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 Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:50 pm
The cold season was finally coming closer, but it still wasn't cold enough. Prometheus had taken to wandering around outside, since the indoors were obnoxiously heated to the point of near suffocation in some areas. Much to the dismay of his caretakers, he often did so without a jacket. It wasn't like the winter here would do anything. It was nothing compared to Boreas.
He had heard that the new math teacher was also from Boreas, but he hadn't gotten a chance to speak to him privately. Oh, what he would give to actually have someone to talk to that wasn't southern. As much as he liked his friends, there were just some things they wouldn't understand.
He found himself wandering out near one of the outdoor open areas- this one lined with benches and shrubs. He settled onto one of the empty benches with a sigh and looked around... What he wouldn't give for some proper pine trees right now...
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 4:42 pm
 Ustule had lived in Euros for five years now. Her days of being confused about the climate and the weather was over, but she knew she would never stop thinking of this place as the south and of its people as southerners. There were some things that five years couldn't change. She still dreamed of Boreas; she still contrasted everything with the place she would always call home. She still thought that the trees were wrong, and that the ground was wrong, and that the sounds and the people were all so very, very wrong . The climate, as she kept telling people at every opportunity, was too warm. That was a big sticking point for her, her favorite and default complaint. Too warm. Too much sun. The snow started too late, and the spring started too soon. She knew that she was starting to annoy her friends with it.
But it was important ! Ustule could barely function in spring, and summer was totally unbearable. And what was worse, she was starting to get used to it... Last winter she had found a little colder than the one before. To her horror, research in the library had revealed that last winter had been warmer than the one before. Her caretaker had assured her that this was perfectly normal for someone moving to a new climate. Normal, perhaps, but totally unacceptable to the Borean Litch. There were things she felt that she couldn't lose without ceasing to be a Litch. Her accent was one--she'd given up the battle to keep her village's vocabulary a long time ago--and her resilience to the cold was another. Her response had been steady and measured. She had dressed lighter than usual for the entire year, and now, on a chilly morning, she sat without a jacket or a sweater on, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt and a modest skirt. Yes. This was the way it was meant to be.
Sphery tumbled along at her side as she walked through one of the school's many open areas. The sight of another Litch her age drew her in. "Good morning," she said. "Eet ees a beautifal day, yes?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:29 pm
Prometheus had always been the sort to layer his clothing- not because he thought it was cold back home (although it very much was) but because he liked the way that it looked. He managed to make himself appear far more grown up than he actually was if he layered his clothing in the right way... But here, he couldn't do such things without overheating himself. Here, he had to settle for wearing the standard uniform and a hat. How bothersome.
At least it was workable, in some ways. He was lamenting the loss of his favorite jacket when a fellow freshling arrived to the area, which he wouldn't have really taken notice to except for two things... One, she was a fellow Litch - and a pure Litch at that, and two... Her accent. He blinked, tilting his head. Was he hearing things? Had he imagined it? If dialects weren't so different throughout all of Boreas he would have responded in his mother language, but the chances were high that there would be a language barrier there. No, he'd just.... Not hold his own accent back for once and see if she could understand him.
"Yes, eet ees a beautifal dey. Ey leettle beet on the warm side, unfortunetely." He nodded his head, eyes drifting to the Revenant by her side. A fitting familiar... He should consider trying to find one later. Clearly they were the products of Litch magic - something only they could do... It would make him feel a little more connected, anyway. For now, though, he would wait and see if she recognized the way that he spoke...
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Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:38 am
At first, Ustule couldn't believe it. Her ears seem to ring and she could hear her own heartbeat in them. Had she imagined it? A cool, clear, smooth voice? She was almost certain. But how? No one ever--but how? She...would just have to find out...wouldn't she...? Smooth, clear, calm...not round and marbled and excitable like southern voices, but...all...oh my... Ustule was suddenly aware that her eyes were very wide with shock. She relaxed them--it would be silly of her to keep them wide. Also, just a little bit rude. She had far more decorum than that, after all. The action of relaxing her face, coupled with a deep breath, gave Ustule time to think and analyze the accent. Yes, the other Litch definitely had a Borean accent. It wasn't precisely the same as the one back home--it was just a little different--but all that meant was that he didn't come from the same region as she did. That was hardly any surprise, really. Boreas was a big place, and her home had been more rural than most parts. Most likely his parents had sent him here. She was pretty sure she would have heard about another Borean orphan. All of this thought and analysis took just a couple seconds.
Ustule would have sat down on the bench without hesitation, but that voice--that accent--reminded her of traditions and values now almost shamefully forgotten. It would be rude to join him on the bench without permission. She gave him a small smile. "Yes," she said. "Entirely too warm. Eet weell get properly comfortable een a few weeks, though. I heve been here long enough to tell." Sphery tumbled into her knees, then, seeming to sense the other Litch, she crawled over to the darker freshling and started to sniff his knees. Ustule shook her head fondly. Oh, Sphery. Absolutely no dignity whatsoever... She reached down and scooped up the unruly revenant. "Em I right in theenking you are from Boreas?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 1:23 pm
Ah- so he had heard her correctly. Relief washed over him, he'd almost thought he'd go the rest of his days here at the Academy without hearing a proper accent. She seemed just as surprised as he felt, with eyes like that. Had she been here even longer than he? She must have, with a reaction like that. He returned her smile with a small one of his own, and then flicked his eyes down to stare at the revenant as it came to inspect his knees. He was going to reach out and pat it on the head, but the pink girl had already picked it up. Usually he managed to pass his delayed reactions off as purposeful, but this time... ah well.
"You hev been here long, then? Eet ees my first winter here." He nodded, then patted the empty spot on the bench next to him. "Come, sit. End yes, you are correct een your theenking. You are es well..?" He quirked a brow, slowly, and shifted his own spot on the bench so as to make room for both her and her familiar.
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:03 pm
Ustule didn't notice the movement at all. She was too distracted by...well, everything else, really. She sat down next to the boy and arranged her silly familiar on her lap. Sphery still seemed determined to sniff at the boy's elbows, though, as if his joints held the secret to everlasting life. Not that a revenant needed to worry about such things, come to think of it... "Yes. I heve been here five years. It hes been a while since I've met someone from our homelend. Eet ees mostly ceche children around here. The few who are from ahther continents are generally from Zephyros. Geists end Bephomets.
"Weenter ees...a leetle different here in the south," she added. "Less snow. There ees still snow, but it starts mahch, mahch later in the season. Around late November or into December. Thet sort of thing." She shrugged. "My home...was north of Frostfyre. Eet was a little difficult my first year." She stuck out a free hand. "My name is Ustule. What is your name?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:35 pm
That... saddened him, though he'd already sort of come to terms with it. Why would a native Borean ever want to come live down here? It wasn't like the Academy offered anything Litches couldn't do on their own - in terms of Academics. He supposed the mixture of races was one thing, but... exactly how important was that, anyway? "Thet is what I hev gethered... Not meny cheeldren from femilies thet are still together or alive..." He eyed the revenant, which... well, since it was closer, he went ahead and reached out to pat it on the head. He rather liked it.
"Thet is.. so terribly late een the season... Eet ees a wonder they get much et all..." He frowned, deeply... Deeper than usual, anyway. And when did the snow leave? Did it just stay into the summer months? Probably not. How disappointing... "I em from ... eh... eet ees hard to sey without eh mep to look et, but between the mountains end the forest below Death's Kiss." He nodded, figuring that would do a good enough job of describing his Village's location. Fairly remote, usually cut off from other settlements... Perfect.
"Eet ees nice to meet you, Ustule. I em Prometheus."
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:50 pm
Still together or alive... Ustule squeezed Sphery tighter as guilt washed over her once again. Her family wasn't together. And it wasn't alive. She watched dully as Sphery nuzzled the hand that pet her, her ridiculous nose flopping over the other Litch's hand. It gave her a little while to think. "Yes...a lot of orphens around here. Thees ees a good place to be an orphan. Very...welcoming. Very forgiving. Of those of ahs who...those of...those who heve nowhere to leeve." That's why she had been taken here--because the Demoness who had found her had come from the Academy, and thought that was the best place for a lost orphan all by herself. Let her be adopted by other Litches? No, take her far away and out of her comfort zone...
"They get maybe two feet in their particularly veecious years," she said. Now that she was talking about the weather, she felt...a little better. More distant, more detached from bad thoughts and worse memories. "End when they do, they throw beeg messes over it. Every newspaper in town will report on two whole feet of snow. Schools close down--though not the Ecedemy. It's pretty mahch the only school thet ignores it. I guess it helps thet we heve Chimeras and Litches here to shrug it all off." Death's Kiss, hey? That was just about due east of her home village, by her reckoning. So he was from the southeast compared to her home. A few years ago, that would have been obscenely far south. Now...?
"I theenk I know where thet is. Eet ees a pleasure to meet you, Prometheus. Eet ees...a great pleasure to hear a proper voice again."
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:06 pm
'Those of us'.... Prometheus had not missed the slip, though his expression bore no indication that he'd heard it. It clearly pained her, so there was no need to bring it up. Opening wounds was not something he was particularly keen on doing - especially with a fellow Borean. She might very well be the only one he ran into while he was stuck here, after all. He'd rather make an ally out of her. "Thet is good, I suppose. Though from my perspective it meyks theengs a leettle... Strange." He trailed off, reflecting on his word choice... It worked well enough. "Eet ees an odd duck out sort of theeng, I suppose. But there are worse theengs to be odd about."
The... the description of their winters caused a slight narrowing of his eyes. Only two feet? Only two feet?! "....Thet is increedibly deestressing. Two feet is notheeng...." He huffed softly and turned his gaze out to the courtyard area.. "Yees, I agree, eet ees nice to hear a proper voice. The wey people talk heere is... odd. But I em ettempting to mimic eet. They do not look so strenge when I do."
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:43 pm
Ustule was grateful when Prometheus did not follow up on her comment. She didn't want to discuss it. She hadn't even discussed it with the school counselor or the headmistress when she'd arrived. She'd been keeping it quiet, under wraps. She wasn't ready to discuss her family yet. She didn't think she ever would. It was a secret she would have to carry to her grave. "I cen imagine how strange it must be, to be here end know thet your femily is beck home waiting for you." She pet Sphery's tail. "I cen vouche for how strange it is to hear so many people not know what eet ees like to heve parents. Eet ees...a leetle disturbing." She shivered as she remembered another, even more disturbing detail. "Some of them don't even care. I wonder how the next generation will even survive."
She watched as the other Litch grew quite distressed at her description of winter. He didn't react to any great degree, but she recognized that subtle look of deep and profound despair. "Eet ees very deestressing indeed. But..." And here she leaned in and gave him her tiny smile, "eet means thet none of these kids know how to throw a proper snowball. Oh, you get the odd Chimera who knows, but most of them? Fah. You end I could easily trounce them come December."
She didn't realize what she had really said until after the words had already exited her mouth. Already talking about we... They had already met. They had not even officially offered to be friends yet... "Prometheus...eef ever you need someone to talk normally to you, you cen come to me. I heve no intention of losing my eccent. I like it. Eet...makes me feel like a Litch. Eef I cen help you feel et home, please do not hesitate to ask." She left the subtext unspoken: I would like to be your friend. You and I need each other as friends if we're to survive the South...
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:14 pm
Waiting for him... If only. Well, he still had some hope that he'd be able to return over Solstice, but this was essentially a banishment as far as he was concerned. Not that he would mention that, of course. Definitely not. That might bring up questions and he didn't really want to divulge the intricacies of what had driven his family to send him away.
"Eet ees strenge, yes." He nodded, allowing that much to be voiced. "End yes, I too find thet to be quite deesturbing... I cennot imagine eet weell be very good for them later on. How weell they know how to have proper femilies?" He shook his head, clicking his tongue in disapproval. Not that his was doing very good at being together currently, but at least he'd been able to form that bond first.
You end I. He blinked, she'd coupled them together in that - did she mean to be friends? He hoped so. She was the only person he'd met so far that could speak normally, and she knew what it was like to be from the mountains... "I would like thet eh lot." He nodded, the corners of his mouth curving into a hint of a smile. "I usuelly ettempt to speak in their menner so I do not hev to explein myself so much, but eet would be wonderful to be eble to speak normelly with someone. End you are right, we could definetly trounce them come December." He nodded, hoping that would satisfy her subtle question for friendship.
The school's clock went off, signalling the start of a new round of activities... "Ah. I must go now. I hev a cless."He slid off of the bench, pausing to give Sphery one last pat. "If you would like to speak later, I em done for the dey after this cless. My dormitory is on the first floor, room 201." He bowed his head a little, and then turned to head off to his next class.
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