[PRP] Under the waves. { Oxiin & Xii }

[X Purple--Platypus X]

|| Under the waves. ||

Who; Oxiin & Xii.
When; Late morning - approaching midday.
Where; A pier - away from the usual mooring point Inge's father uses.

A heavy discontented sigh issued from Oxiin as he sat on the edge of the pier. The weather was absolutely divine – the sun was shining down with bold warming rays, but he had absolutely nothing to do. Inge had said that he couldn’t leave the area around where they were moored up. Normally this wouldn’t be too much of an issue for the rust dustling, he could find plenty of stuff to do – watching other sailors, finding crabs in the shallow water, or even doing a little bit of fishing. But today they were moored up in a different area than usual due to preparations for a big festival and there wasn’t a beach to speak of (just a gravelly/pebble shore) and fishing was banned. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around and the child was beginning to get restless and tetchy.

Tugging down on the corners of his hat – a battered straw trilby that Inge had forced him into wearing to avoid being burnt – he gazed over the blue water that swished and rippled idyllically in the perfect summer weather. Part of him wished that he could be like a fish and enjoy the cool lapping waves. He wished he could submerge himself in the liquid, open his coppery eyes underwater and see what wonders he could find. Having seen firsthand the variety of wonderful things that could be fished from the water – bright splashes of colour within coral, odd shaped shells, flickers of scales, snippets of unusual weeds – his childish imagination was stirred by the idea. However, the bitter reality of it was that he couldn’t ever enjoy such things in their natural place.

A sour grimace curled his expression into a frown. His arm was the reason he could never enter water deeper than waist depth! It was useless. He could not rely on his other arm to keep him afloat, especially considering the dragging weight that his rusty skin added. If he got out of his epth there was no doubt that he would flail and go underwater... Inge had stressed this fact to him and Oxiin had sullenly come to terms with it. He even didn't kick up a fuss when he had to be secured to the boat by a rope when they were out at sea - if he fell overboard... That'd be the end. Therefore he was stuck – wishing away his time with only the tips of his toes touching the cool surface...

 

[Fweedle]

The sound of something being dragged across the pebbles could be heard quite some distance away, it was Xii in his over sized Kimono. Walking towards the shore, his eyes fixed on the large open waters. It's been days since he's last been here and there was this strong urge inside of him that kept pushing him, trying to get him into the water. It didn't take long till Xii was right by the shores, his feet washed by the waves. He took a long look at the waters before giving a jump, his kimono trailing behind him. Xii always wore his kimono, even in the water as he was afraid there might be someone watching him in his ugly, naked state.

A splash was left in the wake of the dive, the boy disappearing beneath the water. He felt free, it was as though he was swimming through the air, the water having no weight around him. His kimono danced as he swam, making Xii look like a fish in the water. He kept swimming, his eyes closed. It was a calming feeling, swimming was something that took things off of Xii's mind. This went on for minutes, owing to his talent of being able to his hold his breath. Xii decided to surface, he wanted to see if there was anything interesting for him to do. As his head poked out of the water with a splash, he spotted something at the pier. It was figure of some sort and that intrigued him.

Giving his legs a few hard kicks, he began racing across the water. It didn't take him long till he was right infront of a boy. He looked pretty normal, if one looks past his rusted arm. Rust? That was pretty interesting. "Hey you, tell me your name." Xii demanded, his face void of emotion. It was pretty weird having someone by the beach and not in the water, why would anyone want to do that. While waiting for an answer, Xii kept swimming in circles, his eyes fixed onto the boy.  

[X Purple--Platypus X]

It wasn’t until the calm surface of the water was disturbed that Oxiin noticed that there was something of exceptional interest in the crystal clear water in front of him. At first the rust child believed the object bobbing around to be a seal – it was way to large to be any of the little colourful fish that skittered around the area and it appeared to have greyish skin... But... It also had hair? Oxiin had only seen seals once or twice but from what he remembered of their amiable dark eyed features they did not have a head of silken dark hair. Therefore he frowned in confusion and leant forward as the creature approached. It moved through the water with ease and within no time at all it was only a metre or so away from his dangling feet.

Now that it was closer he could make out some of the creature’s body beneath the waves. It was hard to distinguish at first because it appeared to be swathed in a billowing material but... It was humanoid: Two arms, a torso, and legs. However, the being before him certainly wasn’t completely human – it was staring up at him with cerulean eyes but they were rimmed with silvery scales, protruding from his silky black hair were fin-like ‘ears’ and beneath the surface more fish attributes could be spied in the form of unusual fins trailing from his lower back.

What was it? Was the boy a mermaid?! Inge had told him about them! The teen had said that they were half human half fish creatures that were obsessed with their own beauty and lured men into the water with their looks. Oxiin was sure that they were meant to be girls though... and the creature before him was almost certainly a boy. He was admittedly girly looking with his long hair and pretty features so Oxiin didn’t banish the idea of him being one of the fabled men-drowners.

As the possible mermaid spoke Oxiin pulled his toes out of the water... If mermaids enjoyed drowning people he would be an easy target because of his inability to swim. “Oxiin.” He responded, gaze following the circling boy. “What are you called?”

 

[Fweedle]

Xii was smiling from ear to ear when he saw Oxiin checking him out. It was a nice feeling having somebody looking at him, it meant that he was nice to look; that he was pretty. When the boy spoke of his name and asked for his, he felt a little offended. They way he was asked sounded like he was just an object. "Xii, the name is Xii." he nodded to himself, "just like the sea."

Xii began swimming about, he wanted to show off that he was indeed beautiful and talented. His kimono billowed about him, the sun shining at his scales at just the right angle and making him look almost shiny. He was having the time of his life. It took him quite some time before it registered in his mind that he was still someone there.

"So...why are you here?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the boy. To him, it was weird for someone to come to the sea and not swim. He kept swimming around, he was getting bored being alone. "Why don't you come down?"  

[X Purple--Platypus X]

Whereas before the boy in the water had looked up at him with a relatively blank expression, when Oxiin gave him attention a smile bloomed across his features and he received a happy sounding response. Xii like the sea? Was the being referring to the rhyme or his fish-like nature, or both? Oxiin frowned slightly, continuing to watch the curiosity named Xii swim around in the blue. The way that the other boy was fixated on Oxiin’s attention made his lazy swimming motions and billowing clothing seem like he was showing off. Vain? Inge had said that mermaids were fond of their own appearances? The evidence was starting to stack up against Xii in the rust child’s mind.

In addition to this alarm bells rang when the amiable invite was extended to him. Being asked to get into the water was also much like the tales of mermaids Inge had told him – they lured men into the depths with their looks and charms where they would drown! Xii appeared to be tempting him into the azure water, but Oxiin certainly wouldn’t fall for the trick. Raising his legs firmly away from the water he moved into a solid seated position on the safety of the pier.

“I’m here ‘cause Inge told me I couldn’t wander off.” He replied curtly, furrowing his brow and continuing to examine Xii with his scrutinising gaze. He was of course watching for any more signs of ulterior motives. He didn’t know any more than what Inge had told him and he had certainly never seen a mermaid first hand… But something still stuck out like a bit of a sore thumb, preventing the rust boy from outright rejection of Xii.

The mythical creatures of the sea that Oxiin was scared Xii could be were mereMAIDs. Female in nature.. Yet Xii was certainly a boy. If there were such things as mermen they wouldn’t show any interest in luring boy him himself, it would probably only be girls at risk. Therefore, it could be safe to talk unguardedly to the fishy child. He did after all have a desire to swim and Xii could move through the water so effortlessly… He could offer help?

Leaning back on his legs he pointed slightly accusing manner at Xii. “No. I won’t get in.. What are you doing here?”

 

[Fweedle]

A slight pout could be seen on Xii's face, he was beginning to hate the look he was given by the boy seated in front of him. He never did liked being 'scanned' by other people, as he would put it. In his head, it meant that he was ugly or the fact that he did something wrong. Neither which he could recall doing. However, he decided to wave it off considering that their meeting was still new and the boy probably didn't really meant it with that look (Or so Xii hopes) but he did noticed the boy changing positions, as though he was afraid Xii would do something to him. That got him a little irritated.

His attention was pretty soon diverted away when Oxiin mentioned another name to him. "Who is Inge?" he asked, one could see that he was confused. Another pet peeve of his was not knowing anything. Xii was getting quite bored of the conversation anyway, the boy didn't seem like he was going to enter the water with him anytime soon which he has no idea why.

Xii kept swaying about in the water, his kimono draping behind all the way. It was almost hypnotizing, almost.

Xii was taken aback when he was being pointed at. The boy didn't seem like he was friendly anymore. "Well, duh. Can't you that I'm swimming" he sniped at Oxiin, "My guardian was busy at her shop so I was bored." his finger was pointing at the boy in front of him too, giving him a taste of his own medicine just to see whether he would like it too.  

[X Purple--Platypus X]

“Inge’s my father.” Oxiin retorted. The other child was acting so irritating. All those little pouts and the constant squishing around in the water – it made it hard to concentrate on what was being said. Even if he had lowered his guard about being lured into the briney waves, Oxiin wasn’t going to instantly chum up with the blue skinned lad. Any normal land dwelling person had to put up with his short temper and this perplexing mer-thing was no different. His aloof and quite frankly vain behaviour had set alight to Oxiin’s metaphorical fuse like a spark off a match and now it was just a matter of time as the fire crept along the left of the fuse till there was an outburst of some description.

Unfortunately for the fishy boy his pointed finger snarky reply considerably sped up the burning fuse and led to Oxiin’s temper boiling over. “I can see that!” He jabbed his extended finger at the boy’s face below, an angry expression bursting onto his previously simply irked face. “I’m not stupid..” He gritted his teeth, leaning forward to directly address the smartass fish. Just ‘cause he could swim like it was no problem! Not everyone was lucky enough to have fins! Oxiin didn’t even have four working limbs! He wanted to spurt all this out and make the ignorant other boy feel bad – guilty even. But his pride prevented him from doing so; instead he just pulled a grimace.

However, leaning forward had offset the delicate balance Oxiin had been teetering on. With his arm outstretched and pointing and without a spare hand to grip tightly onto the pier he began to topple forwards. With a gasp and a screech he hit the water, colliding with the other boy as he did so...