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 Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:50 pm
"Frankly we didn't know other's had gotten orbs. We didn't know what they were until they started moving. Then again most people don't talk to us so we had to figure everything out on our own. And each of use got a different letter. It's like Jareth knew what had happened to use, even as early as that morning." He sipped on his latte and watched the girl drink her coffee. Then listened to her describe her work load. Korea sure took college seriously. He listened to her second nugget of wisdom and nodded. He didn't feel like he was 16 marurity wise so she must be right.
"Why don't you bring Fiero by me and my friends. Like I said, he'd get along well with Clara because they act so much alike. And it would amuze Maxwell to no end. Then Fiero can play with the more social of our three orbs. Just tell your teacher you are doing volunteer work to improve your college resume for jobs. That's what I do when I want to get out of school." Granted Wendell didn't do that often, he mostly did it on days where he'd cut himself that morning and needed a reason to stay home.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:01 pm
Korea gave a bark of laughter. "My teachers don't care why I'm not in class. They just notice an empty seat and that it's the one my bum usually occupies. Then, if it's a participation based class, my a** is grass, and if not, nothing happens. College is pretty sweet in that respect."
She swirled her coffee with a special striped stirring stick. Fiero watched with fascination and slurped noisily at his frappe. He liked straws. They were fun. When Wendell mentioned his name he looked up and smiled.
"Could I please?" he asked Korea sweetly. Korea sighed heavily.
"Maybe. It depends on how everyone's schedules work out."
"I like to play with others. One time I sneaked out and met Holly and she was nice and we talked and she told me about how to play War and I want to try it but I don't think orbs can play, but I can play really nice and gently and I know lots of things I could tell them so they know more when they come out." Fiero babbled happily for several minutes, wanting to encourage the humans to allow him to come. "I can read and write and do math."
Korea spoke in an undertone pitched to be heard below Fiero's higher-pitched rambling.
"I wouldn't mind doing that sometime, just let me know when's convenient. Find me on Facebook or something. There aren't that many people in the world named Korea Harris." She thought about it. "Or you can have my cell number, but it's never on, so you'll have to leave messages if you want me to actually get back to you."
She couldn't help sounding unfriendly. She just wasn't a girl who had lots to do with the outside world. Her goal was to get through college as quickly as she could and then get out in the world and hope her dad forgot that she was supposed to be the heir to his computer company.
In point of actual fact, there are no Korea Harrises on Facebook.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:42 pm
"Hmm, must be nice. My teachers are always calling the house when I'm not there. Think I've killed myself or something." He sipped his drink and listened to Fiero babble on about what he could do and all that jazz. Of course his teachers had ever reason to worry. Everyone, except Clara, knew about his cutting problem. More than once one of the boys in gym class had grabbed his wrist too hard and caused it to start bleeding. It was always such lovely chaos until the teacher got him into the bathroom with the gauze and medical tape.
He thought over her offers. He didn't have a cell phone, he had no one to call except Clara who lived down the street and Maxwell who was always at his house anyway. He didn't surf the net all that much, he only used to to get music for his work. "Normally everyone's at my house after school. Clara comes along later after volleyball practice. Just go to the funeral home and go to the second floor. Thats where my family lives, I live in the attic. Just tell my mom you are there to see me and she'll show you my door."
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:55 pm
Korea raised her eyebrows. She wasn't sure how she felt about going into a funeral home as though it was just a normal place. She couldn't help remembering Angela's funeral.
"That's easy enough to do," she said finally. "Won't your mom think it's a bit odd that a college kid's coming to see you?"
Her mom would have thought it more than a little odd. Her mom would've refused to let a college kid see her daughter had they shown up at her house and simply requested entry and an audience. Of course, her mom had been pretty cool about Fiero, but what choice had she had, really? None. Maybe that was the situation in Wendell's family. She knew some kids were pretty hard to control as teens, though she couldn't see Wendell being a real behavioral problem at home. At school, maybe, but not with his family.
"Would I be overstepping the bounds if I pointed out that teachers are bound to worry about people who cut themselves?" She'd noticed the bulges under his long gloves and put the pieces together in her head.
She'd known her share of cutters, back before there was such a thing as an emo person, back when cutting was a Punk/Goth thing to do. She'd been an underclassman in high school at the time, and everyone and their brother cut themselves then. It had been the cool thing to do. At the time, she'd thought it was silly because when they needed to get jobs and they went to an interview with scars on their wrists no one would hire them for fear they were seriously mentally unbalanced.
She'd never gotten into cutting, obviously. She'd been a little Gothic, but mostly it was Nietzche-lite, as she'd learned after taking a philosophy class her freshman year of college. In high school she had been one of the faceless masses who was pretty enough to have had boyfriends and not pretty enough to be considered a danger to others' boyfriends, so she was generally well-liked. She hadn't been stereotypically popular, but she'd been close enough to those people to know that no one was like the kids you see in movies or read about in books. Normal people just wanted people like them to exist.
Fiero looked up when he heard the word "killed" and waited very politely for Korea to finish with her questions and then added a question of his own: "Angela who used to live with Korea was killed by a train. How can you kill yourself?"
Korea winced. She was going to make a horrible mother.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:08 pm
"Not really. When you meet my mother, you'll understand. Besides, she'll be thrilled that an 'older woman' wants to hang out with me." He rolled his eyes a bit at that statement. That was an understatement. Wendell's mother loved EVERYONE and treated them all like family. Through the years of working with people who had lost someone, she had learned that being included in a family again helped ease the pain.
"And no, you wouldn't. But I've done it for years, you'd think they'd get the idea that I don't do it to try and end my life. I'm not that lame. Oh, and if you meet Clara, don't tell her about it. She's the only one who doesn't know." Clara already worried about him at times, if she knew he was hurting himself she'd be really upset. He only saw her upset when the lights went off and that was the only time he ever wanted to see her in tears. If he was going to die, it wouldn't be by his own hand. He wanted death to be a release from something far more painful that what his life was right now.
He looked to the small creature who talked about Korea's roommate dieing from a car accident. He suddenly looked as if he was thinking then he nodded. "Yeah I remember that one. Angela, age 20, hit by a car near the train tracks. Pine coffin, blue dress, and black shoes. We drove her in the white car. Oh sorry, I tend to remember these facts." He hoped he hadn't killed the mood by remembering her friend's death. But somehow he always had a good memory when it came to the people who passed through his parent's funeral home."
He looked back at Fiero. "Killing yourself is a coward's act. They are afraid of life and are too blind to see how suffering defines everything in your life. Anything that happens to you that you think is good is only good because you compare it to something you've suffered from." Yeah, a toddler will totally understand that.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:24 pm
Korea blanched momentarily at his recall of Angela's funeral. She hadn't recalled that much detail. It sent pinpricks of guilt into her conscience which she ignored as she reminded herself and informed Wendell: "We weren't friends. We were just roommates, and she'd moved out a bit before she died." Oops. A little too sharp.
Fiero cocked his head, digesting what Wendell had said about killing yourself. He wasn't sure about the words' meanings, but he could tell from Wendell's tone that he didn't approve of the idea. Fiero had come to Angela's funeral, and he remembered all the details Wendell had cited, but he hadn't considered them important. He hadn't understood what was going on until later, when Korea was better and could explain to him.
He sensed that Korea wasn't happy and he put on his most charming smile.
"Will your mother like me? I don't have legs, you know," he added in a whisper. "Some people think that's weird."
Korea tried to keep the different threads of conversation straight in her head.
"I won't mention it to Clara if I meet her," she said slowly.
She didn't approve, but it was his life, and if that was how he wanted things, she wasn't going to interfere. He didn't seem particularly suicidal. Suicidal people didn't tend to make plans to run their parents' business. Well, she didn't think they would. She didn't know much about suiciders beyond what she'd picked up in a basic sociology class and a basic psych class. It came out to very little, and it was obvious that Wendell was scornful of people who committed suicide.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:34 pm
Wendell nodded, noting the tone in her voice. She didn't want to think about it so he dropped the subject. This was another reason most people didn't talk to him. He knew wierd stuff about people who had died. It's hard to have a conversation with the funeral director's son.
That's when Fiero asked about his mom. He glanced at the strange looking creature and nodded. "She loves everything. She'll just think you are cute. My parents...well....are kind of immune to the strange and unnatural. I don't know if that comes with being funeral directors or what. Heck they don't even notice my emoness. And I don't think you are weird."
He looked down at Invidia and sighed a bit. "I wonder what Invidia will look like. You seem to understand her, any insight on her?" He picked the orb up and placed it on the table. Invidia turned circles for a bit, examining her surroundings. She stopped infront of Fiero and seemed to darken a bit. The feeling of resentment and heartache radiated from her.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:57 pm
Fiero beamed. He liked it better when people liked him. It made him feel more like a normal person. Korea never seemed to notice that he didn't have legs, and Ewan sometimes tugged on the ribbons which came from his torso, but only playfully. Everyone else reacted differently.
"Cute," he said smugly to himself. He knew that was a good thing. "I don't think you're weird either." It was one of the nicest things he could think of to say to someone else. It was what he liked hearing.
Thus complimented he was determined to be useful, too. He put his chin on the tabletop and squinted at Invidia, and then frowned at her when she seemed to notice him. His eyes widened at the feeling emanating from the orb, which was distinctly feminine for whatever reason. He'd never felt anything like that before.
"She's so unhappy," he said softly, feeling absolutely miserable on her behalf.
He looked instinctively to Korea, who always made him feel better when he was unhappy. Korea looked blank. She'd gotten no such feeling from the orb. She'd noticed that the design inside was very different that Fiero's had been, but she figured it was more based on the orb's owner. Wendell, an emo kid, would probably approve of having a broken bleeding heart inside his orb. It seemed properly emo-ish.
When he saw that Korea couldn't feel what he could, he looked briefly at Wendell and then turned his attention back to Invidia.
"You don't have to be unhappy," he whispered to her. He wanted desperately to reassure her of that. "Everyone loves you and wants you to be happy. That's what people do when they're friends. They want the people they love to be happy. It's different out here. You'll see when you come out."
Korea watched and listened to Fiero with interest. She hadn't known he could understand others of his own kind, not that she'd had any opportunity to watch him interract with others like himself. She smiled at how sweet he was being and wrote on a napkin which she passed to Wendell I don't think she's unhappy because of you. She knew that's what she would worry about if someone had told her that Fiero was unhappy.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Wendell watched the small creature interact with his orb. He wasn't surprised she was unhappy, he had felt that the moment he had touched her glass surface. It seemed to be something she always felt, through no fault of his own. He watched as Feiro tried to cheer his little orb up, even though he doubted he would be success full.
Then the note was passed to him. He wrote back, "I know, she's always been like that."
Invidia took in what the strange creature said with a neutral feeling at first. But when the undera mentioned love, anger raidiated in very strong wave. She rolled over to him and, if any part of him was on the table, she struck it hard with her glass exterior. If not, she simply rolled about in clear agitation then rolled over to Wendell. From there she hopped into her carrier and refused to come back out.
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:17 pm
Korea scanned the note quickly and nodded as she crumpled it in her fist with a casual gesture. She was practiced at this. Fiero was quite capable of reading, and good at it, but he often forgot that it was an option, since he had few occasions to communicate in a written medium. For now she was safe communicating around him thus. If he got any older, that would probably change.
Korea was able to see Invidia growing agitated before Fiero noticed it and couldn't warn him in time before Invidia struck his cheek. He jerked back in his seat, shocked at the reception his attempts to cheer her had met with. It was the last thing he had expected her to do. So he stared at her in her carrier while he held his hand to his left cheek. It wasn't so much that it hurt - though it did - but that she shouldn't have reacted like that at all.
"What did I say?" he asked with eyes even wider than they had been before. A tear balanced precariously at the corner of his left eye, but it was more an involuntary reaction to being struck on the cheek than anything else.
Korea glanced quickly at Invidia and then Wendell.
"Some people are uncomfortable when you start throwing words like love around," she said, having no idea how close to the mark she may or may not have been. "And you were warned that she's not a people person. Maybe you just got too close to her."
"I'm sorry," he called across the table to the sulking orb. "I didn't know. I won't say it again."
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:18 am
Even Wendell blinked in surprise. Invidia usually just moved away from people if she didn't want them around her. She had never actually attempted harm to anyone. He considered what the creature had said to his orb while Korea talked to him. He had said love a few times in his words and Invidia's symbol was a broken heart. Perhaps, whatever it was that was in his orb, had been hurt by love. "I think you are right on the first part Korea. Her symbol is a broken heart."
He turned to look at Fiero. "People who have their heart hurt by someone who claims to love them are usually very upset when someone else talks about love. You didn't know, don't worry. She'll get over her anger in awhile. Lets just not use that word around her, ok?" Despite his emoness, he wanted to raise his muse in a proper way. His parents had raised him well, letting him become what he wanted so long as it wasn't illegal. So he wanted to do the same. Children were so hard to deal with.
"So now that we've had coffee and negative emotions, shall we go somewhere else now?" He looked to his guide of the day.
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:06 am
Korea put on a cheery smile.
"Righto," she said, affecting a British accent. "According to my shedyool after coffee and negative emotions comes..." She pretended to squint at the schedule she'd been handed. "...a tour of our simulated stock market center."
"That sounds thrilling," she muttered, dropping the accent. Then she said more brightly, "How about we not do that? What do you want to do, Nexus? I mean, I live here, so we should really be looking at things that interest you."
Fiero was still alarmed by Invidia's reaction and peering anxiously at her carrycase, possibly concerned that he'd say something else which would make her angry at him.
Sorry. Short. Mornings are blah.
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:47 pm
Wendell finished off the last of his coffee and tossed it into a trash can. He agreed with Korea about the stock market center, what a bore. Besides, there wasn't much 'stock' in a funeral home. "I don't know what would really interest me here. I've never been to the campus before and frankly I hadn't thought about attending college until my parents mentioned it." He ran a hand through his black hair, revealing for the first time both his green eyes. "I don't know what to do. Usually Clara leads us off somewhere. I just drive."
He looked down at his stewing orb and then glanced at the upset undera. Perhaps they should be more concerned about these two before his own interests. "I know where we can go, but it's off campus. Is that ok with you?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:44 pm
Korea shook her head. Her schedule was clear. She'd taken pains to make sure of it. Ruffling Fiero's hair, she replied, "Whatever you want. I'm at your disposal today. Within reason."
Fiero, resilient by nature, had taken some of the whipped cream from his drink and was holding it out on a spoon in the general direction of Invidia, saying to her, "You can't eat this yet because you don't have a mouth, but when you do I bet you'll like it because it's really good tasting. Since you can't eat it though, I'm going to eat it. I hope you don't mind. I just wanted to show it to you so you'd know."
Korea wasn't sure how much an orb could pick up. Certainly Fiero had picked up on language remarkably quickly, and his vocabulary had included words she couldn't remember using around him when he wasn't an orb, but she was still unsure. Maybe. It couldn't hurt, she supposed, and in the unlikely event that she ever had to have another orb to care for, she'd see if it made any difference.
"Come on, Fiero," she said after leaving enough money to cover everyone's drinks. "You can continue trying to talk Invidia into cheering up outside, if she doesn't decide to thump you again."
Won't be around on the weekend. Sorry.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:27 pm
Wendell walked outside and got back in the car. He drove off to a near by park where there was a playground. He took Invidia, who was decidely calmer, out of her carrier and placed her in the sand. She rolled about, making designs in the loose sand.
Meanwhile, Wendell sat on a bench and tuned his guitar. He had a song out and was considering playing it to see how it sounded. No one was at the park so he didn't feel judged or like he was being watched. He didn't mind Korea watching or listening.
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