gotmilfs | WEEK THREE MATCH CEREMONY

[Yuck, indeed. Still, she can see the appeal in the clear, clean shine of the water, especially lit up as it is at night. It seems pretty and calm, but that doesn't take away from the foul odor of the chemicals keeping it that way.

Ye oldes hate the pool. She'll dip her feet in, at least, to give them a reprieve from her heels.]

Oh, is that what you wanted to talk about? When it comes down to it, it's just a feeling I had. Personality-wise, we have some things in common, though I think it takes more to make you lose your temper. [Dumping fish on Riri, for example. She inclines her head with a soft smirk.] You seem to like indulging a bit and taking your recreation, and, well, I've been called lazy every now and then. Your perspective on love ... and, hearing you talking about being a scale, I'd like to hope the Goddess fulfills a similar role in my life.

[Manuela pauses, drawing her ankle through the pool water's resistance.] ...And I thought you were a looker when we started this game. I could see us being deemed compatible.

If I truly lost my temper, everyone would know it.

[ though her statement isn't inaccurate, it's just that he reels himself in. he does that a fair bit actually for someone who is in indulgent in many areas, but that's part of the reason he wanted to talk too.

he moves to sit, legs folded, peering over the water that's too sharp and clear for his tastes. she'll notice that his tone has shifted along with his posture, much like it did during the perfect match discussion. ]

But you're correct, I also thought similarly—stronger even, I think our pairing is the most likely assuming there is any logic to it at all. You are certainly beautiful by any definition of the word.

The Sea God fell in love with a woman from the land and so it follows that as his scale, it would be similar for me.

[ though, that's not quite how things went. ]

Compared to many here, I believe you wanted to use this place to find some sense of love. I would be remiss if I didn't express my apologies for not being able to offer that to you.

[Hah, he really is eloquent. This side of of him is charming in his own way, too, enough to make her blush, but when Manuela exhales it's to release a scoffing laugh.]

No need to kick a girl while she's down. Still, most men don't apologize to me. That's probably what's keeping me from flying off the handle.

[If he'd approached this conversation differently, she would have. Maybe there's some restraint involved here, too... She can almost hear the do as you please. But no, it's just that there's a thread that hasn't snapped yet.]

I already told Ori how I plan to handle things. At this point, I just wanna get out of here.

I wanted to be clear because like you, I am not one to hold back when I speak. And frankly, it is the least you deserve.

[ he won't belabor the point though. ]

Things will end soon regardless, but I hope we can all speak from our minds and heart in this last week. [ a sigh of his own. ] We certainly need it to move forward.

You're right about that. I probably deserved a little better.

[It's hard to feel that way, will be even harder once she's found a place to drink alone later tonight, but it's also a selfish demand that's kept her from seeing many of her blind spots in the past. Either way, she lets herself express than annoyance fully.]

I don't suppose miracles are also under your purview. They do say the Goddess never gives with both hands.

[ it's a look he's seen before, and he tries to give her space in responding to the rest. her feelings are her own and don't require justification. ]

Hoh, do you think you need one? [ a shake of his head. ] They are not, even the Sea God was not capable of miracles when he was whole.

Too bad. I'm feeling receptive to handouts.

[This is said jokingly, though it does come with general exasperated sense of doneness that colors it sarcastic. Manuela heaves a sigh and presses the heels of her hands to both eyes. She'd normally try to be a bit more careful with her makeup unless she accidentally falls asleep with it still on, but her head is hurting just enough that smudges seem like less of a big deal.]

What a mess. We need something, that's for sure.

We need guidance. The hint we received was helpful, but it did little to pinpoint the heart of the mattter—what the assigned pairs are supposed to represent. And if an odd pairing like Mithra and Martin Brenner holds merit.

[ they've been off the mark repeatedly despite trying, so it's something like trying to write an essay about classic history but attempting to do so as a science fiction short story instead. ]

[ well maybe it makes more sense post monday catherd, but they're not there yet. uroko continues to wonder out loud. ]

Mmn, even their names are incongruous together. Put together as one...Minner...Brethra? Martha? Isn't that a regular name on it's own?

We took the quick victory we had with Yukong and Aurelia and ran that theory into the ground. More of us are impulsive than would like to admit.

[Manuela, from her glass house, makeup smudged while she sits on the side of the castle pool, will not be throwing any stones tonight. She was just as rash as the rest of them in thinking that could help them dive into what they truly wanted and what they truly stood to gain from these matches.]

Why are you shoving their names together like that? Is that a thing? Like a...fan thing? [She had some fanatics during her time with opera... had they ever done that with her? Manuela's expression remains fixed at "cautious and worried."]

[ wow???

uroko stares at her for a long second. ]

Saying their names together is too long. [ he calls his own people by their first name, but since brenner isn't one of them, full name it is. but then that's long so gestures. ]

But hmm, I think some fanclubs do that for their idol groups. [ a beat. ] I have no real opinion on either of them.

[Help...shortening their names by combining them because he's too lazy to speak the full things aloud? He's even lazier than she is, in some ways. She chuckles, waving him off with her hand.]

Please, I wasn't implying that you did. It just sounded like something I might have heard before.

They're almost complete opposites, except in one way. Mithra does as he pleases, and I can't imagine Dr. Brenner is one who likes anything getting in his way. [So he, too, will do whatever he wants with little consideration for what others think.

Manuela pauses and looks back at the water and the reflections on its surface.] ... This is so irritating.

I wonder, if matches were done on a surface and assumptive level, if there's anything to be gleaned from the profiles.

[ he has nothing else more to say on brenner and mithra, manuela knows them both better than he does and the most he could say about them is that brenner tries to solve everything with logic, and that mithra doesn't know what he wants in the way a child doesn't quite know either but keeps stumbling forward anyway.

it is irritating though, to have to try to sort out picks like this when he had thought that there would be some degree of emotion and connectivity involved, both in the group and within the bounds of the rules of the game. ]

Who knows? It wouldn't hurt.

[... But that's not all that irritating, and it's not even really at the crux of her frustration right now. Manuela prickles, realizing she can't keep having this conversation right now, not tonight.]

I can't believe you just basically told me I'm not good enough, and after that, all we can do is sit here and talk about the same things we have all week.

[She pulls her legs out of the water as if she's thinking about leaving it behind.]

[ his gaze follows the movement of the water like always, as he listens. perhaps frustratingly he doesn't stir, remaining seated. he could answer that outcry and perhaps he should, but he does not.

uroko is the scale of the sea god and as such, this is his nature even amidst turbulent seas. ]

What would you like to talk about, Manuela?

[There's a nasty voice in the back of her head that thinks it's too late for that. What's the point in talking when the path is already decided?

Manuela has never once in her life been a quitter. When she leaves something behind, it's of her own volition. She tries to quiet that cruel little voice, though it mostly ends up with her flopped on her back on the hardtop surface beside the pool.]

I don't know. What you dream of doing. What your perfect future looks like. What you'd use your wish for, like we're still gonna get those.

These are questions for one not the scale of the Sea God.

[ ... ]

I did not have a dream of my own before coming here, nor did I have a wish. The future I want to see is one where the sea and land can live in harmony—where they can speak to one another and settle their differences.

Well, excuse me for asking then. [She's not proud of it, but she does snap at him when her questions feel inadequate for what he is, just another point in what feels like a humiliating losing score.

She settles down and falls silent for a while.]

... That sort of future sounds nice. Is it difficult for you to imagine, or do you think they'll be able to achieve it?

You can ask anything you want, but that doesn't mean I'll have an answer.

[ truthful if blunt, but he doesn't sound off put. ]

It requires the Sea God to accept something he hasn't wanted to face in nearly a millennium, to open his ears to children's pleas. They are ready, but he is not. I am only an intermediary between the two.

That kind of time must not mean much to anyone who has so much of it.

[For humans and anyone else with a normal lifespan (or rather, a "shorter" lifespan, though she doesn't really think of it in those terms), many lives would have passed in the time it took for the Sea God to even think about coming around. The world for them would have to be a much different place.]

Can he even say his children are the same people now? I think keeping their belief alive for so long is an extraordinary thing. [She sighs thoughtfully. Her faith has always supported her throughout her life, but even Manuela has to admit that seeing some injustices in the world sometimes makes it waver.] They must love him very much.

Only his children can live, breathe in the sea. When they mix with the land, their children cannot venture under the waves.

But there are not many of them left, as devoted as they are. That's why he's invoked an eternal winter, in his ire. The Sea can sleep, but the land will freeze.

[ it's rote not mechanical, spoken more properly than he usually does. like beats of a story he tells it all respectfully but with some distance.

she's right that the things he usually concerns himself with would be foreign to her and regular lived beings but—he is the scale of the Sea God. ]

WEEK THREE MATCH CEREMONY

ᯓ⭐ WEEK THREE MATCH CEREMONY

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