(no subject)

[naturaltalents]

Some days, TomTom has trouble staying still. He doesn't have a lot to do with himself and he has to try and stay busy or his tendency at the moment is to just start drinking. So he explores. Today, he's found himself a little bit away from the part of the island he knows and he's found a cliff that honestly looks like a skull. There aren't any pirates in sight, but the little part of him that remembers being tiny and watching Disney movies with his gran is pretty enchanted.

He's wearing shorts he can swim in and there's nobody really around, so why not?
He picks a rock he likes the look of and starts to strip.

Comments

[beaugeste]

"Mama! Mama!" Sophie-Elise, who had barely been getting the hang of walking, has taken very quickly to flying. Floating in the bright air, surrounded by giggling fairies, she bobs giddily around the island.

"Ba-ba!" she giggles when she sees TomTom. The fairies swarm about her, peering past her toward him, quite possibly to get a better look.

[naturaltalents]

Dropping his shirt on the rock, it takes him a moment to recognise the little girl - her mum is much more memorable. He lifts a hand to wave.

"Bonjour," he says, grinning. "She's got the hang of being airborn, huh?"

[beaugeste]

Marie can't walk quite as fast as Sophie-Elise' happy thoughts can carry her, so she's often a little behind. "You don't know how nervewracking," she admits wryly. Marie has not quite mastered flying, mostly because she hasn't quite mastered happy thoughts.

[naturaltalents]

"I can imagine," he says, resisting the urge to pick up his shirt when he sees her coming towards him. "I'm not up for flying, I don't think. I'll stay down here and watch."

[beaugeste]

"Me too," Marie agrees. She stops, not too far away, tilting her head to look at him with a bit of a grin. "Did we interrupt?"

[naturaltalents]

That grin, the way she tilts her head, makes him blush. All of these women remind him of Jess but, unlike Jess, he doesn't know how to handle himself.

"No, not really," he says, shaking his head. "I was just going to swim."

[beaugeste]

"In front of a giant skull?" Marie laughs. Though she'd be poking around all of this much more if any of it were real--then again, she has her hands full keeping Sophie-Elise from actually disappearing with the fairies. "Don't let us stop you."

[naturaltalents]

"Where's your sense of adventure," he teases, wandering closer to the edge of the sand. "Maybe talking to you guys would be more entertaining. What do you think?"

[beaugeste]

"You think so?" Marie laughs, tilting her head up to watch as Sophie-Elise tries to grab a fairy out of the air. It darts away, its melodic laugh like the trickle of water. "One of us isn't much of a conversationalist."

[naturaltalents]

"One of you seems like she's pretty okay occupying herself as long as we keep an eye on her," he says, pushing his hair out of his face. "I mean, I can always go for a swim and leave you alone..."

[beaugeste]

"Oh, no need," Marie assures him, smiling, "though if you do want to swim, don't let me stop you."

[naturaltalents]

And now he's torn, because the water looks really good but, you know, so does she.

"Water will probably wait," he says.

[beaugeste]

"Well, then," Marie says cheerfully, curling onto a good, large, flat rock. She can still move fast enough to catch Sophie-Elise if necessary, leaning back on her hands to tilt her head back and look up at Tom. "How are you finding things? All settled in?"

[naturaltalents]

TomTom perches next to her, his feet trailing in the water. He nods.

"I've got a job, sort of - working for Charlie at the Hub. Meeting people. It's...it's okay."

[beaugeste]

"Just okay?" Marie asks, genuinely curious. There's not much reason for people to work here in jobs that don't excite them.

[naturaltalents]

"Yeah, I mean..." He kicks his feet a little, flicking water. "I used to know what I was good for, you know? Here, I'm having to figure it out all over again."

[beaugeste]

"If you knew to start with, I think that's something," Marie says with uncharacteristic honesty. "Though I'd guess it makes the having to re-learn it even harder."

[naturaltalents]

"I'm good with computers. That's about it," he says, shrugging. "Not that useful here. But. Uh. I've started tending bar, so...that's...good?"

[beaugeste]

"Good," Marie says, because there isn't much else she can help with, there. "Alors, I think Charlie could use the help."

[naturaltalents]

"She's a nice girl," says TomTom, nodding. "And the bar's pretty mental sometimes. It's just...you know." He wiggles his fingers. "Not what I know."

[beaugeste]

Marie's mouth twitches. "As opposed to all the rest of this, which is just like home?"