Cleo Sertori (withthedolphins) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-01-18 22:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | cleo sertori, george camarine |
WHO: George Camarine and Cleo Sertori
WHERE: Poolside
WHEN: Jan 17
WHAT: Cleo’s a mermaid
RATING: Should be low-ish?
STATUS: Closed; complete
As George had mentioned on the network, the nobility back home had a lot to learn about luxury. He should know: he was one of them now. As Lord of Longshire, he’d been on boat rides on the river; rowed in glacial lakes; punted down a stream. He’d been to banquets and balls and normal family dinners where everything had been brought to him. He’d even been served on a boat - but that boat had only held about 8 other people, and that included the servants. He’d never been on a luxury cruiseliner, which was apparently what even commoners had access to in the Broken. It was fascinating. After thoroughly exploring the ship, he decided to take a break. Even assassins needed to relax every so often, and George was going to do so with a brisk swim. Maybe not so relaxing, then. Cleo had been both delighted and concerned about being on a boat. It wasn’t a fishing boat like she was used to. She’d never been on a cruise, but it was kind of nice. The feeling of being out on the water, the smell of salt water, the feeling of the sun and the breeze on her face. She was also glad she could wear shorts and skirts again. Only with water came the natural concerns. She’d had a few close calls and one instance where she made it to a room and shut the door behind her before falling to the floor with a tail. In fact, bathing had been difficult, but she was trying not to worry about it too much. Today she was braving the pool area. Mostly in that she was staying as far from the pool as possible and asking robots to please dry off any wet chairs so that she could sit on one without it being a difficult issue. At least that was how it started. But without too many people around, she’d gotten bored and moved closer, trying to see how easily she could manipulate the water without being noticed. The minute that anyone came close, she’d quickly let the water drop and jumped back. She’d made a little water tentacle when she heard footsteps. She quickly stepped away from the pool letting the water fall back into the pool. She busied herself with the task of pretending she was drying a seat off so she could sit on it. One didn’t become an assassin with any kind of longevity without being observant, and George was very observant - enough to notice that the water seemed to be coming up towards the dark-haired young lady. It could’ve been a trick of the light, true, but he didn’t think so. It was intriguing enough, anyway, that he stepped up and gestured to the chair beside her. “Is this taken?” It was a legitimate question. A few robots had come in to tidy the other chairs. Cleo glanced over at the person who’d walked in. She didn’t really recognise him, but it wasn’t really a big deal. She didn’t know most of the people here. She knew some of the X-men because of Remy. It was just easier not to get to know too many people because that was less people to keep a secret from...and she was keeping a secret. Remy knew, but she hadn’t really gone into a lot detail about what happened. So much of where they went was so different from Australia that Cleo often found herself homesick. At least she had the moon pool...and it wasn’t the version that had been destroyed by Will’s sister. “Hm? Oh, no. I don’t think so.” She offered a somewhat awkward smile before finally taking a seat. Nothing felt wet, so she was fine. At least for now. “I’m Cleo.” “George,” he responded, giving her a smile. It was a very nice smile. It was the kind of smile that made pre-teen girls (and boys) swoon and grown women (and men) think extremely inappropriate thoughts. He laid out his own towel meticulously on the chair before taking off his shirt. He had long, lean muscles that would never make the cover of Shape but spoke to an active lifestyle. He nodded politely to her, then turned to go to the pool. He was interested in the possible display of power he’d seen, but not so much in standing around showing off his bare chest. Cleo fidgeted with the end of her braid, careful not to look too long. The last time she’d thought a guy was cute (who was not Lewis) he ended up blowing up a good portion of the rock at Mako Island. She’d decided that it was definitely dangerous to trust attractive boys because they would probably ruin something you loved anyway. Especially when they were into rocks. If she’d never let him look at the rock from Mako, he probably never would have even gone there. “Nice to meet you.” Manners were manners, she supposed. She stared at her lap as he took his shirt off, more determined than awkward. She was not going to have the moon pool destroyed by strange men again. Ever. She sighed looking over at the pool. She missed the moon pool and having a place to swim that was hidden away from everyone else. Here she didn’t have anything. She couldn’t swim in the water without having someone help her out of it and keep people from seeing her. So she go up and started to walk the length of the pool, keeping as far from the splash zone as she could. George eased into the water, causing small ripples to lap at the edge of the pool. All the while, he kept a eye on the young woman. She looked familiar; he pegged her as the dolphin trainer he’d talked to over the network. Even without dolphins around, she seemed to enjoy being around water. It was just strange that she was keeping such a wide berth of the water itself. Cleo loved the water. She hadn’t always. In fact, she’d be terrified of it in the beginning. It was one of those things that she’d eventually been better about. One of the robots went by, which made her stumble. She fell, which made her put her hands out. “Oh no,” was the only thing she could think to say because she felt the wetness under her hand. Her eyes widened slightly and she scrambled up from the ground, doing her best to find somewhere to go before she changed, but there wasn’t anywhere. A few seats back and she felt herself changing. As she hit the ground, she let out a soft grunt that was a mixture of pain and frustration. This was not okay. She grabbed for the nearest towel, trying to dry herself and hoping that the guy in the pool would casually ignore the girl that just turned into a mermaid out of nowhere. Maybe then she’d get back to being herself and then no one would even notice. It could happen, right? Maybe with someone entirely blind or unobservant, but unfortunately for Cleo, George had eyes, and he used them. Which meant he saw both the stumble and the appearance of the tail. But fortunately for Cleo, George was also used to animal parts appearing out of nowhere. What he wasn’t used to was having the transformation stop halfway. Concerned, he pulled out of the pool and hurried over, not caring that he was still dripping water. “Cleo, are you all right?” Cleo went still. Well, as still as she could get when she was a mermaid, but she’d stopped trying to drag herself away from someone who wasn’t supposed to know her secret. He’d already seen it. “I’m fine,” she said quietly, not looking up at him. “You can’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.” There was a hint of desperation in her voice. She’d been doing so well and now she’d ruined it. She should have just left when he came in, but she hadn’t. Now he knew. So that was two people. Remy she could trust, but she didn’t know if she could trust anyone else. She didn’t want to become a science experiment. She just wanted to be left alone. “I don’t consent to any possible science experiments either. In case you were wondering.” George blinked. He wasn’t often taken by surprise, but that definitely did the trick. Out of all the things he was thinking, experiments were not in the mix. Well, not science ones, at any rate. “It’s all right, my brother’s a cat,” he told her. Normally he didn’t bring up that kind of thing in casual conversation - he did it mostly to mess with people - but she was looking so panicked and worried he figured something so startling might snap her out of it. It might also reassure her to know he wasn’t completely ignorant of the possibility that humans didn’t always stay human-shaped. Cleo blinked a few times at the admission. “Oh.” Wait. His brother was a cat? It took a moment for the entirety of what he’d said to really dawn on her. He had a cat for a brother? Did he mean that as his parents got a cat and acted like it was his brother? Did he have a brother that turned into a cat sometimes? Like a were-cat situation? “Like a werewolf?” It wasn’t the most sensible thing she’d ever said, but apparently there were vampires on the ship, so it was entirely possible that he meant something like that. “I’ve never met anyone else who...turned into something else.” Outside of her friends, but she wasn’t going to mentioned them because, much like when Bella didn’t tell Will that the rest of them were mermaids, she wasn’t about to tell anyone about them either. Unless they already knew...like Remy. George tilted his head from side to side to indicate that it was close but not quite. “He was born as a cat, but he spends most of his time as a human these days - mostly because none of us can speak cat.” Rather than loom over her, he took a seat on a neighbouring chair. “Is this as far as you go, or are you...stuck?” He asked the question delicately, unsure of what the norm was for her. That sounded confusing. She wondered if that was normal for people. Being a mermaid wasn’t normal for anyone...except her, Emma, Rikki, and Bella. At least those were the only mermaids she knew. “Oh.” She wanted to ask why he wasn’t a cat, but that felt like something that Rikki would do, so she resisted. How could one be born a human and have a brother that was born a cat? Unless it involved different parents. “This is it,” she said. Now that there wasn’t water dripping on her, she continued to wipe at the tail with her towel. This would have been so much easier if Rikki was here. “I’m a mermaid.” It felt weird to say it out loud to someone outside of their circle. “This is about as fishy as I get.” She was starting to wish that it was easier to dry herself off, but it was annoyingly difficult. “It’ll take a bit for me to turn back. I don’t really have control over it.” “Ah. Then you’re the nicest mermaid I’ve ever met.” George gave her a reassuring smile. It was a very nice smile, the kind that made boy bands famous. “The ones I usually meet have all tried to eat me.” He nodded towards her tail, which she was obviously uncomfortable with. “Is there anything I can do to help?” Cleo was again caught off guard. Were there mean mermaids? She guessed that there were stories about them drowning people, but she’d never really...been that way. Of course, there was that time that they almost killed Lewis, but they’d been really moon-crazy then. She was happy to say that there was no weird moon troubles now. “Tried to eat you? Ew. I’ve heard of mermaids drowning people, but eating them?” The tail wasn’t something she was uncomfortable with. It was just having one where people could see. It was supposed to be a secret and this was really bad secret-keeping. “No. I just need to dry out a bit so I can change back.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t always a mermaid. It just happened one day. I was afraid of the water for a really long time, then I had to go to water in this cave I fell into and the next thing I knew, I was a mermaid. Well, I didn’t find out till the next day, but…it makes being around water difficult. I was basically trapped inside back in Tumbleweed when it started snowing.” “It’s water that brings out the tail?” The pieces were falling together now for George. That would definitely make it hard for her to be around a pool or the open ocean. He wondered if she was drawn to the water regardless. Seeing that she was already working on drying herself out, George didn’t try to offer any more help. She had this already. “Mermaids don’t get made where I’m from,” he explained. “They’re born that way. And they’re kind of like piranhas. They like to eat meat. So like I said, you’re the nicest one I’ve ever met.” There was a nod in response to his question. Water brought out the tail. She loved water now, loved the way that she felt when she had an entire ocean to swim in. But it was the secret that kept her from being so open about it. It was also annoying to have to be so careful. Being a mermaid on land wasn’t really...easy. “Well, that sounds gross.” Her nose scrunched up and the corners of her mouth turned down. “I don’t eat people.” She continued drying, starting to feel a little bit closer to being human again. “W- I’ve had people try to trap me and do scientific experiments on me because of this. People have destroyed the Moon Pool because they wanted to make money because of its magic. That’s why it’s a secret. If people knew…” She sighed. “I don’t trust a lot of people not to try to take advantage of what I am.” Hence her adamant statement about not wanting to be a science experiment. George understood that. He worried about Jack that way too. “I won’t tell anyone,” George assured her. “And if you run into any...issues-“ He gestured to her tail. “Just let me know and I’ll bring a towel and a fan.” Cleo paused, taking a moment to fully consider him. He seemed to mean it, so she guessed that she could trust him. There wasn’t really another option. It was decide to trust him or live the next few days in fear. Admittedly, she was probably going to be afraid anyway, but he didn’t seem to be trying to take skin samples or fin samples or anything. So maybe it was okay. “Thanks,” she said quietly, slowly starting to dry her tail off again. A little while later and she was back to the clothes she’d had on before. “Oh, thank...something.” She carefully picked herself up off the ground after that. “I’d shake your hand or something, but then I’d have to repeat that whole process and it’s a lot right now. But thank you for being okay about everything.” “Like I said, it’s not entirely new to me,” George replied. “Although my brother tends to have more control over when he shifts.” He picked up a nearby towel and handed it to her, just in case. “It was nice to meet you, Cleo. Stay dry.” |