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Monty moved slightly, then nodded a little. "Sure. What would you like to know?"
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"Um..." Archie's usually taciturn and shy nature began to make itself known, as he shrank back a bit. "I don't know..."
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Monty glanced at him, then smiled slightly. "How about I ask you a question first?" Then he settled into his spot a little. "Well....what did you and Leandre do when you were kids?"
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Archie tilted his head a little, thinking. "We tried to be outside and away from home as much as possible. Our father was not a nice man. We would play in the coral reef nearby, and Léan would tease the sea turtles. And I'd find pretty coral to take home and put in my room."
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Monty blinked slightly, then smiled a little surprised. He didn't comment on the bad father thing...everyone had issues. "Well, that sounds fun. Playing in the coral and collecting it anyway. Did he really tease the turtles?"
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"All the time," Archie hummed, amused. "He'd go up behind 'em and poke at their tails. When one ran into him in the reef and snapped at him, he grabbed it and threw it up in the water like a disk-thing. He never hurt them--just toyed with 'em...and it was funny, as long as they weren't injured."
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Monty chuckled softly and shook his head a little. "Sounds like he likes torturing animals." He teased lightly. "Well, can't say I was any better."
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Archie went pink. "No, no, he never tortured them...just messed with 'em. And got messed with, as well. The animals back home have a personal vendetta against him."
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Monty couldn't help but laugh a little. "I guess I'm worse than. I used to mess with...well. More dangerous animals than turtles."
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"Léan messed with mostly all of the animals in the reef out of boredom. The turtles were his favorite. Maybe the most dangerous was a really big shark? Well, no...the most dangerous creature he's ever messed with? I guess that would be a human," Archie admitted, quietly.
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Monty shifted slightly when Archie mentioned a human. "What about the human? I can understand sharks...they're so easy to mess with." Monty knew only that Emy used to be human, but the whole backstory was vague to him.
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"Léan always hated humans. I'm afraid of them, but I don't hate them. Whenever he has the chance to, it's dark out, and there's one alone by the beach, he'll mess with them...lure them into the water with his Song, if they have clothes on, and then promptly stop singing, so they'll 'wake up' in the water with no memory of going in there...he'll make strange noises and force them to come out looking for him..."
Archie went on and on, talking about his brother's constant playing tricks on humans. |
Monty listened intently, loving that he just talked on and on, but also noting some of the things he did to humans. He wondered if Emy knew of any of these things....or if she would even want to know.
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"There's a reason that he doesn't like humans, though." Archie shifted, uncomfortably. "When we were little, a human net pulled our mother up. And we never saw her again."
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Monty frowned at this new information, then nodded slightly. "I understand." He did sort of....his father was taken by humans, but he saw it as his own fault.
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Archie sighed and fell silent, then, not knowing what else to talk about. It seemed he was out of ideas already, and they'd just barely scratched the surface.
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Monty blinked slightly, not like the silence, then looked at him again. "So...other than collecting coral, what do you enjoy doing?"
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"Sleeping...I really didn't do much as a boy...other than go to school and play with my brother in the coral reef..." Archie admitted, sheepishly.
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Monty smiled a little and thought for a moment. "Well...it sounds like that's all you enjoyed doing. But, that's fine."
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"Eh? Well...school came with a lot of other things, too. I like to read." Reading in the world of a merperson usually consisted of a 'book' made out of thin stone. Books were far and few between, and usually only kept at libraries and learning establishments. They were also expensive.
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Monty blinked slightly, then smiled. "Really? I haven't read in quite awhile myself."
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"I haven't, either...I like small settlements, so no big libraries." Archie trailed off, suddenly. He liked living in settlements. It was odd to see him out somewhere on his own. His grief had driven him from his last home.
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Monty seemed to think for a moment, then sighed and leaned back a little. "Too bad we've no money to buy a couple."
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"That's the only thing I don't like about settlements. You have to trade a bunch of different valuable things in to get books..." Since there was no set money system in the underwater world, except perhaps in bigger cities, 'money' referred to valuable tradeable items. They could be found just about anywhere...though different things had different value to different people. Archie looked disappointed, as well. He loved books.
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Monty looked interested, he hadn't been to settlements often, except as a child. But, he was well protected by his parents then and hardly saw anything. "Disappointing."
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