#but the gist is that lselle is trying to draw a parallel

[furymint]

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L'selle walked backwards through the sailor's quarter. Women with swaying baskets of fruit and flashing skirts dove around him; children clutching kites and flaring strings hurtled passed; a man barking commands around a tobacco pipe stepped clear. Upstream, oblivious to the parting waters, natural in the chaos and grinning pure mortal folly, L'selle walked backwards.

Ninira didn't care that he'd meant to bring her to the Salt Strand. The place was barren. Wind ripped through the weeds, bobbing ship lights sunk into the mist, the waves churned out empty shells. Life existed there, to be sure--but it was hidden in suggestions and remnants, not roiling in the shouts and raucous laughter around L'selle.

Fish slapped their tails against the sun-bleached deck, sailors crawled aloft to the screaming gulls, L'selle stamped his feet while describing last night's dream.

"You ever been in a thunderstorm like what ghosts'd tell about if they had tongues?"

Ninira nudged the rim of her hat up to glance pointedly at the sky. Cloudless, pure azure."Twice, mayhaps."

Nodding with unnecessary gravity, L'selle folded his hands behind his head, puckered his lips, and thought aloud, "Ghosts? You see 'em?"

"In a way," Ninira started, not intending to finish. She hustled closer to L'selle to avoid the raging path of a pirate group. The skirt of her coat bustled in her fists.

"I was thinking, in my dream, that it was like that. Wind going by so strong its voice'd gone hoarse, and lightning marking the clouds with its writing." L'selle swung a leg out, clapped his hands, and turned down a perpendicular dock. "And they might not got tongues, but they got other ways of communicating what they have."

Less bustled around him. The drone of people and shore bells faded behind a second curve and the shelter of an alley wall. As if he missed the noise, his pace increased towards the next thoroughfare. "I was just thinking, when people jab that they swim as fine as a pebble sinks, they forget we've boats. Sure, the boat gets zapped, wrecked--they drown, but so will I. We've lungs, not gills. The ocean does what she wants once you're in her hands. Ain't it the same in your sky? Not one of us is meant to fly. But folk go up there anyroad. In more boats."

He stepped back into the vortex of people, face tilted towards the sun's warmth. "Because it feels right to be there. By no means should it be that way but it does feel right."

Under the caws of distant merchants and a bickering set of siblings, Ninira thought to defend the Churning Mists. It was spectacle, wilderness, and a certain type of isolation--but a qiqirn shrieked by to chase a cat and the moment left with it.

L'selle winked, turning around to face forward, and said, "All this means is that I'll no sooner take you to my death trap if you leave me outta yours. I've a feeling the ghosts in the thunder upstairs don't care what tattoo I call protection."

#i think this is a little #incomprehensible #and im too sleepy to think v much harder abt it #but the gist is that lselle is trying to draw a parallel #thru danger #and Places Ppl Prob Shouldnt Be #to get those hashtag relatable feels #out of experiences that have no true equivalents #meanwhile he belongs in this chaotic city #while nini doesn't or doesn't nearly as much #ksjhdf thank u nini for letting me borrow ms aery #bri writes #l'selle ran