Seeing through glamour is easy.

send a symbol from your muse to mine.   add  ↪  for a reverse from my muse to yours !

🍳   :   cook breakfast in bed for my muse.

💝   :   give a box of chocolates to my muse.

🍿    :   watch a rom-com with my muse.

💐   :   give flowers to my muse.

👙    :   buy lingerie for my muse.

💌   :   leave my muse a card from a secret admirer.

🍽️   :   take my muse out for dinner for two.

❤️   :   give a gift to my muse.   (   specify.   )

🐶   :   surprise my muse with a puppy.

🐱   :   surprise my muse with a kitten.

💔   :   break up with my muse.

🏩   :   book a valentine’s trip away with my muse.

💍    :   propose to my muse.

🔥    :   flirt with my muse.

😳   :   confess your muse’s love to my muse.

😘   :   kiss my muse.

🐻   :   give my muse a valentine’s teddy bear.

💃    :   dance with my muse.

*   TAKEN FROM THE BOOK ‘ AND I DARKEN ‘ , CHANGE PRONOUNS AS YOU WISH !

❝ I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. ❞

❝ You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate. ❞

❝ I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied. ❞

❝ Her spine was steel. Her heart was armor. Her eyes were fire. ❞

❝ What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power? ❞

❝ Some victories are merely defeat wearing the wrong clothing! ❞

❝ Souls and thrones are irreconcilable. ❞

❝ I cannot afford to lose you, too.❞

❝ You cannot lose something you do not own. ❞

❝ They are less than the mud. ❞

❝ If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me. Understand? ❞

❝ The price of living seems to always be death. ❞

❝ I think of you like a sister. ❞

❝ We cannot always have what we want, no matter how much we want it… ❞

❝ I am the dragon. ❞

❝ You are the only real thing in my life. ❞

❝ Where are you idiots taking me? ❞

❝ I am going to start sleeping with a knife. ❞

❝ If you had had a knife, you would have killed me! ❞

❝ The sooner you stop fighting, the easier your life will be. ❞

❝ I will burn your city to the ground.. ❞

❝ You once told me some lives are worth more than others. ❞

❝ How many deaths before the scales tip out of our favors? ❞

❝ Your are so pretty. Like delicate butterfly beneath my boot.  ❞

❝ You are so mad. Like a rabid hound that needs to be put down. ❞

❝ You look ridiculous. Armor suits you far more than silk. ❞

❝ Take me with you, and I will wear armor the whole time. ❞

❝ There are other ways to beat someone than with fists. ❞

❝ I must tell you that I do not care in the slightest about your petty jealousies.  ❞

❝ I cannot be around you for fear you will finally see what is written across my heart. ❞

❝ You love him like a flower loves the sun. ❞

❝ Nothing holds me here. ❞

❝ It was a lonely, cold thing to live without expectations. ❞

❝ You would not let anyone else kill me. ❞

❝ That honor is mine, and mine alone. ❞

❝ A dragon burned everything around herself until it was purified in ash. ❞

❝ How can you speak of them like they are matters of simple mathematics, a problem to be solved? ❞

❝ Those same fists had always defied everything expected of her. ❞

❝ You think I am worthless? ❞

❝ I can do things you could never dream of. ❞

❝ Women who go into the harem do not come out. It is a permanent position. ❞

❝ I am not going in as a woman. I am going in as an assassin. ❞

❝ Do not thank me. All I did was teach them to fear me. ❞

❝ Next time you hit first, you hit harder, you make certain that your name means fear and pain. ❞

❝ I will not be here to save you again. ❞

❝ You are precious to me. ❞

❝ What is so wrong with wanting to take care of you?  ❞

❝ If I needed or wanted to be taken care of, I would be no better than the women in here! ❞

❝ You and your brother are the only people who truly know me. ❞

❝ It belongs to me, and I belong to it. ❞

❝ People respond to kindness. ❞

❝ They trust a smile more than a promise that you will leave them choking on their own blood. ❞  

❝ It felt like fighting. It felt like falling. It felt like dying. ❞

❝ Belief is not weakness. Faith is the greatest strength we can have. ❞

❝ I still have bruises from the last time. ❞

❝ A true conversion is always only between a man and God. ❞

❝ There is no such thing as cheating. There is only winning or losing. ❞

❝ Weakness is an irresistible lure. ❞

❝ Quit screaming or I will let her eat your supper, too. ❞

❝ And you would be unmarriageable? ❞

❝ Have you been gone? I had not noticed. ❞

❝ I luxuriated in the blessed quiet that you left in your wake. ❞

❝ You cried yourself to sleep every day. ❞

❝ Carve out a life for yourself however you can. No one will do it for you. ❞

❝ Why do you have to destroy everything good we have here? ❞

❝ The stars were static, still and cold in the night, all the fire gone from the sky.  ❞

❝ Love was a weakness, a trap. ❞

❝ What would you sacrifice for power? ❞

❝ I stopped knowing what to fight against. ❞

❝ What exactly does a friend do? ❞

❝ Yes, but my promise is more sincere than your smiles. ❞

❝ I have never been so delighted as I was today. ❞

❝ What stones laid in childhood become the foundation legacies are built on? ❞

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

The selkie asked her a question regarding the statistics of what movies had been made, and Melanthe had to admit that it was quite beyond her. That hadn’t been something that had occurred to her to ask the person in whose company she’d been, but it certainly would be something she’d ask at a different time! 

“I really cannot say. I do know that he stated many different types of movies are made and they span all sorts of genres. I am uncertain what the word ‘genre’ means, exactly, but with the way it was used, I am thinking that it means there are many types.” The mergirl considered Brynne’s words for a moment, before she took a slow but deep breath in, then shook her head. “I… do not think that is the case…” she started slowly, thoughtfully, “Just because the rest of your clan decides to swim against the current rather than with it does not mean that you need to as well. There may be bad things to observe and learn, but there may also be good things as well. I would like to experience more of these ‘movies’ and ‘television shows’ so that I might better understand why they entertain the land dwellers on this side so.” 

Dark eyes filled with sympathy and compassion as she reached out, resting one webbed hand on the selkie’s arm lightly. “I do not know that many of my kind of have been held captive. Usually, they are just killed. But, I can understand why you would not like them. I do not know everything about the land dwellers on my side, merely that where they go, there is usually blood in their wake. Which means there is a lot of blood.” 

As was the way with her people, nothing could be given without something that was perceived to be of equal value being received in return. Whether or not the other girl believed that reading her a story would be doing her a favor, it very much would be. And if being taught to read were added to that, then Melanthe would owe even more to her new friend. 

And what Brynne was asking wasn’t even anything that the mergirl disliked doing! “I would be honored to travel with you and to seek out new places to visit. Perhaps together, we will be able to learn more than we would if we were separate. After all, two sets of eyes and two minds are far better than one.” 

The terrain around them was becoming a little more dense and seeming like the girls would be less likely to run into a random person or two. Which was probably good, considering neither were wearing anything except illusory clothing. Pausing, Melanthe took a good look at one of the trees, before she turned back to Brynne. “I enjoyed the brief time that I spent there, though it was rather cold. Where I am from is much warmer, and there is usually a great deal of sun above the surface. However, there are also great storms that will make the surface of the sea very unstable, with very high waves that can destroy much in their path, and much water will fall from the sky as well. Even so, our waters are warm and our beaches sandy. Very different from the cold and the rocky coast that I found there.” 

faeriesfromthedeep:

The selkie asked her a question regarding the statistics of what movies had been made, and Melanthe had to admit that it was quite beyond her. That hadn’t been something that had occurred to her to ask the person in whose company she’d been, but it certainly would be something she’d ask at a different time! 

“I really cannot say. I do know that he stated many different types of movies are made and they span all sorts of genres. I am uncertain what the word ‘genre’ means, exactly, but with the way it was used, I am thinking that it means there are many types.” The mergirl considered Brynne’s words for a moment, before she took a slow but deep breath in, then shook her head. “I… do not think that is the case…” she started slowly, thoughtfully, “Just because the rest of your clan decides to swim against the current rather than with it does not mean that you need to as well. There may be bad things to observe and learn, but there may also be good things as well. I would like to experience more of these ‘movies’ and ‘television shows’ so that I might better understand why they entertain the land dwellers on this side so.” 

Dark eyes filled with sympathy and compassion as she reached out, resting one webbed hand on the selkie’s arm lightly. “I do not know that many of my kind of have been held captive. Usually, they are just killed. But, I can understand why you would not like them. I do not know everything about the land dwellers on my side, merely that where they go, there is usually blood in their wake. Which means there is a lot of blood.” 

As was the way with her people, nothing could be given without something that was perceived to be of equal value being received in return. Whether or not the other girl believed that reading her a story would be doing her a favor, it very much would be. And if being taught to read were added to that, then Melanthe would owe even more to her new friend. 

And what Brynne was asking wasn’t even anything that the mergirl disliked doing! “I would be honored to travel with you and to seek out new places to visit. Perhaps together, we will be able to learn more than we would if we were separate. After all, two sets of eyes and two minds are far better than one.” 

The terrain around them was becoming a little more dense and seeming like the girls would be less likely to run into a random person or two. Which was probably good, considering neither were wearing anything except illusory clothing. Pausing, Melanthe took a good look at one of the trees, before she turned back to Brynne. “I enjoyed the brief time that I spent there, though it was rather cold. Where I am from is much warmer, and there is usually a great deal of sun above the surface. However, there are also great storms that will make the surface of the sea very unstable, with very high waves that can destroy much in their path, and much water will fall from the sky as well. Even so, our waters are warm and our beaches sandy. Very different from the cold and the rocky coast that I found there.” 

The word ‘genre’ was also beyond her so she shrugged her shoulders and simply nodded in agreement. It sounded like it meant many different types, but she wasn’t completely sure. “Yes, but just because you observe them does not mean that you want to emulate them. Or have your young copying that behavior.” And sometimes you had a hard time telling what was ‘good’ and ‘bad’ behavior.

Startled by the touch Brynne looked down at the webbed hand, but did not shrug it off. “Sometimes they keep us as pets. Pretty little things. The ones one the other side. On this side, they usually keep us as brides and to bear their children. Either way, we are kept from ever returning to the sea.” Towards the end, there was something painful and sad in her voice but she shook it off. Now was not the time to dwell on such things. Brynne had only been held captive for eight months, a comparatively short time considering how long others had been held captive. But it still hadn’t been fun. The talk of blood and captivity was dark and the Selkie had to shake such feelings from herself.

Pleased by the fact that her new friend agreed to go on an adventure with her, she clapped her hands together in delight. “Yes! Two is better than one when it comes to figuring things out.” Brynne agreed. And with two, it wouldn’t take nearly as long to figure something out if it puzzled them.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

“Well, of course,” she replied, her tone indicating that that much should have been obvious. “If you do not understand those that share the world with you, then how will you defend yourself from them? These movies may be for children, but I have been led to understand that many more have been made for adults, and look to be real rather than ‘animated’.” 

Though Melanthe’s expression was usually open and bright, something a little harder and more calculating passed over her features. “The humans on this side are destroying their world. The land dwellers on my side can be…. less than friendly. Whatever knowledge I can obtain will help my people, should it ever come down to that. I would hope that it would not, but I have seen some of the results of things that land dwellers on both sides do to each other. And I do not trust them not to attempt the same with my people.” 

It was a serious topic of conversation, and Melanthe completely understood why Brynne wouldn’t want to become too embroiled in what land dwellers did and didn’t do. But neither could one remain blind to it. That was how unfortunate things occurred. 

The topic of finding the original story was definitely lighter, and therefore a little easier to talk about. The mergirl’s features brightened again as she regarded the other girl, giving her a brilliant and rather excited smile. “Oh, I would greatly appreciate that! I am curious to see what the original tale was like and to see how it differs from the tale told in the movie meant for younglings. What would you like in return for this favor?” Hopefully, it wouldn’t be anything too extravagant, as there wasn’t a great deal that Melanthe could give. 

She considered what the other girl had to say, then nodded slowly, trying to compare the way that Brynne’s people handled coming of age versus the way her own people handled it. “Ours are considered younglings until they reach two hundred and fifty-two cycles. At that point, they are released from the care of the clan should they wish to go elsewhere, but many do not. If they do, they tend to seek out other clans that share the same ways of thinking. For example, my clan is matriarchal. We tend to think differently than those who are patriarchal, so many of those who would seek a different clan would try to find another that is matriarchal. Our ways are more peaceful, as we would rather talk through our differences rather than fight. Most of the time.” 

Many within the clans viewed their clanmates are family, and it usually took something fairly extreme to make one seek another clan. It was not one of those things that happened regularly. 

Dark eyes glanced around again, finding the terrain they were walking through to be quite beautiful and very different than what she was used to. “Have you been to a place called Scotland? Some of the trees and plantlife remind me a little of when I found myself there.” 

“But how much of those movies that are aimed for the adults are actually true rather than fiction?” She countered with a raise of an eyebrow. “Besides, there is the possibility of learning the wrong things and becoming too much like what you are studying.”

Brynne noted the look. “I understand that. I do not like being over here because of what the land dwellers are doing on this side and on the other they mostly leave us alone. Both try to steal our skins to make us theirs.” Something hard and angry and bitter entered her expression, darkening her blue eyes. They took their skins and stole the Selkies away, hiding the skins so that they could never return to the sea.

She blinked, surprised by the sudden brightness of Melanthe’s tone and by the offer of a favor. “Maybe we can go adventuring together some time. I would like that a lot.” The mergirl seemed like she would be a fun companion and they could compare and share their knowledge of humans and places.

That sounded similar to how Brynne’s people raised their young. However, the younglings would go to different pods to prevent inbreeding and to bring fresh blood to other pods. It sounded a bit callous and old-fashioned but it worked. Sometimes the younglings left because their way of thinking no longer meshed with their current pods and so they wanted to find one that was like-minded.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

Melanthe thought about Brynne’s words for a moment, chewing gently at the inside of her lower lip. The first time she had traveled to this side and met humans, she had worked hard at a few things. The first had been to listen and try to associate words they were speaking with objects of things. Then had come trying to figure out their actions and why they were doing the things that they did. There had been a small amount of comparison between her own people and the land dwellers on her side, but the mergirl had found that their ways were very much their own. 

And then the discovery of just how much different this same species could be depending on where she was on their side. It had been truly eye opening and educational. 

Which naturally made sense when it came to the movie that she’d watched. “I suppose,” she replied after a moment’s thought, her features starting to brighten a little. “What I mean, is that that would make sense.I think that similarities between things that look similar but are different will always be sought. It might help in figuring out the other as far as motives, traiditions, and general ways of thinking.” 

But, that really only made her more curious about the real story, as it had been written and in its unadulterated form. Regarding the selkie curiously, Melanthe’s eyes started to brighten, not only with curiosity, but with exceitement. “You have said that you can read. Do you think that we might be able to find this story somewhere? Would you be able to read it to me?” 

Perhaps there would also be some explanation of age in the actual story as well. Perhaps the mergirl in the story had been fully of age, and the changing of the age in the movie had been there to make it more interesting? It had, after all, seemed directed at children. She nodded once again, dark eyes meeting Brynne’s blue. “I believe that does make sense. All younglings will mature as they grow, but this does not necessarily mean they are ready to be considered full adults. Do your people follow this line of thinking, or do you do it differently?” 

Brynne frowned at Melanthe. “Do you mean studying them further and watching more of these types of movies?” She asked in a baffled sort of tone. It made sense, but she wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to do it. Getting involved with humans was like getting caught in a net and becoming more and more tangled up in it the more you struggled to get free.

There was also the possibility of becoming too human, in her opinion and that was something that the Selkie didn’t want.

At the mergirl’s question, she shrugged a shoulder. “We could probably find it. I do not know how hard it would be to find the original story and yes, I can read it to you.” The last part she’d said with a small smile.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

“That is because humans are strange,” she stated in response. It could potentially have sounded flat or disapproving, but the strangely bemused smile on the mergirl’s lips indicated that perhaps being strange wasn’t the worst thing in the world. At the very least, it was most of what made them absolutely fascinating. 

Melanthe’s eyes grew a little wider as she looked over at Brynne, “Right?! This movie, as it was, was so confusing in that manner! Ariel very clearly did not listen to her father and just went to do whatever she pleased. In doing so, she lost her voice and was given three Turns - days - in which to make the object of her desire fall in love with her. But she could not speak to him, and he had only ever heard her sing, so how was she supposed to accomplish this thing without being able to speak to him? The one who took Ariel’s voice hated her father, so that one had devised a plot to become the ruler of the sea.” At that, Melanthe snorted faintly and rolled her eyes, muttering, “As if that were actually a thing that were possible….” 

Taking a breath to replenish some of the air that had been expelled from her lungs while she spoke, she continued, “But, I digress. The mermaid was stupid. She should have listened to her father, and if not acquiesced to  his wishes, then she should have been better prepared to argue her case and prove to him why she was right rather than just run off and get herself into trouble. She had to rescue her father and the prince had to rescue her so that the one who had stolen the girl’s voice could be killed.” 

She sighed rather heavily as she shook her head a bit. The whole tale had been improbable and unbelievable. From the mergirl being so horribly disobedient, to the small crab that sang. Though, the crab did have a rather pleasant voice. 

“Oh, the name of the story? I was told that it is called ‘The Little Mermaid’. But she did not really seem all that ‘little’ to me. It was referenced that she was sixteen years old, but I am not sure how that relates to Cycles so I am unsure exactly how old that made her.” Dark eyes regarded Brynne with wide eyed curiosity. “Would one who has sixteen years be considered a youngling no longer?” 

Brynne said nothing but nodded in agreement. Humans were very odd creatures indeed, but that’s what made them so fascinating to watch sometimes.

“Maybe they just wanted to give her some more human traits so that she’d be more relatable.” She said doubtfully. It didn’t seem relatable to her, but then again she wasn’t a human. “I noticed humans do this often with our kind. They give them more human traits so that the story makes more sense to them. Even if it is stupid to us and not at all true or possible.”

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

Wrinkling her nose, Melanthe started to laugh, the sound being light and somewhat musical in nature. Humans did so many things that were strange and unusual, that it somehow seemed logical that the way their language had evolved would also be strange and unusual. “That is silly, then. This is why they need someone to keep track of such things. It is important to remember not only where you are, but how you got there. Otherwise the current ahead can hold unexpected surprises.”

Maybe not as much with language, but certainly when it came to events and history. Though she couldn’t quite be sure, the mergirl had a feeling that humans kept better track of their event history than they did their linguistic history. 

Giving the other girl a sidelong look, she shrugged a little at Brynne’s question, her expression morphing into one of the classic examples of “I don’t know”. One thing that had noticed was that the movies and television shows that had been less “real” looking seemed to be aimed at younglings. Her kind had never pulled punches when it came to teaching the young about the realities of life, but perhaps humans did it differently. 

“I do not really know. The movie that I had seen was very unreal looking. So, not like you or I, but my friend said that it was a cartoon. He also referred to it as ‘animated’, so I was able to infer that this animated and cartoon meant the same thing.” Shaking her head a little, she half smiled before continuing, “In any event, I believe that those sorts of things are meant for younglings, and if that is the case, then I am not sure what sort of message a youngling would take from such a thing. That they should not listen to their parents and do whatever they please? Even if their decisions are rash and ill-informed? My friend explained that the story is written down and I cannot read. Sadly, he is not good with lore, either, so the true ending of the tale is still lost to me. But, I am wondering if, because it was sad, it was changed so as not to frighten the younglings? I would think the would want the ending to remain the same, as a lesson in how not to make stupid choices.” 

“I do not disagree, but humans hold very different opinions.” Brynne said with a small shrug of her shoulders.

Well if the movie itself wasn’t real, she supposed that made sense. In a really weird, roundabout way that confused her a bit. “It seems to me that it means that even if they do not listen to their elders, everything will turn out alright because someone will come to save them. Or that they will marry a prince.” She added dryly. Then she nodded. “I would think the same thing too. You do not want the younglings to repeat such behavior so you would keep the sad ending as a deterrent. Humans are weird and I do not understand their teaching methods of their young.” Now she shook her head.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

The mergirl still found the whole thing amusing, especially when the selkie admitted that the humans didn’t even really seem to know why things were the way they were. “Well, then I say that is silly. Not having a reason seems very arbitrary and very poorly organized. This does not seem wise when one is constructing their language.” 

But, then, it wasn’t as if she really had a whole lot of experience there to draw on. The clans followed an oral tradition, mostly because writing always seemed something that washed away with the tides. The land dwellers did it, and every time it had been seen and exposed to the briny waters, the strange symbols that had been seen disappeared as though they had never existed. With the current state of the clans and their reluctance to go ashore, this wasn’t anything that would appear to be changing anytime soon. 

Melanthe’s thoughts moved from language and writing and if, once she learned to write, she should start to write down the lore, back to the story of the silly and unwise mermaid. “I do not believe so. The friend who showed me this thing called a movie stated that the basis for the story came from a different story that had a very different ending, but he could not quite remember what that ending was. Only that it was sad and the mermaid did not end up mating with the prince.” Not that she fully understood was a “prince” was, but she continued boldly on. “There was a witch of the sea who took this Ariel’s voice, which was why Ariel could not simply use her voice to make the one she loved love her in return. In trade for her voice, she was granted legs. Which was silly. If she had just stayed out of the water long enough, her scales would have fallen off so she would have had legs, and then she could have used her voice to seek shelter and aid. Also, I found it very strange that her people and the land people all spoke the same language. There was no language barrier between them! She should have been able to infiltrate and get what she wanted so easily. She was still a youngling, and refused to listen to the wisdom of her father, who was the head of the clan.” Shaking her head a little, she made a tsk’ing sound and sighed. “She was very stupid.” 

“Maybe they did when they first started it but the record of it wasn’t very well kept.” Brynne pointed out. Overall though she agreed with Melanthe.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

Brynne’s laughter was infectious. Even though what she was saying still didn’t make a whole lot of sense to the mergirl, Melanthe couldn’t keep from smiling, then starting to laugh, in response. At least she knew that she was correct in her assessment of the rules: Uncertain and arbitrary. How exactly that would help her, she wasn’t sure, but she loved it when she was right. Her eyes widened as she smiled suddenly, a thought occurring to her. “Ah, but if we were to find out the reason why these things were done, then it would no longer seem so strange! And might even make more sense!” 

And if they were to find out and it still didn’t make sense, somewhere inside the mergirl’s mind, she would be thinking of dropping things off cliffs. It would be far easier and more amusing than getting frustrated over it. 

However, it did make sense that learning something would be easier starting at a young age. Melanthe could only imagine a human attempting to learn the language of her people. The subtle shifts in cadence and tone would be next to impossible for them to pick up unless the language were something they’d been exposed to for a very long time. Still, that begged a very particular question that the mergirl couldn’t help but ask, rhetorical though it may be. “Do you think it is possible that they are making it more complicated than it needs to be? I have noticed that humans do have a tendency to overcomplicate things that do not need to be made as such.”

And if the selkie had one of those wondrous items known as a phone, then they could look up these rules, and perhaps some of the reasoning behind them, on the device! A little of the excitement she was feeling fell away when Brynne revealed that she did not, in fact, have a phone. “I do not have a phone, either. Or one of those televisions. But!,” the brightness returned to her eyes once again, “I have seen one, and I was shown this thing called a movie!” Dark eyes were still excited, though they started to display signs amused bewilderment as she shook her head gently. “Though, the movie that I was shown was highly inaccurate. Ariel was not overly intelligent in the things that she did, and did not think things through very well before taking action. She placed herself in unnecessary danger, and could very easily have been found and killed. Or eaten. Or put in a tank and placed on display.” Tsk’ing gently, the mergirl shook her head. “Highly illogical, and far too easily swayed by emotion.” 

“It might, but I’m not even sure the humans themselves know why for sure.” Brynne said a bit doubtfully. The ones that she’d talked to didn’t know and had become rather agitated when asked when they’d admitted that they didn’t know.

The selkie thought that over before slowly nodding. “Yes, I think they probably make it more complicated then it should be. But maybe they did it just to be difficult?” She wasn’t entirely sure about that last part, but it made sense and was in line with the human behavior that she’s observed.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

The mergirl’s face fell a little with disappointment at the selkie’s laughter, her lower lip sticking out slightly in a pout. Her idea of dropping things sounded far more entertaining than these rules made them out to be. “That sounds quite boring,” she announced after a moment. “After all, if one is going to drop things, then it should be dropped with a purpose. The way you have described them makes these rules sound very uncertain and almost arbitrary.” 

Besides, if the rules of the language were that odd and inconsistent, perhaps any new rules that were made would only make things easier to understand. It was Melanthe’s turn to smile at her new friend, even as she shook her head. “Not a new language, but if the rules are there to confuse, why not create new ones or dissolve the old ones to make things easier to understand? I realize that you did not create the rules of the language, but if there is a lot of confusion, then why not simply make it easier to comprehend? I would imagine that much like a a spoken language, the younglings must learn it, yes? Would it not be easier if made simpler with less rules?” 

But, perhaps the rules that accompanied language were similar to the rules that went along with driving and cars. The girl’s face became pensive as she thought that over. Considering she didn’t know how to drive, she had no real way to say whether or not the rules of the roads could be improved upon or not. What she understood of them, however, seemed to make sense. 

Not having seen one of the mythical “accidents”, Melanthe couldn’t have said what they looked like. She chewed at her lower lip for a moment, still thinking, before she suddenly brightened. “I know! If you have one of those things that they call ‘phones’, I believe that we might be able to use the thing known as ‘YouTube’ to seek out some images of such things.” Her head turned so that large, dark eyes that almost seemed to glow with the amber light of excitement could regard Brynne. “Oh, please tell me that you have such a thing!” 

Brynne shot Melanthe an apologetic look for laughing, but she didn’t stop grinning. “Well, it can be rather tedious. Sometimes they are uncertain and arbitrary. Even now, I still sometimes don’t understand why the sounds change or are dropped when you are spelling or saying a word.”

Now she gave the mergirl a helpless shrug. “Maybe. The young ones learn it as such a young age that they don’t know any better and it’s easier for them. I think I might be making the rules more complicated then they should be. I think it would be easier with less rules, but then you wouldn’t be learning it the way that the humans teach it to each other.” And that could cause some confusion.

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

That seemed incredibly strange. She thought about what Brynne had said for a moment, before shaking her head a little. Melanthe was more a little confused by this concept. “Is there a way to write things so that the letters make the correct sounds on their own? I do not understand why two or more would be needed to make something sound a certain way. Or why there would be others that would be dropped. Where does one drop them to? Is there a hole?” Her expression brightened a little as another thought entirely occurred to her. “Or, perhaps a cliff?” 

It seemed rather like a waste of letters or words, but perhaps there was something about them that made them need to be dropped. The more she thought about it, dropping sounded a lot more difficult than floating and like it would take a great deal more effort. After all, dropping had to be done from just the right height to attain the desired effect. 

“Well….” she said somewhat slowly, thoughtfully, “you have learned the rules, so you would be able to teach them, yes? Perhaps we can make up some new rules of our own!” 

It was a longshot, especially if the language was as well situated as she suspected it was, but it was always worth asking. At the very least, there might be different ways of remembering things that would make it easier. 

“I believe this to be the case,” the mergirl replied in regards to the selkie’s comment about structure. “The very act of driving itself looks fairly simplistic, but there must be rules in place or else it would be a horrible free for all! People would drive everywhere, all the of the time, and there would be no sense of order.” Her voice lowered a bit, somewhat conspiratorially, as her eyes slide sidelong to give Brynne an almost knowing look. “I have heard it said that those large things… the cars… can kill if they do not stop in time. I have been very fortunate in that I have not seen one of these ‘accidents’ as they are called, but I have heard that they are quite terrifying.” 

Bryne burst out laughing. “I do not know where they are dropped. It is not an actual dropping more of a...metaphorical one. But they aren’t dropped down a hole or a cliff. Again, humans make the rules about their language and it is very odd. The letters by themselves make their own sound. But then you add more letters to spell out a word and sometimes the sounds change.”

She thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Yes I can teach them.” Then she frowned at the mergirl, confused. “Make up our own rules for words? I don’t understand. Are we going to make our own language?”

Brynne didn’t understand. The rules were set and weren’t likely to change when it came to the English language so they couldn’t make up their own rules for it.