[PRP] Candle Twins (Raripila & Ishmael)

[Hattaki]

So many festivals and happenings above water, so many chances to see new things and go to more exciting places. Though she'd needed to be charmed to get to this one with her own Spring alignment, Raripila hadn't been overly worried about that. Cold had been all that she had known for years upon years, at least this time there was light and joy and laughter all around her as she experienced it. Everywhere that she looked there was something new to see and her fins were nearly buzzing with joy from just being in the same area as all these happy ponies. Maybe she could get some of these beautiful flowers to take home with her too! Though... they looked as though they were made of ice rather than plant material.

Leaning down, she sniffed at one or two of them and just the proximity had her realize just the concerning chill coming off the blooms. Alas, they were pretty but none of them would be coming with her. Someday when she got a camera and could come back maybe she could take a picture of them at least, for they truly were beautiful as the glimmering snow all around in Winter happened to be. Shaking off that minor let down, Raripila wandered to where she saw a group of ponies that seemed to be gathering for something with candles. Fire was new to her and while it didn't startle or scare her, it was something she viewed with respect no matter what form it took.

So when a candle was pressed into her hoof by a pony from behind a booth, the little aquatic's fins flared up in surprise but she peered at them as they explained the different color flames with curiosity in her eyes all the same. "Love" wasn't something she'd ever experienced other than her love of her mother really, of her siblings too? But they claimed it could be either romantic or something else so there wasn't any fear as she lit it. Though it turned out Rari's answer wasn't quite as fun as she had hoped. With a chuckle and a sigh the blue glow of flame reflected in her green eyes, so loss it was then. Really she'd already experienced that after leaving her mother, so likely it meant her mother would be gone to her entirely now.

Was she supposed to blow this out now? She didn't know exactly what she was supposed to even do with it, so instead went to turn around in order to ask and smacked straight into some other pony, nearly dropping her candle. "Oh I'm so so sorry!" though it felt loud when she said it, really Raripila's voice came out just above a whisper of concern and apology as she looked upward into gold eyes. "Please forgive me, there aren't this many ponies in Drizzletown I..." she clammed up.  

[Hattaki]

Nymphiea

tab Ishmael, not one for festivals or anything pertaining to the ground itself, followed Queeqeg with a look of dissatisfaction. A charm held from his neck, swaying with each step as he pointedly ignored the activities Queeqeg swept themselves into. Stubborn? Sure, one could say that. Ishmael liked to say he never asked for any of this and was dragged into it kicking and screaming, but stubborn was a good word for it.

tab "You'll be fine if I leave to wander your own for a bit, yeah? I have to take a business call; one of our local celebs is throwing a fit about what another salon did to their hair." Queeqeg's voice startled Ishmael, golden eyes flicking to give them a 'are you serious' look before absently shrugging. Fine, he could be a big boy.

tab So off Queeqeg went and alone Ishmael was. He wandered, as a lost fish often does, recoiling from the various decoration stands and cookie stands. He didn't want to commit, honestly. He never wanted to be here; if he picked a task he might be there longer. What he had wanted was to see Queeqeg, but the aquatic had heard of the festival and, of course, ran in like a bush fire, dragging Ishmael along.

tab Although, he couldn't escape one activity. He found himself swept in the activity of the festival and dragged in the candle line, somehow later with a candle firmly in his hooves. He stared at it, glowering as the Alicorn of Love handed him a match. Fine. Screw it. He'd try.

tab Blue. His eyes narrowed, mouth gritting. This was why he didn't leave the water; no candles to tell him some grim s**t about his life or forewarn him. He turned around, about to leave when suddenly someone collided into him. He stumbled, ears pulling back as he whirled to view the culprit... only to find a nervous pony immediately apologizing. s**t, he wasn't in the habit of yelling at someone for making a mistake they knew they did.

tab "It's fine," he grumbled lowly, voice a natural mix between smooth and deep. His eyebrow quirked, however, as the other aquatic commented on the number of ponies, instantly nodding. "Yeah, too many ponies, actually. Can't see in-front of me."

 

[Hattaki]

Certainly she'd done him a great offense based off the look on his face and the way his ears had snapped back when the larger stallion had turned around. Raripila's own fins flared for just a moment and then fell quite a ways to the sides of her head in acknowledgement of her own actions. He'd been standing entirely still after all and it had only been her own fault, causing an apology to come bubbling out of her.

"There were never this many ponies when I lived under water. But then there was never anyone else at all, not really." Her laugh was nervous and she knew it, but that didn't stop the quiet noise from coming. Catching sight of the glow to his eyes, she went to cover her glowing lure shyly but realized the candle was still in her free hoof and stalled halfway there with a feeling of terror. Almost burnt it off. Whoops. Why did ponies on the surface have to love fire so much?

But then.... "Look...." Rari held the candle up a little bit, her head still tilted down as she smiled a shy and jagged expression, "We're candle twins." Two blue flames danced on the little candles they both held, a sort of mocking little motion given the supposed meaning of the color. Unsure of how long she was supposed to hold onto this candle exactly, the smaller aquatic was half tempted to just blow it out and his as well, but she'd done a lot of rebelling already in life just to be here.  

[Hattaki]

Nymphiea

tab Ishmael's eyebrow cocked, again. Yeah, that's why he liked it underwater. He almost made that comment, too, but her sudden movement caught him off-guard, eyes trailing to her lure. Huh, neat. Was she trying to cover it? Why? It was pretty, he guessed. He hadn't met many deep sea aquatic's, but the glow of his eyes had always been one of his most vain prides. He was sure a lure would also be stunning.

tab His eyes lowered to the smaller pony, noting her candle. He stared at his, then hers, fins twitching gently. Cute. Ishmael wasn't one for strangers, but a strange thing happened right then and there; a tiny grunt left him, mixed with a hint of a chuckle. A hint.

tab "Guess so. Loss of love; how morbid." He scrunched his nose at his candle, leaning forward and glancing at her before pointedly blowing both their candles out.

tab "It's nonsense. Don't let it bother you, if it does." He straightened his back, setting his candle down on a table. He had heard they melted the candles back down and would use them again for next year, although they also didn't mind if you took your candle home. He didn't care either way.

tab "If you don't like crowds why are you here?"

 

[Hattaki]

Eyes widening a bit when he blew out both of their candles, a bit of the nerves that had been bubbling under the surface of her skin eased up and a shy smile crossed her face once more. She had been thinking that it had something to do with her mother, since she hadn't heard from the other aquatic since she'd left the darkness of the sea. Neither had she heard from either of her siblings she'd been looking for, but that didn't shock her since they'd basically turned their backs on she and her mother, and now her mother was doing the same. It hadn't been all that long, so the little blue flame had seemed to make some level of sense in that regard. Or maybe she was just so used to morbid given her bedtime stories had been about horror and panicked terror of war.

Gently she sat her candle down on the table beside his and nodded her head at his statement. Maybe it wasn't correct to call an Alicorn's ritual nonsense but Raripila had begun to believe that you could make your own path despite what life pitched at you. "And that ends that, fate reverted." She glanced upward at him and gently kicked at the snow beneath her hooves, marveling that he was so calm around so many others.

"I... lived in the dark for a long time with only one other. When I came up above the waves I promised myself to see something new, but.... at least this is different than the mixer last week. Someone told me there'd be flowers but, but they were a little different than I expected." A blush crossed her face and she reached up to tug at the bright red glow of her lure responding to that embarrassment. "M-my names Raripila." She wasn't so good with communication, which others had told her was a terrible thing, but introductions were a first step, right? While she'd never be a wallflower or comfortable around large groups like were at the festival at least one on one she could try to push past her nerves.  

[Hattaki]

Nymphiea

tab He snorted at the comment of fate, although it wasn't ill-willed. He didn't care much for the tradition of candle lighting, especially when the Alicorn who represented it all seemed to hate the idea of the entire festival. He wondered what it was like to be an Alicorn; placed into a role that seemed far bigger than one ought to have. He remembered reading in school Alicorn's had to do their job or else they'd slowly begin to die. What logic was that? What was the point in forcing someone into a domain if they didn't enjoy it? For a moment, he glanced at Valentine, eyes narrowed as the Alicorn seemed busy handing out candles. Rough.

tab And then the other aquatic began talking, directing his attention to her. His head tilted, a short laugh escaping him. The mixer? That crock of s**t? Okay, maybe he was just grumpy, but Queeqeg had dragged him to that, too, and gotten absolutely hammered in the process, leaving Ishmael to drag him home and sleep on the hair dressers floor. He hadn't noticed her there. Maybe he would have liked to, he wondered. She was fairly quiet and seemed more agreeable than half the ponies he met there, although Dancer had been nice enough. Talkative, but nice, he supposed. His eyes watched her tug at the lure before he gave his own name.

tab "Ishmael," he offered, eyes dragging to note the festival stalls around them before returning his focus on her. "Were you at a singles mixer? With the loud music, flowers, and a lot of... glitter, for some reason?" A lot of glitter. It took him days to get it out of his hair. "I was there, too."

 

[Hattaki]

To his credit he glossed over her explanation of where she'd come from originally, either understanding or just missing it and she was thrilled about that. For Raripila to explain much more than that would have made her flustered and her voice would have just been lost as she tried to tell the other she wasn't such an inexperienced fish.

She was, she was terribly inexperienced.

"Oh you were there as well? It was so very loud and I wasn't even sure what to do with the flower that they gave me, I ended up handing it over to an Alicorn... because I thought that was the point." Rari laughed nervously and looked down at her own hooves. "Turns out that was the wrong thing to do. I wish I'd bumped into you then, you're so much calmer than most of the ponies there were."

Did her heart just skip a beat when she admitted that she wished the larger stallion had bumped into her? But it was true! He was a very calm compared to how nervous she always was and seemed to think deeply before he answered anything. A blush settled over her face as she glanced back up at his glowing eyes and smiled gently. "What brings you up here? Did you come with a friend?" Raripila was always running off on her own little adventures by herself, as she hadn't quite gotten the chance to make too many friends since her arrival above surface. But at least she could count Aviary now as a friend, since the Alicorn had even commented so herself. So these little excursions were definitely worth her nerves!  

[Hattaki]

Nymphiea

tab Ishmael snorted at the flower confession, eyes flicking to the Alicorn of Love. Yeah, now that he thought about it, there was a lot of traditional gifting things to Alicorns. How dull. His ear flicked when she admitted she wished they had met at the mixer, eyes narrowing for a moment. Yeah, that would have been nice, actually...

tab And then she smiled at him. His mouth tightened, cheeks growing... warmer? He found that word floating back in his head; 'cute'. He glanced away before responding, focusing intently on a nearby game stall.

tab "I did," his voice was laced with irritation, a hint that his friend had brought him unwillingly. "He dragged me here without even letting me know this was the end goal. No warning." He paused, returning his gaze to her, eyes glowing under his long mane. ".... Although, I suppose I should return home with a trinket of some sort. I think that's how you're supposed to do festivals..." He glanced back at the gaming stalls, though crossing his features.

 

[Hattaki]

It was good to know that he'd some friends at least that took him places, even if it didn't exactly mean that he liked them, for if he hadn't come here with his friend then... well she wouldn't have gotten the chance to meet him. And that thought made her sad, so she made certain not to step too closely and get in his space when she wanted to look at his beautiful glowing eyes.

Did she just think that?

A blush settled even harder over her pale white cheeks and she touched a hoof to one of her cheeks shyly as if she could hide it, but the smile never left her face. This was a good decision to come here, she could feel it.

"It's not fair of him to drag you, but I can't say it's bad since I got to meet you because of it." Rari swallowed slightly when she admitted that out loud, such an awkward thing to say but... her ears swiveled up when he mentioned trinkets. "That's... so that's what you do at festivals?" This was all so new to her and it showed, so she hoped that she wasn't bothering Ishmael very much with her ignorance. "If that's the object of Festivals then did you want to come with me and look? I was about to go and look at some of the stalls, but I got distracted by all these candles. B-but only if you want.."

Her little nervous laugh returned when she asked, but she hoped that he couldn't tell blatantly what her own wish might have been for an answer.

Nymphiea

 

[NymiiNym]

tab He didn't notice the blush, which was probably a kindness he subconsciously offered her. Or, maybe, he didn't want to notice hers and then admit he had one, too. His head turned to the stalls, again, using that as a likely excuse to not show his face. An ear twitched as she commented on his friend, eyes flicking to look at her from his position.

tab "He's known for that; doing as he wants when he wants." She was glad to meet him? Ishmael bit back the sudden urge to say anything to cover the nervous flutter in his throat. Probably something mean, if he was honest with himself. He had always used snarky quips to protect himself, but the other aquatic seemed to delicate for that. Or maybe Ishmael was genuinely enjoying the attention and wanted her to continue. Either way, it made his chest feel warm.

tab "I don't make a habit of going to many, but... I suppose so." He stopped speaking, finally turning his head to her as genuine surprise crossed his features before he managed to mask it. His tone was soft when he spoke next. "Ah, sure. I have free time." Queeqeg would lose his mind if he saw Ishmael making a friend right now, but that was the furthest on his mind. Instead, his mind was locked on one thing; actually participating in the festival with the little aquatic in-front of him.

tab His eyes dragged upwards, noting the stall right behind them. A bottle ring toss game. Easy enough, right? "How about that?"


Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Mulling that over in her head a bit, Raripila nodded gently in response to Ishmael mentioning his friend following his desires, she was much the same way even if she didn't drag others along for the ride with her. Then again, she didn't really have much in the way of friends yet, though she was working on that particular lacking.... slowly. "Sometimes doing what you want can be a burden to others." She herself knew that all too well with how her mother had been, impressing her own paranoia onto her children, keeping them below the water at all times in the dark. "But not always either." Rari took a step forward slowly so that she could stand beside the larger stallion, eyes looking out over the crowd before her in silence before glancing back up at the surprised look on his face that stared down into hers.

Her jagged teeth flashed in the light as she smiled widely once more, the small fins on her form fluttered gently at the soft agreement, overjoyed that she'd get to spend even just a little bit more time with the darker Aquatic. "Thank you. I think... it should be a lot of fun together." Rari stated quietly, taking a couple of steps towards the bottle ring toss.

Both her eyes went wide watching others playing, as she'd never experienced it. Even if that was true of most things in her life, this at least was even more of a realization as she could see the other ponies having fun while they were doing it and silently she felt the regret still in her heart at being left out for so long. "Can we?" Despite how quiet her voice was, the softness of it, there was excitement brimming just under the edge, contained by her own self control that she'd exerted for years and years.

Nymphiea

 

[NymiiNym]

tab He returned the smile -- a not common response but it was automatic. His was smaller, but genuine. At her question he looked back down at her, resisting the urge to raise an eyebrow. She was... what was the word? He couldn't pinpoint his feelings, but it seemed like she was experiencing something important. Something she hadn't gotten to before, or at least hadn't gotten to do much. Maybe she was like him; someone who didn't often take chances? Or maybe she was the opposite. Either way, her voice held a hidden excitement and he felt responsible for appeasing it.

tab "Yeah, do you know how to play?" His voice was gruff as normal. As a spot opened up he slide to the front, glancing back at her to follow. He handed over a few coins before accepting five blue rings. He handed three to her before nodding towards the bottles. "You need to get the rings to rest at the top of the bottle for a prize. It looks easy, but they're often...." He paused, resisting the urge to say rigged. "Difficult."


Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

"Honestly I have no clue how to play." Raripila responded, embarrassed that she was so inexperienced with things that seemed as though they would be everyday things for other ponies. Well... maybe not everyday when it came to festivals and carnivals and such, big parties, but at least common enough that they all seemed to be three hoofsteps ahead of her while she was ten behind them. But his smile put her in an infinite sense of ease and she relaxed into his explanation of how to play the bottle toss game.

Three rings in her hooves, she listened with rapt attention to how he explained it before tossing her first one, almost too shyly, just a bit too weak. The ring landed before the bottles, not even hitting a single one.

A quiet squeak left her and her fins fell dejectedly, completely closing and sinking into her mane. Well that had failed miserably. "So just a bit harder than that... then." Rari cleared her throat and tossed one again, this time hard enough that it made it to the bottles but clinked off the glass and bounced to the ground again without ringing around one of the bottle necks. "Difficult indeed..." Instead of throwing her last one, the little Aquatic held it between both hooves and lined it up as if she could just huck it from that position, one eye closed as she seemed to calculate what it's trajectory might take. Things like this would have been a lot easier under water where she could take into account the movements of currents and how things moved in water. Things she was experienced in at least.

Finally lifting her head, she cast a huge smile up at Ishmael and tossed the last ring recklessly, not looking as she did so. Not caring where it ended up, not caring that she wasn't experienced in that moment or that she might lose, because she'd already won the moment he'd decided to stay with her and experience the festival so that neither of them were alone.

Nymphiea

 

[NymiiNym]

tab He watches her fins deflate with a raised eyebrow. Should he had picked something better? Something kinder to someone new to such things? He had wondered if his first selection was cruel, but his eye had been on something in particular when they wandered to the stall. Something he had absolutely no use for but she might. His head turned as he caught the sight of a smile, not watching her final ring as it flew. Instead, he calculated the sincerity of her smile. She was happy -- he was making her happy. His fins almost seemed to puff upwards at that realization, chest swelling. He had become used to his inability to please others. Quee was a different matter entirely, but Ishmael had heard all his life how he had been...

tab What was the term again?

tab Disagreeable. Ishmael was always the problem. Always the one who made others grimace. He couldn't help it -- he didn't know how to lower his guard enough to not spit out the first pessimistic thought on his brain. It was harder for him; talking didn't come naturally. Bonding didn't come naturally, really. And yet here she was; beaming up at him like he was the pony she had set out to meet in the first place. His cheeks heated, eyes finally flicking to see her ring toss. It missed, clanging against the floor with a rattle. His eyes flicked to the prize stand before he slipped forward more bits. They were scooped up by the game runner and he found three rings placed in his hoof.

tab "There's easier games. Games not so... difficult." He said it again with the same infliction, leaning closer to her ear so their words would escape earshot.

tab "These type of games are rigged, usually. The rings are barely wider than the neck, and they're plastic. It makes them bounce more." He tossed a ring and as predicted it bounced off a bottle and flew in a different direction. He clicked his teeth in irritation.


tab "That's why the prizes are of more quality. They're less likely to be won." Another toss, another miss. He held the last ring firmly, eyes narrowing. He tossed the third, not bothering to glance over as he did. It was unlikely. Improbable. It wasn't like he knew how to beat this game. He'd only played it once or twice in his li-

tab His head snapped over as he didn't hear a clang. The ring sat snugly on the bottle. His fins lifted, glowing eyes brightening as he immediately nodded to the prize he had been eyeing. A hair clip was settled into his hooves. Carefully, and probably with an awkward expression, he extended it to Raripila. After all, he had intended it for her. Sure, he had longer hair, but that wasn't the point here. He wasn't sure what the point even was. Maybe he just wanted her to have something that reminded her of him. Maybe he was being an idiot.

tab Probably both.


Hattaki

Won from the ORP and finally given to Rari!

 

[Hattaki]

Well of course she'd missed, in fact Rari hadn't even bothered to care that she might win, that she might lose, she still believed herself to have won given the circumstances. So hearing it clang as she smiled up at the darkening face of the larger stallion above her didn't even make her turn to look at it. What did catch her attention was the fact that he dropped more bits for more rings before telling her that the games were rigged.

Though it was the manner in which he did so, the closeness of it, that made all the blood rush to her face and already brilliant red markings turned even redder as white flushed to try and match it. Still, it made a lot more sense to her, the fact that they designed things to make them difficult if they were to win much better prizes, for then at least they were earned. That of course didn't mean that she couldn't hope that he won a prize for himself!

"You're getting closer each time that you throw!" It was an exclamation but so quiet that it almost sounded like a normal pony talking. Her hooves tapped together in something like a clap as she sat back to watch him throw once more, making it so that she was watching with a bright smile when the ring slid down onto the bottle like it was meant to, unlike all the others before it. Her hooves did clap together that time louder than she meant to, but she wanted to hop up and down and congratulate him!

Given the bits that he spent, her frugal heart almost unable to warrant spending such on herself since she had been pinching them since first coming to the surface, she had fully expected him to buy something wonderful for himself. So it was with wide green eyes that she watched, awe struck, when he held out the cutest little hair clip she'd ever seen for her to take instead. Soft pink, a small heart in the center of it, shaped just like a flower petal that she'd seen falling once in Spring but hardly as fragile as those had been when she'd tried to pick them up. Her heart began to race, almost as if she were afraid but she could tell that this wasn't fear even if she'd never experienced the feeling before.

With two gentle hooves she took the little hair clip and looked from it to him with wide shining eyes. "For... me? Are you sure? Oh it's so cute I..." She'd never exactly been given anything before, not as a gift. She had nothing to give in return! One hoof held the pin close to her chest as she glanced over at the game again, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to win, but maybe there was something else she could...

She had to do something for him in return!

Nymphiea

Little babe is shook to her core!