[Intro/OTA]

[dj_esebel]

Audrey's not entirely sure how she's managed it, but she fell asleep on the beach last night. It was just meant to be a breather, dipping her toes in the frigid water just long enough to wake herself up for the short drive back to her trailer park. Only the water had been extremely fucking cold, so cold she'd rippled up in orange scales and had to warm up the siren way just to get back to the sleeping bag she'd spread out to take a seat.

The plan had been to sit, warm up, wake up.

Which, in a manner of speaking, she's accomplished. After all she's very warm in her deep chill sleeping bag and she's mostly awake with the cold, gray morning light. "The fuck..." Audrey sits up and drags a hand down her face. "Well that sure is the fucking ocean..."

Good thing she's awake before high tide. That would have been more trouble than she'd been prepared to deal with.

Grumbling, she unzips the sleeping bag and carefully wills the orange scales away.

Comments

[astra_inclinant]

It's taken nearly a week, but Mira's just about figured out the weird shit going on with her dreams. Or other people's, to be specific.

It doesn't make it any less weird, though, and while it's a kind of nice break in the nightmares she's been having, she hasn't found herself getting a whole lot of rest out of it (though she had a really lovely conversation last night picking blueberries with the teenage incarnation of a woman who, by name, she realized halfway through is a teacher at her mom's school).

So when she woke up she just got out of bed in order to stave off anything else bizarre and got out of the house to walk by the water and think: about these magical powers and what if they never go away and what is it for, this stuff was supposed to make her her best self, right, so it has to be for something.

That's when she sees the girl, sitting up and looking slightly less than dressed for the weather but definitely rocking a sleeping bag, and stops. "Hey," she says out loud, and runs a few steps down the beach. She could be homeless, or lost, or -- trying some stupid fire spell -- really anything in this town, especially this week. "Did you sleep out here?" she asks as she gets closer.

[lesparker]

It's far too cold to be out on the beach. There's still snow on the ground, but Les is never one to be deterred and he has the luxury of warming himself with his powers so his morning stroll along the water isn't too terrible. Especially not when he spots the all too familiar camper parked out on the shore. He walks up with a smug smile on his face.

"Just look at you. Always the belle of the ball," he says smirking, sipping the very warm coffee he has in his hands. "Rough night, Cinderella?"

[dj_esebel]

"Not on purpose, but yeah," Audrey says, levering up from her nylon cocoon. She doesn't even know what she looks like right now. Honestly, probably a hot mess on a stick with scales. Between the awesome energy of her set last night and the fact that she'd probably changed shape for warmth and her natural inclination for bedhead, Audrey's pretty sure she must look...not particularly sane.

"I would love to have a good explanation for why I fell asleep on the beach in January, but I've never been very good at lying."

[dj_esebel]

Audrey snorts and drags herself out of the sleeping bag so that she can make an effort of swiping his coffee, fixing him with a Look that promises terrible things to come if he doesn't share.

"I just meant to get warm and then...I conked out." She doesn't bother making up a story, he's heard them all by now.

[lesparker]

"Conked out 'cos you were too sleepy or too drunk?" Les asks allowing her to steal his coffee. He looks over her sleeping bag and the state of her hair. "Haven't seen you around in awhile. Where have you been?"

[dj_esebel]

"Um..."

Audrey takes a long drink of coffee, asking herself the same question. "I thought that if I just stuck my toes in the cold water I'd wake up enough to get home..." She gestures vaguely at the sleeping bag. Clearly it hadn't gone to plan.

"Renaissance Faire in Georgia, then some...wedding in South Carolina."

[lesparker]

"Ess, dude, your home is parked like thirty feet over there. You should've crawled instead of sleeping in the snow," he says laughing. "Nice. Were you dressed as a trashy bar wench? I wanna see pictures."

[dj_esebel]

"Sand," she corrects. "And you know I have a permanent spot in that park. I wanted to get there but it didn't work out."

Groaning, Audrey gets to her feet and looks down at herself. Jeans, a Revengers t-shirt, barefoot. Okay good, at least she wasn't in that wench outfit. "Pirate, excuse you."

[lesparker]

"I don't believe you," he says skeptically, stepping back when she stands up. "You definitely have the look of a bar wench."

[dj_esebel]

"There are pictures and there was an eyepatch involved. I was a pirate." Playing the condescending world traveler, she reaches up and pats his cheek. "Just because I look like bar-crawling trash."

[lesparker]

He just smirks when she pats him on the cheek. "Alright, Eyepatch, I wanna see those pictures. But first let's go grab me another coffee since you just stole mine. How was the gig though?" he asks as he begins to walk back in the direction he came.

[dj_esebel]

Audrey laughs and stretches her hands to the sky, working out the kinks in her spine until she's sitting properly. "The Ren Faire was shitloads of fun but the wedding? Only fun if you enjoy rubbery chicken, crappy booze, and casual racism."

[lesparker]

Les gives a chuckle, shaking his head. "Sounds lousy, but hey atleast you got paid. Remember that wedding in Chicago?"

[dj_esebel]

Her laughter switches to a groan as Audrey shakes out her sleeping bag. "I got paid in cake and beer and I was this close to stealing one of the wedding gifts. It was a really fancy blender!"

At least she hopes that's the wedding in Chicago that he means. There've been a few.

[lesparker]

"Oh, what could've been. We could still be drinking margaritas in your RV. Like the classy people we are," he says, laughing at her groans.

[dj_esebel]

"Guess what asshole, you're buying me breakfast for rubbing salt in the wound," Audrey declares, still drinking her coffee. Never mind that between her bank account, wallet, and the mason jar under her bed she's actually doing pretty okay.

The point isn't getting someone else to pay. It's getting Les to pay.

[lesparker]

Compared to all the times before where Les was flat-out broke, he's doing good himself these days. So he shrugs at her demands for him to buy her breakfast. "Sure, I'll buy. You in the mood for some pancakes?" he asks, eyebrows bobbing suggestively, but he's mostly teasing.

[dj_esebel]

She laughs and slings an arm over his shoulder, guiding him toward her camper so that she can at least comb her hair. There's no saving the makeup, but the whole damn town is used to looking like she got scraped off the pavement somewhere.

"Depends," she teases, unlocking the RV door. "With or without the ill-advised sex for chaser?"

[lesparker]

He clicks his tongue against his teeth, making a face. "Well, I am single again," he says, but it's certainly not something he's happy about considering how much of a mess that entire situation currently still is with April and Caden. He follows after her to the RV. "And how was it ill-advised? You meet a cute dude in a diner why wouldn't you take him back to your camper?

[dj_esebel]

"I do have some pretensions to being a proper lady, you know," she says, back turned as she brushed her hair straight and tied it back. Returning to Les, she got a look at his face and went still for a minute.

"Hey, babe. What'd I miss, huh?"

[lesparker]

"I'm a gentleman, man. I even called you the next day," he says, smirking as he pushes some of her things aside so he can sit down on her couch. He stretches his legs watching as she combs her hair. "You just missed my utter self-destruction," he says, shrugging then sighs. "Look, it's a really long story but I'm sure you'll read about it in that trashy gossip rag in a couple weeks."

[dj_esebel]

"Yeah you are," she says, kissing his forehead. "You know The Cove is a joke, babe. I want to know the truth."

She perches carefully on his lap, arranging a few things on the table t free up space.

[lesparker]

Les puts a hand on her leg when she perches on his lap getting comfortable. "The truth?" He winces slightly at her question looking away for a moment. He and Audrey were like instant friends when they met and he's always been pretty open with her.

"I just realized I have feelings for someone else, and I ended things. It's horrible. April hates me. Caden hates me," he says, pausing a beat. "You ever been in love with anyone? Besides me obviously," he adds with a smirk.

[dj_esebel]

Audrey fixes him with a dubious look, combing fingers through his hair. "Are you asking a siren if she's been in love?" They're good at creating love, but she's always been slightly dubious of their ability to really love anyone more than they love music and control.

"No. I don't think I've ever really been in love," she says. "It's why I make such a good slut."

[lesparker]

"You're certainly do," Les teases giving her a smile, and up until recently so did he. He never had relationships issues because he'd never been in love with or even dated anyone either. "Well, just hope that if you ever do it's not with your girlfriend's sister. I promise it screws things up."