And It's Gonna Be Totally Awesome (Eric)

[telemain]

A pleasant evening breeze whipped through Telemain’s hair as he strolled along the shoreline, occasionally leaping out of the way of the waves that threatened to lick at his heels. Occasionally, he would reach down and scoop up a shell or a piece of sea glass that caught his eye. Of course, Telemain being magic-obsessed, practical Telemain, wasn’t collected souvenirs for his bedside table—these things were for use in future spells.

Still, in spite of the school-related nature of his trip, he was quite enjoying his stroll on the beach. He had rolled up the legs of his jeans and a pair of sunglasses crowned his head, even though the sun only illuminated the horizon with a mix of pink, orange and a tinge of red, as the light violet started to descend on what little light was left. The smell of the sea salt smelled good and he enjoyed the cool breeze against his pasty skin. The only thing that was irritating were the edge of the waves, the last exhausted strains of the sea that relentlessly were trying to wet his heels. Most of the time, Telemain managed to dodge out of their way, but every so often, he’d feel an icy-cold tongue lick his feet and he’d do something of a little dance to avoid it.

He didn’t see it coming, but it was the gradually rising tide of the night, but as he was passing a large rock, a thicker more powerful wave-tongue than usual came up and splashed him all the way up his ankles. With an indignant yelp, the young magician leapt in the air and came down uneven. Arms waving, he tripped and then fell over the rock, clutching his bucket to his chest. For a moment, he was winded, but then he groaned, thoroughly irritated and rolled onto his back, meaning to get up before that accursed wave came back and wet him through this time. He stopped, noticing a face directly above him.

[Deleted]

Eric loved his Maxie, of course! It'd be a stupid, even an insulting question for someone to ask. However, even before she had turned human, there were times when Eric just needed a little break. Now that she was human, and therefore expected to behave at least sort of human? Dear, God, he was exhausted. it wasn't even her fault, really. He was spending a lot of time being conflicted over the whole situation. If he didn't stop stressing about this, he was seriously going to drop dead before Grimsby!

This had occurred to him while he was cleaning up the new place he had picked out for himself and Max, and terrified by the thought of being that stressed when he was usually so easygoing, he knew only one thing could cure him.

No one had ever taken such a huge gulp of salty sea air without having actually almost drowned or suffocated...although come to think of it, he had almost drowned once and even then he hadn't been this relieved. He had been too distracted by that girl. How sad was that? He almost died, and his newly humanoid dog was somehow more stressful. He probably needed a priority makeover, stat!

And there he went again. He was near one of his favorite things in the whole world, with what had to be the world's most perfect sunset above his head, and he was still dwelling on something that was hardly the biggest deal. He closed his eyes and took another breath, officially uninviting all negative thoughts from his head. Sorry, this is a private party, try the Twelfth of Never.

Once he was sure that worked, he opened his eyes again, let his gaze wander this gorgeous beach...only to notice that some kid got a bit too close to the rising tide and had somehow managed to trip and fall flat on his back. Being the nice guy he was, he sort if jogged over to make sure there was no permanent damage being done while he had been a bystander.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, looking down at the much younger looking (although he supposed he could just have one of those faces) boy. Either way, the poor kid didn't look all that accustomed to the beach, especially since he seemed terrified of the waves of all things. Eric reached out a hand. "Can you get up?" Sure, it was unlikely for a serious injury that wasn't a jellyfish sting to happen on the sand, but hey, he might as well offer.

[telemain]

“T-thanks.” Telemain stuttered, reaching up and grabbing the hand that was offered to him. It took some effort for him to haul himself up, as although he was quite skinny, he was out of shape, due to his spending long stretches of time with his nose in a book and his legs doing nothing. He clutched his previous bucket with one arm before gingerly stepping away from the rocks. He had to take several wide steps away from the water before he could extend a hand to the other boy.

“I’m Telemain.” He managed. “And I don’t usually fall over. Well, actually I do, but well…this is the beach and I don’t want my stuff to get wet, even though it was when I picked it up and…” A blush crept up his face as he voice ceased and desisted.

He paused, fixing the guy with a sheepish look before clearing his throat and plowing ahead.

“I’m starting over. My name is Telemain and I’m studying magic at Tintagel High. Thank you for helping me get up.”

[Deleted]

For a second there, Eric wondered if perhaps the kid was hurt, seeing as it was taking a bit longer to help him up than he had originally anticipated. Still, he offered a kind smile at his thank you and pulled him up. “Hey, no problem, couldn’t just let you stay there, could I?” Mind you, there probably were plenty of people who could, but Eric wouldn’t have dreamt of it. Once that was all done, Eric couldn’t help but give him a funny look, rude as it was. Once again, it was looking like he was almost afraid of the water, which was somewhat mind boggling for Eric, even if he came to notice how certain people (Grimsby, for example) didn’t share his taste for the open ocean. All the same, when one of your country’s main ways of living was fishing, you couldn’t really find too many people who were afraid of the water.

Still, at least he seemed friendly enough once he had put enough distance between himself and the ocean…albeit, he was a bit awkward too. Not in a bad way though; Eric would’ve laughed if he didn’t want to be at least somewhat sensitive. “No, no, I get that, who really wants their things to get even wetter, right?” he agreed, flashing a smile that would, ideally, let the poor guy know that he wasn’t looking like a total idiot or anything.

“Like I said, no problem.” That was about when he accepted his hand to shake, perhaps a bit belated, but hey, now they were both being equally awkward. Everyone won. “I’m Eric, and…” Huh, now that he really thought about it, he wasn’t studying anything in particular over at the school. I mean, there were the basics, and of course Poly Sci and other things related to the fact that, oh yeah, he was going to rule a country someday, but it wasn’t really his whole life, at least not enough that he thought to bring it up upon introduction…still, the magic thing sounded interesting, and seeing as his dog had just turned human, he knew that stuff was real now. Just wait until Grim heard about this.

“Magic, huh? That sounds cool enough,” he remarked, now putting his hands in his pockets again, just kind of shrugging. After a moment of thought, he said, “You know, I know this beach pretty well and whether you make a habit out of falling or not, I’d rather prevent it.” He smirked maybe a little bit at this point, just a gentle, friendly one, if there was such a thing. “Mind if I join you?”

[telemain]

Telemain considered his proposal for a moment, then took him up on the offer. Eric seemed to be a lot more physically coordinated than he was (him and the rest of the world) and he could use the help of not falling on his backside again. For a moment, they walked together in silence and then Telemain decided enough was enough: he would break it and replace it with something else. Unfortunately, that something else was usually a promising one-sided conversation.

"Yes...well, I'm also studying science. I specialize in hypothesis and experimentation in the magical molecule properties department. Right now, I'm studying the genetic capabilities of flying cold air magical particles when used on magic-users of different or the same ethnicities. This ensures the proper use of genetics and avoids the passing-on of magical allergies. Today I gathered some shells and sea glass to aid me in my research of magicians whose ancestors originated from shoreline ancient cultures." He nodded, impressively and paused, debating whether to shut his trap nor or keep going. Most people were usually bored out of their brains by this point, so he decided to tread the middle line and include Eric in the conversation. Musicians got people to perk up when they did a little audience participation.

"What's your racial background?"

[Deleted]

Eric couldn’t help but feel pretty glad that Telemain had taken him up on the offer, and it wasn’t just to make sure the poor kid didn’t hurt himself. He was nothing if not sociable, after all, and talking to someone else might actually help him clear his mind a little bit more, because the last thing he wanted was to come home just as stressed as he had left. Stress just did ugly things, especially to relationships, and the last thing he wanted was to, God forbid, wind up snapping at Max if he really went completely nuts…then again, the imagined look on her face might be motivation enough for Eric to calm down, because, again, it wasn’t a big deal, and why not just listen to Telemain now?

Well…apparently, for one thing, this kid was some kind of genius. Had to be. Not that Eric thought of himself as stupid by any stretch (somewhat naïve of the ways of the world, but not stupid), but he was pretty sure that Telemain could manage to make some robots jealous. Not that this was a bad thing at all, it was just enough that Eric’s eyes bugged out ever so slightly as he tried to process just what sort of information his new potential friend was giving him, while worrying that he was going to sound like a bit of a Neanderthal if he was asked to talk later…oh wait, fantastic. He just asked him about his…racial background? That…wasn’t normal, was it? Still, at least it was something he could answer, and he did so, surprisingly able to shake off his bewilderment easily enough.

“Oh, me? Well, I’m actually from Casturini…um, it’s this island country that no one’s ever heard of, although it’s pretty close to the Phillipines, although that was owned by the Spanish for a while, so, I’m kind of a mutt, actually,” he admitted with a weak smile. “A lot of people where I come from are, though, I mean, it’s not that much older than America and immigration’ll do that to you.” It would probably surprise a lot of people to know that Eric actually put that sort of thought into his country’s history, or really, anything that didn’t involve music or looking for mysterious singing girls, but in spite of the fact that Grimsby wanted him to be more serious, he did have a lot more maturity going on in his head than the old man gave him credit for. He just didn’t use it that often, probably because…well…he didn’t want to grow up so fast and feel like he missed out on anything.

“It’s a nice little place, though…lots of beaches, it was why I was so relieved that we had one around here,” he went on. “How about you? I’m guessing you’re not that used to water?” There, that was something he could comfortably talk about, and he couldn’t help but bring back a smile as he remembered just how uncomfortable with water Telemain was.

[telemain]

Telemain just stared at him with a blank look. He was smart, he was nerdy, he was probably Tintagel’s finest, academically, but he, for the life of him, did not know where the hell Casturini was, although it did conjure a rather unpleasant mental image of a place where all the men were castrated and spoke in high voices and sang all soprano parts in operas, thanks to their missing parts. Wait, those were the castro singers. Okay, good, so Eric wasn’t from the land of castrated men. But wait, castro singers were a very real thing and this frightened Telemain, so he bit his lip and reminded himself that there wasn’t a single castro singer in sight.

“Ah, I see.” He agreed, choosing arbitrary words. “Based on your Spanish blood, you’d be best affected by the Positive A-type magical particles, although Negative B-type particles would also work, though not as well.”

“I was born in the Mountains of Morning.” He replied, hoping his answer would be equally helpful. A grand total of zero people knew of the land he came from. “I never knew my father, my mother had skin as white and pasty as mine and she got burned by the sun easily. I’m guessing I’m the equivalent to somewhere in America’s Northern Europe.” He added, wisely.

He hadn’t done any magical research on this next matter yet, (though, he decided on the spot, he should commence with it immediately, as it promised to be fascinating) but since they were on the topic of sensitive, personal, none-of-your-beeswax-information questions, Telemain set about with the next one.

“What about your sexual orientation?”

[Deleted]

Not that Eric was an expert or anything, but Telemain looked almost uncomfortable for a second there. Again, Eric was a little sheltered, so he had never heard of Castro singers, and it was probably for the best he didn't. It did sound way too close to his home's name, after all and who wanted to make that kind of association?

Fortunately for Eric's sanity (or was it?), Telemain apparently got over whatever was the matter and...continued to say things about magic and blood types that essentially went over the prince's head. At least he threw in an answer about where he came from, stuff that Eric could understand, and even sympathize with. Sure, it had been a while since his parents' deaths, but absent fathers was probably something he'd always sympathize with.

"Apparently I take after my mom too, so I guess we have that in comm-" But that thought was cut short by a very abrupt question.

Why was it that in the past two conversations he participated in  brought whether or not he was straight into question? Not that there'd be anything wrong with it if he were gay, but he wasn't, so what was up with this? Did he give off some kind of vibe? "Um, I like girls..." he answered with a laugh. "That's about it, and I think Grimsby would flat out have a heart attack otherwise...oh, he's my butler, but he practically raised me...and I'm tangenting, sorry about that." Cue sheepish smile that was about as awkward as this conversation.