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 Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:22 pm
Valeriu did not give her a verbal response - in fact, he had disappeared altogether.
For only a moment.
For where there was river, there was inevitably a rope swing. And where there was rope swing, there was boy. And where there was boy, there was large, cannonball-splash that completely drenched girl.
He grinned evilly up from where he lurked in the water, ears flicking off droplets and red eyes squinting at her gleefully.
"I suppose so, yes. Quite v'arm."
He had the audacity to direct another splash towards her.
It was a dangerous game he played.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:34 pm
The first splash had caught her completely unarmed, leaving her coughing and sputtering for air and sending Valeriu a glare that showed she was not amused.
The second splash led to squealing and a vain attempt to get away.
Why was it that girls always loved to go swimming, but hated to get splashed? It made no sense whatsoever, but it seemed that every girl seemed to have it ingrained into their girl brains that being splashed was the epitome of all evil.
Tepin was no exception.
“That was mean!” She frowned at the water-- it hadn’t felt particularly warm when she had gotten drenched by it. Maybe that was just from the fear of it all.
She dipped a toe in, and was pleasantly surprised. It was warmer than she had expected.
“Where’s that thing you jumped offa? I wanna do it too!”
Sure, it wasn’t exactly jumping in heads first… But it’d be so much funner to do what Varu did!
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:38 pm
He laughed, floating lazily on his back and pointing behind him at the branch of a tree that hung halfway over the river, where the rope still swung. He decided to be chivalrous, and even did her the favor of swinging the rope back in her direction.
"It's fun!" And a way he had passed many, many hours of boredom here.
"Just let go before you reach the halfway point," he advised, clambering out of the waters to scrabble up a different tree, swinging himself off the branch for a shorter leap into the waters, and another splash.
Third time was the charm.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:53 pm
She caught the rope with both hands, clutching it tightly in her fists as she looked at the water. This was all about timing, and skill.
She raised onto the balls of her feet, pulling back on the rope and tugging with most of her weight. A small step back, and then another, before she released, lifting both of her feet off the ground in time to be---
---Splashed in the face by Varu’s second jump into the water.
That was more than enough to frighten her. It was just enough to make her lose her grip.
The girl dropped like a stone, her back hitting the water with a loud splash as her body kept sinking. She frowned, curling into a small ball and allowing herself to sink just a bit farther. She hoped he’d worry, thinking that she had drowned because of his carelessness, and suddenly have a change of heart for being so mean!
But even Tepins needed to breath, so the girl rolled out from the ball, kicking with her legs and cutting through the water with her arms. Quickly enough she reached the surface, noting that the fish had been scared off by their splashing and (Vale’s) merry making.
She glared at him.
“You messed it up!” Treading water, she pouted-- her perfect jump: ruined! And because of her fall, the tiniest unnoticed flash of pink. “It was gunna be great.”
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:00 am
He was laughing his fool head off, sniggering and grinning like an idiot.
"That v'as beautiful," he reassured her in between his attempts to bite back chuckling. "Not messed up, at all, I swear! A full ten." He nodded, shook some water out of his hair, opened his mouth to say more-
And shut it with a loud click, eyes widening.
Valeriu was known for forcing his tan skin to new levels of red; this was a fact of the poor, modest boy's life.
This blush, however, set the record - what could be seen of it before he whirled around, sinking down into the water with as much fluster and gracelessness as the common duck.
"Tepin! Your - your -!" He couldn't say it. "Y-your v'oman parts are showing!" He finally hissed, and he could swear the water temperature rose a few degrees from how hot his blush was.
Swimming was a bad idea. A terrible idea. Next time, he was getting her a full-body wetsuit.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:17 am
She looked down with a confused frown.
She looked back up with a maniacal grin.
“So?” (Still, it mattered enough to tuck it back in while his back was turned), “We’re siblings, right?”
Quickly she tread more water, closing the gap between them while her grin grew all the wider.
It grew even more as she tossed her arms over his shoulders, glomming onto his black with a snicker. Revenge was sweet and delicious.
“Its not like it matters, I’m your little sister!” Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she rested her head on top of his. He could hold them both up-- he was young and strong.
“I could swim naked and it wouldn’t matter. I’m just a kid. Its not like it’s anything but ‘gross’, right?”
Ohoo~ This was great. All his comments, all his teasing. The fire ants, complimenting her mom, the fish-kiss, the splashes-- it was all being paid back tenfold. He would suffer for how mean he had been to her…!!
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:28 am
Some say, that day, the aliens perusing our lonely planet from outer space saw a red glow, like a beacon, break through the ozone layer.
It was Valeriu's blush.
"Tepin!" he growled, scowling and trying to twist around to nudge her off. "That's not decent! Young ladies shouldn't be-" He was flailing at this point, ears flattened in embarrassment. "Not okay!"
He wasn't whining. He wasn't - not one bit.
He gave up trying to pry her off though, sinking down into the water with a mrr'd grumble and resigning himself to the fact that she was a leech attached to his back. His ears constantly twitched - to let her further know his disgruntlement.
"You used to be such a good child," he muttered morosely. "Sweet, and innocent. Innocent!" He glared up at her, or at least tried to. "V'hatever happened to that? V'here did you learn such indecent things?"
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:37 am
“It’s okay! We’re just siblings! It’s not like it’s a big deal!” He could eat his words-- she was enjoying every moment of it; her words punctuated with cackles, “It’s not like anyone else would even see here!”
His flailing and crying out had made it clear that she had won-- she could back off now and they would both see this as the day that Tepin got one up on Valeriu. She had learned more from the twins than she could imagine.
“Murphy~” She sang out, releasing her prey and swimming back to her log (Which she had claimed as a replacement for her beloved chair back home), “He taught me a bunch of words, and what ‘snogging’ is.”
Still, when she got to the log, she readjusted her swimsuit once more, making sure that it was decently covering herself before hoisting herself onto the log to simply enjoy the sun.
“Hey,” She peeked up from beyond the uprooted trunks, trying to get a look at him, “What happened to being gay? You shouldn’t even care if my ‘v’oman parts’ show, and you said you could date girls.” It really didn’t make any sense, “So what’s the deal with that? Are you or aren’t you?”
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:51 am
He snarled under his breath, clenching a fist in righteous anger.
He was going to end Murphy. For good. For serious. Snogging? He'd made out with Tepin?
Dead. Man. Walking.
"That son of a-" he bit off, growling. "He should know better! V'omanizer. Terrible man." He scowled, ducking beneath the water and back up in order to de-fluff the hair on his head that had frizzed at his desperation.
At Tepin's question, he looked back at her quizzically, idly scratching at an ear.
"I never said I v'as. And I am not that v'ay," he asserted, giving her a dry glare. "I like v'omen."
The thought of actually looking at another man, like Ciro, like how he looked at a woman -
Made him just a little bit creeped out.
"Quinn v'as," he trailed off, trying to find the words between the clenching of his heart. "Quinn v'as special. An exception, not the rule."
A strange exception that had carried Valeriu away with the tide. Even now, it hurt - not to have his other half nearby. He rubbed at his chest; palm pushing against the mirror where his heart should have been.
"I miss him," he confessed, quietly, almost absently. He shook his head, before directing another affronted scowl at her.
"V'hat in the v'orld v'ould make you think I am that v'ay, anyv'ay?"
It didn't occur to him: the cleaning, the nattering, the child-care, the modesty. In Valeriu's eyes, he was the epitome of what a manly man should be.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 7:14 pm
She scowled, pushing herself off of her log and returning to the shore. She did not enjoy his expression when the subject came to Quinn.
“Not much. Dating boys, mostly. That generally means that a guy is gay.”
Her frown stayed plastered on her face. So Varu could go out of his way to date boys despite being strait, yet the idea of dating a girl that was completely unrelated to him was wrong because of residual feelings of family ties? How stupid.
“I’mma go check the fish.” She announced, a finger pointing to the camp as if he didn’t know where it was. “I’ll be back.”
She shouldn’t have brought it up. She really shouldn’t have. Tepin scowled at Stan, listening to the cracking of fire. If Valeriu was going to stay hung up on the boy, he might as well go try to get him back. There was no point in trying to move on if he just wanted to go dwelling on it and missing someone who saw him as a monster.
Her frown grew even deeper as she jabbed a stick into the flames. He was still in love with someone who saw him as a monster-- and he refused to see the one person who could see him for what he was.
Stupid.
Still, she looked back with a fake smile; the trip would go on, and she didn’t want to deal with that fight.
“I just realized something!” She shouted back to the water (at the chagrin of the nearby fauna,) “I dunno when they’re done!”
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 7:29 pm
He sighed in mock exasperation, pulling his dripping carcass over to the fire, making sure to drip quite obnoxiously on her with a shake of his head.
"There are a few v'ays. V'hen the fish flakes, v'hen it starts to feel firmer, and others. Rule of thumb: for every inch of thickness, ten minutes of roasting," he educated her wisely, carefully testing the hot meat. "These are pretty much done."
He plucked up Stan's stick, graciously handing the husband to Tepin.
"Here, try it. You might v'ant to v'ait for it to cool down, but there's no bones to v'orry about." He moved the other fishes out of the fire's way, settling down cross-legged and blowing on Mrs. Stan. "It v'ill taste different at first, but believe me: it is a good kind of different," he reassured with a grin.
He lay back, content at the feel of sun-warmed rock on his back, taking a bite of the delicious family murder with a hum of appreciation.
"It is nice v'ithout the noises of the City," he commented, gnawing at his catch. "V'hat do you think life v'as like back then? V'hen there v'ere forests and such?"
Valeriu liked to imagine it as a utopia of tall, beautiful, natural buildings - plants, everywhere, people living happily. When places like this existed, it couldn't have been anything else, right?
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:40 pm
“How are you supposed to keep track of time here?” She asked, taking the stick of fish into her hands with a disapproving grimace.
Stan was only a small bit of the fish that he once was. It made a rock form in her stomach to picture the fish that had been flopping pathetically on the shore was now the roasted meat on a stick. Poor Fish! And yet Varu seemed to have no problem whatsoever in tearing the other fish apart.
She frowned down at her meal apprehensively, daring a small sniff before recoiling. Really, the idea of eating it repulsed her. Still, she hesitantly glanced over to Valeriu. It was the only food they’d be getting in this strange realm. She’d have to make do or die.
She took a small bite, grimacing in repulsion. “It’s gross!! This isn’t fish!” Even if she knew it was. Even if she had seen him swimming. This was not how fish tasted. Frowning once more at the fish, she looked up at Valeriu, welcome for an excuse to not have to eat the weird food that they were calling fish.
“It was hard.” She informed him, waving her fish-stick at him, “And people had to eat weird gross foods that they had to work hard to catch, even though it’s not good at all.”
She pulled the stick back towards her, still scowling at it.
“And they got killed by animals because they lived in the jungle without real houses.”
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:57 pm
He scowled at her in affront, reaching over to jab her in the side with the stick and pointing at his house proudly.
"That's a real house! I built it myself," he grumbled. "And I haven't gotten attacked once v'hen inside it!"
He grunted, frowned, ripped apart the rest of his fish and devoured it, patting his tummy in over-satisfaction to make a point.
"Delicious," he declared, before rolling over onto his belly and sitting up on his knees - ears pricked. He could hear the sound of something wicked this way coming; the jovial trilling of a flute in the distance, punctuated by the dead silence of the forest.
He rolled casually to his feet, even as the flute stopped. The shadows moved, and it was not Valeriu who moved them.
"Not much of a wild child, is she?" a voice remarked behind them, filled with smoky amusement and drawling disdain.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 10:13 pm
She looked at the house flatly, wondering if it would last a single storm. Surely, something like that, which wasn’t made from the safe support of metal and concrete, would crumble to the floor when exposed to the elements. And yet here the hut stood, somehow able to protect Valeriu and not crush him.
Well, she could admit that, at least.
She turned her head once she noticed what Valeriu had keyed in on, her eyes flicking from place to place in confusion. They were supposed to be the only two here, right? Birds didn’t have calls that sounded like flutes… Which meant that something was wrong. Somehow, someone else was here in their artificial world.
Sitting on her haunches, she looked back at the source voice. It was like velvet lined by barbed wire, yet somehow it combined to form a coherent whole. Something was all too inhuman about this person, even from the voice alone.
When the man arrived, it made a strange sort of sense. He looked the type that might be here, decorated similarly to the strange figures that were carved into the temple walls. But rather than intriguing her, something about his man was off-putting. She didn’t feel necessarily hostile… Just a kind of tired acceptance from the back of her mind.
“Some people call it civilized.” She muttered under her breath, almost scared to be heard, as she rested Stan against the rocks. This completed, she turned, giving their strange visitor her full attention. But really, she didn’t want to talk. Varu seemed unconcerned, yet Tepin didn’t really care for this situation. If possible, now would be a conversation in which she could fade into the background and let the men do the talking.
Varu would handle it. Of that, she could be sure.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 10:45 pm
Valeriu shrugged, scratched the back of his neck, glared at the handsome and richly-robed intruder. Tezcatlipoca was not exactly on his list of favorite people, and he had no concerns about letting the man know that now.
He'd realized for quite some time the man's empty bluffs. He could endure pain - there was very little Tezcatlipoca could do to make him comply so easily anymore. The god knew it. Valeriu knew it.
It was a strange sort of understanding they'd come to.
"Better to be civilized than a blood-drinking beast," he commented offhandedly, crossing his arms.
Not welcome.
"Speaking of: tick, tock, boy," the god shot right back with a glib smile that was full of nothing less than the darkest of malice. "I'd be careful with this one if I were you," he added, directing a stare towards Tepin that was some strange combination of humor, hatred, approval and threat.
"Who knows what happens when someone dies in my jungle," he smiled, revealing sharp teeth and sharper temper. Abruptly he shifted, looking back towards Valeriu as the golden bells on his feet chimed at his movement. "Has she met Calmaxtiloc yet?"
Valeriu thought back to the giant caiman-crocodile: no. No she hadn't. And if it were up to him, she never would.
"V'hat do you even v'ant?"
"So testy of you," the god murmured, shark-like grin widening. "I just dropped in to make sure you two were behaving yourselves." He winked, and Valeriu was pretty sure he would die in horror. "After all, technically I'm the chaperone-"
"Please leave," Valeriu cut in. He knew when the god switched moods, and knew to end it now.
"Fine, fine," the god grudgingly conceded, lower half turning to shadows. "Oh," he paused, and smiled, even as Valeriu glowered. "One more thing."
One moment the god had stood before them, the next he loomed in front of Tepin - and it seemed he could block out the sun with the way his eyes stared down at her. As if he could see through her soul, and would laugh at what he found.
"A gift, for my god-child's favored one," and from off his back he took a bow and four arrows, shadows curling around the godly gift as he offered it to her, "and courtesy of an old man's wishes. So he can stop nagging at me to do something helpful," he added in a mutter underneath his breath.
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