Education

The two men had to spend quite some time coaxing the mermaid out of hiding, trying their best to convince her that, no, they were not there to harass her... Well, they would have had to had she been able to communicate with them. As it stood, they just ended up luring her out with a few treats.

Mr. Jiron was honestly quite a bit impressed by how reluctant the young mermaid was with interacting with his brother once she returned to them. She was a grudge-holder, that one.

"Alright. Let's see... Take this, cutie." He said, handing her a small, dolphin-shaped plastic toy. It was made of a special type of plastic that was more durable than normal types, something which should prevent the mermaid from accidentally breaking it.

The young mermaid cautiously reached out and grabbed the toy, quickly hiding underwater once more when she held it. Without her food-bringer around, she was much more uncomfortable next to these strangers, one of whom even had the gall to try and touch her.

She'd never seen dolphins before, but she still cradled it into her arms, observing the strange object given to her. She squeezed it and swooshed it around for a while, quickly deciding that she liked it. Maybe she could add it to her collection?

"Dolphin." The two-legs, the one she didn't outright dislike, said, pointing at the toy. She blinked at him, trying to decipher what he wanted. He pointed at the toy, then to himself, his hand held out towards her.

Her face morphed into one of distaste, cradling the toy to her chest and holding it tight as she sunk deeper underwater. The man clicked his tongue, but in reality, he wasn't too displeased with her actions, for they showed that she did indeed have a sense of materialism.

"Give back the dolphin, and I'll give you this." Mr. Jiron ended up offering, holding out another plastic toy towards her. This one was in the form a shark, a rather dull toy all things considered, but one that he thought the mermaid would like.

The mermaid reached out with her hands towards his own, trying to grab the new toy. However, Mr. Jiron didn't hesitate to move his hand away, not allowing her to grab it.

"Now, now. You can take this if you give me the dolphin. Dolphin, give." He spoke, his words slow and clear as though he was talking to a person on the spectrum.

She stared at the toy that had just been denied to her, before her gaze switched over to the one who had just taken it away. Her lips wobbled slightly, but she still tried to understand what he wanted.

Mr. Jiron wasn't sympathetic at all as he held out his other hand, pointing at the toy in her claws, then at the toy in his own hands, before making a sort of circle with his finger... It wasn't very clear, but the mermaid still somewhat understood his intentions.

Reluctantly, she put the dolphin toy into Mr. Jiron's open hand, then grabbed at the shark toy, quickly cradling it and swishing it around. After a minute of this, she decided she liked this one a lot better than the first one.

"Good girl. Now, that's a shark. S-h-a-r-k, okay? Do you want this dolphin too?" Mr. Jiron asked, waving the dolphin toy at the young mermaid. She looked up from underneath the water's surface, where she'd been busy trying to gnaw on the shark toy, her eyes quickly fixating themselves onto the dolphin toy.

However, instead of listening to them, she just ignored them and returned to playing with her toy. They weren't giving her food, after all, so why should she bother listening?

Mr. Jiron just sighed, understanding that this was going to be a long, long day.

By the time Marcus returned from all the appointments and meetings he'd had to go through, he was dead tired. Sighing, he exited the elevator, entering into the aquarium. Idly, he noticed that the mermaid wasn't out and about as she usually was, and it wasn't quite the time she usually went to bed yet, so he guessed she must have still been on the training floor.

He stared at the long, winding stairs going upwards, promising himself to have an elevator installed in this place soon, since having to constantly go up and down these stairs was starting to become somewhat of a drag.

When he reached the upper floor, he was rather surprised by what he saw. Mr. Jiron was talking to the mermaid, saying a word, then pointing at his phone, which he held in his hands, the screen facing the young mutant.

"To-ma-to. Tomato. This is a tomato. Tomato. Alright, which one is a to-ma-to?" The scientist asked, holding the phone dangerously close to the water. The mermaid stared at the screen with narrowed eyes, her gaze sometimes going to the man next to her before quickly focusing back on the screen.

"Tomayo..." She whispered, her eyes narrowing. "Tomayo!" She exclaimed, her sharp claw shooting up and tapping the screen. Marcus suddenly felt grateful that technology had advanced enough since the first mutants for most digital screens to be much tougher than they used to be, or else that phone would have been a real goner.

Mr. Jiron grimaced, but still gave her the due compliment. "Y-yes... Good girl, good girl. Here, take this." He said as he took out a fish from the plastic bag next to him, throwing it at the mermaid beneath him, who easily caught it and chewed it down.

"Mr. Jiron? I thought you'd said that only using food as a reward wouldn't be conducive to learning?" Marcus asked, startling the man and causing him to swirl around, holding a hand over his heart as he did so.

"Good lord, Mr. Castle. Please do not scare me like that." The man complained, turning around only to find that the young mermaid had slipped away, heading over to the center of the pool.

Mr. Jiron groaned, turning to glare at Marcus. "Damn it, do you have any idea how long it takes each time to draw her back to us? She's a glutton, that one! I tried everything to make her do things my way, but good lord is she stubborn." He complained as he rubbed his temples, the faint frown on his face only growing as he listed out his grievances.

Marcus frowned as he listened to the man. The mermaid had never done anything like this before with him, so why was she acting like this with the mutant expert?

"Hm... Let me try." Marcus said as he walked over to the edge, letting his coat drop onto the dry portion of the training area. He crouched down, holding one hand down into the water before tapping the water's surface a few times.

Almost immediately, the mermaid shot over to him from her position at the center of the pool, reaching him in less than five seconds. Marcus could only blink dumbly as she, without his consent, started rubbing her head and face onto his hand.

He absentmindedly stroked her hair and scratched behind her ear, earning himself a happy hum in return. When he finally regained his wits, he retracted his hands from her head as he got to hit feet, the frown on his face completely gone as a small smirk slowly grew instead.

The look on Mr. Jiron's face was so laughable that even Marcus, a self-styled master of sternness, couldn't help but chuckle. The man's face was a mixture of envy, curiosity, and outright astonishment.

"Well, Mr. Jiron... I guess she likes me more than you, I suppose." Marcus taunted jokingly, crouching down once more when he noticed the mermaid was trying to grab his attention by tapping the edge of the dry section's floor.

"What is it, girlie?" He asked curiously, not expecting an answer. However, it seemed as though today was just full of surprises, as the young mermaid held out her claws, a half-chewed plastic toy of what Marcus guessed had once been a shark proudly displayed between them.

"Hark!" She exclaimed, excitement showing as clearly as day on her young face. Marcus just stared dumbly for a few seconds before sighing and patting her head a few times, ignoring how she tried to push her head into his hand.

He got up and walked over to the two men now waiting near the stairs, both clearly tired judging from the looks on their faces, although Mr. Jiron did seem rather satisfied overall.

"I'm assuming it went well, despite your complaints, Mr. Jiron?" Marcus asked. His fellow man nodded, a strange smile on his face.

"... Yes, quite well overall. It took me a while to find a good way to entice her into participating in my lessons, but other than that, she's very intelligent. She rarely needed me to show her something twice, and although she clearly struggles with speech, I believe she's starting to already understand some portions of our language, although she's a long way from mastery." Mr. Jiron explained as they made their way down the stairs. Marcus looked at them, then at the stairs, then back at the two men as they made their way down without waiting for him.

To be rude... Or not to be exhausted... To be rude, or not to be exhausted...

"Yes, I am sure she is. I'll be seeing you tomorrow then, gentlemen. Have a great night!" He called out before making his way towards his office. Being polite was necessary during professional interviews, but honestly, he'd done more than enough of those for the day, and he wasn't really feeling like making his way up and down those stairs once again.

Unbeknownst to him, a certain mermaid was observing him as he made his way to his office, feet shuffling tiredly. Her eyes lingered on him for a minute or so before he disappeared behind the door leading to his private chambers, and even then, they lingered on the door for a bit longer.

She didn't like the two two-legs who'd been with her today. Sure, she didn't dislike them, but she much preferred her own food-bringer. Perhaps she should catch some fish for him to eat so he would stay with her?

She mulled over the question for a while, her mind sometimes automatically slipping into using words instead of images and concepts within her head. It wasn't a full transition yet, and definitely not one she was doing consciously, but she was getting there, piece by piece.