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 Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:01 am
((Anyone is free to join, please do join if you are able!))
Bringing the child to the playground in the park of Barton Town seemed a reasonable thing to do. In fact it was the thing to do since she was bored and Mana seemed restless though he didn’t say so in so many words, in fact the child hardly spoke or made a sound other than following her around and tugging at her skirt hem or pant leg, it was endearing on some days.
So now Riulve sat on a park bench, relaxed and seemingly at home as she watched Mana patting at the sand with a tilted head while blinking his large blue eyes. Wind would occasionally blow through his blueish colored hair as he sat there trying to decide what to do with the sand. Riulve had dressed the boy in a dark blue t-shirt with a dolphin on the front and a pair of slightly darker blue shorts with a light blue running up along the sides. Mana currently wore no shoes he had left them next to Riulve on the bench, a pair of children’s flip-flops in a shade of blue matching the boy’s shirt.
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:04 pm
Neal pulled gently on Rocher's hand, leading the child toward the warm green grass.
"You can play in the dirt," he coaxed, "and look for shiny things, hm?" Rocher seemed adamantly set against the idea. Neal sighed deeply, and darted his eyes around to find someone for Rocher to play with. He caught sight of a woman on the nearest bench watching a child in the sandbox, and squinted.
"Hey!" he called to her.
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:58 pm
Riulve tilted her head back a bit and then turned her head toward the voice that had addressed her. Icy blue eyes stared intently at the form of Neal and his child before nodding a bit, “What is it you need, Stranger? Would you like to join us?” she had not read his mind but seeing as he had a child and she had a child it seemed only logical that she should try to get the children to interact as this was the purpose of the entire going out exercise.
Mana busily patted at the sand only sparing a small shy glance over his shoulder at the new pair on the scene. A small smile formed on his lips as he raised a hand to wave at the pair as he tried to contort his form so the new set of individuals could see it, but alas he had twisted too far and was unable to maintain balance and fell over onto his side.
“Oof!”
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:13 pm
"Uh, y-yeah." Neal scratched the back of his head slowly, adjusting his headband, and stepped toward the bench carefully. 'Some eyes!' he thought, doing his best not to stare right back at her.
In an effort to avoid what Neal was doing, Rocher loped toward a small cloud of dust that had formed in the sandbox. Hoping it was something interesting, he perched on the edge of the box and dug around with his fingers, not realizing someone else was present.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:31 am
Riulve simply smiled and scooted over a bit so that the new individual had room to comfortably sit as her eyes moved toward the front in order to observe the children properly. “I am Riulve Drunhild, my child is called Mana.” She said with no prompting for introduction, her hands folded on her lap. Even seated as she is it was easy to see that she was a rather tall woman.
Mana just laid there for a moment staring at the azure sky before finally setting up and moving toward the child crouched on the edge of the sandbox. By the time Rocher would look up the child would be staring into wide curious blue eyes.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:42 am
Taking his cue, Neal settled onto the bench. "Neal Pontmercy," Neal had to sit on his hands to keep from holding one out to shake. She didn't seem like she wanted to shake hands anyway. "The little brown boy, well, he's not a boy, he's kind of gender neutral, but we call him a boy because it's easier and he looks a bit more like a boy than a girl--" He was babbling in front of a complete stranger. Squeezing his eyes shut, he started again. "The boy over in the sandbox is Rocher."
The back of Rocher's neck tingled and he reached a hand to swipe at it ungracefully, and then raised his head and stared into the face of someone else. With a small jerk, he fell off the edge of the sandbox and onto the ground.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:53 am
She nodded as he spoke a small smile of amusement creeping along her lips as her icy blue gaze wandered toward him again. “Indeed? Rocher sounds like an interesting child, almost like an enigma.” Riulve had responded to the rambling bits politely and with amazing good nature despite her outward appearance. She reached a hand toward Neal, “I am pleased to have met you.”
And with that gesture the ritual of introduction would be complete.
Mana blinked in confusion as he crawled onto the ledge the other child fell off of and peered downward. Tilting his head a small pale hand went down to offer the darker ‘boy’ a hand up. “So’ree.”
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:08 pm
A vague sense of relief crept over Neal when he shook her hand. Perhaps she wasn't as weird as she seemed. Or she was, and he had just given her his soul or something. There was a brief moment of panic, and then Neal relaxed. 'I would have noticed if she took my soul!' "Yeah, same," he nodded. "Rocher's pretty crazy. Hey," he turned toward her, "does Mana talk? Or... can he? Intelligently, I mean."
Tentatively, Rocher reached up and took the boy's hand. He steadied himself again and nodded to the other child. He returned single-mindedly to the sandbox and continued to dig flatly. Twice he glanced up briefly, as if judging the other boy, to see if maybe he was gone.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:39 pm
The white haired woman was many things but she stole no soul from Neal on this day and likely never will. Riulve blinked at his question and shrugged a bit, “Mana speaks some words he is learning them gradually, I suppose, as most young pups do.” She replied sounding unconcerned. “Mana is far from a chatterbox so it is always surprising if he says anything at all intelligent sounding or not. Does Rocher talk? He seems a quiet pup.” She slipped into her old dialogue without seeming to realize it but she behaved as if she hadn’t said anything unusual.
Mana was still there in fact he moved to settle next to the other child and every once in a while he’d work at something on his portion of the sand not paying much mind to Rocher other than the occasional sideways glance. Mana seemed simply grateful for the company of another child.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:52 pm
"No," Neal shrugged. "Rocher doesn't talk at all." He looked up to watch the boy in the sandbox and worried his lower lip. "He kind of grunts, but I mean, that's not much language, is it?" He laughed awkwardly, and shrugged again. "We're trying to teach him English first, but he's not picking it up I guess. Or else, he's just quiet." Looking back at Riulve, Neal raised his eyebrows. "Must be it."
Rocher leaned forward and pushed at the other boy's shoulder. He held up a small marble, a treasure someone had obviously buried in the sandbox earlier, and tried to hand it to the boy.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:11 pm
The woman nodded and seemed to ponder this over for a moment before speaking again. She watched the children interact for a moment before she spoke up again, “Maybe if speaking is not his ... thing you may want to attempt at finding other ways to communicate? I hear you can teach children gestures of sorts to get them to tell you what is needed or what they want...”
Mana blinked teetering slightly to the side before glancing over at the other boy with a curious gaze and then looked down at the offering. He offered out his hand, palm upward, toward Rocher to allow the boy to drop the marble into his palm. Mana smiled lightly in thanks to the dark ‘boy’ beside him.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:40 pm
Neal squinted at the children again and hummed his agreement. "That might work," he murmured. "If he ever starts listening to me, maybe I'll teach him to tell me what he wants. He always wants something, but who knows what it is? Did-- Did'ja have to teach Mana to make signals before he started talking? I mean... Maybe Roch is just abnormal or something--! I don't wanna say that he's weird, but if he won't talk yet! Haha, I mean... Oh lord." Neal hid his face in his hands. "I'm gonna start that one over. I don't think Rocher will start talking anytime soon, so when he starts listening to me, I can teach him to point and click, I guess."
Rocher let the little glass ball drop soundly into Mana's palm and gave him a half-smile. He reached down to gently curl the small fingers over his treasure, to make sure it would be kept safe.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:52 pm
Her head turned and her gaze watched Neal patiently as he tried to explain and ask questions at seemingly the same moment. It was something she apparently took in stride, one might not think her to be a soul of patience but apparently she was. “Well, if nothing else you can just give him a set of picture cards if you can’t get him to do the hand gestures? As far as Mana goes ... If he doesn’t know what it is he tries to find out how to tell me things through a mixture of ways, he has figured out that sometimes pointing and whining softly doesn’t do much to get him what he needs or wants.”
Mana’s hand curled around the prize obediently and nodded a bit as if signifying that he had gotten the hint. His free hand managed to keep up work, making a sand pile probably meant to be a castle, but more amazingly he managed to uncover another sandbox treasure behind, a clear, blue stone looking somewhat like a droplet of water that was frozen forever more. Mana picked it up and examined it a moment discovering, instead, that it was a stone that fit neatly in the palm of his hand. Before Rocher’s attention could be drawn away Mana offered up his treasure to the boy.
A gift for a gift.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:05 pm
Feeling it was best not to talk anymore, lest he make a complete fool out of himself, Neal shut his mouth and turned forward, nodding resolutely. Tapping a finger restlessly against the bench seat, he watched the boys play in the sandbox harmlessly. "Looks like Rocher found a friend," he guessed. "His first."
Rocher carefully picked up the stone, weighing it in his palm and judging it with a careful eye. He grunted and patted the stone twice against his chest, over his heart. He smiled, shy and grateful.
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:17 pm
Riulve found Neal to be charming in his own way, believe it or not. She sat in the stretch of silence quietly enjoying that as much as Neal’s uneasy speech and general ramblings. He seemed ... Shy almost and she supposed that was part of the charm or some such mess. She nodded a little, “Seems so.” Riulve agreed.
Mana’s own smile widened at Rocher’s acceptance of his own gift and he nodded showing that, somehow, he understood the other again without the use of speech. The young boy repeated the gesture with his own gift, but not grunting as he couldn’t seem to quite figure out how to copy that sound nor if it meant anything. “F-fri’eeend,” he uttered clumsily.
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