|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:37 am
Life just couldn't calm down, not even enough for Aure to enjoy her weekly trip to the library. Instead of researching philosophers, she was writing her conclusion to her research paper (Life Sciences: write six pages on a parasite of your choice, cite your sources, use MLA format, ad nauseum) and listening to someone a few isles over muddle through the folders of old sheet music. He or she was really being quite loud...
She finished her last few sentances and shut her notebook, shoving it noisily into her green messenger bag, right between the textbook with the sea turtle on the cover and a Black 'n Red notebook. This she kicked under the table. Aure would be happy to never see the thing again. Ever. Because it was stupid. "I can think of better insults than that," she mumbled, starting make her way to the isle that housed her current group of study (Freud, Jung, and Voltaire).
Ping.
Aure stopped in her tracks, pivoting on one foot. Was it Lethe in the music aisle? Probably not, this ping wasn't as strong as the one she'd gotten off her friend-enemy-acquiantance. Sort of diluted?
She peered around the shelf at the man. "Are you a Fa'e?" He didn't look like Lethe, or Lethe's friend Dusty. But those two had been enough to educate her (by force) that Fa'e took many forms and appearances. Aure really hoped she hadn't made some kind of mistake; it would be embarrassing if he were yet another variety of reborn thing.
Not to mention, she would look like a total a** (if she didn't already).
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:45 am
There were actually two fairly tall figures in the aisle- one overall very pale with touches of gold, looking patient, and one pale with dark blue hair and a veil that was TRYING to be patient. Both young men looked as if they'd been having a discussion for far too long, and the darker of the two looked about to snap with temper. The voice hailing them caught his attention, however, and forced him to refocus. Luckily, his innate courtesy kicked in before he responded.
"...I am?" Rio responded warily, tilting his head slightly to look her over. His white eyes seemed curious behind his glasses, and behind him Galatyne straightened to peer at her as well. "Is there something I might help you with...?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:58 am
Oh man, where was her observational skill going? DOWN THE DRAIN. How could she possibly be a scientist if she didn't notice giant men in perfectly open library aisles?
"Just curious..." Her voice trailed off as she stared at the formerly-unnoticed one. He wasn't saying anything. He must not be reborn. "You look a little like my friend, uhm, well, friend-like person, Lethe. But you don't resonate the same... sort of like... you're only half a Fa'e or something?" Aure clapped a hand over her mouth. He was obviously a whole person, not a half-of-anything, and she was making an a** of herself. That was okay when people were shorter than her (or being confrontational, or stupid) but not when someone had just been polite to her when she'd just rudely interuppted their conversation. Trying to distract them from her faux-pas (had she really said that?) she said, "I'm Aurelius Venport and you are," without a single stop for breath.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:10 am
For a moment, the two looked at her, then at each other- eyebrows up, long ears flat against their heads. Gala shrugged slightly, hiding a smile, and stepped back to look at the music again- Rio wasn't in any danger, and he still had to find them a new peice of music to work on. Maybe with Rio distracted, he could actually FIND something.
Abandoned to his fate, Rio mustered a smile under his veil and nodded politely to the strange girl assaulting them. "You are...correct. I do not recognise the name of your friend, but there are many Fa'e that I do not know- my name is Rionne. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Venport."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:34 am
"Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. My mouth got ahead of my mind." She moved out from behind her shelf and turned to look at a nearby folder. "So... um, do you like music? No offense, but you don't really look too happy to be here." De Sarasate, who the hell was that? The notes on the paper confused Aure- she usually had a keyboard in front of her to tell her what was what, and a teacher besides- so she put the folder back.
"Uhm... it's just Aurelius, or Aure. Nice to meet you, too, Rionne." She sighed at the folders of music, wishing they had something simple. Like Hot Cross Buns or something. Maybe she could escape to the philosopher's aisle soon?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:43 am
"One of my...instructors insists that I learn piano as a way to focus and learn control," Rio explained dryly, casting a reproachful look at the oblivious Galatyne. "It is not something I would have found on my own- I vastly prefer subjects of a more logical nature. You may call me Rio, if you like. How did you find yourself meeting a Fa'e- unless it was happenstance, like this?"
He had to admit, it was ODD to be identified for what he was by a total stranger in a public place. If someone had said Doppelgaenger, he wouldn't have been so surprised, considering his appearance...but Fa'e? Very odd, indeed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:45 pm
"That sucks," she said, catching the glance at the other guy. The instructor, maybe? "You could always do something like... ah..." Aure paused, thinking. "Risk! Risk is a good game..." She was good at it, a little. Once she came close to beating her grandpa, anyway. "And you have to pay attention to the other person, and not throw all your troops into one place. There. Focus, control, and strategy!" Okay, maybe she was just acting out of her own dislike of her music classes. But if he was miserable, why make him do it? It's not like he was in school (and if he was, he was great at hiding it). She wasn't sure she liked the paler one at all.
"It wasn't really... happenstance. I threw a snowball at her." She shrugged. "And you look sort of like her, except for being tall. And a guy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:16 pm
It occurred to Rio that he really needed to meet other Fa'e, as he had no IDEA who the girl was talking about. "A snowball, Miss Aure?" He murmured, and gave her a lopsided smile. "I can see how that might be quite dangerous, given what I know about some of the other Fa'e. I do hope it didn't cause too much trouble."
The mention of the game made him blink. He'd never heard of it, though he greatly enjoyed most strategy games and was only slightly addicted to certain strategy-based computer RPG's. "It isn't music I mind so much, as the fact that I seem to NEED to learn that focus so badly," he explained with a wince, and took a step forward out of curiosity. "What is this game you speak of? I know someone else who might enjoy it, as well."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:31 pm
"That's true, music when I don't have to play it is fine. C'mon, though, I have a Risk game with me." She nodded, grabbing Rio's hand and dragging him to the table where she had laid all her homework out earlier; it had a copy of her Life Sciences textbook still out, and she knocked it to the floor carelessly, hooking her foot around the strap of her bag to pull it out of the abyss of Under-the-Beneath. Out of the bag fell a box with a map of Earth and the words "RISK" emblazoned on it; Aure picked it up and set it on the table.
"Sit," she ordered, pointing at the other chair. "Probably don't have a lot of time to play before my grandma comes, but I can show you the pieces." As she took out the board, she asked, "So who's the guy you think would like it? 'm guessing it's a guy, 'cause I don't know a lot of girls who like strategy games." She pulled six small glass cases full of minscule army men out of the box and lined them up.
"And pick a color, too." Aure had already ganked the white set, leaving only gold, silver, green, black and blue left.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:39 pm
"His name is Astaroth...another Fa'e." Saying his name didn't hurt quite so much, now that he'd had time to think about the entire situation. He did miss Roth terribly, though. "He's the King of Hell. I would love to see what he could do with such a game."
Rio took a seat across from her, choosing the blue peices and examining the peices and board carefully. Galatyne floated after them, taking a seat at a nearby table to sort through the sheet music he'd found. Rio noticed, but only distantly. "Ah. This is a game of world domination, I see- even more suitable for Astar. I would appreciate whatever time you have to share with me- I am in much need of distraction." n.n
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:49 pm
A demon? Well, dang, Rionne had friends in high places. Aure filed that away, though somewhere she felt a sort of twinge. King of Hell? "Exactly. World domination is the whole point of this game... now, see-" she pulled the top off Rionne's set "-my grandpa got me one of the really good travel sets, so all of the colors have different models to represent different things. For your color, the 10-army piece is the coiled dragon with the ball in his mouth. That means wisdom or something. The 5-army piece is the dude on the horse, and the one-army piece is the peach. 'Kay? You need to count out fifty peaches. I'm gonna deal the cards while you do that, okay?"
She pulled out a deck of cards and started dealing between his side of hte table and her own. "Does your friend wanna play? It's really fun," she asked, nodding at Galatyne. "And he might not look so gloomy." Aure made a face and started to count out her own single-army pieces, which were apples to Rionne's peaches.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:05 pm
Eyebrows up, Rio glanced over at Gala- who happened to glance up at him at the exact same moment. The paler of the two cocked his head slightly, looking over the board and shaking his head.
"No, Miss, but thank you. If it's anything at all strategy, Rio will bury me with no remorse, and I'd like to take my dignity home intact this afternoon." >.>;;
Rio blinked innocently at him and shrugged, counting out his peaches. "Your loss, my friend," he teased, and smiled at Aure. "Gala isn't very good with strategy. He prefers brute force and direct combat- which gets him in all sorts of difficulty, of course. What purpose do the cards serve...?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:12 pm
"Spoilsport," Aure said, flipping over her cards and looking at them. "The cards tell you what lands are yours at the start of the game. See, my card says Eastern United States- so I take one of my armies and put it there. And I just keep going through my cards and placing an army there- once I see where your armies go, I can choose where to put another army."
She had, by then, finished organizing her set- an apple, a snake, and an angel- by number of armies. "The pen can be mightier than the sword, but if you have to use the sword you can't wave it around like an idiot, then everyone just laughs."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:29 pm
"Which is why Gala is considerably better than I with a sword," Rio told her dryly, examining his own cards. His countries, he saw, were remarkably spread out all over the map. If the point here was to defend territory, his odds were decidedly iffy from the outset.
Placing peaches on each of his countries, he noted that he had quite a few left over. "So now I reinforce my more precarious positions...correct? Particularly the ones that share numerous borders with yours?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:21 pm
Aure was delighted; she held Venezula and Argentina, making her conquest of the South American continent practically imminent. "Yep, and I suggest you put a few in South America, 'cause I've got you blocked in there." She placed two more of her apples on Venezula and then spread out the rest among her riskier places; as soon as she was done, she rolled the dice- three white, two green- around in the cage of her fingers, waiting for Rionne to finish as she continued to explain the rules- such as you draw a card when you're done with your turn to let the opponent know, at the beginning and end of your turn you can rearrange your troops and so on.
"And then we roll to tell who goes first," she finished, tapping the quintuplet of dice on the table with a clack.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
