Mermaid Feeding Rules

"sofia." The mermaid called out to Boyce, but there was no response. The human raised his eyelids and glanced at him, then lowered his head quietly.

"Sofia..." Garcia called out again, but Boyce didn't even raise his head, deliberately ignoring the mermaid beside him.

Garcia reluctantly said, "Boyce."

A few days ago, Boyce once again told him very seriously that the names Boyce and sofia had different meanings to him. Although both words were used by mermaids to address himself, he did not. Reluctance to accept the meaning behind the name sofia.

Probably because Boyce emphasized several times, Garcia also unconsciously began to pay attention to the difference, preferring "sofia", which in a sense labels human beings as their own, after correcting several failures , Boyce made no further attempts to correct him, but also did not respond to addresses other than his own.

It was not until he heard the mermaid calling his name that Boyce gave him another look and responded.

Seeing the mermaid still looking at himself, Boyce took out a packet of snacks from his pocket and stuffed it in the mermaid's hand, then lowered his head and continued to study the information in his hand, since he gave Garcia a piece of chocolate last time. Later, Boyce found that the merman seemed to have a sudden interest in human food. Although Garcia never asked for anything from herself, she exuded joy every time she received food from Boyce.

Boyce felt that he was taming a wild beast, and the two sides tested each other's bottom line and began to establish rules for getting along.

But this thought only appeared in my mind for a moment, after all, no pet would try to have a breeder as a companion.

Garcia took the snack from Boyce, which was a package of jerky. Boyce had not brought it to Garcia before. The mermaid took the jerky, but did not open it, but moved closer to Boyce. some.

The mermaid felt that he was being perfunctory, and Boyce seemed to be like this recently. After feeding himself some food, he began to get busy on his own. Garcia's excitement began to fade as humans took the initiative to share food.

Humans don't understand the habits of mermen, he thought, Sofia... no, he should be called Boyce, he doesn't think sharing food is a very intimate relationship. In his cognition, this kind of behavior is very common, and it is not an ordinary thing worth mentioning deliberately.

Garcia lowered his eyes and looked at the brown jerky wrapped in transparent plastic in his hand, and suddenly lost his previous interest. It was like the food that Boyce brought over occasionally, as if to appease him. People are surprised by the taste, but it also seems to be just food.

When the other person doesn't think it's a special move, things like sharing food seem to suddenly lose their sense of intimacy.

The mermaid frowned slightly. His humans are unaware of the intimacy that sharing food is almost exclusively between partners among mermen, and are reluctant to accept what the word "Sofia" stands for.

Garcia began to realize that the partner he identified was different from him, not just in race, language, habits...

Garcia only knew Boyce as a male human until he met him, and he made some guesses about his image using his fragmentary knowledge of humans and other merfolk human companions.

But Boyce and Garcia envisioned it differently.

If their first meeting was at sea, Garcia would tempt a human to jump off the ocean at the first sight, and then return to the lair with a mate of his fancy, rather than go to great lengths to get a human to leave here willingly .

But because he is still limited to the research institute, Garcia has to start thinking: what is his Sofia thinking when he rejects himself and the name Sofia every time? What do people like to say?

For the first time, Garcia began to think about this kind of question, trying to understand a human being.

He leaned in and got closer to Boyce, casting a shadow on the paper in front of Boyce.

Garcia's eyes fell on the words on the paper. Although Garcia had been in the research institute for more than a year and could understand human language, Garcia had never seen human words before.

Garcia was curious about what was taking Boyce's attention, and was a little unhappy because of it: What was he looking at?

And Boyce remembered what s-24 had said before: "Do you want to mate/mate with him?"

Almost subconsciously, he put a hand on Garcia's shoulder, trying to push him away.

Then, Boyce's eyes fell on the unopened plastic package in Garcia's hands.

Boyce had also brought snacks in plastic packaging before. Garcia, who saw this kind of food for the first time, shoved the wrapping paper into his mouth. Fortunately, Boyce stopped him in time.

"Did you forget how to unpack it?" Boyce subconsciously thought that the mermaid had forgotten what he taught him last time, took the jerky from Garcia's hand, unpacked it and handed it to him.

Garcia looked at Boyce, still no food.

"What's the matter?" Boyce took a little energy from the experimental data to the strange looking merman.

"What are you looking at?" Garcia asked.

"It's human writing," Boyce told him.

Mermaids are solitary creatures. If not necessary, each merman will avoid the territory of the other merman. Although they have language, they have not developed words. They basically use language and abbreviated symbols for communication.

"I want to learn this." Garcia pointed to the words on the paper.

There was a flash of surprise in Boyce's eyes. He didn't know why Garcia suddenly became interested in human writing.

Garcia is not interested in the human word itself, he is just trying to understand this human being and what he likes.

Garcia felt the steady heartbeat in his chest, and still didn't understand what Boyce said last time, "I like to have something to do with this place".

"Don't you like it?" Boyce said suddenly looking at the untouched jerky in Garcia's hand.

Boyce felt that he should have a good understanding of this mermaid's food preferences. He accepted the food well before, but today's meat Garcia hasn't touched it yet.

Boyce subconsciously grabbed the mermaid's hand and pulled it over, wanting to smell the taste of jerky, and a faint pungency entered his nose. Boyce felt that he had found a reason why Garcia didn't like this.

"There are peppers in it," Boyce said, raising his head and meeting the merman's inquiring eyes.

He was about to speak, and the mermaid threw it away if he didn't like it, but saw the mermaid holding the jerky and bowing his head and taking a sip.

Garcia lowered his eyes, for some reason, it seemed that for a moment, the frequency of his heart beat faster.