Welcome to Gaia! ::

Waiting near the entrance of the student dorms, Wynn rocked on his feet with his gloved hands stuffed in his pockets and his jacket tightly buttoned around his cold body. It was cold outside of the dorms, winter had decided to breathe its icy lungs upon the school campus and a small layer of snow blanketed the campus. This, of course, meant that Wynn was quite beside himself with pleasure. For the young Inuk, the cold was the way of life and although he seemed to shiver no matter the temperature, he was more content with this weather than the warmer weather of late summer.

His amber eyes flitted across the school grounds searching for the person he was waiting for. Of course, he had no idea what this student would look like, but Wynn knew that he needed help. He had seen a request on the bulletin board and, underneath his own orders to meet new people, Wynn decided to help More move into the student dorms. He wondered how this student would look like, pale like Mica or dark like Cane, tall like a tree or eye level with relatively small Wynn. He thought on the student's name, which Wynn was actually confused with for the better part of the previous day. More? More what? Wynn wondered, as he waited for the alleged student to appear.

Wynn had been strutting in the shallow snow in front of the dorms, digging his thick soled boots into the crunchy ice and leaving footprints in messy intricate patterns, when he finally caught movement at the edge of his caramel gaze. Glancing up, the boy felt his gaze widen as he took in the sight of the other student walking towards him, carrying an armload of cardboard boxes. His jaw even dropped a bit. He couldn't see all of the older student's face, but he had seen enough.

Stumbling over to the other through the snow, his feet almost catching the backs of his ankles as he closed the distance between him and More. Wynn slowed to a stop. For a moment, he paused like that, staring at the other behind his barricade of belongings as if he were trying to see the top of a sycamore tree. Slowly, his arms folded themselves out, and Wynn blurted:

"...You're tall!"

Which was the truth. To the rather small Inuk, More was almost a full head or two (or three!) taller than him. His home in Alaska was filled with people of rather average height, a good bunch of short people, and a rare handful of tall folks. Quite honestly, Wynn was not as much as amazed but admiring, being tall must mean being able to see more, like when he climbed trees. He could see all the way to the horizon when he was hugging the torso of a fine pine. Wynn thought it to be the same principle for tall people.

Wynn opened his arms more for the other student, intending to help him carry his packed belongings and he let a small smile bloom onto his face like a flower pushing itself out of the thaw, "I wish I was tall," he said again earnestly, his accent still permeating his voice, "Like the trees. You are tall, see much more that way."

"Yes," Wynn nodded as the other student requested direction to his dorm. After all, that's what he was there for, right? However, he couldn't help but feel like he wasn't being helpful enough when More refused his willingness to help carry things. Being an Inuit, Wynn let the feeling pass him by with much ease, for what was in the past couldn't be helped, and he opened the door wide for More to pass through and showed him in. He made sure that he opened the door as wide as he could get it because the student and his belongings were rather wide and hard pressed to fit through the door frame. As soon as they were inside, Wynn started towards the elevator and pressed his palm against the lift button, beckoning the strange contraption down to them.

Of course, being from a village where the most technological thing they had was a small airplane landing strip, Wynn was quite surprised and mystified when he discovered the elevator. It took a bit of understanding and exploring until the young Inuk finally tamed it to do his will, but he was enamored all the same by the strange technology. It was to his pleasure that the metallic doors opened wide to receive the two occupants and Wynn stepped inside.

He made sure to press himself to the side to make enough room for More and his packages. Realizing that he was being quite shy by not saying anything, Wynn bit his lip, "You are by my dorm room. Right across the way." he said in his thick accent, but he realized that he was still missing something, something that needed to be said. He reached back into his memory and listed off all the things that had passed between the two, when suddenly it struck him. He forgot to introduce himself! "Oh, I am called Wynn. Wynn Darbinian. Glad to help."

A smile split Wynn's face as the other hastily jumped to reply, "Oh," he said as he gave a shrug with his shoulders. "You're fine. I knew you as More, but better to hear you say." Which was the truth, Wynn wasn't bothered by the other student's haste at all. In fact, it made him feel a bit more comfortable, knowing that More was eager to talk with him. He often made the same mistakes after all. Like More though, he made sure to repent or absolve anything that he might've disturbed. It came from his heritage.

The elevator opened with a mechanic whir onto the second floor of the student dorms, just a door away from the room they would soon be entering. Wynn darted out first, making sure he was well out of the other student's way before he turned around to make sure More was following.

"Me?" echoed Wynn, taking a few slow steps to the door of the other's room. It wasn't that far, just two doors down into the hallway, on the same wall of the elevator. He turned his back then, giving a helpless shrug of his shoulders as he worked the door open, "I did not want to come. The Bentleys called this place, told them where I was. I lived alone, my own hut. But men came, told me that I did not have anything in my home. I do not believe them. I had lots there. Ice, hunt, dogs, me. The village, too. But I came...To be stronger, to become angakkuq. Nobody wanted me anyways. And I hope that somebody wants me here. But when I am strong, I go back to my home. Show them that I am angakkuq, chosen by spirits. Strong."

As Wynn spoke he stood facing the closed door, his gloved hands lingering on the knob. For a split moment, Wynn became distant, his face captured in shadows as he retold his tale, what fated him to be here in these dorms now, opening a door for a fellow student who might be just as lost as him, or even more so. Then, like a shelf of ice splitting in twain, Wynn turned his head out of the shadows and into the light of the hallway towards More. He came back. Pulling another smile onto his face, the young Inuk twisted the door's handle and opened it into More's room, holding it wide open for the other.

"This your room," he said then, "Your place." And as he held it open, Wynn entered the room and motioned for More to follow, "And you, More? Why are you here?"

Wynn edged himself slowly into the room, glancing up every so often at More to make sure that it was alright as he listened to the replies that the other student was giving his answers. His eyes traced the outlines of the room. For some reason, he was curious, but not for the normal reasons. He wasn't comparing in the sense that he wondered if More's room was bigger than his or had something that his dorm room didn't. He was more interested in if...This room felt warmer than his. There were places, Wynn decided, that could be homes and places that couldn't. As far as Wynn was concerned, his bedroom didn't have that "warmth" in order to be considered a home, even only temporary. And apparently, so did More's room. Their rooms were the same, cold places that could never be a home.

"Determination not strength," Wynn said in a short reply to More's good-intentioned statement. "You welcome." Then he paused and listened again, turning to watch him fully. It was only polite to give someone his full attention when they were speaking. Respect was the Inuit's way. The only movement Wynn gave was when his head tilted as More's strange answer spilled forth.

Didn't know...? Always his home? ...Doesn't remember? Fate?

Wynn's face suddenly took a solemn lilt to it and he stepped forward to put his small hands on More's shoulders (as best as he could for his height). He looked him in the eye, as serious as could be, his eyes filled with a kind of admiration and he said softly, "Fate, yes. Fate bring you here. You have thing to do. Important thing. Fate guide you and you do what you need to do." Wynn gave a smile then. He seemed honestly excited there, his coffee-brown eyes bright, "You are part of fate."

Caught up in the whirl of thoughts familiar of home, Wynn didn't realize what he was doing until he paused for breath. He didn't even think that More wouldn't enjoy an invasion of personal space! Wynn didn't believe in "personal space bubbles", he was Inuit. He took a moment to register what was happening before he moved away, coughed into his sleeve, and offered a meek smile as an apology.

"Sorry...." Wynn looked about, "Do you need help with unpacking?"