fh_trips | Zakynthos, Wednesday Morning/Afternoon

Vette had plans to have Sidon show her around town today. She had plans! To have Sidon! Show her around town! Which was kind of a lot, honestly, for one Vette to process, since she'd mostly thought of it as a way to keep an eye on him - she was kind of worried about him, given what Nina had told her - and somehow it had metamorphosed into some kind of grandiose cave adventure that invovled her riding on his back while he navigated the waters here, and it didn't at all hurt that he was ridiculously charming, and--

Anyway, breakfast. Whatever they had planned for the day - and Vette had no doubts it would be big no matter what it was, because she was going to be doing it with Sidon - they were going to start with breakfast. Out here on the beach where she felt more than a little bit conspicuous, even tucked away under one of the parasols and with a scarf pulled up over her head to obscure her lekku a little.

She might have stolen some fruit and bread from the breakfast at the hotel, mostly because not leaving the place meant not eating much since she'd gotten here, but she was also pretty game to try whatever it was Sidon was having, too.

As if anything attempted to be planned with Sidon would turn into anything less than some grandiose adventure! And meeting at the beach for breakfast was a fine way to start, as well, especially as Sidon had ultimately decided that he couldn't stay in his room last night, not by himself, not when there were plenty of caves and coves to tuck himself away into where he'd at least have the sound of the water to lure him into sleep while his heart and mind jumbled around inside of him with the effort for prominence when all he wanted was to be well-rested for the full day ahead of him.

And maybe it also afforded him the opportunity to try to show off a little, though the distance of shallow water spreading out from the beach made it impossible to pull off a leap directly from the depths. But he could pull off a leap into the shallows, landing in a low crouch and hoping he'd managed to get a good flick of water from his headtail in the light of the rising sun before jogging easily toward the beach, waving an arm when he spotted that Vette was already there.

"Good morning, Vette!" he called, all smiled when he finally got close. "I haven't kept you waiting long, have I?"

Edited 2018-10-10 12:51 (UTC)

"Sidon!" Vette grinned and clapped her hands at the display, yes. She couldn't let such top-notch showing off go unrewarded, after all. "Not long at all. Long enough for me to grab an umbrella, mostly."

And to start picking at the corner of the bread, maybe. More a nervous fidget than any actual need to eat right then and there, mind.

"And how are you this morning, oh Ambassador Prince?"

Look, it had gotten a delightful reaction from him the first time she'd used it. She was keeping it, now.

And the extra curve in Sidon's smirk when he heard it made it fairly clear that he was just as delighted by it now, so it was clearly not a bad move on her part, save for the fact that he hardly needed to extra inflation to his ego right now.

"I would greatly like to claim that I have never been better," he stated brightly, "but I fear that would rather be untrue, as I would imagine that there is even greater things ahead! Are you very hungry? I'm pleased to say, I managed to catch two very splendid specimens," and here he held up the two large tuna that had been in his other hand, "that should be quite tasty. I must admit, one thing this world does far better than my own is the sheer size of the fish! It's spectacular! And so economical."

Vette's eyes went wide at the sheer size of those fish, yes. And both in one hand? Sidon had to be showing off, now. Not that he was small, granted...

"Those are huge," she laughed, once she had her wits about her again. "I'm going to have to be pretty hungry to even make a dent in one of those! But I bet they have some great meat on them..."

She tilted her head, considering.

"I've never seen a fish so big," she admitted, after a moment. "But I guess I've never seen many fish in the first place."

Surprisingly, with that bit, he actually hadn't meant to be showing off, he was just feeling incredibly pleased and proud,a feeling that buoyed him a little as he went to sit beside her and settled the fish in his lap. "Whatever you don't eat yourself," he said, "I assure you, I'll not be letting it go to waste! And you're sure you don't mind? I must admit, I still find it a bit bewildering to navigate through the preferences of those with diets far more complex than my own."

But as he spoke, he was already working on peeling away some of that excellent meat from the fish with his claws, ripping off a small chunk for Vette, because of course he'd offer her the first piece.

"Twi'lek tidbit," Vette announced, grinning and reaching to accept the piece of fish as he offered it. "We're omnivores. I'll eat anything you put in front of me. Even plenty of things most humans can't. I don't mind fish at all."

Even raw. Sashimi didn't come more fresh than this.

"Food isn't so easy to come across on Ryloth that our people can afford to pass anything up," she explained. "Which is still useful even when you're living somewhere like Nar Shaddaa."

"Can you tell me a little bit more about Nar Shaddaa?" Sidon asked, peeling off a strip for himself now as he grinned at her. "Or is omnivorous all I get for today? Will I have to wait until next time?"

"I'm sure you could've figured out omnivorous all on your own," Vette replied, pausing to sample the tuna she'd been handed, smiling a little and closing her eyes at the rich flavor of the fresh fish. "So... Nar Shaddaa."

She leaned her head back thoughtfully, looking up at him and mulling over what was worth saying about Nar Shaddaa, really.

"It's a moon," she offered. "An exciting one, actually. It's commonly known as the Smuggler's Moon across the galaxy, if that gives any idea of the kind of people who populated it. And the whole moon is a city. There are a few entire city worlds back home. Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant, Denon. Taris used to be, but..." She shook her head. Taris had a rough go of things over the past few centuries. "There's a word for that, for a world that's city so far down that you can't see the planet's surface. An ecumenopolis. Crazy, right?"

"An ecumenopolis," Sidon repeated thoughtfully after swallowing the bite of fish he'd been enjoying while he listened to Vette, chewing and eating far more delicately than he might have normally done. "Crazy might be one word for it, yes," he chuckled a little. "I think unfathomable might be another. One city? To cover the whole of a planet? I must admit, I can barely even think of it, especially since it would seem that, in Hyrule, we all like to take up as little space for ourselves as possible. I think, perhaps, it is something I should have to see someday to truly grasp."

"Maybe someday," Vette replied, managing to keep a wry tone out of her voice. "I'd love to be able to show people my galaxy someday, but I think it's some of the things out in space that everyone would like most. Nar Shaddaa isn't exactly much to see from the surface, unless you like rust and neon. But from space you can see the lay of the city. It's almost pretty."

Almost. It was still kinda rust and neon.

"Almost doesn't sound so very convincing," said Sidon with a chuckle, as he offered out another piece of fish to Vette. Though, really, the tone of his voice sounded more like he wasn't convinced that it wouldn't be pretty, in its own unique way.

"Nar Shaddaa is a bit of an acquired taste," Vette explained, smiling wryly and pausing to take a bite of her fish. She chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, and then shrugged and smiled up at Sidon. "It's too close to Nal Hutta, too dangerous for most people, too..." She waved a hand around. "Nar Shaddaa. I don't really miss it, just things about it. People, mostly."

"People," Sidon agreed in a quiet tone as he smiled back, "are far more precious than places, anyway."

But since that began to traipse all too close to everything that he'd been trying to avoid thinking about, he quickly found a brighter grin and moved swiftly on. "But now I suppose I owe you a Zora tidbit, or two, with the one being fairly obvious, so I will say that we eat fish almost exclusively, but not entirely, and the other shall be about our home, and that is the fact that the entire domain is crafted as one sculpture, in a style developed ten thousand years ago by our stonemasons to make the most of the special ore found only in our region. The style can be seen in many of the other works throughout Lanayru, such as the dams and the bridges, but none will ever match the sheer majesty of the Domain itself."

"It sounds beautiful," Vette said, actually a little breathlessly. The description was... she could hardly fathom. She'd seen a lot of grandiose stonework before, between running with Nok's crew and raiding tombs for artifacts, but what Sidon was describing seemed other, somehow. Brighter? Warmer? He was talking about it as home.

Maybe the breathlessness was at least in part because 'home' was a slippery concept she didn't at all associate with beauty.

"So you live... in art?"

Sidon smiled at the question, nodding slightly in answer, but he was mostly wondering if there would ever be a tidbit he'd drop that would inspire such a reaction out of her or if there would ever be a time when he ceased to think it was one of the most charming and wonderful things to see. Add that to the list of things they seemed to be building that could hardly be fathomed.

"I'd love to be able to show you sometime," he said.

Assuming it would still be there to be shown...

...right. Distractions! He held up what remained of the fish, his smile flashing a little more. "Have you gotten enough? Perhaps we should be going soon; I'd hate to think we've missed some prime caving hours to my endless babbling!"

See Vette, see Vette look at the fish, and then look at Sidon, and then smile a little and nod her head.

"Just give me a moment to pack my things up." She considered the bread for a moment, and then took another moment to tear chunks off of it, to scatter for any scavenging birds that might be nearby. She smiled broadly as they descended to a cacophony of seabird shrieking, and then she considered the fruits she'd brought. With a shrug, she pulled the scarf off from where it was covering her lekku, and carefully folded the fruits up in it. The bread wouldn't survive a dip in the water. The fruit would likely fare better. She took another moment still to tie the makeshift sack to her belt, and then looked up at Sidon with a grin. "You're welcome to babble all you like, you know. I like listening."

To him. She liked listening to him.

"But we can babble just as well in the caves, too, can't we?"

"Indeed we can!" Sidon laughed, wiping his mouth a little with the back of his hand, as he'd gone to take one good bite out of some of the fish while she scattered the crumbs and gathered the fruit. "And with much more interesting acoustics, as well! Come, then, we'll head over this way; I found a good spot where we can start that should be nicely out of the way of the usual boats and tours."

"Well, then," Vette said, standing and dusting some sand from her clothes, "lead on!"

People were absolutely staring at them, which she noticed more now that she had left the cover of her parasol, but having Sidon there was emboldening, somehow. Not just because he was massive and could probably bite anyone who tried something funny in two. Just... the confidence, the fact that he didn't seem to worry about that sort of thing.

She was a little in awe of that, honestly. She didn't know how he did it.

Confidence, indeed. Sidon had even waved a few time, recognizing a few of the fishermen and other people he'd interacted with the day before, offering a smile and a dedicated attempt at a greeting in their language. He hadn't picked up much more than that, sure, but he felt they would appreciate it.

The results were...mixed. Most of them still didn't know what to make of this aggressively friendly giant red creature, but he either didn't notice or he didn't seem to mind, and it definitely seem to slip beyond his attention that they were additionally curious that there was someone smaller and blue with him this time, too.

It would be far less of a concern when they reached the spot he was talking about, where the shore started to jut up into the cliffs that hit the caves around the bend in the bright blue sea. "Here we are!" he announced proudly, turning to send a grin toward Vette before sweeping his arms open to the panorama. "Beautiful, isn't it? Right around those cliff, we'll find our caves...and who knows what else!"

Probably....not much else, honestly, but one never knew!

"Adventure, probably," Vette supplied, smiling up at him. "In my experience, caves almost always mean adventure."

Usually by way of vicious local fauna.

"This... this really is pretty," she added, looking out over the water in awe. "I've been a lot of places in my life, but never somewhere quite like this."

Sidon was quiet for a little bit, just to let Vette enjoy it for a moment, enjoying it himself, and maybe allowing him to enjoy the fact that he'd helped her enjoy it by acting as tour guide for her. "Whenever you're ready," he eventually offered, "just say the word! Or there's still a bit more fish, if you'd like more before I return to it to the sea!"

He might had had just a little bit more himself.

"We could put some of the fish in the fruit bag," she offered, "if we want to snack in the caves? But I think I'm about ready to see what all the fuss is about."

About the caves? About, ah, riding a Zora?

Who knew? She might or might not even clarify if asked about it!

Oh, but it was obviously the caves! That was the whole reason they were there, was it not? What else could she have possibly been referring to?

"I suppose if you don't mind your fruit starting to taste like fish!" Sidon chuckled, which didn't sound too bad to him for obvious reasons, but he had a feeling that Vette, especially after recalling her speaking of fruits from her home before, would rather them to continue tasting like fruit. He felt sure she'd likely go along with it either way, so he just shrugged and lobbed the remains of the fish into the water with a small grunt from the effort. "No matter, really, now other fish can enjoy it, and there's plenty more where that came from! Let us go!"

Was it really necessary for him to get into the water by crouching down and backflipping into it, putting a pretty good spin through the air before diving smoothly into the cove? No, of course not, but did he do it anyway? Absolutely! He grinned and swam closer where she could easily reach him without too much trouble.

"Now climb on my back, and don't hesitate to hold on tight! And please tell me if I start going too fast; I can be quite the unstoppable force once I get myself going."

Vette chewed her lip for a moment as she considered her path from nice, solid ground over to nice, solid Sidon, and decided, to heck with it, she was going to get wet either way, and if she somehow managed to mess this up terribly, Sidon was right there to make certain she didn't drown. She leaned in as close as she could get and then just kind of threw herself at his back before she could let herself think too hard about the position that put her in with Sidon, and then...

... Then, well, she was pretty much clinging to him for dear life from behind.

"This is okay?" Because yep, she was holding on pretty tightly, there, wide-eyed. "You'd tell me if I was doing it wrong, right?"

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