Daughter of the Sea

“Oh. If you’re sure she’d never hurt you… I- I bet that you’re probably right.” Yona ran a hand through her hair, conflicted about what had happened and this conversation. They had a lot of shopping to do, but it was difficult to stay focused. “No, nothing else! Just the threats to set me on fire, singeing my shirt, and the being super protective of your honor. She’s… just very protective of you and clearly has a lot of feelings.” Yona was not here to wreck Mari’s relationship. She wanted her friend to be happy, and it sounded like Alek did make her happy! Still, Yona had gently threatened Alek into not hurting Mari, and the defensive reaction had been a little scary. She couldn’t quite say that she believed Alek. For now, she would be honest about what happened, and try to keep an eye out for trouble in the future.

“Oh?” Yona hesitated for longer than usual in her responses. As she fumbled over the shorts, she considered how to proceed with this conversation and not make anyone else too pissed at one another. Tact was not her strong suit, unfortunately. There were some significant benefits and downsides to the idea of dating a woman that could set things on fire that had similar behaviors to a polarizing fictional vampire. Yona thought she got why Mari was apologizing on behalf of Alek. If she had a girlfriend like that, Yona would absolutely do what she could to make things right. The thing was, an apology on behalf of someone else that seemed like they would never say sorry in the first place did nothing. She didn’t need an apology, and definitely did not expect Alek to ever intend to give one. It was fine. Exhaling, Yona ignored the clothes altogether for a moment, and responded. “Yeah, I’m okay. I honestly don’t think she meant to mess up my shirt. And she didn’t hurt me. But… do you know how Alek’s control is with her powers? She’s careful around you, right?” Yona was completely torn between vicariously enjoying the idea of having a dangerous and broody girlfriend, and wanting to make sure that Mari was safe. 

“Um,” Mari stalled. “Control... really isn’t her strong suit, when it comes to her powers,” she admitted after a moment. Admitting that didn’t make her a bad girlfriend, right? It was true, and Yona apparently had the scorch marks on her clothes to prove it. “She’s always careful around me, though!” she added quickly. “I know she’d never hurt me.” ...Did she know that, though? For the first time, a little doubt crept in. It was true that Alek was always careful around her, and she’d thought that maybe meant that being around her had made her better in some way, but... if Alek was out here singeing Yona’s clothes on accident and threatening to do even more than that on purpose, maybe that meant that Mari wasn’t having as positive of an impact on her girlfriend as she’d hoped. Either way, she was definitely starting to get the sense that she didn’t know Alek as well as she thought she did. She bit her lip, considering. “Alek didn’t... do anything else, did she?” it sounded like Yona had summed up the entire encounter already, but at this point Mari felt like she needed to make absolutely sure. 

“I never use the embosser, but I suppose it’s technically functional. As for the date stamps… they’re unusable to me for anything practical. The series of dates that they cover was around two or three decades ago. After that, I imagine most people would just throw them out, but I think I still like to look at them. Occasionally stamp with them because they have a nice feel. But no real purpose, no.” Nikhil was rambling on about absolutely nothing like he was Chloe or something. If he did not feel so comfortable in this moment, he would have been a lot more nervous. But he felt like Mari would not judge him in a way that would hurt for all of this. For goodness’ sake, Mari was an eccentric artist that ate enough salt to make him panic just thinking about it. What did he have to lose if he smiled once in a while here?

Mari nodded, completely unfazed by the idea of Nikhil stamping the stamps just because of the way they felt. “That makes sense! Would you be open to someone else using them, sometimes? Um, that someone being me - it might be fun to stamp or emboss stuff for my art sometimes, if that’d be alright with you?” she asked. “It’s completely fine if you’re not comfortable with that though! I’m totally cool with them being display only for me; I know they’re really important to you.” She didn’t want him to think that he needed to avoid putting them out in the main room to keep her from using them.

“Cool!” While Yona picked out shorts were a better size than what Yona had first selected, she tried to remember which tops she was planning on giving away. She also was trying to figure out just how to phrase what happened. Well, Mari was her friend, so she was going to have to be honest. “Your… really intense girlfriend? She didn’t mention this? I ran into Alek at Pinball Lizard.” Looking over at Mari with a conflicted expression, Yona did her best to piece together this in a way that made sense. Unfortunately, Yona’s logical reasoning could be a little unusual to follow sometimes. “She’s basically Edward Cullen levels of in love with you. It’s really romantic how protective she is of you. But she singed one my shirts, and threatened to set me on fire, and has like literally no interest in meeting any of your other friends so… it’s just like if Edward Cullen was in love with you,” Yona said, grimacing a little. Sure, she was glad for Mari that she had someone so dangerously enamored with her, but it had been a little tense for a while there. Now that she was on the right side of alive, Yona had to wonder just how much danger she was in if she encountered Alek again.

“She didn’t,” Mari answered with a small frown, setting down the shorts she’d been looking at. She was effectively distracted from her clothes search - an impressive feat, but what Yona had to say about Alek was definitely more concerning to her than what she was going to wear this summer. Her eyes widened as Yona kept talking, mind going a million miles an hour. Alek had what? No, she wouldn’t threaten to set someone on fire, would she? Mari bit her lip. She guessed she could imagine Alek doing that, but not without being severely provoked. Not to someone like Yona, who was clearly harmless. And actually singing Yona’s shirt... that was terrifying, but she knew her friend wouldn’t lie about something like that. And she’d described Alek as Edward Cullen... Mari hadn’t read  or seen Twilight herself, but she got the reference, and it wasn’t as flattering as Yona seemed to think it was. And she’d said Alek was in love with her, too - this was a lot to take in all at once. “Um, are you okay? I’m sorry that happened. Did it seem like she singed your shirt by accident, or... on purpose?”

      𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 on Sasha’s arms, as she smooth the back of the baby, and stared at girl. Just like she guessed, yeah, she met Jack.  ❛ Nice to meet you Mari. I really liked your hair. Reminds me the time when I had my edges pink and blue, in a once upon a time. ❜ Suddenly, the blonde felt so old, especially now with her children. ❛ Ah, yeah, I’m their mother. I don’t hang out too often from home. Jack knows everyone. ❜ Nowadays to make the blonde get out from home was a battle, it was one of her rare appearences outside. This was nice being able to go outside from home, still she feels unsure to be out.  ❛ Babysitter is something I’m looking for… If you know anyone available for that job, just tell me. ❜ The Russian wanted to organize herself, so when the time comes to back to work, she has everything settled.

“I’m sure we’ll find plenty of cute things. Ooo, do you want to find anything to impress your super intimidating girlfriend? I was almost scared for my life a little when I met her and she definitely hates me, but daaaamn. What does she like you in?” Yona hadn’t mentioned to Mari beforehand that she had bumped into Alek at the arcade, but it seemed natural to bring it up now. “I don’t have any pictures or anything. Should I go back home and take pictures? No, that’s a bad idea.” Winging it seemed like a safe idea. Or at least better than taking a bad risk and not getting Mari good things to wear. “Nah, I did work in the morning, so you’re my plans for the afternoon. Let’s get everything that makes sense to do today.” As long as she did not end up getting banned from the thrift shop, she could spend all day at this place. She was really just glad that she had a friend who liked doing most of the same things she did at this kind of store.

"My what?" Mari asked. She didn't think of Alek as intimidating at all, but - she thought on it and decided that yes, she could definitely see where someone else might get that impression. Still, Yona's next comment caught her by surprise - there was a big difference between being intimidated and scared for one's life. She had to be exaggerating, right? Mari tried to push the thought aside. "I think we're okay without pictures for now," she agreed. "Great, let's do this then!" Mari started to look through the clothes in front of them in search of some shorts closer to her size, then paused to look back over at Yona. "What did you mean, when you said you were almost scared for your life?"

Very, very excited about the prospect of getting to show off some of his favorite things, Nikhil rushed into the bedroom to collect some of his favorites. There were some that had practical use- for supplies storage mostly- and others just made him so happy to look at. Those would be what he showed off. With one of the easiest smiles that he had made in recent memory, Nikhil returned to the living room with a few items in tow. “This is an embosser. I imagine you have seen some modern ones, but this one stamps a company that has since gone under’s logo. And this… this is actually a stapler, but I do not have any staples that fit into it. And these- these are stamps. The dates are quite far in the past, though, so they can only provide good decoration and satisfying stamping experience.” He held up each item on the tray as he spoke about it, much more animated than he had ever been in conversation with Mari.

Mari wasn't the best at understanding other people and their emotions, but it was clear from the smile on Nikhil's face that she'd been right to encourage this interest of his. The office supplies he brought out were admittedly much cooler-looking than she'd anticipated, which was a plus - but she couldn't help but think that they would look really cool as components in a sculpture. It seemed like a bad idea to mention that to Nikhil, though. "Oh, that's fun!" she said of the embosser, taking a closer look at the device. "If the company doesn't exist anymore, then does that mean you can use it for other things? Oh, or the stamps! Would you use them if there was a situation where you could, like for art or something, or are they just for the viewing experience these days?" She wanted to ask about maybe using them herself, but based on how important the things seemed to him she figured she'd better start with asking if he was alright with them being used at all.

Jolene was still surprised by her kitchen too, every time she walked into it she felt a jolt of elation and excitement about cooking. She wanted to play with everything, to see what crazy thing she could come up with. “Yup! Lets me test everything I could ever want to here and not have to be at work to do it. Which means I can watch tv while I cook.” She chuckled and motioned across the space to a wall mounted TV on and extendo arm thing that could be rotated depending on where you were in the kitchen. “Yeah, I mean, it sounds like she’ll just be somewhere sort of different so you can still pop by and see her.” Jolene grabbed some pringles and smiled. “Still, farm – shampoo, arts – thats just so much.” She chuckled, “I’m excited to see what you end up doing next. As for your art…. Crazy idea?” she bumped Mari’s side, “What if in the building out of my new place I make a couple specific areas to display your art? We could put it out, put a small price tag on the wall or stand or whatever and sell your art from my restaurant? Its a win win, I get cool art displayed and that brings in people, you sell your art!”

"That's great! It's awesome that you found this place. I'm not even much of a cook and I'm almost jealous." She wondered what Chloe would do with a kitchen like this - cook enough to feed an actual army, probably. "Yeah, I'll probably have to quit the farm soon... I've kind of been putting it off," Mari admitted. She really liked Caroline and Caelan and she liked spending time on the farm too, so it was a tough decision to make, but at the same time she knew she couldn't keep like this forever. "Maybe I'll tell them I can come back on days when they need someone to cover, or during really busy times or something," she mused. It wouldn't be so bad if she knew she could come back sometimes. "Wait, really? That sounds awesome!" Mari enthused, all but bouncing up and down in excitement. "And hey! If you wind up doin the thing where you change up what style of food you have, maybe sometimes I can make pieces that have something to do with the theme of the month?"

Jasmine pulled a leg up underneath her and smiled at Mari. “That makes sense, It’s gotta be cool to talk to sea creatures.” She sighed, “Talking to animals was always something I wished I could do growing up. Sadly, not my mother’s abilities.” She laughed, “Maybe clownfish just are introverts and don’t wanna talk?” Jasmine asked shrugging at the idea. “You know, I’m surprised you eat fish when you can talk to them.” Jasmine wasn’t sure if she’d be able to eat something she knew she could communicate with, even if it was delicious. “But swordfish sounds wonderful to me! Gods know I love a good seafood meal.”

"Maybe?" The idea of clownfish just being introverts didn't sit quite right with Mari, but she couldn't really think of a way to explain why that was. And who knew? Maybe that really was why she couldn't get a read on them. When Jasmine mentioned her eating fish even though she could communicate with them, Mari shrugged. "I mean, I've been eating them for longer than I knew I could talk to them," she explained, memories of a younger her grabbing fish right out of the water and eating the coming to mind. There had been a few instances where she’d stopped eating fish, but her resolve never lasted more than a few days - they were just too tasty. "It's part of the food chain, y'know? I don't usually have a conversation with a fish and then eat it or anything like that though." Usually being the operative word. "Seafood's the best," she agreed cheerfully. "Oh, hi!" she looked up at the waiter who'd arrived. "We're gonna split the swordfish skewers. And I'll just have water to drink," she informed him, before turning back to Jasmine. "Was there anything else you wanted to get?"

“Could I have colored hair then?” Jane asked, very curious as to whether this was possible. She’d always just had her own color hair and it would be very interesting to have different colored hair. “Being able to change your hair color is interesting.”

-

"Yeah, you totally could!" Mari assured Jane. "You'd just need to go to a hair salon, or - they sell hair dyes in little boxes at stores too, but I'm not sure if they're as good? I don't really use either one. Or if you make friends with Jasmine she'll change your hair color too? Although maybe not, I'm not really sure how many things she can keep up the color on at once, and she probably can't do that too much, since she works at the salon..." She'd have to think about that further, and maybe ask Jasmine about it too. "But the salon would definitely be able to do it. Do you have a specific color that you want your hair to be?"

          𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐓 Mari, confused for a brief moment. How did she know about her twins? Probably one of the millions friend of Jack. Truth be told a lot of people knew her twins or Jack, but doesn’t know her well (or don’t know her at all!), except her co-workers. ❛ Exactly, how do you know? ❜ Lena stared at Mari’s hair, whilst Illya used his toy and put on his mouth, inside fo his stroller. ❛ I’m Sasha. ❜

It was like Mari’s wardrobe was a thrift shop library. There were subscription services like this out there, right? “Sweet! Okay, let’s see what we can find. Shorts sound like the most difficult part, so I think we should go through those first. If you can’t find enough tops, I might have some stuff that could fit.” It wasn’t like Yona was particularly tall, but she still had almost half a foot on Mari. That option aside, Yona considered this basically the opportunity to assist with an affordably priced shopping spree. Cher Horowitz would have a fit. “Let me come back here with you when you look for accessories! Unless we can power through today. How ready are you for this?” Not remembering exactly what Mari’s size was, Yona grabbed a pair of shorts at random, but realized quickly they were about twice as big as she needed.

"Okay!" Mari agreed brightly. "Maybe we can look for a skirt or two, too? Or sundresses? I don't wear those as much, but maybe there's something cute." She mostly was out of the habit of wearing skirts and dresses because of the way they moved around in the water if she didn't control the water to make them... not do that, but they were fine for when she wasn't planning on going into the water. "Really? That'd be great! Which tops? Maybe we should consider that as an option even if I can find stuff - you've got some really cute stuff!" She was of the opinion that clothes were meant to be shared whenever possible, so borrowing some of Yona's clothes and rehoming any her friend no longer wanted sounded like a great idea. "Um, I think I'm pretty ready? Let's try to get through everything today! Unless we're here so long that the store closes before we're done. Do you have anywhere you need to be?"

Nikhil was sympathetic to Mari needing to move so many times in her life, but he did not entirely understand it. Also he did not want to ask too many questions about why she had been moving. All of the reasons that he could think of sounded deep and personal, which made for an uncomfortable potential segue of conversation. “Possibly. I suppose if Chloe had put everything in one big truck and drove away with it all, we wouldn’t be in this state of half-home, but it does seem like a lot of work to get to that point… I’m going to go get the decor I wanted you to look at now, if that is acceptable to you.” He was secretly overflowing with enthusiasm about the prospect of talking about his favorite things.

"Yeah, it takes forever to get everything set up to get packed into one of those trucks," Mari complained, shuddering at the thought of it. She'd gotten pretty good at packing light, but it still wasn't a task for the faint of heart. "Trust me, it's better this way. Especially since no one's running up against the end of a lease." There had been more than one occasion where she and her dad had stayed in their old place right up until the very last minute to get everything packed and cleaned up in time, and it wasn't an experience she cared to repeat. "Definitely! Go for it," she encouraged, eager to see the items Nikhil had for the main living area. If he cared enough about it to go from bringing the décor up for the first time to offering to show it to her in the span of one conversation, she was pretty sure that meant it was really important to him, and she figured it was best to encourage that kind of enthusiasm.

As Nikhil had generally not felt supported in his decisions for the greater part of his life, he felt heartened here. It was difficult for him to say whether his father appreciated any of what he cared about, but he had been worried after ambivalence at best. He would rather someone openly admit that they did not like the same things that he did without making it feel personal. But he wasn’t used to that at all. Having friends(?) was such a strange experience. “Oh, that would be interesting. I’m not sure how well they would pair together- particularly because I am not very familiar with your body of work yet, but some of the metals would perhaps coordinate well. I can bring some of those out of the bedroom very soon.” Nikhil’s tone was hopeful. He was sure Mari would not be as excited about his things as he was, but she was such an optimistic person that he had some hope that what he liked would not be shot down horribly. “Yes. I have not moved a lot of times in my life, but I don’t think I like this process. It seems stressful and neverending.”

“That sounds good!” Mari was glad that Nikhil seemed excited. She’d found that he wasn’t really someone who got excited about things generally, so it was nice to see him happy about something - especially when it meant that she wasn’t just going to have to blindly guess at what kinds of décor he might like. As happy as Mari would be under other circumstances to decorate a place all on her own, it was important to her that her roommate felt like he belonged in the space too, which would be a lot easier if he had a say in what it looked like. “Yeah, moving’s a pain,” Mari agreed, pulling a face at the thought. “I’ve moved a whole bunch of times, and I don’t think it ever really gets easier. But, at least this is a short range move! I think that probably makes the process take longer, but it’s a lot less stressful than needing to get everything packed up and moved all at once, y’know?”

“I would also love to know what kind of big emotional memory would come from a shelf. If I get any good ones, then I’ll have to let you know.” Yona didn’t need a new shelf anyway. Her mom would probably have some words to say about extra haunted furniture. “Maybe! We can definitely try the clothes. And maybe you’ll find something wearable. That’s the best part.” Her own outfit at the moment was entirely composed of things found at shops like this. “Anything in particular you need?”

“Hmmm, I could use some more shorts! And tank tops, and I guess just... spring and summer clothes? I sold a bunch of mine when the weather got colder,” Mari explained as they made their way over to the clothes. “And maybe some new accessories? I’ll probably need to come back here with some of the accessories I already have to make room, but it’ll be totally worth it if we find something cute.” Space wasn’t exactly something Mari had a ton of, but that had usually been the case growing up, too. She loved getting new (well, gently loved) things though, so she’d long since gotten into the habit of selling anything that wasn’t her favorite and she wasn’t using as much right back to the thrift shop. This meant she was often a little short on seasonally appropriate attire at the start of a new season, but that just gave her all the more opportunity to go shopping at the thrift store again.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Bel answered. “I usually try not to melt bags. Maybe it’s happened on accident, a bag gets into my campfire, stuff like that. All right, let’s get this thing going. Now or never.” They did some arm stretches, bounced off each foot, shook their hands out- basically making a big show and stalling. “Heeeeere we go,” they placed the coin into the slot and pulled the plunger to get the ball moving, only knowing to do this from the computer. This was honestly a lot harder than it looked, and soon the ball was sinking right in between the plungers. “Damn,” they cursed. “Pretend you didn’t see that.” Two more swishes down the center and Bel was a bit irritated. “Now that I’ve…uh…broken it in for you, it’s your turn,” they laughed.

“That’s true,” he stopped to consider. Atticus supposed he and Briar weren’t tied in a physical way like Jasmine and Mari were, but they were definitely intertwined in an emotional way. A way that they didn’t want to be apart from each other. When people like Phoebe suggested it was an unhealthy attachment, he honestly had to disagree. It felt healthier than any other friendship he’s had. “You’re making some good points,” he told her. “Like, science and math is terrible until we actually get to use it out in the real world. That isn’t very often for me, I have to admit. I chose a field with very little of that.” Atticus wasn’t really certain what goats ate, and he was pretty sure the woman was right, he would need hay. But he only had two arms. “I don’t want my goat to potentially die if she’s not getting something that hay has…” he thought about it. “Okay, put hay on my total, too. I’ll come back to get a bale tomorrow.”