Something Fishy

Ryuk, in that moment, had been sleeping- it'd been a good nap, full of wonderful, fluffy dreams. his new jelly-friend was even in it, and they were bouncing on this pink marshmallow. However, at some point in the dream, something.. shifted. His friend became stuck on saying his name, and it was becoming more distant. In fact, it nearly sounded like he was asking him for help. He tried to reach out for the voice, but it got further, and further...


It wasn't long until he was stirring, blinking slowly as his eyes adjusted to the dark room. Goodness, he hadn't planned to sleep that long.. He didn't have much time to think about this, though, as a soft calling of his name caused him to sit up immediately, looking around curiously. If he wasn't awake before, he definitely was now. But.. what was it? It had to be his friend, but it'd sounded so weak..

Fearing the worst, Ryuk immediately turned on the lights to the room and hopped out of bed, rushing over to the boy. He looked to be.. struggling to breathe, more than anything- not to mention his voice sounded raspy, and dried. It almost reminded the merman of.. no, it couldn't be. Frowning, he placed his hands on the boy's shoulders, thinking to him, "Are you alright? Tell me what's going on..."

@Peppermint

The more Ryuk came to awareness of the situation and examined him, the more you could see the horror in his eyes. He was.. deflating? He couldn't know for sure, but it definitely seemed like he was dehydrating. And if it'd started with the tiredness last night.. Goodness, it was no wonder it was this bad now.

"Wait here," He thought to him, standing and rushing to the bathroom. Now.. the boy probably couldn't move, but Ryuk wasn't thinking logically at this point, with how panicked he was, honestly. He was scared. After all, he'd lost his entire family to dehydration, almost, and now he was going to lose his friend to it?

Despite how frantic he was, he quickly grabbed one of his fresh gallons of water from the bathroom and ran back to his blue friend- at first, he simply dumped a good bit of the water all over him, hoping his body could begin absorbing some liquid, before pressing the lip of the gallon to his mouth, taking his hand with his other, free one to think properly to him.

"Drink," he thought, his expression firm. "I believe you are dehydrated.. it happens, sometimes. Take in as much water as you can, it should help." His mindvoice was solid, fully calm, as he was trying to be- but it was obvious from his body language he was not calm. He was trembling ever so slightly. Regardless, he forced a smile on, gently reaching to pet his bell. "It will be okay.. slow your breathing, I promise you will be okay. I'm here.... I dehydrate sometimes too, water will have you back to normal in no time."

@Peppermint

Now, Ryuk was actually terrified for the young jellyfish. On one hand, dehydration was entirely normal. However, cases this severe weren't normal, to him. For all he knew there was some point of no return he'd never heard of and this was going to be the end for his friend, and it would be his fault because he didn't notice the signs, and.. Well, needless to say, Ryuk's currently thinking process was an absolute mess.

As more water was ingested, though, it seemed things were coming back online, for his blue friend. A wave of relief came over him as he set the bottle aside- and proceeded to hug the individual. He felt, after such a stressful moment, they both needed a little hug session, of sorts.

"I knew because I get dehydrated, too- it's why I drink so much water. See," He thought into him, radiating just a bit of warmth as he smiled a little, "You can't see it, but I'm... similar to you. Only, instead of Jellyfish, I'm closer to a fish. Mermaids, as you call them." He pulled back only a moment, his expression somewhat somber, and apologetic as he continued, "This won't happen so long as you make sure you're keeping hydrated... being tired was one of the symptoms. I'm.. sorry I didn't notice until this point. I am also sorry to inform you that you will have to keep hydrated, or you will die."

It troubled Ryuk, really. Had he not been woken up, had he been too late... The merman's hold tightened on the jellyfish as soft, worried little whines came from him. "Please tell me you won't let yourself become that dehydrated again. I know you didn't know this time, but.. please. I'll even remind you if I have to."

@Peppermint

"Aren't mermaid's supposed to have big fish tails or something?" A giggle escaped Ryuk at this question as he sat there, nodding. He was surprisingly used to this question by now.

"I have a tail," he thought to the blue man with a happy, bubbly tone, "I'm just using my legs, right now... I can show you my tail later, if you'd like." Perhaps he could show him to the lake, after all this, and show him there. He certainly wasn't going to show his tail on dry land.. it was uncomfortable. That, and this made room for playtime, later. It would be fun! Well, to Ryuk the idea was.

He paused a moment, looking thoughtful. "By the way? Um.. a lot of those fairy tales are.. real. Very real. You'll run into a lot of them here. A lot of them are very, very nice though." He could sympathize with him, really. It had to be a brand new world to him- but at least in the merman's eyes, that's what made this all exciting, as it was just as new to him. There was much exploring and learning to be had by the both of them.

Ryuk's gaze lost focus for a moment, as he listened, deep in thought. Perhaps he didn't know at the time, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. This whole thing had made him feel helpless, in a sense, and he hated that. He hated that he'd almost let down this person- this friend, even- he'd promised to help. He had managed to wake up, he had managed to save him in time, but the image of him dehydrated like that, gasping for breath.. he had a feeling that image was going to be with him for a while.

Regardless, now wasn't the time to sift through all of that- he was talking to someone still, after all. "You don't have to thank me, I just have experience. I'm just.. glad you're okay." He could ramble on and on bout how serious this was, why it freaked him out so much, but he didn't want to scare him. For now, he'd said what he needed to say on it. That was enough.

A cheerful smile came to him as the boy reassured him, clearly relieved by this. "I avoid it by having a big glass of water before bed.. and throughout the rest of the day. Sometimes I wait just a little longer so I can look like a raisin." A small giggle bubbled from him. "It's fun. But.. I think you'll be okay. I'm sorry about getting your bed wet, though.." In his panic, he'd dumped water on him, and the box. Maybe that was a good thing for now, though, giving him moisture to sleep in.

@Peppermint

Ryuk watched for a long time simply.. analyzing the way the boy reacted to what he said. He seemed okay, to a point, but also.. troubled. He couldn't blame him, either, it was a long day, he was, for the most part, alone, and for god's sake he'd almost died on his first night. If anything, he was surprised by how well the boy had taken it up to this point.

As the tentacle pulling started, he felt at a loss for a moment, unsure what he could really do for him- but the concern in his gaze was obvious. What could he do? How could he help his friend...? After a moment, an idea came to him, causing him to stand and momentarily leave the jellyfish's side to look through his dresser- which, since his clothes were in the closet.. was absolutely full of candy. Filled to the brim, even.

He returned to the boy's side with a lollipop, taking his hands away from those tentacles to instead put the candy in them, whilst thinking to him, "... I know. I know this has been extremely difficult for you.. but you've come so far, and done so well with this. I'm proud of you. Right now, you've done all you can do. It's time to relax.. it's still late, you should go back to sleep. In the morning, we'll talk to the deans, and I'll show you around." He paused, before offering a tiny smile, "And I know this isn't much, but.. if you get dehydrated like me.. you might be able to breathe underwater like me. We can explore the deep waters together."

He looked away for a moment. He wasn't even sure if this was helpful, or if he was just making it worse, really. "All I'm saying is.. I don't know how you got this way, or what the future will hold. But I'm here. And we'll work through this together, and.. for now, you can focus on the better aspects of this. It's going to be okay."

@Peppermint