Seaside Murder Smorgasbord

[Anonymous]

It was dark out as Ariane hauled the body she had all nicely packaged behind her, a soft pull-and-scrape sound the only evidence of what she was doing, lurking around behind all the backs of the buildings. No one was out this late anyway, and if they were, they were probably too drunk or tired to clue in to what was going on. She paused for a moment, readjusting the lead over her shoulder, and then continuing on. This, for sure, had to be the least rewarding, messiest part of her job. Everything was clean and silent and perfectly orchestrated - even the looks in their eyes as they faded - and then... Came the disposal part.

   The bodies were always cumbersome and awkward, like gigantic rag dolls, and it was up to her to make them disappear. Which proved especially difficult when said body was overweight. And, stairs. Ugh, stairs were the ultimate pain when it came to getting the package out of a house and away into the night. She couldn't count how many years and encounters it had taken her to master the art of keeping their limbs from thudding on all the steps all the way down to the next floor.

   Sighing, she adjusted the weight on her shoulder again. After tonight she was going to go home and enjoy a nice, long, hot bath. And a drink. Yah, definitely a drink.

   Ariane could see the shore from here, the light playing off the water's surface in an ethereal dance. It had always amazed her, the ability of and ocean's depths to hide things; secrets and betrayals and, now, murder.

   She dropped the tether from her shoulder, turning her back to the sea and walking backward, tether in hand, across the wet grass leading to the sand and the beach. Damn, this one was heavy. And, the friction from the patches of grass was not helping. It was going to be interesting pulling this one through the sand. The damp on the ground was soaking through the soft coverings on her feet, making her toes cold. Not the best shoes for outdoor adventuring, but definitely the most quiet for her indoor purposes.

   As she reached the shore, Ariane stopped to look out across the ocean, brushing the back of her arm across her forehead. The water lapped at the cloth-covered feet of her package, drawing back and crawling forward again, like the great heaving breaths of some ancient beast. Another night's work done. Tomorrow morning it would be the same routine. She would return to her client, finish their business, and walk away with cash in hand. Another month's expenses paid for. Fortunately for Ariane, murder was a lucrative business, and she didn't mind the job. It wasn't any of her business why these people wanted their friends, or partners, or enemies to disappear. She was just the vessel for their selfishness. As long as they kept paying, she'd keep providing.

   Lucky for her, paranoia was never short in supply. If she played her cards right, she could get two people trying to outbid her to kill one another. That was when she really hit pay dirt.

   Turning back to the body lying on the beach, she bent down to roll it into the ocean.

   "Sweet, watery dreams, my friend."

   She wouldn't have to take it out very far before the tide would take it. Just a few more steps into the water and she could be done, home for the night in time to make a cup of tea, wash up, and enjoy that bath. The prospect of sleep was so sweet, especially after having to haul all this dead weight around, sneaking behind buildings and spiriting it away through the shadows.    

   Just a little farther into the cold, dark waters.

[Anonymous]

Tucked deep beneath the ocean's surface, where only the empty blue of the light spectrum could penetrate, small schools of fishes glimmered like thousands of silver needles. It was like having a swarm of living, breathing stars in the barren expanse of the seabed, close enough to reach out and... touch. With this thought, a certain kelpie extended his humanoid hand slowly, carefully; but the school knew better, and danced just out of his reach like a writhing sea dragon.

Caspian huffed a sigh in the form of small bubbles that floated delicately up and away. He didn't get to see much life just below the sand shelf these days, especially so close to a sea port where over-fishing and uprooting entire ocean populations was a way of life. 'Greedy humans.' He thought bitterly, digging his toes into the ocean floor at the base of the continental shelf. The sand puffed away and around his feet through the water like smoke, and he crouched down to press off and launch himself up towards the surface.

Since Caspian had been around for hundreds of years by now, he had fabricated his very own reason for existence – to thin the human population. After all, who were they to assume they deserved a spot at the top of the food chain? Life is a delicate balance, and he was determined to preserve just that. His long, green-black hair flickered behind him like seaweed in the tides as he ascended to the very edge of the shelf. He was just wanted to check and see if any lone, unsuspecting humans were nearby at that moment to vent his frustrations on. And get a meal out of, of course.

"Sweet, watery dreams, my friend."

Caspian had heard the voice as clear as day, though the sound of it was slightly skewed through the crashing of the tides. It was undoubtedly female, which was Caspian's favorite type of meat. Their flesh could be so tender! And those legs, oh. Long legs were a delicacy, the most savory and delicious part of the whole gir- "Huhh!"

In his reverie, Caspian had failed to notice the rather heavy body – and that was saying something, given the properties of salt water – that was inevitably drifting down from the surface and landing squarely on his head.

----

As soon as Ariane had allowed the body to slip beneath the surface, it came right back up, wobbling about in the water like some ghostly.. buoy or something. However, the body was now lacking in any sort of clothing or mask it may have had prior to falling into the ocean. This was made obvious by the many fat rolls jiggling in the moonlight, and the unabashed nakedness of the dearly departed could have been slightly... mortifying given the man's physique. A pair of hands broke through the wall of a wave and gave the body that extra shove it needed to flop like a beached whale back onto the shore, followed by the boy who had done the pushing – now dressed in whatever clothes the dead man had on his back. It didn't fit very well, and the boy had both hands curled around the waistline of the pants to keep it up.

Sopping wet, Caspian tossed his neck to flip his dark and dripping hair from his face, so he could more properly give Ariane a curious and slightly annoyed stare. "Girl," He began slowly while nudging the dead body with his bare foot. It caused a butterfly effect of ripples over the body's skin (Sorry if he isn't actually THAT fat. I just assumed. xD). "Does ...this belong to you?" The tone he'd used was something crossed between dry amusement and accusatory. He'd let her think he was disappointed with her little sacrifice to the sea, perhaps to see if he could score a two-for-one deal or... maybe to blackmail her. Not that he had any reason to.

I mean, it wasn't like he was lonely or anything.

[Anonymous]

The water was definitely colder than she remembered it being the last time she'd been here. Then again, that would have been during the day under a broiling sun in the middle of summer. At that point, the cold would have been a good thing, but right now it was making her teeth chatter, and as such, she was quick to retreat to the shore. Ariane was going to have a hell of a time getting all this wet sand off of her equally wet outfit, and she had a feeling she'd be dealing with grains of it underfoot for weeks.

Before she reached the shore however, the large, blubbery mass she'd just hucked into the ocean almost knocked her over as it collided with her back. This would be the first time she was dealing with a possessed corpse, and she wasn't in the mood. She was also pretty sure it wasn't in her contract. Ariane stumbled onto the sand, an annoyed look on her face, and regained her footing in time to see the body follow her onto the shore. In this light, the thing looked downright disgusting, all shiny and jiggling. Following the body was another, however this one was clearly alive.

Wearing the dead body's clothes and holding them up like a little kid playing in their parents' closet, Ariane could only tilt her head to the side as she watched this... Man? ... Creature? Emerge from the ocean. Looked like a man, but she wasn't entirely trusting of that. He kicked at the body. Ew, it was still jiggling. Looking away from the corpse, she instead focused on the man from the sea. For a minute she just stood looking at him, as if she were trying to figure out just exactly what she was going to do with the situation. The safest bet seemed to be, just answer.

"... Not... Technically," Ariane leaned in closer to the man, still sopping wet and holding up the fat man's clothing. "Did you seriously just come out of there?"

She iterated the question with a finger pointed at the glistening surface of the sea. He sounded pissed, but, as they say, curiosity killed the cat. And, if he really did come from the sea, and she really was dealing with an unhappy creature from the depths, Ariane was going to have to do some quick talking to get out of being smited or turned into a toad or whatever else it was these inhuman beings did to people that pissed them off. The thought brought a nervous smile to her face. She was not being paid enough for this moonlight liaison.

"Um... yah," she stumbled. "Did I disturb you, Mr...?"

She waited. Maybe some casual chat would disarm him? Unfortunately, it was the only thing she had going for her at the moment. That and a hasty retreat into the shadows. Wearing that outfit, the man  couldn't be too quick. Ariane chanced a glance over her shoulder, doing a once-over for possible escape routes, before returning her attention to the ocean man with that same wary smile. 'Please, oh please,' she thought, 'Do not let him turn me into a toad.'

[Anonymous]

The kelpie was only half disgusted by the rippling body, but mostly because he didn't like having to pick through layers of blood-sodden fat while trying to get to the flesh beneath. Human fat was repulsive, if the man was human at all. Caspian remembered the way his hands had sunk into the rolls hanging off the corpse's bones when he'd pushed it through the waves, and it chased away all doubts. There was no other creature besides man who could master the sin of indulgence so completely.

When he'd let his eyes roam her own frame, he'd finally noticed it. Sand. Her whole petite frame was damp and encrusted with tiny flecks of sand. Caspian went completely rigid for a moment, his mind racing with the endless possibilities of how that could have come to be. Had she been in the water? His water? His element? The kelpie boy worried his lip, but that was the only outward sign of his inner turmoil. 'Has she slipped through my fingers already?' He tried to hark back on what he'd been doing the moments before a dead body had ambushed him. Too caught up in his reveries to hear the girl wading through the tide. How simple it would have been to have paid attention and snagged the girl by her ankles before she could think twice. He thought ruefully, hot with embarrassment. Droplets of water bled from the razor tips of his hair to break and scatter against his shoulders, to drip divided down his chest in cold streaks. The shirt he'd 'borrowed' was still far too large, but it clung wetly to his body all the same. It didn't give the droplets much cover. Or anything much cover, for that matter.

"... Not... Technically,"

He didn't press the question anything beyond a sigh of contempt, which broke past his lips with the same tact as the ocean tossing itself angrily against the shore. It was because of the high tide that the water was reacting so fiercely, as in drugged up on the power of the moon's influence. Was that why the soft coastal breezes had such thick, raw undertones of the sea? He angled his head a little as wind rushed his way, carrying with it a smell so salty and alluring that it pulled at Caspian's heart. He knew where his true allegiances lie, and it was slightly imperative that he secured his knowledge that he would drag this girl to the depths with him.

"Did you seriously just come out of there?" "Did I disturb you, Mr...?"

As she leaned closer, Caspian's dark eyes, as unreadable and blue as the skin of the sea, bore into her with an intensity that could be mistaken for passion. " It's Caspian," He allowed, not actually considering that she had the slightest chance of living to speak his name ever again, "and it would appear that I did." Advancing on a kelpie was a dangerous thing, the closest to a 'you have a chance' you could possibly do without actually uttering the words. He took a single confident stride towards her - his bare foot swept across the sand, Earth which molded soft and pliable beneath him, and came to a delicate standstill about 3 feet shy of her. Not that he was terribly close, but he'd closed a bit of a gap. As wispy clouds floated overhead, moonlight glided across the sand like luminous ghosts, dappling the scene in sporadic spotlights. He quite liked being able to see her in clear natural light every so often. She was pretty – by ordinary standards, though that's what made her so much more... unique in these times. Though he noted that she was abnormally small for a human. He'd seen elves taller than her, even beings half fae that would have dwarfed her in their presence. It made the idea of her killing a man of that magnitude and hauling his body to the sea almost laughable. "What business does a small girl have pushing a body out to sea? Can you tell me that much? Or would the appropriate answer be 'none technically'?" He cooed teasingly, his voice pitched soft in his proximity (if she didn't jump back, that is. xD if she did, it's just normal.), and charming smile playing on his lips just for her.