• Ϯѻɼϯʉɼɛɗ • →ʂlคvɛ ɼp← f u l l

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy blinked at the abrupt statement, and looked up at him,
"What do you want to know?"
Her life hadn't been anything special. Quite depressing actually...but she she knew of others that had real stories to tell.
Sjhe was aware of his arm on her shoulder, but she didn't really care. She wasn't much one for romance, or dramatic thoughts, so anything friendly was just comforting, so it didn't bother her.
She ran a hand through her bangs carefully, waiting for him to answer.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Curiosity shrugged. "It doesn't matter," he replied in a low voice. "Anything. I don't know. Friends you remember from back home. What the world is like now. What people do. How they act with each other. Do a lot of people still have children, or have some of them given up? I don't know. Just tell me something. Anything."

He turned his odd eyes back towards the door. "It's been a long time since I heard about anything back home."

And a longer time since he had really wondered about it. It was starting to fade away in his memory.

He just wanted to be distracted until Naïveté and Reticence came back.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy sighed, "It's a dark dreary place. People give up anything they might find beautiful..." she looked down, "Even their children...so the orphanages are packed. Fear does things to people..." she chewed her lip. She hated people. Most people, in general. "But..." there were the good parts, "When it snows...and the animals come out...and the winter lillies bloom..." she sounded like her mind was in a far off place, "There is not a single place like the woods by my home, where Lynx and deer stay alike...by the cave..." her mind was flashing to a memory. It was hard to tell that if she meant to continue speaking or not, "where the water dripped, when there was no water...and when hope was lost it gave faith...sometimes I'd find little children hiding away in back...but they always left...I should have left too....but the roof...it glistened like nothing I'd ever seen....like stars."

((Ooo Ooo, can he name her 'Passion'? Because everything about her is so extreme and ...well, passionate XD ))  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

((OOC: Whatever you like. It's your character. smile ))

Curiosity smiled a little. "I knew a place like that," he said quietly. "At least, I think I did. I feel like I remember something like it. Not a cave, though. Mine was a field. I guess we all had some little piece of beauty back there."

Except Reticence, maybe. The other boy didn't seem to remember anything of their lives before.

Curiosity shook it away with a brief glance at the door. "I..."

A low sigh of relief came through his lips when the door finally creaked open. Reticence came in alone, however, and he was quiet. He looked perhaps mildly shaken, but that was all.

"Naïveté?" Curiosity asked. Reticence gave him a tired glance and sat down abruptly on the opposite cot, staring into space.

"Her room," he rasped. Then he fell back into his moody silence, eyes fixed on something only he could see.

Curiosity rose and offered a hand to Maxy. "Come on. We'll go check on her."  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy took his hand and stood, going to the door, but first turned to Reticence and asked at a volume only a breeze could match, "And you? Are you alright?" She didn't expect a response...or at least not a truthful one. With a sigh, so looked to Curiosity to lead the way.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence looked up at her question. Empty face, empty eyes. There was no response to her words for a few seconds, although Curiosity had stopped to listen as well.

Finally he laughed. Dryly, with no amusement in the sound. "You tell me."

Curiosity shut his tawny eyes, and turned away. He knew what that voice meant.

Whatever he'd seen, whatever had tested him, it had left him broken. And it would take a long time for him to heal again.

In the meantime, he would want no comfort.

"Come on, Maxy," he said quietly. "Let's go."

He put a light hand on her arm to guide her.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Maxy nodded, but pulled away, running over and hugging him before running out the room, and grabbing Curiosity's arm on the way. There was a 50/50 chance that he would try to kill her for that, but at least then he would be showing some emotion, right?

"So...my room?" she blinked, "I think it's this way," She started the way she'd gone, before, not letting go of Curiosity's arm, in case she got it wrong.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence immediately went still when Maxy hugged him, and remained tense until she moved away again. His eyes were fixed on the far wall, like he saw something particularly interesting there.

Aside from his tensing, which one could argue was no more than an instinctive reaction in a person who had become a lab rat, he made no move or sound in reaction to what she had done.

Curiosity guided her away.

"That's right," he told her quietly when she started the way she had pointed out. He kept up with her easily, and once they were far enough away from Reticence's room, he gave her a quizzical look. "And just what was that about, anyway?"

She didn't know Reticence like he did, so that was excusable, but he'd thought they didn't like each other. Was that Maxy's way of offering him comfort? And if so, why?  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

"He's always so angry around me....to see him...not doing ANYTHING....it's worrying." She tsked, "It either A) made him want to kill me, B) be gave him some comfort....or the apparent one C) he had absolutely no reaction externally...I'd like to think it helped a LITTLE, but honestly, I've got no clue." She looked at the ceiling as she walked, and clung to Curiosity's arm, "Do you think he felt ANYTHING?" she gave him her best puppy dog eyes.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Curiosity hesitated, then sighed. "You meant it for the best, Maxy, I know, but...be more careful with Reticence, all right? He...being touched isn't really his thing. And he's not always angry with you," he insisted, always wanting to get things right.

He thought about her question, letting her cling to his arm while he did so. "Maybe," he said at last. "It's hard to tell - he did get the name Reticence for a reason, you know."

Then he took a deep breath. They had stopped in front of Maxy's door. "I...we'll go in. Are you ready? If you don't want to..." he trailed off, looking confused.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

"I'm ready." Maxy nodded, eyes full of determination. She motioned for him to open the door, and tried to even out her breathing. Whatever it was, she would help. She was hoping it wasn't that bad.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Curiosity opened the door slowly, speaking quietly. "Naïveté? It's me and Maxy. Are you in there?"

A little whimper was his only reply. He opened the door further, and eventually revealed her. She was quivering like a terrified animal, curled up into a miserable little ball. Her face was hidden from view, her blanket covering her entire body. And she didn't say a word.

He knelt beside the cot, gently touching her shoulder. And she shrieked, pulling farther away and burrowing deeper into her blankets. "It's okay," he crooned softly, like a parent to a terrified child. "It's okay, Naïveté. Come on, let's see."

Slowly, a pair of enormous eyes stared out from the shadow of the blanket, wide and frightened. "C-C-C..."

Curiosity touched her face, nodding gently. "Yeah. It's me. It's okay. Come on out."

The blankets shifted back and forth, like shaking her head. "No, no, no no no no no no no."

"Okay," he said, still keeping his voice nonthreatening and gentle. "Okay, you don't have to."