InsaneJournal

Who: Mermaid!Lexi Branson & Pirate!Huck Finn aka Finn the Fearless
What: In search of a body of water
Where: Starting at The Serpant’s Den and moving to the public pool
When: Backdated: Halloween, just after midnight
Status: Complete

Lexi was quite pleased with the party as well as with her and Huck’s costumes and despite the slight difficulty costume created in walking, that hadn’t kept her from wandering around the party, mingling with everyone as well as getting Huck to dance. Their costumes; mermaid and pirate, had been decided on while they’d watched the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean Friday night and it hadn’t taken too much to make the costumes a reality over the weekend.

At the stroke of midnight, as Lexi was dancing and swaying to the music, her legs suddenly fell out from under her and found herself on the floor, looking around frantically as her tail moved back and forth against the floor. What was going on? Where was she and why was she out of water? If she didn’t get into water soon, she would dry out, but she didn’t know where the closest body of water was or how she’d even get there.

Huck was pretty sure he had more makeup on than Lexi did, but that was all right. It was all for the sake of the role. He’d done his share of playing pirate before, back in the day, and unlike the incident with seeing his father back from the dead, this was one blast from the past he didn’t mind reliving. Until Lexi collapsed, and her legs grew together, covered with a sheath of scales, and she began flailing like a fish out of water.

What was this? He crouched as if to scoop her up, but he was looking around for water, instead of watching for her reaction. “Help!”

Lexi recoiled as the Pirate crouched down near her and she lashed out with her tail, the scales of which covered her sides, leaving her torso bare and continued up over her chest, “Help? You did this to me, why’re you calling for help?” She narrowed her eyes at him and lashed out with her tail again in an attempt to keep him away before she glanced around at the other people, most of which seems just as confused as she was.

“I didn’t! I don’t know what happened, or how you got here,” he said, edging away from her tail. He saw a discarded bottle of water rolling under a nearby refreshment table, and snatched it up, twisting off the cap to offer it to her. “Will you let me help you?”

She eyed him warily as he grabbed the water bottle and offered it to her, “How do I know you’re telling the truth? I’ve met your kind before.” She might have been part fish, but she wasn’t stupid. After staring at him for a moment or two longer, she snatched the bottle out of his hand and after drinking some of it she poured the rest over her head; her survival instincts winning out for the moment.

“How do I know you’re not going to eat me?” he countered, waggling the bottle. He held her gaze the whole time, and this time he didn’t flinch when she reached out. There had to be a body of water somewhere. A lake. A pond. Even a bath house would be better than nothing. ”Come,” he said, moving to pick her up again, “You’re no good to anyone dead.”

She didn’t understand why he was trying to help her, but she was convinced it was some sort of trick to try and get her to trust him. Either way, he was right and if she didn’t get to some sort of body of water soon, she’d dry out and die. That one bottle of water wasn’t going to last her very long, “Fine, but try anything and you’ll regret it.” She resisted the urge to lash out at him this time as he went to pick her up.

Lifting her up in one, smooth sweep, he carried her to the door, mindful of her head as they passed through into the cool night. His eyes swept up and down the street--and what a strange, busy place it was, but he had no time to marvel--looking for some kind of sign. There had to be water somewhere. “What is this place?”

Huck wasn’t the only one amazed by the city; Lexi had never seen anything like this before. There were people all over the place and strange metal contraptions in the road, “Your guess is as good as mine,” Not only was there the question of where were they, but she still wanted to know how exactly she’d gotten there. “Now quit gawking. I’m drying out here.” She rose her eyebrows, arms crossed over her chest.

Finn the Fearless struck out along the sidewalk--paved, not boards, interesting--all but running with the mermaid in his arms. He came to an intersection, and looked frantically both ways. Plenty of what he assumed were taverns and pubs, but no...wait. If he was not mistaken, he saw a sign a little further down that said ‘Pool.’

“That looks promising.” He started off again in that direction.

As the pirate started more or less running down the street, Lexi found herself wrapping her arms around his neck to prevent herself from slipping out of his arms and when he spoke, she glanced in the direction he was looking, “It had better be. I’m still not completely convinced that you’re not behind this.” After all, why else would they have been together in that place?

Finn let out a growl as she continued to question him even as he ran toward the sign. “If I was behind this, don’t you think I would have been better prepared to keep you somewhere?”

He half ran, half limped up to the building, and pushed his way through the door, and down the corridor, following the signs. She was lucky he was literate, it got them there much faster than if he’d merely been following the smell of water.

“Now stop complaining and hydrate,” he said, lowering her to the pool.

As she was lowered into the water, Lexi almost instantly took off, diving under the water and swimming around the length of the pool a couple of times, taking in the cool water and letting it wash over her and hydrate her before she finally surfaced in the middle of the pool and cocked her head to the side, only slightly surprised to find the pirate still there, “Maybe you aren’t behind this, but then that leaves us with more questions then answers.” Slowly, she swam to the side of the pool, gazing up at him, “So lets fix one of those problems. What’s your name?”

It wasn’t seawater, he could tell by the scent of it. Nor was it freshwater. He only hoped it wouldn’t harm her. He also wasn’t sure why he cared, since he knew the legends, and she made no bones about her ambivalence toward him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had a vague notion that one was supposed to be chivalrous toward womenfolk, so that they’d like you. Some boyhood notion of which he had yet to disabuse himself. But this was the best he could do for her for now.

“Finn,” he said, “My name is Finn.”

Lexi had been able to tell as soon as she’d touched the water that it wasn’t what she was used to and that there was something else in the water, but it had re-hydrated her regardless, so she wasn’t especially concerned at the moment. Instead, she was more concerned with exactly how she’d found herself on the floor of that building and with a pirate.

Arms folded on the edge of the pool, she gazed up at the pirate, long blond hair, wet and clinging to her back as she tilted her head back, inspecting Finn. Normally she’d lure any man, a pirate especially, towards her and drown them if they discovered her cove, but there was something about the man standing before her besides the fact that he’d actually helped her instead of simply letting her dry out, which kept her from doing it, “Finn? Well Finn, I’m Lexi.”

He nodded, blinking to clear his eyes of the hazy look he was sure that he’d gotten as he gazed at her damp hair. He might be a gentleman, but he was still a man. Still, he tried to be polite--at least to the ladies.

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Lexi,” he said, giving her a crooked grin. “I suppose I out to have a look around town, see if I can find out what witchery had brought us to this strange place.”

Lexi would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t a little dumbfounded by how polite Finn was, considering the other pirates she had come across, or to be more accurate, who had come across her in the past were often surly and rude. “I suppose that’s a good idea. I am beginning to miss my cove back home.” She batted her eyes at him and smiled. She may not have been trying to lure him down to drown him, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little bit of fun before he left to insure that he would come back; pirates might not have been her favorite people, but all things considered she’s rather have him as company than be alone.

He stood, blowing an exaggerated kiss before he turned to go. “I shall return,” he called over his shoulder as he went. “Try not to get lost in all that water.”