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 Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:57 pm
Korea settled down in the grass as Wendell began tuning his guitar and watched Fiero zoom off to play on the playground. She'd taken him here a few times with Ewan, but had soon given up the practice when it became apparent that most of the parents were none too keen on having their precious darlings playing with Fiero. The kids themselves had been intrigued, but no one had been unkind to him. After one woman had asked Korea why she'd allowed a baby that looked like Fiero to be born, Korea had stopped coming here. But hardly anyone else was there, so there was nothing to concern herself over.
Fiero liked the slide, but out of curiosity he stayed as close to Invidia as he deemed safe and watched her make designs. With his ribbon-y tendrils he carefully drew patterns in the sand, though it took a great deal of concentration for him and the patterns were very shallow, only moving the topmost layer of sand because his ribbons were not really appendages after all. He enjoyed it anyway. It also made it much easier to make erasures.
Korea's gaze lingered on the two Underground creatures. She had grown accustomed to always being aware of Fiero and making sure he was always within her line of sight or hearing. She supposed it was something like being parental, but she couldn't make herself believe she was any sort of a good parent. She remembered her mother always knowing what to do in any given situation. Or she imagined she did.
The situation, she decided, was a bit odd.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:08 pm
Invidia seemed to exam Fiero's drawings as she swirled about in the sand. They seemed nice. She also noticed he could slide. She wanted to slide. The orb rolled over to the ladder and tried to jump up without much success. It frustrated the little orb, she wanted to be as mobile as the others. Wendell continued to tune his guitar until it was at the right pitch. He looked over his sheet carefull before he struck the cords with his pick and a song came forth. His voice was actually very pretty, if a bit high pitched.
"I Try" I am not a child now I can take care of myself I mustn't let them down now Mustn't let them see me cry I'm fine, I'm fine I'm too tired to listen I'm too old to believe All these childish stories There is no such thing as faith And trust and pixie dust I try But it's so hard to believe I try But I can't see what you see I try, I try, I try... My whole world is changing I don't know where to turn I can't leave you waiting But I can't stay and watch this city burn Watch it burn 'Cause I try But it's so hard to believe I try But I can't see where you see I try, I try I try and try to understand The distance in between The love I feel and the things I fear And every single dream I can finally see it Now I have to believe All those precious stories All the world is made of... Faith, and trust... and pixie dust So, I'll try Because I finally believe I'll try, cuz I can see what you see I'll try, I'll try I'll try... To fly
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:34 pm
I know that song! It's on my iPod. I'm such a geek.
Korea was surprised that the music wasn't offensive to her ears. It had been her experience that the music emo boys listened to could be quite unpleasant to the sensibilities of normal folk. Well. Not unpleasant, per se. More like annoying. She mostly got urges to shake the singer and tell him (or her) to get over him (or her) self, that everyone had bad days, but not everyone felt the need to share that fact in song. And then she felt guilty and like a bad person.
Her head tilted to one side she listened quietly to Wendell and was further surprised to hear that his voice was actually fairly pleasant to listen to. The pitch didn't surprise her so much. She couldn't really carry a tune in a bucket, but her best friend in high school had been the best singer in the school choir, and he'd sung first tenor to first alto. He'd told her it was a weird range for a guy to have. She just nodded and said she was proud of him and applauded really loud whenever he performed.
Noticing that she was trying to go up the ladder, Fiero floated closer to Invidia and asked from a distance of four feet or so, "Would you like me to take you up so you can try it? It's fun going down."
He wasn't sure if he could lift her and still pull himself up the ladder with just the one hand, but he was willing to try. Especially if it would make her less unhappy with him. He didn't like having people unhappy with him. He did have the advantage of being able to float, he reminded himself. It would be fine. And Invidia would like sliding and they could be friends after all. Yes. That was a plan.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:45 pm
Thats because it's an awesome song!
Wendell finished his song and made a few adjustments to the music sheet he had with him. The song was for Clara, so it couldn't be overly depressing like his usual work was. "There, that should do it. I think Clara will like that. Didn't mind me singing did you? Normally people don't like for me to sing around them." He looked to the woman who had accopanyed him thus far that day. She had been very pleasent to be around, one reason he had asked if she wanted to hang out. Also he felt Max and Clara would like to see Fiero, to maybe have an idea of what thier orbs would turn into.
Invidia turned to "look" at Fiero and did her best to nod. She knew she couldn't get up there by herself so she would accept the strange male's help THIS time. At least he wasn't talking about that horrid emotion of love. She enjoyed Wendell's company for the simple fact he didn't show many positive emotions. He could be just as depressive as she was so it kinda a strange effect on them both. It seemed to make them both happier to share in their misery together.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:15 pm
"I think she would, though I don't know really what sort of music she likes. It seems like it'd have basically universal appeal," Korea said in response to Wendell's explanation about Clara. "And I don't mind you singing at all. I enjoy music in most of its forms. Why do people object to your singing? You aren't bad."
It was the closest she got to compliments. She wasn't practiced at giving or receiving compliments, and so hers were always half-compliments, more like negations of criticisms than actual compliments. Her friends had learned to interpret this as praise. It didn't occur to her that Wendell might draw a different conclusion than the one which was obvious to her.
Fiero was pleased by Invidia's nod and warned her as he did so that he'd have to pick her up. Carrying her carefully he floated up the slide's ladder, hanging on with his other hand and working very hard to propel himself upwards without having to really let go of the rail. He didn't need it to go up, just to make sure he didn't float away when he concentrated on floating up. Korea called it levi-something when he floated high like he did to use the slide. He was relieved to put Invidia down on the top of the slide.
"You know how to do this? Just roll forward and you'll roll all the way down. Do you want me to try to catch you at the bottom?"
Korea used to catch him at the bottom of the slide until he'd told her he could do it on his own. She'd shrugged and let him land in the sand the next time. It had hurt, landing unexpectedly hard in the sand. It occurred to him that Invidia might even break if she hit too hard. He didn't think he'd been fragile as an orb, but he had very few memories from that period of his life.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:30 pm
Invidia seemed uneasy being held and was very glad to be put down. Fiero explained how the contraption worked and shook herself to show she didn't want him to catch her. She was a very independant spirit. The orb slowly rolled it's way to the bring of the slide and seemed to "look" down it. Once deciding she wanted to do this, she rolled forward and sped down the chute. She was launched from the bottom and bounced along in the sand, coming to rest half buried about 4 ft. away.
He took it as a complement, since she didn't say anything bad then it was a good thing. "Well normally people think I'm morbid or just plain wierd with some of it. Other times they just want to pick on me because their bored. I'm the favorite fodder of most of the sports teams. Only the volleyball teams leave me alone because Clara plays on them." He was use to this fact. He was the butt of a lot of jokes and the favorite punching bag of the alpha males of the school. Girls thought he was ok, when he was being poetic that is. But for the most part, he was ignored or put down.
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:52 pm
Fiero watched Invidia roll rapidly down the slide with the knuckles of his right hand caught between his teeth. It was something he did when he was worried. He didn't do it very often. He didn't worry very often. Mostly he did what seemed right for the moment and if there were consequences, he handled them as best he could.
"Are you okay?" he called from his perch on top of the slide. He didn't slide down - and wouldn't slide down - until he saw her move. That was playground etiquette. You don't slide until the person before you has moved out of the way. Otherwise people got hurt.
"I'm sorry. It gets better in college. Everyone's so self-absorbed they hardly have time to notice what other people are doing," Korea told Wendell. "Which may not sound like a great endorsement, but it's really not so bad. I can almost promise you that."
Sorry it's short and late. I've been a bit blocked.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:58 am
Wendell smirked a bit at her explination of college. He wasn't even sure he wanted to go. It was just another school, just a bunch of stuff he didn't have an interest in learning. "What do you study here? And what convinced you to sign up for the Future Business Owners tour?" He wondered why the woman would have anything to do with high schoolers, unless she was going to be a business owner.
Invidia twirled a bit in the sand until it was off her crystal body. Then she rolled away from the slide to "stand to the side" as Feiro got ready to slide. There the little orb waited.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:43 pm
"To answer your second question first, I signed up because a friend - Ewan - asked me to, and swore that he was signing up, too. He said they needed volunteers and that I'd be doing a good thing, and that he'd cook me dinner for the next week."
Korea grimaced. She couldn't really cook very well, despite years of practice, so any chance to have someone else do the cooking was welcome.
"As to what I study...I'm a very deeply unhappy computer sciences major. Given my druthers I'd be a history major, but my dad's the vice president of this fairly huge technology company and he got there by being the best at everything. He wants to hire me as his second-in-command person when I graduate and groom me to take over when he retires. The job pays really well, and there doesn't have to be any computer programming involved if I don't choose to do any, but in order to get it, he's requiring me to get a bachelors in computer science."
In case she hadn't made it clear: "I'm not good at computer science, and I don't particularly enjoy it, but I'm almost through."
Fiero nodded to signal that he was ready to slide, to make sure Invidia wouldn't suddenly change position and put herself in harm's way. Then he propelled himself forward and concentrated on not floating. Sliding isn't much fun when one has a tendency to hover, unless that person concentrates and succeeds in not hovering. He slid down with a whoosh and a big smile and floated toward Invidia when he got off the end of the slide.
"Want to do it again?" he asked.
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