(Untitled)

[icthyo_taco]

Who: Alice and Abe (closed)
What: Meeting at the Marina
When: July 19th, Tuesday, early afternoon
Where: Marina
Rating: Gee, I dunno. (heh, get it?) Prolly G. I'll tell ya if it's different.

Comments

[futureinmotion]

Alice ought not to be outside at all today - or if she was, she should be well out in the forest where no one would spot her. The sun was bright in the sky and she held her parasol overhead as she walked down the quiet street to the quay.

Maybe Abe made her reckless. Not being able to see what would happen should make her more cautious, but somehow it seemed to have the opposite effect. Maybe it was just that she'd never lived anyplace with so many sunny days! She didn't have her family to occupy her, and others who seemed to have secrets just as dangerous as hers walked around openly.

Maybe Alice had her childish side. And if she couldn't see it leading her into danger, there was no motivation not to indulge herself. Not to take chances. Cautious, reasonable chances. Now, for instance, she wore a broad-brimmed sun hat and her enormous Audrey Hepburn sunglasses, and every inch of her skin below her chin was carefully covered, right down to the lace-trimmed gloves on her hands. Hardly summer wear, at least not in this century

[icthyo_taco]

He was humming Tchaikovsky 1864 when he felt the vibration hit the water. He turned around, himself in the part of the water shadowed by a low hanging tree.

Sparkles, no, muted sparkles like those of sequins on an unfocused reel of film. He didn't need to hold a hand up to tell it was Alice who was in the water. Her emotions fed through him as the water rippled around his body with her plunge. Why did she glisten like that?

He spent a moment watching her from the shadows with curiosity. She was trying to find him, he mused. Then, feeling a little creepy in his gawking, he swam into the light waiting for her to turn around and catch his eye.

It had been very close to a minute and she had not yet come up for breath. She did not look as if she were struggling to stay under. Perhaps it was simply another example of her own uniqueness.

Sorry it's short; I'm on my iPhone. ^_^;

[futureinmotion]

Alice didn't need her powers to tell when she was being watched; predator's instincts were enough for that. She turned in the water, catching sight of Abe drifting a short distance away.

She did need air to speak, but she smiled and raised a hand to wave.

No worries! I'm honored that you made the time to reply! Hope you're having fun.

[icthyo_taco]

Abe did not need air to speak. But his words would not hit her ears in a way that she could easily decipher them. In the library back at the bureau Abraham's tank was equipped with microphones on the inside of the thick glass and amplifiers on the out. The microphones were set to specifically separate out the sounds of the water and the sounds of Abe's words so that he could communicate. But this was not an option given the situation.

So instead of saying anything he, too, waved. He came nearer to her not having to exert the energy to paddle as much as her because of his biology. He started to talk but shook his head. He shrugged and pointed up in question if they should break the surface. They might not need air but verbal hellos would be nice.

[futureinmotion]

Alice considered. His suggestion was clear enough, and she didn't really mind him seeing. But if she broke the surface in full sun, she was going to sparkle like a floating diamond, and someone else was bound to see.

Looking around, she saw the place where the sun's rays were broken by something above the surface. Some kind of shade, anyway. A tree, she thought. Turning back to him, she jerked her head in that direction and swam to that spot. When she felt the water grow cooler (though still warm compared to her skin) she pushed herself to the surface.

Above the waves, her unruly hair clung in dripping curls to her face. That face looked... odd. Out of the direct sunlight, she wasn't sparkling per se, but there was a quartzlike shimmer to her skin that couldn't be attributed to the water. Her fingers glittered as she pushed a lock of hair away from her eyes.

"Hello again. I hope you don't mind me dropping by."

[icthyo_taco]

He watched her curiously as she considered his decision. Perturbed by her worry he nodded in agreement to her location of surfacing. He swam lazily with her and expanded his swim bladder with oxygen as they rose to the surface. He bobbed effortlessly with his head just above the water slowly stroking with his arms and hands to stay in one place but not having to paddle to stay at the top of the water.

"Not at all!" he replied. "I was surprised to see you so soon, Alice. I take it you don't need to breathe. Either that or I'm very impressed at your ability to hold your breath for longer than humanly comfortable."

[futureinmotion]

Small but constant movements were necessary to keep Alice's head above water. She noted the lack in Abe's effortless floating.

"Breathing is nice, but not, strictly speaking, necessary," she admitted blithely. "Well, it's helpful for talking. And I do like to talk."

[icthyo_taco]

"Hm. Back in my home dimension I was able to successfully communicate with others through an amplification system through my tank. I'm afraid it's a little more difficult here to do the same while in the water. It's unfortunate but I've found that many of my routines have changed. At first it was stressful but now I welcome the advantages. It is better than attempting to sleep in a bathtub," he said, visibly shaking with the memory of the harsh tap water waking him in the middle of the night, his heart racing

[futureinmotion]

"You had a tank?" But was that so surprising? Humans had houses. People liked their living spaces carefully enclosed and delineated. Why should fish-people be any different? "That does sound convenient. I don't suppose you need to talk to many people underwater here."

At his question, Alice smiled ruefully. "How, I don't really know. It's just part of what we are. I'm not hiding because I'm uncomfortable with it, though." Lifting her hand out of the water again, she held it just this side of the edge of the tree's shadow, considering it. "It's just a little... unsubtle."

She reached her hand out past the shadow's cover, and the surface of her skin sparkled into life as if thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded there.

"We avoid sunlight normally," she went on, watching her hand, and watching him. "I haven't even been out in a day like this in quite some time, unless it was well away from people." Her eyebrow quirked. "I'm being quite reckless today, so I hope you appreciate it."

[icthyo_taco]

"Of course!" Abe replied. It was obvious that a creature like him would have to have something like that to live in a world occupied by those who could not survive in water. "No, though I do wish I could discover some way to make it easier to communicate with others while I'm in the water. I spend a good portion of my day here. Guppies are nice enough but they don't offer especially deep conversation. And having my sleep interrupted by nibbles to my toes isn't my idea of a perfect situation. That being said please believe me when I express my gratitude for a large body of water in the area

[futureinmotion]

Alice laughed. She noted that he was careful not to touch her hand, and appreciated his discretion. Normally she would have linked their hands now, or nudged his fingers with hers, or some kind of casual contact, but with Abe there was that unique question to take into consideration: How much would he sense? How much was she willing to have him sense?

Deciding that there wasn't much he could sense that he didn't actually know at this point, she smiled, wrinkling her nose playfully, and poked his claws with her fingertips. "Well, at least mine doesn't show up if I have the sense to stay out of the sun. Which, obviously, I don't. More's the pity

[icthyo_taco]

He chuckled lowly at her amusement. Every once and a while he could prove that he was not as dry as Hellboy let on. He did have a sense of humor it was just not attached to gastrointestinal administrations and lude commentary

[futureinmotion]

Sunshine. Of all the ironic nicknames, and especially that he should call her that after seeing what he'd just seen. Alice smiled wryly. "Depends on your definition, I suppose. After all, when you get right down to it, every being is one of a kind." She thought she could imagine how it was different for him, though. For the first two decades of her un-life, she'd been alone. Just luck she'd had her visions to assure her that it wouldn't be forever. Without them, she probably would have turned utterly savage

[icthyo_taco]

"Odd, I never perceived you as one to wax poetic," he teased. For the first three weeks of Abe's life (that he could recall) he had felt nothing but fear as experiments were run on him. After that, after Hellboy lifted him from the tube, even though the scientists still insisted on nibbling experimentally, Abraham never did feel alone again despite his being the only of his kind. There was kinship in two solitary people finding solace in each others' company

[futureinmotion]

"Because of course you know everything about me by now," Alice teased right back. Though there was some truth in it. Oh, he knew far from everything, but more than most.

And Alice, too, had met the most unsavory creatures in vampires. So they had that in common.

"With my life," Alice replied with a smile. If that was what it was. Her existence, anyway. It was easy to trust when one was basically indestructible, but she didn't believe Abe had any intention of trying to hurt her. On the other hand, if he did, she'd never see it coming. "And I'd really like to see what you've found. Lead the way!" She placed her small, cold hand in his long-fingered one and ducked beneath the surface.

[icthyo_taco]

"Everything that you will show me," he clarified with a pointed finger