Hey lookit two at once, isn't me talented ma?

….

Maybe I should not drink caffeine with my sugar

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Or I could go back to my therapist

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And just for reference the 'slope' that is talked about is… well horizontal surfaces have a tilt of 0 degrees, vertical surfaces are 90 degrees, the cliff is 15meters from average sea level to the top the 'base' is 5 meters wider at the top (Pythagoras mean a^2 + b^2 = c^2 ergo 15^2 + 5^2 = c^2 therefore 225 + 25 = c^2 so c^2 = 250 which mean c = [where's the square root button] the square root of 250 and thus c = 15.81metres) the slope itself is almost 16 metres down and the slope is at a decline of (…) actually I think you get the idea its very, very steep.

OHOHOHOoh! just BTB and FYI talus and scree are types of rock, they're sort of 'dead wood' for rocks, just cast off, natural debris, scree is no larger than a human fist, while talus is a little bigger.

Once a Mermaid:

Random Gravity

Becky breathed in deeply as she jogged along the ridge of the coastal cliffs, mist still clinging to the long sweeping grass in the fields by the path to her right. The fact that the path was on the very edge of the cliff didn't bother Becky, she was well aware of the drop and the jagged 'slope' that was covered in slate and mist and had no intention of getting too close to it, she jogged in the centre of the path the same as every morning.

What did bother Becky was the mist; the cold ground hugging clouds were filled with water vapour and with her unique condition to consider she had taken up wearing long sleeved pants that matched the long sleeved hoddie she already wore for her ritual morning jog. Still she was troubled that the mist might soak her clothes through to her skin and then… at least the mist was never more then knee high.

Mist muffled footsteps echoed eerily through the morning air shaking Becky from her revere, coming along the path from the other direction was a group of young men Becky didn't recognize; they had an air of arrogance about them as the jogged, taking up the entire path. The group surged to their left, toward the field side of the path forcing Becky to her left, to the edge.

The group spread out again leaving Becky precious little room to move, they forced her closer and closer to the edge, not one of them acknowledged her even as her foot slipped on loose shale as the last jogger passed, not one of them turned back to see her momentum carry her off the cliff and down over the sharp talus and scree below, no of them heard her shriek as she fell, sliding down the barely-there slope like cheese down a grater, the jogging group deafened by their headphones.

Mindy was enjoying the early morning quiet, the community gym, which had the equipment of a work out centre and a gymnasium, was blissfully silent. She had been the first one in today, she had already completed a quick floor routine and was now messing about on the trampoline, jumping up and smacking into the extremely well padded wall beside the trampoline. Lots of the younger children did it as well jumping up smacking into the squishy mats and bouncing off them back down onto the trampoline, jumping up, smacking the wall, bouncing off, jumping up, smacking the wall…

Mindy blinked, stared at the trampoline for a moment and blinked again. Mindy had jumped, smacked against the wall… and stayed there.

"What… the… hell?"

Naomi and Charlotte were clearing away the last of the mess from the renovations, the things the contractors hadn't cleaned up themselves; Naomi's 'indoor rock pool' now reminded Charlotte strongly of the Mako island moon pool, except the rock pool had a marble ramp, a tiled area with a drain and a low set of shelves full of towels right next to a short table with a heater and hair driers. A tall cabinet on the other side of the room, between the two doors, housed actual scuba gear for Naomi.

A pallet of unused marble sat by the door waiting to be move to the store room, Charlotte moved a trolley next to the stack and knelt next to it, Charlotte had intended to inch it onto the trolley's ground level ledge, instead the force she used to pull up on the stack sent it flying up over her head as she fell backwards when the stack was unexpectedly light. The sound of the marble hitting the far wall resounded around the room and out the door.

Naomi sprinted into the room to find Charlotte lying on the ground gaping across the rock pool at broken marble slabs covered in debris from the wall. A few seconds later the water in the rock pool rippled as Becky broke through the surface pulling herself onto the ramp just as Mindy dashed in, knocking into Naomi, her forward momentum carrying the pair to the ground. The three mermaids looked at each other before speaking at the same time.

"You guys will never believe what just happened to me."

"Why do I keep ending up on the ground as well?"

The four women sat once more in Naomi's kitchen, this time however Mindy was not rummaging through things, nor were the other three engaged in idle chatter, this time the discussion was a sombre affair.

"Okay, so all three of you had strange – things – happen to you this morning; who wants to go first." Naomi poured four cups of herbal tea as the mermaids looked at each other, silently deciding who would share first. Naomi let the girls work it out while she grabbed straws for them.

"I fell down the cliff this morning." Becky broke the silence, her words, while not rushed, had a quickness to them, betraying her disbelieve over her own experience as she accepted a cup of tea from Naomi.

"Wow, you healed really fast Becky." Mindy said as she looked her friend over for scratches or bruises.

"No," Becky's voice wavered as she answered "I didn't heal, but hey I didn't exactly get hurt either." The other women in the room openly gaped at the martial artist as she tried to hide in her hoodie.

"Wow, that sucks," Mindy's comment earned her a strange look from the others. "I don't mean your being invincible sucks, I mean next to your power mine sucks, you're indestructible I just get stuck to walls… and ceilings." Charlotte tried took a sip of her tea as she attempted not to laugh only to discover it's not that easy to sip tea through a straw when you're trying not to laugh. Mindy glared at the red head.

"Sorry Mindy, it's just," Charlotte had to stop and compose herself, "what exactly… how exactly did you get stuck to a wall… and a ceiling?" Charlotte was not the only one having problems keeping a straight face as Mindy explained how she had gotten stuck to a wall then had gotten the brilliant idea to climb the wall onto the ceiling only to be stuck there for two minutes before her power cut out letting her plummet eight and a half metres onto the trampoline which bounced her off onto the padded floor.

"Wait a minute; if it was an eight and half meter fall shouldn't you have been hurt?" Naomi asked only have Mindy shake her head.

"It was weird, I didn't actually fall that fast, and it was more like a quick-uncontrolled-float-down, plus I've been doing gymnastics for years add that to the few tricks Becky's shown me, I am a master of falling. I could totally out-fall Hollywood stunt people." One more Mindy's words earned her an odd look from the other three women. "What about you Charlotte?"

"I accidentally threw that pallet of spare marble tiles backwards over my head all the way across the room. It was so light, I've had text books that have weighed more." Charlotte shrugged and turned her attention back to her tea for a moment then let out a long sigh. "I don't think I'll ever get used to drinking tea through a straw."

"Who's drinking tea through a straw?" The young masculine voice from the door way startled the women, luckily none of them spilt their tea, they had found out at Mindy's expense that tea had the same effects as water, an allergic reaction resulting in an odd scale like rash on their legs.

"Hey Chris, how long have you been there?" Mindy eyed her twin nervously. Her brother shrugged.

"I havealways been here... not really I came just in time to hear Charlotte mention drinking tea through a straw, I stopped by the rock pool first; I saw the mess is everyone okay?" he got quiet affirmatives from the four.

"You've been watching Babylon 5 again haven't you...Hey wait a minute how did you get into the house, the door is the other way." Mindy pointed vaguely in the other direction from Chris at the second doorway that led from the kitchen to the lounge room.

"Mindy, you know how you have to go down the outside stairs to get to the rock pool room?" Mindy nodded her head. "And you know how there's a cabinet and another door right next to the entrance?" Mindy nodded again, "that second door, connects to an underground hallway; that leads to another set of stairs that enters and exits in the room down the hall." Chris gestured back down the hall in the direction he'd just come from.

"You mean the rock pool is connected to the house via an underground hallway?" Chris sighed at his sister's question wondering if she really did have a brain or if the moments of seeming intelligence were a strange yet convincing act.

"Yes Mindy, that's what I mean." He glanced quickly at Charlotte, the red-head once again snickering at her pink haired friend. "Naomi, you want I should clean up the mess in the rock pool room?"

"Yeah, if you could just grab one of the large buckets in the closet next to the house stairs and just put it in that and leave it by the door that would be fantastic." The marine botanist watched as he nodded and left not breaking the quiet that had once more settled over the kitchen until she heard the door to the stair well open and close. "You guys were so close to being busted just then."

Chris thought over what he'd heard as he cleaned up the mess that Charlotte had allegedly caused. He'd stood in the hallway listening to the girls, he'd been there a lot longer than he'd said; he'd been there long enough to hear Mindy claiming that Becky was indestructible then almost laughed outloud himself at the image of Mindy stuck to a wall.

The idea that Charlotte, the strange, artistic red-head, had thrown this marble across the room by accident, when he himself was finding some of the larger pieces to carry some noticable weight, was mind blowing. He wasn't sure if he believed his sister and her friends had suddenly developed superpowers but something had changed the night they stayed at the island, something that she wasn't telling him, he just hoped that she and her friends didn't get hurt.

Dun-dun-dun… dundah!

I need sleep…

Or more caffeine and sugar.

Read, review, bitch, poke holes in my story, bugger off… what ever makes you feel happy. XI zzzzz XP