SYLPHER LININGS

Now, granted, Aranea doesn’t usually wear a lot of makeup. But drugstore mascara and eyeliner seem to multiply as soon as they touch water, so she’s sure by now she looks like a wet-on-wet watercolor study in Payne’s grey. Nonetheless she opts for couth always, and so instead of faltering and making a hasty retreat, she instead nods her thanks and accepts his help up. Staggering slightly, she sits down heavily on the bench after releasing him from her grip and swipes most of her makeup off with the provided towel. Next comes the hair, quickly tousled and left to air dry. Then she stands, laughing slightly despite her headache. “Here. It would seem the clown aesthetic really just does not suit you.” Reaching up, she begins to wipe the bright lipstick from his face, using the damp parts of the towel. While she works, her mind goes to her purse, at the bottom of the pool. Inwardly she sighs, but outwardly she simply says, “I have my life and my wits about me, and for now that will just have to do.” She pauses. “And thank you. For saving me.”

“I heard you were looking for me?” Jake please, give her a minute or two.

“Yes, I... I am fine.” She resists the instinct to jerk away at his touch, not noticing his movement to do so beforehand. Blinking owlishly to try and peer up at her lipstick-smeared rescuer, she begins to sit up, only to wince and clutch her head with a groan. “You have a hard skull.” Oh, brilliant, Aranea. Utterly revolutionary. Poet Laureate, here she comes. 

When she regains consciousness, it is slow going, like the gradual arrival of dawn over the horizon happening at that very moment outside. She waves it away mentally, craving that dark unknowing once more. But the breeze of wakefulness is insistent, and eventually she gives in, and with a great gasp, her eyes snap open and she jerks up, forehead connecting hard with that of the man who resuscitated her. She takes a moment to cough hard, spewing pool water to the side, then lets her head thump back to the ground, gasping in great lungfuls of air and trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. Her gaze eventually settles on the blurry outline of the man, one Jake English. 

The comment on having to leave had Meenah whipping her head to look up at the clock on the wall, eyebrows raising a bit at the time before her head was turning back to the girl walking away and stuttering on what to do about the situation. Obviously just saying goodbye wasn’t enough, right? Not even fully considering her actions, the Peixes clone grabbed her duffel bag and followed suit with the other girl, holding the changing room door open for Aranea as she walked in behind her, Meenah’s usual drawl cutting through the sounds of changing room showers as she bustled past other girls getting ready for class and plunked her bag on a bench with a huff, “Whale I guess We’ll need to talk again, Aranea. Boat, pike, beshore ya go off, jus’…” Meenah sputtered, thinking for a moment before pulling her pair of spare goggles out of her bag and walking over to press them into Aranea’s hand, mumbling a bit as her ears heated up, “Ya gonna need that shore class tomorrow, an’ I already got myshellf my otter fuckin’ pair. I’ll sea ya later then, right? Uh, bye.” Meenah finished, picking up her bag again and walking back towards the showers as she glanced back at the Serket that had caught her attention, giving the bookish girl a wink and trotting off on her way.

“... Swimming lessons?”

Talking around, she was pointed in the direction of the script writer. She knew she could make something work out. She’d get them to change the story just a little bit to include her more. Something! She wouldn’t stand for this at all. Walking up to the girl, she tapped on her shoulder, clearing her throat. “Excuse me, miss.. I think there’s something wrong with the script here.”

She was just finishing up writing down each light and sound cue to run by the tech crew and crafts team when she felt a tap on the shoulder and an impatient clearing of the throat, as well as an inquiring tone of voice. Turning, she looked up at the interruption, an eyebrow raised and a smile on her face. “Excuse me? No, I don’t believe anything is wrong. I checked thrice for grammatical and prosaic errors, so I assure you all is well in order.” Then her brow creased, and she leaned forward. “Wait. You’re the Serket girl from the dance. are you not?”

Rust colored eyes snapped back and flicked repeated over the phrase. Sitting bolt straight, Karkat resisted the urge to throw the device against the wall. Why did she feel the urge to treat him like her personal assistant? He angrily grumbled his message through voice to text and sent his affirmation that he would arrive in fifteen minutes before swinging his feet out of the bed and padding over to his closet in search his least wrinkled clothes. He strapped on his wristcom and grabbed his holodeck before trudging out of the room to find out what was needed of him.

Checking her magnetically implanted wristwatch, which also doubled as a communications device, she frowned, shifting on her feet. She was standing right outside the boy’s dormitory, waiting for her sleepy, reluctant newspaper assistant to arrive. Just as the clock struck 5.00, she saw a hunched form exit the building, hands stuffed into their hoodie pockets. Smiling hugely, she waved, saying cheerily, “Karkat!! Hello, I’m so glad you’re here! Well? Are you ready to start the day?” Her tone was perhaps too loud and too chipper for 5 in the morning, but she paid no attention, wide awake. 

Nodding and seeing Aranea drop her train of thought for a moment, Meenah interjected in her usual lax drawl, eyes watching the Serket slowly as she spoke smoothly, “Wake, yoar in advanced ancient histories class? I’m in that class. Coddamn, gill, I pike the ship outta that class. Reely pike the unit on the porpoise of the aztec’s use of gold an’ otter semi-prescious materials in everyday life. Shell, I efin did a paper all about the creation process for the intricate aztec gold statues. Blew my fuckin’ mind how they did it, an’ I’ve been crushin’ the fuckin’ class pre’y hard, too.” the Peixes duplicate remarked rather proudly, internally grinning at the fact that in all her classes she was in the top spot for marks at the moment, her face not giving that smugness away as she winked at Aranea while she had the bookworm’s attention.

She looked down at her small silver magnetic watch, fixated onto her wrist by a few cleverly placed and painless implants, and blinked. “Oh, goodness, where has the time gone. I’d better go get changed for class, before others start filing in.” She stepped away with a lingering look back at her new acquaintance, a smile ghosting around her mouth and eyes. “I’ll see you soon.”

Rolling her shoulders a bit and glancing out at the water, Meenah simply shrugged before turning her vivid pink gaze back to Aranea with a grin, “Whale swimmin’ ain’t too difficult in the seaginnin’, boat ya gotta know how to breathe whale an’ shred water if ya wanna cray afloat.” she drawled calmly, eyes twinkling with excitement as she got to talk about the thing she loved, “Schoolwork has specific waves to get ship done right, an’ it’s the same wit swimmin’. If ya don’t get much from the acshoal class, I could shoal you how it’s done. Y’know, one on one an’ ship.” She muttered, rubbing her neck a bit and looking away as her ears started to heat up a bit. Really, Meenah wasn’t usually this flustered around people, but there was something about this girl that had her excited. It was silly, really, but from the cute little gap between Aranea’s teeth to the way her glasses slid down her nose when she talked made the teen clone want to get to know her even more. It was ridiculous of her to even offer extra help to someone who clearly was all about academics, but the option was still out there as the Peixes piped up, “Shoal yoar in advanced classes? Which ones? Might be in the same classes an’ not know it.”

Settling back on her heels, the small intellectual adjusted her glasses. Her face shone with joy as she began to talk about all of her classes, her opinions of each teacher, the subject material, and every other small detail she found interesting. The vocal bombardment went on for some time, Aranea talking excitedly and animatedly and using her hands to illustrate many of her exclamations and interjections. “But I must say my favorite class thus far is the Ancient History advanced course, scheduled for later today. Just the thought of all these primeval civilizations, the rich past and dashing adventures of so many influential people that led to this very point in time...” her eyes glimmered with awe, and her hands were clasped together. Then after a moment she seemed to snap out of it, looking suddenly embarrassed and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear while directing her gaze once more to her shoes.

Stalking through the narrow corridors hurriedly, glancing over the titles for something to catch his interest, he accidentally ran into another patron of the library, bowling them both over. He landed quite hard on his ass, wincing at the shock of pain before his features twisted into a paroxysm of rage. He had started letting loose a tirade of loud curses, before a thin hand snaked over his mouth and he got a look at who exactly he’d run into. Seeing the familiar face, he refrained from biting, as he’d almost done, instead taking a deep breath through his nose and attempting to get a handle on his anger.

Brushing her wet hair from her face, Meenah tried to cover up how embarrassed she felt as she started to talk in her usual low drawl, looking off at the rack of clean towels at the other end of the pool deck because that just seemed like the best thing to focus her attention on when she wanted to avoid eye contact with the hot girl she was chatting it up with. Low voice barely audible over the sound of the pool filtration system, Meenah simply snorted, “Whale then I’mma guess we’re in the same class. An’ to be reely fair, I’m shoalnly here seacause they wouldn’t jus’ put me in the fuckin’ advanced swimmin’ class. Gotta start from the bottom pike chum ancient rap song, y’know?” She remarked sharply, turning her face down to give Aranea a crooked grin before inquiring, “Shoal how old are you? I’m 19. I’m alshoal in mostly advance classes an’ ship, boat that don’t seem reely shrimportant right now. I pike swimmin’ wave moray than school, y’know?”

“How interesting. I, too, was obligated to take this class, but for quite a different reason. You see, I need this credit to graduate. I’ve been constantly postponing my time in an athletic elective, and now I must dive in, or risk failing.” Pausing, she motioned to the towel rack. “Would you like to dry off?” Then, spurned into action by her own words, Aranea shook her head and said, “Never mind, I will get you one.” So, striding as fast as her short legs could carry her (which was surprisingly fast), she grabbed a towel and brought it back to the tall girl. Offering it with another charming smile, she felt her cheeks flush once more. She cleared her throat. “To answer your last question, I’m currently eighteen years of age. Again, I, too, am enrolled in advanced placement classes. But unlike yourself, I find I pike-- er, I mean, like-- schoolwork far more than any athletics.” The bookish girl’s eyes found those of her companion, and she found she couldn’t look away, lost in the vibrant pink depths. 

A short breath as she started to warm up, and Meenah was off - swimming smoothly to the other end of the pool and using the opposite pool wall as a kick board as she pushed off and back. She could feel her muscles moving, the strong body she was all too familiar with cutting through the heavy water effortlessly as she made it to the other end again and propped her elbows up on the pool edge with a huff. It felt good to be back in the water, so good that she hadn’t even noticed another person enter the pool area. Looking up and quickly pulling her goggles off so she could take a better look at the other person. Shit, Meenah wasn’t at all put together in that moment - short hair soaking and slicked back, wearing a plain black competition grade swimsuit - and felt like even though she was just waiting for swim class to start, that she was looking like an idiot. Clearing her throat sharply, she spoke up in the quiet space, “Uh, hey. I’m Meenah. Guess yoar bass is here seacause of the swim class, too?”

Eventually the other person surfaced, looking for all the world like a naiad come to lure foolish travelers to their deaths. When spoken to, Aranea snapped out of her musings and offered a smile, ruby colored lips parting to reveal small white teeth, a slight gap between the two front ones. Stepping forward, she held out her hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Meenah. My name is Aranea. And yes, I have been assigned this particular elective for the time being.” And, she added silently, hopefully not for much longer.