Chaaaaaaaaaaaaa

“Are there any nice beaches or something in your world?”

“Oh, sure, but we’d need air travel unless you want to hike for a few weeks and then get on a boat for another week.”

“...What counts as air travel around here? ‘Cause if it’s alive or about to fall apart, I think I’ll take the hike and the boat.”

“You have those options, or we can take a skyship. Which will cost us a small fortune. Or I could just show them this.”

A metal necklace, red metal cast into the shape of a flame.

“And they’ll let us on for free.”

Toinette grinned.

“Poifect.”

---

“Sky cruiiiiise!~”

Blimps had fallen out of favor in the real world after the Hindenberg disaster. Here, not so much...especially since they’d been souped up with some rocket engines, essentially turning them into massive darts. Despite this, a large chunk of the sky ship was open air, though virtually everyone was keeping inside away from the intense wind and the chance you could fall off the ship and plummet to your likely demise.

Toinette was not keeping inside. She was standing at the prow of the ship, arms splayed wide and a huge grin on her face as the wind battered her slight form and rattled the chains on the leathers she was wearing.

“I’m queen of the woooooorld,” she shouted to nobody.

Then a swarm of black birds tried to steal her jewelry.

“AGH FUCK!”

Back inside, Toinette gave Chastity a glum look.

“Birds tried to steal my jewelry.”

“Oh? The jackers went after you? Good. You mind going back out and giving them another shot?”

The answer as to WHY Chastity would ask something like this became clear when the birds came back, and Chastity roasted them out of mid air, impaling one of the cooked birds on her sword.

“These things are amazingly good flash cooked. It’s damn hard to get them too. Eat up.” Chastity bit into the bird. “Even the burned feathers taste good!” Well that was technically what she said: her mouth was full.

“Nice!” Toinette devoured her own bird. “In-flight meeeaaal~”

---

Visinnrv Beach.

Black sand, lapping waves, and a slice of Chastity’s world. All sorts came here. Not all of them could pull off the beach look, but no one was judging.

Chastity...had decided to wear a one piece bathing suit. It was absolutely bizarre.

“I think first...a nap under an umbrella…” Chastity settled down on a blanket towel and put on some goggles. What she was using instead of sunglasses, it seemed.

Toinette, wearing a two-piece suit, looked down in disappointment at Chas.

“...Seriously? You just lie around? I thought we’d go swimming ‘n’ stuff!” The fae sat on the sand and folded her arms. “Laaaaaame.”

“The water isn’t going anywhere. Just let me vegetate for a twin. Er, that’s twenty minutes. There’s a guy down the beach, he sells these clams he bakes right in the shells...add some lemon juice, divine.”

“Sure. I’m gonna go pick up some girls though.” Toinette got up and headed down the beach for the clam guy

“Just be careful, or you could get roped into a…”

---

“Linkball game.”

And so, after some flirting, some annoyed men, some snappy banter, and a challenge, now Toinette found herself, with Chastity, facing off against six men in various stages of shape, all wearing silly hats, which she too was forced to wear.

It was volleyball, basically. With a few key differences, the main one being everyone had a ball that was attached to an elastic rope that was attached to their wrist. The point of the game? Whoever knocked all the hats off the opposing team won.

“You wanna cheat?”

“Yes.”

“Hey boys! If you win, you get our swimsuits! RIGHT NOW! HERE’S A PEEK!”

A peek? More like an eyeful.

“That’ll misplace the ol’ blood.”

“I wish I could do that.” Toinette looked down ruefully upon herself. “Fae puberty wasn’t kind to me.”

Neither was the game of Linkball to the men. Chastity’s trick worked like gangbusters.

“Okay, now that we’ve worked up a sweat, NOW we can go swimming.” Chastity said, strolling away with the men’s swimwear all slung over her shoulder, while the rather-perturbed men hid themselves with towels and tried to get off the beach.

Toinette whooped and headed for the ocean. “Victoryyyyyy!”

---

“Does this swimsuit make me look fat?”

“No.”

“Good. I’m buying it. Just need to add this and this andthisandthisandthis - “

“If you wear all those clothes at once, you WILL look fat.” Chastity was examining a tube of...something. Lipstick equivalent? Well, this place in the nearest city to Visinnrv, a place called simply “Visi”, was the closest equivalent Chastity’s world got to ‘a mall’. Though it was more open air flea market, but that was splitting some hairs.

“Look, if I’m gonna stay here, I’m gonna need some stuff that’s more practical. No offense, but I can’t rock your style every day.” Toinette produced a fistful of gold coins to pay the perplexed owner of the stall. “I don’t have enough… biggily. In my tiggily. So I need me clothes for me.”

“In that case…”

One showing of her red metal flame necklace later, and Toinette was walking away with the clothes for free, as the shopkeeper almost got down on his knees and kissed Chastity’s feet.

“That one was...a little more intense than the norm. Must have saved a family.”

“That red necklace is, like, a go anywhere passport. What’s the deal with it?”

“...can I tell you later?”

“Sure. You can help me try these on!”

“...is that wordplay for something kinky or do you just want to try on clothes with me?” Chastity seemed suddenly rather serious.

“...Yes.”

“Okay.”

--

That night. A big bonfire at the beach, with all sorts of people drinking. Chastity, however, was watching the fire. Toinette was sitting next to her, with a very large tropical drink in her hand. She also watched the fire. But eventually, the silence was too much.

“...Alright, what’s up? You’ve been Miss Grumpy ever since the shopping trip.” Toinette took a swig. “What did I do?”

“Oh, it’s not your fault. I just try not to think about why I have this. My Frozen Flame.” Chastity said, taking out the red necklace. “It shows I’m a member of the 44. The people who helped save this world. And before you say well that’s great...yeah it is. But there were almost three hundred of us. The rest didn’t make it. I had some friends in there. They’re gone so I can still be here.”

Toinette didn’t say anything at first.

“Do you remember them?” She was quiet now.

“Every day when I wake up and just before I go to sleep, really.”

“Good.” Toinette took a sip. “I think they’d be proud of ya. You’re still here, doing a good job. ‘S far as I can tell, you’re the best these people could ask for.”

She stared at the fire a bit.

“I can’t tell ya how to mourn. Fae don’t have… memories, really. I don’t remember most of anything before I left Faerieland. I have all of two friends, I guess. So, you’re lucky.”

“Memories have their upsides. And downsides. But that’s a story I don’t wanna tell unless I’m smash-faced drunk. And that’s not an offer. Some things...you really shouldn’t share them unless it’s the right time. And there may be no right time. Now, THAT BEING SAID…”

...Where the hell had Chastity gotten that gigantic marshmallow?

...and cookie squares? And a chocolate square?

“Time to make a s’more ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING.”

Toinette actually gasped.

“...You’re my hero!”

“Funny, the way you usually address me, I thought I was your god.”