let the sunshine in

♥ stella sarasvati ♥ mermaid princess of the south pacific ocean ♥ topaz! ♥

[stellasarasvati]

Name: Stella Sarasvati Nicknames: Stel, S, idk she’s good with whatever Gender: Female Pronouns: She/her Birthday: August 25, 1919 Age: 102 Orientation: Bisexual (more interested in women) Title: Princess of the South Pacific Ocean Length of time in port vale: recent arrival Occupation: Mermaid Inn front desk

THE OCEAN

For mermaids, mothers were not born but made and Stella adored hers. She was lucky enough to have the Princess of the Indian Ocean, already a legend in her own right, as her mentor. Stella dutifully learned diplomacy, history, patterns of weather, and resource management, itching for any sign of approval. With all of her education, she never truly learned to fight, which she considered a deep sore spot. Fighting was for the royal guard, the soldiers, and those mermaids well-trained in the art of battle. Stella came of age and into her own throne, and did everything that she could to prove that she would be a good princess. Unfortunately, the position of her ocean and her youth made her an apparently easy target for would-be usurpers. Throughout the war against the sirens, her advisors repeatedly told her that she was not ready, and that she needed to focus on her strengths. She wanted to be well-renowned and approved of more than anything else, so she listened, and stuck to her numbers and communication. With Stella safely out of the way, the war was fought, and she hardly got to see any of it.

The war ended, and Stella realized that she was somewhere around the same age as the mermaid that she saw as a mother had been upon taking her in. The idea made her pause, and she truly wondered for the first time if she should seek independence further than fun little nights out. Stella tried to mimic her mother’s dynamic for herself- mentoring other, younger mermaids within her ocean. Unfortunately, this did not amount to much more than teaching them potentially tiresome facts about the weather. This left her horribly disheartened, and even more apt to rebel for herself.

Stella had always had a bit of a wild streak- never enough to cause any lasting damage, but certainly enough to get her into trouble. She wondered sometimes why she allowed her mother to hold so much power over her when Stella was a princess in her own right, but her fears of rejection made that an impossibility. So Stella ruled using her strengths, and from her own perspective, she was good at it- if only because she had expended so much of her efforts on trying to impress the best. She was a charismatic and accommodating host to any visiting dignitaries (trying very, very hard to cater to the interests of each), and created some inspired natural disaster recovery plans.

ON LAND

It took Stella longer than she would have liked to realize that something was wrong in Assyria. All of her good planning and careful relations did nothing against the darkness. Her advisors waited a long time before explaining the situation to her. She never saw this horrible force for herself, but hearing of the awful passing of so many others inspired more than enough fear. Of course her mother wanted to keep her safe, and Stella withdrew before even needing to be asked. For months, she stayed secluded– scared, and unable to do anything.

Eventually, Stella could not take the fear of not knowing, and she snuck away in the night once without telling any of her guards or advisors. She made her way to Port Vale, where she had received word that her beloved mentor and many of the other mermaids were staying. 

Stella has no idea why so much of Assyria is in Port Vale, but it is the place to be. For once, she has no guards to tell her what to do, and all of these intriguing people to meet. She has made very little preparation to come on land, but she has her skills, and she is determined to do a good job here. She has taken a job at the front desk of the local inn, and she loves this job more than anything. Placing people in the correct rooms, getting to welcome interesting people, and having a peek at what’s sticking out of their luggage? It couldn’t be better! If Stella can do good in this funny little town, maybe she can support the cause of fixing Assyria. 

PERSONALITY

Stella can be almost painfully naïve. This makes her susceptible to anything from pranks to conspiracy theories. She is attention-seeking, and her recent escape to land has provided her with ample opportunity for new people to pay attention to her. More than attention, she craves approval, and will go to impractical lengths to gain that from someone she perceives as admirable. While Stella is not very skillful at rebelling, she has certainly tried her hand at it. Despite being relatively obedient, she is absolutely starving for adventure. These two things are at odds, and can make her behavior appear erratic. Usually, being the good, picture-perfect mermaid princess wins out, but it has become tiresome of late with no outlet for intrigue.

FUN INFO

When Stella doesn’t know what to do, she relies heavily on her advisors, so her rule is a little tenuous. Some of the restrictions were brought upon by herself and she’s never been quite as limited as the North Pacific princess, but she’s definitely not supposed to be in town.

Really likes boats as a concept but will soon find out that she gets seasick on them easily

Excited about learning more about how humans study weather. Expect her to have like five different weather apps when she gets a cell phone.

Way more intellectual than you would think she is based on how she acts. Ronan is her ride-or-die best friend, if that gives context.

She’s very scared of sirens at this point, but will probably come to think they’re not so bad once she actually gets to know them.

Loooooves attention. Just talk to her and she’ll adore you. It’s not necessarily (or even most often) romantic attention she’s seeking. Stella wants to be liked so badly.

While she wants to be treated like an adult, she can act quite immature. V sweet, but can be a little bratty.

You can see the full spectrum of emotions that go through her mind on her face.

[stellasarasvati]

silvertarnished​:

 Silver was still trying to adjust to legs.  How slow she felt.  How weak.  Was it really better here than in the sea?  Her sea?  The last time she’d been in the Mediterranean it had been red with her own blood.  Shrieking sirens, her sirens, circling her with sharp teeth and nails.  It was the first time she’d ever fought her own kind.  Hopefully the last.  It was the humans and mermaids they wanted to fight.   Their feet drag in the dirt.  They don’t want to be here, but at least amongst nature it feels a little better.  A bit more at home.  Eyes flit to birds with a predator’s gaze, the movement stirring the instinct to chase.  As if she could reach them that high.  Something better caught their attention.  Not quite a familiar face, but a…vibe.  Maybe it was a smell.  Mermaid.  Silver flashes teeth on impulse, glancing at the pinecone.  What was a mermaid doing here?  Didn’t they have it best in the water?  And playing with things on the ground like a child.  “You.”  For once, her cracked voice works to her advantage.  Lets her feel a bit more like a predator approaching prey.  “What-” she snarls, clearing her throat.  “Are you…doing here?”

Stella tilted a head to one side, puzzled by this unusual behavior. She had just been trying to be accommodating of someone else in a shared space, and now someone was coming up to her with accusatory words. Recoiling a little bit out of fear, she struggled to understand what could possibly have happened here.

“Well, first I was trying to go to the Marine Research Center, but I must have gotten all turned around because this definitely isn’t the research center. I didn’t think that this was private land or anything, and I didn’t meant to disturb the nature. I- I’m just looking at the pinecones now. It’s, uhm, I’m sorry that- uh- I can put them back?” Stella knelt down slowly to put the pinecones back down on the forest floor, entirely unsure what she could have done wrong. Clearly she had been at fault in some way, but it was difficult to feel anything but confused and terrified based on this sort of behavior. “Did you- Is there- What did I do that’s wrong?”

[stellasarasvati]

walterperez​:

“Sure, makes sense,” he allowed.  It wasn’t like he didn’t understand wanting to ask people questions.  “Not trying to discourage you,” Walter added.  “By all means, anything to make your shift more interesting, right?”  Then he wondered if that was also the wrong thing to say, considering Stella seemed to enjoy sitting there. “There is a lot of information to uncover,” Walter repeated her words, nodding.  “Town history, no.  Economic viability, no.  Architecture, yes.  In Mexico, there’s several cities with mermaid statues, and so when I was younger I thought that was a fairly normal thing.  When I moved to Texas, eh, not so much.  So, you find the whole mermaid thing fun?” Walter frowned.  “Wait.  Do they not?  I admit, I don’t know that much about squirrels.  If that’s the case, why doesn’t it have squirrel friends?”

.

“Talking to me isn’t a burden on your time or anything, right? You’re a nice person to talk to.” Stella’s eyes figuratively sparkled at the idea of a city with mermaid statues. She wondered if they looked anything like people she knew, or if they were just inventions. What was the context of the mermaid appreciation in those cities versus Port Vale? And why didn’t Texas have them? The word Texas felt funny when she said it back to herself in her head. Texas. Texas. She wasn’t sure if she liked the word as much as Mexico. “The mermaid thing is totally fun. It’s not one of the reasons why you’re here? If you’re just going to pick a small town, then why not one like this. Do you not like mermaids?” Stella was completely going to take it personally if Walter didn’t like mermaids but not blame him if that happened. “Uhm... I don’t know that much about squirrels, but I don’t recall that they’re particularly communal animals.” She leaned forward tried to remember all of the squirrel facts she had. There just weren’t enough.

[stellasarasvati]

ronandelgado​:

“The inn is okay. I know the human who owns it” Ronan said. He was almost certain the owner was one of Sisi’s humans, at least. “I think he’s a bit boring, but my brother really likes him, so… You could have gotten it a lot worse.” And it did sound like a good job for Stella. The inn was certainly the best place in town to meet new people and learn new things from and about them, especially once tourist season started. However, she would also probably get very busy once that happened, so Ronan wanted to enjoy all the free time they had together before that. “And make sure to tell me all about the craziest guest you get there.”

With their target chosen, Ronan took a long look at it, mentally measuring the distance. “All right. And we throw from here, right?” he said, picking up one of their snowballs and taking aim. “The secret is having good form when you throw it. Or anything else.” He showed her just how to do it before releasing his ball and hitting right on the lamp of the post she pointed at. “Bullseye!”

.

“Renzie? He’s very interesting. I think that he has a lot of thoughts going through his head that are really overwhelming for him to think about, but he tries to answer my questions the best he can.” Stella never really ran out of questions, which was not ideal for a boss who was going through a private mid-life crisis at least fifteen years earlier than he needed to have it. “I’m writing up a little diary of all of our most exciting guests, actually. No names because I don’t want to get in trouble, and it’s also written in a relatively obscure human language so that nobody else will be able to translate.” Stella had collected knowledge dutifully since a young age since she hadn’t had much else to do with her time (and it wasn’t considered a terrible activity), which was part of why she was very literate.

Stella raised an eyebrow. “You lose points if you hit people.” Not that she was counting points, but she wanted to make sure that the ground rules were very firm here. No hitting Stella and no hitting strangers that could get her in trouble. She clapped once when Ronan hit the target dead on. Determined, she chucked the snowball, and fell about a  foot short. “Oh... Maybe I was a little overconfident here. Unless you had a lucky shot?”

[stellasarasvati]

islamarin​:

Isla always wished she could bring the things she found on land back home with her, but they rarely faired well in the salt water. Even if she didn’t need a phone to function under the water, it would still rust and no longer look at as cool as it did before. She still needed one first before she could even consider bring it with her. “Humans are so advanced with communication,” Isla agreed. “It still takes us ages to get messages to each other. I wish we could have something remotely similar to a phone.”

She was surprised to hear that Stella knew so much about technology. Isla thought she was more of an expert when it came to land, but maybe that wasn’t the case. She never heard of Urban Dictionary before, and she didn’t think to get a phone her first day of land. “Maybe I’ll ask Mike to take me there,” Isla nodded. “He’s good with land stuff, and I can usually convince him to give me some money when I don’t have enough.” It took almost no effort on her part to get him to buy her clothes from the thrift store, at least. “I’ll have to remember that dictionary. Language changes over time. I haven’t heard anyone say ‘groovy’ yet, and they used to say it all the time.”

.

“Some of the phones must be really underpriced or really overpriced because they vary in price a lot, but they all kinda look the same except for the ones that act like a plastic clamshell.” She made her hand open and closed like a little clamshell. “I know some of the phones say they’re waterproof, but I’m not sure if they can take the pressure... Maybe there are other devices we can take back down there that could work.” It would probably be as easy as trying to send text messages on a microwave (Stella had already tried), but could be worth it.

The idea of a word called ‘groovy’ made Stella sniff a little as she fought not to laugh. It was such a funny sounding word, and she could just say it over and over as if that would extract any more meaning out of those two little syllables. There wasn’t a good way of testing that theory without dropping the word excessively into conversation, though, so Stella had to settle on saving that fun little thought for later. Oh, and maybe she would be looking that up on Urban Dictionary too, since Isla didn’t define that immediately. “It’s so weird because I can understand almost everything except for these new words, but they’re like a secret that didn’t get spread around perfectly. Maybe you can make other people say it if you say it a lot.”

[stellasarasvati]

@silvertarnished​

Stella had meant to wander over to the Marine Research Center and see what was going on there. Unfortunately, per usual, she had gotten a little lost and ended up somewhere completely different in town. It wasn’t like it was a very big human settlement, but something about land made her sense of direction get all messed up. Or maybe it was just being somewhere new besides her ocean. Having this much freedom to roam around was still so new and exciting, and she found it easy to get distracted and end up in entirely the wrong place.

Without thinking about it too hard, Stella picked up a pinecone off the ground and idly examined its patterning. Her eyes widened. How interesting! She picked up another pinecone, and compared the two to see how they compared and differed. Of course she had seen pinecones before, but never had she actually analyzed them so closely. Glancing up, she hadn’t realized that someone else was nearby. Stella had absolutely no idea who this was or what they wanted, but she knew that it was important to be nice. “Oh, uhm. Did you want one of these? You can have this one, if you like.” Tentatively, Stella held out the one in her left hand. “I’m sure there are plenty to go around. Unless I’m not supposed to pick up any of these? I- I didn’t see any signs that said I wasn’t allowed but- I can put them back if I need to.”

[stellasarasvati]

@gemmawalker​

“Gemma! Gemma, hi!” Stella hadn’t exactly gotten the hang of keeping objects in a bag or purse just yet. She understood that humans often carried these bags to store their personal effects while in motion, but she also liked having them close. Right now, as she jogged up to her acquaintance, Stella had three different books, her cell phone, a water bottle decorated with stickers, and a roll of masking tape. At least the masking tape roll was around her wrist like an extra-chunky bracelet, but the rest was just in her hands. 

“Have you seen an orange cell phone case anywhere? I took my phone out of it because I accidentally spilled some juice on it and needed to make sure that nothing went wrong, but I don’t remember exactly what happened after that because I kept changing seats to catch the light perfectly. Have you ever tried reading while the sun’s in your eyes? It just doesn’t work well at all. I didn’t account for the sun changing position so frequently in the evening, but that’s my mistake. I’ve got the times down for tomorrow so this doesn’t happen again... Did I ask you about the phone case yet? How are you going?”

[stellasarasvati]

steph-anand​:

Steph moved to help Stella pick up the notebooks, but the other woman was already on it, quickly picked everything up and then was right back to their conversation, and Steph couldn’t help the soft smile she had on her face at the compliment and love towards libraries. “No worries, the returns can wait a bit, the customers whp come in are more important, including you. And I agree, yeah, libraries are great. But I might he biased, I do realize that. What kind of book series did you get into?”

Would it be something fantastical, or something more mundane? Nereida wanted something not normal at all and that turned out to be simple, non-magical romance books. She wondered if that was the case with Stella too. And just in general, Steph liked talking about books.

When Stella told her what she was looking for, Steph gave a big grin. “Oh yeah, we have records of the local papers and special editions dated back to over a century, and we have a special sections for sailor’s journals and diaries, all kinds of logs and reports. Come with me, that is in the basement of the library, some of them need special conditions to remain I’m a good shape,” she said, coming out from behind the counter and gesturing for Stella towards the stairs. “Unless you’d prefer to read some of it on the computer, we have digitalized versions, but if you ask me  it’s more fun and immersive to flip through the original editions.”

.

There, all of Stella’s stuff was (mostly) secure in her arms. “Oh... There’s this one with vampires I adore. It seems to have five different names of a series. Southern Vampire novels? I started Twilight, but it made me too sad. Vampires are so fun. I’m liking the Ender’s Game books, but the characterization between books is so odd that I just have to focus on the ideas instead, so that’s taking me out of the world.” She read quickly, too impatient to do a thorough analysis of the entire book. When it felt like her time on land was limited, she wanted to experience as much of the things that would be inaccessible as possible. Missing a theme or two was fine when she could keep the story and the high concepts that kept her awake in the night. “If you have a recommendation for anything, I’d accept it gladly. I’m not that picky.” Strictly romance novels would have interested her a lot more than they did if they didn’t make her feel guilty for just focusing on the characters’ relationship. It was better when there was a throughline of something else so she didn’t feel too close to the subject matter and how it wasn’t like what she lacked.

Smiling brightly, Stella nodded a whole bunch of times in enthusiasm. The idea of having a new set of sources to dig into for some real research was thrilling. “Whatever you think is best will work for me. I’ll be good and careful with anything I’m allowed to look at. Will I get in trouble if you take me to look at any of these things, though? I know that paper books can get delicate, which is why the expansion into digitization seems like such a big deal. I think the idea of having everything accessible from outside the source material is thrilling, but the actual document has its own sort of... aura, right? That’s why you like the actual documents?” She was rambling again, threatening to drop more books in her excitement while she followed Steph around.

[stellasarasvati]

renzieanand​:

“Yeah, psh.  School, who needs it,” Renzie said agreeably.  “I only did courses to get certified, you know.  Like things I needed to legally run a business.  Food safe, first aid, that sorta thing. Ironically you do not need a business degree to run a business.”  He was fairly sure Stella would have no idea what he was talking about, nor was this interesting or relevant.  But he’d asked about schooling, she’d given her response, so he was carrying the conversation a few paces further before he could politely move on.  It was a process of keeping things surface level and cheerful, which Renzie was well-versed in.  Except that Stella was looking less and less cheerful as time went by though, like every topic Renzie brought up only caused her more consternation.

Including the job-talk.  Another fail for Renzie - he was trying to get used to this,  how bad he was at talking to sea people.  Over and over again, he was just…not good at it.   “Okay, no problem,” he said, trying to effuse cheer into his voice after her almost pleading ‘please don’t make me but I will if you force me’ response.  “Cool.  It’s cool.”

He didn’t say that he’d particularly liked the campsite - too many mosquitoes and trees.  Renzie liked the beach and the sandmites better, ha ha - but he gamely tried to answer, taking into consideration the things that had seemed to make Stella happy.  “Oh! Ah. Well, there’s these cool crystals that wash up in a little cove.  There’s maps showing all the trails.  So there’s one to this cove a short hike away, and if you dig about in the dirt and sand, you get these neat little crystals.  Some people say they’re from the ocean, others say they only show up after storms.  You know the fishbowl on the shelf by the Inn’s front desk?  With all the weird rocks in it?  That’s some of the crystals, sometimes tourists bring them back.”

Renzie held his breath, hoping these crystals weren’t some sort of super-sacred things to Stella’s sea-people that he’d just blithely defiled in his ignorant human ways that stressed her out further, inshallah.

.

“Uhm... I don’t know. I’m sure some people need school,” Stella said, rubbing at the back of her neck nervously. “But I appreciate you being really nice to me about it. You went to safety school, so I guess you needed it. Just not university schooling.” Renzie was right that Stella was thoroughly bewildered by whatever he was talking about. She understood enough to say that she didn’t understand the purpose of degrees whatsoever. If they were proof that she knew a lot of things about a topic, then she desperately wanted one of those degrees. It was really too bad that she wouldn’t be able to attend unless a lot of circumstances changed. If she were some random mermaid, maybe she could have run away and 

Stella found the idea of these crystals incredibly intriguing. She was not aware of this sort of phenomenon or the nature of the crystals themselves. The origin, composition, and circumstances of these crystals was just one of a many great mysteries about Port Vale that she would love to uncover but was not sure she had the means to do so. “Oh, I didn’t even know there was a fishbowl there! I’ll have to look into it when I get back. If you have any information about what kind of crystals they are, I would love to know. I’ll perhaps try to figure it out otherwise.” The decor of the inn was very interesting, but she did not always pay attention to her surroundings. Based on the new information that she had just gleaned, she would have to consider some intensive investigations while unsupervised. Exciting!

[stellasarasvati]

amara-marino​:

Amara hadn’t really considered Stella’s fear of heights when she offered her to join her at the lighthouse. She didn’t even really realize she had that fear at all (even after the incident at the park). But it seemed important to have her there with her so she was grateful for her presence regardless. If something spooky was going on in here, it could be fun to discover it for herself. In a way, it felt like one of those horror movies she enjoyed watching so much. It seemed unlikely that something life threatening would happen to them but if things did play out like the movies, Amara considered herself to be on par with the final girls that always made it to the end.

“I think it’s only fair to test it out! There’s going to be so many of us in and out of here for a while I think, if a spirit of some kind is lurking around, that could be bad news. At least that’s what people say.” Amara didn’t know much about ghosts, and hadn’t really taken a stance on whether they were actually real or not. But the kids in town sounded convinced, and who was she to say they weren’t telling the truth?

When Stella mentioned that Moray could still be in the lighthouse, Amara felt like that would have been the perfect time for a thunder crack to follow. Unfortunately, it wasn’t rainy weather that night, so she was kind of bummed about that. But to give the words the reaction it deserved, she gasped and began to turn her head around, searching for him. “Do you really think he could still be here? Like…do you think he’s just hiding or that a ghost got him? Can ghosts hide bodies?” She would have assumed that the mayor searched the entire lighthouse for his brother before putting together this group but who’s to say he didn’t miss something?

“It’ll be fine! Let’s pick one of the rooms to settle down in. I think we’re supposed to try and talk to the spirits and ask them why they’re here. I don’t know how exactly, like maybe if we ask they’ll show themselves and sit down with us? Have a little chat. I don’t know. Where do you think a ghost would like to hang out the most?

.

Maybe Stella was afraid of ghosts now too. She didn’t exactly need more things in her life to be afraid of, but ghosts seemed like a relatively reasonable fear. Beings with unfinished business that were incorporeal sounded difficult to deal with. Hopefully the lighthouse wasn’t extremely haunted. Maybe just a little haunted would be okay. At least she didn’t have to be here for more than one moderately creepy day. Oh, but Amara would have to deal with whatever was happening at the lighthouse.

Could ghosts hide bodies? This was an intriguing question. “It depends on whether the the ghost is able to interact with the physical plane. I’ve never met a ghost that could tell me, though. Especially not a ghost that could tell me about whether ghosts can hide bodies. Unless there’s a secret passage somewhere. Have you ever found one of those before?” Those had come up in one of the mystery books she was reading, and Stella was torn between being terrified of what might be behind a secret door and wanting a secret bookcase door in her dream land house that would never actually exist.

Oh, well if they were supposed to talk to the spirits, then that sounded like the best move to make. Or... try to make. Stella supposed that if someone better equipped to solve problems knew what to do, they would probably have found the Moray man by now. “If ghosts are very cold, then it makes sense for them to be at the bottom of the lighthouse. Heat rises, so if I were a cold ghost, it would be easiest right in the place nearest the base that isn’t the entrance. So whichever is closest to the entrance?” Resisting the urge to fidget with her hands a lot, she looked toward Amara for approval. She very much wanted to impress the other right now with these insights, but didn’t think that she was doing a good job of it.

[stellasarasvati]

islamarin​:

Isla looked over Stella’s shoulder with amazement as she started showing off her phone. It was so different from the kind that hooked into the wall. She had already seen human’s using them since coming to Port Vale, but it was still shocking that they were small enough to fit in her palm and had a screen that responded to touch. She watched as Stella clicked a lot of things she didn’t understand until she reached the wallpaper thing they were talking about. She had a feeling she would never remember any of this if she had to do it herself, but it was still fascinating to see. “Wow,” she breathed. “They’re so…decorative now,” she observed. “They didn’t even have a screen before and now you can make them look pretty and give them fun sounds. Humans are brilliant.” 

When Stella asked for her phone, she frowned at the reminder that she still didn’t have one. She was still working on it…kind of. As in–she kept realizing she still needed a phone, but didn’t know how to get one, so then she just let it go, and repeat. “I don’t have one yet,” she confessed. “I’m not sure how you get one. Where’d you get yours?”

.

Stella nodded in enthusiastic agreement. The phone was a beautiful and very strange device that she could not hope to understand without taking it apart. Whoever had made the phone had not made that very easy (she had already tried and came to the conclusion that perhaps she was not supposed to). “I wish that we could take these back underwater with us. How nice would it be to have one of these anywhere?” She wasn’t sure what she was going to do with her new beloved cell phone when she went back in the water. Perhaps it was best not to mourn something that hadn’t happened yet.

Oh, now she had to remember where she had gotten the thing. Stella tapped at her lip thoughtfully. “Uhm, I went to an electronics store. They had all sorts of exciting devices, and I thought that they would be able to help me the most with the phone. I got a prepaid phone plan, and the phone itself was on sale. I didn’t have a ton of money or anything, but I know humans are very phone-focused, so I wanted to be prepared. You should definitely get one soon! I’ve already learned so much about humans. There’s this website called the Urban Dictionary that helps you look up phrases used in regular speech that aren’t in the regular dictionary.”

[stellasarasvati]

steph-anand​:

Stella showed up ready and determined, hands full of notebooks, looking chipper and excited and it was kind of sweet, how prepared she looked, and Steph knew that the other was here to take her up on that offer about research before Stella even opened her mouth and said a single word.

“Stella, hey, I’m doing okay, just a bit of a lul at work, so I was gathering up some books to put back onto the shelves,” she gestured towards the trolley that carried the returns. “What about you? Hope you’re doing okay. And no, no, you don’t have to go anywhere, it’s okay. Like I said, I was going to do returns, but those can wait a bit, I can help you with finding books. What kind of topic did you think about jumping into first?”

.

Stella dropped one of the notebooks, leaned down to pick it up, and then proceeded to drop another of the notebooks. Shaking her head, she scooped up both of the notebooks, and hoped that she would not encounter any other complications. “Oh! Uhm, I’m doing okay. It’s good to be here, though. I love libraries.” She hadn’t been to a lot of human libraries, but she liked Port Vale’s library. And the idea was amazing. So... she had to like libraries as a while. It only made sense until proven otherwise.

“Are you sure that the returns can wait? I don’t want to keep people from waiting if anyone had anything important on hold. I have basically an endless list of books at this point now that I’m getting hooked on these series books... But, uhm, do you have old newspapers available for public access? Local ones? Or just the other old records if you have any recommendations. I promise to take care of them if I’m permitted to view them. Do you ever wonder how many different trees go into one book?” Stella’s mind didn’t always make a lot of sense because she was just full of so many ideas that it was difficult to parse it all together. It made sense to Stella, and typically only Stella.

[stellasarasvati]

peony : what would a ‘ happy life ’ look like in your muse’s eyes ?

peony :   what would a   ‘  happy life  ’   look like in your muse’s eyes ?

It's some variety of the happily ever after in tales. She wants to be in touch with all of the people that love and care about her without having to sneak around. i.e. she wants to be able to see Ronan when she wants. She definitely thinks a happy life would include finding the love of her life without that having to be a hassle. Stella doesn't need to have everything she wishes in order to be happy, she thinks, but at least she wants to be respected well enough for who she is.

Honestly... she's contemplated whether or not it would be better if she just stayed on land for the foreseeable future. She's been less depressed here.

[stellasarasvati]

tulip

tulip :   how does your muse view people in general ?

Stella thinks other people are wonderful, exciting, and inherently good. She very much wants to impress them so that they will think well of her.

[stellasarasvati]

@steph-anand​

Stella rocked up to the library juggling several notebooks and her phone. Among her hoard of human possessions kept where she slept, she had a purse and a tote bag that she switched between when it came to getting around. Unfortunately, she had decided on the purse for that day without regard for her impulsive decision to unearth the mysteries of the world. It was okay, though. She had hands for a reason. Unfortunately, human legs were not excellent limbs for carrying large possessions. The toes were not especially dexterous, and the legs typically only had function for this purpose if the leg garments featured belts, pockets, or linked ‘carabiner’ clips. She had not yet experimented with all of these yet, but her current outfit definitely would hold notebooks. Again, hands. She definitely had good hands.

Humming happily to herself a human tune that she knew neither the words nor the meaning behind, she pushed through the library and made her way to where Steph was. “Hello, Steph, how are you going? Is this a good time to look over books and things?” Her tone was warm; she was excited to be here, but also terrified of making a mess and causing too many problems here in conversation. The last thing that she wanted to do was offend the nice human lady whom she had decided could possibly be her friend by this point. It wasn’t the first time that Stella had showed up at the library ready to devote time to academia. “If it’s not, I can wait until it’s a good time. Or I can leave and do other activities. I don’t mind either of those at all, I promise!”

[stellasarasvati]

renzieanand​:

Renzie was fairly sure that wasn’t the way to pronounce ‘Aristotle’ but then he was never good with ‘Western Civ’ history.   Port Vale history, was business.  Everything else was Steph’s realm.  He resisted the urge to make the joke ‘It’s all Greek to me!’ because Stella wouldn’t get it, so he just politely listened, as he would to anyone who went off about their respective whatever.  Renzie did enjoy seeing the passion someone had for something they loved, and it didn’t matter if Renzie didn’t comprehend the subject matter. 

“Did you think about maybe going to school for it?  Um…like taking a couple online college courses or something,” he suggested, since Port Vale didn’t have a uni of its own.  “If you wanted to learn in um…a structured way?  But there’s also the internet, of course.”  There were so many paths to learn now, to fit someone’s needs.  Even sea people had options, even if the learning curve would be steep. 

“Stella, don’t worry so much.  You’re one of my best employees.  I appreciate the keenness, really I do.  If you keep it up, we can do a review in a few months and maybe even a promotion, huh?  If you want, of course.”  If she was still around in a few months.  Renzie dreaded being left with an abruptly unstaffed business, if all the sea people upped and left.  But.  He also still hoped the sea people would solve whatever was plaguing them so they could return to their homes.

“If you like the trees, have you seen the Kelp Forest Campsite?  We’d have to drive there, it’s a bit of a walk.  And there’s all kinds of great hikes and trails tha t the outdoorsy tourists love in the summer.”

.

“I did start to go to school for it, but I dropped out.” This was a complete and utter lie, of course, because she never had attended a human educational institution in her life. When there were only so many details that Stella had made up about her ‘human’ life, she needed to keep them consistent and voiced. It probably would have been a great source of disappointment to study the best subject of all time and have to stop pursuing it formally. “It’s- It wasn’t the best environment for me to learn. I’ve been considering trying again one of the ways you said, yeah, now that I’m older, but I might not.” She wasn’t entirely sure how she could even get into college without being an established human person. This lying was starting to make her itch more.

Regarding the promotion, Stella didn’t really know where she was supposed to go from where she was now. Her job was perfect, and promotions sounded complicated. The praise made her have to fight not to beam a little bit, but it was all complicated by this entire, stressful, lying conversation. “I- I just want to do a good job, Renzie, and I really like what I do for work. There’s still so much to learn right now, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing what happens when more tourists start to visit the town. But I’ll do whatever you think makes sense.” It wasn’t an outright no. Stella wanted to hedge her bets a little bit because Renzie might have been disappointed in her for not wanting to advance into something she didn’t understand. Also. Telling her not to worry so much? What was she supposed to do instead with her time away from distractions?

Looking around, Stella tried to remember which way the campsite was supposed to be. No, she had absolutely no clue at this point. Also driving. She couldn’t drive. Apparently driving was a lengthy educational process, and sounded worse if you went fast in the other direction. “Uhm! Maybe. There are a lot of days in the year, so I’ll have to check it out at some point, right? What’s your favorite part of the campsite? Do you go with other people or animals?”

[stellasarasvati]

sunflower

sunflower :   what brings your muse the most joy in life ?

Learning new things that don't affect her personal wellbeing. It's not that difficult to make her happy; just share fun facts that you are passionate about with her.