Post by Kitten King on Jan 17, 2011 5:30:00 GMT -5
There were some things Travis still didn't understand.
The rolling, itching feeling he got sometimes, the way he seemed to be able to hear things, smell things, that no one else could. He could see in the dark almost as well as he could day, some nights. Was that weird? He'd never really thought about it - life around here wasn't exactly conducive to having time to sit and think. He was always having to do something to please his parents, after all. Dressing up to please company, the private lessons, all the other meaningless motions he had to go through. The only times where things really looked up were his afternoons tagging along with his sister, and as they both got older, those days became fewer and farther between.
He was in the family library - when wasn't he? - paging through one of his favorite volumes. Light dappled in from a gap between the thick velvet curtains that they had strung in the window, striking against the black-and-white of the text. The family dog, a snowy-furred Klee Kai who had been aptly named Snowball, was curled up on the footstool beside his feet, dozing the day away, as always. "Crazy people are ridiculous. I met a crazy man on my way here, and he went around talking to God. Lots of people talk to God, but that old fellow believed that God talked back to him." It was such an interesting little passage. Just a few sections in one heck of a big book, but still, he came back it to often. Couldn't help but wonder-
"Today's paper, master Travis." He looked up, and the familiar face of the family's butler was staring back at him.
"Ah, thanks, Lewin." Per usual, he got the paper after his parents had well-rummaged through it already, but he didn't mind so much. Father kept the pages crisp, and Mother (heaven forbid) never spilled anything on them.
"Anything else you'll be needing?" Travis liked Lewin - their last butler, who had retired last year, had been old and stodgy, and spoke in an over-done British accept that his sister had convinced him was fake. Lewin, on the other hand, was young, energetic, and even loose. If he was only around the two of them, sometimes he even loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top of his collar. Of course, should his parents find out, well. Again, heaven forbid.
"Uhm… some water'd be nice."
"Coming right up, young sir." This was accompanied with the usual wink and him whisking quickly away to complete his tasks, per usual. Yeah, Travis liked him - he was less like the help, more like a friend. Wasn't sure how long things'd last, though… the good things never seemed to.
Travis set his book aside now, and picked up the newspaper. As he did, his eyes caught a particular headline that seemed to be becoming more and more popular lately. Mutants - Impostors Living Among Us To be honest, Travis hadn't really been one to believe in the whole mutant thing for a long while. His parents had kept telling him it was a load of garbage, a conspiracy even, made up by the government to rip away privacy - then the videos had started coming out. For awhile they'd kept assuring him that they were fake, but slowly, they'd gone quiet about the whole thing, until they no longer mentioned it. Were they scared? Travis could imagine why they would be…
Not that their family had anything to worry about, of course. If, theoretically, one of them was a mutant, all they had to do was wave a little money around, and that was that. The rich could away with just about anything, it seemed like… of course, that didn't really matter either. If one of them really was a mutant, Travis had no doubt that the family would disown such a freak. Money or not, to be associated with such a thing? Never. His parents wouldn't be caught dead having spawned something like that.
Maybe that was why he never considered it. It wasn't until now that the thought even crossed his mind - and he shoved it away as quickly as it came. Him? One of them? No, no, no. That was even worse than when his sister went running around with the commoners. Even worse than her boyfriend, who'd come into town with literally nothing but the shirt on his back. No.
He wasn't one of them.
Still, the thoughts of being different would keep following him all day. No matter how many times he pushed them off, they always returned, stronger and stronger. That night, his dreams would be troubled with visions of himself being turned away from his parents, locked behind bars, trapped. A monster. Wasn't that what those mutants were, monsters? That's what everyone called them…
"Hey, Traaaavvvviisss~" As of yet untroubled by such things, he peeked up from his newspaper now, knowing well enough who that was. Nekane poked her head into the room, grin bright as her eyes were blue. "There you are!" She slid in around the door. "Hey Lewwwiiin. Gimme five." She held up her hand and laughed - a usual ritual. She skipped her way over to stand behind her brother peering over his shoulder. "Whatcha read- oh." She frowned, a distasteful look in her eyes.
"What?"
"Don't read that stuff, Cruz." There was a tone in her voice that bothered him, but he couldn't pick it out. Her eyes were narrow, and she shook her head. "The way they talk in the paper is just… sick." She kept shaking her head as she turned and leaned back against the side of his chair, staring out the window. "It's wrong, to talk about people that way." She looked back at him, and he looked swiftly down into his lap. "People, Trav!"
"I know.." he responded, sullen. His sister, whom he always listened to, was adamant - but it was harder to believe her when everyone else said different. She sighed, an aggravated sound.
"Then what's wrong? You understand. Would you talk about yourself that way?" He was silent. "Would you talk about ME that way?" She was starting to make him feel sick. "I sure as hell hope not. I'll tell you, I don't care what Mom and Dad say - it's wrong. Ignore people like them, and you'll be better off." She pushed away from the chair, moving swiftly across the room. She paused at the doorway, looking back again. "Cruz?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't forget." She was gone, but what she asked was easier said than it was done. He folded the paper back in his lap, trapped in though, and again, the headline glared out at him, and he was left to wonder.
When no one can agree, how do you know what to believe?
---
"…Nekane?" It was the next day, as he and his sister sat in their usual place beneath the old, twisted cherry tree at the north bend of the river, that he voiced his thoughts on everything that had been following him. "Y'know how I'm a little… different?"
"Different how?" Her head came up from her journal, where she'd been scribbling madly about something or other (probably that Justin boy, again) and she looked at him.
"Y'know, I can… do things, others can't?"
"..what do you mean?" She was starting to look worried now, blonde brows knitting together over wide eyes. "What can you do?"
"I.. I dunno. I just know I smell things first, and I can see better in the dark…" He was quiet, hesitant. Scared. "I-I hear things you don't always hear…"
"Oh! That stuff." Was it just him, or was there something in Nekane's fact that, again, he couldn't read? "That's not really different, Cruz. You've just got good senses." ..ha, that was such a silly question. Of course she did. He'd almost thought, for a moment, that he might be… oh, how silly he'd been. "I thought you meant something big, like… well y'know. One of the mutants."
"Ha, yeah… Kinda silly, huh?"
"Heh, don't I know it…" She leaned back on her hands, perched delicately on one of the large, gnarled roots that the tree put out. She stared up at the sky, nonchalant and dreamlike at first, but before long her eyes slowly became more focused, and more sharp. "…that'd be crazy though, wouldn't it? To be one of them."
"Crazy?" He wasn't sure crazy was the right word for it. He wasn't one to contradict his sister, though. She usually knew what she was talking about way more than he did. "I dunno… I guess so." Nekane bumped her heels against another root near where her foot hung down, and twisted around to look at him.
"If I had a power, know what I'd choose?" There was a nervous twinge in Travis' stomach - he didn't like this. "I'd choose.. to be able to fly. Wouldn't it just be badass to fly, way up there? To just be free from everything?"
"I… I don't think Mum and Dad would like us talking about this.." His voice was quiet, shy. Like he usually spoke to other people. He really didn't like contradicting his sister but he just… he couldn't ignore this bad feeling. He didn't want to talk about this anymore. There wasn't a point in it - it was something their family didn't talk about. Yet how many other things had his parents been silent about, when they were happening? The thought disturbed him…
"What?" Nekane was frowning at him now, looking confused. "What's the matter with talking about it?" She reached out, set a hand on his shoulder. He was shorter than her, by a fair amount, but he was perched higher, making them level. "Is this about what we talked about yesterday?" He shook his head. "Then what?" He looked over, still nervous. Still scared. "Are you scared?"
"N-no…" Travis objected, trying his best to keep a pout off his face - but Nekane saw right through it. She always saw right through it.
"Cruz - Trav - you're fine. Nothing's gonna bother you, bro. No scary mutants are gonna come gobble you up just for talking about them, all right?" She said it all with a smile, and she was trying to cheer him up. He wasn't much reassured, considering the thought of them coming to gobble him hadn't even occurred until she'd mentioned it. "Just like I said before, you remember - people. You'll be fine. It's just for fun. I promise, kay?"
"Kay…" It still wasn't the mutants that made him uneasy, but he wouldn't object to her again. Instead, he just stared down at his feet, kicking them against a tree root and trying his best to be quiet. Maybe she'd drop the subject if he was…
"So what about you? What power would you pick?" No such luck. He peeked up again, then looked away, staring back at his shoes again.
"M-me? Uhmm… I guess.. I'd pick…" This really didn't make her uncomfortable? Something about it just didn't seem right. Playing make-believe was one thing, but he felt like he was dabbling in something bad right now. Like some puritan dipping his toes in a pool of black magic. "I-I guess I'd pick…" A howl sounded in the woodlands, and both siblings looked up, listening to the sound rise on the wind, until it faded away over the forest hills. "… I guess I'd like to be a wolf?"
"A wolf, huh?" She stared out at the woods, listening for another howl. "…heh. Nice choice!" He smiled at that - he always liked it when his big sister approved of his choices. "It'd make sense with your sharp senses, and they're pretty cool, aren't they? Elusive, though. If you were a wolf, I bet you'd be the only one I'd ever meet."
"Or at least the only one that wouldn't gobble you, huh?" Travis laughed, even though it made his stomach drop a little. That's what Nek always told him to do, laugh off the fear, and laugh off the worry… so he did. "A real wolf would."
"Haha, true enough! You're clever." She smiled at him, and kicked the root beneath her feet again. "Now, we both know you just said that because you heard the howl from the forest." Travis tried his best to look innocent, but Nekane wasn't fooled - so he moved right into pouting. "Come on, now! What would pick?"
"Neeekkkkkk."
"Come on, Cruz! There's gotta be something."
"I guess…" He'd never thought about it before, so he continued to pout. She stared at him for a minute, and then giggled. "Whaaat? What's so funny?" She started laughing, for a reason that he couldn't quite pick out. (His pouting wasn't funny, it was serious! …heh, wait.) Well, that got him laughing. They laughed, together, and as they did the wind carried down another howl from the forest - it sounded closer. Nekane stopped, and listened to it as it trailed off.
"…we better get home." She said suddenly. She slipped off the root, turning to grin back at him. "Come on, little wolf, since you couldn't think of anything else. Mom doesn't like us being late for lunch. I bet she'll even have your kibble set aside." Smiling at that, Travis slid down and followed her, padding along behind her like he always did. Like he always thought he would.
I was more fun than he'd thought, to joke about things that would never happen.
The rolling, itching feeling he got sometimes, the way he seemed to be able to hear things, smell things, that no one else could. He could see in the dark almost as well as he could day, some nights. Was that weird? He'd never really thought about it - life around here wasn't exactly conducive to having time to sit and think. He was always having to do something to please his parents, after all. Dressing up to please company, the private lessons, all the other meaningless motions he had to go through. The only times where things really looked up were his afternoons tagging along with his sister, and as they both got older, those days became fewer and farther between.
He was in the family library - when wasn't he? - paging through one of his favorite volumes. Light dappled in from a gap between the thick velvet curtains that they had strung in the window, striking against the black-and-white of the text. The family dog, a snowy-furred Klee Kai who had been aptly named Snowball, was curled up on the footstool beside his feet, dozing the day away, as always. "Crazy people are ridiculous. I met a crazy man on my way here, and he went around talking to God. Lots of people talk to God, but that old fellow believed that God talked back to him." It was such an interesting little passage. Just a few sections in one heck of a big book, but still, he came back it to often. Couldn't help but wonder-
"Today's paper, master Travis." He looked up, and the familiar face of the family's butler was staring back at him.
"Ah, thanks, Lewin." Per usual, he got the paper after his parents had well-rummaged through it already, but he didn't mind so much. Father kept the pages crisp, and Mother (heaven forbid) never spilled anything on them.
"Anything else you'll be needing?" Travis liked Lewin - their last butler, who had retired last year, had been old and stodgy, and spoke in an over-done British accept that his sister had convinced him was fake. Lewin, on the other hand, was young, energetic, and even loose. If he was only around the two of them, sometimes he even loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top of his collar. Of course, should his parents find out, well. Again, heaven forbid.
"Uhm… some water'd be nice."
"Coming right up, young sir." This was accompanied with the usual wink and him whisking quickly away to complete his tasks, per usual. Yeah, Travis liked him - he was less like the help, more like a friend. Wasn't sure how long things'd last, though… the good things never seemed to.
Travis set his book aside now, and picked up the newspaper. As he did, his eyes caught a particular headline that seemed to be becoming more and more popular lately. Mutants - Impostors Living Among Us To be honest, Travis hadn't really been one to believe in the whole mutant thing for a long while. His parents had kept telling him it was a load of garbage, a conspiracy even, made up by the government to rip away privacy - then the videos had started coming out. For awhile they'd kept assuring him that they were fake, but slowly, they'd gone quiet about the whole thing, until they no longer mentioned it. Were they scared? Travis could imagine why they would be…
Not that their family had anything to worry about, of course. If, theoretically, one of them was a mutant, all they had to do was wave a little money around, and that was that. The rich could away with just about anything, it seemed like… of course, that didn't really matter either. If one of them really was a mutant, Travis had no doubt that the family would disown such a freak. Money or not, to be associated with such a thing? Never. His parents wouldn't be caught dead having spawned something like that.
Maybe that was why he never considered it. It wasn't until now that the thought even crossed his mind - and he shoved it away as quickly as it came. Him? One of them? No, no, no. That was even worse than when his sister went running around with the commoners. Even worse than her boyfriend, who'd come into town with literally nothing but the shirt on his back. No.
He wasn't one of them.
Still, the thoughts of being different would keep following him all day. No matter how many times he pushed them off, they always returned, stronger and stronger. That night, his dreams would be troubled with visions of himself being turned away from his parents, locked behind bars, trapped. A monster. Wasn't that what those mutants were, monsters? That's what everyone called them…
"Hey, Traaaavvvviisss~" As of yet untroubled by such things, he peeked up from his newspaper now, knowing well enough who that was. Nekane poked her head into the room, grin bright as her eyes were blue. "There you are!" She slid in around the door. "Hey Lewwwiiin. Gimme five." She held up her hand and laughed - a usual ritual. She skipped her way over to stand behind her brother peering over his shoulder. "Whatcha read- oh." She frowned, a distasteful look in her eyes.
"What?"
"Don't read that stuff, Cruz." There was a tone in her voice that bothered him, but he couldn't pick it out. Her eyes were narrow, and she shook her head. "The way they talk in the paper is just… sick." She kept shaking her head as she turned and leaned back against the side of his chair, staring out the window. "It's wrong, to talk about people that way." She looked back at him, and he looked swiftly down into his lap. "People, Trav!"
"I know.." he responded, sullen. His sister, whom he always listened to, was adamant - but it was harder to believe her when everyone else said different. She sighed, an aggravated sound.
"Then what's wrong? You understand. Would you talk about yourself that way?" He was silent. "Would you talk about ME that way?" She was starting to make him feel sick. "I sure as hell hope not. I'll tell you, I don't care what Mom and Dad say - it's wrong. Ignore people like them, and you'll be better off." She pushed away from the chair, moving swiftly across the room. She paused at the doorway, looking back again. "Cruz?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't forget." She was gone, but what she asked was easier said than it was done. He folded the paper back in his lap, trapped in though, and again, the headline glared out at him, and he was left to wonder.
When no one can agree, how do you know what to believe?
---
"…Nekane?" It was the next day, as he and his sister sat in their usual place beneath the old, twisted cherry tree at the north bend of the river, that he voiced his thoughts on everything that had been following him. "Y'know how I'm a little… different?"
"Different how?" Her head came up from her journal, where she'd been scribbling madly about something or other (probably that Justin boy, again) and she looked at him.
"Y'know, I can… do things, others can't?"
"..what do you mean?" She was starting to look worried now, blonde brows knitting together over wide eyes. "What can you do?"
"I.. I dunno. I just know I smell things first, and I can see better in the dark…" He was quiet, hesitant. Scared. "I-I hear things you don't always hear…"
"Oh! That stuff." Was it just him, or was there something in Nekane's fact that, again, he couldn't read? "That's not really different, Cruz. You've just got good senses." ..ha, that was such a silly question. Of course she did. He'd almost thought, for a moment, that he might be… oh, how silly he'd been. "I thought you meant something big, like… well y'know. One of the mutants."
"Ha, yeah… Kinda silly, huh?"
"Heh, don't I know it…" She leaned back on her hands, perched delicately on one of the large, gnarled roots that the tree put out. She stared up at the sky, nonchalant and dreamlike at first, but before long her eyes slowly became more focused, and more sharp. "…that'd be crazy though, wouldn't it? To be one of them."
"Crazy?" He wasn't sure crazy was the right word for it. He wasn't one to contradict his sister, though. She usually knew what she was talking about way more than he did. "I dunno… I guess so." Nekane bumped her heels against another root near where her foot hung down, and twisted around to look at him.
"If I had a power, know what I'd choose?" There was a nervous twinge in Travis' stomach - he didn't like this. "I'd choose.. to be able to fly. Wouldn't it just be badass to fly, way up there? To just be free from everything?"
"I… I don't think Mum and Dad would like us talking about this.." His voice was quiet, shy. Like he usually spoke to other people. He really didn't like contradicting his sister but he just… he couldn't ignore this bad feeling. He didn't want to talk about this anymore. There wasn't a point in it - it was something their family didn't talk about. Yet how many other things had his parents been silent about, when they were happening? The thought disturbed him…
"What?" Nekane was frowning at him now, looking confused. "What's the matter with talking about it?" She reached out, set a hand on his shoulder. He was shorter than her, by a fair amount, but he was perched higher, making them level. "Is this about what we talked about yesterday?" He shook his head. "Then what?" He looked over, still nervous. Still scared. "Are you scared?"
"N-no…" Travis objected, trying his best to keep a pout off his face - but Nekane saw right through it. She always saw right through it.
"Cruz - Trav - you're fine. Nothing's gonna bother you, bro. No scary mutants are gonna come gobble you up just for talking about them, all right?" She said it all with a smile, and she was trying to cheer him up. He wasn't much reassured, considering the thought of them coming to gobble him hadn't even occurred until she'd mentioned it. "Just like I said before, you remember - people. You'll be fine. It's just for fun. I promise, kay?"
"Kay…" It still wasn't the mutants that made him uneasy, but he wouldn't object to her again. Instead, he just stared down at his feet, kicking them against a tree root and trying his best to be quiet. Maybe she'd drop the subject if he was…
"So what about you? What power would you pick?" No such luck. He peeked up again, then looked away, staring back at his shoes again.
"M-me? Uhmm… I guess.. I'd pick…" This really didn't make her uncomfortable? Something about it just didn't seem right. Playing make-believe was one thing, but he felt like he was dabbling in something bad right now. Like some puritan dipping his toes in a pool of black magic. "I-I guess I'd pick…" A howl sounded in the woodlands, and both siblings looked up, listening to the sound rise on the wind, until it faded away over the forest hills. "… I guess I'd like to be a wolf?"
"A wolf, huh?" She stared out at the woods, listening for another howl. "…heh. Nice choice!" He smiled at that - he always liked it when his big sister approved of his choices. "It'd make sense with your sharp senses, and they're pretty cool, aren't they? Elusive, though. If you were a wolf, I bet you'd be the only one I'd ever meet."
"Or at least the only one that wouldn't gobble you, huh?" Travis laughed, even though it made his stomach drop a little. That's what Nek always told him to do, laugh off the fear, and laugh off the worry… so he did. "A real wolf would."
"Haha, true enough! You're clever." She smiled at him, and kicked the root beneath her feet again. "Now, we both know you just said that because you heard the howl from the forest." Travis tried his best to look innocent, but Nekane wasn't fooled - so he moved right into pouting. "Come on, now! What would pick?"
"Neeekkkkkk."
"Come on, Cruz! There's gotta be something."
"I guess…" He'd never thought about it before, so he continued to pout. She stared at him for a minute, and then giggled. "Whaaat? What's so funny?" She started laughing, for a reason that he couldn't quite pick out. (His pouting wasn't funny, it was serious! …heh, wait.) Well, that got him laughing. They laughed, together, and as they did the wind carried down another howl from the forest - it sounded closer. Nekane stopped, and listened to it as it trailed off.
"…we better get home." She said suddenly. She slipped off the root, turning to grin back at him. "Come on, little wolf, since you couldn't think of anything else. Mom doesn't like us being late for lunch. I bet she'll even have your kibble set aside." Smiling at that, Travis slid down and followed her, padding along behind her like he always did. Like he always thought he would.
I was more fun than he'd thought, to joke about things that would never happen.