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 Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:00 pm
The night was cool, humid and windy from the recent fall rains. The waterways running through the upscale shopping district ran high, another heavy storm and they would peak the walk-way banks and flood, though it didn't seem to bother the thick blue-haired child.
The soles of her mary-jane shoes pitter-patted against the cobbled stone on the ground, and her long coat swished against her sides as she walked. She was on her way to somewhere, anywhere; where she was going she wasn't quite sure but she knew she had to go there. Really she was just following her feelings.
A gust of wind shot through the the street, causing Tevadi to stop for a brief moment and close her eyes. The debris from the leaves dropping and the plants dying was being kicked around by these storms, and with the abrupt winds getting things in your eyes was inevitable.
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:59 pm
It was such a rare occasion that he was allowed to wander at night- living so far from the city was a bother at times- that when his mother had to attend a dinner party late into the evening, Jiang had wheedled until she agreed to let him roam the streets until she was finished.
The unpleasant weather meant it was a quiet night- though people rarely saw him anyways when he took to the waterways, only an occasional flash of scales between the mats of dead leaves that clogged the surface of the water- most of the citizens were safe and warm inside their homes however, and Jiang was enjoying the chance to see the city without being bothered by passers-by, well-intentioned or otherwise.
So when he paused at a corner and peered above the surface to judge his location, he was surprised to see a girl standing alone in the street a few feet away. He watched her for a moment as she shut her eyes against a gust of wind, before deciding there would be no harm in announcing his presence. She looked about his age, after all, and he'd recently found that he rather liked meeting other people.
"Good evening." He leaned his elbows on the edge of the waterway, after sweeping away several soggy, dead leaves. "Are you out to enjoy the peace as well?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:34 pm
Tevadi jumped at the sound of another's voice, her hair standing on end and causing more of a mohawk effect in her hair than she already had. With hands in her pockets, she peered around looking for the source of the voice that had greeted her only to notice the boy leaning himself up against the edges of the waterway.
"I..." Tevadi trailed off as another gust of wind swept by, her hair sweeping to the side of her head, "I am searching for somebody. Someone I do not know."
Tevadi's pale skin twinkled against the light given off by the street lamps and nearby shop windows. She approached the edge of the the waterway with hesitation and crouched down in front of the boy before her, starring intently into his eyes.
"Like me, right? You're like me."
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:59 pm
White eyebrows rose in something halfway between surprise and disbelief, and briefly Jiang wondered if he hadn't just started up a conversation with a crazy after all. "I would imagine it is difficult to find someone you are not acquainted with. It is hardly my place to pry, but surely you have a reason to undertake such a task?" It was unusually forward of him to ask such a question, but it was the middle of the night, and the girl may or may not be nuts- for once, he'd let his curiosity win out.
He shifted slightly as the girl approached, taking his weight off his elbows and laying his hands across the cobblestones instead, black claws nearly invisible in the shadows. Her question sent his eyebrows nearly up to his hairline, the eyes beneath narrowing slightly in suspicion. "That would depend on what you mean, I suppose. We do not look terribly alike, as you can tell." He met her stare evenly, dark eyes against dark eyes.
"But I do not believe that is what you mean, is it."
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:39 pm
Tevadi made a face and went quiet. She was weary of this boy, and though she had no reason to be she was. What if he was associated with her? Her paranoia would be founded and she would do well to conceal herself. On the other hand, he didn't display any signs of being in association, if he was he would know her and would not look so surprised by her words.
"They intend to lock her up," She murmured quietly, "I do not know her but they said they would lock her up. I have to warn her."
Tevadi went from weary to concerned and quiet once more, all within a matter of seconds. One would think she was crazy if it wasn't for the fact she was not. She was worried, truly worried, and the worry in her mind consumed her.
She looked back meeting his gaze again and whispered, "My meaning...You smell, and I smell, but we do not smell like they smell. People. We are not people like they are people."
She reached out hesitantly pointing at the boy's horns, "People don't have those."
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:45 pm
Her strange, changing demeanor sent his eyes narrowing even further. Either the girl was nuts, or something was very, very wrong. "Please do not take offense, but I must ask: this person of whom you speak, has she done anything to deserve being locked up?" Whatever the answer, Jiang was starting to get the distinct feeling that this just might be the sort of trouble his mother always told him not to get into.
Contradicting his previous suspicion, her 'explanation' actually made him smile, though it was more a smirk than a truly happy expression. "Alike yet different, I suppose. The people here," He made a sort of sweeping gesture to indicate the city at large, "They have very narrow minds, do they not?" He pointed right back, at the girl's long, pointed ears. "People do not have those, either, if that logic is to be followed."
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:58 pm
Tevadi shook her head no to Jiang's question. The truth was she didn't know herself if this woman had done a single thing wrong. It didn't sound like it, especially since they were trying to dig up information on her to bring her in. If she did something wrong wouldn't they already have information on her and already have brought her in?
Tevadi furrowed her brows as if in thought at Jiang's question, "I...don't know. I've never seen their minds. You can't tell if they're narrow unless they're outside their heads."
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Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:44 pm
As she shook her head, he nodded, pleased by the response. "If that is indeed the case, then it is a truly noble task you have set yourself to." At least he wasn't dealing with criminals here in the middle of the night.
He tilted his head slightly at her reasoning, one brow arched in a somewhat arrogant fashion. "You can see their minds in their actions, can you not? Are people who look different treated as people? Are you?" Here he paused, a deep frown settling over his features.
"Because I am rarely afforded such respect."
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Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 5:12 pm
Tevadi blinked at him, her expression turning to puzzlement, and than to a reserved sort of pain. She attempted to mask it best she could because she hated remembering it, and hated feeling it; she hated it. All the people who promised her homes and they all went away and left her alone.
"I don't know...I haven't...lived with people. I was alone."
She sat there for a moment, thinking to herself, And now I am a prisoner.
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:18 am
Well, that was awkward. He grimaced, and glanced away to the side. "Please accept my apologies, it was insensitive of me to speak without knowing of your circumstances." He let his gaze wander the deserted street, purposely keeping his eyes away from the girl. "You must be very strong of character to have lived without the aid of others." He hoped the complement would smooth over the hurt in her expression- truthfully, he had no idea what it would be like to live alone. No vicious maids, at the very least.
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Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:03 am
"It's ok..." She murmured, shaking her head to relinquish the terrible thoughts from it. She scratched her head for a moment, the dark blue hair glistening in the light of the street lamps and star light. She had forgotten what it was she was talking about, having gotten distracted by this conversation.
As she starred half at Jiang, half through Jiang the sound of foot steps coming down the supposedly vacant street caught her attention and cause she her whip around to see who it was. It was a small group of men, two or three of them, with flash lights waving them down one alley to the next as if searching for something or someone.
These men put a scare into Tevadi that was written clearly on her face. If it wasn't for her already pale skin, you'd think she had gone white with fear. The girl panicked, shove Jiang by his shoulders down into the water, whispering urgently, "Get down! Get down! Before they see you!"
The girl quickly joined the half-dragon half-fish boy in the water, quickly holding her breath and dunking down deep into the water, her hair and her body looking almost as if she was melting into it.
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Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:52 am
He was about to protest the abrupt shove, probably with a loud statement about personal space, but her fervent whisper and subsequent plunge into the water next to him convinced him to leave the tirade for another time. Probably better that he remain unseen himself, anyways.
He gracefully let himself slip back into the water, and nudged a large mass of floating leaves over their heads to better hide them. It was more for his benefit- he may be the one able to breathe down here, but his coloration wasn't exactly made for camouflage. He glanced over at his companion and, though he knew she couldn't answer him at the moment, whispered quietly. "I would greatly appreciate a more detailed explanation, once those men have passed."
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:26 pm
Tevadi nodded her head to Jiang slightly as the men walked by. One stopped to flash his light down onto the water-way only to see the pile of leaves that was covering them, though the reflecting light caused Tevadi to shrink farther down into the water in hopes of not being seen.
After several more minutes the men were finally gone and Tevadi had ruled it safe in her mind to surface. She scrambled up to the surface, giving off a gasp as she tried to regain oxygen into her system. It didn't matter if she was dubbed Midnight Cove, she still didn't have gills no matter how many times she sank into the water. She'd learn this eventually.
She waited for the fish/dragon-boy to resurface before frantically blubbering a thousand and one apologies to him hoping he wouldn't be a million times angry.
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:59 pm
He surfaced somewhat more slowly- not having to worry about air helped- and took several moments to pick the soggy leaves out of his hair before paying any attention to the frantic stream of apologies bubbling from the girl's mouth.
Once he considered himself presentable again- though he still looked fairly irate, he calmly held up a hand to stop her speech. "Your lack of decorum is astonishing, but given your apparent situation, I will accept your apologies. Under one condition." He paused briefly to remove a last stubborn leaf that had stuck itself on one of his horns, then leveled her with a piercing stare.
"You fear discovery by those men- why?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:42 pm
Tevadi averted her gaze. She didn't like the look he gave her, it was similar to that terrible woman's back at the manor. Despite the chills resonating down her spine from his stare, and her wet and cold body she answered quietly and slowly, "They're...trying to stop me...from finding that woman."
She looked back towards him, though not at his eyes, instead she had contented herself with counting the matching scales on the boy's face. Black and orange, black and orange, shiny from the water.
"I ran away from there...Because they wanted me to help get information on her," She paused for a brief moment, "And I won't do it...I'd rather sit in his jail cell for stealing the bread than help him hurt that woman."
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