escordvi | closed 🌠⚡ it's far too easy to miss the beauty in the simple things

How could i? I don't know what the trail is like.

[But he says it in such a way that it could be read either way.......

But no, he really isn't, and once they're at the bottom of the sleep and on even ground, the seahorse continues to swim through a bit more smoothly. It's also open enough that small schools of fish swim past them.]

Edited 2025-05-19 06:06 (UTC)

Uh huh...

[Totally not doing it so that she will hold onto him? Not that she needs a reason to...

But as they come out of the thick corals, Tifa looks up and around them, her eyes going wide with wonder. They had been down here once before, but not even Pearlhaven was as deep as this. The surface seems so far away from them now—they are right among the fish. And now she can see the village in the distance, with its even taller corals of all different shapes and colours.]

Is that... Baleen's Reach?

[He looks up with her with that same bit of wonder.]

...Looks like it. If you look over there, I think I see a whale swimming around.

Oh, I see it!

[Is it coming closer? It certainly is, and it grows bigger and bigger, almost intimidatingly so. Besides Elah, she's never really seen one up so close before, and certainly not in its more natural habitat. Is it considered a whalefolk, or just a regular whale? So many questions rush through her mind...

Interrupted by a sudden and strange feeling in her stomach. She furrows her brow, a hand pressing to it as she silently wonders why...

...

Huh. Maybe the potion isn't sitting right in—

One moment she is curled up next to Eustace, holding onto him and the next, she is gone from where she'd been sitting in front of him on the horse's back, and he'll hear a tiny squeak from somewhere near his ear—]

With the whale passing closer than expected, he's glad the seahorse is calm about it, likely used to the presence of such large creatures as they are native and used in this area. He still tries to hang on tight, not wanting to be caught in its wake...

But just as he's tightening his arms around Tifa and trying to maneuver the seahorse a little ways to give the whale more berth, he finds his arms squeezing open air??]

Tifa!?

[Had she somehow slipped out? But he had also heard a strange squeaking sound and belatedly his head snaps back in time to see something... Very small tumbling around in the water???]

Edited 2025-05-19 15:25 (UTC)

[At least his ears can pick up on her small voice while she screams his name—]

Eustace!? Eustace—!

[—as she's carried away, spinning round and round as the whale swims right over their heads, the current from its large body dragging this tiny white and black slug-looking thing away in the water. Up and up and up she goes....!]

Tifa!?

[He...hears her voice...??? Coming from that small squeaky thing!?!?!

Well without her obviously around him, there's only one conclusion he can make, and bringing the seahorse around he zaps it with his tail to spur it forward, the seahorse neighing loudly before surging forward into the current to try and chase after the tiny thing that might be his girlfriend??]

Hang on!

[Oh god, she can stomach a lot of things, but the way that this current is carrying her would make anyone sick.]

Eustace, what's going on!?

[Can he even hear her? She's so far away now that she can barely hear his shouts over the loud rumbling of the whale above her, and no matter how hard she tries to swim away, she can't.]

I can't get out of this!

[Too lost in her panic, she has no idea yet that she's a little bunny—]

[Because she's so much smaller, that current is carrying her farther and faster than he can keep up.

But he continues to urge the seahorse on, who seems to be taking this as a kind of race as its legs churn the water, its tail snapping behind it to push along the current.

What worries him most is where this current is even going and what if he loses sight of her? What the hell even happened!? And eventually there will be a large shelf of coral where some figures seem to be swimming around, perhaps some hunters or other travelers.]

[Oh, thank goodness. She swears she sees something—someone up ahead, though with all of the spinning she's doing, everything is just a blur of colours that she's not sure if she imagined it or not. And then there's Eustace, who I also a blur on the other side as he chases after her, though it never feels like he gets any closer.

So, she's just going to shout a little louder.]

HEEEELLLP!

[She tries to flip herself over, tries to swim out of the current again, but then she's slamming into something solid and the waves that have been carrying her suddenly come to a grinding halt while she's left spinning round and round, unaware that she's pressed up against a very buff chest—]

[Urgency rises when he watches her tiny form slam into something larger, but there is some relief as it was clear he wasn't going to catch her soon. Yet he still won't slow the seahorse until they are closer, pulling up just in front of them.]

Tifa, are you...

[But his words falter when he sees how the...person...is holding Tifa. She's so small, smaller than his own fingertip, and yet this...fuzzy...slug...bunny...??? Is holding her in their oversized hands veeerrrryyy close to its face.

"Ah, a blessing from the seas! My wife has finally appeared!"

.........

......................

EXCUSE!?]

[She doesn't realize that it could be a person—or whatever the hell this thing is—until she goes to thank whatever has caught her, and she gets about as far as catching her breath before she is met face to face with...]

Ah—!

[Anyone would be terrified upon seeing a giant... face??? looming over them, if one can even call it that. It's a round head with ears shaped like a rabbit, and a face so fuzzy that she can't tell if it even has eyes!? She tries to swim away when its voice booms so loud around her, but she instead bumps against its hand cupping behind her.]

What's... Who are you?

[What is it!?!?]

And excuse me, I am not your wife!

["The sea siren said that my beloved would one day find me in the currents, I think that this is what she meant..."

EUSTACE??? EUSTACE WHERE ARE YOU]

[In the next moment, there will be sharp crackle of electricity that fills the water as a lightning bullet whizzes past the side of the person's(?) head before his low voice can be heard as a growl.]

Let her go.

[Once again, Tifa tries to swim away, but now she's trapped inside between two very large hands. Just how big is this thing!? Is he a whale, too? And when that crackle and bullet whizzes past him, he dodges, swimming in a circle through the water.

"And who are you!?"

She hears Eustace, and she slams herself against the palm, and then tries to bite, but she's pretty sure that he didn't even feel it because there is not a single flinch.

"I was the one who found her! Get your own wife."]

[There's just a cold glare as he sizes up his opponent. Large... But that never mattered to him.]

Her boyfriend. And without following proper procedures or her consent, you can't call her your wife.

[Electricity crackles around him.]

Final warning.

[She tries to bite again in the same spot she had before, and this time, he does feel it. "Hey!" He frees her by lifting a hand, and she starts to float upward out of his palm.

"Then you'll just have to fight me for her."]

... I don't think you want that.

[She would fight him herself if she could!!!]

[Well. Eustace did say "final warning."

So he won't entertaining this any longer, and instead the next moment there's something like a loud crack as he snaps his tail and suddenly lunges forward, that electricity discharging directly at the weird slug bunny man for a powerful, concentrated blast.]

[The seabunny holds up his hands, almost in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, hey man! Let's just talk—"

Tifa tries to dart out of the way, but in all the commotion, she gets swept up in another (less aggressive) current. The seabunny tries to grab her, but by the time he reaches up, he's getting zapped by the electricity. He's too stunned to shout at first, his entire body seizing up, and then he withers to the ground.]

[Knowing Tifa would likely pop out, as soon as she's released he'll reach up and gently capture her in his hands instead while the seabunny writhes on the ground.]

Are you all right?

I think so, A little dizzy, but...

[She stares up at him confused, those little ears wiggling. And if he looks very carefully—very, very carefully—he might spot the two tiny red dots where her eyes are. They are almost pinpoint size, though, but if she were any bigger than a finger, they'd obviously be wide.

And her voice is still tiny.]

What...? Either you got way bigger, or I'm...?

[This is... So...

Ignoring the groans, he'll just carefully swim back away from the should-be-corpse-be-grateful-they're-still-alive, and holds her up closer to his face.]

You're... A slug?

[The ears twitch, turning back towards the groans, and then back towards him and in her indignation, she hops a little on his palm.]

A what!? But I was just... [A mermaid?] What happened!?

[Oh that's actually pretty cute and funny, and his lips quirk as he tries not to laugh.]

Hold on...

[He glances around and notices the fallen seabunny has a reflective surface on its chest armor. Swimming over, he deliberately whips his tail against their face, giving them another electric shock to stun them as he holds Tifa down to it so she can see.]

Here. Maybe more like a rabbit... Slug.

[Ignoring the pained cries of the seabunnymanthing as well as the look on Eustace's face (yeah, she saw it!), Tifa stares down at herself in the mirror, scooting over to the edge of his palm to get a better look, and when she sees herself, she lets out a scream and shoots upward in surprise. Please catch her.]

I'm a slug!

[She repeats it, and her ears wiggle to guide herself in the water, like little kicking feet when she has none.]

How...? Did something happen with the potion?

[He will indeed catch her while again trying not to laugh.]

I guess so... I know my form is part eel, but I wouldn't have guessed yours was different from a fish.

{She had the fishy tail!]

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