in matters of the heart -- event 3: swimming

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]/tl;dr: last paragraph

  "I wouldn't have-"

  "Yes, you would have. Don't lie to me."

  The tide washed up around her, reaching up to her stomach, staining her fur with teal specks of light. The glow, strange, ethereal, swirled within her thoughts in-between the snatches of long-lost voices. The plankton were as ghosts, surrounding an obelisk, still, staring.

  She was cold.

  "You have to stop blaming yourself for everything that happened."

  She shivered, the chill of the water so different from the warmth of those who had once watched over her. Bonfires, sweaters in the ugliest colors imaginable, tea, all of it so far away. If she reached far enough, risked burning herself in the flames, she could find that warmth again.

  "We're proud of you."

  Was that still true?

  Shaking her head, Rin surged forward into the water- with a deep breath, she ducked under, submerging herself fully in the shocking, numbing cold. Some spoke of "cold comforts," but in its own way the cold was itself a comfort, something to drive away the growing heat of summer- the last remnants of a lost warmth. She let her thoughts wander in the silence of the water, crafting useless metaphor after useless metaphor. What did it matter, so long as she was fine when others needed her?

  If she could be relied on when they needed her, that was enough.

  Breaking through the surface, she sucked in a breath, then let it out almost as quickly. Treading water, she swept her gaze over the grotto. She thought she could see others gathered on the edge, watching the bioluminescent waves light up the sand. Well, she might as well go talk to them.

  Swimming over until the water was shallow enough for her to stand in, she blinked the water out of her eyes. "The water's glowing because of bioluminescent plankton," she said, glancing around. "It's safe to swim in." Turning her head to look at the picnic blanket set up near the entrance, with various treats laid out, she added, "Or you can just sit by the water and eat. Up to you, really."

[– 2D]

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2D found that he enjoyed swimming, even though it was not an activity that he had taken part in particularly often before he and Murdoc joined Elysium. When he had been all on his own, the only bodies of water around were only for drinking out of. Even once he had been traveling around with Murdoc, they never lingered anywhere particularly long, which meant that they had never really stayed anywhere with a body of water large and free enough for swimming. Elysium, however, was different. The lanky serval had partaken in swimming several times since they had joined the mountain dwelling group, purring joyously as he swam in circles, letting the lazy waves carry him along. Murdoc often complained when he came back smelling of the sea, but the singer would always just brush him off, and his canine companion would stop any complaints he had when he saw the grin on the black eyed feline's face. Swimming was a rather small indulgence, and not even a particularly easy one given his eye problems making everything that required any sense of coordination more difficult. Despite this, 2D still found himself getting lost in it, feeling rejuvenated and happy afterward.

When the bioluminescent plankton had initially taken up residence in the water, 2D had been wary of taking his usual refreshing swim. After all, he didn't want some sort of strange foreign disease given by the glowing creatures in the water. However, 2D also trusted Rin, so when the magna emerged from the waves herself, reassuring everyone that it was safe to go in, the serval found himself grinning. Slowly, he made his way up to his paws, stretching out his especially long legs before he moved over to Rin, smiling in a carefree way, "Swimmin' sounds nice... m'glad fe water is safe t'swim in! I wasn't quite sure, considerin' fe plankton 'n' all." Once he had chatted a bit with her, the male turned his attention to the task at hand – swimming. Stepping up to the edge of the water, the long legged feline didn't hesitate before he moved forward, overcoming the initial cold shock to sink down beneath the sea and bob back up. The water soaking his fur and drenching his face made his already blurry vision even worse, but he waved an eager paw in the direction of what he believed to be the shore anyways.

2d

[fulzanin]

CLONY
[ age mover of the oblivions ]

The glowing blue water brought Clony over. It wasn't red, so that was immediately pretty good in the large bat's books. The glow was nice, oddly bright, utterly confusing. It'd never seen stuff like this before! Large wings brought the creature over, pearly white eyes wide. It took Clony a moment to realize that one of those swimming around in the glowing waves was Rin. It perched on the sand, an uncomfortable landing. It would have preferred to land on a branch or some driftwood on the shore but, alas, such was not to be. Tiny feet kicked at the sand, ears swiveling to catch the noise of speech over the waves. "Bio-whatta?" It chatters in the normal means of telepathy, at least meaning it's voice would not be drowned out by the colorful waves.

Swimming. Clony hadn't ever been a fan of such a thing. It hadn't gone underwater often, and when it did everything had been so disorienting that it had utterly refused to try doing such a thing again. Now it had this newer, heavier body. "Uh. What if we can't swim? Can I poke it? I'd really like to poke it," Clony chattered, hobbling on closer to where the waves lapped against the shore. A bushy tail swung slowly behind its form, eyeing the water with interest. Was it like a dense thicket of vines? Could it carry the glowing stuff with it? It would like to look nice and glowing all the time! "Why's this the first time it's glowed?" Clony then asked, pivoting on its feet so it could hop a couple inches closer to the damp sand.

TAGS 3/17/20:

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✧ Clony | Cloni
✧ physically easy, mentally hard
✧ nonbinary | it/its/they/their
✧ elysium | elysite

APPEARANCE.
✧ melanistic giant golden-crowned flying fox (ref.) | health: 100% | current body
— Clony is a giant golden-crowned flying fox with a melanistic pelt. It has grey rings around its eyes, and large floppy ears. Clony's webbed wings are mutated to be feathered, with fingers and long thumbs hidden. Clony has excessive fur covering most of its body, only ending just above the knees. Clony has glowing white eyes, where its pupils blend into the rest of their pearl like appearance.
— blood is white
— no accessories
— no current injuries

PERSONALITY.
✧ curious, ambivalent
✧ consistent, cautious
✧ unrelenting loathing for certain items and colors, hostile

RELATIONSHIPS.
✧ no parents | created
✧ no family name
✧ aromantic asexual | single/not looking

INTERACTIONS.
✧ physically easy | mentally hard| mental communication, elasticity
✧ will start and end fights, easy provoke | will kill
✧ allowed to powerplay peaceful actions | attack in bolded #879191 | mention [member=12578]﹝ CLONY ﹞[/member]

MISC.
✧ based off the Clones from Frogmind's Badland
✧ Clones in Badland are time, size, and form altering creatures created by an evil called the Red Eye Association. The Red Eyes realize that the Clones are dangerous and discard them in the trash. The Clones traverse the Badlands to try and take down the Red Eye Association. They are halted briefly, but return years later after the Badlands have overgrown. This time the Red Eye Association is better prepared. The Clones are chased and killed down to their last member, who hides away in the last place where non-mechanized life is sustainable. BoB Clony arrives by the Nest Transport sending them off to another universe to regroup and learn new ways to deal with the evils of the Red Eyes.

[Hope Arcanium]

Play had no hesitation in swimming in the waters. She took to it quite nicely, too. It was one of her favorite past times, feeling the cool waters flow over her shoulders, kicking the occasional fish- it was all in good fun.

That being said, the hybrid made one hell of an entrance.

She had started flying for a while, and then entered her God form, unleashing the fire and sparks as she found a good place to dive bomb into the waters. She tucked her wings into her sides, and around her body as she made contact with the water, going under.

She quickly breached the top of the water afterwards, out of that aura of flame and sparks, and had a stupid, gigantic shit-eating grin on her face as she looked up at the Elysites and visitors.

“Come on in! The water is great!”

[– 2D]

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The serval was thoroughly invested in his pleasant water activity for quite a few minutes, letting the water cascade down his slim back as he paddled around in circles. His slightly kinked tail trailing along behind him as he dipped down beneath the waves and came back up again. He knew that eventually he would need to return to the shore, just because the water soaking down to his very bones always brought with it a chill, but for now he was comfortable. His attention was pulled away from his repetitive little circles when he heard the voice – or inner voice, really – of Clony. Looking up at it, 2D swam a little bit closer to the shore before he spoke, his body bobbing up and down with the waves, "Uh, I dunno if y'can poke th'plankton from 'ere, but you c'n always poke th'water! I fink th'plankton are a bit farther down... I dunno for sure, though. Never was very good at th'science of fings." That had always been more of Murdoc's department, considering how much the canine loved inventing and experimenting with things.

2D was about to turn around and return to his idle circling when he felt an odd disturbance above, his blurry black gaze looking up towards the skies. He didn't see Playerone very clearly, instead just seeing a bleary shape of red and silver, but it still made his fur stand on end in worry. A squawk left him as soon as she hit the water, sending up a spray of mist from where she had hit. His head dipped beneath the waves in an effort to hide, tail coming to curl around his own leg. After a moment, he allowed himself to resurface, looking over at Playerone and muttering with a fair deal of jitters, "Y... Y'sure know 'ow t'make an entrance, huh miss Playerone?" He made an effort to be friendly, not wanting the other Elysite to think he was terrified of her thanks to his reaction.

2d