Advertise/Affiliate Other Forum Main Page The World Before You Play

Such Simple Little Things [m]

Started by Draconian, September 04, 2015, 07:16:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Draconian

Sharlee jerked in response to his display of panic and for a few moments she stared, wide-eyed.

"Did you have a bad dream?" She asked softly, resuming the packing of various things and loading them onto the docile looking Doeshe who was standing quite pretty and waiting patiently for her to finish.

"Will you be okay? Do you need some water or something?"

Zero

Gregori slowly let his hands fall away from his face, peering blearily at Sharlee for a few moments as he let reality sink back in after the surreal dream haze.

"I'm fine. I don't need anything." He wished he could remember the dream, but he didn't think his new...friend...could do anything to help him with that. Although considering how he felt upon waking from the dream maybe he really didn't want to remember. Gregori felt bad. The dream always left him feeling awful.

He rose and stretched, the ground wasn't comfortable.

"Do you want help packing?" Gregori wondered why she hadn't woken him. Sure, he was supposed to be there for protection, but that didn't mean he shouldn't contribute in other ways.

Draconian

Sharlee gave him a surprised smile before she shook her head.

"No... I'm used to doing this by myself," A hesitant look around, the packing almost done. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the offer to help, there was just... A method she did. A method he'd probably inadvertently mess up simply because he didn't know any better.

"The fighting bandits that want to sell me as a slave part," looking thoughtful for a moment before she resumed packing, "Not so much. So... You can relax. Are you hungry? There's some nuts and berries in that bag there," She pointed to the bag she'd been nibbling from giving him a smile, "And a water skin."

Blowing out a puff of breath she resumed cleaning up her little camp and before long she'd quickly cleaned up everything. Tossing her hair over her shoulder - which she'd done up in a plain braid - she smiled at Gregori, "Ready for a day of nothing but walking?"

Zero

"Very well." Offering to help had seemed like the right thing to do, but Gregori wasn't going to argue the issue. Although it did feel strange to watch someone else work while he stood idle. Even if she had told him to.

He looked to the bag that might contain breakfast, but dug into his pack and pulled out one of his apples to serve as breakfast, which he ate while watching Sharlee finish packing. It didn't take long for either of them to finish. Gregori realized he had slept through much of the process. Well, if there was no danger then his mind must not have felt the need to pull him from sleep any sooner than it did.

The fallen one was still frustrated at his continuous lack of recalling any useful memory. Those flickering flashes that he couldn't fully grasp hardly counted. No closer to understanding than he was months ago, Gregori sighed and slipped on his pack as the elf girl smiled at him and asked if he was ready.

"What is the saying? As I'll ever be? I think that was it." The words were accompanied by an uncertain grin. "I'm not good at the expressions. Sometimes I get them wrong."

Draconian

Another bright smile and she looked down at her wrists, giving them a flex before she gave a simple nod.

"Well, I can help you." An offer given lightly, "If you have any questions about almost anything I'll answer them." Pursing her lips she grabbed Doeshe's reins so he didn't wander off and began to walk towards home.

"I'm sure you're curious about a lot of things?"

Zero

Gregori scowled slightly as he trailed along behind Sharlee, following the girl and her dragon.

"Why would I be so curious about a lot of things? Am I...suspicious?" His brow furrowed and he shook his head, "I mean, do I seem to be, uh..."

The angel was really fumbling over what he was really trying to ask. Was it obvious that he was not really from the same world or reality as humans? He had been trying really hard to blend in, but he must not be doing a very good job of it. At least he was better than when he first fell.

"I need to learn better. I am not a very good human, am I? He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. That was a gesture he had learned from some nice farmer that had let him work for food not long after he awoke.

Draconian

"You're doing fine," Sharlee quickly told him, looking over her shoulder and smiling.

"If I hadn't seen you go all red I'd have just... Figured you were the strong silent type." Another small smile and she continued to walk, though her gaze quickly found the ground and she sighed heavily.

"But if you have any questions or anything... You can ask me. We'll be spending a while together and... I know stuff." sort of, "I've read books."

Zero

"Go all red? That was magic, an after image, an illusion, not real." Well, it was real, but not really real.

What Sharlee had seen was a mere shadow of Gregori's true self, locked in a prison of flesh. That his human body couldn't handle his angelic power was one of the first things he had come to learn since his fall. He wondered how a human might react seeing him in all his divine glory.

"What kinds of books have you read? I can read, but I don't think I've ever read a book. At least I don't remember reading any books...or learning to read. I just know that I can." He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. No one had taught him to do it. Just like no one had taught him to speak or walk or do anything that he could do. Gregori just could.

Draconian

Sharlee smiled at him again, eyebrows up.

What a strange life he led.

Gently she thumbed the raw skin at her wrists and pondered on what she read. "Mostly history, I guess." A light blush drew at her cheeks and she gave a slow glance away, pursing her lips, " A few romance novels to kill time. Sometimes they're nice." Another small smile and she cleared her throat, "If you like, when we stop for the night, I can lend you a book?"

Zero

History books sounded interesting. Gregori thought it might be good for him to read one of those. Surely he would learn more about humans by studying their history. Although...

"What is a romance novel?" He was perfectly serious. And confused. A novel was a book, and romance was...that had to do with affection, love, and several other other human emotions he didn't know much about. What would a romance book be about? Gregori's face was twisted into an expression of extreme concentration as he tried very hard to puzzle out the meaning of this new idea.

Was a romance novel a book describing human mating rituals and customs? Perhaps that would make sense. He guessed. The priestess had told him a little about affection and love, but it wasn't a particularly interesting subject to him.

Gregori didn't plan on staying on this plane or in this form. Emotional attachments like romance would only hamper his goals. Though maybe he should read one of these books, it might be as informational as the history.

Draconian

"I... Um."

How could she explain that? "It's... Stories. About people falling in love. Usually from two different walks of life or something." Sharlee blushed slightly, "sometimes... " clearing her throat she started up again, "sometimes them m..." Another careful pause, "having... Relations. It's... A story about people is all." A frown. That sounded terribly boring.

"There's usually some misunderstanding that can be fixed by talking about it instead of being angry. That's a common theme."

Zero

"Stories? Are they real, true stories or were they just made up?" Gregori hadn't grasped fiction yet. He didn't understand the purpose of non-educational literature. Now he was even more curious about these romance novels.

Even if they weren't strictly educational he might still gain a better understanding of human interaction by reading one. After all he didn't know anything about how people fell in love. Just because he didn't foresee himself dealing with love himself, that didn't mean he shouldn't learn about it anyway. It might help him deal with other people that were in love.

Draconian

Sharlee paused, wondering that question for a moment.

Were they all made up?

"Some are... Retellings of things that happened and some are just..." Sharlee tilted her head, this way and that, "Stories." A small smile and she looked back at him before she reached behind herself to rummage through her backpack, "Can you read and walk? If you like you can get started on a book now."

Zero

"Oh." Gregori mumbled, pondering over what he had learned so far. Sharlee said that the books sometimes had relations. To use her word. She had been blushing when speaking about the books at first. If some of the books were retellings, then did that mean people actually wrote down some of their mating encounters in first-hand accounts? Or were they assumptions written by others?

"I don't know if I can. I have never tried, but I guess we can find out. Are you going to give me a history book or one of your romance novels? Both would be interesting, but now I am more curious about the novels. Nobody has told me about them before. At least I already knew about history books." Not to mention he really needed to at least learn some of the concepts of love and affection, as both seemed to be a integral part of human life.

Draconian

A gentle blush stained her cheeks and she cleared her throat, finding a thick book where pages that had obviously been dog eared. A well loved book, she held it carefully before fixing her backpack and held it out to him.

"If you can't read and walk, we can just... Save it for when we make camp and you can read it there." Another smile at him and she stared at the book, it was one of her favourites - about an Adelan dragon rider and A serenian noble woman - but some of it was admittedly a little smutty and she felt the littlest bit embarrassed handing it over.

Still. He was curious and Sharlee was nice.

Zero

Gregori took the offered book gingerly, staring down at the nondescript front cover for several moments. Since his fall, or even before, the angel did not think he had ever actually held a book before in his very strange life. Well, before the fall he wouldn't have had reason to, would he?

He scowled softly. Why would he think something like that? From what he had learned since awakening books were extraordinarily valuable - at least scholarly books were. The only types that thought books were worthless were mindless brutes.

Had he once been like that? A disturbing thought.

"Thank you." He said, looking up from the book and giving a faint, brief smile before opening to the first page and quickly engrossing himself in his very first book ever.

Walking and reading took several minutes, and many clumsy stumbles, to learn. Still, once Gregori got the hang of it, making sure to glance up at the end of each paragraph, he seemed to have little trouble with the task. Indeed, he seemed to be able to read quite rapidly once he got into a rhythm.

The angel's entire attention was focused on absorbing the words on the pages before him. At least until he looked up at Sharlee with a confused frown. "I don't understand this. The way this describes attraction...it is almost like a sickness? It speaks of abnormal heart rhythms, sweating, disorientation, and clammy hands. Is love a disease?"

Gregori's expression was quite serious and more than a little perplexed. "Why do people desire to feel this way?"

Draconian

A few times she'd shot out her arms to catch him when he stumbled but he'd catch himself just fine and Sharlee would watch, entertained, by how stuck he was in the book. His question caught her off guard and she just stared at him wide eyed for a moment.

Clearing her throat, she promptly tried to keep herself from laughing.

Face red, she placed a hand over her mouth before she calmed herself down after a few deep breaths.

"Love is..." Sharlee pursed her lips, trailing a hand down Doeshe's neck while they walked. "It can seem that way." Why did they desire to feel that way? A purse of her lips and she tapped at her chin while she thought, "Sometimes they don't. Sometimes it just... Happens." She pressed a hand to her chest and felt her heartbeat, "I don't really know. I've never been in love. Maybe after I try it out I'll tell you."

Zero

Was she laughing at him? Gregori frowned even more, eyes glancing between the open book and Sharlee, even more confused than before. Had he asked a dumb question? Probably. The more he learned about humans, the more time he spent with him, the more the angel realized just how little he knew.

It was beyond frustrating.

"You have never been in love? Do you want to be in love? Is that why you read books like this or do you just like the ideal behind love without really seeking it? I'm curious as to what draws you to these types of stories." Gregori wasn't asking in a judgmental way, simply out of curiosity. He genuinely wanted to know, because he was trying to understand people in general - not just Sharlee.

Although getting to know her better was something he meant to do, at least while they were travelling together. It made sense to know one's companions.

Draconian

"I ..." Sharlee frowned slightly, rubbing her arm gently before she shifted her stance and kicked at a rock on the path, "I think everyone wants to be in love sometimes." She shrugged and looked at him, slightly confused.

"There's lots of types of love, y'know." Sharlee smiled, "I love my sister, but I wouldn't love my sister the same way I'd love a man." She shrugged and scratched the tip of her ear, not quite sure how to explain anything. "I suppose I want to someday, which is why I read those. It's sort of nice to pretend, I guess."

Zero

"I do not know love. Nobody has ever loved me, and I have loved no one." Gregori was skeptical about the notion that everyone might want to be in love. Although he did realize there were different kinds of love. He wasn't sure why they were all called love. Would it not make more sense to use different words for the different kinds? What a parent feels for a child was described as love the same as a man felt towards a woman.

It was confusing.

"Pretend." The angel said quietly, now looking back at the book in his hands. He wasn't terribly far into it yet. Maybe he just needed to do more research? Perhaps the book could offer some insights the further one delved into the story. "I am sorry for asking so many difficult questions, but I will probably ask more later. For now I'll just keep reading. It is...interesting."

Tags: