Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 10:49 AM
Seth had taken to spending more time on-deck.

Perhaps it was the fact that Maulie seemed enamoured of every ray of the moon or that her body needed so little sleep that he could think of nothing else to do to keep his mind occupied.

Or perhaps it was just that he felt better and was enjoying watching the stars turn in the particular way they seemed to here.

Maybe that was his Art as well.

Now the girl lay down below one of the sails, watching the stars and the sails that pulled the Red along.

It was beautiful. It felt good to appreciate that again.

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 10:59 AM
"Um, Seth?" Elaine asked, stepping toward the man so she looked down at him with a frown. "Are you all right? Um. Any urges to eat rats or the masts yet?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 11:03 AM
The girl sat up at Nialla's approach--or Elaine's. Despite the disturbing comfort he was getting in this body, it was hard to get around thinking of everyone else as who they appeared to be.

"Ah. No. Well, yes." the girl sniffed at the mast, scaly tongue tasting the air for a moment, "The wood is of a good quality and I am quite sure that given time, it might actually sate my hunger for a time," she smiled a little, an action that did not seem to stop for an improbably long time.

"I. I was simply admiring the sky. A. A foolish thing. And there has been such strangeness that I think I am finding comfort in such things." The grimlock shrugged some, "And. And you, Miss Ni--Elaine?"

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 11:06 AM
"It is so weird hearing Maulie talk in full sentences," she replied, and then tossed her plaited hair. "Look," she said. "Look what Alex did. Isn't it pretty?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 11:08 AM
"Stranger still to see myself speaking like an infant and wearing a skirt," she chuckled a little, looking up at the woman's hair, sighing, "Ah, I do miss my hair..." she smiled admiringly at it, "It is very pretty. What... what do you call this thing he has done?"

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 11:14 AM
"Dunno," Elaine answered. "Braids?"

She dropped to sit beside him. "I talked to Jochy. I think he's coming here."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 11:17 AM
"And... and it seems so much more intricate than..." the girl murmured some, tilting her head as the young woman sat down.

Shifting beneath Maulie's long skirt, the girl leaned forward, resting her brow on her knees for a moment before turning towards Elaine.

"Is he?" Her voice was a soft thing then before she shrugged, "That. I suppose that will be interesting."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 11:25 AM
"I'm sort of scared by all this," Elaine said quietly. "Not him coming. I told him this."

She picked at her skirt. "I told him; I'm not just keeping this all to myself. I told him I'm only sixteen. I don't know what I'm doing."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 11:29 AM
"In that we are alike," the girl said, "Though I do wish I could at least claim my age as a factor in my ineptitude with such things." Seth chuckled a little at that, looking down at her bare feet for a time.

"Then the two of you will talk and come to your understanding as best you can. It will be difficult, I think. And then it will be over." She shrugged a little before smiling over at her.

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 11:41 AM
She pulled a grimace, tucked her knees up under her arms. "You're not that much older than me," she pointed out. "You're, what, Spider's age? I...he seems all so sure about everything, and I can't be; I just don't know. Was he like that with you?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 11:50 AM
"'Sure' seems as good a word as any other," Seth said after a moment's thought. "His experiences are varied, to say the least. And I believe that allows him to... to be far more sure than you or I that he knows how the world works."

The girl quirked the side of her mouth into a smile that kept going and going until it reached her ear, "Which makes it all the more frustrating when he has predicted the world's behaviours accurately, hm?"

Though perhaps that was only something Seth experienced.

"And I am nearly a decade your elder, Miss Elaine. I. I rather think I should have caught these lessons much sooner." There was a small chuckle then, "He. In. In the few times we have spoken since our. Since our sundering, he does speak very highly of you. He. I think, perhaps, he learned a thing or two from me just as I learned from him."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 11:53 AM
"It doesn't bother me when he's right," Elaine answered. "I mean, if it bothered me, I couldn't have the job I have. Judith's been doing what she does for longer than any book can remember. She's always right. And I feel like...if I'm his now, that means I'm either saying I don't want to be sure, that I'm giving up what I could know, or I'm saying I don't intend this to last."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 11:59 AM
"I think, perhaps, that when you take Miss Judith's place as the Sea Witch, there will be little enough you can do to be anything else." The girl shrugged then, looking at Elaine quietly.

"Perhaps... Ah, perhaps, Miss Elaine, it means only that you are with him. There." The girl made a few vague gestures, "You are young. There is much time for you to see if you wish to remain with him. And if you do, then you will. And if you do not?" The girl shrugged, "Do you fear that he will take away your ability to become the Sea Witch?"

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 12:13 PM
Elaine snorted. "No," she answered. "If he could do that, this wouldn't be a question." She said it almost derisively. "The problem is that I'll never know if I start out this way. It's like saying an apple is your favorite fruit because you've refused to ever try an orange because you're scared they're better. And he seemed..."

She sighed. "All right with it. Like it didn't matter to him."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 12:22 PM
"Likely because he does not desire for you to be a repeat of his experience with me," the girl said, running a hand over the tangled knots of her hair, jealously eyeing Elaine's hair.

"And I assure you, you do matter to him." The girl sighed some, almost rolling her eyes, "And why... why imagine that he does not care for you? Why imagine that he is so eager to cast you aside?"

She inhaled a little then, "I would imagine he desires you to do exactly what you speak of. To attempt an apple as well as an orange before you decide. As you say, you are young and have not yet tasted such things."

The girl frowned a little then. Seth was beginning to relate things to food as Maulie did. How disconcerting.

"Perhaps he simply decides not to make an issue of it to. To spare your feelings."

Seth would have to speak with the man to ensure he was not picking up such habits from Seth. What a sad state of affairs that would be.

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 12:37 PM
The girl shook her head furiously. "No, no, that's not what I meant!" she exclaimed. "I know he cares! He cares...he cares so much it's dizzying," she said quietly.

She grimaced. "I mean he acted like it didn't matter if I got involved with anybody different. Like it wouldn't boother him. It reminded me of the same things he complained to you about you doing. Not putting up a fight."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 12:45 PM
"Lords, he is taking after me..." The girl sighed, running a hand over her hair.

This was all so strange to see from another angle.

"He..." The girl shook her head a little, "Miss Elaine, he likely wants you to be sure what you are doing..." She looked over at the young woman, "The effort is. I assure you, the effort to appear nonchallant is. It is no small amount of work."

Seth shrugged ever-so-slightly, "If you are worried about this, talk to him. He can tell you more."

The grimlock looked at the woman's hair again, "And would it be such a bad thing for. For you to find out what it is you desire?"

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 12:56 PM
"No," Elaine answered. "I want to. I want to be as sure as he is. But I don't know what that's going to take. Falling in love with somebody else? Is that even possible, really? Being that deeply in love with more than one person? I mean, the way he wants?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 01:02 PM
"Jochy seems quite capable of it. Perhaps it is more common than we believe," mused the girl, leaning against the mast before looking over at Elaine-Nialla. "Perhaps he simply wishes to see if it is likely to happen?" The girl shrugged.

"You were him once. What would you imagine his reasons to be?"

Was there jealousy there? Perhaps some.

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 01:15 PM
"He doesn't think like that, Seth. It's not about reasons," she said softly. "It's impulse and emotion and...he's only starting to understand reasons, I think, and that's when he...that's when all this happened. He's...I think that might be the parasite, you know?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 01:19 PM
Seth nodded some, frowning a little.

Then a lot, though that was less about the situation as a lack of muscle control.

"Then you must attempt to help him understand. And then?" She shrugged a little, "I. My Arts are stronger now. I will. I think I am ready to... to help the two of you with the parasite."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 01:24 PM
Elaine grinned. "Judith said she would help us," she said happily. "When he gets here...I need to stay out. I can't physically be part of it. But Judith will."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 01:27 PM
"Very well." The girl shrugged some. And it made sense. If they had left pieces of one another behind, it might undo the whole thing. A little bit might leak out, beyond whatever Judith was planning.

"Her expertise is. Will likely ensure success. It will be very nice to have it done. Then perhaps he will be better able to speak to you or to make whatever decisions he needs to make."

Perhaps he would be happy.

But it would be stupid to even hope for such a thing vocally.

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 01:50 PM
Elaine looked dubious. "He still only has so much to go on," she said. "Sometimes it's like talking to a little kid, you know?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 06:55 PM
"It can be. And I think I would have minded it more had I not felt such a child myself for much of it." The girl chuckled some before looking over at her, "And. And I find that he can grow when he has a mind to." She could only shrug then.

"And if not? Then your choices are still quite open."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 07:53 PM
"Are they?" Elaine asked. "It's not that easy, Seth. Sometimes one choice you make closes off every other choice you could have made. What if the decisions I make turn out that nobody wants me, or what if I get somebody hurt so bad they'd never forgive me?"

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 07:57 PM
"Unless you have some very strong plans to go out of your way to harm someone, I imagine that anything you do wrong will be easily forgiven." Seth shrugged and smiled at the girl then, "And you are young. Perhaps you will 'choose wrong' and no one on this ship will desire you. Then you will go somewhere else. And others will."

"I. I think you underestimate yourself. And the capacity of others to understand how difficult life can be."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 08:03 PM
She smiled weakly. "Maybe I overestimate my ability to fail?" she suggested.

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 08:05 PM
The girl laughed some at that, smiling broadly at Elaine then.

"I. I think that is something we share as well."

It seemed odd how much they shared.

Lovers, for example.

"And it is, at times, a good thing. It teaches caution if we are not afraid to fail a little. And. And it is a crippling thing if we are too afraid to fail, I find."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 08:17 PM
"I'm not too afraid?" Elaine suggested. "I wouldn't be able to be Judith's apprentice if I was."

She glanced at him, a rather soft smile on her face, and echoed his thoughts. "We share a lot, don't we?" she asked. "I mean beyond just Jochy."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 08:22 PM
"Perhaps not too afraid of responsibility with outside forces, with things that change you... and perhaps very cautious when it comes to others..."

And at her words, the girl laughed, smiling one of her too, too, too large smiles, "Yes. Yes, we do share quite a lot. I suppose it makes sense that Jochy would woo us so. We do seem of a kind."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 09:13 PM
Elaine shrugged, then smirked. "Jochy didn't woo me," she answered. "He kept telling me no. I was persistent," she informed him, a little sheepishly. "I think he thought I was too young, and then we switched brains, and after that it all got blurred. Really blurred. It's not so much like that anymore; I don't feel like I know everything about him."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 09:18 PM
"It sounds a shame, I think. To have been so bizarrely close to someone and then to lose it," mused the sharp-toothed girl before chuckling, "I am rather certain that putting up a fight rather made him more eager to persue, if only so that he could 'win'."

"Still. We. As you say, we do share much beyond him. And yet are such different people. I find it amusing in the extreme when I take time to think on it."


Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 09:37 PM
"He put up the fight," Elaine pointed out. "Not me. He's the one who gave in, in the end. I won."

She smiled a little. "I think it's safer now. It was dangerous then. I felt like I wasn't myself without him there; I felt lost and...alone. It was weird. Now I feel more like my own person. It's safer. I think it's better to know where one person's skin ends and another begins."

She looked thoughtfully at Seth in the other girl's body. "That was why I wondered, I think, that time I talked to you about it. About maybe we might be more suited for each other than either of us were with him."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 09:48 PM
"Perhaps I misjudge him, then." The girl smiled back at her, "I. I admit, it is very tempting to put all blame on him for such things. "And. And I am happy you have found some independence. I confess, I felt much the same way. For. For longer than I would have liked, to be sure.

And at the last?

The girl only shrugged, "Mayhaps it is so. And. And I think I am. I would not be very good for it. If only because I remain angered at the two of you."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 10:03 PM
"If I didn't have Judith around to scold me, I probably wouldn't have figured that part out," Elaine pointed out.

Then she frowned, her shoulders sinking a little. "You're still-- I mean, I guess it makes sense. It hasn't really been that long. But you're still angry? Is there anything I can do to, you know, help make you not-be angry?"

She knew how foolish it sounded, but she didn't know what else to offer.

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 10:08 PM
"Judith is a very wise woman." The admiration for her was quite plain in the girl's voice, "Indeed, many of the Fae I have known share that." And he'd only known the four.

The girl leaned forward a little and looked over at Elaine for a time, "you bedded my husband, Miss Elaine. And after you knew me. After you knew him and you knew me through him, you did it anyway. You betrayed me before you could have known me." She looked to the ground and sighed, running a hand over her head.

"And it has cooled considerably. It is irrational to feel that way towards you. Especially since I have sworn him off." The girl smiled at Elaine then and shrugged, "And I would still be your friend, if I might."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 10:16 PM
"Well, they're older than the rest of us," Elaine pointed out. "They have more time to get that way, you know?"

She smiled, shyly. "I want to be friends with you. I really...it wasn't like that, Seth. I can't explain what happened when we switched back, but...I wasn't thinking about you. I wasn't thinking that I knew you. I wasn't thinking that it was wrong or bad, I was just thinking that we were supposed to be connected and got disconnected."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 10:21 PM
"True. I hope to be so wise when I am so old." If only because being wise seemed to mean that you had some confidence in your actions.

And the girl smiled at Elaine then, "I know it. I know it was likely not something like what I imagine. I am. As I say, I... I was irrational. I am irrational in that." he looked at the deck for a time, "I only..." the girl trailed off before she shrugged.

"He was mine."

Seth sighed then before smiling at her, "I. I should like to be your friend as well, Miss Elaine. Truly."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 10:33 PM
"I hope to be so old," Elaine answered. "Or, not, really. Things must get boring.:

"I was irrational, too," she pointed out. "It's not like I don't understand. I just...you have every right to be angry. You just don't act it, really. I was surprised you were because you don't seem it."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 10:36 PM
"I. I have few enough friends, Miss Elaine. I cannot. I see no reason to cast aside someone who from the start offered to be friendly with me." She smiled at Elaine then, "And. And there is rarely a reason to act angered towards anyone."

She could only shrug, "It is. It is all a question of self-control, I think. I. I should not like to be someone who begins screaming at every thing that happens that upsets them."

And at that last?

She put her arms around Elaine's shoulders and squeezed her a little, "Thank you."

Posted by: Niabheara ni Dowd Jul 10 2008, 10:40 PM
She hugged the man-- other girl?-- back, and then kissed his-- her-- cheek, lightly. "You're a good person," she told him quietly. "I hope nobody ever hurts you again."

Posted by: Maulie Jul 10 2008, 10:42 PM
"I am not. And I think I am a nice person. Which is almost as good."

The girl returned the kiss on Elaine/Nialla's cheek and smiled, looking back at her, "I hope the same. And I hope the same for you."

Though he imagined they'd neither of them get it.