Staring at walls can be fun too

Poor Andraste though. She was so frightened by Shiver biting Owen, She silently ran out of the room, trying to find a teacher.
(Ran here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

Noticing Andraste run out of the room, Owen frowned. She still had his shirt as well! He was beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable without it, probably not the most prideful about his appearance. Biting his lip, he hoped that she'd run into someone else, right now he had other things to worry about.

He looked back at Shiver, then grinned when his grip was slowly released. "That's what I thought," he joked, observing the tooth marks left in his fingers. They felt a bit sore, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't shrug off. As the merlad licked his fingers, he flexed them out wide. He dared to give Shiver a quick tickle underneath the chin, just for amusement. "Trying to eat a girl's arm off? Classic," he chuckled, at least trying to make light of the situation.

The mer would lick the tiny wounds until he deemed them clean, and he didn't appreciate his efforts being interrupted by Owen's fingers tickling playfully at his chin. He jerked his chin out of reach with a small hiss and had to restrain himself from burying his little teeth into Owen's fingers again. Both webbed hands clamped down around Owen's fingers to try and cease the movement. He scowled and managed to get a few more hasty licks in before deciding he was through.

Shiver had been so involved with the fingers, he hadn't in fact noticed Andraste's departure. That is, until he heard Owen mention her and the fish finally looked back up to notice she was missing. He dropped Owen's hand in favor of pressing his own fingers against the floor to support him while he twisted his torso around to look at the whole room. The girl was gone! He huffed in annoyance and his eyes flashed angrily.

Child.. it steals your skin!

A gargling hiss rose in his throat and his eyes sought out the door, glaring heatedly at it as if it was a thieving conspirator.

At the merlad's hiss, Owen decided to keep his hand quite still. "Okay, no more tickling then," he chuckled, scratching his head awkwardly with his other hand. He'd never imagined that his hand would ever be smothered by a fishy creature, and frankly, he didn't want to imagine it. But there it was, curling his tongue around his no doubt filth-covered fingers. Owen was quite relieved when he'd finally stopped.

He rolled his eyes at Shiver's slight overreaction. "My skin?" he repeated, a sarcastic grin on his face. "You mean my shirt?" Peering at where the girl left (which was easy to indentify due to the trail of blood drops), he gave a slightly defeated sigh. "It doesn't matter, at least I have other..." He trailed off. That was his last shirt. "Oh... OH CRAP!" he yelled, louder than he intended. No doubt poor Andraste would run riot across the school, and no doubt she'd lose his only shirt while doing so. He was certain he didn't want to be walking around topless for the rest of his stay at the academy - he sure as hell wasn't going to wear some old fashioned junk. Then again, he'd always have his lizard form to rely on. He'd wondered how Shiver would react to that.

He glanced down at Shiver, giving him a half-hearted glare. "...You're so lucky you don't hafta wear anything."

In reaction to Owen's unexpected exclamation, Shiver hunched his shoulders, momentarily startled by the noise. But his expression quickly grew exasperated, thinking that the rock Owen was silly to have only just now realized how the girl had made off with his.. skin-shirt. Thing. Doesn't matter, as if!

The mer was intrigued by Owen's emotions of annoyance, and perhaps a little bit of stress. But they seemed to pass quickly. The half-hearted glare he received earned a half-hearted scowl.

...wear skin

He made it sound as if it should be obvious. It was silly how land-things draped themselves all up in cloth all the time. It must be so annoying. The thoughts he shared with Owen said his opinion was such.

Shiver flopped onto his back once again and grasped the bottom of Owen's pant leg in his fists. He tugged the fabric as if to test it and frowned, then went about trying to stick an invasive hand up under the cloth by Owen's ankle. Why was everyone trying so hard to hide in their clothing anyway??

He rolled his eyes slightly at Shiver's thoughts, shaking his head slightly. Of course, he shpuld've realised that a sea creature such as him probably wouldn't understand the concept of clothing either. "It keeps ya warm," he tried to explain, full well knowing it was a lame excuse. Well, Scotland WAS a lot colder than his old home in the USA, but it wouldn't like Shiver would understand that.

When the merlad starting messing with his trouser legs, he frowned. "What are you doing..?" he asked. He kept his leg still, if only for the sake that he wouldn't suddenly go all pouty and offended over him. "I wouldn't go up there if I were you," he warned, smirking. "...You'll never know what you find." Letting out an awkward cough, Owen was pretty sure that Shiver's arm would hardly be able to reach anything. But it was darm uncomfortable.

Shiver only managed to get the tips of his fingers almost to Owen's knee before twisting his arm that way became uncomfortable, and he tugged it back out. Pulling at the fabric again, he squeezed one eye shut and tried to peer up the clothing instead, but found only blackness. With a defeated huff, he gave up and pushed himself back into a sitting position before the student.

He tilted his head while he contemplated Owen's words. Clothing keeps you warm. This did make sense. But being warm was terribly uncomfortable for the fish, so he deemed this silly as well.

With a frown, Shiver eyed Owen and his shirtlessness again before taking exasperated pity on him. Rubbing at a spot midway down his tail with his fingertips, the merlad eventually found a loose scale that willingly slipped away from the others. The thing was silvery but iridescent, and cold and clammy like the rest of him. His brow creased with some determination, and he suddenly struck his hand forwards, pressing the soft scale into Owen's torso over the center of his diaphragm. He held it there beneath the pad of his thumb for a moment until the gentle curve of it had suctioned itself to Owen's skin. Shiver pulled his thumb away slowly, grinning suddenly and widely when the scale successfully remained.

New shirt for.. Rock

The mer tugged restlessly on a fistful of white curls as he beamed, obviously very pleased with himself for solving the issue.

To say the least, Owen was thankful that the merlad had finally stopped slithering up his trouser leg. He didn't like the feel of his cold, clammy arms wiggling against his skin. However, it seemed that Shiver wasn't quite finished with his endeavours. As the scale was pressed againts his chest, Owen forcibly smiled, as if in response to a horribly drawn picture by an infant. "...You don't need to," he remarked, at least attempting to sound grateful. The idea of scales wasn't one that appealed to him, if it was done in consideration. Besides, he could always turn into a ruckral with his own scales to worry about.

On that thought, he grinned. "Hey, I wanna show you something epic, trust me," he assured him, standing upm, scale still stuck to his chest. "I won't need a shirt after this." With that, he headed towards the door, looking back to see how fast the merlad would move.

The merlad continued to look quiet elated when Owen appeared grateful for the scale. Owen's mental state didn't feel particularly grateful, but it wasn't upset either and Shiver was much too pleased with himself to bother deciphering emotions right now anyway.

Epic??

It was a word Shiver wasn't familiar with, but Owen looked excited about whatever it was with that big grin on his face. So the merlad only considered it briefly before deciding to follow. He planted both of his palms into the floor in front of him and curled his tail like an inch worm. With a small grimace of effort and a short puff to blow an errant curl out of his face, he pushed with his tail fin and pulled with his arms. He continued in this manner, gaining a bit of momentum but not much.

..Where... is epic?

Despite the visual struggle and limited pace, Shiver didn't seem to be particularly concerned or distraught about getting around on land.

Owen stared at Shiver, looking forward to showing him his other form. He wasn't so keen on the actual transformation, but he knew it would be worth it. "You'll know it when you see it," he assured him on the definition of 'epic'. However, as the merlad slowly inched his way across the floor, Owen's initial excitement turned to disbelief, and then impatience. "Are you kidding me?" he whined at no one in paticular, striding towards him.

"Can't you go like, turbo-mode or something? Pick up the pace? Maybe move a little faster?" he complained, looking to his non-existant watch. With his face marred into a frown, he continued. "...Or am I gonna hafta haul you all the way?" He remembered briefly before how he was worried about holding a human toddler. This was a telepathic fish. Owen, what've you gotten yourself into? his conscience moaned.

Shiver was excited to see whatever 'epic' was, new things always did interest him. He shot Owen a confused look when he asked if the mer was kidding. Owen's impatience wafted over him and the merlad barred his teeth unhappily. He didn't know what 'turbo-mode' was, but he got the gist from the rest of it.

He did try to speed up. He pushed harder with his tail, but the appendage was stronger than his arms, and the boost did little else than make him trip over his arms and land his cheek against the floor. A murmured grumble was heard braided with a hiss and suddenly Shiver flopped flat on the floor and rolled over onto his back with his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest. He refused to look at Owen, as if it was all the student's fault, but really it wasn't hard to see that Shiver was frustrated with himself.

FINE. Go.. ffind epic without me!

His thoughts were loud and childishly upset as he donned a heavy pout, not looking forwards to being lonely again.

Owen watched with a frown as Shiver struggled before him to accelerate himself across the study. Of course, his request had been rather far-fetched, not dissimilar to asking a tortoise to fly. He felt rather guilty at this, even if he did have a weird way of expressing it: behaving more peeved than usual. "Screw this," he huffed, slipping his hands underneath the merlad; one under his back, the other at the tail. He then proceeded to attempt to lift him up, regardless of whether he struggled or not. Frankly, he wasn't about to stand around waiting for him all day, even if his cold skin was uncomfortable at his.

Realising he had probably been a bit rough in his treatment of Shiver, he hoped to amend the situation with a few soft words. "Damn it, why don't you go grow a pair of legs already?" ...That came out wrong.

The merlad sharply when Owen's arms were suddenly slipped beneath him, not understand what was happening. Both palms shot out to repel the boy by pressing against his collar, and he hoped to scare him away with a token 'mean look'. But a short yelp escaped him and suddenly his fingers were scrambling for a hold instead of pushing away as his balance became not his own. There being no shirt to grasp onto, Shiver's hands tugged at Owen's hair desperately until his arms clamped tightly around his neck instead, instantly fearful of falling as the ground dropped below him. His tail thrashed awkwardly and he hissed at nothing in particular, spinning his head around frantically and tossing curls everywhere.

When he finally realized it didn't seem like he was going to be dropped, he ceased the squirming and chanced to peer over his shoulder and stare down at the ground hatefully. Owen's question had Shiver snapping his head to pin him with a narrowed red-eyed glare a moment later.

Rock.. growss fins!

He jabbed an accusatory finger sharply into Owen's shoulder before realizing he was still held aloft, and quickly swinging the limb back into it's vice-like grip over the student's neck. His torso rumbled with a withheld snarl.

Owen probably should've expected Shiver's reaction, after all, from what he had observed so far, the merlad especially didn't appreciate being touched. However, he flinched at the tug to his hair, and would've nearly dropped him were it not for the fact he was now clinging tightly to his collar. "Keep still!" he hissed under his breath, steadying his hold on Shiver.

Feeling embarrassed, his face became rather warm as he glared down at the creature. "If you can think of a better idea, then I wanna hear it," he said, frowning. "'Cuz I'm gonna hafta carry you all the way, whether y'like it or not." Without anything to add, he made his way towards the door, grateful that Shiver was at least a managable weight.

((can make the next topic at Owen's room ^^))

(( con't here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ))