fandomtownies | The Beach | Wednesday Afternoon

Entry tags:

@beach,
nina

The Beach | Wednesday Afternoon

Ugh.

So, like, Nina hadn't been on the beach since she'd showed up nearly dead on it but it was, as she knew good and well, the best place to, well... play with fire. Literally.

It wasn't going to stop her from kicking rocks over the spot she'd hit the beach through the portal.

Nina was maybe a wee bit resentful of the whole ruination of long walks on a beach daydream. It was hard to focus on romantic fantasies when all she could think about in relation to the beach was how it had felt to not be able to breathe.

"Rude," she muttered vengefully to the rocks. The porgs were giving her a wide berth.

Nina stood defiantly on the beach and stared out over the waves.

And waited.

She'd shown up early--mostly so she could literally kick rocks--on purpose.

[She's expecting one but open, yeah!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, Liam couldn't disagree that the beach was certainly the most appropriate place on the island to work with fire. Still, his breath caught for a moment when he saw Nina standing basically at the spot that the portal had dropped her off.

"Hey," he greeted. And left it at that, because 'how are you doing?' was... kind of obvious.

There was a reason the porgs were avoiding her, even though she wouldn't hurt them.

"Hi," Nina said, glancing at him. She didn't bother to fake a smile because Liam would see right through that.

Yeah, he absolutely would. "Do you need a minute?" he asked carefully.

Nina shook her head.

"I got here early," she explained.

"Okay," he nodded. "Just- remember that you can take your time, okay? Don't rush into this."

Yeah, the whole point of this exercise was to help work through the block she was currently facing, but pushing too hard all at once would do even more damage in the long run.

"I can't hold off for forever though," she said reasonably, even though it grated on her. "Like, I can't go back to my world down a powerful weapon."

"No," Liam agreed. "I'm just saying, it's okay if you have to take things a little bit at a time. But this is also your show," he acknowledged, "so what do you need me to do?"

Nina rubbed the fire rune on her palm with her opposite thumb.

"I thought, like, maybe starting with small things," she ventured. "But for those small things, like, I thought.... maybe if you had any requests???????"

"Sure," Liam nodded. "But before I know what to request... magic's so far out of my depth, you'll have to tell me a little more about what sorts of things you usually would do with fire magic."

"With the rune, it's all about attacks," she admitted. "So using the rune is probably the last few steps??????? The highest level spell is called Explosion..........."

And that would be jumping in the deep end.

"But I like fire for light and colour???????? I can do shapes in it???????"

Yeah, Liam grimaced slightly at the word 'explosion' because no thank you.

"Shapes, huh? So... how about a star, then?" Liam asked.

"Sure," she said, after considering it for a moment. "I've lit candles, and I'm okay with that," if very careful with them, "and this is really just..........."

A different sort of candle.

Nina trailed off, her eyes going briefly distant as she worked through the spell. She didn't need to use her book for something like this, just a few calculations in the back of her head, some focus, and...

With a finger, Nina traced a star carefully in the air between them. It sparkled red, orange, and blue, more light than fire.

“Oh!” Liam said, clearly impressed. “Can you change the color?” he wondered.

Nina didn't answer him verbally but, with a wink, her star went the colour of sand.

“Good, good,” Liam said encouragingly. “Can you add another shape to the one you’re making?” He asked, curious.

"Another separate shape?" Nina checked.

“Yeah,” he nodded. He didn’t know much about the mechanics of magic, but adding something new seemed like the sort of thing that would add another layer of complexity and thus more work?

Nina thought for a moment, about the complexities of that.

"I'd have to pull out a notebook and pen to do that," she admitted. "I can add to this one shape but two shapes without outside aid would be pretty draining. It's not that each shape is hard, it's keeping the magic behind them straight that would take the effort?"

“Okay, so definitely more complex but maybe a bit more complicated than we want to go just yet,” Liam acknowledged. “Let’s see you add something to the existing shape, then.”

As long as she didn't think about how it was fire she was playing with, this so far had been... not that bad? Honestly kind of... fun?

Nina nodded and focused on her star. She hesitated a long moment before she reached out and plucked at the air near the star, to draw the fire out to create a connected shape--

But as soon as the fire shifted to move after her hand, Nina flinched backwards, yanking her hand away, and the star dissipated, torn apart by the too-abrupt movement.

Okay, that was... not entirely unexpected, given what they were doing here.

Liam took a step towards her and slowly reached for her hand with his own.

"Hey," he said, voice low and soft. "You're good. It's okay."

Nina's eyes were a bit too wide, her breathing a little shallow, but she forced a laugh anyway.

It made her feel better, even as it didn't fool either of them.

She didn't move away from the touch though.

"I hate this," Nina said, low and with feeling.

"I know," Liam said, squeezing her hand gently. "Deep breaths, okay?" Usually he was the one who needed to be grounded in the here-and-now, being on the other side of it felt... strange.

She closed her eyes, forcing a deeper breath, focusing on the air she was breathing and his hand holding hers. It helped.

The first breath was hard, the second a little easier.

Nina took five, then opened her eyes again.

“Back with me?” he asked.

It was okay if the answer was ‘no’.

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