A quiet place to study (Kitesy of my heart)

[Anonymous]

This sucked. Days off were supposed to be for fun and frolic. Granted, Devi wasn't exactly sure what she would be doing right now if she wasn't stuck trying to study. But she was sure it was more fun. The pink haired candidate couldn't figure out why she was having such a hard time meeting people. But she was. And she had never been the best at entertaining herself.

But...it really had to be better then math. Having dropped out of school at a young age, Devi was struggling to play catch up with her grades. It was a little bit embarrassing to be the same age as a lot of the higher level candidates and struggling in classes designed for kids much younger then she was.

So here she was, in a library. Even studying, Devi still spent plenty of time looking cute. Her pink hair was pulled up with about a dozen tiny braids pulled into the buns, artfully arranged to fall just right. Bright and expertly applied makeup that complimented her clothes. It was so very nice to be out of the drab uniform. Devi like color and lots of it. Frowning, she tapped her heel lightly against the floor, trying to absorb the information in the book. Stupid math. Who needed it.

[Anonymous]

Crevan had finally gone through almost all of the books Danica had assigned him. He was so bored, so terribly bored. He sat in front of his computer clicking around a map of the ATC hoping for something interesting to catch his eye. A library? That was probably the most interesting to him out of all the other rooms. Most were just classrooms after all. He wasn't much for gyms either. But reading? He never much got the chance to do it as often as he wished.

Finally! New material to go through. He was sure the complex would have an interesting library. He hoped anyway. Plus, and this was more of his hope, other candidates would be in there. Maybe finally some interaction would prove fruitful of having a friend. He needed one horribly. He was a person who loved to talk to other people constantly. Tell his stories and everything else.

His new roommate had been a bust. Disappearing as soon as she had arrived. He had still not figured out what to do with the few things she left behind that were hers. Or rather they forced her to leave behind. This place was an answer to a prayer in some way and something completely horrible in others. Not maybe he could find his place in the world train the powers he had been playing at for so long. But there was also the chance that he could fail...horribly. He pushed those thoughts from his mind and went to get dressed.

He stood and went to the dresser. Thinking for a moment his tails evaporated into nothingness. Then he pulled on a pair of dark blue jeans with holes in the knees, then a black wifebeater over his head. He would leave his ears. He always did. He went to the bathroom to look at his hair for a moment. He looked pretty well rested. Probably from all the boredom. He ruffled his hair. He never really did anything serious with it. He normally just left it how it was when he crawled out of bed.

He grabbed a messenger bag that was hanging from the back of his chair and headed out of the room. He was hoping to carry back some books that could keep his interest. He arrived in the library and started to search the shelves. He picked up several books of interest and went to check them out when he eyes someone who looked familiar. D...Dev..Devi! that was her name. Her remembered her pink hair very well. She had been one of the people throwing the party! She was very cute, and looked lonely. He thanked the person behind the counter and grabbed the books.

He ruffled his hair one last time on the way over to her. He hoped she would remember him. Time to introduce himself.

"Hi, I'm Crevan. You're Devi right?" He balanced his book and held out a hand smiling at her.

[Anonymous]

The voice above her startled the candidate out of her frustrated attempts to get the math problem. Brushing her bright bangs out of her face, Devi focused on the man in front of her. He looked familiar, but other then him being a candidate, she couldn't recall anything at all.

Then he gave her his name and she smiled, relieved she wasn't going to have to admit to not knowing it. And he wasn't hard on the eyes. Everyone here seemed so good looking, made her feel a little out of her league. But took his hand, still smiling, "Hi. Yeah. I'm Devi. Wanna join me?"

Motioning to the chair across from her, Devi stuck a mark into her book and closed it. She was pretty done anyways, "What brings you here on your day off? Stuck studying too?"

[Anonymous]

Pink!

Her hair was so pink! He couldn't help but continue to notice how cute she was. It was in more than her appearance as well. She seemed bright and like she would be easy to talk to. The vibes she gave off said that anyway. He reminded himself not to talk too much, no matter how much he wanted to. He could go on for hours sometimes, over absolutely  nothing. He didn't want to seem to lonely and needy of a friend right off the bat right?

"Thanks I think I will." He sat down across from her. He seemed to just relax into the chair. his face settled into a content somewhat amused expression. Sometimes it was amazing how different he was than his sister. the friendliness probably ran in the men of his family. You'd think it would be the opposite. But really it wasn't, his Dad was always very sweet his mother was more the force to be reckoned with, as was Inali. Crevan barely seemed like he was as old as he looked, let alone ancient.

Focus.

He was always digressing in his mind, going all over the place distracting him from conversation. His brain just ran all over the place constantly. He could be talking about...say math for instance and thinking about...toast and leading it into unicorns or something, which he was sure existed at some point.

Pay attention!

He leaned forward setting his books on the table as she spoke to him.

"Yeah I haven't gotten to know anyone really yet. There's so many of us candidates you'd think I'd have more people to talk to." Sounded needy, yeah it did. He never knew how humans would react to him, they were all so different from each other. "So I find myself mostly studying. What about you?"

[Anonymous]

Devi beamed at Craven, trying to control her urge to just lean forward and talk at him a mile a minute. It was so nice to have someone to actually interact with. That wasn't her room mate. Chica was alright, but just...so weird sometimes. And Devi often felt a little uncomfortable with her. But Craven seemed nice.

Devi couldn't help but lean in a little closer. She missed her friends back home, she missed having people to hug and touch. And having another person so close was tempting. The fact it was a good looking person didn't hurt at all.

His words made Devi relax a little and give a small laugh, quickly cutting it off so not to disturb the other people around them, "Oh man. I was starting to think that was just me. Everyone seems so cold here." Devi gave a sigh, running her fingers through her vivid pink bangs, brushing them out of her face, "And my attempt at a party failed utterly. Everyone just sat in the corner. Or Chica picked a fight with them."

She brightened again, pushing those thoughts aside, "So, who is your mentor? And what kind of powers do you have? Or..is that rude to ask?"

[Anonymous]

Oh a smile looked good on her.

It brightened his mood considerably to have a girl like Devi looking at him like that. It felt like it had been years since he had spoken to a female besides his sister. When Devi leaned closer he did as well. They were not going to get much studying done. He felt it now as he looked at her. She felt lonely, sad, nervous. A girl like her should never be lonely.

"Oh it's not just you!" He remembered Chica well, Crevan tried not to judge...a gorgon by it's cover but those creatures made him nervous. It was because he knew gorgons in the past, ones who weren't so nice as to have goggled to protect people around them. He tried to be open minded but it was silly not to be careful. "Chica was...interesting." He hoped that would suffice.

He felt her excitement build back up as she started to ask him about his powers and mentor. He wished he had more to talk about with his mentor, just so he could talk to Devi more. His mind also drifted to whether he should tell her how old he was...that he had been around for a long while. It was always difficult to decide when to tell people that. He figured he should wait.

"Pilot Blake. I've heard she's sort of high ranked and not human. I have yet to meet her. I just get book assignments from her so far. The not human thing I'm hoping will be a benefit to me." He let a full smile cross his face. He was sort of like a cheshire cat, some sort of smile was almost always on his face.

"Powers wise I have the normal mind reading business, a little bit of telekinesis. One of the cool things I can do is touch an object and tell you who the last person was who touched it, sometimes I can figure out where that person is, or what they were doing when they touched it. That's one I'm sort of working on. Though I think my favorite must be glamors. What about you what landed you in this place, and who's your prison guard?" He wiggled his eyebrows as he asked the last bit.

[Anonymous]

Finally! Someone nice! It just felt so good to have someone to actually commune with. She could always study later, maybe try to get some help from the teacher. It was way more important for her well being to talk to someone. Devi even closed the math book.

"Gives me a bit of hope that maybe I just need to keep trying to talk to people." Devi frowned for a moment then, remembering her last attempt at that. And that stupid Pilot hurting her for her thoughts. She had never felt pain like that before and she never wanted too again.

But then the smile was back, "Yeah. Interesting. That pretty much sums Chica up. It's a little weird living with her." She tended to watch Devi a lot, when she was changing or fresh out of the shower and just wearing a towel.

Gods she needed more things to talk about. Failed parties, strange room mates and their mentors. Where the hell had all her social skills gone? They seemed to have atrophied into oblivion.

Then his power caught her attention, "Wow? Really? That's like me! Sort of anyway! I can touch stuff and find out about it's past. Like who touched it and what they were feeling and stuff like that. How cool! I haven't met anyone yet who has a power like mine. Everyone else can like, see the future and make fire or ice or you know...stuff like that."

[Anonymous]

Crevan smiled when she closed her math book. He was distracting! That was a phenomenal sign. He loved it when he could distract people from what they were "supposed" to be doing. He nodded as she spoke then stopped when he saw her face go darker. His eyes went a little hard already feeling protective over her and wondering who hurt her to make her mouth frown. He thought for a moment he should ask her about it, but thought it might be too soon to get personal.

She continued talking quickly moving the subject along away from where the frown had been. He marked it in his thoughts though, maybe some other time he would ask, obviously she didn't want to talk about it right now. His eyes softened when she started talking about her powers, his, and how they matched up. Someone would finally understand his power now. His sister never really understood what it was like, even though he swore to describe it perfectly for her.

"Neat! I discover so many things that way. Some I don't even want to know." He closed his eyes for a second and he broke into a laugh. "the worst though was when I first found I had it. Seemed to just suddenly turn on. I couldn't figure the damn thing out for the life of me. I would see everything when I touched just about anything. It overwhelmed me for awhile."

He suddenly had an idea for showing her how old he was in a neat way, that would come later though. If his first instincts about her being able to be trusted were right. He honestly hoped they were.

[Anonymous]

Devi nodded, grinning. It was nice to get to talk to someone who had her power. It always seemed to very dull compared to other people's abilities. But it made her feel a bit better that someone else shared it, "Not me. I would get it totally randomly at first. Like 'hey, hold this pencil.' Then bam! I would see some weird pictures."

Devi started to doodle along the edges of her notes, nothing impressive, just some swirling design, "It's really strange here. It feels like everyone is such extremes. There are the assholes who all stick together and, well, be dicks to everyone. And then the timid little ones that try and hide from everything. Ya know? There have only been a tiny handful of people that I have met that aren't one of those."

It was nice to meet someone not a total wallflower or a total jerk. As Devi had never been shy or timid in her life and she just didn't like bullying. Wasn't really her thing, "It kind of cool though. Being a Pilot and all that. I mean....my mom was a janitor. I was supposed to be one, which....wow. Lame job. But, I don't really know if it's worth it." She sighed and shrugged, "Not that there is much choice. Beats scrubbing toilets I guess."

[Anonymous]

He chuckled and nodded his head as she spoke. He sort of wished his power had started like that! It would have been much easier to deal with that's for sure. Instead he had dealt with a constant attack of images. Luckily it had been before his sister an he had gone different directions. That reminded him he needed to write her, maybe finally have some good news, a friend! He could just see her shaking her head at him looking infinitely serious. She would tell him to stop trusting everyone on sight. He swore he didn't, she never believed him.

"I always feel like I'm intruding on people when I get flashes sometimes. Though in a place like this I don't think you can help it. I feel like that a lot sometimes." He watched her hand sketching on her notebook, his eyes following her fingers as they moved. Subtle things always were so interesting to him. He got lost in the movement for a moment then realized she was talking about bullies.

"I've noticed that reading the blog," He sounded sort of exasperated as he spoke about it. "It just seems pointless to me. I mean I understand it's a sort of natural human reaction to go to the drastic of predator or prey in a situation like this." He sat up leaning in closer and started to gesture with his hands. He was always very fascinated by human behavior. "You'd think though at some point people would realize it's better not to pick at each other."

When she started to talk about her mother he settled down again and listened carefully. He found with humans when they spoke about family that they might be telling you something very important. It always effected how a person became what they would be. A janitor? He nodded somewhat sympathetically.

"Yeah, there's no choice involved with all of this really." His voice got quieter for a moment. He disappeared into his mind for a second thinking of being able to drag her away from all of this. Run away with her on a small space ship and show her what he had seen. He shook his head and started to pay attention again.

"I'd venture to say anything is better than scrubbing a toilet." He grinned at her. "So how did you end up here?"

[Anonymous]

"Oh yeah! It's like you are peeking into something private. I mean, some of the really generic images aren't so bad. But, sometimes objects hold really private things in them. Deep feelings and events. And there you are, watching them. I feel like a voyeur." Devi smiled back at Craven again, still just thrilled at having someone to talk too. That he shared her power just made things cooler.

She continued to absently sketch, not really paying much attention to it. It was just an abstract doodle. She shrugged her shoulders, "Yeah. It's just silly. I mean, I guess some of the kids here are pretty young." She was rather old for a stage one, which made her feel a little awkward, "But the older kids still do it. Bunch of babies."

Devi had spent more then enough time proving she was bigger and badder then anyone else. She had lost that urge while ago. She gave a small laugh, "I have no need to get into some dick sizing contest with some dumb bully."

When the boy went quite, Devi got a little nervous. Oh man, she had probably brought up some bad memory. Real smooth Dev. "Oh, um. Yeah. Cleaning toilets is a drag."

What...was it with her a toilets? This was not doing wonders for her self esteem, "Oh. I got turned in. Someone realized I had powers and reported me I guess. Some guy just showed up, said I was going to be a Pilot and...got shipped out. Sucked." She shrugged, giving a small laugh. She wasn't sure if she should ask how Craven ended up here.

"Um, yeah. So..." She reached back, rubbing the back of her head, "Do...anything cool recently?"

[Anonymous]

"Tell me about it! One time I touched a shirt of my sister's." He started to play like he was afraid of just the memory he shrunk back in his chair. "I got some images no one should ever have of their sister." He shivered in repulsion at the memory. "It wasn't pleasant I was blushing every time I was in a room with her for a week. It was like an accident I couldn't get it out of my mind." He shivered one last time his eyes squeezing shut tight against the memory. He slid a small ball out of his pocket and started to slide it around his hands and fingers. It was a sort of cloudy white and seemed to have a soft glow. He liked to keep his hands busy.

He let out a laugh as she said 'dick sizing contest' then covered his mouth and looked around the room. He remembered the days when if a woman even made a reference to something like that she would be shunned and disrespected. He liked these days recently better. Where a woman could say whatever she wanted and damn any man that was around listening to her!

The Kitsune started to feel Devi getting nervous, second guessing what she was saying. He didn't even need his powers so much as just her body language and the way she spoke. Poor girl. He didn't want her to be nervous. How to cure this? Maybe, tell her how he got nabbed? That would cause the problem however of his age, which he probably should have told her anyway, it was too late to stop the worst from happening, it already had after all? Maybe he could just finesse his way around it, he still felt self conscious like she would act differently if she knew. Which he knew was unavoidable but still...he wanted to avoid it. He sighed inwardly he could give vague version now maybe clear it up later? That could work.

"Well my story is much more my own fault." He sighed and leaned forward talking to her rotating the ball with his fingers. "I was traveling out in space, doing much more...illegal and interesting things, when I got a little bored. I wish now that I had just stayed put, but life leads you to new places and people whether you realize it or not. I wanted to see an old friend. This old friend, lived in Aedolis, a Pilot even. Then I came, I saw, I got grabbed." He shrugged. "It's a hell of a thing to happen."

He wondered if he should suggest they go somewhere else but this library. It didn't offer much stimulation for a conversation, there had to be somewhere else that was more interesting. After all it was their day off! He set himself to ask her.

"I haven't done anything cool since I got here, is there anything we could do around here today? On one of our lovely days off? There has to be something right?"

[Anonymous]

"Oh! Ew!" Devi gave a short laugh, clapping a hand over her mouth to try and smother it. She was in a library! But the story was so funny and gross at the same time. She nodded, quieting her giggles, "Yeah. I know what you mean. That happened to me and my siblings. Nooooot fun. I did not ever need to know that about them."

The boy glancing around after her comment made Devi wonder if he had a problem with swearing. Maybe she should try and watch her language. Probably should anyway. Who knew when she would run into some upper caste snob. And well, Pilots probably weren't supposed to swear like that.

Listening to Craven's story, Devi felt bad for the guy. Then frowned, "Whoa? What? You too. Weird." Like Phenyo. Man. Devi was surprised, she had never met anyone from outside Aedolis before. Then suddenly she had met 3 people! Well, Dyerlich too, she supposed. That was like, tons of people. Devi had never been out of her level before. It was a little crazy, "Wow. It....wow. Where, I mean...you aren't like...from Edanith are you?" Devi was a good little citizen as she believed hook line and sinker all the propaganda spread about the enemies of the country.

The suddenly topic change started her a little and Devi blinked her now green eyes, "Huh? Oh...um...you know, I donno? I guess the recroom. We aren't really allowed to go too many places I don't think..."

[Anonymous]

He shook his head at the Edanith comment. He couldn't really explain to her where he was from easily. They would be places she had never heard of. He pondered how to answer for a moment looking at her. He thought he could trust her but he couldn't be positive. He didn't want to be judged based on his age. That was what always happened. People never treated him the same as they did before that.

"Nope, I'm more from all over really. Never settled down in one place." He shrugged trying to look nonchalant as he spoke. When they were closer he would show his belly, he would trust her with his inner workings. He just couldn't manage to do that quite yet. Crevan was second guessing a lot of things since he realized that he had trapped himself here. He was learning that trusting people wasn't the best thing to do right off. Aedolis was changing him.

"The Rec room really? Horrible. There isn't some place we can sit outside? Well as outside as Aedolis gets? So we can breath a little? I could study much better outside somewhere I'm sure." He stretched his arms in the air his shirt coming up showing a small section of his skin at the hip. He made a small noise then put his arms back down.

[Anonymous]

"That is pretty crazy." Devi couldn't really imagine living anywhere else but Haviah. Even trying to picture what it was like, she still based everything off the giant hive city. She really only had that as a reference.

Watching the boy stretch, Devi shrugged her shoulders, watching the flash of skin. Gods but she missed her old life. Missed her friends and the benefits a lot of them came with. Devi really just missed people. She hadn't managed to really make many friends here besides Chica.

"I donno. Maybe we could look it up or something. But I think we have restrictions." Devi chewed her lip, trying to remember. She wasn't actually much of a fan of being outside. It scared her a little. Too much space. She just wasn't used to it.

[Anonymous]

"You seem kind of nervous about it." His eyes watched her carefully. "We could just stay here, if you wanted?" He leaned more towards her even as in his head he chastised himself. Humans, and most beings didn't really like it when you pointed out their insecurities when you picked on them. She was talking about restrictions, biting her lip. Which while being incredibly attractive, also felt like it meant something else then his other head was telling him it did.

He was just worried, he could feel that inevitable thing in first conversations. That closing in of that wall you hit where you just don't know each other well enough to talk for that long. He just wasn't sure what to say, what to share. If they went somewhere else maybe he could show her an illusion, or share how old he was. After all, there really were no secrets here.

Plus, he really didn't want her to go anywhere. He felt like she was one of the very few nice, and interesting people he had met so far. From observing the blog it seemed as if there were more rude and angry people than nice people like Devi. She seemed much sweeter than most of the people he had run into. Plus it helped that she wasn't too hard on the eyes.

Crevan just wasn't sure how to move the conversation somewhere else, or onto a more interesting topic. Maybe just voice the insecurity so she'd understand his confusion? God, that was pathetic right? It was just sad. He looked up at her, maybe he'd try it anyway.

"I just don't want to start getting boring and have a pretty lady walk off on me." He chuckled. "Nothing very exciting has happened since I got brought in. I just seem to keep waking up with my face in a book. I was hoping there might be some way to distract myself."

[Anonymous]

"I just really don't want to get in trouble." Her hand came up to rub the scar on her shoulder. Dyerlich wasn't here anymore, but her new mentor hadn't given her permission to get the scar fixed. She hadn't even met him yet, "But, I mean, if you know somewhere that's allowed, sure. I would love too."

She gave a short, slightly nervous laugh, "And, maybe not outside. I'm not really used to outside. It's weird. Too much...open space and all. Ya know?" Devi grinned, standing up, "At the very least, we can get the hell out of here. So we don't have to worry about keeping quiet."

It was nice talking to someone pleasant. And pleasant on the eyes. Nice to know she hadn't lost her touch, as she was pretty sure that Craven liked the way she looked, "Don't worry so much. I wont leave. Let's maybe take a walk or something?" Devi really didn't want him to leave either. They just needed to find that common ground, that was all.

[Anonymous]

"I'm not really sure what would get us into trouble, but I'll try and be good." He grinned, then it fell as he saw her hand touch something on her shoulder. He hadn't noticed it before, a scar? He tilted his head at her slightly as he watched her.

"What's that from?" He felt he was missing something about suddenly, someone who didn't like open spaces? Crevan always felt like he was too closed off. As if there was never enough space. Maybe it was because he remembered when there didn't use to be a giant bubble locking them all in. It was hard to think about that. It was always fuzzy, sometimes he wasn't even sure if it had been him. It was like he just forgot lives he used to have.

He stood up, his mind moving quickly onto the next thing. He stretched his arms above his head with a small noise. He adjusted his pants and shirt. He was still looking at Devi and lowered his eyes to grab his pile of books then arrange them into his messenger bag. He moved them around so they would fit well enough then he looked back up at his pink haired companion.

"A walk sounds nice, we could head towards the cafeteria for a snack. It'll give us a destination?"

[Anonymous]

"Hmmm?" It took Devi a moment to realize he meant the scar. It was jagged and pink against her skin, forming the letters to a word, "Oh. The scar. I kinnda got it from my old mentor. It's his name, Dyerlich. He isn't around anymore, but I haven't gotten the okay from my new one to get it fixed, so I'm kinnda stuck with it."

She shrugged, smiling again, "No big deal, yeah? It's just a little less then pretty. Really rough on a girls ego." Honestly, she didn't mind the scar to badly. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. But it had been unpleasant getting it.

"Snacks sound good." Devi grinned, packing up her own books into her ratty backpack which was covered in patches and looked ready to die, "And I suppose we can always think about another place to go after that." Hopefully an inside one. Skies were creepy.

[Anonymous]

"From your mentor? Yeesh, wow." He frowned for a moment and shook his head. That was just horrible. Was something like that even necessary. He wasn't sure he would ever understand the thought process some of the mentors went through.

"I guess it's better than some of the stories I've heard at least." He pushed his hands into his pockets so that he wouldn't try to reach over and touch the scar. Why did he always feel the need to do that? He never quite figured that out. He could flatter her instead though. He started walking towards the door with his things and looked back over his shoulder at her.

"Well it's hard to notice really because you're so pretty." He said it nonchalantly, a lazy smile on his face. He looked down at her bag.

"Oooh I like that bag." He grinned wider. "It looks like it's been through some things." He always liked when things looked worn, like that had been used, like they had seen life. He couldn't even quite pinpoint why it was just neat to him that...

BAM.
Oh Damnit, really?

He had run smack into the door to the library. He stumbled back but regained his balance and started to rub his now red cheek. He grumbled but moved to open the door for her.

"Apparently they work better when you open them. You'd think they'd teach us that." He stood next to the door his hand inviting her to go through. His cheeks were red with embarrassment. He was an age old being, he shouldn't have issues with doors of all things.

Stupid.