prontissimo | kaisou inbox

[Sometime after the prophecy post goes live, Alberto will get a text.]

Are you still up for swimming lessons?

[ ... w e l p . ]

YUP. 🙃
see you tomorrow morning at stardew station?

[Katsuki agrees to a time and he's there at the station, ready(?) to go. As ready as he can be, all things considered.

He prides himself on being able to do anything he sets his mind to. But this is that one thing that honestly he'd have been happy to go on not ever learning to do.

But given the suffocating in water bit? Yeah. He'd rather make a fool of himself in front of one person who already knows he can't swim than who the hell knows how many people. Time to conquer a fear?]

So are we doing this in the lake at Stardew?

[Lake is manageable maybe...]

Ciao, caro~

[ Alberto greets Katsuki cheerily this morning, like this isn't some terrifying huge step that he's making. They're just hanging out. Going for a swim together. Whatever. Ahem... ]

Let's go to the beach where we had Luca's birthday party. Lake water makes my scales feel weird. Hah.

[ May or may not be a sound excuse. The sea is vast and ready to swallow you, Katsuki. Welcome to Alberto's life...! He came with iced coffee (he's leveled up, extra gay points, oh no) and a couple croissants from Starbrooke's, both of which he offers to Katsuki once they settle into their seats in the train. He idly stares out the window, chewing and sipping and chatting, as the train lurches forward. There's not many others riding at this time, not a high traffic beachgoing time — not that the Stardew Express is ever all that crowded — but Alberto's thankful there's no one else in the car that he can see. He props his legs up on the seat in front of his own. ]

So, some prophecy, eh? 'Roly-poly fish heads, yum' — can we talk about that? Uhm— Yum?

[Katsuki doesn't particularly think caffeine is the best idea on his journey to confront his fears. And he's never been a coffee guy. But he holds the cup between his hands, letting the cold against them give him something to focus on.

The thrum of the train and the scenery outside are also nice distractions.]

It's a song, apparently? I looked it up.

[Because he was curious if it would turn it up and... yeah. Leave it to Katsuki to research the things he doesn't understand. Rummaging around on the internet for context.

He fishes his phone out with one hand, thumb swiping out the start of the search, the full thing popping up from his previous search. And a link to the song. If Alberto wants to hear, Katsuki will fish out his earbuds and pass him one, but...]

It's completely nonsensical. So it didn't shed any light on what next month might hold in store.

[ Leave it to Alberto to not research things he doesn't understand and just blindly pushes on while panicking inwardly. Thankfully, Luca is more like Katsuki, and he did manage to Google the song. Alberto still accepts the earbud to hear it again, though, narrowing his eyes skeptically. ]

Yeah, no. Luca looked it up, too, and it sounds just as crazy the second time as it did the first time...!

[ He hands the earbud back to Katsuki, not bothering to hear the whole song again, because it's distressing. ]

What if there's some land monster that wants to kill all the sea creatures or something? I mean, even humans are kinda like that sometimes, so. Besides, did I ever tell you about the sirens in El Nido? It's not impossible! Nothing's impossible here!

[ He throws his hands up exasperatedly, then slouches back in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest poutily. ]

Edited 2023-07-19 15:15 (UTC)

Dunno. It's not usually very straightforward. The pieces we get are pretty fucking random. Maybe fish heads are a delicacy wherever we're headed. Maybe it just means it's a world of people with fish heads. Maybe it is some fish gobbling monster.

[Was he supposed to deny the idea? Reassure him it'll be fine? It's rarely okay in the spirit realm...

But...]

If it is, I'll blow it up. So don't worry too much about it.

[If he can even get to a point where he can brave the realm... that feeling of drowning bit...]

[ Alberto grumbles, settling back into his seat again, crossing his arms over his chest once more and gazing out the window. Yeah, yeah, the Zodiac posts are always awful, and yeah, yeah, the seers always see weird shit that they're not in control of in any way... Better than nothing, he guesses. But after all the crazy terrifying things that have happened in the Spirit Realm — El Nido, Bruno getting kidnapped, the Zodiac race — Alberto can't help but feel apprehensive. He's not a great fighter like Katsuki. He doesn't have any magic powers — like Katsuki. And Luz. And all the Madrigals. And Luca. Literally everyone else he knows. He's the only non-magic person he knows now. And it's more and more getting under his skin every month, especially when dangerous gates open. It's always been something that bothered him a little, wishing he was more special; it started once he got close to all the Madrigals, this peculiar "one of these things is not like the other" feeling... but he felt so loved and celebrated and welcome in every other sense, and with everything he knew about Mirabel, it felt— okay? But now that all but two of those ~*Amazing*~ Madrigals are gone, it's been harder to celebrate himself for not having some fantastical gift. Because, y'know, being a sea monster isn't enough. That's not magic, that's just biology. And all year long, ever since Luca discovered he'd gained magical water powers out of the blue, Alberto's own normalcy (read: inadequacy) have been on the forefront of his mind. He felt useless rescuing Bruno. He felt useless during the race. And if this is some crazy water-world—

He glances at Katsuki with an oddly open expression on his face, raising his brow slightly, pensively, not poutily.

Right.

They're literally on their way to the beach so Alberto can teach Katsuki how to not die. He can still save people. He can't blow things up, see the future or the past, can't control the weather or conjure light or travel through shadows, can't talk to rats or heal people or turn into a weird super-cat, can't produce water or fire or butter from thin air... but he knows a lot of stuff. And he likes teaching people what he knows. He thinks he's a good teacher, too — he's never been told otherwise, and, well, just look at Luca! He's a case in point! Nevermind he's just a fantastic student regardless, and nevermind that an unsettlingly vast majority of what Alberto taught him for a long time was inaccurate if not outright incorrect... Alberto fancies he's learned enough by now to make up for all that. And besides: the current lesson at hand? That's not even second nature, that's instinct to Alberto.

But— ...he's never had to teach someone something he never had to learn himself. He doesn't really remember learning to walk, but it was indeed something he had to learn. But now look, Luca's great at walking, bicycling, dancing, running — he and Alberto even beat a bunch of their human classmates running the mile in gym class! He can totally figure out break down the mechanics of swimming to teach a human that same level of agility underwater. Maybe Katsuki won't beat a sea monster in a race, it took a few days for Luca to get to that point — but even then, two weeks after learning to walk, Luca beat Ercole in the bike race! They may not have all the time in the world til this mysterious gate opens, but they've got at least some time for Katsuki to really practice. And swimming is Alberto's absolute best capability — and that's not just him tooting his own horn, he knows for a fact he's an excellent swimmer; even by sea folk standards he's impressively fast and nimble. He can outswim his dad, Luca, sirens, motorboats... and surely whatever terrifying undersea surprises lay waiting for them once the next gate opens. And he's determined to make that useful and important to someone other than himself, man. He wants to help. He needs to help. Katsuki's helped him with so much for so long, this is the literal least he could do to pay him back. But it's not even about that. It's about so much more.

He turns the corners of his lips up in a shy little pressed smile, meaning to seem reassuring, but the look in his eyes is still steelier than the vague words of encouragement he finds. ]

Yeah. I know. Heh. I'm not worried. We've got this.

[No one can do everything. Katsuki sure does put on a front like he can, though. Alberto is one of a rare few who has ever heard him admit to being incapable of something--anything.

And it just so happens to be something Alberto is good at. Great at, even. If pressed on it, Katsuki would even admit he wouldn't have taken his offer to teach him if he didn't believe he was one of the best to do it. Facts. Learning to swim from a sea monster? He couldn't hope for a better teacher than that.

But he isn't pressed and he doesn't say.

He falls into silence as he looks out the window at the passing scenery until they rumble to a stop. Kind of funny to be back here now. Katsuki still remembers their bet and counting nickles on the forest floor. Walking around sourly with pockets full of coins and every jingle pissing him off more.

He huffs a sound of amusement at the memory. It's funny to him now.]

This is our stop.

[ Alberto smiles at him when he announces their stop, getting to his feet and grabbing their things. He lets Katsuki take the lead, traipsing behind him like a little puppy. He's proud and excited to be able to teach him something -- something Alberto knows he's good at. But he loves teaching people things, and Katsuki's taught them so much... He's taking this seriously. An honor, even. He chats as they pass through the train station, smiling, his tone light. ]

So, you've been to the beach before, right?

Dimes' birthday party. And there was that gate that went to a beach last year.

[He built sandcastles with Ken, who he hasn't seen in what feels like a long time now. Hopefully that means he went home. So many of the people Katsuki took to have gone home.]

Never in the water though. The first time I go in might be a shit show.

That's what I meant. So. The ocean moves, first of all. Honestly, it makes it better. Swimming in lakes is weird.

[ Alberto, Katsuki knows what tides are... Give the kid a bit of stage time and this is what you get. ]

I have eyes. I've seen that it moves.

[Nerves got him being a little snippy there. But also yes. He does know about tides.

This is a terrifying leap and his anxiety is up through the roof. But his mind is made up. He's doing this.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.]

What do I do once I'm in the water?

Well, we'll work on floating first. Which is basically just laying down without gravity. But you'll still be on the surface technically, so we'll start there.

[ Alberto also figures it'll buy him time to figure out what actually would be the first step. He was just gonna wing it. Sorry, Katsuki. ]

Floating. Right. Got it.

[He has to actually get in the water first.

Which.

He stands there, just out of reach of the water's touch, staring it down as if he can intimidate it.

Okay.]

Just gotta walk in then, right?

[First step is the biggest but he's looking at Alberto and waiting for him to go first.]

[ Alberto sees the way he's hesitating, and so... deliberately doesn't go first. Torturing all the people in his life who have the slightest sense of caution. He stands contrapposto with his hand on his hip, staring Katsuki down as he stares the water down... He raises a brow when Katsuki turns to him. ]

Well?

[ Get walking, buddy... ]

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