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 Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 8:37 am
Liam was actually dressed respectably today. No hunter gear for him.
He glared moodily at a manicured tree as he passed it by. Stupid parks.
He couldn't believe his mother!
So Mirram wanted to go to a park. So what if she wanted to 'meet more rooks.'
Ma didn't have to give her a day off for it! Mirram was nut! Plain nuts! She called herself ASH for goodness sake! Who the hell calls themselves Ash WHO WASN'T ALREADY NAMED THAT?!
It wouldn't be such a problem if Ma hadn't insisted that HE go with his sister. As her escort or whatever. Something about 'preserving hr respectability'. He'd have been fine if she had been going alone. Or with Viktor. Or with Ma.
There really wasn't any respectability to lose. Mirram was mad as a hatter, talking to her rooks. Who would want to rob her of her virtue or whatever Ma thought would happen to her?
And really. Why him?
Because apparently Viktor was working. Well so was he! He had traps in the woods that he needed to check. He had valuable hunting he needed to do!
But no. He was here, escorting his sister and her damn birds.
He looked over at her, pasting a smile on his face.
"Enjoyin' yourself, Mir?"
One one level he hoped she was. On another level, he hoped she was having a miserable time.
Stupid parks. With their stupid manicured trees and stupid paths and stupid rich people walking around with their stupid rich things...
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:36 am
Ash was indeed enjoying herself. So many people with so much clothing and... umbrellas? Walking about arm in arm, wheeling their children, enjoying the scenery and being looked at.
It was like watching a flock of birds that were not birds wheel and twirl with the rhythm of the wind.
Except it was not the wind that blew these birds. But what did?
Was it the path? Was it the trees? Was it each other?
So many people. She hadn't seen so many in a wooded place before. If someone had told her that the park was not actually crowded she would not believe them. Surely, this was a wood, clipped and trimmed and tidied though it was. And few people ventured into woods?
She let Bainer and Diyzen wheel around and away into the trees. Today was a day for them too.
Grenta remained on her shoulder, as always.
She gave her brother a smile. It was not his fault that his soul had frozen, after all.
"Yes we are, aren't we Grenta. We are enjoying the people."
She stroked her bird.
Grenta gave Liam a look, a piercing, glowing eyed look before deciding to ignore her hedgewitch's brother. She didn't like him, but for now he was harmless.
She scanned the people.
The park was... okay.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 1:55 pm
With the temperature in the city moving to pleasant double-digits, Gabriel had taken it upon himself to go for a walk in the park. It had not been his intention at the start. A few of his men had left to acquire this or that from smiths and carpenters, and he had taken the time to strike out on his own in an attempt to restock his produce bin. Something strange had taken to the lettuce he had purchased not a day previous and turned it black and soupy. It was unsettling, but he was determined to ignore it.
On his way to the grocer, however, he had noted something strange in a tree within the park. Immediately he knew it to be a hallucination because what self-respecting people would wander so easily around a hanging, headless corpse? His chest pounding, he had approached the foliage and tested the hallucination's viability, and as the head rolled deeper into the branches away from his prodding stick he could only sweat and hear the buzzing. He would ignore it. They were everywhere. Still somewhat upset, he wandered a trail and eyed a young woman with a rook on her shoulder. The bird certainly would have reacted to carrion. Just a hallucination. It had to have been. He passed her, eying the bird perhaps a bit too intensely as he thought over his mind's own reliability.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:01 pm
The familiar's roving eyes made contact with the man's. Grenta stared as the man stared- a little too long.
Grenta didn't like that much.
"Hey. Hey." The rook tapped Ash's face with her wing, "Guy over there. He's staring at ya. Don't like it."
"There there..." Ash stroked her bird's head as she turned curiously in Gabe's direction. "I'm sure he means no harm, Grenta. See? He only stares."
There were worse things people could do! Her brother Viktor did them sometimes, when he was employed by bad men.
"Don't like it." The bird ruffled, "We're moving away."
Grenta liked walks. She loved walks.
But people were suspicious. And she didn't like being stared at- she wasn't Diyzen.
And people staring at her were even more suspicious and she would rather her hedgewitch not go near the suspicious people.
"Nonsense!" said Ash in that singsong way she had when she was in a good mood.
The rook squawked harshly as she proceeded to do the opposite and walk towards the man.
"What do you think you are doing?! I clutched four clutches! I know better than you! Get back to lanky this instant! the rook scolded and implored in her ear, fluttering off her shoulder briefly in agitation.
Ash only laughed.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:09 pm
....
Riiiiight.
Go ahead. Talk to your bird you damn freak of a sister. Its not like we're in public where everybody can hear you... damn crazy birdshit woman...
He muttered mentally, bitter about having to escort her, bitter about not doing his job, bitter about... well he didn't know really. Teenage stuff.
But his smiled didn't even flicker, a mask of joviality.
"Good!"
He said, holding the smile on until he looked away. Then his true annoyance was revealed to the trees around him in a scowl.
He ignored his sister's crazy talking to her rook and looked up briefly to catch a glimpse of a bird flying overhead. Was it one of Mirrams? Who cared. They all shat on your head anyway.
He did not want to be here. He wanted to be home. He wanted to be in the woods. He wanted to not be in the damn city with all the damn hoighty-toity people with their damn silks and...
He turned back to his sister at the squawking of her grey rook.
Oh no... What now...
She was moving away? Why was she doing that? Her stupid pet rook seemed agitated enough.
Oh. Oh come on. She wasn't just going to walk up to someone and say hi, now... was she?
Liam decided to stand back and glower neutrally. If she was going to be crazy, he wasn't going to get involved unless something like knives came out.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:32 pm
Gabriel had continued on and was no longer staring not paying the girl and her rook much attention. The buzzing in his head was deafening and his vision had the wobbly characteristics of a near-hallucination; he had to wonder if some of the people he saw were actually there at all. His hunter's instincts, though, told him that someone was following, footsteps and intuition triggering a reaction. He turned to face the girl perhaps a little too sharply. His forward motion stopped on a dime as he rotated on the ball of his foot. If she had some business with him then she could state it, otherwise he would be continuing on his errands.
His expression was deadpan and entirely devoid of emotion. Only then perhaps would the pair notice the buck that had been traveling with the man, currently devoid of skull-mask. He snorted and lowered his head, pawing the dirt.
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:23 pm
Normally, she didn't like to talk to strange humans. But today was a good day, and he had been looking at her. She was curious.
She did take pause when he turned quickly towards her, mainly because it was so quick, and she was startled.
She wasn't used to that sort of fast thing happening. Not with humans.
Birds did quick things.
Humans were slower.
Right. Creepy staring man.
Grenta was not having any of it. She tugged at Ash's ear. "We're going. Now"
But Ash had caught sight of the young deer nearby. The last guardian she had met had been interesting, and she wasn't going to let this go!
Suddenly, the probably unhinged courage evaporated. She didn't want to talk to this strange man anymore. She didn't even remember why she had walked over, originally.
Instead, after her brief, startled pause, she kept moving until she stood in front of the buck
"Hello." she said, holding out her hand for the deer to inspect. "I'm Ash. How are you? Isn't it a beautiful day?"
She didn't think the deer would respond. She didn't really understand deer.
Grenta flapped her wings unhappily before giving the man a stare that was not at all apologetic.
If he so much as moved funny...
Though the familiar wondered if she shouldn't glare at the deer as well.
She couldn't glare two ways at once, so she settled for the man, while fluffing herself unhappily.
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:35 pm
Liam kept a cranky eye on her from a distance.
He saw her start at the man's quick turn, and tensed a moment, but relaxed when nothing too bad happened.
Yeah, sure, the guy was creepy, but so was Mirram. Liam glowered. A match made in crazy person heaven.
Adn then Liam noticed the deer.
How the heck hadn't he noticed the deer?
... And now his sister was talking to the deer.
The deer.
The damned deer.
What a nut.
Why was there a deer here?
Whatever.
Liam decided that he didn't care. He just wanted this stupid walk to be over so he could go home.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:03 pm
Gabriel's teeth might splinter at the force with which he had clenched his jaw. He was simply watching, facial muscles taut and rigid, and it was then that he realized that there was a bird as well. His head turned first, slowly, and then tilted to one side. He was inspecting the creature, it seemed. Certainly he had seen a rook or two about, but never attached to a human like that. ...it was possible that the bird was a hallucination too.
Morai, meanwhile, seemed less apprehensive. He leaned over and sniffed the girl's hand obligingly, giving it a gentle nudge as his teeth began to clatter. It was not a loud, offensive noise but a gentle sound of consideration and possibly greeting. He turned to his Chosen.
Relax.
Gabriel's eyes snapped to the deer, and his jaw relaxed minutely. He had his loyal companion at the very least, and it seemed as if the girl was real... unless Morai was a hallucination too?
... no, no, he'd wittingly left the manor with his Guardian in tow.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:13 am
Ash could handle chattery deer teeth. He made some sense to her. He wasn't biting her or pushing her away, signals she could understand.
She gently patted his nose. He was a noble creature, she really should give him every chance to turn away. That was what you did. You treated creatures with respect, and they did the same.
That made sense.
She was aware of the burning eyes of the man. She wasn't sure why he was staring so.
She didn't understand it, it confused her, so she ignored it for the deer.
Oh? Was it his deer?
Well that was good then, if the deer was happy.
"You have interesting markings, mister deer." she said quietly, observing the guardian's unusual markings. She didn't think to ask his name. She wouldn't have understood the answer. "They suit you."
Grenta locked eyes with the man observing her. She didn't like him, not at all.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:17 am
Oh for the love of...
What was she doing.
Liam stewed in annoyance.
What was he even watching? It was worse than a bunch of clumsy cranes trying to do a mating dance.
Oh look. The rook was having a staredown. Oh look. Mirram was complimenting a deer.
Liam could only hope that she tired of this and moved the hell on.
This guy freaked him out and crazy terrifying nutjob or not, that was his sister and Ma and Viktor would be really upset at him if something happened to her, and he had enough problems without them being upset.
Oh and the rooks. They'd be mad too, he supposed.
What could they do, s**t on him?
...
Wait, never mind. He didn't want to answer that.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:08 am
Morai did a little circle and, when facing the young woman again tossed his head and gave a loud sigh. He was generally not complimented in such a way, perhaps because of his Chosen but likely because of the morbidity of his markings. Granted, she had said that they suited him, and that they were 'interesting', not beautiful. He gave a little grunt and turned, taking a few steps to rub his head against Gabriel's chest, something like a fond nuzzle.
Gabriel remained rigid, saying and doing nothing until Morai was able to tuck his head under the man's arm. Relax.
"Your bird is staring." He almost seemed offended, and certainly wasn't going to comment that it was staring back at someone staring at it in the first place.
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Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:22 pm
Honestly, Ash had meant her compliment in the best possible way. She liked his markings. Those had just been the best words she could use to describe them.
He seemed like a nice deer. Look at how nice the deer was to the man.
Well if the deer was fond of him, maybe the man wasn't so bad? Maybe she should try talking to him. Yes. Maybe she should.
She was just getting the courage to look at him instead of the deer when he actually spoke to her.
And was very hostile about it.
She shrunk back.
Her bird was staring? Grenta?
"Oh, um..." she glanced at the bird on her shoulder. Yes. Grenta was staring.
Grenta stared at people a lot, Ash suddenly realized. She wondered why.
"I'm... Sorry?" she managed, reflexively wringing her hands. The man made her nervous, and she didn't even try to meet his eyes.
"Don't say sorry to him!" cawed Grenta, hunching her wings. "He was starin' first, rude jerk!"
"Oh... I mean..." Now she was nervous and confused. She glanced back at Grenta. But Grenta was usually right. She listened to Grenta. "I'm... not sorry?"
"Better"
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Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:28 pm
Liam chewed on some dried tobacco he kept in his pouch, completely bored stiff and not entirely surprised that the deer was responding to Mirram. Animals acted strange around her.
He was just waiting for her to be done and leave everybody alone.
Oh? What was this?
An actual human being was talking to her now. Not some bird or deer or cow or whatever.
That was new.
Though frankly the guy was as strange as Mirram. That would explain it.
Seemed he had a problem with her damn too-smart bird. He was surprised nobody had complained before about that freakish feathered thing.
He spat out the thorougly chewed tobacco. She was getting upset though. He wondered if he should step in.
By the time he decided to do so he was already striding forward.
He walked up behind Mirram and put a hand on her shoulder- the one without a bird.
"Mir, what the hell are you doing?" he hissed in her ear before smiling at the man
"Is my sister bothering you?" he said out loud, his too intent eyes assessing the man.
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:32 pm
One of Gabriel's eyebrows shot up, the only inkling of emotion on the whole of his body. He watched first the odd girl and her strange... apology? Not-apology? Whatever it was, she was decidedly abnormal and lacking in social prowess.
In a moment, though, his chin had turned minutely and his eyes were on the girl's human companion. He had not seemed to move at all, but there he was, gazing at someone else entirely.
"I can handle myself," he replied, and then he heard a scream. It was familiar, but only in that it was a common hallucination. Still, his head snapped toward the tree he imagined it had emerged from and found that the hanging corpse and its perching head had returned, and were staring at him. He laughed absurdly, an sudden and insane little trill, and clutched his head with both hands. Please, please just go away...
Now people were watching.
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