fluxscapememe | Test Drive 2: Beachville in Flux.

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Test Drive 2: Beachville in Flux.

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Upon Arrival:

Just ask anyone, Beachville is the most beautiful city anywhere! That's exactly what the NPCs will tell you with a genuine smile on their faces and a happy nod. It even just might be true. For a beach as crowded as it is, it's surprisingly clean! The sand is just right. Not too hot and soft to the touch. The water is so blue you can see marine life swimming just under the surface. A variety of multicolored fish. Dolphins. The occasional mermaid.

...yes, that was in fact a mermaid! They're playful, don't worry. They won't try to drown you, Maybe just knock you off your surfboard with a laugh and a flash of a shimmery tail as they swim off to who knows where.

There are still sharks in that very blue, very clear water, but they're not interested in you in the slightest. In fact, they seem very keen on avoiding you.

There's so much to do here in Beachville! There's fishing off the docks, well away from where people are swimming. There's a boardwalk with almost every shop imaginable. A tattoo artist, a piercing parlor, a place to buy silly souvenirs like hermit crabs in cages, or ridiculous shirts. There's so much food to be tried; Pizzas, Salt Water Taffy's, lemonades of various flavors and some of the best burgers and fries you've ever had!

If the day-life isn't for you, wait until dark. The amusement park (which opens at sunrise and runs until 2 AM), lights up the night in a fantastic and colorful display, the sounds of the roller coasters and laughing guests heard for miles around, and part of the docks turns into an open air nightclub, complete with dance floor, beverages for all and alcohol for anyone over eighteen. Don't try to trick the bartender. They'll know.

If the hustle and bustle and noise of the beach isn't for you, don't worry. There are many resorts nearby with their own private swimming pools and entertainment. There are coffee shops on almost every street, various boutiques and curios to look at and a movie theater or two.

Don't worry; you'll also find the more necessary stores like grocery stores (where there is something for almost everyone), pharmacies, book stores, clothing stores, hardware stores. There's even a police station, fire house and hospital.

But that's not what Beachville is about! Everyone needs a vacation, right?

Beachville Locations
(Feel Free to use our locations to spark ideas for prompts! Check out other fun locations Here!)

	Beachville Boardwalk and Amusements Just what it says on the tin. Every possible Boardwalk location you can think of is here. Tattoo parlors, really cheesy t-shirts and hideous beach attire, awesome food of highly dubious nutritious value. There are also rides, like a huge ferris wheel, bumper cars, spinning rides and a huge roller coaster. At night, part of the boardwalk closes and turns into a place for dancing, drinking (For anyone over eighteen) and watching fireworks every weekend until 2 AM.
	The Surf Board There are three of these places located along the beach, and each one seems to be run by surfers in 'business attire'. Of course, by business attire, we mean these shirts and khaki shorts. They're here for all your surfing needs whether it be board rentals, lessons or even board purchases and care products. Dude.
	Shellfish Shack A small, outdoor restaurant right beside the fishing docks that can happily boast the freshest, most inexpensive seafood. There are crabs, lobsters, shellfish of many edible varieties and other seafood, besides. They also sell fresh catches by the pound that you can cook yourself at home, so go ahead and buy some! And be sure to buy some of their fresh made lemonade by the gallon. It's known all over Beachville as the best.
	Beach Breeze The Perfect place outdoors to grab a smoothie or any kind of fruit juice. They also serve the best shaved ice you've ever had in your life. What a great way to beat the heat!

Bear in mind, however, that while things look bright an shiny and lovely, shops have a tendency to move overnight and change entirely. What was once beachville's finest seafood yesterday is, today, the finest in antiques and even though the owner looks like the right owner, he'll insist he's never sold seafood, nor does he like the stuff or know the first thing about it.

The sandwich shop you love is now a small advertising agency and the round and jovial owner is now rude and loud and doesn't remember your usual at all because he doesn't run a sandwich shop now quit wastin' his time!

And should your character notice there's no town dump, even though people generate garbage and there are garbage trucks, it'll be discovered upon following them that they seem to vanish all on their own with no trace whatsoever that they'd been there at all, save that there's less garbage in town.

Or maybe your character isn't for staying in such an odd place and they're going to try to leave. Good luck with that. You'll only get so far past the borders of Beachville before they're dumped right outside the information booth with Jerry the Booth Guy peering over his paper at them. Another attempt and maybe you won't get quite as far. You'll get to just within view of the 'Now Leaving Beachville' sign just at the edge of town before finding yourself once again outside of Jerry's booth. Keep trying. You'll get bored of it eventually.

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Ronan remembers the first time he saw Adam Parrish through a window. He'd been in the Pig and Adam was on the side of the road with his piece of shit bike. That moment had stuck with him for reasons he hadn't been able to figure out and then Gansey had met Adam Parrish and two became three. So it seemed fitting that history was repeating itself.

Adam Parrish.

He slid his fingers into his pockets and just stared. Mostly because he couldn't believe he was seeing Parrish here, but partly because it was a rare sight and he didn't want to disturb the moment.

Gansey was going lose his shit.

As if Adam wasn't going to notice him, as if it hadn't almost happened before (Adam failing to notice Ronan). It took him a moment, so engrossed in looking for familiar faces he was, that he had to do a double-take when he saw Ronan. Adam's heart lurched. It'd been less than days since the last time they'd seen each other, but it felt like it'd been much longer. Being away always felt like it lasted too long and yet no time at all once he started focusing on other things like school work.

"Ronan." His face lit up, warmth in his eyes, and he gestured Ronan over. Adam would have gotten up and gone to him, but with his luck he would've missed the arrival of his food. He was tempted to get up, anyway.

Adam was never phased by Ronan's sharpness or his colorful vocabulary, but he had never looked at Ronan the way he was looking at him now. It surprised him and he actually did something so completely stupid even he wanted to punch himself. He turned to see who else Adam could be looking at with so much warmth and openness, half expecting to see Gansey because Gansey was a shared emotion between them.

He ducked his head a bit, but kept his eyes on Adam as he moved. Even when he pushed through the doors and past a few bodies. There was something different about Adam. The last time he'd seen Adam he and Gansey were flying away to play dress up with strangling ties and choking conversations.

"Did you get cookies when you arrived?"

There was only Ronan. Ronan made Adam feel alive, like he was actually awake when his eyes were open.

Maybe this place wasn't so bad if Ronan was around, and if it was so bad, they could figure out how to get back home together. They were pretty good at figuring things out together, especially if Gansey was there, too. They'd solved a lot of mysteries, even seemingly impossible ones; what was one more?

"I did," he said, "Are they special?" Beyond being tasty, that was. Sliding out of the booth when Ronan approached, he went in for a hug, as natural as could be.

AdamAdamAdam. There was definitely something. Something in his expression, his eyes, the way he sat in the booth that made Ronan remember Nino's and the last time they had all ate pizza together.

Special in a way that hurt. But he didn't say that. "I didn't get cookies so I ate Gansey's."

And then Adam was moving and Ronan simply stopped where he was trying to register what exactly was happening while goosebumps pricked his skin and his heart fell into his stomach. Not all in a bad way either. It just... was something he secretly hoped for without knowing he had until that moment while also being something he hadn't allowed himself to want or accept from anyone. Not even from Gansey. No matter how much he'd ached for it. Only Matthew hugged him.

So he froze. More than a little confused, but not moving to stop Adam.

"You can have some of mine, too." He didn't normally share things, because he wasn't usually in a position where he could. But when you'd give your life for someone, sharing cookies was a small thing. Not like he had them on him right now, though; they were at his new 'home'.

Ronan might not have stopped Adam from hugging him, but Adam still distinctly got the impression that something was wrong. Usually, Ronan hugged him back. Had he misread the moment? Was hugging in public not a thing they were doing right now? Drawing away, he frowned a little and plopped himself back in the booth.

"How have things been going?" Maybe something had happened that he wasn't aware of.

Adam sharing his cookies. Adam looking so happy to see him. Adam hugging him. AdamAdamAdam He didn't understand how much he wanted-no-needed this until Adam was pulling away, lips tugged downward in an all too familiar frown.

Ronan watched Adam for a long moment before sliding into the booth opposite him. He was still trying to figure out what was so very different while still being everything Adam Parrish.

"You mean besides being kidnapped by a magical world that seems determined to make everyone puke sunshine and shit roses?" Adam Parrish being here would make him happy. It would make Gansey happy. Maybe this was like the house. Maybe that was the something different. He was being given someone this world thought would make him happy.

The only problem was there was only one person he wanted more than Adam or Gansey or even Matthew and she wasn't here. She wasn't in the house when he and Gansey went inside and she wasn't there now.

"My pretend house is empty and I smell like fish." He gave a nosy passerby a threatening look. "How long have you been here?"

"Besides that," he said. "Is Gansey all right?" Adam figured he was, since Ronan hadn't led with anything being wrong, but it was better to be sure. He wondered if Blue was here, too, since Gansey was.

So far, this place didn't seem so bad, but he wasn't willing to trust it completely just yet, especially since they'd all been brought here against their will. Something had to be wrong with this place, it just hadn't showed itself yet.

"Your house?" Adam repeated. Honestly, Ronan could have smelled like a garbage dump and Adam would have been glad to see him. Fish was really the least of his worries, all things considered. "A day. Long enough to see my place and have a look around town." Though apparently he hadn't looked well enough if he'd missed both Ronan and Gansey.

"Gansey is delighted to be adventuring in another magical world." Ronan took a deep breath and rubbed a hand over his head. "I think he's okay."

Ronan worried. He worried they could never go home. He worried if he settled too much here he wouldn't be able take back the goats and cow. He worried one of them would test that stupid boundary and never reappear. He worried about dreaming something terrible.

"I didn't get cookies, but I've got The barns. We've got The Barns." But everything was gone. Empty. A shell. Ronan leaned back, watching Adam, carefully weighing a question against his tongue. "Gansey told me...about your new car."

He wanted to know if Adam was okay. He wanted him to be okay. He just couyldn't seem to make the words come out: are you okay?

"Of course he is." That sounded about right for Gansey, and Adam was relieved that he was all right. Well, as all right as any of them could be considering the circumstances. Not being injured or dying or otherwise miserable was the important part, here.

His eyebrows raised, and then he frowned again. The Barns? New car? He'd tackle this one thing at a time. "The Barns is here? The entire Barns?" Or just the house? If it was the former, that was a lot of area, and either way he didn't understand how it could end up here.

"I only have one car," he said carefully. "And I don't think I would call it 'new'." Not even when he'd gotten it. It had seen far better days, and it might not even run at all now if Ronan hadn't dreamt a fix for it.

"No. Only about ten acres of land, the house, and a few of the barns." It was almost a relief that only a portion of his home had been recreated here. "So far we have two goats, a cow, and Chainsaw was in the house."

Ronan's eyes narrowed slightly. They were both being careful. They both had things they weren't saying out loud.

"From what I've heard it's a piece of shit, but if anyone can keep a piece of shit running it's you."

That was still a lot of land to end up here, when none of them even understood how ending up here worked. It almost sounded too good to be true, to have a piece of home here with them. "I hope Opal's all right without us."

Something wasn't right though. Talking about his car like it was new, like Ronan had never seen it before. As if it hadn't sat on blocks almost all summer at The Barns. He just didn't know what to do about this, how he should approach it beyond 'carefully'. Furthermore, if something was wrong, what did it mean? What exactly was going on?

"With a little help from you," he agreed. "Some things are beyond even me."

"Who the fuck is Opal?"

That's it. He can't be careful a moment longer. Time for direct.

"Parrish. You left a few days before I showed up here with Gansey to wear penguin suits and sweet talk your way into a future career full of boring political lies and a nicer car than the piece of shit you supposedly drove back while having an identity crisis. You're actually fucking happy to see me. You hugged me. And somewhere in this shit mess of a world hopping fucked-up-ness we had a kid named Opal?"

He's not mad, just confused, and trying to figure out what the fuck is going on between them. Maybe he shouldn't have taken so many of K's fucking dream pills.

Well, that settled all of that. That was exactly what was wrong. He wilted a little, frowning again, the familiar wrinkle forming between his eyebrows. That had been D.C. if he wasn't mistaken, and by now it'd been, what, over a year ago? Where had this time discrepancy come from? Did Ronan even still love him? He couldn't remember just how long they'd been looking at each other.

He swallowed, looking up again, then around to make sure no one was listening in to their conversation. "You dreamed Opal," he said, keeping his voice down. He wouldn't deny that he thought of her as a daughter or a kid sister, though. "And why wouldn't I be happy to see you? You're my-" boyfriend. But he wasn't, was he? He both was and wasn't, and it made Adam's head and heart hurt thinking about it.

Sucking in a breath, he leaned back a little and added, "The party in D.C. was a while ago."

Given his talent for dreaming accidental living creatures Ronan doesn't doubt for a moment he dreamed someone named Opal. Matthew. Chainsaw. Opal. But it isn't Opal who has his attention. It's the way Adam talked about Opal. And it's the way Adam cuts himself off from saying that one word.

It whispers into his head, completes the sentence, and solidifies something he's not sure he's prepared to admit even to himself.

"How long is a while?" Because he understood now.

Adam was a future he never imagined he could have because the moment Niall Lynch died he had given up any and all future possibilities and became consumed by grief and rage.

"A year and then some," he said after a moment.

He didn't understand how or why this was happening, why the rug had been pulled out from under him when everything was looking up for the first time in his life. He'd been pulled away from the college he'd worked so hard to get into, even if it hadn't been his first choice. It had still been his life, and things might not have been perfect, but he'd been happier than he might have ever been.

"You really don't remember anything beyond Gansey and I leaving for D.C.?"

A year. And then some.

He suddenly understood a little of what Gansey might have felt after he'd lost everything. Ronan hadn't been the only person to lose something that night. Gansey had lost him. Looking at Adam now it felt like they were both losing something here. A year and then some apart. Adam losing a part of himself looked at him the way Gansey had at the funeral. The way Declan had looked at him.

Like he was a stranger to them all.

Adam's Ronan wasn't here. Not yet. He was just starting to find his way back. Not as the Ronan Lynch he used to be, all hair and smiles, but the Ronan Lynch who had held his fathers head in his hands and was finding a way to survive with his friends.

"Can't remember what hasn't happened yet." He had the sudden urge to reach across the table and smooth out the crease between Adam's eyebrows. "Maybe Gansey was right. This place is like Cabeswater."

"Maybe." He'd become so good at ignoring his emotions that it was instinct to do it again now, pushing them down until he could act like he wasn't some kind of heartbroken. There were bigger things than that to worry about, and he...he could push through. He still looked a little miserable, though.

"Maybe time works different here, maybe it's circular." Or just different, or weird. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing to imagine. Currently, the weirdest thing was that he'd somehow lived an entire year that Ronan had no idea about, despite them spending most of it together. "But there isn't a ley line, I don't think."

"And maybe it's a dream world like...wherever the fuck I go when I sleep." At least he still has that. He can still dream. The idea has him thinking about this world and what exists in his head. Cabeswater. Adam. Gansey. Noah. "FUCK!"

Ronan stared at Adam for a long time before leaning back, stretching one foot out to touch Adam's under the table. Just a touch to reassure and to tentatively test the possibility of an unknown future.

Things were complicated because he wasn't in a place to be anything to anyone. But he wanted to be. He wanted Gansey to smile the way he did when Ronan presented the newly dreamed Pig and he wanted Adam to not look miserable. Especially not because of him.

"Did you order food or were you just keeping the fake leather seats warm?"

"Wasn't that Cabeswater?" Hadn't that been where Ronan had used to go? Because he'd dreamed the forest? "But this could be a dream world, I guess." It felt awfully real though, and he wasn't sure if it was weird enough yet or not to be a dream world. He'd seen firsthand how dangerous even dreams could be.

When Ronan touched his foot, Adam swallowed, watching him quietly for a long moment. He'd already decided that he wouldn't make Ronan feel pressured about anything, even if it involved holding him at arm's length. He would give Ronan all of the time, all of the space, and if things didn't go like they'd gone before...maybe Ronan had come to his senses and realized there were better people in the world than Adam.

Blinking a few times, he looked around the restaurant, craning his neck a little. "I ordered food. I don't know what happened to it." Speaking of his food though, seemed to make it appear. The waitress hurried over with his pizza slices, apologizing for the wait, and Adam thanked her politely, even if he suddenly didn't feel very hungry any more.

Catching the waitress before she could run away, Ronan ordered a couple of slices of vegetarian pizza and a root beer. He waited until she was gone again before answering.

"In my head, it's the same, but different. Cabeswater...is the physical body, but it's not the place. I don't fucking know how to explain it. But Kavinsky is like me and whatever we do there in the dream is taking energy away from Cabeswater."

"Just tell me one thing." Ronan reached across the table and pushed Adam's plate closer to him. "Is college everything you wanted it be?"

Adam nodded slowly. He thought he understood, maybe. "I know about Kavinsky," he said. And he knew what had been happening to Cabeswater. Cabeswater had been all right, but it had gone through so much since then.

He picked at one of his pepperoni for a moment, looking down at his plate. "It's...yeah, it is." Glancing up, he nodded. "It's not too far from Henrietta, either." Which was just as important to him as the college itself.

Of course Adam knew about Kavinsky. Kavinsky. The Pig. A lot can happen in a year and then some. Which made him wonder what happens to that year if he is here instead of in Henrietta. What happens to the Barns? To Matthew? To his mother? Declan would take of things while he was gone. Right? Would he even notice Ronan was gone?

"Eat your pizza, Parrish."

His plate arrived and he opened one end of a straw, blowing the paper across the table at Adam before putting the straw into his glass.

"Despite the crazy fucking shit of world hopping and time traveling there is one thing I know for certain." He gave Adam a look that left no room for doubt he meant every word. "I'll be waiting for you no matter how far away you are or how long it takes to get back."

He didn't know what would happen from this moment on. Not here or back home. But in Adam's world, in his life, the one where he was dating Ronan Lynch he knew.

He would eat his pizza, after he plucked the straw paper out of his lap and set it aside next to his plate. He would eat his pizza, after he was done staring at Ronan, repeating 'I'll be waiting for you' over and over in his head before tucking it aside. His chest felt tight and warm at the same time.

Sometimes, he wondered why Ronan had chosen him, what made him worthy, but maybe he didn't have to understand. Either way, it didn't make it any less true, and it didn't change how painfully in love Adam was.

Remembering to breathe, he nodded. "I know." Or at least, he knew now. But maybe he always had in a way.

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Test Drive 2: Beachville in Flux.

Ronan Niall Lynch | TRC | Pizza!

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CW: LANGUAGE

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