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[eloquencejones]

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[utilitybelted]

As awkward as he feels with her completely unclothed and still damp from the water, he's also not one to shy away from helping somebody in trouble, so when she gets particularly wobbly again and seems on the verge of falling, he moves in even closer, trying badly not to blush, and wraps an arm around her waist to give her more support. His t-shirt was getting soaked, but he was at the beach so really it was only a matter of time anyway.

He can't tell from her response exactly what's happened, but the lack of words a second time makes him more curious about the why, especially when she begins to look increasingly upset and he just doesn't know what's causing it or what to do about it.

"...Can you talk?" he asks after a moment, not wanting to be rude about it but knowing that it's going to be a lot easier to deal with if he just asks directly "If you come over to where my friends are, we've got towels and things," they weren't too far from the base, it wouldn't be difficult to get her some clothes or anything else she might need (he'd send Wally, it'd be here in minutes).

[partofurworld]

Feeling him move a supportive arm around her, Ariel takes that as permission to cling to his side because that way, he can make sure she doesn't fall over again. She'll get used to these legs, it just might take a minute. Or a day. He's offering to get her a towel — is that what the humans wear? She doesn't know what it's called — and she can't help thinking to herself I told you so, Daddy. They're not barbarians. This one isn't, at least, that's for sure.

At his question, Ariel looks up with big blue eyes and, looking apologetic for the added difficulty he's facing by not being able to get actual answers to the important questions he probably has, she shakes her head. No, she can't talk. She can barely walk.

This was such a stupid idea, what was she thinking...?

[utilitybelted]

Right, that actually makes it a little easier to deal with, at least knowing she can't talk he can make sure he's tailoring his questions to be yes/no answers, it might make it a little lengthier but he'll figure it out. Maybe she can write, he'll ask her later, but for right now he wants to get her warm and dry and comfortable. He leads her over to where the team had been hanging out, most of them have noticed by now what he's up to, and M'gann is already waiting with a towel.

The martian girl helps him drape the towel around Ariel's shoulders and Kaldur'ahm brings over a deck chair for her after sending Wally back to base to grab some clothes for her, although after that they all back off to let Dick handle it, not wanting to crowd her.

"Are you hungry?" he asks, wanting to make sure she's comfortable before getting into the more complicated questions.

[partofurworld]

Ariel looks admittedly surprised by the fact that one of the humans is brown and another is green. She's only ever seen humans with skin that looks like her own and she's grinning excitably all of a sudden because they're so fascinating just like she always knew that they would be! She looks between the other two before beaming up at the one who's been helping her all along, her bottom lip caught between her teeth, like she isn't sure she's supposed to be excited, but she is and she can't help the way it's sort of showing.

But then he asks if she's hungry and her eyes widen a little as she nods. Ariel can't remember whether she had breakfast but she knows she didn't have lunch before stalking off to the sea witch like the headstrong, stubborn teenager she is.

She wants to know their names and she wants to know everything about them. Where they got their towels — she's decided that the term just means something to hide inside of — and why theirs look so different than the one she's wrapped up in. She wants to know why one girl is green and one boy is brown and the others are white like she is and whether they chose to be that way and how they did it, if so. She wants to know what all of the little things they have strewn around their little section of the beach are, most especially the big white and red striped bubble she sees abandoned in the sand behind them. They have bubbles on land, too?!

[utilitybelted]

Dick can't help but grin back, glad to see her smiling (and it doesn't hurt that she has such a pretty smile), though he's curious about the amazement in her eyes when she looks at Kaldur and... M'gann. M'gann who did not have time to put on her disguise before they brought the girl over here. No wonder she was amazed. Well, too late to do anything about it now.

"We have sandwiches. Ham or cheese?" he rifles through the cool box, holding up the sandwiches to indicate which was which for ease of pointing "Oh, and we have chips too, and soda?" he offers. He doesn't exactly have enough hands to offer them all at once, but he nods towards the box when he mentions the other two, so she knows where they are. He never realised how difficult it was to communicate with someone who couldn't speak, sure he had plenty of hand signals for assorted mission-related things, but nothing to properly indicate what somebody wanted to eat, and she didn't seem to know sign language at all. Maybe they could teach her...

[partofurworld]

Ariel's eyebrows lift a little with interest. She has no idea what these things are that he's offering and her cheeks go slightly pink as her face warms. So she gives a little shrug and points to him as if to tell him to pick, because he would know better than she would what she ought to have.

She snuggles into the towel a little more and considers getting up to go look before deciding that it'd be exponentially more embarrassing to fall over in front of all of his friends instead of just him; that was bad enough as it was.

[utilitybelted]

"You want me to pick? How about cheese," he offered, dropping the other sandwich back into the box and handing her over the cheese one "And some chips?" he grabbed the bag as well.

"Can you write? It just might be easier to communicate..." he glances over at his friends "Does anybody have paper and a pen? We probably should have asked Wally to get some..."

"Oh, I can just ask-" M'Gann starts, before smacking herself on the forehead "Hello Megan!" she steps forward and gives Ariel a friendly smile.

"I can make it so you can talk to us, in here," she tapped her temple "You just need to think something and we'll hear it, okay?"

[partofurworld]

At his clarifying question, Ariel nodded, giving him a smile. This wasn't so hard, after all. Maybe it'll be just fine. When he held out the sandwich to her, Ariel smiled a little more brightly, reaching for it and whatever the chips are. Both of those are foreign words to her, so she's trusting that he's giving her something that's actually edible. It doesn't really occur to her that he might feel inclined to do anything else.

Ariel takes the sandwich out of its clear baggie and sort of...awkwardly places the bag of chips on her lap, unsure how much she really wants to eat the crinkly material, because she doesn't realize that it's just the packaging with all its bright colors. Looking up at his question, Ariel nods again and smiles. She can write. And read. So that's helpful, right?

The other girl's outburst startles her a little — why is she hitting herself? — but the warm smile contradicts it and Ariel gives an awkward, ever so slightly uncertain one back, her eyes shifting between the girl — Megan, she assumes, which is a pretty name, she guesses, for a human — and the boy who's been helping her.

The explanation has her looking a little confused and decidedly even more uncertain but, chewing on her bottom lip, she offers a little smile and nods.

I traded my voice for a pair of legs back in Atlantis, like an idiot... she's thinking and not necessarily on purpose.

[utilitybelted]

Dick can understand why she looks uncertain, offering psychic communication to people wasn't always met with enthusiastic agreement after all, but he smiles encouragingly and he's pleased when she agrees - after all, it will make things a lot easier.

M'gann links them up just in time for Ariel's thought to cross their minds and they all exchange a startled look with Kaldur.

"Did you say Atlantis? You're from Atlantis?" Dick asks her, out loud, and really that's just the beginning of his questions because what did she have if not legs and why did the trade her voice for them? He didn't want to throw a whole stream of questions at her all at once when she'd obviously been through a lot, so he held back on the others, for now.

[partofurworld]

At the realization that they somehow actually heard that, Ariel's eyes go wide and she covers her mouth with her hands in spite of the fact that she hasn't actually said anything and couldn't if she wanted to. Which, as it turns out, she really wants to.

Slumping a little, her eyes move slowly from one person to another, unsure if she ought to tell the truth or silently laugh it off. They all look as startled to hear it as she is to have been overheard.

Rather than giving a committed answer, Ariel gives a little shrug, looking uncomfortable.

You can't even keep your big mouth shut when you don't have a voice, what's wrong with you? she thinks miserably, her brow creasing. It hasn't actually occurred to her that if they heard one thought, they could hear the rest. Megan said it, but that doesn't mean it's actually sunken in as reality.

[utilitybelted]

Dick kind of has to resist the urge to laugh at her sudden surprise and the way she claps her hands over her mouth, not out of meanness but because she was just so adorable. The urge dies when she starts to mentally berate herself, and he steps forward, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay, I promise. We're only surprised because, well, Kaldur here is from Atlantis too." he motioned to the Atlantean, "We don't mean you any harm, if you can tell us what happened we can try and help you."

[partofurworld]

Her brow creases with worry all the same, but the reassuring hand does make her feel a little bit better, even if it probably shouldn't.

Ariel presses her lips together, looking over at the other boy and then looking down at her lap.

I'm not from Atlantis. I'm from Atlantica. I was just...in Atlantis... Because her father had banished Ursula from Atlantica and Atlantis is nearby. It has a seedier area that she's not sure a whole lot of people know about. She didn't, after all, except that she'd been led there by Flotsam and Jetsam.

Taking a deep breath, entirely uncomfortable with the idea of them being able to hear her now that it's a reality — largely because it's taking a lot of concentration to control and focus her thoughts so that she doesn't think something stupid like

Why do you all have to be so good looking? It's really distract—

She closes her eyes and her face scrunches up as her cheeks go pink. Refocus. Maybe they didn't notice.

I wanted to come on land...there was a man. But this place is all wrong. I traded my fins for legs and the sea witch took my voice as payment. And now I don't know where I am and I only have three days and she's going to turn me into one of those gross things she keeps in her lair and I'll belong to her because I can't do anything right. I should've listened to Sebastian...

Finally, her eyes open again and she looks uncertainly up at the group.

lalala making things up XD

[utilitybelted]

Dick turns a little pink himself at that accidental thought, but they all politely avoid saying anything about it, instead, Dick turned his attention to Kaldur to try and get some explanation for what she was saying.

"Atlantica? Sea Witch?" he shakes his head, confused "It means something to me but... it's fairy tale, old stories from long ago..." he shrugs, there isn't anything he can really help with. Dick turns back to her.

"Okay, so... you need to find this man in three days or she turns you into something? So we just need to find out who this man is and where he is. We'll help you find him, I promise."

Sometime during the conversation, Wally had returned with a bundle of clothes, but he just joins the group to listen to the conversation rather than interrupting.

[partofurworld]

Ariel looks frustrated as they try to piece together what she's said to make sense of it. The problem is that the rest is really embarrassing and she doesn't necessarily want to have to say it directly, but...

She sighs.

The contract says I have three days to receive True Love's kiss. If I manage it, then I get to stay up here. If I don't...well...

Her eyebrows lift a little and she frowns. Her eyes move to the boy that's come back and then she shifts them back to Dick, offering him a shy little smile.

He brought me more towels? That's so nice. You're all so nice.

[utilitybelted]

"If you don't, you get turned into one of the things you mentioned," he finishes for her, glancing at Kaldur as if it's making any more sense, he shrugs again.

"It still sounds like the old stories to me," He admits "But we will help you," he adds to Ariel, his tone as usual straightforward and firm.

"He's right, we will." Dick agrees, turning to her "We'll find this man and you'll have your true love's kiss," even if it did sound like something out of a fairy tale to him too "I promise."

They share another confused glance for a moment at the comment about the towels, until Dick realises what she means.

"Oh, these are clothes," he says, tugging at his own t-shirt "Towels are for drying yourself off when you're wet, and then you put on clothes for warmth."

Wally looks pretty confused, but he hands over the stack of clothing.

[partofurworld]

He's so stoic, the one from the ocean, Ariel observes. But not uncaring, which is important. They all seem to care about finding a way to help her, and that's a relief. She's not sure they'll be able to find Eric fast enough for her to get him to fall in love with her. She hasn't really disclosed the part where she's never actually met Eric. Not really.

She looks fascinated as Dick explains that there's a difference and then she's beaming when the other boy gives her the clothes. Ariel gets to her feet, unashamed and unaware that maybe she ought to be when the towel — for drying off — drops to the sand as she rifles through the small stack trying to figure out what goes where and how to put things on.

That's so cool! I just wear seashells, usually, but I lost mine, she thinks to them, pulling out a cute little skirt and holding it up, tilting her head to look it over with interest. What's this for?

The shirts she's figured out because they all seem to be wearing them, so she pulls one of those over her head, getting her head stuck in the sleeve for a moment and flailing awkwardly, nearly falling into whoever happens to be standing the closest before she grabs onto the chair to right herself again and manages to get her head in the hole it belongs through. It's equally an awkward struggle to get her arms in the arm holes, but she manages that, too, and the shirt falls just above her knees. It must belong to one of the boys; they're taller.

[utilitybelted]

Kaldur and Wally already turned around, faces red, the second she dropped her towel. Dick looks desperately at M'gann, appealing for her help. He reaches out to catch Ariel as she stumbles closer to him, glad she's at least partly clothed because he can't help but look in her direction, and wow she looks really cute with his shirt on. He blushes and pushes her gently towards M'gann.

"That's a skirt, like this," M'gann tugs at her own skirt, stepping forward "Here, let me help you." she sorts through the pile of clothing Wally brought, explaining what each thing was and helping Ariel pick what to wear while Dick turns away and tries not to think about how she'd wear those seashells and how nice she might look in them.

"So if you could tell us everything you know about this guy, we can try and find him," he says while he's waiting.

[partofurworld]

Ariel's mouth opens into a little "oh!" of silent surprise when Megan explains. It looks so different on Megan than it does without a body to cover; the shape is all different. That's amazing, she thinks, as Megan helps her sort through the clothes — not towels — explaining what each article is before helping her get herself into a pair of what Megan calls "underwear" and then "shorts" on top of those. Humans wear a lot of clothes... she thinks without realizing that she's also projecting it.

Once dressed, Ariel takes a deep breath. Everything she knows about Eric...isn't much. His name is Eric and he's a prince. He lives in a castle. He has a...fluffy, hairy, gray and white...uh... Ariel pauses, gesturing a hand down around her knee to indicate the height of the little beast he'd been dancing on the ship with, friend? That he calls Max.

She looks hopeful then, even though she's literally just told them everything she knows about this guy which is...damn near nothing.

[utilitybelted]

"I know, right?" M'gann cheerfully agrees with the clothing assessment, Dick doesn't dare look round because he really isn't sure if he wants to laugh or turn red and this whole situation went from heroic to super awkward. He's really glad when she's successfully dressed and then can get back to the helping her find this... Eric. Whoever Eric was.

"You're looking fora Prince Eric.. who has a... dog? Called Max. Right." That shouldn't be... completely impossible, right? Just very, very hard. "Prince in a castle probably means Europe, so we just need to look up European royalty until we find an Eric... is that everything you know? Where did you meet? This castle, is it near the shore?" he asks, trying to think of other ways they could narrow down their search criteria.

[partofurworld]

Ariel's cheeks turn pink at Megan's response to her thought and she at least has the grace to look apologetic.

Right. Dog? What a funny word! Huh. Oh! Yes! Where is Europe? Is it far?

Her eyes avert downwards when Dick asks where they met. That's...sort of the thing… Um...well...I rescued him when his ship hit a bad storm. ...but he never technically met me…

Her face goes red with the confession. This all seemed like such a good idea at the time. She had made the mistake of underestimating how difficult Ursula was going to make this for her. She made the mistake of being naive enough to believe that they would both be playing fair, not just Ariel. Her expression falls.

He's never going to have time to fall in love with me by the time we find him...is he?

That thought comes out loud and clear because she wants them all to know it's less a thought to herself and more a question; a reality check.

[utilitybelted]

"It's pretty far, but we can get there, don't worry about that," they had plenty of ways to make high-speed intercontinental trips, that was really the least of their problems, they just had to...oh. Her confession has them all exchanging concerned glances again, they're not sure how they're supposed to find a prince that she's only met once and didn't actually technically meet. This is getting more complicated by the second.

"I...don't know..." Dick admits after a long pause where they all try and find something to say "It seems kind of a long shot... but... maybe we can find another way to help?"

[partofurworld]

Ariel doesn't like the answer that she gets, but she expects it all the same. It's good to know that at least they can get her to Europe, if that's where Eric is, but she wishes that Dick had a more hopeful response than "I don't know" and "it seems like kind of a long shot." The worst part is that in retrospect, she knows he's right. She's never going to get him to fall in love with her in time and she's going to end up in Ursula's crutches for the rest of her life. This is what she gets for being so impulsive.

Visibly, she deflates, looking down and shrugging. They must all think she's so stupid...

I signed a magical contract. If I can't get true love's kiss in three days, then unless someone overwrites my signature and sacrifices themselves, there's no way out of it. ...I should've known better. I should've known she'd make a dirty deal, but I was just so excited to come on land... Her thoughts trail off. She was just so excited to come on land that she hadn't thought it through or read the contract in full at all; she'd just taken Ursula at her word. For all Ariel knew, being relocated well out of the way of Eric's castle was the least of her troubles...

[utilitybelted]

Dick feels terrible at how disappointed she looks, he really wanted to be able to tell her everything was going to be okay, but he also knew she'd be even more disappointed if it didn't turn out that way, and people just didn't fall in love that quickly, did they?

"Hey," he steps forward, reaching gently to lift her chin so he could meet her gaze, however ineffective it was through the sunglasses "I promise you we'll do everything we can to help, okay? We're not going to let you get tricked by this witch." he'd scour the whole of europe himself if he had to.

"Let's head back inside, we can start looking for Eric, and," he glances over at Kaldur "Could you go find out what you can about this sea witch? Anything we can do to stop her?" the Atlantean nods, already moving away to do just that.

[partofurworld]

Ariel looks up when Dick lifts her chin and it's hard to meet his eyes when she can only barely see them beneath the sunglasses he's wearing, but she tries anyway. Her eyes shift slightly as she studies his face and she takes a deep breath before giving him a weak smile that she tries to make look more genuine. She does truly appreciate his insistence that they'll do everything they can to help.

Finally, she nods her head. I trust you. That's probably incredibly naive of her, but it's just who Ariel is.

She hangs close to Dick, feeling bad that she's apparently ruined their day at the beach. Ariel holds onto his arm with both hands as they walk, stumbling on occasion because she's still getting used to her new legs, but managing to keep upright by using him as a crutch. Once they've gotten inside, Ariel touches Dick's shoulder when he starts to move away, in order to get his attention. She clutches at her heart with both hands and gives him another little smile, this one more genuine. Thank you, she says silently, forming the words on her lips rather than thinking them for everyone to hear. That sentiment is just for him.

[utilitybelted]

Dick is happy to let her lean on him as they head back to base, and that might have something to do with her being a pretty redhead with big wide eyes, and okay, he couldn't deny he had a bit of a hero complex and the damsel in distress routine certainly helped, but it wasn't just that.

The thank you almost melts his heart, and he turns a little red, running an awkward hand through his hair.

"It's...it's no problem. I'm happy to help, really, I couldn't just leave you there..." he feels like he's babbling, but it's true, he wouldn't leave anyone in distress if he could do anything about it. "So let's see if we can find your Prince Charming, shall we?"