[center][h3][color=FFC000]Fran & Esnes[/color][/h3][/center]

Being seven-foot-tall and resembling a hulking metal construct, Esnes was more than used to stares. Even in a bustling city like Tarn they had been out of place, so on board a boat headed to an isolated village in the middle of a small island? They were practically a sore thumb. However, they'd never been aboard a boat before, so they were enjoying the experience being out on the deck. They kept to the side of the deck, in a place where they would have a decent view of the ocean but wouldn't have to contend with quite as many people. The less awkward looks and attempts to engage them in conversation they had to deal with, the better. They stared out at the sea, watching as their destination came closer into view. They had tried to imagine what it was like to be experiencing this as a living creature of flesh and bone. Salt air in your lungs. Wind on your face. Had they felt these sensations before at some point, a long time ago? Had they felt these sensations on a boat ride to this exact island in the past? The name Ranshelm seemed vaguely familiar to them, but attempts to conjure forth images of what the village was like or what might have brought them there was lost in a silvery mental haze.

Before Esnes could give this more thought, however, there was a sharp exclamation of "Ack no!" in a familiar voice to their left, and the eidolon slowly turned to see their summoner, Fran, walking past them. While Esnes has remained stationary this whole time so as not to get in anyone's way, Fran had been pacing back and forth behind, her whiskery nose buried in her notes as she was attempting to recreate whatever her mind had just conjured up onto the page. It did not appear to be going well.

"Having trouble?" Esnes said as the ratfolk passed by them once more. Their voice was low, gravelly and to anyone else, would have sounded lacking in compassion or sympathy. However, Fran didn't seem to read it as such.

"Oh, no, it's fine," Fran said with a slight shake of her head, still not looking up from her notes. "Just having a bit of a block, that's all."

"Unsurprising," Esnes responded. "You've been at this nearly the whole trip. Perhaps you should take a rest, or at least switch your focus to something else."

"I'll rest once we reach the inn," Fran said as she quickly scribbled something out she had just written.

"No you won't."

"No, I probably won't," Fran said with a sigh as she finally raised her head from her notes. Given her height, it wasn't as easy for her to look out onto the ocean, and she had to crane her neck just to see above the railing. "Looks like we're nearly there anyway." She closed her notebook and tucked it into her bag. "I suppose I'll get our things."

"Need any help?"

Fran shook her head. "I can manage," she said. "You enjoy the rest of the view. You seemed pretty captivated just now."

Esnes turned their gaze back towards the water. "Captivated? I suppose that's a word for it," they said. "I've noticed people have a tendency to compare the movement of spirits through the Astral Plane to a body of water. I never understood the comparison."

"No?"

Esnes couldn't really shake their head that easily, so they had to sway their body slightly from side to side to communicate their disagreement. "Whatever makes up a mortal soul, it is very different from water. It is light, silvery, more like fog in its consistency, but even this comparison isn't entirely accurate."

Fran waited for a moment, as if expecting the eidolon to continue. After a brief silence, Fran assumed that either their mind had wandered or they simply didn't wish to discuss the subject any further - neither were particularly unusual for Esnes. Even with Fran and her family, they still hadn't quite grasped the fine nuances of conversation... like how to indicate when they were done talking.

"I'll be back in a moment," Fran said. She waited again for any response, verbal or otherwise, but still didn't get one. She then shuffled away to go retrieve the few possessions she had brought with them. She and Esnes regrouped at the dock, where Fran carefully wrapped her tail around the eidolon's forearm so the two wouldn't be separated as got off the boat and made their way into the village of Ranshelm. While the pair had originally been planning to head for the inn, the sound of festivities quickly caught Fran's attention, and the ysoki diverted their path from the inn and towards the celebration. Esnes hesitantly followed. While they were fully capable of pulling Fran back towards their original destination, they had no desire to. After all, they themself did not require sleep or food, and if Fran wasn't in a hurry to obtain either of those things, they had no reason to stop her.