[SRP] Tides and Dreams (Gahz'rilla + Lord Vratislav)

[elfstar89]

This is a solo RP between my Soq Gahz'rilla and Lord Vratislav na Volczek. Please do not post. Gahzi posts in Turquoise, Vrati posts in Dark Honeydew*.


Lord Vratislav na Volczek was still fuzzy on how it had happened. It still seemed far too sudden. One night, he'd gone to bed with his fair ladies after a good day on the road, the next morning, they were gone without a trace. Sure, they'd been talking an awful lot the few nights leading up to the disappearance, after they thought he'd gone to sleep, too quiet to hear, but that had been a thing that had happened off and on again since he met them.

But, as they had none of them been entirely above board about their trickery to others in these lands, he supposed it wasn't too odd. Plus, he had sort of barged his way into what might have been a nice mare-on-mare relationship. He might not want to admit it, but the leavetaking wasn't really all that surprising. Just sort of heartbreaking in a way that was unanticipated. Vrati realized, walking along this windswept beach on this fine summer evening, that he had probably been rather deeply in love with his ladies. Against all expectations. He'd kinda thought they were partners-in-crime and possible contributors to his noble lineage, but "lovers" or "true love" hadn't entirely been in his vocabulary.

He stopped and gazed out at the sea. The sun had just set, still casting some gold upon the navy waters, and, as the tide broke over his pale paws, he could still feel some of the warmth of the day. Not too warm, though, but also not too cold. Perhaps a swim would cool his mind.

Depositing his scarf and rose above what he presumed to be the surf line, he made his way into the water, and began swimming, thinking as he went along.

Unfortunately, Vrati had done all his swimming in comparatively placid and colder fresh water lakes and rivers; he wasn't familiar with the dangers and strange tides of the sea. Before he knew it, he was a lot further out than he'd intended, and felt like he was being pushed out to sea.

No other thing for it: time to call for help. Fortunately, he hadn't really had much of a chance to con anyone aquatic.

"HELP! HELP! ANYBODY THERE?!" he yelled in his most dramatic manner. Sure, he was probably laying it on a bit thick, but Vrati was having difficulty fighting his way back to shore.


Gahz'rilla had been swimming slowly through the kelp forests closer to shore than he usually did. He liked the shore, wanted to understand it better, but he didn't really fancy being beached on it. The sun had probably just set, given the quality of the light filtering down from above, and, unless he was ready to find a place to drift to sleep for a bit, it was probably about time to start making his way closer to the surface. The seafloor, even at this depth, could be quite dark after the sun went down.

Unfortunately, something was thrashing about near the surface. The mer frowned. That was odd. Birds didn't usually thrash that long, or that vigorously, otters didn't usually have that much difficulty moving around, aquatic Soquili generally didn't make such a ruckus unless they were playing a game (in which case, there was almost always another participant), and the larger marine species generally didn't hang around the canopy of a kelp forest. Which meant someone who didn't really know their way around these waters was probably in trouble.

Gahz'rilla turned upward and charged toward the surface, near to the thrashing. Better to not startle or get kicked by the thrasher, but probably a good idea to help them out. If for no other reason so as to not startle the fish he enjoyed eating, and to be able to pester the stranger for stories about the surface for free.

Popping his head above the surface, the large mer shivered. An offshore breeze had already kicked up, chilling his damp flesh in the warm air. Looking around with his deep sky blue eyes, he spotted a grey-green Soquili stallion who appeared to be trying to fight the tide. The wrong way.

Carefully staying just out of range of any stray legs, he called out, "Hello, I am thinking you are needing help. Are you needing help to return to shore?"

*C1CDC1  

[elfstar89]

Vrati stopped shouting and flailing in surprise as the pale, seafoam-colored head of a very large mer popped up not far away and asked if he needed help. And in a somewhat thicker and subtly different accent than his own. "I could use the help, good sir. I seem to have been svept out a bit further than I had anticipated. I am Lord Vratislav na Volczek," he declaimed rather grandly for an idiot who'd foolishly swum farther than he should have. "It is so kind and noble of you to help me, sir...?" he asked, doing his best to tread water without getting swept further out to sea. Or accidentally kick his would-be rescuer. It'd be a little stupid, not to mention rude, not just from a practical perspective, but also from a narrative perspective. As much as the noblestallion might view himself above such things, it could be remarkably easy as a performer and a scoundrel to see the narrative in the everyday.

Even if the one story he was thinking of didn't usually feature this gender pairing. And he was the wrong breed for the other parable.

Which inevitably caused him to wonder aloud, as he began to be towed toward shore, "I vonder vhat it is like, under the vaves..."

Gahz'rilla blinked. A lord of some kind. That wasn't exactly something one saw everyday. Of a softer and slightly different accent than his own. Odder still. "I am calling myself Gahz'rilla," he replied. The lord had stopped thrashing as much, and confirmed that he was in need of assistance, so the large mer swam closer, gathering a few large fronds of kelp along the way. Hooking the kelp around the stallion and clenching the ends in his teeth, he slowly began to tow the other stallion back to shore.

In the back of his mind, he started perusing all the questions he might get away with asking for rescuing this Soquili. What kind of lord was he? Were there other Soquili with terrestrial animal tails and paws like him? If there were, what were they called? What did a lord like him do up on the surface?

So deep was he in thought that he almost missed the musing of his rescuee, and it was a mercy that they were getting close enough to some jutting tidepools that he could probably afford to let go of the kelp fronds without this Lord Vratislav immediately getting swept right out to sea again, and without Gahz'rilla himself becoming beached.

"I am sorry, you are vishing to know vhat is like under the vaves?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Vell, it is darker. Not as sunny. Mostly fish down there. Mostly open seas. Long distances of endless blue. Reefs are very colorful. Full of fish to hunt. Kelp forests full of otters and crabs and starfishes and sea urchins. Lively, I am supposing you might say. Sometimes, birds dive in to catch fish near surface. Often colder, but vith no breeze." He paused. He hadn't spoken this much in a few months. Or really talked to a purely terrestrial Soquili. Ever, to his knowledge. Gahz'rilla really turned that over in his mind, that the terrestrial Soquili might be as ignorant of the sea as the aquatic Soquili might be of the land. And that the sea might be as strange and wondrous to a terrestrial Soquili as the land might be to an aquatic Soquili.

Which begged the question of what it was for amphibious Soquili, forever caught between shore and tide, belonging wholly to neither, but able to enjoy both at their leisure.

Something to ask Thuraya and his daughter, when next he saw either young mare.

In the meantime, time to ask questions of his own. "I am having qvestions for you, Lord Vratislav. Vhat kind of Soquili are you? Vhat is it like to be lord? Vhat kind of land do you call home? Vhat can you say about your home?" Longing and curiosity colored his gruff voice.  

[elfstar89]

Vrati listened with curiosity. He'd never been as curious about the sea as he found himself now, listening to the nebulous descriptions of the other stallion. Vrati had found the story of the Little Mer a trifle too preachy when it came to faith in a higher power and the impossibility of love between a Mer and a Cerynei. Similarly, the parable of the bird and the fish had sometimes annoyed him. Probably because he was too much of a romantic to care for either story.

But even these rough sketches...maybe, if he ever found a troupe to perform with, they could talk about adapting the Little Mer into something less preachy. More contemplative of the experience of the Mer. Or flip it around, tell it from the story of the Cerynei who had been the object of the Mer's affections. Maybe the Cerynei was as fascinated by the sea as the Mer by the land. Oooh. Twist.

Back to Gahz'rilla's questions. "I am a Regular, I suppose you might say, but nothing so common, as I am a lord of the house na Volczek, and ve are blessed by the volf as our symbol, vhich ve have striven to emulate in our appearances," he replied proudly, climbing clumsily onto the rocks of the tidepools, trying not to step on anything spiky with his paws, which felt halfway to numb. "I rule over other Soquili...or vould, if my family
still ruled territory. Ve vere rich vunce, but that vas a few generations ago," he admitted painfully. "My line ruled a forest, filled with great trees and beautiful roses, vhere birds sang in the trees and deer and volves ran vild, vhere ve could...do our thing," he ended lamely. Come to think of it, the family had been so bitter about their loss of station and wealth that they hadn't really talked much about what it meant to BE "Lord na Volczek", and Vrati had never gotten around to asking.

"How can I repay you? Maybe vith a story? Asking qvestions vhen I have asked my own hardly seems like fair trade," he added jokingly. The Little Mer was still on his mind. And, while this evening felt a bit like the inciting incident of that fairy tale, it seemed to have taken a sideways turn for the surreal and contemplative. And with a remarkable lack of romance.

Gahz'rilla mulled these answers over. A Regular, but perhaps not a normal one. The forest sounded beautiful...assuming someone could tell him what a deer or a wolf or a rose was. Or what kind of tree was involved; the Mer stallion had swum enough shores to know that there were a lot of different kinds of trees. Maybe not the tropical kind, maybe the more northerly kind. Lord Vratislav's accent sounded similar to his own, after all.

But the other stallion wanted to pay him some other way. Not in answers to questions. And he'd made a fair argument. And a story did sound like an interesting proposition. "I vill take story, if you are interested in telling. I am not knowing terrestrial stories," he added curiously.  

[elfstar89]

Vrati nodded. Time to put on a good performance. And he could probably do worse than The Little Mer. Heck, he could probably test out a new version as he went. The twist he'd thought of earlier sounded good. Maybe also end it on a happy note. Skip the moralistic preaching.

"Vunce upon a time..." he began, declaiming the narrative and acting out each role in turn. The Little Mer became a figure of pure curiosity, harassing passing seagulls for tales of the shore, or salmon for word of the rivers where they spawned. The Cerynei Prince became a dreamer and son of a pearl diver, always too busy to pursue his dream of learning how to pearl dive, never getting a chance to properly learn how to dive safely, never getting a chance to pester the same salmon for word of the seas where they lived as adults, always getting to know them as either adults preparing to spawn and die, or as spawn freshly hatched from eggs and preparing to set out on their own voyage of discovery.

Their first meeting would have become a sweet and clumsy meet-cute, had the Cerynei Prince not lost consciousness before she could save him from his own foolishness, and, as such, he regained consciousness as she swam away from shore, singing as she went. He hadn't seen the tail moving in the waves, had only seen a beautiful mare swimming through the waves and singing beautifully. The Little Mer begged a crazy old Kelpi to help her figure out a way to spend more time with her Cerynei Prince, whom she had begun to admire, and the crazy old Kelpi, being, at heart, a capricious and tricky sort who enjoyed pranks, had offered a pair of back legs in exchange for her voice, thereby robbing the Little Mer of her chance to actually talk to the Cerynei Prince. While this was disappointing, the chance to experience the surface for herself was too great a temptation, and she agreed. The Kelpi promised that if the Little Mer could win the Cerynei Prince's heart in a week, she'd regain her voice; if not, she'd still regain her voice, but would also lose her ability to walk on land. The crazy old Kelpi had no intention of keeping it, because, while it was fun to mess with the naive Little Mer, she had no real use for a random voice cluttering her undersea grotto.

The Cerynei Prince had personally begun a hunt to find the beautiful mare with the beautiful voice who had presumably rescued him that day, and proven unable to find her. He did, however, find a mute young Kelpi mare, equally beautiful, clumsily wandering the beach, constantly transfixed with wonder at a world that he had since come to find boring. Which caused him to look at the world around him with new eyes. The Little Mer, in her turn, indicated wordlessly that she'd happily go pearl diving with him, showing him how not to die in the sea that he found so fascinating, and with which she herself had grown bored. But he found her wordlessness rather frustrating, as he was also still looking for the mare who had saved him, never really looking at the mare before him.

And, thus, when a week was out, she returned to the sea, heartbroken that the Cerynei Prince had never recognized her, and never opened himself up to her freely. Even if she might still one day find him pearl diving, she would never again see the forests of his home with him. And as she swam away, voice regained, she sang sorrowfully of the parting. At which point, the Cerynei Prince recognized her, diving into the waves after her, begging her to stop, begging her forgiveness for not knowing her sooner, for having been so blind to his feelings for her. She stopped, unsure of what to do, and, as he swam closer, he called out that he would move his kingdom to her shores, so they might find a way to stay together. Even if it meant neither of them would see his forest ever again. Even if it meant she would never walk the beaches with him. He'd still take her as his princess, even if their children were born to be split between sea and shore. Turning, she swam toward him, meeting him in a great romantic gesture, and she became his princess. They lived together happily ever after along the shore where they had met.

Finishing, Vrati paused to breathe, waiting to hear the response of his audience.

Gahz'rilla listened with fascination, his heart going out to the Little Mer, who sounded so like him. Only female, and prettier, and with a prettier voice. His heart died inside when the romance seemed like it was going wrong, but lifted again when the Cerynei Prince suggested a way the two could still be together.

"I think it is vonderful story. Could use better description of sea and forest. But I like. Vould like more if Little Mer got to stay on land, but veek is too fast for romance. Prince gets to visit sea, but Mer does not get to see more of land. Maybe next time you tell it, there is bit vhere Prince seeks to trade voice for fins to explore sea, gets to experience sea better. Maybe both become Kelpi at end? Vould be happier ending for both," he added.

As critical as he was being, Gahz'rilla had truly enjoyed the story. "Maybe you come back sometimes and tell me more stories? Leave sign of some kind on beach, so I know to come find. Or maybe ve make a regular thing of this, da? Maybe you tell me stories vunce every season?" he asked. Three months would give him time to think through this story, and the next one. Time to wonder if there was some way he could get his own happy ending. Or, maybe, like the Little Mer when she'd been teaching the Cerynei Prince how to pearl dive, maybe he'd find his eyes opened anew by sharing his world with other Soquili.

Vrati sighed internally over the critique. Everyone was a critic. Even when hearing a story for the first time. Then he perked up at the request. A new story to perform, once a season, for a willing audience? Maybe for some kind of payment...but a willing audience was not to be sneezed at. "I like that idea. Maybe you pay me in something new and interesting from the sea each time?" he suggested.

This might be the birth of a beautiful storyteller-audience relationship. And all it had taken was a very foolish evening swim in unfamiliar waters and a surprising conversation composed of questions about life above and below the surface of the sea.