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 Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:40 pm
It'd been awhile now that Mykanos had started working with complete strangers who were apart of the busy towns. Each day he'd make his way down from the mountains to take his place in the orchard with the other gatherers that'd signed up for cherry harvesting. It really was a lovely little collection they had here, with plenty of deliciously ripe, succulent berries. He'd catch a few of his fellow coworkers sneaking a sample of them from time to time, but he refrained. With the moral compass he held, it simply wouldn't seem right for him to do so.
While most seemed to have paired off into their social groups and clusters to yammer on about this and that, Mykanos kept to himself. He didn't mind the lack of company, as social interaction really wasn't a strong suit of his. It was more than enough simply just being around all these unknown people in the same place! From time to time small snippets would be heard here and there from those passing by with baskets swollen with the piled in cherries. Portions of gossip would be dropped, about this fella being seen with another woman, or a lady that'd caught some romantic's eye...or whispering in what they'd assumed to be hushed voice about a handsome gent in their midst's... it wasn't too interesting to him, really, and nothing that drew his attention away from his dutiful drive. Each tender fruit plucked was given a thorough inspection before being plopped in with its kin.
With his current load finally near the point of overflowing, the towering youth headed to the drop off area to deposit what'd been collected, and get back to work. On both the way there and back, he took his time as per usual, even giving pause to gaze up to the heavens as a rather large raven rode the currents above.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:25 pm
Larisa hadn't been signed up for cherry harvesting as long as many of the others seemed to have been, but she found that she was more and more glad that she'd decided to take the job with each passing day. The orchards were just so beautiful, with all those cherries such a bright and cheery red, and the days so far had been so pleasant. The work might have been harder than she would have expected, but really that was just another plus for the teenager. Maybe it was a sort of weird opinion to have, but she loved good, hard work like this. There was something so calming about having a set task to focus on and really it almost reminded her of home. It was nice to have something to ease her homesickness just a bit.
As she returned to the deposit area with a freshly filled basket, she glanced around at the other workers curiously. Their conversations had been a half-tuned out hum around her while she'd worked and she saw now that that was because most everyone else had paired up or kept in little social groups. She didn't mind working on her own so much, but she had to admit that having someone to talk did tend to make work go by even more smoothly sometimes. Back on the farm, it hadn't been so hard to let her chores take her out near her dad or brother when she wanted company, but she didn't know anyone here, sadly.
Now that her basket was empty again, she turned to head back out into the orchard and then paused, noting one other worker that seemed to be on his own. She felt nervous already, even before the thought fully formed, but then she approached anyway. And oh, he was a lot taller than she'd thought, that was a little intimidating. Gulping, she considered walking on by, but then she'd just be disappointed in herself again later, wouldn't she? Determined again, she slowed to a stop beside him. He was looking up, she discovered, so she glanced that way too to see what had caught his attention. "Oh, that's a nice image, isn't it?" She wondered aloud, watching the raven slide through the air another moment before glancing back to his face. She really hoped he didn't mind her just speaking to him out of nowhere.
"Hi, I'm Larisa." It was tempting to stick her hand out for a handshake, but it felt too awkward somehow too, so she shifted her grip on her basket nervously instead. "Sorry if I'm, um, bothering you. I just thought maybe you'd be interested in working together a bit? N-not that I'm asking you to help me do my job, I can do it fine, I just wanted someone to talk to and you're alone too, so I thought-" She paused, tried to sort out what she was saying a little, and smiled weakly. "It's alright if you don't want to, but I think it'd be nice to have company."
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:11 am
All sorts of birds were common back home, hawks especially. It was a beautiful sight seeing such predators tearing across the skies so freely, the white plumage of their breasts and stomachs like clouds themselves. And ravens, inky black with a sheen of purple and blue hues that could at times be accompanied by greens held such a character about them. A wisdom, almost.
Getting caught up in his thoughts, he didn't react at first to the girls presence or voice. It wasn't until he could feel her warmth radiating against his bare arms that he slowly tilted his head back down to look at who was stationed beside him. Staring at her with his usual emotionless expression, Mykanos' gem like eyes kept firmly stationed on her, only a very subtle nod given in response to the birds compliment.
He was surprised, but it didn't show. There were very few who approached him, and even less that would make formalities like these. The only few times it did happen were with the older members of the harvest who desired his assistance with something or another, to which he had no issue obliging to. However this young lady seemed to desire his company, which was quite foreign to the recluse. Lacking social grace, he didn't even return the introduction of his own name, and proceeded to instead absorb and process what it is the female wanted. Company. It was another weighted pause before he gave an answer, "Sure." was all he gave, voice deep, but gentle and rather calm. Lifting his gaze slowly, he looked down to the spot he'd been at before, prepared to head that way....
but he paused again... Did she want to go back to her own spot? Uncertain what to do, he instead gave a motion with a tip of his head for her to lead the way to where she wanted to start picking.
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 3:30 pm
Larisa fought down an urge to squirm as he stared blankly down at her. He'd nodded a bit, she thought, after she'd said something about the bird flying overhead, but it had been so slight it was possible she'd imagined it. Gradually, as the time stretched out, her smile began to fade. Maybe he wasn't saying anything because she really was bothering him. Maybe that was supposed to be her cue to leave him alone, but she was too stupid to know it. Maybe she should just pretend she'd never spoken to him at all and move on before this got any more awkward. Heart sinking, she shifted her weight in preparation of doing just that and paused, startled by a response at last.
Lighting up as realized he'd agreed to her request, she beamed up at him. "Oh, I'm so glad!" Letting out a breathy, relieved laugh, she waited a second to see where he wanted to go, or if maybe he would give his own name, but instead there was only a tip of his head. Successfully interpreting that as a motion for her to lead the way, she turned to head back to the area she'd been working in. She figured there were still plenty of cherries for them both in that area, since even if she had gathered a lot earlier, there'd been just as many up above her reach that wouldn't give him a problem at all.
She started picking again, glancing over repeatedly in an attempt to judge whether he was really alright with the spot, and after a couple of minutes was confident enough to try striking up the conversation again. He didn't seem like a very talkative person, so she really hoped this wasn't as awkward for him as she felt, but he had agreed to keep her company, right? "So do you have a name?" She paused, shaking her head. "Oh, um, sorry, that's a silly question, of course you do. I guess what I meant was, what is your name?" Reaching for another cherry to add to the basket, she looked over with another shy smile. "Since we're cherry-picking buddies now, I should know what to call you, right?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 4:52 pm
He waited a moment to follow after the girl, his long gait fluid, and able to easily keep up so as not to drag behind. With their location decided, he set down his empty basket, and inspected the beautiful tree they were to pluck from. Such lovely little fruits it bore, winking from time to time under the suns grace. Around them not many people were stationed, proving it to be a smart match for the small duo.
As per usual, he took his time. There was no rush, and no hurry, and he was enjoying himself. Hands carefully pried the treats from their branches with considerable care, even the drop wasn't too far a fall thanks to his long arms. He would turn a few between his thumb and forefinger with great intrigue, his attention keeping solely on the vegetation. The piping up of the girl wasn't responded to until she was fully finished speaking, patiently waiting for her to get the sentences sorted before returning a proper answer.. or at least what he figured was correct.
"Mykanos." that calm voice murmured, somewhat in a distracted tone, as he stared intently at a berry that'd been munched on by some sort of insect, the bite marks very prominent, juices even still oozing out around the edges! perhaps it'd been freshly done...
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 8:27 pm
"Mykanos," Larisa repeated slowly, testing the name as she committed it to memory. She wondered, briefly, if now that he'd introduced himself he would actually open up and start talking back to her, but he seemed content simply to tend to the cherries. Letting out a little sigh, she wondered if she ought to just do the same, just go back to the silence and let the presence at her side be enough. But she couldn't shake the feeling that that would just be the thing that annoyed him. If she just started ignoring him after she'd gone to the trouble of asking him to spend time with her, what would he think of her then? This thought seemed more likely than the idea that he hadn't wanted to talk to her at all, and she just had to hope that he simply preferred listening to talking. No one had ever warned her how difficult it could be, reading strangers.
"You know, you're about the same height as my brother is." She sneaked another glance up at him as she added another cherry to her basket and hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe a little taller, though. We used to talk a lot while we worked like this too. Although, um, not exactly like this. We didn't have any orchards or cherries or anything on the farm." And he tended to talk back. "It might be nice to try sometime, though, I'll have to suggest it. Having more trees around could never be a bad thing either way, don't you think?" Belatedly, she thought she should have chosen a topic to ramble on about that wouldn't make her homesickness that much worse, but oh well.
"Do you think these trees are very climbable? I think if I was going to ask for more trees at home, I'd want them to be something I can reach the top of. Everything looks different from up high, you know?" She tilted her head back to consider the height of the tree a moment. "And maybe I could knock down more cherries or something?"
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