From Beneath the Waves

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Korrin flushed a little when Olivia laughed, but managed a small, though embarrassed smile at his own expense. He'd been silly, so it didn't offend him that she found it funny. Afterwards, though, his posture went bashful, hands clasped together and shoulders hunched, chin tucked down towards his shoulder.

"I - I don't want to ask you spend more money." He did want it, but it wasn't fair to keep asking her to get him things. She was taking care of him so much already. "They are very pretty. . ." So colorful. Like a reef overflowing with different sorts of life. Maybe it was something they could work on together.
 
She was glad to see him smile but she felt a flush of guilt at seeing his embrassment, she hadn't meant to upset him at all.

She was used to playfully teasing in her family, but obviously he was not. His situation also didn't help, with how much he had to learn he was probably quite ill at ease and prone to embarrassment.

"They are very pretty, I'm going to get one." She said brightly, it was clear he wanted one so she would make it her decision to soothe his worry. "Will you please help me pick out a good one?" "We could do it together, if you wanted too of course."
 
Olivia was only saying she wanted one because she knew he wanted one, of that Korrin was relatively certain, but stuck between the impoliteness of pointing it out and his own desire for the puzzles he couldn't find a way to try and refuse her again. Even if he had, if she wanted to get him something, wasn't that okay? Giving was a special kind of joy, and he shouldn't take it away from anyone.

". . .Oh, if you insist." He said finally, sheepish still and with a faint redness lingering on his cheeks, but partially in order to escape having to meet her eyes again he did turn to look at the puzzles. "How many pieces is too many?" One was a cheery mix of purple, yellow, and orange, with many little 'rooms' depicted that either told a story or were just amusing to look at, he couldn't tell, and others were of birds, or cats. One was of ice cream, which he thought was pretty, but he wasn't sure if 500 pieces was not enough.
 
Clearly she needed to practice her acting as it seemed Korrin was onto to her, but he didn't seemed bothered by it so she counted that as a win.

"Hmm well the standard is a thousand pieces so we could try that?" "Five hundred might be more beginner friendly though." She said thoughtfully, "I'm happy with eiether so long as it's a good picture."
 
"I've never tried . . ." Korrin murmured softly to himself, crouching carefully down with his arms folded over his knees to try and make a decision. It was a strange, unconscious posture for him that he only noticed once he'd done it, and idly remarked to himself that he was getting the hang of having legs already. "Is 500 okay?"

Beginner was best for him, he thought, but he didn't want to bore her. After a moment he picked up one of the vibrant, multicolored birds and held it up for inspection. "Is this a good picture?" He liked the image itself, but he didn't know what was a 'good' picture in reference to puzzles. Maybe some were better or worse just because of their colors.
 
She nodded a little while he looked at the various puzzles, "sure that'd be fine." She smiled a little, "I haven't done a jigsaw puzzle in ages so I'm probably a bit rusty."

She smiled fondly, thinking of the last time she'd done so, itd been a part of family game night. "Yeah I think so, it's really pretty." "if you like it, then let's get it."
 
Olivia's approval made Korrin smile, feeling a bit bashful still but pleased with her agreement and with the idea of solving a puzzle of some sort together. He was sure he would do poorly at it, at first, but that was all right. Being bad at something was the first step to getting good at it, after all.

Once they'd made their choice, he handed it off to Olivia and watched with interest as she paid for it. Underwater life was largely paid for by bartering, but he could still wrap his head around the idea of currency. How it was given value was a larger, stranger concept, but exchanging one thing for another was simple enough.

"I can't wait to see what's inside," he said with a smile as they made their way out of the store, eyes wandering to some of the plants sticking out here or there amongst the stone walkways and buildings. "Where else will we go?"
 
She was glad to see his smile, as she happily handed over the money for it. The price was fair but more importantly, it made her friend happy.

She'd always been generous and gift giving was something she loved to do, so she was glad to make Korrin happy with something so simple.

"We can open it up first thing once we're home if you like." She smiled back as she led the way, "well we can get the groceries last on our way out."

"Is there anything else you'd like to look at?" She gestured to the many shops around them, "we can look at anything you want then head to the cafe."
 
Korrin looked around, pleased and content as they walked, and tried to think when Olivia asked him where he wanted to go. "Theres a lot of places. . ." He mused out loud, wondering just how many different kinds of things he would find around, and just a bit wondering if going into more would prompt her into buying him more things.

"Maybe . . . one more place before the cafe?" He suggested, looking to see if there was anything around that seemed very interesting. "That one there . . . it has music inside?" He wasn't sure exactly how, but it had 'music' in the name, so he assumed they sold it somehow. He couldn't conceptualize how one could sell sounds. Finding out what it meant could be interesting.
 
She turned to follow his gaze, smiling when she noticed which store he was talking about. Of course he'd be interested in that one, she should have thought of it sooner.

"It does, they sell CDs and even vinyl records." "They're things you can use to store music on." She usually got all her music off the internet, though she still gifted the occasional cd.

"They have musical instruments too actually." She led the way inside, pointing out various instruments as they browsed. "This one's a violin, that's a guitar, there's a saxophone... wow they even have a piano here."
 
Korrin only vaguely understood what CDs and vinyls were, only from what she'd shown him and told him about, but he knew enough to know they were somehow vessels for music. The instruments, however, were infinitely more captivating. Those, at least, he could recognize a portion of.

"Ooh, there's so many different kinds," he murmured quietly as they walked in, considerate of the quiet inside the store and wary of sounding very strange for not knowing what any of it was. "These strings . . . are a little bit similar to what I've seen." He stopped, mere inches from having reached out to one of the guitars, and looked at her with something guilty on his face. "Can I touch it?" Was it bad to touch the things that were being sold if he wasn't trying to take them home?
 
It was nice to be around so many instruments again, and he was right, fir a smaller store they had an impressive variety of different instruments.

"They do have quite a few, reminds me of home actually." She said with a fond smile, matching his quieter tone. "My mums really passionate about music."

She trailed off a little as he asked his question, "it should be fine, usually places like this expect you to want to try them out a little, but hang I'll double check first."

After wandering off and having a short but pleasant conversation with a staff member, she returned to his side and nodded. "Go ahead, just be careful okay?"
 
It made sense, really, that Olivia had gotten her love of music from her mother. Maybe they weren't really kin, but Korin was sure he had learned his scholarly tendencies from Minamet, and without her he wouldn't have learned so about his magic.

While Olivia went off to ask the shopkeeper about the instruments, he had to make himself clasp his hands behind his back to keep himself from touching without permission. He just had to know what they would sound like. What they would feel like. The recordings Olivia had shown him proved that things resonated differently on land, but it wasn't the same as hearing it, as feeling it with his own hands.

"Are you sure?" He asked despite having heard a bit of the conversation from where he stood, but wasn't sure he could have helped himself if they changed their mind. Oh so carefully, he reached out to a guitar and used one hand to steady it where it hung so it wouldn't fall, the other running lightly over the strings. They made sound even under a gentle touch, and he only hesitated briefly before giving one a careful pluck. He could feel the vibration of the sound in his hand, and it was so strange not to feel it in the water too. Everything was so different in open air, without anything to muffle it. Encouraged by the single string, he plucked each one in quick succession and finally let the instrument go, staring enraptured at it as the chords visibly shook to make their sound.

"It's beautiful. . ." He murmured softly, almost more to himself than to anyone around him, and only when the sound went slowly quiet could he make himself look away and give Olivia a smile. "I think we've listened to this one." It was different in each song, but he was sure he had heard something similar in the music she showed him.
 
"Absolutely." She reassured with a smile, but she hardly needed to bother as he was already reaching out. She fell silent, simply watching him.

Perhaps others might find it strange, seeing such strong wonder, fascination, almost reverence clear in his gaze over such a simple thing, but she knew better.

Maybe she was wrong and it was just because it was new to him, but she doubted it, the look in his eyes was familiar after all.

"We have." She agreed with a smile, "guitars are so versatile and there's different kinds so they're used in lots of different types of music."

"I think you'd be a natural if you ever wanted to learn to play yourself." It was clear she wasn't just complimenting him, she really meant it.
 
Guitars. It was good to have an image to assign to the word, though he'd heard it before in context with other things. It seemed like such a simple thing, just wood and strings made of metal, but he couldn't help wondering how long ago someone had figured out how to make the simple shape make such beautiful sounds, and what kind of person they were.

"Play?" Korrin blinked back to reality at the suggestion, pressing his fingers together as if he couldn't imagine the thought of ever touching it again. "Isn't it very difficult?" He had never played instruments underwater, always focused on following in Minamet's footsteps, on learning his magic and helping her with whatever she needed. The idea of learning to play one was so novel he had never really considered it before. It had always seemed like it took so much practice to be any good that he would never accomplish it.
 
She nodded a little, "it is difficult." "It can take a long time to master, so you need to have patience and practice a lot." "It's hard work, but it's also fun."

"My mum teaches music, she taught me and my brothers how to play different instruments." She smiled in amusement, "she tried to teach my dad but he was hopeless at it."

"Anyway, I think you'd have the passion for it." She smiled and shrugged a little, "only if it was something you wanted of course."
 
"Really?" Korin tore his eyes away from the pretty instruments on the wall to look at her again, something clearly very impressed in his voice. "You can play some of these?"

How nice, having her mother be the one to teach her something so beautiful. He wondered what it had been like, growing up with siblings that learned the same things she did. Maybe they had played music together.

More shocking, still, was the idea that he could do the same himself. "I don't know. . . I've never played any before." There were so many questions. Would he be capable? Would he stay on land long enough to learn? Would she stay in that home near the ocean long enough to help him learn? "Maybe I can think about it." He didn't have the money to purchase one anyway.
 
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