Staring at walls can be fun too

The car veered around the corner, the tires screeching with rage. "Yes... Yes!" Owen cried, raising his arms in victory. But it wasn't over yet. The flames spurted from the back of the vehicle, barely licking the snout of its pursuer: an equally fast racing engine, if not just as dangerous. Two corners later, and they were neck and neck, each driver exchanging death glares. He held his breath, watching, steadily shovelling popcorn into his face. The finishing line was approaching, and fast. Suddenly, the first car turned - and span out of control. He watched in blank terror as it crashed off the course and burst into flames.

"No!" he yelled, blinking open his eyes. At first, he was confused - the room was much unlike the stalls at the racing track. Scratching his head, he yawned slightly and turned over - only to find himself falling off the edge of the couch. "Wuh?!" he gasped, landing on the floor with a slightly humiliating 'thud'. "Oww," he groaned, climbing up onto the couch again. It was when he noticed a rather strange texture in his mouth - he couldn't quite recognise it. When he dug his hand in and pulled out a strand of crumpled paper, his face immediately flushed. "Damn it," he muttered, tossing the paper to the floor.

Hoping that nobody saw his awkward little endeavors, he resumed staring at the wall longingly, imagining it to be a cinema-esque TV.

((Eee, anyone can join.))

Suddenly a child was flying through the air, trying to jump on Owen. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!" She yelled as she was trying to glomp him.

The last thing Owen expected when on the couch during a weekday afternoon was too have a floating child zoom directly into his face. "What the...?!" he hardly had time to react, batting his hands much like swatting a fly, before recognising who it was. "Andra...ste?" he said, half groaning, trying to remember her name. "What're you doing?" he asked warily, unsure how to deal with the girl currently glomping him. Having just woken up, he gave a loud yawn, scratching his head with a free hand. He couldn't tell for sure whether he'd just ended up in another dream.

She snuggled into him, "Shhhhh, you're dreaming, and yes, yes, its meeeeeeeee~~~ andraste..." she giggled lightly, she was sounding more of a ghost than of a dream world person. She just giggled, she was really happy to see Owen, she had wondered where he had gotten off to, now she knew.

((sorry tis short... again...))

Owen made a face, slightly creeped out by her voice. Still unconvinced by reality, he pinched himself on the neck to wake himself up, only to find himself in exactly the same position. Ah well. "How'd you find me anyways?" he asked, trying to change the conversation to something more casual. It wasn't everyday he was adored by small children, and needless to say, it was a little unnerving. "...And what powers do you have anyway..?" he asked, slightly interested.

"I was just wandering around and wondering what happened to you and then i heard a thud, and i walked in and poof, there you were!" she giggled. Her bright eyes looked up at him, searching him. "You're so cool you know that? You're like the coolest guy I've ever met, and I'm going to be your friend for like ever cause you're that awesome!" the child laughed her eyes bright and she snuggled him more.

"I can do magic. that's it." she giggled, to jump up as high as she did, she had used a little spell that aloud her to get the correct height so that she could dive bomb glomp Owen. Andraste was still full of laughter and innocence and she really seemed to be enjoying herself. She was really studying Owen, trying to figure out what he was actually, because he didn't feel human, actually, so far, nobody she was with in the castle felt human... except the chef... she felt the most human, but there was something wrong there and the child knew it, subconsciously...

Owen stared, unsure what to make out of the girl's affection. On one hard, it was rather unsettling to hear somebody of her age admire him so much. Then again, it was flattering to hear these words: it wasn't something he heard often. He opted for the latter, grinning. "Yeah, I guess I'm pretty cool..." he chuckled, half joking.

As she demonstrated her magic abilities, he blinked in surprise for a few moments. Her unpredictable nature would take some getting used to...
Remaining on the couch, he hesitantly returned the hug, one arm around her shoulder. He rolled his eyes slightly at her answer. Duh, everyone has magic, or they wouldn't be here, he thought, then noticed the irony as he realised that he didn't know any magic either. "What kinda magic anyways?" he asked. "Do you just kinda float, or can you do other stuff?"

Some time during Owen's nap, the merlad had dragged himself into the room and hidden behind the couch. He had pulled himself up with his arms to gaze over the back at the student napping below, waiting for something to happen. He grew quickly impatient and would have bitten the student if he hadn't suddenly shot forwards with a shout. Shiver was startled and ducked back behind the couch, huddled against the floor. It soon became a game, and he felt sneaky because Owen was unaware of his presence, which was fun.

He pressed himself closer to the back of couch, determined to remain hidden when the girl, who he recognized as the one with the pets, burst into the room and tackled Owen. Their conversation was boring, which was annoying, but a crumpled piece of paper that he hadn't noticed before caught his eye.

Trying to be quiet stealthy, Shiver inched himself--much like an inchworm!--from behind the couch into plain view. But he was under the impression that if he moved slowly enough, they might not notice him. He reached slowly--steeaaalthy--out with his finger until they touched the parchment, and then very quickly retracted it to right under his nose for inspection.

The child, who was trying to think of an explanation of her magical abilities stared at Owen for a while, trying to think of what magical abilities she did have. "Well... uhh.... the flying floating thing was just a spell to let me jump higher," she stated slowly, really trying to think of everything.

Her eyes slowly fell on Shiver who was scotching his way across the floor, she clambered off of Owen and tried to glomp Shiver, who she also found to be interesting and fun. She was trying to be quiet so that he would be surprised when he found her hugging him.

As Andraste directed her gaze to something other than himself, he followed it to find her staring at Shiver, who'd somehow managed to appear out of nowhere. At first, he grinned. He did want to see him again, Owen found him to be very interesting. Then it hit him. Shiver was a merlad. In the study. "What the-?!" He would've let go of Andraste if she hadn't clambered out anyway.

He hardly noticed that his notes were missing, or at least, they would've been notes if he hadn't scrawled a picture of a t-rex over them. He peered over the couch, still too lazy to stand up. "What are you..." He didn't have time to finish as Aethera attempt to tackle the poor merlad. He cringed, remembering that Shiver wasn't always rainbows and sunshine when he interacted with Andraste in the vestibule. "...Seriously, what are you doing?!" he asked to none of them in paticular.

Shiver hadn't seen the attack coming, and responded to Andraste's glomp befittingly--by twisting his spine at a impressively flexible angle to try and veer away from her while emitting a high-pitched and extremely unhappy hiss, that was really more like a cat's spitting. The crumpled piece of paper was clutched tightly between his hands as if his new-found treasure was her goal, and a couple stray white curls that had managed to escape the confines of his tusk-shell hair pieces, bounced wildly about his face.

In the background, he heard Owen exclaim something, but he hadn't been focussed enough to know what it was.

Without caring to consider who she was, how old she was, or that she was simply being playful, the mer struck his head forwards, aiming a needle-toothed bite at her forearm. He didn't want to tear her arm off or anything, just nip her hard enough to punish her for attacking him and make sure that she backed off. Any other greeting would have gone over much more smoothly.


(( You can decide whether the bite hit it's mark/drew blood or not~ ))

Andraste certianly didn't expect any teeth to be suddenly biting her arm, she hadn't the slightest idea that the male would actually react so badly to a simple hug. The girl let out a loud SHRIEK as her crimson blood started to spill down her arm on the floor. She tended to bleed a little too easily. Tears Filled her eyes as she continued to scream. She was trying to get her arm out of the mer's mouth. Her other hand shot out and her fingers wrapped through Shiver's curly white hair and she pulled as hard as she possibly could. "GET OFF SHIVER! STOP BITING ME! I WAS JUST PLAYING!" she shrieked.

"OWEN HELP ME!" she cried loudly, after ripping her arm from Shiver's mouth, probably doing more harm to herself than good. She fell backward away from shiver getting more blood on the floor. She was crying in pain, but she had hoped that she had at least hurt Shiver a bit when she had pulled his hair. The child would probably need some stitches.

Owen grinned wickedly at Shiver's exuberant reaction. He had often noticed how animals often overreacted at the smallest things - this merlad appeared to be no different. Leaning over the arm of the couch, he watched with amusement at their little scuffle. The shrieks flew over his head - they were merely overexcited. It was when he saw the first few red drops that his expression darkened. "...Oh crap."

He hardly knew how to react at first, running a hand through his scruffy black hair. He wanted to intervene, but he also didn't want to get on the bad side of a creature he had surely come to respect. As the girl managed to literally peel herself away, he finally found the initiative to haul his ass from the couch and aid her. Kneeling down to an equal level, he cringed upon taking a closer look at the wound. He never did deal well with these situations, often he'd leave it to somebody more responsible. Peering around the room, he saw that there was no one else around that culd help.

Disgruntled, he turned to face the others. "Okay," he muttered, waving his arms, apparently searching for something, although he wasn't quite sure what it was. "Okay, it's okay." He reached out his arms to help Andraste onto her feet - holding her delicately almost as if she would break if he let go. "It's not that bad..." he said, hardly sounding reassuring at all. He looked towards Shiver again, unsure what to do. "I'm sure he, uh... Didn't mean it." He raised his eyebrow expactantly at the merlad, hoping he'd at least do something to prove he wasn't a bloodthirsty monster. "...He's probably sorry too." He couldn't even convince himself of that one, but it was worth a try.

Shiver yelped loudly when Andraste yanked roughly on his hair and squirmed backwards after the girl had torn her arm away from him. He webbed fingers flew to clutch head head where his scalp was aching and he frowned fiercely at her, a bit of the girl's red blood dribbling down his chin. He blinked hard to try and break the little beads of moisture forming in his eyes before they could fall, and managed to help dissipate the sting of hair-pulling by scrubbing at his roots with his fingertips. Noticing his new friend rock--for that's what he understood Owen to be--hastily go to aid the offending child enticed him to emit a quiet gurgling noise that sounded similar to a growl and narrow his eyes unhappily. As far as he was concerned, the girl was stupid to rip her arm away. So nonsensical. His bite would have been so minor, just pin pricks from his sharp little teeth, but she had to go and cause them to drag over her skin.

He made a noise like a scoff when Owen assured her that it wasn't that bad. Of course it wasn't that bad! The noisey land-child was over-reacting! He made the noise again when Owen suggested that Shiver hadn't meant it. He rolled restlessly over onto his back when Owen raised his brow at him, and frowned up at him as he crossed his arms over his chest.

... Attacked.. ME. His thoughts portrayed his feeling of betrayal.

He rolled his eyes, looking like a severely grumpy child. Owen's expectant look made him feel just a slight guilty. But not regretful. At least it couldn't be that deep of a wound since his teeth really weren't that large, and he hadn't bitten as hard as he could have.

..... whiny...

the child looked around and heard Shiver said she had attacked him, "No.... no I didn't meany! It was a hug!" she was holding her arm close to her chest and she tried to run off, little drops of blood trailing after her. She was bleeding a bit too badly for such a small wound. Tears still streaked down her cheeks, and she then tried to run off so that she didn't have to see "meany shiver" anymore.

The child felt that shiver WAY over reacted as she had done that to a lot of "not-so-nice" animals and they just look at her, push her off and go back to what they were doing...

She stared up at Owen at last sobbing, blood was all down the front of her dress. She was going to need medical attention cause she couldn't even remember the spell that would make her stop bleeding... Andraste was too busy trying to figure out why it was that Shiver had hurt her, it was just a simple hug, she hadn't meant to spook him so badly...

"Is fuath liom Shiver anois. Bhí sé i gceist ionas go dom ... Gach I raibh a bhí barróg dó ... Is fuath liom an domhan an oiread sin!!!! Ba mhaith liom dul abhaile!" (Roughly translated to: "I hate Shiver now. He was so mean to me... All I did was hug him... I hate this world so much!!!! I want to go home!" [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

"Umm..." Glancing between the merlad and the girl, Owen honestly couldn't decide which side to support. On one hand, a young girl had been injured, an obvious cause for concern. He remembered as a child how a dog had bitten his arm. He could remember that it was painful, but he was pretty sure he didn't scream nearly as much as her. He also remembered that he didn't try to tackle the dog to the ground beforehand.

He knew that most animals, unless they lived within close proximity with humans, often did not know what a hug was. To them, it would feel like a squeezing trap more than any sign of affection. Outright hugging it was just asking for trouble, and especially with such a foreign creature too.

As Andraste attempted to run away, he tried to hold on tighter, determined not to go on a wild goose chase with her. "Look, just stay still for like, two seconds, okay?" He looked around the study again, unable to find anything of use. What would he need anyway? Probably something to stem the bleeding, it was beginning to get everywhere. He looked towards Shiver... then down to Shiver's hands. "...Why do you have my notes?" he asked, although slightly irrelevantly. He planned on using them as makeshift bandages, but they'd probably be too crumpled after their struggle. Smirking with amusement at the merlad's poutiness, he reached out an arm to ruffle his hair slightly. Of course, he wouldn't touch him if he did not allow it, but he at least wanted to reassure the creature.

He glanced back at Andraste, a concerned expression on his face. Unable to find anything of use, he sighed, having only one option left. Letting go of Andraste, he began to peel off his shirt, revealing a rather tubby midsection. Embarrassed, he crouched next to Andraste (assuming she was still standing there), and began to wrap his shirt around her arm. He made a face at her complaining, but said nothing. Nothing he could think of to say right now would be of any comfort.

Shiver watched Owen glancing around for something and clutched the paper closely to his chest when it was mentioned. He hissed very quietly to indicate that it was his now, and barred his teeth when the student reached a hand towards him. Aside from hunching his shoulders a little, however, he didn't shy away or try to bite him when his hand made contact with the mer's curls, only squeezing one eye shut crookedly. No one but Everly ever pet him, and not that what Owen did was petting exactly, but he was at least familiar with this action. He pouted because he was still grumpy with the pair of them, but he ceased his threatening noises at least, for now.

Both Shiver's eyes opened widely again when Owen began to remove his shirt. The rock could peel off his skin to help subdue the girl's bleeding? He felt Owen's embarrassment but couldn't understand why. The girl's hysterics made him unhappy, but he chose to ignore them.

Shiver rolled back onto his stomach, deciding to finally try and spit the taste of the girl's blood out of his mouth. When he'd gotten it out the best he could, he wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm and eyed the others again with a sidelong glance. Slowly, he squirmed a little closer and extended one hand to try and prod Owen's tummy curiously.

The child was still crying softly. Her magical aura let out soft and sad feelings. Andraste was more upset with herself than anyone.

'Níl a fhios agam cén fáth go raibh Shiver a bheith chomh chiallaíonn ... I. .. Ní raibh mé chiallaíonn aon ní a dhéanamh ... Bhí mé ach ag iarraidh a bheith cairdiúil ... Ní Shiver cairdiúil. Crith fuath gach duine ach Owen agus máistreás Everly. Owen cairdiúil é, ach ní dóigh liom go bhfuil i bhfad níos Owen Is maith liom ... Tá mé ró-bheag do dhuine a cosúil le ... gach duine kids hates ... I Ní féidir le duine ar bith go díreach le do thoil ... cén fáth nach féidir liom?' she thought, unaware of how to keep her feelings private from Shiver.

(In english: I don't know why Shiver had to be so mean... I... I didn't mean to do anything... I was just trying to be friendly... Shiver isn't friendly. Shiver hates everyone but Owen and Mistress Everly. Owen is friendly, but I don't think Owen likes me much... I'm too little for someone to like... everyone hates kids... I just can't please anyone... why can't I?)

She looked down at her arm, she'd have to have it wrapped by someone else later... it was ruining Owen's shirt now, her blood was, and it made her feel more and more upset, she was just ruining everything. She hurt Rosie, she hurt Rendaz, she could've hurt Sebastian, she upset her mother, she felt utterly useless. She was completely quiet.

"Ní féidir liom dul fiú go caoin." (I don't even deserve to cry) Andraste whispered softly, before she noticed Shiver's hand reaching forward toward Owen, however at the angle she thought at first he was going to grab her to try to hurt her again. She struggled against Owen with fearful eyes "Ná lig dó Ghortaigh mé! Ná lig dó Ghortaigh mé!" (don't let him hurt me don't let him hurt me) Andraste said quickly and with urgency. She was so afraid of Shiver and what he could possibly do to her. Her eyes peered down at her now t-shirt wrapped arm, and some tears slipped down her cheeks by accident.

Too busy concentrating on wrapping the shirt around her arm properly, Owen hardly noticed Shiver creeping up on him until the moment his skin made contact with his own. Immediately, he flinched, obviously not used to the strange feeling of cold, fishy hands against him.

He swept an uncomfortable glance at Shiver, and was about to say something before Andraste began struggling away from him. "Whoa, wait, I'm not done yet!" he warned, making a grab for her shoulder. He didn't want his shirt to unravel from her arm so quickly after he'd applied it. Finalizing the knot, he was satisfied that it wouldn't come loose anytime soon. "He's not gonna hurt you... if you don't scare him again," he added with a frown. Nice job, Owen, his inner conscience groaned. You just reprimanded a child.

Standing up straight, he decided that things weren't going to progress anywhere with how the situation was currently running. "Maybe we should find someone else," he muttered, half to himself. He hoped that Andraste could walk for herself, he wasn't in the mood to carry someone else around at the moment. That, and the fact he wasn't comfortable with holding an infant he hardly knew against his bare chest, in fear that someone might see it the wrong way...

He gave an apologetic glance at Shiver, knowing he probably wasn't happy with this whole situation. "S'not like I have a choice..." he mumbled, looking to the ground.

Shiver could feel the melancholy emotions practically pouring off of Andraste, and he did his best to ignore them still. Owen had tended her wound and Shiver found her mourning attitude entirely ungrateful.

When his fingers reached Owen, he was fascinated at how warm he was, but he saw the student's flinch followed by the uncomfortable glance he was shot, and quickly drew his hand away with an unhappy frown. Owen could rustle Shiver's hair, but Shiver couldn't poke Owen's belly?

He chirped deeply in his throat when the girl started flipping out again, not arguing when Owen tried to reassure her that the merlad wouldn't attack again. He wouldn't, it wasn't worth it. And she'd obviously learned her lesson.

He was beginning to become distracted with preening the end of his tail fin, when Owen stood, and Shiver snapped his head up. Was the rock planning on leaving because the child had begun tearing? He sneered.

Child is.. FINE. Whiny.. and noisy only... He shook his head insistently. She breathes

Frustration obvious in the sharpness of his movements, he pushed hard against the ground to flip his torso around, turning his back on the other two, and began to forcefully straighten out the crumpled piece of paper. He smeared it flat against the floor with his palms to try and figure out what his new prize was.

As the merlad's disapproving voice echoed in his head, he paused to look back at the creature. Watching him attempting to decipher his rather second-rate doodles, a knowing smirk spread across his face. "...I get it." He left Andraste briefly unattended, crouching down behind of his fishy companion. "...Mister Jealous-Butt." He couldn't be sure if fish even had butts, but frankly, he didn't care.

Grinning, he reached out a finger to poke Shiver's shoulder. He almost expected a bite from the merlad, and was prepared to pull his hand back if he did. "You just want a little attention, don'tcha?" He wondered briefly if Shiver was ticklish, then sought to try it out for himself. Aiming for the armpits, he began to tickle, slowly at first, but gradually getting faster. He'd realised things were getting a little too serious with Andraste's wound, and he badly needed his share of amusement.

((i hope you don't mind solar))

Shiver didn't respond immediately to Owen's accusation that he was jealous. How ridiculous! He made a noise by puffing air out of his mouth sharply to let Owen know just how ridiculous it was. He felt the student approach and tried to ignore him, shrugging his shoulder dismissively when it was poked.

nnottt jealous..

The mer was pouting heavily while he tried very hard to look extremely involved with investigating the paper, when really the thing was making no sense to him. He gargled a quiet hiss and swatted at Owen's hands when his hands started invading Shiver's personal space. He yipped like a dolphin when Owen persisted, looking annoyed but sounding very suspiciously like withheld laughter.

In an act of desperation to cease the attack before he lost himself to mirth, Shiver spun his torso around and aimed a quick nip at Owen's fingertips.

"OWEN HE'S GUNNA HURT YOU!" the child tried to move forward to stop Shiver from hurting who she was considering to be her big brother... she'd rather get hurt worse.

((sorry its short,))

Despite the annoyed look on Shiver's face, Owen was too amused by the slight overreaction of his victim. He continued - that is, until the little merlad decided to twist around and nip him. He heard Andraste yell in his ear before he'd even felt any pain. Shiver's teeth felt like mere pinpricks than anything to be afraid about, and he tried to show a confident towards Andraste. "Hey, calm down," he said, using his free hand to attempt holding the girl back. "This doesn't hurt at all, trust me."

Looking at Shiver again, he tried to wiggle his fingers slightly, careful not to make the same mistake that the girl had made by tugging them away. Frowning, he noticed that his hand was practically stuck in the merlad's jaws. "Uh... You can let go now," he flatly pointed out.

Shiver's gaze flickered to Andraste very briefly before settling back on his newest victim, still holding his fingertips hostage between his teeth. He snarled quietly around them. When Owen wiggled his fingers, the mer snarled a little louder and clamped down just a hair harder to make sure they didn't wiggle free, his head and a couple curls bobbling slightly from the movement.

Because Owen didn't seem particularly bothered by being bitten, Shiver took to gnawing gently. Maybe his needly teeth going in and out would hurt just a little bit more.

But not unlike a cat who's gone and bitten its owner for no apparent reason, a moment later Shiver seemed to suddenly feel just a little remorseful. He still glared unhappily, but lifted his arms to grip Owen's wrist between his hands. Finally releasing the student's fingers from his mouth, he licked the little pinpricks he'd left behind apologetically.