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 Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:47 pm
Tolfitken sat in her tree, adjusting herself until she thought her posture was right and her tongue was in the right place. Trying again, she closed her eyes and breathed deep, opening her mouth after about a minute's worth of humming to sing.
Alas, my Love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your compa-
Her voice cracked at the low note again, as it had done the past twenty or so times she had tried to sing the song. The sound died in her throat to be replaced by an anguished growl, for she knew that she could have sung it better, so much better. But she couldn't hear the notes. She'd stuffed her ears full of moss until she wouldn't be able to hear someone if they were screaming right next to her and still she couldn't seem to get it right. Slumping down with a deep sigh, she rested her chin on her paws for a moment before the determination came back to her eyes and she sat up to try again.
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:50 pm
JoJo walked slowly though the woods, making hardly any noise, his mood black. He was still seething from the tornado incident, and after spending some time alone with his hurt, he had only managed to find the will to go somewhere else; his mood had hardly changed.
He paused for a moment, thinking he had heard something that sounded vaguely like broken singing. Curious, he followed the sound until its familiarity made him stop dead in his tracks. He knew who it was that was singing. His first thought was to turn away and go to another part of the forest, leaving Tolfitken to wallow in her self-made misery.
And yet.......he couldn't help but wonder at the pathetic sound. He decided that one peek wouldn't hurt. Crouching down so that he was somewhat hidden, he began to creep in the direction of the sound.
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:57 pm
Screwing up her nose, she growled feircly as she couldn't even get past the 'Alas'. Teardrops startied dropping unbidden from her eyes and her growl turned mournful. "Why can't I do it?" she asked, slumping down on her tree branch again in defeat. She closed her eyes, not really wanting to do anything but sleep right then, she was so tired. So tired from the other day and her voice and the thoughts and questions that kept plagueing her throughout the night as she tried desperately to rest her lagging mind.
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:13 pm
JoJo heard the singing stop, and he in turn stopped sneaking forward, for fear she had paused to hear him coming. Unaware that Tolfitken's ears were stuffed, he waited for what seemed to him a long time, a bit puzzled as to why he could not yet see her when her voice seemed so close.
He was still poring over it when he felt a drop of moisture hit him on the head. Rain? he thought. That's funny; how could a drop make it past the canopy? It travelled down his nose, and he absentmindedly licked it, starting as he realized that it was salty. He looked up and saw a patch of brown high up in the tree.
Crouching down further, convinced that Tolfitken hadn't yet seen him, he slowly backed away until he was a ways away from the tree, and then he walked in a circular path until he was viewing the tree from a different area, where he fancied he could see the brown patch better.
Still wondering what on earth was possessing him to act this way, he sat down, then laid down and finally began to doze, his chin between his paws on the ground.
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Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:45 pm
Finally calming herself down enough to sit up and try once more, Tolfitken opened her eyes to see a lump of dark blue and white sprawled on the ground in front or her veiw from the tree. Surprised, she dug the moss out of her ears and leaned over her branch, trying to see if it really was JoJo. She held back a small gasp as she realized it was and tried not to get her hopes up too high. "He's probably here by accident," she muttered, pulling herself back onto the branch and facing the other direction. Sighing lightly, regaining her posture and trying to resist the urge to turn around and stare at him, she tried to sing again. She found her mind slightly less jumbled, not as if her problems had been solved, but as if she was finally able to shove them to the back of her mind and focus on what she really wanted to do: sing. Her voice came light and feathery, matching the pitch almost perfectly. She sang a little louder than she had before. Or at least, it seemed that way with all the trees crowded around her to impeed the flow of sound. The song ringing in her ears as she finished it, she let out a small smile and turned to climb out of her tree. Unfortunately, the bark her back paws had been clinging to stripped itself from the branch and made her lose her balance, sending her tumbling to the ground. She sat up immediately, shaking off her ears and looking almost frantically around, wondering if her noisy landing had awakened JoJo and scared him off.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:36 pm
JoJo fancied he could hear faint stirrings up in the tree, but he didn't open his eyes. Then he heard the thunk and felt the vibration of Tolfitken falling out of the tree, and it startled him so badly that he jumped up and got his face caught in some low-hanging tree branches. He shook his head as leaves got stuck in his ears and a few angry welts appeared on his face.
In that split second, he was torn between running in the other direction and running to Tolfitken's side to ensure that she wasn't seriously hurt. It seemed obvious, but his hesitation surprised him; had he really been THAT angry, that he actually had to stop and consider checking to make sure she hadn't broken her neck? You DO save people, the annoying little voice quipped.
As that split second ended, he rushed out in the open toward Tolfitken, only to find her okay and looking around. Too late to duck back into the brush without being seen, he had no choice but to play out his momentum until he stopped and sat just a few yards away from Tolfitken, stone-faced and unmoving.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:49 pm
Toflitken practically gaped in surprise when JoJo came rushing into the clearing. It took her a few moments to collect herself and close her mouth into a pressed line, trying to look bored as she asked, "What are you doing here? I thought you had run away like all the others..." Her eyes were dark as she looked at him sideways, not knowing whether to be releived that he hadn't run or wary of another fight. She knew it was both of their faults for the misunderstanding of the tornado, but she wasn't prepared to offer up an apology if she knew he thought it was all her fault. Instead of trying to jump into the subject she waited silenty for him to answer her first question.
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:37 pm
JoJo sniffed in disdain as he collected himself, imitating Tolfitken's bored and slightly hostile air. "You don't own the forest." His face didn't change, though his eyes began to look more cold and distant.
That's right, he thought, his blood beginning to boil, I ran away, I did it wrong, I'm to blame. I'm always to blame. Always! He unconsciously began lowering his ears. He just couldn't imagine what he could have done differently when the tornado had come through, and had an even harder time understanding why Tolfitken was giving him flack for it. What was he supposed to have done; let her sit there and die?
((Just to clarify, what Romsca said about the weak helpless girl thing isn't what JoJo feels; It's just a theory Romsca put out. 3nodding ))
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:58 pm
She sighed, tiring of the fight she could see already starting. Instead of waiting for it to build she launched right into the battle of words, "Do you really think I'm some helpless little girl who can't stand on her own two feet? I followed you because I wanted to help; I know tornadoes, my human is going to be a storm chaser for her profession and I've learned about storms with her. The fact that you didn't trust me to know what I was doing is what I'm mad about. What the heck are you mad at me for?" Her eyes cleared themselves of any heat or anger, looking at JoJo with lucidly clear eyes that neither showed nor hid any emotion, being neither distant nor waiting for contact.
(Well, she doesn't know what else to go by so for now she's going with Romsca's theory)
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:29 pm
JoJo stared at her slack-jawed; a look that would have been hilarious under any other circumstances. With a will, he fired right back. "Oh I'm sorry; you must have mistook me for an Abra or another pokemir that can read minds; had I known you had any experience with tornadoes I might have let you look out for yourself, but seeing as that wonderful mind-reading ability eludes me, it was MY mistake. As usual. And for the record, I didn't tell you to stay down because you were any helpless girl; I told you that because even if you're a Nidoqueen, you wouldn't be any match for a tornado if it caught you. I was trying to protect you, and you acted like it meant nothing! If you knew......" He broke off momentarily, his entire body shaking, more like with chill than hot rage. "If you knew......how much effort that took....."
(I know; it's just more of an FYI. X3)
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:02 pm
"No one has ever tried to protect me from anything before," she explained cooly, trying to control her temper, "And how was I supposed to know what you were trying to do? If you weren't treating me like a helpless girl then you were treating me as if I was an idiot who couldn't see danger two inches from her face. And you're the one acting like it was all MY mistake. I asked you what you were mad about, what I did wrong, does that SEEM like I'm blaming you?" Carefully holding her ears and posture erect, she looked directly into JoJo's eyes and said, "If you could have read it my mind would have tried to strangle you for trying to leave me. All anyone has ever done is leave me; I do not know what it is like to have someone try to protect me and I do not understand it. And yes, I do know how much effort it took, I may not have been the protectee but I have been the protector. And for the record, all those who I have tried to protect left me. Everyone leaves me. So why are you still here? Are you trying to build my hopes that somehow you wont leave? That I wont see it coming? Everyone I have ever trusted has betrayed me, explain to me why I should trust you to be any different." Her voice was able to stay calm and controlled, but again her eyes failed her as they were forced to blink to keep the tears from falling free of them. "If I could read your mind what would it have told me, huh?" she asked after she could see clearly to look at him again.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:38 pm
JoJo's ears went straight up and his fur began to bristle. Unlike Tolfitken, who was keeping her temper, JoJo was starting to lose his. "So if I give a damn about your welfare, I'm treating you like an idiot, is that it?" His shaking was now from anger. "I don't believe you; you couldn't possibly know what I'm feeling; being pulled two ways, and then having the way your heart chose spit in your face. And I don't have to prove anything to you; if you want me to leave you should have said so to begin with instead of reminding me AGAIN how rotten I was to think of you when there was danger."
He hunched down, looking positively sullen. "I thought you were different, liking songs and all, but you're just like everyone else; I'm to blame for everything; go ahead and blame the tornado on me too, like everyone else."
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 pm
Tolfitken finally snapped, hissing, "For the last time, I blame you for NOTHING, not the tornado, not trying to 'protect' me, not even for running away! I'm just trying to understand how you can be mad at me and then I'm not allowed to be mad at you when we're both apparently mad at eachother for the same reasons! If you're allowed to think of me and try to protect me when there's danger, then why the heck aren't I allowed to do the same?! No, I can't blame you for trying to protect me by making me stay and, no, you can't blame me for trying to protect you or help you by following you!" Her eyes were glowing with anger and sadness and her breath was coming in ragged rasps as she tried to get it through his head what she was feeling, "I'm trying to understand what went wrong, but if you don't want to do the same then fine, you can just sulk and push the blame on me and pretend I'm pushing the blame on you and we can both just try to forget anything ever happened!" She turned away and charged at a tree, snarling and raking her claws into the bark until they were raw and bleeding and there was no more bark to break off. Panting, she leaned forward until she could rest her head on the tree trunk, the wood warmed by her frantic actions feeling cool against her heated forhead and ears.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:13 pm
JoJo exhaled loudly and began tearing up the ground beneath his paws in sheer frustration. "You're not making any sense at all. First you say I'm treating you wrong, then you say you don't blame me for it, but you're saying I'm mad at you, and the only reason I am is because of what YOU were saying." He shook his head and sighed. "It just doesn't end."
He watched Tolfitken attacking the tree and leaving red streaks on the bared trunk, and though concern flashed momentarily in his eyes, he made no move to stop her. At the moment, forgetting everything happened seemed like a pretty attractive thought; better to go back to when he enjoyed his songs alone, trusting no one and befriending no one.
And yet, he felt that he had truly enjoyed those moments when he had someone to share it with, and he thought that he probably couldn't forget such a thing if he tried. He had never forgotten the other times; this one would be sure to remain too. Either way, he wouldn't win.
He looked once more at Tolfitken and before he cuold stop himself, he quipped, "That can't be good for the tree."
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:28 pm
"That's because I don't know what to think!!! You wouldn't tell me what was wrong to begin with so I was trying to peice it together myself!" she echoed his sigh, staring mournfully at the tree, "I know it isn't good for the tree." There was no scarcasm or skepticism in her voice, she barely heard the edge to his. She started to turn back to him, but stopped, unsure still on what he was thinking, "I don't want to forget the singing... I think I'd die if I were to forget the first time I sang and what I learned from our lesson. I just want to forget that darn tornado scene; no one was hurt, we both confused and got mad at eachother for some apparently unknown or ununderstandable reason, and now it's in the past. I don't want to live my life filled with such negative thoughts as I had before when Obsidian betrayed me." She finished turning to look fully at him, not knowing if they would saying goodbye for good or if they would be able to move past and sweep up the wreckage that the tornado had left in its wake and be able to say hello again. "I think we're both ensnared in the events of our past and our fear of having them re-occur is causing us to unconsciously actually make them happen."
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