marceline, that's too distasteful! (ydidueatmyfries) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-03-28 15:28:00 |
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They made plans as soon as the sun was down. Way down. Marceline could go out during the day fully covered, and frequently did, but it came with a skinned knee level of pain. Not that the vampire wasn’t accustomed to it, but if they were both going to be flying, she needed to be able to stretch her wings out without burning up to a crisp. Having planned out her attire for this a little better, Marceline was wearing the old band t-shirt she’d arrived in, bikini bottoms and flip flops, waiting for him on one of the decks where they had the best view of the sky. Her axe bass hung around her side on a shoulder strap. Marceline didn’t like to be parted from it if she could help it. Besides, what if there were sea monsters? She didn’t think it was against the rules to fly. They wouldn’t go too far from the boat, not enough to lose sight of it at least. But it wasn’t going to be fun if they didn’t at least get to explore a little bit. As always, her feet weren’t actually touching the ground. She just sort of hovered, bobbing up and down in the air slightly as if hanging from an invisible string. There wasn't much about Neverland that Baelfire had ever enjoyed and the things he did enjoy he hadn't really allowed himself to dwell on in a nostalgic way as the years away from there were set into place. If he did think on it, there was a quiet yearning for those initial weeks aboard the Jolly Roger, when he'd almost felt welcome and safe. Before he'd known about Killian's connection to his Mother. Before he'd hit such a breaking point that he wasn't capable of anymore broken trusts. And before Killian had turned him over as bounty. He didn't think on that, back home as he traveled the streets of California in search of food and shelter, because thinking of Killian summoned bursts of anger there. And in Tumbleweed? Thinking of Killian now? It brought a dull ache for a man that he'd come to actually view as a Step Father; just as his Mother had seemingly wanted. But something Baelfire did allow himself to be slightly nostalgic for? The feeling of the wind in his hair as he rose up into the sky. He had never tested his pixie dust after he arrived in Mount Weather or any of the subsequent places that they'd visited. He was too much of a rationalist. He might need it for a rainy day and he didn't want to have wasted it on indulging himself. And he also didn't want to rely on it, so even with the hypothetical of holding off until it might be actually needed, he was always aware that he needed a back up plan in case it didn't work. So, from this juncture, Baelfire hadn't flown in over three years. And so Marceline's offer was beyond tempting. While he was still fairly gun shy about magic, he wasn't as naive as to equate natural born powers as the same as magic. Nor was he as against magic as he once was, either. Marceline's ability to shapeshift and fly would have once been considered magic by the man and he would have once put swift distance between them. Times changed. Also, to be frank, it was nice having someone new to spend time with. He strolled up the deck, wearing paint stained clothes and a pull over hoodie, and smiled lightly to himself as he caught sight of her. He got a little closer before he held up a hand in greeting. "Hey," he said, with an attempt at a cool tone. “Hey,” Marceline said in a similarly cool tone, giving the slightest inclination of her chin in greeting. If they hadn’t already made plans, Marceline would have been comfortable standing there staring at him in some sort of teenaged cool-off. Only Marceline was a very old vampire and her tolerance for standing around staring was very long. Thankfully that was not the case. “You ready for this?” Marceline allowed herself to smile, showing a hint of sharp, pointed teeth in her mouth, courtesy of her demon heritage. Stretching her arms out over her head, Marceline’s body seemed to stretch and warp with her, until she was about twice his height, covered in fur and looked like a sort of bat-creature. Her axe was no longer around her body, but worn around her neck like jewelry. She could have gone even bigger, but she had to get a sense for how he was going to react. Normally Marceline loved scaring newbs, but tonight she was cool with skipping that part. “I give my friends lifts all the time, seeing how there aren’t any cars anymore,” Marceline’s voice was still the same, which was a little strange hearing out of a giant bat creature. She crouched down and offered her blue, humanoid hand to help him get situated. He gave a slight puff of laughter. "You make it sound like I'm going to scare off," he said with a slight smirk. It took a lot to frighten Baelfire when all things were considered. He'd been ready to pick up a sword and go off to war against the Ogres as a child. His Father had all but become a Monster himself. Monsters didn't frighten Bae. Things much more daunting did, things like separation or solitude. He took a step back when she moved her arms over her head. This wasn't out of fear but to get a complete view of the moment. And while he didn't display fear, there was a shift on his expression, and it was a shift of slight awe. He was impressed. "And how do they normally handle it? Do you just hold onto their hand?" “Nah, man. I mean, I can grab someone when I’m in a rush but… check it out. World’s most comfortable piggy back ride.” Marceline picked him up with her own sound effect -- “Yoink!” -- and leapt off the boat into the air all in the same moment. She grew a little larger, and she wasn’t wrong. Marceline had perfected that shape to carry people comfortably on her back while she flew. It might have been a little weird, but Marceline had long become blind to any sort of awkwardness a normal person might have felt about it. The vampire chuckled, pleased to show off. She didn’t go real fast to start off with, kept the boat in sight, and started out by staying close to the surface of the ocean. There was enough light from the moon and stars that a reflection was possible on its glassy surface, but Baelfire was the only image reflected back. It was hard to say if it was Marceline flying as a bat, or she simply looked like a bat while she flew. The wings looked almost stringy and tattered, but they still flapped as though powering her movement along. “So, like, what do you do for fun?” Marceline asked. "Piggy back ride," he repeated, with one of the edges of his mouth turned up into a grin. Of course, he hadn't expected to be picked up and there was an intake of breath, but just a moment later he was deposited comfortably on her back. His hands moved to rest against back and he hunkered down with the whoosh of air that came from her leaping from the boat. He'd done plenty of leaping off of surfaces to catch the wind before, back when he'd flown in Neverland regularly, but it had been some time since he'd done that. Eyes shut with her leap but this was just momentary. Once he could feel her rising into the sky, his eyes opened and he straightened up some, looking out onto the water. God, he'd missed the feel of the wind through his hair and the coolness of the water being so close. He glanced down to the water, noting the reflection, and the smirk grew. She may not have drank blood like a vampire, but the reflection thing seemed to hold up to legend. That was comforting. He knew not to expect everything to be as stories told him but there was always some truths. And he'd found hers. "It depends if I'm with people or not. And who it is," he answered. “Like?” Marceline asked. Carefully the vampire reached behind her and hold onto her passenger as she did, without warning, a barrel roll. Because why not? It was fun. It wasn’t like she was going to drop him, even if she did want to give him his money’s worth. Maybe she was showing off a little. And then to make sure he was still with her after that, she reached down and splashed some of the chilly water from the nighttime ocean surface waters back at the passenger behind her. If he’d been able to see her face, he would have noticed the ear to ear smile of long sharp, razor teeth. His eyes shut to the large hand that came around to rest against him, right before they did the barrel roll. There was an exhaled whoop of a scream that left Baelfire. Not because he was frightened but because he wasn't expecting it before it had come. He was used to being in control when he used to fly. This was a new level of trust and he hunkered down closer to her again. But after the initial whoop, he burst into a wide grin. When the water splashed against him, he flinched, but was laughing. He opened his eyes and smirked down himself. "You're a show off, Vampire Queen," he teased before he straightened up enough to be comfortable. "My sister and I like to go out exploring. We usually bring our bows with us when we do, but it's harder to do in Tumbleweed," he told her with a shrug of his shoulders. "And if I'm with Henry, I like playing his video games. Otherwise I'm never that interested." He paused. "Back home..." He began, thinking now to the 90s and his trek across the United States with no means of shelter, "...I used to really love scanning the radio for anything new to listen to. There's more music available now in Tumbleweed but it isn't the same. Not as fun." He'd always liked the sense of discovery. It didn't feel the same with the internet. You didn't stumble onto treasures as easily as you did with the transistors. “Guilty as charged.” Marceline didn’t even try to hide how smug she felt after that move. She didn’t try it again, but there was a small whoosh! as she picked up speed to climb a little higher into the air away from the surface of the water. Once they were at a comfortable viewing height she slowed down to an easy cruise. “So, since I’m giving you a lift…” The only bummer about this particular flying arrangement was she couldn’t see the look on his face when they spoke, or when there was movement. It was why she didn’t go fast for long. She wanted to hear him and be heard. “...do I get to hear you actually sing yet?” she asked. There was a moment where he remembered leaping off of the cliffside in Neverland. He had held onto the memory of Mrs. Darling's arms around him, giving him a maternal hug, and how he'd felt incredibly safe in that embrace. It had been the safest he'd felt in years at the time. And that had been his go to happy thought. He'd needed to have something to fixate on whenever he was trying to escape from Pan. Pan could fly too, and Pan had the Shadow, so it was always better to try to escape on foot instead of in the air. But that didn't mean that he didn't resort to desperate measures every now and then. And there were times when he knew that Pan wasn't on the Island, where he could fly without worry, and he would take to the sky and try to go as high as he could. He'd strive for the stars, wanting to reach out and touch them, not understanding that this was an impossible goal. But he knew that he couldn't ever actually reach them. They were just too far. This reminded him of those memories. Neverland wasn't something he enjoyed thinking about but flying? He could think fondly about flying. And he looked as though he was experiencing pure joy in her company. He turned his attention back down to her. "You want me to sing while I'm basically being given a piggy back ride?" He asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. Marceline’s pointed bat ears grew a few more inches in length to the point of almost being ridiculously large for her already giant sized head, but if she was going to sweet talk him into singing, she did not want to miss a single note of it. “Yep.” Marceline slowed to a lazy glide. She didn’t, couldn’t, appreciate flying the way Baelfire did. And yet, she almost never touched the ground anymore. Why walk when you could hover? Why sit or lay down when you could float? Flying was her favorite and also most casually used ability. “Do I need to start making car noises? Vroom, vroom!” A thousand years without human cars and that was about the only sound she could remember that they made. Not even that they actually made, but it was the pretend sound associated with them that Marcy could recall making as a child. He shook his head, still smirking as he did so. "I see how it is. Give me nowhere to run," he commented, as he glanced out once again at the water and the night sky. He was focused on it for a moment before she she reeled him back in with her statement. A grin burst forward. "Baby you can drive my car, and maybe I'll love you. Beep beep'm, beep beep, yeah," he lyricised. It wasn't actually singing but it came from him in the actual tune that Paul followed when he sang the song on Rubber Soul, all mixed in with the faintest hint of repressed laughter. There was something almost familiar about it. Marceline saved him from breaking into full on laughter by cutting into the song with a fake radio static noise. They had to flip through radio stations, obviously. She didn’t know all the music he did, but she also didn’t mind just making up music on the fly, her head bopping to the rhythm. “I’m a car, not a star, but I’ll get you very far! With the beat, in your seat, and we’ll just ignore the heat.” More fake car static as Marceline decided to play musical hot potato and throw the next bit of song selection back to him, whether she could get him to sing or not. He did laugh with the sound of the radio static but it wasn't uncontrollable now. He made himself stop, smiling at her, as she began to sing lyrics to a song he didn't know. Whether it was one from the future, and her time, or one of her own, he couldn't say. But he grinned as she sang. Of course, he caught the cue once she did the fake car static again, and this time it was easier to just go along with it. "Here in my car, I feel safest of all, I can lock all my doors, it's the only way to live, in cas." Marceline improvised the music to go along with Baelfire’s melody. If she remembered more about cars, she could have made noises of the engines dying. Instead, she said, “Baelfire. I don’t want to worry you, but I think…. This car is about to break down. We’re probably gunna crash.” She dropped a few inches in altitude just to prepare him, trying not to audibly snicker. “I think, you better prepare yourself. ...It’s gunna happen.” He made a mental note that while he'd always rather liked the synth sound that accompanied the song he'd sang, her improvisination was a pretty good alternative. He shifted, leaning forward some, so he could try to catch her eye. "I did warn you I shouldn't sing." When she dropped altitude, he hunkered down closer to her back again. "Ready," he said, arms moving to wrap around and hold onto her incase they did another barrel roll like before. “Nah,” Marceline looked back with red gleaming eyes the size of fists, “you just need to sing more.” With that, Marceline dipped down into freefall, timing it just right so that for a few moments they felt weightless. She could have really dive bombed into the water below, which would have been fun, but she didn’t want to hurt Baelfire either. Because he said ready, right? That totally meant they could crash into the water. He would have said something if he was afraid of swimming, or something, probably. They didn’t stay under long before Marceline pulled him back up, laughing. “Oh, I think that helped. The tires must of overheated or something.” He didn't know if he necessarily agreed with that, because he was of the firm belief that he had no vocal talent whatsoever, but it still made him smile in that half a second before they dived down. The feeling of weightlessness was something he hadn't felt in years, either here in this reality or back home in memory. A rush of joy surged through him and he had to remind himself not to release his hold upon Marcy, not to let his arms out like he'd have done in the years prior, when he'd flown on his own. Of course, then there was the water, and he had just enough of a warning to pull in a breath before they were submerged. Still, when they came up, he pulled in a breath out of instinct, and it was followed through with a laugh. His hand moved to swipe at his now drenched hair, that dangled in heavy strands above his face. He pushed it back and wiped his eyes. "The engine, more like," he chuckled. "Now I want to go for a proper swim. What about you?" “Sure,” Marcy said easily. She liked hearing him laugh, and though she wasn’t consciously trying to make him laugh again, she was happy to agree to just about anything if it meant hearing it. “Ocean or pool?” she asked. The monstrous, hulking creature landed on one of the many decks of the ship, careful to release Baelfire from her back before, with a grin, she shook out her fur like an animal to drench him again before shifting back into herself. Marcy, of course, thought she was hilarious. The expression she was unable to wipe from her face said as much. "I think it's late enough that hardly anyone will be at the pool," he suggested, giving her a smile as he did so. He made sure to not slip once she released him, easily standing on his feet, as both hands moved to his hair once again. His fingers spread through the strands and he smirked as he watched her turn back to herself. "Meet you back at them in fifteen?" He figured he could run back to his suite and grab his suit in the meantime. Marcy’s eyes watched his hair carefully but said nothing, mildly transfixed. His question forced her to pay attention once more and she nodded with a smile. “I’ll see you there.” Realistically, night was about the only time she could swim. She didn’t mind and made it a special point to be out during the daytime, covered up, but the light that reflected from the water during the daylight hours was especially painful. Now it was something she could enjoy. She missed her ugly little pink house in a cave back home, where she could enjoy the basketball court or the water at any time. Maybe the boat would drop them off there and Marcy would see it again. It took her less than thirty seconds to fly herself to the pool. Marcy tied off the bottom of her t-shirt at her ribcage and sat on the wet steps of the shallow end waiting quietly. When Bae arrived, her face lit up, which she quickly hid with a well timed splash. |