A Ship Bobs on the Surface of Maraqua [CLOSED] (1,440 views)

[Maddie]

The sea has an unpredictable and wild nature. The water could be calm for one moment, turbulent the next. Cici, thankfully, has had enough experience sailing to at least half expect the ocean's next move. The choppy waters picked up and rocked his boat, and for a moment Cici could only hold his breathe, grasping his trembling fishing rod as steady as he could. As he waited for the bout to pass, he almost failed to notice his line quivering with promise of a fish on the other end. He carefully rose to his feet and used all his might to reel in his catch, fearful all the while.

This was not unusual. Having fallen overboard and nearly drowned before, Cici had to repeat to himself regularly that his anxiety towards the sea was perfectly reasonable. Now that he was water painted, however, his fear of sinking down, down, down to the bottom of the ocean felt silly. He was embarrassed, and wanted to stop thinking about it. Before he knew it, he had reeled in a fairly large waterfish. How ironic. He stored his catch in the cooler and cast his line again, breathing easy and appreciating the once again calm waters.

[Raichi]

A day off from work was a splendid opportunity for Talka to get some fresh air. He kissed his petpet goodbye and eagerly made his way to the upper sea levels. It was a sunny day with a nice cool breeze, the perfect weather conditions for water faeries to set aside work for leisure and laughter. He remembered having a blast the last time he ran into some. Hopefully today was a similar experience!

Finally he reached the surface, taking a nice deep breath of fresh air. The water was a lot warmer up here, and yet felt more alive. He could see some boats travelling the waters, airaxes flying the skies and cute bundles of clouds floating high in the sky. In the distance lay Moltara, The Lost Desert and Mystery Island, the furthest away was krawk island. Everything just seemed so peaceful, he decided to just lay back and let the waves carry him somewhere relaxing or fun. But getting rocked back and forth was a little too calming even for a maraquan zafara, the young male drifting asleep.

After lingering on for a while the waves slowly drifted his sleeping body towards a fishing boat, the zafara was definitely heading for a collision if remaining in slumber and unnoticed.

[Maddie]

Cici concentrated on the lure at the end of his line, watching it bop up and down, up and down. The monotonous movement put him in a momentary, peaceful trance. This, of course, made him all the more off guard when his boat shook violently for a sudden, short moment. Cici stumbled backwards, yelping and unable to find his footing. He fell on his back with a loud thump. 

"Huh? What?" Cici blubbered worriedly, rubbing his head. He pushed himself up with some difficultly and peered uncertainly over the side of his boat. He immediately gasped and began to panic. He had hit someone!

"Oh Fyora!! I-I'm sorry!! S-Sir? Are you hurt??" He reached his hands out towards the zafara desperately.

[Raichi]

What a violent way to wake up from his sleep, a sharp pain arising on the top of his scalp where he hit the boat. He rubbed his head in attempt to sooth the pain, and thankfully it faded to something bearable rather quickly. He hadn't even opened his eyes to check what he bumped into when a worried voice sounded from above.

Talka gazed up at the nervous looking kacheek and saw he was reaching out for him.

"Ah, I'm okay, just my head a bit"

He stopped rubbing his head and allowed the kacheek to fish him out of the water.

"Thank you, and I'm so sorry for bumping into your boat like that. I was sleeping, but I learned my lesson, never going to do that again on the ocean"

[Maddie]

"I-I-I swear this doesn't happen often! I-In fact-! This is the first time!" the water kacheek continued despite Talka stating he was fine. Cici hoisted the zafara onto the boat and did a quick check over his head. He exhaled with relief that there were no visible markings. "I'm sorry..." he mumbled quietly, staring down at his feet. "I don't... I don't usually see anyone up here..."

[Raichi]

From the looks of it the Kacheek was even more shy than he was, or was shy not the correct word? Either way the poor guy was clearly worked up about what happened. Talka looked around, and from the looks of it Cici's boat was floating right above maraqua.

"..well you are far from shore, but if you go in less deeper waters you might find some fearies on a sunny day like this"

Though it probably wasn't likely for Cici to seek out faeries, so what was he about?

"So you're fishing out here right? Any luck? Is it your hobby or your job?"

Talka was shy when it came to approaching others, but once a connection was made he was actually very social. However, not smooth at all when it came to cute girls...

[Maddie]

"Uh... I guess... you could say...? Both?" Cici answered slowly, still avoiding direct eye contact. "Well I-I make money doing it so to speak but-! I also... also enjoy it. So-!" He forced a smile. "Both!" He held the grin for an awkward, silent second before sighing.

"Sorry it's... well, thank you! For the suggestion I mean! About the faeries? Uh..." Cici felt his face grow slightly hot. "But... the reason... I enjoy my job because I'm..." He stopped, attempted to make eye contact with Talka, then backed out again. "...alone. So visiting the faeries would... you can guess that to me it would be... uh..." He trailed off without finishing his sentence.

[Raichi]

This poor guy took shyness to a whole other level, Talka could only feel sorry for him, imagining he lived a rather isolated life without any friends. He looked at Cici with a face full of pity, almost as if he was someone in grieving.

"but that must be awful, how can you enjoy being all alone most of the time? Isn't surrounding yourself with friends and having a good time together what fun is all about?"

He gently pressed his hand against Cici's face, guiding him in his own direction so that he'd have to close his eyes to avoid looking at him and then let go.

"I don't bite, it's okay to look at me"

[Maddie]

Cici dared to hold his gaze and caught the pity reflected in Talka's eyes. He frowned, feeling slightly offended but, of course, did not have the courage to mention this. "I-I have friends..." Cici mumbled lowly, narrowing his shoulders defensively. "I just... it's just... if I spend too much time around others... even my friends-! It-it eventually... you know... it gets..." His voice grew quieter with embarrassment. "...it gets awkward."

Cici readjusted the fishing pole in his grasp, cast far out, and sat down in his lawn chair to wait. "Besides... I don't consider myself alone most of time... I-I have siblings I come home to every evening. That should be enough." It was obvious his continuing to fish was another strategy to avoid eye contact. He focused on the lure bobbing up and down as the gentle waves continued to rock the boat. He appeared to relax as a result, at least somewhat.

[Raichi]

Talka didn't understand what Cici meant with things getting awkward after spending too much time around others, then again with his job he spent little time with a lot of people. He did make a wrong assumption about the kacheek being alone most of the time, it was just in his empathic nature to try and sympathise and seeing a bigger picture.

"I'm sorry, the least I wanted to do was make you uneasy. And you're right, that sounds like you get plenty of social interaction"

He started feeling like he was bothering the poor guy, clearly he had difficulty with social interaction. But the Zafara couldn't help but feel guilty if he just left to make the other feel better, because fears and obstacles are all about getting overcome. He figured if he started opening up to him, perhaps Cici would warm up to him a little.

"Where are my manners... I'm Talka"

He offered him a handshake with a warm smile. He wasn't great with social interactions himself, but he tried and was deep down a very caring and sociable person.

"I deliver things for a living, overseas with my pet Gina. She carries me and the mail overseas most of the time. But.. today is my day off, so I thought it would be nice to go up to the surface. The weather sure is nice today"

[Maddie]

Cici smiled shyly, flattered by this different approach. "H-Hi. My name is Cici." He accepted Talka's handshake with his naturally wet, drippy paw. His grip was somewhat shaky, but his effort to socialize was charming in its own way. "M-My family, well actually my little sister mainly, likes to pretend... well, likes to joke that... that the double Cs in my name, like how it's pronounced, stands for 'chubby cheeks.' But it really doesn't because... well obviously it's just a name and..." He paused, embarrassed and wondering why he even brought that up. He returned his stare to the bobbing lure.

"So anyway, yeah, the weather!" he tried to recover with a forced grin. "Y-Your job sounds... it sounds nice. You travel to a lot of places, h-huh? Yeah, I don't, really... Mostly here and... in Neopian Central. That's where I live so..."

[Raichi]

It seemed to be working, or at least, Talka didn't feel like he was bothering the kacheek anymore. He thought Cici was an interesting name for a boy, but he wasn't one to talk girly names, his own name plenty girly. Though he did have difficulty masking his amusement about the name chubby cheeks, and thought it was rather endearing and cute that she called him that. It was moments like these that made social interaction fun, learning about others and them sharing embarrassing memories and recent funny things like nicknames and pranks.
When the other mentioned where he lived the zafara got excited.

"Oh, I actually make deliveries there at least once a week! I love how creative Neopia Central gets with the housing designs, they have some pretty nifty architectures I'll give them that. When I'm there I feel like I'm walking into a fairy tail. So what does your house look like? Just the average house, or does it have a cool design like most of the town shops there?"

[Maddie]

Cici seemed to jump to life, surprised that Talka was so interested in something he only mentioned offhandedly. "Uh well-" he stuttered, sitting up straight in his seat. "Let's see... uh... it's t-two story. A-And the walls are made of bamboo-! It's also very... uh... square?" He flashed a sheepish grin. "My room is on the uh... the bottom fl-"

Cici's ears twitched and he stopped his sentence short, high on alert all of a sudden. He shot his gaze to his lure, quietly chastising himself for losing focus. "Hold on, I think I got a bite," he told Talka in a surprisingly certain tone. He jumped to his feet and began to wrestle with his fishing rod, pulling it back and forth, reeling and unwinding his line, until, suddenly, a cubefish soared out from the water with a glistening trail of droplets following behind it. The fish landed on the boat floor with a splat, and Cici quickly swiped it up and tossed it in the cooler. He exhaled and looked up at Talka, "sorry, duty called. What were we saying?"

[Raichi]

The kacheek went from a stuttering insecure boy to a determined and alert man, a remarkable change in attitude from when he was talking and when he was reeling in a fish. Talka looked with excitement as the battle between fish and rod took place, but it was clear from the start what the outcome would be.

"Ah, you were talking about your house. Bamboo huh, sound interesting! I'm sure your neighbourhood is very diverse. Mine's, well, you know maraqua, all coral and shells, the houses aren't exactly comparable to those up above. But it's still home, and I love it there."

Talka's eyes looked at the fish, which was gasping for water until it fainted from too much oxygen, and then looked back at Cici.

"Cubefish are one of the better tasting fish aren't they, I mean butterfish for example tastes way too greasy and fatty to eat whole. Except my brother, but I think he secretly eats it so he can train more bulky muscles like judge hog haha. Does your family enjoy fish?"

[Maddie]

"Well typically a-a cube fish is... it's very easy to, you know, cut up into little cubes a-and use for cooking because... well... never mind it's rather obvious why." Cici pat the lid of his cooler and tried to recollect his thoughts, embarrassed. "Anyway, your question-! Right. Uh... speaking of cooking, w-which I mentioned just a second ago... my older brother enjoys cooking. With the fish I catch, I mean! Th-they're mostly sold at our shop though. A-Along with my sister's crops."

Cici walked back to his chair, took his seat, and cast out once again. "A-And I don't care much for butterfish myself, ha ha ha... They're uh... well you can imagine that uh... that they're quite hard to grab once I reel them in. Slippery butter and such." He laughed to himself, very quietly, in an awkward sort of way.