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 Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:01 pm
Zel took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. Flipping the book closed, he pushed it away and rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands. His head was starting to throb from the small text in these books. Picking up the next in the stack, he opened it up, trying to get his mind to focus on the material at hand.
He was having one candlejacking time of it. Ever since that dream he'd had, he'd found studying made him a bit edgy if he did it for too long. He wondered if he was reaching his limit again.
Blinking a few times, he huffed again and looked up at the ghoul who had been partnered with him for study. There was something about her that was familiar but he couldn't quite place it. A nagging deja-vu making him feel that he KNEW her from somewhere.
"So, any luck?" He asked, turning the book toward her. "I'm still having trouble grasping what exactly Humans are scared of... I mean, it just seems like they jump at anything..."
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:23 pm
Amarus was about ten seconds away from drooling on the book she had her face planted onto. Her study partner also seemed super familiar, but the nagging sense of familiarity had faded rather rapidly when he'd started to study so diligently that she started to remember she was a student.
A student in a year one class, because she had failed it so many times she couldn't get to the next one. If you asked her, in that moment, what exactly the class was, she totally would not have been able to tell you. She had just showed up that one day, on a whim, and gotten saddled with a study buddy.
More like the dude'd gotten saddled with her, really: she was pretty unhelpful. At least her Lotus Eater aura would soften up the situation, and maybe make her company more tolerable: the colourless, odourless smoke that her pink-purple aura, which seemed to be a faint glow flickering close to her skin, still allowed certain individuals to feel more at ease, calmer, and lose all perception of time.
"Hmm?" Amarus picked herself up off the book she had nearly been napping on, and stared at whatever he was shoving towards her. "What? Humans? They're afraid of whatever we tell them to be afraid of," she replied, with a shrug. A very indifferent shrug. Her eyes almost seemed to glaze over in boredom.
"Hey. Here's an idea. Why don't we take a break and, I don't know, do something interesting?"
It sounded like a suggestion, but she was probably going to proceed whether or not he agreed, and whether or not he was a willing participant. He'd likely end up an accomplice no matter what, so...
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:30 pm
... Weren't they here to study though?
He wrestled with this thought for a few seconds, before pulling back the book and closing it with a hand. Turning his full attention to Amarus he smiled for a moment.
"Actually, I'm not sure how long we've been studying but I think a change of pace could definitely be in order," After his strange dream, studying had lost quite a bit of its luster in anything but short bursts. For some reason, he just... couldn't stay focused - and it was even worse around Amarus, for some reason, time seemed to distort somewhat when he was close to her, like now.
Scooting the chair a little bit closer he chuckled a bit. "What did you have in mind?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:35 pm
Ever since that dream...
Amarus tilted her head, and the bells ringing cleared her thoughts. The corner of her mouth quirked up in a wicked smile. She leaped right up onto the table, bent over and offered a hand to him. "Good! I'm glad you see the error of your ways-- hmm, it's a surprise," the ghoul replied, cryptic.
For some reason, holding his hand was making her chest feel tight. She looked down at it, for a moment, as if trying to figure out what that feeling was supposed to be. Some distant part of her, locked away inside, kept trying to say: It's how things are supposed to be. She just smiled at him again, though, and tugged gently on his hand.
"If we never get going, we'll never go anywhere!" she teased. In fact, what she wanted to do was drag him onto the roof, and throw little firecrackers into the darkening sky.
She loved fire, explosions, light, climbing, and being where she wasn't supposed to be... so this was perfect.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:40 pm
Her taking his hand was somewhat unexpected, but Zel wasn't going to argue. For one, he kind of liked it, it sent a flutter down to his gut that he'd never really felt before - a part of him told him that it was normal to feel that way, so he brushed it off as nerves. Standing up he smiled back at her and bowed his head.
"Well then," he said motioning with his free hand. "Lead the way to adventure!"
He was curious to see where this was going to go. He hoped it didn't result in something that would get them hurt... or worse - expelled. But at the same time, there was a thrill in the back in his mind, something familiar - like this just felt.
Right.
"Shall we sally forth?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:46 pm
Amarus was not in the habit of holding hands with anyone. Not even her good friends. Okay, maybe Freya, but only because Freya was cute and Amarus would happily hold her hand because she was Kettil's lady and Kettil would surely not be bothered by Amarus. Well, who could be bothered by her? She was hardly a threat, because she was generally not even considered in the running for normal interactions. Much less as an object of affection.
But as much as she seldom held hands with anyone, it was even less likely she would admit she'd done something awkward. No, she was gonna see this through to the end, and pretend she had totally meant to take his hand, pretend that she did this kinda thing like it was nothing. You know, whatever. Be cool.
It wasn't because she felt like it was the right thing to do, some locked up part of her; no way. But Amarus couldn't help the flutter in her chest and the tightness as she continued to hold on.
"Adventure it is," she agreed, the corner of her mouth quirked up. She turned to lead the way, but paused, and then very slowly turned back around to face him: "Shall we... what?" she asked, her expression blank.
"I'm going to assume that was nothing inappropriate," she then added, one eyebrow quirking up momentarily before she turned again. And started to walk very briskly in the direction of not-library, to the nearest door.
The one with a ladder she'd unlocked a while ago, the one that normally was reserved for fire escaping. Or something. She wasn't entirely clear why it was there, but it seemed to her normally it was meant to be used to escape, not to break in. But that was how she did things. So you know.
"So I hope those wings are good for more than looking pretty and getting caught on things," she mumbled, and then louder: "How well would you say you climb things?"
Because they were now standing at the foot of the ladder, and it was at least a couple feet of a jump upwards, then a climb, and then a rickety metal platform that had seen better days... and then a climb across several gargoyles which were occasionally lucid, onto the roof overhang and then they were almost home free.
Amarus surveyed Zel, as if assessing a piece of meat. "I hope you're sturdier than you look," she admitted. "Don't worry, I'll catch you if you fall!" Amarus grinned. She bowed, one arm gesturing to the ladder, as if inviting him to go first.
It really was so she could catch him if he fell, but also because her overrobe was very short.
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:00 pm
Zel chuckled, "It means to go forward, carry on." He let her lead him to the fire escape ladder and looking up, he chuckled. "Well they're not just for show, that is for sure," he flapped them lightly a few times, moving the air around them. "I can fly just fine, and I'm an okay climber..."
Truth be told he hadn't done a lot of it recently - but it didn't seem like an impossible feat. When she surveyed him, he smirked. "You don't look too sturdy yourself, but you don't hear me saying it," he snarked back as he walked back a bit to give himself a running start.
"I'm sure you will," Zel chuckled weakly as he got ready to make his attempt at the ladder. "I trust you,"
Not quite sure why... but I do...
With that he sprinted hard and with a jump and a few quick flaps of his wings, he snagged the bottom rung of the ladder and pulled himself up, climbing up slowly and reaching the metal platform. "Alright," he called to her.
"Now what?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:56 pm
Amarus rolled her eyes at the bookworm accusing her of not looking sturdy. If there was one thing she did well, it was hold her own; she had absolutely nothing to prove in that department. It didn't even sting her pride, if it was coming from Zel.
"Now you keep climbing, genius. See those gargoyles? Use them like bars; jump, grab, swing, grab the next one! Easy," she instructed. Halfway up the ladder, she suspended herself there by one hand and one foot, swinging back and forth and looking up at Zel where he stood on the platform. "Grab hold of that stone edge when you get to the end and pull yourself up, then up onto the roof!"
"Oh, hey, I forgot to mention. I suddenly remembered that you are right, and I'm not sturdy in the least... so I hope you will taste good as a jelly," she called up, cheerfully. "Perhaps more like a jam, with all the bits of bone...What do you think, Zel? Would you be a jam, or a jelly, if you fell to the campus from the roof?"
Amarus was helping. She had made it to the metal platform as well, by this point.
Hadn't he said he trusted her? Internally, Amarus reassured him: It's okay, you can make it. I'm sure you'll be fine. We can go back down, if you're scared. On the outside, she didn't say a word. Her mirror-silver eyes, blank as always, didn't betray even a lick of what she was feeling. Feelings, after all, were such a new concept to her. She did, however, focus her aura out towards Zel. To calm him. If he was calm, maybe he wouldn't tense up and ruin it. At least he could fly, right?
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 11:08 pm
Zel laughed a bit as she gave him marching orders and shook his head, when she told him she wasn't sturdy at all and that if he fell he was going to smear across the ground like paste, he snickered. "Eh, that's what wings are for!" He geared himself up for another run across the gargoyles when she reached him and he felt a wave of pervasive calm over him.
He took a deep breath, let his body relax. Took a long look at her and smiled.
You... do know you can just teleport to the roof right? his inner nagging self reminded him. Or were you too busy trying to prove to this ghoul you've got the stones to be good boilfriend material. Put up or shut up and be smart you idiot.
Laughing softly to himself he let out a long blast of air and smirked at Amarus.
"Eh, not too worried about being jelly... Beat you there." Turning his gaze back to his intended target location, he took a deep breath, and stepped out over the empty air between the metal and the first gargoyle - vanished in a puff of brimstone-smoke - and appeared in the exact same manner on the roof. Turning he waved at Amarus.
"So you coming or what?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 11:23 pm
Well, if he was trying to prove he was brave enough to put up with her strange hazing ritual, he had done a good job; Amarus was internally pleased with his apparent willingness to be where he should not be, doing things that could potentially have gone wrong. After all, most of her time was spent doing those very things. If he wasn't able, she'd have to part ways from him for a substantial chunk of time.
And apparently that wouldn't have to be the case. A hint of a smile slipped across her face for a moment, as he smirked at her. She could feel her sizeable ego pick up arms and prepare to do battle with Zel in the future; she could see that they would probably find occasion for a competition at any turn possible. "Of course you are going to beat me there, you are ahead of me," she replied, amused by the notion he would count that as a victory.
Then, when he disappeared and the air smelled of brimstone, she snickered. "Good thing I smell delicious at all times, because I imagine you are going to smell of sulphur now," she teased. "I thought I would take the scenic route, thank you," she retorted, jumping for the first gargoyle. Instead of swinging, she pulled herself up and on top of the gargoyle, and folded her hands into the kuji-kiri for Pyo: she drew her power from these symbols, reasserting her being and aligning herself with her goals. That was how she met each challenge with focus and intent.
This time, she had a wicked smile across her face as she shut her eyes and, blindly, hopped from one gargoyle to the next. She had been here a lot. And done this a lot. It was a fun parlour trick, and she'd never gotten to show anyone else before. Who else would she drag to the roof, after all?
As soon as she made it across all the gargoyles and pulled herself to the roof, she opened her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "So... I would say that is a ten for style to me... and I guess a seven for efficiency to you," she said, pausing as if begrudgingly allowing even a seven. But she smiled, and winked at him. She held out one hand, again, this time purposeful.
The walk was easy, from this point on. Just a vague incline until the roof levelled off at this bit. And when they got there, they'd find a pile of blankets which Amarus had left before. Not folded, not neat, but at least clean. The smelled fresh, like they had recently been washed, though they were pushed into a vague lair-shape and it seemed apparent that Amarus liked curling up there to, probably, look at the sky. A small wooden chest wrapped in a blanket clearly normally served as a pillow.
But it also had some snacks, some trinkets, a couple notes, a feather, and a handful of firecrackers.
"You'd better never tell anyone how to get here," she warned him, before easing up again, and looking her lair over with contentment and familiarity.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:22 pm
At her "warning" Zel just smiled and tilted his head slightly. "Tell who, about what - where?" He contented himself to look around a bit, hoping that was enough to get her to understand he wouldn't betray her trust. In truth, he felt a little wounded that she would have thought he would tell about her secret place - friends didn't do that, and even if they had been thrown together out of necessity and barely knew each other - Zel was willing to go out on the limb of calling her a friend.
Maybe not like best friends - but he was sure they would be able to get along.
After her comment about his smell he leaned in and made a show at sniffing at her, as if to test her statement about her own smell. "Mmmmmmm..." he hummed appreciatively before chuckling. "Actually, you really do smell delicious..."
If he did smell like sulphur he didn't notice, as his home region of Halloween was full of the stuff, if anything it would have been as comforting to him as the smell of fresh baking bread or spookies even.
Zel chuckled when she brought up the scores and shook his head. "I can at least rate an eight if not a nine for my step-off into oblivion," he argued watching her. "I'd say maybe a eight for you - since you're obviously an old pro at the course." Not to say he wasn't impressed that she could do it with her eyes closed, that was actually really cool - just meant that she knew the course well and so in fairness he applied a point handicap to it.
He had taken her hand as soon as it had been offered and let her lead him on. When they reached her lair he nodded slowly and smiled. "This is nice, very cozy."
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:29 pm
Even if Zel didn't realize it, the fact he was in her lair at all meant that she trusted him not to tell anyone. If she thought there was even the slightest chance that he'd bust her, she wouldn't have risked it. Amarus wasn't typically the kind who needed to travel with others.
Amarus was preoccupied when he leaned in to sniff her. At first, she didn't realize that's what he was doing. When she did realize, she stiffened, her bells ringing as she stood stock still. And when he seemed to enjoy it, she felt strange: some part of her wanted to bridge the gap between them. But she kept herself just as still as she'd been all along. "Don't let it fool you, it's just my lotus smoke," she cautioned. For a moment, her voice carried a heaviness to it: anyone around a Lotus Eater might, mistakenly, assume that being around the individual in specific made them feel good.
In reality, it was just the smoke. That was what Lotus Eaters did, after all: ensnare, entertain, create a state of bliss so powerful that if one was to try to leave, they would find it remarkably painful. An ability designed to punish someone for leaving. Thankfully, as she was only a second year student, her aura was not yet anywhere near that strong.
Still. She had told him outright because she wanted him to be aware of it. It was a lot easier to fight the feelings it instilled if one had self-awareness, and... she'd like to believe that whatever he thought about her, or the way she smelled, was legit.
"Too late. My roof, my score! Ten. Tens for me across the board, now!" she decreed, resting her hands on her hips and staring at him as if challenging him to disagree. Before a smile cracked across her face and her eyes shone with a wicked glint.
As she finally dragged him up into the lair itself, she promptly let her weight carry her into the pile of blankets, using Zel (or attempting to) as a kind of anchor to ease the fall. And then she pushed some of the blankets into an almost nest-like shape, getting cozy. "Sometimes I sleep up here," she said. "Get comfortable! I've got a box full of our own shooting stars. That or we can try to throw them at passing students," she mused, pulling the small wooden chest out from underneath its blanket and opening it just to take out a couple fistfulls of what appeared to be small firecrackers.
As soon as he was cozy, she'd hand him half of them.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:40 am
Zel chuckled as he sat down next to her, one arm actually curling around her waist as he leaned over to look at the box she'd pulled out. Shaking his head slowly he smiled at her.
"Lotus smoke or no, you still smell nice," he said with a grin, leaning in to take another sniff of her again. He could make out the smoke sure, but that wasn't what he was commenting on. "Cause yeah, I can make out the smoke just fine,and its nice, and its part of you so it totally counts anyway."
Zel chuckled softly as he looked out over the surrounding area from their perch. "I'll give you that it's your roof - until such time as we could call it our roof," his mind formulating a scenario where this sort of thing was done more often - which he had to admit he was not against at all. "But I will still contest your score," he smirked, poking her in the side a little bit. "But you're cute so I'll give you a ten for that..."
WHOA... FULL STOP! His inner voice bellowed. You are here to study what she is doing up here, to learn what it means to be a Year 2 student - not hit on her!
He ignored the voice with a slight puff of air as he got nice and settled into his 'nest' with Amarus and looked at the firecrackers she handed him. When she mentioned she slept out here sometimes he chuckled. "Really? I'm sure it must be really comfy - my dorm doesn't feel like home enough for me to really rest, so this must be nice." he smiled at her, before turning his attention fully to the firecracker in his hand.
"Is that... safe?" He asked, in reference to throwing them at passing students. "I mean, I don't think it'd be much fun if someone else got hurt - or one of us did..." He was trying really hard to not feel like a wet blanket but...
"Maybe if we just arched them high so they didn't land near anybody..."
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 8:59 pm
When he curled his arm around her waist, Amarus felt that unsettling need to encourage it, again: the tight feeling in her chest, the sensation of warmth even though her 'nerves' were a little unconventional, given she was making herself tangible. She'd always been someone who wished for life, though, so it was rare she was anything less than fully tangible.
She didn't know what to say, when he leaned in again. Normally, she would have punched him in the face by now, or at least attempted to. At the very, very least, she would have threatened to punch him in the face! And she simply hadn't; she hadn't done any of those things. In fact, she seemed generally too shocked and/or internally preoccupied to respond in much of any way. This time she paused, and finally managed to suggest: "...sometimes I smell of cupcakes, too."
But she didn't really want to tell him about her narcotic essence, or the beginnings of a future cupcake-related drug ring. That could be for next time they had to 'study.' A lot of next times later. She didn't... really want to admit it to him, for some reason. She couldn't help but remember the dream she had, and...
"Our roof," she repeated, smiling faintly to herself, tilting her face away to hide it even though she unconsciously leaned closer to him. And the smile only widened when he suggested that smoke, no smoke, whatever: she smelled good. No one had ever bothered to get close enough to find that out, not really.
Amarus paused, still in disbelief, a bit. And confused. And disoriented. All kinds of things that meant she really had nothing to compare this situation to. She had learned, since starting at Amityville, what was acceptable behaviour and what was not. More or less, anyway. And she didn't know what was acceptable in situations like this one, because she had nothing to compare it to. Nothing in her lexicon of "appropriate responses." In fact, she was so caught off guard when Zel called her cute, that she turned towards him, eyes widened momentarily. If she had blood, she'd be blushing.
That, and she really just wanted to, in disbelief, blurt out: Wow, you're really new here. She didn't say it, but... a significant part of her couldn't help but want him to know... Don't you know I am not like that? I am not cute, I do not feel things, and no one feels things for me. I am just a Lotus Eater. What you feel is illusion.
But just this once, for one night, maybe she could believe that crazy dream she had in which she'd been promised that she didn't have to be afraid any more. Not afraid, and not alone. When she finally found her voice, she smiled again, and turned her face away."I fall asleep all kinds of places, comfort usually isn't a factor."
And finally they were back on easy topics, like how to ruin (or not ruin) everyone's lives. She looked at him like he'd just admitted he cuddled a stuffed sheep every night as he fell asleep, and replied: "Of course it isn't safe."
She pretended to be annoyed that he was suggesting they go out of their way not to hurt anyone, but... part of her found it kind of endearing. She didn't really consider the wellbeing of others all that often, so it was kind of nice to spend time with someone who apparently did. Someone who was going to, it seemed, maybe curb her wicked and rather unchecked tendencies.
"Bet I can throw higher than you," she challenged him, glancing at his arms and gauging his muscles. That was her way of agreeing not to throw them at people, basically.
She lit one, and threw it up in an arc as high as possible, marveling as the simple cracker burst into a shower of a few blue stars. Holding onto her next one, she leaned back down, moving one of the blankets aside as inconspicuously as possible to be closer to Zel.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:17 pm
Zel chuckled and shrugged off his jacket, draping it over her shoulders after she threw her fire-cracker and before she snuggled into him a bit more. "Sorry, you looked a little cold," he chuckled. He wasn't super muscular, but he did have some tone in his arms. He did practice with his chain - just not as often as he should. He should also have been lifting but, he wasn't too worried about it right then.
Smirking when she mentioned that she sometimes smelled like cupcakes he chuckled. "You might want to avoid me during cupcake days - I might try to take a bite out of you," he wrapped an arm back around her for a moment, not really thinking about it as he watched her throw the cracker off into the air to explode high above the campus.
"Well, I've got extra space in my dorm if you ever want a comfy place to crash... I have a nice arm-chair and a fireplace if you just want something warm for a change."
Why not just invite her to bed with you dude... Jack are you being open with her...
He quashed his mental nagging with a thought - she reminded him of his dream, and his dream had been... interesting to say the least - so maybe there was a connection? He didn't know.
But he was willing to try and find out.
Lighting one of his, he slipped away from her long enough to toss his in a high arc over the campus... but in a case of one-ups-man-ship, he cooked it for a few seconds, so that when it burst, it was right over their heads, the star bursts drifting down around their heads like snow.
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