|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 12:32 pm
Calder placed a hand on top of Taki's head, keeping the boy in place until the rest of their little group appeared. He'd set up a small gathering at the local art museum.
"Papa I want to chase the pigeons!" Taki whined, ears laying back against his head in his displeasure, tail lashing from side to side, accompanied by an impressive pout. Calder had seen him practicing it in the mirror one day.
"Fine, but you're not allowed to leave the stairs, okay? And you come back when I call you. Got it?" Taki nodded furiously. The entrance of the museum was preceeded by an impressive set of stairs that served as a perfect sitting place to eat, and directly followed was of course the mass of pigeons scavenging the food dropped carelessly by passerby. Taki let out a squeal of delight as he scampered off towards a small group of the birds that flew off protesting loudly. Calder smiled faintly, and turned his eyes back on the surrounding sidewalks.
Taki was entirely enthralled, watching the birds. He crouched down a small distance away, fixated entirely on the things, a concentrated scowl on his face. A wiggle of his rear end, and he was pouncing towards them. They all got away; again.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:05 pm
"You're really going to like this, Sophie!" Rye told her daughter cheerfully.
"Mommy, can you hand me my lunch bag?" Sophia asked, leaning across to take the paper bag from her mother's hand. She was excited, more then she usually was being dropped off somewhere. But she didn't want to forget anything. It was one of her little fears, which caused her to double check things a repeatedly before carrying on.
Once she had it securely in hand she took a better look at where they were. She stared wide-eyed at the large building. It was huge and really pretty too, for a building.
"Wow..."
Rye quickly kissed the top of her head, "I've got to go to work hon, but I'll be back later. You have fun, ok?"
"Yes, mom!" Sophia agreed, smiling that tentative, but geunine smile.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 3:13 pm
Ever since the beach party, socialization had been on Prosper's mind. He had gotten the contact information for a few of the other children's parents in hopes that Ophelia would make a few friends and maybe widen her horizons a bit. While he couldn't deny that he preferred her being out on the beach to say, watching television, and they had explored a number of worlds together, her experience as far as the various locales of Gaia went was limited.
Besides, an outing to an art museum was impossible to pass up! He thought of it as a part of Ophelia's education. She had to know all sorts of artists, after all.
Ophelia looked glumly out the window. Her feelings on meeting new people were a bit mixed.
They pulled up in front of the art museum. Prosper handed her her lunch, kissed her on the forehead, and nudged her out of the car. "Make friends! Learn something!" he said encouragingly, leaving Ophelia standing on the curb to fend for herself. She turned and looked up the steps, wondering where she ought to go to meet up with the group. There were some kids over there... maybe...?
Before Ophelia even began to approach the group she saw, they went inside. Maybe not. She looked again and started up the steps, approaching a man who looked vaguely parental.
"I... um... I'm looking for Mr. Calder," she said, and looked quickly down.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:44 am
Calder was keeping half of his attention on Taki, who seemed more than happy to be chasing the pigeons, and half on the cars that went by, or more importantly--the cars that stopped. When Sophia and Ophelia had arrived, the sidhe called Taki back, much to his chagrin.
"That would be me," Calder said, smiling supportively towards the little girl. "You're Ophelia, right?" Which made that other girl Sophia. "This is Taki."
The cat boy sidled back so that he was halfway behind Calder. He didn't know he was going to be seeing the museum with a bunch of girls. Not that all girls were bad. After all, Irelia was fun... And Riley. But... He didn't meet their eyes and his words came out all in a rush. "I'm Taki it's nice to meet you."
"All right... Is everyone ready to go in?" Calder seemed even more excited than any of the kids; like a child himself. After all, there was nothing more exciting than seeing history through art!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 12:14 pm
Sophia felt a little akward being the only one not introduced; at least not verbally. Her lavender gaze darted between Calder and the two other children with uncertainty. She dropped into a very quick half-curtsy, trying to squeeze her name into the conversation somewhere, "I'm Sophia...nice to meet you too." The last bit came out a bit ofa rushed jumble, since she didn't want to be rude and interupt the adult.
She nodded quickly when he asked if they were ready, though she felt a little out of sorts being rushed off so soon. The reality was she wasn't used to structured activities; Rye was all about going with the flow and taking one's time. But instead of being discomforted by it she tried to look prepared. This was how things were supposed to be, right?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 12:58 pm
"Ready," agreed Ophelia with a nod. She walked alongside the other girl, somewhat wary of the cat boy, Taki, even if he wasn't Melchy and didn't look like Melchy.
"Hi," she murmured to the girl beside her. "I'm Ophelia." She skipped the Squishy part. It was, after all, a bit childish.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 11:53 am
Taki just nodded faintly at the other girls' introductions, remaining clinging to Calder's jacket as they went into the museum. Calder picked up a map on the way, and Taki was trying to figure out just what sort of girls these were; he was used to tomboys, or at least girls that weren't so... proper.
"What does everyone want to see first?" Calder said, spreading out the map and holding it up. Now that they were inside, he seemed a little more relaxed, at least. There was less of a chance of losing one of them, anyway.
Taki kept shooting glances at Ophelia, not quite sure why she looked so... Well. Not scared. "Papa said we gotta stay close, so we don't get separated. Cause then he'd get in trouble..." Taki seemed to think this was hilarious, his mouth cracking into a grin, eyes darting up to Calder, who was still puzzling at the map.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:53 pm
"Hi," Sophia replied, offering the other girl a small smile. She was usually a little shy in first meetings, but it helped a bit that the other girl seemed so willing to talk.
When Calder asked his question, however, she did quite the opposite. She didn't know what she wanted to see first, so instead of sounding rude with "I don't know" she said...nothing. Surely the other kids had ideas? She didn't. But then, she'd never been to a place with so much art before. She didn't know where to start.
At Taki's comment, however, she immediately scooted closer to him and the adult. The probablity of her getting lost two feet away from them was pretty slim, but better safe than sorry, right?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 3:24 pm
"Landscapes," said Ophelia softly upon being asked. She wanted to see what real, professional painters did, get ideas for worlds to try out... For the little apprentice painter, this was just as good as being a kid in a candy store, with the added bonus of not being able to cause cavities. (She didn't know what cavities were, just that they were bad and you could get them from candy.)
"Can we go see landscapes?" she asked again, a bit louder.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:15 pm
Calder tilted the map, and glanced down at Ophelia with the sudden, adamant request. "Of course. I think that we'll find some landscapes in the European paintings..." he murmured, only half to himself. Once the sidhe seemed to get his bearings, though, he herded all three of the kids towards the elevator.
Taki seemed disgruntled to be dislodged from his location securely attached to Calder's side, so he trotted up to the front of the group, ears high and tail swishing confidently through the air. "What sort of things do you like to do?" he asked, glancing at the two girls, "You know... When you're not... At school. Or museums." It was obvious that the art museum had not been his idea, the way he said the word 'museum.'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:45 pm
Sophia remained close to Calder as they went, apparently having deemed it as one means of good behavior. She wasn't an artist and neither was her mother, but she at least knew what a landscape was. Sort of. So she wasn't in the dark. Those were usually pretty, so she was more than happy to have that be their first destination.
Sophia watched as Taki seemed to jump ahead. It was behavior she was too self-conscious to immitate. "Um..." she murmured, feeling unsure of how to answer his question, "Mom likes to...take me lots of places. But at home, I like to read...get dressed up..." She trailed off realizing that, him being a boy, he could probably care less.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:55 pm
Ophelia blinked dumbly for a moment before realizing she was supposed to answer the question. "I like to swim," she murmured, "And bodysurf."
Which, she decided, were kind of boring hobbies. You had to have at least three. "My dad's an artist," she explained. "He's teaching me how to paint." She decided to leave the magic part out of the equation. It was too complicated.
As they walked, she looked around the halls and rooms they were passing through. There was more art in this building than she had ever seen in her life, and more kinds of art than she had ever known existed. Statues, portraits, collages, paintings that looked like everything, paintings that looked like nothing, paintings that looked like someone had randomly flicked a brush at a canvas and called it art...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:57 am
Taki looked at both of the girls, trying to decide how he was supposed to talk to both of them without leaving one of them out; he decided to just talk generally. "I play with Abby... She's my cat. And I play pretend and I like to read and color."
"Aha. Here we are. European paintings. Okay, you guys can look around the rooms we're in, but don't go into other rooms, and stay together, okay?" Calder patted Taki on the head, and with that, the three of them were free! At least, within the four walls of the room they were in now.
Taki grinned, and then turned his attention to the walls, where painting after painting of frilly old people hung. And a few scenes. There was even one with a bunch of ships, that Taki gaped at for a long time. All his displeasure at being stuck with two girls at a museum were forgotten momentarily.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 4:33 pm
"My mom has a cat...but I don't think she likes me very much..." Sophie mumbled absently. For some reason she had memories of being bitten when she couldn't really recall the event actually happening. So she never really knew what to think of Nuhusi, who tended to avoid her anyway.
Distracted, she barely noticed when they were let loose. It was only when Taki wandered away to a certain picture, one of ships, that she understood. Tentatively she looked around, glancing at once painting after another. She eventually found herself standing in front of some of the ones with "old people".
"They have really pretty dresses," she murmured aloud. They were old fashioned dresses, very poofy and frilly and impractical, but they were pretty. She wondered if they made the ladies wearing them feel like princesses...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 5:07 pm
"I haven't got a cat," said Ophelia, "But I would like a dog." She was about to say that she didn't really like cats, but then she looked over at Taki and then quickly down, blushing. Would he be offended if she did? After all, wasn't he a cat?
She studied the paintings of ladies in dresses, but she didn't find them very interesting. The pictures of ships and the countryside were far neater. What kinds of worlds would these have lead to...?
"What do you think it would be like to be there?" she asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
