Down by the Sea [anyone]

[Ellie Volkova]

A gentle breeze ruffled Ellie's hair as she walked along the pier, looking for a quiet spot. Having found one, she sat down, dangling her long legs over the side and staring into the bluey-green sea. She loved the sea. She found it unbelievably calming and relaxing. When she was little, for so many years she had asked 'Santa' to turn her into a mermaid. Suffice to say that wish never came true.

It wasn't a good week. Everywhere she turned it was all stress, stress, stress. Uni, the lack of work and the need to find one, family. And she had no one to turn to. Kieran was away in New York for a conference; not that things had been that great lately anyway - he was away so much. Work fully consumed him, more so than before it seemed. As for the rest of her friends, they were all busy with their own lives; she didn't want to interrupt.

The smallest sigh escaped her lips as she continued staring into the water. Being a mermaid right now would be most epic, she thought with a grin, not noticing that she wasn't as alone as she'd thought/

[Patrick Noel]

"I wouldn't suggest swimming here. Although I'm sure you can swim just well." Patrick suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He was happy to see a familiar face in a day he'd been hiding.
Lately Patrick hadn't been around much because of his sister's fuss at the recent incident that led him to hospital. And if he'd been able to run he definately had done it. Doctors seemed to take exaggerated interest in his general health condition and alleged bad habits that appearantly were obvious in his tests.

[Ellie Volkova]

The brunette almost jumped a metre into the air when she heard someone speaking to her. Thankfully the pier in front of her prevented a very unceremonious and very icy splash into the sea. "Didn't Emms ever tell you it's not nice to sneak up on people?" she greeted him, playfully hitting him on the arm, a grin playing on her lips. "I could have ended up going for an unexpected swim. And then gotten hypothermia. And died in agony. At only 20!" she exclaimed dramatically. "In which case I would come back to haunt you for forever and ever..." she added with a cheeky satisfied smile.

[Patrick Noel]

"Are we talking about the very same person who keeps dropping water filled balloons at me whenever she believes I'm too suspiciously silent?" he grinned. "It must've had slipped her mind few times." Pat laughed.

"Hey, I would've saved you. You know, I have tried water before and I didn't go down. Besides I thought there are seals if not dolphins, heard they can save unfortunate mermaids." Patrick kept grinning his face-splitting grin.

[Ellie Volkova]

Ellie scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Well I don't think it was just her who 'accidentally' dropped all those balloons," she admitted, looking rather sheepish. Ok, she admitted it - she enjoyed helping Em throw water-balloons at dear Patrick. So sue her. However, she was just brilliant in that Patrick hadn't yet caught her at her 'helpful' antics.

"Well, I heard they help poor mermaids. But with the temperature being what it is, I think all the dolphins have headed down to Florida for the winter. Or Australia. I think they'd much prefer the warmer waters rather than Chicago's iceberg of an ocean," she rambled, giving a giggle. "And the seals might all be in hibernation currently. Although I'll give them a call. Seals! Sealy-dears! C'mere! Who's a good seal? C'mere!" she called out to the ocean, a giant grin spreading over these antics. When nothing happened, she turned back to Patrick, a sad kicked-puppy kind of look on her face. "They didn't come. Why didn't they come, Patrick?"

[Patrick Noel]

Patty's eyebrows shot up at the statement. Then he squinted in suspicion.
"So there could be a possibility certain balloons might've been aimed at me from another particular hand?" he asked with a thoughtful professor's expression. "And I thought my sis's gotten tweeties bugging her brain already." he put on thoughtful troubled detective expression.

Now it was Patrick's turn to scratch the back of his head. "You sure penguins aren't migrated here yet?" he asked putting on equal puppy dog expression. "Wait. Can't we count as mermaids for once? Maybe there are some polar, arctic, whatever seals or dolphins? Y'know ones with a fuzzy fur." Patrick mused.
Oh well, Chicago was like an iceberg most winters. Maybe they just should teleport whole university territory to Florida.
Oh right, they weren't wizards, oh well.

[Ellie Volkova]

Ellie assumed a look of total and utter innocence. "No... Not at all...." She gave him a charming grin. "I reserve the right to remain silent until a lawyer can be arranged for me," she stated, doing the zipping-mouth motion and tossing out the invisible key.

A moment later her face split into a grin and she giggled. "No, even the penguins don't want anything to do with us. They're having way too much fun down in New Zealand." It was, after all, the closest country to the Antarctic. And after the 'Happy Feet' incident which made international headlines, it seemed the best place for penguins to go on holiday to when they got bored of Antarctica. "And we can't count as mermaids, we don't have tails," the girl pointed out sadly. "I'd love to be a mermaid though, at least for a couple of weeks. How much fun would that be? And thankfully Spring is on its way, so the days and the waters are going to be getting steadily warmer. I can't wait till it's Summer and we can go swimming!" She missed swimming. Maybe she'd grab Patrick and head down to the local pools one of these days.

[Patrick Noel]

Patrick put on suspicious expression with a curiously raised eyebrow. "So you're lawyering up? Alright, then. I think I can find one." he said tapping his pocket (where his phone hid) thoughtfully.


"Geez we must be most annoying place on Earth if even penguins don't hang around." he shook his head in mock horror.
"I'm guessing it's such a sad thing we're not wizards. They at least can do magic to get things going like they want." Patrick sighed. In France they always imagined they were magicians and it seemed things were happening like magic, but they were just kids.
Then an idea occured, like a regular light-bulb-above-head moment.
"How about we'd hit one of those local pools one day? I'd get a free entrance and possibly night hours special for wannabe mermaids." he prompted. How it didn't occur sooner he had no idea.

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