Koa's parents weren't the only ones who had been tempted to put a leash on their offspring, but Tal would have settled for a bungee cord or a safety line if it meant being able to keep up with his Dragoon buddy, who looked a hailuva lot more graceful and natural in to the water than the courier did. Still, Tal did his best to keep up. It was that or be left behind and have a panic attack!
Though the mysterious beauty and just weird fucking shit that happened and grew and lived underwater made for a pretty good distraction from his state of high-anxiety. Between merwhales, meroctopi (meroctopodes?) and the crazy architecture with its organic curves and gravity-defying spires, Tal was actually starting to forget how scared he was, or that he was breathing water and not drowning on it.
Sure, he still flinched when the light momentarily disappeared, looking around and then up with a moment of fear before realizing it was just fish, but the idea of going down a side-road to who-knew-where when there might be back-alley barracuda waiting for a pair of handsome idiots to swim past...
Tal shook his head vehemently, but the motion - aside from making his neater, shinier hair float around his head in a dark cloud - brought the tip of something into view between some buildings and he pointed to that instead with sudden interest. Mildly terrified interest, but hey, everyone started somewhere.
The top of a gigantic spiral shell was visible there, the upper floors busy with Mer and (presumably) Attuned swimming in and out of the marketplace. Even Tal had heard of it from customers in Haulani. If there was anyplace they could find unique gifts for their various girls, surely it would be there?
Though the mysterious beauty and just weird fucking shit that happened and grew and lived underwater made for a pretty good distraction from his state of high-anxiety. Between merwhales, meroctopi (meroctopodes?) and the crazy architecture with its organic curves and gravity-defying spires, Tal was actually starting to forget how scared he was, or that he was breathing water and not drowning on it.
Sure, he still flinched when the light momentarily disappeared, looking around and then up with a moment of fear before realizing it was just fish, but the idea of going down a side-road to who-knew-where when there might be back-alley barracuda waiting for a pair of handsome idiots to swim past...
Tal shook his head vehemently, but the motion - aside from making his neater, shinier hair float around his head in a dark cloud - brought the tip of something into view between some buildings and he pointed to that instead with sudden interest. Mildly terrified interest, but hey, everyone started somewhere.
The top of a gigantic spiral shell was visible there, the upper floors busy with Mer and (presumably) Attuned swimming in and out of the marketplace. Even Tal had heard of it from customers in Haulani. If there was anyplace they could find unique gifts for their various girls, surely it would be there?
