Leo did a good job of calming Etsy down in between the time that Etsy first texted Dielle and when she can find the mermaid on the Go Away. The mermaid is sitting on a box on the deck of the Go Away, next to a half-full box of doodads and rocks and bits of scrap metal. Probably these are things that the hobs tried to trade to Maddox or Leo at one point or another and ended up in a box. Etsy is humming to herself, her shoes off and feet flared into fins, leaning on the railing and looking out at the eel-filled water. "Buttheaddddddd.... buuuuutttheaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.... "
Don't make a siren mad. They'll turn their idle singing into an ode to how terrible you are.
Dielle comes up to the Go Away and climbs aboard, figuring that she doesn't care if Maddox yells at her. "Ok, so he's a butthead. What did he do? I'm like...super-curious because he's kind of a dick to me most of the time, but I hand it right back, it's kind of a game." She goes to sit next to Etsy as she talks and offers over something she keeps in stock for Jon: homemade beef jerky. It's got some kind of sweet marinade all over it. Not teriyaki, though, it's not that salty.
Taking the homemade jerky, Etsy shoves a piece of it in her mouth. It thus takes her a little while to answer, because jerky is chewy. Her cheeks pooch out like a chipmunk's, and she happily flips her tail against the deck. Once she's chewed it all up, and swallowed the first bit, she answers: "Wanting a long versions or a short versions?" Because let's be honest, the long version of an Etsy story can be hard to follow.
Dielle thinks about it, while she's watching Etsy eat the jerky. She tilts her head, then grins. "Short version. Then if I want more, the long version." She nods, once, decisively. Like she's not basically asking for both. She lets her legs hang off the boat, kicking a bit and tossing the occasional stone at the shrieking eels what don't shriek.
The tail of the mermaid is wiggled again. It's comfortable for her to not have her shoes on, but not many people are shown this when she's not in the water. It's an odd form of trust. "He had a sayings of mean things to me because he had an angers with Leo and Maddox. Probably an angers about other things, not even about Leo and Maddox, but... " Etsy rolls her shoulders then. "Had a yellings at me and a meanness with me when I did not do an anything. And I said 'do not makes a punching bag of a mermaids' and he said 'no one punching you'. Is a metaphors." Beat. "Also vegans." Hmph.
"What was he pissed at Leo and Maddox about? And why would he take it out on you? I mean, I know he likes to style himself as an "angry young man" to the point where I want to kick him in the jimmy for being a pretentious jackwad, but this doesn't make a lot of sense," says Dielle, as she tosses a rock at another eel. "Best tell me the long version."
It's difficult for Etsy to tell the long version in any way that's coherent, sometimes, and so, she thinks about it for a moment, and then her fingers start to move quickly. She knows Dielle also speaks sign, and her grammar is better in this language. I was at Cat-22, upstairs, with Haruki and Candice and CB. I went to see what kind of meat they had, and they had no meat, but they had mead, so I got a mead. I was going to have eggs, but I decided not to. Pause. Anyway, then Leo texted me and I was happy to hear from him because I had missed him so much. So I got happy and said 'hooray Leo' and that he was going to be my motleymate and CB blew up. Apparently -- and Leo confirmed this -- Leo and Maddox talked to him a long long time ago about maybe maybe being in a motley, but because CB wasn't part of the freehold, they held off on it. Leo didn't like how paranoid he was. But I didn't know that part at the time. All I knew was that I was happy to get a message from Leo and that suddenly CB was throwing a fit and yelling over how he didn't get invited to the motley. Etsy snags another bit of jerky and shoves it in her mouth. More signing. So I told him to stop treating me like a punching bag, that I hadn't even heard his name brought up at all, that all I know is that Maddox is my boyfriend and Leo is his best friend and that no one had mentioned him. Haruki tried to calm CB down, and said things that made sense -- that yes it does hurt when people forget about you but it isn't my fault. CB kept being mean and saying he talked to them before he even knew I was in town, and saying mean things to me, and I said, basically, I am glad he was not brought up and if he thought he could fix things and join the motley that I would tell everyone how mean he had been. Because I will not swear an oath to someone who acts that way to me. I cannot swear to put my life on the line for someone who will treat me like he did. And then I turned invisible and left because fuck that guy.
Dielle listens and is perfectly calm all the way through, until the "fuck that guy" and that's when she starts to laugh. She giggles for a while, and then calms down. "Yeah, well, fuck that guy for reals. I got a friend who wanted to motley up with him and her boyfriend and he said yes and I was /there/ when he started talking about wanting to be poly with motleys because some other guys had mentioned it. And he really hurt my friend because he couldn't have enough balls to commit to one or the other. So seems like he screwed himself with the first motley and then got screwed with the second one and now he doesn't have a motley. For someone so smart...he's not that damn bright." She's quietly grinning, now. It's not malicious. "Karma at work. It's an amazing thing."
The mermaid just casually shrugs and spreads her hands all wide. More sign language. Well, I don't know about any of that. But I am not going to have people be mean to me for something I didn't even do. And definitely not allowed to say anything mean about Leo or Maddox. So, fuck that guy. The sign for Maddox is apparently very close to the sign for wrench. It works. Anyway, I came here, and Leo helped me by giving me some weed and a big hug, but not in that order, and then throwing rocks into the water with me. How are you doing?
Dielle looks down at her chest and back up. "Well, better since you healed me up. I haven't told Jon it happened yet. I don't want to have to talk to him about why I didn't want to deal with stitches and being hurt for a while, so thanks for healing me."
Reaching out to touch Dielle's shoulder, Etsy smiles absently, and puts more jerky in her mouth. "I know he has a feeling about the Spring healings, and I know why, I am thinks," Etsy offers, around the mouthful of meat. "But I am going to the school of a mermaids, and that lasted a century. Am always glad to heals."
Dielle says, "Oh, I get his point. But I don't always want to deal with it, either. And no, I don't think you should put up with CB being a dick because he's feeling rejected. He can suck it." She sighs. "Men." But then she perks up. "I still don't really understand what happened the other day and how it's got to do with my dream. But I'm thinkin' I need to go try to dream, soon. Now that my boob doesn't hurt."
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