fandomtownies | The Beach By The Lighthouse, Saturday

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The Beach By The Lighthouse, Saturday

After her blowout with Dean - she couldn't really call it a fight since he'd just stood there - Arden had fled Midnight, heading outside where the fresh air would calm her down and help settle her nerves. Yelling at him had been bad enough, but then he'd mentioned fairy law and all she'd been able to do was flee. She had no idea what the Otherside would think of her accidentally breaking the Dėtente with a human from another dimension, even if that human seemed to know about stuff already, but she didn't want to find out, either.

Of course, if Othersider enforcers showed up to collect her for breaking the Dėtente, she'd be dead anyway, just by virtue of what she was.

Between the pollen and the morning and the sheer fucking unfairness of being marked for execution for shit that had happened thousands of years before she was born, just standing outside wasn't helping her relax any. Maybe exhausting herself with a swim would help, but there was no way she was going into water that cold. She was a sylph, not an oread. Even kicking up sand wasn't really doing much for her--

Wait, she wasn't kicking at anything.

But the sand was still blowing around her, little dust devils getting bigger and bigger even as she watched. First they were up to her shins, then her hips, then her head, and finally several spurted up eight or nine feet in the air, like tornados made of sand whirling all around her. It was only when she caught the sharp scent of ozone in the air, felt the strength sapping from her limbs that she realized she was doing this. These dust devils had sprung up from her magic unconsciously spilling out of her and picking up the sand. Her curls whipped in the growing wind, sand stinging at her face.

"Oh no," she said, wide-eyed. "Oh shit. Fuck shit fuck!" How did she...?! Her training had been focused more on not using her powers at all, not stopping once she'd started! "Cut it out, cut it out, okay?" But her growing panic only made the dust devils bigger. "Please stop, please stop, just cut it out, okay?!" she begged, near tears.

Okay, okay, needed to calm down. Just caaaaaaalm the fuck down. She started by taking several deep breaths. And then did the in-for-four, out-for-eight thing she'd heard about. Just concentrated on her breathing, tried to shut out the panic, the fear, the anger, the horniness...everything that was making her anxious right now. "I can do this," she whispered, closing her eyes that were shining bright gold. "I can do this. Just...breathe."

In-for-four, out-for-eight. In-for-four, out-for-eight. In-for-four...

Slowly, the wind died. The scent of ozone and petrichor faded. Sand stopped blowing on her, the feeling of being a reservoir being drained lessened and then stopped completely. She opened one gritty eye to see that there was only a single dust devil left, barely ankle-height, and that disappeared into sand even as she watched. She'd done it. She'd stopped it.

Her legs suddenly gave out and she went toppling to the ground, tired and drained. That was fine. She'd just...stay right here for now. Maybe take a little nap.

Using your powers was exhausting, who knew?

[Open!]

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It had been a little under a week since Cal had ended up in Fandom, and he still couldn't figure out how to actually get off the island. His communicator wasn't working and the causeway was a dead end, so he'd decided to head back to where he'd first arrived to see if he could find the thing that brought him here.

Approaching the beach, the sound of the wind got his attention, and the sound of someone in distress got him running. When he spotted the collapsed figure, he headed over and looked around for anyone else that might be a problem.

"Hey, are you all right?"

"Huh?" Arden glanced up at the unfamiliar face and gave him a sheepish smile. Her eyes seemed to gleam a burnished gold for a minute, but then she blinked and they were revealed to be just a very pretty shade of light brown, almost an amber. "I uh...yeah. There was like. A sandstorm. Or something. And I got caught in it."

Look, she was not the world's greatest liar. But that kind of thing was at least possible on the island...right?

She tried to get up, her legs went 'Nope!', and she hastily sat back down again, none of which was done with any grace.

"...Guess I'm still a little bit, uh. Recovering. From the...sand."

Anakin would believe her about the sand!

"Uh, hi. Did the sandstorm get you, too?" #NailedIt

Considering the things he'd learned over the last few days, "freak beach sandstorm" really was a plausible statement, and he wasn't in a position to ask too many questions, yet.

Cal crouched down beside her, looking her over for injuries. "No, I think I missed the fun," he said, laughing softly. BD-1 took the chance to jump off of Cal's back and scurry over, looking up at her with wide, adorable eyes.

"I'm Cal, and this is BD. This place just can't leave us alone lately, huh?"

"That's for fuckin' sure--" Arden began to say, but was then distracted by said wide, adorable eyes. "Oh!" she said softly, so glad to have something to focus on that was neither 'angry feelings,' 'power problems,' or 'stupid pollen.' "Hello, BD! I'm Arden."

And then another sheepish smile as she looked up to Cal, who, y'know, was actually the one who was talking to her. "Hi," she said. "Umm, still Arden. Arden Finch." She was so great at this people thing. She extended a hand. "Cal, you said? Do you, um, go to college here, too? Sorry," she added, tucking an errant curl behind her ear and frowning as the motion sprinkled more sand on her shoulders. "I've been kind of a hermit lately..."

Arden didn't appear to have any injuries. A few scrapes and scratches from the sand, a general air of exhaustion, and she seemed pretty pale under her natural skin tone, but no bleeding, no big wounds, not even a nasty bruise anywhere.

"I don't blame you for being a hermit. It was probably a smart move this week," Cal said, shaking her hand and taking a seat in the sand. "We kind of ended up here accidentally. I've heard a little about the school though, it sounds... interesting."

That was kind of the go-to word for everything here, as far as he could tell.

"I can't imagine what sort of things they teach here. Is that why you're here?" He was definitely doing awkward small talk to match her energy and keep her calm, not because he was also bad at the people thing.

Cool cool cool, they were both two totally very-great-with-people people who just happened to be bad at it right at this moment.

"Interesting is the right word," she said with a twitch of a smile. "But, uh yeah. I got a flier and thought it would be a good place to go." You know, a good place to go to after running away. Hypothetically speaking. "But yeah, a lot of weird classes. Mine are pretty normal this semester, but uh, last semester I was in a History of Assassination class and Ass-Kicking 101. And there're classes on necromancy and learning how to have fun and...I have no idea what the class with Professor Beaker is about."

Wait, why was she trying to talk up the college to him? She was ridiculous.

Because it kept him from asking questions about the "sandstorm," obviously!

"I thought school was about reading and the boring parts of history," he said. "I'm not sure I want to know what the necromancy would be used for here."

BD-1 prodded at Cal's leg with intense beeping, and Cal rolled his eyes. "I don't think my training counts as an Ass-Kicking class, buddy." It was hard to develop great people skills when you spent most of your time talking to a droid, and Cal smiled at Arden. "He's helpful most of the time, I promise."

Excellent point! Good job, Arden!

"Did you...make him?" Arden asked, smiling down at the droid. "And...you speak, uh, beep? Is it binary?"

"Yeah, it is binary," Cal said, lighting up over the idea that she was already familiar with that. "I didn't make him, but I've given him some upgrades, and fixed him when he gets himself into trouble."

Which was surely never, because they were both so normal and law-abiding.

"He's adorable," Arden said, because talking about something that wasn't her or what happened on the beach was so much easier. She glanced up at him and offered a real smile. "Nobody with this face could get into trouble. I don't believe it."

Cal used BD-1 as a distraction often enough that it was good to share the wealth. "Well, maybe I'm the bad influence, but things have gone well here so far. I guess I'll add sandstorms to the list of things to look out for," he said. "If I end up stuck here longer than expected, are there any other warnings I should get?"

"Stuck here?" she asked, deftly dodging around the sandstorms bit. "Umm, so I haven't been here a full year yet, but I was just warned that sometimes the island gets invaded and I guess people deal with that. And, err, uh. Kids? From other dimensions show up? But I haven't dealt with either of those yet. And then there's been this whole week--"

She flushed and coughed a little and hey, Cal was pretty cute and--

Nope! We weren't going any further down that train of thought, cute or not. Stupid pollen.

"Uh, I have been here for a day when everybody sings all throughout the day," she said, because we were not dwelling on this week at all. "And, the whole month of December had weird little things every day up until Christmas, but those were more cute than anything else."

Weird how she could only think of the mistletoe that followed people around until they kissed someone right now though.

Stupid fucking week.

This was definitely the stupidest week, but the list of other potentially stupid weeks made Cal a little nervous. "Okay, invasions, random children, and maybe some singing, got it," he said, laughing and also deftly avoiding mentioning this past week. "I didn't intend to come here. BD and I were exploring, and I found this... light, and I touched it, and then I ended up out on the beach here."

He sighed, and BD came over to pat his leg. "I can't seem to figure out how to get back. Not that I'm eager to leave," he added quickly. "I'm just not a huge fan of the unexpected."

You know, everything this place aimed to be at all times.

At all times.

"Oh, well...I can't promise that this island is not that," Arden said with a soft, slightly strained laugh. Because this was the stupidest week part III. "Can I ask where you're from? I don't think I've seen robots as advanced as this before."

Okay, she didn't have vast experience with robots at all. But the statement stood.

"I guess the closest thing to home for me is a planet called Bracca. If you've ever met Rey or Lana, I'm from the same world as them, but not the same planet. Or the same time, apparently," Cal said. He had gotten used to that sounding very different than what other people were used to. "Earth is a new concept. But the food is really good."

"Oh! I met Rey!" Arden said. "Just the other day."

When she'd been stuffing herself with ice cream to sublimate any dumb feeling that may or may not have arisen that week.

"She was the one that told me about the, uh, kids. And stuff. But, wow. Not expecting to end up in this place is wild, but not expecting to end up on Earth at all is just..." She trailed off, shaking her head. Words failed.

"So like, this is a really personal question and feel free to tell me to back off, but like..." She looked up into his eyes, searching them for...something. "Are you okay? I mean, ending up here, leaving behind everything you know and almost everyone. That's gotta be a huge adjustment and..." And that wasn't even taking into account this week. "You're going through all that and you still came to check on me. Wow."

Focus, Arden.

"But like...real talk. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said, but it was definitely too quick of a response, and he sighed, having to break the eye contact before he completely lost the ability to lie. He had come over to help her, after all, and being a burden was never on his agenda, but obviously none of this was really okay.

"I'm just worried about my friends. The non-droid ones," he said, giving BD a little nudge. "I don't want them to worry about me or think something awful has happened. As unpleasant as this week has been, it's actually been kind of a nice break." Did that make things at home sound too awful?

Yep. It absolutely did.

"This week was a nice break?" she repeated, in case she'd somehow failed at hearing comprehension. Or, you know, being an alien, English couldn't be his first language, so maybe he'd missed a word or something?

"You can't get a message home, either?"

"There was a war, and my side lost," Cal explained. "I've been trying to keep the people who won from hurting anyone else, and it hasn't been easy. Having a week where the hardest part of my day was trying to keep my hands to myself was... well, maybe not easier, but it felt less dire." At least it was feeling a little less dire now, a few days ago had been awful. "Maybe my communicator not working is a good thing, because I don't know how I'd explain any of this."

"Oh, shit," she said. "I'm so sorry. That's...pretty heavy. But maybe even if you can't explain all of it, you can at least tell folks that you're alive and not a captive of the other side or something?"

She frowned. "I think the radio has mentioned that Professor Beniko has gone back to her universe sometimes. Could you maybe...send her with a note?"

Because that would be fine. A noted Sith showing up with a note that said, Hi it's Cal, I'm totally fine and not at all in danger. Hugs and kisses, Cal & BD

The thought of sending her to talk to Cere brought a smile to Cal's face as he imagined the fallout. "I would love to witness that, but she's from about 3500 years before my time, so it would be a very strange note exchange."

Cal sighed, feeling guilty for throwing so much at Arden at once, and stood up. "I'm sorry, I didn't come here to burden you. Let's see if you're feeling better," he said, offering her his hands to help her up.

"You're not burdening me," Arden said. She would have liked to stand under her own power, but she liked that strictly less than she liked not falling flat on her ass again, so she accepted the hands up. There was a slight wobble when she was on her feet, but overall, she was pretty sure she was okay.

"I think I'm good," she said. "Or will be after something to eat and a glass of water. But also, I was serious? Not a bother. It was nice talking to you."

Especially after the disaster that had been talking to Dean.

Talking about problems was definitely not the Jedi way, not when ignoring the bad feelings until they exploded was so much easier. He held onto her hands to make sure she was steady, definitely not for any other reason because that would be rude!

"It was nice talking to you too. It's good to be listened to without feeling like I'm crazy," he admitted. "Think you can make it okay from here?"

Yeah, so weird so many Jedi ended up going to the Dark Side where at least they allowed you to express emotions. Huh, probably no correlation there, right?

"I got it," she said, pointing to the house not terribly far from where they were standing. "I'm boarding there and if I can't make it back inside from here then...okay, I don't really have a good way to finish that," she said with a small laugh. "But I'll be good, I promise."

She gave him another smile, this one less tentative than the others she'd offered thus far, while her brain also pointed out she'd need to reclaim her hands and she told it to shut up. "Seriously though, thanks for coming to check on me. I really appreciate it. Feel pretty ridiculous getting taken out by a sandstorm or whatever, but...thanks. That's really stand-up of you."

Okay reclaiming her hands in three...two...

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The Beach By The Lighthouse, Saturday

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