1x1?

[AroaraAngelwolf]

Max woke and stretched. She got up heading to the workers cafeteria for lunch break. After lunch she spoke with the doctors sharing her notes with them. After about close to an hour, she returned to the tank.

[pudding]

It was only day two and already, Shoal was feeling more comfortable being in the tank. Instead of just lurking in the bottom in the farthest end, he was spending more time above the water and in the shallows. When Max had left, he had slunk back into the waves briefly but was lounging in the shallow area once more, hugging the small plastic boat close to him with his eyes closed. He had dug it up after she left and recovered the pile of pennies, then returned to his daytime nap, only this time holding the boat like it was a stuffed animal.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

Max smiled at this, it was almost as cute as a dozen puppies sleeping on top of each other... almost. She sat away from the tank this time, and even brought a folding chair to lounge in. She had changed out of the hot wet suit into a red tee and green boys swim trunks that she used as shorts.

 

She brought a drawing book with her and started to sketch him out, shading some spots.

[pudding]

Shoal twitched slightly in his sleep, holding the boat closer to him. The sun felt nice and warm on his skin and since he had decided it was safe in the water, he was more than willing to lounge in the light. As such, it was much later when he finally woke up, opening his mouth in a loud yawn. He stretched his arms out above his head, shaking slightly as he stretched out then pushed his hands into the sand to sit upright. Looking around, he frowned then began to waddle towards the side of the tank, dragging his tail behind him. Feeling out the top of the tank, he huffed then lifted himself up so he was peering over the top of the glass, looking out at the other tanks nearby holding other animals. Hmm... it looked as though there were a few out there. Making a clicking noise, he looked around, trying to see exactly what was in each tank.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

A pair of dolphins whistled to him. One had a faux flipper, the other had scars on its tail half. A few sea lions sat sunning themselves on a rock, a dark shine like oil and blisters on their skin. A whale shark swam in a further tank, nothing seemed to be wrong with it as far as he could see.

 

 

Max saw him checking out the other inhabitants, maybe he can figure out they help creatures here.

[pudding]

Shoal whistled back at the dolphins, copying the sound with relative ease. Focusing on the pair, his eyes honed in on the faux flipper the one dolphin had. It took him a little bit of time before he looked down at his own tail, examining the strange thing attached to it, he frowned then slunk back into the water. Curling his tail up close to himself, he traced the strange contraption then examined the rope burns covering most of his tail. The markings had yet to heal on most of his body but his tail had definitely taken the worst of it, hence why it hurt so much. But what was the point of the strange device?

[AroaraAngelwolf]

Max whistled, and went to the edge of the walkway where it met the sand and held out a band like the one on his tail. She felt it, and let him feel it if he did. She then took a piece of rope, and wraps it around her hand. She mimics it hurt, then wrapped it in the band. She keeps it on for a minute and takes it off moving like it's all better and points to his tail. "We help. Once you're better, we put you back into the sea again. I am Max. " She said slowly.

[pudding]

Shoal squinted slightly but didn't act as aggressive as he had early. By now, Max was a familiar face. It was the only human he had seen during his stay as the others he was almost always unconscious when they were near. Besides, she wasn't actually in the tank at this point and trying to follow her on land to attack would leave him exposed. So he just kept his distance a fair amount. When she held out the band, he frowned but reached out and let the tips of his fingers brush the band before quickly retracting his hand back. Watching her carefully, he frowned slightly then tilted his head to the side when she began to make noises at him. Oh, right. Humans were always making vocal noises, weren't they? He didn't know if it was an actual language or if they were just growling at everything but they sure did like to make noise. Although, it seemed she was trying to communicate something. Maybe he needed to try establishing some kind of trust between them. With a loud sigh, he dropped down onto the sand, then rolled onto his back so his stomach was exposed.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

Max tilted her head, confused. This sort of behaviour was seen in dogs, a fact she only knew from her vet friend who consulted her on anything fish related, from Kimi being sick, to a water snake and turtle problems. He had called it submitting, and it says the animal trusts the person.

 

Well, she should do it too to gain his trust, so she did. She stretched out and rolled over on her back, looking at him. She righted herself when he did, but she remains low, stretching out her hand palm up to show no threat to him.

[pudding]

Rolling back over onto his stomach, he lifted himself up with his hands and regarded the human as she mimicked his action, rolling onto her back and exposing her stomach. His fingers dug into the sand slightly as he tried to think of what to do next. Her actions made it clear she didn't intend to harm him at this point but where did that leave them? This wasn't a pod and they had no clear ranking, only a slight level of trust.

Looking up, he stared at the hand as it stretched out towards him, shifting back slightly but not retreating entirely into the water. His eyes moved from the palm to Max's face. What was she trying to do? Frowning, he shifted his weight to one hand then lifted up his other hand up and moved to press it against her palm, mimicking her actions.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

Max smiled and pointed to herself with her free hand. "Max." She waved to him for him to say his name. Man..... She saw this in a movie somewhere. This was some serious dajavu. But if she wanted to communicate with him she has to teach him her language.

[pudding]

Shoal tipped his head to the side, watching her gestures. Was that strange noise she just made her name? That seemed to be what she was getting at if her gestures meant anything and humans even had names in the first place. Unless she was trying to say that that was what her kind called themselves. It was a rather strange word. Or perhaps her waving was to say he was called Max as well. That was even more confusing. His eyes lowered as he mumbled softly to himself a few incoherent syllables, trying to get his way through a word before looking back up again. Releasing her hand, he mimicked her gesture towards himself. "M-mmmax," he repeated, looking up at her face. Was he Max too?

[AroaraAngelwolf]

She grinned and shook her head. This time she tapped both hands on her chest indicating herself. "Max." She said slowly, saying each letter sound clearly so he can imitate it correctly.

[pudding]

There was no gesture this time towards him but the word was repeated. Since she seemed displeased with his gestures, he tried again, this time lifting a hand to gesture to her instead of himself. "Max," he repeated then tilted his head to the side for confirmation. He wasn't Max, she was Max. Or, perhaps, a Max. It was a shame there weren't other humans around so he could confirm that. Glancing around, he frowned slightly then looked back at Max again.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

At that moment a guy walked by looking at a bunch of papers. "Hey max." "Hey Doug. " She called over her shoulder and looked at the merman nodding. "Max." She repeated her last gesture waving to him, wanting to know his name.

[pudding]

As the other human walked by, Shoal retreated slightly, widening the gap between himself and Max. He didn't trust others very much and even his trust with Max was strained. Frowning, he looked at her then checked around to make sure no one else was approaching. Satisfied, he turned back to Max and pointed at her. "Max," he repeated then slowly moved his hand to point at himself. "Shoal," he said slowly, whispering the word. Was that right? Did she want his name?

[AroaraAngelwolf]

"Yes, yes! Max. Shoal." She said as she pointed to her self first and then to him at their names. She tapped her chest. "Max helps Shoal's tail. Help shoal get better. Then shoal can join family again." She said delighted that they had achieved a basic understanding of each other. This would take a lot of work, but she was willing to speak like this for his sake of understanding her

[pudding]

Confusion filled Shoal's features as he stared at Max. She seemed happy with what he had said but then started to say other things he didn't understand. His name and her name were thrown in occasionally but he couldn't make sense of any of it. Frowning, he tilted his head back the other way. His cheeks puffed out as he made a few clicking noises then began tp push himself back into the tank.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

"Oh no... tail..." She drew him in the sand and added lines that showed his tail hurt. She gave his face a sad face. "Max... Help.." She wiped the likes on his tail image clean. "Tail better, shoal happy." She changed his sad face to a smile. "Happy shoal go back with family." She drew other merpeople beside his picture.

[pudding]

This was too complicated now and his patience had worn out. Backing his body further into the water, he huffed slightly then barked loudly, making a noise similar to a seal. Retreating all of the way into the water, he dipped his head under and lurked in the shallows so his body was just covered by the water. Staring up at Max, he waited quietly for her to leave.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

"Right... baby steps...." She got up and backed away, them moved away from his tank giving him some space. She tended to the dolphins next to him, then the seals. With the dolphin she got in and helped it to move better with its prosthetic flipper and the seals barked back at shoal and at max when she was with them,smoothing something on their backs to help the blisters, and washed them again to try and get off more oil.

[pudding]

Shoal waited until Max had lefy to rise up out of the water again and lift his torso up so he was resting on the side of the tank. Watching Max work, he looked around at the rest of the animals present then turned around to examine everything. The land area didn't look natural at all but aside from Max, the humans seemed to be keeping away from him. Interesting. Why were they leaving him be? She clearly wasn't the only one around. Although, he was glad none of the others were focused on him. He didn't like being around humans and Max was clearly the exception to that. If anyone else had fallen into his tank, they probably wouldn't have come out without injuries.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

She returned only to give him lunch and left him alone. She fed the other animals and plays with them.

 

((Time skip?))

[pudding]

((Sure! We should also probably consider information being leaked about Shoal to the outside to add in some more plot.))

 

Shoal spent most of the day lazing around, taking in the familiar sights but not doing very much in the way of activity. After being given another fish to eat, he ended up drifting down to the bottom of the sank and weaseling his way into the sand as far as he could so the tiny grains covered him like a blanket. Laying there, he curled up and slept for most of the day. Eating and sleeping were largely his only activities so when he wasn't being given food, he mostly just defaulted to sleeping. The tank didn't hold any dangerous creatures and with the fish being practically handed to him, he didn't see much of a reason to exercise. So instead he contented himself with sleeping the rest of the afternoon away, only waking up when the sun began to rise yet again. Squinting slightly, he huffed at the light shimmering down through the water then shifted around so he was covering his eyes and attempted to return to sleep.

[AroaraAngelwolf]

((Was thinking that a little later when he's almost recovered in moved into a bigger tank, how far did we skip? ))

 

Max went to work with a box full of stuff for the merman. She was outside the restricted area door when she herd a tour guide saying that the group of people can't see the tanks now for the behind-the-scenes tour package because several new dangerous creatures are still adjusting to their environment. The little about of contact with them the better.

 

 

Max went inside cutting off the rest of the conversation by the door closing. She headed to Shoal's tank. He needs to exercise, he won't be here forever. He can't get fat and lazy here, that isn't what they were about. Today, if he wants breakfast, he's going to work for it. She threaded a wire through the gills of the snapper and tied it to a rc submarine and had it dive down, doing loops around the tank dragging the fish behind it.

Edited June 20, 2015 by AroaraAngelwolf