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 Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:08 pm
It was approximately 10 o'clock at night and the stars were out in full force. Casia Greystone was watching them on the grass because it was the weekend and as long as they were shining, she might as well take a look.
Right now the stars reminded her of Orli, who she had learned about e-mail for, and about the internet, which was nearly the most confusing and frightening thing she had ever seen before (Blue Meanies were slightly worse). The fact that human ingenuity could lay peoples' lives bare so thoroughly left her feeling more than a little vulnerable. It was strange to her how she could feel more private out here in the open fields outside of Barton than she did sitting at home and playing with a machine.
The most irksome thing was that she didn't know why the internet was so irksome. It wasn't like she had anything to hide from the world, except maybe that she was living with Jane, but that was hardly a big secret anymore. And Casia didn't have any grody habits. Sure, her thoughts might surprise some people who knew her, but the internet couldn't read minds.
That she knew of, at least. If it did, she didn't know what little button to press to toggle it off. She sighed and bit her lip, tracing constellations in the night sky. The internet took the whole of Gaia and made it seem tiny. Space was comforting to stare at because it never ended. There were whole other universes one could run to, and no matter how many one visited, there'd still be thousands more.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:24 pm
Darsh was untroubled by the internet. The blue boy did not, in fact, know anything about it and if asked would probably puff himself up to cover up his glaring ignorance and mutter something about the energy surrounding the heart chakra or something equally obscure he'd picked up from Auntie Em. No, what drove him out of the house so late at night were his brothers. His loud, obnoxious brothers that still found ways to torment the blue boy even though his bedroom was in the attic now, a haven of privacy.
The night was pretty enough that it didn't seem right to be angry and so he'd fallen into a thoughtful if slightly melancholic state as he wandered aimlessly towards the grassy area behind the park. His thoughts strayed mostly towards the ghost woman who was haunting the pond behind their house. She terrified him, he was certain she wanted to eat him. But there was something so sad about her, too. It was like she kept trying to tell him something and he kept running away in terror before she could get it out.
He chewed on this thought for awhile, idly blowing a note here and there through his little set of panpipes. They sounded slightly more mischevious and friendly than the night seemed to deserve, but he didn't mind. It was nice to have the company. He didn't notice Casia until he was only a few feet away, but the siren's silhouette was unmistakeable. Smiling faintly, he dropped uninvited onto the grass next to her, the small stars in his hair letting off their own pearlescent glow.
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Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 8:45 am
Casia startled as a blue thing thumped down onto the grass next to her, because as long as she was thinking about things that frightened her, Blue Meanies were never too far from her mind. But as she moved away, she saw the stars in her new companion's hair, and recognition flickered tentatively into her eyes. Yes, this was a Blue Meanie, but this one in particular didn't bother Casia.
"Darsh?" she asked tentatively to the night air. "What're you doing way out here so late?"
He could have asked the same question, but Casia probably wouldn't be able to answer it properly. She wasn't sure herself, and anyway, Darsh had crashed her party, so as far as she was concerned, he was the one who was going to be answering inquiries.
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Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 11:41 am
He didn't exactly have a proper answer either. At least not one he could accurately put into words. "It's a nice night." He said with a little shrug. "I felt like taking a walk." Turning his head, he frowned at her slightly. "What are you doing out here so late?" His tone could almost be taken as accusing, though he didn't mean it to be.
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:32 pm
Casia bristled at his tone, but relaxed enough to retort, "Like you said, it's a nice night." She settled back down on the grass as she said it, as if she deemed the conversation to be over. But Darsh was an escape from her other thoughts, and soon enough she had rolled over to lean on her elbows and look at him again, asking "Have you ever used the internet?"
It was a strange question, but Casia didn't seem to be joking. "I mean, besides the websites we use at school and stuff." Those were different. School was full of things that kids weren't supposed to really understand, and anyway at school, people only had to use search engines. It was practically like a library only stuck in a box. "I'm talking about, like..."
"The rest of it, dig?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:08 am
He blinked at the question, it was a totally unexpected topic. Laying down on his back with his hands under his head, Darsh stared up at the sky. "Nah, we don't have the internet at home. My folks don't believe in it." He turned his head and grinned a little at her. "We don't have cable either. Or a microwave. Emma says microwaves give you brain cancer." He snorted a little at this, clearly he didn't put much stock in his aunt's opinions. "Why do you ask?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:39 am
"Jane doesn't believe in microwave dinners, but I heat them up anyway. I kind of like pizza bites." Jane was a good cook though, Casia had to admit. One thing she could depend on in the Greystone household was a hot meal, and Casia was always aware of what she could and could not depend on. "Anyway, I don't have cancer yet, not that I know of. How do you tell without going to a doctor?"
"No cable?" she asked, clearly horrified at the thought. "How do you watch The Avengers?" Casia liked a few television programs, and Jane got a station that played old episodes of John Steed's adventures that Casia recorded faithfully. Saturday afternoons without John and Emma fighting evil was practically unthinkable.
"I dunno, Darsh. I was just thinking about it, yeah? I mean, it's kind of freaky if you think about it, this big thing keeping everyone in touch with each other." She frowned, trying to explain it. "Like, whatever happened to privacy?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:23 pm
The boy's golden eyes stared blankly at Casia at the mention of the Avengers. He barely watched television, being limited to videos. Not even DVDs but plain old VHS tapes. His views on cinema were limited in the extreme.
"You know," he began, gazing up at the stars thoughtfully, "Max and Emma say that we're all connected anyways. By our hearts or our minds or our souls or something. Like we're drops of water in a vast sea of consciousness. They think that through meditation you can tap into the secrets of the universe." He shrugged a little. "Maybe the internet is people trying to find that connection to each other that we forgot how to tap into."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:08 am
Casia looked at Darsh like he was from another planet for a moment, blonde eyebrows furrowed. Then, with a soft sigh, the Siren let herself collapse onto the grass, lying down on her back and staring up at the stars.
"I dunno, Darsh." she said wearily. "I wanna feel like I'm connected, but things like the internet just freak me out. D'you think maybe some people aren't good for being interconnected and all? Maybe my wiring's faulty." Turning her head towards him again, she asked, "Do you feel interconnected or whatever? How do we know we can trust people like that?"
She paused, biting her lip. "How do we know we can trust anyone? People can be really grody, you know?"
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