Cloelia (riptidebaby) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2014-01-25 17:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-10-02, cloelia, lux |
up on the shore they work all day
Who: Cloelia & Lux
Where: Police Station
When: Early afternoon
Every day, Cloelia woke with the sun. Every day, she chased fish up and down the river until she was full or got distracted. The last part was one of the reasons she had so many shiny, pretty things hidden away either in her gave or the box parked a little way up on land. Today she had done both. It was definitely the reason she was so glittery. She’d found all these rings... As a rule, the mermaid didn’t wear rings so much because when she shifted her fingers would web and push them right off again. But these stopped above her knuckles so she could leave them on whether her fingers were webbed or not. Sifting through the riverbed, she continued to filter the rubbish from items of interest with one hand -- occasionally leaving the definite rubbish on the riverbank -- while still admiring her rings. Bits of shine and colour kept catching her eye, much of it useless even by her standards, but there were a lot of those woven bracelets down there. Like someone had lost a cargo box full of them further up-river. The result was for many of them to end up pushed onto her wrists with a soft flute of delight before she moved on to examine the shinier object she had managed to unearth.
It was a badge, the mermaid knew that much. It was one of those Important Things. The gold-ish shield had writing on it; it would need cleaning before she could read it properly. But that could wait until after she had finished brushing her hair now that she had finally taken all of her things out of it. She had grown tired of the braids knotting up, and the pretty things she kept weaving into her hair got to the point where it weighed her head down if it got wet. Which was a problem for a mermaid…
Teasing the last knot out of her hair, Cloelia chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully and picked up the Important Badge from where she had set it on the grass. The shield-shaped thing seemed very familiar without being able to read it, and it annoyed her that she couldn’t remember what it was. Carefully wiping mud and silt off the front with fingertips that were suddenly curious about the relief of the metal underneath, she swished the thing about in the water in the hope of rinsing more off and then brought it back, drawing all of her hair over one shoulder as though that might help her decide the answer. Now she could see all the letters, but only certain words really stuck out for her: MICHIGAN and POLICE. There was a name on it too, but it didn’t mean anywhere near as much to her. “Ohhh.” Cloelia looked about for a moment to see if any of the other mermaids were around then resolved to go biped and take this back to the police. She didn’t want to very much. Usually, Cloelia meeting the police ended in violence or… violence. But this time she probably wouldn’t be about to injure somebody.
As soon as she was dry enough, she dressed speedily, the bikini top included because she couldn’t bear the idea of wandering around wearing nearly all black. She liked the rainbow-straps it had. Her hair, which became wild when left to dry on its own, was tamed with a fake-daisy headband that she was currently in love with. Her bracelets and necklaces stayed right where they were. The mermaid didn’t care if the word ‘eccentric’ might not necessarily cover her style of dress, which she made more than obvious whenever she approached yet another member of the public with her pre-prepared signs in her notebook that said: ‘EXCUSE ME. WHICH WAY TO THE POLICE STATION?’ and then on the next page: ‘THANK YOU.’ She beamed at every person who gave her directions, pulled tongues at those who would not, but eventually made it there.
And when she did, she approached the first police-like person she saw with another sign saying: ‘I HAVE A BADGE TO HAND IN. WHO DO I GIVE IT TO?’
She would really need a new notebook soon.