From Beneath the Waves

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Korrin nodded along, reassured a bit in that his guesses seemed to be correct. He might have been foreign to the human world, with his memories of his time in it lost to him, but he wasn't stupid. He could make educated guesses about why things happened.

"I guess I'd like looking at things from here, too," he admitted, thinking of what little he could see from the water, and what he knew of but hadn't really seen. The fact that the ocean would also be more interesting to those that didn't see it so often wasn't a large leap to make.

"It's very dangerous, to people that aren't meant to be in it." It was difficult to say what he meant while leaving out words like merfolk and human, not wanting anyone to hear and think anything strange was going on. "I understand why you haven't seen much of it. Even I can only go so far."

His body was more meant for diving, able to breathe and withstand more pressure than the human body, but even with natural ability and spells to keep his body safe he couldn't go to the deepest parts of the ocean. Some could, but they were a strange type of merfolk that he had only encountered once or twice in life when Minamet had taken him to trade for rare deep sea things.
 
"Plus a lot of people don't live near the sea, so they're even more interested in it." She explained further, "that's why they might come here on holiday and buy a souvenir like these."

She nodded a little sheepishly, "yeah I found that out first hand." Even though things had ultimately worked out, she knew how close she'd come to succumbing to the oceans power.

"Really?" She asked with interest, "I assumed you could go anywhere." She said quietly, wondering if it was because he wasnt a true merman or if none of them could.
 
"Ah, I see," Korrin said with a thoughtful little nod, making the connections in his head. "They want things that look like they came from the ocean, so they can remember it when they go back home."

It made him think, strangely, about what he could give Olivia whenever it was that she would inevitably leave. He knew she had said he could go with her, but was it really possible for him to be part of the human world again? He had to find something of his own that he could give her, so she wouldn't forget him.

"Oh, no, it's much too deep." He said with an almost startled expression, glancing back and forth as they wandered back out of the store to be sure no one was around to listen. "If you worked your way very gradually down, adjusting to the depth for days or weeks at a time, maybe it's possible, but mer who live deep, deep down are rare, and very different from those that live higher up. We can swim much deeper than you can, but even we start to hurt after a while."

The ocean was strong in ways that had nothing to do with its creatures or its tides, after all. After a certain depth, having the entirety of the ocean pressing on your body became too much even for strong merfolk.
 
"Hmm." She murmured thoughtfully, incredibly curious about the abilities and limitations of the merpeople. She had spent a lot of time answering Korrins questions about the human world, she hadn't been able to ask him much about his life in the sea.

Of course part of that was because she was afraid of him thinking she was being nosy, or with how things were now, upsetting him.

She wanted to know more about his magic, and she hadn't known there were different merpeople in the depths, she was very curious about them too.

"That's really interesting, did you meet many of them?"
 
Korrin made a face at the idea of the deep sea merfolk, a frown almost like a grimace on his face. "They are . . . very strange." He said, somewhat uncertainly. "Very pale, and hard to understand. Not . . . scary, really, but very different. Their voices are affected strangely by the pressure, like speaking is harder for them than it is for me."

He wasn't sure how to explain them very well without her being able to see them, or with the risk of other people around to hear. He remembered being afraid the first time Minamet had taken him, uncomfortable in the lower depths because of the water pressure but also because the merfolk they met were very strange. Their eyes had changed to be able to see in the near pitch black, and their bodies were bigger and more durable, their colors much more muted. At first, he had thought they might be sick.
 
She was a little surprised by his reaction, clearly he hadn't had the most pleasant experience with them. "Really? That does sound pretty strange."

The irony of that was not lost on her, referring to deep sea merfolk as strange when she was literally having a conversation with a human turned merman, turned human.

"It makes sense I suppose, i know deep sea creatures are very different from other sea creatures." "Do they act the same?" "Like are they friendly?"
 
Korrin only gave a soft hum in response at first, lost in thought and memory, but shook himself with a startled expression once he'd heard what she said. "Oh! I didn't mean to make it sound like they were hostile or rude - Minamet was conducting business with them, and they were very polite, I think, but I was very young. They scared me a little. . ."

He had done his best to get over a fear of what was different, as they hadn't been angry or violent, and Minamet had seemed to know some of them from past dealings. Being small and nervous and in some discomfort from the unusual amount of pressure, he'd just found the whole experience a bit terrifying at the time. His second time going he was a bit older and had a better time of it, but the deep merfolk's eyes did make him uneasy still.
 
"Ah I see, well that's understandable Korrin, a lot of things can be scary to kids." She reassured gently, "they sound like they were quite different to what you were used to so it makes sense they might have seemed a bit scary at first."

She smiled a little in amusement, "my brothers were scared of some pretty dumb stuff when they were little, not that they'd ever admit it now."
 
"They're a little bit scary even now, to be honest," Korrin said with a sheepish shake of his head. "I try not to be rude, but their eyes are very different from ours. They're usually all white, or all blue. But otherwise their shapes are normal. . ."

They had the same tails and fins, mostly, and their bone structure was the same as other merfolk, thank the seas, but their voices and eyes were different enough that it was just a little unsettling. It was rude to say they looked like monsters, but things in the deep sea always looked a bit strange because of the environment they lived in.
 
She was a little surprised to hear that, but she didn't judge him for it at all. She had no idea what they looked like, so if he said they were scary then she trusted him.

"I'd be interested in hearing more about them later, when we're home maybe." Since she knew they couldn't talk much out in public, or at least not as freely.

"I'm really curious about your life and experiences before you came here, I'd love to know more but only if you want to tell me." She said softly, knowing that might be hard to talk about right now.
 
Korrin nodded a little to himself, glancing this way and that as they walked into a new store full of what he could only assume were sweets from the smell, and toys from the bright colors. "I'll try to answer. It's hard to explain without being able to see things." But he would try his best. She already knew he existed and had seen some of his magic, so he didn't see the harm in telling her even more. He trusted her.

Curious, he looked around as they walked in and picked up a very round stuffed toy, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Ooh, they're very soft. Are they . . . pillows?"
 
She nodded a little, knowing it might be difficult to understand but grateful he was willing to try and explain it to her. "That's okay, I'm just curious."

She turned to look at the toy he was holding and smiled, "well you could use it as a pillow but it's actually a stuffed toy or a plush."

"They're made for kids but adults like them too, they make good gifts because they come in different varieties." "They're cute and soft so they're nice to cuddle up with."
 
"So fluffy," Korrin murmured to himself, and after a hesitant pause gave it a careful little hug before putting it back on the shelf, smiling a little at the soft material they were made of. "They're like sponges! Bouncy and squish-able. I see why people like them."

It was like a pillow, but with a cute face. There wasn't anything like it under the sea, given the sorts of things it was made of. Most children's toys were either quite rigid or made from things that were flexible but not soft. It was interesting, looking at the things a culture gave their children to amuse themselves with and trying to figure it out.

Curious as he looked around, Korrin picked up a puzzle and showed it to her, giving the box a little shake. "This is . . . a picture? Broken in pieces?" He assumed the idea was to make the picture whole again, but he wasn't entirely sure how.
 
She smiled at his enthusiasm, "they are nice aren't they?" There were so many things that he must have never seen living in the sea, so many little things she'd never even thought about before.

They were just regular parts of life for her but seeing them through his eyes made her appreciate how incredible they really were, simple or not.

"Yup it's called a jigsaw puzzle." "It's a picture on cardboard or wood cut into pieces and you've got to put it back together again, piece by piece."

"It can be pretty fun, and they come in a bunch of different varieties so they can be really simple or really complex and difficult."
 
"Oh, puzzle." Korrin nodded a little to himself as she explained, looking thoughtfully at different pictures and wishing he could see the pieces themselves. 'Puzzle' was a word he was familiar with, though usually he understood it to be solving a problem or figuring out something more three dimensional - but putting all the pieces in the right spots was a good sort of puzzle. Like piecing together broken pottery.

"Are these for children, too?" He asked, some confusion in his voice. "They sound complicated." Maybe older children, or younger adolescents. It would be a good way to exercise the brain, regardless.
 
"Do you like puzzles?" She asked curiously, since he seemed to recognise the word. "Because there's lots of different puzzles....up here."

She added that last part quiter, though they were still alone, she was just being cautious.

She nodded to his question, understanding his confusion. "They are, they're for all ages." "They're different depending on what age they're for."

"So this super simple one is for little kids, this one is a bit harder for older kids." She explained as she showed him the different boxes, "and then ones with more pieces like these are for adults."
 
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