Olivia yawned as she woke up for the morning and stretched. The first day of Fall finally arrived and with that came a boat load of chores. She needed to clear out last season's crops. Purchase new seeds from Sam's. Plant those seeds, put down fertilizer… Yeah she definitely wasn't making it to the ocean today. Hopefully the princess wouldn't be too upset, but it was difficult to communicate with them. Outside of showing up and talking to them.
As she thought this over she walked to her kitchen and threw together a quick breakfast before heading out for the day. She'd barely taken 3 steps onto her patio when she saw a stranger crossing the bridge to her farm. Olivia cautiously eyed the rotund man with suspicion. She'd already met all of the townies at this point. So who was he?
"Well, well, well… So YOU'RE this year's competition huh?" the man greeted as an over size purple coat laden with medals and awards jingled when he stopped in front of the steps to her home. He lazily glanced back at the messy fields behind him that were mostly overrun. What wasn't overrun housed withered crops from the previous season, clustered around old cut up water cooler pitchers.
"Huh?"
The stranger began to laugh, "Not that I'm worried or anything. It's actually pretty adorable the effort you're putting in. Look at your poor withered crops! If this is all I'm up against, I've basically already won this thing."
"The season just started, Asshole," She did not have the mental faculties to deal with this right now. "Who the hell are you anyways and what are you talking about?"
"Wait… you have no idea what I'm talking about?!" the man fumed.
"Clearly, since I just asked," Olivia grumbled. She needed to visit Raj later. She needed coffee…
"Come on! The Harvest Festival!" He shouted and stomped his foot. "It's, like, the biggest deal of the YEAR for us farmers. Beluga Bay and Starlet town go head-to-head and this hot shot farmer, Jeff Smith, judges the stuff we show off." The man sneered as he crossed his arms which created further jingling. "Does the 15th of Fall mean anything to you?!"
"Not a thing," Olivia snapped back. "Sir, I have no idea what you were expecting. I just moved here at the beginning of the year and the last time this field was even worked was over twenty years ago. You can't tell me this is some long-standing rivalry unless you were fighting Kira's garden," Olivia bluntly admitted as she made her way down the stairs of her patio and walked past him. "Enjoy competing with yourself. I have better things to do then deal with some stranger throwing a tantrum at my door. So if that's all please leave."
The man stared as Olivia stood nearby and gestured to the way he came from. It took a few moments but he began to roar with laughter. "Honestly, you're kind of a pain sometimes." He shrugged and walked past Olivia. "Daddy always said winning this thing is all about charm, strategy and having the best produce. Looks like I've already won on all three counts."
Olivia's shoulders dropped. Did this grown man really say 'daddy' unironically? "Pretty sure only one of those actually counts for a harvest festival…"
"Good luck 'Farmer' Olivia," With that he tossed his head, nose up and started to walk away. "You're seriously going to need it!"
"I already said I'm not competing. Seriously, who are you?!" Olivia shouted at the retreating figure who simply ignored her. She massaged her forehead as the ends of her hands and toes felt like they were covered in pinpricks. "It's too early in the morning for this bad of a headache." Olivia glanced over to her field now that she was alone as the anger dripped away from her frown. It was a mess. Is this really all she had to show for half a year of work?
She gently shook her head to avoid making her headache worse before digging through her bag to get her sickle. "No use moping. Sam needs new produce."
It took a good hour to clear out the dried remains of last seasons crops but once that was done, Olivia made her way into town and to the general store.
"Well, if it isn't my best customer," Sam greeted while adjusting his fall jacket. "What can I do for you?"
"Hey Sam," Olivia greeted in return as she walked over.
"What's with the face?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.
"Hm? Oh gosh. Just had some random jerk show up and make fun of my field," She admitted before opening the catalog on the counter and flipping through it. "Kept going on about some harvest festival."
"Short hair, pencil thin goatee and purple trench coat?" Sam asked which caught Olivia's attention.
"Yeah, that was him. You know him?" She asked as the catalog was now less interesting.
"He's the son of the main farmer in Beluga Bay. Pretty sure he inherited his farm around the same time you did," Sam replied.
Olivia shook her head. "Well, he was a right pain. I only just started and he's had a life time of practice. I don't know why he thought it was worth his time to taunt me over a contest I'm not even going to enter."
"You're not going to enter the harvest festival? Why?" Sam asked as his jaw dropped slightly.
"I barely qualify as a farmer," Olivia shook her head. "Anyways. Can you get me 8 seed packs of rice, cranberries, basil, beets, amaranth, eggplant, taro root, artichoke," She paused while looking at the list. "Oh, do you have blue dahlia's in stock? I'd like 8 of those too please. Same for the bok choy, sweet potatoes, orchids, pumpkins and barley." She listed off before one more thing caught her attention, "Oh and 8 grape seed packs if you don't mind." She totaled it up in her mind. "That's 15, 8 crop plots so… I'll need 120 packs of fertilizer too."
Sam pressed his lips together as he tried to keep a straight face. "Olivia. You're a farmer."
"I've barely cleared a fourth of the field, and my technique is try a little of everything then pray," She countered. "but thank you."
"No, seriously. You should enter," Sam insisted. "Bobby probably stopped by because he knows that he's losing some of his customers to you."
"Huh?"
"I've been fighting beluga bay tooth and nail for your produce," Sam admitted. "The only reason he stopped by is to get into your head. He knows the family farm has competition for the first time in years."
"Well it worked," she quietly grumbled before heaving a tired sigh. "This is pretty important huh?"
"A little. Having a win like this recorded for the town for the first time in decades could help boost our ranking," Sam explained as he wrote out a receipt for the seeds and fertilizer that she ordered. "At the very least, motivate the rest of the town to keep fighting for another year and scare off Pufferfish."
"Fair enough, I can give it a shot at the least. You've been to this festival before right? Any tips?" Olivia hesitantly asked.
"Variety. There are 6 different sections they're judging on. You want to cover as many bases as possible. With as fresh of produce as possible." Sam explained before pausing. "I only have a basic grade one fertilizer still. Import tax on the grade two stuff is too high. Will that do?"
Olivia nodded. "Yeah that should be fine. I've been treating the field with some kelp mixture that professor Ling made. It should help. It's been eating up any extra pennies I earn but, the fields need it if they're going to recover."
Sam's smile returned as he finished up the receipt and handed it to her. "And that, is how I know you're a farmer. Show up. Do your best. Whether you win or lose as long as you keep trying, the rest of us will to."
"Thanks Sam."
Sam reached over the counter to pat Olivia's shoulder, missing the wincing reaction it caused. "Only the best of advice for my best customer. Now, I'll be right back with those seeds and I'll talk to a few of the guys in town to see if they'll drop off that fertilizer for you."
All 15 plots of various, fruits, vegetables, grains and flowers were planted, watered and fertilized by one in the morning the next day. After a short five hours of sleep, Olivia's alarm clock screamed at her to wake up.
Hearing the heaven forsaken racket caused Olivia to press her face into her pillow and pout as she turned off the alarm. There was work to do, she needed to be awake.
After a few more deep breaths to wake up, she gingerly pushed herself out of bed and shuffled over to the kitchen to eat some leftover take out from the Beach Shack. The dishes were placed in the sink when she finished up and from there she gathered up her gear for the day. Air tanks, suit, mask, check. She thought as she packed everything into her bag.
the usual routine fell into motion. One quick trip to the pillar by her house let her petal dance her way to the docks. A short visit to Alice and the Inn provided a packed lunch which was added to her boat along with the spare air tanks. The changing booth provided privacy for her to change into her scuba gear. However instead of getting into the boat she made her way over to the dock's magical pillar again to warp herself to the center of the mermaid kingdom.
It was odd to say but she was actually getting used to this new found ability and it was wonderfully helpful.
"Land-dweller. You decided to show up today," remarked a particularly unamused voice behind her.
"Nice to see you too Semeru," Olivia greeted as she turned to face him. "I just needed a day to tend to my field."
"Do not mistake my sarcasm for joy," He scoffed before motioning for Olivia to follow, and hopefully keep up.
"Still nice to see you," She countered, it was more pleasant than the walking plum that visited her farm the other day.
Hearing this caused him to raise an eyebrow. "The idea of going up to the shore has never piqued my interest. It truly baffles me why you're so desperate to be here..." Semeru admitted, and despite his efforts to keep focused on the path ahead of him, curiosity began to win. "What's so captivating about this place, huh?" He asked as he allowed himself the momentary distraction of looking at her as he spoke.
"Is this more sarcasm?" She asked and after receiving no reply she stopped swimming as she focused on finding the words for a more genuine answer, causing Semeru to stop as well, much to his annoyance.
"Everything?" She shrugged as she failed to narrow down her answer. "This place is beautiful, even with all the damage we've caused. There's so much life and wonder. It's something worth protecting. If I can fix what should never have been broken then I consider my time well spent."
Semeru listened, stunned silence faded as his frown only deepened. "You?" He asked in disbelief. Some land-dweller who could barely spend a few hours under water thought she could fix what his own guards could not? It was frankly insulting. "You're no savior. I don't buy it."
"What no I-"
"The King might place his faith in you, but I will continue to be the voice of caution for him." Semeru began swimming once more, "Keep up."
"So stubborn," She whispered before doing as she was told and followed Semeru to the Princess's room.
"You've returned," Princess Miranjani swam over to the door way to greet her strange friend.
"I have, sorry about the delay. Though I think it actually worked out for the better. I think I figured out a solution for your questions about Land-dweller music," Olivia admitted as she allowed Miranjani to lead her further into the room while Semeru took his post outside.
"You do?" the princess excitedly asked.
"Yep. It took a bit of work, but," Olivia started before digging out a large cylinder with a screen from her bag. "Between my scientist friend and myself, we were able to put this together. I mentioned your curiosity with land-dweller music. A large portion of the issue is that the technology we have wont work well this deep under water."
Semeru peeked into the room upon hearing this. "Land-dweller, you have 10 seconds to move away from the princess."
Olivia heaved a tired sigh. "If you don't trust me I won't let her touch it and I'll just show her how it works."
"I am curious to see it," Miranjani admitted.
"Stay by me until we know for sure what it does," Semeru instructed and motioned for the princess to move to the doorway.
Miranjani reluctantly did so and allowed Semeru to stand in front of her.
"I can't see it," She grumbled.
"I'm protecting you,"
Olivia stared at him with a deadpan expression before pushing a button on the device that caused a soft, gentle classical arrangement to play. "It plays music. Like I said."
Upon hearing it Miranjani peeked out from behind her guard. "It works?"
"Yep, it's a bit of a patchwork design, so it will only work for a few hours and I had to pick music ahead of time to bring with. But it's a start." Olivia explained as Miranjani swam back over to examine it. "We wound up using a transducer based sound system, which is pretty standard for underwater speakers but we managed to make a casing that will keep the internals at a proper pressure level so the battery pack can work. The problem is we can't really recharge it without taking it apart. I considered a design with a metal band around the side for contact charging but that seemed a bit excessive since it would need to be taken back to the surface for charging anyways."
"You designed this?" Miranjani asked as her interest compounded.
"Partially, the others did most of the work since I'm already pretty busy. I just worked over the conceptual design and prototyping, they actually put it together and got it working," Olivia admitted while feeling some unjustified pride for what was basically a recycled iPod hardwired to pool speakers in a waterproof case.
"This is amazing!" She happily looked over the land-dweller device that was made just for her.
Olivia's mask hid a gentle smile. It looked like all that quiet time to her own thoughts while cleaning and her proto-typing during the day off Ling suggested were put to good use. "I'm glad you like it, but we should probably review quickly. I wasn't able to do much for a battery indicator."
"Yes of course," Marinjani nodded as she floated in the water in a sitting position. "Proceed with your lesson on Land-dweller song and dance."
"Ah. That second part…" Olivia winced. "Well perhaps someone else could act as my proxy and dance with you? That way I'm still following orders, you get to learn and he feels that your safe." She suggested while pointing her thumb over to the doorway where Semeru was still keeping an eye on the new device.
"Hm, it's a fair suggestion but, I fail to see how it helps. Even if someone else were to dance with me, The merfolk here are no more educated on the subject then I am." Miranjani pointed out while bobbing her head as she thought it over until her eyes glanced over to the door following Olivia's gesture. "Semeru, you shall act as my proxy instead."
Semeru's eye twitched. "Pardon?"
"I'm also questioning this choice," Olivia agreed. This seemed like a horrible plan.
"Well, we have some additional factors to work around. Only certain people are allowed to speak to Olivia. And Semeru is already right there. It doesn't make sense to bother one of the other soldiers that were present," Miranjani reminded while contently smiling. "So, this fills all the requirements."
"Technically yes," Olivia nervously glanced over to see if there was as spear pointing at her yet or not. To her surprise, there was not.
"I'll allow you to make a fool of yourself on your own first," Semeru begrudgingly relented. The sooner this lesson passed the less he'd hear of it.
"Okay well. Um to start, there are a lot of different cultures and styles of music and dance on the surface. What you're listening to right now is considered classical European music but I added some pieces from various cultures that were made around the same time. So these are songs that were composed anywhere from two to three hundred years ago."
"Do land-dwellers not make music anymore?" Miranjani's expression fell to sympathy.
"We do, we do. It's just this is usually considered a good starting point if you're studying musical history. Kinda. We're doing an abridged lesson here, so we can't cover everything," Olivia answered as quickly as possible while trying to rework the lesson she'd thought of before.
"This song would generally be paired with a waltz which is also a European style of dance for that time period," She bobbed her head. "Let's say I were to try and waltz with Semeru. I would stand like this. Placing one hand on his shoulder, he'd place a hand on my waist and we'd clasp our free hands together held out like this," She mimicked the stance while leaving the reluctant guard out of the example for now. "Then the steps follow the rhythm like so." Thanks to the extra resistance of the water, moving in time to the music without a proper partner was that much harder.
"That looks strange…" Miranjani grimaced as she fought back her amusement while she watched Olivia's attempt at dancing alone. "I still can't understand how you move around on those. Feet. It all seems so unnatural."
"It makes sense considering we are out of my natural element at the moment in multiple regards. There's only so much I can do," Olivia reminded as she stopped in favor of stretching her shoulders.
"Hmm… That's a good point," She conseded as her mind trailed away with the melody. "You've been teaching me about land-dwellers for a few months now. What if I spend today teaching you instead." Miranjani suggested. "As kind as it was for you to make this for me. After what has been explained so far, I feel like this lesson would be lost on me without seeing the surface itself."
"Please don't get any ideas," Semeru grumbled.
"I'm not," The princess lied. "So it's decided. For today I will be teaching you, so you can fit in better. As it is, if I squint at you from a distance you'd almost look like a merfolk, thanks to your artificial tail. You just need to practice."
Well, that was almost a compliment. "Thanks?" Olivia looked from the princess to the speaker and back. "Alright. I'll do my best."
"Excellent," She happily swam over to her wardrobe and dug through it to find a long sash of sea silk. "Hold still and move your legs together. Please." After the etiquette correction was made she swam back over to Olivia and efficiently tied her feet together. "There, now you can practice swimming around while moving your legs at the same time instead of your usual struggling."
Geh thanks. "I'll give it a try," Olivia agreed before looking around the rather crowded room. This seemed like a really bad idea. She glanced back at the princess who motioned for Olivia to go ahead. One hop and a few wiggles later, Olivia managed to move all of three feet before slowly colliding with the ground. She allowed herself to lay face first on the floor. "This doesn't feel natural at all."
"It's like watching a merling take it's first swim," Miranjani whispered while covering her mouth to hide her smile. "Just keep trying, you'll get it."
"I thought you said you were going to be teaching me?" Olivia asked while realizing just how similar Ling and the princess were.
"Practice makes perfect,"
"Of course… Can I get a clue on how to get up?" Olivia asked as she struggled.
Yet no such clue ever came from the princess or her guard. Instead for the remaining time of the usual lesson Olivia continued to struggle but not with out progress. By the time she finished she knew how to get up from falling and could move a good foot or two while slowly falling pray to gravity each time.
"Your highness I think I am missing a few other vital appendages." She finally said after landing on the ground for the umpteenth time. "Like fins."
"But you're doing so well!" The princess praised. "Just one more try. You almost got it."
Did she? Olivia shook her head and tried once more as the princess said, managing a good 5 feet of movement, and setting a new record. With that came the biggest fall. As the side of her head hit the floor, it caused her ear cover to pop off.
Olivia yelped as she held her ear.
"Are you alright?" the princess asked as she quickly swam over to check on her.
"I believe that's enough for one day," Semeru chimed in as he picked up the fallen piece of gear and offered it back to Olivia. "If I were in your shoes, I'd stop wasting time and start doing something useful, instead of wandering around aimlessly, chattering away like a fool."
She accepted it and put the gear back in place before stretching her jaw. "yeah I suppose you have a po- wait," She stopped and pushed herself to get up to get a better view of Semeru's face to see if she could read any form of sarcasm or joke, but found none. Merfolk don't wear shoes. He used a land-dweller phrase correctly…he's been paying attention.
Semeru's eyebrows grumpily knit together. "What?"
Olivia contently smiled behind her mask. "Nothing at all. I Just wanted to hold off on saying anything until I stood up. You have a point." With that said she reached down to untie the sea silk cloth and gently bundled it so she could offer it to the princess. "Thanks for letting me borrow this. I'll try to remember to practice on my own time as well." Maybe she could try and swim more like a merfolk while she was wandering the depths…
"I look forward to seeing your progress," The princess happily replied as she accepted the cloth. "best of luck."
"Thanks," Olivia waved in parting before following Semeru as usual. "Well that was fun."
"Fun is a word. You seem intent on making yourself seem ridiculous," Semeru replied though after a slight pause his mind's pestering got the better of him. "And for what it's worth, thank you for leaving me out of it."
Olivia made a gentle shooing motion as they made their way down castle halls. "You mean the dancing thing? You didn't seem comfortable with it and honestly I wasn't either." She admitted with a shrug before thinking it over. If he has been paying attention to the lessons maybe she should take that into consideration? "You seem more interested in weaponry and armor. There are some blacksmiths in town. Maybe I can bring you a surface weapon for you to compare to the kind used by the guards."
"Why?" Semeru asked as he eyed her with suspicion. "I don't know what your angle is, but I've got nothing for you. Best you remember that."
"No angles. I just figured if we're going to spend so much time together we can try to be friends," Olivia cautiously suggested.
It was taken about as well as she expected. "I didn't accept my role as Captain of the Guard to make friends."
Here we go. "It doesn't have to be your job to have friends," Olivia halfheartedly argued as they made their way out of the palace.
"You're interrupting me."
"Sorry,"
Semeru remained quiet a while longer as he debated if he even wanted to speak further. "Some of my soldiers want to be friends. But I can't afford to be just one of them. I'm their leader first."
Olivia quietly waited for a while longer to see if he was genuinely done or still thinking over his words. Once she felt more certain she spoke with gentle curiosity. "Doesn't being a good leader require understanding the people you're working with though?"
"Quite the opposite," Semeru replied as the hesitation from before was quickly thrown away. "In the heat of a fight, you think clear, you move smart. Emotions get you tangled, and slow you down. The slow die."
"Sure there's a time and a place but that's not really what I meant." Olivia started while trying to pick her words carefully. "Knowing the people you work with, isn't that important for tactical reasons too? Knowing their strengths and weaknesses as a person. What if one has a fear of barracudas and you put them in an area full of them? Surely that's a risk not just to the soldier but to the kingdom by creating a weak point in the defenses."
Semeru shook his head. "That's not what I was saying either. Leading my soldiers isn't just about barking orders. It's about carrying the burden when things don't go as planned."
"But things would go to plan more often if you kept their feelings in mind too," She insisted all the same.
"Feelings have no place in combat," He frowned as he shifted his grip on his spear. "I remind my soldiers that serving is not about what you want, it's about what our Kingdom needs. Focus on what needs to be done, even if it's not pleasant." A sense of pride could be heard as he explained this. "I instill this into all of my soldiers."
"I understand that you're a soldier, and their leader, so that requires more discipline about things like that, but you can't really feel that way," she pressed as all of this pointed to a horrifying line of thought.
Her insistence only annoyed him further though. "Is it just the uniform, or do you actually understand what I stand for?"
What uniform? Olivia bit her tongue to keep her sassier thought to herself for once and instead focused on finding the right ones. "I just don't think a soldier's only value is being willing to die without questioning why. Their job isn't their whole existence. They have a life behind the service worth protecting and that's why they do."
To her surprise, Semeru was silent. No quick remark about how she was wrong or even a snappy biting one telling her to be quiet. The conversation simply ended until they made it to the entrance of the depths. "And this is where we part ways land-dweller."
"Right," Olivia gave a short wave and went on her way.
The same as always, Semeru was left behind to wait and guard the entrance. Left with his annoying thoughts as the land-dwellers words echoed in his mind. A life behind the service worth protecting… He wanted to argue with her yet each time he tried to form a sentence to do so, it sounded wrong.
Soldiers don't have lives they exist to die. That wasn't true and he knew it. He didn't actively want the soldiers under his command to go off to some battle field to never return. He hadn't been lying before when he said he'd fight a losing battle if his king demanded it.
But why?
Because he'd be protecting his home and his people.
Which means he was doing that because it was his job.
The hours rolled on as he pondered the unexpected conflict her word created in his mind. Two passed, then three and by the fourth he started glancing out to the depths. She was usually back by now. Sure the autumnal tide shift was beginning but that wouldn't be truly picking up for a few more days.
As the fifth hour was about to close, ribbons of prismatic light rocketed from the depths like veins in the sand, accompanied by a whining sonar like pulse. Just as quickly as it appeared it vanished and a slight trembling emerged from the colosseum.
Citizens hurried out of their homes and businesses only to look up in awe as they saw the queen's pet dragon swimming freely through the waters above them, after a year of absence.
"Someone summon the town medic!" Semeru shouted to a nearby soldier. After a year of being trapped it definitely needed help, dragon or not. "Follow Naga."
"Sir yes sir," the near by troops shouted back before swimming away.
Semeru once more looked back to the depths. "Come on land-dweller. Don't make me go in after you…."
He'd wait three more minutes. Four more… maybe five. As Olivia finally came into view he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank the goddess," he whispered before noticing she was moving much slower then usual and that robot companion of hers was making it's same nonsensical racket.
"Low stamina detected, 5% oxygen remaining."
"Hey, I'm getting tired. I want to go back to the boat to rest for a bit before going out again. Can you escort me there?" Olivia requested.
"Persistent... annoyingly so." He grumbled but moved to swim along side her and gave her a pat on the back. "But, I see your worth now. Keep proving me wrong."
Olivia chuckled at that. "I'll see what I can do then, captain."
Upon hearing that he gave her a nudge. "Don't push it. You're not a soldier."
"Hah. Yeah," she agreed and quietly followed along. Once they made it to her boat she flopped inside and took off her mask.
"Ow… my everything." She muttered as she allowed herself to lay there and rest for a few moments. She was really tired. She didn't sleep enough the night before and she over did it. She was so close to finding that Solar orb though. She could tell.
Slower shallow breaths felt comfortable. Maybe she should go back… She thought it over as she ate her packed lunch. While the meal did help her feel more awake, the aching feelings persisted.
She needed a nap.
"Great. Well. Crap…" She grumbled as she moved to put on her mask and lazily flopped back into the water.
"Hey," She greeted.
"Ready?"
"No." She reluctantly admitted which caused Semeru's eyes to narrow in confusion. "I need to go back for the day. I'll come back again tomorrow."
"Low stamina detected."
Semeru looked from Olivia to her robot that was still blaring it's warning even after a longer break then usual. "Alright. Go on then. There's plenty of work for the guards to do to secure the new boarders and tend to the queen's pet."
"Bye,"
"Get lost," he waved off the parting sentiment.
Olivia allowed a short laugh to escape her before she focused on climbing back into her boat. "Hey Kible? Take me home."
"Return protocol initiated. Stand by."
With that she took off her ear covering headset pieces and allowed herself to doze off as the gentle rocking of the boat lulled her to sleep. It wasn't for another hour that she woke up with a jolt. "Gracious Kible, you're supposed to let me know when we're back." She muttered as she rubbed her face. Ugh, her suit dried out while she was wearing it. Great.
She stiffly pushed herself to get up as her arms and legs gain that familiarly unpleasant sensation of pins and needles. The sooner she got out of this thing the better, she thought as she ignored the ringing in her ears while tying down the boat.
A hand grabbed her shoulder causing her to shout in terror before quickly turning around to see Scott. Why was he whispering. "Oh hey, I didn't notice you. What are you doing here?"
"And you are 5 decibels louder than usual," he whispered.
Olivia ran a hand through her hair to hold the side of her head. "Wha? Why are you whispering?"
Scott stared at her with a mixture of concern and determination as he moved to put a hand on each of her shoulders and urged her to move.
"Don't move so fast please I can't keep up,"
He was barely walking…. Scott scooped her up in his arms. She needed a doctor. Now.
Charles looked over a few test results as Olivia sat on his examining chair wearing a paper gown while Professor Ling and Scott stood nearby. "Well it's not irreparable but it's not good. He admitted with a forced neutral expression. "You really over did it. You've got an ear infection that looks like it's a few months old now. Your skin on your arms and legs looks like it's practically screaming from irritation and that's the beginning of trench foot if I've ever seen it. Sunburn too. Not to mention your hair and fingernails have definitely seen better days thanks to over exposure to salt water. Human's aren't design to be in the water for long periods of time without proper care…"
"I don't understand how this happened," Ling quietly admitted. "That suit is top of the line, and she had ear covers she should have had minimal exposure…"
Olivia remained silent.
"Suits get wet and trap the moisture. It lets her breathe and keeps her from getting hypothermia but she's still going in and out of the water," Charles paused for a moment to wave and get Olivia's attention which caused her to look over. "How much sleep are you getting a night?" He annunciated and projected so she could hear him better.
"Five or six hours?" She meekly answered.
Charles expression only grew more horrified. "That is not enough." With that said he looked over at Professor Ling and Scott. "She needs to stay topside for at least three weeks with regular check-ups. Maybe, four."
Professor Ling nodded. "I'll look over the suit and see what I can do to improve it. Olivia, When you put on the ear covers, was water still getting in?"
Olivia nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ling asked as guilt plagued her face.
"I thought it was normal, I hadn't worn a scuba suit before," Olivia insisted.
"I'll make some adjustments. Having the suit at my lab should help prevent any temptation to go diving while you're recovering," Ling insisted as she moved to collect the damp fabric from a nearby chair. "We're going to fix this okay?"
"Yeah," Olivia muttered quietly. She was trying so hard and still managed to mess up… Great.
"I'm going to prescribe you a few medications. I want you to come back in a week so we can keep track of your progress okay? If anything feels off. Call me."
"Understood," This sucked…
