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It began as all embarrassing situations began: it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Merope had not realized exactly what sort of troubled water he had dived into until the current pulled him under. Making a club that involved swimming was one thing (but not swim club -- another student was in charge of that). But organizing it was an entirely different thing. Merope had completely forgotten about it when Astra contacted him. The rest of the afternoon was spent tearing his room apart to chase down the BLURP sign-up sheet.

Riiiight. He still needed to get supplies for that club, didn't he? And planning it. And hosting it. And basically turn it into a club rather than have its plans pinned to his dorm room wall.

He wasn't thinking about the plans while waiting for Astra in the gym. The protective cover of the gym was off, enabling swimmers of any sort to splash around at their leisure. Instead, his eyes were focused on the pool as he ran a thumb carefully along a delicate gill-slit on his neck. It had been ages since he last attempted swimming in his human form, and the results of that were quite laughable. Maybe if he was lucky, Astra wouldn't show up or -- too late. Or was it?

It occurred belatedly to Merope that he had no idea what Astra looked like.

The sound of Astra approaching brought Merope out of his thoughts, the corner of his remaining lip turning up in a smile as she greeted him. "Hey, you're..." a lot shorter than I thought you would be, "Astra? I'm Mero- hey!" He snapped his fingers, pointing at her. "I know you! We met briefly back in Christmastown. I, er, dropped something and you pushed it towards me, but I kind of didn't notice." He paused, then added quickly, "Not because you were too short. My tongue was stuck to one of the giant poles in front of that place. Turns out it was made of metal." He grinned, glowing brighter momentarily at the thought.

He trailed off, looking at the pool. "So," he began. "Swimming. Right. Uh... You gonna take those off?" He gestured towards her. "Your wings? They're pretty, but can they stand up to water or...?"

Merope preened as best as he could at the compliment. "Thank you," he replied, "Truth to be told, I much prefer my true form than... this." He glanced down at himself and grimaced. Unfortunately his natural form was too big for school standards, and even when he was in his dorm he could only change into his natural form when he curled up in bed. Merope wouldn't do himself any favors if he accidentally trampled and squished his homework or got it wet.

His eyes widened as she told him about the houses. "The... the houses were edible?" He asked in an awe-struck tone. "I thought they would be like the poles! Man! I hope we go back there sometime so I can try that. Unless they changed it," he added, making a face. "It wasn't fun having my tongue stuck to that pole."

At Astra's reaction to his question, Merope stared at her. Then it occurred to him that Astra wasn't an undead, and that the other races did not remove limbs as they did clothes. "S-sorry," he apologized in embarrassment. "I forgot myself for a moment there."

He scratched his head, looking at her then to the pool and back again. "Now is probably a bad time to tell you that I only know how to swim in my natural form."

Merope shrugged wordlessly. He was still a first year, and lacked the experience to even consider graduating into the second year thanks to self-doubt and isolation. He was fascinated by the idea of houses being tasty, though. If there were houses, then perhaps too there were boats! It was something to ask Savage about later.

"Not like this, no," Merope said, lifting one foot and wiggling his toes to emphasis. "Natural form? Yes. My legs are too long, my neck's too short, my fingers and talons aren't shaped right..." The boil ended his complaining with a sigh. "The most I can do is sink. I've been... busy doing other things to set the club up. Those that wanted to go for heroic status are supposed to get a few things for me, and I was hoping to use the time and the things they brought to figure out how to swim like this. Since I don't know how to swim, nor have I asked the applicants to do anything..." He trailed off with a shrug. "The club might more readily sink than swim, really."

Merope was not Riley. He lacked the willpower and manpower to pull himself up by his bootstraps and get everything going. Add in his own personal problems, and he was far too preoccupied with them to even consider starting up a club any further than the initial interest period. And getting that up was a small accomplishment for him.

"My... tail?" He lifted it and brought it forward, flicking the end as he spread his fins akin to snapping a paper fan open. "N-not really. My tail's smaller than in my natural form, and I don't use it like a mermaid to swim. It's more for steering and signalling. Sound doesn't travel that well underwater, so..." he trailed off and shrugged.

Her question brought something up, however. Merope's tail moved back into place behind him as he wiggled the fins on his back. "Maybe... Maybe I could swim using these?" He suggested rather dubiously. "How are you supposed to swim, anyway? Do you know?"

"Mini!" Merope exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Why didn't I think of that? If we gathered some up and then set them loose in the pool, then --" he broke off, frowning. "Well. We could watch them swim and try to emulate them... Except then we'd be stuck trying to catch them again. I don't think the school staff would be happy about loose minis in the pool."

He stared at the pool, thinking. "Maybe... Maybe if we could float? I don't need to breathe so I can stay underwater for long periods of time, but you... I don't think you can breathe underwater?" He looked at Astra and squinted. "Can you?"

At the mention of trained minis, Astra was given the sort of Look that was reserved for disbelief, shock, and did I just hear that correctly? "A trained minipet?" Merope slowly asked, shaking his head. "I've been to the minipet training class, but that device only works on one mini. He's stopped trying to hork up fireballs since then, but the rest?" He snorted, dismissing it. "None of mine would do, I think."

Merope stared at the pool, then pointed towards one end. "Maybe the shallow end?" He suggested, "If you start sinking I can pick you up, I think. That and if it gets too rough, our feet can touch the bottom." Not that it mattered to him -- his feet touched the bottom no matter what. Usually. "We can try to figure out the basics, then go from there."