revivalproject | Cats Hate Water, Right?

WHO: Robin Buckley, You
WHERE: Temba Bubble
WHAT: Clumsiness with swimming, Chased by Predators
WHEN: During MerMay
WARNINGS: Possible injury/blood in second prompt

I. Even More Clumsy

If you were always a mer, and clearly they were always mer what are you talking about, then clearly one should not get tangled up in their own tail. Right? Right. Clearly. That is the only absolute truth that one should be able to take away from all of this. There should be no clumsiness.

Except there's Robin. Who definitely pulls the short end of many sticks in her tail and fins. The tail is long, slender, graceful looking, at least when Robin's not moving. And her fins are wide, billowing, beautiful like a fancy male betta fish. In motion the dark green, gold, and bronze swirling patterns of her long tail and fins should be beautiful.

Except she's Robin. And in the moment she's somehow managed to get herself tangled up in her own too-long tail which was also then tangled in with a bunch of greenery. Not to mention the fact that her shirt was clearly caught up in some prickly sort of plant.

She's stuck. And Robin is just struggling enough to make it worse. Because of course she was.

II. The Aquakat Issue

The best part of this whole place is that it's so wonderful and safe. Super safe. Like, sure, Robin sometimes got tangled up in all mess of things because she was not the most coordinated mermaid, but there wasn't any real danger. This place was so much better than Hawkins like that. There wasn't even anyone who was really against her as a person. She almost felt like she might be safe if she shouted out to the limits of the world that she liked girls. Except for the few situations where things in Temba had gone very weird, they were safe here.

So yeah, there's no problem with Robin enjoying some time stretched out on the 'roof' of a ruin, fiddling with her communication device to try and explore more functions of it. There's no reason she should be watching out carefully, right?

Problem with that theory: there are predators in the waters. Including some that normally wouldn't range in Temba. Not that it was the first time an Aquakat had ended up in the city. Just, you know, the first time that it had arrived in a fully aquatic environment, making it even more deadly than before. Such a creature had slipped into Temba before the dome closed, and... Well...

If nothing else, at least Robin has a decent instinct for when shit is going bad. She doesn't see the cat specifically, but there's something that has her suddenly sitting up and tucking her comm device away.

"Is someone out there?" she calls, looking around. "It's not funny if you're staring and being a creeper!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Easy, easy- stop moving so much." The advice comes paired with a light laugh. Cal drifts over towards her, his own movements perhaps seeming enviously fluid by comparison, the deep blue scales of his tail shimmering with a faint dusting of copper just a shade off from his hair.

"Here, just relax a moment- let's see if we can get you out of this," Cal says, coming around to inspect the problem, BD-1 poking his boxlike head over his shoulder to look as well.

Stop moving so much? Are you kidding? This is Robin, and she's not coordinated, and so many other issues. Of course she's going to get tangled up even further.

"I'm not sure I can really relax. Being trapped is bad. And the little sharp bits are trying to tear one of my fins."

"Yeah, but moving around is just making it worse- especially with the sharp bits," Cal counters, moving to try addressing that part of the problem first. Between all the fins and movement, he doesn't want to risk using his lightsaber to cut her free.

"You'll be okay- here. If you have to steady yourself, just put a hand on my shoulder."

Steady herself? Doesn't really seem likely. But she reaches for his shoulder to try and stay still. Which wasn't going well.

"But it hurts. Maybe if I just twist this way and..."

Nope. She's yelping in pain.

Cal winces at that, not only in sympathy given that her movement catches him briefly on the spiky growth. "Ow, ow-" he hisses, rubbing at the scratch. "What'd I say about not moving?"

"I'm really bad at not moving. I need to keep some part of me moving at all times."

And if her body wasn't moving, her brain would be, and that is its own trouble. But she tries for the moment to stay still. Fuck. Stay still.

"Even when you're asleep?" Cal asks with something of a lopsided smile. He glances over his shoulder at his droid buddy's beeping. "I'm okay, it's not deep. Let's try this again."

He looks back to Robin's problem, carefully working at removing the points she's gotten herself snagged.

"My bed is always a mess in the mornings."

But that's the nightmares and ptsd behind that. He's still not trying to make her upset so she gives a tentative smile back and lets him work.

"Uh, so, what's with the little toy robot with you?"

Listen, she doesn't know. Forgive her.

The Jedi chuckles as behind him, the droid gives something of an electronic raspberry, sounding somewhat offended by that.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it," he says to try placating the little guy before he glances at Robin. "BeeDee's a friend. Got me out of plenty of fixes. We watch each other's backs."

Hey, be offended. She didn’t know any better. But she might now. Was that really a raspberry noise? What the hell?

“Uh, did it just make a rude noise at me? It knows how to do that?”

"He tends to pick up things pretty quickly," Cal explains as he smothers a snicker.

"BeeDee knows how to do a lot of things." He pauses as the droid beeps. "-and he'd like to inform you that he's not a toy. He's an exploration droid."

Yeah, okay, he picks things up quickly. But it's a rude noise. Why is it making a rude noise? Is it a real thing? In the whole 'is this a person' way? Because, well, apparently that could be a thing.

But now he's getting more info out there and she is just staring in shocks.

"You're serious? Did he explore on his own or something?"

Cal continues to work. It's much easier now that he's got Robin distracted from moving.

"I'm sure he's done his fair bit. But mostly he accompanies people who do. The man he was previously with used to study old ruins all across the galaxy. He's got quite the repository of data in that little noggin of his," he says, grinning at BD's proud-sounding confirmatory hoot.

"Okay, that sounds really cool. Old ruins, aliens, exploring. That's pretty interesting. And that makes your friend smart enough to sass me?"

Sounds like her kind of character.

"Eh, he does what he wants." Cal grins, then brushes her flowing tail back from the spiny plants he'd just freed the last of her fins from. "There we go!"

"Don't we all," she observed.

And there, at last! She's free. She whoops in delight and raises away from the plants and shivers in relief at the freedom.

"You're so amazing. I owe you!"

"Just watch out for him around buttons that look like they need pushing," Cal says, pausing to arch a brow at the beeping inquiry from BD-1 before lets out a laugh. "Yes, you! You know what I'm talking about."

They both look back to Robin, the Jedi nodding as she moves away from the grabby plants.

"Just try to avoid getting stuck again," he grins.

"Oh that sounds like a story that needs told," she says with a chuckle.

It makes her smile to get her fins free and swirl them out in the water around her.

"I make no promises. I'm really not coordinated. And look at how big this fin is. Who am I even trying to impress, right?"

Cal smirks. "Well, it's not exactly a story so much as a fair warning. The places we've explored where he just has to push a button that's there. We've only been lucky that they've had useful results."

BD-1 beeps at that, looking somewhat proud of himself. Yeah! He was helping!

They both look at her flowing tail and Cal offers a shrug. "Who knows. It does look very nice, but...not very practical. But hey, so long as you stay away from things that you can snag on, like these things..."

Hey, luck was a skill too. Gotta respect that. Probably. Well, she is going to since the thing blew a raspberry at her.

"I guess that describes me a lot. Nice, sometimes, but not practical. I'm feeling judged by my own tail. I will try and stay away from grabby weeds, though."

Cal shrugs. Nice and practical don't often pair very well, true enough.

"You do that. At least these things aren't everywhere," he says, swimming back a bit. His job done, he'll leave Robin to it, offering a quick salute, BD-1 giving a little tweedle in good-bye before the Jedi twists about with ease and swims off.

Yeah, that was true. She was happy about that.

"I should probably say high up off of the bottom then," she says with a sigh. "But it's nicer to relax there. But see you man."

She smiles and waves at him. They were her heroes after all.

Cats Hate Water, Right?

I

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