God damn, he was a real special case wasn't he. This was the first time he had made eye contact with her. Now, with a wailing twin on the ground behind her, she just looked tired. And maybe a little dirty to boot.

"For future reference the dumb ones are the clones. Any smart, sane person without fish physiology wouldn't be stupid enough to go jumping in pools in winter just because someone else was already swimming around in it."

She tucked her hands in the pockets of her coat, where her knife was stashed coincidentally, and sighed dramatically.

"Yeah, I clone myself. Wish I wasn't cursed to pop out clones that are dumb as shi--"

The dramatic wailing turned to a strangled sorta gurgling as her twin literally started to flail about, while blobs of pink good melted off of her.

Elke seemed unfazed. Irritated even with all the noise. "...Stupid and dramatic too."

Once the gurgling stopped all that was left was a pink puddle of goop. Even the clothes had melted.

The Native stared down the fish boy in a manner that spoke volumes of how many times she had seen this play out, before seemingly realizing that she ought to explain it.

"... That was normal by the way. They all do that when their time limits are up. You gonna show me this school or what, greengills?"

Still maintaining eye contact, he gave another dumbfounded nod. "I uhm...I didn't say anything outright but...I did kind of uhm...wonder about that. I didn't know she was a c-clone and I didn't want her to freeze to death or anything," he replied, his voice still timid, and he was definitely a softie, always wanting the best for people.

He turned around at the sound of the gurgling, and his face went pale when he saw the clone melt into a pile of pink goo. His stomach turned a few cartwheels and he staggered a bit as his head started to spin a little. "I...okay," he replied, his voice almost a whisper by this point. Man...I liked that one, he thought to himself. His older brother once told him when he found the right girl she'd melt in his presence, but...for some reason that wasn't what Beau had in mind. Yeah that probably, definitely wasn't what he meant? Right? Not that Gilbert had ever taken the time to explain that part.

Well, he did still have company. And she still looked like the nice clone, so maybe...maybe there was something likable about her, too? That, was what the fish-mutant determined to figure out.

Greengills? "I liked Merboy better," he grumbled before taking a deep breath and pulling the hood down to show his face. "O-okay...let's go," he said, starting inside and making sure she was behind him. "There's t-the living area, a rec room, plenty of places to h-hang out...dorms of course...i-is there anything that interests you?' he asked nervously as he looked at her with those timid yellow eyes.

She hummed non noncommittally at first while locking her fingers behind her head.

"Okay, Merboy it is."

She followed along with a bored look on her face for the most part, not really interested in much that a school had to offer from her predetermined mental image of it.

"I dunno... I like video games and stuff. Hunting, carving things. Hoodrat stuff."


She thought about it some more. "Food, too. Don't you get bored her just doing normy stuff all the time? When do you get to go out into the city?"

He couldn't help but grin when she called him Merboy; he loved that nickname more than he would probably have admitted. Though...he could tell she was bored, and he wasn't exactly what one would call entertaining, for the most part.

"I uh....I have videogames...." he murmured. "As far as food, the kitchen is over there," he said, pointing a webbed finger toward the kitchen area, where there was surely plenty of food. Hunting and carving and whatever hoodrat stuff meant didn't really appeal to the lad. "C-city? I mean...I probably could go out at some point, but..." his voice trailed off and he pulled the hood up over his face again.

He didn't want to admit that he was scared of going out into the city but...well truth be told he was scared of a lot of stuff.

Her attention perked when he mentioned that he owned games. It perked even more when she noticed that he had webbed fingers.

Now that was cool.

He tugged his hood up and she took that moment to creep on up silently so she could lean in and peer up into his hood.

"If you can, why not go? What's there to be scared of?" She jabbed a thumb at her chest and grinned crookedly again. "I live out there. Those streets are my home. Ain't nothing to be scared of for you and me."

Without warning, she reached out like she was going to grab his hand.

"You have a really cool mutation, you know that. Webbed fingers and yellow eyes. A fin even. @#$% the rest of the morons who ever made you feel lesser for being cooler than them. Us mutants, you know we are the next step up on the evolutionary plane. Right? You're grade a beef compared to the rest of the cattle."

She'd move to throw his hood back as well so he could show off his beautiful mutation proudly.

"Repeat after me: 'I'm a basass mother#%^in Mutant, and everyone else can kiss my @%$!"

Her eyes glinted encouragingly.

He felt like he was doomed to be perpetually purple around her; he just couldn't stop blushing, and his rapidly-thumping heart felt like it was going to try and squeeze it's way out of a gill. He could feel her peering into his hood, and it made him want to shrink back more, though that was impossible.

"I...There--There's....everything for me to be afraid of," he whispered. When she reached like she was going to grab his hand, he didn't shy away from that, in fact it would have been pretty easy for her to do that if she so chose.

"I do?" he asked as she complimented. "I...not many people seem to think so, but...I like my mutation..." he murmured as she threw his hood back without warning, revealing his fully blushing face.

"I'm a....bad-butt....mother....freaking mutant, and everyone else can kiss m-m-my t-t-t-tailfin..." he somewhat repeated timidly.

"That's the first step. Loving yourself and your mutation."

She stepped back a little, satisfied.

...until be went and massacred what she had asked him to repeat. He censored it. He censored himself totally. How old was this kid?!

"No no no nooo... cmon, Merboy. You gotta do better than that."

Both palms raked down her face in exasperation. "You need to throw off your shackels and embrace freedom fully. Say '%$@#*'. No dumbing it down or sugar coating it. Just ' %$@#* '."

She repeated it a few more times in different tones and manners, to give him more to choose from.

He nodded, growing more confident as the girl complimented him on loving himself and his mutation. His problem was getting other people to like him. And then she was exasperated with him. Wait...she wanted him to swear? Really?

He felt himself blushing again. He was warming up to her, actually starting to enjoy her company, and she wanted him to curse. He took a deep breath, unsure why the heck he was even doing this. Oh right, she was paying attention to him, and she was a girl. Poor easily impressionable fishboy.

He exhaled. "@#$%!" he said, his voice cracking terribly. So he tried again, and a few more times. It felt...weird. It sounded even weirder.

Finally, he tried one more time, repeating what she'd said the first time. "'I'm a basass mother#%^in Mutant, and everyone else can kiss my @%$!" His face was hot, and a nice shade of royal purple as he felt his heart beating even faster and butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

"L-like that?" he asked, his yellow eyes looking to her for approval.

"YES!" The young girl let out a loud whoop and threw her arms in the air victoriously. She was breaking through!

"Now more! Really put your all into it. Feel it come out from the tips of your toes all the way up to you ears! Like this!" Turning away from him, she sucked in a deep enough breath that it had her balancing on the tips of her toes. Then she curled her arms into her stomach, leaned forward and shrieked one of the more well know curse words into the air until her whole face went red from the effort.

"@#$%^@!"

Gasping and thoroughly drained, she turned to him excitedly and waited. If he joined her again, she was gonna hop back in so that they could scream expletives out into the air until they were properly out of breath.

                                                                                                        "@#$%#!"                      "&^$@%@^!!"                                                                             "@#$%#!"

                                            "&^$@%@^!!"                                                                                                                  "%^@ &@%@# &@#$!"
"@#$%#!"
                                                                                    "@#$% *&^ %@#%$#!!"                     "@#$%#!"

Hands clasped around her knees and gasping, the 10 year old girl started laughing up a storm when she was done. "See? Doesn't it feel better getting it all out instead of bottling it up inside because someone told you too?"

For some reason, him spewing profanities seemed to really make Elke happy. Gilbert was right, he was never going to understand girls. And now...she wanted more. Great...

He wasn't fully comfortable with this, but for some reason he found himself wanting to oblige and he didn't have any idea why. He sucked in a breath, but when he released "&@#$$$!" it wasn't nearly as loud as hers. In fact, it was almost adorable, between the accent and the squeakiness that found its way into his voice. He kept going, though. Getting progressively louder and more confident, however that doggone squeak wasn't going to go away anytime soon. Soon, he was yelling just as loud as she was and his head was starting to spin a little.

"I...yeah.It kind of does," he murmured with a smile. That darn blush hadn't gone away in the slightest, either.

Her gap-toothed grin came back with a vengeance, stretching her cheeks wider than before.

"It's therapeutic! If your angry at something? Swear a bunch and you will feel better! Sad! Swear a lot! Happy? Swear even more! It's colorful language, so you should use it since you're colorful as well."

She shoved her hands in her pockets, just then remembering her knife. "Oh! Hey, want me to show you how to throw a knife?! My Grandad taught me and it's tuns of fun!"

She whipped the smallish blade out again, flicking it into the air and catching it again with ease.

There was something...endearing about that grin. Or maybe since she actually seemed invested in him, Beau was clinging to her like a lost puppy. But maybe that was why she was so endearing: she seemed to actually like him, and was willing to teach him things! He wasn't quite...sure about her area of expertise, but as a sheltered lad, he hadn't had much experience with any of this. Besides, this was kind of...invigorating.

He nodded, smiling as she spoke. "There is something...freeing about it, yeah," he agreed, though in the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder what the adults would think of that. Maybe swearing could be something he just did with her. Their thing. Yeah. Perfect.

And then...she pulled out a knife. He shirked back again at first, but then she flicked it into the air and caught it and he couldn't help but watch with awe at this. "You'd teach me how to...throw a knife?" He was terrified, but that was the norm for him. At the same time, he was also rather....intrigued.

She nodded enthusiastically and looked around for something to use as a good target. "'Course I will!"

She spotted a well kept looking tree not far off and reach out to grab his hand and drag him along.

"Now, first of all you need a proper target. Something that you can focus on and aim at." She set about carving a makeshift series of circles in the bark, each getting smaller than the next until she was out of room.

"Then, you stand a few paces away and get yourself centered." She squared her feet and pinched her blade between her grubby little fingers, lifting the weapon to point the pommel at the tree.

"It's all about balance, and knowing where to aim and how much force to use. Not enough an it won't go anywhere, too much and you'll smack the flat of the knife on the tree."

Holding her breath, she wound her arm back and then brought it right back down swiftly, letting the blade fly at just the right moment to send it spinning at the tree. The short, sharp knife sank in an inch when it came to a dead stop. Elke cheered for herself and rushed to retrieve it.

"See? Not so hard! Now you try!"

She held the dangerous blade out pommel first, grinning ear to ear him him the whole time.

Beau was trying to process the whole idea of throwing a knife when OHDEARSHEWASHOLDINGHISHAND.

Preteen girls in New York were a lot more free with their hand-grabbing than they were back home.

He soaked in every word as she explained how to actually throw the knife and get the blade into the target that she'd carved into the tree. He watched her stance--yeah, just her stance, right--and her form as she threw the knife and it sunk into the tree. So her advice was obviously good, the problem would be seeing if he could make use of it. Aaaand now there was a knife being handed to him.

He took a breath, his hands shaking a little as he grabbed the small knife from her, and stood just as she had, and held it by the tip in the same manner as her. He closed his eyes a moment; his dad taught him how to throw darts when he was younger. Maybe this wouldn't be so different. As he thought of home, his breathing steadied and his hands stopped shaking as he held the knife, and then opened his yellow eyes.

He wound back, and calmly released the knife as it flew soundly through the air...

And missed about three feet to the right, sinking into the ground in front of another tree. "...I--I'll get it," he said sheepishly, half-jogging off to get the knife, and on his return, offered it to her, looking at the ground in shame.

True to her nature, Elke didn't even bother hiding the snort of a laugh that popped out of her when he missed. It was funny, yo!

She met him back at the starting point after he retrieved the knife and pushed it away back toward him. "Practice, my dude. Not many people get it on first time. You gotta practice over and over again until you get the hang of it. Just like with your powers! If you never practice with them, you'll never get a real feel for how they work."

She moved around so that she could effectively manhandle him into the proper position, and then focused on using her hands to help him grip the knife right.

"You did really good with gripping and using a good amount of force, but your aim was off."

Sidling up behind him on the side of the arm he was throwing with, she started to move his hand and the knife around so that it was aimed correctly from what she could see.

"There... now try again."