Welcome to Gaia! ::

Interesting concept.

There seems to be a lot more 'telling' vs. 'showing'.

Please show us more! heart

Burnt Sunshine;

My style is definitely more on the telling side, though later on there will be more description. I'm working on that.


Its alright, Lea. Profanity filters screw up my story, lets keep that in mind. XD Anianka's a cursing, apathetic kind of lady. I like her, actually, but... Meh.

And so, the plot starts to unfold....
-LD

Oh, that's so cool. I love how you've made the demon princess all pink and innocent looking.

Thank you for that, Lea.

I'll be making the post later on tonight. When I get home from work.

ElvenJewl, I'll have a proper response for you then.

As Anianka was flirting in the bookstore in Barrie, Dei was sitting in the shade of a tree in one of the many courtyards of the Juniper Hill Sanatorium in Malakai, British Columbia smoking a Marlboro one hundred millimetre, alone. The spaced-out, long haired patient had a form of hypomelanosis, known as Oculocutaneous Albinism type one, which manifested in him as white hair, white skin, photophobia, purple irises, and hyperopia, or farsightedness. For this last he wore a pair of tortoise shell horn-rimmed glasses, which he was never seen without - except in bed.

Today he had his ankle-length hair out of its accustomed butt-length French braid - he’d been too lazy to re-braid it even as a knee-length normal braid after his shower - and his hat, a kind of black cowboys hat, lay forgotten on his shelf. To see him now you’d think her were a young woman, and not the nineteen year old boy he was.

Dei had been having unsettling dreams about terrible creatures chasing after young girls, and such. He had a lot of premonitions even before he’d been admitted - which was for destructive behaviour, at age sixteen - but he couldn’t stand the drugs, and stopped taking them. So, after a brief break in the precognitive REM, he had a lot of dreams of people who ended up dead within a week. The little girl from last night didn’t stand a chance.

His purple eyes darted around behind his glasses for a minute, then settled on the grass between his legs, one of which was bent up at the knee, his arm, the one with the smoke, resting on it.

The dream troubling him the most had been two nights prior, he’d not dreamed of someone else, but of himself. He’d been lost in a marsh, terrified or a snake he couldn’t see, and of never finding who he’d been sent there to meet. He’d woken up soaked, and looked around the room, unsure which was reality for a moment or two. And then he’d been unsure of which reality he’d been hoping for, the marsh or his room at the nut-hatch. He figured he’d never be sure which was better, and so he was just now recalling all he could of the vivid, lucid dream.

A sense of dread and fear mixed with wonder, amazement, purpose, waiting, and a deep feeling of need were very, very prominent the whole time. Most of all the need, he needed whoever he was waiting for, and felt they might need him, too. Heeding his gut instinct, he’d dodged and wove his way through the marsh with little trouble. For some reason he felt he might miss

( her )

the person he was here to find if he wasn’t careful about what path he took and where he ended up in this terrible, beautiful place.

He snuffed out his smoke in a small dirt divot that served as his ashtray, and lit another after a few minutes.

Snakes, swamps, mysterious strangers... The dream had everything but the kitchen sink! But would it be a one-shot, or would it continue? He found he wanted them to continue, wanted the fear, the need, the adrenaline he had when he awoke that morning. Even the disorientation, unsure of which was the dream, and which he wanted to be the dream.

Sitting in the shade, smoking his Marlboro b***h-sticks, Dei felt he had an epiphany.


Eleven P. M. Unknown to even himself, Dei has begun to slip into Maroque for the second time. His eyes fluttered and darted, his room changing into the clearing even as his lids slid closed for the final time that night.


The marsh... Oh God, the Snake! Dei scurried from the spot where his eyes opened, looking about. He was among the trees. Right. But still no safe; before him lay the single long trail of the serpents body. It had missed him... But how? And how long until it came back this way?

He slipped as silently as he could through the trees, carefully picking his path through the marsh. He was so sure that

( she )

the person would be there, where ever there was, sooner rather than later. He’d know where it was when he got there. It was imperative that he met up with them before the end of today, because it might be too late afterwards.

But maybe he was just being paranoid. He hoped so, but just in case... He would be there.

Day progressed to twilight with nothing be the marsh itself for company. As Dei walked up on the clearing he saw Anianka and Kyonsei, but neither were speaking; they just sat in silence, Anianka nibbling on something. He made his was up behind them, the breeze blowing his long hair out lightly behind him, as though it were a cape.

Anianka chose this moment to turn, standing up and looking right into his purple eyes. She know, all at once, that he needed to be with her at the lake. She knew the way an animal senses a natural disaster beforehand, and seeks shelter. Some things had to be. Others weren’t mandatory.

Kyonsei, beyond this point, was not mandatory - though she may be helpful - but the white-haired androgyne before her had to be there on a “the planets will align” level, it was just meant to be.

She held out her hand, and Dei stepped forward to take it. There was a flash in their minds’ eyes’, and Kyonsei watched with mild amazement as they both collapsed.

Her purpose, he knew it now. Get to the lake, go from there... He felt her need, her desire, and he knew he had to go, too. Where else would he go? Her name, Anianka, he knew it now. Would she know his? Why was he here? How much information was just transferred between the two of them?

She had accepted him instantly, but he knew now she hadn’t been expecting him, hadn’t known there was someone (and hadn’t he known it would be a girl all along?) That she had to be with, had to wait for. Someone special, someone without whom things might go differently - wrongly. But when their hands touched something clicked on such a level it nearly knocked them out.

She was leaning over him now, her face wore a look of concern - this was, for some reason, unexpected.

“Dei?” She asked, unsure. “Is that your name?”

“It is if yours is Anianka.” He replied, trying to sound a little humorous. She smiled and helped him sit up, and for just one moment he wanted her. Just for an instant, then the feeling was gone.

She introduced Kyonsei, Dei feeling mildly unsure of her, but saying nothing. Kyonsei merely nodded, preferring not to speak, not to say anything lest she say too much.

Dei came to notice that Anianka was different than the caring girl bent over him he’d seen at first. She was anti-social, almost to the point of sado-masochism, and strong disassociative identity disorder, or maybe a highly advanced case of schizophrenia... She wasn’t sane, at any rate, so he’d have to be careful how he comported himself, and of the things he’d say. He didn’t want to piss her off, he was like that too, it was why he was in the nuthatch.

I will. In a bit. Thanks.

Yeah, a lot went on in that chapter.

P. S. You're a sweetheart.