The Beach- Sunday morning

[throughaphase]

It wasn't like her beach back home, and she didn't have her friends with her, but Cleo couldn't resist getting in the water at least for a little while. It wasn't like anyone was around to see, right?

So she left her legs behind on land (not literally- they just turned into a tail when she got out into the water) and swam through the water, just enjoying herself for a while. Was it her, or were there much fewer dolphins here?


[She has an Australian accent that I swear to god I thought was fake when I first heard it and will go through great pains to hide her tail if spotted. So open.]

Comments

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"They won't find me here," Miley muttered to herself as she hurried across the beach, still in insanely high boots that were absolutely ridiculous for walking in the sand. "They'll never -- oh. Hey."

[throughaphase]

Oh no! Looked like Cleo was just going to have to stay in the water a little while longer. Luckily it looked like she was wearing a bathing suit top and not like she was skinny dipping or anything. Kids's show and all. "Hi!" she called back. "Just going for a walk?"

Hopefully a quick one?

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Hiding, actually," Miley said, casting a furtive eye in the direction she'd just come from. She paused to bite her lip, hesitated -- and then shucked her leather jacket and dropped it in the sand before starting to kick off her boots. "Mind if I join you?"

It wasn't dirty if she was hiding, okay.

[throughaphase]

Cleo's eyes went really wide. "You mean here? In the water?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Yes?" Miley said, pausing. "I'm being chased. Maybe they won't find me here."

Beat.

"Or maybe they will, and they'll take pictures of me in the water in street clothes and they'll be all over the news."

[throughaphase]

"Not the news!" Cleo exclaimed, thinking of how horrible it would be if she was in any of those pictures. Everyone would know, and Rikki and Emma would never forgive her... "Who's chasing you?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Squirrels!" Miley explained. "They're taking notes on my life!"

The indignity of it all!

[throughaphase]

"That's terrible!" Cleo said. "How do they even write?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Tiny fingers, I guess!" Miley hypothesized. "Do you mind if I hide here with you?"

Uh, yes?

[throughaphase]

Ordinarily Cleo wouldn't mind, but... tail. Her secret could not get out, it just couldn't.

"I've been sick," Cleo said. "I might be a little contagious. What if it's waterborne?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"But -- the squirrels!" Miley insisted urgently. "They could come find me at any time!"

[throughaphase]

"Maybe they wouldn't find you at another part of the beach. A part far away, even," Cleo tried. "From this distance, I could even act as a decoy!"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Miley said hopefully. "You'd do that?"

A pause.

"But... how would you distract them?"

[throughaphase]

"I have ways," Cleo said mysteriously.

She had mermaid superpowers, is what she had.

No seriously. MERMAID SUPERPOWERS.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"If you're sure," Miley said dubiously.

And then she took off at a run. A very gymnastic-y run.

[emoclops.livejournal.com]

Look! In the distance, above the horizon! Is that a lightning bolt? Is it some sort of shooting star or comet?

NO! It's Flyclops!

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he yelled as he zoomed above the beach, still shooting punches from his eyes into an unbreakable umbrella like the manliest, punchiest Mary Poppins impersonator on record.

And then he was gone.

[throughaphase]

Did she really just see that? Congratulations, FLYCLOPS, you made the mermaid go "Huh?"

[wrongkindofsith]

"Hello?" Cara did not have an Australian accent. She did however have one that sounded like one around the vowels edges. "I don't suppose you know where we are?"

She also had an expression that hoped the bathing girl would be more helpful than the one sitting in the hallway had been.

[throughaphase]

"The beach!" Cleo called helpfully. And then more apologetically, "Other than that... not sure."

She hadn't questioned it too much, because she'd been mostly just grateful to get away from her sister for a while.

[wrongkindofsith]

"I could tell that much." And because this was not the Mord'Sith version of Cara, that came out less sarcastic and more sincere. "I was hoping you'd know more than not being in Minnesota."

Cara still had no idea where that was.

[throughaphase]

"I wish I did," she frowned. "...Minnesota? Really?"

[wrongkindofsith]

"That's what the girl in the hall said." Cara was pretty sure that wasn't a normal thing to say. "Which would help if I knew where Minnesota was." It was a weird name, so it had to be far away.

[throughaphase]

"I think it's somewhere in America. I don't know where, though. Maybe they have beaches there?"

Eh, not really, no.

[wrongkindofsith]

"Where's America?" Yeah, Cara had never heard of there before either. "I don't know. Though there aren't a lot of beaches back him, at least ones that I've been to."

Which was why Cara was doing her absolute level best to keep her eyes on Cleo's face and not anywhere else.

[throughaphase]

Cleo was more than happy with someone looking at her face, and not at anything she was desperately trying to hide. Why did people keep coming to a public place where she could be totally exposed if something went wrong? "You don't know where America is?"

[wrongkindofsith]

"Never heard of it before today." If she wanted to hide things, why was she wearing such a small top?

Tail, what tail?

[throughaphase]

Because that small top just came with the tail! It was like an ensemble. A scaly ensemble.

"Oh," Cleo said, thinking that was strange. Maybe her parents were strict about what she watched or something. "It's across the world from here."

Because waking up in an entirely different country yesterday was just silly.

[wrongkindofsith]

A distracting ensemble. Look, when a not insignificant portion of your female peers kept getting abducted and never seen again, you didn't didn't really have the opportunity to realise you found certain things...intriguing.

"Where's here normally?" Not as silly as waking up in a different world.

[throughaphase]

"Australia," she said slowly. "Where did you think it was?"

[wrongkindofsith]

"D'Hara?" At least they both ended in with an 'a'. "I'm from Stowecroft."

Of course if she hadn't heard of the one, there was no hope of her knowing the other.

[throughaphase]

"I have no idea where that is," she said, like she was admitting something bad.

[wrongkindofsith]

"Well, I don't know where this Australia is either." Unlike original recipe Cara, this version had few problems admitting she didn't know something. How else was she supposed to learn new things?

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Danny liked the beach, okay? He'd had some of the best times of his life (all seventeen years of it) on a beach, and really, what wasn't to like? There was sun, you could smoke, and girls ran around wet without wearing a lot of clothes.

Speaking of, when he spotted the pretty brunette out in the water, he paused for a minute before calling out, "You should be careful. There's like, undertow."

He didn't know what he was talking about. But hey, he'd saved one Australian girl's life on a beach before.* It wasn't bad, as far as pickup lines went.

*It's in the lyrics and everything. Even if Sandy doesn't seem to agree.

[throughaphase]

"Oh, I know!" Cleo called back. "I've got it covered."

The tail was great for things like that.

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

He raised a brow, watching her, and added, "You sure? I'm a really good swimmer. I can help!"

Altruistic.

[throughaphase]

"Uh, no!" Cleo said quickly. "I'm a really strong swimmer. It's not a problem at all."

Unless she got caught in a net like that one time but what were the odds of that happening twice?

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"Yeah? What's your name?" he called, because this wasn't normal. It was like she didn't even want him to come in the water!

[throughaphase]

"Cleo?" She was still not as okay talking to boys as she would be later even if she wasn't technically sort of PGishly naked.

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"That's a pretty name," he offered, because he wasn't an ass all the time. "Are you from Australia?"

He was guessing. With the accent and all.

[throughaphase]

"Yes?" Why did people keep wondering that?