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 Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:57 pm
The orange blood brought his hand to his face and stroked his chin. He didn't feel an afro, but she definitely had one?? Then he snapped his fingers. Her hair is dense, and his vision is mixing it with the night sky to give it more mass.
Oh eyes, you so silly.
"I don't need a haircut," he said, smiling a toothy grin and then lifting the hair in front of his eyes over his head,showing light gray pupils. "I'm blind."
Without giving a moment to have a snappy, shocking animu reeveal moment, he immediately started to talk about hives. "Even though ah got lots of slopes on my hive, ah still get lots ah sand all over it. Ah don't think there's a good way to build a hive in the desert, 'less it was a sphere or somethin'... Or underground. That sounds really cool. Ah'd like t'see it someday! Ah've never been underground, as far as being under th' canyon. What made yeh decide to build it underground? Wouldn't it be dark?" Suddenly, he took back what he said about seeing it. Vanille didn't like the dark, and the darkness would make him literally blind.
He did not want to live in a colourless world.
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:58 pm
Minist's eyes grew wide at the sight of his gray pupils and opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Belife's talk of hives. Pursing her lips she listened to him. When he was finally done she said, "Dude, you can't just suddenly explain you're blind and then move on like it's nothing! Besides you can't really be blind since you can see where I am. I'll give you that you have bad vision to think I have an afro, but you're not blind. You do have some freaky eyes, I'll admit." she said, even leaning in and squinting at his face as if to emphasize her last point. Then she smiled and moved on to the topic of hives again. "My hive isn't all that special. I just knew that since I was living above the canyon I'd always have to deal with sandstorms. Better keep most of my stuff below the sands so they don't get blown away. It's not really that dark in the lower level, since I have some lights fixed up down there. I wanna be able to see what I'm doing when I'm working with my tools after all. One wrong move I could stab myself or slice off a finger." With that said her eyes slid over to his cut hand.
"Seriously, though, didn't that hurt? Cutting your hand? Did you even feel it? Or do you just have no feeling in your hands from slicing them on your knives so much?" she asked. "I know Ratmom would be freaking out if I sliced up my hand like that. She's always worried I'm going to kill myself doing something stupid." she laughed as she twisted herself to gently pat her lusus behind her. Ratmom made a sound of dissatisfaction, but raised her ears back to semi-erect. "She gets on my nerves a lot, but I know she's just worried about me. Even though we squabble all the time we look out for each other." Minist said with an almost soft smile. Then she turned back to Belife with her normal big grin. "So what are we gonna do when we get to your place? Would you mind showing me some of your juggling? I really want to see that! How many knives can you juggle at once? I once saw this troll juggle three balls, but then he dropped them. It wasn't very impressive." she said.
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Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:05 pm
The boy waved his hand and smiled, unbluckling the pouch off the side of the saddle. "Technec'ly ah'm legally blind. Ah can't see yer symbol or where we are, basically. It's just brown and then black. Ah'm glad lusi are white so Ah can see em' from far away."
While he readied his knives, wiping them on his pants and dipping them into a bottle of unknown liquid substance (and then wiping them on his pants again to rid of excess), he nodded at her explanation of her hive. He had enough of sandstorms even in the safety of part of the canyon wall. He couldn't imagine living out in the sands. The windows rattle as they did on his own hive; he'd be sure the large windows on the roof would blow in and create a huge mess and probably rip parts of the foundation off. "Ah dunno. Ah think ah take back what ah said about wantin' t'visit. Even with yer artificial light, it might be too dark. Ah guess it'd be worth a visit, though? Just t'see how the underground works."
He wrung his hands together and picked up the knives between his fingers, the space between his thumb and his finger on his left hand was empty; 7 knives. "Not really on m'hands anymore. Ah've cut them too much."
Shakily, Belife started to sit up, then stand, on the saddle, swaying dangerously. "Ye might want t'hide yer lusus's eyes, then." he said, throwing a single knife into the air, catching it in the empty space on his other hand. "And don't worry, ah'm a professional."
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:19 pm
"I don't mind you visiting, but Ratmom might." she said absentmindedly as she thought over what he had said in response to her saying he wasn't blind. Must be odd to only see blobs of color. Minist would admit there wasn't much to see out in the desert, but she still imagined it to be tough. Especially for taking things apart! How on alternia would she be able to see the tiny screws or the wiring if she had this guy's eyes? The thought was scary. Not being able to do what she loved. Then again Belife seemed to enjoy juggling and he was able to do that with his eyesight. . . Wait a minute. . . What is he doing?
Minist's jaw dropped as he stood up on his unsteady perch with knives in hand. She had just had an epiphany about his juggling and now he was going to do it right now in front of her. She really did want to watch him juggle, but not this close! Especially not after realizing how difficult it must be for him to even see the knives he would be throwing around. Ratmom perked up and lowered her ears once more while she hissed. For once Minist had to agree with her. She really didn't want a knife to drop on her. Not only was he a little too close for comfort to be juggling sharp objects, but they were both riding on his lumbering lusus, not the most stable stage.
"Uh, do you really think here and now would be the best time for that? Wouldn't it be better to at least get off your lusus first?" she said as Ratmom began bobbing up and down in agitation. Despite her concerns Minist was rather impressed that he even planned on juggling, how many knives was it? Seven! Seven knives while standing on a rocking saddle. If it wasn't for the fact that she was inches away from him she would have been ecstatic to watch him preform in this manner. However, her common sense and sense of self-preservation (not to mention Ratmom) were telling her this was a bad idea.
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:45 pm
Belife could tell from the tone of her voice she was mildly concerned. "Any place at any time is a good time t'juggle, boyo! Ah was thinkin' about a new act fer my show, so this'll be my test run. You'll get t'see it first hand!" he smiled his sharktooth grin and scratched a knife on the saddle. The liquid he dipped it in that coated the knife caught fire - similar to a strike anywhere match. With one lit, he used it to burn the others.
"Ah. Now that ah can see 'em. Let's get this show started?" he said, jolting to the left as the saddle swayed right suddenly when Vanille sunk into the sand unexpectedly. Uncaring, Belife started and threw a knife in the air, followed by another. He caught the two in empty slots between his fingers, and then threw they rest haphazardly in the air.
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:04 pm
As soon as he lit the first one on fire Ratmom began freaking out. She jumped onto Minist's shoulder and then crawled into her lap, before climbing back up on her shoulder. Chattering and squeaking in fright. Minist tried her best to calm down her lusus. She didn't care being called "boyo" as she grabbed hold of the white creature and began stroking her in an attempt to sooth her nerves. Then Belife's own lusus sunk unexpectantly and Minist almost dropped Ratmom. Belife seemed to have no care in the world as he began throwing his knives around.
Minist had no problems with chaos, but she felt it would be in her best interests to stop this particular chaos. Uneasily she too stood up, with a tight grip on Ratmom as she continued to squirm around. Then she simply jumped off the back of the hoofbeast lusus. Sinking into the sands she fell to her knees. Gently stroking her lusus she stood straight again and looked up at Belife. "I think I'll walk, thanks." she said as she followed after them. If she continued to ride she felt for sure Ratmom would have attacked Belife, which would not have been good for anyone. It was going to take a while to calm down her distressed lusus.
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:16 pm
Belife laughed, almost maniacally, when he saw the white blob moving around at light speed in his vision. He was a little apprehensive about her moving so fast, making the weight of the saddle shift (which was bad), as well nervous if she would attack to get him to stop (which would also be bad). He spread out his hands, palm side up, and the knives landed on the tips on his fingers, still burning. He didn't feel them, but it freaked people out; and he liked that.
As the boyo girl afro troll dismounted, Belife shouted, "Is the show over already? Ah was just gettin' started." His smile grew weaker and he juggled normally, like any clown could - except with seven flaming knives. In his vision there were seven orange blobs with black sticks attached to them. They were easy to see and he knew to catch the black part. Without them lit, he often caught the dark-gray part, which was hard to tell apart from the black handle. Even though it was more dangerous, it was also a lot safer.
"Make a request, boyo. A dance, maybe? A back flip? A sommersault?" he was having fun. He was always like this in his acts. It was no different than any other day, except that he was riding an unstable perch and could lose a dagger int he sand at any moment without noticing.
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:51 pm
Feeling a bit better on the ground Minist made sure to keep pace with Vanille. Ratmom was continuing to freak out, earning Minist a few scratches, but Minist wasn't paying much attention, besides petting her soothingly, her eyes remained on Belife as he juggled. She was amazed when he caught the knives and balanced them on his outstretched fingers. She would have clapped if not for the fact that her arms were a bit preoccupied by her squirming lusus.
"I certainly hope the show isn't over yet!" she said, grinning. "I just figured it would be more prudent to move my lusus away from the attraction." at his taking suggestions she thought for a moment before speaking up again, "I want to see more juggling! It's really awesome! If you simply must change then I suppose a dance would be funny to watch. Oh yeah, I'm a girl, by the way, but I don't care if you call me boyo." She shrugged and scratched Ratmom's head. Her lusus had stopped squirming as much, but she continued to chatter fearfully.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:57 pm
Belife smiled from ear to ear and nodded. "Alright, boyo," he started, ignoring her comment on her perceived gender, "The show must go on!" A cry know very well to anyone who performed anything. No matter what, under any circumstance, you must keep going to appease the people.
He juggled normally for a while with his flaming knives, getting a feel for the rhythmical rocking of his steed to make sure he didn't miss a step on a sway that would throw him off. Only a quick few moments he lifted his leg and threw a knife under it, catching it with his hand and then throwing it over his head with the others. Not a dance move, but he wanted to check his balance. He had done that before - but not on a moving stage!
He then alternated from throwing all seven knives in a circle to two smaller circles, one for each hand. He would throw the one between his first finger and thumb (or, on his other hand, first finger and middle finger), roll the knives forward over his knuckles, and catch it with his pinky and ring finger. He didn't practice this very often, since he often has problem with rolling his knives, but he wanted to really 'wow' the girl. Private shows should be more amazing than a street routine done every few hours.
After a moment of juggling this way, he caught his knives; one his mouth by the handle. They hadn't walked too far, only about three minutes or so. He put the flaming knive in his mouth in his hand and smiled at her. "Ah just rememebred. Ah can't dance."
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:23 pm
Minist was completely enamored with his skill. Her eyes were wide and bright, the flaming knives reflecting off them. She would have been impressed with just the knives, but these were flaming knives and now he was throwing with under his legs! Her mouth was open wide in a smile of excited awe. A few times she slipped in the sands from not paying attention to where she was putting her feet, but Ratmom was able to pull her into focus. . . for at least a few seconds before she fell under Belife's spell again. Eventually she dropped her lusus as she had deemed her to be calm enough to not need soothing and she was getting tired of holding her. Still on edge the lusus stuck close to her troll's ankles and watched the performance with less enthusiasm.
As his routine got more complex Minist ooed and awed. Her eyes were glued to the blades as they danced across his fingers. She was sufficiently wowed by his moves. When he finally caught the knives she began clapping enthusiastically. "WOO! That was amazing! Who needs to dance when you got moves like that? Though that would be pretty impressive too, if you danced while doing all that. That was just too awesome! Holy s**t." She wanted to say more, but words were failing her. She was just too excited! Her brain was buzzing, but she couldn't do anything more than grin like an idiot. Running a hand through her hair she laughed softly. It wasn't everyday her mind was blown.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:38 pm
Belife bowed, wiping the knives on his clothes as he did, and they became extinguished. He fingered them, even though the show was over and sat his rump back on the saddle. Vanille never flinched once and simply kept trudging along in the sand, his tail making a long tail in the sand. He trusted Belife, and knew he wouldn't mess up. If it was two sweeps ago, Vanille would have flailed and moo'd angerly at him in panic.
Belife slid the knives back into his pouth and then tapped his chin, looking before them into the winding sands trying to find the gray blob that might have been his hive, and then back to Minist. "Can yeh dance? If yeh can, yeh should teach meh so I can add it t'my performance." he said it with a completely straight and curious face, his eye just barely peeking out from under his hair.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:56 pm
She was a bit surprised by his question, but she smiled and said, "I guess? I mean, I'm not sure if it's really what people would want to watch in your show. Besides, I don't really know how to teach someone to dance. When I hear some music I just move with it. I don't really think about it too much. I just have fun." Then a thought hit her. "So why isn't a guy like you out in NHC? There's just a bunch of working class folk out here. I would think NHC would be more your style. More mooks that would be willing to stand around and watch you preform."
Then the winds started to pick up. Minist quickly positioned herself closer to the large lusus Belife rode upon in an effort to avoid the sands that were being carried by the wind. Ratmom followed suit as she lowered her eyes and closed her eyes to mere slits. Looking up at Belife Minist said, "Hey, how much further to your hive?" She didn't mind the wind, but she knew the weather had a habit of turning bad out here. Even then normally she wouldn't have minded, but Ratmom was already plenty aggravated with her so she thought it would be best to at least try to appear as though she wanted shelter.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:19 pm
"Well Ah'm not gunna jus' dance. Dancing with flaming knives, Minist.", he made a jazz hands movement,"If I can stun yeh with jus' practice routines, ah'm sure if ah did something like that people'd come from N H C t'see meh. Ah want t'start a circus and travel and perform everywhere. Jugglin' on tightropes and one-wheled devices. On the back of Vanille. Eatin' fire, spinnin' fire hoops, stuff like that." He looked ahead in front of Vanille and bit his lip, kicking his feet sitting on the side of the saddle childishly. Thinking about having his own circus made him giddy. He often dreamed about it, he day dreamed about it, he drew costume designs for it. It's what he wanted to do; entertain people of all colours and cease fire, even just for a while. And not just because he wanted to be seen. That was most of the reason, but he wanted to unify the workers and the royalty. Sort out their differences, show they can like similar things.
Belife looked back at Minist and stopped kicking his feet. "Ah went to N H C once and got overwhelmed with the colours n'sounds. It was pretty scary. Ah... hope.. hope t'go there and not be scared and perform. Ah did a small street performance but got really flustered. Usually ah don't. It was strange." he bit the corner of his lip again and picked up his feet kicking. He wasn't thinking of NHC or juggling now, he was estimating the time from now till his hive. He was glad he had shaggy hair; it helps block some sand. Some.
"Soon." he simply said, unable to see the grey hive flat in the distance approaching them. Vanille saw it, and picked up the pace.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:17 pm
She giggled at his jazz hands and nodded as he explained his hopes for the future. She had to admit that it was a pretty cool dream to have. Doing awesome things and making people happy. In her mind's eyes she could totally see Belife up on a tightrope riding a one-wheeled device as he juggled flaming knives. "Sorry to hear about your bad encounter with NHC. Maybe it was just a bad day for you? I'm sure you'll be back and make a killing some day," she said as she reached up and patted his leg with a grin. "You're too awesome and dream too big to not to."
When Vailled picked up the pace Minist turned her attention ahead of them. In the distance she could see a flat building with. . . was that a windmill? She had never actually been up close to a windmill before. She'd seen a few, as Chittentown's sandstorms were a good source of wind energy, but not up close. If her deductions skills were correct this windmill was attached to Belife's hive, which was their destination point, so she'd get to walk right up to it. She tried to judge how tall it was as they came ever closer. Would it be possible to climb it? Hm, even if it was it probably was not the best idea to do that with Ratmom watching her. An angry Ratmom at that. Man, why couldn't she have just stayed home today?
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 1:12 pm
Belife smiled wildly. Being awesome was what he was all about. It was what he lived for. He liked this girl. He was also very glad she lived nearby. He didn't have many friends in Chitten Town, and now he had a total of one. Acquaintances were different than friends. He liked friends more.
"Ahm hopin' it was 'jest a bad day. Ah'll go back soon. Fer now, ahm gettin' pre'ey famished." His stomach gurgled as if on que, "Vanille, how close are we t'home?" he leaned down and patted the beast on the back of his thick neck. He gave a big snort. Belife understood what he said, but to those who didn't have a hoofbeast it was simply a snort. The hoofbeast snorted again and then let out a low, short moo.
"He says we should pick up the pace a l'il. Says he s'mills a storm." Belife looked off into the mountainous distance, trying to pick up the storm himself, but his eyes would not let him see the large dust cloud approaching.
"Ahm sure we'll get there 'fore the storm." he said, as the wind around them began to snake the sand.
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