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 Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:18 am
After all the crazy stuff that had been going down of late, Anella was finding that she appreciated the daylight hours now more than ever. When it was daytime, she got to be herself—got to do the normal things that normal people ought to like.
The park seemed so much different—with one exception.
Instead of giant, murderous monsters, she had to deal with pocket sized ones.
Sure, youma were a hell of a lot scarier up front, but that didn't make squirrels any less menacing. Especially when they wouldn't just leave you alone!
She'd figured that with this weather, she couldn’t resist enjoying the fresh fall air. She'd even helped herself to a nice waffle cone ice cream, decked in syrup and nuts.
Too bad she wasn't the only one that seemed interested in the treat.
In walking through the park, she'd attracted the attention of one far-too friendly squirrel, and he'd been following her for near to a minute now. The first time she'd caught him stalking her, it was cute. When he was still there after the eighth check, she was suspicious. By the fifteenth time, she was ready to beat that squirrel up.
She resisted, however—and things continued for a few moments longer. Until the squirrel decided it was time to get a little aggressive. He ran, perhaps a little too curiously, and his fur brushed against the back of her heel.
It was the last straw for Anella and, startled that the thing was going to climb up her and try to gouge out her eyes, she grabbed onto the nearest person and darted behind him, using him as a human shield to keep the squirrel away from her.
She never once thought to consider if the green haired guy would mind, but maybe the squirrel would accept him as a suitable sacrifice and leave her to her ice-cream.
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Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:09 pm
Steven had been minding his own business, nose in a book, even when he stood up to give someone directions he ended up distracted y it before he could sit back down.
But then someone was using him as a shield and that was... new.
With a blank smile on his face he looked up, a squirrel immediately in front of him, staring with, if he knew he wasn't just projecting human emotions onto animals, a really determined purpose.
He turned to look over his shoulder at the girl behind him, and held up one hand in a sort of half wave. "Hi!" And then after an awkward pause. "Um... what are you doing? I mean, not that I mind! I'm just curious." He didn't want to impose on the chick invading his personal space and using him as a barrier or anything.
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:19 am
Anella blinked, apparently only now realizing what she had actually done. "Oh—sorry, I just. You're a big, strong man!" she blurted. "That thing's after me, he's out for blood!"
It couldn’t possibly be for the nuts on top of her ice cream, or the delicious, aromatic waffle cone—no, it wanted blood. She could see it in its eyes. "Can you just—can you stop around some, get it to chase it away? If I go near it, it's going to run up my skirt, I just know it."
Leave it to her to wear a skirt on the one day a squirrel was on the prowl. Already she had crossed her legs and was leaning a bit off to the side to prevent it from doing anything questionable should it get too close to her again.
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:15 am
Steven furrowed his brow and looked back to the squirrel, who at this point, this time carefully studying it's eyes for any sort of bloodlust. Nope, he wasn't seeing it.
"I... um..." He wanted to tell her 'it's only a squirrel', but he didn't want to undermine her fears. Maybe she had legitimate reasons he didn't know about or something.
"Okay," He could chase a squirrel away, that was simple enough. He approached it, hoping just that would make it skittish enough to leave, but it actually let him get close enough to weakly wave his book at it.
"Shoo? Go away? Please leave?" The fact it wasn't acting very fearful of people suddenly unsettled him, a lot, and he wondered if her should keep his limbs away from it. His concerns were more about rabies and disease instead of it crawling up his nonexistent skirt, though.
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:55 am
The squirrel, for the longest moment, simply looked at Steven as though he were crazy. His beady little eyes were locked onto the male, clearly trying to deduce if he could take him on or not.
Eventually, for whatever reason, the squirrel finally lost interest and scampered a short distance. He kept a watchful eye on the two, trying to size them up.
For now, the danger had passed.
"That was perfect! Amazing!" Anella cheered, one hand on her chest as she breathed a sigh of relief. "You're my hero, that thing was freaking me out. Sorry for, ah. Grabbing onto you. I kinda don't have the best relationship with squirrels."
Or any other pesky rodents, for that matter.
"—I'm Anella," she introduced, extending her hand to him. "—So, ah. Thanks for helping me out, there, stranger."
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:02 pm
Steven's mouth had almost retracted into a scrunched, confused line as the squirrel dashed away, finally. Which was relieving in this own right, but then the girl started complimenting him for his brave... book waving?
Was he really that brave? Or was she being weird? Maybe she was being sarcastic...
"I... uh--" The green haired boy had suddenly flushed red in his confusion and held up the book up in front of his chest as if that would shield him until he thought of a response.
Luckily, she gave him a hint when she introduced herself and extended a hand. He released his iron grip on the book to shake it, smiling sheepishly. "Steven. It was nothing. Really." really.
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:21 am
Anella gave him a look as she shook Steven's hand. "To you, maybe, but to me, you're a lifesaver." Her shake was firm, though not entirely unladilike. Her manners, while mostly in tact, were not enough to stop her from taking a bite out of her ice cream as she shook the boy's hand. "I had an awful run in with a squirrel when I was a little girl," she explained, ice cream pocketed in one side of her mouth as she let it melt there.
A mouth half full of ice cream did little to stop her from talking, though she did manage to drop Steven's hand after their introduction. "You can't see it unless the sunlight hits the skin just right, but—" she pointed to her cheek and tilted her head near to Steven, as if by doing so he would be able to see it. "—Squirrel got me. I had to get four stitches and a rabies shot. Totally ruined my view of them from that day forward. Can you see it?" she asked, not sure if it was still as visible as she thought it was.
…Not to mention that she had kickass foundation on.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:45 pm
The corners of Steven's mouth sharply turned down in a comically horrified look that was, even if it seemed to exaggerated to be so, dead serious. "Gyuh... um..." His hand dropped limply to his side.
He squinted a bit and then nodded when he was sure he saw the scar. "I've got a few scratches from scars but... um, none from a squirrel," He said with a nervous laugh. "At least modern shots aren't so bad?" He offered like it was a consolation prize. "I've had the preventative vaccine for work. No foot long giant needle through the torso or anything!" They did hurt, but that mention had no place when you were looking for conversational silver linings.
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:52 pm
"Modern shots aren't so bad," she agreed, "Though when you're a kid? Jesus, those things make rabies sound good. Of course, that was years ago. I'm not afraid of shots anymore," she insisted, though one could argue that she seemed particularly eager to get away from the topic. "So—preventative shot for where you work?" she prompted quickly. "Where do you work, exactly?"
If she was going to use the guy as a meat shield, she might as well make the best of the conversation that followed —not that she wasn't enjoying it. Even if they were talking about needles. Thankfully, she still had her ice cream to distract her, and while she tried to remain modest about it, she probably could have made a greater effort to use her manners while she indulged.
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:32 pm
"Shots can be really terrifying," Steven admitted with some fast nodding. He was petrified of them when he first found out he was going to need regular intramuscular boosters, though he had gradually gotten accustomed to them.
But he was glad to talk about his workplace. Sort of. He did love his job, but he was a little worried someone from the Surrounding was going to remember he volunteered as a nurse. Which was kind of true! He had the function of a nurse... just not for people.
"I'm a tech at the animal hospital," He announced. "I'm still going to school, so I'm just kind of an assistant right now, but I do a lot of animal handling, especially when the vet doesn't want to," He rolled up his sleeves to display the gallery of marks left on him by nervous dogs, tense cats, and one very persistent tropical bird.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:36 pm
Anella immediately looked down at his arm and cast him an apologetic look. With her free hand, she traced some of the scratches lightly. "You poor thing!" she exclaimed before retracting her hand. "If you're getting all mauled up by those little animals—doesn't that bother you? …You'd think they'd be giving you some sort of armor or something at this point. Unless, I mean, you really like animals enough to put up with that. Are you going to school to be a full-on vet?"
It seemed liked a lot of schooling, and Anella might have loved animals, but she didn't think she could handle being around sick ones all the time. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't sure she'd last so long in school; already she was aching to get her degree so she could get out in the world and start working on her career.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:27 pm
"Oh, I love animals! A lot of them don't do it out of maliciousness," Steven said, sounding incredibly perky about the whole thing. But he rolled his sleeves down, a little embarrassed by the attention she'd given his scars. "They're just nervous, like anyone would be in the doctor's office." And then he nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I'm hoping they'll promote me when I finish school, or at least the option will be open. I'm going to HITS to get it out of the way."
"Are you in school?" He asked, watching her with genuine interest.
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:20 pm
"I am," she said, smiling. "Though I suppose I don't have my future as well planned as you," she confessed. "I'm at DCU now, working on my last year. Shooting for a degree in social work. So far so good." Not that she was bragging or anything; she'd worked hard and was so close to being done. "HITS, I've heard good things about that place. Well, and bad things, too. Mostly that you guys are all nerds and science freaks, but you don't seem too bad. I kind of expected a bunch of acne covered gingers, but. What do you know, you're pretty cute. And brave," she added with a grin.
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:43 pm
Steven's mouth gaped like he'd been hit with a terrible plot twist. "Science is a lot of fun, though! And I don't think we have any more gingers than normal," The stereotype joke clearly soared over his head. "Biology and chemistry are really interesting! Even if I do take them because I have to, I guess. But I hear DCU is a good school. And-- gragayurhm," Suddenly gibberish happened and he had no response to her compliment other than to clam his mouth shut at the weird noise in his throat and flush red.
"I--... thanks?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:27 pm
Initially, Anella almost thought that the weird noise that erupted from Steven's throat was some other type of science until it dawned on her that it was a rather unnatural sound. All science-y terms sounded ridiculously foreign and unnatural, so she had just intended to keep a complacent smile on her face and nod accordingly. "Oh—you're very welcome!" she blurted, grin widening. "What, don't you get compliments—flattery—often? I'd think it. A handsome young man like yourself, capable of stepping up to save a damsel in distress. I'd think the 'loves animals' bit would be getting you all the ladies if not the other two."
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