[plot] Hey Ladies. ;D [Vanya + Takis] (finished)

[Menelie]

Takis takes a walk through the forest. Sometimes it was nice to get away from his parents and his brother. He felt at peace among the trees.

He plunks down at the base of one and leans against it, closing his eyes.  

[Teigra]

The meaning of true solitude...when the leaves and sticks were your only friends and you had no one to talk to to even lament when they were away. If you'd never had anyone, how could you even know what it was like to miss them? Perhaps it was the best conditions for such solitude.

The dark young faun picked up a twig from the ground, twirling it lightly between her fingers as she studied it. She wasn't thinking anything in particular at the moment...lots of things, and yet nothing at all, all at the same time. If she wanted, she could make the twig dance at her whim...well, not her whim...and for all she knew, the poor thing would be engulfed in flames instead.

Sighing, she dropped the twig again, leaning back against the tree trunk where she sat. What was it she was missing? There had to be more to life than this, but what? She was lost in her thoughts, completely oblivious until disturbed by the sudden sound of something flopping against the opposite side of the tree. Curiosity peeked, fear never crossing her mind, Vanya silently peered around the trunk of the tree, blinking her blood-red eyes at the young faun on the other side.

Was he one of the ones from the Tree? Had they come looking for her? ...wait, why would anyone care that she was gone? Shouldn't they be happy? As she puzzled this over, she continued staring at the other faun unashamedly, not realizing that such behavior might normally be considered creepy.  

[Menelie]

It's a moment or two before Takis notices the girl. And even then, it's a moment before he looks up. It's just a feeling of being...watched. Although, he's rather used to that, so it doesn't bother him until he realizes that he'd been alone. Or at least, he'd thought he'd been alone.

He looks toward the source of the watching presence, and comes face-to-face with....a girl?

He blinks rapidly and scooches stumblingly backward. "Uh, hi there," he says awkwardly. "You...you're a girl!"

Nice work, genius, he thinks. No duh she's a girl.  

[Teigra]

"Yes. And you're a boy," came the flat reply. There was no expression on Vanya's face as she spoke, simply blankness and blinking. And more staring.

Are such exchanges of obvious facts normal conversation topics? I didn't think so...but what do I know?

So...what was she supposed to do now. Normally there was rock-throwing, or parents rushing in to shuffle their kids away with not-so-hushed tones. Then again, that was both when she was still a child...and back at the Tree. She'd heard rumors about that there were other Fauns living away from the Tree, so she couldn't have been the only one to leave it. Had this one left too?  

[Menelie]

Takis blushes. "Heh. So I am. Um, I'm Takis. What's your name?"

Cripes, she just kept staring at him. Were all girls like this? He didn't really know very many girls. Except for Mama, who wasn't really a girl anyway. Didn't count.

But she didn't stare. Didn't she tell Takis and Terran a long time ago that it was rude to stare? Maybe this girl didn't know that.

But wouldn't it be just as rude to point it out?

Takis scratches the back of his neck. Girls are difficult.  

[Teigra]

Her name? No one ever cared about her name before. It was a strange concept, just to be asked for it. She was silent at first, then simply responded, "Vanya."

Yes, she was still staring, but she was giving the young male a quick appraising glance now before looking back at his face. Did she know him? Did he look familiar? No, no he didn't. And while she normally wouldn't have been one to initiate, or even prolong conversation, something was nagging at her and she had to know.

"So, you're a faun," she stated plainly. "Are you from the Tree?"  

[Menelie]

"Tree?" asks Takis, puzzled. "What tree? I mean, I'm a faun, yeah."

What a strange person.

But Vanya was a pretty name.

He smiles a little at her.  

[Teigra]

Vanya seemed completely puzzled by this response. How could he be a Faun and not know what she meant by 'the Tree?'

"The Tree. The Great Tree of Life, Laisidhiel? The place where we're all born, where we come from. That Tree." Vanya paused, staring at Takis suspiciously now. "Did they send you to find me? I don't know why they'd bother, unless it was to make sure I'm not coming back. I'm not, trust me." Why would she want to go back there? She was fairing just fine on her own out here on the strange Isle. Things were certainly different here...but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She liked that no one here knew anything about her...  

[Menelie]

"Nuh-uh, not me," says Takis. "I've never even heard of that place. I was born in my house. With my parents." He shrugs. "And I don't even know if they were born in a tree. I mean, Papa was brought up by his guardian, Elizabeth. She isn't a faun, though."

"But no, nobody sent me to find you. And even if they did I'm not very good at finding things."  

[Teigra]

"You found me," Vanya commented casually, adding, "Not many Fauns or Pae do that." She didn't mean anything by that comment exactly, it was just an observation. Didn't have to be looking for something in order to find things, right?

Still, his answer puzzled her. Fauns could come from somewhere other than the Tree? Since when? How long had she been gone? Then again, the part about his father being raised by someone who wasn't faun caught her attention. She'd heard rumors about such, but had never met any of those fauns that had supposedly 'fallen'. And if Takis was calling that faun his 'Papa'...did that mean that the Fauns were breeding? Away from the Tree?

Was it possible?

...apparently so, if the result of which was sitting in front of her.

Still, that brought about another question. Shifting a bit, moving around the tree so she wasn't leaning so far, and leaning on her hands, she asked innocently, "Then, if you weren't sent to find me...why are you talking to me?"  

[Menelie]

"Uh...you started it. You were staring at me," he points out.

Cripes this girl was strange. It was like she'd never met anyone before. Ever.  

[Teigra]

"Yes, but all I did was look to see who sat on the other side of the tree. You initiated conversation with your 'hi'," she countered in a flat tone. She was still dealing with the conversation in a rather technical, analytical manner. Then again, she wasn't sure how else to treat it, having no experience with normal conversation methods.

She blinked, then dropped her gaze towards her hands on the ground. "It's just..." she started slowly, sounding awkward and sad all at the same time. "...normally, no one else wants to talk to me. That's why I asked...I was confused."  

[Menelie]

"Well why wouldn't they?" he asks, scooching around the tree to sit next to her.

"I think you're okay. I mean, you're a little weird, but that's okay, right? Everyone's a little weird. I'm a little weird." He shrugs softly.  

[Teigra]

Vanya seemed surprised by this, red eyes wide. "Are they? It's not just me? Cause, it always seemed like it was just me...that's what they said anyway, which I guess makes sense that you'd want to stay away from the weird one. Weird ones are different and something could be wrong with them or something...bad for the group as a whole..." she trailed off, muttering to herself now. It was as if she'd slipped into a lecture from a textbook.

Then she halted, frowning. "Wait a minute." She looked back at Takis, eyes piercing, but not hostile...merely curious and she could not help their intensity. "But, if everyone is weird...then that would make 'weird' the normal standard...and if weird is normal, then what is weird?" Her head tilted cutely, the female completely wrapped up now in this new puzzle.  

[Menelie]

Takis merely stares at her for a moment. "I...uh, whuhh?" he asks intelligently.

"Now wait a minute," says Takis, sitting up a little straighter. "Different isn't bad. I may not know much, but I know a little." He pauses. That hadn't made much sense. Cripes, but he was bad at talking to girls. "We're different from each other. You've got blue eyes and mine are purple, and your hooves are blue while mine are green. So which one of us is the weird one?" he asks challengingly. He shrugs. "I don't think it matters. We're the same in the important ways, like we're both fauns, and we both have all our bits, like our arms and legs and ears. And even though you being a girl might make you weird, half of everyone is weird right along with you, and like you said, if everyone's weird then there isn't really a weird, is there?"

He realizes he's rambling now. Oh well.

"And anyway, I think people just don't like people who are different from them because they don't know what to expect, y'know? So maybe there is no such thing as weird, and people are just silly. You seem nice enough to me," he says defensively, crossing his arms over his chest. That was a lot more talking than he'd done in a while. As a child he was a huge chatterbox, but not lately. But this girl seemed to bring it out in him, somehow.