[Plot] A Lonely Island

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase was at the helm as the smallish boat motored towards the lonely island west of Ryukyu. Given all he went through, he should be terrified of being on the sea. But the Lotus had done its best to crush the phobia, leaving him merely uneasy. However, he did seem to go out of his way to avoid pushing his luck by looking over the side.

He was at least faring better than Diego, who had vomited over the side more than once.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette was actually doing rather well, considering that only a few months earlier she would have been terrified of being in a bathtub, let alone an open sea. But now she was more confident in her ability to keep herself together. And not having any inner-ear structure helped keep the motion sickness to a minimum. She was passing the time rubbing Diego's back and trying to make him feel better.

[Diego Zapata]

Diego was leaning against the rails, stomach threatening to continue its rebellion.

"Uugh... I hate boats... I didn't know I hated boats..." he groaned unhappily.

[Narrator]

The island was around 20 miles off shore, making it beyond sight from the mainland. One they had arrived within viewing range of the island, Chase would find that as he expected from the aerial view, there wasn't a proper place to shore up a motorized boat. There was a stretch of beach though that one could probably reach via a smaller, more manpowered vessel.

[Diego Zapata]

"Unfortunately, you're going to hate rowing ashore even more," Chase said as he guided the boat as close as it could get before dropping anchor.

Diego groaned even louder.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"You could swim, if you would prefer." Colette offered. "Perhaps it will help you to feel better?"

[Diego Zapata]

Diego stood straighter. "Jaguars do swim, don't they? So maybe I should."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"You would be more of an expert on ze matter zan I would...." Though maybe this was a horrible idea. She didn't know any better.

[Diego Zapata]

To satisfy her, he turned to her and spread his fingers wide to show the little bit of webbing between them.

"I mean, why else would I have these?" he said with a confident grin.

God, please don't let there be sharks.

[Chase Delacroix]

As the others talked, Chase worked on getting the inflatable raft ready.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Zis is true. Perhaps you are a catfish after all."

While Chase was getting the raft ready Colette checked things over to make sure that everything that they might need was in order. Not that she really needed to, but it helped her keep her mind off of all of the "what if's" she didn't want to consider at the moment.

[Chase Delacroix]

With the raft fully prepared, Chase took a long look at it before announcing, "All aboard who don't want to swim for it."

[Diego Zapata]

Diego took off his shirt and held it out to Collette.

"Hold onto this for me, okay?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette was doing pretty well at not blushing as she took Diego's shirt and carefully folded it to stow it away with the few things she was taking with her. This was, after all, serious business - and with the purpose of finding her boyfriend. No time to be ogling boy pecs. Once she was certain she had everything she stretched herself over into the inflatable raft in a way only someone who didn't have bones would be able to do, but had the benefit of not rocking either vessel very much.

[Diego Zapata]

As Chase started rowing, Diego dived in and started swimming. It was colder than he had expected but it did work to reduce his nausea.

[Narrator]

Diego swam decently faster than Chase rowed, so he managed to make it to the shore first. The Island wasn't exactly huge, though large enough to be capable of anchoring the ship where it couldn't be seen by the home's occupants, somewhat up beach in a small cove.

So when Diego made it ashore, he would find himself on one side if a bit of an outcrop, dividing the cove from the rest of the beach. And from over the other side, he could hear music, and a familiar voice.

Not the one he was hoping for. More, one that seemed familiar from karaoke night, and the nearly empty library, albeit sounding a bit aged from how he remembered it.

Won't you come see about me?
I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Give them everything, inside and out-

[Diego Zapata]

Diego made like a cat with a death wish and chose to satisfy his curiosity. Sticking against the outcropping, he peeked around the edges hoping his poofy hair wouldn't give him away. It was good that it was soaked with seawater.

[Narrator]

From Diego's angle, all he could see was the back of a man's head resting at the end of a outdoor chaise lounger, his back turned from him. His hair was a dark auburn colour, a very large streak of which was greyed. His head bobbed about as he sang, and Diego could spot the edge of a pair of sunglasses on his face.

"Love's strange, so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on
Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby-"

[Diego Zapata]

Why does this guy sound like an older Basil?

Diego looked for a way to get a better angle without giving himself away. He didn't want to make any sort of contact without the others.

[Narrator]

"Don't you forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you forget about me-"

Diego would get the overwhelming sense he was being watched somehow, but even if he attempted to give the air a quick sniff, he wouldn't smell anything out of the ordinary.

[Edmond Spencer]

"Will you stand above me?
Look my way? Never love me?
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down"

His cautious movements paid off, and he got a slightly better view of whom he was attempting to sneak a peek at.

The middle aged man he could now catch in profile that was weaving his head to the tune with his eyes closed was too eerily similar to the young library assistant he knew. He couldn't tell his eye colour of course, not behind the shades. The hair was off, but the facial structure was nearly identical, right down to the cleft chin and aquiline nose.

"Will you recognize me?
Call my name or walk on by?
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down"

[Diego Zapata]

Holy shit, is that his dad?

Diego started his way back to the cove. This could be the perfect person to run into short of Basil himself.

[Chase Delacroix]

By the time Diego made it back, Chase was dragging the raft onto the beach. He shot the other boy an irritated look but could tell from his attempts at stealth that silence was in order. That and the singing that sounded oddly familiar.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette took a biiiiiiiiig steppy from the boat and out onto the beach as Chase was dragging it onto the shore, managing to keep her sneakers dry in the process. She was just in time to see Diego slinking back all stealthily. Which gave him time to see the look of confused concentration on her face before it broke into the wide-eyed expression of pleasant surprise. Obviously she'd heard the singing too, and her footfalls were anything but stealthy as she started in a run.

[Narrator]

The quick movements set off the looming presence around them.

To the boys, it would see as if Colette froze mid-movement.

To Colette, she would feel like someone was squeezing her like a lemon.

Slowly her more liquidy bits started leaking out of her like a sponge onto the dry portions of beach below her where her two friends could see them.

[Colette Rosenhof]

The change was most noticeable in Colette's limbs and head, which didn't become gaunt as what happens with the elderly, but instead shriveled up and lost most of their defining features like she was a giant raisin. There were no bones to maintain their shape, after all. She couldn't even make a sound.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Breaking from the foliage line and out in the open, a female figure stared down the trio, hand outstretched.

She was barely a blip of black on the sand. One might think her a child by her height, but a savvy (perhaps feline) eye could tell even from this distance that she was older than they, though perhaps not as old as the man he had found.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase was the first to react, immediately taking an expert fighting stance.

"Let her go!" he called out.

[Diego Zapata]

Diego reacted differently, stepping between the more violence-minded pair.

"Whoah! Wait! We're friends with Chisaki!" he said, arms up in placation.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

The woman tilted her head slightly at Diego, her eyes narrowing at the boy skeptically.

"Tell me Garfield. Do you make a habit of sneaking about when you're looking for a friend?"

She had yet to 'drop' Collette, but she'd at least stopped juicing the poor girl. The gelatinous being floated mid air as they spoke.

[Diego Zapata]

"Yeah, blame the ninja boy behind me for that. He was worried about a hostile reception. Though, I mean, he wasn't exactly wrong now was he?"

[Edmond Spencer]

Responding to the sound of raised voices, the man Diego spied crested over the hill Diego returned from to see what the commotion was about.

"Something amiss?" He called out to the female.

He stood both confident and alert, his obscured gaze moving from the woman to the trio she had encountered. If it weren't for the hair, Chase could swear he was looking at some version of his friend who had fallen through a time warp.

Well, that and the very obvious King of Hearts tattoo on his bare hip. Now that he was upright and facing him, Diego could see quite a few more details of the man he was attempting to inspect.

Namely, that he was stark naked except for his shades and a vaguely concerned look.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

"Nothing I can't handle." She replied.

[Edmond Spencer]

Assessing the situation again, he realized his companion had ahold of something in a threatening manner.

"Kiwa, let them go." He replied, his tone implying that was an order.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

'Kiwa's face soured and after a moment, she made a dismissive flick of her wrist as if she were tossing something aside.

Colette was let go, but she was not returned to her original state. Instead, she was left to lay deflated in the sand like a punctured beach ball.

[Diego Zapata]

"Thank you," Diego said with a sigh of relief as Chase rushed to check on Collette.

"You're Basil's dad, aren't you?" he asked the naked man as he lowered his arms.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette landed with a less-than-wet thud on the sand, much of her clothing in a pile over her. It took a moment but eventually there was some movement as the girl condensed into a semi-spherical shape to retain what little water remained. So she wasn't dead, but she wasn't up and about either.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Collette? Can you hear me?" Chase asked worriedly.

[Edmond Spencer]

"Kiwa, you need to put back what you took. Non-saline please." He stated as a follow up demand.

'Old Basil' didn't respond to Diego's inquiry, and moved to assist Chase. He crouched over to loom next to the small gumdrop shape entity.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa did as she was told, and with a few movements, a little pool of fresh water settled under Colette. She couldn't exactly force it back into her cells, it didn't work like that.

The woman kept a sharp eye on Chase, who Diego had identified to her as a 'fuckin' problem'.