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 Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:47 pm
 "Look, would it really hurt you to be sociable to the other kids? You are a kid, kind of. Well, I don't know what the hell you are. Excuse the bad word. Don't learn that." Hartley was frazzled, but this had swiftly become her usual state of affairs, and she tried to brush it off as best she could. It wasn't exactly her fault that Mauritius was such a handful. Or was it? God, she hadn't asked for this! Not that she didn't love the ashe, but still.
Maur peered back upward at her guarding, finally pulling on Hartley's jeans so the young deer-woman was forced to kneel.
"I'm gonna tell you a secret, kay?" It was hard to hear Maur when she whispered, making Hartley bend even closer, her large ears swiveling towards the sound.
"Uhh, okay," Hartley responded, not sure if she liked where this was going quite yet.
"All those kids aren't special, like me. I'm not gonna play with them. You can play with me, but they can't. Only special kids like me can play with me." In child logic, this made perfect sense. In Hartley logic, it left her stumbling slightly as she sought to decipher what a child's limited language could convey. Ah. It appeared her beloved little Maur did not want to play with those who weren't of her 'kind', so to speak.
"You can't be specieist like that. When you run for present, it'll come back and bite you in the butt." Ah, practical advice as always from the mouth of Hartley. "Anyway, I want to get a coffee, so you're going to have to play. But don't think I can't see you. And don't like... get kidnapped or something."
And thus Hartley darted away to a coffee stand, keeping one eye firmly on her tattooed charge. At least Maur didn't seem too concerned to be left alone. She had put herself off in a corner, watching the swings with a sort of wide eyed envy. If only she had wings and could fly! That would be so fun. Wouldn't the other kids just be even more jealous?
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:14 pm
Huan Yi sighed and watched the trail of cool vapor waft up to the sky. What a day it'd been. As she shifted her backpack to rest more comfortably on her shoulders, she chanced a peek through the zippered crack at the smooth blue of Tsuji's shell.
Certainly today was the last time she takes her to school with her.
One slip-up of leaving her backpack open and the other kids were on her, picking on her for bringing toys to school ("What are you, five?") or, for the nicer ones, asking if it was an art project of some sort. It was all the girl could do when she zipped up the bag and dashed out of class. Her cheeks were too reddened to properly look them in the eye, and her mind was too frazzled.
Tsuji stuck a small wing out through the crack and flapped it weakly at her. Huan Yi sighed sadly. She didn't mean to make it out like she wasn't ecstatic about her - but perhaps it was best to keep her existence on a need-to-know basis. Some people wouldn't quite grasp it.
"It's not you, Tsuji," she whispered to the egg, patting her bag. A shiver ran up her spine and she rubbed her shoulders fiercely in an effort to get warm. What she needed now was to find something that would do the job.
A coffee stand beckoned to her alongside her usual shortcut path through the park, and with grateful steps she approached it. She was never much of a coffee person, but they at least offered tea or hot chocolate as a substitute. She began fishing for change in her pocket as she stalled in front of the cart, momentarily glancing skyward and catching the tops of the tree branches in her gaze. She didn't imagine trees looking slightly fuzzy this close..
.. However these weren't trees. As much as she didn't mean to gape, she found herself looking a set of antlers, attached to a rather unusual woman. She was very graceful looking to Huan Yi's eye, but still..
Tsuji wiggled in her backpack and flapped anxiously. Did she feel it too? There was something otherworldly about this woman.. Huan Yi didn't need any kind of magical knowledge to pick up that much. The egg in her bag wouldn't stop moving, and sure enough, she heard the zipper being worked open by the frenetic movements. She gasped sharply and reached to stuff her back inside, sending all the change in her hand careening to the ground.
"M-my goodness, I'm sorry!" She stuttered to the woman and knelt down to pick it up, feeling too embarrassed to look her in the face as her face grew hotter. Tsuji settled into her bag more soundly, almost smugly. Huan Yi could only shake her head at it. 'Thanks a lot, Tsuji.'
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:06 pm
Hartley was well used to stares, to the point where she no longer felt them drilling into her back. As such, until Huan Yi had cried out, she really hadn't noticed much at all. In fact, she had been humming while waiting in line, hoping that it would move just a bit faster. She didn't trust Maur to be good for that long on her own, even if Hartley could keep one eye on her.
The voice came as somewhat of a surprise to her then, causing the deer woman to jump, wide blue eyes nervously scanning the air before settling on the woman before her, who appeared to be stuffing a vaguely familiar looking egg back into her bag. Wait... that egg! It wasn't Maur's egg, of course, but it was awfully familiar. Wouldn't it be nice to dole out advice? Hartley would have liked to have some while Maur was still in the egg.
"Hey, I know what's in your egg. Sorry if that sounds weird. I'm Hartley, by the way. We should probably get out of line, cause I'm about to sound crazy." Hartley moved slightly out of the way, still speaking as she did so, not even looking to see if the other woman followed. It didn't matter one way or the other. Hartley had spoken with the right amount of crazy to tempt anyone to follow.
Suddenly silent, Hartley gestured broadly to Mauritius, who actually deigned to notice one, skipping over. Other children and parents stared at her- after all, few other little girls were covered in tattoos, or wore such anarchic clothing. Hartley probably looked like an abusive parent, but she didn't really care. The point was that she wasn't a parent. Oh, and she wasn't abusive either.
"This is Mauritius, and she hatched from an egg that looked like yours. Her egg had wings too. And lots of patterns and stuff. And a little person came out. It sounds insane, but you are carrying an egg around.
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 4:04 am
Huan Yi froze as soon as the woman addressed her, as her neck craned back to look her in the face. Immediately her hands calmed on trying to stuff Tsuji out of sight, and she tilted her head at the mention of the egg.
'So she has an egg as well?' The woman (who had introduced herself as Hartley) didn't wait for her reply, so the girl had to hustle to get her backpack onto her shoulders and climb to her feet. She cursed herself mentally for wearing a skirt that day as it tangled her feet momentarily, but she managed to stumble out of line after her. She pocketed the change she had successfully reclaimed into her pocket.
"Y-you have one t--" She had begun to voice her thoughts when Hartley began gesturing wildly towards the playground, startling Huan Yi into stopping mid-sentence. Her gaze followed her gestures, and she found her eyebrows shooting up to brush her hairline as a young child tottered over. She was dressed in such strange clothing, and with such interesting tattoos..
It was one thing to be told about the eggs, but to actually see what comes out of them.. that was something different entirely. She recalled her earlier encounters with other people who had eggs, but this is the first time she had seen a young Ashe.
"I-it's a pleasure to meet you both," Huan Yi stammered as steam rose from her mouth, her cheeks flushed from the cold. "And thank you.. I would love to take any advice I could get. Luckily, I've met another who carried one of these Eggs, and they've told me a little already." She unshouldered one side of her bag and zipped it open in time to grab the wiggling egg in her arms. The action drew a few stares that remained locked on her, and Huan Yi felt her fingers lock on Tsuji anxiously.
"My name is Huan Yi." She gave a short bow of the head out of habit before holding the egg out a little, mostly towards the young child Mauritius. "This is Tsuji." She smiled as Tsuji flapped her wings proudly at the display. "I would be most grateful for anything you could tell me. I'm afraid I don't know very much about the world that these.. Ashes come from." She used the word shakily. That was what they were called, right? She was fairly certain..
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:50 am
"I'm fairly sure I don't know much about the world Maur comes from either, and I'm from Underhill. She's like nothing else I've seen or experienced before, and she seems to always surprise me." Shrugging her shoulders, Hartley plowed on in her speech.
"She's something different, but Maur sure wouldn't tell me. She seems to have the intelligence and speech level of a ten or twelve year old child, but other times she seems far more wise. But I'll let her speak. Go ahead Maur. Be social."
Pushed forward, but gladly accepting the lime-light, Maur blinked her large eyes once or twice, taking in the other woman and her winged egg. In her worldview, that wasn't so unusual. She even took the time to wonder if the other being in the egg felt as cramped as she had at the time.
"Come on Maur. Speak to the nice lady. You heard her. Her name is Huan Yi. And her egg has a name already too! I didn't name you until you were hatched, remember? And Maur still sleeps on a dog bed. I keep meaning to get her a real one, but so far she seems to kind of like it. As long as she's small enough. Oh, that's a good piece of advice. Get a small bed, real toys, maybe some books and stuff. Be prepared, like you were having your own child, albeit one that comes fully formed and what not."
Shrugging again, Hartley turned her gaze back on the ashe, who finally squirmed and began to speak in her whispery little girl voice.
"Will your egg be friends with me when it hatches? I want more friends like me. That are special." Maur really was rather creepy when she talked. Oh well, Huan Yi would have to get used to the whims and ways of the ashe either way.
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:28 am
Huan Yi nodded her head at the information Hartley was giving her, and at the mention of a place called Underhill, she knew it seemed familiar. Obviously it was some fantastic place that didn't quite exist in her closed urban world, but it drew her ear more keenly to what this woman had to say. She was magical, at least, and that gave her more leverage in this experience than Huan Yi had, as far as she was concerned. Her knowledge on mythology and magic ended with books and fairy tale collections..
"Y-yes, of course," she murmured as Hartley talked on, remembering her advice about furnishing for the young Ashe. The apartment was already rather cramped, but hopefully she could talk William into perhaps investing in another small bed that could be placed in her room - she didn't mind sharing space. But what would this child even like? Perhaps it would be best to wait until she hatched..
Huan Yi felt a little dizzy. Parenthood, at such a young age.. how did other girls do it? It was certainly going to be a challenge, and she only hoped her brother would be able to help her out (at least a little); she wasn't quite sure if she could do it alone. Tsuji wiggled excitedly at the conversation and Huan Yi wondered if she was getting herself into a tizzy about the new life she would be leading once she left the confines of the egg behind.
All the dizziness she felt from the knowledge she was trying to absorb stalled when Mauritius finally spoke. She had to reel her thoughts back in to properly understand what the child was telling her. Such confident words! A touch upper crust to her ears (friends that were "special" reminded her of how rich kids talked about being friends with other rich kids), but she was just a child. All children are initially selfish, aren't they?
As though to answer for her, Tsuji flapped her wings proudly at the young Ashe and wiggled timidly.
"I believe.. that she would," Huan Yi replied with a small smile. Tsuji seemed to like them both at least, and if anything that was good enough for her. "I'm still a little unsure of what she'll be like.. but from what I can gather so far, she's quite energetic." The egg wiggled again as though to emphasize it. "I'm sure she would love to play with you, w-with your permission, of course." She looked over to Hartley during the last bit.
At those words, she felt a surge of happiness. Was this parental pride? Arranging play dates seemed so far away, but perhaps it wasn't as far as she thought.
"Do you..." She began to say, her wide eyes focusing in on Mauritius, "Do you remember how long you were in the egg? Before you came out.. ?"
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Friendly Conversationalist
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