salt water & sadness

[heatherbythesea]

Who: Heather Harne (heatherbythesea) & Anyone who comes across her
What: the depression has her
When: March-April
Where: the beach

She slumps in the surf, still, save for the sporadic shuddering from a silent sob.

Heather's hair hangs heavy across her head, laid limp on the land as she languishes.

And in sorrowful silence she yearns for the sea.

Comments

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth lingers. "I realize we don't know each other well, and I am not in the habit of prying, but I am also not in the habit of simply leaving someone in distress," he says kindly. "Are you hurt?"

[heatherbythesea]

One dark eye glares up at him.

"I want to go home," Heather says, voice shaking from the effort of keeping her powers in check. It doesn't quite work, and a feeling of longing, a feeling of having an empty space inside, bleeds over to those who can hear her.

[imjustaman]

“I understand,” he says quietly. “I do as well.”

But home for him … does that really mean Gaia, or home to the friends he prays still might care about him? If they were here, then this would feel more like home for him and he likely wouldn’t ever want to leave.

[heatherbythesea]

She does not seem to be in the mood for commiseration. She gives him a silent, brief glare and then turns her gaze back to the sea.

And if he follows her gaze, and she notices, she'll point to the rolling waves in front of them. That could be home. And yet, for all it is right in front of her, she is barred from it. Barred from living in this new sea by the human body she's stuck in.

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth wonders what it would be like to see home in front of you and not be able to get to it. It's hard for him to relate to that specific problem, at least at first. But ... if someone like Zack was here and Sephiroth could not be with him for some reason ... yes, then it becomes more relatable.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly. "There's no way to be able to be there?"

[heatherbythesea]

He might remember from the dream that Heather in her merrow form had gills along her ribs. Heather in the waking world yanks up her shirt -- uncaring whether or not she might accidentally flash him -- to show that her human torso definitely lacks the gills.

All she has now are lungs, adapted for breathing air and not seawater.

[imjustaman]

"Yes, I understand," he says. "Then you're saying your powers of transformation are blocked?"

His are not, so he is understandably confused.

[heatherbythesea]

Heather touches her index finger to her nose -- a gesture that means "you've sniffed it out", or more generally "you've got it".

It's entirely possible that Sephiroth might not be familiar with the gesture and its meaning, but Heather isn't thinking of that right now.

[imjustaman]

Sephiroth doesn't use it, but he has seen it used.

"And there is no way for you to unblock them?"

He would help if he could.