twisting words 'til nothing hurts [felix, nea]

[FELIX L.]

[atrb=border, 0, true]

#NEA V.

Felix walked a good few paces away from the shore. He wasn't particularly fond of salt water, but he didn't hate it either --and it would be wrong to say that he was playing an active in role in trying to avoid it completely. He was just too preoccupied to think anything more of his surroundings, trying to recount half of his day (it was only past noon, after all), step by step, in what seemed like a fruitless attempt to understand why he was aimlessly wandering around Rosa Beach when he should be at work.

But it wasn't that hard to figure it out.

The day hadn't started on the best of terms. Not that most of his days did, but today didn't call for any (usual) complaints and a heavy feeling he couldn't put into words was welling up inside his chest. He felt it take root there a few hours back when the head librarian had excused him for the rest of the day after a series of accidents that resulted in the loss of some, just recently delivered, original material that would have been set for archiving if he had paid more attention to what he was doing.

It was pure luck that got him to keep the job, and he should have been thankful for that. It was something he did everyday after all. He wouldn't know what to do if things had turned out for the worst--he didn't want to think about it.

Sighing, he stopped for a moment. The sun casting its rays over his skin. It had been a while since he wore such thin clothes. This was radically different from how he usually spent his days, but it wasn't unwelcomed. After all, he did come here of his own accord, not wanting to go home yet, for once. He dug his toes into the warm sand, pressing on to a low rock that seemed like a nice place to stay for a while.

This change of pace, he thought. isn't so bad. In fact, it felt like it was something he almost needed. A change of pace. And it just occurred to him that this place had been an acceptable start, if not, one that felt vaguely nostalgic.

It was a little distressing to think of those two words in the same sentence, but for some odd reason, there was no other way to go about it.

He sat down on the rock he had claimed as a resting spot, looking onward into the deep blue. It was calming, but it did little to rid him of whatever was building up inside of him, so he did the only thing he could think of doing at a time like this.

It was strange, but comforting to talk to himself. AAnd it seemed like this was the best place for it.

He racked his brain for the beginning of a new thought process but found this instead:

"Vague. Adjective. Not clearly or explicitly stated or expressed. Not clear or distinct to the sight or any other sense; perceptible or recognizable only in an indefinite way. Usage example: vague promises."

He tried not to wonder about the implications of what he'd just said, but still, continued anyway.

"Nostalgic. Adjective. Experiencing or exhibiting nostalgia, a sentimental or wistful yearning for the happiness felt in a former place, time, or situation."

At that point things only seemed to get worse for him. Something was amiss. But it wasn't a new sensation and that was probably the cherry on top of today's cake.

Resigned to a somber rest-of-the-day, Felix stood up, still walking to the opposite direction of his house.

Before he could go much further however, he was stopped short, face first into the sand, tripping over what felt like a really soft log.

"What the--"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS

[NEA V.]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:400px; border-bottom:solid 10px #66aadd; ,bTable][atrb=style,background-color:FCFCFC;] Waddling her way down to the beach, Nea sighed in content. She'd just come from the woman known as Adina's house, where she had a very filling breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all at once too! She rubbed her full little belly happily and mewled in happiness as she made her way back to her temporary home at Rosa beach. She would have liked to stay with the woman known as Adina, but she already had so much trouble with that roommate of hers, just adding herself to the mix would prove to stress the poor orange-head even more. Still, she needed to find a more permanent home. The docks weren't suitable anymore, especially with her recent encounters with other mermaids. If she planned to stay here and keep her deep, dark secret...well, secret, then she needed to find somewhere a little more secluded. Somewhere where the human children didn't find her and invite her to play 'sea monster wars'. 'Eheheh....kids, so perceptive yet naive. I wonder if I was ever like that....no probably not.' Looking up at the sky, she saw that the sun had just passed it's zenith, perhaps a half and hour or an hour past noon. So that would mean that she had been at Adina's house for over 2 hours or so. The very reason she had visited the orange-head this particular day, was inside the little pink knapsack that Adina had provided for her to carry her medication and some food in. Adina had called the objects books. Books that had fallen unceremoniously on her cerulean-cyan head one fateful afternoon while she was exploring the cliff edges of the peninsula. They had gotten wet of course, due to them falling into the ocean after hitting her, but Adina had assisted in drying them. Anyways, according to the orange head, when she tried to explain to her what books were, they were basically they were leather bound tomes that held written information. The little squiggles that were on the book were words, which had amazed Nea, she never knew such a thing was possible. To put words down on parchment using an object called a pen that used a staining substance called 'ink', like the ink octopi released! Oh, all this new information simply got her all riled up! Adina had even offered to teach her how to read the tomes she'd found and even how write words, but with Adina's busy lifestyle, Nea doubted she could do so everyday, a great disappointment. She'd only ever been able to draw symbols on rocks, sand, the bark of trees using a rock to carve them out, she usually used the method to keep track of places she'd explored in this place. Looking back to the path she was walking, she stopped short when she noticed a lone human sitting on a rock at the part of the shore where she usually slept. 'What in the wor-' Alright, maybe she shouldn't have been that surprised, humans had stumbled upon her little piece of shore before, after all, humans were as curious as she was and some tended to simply wander in deep thought, which is what this particular human man seemed to be doing. As quietly as she could, she crouched down in order not be seen, and as her luck would have it, her legs soon began to change back into her familiar tail. 'Perfect.' she thought, perhaps in this form she could scare the little human away from her beach. Silently, she slithered near the rock, as just as she was about to let out a screech, the man began to speak. She blinked, confused, did he know she was there? It didn't seem like it, since he was simply spouting off some kind of code or something. 'What's an adjective?' Curiously, she laid down on her belly to listen in. "Nostalgic. Adjective. Experiencing or exhibiting nostalgia, a sentimental or wistful yearning for the happiness felt in a former place, time, or situation." A yearning for happiness? As she heard those words she thought of her home, her friends and family, even the crush she had. 'Those that's the word...for how I feel.' Just as she was about to head into another bout of nostalgia, something heavy fell on her person, and knocking the knapsack she had on her back open, causing it's contents to spill out. "Upu!" She grunted as her side was slightly kicked in the process. "Upuuu~" She whined as she tried to wriggles out from under the feet or legs or whatever that were strewn across her back. Her tail flailing futilely, she gave up trying expend her energy trying to escape from the predicament. Her head falling to the sand, she noticed that one of the books she'd recovered, and a couple of apples were about to be taken away by the waves of the sea. "B-book!" she squeaked as she pointed to the object that was about to be swallowed into the unforgiving ocean.

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LAIKA OF GS!

[FELIX L.]

[atrb=border, 0, true]

#NEA V.

It’s already painful as it is, having sand in places where sand shouldn’t be. It didn’t help that his glasses were nowhere near his eyes either –and he nearly missed all that distress coming from somewhere behind him. Felix turned around, he couldn’t see very well, but he could make out the shape of another person. He was about to call them out for being there in the first place, but was distracted by the sounds she was making, probably to convey some form of discomfort. Whatever it might have been, Felix couldn’t be bothered and he was about to resume looking for his glasses so he could tell the person off properly, but was, again, halted by the whine coming from whoever the hell it was on the ground.

What was she doing complaining so damn much anyway?

As if she had somehow read his mind, Felix managed to single out the word “b-book” eye brows furrowing at the thought. What? Did he step on her book? It wasn’t like he had any on him so that was probably it. Might as well go ahead, apologize and—

Felix was about to set out to find his glasses so that he could at least see whoever this was and so that he could like this person in the eye while he gave them a piece of his mind. But for the nth time that day, he wasn’t able to, stopped by some invisible force that force part of his body into the shallow water. His palms dug into the wet sand and his face was yet again met with the unpleasant surprise that was a horrible combination of saltwater and the loose granules that came with it.

Except, his left hand didn’t sink completely into the sand, and was being kept up by an object he was all too familiar with. He stumbled backwards, returning to the dryer parts of the beach, nearly hitting whoever it was on his way. But he really couldn’t be damned right now.

In his haste however, he forgot all about what he had been looking for just a little while ago and was sorely reminded of it when he heard a loud crack under his leg. He pulled out the remains of what had been his glasses from there and fixed it upon himself as best as he could. The expression on his face was hardly pleased, and in his complete annoyance with the whole situation, save for whatever it might have been that he was holding, he was pretty much done today. With everything.

Felix held it up to the eye that had the glass intact the most and squinted. It was a thin volume, and he figured it had more poems in it than short stories or essays (or anything lengthy for that matter) by the looks of it, but at the moment it was too wet (and possibly damaged) to even open. He shrugged his coat off without another word, wiping it dry. His fingers, felt along the spine gently, tracing over the embossed letters that he could now see, were in gold: “A Collection of Edgar Allan Poe Works”

Totally and completely absorbed in this find, he had completely forgotten about the soft log not very far away from him. If he were paying attention, he would have probably seen, from the corner of his eye, that whatever those were, they were definitely not legs.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS

[NEA V.]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:400px; border-bottom:solid 10px #66aadd; ,bTable][atrb=style,background-color:FCFCFC;] She really ought not to be smiling so widely in amusement, but she just couldn't help herself. The sight of this human half drenched was more amusing than Adina trying to decapitate her roommate. She at least had enough control over herself not to giggle or bust out laughing at the poor boy. She watched him carefully, tail flicking languidly in the sand, similar to a cat's tail as they observed something, he seemed a little distressed from what she could tell, the tenseness in his shoulders and that sour look on his face might indicate to annoyance, but what did he have to be annoyed over? He was the one that tripped on her! How could he have possibly missed her, her hair was blue for goodness sakes! She suspected the boy might be partially blind since it seemed like he was squinting and groping for something in front of him, at least until the wave hit him. She snapped out of her observations when he'd picked up the book that had gotten too close to the see. 'Ugh...it's probably ruined now after being in the water a second time.' she then remembered the other contents of her bag and looked around her to see some were still scattered, her apples however, were long gone now, taken by the waves. She sighed in disappointment as she gathered her things and placing them back in her bag. She'd have to find something else to eat for the next couple of weeks until Adina came by to visit her or at least until her tail recovered some more so that when she transformed into her legs, every step she took didn't feel like thousands of needles were poking her, and she could move around more freely to find food on land. She was getting sick of eating smaller fish and sea urchins. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a crack, looking up she found the boy holding up what she had been told were called 'glasses' for the eyes, and not for drinking. It apparently helped certain people to see better. 'Well, that confirms my suspicion...he is partially blind.' The seemed to still and quiet once he'd put the glasses back on his face, despite one frame having little to no glass, and as he looked at the book, her book to be precise. Was the book that interesting? She wasn't sure she didn't know what words on the spine or in the pages said. She approached the boy cautiously, and reached out to give him a poke in the cheek to get his attention, but stopped as she noticed that he was still drenched and covered in copious amounts of sand. She decided against that and simply opted to waving a hand in his face. "Helloooooooooooo~" she sang. Hoping to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. Then she remembered that the boy was still partially blind, so he might not even see her hand in his face. With that in mind she brought her knapsack back in front of her and dug around trying to find something. After a few moments, she was finally able to produce a set of antique looking glasses, she'd found them on the sea bed a few weeks before hand, and they seemed to still work...at least from what she was told. The glasses were round, and their frames thin and metallic...they weren't the best, but she supposed it would do for the time being until the boy could get another pair of his own. "Here...here!" her raising her voice slightly and tapping the glasses on the boy's hand so he could feel them in case he couldn't see. "For...your....eyes. To see! To see!"

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LAIKA OF GS!

[FELIX L.]

[atrb=border, 0, true]

#NEA V.

Felix felt relief wash over him as he checked the pages and found that they could be salvaged. He was about to feel his way out of the beach and back home so he could take care of it, when he heard a voice and felt a round thin piece of metal and glass on his hand. He touched it gingerly with his fingers and found that they were glasses, albeit not his. When he heard the voice that came as supplement with the object, telling him what they were for, he furrowed his eyebrows, thoroughly confused, but he kept the book locked on his arm, and he put them on anyway.

It felt a little strange, but they were doing its job surprisingly well enough for him to be able to get around without having to bump into anymore things.

He sighed, completely worn out from today, his lamenting over memories he couldn't possibly place--and now this. He turned to the girl (it was a girl...right?) to thank her properly for the temporary glasses, but then before he could say anything of substance, he stopped. Stared. Gave her a once over, awkwardly gawking at her direction.

And then later he was more irritated than he was confused.

"I know Sepalum was always strange, but--just--what the hell-"

Maybe he shouldn't have gone out today.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS

[NEA V.]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:400px; border-bottom:solid 10px #66aadd; ,bTable][atrb=style,background-color:FCFCFC;] She was confused at his question and wasn't really sure how to respond, so instead she responded with her own question. "Okay...now?" She tried to smile, but of course she was a little hesitant. This was a new human after all, and from her recent experience with them, they were all quite odd. Though she gathered enough to determine that not all humans were good, but not all of them were bad either. Now she just had to figure out if this one was a nice human. Before she could question him though, she remembered the book that had fallen from her bag, pointing to the book that the human had in his hands she said. "Mine! That is...my boo- oh well..." She cut herself short when she thought on her words, technically speaking the book wasn't really hers, they had simply fallen on her after all. However, seeing as no one had laid claim to it, she supposed she was the new owner of the book now. With that in mind she nodded with certainty and repeated, "My book. That is my book."

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LAIKA OF GS!

[FELIX L.]

[atrb=border, 0, true]

#NEA V.

As far as he was concerned, this was probably normal for some residents. He probably just didn't go out as often. Not that he had any particular reason to --and it wasn't like he enjoyed it either. He could overlook facts like, a mermaid was right in front of him, or that he actually chose to leave his house and go to some place for an arbitrary reason. Both were, no doubt, bizarre events on his part. But the book in his hand right now was something important. Something he didn't have.

Something he actually wanted.

Felix looked at her, then at the book, then back at her. Steeling his nerves, he took a deep breath, and let it out. Then he crouched down to level with her, asking,

"this is your book? Really?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS

[NEA V.]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:400px; border-bottom:solid 10px #66aadd; ,bTable][atrb=style,background-color:FCFCFC;] Puffing her chest out with pride and a smile on her features she nodded and declared, "Yes! It...fell...on my...head." She struggled slightly with her words, a little unsure of how to describe what had happened, but still she was sure she got her point across. She then recalled the boy's tone when he questioned her about her owner ship of said tome. "Do you...not...um...find my..." She paused, with a thoughtful expression on her face and tried to find the appropriate word she wanted to use in her very limited vocabulary. She brightened when she found the right one, and repeated her sentence, "Oh! Do you not...find my claim...to be..." she paused again, "...to be...truthful?" She looked inquiringly at the boy and pouted. 'Does he think me a liar?' The thought definitely did not sit well with her and she was starting to dislike the boy the longer he held on to her precious tome.

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LAIKA OF GS!

[FELIX L.]

[atrb=border, 0, true]

#NEA V.

She seemed pretty harmless for the most part. And for a strange creature that he could never fathom into existence. Which was something he valued right now. He didn't know a lot about mermaids, what they were capable of- what they actually did, even where they came from (which, you know, was obviously the sea but he was pretty sure there was more to that). Either way, the book in his hands wasn't particularly relevant to mermaid history anyway. But it something he would go to many lengths just to preserve and keep safe. And here she was carrying it out to the beach. It even got wet!

He felt affronted on the book's behalf, but chose not to say anything of it, still hoping for the best. The best being that he'd be able to take it home with him without much trouble on his part.

"Oh, no, of course not. I didn't mean that." He nodded, mock-sagely, his expression pensive to match. It felt a lot like talking to a kid.

Then he looked at her straight in the eyes, "what is it about though?" Not that it would do much for his case, owning a book didn't always entail knowing about it after all. But if she wouldn't catch on to what he was trying to do then he was home free. Still worth a shot, he decided in his mind.

And he really, really wanted that book.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GS