Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Really?" Merope sounded disappointed at the thought. "I see your point. I guess they'd probably stop at the first obstacle and wait, or turn around than try to go over it to continue on." Live things were so tricky! He could understand learning how to do something, but in all honesty he had been expecting to simply put the minipets in and watch them, well, race. So much for that idea.

Dwelling on the misfortune would get him nowhere. And that was a direction Merope preferred to not go in again. "So if I put them in, one by one," he began hesitantly, pausing long enough to flip open his notebook to make a note. "I should start with the easy obstacles, then make them progressively harder? Or start with the harder so the easier obstacles are... well. Easier?"

The pat on his back brought a brief half-smile to his half-face, the reassurance accepted with a nod. "Yeahhh. A hole could work, especially if it's a different color than the rest of the track." Merope grinned, a quick glow flickering across his markings as he found the thought amusing. He could already could hear the thmp! of the first minipet missing the hole and smacking into the wall.

Lizzy's drawn out word caught Merope's attention, one ear-fin flicking open and extending towards her to show his interest. "A what?" He stared, then snapped his fingers. "I get it! And if they can fit in those," he held his hounds out, gesturing the various shapes. "If they can do that, then what about the other kinds? The ones that can bend? Then wouldn't it be possible to go from there to even bigger and crazier tracks that can go vertical and horizontal up the wall and even over in loops and --"

Poor, poor Lizzy. She has unleashed a monster.

Lizzy's raised hands made the undead leviathan balk sharply, reeling back a couple steps as if he had walked full-tilt into a concrete pole. Merope resisted the urge to shake his head, settling instead for a quizzical blink as Lizzy told him to slow down. "Well, I figured it would be possible to just pour water into them," Merope confessed, forming invisible tubes by means of touching the tips of his thumb and middle fingers. In any other conversation with any other context, the gestured could have easily looked quite lewd.

"Though it'd be hard to keep the water in the open tanks there, unless the entire thing is covered and..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "That won't work. And I was thinking about building the track in my room in pieces that can be easily moved and set up again. I mean, I could turn my bed into a race track..." He laughed, adding, "But then I wouldn't be able to sleep in it!"

Merope rolled his shoulders, taking a moment to stretch. "I was thinking about building the initial parts out of leftover scrap from the Floresctival booths, providing that stuff's still around. If not, then there's the Kushi Kushi tunnels you mentioned."

Merope stopped short as Lizzy asked if the track had water in it, shooting her a look that would have been complete with a raised eyebrow if he wasn't missing an eyebrow on half of his face. "Does the track," he repeated slowly, "have water. Well, considering I'm racing seahorses which live their entire lives in the ocean..." He trailed off with a grin, and per-emptively ducked down just in case she took a playful swat at him.

"Yeah, I sleep in a tank of salt water," Merope added, wiggling his fins for emphasis. "I'm from the deep -- fresh water is bland and can get... Itchy? Unpleasant? If I swim in it for too long, it feels..." He stumbled with his words, his hands forming vague shapes as he tried to describe it. "It's like... Wrong? Gross? It's just... fresh water, I guess." He shrugged it off, returning her grin with one of his own.

"With luck, the leftover scraps are still around. If not..." He trailed off with a shrug. "Then there's nothing much I can do about that, aside from possibly diving into the lake and seeing if there's anything to scavenge from there."

Diving into the lake was one thing, but coming back up with materials was another. He still wasn't sure how he was going to do it, or even if he could do it yet. The last time he was in his natural form outside of his dorm was last year's Christmasraid. "So," he began, changing the topic, "Aside from running for Student Council, do you have any projects you're working on too?"

Merope laughed, waving it away as if it were an insignificant subject. “Alright, alright. But if one of the people you’re coming with bribes me for blackmail? It wasn’t me.” He ducked again, laughing. It would be difficult for anyone to even know what had transpired though, given the lack of anyone else around them currently.

“Oh, there’s lots of different types and tastes!” Merope explained, “Salt’s in the ocean, lake is the stuff you drink... But even then there’s water that’s been infused with lots of Fear, little Fear, hot, cold... Lots of different kinds!”

At her confession, Merope grinned. “Would you like to know a secret?” He leaned in closer, “I can’t swim in my humanoid form. Embarrassing, isn’t it?” He straightened up again, and quickly changed the topic. “Seamstress? What sort of clothing do you make? I just... take whatever looks fancy from the Lost and Found.” Merope paused, adding, “And waterproof. I’ve had some clothes disintegrate on me before. It’s... not very fun.”

Merope looked a little uncomfortable at her inquiry. "It's the legs," he said, gesturing down to them. "They're too long. My fins?" He flexed them, "I don't know how to use them. I'm used to swimming and, well, living in my natural form, not this... this thing." His hands rose and fell in an effort to gesture at his entire being. "I've tried flapping my wings like I've seen students do when they fly, but it... It just doesn't work for me. It's really frustrating to not be able to swim or fly when people take one look at your back and go 'Wings!' without knowing, y'know?" Maybe she didn't know, but it was enough to make Merope look down and scuff the floor as if kicking an imaginary pebble.

As the topic drifted towards clothes, Merope froze at the giggle. There was an instinctual boil fear that crept up in him at the sound of it. It didn't matter that he had never heard of it before. That giggle was the sound of a ghoul up to mischief. "I-If it's no trouble," He managed to answer, starting to look a little worried at the thought. "I'd like something like that. Do I need to do anything...?"

In response to her suggestion, Merope shrugged. "I sent a letter back home asking for some advice... but nothing yet. I'm not even sure if they even know how to swim like this, given..." He trailed off, gesturing vaguely, "Well, given that they're all in their natural forms there. It's worth a shot, though." Of course it would also depend on whether or not his letter would even get there. Home was in a rather deep part of the ocean, after all.

"Measurements?" Merope looked puzzled, then looked down at himself. "We-ll, I guess normal size? Everything I grab out of the lost and found has been medium or large sized since that stuff fits the best. And colors... um." Merope looked rather lost; it was the first time anyone had asked him about colors, much less his favorite ones. "I... I don't think I have any? But," he pulled his jacket open, gesturing towards the large star there. "I quite like this shape -- a star, I think? If it could have one or two on there somewhere..."

Merope ducked his head, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Y-yeah. Leader named me after a star. They're kinda special to me because of that, though I haven't found the one I've been named after yet." Then again, Merope hadn't really paid much attention to the stars. When he first came to Amityville, he liked to lay out on the common grounds and try to figure them out. Then the resident Boogeyman would catch him and drag him back to his dorm. Merope learned quickly to stop doing that.

"Err, skelephone, skelephone..." Merope patted his pockets, searching. "Aha! Here -- no, that's my gameboil. This? That's my wallet. What about... aha! Here it is!" He held it up triumphantly, flipping it open and navigating the menu. "Found it! I don't call myself that often, so I haven't memorized my own number. It's..." He rattled off the number, adding, "Want me to write that down? I can text you real quick to get it to you that way, too."