Try to make this pretty Who: Adelle and Charlene Where: The river When: Afternoon
Adelle hadn't thought that the Diaz' full moon party would end off on the note that it did. The siren had been geared up for a fun night, even as crazy as that was going to be because of what needed to happen. It had happened, but not necessarily in the perfect way that Roxy had hoped for. Or Fina, or Quentin or herself for that matter too. None of them had seen it coming, and the fact was that it had. Maybe Roxy could figure something out to tell everybody, and Quentin's face would heal, but she knew from experience that this could either make or break their relationship. Adelle would've given anything to make sure that they remained together, because even though she wanted to be the person to make her were-penguin friend happy, Roxy deserved everything Charlene embodied.
When the little siren had woken up from a seemingly dead sleep, she'd opened her window, tossed off her clothes and shifted into her bird form for a fly. Even though she wasn't a were, it always felt nice to spread her wings and take to the skies. The skies were beautiful, azure abound and no little fluffy white things in sight. Even though she wasn't a large bird, she was soaring higher and higher and letting the speed of her travel cool her body. She flew toward the river, hoping to follow it and maybe turn her flight into a little journey, something to get her mind as clear as the sky.
The African Pied Wagtail dropped into a dive, and when Adelle wasn't sure if she was smash into the water or be able to safely pull up, she beat her wings and pulled her body backward to slow and stabilize herself. She loved to fly just above the surface to achieve the ground effect, following the river as fast as she could speed above it. Today, though, her thoughts were on the night before and she remembered the mermaid saying that she followed the rivers to Scarlet Oak. Did she live off the shore or in the water itself? The tiny bird beat its wings and broke the ground effect to pull into the sky for a birds-eye-view of things. She saw little, but what she did see startled her.
A bit of pink cloth, and brown coiling about something human shaped. It wasn't in a position to be sunbathing either. Adelle swooped low and landed shakily next to the shape. It was human, although it was somebody's back, oozing with blood. The skin surrounding it looked like it was coursing with lightning almost, and it pulsed, jagged and opaque under the person's skin. Should she touch the person? She flitted up and over body to get a better-- Charlene! Before Adelle knew it, she had shifted and placed a hand to the mermaid's throat, checking for a pulse. Oh my God, she's burning up! How long's she been in this sun?! "Charlene?! Charlene can you hear me? It's Adelle, Adi. Charlene? Oh fuck."
It was kind of nice to just be floating in the black. Nothing was bothering her there, nothing was touching her and nothing hurt. That was the most important part. Nothing. Hurt. Not her skin, not her muscles, not her heart or mind... none of it. Almost like before she had come to Scarlet Oak and everything had started to go all strange. The demon, K-lee, the hunter, Roxy and then K-lee again. K-lee kept popping up and Charlene frowned. She was supposed to be left alone in the black, not dredging up these things that hurt and thinking about K-lee reminded her of what had happened and that hurt. A lot.
In fact everything was starting to hurt again and she could hear something. Her name. Why was someone trying to talk to her? No, Charlene thought, squeezing her eyes shut tighter as she felt herself coming back and with it came the pain again. The streaks and sparks and jagged... it was not as bad, she almost thought she could bear it now, but it was still there. Again she found herself almost grateful that she could not speak because she knew that nothing she had to say would be pleasant. Probably just screams like before she had shifted.
Finally her eyes opened, neck twitching as she realized someone was touching her there. A small hand, cool against her skin because oh tides her skin was on fire! I know you, Charlene thought as she took in the face, blurred around the edges. Adi, from the party. She nodded in response to the question that she had thought she heard - she could hear her. There was nothing wrong with her ears but when she tried to stretch out she winced and pulled back into herself, arms going back to her stomach because it just seemed like how she should curl.
At the very least, Charlene could hear her. That was good, that was good, it meant she wasn't... dead. Adelle couldn't have dealt with that at the moment. Not Charlene, not Roxy's girlfriend, because if she died then Roxy wouldn't be happy and she didn't know how long it would be before she crumbled too. Adelle looked around, for somebody, anybody, but who in their right mind was near the river in the morning? Nobody, save a siren and a mermaid. Please don't die, Charlene. Her lips moved with the same words, but she didn't notice, her mind was racing, thinking of some way to cool Charlene. The heat couldn't have been good for her at all.
Adelle rose, feeling the sun on her naked body as she sprinted toward the water. It splashed around her feet, and she knelt to dip her hands in, cupping them together to form a bowl. Rising again, she hurried back to the mermaid and was only able to sprinkle her with water. "Fuck." She tried again, cupping her hands tighter this time, and she returned with only a bit more water to baste Charlene. I'm going to have to move her. The siren didn't know if she could, didn't know if she possessed the strength to move her even that far. If she were a true were it would have been child's play, and she'd be laughing to herself as Charlene turned back into a mermaid and was able to tell her what had happened.
Her hands combed her loose hair back, and she let out a short breath before bending to attempt to pick up Charlene. One hand slipped under her back and neck and another under in the crook of her knees. Adelle counted silently to herself before attempting to rise, and she managed to lift the mermaid a few inches off of the ground before having to set her back down. Seriously?! Use your dancing muscles, you're stronger than this, you kill MEN for goodness sake. "One, two... three!" And up she went, using her legs to lift, and locking her arms as best she could. She held it, mentally yelling at herself to not drop the mermaid as she trudged into the water deep enough to let Charlene go. "You're in the water now, is that-- is that better?"
Charlene watched Adelle move, though suddenly the brunette was trying to touch her. Oh not just trying, she was doing... what? Lifting her? Charlene's entire body tensed even more, or tried to but her muscles just were not doing the right things. Had they been she could have moved herself and would have told Adelle exactly that. Her eyes squeezed shut and she tried to pretend that she was back in the black where nothing hurt and for a moment she thought that she was going to be able to get back there. Until the shock of water washed back over her and she felt her body shifting, changing and lengthening.
Whatever had been on her skin was fading, still crackling, but fading and leaving behind a deep pain that had Charlene whimpering because now she could. The mermaid let herself sink down to the bottom of the river, head still poking up because it was that shallow. Her arms were still wrapped around herself, dark eyes watery when she looked at Adelle. Where had she come from? Why was she helping her? Why did she care? Because no matter how much it hurt, Charlene could remember that Adelle was one of Roxy's best friends and that meant she knew what had been going on. Might have been part of it.
"No," Charlene said, her voice tight with the effort of keeping from just crying. Because right then she knew that she could not slip down and swim away. None of her muscles were doing what she wanted and the only reason she was able to sit was because she had started out this way. Moving to lay down would have taken too much out of her. "What... why are you... here?"
Putting Charlene in the water had been tough enough, but now that she was there, shifting and becoming her true self, Adelle let out a sigh of relief. She didn't know if it did her any good, but a mermaid shouldn't be out in the sun just baking away, right? At least she had done what she could. The other option would have been to fly somewhere and tell somebody what had happened, naked, or fly home and call the police, then beat them there in her car. Adelle wouldn't have been able to live with herself if she'd seen Charlene and the mermaid had died when she left. This was the better choice.
The bad part of putting the beautiful mermaid back into the water was that she could question her, and it wasn't the obvious, 'why are you naked?' but an inquiry to why she was there. Should she tell her the truth? She would know that she wasn't a were since she wasn't stuck in her other form if she told her, but she hadn't exactly been seen in her bird form either. "I was... I was passing by. I saw you, and once I figured out it was you I knew I couldn't just leave you here. You're hurt." That's all that mattered.
The mermaid did not understand. Not only because she was in pain - she did not think that she would ever forget that pain or the one who had caused it - or because she had somehow been lifted by that little thing... but because Adelle seemed to care. Why did she care? She was Roxy's friend and last night... Charlene looked away and down at the water. Underneath the water she could see the purple and white streaks and bolts starting to fade, the sharpness vanishing with them though the pain remained. Her muscles hurt so bad. I hate her, Charlene realized, hands clenching into fists. Roxy may have lied about everything else but that was the truth. She's terrible and I should have drowned her.
Looking back up, Charlene's eyes were flat despite the tears. "No - why care? Friends with Roxy. Just a joke, right? Doesn't matter what happens. Don't have to pretend now." Charlene did not want anyone else lying to her ever again, it had left a bad taste in her mouth to realize that it had happened so much... that maybe Nixie had been right after all. Truly, the mermaid doubted that she would have even known a lie from the truth at that precise moment. Had the spell somehow affected her mind as well?
She had expected this, and it wasn't taking Adelle by surprise that Charlene thought like that. If it had happened to her? Yeah, Quentin would've been walking himself into the pool so she could drown him herself, and then she would've went Carrie on the rest of the males at the party too, to prove her point that you don't fuck with people like that. Charlene had the voice to simply end the party, but she had chosen to leave. Far better, in Adelle's eyes, because she knew she would have promptly killed somebody in the same situation. Even now, even with the odd colored lightning flashing out across the mermaid's skin, if Adelle was her, she would've drowned the other girl. Thank God she was not a mermaid. Everybody would die.
Between whimpers, between the pain that she saw Charlene in, the mermaid asked her why. She had it wrong, but the situation with the Diaz family and their daughter was so messed up at this point that she couldn't blame her for whatever she thought. "Oh Charlene." Adelle sighed, not knowing where to start. The water was lapping at her chest, but her hair, unadulterated since last night hung over her front. She wouldn't have been embarrassed regardless because hah, she worked for that body and it was small but tight, but being nude in front of somebody else's girlfriend. Roxy's girlfriend was just too wickedly odd for her not to bring an arm up to cover her modest chest.
"I don't know where to begin, you'll have to excuse me. I just need to get this out. It wasn't a joke, and it would never be a joke! I'm guessing since you're with Roxy you know about how she isn't really into kissing or anything in public, and how she totally fears her family knowing. So K-lee pulled some crap, do you know who K-lee is? She's this horrid bitch that's Roxy's ex, and she moved here of all places. K-lee told her mom that she's a lesbian, and her mom got on her case, so Roxy made this plan with Quentin, and I guess she never got a chance to tell you before it all happened and I know she never meant to hurt you, and if she could take it all back I'm sure she would."
A very good question to ask would have been why Charlene had not sang at the party. All it would have taken was being in the pool, in her natural form, and every human at that party would have realized how bad an idea it was to upset her. Because she had been upset, more than upset, she had been one pissed fish and through the night one thing she had asked herself was why just leave? It was not like a few more humans would really make that difference... but she had known. Roxy's family was there. Charlene had also promised herself that she was not going to do that. No, I promised that I wouldn't eat them, the mermaid corrected herself. Not drown them all. So there was no reason that she could pin down past the part where hurting people close to Roxy had just not happened.
The mermaid was also completely unaware of the fact that Adelle was naked. First off she was still in pain and tended to not focus on the details. Second, she was a mermaid and if anything, clothes were odd to her and a lack of them was normal. Maybe some humans had caught onto that, she had no clue. "Don't..." Charlene was not sure if she believed the other brunette. Oh she was right about Roxy with the kissing in public thing, or really anything in public. That had gotten explained in the cafe when Charlene had just brushed her hand. Just like anyone with sense, Charlene had accepted it and moved on. She figured that Roxy knew what she was doing since she was the one who actually lived on land.
But the mention of K-lee's name sealed it for a moment. Charlene's eyes flashed and she made a vexed noise. K-lee had done that? K-lee's done worse. A witch of the worst sort, exposing Roxy. "I know K-lee," Charlene said, wincing again as one of the stabs was sharper for a breath. Her eyes squeezed shut and she leaned down, face brushing against the surface of the river. "She was here. Did this." Did more. Told me to go back to the ocean because I don't know how humans work. And she's right. Charlene was completely lost now. Why would Roxy not tell her something like that before if what Adelle said was true? "Why wouldn't she tell me? Why..." Hurt me, she finished silently, not wanting to say it outloud. Sure Adelle was nice and all but she was, for all visionary purposes, just another human. A human who was Roxy's friend and said Roxy had not wanted her hurt. But humans, as Charlene had learned, were more than capable of telling lies just like mermaids.
K-lee had done this? How? There was blood, and the mermaid seemed to be injured from that point out from where Adelle could see the streaks of lightning leading too whenever they pulsed. She wanted to help, but she didn't think putting her hands on Charlene was going to make anything better, not in her current state. What if it could spread? Well, she would've totally been screwed because she'd somehow lifted the mermaid in her panic-lined adrenaline rush. And Fina said K-lee cursed her. That makes her a witch, could she be a blood witch? How many blood witches are there in this town, seriously!? This is getting pretty ridiculous! Her facial expressions were probably betraying her thoughts, but she wanted to wait before talking again. Charlene could understand her yes, but throwing more and more words at her in her current state might have lead to a misunderstanding. Like this isn't one already.
Adelle moved her hand from her chest to help her push through the water toward Charlene's back. She moved slow, more from the current resisting her even here on the banks, than from a deliberate attempt to be subtle. The siren wanted a better look at the focus point of the spell, something she could commit to memory if she needed to tell Roxy or police or something, because she was going to know. Nobody was messing with Roxy's girlfriend and more importantly, one of Adelle's friends. Sure, she'd only talked to the mermaid for a small amount of time before things had gotten ugly, but she had enjoyed getting to know Charlene and that made them friends. K-lee was going to get Roxy's hockey stick to the face, and when the were was done mercilessly beating her ex into the ground, Adelle was going to ask the pink-haired girl to teach her how it was done.
"I don't know. I wish I could tell you what Roxy was thinking, but maybe there wasn't time or she didn't think you would take it well, I guess. I don't know how mermaids work, but humans..." Adelle stopped short without meaning to, gazing at the marks Charlene had scratched into herself. Charlene wasn't a human, but could go around looking like one, acting like one. Adelle wasn't human either, but it was a lot easier to hide everything from everyone. She could walk, talk, partake in their activities, live an entire life as one of them, but at the same time, be a curse upon their souls. How long could she remain human? "I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. Um, humans... humans usually say that they had good intentions. I know Roxy meant well, and I know you probably don't have any reason to believe me, but-- but... I don't know. It's really your feelings against what happened, Charlene. But everybody-- we all totally had good intentions."
"Good intentions," Charlene repeated the phrase. It was not one that she had really heard before. Merfolk did not do things with good intentions so why would they say such a phrase? True, Charlene was different and she had changed but that did not mean her roots were not exactly the same. Nixie would have scoffed at the very notion of doing something with good intentions. You did things as you wanted and that was that. No hidden meanings, no trying to hide... Charlene had never hid anything about herself in her life, but she had thought that she would be able to understand why Roxy did what she did. And she had, in a way. That was why she tried to not touch her unless they were alone and such. But what she did not understand was having good intentions that did not work. Maybe she would have understood, but one thing that Charlene was certain of.
It would not have hurt as bad had Roxy told her herself.
Lifting her eyes up from the surface of the river, Charlene looked at Adelle and blinked. She tilted her head, studying the brunette. She seemed so insistent on the fact that this was all just a plan gone wrong. So what, did that mean it was supposed to hurt less and be less true that it had happened? Did not work that way in the mermaid's mind. "Don't think that way. You do something, affects someone... you tell them. Or it hurts." It hurt as bad as what K-lee had done, just a different sort of pain that was not fading because it had been who knew how long. "Good intentions? Don't understand. Want to do good, then do it. Not intend and fail."
Adelle's brows furrowed in confusion, but she didn't take her eyes off of Charlene. Her terse response showed the differences between Charlene's upbringing and a human life. It showed the siren just how human she really was, and as she thought about how to answer the mermaid looked off to the side, focusing on nothing in particular. What was she to say? She herself couldn't lessen the blow of what had happened, and she didn't particularly understand herself why Roxy didn't tell Charlene. The smaller brunette had gone to the party thinking that she was aware and fine with it, she had came to meet Charlene, before doing damage control between Linda and Quentin, but Fina had covered that. "It doesn't always work like that. We try our best and sometimes things just don't turn out the way we want them to. That's why they say life sucks, and then you die."
"I was kind of under the impression that you knew. It all happened so fast. We talked about what was going to happen at the party, that her mom was going to talk him into the dirt. We talked about what he should know about her and what to say to keep things secret for her. We just never talked about you. I didn't know." Adelle rose from the water into the hot sun. Her hands grasped her wet hair and rung it out, and then she moved her head to flip it over her shoulder. I can't do anything else for her. "Which is a lame excuse, and I'm totally sorry to give that to you. I think I've done all I can really do. If you're-- if you're okay I'll just leave you alone, Charlene."
It should have worked like that. Charlene really, truly would never understand humans if this was how they went about things. Some thinking that it was all taken care of while others knew it was not. The mermaid was not exactly a logical sort of person and she had a habit of causing mischief, but at least when she did there was no doubt on her part of what would happen. And she had never done it with someone else's feelings. It felt all wrong, worse than what she could do when she opened her mouth and sang. So confusing that I don't even know where to start thinking. Except that I'm not important enough to talk about? She had told Nixie about Roxy before her sister went missing and if that was not taking a stand then she didn't know what was. Because Nixie? Force to be reckoned with and she had the scars to prove it.
"Not your fault," Charlene conceded, if a little grudgingly. It really was not if she had not known, and she seemed genuinely sorry that it had happened. "Thank you... for helping me." It was a little hard to say but she got it out, arms still wrapped around her body. Not for modesty because she still had that scrap of a top from the previous night on, but because it still hurt. It had faded for a bit but then it stopped, pulsing on. If not for the fact that it had been so terrible before then Charlene may have still been screaming. "You can go. Mermaids make people nervous, I know." In a pool surrounded by penguins was a different story than in the river with no one around. If Charlene had not been so certain that Adelle had had no weapons with her then she would have been nervous too thanks to that hunter.
The fact that things didn't work like people wanted them to haunted the siren back to her first kill. Well, she hadn't exactly had good intentions letting Sam take her home that day, she'd had very bad intentions, but until that murderlust had came rolling along that afternoon in his front seat, she'd only wanted him to touch her, maybe slide his hand along her thighs as they made out. Adelle had really liked him, but she blinked hard to shut it out of her mind. She didn't ever think about him, and she blamed it on not really knowing what she was doing that day, not having control. Were she and the mermaid really so different? Aside from Adelle having an impending need to murder men every couple of weeks, or days, or even hours, they were essentially the same kind of monster. ...right?
"Um... thank you," The words fell from the siren's mouth halfheartedly, because she wasn't exactly sure what to think. It was her fault. Hers, Roxy's, Fina's and Quentin's, it was all of their faults. "You're welcome, but... it was my fault. I could've asked Roxy about you, but I didn't." Adelle was silent, looking down into the water at Charlene. She looked okay, besides the obvious fact that the events of the night before were drilling a hole through her mind and heart. "What? Why would I be nervous around you? So what you're a mermaid, you're also pretty fun and you haven't done anything to hurt me. I totally don't see any reason to be nervous. I mean, Roxy isn't nervous around me and she knows I-" Did I almost tell her that?! Seriously, put your freaking head on straight girl. "What I mean is. I just don't see a reason to be nervous."
Charlene knew what a siren was - but not that Adelle was one. Luckily for the other brunette, mermaids could not just scent things on people. She had always found sirens to be odd. Especially after she left her pod and realized that in all actuality sirens were worse than mermaids. Because they had to kill people. Men. Whatever, people died so that they could stay alive. It was definitely different... though Charlene had never really met a siren for longer than a few minutes. That she knew of.
"But you just..." Charlene was confused again. She had just said that it was alright and now Adelle was saying that it was her fault? Could she not just settle on something and keep it that way? Otherwise it was just a whole bunch of tangles made worse by the fact that thinking clearly was not Charlene's strong point at the moment. So she decided to do the only thing that made sense to her and just let it go. Because she did not want to stay confused or think about it too much. Thinking just... got in the way, clearly. "Don't you know?" The mermaid was confused again. Here she thought that all humans at least saw or heard about the legends of merfolk and how they ate people. "Merfolk eat people. Crunch right down. Sing them to death, drown and eat." Her words were a little more savage, eyes narrowed as she got the words out. Had she ever actually said that aloud to someone who was not one of her own kind? Probably not, scaring people off was rarely high on her to do list. "So see? Scary."
The best friend in question didn't know that she murdered people either. She'd come way too close to being discovered her first week in town, but that had been a mistake on her part that lead to her finding Miranda. So long as nobody else found out, besides the vampires and oh, that blood witch that had drained her for a long, long time, Adelle assumed that she would be just fine. She couldn't help but wonder how many people would turn on her or turn her in or maybe even try to kill her. But what could a mermaid do that was so interestingly scary?
Eat people?! Oh my God. Oh my God! Does that mean that Charlene eats people too? Adelle stood her ground, and then thought better of it and made her way back into the water. She had been standing so long she was dry again, but she figured that her conversation with Charlene might take a while longer with this information. As the liquid swallowed her up to her waist, she sat so that her shoulders barely existed above the river. "You're not scary to me. I mean, if I didn't know you and I knew that, then I totally would've ran for the hills. But you didn't eat me, or drown me, or anybody at the party. And I'm pretty sure that you would've taken a bite out of K-lee, or worse if you ate people yourself. Everybody's different. I'm pretty sure that there's a mermaid out there that eats everything, and there's a pretty awesome mermaid right here that hasn't. I trust you. Like I said, we're friends, so I trust you." Hopefully she sees us as friends, or I just totally made a horrible decision and I'm going to be Charlene's breakfast. Fu--
Adelle was not leaving. She was coming further into the water and settling in around her as she actually sat down. Charlene was a little confused by that because had she not just told her that merfolk ate humans? Then she understood - Adelle thought that she was safe. And aren't I? A bitter little twist came to Charlene's face as she spread her fingers over the surface of the water, watching the little ripples as even her hands gave a brief convulsion against the pain shooting through. Duller, yes it was duller, she kept telling herself that she that she would not curl back up in a ball and just sink to the bottom, stay there until everything went away and stayed away.
"Had I wanted to, I could have," Charlene informed Adelle, rather matter-of-fact about the whole thing. And it was true so far as she knew, never once had her song failed to do what she - oh. It had not worked to keep K-lee away earlier that morning. Other than that it almost always worked. "Had I wanted to then Quentin-" the name was difficult to say, sounding odd on her tongue with that accent of hers. "-would have wished I just hit him. And Roxy... Roxy would... still be just as she is. Couldn't to her." No matter how much it hurt Charlene could not even fool herself into thinking that she was capable of doing such a thing. Not to Roxy. "But you're right. I don't eat humans now. Not since I left my pod twelve years past." The small human-child had done it. Though it was odd to hear herself called a friend. Imogene had not called her that, and Roxy was clearly something else entirely. "Friends..."
Well she's not eating me... I think I'm okay. Which was good. When she died she totally wanted to look better than she did now. At least have her hair done, and some eyeliner on if anything. Maximally? One of her favorite sundresses, some cute wedges, amazing accessories, and a Tokidoki purse. That would be cute. Charlene moved, and her hands gave away that she was still afflicted with K-lee's curse. It was better then, that Adelle had stayed. Should anything suddenly happen to her newest fishy friend, she would be there to aid her in anyway possible. "Is it still bad?" When Kikuya had placed a curse on her, there wasn't any pain, just the outcome. The outcome of the curse however, had almost killed her.
"But you didn't!" Which meant that Adelle was safe. Or, wait, it meant that Charlene had chose to not kill all of them. In that case, she wasn't safe. Uh, that wasn't good. The siren listened to the other brunette speak, and when she said Quentin's name, Adelle had a bit of trouble understanding. Her accent, which usually clipped a word here or there, combined with her very general sentence structure seemed to get lost in the human pronounciation of the letter Q. She did pronounce Roxy's name correctly, but the siren assumed that was because she'd been saying it for a lot longer. Or saying it a lot louder. Adelle wide to herself, and mulled over the fact that Charlene had been wandering for twelve years. Twelve years! Adelle had been eleven then. Good lord, she was the little mermaid! "Twelve years ago?! Really? You must have been so small! And yes, we're friends! You have other friends, right?"
"Not as bad." She could handle it now without crying clearly and that was an improvement. "Still hurts." Honestly, Charlene was starting to think that maybe it always would. Eternal pain for trying to kill the witch who had said such hurtful things to her. For breaking my promise to myself about not killing another human. Witches count as humans. Squeezing her hands back into balls, Charlene slipped them beneath the surface so that Adelle could not see the patchwork of fading lightning bolts as they crackled. It was almost like a storm that she had seen once... only underneath of her skin.
Charlene shook her head, a weakly amused smile now tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I didn't." Could have and did not. She was actually proud of herself for that when she thought about it outside of the context of what had happened. But then Adelle confused her again with that remark about her having been small then. Blinking, Charlene tilted her head and shook it. "Not smaller," she corrected. "Same as I am now. Same as I'll be for a long time. Not really all that old yet." Sure, humans had a shorter lifespan but did they not realize that mermaids lived for nearly six times as long just on average? Huh, looked like they needed to be educated in that particular aspect of everything. "And... no, not really. My sister. Roxy, but she's not exactly a friend; girlfriend, right? Not many people come to the river and outside I can't talk." It made striking up conversation or getting people to look at her a little difficult as she had learned when she ventured out. That doctor at the hospital most definitely did not count, just thinking about him made her want to go back and give him another piece of her mind.
"That's good." Maybe Charlene didn't notice that the lightning was still shooting out over her skin, or maybe it was only affecting her in certain areas of her body, because it still pulsed every now and again. Only now it wasn't as vibrant, and Adelle really had to concentrate to catch it when it flashed. "I wish I knew a way to help you. I'm not a witch though, and I don't know any. That's next on my list to make friends with, a white witch." Miranda had never gotten back to her about finding a white witch several weeks ago and that made her worry. Was the elder siren okay? Text messages needed to be sent out and calls needed to be made, obviously.
You didn't. Which is entirely okay in my book because I'm so not wanting to be eaten. Wish I could say the same for myself when I'm tempted. I've never been able to stop. The feeling's just come and I've done what it said. "The same as you are now? How... how old are you? How old do mermaids get? See, I'm a silly human, and it's awesome how we compare everyone to ourselves. I should just pay attention more, I'm sure they've talked about this on tv." So Charlene had a sister? Was she just as friendly as this mermaid was? Well, Charlene wasn't exactly friendly, but she wasn't mean either. She just had problems with the language and understanding human customs, and then there was that whole silent-on-land thing. "Is it the same for all mermaids? Okay, let me back up. Do your sister and other mer... people, do they have to be in the water to speak too?" At least Charlene was still referring to Roxy as her girlfriend, it was nice to hear that from the mermaid.
White witch. That had to be the exact opposite of whatever it was that K-lee was because white was always associated with good so far as she was aware. And what K-lee had done to her could never, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered good. Even if she was protecting herself, I'd let go. She did this just because she wanted to. Probably to enjoy seeing the pain or something for all Charlene knew. "White witches must be good," the mermaid remarked. Perhaps one of those should have been the first witch she met and not someone like K-lee who knew such terrible spells and seemed to have no problem whatsoever with using them on others. It was almost like what Charlene could have done if she decided to use her singing to get what she wanted from people on the river.
Charlene thought for a moment about Adelle's question. "One hundred and thirty one, roughly. Adult when I was seventy so see, wasn't little when I came." Far from it. Charlene had actually stayed with her pod for a surprising amount of time after attaining her adulthood. "Six hundred years, maybe. Not quite sure. And yes. None of us can talk on land. When our bodies change we cannot talk. Or sing." It was quite depressing to realize that she would always draw attention for that. Because usually, while there were mute humans, they also happened to be deaf. And that Charlene definitely was not. "Something shifts and we become... silent. Find other ways to talk." Like the notebook that she used for everyone and the tracing on the skin that she did with Roxy when they were too close for her to write on something else. A little flush did cross her cheeks then, not from the spell but from the thought because things like that were why she was more inclined to believe Adelle than K-lee. "And you - how old are you?"
Adelle brought her left hand out of the water to look at the deep cut through her pale skin. It looked better than it did last night, but she supposed soaking it in the river wasn't going to do her much good. She could find a witch, pay or ask the witch to make things go smoother with her body. And then I avoid anything sharp. Knives, fangs, needles, boys dressed in Armani. "They are. White witches, from everything I've heard of and read, practice spells that protect and heal and they can place wards on things that bless the people they are given to or surround. I mean, I've been told it doesn't look special or anything, but the spells work." There was a lot that Charlene didn't know about their world, even if she had left her... pod, twelve years ago was it?
The siren's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. "One hundred thirty one years old?!" If she was prone to fainting spells, she would've fainted. Heck, she wanted to faint to prove her point, but instead she stared at Charlene, at the youthful, beautiful face. She can live up to six hundred years. Miranda's almost that age and she barely looks a day over her later twenties. How come all the hot women live a long time?! I'm going to look like I'm flippin' twelve forever. "Six hundred years is a long time! No wonder there are legends about mermaids. One mermaid could have been the same mermaid over centuries. Charlene, you could be a human story." Because surely that's how things got started. Somebody saw somebody that wasn't supposed to belong and told others, maybe one day they saw the same thing until it culminated in a town legend or something. Charlene really could be a legend somewhere, and Miranda, and Whisper and Karine. If she followed through with her life, would she be a story for somebody too one day? The mermaid's question snapped her out of her thoughts, and she realized she had to close her mouth to speak. "Uh, me? I'm twenty three."
Charlene knew that she could be considered lacking in knowledge about quite a few human ways. More than she was familiar with, truth be told, but she did not much care for thinking about it. Things like the topic of white witches forced her to do that and she made a face at the surface of the water, noting the little flash of white that shot across, accompanied by another pain spasm. Ah, so they were directly connected! Not that she had any idea of what that meant past it hurt. That little flash was enough to distract her from the witch conversation though, which she let go of gladly because to be honest, she was starting to feel more ignorant with every word.
Adelle's surprised expression did make her giggle. "Not long to me," she corrected. And it really did not seem like all that long a time since she had already lived for over a century. The only problem with it now was that there was Roxy... who could not live that long. Charlene knew that weres were like humans and shared a lifespan of a similar length, which was disappointing - and not to be thought about! But a human story? "That I doubt. Never done anything that noteworthy for humans." Past sinking ships in the Atlantic of course, but that had usually been a pod effort. Charlene knew human stories about mermaids but they tended to be older than her and most everyone in her pod. Though she did have a sneaking suspicion that Nixie may have been the real culprit behind that string of 'shark attacks' a few years prior that she had heard about down south. Would be just like her to encourage sharks. "Twenty-three... still just a guppy." Who appeared full-grown. Well, sort of. "Are you... stunted? Humans are full-grown by your age, yes?"
The siren would've apologized for confusing Charlene had she known that she actually was. Even though the mermaid was in the water and she could reply in English, that didn't mean that she understood each and every word that dropped from Adelle's mouth. Especially since the girl was a rambler. She was a lot of things actually, and none of those other things counteracted her mouth. It wasn't her parents because her mother was quiet and her father was... well he was loud, but to yell at employees. It was definitely a mix of California, her peers, and the amount of money her father had tried to pour into her. As much as Adelle didn't want to admit, she wasn't very bright, so it was a wonder she retained any information at all.
"Yeah, I guess I am a gup-- what?!" Her surprised expression remained unchanged, Adelle's jaw dropping again to accommodate the rest of her face. "No! I'm not stunted! I'm fully grown! I'm just short. And small, petite. Roxy's not even that much taller! Or Fina! Seriously! People like small, cute girls like me!" Adelle scrabbled for words, unable to believe what she had heard Charlene say. Did she really think she was underdeveloped? I mean, my chest isn't as big as hers, and I'm not as tall or curvy but I'm a grown woman! Am I really that small?! Mom said I was fine, oh my god I need bigger heels and padded bras and-- "Do you really think that? Because I'm not that small!"
Oh, so Adelle was going to admit that she was just like a guppy... or not all of a sudden. Ohhh, she was objecting to being called stunted. Charlene just tilted her head as Adelle tried to explain, even pointing out that Roxy was not that much bigger than her. But she is in some ways. Charlene rather liked the way that Roxy looked and it was quite a bit different from Adelle, whose body was not that hard to study seeing as how she was not carrying on that troublesome human habit of wearing clothes. "I suppose, but you look much different." Charlene was not trying to be mean or anything she was just saying what she thought was true. "Didn't mean to upset you... you're just smaller than most people I've met." Another thing about Charlene was that she was not good at empathizing with almost anyone. If she did not understand right off the bat then she probably was not going to and it never really bothered her for that matter. "Not stunted then."
Adelle sighed to herself, placing her hands around her body in attempt to hide. Her face was burning hot, and now she knew for certain that she would always be self-conscious around Charlene. Even if the mermaid hadn't meant to upset her, it upset her. She was a human, and a girl, and it stung for somebody to say something like that about what she had worked hard for. But Charlene had probably seen Roxy's body naked, despite how close the two were as friends, the most she'd seen of the were-penguin was in a bikini. And I bet she looks amazing and actually has a body. "I guess. People don't just point it out. This is probably the reason I don't have a boyfriend. I'm going to look like a flippin' guppy my entire life. This is going to be fun! I mean, how many boys think it's cute when you have to stand on a chair to reach the higher shelves in your apartment?!" The siren's hands splashed into the water beside her in her bout of anger. "Maybe I am stunted, Charlene. Wouldn't surprise me, it's like life's a cosmic joke and some hack writer loves making me suffer."
Oh, Adelle was doing that blush thing that Roxy did... huh, Charlene did not feel like smiling at that for some reason. Differences in people, I suppose. Not that it actually looked better on Roxy, she just liked making her do it a whole lot more.... okay, and the mermaid thought it looked better. But was that not just personal opinion? No one should be offended by what she viewed as the truth and yet it seemed that Adelle was. "Tact," Charlene remarked, remembering the word that she had been told she lacked. She just happened to prove it right there without even thinking because, well, she rarely did think before speaking. "I don't have it. Just because I think you look small doesn't mean everyone does. Sure plenty like how you look." The mermaid just happened to prefer Roxy. A lot. "Small isn't bad..." To merfolk it was. Small meant that you were easier to eat for predators bigger than them like sharks and giant squid and the occasional killer whale. "Not ugly." Why was she trying to be helpful and not offensive? Oh right, this was one of Roxy's friends... and one of hers, Adelle had said they were friends.
Small wasn't bad, it just wasn't a trait that a mermaid looked for in another person. Adelle realized that Charlene came from the ocean, and the ocean had big things, and they only got bigger and scarier the further out and deeper you went. The mermaid had to have been chased about by bigger things, and that's when her tail, and those sharp, sharp claws would have come in handy. She's not trying to make fun of me, she's just asking a general question. Calm down. Calm down. "It's not really your fault, we do things totally different on land. I'm kinda sure that some of your words can't be translated or something." Adelle peered at Charlene's skin, concerned that the flashes of magic coursing through her veins was still there. When she caught what she thought was a faint flash of the once dark lightning shooting across the mermaid's skin, Adelle concluded that either Charlene was feeling much, much better, or she was hiding just how much she was hurting. The idle chat about the siren's size lead her to believe that her fishy friend was on the way to being better, at least. "Thank you, Charlene. Hmm, if you're feeling better I think I should go home and tell Roxy what's up."
That was true, but Charlene had known that for years. Humans did not have words for all the different ways that water looked. Not for the way that a whale's song carried so beautifully or even for her real name. But it looked like Adelle was getting ready to go. Not that Charlene blamed her, or objected very much. She did really want to go curl up in her boat and be left alone to cry just for awhile. "Thank you, Adi... for helping me," Charlene said, offering a smile. It faded a little at Roxy knowing what had happened to her. If Adelle was right then perhaps that meant she would come looking for her, and if not? Then Charlene was going to have to seriously consider listening to the bit of advice that had been given to her by K-lee. "I hope to see you again." With that, she nodded her head and slipped back into the water, grateful to be alone with the fish and other various forms of river-life that would not ask what was wrong or what had happened or any of that.