fh_trips | Limni Keri, Zakynthos, Tuesday Evening

"I do try ," said Sidon, and, just like that, he felt all the brightness in his smile dim, fading away though he hoped it didn't show. "The friendships we make are important, bonds that hold tight when you need their strength the most..."

Words almost perfectly echoing ones Mipha had spoken to him but a mere two days ago...which made him want to move very quickly on and ignore the ache spreading across his chest again.

He tried the smile again, feeling it was much better this time. "I have plenty more fish in my room, if you'd like, as well. The fishermen were quite generous."

They also might have thought it wise to keep the giant red sharkman with the sharp teeth well satiated...

"Though I'm sure whatever Nina may have gathered would be perfectly palatable as well. But that reminds me. Might I ask you a question, Vette?"

Edited 2018-10-09 22:39 (UTC)

Vette actually looked tempted by the fish, so help her, but she'd table her reply to Sidon's offer for a few moments, turning a curious look Sidon's way instead.

"Sure," she replied. "What kind of question?"

It was a pretty important question...

"Do you ," Sidon asked, "know why, in the game of rock-paper-scissors, paper beats rock?"

Vette blinked, and then she laughed brightly, shaking her head until her lekku flopped around behind her.

"You're the second one to ask me today," she teased. "I've already told Nina that I think maybe it beats rock because it's a more convenient surface to write on, but that isn't really an action the same way cutting and smashing is."

She tilted her head, tapping a finger thoughtfully to her lips.

"What would you do with paper if you wanted to take a rock out of the picture?"

Sidon snapped his fingers, chuckling lightly. "I should have figured Nina would be able to get to you first," he mused. "For the life of us, we couldn't figure it out amongst ourselves, so we thought to perhaps make a quest of it, and what a quest it's proving to be! I tried asking the fishermen, but I believe there must have been an issue in the language barrier, as I fear they might not have had a clue what I was talking about..."

But he met Vette's thoughtful expression with one of his own, eyes narrowed as he rubbed his chin and considered.

"The first thing, of course, that comes to mind," he postulated, "is that a papercut can be quite sharp and stinging and nasty, but we all know it would be near impossible for a piece of paper to cut into rock! So that's clearly not it. To take a rock out of the picture....with a piece of paper...Well, I suppose you could cover it, but that's hardly beating it, that's merely making it disappear, and very poorly, at that, as you'll still be able to see the bulk of the rock underneath it, unless we are talking a very small pebble of sorts, but then how would a pebble manage to crush a pair of scissors?"

It...may be possible he was putting way, way too much thought into. Maybe. A little.

"Unless it's a really big piece of paper," Vette suggested. "Scissors can cut paper no matter how big it is, right? So it could be that paper just... covers rock."

A pause.

"That's way more boring than cutting or smashing, though."

"Yes, it is indeed," Sidon agreed with a thoughtful nod. "So that couldn't possibly be it, there must be something more to it. I suppose, then, that the quest must go on. There are still many more stones," and it was clear he knew exactly what he did with that one by the grin that blossomed on his face, "left unturned on this mystery, so I will continue to forge on until it is solved."

Or maybe just because it was a good distraction.

Hoooorray, distraction!

Weren't distractions great?

"A worthy quest," Vette decided, smiling warmly. She considered for a few moments herself, and then said, "Hey, Sidon? I have a request for you, too, if you're feeling up to it."

Sidon straightened, intrigued, and also eager, as what was the best thing to add to one distraction but more distractions this one with the possibility of also being helpful, perhaps, by the sound of it? That was even better. "Yes, of course," he said. "What is it, Vette?"

"I still haven't ventured out past the villa's grounds," Vette explained, smiling a little bit more as Sidon's attention was caught. "And that's at least partly because I would be out there for five minutes before getting totally lost. I can't read any of the maps so well yet that I'd trust myself to find my way back again."

But also partly because she'd been here for all of twenty minutes before deciding that being prodded at by people whose language she didn't even understand didn't seem like a terribly great prospect, after all.

"But you've already been out and about, right? So you know your way around already?"

Somehow, Sidon had managed to straighten a tiny bit more. He had a suspicion where this might be leading; the sort of suspicion he was reluctant to entertain, because it would be terribly disappointing if he was incorrect, but that he couldn't keep himself from entertaining because hope was just a core part of his very being.

"More so by the waterways and sea currents, perhaps," he admitted with a chuckle, "but, yes, I do believe I've figured out enough of the lay of the land to find my way back to all the more interesting locales and places of interest without too much trouble..."

"I'm not much of a swimmer," Vette admitted, actually looking almost sorry about that, "but if it wasn't a problem, and you weren't already busy with the local fishermen, I was thinking I could really use a tour guide before we move on, you know? The grounds here are pretty, I'm sure it's even nicer out beyond them."

It was a little thing, sure, especially compared to some, but it felt so vindicating to feel a hope about something and have it realized. For a change.

And for once, Sidon found himself a little worried that his answering grin might have been too big.

"The local fishermen have been getting along just fine without me before yesterday," he said. "I'm sure they can do the same again. It is a truly beautiful island, and it would be a shameful tragedy for you to not have the opportunity to experience it at its fullest! I would be....honored...to offer my services as tour guide..."

"...if you'll have me," he added, because she hadn't expressly said him, and he would hate to be presumptuous, despite a pretty water-tight case suggesting that that was the whole point of the request. And for someone so centered on hope all the time, he sure could be pretty hopeless, and he thought of at least three people very quickly that he could suggest in his stead if he wound up somehow still misreading the whole situation.

Oh, Sidon. How was it that every time you opened your mouth, you managed to become a little bit more charming?

Vette smiled up at him, a playful glint in her eye as she made a show out of leaning her head this way and that, tapping a finger to her chin in serious contemplation of whether or not he was the perfect Zora for the job.

"Actually..." She let that hang for a couple seconds, and then relented, letting the poor shark off the hook with a little laugh, "that would be great. I was hoping you weren't too busy. This place is nice enough, but I don't want to spend my whole trip here, and if I'm going to be going out there, I'd like some good company for it."

And in that terribly cruel teasing moment, two of Sidon's back-ups were swapped with other options, and one of them was switched back, but he'd still be willing to bet, thanks to that smile, that glint in her eye, that he wasn't going to need them.

That didn't seem to stop him from looking rather relieved and laughing a little bit himself. "Marvelous!" he declared, opening his arms and laughing again. "Wonderful. Never too busy for my friends!" They were too, too important. "Shall we go tomorrow, then? Would that work well for you, Vette?"

"Tomorrow sounds perfect," Vette replied with a nod and a smile. "I wouldn't mind getting a chance to explore. I heard there were caves?"

She'd heard about a lot of what was out there. She had been mostly resigned to not seeing any of it unless she wanted to go out there wearing a blanket over her head or something. She'd probably think twice before going on vacation in the spring, if she couldn't nerve herself up to being potentially the center of attention while they were here.

And considering Sidon had sort of broken the town in a little by being a giant red shark monster strolling around and helping people fish, they might be a little more prepared. Or, if anything, that giant red shark monster was effortlessly wonderful of diverting almost all attention toward himself in situations like that, anyway.

"There are caves!" he confirmed brightly, and made a small note that perhaps that was a sign that he should follow through with his thought of possibly sleeping out there in them tonight. Even without using it as an advantage to scope of the place before showing Vette, if he was going to be sleeping alone, he'd rather do it outside, in the water, than in a large room with no bathtub and an uncomfortable (for him, anyway) bed. "We shall absolutely have to make that part of the tour if that's something you're interested in seeing."

"I am," Vette said, and there was an enthusiastic nod to go with it. "The caves are... off the beach, are they? Or over the water? I'm not kidding when I say I'm not a swimmer. There's never really been anywhere for me to learn, back home."

"As...far as I can tell," Sidon said with slow reluctance, because of course such an issue might present itself in what was otherwise quite a perfect situation by his estimation, "they are over the sea, yes. Most people access them by boat; I suppose we could arrange something like that, they do tours, I believe, but...."

And he hesitated a moment more, because this certainly did seem presumptuous, while at the same time being a very practical solution, as far as he was concerned, "I could also take you myself. On my back. Sort of the same way we teach Zora hatchlings how to swim and jump waterfalls." The way his sister had done for him, and his smile went a little sad for a moment before he laughed it away. "You will be going with the best swimmer on the entire island." Of that, he was incredibly certain. "I can assure you, you'll be in very safe hands."

Vette's teeth were toying at her bottom lip again as she saw the way his smile wavered. She was trying to give him a good distraction, and here she was tripping over heartache without even meaning to.

"If you don't actually mind," she said, softly. "I trust you wouldn't let anything happen to me, but if carrying me around is... I don't know, a problem, at all, I wouldn't want to impose or make you uncomfortable."

Trying to avoid tripping into that one would be like trying not to trip in a field of uneven ground while blindfolded, really.

"Of course not," said Sidon, rather softly too (for him, at least), with a smile to match, and he looked at Vette with a frank, honest, and determined expression in an effort to express all that he felt he couldn't quite put into words. "I wouldn't have offered if that were the case. My concern was more for your own comfort, Vette.

"After all," he added with a grin now, big enough to garner a glint even in the artificial lighting, and please forgive him, because he truly, truly had no idea what he might sound like, but he said it with so much pride and energy, "not everyone can handle riding a Zora!"

Vette was going to grin right back, and BREAK DOWN IN A FIT OF GIGGLES later, when she was back in her room, where Sidon couldn't see.

"I dunno," she said, bright-eyed, "I'm pretty sure I'm up to the challenge."

IT SOUNDED SO BAD, THOUGH.

But his intentions were so innocent and pure!

And proud.

...which probably really only made it worse.

"Well, then, I suppose," he said, and it might have sounded lofty if he wasn't just so pleased about the whole matter, "we shall find out tomorrow!"

"Hey, something to look forward to," Vette laughed. "Great! Now my vacation can start looking like a vacation."

Well, she wasn't attending classes or being shot at, so it already sort of was.

"Even if it means putting you to work," she teased.

"Well, yes," Sidon agreed easily with a laugh, a hand pressed over his poor, obviously overworked heart, "a truly terrible burden, showing a wonderful person a spectacular time..."

Plus, he's spent most of his first full vacation day literally working. For fish.

He'd be okay.

Limni Keri, Zakynthos, Tuesday Evening

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