Fun fact: This is one of two short stories that were originally slated for the KOFtober Prompts set before I procrastinated so hard I basically failed spectacularly at keeping up with the month. I initially typed this note during Thanksgiving, and now it's December, so I'm REALLY been on the 'block' as of late. I'll explain things eventually, perhaps in the first BIG post I make here (whether a new story or something for SNK Heroines).
Anyways, here's some beach stuff feat. Kukri and 'Friends'.
Despite the 'Official Invitation Team' having split eons ago, Mian and Sylvie were destined to come across their sand-flinging former ally every now and then – especially in realms such as the beach, which was abundant in the coarse, rough terrain.
"Sylvie, we've got a problem."
"Oh no – we're gonna be DLC?!"
"...What?—n-no, look."
Mian spun Sylvie in the direction of focus, and gestured towards the other end of the beach – where a highly-noticeable pillar of sand was towering over the range around it. The best way to describe what this was would be: 'A sand castle that reached its final stage of evolution'.
"Ooooo~ Tall thing!"
"Sylvie, don't." Mian grabbed the arm of her livewired friend. "The best we can do about this is to not give him the attention. He chose to disrespect us, so why wouldn't we do the same to him?"
"I dunno – that thing does look super climbable..." Sylvie stared up at the sand-skyscraper before her and Mian, her mind still in the sandy, gritty gutter.
"We came here to relax and take in the summer – better to spend some time away from picking at our battle-scars. Underground fighting doesn't pay easy for the both of us – especially without Mr. Antonov's involvement now..."
Mian just wanted to take in the sunlight and be happy – she was already lucky enough to still keep up an unscratched body that settled pleasingly into a tight, dragon-inspired one-piece for such weather...
After a moment, Mian recognized the lack of response from her friend, and retorted – "Sylvie, I know you're still staring at that thing."
"...Sylvie?"
Mian looked around in confusion towards the dead air she was getting, she realized that Sylvie was just outright nowhere to be seen.
"Oh no."
From the inside of the sand-construction that stood taller than the far-distant lighthouses in the ocean, Kukri sat in mostly-silent relaxation, looking out at the view of the world ahead through the front opening.
Unsurprisingly for the eccentric man of mystery, he put probably too much attention to detail, to the point where it looked far bigger on the inside than suspected – this was a man capable of handling his own pocket dimension, so would that even be a surprise?
As he sat upon his beach-formed throne, the sand-elemental slumped against an arm-rest that softly dented underneath his elbow – it seemed as though he wasn't as satisfied as he imagined he would be, from something such as this.
"The more I sit here, the more I realize how little this does for me. I can imagine the beauties taking a notice of this – but I wouldn't tell, looking from up here..."
"Hmm... I do feel like I need someone to help validate my craftsmanship... Maybe Elisabeth – she's a woman of culture, at least."
Before he could make his final decision, he felt a slight rumbling of the sand beneath his seat – knowing the public locale of the structure that temporarily held his private matters, it was probably just the ocean tickling the exterior and causing a not-quite-seismic shift.
It wasn't the ocean.
From beneath the beige terrain, a hole was busted through into the interior right before the throne – and Sylvie's head popped through in its blonde-poof infamy, like a groundhog checking for six more weeks of winter.
"Hi, 'Kooky'! I can almost see your face from here~!"
Staring downwards in the direction of Sylvie's greetings, Kukri almost immediately went defensive, contracting his legs off the floor and onto the seat as he stared down at the disturbingly upbeat creature intruding his haven.
"How the hell did you get up here!?"
Sylvie smiled back. "I dug a hole through. You like it?"
And the smile then took some frustrated stomps to the face.
"No, I don't like it, you rat!" shouted the frustrated sand-pervert as he vigorously tried to stamp out the NESTS reject like a rodent that didn't belong. "Get down from here, dammit!"
Sylvie's arms rose through the opening and clung onto the stomping leg, "But I wanna play in the tall thing, too! Why do you get to keep this all to your—w-whoa!"
Suddenly, she sunk back down as the weight she was unintentionally pulling down wound up pushing on her – and her refusal to let go meant that Kukri was being dragged down with her, slowly sinking down...
Kukri was brought into defeat under another's force – the 'world' he freshly sculpted was crumbling down because of how much Sylvie dug underneath it just to get up to him.
"Fucking hell – how I wish I just kept experimenting with my fetish dimension..."
He then fully disappeared beneath the hole, coming back down to Earth as the throne room fell apart from the disruption, with the layers underneath it following suit.
It was too late for him to consult Elisabeth for her thoughts on his artistry at this point – Sylvie's intrusion had helped bring the building down into seaside rubble.
Rubble that almost tidal-waved in all directions and overwhelmed the back half of the beach, disrupting many a patron's time by the waves.
Perhaps the least inconvenienced was the last-third of the former 'Official Invitation' team – Mian, whose incapability to keep Sylvie held down to Earth was probably the biggest catalyst to such short but destructive disorder.
She shook her head.
"Once again, you've both ruined each other's fun to the detriment of the world itself."
It was a good thing she didn't need to pack up much before leaving – it felt like she wasn't needed in general, to clean up the mess...
