Hangs Upon Air [2430-1-4 Mon 12:30pm]

[Blu]

"Oh man, you don't know what burping is?" Blu couldn't stop the cheerful grin spreading over his face. "It's like- okay, so sometimes you end up getting air in your stomach when you eat or drink stuff, and you've got to get it out right? So you burp, and it just sorta... you-... wow. It's kinda hard to describe. I'll just show you!"

He hopped off the counter and headed to the fridge, digging around inside until he found a can of pop. Blu cracked it open and chugged it. The carbonation tickled all the way down. He set down the half open can, waited a few seconds for build-up, and belched. It was a nice long-drawn out one.

When he finally finished, he gave a little bow and straightened back up. "That's a burp!"

[Sonya]

In one way, Sonya was glad that Blu had taken her rather vague question to mean what she’d mean it to. On the other had however, she was thoroughly embarrassed by his assessment of her limited knowledge. She had no way of reading his mind of course, but she could only hope that he wasn’t thinking, ‘Wow, she must be really stupid for not knowing that.’ But if she didn’t learn now she’d go around not knowing for the rest of her life, and it could be much more embarrassing if she said or did something wrong because of what she didn’t know.

Thus she shut down the nagging voice inside her head and watched Blu with interest. He was drinking something. That was reason the Sonya had always believed merpeople and humans were a much more closely related than a lot of people thought. Merpeople lived in water while humans lived in air, but they still drank. The need for water was shared by both species, as was the need for air. Blu opened his mouth and made what was easily the strangest sound Sonya had ever heard, though that wasn’t saying much. She simply starred at him for a moment, and then burst out laughing. “Wow.” She managed, gasping for breath. “That is so weird!”

[Blu]

Blu had never made anyone laugh by just burping, and he felt rather proud that he could add that to his accomplishments. Her laughter was much more enjoyable than any award he'd ever gotten in school or for his designs. "It's a long-standing Terran tradition! We make sodas just to help you burp! And apparently, if you're five and can burp the whole alphabet, that makes you the coolest kid, but I totally skipped that part of my childhood."

He offered the can to her. There wasn't a lot of soda left, but it would be enough to help Sonya burp. "This is orange soda! It tastes like oranges! The fruit, not the colour. The colour probably also tastes like oranges, since that's why it's named orange. Or maybe they had the colour, and then they found the fruit and were all 'oh man, this is the same as that colour'. Like plums!"

[Sonya]

What strange things human children had to do in order to be cool. Sonya knew what kids were like at that age though, it hadn’t been all that long since she’d been one of them. That part in her life was the one she most frequently dwelt on anyway, wishing it would come back, reliving it over and over in her mind. Back then, she had been one of the cool kids, small but feisty, and she’d enjoyed the admiration of the other children, as well as that of adults who thought she was, “just the cutest little thing.” Then came her baby brother, and suddenly she wasn’t the adorable little kid anymore. Now she was a bitter, brooding, rebellious teenager. Go figure.

Bringing herself back to the present, Sonya took the can of soda from Blu and lifted it to her mouth. It would have been a more natural part of her personality to examine the drink first, but she was a rebel now, and rebels took chances, they tried new things without hesitation. Even so, she almost dropped the can in surprise as the soda filled her mouth. It tasted strange, impossibly sweet, but it was the sensation that shocked her more than anything else. The liquid moved in her mouth, almost as if it was alive. It was a sort of tingling feeling, almost like burning, except that it felt somehow pleasant. She swallowed the soda and coughed, feeling it bubble all the way down her throat. She starred at the small can, in wonderment. “That is the strangest thing ever.” Sonya grinned. “I like it.”

[Blu]

"The bubbles are called carbonation! Or maybe they're an example of carbonation, I'm not really clear on that. But it's a pretty popular drink on Terra, and it comes in tons of flavours!" He excitedly told her, already planning to find her more Terran foods and drinks. If she thought soda was neat, there were a ton of other things to try. Coffee would be a good one. Next time they were at the spaceport, he'd have to see if he could find coffee for them.

"Do mermaids have any special drinks?" He asked, suddenly curious. They lived in water, did they drink anything that wasn't water? Did they even drink? It was more like air to them, but they also breathed air, so that was like air to them. He was really going to have to site down with Vivian tonight and have her bring him some videos about mermaids so he wouldn't keep pestering Sonya with a million questions.

[Sonya]

At least Blu seemed to enjoy educating her about human things, rather than peeved by it as many would have been. Sonya felt herself starting to get caught up in his excitement. What could she do, or learn, or try next? But Blu directed the conversation once more toward the civilizations of Corus. To be honest, Sonya felt slightly disappointed, but she answered willingly enough. “No, we… we don’t drink, actually.” She felt suddenly awkward. The idea of not drinking was probably as strange to Blu as was the idea of drinking was to her. “I mean, you know, it’s hard to get dehydrated when your surrounded by water. Although I suppose I’ll have to start drinking now that I’m living in air." Living in air. And free as it too.

A sudden sizzling noise from the frying pan behind her reminded Sonya that she was supposed to be cooking, and she turned, picking up the spatula and attending at once to the eggs. If she acted quickly, she might be able to save them from burning. By now she had created something that was almost an omelet, but with a little chopping and stirring from the spatula, it began to look more like scrambled eggs. “I think these are almost ready.” She told Blu with a smile, anticipating his excitement, “Do you have plates?”

[Blu]

"Oh cool!" He said, trying to imagine life without drinking. Or life where you were drinking by standing still and breathing. It was so weird, and so awesome. Like being a tree, or maybe one with the universe.

Sonya's actions snapped him away from that train of thought, which was meandering toward even more existential questions. Eggs! And plates! "We've got plates! Lots of them!" He opened up the cupboard a few down from the stove, digging out a pair of mismatched plates. All of Blu's plates were mismatched. He didn't understand why you'd buy a set of anything. So he bought one here, and one there, always picking out new designs that caught his eye. One of the plates was green with pink flowers on the rim, and the other had a smiling sun in the middle of it, orange rays flowing across the otherwise plain surface. He set them down beside the stove where Sonya could reach them.

The eggs were really looking good, and his stomach growled in anticipation. "This is great!" He told her, "They look so much better than the stuff I've been making!"

[Sonya]

Sonya smiled at Blu’s joy. It was every bit the way she’d anticipated. How lucky he was that such simple things as good food made him so happy. Although the effect seemed to be rubbing off on her, and she laughed as she gave the eggs a final stir before beginning to dish them out. Sonya was thinking about the first time she’d tried to cook eggs. They’d come out all black and shriveled and burnt smelling. Although at the time she hadn’t recognized the smell. Nothing, of course, smelled burnt under water. In fact, there was very little to smell at all under water, scents didn’t transfer so well through liquid.

That in fact, was one of the things Sonya loved about being human. Or at least resembling a human. Smell was an almost entirely new sensation, and she deeply enjoyed partaking in it. She could smell the eggs at this very minute. They smelled good, and the warmth that radiated from them as she picked them up at carried them over to the table was somehow comforting. “Mmmmm. These smell good!” Sonya set them down on the table and pulled out a chair.

[Blu]

Blu took a chair beside Sonya, making sure to pick the one without arms so he could sit cross-legged on it. He kicked his shoes off as he sat down and brought his legs under him, too used to sitting that way to notice if it was weird or not. One toe stuck through a hole in his sock, but he didn't notice. The sock would end up being torn all the way through before he realized that he might have to throw this pair out and buy a new set.

He didn't bother with a fork, just picking up a piece of egg and popping it straight into his mouth. "And they taste good too!" He gushed, happily chewing away. Cooked food was the best. Especially good eggs, and these were good eggs. "You're my best cook yet!" It was perhaps a bit premature, but Blu had already forgotten how well his other cook had cooked and was back to judging everyone else's cooking by his own sad-looking creations. Sad-looking food was no good. You just ended up feeling bad about eating it. And maybe a little sad. Happy food was the best, and this was happy food. Happy smelling and happy tasting, and espeically happy looking.

Blu wolfed down the eggs, all too happy to have something to eat. The eggs were the perfect temperature for grabbing, just warm enough to keep his fingertips moving but not so warm that he burnt himself. Burns were no good.