[PRP] Fish Outta Wattle (Em & Merope)

[Marushii]

The gym pool wasn't anything special. It wasn't salty, and there were times when the gnomes added too little chemicals to it in order to clean it. Merope cautiously reached out with his toe, scooping it into the water and staring at the film of algae that slid off of it and fell back into the water with a plop. "Eeeugh. Pool-algae," he grimaced as he backed away from it, recoiling.

The undead boil stood up, picking up the pool-skimmer net. With a look of insecure disgust on his face he dripped it into the pool and started systematically removing the unknown pool-bile.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

There was an almost predatory screech of delight and a flash of black and green as someone quite eagerly barrelled past him. Perhaps even slightly into him too, as they were too focused on getting into the water to care to give the other party any sort of clearance.

Either way the thing hit the water, but only a moment later -

"WHHYYYYYYYYYY?!" She screeched as she broke the surface again, all limbs flailing as she instead and very suddenly tried to get out of the pool, which was definitely a very first for her.

marushii

 

[Marushii]

"Ackgnnrhgh!" Merope flailed his fins, clinging to the pool skimmer as he strove to remain safe on land.

Merope yelped, scrambling back and away from the water that splashed up and onto the side of the pool. No, wait -- he recoiled, grimacing at the unknown thing that he could only describe as goop jiggled slightly by the pool's edge. He had moved the skimmer to try and scoop the offending thing up before a shriek from the pool startled him again.

"Hey! Hey! Grab on!" Merope held the net towards the flailing form, "I'll pull you out! Maybe. Hopefully. No don't pull me in --!"

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

Em was an excellent swimmer, usually. Yet the surprise, coupled with the awkwardness of having legs as opposed to a tail fin, made her attempts to get out of the goop very awkward. Flailing, she grabbed for the offered net and pulled, managing to at least get one webbed hand onto the ledge. The second pull helped pull her forward enough to get her torso out of the pool, and some shimmying after that later she was able to roll onto the tiles. She made a few incoherent shrieks, a loud whine, then promptly face planted into the ground to wallow in her own misery.

Not once did she even pause to consider the fate of her would-be rescuer.

marushii

 

[Marushii]

His claws scraped and clicked against the concrete as he pulled, helping the poor student out of the water. Once she was out he dropped the net and leaned over her, hesitating. "You didn't swallow anything gross, right?" He asked as he reached out, carefully nudging her with the backside of his talons. "Cause if you did then I feel your pain. Just don't throw it back up into the pool, okay? It's bad enough as it is."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"No." She grumbled, elongating the word into a rather upset groan. He nudged her, and she just continued to lay there, hating everything about today, right down to the texture of whatever this was against her face. Heck, it even included the talons that nudged her, though they were long gone.

She heaved a few coughs though, as he made her remember that there was actually an awful taste in her mouth. In a moment of brilliance she turned her head to spit, but it sadly didn't help much. Well, at least she tried. Finally she placed webbed hands on the ground and pushed herself up just enough to get these knees of hers under her. Then sitting up was pretty easy, even of the whole affair was slouched and minimal.

"What's wrong with the water?" She asked him pathetically, reaching up to full-hand paw the tangled mass of her hair away from her face.

marushii

 

[Marushii]

The question spurred him to take a long, hard look at the pool. "... I'm pretty sure the recent campaign for the school to be a bit more... natural succeeded," he began, "Except it succeeded too well and nobody in their right mind uses the pool anymore."

He shrugged. "Orrrr someone figured cleaning the pool would be a good gross thing to do for detention and rolled with that. You gonna be okay?"

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

Em gagged again, then let out yet another long, drawn out whine.

"This's stupid and I want home!" She wailed unhappily, hearing his explanation but not quite understanding a good half of it. "Nooo---" Yet another wail was in the works, but before it could really gain traction she happened to actually look at him. His horns, head finns, glowy blobby bits and markings were all taken in slowly and one after another. Though the move was hidden, she gave a long, slow blink. For a moment she went slack jawed, showing some points of her needled teeth.

"You're from the depths?"

marushii

 

[Marushii]

No? She wasn't okay? Merope visibly perked up and brightened. "Do you need to go to the nurse's? Or have somewhere else to go? Some people don't really like going to the nurse on account of her centipe-"

He broke off, staring as she asked her question. Now that she mentioned it... "Yeeesssssss?" He slowly hissed out. "Do I... wait. You're from there too? I mean," he verbally stumbled, "You've got the look of a depth-dweller and the glowing but. Um. Hm." He rubbed his boney chin. "L-let me try again. I'm Merope, and you... seem a little familiar...?"

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

He was from the depths?! She perked up a little bit; suddenly, the world didn't seem so terrible. He certainly must know what she was going through! He has to have done the same, right?!

"Yah!" She mirrored his motion, scratching at her drying chin. "I'm Em! Emptee Atargatis. My pod lives in the depths!" She stared at him at little longer, tilting her head as if the new angle would help her figure him out. He certainly didn't look like one of her pod, but he really did seem very familiar. "What are you?"

marushii

 

[Marushii]

"Pod?" Merope echoed. "I'm not sure what you mean, but I'm a lost-fathoms leviathan!" He announced as he spread his fins wide, trying to make himself bigger than he actually was.

He held the pose for five seconds, then relaxed his fins as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I-I'm just a little big smaller than usual. For now." He shuffled awkardly. "Otherwise I'd take up too much space."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Family." Em suggested as an alternative. She perked up again though, as he answered her question with an added flare. "Oh! Yes! Them!" She seemed excited, the way she bounced a little bit on her knees. It was only a bounce or two before she thought better of it and stopped, but the motion had been there regardless. "We traded a lot. Hitched some rides!" Then, she made a face. "But kept trying to dig into our ship."

"Why are you so small?" She asked suddenly, as if realizing it for the first time. He certainly was tiny compared to the Lost Fathoms she had met…and she was more or less her natural size in this form, though maybe just shorter.

marushii

 

[Marushii]

Them? She knew of his kind?! A quick flash of light raced down his markings in excitement, quenching as soon as she said but kep trying to dig into our ship. "Oh. Aha... haha... ha... that may or may not have been me. Sorry." He tabbed his boney chin, wincing visibly. "I remember finding a ship. I always wanted to get inside to check it out, but I could never fit... And then there'd be like. These things that kept chewing on me. Didn't stop me from trying though!" He added cheerfully.

"I'm small because it's school rules," he replied gloomily, gesturing towards the pool. "Kinda like what I'm stuck doing now. Can't really swim on land much anyway, y'know? It's why we're stuck with these things," he shifted his weight back and lifted one of his feet, wiggling his talons. "Ya getting used to the brightness? They have this weird thing called a sun that makes things bright and warm and dry that's up there in the sky."

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

So Merope was the one who tried to dig into their home? He ruined so many rooms, he was so large! Excitement faded from Em's expression at his recounting of that particular memory, and she responded with a simple and dreamy: "We ate so well…"

"Bah." She grumped. School rules. School was stupid. Em stared down at his feet, then looked back at hers. They looked different, but they were still vastly different from what they should have had. "No," Came a brand new whine. "It's too bright. These help but not much." Though she didn't gesture to her goggles, they were certainly the point she had been trying to make. "I'm warm and dry and itchy all over and my fins hurt and the green stuff is pointy and this here is scratchy and hard and this place is just awful." With a huff she simply fell to the side and stayed put, letting her tangle of hair shade her face.

"And this pool burns and it's not even real water!" She did dredge up the energy to lift her head and give a real, feral hiss to the algae-infested pool before she fell back into being a complete lump. "How'd you do it, Merope? Survive up here?"

maxrushii

 

[Marushii]

Merope stared. "You ate part of my face?!" He covered his mouth with a hand in mock-horror. "But that was my face! How could you? I had to work for three weeks straight just to earn enough to get a new face. You guys left a bunch of little teeth marks over my previous one."

When she flopped over onto her side, Merope sat down and curled his tail away from her, around his talons. "Rule one: don't swim in this pool," he began. "All sorts of other students use it so it's always gross and nasty. It's not even salt water. It's gross water." He reached out with a talon and poked the surface, peeling off a strip of algae in the process. "In town there's a shared salt-pool that's better than this place, but you have to pay to get in. Otherwise there's all sorts of ponds and rivers, but it'll burn since it's fresh water."

"Rule two? Stay damp. You get used to it after awhile, but..." He trailed off, grimacing as he wiggled his talon. "Eeeugh, I think it's stuck to me. Grosssssss," Merope wiggled his toe, then shook his foot until the offending plant flew off further into the pool.

"Blech. How long have you been up here? There are some good things about this place, y'know. For one, there aren't many bigger things that try to eat you or steal from you. It's... nice."

Enoh Love