Yesterday, Larceny had woken up wanting to die. Her head had hurt, her stomach had hurt - even her hair had hurt. She hadn't even wanted to eat, she'd been so miserable. She'd spent some time in the sad room - without the water, thank you - being sad and throwing up. Now she knew what 'hugging the toilet' meant and she couldn't even be happy about learning something because it was NOT A HAPPY THING.

There was only one way to handle feeling like this.

Late last night when Duke and Octavia weren't around, she had slipped over the edge of the Rouge and into the icy waters of the Bay. It wasn't comfortable, but her head felt immediately better. All of her felt immediately better. Here, she wasn't stupid for not knowing words or being confused by the weird things people did. Here, she was fully in her element. The fish showed proper respect, fleeing at her approach. A dolphin wanted to play and laughed when she tossed an empty turtle shell for him to fetch. A piece of kelp tied her hair back while she inspected a bloom of algae to make sure it was healthy.

See? She knew plenty of things! They just weren't Googles and wolves and how to read a piece of paper or use a fork or why red drinks were bad for you.

She'd slept below the waves, curled up in a bed of eelgrass, and woke up this afternoon feeling much refreshed. And after slowly making her way back to the island (motivated mostly by hunger, after a truly unsatisfactory meal of blue crabs), she pulled herself up onto the shore by the lighthouse, waiting to dry off enough to be able to form her legs again.

Oh. She probably should have found a way to bring clothing with her. Oops.

[Open for anyone who wants to spot a very human-looking Larceny! Squirrels, it's okay to mention seeing Larceny come out of the water, but please no mention of the 'mermaid' part.]