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 Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:48 am
"I guess we could," Toby nodded, "The entire world has no idea we exist, though, and we do have a 'conflagration' button with the paper files and a system shock in case of emergency." Also he doubted her beach house had a phone or an address, and what use would that be when she was relocated?
"If you don't like it, we can get you right back on the plane to your new place, don't worry about that. I found it helpful." He had also been extremely dangerous at the time. All he had to offer her on her half-hearted threat was a little "mm-hm" as he went into a bag and pulled out a file folder. "Can you read and write?" It seemed much more polite to offer Maia the paperwork to complete herself, but that wasn't always an option. At least she spoke English.
The paperwork asked for a lot of personal information and some excess, like supernatural powers, family, things like that. They rarely had a complete file from anyone, at least not until the entity trusted them. Dari meanwhile had produced a rather odd-looking cell phone, dialed a number, and when the other line picked up, he began speaking in code.
"Positive." Pause. "Shortly after the gulls." Pause. "We're thinking about a rental car." Pause. "That's a 'no' from the boss." Pause. "Yes. Hanging in the closet." Pause. "Same time tomorrow." Pause. Then he hung up. Well then! Who in the world might know what that meant! Aside from Toby, of course. All long-distance calls were made in code, even if their phones were supposedly untraceable and tap-proof. One could never be too careful. This was their people they were caring for, in a broader sense. There was no room for incident.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:25 am
"Conflagration?" she asked. "Gaelic, yes." She couldn't read English: it was something of an embarrassment to her. She'd been handed flyers, presumedly inviting her to event4s around the town, and she'd never quite gotten the grasp of it. Speaking it had been different, it was what she heard constantly. "You wouldn't happen to have one in it, would you?"
Dari was weird. And speaking in weird code. After the gulls? That probably meant the beach. Hanging in the closet? Huh. Her pelt, probably. And she'd Have that back in her possession so on enough.
"Are we done talking about dire things? Lets go get some taffy."
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:32 am
"Oh. Well, your English is excellent." Toby tucked those forms away and dug in further. Gaelic still escaped him. It was spoken nothing like it was read and most fae knew English by now anyway, albeit heavily accented. A selkie in Oregon was strange. A selkie in Oregon who could read only Irish Gaelic? Even more bizarre. He offered the new paperwork to Maia in the same folder and grabbed her a hotel pen. "Conflagration. We can burn everything with the push of a button, and fry all of our computer files."
"No. We need to talk about what you want to do. It'd be easiest for everyone if we just headed back to headquarters and did it properly, but if you want to be relocated quickly instead we can oblige, but it means a lot more talking. We can go get taffy after you fill that out."
Dari smiled. Toby was loosening up. Good.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:58 am
"Has to be. It wasn't before. My parents came from the mainland. They didn't like me interacting with humans. Humans will take you away! They'd tell me. So I learned their language. No one else spoke it. It was But they're gone, and humans haven't taken me away. They think I'm human, too. And I learned a lot just by listening." She took the paper work and pen, opening the folder and beginning to fill it out.
The basics were easy. Name, Maia, gender, female, race, Selkie, age thirty seven, family deceased... This would take a while. "I'll go to the base. But I want my pelt back. I don't like you keeping it from me." She continued to fill out the fill, frowning slightly. She was sure by the time she was finished it'd be time for dinner and the small candy shop would be closed.
Supernatural powers. Huh. "You know, my arm's going to fall off with all this writing."
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:09 pm
Toby nodded. "That might be a little biased, but its not bad advice. Humans can be extremely dangerous to people like us, if we're found out. That's half the reason we have a job. The other half being preventing the slaughter of innocent humans by supernatural entities."
He stood while Maia was working on the paperwork and retrieved the bag her pelt was in. Who ever locked her pelt away became her owner, and he didn't want her stuck in the hotel room with Dari if he decided to not get all made-up again. It was Toby who gently folded pelt and bag and tucked them away in the room's digital safe, set the code to an unreasonably long number, and came back out.
"Oh, I think you'll live," he said, "Besides, you could still swim with one arm, couldn't you?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:25 pm
"I've never hurt anyone," Maia said, as she worked on the paperwork. Not as if she could have, even if she wanted to. Selkies were seelie, they saved sailors, they sang songs, but the only power they seemed to have was transforming. "They haven't hurt me, either. For a long time I was curious about humans. I was alone most of the time. I like your offspring best."
The children who visited the beach were kind, and often as eager to play and as curious about life as she was. "No," she said. "Since you've put my pelt away, I'd need two arms to swim anywhere." it took a while for her to complete it, as she'd expected. She handed him the file to Toby. "Do you swim?" she asked. "Maybe we could go swimming?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:35 pm
"No, we know. In this case we're here to prevent others from harming you now that you're internet-famous," Toby said with a little smile. He took the forms from her and tucked them away in the folder and then back in his bag. Selkies were not the dangerous type, but they could be delicate and naive in youth. This one seemed to have developed smartly enough and she certainly had a strong personality. "Well, I personally don't have any kids, but they're usually the best bet for entities. They believe, and they aren't old enough to condemn. Plus, what kid doesn't want to play with a seal?"
He cracked his neck and sighed. It had been a bit of a day, but sure, he would swim with her. He'd rather she learn to trust them than force her to follow.
"Sure. It might be a bit cold for hairless bodies. I thought you wanted taffy?" He eyed the clock. "and then we could go to dinner, if you want." His gaze turned to his partner. "Are you going to come with us?"
"I think I'd prefer to stay here," Dari admitted, lounging on the bed. He was fiddling with the remote, trying to figure the damnable thing out. Hopefully he wouldn't run across the human fornication channels again. He had been curious at first, but Toby had teased him mercilessly when he'd been caught. Apparently humans watched them for pleasure but Dari was aware of no such sensation or desire. Hugs comforted him, but inserting body parts? It seemed bizarre.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:58 pm
"That's right. You wouldn't tell me how you procreate." It must have been because he himself didn't know. No offspring? He wasn't old by human standards, but they tended to start younger didn't they?"They seem To like me," she agreed. "I didn't transform often in front of them, though. Because they still grow up to be adults. But we played often."
She beamed. Swimming had been all she'd wanted to do today. It'd be different in human form. A new experience. "Candy, dinner and swimming?" she asked, delighted. "This is like a..." what did humans call it? It was a nice thing where people went out and had fun. "Its a date! We're going on a date, aren't we?" She didn't assume romantic things: people went out on dates often.
"I'll bring you something," she promised Dari.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:06 pm
"Not often?" Toby asked. For a moment he seemed horrified but, hey, there hadn't been any articles on mysterious seal-women before now so he supposed it was okay. She had tried to be safe, but with the advent of viral videos she had simply... mussed up a little.
"Up until my first selkie, seals were just something that lived in the aquarium at the--" A date? Oh boy. Dari laughed and Toby stopped mid-sentence. "Uh, no. No, it isn't a date. It's a, uh..." Business meeting? He didn't go swimming with clients often, but it seemed the best option to bond with the young woman and gain her trust. So they were going out to dinner and to bond. By God, that was pretty much a date.
"You don't have to get me anything," Dari said, "but thank you for the thought. You two have fun on your date."
"Listen, slimebag--" Toby raised a finger to point at him, and stopped. He had no defense. Dari just smiled to him and settled back into the television which had just begun halfway through some movie where things were exploding.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:23 pm
"Once or twice," Maia admitted. "They wanted to see a seal, and they wouldn't come up on the shore. So I obliged. They were so excited. Their parents, when they found them thought I was wild. They were worried about them being near me. The children were so happy, though. It was worth it." She paused. "You've seen other selkies?" she asked, curiously. She'd been around her family, of course, But beyond that, she'd never met one. "Seals live in aquariums?" She frowned slightly. Seals didn't belong in glass boxes for people to gawk at.
Toby seemed flustered. That settled it. It was definitely a date. She took his hand. "Let's go," she said. She planned to bring Dari home some taffy, at least. He might have been strange, but he was a very sweet kind of strange. "You shouldn't call him names," she said. "What do you want for dinner?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:27 pm
That was a dangerous gamble to take. If she hadn't been caught, though, he certainly couldn't hold her past against her. "Unfortunately they do," he replied with a nod, and then immediately began to try and tug his hand out of Maia's grasp. He'd use his other hand too if he had to in order to peel her off.
"He calls me names because he loves me," Dari assured her.
"I hate you," Toby replied. Dari just smiled and shook his head.
"What is there to eat around here?" the blonde continued, now freed from the grasp of a naive little dear. "I'm up for anything that isn't raw, unless it's sushi."
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:43 pm
Maia moved her grip from Toby's hand to his arm. "People hold hands when they're out on dates, I've seen them," she informed him. Which was it? Did he love Dari, or hate him? She didn't know who to believe. "Well. There's that burger place. And a pizza place but I'm not sure what pizza is. People told me it's good. And they have fish and chips. I like fries. You do, too. I saw you eating them. But maybe you want something else?" she asked.
She glanced back at Dari. "How do I make him behave?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:51 pm
Toby tugged away again, pushing the selkie's hand off of his arm. Dari laughed rather joyously at her question and shook his head.
"He doesn't know how to behave. He's a Big Bad Wolf."
"If it wasn't for me you won't be able to make cute little pop-culture metaphors!"
"Also true."
"Come on," Toby said, obviously getting huffy at the selkie's insistence and his partner's teasing. He started out of the room with the key in his pocket and started down the hall, hoping the woman would catch his cues to just stop trying to touch him. "Pizza is bread with cheese on it, and meat and vegetables, there's a lot to choose from." He was trying very, very hard to regain his composure. "Where to first?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:59 pm
So this human had trouble behaving. Huh. No wonder he was so touchy. She crossed her arms, deciding her human didn't seem to appreciate affection. "Lets go to the candy shop first. They close soon. We can get Dari something too. Oooh, let's try pizza then. What's your favorite kind? We should have that, since I don't have a favorite."
She glanced up at him. "You know. It'd be a lot easier to swim if you gave me back my coat. We could still swim together, it'll be fun! Please?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 2:04 pm
"Alright," Toby nodded, "You know where it is, right?" He hadn't noticed it coming in but, frankly, salt water taffy was a special treat for the likes of him, generally associated with sea-faring entities, some of which tried to drown you on sight. That was when Dari was especially helpful.
"Well, what do you like? and don't say 'fish' because the only fish they put on pizza are horrible little canned salt-beasts." He stuffed his hands in his pockets to walk beside the selkie. "There's spiced meat and vegetables... and humburger. You can get hamburger pizza."
He laughed then and shook his head at her.
"You can have it back when you're relocated. Unless you decide to trust us, it's the only guarantee we have that you're safe. We're not going to keep you cooped up all day, but unfortunately you'll need to be bipedal for a while."
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