How do you make holy water?

There was a good reason why this current endeavor that the red-head took upon himself was, as he considered, the beginning to a grand adventure outside what normal men have done, but there was also another good reason why this could ultimately lead to their undoing by becoming a disaster way beyond the realm of their control.

Was their a difference? Probably not.

His exceed, however, didn't take the situation as pleasantly as Jing did, her tiny body quivering as she clung to his leg by ways of her claws, generating small pinpricks of pain to slither up his aforementioned limb, though he was no stranger to Meilin's 'defense mechanism', as he liked to call it. There was still a significant amount of wincing to behold, due to his clothing having been already stripped off his person to leave nothing but a pair of swimming trunks and therefor hadn't the protective padding of his clothes. The shorts were something that he'd bought for cheap over at a local business establishment on the island, though not without considering the durability of the material, lest the fishes get too chewy on him.

"J-jing, w-w-w-w-why did...y-y-you...have to g-go...w-w-ith...a w-w-ww-w-w-water j-job?!" she hissed, climbing higher as her red-headed master sunk his body deeper into the water, generating tiny little punctures across his waist as she clawed herself upward in fear.

Thankfully, the blood drawn from Meilin's dramatic aversion for water prompted his Nanowrap Bandage to unravel, spiraling outward from the material of his swimming shorts - where, and why they rose from that particular place is a mystery worth dwelling on, but it was nevertheless a trivial inquiry. Jing was at the very least grateful that the armor managed to dull the pain that was elicited from the exceed's claws, if not amused that the little black cat's trembling was, in the end, a bit useful and justified after all.

Still, if he wished to proceed and end the request before the sea dimmed with nightfall, he'd have to calm her down, or settle her back unto the island to wait for the entire duration of the bout. Sensing the low probability of the cat getting into the water, Xiao Jing chose to do the latter.

"You can wait for me over by the beach if you'd like Meimei." he cooed, rubbing her gently across her back as he attempted to separate her from his skin, "I'll be back before you know it. I promise."

His last insistence, unsurprisingly, was the result of the exceed's sudden over-protectiveness that began to plague even the smallest of his decisions, which was a trait of her's that hadn't always been there before. It wasn't until a few days ago, where he'd awoke with a fright to discover his left arm heavily bandaged and his entire head to toe all but sore from what he presumed to be a merciless beating. There were black and blue spots in extremely strange areas, almost too intimate to consider an even fight, but because he was fully aware of Marco's brief dominion over their system, it wasn't too much to think that the fight might've been dragged far too long for comfort. That didn't explain the 'unforgivable' injury that Meilin persistently berated Marco for - knowing his alter, it must have been a result of an accident, because that side of him was hardly stupid. He'd later discover that he was at the hospital at the insistence of the exceed, proving it to be unnecessary, having no visible fractures that the black cat whittled on about.

Needless to say, his stay in the hospital was shortened by both logic and reality.

"B-but...you might...g-get h-h-hurt!" she stammered, the slits in her eyes rounding out into orbs as it always did when she tried to 'cute' her way out things, "P-please...let's just...c-c-choose a-a-another...j-j-ob!"

While the bandages clothed most of his face and, by default, his mouth, his voice still managed to escape with only a small amount of muffling, somehow causing his words to seem gentler and softer than usual. "...Look, Mei, I know you're scared, but the doctor gave me the go to start wizarding already and...and you saw how bored I was lying in that hospital bed right?"

The exceed lowers her head, eyeing the water that sloshed about lazily, to and fro, pooling at Jing's thighs, almost mocking her. "...Y-yes." she says, sounding defeated more than afraid.

"Then do this for me, alright? I won't force you into the water with me, but if you let me go, I'll get you that plush cat bed you've always wanted."

There it was, the classic, Jing-style bribery that has caused them many a trouble as much as it had gotten them out of it, a slum-borne facet of his that would only become sharper with the passage of time. While he didn't look the part, the red-head was particularly good with these sort of things, for he had the words and the craftiness to pull the act off. His charisma was questionable, but Xiao Jing was a man of clever deceit, and he could fool people as much as he pleased just by appearing practically unreadable, putting on masks that people liked to see and saying things they wanted to hear.

Whether or not this applied to the situation at hand, Meilin didn't know, but she adored her red-headed slayer too much to truly mull on it, and there was a certainty that he cherished her in such a manner as well, if at all, which was what allowed them to remain inseparable after the immeasurable amount of suffering they were subjected to. She'd let him jester and joke as much as he wanted, and he'd coddle her as far as he could, and everything was good, too good to interpret negatively.

She pouted, in a way that implied that she was merely fabricating it to make a plea to her inherit cuteness, "...Make it the purple one with the pink scratcher and we've got a deal."

"Deal!" the slayer exclaims, perhaps too ecstatically as he retrieved the exceed from his person and promptly squished her in an energetic hug, his face beaming like a young child, the grin on his face an actual genuine one that was far from the cheap imitations he often wears around other people. "Thank you so much Meimei! I'll remember to bring back a snack for you when I come back!"

"J-jing...! I-....cc-c-c-c-can't....bwe-a-the...!"

"Oh...right, ahaha, sorry~"

After being knocked out breathless from a slayer's death hug, the exceed would leap across the idle waves and unto the beach as Jing spreads his arms, moving to settle her on the sand at a safe distance away from the water she oh-so loathed. She sat almost relieved back on the land, but she'd give Xiao Jing a still-worried glance as he waded back into the depths, his body slowly descending.

"If you don't come back I'll...I'll...I'll knock down all your precious beakers! And poop on all of your unfinished inventions!" she said, watching the red-head devour a sort of...rock....that generated a thick bubble of air to inflate, encasing his entire head in all its ginger glory. The slayer offers her but a cheeky thumbs up before his body is immediately consumed by the sea as he moves downward, appearing as if he had lost his footing and sunk.

Meilin surpressed a scream, her fur standing on every end until she saw several electrical lights sparkling from beneath the water.

"He's...fine." she reminded herself.

The silence that followed was composed of nothing but the lull of the waves and the sound of her breathing as she watched on, waiting for her slayer to resurface sooner or later.

1288/4400 WORDS ● JOB LINK ● JOB APPROVAL ● NOTES

The strange thing about the ocean, he thinks, is its ability to change moods after you've been completely submerged -at one point, it glistened like precious metals, lapping at the golden beaches, then at another, it was a deep, alluring blue that dimmed the further you went down, the abyss paralyzing you with a sense of dread whilst the harmless oceanic creatures amused you in a curious sense.

'There's adventure lurking here for sure!' he thought, feigning a giddiness only reserved for high school girls in their fluttery skirts and knee-high socks, 'I just know it!'

If the data his client provided him was accurate as Mr. Geoss had insisted, then the artifact of interest was a few meters to the east, situated in an underwater cave within a depth that won't make him worry for his safety bubble and its possibility of popping mid-way. Drowning was not the death he'd imagined for himself, much less anyone, he believed.

By the time Xiao Jing had located the direction to which his coordinates pointed towards, he'd have already angled his body to a horizontal position that allowed him to propel it forward, swimming at a leisurely pace amongst schools of fish and long, willowy kelp. It was to his gratitude that he learned how to swim beforehand, all those years back when old man Demetri was still alive and had, out of an illogical whim, thought him how to float and swim and dive in the same day by threatening him to throw him off the Pandora at a height that he surely couldn't survive. Needless to say, the unorthodox manner of teaching was characteristic of the austere man that the inventor was, and Jing wouldn't have probably accomplished the task if it were any other man.

Because it was Demetri, the red-head was naturally inclined to laugh at the memory, and...because it was still Demetri, Jing was also prompted to recall, bitterly, that those days would never return to him. Pandora was most likely salvaged for parts by his family, and Demetri was six feet under, taking him the life of adventure that Xiao Jing craved and ran after, time and time again, even in his dreams. Surely, the slayer tries to subconsciously relive the glory days with his wizarding here and there, but there is an quintessential 'layer' to the years he shared with the inventor that appeared impossible to fabricate, for he has yet to truly recall the thrill of his time upon the Pandora.

As if noting how untimely it was for him to musing over old memories, the slayer quickly dives down, tilting his body closer to a rocky structure peeking from the shallow bottom of this part of the ocean. He breathed in, reveling in the effectiveness of the lacrima he'd been commanded to make use of, and swam closer, daring the dangers of the situation as he maneuvered behind a conveniently placed cluster of brown kelp. It was to his knowledge that the forsaken object of his client's desire made all the creatures in the surrounding area hostile - and while he has yet to encounter any true enemy while he traversed the depths, there wasn't any harm in preparing for an attack.

"Heh. I bet Marco's loving this so much, even his lapels are clapping." he mused, parting the kelp to create a small peep hole for his own convenience.

Contrary to his practically listless expression, the two beasts behind him registered his presence with a malice unbeknownst, and it was enough to cause the waters around him to vibrate in such a way that attracted his immediate attention, a familiar chill ravaging his spine in tingles.

"They're behind me, aren't they?" he said, two shadows lurking above him, causing what little sunshine that had already been filtered by the water to darken. He whistled, marveling at the size of the two creatures who glowered daggers at his fleshy human back.

"Wuddya look at the the size of you two, hoooo boy." he said, arms flexing slightly as his knuckles bent to a satisfying crack. "I'm super sorry if I'll be resorting to animal abuse, but I just gotta have that shiny treasure you keep in that cave so-"

The beasts appeared to disagree with the notion of letting him close to the artifact, or rather, they simply just detested his existence for being human, there, in their territory. As soon as he turned around to avoid the incoming tackle of a large, water-borne creature, Xiao Jing managed to vaguely make out what sort of fish he was pit against, appearing to be two of those strange 'water pancakes' that idly glided from place to place, their tails barbed and poisonous, deadly even.

"Sting rays right?" he said, tapping his chin as he jumped upward, narrowly avoiding the other fish that attempted to charge at him. His overall speed and reflexes felt sluggish when under water, but luckily for the slayer, the salinity of the ocean was just about right to give him a proper advantage against the fishy folk who knew how to move against the current better than he did.

"Up we go!" he jested, hoping unto one of the rays as it whizzed past him at frightening speeds, his body escaping the possibility of being pummeled into the ground by a hair's worth. The thing beneath him writhed and jiggled, the entire span of its body slim-y and slippery as the slayer balanced atop it like a performer at a mock circus. He'd feel himself tilt from one side to another as the beast swam at terrifying rates, threatening to knock him off as violently as it possibly could.

The red-head raised an arm, jostling the energies that gathered in streams at his wrist, before releasing them downward in a satisfying punch, the lightning spreading outward from his fist as it collided unto the fleshy skin of his enemy, rendering the creature into paralysis, a spasm rocking to its very core. In his haste, he'd quickly deduce that the other one was launching at him from behind, steeling itself for an attack, and it was amusing to play the blind fool until it was about a meter from his location, where he'd pull his body to a tilt, drifting smoothly downward as he dodged the Stingray's tackle, further taking the advantage by directing a harsh fist into its exposed belly, the stillness that followed a result that he nonetheless expected, watching with cold, barren eyes as the creature writhed and quivered in pain. In his head, it was easy to map out their demise through some very detailed procedures involving dissection and merciless slaughter - but he calmed himself, swallowing the 'monster' that thrashed about in his skull.

"Not today." he mumbled.

Instead, he'd retrieve both rays and pile them on top of each other, entangling them in the kelp bed that grew in abundance around them. He made sure to tie the two beasts with a meticulousness befitting for a fisherman, choosing to move forward as he abandoned the sting rays there.

"Meilin doesn't like soggy pancakes, I'm sure, so I'll let you guys live, for now." he said, edging closer to the mouth of the ecliptic black cavern ahead of him.

1211 [ 2499/4400 words ] ● MONSTER ROLL THREAD ● NOTES

His later advancements were to be the result of careful, elaborate scheming, with little care for the fatality that could possibly disable him for life, crawling somewhere between the crevices of the underwater caves - though, truly, when had danger ever been wholesomely considered into his equations? There were a few notable cases, but they came in sparse waves that it was unavoidable for him to never bother. He'd believed himself steadfast, after all, and the red-head found stability in his prided resilience.

The same basis could not be applied to his patience, though, particularly against the abrupt surge of some of the most obnoxious fish that the slayer had ever encountered in his lifetime, picking at his skin like a sort of candy, the nibbling sensations scattering red crescents across the expanse of his exposed torso. Initially, there proved little need to exhaust his time and energy on the tiny devils, their persistence was hellish, however, and it occurred to him after being subjugated to many a fishy-folk that he, normally well-mannered and merciful as he was, would no longer have any more of this childish biting farce.

Xiao Jing inhaled once, brief lapses of pain slithering up his arm as single oblivious fish took the liberty of something more than a taste, its fin wriggling wildly as it dug further into the red-head's flesh as if it had been devoid of any proper sustenance for a while. He sneers, ripping the offending creature from his limb with as non-existent of a care as physically possible, sending supple lightning ripples to weave across its flesh as it struggled fruitlessly in his palm. His fingers enclose the creature in a demonic grip, and a frenzy erupts as the fish crinkles and crumbles and helplessly reduces into a mass of macerated flesh, its bones an immaculate white that could be seen through the pungent crimson liquid that climbed upward from his hand, as if it were an ominous plume of red smoke.

The swarm is in no short of a frenzy at the eruption of blood, the salt waters suddenly turning caustic against his skin from the menace, twisting, churning, biting intentionally into the meat that padded his bones. He'd tense, though briefly, his eyes lit with a spark of recollection that it was no longer him and the satisfying numbness of resulting to violence, that there was more carnage left undone and that a profound poison started dying his thoughts in manic colors.

It tasted sweet, all the same.

Though the ocean may have forbid combat beneath its depths, there was nothing truly impeding it apart from its impracticability, and while it could have been frustrating to move so sluggishly in a fight, there was a charm in restriction. He'd have instantly found a semblance of peace as the waters pushed and pulled around his flying kicks, how it trembled and glittered as he weaved arcs of white lightning through his fingertips. By the time Xiao Jing had his fill of fun, his handiwork left in its wake a masterpiece of scattered fish corpses, arching upward underneath the filtered sunlight in a far too easy exchange of kicks that he threw one way to the next, letting the sparks finish the job, as it always had.

And while his sort of character warranted a maniacal laugh to hollow through him, there was none that he could spare at the sight, not a single breath's worth of twisted humor managed to breach his lungs as the redhead falters once, for a moment, as he flexes his battle-swollen fingers.

'It's not the same.' he thought, bitterly, no longer able to feign happiness in delusions of thrill, not when the taste of true excitement had followed old man Demetrius to his grave. 'What I wouldn't give to ride the Pandora again...'

Ah, no, there appeared no justice to be served in the inventor's name if the would-be apprentice (and favored heir, might he add) wasted time mulling on lost chances, for his pseudo-father appropriated a work ethic that took opportunities as fresh as they came -considering the natural transience of the lightning that Demetri bottled up for several jewels a week, it was only reasonable for him, and, by extension, for Jing, to realize the magnificence of living for the moment.

He ought to do that, instead, he thinks, yet it was a thought that tragically died down his throat as he swallowed a lungful of makeshift lacrima air, the blue in his eyes making way for his black pupil in steady, piqued interest. Circling above his lone figure amongst the overgrown kelp was a dark, uninviting shadow, gliding through the water in fine, sparse strokes. Its movements contrasted drastically against the zealousness of the fish swarm, in which this one was slow, more practiced, as if it knew that it was a creature that summoned fear with limited difficulty.

"A shark?" he spoke, providing little concern to the fact that there was not a single soul to answer his question, "I guess the 40% chance of encounter that I calculated earlier was enough for you to show up, big guy."

Prior to him engaging combat with the beast, there had to be something done about the wounds that his upper body contained beneath the damaged cloth binding of his Nanowrap. The relentless chewing tactic that the fishes utilized earlier had the armor sustain quite a bit of damage, and Jing assumed that the bandage wouldn't hold its ground on his body for very long, the usual static cling slackening as he swiveled and turned. At the expense of being seen, the slayer mustn't hesitate to medicate himself, and to alleviate whatever external damage he'd taken to keep his bodily functions in a robust condition, if he were to intercept the dangerous beast head-on at all.

The corners of his vision catch the twitch of his cheek bones into a wide, toothy grin - it was, undeniably, worth it.

"Let's see how far those teeth can get you, pal." he said, snickering.

1009 [ 3508/4400 words ] ● TAGGED ● NOTES

While the challenge was one thing, survival posed an entirely different problem. Not that he'd mind in the slightest, rather, the lower the ball rolls on the probability of remaining unharmed for the duration of the bout, the greater the significance of the encounter - and if for what it was worth, Xiao Jing wasn't extremely fond of fodder fighting in large numbers. The sparser, the better, the stronger...all the more.

A smug, almost inconceivable expression of satisfaction threatened to linger far longer atop his face than intended, his figure rolling upward as he narrowly avoided the intercepting jaws of the great white water beast, its eyes cornering the slayer with a menace known to predators who sat slightly up the known world's food chain. It was all a stupid, childish game to him, weaving through the kelp as if they were engaged in a juvenile round of hide-and-seek had it not been for the blood lust that wafted from both ends of the party in copious amounts. Savage and insane - anyone would have come to this conclusion if they had been but sane men, however, should their philosophies follow the same withered path as his, then there was no mistaking the tales of enjoyment that his smile withheld, regardless if the death that trailed him was not a painless one.

"You're fast!" he said, "Alright, my turn!"

A supple amount of organic lightning began to snake up the veins in his left arm upon his decision to adopt to a rotating movement. This was to produce a flat disk of electricity that fabricated the appearance of a carriage wheel. And while he braced himself for a throw, Xiao Jing could no longer quell the fiendish laughing noise that lodged itself into his throat -even as the beast quaked and quivered beneath the mercy of his knockback spell, the jitters inside him would refuse to cease.

The redhead doubled over in a messy fit of insanity, his pupils shrinking as a ferocious urge to kill.kill.kill was all that he could ever feel, and it felt almost liberating to mock the misery of his enemies, to toy with their confidence with his unforgiving tone.

"Hahahahaha! Look at you!" his grin stretched further beyond what was humanly possible, his balled knuckles drawing blood as he dug crescents into the skin of his palm, restless, needy. "You weren't that tough at all! HahahahaHAHAHAHA!"

The shark limped to its previous position in both anger and fear, wildly thrashing about at the foot of the cavern that he recognized, from a brief relapse into normalcy, as the entrance to where his coveted artifact laid in wait. Driven by sadistic intent, the slayer stretches an arm, collecting a bolt of lightning between his fingers before hauling it forward into the cave. At present, the great fanged beast he'd been trifling with for the past few minutes appeared to have indefinitely recover from the attack, opening its mouth wide as it swam closer towards the direction of its vermilion-haired prey, eager to end this, as much as he did.

And it amused him so damn much that even the demons inside him appear to have cackled out in merriment, manifesting in a maniacal laughter that followed suit as he swam, farther and further into the embrace of the kelp fields.

Time had not been unkind to him then as another, much greater danger awoke from the darkness of the adjacent cave, where huge, pinkish tentacles swiveled and swirled beneath the scarce sun that speckled the surface above. This larger, much more powerful creature seemingly took notice to the shark that swam close to its premises, and without much chances for pause, it'd snare the lesser sea-beast in a tight, unrelenting grip. From his vantage point, Jing could make out a visible struggle as the shark opted to mindlessly escape through force. Through the willowy motion of the kelp, the scenes would pan out through bites, and snarls, and waves tainted crimson and ink black, before fading gracefully into a lull of shuffling sand and bony crunching noises. There was no further need to deny the one-sidedness of the struggle, as if the shark was rendered by fate to die as soon as it entered the immediate proximity of the tentacled monster at the other side of the cavern's depths.

It was far, much too far from the end. His fingers had yet to retrieve the artifact that he assumed to be under the protection of the large monster. While his quivering fits of giggles dwindled into heavy, raspy breaths out of his own defiance for his physical limits, his abnormal excitement endured without any signs of respite. The redhead's thoughts have now sought to forsake his priorities that were thrust upon the treasured article of power, a heavily clouded interest drawing him out of his hiding and back underneath visible light, the ocean stilling into a idle motions of ocean current.

He stretches, conditioning his mucles as he felt the current going, surging to the beat of his ardent heart. And no sooner did he embark into the black emptiness before him, the red in his head disappearing far too quickly for anyone's comfort. Whatever the encounter was to him now...was simply for his own satisfaction.

Behind him, the ocean dims, slowly and surely, as if the sun chose to forsake those within.

897 [ 4405/4400 words ]● TAGGED ● NOTES

Against the pulsing warmth of human flesh, the ill-lit cavern that spiraled out before him kept a hallowing chill between the grooves of its walls in fresh, supple amounts. It was as if all manner of heat hadn't come to exist in this isolated corner of the world and nothing chose remain there but solemnity and darkness and death, at least, not until it started to house other, more threatening horrors.

'Could be a squid, or an octopus.' the slayer thought, the assumption dawning upon him as he gingerly fumbled through the dark, taking care to produce as little noise as humanly possible. In the distance, a muffled crunch filtered across the narrow space as he traversed the interior, unknowingly discovering that it twisted and branched off into two partitions.

"It's a matter of choice now, is it?"

Jing rolled his shoulders a tad, dramatically raising his hand as he engaged in an age-old technique utilized by the ancestors of many man when the time came to make a weighted decision - "Eenie," his finger turns once, "Meenie," and again, "Miney..." and finally, "Mo-!"

The cavern trembles as the slumbering beast stirred from safe space, smelling the intruder who had unwittingly entered into its humble abode. Xiao Jing has yet to waver in its presence, even as the tentacled creature peels itself from the left opening and towards him, spindly, and sticky. In response, he'd have quickly darted for the opening behind him upon promptly activating the Facet of the Firefly, where his entire person, red-hair and everything else, were to be condensed into a thin strip of lightning that had rushed forward without time for falter nor pause.

Later, as his body manifested a few meters from the cave's threshold, a lonesome orange glow appeared to have filtered through from the descending sunset at the surface, coating everything in a bewitching orange-to-blue combination. Had it not been for his impeding battle with an over-sized squid, he would have taken the short route upward to better appreciate the twilight as it played out across the skies. He'd no sooner discard any form of sentimentality as the beast completely unsheathes itself from the caverns, two large, beady eyes taking his figure in a primal anger that could only ever be described as bestial, and menacing.

The slayer swallows a lung-ful of lacrima air, the taste a reminiscent of salt and time ever scarce. There appeared to be very limited time at stake, making no room for his usual feats of roundabout bravery. Still, he'd make do, and the slayer cracks his knuckles all the same.

'Flow. Steadily.' he reminded himself, knowingly aware of the posing obstacle that the waters around him created, 'This time it has to be serious.'

If everything were to go as intended, it wouldn't be too long until he'd reap his coveted rewards above water with a squid carcass in tow. He often withheld any genuine attempt at fighting when it came to creatures such as this one, but now was not the time, hardly at all, particularly if you'd consider the impeding danger of drowning before reaching the surface.

The beast screeches, and Xiao Jing engages it accordingly, smiling, even.

534 [ 4939/4400 words ] ● TAGGED ● NOTES

Even in her younger years, Meilin saw humanity in a strange light. They were a race of peculiar habits, and their emotions were relatively double-sided as if one thing meant something else - the exceed reveled in this ability to lie with both boredom and confusion, because she herself could not understand why they would develop a necessity to commit falsehood, even to their words. Such an already murky gray existence needed concreteness, she thinks, bind them down to further their development.

And for the longest time, she remembers the loathe that she'd direct at the worst of their species, along with the disinterest that followed anything else bipedal and fleshy. Pride was almost customary for her unwavering distrust in humanity as a whole, her walls impenetrable, the towers housing in her heart looming over this race in disgust.

Her perception of this earthly race were to be left unchanged until she chooses to be with her now beloved slayer of her own volition, the kindness that she'd been granted to experience from a peculiar, redheaded human quickly becoming a memory that Meilin wouldn't dare to replace for anything else.

So she waits, unwillingly, but the exceed still does. Three hours and her master has yet to resurface and she's somewhat only slightly fidgety - Meilin probably deserves a reward of some caliber, right? Right? Jing wasn't particularly obsessed with water as much as he was with the pretty little lights that peek a bit whenever night fell, but maybe he'd wanted to acquaint himself and the ocean a bit? Sight-see, and whatever humans liked to waste their time on.

Right?

"I'm not nervous." she repeats, words lumping together on an interval that her heart keeps track off, "I'm. Not. Nervous."

Or so she convinces herself to be. For whatever reason, the affection for her slayer that she'd mothered for several years placed her at a disadvantage when patience was relevant. A part of her was sourly disappointed by the minutes that ran past her with neither sign of Jing's bright sunset hair or that rueful smile that she was expecting to see past the waves. Meilin shivered at the thought of having to traverse the depths on her own just to understand the situation below, to asses whether or not Jing required her help at all.

Her figure approached the water in caution, pawing at the tiny lapping water that sloshed forward and back across the sand. She'd cartwheel almost too dramatically a few meters back from the chill, as if she touched an icicle. Had the sea always been so frigid? Her face immediately housed a cornered expression, her fears lining the gold in her eyes as she shook.

"Jing!" she called out, "Jing, hang on..I'll...go in!"

Helpless at the thought of losing her only semblance of comfort, the exceed spreads her wings, unsure of what would become of them under tremulous waters. With the sun further exiting the skies, the ocean only dimmed into a consist, menacing darkness that terrified her. But all for her slayer, she recalls, all for her slayer and she would never face a shortage of courage. In one gulp, Meilin inhales a lung full of air and attempts to dive.

Not until she feels a painful sensation up her spiraling tail that she retreats from the idea, shock overtaking any of her proper thoughts as she bared her teeth to her assailant. An amused face quickly greets her as her lithe form goes slack from the warmth of gentle fingers grasping at the crook of her neck, the exceed going limp almost instinctively.

"You weren't going to go swimming right now, were you?" her slayer says, amusement betraying his tired face, "I'm touched, I didn't know you'd go that far for me~"

Jokes? Ah, what an awfully incapable man, toying with her heart as if she wouldn't have panicked at the thought of his death - "Jing, you idiot!" she spoke, tears brimming dangerously from her eyes, taking in every bit of red that filled her vision as he pet her, lightly, extracting any remaining energy to spare her some relief.

"Alright, alright, I'm home, Meimei." his eyebrows pull down in pity as he observed his exceed's sniveling form, "No need to cry."

Feeling Jing's grip on her neck go slack, she restlessly clings to his exposed chest, snuggling her face into the torn bandages that made up his Nanowrap, the damage it received causing her further worry, but that didn't matter, so long as he survived the ordeal. "Idiot! Where did you go?! What took you so long?! I was so scared, idiot!"

He laughs with a hoarse, but somehow cheerful tone at Meilin's unnecessary concern, having told her in the past that he would never, in the right mind, think of dying so early in his prime. There was far more to accomplish, things that needed settling, an inheritance that was rightfully his. For her to fret so insistently however had him unable to respond properly, surprise threatening to undo his logic if not for the sheer overwhelming sense of the situation.

This exceed was a cold-hearted one, that he understood, but this side of her was new territory and Xiao Jing knew little of relieving anything but his own sorrows. He coddles her, hesitantly, and sighs, nestling the guilt in his heart for troubling the creature.

"Hey...it's alright. I'm sorry...I just ran into a little trouble." he whispers, a smile to his words sealing in a sincerity unbecoming of him, "I got the treasure thankfully. So why don't we go get something to eat?"

For a few minutes, he counts down to Meilin's hiccups as she vanquishes her tears, the following silence feeling scenic to the slayer as he observes the last few minutes of the sunset, bright golds and oranges painting two tired existences - almost like the day told them that they'd done it, everything was okay, a job well-done.

"O-okay..." Meilin mumbles, her voice muffled through the bandages, "Okay..."

Jing returns the mumle - "Okay." he tells her, a small confirmation to every little doubt that could have still lingered in her mind.

The plan to reel in a fantastic meal for them later might have failed, but there was no need to resent the idea of splurging once or twice for good reasons. Xiao Jing still had some heart to spoil, and that he'd resolve to do that very moment, completely forgetting the mangled squid corpse that attracted many a hungry shark, their talons ripping the flesh into pink, fleshy threads.

1096 [6035/4400 words ] ● TAGGED ● JOB COMPLETE