OOC: Hello, my name is Swan, I have 0 musical talent and still play 2 bards Giselle lay, looking down from her tower. It was made of porous stone, and surprisingly, not tall at all. Her gentle knight, his colorful chainmail was caught by Apollo’s faithful arrow, swam circles around her submerged paw. And bits of her main fell into the sleeping water. What a glorious morning… It was then that her knight gave her a curious, yet most gallant nibble. “Hey, you,” she smiled down at the little fish, who, finding her taste quite bland, decided to take a hike and go elsewhere. Only to find himself swimming around in circles. “Don’t leave!” Giselle pouted. “What if I sing you a song?” She cleared her throat. ♪ Hey little fishyyy, with the blue and white fins Wouldn’t you like to take me for a swim! I’ve only got legs, but I’m sure that they’ll do Oh, let me explore this blue ocean with youuuu! ♪ Well, he at least seemed more chipper. Was that a smile or just the water refracting his face? “D’you like it? I made it up on the spot.” Giselle lifted her paw out of the water and peered in. Her audience quickly swam away from the shadow casted by her looming head. “Oh, no! Was I off-key?” Slightly, sweetheart. Only slightly. @Shan "Speech!" I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss

elswyth, since visiting the ocean the first time, had been pulled back time and again. sometimes she was lucky enough to see other lions swimming, and she imagined that one day she would be strong enough to paddle around in the surf. she thought she might like to try to visit leviathan on his island home, though she was not entirely sure he would want much to do with her after their last visit.

the sound of music filled her flop-ears and she instinctively turned towards it, reminded of the many lullabies she had been sung as a girl. not often by her mother (who was too busy for such trivial things) but by her nanny.

elswyth's upbringing had been painfully sheltered.

she bounded towards the stranger without realizing she might have been the very reason the fish swam away, her thudding paws extra loud in her enthusiasm. unaware and without missing a beat she manages a "hello!" as she skidded to a stop on the stone. "was that you singing? it was lovely!"

tone deaf, perhaps? to elsie, at least, it had been a wonderful song!

@Giselle

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OOC: EHMEGERD SHE HAS A NANNY, idk why but that makes me love her so much ;0; You know, fish aren’t great conversationalists. Dancers, perhaps, but it’s quite hard to maintain a friendly rapport when all your partner’s doing is blowing bubbles. Though of course, Giselle would never admit such a thing. She wanted nothing more than to be…dare I say it? Part of their woooooorld! In fact, she was about to begin another song when the little purple miss showed up. Her face was shaded, her features dark. But even so, Giselle could make out the strange floppiness of her ears and the scars along her blinded eye. She was so small; it made the most maternal of instincts grow within her bosom. Yes, they were bosom sisters now. And there was nothing the girl could do about it. “Thank you,” Giselle got up, “I made it up for my little fish friend,” and a wave of vertigo swam over her as she realized how big she must seem to this poor creature. She turned to face her, reddish mane flapping in the wind, and could barely hold back the tiny squee that pressed behind her lips. The girl was just so…tiny! In reality, she might’ve been around 20 centimeters taller than her. In her brain, she was an absolute GIANT. “D-do you like to sing?” she asked loudly, as if the girl couldn’t hear her from all the way down there. @Elswyth "Speech!" I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss

(i am so sorry for the wait!)

Size was not something Elsie thought about much. Neither were fish. Thus, when @Giselle mentioned her fish friend, she blinked almost stupidly at the water. "Do fish talk?" That was most definitely news to her -- why had nobody ever told her?

Crouching down over the water she peered in to the depths, as if she might see a whole school of fish staring up at her just waiting for a conversation. In reality she saw... well, not much. A few silvery shadowy shapes, but it didn't seem like any of them wanted to talk.

Peeking back up at the golden girl, she realized she probably looked like a complete idiot. Of course fish don't talk... it was just a figure of speech... right?

Sitting back up she tucked her tail around her paws, flop-ears settling against her head with a bounce. Her newest friend practically shouted at her, and for a second she pressed those same ears even tighter against her skull. "My eyes might not be the best, but my ears work just fine." A giggle, then. "I love to sing! Mother used to make me take lessons, so that one day I could make a good wife." A tiny frown, but it was gone quickly.

"What's your favorite song?" That was definitely more important information.

image by moogle, code by corvus

“Well…no,” Giselle replied in a low, sheepish voice, “but they dance when they’re happy!” She demonstrated, wiggling her body side to side like she’d seen fish do, her hair swooshing around her like long, feathery fins. It was a pretty good imitation. And as the girl crouched, she crouched too, a smile taking over her face as flashes of silver wiggled and danced with all the made-up joy in the world. “See?” Perhaps they were eating or… doing other unsightly things. But Giselle was none the wiser. To her, this was but a glimpse into what must be some pretty popping underwater music. It appeared that the great bit height difference was mostly in her head too. Giselle was already bursting at the seams with her apology, when a delicate giggle rose from the girl’s lips. Phew! “Oh, how lovely! I never knew one could take lessons to sing. Don’t you just randomly, oh, I don’t know, burst into song?” Perhaps the reason why she’d never heard of singing lessons was because nobody could ever get a word in. With her bursting into song and all. The other part of that sentence, however. “Why would you need to sing to be a wife? Don’t you just need to know how to kiss?” Oh boy. And when asked her favorite song. “Hmm, that’s a tough one. Let me think.” @Elswyth "Speech!" I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss

dance? the more @Giselle spoke the more she could imagine it, and she wiggled her own bottom in response. "they do look like they're dancing!" at least through the eyes of the naive and innocent -- as elswyth was. peering at her companion from the corner of her eye she might have almost imagined that she was a fish, too!

sitting back away from the water she shrugged at the question that followed. "i'm not sure. mother told me i had to learn, but i didn't mind much since i rather liked singing. things were a lot different in my home, though." all she had heard in her early life was how she was meant to be a perfect little wife, seen and not heard, gracious and kind and never argumentative.

truth be told it had all seemed rather boring. even as a girl she had longed for adventure, and now that she had seen more of the world she couldn't imagine going back.

"i mean, you probably have to know how to do that too. i don't think they give kissing lessons, though." she giggled at the very thought of that, and then wrinkled her nose in an expression of disgust. "I don't think i'd much like if it had had to take kissing lessons."

image by moogle, code by corvus

OOC: Sorry for the wait <3 Ah, kindred spirits they were! Though Giselle greatest pleasure was to stay true, she couldn’t help but feel this…this incredible excitement! To not be thought of as daft, to not be thought of as childish. It was, honestly, quite refreshing. As sure as she was of herself and her purpose. Even her rump could not escape the warmth that spread to very cockles of her heart, and swayed side to side in response to the purple lioness’s own. “Aren’t they beautiful?” She exclaimed wistfully. “Sometimes, I wish that I were a fish so that I could dance like that,” Giselle looked up, “or a bird so that I could fly up and up towards the highest mountain!” I imagine you’d get quite a bit dizzy. The undertones surrounding her new friend’s homelife did not go unnoticed. Learning to sing had perhaps been the least of her worries. “Well, now you can sing for your own enjoyment, and for the enjoyment of others should you so wish.” Let’s face it, forest critters make for a better audience than any of the many tone-deaf males in the province. Not that she had met many…but there sure wasn’t a lot of bursting into song here. Though when the subject turned to kissing, Giselle got a lot more serious. “Oh no,” she stood in front of her friend with a matronly air, “you wouldn’t need lessons. You’d just know!” The golden lioness recited, “to know if their love true is, you must bestow upon them true love’s kiss.” Giselle nodded sagely. “I imagine it’s sort of tingly.” @Elswyth "Speech!" I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss

Elswyth listened, enraptured, as her new friend spoke. Whatever @Giselle was she had managed to snag Elsie in her spell, enchanted by every little thing she had to say. Fish or bird -- "or a butterfly!"

"I always liked to imagine being a butterfly. Or even an ant. To be tiny and live in a giant world. Giant flowers as tall as mountains!" A wistful sigh at the very notion as a dreamy look settled across her soft features.

The girl was very clearly lost to that train of thought for a good moment, so that when she snapped back to attention @Giselle was talking about kissing. A small nose wrinkled and a brow knit with concern -- "what if I don't like it? What if you kissed them and it was... gross!"

Tingly sounded all well and good, but Elswyth couldn't imagine a tingly kiss. Maybe she was a little lacking in that department of imagination.

"I've never wanted to kiss anybody before." Her nose wrinkled even more as she shrugged, looking almost sheepishly at her friend.

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