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 Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:22 pm
For once, Hadrian was not wandering. He was, in fact, hanging upside-down from a rather strong limb of his "fancy tree", trying to withstand the rushing blood to his head.
Basically, he was building up his physical tolerance.
His face was bright red, and his eyes closed against the sun. His sunglasses had fallen off quite some time ago and lay half-folded on the ground below.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:29 pm
Grete, on the other hand, was wandering. She had noticed someone in the tree (what was it with the new people and trees?) and she decided to see who it was. She recognized Hadrian immediantly, and tried her best not to frighten him. He could've been sleeping. She wasn't quite sure.
She stepped on a twig, and with a loud crunch, it snapped. Grete flinched a bit at the noise, and leaned over to pick up Hadrian's fallen sunglasses.
"I think you've dropped your sunglasses," she whispered, trying to speak softly, just in case he was asleep. One could never be too sure.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:32 pm
"I didn't drop them," Hadrian spoke calmly, eyes still closed, "They fell off. Hiya, Grete." He opened his eyes then and bent in half to grab the limb with his hands and then drop to the ground, retrieving his sunglasses, brushing them off, and putting them on.
He felt amazingly dizzy as the blood rushed from his face, and he leaned against the tree for support.
"What's up?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:37 pm
"Hey, Hadrian," Grete half-smiled. He'd remembered her. That was always a good first start to a friendship.
"Oh, nothing, really. Just was taking a walk. To clear my head. How're you doing?"
Grete was a bit worried at how Hadrian had stumbled slightly to hold onto the tree. Was he alright? Grete hadn't had much experience hanging upside down from trees, so she didn't know of the extreme dizziness that came afterwards. She wasn't going to bother him about it yet; only if it seemed really serious later.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:44 pm
Hadrian shook his head, hair floofing about, and recovered from the dizziness.
"I'm alright. Taking a short break from pointless box-moving and various weakened damsels in distress." He was in a fairly good mood, and so didn't quite fear Grete's odd emotion-guessing skill.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:49 pm
"Aw, damn," Grete said, with a smile on her face, "Because, see, the real reason I went out walking was to find you, just so that you could move some more boxes for me." She desperately hoped that he realized that she was joking. She really didn't want to start a fight over a joke. She also found it a bit irritating when "I'm kidding" is added after the end of something funny, so she refused to say it.
Grete pointed to the base of the tree.
"Mind if I take a seat?" She said it extremely politely. She didn't want to invade his privacy. Or alone-time.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:52 pm
Hadrian laughed and made a sweeping movement with his arm.
"Not at all! I've been told this is the best tree on the grounds. Might as well share the wealth."
Hadrian was, as a rule, not a very happy person. He was beginning to scare himself.
Maybe the upside-down-ness had gotten him stoned or something.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:57 pm
"Best tree on the grounds, huh? Well, it certainly seems nice," Grete said, as she sat down, her back against the bark. She spent a moment straightening out her skirts so that she could stretch her long legs out infront of her. Slowly, she kicked her shoes off, and glanced up at Hadrian, and shielded the sun from her eyes with one hand.
"It is a pretty good tree, you know. I'm sure you had to fight people off just to get this spot," Grete looked down and sighed, just slightly.
"I nearly got into a fight with a new person here the other day. A verbal fight, you know. Have your past couple of days been any better than mine?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:59 pm
"Probably," Hadrian half-smiled and slumped to the ground beside Grete, "I think I've made an enemy, but I don't particularly care." He then turned to her, eyes squinted against the sun.
"I don't think I ever asked...what do you do around here, exactly?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:04 pm
Grete stared at him, studying his face for a moment. She chewed on her lip, and sighed.
"You know, this is the question that I nearly got in a fight over," she laughed to herself and then figured that she'd face what she was so afraid of. But she also felt like she might could trust Hadrian, and allow the truth to spill out. Time would tell, though.
"I'm a medium," she said, a bit quickly, "Though, I'm not really...well," she let herself trail off. She'd only get into that if it came to that. "What do you do? What's your talent?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:39 am
"I lie for a living," Hadrian said, smile both proud and smug, "I dab on some makeup, hold my breath, and there you go. Merman."
He then paused, brow arched.
"Well what?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:21 pm
Grete heaved a heavy sigh of relief. His 'job' made everything so much better.
"I pretty much lie for a living, too. It's good to know that I'm not the only fraud. See, where I'm from, everybody can speak to ghosts," Grete glanced down at her hands, and then back up at Hadrian, "Except me. I don't know why. Everyone thought that I was this stupid, freak child. It wasn't a particularly good time in my life. My family sort of disowned me in shame."
She paused, and then added, "I'm sorry. You probably don't really care to hear all this..."
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:35 pm
You're quite right.
"It's alright. Everyone in my family was real tan. I even think my dad had grey skin," Hadrian rotated his arms to display his terribly pale-white skin, "Granted, I wasn't disowned for it."
He then grinned to Grete.
"But we compulsive liars need to stick together, huh?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:41 pm
Grete smiled.
"I guess we should stick together. Though, when will I know that you're lying to me?" She challenged him in a bit of a playful way. It was a good feeling to know that there was at least one other person who's skill wasn't genuine.
And to be on his good side. That too.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:49 pm
"Because I..." he paused, "Because." There was really no proper explanation for a statement such as that.
He half-smiled to Grete, feeling truly content in her presence.
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