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 Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:37 pm
After the little disaster with Evie and Anastasia, Adrian had given up on going out for quite some time. However, Amryx could only tolerate him moping around the shop and giving Ment hell for so long, and one beautiful sunny day, Adrian found himself getting literally kicked out of the shop.
"OW! WHAT THE HELL?!"
"I'm sick of looking at you mope," Amryx eyed him critically. She would rather Adrian get his a** in trouble elsewhere, then in the shop where she'd have to pay for all the damages. "Go outside, go find yourself a friend, and come back before dark."
"You'd be lucky if I came back at all!" Adrian hissed, but he was only answered with the door slamming in his face. That... That miserable cow! Just because she had resigned herself to a life of misery when she decided to work at Olivia's shop didn't mean she had to take it out on him!
Adrian could have just spent the next 15 minutes banging on the shop door and scaring away customers, but he figured it wasn't worth the effort if Amryx was just going to glower at him when he finally did enter. Instead, he decided to go off and do something exceptionally destructive, and then make sure that Amryx would be the one that picked up the bill.
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:42 pm
Maira had wandered away from Jessabelle, mostly because there had been an interesting moth to dance with. The moth had danced away into the sky, and since Maira couldn't fly she was simply walking. Maybe she'd find Jessabelle again. That would be nice, Jess was so lovely to her. Like that one time, when she'd given Maira a name. Yeah, that had been good.
"Dance, dance, one two two, dance, dance, moth so blue..." she sang, twirling. She wondered if someone around would dance with her. She was oh so bored on her own.
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:55 pm
The struggle with Amryx had left Adrian's bangs in more disarray than they usually were, the white strands almost completely covering his eyes. Since he made no effort to move them, and since Adrian didn't pay attention to anyone but himself as a general rule, he ended up bumping into the younger Scent who had been twirling down the sidewalk.
And for the second time in five minutes, Adrian's rump made contact with the hard sidewalk.
"OW! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, DAMNIT!" He brushed his bangs out of his eyes, glaring at the little s**t who had bumped into him.
Tch, figured. It was some retarded kid.
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 9:06 am
Maira, who had been knocked down as well, rolled on the ground and looked at the new boy with her strange eyes.
"You've got girl clothes," she said, perfectly unperturbed by Adrian's bad attitude. "But you're a boy. You've got pretty hair...looks like snakeskin at midnight, if snakes had hair, but they don't. My hairs got brambles, see?"
She shook her head, and the bird's nest of her hair rustled. She giggled.
"I was lying. I'm not brambly. My name's Maira, sometimes. What's yours, Pretty?"
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 1:31 pm
The strange girl's response was, needless to say, not what Adrian was expecting. In fact, it was so strange that the sharp-tongued Scent actually had nothing to say, which was probably a first in Scent history and was an event that should have been documented, considering how rare it was.
But the moment passed, and the Scent nervously looked around. Crap, this girl must have given herself a concussion when she fell on the pavement or something. That would explain why she clearly had a few screws loose in her head, as Adrian didn't have the patience to deal with crazy people.
"Whatever. Just lie down or something before you hurt yourself again, kid," Adrian shrugged away her questions and started walking again, trying to remove himself quickly from the scene. Like hell he was getting in trouble for this!
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 7:15 am
Maira's mercurial mood turned angry.
"You ran into me," she said. "And I'll scream and scream until your ears leak red and everyone will cry and cry and ask why you killed me."
And then she blinked, and she was calm once more. She even giggled again.
"I was lying again," she said cheerfully. "See? I'm still all walky and talky and that means I'm alive. I like you, Pretty. You're nice, and you didn't mean to knock me down. I'm going to be a butterfly someday, don't you think?"
She walked next to Adrian as he tried to make his escape, looking very happy at the idea of being a butterfly. She could dance and dance with moths all day and they wouldn't be able to fly away into the big blue thing without her.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 4:36 pm
She was not well. Adrian was inclined to ignore the girl, but she didn't have a concussion. The fact that she was able to keep up with him was proof enough in Adrian's eyes, which meant that she had a couple of screws loose to begin with.
Great. How was he supposed to shake off someone who was incapable of knowing that they were being annoying? Adrian gave her another look, raising an eyebrow at the nickname. 'Pretty'? Well, he knew that, but...
"So make like a butterfly and fly away home, Crazy. I got better things to do than babysit someone insane. Did you leave your straitjacket at home or did you chew your way out of it?"
Somehow, he didn't think the girl would be taking his insults to heart. That sort of ruined the fun of thinking them up.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 4:42 pm
"No," Maira said, her mood turning on a dime again. "I don't have to. I want to follow you."
To prove her point she skittered right in front of Adrian, looking up at him with her bizarre eyes.
"I forgot which way home is," she said, the pouty anger switching to confusion. "I was in the silver sea, once. Then Jess made light and it got hot and it all burned up. I miss it. But now I live on Jess's couch 'cause she's nice. Don't tell her, but I sneaked away from her. I'm playing hidey."
She smiled brightly, pressing a finger to her lips. She seemed to have completely missed the question about straitjackets.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 5:01 pm
"..."
Attempting to speak this girl's language meant having to understand it, which was more effort than Adrian was willing to put towards anything. So, in order to get rid of this pest, he was either going to have to find a way to dump her someplace or hope that she got the message to buzz off.
Still... he had to admit, she was interesting, and if her caretaker wasn't completely incompetent, this "Jessie" was probably shitting herself right now trying to find out where Crazy ran off to. So she already got brownie points for that, but now that he thought about it... She might have had some screws loose in her head, so maybe she didn't really realize the consequences of her actions.
His deadpan stare was slowly forming into a devious smirk. Maybe he and this kid could have some fun after all.
"Hey, Crazy," he bent down on one knee and making eye contact. "I like how you think. You wanna play a game?"
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:15 pm
Maira looked pleased that she'd finally gotten a real response out of Adrian.
"Yes," she said. "I know lots of games. I know how to skip, and how to count the stones that sing in the back garden, and the man that smells like stars taught me how to disappear a coin. But I can't find it again whenever I disappear it, so it stays gone. I feel bad about that, it must miss its family. I haven't got a family, have you? Wait, I lied again. Jess is my family but she doesn't think she is but that's okay."
Breathless, Maira looked up at the sky.
"I see a bird..."
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:48 pm
Right, right, whatever. As soon as Maira was done talking, Adrian nodded and motioned for her to come along, resuming his walk. First, they were going to have to find some stones... Nice big ones. And there were plenty lying on the road a little ways from here, he remembered, when he tried to dig a new ditch.
"Yeah, that's great. You're good at throwing stones, right? I'm thinking of playing a little game called Target Practice," Adrian smirked, liking how his plan was turning out. If things went his way...
"First, though, we gotta get big rocks. I mean, the point of this game is to destroy the targets, so you're gonna need something pretty big. Right? But not so big that you can't throw it. So," He gestured to the rocky terrain before them. "We should find some nice, medium sized rocks."
"And then," Adrian's eyes were practically glinting in the fading dusk of the day. "We find a place filled with targets."
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:53 pm
Skipping beside Adrian, Maira nodded happily.
"Make things fly and then stop and make other things go smash?" she chirped. "Yes yes, I'm good at that. At least I will be once I do it, since I've never done it before."
Bare feet picking over the rocky ground like a dancer's, Maira looked for good rocks. She wanted to be good at this game, she did. She picked up a rock the size of a baseball, weighing it in her hands. The rocks would be so happy when she made them fly!
"Where do we go to find targets?" she asked as she picked up rock after rock. "Are you going to play, too?"
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 9:23 pm
"Yup," Adrian nodded, pleased at his "partner's" enthusiasm. She must have been new, if she had never thrown a rock before. She was also crazy, so he supposed the point was moot. Well, it just worked out better for him.
"Of course I'm going to play. It's boring, playing games by yourself, don't you think?" Adrian pointed out as he gathered a few rocks of his own. Yes, these were sure to go through the window and smash up whatever was insane. Not like Adrian cared, he just wanted to destroy something and cause some misery. That's what she got for throwing him out anyway. "There's plenty of targets on the street," Adrian said, as they walked back. It took a little bit to return to the streets where the shops were, but once they were back, he started scanning for the perfect "targets". There was one in mind that he had in particular.
"Actually, I know the perfect place, so just hang tight until I find it, OK? And don't drop any rocks before then, or else we'll lose."
The sun was just about set now, and darkness was creeping up behind them. It was only a matter of time now before he found the perfect place.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 9:28 pm
Maira clutched her rocks like they were jewels, looking up at Adrian happily. Oh, he was so nice. And fluffy! She liked his braid, yes yes she did. She would have to have Jess braid her hair some time.
...oh yeah, Jess. Maira had forgotten she was still playing hidey from her. She and the star-man were probably looking for her. Oh well! Maybe they'd come play with her soon. She'd show how very good at games she was, yes she would.
"Moths aren't rocks, but rocks can fly, so does that make a rock a moth?" she asked the stone in her hand. It offered no reply.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 9:56 pm
"Sure," Adrian replied, though he was busy scouting the street and wasn't paying attention to the younger Scent. Finally, Adrian finally found the place, just barely being able to make out the front of the store in the dying light. If he recalled correctly, this place was owned by a hippie couple who were the leaders of a hippie coven that traveled around Midori for a few months. The one Amryx left Adrian behind for.
Adrian hated hippies.
"This is the place!" He grinned, stopping just before the store. The emo Scent turned to Maira, setting the rocks down as he kneeled to her level again.
"Ok, Crazy, here are the rules. We're playing in the dark because we're playing this game blind. It makes it more challenging. So, we're just gonna throw these rocks in there through the window and try to hit as many targets inside as we can before time runs out. But I forgot to tell you something really important, so you gotta let me know that you're listening, OK?"
Adrian paused and waited for Maira to speak again. The kid was spacy and Adrian wasn't going to risk getting caught if the brat wasn't listening.
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