under the sea

she nodded slightly. “alright. i shall keep that in mind.” a pause. “he attends the prep school, correct?” she looked to misty. “pushy older sister mode? sounds kind of … intimidating.”

Ranon gave a small smile as the girl looked over. She turned the note over bashfully before shaking her head. “It was in my locker at work. I’m a volunteer nurse at the hospital. But I’d like to think that I know everyone’s writing there and I don’t recognize this writing… at all? I have no idea whose it could be.” She pursed her lips before turning the note to her. “Maybe you know? I think it’s time to super sleuth this out!”

“i will have to keep an eye out for him, then,” she said, with a slight nod of her head. she tapped her nails along the spine of her book. “well, all you can do is wait it out — or confront him about it, i suppose.”

Ranon popped one of the chocolates into her mouth, turning over the envelope in her hand over and over again. She hummed happily before taking the note out for the umpteenth time. As she read, an innocent, bashful little smile spread across her lips. “I— I never got anything like this. It’s the cutest thing in the world,” she said as she felt a presence arrive. She looked up and shrugged. “Have you ever had a secret admirer?”

juniper nodded, absentmindedly flipping the pages of her book back and forth. “dig is … your brother, correct? dignan thames?” she’d heard of the boy, but she had never met him, herself. “hmm. he will probably tell you in time. perhaps he just has to figure it out before he does.”

( @mistyxth said:  ❛❛ Dying requires effort, for fucks’ sake. ❜❜ )

“Not if you find the easiest way to die possible.” she interjected. “If worst comes to worst I could always fake my own death..” she thought aloud. 

@mistyxth said: “i don’t wanna get involved in drama i just wanna know 103% of the information on what happened.”

juniper gave a soft laugh, carefully folding the corner of her page before pressing the book closed. “fair enough, fair enough,” she said, looking up at her friend. “is there anything that you want to know 103% of the information on, as of now?”

Kiba brightened significantly once she high-fived him back. “Never met too much— not many make it to the Isle. I say it like it’s a good thing but really, it’s not. Uh, just that they don’t do enough crime to warrant a banishment, I guess? That’s better wording. Whatever, it’ll work,” he said, waving his hand dismissively as he began to ramble. He flashed a smile to try and keep the spirits up. 

“Don’t think you mean that as a compliment so I’ll take it as it is,” he chirped. He paused (for the first time in forever, holy moly) and furrowed his brow as he thought. “Are you a shapeshifting fish? Or do you have one of those magic spells on you that make you a human for the time being? Not gonna lie, THAT sounds like a pain in the ass. Piss off the wrong person and you risk not being able to go from a fish to a human or vice versa. Stuck up top, since humans can only handle so much pressure, or stuck down under, where your fellow peers can’t reach you. Do you think you piss people off enough for that to be a big risk or…?”

“really? some would say that there are plenty of people on the isle who don’t deserve to be there.” or so she’d heard. how would she know? “but i get what you mean. the isle isn’t a pretty place, and i was only there for a day.” she would rather not relive the events of a year ago ( had it really been that long? ), but it was inevitable when someone brought up the isle.

Kiba blinked when the stranger didn’t share his enthusiasm. He understood that maybe he exerted too much energy sometimes and that was totally fine. Still, she could be nicer about it. Before Kiba condemned her as a total bitch, however, he figured he’d be nice and give it a chance (only one chance, that’s always how much he was willing to give). “Well, okay, let me just put it into perspective, alright? You might get more hype when you know why.” He smiled as he stepped back, motioning to himself.

“My name’s Kiba. I’m from the Isle. I’m a siren. People get us confused with mermaids all the time but really, we’re shapeshifters and we choose our fave form and have it as our go-to. Most sirens choose the mermaid form. My dad chose a crocodile. And, me, I was forced to be human all this time so I couldn’t choose a fave form so now, I’m just trying a whole bunch and seeing what works for me. That’s why I’m so excited now because like… I get to be my full potential, you know? Isn’t that hype?” His smile grew wider. He held up his hand again, seeing if she’d high-five him now that she knew why he was obnoxiously excited.

misty would have responded that no, that was not alright, she had things to do and people to see, but she figured she wouldn’t be allowed to leave, not until he’d explained himself. all she did was nod at each point he made, wanting him to get on with it, and while she didn’t want to high-five him, she figured the fastest way out of this was to do so, and so she did. she only spoke after that.

The bunny stretched out her legs in front of her and gave Misty and small nod. “That would be great actually.” 

And another one– and another one! Kiba was honestly having TOO much fun shifting between one form and the other. His dad’s favourite form was a crocodile where he had gained infamy for eating a clock and chasing after a captain. All of that was a bit too “yikes” for the siren, who was forced to stay human as he grew up because of the Isle’s magic barrier. 

He was in the form of a salamander, running on a ledge of the campus before he jumped off of it and shapeshifted into a skua, cawing as he did so. He flew a couple feet in the air, the entire EXHILARATION of just shifting exciting. The skua made a dive before he shape-shifted one last time into a human. He landed on the sidewalk in a superhero position before giddily getting to his feet and holding his hand up to the person closest to him. “Holy man! Up top! Did you see that?! I was all like– WHOA! And then I was just– WAH! And then the landing and– it was AWESOME!”

the first thing misty heard was the sound of something running on a nearby ledge. the second was the cawing sound, and she instinctively stepped back and looked up, as though doing so would protect herself from this obnoxious bird. she’d been subjected to too many of her uncle scuttle’s friends trying to grab her when she rose to the surface, so it was now instinct to prepare herself to dodge.

“Well, I guess in the sea, there’s not much use for functioning human trinkets,” Pompeii agreed thoughtfully. “My mother said in times like this, hot glue is your best friend. Ideally, we just need to piece everything back onto the box. I’m just not sure how to fix the latch.”

A slight smile appeared at her friend’s words, “Not too bad and it’s absolutely horrible.” she replied with a little laugh.

{•——» @mistyxth said: “Have you done this before?” }

Pompeii flashed a smile. “I mean, not necessarily,” she started, “But it’s the effort that counts, right? No one can say that I didn’t try.”

“i know, but – there is.” if life had taught dignan anything, it was that he could at least choose which labels to assign himself with. baseball player. tall guy. the one with big hair. “yeah, me too, i’m not upset – it makes me angry too,” he shrugged, unsure of himself. he paused, his eyes showing the cogs turning in his head. “i know there’s nothing wrong with…it’s not a wrong thing. i just…had an image of myself that i wanted to be. and i guess that kinda changes things a bit.” dignan lowered his head. “sorry for being such a guppy about everything,” he mumbled.