Anria is lonely, you meet Anria, yes? Yes
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Post by Anria Liana on Feb 23, 2017 3:09:29 GMT
SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS WE ARE CREATURES OF THE NIGHT RUNNING FROM THE DAY It was rather lonely under the crescent moon, listening to the soft gurgle of water over the rocks as it traveled, never pausing, effortlessly, down from the peaks of the mountains miles away. The trees swayed gently, as though blown by a silent wind, and moonlight trickled off the surface of the calm cold river water into Anria's crimson hair.
She wasn't sure how long she had been standing there for, gazing blankly through the darkness and up at the moon. Just standing, just watching, waiting, patient for a sense of impatience. Anria's wings nosed her shoulders, as though they were of their own accord, gently reminding her of how peaceful the sky was. Their feathers were warm, soft, comforting, and she closed her eyes and smelled the crisp forest air as her large wings wrapped themselves around her.
The Haven had been quiet for weeks now. Anria, even unintentionally, could go days at a time without seeing another therian at a time. Though she wouldn't have admitted so to anyone else, Anria was feeling rather unsettled, perhaps even lonely. Regardless of her tendency to drive others away, the deeper parts of her, the more fragile, insecure, shards of eroded glass within her, longed for human interaction. After all, it was far easier to uphold a facade when there was someone to hide behind a mask for.
Restless, Anria opened her eyes again watching the water slide blissfully over the riverbed, crystalline and cold. Silently, Anria reached up and slipped out of her fitted shirt, stepped out of her combat boots, and slid off her black jeans. Tucking her large wings tightly against her back, Anria paced forward, squeezing her toes in the damp, cool soil and letting a passive breeze flip her red hair over her shoulders.
Calmly, the young therian slipped into the frigid water, and a delightful shiver passed down her spine. When she had waded far enough into the water that she began to float, she slowly submerged her head, and let the water lazily carry her body downstream, listening to her heartbeat in her ears, hardly anticipating interruption.
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and im hardly singing now, never heard a whisper scream so loud
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Post by Alec Weathers on Feb 23, 2017 6:06:19 GMT
give me time and give me space The trouble with staying in one place was that it left Alec feeling caged. Haven was huge- there was plenty of room for him to do as he pleased, whenever he pleased -but there were limits. There were walls. Alec wasn't used to having any, so even when they were spread as far apart as they were, he found them suffocating. What better way to get used to them, though, than to test their limits?
For this reason, Alec found himself exploring a lot, at all hours. He also found that it helped him find the best places to take pictures, too, which was always good to take his mind off things. He'd been following the river for a while at this point, fluttering from the branches of one tree to the next with practiced ease. Perhaps it would have been easier to fly- but what was the fun in that when you knew you wouldn't fall?
He almost fell off the branch he was trying to land on when he spotted somebody else close by out of the corner of his eyes. He hadn't expected anyone to actually be out so far, so late. He almost moved on without much more thought, until he looked closer, still keeping himself mostly concealed behind the tree, and saw the white wings on the the girl's back.
Another therian. He really shouldn't have been surprised by that, given that he was in Haven, but he constantly found himself startled by how open everyone else was about what they were here. And then she started to undress. Alec hardly considered himself a peeping tom- the only reason he'd been staring in the firstplace had been to get a better look at her wings, but he had to admit, she was easy on the eyes. But that wasn't the reason he lowered himself to the ground and started to walk towards her.
She seemed lonely. Normally, Alec wouldn't care- but she seemed lonely in the same way that he did. He couldn't really explain why he thought that, but he let his feet carry him to the riverbed anyway.
"Care for some company?" he asked, looking down at her, one corner of his mouth lifted higher than the other to form his signature smirk. He was so used to faking his confidence that he hardly realized he was doing it anymore. |
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Anria is lonely, you meet Anria, yes? Yes
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Post by Anria Liana on Feb 23, 2017 6:27:53 GMT
SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS WE ARE CREATURES OF THE NIGHT RUNNING FROM THE DAY Sometimes, when she would sit under the surface of the water, Anria would imagine would it would be like to be able to breath underwater. She would take the sky any day, of course, but she enjoyed just imagining it, what it would be like to remain hidden where few therians or humans could go, to not have to rely on air or machinery. Anria had always prided herself on her ability to hold her breath, even as a child. Slow your heart rate, close your eyes, gradually release the gas in your lungs, focus on the sound of the water flowing past your ears.
Halfway through her breath, Anria heard something stir the air and the water, barely picked up with her hawk hearing, disturbing her meditation. Opening her eyes, Anria could just make out a blurry hominoid figure. Careful not to release her breath too suddenly and shock her lungs, Anria floated to the surface, allowing just her head to emerge from the dark water. Her eyes leveled with the stranger's carefully as she blinked the water from her eyes.
Had the circumstances been regular, and had Anria not been starving for human interaction, she would have used her lack of clothing to her advantage in driving away this seemingly nonthreatening stranger. After a few moments of studying the boy, like a cat deciding whether it would enjoy sinking it's claws into it's prey's flesh or not, Anria nodded, threading her fingers up through the surface and watching the ripples they left as the river bent around them/
"Please, keep it in your pants," Anria responded, mirroring his smirk with just as much ease as she rested her elbows on a submerged rock. The river water tickled her chin, and when she licked her lips, she cold taste the fresh and distinct taste of the mountains.
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and im hardly singing now, never heard a whisper scream so loud
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Post by Alec Weathers on Feb 23, 2017 6:51:59 GMT
give me time and give me space Something stirred in Alec when she stared at him, something primal and instinctual softly telling him to run. He ignored it, and met her eyes with a stare of his own. She was an odd one. Her attitude bled confidence but there was something off about, and about her. He crouched and rested his arms on his knees, cocking his head to the side for a moment, analyzing her movements, her actions, clearly trying to figure her out. "I haven't the faintest idea what you might mean," he said with a cocky smile, but his heart wasn't in the act. He was far more interested in Anria.
The longer he stayed, the stronger the feeling of uneasiness became. Under his sweater, his feathers started to fluff up defensively, but he forced them flat.
Ah. So that was it.
She was a bird of prey- his natual enemy in the food chain, though not directly in these circumstances. That's why her stare was was so unnerving- she was scanning him. Since it was fairly clear that he wasn't literally her prey, though, it meant she was looking for something else. She was looking at him- trying to look through him. Why, though?
"Ah," he said, after a few beats of silence, sitting down properly. "I get it now. You're like me." |
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Anria is lonely, you meet Anria, yes? Yes
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Post by Anria Liana on Feb 23, 2017 7:06:49 GMT
SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS WE ARE CREATURES OF THE NIGHT RUNNING FROM THE DAY Initially, Anria had considered that this new stranger and his smirk would be playful and innocent. But for every second she sat in the cool river water with him gazing down at her. she could feel something far more unique radiating off of him. As a breeze carried his prey-scent downwind to her, her smirk switched for a second into something far more sinister as her claws yearned to emerge in full hawk form, but she suppressed her instinctual urges easily.
Though prey seemed to not be the only thing that this stranger was, as his choice in using carefully selected words seemed parallel to her own, and she couldn't help but feel intrigued. After all, what could his excuse possibly be?
Despite the stranger's quick dismissal of her comment with one of his own, Anria could tell that the full of his attitude was not behind his remark. When something changed in his eyes, Anria confirmed that he must have detected that she was, in some sense, his predator. Again, her smirk broadened, and just for effect, she let her pupils sharpen just a touch.
"Oh?" Anria remarked, humored that he seemed to think they were so similar. "A beautiful, sexy woman? Sorry, Sweety, you don't have the curves." Playfully she flicked water toward him off the surface of the moonlit river.
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and im hardly singing now, never heard a whisper scream so loud
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Post by Alec Weathers on Feb 23, 2017 7:28:35 GMT
give me time and give me space As he waited for her response, he took his camera out of his bag and distractedly went through the pictures on it, to give his hands something to do. It didn't mean that he wasn't paying attention, though- far from it. Alec actually snorted at her response, and it was almost genuine. Almost. The confidence would have been cute, had he not been growing more aware of how forced it was.
"No, not that," he replied with a distant chuckle, not even looking up from his camera. "Though I've been told I'm not so bad myself." It was then that he set his camera down, looking up at Anria, gaze unwavering and lacking the warmth he usually fabricated when he spoke to others.
"What I meant was that you have something to hide." In that moment, it felt to him like the supposed prey had become the predator. Perhaps he should have thought for a moment before digging for something so vulnerable and yanking it out so suddenly like that, but he hadn't, and now it was out in the open. Maybe he should have stopped there, but he didn't.
"You're alone," he said, looking back down to skim through his photos. "And it hurts. Otherwise, you wouldn't waste your time with me. You have better things to do." A bit of a reach, really. Alec didn't even know if it was true, but he kept an eye on Anria and her reaction just in case it was. |
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Anria is lonely, you meet Anria, yes? Yes
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Post by Anria Liana on Feb 23, 2017 7:54:02 GMT
SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS WE ARE CREATURES OF THE NIGHT RUNNING FROM THE DAY So he liked fiddling with things, Anria observed, her accusing glare watching his fingers carefully adjust unnamed setting and press irrelevant buttons on his little camera. Anria herself had a habits she would enact upon within different circumstances, and from what she gathered, this fidgeting of his was by no means coincidence to that curious look on his face.
Well, there it was again. Anria rolled her eyes, dropping her head so it was propped up on one of her fists. "What is it with you people and secrets?" She responded briskly, instantly taken back to her previous with encounter with Chase, who had been the the previous to call her bluff. "Of course I'm hiding something. Have you met any of the people in this place?" Anria twirled a manicured fingernail around the air for effect. "We've all got some tragic story, boo hoo, some excuse to be self righteous or selfless or arrogant or introverted. Get over it."
She slunk further into the water, titling her head as she continued to hold this stranger's gaze. "Yeah, I'm alone. Swimming half naked is something I prefer to do alone." And Anria rolled her eyes and hung her head back because she could just feel another lecture coming on. "Oh, my, God. Yes blah blah, it all hurts, I'm so lonely. I cry myself to sleep every night." Again, she leveled her gaze, shaking her head with disappointment. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to... chat with someone every once in a while."
She couldn't help but send another flirtatious smirk his way.
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and im hardly singing now, never heard a whisper scream so loud
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Post by Alec Weathers on Feb 24, 2017 8:20:06 GMT
give me time and give me space It seemed Alec hadn't been to only one to notice her facade after all. It sort of ruined the point of having one, though, if others could see through it so easily.
"Just one," he admitted, when she asked if he'd met anyone else at Haven. He lowered his camera wfor a moment, letting out a wistful sigh, staring off into a place that only he could see at the thought of Etsuko. "She wore her heart on her sleeve. Made me wish I could do the same." Briefly, he wondered where she had gone, before pushing the thought away. Best not to dwell on that. Or anyone else.
He peered through the lenses of the camera, adjusting the zoom, carefulto point it off to the right so as to not make Anria think he was trying to invade her privacy. She wasn't the modest type, no, but Alec still didn't want to convey too much interest. That wasn't why he was here. He only raised an eyebrow at her sass, unfazed and unimpressed. A defense mechanism. It was easy to recognize it as such, since she'd already saved him the trouble of wondering and admitted to everything else.
"Do you?" he asked, a moment too late. "Cry yourself to sleep?" Of all things he could have asked, he wasn't sure why that was the one thing he did. "Was that real? Or just part of your dismissive, self-pitying act?" Vaguely he noticed she was implying something other than talking, but he didn't have the patience to pay it any mind at the moment. |
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Anria is lonely, you meet Anria, yes? Yes
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Post by Anria Liana on Feb 24, 2017 18:47:47 GMT
SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS WE ARE CREATURES OF THE NIGHT RUNNING FROM THE DAY Anria studied him for a moment, unsure of what to say. It was clear to her that she was not on her A-game when it came to dealing with other people that night, and she was beginning to wish she hadn't been so keep on trying.
Here was this boy that could see right through her. No, Anria didn't cry herself to sleep at night, but sometimes she felt like doing so could be somewhat beneficial. He would be mistaken to think that her shield could typically be so easy to pass through. Chase had been someone she had let in, and though he might have been suspicious of her mask at first, he had not wrenched it off the way this stranger had. Anria narrowed her eyes, her gaze switching from his eyes, to his camera, to his face again.
Realizing her careful observations and prolonged silent thought might have held too long and appeared to be confirmation, Anria rolled her eyes away. She sighed, and it was a sigh so alien to her,lacking all the drama and venom it usually carried, that she kind of blinked at her reflection in the water. Hooking her fingers into some submerged roots on either side of her, the conflicted therian allowed her body to float on the surface of the moving water, feeling the river pass like silk over her toes and around her neck and shoulders.
"What's it to you, anyway," she inquired, not for the sake of dismissal, but genuine curiosity. The cold, cleansing calmness of the river made her darkened hair sweep across her back, and she closed her oddly-colored eyes with just the slightest hint of a smile. It felt like flying, yet so effortless and crisp, the water whispering roiling thoughts against her ears and untold stories from the mountains.
A thought hit Anria, and she rolled back over in the water, leaning on the rocks towards him. "What's your mask for," she asked casually, peering through the space between them to observe how he would behave. "And don't give me the crap about everyone having a mask; everyone knows that. Why is yours so much more heavy than most?"
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and im hardly singing now, never heard a whisper scream so loud
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Post by Alec Weathers on Mar 11, 2017 23:31:43 GMT
give me time and give me space Alec noticed how the defensive edge to her voice was absent as she asked him why he wanted to know. It wasn't an answer, but he had to admit it was a good question. Why was it so important to him? He shrugged. He didn't really have an answer, and probably wouldn't have cared enough to give it to her anyway. "I don't know. Maybe it's that nobody else here seems to hide anything- that's the point. And yet here we are, outsiders in the one place we're not supposed to be."
Somewhere in the back of his mind, the way she moved in the water reminded him of a mermaid- or at least with the image he asosciated with a mermaid. Carefree on the surface, but eyes that hid depths of darkness and secrecy if you knew where to look. He did. It was easy enough to look in a mirror. The whole thought was oddly poetic.
He couldn't hide his surprise when she flipped the question on him, He paused, eyes widening as he started nowhere in particular, mind stumbling to a halt. "I...uh. Huh. It's been a while." He blinked a few times and thought for a moment. "Maybe it's because it hurts when it's not there." Maybe it hurt because he still missed them.
Or maybe he was afraid that it wouldn't. He'd rather not think about it. It was easier not to, after so long.
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