by, he glanced up. An inward chuckle as he realized he was feigning sight for the comfort of whomever it was, but really why wouldn’t he is he was to be asking favors of others. “Excuse me.”

His arm rested now on what would arguably be the flesh of the impeding monster. The scene must have been interesting - a young girl running to safety, monster on their heels.

A scrawny man dashing out, eyes closed, grabbing the wretched thing by the arm and taking it down. Not without some difficulty - he could feel the long scratch along his real arm already bubbling up - but manageable.

“She’s in?” Confirmation echoed back as he stopped, listening. Only one pair of footsteps nearby, it seemed. “Your gait belies your human status. Or, well, human-like.”

“It’s become quieter here.” He murmured, mostly to himself. Hovering between the line that divides the safe zone, he had spent most of this time patrolling in order to ensure the safety of the other inhabitants.

“There is no need to try and hide.” Except one inhabitant near him. Clover was off helping whomever she felt the need to for the moment.

;; Light will be around the safe zones, but don’t think he’s incapable! i want someone to see why his prosthetic was taken away in the first place