"Virtually every kid is exposed to giants and ogres and talking wolves, and so forth. And magic. And I think you never outgrow your love for those imaginative, fanciful, far-fetched, fantastic characters and situations." – Stan Lee
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Chapter VI: Little Mermaid
Her feet balanced across the icy cold water's surface as she stepped east, an eerily foreign sense of calm washing over her despite the storm that raged around her like a furious being. The walls of sleet and hail that showered down around her blocked her vision of what lay in the distance as she narrowed her brown eyes, desperate for answers. A gap in the weather revealed an enormous black silhouette of a ship, one that was used for deep sea fishing out in the middle of the ocean where it was the most dangerous. Goosebumps ran up her frozen arms, a terrifying signal for her to get away as a strike of white-hot lightning lit up behind the ship, revealing outlines of men standing aboard, staring across the sea at her with glazed eyes. An instinctive feeling flooded her veins as she raised her arm, directing her hand towards the ship of men, and she shut her eyes, feeling an energy drain from her as she strained her mind and muscles. She blinked her eyes open to find the ship sinking violently into the sea, eerie screams echoing from the people aboard as she forced it lower and lower until the water consumed it. As the ship had disappeared below the ocean's surface, the storm came to an immediate halt, the waves dropping to lay flat and the clouds beginning to dissolve. The girl stood atop the water's surface, staring ahead at a distance, but there was nothing but blue water. Her eyelids dropped in sudden exhaustion and she felt a warm, thick liquid drip from her lips as she collapsed, and the sea consumed her as it had consumed the ship moments before.
The girl's eyes blinked open, her body slightly jolting with shock as her senses came alive from her dream state. Her heart rate began to slow down as she took a few deep breaths and recalled her real surroundings, a bedroom that had been arranged for her to stay in temporarily. The sheets that covered her healing body were softer than the hospital bed's sheets, and they held colors of pale gray and a rich yellow. She wasn't too familiar with many colors other than white, black, gray and blue, but yellow that bathed the walls and mixed with her new bed reminded her of the sun, which she couldn't remember seeing very much of anyway. There were a few spots of pale pink sporadically placed around the bedroom, which she found to be a pleasing sight. There were also soft rugs laid down in a few sections that always made her toes curl, a little smile meeting her face at its comforting texture, like now as she stepped out of her bed and onto the rug.
Her petite frame had been dressed in a new set of clothes, something she found extremely fascinating. She couldn't recall if she'd ever worn pants before and she was still deciding whether or not she liked them. They were very soft pajama pants with a silk string pulled through the waistband, and a pale blue sweater to accompany them that was just as soft. She had slept very well with them on, with the exception of her strange dreams that never seemed to leave her psyche.
The girl stepped over to the large dresser a few feet from her new bed, four sets of three drawers holding a variety of clothes. She had only tried on the pajamas, her fingertips being drawn to them as she decided what to wear to bed the night before. They were a little big on her but most of the wardrobe that had been bought for her seemed it would fit her. Everything had tags that read either small or extra small on them. She bent down to open one of the drawers she remembered had jeans in them. She found a pair that were simple and had a smooth, flexible material that she removed from the drawer and laid down on the floor carefully beside her. She then began to venture into the drawer she had seen shirts and tank tops in. She found one that was a very deep gray and had two words printed on the front in an interesting font: Black Sabbath. She was unsure of what this meant but she assumed it couldn't be anything wrong since these clothes were bought by the people helping her. She grabbed it and placed it over the pair of jeans she had selected, ready to stand up and go get washed up when she noticed an article of clothing under the shirts in the drawer.
The girl carefully picked up the item and held it up in front of her by hooking her tan fingers under two loops and examined it in fascination. The two loops, which seemed to be the parts that would go over shoulders, connected to two bowl-like sections of it that were soft, the fabric thick and padded. The girl furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at it, curious as to what its purpose was. It was clearly an article of clothing, seeing as it was in the drawer with the t-shirts... She glanced down at her body to see where the item would fit and realization dawned on her as she held up the article of clothing to her chest. A breast-holding apparatus? The girl was proud of herself for finding the answer all by herself and decided she would experiment with it after she washed up.
She picked up the armful of clothes she had selected and made her way into the bathroom that had been connected to her room. She examined it more clearly, this being her second time in it, and furrowed her eyebrows at a wall of glass with a door. A silver contraption stuck out of the wall inside it, several holes in it, and she wondered what came out of it. It was beside a bathtub, which she was familiar with, so perhaps it was another method of bathing. She placed the clothes on the counter by the sink as her eyes fell upon a knob embedded in the wall below the contraption. She worked up the courage to open the glass door and cautiously step inside the little room. Her brown eyes traced every inch of the knob, and she noticed a meter-like stamp on it. One side was red and the other was blue, the red side reading HOT and the blue side reading COLD in block letters. She reached a careful hand forward and turned the knob towards the middle of the two temperatures and nearly went into full-blown cardiac arrest when a powerful shower of icy cold water protruded from the silver contraption above her head- which she now knew to be a faucet of some sort- and spewed her face and chest. She hopped out of the little room and slammed the glass door shut, panting as she suspiciously eyed the faucet streaming water onto the tiled floor, running into a drain below.
It took several minutes but the young woman soon decided to remove her clothes and slowly open the glass door again. She reached her hand out slowly and felt the water, which had now warmed up slightly. She walked in completely and shut the door, standing under the shower of warm water and goosebumps littered her skin. She smiled a little and turned the knob to the left and the water became hotter, clouds of steam forming around her, fogging up the glass wall that was enclosed around her. She began to examine the different bottles that sat in a cubby in the wall of the shower area and read the labels carefully to see what they were used for. One bottle was a mahogany color, a picture of what appeared to be a fruit on the front that was a deep red color. Below the picture, it read "Deep cleansing shampoo" with a picture of a girl scrubbing her hair. The girl awkwardly poured some of the substance into her hands and examined the picture of the girl and began to scrub the product into her wet hair. It began to foam up and run down her face and eventually into the drain. She then washed it out of her hair and began to play with the other bottles and their contents.
The young woman must have spent an hour in the shower, playing with the soap and drawing things on the foggy glass wall before she turned off the faucet and wrapped herself up in a large, fluffy towel. She enjoyed exploring the drawers under the sink, finding different little things meant for the body and hair, according to their labels and descriptions. She experimented with lotion, still unsure if you were supposed to put it in a general "all over" or everywhere. Figuring out what a hair brush was frightened her slightly as she found leftover hair on the brush when she was done, and she now stared at the funny-looking article of clothing she found earlier. There was a hook on the back of it that suggested different sizing options and she settled for the smallest. Though it took her about ten minutes and a few times of being stuck or tangled, she finally clipped it over herself and found it to be comfortable in a very strange way.
Once the girl was completely dressed in her jeans and t-shirt, still barefoot with her hair damp and beginning to curl, she opened up the bedroom door and peered down both ways of the hallway curiously and cautiously. She stepped out of the room and shut the door quietly, unsure of which way to go. And for the second time that morning, her heart leaped into her throat, her body jolting in shock, as a robotic voice suddenly sliced through the silence.
"Good morning, Miss. Would you like me to inform Mr. Stark that you are awake?" The male's voice asked her in a polite tone and she whipped her head around in all directions, searching for the source of it. "I am Mr. Stark's artificial intelligence. My name is JARVIS. If you ever need assistance, wherever you are in the tower, I am here to help," the voice added as if it noticed the girl's fear and confusion. The girl simply nodded slowly, still unsure, and JARVIS continued. "Would you like me to inform Mr. Stark that you are awake?" He repeated.
The girl nodded her head again, assuming the AI system would be able to see her in some way or form. There was a brief silence before the AI spoke to her again.
"I have just informed Mr. Stark you're awake. If you would like, I can direct you to the lounging and kitchen area. The team is preparing breakfast," JARVIS offered and the girl nodded her head once more in agreement. "Down this hall, to your left, you will see an elevator. Take the elevator to the third floor and the kitchen area will be to your right."
The young woman felt as though she could recall an elevator of some kind but her memories were still blurry and unclear. She followed the directions carefully and soon found herself inside a small box-like room with buttons littering the wall in front of her. She pressed the button with the number three etched on it and the doors soon opened to reveal a very large, modern room with furniture and some things she did not recognize. Her body filled with a feeling of curious euphoria as she noticed an entire wall made up of glass, revealing a glowing city below. Her legs carried her to the wall of glass and she gazed over the concrete jungle of buildings and streets that seemed to stretch on forever into the distance. Her breath fogged up the glass as she watched the thousands of people below rushing down the streets, getting into yellow vehicles frantically and scurrying in and out of little stores that lined the sidewalks with vibrant signs that read "OPEN." She was taken with the view and felt a longing tugging in her stomach to go explore her new environment.
"Hey, kid. How'd you sleep?"
The girl jumped slightly and turned her body to find Tony Stark standing behind her with a small smile on his face. She noticed he was wearing a t-shirt similar to hers with the same two words printed on it, and he wore a long-sleeved shirt underneath it. She glanced behind him to see the kitchen area the AI system had mentioned and a few other people were bringing plates to a coffee table by a large rectangular object sitting atop a wooden piece of furniture. She recognized Dr. Bruce Banner and the kind woman Natasha Romanoff. Two other men accompanied them that she didn't recognize and she swallowed anxiously as her heart began to beat a little faster. The two men she didn't recognize were both tall and appeared to be very strong, and she immediately felt afraid.
Tony noticed this and glanced behind him at the two men. "Oh, that's just Steve and Clint," he explained as he looked back at the girl and she simply looked at him. "They're on the team. They've been helping take care of you. Remember I told you about Captain America and Hawkeye?" He said, and the girl nodded, though still a little unsure. "I promise they're nice."
The girl glanced at them again to see they had noticed her presence and they both sent her warm smiles, which seemed to prove Tony's words. She simply returned her gaze to Tony and awkwardly followed behind him as he began to lead her towards the kitchen area. Her familiar feeling of unease and fear surged through her like an electric wave in her veins, her stomach twisting in the way it did when she felt she may be in danger. Something about the size and build of the two men reminded her of something- or rather someone- who carried the same kind of strength and abused that power. However, the welcoming smiles on the two men's faces contradicted this fuzzy memory in the back of her mind and she stepped forward to Tony's side.
"That's Steve Rogers, Captain America," Tony began as he gestured to the taller man with striking blue eyes and dirty blond hair, who sent her grin and a wave from where he sat on the couch nearby. "And that's Clint Barton, Hawkeye," Tony concluded, gesturing to the man on the other side of the couch with deeper blue eyes and short brown hair, and he seemed to be just a bit shorter than Steve Rogers.
"Hi," Clint Barton greeted with a smile and Steve Rogers did the same afterward.
"Hey, kiddo," Dr. Bruce Banner suddenly spoke up from behind the girl and she turned to see him exiting the kitchen with a plate of food and a smile.
The girl returned a minuscule smile and nodded her head once in greeting to the doctor, sending a slightly wider smile to Natasha Romanoff when the redhead greeted her as well.
"Make yourself comfortable, I'll get you some food," Tony offered and the girl nodded her head slightly as she looked back at the lounging area where the rest of the team sat. She cautiously made her way over and made herself comfortable on the soft rug by the coffee table.
"You can sit on the couch by me if you'd like," Natasha told the girl as the team tried not to show how odd they found it that the girl decided to sit on the floor.
The girl smiled a little and shook her head, gesturing to the soft rug below her and running her hands over the comforting material. Natasha simply chuckled and went back to her food as the girl played with the soft strands of the rug and examined things around the room curiously. Before long, Tony was placing a white ceramic plate full of colorful foods that the girl had never seen before, and her mouth watered at the sight. There were two strips of mahogany-colored food items that were crispy, alongside a scrambled, yellow food. She then examined the other side of the plate in amazement: a little glass cup filled with multi-colored little bite-size foods that smelled fresh and tropical, like the juice drink she had been given the day before. This wasn't her first meal here at the tower so she concluded that breakfast foods must be more colorful than lunch and supper foods. She had never seen something edible this colorful before, and it smelled wonderful.
"Someone's excited to eat," Steve Rogers noted, amusement lacing his tone and a few members of the team chuckled, but the girl didn't have time to react as she watched Tony place two silver items beside her plate, along with a napkin.
"There you go, bud. Bon appetit," Tony spoke with a joking tone as he went back to the kitchen no more than ten feet away to make himself food.
The girl stared at the two silver objects in fascination. Could this world be any more confusing and amazing at once? She wondered. She had seen so many strange and incredible things just this day and she had only been awake for maybe two hours. She carefully placed her fingertips over one of the silver items, the one with four sharp prongs at the end of it, and began to examine it closely, finding that she could see her reflection in it, which surprised her. She had a mirror in her room but the hot water had fogged it up and she didn't see much of her appearance at all. The metal of the object was cold, she noticed, and she suddenly felt several sets of eyes on her.
"It's like when Ariel found the 'dinglehopper' in The Little Mermaid," Clint Barton whispered over to Steve Rogers as he chewed his food.
The girl wondered what on Earth just came out of that man's mouth. Who is Ariel? What is a dinglehopper? A mermaid? There is still so much more for her to learn.
"I don't understand that reference," Steve whispered back to Clint in befuddlement, who in turn rolled his eyes and went back to devouring his breakfast.
"Ignore them. They're idiots," Natasha told the girl with a roll of her eyes, then picked up her own silver object. "It's a fork. You use it like you used your spoon the other day, only you stab food with it to pick it up and eat it," she explained a bit awkwardly.
Has she not explained the usage of a "fork" to someone before? The young woman wondered. Interesting.
The girl followed Natasha Romanoff's directions and stab her food, maybe a little more aggressively than needed, and brought it to her mouth, pulling the food off with her teeth and began chewing. It was very quite simple and soon the girl found herself to be a pro at using her fork and even finished her breakfast before everyone else despite the fact that she had been given more food than them.
Before long, the team had all finished their food and their drinks, which the girl had learned was called "coffee," and they each went off to separate parts of the tower to work once they had bid the girl farewell. Tony remained in the kitchen area with the girl and she watched him rinse her plate and put it inside of a machine she didn't recognize. She assumed it just cleaned dishes so she didn't find it too fascinating. What she couldn't stop wondering about was what Ariels, dinglehoppers, and mermaids were. So she searched the room for a pen and paper to ask Tony about these unfamiliar things. He noticed this and dried off his hands, pulling out an object from his pocket that the girl found to be a little familiar. It was rectangular and had a glowing screen with a picture of a pretty blonde woman on it.
"Here, you can type what you want to say on here," Tony said as he swiped his fingers around over the screen until a screen popped up that resembled lined notepaper and a little keyboard. He handed it to the girl and she stared at it. "Just tap the letters," he added, demonstrating by placing his finger over the 'P' button.
The young woman nodded in understanding and slowly began to type a message and show it to Tony.
Who is Ariel, what's dinglehopper, and a mermaid?
Tony couldn't help but let a laugh slip past his lips at the wording of the question, and he gave himself a moment to put his thoughts into words in a way she would better understand. "Well, um... there's this story about this girl who's a mermaid, which is someone who is half-human, half-fish-" He paused to chuckle at the expression on the girl's face that suggested slight disgust, then he continued, "They're not real. They're fictional creatures and they live in the ocean. Ariel is the name of a fictional mermaid who is learning about the human world and the things in it. Like a fork, she calls it a dinglehopper," Tony laughed slightly as the girl listened in fascination.
The girl typed a new message. How did Ariel go onto land if she is half-fish?
"There's this evil witch Ursula-" He said and the girl made a terrified face, causing Tony to rush his next words, "Again- fictional," and the girl relaxed as he continued. "She convinced Ariel to give up her voice to her, and in turn, gave her human legs so she could go on land."
The girl was silent for a little while, contemplating the story, mulling it over in her mind with foreign interest. She then typed another message on Tony's cellular device and he peeked over her shoulder to see the new words she had typed.
She's like me.
Tony smiled, the words warming his heart for a reason he wasn't quite sure of. Maybe it was the fact that there probably was no one in the world like the girl beside him and she seemed to be trying to contain her excitement at the idea of someone else- even if they're fictional- being just like her. And as Tony examined her face for a few brief moments, he found that she was quite fitting of the name Ariel.
"Yeah, she is, actually," Tony responded with a slight chuckle. There was a pause before Tony added softly, "Do you still not remember your name?"
The girl's smile fell and she dropped her brown gaze to her hands that held Tony's phone as she shook her head. He gently took the phone from her hands, careful not to touch her, which caused her to raise her eyes to his, and he sent her a warm smile.
"What do you think of the name Ariel?" He asked her.
The girl raised her eyebrows slightly, a sudden feeling of warmth and a sense of compassion flooding her at the idea of having a name. A new name, whatever her name had been before. Ariel, she echoed in her mind.
"Like it?" Tony smiled. "Ariel."
The girl nodded her head and smiled.
I have a name, she thought, her heart lurching excitedly at the thought. Ariel.
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A/N: Thank you so much for reading, and please vote if you enjoyed it! And don't hesitate to comment your thoughts, I love reading your comments :)
–Blys♡