UUU: "Peace of Mind"

Cast: Seed (Deme) and Sally (Nerf)

TLDR:

Support Points Earned: 2

[9:10 PM] LadyDeme: The sea was light and frothy in the sunset, which edged the reflections left in the wet sand with gold. And Seed watched the waves go in and out. For a moment, the beach was smooth; then, gradually, it popped with the bubbles of clams beneath the sand, pitting the surface. His finger drew something indistinct in the wet sand. It was a simple moment, in which Seed's brain stirred like one of the clams, only the echoes of his thoughts clear from the surface. About their actions. About their task. About himself, wavery and indistinct and ready to be washed away. And he might have been glad of it. And he might have been scared of it. The poet sighed. He'd dressed fairly lightly, just a satchel and a pair of loose-legged, calf-length pants, so the sort of middle of his textural range, between his arms that seemed to be many layers of wood fused together and his softer, more paper-thin bark on his face and hands, along his torso. It had a shape that might have suggested a slender man of medium fitness, but the bark's pattern, with its occaisonal notches, reminded of the difference. But at least, it was harmless if the salt sprayed onto his bark or his leaves, though it didn't; it just lapped up at the edges of his roots as he brought them towards the water (very salty; but there was something a little fun about that.(edited)

[9:34 PM] Nerf: In retrospective, Sally was not entirely sure why she had gone to the beach that day. She had the still unfinished novel she had been meaning to read with her, sure, but that was only an excuse. As she walked down the last steps of the old stone stair that led her there, the criminal only managed to finish convincing herself she was not in the mood for reading today. But still, she continued her march until the stone under her feet disappeared to be replaced by sand, the soothing sound of the waves acting as a lullaby to her, much in contrast to the bloody confrontation a similar beach had seen just a day ago. Perhaps I just need a rest, she thought, unsure what to do now that she had reached her destination. Seemingly frozen in her place, the Branded woman directed her gaze towards the Sun setting in the distance, before finally noticing the lonely figure that was standing not too far from her. Quietly, and perhaps even feeling a bit guilty about it, Sally approached the Florkana without making a sound, unsure if her presence there was welcome or not. Stopping her approach at what seemed to be a prudent distance, she raised her voice just high enough for it to be heard, as if afraid of scaring away some fragile thought her comrade could be having. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" She broke the silence as she offered a polite smile.

[10:14 PM] LadyDeme: Seed looked up from his brown study at the sound of her voice; the good news was, his thoughts had less a train and more a disconnected series of wandering horses, and so while the thoughts scattered, it wasn't terribly bothersome. "Sally, no, not at all," Seed answered. A smile lit his face, and he turned to face her momentarily, gesturing out to the waves before him. "If you can interrupt the sea, I'd be very impressed.... And maybe just a touch concerned." He held his fingers a few inches apart, as part of the joke. Just a little concerned. Glancing at her, he noticed the book under her arm and his expression brightened considerably, from a sort of pensive satisfaction to something more tinged with eagerness. "Ah, were you here to do some beach reading?"

[10:35 PM] Nerf: "It's not stopping? Hmm..." Sally looked at the waves, in a way that made it seem like she was terribly bothered by the fact they were still moving. "Maybe I just need a little more practice", she joked as she extended her open palm towards the sea, as if trying to hold it back with just a gesture before quickly giving up. "Yep, definitely a practice issue." "Oh...sort of", she unconvincingly replied at Seed's question at the same time her gaze turned towards the book she was holding. "I think it'd be more accurate to say I was hoping coming here would get me in the proper mood to read, but so far it's not working." "Anyways, what about you?" She asked Seed in return as she carefully put the novel down and removed her shoes to step into the water.

April 21, 2018

[9:29 AM] LadyDeme: "Well, I'm sure you'll manage eventually; I'm sure you're very capable of it," Seed replied, faux-encouraging in a way that was almost so earnest-sounding, in his usual gentle way, that only the slight tilt of his head and twinkle in his eyes suggested that he was kidding. "Ah, unfortunate; finding it hard to get into?" He asked, his energy quieting and his brow furrowing with worry. Well, so things were sometimes. "I was here to think, I suppose. About what we've been doing, and what's next. It's a little rough on me, personally. I'm sorry," he added, a suggestion dawning on him that Sally had seemed by and large a person to whom this was not deeply phasing, that he was probably a weight on something like this. "I think I'm rather out of place in all of this. As it turned out to be."(edited)

[3:09 PM] Nerf: "No, it wouldn't be fair to blame the book for it", she reassured him. "It's just that...well, I have a lot of things on my mind lately. I simply haven't been able to concentrate enough to give it the time it deserves. Actually, I haven't even made it past the first chapter." Sally admitted with some slight embarrassment. Upon hearing Seed suggesting he was not quite suited for what they had gotten into, the Branded woman simply nodded in agreement, without even trying to convince him that was not the case. "Aren't we all, though?" She wondered in a way that made it hard to tell if she was asking the Florkana or herself about it. "I can assure you fighting an ancient race most people aren't even aware it exists was not in my plans when I signed up for this. Hell, I was hoping not having to fight at all." "Then again, it doesn't matter." She shrugged off. "I'm well aware I can't compete against such a formidable opponent, as it has already been proved by us getting fooled again and again. But that's not going to stop me." She declared with utmost conviction. "I simply cannot afford to fail...and neither can you, or am I wrong?" Sally gave Seed an inquisitive look.

[8:06 PM] LadyDeme: "Take your time," he said with a nod, before turning to the larger question at hand -- and back again to the sea. He rather appreciated the lack of argument about this; something like that would be silly. "You've always struck me as very competent in such matters, even if it might not be what you prefer. This is my first time...dealing with so much... All of it," he waved, abstractly; not at the sea, and not at the sky, but at war. At mistrust. At battles. At never knowing who anyone was. Well, perhaps not that. He smiled at that conviction, but then he paused. And he considered. And he thought about it for a while longer. He thought about himself, and his home, and his place in the world. "...I'm not sure. I couldn't bear thinking that that poor neighborhood, where I live, would be in trouble: this all begins with the Arbor Aurelius, after all... But if I couldn't earn their pride, what would change? I cannot bear to think of Marcia tangled up in this -- and I'd like to thank you for your aid in all of this -- but if she's not, then what would my involvement change?" He sighed, heavily. It might have been a freeing thought. But it felt somehow like a weight, like he was hollowed out from the inside. He smiled. "The world cannot afford it, that's true. And I... have no wish to fail... I worry more that I'll drag us down, rather than thinking that I am the one who can't afford failure; I can lose things rather well."(edited)

[9:54 PM] Nerf: "I suppose you have a point there," Sally smiled modestly as she accepted the compliment. "But believe it or not, I wasn't always like this. There was a time when I wouldn't have been able to consider the idea of getting close to a battlefield, and much less stabbing someone. Looking back on it, I was pretty lucky to even make it this far on the first place." "What I'm trying to say..." she continued after carefully considering her words, "...is that no one is born ready. It might be a strange thing for someone like me to say, but I'd be surprised if anyone could get used to this sort of life so quickly. I know it took me a while, after all." Pausing for a second to watch the Florkana's reaction, Sally quickly resumed her speech before he could get a chance to reply: "I'm sorry, am I being too preachy? I'm not trying to compare our situations here, even if that's exactly what I ended up doing," she apologized sincerely. "Still...I'm afraid I cannot offer much more. I know it would not be a great help if I tried to convince you you are suited for this when it's clearly not true, or if I lied and told you good intentions are enough when I don't even believe that. So I guess I'll have to conform with telling you I don't think you have been dragging us down so far; and that, while they might be small, your contributions to this group have nonetheless been of help. It's a meagre comfort, I know, but maybe because of that you can tell I truly mean it."

[11:51 PM] LadyDeme: "...I appreciate that," Seed answered, with a little incline of his head, his shoulders relaxing. It was fairly clear that he meant that -- Seed was cautious about overwhelming flattery, as much as part of him liked it -- or, perhaps, because he wanted something like that so much, he was cautious. But he believed her. "There's an extent to which I... I suppose I wouldn't want to be completely used to it. It's a hard thing, and I... feel somewhat bad, thinking that." It was an understatement. He waved it off. "It's fine. I'll be fine, I think...Well. You spoke more to Miss Meredith, back in Rettati, than anyone else." He paused, and fidgeted with a leaf between his fingers, and the sand between his unfurling roots. They could look quite foot-like, when he wanted them to, but if Sally looked down, she'd see his legs ending in spidery tendrils, drawing patterns into the sand as they rose in and out of it like sea serpents. Around them seemed to be... Yes, a sort of seashell shape, drawn out by his roots, like an exagerrated nautilus shell. "...Do you feel, just, perchance -- and maybe it's only me, that feels this way... But perhaps uneasy? About leaving her in that situation?" His brow furrowed, and then, more firmly, "I mean with Jo; I wish I could have done more. That Jo might claim to care, if pressed, I think, justifies little of her behavior to her -- love demands better, to be worth any consideration as love." To him, that felt hypocritical, perhaps, for reasons he'd have had a hard time untangling for an audience. Still, there probably wasn't a better one, even if the question stabbed at him a little. He still did believe -- even if just meant he was a failure.(edited)

April 22, 2018

[12:21 PM] Nerf: The sudden change in topics didn't go unnoticed to Sally, for which this could only mean two things: either this was an issue that had been plaguing Seed for a while now, or he was trying to drive the conversation away from where it was going. For the moment, she was inclined to believe it was the first option. "I suppose I'm not a fan either," she replied with caution. "But that's not my call to make. I've already done what I can, and that's no small thing given the sides we were fighting in. In the end, it was her decision to stay with her." Driving her gaze away from Seed as if she was ashamed of what she was saying, Sally chose to stare at the horizon instead, "Desperate people often cling to whatever they can, even when it's not the best for them. If she were to leave Jo, I don't think Meredith would have a place to go. Sometimes it's easier to choose the evil you know than the one you don't. In a twisted way, I believe Meredith considers herself lucky to be in the situation she is." "It's a shame really," she admitted this time looking at Seed once again. "But who am I to tell her how to live her life? Even despite everything we have said, it is evident she still cares a lot about Jo."

[12:37 PM] LadyDeme: Seed listened to that for a moment, tilting his head thoughtfully. There was a fair bit of truth in Sally's words -- and yet, as she went on about it, Seed couldn't help but feel that the explanation was...Not for him. Or, for him loosely, in a way he had little use for. "You forgot that sometimes, people want to believe in someone, that someone loves them -- or that their own feelings of love can cloud out all reason," he added, with another twinge of pain in his heartwood that spoke from some of his feelings. "... I think that explanations like that be just an effort to pardon ourselves," He answered, after mulling it over. Delivered with a sad smile, all he could do was shrug. "After all, I can't say... That I'm unfamiliar with these feelings. No, it is frustrating. And it is sad -- and that all you said was true cannot be treated as some sort of consolation. Rather, it only deepens the feeling." That was how he felt about it, put plainly. "...I think it's better to accept that feeling. Perhaps, one day, I won't be a person so powerless as to do nothing for someone like that. I cannot think there's a shame in being troubled by it. I only wished to know if you shared it. And to speak of it, a while." He reached down and looked down at something, maneuvering his roots to bring it to the surface. An empty spiral-shell. He picked it up and attempted to brush the sand off. He let the rest of it slide. "...Sally, may I ask a rather personal question, unrelated to that matter?"(edited)

[1:08 PM] Nerf: Slowly nodding as she listened, Sally reflexioned on Seed's words for a while before answering back to him, with the careful attitude of one that knows she is treating a delicate issue. "There is some truth to that, I think." Was her succint conclusion. "I'm not exactly the best person to ask when it comes to love, so I'm afraid I'll just have to take your word for it," she chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood. "And yet, I cannot help but wonder if there are any words I could have said that would serve as consolation. Perhaps you'll just have to excuse my lack of expertise in the matter, but I get the feeling your issue is not one that can be alleviated with words. Not from me, at least." Shaking off her own feeling of powelessness upon not being able to find the right words, something that was not very used to, Sally accepted the new question with gratitude, glad to be able to take the conversation in a direction she was more familiar with. "I suppose it's only fair you do, given all you have told me. I can't make any promises about my answer, but there's no wrong in asking."

[2:00 PM] LadyDeme: "...I don't think I need to be consoled about it; rather, just knowing you share my unease makes me feel more comfortable in it," said Seed, in a comforting tone. It wasn't like he'd asked seeking the situation fixed, somehow, though he couldn't help but ultimately smile at the effort. He turned his question over as he did the shell, polishing it up somewhat. It was perhaps an overly personal question, though she knew his own answer already (in a thought that got a little smile from him, if he looked at it sometimes) "...What exactly is it you do, ordinarily? I'd taken you as some sort of mercenary before this point, but it seems unlikely, at least as a soldier of fortune sort, given what you said about not wanting to fight here... And, too, that there's something at stake you can't afford to lose."

[2:46 PM] Nerf: Oh, so that is what he wants to know. Without opening her mouth, Sally wondered how much should she be telling him. Embellishing her job was something she was used to, and she certainly knew better than flat out admitting she broke the law for a living. However, there was also no point in denying she was involved in some shady stuff. After all, her reputation was not exactly a secret, and any lies she told could be easily exposed later on, as she was well aware of. "I guess you could say I work in the information business." She finally decided for an answer. "I happen to be very good at finding secrets, and there is always someone that is willing to pay for them, or to keep them hidden. Maybe it's a mercenary band that wants to know where a criminal hideout is so they can get the reward before someone else does, or a savvy politician that wants to expose a scandal that could bring his rival down. Sometimes maybe even someone from the goverment that wants to catch a corrupt officer that has been stealing from the royal arks. That sort of stuff. If there's anyone that can give you an answer to those questions, it is probably me...for a price, of course."

[2:46 PM] Nerf: "And, I suppose I may also branch out into some other jobs, from time to time," Sally admitted. "But you need not concern yourself with those. If you go asking around you might end up hearing some nasty rumors, but they are just that: rumors. I know that because I've spread some of those myself, so please pay no attention to them. As you'll understand, if you want to survive in a business like this one, you have to be able to mantain a certain image," she winked with some complicity. Casually rolling up her pants as she walked deeper into the sea, Sally's carefree attitude made it seem like she had just told Seed she worked as a wheat farmer and not something else. "As for what I can't lose...well that one is a bit more personal. So lets just say this is not my first encounter with the Dagaz. If you allow me to be crude, I would simply say I'm here for vengeance. Not a very noble reason, right?" She smiled innocently.

April 23, 2018

[4:08 PM] LadyDeme: It was a lot to take in. A lot. And he had to make a lot of snap judgement calls about how he felt about things quickly, and the answer was that, for the most part, he would live with it; while he worried about it, he couldn't say someone doing what it took to get by was a bad thing, and he'd try to be understanding. "I...see. I'll bear that in mind, then," he answered, slowly. At her innocent smile, he had to chuckle and give his head a little shake. "Probably not. I can't say I understand vengeance well, outside of its functions as a literary theme -- it is, after all, one of the greats; but I suppose there's no worthier target for it."

[9:52 PM] Nerf: "It's not as bad as it sounds," Sally felt the need to clarify upon seeing Seed's succint reaction. "That is simply how Naxos works. Show one sign of weakness, and you can bet you won't be lasting for long. But believe me, I am not one to go looking for trouble. It's the mercenary and assassin bands you have to be wary of. My business is a peaceful one." This time the criminal didn't return the chuckle, but she did also nod in response. "You flatter me, but I'm afraid how worthy of a target they are does not matter much to me," she clarified. "However, I would prefer if we did not waste this beautiful sunset talking about such grim topics. Would you mind if we changed the subject to something more...trivial? I have an urge to distract myself for a while after all what's been happening lately."

April 24, 2018

[9:27 AM] LadyDeme: "Ah, thank you for the clarification; it rather eases a sensitive heart." He smiled warmly, and looked back out to sea. That soothed his conscience somewhat, though he did worry, in a private way, that she thought him a terrible stick in the mud. Still, he spoke with that relief, anyway, and would save the rest for his private train of thought. "That would be fine," he said, gladly looking on the chance to change the topic from dwelling on worrying about the state of the world and people in it. "What's on your mind?"

[7:44 PM] Nerf: "You know, I've been wondering about this for a while, but...how exactly did you end up becoming a writer?" She gave Seed an inquisitive look. "Wether it's because they are rare or because Beorc aren't too open minded when it comes to literature written by other races, I can't say I have seen many books written by Florkana. Given how different our cultures are, I find it most intriguing how someone like you would initially manage to make a name for himself in our bookshelves. I can't imagine it being easy." Sally's compliment was accompanied with a polite nod, as if she was giving Seed an indication this was the perfect time to boast about his own work to an interested audience.

April 25, 2018

[12:55 PM] LadyDeme: "Ah, that's..." Seed considered the wealth of depth to this answer, the sheer array of possibilities. "Actually, it sounds like those are two separate questions. The first being 'how did I end up being a writer' and the second being 'how did I end up with such a strong Beorc audience'; the latter is easier, so I suppose I'll start with that..." Seed folded his hands together, his face reflecting before he even began that array of emotions he felt on his status as a writer well-respected among Beorc -- a bit of amusement, and a little bit of disappointment, or shame, too. Even while he smiled, his brows knitted together, a few branches subtly weeping downard. "For one, I think being a Florkana has likely helped me -- probably, if I were to be frank about my suspicions, more than my writing does. It gets around, curiosity; because Florkana are so uncommon, having course with the larger world, I could be remarked up...And shown off. As much as a sideshow as a writer. But as for the cultures being different... That was never an obstacle for me -- at least, not in dealing with Beorc." He gave a little shrug, half-hearted, as his gaze fell about, across the sunset shoreline, where an aurora played out in the shadow of the surf, where a single shell fell in and out, tossed by the tide. He saw his segue into the second, harder question there, in its motions, in his motions. He dipped his head and, perhaps with a little glimmer of apology in it, answered: "...I honestly have lived 'most of my life' among beorc; their society was my first society."

[10:38 PM] Nerf: "Really?" Sally rose one eyebrow at the Florkana, genuinely surprised at this revelation. "I had no idea. That sounds like a story I would like to hear." Now that she had learned something new about her comrade, a flood of questions waiting to be asked filled Sally's mind. For starters, she had an obvious curiosity about how and why did Seed end up living among Beorc instead of his own kin, but that was only the tip of the iceberg: What did other Florkana think of this, how hard was it to adapt to his own culture, which one of both societies was he more comfortable in, if any at all, were only a few of the numerous questions she started to formulate in silence before discarding them moments later, for one reason or another. There was even a particularly morbid part of her that toyed with the idea of comparing the treatment Beorc had given to Seed with the one she herself had received, but she quickly decided that that was something she was better off not knowing. Instead, Sally simply reprimed all her doubts for a moment, aware that there was still a part of her question that Seed had yet to answer, and deciding to wait for that before asking anything else: "But lets not get carried away. I believe you were telling me how did you become a writer? If it's not a bother, I would love to hear the answer to that," she declared as her own gaze chased after Seed's, curious to see what had caught his attention.(edited)

[10:57 PM] LadyDeme: "Ah, yes. Well, they're related. Sort of, I suppose," He crossed the bit of beach toward the shell, and knelt down to pick it up from its lonely tossing in the tide. His fingers brushed its pink-striped ridges, getting a little of the sand off. "My introduction into society began with one man, Father Cornelius, and his home was sort of a part of that ‘how’. ‘To ask how I became a writer is to ask how a fish learned to swim’; at times I say that, but... It belies the effort we both undertook -- it forgets Father Cornelius' tremendous kindness, and his patience." He was leaving out a fair bit, which was relevant and was not relevant to his story; not out of shame (not primarily), but because it was such a ball to unravel.
"You’ll have to forgive me if I tell things a bit out of context. But when I was learning from him, and had made considerable progress, he showed me his library, full of old philosophy and classical poetry. It was still largely meaningless to me at the time, but he explained -- and again, and again, because I could scarcely believe him -- that everything there, aside his own accounts, was something someone else had written, that someone else had had to say, their thoughts and ideas and constructions of the past. All of it, every last bit, was a person speaking: to me! They were dead and I could know them; I could understand them, if I only worked for it. “At that moment... I felt something. The awe of standing before a tsunami and recognizing one's own powerlessness and the beauty of the wall of water before it becomes terror; the wonder of a mountain summit, where the light seems so bright that the thin air is a different element, and all the world below is a cauldron of cloud and mist; the shiver up your spine of old temples, where the stones are cool and have their ages in them, where your footsteps are the whispers of long-ago worship. It was all of those things."

[10:58 PM] LadyDeme: "I had no conception to describe it then, only, stumbling to it out of a handful of ideas, 'Prayer.' I felt that this was what Father Cornelius meant, when he spoke of connecting to this grand, loving, unseen force with the words of his heart." Seed paused and considered this for a long moment. He shook his head and chuckled, the fervor dying from his gestures, which constrained themselves once more -- his speech became calm and soothing, unlike its dramatic rises and falls of before. "I got a little off-topic, perhaps. But I loved those books, and the poems most of all, for that feeling. I tried a few of my own, eventually. There was so much I wished to say... And they were laughable, I think, but I was encouraged anyway, and I felt both pride and relief from them. There, from that point, it was a matter of a fish's cut through the water, a bird's through the air. And after Father Cornelius passed, and I was left on my own, I took to it in earnest, to make a way for myself; the thought of reaching out to someone, leaving a legacy as my heroes had was... Exciting, and it soothed some of the grief of my loneliness, and, perhaps more importantly, I found it had become necessary to me." He blinked again, stretching himself as if he was awakening from a sort of waking dream, mulling what he'd said over with a scrutinizing purse to his lips. "...I hope that included an answer to your question somewhere in it, for I thank you for letting me say it. Did it?"(edited)

April 26, 2018

[9:36 AM] Nerf: "Wow." Sally concluded after a dramatic pause, a practiced gesture to give more weight to her words. "Yes, I believe that answers it. Thank you." And yet, even among that sea of words that answered even more than she had asked (but not more than she wanted to know), Sally couldn't help but notice there was still a part of her question missing, either pushed aside to give her time to process the whole story, or forgotten as Seed got carried away in his own passion. "However," she gave the Florkana a kind smile, lest Seed believe her further questioning meant she was in any way not satisfied with his answer, "I think that only covers the why, not the how. I'm sure those details pale in comparison with the raging storm that is you passion for writing, but I'm interested in them nonetheless. Writing is only half the way to stardom after all. If I'm allowed to make a wild guess, I assume this was not the last time you were living inside Beorc society, or am I wrong?" Letting the silence fill the air, she paved the way for Seed's answer, her attention acting as the fuel that would hopefully ignite more words out of him.(edited)

[9:22 PM] LadyDeme: "Well, to some extent, calling that home Beorc society is perhaps putting it grandly -- but no, I went out and saw cities and towns. I think that the why is how I became a writer -- I wrote," he said, with a bit of amusement, before he shrugged and shook. "I wouldn't call it stardom, but all the same. I started out small, a mere wanderer drifting through the world. I needed little, but I mostly supported myself through odd-jobs... But I read my work amid streetcorner bustle and amid the scent of food and drink, rather than trying to sell a volume-- until I had a volume of it. Then, I peddled it around through any town that might have had a bookmaker who could be of some assistance... Until one decided to help me make and distribute copies. From there, I kept working -- I'd call that eventually people with money noticed and chose to support me a result of luck, rather than effort, for while I put forth constant effort, that was simply buying me opportunities for luck. I know writers whose work is swear and tears, but they have no fortune. So much of surviving in the name of art is accepting a certain servitude to fortune on one hand, and to on the other to fortitude." He said, almost a little disappointed in this -- and perhaps touched a little with pride, the flow of the sunset and the glow of satisfaction reflecting off his face.(edited)

[10:01 PM] Nerf: "That's quite an interesting life you have led," she nodded, seemingly now satisfied with his answer. "But I don't think you are giving yourself enough credit. It's not about the opportunities life gives you, but about what you decide to do with them. Anyone can look back and say they got lucky, but you never know what others would have done in the same position. At least, that is what I like to believe." Walking back towards to the shore, Sally sat down at the edge of the water, her feet just far in enough to be touched by it every time the tide rose. Leaning back in that position, the Branded woman turned her gaze towards the sky, at the same time she calmly moved her legs following the rythm of the waves. "Thank you," she expressed once again. "I really needed this. It's been a while since I got a chance to relax and distract myself with a casual conversation." Looking away from the skies to face the poet once again, Sally offered Seed a grateful smile: not the perfect, practiced smile she was so used to show; but a candid, warm and unpolished one, much rarer and valuable than the former.

April 27, 2018

[7:20 PM] LadyDeme: "Perhaps; I certainly would say I worked hard with what I had the chance to, anyway," he offered as a sort of agreement -- but there was, he knew, more than his quality of work that had gotten him noticed. Of course, there was more than his race that had gotten him hired -- there was a balance, somewhere. "Ah, you're welcome. It's nice to be able to set one's mind at ease with another person." Seed sat beside her, letting his feetroots taste the salty water, and letting the sand stir like the bottom of a mangrove swamp about them. He'd likely need to wash the salt off later, carefully, but it was a fun little experience, for the moment. And it was at ease, distracted from his worries, which could, shared, lie peaceful for a while.

[9:57 PM] Nerf: Allowing her full weight to fall backwards, Sally lied on the sand, her head resting over both her arms as she looked at the sunset, forgetting for a moment about her worries. On this instance there was no follow-up question, nor even a casual remark, or anything that could resemble a conversation. And yet, it wasn't an akward silence, but a tranquil and comfortable one, that lasted until the last ray of light had disappeared beyond the horizon, when she gave her goodbyes to Seed and each of them went on their own ways. That night, for the first time in weeks, Sally had a peaceful night's sleep.

[9:57 PM] Nerf: ==END RP==