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 Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:02 am
Shiori carried the little girl close to her. She'd learned her lesson as far as the stroller was concerned-- Ajiiel only became more determined to get free and often all but toppled the stroller over on top of herself-- and so she kept the girl within stopping range.
Ajiiel, for her part, was less than pleased with the situation. When her adoptive guardian carried her in such a manner, there was no getting into anything interesting or biting people for the most part, and that just made her angrier, because she had to now bottle everything up instead of releasing her fury on everyone else.
She wanted to be -free- of this tiny body! She wanted to roam the cosmos in her ship and steal things and hunt down bad guys and stuff!
Shiori didn't want her to do any such thing, however, and so even when she sat down on the park bench, the woman kept a hand on Ajiiel's arm to keep her from going anywhere. She wanted the child to get fresh air, but not to get into things.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:23 am
Tlanextli enjoyed fresh air, as well, particularly when he found a nice comfortable tree to sit in. He liked to rest up on a branch for hours and watch people. It was a nice way to relax when he was not out breaking down the world little by little.
Recently, he had found a favorite branch in a tree in the city park, located over a park bench. It was amazing how many people would come to sit beneath him and never even notice the huge man with wings perched up above. Tlanextli figured this was his last day in this tree, though - habit became stagnation, and that irked him far more than having to find a new spot to sit ever did.
He had been seated where he was today for some time already, and was about to climb down and leave when he saw a woman and a little kid sit beneath him. The Aztec shifted a little in an effort to allow his left wing a chance to start uncramping, and toyed with the idea of just jumping down out of the tree behind them anyway. After a moment, though, he settled on testing to see if just being there was enough to frighten them, and so Tlanextli shook out his wings a little, dropping a handful of loose feathers down on the couple below with a rustling that was a little unusual for the pleasant and calm day.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:27 am
Ajiiel looked up, delighted, at the man above them as the feathers fell, clapping her hands together. Though she was as yet still too young to form words properly, she babbled a bit. She wanted to climb up the tree and push him out, but her mobility was still quite too limited to actually do so.
Shiori gave him a startled glance,
"What are you doing up there?" she asked curiously. She wasn't easily frightened, to be sure. She'd seen many strange things here on Gaia, and some more terrifying things in her own world.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:42 am
Partly impressed and partly disappointed that the infant was not in tears at the moment, Tlanextli slipped down from his branch to land on his bare feet just behind the bench. He took this long moment to formulate his response in Common. That was the worst part of coming back from the dead a few hundred years after actually dying, the Aztec figured. Not enough people spoke the language he knew, and the one in common use now was a pain to learn. Still, he made the effort.
"I watch from up there," he told the woman, glancing between her and the kid as he picked a few stray leaves out of his feathered headdress. "You, others who like to sit there. Bench is too small for my wings, and tree is more comfortable anyway." Tlanextli paused a moment, then asked her, "What are you doing down here? You and baby?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:45 am
Shiori nodded thoughtfully. She could certainly sympathize with his language issues-- she'd had the same when she first was transported here through the Darkness.
"Ajiiel and I are simply getting some fresh air." she gripped the child's arm more tightly as Ajiiel tried to squirm around and reach out for the brightly coloured man. She knew the girl didn't want to say hello-- more likely she would try to rip the very feathers off of him.
"I can imagine it would be difficult to sit on a bench with wings like that, though."
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:19 am
"Fresh air," he repeated slowly, nodding as he glanced between the pair of females. Then, his brow furrowing a little, he pointed to the kid.
"Macamo michpoch?" he asked, then shook his head and laughed a little at himself. "I mean, she is not your daughter." It sounded perhaps a bit more like a statement than a question. They certainly did not look anything alike. Including in the way they were acting.
Tlanextli stepped around to the other side of the bench so he could stand in front of them. "Where did she come from? Very lively girl."
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:21 am
Ajiiel was even more delighted that he'd decided to stand in front of them rather than behind them. She could reach him much more easily this way! Reaching out for him, she just about had hold of one of his feathers before Shiori pulled her back, pressing a hand on the girl's chest.
"No," the woman shook her head, "She is not my daughter. She is...from another world." That would be the easiest explanation. No need to tell him that she was a former criminal condemned to a tiny body as some sort of reformation process.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:31 am
"From another world?" Tlanextli gave her a skeptical look.
He noticed as the girl tried to grab his feathers, and smiled, looking a little amused. The Aztec spread his green-feathered wings out and shook them just out of her reach.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:04 pm
This, of course, just made Ajiiel more furious and she struggled valiantly against her guardian's grasp. Shiori watch her to be sure she avoided the teeth that were sure to come next.
"Yes. She...sort've landed behind the Temple," she explained.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:30 pm
"Why you don't let her go?" Tlanextli asked. "She wants to play, no?"
Not that he doubted that the little white-scaled girl actually wanted to knock him over and tear his feathers out. The warrior just knew that she would likely have trouble with the knocking him over part, and hence, was not concerned.
"... What temple?" he inquired after a moment, looking back up at the woman holding the struggling girl.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:12 am
Shiori shook her head,
"She doesn't want to play. She wants to hurt others. She's...I think she's a bit upset about being stuck here like she is. She used to be big like us, and now she's stuck being little again."
Ajiiel bit the woman on the shoulder, but Shiori didn't seem to notice other than pulling her further away so that she could no longer reach,
"The Temple I live in," she said, "Just over there." she pointed off in the direction of said Temple,
"I work there as an instructor in martial arts."
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:16 pm
"She become small? How?" The Aztec's brow furrowed as he studied the struggling girl. "And why she want to hurt others?" Warfare was a noble and worthy pursuit, and human sacrifice was absolutely necessary, but outright malice was an entirely different animal.
Tlanextli's expression brightened a bit as the woman mentioned she taught martial arts. "How do I get to temple? What martial arts do you teach?" he inquired with genuine curiosity. Then he grinned and clenched a fist. "I fight you sometime?"
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:40 am
Ajiiel yawned. The problem with having a small body was that it tired out rather more easily than a bigger one. She slackened a bit in her attempts to get free, and Shiori noted this, though she did not relax her grip.
"I'm not sure how it worked, honestly. I think it's a sort of reincarnation thing-- born again in a different body. It is the only way I could imagine it working anyhow."
She smiled at his next words. This man was obviously a bit of a warrior. While she was more pacifistic in nature, she could appreciate the warrior's nature. After all, they protected those who wanted peace from those who did not.
"I can show you how to get there if you like. I teach...well, martial arts in a style more like that from my world than from this. I had to modify it a bit since there are not the proper materials for tattooing anymore. Still, most of those who come to learn care not for the spiritual aspect anyhow-- they're more interested in learning to hurt one another."
She frowned slightly at this, looking down at the little girl in her arms who obviously shared that sentiment.
"I suppose we could fight, at that. Or spar, anyways. I'm afraid I can't risk my life or Ajiiel and Kisala would have no one to look after them."
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 9:55 am
"Like me," he replied, nodding a little. "Except I was born again in same body." Tlanextli laughed a little. "Strange things happen here in Gaia. I am glad I came. More interesting than my past life."
"And yes, give me directions," the warrior added. "Kill you would be a waste. Then we cannot fight again." With a somewhat playful grin, he glanced down at Ajiiel and told her, "When you are bigger, you can fight me. You listen to your mother, learn her fighting arts. Then we fight."
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:47 am
Ajiiel liked this idea. And this guy. Oh, she'd fight him all right! She still remembered a few tricks from her homeworld. Though she didn't have the technology she craved anymore, she still thought she might be able to take him.
Shiori nodded, 'A lot of strange things happen here, yes. But at least there is no Darkness." She shuddered, remembering the Evil that had haunted her own homeworld. She motioned off into the distance,
"You just go down that road and turn to the left. When you reach the end of that road, there'll be another and you follow that until you come to the Temple. It's just about the only thing on that road, so it's hard to miss."
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