._Tooaya's Raevan

[tooaya]

With a Heart Wide Open

Pick up RP with Chrystali

Kenth finally meets his dainty little new subject, Xuelian.

 

[tooaya]

Observation- first impression

Kenth regretted not owning a car.

Taking the taxi to the lab was easy, but he did not have the time to consider the method of return, especially now that he was no longer alone. Xuelian, the dainty Frei followed him in silence, though her eyes and attention were constantly changing. Her hands were on her mouth, which was kept half open, making tiny sounds of amusement at everything in her sight. Kenth debated between calling a taxi or walking home, and eventually bit down his lips and decided on the former. He looked through the taxi-driver's face as Kenth entered the taxi, dragging Xuelian with him, who didn't seem very willing to go into the strange automobile. To her, the outside world was far more interesting, but this was not the time to tour the city...Kenth must force himself to be accustomed with the Raevan first.

He didn't talk much on the short trip. Xuelian "sat" next to him, her eyes wandering at the fleeting objects passing outside of the car window. The doctor was relieved to find that his Raevan was not the rebellious type. On the contrary, she was quiet, although her smile indicated that she was far from meek. On occasions he glanced over at the Raevan, only to find that the cheerful smile always hanged around her face to a certain extent. In short, she was pleasant, and in turn, it made Kenth feel calmed down than before. There was a part of him that softened at Xuelian's presence. Was it because of her smile, or was it because of the Raevan's ability..? Kenth wasn't sure, but he made a mental note to research on the aspect later.

As the car pulled across the clinic's driveway Xuelian finally turned to look at Kenth, as if asking what this place was. The doctor winced and shifted his eyes away, almost too embarrassed to face the female's cheerful eyes that was literally sparkling with curiosity. He used opening the door as an excuse, and lead the Raevan outside. Xuelian tried to stop the car from leaving by reaching out, but her attention was immediately redirected to Kenth, who finally spoke.

"This is my clinic...this is where you will be living for a while."

The Raevan blinked, and looked up at the pale building in front of her. The building looked not as interesting as some of the other buildings they have passed. It was similar to her birth place, but more similar to the man standing in front of her. Nodding to herself, the Reavan assumed that Kenth had built the clinic according to his own interest. She didn't dislike the paleness---it was in some way similar to her own color. Turning to look at Kenth, who was now holding the door for her and waiting, she ducked her head and followed. Kenth gave her the impression that the man was quite strict, someone hard to understand. Xuelian was glad, however, that her guardian (whatever that means) showed no sign that indicated he disliked her. They could get along right? From her understanding, she would have to find a way to get along, because Kenth would be taking care of her for...she didn't know how long.

It shouldn't be too hard. All she needed to do is to make sure to not make Kenth angry and hate her.

The doctor watched Xuelian blankly as she slipped through the doors into his clinic. He believed that there wasn't much for the Raevan to be interested, but the female Raevan nonetheless radiated with excitement. She was a creature that was easy to please, Kenth thought, but he shouldn't underestimate her. His prior experience told him that these non-human creatures were just as full of emotions as humans were. If he wanted to work with the Raevan to obtain any data...he should at least get along with her.

Settling his coat down on a lobby chair, Kenth proceeded to unlock the door to his office, his private area. The Raevan followed, being given no specific instructions. What she saw as the doctor opened the door was a desk full of paperworks, with a small machine squished among them. The man passed by the desk and opened another door behind it, revealing a smaller room, but much less crowded. She continued to follow Kenth into the room, and as she did, she heard the man speaking again. His voice was higher in pitch than Zoo's, but lower than her own.

"This is my room." Kenth started. "You may rest here. You shouldn't move around too much without my permission. I don't want you to mess up my work." He then sighed, realizing that the Raevan probably didn't understand even a third of what he said. This could be trouble. He had to maker her understand the most basics of human language before going back to his other work. Xuelian, his Raevan, did not move at his words. From the looks on her face Kenth could tell that she was quite confused. He sighed and shook his head.

"Here." Kenth walked over and sat down on the bed, then beckoned the Raevan to move closer. "Let's review the introduction. I am--"He pointed to himself while speaking, "--Kenth. And your name---" This time, pointing to Xuelian, "is Xuelian."


"Kens." The Raevan nodded as if she understood, pointing at Kenth, then back to herself. "Xuelian."


"That would be correct."Kenth smiled a little, finding his voice less stiff. "Correct, yes, right, approval."He nodded, explaining the words through his actions. The doctor then watched as his subject following his motion. He wondered if Xuelian really understood what she just learned.

"K---orrekt, y---ees. Raii-t, aaaap-provol." She repeated, nodding her head up and down. The man was trying to teach her something, that was a good sigh. Xuelian felt herself relaxing a little as Kenth's voice became more gentle. She could please him by learning quickly. They could get along...

<-to be continued->

 

[tooaya]

Reflection- I am

She stared at the snow falling silently outside of the window. The room was warm, but the glass that separated herself from the world felt cold. It had been a long time since she started staring, first out of curiosity, now simply because there was nothing else interesting in the room for her to explore.

It had taken Kenth, her guardian, the entire morning trying to make her understand what he meant by "don't come out unless I tell you to". The doctor had works to do outside, and he did not wish to be disturbed. Kenth had forcefully injected the brutal fact that he did not belong to herself just a few hours ago. Xuelian was still saddened by the truth, but there was nothing she could do but to accept it. Being without Kenth meant being all by herself, but it wasn't a bad experience. She'd simply have to find things for her to do, and, after staring at the snow for a long time, the Raevan finally decided the snow was not on top of her priority list. Kenth had taught her a lot during the past few days. She should review what was learned.

Taking a deep breath Xuelian moved away from the window and approached the bed, one of the three pieces of furniture in the room (the other two being the couch and a small desk). During her stay Kenth had allowed her to take his place to rest and sleep, while the doctor himself allocated to the couch. He said something about getting another bed in the room, though Xuelian didn't fully understand what he meant. It seemed that her guardian was working to squeeze a lot more furniture into the tiny spaces that were left. The Raevan didn't comprehend his purpose, but it was not of her concern. Slowly she allowed herself to fall onto the soft cotton pillow. Her eyes remained open, fixed on the ceiling. There were numerous cracks that were purposefully crafted into the walls. She counted them briefly, wondering how to say the numbers out loud. Then, finding herself fully settled down, Xuelian began to recite what she learned.

"I am...Xuelian. You are...Kens."

I meant herself, Xuelian also meant herself. The difference was that "I" could only be used by her, while "Xuelian", her "name", was to be used by everyone else to address her. You meant the person in front of her, Kens was her guardian, the man who was living together with her.

"My name is Xuelian."

There seemed to be a lot of senseless rules used in this language that she was learning. For example, she still could not understand the use of "am", "are" and "is". Kenth didn't explain the reason, saying she need not to worry about it. Rules are rules, you do not question them. All she needed to do was to remember that "am" would come after "I", "are" would come after "you", and "is" would come after everything else.

'I am Xuelian, my name is Xuelian." She repeated. From birth the raevan was fully aware of the limited capacity of her memory. In fact, a lot of things that Kenth said when they first met had already became a blur in her mind. Her guardian seemed to have realized too, which was probably why he smiled a lot less than the first few days. The Raevan winced at the thought. She liked it when Kenth was smiling, she liked how gentle his blue eyes looked, and she wanted to see more of it.

I must work harder. The Raevan decided in silence, not yet able to voice the words out. If she could learn things faster, Kenth would surely smile more...

<- to be continued->

 

[tooaya]

Observation- feeding

Xuelian was sick.

The realization finally came to Kenth's mind one day during their talk lesson. The Raevan had been more quiet than usual for about a week, though the doctor simply brushed it off as normal. He did not know Xuelian well, having only spent a few weeks with her (with Xuelian spending majority of the time alone, memorizing things she was taught). But today the symptom became more obvious, as it became apparent that Xuelian was obviously having a hard time keeping herself awake at Kenth's lecture---lecture being an overly formal word.

"Whenever you are talking with strangers, be polite, tell them your name and ask for theirs' in return. It's just like how I told you to. Now, let's suppose I'm someone you don't know, what should you say?"

"H-hello...I'm Xue...lian. Wh-what is your..." The Raevan's head bobbed from side to side, as if her head was too heavy for her neck. Her eyes were open, but it looked as if she was struggling to keep them open: they were large, bulking out, but nonetheless hollow. Kenth frowned at the sight. Her voice was barely audible. Her voice was dragged out of her throat, as if the female had just been woken up.

The doctor sighed. Xuelian's memory was less than satisfactory. As a result they had to review the most basic conversations everyday. By now, the Raevan understood a lot of the words he said, but speaking them still proved difficult. Difficult, as in, not able to remember certain words, or having the wrong pronunciation. However she was doing neither. Rather, it was her listless tone that annoyed Kenth. Was she bored of the lesson? Or was it something else?

"Let's take a break." Kenth said eventually, after studying the Raevan for a long time but failing to figure out her problem. He reasoned that if Xuelian was tired of the lesson she'd cheer up more hearing that she can rest. This was clearly not the case, however, as the Raevan merely nodded, and remained in her seat, eyes staring through her guardian. There wasn't even a smile on her face; her lips were slightly open in the most relaxed form.

She looked like a wax doll.

The thought rang in Kenth's brain like a high pitched siren. She had little sigh of life, could it be that his Raevan was dying? The doctor shivered. No, it couldn't be. She was just as healthy (perhaps a little more dainty) as all the other Raevans he'd seen. She was cheerful, hard-working, full of energy just a few days ago. Did something happen? Did he do something wrong? The flurry of questions started a panic surge in the doctor. Abruptly he drew the Raevan closer to him, watching her, trying once again to figure out what was going on.

"Xuelian?"

Her skin felt cool and dry, and was a shade paler than normal. The usual blush on her cheeks were barely visible. "Are you okay?" The doctor asked, hoping the Raevan could comprehend what he meant. The female looked up at him, expression changing into mild confusion. She nodded, then after a short pause shook her head.

"How are you feeling, hurt? Ill?" It was clear the Raevan didn't know what he meant. Disappointed, the doctor tried to think of every appropriate word to describe the feeling of "sick". It was inconvenient to communicate when the other knew very little. This was why he was being so impatient! Although, it soon came to Kenth that asking the Raevan about her problems probably wouldn't do much, due to the same reason. Perhaps, not even Xuelian knew what was wrong with herself. Releasing the Raevan, the doctor began to pace back and forth across the room, remembering, as best as he could, everything they did. He missed something important, Kenth was sure of it, but what?

"Ah..."

The female's soft voice stopped him in his thoughts. Kenth looked back at the Raevan, then followed her eyes to the window. A small car was parked in front of the clinic, and soon, a man stepped out of it, holding a paper bag with him.

"It's the delivery man. " Kenth whispered, more to himself than to the Raevan. The grocery purchased a few weeks ago were emptied last weekend. Kenth had no chance to make another trip to the store, so he had to call in food delivery for lunch----

Hmm, food?

He turned abruptly, staring at Xuelian, who was still looking out in sleepy wonder at the car outside. The Raevan had spent meal times with Kenth, but---now that he thought about it---she never eaten anything. In fact, their meals often turned into lessons with Xuelian pointing at the simple dishes asking "what is this". She was interested in the food, but only in the same way she was interested in everything else. In other words, the Raevan hadn't eaten anything since she arrived. Kenth had paid no attention before, mainly because the Raevan lacked digestive systems that could absorb the food. Could it be that Raevans actually feed on certain things to sustain energy as well? It seemed to be a valid hypothesis, after all, how else could one explain Xuelian's lack of energy with anything but "lacking energy"?

Hopeful, Kenth sat down beside Xuelian. There was one more question he needed to figure out, and that was the Raevan's food source. "Is there anything you want to eat?" He asked, not forgetting to explain what "eat" meant. "See, we eat when we lack energy, like what you feel right now." Non-human or not, Kenth wished Raevans still had survival instinct, which could help Xuelian in finding out her food source. The Raevan nodded again, as to be expected, then downcast her eyes and bit her lips. It was a common gesture that usually occurred when the female had trouble speaking her thoughts. Kenth was prepared this time, however, and quickly grabbed the Raevan's wrist, dragging her into a corner of his office, where the fridge was located.

"Here." He opened the fridge, inviting the Raevan to look inside. "What do you want to eat? Or...what can you eat?"

The Raevan's blue eye's wandered, glancing at the strange items placed neatly on three racks that were piled on top of one another. Some of the items she had seen on the dining table, when Kenth was eating them, though most of the food in the fridge were not sufficient enough to become a full meal. None of these were of the Raevan's interest, as her eyes quickly passed by each item without much interest. Just when Kenth wondered if there was anything at all that he could provide for her, Xuelian raised a finger and pointed at the botton of the rack, more specifically, it pointed to a bottle of spring water.

"Water?" Kenth exlaimed, a little surprised, then immediately felt foolish for not knowing. Xuelian had, like her name indicated, a soul of snow lotus. Water was the most basic foundation of a plant's survival, how could he miss that? Quickly he took the bottle of the fridge and twisted the cap open, then handed the bottle to Xuelian. The female accepted the bottle, but, to Kenth's surprise, did not drink it. Instead, she inspected the bottle, then after a while dipped her finger into the opening, the tip of her finger barely touching water's surface. Feeling the wet sensation Xuelian giggled softly, then in a swift twist of her wrist, she turned the bottle up-side down, allowing water to pour right onto her palm.

"Xuelian, what are you---" Confused by the Raevan's actions, Kenth tried to stop the female from wasting the water and saving the carpet on the floor from drowning. He was just a few seconds late, but the expected didn't happen. Again to his surprise---and this time in a greater degree than last time--- He witnessed water disappear right in front of his eyes, on Xuelian's palm.

It was as if...no, not as if. It was quite certain that the Raevan had absorbed the water through her skin.

Kenth watched, dumbfounded by the miracle happening in front of him. If he had thought Raevans were similar to humans before, he would deny it at this moment. At least, his Raevan was different. Was that how she feed? He studied her, finding Xuelian possessing more energy than before. Her head was no longer swinging back and forth, and her eyes looked more focused. In other words, the water certainly provided her with energy--though how that happened required more research on his part.

Then, an idea occurred to him.

"Xuelian, come with me. I'm going to teach you how to use the shower room."


<-to be continued->

 

[tooaya]

Reflection- Learning through

She felt sick.

It wasn’t the kind of sick where she was in any physical pain. She simply didn’t feel right about herself. Kenth, her guardian, was providing her with a daily lesson and review on how to greet others in public areas. It was an interesting lesson, one that she would no doubt be excited to learn about. However, she could not focus. Though the Raevan lacked vocabulary to describe her feelings right now, she was lethargic. The change had occurred to her a while ago, this weakness, though she had brushed it off as simply being overloaded with information and overworking herself. It wasn’t a sudden change, but it had came to the point where she could no longer hide this sickness to her guardian. She noticed Kenth was staring at her with a quizzical look on his face. Fearful that the doctor would become angry, she answered his question as best as she could. The sound, however, came out small and even strange to herself.

She craved something. The craving had become so strong that she was losing touch with everything else. The feeling was new to her, and it was one of the few unpleasant feelings in her little memory bank. Kenth was no doubt unsatisfied with her answer, for the same look remained on his face. Nervous, Xuelian tried to reach out to her guardian, only to realize it wasn’t needed. Kenth had pulled her in, his hands resting on her arms. The heat from the human’s skin burnt more than usual. She wanted to pull away, but did not have the strength to.

She felt as if she was fading away.

“Are you okay? Are you feeling hurt? Ill? ” The doctor asked, his voice obscure in her mind. Hurt? Ill? She could not recall ever learning such word. It was new to her, and she was curious on what it meant. Her hesitation however, brought disappointment on Kenth’s face. Xuelian had no time to react to the change when a noise outside of the window caught her attention. What happened next was a blur to her. The doctor said something about food and energy, which she did not understand. Then, she was pulled away once again, this time to a small box located on the corner of his office. Xuelian watched as the door opened. A wave of cold air brushed across her face. It comforted her a little.

“What do you want to eat? What can you eat?”

Her eyes wandered to Kenth, then back to the items stacked in the fridge. From Kenth’s looks, it seemed that he wanted her to pick something out from the items. There wasn’t a lot of them in the first place, some of which wasn’t all that strange to her. Was Kenth giving her a present? She wondered what she did to deserve the reward.

Silently searching, the Raevan eventually set her eyes on a clear bottle on the bottom rack. She did not know why she had chosen it, but the liquid inside had caught her attention. Noting her pointed finger, the doctor immediately snatched the bottle and placed it on her hands, twisting the cap open. She curiously observed the clear liquid inside, and, desiring to touch it, dipped her finger into the bottle.

It was a strange feeling. It was…refreshing.

Liking the feeling, Xuelian giggled, surprised that she had regained the ability to smile. Then, as if guided by her instinct, she poured the rest of the liquid onto her palm, watching the water disappear on her hand.

“Xuelian! What are you—“

Upon hearing Kenth’s voice she looked up at him, tilting his head slightly at the surprised tone. Did she do something wrong? It seemed that the liquid had disappeared, so Kenth could be angry. However, it appeared that the doctor was more shocked than mad. Then, just for a fleet second, she saw a small smile on his face. Not a gentle smile, but a proud one. If she had the words to describe it, Kenth looked as if he had just won a most cherished item.

“Xuelian, come with me, I’m going to show you how to use the shower room.”

***

She was led into a small room, one that she had never been to since living inside of this house. A few unfamiliar apparatus was located inside of it, making the already small room appear even smaller. She followed her guardian faithfully while looking around. It was not until her nose bumped into his back did the Raevan realize the doctor had stopped in his track. Kenth turned to the side, revealing the bath tub behind him.

“Step in.” He commanded. Xuelian followed his gesture obediently and floated into the shower. She never objected to her guardian’s words, though at the moment, she wondered what Kenth wanted to do. The Raevan gazed up, and reached out to touch the metal showerhead just slightly above her head. The feeling wasn’t anything out ordinary, though the shape of it looked funny in her mind.

“Kens?” She watched as her guardian leaned down and pointed to the knob secured to the wall.

“This is a shower room. Whenever you feel hungry—that is, whenever you are feeling lacking in energy, come in here and turn this---“ Kenth turned the knob, and in a few seconds water began to pour down from the shower head. The sudden flow of water surprised Xuelian. She made a meek squeak, then burst into giggles as she was showered. “---to the left. That’s how water come out.”

“water.” She repeated, thoroughly enjoying being fed. Reaching out, she put her palm against the shower head, allowing water to flow directly into her body. She felt her mood brighten up, as she recalled Kenth’s words. “enagy.” This was how to make her feel better. Kenth had figured it out. Of course he would, he was her guardian after all.

She looked over to the doctor, who was now standing outside of the shower room watching her. Two pairs of blue eyes stared at each other for a while before the teal Raevan suddenly reached out and pulled at Kenth’s sleeves, causing the doctor to stumble into the shower.

“What the??”

Shocked by her action, the doctor cried out in surprise as he was soaked under the cold water. He snapped his head toward Xuelian, angry and confused at what she was doing. The other wasn’t bothered by his anger, however, for the female was clapping her hands in excitement. She learned something new today, and she felt healthy again.

“Kens, enagy.” She laughed like a little child, clasping her hands together in front of her chest. Kenth stared at her hard for several seconds before turning away, defeated by the Raevan’s obliviousness and optimism. She didn’t understand that she was the only odd one here, but Kenth was not about to mention it right now. Somehow, seeing her full of energy again was good enough.

“You have a lot more to learn, a whole lot more…”

 

[tooaya]

Needles and Jabs

PRP with Rapidashtrainer

-in progress-

 

[tooaya]

A Whole New World

PRP with Rown

-in progress-

 

[tooaya]

Tis a life and death situation

PRP with Chrystali

-in progress-

 

[tooaya]

Under the Sun

ORP- summer beach party 2010

-in progress-