[FIN] beneath the brine (noeh & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

The stable weather in other ashdown was something that he was still not quite used to, though he did appreciate that it was warmer than Ashdown. For once he came to this place with no real goal in mind, simply wanting to look and see what had changed.

If anything.

So far it wasn't anything that he could find.

His feet eventually lead him to the beach. It was the one place he had not really come back to much in other ashdown, always pulled elsewhere but never back to this place. Something about today, however, was different and Jeremiah - in an odd mood - sat down long enough to undo his shoes and stuff his socks in them before he set them where he could get them in a bit.

He was going to walk along the water's edge and see what the waves had brought in.  

[shibrogane]

The beach wasn't deserted. There was another person. Noeh had her hoodie up, but her curls--a bright brown--tossed in the wind. She didn't seem to realize that Jeremiah was there on the beach with her: she watched the waves wash up over her bare feet, jeans salt-soaked to the knees.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah notices the hair first, the bright brown, that blows before anything else. He pauses for a moment, rocks on his heels, before he walks forward towards the figure on the beach.

"'lo," he calls out, not sure it is under the hoodie. "Didn't expect to see someone else on the beach." Not today at least. This could be someone he knows, it could not be, because the curls he can't quite place.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Noeh turned. She waved, a little tock-tock of a gesture where her wrist didn't move all that much. If she made any sound, it was swallowed up by the wind and the waves.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

When she turned, he caught sight of her face and his eyes widened as he returned the wave. It was-

He moved forward until he was able to sit down next to her on the sand, at a loss for words.

"It's been a while," he said quietly, his head tilting and looking at her. His feet joined hers in the waves washing over them, the cuffs of his slacks getting soaked. Truthfully, he was not quite sure how to address her at the moment.

5hibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Noeh shrugged. She tucked her hands into her pockets, changed her mind, and turned to look at Jeremiah. Her lipstick was pink and a shade darker than her skin. She tapped her lips: still mute.

She sighed. There was a little huff of a pretty voice (one that Algie had heard, but Jeremiah had not) and she sighed something. She tapped her fingertips against her temple and gestured like popping the tab of a soda.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah figured that was the case. Perhaps there had been a hope that maybe- No, this place stayed the same it seemed, though there might be small changes yet to be seen. He watched her gesture, turned towards her properly to do so.

"Open ... your mind?" Then there was his own huff, at himself. "Alg is better at charades than I am."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Noeh shook her head. She made the gesture and snapped at the end of it.

She thought about this for a moment and then sighed again.

Her expression soured, and then she held out both hands.

Well, it wasn't like she could talk...

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah watched, still not quite understanding before he sighed himself.

"I could simply stop being dense ..." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out both his small case notebook and the pen that was attached to it.

It was blank on the inside so far. One he was going to start fresh with because the one he had found that was half-filled was not his.

Jeremiah set it into her hand with one hand, the other coming up under her's briefly.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Noeh took the pen and clicked it. Then she clicked it again and again. Then she put her pen to the paper and scrawled:

Whatever you did I can't speak mind-to-mind anymore.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

That clicking.

He watched as she wrote and then sighed.

"The sigil was made anew, the cage reformed with new principals. That's what was done." Which meant this was one of the shifts. Both her voice and her ability to telepathically speak gone now.

Jeremiah frowned.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Then you're going to have to learn sign, wrote Noeh. She held it up so Jeremiah could see. Because this takes forever.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I can. It's just been a while." Jeremiah said, leaning back and rubbing the side of his neck. He had been about to say he could before he offered her the notebook.

It was passable as his hands moved, making the gestures to say: I learned from Eve. Her son Dylan came to mind but it had been a while since then.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

British sign, Noeh wrote. I have no idea what you're saying.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah sighed. "Of course you wouldn't know ASL." The British version was different and his knowledge of it limited.

"It will take some time," he admitted, "to learn. I learned what I do know from Eve and unless there's some way to magically impart the knowledge ..." The look on his face was rueful. He wanted to talk with her but it wasn't exactly effective with the constant writing of answers.

"Not like Alg can't get the books." He wondered if there might be books in their library.

shibroswol