[ Caleb watches intently as the woman silently repeats his name. Then her expression brightens with a joy so sudden it surprises a flicker of a smile from him, and she mouths something else while tapping herself again. Her name? Has to be.
Finally, progress. His own lips move soundlessly, trying to figure out what it is by copying her. He's about to venture his first guess—Serena?—when he pauses instead, wondering. What will she do if he gets her name not just wrong, but obviously so? Will it annoy or disappoint her enough to correct him out loud? ]
So... [ he trails off deliberately, brows knit together in a show of confusion. ] Sarah? Do I have that right?
[ the idea that maybe she really isn't able to talk nudges at him again, along with a faint memory of a... story about a mermaid becoming human at the cost of her voice. Something he heard or read when he was a kid. But he immediately dismisses it. She's clearly not human, legs or no legs. And she's real. Flesh and blood just like him.
For the most part, anyway. It's still too ridiculous to start using a fairy tale as some sort of guide—however much she seems to have stepped ( swam? ) straight out of one. ]
no subject
Finally, progress. His own lips move soundlessly, trying to figure out what it is by copying her. He's about to venture his first guess—Serena?—when he pauses instead, wondering. What will she do if he gets her name not just wrong, but obviously so? Will it annoy or disappoint her enough to correct him out loud? ]
So... [ he trails off deliberately, brows knit together in a show of confusion. ] Sarah? Do I have that right?
[ the idea that maybe she really isn't able to talk nudges at him again, along with a faint memory of a... story about a mermaid becoming human at the cost of her voice. Something he heard or read when he was a kid. But he immediately dismisses it. She's clearly not human, legs or no legs. And she's real. Flesh and blood just like him.
For the most part, anyway. It's still too ridiculous to start using a fairy tale as some sort of guide—however much she seems to have stepped ( swam? ) straight out of one. ]