RP:Beach Day Prank

Part of the Once Upon a Midnight Dreary Arc

Summary: On this day, Magik and Meri throw Tessa into the ocean and learn that she cannot swim.

Cove

Magik and...Ohtar! are here! Magik has a large blanket spread out on the beach with two plates towards the middle. A larger plate has a variety of different types of sushi for the two adults to share. Unsure if Fleur would enjoy the adult sushi, Magik has prepared some kid-friendly "sushi" for Fleur. She seemed to enjoy her breakfast this morning so he's going out on a limb here. Her sushi is more fruit based with, unfortunately, more oatmeal, to be used to roll it all up. However, instead of caviar on top, he may have sneaked some sugar and candy-like toppings for her. He promises that whenever he gets to cook a dinner it'll be a more savory meal. Ohtar can be found casually walking along the water. Magik is sitting on the blanket without a shirt on and some baggy pants with the legs rolled up incase he wants to get in the water.

Meri getting to the beach should have been a pretty easy endeavor for Meri. How far of a walk was it from here to her place? Alas, sometimes Fleur loves to make Meri’s life difficult. The blonde arrives a considerable chunk of time after Magik. Was she going to show up at all? Maybe she got cold feet after this morning? Hopefully Magik is a little patient, if he is he’ll eventually hear the voice of a familiar kid giggling out the name “Oat!” Fleur is going to go say hi to the wolf, Meri will go greet the elf. For this beach outing she’s in shorts and black tank top. Good enough for the water. Anyway, she starts by apologizing profusely to Magik, “Sorry, sorry. She fell asleep and then we had to battle over which toys were actually good for the beach. How are you? You weren’t waiting long?” Her gaze moves from Magik to his little sushi set up, grinning a bit.

Magik | Ohtar's ears perked up quick as his name was called. The black wolf turns and rushes towards Fleur. He circles her a few times, kicking up sand everywhere in excitement. Eventually he starts running up and down the cove shoreline in the shallow water with Fleur. Magik waves as Fleur runs by, "And there they go.." He looks up to Meri then waves off her apologies, "Hello, beautiful..No need to apologize or explain." He then pats the blanket next to him, "We've only been here for a few minutes. I spent more time waiting for the order of sushi, to be honest.." He grins then pops a piece of food in his mouth. Nothing quite like fresh sushi at the beach with a smoking hot woman as his date.

Meri :: Oh yes, there will be much running and much kicking up of sand. Fleur is one energetic beast, it is good that she’s got a friend that can keep up with her. A bag of those toys Meri mentioned is dropped in the sand as Meri drops down onto the blanket next to Magik, not being shy about scooting up close, so close that her legs are draped over Magik’s. “She makes me feel so old sometimes,” Meri remarks of Fleur as she locates her own piece of sushi and plops a piece into her own mouth. She’ll speak to Magik once she’s done chewing and swallowing. As much as Meri likes to claim she’s completely lacking in class, she’ll at least not be talking with her mouth full, “Well let’s see here. Have I met my question quota for the day? Or did it reset once you left go to set up this date?” Meri smirks.

Magik wiggles himself just a little bit closer to Meri. He takes another piece as well and watches Oat and Fleur as he chews. After the food is swallowed he says, "Fleur brings out another side of Ohtar. It's good seeing him run about and get some exercise.." Meri has his full attention again, "I mean, that's up to you. Anything lingering on your mind?" /shifts her blue eyes toward Ohtar at the same time Magik is speaking of him. There is a smile,F Fleur and Ohtar were pretty cute. Her attention moves back to Magik though, “Plenty. Everything. You’ve got this pretty good talent for answering one question? Then but then getting me to think of a couple more.” Meri smirks. “Like. Your eyes were blue earlier. How did that happen?” When she’s not chatting up Magik, she’s snacking on sushi. This werewolf usually has an appetite, Magik will learn.

Magik pops in one of the 'sushi' pieces he made for Fleur just to give it a taste. As he chews, he smirks at Meri. His eyes remain their 'normal' black however. "I notice they do that when I completely let my guard down or if I feel like completely giving up on something. Usually with the guard thing and feeling completely comfortable etc..It feels..weird." The elf picks up another one of Fleur's snacks and admires it. He winks to Meri, "I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but these are pretty good.." He offers it. If Meri passes, down the hatch it goes.

Meri gives a soft ‘hmm’ at the answer that she’s given. Meri’s just going to have to see if she can’t figure out how to get those eyes blue more often, that subject is left there. Instead she shifts the subject to the date Magik planned while also accepting that more eclectic piece of oatmeal sushi he put together for Fleur. The werewolf doesn’t turn it down, her nose tells her that it’s probably not a bad combination. “I think that you absolutely should pat yourself on the back, Mag. This is cute. I appreciate it,” no pat on the back, but Magik gets a kiss to the check, “And you.” Awe. Look. Meri can be nice. “And I am sure Fleur will think this is delicious whenever her royal highness sees fit to stop playing and come see what we have over here.”

Magik forgot the drinks! After Meri's compliment about the oatmeal sushi for the kiddo, he leans to the side and into his backpack. Whiskey flask for Meri. Beer bottle for Magik. A cup of juice for Fleur and an already filled bowl of water for Ohtar. What else does he have in that thing? Probably a stash of pickled eyeballs for Quintessa somewhere in there. "I'm sure she'll be over soon..Hopefully. If not, dinner?" Kids usually just do what they want anyways. Ohtar takes a quick moment from running around to glance towards Mag and Meri on the spread out blanket. As he does Magik quietly says, "Look at him..Always looking out.."

Meri :: Ahh drinks. That is exactly what this little spread was missing. The blonde was just about to offer another compliment to Magik when she spies a familiar looking figure moving up the beach from a distance. This individual was tall, skinny, had black hair...Even with the scent salt heavy in the air, Meri was able to pick up her scent from the distance. And the result her leaning in toward Magik in a conspiratorial fashion, “So. You get her arms. I’ll get her legs. We throw her into the ocean? Or. Do you want to get her legs? And I get her arms?” Meri is fond of Tessa, so she’s not looking to hurt the changeling. She’s also not fully in check with the woman’s fear of water. Ohtar is one smart wolf and leading Fleur to the blanket would be one very effective way to get the mini to pay attention to what is spread out on the blanket. Oh, and it reminds her that she has toys.

Quintessa is perhaps too deep in her head to notice that she isn’t quite alone on the shore of the ocean, her blue and hazel eyes gently washing over the waves as they ebb and flow back and forth. What was she thinking about? Well she certainly wasn’t thinking that her dear aunt was plotting on tossing the changeling right into the sea, but given that Meri didn’t know how utterly terrified of treading the ocean Tessa was, it wouldn’t offend her -that- much. Still, as Meri speaks about the hexblade a strange feeling builds inside her. Were her ears burning? Nose itching? Someone must have been talking about her to cause such a reaction. Slowly the young woman turns on her spot in the sand and gazes right in the direction of Magik, Meri, Fleur and Ohtar. “Well, if someone is talking about me at least I’ll be safe around them…” Quintessa mutters to herself, raising a hand up to idly wave in her clanmates’ direction before she reaches for her flask and takes a quick sip. At least Tessa didn’t forget her drink.

Magik nearly chokes on his beer as Meri speaks those hushed words. Acting as natural as he can, he moves a few things out of the way in case of a quick grappling of the changeling. Magik kisses Meri's cheek as confirmation, "I'll get her legs." He then whistles to Ohtar. It's definitely time for those two to come up and take a break for a moment. Ohtar happily obliges and leads Fleur up to the picnic. Magik gives him a pat as he glances towards the incoming Tessa. Unsure if Tessa and Ohtar have met, Magik reminds the wolf that she's a friend. The elf then scoots the water bowl towards the wolf then tosses a piece of sushi at him as well. As "Oat" takes his rest and gets a drink of water, Magik rolls up his pant legs up just a little farther. There's a Tessa! Magik winks at Meri then reaches into his backpack to pull out a small jar of Tessa's favorite snack. From his comfortable spot on the beach blanket he waves back to Quintessa then holds up the small jar. Have to lure her in somehow..

Meri winks to Magik while Tessa is still a distance away, signaling they were on the same page. Even if Tessa caught it? I mean it’s Meri and this would not the first time she’s been seen winking at Magik. Meri also plays the casual role, using her daughter joining the blanket as an excuse to reposition herself so that she could spring into action that much quicker. Look, she knew how feisty her niece could be. Juice was given, the special sushi that Magik had made for Fleur was offered. The child sits next to her wolf friend and snacks and then Meri’s attention is back on the adults and the mischief that they were up to. Meri also waves to Tessa, smiling in that fond way that’s reserved for her niece, “Well, well, well. Here comes trouble.” Meri’s just waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. She sees Magik baiting her poor niece.

Quintessa stares blankly for a moment, her eyes glued on the jar of eyeballs as her flask was tucked back inside of her cloak. She looks up at Magik, then at Meri, and then back to the jar he held out as bait, her footsteps hesitant as she creeps closer. Something didn’t feel right but there were eyeballs waiting for her, more than enough to grow her temptation larger than her caution. “Trouble?” Quintessa’s mismatched eyes flicker up to gaze at Meri again, trying to give her the most innocent expression she could manage. “But I haven’t murdered anyone or cursed anything in at least a week. Are you sure you aren’t just projecting?” Now Quintessa was close enough to reach for the eyes but this also put her in proximity of the trap they had set for her, and when it sprung she would have no idea what was coming…

Magik held the jar for as long as he needed. He purposely didn't twist the cap off because of what has been planned. He wouldn't want to make a mess on this super awesome beach blanket and he wasn't sure if pickled eyes were safe for kids. Anyways. Poor Tessa. When she gets in range, the elf is quick to turn to a plume of black smoke. The smoke cloud quickly shifts to the side and the elf materializes afterwards squating down with a grip on Tessa's feet/ankles. Lift with your legs, folks, not your back. In a quick motion, Mag attempts to lift Tessa off of the beach. Meri better be ready to catch those arms of Tessa's..If Meri is successful, Magik will lead the three towards the shallow shoreline.

Meri matches Quintessa’s most innocent expression with one of her own. Who wore it better, Magik? Admittedly there is probably not even time for Magik to judge this impromptu contest because Tessa was right, Meri was projecting and shenanigans were unfolding….and Magik was in on it. Magik goes to rip Tessa’s ankles out from beneath her and as the changeling is falling backwards, her lovely aunt will be jumping up to catch her arms. If Magik and Meri did this right, their beloved Tessa wouldn’t even hit the ground. The two of them would be hauling her toward the water. Throwing her into the ocean straight from the sand would not make for a comfortable landing for Tessa, so Magik and Meri are probably going to have to get at least ankle deep into the water. Meri’s gonna try and coax Magik into swinging Tessa back and forth, while counting to three. On three? Well Meri’s letting go. There is a lot of chuckling and giggling coming from Meri while all of this is happening.

Quintessa freezes when Magik turns into smoke, her hand still outstretched for the jar of eyeballs as he swiftly gets into position to grip her legs and lift her from the beach. There was little the changeling could do, being caught flat-footed so successfully, except for emitting a high pitched shriek as she was lifted in the air, not at all sure what he was planning. But this was Meri’s plan. As Quintessa falls backwards into her aunt’s hands and is carried in the direction of the ocean, she starts to squirm. “H-hey! What in the nine Hells are you two- Wait… where are you- Nonononononono!” The changeling tries to escape, tries to slip out of Meri and Magik’s grasp but she is vastly outmatched. Meri alone would probably be strong enough to overpower Tessa, but with Magik also assassisting it was hopeless to escape. “Hey! Stoppit! Not like this!” Quintessa’s eyes wide with terror, she tenses as they carry her closer to the water, bracing herself as they prepare to toss her in.

Magik was all smiles and laughs, "I'm sorry; Tessa! I have to!" He then kisses the air towards Meri. They were a thing now. Is it obvious yet? Magik's grip tightens as Tessa struggles. Into the water they go and the swinging begins. One. Two. Three. And she's off. Magik lets go of Tessa's feet and is quick to follow into the water as well. As she flies just a couple of feet, Magik dives into a wave. He disappears for a quick second and surfaces with a big seashell for Fleur. Dripping wet, he shakes his head as if he was in wolf form and holds up the seashell, "I found a thing!" He's so proud.

Meri remains standing in the ocean once Tessa is released, still giggling and looking quite proud. Magik dives into the water as an elf but surfaces as a wolf, unsurprising to Meri but she doesn’t quite see what he has in his mouth as he goes to her daughter. She’s not worried, she’s curious. But, she waits for Tessa to surface. She and Meri can move back to the shore together. While all of this was happening, Fleur and Ohtar were watching from the blanket. Fleur only had a mild interest though, she was more concerned with playing the ‘piece of sushi for me, piece of sushi for you’ game with Ohtar. Up until this point, Fleur has only seen Magik as an elf. Fleur has always seemed to like Magik, she’s just always been more interested in playing with Oat. That changes when her blue-eyes fall on this new wolf. What. The. Heck. The kid is leaving the blanket and to the water now to investigate, but Meri’s pretty sure that between Magik and Ohtar she’ll be fine.

Time stands still for Quintessa for a moment as the cold sea water engulfs her, numbing her mind and body as the darkness takes hold. Somewhere in the back of the changeling’s twisted psyche a memory stirs, a memory of being a child again in the Dark Forest. In the memory she’s sinking, a hand outstretched for someone, a figure on the edge of the Black Pond with sickly yellow eyes and sinister grin. ‘Help me’ she wants to scream, but when she opens her mouth it fills with the disgusting putrid water of the pond, robbing her of her breath and causing her to sink even faster. Darkness creeps around her vision until nothing is visible except the cruel eyes of the woman who threw her into the murky waters… In the present time her body also sank to the bottom of the shallows but the ocean water was clean and clear compared to the Black Pond, allowing her to view the surface and realize it was not that far away, but her fear paralyzed her and kept her from surfacing like iron chains locking her to the sandy floor. Ten seconds pass, then twenty, but Tessa still hasn’t come up for air. It wasn’t until her lungs were burning and her time running out did the changeling’s body finally react to her pleading for it to move, to reach for the surface. Luckily it wasn’t that far away. She thrashes her arms upward and her legs kick the sand below, pushing her head out of the water as she gasps for air, coughing up the salty water that rubbed her throat raw. Looking much like a cat that has just been given a bath, Tessa slowly walks her way back to the beach, her hands clawing the water as if it would give her leverage to move fast until she collapsed to her hands and knees on the shore, flinching each like the waves smacked against her until she had caught her breath enough to crawl away from its reach. “You-” Quintessa gasps, not quite able to speak properly, “Frakking bastards…”

Magik swims towards the shore then trots towards Fleur with the seashell still held in his mouth. Tessa will be back up soon, right? Before Magik can come face to face with Fleur, he's surrounded by a smokey black orb. When it disappears, he's back to his elven self. He's on one knee in ankle deep water with the seashell held out for Fleur. Before Fleur can take it, Tessa finally emerges. The elf grimaces as he looks from Meri to Quintessa, "You good, Tessa? Take a breath.." He then looks back to Fleur and pats her head, "Can I have a piece of your sushi? It looks yummy." Yikes. He didn't know Tessa would have had such a bad time in the water. He definitely feels bad. Back to Fleur, he holds his hand out and attempts to lead her back to the beach blanket. If she refused, Ohtar would take over once again. Either way, Magik is going to head back to the picnic and get those eyeballs for Tessa

Meri stares at the surface of the water, Tessa should have come up by now. Maybe she was just trying to prank them back? Pretend like she was drowning in super shallow water? Meri lifts a brow as she watches, just as the blonde starts to move to try and figure out where exactly in the water they launched her niece, Tessa thrashes to the surface and seems to be in a total panic. Meri is frowning deeply as her prank was meant to be in harmless good fun. The woman moves after Tessa, she’s never been the hugging sort and she can’t imagine Tessa is the sort who appreciates it either. Meri falls into a crouch somewhat near Tessa, giving her space enough to have breathing room. Magik has already chimed in with the ‘you good?’ So Meri is going to whisper a soft, “I’m sorry. You know how to swim, yeah?” Once Quintessa seems to have caught her breath, Meri would offer a hand to help her back to her feet so that they could return to the blanket and go find her some eyeballs for reals this time. Magik gets a piece of sushi from Fleur, it seems like a very fair trade to her. In fact, once she takes his hand and follows him back to the blanket and he’s now officially part of the ‘piece of sushi’ rotation with herself and Ohtar.

Quintessa pulls her soaked cloak from off her shoulders, tossing it to the side so it wouldn’t weigh her down as she struggles to her feet, the water filling her boots sloshing as she finds a large enough rock to sit on so she could pry them off. “Take a breath? I never would have thought of that myself…” she mutters, pulling one boot off with such force it nearly sends her flying backwards off her perch. She steadies herself and gives a forlorn look in Meri’s direction, brushing her overgrown fringe out of her face. “No, I cannot swim,” she says using her toes to pry off her other shoe, her voice a little more calm than it was when she called them bastards. Honestly, now that the panic was subsiding she actually found it a little funny. “I thought I was going to die.” With both boots off she relaxes on the rock, propping her elbows upon it as she tosses her head back to gaze at the sky. “Didn’t I ever tell you two? I’m terrified of the ocean…”

Magik sits with Fleur and Ohtar and the plates of sushi. After his turn of receiving a piece from the little one he looks to Tessa, "I had no idea, Tess. I'm sorry." He reaches to his side to grab that jar of pickled eyeballs and softly rolls it towards the changeling. Magik's turn already for another piece? He smiles, "I wonder if mommy wants a piece.." In an attempt to lighten the mood, a piece is tossed towards Meri. Will she catch it in her mouth? Hit her in the cheek? Or end up in her top? Hmm.

Meri :: If Meri had not been a little preoccupied with Quintessa, she might have actually seen that chunk of food flying toward her. The psion -probably- could have just stopped it mid-air, or maybe caused it to levitate straight into her mouth. Wouldn’t that be a nice trick? Alas, Meri is all eyes on Quintessa when this is happening, “You know Magik has a pool and I could teach y- “ and it’s right about then that Meri is hit in the side of the cheek by the chunk Magik’s tossed at her. Her sentence was close enough to being finished, aye? Fleur giggles at this and immediately copies, launching a second piece at Meri. This one Meri sees, but she takes it for her daughter’s amusement. “Woooow, really you two?” Meri smirks. “I’m gonna smell like fish the rest of the day now.” Her eyes narrow on Magik playfully, “And are you watching Fleur while I get a bath?”

Quintessa rolls her head to look over at Magik and she sighs, no longer annoyed with them for what they had done. It wasn’t like her life was actually in danger, right? “It’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting that.” She sits back up to remove her belt before she starts removing her catsuit, pulling her arms through the long sleeves and her head though the neck before escaping out of the back and tossing it over with her cloak and boots. Even without her clothes on she wasn’t completely naked, her breasts covered by a cloth wrap and her lower region covered by simple underwear. Quintessa wasn’t modest, however, and wouldn’t have minded what was on display or not. Catching the exchange between Magik and Meri from the corner of her eye she can’t help but smirk. “This isn’t going to interfere with our work, is it?” she jabs, reaching for the glass jar and bringing it to her lap as her other hand pointed back and forth between the two accusingly. “Not that I mind- it isn’t like Karasu and I haven’t already defiled the pillows in the headquarters.” The smirk grows to a grin as she twists the top off and pops an eye into her mouth. “Worse comes to worst, I could watch Fleur while you take a bath together. Call it an exchange for you teaching me how to swim tomorrow, unless you have something better to do. No time like the present after all.”

Magik giggles with Fleur. The sushi attack was successful! He then pshts Meri, "Of course." A wink for Meri and a no-look easy sushi toss to Fleur. Got 'er! He was just about to add to the swimming lesson comment but Tessa's words had him looking at Meri with wiggling eyebrows. He smirks then looks back to Tessa with a more serious tone. "I don't think this'll interfere, no. If anything, I think it'll be highly beneficial..more to fight for, ya know?" There it was. The magical words from Tessa. They had an impromptu babysitter. Magik would be out of line to accept her services, to be honest. The Lyastri shrugs at Meri, "I'm..okay with that..Ohtar can help Tessa too..But, obviously your call." Magik's ready to haul ass when Meri is..Tessa's the best.

Meri was about to chime in with her own two cents on if this whole ‘thing’ will interfere. Meri did not, but she’s not going to get the chance. Tessa says some very distracting words and they have Meri snagging Magik’s hand and grinning like an idiot. Yes, Quintessa was a perfectly acceptable babysitter in Meri’s view. They were family. Both Magik and Meri are probably very quick to ditch Tessa, they’re not even sorry. “Love you, you’re the best, see you tomorrow.”

Quintessa waves the two off as she reaches down to grip her wet cloak and lift her cigarettes out of it, which to her disappointment were too soggy to light. “Elazul’s Bite…” she curses as the damp paper disintegrates in her hand, leaving nothing but loose plant matter in the palm of her hand. “Well, this is unfortunate…” She dusts the tobacco from her hand and stands to overlook Fleur, hands planted on her hip. “Well kiddo,” Quintessa says down to her with a smile, “Looks like you’re under your Big Sister Tessa’s watch now. Go ahead and keep playing until my clothes dry and then I’ll show you all my favorite places in the city. We’re going to have so much fun together, I can feel it.”