for your next trick, i'll volunteer

[thinkbrave]

Characters: Ellie ( thinkbrave ) & Mahalia ( mellifluently ) :: closed
Date: May 21st, a little after Xion posted about the ocean. (backdating awww yeah)
Summary: Exploration! Ellie being difficult! Mahalia putting up with it! Exciting things! Exclamation marks!
Warnings: Nothing comes to mind, only hazard of dark internal dialogue so... will edit if necessary.

Comments

[mellifluently]

Mahalia and Xion had spent a little while together on the beach after they'd created it, but they hadn't explored the entirety of it, and they certainly hadn't gone out on the water. She's surprised, really, that's it's still intact, had felt some instability in the form of it and had expected it to fade, especially with how long they left it for

[thinkbrave]

She tenses right up at the unexpected voice behind her, turning fast out of habit. Her back is close to rigid, jaw clenched and her entire body prepared for some kind of fight. It's just what experience had done to her, really, made her inclined to jump to the worst conclusion.

For a moment, she just looks at Mahalia, takes in her presence and allows it to soak in that her lack of vigilance didn't just lead to her getting killed. A little shrug, and she scratches behind one of her shoulders before staring at the boats again. “Hey.”

Oh, and a recent memory kicks in. “Congratulations on making an ocean.” It sounds a bit dry, humour-wise. “I think that's classes as being an over-achiever.”

[mellifluently]

Mahalia waits calmly, doesn't take offence at Ellie's tense reaction, her slowness to respond. She's experienced similar from some of her siblings, in the past, but it does leave her curious why Ellie displays the same behaviour. Not something to easily ask about, better to wait until Ellie offers something herself, even if the other girl wasn't really very open.

She doesn't really understand how anyone could be an over-achiever, but asking might highlight the differences between her way of life and Ellie's, and she doesn't want to risk widening any more gaps right now.

"We weren't really sure it would work. Maybe we were just lucky." She smiles, gently, looking out over the waves, then back at Ellie. "Do you like the sea?"

[thinkbrave]

A little scoff - good humoured, though (for once). "Some luck. Don't use it all up on oceans." There's the slightest of smiles, although it gradually fades as she looks back over the waves, thinking. The same kind of thoughts that make her tense up and move cautiously, that cause those vicious sparks of temper.

Does she like the sea? The way it feels? She's pretty sure that she used to. In fact, she did love the sea, the excitement of going down to Cobbler's to swim every so often. The salt water felt different from creeks and billabongs. Ellie just holds her silence, for a moment, because she's carefully thinking it over. She likes honesty, more often than not, even if that's sometime's sacrificed to being flippant. "I like to swim," she finally allows. "The sea is pretty dangerous."

Last time she was in it, she'd been hit by a grey, stormy wall of water that tossed and slammed her to the shore like she was a torn off piece of bark some kid had just tossed into the froth. Without looking back to Mahalia, she asks, "how about you?