The water so black that the darkness hummed
Before Maru has the chance to negotiate such terms, the man is baring a curiously fanged smile and explaining that he is something called an Ascended. Maru has heard the mouthbreathers call themselves a variety of things, Accepted and Abandoned, but this is a term he has not heard before, and the assumption that he has makes a dark brow rise. "No, I have not. I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with the term." Perhaps a little too close to revealing that he is no mere Attuned man, but it is a dance he can only manage for so long. Though reticent to reveal his race to this stranger, it has happened before. So long as they are not aware of the underwater kingdom where his people reside, or cannot reach it, he does not mind.
The touch does not bother Maru, though he does not lean in or pull away in either reaction. He is not a tactile man himself, but he is willing to accept that which he does not personally initiate. "You are welcome. Company is the only other balm for grief that time cannot supply." Delta's existence alone had helped him through the grief of losing his beloved, though she had been young enough that he could not have sunk into his misery anyway. Taking care of a child is far more important after all.
"I'm sure my thoughts on the matter would not dampen your confidence one way or the other," Maru teases, or what passes as teasing for a man like him, which amounts to smoldering eyes and the faintest twitch of a smirk at the edge of his lips.
The touch does not bother Maru, though he does not lean in or pull away in either reaction. He is not a tactile man himself, but he is willing to accept that which he does not personally initiate. "You are welcome. Company is the only other balm for grief that time cannot supply." Delta's existence alone had helped him through the grief of losing his beloved, though she had been young enough that he could not have sunk into his misery anyway. Taking care of a child is far more important after all.
"I'm sure my thoughts on the matter would not dampen your confidence one way or the other," Maru teases, or what passes as teasing for a man like him, which amounts to smoldering eyes and the faintest twitch of a smirk at the edge of his lips.
Maru
