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 Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:30 pm
While many people might have gawked, or been rather frightened by Dari's abyss of a mouth, Maia didn't seem to find it altogether alarming. However, she reached for her bag in a frantic manner. "Give that back!" she demanded. She glanced back at Toby. So all of that friendliness had been a trap? What were they going to do to her, now that they held her pelt?
She didn't trust them. This safest people on the beach business caused suspicions to arise. "Help me?" she echoed. "Return what belongs to me! That's mine!" As soon as she got it, she'd dive into the ocean and find a less tourist friendly beach. "What kind of danger?"
Something more dangerous than a guy and his pet?
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:36 pm
Dari easily held the bag out of her way. People were beginning to watch them. It was two men playing keep-away with a young woman. Perhaps Toby could pass as a brother or boyfriend, but he'd prefer it didn't escalate that far.
He was speaking with a smile on his face so others would be less suspicious. "People all over the world might come here with the intention to find and keep you. It's our job to make sure you're kept safe. Now, you can come with us calmly or you can create a scene. Either way, we're federal agents and we're legally allowed to take your bag."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:47 pm
Maia was quite tempted to cause a scene. To demand people call the police. To shout, to cry, anything to get away. But that video. That video that had been up for weeks, probably with countless people having watched it. "Keep me safe?" she repeated, numbly. Guy's pet was too tall, she couldn't reach her pelt.
She took Toby's hand. "Alright. I'll come. But you know, if you try anything I'll--" she wasn't sure what she'd do. Humans had a lack of sharp teeth: useless for biting. "I'll do something."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:00 pm
In the end, a federal badge trumped an officer's and Maia would only be putting herself in more danger if she screamed. Sure, they'd look like the assholes, but when were the law-enforcement branches of the government ever liked?
"Yes," Toby replied, touching the girl's arm softly. This had been a remarkably easy find for them. It might be over much faster than any of the could have hoped. Of course the difficult part came now, in letting inhuman people know that they were in trouble and what they might have to do to keep safe. "We have a room in the hotel just up the rise. Dari?"
The man looked down, unzipped the girl's bag, peered at the contents, then zipped it again and nodded. Yes. She was the one, or she was an excellent seal-hide tanner.
"We're not going to try anything. When we get back inside you can see our badges. We just need to talk."
Dari was beginning back toward the hotel, and Toby followed just beside and behind the selkie.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:18 pm
Maia still seemed uncertain. "My home is just down that way," she pointed to the left. If they wanted to go to their hotel room, she couldn't stop them. They had her pelt. "Just talk?" They'd gone through all that trouble of finding her, to talk? Somehow she doubted that. "We could have talked out there." She pointed to the surf. She glanced around warily. She couldn't escape, not now. "What is your pet? He's not fae." He wasn't human, either. Humans didn't tend to have black teeth.
"Maybe we could get some taffy," She suggested, hopefully. It'd been a while since she'd been very far from the shore. Candy was always welcome.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:24 pm
"We can't go there. It took us maybe fifteen minutes to find your beach, it wouldn't take anyone else any longer. You would probably be safest with us tonight." She didn't have to stay, of course. They'd have her pelt but if she wanted to go sleep at home she should be safe enough without it. Somehow he doubted she'd be willing to leave it with them, though, and there was always that mystique of magical pulls toward bonding objects.
Dari gave a soft breath of laughter when Maia called him a pet, but Toby laughed more outright. "That'll all come in time," the blonde assured her, "and he's not my pet, he's my partner."
Dari looked off in the direction the woman had pointed and then turned back to Toby. Detours weren't generally the best idea with a newly-captured subject.
"What we need to talk about cannot be discussed in public," Dari said. "Perhaps after. When the conversation required is less dire."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:48 pm
She didn't like it, but she had to admit he was right. The beach wasn't hidden. It wasn't a secret. It wasn't even privately owned. Anyone could come, whether their intent was to have fun or to harm someone. She gave a nod. She wasn't willing to be separated from her pelt, anyway. "He isn't human," She observed. Didn't humans like their partners to be human? "But if you say so. How do you procreate?"
Some thing to discuss that couldn't be talked about in public. Well that limited the conversation, didn't it? It was about her, then, that they wanted to talk about. Being a Selkie. Things other folk couldn't know. "Dire?" she echoed. "Why dire? When afterward? Soon? Tomorrow?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:54 pm
Wait, what? Oh, 'partners.' Right. Toby winced and shook his head.
"No, not 'partners' like mates, 'partners' like work partners. We work together. You know 'partners in crime'..." he paused, and a little bit of his personality slipped between the cracks, "besides, what makes you think I want to 'procreate?'"
"Don't be offended, Tobias," Dari replied, offering the man a smirk over his shoulder, "I'm sure she means nothing by it."
Toby pointed to his partner. "Listen, you. Don't egg her on."
Dari lifted a dismissive hand and took a turn toward the hotel.
"I don't know when," Toby admitted. We'll talk about important things first, then we can discuss candy, alright? Come on." Dari stood aside and held open the door for Maia, and then Toby held it open for his partner before going back inside. He produced a room key and they headed up.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:09 pm
Maia stared at Toby for a long moment, before shaking her head. "You have a lot of words that are the same but mean different things," she observed. "Most humans do. Sometimes they do on the beach. I don't watch." She wrinkled her nose. "You are human. So why not?"
Maia thought taffy was a pretty important subject, but it was clear by Toby's words that he disagreed. She walked into the hotel, glancing around. "Is this where you're staying?" She asked, gesturing. Huh. There weren't any beds. Oh. Where they were staying must have been upstairs. "Do you have any games? Humans like games."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:24 pm
"That we do," Toby agreed, but at the mention of procreation on the beach he only gave a put-upon huff. They weren't here to talk about his sex life, they were here to save an innocent creature from potential harm. "Well, we're here on business so we don't have any games. We have a television, though, and wifi." Of course she said she didn't have access to a computer, so he didn't imagine the latter would be of any help.
When they reached the room, Toby slid the card through the readers and held the door open for the other two. Dari entered and waited. Once again the pair seemed to hold a silent conversation and the bag was offered to Toby who took it over toward the desk where he flipped open his laptop and booted it up. Dari meanwhile pulled off his glasses to reveal two glowing orbs of white where eyes might have been and soon followed with his hat. His head was too smooth, more like full baldness than a shave, and then he disappeared into the bathroom. Toby straightened from his hunch over the computer, closed the curtains on the windows tightly and pulled the room's arm chair to the desk's side.
"Take a seat," he said, claiming the rolling chair for himself and scooting forward toward the computer. He opened a file on his desktop and played a short video, blurry and clearly handheld, of the young woman currently his his presence turning into a seal and trundling off toward the water. The great majority of the internet called it a fake but convincing, but it was the crazies who believed that you had to watch out for. "This video has been up for nine days, counting today. It's in a dozen different forms all over the internet, and I wouldn't be surprised if some desperate news station has covered it. You were caught, and you may be in danger."
Dari emerged from the bathroom then, still dressed as he had been outside but looking rather different. He was a man formed out of translucent black ooze for no better use of any other word, made mobile by pressure changes within his form and studier by flexible internal plates. It had taken quite some time to perfect, but he was a master now. Removing his disguise had been a tactic for years to try and comfort the inhuman creatures they came across. They were the only double-supernatural partners back at base and he imagined that was why they were generally sent on these attempted rescue mission. Who better to understand the plight of the supernatural than it supernatural itself? He came to the desk and stood nearby, prepared to add to the conversation and security of the situation if need be.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:47 pm
No games. No procreating. No candy until later. Were all humans so dull? "Business means boring?" she wondered aloud. She wondered if this conversation would be any fun at all. "WiFi? What's that?" It couldn't have been a game, he'd already said that there weren't any. "Will you show me?" She watched Dari head into another room after handing her bag over to Toby. She didn't reach for it this time.
She sat in the chair indicated. "This is your computer?" she asked curiously. She'd seen them before, but it was always interesting to be close to one. She watched the video, eyes widening slightly. Yes, it was her. Far away, but her. "How do I get out of danger then?" she asked. Maybe they'd let her go now. Let her go to another beach where it was safe.
She was distracted by Dari's renewed presence. She stared. "Now Will you tell me what you are?" she asked.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:56 pm
"Not really," Toby admitted. What was more exciting than traveling the world and investigating real-life myths? Of course the novelty had taken a while to catch on initially but that had been a long, long time ago. As for wifi, he'd gladly share.
When the clip was complete and the shouting of the videographer silenced, Maia spoke. It was a reasonable question and Toby opened his mouth to answer it, but she seemed to be interested in something else at the moment. Dari was an interesting gent for sure. He'd been even more interesting as a ravenous jelly bubble.
"There's no word for me in the human tongue," Dari said, offering a little smile. "I'm from elsewhere. Out there." He gestured generally upward. "Another planet. They called me Specimen thirty-six three-eighty-A."
"But now we call him Dari," Toby said with a nod and a fond little smile. "As for the danger, you have a few choices. Relocation is unfortunately the most likely option. We could also take you back to headquarters and get you a little schooling, that's what we're here to discuss. That, and to get you registered."
"There is a worldwide database of registered Supernatural Phenomenon. People like us," Dari explained. Except he wasn't quite a person by most standards, but he looked the part. "It helps to keep things... in check."
"You have a human form, that makes it easier," Toby added. The two had been completing each other's statements for years now. "You're less difficult to relocate than, say, an eighty-foot cave troll."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:13 pm
Maia didn't seem to believe Toby. If swimming, games, and taffy weren't involved, how could it be anything but boring? She'd lived on the beach most of her life, playing with the children, finding seashells, purchasing food and items from vendors with pilfered money. She stared at Dari. An alien. An alien, he was an alien!
"What's it like up there?" She wondered. "I heard there's no water on the planets." What an awful life that must have been. "Do you like it better here?"
"I thought so," she said. Relocation had been her hope. "Schooling?" She asked. "Registered? In check?" She made a face. "I'm not a pet to be trained and kept track of." Humans. They thought they ruled over everything.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 10:35 pm
Dari's expression fell a moment. His home-planet and the crash had created something of a sore spot for him. They hadn't been able to regain contact. He could never go back.
"No, we were quite a ways away. We had 'water,' it just had a slightly different composition." He didn't address the question of liking one life better than the other. She didn't mean to offend him, he reminded himself. These sorts of questions came. Then the girl started making wild insinuations and Toby was glad to change the subject.
"No, not a pet. It's for our protection, really. We keep track of inhuman entities that we're positive exist, that we've met. If we have them on file we can check up on them, we can take care of them, and they can get in contact with us if they need. If it's a dangerous sort of creature we may capture it, but we're talking something with no mind, no morality. Honestly, most of the creatures we meet are just people. Like us. I personally had to go through training early in my life to make myself human-compatible, and we extend the invitation to you too, even if you've done fine up until this point." Obviously she had or they would have been here sooner. "We want you on file so we can keep in contact; these are files the people in our program see and nobody else. I have one, Dari has one, I could name three dozen people off the top of my head that we have files on."
"It also helps us to learn," Dari interjected, "We know more than we ever have about the entities that exist, where they are spread. We learn their culture and their processes and it helps us to better serve others in the future."
Toby nodded in agreement. "Trust me, we're the last people who'll want to keep an entity as a pet." There was probably some sort of dog joke to go with that but Toby didn't find those particularly funny.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:20 am
Dari didn't seem keen on the subject, which was a shame. Maia thought hearing about other planets would have been interesting. She turned her attention to Toby. She wasn't sure she wanted a file kept on her: whether they claimed it was helpful or not. "Can't you just take an address or phone number down?" She asked with a shrug. "What if these files fell into the wrong hands?" she asked. "Every creature you have on file might be slaughtered."
They said they didn't want to keep pets, but they were keeping her here. And her pelt. She decided not to mention that, and instead gave both men a sour expression. Maybe she would attempt to escape once they were asleep. She could swim miles away. "I suppose I could try it," she said. "But if I don't like it I'm leaving. And you'll have to give me my pelt back. Or else."
But what or else meant, she wasn't entirely sure.
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