La Belle et la Bete (Open)

[Charlotte Larkson]

The warm Montana breeze blew against Charlie's cheek, teasing he hopeful message of spring. Even if this was a warm front, and they were scheduled to go back to the bitter cold the next morning, the tall brunette wanted to take full advantage of the freak occasion. 

Sitting on the far bench, away from most of the sun seekers Charlie sat strumming her ukelele working on her most recent endeavor. The ukelele was a recent thing. A gift from her older brother Tyler who had came across it in his travels across country to California in a second hand shop. It was worn with the finishing half rubbed off, though Charlie liked to call it well loved instead. 

She hummed lightly before words started to form out of her mouth. Singing had always been an unattainable interest of hers. Charlie's mother never let her explore it in favor of dance. She was supposed to be a ballerina, she was supposed to be her mother in a second life. She wasn't all that disappointed with the turn of events that forced her out of that world and made her wake up and take a look at herself and ask herself... who am i? What do i like? Turns out, she liked funny songs that sounded a little like this... 

A long time ago, in a story so old

There was a beauty and and a beast, or so I’ve been told 

They were these two strangers, two lonely souls 

But it’s not what you think, no, here’s how it goes:

Lets start with the Beast, he was ugly and scary 

Pathetic and poor, and horribly hairy-

She stopped short. A person. Shit. They hadn't heard her singing did they? Her face flushed red. She'd sung in front of one person before and that was Tyler. God they probably were coming over to tell her to stop. 

(Original Song: www.hitrecord.org/records/1083929 Not my own) 

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank actually arose out of the fountain, but we'll get to that in a minute.

"Oh, oh, oh, I totally know this one!" she cried as she waddled over to Charlie, looking way, way, way too excited by half. A grin showed on her face and she was soon lifting up the water mask that covered roughly half of her face. She also adjusted the snorkel that kept bobbing beside her, which helped make an incredibly toothy smile all the more visible. She threw her hands open wide, sending a few droplets of water flying in various directions, and then began belting, very nearly at the top of her lung:

"Just a little chaaaaange
Small to say the least
Both a little scaaaaared
Neither one prepaaaaared
Beauty and the beeeeeeeeast

Ever just the saaame
Ever a surrr--" and then Frank blissfully was hit by a serious of coughs and wheezes, which required her to hit her chest a few times with a clenched fist. Eventually she closed her mouth, seemed to consider something for a moment, then turned and spat, which threw out a fair amount of water and what looked like about eight cents in pocket change. She turned back to Charlie.

"I think I've got a better voice though, don't you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and widening the smile.

[Charlotte Larkson]

Charlie laughed as she watched the girl jump up and come over to join her, excited when she seemingly knew the song. When she came over and sang a different song Charlie laughed again and changed her song to match, singing harmony to Frank who had quite a lovely voice stopping short when the girl started hacking up a lung.

"Jesus. Are you ok?" She asked patting the girls back. She didn't know why, but she'd seen it in the movies once or twice and it seemed like the right thing to do... even if it was a bit odd to be touching her. Hmm... maybe she didn't want to be touched. Charlie took her hands back to herself, gripping her ukelele. 

"Oh yes. Actually... I'm really impressed." She admitted as her lips stretched into a smirk. "Tell me what else do you like to sing? I'll be your backup you just start it."

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

{dood, Frank cannot sing remotely in tune in the slightest}

Frank held up a finger at the question of her status of "okay," hacking and coughing a few more times, adding a few chest thumps just to make sure. There was some back petting, which certainly helped matters. Helped Frank eventually clear her throat and rise more or less upright. She certainly didn't mind the touching though, practically collapsing on the other girl when it was all finished.

"I like to sing all kinds of stuff!" said Frank, her eyes brightening. "I know like every song from Disney that was, like, ever written, and those are usually awesome. I also know that new one from the one movie with the dancing yellow dildo guys... uhh... I can't remember what it's called. The movie, not the song. But we could totally sing some more together! Oh, oh, we could do a whole new world, and I can totally sing the guy's part:

(and lo, she kept going, not even taking a breath before launching into a ridiculously low pitched):

"I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?" Thankfully, Frank paused there and turned to the other girl, nodding, obviously awaiting approval for her totally accurate guy voice.

[Charlotte Larkson]

So the girls voice wasn't the prettiest. But Charlie was never one to judge. If the girl liked to sing, she'd let her sing, and she'd play along for her all day if it made her smile. It was simple as that, even if the girl was half ready to hack up a lung. 

Charlie laughed as the girl gained momentum talking about the songs she liked. Charlie was a fan of disney, she'd seen most of the movies but not all of them. They weren't really in her parents library growing up so the ones she had seen she'd seen at the few friends houses she'd visited. She resented her parents for that, she felt like she missed out on a lot of childhood things. 

Charlie continued to strum along, stopping short when the girls voice hit an octave that seemed unnatural. 

Charlies mouth was hanging open when she stopped. She blinked. She didn't know what to say but ended up erupting in laughter and amazement. "Holy Crap! You need like a youtube channel that's like... What?!" She clapped. It wasn't the typical vocal talent but talent it was indeed. "How the hell did you do that!?!" 

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank rolled her eyes: "Those so aren't the right words. It's supposed to be all like 'A whole new place I never knew and junk'!" said Frank, moving her voice into a slightly higher octave to better represent Jasmine's voice. She paused for a moment, scrunching up her nose. "though I guess I didn't sing quite all of Aladdin's part, did I? Weird how I keep doing that and junk. But you totally have the Jasmine voice and wait, did you say I should get a YouTube channel? I thought about it, but I totally don't understand how that works. I mean, I like, know how Facebook and the internet works, and I can access like every cat video in existence. I once binged and watched thirteen straight hours of cat videos, which was so awesome, except I then did all these weird cat things for, like, a day or two after.

"And I mostly just pitched my voice low. It's not like I got that vocal mimicry power or anything. My throat's probably all jacked up from eating a whole bunch of weird crap though,' Frank shrugged, finally pausing as she did so, at least in the whole conversation thing. Most of the rest of what she'd said had come out in a near solid string of words with hardly any breaths shoved in between.

"That and I practice a lot, because it's fun," said Frank, adding a shrug. Doesn't everybody do stuff like that? Frank knew quite a few that did. Then again, people were strange.

[Charlotte Larkson]

Charlie could hardly keep up with the girls enthusiasm. She seemed to bounce from one topic to the next without a fraction of a second to think. So instead of trying to respond to all of it, or even attempting to get a word in, she just nodded and continued to strum as she observed the fascinating blonde in front of her, snorting when she mentioned the side effect of watching too many cat videos.

She shook her head. "I mean yeah people practice all sorts of weird shit. Like i have this ukulele. But throwing your voice? That's like.. so much more cool to play with." She said attempting to throw her voice down as she finished the sentence and failed. She'd never given much thought to voice mimicry but now had a whole other respect.

"Wait." She paused backtracking to the part of the conversation where the girl had mentioned eating all sorts of weird crap. "What is your power?" She knew who Frank was, but... what kind of weird crap. "Can you like withstand poisen or something?"

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Well, I can't really throw it or anything. I just can sound like an idiot; I've got lots of practice with that," said Frank, bouncing and nodding at the same time. She was more than ready to go on with that part of the conversation, but the other girl had said wait. Despite her tendency to run over people verbally, Frank still recognized when people said that. She paused mid-word, snapping her mouth shut and looking at the other girl with absolute interest.

The withstand poison thing made Frank pause. She tapped her mouth with her finger, humming a few times, and, again, bouncing on her toes while she considered. "Uh, probably? I don't usually eat poisonous stuff though, because, like, it's poisonous and all that junk. My metabolism's all, like, super fast, so I could end up super dead. I did eat a battery once; just gave me the poops. Oh, yeah, my power, it's, like, I can eat stuff," Frank waved her hand in a sort of general manner, nodding a few times "Yep, anything. Rocks, plants, steel, cookies, candy, sugar, energy drink cans, plastic wrappers, I can just nom it all," Frank nodded a few times then grinned. "Wanna watch? I'm so used to eating stuff for people. I'd make YouTube vids if that wasn't a whole 'showing off your mutant thing.'"

And now, distracted by the prospect of nomming away at something, Frank began searching the area. She'd apparently forgotten whatever it was that they'd been discussing a few moments ago. Now this, this was her quest: to eat... something weird.

[Charlotte Larkson]

She nodded taking in what she had to say about what quite possibly was the most... unique ability she'd come in contact with. "Makes sense." She said regarding staying away from blatantly toxic things. But maybe it would still work. If her metabolism was so fast to be able to process something like a battery or shoe laces maybe it could stop poison before it was able to damage. The inner scientist in her was fascinated with the possibilities especially if the reason for it had to do with something in her blood or some other inner chemical reaction. If they could replicate Franks ability and turn it into a pill they could possibly come up with a killer antidote for when poisonous substances were consumed. Her brain was reeling. 

"Yeah I want to watch!" Charlie beamed as she looked around with Frank to try and spot something interesting. Of course, she didn't feel particularly comfortable suggesting things to watch someone else eat. For some reason that seemed a bit rude so instead she shifted her weight to allow herself to sit indian style on the bench as she watched the girl go and do what she did best.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

At this point, Frank was pretty much just relishing in the attention. She absolutely loved showing off, and she loved that her ability allowed her to do that from time to time. She certainly wasn't going to sit around and think about it. Part of her "training," not that she needed a lot of that, involved eating different things and recording her reactions, not that Frank really paid much attention to that.

Frank eventually found a rock. She held it up, moving it back and forth so that her new friend could get a good look. "See? It's a rock? totally normal," she knocked her knuckles against it a few times, then winced and shook the hand, eventually sucking at them. She held it out for Charlotte to get a decent look before pulling it back. She rolled it a few times, mostly by waving her wrist, then held the rock up. She very delicately lowered it toward her mouth, opened wide, and bit down. The rock crunched, and soon Frank chewed.

She chewed, then opened her mouth, displaying the rock bits before swallowing. Frank then hit her chest a few times, before waving a hand, "See? That's how it works! I can do it with more exciting stuff than rocks too, but, y'know, it was close," she tossed the half-chewed rock to Charlotte's feet, figuring that the other girl might want a closer look. It did look weird when Frank took a bite out of something like that, after all.

[Charlotte Larkson]

Charlie rested her head in her hands and her arms on her knees as she watched Frank like a kid watching their favorite disney princess in a parade. Pure delight. Why? Well she enjoyed the lesser seen beauties of the world and Franks power was just stunning in her eyes because of its uniqueness that could only fit a girl like a Frank. It was perfection and so her.

When Frank bit down on the rock Charlie winced a bit, her hand moving to her jaw as it ached for Frank's teeth that seemed to not notice at all.

"That's awesome." She beamed as she picked up the chewed rock that landed at her feet. "Jeeze that must have been an interesting one to find out." She said with a chuckle. "Really cool. My ability is just time manipulation and nothing even cool. More so just like slowing down time or speeding it up." She explained with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I mostly tend to give people deja vu though."

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Nooooot really," admitted Frank, shrugging, "I just got really hungry one day and bit a wall. I meant to do it as a joke, y'know, like you do," like Frank did, apparently, "but I actually ended up taking, like, this real sized chunk outta the wall and swallowing it. Spoiler alert: walls taste like wall and waaaaaiiiiit a second. Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaaaaaaaaaiiiit! Whaddaya mean 'my ability is just time manipulation it's not that cool,'' Frank said this in a slightly different voice that, of course, sounded absolutely nothing like Charlotte. "That sounds freaking ah-maze-ing! I mean, can you like, jump back in time and meet your dad when he was kinda hot or--oh, oh, like that one movie! You know, the one with Michael J. Fox when he was hot and that weird scientist guy who did all the time traveling and," she snapped her fingers, "Ghostbusters! No, no, that wasn't it... The Time Machine? No, that was lame, um... you know what I'm talking about!'

Frank waved a hand dismissively then hopped over to Charlotte. She grabbed the girl by the hands and hopped up and down. "That. Sounds. So. Cooooooooooooool! Oh, can you do it to me? Can I, like, go see the dinosaurs or something!? Oh, or space! Hoverboards! We should so go get hoverboards! then we can ride them and make people super jealous. Or---" and Frank would likely keep talking until Charlotte interrupted her. She did this sadly, our Frank. Though she didn't have any issue with grinding to a halt whenever someone else wanted to speak. Charlotte would definitely have to cut into that near solid stream of words though.

[Charlotte Larkson]

She laughed and shook her head, "If ONLY." She said, her hands running through her hair like they normally did whenever she got nervous, not that Frank was making her nervous, but the energy she was giving off was nuts and she wasn't used to being the less energetic one in a conversation. "I mean maybe one day. Who knows what'll develop but mostly like..." She paused, "I'll just show you." She grabbed Frank's hands since she'd basically given her permission to show her anyway. 

Charlie closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them, everyone and everything around them had slowed down so far that it looked as if they'd stopped completely. 

"See?" She chuckled, "It's pretty cool.... I can move around in the space and bring people with me but not for all that long." She said as she reached out and poked a bubble a girl near by had been blowing, instead of popping the bubble bounced. 

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"oh, yeah, showmeshowmeshowme!" said Frank. She probably would've wiggled right out of Charlie's grip had she not been, well, in her grip. So instead she attempted to hold perfectly still which, surprisingly, Frank was actually capable of doing. Soon enough the world would shift, which would leave Frank being more than a little disoriented for a while. She could handle it though, mostly because Frank could bounce back from pretty much anything.

"This is so cool!" said Frank. She immediately went around to start poking things. "Everything's so weird! Oh, do people see us? Are we like a big giant blur of motion and they can like, hear us talking really slowly or something? That would be awesome!"

Frank went to the girl whose bubble Charlie had just poked and sort of moved in front of her. Frank had already decided to milk this thing for as long as it lasted, possibly longer if that was at all possible. She did wonder what was going on with the people around her though; what with everything being all frozen and junk. Well, for them. That was still weird, awesome, but weird, so awesomely weird.