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<03/11/1972 – 12:28 | Manhattan, New York, United States>
Three days. It took three long and tedious days for any news to change between Nyar and Jane regarding her job position. Danny was most eager to hear about it since it felt like Jane and Taylor were leaving him out to dry with his horrific job. As everyone gathered around the dining room table, Jane broke the ice to Danny's uncle.
"Not the job; the interview. And it's scheduled for tomorrow at one, so we can't do anything more tonight." Jane felt as though the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders just by landing an interview. After so many attempts to get back into the job market, only this one place was allowing her to try again. Applying for jobs is hard, not because of the process, but because of the stress it involves with waiting and hoping.
"That's still good news to hear Jane." Nyar knew that Jane could do it, and mentioned still that she should still apply for jobs today, just in case that place doesn't work out. However, applying for multiple jobs everyday can be pressuring in a strange way. Still, there must be a lot of new French places opening up nearby. Cider de' Gal has been a well-established business for a long time, and only the name of the restaurant is French, yet now this happens. "You said it was called what?"
"Le'Flanc. They're kind of like the restaurant we went to the other night with a bigger bar."
Jane serving tables would be interesting to hear about, and bless her soul for taking on something so challenging, for her anyway. Still, Le'Flanc? They better not cause any competition problems for Cider de' Gal. It must be close by too, since the job search filters are set so low in range.
"Well there's more good news to that story," Nyar added. "Though I will have to work on a new case, it doesn't start until tomorrow. That means I got today off."
"So then we can go to the beach." Danny felt no guilt twisting the question into a declarative statement, considering Nyar promised he would take them at least somewhere soon. Danny was already holding the bag full of towels and some spare change of clothes. The beach was decided already as the next place to have fun in a unanimous decision between Danny, Taylor, and Jane. Since he is off work today, the timing couldn't be any more perfect.
Coney Island Beach. That was the new hangout spot the three have bothered him about for the past few days, but since Danny had not worked long enough to receive a paycheck, the group was basically begging Nyar to use his own cash to check in to the beach. Though Nyar was reluctant to agree for those reasons, he also reminded himself of the workload he set up for himself last night on the internet. He finally set up the profile needed to advertise a credit conversion service for those willing to trade in American cash for Leray credits. But whether people will bite, that's going to take time to discover. "Fine. We'll go there today. Taylor? I want to see new applications tomorrow after five P.M, got it?"
"Of course." Taylor knew Nyar would pressure her more often since she was the last person likely to receive a job in the market. But why even worry about that when Danny was offering to go to the beach already? She already packed her bathing suit she brought with her from Sprawn Valley, as did Danny and Jane. So the vacation can finally begin.
Seeing as each ticket per person is only ten dollars right now due to the strange weather of hot and cold, Nyar would accept their desire to indulge a little longer. He already told them before that visiting every hot attraction in New York wasn't going to be possible. So if they want to blow all of their funds now, who is he to question them?
Nyar drove them all the way to Coney Island Beach while the day was still young, and the kids had to put up with the long drive there. Despite the recent cold weather, New York continued to shift between above average warmth with clear weather and sheets of dark clouds that were only threatening with their appearance. Rain was absent for at least a week, and that makes today perfect for a sunny experience at Coney Island Beach.
Nyar gave the three of them the same basic rules as before back at the park, but this time, he didn't have to worry about any phone calls. After he found a spot to pitch the umbrella, the team met back up with him as promised before getting ready to go out and have fun. All of them looked the part with their change in clothes, but Danny in particular appeared to seem much more relaxed than he was before. He was smiling several times while randomly conversing with Taylor from afar.
"It probably is like the same thing."
"Then we'll make the most of it. You brought the ball right?" Taylor was checking if Danny remembered the blow-up beach ball, which he did remember to bring. His other statement regarded the comparison from here to Tilsit Beach. But it doesn't matter. A beach is a beach, and nothing here seemed to change that, other than the enormous size difference. This place makes Tilsit Port appear like somebody's backyard; you could run in either direction for miles and still have a shoreline.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Neobodamu ~ FFXIII-2 OST
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Jane missed the smell of the ocean air, so similar to that in Tilsit Port. She could even feel the same warmth level of the sunlight over her, cooled slightly by the cream of the fresh sunscreen. It appeared that Danny and Taylor were about to bounce around a beach ball this time, and Jane would want in on that action.
"We've got five hours here. Make it count." Nyar made sure his announcement was firm. It would be boring to sit under an umbrella for that long, but Nyar had no intention of getting close to the water. Having fun on a beach just isn't his style. Danny would disagree though, especially with those two hanging out with him.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
For the next hour, Danny and Taylor took turns cycling their team with Jane, so it was always two against one either way playing volleyball. Since there was no net to use for themselves, Danny simply drew a deep line in the sand with a stick, and used that line as the border of reference. Jane never played volleyball before, but she learned really quickly how to pick up points for herself. The entire moment kept Danny's mind racing with thoughts, while he tried to keep them focused only on the ball.
The thought of using magic on a beach, either to show off a skill or to battle brought him back to that memory on Tilsit Beach. But other moments reminded him of things too, such as the people he met back there. So much happened in Sprawn Valley. Danny never even got a chance yet to swim out here, though swimming wasn't what he was interested in.
In the next moment, Jane edged each of them to enter her own little contest to see who could build the best sandcastle in only thirty minutes. With everyone agreed, only Taylor's sandcastle turned out to be the best. Danny and Jane's were just a mound of clumps in the end, but that's only because Taylor had much more practice with this from her earlier days, before meeting Danny. It wasn't until Taylor finally brought up the idea to get into the ocean when Danny was reminded again about one of the new activities he wanted to try.
This however required Nyar to help him rent a cheap surfboard. However, Nyar agreed with no hesitation, and actually rented one for himself too during that moment. Danny was at least curious as to why Nyar suddenly changed his routine of sitting in the shade.
"I didn't know you surfed!"
Nyar forgot that Danny wanted to try and learn surfing, which he somehow learned about while in Sprawn Valley. This is the one easy thing Nyar could do to spend time with his nephew. "I'm no expert, but I might as well show you how to ride some waves while we're here."
Danny didn't mind a long lesson. Taylor and Jane were out in the deep splashing each other, and he was looking forward to this for a while now. But to think Nyar would actually attempt to enjoy himself...
"Come on. Let's get to the basics." Nyar already rented the two boards and led Danny to the shallow end of the beach where basic training lessons could begin.
It didn't take long to begin, but it was a real struggle for Danny to figure anything out at first. Nyar tried demonstrations and explanations as to where Danny should put his feet. Even if he could stand up okay, any small movement under the water tripped him up into the shallow sand every time, but without having Danny give up, Nyar continued the lesson repetitively until he finally switched tactics. Since Danny wasn't getting anything new into his head, Nyar tried to give Danny detailed explanations for how the surfboard moves in the water in contrast to the currents and waves.
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Chapter Theme Shift: The Cursed ~ Ian Robert Anderson [Punk Anthology]
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Though he took a long time just thinking in silence, Danny eventually took his board a little deeper out into the ocean and practiced on his own, without asking Nyar for any sort of help. Nyar passively watched while he too practiced on his own board. It had been so long ago since he did anything like this.
As the long minutes passed, Danny analyzed how he moved and in which direction the waves pushed the board every time he fell back into the salty water. Eventually, he was able to last longer each time, while covering more distance at a higher speed. In other words, he was picking up the skill like a natural. Nyar soon joined near his location just to show off, but both of them soon attracted the attention of Jane and Taylor.
"Is Danny surf boarding?" Jane at least recognized the activity from her memory as a kid when she saw other people at Tilsit Port doing the same thing, but she never figured that Danny would be into that.
"So now he skates on water?" Taylor grinned in acceptance that Danny would at least indulge into some of his old habits. He doesn't love the water that much, but to him, this must be like skate boarding with a twisted style.
In his attempt to master steering, Danny's board ended up skidding the water into the air towards both of them, but the splash only landed on top of Taylor, causing Jane to laugh at the humiliating accident.
Since Danny never noticed, he continued on trying not to wipe out with the most pathetic waves yet. The water was almost too calm to try this on, but Nyar was teaching Danny how this works with a steady pace. For another entire hour, this went on and on.
Jane was happy that she and everyone got to have fun, including Nyar for the first time in probably several years. She never imagined that Nyar could be so involved and full of positive energy like this. It almost made Jane want to join the fun of surfing, but now that it was time to reapply the sunscreen, she would first need to travel all the way back to the umbrella spot to try and dry off a little.
Just shortly after drying herself with one of the clean towels left there, Jane could hear a muffled electronic beeping noise; close enough to be right below her. At first, she had to process what sound that could possibly be, but the realization came to her shortly after. The noise was a familiar ringtone, and the sound was coming from her one and only cellphone that she placed into Nyar's bag on the way over here. Somebody was calling her phone.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Unidentified Track MM
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Jane picked up the cellphone from inside of the bag, confirming that the phone was ringing right in her hand. With Danny and Taylor closing in behind her to also reapply their sunscreen, there wouldn't be a way to keep this little conversation hidden. Jane was sure she already knew who was on the other line, but he shouldn't be calling her at all unless this is important. Jane flipped up the phone, enabling the device to automatically answer the call. When Jane put the phone up to her right ear, she turned around to see Danny and Taylor taking notice of her action with blank stares on their faces.
"Hello?"
"Yes? Code name?" Jane almost forgot to ask for that, as proof that the only other person on the line would be a trusted source of information.
"Code name Zazzel. It's good to hear from you again Jane. How are things?"
Different now that you killed the mood! But Jane couldn't say that. Danton wouldn't call her for no reason. "We're fine."
Danny almost immediately understood who Jane must be talking to, but was still surprised to see her with a cellphone. "When did Jane get a cellphone? That's not Nyar's is it?"
"Who are you talking to?"
"Shhhh!" Jane put her hand out and shushed Taylor and Danny to pay the call more attention. However, this only caused both of them to hover closer in curiosity.
Danny thought at first Jane was talking to her parents, calling them from home, but she had done so already the other day from Nyar's home phone, and could do so at any time. Judging from the look on her face, it's as if Jane is receiving some serious news?
"Understand?"
Jane nodded aggressively even though Danton could not see it. "No, I don't understand. I don't know what all those terms mean."
Danton simply translated the language by dumbing down the statement for her. "The first level of the scan compiled the data from the sample we took from you earlier. We now have the molecular level of data that we need to determine the composition of your symbol."
Way to beat around the bush Danton. "So... You still don't know yet?"
"No. But I wanted to let you know that we're much closer now to discovering more about your symbol, and that the sampling we did was a good idea."
"But..." This isn't right. Danton was strict about making sure to keep communications to a bare minimum. Why would he call to tell her that the scan is still going in the direction we already knew it was? "That's not the only reason you called, is it?"
"Sharp as ever I see."
"Who is on the other line?" Danny repeated, wanting to know why Jane was going silent on them.
"It's Danton. Now shut up for a minute." Jane needed to hear any news she could. Any update on her family or the hunt for the enemy was more important than anything.
"Danton? Why do you have—" Danny trailed off, suddenly unwilling to ask the question. Jane and Danton must have exchanged phone numbers... More than that, Danton must have given Jane that cellphone for communication. But then why the hell would she not mention something like that to them? Is she trying to keep more secrets?
"The news isn't good Jane. I was afraid this would happen, but I'm not surprised that it did."
Jane couldn't talk over him hearing this. The moment she learned the news, Jane felt tight knots in her stomach. It's the kind of nightmare that instantly made her sick, the news that easily ate at her morale. So this is why he called.