#::AmyxMarsden

[amyinnile]

Amy chuckled back, unsure if she should be amused or maybe even slightly offended by this strange man’s antics. She chose to be amused and found out that it was very difficult to try to courtesy in water when your feet could not touch the bottom, but she did her best. “Pleased to have met your acquaintance, ser Marsden Augustus of the Chicago Lee’s.” She mimicked his pompous introductions. “Oh yeah, but only for work. Haven’t seen much of it really.” She confessed with a little shrug, fingertips rubbing against each other and feeling the skin prune just a little. Out of her siren shape, her skin wasn’t exactly as waterproof.

“Well Marsden Augustus Lee, I will now leave you to your own devices. I’d like to get a few laps in before the pools get crowded if you don’t mind. Have a great day today, alright?” She offered him a grin, giving him a moment to say his goodbyes if he wanted to before she turned around and did just what she’d said she would - which was front crawl from one end of the pool’s length to the other, obviously with a well-practiced workout routine. It was nice meeting another siren who didn’t seem to be a part of her own pod. All of those she’d already met and hadn’t found much connection with. Amy was pretty sure she was the issue though. Talking to Marsden however was pretty easy and enjoyable. She did sincerely hope she’d meet him again someday.

Mars made a sound in his throat when she gave her name and mentioned being part of a lineage of Baxters who had made their home in Opulence, vaguely feigning interest in that offered tidbit of information since he personally had not met another Baxter from Opulence until now. "Nice ta meetcha Amy Margaret Baxter of da Opulence Baxter's," he replied in a mock profound way, in the way a royal might say it, or so he imagined. "I," he pressed his hand against the center of his tattooed chest, covering the large eagle, fingertips touching at the hanging chain lock necklace he wore, "am Marsden Augustus Lee of da -- you guessed it -- Chicago Lee's." If they were out of the water he'd have done a mock bow but as they were in water all he did was cant his head, softly chuckling at the out of place action.

"Das a good guess though, not many get it right yanno. Have ya been?" He kept his hand raised up by his chest, fingers now curling against the chain necklace and fiddling with the lock that hung there, pushing the hard edges against his fingertips until they made little indentations.

[amyinnile]

She found it peculiar that the tattoo looked so fresh but then again, there were logical and reasonable explanations for it that would completely fit into the other man’s story so Amy’s questioning curiosity was satiated enough. “I haven’t either, for at least four years now.” She related, misreading the man’s hand coming up to cover the tattoo on his neck as a moment of shyness so she backed off a little, schooling her expression to a more neutral one. “Maybe! I can’t really tell. I was born here. I think… second or third generation of Baxters in Opulence maybe? I’m not sure. Maybe more. That’s my name, by the way. Amy. Amy Margaret Baxter.” She said, with no sign of requesting a full name or any name at all in return.

“I do notice you not being from around here though. What’s that accent again? Chicago?” Her pretty green eyes gave a little squint, uncertain of her guess but making it anyway.

"Yeh," amusement lingered in the line of his lips, a distant sort of smile as he imagined it in his head, golden dunes and camel rides and getting scammed. He'd never been but he could picture it well enough, maybe one day he would make it there and maybe one day he would fall victim too just because he wanted to experience it, or maybe he'd outsmart the scammers and end up scamming them back, a battle of scams and wits. The thought made his smile deepen.

"Not recently," speaking of the tattoo made him reflexively bring a and to touch the side of his neck, feeling beneath his fingertips the smooth expanse of skin. There wasn't even a scar left behind from the vampire attack he'd suffered from most recently that had caused the tattoo to be touched up and probably look the darkest out of his tattoos, ink refreshed, healed skin newly inked to restore the work of the previous artist. Really now it was considered a restoration as at least half of it had been ruined. He held his palm over the tattoo, holding the memory of the bite beneath his hand. "Coupla years ago, actually. Haven't gone anywhere really fer like six 'er seven years now," ensuring the memory wasn't going to somehow escape, he patted his neck, rubbed his palm across the tattoo and crossed his arms over his chest idly, water sloshing around his body with every movement, "Dis place has a way of makin' ya feel like making roots, yanno?"

[amyinnile]

She let out a sweet little chuckle, mildly amused by his response. As a natural ginger who dyed her hair blonde only to have it ruined each and every time she shifted and got the blood-red copper pigment back on her head, she would probably pass as the actual Little Mermaid herself. Maybe as a horror-themed spin on the tale. As far as she knew, the sweet little naive mermaid did not have spikes protruding out of her tail which had poison so potent it paralyzed their victims with excruciating pain. She continued to chuckle as the other siren spoke, arms moving underwater to keep herself afloat because although still quite tall herself, she was not nearly as tall as Mars and her feet could not touch the floor of the pool without her head going under.

“Or it could imply freedom and empowerment, to be one’s genuine self without it leaving consequences out there, in the real world, consequences one might regret.” She added her view of things. Becoming a siren had left so many consequences on her life, most of which she regretted. The only thing that made everything right was the water and when she was in it. She could forget about all the consequences when she swam. It made her mind blissfully blank. She shook her head when asked if she’d ever been to Vegas, never really entertaining the thought to go. “There’s only ever been one place I wanted to go to and I’ve been there. And now I’m back.”

“Gimme a red wig an’ call me da little mermaid,” was his response to whether he was a siren. While it seemed that she had a very graceful nature to being in the water, Marsden did not. He was all long limbs and while he could manage to move with careful grace while on his two feet or even just the points of his toes on land, in water, in this form was an entirely different matter. What he was doing in the water could barely be called swimming. He was tall enough that at his position in the pool he could touch the bottom and stand so all he did was walk or bob, gently bending his knees occasionally to feel the weightlessness of the water carry his body only to drop back down and let his feet touch bottom once more because while he was indeed a siren, unless he had a tail and gills and webbed fingers, Marsden couldn’t actually swim. 

Chicago where he’d grown up had some of the most inhospitable winters and he’d focused all his energy on dance and ballet that something like learning how to swim hadn’t even crossed his radar and that had carried on into adulthood. Ironic now that he was a literal creature of the sea with some mystic innate ability to swim effortlessly as if the action had been ingrained into the muscle memory of his tail but that didn’t translate over to his legs and arms. 

Mars snorted a laugh when she spoke, head ducking until the point of a sharp chin touched water and rippled outward to join all the other ripples caused by body movements breaking against the waves and bouncing back from the four walls of the expansive pool. “Oh, definitely da first one,” he lifted his head and bobbed a bit in the water, “Ya kiddin’ me? Swim in awkward silence? Nuh-uh. Dat ain’t gonna be a good time. Second option sounds like ya got somethin’ nefarious planned. What stays in water stays in what an’ all dat, like Vegas, up to no good. You’ve ever been?”

[amyinnile]

It was an unexpected answer to her very simple question and she couldn’t help but assume that she’d disturbed the young man and therefore caused him to employ what felt like dismissing sarcasm more meant to tell her to bugger off and leave him be than anything else. Instead of feeling offended by this, it amused her, and a small smirk played on her lips, bare of the usual crimson lipstick she preferred and always tried to purchase again whenever she ran out. She didn't even know what brand it was, she just knew it by the shade number - 1685 Hot Coral. Amy had few makeup habits but those she did have, she kept to religiously. “Who is water? I suppose us, since it makes at least sixty percent of our bodies.” As to how the water was, she supposed she would have to find out for herself, with no help from the man.

She stepped away from the rows of chaises and closer to the edge of the pool, feeling the water sloshing over and into the drains circling it spray her red-painted toes, which she bent over to touch, enjoying the stretch felt in her back while doing so. She took that moment to inhale a deep, cleansing breath, feeling it fill her lungs to expand and prepare them for a dive. Four years ago she hardly knew how to float. Now it came as naturally as that breath she just took. Well not quite as naturally if she were honest. To explain to the rational parts of her brain why she now possessed a skill she had never invested in before, she had adopted a sequence of small rituals and habits prior to hitting the water. She always stretched, always minded her breathing and always made it into a head-first dive. If this sequence was broken, she’d rather not enter the water at all.

Mars was the epitome of casual comfort, long and lean physique decorated with an assortment of tattoos with the bulk of them concentrated on his arms, outstretched as he reclined on the chaise, legs crossed at the ankles, all of him bare except for the black swimming shorts he had on which were slightly dampened though difficult to tell as it was black and the chaises surrounding the pool were ever so good at wicking away water so it didn't absorb into the soft foam padding and ruin the cushions. Despite it being an indoor pool, he had sunglasses on so it was doubly difficult to notice that his eyes were closed. He was so relaxed in fact, that he'd entirely dozed off, his fingers interlaced loosely while resting over his slowly rising and falling belly matched in time with his steady breathing and only noticeable shift in his breathing occurred when a sudden voice roused him unexpectedly from his light slumber.

He was an incredibly light sleeper, prone to waking up at the drop of a pin, trained into the habit after the birth of his daughter where he would wake immediately within the first few weeks and months of her life at any sound that would come from her crib situated near his bedside.

He blinked beneath the dark shade of his sunglasses, lifted a hand to tug them down the bridge of his nose to look over the rim of them, revealing his starkly blue eyes that were entirely inhuman in nature for they were far too blue to be completely natural, half squinting toward the woman with a rise of a sharply angled brow, then he pushed the sunglasses back up and once more laid his head back down against the cushion back, his short black hair an obvious mess of strands that stuck up in all sorts of angles and ways with no rhyme or reason. "What da hell is water?" He asked lightly, perhaps unbeknownst to her but he was referencing a parable, his brain an ever constant swirl of references and song lyrics that he often used while talking which did occasionally make for a very confusing conversation if one did not understand, and most people didn't, and that was fine. He had at least one person who understood him anyway.

[amyinnile]

“Well there you go, you know it.” Amy nodded, relating to Mars calling his regrets on replay his best buds. Maybe Amy would call them her greatest enemy instead but it all amounted up to the same feeling of awkwardness and anxiety in the end. She chuckled then, nodding again. “Yeah, those are one of the many amazing things there. You should totally see about visiting.” She suggested casually, whether Mars would seriously consider it or not was totally up to him, either way was fine by her. She outright laughed next, the sound ending with a tiny snort of air through her nose she quickly cleared her throat at and tried to cover up with a wet hand over her mouth for a moment. “Oh yeah, totally, the first time I went. But fool me once…” She shrugged like it was no big deal and now she was casually immune to any scams or dishonest haggling that was happening there. She’d learned her lesson and she was proud of it.

Her perfectly shaped eyebrows rose curiously when the other siren started telling his stories from the travels he’d been on, interested to hear about different experiences this stranger could share. Her deep green eyes slid to the man’s neck when he showed off his very unique and peculiar choice for a tattoo, expertly done despite a theme Amy wouldn’t even remotely consider and this was the only thing that sounded a little incredible to her out of all the amazing things that Marsden claimed to have happened to him while he roved around the world. Perhaps she was a suspicious person by nature or perhaps it was simply her initial reaction to question things she was told, but it was definitely more curiosity than anything else.

“Very cool, I think it fits you. Dark shades, dark hair, dark swimwear and a dark Batman tattoo. So you’ve been to Transylvania recently?”

Mars nodded, understanding exactly what she meant, “Me an’ those moments are best buds. I got a special relationship with my regrets on replay,” the curse of being a highly observant and introspective intellectual that spent far too much time in his head sometimes, thinking and then overthinking in the way one might consider how much milk to add to their bowl of cereal. Was that enough or too much, if he added more cereal would it make it all too dry or if he added more milk would it now get too soggy and leave too much milk behind? The perfect ratio of milk to cereal always seemed an impossible balance to attain, such was the way his thoughts sometimes felt, too soggy or too dry, he’d grown to not be picky and instead get satisfied either way but that didn’t change the consistency of the cereal. 

“Pyramids,” he said when she explained that her chosen place was Egypt. The bulk of his knowledge of the location came from movies and books and a postcard that had been sent to him once, the profile of a camel and blue pyramids in the background of a beige desert. “Seems like a nice place. Never been,” he idly ran his hand dripping with water over the black slicked back strands of his hair, one small section near his forehead bleach dyed blonde, fingers tousling through the wet hair so it wasn’t bunched up because he had a penchant for looking like a drowned weasel in the water with his hair flat against his head. “Heard there’s a bunch o’ scams for camel rides and photographs. Didja fall victim?” Not knowing her profession so naturally assumed she’d only gone for tourism. 

An instantly brilliant catlike smile slowly spread across his features when she asked if he had any stories. “I got a coupla good ones.” Anyone who knew Mars would know that she was now about to be inundated with a grand story but how much of it would be true would never be known, he would, however, tell it with all the confidence in the world that the validity of his tale would be difficult to question. “Can tell ya ‘bout da time I shared a baguette with an French lady after walkin’ up da tour Eiffel, ‘er da time I partied with some random locals during San Fermin in Pamplona, ‘er da time I waited ten hours in a tiny plaza with what felt like fifty ‘er sixty thousand people to watch da Palio di Siena, ‘er when I ate calzones in a vineyard after wakin’ up to some old couple arguin’ don’t ask what about, I don’t speak Italian.”

"'er can tell ya 'bout my tattoo," he angled his head to the side to display the vampire Batman on the side of his neck, black ink appearing darker with the dampness of his skin and because it had been the most recently touched up piece that he had after an unfortunate vampire attack, "Got it in Transylvania cuz fuckin' why not, it's vampire Batman in vamp country, dat shit is iconically ironic."

[amyinnile]

“Not so much what I might do but more what I might say. See, I have a tongue that’s usually faster than my brain, so the tendency to ramble about nonsense is very common for me. Embarrassment over that usually leads to regretting that I ever opened my mouth, especially later in the day. You know, those moments when you lie in bed, ready to sleep but your brain just gives you a little PowerPoint presentation of everything embarrassing you did that day. Or, like, five years ago. Everyone loves a good flashback.” She shrugged in the water, the motion creating gentle ripples around her.

“Really wanted to go, yes. The rest of the world could happen, but it didn’t really have to.” She admitted readily, legs folding under her so she almost seemed like she was gloating cross-legged, arms doing all the work of keeping her head above water. “I am faithful to my place. It’s a good place. And back then I didn’t think I’d have the time and dedication to all other places too, at least not properly.” She elaborated a second later with a contemplative hum. “It's Egypt.”

“Aah, so you’ve gone down a part of the great Silk Road. Impressive.” Amy’s lips slanted as her eyebrows rose, clearly intrigued. “Got any stories from the time?”

“Ya got somethin’ ya gonna regret doin’ in the next few minutes, ‘er what?” Mars questioned casually, air of amusement lingering in his tone, finding her responses to be rather interesting and curious because wasn’t this the real world. “Only one place?” Mars looked surprised, “Ever in da whole big world ya only ever wanted to go one place and dats it?” He swung his arms forward in the water, swirls of water churning around long and lean tattooed arms and pushed against the floor of the pool to step backward, floating momentarily before he touched back down. “Dats crazy. Where was it? Musta been da most amazin’ place if ya don’t wanna see anywhere else. I might’ve been, had a few good years of travelin’ ‘round.” 

He scrunched up his nose and brow a bit as he tried to recall before continuing, “Spent about two, tree years goin’ down from London an’ ended in Kolkata. Das in India.” So many years where the only important enough belongings he owned could fit in a single backpack and everyone was a stranger until they weren’t. He still tried to keep in touch with a few of the people he’d met though it wasn’t always easy, or rather distance and time made it increasingly easier to forget. 

[amyinnile]

Done with her stretch-out routine, Amy watched the other man approach the edge of the pool to dive in unceremoniously and without much of a warning, if for nothing else than simply because it was an action difficult to miss since they were currently the only two people around. It made her chuckle to herself at the thought of her being an ‘aquatic enthusiast’. All of her interests and passions were buried in the sand, something entirely opposite to water, something on land and dried by the strong glare of the sun’s rays. “I am a siren. Yourself?” She waited for the man to provide an answer if he wished, before she would swan dive head first into the water herself, barely making a splash.

Her body’s trajectory was a perfect arch, graceful and elegantly executed. Another ridiculous thing she now apparently did, considering that before, whenever she entered large bodies of water, she did so slowly and feet first. After months of analyzing it, Amy figured out that it was actually not much of a mysterious physical ability suddenly granted to her upon becoming a siren. It was a complete and total release of any fear a land creature would have of an environment so inhospitable for their species. She was a siren now. Water was a second home to her. And she had always been athletic. Letting go of the fear just made it seem like she’d learned her way around water insanely fast, almost to the point that it felt like a new superpower just being in it.

The momentum of her dive took her some distance away from the pool’s edge under the water until she naturally emerged, coming up for air, swimming cap still perfectly in place and protecting her hair from getting wet and therefore being in need of a wash before she actually meant to do it. A still very human habit she may one day change but for now, it wasn’t given enough thought to do so. Letting her body float up until she was star-spread looking up at the ceiling, she released a cleansing breath, feeling the soothing embrace of the water envelop her. As always, it felt good. Better than wind in her hair, or sunshine on her face. Better than sand under bare feet. “Should we exchange names and engage in random small talk revealing trivial bits about ourselves because of some unspoken need to fill in the awkward silence of two adult people using the same pool or should we just say that what happens in water stays in water and just swim?” She asked the man in the pool with her with a little grin, moving in a more upright position so she could achieve eye contact. Either way was fine by her, not every siren had the need to relate to another siren just because they shared their… sirenness? That was what pods were for and she was sure he wasn’t in hers so she left him with that option because it seemed polite to give it.

Her response was unexpected much in the way that his response had likely been unexpected for her and so he too found amusement in it. “Touché,” he mumbled softly as she left the chaise lounges and began to perform her routine at the edge of the pool. While she did this and he made a point not to watch and busied himself with his cell phone, first to text his sitter and make sure his now one year old daughter was still doing okay. This was a rare occasion that he was without her and didn’t have any genuine plans to really occupy him like work or going out with Ry and he’d felt incredibly guilty for moments such as these, quiet moments that were meant to be for him where he could be who he once was and take a momentary break from being a father but they were an occasional necessity. He needed to hydrate as a siren and the pool was closer than the cavern pools and nicer than the abandoned mansion pool that his pod frequently met in, really only used by him when there was a pod gathering on high tides. In fact, he went to three separate places for three separate reasons. The ashmore mansion pool was for the pod, this pool was for a quick hydration boost, and the cavern pool was where he took his secret monthly dive to drive out the voices that sounded in his head. Voices that for the moment, were only humming softly like white noise. 

Once he’d finished texting his sitter, he sat upright, no longer reclining back on the chaise, long legs bent now at the knees so he was sat cross legged. No more nap time for him. Call it a slight anxiety he had but Marsden couldn’t sleep if he knew someone else was around and he didn’t rightly know who they were. So, now being unable to continue sleeping it was time to continue doing what he’d come here to do in the first place and removed his sunglasses, set down on one of the side tables beside his chaise along with his phone and he took would step up to the edge of the pool except he did not have a routine of habits that he performed before diving in. He just dove, well, it was more of a calculated and purposeful fall than it was a dive but the end result was the same, he ended up in the water with a splash. "Are ya a siren?" He asked, not facing her directly but as there was no one else around it was pretty clear that he was addressing her, "Or are ya just an aquatic enthusiast?"