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[eloquencejones]

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[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?"

[partofurworld]

Ariel smiles a little, ducking her head slightly as her own cheeks turn pink. The thing is...no one would probably have faulted him for ignoring her; she could've been anyone.

Yes you could have. But you didn't, she points out, lifting her eyebrows for emphasis at the thought.

Her expression falters with confusion. Maybe she's just being stupid, but...

Okay. Um...but his name is Eric, not Charming. Remember? It's kind of an important distinction as far as she knows. They'll never find him if they're looking for the wrong prince, after all.

[utilitybelted]

Dick tries not to laugh, he doesn't want to be mean, but he can't help the little chuckle that escapes him. He shakes his head slightly.

"Sorry, I mean Eric, Prince Charming is just... he's a fairytale character? And your story sounds kind of like a fairytale, that's all." he explains, his smile fond.

He leads her over to where the computer is, grabbing another seat for her and dragging it over.

"The computer's pretty smart, so it's going to take a lot of the trouble out of searching, though it might still take a while," he explains as he starts building the search parameters, fingers dancing across the keys.

[partofurworld]

At first, Ariel isn't really sure how to take that laughter. It isn't much and he's been kind so far, so she doesn't think he's making fun of her or anything, but...she looks a little uncomfortable all the same.

But then he explains and when he smiles it isn't a smirk or a grin that says he thinks he's smarter than her; it's like he's endeared by her confusion. Ariel's mouth opens in a little silent "ohhh" in response to his explanation and she relaxes.


Letting him lead her around, Ariel settles in the offered seat and watches in awe as he works the thingamabob — computer — like a pro.

How are you doing that? How does it work? Oh! What's that?

The words are excitable and curious bouncing around in their heads as she points to different things happening on the screen, beaming over at Dick like he's performing the most incredible magic she's ever seen. That's probably because that's exactly what he's doing, as far as she's concerned.

He leads her over to where the computer is, grabbing another seat for her and dragging it over.

[utilitybelted]

"oh, well, I type things here and they go into the computer," he explains patiently "I can explain how it works, sort of, but it might be a bit complicated, I don't know if you want me to talking that much," he laughs "but if you want to know I can explain while the computer's searching?" he enjoys computers and tech so he's actually pretty happy to explain it to her, but he also doesn't want to bore her with it if she was just being polite.

[partofurworld]

I like hearing you talk, she counters, smiling back at him. Probably a little too much, she thinks but didn't actually mean to add to her previous statement. Her face goes red and her eyes shift quickly back to the computer screen.

Teach me, she says, getting herself back on track. I want to know everything! I want to learn everything. There's so many things I want to understand.

[utilitybelted]

Dick's face was flushing pretty red itself, but he clears his throat and focuses on the screen for a minute to get himself under control. Once he's a little calmer, he nods slightly.

"Ok then, so..." he begins, launching into a fairly lengthy description of the computer and how it worked and what he was asking it to do, a little way into his speech he'd finished the search algorithm so he leaned back in his chair and let the computer start looking, continuing his explanation while it worked. He tried to be as evenly-paced and straightforward as he could, glancing her way regularly to make sure she was following, repeating anything she seemed to have problems with.

[partofurworld]

Ariel is...mostly listening. She finds herself, belatedly, too busy admiring Dick to actually absorb most of what he's saying. Occasionally, she'll parrot something back at him when asked if she understands so that he doesn't feel inclined to repeat himself too often, but Ariel's actual focus is elsewhere.

On his lips when they're moving as he speaks. On his face, even though his eyes are skewed from her view. On the dark hair which had so attracted her to Eric initially; that contrast against pale skin having caught her eye with him and still now with Dick.

You're so smart... she thinks with a contented sort of sigh, smiling at him as she lifts a hand to rest her chin on, her elbows already against the corner of his desk.