Charlene Pearl (fiercetide) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2015-02-05 19:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-10-14, charlene |
every mistake that I've made
Who: Charlene
Where: Lake Erie
When: Mid-morning
Notes: "Italicized speech" is... mermaid language. NPC death. Mermaid eating habits.
"Oh would you stop already!" Charlene snapped at the flailing man she was currently trying to keep above the surface of the cold lake. She did not have any idea why she was even bothering with him. His boat was quickly on its way to the bottom of the chill lake because she had decided she wanted to play with it, yes, but she had pulled him out of the wreckage before a loose rope wrapped around his ankle could drag him down to the depths too. One would think he would be grateful that he had been saved from a watery grave, but no, he was shouting and carrying on... true, she was the reason his boat was gone, but he did not know that. All that he should know was that here she was, trying to save his life and get him to the distant shore. But if he kept flailing like this then she was extremely tempted to take a chunk out of his neck. "Shut up," Charlene finally hissed, digging her claws into his arm. "Now, or I'm letting you go."
The flails slowed, the man drawing in deep, gasping breaths. Charlene rolled her eyes and gave a flick of her tail, starting for the shore. Where was she even? She had made it through the straits which meant that she was in Lake Ontario, but where exactly she did not know. What did it matter? It did not and yet... and yet... it did. She kept thinking about Scarlet Oak, that place she had been before, and the longer she was away the stronger those thoughts got. Especially the ones that centered around the pink-haired girl she had left crying on the shore there. She was... she was remembering her. She was remembering things that she did not even know she had forgotten! Like being shot by a short-haired woman and spending time in the hospital... like sinking a sailboat with a gaggle of other mermaids or her sister shouting at her because she was in a relationship with... with... Oh my waves. Charlene actually let go of the man and turned, facing towards where she had come from. The pink-haired girl! No, not a girl, she was a were-penguin and she was hers. How had she forgotten about that?! And why were there still - oh what now?
On his way down - either he could not swim or the "cold" water was numbing his muscles and exhausting him - the man had somehow caught hold of her tail and was holding on for dear life. Charlene could have flicked him off. She was actually more than a little tempted to go ahead and do it because he was no concern of hers, but something stopped her. What was it? She was starting to remember things, yes, but they were patchwork and in no order and there was nothing there that made her think she would want to save some silly landwalker she did not know from the next. A sillier one than most considering that he was out here when the waves were like that. Had she not come along and put several holes in his boat to see how fast it would sink then he still might have flipped over and drowned. Still, she should have no reason to want to help him. No obligation, no anything. Yet she was still bringing her tail up so that she could reach down and haul him up. She even held him up a little higher so that he could hack out the water he had swallowed.
"W-w-w-"
Charlene rolled her eyes and gave an irritated click of her tongue. "Spit it out." When had her English gotten so good?
His lips were turning blue. "W-why?"
"I have no idea," Charlene snorted. "Now flip over on your back and float." Nothing. Muttering to herself about the stupidity of those who had been born on land and still felt the need to come into her domain, Charlene manhandled the man until he was floating on her back and leaned over, hands on the sides of his face, and said very firmly, "Stay this way." She hooked one arm over his chest and broke out for the shore again.
Now what had she been thinking about? Oh yes, her memory. Her memory and all of the holes that were in it. It was like that cheese that she had seen once in a supermarket, what had they called it? Cheddar... no, that was the yellow-orange one. Swiss! Yes, her memory was like Swiss cheese with the holes slowly getting filled back in the longer she was away from Scarlet Oak. Where everything had ever happened.
Roxy.
That was her! The pink-haired penguin she had left. And why did I leave her? Charlene could not quite remember, but it had felt like the right thing to do at the time. There had been a packed bag and it had seemed like something she was going to do, so she had done it. Followed the river out into the lake and now here she was, remembering all of these things that told her she should not be here. She should be back at Scarlet Oak with Roxy. Only she had left her standing there on the bank without any word that she would be back, just the most basic of goodbyes and a disbelief that she knew her no matter what the little landwalker electronic device claimed. Because how would a mermaid know a landwalker? Why would they be in a relationship with one? Little things were flashing through her mind: being in a car with a large movie playing up on a screen and being out at a very large shopping center with a cold drink in her hand... and the pink-haired girl was always there. Roxy was always there.
And she had just left her.
Charlene was so caught up with these memories that she hardly noticed that the man she was towing was not even moving anymore. Who cared? He was just some nobody and she had left Roxy standing there. Roxy who had come and held her hand when she was in that terrible place that reeked of chemicals and blood. Landwalkers may have claimed it was a place where they got made better and yes, they had helped her, but Charlene refused to think of it as anything but awful. She had healed much better once they had let her out. But the point was that Roxy had come to that terrible place and she had been the one to take her out. She remembered that now. She remembered the girl with brown hair who had been able to turn into a bear and had liked her shed and the time that she and the other mermaid - Cloelia! - had drank that liquid and it had burned and left her giggly but with a headache the next day... and when Nixie had left her because she did not approve of what she was doing or who she was doing it with. But most of all were her memories of the pink-haired penguin that she... that she... I love her.
The mermaid gave herself a shake and looked back at the man she was tugging. And that was when she realized that he was no longer breathing. Ah, when had that happened? Had he drowned? Gotten too cold? Did it matter? All that mattered was that she had to turn tail and start swimming back for Scarlet Oak and beg Roxy to forgive her. Because she was suddenly feeling really bad about the possibility that she had hurt her. That she had forgotten her. How could she have forgotten her? She released her hold on the man, watching with a tilted head and a complete lack of passion as he floated there and then slowly, as the water started to seep in, began to sink below the waves. And then, because she did have a long trip ahead of her and she was hungry, she slipped below the waves herself.
She had eaten human before - it was not going to kill her.