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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 9:00 pm
Hijil ran through the woods, bare feet flying across the root-strewn ground in the eternal twilight of Jahuar, occasionally splashing through puddles of silver moonlight. She made her way through the jungle.
Finally she saw what she sought - the wooden platform looming out of the leafy boughs of the mid-canopy.
"Bhima!" the girl called, scanning the trees for the bright colors that would mark her friend. Without waiting for a response, she scaled the tree with the ease and grace of her race.
She held a hood on her head, a bonnet hiding her hair and head from view. It was what had her excited today. If she was the sort of person to bounce on the soles of her feet, she would be doing so. She was, however, not, and instead clambered onto the platform with obvious enthusiasm in her stes.
"I have something to show you!" she said excitedly, looking around.
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:43 am
Bhima's feet hung over the edge of the platform, and hearing Hijil's voice brought her face down as well. What in the world had her so excited? Not that it wasn't nice! Hijil was sometimes quiet and forlorn; she much preferred an exciting Hijil. She smiled when the girl reached her and drew her legs back onto the platform.
"Oh?" she asked, unable to control her grin, "Is it your new fashion sense?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:24 am
"No..." said Hijil, fidgeting almost impatiently at her bonnet-hood, "Yes." she amended, approaching her friend. Inwardly, she was definitely bouncing. She was always delighted to see Bhima, that bright point in her day and nights, but today had been generally bright and so... Well, it was even better than usual!
"Oh Bhima!" she said, barely able to restrain herself, "You have to see!" she took off the bonnet with unusual amounts of flourish - unusual for her, anyway. She was just excited, too excited to be as calm as she normally was.
"Look!" she said, straightening the thick braid that fell from the side of her hair, letting it coil down to her shoulder from the knot it had been kept in with the bonnet, "Look!" she pointed to her head, half shorn and half long, "Isn't it nice?" she asked.
Formerly, it had been just below her shoulder, a thick length of white hair that fought against any attempt to tame it into a shape.
Now though... "What do you think, Bhima? What do you think?" Hijil asked, slightly anxious.
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Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:05 pm
Hijil's excitement was catching. Bhima peered up at Hijil with growing interest. What could possibly have happened to get such an even-manner girl so excited? The reveal was a great flourish, and her lips fell open.
Well, that was certainly... different. Not something she would have expected, herself. Hijil's hair had been so pretty before, and now...
The Alkidike stood and ran a hand over the close-shorn side of her friend's head. It was fuzzy, soft... Just look at how excited she was. It wasn't like she had shaved her head, or something equally as distressing. Hijil just had a new style, that was all. Bhima smiled as she ran her fingers over the braid.
"It's neat," she nodded, "I wish I could do more things with my hair."
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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 9:15 pm
Hijil was glad that her friend liked it. She certainly did. It was lighter, for one thing, and it just looked plain interesting.
She let Bhima run her hands over her hair, twitching slightly as her hands brushed the soft fuzz of her shorn side. It wasn't a bad feeling - Bhima had never, in the time Hijil had known her, made her feel bad.
It was just strange, like water when you first go in: Cool and unexpected. But then, like water, she knew she would get adjusted, and it would not be so unexpected or startling. Only nice.
"I like your hair." Hijil commented, turning to her friend - amused briefly with how her braid moved along with her - "It has..." he hesitated for a moment, trying to find the words to describe what she wanted to say. "...shape." she said, giving up. Finding words and describing things was not her strong point. Bhima's hair was a shape, or rather, shaped, and she did like the thick, dark shape it took. "What do you mean, though?" she asked, reaching out to touch one of the thick strands of Bhima's hair, gently letting it flow off of her fingertips, "You could do a lot with it."
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:19 am
Surprisingly, Bhima seemed to understand. Hijil had the hair of an Earthling, for certain. It was pale and straight, not like the hard twists and curls of Alkidike hair. It seemed to her like so much more could be done with smooth, compliant hair.
"Oh, I guess so," she nodded, simply allowing Hijil to touch her hair, "You can tie it up in different ways. Nothing too exciting without chopping some of it off and... I don't want that."
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:54 pm
Hijil admired Bhima's hair and how it balanced on her hand on its own. She let it fall, shaking her head seriously. "I don't want that either..." she said. She couldn't imagine what Bhima would look like without her thick, shaped, mane of dreadlocks. She couldn't imagine what Bhima would look like without her hair at all. She ran her hands through the soft fuzz that coated half her scalp and thought for a moment.
"I think theres lots of ways you could tie up your hair." she said finally. She was no expert, but... "Maybe we can try some ideas tonight..." since she was in a hair mood and all.
Unless Bhima had other ideas? Hijil smiled queryingly at her. She didn't mind if they did something different. She enjoyed any time she spent with the alkidike girl enough that it didn't matter what they did - she was just happy to have done it together with her.
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:01 pm
Bhima gave a soft hum, tingles creeping down her neck. She had never realized how nice it felt to have someone play with your hair, probably because she generally refused to let anyone touch it. Sometimes her mothers were allowed, but only sometimes. The still liked to put her in pigtails given the opportunity, and that was not okay with the young Alkidike.
"Sure, sure," she agreed, nodding to Hijil. Anything to feel so calm and relaxed! "It's just sort of annoying, you know? I can't do fine braids. Sometimes I wish I had Earthling hair. My friend back home, she's half-Shifter and she ended up with long, straight black hair. Not that dreadlocks aren't nice too." She gave a faux-vain hair toss and then laughed.
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:21 pm
Hijil beamed, which for her was more in the eyes than the smile. "All right!" she said, laughing as well at the fake hair toss.
She moved behind Bhima to better manipulate her hair. She twined it around her hand, playing with it and its remarkable sponginess gently. "She sounds lucky..." Hijil said, twisting Bhima's hair around - she was right, not so good for fine braids, but there were other kinds of hair-knots and such, and Hijil had some ideas. "I saw a shifter once. With black hair. They weren't hybrids, though." At least, she didn't think so - she'd only seen them from afar on a rare foray near Ast, and she hadn't wanted to ask her mother. She untwisted what she'd done. "Would my hair look... nice... black, Bhima?" she asked idly, running her fingers through Bhima's hair to straighten it.
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:37 pm
Bhima was always glad to see Hijil smile. She was a quiet type, presumably from her home life if what the Alkidike gleaned was true. She didn't like to think about it here, though, just like she imagined Hijil didn't. They came here to escape, and to exist in a world where there was only them.
"Really? The only Shifter I know with black hair is Lasarra. She's got dark grey skin too, and black eyes like me. I don't think she's too lucky, though. The other Sisters don't like her." She shrugged and gave a little sigh, feeling Hijil beginning to think of... something?
"Hm? You?" Bhima turned her head again to give Hijil a once-over. She was so light-colored, it was hard to imagine her with stark black hair. "I don't know. I kind of like how pale you are."
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Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:47 am
"Lasarra?" said Hijil, surprised. She had no friends herself... in fact she didn't know many people besides her mother. Reshel, maybe. His nephew, briefly. And Bhima, of course.
Somehow, she'd thought it was the same for Bhima, that she was the only friend in her life, as Bhima was in her own.
That didn't seem to be the case, though. She didn't think that Bhima had mentioned Lasarra before - of if she had, it had been rarely and not recognizable, much like how Hijil talked - or rather, didn't talk - about her mother.
Hijil thought for a moment. "I suppose you're right." Black hair would look very different. But if Bhima liked her the way she was, that was more than Hijil really asked for. That was good.
"Tell me about her..." she asked, arranging Bhima's hair, "Lasarra." She was not jealous. Jealousy was not an emotion that was really there. Envy was, to some extent, but it was out of a desire to share.
She just wanted to share.
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Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:51 am
Bhima shrugged, closing her eyes as Hijil played with her hair. Really, Lasarra was her only friend outside of Hijil. She wasn't very popular back home, perhaps for her penchant for starting (or ending, as she liked to think) fights.
"When we were a lot younger, some other kid was making fun of her. He hurt her, so I got in and decked 'im. We've been friends since then," she offered, "S'not like you and me, though. I mean, it's different." Being so young, that was perhaps the best explanation she could offer, but it was different. Lasarra didn't make her feel the same ways Hijil did.
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:02 pm
Hijil imagined the situation - the girl being teased, the other kid teasing her, maybe pulling her hair, poking her or... or something. Maybe he'd hit her, like mama did when she was in one of her moods.
And then Bhima swooping in, hitting him and saving the day and rescuing this Lasarra person and being her friend forever.
It sounded nice and it was easy to imagine. "That... sounds like you, Bhima." said Hijil smiling with pride. "Did that person try to tease her again?" asked Hijil. "And..." She braided Bhima's hair intricately, "What is Lasarra like?" She wanted more details. 'Different' friend or no - and Hijil wasn't sure what that meant and didn't mind or care particularly - a friend of Bhima's could well be a friend of hers, or a potential friend.
And another friend would be nice, even if it was by proxy. Even if she never met Lasarra. Knowing about her would be a piece of Bhima's life that she could take part of. That would be nice.
"Is she anything like you?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 2:15 pm
Bhima smiled at Hijil's comment. Yes, it did sound quite like her, didn't it?
"No,he never teased her again," she said, "Some other kids still do, though. Then some of the adults, and I can't really help that, even though it's stupid. Her dad's almost never around. She has a dad and a mom, though, not a mom and a mom."
She kicked her feet then, imagining Lasarra and all of their differences.
"She doesn't fight. She's, um... she's kind. A little shy, maybe. She gives hugs sometimes, you know, when I might need one. It's pretty easy to make her laugh."
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 11:07 am
"Oh." said Hijil. She reached the end of Bhima's braid and realized she had nothing to tie it with. If she did not, the braid would fall apart and all that hard work would be for nothing.
She was slightly confused by Bhima's comment. Hijil knew that she herself had a father, though she had never met him, and had assumed that that was how it worked, not that her mother ever told her or made it any clearer.
She knew two women could be together - she'd seen it at a distance once, when she was out foraging - two woman, very close. She had asked her mother about it, and had gotten only a shrieking tyrade in response. Two women could be together like a mother and a father, but it was apparently bad.
Again, though, her mother hadn't told her what she meant by that, or even why it was bad. She'd just sort of let her mother go on and believed her, like she always did. It was just easier that way, and her mother was older and theoretically wiser.
But Bhima had said 'a mom and a mom', and she had said it as if it was not a bad thing, but totally and completely normal. Hijil paused in her braiding, holding the complicated twists and turns together with one of her thick hands.
That itself was interesting. She would have to ask Bhima about it later, if she remembered.
She leaned back and tore off a piece of vine with her other hand, manipulating it into straightness with her fingers - this, she felt, would do for a tie.
She started to lock in the braid. "She sounds like a very nice person..." Hijil said, smiling, "Maybe I could..." she began, before stopping abruptly. She let the thought trail off into focused silence as she carefully tied the vine.
Somehow, meeting Lasarra, this shy, huggable, laughing, vulnerable friend of Bhima's seemed like an impossibility, something she could not even dare to hope for.
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