Open Mist and Waves (Ricky)

[Arundel]

513 AV, 60th day of Summer
Zeltiva's Docks

A gull cried overhead, but she couldn't see it. Thick fog was everywhere. So thick that she couldn't see any further than maybe 20 feet away. Arundel sat on the edge of a dock, looking out at the wall of white. The dark sea water lapped regularly at the wooden posts that disappeared into its depths, buried somewhere below in the ocean floor. It was a pleasant sound, but she could tell this wasn't the Suvan. She wasn't sure what it was. It smelled and looked different. She could smell the salt in the musty air, thick with mist and humidity. Her dress stuck to her skin, and her curls clung to the nape of her neck. A lot of people would be disgusted by the muggy air, but she loved it. Arundel licked some salty perspiration from her upper lip.

She looked over as a pelican landed heavily on a post a few feet down. It flapped wildly, then settled into a comfortable position. Absently, it cleaned under its left wing with its long beak. The loose pouch underneath flapped comically, and she grinned. They were such awkward looking animals, yet a little regal, nonetheless. Pristine white feathers with a hint of the lightest pink she'd ever seen decorating its breast, and a gold-orange beak that could probably do a lot of damage. It looked up at her with a pair of clear, black eyes, then went back to preening. Arundel turned away, giving it some privacy. She wouldn't want to be stared at while grooming either. Or was it bathing?

She smiled to herself, wagging her legs lazily over the slightly choppy waters. Her feet danged just a few inches out of reach, and she wiggled her bare toes. Her boots sat next to her, leaning up against the nearest post. Absently, she peeled the sweaty hair from the back of her neck and smoothed it over one shoulder, letting it tumble down in a mess. The neck of her dress was wide, exposing most of her shoulders and scooping low, letting her skin breath. It hugged her waist tightly, then fell loose from the hips. She had the skirts pulled up past her knees, piled on her thighs and her arms resting on the bunched up fabric. The perfect pillow for her elbows.

One arm was propped up, and Arundel's chin rested on the heel of her hand. She tapped her lips rhythmically with her fingernails, sometimes chewing on one. A bad habit.

[Ricky Maze]

Warm. No cold. Cool maybe? Perfect all the same. As he floated on up from the depths Ricky found himself curled into a comfortable fetus position, eyes groggy as he cracked them open to find liquid darkness as far as the eye could see. He stretched out with breath held as he found the world around him to be the one thing he knew well, the ocean side that rested next to his home of course. Why he was here was irrelevant thus didn't matter, he enjoyed the feel of the water as floated on up. With his body awake, or so he felt, he looked up to the surface to see a glimmer. a glimmer and a shape that wait above, and from that shape other shapes dipped playfully inside in the water. "Huh, wonder who this be." He quirked with a furrow in his brow, curiosity aroused as he propelled himself to the surface. Ricky stroked and kicked steadily through the water with a sense of peace, a sort of calm serenity somehow filled his mind as he just approached to the surface. His arms and legs worked accordingly to rise him further on up, and as he came to breach the surface he released the air within his lungs as though it were a mere sigh.

The man had to wipe out the water from his crystal blue eyes after he broke the surface of the water, the world around him a haze that never seemed to lift after several attempts to clear his vision. Until he realized this wasn't exactly just a haze!this was in fact a fog that clouded the view of his home. All that he could see was the dock he surfaced next to, and a woman that sat at its edge with fingers at her lip. She seemed rather occupied by thoughts, either that or she clearly just enjoyed sitting alone. She looked rather relaxed as though nothing really bothered her, so Ricky could only assume that she was relaxed. Definitely well toned as far as her skin goes, as if she had seen plenty of days with the sun.

"Had me fair share too." Another quirk as he thought about the wild wave of humidity that clung over the city, it wasn't but merely some odd days ago that a storm finally broke out on the city. He wasn't sure if she had noticed him just yet, he was rather calm when he surfaced after all. The way the ocean felt to him was just amazing though, almost as if he were actually one with the element that surrounded him. For all he knew he probably was. As the waves and currents churned around him he felt as though the sea had a heart of its own, and for the first time he actually paid attention to its feel. "Can't say I've not seen ya 'round b'fore, either that or I just haven't noticed ya." He stroked his arms outward to swim a little closer, until the docks edge was finally in arms length.

With his left arm stretched up he grasped at the wooden plank, a slight creak at the sudden applied pressure. His scar on his left shoulder was present as he only had on a vest and pair of trousers, which both only slightly weighed him down as he pulled himself up onto the dock. His clothes still dripped from being soaked when he finally settled on the squeaky planks, the warm air a pleasant and welcome feeling on his wet skin as he looked around. "Curious. The city's rather quiet now, wonder if everybody's only gettin' up and 'round." He mused with a bit of a chuckle, a curious look to the woman next to him.

[Arundel]

The voice startled her with its suddenness. Arundel jumped visibly and looked around, eyebrows quirked in curiosity. Her mouth hung open with an unspoken question, and confusion swam across her face just the same as Ricky swam below. She looked down when the boards next to her creaked. A pair of hands appeared, then arms, a head, shoulders, and the rest of the body of a very large man. Her eyes widened slightly, and Arundel quickly scooted out of his way as water poured from his streaming figure and onto the dock. It may be the most sudden, oddest appearance she had ever witnessed. He squatted and sat on the ledge next to her, all rippling muscle and effortless movements. Her eyes glazed over a little as she stared at his big bare arms.

His voice came again, internally shaking her from her oogling. He spoke in Common, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Of course. Most of the words she couldn't grasp a meaning. They were foreign, and his accent was strange to her. Arundel stared dumbly at him, lips parted and brows furrowed as she tried to piece together something that had come out of his mouth. "What is ya?" she asked carefully in heavily accented Common. She paused on that strange two letter word. It sounded like the first half of yuck, which she knew was an exclamation of disgust. The man paired it with round, which she also knew was a shape. A few others like can't, not, seen, etc. Arundel understood as well. But mixed with his slang, which she just thought was an accent, threw her off.

And he mentioned a city. Her lips pursed, and she looked at the wall of mist. Their dock disappeared on either side into the impregnable fog, leading to who knew where. "Where city?" There was his use of round again. Arundel frowned. "City is round?" This was already Common slang overload for her. Frustration furrowed her brows deeper. "Who you?" she asked in confusion, signing her people's word for name. Some random man pops out of the ocean and starts prattling to her in a less than familiar language, and expects it to be casual. The level of weird for her was through the roof.

[Ricky Maze]

When she spoke he couldn't help but notice her confused expression, her words carefully chosen as she questioned him with just a few. "She must be a foreigner, judgin' by the sound o' her words." His brow furrowed a bit in curiosity as he tried to think of a way to explain things to her, more so help her understand him better since the two couldn't likely understand one another. "I mean ya, as in ye yer self." He carefully pointed to her as he said this, hopeful to avoid the chance of sounding offensive to her. "Me name's Ricky lass, do ya've a name t' give?" He gave a gentle smirk as he tried to figure out out to explain the "round" part, he didn't think it so hard to try and clear up his words with such strong slurs. Living your whole life with nothing but slang sort of made it harder to seem clearer for some reason.

"Ho'kay Rick, ye got this mate." He enthused to himself in secret as he looked around, the endless amount of fog veiled the view of the city as he tried to listen for the sound of activity. His expression became one of intrigue as he heard nothing, nothing but the waves as they washed from what sounded like all around. "I meant 'round as in," he looked to her with a relaxed grin and brought a finger up, a twirl to follow as he drew a circle in the air, "all 'round us, ye and me lass." He could only hope he was making sense to her, unable to speak anything but Common so fluently he doubted the conversation would go so far so easily. Unless she knew Fratava fluently, which in this case could be unlikely to be. "Do ye know the Common tongue much? If any at all lass?" He inquired respectively to avoid the chance of sounding insultive, a glance to her as he continued to peer at his surroundings.

He then stood up after a moment and took a moment to consider if this were really Zeltiva were not. The possibility was there but its chances were far to low... for one the city was never this quiet even in the early bells of the day, two there were no ships at all and just one dock while the city itself had a network so to speak. Now that he thought more about it, this place wasn't really Zeltiva at all. Not much of a port really seemed to present itself, just their little slice of wooden heaven in this wall of dense fog. "Ya know what," he finally spoke with a bit of a lost look on his face, "I take what I said back, this ain't Zeltiva like I thought it was..." He turned to her hopeful that she made sense of what he said, more so really hopeful that she knew where they were.