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 Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2024 3:19 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2024 4:13 pm
Eabha followed after her 'big brother' - they weren't actually related in any way, and she had a real sister for that matter, but she liked Fritzwallace. He was fun, and someone had to keep him out of trouble. Or at least out of too much trouble, anyway, as keeping him entirely out of it was straight up impossible, she'd learned.
"Where are we going today?" she asked, her little legs struggling to keep pace with his much, much longer ones. You'd think after this long he would have gotten it through his thick skull that he had to walk slower when he was with her, but alas. Well, at least it kept her in shape!
When Fritz just gave a vague humming noise as a response, Eabha rolled her eyes goodnaturedly. "Is it a place we've been before?" Fritz shook his head. "So it's a new place...is it for the place, or for some people that might be there?"
"It's for the place," Fritz finally said, taking pity on poor Eabha's guessing game antics. "I think it might be nice to visit, see what all the fuss is about. Which, yes, means that people make a fuss about it," he added, before Eabha could continue the guessing game. "I think we're almost...here!"
Fritz pushed their way through some underbrush and beamed as the trees gave way to the beach. The beach! He'd never seen the ocean before - just lakes and rivers, and none of that prepared him for the awesome sight before them.
"Woah," he said, stupidly. "Wow." It was mid-morning, and the sun was beaming with all its might down onto the long swath of blue-green ocean in front of them. It reflected brightly into Fritz's and Eabha's eyes, and they were both squinting to make out any kind of detail. The beach looked basically abandoned, which Fritz was equal parts delighted and disappointed by: on the one hand, freedom to explore without anyone bothering them or them bothering anyone else; on the other, no new people to meet, and Fritz loved meeting new people more than anything else in the world.
"C'mon!" Fritz said, the first to snap out of the surprised daze they were in. "Let's see what's down there! Maybe we can find some shells or little crab friends!" He took off at a brisk pace, a surprised laugh escaping him as his hooves hit the smooth white sand for the first time. It felt so weird! Soft and swishy, but still firm. You could totally trip and break a leg on this stuff, but it was warm and comforting, too. How wild.
"Oh," Eabha said, a surprised little gasp escaping her as she surveyed the land before them. "Oh, Fritz! It's beautiful!" Eabha said, a broad smile spreading across her face. She followed him, not even able to directly follow in his hoof-prints because the sand fell into itself as he walked. She had never seen the ocean either, and she couldn't stop staring at it. It sparkled, somehow, far more than she thought a body of water could, and it went on forever.
It was also louder than she thought it would be. Not only were there sea-birds screaming above them, but the water itself made noise as it rushed up and ran away from the shore.
And--was that someone singing?
((Fritz wc: 279
Eabha wc: 283))
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Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2024 4:55 pm
Marina was having an absolutely lovely day. It was sunny and bright, and the water was cool and comforting. She had perched herself up on a half-submerged rock, and she was sunbathing.
She was also singing. It was a tune of her own creation, and it didn't really have words - just gentle, lulling noises as she brushed her paws through her hair and let the sun dry it out, which made it even wavier than it was when she was underwater.
Marina didn't often breach the surface; she felt she had everything she needed underwater. Usually. But to everything there was a season, and sometimes she just wanted to do something a little different - nothing made her appreciate her underwater home more than spending some time above sea-level.
Noises - other than her own singing - reached her ears, which twitched slightly as she processed them. Voices. Land creatures. Marina sighed softly; there was nothing wrong with land-dwelling Soquili, but she just...she pitied them. How dull it must be to only live on land! There was so much more to see under the...sea.
She looked toward the noise, squinting against the bright sunlight above them. It looked like...a regular-sized Soquili and a much smaller Soquili. Maybe it was a parent and a child? Marina couldn't quite see, yet, but it looked like they were coming right toward her. She wondered if she still had time to hide.
...Or maybe...this time...she didn't need to hide...at least not entirely.
She slipped beneath the water, everything obscured except her face from the middle of her nose up, as she watched the two of them approach.
((wc: 272))
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Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2024 5:12 pm
Far beneath the rock on which Marina was sunning herself and far away from the shore on which Fritzwallace and Eabha were walking themselves, there lurked another Soquili.
Takutai was a shark. Sort of. He certainly tried to embody many sharkish qualities, though he couldn't smell blood a mile away, and he didn't have to keep moving or he'd die. Really, he tried to embody the sharky vibe. He wanted to be a threatening badass, okay?
Frequently he was neither threatening nor a badass, because he didn't really it in him to be mean.
But he certainly had it in him to be more than a little mischievous - and that was exactly what he had in mind.
Slowly, he swam closer, keeping his gaze fixed on the shadow of the Soquili in the water above him. This was gonna be good...if he could get it right, anyway.
And if he could follow through, anyway. He knew a little bit about the Seathi above him - she was nice, kind, and basically harmless. That's what would make it so funny to scare her.
But just scare her - he didn't want to hurt her. And even if he'd known about the Soquili on the shore, he wouldn't want to hurt them either - probably. But scare them? Sure, why not! The more the merrier.
That said - he didn't know the other Soquili were up there. He wouldn't have changed his mind, if he had known, but he didn't, so he just continued to lurk, silently, somewhere below Marina, as she lurked quietly just off-shore.
((wc: 263))
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2024 6:23 pm
After a few moments of stunned silence, Eabha was the first to return to her senses. She realized she was the smallest, and thus the least threatening - Fritz, for all his good- natured exuberance, was... a lot. And he was also very large, and at times extremely unaware of just how large he was. He could be, at times, more than a little overwhelming, especially for a Soquili Eabha's size - or smaller, which it looked like this Seathi was.
"Hello," Eabha said cautiously, putting on her friendliest voice. "My name is Eabha, and this is my friend Fritzwallace," she added, nodding over to Fritz, who glanced at her before bowing his head respectfully; so he did listen! If only sometimes, but still! She gave Fritz a big, grateful, reassuring smile, then turned her attention back to the fish-horse, who at least hadn't swum away. Yet.
Eabha had never had the chance to interact with a sea-dwelling Soquili before, and she had to admit that she was curious. She would say that for spending time with Fritzwallace - he did have a knack for winding them up in curious, unexpected situations.
Though Eabha would fully admit that she strongly preferred the ones that didn't end up with them running for their lives, which she desperately hoped this would not turn out to be. If this little Soquili tried to tempt them into the ocean, though, Eabha would not be having it. She didn't know what freaky creatures lived down there, and she was not in a hurry to find out.
"What's your name?"
((wc: 263))
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2024 6:52 pm
Fritzwallace, after all this time, had gotten very good at following his 'sister's' cues - he knew when to fall back and let her do the talking. He knew that he wouldn't actually ever hurt a fly, but he knew that most people didn't see that; having a little sister like Eabha had made him acutely aware of people's perceptions, however wrong-headed they might be.
So he stayed back and let Eabha take over the introductions, but he did creep a little closer to the water, out of curiosity, and out of wanting to get a better look.
The creature in the water was definitely a Soquili, but a much tinier one than he'd ever seen before. He could tell by Eabha's tension - not anxious, but excited - that she hadn't ever seen a Soquili like this either; something new for both of them was always a good day!
The sea- Soquili was bright blue - brighter than the water, though he couldn't be sure he would have seen her, if she hadn't caught their attention with her voice.
"You sing really well," Fritzwallace couldn't help but say, doing his best to be reassuring and quietly complimentary, rather than tall and intimidating. He didn't want her to run away, and he definitely didn't want to be the reason she did so. He had so many questions to ask! Did she get wrinkly like he did when he stayed in a pond too long? Did she eat other fish, or was that as abhorrent to her as the idea of eating another Soquili was to Fritzwallace himself? So many questions.
((wc: 267))
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2024 7:15 pm
Marina stayed quiet for a few moments, weighing her options as the land- dwelling Soquili addressed her. She could still swim away, but...well, wasn't that rude? And they hadn't done her any harm, not really, except startling her and interrupting her singing, but... that wasn't really so much of a crime as it was an accident on everyone's side.
"My name is Marina," Marina said, lifting herself slightly out of the water so they could hear her speak. "Hello," she said, "and...I suppose... welcome to my beach. Or, I should say, the beach, since it's not like I own it." Marina swam a little closer, to get a better look at them. The little one, the female, was pink, and seemed kind enough. The big one - Marina was a little more apprehensive, but she was reassured by the fact that she could, at pretty much any moment, zoom underwater and escape any harm they might try to do to her, with their hooves and the big pointy horn on his head.
"What are your names?" Marina asked, wanting to be polite, but she couldn't help but be a little curious herself; she could see the spark of curiosity in both of their eyes. She had to admit that she was feeling the same - it wasn't often, or at all, that she got to talk to the four- hoofed type of Soquili about what their lives were like, what their experiences were, how they were different from her own... Maybe she could learn something, and teach them a little something too, if they actually wanted to know.
((wc: 267))
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2024 8:33 pm
Any minute now, it would be Takutai's time to strike. He just had to wait. He was pretty patient, or at least he thought so. What he was waiting for... well, he wished that he had a bit more control over how long it would take for his second and third 'victims' to finally enter the water, but you couldn't have everything.
Careful not to send any wry ripples up the Seathi's direction, Taku swam a little bit closer, though he stayed well beneath the surface and far away from the blue female herself. She had... were those paws? How weird. He'd never seen someone in the ocean with paws before. What would they think of next?
If he let himself rise slightly, still obscuring himself among the coral, just to try and get angle to listen in on their conversations. Sound didn't exactly travel the best under water, but Taku was used to making do. It sounded like they were introducing each other...
He would have to pick the funniest moment to attack veeery carefully...
See, he didn't want to actually hurt anyone. He wanted to be funny, not mean; he wasn't seeing either the land Soquili or his fellow sea- dweller as lunch. He just needed a laugh, not a meal. It wasn't his fault he closely resembled the biggest, baddest hunter in the ocean - but he sure would take advantage of the similarity whenever he could.
(And, no, it definitely wasn't because he was a little lonely and 'pranking' other people was one of the only ways he knew to get attention. That would be ridiculous.)
((wc: 272))
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Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:48 pm
"I'm Eabha," Eabha said, her smile widening as Marina swam a little closer to the shore, so that they could speak to each other a little more easily. Eabha took that as a good sign - maybe they could all get to know each other a little better today. She had to admit she was terribly curious about what it must be like to live underwater (underwater!), and she had never really thought that she would be able to find out. Or at least ask someone with first-hand experience, since unless there had been some great advancement in herbal tinctures or potions, she, at least, still needed to breathe air, not water.
"I thought that Soquili that lived underwater couldn't breathe air," Eabha admitted conversationally, only a hair embarrassed at her ignorance. "Like how we can only breathe air. I think that's why we were so surprised to see you here. If I can ask - can you come onto shore at all? Or must you stay in the water? We can come in the water," Eabha said, demonstrating by stepping close enough to get her hooves wet in the charging and retreating crest of the ocean. "It doesn't hurt us, unless there's something in the water itself or some animal that would do us harm. But we can't stay there forever - not like you. You must never get bored, with all there is to see and discover under the surface!"
Eabha was babbling, and she felt herself blush lightly. She just hoped it wasn't obvious and would either blend in with her pink coloring, or be chalked up to the bright sun beating down from overhead. "You must never have to cool down," Eabha added, unable to help herself as the waves crested a bit higher around her ankles, making her shiver slightly. "I think half of what we land- dwellers do is try to figure out how to survive the seasons, and then talk about how hard it is to survive the seasons."
((wc: 333))
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Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2024 7:53 pm
Fritzwallace really wanted to trample right over Eabha, but he knew the drill by now - let her talk, because she was much better at it.
Except this time Eabha wasn't better at it. She was rambling more than he did! He was pretty sure that he would've done better than that. But at least the little blue mare-fish didn't seem to be judging them too harshly. In fact, she was smiling a bit, and not in a mean way. He knew all about people laughing at him instead of with him, and he didn't get that energy from her.
"I'm Fritzwallace," Fritz said, joining his sister so that they were all of them in the water. "Eabha and me are kinda siblings," he explained, knowing they looked absolutely nothing alike. "She's the brains of the operation! I'm the looks," he added with a mischievous wink. "Do you have any siblings? Wait-- woah!" The little blue mare-fish had shifted slightly, her tail flopping the opposite direction as she did.
"Where's your legs?" As if to demonstrate what he meant, he carefully lifted each leg in sequence - one, two, three, four. "Do you only have those little paws in front?" Fritz paused, considering. "Well...I guess you don't really need to run, do you? You can't run in the ocean unless you're at the bottom of it, I guess..."
...Okay, so they were both rambling dummies, maybe, but Marina was still smiling and not running away--swimming away-- from them as fast as she could. People had done that before, even when he and Eabha were being perfectly nice! So the fact that she was sticking around seemed like a good sign to him.
There was a ripple in the water. If Fritz hadn't been focused entirely on their new blue friend, he might have pointed it out. He might've asked what that flash of rosey pink was.
Alas...
((wc: 319))
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Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2024 5:39 pm
Marina thought these two were precious, actually - clearly they had a lot of questions, which she would absolutely answer if they ever gave her a moment to get a word in edgewise. She couldn't help but laugh as he noticed her tail - she imagined it would be surprising to see something like that unexpectedly. And for her own part, it was more than a bit bizarre to see all, yes, one two three four of their legs when she only had two herself. It just seemed like too many, but it worked for them....somehow. She couldn't imagine the coordination it took to keep track of all those limbs at the same time - but then again, she kind of couldn't imagine the coordination it took to be stuck to the ground all the time, instead of floating in the ocean. How did they deal, not being able to move in any direction, up or down in addition to forward or backwards?
"I have these two paws," Marina confirmed, "and then my tail," she said, shifting to the side to flap her tail in the waves to show them. "And that's really all I need. I don't think I could run at all, even if I was at the bottom of the sea," she added with a chuckle. She barely knew what 'running' even was.
"So what are you two--aaah!" Marina screamed as all of a sudden a shark fin - a pink shark fin?! - emerged from the water between herself and the two land ponies, clearly getting ready to strike.
((wc: 258 ))
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2024 1:22 pm
Now was his chance!
Takutai breached the water and snarled fiercely, trying to hide that he was actually smiling - really, trying to keep from laughing, if he was completely honest, because the look on all their faces was totally priceless.
He ducked back under water and splashed his tail hard against the water, making sure to absolutely soak the land-dwellers that were standing there, staring at him like they'd never seen anything like him.
Well, they probably hadn't! There was nothing like him - not as far as Takutai himself was concerned, anyway.
Once beneath the water, he went to dart past the blue female - he had no intention of fighting her, or any of them. He just wanted to scare them, and he had done that! But--where did she go--!
Takutai let out a startled squeak, a line of bubbles escaping his mouth when he was rammed into. It was the little female! She was trying to fight him! She was trying to fight him?? She was trying to fight him?! No way!
Takutai squirmed away, aiming for escape, as quickly as possible. But he wasn't going to make it - she rammed into him again, from below and to the side of him; this female just wouldn't quit!
Takutai was forced above the surface, and when he spoke, it came out far too whiny and not nearly as intimidating as he'd been intending. "Hey! Quit that! You don't need to hit! I didn't even hurt you, any of you! Lighten up, jeeze!"
((WC: 252))
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2024 1:37 pm
It all happened so quickly - one moment, they were making a new friend and learning about this new aspect of their world, and the next, they were soaking wet, their new friend had disappeared, and possibly they'd all just survived a shark attack?
"What... just happened," Eabha said, blinking the salt water out of her eyes. She looked away from the ocean to look up at Fritz, who looked just as baffled and confused as Eabhe felt. "Did--"
Whatever question she'd been about to ask died on her lips as the shark re-emerged from the water and started to talk.
...Or, rather, started to whine.
...This wasn't a shark at all. "You're not a shark," Eabha said, unsure if she was accusing him of something or stating a fact. "What... what are you?" Eabha asked, only distantly aware that this was probably considered a rude question. Then she remembered that shark or not, this creature had just splashed them within an inch of their life - they'd all be lucky if they didn't catch sick because of it. Eabha decided that was ruder, and so forgave herself for the faux pax.
"You can't just do that," Eabha said, picking up steam now. She went so far as to stomp her way into the ocean, just as the blue female broke the surface with a glare on her face, directed toward the new creature. "You can't do that sort of thing for no reason! It's mean and-- and annoying!" Eabha joined Marina in glaring at this creature, who now seemed far less frightening and far more frightened, as he looked between the two females before him.
"What do you have to say for yourself!"
((WC: 282))
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2024 2:32 pm
Marina was no longer having an absolutely lovely day. Her adrenaline was running hotter than she could remember it doing ever before, and it was all this dumb kid's fault. Why couldn't they just have nice things? Why did someone always have to come along and ruin it?
"He's a sharkeathi," Marina answered for him, without taking her eyes off him. "He's just a Seathi, like me, but with an attitude. He thinks he's fierce, he thinks he's sooo scary, but he's not! He's just-- just-- just a punk! A punk who thinks it's funny to scare people and-- and make them all wet, too!" Marina added, angry on behalf of her new friends.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself, or are you just going to swim away like a coward since you got caught playing your 'funny' prank?" Marina held up both paws to make quotes in the air, showing just how unfunny she found his 'prank'. "You should say sorry, and you know it, too!"
As her anger began to recede, Marina began to wonder, just a little, in the back of her head, if maybe she shouldn't apologize too - she hadn't meant to hit him that hard.
...But no. He was the jerk here, not her! Marina was not, at the very core of her nature, an angry or aggressive person - she was peaceful, encouraging, kind. She didn't hold onto negative emotions for long - but she would try to, just this once, so this little Sharkeathi didn't leave this encounter thinking he'd done nothing wrong!
((WC: 260))
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