[PRP] The King meets the Pawn

[Komse]

Who : Jezabroux, Luka, Ripley and Rong Wei
Where : The Inkblot, a small locally owned book store on the corner of Hillby and East Rise
When : Noon
Weather : Slightly overcast with no chance of rain. Mild temperatures in the seventies.



Pulling several picture books from the bookshelf, Jezabroux flipped through the splendidly illustrated pages. Some of the books were simple, feauring a sketch that took up the whole page with one sentence while others were more complex, featuring an equally embossed page with one to two paragraphs. He flipped through the multitude of books before picking two simple ones and one moderately complex picture book. The acupuncturist replaced the rest of the books onto their appropriate shelf before holding out his choices for his charge.

"What do you think of them, Luka? Or, would you rather something else?"

Heterochromic eyes watched the Stayr carefully past the dark tinted lense of Jezabroux's prescription sunglasses. During the course of several days, he had finally gained an accurate grasp on Luka's capacity for learning. The Raevan was practically a dry sponge, soaking up everything his charged presented him with. Since Luka's arrival to the apartment from the lab, jezabroux had worked hard to immerse the boy in various vocabulary. It was mostly naming an object and matching it to his proper name ten minutes later. Nothing too difficult but still stimulating for the Frei. On the bright side, Luka had mastered colors and counting to ten within his first two days. However, speaking in coherent sentences seemed to be quite a far way off.

It wasn't that Jezabroux was stressing subject-verb agreement or formal and informal speech on Luka. Just, things would be so much easier if he had a better understanding of what the Frei was wanting or needing. Clearly, pointing in the general direction of an object was not the same as naming the object.

Luka took teh outheld books from jezabroux, flipping through the glossy pages with a disinterested expression on his face. All the images were of animals: horses, mice, crows, ducks, and goats. None of these books really stood out. They were all so... dull in comparison to the images that rapidly flashed by in Jezabroux's TV. He gave his wings a light flap before pushing the books back into his guardian's arms. "Gray." He commented dryly, linking the books to the color he had deemed as least attractive. A relation he had establish to Jezabroux by tossing all of his guardian's gray shirts under the bed and shoving orange and brown colored objects into the closet and bureau. It was a crude method to work by but Jezabroux seemed to understand what he meant by it now.

Amber orbs flitting onto his guardian, the Frei pointed to teh other shelves futher down the aisle. "Go see."

Receiving a nod, the Satyr gave his guardian a lazy wave of the hand before floating past the imposing shelves. A slender finger ran along the endge of the shelves as the Frei made his way deeper into the store. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Jezabroux was still in sight, Luka began to pull several books off the shelves in the same manner he had seen his guardian do. These were much thicker and heavier in comparison to the picture books he had held earlier. He opened one to view a page and quickly shut it close when his eyes were met by a barrage of crisply printed letters. They reminded him of the ones in stacks inside Jezabroux's office.  

[Rown]

Ripley was holding Rong Wei's hand.

That very image should have screamed that something was wrong almost instantly, the two of them practically oil and water when it came to their relationship, but here they stood outside the book store hand-in-hand. Rong Wei was looking left and right at the people who passed her by, as if waiting for the crowd to ebb before she could make her way in, though if anyone dared to lean close enough to her they would have surely noticed that her face was gaunt and pale. There were no bruises, no indication she was being forced against her will to stand with him, but the thin trickle of sweat that ran down her cheek and puddled off her chin despite the decent weather almost betrayed her. Her eyes were unsteady and nervous as Ripley started his float forward, the Chinese woman practically lead inside like she was some kind of child or pet. Her normally biting tongue stayed itself inside her mouth as the door opened and cool air rushed over her, though she did give an audible sound of relief the moment Ripley released her to go on and look at books on his own. She quickly rubbed the red flesh that was the palm of her hand, the hairs on her arm pimpling with gooseflesh. As soon as Ripley was a good distance away she went over near a corner and sat herself down in a chair, glad that even a small place like this offered places to sit. The nerves in her legs, in her hands - all were shaking from something she just couldn't understand.

Her strange actions did not go unnoticed by Ripley, though the Egyptian Raevan either made no mention or simply didn't care enough at the moment. His attentions were instead focused on a specific section of books, more specially ones on human anatomy, and from where she sat he could see Rong Wei tremble as she read the header above the selection he was browsing over. Good, let her fear him - it was amazing what he could do without touching her, let alone actually saying anything to her. Of course he knew that this little hump she was in wouldn't last long, the woman was stubborn as a mule, but he could hope. At least it brought silence and a reprieve from her hating glares.

"Herm....."

Now that he was really looking at the selection, Ripely found himself drawn to a rather tall and thick book. It said something about being illustrated, a word he looked because it meant examples were often given to support the text, and the Frei eagerly pulled the book off the shelf and opened it in his hands. He was unaware if anyone or anythign else may have been watching him, as he tended to get tunnel vision whenever books were involved.  

[Komse]

The Satyr Frei floated down the aisle slowly. He occasionally stopped to view the fine print on the spine of the books on the shelves but they held no meaning for him. Or at least for the time being, they held no significance.

Leaning his head back to look at the ceiling, Luka let his eyes follow the general layout of the shop until they settled on something much more interesting. The figure he saw reminded him of himself in terms of general shape yet the finer details of the other made him reluctant. The stranger had broad shoulders like Elai, wings like himself and the coil instead legs. Yet, he lacked the fair skin that Luka had and his wings were like half circle plates glued to his back. They lacked the organic shape and airy feel of Luka's own, rather, reminding the boy of the pewter plate that held apples sitting on Elai's kitchen counter. Then, there was his hair which was like Elai's in color, but completely foreign in terms of style. He had no words to use for them.

Luka slowly floated towards Ripley. Cocking his head, he gave a tentative wave and waited for the other to respond. When he received none, he cleared his throat. Something he had seen Elai do a countless number of times when his guardian was trying to get an occupied person's attention. Luka was tempted to give the Egyptian a tap on the shoulder but he could already envision the look of disapproval his guardian would give him. Ask before touching, something he had come to understand quite well after accidentally breaking one of Jezabroux's apartment decorations. He cringed at the memory and turned his attention back to the person in front of him.

The Frei cleared his throat again, albeit louder this time. "Hullo." The word rang clearly in the air.  

[Rown]

Ripley lifted his head from his book and looked to the right, an automatic reaction in his case since most things tended to come from that side when he was in the house, though a frown smartly set itself on his face when nothing presented itself and he had to turn and look the other way. Of course there was nothing there either, the voice had come from in front of him, and Ripley raised an eyebrow as his vision was graced with the presence of another Frei.

It had been a while since he'd encountered another Raevan, not since the beach, and even then most of those meetings had been a blur of wings, sand, and paintballs. The Sphinx Frei shuddered at the memory of those horrible objects and how it'd taken him standing out in the rain to get the coloring off; Rong Wei had been unsuccessful (and had gotten shocked several times) in trying to wipe it off his body with a wet rag. She claimed he did it on purpose - he had.

"Is there something I can do for you today?"

It was in Ripley's best interests to be friendly to all the Raevans he met, be them useful or useless in future endeavors. He'd require all the assistance he could get, all the allies he could handle, but for now simple manners were more than enough to keep him satisfied. A welcoming smile had replaced the frown rather swiftly and Ripley's eyes spoke of nothing but kindness and merriment; he was slowly mastering the ability to let his face lie for him while his words baited those he interacted with.

"I don't believe we've met before. My name is Ripley, it's a pleasure."  

[Komse]

The newborn cocked his head with amusement as he watched Ripley turned to look on each side before finally looking straight.Seeing the other Raevan's features in light for the first time, the Satyr felt something churn in his chest.It wasn't a feeling of affection; it was something greater, something new. A sensation that he couldn't cover with his limited vocabulary. He wanted them, this stranger's features. From his sun-kissed coffee skin tone to the foreign thick black strands of hair, even the thick metal bands he wore.It was different from his boring white and orange apparel.

Light-honey colored eyes stared at Ripley's contrasting low-key chrome irises as the older Frei spoke. Hearing him talk, Luka strained his ears to pick up any words he might be familiar with. He did however, manage to catch the sphinx introducing himself.He now had a name for this dark, foreign stranger.

"Rip-lee." He enunciated slowly, rolling the name across his tongue. It was coarse to his tongue, unlike the softer consonants found in the names Elai or Hua-Ahn. "Hullo Rip-lee. Yes. First time meet. Mine name Luka." The Frei said with a nod."Ple-jure." He repeated after Jasper. It was a strange word. He was definitely a familiar word, but it was also one Luka had no definition for. So, for now it was just a fleeting afterthought. There were more interesting things at hand.

"Rip-lee, can feel?" The satyr blurted, fingertips hovering above Ripley's chest. Sure, he'd seen Elai shirtless countless numbers of times but this was different. Ripley was like him, and yet, he wasn't. It was... exciting.