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 Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:59 pm
Once again Houkan found himself dealing with caring for Pasayo, his older brother having been called away on a sudden college conference only hours before, and as the youth stood with a bewildered look on his face outside of the entrance to the college he could only hold the egg that hummed softly in his arms tighter.
It had been his day off from academy thanks to his unusually good (read: perfect) score on the mock exams, his teachers deciding to keep that as his final grade an allow him the time off to do as he pleased, so he wasn't wearing his usual uniform. Instead he'd opted for knee-length khaki shorts that sported neat little pockets here and there, full perhaps with the keys to his house and his wallet, and for a shirt he worse a comfortable collared type that was a soft blue in color. It seemed to make his eyes stand out more than usual and make his hair darker on his head, but the youth only wore what he felt like.
Houkan let out a deep sigh as he shifted Pasayo's egg from both hands to only his right, using his left hand to run through his hair and scratch the middle of his head. He wasn't sure what to do from here out, other than go home and listen to the Twins argue over something trivial again, so he simply stood in place while staring off into space.
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:44 pm
Thank god class was over. Thank god she hadn't need her large books today. Her notebooks could barely fit around the curving shell of her mysterious egg, and Hartley really didn't feel like risking it by leaving the egg in the care of Morgan and Adrianne, both of whom had professed a craving for a large, exotic omelette that morning.
Fleeing Vertebrate Zoology 103 as quickly as possible, Hartley ran as fast her legs could move. She had to check on her egg, check to see that it was still warm, but not too warm. It seemed to shake dreadfully when it got at a certain temperature, and she took that as a sign of dislike. She didn't want to fry the chick inside.
"You okay little one?" She squatted, zipping open her bag and peering furtively around. There was someone there- someone she didn't recognize, and he held an egg of the same size as hers, complete with a cloud and wings. What on earth?... He must have found a nest! He must know what kind of bird laid such an egg!
Striding up to Houkan, Hartley stopped short of the young man. She could be rather intimidating, if you didn't realize she stood at only 5'3. It must have been the budding antlers. They at least made her rather bizarre.
"Do you know what kind of bird laid that egg? I've got one similar and I need to know, so I know what to feed it when it hatches." No introductions, but Hartley zipped open her bag to show the shell of her teal egg.
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:17 pm
Houkan turned to look as a feminine voice addressed him rather urgently, and as his eyes fell on Hartley he tried to place his face and voice. If she was close to the school, as he was, she must have been a college student and he had a slight chance of being able to identify her. Houkan spent nearly as much time in the college helping his elder brother with paperwork as he did in his own classes, so it wouldn't be that strange to know someone.
But despite looking her over and even noting the horns that sprouted on her head, Houkan couldn't place her face or voice. She was unknown to him, a stranger, and right away his manners kicked in and he was set to be a polite gentlemen and answer any questions she directed towards him.
"This child here? I don't believe a bird was responsible for her, as my elder brother got her from the wind. We think she won't hatch into some kind of animal, but we could be mistaken."
Wow, what an answer. No sane person would believe that, but considering Houkan was talking to a deer-woman his chances at having her do so were probably a little higher than average.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:19 pm
"You think she might be a reptile then?" Hartley pondered over the young man's words, her biological side kicking in with a gusto. "There are very few mammals that lay eggs, and all seem to be located in Australia and New Guinea. That seems to decrease the likelihood that it is a mammal." Hartley didn't even address the young man's claims that it wouldn't be a mammal. She had grown up Underhill, and even she didn't believe in such things.
"I have one of my own, you see." She took out her egg carefully, keeping it half swaddled in some old sweatshirts of hers. "It looks different from yours, but I believe they could be the same species." God, did she always sound this dorky? Hartley sometimes couldn't believe how she got, when it got down to business.
"The shell of mine is blue. Clouds are yellow. But the sizes and general composition of both of them appear to be the same." It was funny, a deer woman arguing about improbabilities, but then you had the contradiction that was Hartley. THere was little you could do to change that, or change her.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:29 pm
"No, not a replite either. Like I said before we received her from the wind itself, so she is most likely not of this natural world. I believe she may be something of the mythical sort, leaning more towards a god-like creature?"
Houkan looked at Hartley's egg for a moment before stepping closer to the deer woman, a gentle smile still resting on his lips. She seemed just as confused as he had been when he was on the telephone with his cousin the evening before, though speaking with Rown had helped ease some of his tension. As eccentric as she was, for Rown to have never heard of a bird-like or reptile-like creature was something unusual, so Houkan had taken her lack of knowledge to mean it was something more mythical than not.
"You are also quite right about them being similar appearance, though I must say yours seems a little larger than this child here."
He held Pasayo's egg out from his body, allowing for a better view, and he studied the two eggs very carefully.
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:12 am
This conversation was not obeying. It was venturing into realms that Hartley didn't even want to consider, and she had to try her best not to cry out that the whole thing was ludicrous and that she was going home, where she would probably hide in her bed and debate over whether or not this egg was more hassle than it was worth. It wasn't that she wasn't social- Hartley loved interacting. But this egg situation was just so frustrating. It wasn't fair, damn it! The rigid, structured world she was used to kept breaking down. It was like Underhill all over again.
"I... I don't want to say that's impossible. Given the eggs, it shouldn't be. But... None of it makes sense." Biting her lower lip, Hartley shook her antlered heads, perhaps finally realizing the essential irony of the situation. She didn't make much sense herself, but in the grand scheme of things, humans, or humanoid like creatures, hatching from eggs seemed to make less sense. It was all very confusing and upsetting.
As Houkan offered her his egg to look at, Hartley examined it. It did indeed appear to be slightly smaller than the teal one she was now revealing for everyone to see, though not by much. It was also a vastly different color, though the essentials remained the same. "Do you think they're related?" Hartley had given up on trying to argue over what might be in the eggs, and had changed the subject now. "I mean, I can't imagine that eggs like this are all that common. It would make sense if they had the same biological parents, right?" She was steadfastly ignoring the fact that he had said the egg was a gift from the wind. That was just impossible. Everything about this was impossible.
"I found mine in the water. It looked as though it had drifted downstream. I'm surprised that I can still feel movement in it. It must not have been in the water for very long, but I still wouldn't be surprised if the poor creature inside has developmental problems from being forced into such a hostile environment. At least for an egg"
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:55 am
"I suppose they could be related, that is something I had not thought of, but I do not know anything more about her than what I have already told you. It would make more sense for all these eggs to have come from the sample place, just delivered in different ways? Perhaps there was a storm that upset where they had been nested and each one went a different route from the others."
Houkan could tell that something was disturbing this deer woman when talks turned to inhuman things, and he wondered if it was because he was offending her in some way or she was simply being a hypocrite. He hoped for the latter more than the former (though neither was a nice hope). and he could only smile and try to remain polite through all of this.
"Hopefully none of these children will suffer based on how they have come through to us. I mean, I am not sure of what they are capable of and how much damage one can sustain but we can try to be cheery about it, right?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:37 am
"I thought there might have been some sort of storm or something as well. Something with a force strong enough to dislodge the eggs, possibly even carry them a certain distance. I've heard the weather can get nasty in the mountains, though I wouldn't know from personal experience." But if there had been a wind strong enough to carry one egg, and launch the other into a stream... That could explain how Houkan said his egg was 'given to him' by the wind, though it still didn't make much sense.
But again, he seemed to humanize the eggs, which Hartley didn't like. She wrinkled her nose once, before shrugging her shoulders. "I suppose so. I've been treating my egg pretty well, and it seems to still have movement, but I haven't candled it to see if there's anything inside. It's far too big." The practice of lighting a candle behind an egg in a dark shed to see the shape of the embryo inside was common among chicken farmers, but wouldn't work with something this size.
"I guess we're just going to have to see when they hatch. I'll give you my student email or something so we can keep in contact." It would be an interesting correspondence, to say the least.
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Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:13 pm
"Eh? Keep in contact?"
Houkan's face naturally turned red, and he looked taken aback. It was a very rare occurance for this lad to even be startled slightly from his norm, which usually was calm and collected, but now he stood there looking slightly bewildered.
It was not even like this woman wanted to date him or anything, but Houkan had never had anyone ask him for any of his personals before - not even a classmate or a teacher. It was a very new experience and he found it unsettling.
"I suppose we could do that. It would make things easier if one problem arose and the other knew how to properly deal with it."
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:03 pm
Hartley was as confused with the blushing as Houkan himself was. It wasn't as if she had asked him out or not. Jesus, men. They couldn't keep their minds out of their pants if their life depended on it. He had to be pretty desperate though, if a woman with antlers was enough to make him stammer and blush.
"Look, here's my email." Scrawling on a sheet of paper, Hartley wrote in a hand that somehow managed to be both elegant and messy: khartley@universityname.edu. "Just like... I guess just email me when it hatches or something."
Shrugging her shoulders, Hartley carefully repacked her teal egg and slung her pack over her shoulders before giving a small wave and heading back home.
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:15 pm
Houkan could only wave to the Deer Woman's back as she departed, a look of confusion on his face.
"Oh well. This is troublesome."
He...did not even own a computer.
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