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Waves gently lap against the sand on the beach, each pulse of wave action pushing and pulling clouds of the salt and pepper-colored grains. The dull, lonely roar of the frothing waves soon finds itself joined by a cacophony of voices descending down the hill onto the beach. A diverse group of people soon march from the concrete steps onto the warm and welcoming sand; the group’s composition almost a boiler plate poster of corporate dinosaur and human diversity.
At the head of the saurian-human collective, stands a massive, saffron-hued Cetacean, her smile and scars as plain and unapologetic as the sun hanging in the cloudless blue sky above her. Dressed in a modest blue one-piece bikini, she carries a portable griddle and cooler in one arm and hand with extreme ease in spite of her missing digits. Her other hand is preoccupied with holding the hand of her shirtless human companion walking alongside her. Their muscular physiques, while obviously differing significantly due to their biology, are evidence of a life spent working in manual labor.
As Abilene, the Dorudon, looks down at the human to laugh at some unheard joke shared between the two, an even larger feminine figure walks up behind the pair, two figures trailing behind her. The nearly eight-foot, peach-colored Titanosaur looks down at Abilene with a warm smile before discussing with her potential spots to set up their beach equipment. The woman, Veronika, sports a red bandana on her hazel hair alongside an amethyst necklace around her lengthy neck, her red one-piece swimsuit doing very little to hide her pride in what her Latina genes have blessed her with.
To her side stands her adopted daughter Marcie, a tall Yutryannus whose brown scales closely match the hue of Veronika’s hair. Marcie’s neutral expression, a small smile, explodes into an eye-squinting grin as her boyfriend walks up alongside her. The dark-skinned man, just shy of 5 ½ feet in height, apologizes to Marcie as the guitar he carries on his back bumps into her. Waving off his apology, Marcie wildly gestures to the whole breadth of the beach they have to themselves. The guitar-wielding man, Donny, chuckles at her excitement, but reinforces his desire to remain up on the sand with his instrument. Marcie rolls her eyes and points her thumb back at Donny, claiming that he “doesn’t know,” before running out onto the beach to let the water lap at her feet before any setup is done.
Before Marcie can reach the water however, a short male flies past her, careening into the water with wild abandon. He nearly trips as he impacts the water, but regains his balance before continuing his energetic trudge into the water.
“Daniel! S-Slow down!” calls out a gloomy looking Therizinosaurus after him.
The saurian, Samantha, lets out an exasperated sigh, struggling to hold onto the extra beach gear Daniel dropped in his enthusiasm to fight the incoming waves. Daniel stops in the water, turning to look back at the tall woman, her figure almost haunting with the large white beach hat and white flowing beach dress she wears. He casts a look back into the incoming waves before trudging his way back up the beach. After grabbing his once abandoned gear, he assists in helping Sam set up her umbrella and belongings underneath a tall tree, the gaps in the leaves letting the sunlight through to dance upon the shaded sands like a kaleidoscope of daylight. The seven-foot Saurian reaches down to gingerly hold Daniel’s face, her wariness of the dangers her claws pose ever present, before gently pecking him on the forehead. He returns the affection with a small kiss of his own on the tip of her snoot. With a smile, she waves him off, her subtle French accent apparent in each encouraging “Go!” she gives Daniel.
Daniel picks ups where he left off, sprinting off into the water. This time however, he finds at his side a similarly statured Asian man, Ken. They lock arms in a gesture reminiscent of 80’s jungle action films, something Ken has become recently educated on by his own Saurian girlfriend, Tallulah. The lilac Spinosaurus-Raptor hybrid laughs as she sees the gesture.
“I’ll join you in a sec, Ken,” she shouts, before turning to hand off the beach chair she was carrying to her mother, Daphne.
The magenta-hued raptor scoffs at the outstretched chair before walking away with the 4 boxes of boxed wine she was carrying. Tallulah’s arm drops the chair with a sigh, a scowl beginning to poison her expression. But before it can get any worse, a calloused, dijon hand reaches over and liberates the chair from Tallulah’s hand.
“’Ere, I gotcha, Freckles,” Abilene says as she nabs the chair.
“Thanks Ms. Hartley,” Tallulah says back, her voice meek.
Abilene stops and turns to Tallulah, her eyes squinting as she analyzes the befreckled face before her. Abilene glances back at Daphne, who’s now setting up the boxes of wine alongside a cooler underneath a beach umbrella, before looking back at Tallulah.
Abilene speaks, “Go play with yer man. We’ll get e’erythang set up.”
“No, c’mon, I can—” Tallulah attempts to rebuttal before Abilene interrupts her. “Nope! Go have fun. Then… ya bring Ken up here so I can see if he’s worthy of my favorite sailback.”
“Abilene… you can’t say that shit in public,” Inde says from behind the pair as he sets the griddle up on a table.
“I—uh—yes, dear. Sorry, Tallulah.”
“’S okay. Only if it’s you though,” Tallulah says with a wry smile, before setting her crutch on a picnic table and beginning an awkward shuffle down onto the beach.
At first, she struggles immensely, the loose, dry sand unstable beneath her tall, leaning form. But as she approaches the waterline, the sand firms up from the moisture, giving her the necessary support. She soon catches up with Ken and Daniel, who were waiting to enter the water with her. Ken struggles to not stare at her in her modest, black two-piece bikini, but manages to finally peel his eyes off her. The pair shoot off in the water, their awkward marching through the water a testament to how not designed for water the human form is. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Tallulah slinks into the water, opting to go prone in the water rather than walk through it. Soon, she submerges, the only parts of her visible being her sail and snout.
Ken and Daniel eventually make it out into deeper waters, the two of them giggling like gossiping school girls. However, a purple sail makes its way behind Ken, the poor, unassuming man pulled silently into the churning waters. Daniel notices the sudden absence of his Asian accomplice in beach crimes and looks around dumbfounded. Unfortunately, he fails to notice a large wave approach from beyond the shore until it’s too late.
A quiet “mierda” is all he manages to get out before the roiling monster swamps him. The chatter on the beach ceases, as everyone watches with bated breath to see if he survived his seawater smashing. Several mildly tense seconds pass before a wave deposits the poor man face down onto the beach. He sits there motionless for several seconds before popping back up with a triumphant yell. The silent beach crowd quickly returns to their paused conversations.
Suddenly, Ken bursts out of the water, the man’s face rife with terror.
“DANIEL! HELP! SHE’S OUT HERE WITH ME! SHE’S SO MUCH FASTE—” Ken screams before a pair of lilac arms explode out of the water and grab him by the waist, pulling him back into the depths.
Daniel, in his hubris, immediately stomps back into the water to save his friend. “I’M COMING MAN, SURVIVE!”
While the two friends fruitlessly fight off Tallulah, everyone else finishes setting up their chairs and belongings. Abilene gathers everyone’s attention before speaking.
“Aight, e’erybody go have yer fun, I’ll cook up some grub on the griddle in a while. In the meantime, snack yer lil hearts away. I’m goin’ fer a swim.”
With that, Abilene walks over to Inde, picking him up and hoisting him over her shoulder, in spite of his protesting. He doesn’t even bother struggling however, and simply goes limp with acceptance while she casually carries him out into the water.
Veronika, who just finished lathering herself up for some sunbathing, excitedly hands a surfboard off to Marcie before going and laying down on a beach towel to sunbathe. Board in hand, the Yutryannus stomps over to Donny, who was tuning his guitar under the shade of a tree. She leans down over him, staring at him with a wordless smile.
“I’m good,” he says, fully understanding her silent intent.
She smiles and stares.
“Marcie, c’mon.”
She continues to smile and stare.
He sighs.
“Okay fine, but I’m staying where it’s shallow.”
“Let’s GOOOOOOOOO!” she shouts, yanking the poor man up by his arm. The pair shoots off into the water, Donny having to run to keep up with Marcie’s long gait. She finally lets him free as the depth of the water reaches his knees. Marcie quickly shoots off into the water, gunning straight for the larger waves. She struggles at first, finding difficulty in timing her riding with the breaking of the waves, wiping out a couple of times. Regardless, she remains ecstatic and eventually finds her groove. She rides along the wall of the collapsing wave, managing to shakily maintain the perfect position in the barrel of the wave. Her long tail shifts back and forth, keeping her unstable form upright. Eventually, she leans forward and rides the wall of the wave out to its end, managing to avoid wiping out. She somewhat elegantly rides up to Donny, still panting from the adrenaline of successfully riding her first wave.
“S-So? Wha— what’d ya think? Was I— did I look cool?” she breathlessly asks.
Despite his initial trepidation, Donny is now smiling.
“So fuckin’ cool.”
Marcie beams before standing up straight and undoing the Velcro ankle board strap. Donny looks up confused as she spreads her arms wide and closes her eyes. She ever so slowly leans forward, the realization of what she’s doing dawning on Donny.
“Marcie, no! My hair!” Donny screams as Marcie falls off the surfboard onto Donny, laughing like a maniac all the while.
A new figure steps into the beach, their deep purple scales lightened a shade in the direct sunlight. The Giganotosaurus surveys the beach, her eyes squinted in concentration as she searches for her targets. Soon, she finds them. The first is Tallulah, who is laughing in glee as she suplexes Ken into the water with the assistance of Daniel. The second is Abilene, who is off to the side, gently floating in the water with Inde resting on her abdomen. Rhea, the newcomer, gently sets her belongings down near everyone else’s, opting to ignore Daphne when she greets her, then walks out onto the beach.
She stands for a moment, glancing between her two targets. She thinks for a second before deciding, turning towards Abilene. She takes into a massive breath before screaming her challenge.
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?”
The beach goes silent, the beachgoers, birds and even the waves pausing to witness the Kaiju battle that was about to unfold.
Abilene sits up with a start, shunting Inde off her and into the water. He quickly reemerges with a protest, but upon seeing who has issued the challenge, quiets down, opting to begin shuffling his way over to the trio of hooligans who’ve paused their hydro-wrestling.
Abilene stands up in the water, walking perpendicular to the shoreface and onto the sand.
“ WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? ” Abilene roars.
Everyone at the beach besides Inde winces at the volume, the bald man worriedly glancing between the two titans.
Silence fills the empty space left by the Abilene’s bellow. Everyone glances to Rhea, then Abilene, then back to Rhea. A bead of sweat runs down Inde’s and Tallulah’s brows. In unison, they both scream.
“Beat her ass, woman!”
“Kick her ass, Rhea!”
The two massive saurians charge at one another, colliding with enough force to send sand flying into the air. Despite Abilene having just over a foot in height over Rhea, she fails to overcome the purple dinosaur. Rhea shoots low, keeping her center of gravity low to prevent being bowled over by Abilene. Even so, she’s pushed back several feet by Abilene’s momentum, mounds of sand rapidly piling up at her heels. As they come to a stop, Abilene reaches down to grapple Rhea, but as she does, Rhea flicks her head upwards, her hard Saurian skull colliding with Abilene’s chin with a crack. As Abilene’s head whips back, the sandy spectators let out a collective cringe. Rhea pauses, a look of genuine worry crossing her face, but it soon turns back to a smile as Abilene spits blood on the sand and smiles, her stance lowering.
The two slam into one another, Abilene driving a fist into Rhea’s rib cage. She lets out a seething hiss, the strike far shallower than intended, affording Rhea an opportunity for a rebuttal. She backhands Abilene, the giant staggering back. Seizing the opening, Rhea charges forward. Abilene throws a wild haymaker, Rhea easily dodging the wild strike. Rhea impacts with Abilene’s shoulder, the whiffed blow the perfect opportunity for a change of scenery. Transferring her momentum forward with her grapple, Rhea expertly kicks out Abilene’s leg at the same time; this beautiful mastering of Newton’s Third Law sends the disoriented Dorudon into the hot sand with enough meteoric force to trigger the generational PTSD in every dinosaur present. The sand explodes into a rapidly settling cloud, every person there unconsciously leaning forward in anticipation. The cloud settles to reveal Rhea has secured Abilene into an arm bar. The two dinosaurs strain against one another, Rhea doing everything in her power to keep Abilene’s arm in her grasp, while Abilene flexes to escape.
Against any other dinosaur, this would be the end.
Unfortunately, Rhea has two things working against her. Firstly, the force of the impact prevented Rhea from securing Abilene’s arm at full extension, giving her the ability to resist the grapple. Secondly, Abilene can bicep curl more than Rhea’s bodyweight.
Rhea flexes her whole body against Abilene’s upper body, short, shallow gasps escaping her snout as she struggles against the whale’s musculature.
But little by little…
Centimeter by centimeter…
At an agonizing, glacial pace, Abilene slowly curls against Rhea’s grapple, each second another bit of favor lost for Rhea. Rhea, exhausted and frustrated, looks around for an area to escape to, now realizing that her grapple gambit is failing.
Suddenly, she feels a hand grasp the collar of her shirt. She looks down, seeing that Abilene has hooked her hand around the hem of her shirt. Horror crawls across her face as she realizes what’s going on. Abilene didn’t want to escape her grapple. She was flexing and subtly rotating her arm enough to grab Rhea herself. Before Rhea can fully disengage from the arm bar, Abilene fully flexes her arm and rotates her trunk and, with a bellow, sends the 250-pound dinosaur careening into the sand several feet away.
Rhea crashes into the sand head first, managing to use her arms to somewhat ease her impact. She tumbles several times, but still manages to recuperate enough to stand back up.
Tallulah and Daniel stand there, mouths agape, paralyzed by the display before them.
Inde and Ken wipe the drool from their mouths.
Abilene stands back up and immediately charges Rhea, who, in her disorientation, stands low and shoots forward to meet Abilene, in a mirror of their first engagement. However, Abilene stops herself short, something Rhea fails to notice in time. Rhea lurches forward to meet a tackle that doesn’t come. Instead, that low charge places Rhea’s head between Abilene’s thighs.
Tallulah, Ken, Daniel, and Inde all speak.
“What the fuck.”
“It’s over.”
“God in Heaven.”
“There’s no fuckin’ way.”
The world slows down, as Abilene, with a bloody smile, reaches down and wraps her arms around Rhea’s waist. Abilene lurches back, swinging Rhea upwards like a sack of potatoes. Rhea flails, looking towards the quadrio of spectators standing in the water. She smiles as she fully grasps what’s happening.
Once again in unison, they speak.
“ BATISTA BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMB! ”
Abilene swings her trunk back down, smashing Rhea into the soft sand like she weighs nothing. Sand explodes into the air as Abilene craters Rhea into the ground, an audible gasp escaping those in the crowd who don’t fully know what’s going on.
The dust settles, leaving Abilene standing over Rhea’s broken, sandy form. Abilene reaches her scarred hand down and…
A purple one reaches up and grabs it.
Abilene yanks Rhea up and immediately pulls her into a tight hug. The two women begin laughing as if they didn’t just recreate a Kaiju battle 1-to-1.
“I almost had you!” Rhea says, partially muffled in the hug.
“Yeah, yeah, ya did! I was this close to tappin’! Yer gon’ beat my ass any day now.” Abilene responds, separating from Rhea.
“Oh –uh— sorry about hitting you. Swung a bit too high, overcompensated for the height difference.”
“’S all good. Helped sell the whole thing,” Abilene says, wiping some dried blood from her lip.
Abilene leans down to whisper in Rhea’s ear.
” Tallymarks’ over there. Go give ‘er a Hartley Hello, hmm? ”
Rheas smiles before silently nodding, beginning her walk over to Tallulah and the others.
They begin to walk over to her before stopping.
“Wait—I know that smile. You just got smashed into the sand, you seriously can’t—no, stay away!” Tallulah says, her laugh masking her worry.
Rhea smiles and laughs, before beginning to trot towards Tallulah. The hybrid steps backwards to escape, but finds that Ken is standing behind her.
“Nope, it's your turn now!” he says.
As Tallulah turns around in terror, she finds that Rhea is already upon her. With a practiced precision, Rhea loops her arm around Tallulah’s neck and through her legs, lifting the lanky lass into the air with ease.
“Riptide!” Ken yells as Rhea smashes Tallulah into the water, Ken following the move up with his own People’s Elbow.
As Inde, who’s swooning over Abilene’s display of strength, and Abilene return to the other crowd, a rustling in the bushes reveals two new, unexpected visitors. From the bushes comes yet another saurian lady with her human companion.
An older looking Brachiosaurus steps down onto the sand, her hazel skin complemented by the very modest breach dress and hat she wears. While her body may not be tall, her neck’s length causes her height to dwarf everyone present. In fact, her neck disappears into the trees above, with her head poking back down out of the leaves some feet away, leaving her true height obscured. At her side stands a man just a head shorter than her, not counting her massive neck. The man appears to be the best dressed out of anyone here, an almost business-casual-beach hybrid, if such a thing could exist. His spiky black hair, serious expression, and almost lawyer-ish attire is definitely reminiscent of something familiar.
They glance around, obviously trying to find a spot away from all the rabble. Unfortunately for them, they arrived on the beach as Abilene and Inde returned from her wrestling match with Rhea. As she greets and passes them, both of their stomachs grumble in unison. Abilene, hearing this, stops dead in her tracks before turning slowly to face the pair.
“’Ungry, are we?”
The Brachio, Nari, speaks first.
“O-oh, just a bit! We just forgot to pack snacks is all.”
“And a lunch. And we skipped breakfast,” the man, Evin, says.
“Dear, please! We would never want to impose—”
“It’s okay Nari, they’re inviting us. It’s not rude to accept someone’s offer,” Evin says with a small smile, his hand gently rubbing Nari’s shoulder.
“See? I insist, sugar. We got plen’y of food. C’mon over, was just ‘bout to get the griddle rippin’ ‘n roarin,” Abilene states with a smile, the blood on her lip earning a worried glance from Nari towards Evin.
“W-w-well, that’d be quite rude of us to force ourselves into your—”
“Oh, hush up, sug, ain’t nuthin’ like that gon’ happen. No need t’ play coy, I coulda heard them bellies rumblin’ from the water.”
“Oh dear,” Nari says. Evin on the other hand, simply thanks Abilene and begins walking towards the griddle.
“Nuthin’ t’ be ‘shamed of. C’mon, we got all sorts of stuff. Even some veggie burgers. Just you wait ‘n see how my sweetheart here cooks ‘em up. I guarantee ya ain’t had a burger like his!” Abilene says, before slapping Inde on the backside with one of her dorsal fins.
“H-hey!” he shouts, his white cheeks quickly flushing red.
“ Oh dear! ” Nari squeaks, her whole neck turning red, the blush running from the base of her neck and up to the tip of her snoot.
“I-I-I-I-I’m going to go sit down! Please let me know when the food is ready!” she says quickly before rapidly walking after Evin.
Abilene laughs before following the pair, leaning down to whisper in Inde’s ear.
“ Ya see that? She’s like a thermometer! Do… do you think the same thing happens when she’s about to cu— ”
“Abilene, Jesus Christ!” Inde says, barely containing his laughter.
Abilene snickers before walking over to the griddle to get it warmed up. Soon enough, the smell of cooking veggies and meat fill the air; Inde, in his “Kiss the Kaveman” apron, keeps the two kinds of food separate for the sake of the herbivores in the group. Despite her initial reluctance, once food is placed in front of Nari, she happily eats her fill with zero qualms. Her and Evin make small talk amongst themselves and the less boisterous members of the beach crowd. Nari spots Samantha reading in the shade and quickly joins her, the two introverted book worms very glad to have found someone at the beach that has similar interests.
Once they’ve had their fill of the food, the saurians decide to relax and sunbathe while the humans head out into the water to play. As the men wrestle and yell, tag teaming one another before deciding to turn heel and attack their once-allies, the women lather themselves in sunscreen and lotion and line themselves up in a row to bake in the sun. As they all simultaneously rotate onto their stomachs to cook their backs, the beach goes silent. A minute or so passes before Veronika arches her neck up to see why the men stopped making any noise. As she does so, the group of men, similarly lined up in the water, collectively snap 180°. Now turned out facing the water, they point at random places on the horizon, nodding their heads as if they’re discussing the intricacies of beaches and water.
Veronika simply laughs and lays back down.
The day continues to pass, beachgoers milling from the shade to the food to the water and everywhere else. As the sun begins to approach the horizon, the crowd begins to settle around the firepit. Each couple pairs up, cuddling in the warmth of the fire and each other’s embraces. Some couples opt to sit next to one another, while some sit in the laps of their significant other, the larger partner settling their snout on the head of their companion.
Quiet discussions and jokes are had, but amongst all of them, one stands out. Donnie pulls out his guitar and, with some encouragement from Marcie, begins to play a a ballad.
The song is slow and quiet at first, the strumming unsure; not from a lack of skill, but rather unsureness. The dialogue surrounding the fire quickly dies as the attention shifts from their conversations to the music. Almost antithetically, with the attention now on him, Donny’s wariness fades, his confidence with the fretboard increasing with every second.
The sounds of the waves and birds fade out as all attention focuses on Donny. Dino and human alike gently sway with the song, their eyes closed as they enjoy the ballad. Almost in a trance, Donny jams without a single care to the crowd around him. Or rather, all he cares about is the audience witnessing his work. Each plucked string, a testament to his dedication to his craft. Each of these new friendships, evidence of his commitment to be better for himself and those around him.
Eventually, the song fades out, the silence left in its wake filled in by the gentle breaking of the waves and cracking of the fire in the firepit. And soon…
Clapping and some cheering erupts out of the group, with Abilene whistling in approval. Donny abashedly rubs the back of his neck, a little too meek to look up at his approving audience, though it’d be hard for them to tell given his hair, anyway. Marcie wraps her arms around him in a tight hug, loudly whispering encouragement into his ear.
The rest of the evening is spent roasting marshmallows, making smores, and telling stories. Unfortunately, as merriment and joy may come into our lives when we need it, so may it leave when we are ready to be without it. Nari and Evin bid everyone else farewell and depart, Nari exchanging information with Samantha to discuss books online. Abilene gives a tight hug to Tallulah, Rhea, and Ken, the last of which she was very approving of after seeing him stomp Daniel into the water like Seth Rollins. Veronika and Abilene exchange phone numbers so they can exchange recipes in the future. And finally, Daphne.
She is allowed to come to the next pow wow, due to her good behavior.
With their goodbyes said and departing hugs given, the groups separate to their requisite hotels and abodes, their stomachs full of s’mores and their hearts full of love for the friends and family they have in their lives.