[private] She sells seashells by the sea shore // Oceane

[Oceane]

oceane

at me, the sea withdrew

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"It is, quite," lovely, she means. More hides in the depths of Loess than even Oceane had ever expected to find; she is constantly made breathless by the diversity of the scenery and fauna that call the foothills home. "I'd love for you to visit sometime," she adds as a polite afterthought, the statement accentuated with a kind and genuine smile. More often than not, she's roaming the contours of the hills on her own and enjoys the occasional opportunity to share her home with others.

Recently, though, her wanderings have consisted less of random meandering and more pensive investigations. Instinctively, she has begun to nest ─ next season she will give birth to the life that grows within her now, and there's an urgency that washes over her each time her attention is drawn back to it. Borne of primal instinct and personal history, Oceane knows well that the panic that presses at her heart will neither ebb nor disappear until her child is birthed and safely at her winged side.

She attempts to hide the waver in her tone as she brushes over Ischia, but the not-so-silent tell still draws a sideways glance from Aquaria. Had she not already felt an emerging kinship with the pearl-finned woman, Oceane would deign to give her any more information about the way she feels toward the island territory. But there's something that already exists between them ─ something that, admittedly, reminds her of her relationship with Isobell before discovering that Castile's sister was married to the very catalyst that formed that acidic taste in her mouth.

And, more likely than not, it's a friend that Oceane needs now. "I've visited once," she says tentatively, though she tries to find a more casual tone, "Everything was so vibrant and beautiful. I ─ I can't recall any other time I've seen a land so dynamic. I explored as much as I could, though I had quite an unsavory conversation when I visited the small island just to the north of mainland Ischia," she fades off, unwilling to place a name on the kelpie she'd interacted with ─ if only because she is curious whether or not his face will be the first to come to Aquaria's mind.

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@[Aquaria]
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