Recent Posts

The wave surged towards the two young women-- while it threw Vanessa into Gina, it merely swept Gina up for a moment. She felt the cling and pull of the water, its urge to sweep her away (a sensation that sent chills through the gargoyle). But with her wings fanned, she was merely pushed off the ground for a few feet, and then gently sat back down. Gina nonetheless shifted her hold on Nessa, moving her hands from her friend's hands to her forearms, until the sea set her back down. They stood hugging in the ocean for a moment, wobbling in the wake of the wave. A small shiver ran through Gina's tail-- the cause of said shiver was subject to debate.

>> ”Look on the bright side? Now we can sunbathe and nap to dry off?”

The gargoyle was released from her friend's arms, and the smaller of the two women nodded with a wordless vigor. She'd passed the test of courage by successfully venturing out into the water-- but now that she'd waded out, Gina was more than happy to wade back in. She was not a swimmer after all.

Besides which, ever since she'd gotten up that morning, Gina had felt the pull of a nap tugging at her consciousness. Though she was an active member of diurnal society, she spent much of the time... extremely freaking tired. And any amount of daytime napping was a welcome activity in her book. The gargoyle waded into the shallows, frequently checking over her shoulder to ascertain that her friend was still following, and that no waves were trying to sneak-up on them. Soon, she'd successfully found her way out of the water, small waves swirling around her ankles.

The blanket beckoned to them amid the sea of other beach-goers. Gina carefully picked her way through the crowd. Once at the blanket, she hunched beside it, flipping a corner over.

"Know what the best part of sunbathing at the beach is?" Gina quizzed Nessa, grinning. By way of an answer, she began to dig one hole out in the sand, taloned fingers scraping past the loose, silty stuff above and clawing at the wet sad below. This was deposited next to where the blanket had been set. Gina then dug an identical hole of similar size immediately next to the first, again depositing the loose sand. The blanket was replaced, and the gargoyle grinned up at Nessa, "Stomach sleeping~"

It was a luxury not often indulged in by the gargoyle, and she was going to take advantage of it. By this point, the sand had dried, so she stood back from the blanket, dusting off her legs and feet. Sure, there was probably some stray grains of sand (particularly on her tail), but she wasn't going to worry about that right now. A nap was in order! Gina carefully settled onto the blanket, rearranging her shorts and her bag so that they were towards the top of the blanket-- a makeshift pillow.

Gina laid on her side, carefully maneuvering her wings out behind her, half-folded. Waiting for Nessa to settle. She rested her head on her forearm. Once her friend settled, she'd take off her sunglasses... but once that happened, she was wasn't going to open her eyes again. It was far too bright. Gina watched her friend, unsure of what to do next. Were they just going to sleep next to each other? That's what sunbathing was, right? The night after her birthday party played like a scene on repeat in her mind-- foreheads pressed, hands entwined, legs tangled. Nothing happened, honestly, but... it was still stuck in the gargoyle's mind and-- urgh. 

The gargoyle nodded at the sage advice Simon offered. Perhaps he’d been through the same process with his own parents, and was speaking from experience?

“I know Mom comes from a good place,” the gargoyle agreed. Even if, as Simon put it, her hovering was “insufferably irritating”. Whatever the future held for her, she’d make it work. If only her mother let her try… the gargoyle found respite in focusing the conversation on him instead. Some points still had the potential for being raw, particularly if they focused on the topic for too long. Simon, however, seemed happy to indulge in some explanation of what his profession entailed.

The gargoyle wouldn’t deign to admit that his explanation made her head reel. Independently, each sentence made sense, but as a unit the information was dizzying. Despite this, Gina was still a fantastic listener, nodding and offering cues to show that she was listening every now and again. It sounded like he… networked, and helped businesses succeed, by the sound of it.

Again, however, the conversation returned to her—Simon was seeming to conduct an assessment of Gina’s own marketability, so to speak. The gargoyle inclined her head, a ghost of a smile pulling at her lips. Those were actually… very helpful tips. Gina’s brain didn’t operate like that (it wasn’t her profession, after all, so it’d never occurred to her), so this idea of networking, of using her mutation as clout, of anything just… hadn’t dawned-on her. It took her brain a moment, after processing information, to note that Simon had stopped his analysis.

“I feel like I should have taken notes,” she said warmly, glancing at the abandoned sketchbook and pencil beside her. Her gaze slid back towards Simon, crossing her arms at the wrists atop her leg, surveying him, “Thank you.”

She wasn’t sure what else to say, beyond the casual remark that, “That’s a really powerful position to be in. You could help, like… make or break a company.”

If she was being entirely honest, Gina didn’t think she could handle a job that sounded so high-stakes.

>> “That’s essentially a sample of some of what I do, normally I’d charge anywhere from $500 to $5,000 for someone in your position, however since your a neighbour, how does dinner sound?”

Gina’s brow stitched in mild confusion—if she could afford to treat someone to a $500-$5000 dinner, would she live in a co-op? Unless Simon meant to suggest that a dinner date would be the payback, no minimum-money-spent required. It all felt very “Aladdin” to the gargoyle… wherein Aladdin said the Genie “probably couldn’t” get him and his monkey out of the cave, and thereby avoiding the use of a wish to escape… except instead of granting an unwarranted wish, Gina was repaying unwarranted advice.

“As long as it’s not a five-hundred dollar dinner,” Gina agreed, cracking a cheeky grin at Simon, “I don’t think I could swing that.”

She "didn't think" she could afford it? No, she knew she couldn't afford it. That would be a significant chunk of rent money.

The gargoyle smiled, eyes skimming for the next game to play. She’d be perfectly happy playing skeeball all day, but with the amount of coins she had, she felt that it was especially important to choose wisely. Vanessa admitted defeat, but not before attributing her loss to the “pretty girl next to her”. The gargoyle ran a taloned hand over her hair—had it been hanging freely, rather than wrangled into a bun, she would have ran her fingers through her hair. Her knuckles awkwardly bumped against the sunglasses, so she dropped her hands. How was she supposed to counter that? Gina settled for a hesitant smile. D-d-don’t get her wrong, she liked the compliment but… oh gosh, her heart was going to jump out of her throat.

Nessa hurriedly saved her companion from responding, handing a ticket to the gargoyle and announcing the parameters of the bargain—nothing illegal, no asking for more tickets, not after today.

“I was really hoping we could do some crimes,” the gargoyle joked, her tone awkward and disjointed. Gina tucked the ticket into the pocket of her shorts, the only pocket on her persons that wasn’t her satchel (which would inevitably get the ticket very lost), and followed her friend to other games.

The gargoyle fumbled her way through the rest of her tokens, occasionally shining at the classic, pure-chance arcade games, but absolutely tanking most of the video games. Regardless of the outcome, the gargoyle seemed to converse with each machine, squealing at moments of intensity and sassing any disagreeable elements. When one game was over, the gargoyle was more than happy to proffer any earned tickets, should she actually earn them. Nothing was as fruitful as her miraculous skeeball performance, however.

Having earned a small boon, the two returned to the beach. Gina trailed after the slender brunette, carefully picking over the hot sand. It was well into the afternoon and the gargoyle could feel the siren’s call of a nap. The sunglasses had been returned to the bridge of the gargoyle’s nose, and she carefully circled to the other side of the blanket. Good, no one had bothered it. Gina set her bag down, setting the folded towel atop it. That would make a decent pillow.

Nessa had other plans. And, upon shedding her wrap, the gargoyle eagerly changed her plans as well. She looked… beyond words, honestly. In a good way. A great way. Ma-damn.

>> “Join me for a quick dip?”

“Hell yeah!” the gargoyle agreed, unbuttoning her shorts. The shorts sat low on her waist, below her tail, so there were no additional snaps to speak of. Gina wriggled free of the jean shorts, carefully pulling her feet through before discarding them atop the satchel-towel pile she’d already started. Her bottoms were a solid, medium pink that coordinated with the floral print of her top. Despite having been walking around in the partially-shear tankini, the absence of shorts suddenly made her feel more exposed. Her cheeks were luminous with warmth.

“I’m not much of a swimmer,” the gargoyle admonished, unsure if she brought it up to Nessa before. They carefully wove their way past umbrellas and towels, blankets and sunbathers and small sandcastles towards the immense sea before them.

“Sink like a stone,” she elaborated, quirking a self-deprecating grin. Maybe it was the wings, maybe it was her feet, but for some reason she could only (at best) doggie-paddle on the surface. She paused at the water’s edge, letting a small wave burble over her taloned feet. Given the leathery quality of her skin, it took a few moments for the water to register as “absolutely frigid”. The gargoyle followed Nessa with her eyes. It’d be a good respite from the relentless sun on equally-persistent blush upon the gargoyle’s face.

Updated for power growth.

Gina nodded appraisingly. It sounded beautiful-- like old people and judo, but for young people who liked to dance. Capoeira. She was about to comment about how cool that sounded when Elliot deposited his trash-picking tools on the ground. Whaaaaat was he doing? Why was he running? The cartwheel on its own was impressive, but it became something else entirely-- it was surreal.

"Oo!" the gargoyle gasped. He wasn't done. He was standing on his hands, "Whoa!" He contorted and spun, and finally landed on his feet again, "Dude!" Gina clapped appreciatively. She'd never seen anyone move like that before. She stopped clapping to let him explain.

>> "It's a Brazilian martial art that combines dance, music, and acrobatics. Sometimes, people practice together in a sort of sparring dance... kind of like that. The games more about skill than winning a fight. Like a dance off, I guess?... I like other kinds of dancing, too. In clubs. Went to one with a jumbo shrimp recently. Had good music."

Whatever qualms Elliot might have about surprise dance parties, Gina was there to dispell them, for as soon as he finished explaining, she was gushing with questions, "How much training did it take for you to get to that point?! I mean... I can't..." she moved her hands around in a similar, but obviously unskilled, circular fashion, "...I am at a loss for words. That's so cool!"

Gina resumed hunting for clutter with her spear, "I mean, I go clubbing, and love dancing just as much as the next girl, but that? Thaaat's poetry."

She shook her head, "Whaddya mean you went to a club with a shrimp? Like a shrimp mutant?"

"Someone had to balance out all that testoserone," Gina agreed, nodding sagely. As if she'd only been adopted to balance the male-to-female ratio in the Schuyler household, and that was the only reason they were "lucky". Gina chuckled, nibbling more at her ice cream. It was getting to the part where, soon, she'd need to start eating cone.

Nessa confirmed that she did have a brother-- a big brother-- whom she lived with.

"Dude, little sister's unite," Gina said, flexing her arm around Nessa's momentarily, "That's hella cool."

Gina couldn't imagine living with her brothers. While they all got along swimmingly, she imagined that at least her eldest brother would be an absolute helicopter when it came to where his sister was going and what she was doing... not that she could blame him. But it would be so... suffocating! Gina bit off a piece of ice cream cone, crunching thoughtfully.

>> ”He’s kinda… the only family I’m willing to own up to. My parents… My parents were not accepting and not okay with who I am."

Gina inclined her head towards her friend, pausing in chewing. Not okay how? Was she a mutant? Or was it because she was into chicks? Both were sometimes points of conflict, in families. Not everyone was blessed with a liberal-hippie mom whose open-mindedness practically outshone their daughter's, in some situations. Gina would never forget the talk she had with her Mom about "being careful about which substances she experimented with". Not "don't do drugs" just "be careful if you do". The gargoyle had to patiently explain that she wasn't interested.

>> "As a woman. As a… trans woman. Booker—my brother—helped me a lot through that, so when I think of my family, he’s it.”

Oh. So she was a trans lady, huh? When someone knew as many people as Gina did, they met all different sorts of people-- trans people included. Particularly when she was so indiscriminate about romance. Gina swallowed her bite of cone. Despite her "somewhat worldly experience", it was still a sensitive subject to introduce.

Gina squeezed her friend's arm again, acknowledging the shakiness in her voice and the stiffness in her shoulders. It had to be scary to come-out like that. Not everyone lived as in-your-face as the gargoyle did.

"To me, you're just Nessa," Gina assured Nessa, her voice soft, "And I like Nessa-- and all that that entails."

There it was. Simple as that. The gargoyle's cheeks were getting hot again, and her heart stuttered, so she bit off another piece of cone, crunching crossly. Uuuggghhh, why were feelings so complicated? It wasn't like she said she "like-liked" Nessa. Just that... she accepted her. Right? That she was cool with Nessa-- that the fact she was trans didn't affect how the gargoyle saw her. It wasn't like she'd professed her feelings or anything. Now her stomach was jittery too. F***. The gargoyle glanced away, her attention following a flock of seagulls that'd been loudly provoked into flight by a shrieking boy in a bathing suit.

"It's cool that you told me, though!" the gargoyle interrupted her own thoughts, "That takes guts."

That must have meant that Gina had ascended to some sort of higher friend status, if there was such a thing.