[SE] use your head

please just don't forget me Their path towards the Drowned Gardens has, fortuitously, one might say, taken them through the Spiral Marketplace, where a leviathan-turned-demigod finds himself in sudden need of a snack. And so they stop for lunch before moving on, accompanied by (at the recommendation of a stall owner) a sack filled with carefully propagated seagrass adorned with frond-like, lilac flowers. Plant them, the owner had requested, they might bring a little colour to the place. Of course, even though he's traded out scales for legs and gills for a manta crystal, Ronin is still dutifully pulling his husband along by way of an underwater piggyback. I have no idea why we don't just travel like this all the time, he muses as the first of the strange statues come into view, and the central tower looms up and around them.

& my heart ran away from me

Probably because it is much easier for people to come and speak with us this way. Remi answers quickly, before surprising even himself with his honesty. Chuckling, he presses his lips behind his husband's ear and sighs hard enough to send a stream of bubbles curling into the Nova's dark hair. Though if we are going to spend more time around the Mer, maybe we should try and get some more appropriate shifts. I think you would make a great sea-horse. Remi adds thoughtfully before pressing another kiss against the side of Ronin's neck.

Happy to be pulled along, only when they enter into the gardens properly does the Lullaby release his partner. Frowning at the statues staring at them out of the watery gloom, the Lullaby tries to stand (swim?) taller for a moment as he folds his arms across his chest. I do not know what it is, but something about seeing statues and such just appearing out of the water is weird. He thinks. Unnerving, like it is wrong somehow.

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please just don't forget me Snorting out a stream of bubbles to feel Remi's lips against his ear, Ronin grins and bounds further into the gardens, eyes peeled for trouble or curiosities. A sea-horse would be delightful, he agrees, turning his head to smooch Remi's cheek before releasing him. And you would be a wonderful crab. We'll have a whale of a time down here. Raising his eyebrows a few times - do you get it Remi, do you - and turning to the statues, Ronin adjusts his grip around the sack of seagrass. It's kind of uncanny valley, he agrees. Like they aren't creepy in and of themselves, but down here...? Yeah. It doesn't help that all the human statues are headless... Not exactly rolling out the welcome mat for them and all that. Swimming further among the statues and kelp, the Nova glances around for somewhere good to start planting their little lilac friends.

& my heart ran away from me

Did you know that sea horse males are the ones who carry the young and give birth to them? Something told Remi that Ronin would indeed know this fact, not that it stopped him from saying it. A crab? Straightening slightly, the Lullaby huffs while frowning at the back of his husband's head. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Ashetta used to call you crab kicker? Gods, that was a name he hadn't thought of in years, and now here it was rolling off of his lips. Swallowing around the memory before jostling Ronin in the ribs for his exceptional pun, the Lullaby ruffles a hand through his halo of curls and nods.

Yeah, something like that. Almost like they are not supposed to be here. Indeed, peering into the gloom he seemed to suddenly make out more and more statutes the longer and harder he looked. All of them started sightlessly (or headlessly, as it were), with hands or fins groping wildly out for their throats.

Giving the statues to his right one last grimace, Remi swam back in Ronin's direction. Dipping down, he plunged a hand into the ground and found it surprisingly firm. Having expected sand, his fingernails came away with a black-red substance that seemed more like clay than soil. Well, I suppose if those seeds are meant to grow down here, this will be alright for them?

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please just don't forget me Ronin, about to confirm that not only does he absolutely know this fact, but that he would make a wonderful seahorse father to any of their children, is caught rather off-guard by both the name - Ashetta - and (arguably) his very first moniker. His laughter comes expelled through a large jetty of bubbles, and he's left hopping on one foot after being lovingly jostled. Perhaps not a crab, then. I could never kick you, he says, his cheeks round with a smile of both affection and nostalgia. I wonder if she's out there somewhere, still... The odds say she's dead - if she wasn't, they'd have heard from her by now, after all. But gods, the naive boy in him wants to think she's holed up in some city undercover. Shaking off the thought, Ronin peers around for his husband only to find him crouched in the sand clay, and he tilts his head. Well, the other stuff doesn't seem to mind growing here, he says, leaning down as well and taking the seeds and saplings from his sack. Hopefully they'll thrive here. I didn't see anything void-y, other than the creepy statues.

& my heart ran away from me

No, I am much too fast for that. Remi agrees mischeviously. To prove this point, he rolls his shoulders to encourage wings to press out from his shoulder blades. Arguably less effective than his tentacles while underwater given how heavy his feathers were when waterlogged, but wings tended to draw fewer looks of displeasure from those they passed. No.. Remi says with a shake of his head. There is no way she would have let you—or me for that matter—become demigods without her approval. Fanning his wings out like large fins, the Lullaby smiles sadly.

Gods, don't. All we need is for the statues to rise up and start a whole new type of conflict. With a groan that had bubbles dripping upward from his lips, the Lullaby rolls his eyes before sweeping away bits of algae and small stones with his wings.

Mateo would know better than either of us by this point, but I think they will be alright here.

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please just don't forget me Of course you are. How foolish of me to even entertain the idea. Ronin smiles across at the Lullaby, resisting the urge to reach out and fuss over his wings for fear that their jaunt through the gardens - and the impromptu gardening they're doing - will be interrupted by some underwater acrobatics instead. His smile grows just as sad as he nods with agreement about Ashetta, the Nova turning his attention back to the earth beneath their hands and knees. Let's just not look at the statues too much, or talk about them any more, he suggests as he carefully presses one of the seagrass saplings into a hole he's made, gently gathering the earth around it. Don't want to tempt an uprising, do we? Mention of their son has him reconsidering everything he's just done with the planting, and he grins lopsidedly back up at Remi. We'll tell him about them, see if he has anything to say. I don't think he's even seen a manta crystal, let alone used one, but if he thinks we've done it wrong he'll probably come down here himself to fix it.

& my heart ran away from me

Can you imagine if we had something like this up on the mountain, though? Just weird statues everywhere? Not that we had visitors, but it would have stopped anyone wandering in. Snorting a touch at that and ignoring Ronin's recommendation they stop talking about them, the Lullaby cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes. You do not suppose it is Noah, do you? As a basilisk and the only one Remi could think of, certainly this was something of which the Foresake was capable.

Then again, probably not. I wonder if he is allowed out of the Hollowed Grounds, yet.

Unable to stop himself, Remi laughs openly at that such that large bubbles crown his forehead for a moment before drifting lazily upward. You are right about that. Gods it felt strange to laugh these days, what with doom lurking just across the channel from where they kept their boat moored, or to do something as innocuous as planting some lilac purely for the sake of adding colour.

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please just don't forget me Man, we should have thought of that. Shaking his head and pointedly looking-not-looking at the statue closest to him, instead Ronin focuses on planting a smattering of seagrass seeds this time. Anyone coming across them might think them even more strange a sight than the strange stone shapes all around; Remi with his waterlogged wings spread wide, Ronin with his hands stained by clay. Noah? he repeats with a raise of his eyebrows, and it takes a second or two for him to realise that the other man means Noah's basilisk shift in particular. Oof. I mean, unless he liked to behead people after he turned them to stone... Or - gods - before it. I don't know, but I imagine he wouldn't have wasted time in getting out, especially given all that's going on... Furrowing his brow, Ronin sits back on his heels, his mood lifting at the sound of Remi's mental laughter despite himself. We should go up and see him soon, he says, of Mateo.

& my heart ran away from me

Next post-war isolation season, we will do it. If ever such a time came, so help them all.

No, Remi couldn't really see the Foresaken as the ritualistic murder type either, even if he was the only one of them with the right sort of ability. Maybe there is some sort of tour we can take of the gardens where the Mer explain all of it to us. He suggests with a shrug, before properly turning his back on the statues in order to better concentrate.

Watching Ronin's fingers with the sort of intense care he used to employ only when he was painting or experimenting, Remi watched his husband work with silent admiration. We really should. The Lullaby agrees. Using a wing to try to move the cloud of silt and clay that Ronin had created with his planting, Remi glances up for a moment. Have you heard anything from Stormbreak? About how they are doing?

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please just don't forget me It's a deal, Ronin says, smiling and shaking his head. A deal, a date, and yet something he very much hopes doesn't come to fruition. (Only the isolation part though, he'll go on as many dates with Remi as he can). Do you think there already is one? Have we missed a tour group going by? Peeking up through the silt as the Lullaby wafts it away with his wing, Ronin strains to see what he apparently believes will be a Mer tour guide bobbing along. When he sees nothing, he turns his attention back to the last of the saplings and carefully presses it into the earth, before straightening up. As far as I know, Stormbreak were untouched by the meteor fall, he says. Other than that, though, I haven't heard much. All the more reason to visit, I suppose. Smiling, he offers a hand to his husband to help him up - not that he needs it in the weighlessness of the ocean. Well, I think it's safe to say there are no void creatures here either. Do you want to take a stroll through these creepy gardens with me, though, just to make sure?

& my heart ran away from me

Could be. Glancing around, even partially shifting his eyes is absolutely no help this far down where detecting movement just wasn't the same as it was when scouting the skies. Besides, I am sure it is the sort of thing we would have to pay for. Just imagine the talking to from Flora we would get if we were jailed for sneaking into a tour. Grinning slyly at the ridiculousness of it, Remi reaches out for Ronin's hand.

Half floating and half swimming upright again, the Lullaby crinkles his nose as he again peers toward the statues. On one condition. Eyebrows raised to emphasize the serious nature of what he's about to ask for, Remi leans forward before glancing skeptically to the right as if the statues might be listening.

So help me, if you bring one of these things back to our houseboat, I will only touch you naked with my tentacles for a month.

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please just don't forget me The talking to? She'd build a jail just to throw us into it. Ronin grins, and he fully expects the Doubletake would do just that to prove a point if nothing else. If she can jail two of Caido's demigods with ease, what can she do to the normal citizenry, and all that? Either way, having squinted into the murk for long enough and seeing no sign of any tour group, Ronin draws Remi forward and flush against him to hear his one condition. Laughing out a stream of bubbles, the Nova presses a kiss to the other man's cheek and links their arms so he might ferry them gently through the water. And I wouldn't blame you, he assures Remi emphatically. If one of these things ends up on our lifeboat, I want you to know I'm not responsible for it, and you should kill it immediately. For now, though, there's just waving fronds of kelp and seagrass and the quiet, uncanny presence of the gardens all around. Ronin has taken worse strolls in his life. ~FIN