Shinies

who: melia and caleb
where: blackrocks
when: morning

Melia hadn't heard from the humans who'd pulled the bullet from her tail since they'd brought her back to the lake, and she wasn't exactly pining to see them again. She was happy relaxing in the water and letting herself mend. She wasn't as sick anymore and was getting better by the day, and although her tail still hurt, she was a little bit more mobile. That was why morning found her at her favorite rocky place, where she'd met Caleb and had found shiny things after that. It had finally dawned on her that she hadn't seen him or any shinies for a few days, so she'd meandered her way over and was searching the waters again in case she'd just missed them.

Caleb hadn't been as mobile himself in a while, so he'd not had time to drop shiny things in the water for Melia. So now that he was mobile, and had been out killing shit a good portion of the night, he'd decied to take a walk to black rocks and see if he could find the mermaid. The one other time he'd come looking she hadn't been there, but he was sort of glad about that. That had been the night he'd been drinking and wound up beat to shit--the effects of which were still apparent on his frame, but yeah. Probably best he hadn't run into her like that. He'd been bordering suicidally reckless that night. And she y'know. Ate people. Not the best combo. Either way, he had a few things to drop into the water for her that morning, since he'd missed a few days, and he kind of liked the habit of randomly dropping cheap jewelry into the lake just in case. He stood at the edge where he'd first seen her, held out his hand, and opened it, letting five round thin bangle bracelets drop into the slightly wavy water below. Then he sat down on the ledge and watched.

Melia saw the round shiny things falling slowly through the water and swam out to grab them. Five whole, new, sparkly bracelets? Surely nothing like this would fall on accident. Sliding all of them on her wrists, Melia rose to the surface, letting her arms do most of the work to spare the ache in her tail. Sheltering close to a rock to hide her lower body, Melia broke the surface and scanned the cliffs for a familiar human boy.

He had been waiting, watching, listening to see if she was around and might show, and he smiled when she did. He barely saw her, and really the only reason he did was because he'd been actively looking for her. Which was probably creepy, but he coudn't be bothered to care. "Morning." he called down to her.

"Good morning," Melia called back, raising a little higher from the water when she spotted Caleb and saw he was alone. "These are pretty," she said, raising an arm to admire the sparkling bracelets in the sunlight.

"Thought you might like them. And I haven't been around for a few days to give you more...you been finding my presents?" he asked. He watched her admire them, and was struck by the simplicity. She really was something Else. He'd actually got a big box of those stupid things, they were only like a buck fifty. He just didn't want to give them all at once, because then she might start expecting more out of him at a time. He liked this, he didn't want it to start becoming a 'you better give me more every time or I'll change my mind about eating you' thing.

"I found them," Melia answered happily. Some she was wearing, some she'd stored away for later. "Those were pretty, too." She peered up at him. "Are you going to come closer or are we going to shout at each other all day?" she asked. "Why did you stay away for so long?"

"Come around to the other side, I'll meet you there." Caleb said, pointing off towards the other end of black rocks. They sloped down into the water on that side, so he figured she could lay on the wet rocks, and he could sit on the nearby dry ones, and they could both be comfortable. Standing, he made his way over, which consisted of a lot of hopping over completely uneaven, really rough rock. So it took him a bit, but he got there, and sat down again, right at the point where he could stay dry, the water close enough to reach out and touch. Which he did, dipping his fingers into it.

Melia didn't answer, instead just sinking underwater and swimming slowly around to the other side. It hurt to use her fins too much, but she made it and pulled herself slowly up onto a rock near Caleb. "You look like someone tried to eat you," she commented as she tried to arrange herself comfortably on the rock. "But you were too fast for them."

"That's not too far from the truth." Caleb said with a shrug. "I--" he stopped abruptly as his eye caught a mark on her that he certainly didn't remember before. "It didn't look terribly good, either. Not that he knew how wounds worked with her kind. For all he knew it was nothing. But it didn't really look like nothing was the thing. "What happened to you?"

"A stupid human shot me," Melia said, grumbling. "With his gun." The words felt unfamiliar on her tongue. "But another human fixed it for me. What tried to eat you?" That was more interesting; she might have something to say about someone who tried to eat a human she liked. The idea that she had potentially tried to eat a human that someone else might have liked completely passed her by.

"You were shot?" Caleb asked, blinking at her. "Jesus, that's...fucked up." he said, shaking his head. He also had no clue how to feel about that. On the one hand, his immediate knee jerk reaction was that that wasn't cool, and he wasn't overly fond of the idea. On the other hand, he could very well imagine that if she were attempting to oh, say, eat someone, they might take issue and if they had a firearm, yeah. Bang bang time. So there was a mix of reactions going on there. "And I dunno. A few things, I suppose. I went looking for trouble and managed to find it." He quirked a faint smirk at her. "So we've both been a little laid up, I guess."

"I could drown them for you, if you want," Melia offered. It was actually a very nice offer from her; after all, she didn't have to take down his enemies for him, but she had a little aggression to work out, too. "You could watch. It would be fun." And afterwards she could eat them. "Why did you go looking for trouble?"

Caleb looked at her for a long moment, kind of trying to decide a) if she was serious, and b) if he thought that was kind of sweet of her in an incredibly fucked up way. In the end he decided both were right, and that that made him certifiable. Well, so was she, so who was counting? She was a mermaid for fuck's sake, and he was a half demon. So yeah. Whatever. "Thanks." he said. "But most of what I tangled with I either managed to kill, or just barely got away, so it's okay. I mean, I kinda sorta almost bled out, but that's normal for me, really." He was watching the water on her skin, as it slowly dried, an absent observation. "I went because I'm kinda fucked up." he said eventually. It was strange, talking to her. He didn't ever see her socially, hell she was the lady in the fucking water. So...it was different than talking to anyone else. He supposed in the end he didn't have to worry about her reactions, because he had no idea what they might be.

"What could possibly be appealing about bleeding your own blood?" Melia questioned, confused. "Were you looking for dinner? Usually it works best if you just pick one that's alone and kill it. If you want more you can always go find more, but trying for too many at once is just wasteful." She paused thoughtfully, the expression he used going over her head. "What is 'fucked up?'" she asked curiously.

He actually chuckled a little at her, quirking a half smile. "There's somethin the matter with me. That's what it means." he said. Then paused, and thought. "Like you don't get what's appealing about bleeding. Which really, I have to back you up on, it's not necessarily one of my favorite passtimes, it just happens a lot. That would be fucked up." he told her. "No, I wasn't looking for dinner. I'm not actually a cannibal. Which in the grand scheme of things, I suppose I should be grateful for. But...moving on..."

"I like bleeding," Melia said in obvious tones, "but not when it's my blood. I like it when other things bleed because it usually means I'm about to have food. It doesn't seem to me like anything is the matter with you." She scrutinized him. "You're a little skinny, but you have all the parts that humans have and you don't look diseased." She'd be happy to eat him if it ever came to that. She raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to be a cannibal to be looking for dinner," she pointed out. "I'm not a cannibal."

"Yeah, physically I'm..." he had to pause to think for a second. "Well. Damaged, I guess. But not missing anything. I mean there's something wrong with my mind. You don't get what I did, and you're not the only one. No one else gets it either." He didn't think he could explain it to her in a way that would even remotely make sense to her. But then again this was the same girl who didn't understand why you didn't just leave your elders behind to fend for themselves and die. So there was a perspective to consider. "I usually get dinner at home, or diners." he added. He had also been thinking of the couple of fights he'd picked with normal humans, which attributed to most of the bruises on his frame.

"Humans are lazy," Melia said with a sniff. "Maybe you wouldn't be so slow and stupid all the time if you had to catch your own dinner." She leaned back and watched him for a moment, eyes sharp. For all that she was alien to humans, she wasn't stupid. He reminded her of some of the males of her kind, the small ones. They went looking for trouble just to prove that they could, to prove worthy enough to lead despite their small stature. "Why did you do it?" she asked again. "You say you're damaged, but that's just an answer to mask a reason beneath."

Caleb looked at her sideways, and smirked faintly. "Is it?" he asked mildly. "Maybe it is the reason. Maybe I don't really like it here." he added, shrugging one shoulder. "Or maybe I'm looking to see how far I can go before something takes me down. I never said it was an intelligent thing to do." Because it wasn't. "I thought I had other things going for me, and it turned out I didn't. I think most of my life has been pretty fucked up, and sometimes..." Sometimes I really just want to stop the fucking bus and get off.

"Sometimes?" Melia prompted, raising an eyebrow. "If you're going to do something," she advised, "you should know the reasons why you're doing it. I don't care what you do - but if it gets you killed, you should ask someone to bring me your body." She didn't elaborate as to why. "If you don't know why you do something, you're no better than an animal."

"I didn't say I didn't know." Caleb said. "It's complicated." Then he looked at her again, smiling faintly. "Bring my body to you? Why you want a free meal?" he asked. No, that didn't bother him nearly as much as it should have. But he kinda sorta was figuring out that he liked her. Even when he shouldn't.

"Why not?" Melia asked unashamedly, shrugging. "You wouldn't be using it anymore. Might as well give it to me." He was a little small for her tastes, though that just meant there'd be less fat to scrape off before getting to the good stuff.

He shrugged. "If I die, I wouldn't care, you could eat me." he said. "I'd prefer you waited til after I died though. I can't hang out and talk with you or bring you shinies if I'm dead." Which was something he hoped she valued.

"If I can't have you alive," Melia said, pouting a little bit, "then I'd want you right after you died. Too much waiting around and you'd be disgusting."

He laughed. "If I ever get suicidal enough to say fuck it, I'll come find you, okay?" he asked. "Then you can do the honors. Til then, I'd rather just...hang out and all that. Are you in pain from your wound?"

Melia shrugged. "Okay." The slang word felt strange on her tongue, but it was a fair enough bargain. If he didn't want to live, why not let her take care of it for him? Oblivion for Caleb and dinner for Melia. It worked out all around. She shrugged at his question. "Sometimes if I swim too fast," she said. "It's getting better."

"Do you have anything for it?" It seemed like she probably wouldn't have pills or the like, but that didn't mean he couldn't bring her some. Not that he knew if it would work or not, but he could try. Caleb didn't really think her swimming around in pain all the time was a good thing. Probably didn't do much for her mood.

"Seaweed," Melia said, shrugging. She'd made a few salves, but it wasn't the type of thing one could wear all the time. Too much wasn't good, nor was too little. "There's a lot of it in the middle of the lake."

"Really?" he asked, slightly surprised. "I could get you pain meds if you want them. Wouldn't take me long to go get some from the store, and if you don't have anyplace dry to keep them, I could bring them to you most days." He didn't think he could every day, or more he didn't want to commit to every day then not show up. Call him crazy but he didn't want to piss her off. He thought he could take her, but that was hardly the point.

"Ugh, no," Melia said immediately, shaking her head. "I would never use human medicines on purpose." She hadn't had a choice when the human woman had sewn her up, but it had made her head feel funny and she didn't like it. She'd rather use her own remedies. "Mine works just fine."

"Okay. Just offering." Caleb said. "I'm sure you didn't want to wander around in pain, that cuts it down. But then again, I guess I don't know how your body works or how different it is from humans, so...maybe it's best you don't. What are you going to do when winter hits?" he asked. "Are you staying here or will you have to leave?"

"I don't know what I want to do yet," Melia said, shrugging. "Why would I have to leave?" She'd never wintered in a body of water that froze over, though she could likely break holes in the ice where it was thin if she felt like getting out.

"It'll be sub zero temperatures and I have no idea if the lake freezes over, or even partially does?" Caleb suggested. "Unless you're immune to cold and all that. Basically I'm just wondering if you're disappearing as soon as the snow hits, or if you'll still be around." he said. If she wasn't around, then he wouldn't bother looking for her. If she was? Well, he probably would. She was so...separate. Like taking a short break from his entire life, because she was so incredibly alien to everything in it. He could overlook the whole she ate people thing for that.

"Do your kind not have to worry about freezing to death?" he asked, this more a point of curiosity than anything. "Because if you do, it's going to be fucking freezing here. I don't know how long you can survive not in water or whatever."

"No," Melia said. "Remember, we talked about getting cold last time I saw you. I don't get cold." She wasn't about to answer his last question; he didn't need to know that she couldn't survive long away from the water. Just in case. "I wouldn't want to stay on land for the whole winter, anyway. That would be stupid."

"...there's a difference between cold and frozen solid." Caleb pointed out. "Why would it be stupid to stay on land that long?" he asked, eyeing her with an arched brow. "You just hate it that much, or you don't know where you'd stay?"

"The water won't freeze all the way to the bottom of the lake," Melia countered. "I can stay down there. If I want to come on land, I'll break the ice. Or I could go back out to the ocean." She shrugged. "Being on land is okay," she said, "but not for long periods at a time." After a thoughtful pause, she added, "and I wouldn't have a place to stay."

"What if you did have a place to stay?" Caleb asked curiously. Not that he had a place she could, considering. He was just getting rid of one house guest, he wasn't really going to try to bring in a second one, and definitely not one who ate people. He also realized if she was gone all winter, he might miss her. Weird.

"I still wouldn't," Melia said, shrugging. "I don't want to be stuck on land for months." If she couldn't find enough water, she'd die, anyway. "Why do you keep asking?"

"I don't know, because I want to know if you'll be around, or if I'm suddenly not going to see you for like...nine months or so." he answered. "People keep telling me that's how long winter lasts around here. If you're going to be gone, I'd rather know about it so I don't keep looking for you and wondering if you're dead or something." Because in his world, that's the first thing he would assume.

"I might be around," Melia said, shrugging again. "I told you I could break through the ice if I want to. Otherwise I'd be too bored." Especially with none of her usual companions around. It would be the first winter she'd spent entirely alone, if she stayed in the lake and didn't venture out to the ocean or on land to visit the humans she knew. "I won't die."

"That's a plus." He might, though. That was always a distinct possibility with him, however. He picked fights, got himself all fucked up, did stupid, reckless sorts of things...yeah. He wasn't hopeful for a long fruitful life or anything. Hell. He didn't see himself reaching the ripe old age of 21. "I was just curious. I'll need to know if I should save up presents for you, or if I should still find time to drop them in the water." he added, smirking at her.

"How can you drop them in the water if the water is frozen?" Melia countered, smirking right back at him. "Maybe I'll come find you one day and you can give me the presents then." She liked presents; it was definitely an incentive to come ashore.

"Not all of it's frozen. And there are shipping lines, and the ore dock..." Caleb said. "But it'd probably be less fatal for you to come find me." he added. "See, I'd freeze to death really fast if I fell in the water in the middle of winter. Or fell off the ore docks, or the end of the breakwall by the lighthouse..." Yeah. Real fast. "I'll have to keep them around for you then." he added. "Just in case."

"Humans have fallen in freezing water before and survived," Melia said, scoffing slightly. "You could just pull yourself out after you fell in. I saw a human do it once." Then they'd fallen in again and she'd eaten him for dinner, but Caleb didn't need to know that. "I'm not saying I want to find you in the winter, but if I did, where would it be?"

"A house, on the road past the hospital. How far have you even ventured in town?" he asked. "Have you seen much of it, or do you generally just hang in the water around it?" He knew he hadn't seen her out of the water except for the one time they jumped, and he felt damn certain that if he'd seen her walking around town, he would have noticed. Immediately. And probably gone to talk to her.

"I've been around it," Melia said, shrugging. "Here and there. I went to this place called... Babylon." It had taken her a second to remember it, and sure it wasn't so much 'went there' as 'had been taken there for medical treatment' but that was neither here nor there.

"Babylon?" Caleb asked. "Haven't been there." He wondered if he did give her a street address if she'd even understand it. He also wondered if it was a wise idea to let a creature who ate people know where he lived, but he didn't really think she'd ever show. So what was the harm? "If I told you where my house was, would you remember?"

"Of course," Melia said scornfully, rolling her eyes. "I'm not stupid, you know." She leaned back on her hands. "I didn't see much of it, but it doesn't seem like the place that you should go. You're too young."

That had him laughing. "I'm too young?" he said. "Really. And why's that?" he asked. "Why do you think I shouldn't go there?" It seemed really strange that she'd say something like that, and now he was dying of curiosity on a reasoning behind it. She wasn't really a creature who would say something like that without some sort of idea why...at least she didn't seem like it to him. So yeah. He really wanted to know.

"Aren't you young?" Melia asked, raising an eyebrow. She wasn't the best at judging human ages, but he looked like a youngster. "That place is too old for you." She'd gotten weird vibes from it, too, but she wasn't sure if that was because of the place or because the humans had her drugged for part of her stay there.

"Yeah, sorta. But not that young." Or maybe he was. But still. "It's too old for me...that's vague. What happened there? That's the only reason you don't want me to go? You think I'm too young?" he continued. "If you tell me, I'll tell you where I live." he added, with an amused half smile.

"No," Melia said, suddenly crabby. If she told him, he'd want to go there, especially since he'd said he liked to do that stuff. "Nothing happened, and I don't care if you tell me where you live. I could find it myself if I wanted to, but I don't anymore. So there."

Caleb chuckled at her little pissy bitch three year old fit. "You don't have to get all touchy." he said. "I'm just curious. It actually sounded like you were..." he paused, trying to find a word. "...concerned." he finally settled on. "My mistake." he was still smiling at her, however.

"Well, if they kill you there then I'm not going to get to eat you," Melia said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And you wouldn't be able to bring me pretty things anymore. Why would I want that?"

That? Very nearly cracked him up. Of course that would be why, wouldn't it? Why hadn't he thought of that? Because he was used to at least semi normal people, and she was an utterly alien intellect. He had to laugh and sit back, leaning on his elbows behind him. "Think they'd kill me there?" he asked. "And it's 814 West Magnetic Street." he added for her, not that he thought she'd ever show up in a million years.

"They might," Melia said, pondering that. "Especially if you pull your stupid human trick and try to make trouble with them." She could see him doing that, and knew it wouldn't work. She'd sensed a certain predatorial feel to the place that would likely be to his detriment. She committed the address to memory, though she wasn't 100% familiar on how human addresses worked. Still, if she had the address she could find the place - or find someone who could direct her. Not that she necessarily would.

"I don't make trouble everywhere I go." Caleb said. "Though trouble usually finds me regardless. I'll take it into consideration." he said. Not that he even knew where the place was, though she as right--he was curious about it now. He couldn't help it, he was drawn to things that weren't any good for him. It was a thing.

"Good," Melia said. "Because if you die somewhere and they don't know that I'm supposed to get your body, I'll be very upset." Because he'd care about that if he was dead. But she might miss the presents, even if she got to eat him. Strange.

"Of course." Caleb said, still amused. He grinned at her for a second. He would try to tell her something that might reassure her that she'd get his body, but how did one do that? Besides, he couldn't actually guarantee it for her or anything. So he'd just leave it as is. "You'd have to find someone else to bring you presents, too, and I don't know how many people are as thoughtful as me when it comes to that." he added. But then really, most people probably wouldn't seek her out to talk to her either when they knew perfectly well she wanted to eat them. He was just brain damaged like that.

"There's a girl who said she'd do that," Melia said, just so he wouldn't think he was overly special or anything. "She's going to bring me shiny things and candy to try. And she went far out into the lake." She'd been fun, meek human attitude aside.

"I went swimming with you." Caleb pointed out. "You didn't ask me to go far out into the lake." He watched her out of the corner of his eye. "Well, if you've already got other people that'll bring you things, then you probably don't need me anymore..." he started, wondering just how badly she did want the constant supply of jewelry he gave her or if she really didn't care at all.

"I found her already far into the lake," Melia said, shrugging. "Would you have gone if I'd asked?" She pouted when he mentioned her not needing him. "Are you saying you don't want to come visit me?" she asked, looking remarkably innocent for a blueish-skinned, fish-tailed, claw-fingered carnivore.

"I don't know, I might have." Caleb said, shrugging one shoulder. "Guess we'll never know. And I didn't say that. I was just saying if you've already got people who're going out of their way to bring you pretty things just for you, then maybe you don't need me around, that's all. Sounds like you're saying you don't really want me coming around." he said. He noted the innocent act, and figured that had probably drawn more people in to their messy deaths than anything else she could have tried.

"Maybe we'll find out next time we go swimming," Melia suggested, only a tiny bit slyly. "I didn't say I didn't want you to come around, either. Just because another person is coming to see me doesn't mean you have to stop. Humans have more than one friend and so can I."

"So I'm you're my friend then?" he asked. That seemed to kind of surprise him, though he managed to cover it fairly well. That seemed...funny. Not necessarily funny-bad, but definitely funny-damn-fucked-up. Which was the story of his life, so whatever. He was cool with that.

"For now," Melia said, shrugging. "Why? Did you not want to be?" Because if not, she was hungry. She could just eat him now instead of waiting for him to die.

"No, I want to be." Caleb said, really not wanting to give her the impression he didn't. She ate people for fucks sake. "I just wasn't aware you considered me to be one." he clarified for her. "Just a hint, though, if you're going to be friends with someone, you don't add disclaimers on it like 'for now'. If you're going to be a friend, it should be a little more solid than that. But whatever...yeah. Friends. I'm good with that."

"Well, you never know," Melia said logically. "Maybe one day we decide we're not going to be friends. I'm still deciding. But you want to be, so okay. Besides, you're not as dumb as a lot of humans I've met."

That had him smirking at her again. "Yeah? You met a lot of dumbasses lately?" he asked. Then he wondered again what exactly she did all day. Who she talked to, how she talked to them. If they were aware she ate people. Basically, he wondered what her life was actually like. If she had worries like everyone else did, or if she flat out didn't, and only ran on the base instincts.

"I've met a lot of humans," Melia answered. "Most of them are dumb or do stupid things. No wonder none of you live very long." It was a shame, really; humans might be more fun to play with if they weren't so short-lived.

"How long about do you live?" Caleb asked. "And what's your day like? Like...what do you do with it? Are you bored a lot?" She seemed to mention boredom quite often, so he wondered if that was the case. Like she didn't have school or a job to go to, or anything structured so her days were endless food searching and not a lot else? If that was the way of it, he could definitely see where finding entertainment might become a driving need.

"I don't know," Melia said, "we don't count the same way you do. We live until we don't anymore, and that's that. Numbering it doesn't matter." She splashed a little water on herself, not wanting her scales to dry out while she was talking to him. "I swim and fish and gather kelp," she said. "And look for pretty things. Sometimes I go exploring on land, sometimes I talk to people who come visit me. It's boring here. I was never bored out in the ocean; there were always whales and dolphins to talk to, but not so much here."

So yeah, pretty much a base existence, only with a humanish intelligence. That...he couldn't quite wrap his brain around. "So why are you staying around if you're bored all the time?" he asked. "Not that I want you to leave, but still. Seems kind of weird for you to be here if you were better entertained in the ocean."

"I'm on vacation," Melia said. "I'm supposed to be avoiding humans." It wasn't really working out for her. "I might go back, but I don't know." There was something about this place that kept her here in spite of the boredom. "Why does it matter why I came here? I can go where I want."