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 Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 9:27 pm
Jonus hadn't known what to expect of the after school program that Father had insisted on enrolling him in. He had tried his very, very hardest to expect nothing at all. Whether it had worked... well... he hoped so.
He wasn't the only child there, that much was sure of. He'd seen his father's reaction, he'd seen his father talking to the horse woman in charge. So, horse lady was there. Some of the kids were there. The art tables were there, because the lady pointed to them. She also pointed outside, where the swings were. So. Swings or art. Jonus migrated to the art table.
At the art table, he saw a girl with flutter dancing hair and paint on her fingers. She smiled at him, and showed what she was painting. Jonus liked her. At her encouragement, he gathered up some crayons and started coloring at her side, occasionally glancing over at hers to see what she was doing. She was better than he was.
Of course... anyone else looking on would see a boy with gold hair and a blue polo shirt coloring enthusiastically by himself, occasionally glancing over to the empty spot next to him and making approving comments.
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Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:39 pm
Lahela had been put in that room under protest. She had screamed and squeaked and flailed about because, honestly, who liked small rooms? Granted, there were people there and coloring books, but it was still so very cramped and she couldn't just watch.
She had to participate.
Patrick had actually shoved her into the program, her teachers had forced her. Like Jonus, it was a choice between outside or inside. The birdie wasn't very good with sports, or swinging, or anything that involved speeds and feet, so the minute that door closed behind her, she trudged.
It was awkward, walking in an unknown place with people all around. When she sat in malls and parkinglots, no one saw her walk there. All they saw was her sitting. Here...
Lahela shuffled towards the art table. There was a boy there, another girl - most of the kids were outside. As she lacked any artistic ability what so ever, Lahela simply sat down and stared at the table. It couldn't be people watching if they were right there.
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Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:02 pm
((Gonna assume that the 'other girl' referenced isn't the one that Jonus is talking to, as she... doesn't exist, except for Jonus. Probably should have made that clearer, not sure if it came across.))
Jonus was immediately aware of the new arrival coming toward them, but in the way he had, he didn't look at her immediately, only cast brief, nervous glances out of the corner of his eye. She didn't look particularly like something he'd think up. But then, he'd thought up a lot of things he hadn't known he would.
But then the girl next to him glanced up and smiled at her, and Jonus let a little of the nervous tension leave him. If the girl could see her, than she must actually be there.
"Hello." He said, his voice cultured and not unwelcoming. He really did like people. It was just, sometimes, they confused things. "We're coloring. Well, I am. She's painting. Are you going to color."
Now... of course the 'she' he enthusiastically gestured to wasn't there, and didn't, in fact, exist. But he didn't know that.
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Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:55 pm
((Apparently my reading comprehension is in the toilet. So yes! >> Another girl. A real one. Sitting far away. Lahela is messed up but not like that. XD))
She saw the way he looked at her and bristled. Self concious to a fault, Lahela crossed her arms over herself and tried to press those arm-feathers against the meat of her, hiding fingers and feathers alike. One couldn't really hide those feet or that beak, but one could try. She would have tried, if not for those looks.
By the time Jonus looked up, Lahela was throughly ruffled and about to stand up and leave. No arts and crafts were worth this. No participating was even worth attempting. But he looked up, and - well, he didnt smile. That was alright, really, as she didn't either and wouldn't have, even if she could.
"I-" Her beak snapped shut. His voice was all well and good. Hers sounded as if she was croaking out her words. That was what it was, after all. "Sure."
She held her hand out. Colors and papers, please. The insanity would be ignored in leiu of coloring. Maybe he was crazy, but he was harmless. Not like Iamel. Iamel was crazy.
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Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:45 pm
Jonus relaxed more as Lahela proceeded to react in exactly the sort of way he never would have thought she would. She seemed... almost offended. And he would have thought a bird would have a pretty voice. No, this girl was nothing she could have ever dreamed.
He pushed paper across to her and placed the crayons so that they could share them between them. Luckily, they were actual crayons. For his part, he was drawing a childish rendition of a fairytale castle, though it could have been a lot of things, at his level of talent.
"My name's Jonus. And this is-" He frowned, realizing he hadn't gotten the girls name. After a moments pause he continued, "Right. Mindy. Sorry, Mindy."
"Are you here because you need to be... umm... 'socialized'?" He asked, as he scribbled away with a blue crayon. "My Father says that I can't spend all my time in the gardens. He says it's unhealthy."
So he was a bit forward. He wasn't really used to new people that didn't come out of his head.
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Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:30 pm
Lahela was very aware of how she looked, thank you very much. Jonus staring at her had not earned him many points at all. Being crazy and polite was racking those up in its stead. She sat as an awkward statue, fingers wrapped around the crayons in question.
"I like watching people," she admitted after a long moment. "They said it wasn't good for me to just watch people and not talk to them. Creepy."
Skinny shoulders rose and fell. She worried the crayon between her nails, scarring the colorful flesh, and than put it to paper. Lahela began to doodle and, with it, spoke slowly.
"I'm Lahela. What are you?"
Mindy was invisible. Good to know. Maybe she was real and just invisible. Weirder things had happened on Gaia - Lahela knew that for a fact.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:48 pm
"It doesn't sound creepy." Jonus replied, giving a little shrug as he said it. He was always watching people, so he really couldn't imagine it being a bad thing. "But I'm not very socialized, I'm probably wrong."
The fact didn't bother him. He seemed pretty cheerful about it. As he spoke he moved onto a gold crayon, using it to streak the sky. Then he turned the picture, the crude fairytale landscape, around so that Lahela could see it. "I'm from here. I think. I never lived there. I just remember it. Dad says it's called 'racial memory' or something. It's just, not here that I remember."
"It's hard to remember. Like I have jigsaw bits from a bunch of different puzzles. They don't fit together real well.
"What are you?" He had yet to notice that Mindy was exhibiting all the signs of being one of his creations. Painting with the sort of singlemindedness that came when you existed merely because one imagined that someone would be there, painting.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:05 am
"Maybe." Lahela nodded almost enthusiastically. She enjoyed not being creepy, or weird, or any of those other things she was accused of on a regular basis. It wasn't her fault after all, and the knowledge that the boy agreed made it all the better. Not many would.
"It could have been a dream. I'm a science experiment." The declaration was almost abrupt, and defensive. Being a prince from some fairy world was weird, but then again, so was being a science experiment. A freak of nature. It wasn't being a science project that bothered her so much. "I'm a Paradise Parrot. Daddy makes money off of studying me. What I do. How I look."
Lahela held out her clawed hands and flexed the one that didn't hold a crayon. "He says having fingers with claws and a thumb, and no wings but arm feathers, means I'm a true 'hybrid'. I dunno what that means. I just know I can't fly.
"Wish I could fly."
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