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"Yeah? Of course there is." Merope replied to thin air, his words trailing off as he watched Astra take off. She could fly? His large back-fins pressed into his back. He couldn't. His closest friends could. It was a fact that ate away at him and made him both envious and resentful of them. After all, they could go places he couldn't. It was an extra sting when someone asked Merope if he could fly; he always felt like he was doing something wrong when he told them no, he couldn't.

Merope shook his head as Astra disappeared, taking a moment to shed his jacket and t-shirt. His knee-length shorts doubled as swim trunks, and ballooned like a pair of pumpkin breeches briefly when Merope jumped into the pool. The lost fathom leviathan sank to the bottom of the pool before walking towards the shallow end, stopping when the water reached his waist.

"Okay, so we're in." Merope began slowly, scratching the back of his head. "Maybe we should try floating first? Or wait," He shook his head, dismissing it. "Stretches. I remember now. We should warm up a bit first, then use the wall to float, then try swimming." He broke off, scratching his ear fin. "Man, I should have brought that book on swimming come to think of it..."

Merope began his own routine of stretches. They weren't anything special -- he wasn't a member of the fitness club, and he had yet to go to gym. Anything he knew was gleaned from the inter webs or (most likely) the skelevision. He wasn't sure if what he was doing was right or wrong -- in fact, stretching was a desperate scramble to do something other than swimming. Astra was making him nervous: she wasn't undead. She couldn't breathe underwater as far as he could tell. And she couldn't swim. Was the lifegnome on duty? Yes -- Merope glanced his way, the spark of relief extinguishing itself quickly. Of course the lifegnome would be passed out. That meant he had to keep an eye on her.

He turned towards her and stared. Where did she g- there! "Are you okay?!" Merope asked, his fins pressing against himself. This was almost too much. "We can try again later," he said quickly, "Or find someone who knows how to swim to teach us instead of doing this if it'll be better and less dangerous. Maybe tomorrow or the day after?" He babbled, clearly panicking.

Merope visibly gulped. The reaper wished to continue. And she did have a point. "I... I don't know," he admitted. "I mean, I have a list of people who said they know how to swim but to be honest I've only met like, two of them not including yourself? I mean," he began, "Cyr might be able to teach us, since she's an undead dragon, can swim, and has wings. I've seen her swim before, but... I'm not sure if she knows how to swim in her natural form."

He took a deep breath and turned, clinging to the wall and letting himself relax. Was he floating? Nope. He scooted further away from Astra and tried an experimental kick, not wanting to accidentally catch her with his talons. "I guess," he began, "we can continue on... Just try not to drown, okay? I'm sorry in advance if I accidentally scratch you, too."

Merope fell silent, then experimentally pushed off the wall. He kept his fingers together as he pawed at the water, trying to mimic a flipper. Quite quickly he sunk, forcing him to kick out and reorient himself so that his feet touched the bottom of the pool. "Blergh!" Merope spat water out, returning to the wall and trying again.

It was true that Merope grew up in the deep ocean. His unlife, that was -- his life before (if he had one) was something he did not even think about. But back then he was free to use his natural form, not... This.

Merope was not fond of his humanoid shame. It was so wrong! The legs were too long, arms too long, the neck was too short. And he had to walk vertically on only his feet! His acclimation towards walking like a reaper was slow going, and had left him miserable. It also made him miss out on the first couple months of school.

The boil gave a short, frustrated sigh as he clung to the wall, turning to watch Astra as she... Wait. She was swimming! His jaw dropped as he stared. Was it really that easy? Apparently it was. And her wings! Merope smacked his forehead. THAT was what he was screwing up! His wings were dragging him down! He didn't feel like removing them (not to mention he was unsure how well Astra would take to him doing so). For now, Merope settled for clamping them tightly to his back before he pushed away from the wall, using the entire length of his arm to cut through the water and propel him forward.

"Yesssss!" Merope bubbled as water entered his mouth. Then he sank before resurfacing as his feet found the bottom. "Yes! That's it! Keep the wings back, extend the arms and legs to kick and your arms to push through the water."

He was ecstatic. Swimming wasn't as hard as he thought in this form! It was awkward, but at the same time it was... It was possible. He event felt rather foolish. How could he have forgotten about his fins? When he was in his natural form --

Merope yelped as Astra sunk under the water. He reached out, then snatched his hands back. What if he scratched her? What if -- She's drowning! Caution be damned, Merope reached forward and grabbed for the nearest part of Astra and pulled her close to him. He walked forward as he did, trying to both haul her towards the shallow water and lift her up and out of the water. "Hey! Don't drink the pool water! We need to swim in it!"

"Good," Merope laughed, carefully setting Astra down in another part of the shallow end. He picked her back up just as quickly, walking further ahead into the shadows before putting her down. Good -- he had walked far enough for the water to reach her her midsection, rather than her neck like before. "We need to be able to swim in it, y'know? Can't swim if it's all drunk up."

Merope flicked his fins, splashing them both briefly. "Do you feel okay to continue on?"

The splash directed towards him was answered by another splash back at her. It wasn't a large splash; just a small one, more playful than anything else. "Alright," Merope replied with forced cheer, "If you're sure you're sure, let's continue on. Though..." He paused to scratch behind one fin-ear. "I'm starting to wonder if we should get something that floats to help us swim. Or a mini to hold onto, preferably trained to swim with people."

He shrugged. "Or we can find some for next time. Either way... We won't learn how to swim just gabbin' here." Merope offered her a grin before turning, the water churning around him as he waded back towards his practice area. Grappling the wall was easy enough. It was the act of pushing against it and towards the wall on the far side that made him nervous, unsure as to whether or not he could make it back.

But the dead had little to fear of drowning. His heart did not thunder in his chest as he stared at the wall, fins pressed tightly against his back. There was no point in counting to three, ticking the numbers off as he scrounged around for false bravado.

Instead, Merope merely did. He turned, one hand letting go of the wall so that he could face the other side. He pushed off against the wall, keeping his wings folded back. As he began to sink, Merope kicked with his feet and moved his tail from side to side like a rudder, his arms moving up and forward as if to paw the water out of his way. He did open his large back-fins, holding them open...

Then they moved up and down, splashing quite a bit before Merope sank underwater.

As the bottom of the pool came up to meet him, Merope realized that his plan wasn't quite working out. He flapped his large fins once and kicked out, angling himself so that his feet touched the ground. Well now, he said to himself, his uniform glowing pulsating to "speak" the words into the empty water around him. That didn't quite work right. He reached up, absently twirling a glowing whisker around his finger as he thought.

He started out rather well. The kicking worked surprisingly well, and Astra was correct in surmising that his tail helped too. His fins, however... He untwirled his whisker before dropping his hand, taking a moment to look over his shoulder at the fins in question. Flapping didn't work. He moved them behind him and wiggling them as fast as he could, trying to propel himself forward like a seahorse.

Ultimately, all that landed him was a personal face-to-ground meeting with the bottom of the pool. With an irritated blurp bubble and a quick flicker of his markings, Merope turned and walked back towards the shallow end of the pool until his face broke the surface. Immediately the gills on his neck sealed themselves off as his undead lungs switched from breathing water to air. "Having any luck, Astra?"