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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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 Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 6:55 am
It was impossible to see her as anything but in her element with the way she swam up to him, and he let out a happy little sigh at seeing her that happy. He didn't quite look as suited to the water, but he was wearing a whole conductor's suit. His hair flowed around him, ripping with the water as she created little disturbances in the surface, but minus the seashells, he looked a little out of place. Happy, though? He definitely looked happy. "I think you suit Neptune in a different way than the music, and the art, and even being drawn to the water, honestly, though I can tell you are drawn to it." Abzu's lips quirked up. "You're peaceful, the way it feels when you're in the middle of the water and you can't see anything but yourself, those with you, and the expanse ahead. You flow like streams. And water is needed for a beautiful garden and trees and all of it, right?" Perhaps Abzu was too much of a charmer for his own good, but it didn't stop the quirk of his smile nevertheless. It helped that he meant it when he said, "You can be the mermaid who uses their water to attend to a pretty garden on the shores. And you help people like that, too."
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Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 6:43 pm
If Pendour had been happy before, she was glowing with the kind words, just as much as she was glowing from the various soft lights in the area. While she had a lot of close friends, she was more about the physical closeness, the quiet moments. It had been a while since someone had given her a compliment like that. “You can’t water plants with seawater,” she whispered, although her eyes were still bright as she said it. It was mostly so he didn’t try it and end up with the nice gardens of his house all dead. “But I think I know what you mean, all the same. I want to be as peaceful as the depths, or resilient, like a river. You’re kind, Abzu.” Maybe his outfit would be waterlogged later, but her attention was on his eyes, oh how bright they looked in this moment, how beautiful. She leaned down to press her forehead against his, softly. “I love you,” she murmured, eyes fluttering shut. “Did you know that?”
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 7:17 pm
"Noted, salt water pools yes, salt water gardens no. Though," he snickered quietly, "maybe I could grow a kelp garden." To be honest, he didn't know if his Wonder actually had any plans. He knew that he had beautiful gardens at his own house, but in some ways now he was curious to know what was at his wonder. It was possible due to the deep sea environment there were no plants to be spoken of, even inside, which tracked what he had seen so far... But honestly, none of that was really important right now, was it? He closed his eyes when she set her forehead against his, and breathed the shared air they had between them. Hearing her say that she loved him warmed him more than the water could hope to do, and perhaps the fact that he was waterlogged and didn't really matter anymore. She was happy! And he could always drop his knight form and become something else later. "Love you too," he replied, opening his eyes again for a moment to just look at hers. "And I mean that too." It was nice to just be close to somebody like this. He was willing to stay like that for a while.
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Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 7:33 pm
Oh. He was looking at her face. He was looking into her eyes. It was hard to avoid the spike of anxiety that that caused, even in a moment as tender as this. She didn’t put the effort into hiding her scars around people like Abzu, people who she cared about and spent a lot of time near, and they were polite about it and didn’t stare, and she was always looking off into the distance anyway. She’d never let someone get close to her in this way before, to actually look at her whole face in its ruined state without flinching away. He was looking at her scars, and he was saying that he loved her, all the same. Her smile stayed, and her shoulders relaxed again. “I’m going to keep saying it sometimes,” she told him, “So you don’t forget, okay?” He was warm, and the water was cool, and there was something nice about that contrast. “It would be nice if we could just curl up together right here,” she murmured, because now that they had the physical contact she didn’t want to leave it behind unless she had to.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:51 am
Abzu didn't miss the fact that she seemed to tense up just a tad, but she relaxed again in short order, and he found some relief in that. Her smile never wavered, and their time by the reservoir--and now in the reservoir--was exactly what he was hoping it would be, A little respite from what it seemed her day-to-day was like. "Think I'll keep saying it to you, too," replied Abzu, with a merry laugh. "Like the way it makes you smile, anyway." He'd like to see that smile more often, to be honest, and if he could be the one to cause that? Well, in a lot of ways that would be ideal--but to be honest, he'd be happy to see anything making her smile like that. She meant a lot to him, far beyond just literally saving his life. ... Not that he didn't appreciate that on its own, but there was something about how relaxing she was, how much and how easily they found commonalities, and small moments like this, where they could share in that mutual presence and that mutual peace it provided. When he awoke as a magical man of some sort, he wasn't necessarily expecting to find easy friendships, but... well, he certainly wasn't complaining about it. "Would be. Something like those floatation pods they have in some places. Of course, those are a bit more adapted to people like me." Abzu snickered. "You do have an advantage there in that." Honestly unfortunate he couldn't exactly join her.
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:25 pm
The lanterns were far up, now, nearly out of sight, but something about Pendour seemed to sparkle all the same. "It's easy to smile when you're around," she murmured, and she was smiling still. He was right next to her, and everything about this moment was perfect. He didn't think that she could have pushed the soft expression away if she'd wanted to. Although, thoughtful, she did pull away just an inch and ducked down beneath the water's surface for a few seconds, coming back up with a handful of soft mud that slipped quickly through her fingers. "I was going to say that you should go look for some ancient magic of your own, maybe, so that we could curl up together at the bottom of the lake, but," she looked at where the mud made ripples where it hit the water, "It's all silt down there, and water reeds. Pretty, yes, and peaceful, but for something like that?" She looked up at him, not shying away from meeting his gaze, although she still didn't hold the eye contact for long. "Your bed would be better, I think." Another moment passed, and she found herself asking, "Can I stay the night, after this?"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 3:12 am
Abzu honestly strived to be someone other people felt comfortable around. It had a way of him making him feel lighter, deeply attuned to other people's emotions as a general rule. He considered himself highly empathetic, and sometimes that was a problem when everything around him was miserable and he couldn't do anything to affect it. But Pendour was so easy to be around, and in some ways, the ways he affected her just looped back to him, and in the end, they both felt happy and at peace. To be told he was easy to smile around earned an easy response of, "As are you." To be honest, he couldn't understand why other people wouldn't be smiling around her. Abzu's eyes widened in brief surprise as she ducked under the water, only to remember that the water didn't affect her in the same way, so he snickered and waited patiently for her to return. It didn't take long, and the soft mud she held was of interest, but definitely didn't sound terribly comfortable to sleep on considering what she described it as. As a creature of far too many comforts, he had a better idea, meeting her eyes with a smooth smile of his own. "You're always welcome," replied Abzu, easily, delighted that she seemed to have the same idea. "My house has plenty enough room for another." And for Pendour? It'd always have room.
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 6:07 pm
There was always room in his house for her. It wasn't a surprising statement, exactly. She'd seen his home, seen the multitude of bedrooms, the hallways, the outside space. Beyond that, Abzu was always welcoming to her. It was hard to imagine him turning her away. The assurance was nice, all the same. It felt comfortable, warm. When Pendour looked up again, she could no longer make out the shapes of their lantern against the stars. They'd done what they set out to do, and it had been a sweet moment, one of the sweetest she'd had in a while, now. She couldn't think of anything better way to end the evening than curled up next to him. "Let's go back, then," she said, and she started to wade out of the water an towards another place that was just as lovely.
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