Exploration! (Sammy! Open now!)

[Anonymous]

"Come on Ari!" Emma called out from ahead.

"I'm coming! Wait up!" Arianna called back. She made a little hop into the air, her wings and magic keeping her aloft, floating to catch up to her friend. She could move a lot faster in the air than on the ground but most people weren't really comfortable with her floating along while they walk. The injustice of it all! Nobody liked her floating at their eye level but she didn't much like having to crane her neck up to look at people either. Hmph.

None of this played across her features when she caught up with her friend and gently touched down to walk next to her friend. She had raved against the injustice of it all, both internally and to her parents, hundreds of times over the course of her life but she had accepted that it was something that wasn't going to change. Didn't mean she had to like it though.

"So where are you taking me anyway?" Arianna questioned her friend.
"It's this place I heard about that sells these really cool necklaces and bracelets and stuff, among other things." Emma replied.
"Emma?"
"Yeah, Ari?"
"You're doing it again."
"Oh!" Arianna was having to walk quite fast to keep up with her taller friend. Ari was slightly relieved to not have to walk as fast.
"You know, if you would just let me float alongside you, you wouldn't have to walk slower than you normally would."
"Yeah, but, well...." Ari could finish the argument in her head. It was one that had played out between them many times over the years.

Ari sighed. "Fine. So where is this place anyway?"
"I think it's right around the corner here." And sure enough, after they rounded the corner, Emma pulled Ari into a shop with a sign labeled Epic Spice. It made Ari think of some sort of food additive that tasted really, really good.

As the two girls entered, Ari crinkled her nose for a second. It smelled funny to her in here. She couldn't put her finger on it but it was just...there. Ari did like the look of the inside though. It looked...comfortabl e. Arianna smiled. The cushions looked like somebody could just sink into them. She didn't recognize the pipes that were with the cushions, but no matter!

Arianna and Emma walked up to the counter where a very laid back looking guy was standing. "Hello." Ari pipped up. "Um...What all do you have for sell here?" She really didn't know what to say. She had no clue about this place, after all.

[Anonymous]

"'Kay, so you just finish up there."  Nil waved a negligent hand at Beri.

Beri balanced on his heels over the planter set into the bright, warm, loam-scented corner of Epic Spice's back room.  He put his hands out over the growing cannabis, the latest strain of Edani Nectar.  It smelled faintly of blackberry.  He could feel the pulse of health in the leaves, the vitality he'd reestablished.  Beri had done enough research to know that what he did wasn't exactly chemicaly or physicsy, or if it was physics it was a kind no one could really understand.  He just reached in and balanced things and helped the plants grow faster, that was all.  He just felt it.  It didn't require a lot of thought.

And this crop smelled really good.  Nil would let him have some since he'd helped, he always did.  Even though Beri usually took the cheaper stuff because...

... because he was scared and didn't want to make too much of a ruckus or demand anything, since, really, did Nil need him?  Did he need to make sure 100% and not just 85% or whatever of his plants didn't succumb to space decay, that weird illness that affected every living thing that didn't live on a planet like it was supposed to.  People got vitamins and simulations and that was supposed to do it.  Well what about fun or adventure or something new.  What about that.  Or anything.

"Yeah," Beri muttered under his breath, drawing his hands back from the plants, which had begun to wilt under the force of his recrimination.  He slowly wiped them on the bit of paper towel sitting on the floor next to him, then stood up, adjusting his clothing.  Mesh shirt, long vest, wrist cuffs, belted pants, not school-appropriate but then he hadn't gone to school today.  He'd cut out at lunchtime and come here to help Nil, who never yelled at him and never made him sit through hours of monotony and let him get online on his little laptop while he got high.  It was, like, pretty much perfect, except that he still felt naggingly, grayly sad somewhere in the back of his head.

But he'd smoke and it would go away.

Done with the plants, he stood up slowly.  He felt fatigued around the joints, as he always did when he used his magic.  A few deep breaths and rolling his shoulders and blinking against the warm growth-lamp light sorted that out well enough, and he'd have something to eat later on... he dug in his pocket and pulled out a candy bar, which he stuck in his mouth while he worked on ruffling his hair just right.  Holding food in his mouth like a placeholder, that was kind of a Vin thing to do.

Beri copied his brother's gestures sometimes.  Because they were cool.  And Vin had copied their uncle Emory.  So yeah.

He ambled out into the main store, lurking behind the desk by the display of brightly colored natural-fiber skirts, chewing on his candy bar.  Nil, at the counter, moved up to talk to...

Beri almost choked.  

Emma and Arianna?  Only pretty much.... girls from school who'd never, ever talk to him if they saw him.  When he was at school he was kinda the dorky in-the-corner guy and he never said things quite right.  He was smart in his head.  He was smart online.  He wasn't smart when the giggly colorful pretty girls were around, the ones who smelled nice and were so much better than he was for no particular reason at all.  

He hung back, trying to hide behind a skirt and finish his candy bar.  They would think he was such a slob.  He probably had chocolate on his chin and he wasn't exactly helping himself out in the sixpack department.  He hoped they didn't see him, but kinda figured... Arianna was he kind of girl who didn't cut school.  She made cutting school seem lame.  It wasn't lame, but when not-lame people thought it was, Beri became half-convinced himself.

Nil leaned on the counter, as always, all nonchalance.  Beri sometimes wondered if he had to fake it or if nonchalance was actually less fun if it were for real, since, surely, half the fun of being nonchalant was fooling people and getting that rush because you knew you were really scared as hell on the inside every time anyone talked to you, ever, about anything.  

Nil was smiling at the girls, Beri could tell by the way he tilted his head a little to one side.  "Hi, there," he said.  "Nice to meetcha both.  Weellll, what you see is what we've got, we've got a lot of cannabis, rolling papers, planetgrown, some clothes and stuff..."  He waved a hand.   "...if you're looking for anything in particular, or just go ahead and..."  He shifted, and Beri saw his back move.  "Relax.  Enjoy yourself.  You come from school?  I've got one of your... uh..."  He turned around, and Beri saw he was about to point to him.

Oh no.  He tried to hide behind a gauzy skirt and knew he'd failed utterly.  Instead, he offered a tiny half-wave and an embarrassed smile, half-hidden behind his upraised candy bar.

[Anonymous]

Arianna made a face at the mention of cannabis. So this was that kind of place. Getting high just wasn't her thing. Ari liked her reality to be in sharp focus, thank you very much. She definitely didn't approve of a place that sold items that prevented people from spending their time and money in more productive areas but she wasn't the one to make the rules on Libra, so she'd just have to deal.

As the man behind the counter went on with his sales pitch, Arianna was content to just smile and nod along with it. He started saying that he had something of theirs but trailed off and turned so the girls could see behind him. What was behind him almost made her giggle.

The fact that it seemed like the guy was trying to hide behind a candy bar and a skirt combined with how he looked threatened to send in into a fit. Both her and Emma were able to keep it in, though they were grinning like fools. Seriously though, that guy did not have the figure for mesh. That candy bar probably wouldn't help him along the way either but her parents had impressed into her to at least try to be nice to everybody, so the years of learning set her off towards the other guy.

He looked about her age, though maybe a little thicker than he probably should be. Probably didn't fall into the "jock" category then. Her smile dipped a little at that as she reprimanded herself. Shame on her! Judging people before knowing them! Her parents would punish her for that. She sometimes hated how goody-goody they had raised her but it had proved beneficial to her. Ari found that she was generally well liked, unless most people just faked it. Cynicism aside, it kept her in good standing with teachers and that always helped.

All of that flashed through Arianna's head in the time it took to get to the guy without the ninja skills. She looked up at him. Of course she had to look up, everybody was taller than her. Her earlier anger returned slightly and tried to sneak onto her face. She thought she did a good job of keeping it off, though. Forgoing how it made anybody else feel, she used what little magic she had to help her wings boost her into the air.

By the time she was eye level to the guy, Ari was roughly arms length away from him. "Hello." She said cheerily. "I'm Arianna. I don't think we've met."

Emma was watched as Ari went over to talk to the almost fat kid. That was just like Ari, always wanting to make friends with everybody. The friend felt a chill when Ari lift off into the air. Why did she have to do that? It was...well, creepy. Plus Emma didn't really like it that Ari could float and she couldn't. Not being able to stand her friend showing off, she turned to go to another part of the store. She had no problems letting people know where their place was.

[Anonymous]

'I don't think we've met.'

Beri wasn't sure what the appropriate answer to that was. 'Um, actually I stare at the back of your neck in math class every day I decide go to school?  And that's actually the only reason I ever do go to math class?'

No.  That wouldn't work.  He should try something cool.

'Oh, really?  Well, we'll have to coax you from the social shallows you obviously frequent.'  For example.  He could say that, and look scathingly at Emma.  

The courage to say something like that melted along with the candy bar that'd begun to stick to his fingers as Emma skewered him on a cold, utterly indifferent, utterly judgmental look and wandered off without a word.  Screw you too, Beri thought, nervously putting the candy down on the backmost section of counter and rubbing his hands together to get rid of the residue.  He straightened his shirt carefully and flipped his hair out of one eye.

"I'm Berinu," he said, trying to look unconcerned.  He couldn't help blinking at the movement of her wings, though.  He'd always found them a little fascinating.  No wonder she got so much attention.  She had all this unique and cool stuff, like being little and pretty and flying.  He'd have loved to fly.  Sure, he had plant magic, but that did about one thing, which was, it kept him from getting off the base.  Because it was too dangerous to be a Mage in or near Edani territory.

"I think I'm in your year, actually, but I kinda um..."  

Long pause.  Way too long.

"... I kinda don't go to class a lot.  It's useless and I know all the stuff already."

Oh well done Beri.  Now you sound stupid and arrogant.  

Well done.  Fuckerfuckerfucker.

[Anonymous]

She kept smiling even though her hand was hurting now. Ari hated the fact that her hand never felt the same after she slapped somebody. She was mad now and it was pretty obvious even though she was still smiling. Her smile made her look like she was about to feed on somebody soon.

Why did he have to say school was useless? She planned on joining the military and becoming an officer so she needed to get a degree and for that she needed school. To Ari, Beri had virtually said that her future plans were useless. Not a good thing to say to get on a person's good side.

One good thing about being able to float was that she could easily position herself so she could literally look down on somebody, which she utilized now. "Useless?" Her voice was as colder than ice. "Tell that to Captain Arabar or an Admiral like...like...." She fumbled for a name. Then one came to her from her schooling. "Like Admiral Tarn. I think he would say that school isn't useless."

She wasn't even close to being done though. "And if you know everything, why haven't you graduated? Surely you're old enough." Words poured out of Ari's mouth like a waterfall. Beri might have tried saying something during her barrage but she wasn't having any of it. "Since you say you know it all, tell me, why were the space stations built? What is the name of the current Pilot Imperial in Aedolis? Can you answer any of those?!" She was definitely mad.

[Anonymous]

Beri always worried about people thinking he was dumb, or wrong, or awkward.  There was something almost satisfying when he was proven right, and he felt that'd just been the case.  He almost preferred outright hostility to passive aggression, or sly teasing.  At least he knew where he stood, and he was used to merciless, if joking, insults from his family.

"Wuh-well--"

That didn't mean it was any easier to talk back to Arianna.  He had unconsciously shrunk back.  Even though she was small, she hovered about even with him, and her sheer prettiness, if not the anger, was enough to intimidate him.  She was Arianna Corine, and she was talking to him...

... yelling at him.

This was surreal.  Beri blinked and made his hands into fists.  "Yeah, well," he said, pretending to be his dad when he bawled him out for something.  His dad had self-assurance, even though he was unfair.  "I know why the space stations were built, I'm not stupid, I--"  He tried to think back to the latest news blog he had read, but he didn't pay a ton of attention to politics and the stupid Aedolian Imperial had some stupid hard name with lots of Xs in it, like he cared enough to remember that, like it was important.

"And I know Admiral Tarn.  So there.  And I'm going to take equivalencies as soon as I can and start an online corporation."

Had he really just said 'so there'?

Oh God.

Who said that?  She was never going to talk to him again.  Beri swallowed, throat bobbing dryly.  Start an online corporation?  He'd just made that up on the spot.

[Anonymous]

Ah! So he didn't know who the Pilot Imperial was! She didn't either, due to not paying attention during that part of the lecture, but Ari wasn't going to let him know that. It was good to see that some people had a little fire in them, a lot of her classmates would just nod along and try to get revenge later. It was a vile, cowardly, and shameful way to act but most people were downright afraid of open confrontation these days.

Now where was she? Oh yeah, getting under his skin.

"So what you're telling me is that, instead of finishing school and being done with it, you're going to do all of it on your own and get a document saying 'Yeah, I wasn't smart enough to pass normal school but I got it on the second go?'" She start floating around circles around him, slowly. "That's definitely Grade A, CEO material." She was getting into this more than she probably should but it had been a while since Ari had gotten into an honest to goodness fight with somebody.

"And what are you going to sell, Mr. High Military Connections? Pot? Not exactly the best item to market. Personally, I don't know of many people who like to get themselves inebriated." Okay, so the inebriated part was a lie. She had had to fend off people trying to give her alcohol many a time and sometimes those people weren't sober.

By this time Arianna had floated around Berinu a couple of times and she came to a stop in front of him. She grinned. "So there." She winked at him and stuck out her tongue at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Beri tried to follow Arianna's slow spiral around his body, stumbling over his own feet as he turned in a tight circle.  The quick spin made him dizzy and, luckily, blurred her snappingly angry expression.  He could not cope with angry girl-face.  It made you feel so guilty, like you had broken something pretty that ought to be in a lovely, smooth, smiling shape.  

The wink just confused him, though.  He felt a spike of wild hope.  Did she find him charming and she'd just been joking, actually, and could somehow see that underneath the ass he had made of himself he had all of these redeeming traits, and sensitivities, and intelligence, and--

Wait.  Hey.

Beri's fingernails dug into his palms and he took a deep breath as something she'd said hit him.  He was supposed to be angry.  He was angry.  His face started to turn red.  

"Not everyone has enough money to keep going to school after secondary, you know," he muttered, looking away.  He could have gotten a scholarship if he'd worked hard and had no life and put up with people making fun of him every day at school and been the chubby pale sweaty kid who studied all the time instead of the well-dressed not-sweaty not-that-chubby kid who smoked up and had time to relax and think of what he really wanted in life.

Whatever that was.  

Beri felt very winded and sad.  He crossed his arms over his chest and played with a frayed bit of string dangling from his sleeve, worrying it loose from its fishnet mesh.  Maybe she would pity him.  Ick.  He wasn't supposed to want people to pity him.

"I dunno.  Whatever.  I just want off this base."

He did not dare look up at her, and instead collapsed his posture, one sticky lock of blond hair obscuring his view.  She was going to say something horrible again.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Maybe.

[Anonymous]

Money was his excuse? Ari was about to fire off a retort to that, scholarships, working at it, and stuff to that effect, when she took a good look at him. Oh she'd been looking at him during this whole..."conversation," but she hadn't really been forming a picture of him in her mind. She'd been too busy enjoying the argument. She forced herself to stop enjoying herself as he kept talking. She observed him, putting his appearance together with the reactions she'd been getting. Hmm. Though Ari liked the fact that somebody would argue with her, perhaps she had started off too rough. In her defense, he had touched a nerve with her, but the principle was still the same. Perhaps she should apologize and try to start off on a better foot. Ummmm.....

Arianna's wings slowly moved to and fro, using her magic to keep her afloat, while she thought about how to remedy things. She sure had handled things badly, hadn't she? He was probably really hurt and Ari never enjoyed that. Sure at school she couldn't do much when others picked on people but she had never joined in because it was too cruel for her tastes. This didn't count as one of those situations, right? After all, he had provoked her first! A tiny voice pipped up, telling her that it hadn't been on purpose, he hadn't known, which made her feel worse about it. She inwardly sighed. Well, nothing to do now but to apologize and get on better footing. Ari didn't like it when people hated her.

It had been a while since Beri had stopped talking, she realized. He was probably wondering what she was doing practically staring at him. She blinked a few times to bring her eyes into focus before gently touching down on the ground. "Hey." She said, looking up at him. "Sorry for the rough treatment I've been giving you. It isn't often that I get to have a good argument with somebody." She smiled up at Beri. "You're not mad at me are you?" Hopefully he wasn't, and if he was she would just have to make it up to him.