I had to phone someone so I picked on you

Bird was slightly embarrassed at his question or at least the way it had come out. He had just thought maybe an alien's house would be built with different materials or need different cleaning techniques or they could live in bubbles for all he knew. He felt he should apologise, though, in case he had accidentally been rude. "I am sorry, Miss Avatia, if I have offended. I have never had dealings with an alien before. I was simply wondering if your kind had fixed places of residence."

"As I said, I do not actually require that you be a professional, just that you - act professionally. And you are right about people gaining experience." He wasn't aware of the reference, as inspirational posters weren't really his thing, but Dot was excited. Oooh! She sounds so smart Bird! Hire her! I like her! It's not like you've ever been a professional boss before anyways!

Internally rolling his eyes at his sister's antics, the boy brought the conversation back to a comment Avatia had made that he found confusing. "When you say you didn't have to clean much because you have everything inside you, what exactly did you mean? Your species does not place much value on possessions? I'm not sure I understand."

"Either way. You do seem acceptable. But I'd like you to meet my sister so she can ask questions as well." Of course, Dot asking questions was just part of the reason, since Bird would have the final say anyways. Most he wanted to see how the alien would react to Dot in general, and also how she'd react to the whole two people in one body. While he wouldn't hire someone based on Dot liking them because he didn't think his sister had the best judgement, he'd think twice about hiring anyone she didn't get along with.

Bird had had no idea that she was referencing a power when she spoke about having everything she needed and had instead thought it was something philosophical, so he was rather nonplussed when Avatia said she could actually store stuff. Especially when she just reached down her throat. He wanted to look away at first, but he just couldn't help watching. And since the notebook seemed no worse for the wear from being in the alien's stomach, it wasn't as bad as he had at first feared. Dot was just saying how cool the demonstration was the whole time, but Bird suspected she'd have said that even if the book had been covered in goop.

"Ummmm... A sentient vacuum cleaner..." Bird spoke a little slowly because he was still a little shocked by the girl's actions, but he didn't want to offend her with a bad reaction to something that was probably perfectly normal for - whatever it was she was. "Well, that's certainly useful for being a maid. I hope you don't actually have to taste the stuff you, um, store." He was too distracted to notice the girl's cheeks turning orange, and probably wouldn't have actually figured out what it meant.

Now he had to do his own demonstration, and it actually made him kind of nervous. He hadn't been on this island long enough to be used to transforming in front of people. In the back of his head, he still thought he was a little bit crazy to be sharing his body, even if it was nothing he had decided. "So, my sister, Dot... she's actually..." He sighed. Probably the best way to do this would be just to show her.

Peregrine's transformation to Dot was almost instantaneous. One moment he was human, the next she was a blue-skinned, green-haired fish-girl. Dot waved happily. As always, she was excited to be allowed out. She also liked as many people to see her as possible, just to remember that this was real now. "Hi! I'm Dot! I can hear everything Bird hears, but now you get to see me!" Her tone and demeanour were completely different from her brother's and her voice was more high-pitched. "Bird doesn't like to say what I'm saying, but I think you're really cool. I can't do anything cool like that!"

Peregrine found it hard to explain himself for a few reasons, the most prominent being that he still wasn't used to the fact that most of this island's inhabitants did not have the same reactions to certain things that human society unexposed to the supernatural did. He had been living without Dot even being in his head at all for longer than he had been living with her. And he hadn't actually transformed into her, or whatever it was to switch bodies with someone else, for that many years before he'd come to the school. And she'd never been out in public before coming at all.

Dot was different and not just because her obviously non-human ancestry quite visibly marked her as a member of the supernatural community, even to people who might look down upon a "normal" human. She didn't have the life experience to know just how different Manta Carlos really was from the rest of the world. And not having been out in public before made even everyday things seem new and exciting because she could experience them for herself.

Having separate personalities when one was just a voice in your head was one thing. It probably meant you were at least a little mentally unstable, but you didn't have to build your life around it. Having separate personalities that could both appear to other people as well as being visually distinctive people was a whole other kettle of fish. What else other than sister or brother did you call someone who was so close to you that they could almost be you, who saw everything through your eyes and just felt it differently?

Except for the scales and colour change, which were admittedly big things, Bird and Dot might actually have looked like twins, but the way they carried themselves was completely different. Where Bird had been trying to be somewhat aloof, although he'd ended up occasionally flustered, Dot was wide-eyed excitement and happy smiles.

"Yep! I do know that. But it's nice for you to say it to me too. Cause even though I heard it, we're not the same people. And we're - we're - I'm not reallly sure what we are and even Bird can't explain it good and he's really smart! Our mommy said we're part mermaid, if you go back, and that weird things happen every few generations. So I guess I'm the weird thing. I got the fishy part and Bird got the voice. Even though it's really annoying when he practices cause he's so loud, and I'm not into his stuffy opera anyways. But it's not so bad when I can be out in public now. Being just in his head wasn't much fun. " Pausing for a breath, Dot continued onto the topic at hand, "And I'm supposed to ask you questions about being a maid, but I just want to know if you're nice and you won't try to eat me like one person did. I'm not sure why. It was really funny. I guess - do you have any more questions for me?"

Dot could talk a lot once she got going, and she was generally so excited that people could hear her speaking that she would try to get everything out at once. Bird told her that with her high-pitched voice and fast speech she sounded like one of the chipmunks. She didn't mind this cause she thought the chipmunks were kind of cute for furry little cartoon rodents.

But Dot could also listen since that was basically all she'd been able to do for years. After she had asked Avatia her questions, she just quietly paid attention to the answers, taking things in. She still kept a happy smile on her face, though, and tried not to freak the other girl out by staring too intently. She knew she tended to speak a lot, so she waited until she was sure that the girl had asked her a question, before responding to everything at once.

"Oh! I'm glad that eating is - well I'm not happy it's hard for you, just that you won't eat me! I don't eat very much except fish, fish is good. But I guess you said you don't taste things, so eating probably wouldn't be fun anyways. You'd still get like break time anyways if you need it. It's no problem."

She laughed a little at herself, "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't really be able to tell me if I'd think you were nice, cause you don't know me yet! I'm not as good at this interview stuff as Bird is." Bird thought the question about free time was kind of irrelevant to being a maid, but he was also actually glad she'd asked Dot that question because he hoped that maybe Dot wouldn't pester him to be social as much if she made some friends of her own. And if she was friends with the maid, well he'd make sure she didn't distract her when she was working anyways.

Dot herself thought it was a great question. She didn't really have a head for business and was pretty much eager to make friends with everyone in her path. It would suck to have a maid she didn't get along with or who was stuffy and ignored her. It'd be just like being hidden at home again. "I don't do much specifically yet cause I'm trying out lots of new things. But I swim a lot! We have a pool - you don't have to clean that though because that's a specialist job. And in the Summer I can swim all over the place. I also watch movies and I like to go shopping. I like to read a bit too because I don't get to go to school, except in Bird's head, and he's learning singing stuff. I think that's it. I'm not sure..." She paused for a moment and appeared to be in thought.

"Oh! Bird says that I should give you a bit of a tour, so you can see where you'd be working. This is the library, as you can see. The house isn't too big - it's way smaller than where we used to live!"

Even though the house seemed a little excessive for two people, especially seeing as they shared a body, it actually wasn't very large. It might even have seemed a little small if it had been a couple living there, planning to start a family or something. The third room was intended to be the room of whatever maid they hired. And if whoever that was was not interested in actually living there, then it would be just fine as a guest room.

In fact, given that the house was only occupied by two people sharing a body, there was probably less work to be done. Especially since they'd be gone most of the time for classes and there was only one room being used as an actual bedroom. Dot did have her own room, but since she didn't stay out when she slept it wasn't necessary to have a bed in it. Also, Bird was generally a neat person anyways. So the cleaning would really be only general stuff. They probably could've kept the house clean themselves if Peregrine wasn't just slightly spoiled enough to believe that a maid was a requirement.

Dot led Avatia around the house, happily pointing out things like paintings or photographs. They hadn't acquired many things of their own yet since they hadn't been on the island long and most of the furniture had come with the house, but it was apparent that Bird had left most of the interior decorating to Dot. The library itself was definitely the largest room in the house, taking up the full two stories in height. It was also the tv/computer room. Though the shelves were nowhere near full, between the two of them and stuff they'd brought from home, the shelves were decently filled.

The rest of the first floor also had the kitchen, a bathroom, and the two bedrooms - Dot's room and the guest room. Because the library was so tall, the second floor really only had the master bedroom and another bathroom. The rest was a storage space, which Avatia wouldn't need to worry about. Dot tried to describe these things in a tour guidey style, but it was pretty much obvious what the rooms were. Occasionally the girl would interject something that Bird said, usually just reassurances that there wouldn't be too much to clean up.

When they eventually made it down to the pool, which was located in the basement, Dot explained what she'd forgotten to earlier, or rather clarified that they wouldn't need Avatia to deal with the pool because they'd have to have a pool installer come by to check all the filters and whatever else needed checking. Other than the room with the pool, the basement had the garage, some storage space, and a laundry room with a washer and dryer.

When the tour was over, Dot led Avatia back to the library and asked if she had any more questions for her before Bird came back out to finish the interview.