Welcome to Gaia! ::

((OOC: I didn't know you were gone I mean, yay! xp ))

Tianara's smile was faint and sad. "Yes, they're wonderful," she said softly. "Don't think I haven't realized how easy it would have been for them just to let me drown. I was nothing to them, much more trouble alive than dead. But still they raised me and loved me for sixteen years." She paused, her eyes bright. "I know all that I owe, Joshua...I just don't know if other humans would understand that."

As the full implications of his plan sank in, however, her eyes darkened. "What? So you want to just...throw the survival of the merfolk on the pity of the humans, and hope that it will be enough? What if it's not? There are people who don't care. People who would enjoy it more for the knowledge that the merfolk are harmless." She fell into a reverie briefly, and then seemed to calm again. Looking up at Joshua, she asked, "And would this be before or after we deny that they ever existed, and politely imply that the people who think they do are stupid?"

Tianara only flinched marginally when he snapped at her. Indeed, there was the briefest flash of something that looked a great deal like triumph in her eyes. It came and went so fast that it was nearly impossible to be sure that it had been there. "That's all right," she said softly. "We're all stressed."

She considered for a few minutes, and shook her head a little. "And how will we tell?" she asked. "We would have to be sure that they were safe, that they wouldn't take our stories and any proof we might have to show and run to the people that would hurt them. How will we tell that they're not going to betray us?" Her voice shook a little. After a minute, she murmured, "There has to be something. You're on to something, but how would we do it?"

Mac looks onward, "I always thought merpeople and humans the same. Although I never considered myself human, I did remember one of my past lives..."Mac paused for a moment. "I remember that I was a mermaid once with my earthbound soul, and I did something great, I became human and married a human as well. I was a great controversy back then, because I was well known. Harmony did exist...but the stories died down." He finished. "I remember I had a child...but I don't remember the name...".

((OOC: Is he going to be the crazy old hermit?! XD))

Tianara listened in silence. "Yes," she murmured at last. "People like you. They're what we need. People who are alone and outcast by the other humans, but who aren't angry or bitter or who want to become part of the crowd. Those ones aren't trustworthy." She looked up at Joshua for a second, with a sad little smile. "We need more of you."

She listened to Mac briefly, staring out into space as he talked. "Harmony existed once, because people were more willing to believe," she said quietly when Joshua spoke up. "Now they're not. From what I can tell, they think they have the world all figured out, and the idea that they might not know everything angers them. The creatures that would prove that they don't know all the world's secrets..." She trailed off, slowly shaking her head. "Is that part of it, Joshua? The need to believe that they don't need to learn anymore, that they already know it all?"

((Yes you may use that one as a new character XD. Maybe make 2? One should be a lovely young human girl, around 17 maybe?))

Mac closed his eyes, "Not all humans think alike. Some wonder and believe, like I used to. I always thought that if something existed in thought, it still existed" he stated calmly with his soft voice. Then another memory presented itself. Something related to the 3 shellfish he saw earlier.

The placement of a jewel of somekind. The object was placed onto the rock and then an enchantment was made and the 3 shells appeared and protected it. This is for the future. In case anything may befall our family, let our future generation acquire this. The words played in his head. Then the memory stopped.

Mac's eyes opened wide. "...Near the shore..."

((Sounds good for the part, the grandaughter. Now to think of her name...))

Mac looked at them, "My past self hid something near where I came from at the shore. It's important somehow...but we cannot get it. Only someone from my past life's family can access it" he said.

((OOC: Cool. So wait, Lucky, are you adding two more characters?))

Tianara turned cool eyes on Mac. "We're not saying they do," she stated, flatly. "But enough of them do, and we're sunk. Maybe some will believe. Maybe some will care. Who's to say they'll care enough to do anything about it? Or even just to keep quiet so that no one is hurt?" She glanced at Joshua. "I never had a chance to wonder if they were real," she mused. "I wonder what I would have thought, if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes from my earliest days."

She frowned when Mac started talking about the shore. "How can you know so much about your past self?" she inquired. "I always thought the whole point of past lives was that they were, you know, past." She shook her head. "I suppose we could start inquiries about where your descendants have gotten to, but that might stir up too much interest."