ATLOP: Trial by Fire

The Ocean

Triton politely informed him that the way he was holding his taipanu was equally suspect, the tea is supposed to be in the taipanu, not in the water around it.

And then very pointedly excluded him from the rest of the conversation. Percy rather thought the mer had just committed political suicide with his insult to Percy.

Whoops.

But Halmaheran was a lot of fun! Lots of ways to insult people.

OO OO OO OO

Interacting with other mers was a fun experience. He'd never gotten to speak to any but Triton before, so it was cool to experience the little quirks of Halmaheran in actual conversation.

Yeah he talked to Triton, but Triton had only recently started mixing in more of the complex grammar and little language tricks that the others used casually.

The mers were really nice to talk to, even when being insulting they were cool. He liked one named Masina, their tail was nearly as flowy as his own!

He had been confused at first by why people were using "poi" for them, but Triton told him they were a mernix, not a mermaid or merman. Percy had nearly forgotten merfolk had three main sexes, not two.

"Poi" didn't really have an English equivalent according to Triton, but it was generally considered the mernix pronoun. Triton said it would probably be the equivalent of "they/them" if he had to choose. None of the pronouns really fit English, cause merfolk had a wildly different gender system, but poi/poino was the closest to gender neutral in the language.

"Poi" was the pronoun most commonly used for referring to groups too, like how English used "them" and all. Percy was fascinated by it all.

He knew that "Toi" and "Voi" were the closest to "he/him" and "she/her" in Halmaheran, but he'd not thought about other pronouns.

Percy didn't realize there were so many gender options either, but Triton assured him it was a thing with humans as well as merfolk. Though he didn't know how humans treated it, he hadn't been around them much lately.

But yeah, Masina was nice, their tail very colorful with pinks and yellows and blues all blended together.

And when they showed off their magic Percy was in awe. They twisted a tiny current of water around them, sweeping up little fishies in a circle around them that sparkled like fairy lights.

Percy wanted to learn to do that, he'd tried the currents once but it hadn't worked out. Everyone had equally cool magic when they started showing off. Songs filled the air, water danced hot and cold, spinning in intricate patterns, light crackled, and coral formed new shapes.

It was a delight to watch, and Percy was having a lot of fun until one asked him about his.

He shot a hesitant look at Triton, fingering his bracelet, but Triton just nodded.

He supposed it was fine then. So he could just...

What should he do...

Maybe-

He raised his hands, the water dancing around him, and reached out. He called to the sea as he twisted his hands, spreading them. The temperature dropped with a careful thought until he had a block of ice between his hands.

He carefully whispered to the sea, silent yet clear, and guided the ice to shift how he wanted with a slice of his hand.

Cracks and twists filled the ice, melting away with another thought as the water temperature rose and fell in waves. He sent careful lines of hot water curling over the shape, carving into it until a form was left visible for all to see.