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Living as the avatar of an entity far beyond human concept was anything but simple. That said, Ina wasn't much of an eyesore as one would expect, not when there were others just as strange or even more so than her. Myth was a group of strange individuals, she's not as special as she'd like to think and that was good enough for her.
There's an Atlantean with them, one of the rare few left, a remnant of a race–a culture on the brink of dying out in the modern world of man. That same Atlantean gives her clingy cuddles and needy kisses when nights were too loud to sleep in. She knows how they like their hands tangled underneath the sheets and how they love playing with the squishy orange tentacles that frame her face.
The Atlantean loves her pancakes fluffy and bathing under the warm light of the morning sun every now and then. Ina knows how much the shark loves watching her draw or how much they try to not stare at her face when talking. She giggles when the shark gets flustered when she calls them out on it, she can anticipate what reply or excuse she'd get from the way the Atlantean's body shifts or how their tail twitches or wags.
Ina likes to think of herself a good reader of people, a shark expert aside from a master of puns. That last part is important.
Very rarely does she get into a situation where she's unaware of what words will be thrown at her, or what reply she'd get from asking. It's fine, it doesn't happen much, it's something that comes every now and then like weeds in a garden, a handful that sprouts wherever uninvited.
Ina catches the shark watching TV on the couch, eyes silently watching a cooking show that was playing across the screen. The priestess smiles at the sight and goes to get some milk from the fridge, she hears the ingredients being read a loud from the living room. Everything seemed to be fine, she thinks, Gura sometimes wakes up earlier than her to watch her morning shows, that's normal, it's something she expects.
"What's for breakfast, Gura?" She says from the kitchen, head popping through the shelves for a box of cereal to have with the milk jug she has. She listens for the reply, she expects a groggy 'eggs and bacon' or a sleepy 'pancakes and waffles' as a reply, but nothing came. The cereal box rattled in her hand, "Gura?" Her head peeks out the corner and at the shark on the couch.
Ina walks into the living room with a pair of cereal bowls, she pours milk in hers and offers to do the same for the shark beside her, "Want some milk with your cereal?" She shakes the jug like a box of dog treats. Silence.
The priestess scoots close till their shoulders touched. The scent of ocean seafoam and wet sand invades Ina's nostrils, it's a different kind of smell from yesterday's sweet blueberry lavender shampoo. Images of sea water and raging tides flash in her head, she wasn't expecting that. Her eyes shift towards a pair of unflinching blues looking at the television but not focused on it. Ina doesn't see what the girl sees, something that's far and away from the cooking show playing right now.
There was no helping the worried frown forming on Ina's lips. She's not expecting the shark to be so quiet, to be outside of the normal that she's come to anticipate. She doesn't like it when pages on a book don't make sense to her, when stories suddenly shift midway from what she's used to.
"Gura?" Like puzzle pieces falling into place, their fingers slip into one another, the priestess tightening her hold onto the shark who refused to speak or say a word. Silence worries Ina a lot more than screaming, it's a lot worse for her when there are voices not her own trying to vye for her attention at corners of her consciousness. She'd rather hear static or a fork scraping against ceramic plates.
Ina ponders what to do, usually the shark gets flustered when she holds their hand, but now wasn't the usual, and that concerns her. Gura looks...breathes as if she's not in their living room, like there are phantoms only she sees. The priestess stares at her cereal bowl with contemplation, wondering what to do, whether she should comfort or stay quiet, to say something or not, she's undecisive and that has her anxious. Ina does what she can given her situation, letting her body guide her and places something sweet on the Atlantean's cheek, a pair of soft lips that try to comfort the turmoil in front of her.
Gura breathes lightly, it doesn't happen instantly, it comes slow and looks as if the life that left her body was slowly coming back. Her eyes blink until she's scanning the room, she stares at the TV, at the lamp, then at the sofa she was on, as if she just forgot where she was at that moment. Something squeezes her hand almost making her jump but she doesn't, she feels a slight weight on her right shoulder, it's soft and not overbearing, it smells like lavender and violets. Gura is fond of that scent, she knows what it meant, she knows only one person in the house who uses that type of shampoo.
"Uhhh...Ina...?" She tests her voice, sounding unsure about what to say or which language to use. Gura side eyes the body next to her, she sees eyes scanning her features for something, an answer maybe?
"I asked whether you wanted milk in your cereal. You didn't respond." She states it as fact, Ina squeezes her hand. Gura already knows what's coming after. "Are you alright?"
Gura opens her mouth only to close it right after. She's careful with the things playing at the tip of her tongue, picking carefully those that she's willing to let loose. "Just thinking too hard, ended up daydreaming." She sighs before chuckling, Ina doesn't see her eyes contain the same vigor as the things coming from her mouth. The priestess was about to say something before the Atlantean quickly turned to the TV, her face scrunches into a frown as she sees her program had already ended. "Aw man, I missed my show. Well, I guess I'll just wait for it tomorrow again." Gura stands up, placing the remote onto the space between her and Ina, "Here, you can watch if you want. I'm going back to sleep, kinda tired, see ya Ina." That's how she decides to it, probably deciding to not want to deal with Ina.
Stretching her arms above her head, she groans and then yawns as she quietly trodges back to the staircase. Ina silently stares, not sure what to say at the given moment. Curiosity got the better of Ina and now her eyes were glowing a slight tinge of purple, locking onto the shark's frame, focusing intently until images and sounds began streaming into her mind. It was blurry at the beginning but it only took a moment before Ina could already see the details clearly.
What she sees aren't of her own eyes, but of the Atlantean. She watches as visions of a city, brilliant and sparkling with gold aesthetics, it takes her a bit to adjust. People came and go in her vision, they wore a certain fashion that Ina only recalls seeing in historical textbooks. Then in front if a mirror, Ina saw herself, or what was supposed to be her, instead, it was Gura's reflection, and she looked the same yet somehow different from her Gura. This one wore gold and fine silks, jewelry wasn't lacking on her body as a tiara made of pretty corals and rich metals sat atop her head.
The girl, Gura, stared at her reflection with indifference as countless servants began tending to her, fixing her clothes, adjusting her hair and putting shells on her. She remained stone-faced through it all, not uttering a single word nor moving from her seat. It then skips her swimming down a long hallway, people were staring from the edges, forming an audience, a crowd that defined her path towards the throne up ahead. The visions came flooding in soon after, it's a mish mash of memories, of thoughts, things Ina wasn't meant to see.
One vision has her standing before a crowd, the other has her facing an army with a trident, then came the chaos of bodies colliding and staining the waters in red, tridents and spears came from all directions yet they barely grazed Ina as the memory showed her throwing her trident then spearing five people into a single shot. What she saw was nothing less of a massacre, a one-sided battle where Gura waved her hand and the ocean itself began swirling and consuming her enemies, grinding them into pulp and mulch. It continues with more carnage until only red was all she could see in the water.
It ends with Gura turning towards the city, a shadow of something big writhes and emerges from within the sparkling castle before a blinding light erupts and consumes everything. For a while it was dark, nothing came to her until she felt a tug then heard a mumble. She's blinking her eyes open with great difficulty, especially with the bright sun overhead. Earlier she had been underwater, now she wakes up in a different world where the air is dry and the sand on her back clings to her body. She sees a pair of blue eyes and a head of gold that sparkled under the sun. The stranger looks at her with relief, it was strange.
The memory of that beach was spent with her recovering and getting to know a certain blonde. Ina smiles at the scene, she feels her heart swell a bit thanks to it. She goes to watch the following as it cuts off into glimpses of Gura trying to fit into society. She spent a lot of time on that beach, a couple of centuries with the stranger but it was mostly spent alone, with her going back into the ocean in order to find that brilliant city. She fails. She searches. She fails. She searches. It's a cycle. It's unbearable.
Then the memory shows Gura atop a rock overlooking the vast ocean, her hands were bloodied from hitting something and she was screaming but Ina couldn't hear anything. She didn't have to when she could feel the weight of it with just a glimpse. It's only when a pair of hands wrap around from behind her that Gura finally stopped, still teary-eyed and frayed at the seams. There's an exchange of words, nothing Ina could hear, it's too quiet for her to pick up. Then it cuts into her watching Gura talking to Amelia on that same beach, the sun was setting, it was pretty to look at but the atmosphere didn't reflect the mood between them.
Amelia was saying something as Gura simply watched her, it's a silent one-sided exchange. It felt heavy and bitter, Ina could feel Gura's anxiety and fears gnawing at her, the sadness and anger boiling and cooling. It's a mishmash of every emotion. Amelia laughs then stares at Gura gently, offering a raised pinky. And for once, Gura says something to the detective before locking pinkies with Amelia, swearing something in her breath as Amelia continues smiling before a flash of golden light envelops her, then she's gone, as if she was never there. Gura still had her hand interlocked where Amelia's used to be. It's quiet, the flames of the campfire looked darker somehow as Gura's vision warped.
It cuts off and into Gura walking down a sidewalk, she's staring at the pavement as she ate her pizza. Ina then watches as Gura picks up a flyer from a board, with the flyer looking familiar as the same blue triangle was visible on it. Everything else came quickly, with Ina watching the first time they ever debuted, their first collab, the sleepless nights, the anxiety that Gura felt while staring at her own stream wait screen. She saw their first ever 3D debut with their small character models, making Ina chuckle and smile. Then she sees herself from Gura's point of view, from when they first met up, their off collab, the first thing Gura saw and how she felt when she laid eyes on Ina. It was nothing short awe and mix of anxiety as Gura stared Ina up and down.
Everything proceeded until recently when Gura was watching the TV where the host of the show was talking about a story, it involved the types of fishes ancient people used to eat, which includes a dish that Gura used to eat, reminding her of everything.
Ina sat on the couch, quietly staring at the bowl nestled on her lap as she goes over the things she saw. The memories, Gura's memories. All of those emotions running through her mind all at once, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Ina takes a spoonful of her cereal.
"Ah, it's soggy." She comments.
[To be continued]