fandomhigh | Creature Languages, 4/3, Period 4

As students entered the classroom, they would probably notice a few things were different. For one, Zero's hair was now blue. For another, she looked about half an inch from a panic attack. This might have had something to do with the major difference in the room, which was a very large tank occupying most of the front of the room, including the space where Professor Dream's desk should have been.

In it was a shark. A very large shark.

"Okay, um, today we have a special guest God help us all. This is, um, Bruce. Bruce is a shark. Obviously. And he will be talking with us about anything but candygrams, please. Did everyone get the new vocab sheets? You did? Swerval. Um, Bruce is from Australia, so remember he's got an accent to his...Sharkese. Sharkspeak. Yes. And please don't make him mad because I don't want to explain to Professor Dream why you got eaten." Zero hurried to a desk at the back of the room, as far from the shark tank as possible, omg.

"Actually," Bruce said cheerily, "I believe that fish are friends, not food."

It would probably be in the class's best interests not to disabuse Bruce of the notion that the students are fish.

"So, let's get started. Who has questions?"

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At least try to communicate in Shark. And while this may be difficult on dry land, please refrain from climbing in the shark tank.

Draco didn't get too close to the shark tank. He wasn't afraid of the shark he was just afraid that his string of bad luck will cause him to break the glass and give Zero a heart attack.

//Uh...hello. So...if you don't eat fish what do you eat?//

//Seaweed. Yes. Very delicious. Nothing like seaweed to take your mind off delicious fish...//

//Is it true you never...//

There's no word in Shark for "sleep"... They must not.

//...stop moving?//

//Generally speaking, no, I don't. Gotta keep the water movin' across me gills, see? So I can breathe.//

//Don't you ever get...//

Man, Shark was hard.

//... not energetic?//

"Well, yes. Then I swim more slowly, see?//

Pippi laughed.

//I mean do you ever wish you could stop moving for a little while?//

//Not really. What would I do then? It's best to just keep swimming.//

No pun intended, but Pippi found that thought to be surprisingly deep.

//You are a very wise shark.//

//And you seem like a very smart girl humanfish.//

Pippi smiles at Bruce and then says something to him... in Swedish.

//I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question?//

//I'm sorry. I said 'Thank you'... Is the water nice?//

//Oh, yes, this tank's very nice, as tanks go. Of course, I'll be very glad to get back to Australia, eh?// *insert sharky laughter here*

//I'm sure. I'm quite fond of Australia myself, and I've recently discovered it's very desirable as a place to stage global conquest.//

"So cool," Molly muttered as she stood in front of the tank.

//What large, pointy teeth you have,// she said in greeting.

Zero restrained her urge to yank Molly away from the tank.

//Why thank you, little miss,// Bruce said with a smile. Well, actually, he always looked like that.

Molly smiled back.

//Does it hurt when your teeth fall out?//

//Nah, not in the least. Happens all the time, after all. If it hurt, we sharks'd be in real trouble, wouldn't we?//

"Um...um...//Please don't eat me?//"

//Wasn't planning on it,// Bruce assured Zero. //Guest speaker, my contract said. Didn't say anything about guest eater!// The joke didn't go over very well with Zero, but that might have been her abject terror.

Zero thinks she understood that. //So I said that right?//

//Yes, but if you ran into trouble, I'd suggest the imperative. 'Do not eat me.' No need to be polite if they're being rude.//

Xander says absolutely nothing about candygrams. He thinks it, but he doesn't say it.

//Are there a lot of Sharks that decide to go non-fish-eating, or are you...alone-in-the-ocean?//

//Our numbers are few, but we are growing. We have a support group!//

Xander blinked.

"You have an underwire club?"

He totally cheated and checked his vocab sheets. Reallllly didn't help, because apparently it wasn't a very *big*...whatever wasn't really an underwire club, since he didn't see it on the handouts.

//That's very....tasty?...for you.// he said finally, approximating a toothy shark grin.

//Not exactly. Sharks don't wear clothes, after all.// Bruce gave sharky laughter. //But close!//

Sakura sits somewhere near the tank and watches Bruce for a long while before speaking. She's not particularly frightened, more like respectful of his power.

She eyes the vocabulary sheet and formulates a sentence to the best of her ability.

//Does it ever get... tiring,// She paused, frowning at the sheet. //...To have people scared of you?//

//Not really, I can understand why they are. Out of their element and all. And the teeth.//

Stark stared at the shark and all those teeth. Nothing needed that many teeth. But he found the Australian accent to be comfortingly familiar for some reason.

//Have you been out of the ocean before?//

//Nah, this is a special treat for me, bein' out and about like this.//

Creature Languages, 4/3, Period 4

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