Encounters in the Dark.

23 Mia 81380

Vea rested her head gently against the bench and her eyes stared absently into space. It had been a monotonous morning, a boring lunch, an exceedingly long evening, and, quite unsurprisingly, the falling night promised to be just as exciting as the rest. What a waste of life.

She sighed, turning her watery gaze to the stars. If only, oh she didn't know, something exciting could happen to her. If only...

But her Inner Eye did not tell her of any such luck. Then again, her Eye had been wrong more than once.

 

Sidata (never known as Sid) walked out into the dying sunshine. He was not sure where he was exactly, but that was normal. He also did not know where he was going, but that was normal as well. Wandering in some vague direction, he caught sight of a bench, 'wouldn't it be good to sit down for a while and watch the stars?' suggested his Inner Eye.
'Oh well', he thought,'so much for wandering aimlessly.'
He sat down on the bench and fell asleep, falling onto someone next to him, not that he minded.

 

The sudden arrival of another 'dragon, who, having plomped himself beside her, then promptly proceeded to fall asleep on her shoulder, as though it was the most normal thing in the world, all but confirmed her suspicion that her Inner Eye could be faulty at times. It also annoyed the hell out of her.

An evil smile crept into her innocent looking face as she leant a little closer to the nexcomer's face.

"WAKE UP!" she screeched.

 

Something was trying to make it's way into Sidarta's dream, it sounded a bit like "Make up!" to him. He wondered vaguly why someone would want him to make up, he hadn't done anything wrong afterall...
He decided to treat it the way he treated all the things that he didn't understand, he ignored it.

Back in the real world his unconscious body briefly twitched its ear and continued on as before.

His Inner Eye sighed.

 

If Vea had been angry then, now she was furious. She suddenly found herself contemplating the most painful ways of waking an unsuspecting 'dragon. The screeching had obviously had no effect, much to her despair. How would she go about now? Vea was not one to admit defeat so easily, she did have her pride after all, but it was this very pride that would be terribly wounded if she failed a second time. This would have to be good.

"Hmph!" she uttered, nose upturned, as she suddenly stood up. She heard the satisfying tud of the invader's head colliding with wood.

"Now, let him try to sleep through that." she thought haughtily.

 

Sidarta awoke, he felt distinctly uncomfortable. Various parts of his body were reporting in, it appeared that he was lying on the ground, in the cold. It was very cold.
He wondered briefly if he should open his eyes. His Inner Eye nudged him, hinting that it might be a good idea.
A snow-white blob swirled into view. He was still on the bench, it appeared. Whoever he had been leaning against had gotten up suddenly, causing him to fall. He felt a little disgruntled.
'Say something", his Inner Eye pointed him in the 'right' direction.

"Um, Hello?" He said, feeling as though the two light blue eyes were boring holes into his skull.

 

Somehow, awake he didn't seem to fit the rude and selfish image she'd had of him. Vea almost felt remorse. Almost.

Actually, she did regret her actions a little. It had been quite out of her character. She stopped glaring at him, and instead pretended to be extremely interested by the dirt at her feet.
"Err. Hi." she mumbled, remembering that she was supposed to be a socially inept and shy 'dragon.

"... I'm sorry for, you know..." , she continued, "...I don't usually act that way."

Lame. Lame. Lame. She wished the ground would suddenly open and eat her up already.

 

"I don't usually act that way."

"That's OK", replied, Sidarta," That's what people usually do anyway."
He picked himself off the bench floundering slightly, his paws always seemed a lttle too big for him. He wondered what to do next., so he consulted his Inner Eye. 'Think of something.' it suggested. A real help.
He decided to try something, it usually got him out of trouble.
"Um, sorry. I try not to sleep, but dreams are so peaceful."
He wondered what she was doing, staring at her feet like that.
"I'm Sidarta by the way."

 

" That's what people usually do anyway."
Her heart went out to him just then. Ever the empath, Veaji felt like she already knew the 'dragon. She could indentify with him. She looked up just then, willing herself to catch his gaze, to see the emotions on his face as he spoke. She smiled. Unlike some, he didn't try to hide his feelings.

The smile broadened as she watched him flounder. What to some would perhaps have looked clumsy, was precious to her. His actions were beginning to feed her vivid imagination as she strove to mend the image she had of him. No longer a selfish individual who plopped himself next to innocent bystanders, he was now a sensitive and misunderstood creature, like herself. 'Dragons of their kind, she believed, were more suited to the oniric world of Fronima than to the harsh and brutal reality.

"Sidarta..." she repeated, trying the foreign name on her lips. She kind of liked it.
"Yes I agree with you, the world of dreams is very peaceful... I sometimes spend hours on end wandering aimlessly through Fronima. It's almost addictive! Well met, by the way."

Being the clever niotie that she was, Vea remembered a few seconds later that while she had remembered to chatter away nonsensically, she had forgotten the essential part of an introduction.
"Oh, and my name is Vea."

 

'Vea', Sidarta thought,' that's a nice name.'
He suddenly noticed that she was smiling at him, so he smiled back, forever slow on the uptake. Not many thoughts ever made it through the tangled jungle of his mind but this one did: 'She seems nice.'
He tried to get a clear view of the sky, to tell the time, but his fringe was forever flopping into his eyes, he managed to get it out of the way by resuming his position on his back on the bench. His Inner Eye suggested that he make some conversation...
"It was a nice day today. Kinda cold though."
He thought back to his lessons on etiquette: 'If you don't know what to say, take about the weather and everyone's health.'
"How are you?", he decided to add, after a few long moments thought.
He got back on his feet, with more grace than last time, having now mastered the technique.

 

"He's talking to me about the weather?!" she exclaimed internally. Her Inner Eye would have nodded, had it had a head to nod with. Instead, it told her that the lad was probably trying to be polite and that she should play along like the polite little thing she was brought up to be. Vea told her Inner Eye to get lost. It wasn't as though it had served her much of late. For instance, it would have been useful to have an un-faulty Inner Eye during her dream-weaving examinations the day before.

Vea sighed at the memory.
"I've been better", she replied truthfully, not wanting to obey the unspoken convention which stated that you should invariably reply "fine" when asked about your state of being. She didn't feel "fine", so why should she lie?

"How 'bout you?"

 

"Fine thank you." Sidarta replied proudly, he had mastered THAT course all right.
The conversation faltered once again. 'Am I supposed to be doing anything or saying something?' Sidarta thought. He would really have to work on his people skills.
"So, uh, what'r you studying here? I wanted to study Dream-weaving myself but Dad said 'No, Con Artistry's fer you my son', so here I am, but I'm not very good at it, but I try, I'm dead clumsy though, so I'm probrably gonna fail, THEN he might let do what I really want to study...Dream-Weaving..." This shortish version of Sidarta's family history went on for several minutes until he remembered that he was talking to someone and fell silent.

 

"A-a - Dream weaver?", she blurted less graciously than she would have liked to, "I mean, a Dream weaver. Wow."

Wasn't she just the social butterfly today? First pushing people off benches and now not being able to string together a simple sentence.

"I didn't mean to sound so silly", she admitted softly, "It's just that I'm studying Dream Weaving, and I always get a bit overexcited when I learn that someone else is interested in it too. I blame it on the Empath in me. I'm studying that, Empathy I mean, too."

"What was your most notable Dream Weaving experience?"

 

"Well... There was this one time when I was a fish, and I was playing about in the ocean when a shark came along and tried to eat me so I gathered up a resistance to the shark rule and we beat them!"
Sidarta smiled as he remembered the experiance, lost in happy memories. His Inner Eye woke him up and reminded him that he was talking to someone...
"Uh, so what about you?"

 

"Oh, um, well I do suppose each person's encounters with the world of Fronima are unique," she began tentatively, her head tilted slightly as she tried to gather her thoughts into a coherent sentence, "I don't really have a most notable experience, not really. All of my experiences are notable. The thing is, I don't control my dream journeys very well. I just... Let myself drift on to new places and get so mesmerised by the oddity of it all that I end up losing my way most times. But I'm not sure if I'm ever lost, per se, I mean, can a wanderer ever be lost? Well, according to my Dream weaving instructor, the answer is probably yes. I nearly failed my exam yesterday because I conveniently forgot all about the examination once I entered Fronima. I went straight to my favourite spot and not to the destination I had been assigned. How could I not do? It's so beautifully utterly weird there... Trees extending their roots to the sky, which is purple (if i want it to be), and the silence! I can't describe it fully, I'd have to show you. But I disgress, don't I?"

Had she said all of that? Vea wondered, suddenly very aware that she was once again her shy self. She tucked an unruly strand behind her ear, waiting for Sidarta's reply.

 

(OOC: you're a veteran now?;) )


Sidarta didn't really know what to reply to something like that, so he moved on to another topic.
"So, did you manage to pass your exam? Um, did you remember in time?"
He wondered how this beautiful girl could ever do anything wrong... His Inner Eye reminded him shraply that She was the one who had let him drop carelessly onto the bench... Sidarta decided to shrug it off as coincidence, it may have been that she just wanted to get up at that particular time, it wasn't her fault. In any case, what she was saying was true, Fronima wasthe most beautiful, weird, astounding place that he had ever seen. And he definatly knew what he was going to dream about the next time he went there...

 

<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span>
<table class='ooc'><tr><td> Aye, I be a veteran. See my scars and learn, young padawan :D</td></tr></table>

"Well yes, I did, thankfully, the examiner reminded me in time. I think I was more annoyed with my mistake than she was. She was really sweet, actually. She told me that it wasn't unusual for Inner Eyes to act up occasionally. What she doesn't know is just how often that faulty Inner Eye of mine is wrong. For instance, it told me that I wouldn't meet anyone interesting today, and, well," she faltered a little at this , "I did. I met you."

The ground beneath her feet once again became the most interesting thing she could think of looking at.

 

'Argh, she's looking at her feet again.' thought Sidarta. He wished she would look at him for a bit, just so that he could feel as if she was actually talking to him, and not her feet. 'Oh well,' he sighed inwardly,' you can't have everything.'

To counter-act her pointless 'looking at her feet' mood Vea was, Sidarta started looking at the stars. He noticed a rather curious orange blob of fire that appeared to be making it's way through the air. He wondered vaguely if it was coming towards him or Vea. Unable to make up his mind, he decided to ask her.

"Um, Vea? There's this strange blob of fire coming towards us. Do you think that we should do something?" He looked at her questioningly.

 

Vea munched thoughtfully on her lower lip as she multiplied her attempts to bore holes into the ground with her eyes.

"Hmmm?", she litled softly. Then, upon seeing the 'blob' of fiery doom, she added a not-so-gentle but just as coherent "Waa-?!".

Vea pounced out of the blob's way, eyes so tightly shut they hurt, and inadvertently jumped right into Sid, causing them both to fall out of harms way. Well, she was out of harms way. She was quite comfortable actually. Somehow she didn't think that Sid felt quite that way, seeing as she had landed somewhat on top of him.