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 Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:36 pm
It was a grey day. The zoo, while not abandoned, was inhabited by heavily draped, red-faced citizens huddled together and squinting at animals who had long scampered into their homes. A more sensible crowd had taken to the cafeteria and gift shop, sipping at warm coffee and browsing at novelty key-rings, away from the stinging wind and light drizzle that made the zoo a particularly dull place to be. Grace stood by the lion enclosure, one hand encased in a smaller black one and another tucked tightly inside her pocket. Her knee-length jacket flicked angrily against the wind as she looked down to the boy beside her, the cold air biting at her lungs.
"Kid, there aren't any lions here. See, they're not stupid and actually want to be warm."
Jasper clicked his tongue and stretched out a leg, flexing his toes beneath his sneaker. The lines around Grace's mouth tightened as she looked back towards the enclosure, brittle with irritation; she was cold, she was hungry and they were right beside a goddamn ******** cafeteria. Scrubbing her hair back from her face, Grace tugged at Jasper's arm and made for the cafeteria and, just as suddenly as she had changed direction, one of the boy's legs swung up with surprising speed, whirring around her thigh. Grace made a strange gesture somewhere between "what in the hell just happened" and "I will break your goddamn leg" before reaching down to knead at her thigh.
"What the hell, Jasper?" she said with a growl that greatly resembled a territorial doberman.
"I wanna see LION."
Grace swore and looked as if, for a moment, she were about to thump the boy over the head with her fist. Instead she set her jaw, cursed and turned to stare vehemently at the enclosure. Jasper, who obviously and not-so-surprisingly didn't share his mother contempt for being outside, smiled an open mouth smile and leant forward, crushing his face against the bars.
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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:00 pm
It'd been two weeks since the Lady's gift, Otessa, had 'hatched' out of her cabbage on Kniene's kitchen table. In that time she'd developed with amazing speed, speed that he was sure went beyond the natural levels for a child, perhaps even a goddess's daugher. Barely able to stand when she first arrived, she now toddled along happily at his side, chattering at him in their shared mother tongue in admittedly short, stumbling sentences.
He'd had a cloak made for her, a fur lined red velvet affair that blocked some of the sharp winds that buffeted them as they made their way through the Zoo. The zoo was Otessa's idea. She'd quickly tired of her toys, her picture books, her brothers weapons, the local grocery store and the backyard. So when she'd stared anxiously waving a book about zoos in his face acquiescence had seemed the only option. He was freezing. She seemed unaware of the cold, except as a new exciting sensation. He wondered if the Lady got cold, and if not, would her daughter?
They were meandering their way toward the reptile house when Otessa stopped walking, her words cutting off halfway through a sentence. He thought, at first, the some animal had caught her attention, but quickly noticed that the nearest pen was empty. Instead she tugged him with open determination toward a woman and the young child at his side.
"Goo' 'noon, brofer." She greeted the boy, attempting a wobbly curtsy and succeeding in falling on her butt. She giggled instead of shrieking, the sudden motion causing a cascade of autumn leaves to fall around her.
"I'm afraid that is not your brother, Otessa." He corrected gently, realizing it must have been the boy's black skin that reminded Otessa of Autsu and attracted her attention. Raising his eyes to the child's guardian, he smiled, "She is, curious. I apologize."
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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:37 pm
Jasper, whose face was pulled into an expression nothing short of a puffer fish, made an odd suction cup noise with his lips and pulled himself backwards. He turned to Otessa with an indefinable expression, his eyes following her descent without so much as a "huh" or a "boo". Grace however, red-faced and irritable, turned to Kniene with a grunt and a:
"Don't worry about it," before her eyes flicked back to Jasper.
The white-haired boy continued to stare at Otessa, his only movement to pull his scarf tighter around his neck as a particularly strong gust of wind rattled at his body. Grace, who had remained equally static, watched as Jasper crouched down and leant forward to peer obtrusively into the girls face; and, after a pointed blink, scrunched his nose up in a way that could be considered rude if misinterpreted.
"What wrong wif' your head?" he said loudly, taking one of the protruding branches in his hand.
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Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:25 pm
To say that Otessa was spoiled was to rather understate the subject. Indeed, as she was, in fact, a literal gift from Kniene's goddess, he was inclined to treat her as if she were her mother. Even at a young age, she had, understandably, begun to think of this treatment as what she deserved. No one had ever looked at her with anything but worship and affection in their eyes. Certainly no one had ever grabbed at her branches!
Otessa was not entirely sure how to take this sort of behavior. She was utterly silent, trying unsuccessfully to look up at the point where he had a hold of her.
Abruptly, she began to giggle. This was something new! This not brother person was different. Different from everyone.
Not quite fluent enough to understand the entirity of his question, she decided that head touching must be part of this new type of person she'd discovered. She reached out quickly to attempt to enthusiastically pat him on his head. "Like you!"
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 7:54 am
To say that Jasper looked appalled would be an understatement; his jaw had slackened, his eyebrows had drawn together and his expression screamed utmost displeasure. This wasn't the reaction he had sought. This was the exact opposite of any kind of reaction he had sought, ever. An awkward pull of defiance and disappointment hung over the boy like an over-sized sweater as Otessa leant forward and patted his head (looking every bit excited as if rainbows had started shitting rainbows); an appalled line appeared above his nose and his eyes narrowed thinly.
"You are not like me," he replied instantly, every bit indignant. "You are stupid. Learn to unde-- undeland-- stand-- learn ENGLISH. Stupid!"
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 6:26 am
Kniene, observing, lifted an eyebrow but did not (yet) move forward to separate the two children. He doted on the girl, admittedly, but he was not what one would call protective. He knew what his little one could and would be capable of.
Otessa, meanwhile, was struggling to puzzle through Jasper's words. The difficult thing about berating someone for a lack of linguistic competency is that she lacked the ability to actually understand that she was being berated. She'd never heard the word 'stupid' before in her life.
She could puzzle together the first sentence, and realize that her attempt to say 'I like you' had failed in translation, and she could understand, generally, the string of words about learning. And she could understand that he was still using a tone she'd never heard before, the one she found so amusing. At the very least, for Jasper's sake, she stopped trying to touch them.
"Kay." She said, turning to look at the lion pen they still stood in front of. "You show eglish."
Perhaps because of the noise or perhaps because Otessa had a certain affinity for the young of the animal kingdom, a juvenile lioness was just entering the enclosure despite the weather. She pointed at that. "How say it?"
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 6:39 pm
"What," said Jasper plaintively, staring at Otessa with a curious expression; she was content, excruciatingly content and it was weird. It was unusual, it was bizarre, it was all kinds of crazy that this girl had remained bereft of any form of irritation at his relentless attempts to, well, irritate her. It was the first time someone had not risen to his attacks, and quite frankly it interested the hell out of him.
Jasper followed the too-naive girl's pointed finger and smiled smugly. "Lion, girl lion."
He watched Otessa tranquilly; eyes slightly narrowed, mouth tugging at an odd angle. She was a puzzle -- an unsolved, cryptic, enigmatic puzzle that shouldn't interest him as much it did. It was almost too much for the young boy to comprehend; which made sense, considering he had lived his short life wreaking educated havoc on people's emotions. He was wholeheartedly baffled by the impossibility of this situation. "You are weird."
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Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:31 am
Whether or not Otessa was stupid, as earlier suggested, remained to be seen. She was certainly sheltered, naive, and comforted by the idea that the whole world should, and did, love her. If some, like this new person, had odd ways of showing it, she was only that much more amused by the variety.
She did, however, learn quickly, when her interest was engaged. And at the moment she was down right fascinated.
"Line. Liun. Lion. Lion." She clapped her hands together, impressing herself with her own mastery of the word. External positive reinforcement? Who needed it? She turned her attention back to the pen, and waved frantically, "Lion! 'noon lion!"
Again, whether it was noise or personal affinity, Otessa certainly seemed to have a way of getting things attention, the young lioness did begin to meander closer to where they stood.
"Werd. Weerd. Weird." She turned her head to look up at her father, "I weird?"
Kniene considered his daughter a moment, "Yes, dear. You are a bit weird."
Oh good! Her new friend was interesting and right. "You weird!"
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:45 am
Had it have been anyone else referring to him as weird the boy would have done into a fit of rage and thrown a mini-tantrum; weird indeed. As it were, his cheeks puffed a little and his fingers twitched, but there were otherwise no signs of aggression. "Not weird," he explained, gesturing to himself. "You are."
And for once it wasn't and insult; weird was interesting, weird wasn't ordinary and ordinary was boring. Jasper watched as the lioness began to make her way towards their congregation and instantly threw himself forward, squashing his face against the bards. "Come see lion," he said, and it was a demand, but not a threat, before, "You are weird." As if he needed to repeat it.
Grace sighed disinterestedly. "Hey, you," she said, moving towards Kneine. "It's sub-zero degrees out here. Coffee?" She gestured towards the cafeteria before drawing her hands under her sleeves.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:10 pm
"I are!" Otessa agreed cheerfully. Maybe this whole conversation would go down hill if she knew what weird meant. But, lacking that knowledge, it was simply her new favorite word. She wanted to live in a whole world of weird. She wanted to wake up weird, have weird for breakfast, and be tucked in with a bedtime story about weird every night.
"See lion." The young girl agreed, pushing up next to Jasper, the antler like growths on her head only slightly interfering with her need to get close to the bars. The lion was a pretty thing, and had she even begun to learn the extent of her inheritance, Jasper may very well have found himself standing beside a matching creature (or, more likely, a grotesquely malformed attempt at one). As it was the little girl only began to sing loudly, and off key. "Lion, lion, liii-oon. Lion!"
Kniene, who'd been watching this whole interaction with the utter fascination of an overly doting parent, turned his attention to the boy's mother with some small reluctance. Still, it was quite freezing, and if the children might be distracted from the experience by their new interest, he was not so lucky.
"Of course. My apologies. I will acquire drinks for both of us, if you'll only watch the children."
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:50 am
"Don't sing," Jasper said, turning boredly to Otessa and fishing a coin from his pocket. The boy curled his fingers experimentally over his palm before scooping his finger underneath the coin and flicking it into the air, catching it on the back of his hand. It was all very simple, really, all a matter of concentration and a pinch of balance, yet still the boy smiled as smugly as if he had reordered time.
"Want to see trick?" Not waiting for an answer, Jasper rolled the coin into his palm and closed it into a fist before bringing both of his hands together, slowly, and pulling them apart again. He opened the hand known previously to contain the coin to reveal that it was not-so-remarkably empty before reaching forward behind Otessa's ear; he mimed a plucking motion, almost too theatrically, before bringing it forward for her to see. "'Hind your ear."
Grace made an amused noise and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Sure," she said and then, as mockingly as possible, "shall I fisheth some money from mine pocket for my share?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:08 am
There was money behind her ear? Why hadn't anyone told her this before? Otessa reached up, tugging at her earlobes, trying to get at another coin. When one failed to appear, her face folded up into a frown, and she reached out to grab Jasper's ear instead. "Hind you ear?"
Although Kniene was, at times, confused by Gaians and their customs, he was not Otessa. He could usually spot when someone was teasing him, even though teasing was not something he often attempted himself. There'd been times, in his own world, but it seemed distant now, as if humor could not cross the barrier of culture.
Then again, he had been the Voice of the Lady. He had been entertained in the courts of kings. Some of those kings hadn't liked him much. They too, had teased.
So, he did what he did when kings teased. He bowed, a sweeping graceful motion, and he smiled. When he spoke, his accent was stronger on the words, making them seem yet more antiquated than they had before. "Concern yourself not, my lady. For surely your presence and the company of your child for Otessa is all we could ask. Allow me to do this small service."
He straitened then, winked, and headed off toward the concessions area.
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