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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jul 13, 2015 3:55:16 GMT -5
Emyr was, quite simply, bored. How he managed to be bored when there was at least one psychopath and one murderer inside the school right behind him, he wasn't entirely sure, but he was still bored. He'd actually visited his dorm room to grab a couple of supplies, which he hadn't done in quite some time. retrieving the kite that he had dismantled and hidden in his pack. The wind was heavy enough to pick it up and suspend it over the lake, a few hundred metres from him. He'd added quite a lot of string to this particular kite when...
It was in fact a day so devoid of interesting things that it was better to think of sad memories than to just endure its crushing blandness. He'd first made the kite with his little brother, who was entirely convinced that kites were the be all and end all of entertainment. The two of them had developed it from a basic bit of flying fabric into a completely disassemble-able kit that either could fit neatly into a pack. They had flown it for weeks and weeks, and broken it only a couple of times. Emyr had left home at about the same time that his brother had finished the obsession with kites. He'd taken it with him, as a memento.
He'd been casually flying it in front of him the day he met Lena, wandering into town with the kite leading the way. It had been too much of a curiosity for her to resist, a strange boy in her strange town with a brightly patterned kite, when all other kids their age had abandoned kites years and years ago. They were a child's toy, not something for sophisticated youngsters like them. But Emyr didn't really care one way or the other, the kite made him feel like he was still with his family and not alone in the world. He hadn't taken it out again since he left the town.
He smiled sadly at the kite as it darted to and fro across the lake. Lena had always wanted to make the kite go higher, and had added string after string to the end of his rope, sending it up to the moon and stars. Emyr wrapped the end of the string around his wrist and tied off the end so he could drift away properly into a reverie.
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Vinayak Dar
Aer Student - Year 6
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
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Post by Vinayak Dar on Jul 13, 2015 4:14:25 GMT -5
Vinayak couldn't get over it: the fact that the Head Girl had walked in on him with Theo. In Theo's bed. Taking Theo's shirt off.
The Head Girl had walked in on him with the Head Boy.
Oh, and he was going to Hell. There was that little detail, too. He was going directly to Hell and he didn't even really, entirely regret it. Because if that was what got him into Hell ... well, all right, then. All right.
Vinayak wandered, hands in his pockets, staring at his feet, trying for this moment just to focus on the next step, and then the one after that, and the one after that. The big picture was just too scary right now. Both the big picture and his absurd reaction to it. Just too scary, all of it.
And then he caught sight of his errant roommate, the one who had helped him get Mary safely out of the dining hall and into the forest. Well ... he might as well say something, right? Might as well say "thanks," at the very least.
Vinayak cleared his throat as he approached, since Emyr looked as though he were in a sort of daze. "Um ... hi. Emyr? Just, ah ... just wanted to thank you for ... the other day. And, um ... you know, we're supposedly roommates, so ... yeah. There's that."
Way to be awkward, foolish brown boy.
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Post by Annabel-Lee Atkinson on Jul 13, 2015 14:15:44 GMT -5
She laid on her back, eyes locked on to the stars above her head. She had always wonder what life on a star would be like? Her mother use to say that everytime someone dies a star is born from their soul. But what if the person has a darkness to their soul, do they still get a star? Or what if the person has no soul at all? Well she had yet to met anyone without a soul, everyone had one. But she had seen some dark souls, some truly evil souls before and she always wonder if they would get a star when they left this earth. Annabel like to think that no one is beyond redemption in both this life and the afterlife but there were some... some that she would love to see suffer.
Cygnus, Delphinus, Ursa Major and Pyxis... beautiful really. Art in the sky, possible souls of people that use to be.
She closed her eyes and sighed, this was one of the few times she felt contend by her own accord. There was no one around to make her feel emotions that were not her's. She simply got to exist in her own mind and soul for a brief moment. It's so very rare she gets a moment like this, she gets the chance just to feel like herself. And of course it didn't last long... Because a boy walked by her with this guilt in his heart that was so strong she didn't understand how he was even faking the happiness he was also feeling. Huh very odd.
She sat up and looked around before spotting where that soul had ran off to. Oh it was Vinayak and he was down with Emyr who was flying a kite? Odd but he was always a odd thing. So she got up and brushed the dirt off of her before walking over to the both. "Evening boys, what are you up too?"
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jul 13, 2015 19:26:26 GMT -5
It was for situations like this that he had tied the kitestring to his arm. He slipped back into reality, shaking his head once to rid himself of the flash back. "Oh, no worries. I mean, everyone was pretty freaked but... I kind of have some experience in dealing with grade-A assholes. And rule number one is to get as far away from them as possible. Especially murderous ones." He'd not really thought much about that part, he had just tried to get Annabel as far away from that catastrophic situation as possible. "Thanks for, y'know. Actually trusting me. Doesn't happen a lot." He could probably count the times very easily, but he wouldn't. Too depressing a thought.
"Oh, yeah." Emyr scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't really like sleeping inside. Haven't done it for a while, becomes a bit of a habit. Nothing against you, mate." He hadn't meant for his wandering habits to insult someone, particularly not someone he'd barely met. It was just an old thing, sleep outside where there are more escape routes than you could even think of. Outsiders sleep outside. "Hiya Annabel. I'm flying my kite." Well done, Mr. State-the-obvious.
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Vinayak Dar
Aer Student - Year 6
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
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Post by Vinayak Dar on Jul 14, 2015 20:15:34 GMT -5
Vinayak shrugged and offered a bit of a smile. "Well, you seemed to know where you were going, and I suppose I tend to trust people who don't shy away from me as though I brought diseases over from India, so ... there you go." Given that it was actually comforting not to be alone with his obsessive pondering, Vinayak sat down next to Emyr and looked up at the kite.
That was when Annabel approached, and Vinayak looked up at her with welcoming eyes. He didn't know her all that well, but Mary seemed fond of her, and she was also strange. They were all members of the outcast group, weren't they? It seemed wise to forge bonds within their circle. "Evening, Annabel," he greeted her. "Glad to see you looking so untroubled. I was just ... wandering, I suppose. Came across Emyr and thought I'd have a chat. Or just watch him fly his kite. You should sit with us."
All right, this was good. This was nice. He looked up at the kite once more. Vinayak had never flown a kite. "Is it difficult?" he asked. "To get it to stay up there, I mean."
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Post by Annabel-Lee Atkinson on Jul 14, 2015 20:57:18 GMT -5
"Clearly." She said softly looking up at the kite, it looked like it wanted to fly to the moon and touch the stars. And maybe carry Emyr with it... Okay that thought made her laugh to herself a little bit. A person flying to the moon what a crazy thought. She shook her head and looked over at Vinayak with a smile. "Likewise with you. Did something good happen recently? You seem to be in a very upbeat mood." At least that is what he was dominantly feeling. There was some sadness and some guilt in there but mostly happiness, euphoria really.
"I would be delight too." She said taking a seat and fixing the skirt of her dress. "I was just watching the stars. You know my mother use to tell me that every star was a soul that had die. I think that's a lovely thought, being made into something so beautiful that last forever." Vinayak had asked if it was hard getting the kite to stay. And it occurred to her that she had never flown a kite before either. She had seen people fly them before on the beach, but she had never flown one herself....
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jul 14, 2015 22:02:44 GMT -5
"Yeah, well, I figure being a Welshman isn't quite as bad, but some of them act like I might bring the English back over here. Like they ever really left." He shook his head, empathising with the eternal struggle of an immigrant. Even just having an accent was asking for trouble, let alone a different skin tone. "I mostly knew where I was going. Half a plan is better than no plan at all." His plan had mostly relied on the assumption that the teachers weren't about to start wantonly murdering students, but that had worked out fairly well. He'd just needed to get Annabel to safety.
Emyr was fairly unclear on what exactly the relationship between Vinayak and Annabel was, but as far as he could tell it was neither particularly close, nor distant. "I'm not sure I'd want to be a star forever. I think it would get pretty boring, quite fast, and then you'd go out in some kind of explosion. Not a lot of variety." Neither of them had ever flown a kite? Ever? He could barely believe it! "It's fairly easy to keep in the air, 'cause, y'know, magic. But generally, this wind is going to hold it up by itself. Low-stakes entertainment.
He unwound the string from his wrist, and passed it over to Vinayak. "Don't let go of it, the thing's got sentimental value. All you have to do is spool it out to make it go higher, and wind it in to bring it back down. Fairly intuitive."
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Vinayak Dar
Aer Student - Year 6
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
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Post by Vinayak Dar on Jul 15, 2015 2:04:22 GMT -5
Vinayak nodded in response to Emyr's observations about being an immigrant, and he offered a grin. See? They were bonding already. Outcasts being outcast together. It was nice, really. Then Annabel sat down and asked a completely Annabel-esque question:
"Did something good happen recently?"
Vinayak found himself chuckling slightly, looking down at his hands. "Um ... I guess someone I like ... likes me too. So that's a marvelous thing." He certainly couldn't go into detail, but at least he could share that much of his reason for being so happy. It would probably be quite obvious to Annabel that he wasn't going to elaborate further, so he didn't worry about it. "It's an exciting first. ... But I'll have to agree with Emyr on being a star. Unless you get some sort of new, different consciousness ... in which case it could be fascinating. But if it were just me - my mind - up in the sky? Dull."
Then Emyr passed the kite over, which was a pleasant surprise for Vinayak. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "thank you! I shall protect it with my life." He turned the spool, interested in the way the wind under the kite changed the feeling of the spool in his hand. It was surprisingly powerful, and it danced mesmerizingly as it flew higher and higher.
"Long history with the kite, eh? One of those things you've carried everywhere with you?"
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Post by Annabel-Lee Atkinson on Jul 15, 2015 14:03:05 GMT -5
"But after a life full of nothing but variety I think I could live with the same thing for a while." Or maybe that was just her. Because her life had so much variety and so many different souls had passed though. To sit up in the sky and just be a watcher of life for a while and not a player would be so very welcoming. But then again Emyr was the sort of person that always needed adventure and Annabel was fairly sure she had had enough adventures for one lifetime. Vinayak agreed with him and she just smiled and nodded, to each their own she just knew that she wanted her eternal peace when she died, her chance to be a star and just watch.
"Well I'm glad that something good happen in your life Vinayak, it's nice to see you feeling this way." She said now just watching the boys and the kite as Emyr passed it to Vinayak. Oh a long history! That normally meant a story and while the last one Emyr had told her totally broke her heart there was part of her that wanted to hear what he had to tell, because it was always so interesting.
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jul 16, 2015 5:37:09 GMT -5
Emyr let himself just listen to Annabel and Vinayak discuss their feelings. It wasn't that he had anything against feelings, per se, he had done quite a good job chatting with Annabel about emotions. The point at issue here was that he could give less than any useful advice on romantic relationships, given how the last one he had done had ended. Emyr was fairly sure that Vinayak would prefer not to have a lynching on his hands.
"I would miss the changes. And things would start to lose meaning after a while, planets blurring around you at phenomenal speed until you can't actually distinguish between them any more." Emyr had a very firm opinion on such things. He spent far too much time staring at the stars not to. "Watching everything happening, and never participating? I'd rather oblivion."
"Literally across oceans, mate." There wasn't much else that he could really say about the damned thing without pouring his heart out. It was just a key to happier times, a remnant of joys past and the whisper of a promise of more.
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Vinayak Dar
Aer Student - Year 6
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
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Post by Vinayak Dar on Jul 20, 2015 8:47:40 GMT -5
"Ah, I suppose you're right," Vinayak said in response to Annabel. "You being, well ... you ... there must be so much variety. But the rest of us ... well, for me, at least, variety isn't something I get much of."
Not until now. Not until I've ... oh, God, what have I done? It's just ... it's simply ... it's incredible. ... No, no, it's sinful. SINFUL!
This time, he rolled the handle such that the spool of twine grew larger and the kite came closer to him. This was truly interesting! The way the wind interacted with the tension on the spool, the way the kite resisted being pulled through the wind ... there was an art to this kite-flying thing, and Vinayak was beginning to figure out the barest details of it.
"Literally across oceans, mate," said Emyr, and it made Vinayak feel that he needed to offer something of himself.
"I don't remember crossing the ocean," he said, focus entirely on the kite as he spoke to the other two. "I was so young at that point. But my mother gave me this tiny little box. It's beautifully painted, and too small to hold much of anything, but ... my mother gave it to me, and it came from India with us, so I cherish it.
"I suppose that might sound silly, but ... well, it's no sillier than a kite. I suppose ... I suppose that nothing that comes so far with us is silly. That the things we choose to keep are things we choose for ourselves. And it doesn't matter if they're large, or if other people would find them special ... we keep them, regardless. A kite or a tiny wooden box ... there are reasons for all of them."
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Post by Annabel-Lee Atkinson on Jul 22, 2015 15:23:58 GMT -5
You know she tend to forget that she didn't experience life like everyone else and these two boy just reconfirmed that. Here they were wishing for a life full of variety and things to do and exploration and she was already done with such things and was ready for a life where her mind can be her mind and her emotions can be her emotions and all she has to do is sit back and watch other people's lives roll on by. "I suppose so..." She said with a soft smile just watching now since there wasn't much more for her to say.
Because unlike these boys she never had to travel across a huge ocean in the hopes of finding whatever promise is made to foreigners. She wonder what they hope to find here because Annabel never saw this country as anything speical, the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich. And anyone that is white male and speaks without an accent is given everything and the rest get whatever is left. But even if Vinayak can't remember coming here the point still stands that he did. And she like what he had to say to... reasons for them to keep he things they find speical that remind them of home.
"Well can't say I have anything from across the ocean. But I do have a collection of shells from the beach right beside my house that my mother helped me find one summer, god rest her soul." She said before quickly crossing herself and smiling. "So I suppose everyone has their own little things."
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Post by Emyr Sayer on Jul 27, 2015 20:06:32 GMT -5
Watching Vinayak figure out the kite was entertaining in and of itself, observing him adjust his mind to take wind currents and gravity into account, in a way that he would have had no reason to do before. Unless he was particularly fond of flying on a broom, that was. And it hardly needed to be said that flying a lightweight kite was slightly different than directing a broomstick with you on top of it. "I've met rich ponces who've paid far too much money for something simply because it came from a long way away, so I wouldn't count on it not being valuable. But anything that can link you to home, even one you didn't know, has got to be worth something."
Annabel mentioned her sea-shells, and Emyr went through the damned tongue-twister in his head before he smiled at her. "Exactly. A little bit of home is an important thing to have. Whether it's still your home or not doesn't matter." Emyr decided to lie down on the grass and close his eyes, hoping vaguely that the others wouldn't think it rude. He wasn't bored, not with them, but his legs were starting to bug him from being folded for too long. "America. The slogan should really be, 'at least it isn't where I came from.' Can't tell what else it really offers. Though I imagine you'd disagree," he gestured in the vague direction of Vinayak. Compared to the UK, this place was hardly anything special. He had no idea how it measured up against India though, so he wouldn't try to guess for him.
Maybe people was what this continent had that his islands lacked. It wasn't as if there weren't people at all there, it was just that they were all pretty much the same. At least the one's he'd met. Here there seemed to be all kinds, personalities more varied than in a split-personality psych ward. He'd certainly met a cast of interesting characters, the murderous teachers not even topping the list. People worth staying, despite the threat of death at any point. Or the upcoming full moon.
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Vinayak Dar
Aer Student - Year 6
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
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Post by Vinayak Dar on Jul 31, 2015 21:37:29 GMT -5
Vinayak chuckled at Annabel's statement. "You never know, Annabel. Your shells may very well have come from across the ocean. They've certainly been around longer than our treasures have. If they could tell stories ... " He shook his head, lost for a moment in imagining what it would be like to be something so very old. He didn't really know what to say about Annabel's mother having passed away, so instead he turned to her and offered the spool that anchored the kite. "Would you like to try it? It's quite a fascinating feeling, the way it dances up there."
She seemed nervous at the thought, and declined, so Vinayak shrugged and continued playing with the kite himself. It gave him something helpful to stare at when Emyr stumbled unknowingly onto a topic around which Vinayak had very strong opinions.
"I don't know," Vinayak replied, a bit of a scowl creeping onto his face as he stared up at the kite. "Back in Calcutta, my father was a highly respected doctor. I suppose he thought that his skills would transfer to any country. Then he got here, and he discovered that no one trusted him. For years, he struggled to find a position. A man who was considered practically a miracle worker back home, and here, his opinion is near worthless. He's finally working again, but ... it's as though his years of study and experience mean nothing. He's practically a phlebotomist now. It's absurd."
This could get awkward ... Vinayak shut himself up before revealing too much of his bitterness.
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