<p style="text-align:right;"><strong>For teh Cooldood</strong></p> <p>The electric thill walked down the Janardan halls, acoustic guitar safe in its black case on her back and a small science project between her hands. Ever since the ban on magicka her lessons had become much more mundane and small electrical projects like this one were becoming the stable learning tool.</p> <p>She hummed while she strolled and strolled while she hummed. The two habits were nearly inseparable in her mind. The hall ways were relatively quiet, as the afternoon sessions had just begun and the last ‘dragons in the halls were the ones rushing to arrive at class late. Making her feel all the more relieved that she was done classes for the day.</p> <p>Even though living in the dorms meant that she never had to step outside, Cilea was still wearing a soft scarf wrapped around her neck, arm warmers and a pair of winter boots (she had hoped to make it outside at some point in the day). It was actually these heavy boots clunking against the ground that made her look down. </p> <p>She sighed, finding that her shoe lace had come undone again (the boots were terribly unreliable). She considered the risk of leaving them untied until she made it back to her dorm, but the fear of traveling down all those stairs made her stop to tie them presently. Veering off to the side of the hall to stand next to a row of lockers she put her homework down on the floor in front of her and bent over to tie her shoes.</p> <p style="text-align:right;"><strong><br /></strong></p> <p style="text-align:right;"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><em><strong>OOC: !First IC post in years!</strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>"Gnhh?"</em></p> <p><em>"Ergh, mnph"</em></p> <p>Mustering up as much willpower as he could, Torr focused on the task at hand. Putting in more than a little effort, he grunted again as he finally lifted a single dreary eyelid. As he waited for his mind to catch up with his senses, he slowly rose through layer after layer of conciousness.</p> <p>He'd been asleep for a long, <em>long </em>time - it almost felt like he had never opened his eyes before. The world around him felt unfamiliar, but not unpleasant. As resting neurons fired up and began to buzz with life though, things started to seem more in-place. The familiar smell of his dormitory room and warmth of his bed told him where he was, and as he finally registered the faint light in front of him, his watch told him <em>when </em>he was. </p> <p>Rolling over and groaning some more, he pulled his pillow from under his head and covered his face with it. The only thing worse than waking up late for a class was waking up early.</p> <p> </p> <p>Twenty minutes later, a sleepy, and rather grumpy 'dragon shuffled out of his dorm room. As he shouldered his bag, he considered his options - he had a few hours to kill before his only class for the day, structural mechanics. It was scheduled to be earlier that afternoon, but his professor had decided that it would be a good idea to have a 'practical demonstration on the effects of winter temperatures on various instruments'. He'd rolled his eyes when he heard about it for first time, and he did so again every time he thought of the wheezy old kiom and his sudden urge to embrace the winter (<em>and possibly his own frostbitten death</em> Torr had added at the time).</p> <p>He wasn't much of a person for the cold, and didn't look forward to it, but he had spent a bit <em>too </em>much time cooped up in his room and figured that it would be as good a way as any to get some fresh air. As he set off down the corridor towards the steps, he stuffed his sweater into his bag. <em>I hope it's not <strong>too </strong>bad </em>he thought to himself. His fur would be able to keep him warm to an extent, and really, this winter wasn't as harsh as usual - but at the moment he had nothing else on his mind that he could find to complain about. Stopping to tighten his sandal straps and adjust his socks, he reflected on the likelihood of his snout dropping off - it seemed to freeze stiff every time he left the main building complex. </p> <p>"<em>Winter</em>.", he spat as he started up the steps.</p>
<p>She made it to the stairs without any event, and even managed to make it up the first flight before having to stop and tied her boots again. Lightly cursing to herself (as cursing in general was uncommon for Cilea) she sat down on one of the stairs need the top of the flight. The door leading to one of the inner courtyards in sight right at the end of the hall.</p> <p>A few seconds later she noticed that she wasn’t the only one grumbling to themselves on the stairs. Looking up and pushing clumps of wavyy lime light hair out of her face she caught a glimpse of sandaled feet passing by her.</p> <p>“Now that is the foot ware that I should invest in.” She said without any hesitation, tucking what was left of her long laces into the side of her boots so that even if they did manage to untie themselves again they wouldn’t be a tripping hazard.</p> <p>“Now, do they keep you warm or do you just like the fashion statement?” She stood up and fell into step with the other youth. ‘Shy’ and ‘social boundaries’ weren’t words often found in her vocabulary.</p>
<p>Two fligts of steps up and T had already started to think that heading out early was a bad idea after all. His friends at the academy were all in class and he didn't fancy the thought of staring at his own paws for hours on end. As he climbed, a slight breeze drifted down the stairwell, and he got his sweater out of his bag. Pulling it over his head, he rounded the corner and continued up the next flight.</p> <p>Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a voice made him jump - it was followed by a blue thill. "<em>Huh? Who, me?</em>" T offered as he looked around to see if she had been talking to him, or if there was someone else on the steps who had similar powers of suddenly appearing out of nowhere that she was addressing. When he realised that she <em>was </em>in fact talking to him, he gave her a puzzled glance, a shrug, and continued walking on next to her.</p> <p>"<em>Um, they keep your toes from falling off - I guess</em>" he managed, deciding that she had actually meant the question and wasn't just taking a stab at him. "<em>I wish I could put a sock over my snout though, donno how long <strong>that's</strong> gonna stay attached</em>" he added. As they walked up the steps, he took in the other youth, guitar case, winter gear and all. She seemed pretty friendly, if she was heading outside then there was hope for the evening yet. "<em>You look like you're ready to face the cold too, are you headed out?</em>" He knew he was probably pushing his luck, but he didn't want to pass up an opportunity at keeping the boredom at bay.</p>
<p>She caught his surprised jolt out of the corner of her eye and smiled to herself. Not that she enjoyed making him feel uncomfortable; she just found it amusing to find so many people living on a dense campus caught off guard when spoken too. At least he was able to put the right thoughts together and realize that she was indeed talking to him.</p> <p>“Scarves, large scarves.” She pulled up her own scarf with on hand to drape it over her snout. The purple and yellow paisley pattern contrasting vividly against her own fur. Most ‘dragons would think of it as a messy fashion statement but Cilea appreciated brining new colours in with each piece of her wardrobe.</p> <p>“I am indeed. I don’t want to miss the first snow fall of the year. I was afraid that my homework would keep me boxed in all day.” She wiggled her small circuit board that she was carrying. "So I brought it with me instead."</p> <p>They reached the set of doors and Cilea put her hand on the glass and pushed her face up to look through the window. “Hm, looks very survivable.” There was a thin layer of snow over all the surfaces and worn walkways of foot prints of student who had come before them. But other than that the courtyard seemed to be deserted. “Allons-y.” She said cheerfully as she pushed open the door.</p>
<p><strong>OOC: Sorry for the sloppiness, I'll spellcheck this when I get home, sneaking on from a cybercafe :)</strong></p> <p>Torr felt a little dazed in the wake of the other 'dragon, and for a moment he just stood still, watching her at the door. It occurred to him that the vibrant colours that she carried along with her probably said something about her on another level as well. Looking down at his own brown fur, unbroken apart from a few streaks of white, his worn-out grey sweater, and beaten up foot-gear that he couldn't be bothered to replace, he figured that his own appearance also probably painted a rather accurate picture about himself.</p> <p>He'd had it coming, it was inevitable that sooner or later he would bump into someone so <em>different</em>. Correcting himself, he though <em>different</em>,<em> but who I'd still not mind killing a winter evening with.</em></p> <p>Still, the temptation to retreat was strong - as she walked out the door he considered turning around, and looked backwards down the hallway - it would be so much simpler and would save so much awkwardness- but he knew where that path led. He knew all too well.</p> <p>Sighing, he put a paw over his nose and followed the thill into the cold. There was one thing he was sure about, useful or not, he would freeze his nose off before he'd let himself wear a scarf.</p> <p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p>Cilea threw a quick glance over her shoulder when she didn’t hear anyone follow her through the doors. She didn’t think of the hesitation as shyness, just as someone who really didn’t want to go out in the cold. She had a tendency to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.</p> <p>She continued on to one of the metal benches sitting off to the side of the main path. She wiped a patch of snow off and followed to dry it with the end of her scarf. Logically you would think that this would lead to sitting down but instead Cilea shrugged the guitar off of her back and put it on the now clean bench, her homework down beside it. The second item not being as much of a priority.</p> <p>She looked back again at her companion stranger and seeing his paw over his nose, let out a small laugh. “Really now,” she put her hands on her hips, “it’s not that cold out.”</p> <p>Kneeling down she scooped up a small handful of the fluffy white sky droppings and pressed it into a snow ball. She then gave it a practice throw towards one of the few trees in the courtyard. It fell a few feet short and it fall apart on impact.</p> <p>“Why’d you even come outside if you don’t like the cold so much?” She turned back around to look at her fellow student, partially because she was worried that he may have been tip toeing through the snow as if touching it would kill him.</p>
<p>As he walked out the door, Torr shivered slightly - but even he had to admit, it wasn't as bad as he had expected. As he walked down the path that wound between the small layers of snow, he started to smile a little. "<em>I'm going to have to admit you're right</em>" he replied, although he was still thankful for the socks and sweater. </p> <p>He reached the bench where she had dropped her guitar and project, and stepped off the path to try making some space for hinself on the bench. As his covered paw went into the snow, he let out a small yelp. Cursing slightly and pulling back to the path, he removed his sandal and his rapidly soaking sock. <strong><em>Great idea</em></strong> he thought to himself.</p> <p>As he put it, along with its twin into his bag, he explained "<em>I've got a demonstration out here in the evening and thought that I'd get used to the cold. That and I've been cooped up in my dorm room for days and wanted some fresh air.</em>" As he closed his bag, he looked up, rolling his eyes in expectation of the look on the other's face. He would just have to put up with the cold now, socks or not - he didn't want to come across as a <em>total </em>wuss.</p>
<p>She spun around quickly at the sound of the yelp, not sure what had happened. She walked over to see the foot ware calamity. “Hmm, yes, maybe not so bright.” Her own boots were holding up well enough for now. She wasn’t ready to be running through a field covered in the white stuff but they would keep her warm in the small amount they had to deal with now.</p> <p>“I hate to be the one to say it, but by the looks of it you do need the practice. Or at least closed toe shoes.” She kicked her own foot ware against the leg of the bench to knock the few clumps of snow off. “On the bright side, at least this didn’t happen during your demonstration. Oo, icicles.”</p> <p>Having spotted the frozen strings hanging from the overhand above the doors they had come through, Cilea walked back over in the direction. Standing on her tip toes she pokes at the small icicles, spending them tumbling to the ground. She always felt like she saw longer, colder and snowier winters before coming to Janardan so seeing the little hints of home comforted her.</p> <p>“What kind of class has an evening demonstration out in the cold?” She turned back to the young arden, holding one of the icicles in her hand as it began to melt. She could be terribly absent minded some days, jumping back and forth on topics during a single conversation.</p>
<p>Thankful that she hadn't laughed at him, Torr considered her practical fashion advice. He should probably have figured that sandals were a bad idea, and now he was stuck - practically barefoot.</p> <p>Still, he watched with interest as the thill started poking at icicles, she seemed so content, so happy with everything. Almost as if she truly believed that the world wasn't one giant freezer that was trying at the moment to steal his toes through frostbite. He stopped for a second and considered - maybe they were on to something when his friends had called him a drama queen.</p> <p>"<em>A professor wants to show us what the effects of the natural winter climate are on a couple of instruments - the crazy old bat</em>" he answered. T noticed that he probably wasn't being much along the lines of interesting company, although he was playing <em>whiny kid</em> pretty well. He know he'd need to fix his predicament before he could be of any decent conversational value though, and at the moment he was lacking when it came to ideas. As he pondered his problem, something occurred to him.</p> <p>"<em>Say, I haven't got your name yet. I'm Torr, you can call me T though - and no, I'm not always this bad.</em>"</p>
<p>The class work sounded reasonable enough, if only a little trying on the students who hated standing around in the cold. “Well now you can go to the demonstrations with some findings, ‘Winter freezes my walking instruments’. Just try not to sound like a smart-ass, teachers hate that kind of thing.”</p> <p>She walked back over to him, squeezing what remained of the icicles in her hands, causing them to melt completely. She then remembered the whole ‘water conducts electricity’ thing and quickly shook the droplets from her hand. Since she was prone to producing electricity without warning it was generally a good thing to stay dry.</p> <p>“Well unless it drops another 10 degrees by nightfall you should be fine in any old pair of sneakers.” She stepped up on the bench and sat down on its backing, just in case the seat was still wet.</p> <p>“It’s nice to meat you T, I’m Cilea. You haven’t run away or anything so you’re doing pretty well in my books. And as a side note,” she continued with a shrug, “you may not want to keep standing there because the snow on that branch overhead looks like it could fall at any minute.” She concluded as her green eyes arched up over his head.</p>
<p>As if on cue, T looked up and was treated to a faceful of snow.<em> Just my day.</em></p> <p><em>"Thanks for trying" </em>He coughed, snow spluttering out oh his mouth.</p> <p>By now he'd given up on trying to stay warm and dry. As he shook his brown head from side to side trying to get the snow out of his ears, he figured that even if he <em>did </em>put up with the cold, he'd still have to hang around outside till the demonstration - which was still hours away. <em>What the heck, I came out for fresh air - might as well get some</em>.</p> <p>"<em>Hah, yeah thanks, knowing him, he'll probably be impressed</em>." Torr said as he shook the last of the snow off his sweater - luckily too much hadn't gotten into it. "<em>So, you really love this weather, huh? Where I come from it's pretty warm, as you can see I'm still not too used to it.</em>" Now it was starting, that odd time after meeting someone new when you couldn't think of anything interesting to talk about. </p> <p>To make up for it, he bent down, quickly bunched together some snow, cursed at how cold it was in his hands, and then lobbed it in the rough direction of the thill. His aim was good enough to not hit her or the things she'd left on the bench, but bad enough for him to not hit anything else either. </p>
<p>Cilea couldn’t help it, this time she laughed. It wasn’t loud or obnoxious, but it was enough for her to put her paw in front of her mouth to stop it from offending T.</p> <p>“I’m sorry,” she said in reference to her laughter and at not having been able to warn him sooner, “It’s just that, your face – you looked so crushed.” As if the sky itself had fallen on his head. She rubbed her own hands together as the idea of snow falling down her shirt sent shivers across her skin.</p> <p>“I wouldn’t go so far to say love it. I appreciate it. Or at least I was taught to appreciate it by someone who loved it. So I guess I just have some nostalgia attached to it.” She watched closely as the snowball was arched towards her. She’d admit that she was slightly impressed that he was still putting up with the snow.</p> <p>“Careful now, you don’t want anyone to think you’re starting a snow ball fight. I have a pretty good arm.” She didn’t really, but she liked to think that she did.</p> <p>As if on cue a set of doors leading to the court yard was opened on the other side of the garden. There was a shrill screech as someone was pushed out the door and into the snow. The younger thill cursed as she looked up to find that she had been seen. Turning around she rushed to get back inside only to find that someone was holding the door shut from the inside. She took off running towards a different entrance to get back in.</p> <p>“Could be worse,” Cilea said with a shrug, “you’re friends could be doing that to you.” She nodded towards the thill who seemed to have found an open door as she disappeared back inside.</p> <p>“So I guess you’ve never <em>really</em> played in the snow then, it’s a shame there isn’t enough to make a snow ‘dragon…”</p>
<p>"<em>Yeah, I think Mia's decided to pick on me.</em>" T grumbled, but he realized that he must have seemed slightly silly, and more than a bit childish to her. He knew he shouldn't be complaining, and as he listened to her he was suddenly disturbed by the sudden appearance - and equally rapid disappearance of the poor thill. He felt a pang of pity for her, along with a sense of thankfulness that he'd at least had the time to prepare himself for the cold. Nodding as Cilea pointed this out, his thoughts went back to home. Hot sand and a sparkling sea. Snow 'dragons? He'd made some rather impressive <em>sand </em>'dragons on the beach (or so he liked to think, he'd been a pup at the time and even with a little bit of help from his mother's telekinesis, they'd never managed to get one to hold together long enough to get very big). Lost in his memories, he realized he was drifting away into his own world again.</p> <p>Rubbing his paws together, he also realised that the cold was really starting to get to him. Reaching behind himself, he bent his brown, bushy tail forwards and held his fingers around the tip. <strong>Warm thoughts, warm thoughts</strong>. Sun, sand, surf. A small shiver ran through his body, and then his tail-tip flared up into a small but warm tongue of fire. Smiling, he felt the warmth flow through his body. If Cilea wasn't around he would have warmed his feet as well, but he already felt silly enough. Just to be sure they were still attached though, he wiggled his toes around.</p> <p>"<em>That should hold me for a bit. No, I've only even been out in the snow a couple of times, and never for long enough to get a 'dragon up</em>" He replied. Looking around, he was suddenly struck by an idea. "<em>Saaay, you're not doing anything specific right? Do you want to go and find the place where my class will be? Someone might be around, and there'll almost definitely be something lying about.</em>"</p>
<p>Cilea watched T as he seemed to get lost in his own thoughts. She wondered if he wasn’t used to having someone hound him for conversation. Her own absentmindedness often led her own subconscious to drift off and frolic amongst clouds so she was sympathetic to his mental wonderings. She did feel a little sorry for how cold he was feeling, which was revealed through his desperate methods to warm up. T being cold made her realized that she could start to feel the chill, instinctively she pulled at the edges of her arm warmers.</p> <p>“Very resourceful.” She said with a smile, hoping that he would have enough magical juice to carry him throughout the rest of the day.</p> <p>She was just about to offer that they go inside to grab some hot cocoa in the cafeteria but he beat her to the punch. With a shrug she stood up at the suggestion. It was better than anything else she had to do right now. Pulling the guitar back onto her shoulders she wondered if the cold was effecting the instrument. Maybe playing outside today wasn’t such a good idea. She was mildly disappointed at this since she had gotten in the habit of playing at one of the picnic benches, that might have to be put on hold over Mia.</p> <p>“So did they give you directions or anything?” Cilea looked across the court yard, knowing that there were many smaller areas around corners that she rarely ever frequented. “And you mentioned instruments, you didn’t happen to mean musical instruments?” She had assumed technical machina stuff, but it didn’t hurt to be hopeful. She loved to sit in on anything music related. She waited for T to lead the way to the meeting area.</p>
<p><em>"I <strong>wish </strong>- a music class would be great, but this is just some fancy measuring instruments and gauges. I was meaning to ask you though, do you play much?" <em> </em></em>T said, indicating the thill's guitar.<em> "Oh yeah, if we <strong>are </strong>going there, do you mind if I pick up a pair of boots from a friend? His room isn't too far down, I'll be back in a tak." -</em>and then with a small snort - "<em>Hey, that rhymes!</em>"</p> <p>As much as he'd have liked to make up for his whining by putting on a brave face, he knew it would be stupid trying to spend the rest of the evening outside without at least a pair of boots.</p> <p>"<em>The class isn't in here anyway, It's supposed to be outside, somewhere on the border of the woods. You don't have to come along if you don't want to though...</em>"</p>
<p>“I play as much as I can as often as I can. It’s actually half of what I’m learning here.” She patted the guitar case, her pride and joy. “That’s a shame, I would have loved to see the long term effects on a musical instruments.” She brought her hand to her chin and thought about this for a second longer. “Well, maybe not, it would just be terribly painful to watch an instrument to be destroyed like that.”</p> <p>She nodded agreement at his quest for boots, it would be rather ridiculous to go looses toes this early in the winter. She shrugged at the second part, knowing that if she wanted to ditch this social moment then now would be the chance. She tugged at the end of her scarf as if to remind herself that she was all ready prepared for the temperature.</p> <p>“I’ll wait for you here and check out your site, but if things get too technical and science-y I’ll slip away. It’s not really the kind of thing I want to be learning about in my free time.”</p>
<p><img src="assets/smilies/cake.gif" alt="cake" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Taking the stairs two at a time, Torr hurried back up to find Cilea. After much banging on the dormitory door, he'd finally managed to wake his friend - and he'd made off with a pair of boots and a clean pair of socks before the sleepy arden had realized what was going on.</p> <p>Loot in hand, he reached the top of the last staircase and started down the hall. From his bag he produced a small piece of paper with haphazard scribbling on it - hopefully whatever he'd manage to catch when his professor was giving them directions would be sufficient to get them to the right place. As he neared a door that opened out into the courtyard, he stopped at a bench to pull on the slightly musty smelling socks and the slightly worn but well fitting and comfortable boots.</p> <p><em>Not too bad an bad evening</em> he thought to himself - there was just an hour or so left to kill, and he'd managed to find someone to help him search for the place where the class was to be. As he thought of the thill waiting outside in the courtyard he felt a bit guilty though, as if it was his fault that she was going to end up in the cold. "<em>Drama queen</em>" he muttered out loud, and added in his head <em>don't flatter yourself, she's not doing it out of politeness</em>. If she <em>did </em>have a problem she'd have definitely said something by now. </p> <p>Conscience slightly lighter but ego slightly deflated, Torr stood up and pushed open the doors. This time he was ready for the cold.</p>
<p>Cilea watched as T disappeared back into the school. She wasn’t really sure why she had decided to stick around. She had always felt like it was easier to say yes than to say no. And she tried to never miss an opportunity of making a new friend. It was as simple as that, really.</p> <p>Not sure how long she would be waiting for T’s return she set herself down comfortably on the bench and zipped her guitar out of its bag. Her fingers had been itching to play all day. It was something about the change of the season that made her feel musical. She pulled the acoustic instrument onto her lap and plucked at the strings. Happy that the quality of the sound seemed to be fine with the change of temperature she started to run through a few easy melodies.</p> <p>She loved to play in the inner court yard. Sitting here on the bench she could hear the tail end of an echo bouncing off the walls. A few other Mia ready students had slowly started to show up the yard, most just meandering around to kill time and admire the fresh coating of white. Now having a bit of an audience Cilea made a point to play popular chart topping tunes. She always wanted to be a crowd pleaser.</p> <p>She only caught notice of T as he drew closer to the bench.</p> <p>“Do you play any instruments T? I could really use some back up in my one ‘dragon band.” She stopped playing and looked up at him as he approached, pushing her lime green curls behind her ear.</p>
<p>As he walked through the doors, T felt his hair stand on end. <em>Think warm thoughts </em>he repeated to himself as he hurried back to the bench, wondering if Cilea would still be there. As he got closer, he could feel vibrations in the air getting stronger and stronger. Smiling to himself, he crunched through the thin layer of snow and stopped when Cilea asked him about his own musical talents. The last few notes died down to echoes as he blushed slightly at her question - he'd tried his hand at various instruments but nothing had ever survived more than a week worth of initial enthusiasm.</p> <p>"<em>Sorry I took so long, he was so fast asleep that I nearly had to break the door down</em>" he explained. In response to her question, he offered "<em>No, nothing that you could consider 'playing' anyway. I <strong>have </strong>been known to sing a bit when I'm in the mood though, but you seem to be doing pretty well by yourself." </em>and with a nod indicated a pair of 'dragons that had stopped to hear her play, both looking slightly irked that the show was over so soon.</p> <p>With a bit of anxiousness from before lingering on, and seeing how much Cilea had been enjoying her music, T couldn't help but as again "<em>Are you sure you still want to come along?" </em>He would have liked to stay right there and listen to his new friend, but since he wasn't sure of where the class was to be, he knew that putting the search off any longer would be a bad idea.</p>
