Forums » General Roleplay » Come and See The Miraculous Ocean Child! (Open)

Atl winced slightly at the familiar buzzing sound waking him up. That meant that he slept longer than he was supposed to, and people were already showing up for the day.
With a slight groan, he uncurled himself and swam out of the small cave that served as his bedroom in the large tank, stretching himself out once he was in the relatively open water, in view of whatever guests that may already be around.

"Here you go. Eat up." Anna spoke softly to the brightly-colored Discus as she dropped a small portion of fish food into the tank, watching as the array of bright colors raced for the food. That was everything on her checklist for this morning; she could finally go search for the mermaid that was supposedly held here. She'd been wanting to see it for quite a while, but hadn't gotten the chance yet. She was dressed in the typical employee uniform, embellished with the aquarium logo in full. She found herself following the crowds of people until she stumbled upon what might be the biggest tank in the entire facility. She entered in awe, amazed by the sheer size of the tank. She noticed a small cave near the back of the tank and a bit of movement coming from inside. When she went closer to the glass to look, a young boy with a magnificent tail exited the cave, stretching. For a moment, she wondered if it could talk. Surely it couldn't; it was a fish, right? Then again, it was half human. Maybe it could.

After stretching, he glanced toward the glass that separated him from the main viewing platform of his tank. Still not completely awake, he gave a slightly nervous wave to the people watching, then swam off to get breakfast.
...He was never awake enough to do anything interesting this early.

Once again Alex returned to his empty depressing hole of a home at the aquarium, he couldn't help it really. He'd always dreamed of merpeople as a child, but knowing they were real felt so surreal. As usual he snuck around the edges of the park and into the maintenance tunnels.
Fixing what he was looking for he crawled into the air vents and continued forward on his usual path before coming to a stop,
Pushing aside the crate he found himself in a wide open abandoned room with a large glass pane. This was the one side of the tank where no one came, mostly because it had been sealed off a matter of years ago, it was more of a storage room than anything now.

Placing his hand against the glass he sighed, how much pain must this creature feel to be kept within his container.

Alex was here as often as he could to see the creature, hell he lived in this abandoned room practically, his only companions the boxes in the room, and the silent creature on the other side.

"It nice to be back, I missed this place."

Though he was on his way up to the surface to get his breakfast, he paused when he saw the vague shape through the glass of the far end of his tank. After a moment of debate, he changed course and lazily made his way over to the shape out of curiosity. As he got closer, it became clear that it was a human boy.
...There weren't usually people over on this side...

Alex knew he couldn't hear him, the glass made sure of that.
So instead of saying anything he shyly waved. Pressing his hand to the glass he smiled and sat on a nearby box, he was content with things like this. He never was much one for crowds anyway.

After another few moments of observing the human boy, Atl swam closer to the glass, and placed his own hand on his side of the surface.

Stopping for a moment, Alex pulled out an old notebook he'd stolen hoping that he could read and wrote down a quick note.
Placing it to the glass he showed off his handy work "hi, in Alex "

Atl's brow furrowed and he moved his head closer to the glass, squinting as he looked at the notebook. After a moment, he looked back up at Alex with a confused expression.
What did all those shapes mean? There was big ones kind of like those stuck on walls all around, too.

Ok so this might be harder then he thought. Pointing to his mouth and then the letters on the page he tried his best to sound out the words.

The mermaid's eyes darted between the page and the boy, very confused. After a few moments he tapped an ear and shook his head.

Getting a little frustrated he spoke with a ruff tone"can you hear me in all that water? Honestly your rather fascinating."

Anna watched as the mermaid retreated to the back of the tank, and squinted to see where he was headed. After a moment, she made out a boy in the back room through the water. Wasn't that a storage room? She made her way through the halls until she found a door into the room, finding that it was labeled 'Staff Only' and 'Storage'. She was right. She pushed open the door, spotting the boy conversing with the mermaid. "You aren't supposed to be back here, y'know."

He frowned again before suddenly having an idea and pressing an ear against the glass.
The moment he saw one of the staff enter the room the boy was in, though, he darted away from the glass and behind a large rock.

Anna frowned as the boy darted away and hid, sighing. "You're not in trouble as long as you return to the guest viewing area. I won't tell anyone."

Alex remained silent for a second before replying "its very surreal isn't it, seeing something like him. Not knowing how much pain he must go through...I watch him you know...every day....he looks so sad trapped in all that glass.
So much pain in those eyes. I come here every day because I don't like the crowds at the main glass, it's like a second home to me here. In the darkness where the only light is that which illuminates the tank. Watching him dance in that ever present blue. But if I must leave, I guess I have no choice huh?"

Anna frowned. "Look, I can't break the rules for you." She told him, but seeing the disappointed look on his face, she glanced around to check for eavesdroppers before whispering. "But if you come back tomorrow, I can't promise I'll see you go in." She smiled at him.

Atl peeked out from behind the rock just enough to watch the two of them.
...She wasn't going to make the boy leave, was she? He liked him... and if he was over there by himself, Atl could spend time over there and not have lots of people watching...

For a moment the boy smiled and noded his head, stopping to wave goodbye to the merboy he then turned to the aquarium employee.

"He could use more then one friend you know, maybe two or four."
And with that he ran to the air vent and crawled his way out of the building.

Atl gave the boy a small wave in response, but looked sad to see him go. He'd only just gotten there...