reicicled | Room 408, Monday Morning

While the lack of heat hadn't bothered Bobby so much, the lack of electricity was starting to get annoying. So he was kind of relieved when he woke up Monday morning to a drastically warmer room.

So after plugging in his phone to charge (and getting that email about class being canceled), he-

... Got distracted by the tiny little animated hockey game happening on his window, apparently.

Neat.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

refused2berescued

"I'm a VK," Uma said carelessly. "Sometimes I just lie for fun."

They got to the basement, opening the door off the stairway. "What's that?" she asked, puzzled. "I smell water and...something else? Chemical-y?"

Public pools weren't really a thing on the Isle. And even if they had been, they would never have been cleaned.

From:

reicicled

"The chlorine?" Bobby said, a note of 'doesn't everyone know what that is' in his voice.

From:

refused2berescued

"Yeah," Uma said, giving him a look. "What is that?"

Edited Date: 2018-04-02 03:58 am (UTC)

From:

reicicled

Bobby at least had the grace to look somewhat sheepish as he realized his mistake.

"Chemicals so the pool doesn't get all gross and dirty after people swim in it," he explained. "Easier than constantly trying to clean it."

From:

refused2berescued

"Oh," Uma said, because, again, pools weren't really a thing on the island. She only knew of them because the TV liked to show off the pools in various Auradon estates and at the school. They never really talked about pool maintenance, but it made sense. She couldn't imagine the precious Auradon princes and princesses swimming in dirty water. "Guess that'll make it easier to find the pool then," she said, turning down the hallway in the direction the smell was the strongest.

From:

reicicled

"I mean, yeah," Bobby said with a nod. "But also, I can just..." he trailed off, and shrugged, "Anyway, you're going in the right direction."

From:

refused2berescued

"You can what?" Uma asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.

Look, he'd said he controlled ice! He didn't say he had abilities with anything else!

From:

reicicled

He made ice! But not out of nothing. "I can sense moisture in the air," he explained. "Part of my deal."

From:

refused2berescued

There was a queen in Auradon who did just that! Uma didn't know how these things worked!

"So you're like a dowsing rod," Uma said, lips twitching. "With bonus ice cubes."

From:

reicicled

"You're ever stranded in a desert with me, I will one hundred percent find you an oasis," Bobby nodded.

"If you don't kill me when I start complaining about the heat, that is," he added after a beat. Those complaints would start .5 seconds in to said desert-stranding, for the record.

From:

refused2berescued

"I can gag you and then just let you lead the way," Uma offered, possibly a little too brightly.

From:

reicicled

"Pass," Bobby said quickly. "Oh, look, the pool!" he added, gesturing at the doors to the locker rooms.

From:

refused2berescued

Uma shrugged. He was the one who'd brought up complaining! And she'd found a very elegant solution that didn't even involve hitting.

"Well, I don't have a bathing suit or nothing, so I guess we can just go through," she said, peeking her head through and marveling at how clean and non-rusted everything was here. She should have expected it probably, but it kept being a surprise every time.

She made her wait straight through to the pool, stripping off her extra layers, boots, and socks right there at the edge. If it was going to be as cold as she thought it might, she didn't want to get all her stuff wet--or have to walk far before finding dry clothes she could pull on afterwards.

"We, umm, ready to do this?" she asked Bobby once he'd joined her. Her hand lifted up to grip the seashell necklace she always wore.

From:

reicicled

Please. Being unable to talk was clearly a fate worse than death when you were Bobby Drake.

"Yeah, come on, I wanna see!" he said, bouncing a little on his heels.

From:

refused2berescued

Uma dipped a toe into the water and frowned, sighed, and glared at Bobby one more time. This was somehow his fault, she'd decided. And then she dove into the pool, graceful and clean, cutting a path right through the water to the very bottom of the pool.

And stayed there. Stayed there for a really long time, not moving. Stayed there until bubbles forced their way out of her throat and up through the water. Stayed there after the last one had risen and left the surface smooth again.

Long seconds ticked by. And then--light. Bright and golden, rising up from the bottom of the pool, bringing Uma up with it.

From:

reicicled

She'd been down there just long enough that Bobby was starting to get really concerned, when-

Bobby watched, transfixed, as Uma rose from the bottom of the pool.

Edited Date: 2018-04-04 06:06 am (UTC)

From:

refused2berescued

Uma broke through the water wearing a triumphant grin, braids plastered over her shoulders and back. "I did it!" she cheered. "I did it! And I didn't even turn into the size of a yacht, either!"

Six tentacles, scales the same teal as her hair, undersides a bright, bubblegum pink, rose up from the water with her, like multiple sets of victory arms.

From:

reicicled

"Oh my god," Bobby said slowly, when he caught sight of the tentacles. "They're so pretty."

From:

refused2berescued

"You think so?" Uma asked, pleased and a little shy. She sent one over to him, the edge delicately coming down into his hand, as if for a shake.

She swam a little closer and through the water, Bobby could see that her legs were gone and in their place, the thin and delicate membrane of an octopus, looking almost skirtlike below the waves and ripples of the water.

"I think...I think this might be what I'm supposed to look like," she said. "If I hadn't been born on the Isle, I mean."

From:

reicicled

"I do," Bobby nodded, looking down at the tentacle in his hand with awed fascination. "Is- is your mom from the ocean, then?" he asked, curious.

Edited Date: 2018-04-04 06:14 pm (UTC)

From:

refused2berescued

Uma nodded. "She's a seawitch," she said quietly. "The seawitch, actually. And she still has her tentacles, though I'm not sure how."

She rubbed the side of her face absently, muscle memory from when she was too slow to dodge her mother's little corrections.

"She's one of Poseidon's daughters if that means anything?" It didn't to Uma, but it was something her mother said often enough that it seemed like it should.

From:

reicicled

"Like... the sea god?" Bobby hadn't had much to do with Namor and the Atlanteans, at least, compared to his older counterpart, but he'd done... some research.

Mostly on Wikipedia. Shhh.

From:

refused2berescued

"Is that a thing?" she asked, because Serpent Prep hadn't been big on mythology at all. Other than talking about how Hades deserved better and Hercules was a chump.

From:

reicicled

Bobby nodded. "Yeah! In my world, he gave Namor a magic trident thing and told him he was king of Atlantis." At least, Bobby was pretty sure that was what happened.