[SE] killing me slow

you put me on & said i was your favourite

The sun slants low over the Hollowed Grounds, casting long shadows across the Bone Bridges as Flora strides across one of the bleached spans like she owns the whole thing. Her heels clack with determined precision, the hem of her sundress fluttering in the breeze as she gestures with one hand, the other clutching a half-finished iced coffee that’s definitely not helping her energy levels.

"So there I am," she says, her voice pitching upward like a conductor building to a crescendo, "just waiting for Hadama to come back safely, when I see him." Her eyes roll skyward like the gods themselves need to get a load of this. "Coming back from Starfall."

She throws her arm wide, nearly whacking a passing bird. "So I obviously I raise a mayday flag to try and make them stop." Another dramatic sip. "Only it was apparently the man overboard flag, but whatever, they stopped anyway."

Her bangles jingle as she paces a tight little circle mid-bridge, fire still flickering behind her sea-glass eyes. "And then we talk, a bit about why he was on Starfall and if the others he'd gone with were okay, but mostly we fought. Again. With him ending the conversation saying that we didn't mean anything to one another and that I should just go."

Flora stops, eyes wide, hands spread as if inviting Sohalia to marvel at the audacity of it. Then, a sigh escapes her like the wind out of a sail. She turns, resting her forearms against the bridge’s bone-white railing, her curls catching the light in a halo of frustrated golden chaos. "And then," she mutters, "like two days later, I run into him at the Port."

Her tone flattens with disbelief. "And somehow, we end up eating popsicles and having breakfast?? And I even cut his hair for him, like it was nothing. Like he hadn’t just torn my heart out and thrown it into the ocean wrapped in stormclouds and guilt." She glances sideways at Sohalia, her expression caught between outrage and bewilderment. "What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?"

Sohalia

Sohalia hurried alongside Flora as the latter crossed one of the bridges that gave this area its name, her own iced coffee gripped in one hand. Long shadows tinted the bleached bones, and the sun lowered itself steadily towards the horizon as the women made their way across the expanse. Flora, her sundress fluttering, was talking animatedly; Soh, more comfortable in shorts and a cropped top that displayed a hint of navel to the Grounds, listened attentively.

A passing bird was nearly a casualty, but managed to dodge Flora’s outstretched arm at the last minute; Soh winced faintly, but otherwise said nothing. At least, until Flora got to the part where Jack had said that they meant nothing to one another - then Soh jumped in with a frown. ”He what?” she asked, outraged on Flora’s behalf. But it appeared the Doubletake wasn’t quite finished - there was more. Soh went to lean on the bridge railing beside her friend, leaning her shoulder into Flora’s in a silent show of support.

”I mean…” Soh said, just as bewildered as Flora by this unlikely turn of events. ”Are you so sure he meant what he said about you being nothing to each other? Because in any other context, that sounds almost like a date.” Confusing? Very, but then, Soh had never quite understood Flora and Jack’s relationship, and after all, who was she to judge, given her own past experiences with romance?

these aching memories still dance around me

you put me on & said i was your favourite

Flora huffs, loud and theatrical, rolling her eyes with enough force to count as cardio. "Yeah. I immediately told him he could fuck off with that," she says, voice sharp with offence and lingering disbelief. "Because whatever else he’s been, he’s never meant nothing to me. Ever." Not since she'd first met him as a teenager, and not a single day since. Her hand flaps in a dismissive little wave before gripping the railing again, tighter this time. "He probably just said it to hurt me, but like—to what end? What does he even get out of that? Emotional damage bonus points?"

Her voice trembles near the edge of laughter, the kind that's too close to breaking, and then Soh’s comment lands and Flora turns toward her with wide eyes and a raised brow. "Right? Thank you." She bounces slightly in place, caffeine and frustration fuelling her fire. "At one point I literally got up to leave—I thought we were about to go another round—and he asked me to stay." Her hands splay, bewildered. "Said he'd felt better having me around than he had in days."

The breeze picks up a lock of hair and she tucks it behind one ear, her expression softening into something more tired than angry. "And then after I cut his hair he just...got up and fucked off. No big goodbye. Just gone." She exhales hard through her nose, as if trying to blow the last of it out with the breath. Turning toward Sohalia, her voice drops into something smaller, wearier. "I know we were supposed to talk about you and Koa—about how the party went and everything—but I just..." Her lips twist apologetically. "I needed to get it out. I’m sorry."

She bumps her shoulder gently against Soh’s again, the gesture quiet and grateful. "Thanks for listening. I feel like I'm going crazy with all of this lately."

Sohalia

Sohalia lingered against the railing, considerably calmer than Flora but every bit as bemused by the Doubletake's recent interactions with Jack. If the captain had been trying to hurt Flora, that only served to make Soh angrier, but that didn't add up with their breakfast date. But if he hadn't meant it to hurt the queen, then why say it at all? It didn't make any sense. "I don't know him well, but could he have just... spoken without thinking?" she asked, brow furrowed with thought. "It just doesn't make any sense to say that and then turn around and say he felt better with you around." Not that relationships had to make sense, in Soh's limited experience. But wouldn't it be easier if they did?

A breeze tugged at Soh's hair, and she paused to tie it back and out of her face. Then she turned, leaning back against the bridge railing and tilting her head up to catch the last of the setting sun. "No, we were supposed to talk about whatever we want," she corrected Flora affectionately. "And you and Jack is every bit as important as me and Koa." Then she reached out to squeeze Flora's arm with one hand. "You're not crazy. Jack, on the other hand..."

these aching memories still dance around me

you put me on & said i was your favourite

Flora lets out a laugh, but it’s a brittle thing, dulled by too many what-ifs and the sharp edges of memory. "Calling Jack an overthinker is putting too dull a point on it," she mutters, brushing her curls back as the wind stirs them again. "He doesn’t say things by accident. Not ever." If he’d meant to hurt her, he had. If he hadn’t—well, that was almost worse, wasn’t it?

But then Sohalia squeezes her arm and the tension leaks out of her in a breath she hadn’t meant to hold. "You’re the absolute best," Flora sighs, letting herself wilt sideways until her shoulder nudges warmly against her friend’s. "Okay. Soooo! How did things end with you and Koa at the—?"

The question dies before it’s finished.

Below them, the water shifts with a strange heaviness, surface darkening not with dusk, but with something deeper. Wronger. A tremble in the current catches her eye, and then—there—movement just beneath the waves. Sleek shapes weaving through the shallows, flickers of inky black outlined only when they break the surface. One leaps, playfully, impossibly close to the bridge.

For a moment it looks almost like an encantado.

Then it vanishes beneath the surface again, and the laughter that follows is nothing like a dolphin’s.

Flora stiffens, eyes scanning the water as the sea starts to churn in earnest. "Uhh..." she murmurs, every hair on the back of her neck standing on end, "did you just see that..?"

---

Enshadowed Delphinids (common): Once playful Encantados, touched by the void, transform into Enshadowed Delphinids. Their vibrant pink hues now give way to an inky blackness that seems to absorb light, rendering them nearly invisible in the depths of the ocean. The mischievous nature remains, but their water magic takes on an eerie void-touched quality, capable of stirring storms and unsettling the balance of the sea. The Enshadowed Delphinids dance on the boundary between whimsical chaos and the darker currents of the void.

Sohalia

Flora seemed to have gotten what she needed to off her chest; the Doubletake nudged Soh's shoulder with her own, seemingly about to change the topic of conversation. And Soh might have argued, might have wished to overexamine Jack's behavior until she could sleuth her way to the bottom of it for Flora's sake (lol good luck), but then something below them moved.

The surface of the water was dark, but not with the coming dusk - there was a wrongness there that sent alarm bells pealing in the back of Soh's mind. She joined Flora in scanning the water. Sleek shapes, not unlike an encantado, danced through the shallows; one leapt out of the water, and it it hadn't been for the fact that Soh's metaphorical hackles were up, she might have been tricked into thinking it was an encantado.

"That's... not an encantado, is it?"

these aching memories still dance around me

i can't help it if i want to kiss you in the rain, so

Flora shakes her head slowly, curls tangled in the sea breeze as her gaze sweeps the darkening surf. "No," she says, and there's a thread of steel running through the word. "No, it’s not."

The ease she wears like armour slips away in an instant. One hand goes to her thigh, fingers curling around the familiar hilt of a dagger. She draws it in a single motion—feather-light and gleaming gold, though the poison that coats its edge glistens darker still. Beneath the bridge, the sea stirs like something exhaling. More shapes twist in the gloom, water foaming in their wake, and then—

"Look out!" One of the creatures surges upward, leaping high enough for its slick black skin to catch the light. For a moment it’s silhouetted against the sky, a thing of sleek malevolence with void-dark eyes and too many teeth. Laughter trails in its wake, warped and warbling, and the spray of water it sends crashing down smells like brine and blood.

Flora doesn’t hesitate. Her arm snaps back, then forward; the dagger flashes through the air and buries itself deep into the delphinid’s side mid-arc, where its slick skin parts like butter around the poisoned blade. The creature lets out a warbling, warped cry as it crashes back into the waves.

She doesn’t wait to see if it floats. Already she’s reaching for the next blade. "We need to get off the bridge," she mutters to Sohalia, voice low and tight. The sea is boiling now with motion. The others are circling. And if she’s not wrong, they're hunting.

All this time I didn't know
You were breakin' down

Sohalia, as we all know, was not a fighter. Still, if it was a choice between fighting for her and Flora's lives and giving up, she knew which one she'd choose - at least until they were out of range of the water and, therefore, the enshadowed delphinids.

There were too many in the water, and Soh wasn't going to risk going in with them, so her swordfish shift was out. Her owl shift wasn't big enough to take on a dolphin. That left her tide jaguar shift, and within moments, she had shifted, her multicolored pelt aglow at Flora's side.

A delphinid lunged up onto the bridge, snapping for Flora's heels; Soh lashed out with a snarl, her claws digging deep into the creature's snout. With an angry warble, it slid back into the waves, glaring daggers at the Luminary as it went. Soh took a few steps down the bridge, her ears flicking this way and that, attempting to pinpoint any attacks before they came - and making sure that Flora was following. It wouldn't do for them to get separated, not when there were this many enemies.

I'd fall to pieces on the floor
If you weren't around

Sohalia

you put me on & said i was your favourite

The dagger zips back to her hand with a glittering hiss of displaced air, the golden hilt warm in her palm. Flora catches it with a flick, barely missing a step—only to stagger half a heartbeat later as something large and glowing barrels past her on padded feet.

"WH—Soh?" she blurts, breath catching as recognition sets in. The tide jaguar gleams like moonlight on oil, all radiant pelt and fluid menace. Flora’s seen Soh shift before, of course—had once drunkenly braided feathers into her owl form for a party—but this? This is something else. Something bright and beautiful and dangerous in a way that makes Flora’s chest twist, sharp and sudden. But now’s not the time.

"Okay, you’re definitely explaining that later," she calls, voice tight as she bolts after the big cat, her daggers flashing in both hands now. Another delphinid breaches behind them, close enough to catch the stink of void-touched breath, but Flora doesn’t look back. Her sandals slap against the bone-white bridge, her curls whipping into her face as she sprints.

"Go!" she urges Sohalia, half-laughing, half-breathless. "Once we get off the bridge, there's no way for them to follow."

Right?

All this time I didn't know
You were breakin' down

The tide jaguar could have outpaced Flora from the bridge to land, but she stuck close by her friend as they raced for the end of the bones. Once they were free of the water, the delphinids would theoretically be unable to follow, and they would be safe.

But maybe they would go just a little further, just to be sure.

Another creature appeared behind them, but they were moving so quickly that its jaws snapped shut on air. One attempted to dive at Soh's paws, but she smacked it back into the water with her claws, snarling menacingly at its retreating form. The end of the bridge was growing nearer, and Soh pressed on, keeping an eye out for any of the other delphinids that might want to make a play for the woman and tide jaguar sprinting for safety. One thought about it, but the Luminary leaped over its lunging form just for the sheer joy of it, eyeing Flora with a feline grin.

They were almost there. Just a few more steps -

I'd fall to pieces on the floor
If you weren't around

Sohalia

you put me on & said i was your favourite

Water slaps hard against the bone bridge, and behind them the surf howls—not with wind, but with something meaner. Flora hears it before she sees it: the shriek of suctioned teeth parting, the guttural churn of something breaching. She doesn't look back—can’t—but she feels the vibration thunder through the soles of her sandals, a wave of pressure chasing her heels like a heartbeat made of jaws.

"Go, go, go—!" she shouts, voice ragged with exertion, not realizing that Soh was the one waiting on her.

They're running again, shadows peeling off them like ribbons, the last few spans of bone thudding underfoot. Flora doesn't even register the ache in her legs until solid ground hits, the grassy field beyond the bridge rising up in front of her like salvation. She skids to a stop just past the threshold, heels dragging in the dirt, and spins to check behind—another delphinid launches itself out of the water. Its form twists midair like a skinned eel wrapped in shark teeth, the void clinging to it like oil. It slithers half up onto the bridge, body slapping wetly against the bone walkway.

Sohalia

On any other day, the run down the bridge might have been something to do for fun, but this was not that. Soh sprinted the final few feet onto solid ground, and she might have kept running had she not heard Flora skid to a stop in the grass. She shifted as she turned, further from the bridge than Flora, and as soon as she was once more human, she hissed at her friend: "Flora! Let's go!"

But a final delphinid launched itself onto the bridge, its glistening body halfway out of the water as it eyed them maliciously. The hair rose on the back of Soh's neck, and she made a sound that, in her just-shifted state, might have been a growl. In preparation for anything that the creature might try, Soh partially shifted: her nails strengthened, lengthening into claws, and she held herself ready for anything that the beast might try as she waited for Flora.

these aching memories still dance around me

you put me on & said i was your favourite

Flora skids in the grass, her sandals slipping in the wet earth as she hears Soh’s voice snap her name like a whip. "Shit—right, right!" she gasps, yanking her wrist back with a flick to recall the dagger she’d thrown into the delphinid’s flank.

Her breath punches out in rhythm with each footfall, the bridge shrinking behind them until the whisper of waves finally fades. Flora doesn’t stop until she’s clear of the sea’s hungry reach—until her feet are firmly on dirt that won’t collapse under her. Then, and only then, does she spin to a stop, hands on her hips, chest heaving like she just sprinted through a nightmare. (Because, yeah. She sort of did.)

"Fuck those things," she declares, winded and wild-eyed, with a grin that doesn’t quite hide the leftover shake in her limbs. Her curls are stuck to her forehead and there’s a streak of something—mud? blood? ocean gunk?—on her arm, but she doesn’t seem to notice. She just looks at Sohalia, still half-shifted and sharp as blades, and whistles low.

"Okay, so two things," Flora says, holding up a trembling finger. "One: are you alright? And two: since when could you turn into a Tide Jaguar?? That's epic!" The grin that follows is wide and breathless, threaded with admiration and leftover panic.

Sohalia

The women ran.

And ran.

And ran.

They ran until the bridge faded behind them, the calls of the delphinids no more than a whisper on the breeze. And when they stopped, chests heaving, Soh brushed the back of a hand across her forehead, realizing as she did so that she was still half-shifted. Shaking out her hands, she recalled the claws that extended there, and in just a moment she stood before Flora just like she always had before: fully human, and looking remarkably tame for a woman who had just been a tide jaguar.

She offered a shaky grin to her friend, reaching out to rub away the streak of color from Flora's arm. She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew better than to think about it too much. "I'm fine. Are you?" she demanded, her gaze sweeping over Flora with concern. She blew a strand of sweaty hair out of her face. "Oh, it's been a while ago," she said, a tinge of pride entering her voice. "I just don't get a chance to use it very much." That, and it was the creature that went most against her nature, so she sometimes found it uncomfortable - even if it was useful in situations like this.

these aching memories still dance around me