[ P ] nothing's the same

Using 2/2 of my lagoon tickets

Sheik

@Edmond

It was dark out, too dark... and she was alone.

A shiver ran down her spine as she walked through the eerie woods. Her mother had warned her against doing this so many times and then her brother had come home injured and so... just what the hell was she doing?! Even she wasn't sure, but she'd gotten a call, so to speak, to come here of all places. The desire had been too much to ignore and so she'd left home in search of whatever it was that was calling her to this place. Could it be the fae? Or some demon lurking in the shadows waiting to rip off her tail and swallow her whole?

She squeaked pathetically and looked over her shoulder, planning on heading back on that thought alone, when she stumbled forward and into view of the lagoon.

Gentle mist swirled around her and eased her thoughts without her noticing at first. She calmed, her heart rate coming down and her eyes growing less wild. What was this place? Sheik stepped forward and looked into the water, finding only herself staring back. She smiled softly and then began exploring, unaware that anyone else might be here.

 

play me like a violin

 

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let the arrow fly

As if in the moment of awakening he jolted, finding himself in the cool embrace of wispy grasses coated by swirling mists. Had he fainted? Been stolen away from the comforts of his bed? It was hard to remember just how he came to be here though that overwhelming sense of not knowing urged limbs to lift him from the earth below. That gangly frame righted as bleary gaze peered out into the glimmering expanse before him. Refractions of light dancing from the brilliance of the springs, the slick coating upon rock formations… pieces appeared familiar to him and yet strange all at once.

Had he been here before or was this just the faint remembrances of a fleeting dream?

Whatever the truth may be something deeper within sang out, lured the gradual drift of his step as a call was heeded without thinking. Unconsciously falling into rhythm, accepting the soothing brush of the lagoon and its whispered allure. Even if this were nothing more than a figment of his imagination, there was no point in not exploring it further. In time he would be back home, cloaked in the plush furs of his bedding as if none of this had ever happened. This wasn’t real nor were the conjured tones of another. One who was no doubt a part of this realm.

That trailing perfume blindly chased until mismatched sights settled upon the visage of a she-wolf near perched upon the water’s edge. One of a gilded coat, bathed in the sun’s warmth as if fur itself could reflect the very same. An unusual bout of confidence took hold as he strode toward her though his voice dared to remain just as meek, “Uh, are you lost?” Or did she hold knowledge which evaded him? Edmond prayed it was the latter. That she were a nymph who dwelt within these lands, a being who could provide what was lost or even wake him from what was surely a dream.

once you know your aim is true

Sheik

@Edmond

"Uh, are you lost?"

The girl jumped, realizing quickly that she wasn't alone. A stranger seemed to materialize from the mist, his mottled form far from a comfort. Sheik's gaze turned wary and she shook her head. "N-No..." she protested, though she didn't sound too sure of herself in the moment. She swallowed as her nerves were mysteriously calmed again but she did not take her eyes off him. He smelled like her mother, in a way, and that was calming but she did not recognize him.

"Are you?" she countered more curiously than fearfully.

A moment passed and she tore her gaze away from him to look at the water before looking back at him. "I'm Sheik. Who are you?" she asked, offering a small smile. She could guess he was in the Army, that's what that smell might've been, but beyond that he was a mystery. Maybe she would be safe with an Imperial...

Sheik's tail lowered slightly and her ears folded back, she was caught between wanting to be friendly and feeling scared.

 

play me like a violin

 

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let the arrow fly

For a moment nerves faded, pied features brightening upon her proclamation as if blind to the uncertainty which haunted her tone. While that voice was quiet, subdued, that desperate part of him placed it upon unease. A sensation he was all too used to enduring within the waking realm and with how subdued those plagued notions were here - this had to be a dream. One that felt so strangely real as toes curled lightly against the earth. The he startled, a body jolting lightly as his very own query turned upon him.

Sheepishly a lopsided grin pulled over his lips, breath falling in a short huff of laughter, nothing but nerves. “Well, um, yes,” this land was foreign to him. The crystal clear waters never seen before this night and despite the urgency held in getting out of her, of returning home to the safety of a bed he surely still slept in; another part of him never wished to leave. It was paradise in a sense. Calming, worries and sensibilities seeming to fade away with each passing moment, yet it could not be real. Those ever silent yet beckoning whispers did not exist.

No matter how they teased temptation, wished to draw him from the girl and into the glimmering pool’s embrace. Though, at least for now, it was a lure denied as folded ears perked and that mismatched gaze lay drawn back to vibrant blues. An askance upon her lips, “Oh, I - I’m Edmond.” That foolish smile returned as his tail waved lazily in hopes to appear friendly, unable to ignore the way parts of her shrunk back. A voice in the back of his mind told him to offer rank, to indulge information of the ties a father wished him to hold and yet a tongue stilled on such matters.

Instead it flicked uneasily over his lips as focus briefly flickered toward the swirling mists and how they seemed to beckon toward the still waters so near. “Sheik,” her name tested on his lips, “What is this p-place?” Uneven tones betrayed him in the ways they twisted over his tongue, speaking never something he was really good at. Yet this one had claimed she were in fact not lost and it was this fleeting chance of hope that Edmond clung to now, one for answers.

once you know your aim is true

Sheik

@Edmond

Sheik looked over the mottled boy with growing curiosity in her pale blue eyes. He was a myriad of colors, even his eyes shown with more than one color. It was like someone had taken a brush and flung paint against the wall in hopes of creating something beautiful. And he was just that, she couldn't help but think. He was something she'd never seen before and that was intriguing but also frightening, given her newfound fears of a world so large she could never know its true depths. All those warnings her mother had given her in her naivety had been taken lightly but now, after Hask, she wasn't so sure her mother hadn't been right all along.

She sucked in a breath as he admitted he was, in fact, lost.

She was lost too but she had been too afraid to admit it at the time. Sheik only nodded knowingly before glancing around. The mist curled around her body gently and warmed her until her worries began to ease. She didn't understand this strange comfort she felt but she welcomed it.

After a few moments, he finally introduced himself too and her tail waved low behind her as his did. "Nice to meet you," she said, hoping that would hold true by the end of their meeting. He tested her name then and she laughed a little bashfully, then nodded as if to say: 'Yep, that's me!'

His question hung between them for a moment longer than she meant to let it and she studied him silently, then turned to look at the unknown place. "I-I don't know. I've never been here before. I guess I am a little lost." she finally admitted. "It's really pretty though." she added. Sheik had had a hard time finding the beauty in thinks with all the death and destruction around her as of late so it was nice to find it now. It made her relax a little more, as her body visibly sunk from its tightness.

 

play me like a violin

 

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