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Oh Jack oh Jack what was he doing? Merope clung to the clipboard in his hands, his talons scratching grooves into it as he fought against the urge to press himself up against the wall of the hallway. As much as he would like to stay there, he did have a reason.

"Er," he began. Then he tried again. "Hey! Hey you! Bored? Wanna help a classmate out?" No, wait. He could do better then that. "Wanna lend a spare hand and earn something shiny?" That was better.

The initial comment brought a frown to the corner of his mouth. Didn't see him? She didn't see him?! He looked down at himself, then caught what he was doing as she continued to speak. Right, worry about personal appearances later, he decided. "Yes! Yes, I do. It's right in here." He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her behind him... and into a broom closet.

"Uh, wait. Wrong room!" Merope lead the way out and dragged her across the hallway, entering an unused classroom. "Here we are! Okay, so..." Merope released her hand, moving further into the room to gesture the organized chaos that dominated the rooms in various piles. "I'm Merope. This is where I've been piecing together my club." He waved the clipboard around, "I already collected signatures, but I just need someone to help test a couple things. I need help with a game, some drinks, and another game that's like a race track. Can you help me with one of them? You can decide which."

Oblivious to the levels of awkward he caused, Merope nodded enthusiastically to Leo. "The first game it is! Though, ah," He paused, looking around the room and scratching the back of his head. "It might take me a bit of time to set up. I... honestly wasn't expecting to get anyone to, well -" the undead boil began to admit before he broke off, busying himself with bustling around the various piles.

He emerged a few moments later with a small kiddie pool, dragging it until it was in the center of the room after shoving enough desks aside to place it just so. A hose was dropped into it before the undead boil disappeared. Water sputtered, then began to flow before Merope reappeared with his arms full of small toy boats. These were dropped into the water as the pool was being filled, the undead boil disappearing yet again.

Finally the water shut off, and the hose was removed. Merope reappeared with five wooden balls, offering them to Leo. "Here we are! The object is to, well, sink the ships. Green ones are worth one point, blue five, and red are worth ten. You wanna get as many points as you can. After you go, I'll take a turn and we'll see who scores higher. Ready?"

"I dunno," Merope answered, tossing one of the wooden balls up in the air before catching it, "I'm thinking about painting these black for little cannon balls, y'know? If I can find someone who can work metal, I might try to get actual canon balls. The only drawback is if you drop one..." He looked down, glancing from Leo's booted feet to his own bare ones.

"Then again, depending on who it is it shouldn't be much of a problem." He shrugged, lobbing the ball towards the boats.

SCHOMP!

Merope stared at the wreckage his ball passed through and began to laugh. "See? See?! What did I tell you!"

Merope shook his head. "Once it goes into the water, the paper would... well..." He waved his hands vaguely, nearly dropping the balls. The undead scrambled, trying to keep all of them in his hands. "Melt. Y'know? Plus I don't think it'd sink a ship."

When he straightened up, he stared at the missing ship. Then he looked back at her, awed. "Nice! That brings you to... what, eleven? One green, one red right?"

He plucked a ball from his pile and lobbed it, watching it wreck a green ship. "Yesss! I love it when they sink! One for meee!"

The undead leviathan waved Leo's comments off. "Nah! It's okay! I do this sort of thing all day. The initial boats were made out of paper, but they just... sank on their own if left for too long." He looked at the boats as he spoke, reaching forward to poke one ship back into the rest of the armada. "Not only that, but you don't get that satisfying crunch! of the wood as it breaks and splinters apart. Have you ever smashed one of these in your hands? Now that is one of the best parts of this. If you're not afraid of splinters, you can smash one later if you'd like."

A glance down at the floor would reveal plenty of splinters. Perhaps the boat-crushing-by-hand was something Merope did fairly often in his spare time? Either way, Merope offered a sympathetic pat on Leo's shoulder before tossing his.

"Yesss! Two!" Merope announced, his toe-talons clicking against the floor. "Ahh! I love the sound of that crunching~"

"Ah! Really? That's great!" Merope visibly perked up at Leo's agreement, flicking his fins wide open briefly before letting them fall against him loosely. "If you like it, you'll really dig Professor Savage's class. She's the one that got me started on smashing boats. Sometimes we even get to break them in class!" His tone said it all: he was a complete and utter little fanboy.

Her toss earned a clap of applause from Merope. "Excellent, a blue one! My turn!" Merope threw his, freezing as it smashed through a red ship. "Did... Did that just happen? I --" he stumbled over his words, ending it with a shrug. "Ah... um. That puts me at twenty-two. If you can sink one of the other red ones, you can beat me!"

"I do, actually!" Merope answered proudfully. "They're a lot of fun, and, ah." His enthusiasm seemed to deflate, crumbling into a mound of embarrassment. "It's... it's really obvious that I don't get out much, isn't it? I just... pass the time making ships. I don't really have a reason to go out." His talons clicked against the floor nervously as he looked around, surveying the "club" room he had claimed.

...He needed to get out more.

"Eh? I did?" Merope glanced at the ships. "Ah! I'm sorry, I'm not a very good host. But, uh, let's see." He threw the ball over his shoulder as he turned towards Leo, sparing the sinking blue ship only a glance. "How did you like it? Was it fun? I... ah, thank you for helping me, by the way." Merope shrugged, offering his hand. "I really appreciate it."