Ixtlilton
Moderator-In-Training
he knows where all the naughty boys and girls live
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Posts: 205
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Post by Ixtlilton on Sept 19, 2010 22:29:09 GMT -5
It was after school, thank god. Laelia was having so much trouble adjusting. She'd only been there for a few days, but... Staying the whole day indoors, learning this and that and the other thing... her brain already hurt. She was in there for like six hours out of the day. Some of the GOOD hours, too! She glanced down at her "homework," which was work that she didn't get done in the first six hours, and took with her to do before the next six hours. Might as well do it here... there was a tree, there was sunlight, and there were some birds up there she could eat if she got hungry. She pulled out the book she'd been given to read.
"Mox's Shop," she read out loud slowly, squinting at it and trying to remember which symbols meant which words. God, it was humiliating. She knew how to READ... sort of... a little. They were starting her off with work that she knew in the back of her head was designed for six-year-olds, and while she was doing okay at it, she was still doing work FOR SIX YEAR OLDS. She thumbed through the book with a depressed look on her face.
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 20, 2010 3:47:47 GMT -5
It was nice outside.. she always had loved the outdoors. They were her element, more than the dark and dreary passages of the castle, or any building, really. No matter how many windows you put on a building, it still wasn't the same as being out in the light itself. Mika stretched her arms out, staring up at the sky for a moment as she walked. She did love the sky - it was cloudy today. Not very cloudy, but just little white wisps here and there. They didn't really affect the sunlight, and that was good, she decided as she looked back down and folded her arms behind her head. She adored the feel of sunlight over her skin. Not as much as the feel of rain, but it was something.
She decided to try a different spot today. There were plenty of places with trees and dappled shade and the sparse wildlife there was to relax her - and she was sure Zeke didn't want her crowding him. He was a strange one, different, a little... not intimidating. She wasn't sure what the emotion was that he instilled in her. Ah, it didn't matter. They'd only met once, a short time, but she knew the spot they shared now. She'd just let him have it to himself today.
As she went looking for a spot she found herself noticing that things were particularly more... quiet. She wasn't used to tuning out her power, and so when the wildlife stopped talking, she noticed it. She paused, staring around, trying to figure out what had set them so on edge. It.. it wasn't Zeke? No, his spot was on the other side. This was something else. At that, the bushes near her feet rustled, and she heard the faintest of voices. She crouched down, and there, clinging to a tiny little branch inside of a tiny little bush, was a tiny little field mouse. It stared at her, little beady eyes wide, breathing heavily.
"...what's the matter?" She asked it. Or rather, she tried. It immediately cut her off, grip tightening on the little branch.
"Y-y-you shouldn't go any further," it squeaked in a particularly male sort of tone - for a mouse, of course. "There's a monster in there." Monster? That was a new one... predator she'd heard a thousand times, but monster? She hardly ever heard that term thrown around, with how aware animals were of one another. Mika shook her head, and stood up. "Wait, wait!" The little mouse seemed braver than she'd thought. "Didn't you hear me? You can't go! You'll be eaten! Devoured! Gulped straight up!" She glanced down, since he'd slid from his bush and was now staring up at her near her foot. "Y-you ARE one of us... aren't you?" One of them - animals had that feeling about her. She'd always been proud of it.
"Of course I am," she said. "But I'm not worried." The mouse stared at her, seeming to think that for all the world, she was crazy. "Things aren't always what they seem, little one."
"...if you say so," he squeaked at her. "But just to be safe, I'm staying right here!" He scurried back into his plant, and though Mika gave him the courtesy to speak again by waiting another moment, he did not return. She kept walking.
She didn't spot the other girl at first - the angle she came upon the tree at blocked most of her. As she got a little closer, however, she caught sight of her, and began to make out the shape. Human. Stepping over a small rock embedded in the ground as she went, she couldn't help drawing a little closer. She wasn't much for people, it was true, but her curiosity always got the better of her. Could there possibly be someone around who put the creatures more out-of-sorts than Zeke did? It seemed so improbable... yet wasn't it the only explanation?
She wanted to say something. She really, really did - but what? She glanced around, out of instinct - but of course, Xanthur wasn't with her today. He was back at her dorm, curled on the bed, dozing the day away. She hadn't gone back to get him this time. Oooh... bother. There was just no easy way to do this.
"...a little quiet out here." Well, great, she could just as easily be talking to herself. In fact, it sounded that way. So now she was crazy. ..grreeaattt.
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Ixtlilton
Moderator-In-Training
he knows where all the naughty boys and girls live
Herp
Posts: 205
|
Post by Ixtlilton on Sept 20, 2010 5:00:51 GMT -5
Laelia scowered the book as best she could. Thank god she could already half read. She leaned back against the tree, deciding to take a break from this excellent novel about a fox named Mox and how he... something... boxes... Ug.
"They could have at least given me something interesting," she grumbled to herself, staring up at the rustling leaves in the tree. Maybe now would be a good time to stop for a snack... they HAD said she needed to eat a lot to gain weight. Dangerously thin and all that.
She still didn't understand why she couldn't eat with the other students.
She took a whiff of the air around her. Birds... mice... All things she'd hunted before, but that didn't matter if she was just hungry, right? She glanced back down, wondering if she should go ahead and take off her clothes beforehand this time (stupid clothes), when she heard a voice.
Her heart raced and she was on all fours before she could remember this was a school and there were supposed to be people here. Right... right... people. Yeah, people.
She was still hungr--
WAIT NO. Mr. Dmitriguy had said no more people. She'd have to eat something else. So who was this person, anyway?
"You have gold eyes, like me," Laelia announced, getting up and walking towards the girl. She stood just a little too close, and stared just a little too long without blinking. There were just a few things slightly... off about her.
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 24, 2010 3:13:07 GMT -5
Mika was startled at first - not so much by Laelia's reaction, but by her own. The rapid movement, the low-to-ground position, the way her eyes moved. She was gauging her reaction as she would that of a wild predator. She responded instinctively and planted her feet, holding her position and looking tall. The very beginnings of a growl were beginning to bubble up in her throat before she realized what she was really looking at, and she quelled it. She kept her position, however... she wouldn't relax completely until she knew what exactly she was facing. No other human had made her react in that manner, not yet. Zeke had given her hints of it, but this was a different beast entirely. Entirely...
"Er, yeah." She wasn't really sure how to respond, when the other girl approached and stared, and she bristled as Laelia closed in. "It's.. not too uncommon, around our kind." Surprised by the golden eyes, Mika'd never seen her before not even at a glance - she had to be a first year. "Y'get used to it..." She still didn't know what to say. She was fighting off another growl now, though she couldn't quite explain why. She still felt as though she were staring down a panther whose borderline she'd just crossed... it unnerved her. It unnerved her strongly.
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Ixtlilton
Moderator-In-Training
he knows where all the naughty boys and girls live
Herp
Posts: 205
|
Post by Ixtlilton on Sept 24, 2010 7:35:38 GMT -5
Laelia tried to get everything out of the air that she could, but it was all but useless in this form. She could feel a tail she didn't have whip around with irritation. If she was a cat right now, she'd know what this girl was thinking. But in this form, she had to go with the best sense humans had... sight.
The girl was about as tall as she was. That in and of itself was a little unusual; Laelia was aware that she was tall for a human female. The girl looked a bit younger, but that wasn't surprising either. Laelia knew damn well she was too old to be taking any classes, let alone the ones she was. Laelia was once again drawn to the girl's pleasantly golden eyes. They were almost IDENTICAL to hers! They could have been... eyeball sisters. Or something.
"I've never seen anyone else with the same eyes as me," she commented, not seeming to be willing to let that subject go. But she was genuinely pleased by Mika's eyeballs, and that showed. The tail she didn't have waved, and she felt a nagging urge to be in a different body, but pushed it to the side. She pulled her hair back behind her shoulders instead, just to give herself something to do. She wasn't good at holding still. "You're a student here." It wasn't quite a question. "Have you been here for a while?"
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 27, 2010 2:52:59 GMT -5
What was so mesmerizing about having the same eyes? Even if it was something new, the way she clung to it made Mika's spine prickle more. She was very active, this girl, between moving her hands and the shifting of her weight, but despite it all she still kept that stare of hers locked with Mika's own, making it very difficult to look away. Tiger, tiger, burning bright... Something just didn't feel right - she wasn't sure what, but something... something was awry here. Even the girl's tone only seemed to affirm that.
"This is my third year here." Her voice came out quickly, abrupt. Almost forceful. At this point, she really didn't give a shit. This chick made her even edgier than normal, and while that might not be too bad later in the year, she was already freaked out from having been back at her mother's, watching her back everywhere she went. "You're a first year." Just as abrupt, and as much a question as the other girl's statement had been. She really didn't need need this already. What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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Ixtlilton
Moderator-In-Training
he knows where all the naughty boys and girls live
Herp
Posts: 205
|
Post by Ixtlilton on Sept 27, 2010 3:47:27 GMT -5
"Oh, good," said Laelia cheerfully, showing off her teeth in a grin. "I am a first year, yeah. Everything's new and really confusing." She glanced around conspiratorally, finally breaking eye contact, only to gain it again and admit, "I've never been to a school before in my life." Her smile was a bit lopsided, and she looked sort of sad. "It's kind of hard to catch up on, like, twelve years of education I never got, but Mister Dim seems determined I become," she held up her hands and did little air quotes, "Educated."
She rolled her eyes and plopped back down next to her homework, feeling like someone with the same eyes as her had to be friendly. And she smelled good, too. She normally didn't like people, but first the winged boy, Jacob, and now this girl, they seemed different then the ones she'd grown up around. She glanced back up at Mika, as if worried the girl would vanish if Laelia let her out of sight.
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 30, 2010 15:33:24 GMT -5
Never been to a school before? ..well, really thinking about it, that wasn't that unusual, depending on where you came from in the world. Rare, but nothing to get so worked up about - she was just being paranoid about every little detail now, wasn't she? Damn, damndamndamn. Shake it off, Mika, shake it off... there was no denying something was off here, but that shouldn't matter so much to her. Must've been the overload of coming back to school. New people again, every year, and some of the familiar faces gone and moved off. Never did get used to that, after so long in homeschooling. Wasn't much for change..
"Er... yeah," she responded quickly, watching the girl closely as she moved back down after speaking. She.. seemed friendly enough. A little nervous in herself, the way her eyes glanced - worried about something, maybe? Mika couldn't tell. She'd never been good with reading humans. "Kinda important, I guess. At least in most places today." She tentatively moved so that she could lean her back against the tree. She wasn't good with people in general, in fact. There was a select few she was okay with, but really? Nah. Not a huge people person. What she wouldn't give for a nice sparrow or squirrel to talk to (even the latter's brains were rather filled with fluff..) instead.
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Ixtlilton
Moderator-In-Training
he knows where all the naughty boys and girls live
Herp
Posts: 205
|
Post by Ixtlilton on Oct 9, 2010 11:57:31 GMT -5
Laelia sighed and smacked the back of her hand against the book. "Sure, if you're smart... I dunno what kinda job Mister Dim expects me to get from all this 'education.' S'not like I'mma grow up to be a doctor or a scientist or something."
Although she had to admit, a change in vocations might be nice. "Homeless" wasn't much of a job, and mostly required skills in the "digging around in trash and dodging thrown bottles" field, which, while she was good at, she found extremely unlikeable.
Laelia held up the reading book. "This book is EXTREMELY stupid. It doesn't tell any kind of interesting story, it just goes round and round with foxes and boxes and that sort of stupid thing. I know I'm supposed to be an idiot and all that, but I wish I didn't have to read this stuff."
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Post by Kitten King on Oct 13, 2010 1:35:23 GMT -5
"Well, most of us aren't gonna be doctors," Mika agreed. It was a good point, and it wasn't as though Mika was going into any big career herself. She'd thought of being a veterinarian, of course - it seemed the obvious option - but she'd declined it after shadowing at an office years ago. She.. couldn't be around all the screaming. All the crying, pain, death. She thought she'd be able to help the animals be more comfortable, but they had refused to listen. It was a trap in there that she didn't want to go into. Never again.
The mention of 'foxes and boxes' got Mika's attention on Laelia again. She looked back down at the other girl, her eyes traveling down until they fell on the book. That was… ah, well. She remembered those days. Foxes and boxes, indeed. "Honestly, wanna know something?" She moved from her position against the tree, instead crouching down beside Laelia. "They make you read books no matter WHAT level you're at. At least yours aren't 200-some pages like my last one was." That book had been horrible, too. It had a story, but it wasn't a pleasant one - no book in which dogs (and humans) were being shot was pleasant. She glanced over the book Laelia was talking about again, trying to remember if she'd ever used that book as a kid… it all blurred together though. "Doesn't sound too hard though - foxes, boxes. Probably just comparing words that sound alike, right?" For once, she knew what she was talking about. …sort of. …enough. Yeah. Enough.
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