try to hear my voice.;;closed

[Gavin Dewhurst]

i'll bare my skin,
(AND I'LL COUNT MY SINS)
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It wasn't enough. Not good enough. Not fast enough, they didn't have the hustle. He knew that he had been running them ragged, that much was obvious. There wasn't a single player on the field who hadn't sweat clear through their practice gear. Everybody was working as hard as he was demanding them too. Nobody had asked him why tonight was different. Even if they had he didn't think that he would have been able to explain it to them, he didn't really know himself. He just needed something more. Something better, bigger. They were in the clear lead for all of the house cups this year, they had been dominating on the Quidditch field, Slytherin had always been the team that had trained the hardest. Kariana, was trying her best to keep up with him. Normally, he allowed her to run all of the practices, ever since she had managed to convince him that it hadn't actually been her that had asked to be put back on the team in the first place, that it really had been all the professor's idea. So he had taken more of a back seat, just coming up with plays and working on the one on one sessions. The team practices, had been left all up to her. Most days, that suited him just fine. Yet, ever since he had woken up this morning, he had needed something...more out of today. His normal bouts of activity hadn't been enough, the running, classes, nothing. He had even dragged out this evenings practice for an additional hour now. He had been hovering by the goal post for a solid five minutes now. Not one goal had made it past him, and they had been trying their hardest. He could see the look on Kariana's face in the distance form where she was overseeing things. She was telling him to stop. To let them go. That whatever was wrong with him, it wasn't their fault, this wasn't going to help anything. They were going to talk about him. She was right, he knew that she was right, but he didn't care. He didn't want to stop, but if he didn't walk away, she was going to take the choice out of his hands. Something inside of him snapped, and not for the first time today. His head rotated to crack his neck from side to side, attempting to relieve some of the pressure, but to no avail. Throwing his hands up in Care's direction he tilted his broom down and headed straight for the ground. She could deal with the rest of them then, she could clean up his mess if that was what she was so intent on doing. He could feel the stares in his direction, he could feel them watching him as he hopped off of his broom well before it ever hit the ground, his knees bending to absorb the impact as he hit the far too solid ground. It was hot out, but he was freezing from the sweat caked to every since of his body.

Pulling his Keepers gloves from his hands he tossed them in the direction of his broom, he had ever intention of hitting the showers before the rest of the team got in there. Gavin felt his foot connect with the locker room door too solid. Too loud. Over the past few months, he had managed to get to the point where these days were less often. Where he didn't feel so angry with himself over being a coward for not doing what it was that he really wanted to do with his life, that he didn't know how to handle himself. He didn't want to think that that was why he was acting like this. He told himself that he was over it. He told himself that he was better, and most days he could handle it. Today had just needed to be...bigger...than it had turned out to be. His practice robes hit the floor of the locker room with a wet plop as he kicked off his shoes to join them. Nobody bothered him in the locker room any more. Nobody spoke to him, it was obvious that he wasn't the same fun loving, charming young man that he had been last year. He knew that he only had so long in here on most days, so he had gotten into the habit of showering quickly and storming out of the locker room. Lucinda would have been waiting for him, she didn't like to be kept waiting and he had to play the ever dutiful fiance. The only reason that she wasn't tonight was that she had made some sort of silly deal with Kariana. Kariana got him tonight, and Lucinda got Kariana for tea and whatever else girls did on their Saturdays. Which, worked out even better for him since that would mean that tomorrow, would also give him a free day while they were off doing their thing. Gavin pulled the rest of his gear and clothing off easily. Almost everything that he was was getting to be too large on him. He had been working out at least twice a day outside of practice. It was too much, and he didn't care. If he stopped moving, then he started thinking. His body fat was down to only four percent. He could feel his ribs jutting out above his abdominal muscles. His definition was far better than it had ever been before, so he was still pretty enough, but he was shrinking. He was faster, so his performance was better, but his desire to eat was lacking. Which, given his performance, nobody seemed to notice. Which worked out just fine for him. Yanking the white towel off the top of his monogrammed locker he headed into the shower to rinse the grime from his body before Kariana came in here and yanked him out to talk about whatever it was that was so damn important that it couldn't wait until tomorrow, or even after he had slept a little.

The hot water scalded his skin, turning it a dark pink instantly, but he didn't move, or adjust the temperature, only stuck his head under the water a little further, losing himself in the stream. It felt like he was falling, every time that he closed his eyes the room spun just a little bit more, he lost just a little bit more. His tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth to stabilize himself and his eyes snapped back open, he could hear voices. Kariana must have let them go, they were heading toward the locker room, he wasn't going to be alone for much longer. Running shampoo through his hair and soap over his body he rinsed and wrapped the towel around his waist a little too easily. He used to have to hold it in place as he walked. He didn't want to hear them talking, he didn't want to feel them staring. Pulling the towel free as he hit his locker again, banging the door open with the pound of his fist he ran the towel over his hair until most of the moisture was gone and discarded it. Stepping into his boxer briefs and pulling them up over his hips where the normally taut waistband fit loosely against the lean muscles and pulling his thick, white henley shirt over his head he pushed the sleeves up to his elbows just as the rest of the team entered into the locker room. Nodding at the male back up beaters once he fished out his pants and pulled them on, using a new belt, looping it around and fastening the metal buckle. He didn't have to search for his shoes long before pulling those onto his feet and starting to recollect the rest of his previously discarded belongings. The routine motions kept his head blank. He didn't want to wonder any more. Not tonight. He could only handle so much. He was still just a man. He could hear the silence that had taken place whenever the men had entered starting to fade into chatter, Gavin obviously wasn't going to talk to them, not today, so they were going to pretend that everything was fine. In Slytherin, one never talk about or acknowledges our emotional retardations. Obviously. Grabbing his hair product from the only shelf in his locker, Gavin set about making himself as presentable as possible, killing time for Kariana to finish her girly ways before he decided that he didn't care to stay in the locker room any longer and grabbed his bag to go. Pushing the locker shut once more he flung his bag over his shoulder, and headed back onto the field to find his gloves and stow away his broom, Care would be done by then he was fairly certain.

The sun was sitting on the horizon, wanting to fall for the day but not quite ready to give the sky over to the moon. Curfew would be in a few hours and he was supposed to be on prefect rounds tonight. The high walls of the Quidditch Pitch gave the ground an ominous feel, the light wasn't enough to see easily, making finding his gloves rather difficult. Though, his broom was far easily luckily since it came right too him as soon as he stepped onto the grass. Tucking it into his bag he wandered around where he thought his gloves were until he could feel them under foot and added them into his bag as well. He had still been half expecting Lucinda to have shown up to check on him anyway, to intrude, or at the very least owl him. Yet, there was nothing. Perhaps she was having an off day as well. He just didn't care enough to ask. Soon enough, Kariana came bounding out of the girls locker room and in his direction, where he stood, sullen, waiting for her. No point in asking what it was about, he knew that the second they were out of ear range, she was going to tell him. So, instead of waiting for her to make it to him, he just headed straight off of the pitch and onto the grounds of Galaxia, she was going to catch up to him in just a moment.

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just close my eyes,
(TILL I CAN TAKE IT IN)

words: 1,732
outfit: This
tags: Kariana, Amina, Marcus, Tobias.
notes:none for now I think
credit: gabs of a different color; @ caution 2.0

[Amina Krane]

Tears slowly streamed down Amina’s cheeks, leaving behind thin black lines as they took small bits of her eyeliner with them. But that didn’t really matter, now did it? She was all alone as she sat on the soft, green, pre-spring grass that covered the space around the Whomping Willow, so she didn’t have to worry about her looks. It was just her and the frustrated tree, upset that she has learned just how far away she needed to be to avoid its wrath, but yet close enough to taunt it into trying every so often. This place had plenty of memories for her, mostly good ones, but that wasn’t why she came here. Normally people kept their distance from the willow. Granted, the grounds were mostly empty given it was getting closer to dinner time, but the sun was still up, so that meant there were still people taking advantage of the last few hours of sunlight. The rest of the grounds had too many prying eyes for Amina’s comfort which was why it made the Whomping Willow the perfect place for her to mourn. Though, she had to question, what would tears do in this situation? What did they do in any situation? Ever since the nasty break up with Gavin, Amina had cried out every ounce of water in her body, only to refill it and to have them fall all over again. And not one of those tears had actually remedied any of her situations. They didn’t magically bring her and Gavin back together. They didn’t get rid of the horrific scars that resembled her tainted blood. They didn’t close the distance she had put in her friendships thanks to her new, more volatile attitude. Of course, thing had gotten better in the last month, but not twenty minutes ago she had begun to wonder if ‘better’ would ever be included in her vocabulary again. Every time she seemed to think things were getting ‘better’, something horrific happened. Finally she was getting over Gavin, he had to show up and give her a damn ring. She thought she was just starting to get a handle on her werewolf problem, she freaks out over hearing the voices of those in her make-shift pack. Better did not exist.

But her tears today weren’t shed over her lost love, or lost friendships, or even her lost humanity. Well, not completely over her lost humanity. But it was the reason she was holding the first and only rejection letter she had ever received from the State of Florida Gymnastics Society. It would also be the last form of communication she would ever receive from them since they explicitly stated, a werewolf was strictly prohibited from participating in the event. It was apparently an unfair advantage, despite the fact that without the full moon, she really wasn’t that much different. Sure she had more strength and speed, but it wasn’t anything extraordinary that would cause her to automatically win, especially if she handicapped herself in some way. But arguing with them would do no good. The division that dealt with these sorts of problems even was kind enough to include a copy of the wizarding portion of the rules stating only humans were allowed in the competition. While she hated it, she had accepted their guideline and responded with grief. She had at least managed to make it from the owlery to the whomping willow before she collapsed into the heap she currently was. For the last half hour, she had remained in a crumpled state, sobbing softly into her knees as the papers she had received were clenched in her fist. Gymnastics had been one of the last things she had to look forward to and now even that was gone. She honestly couldn’t imagine what else could go wrong, but then again, if she said that phrase out loud, she would most likely jinx herself. Last thing she needed was worse. As if the whomping willow had heard her thoughts, a thin branch smacked down on the ground, the tip reaching only an inch farther than it had five minutes before. But the ground rumbled nonetheless. Her eyes averted from the blade of grass she had been staring at between her knees and over to the tree that was setting itself up right again. She felt like she could see the anger radiating off of it, like it wanted to hit her to put her out of her misery. If she scooted five feet to the right, it would do just that. While the negative part of her, the part she claimed was the werewolf blood, told her to do it, she knew that was the easy way out. And when did Amina ever do anything easy?

Looking from the tree to the horizon, she realized it was getting closer to sunset and she had been sulking for far too long. While she could sit here and stare at the sky while it eventually would go into a rainbow of colors, it wouldn’t do her any good. There was nothing she could do about the situation. Their decision was made and she had to live with it, but there was one positive thing out of the whole ordeal. She had never gotten into gymnastics for the competition. It had been for the sport. Amina closed her red-rimmed eyes and took in a deep breath, holding it in her chest for some time before expelling it along with all of the negative feelings she had bottled up. Her eyes focused and with that, the tears stopped flowing and she was finally able to pull herself together enough to slip into a lotus position. She set the papers in front of her and pulled out her wand, pointing the tip at the corners of the papers. “Incendio,” she said aloud, not even bothering to keep her voice down since there was no one nearby. The papers erupted into flames and within seconds, they were consumed and small pieces of ashen paper lifted into the air and drifted off in the breeze. The fire was gone as quickly as it had arrived, leaving Amina sitting there with her wand out and her head empty. Taking in one more deep breath, she used it to will herself to her feet. She replaced her wand back in its place and looked around the grounds. The sound of chattering from the lake had disappeared which told Amina it was closer to dinner time. Everyone was hiding out, which meant she was more than likely alone on the grounds. Looking around one last time, she cracked a smile took off running across the grass. Her heels impeded her speed, but she had no interest on taking them off and leaving them behind. The limited budget her family had been on since her father lost the business was now gone, but she now had an appreciation for both tangible and intangible objects that she never had before. That meant not letting things go for no reason. Not to mention the number of clothes she had lost because of this werewolf thing in the beginning made her even more sentimental to her clothing.

As she bounded across the grass, Amina had a warmth spreading from her stomach outwards, a feeling she always got when she exerted herself and let loose. While she had the feeling ever since she had become addicted to running as a child, the full moon had been the only time she had felt it recently. Of course, more so the last transformation since she had finally allowed herself to stop cowering from the wolf and enjoy the freedom she was given. But somehow, this warmth was more sincere. It felt right, true, and pure. Her grin widened as she led into a somersault followed by a back handspring, then another, and another until she finally rounded out with another somersault and landed on her ass as she miss stepped. But rather than being upset, she remained on the ground and laughed. It felt good to let loose, and she missed it. Even though she no longer had a reason to train, to create routines, to work out for hours a day to find perfection in the grace of gymnastics, Amina knew she wouldn’t stop. It was her life and just because they took away the one place she could showcase it, didn’t mean she would quit. Tapering off her laughter into a soft chuckle, Amina bit down on her bottom lip and moved back to her feet. Though her stomach grumbled, Amina ignored it. Dinner would go on for a while. She wanted to have fun, to enjoy herself. Her hands slid down and slipped off her shoe straps from her ankle. Her fingers linked through the straps and she took off at a run again, this time, nothing holding her back as she ran at full speed, her grin and a laugh following in her wake.

Words | 1,503
Tag | Tobias, Marcus, Gavin, Kariana
Outfit | Click

[Kariana Gabrielle Travers]

Falling back into her old routine had taken more of a conscious effort than she’d realized or planned on. It wasn’t that she’d expected everything to fall back into place for her; she’d expected to have to work to get her relationships back to the proper standing, counted on the influx of work that she’d have to push herself through, and she knew that the fabrication of why she’d been gone so long in the first place needed just the right amount of persuasion and manipulation to cement. She hadn’t figured in the emotional toll that all of it would take on her, or the unease she felt slipping back into all of her roles. Like a rubber band stretched too tight over a foreign object she couldn’t seem to grip the entirety of it all, hanging on at the fringes but just barely. Not that she didn’t fight to integrate herself further into the not-so-familiar-anymore routine. After months of going around at the drop of the hat and getting the leads necessary, playing both diplomat and emissary in many cases the routine that she’d held so stringently to before seemed an anomaly her brain wasn’t quite ready to comprehend. Regulus’ suspicion over her excused absence had been easy to placate, a few words and barely contained contempt over his skepticism had him kissing ass in an attempt to soothe feathers that weren’t ruffled beyond the surface in the first place. The majority of the school bought her excuse easily enough, given that it had been pardoned by the school itself, although there were plenty who didn’t.

They’d all come up with their own theories, some of them so laughable that she didn’t even need to address them. For the most part she let them believe what they wanted; the mystery seemed to keep them occupied in and of itself. Avery had barely acknowledged her absence beyond a few token comments, but then she’d been pretty distant each time Kat had managed to see her anyways. Gavin had been the only one who had refused to take anything she said flat out. Not that she’d even attempted to lie to him about it, she’d been sure to tell him what had actually gone down the first moment he’d let her- she couldn’t remember a secret she’d ever kept from him personally, she didn’t have any intention of starting to for her cousin’s sake. Not that the truth had placated him much, she’d still had to work her ass off to get things back to some semblance of normal even after he had forgiven her in not so many words. They’d managed so far though- he wasn’t glaring at her any more than he had before her abrupt departure and their time was spent just as much in eachother’s company as had been previously known too. The only difference of course was his state of mind… and his fiancé, that was something she still hadn’t exactly come to terms with herself- despite meeting the girl. Beyond her glaringly perfect pedigree Kat couldn’t tell one way or another how she felt about the girl herself. She knew how she felt about the situation, but that was another matter entirely. While almost everyone had noticed the changes that had taken place in her best friend they didn’t acknowledge, at least not to her knowledge, them. He wasn’t nearly as open as he’d been the year before, and the volatile mood swings she’d witnessed a time or two did little to encourage anyone to try and change it. Although, she could admit, for the most part he did pretty well at holding himself under a tight control that was slightly enviable. Even now, his body aligned with the broom beneath him, pushing himself and the rest of the team to limits she wasn’t sure she could condone for much longer, he remained well enough in control to keep her from stepping in. Not that the rest of the team didn’t want her to. She caught a few looks from those that expected for her to have done so before now, watched the way they eyed him warily from where he was rebuffing every attempt at scoring.

She felt her teeth graze her bottom lip slightly as she watched the team move in tandem with one another despite their obvious exhaustion. They were something to be proud of, and not just for Kariana either. Fitting into the joint captaincy, after Gavin had accepted it, was actually not as difficult as she might have assumed. For the most part she and Gavin were on the same page, and as in most things they balanced eachother well enough for it to flow smoothly into both games and practices. So when he’d wanted to take over practices today she didn’t see a reason to stop him, she could practically feel the repressed energy rolling off of him when he’d come out of the locker rooms- the control hovering just above the surface tenuous enough for her not to test. And so he’d worked them, possibly harder, than she had on some of her worst days. She could feel the fabric of her jersey sticking to the skin of her back, the perspiration still rolling down her spine even now after having stood here for the past quarter of an hour to observe the teams formation, tracking any and all weakness that might have shown through. As yet another attempt at scoring was thwarted she managed to catch Gavin’s eyes, pulling her eyebrows together and giving just the slightest shake of her head. They’d proven their worth already, had stayed out here toiling for as long as he had demanded thus far without complaint. She could see the wear showing on them though, and the team- while normally compliant, wasn’t known to voice contention on occasion. She didn’t even want to think how Gavin might react to that at this time, her fingers playing across the wood clasped within her fist as she watched his body tense even further. She didn’t have to have an absolutely clear view of his face to recognize the emotions warring across it, the set of his shoulders- taut lines of his neck spoke enough. So it was with some surprise that she watched him raise his hands, her face setting into impenetrable mask as several sets of eyes that caught the motion turned to her. He was calling the practice off, not her- and it had to be known.

It didn’t stop the team from hovering uncertainly in the air as their other captain hit the ground without further remark, body disappearing into the locker room. It wasn’t until his form had disappeared from sight that they started to drift towards the ground themselves though, the sound of each of their impacts greeting her ears as she made her way to the general landing area. “Finally!” The robust exclamation brought her face turning, arching one brow over cold eyes as the guilty expression settled over more than one set of features at the thought that they’d all been sharing. The nervous shuffling ceased as she dismissed the comment, her eyes taking in the group before her. “Regulus, your alignment was off towards the end, other than that it looks like you were clocking a new speed.” The compliment was uttered as an afterthought, her eyes falling quickly to one of the chasers, lips setting in a stern line as she shook her head. “Next time any of you go for some over the top move in the middle of trying to score I will personally take you off the field and replace you for the rest of the year, understood?” Though her address was kept general her eyes were zeroed in on the one that had committed the offense. “Other than that we addressed all the issues from last week and I’m too fucking tired to spend forever out here wrapping up.” At the general sound of agreement she shrugged one shoulder up. “I’d appreciate if some of you started clocking in some personal practices, if you need times to do so come see me on Monday- for now you all stink.” She punctuated this with a slight wrinkling of her nose as one of the younger males passed a little nearer to her. She had no issue with sweat… but surely they had to know that using some form of deodorant beforehand prevented the smell of wet dog from permeating the field after a practice such as this. “So I suggest you all hit the showers.” 

She didn’t bother with saying any more than that, not tonight, she doubted their attention would have stopped from wandering for long after a practice like that. She did have to pause a time or two on the way back to the locker room herself to answer a question that was directed towards her- but she was already nearly out of captain mode, her mind on the rest of the night. Making an agreement with the fiancé had been… interesting. She didn’t much like sharing her people on the best of days, but she had come to realize that this girl wasn’t just another of Gavin’s quick fucks. Or even a fling, this was someone with whom she’d be sharing custody, so to speak, with for the rest of the girl’s life. Marriage… Well, she pushed that thought just as easily back into the vault. She needed to get to know the blonde though, see how she felt about her fitting into their lives, into their group. Amina had been the first that she’d had to extend that option to, but that had been different… under different circumstances. And that was more than half of the reason Gavin was so screwed around now. She repressed a sigh as she opened her locker, pulling out the clothes stuffed within and stripping the ones on her body currently with a practiced ease. She’d considered making tonight another drinking extravaganza to try and pull Gavin from his funk but dismissed the option almost as quickly. They could just talk. Which would probably mean Gavin arguing or at the very least becoming irate… but she was prepared for it.

As usual she was first under the shower spray, letting the heat wash over her body and rinse through the hair she hadn’t bothered to take out of the messy bun piled atop her head. Unlike usually she’d be taking it in record time today, her hands skimming her skin at a faster pace- lathering and rinsing before more than one other girl had started. She caught a few looks as she stepped out, throwing jeans onto her frame before the steam had stopped rising from her skin’s drying spell. It was rare that they saw Kariana giving up a long shower, normally even as the first one in she was the last out. Which is why she gave little attention to the few speculative looks as she pulled the white top onto her torso and adjusted the cut-out shoulders to align more evenly. She snapped jewelry about her just as quickly, meeting a curious pair of eyes in the mirror behind her with a cold stare that sent the younger girl skittering off to the other side of the room. She felt… black today. She didn’t know why, didn’t feel like contemplating it too long either. She’d woken up with a sense of … trepidation. One that she’d almost put down to Gavin’s mood, and while she was sure that in part the two were connected she had just felt… disjointed all day. As if something was hovering just out of the reach of her thought process, taunting her with its nearness but evading her at the last moment. Her hands smoothed down the front of her outfit at the thought, finding comfort in the tactile familiarity that accompanied the motion- fingers sliding up her figure until she pulled the band out of her hair, letting it tumble about her face in wild waves. Normally she might have paused to put make up on. Normally she would have attempted to tame her hair into a more manageable look- something bit at the back of her impulses though, urging her out of the locker room and after Gavin. She finger combed through the mess as she met her own blue-green eyes in the mirror, taking in the harsh plains of her face with scrunched brows. She looked… untamed in a way she normally didn’t. She might look wild on occasion, but not in the way she found herself now, the lack of polish in direct symmetry with the dark, clean lines of her outfit- the savagery of the spiked jewelry. She blinked at herself slowly before turning from the image, grabbing the sweaty clothing on the ground in one swoop and shoving in uncaringly into the locker before slipping her feet into the black boots she’d placed on the floor, sliding the soft suede fabric to just above her knee before righting herself, waving a casual goodbye to the few that called it out to her retreating back. If anyone noticed her absolute silence they didn’t comment on it. 

She felt her pace increase the minute she started out, her body nearly flying through the door leading to the outside and coming to stuttering stop as she recognized the figure waiting out on the pitch. The breath she hadn’t even been aware she was holding came out slowly, her strides slowing- though they remained lengthy as she went to catch up to his already retreating form. Not that he was walking too fast or anything, she found herself nearly skipping to his side, fingers trailing his forearm before lacing her fingers with his in an attempt to calm herself. Why she was feeling so anxious she couldn’t pinpoint- it wasn’t as if their discussion was going to completely change the dynamic they’d spent years building, she just wanted to get inside his head for a moment… or get him out of it, whatever helped. She was acutely aware of the fact that her trip outside of Galaxia had been at the most inopportune time possible for him, and consciously or not found herself trying to make up for it. “So, since I managed to haggle for custody of you tonight…” She heard the odd timbre to her voice, frowning at it inwardly as she angled her body more towards him. “Your kind of… off in your own head today.” This isn’t how she wanted to start the conversation, not even the timing had been as she had planned it, but the words came tripping off of her tongue regardless- instinct fueling her forward as if some part of her knew she needed to throw it all out there now, her fingers tightening briefly on his own as she shrugged her shoulders, sense of foreboding building within the confines of her chest. “More so than usual…”



WORDCOUNT:: 2,504
MUSICPLAYING:: Bottoms Up by Nickelback
CURRENTMOOD:: Disjointed
POSTTAGGEDFOR:: Gavin, Amina, Marcus, Tobias
CHARACTEROUTFIT::
AUTHORSNOTES:: Sorry it's so disjointed, unfortunately, that is totally where her head is at tonight.

TEMPLATE CREATED BY YOUR SWEET DEMISE of CAUTION 2 THE WIND

[Tobias Leberecht]

SOMETIMES I FIND IT HARD
• to believe there's someone else who could be •
JUST AS MESSED UP AS ME

From his right hand, his boot dangled by a sun faded shoelace. It hung carefully pinched between Tobias' thumb and forefinger as he attempted to get the proper angle. If he did it right, whenever the shoe hit the ground, it would be the perfect distance between where Tobias was currently standing, and the semi-stable looking rock he was needing to get to. He couldn't touch the ground, that was the rule. It was just about the only rule, so he couldn't exactly break it. Tobias could hear the taunts coming from behind him, childish as they were. However, oddly fitting given that the pair of boys – almost men by most standards- were playing a very childish game. For all intensive purposes of this game, the ground was lava, the grass was lava, anything that wasn't removable was lava. Which, was why Tobias balanced on his left foot, on top of his Astrology textbook. Today, their goal was the forest line, only twenty or so feet away. Not that this game was the best way to spend their free period but this was war. It was how they had met, back in second year whenever a socially awkward, gangly blonde twelve year old had been coming up with ways to entertain himself, and had been shoved onto the lava grass by a frantic, very hairy Marcus that moon lit night. Tobias had stalked Marcus into the woods, and the rest, they say, is history. The challenge had stemmed since that day. Tobias had used it as an excuse to talk t Marcus, to find out more about him, what he was, which, before that day was unprecedented behavior for Tobias. He had tried to convince the boy that since he had shoved him to his hot, swirly, lava death, that somehow he owed him something. Luckily, it was just odd enough to have worked. So, whenever Tobias had been jumping from rafter to rafter earlier in the day, and shouted the challenge to his friend...he knew Marcus wouldn't be able to resist. Given that the game was always impromptu, one could only play with whatever was on his person and Tobias was just about out of supplies. The messenger bag slung across his torso was lighter with every few steps, a trail of his belongings littering the grounds like breadcrumbs marking his path. The only thing he wouldn't use was his journal, but his shoes, well, they were meant to be walked on weren't they.

His tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth with effort, a sheen of sweat was starting to form over his forehead. With a solid plop, the boot fell to the ground just about where he wanted, luckily, he had very long legs. Glancing over his shoulder with a bright wink at Marcus he lifted his sock covered foot and started to move, whenever a small, solid mass zipped by him, knocking his boot out of place and the wind force ruining his balance. His socked foot came crashing down on the soft grass, and he froze. Did that men that he lost? Had a new player somehow been inducted? He couldn't believe that he had just lost a foot to lava...could he go on without a foot? Glancing wistfully at the tree line safe zone, a muted whimper left his lips as he dramatically sunk to his knees, saluting his farewell at Marcus as he dove sideways into the grass, the pit of 'lava' consuming him. “I'm dead.” He muttered, mostly to himself as the grass settled around his body. He could feel it tickling the sides of his face and bare forearms. Tobias balled his fist and punched the grass next to his body. He had died. This was just unacceptable. Closing his eyes for just a moment, he surrendered to his pretend demise before rolling over onto his side and pointing at the person accusingly. “You killed me.” His tone was highly serious, though he was certain that he was going to be ignored, shrugged off like usual as whoever it was walked away. Instead, the figured moved into his path again, blocking the sunlight from shining in his face and obscuring his vision. It took a moment, just a moment, his eyes widening in slight surprise as her face registered in recognition. Amina. What was she doing out here? Tobias had all but forgotten that he had been looking for her earlier, or yesterday. His eyes darted from her to his bag, suffering suddenly from a bout of tongue tie. Desperately, he looked to Marcus for help. It was new, this inability to talk to her properly. He supposed that they were friends now, an d he didn't used to have this issue...but over the past few months it had been increasingly more stressful to be around her. His face flushed, heart rate elevated, palms got sweaty...he didn't like it. He didn't understand it either. Pushing himself into a sitting position and loosely draping his arms around his legs as he turned to look at the grass.

”Hello!” At the sound of Marcus' voice, Tobias' head perked up. They hadn't interacted as part of a trio very often, usually it was just Tobias running products around and delivering messages. Amina had yet to see what Tobias could become, it just hadn't seemed relevant before, but what an odd mix that they were now...two wolves and a bear. Oddly, the fact that they were all freaks in some way made him feel better. He had always gotten on better around people who weren't exactly human, and, well, neither of them were. Pulling his bag closer to his body he was reminded of why he had been looking for her, whenever it was that he had forgotten about. More products, he was needing to test things on them, like they were more like guinea pigs instead of wolves. Swallowing hard due to the total sudden absence of moisture in his mouth he smiled at Amina “Evening' moon child” he greeted far more easily than he felt. How funny that she had inadvertently brought herself in on their little game, would she think that they were childish? Focusing on the game instead of the weird feeling that he had he jumped back up to his feet, standing uneven due to his one shoe and turned, matter of factually to Marcus. “Didn't count. She's not official.” Hopping onto the shoe with both of his feet he replaced his bag across his chest, and waited for it to be his turn again.

TAGGED ! amina, marcus, kariana, gavin
WORDS ! 1,098
OUTFIT ! CLICK
LYRICS ! sometimes by skillet
TEMPLATE ! PANIC! ITS LAUZ @ CAUTION
NOTES ! -hello

[Marcus O'Conner]

living is easy with eyes closed

- - - - misunderstanding all you see - - - - 

There weren’t many people that would understand the scene that they would stumble upon were they to make their way to the edge of the forest on this particular evening. While two boys meandering about the grounds wasn’t terribly unheard of, the apparent random littering of objects about and behind them would be sure to raise a few brows. It wasn’t as if they were randomly strewn in a way that could easily put down to a spilling bag or remnant of a good natured tussle… no, the objects forming a very clear, if somewhat off kilter, path. It didn’t help that one boy was poised atop a book and looking very thoughtfully at the ground beneath him while the other had his feet planted at a rather odd angle apart from eachother atop two crumpled pieces of notebook paper. “Yer gunna fall boyo.” The Irish lilt was somewhat rougher on the edge of a taunt, body shifting to the balls of his feet as he rocked back and forth in obvious impatience. “C’m’on now! Jaysus! Yer almost out o’ things anyways Tobes. Just….” Fall already, the implied words danced just out of hearing, blue eyes glaring rather heatedly at the expanse that sat between the other boy and his sure death. While there would be plenty who could run into the moment and deem the two childish… well Marcus couldn’t very well argue with the assessment. They were pretty evenly matched when it came to this particular game though. Where Marcus managed to win his portion of the time with a carefully strategic series of moves Tobias was just as likely to come back out on top with an ingenious move that likely or not had come out of nowhere. As they were standing now Tobias stood a good foot or so in front of Marcus, leaving the other boy desperate to catch up. “Yer not really goin’ ta use yer shoe are ya? C’m’on Tobes!” He was getting desperate, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it. While he had plenty of paper still left in his notebook, he’d already ripped out almost every blank page the thing could boast- the rest contained notes he was sure to need later on in the year. It didn’t stop him from clutching the object within his hands and rocking onto his toes in anticipation as the other boy dropped the shoe, his eyebrows digging down into a frown. He had maybe another object or two in the pack that hung off of one broad shoulder, the notebook itself, and the clothes on his back. If it weren’t for the fact that he nearly burned himself up when he dressed in layers he would assuredly have been doing so on a regular basis in attempt to tip the scales on the playing field. The game may have been slightly off kilter and childish, but then that only served to make it fit the two that were playing it all the more. He couldn’t actually remember clearly pushing the boy in front of him down while he was doing this before, but of course that could have very well been because of the time it occurred. He remembered running into him on his way to the forest, remembered the rest of the night in flashes of clarity that were common to that time of month all those years ago. The first thing he remembered clearly about Tobias though was him approaching Marcus and demanding that he make up for it. Which, surprisingly, he didn’t find himself adverse to. After all, it wasn’t as if his older siblings were big on playing those kinds of games with him- Robert may have at one point, but it had been so long by that point that he couldn’t have told you accurately. In all actuality the simple act of playing the game had probably been what had made it so easy to open up to the other boy- it was a release that in the stressful, mixed up world Marcus was just learning to operate on his own was much needed.

He was brought out of the hazy rendition of memory that his brain had taken him down as the shoe connected with the compact ground beneath, his eyebrows shooting up when he realized just how likely Tobias was to make it. “FUCK.” The explicative left his lips loudly, fingers tightening around the object he was holding and bringing it down against his thighs, frustration winning out. “Arghhh, noo. I don’t even know how ye do it. Ya should be out alrea--.” His words cut off as his shoulders tensed, nostrils flaring as another scent brushed in with the wind, muscles relaxing slowly as he identified it around the same time that Tobias turned back to him cheekily winking. Of course. He couldn’t turn to see if she was here yet though, not without risking losing his own footing, or even worse missing the move that was currently being made. Not that he had to worry about it for long though. The minute she made herself known he nearly jumped off of the paper in triumph, letting out a series of extremely excited, while unintelligible yells. One hand fell from its clasp around the notebook, fingers curling into a fist and pumping unapologetically into the air as his comrade fell to his knees. Not that he was celebrating his death or anything, just the victory that lay behind it. Straightening his position he brought his hand up, fingers straightening as he solemnly brought them to his forehead in response to the salute even now gracing Tobias’s face. “I’m dead.” Thank Merlin for that too, Marcus wasn’t sure how he was going to bring both of his legs to rights enough to make his next move just yet. “You killed me.” The laugh that fell from Marcus’s lips at the accusation was jubilant, his own amber eyes glancing over the girl who had joined their impromptu game. It helped that he’d already caught warning of her before she barreled into their circle, her scent was… much more easily discernible than had she been any other seventh year female out for no apparent reason. It didn’t hurt that the familiar spicy undercurrent he associated with those of their kind clung to her either, permeating and melding with her own natural cadence. He smiled slightly in welcome, watching as Tobias figured out that it hadn’t been any random stranger that had led him so effectively to his death and allowed Marcus the upper hand. He expected some witty retort due to the fact, maybe for Tobias to expound further in explanation on why it was he was dead or even spout off a random factoid that seemed highly incongruous to the situation. What he didn’t expect was for the other boy to sit there, his face flashing briefly his way before reddening slightly. He could hear the increase of his blood flow, follow the slight hitch in his heart rate from the distance that separated them. All familiar signs that Marcus had witnessed before… just not in his friend. The grin that broke across his lips was even more stretched, practically morphing his face as he looked between the two, eyes dancing with some repressed mirth.

How he’d missed the fact that Tobias held any interest in Amina beyond the usual wasn’t something he dwelt upon too long, instead calling out a quick and rather exuberant ”Hello!” his palm rising once more in an offhanded wave.. .that nearly sent him off balance. His arms shot out instantly, waving for a few moments before he regained the balance, feet pressing even more firmly into the paper as he nodded to himself. He’d somehow missed Tobias standing in his struggle, though he’d managed to hear his greeting- the words bringing a slight pull to his lips again. He found his eyes running back to Amina, eyebrows slightly drawn as he looked her over. He’d never really looked at her before. I mean, he’d looked at her of course. But not in a way to think of her as someone to be attracted to. Not that she wasn’t pretty, he amended in his own mind after a quick appraisal. She was more than slightly attractive, she smelled pretty enough, and he’d been inside her head well enough to know that she was about as genuine a person as you could get… he just wasn’t sure what had caught Tobias’s attention like that, although knowing Tobias it wouldn’t be a reason that Marcus could easily discern. He instead turned his eyes back to his friend, eyebrows lifting suggestively before Tobias’s words cut across him. “Didn’t count. She’s not official.” Whatever amusement might have been enthusing him over this new development was cut short by the words, his hands throwing themselves up in exasperation even as he turned his face somewhat accusingly towards Amina. To offer a brief line of hope like that only to have it pulled back once more… well. He shook his head lightly, throwing a lock of hair off from between his eyebrows as he looked to Tobias, already resuming position. “’S’not right. She was just as official as that hairy chicken who knocked me down las’ week.” It didn’t stop him from turning to the playing board with more concentration though, throwing the two people observing him from his mind as he surveyed the options available to him. Even if he were to put the journal down parallel to where Tobes was not standing, it wouldn’t change the fact that at that close a distance he’d have little hope to untangle his legs from the awkward angle they were at to one another, so it was with deadly precision- and a silent prayer for luck, that he threw the journal down another two feet away- smiling as it landed face down with both covers thrown out. A wider target at least. He rocked back onto the balls of his feet again, pushing his weight as far down as he could before springing forward, legs nearly scissoring as they righted themselves midair….

And feet landing just on the edge of where the pages lay, legs bent at the knees, though he straightened slowly, grin becoming all the wider. He turned slightly to Tobias, rolling his arm down and extending his hand in invitation for him to move.

tag Gavin, Kariana, Amina, Tobias
words 1,738
lyrics strawberry fields forever - the beatles
credit a girl with kaleidoscope eyes @ caution 2.0
wearing this

[Amina Krane]

It was invigorating to say the least. The wind through her hair, grass tickling her feet at each step, the way her heart was pounding so fast she was sure it would pounce right out of her chest. Every time Amina ran, it was the same adrenaline rush that kicked her mood into high gear and every time, she wondered why she just didn’t spend her whole life running like this. It was one of the few times where she felt right with the world. Though, even with how good it felt, she always had to remember that her body couldn’t withstand running forever. She would eventually have to eat, sleep, and all of the other things that were included in the human life cycle. It forced her to go back to the real world when she was done and face the demons she was running away from. She had quite a few of those demons as of late, but the one that haunted her today didn’t even seem to disappear as her feet pounded against the ground. Running only turned her mind back to her first true love, the one that had gotten ripped from her. Idiot, stop thinking that, Amina thought to herself as she shook her head and ran just a bit faster. Her toes dug into the ground at each step and kicked up small pieces of grass on occasion. The truth was, even though the commission had taken the competitions away, ruined any chance she had at being an Olympian in the future, and even gotten rid of one of the few reasons she had to return to Florida during breaks, gymnastics wasn’t completely gone. She had reminded herself earlier of the same fact but somehow it kept slipping right out of her mind. Gymnastics was still her love, and it was still with her. The only thing they had done was taken away the stage where she was able to show off her skills and get awards for being the best. Was that really such a bad thing? Removing all of the need to show off and best people? After all, she always prided herself on not having to be better than everyone else, so how was this any different? If anything, the commission had given her a reason to not allow herself to be tainted anymore by bad decisions. She could do her gymnastics in her own time, create her own routines and show them off to herself without creating bad blood between fellow gymnasts.

A small smile crept across Amina’s face as she chocked back a laugh, one that she was sure would cause her breathing to stagger and her running to falter. But it was hard to resist. Now that she was looking at everything in a different light, she felt so stupid about what she had been thinking earlier. Granted, she knew it wouldn’t be the last time she would be upset over her new found freedom during the training season, but at least she always had the reminder of why it wasn’t such a bad thing. If only she had known that thirty minutes earlier, then she wouldn’t need the run to help clear her head. Shaking her head one more time as if to remove all traces of the bad thoughts, she bit down on her bottom lip and closed her eyes. Her hand gripped around the straps of her shoes even tighter as her feet dug into the ground at a full out sprint. She had managed to slip into her normal running course on the way so now it was like child’s play as she ran through the grounds. She knew every dip, every turn, and every change of terrain to know exactly where to go to head by the school. So she allowed her feet to do the guiding. Allowed her mind to get caught up in the way the grass felt as it squished beneath her feet and in between her toes. How her breathing was so rhythmic. How with each step, she could feel the burn in her muscles that seemed to dissipate the moment they were released into the next step. How the scent of a male reminded her of one of her first runs at the school? Amina’s nose scrunched as she realized she wasn’t crazy. She smelled the faintest hint of a male nearby, and not must male. There was something else in there that she knew was familiar but she couldn’t understand what it was. Taking one more whiff, it hit her like a brick wall. The overpowering smell of werewolf, with the hint of friend tucked next to it.

Her eyes opened a split second too late. Meaning, she was a good five feet from the boot on the ground, but there wasn’t enough time or distance for her to even dream of stopping at the speed she was going. She didn’t even see the owner, only the boot and she knew that where there was a boot, there was a person with a bare foot. Pursing her lips, she tried to slow down, tried to stop, but instead, her feet just kept going. She willed them to slow down but as she passed the boot, she cursed herself for not being more attentive. Who ran with their eyes closed? Only someone stupid enough to not care if they ran into someone, that’s who. And how did she not even smell them from farther off considering how immaculate her hearing had become after the transformation? Had she really turned off herself so much that she didn’t recognize anything going on around her? Fortunately, the only thing she did was run into the clothing article and not a solid body. But the happening was still too close. Too similar to the situation that arose the first time she had gone running at this school. The first time she had met the person… She stopped the thought from completing as she turned her focus instead to stopping her feet. Amina attempted to dig her heels into the ground which would have normally worked if she was wearing shoes. But she was barefoot. So the idea didn’t pan out as planned. Instead, her foot slipped. Slipped! Like her luck couldn’t get any worse, she couldn’t even stop properly. Her right foot happened to hit a slick patch of grass and like that, she was falling, practically sliding across the ground feet first. The sound of grass blades ripping out of the ground came to her ears as her feet tried to find grip but failed miserably. Letting out a soft squeak, she dropped her shoes and managed to turn herself over so her hands could find the grip her feet couldn’t. She managed to catch herself before she actually hit the ground and righted herself as quickly as she could. Popping up quickly, Amina wiped her hands together to remove the grass blades and wetness from them, then proceeding to do the same to her feet until they were acceptable, all in all only taking a few seconds to complete the task. Once she was sure she didn’t look horrific, Amina started back towards where the boot was, acting as if nothing happened. If she was lucky, no one saw that slip up. But as her eyes rose and she reminded herself of who she had nearly run into, she suddenly didn’t care. “I'm dead.” Amina started to smile until Tobias muttered those words. Her eyebrows furrowed instead as she slowed her walk towards the boys. What was he talking about? Suddenly, he collapsed onto the ground. Amina’s eyes widened slightly. Had she actually hit him? She didn’t smell blood. Moving to his side, she stopped just beside him and looked over to Marcus for some sort of explanation. He wasn’t of much help, though. He seemed to be in just as confusing of a position as Tobias.

“You killed me.” Amina looked back to find a finger pointed in her direction and Tobias looking directly at her with the most accusing look she had ever seen on his face. Her eyes widened as she went cross-eyed looking at the tip of his finger. She closed her eyes and refocused on his face. “What are you talking about?” she questioned, placing her hands on her hips as she tried to rationalize what he was getting at. Something in his eyes looked like he was about ready to shoot her for what she had done, but she couldn’t quite comprehend why he was so upset at her. She hadn’t knocked him over or anything. And from what she knew they were on good terms. Had she done something to upset him? After a moment, he seemed to realize who he was pointing a finger at and, oddly enough, he seemed to withdraw into himself. His expression laxed and he stopped pointing at her finally, but still no explanation, and somehow he seemed to get… nervous, maybe? Pursing her lips, Amina began to question Tobias’ sanity. Granted, she had questioned it many times in the past but had never gotten far. She knew he was sane, he was just different. And honestly? She liked different. Out of everyone she could be around right now, she couldn’t think of anyone better than the two guys here. They knew better than anyone about what she was, what she had to go through, and even if they didn’t know many of the details of her life, they seemed to accept her for how screwed up she was without any judgment.

”Hello!” Amina turned to look at Marcus and dropped her hands from her hips with a smile. “Hey. At least you’re not accusing me of your death,” she responded, turning back to Tobias with a teasing grin. “Evening' moon child.” “So I see you’re not dead after all,” she responded, raising her eyebrows as she hoped some sort of explanation would come around. “Didn't count. She's not official.” Once again, her eyebrows furrowed together and her grin dropped as she looked between the boys, finally seeing the trail of objects from, how far she wasn’t sure, but one trail led to Marcus and the other, only slightly longer, to Tobias. Why were all of the objects on the ground? She recognized the textbook on the ground as one from an astrology class. Her eyes squinted as she tried to put the pieces together. Her eyes trailed to where Tobias was, and then to the boot that she had managed to run into instead of her friend. Had he been attempting to land on the boot? The same way Marcus was precariously perched on a few pieces of paper? Her mouth made the shape of an O as she finally realized what she had done. “Oh, were you guys playing hop scotch or something?” Her eyes went from Tobias to Marcus as she tried to understand. It didn’t seem like a right fit, but it was the closest she could determine. “’S’not right. She was just as official as that hairy chicken who knocked me down las’ week.” Quirking an eyebrow, Amina focused on Marcus, watching as he made his next move, tossing the notebook he had been holding. Once it landed, open and apparently ready, Marcus made his move to the notebook. When he finally righted himself, Amina took a step back away from the two and rolled her eyes. “Should I just go and leave you two lovebirds alone?” To add emphasis, she turned around and started to walk slowly back to her shoes with deliberate slowness. Her heart was finally starting to slow down from her run but now at the thought of being alone, it began to speed up again. She hoped they would say no. She didn’t want to be alone right now. Running had been a great push to keep her out of her head, but the company of people she liked to talk to was better. And despite that she had only known these two boys for a short amount of time? Amina was actually slightly upset at the thought of leaving their presence so soon.

Words | 2,036
Tag | Tobias, Marcus, Gavin, Kariana
Outfit | Click

[Gavin Dewhurst]

i'll bare my skin,
(AND I'LL COUNT MY SINS)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Each step that he took reverberated up through his leg, making the ground feel even more solid than it already was. The voices of his team mates were getting softer and softer with every step, though he could hear the sound of his once best friend rapidly approaching. He wasn't sure what they were any longer. Since she had returned, she had done just about everything that he could have wanted her to in order to prove herself to him, being there, almost refusing to leave his side, which might have been welcome if his fiance wasn't doing the exact same thing. He supposed, that they were close to where they used to be, but Gavin just couldn't let her in anymore. He knew why she had been absent, he understood, he just still had trouble accepting it. He refused to think it was more important than being there for him. He knew that he wasn't a leading man, but arrogance and selfishness kept him wanting to believe that its true. He should have tried to be more understanding, since after all it was his selfish tendencies that got him into all of this trouble in the first place. He couldn't let anybody in, and he couldn't figure out why or when things had gotten so very bad, out of control. He just couldn't think of her in that way, and she didn't deserve it. She needed to be treated better, and he was doing his very best not to snap at her as much as he did all of the other people around him. Why did it have to be so damn hot outside? He felt like the weather was betraying him, for some reason he just felt like it would have been more fitting to be raining, or at the very least cloudy and cold. Things jut wouldn't go his way it would seem. Rounding the entrance to the pitch and entering the main grounds of Galaxia Gavin couldn't help but notice all of the people. Most of which seemed to be heading inside for dinner or to go back to their dorms to finish up whatever it was that they wanted to do for the day. Which, was exactly what Gavin should be doing, instead of socializing. His grades had started to slip a little, and he was only an average student at best in most subjects so he couldn’t afford the slip. Even if he had gone back to his dorm room alone (which was highly unlikely) the probability of him actually getting anything productive done, was slim.

Glancing down as the presence of Kariana was made known he acknowledged her hand on his arm with a speculative glance, but he didn't remove it. Meeting in the middle. There had been a time where he wouldn't have even noticed such a contact, wouldn't have thought that there was even anything to notice, physical contact between the two of them had been as easy as breathing, natural. Now, he felt like he was forcing himself to tolerate it and it wasn't anything to do with her, and everything to do with his own constant self flagellation. Whenever her fingers laced with his own though, he almost fumbled his step as a pang of sorrow hit home in his gut. Using his other hand to slide hand out of his grasp and back up onto his arm without a word, he kept his gaze trained carefully straight forward. She knew it wasn't personal, she had to know it. He forced himself into that form of...intimacy with Lucinda, he couldn't do so with her. Not anymore. She had to understand, while they hadn't always been on the best of terms she had to know him well enough to know why he couldn't be like that. It had been explained to Lucinda that they were friends, and it was a truth that the blonde had seemed to accept, but with the constant reminders of his own colorful past, he did respect Lucinda enough not to act like that around her. Giving that as his only reason, whenever really, it was just too painful to display his true emotions around those that he had to fake them around. He could feel Care's eyes on him, questioning, wanting an explanation, but a subtle look was all that he could manage on the subject. “So, since I managed to haggle for custody of you tonight…” Though, it seemed to bring up the subject just enough since she seemed to understand. Neither of them tended to say her name whenever she wasn't around. It was all just so very unfair to Lucinda...but if she noticed, she made no note of it. She was always her bright, stunning self around him. He waited to see if she was going to say anything else on the subject, but his continued silence seemed to deter her. “Your kind of… off in your own head today.” He scoffed a little too loudly at her words. “Today?” Gavin mused softly, that had to be the understatement of the year. He had tried to be normal...it was just so difficult. Made even more so by the constant presence of the raven haired girl of his affections in every inch of the castle.

Hastily, Gavin brought his hands to the strap of his bag, leaving Kariana's hand in the crook of his arm. His grip tightened and wrung easily around the strap of his bag, attempting to relieve some of the tension he was suddenly feeling. While she had been trying her very best, she hadn't been able to get him to talk about the real reason that he was so very miserable. She knew what it was of course, but given that she had left right at the time he was handling it, he felt like the time had passed, he should have been over it by now, and she was just going to tell him the same thing. “More so than usual…” A small lift of his shoulders was all that he could give, what else was he supposed to say? He still wasn't sure why this was supposed to be so pressing of a conversation. At least she wasn't attempting to force him to drink himself to another blackout. He didn't think that his liver could handle another one of her 'healing' binges. He had never been much of a drinker to begin with, he could count the times that he had been truly drunk on one hand. Out of all of those times, four of them had been spent with Kariana. Those nights held some very, treasured memories to him but also gave him hangovers bad enough to never want to see the light of day again. Glancing down at her out of the corner of his eye as they walked, he visually checked her for flasks. Some pretty scary jewelry, but she didn't seem to be smuggling liquor, nor was she forcing him in the direction of the forest to drink where they wouldn't be seen. In fact, she didn't seem to have a path in mind at all. It had been such a very long time since he had just walked, without a purpose or destination, or without the intent of forgetting about his own life for awhile. Not since the summer...with her. It had started in Florida, the weekend of her competition, and had just turned into a happy habit, their walking. It was then that he had really gotten to know her inside and out. First on the dirty beaches in America, then in the bright sun of Greece, and his new house in France. It was almost as if he wanted to make himself miserable. Hoisting his bag a little higher on his torso, the smaller straps hitting him in the side as he did so, he turned to Kariana. “Is there a point to all of this?” the words came out a little more harshly than he would have liked, at they seemed to all too often these days, but he still made no effort to take them back or to amend his tone. It wasn't that he didn't want her around, he had just forgotten how to enjoy her company.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
just close my eyes,
(TILL I CAN TAKE IT IN)

words: 1,380
outfit: This
tags: Kariana, Amina, Marcus, Tobias.
notes:none for now I think
credit: gabs of a different color; @ caution 2.0

[Tobias Leberecht]

SOMETIMES I FIND IT HARD
• to believe there's someone else who could be •
JUST AS MESSED UP AS ME

It was a very odd sensation on his feet, that of his sock on his boot, and his boot on his boot. Like he had one leg longer than the other and he wasn't certain how to hold himself, since his hips were now positioned at an awkward angle. No doubt he was the only one aware of it, but just the thought of it was making him highly uncomfortable. That, or perhaps it was the company that he was currently in. Either way, he wanted to remedy it as soon. His body wiggled, attempting to mash his shoe into something somehow more comfortable to stand on, but not getting very good results out of it. It was an old, shapeless hunk of brown leather, the sort of shoe that had been molded into the shape of his foot the way of most 1800's shoe wear had, by being worn far too often, and laced far too tightly. Thus, making it actually one of the more comfortable pairs of footwear that he owned, but it had been trampled into submission to the point that there was no point attempting to force it to take another shape, it just wasn't going to happen. His gaze shifted for a second over to the female who was now raising to her feet once more, like the fact that she had just slid across the grass and now had green stains marking her legs and feet meant nothing, like it was perfectly normal behavior. Given that she was a gymnast, Amina certainly wasn't a clutzy person, she couldn't be...but that didn't mean that he thought her falling on her bottom was strange. Then again, Tobias wasn't exactly an athletic man. Outside of the Quidditch pitch, he did little to no physical activity whatsoever, perhaps that was a normal way for people to stop running, it might even be fun to some. Just the fact that she had gotten to her feet, and come to his side to  acknowledge him was a feat in and of itself. He was so used to people just going about their business, and paying him no mind he wouldn't have thought that anybody would have actually listened to his words of accusation. 




Amina was a whole other story. Since the day that they had met she had said that she wasn't going to ignore him, and while he had managed to insert himself into her business more than once, he hadn't really believed her. He ha just assumed it would have been a matter of time before he was no longer of use to her and she would have left him behind like everybody else would have. “So I see you’re not dead after all,” Shaking his head, his hand flipped open the top of his bag, examining the contents. He wasn't as desperate as Marcus was, since his friend had been destroying his notes for over an hour now. Granted, most of them had been copied from Tobias to begin with, and would just have to be copied again, but that wasn't the point. Tobias wasn't going to tear his books apart, he was going to have an interesting enough of a time backtracking in order to retrieve all of his belongings.  Since he wasn't as desperate, he wasn't as likely to win either, less so now that he had an audience. He was in the lead now, but that didn't mean anything. “Incorrect.” he stated plainly as an answer to Amina's statement. Really, just because he was up and moving around didn't mean that he wasn't dead. He could be a ghost, or an infiri, or any number of nasty little things. The thought was depressing, so he didn't dwell on it, or finish his train of thought verbally. He needed to figure out a new plan of action since he was now a few feet from where he wanted to be. It was the rules after all, wherever the stepping stone fell, it couldn't be moved, you just had to start from there, or die. Metaphorically speaking. He really didn't think that he had enough items to make it, unless he felt like stripping, and that was something that his friend was far better at than he was. Tobias' pale flesh didn't need to be on display for everybody to see. “Oh, were you guys playing hop scotch or something?” So long as he was focusing on the game that they were playing, it was infinitely easier to talk to her. He really wasn't fond of this bout of nerves that had taken place over him at her presence, she was still standing so very close to him. He could smell her shampoo, and he wasn't even a wolf with all of their fancy senses. A small smile took over his face, he had considered hopscotch, but after awhile jumping the same set of squares over and over again got to be fairly annoying. It just didn't have the same edge to it. “Have you never played hopscotch?” it was obviously different, his words were very soft, and had she been a normal person, she wouldn't have even heard them. Then again, given that she was slowly sinking into her own lava abyss, she might not have heard him anyway. 




“’S’not right. She was just as official as that hairy chicken who knocked me down las’ week.” Tobias shook his head, the chicken had only knocked him down because it had been taunted. If Marcus hadn't been growling and snapping at the damn thing in an attempt to distract Tobias from what he was doing (which had worked) and spooked the chicken into bum rushing Marcus, then it might have been another story. It had been official since it was the chickens only way of self defense...if only the damn thing had known what it was that he was rushing, he might have reconsidered. With his index finger, Tobias tapped himself on the nose like he knew something that the other two didn't. “I'm not going to forfeit.” He had seen the little premature victory dance that Marcus had started whenever Tobias had fallen in the first place. “Should I just go and leave you two lovebirds alone?” “No, you can stay. He likes an audience.” the comment was laced with innuendo, but it was all in good fun, light hearted. Even though Marcus tended not to think too much of it, he had enough admirers to not ever be mistaken as homosexual. Tobias, just wasn't taken for anything most times. The real question, was whether or not to invite her into the game. It wasn't very complex, given that almost every child played the game at some time or another, most people their age tended to pretend that they were 'above' such things, that they were too good for it, or felt too foolish to attempt to play a game of any sort. Much less one that ended up making one do stupid things more often than not. Tobias had been stuck teetering on his hands just last month during one of their longer games. Glancing at the bag crossing his torso he shot another look to Marcus for some sort of clue as to how to proceed, If he wanted her in on the game or not. The two of them were far closer than Tobias could ever be with another person given that he wasn't capable of forming that mental link between himself an another person, that was if he understood the whole werewolf bond thing like he thought that he did. So, he had to know her better, know how to act around her better at the very least. 




Swallowing hard, he tossed the bag next to her retreating feet. “You can start there, yeah?” Looking back at Marcus, who had just managed to pull off a fairly impressive little jump onto the notebook that he ha just finished gutting in his last turn. He was almost out of objects as well. If they weren't careful, neither of them was going to have enough objects to make it to the tree line, and it just wasn't acceptable that there wouldn't be a winner. Normally, they weren't allowed to use the objects from the other players arsenal, an obviously they couldn't pick anything up, because then your fingers would have been singed off in the lava. Tobias supposed that he could always just jump on Marcus...sacrifice his friend to the molten abyss...but that of course would have to be a very last ditch effort. Not because that would mean losing his friend, because Marcus wouldn't give up that easily, and the ghost of Marcus would never get over the 'you made me a martyr' angle. With a subtle shake of his head, Tobias pushed that option out of his head and attempted to balance on one foot, wobbling a little. Pulling his other shoe from his foot he positioned the laces carefully, an flung it forward and pushed his hands out in front of him falling forward until his hands were on the boot, and he had to awkwardly inchworm-bear crawl his way onto the boot he had just tossed, leaving his treasured shoe behind. Righting himself, he gave Marcus a little bow. He would live to fight another day it would seem. 

TAGGED ! amina, marcus, kariana, gavin
WORDS ! 1,560
OUTFIT ! CLICK
LYRICS ! sometimes by skillet
TEMPLATE ! PANIC! ITS LAUZ @ CAUTION
NOTES ! -hello

[Kariana Gabrielle Travers]

She felt the alignment of his body shift even before he reached down to move her hand, her fingers falling without hesitation from around his. The sense of loss was palpable though, the empty feeling in her palm pushing against her consciousness with a vindictive sort of venom. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t only treating her this way, didn’t matter that even letting her hold his arm was a step up from since she’d been back. She could look at it objectively all day and see the progress they’d already made. It didn’t change the fact that they were still separate from one another in a way that she couldn’t fathom though, didn’t change the fact that things that came as a second nature to her now had to be scrutinized and corrected. She bit back the need to slide her hand back into his though, letting her fingers curl around his forearm in a gesture that was devoid of any sense of possession. It was something she realized he’d been more object to than any of her other contact. Whether it was due to Amina or Lucinda though was up in the air, she thought it was probably a mix of the both of them. Hatred fought its way up her throat, the angry, raw coloring of it tearing at her vocal chords and tamping itself back down just as ferociously. The both of them. Both females, despite how hard she was trying to ignore it incited it within her. The primal, instinctual urge to protect the hurting half of her she was now walking with clinging to her like a too tight clothing article. It didn’t matter that in almost all respects the girls in question were innocent of the affair, it wasn’t as if either of them had chosen the circumstances that had forced this whole mess. Even if it weren’t a choice, the consequences were still the same- just as her leaving had been. Which is probably the only reason she’d been so successful in burying that wrath so far into the recesses of her mind that it was manageable at the very least. She fought the urge to tap out the rhythm of her thoughts against his sleeve clad arm as she would have done before, carefully keeping them stilled so as to be less of an intrusion. She knew by now that reacclimating himself to her touch wasn’t the problem, there wasn’t any formula for her to go by to ease him back into it- it was something she’d already tried after the initial response. Neither was it something that could be talked out. She could recognize the effort he put forth to be as put together as he was, realize just how much acting was required from him on a daily basis to go about things as he was. Which is why she’d gotten into more than one fight with Regulus over his current state, losing her temper on more than one occasion when anyone mentioned him not attempting to get over whatever it was that had his personality shifting towards this entity that they didn’t know. But then they hadn’t really known him to begin with. Their whole group was like that in their own way, something that had no doubt drawn them to one another. She had though, she still did, even if his mannerisms and moods weren’t what she was so used to. He may be altered in some aspects, but his whole personality hadn’t fundamentally shifted enough to make him unrecognizable to her. Hurt did things to a person, warped things- reactions. She swallowed it though, allowing her words to be colored with just the right hint of curiosity, noting his dismissal of her assessment. “Today?” Well today had been a starting point, something she didn’t necessarily feel like pointing out.

It would be so much easier if she knew where she was going with this herself, if the rehearsing she’d attempted those few times had actually amounted to anything out here. She readjusted her fingers just slightly as he bent his arms upwards, hand accommodating him to where the tips of her fingers casually curved over the opposite edge of his arm. So she mused again, words nothing like what she had wanted, but stlll falling off of her lips as if they were the gateway to something else. She knew she’d have to get her thoughts together to really begin, stifle this anxiousness that seemed to make everything around them speed up. It didn’t help that the sheer mass of reasons that she was anxious seemed never ending. She wanted to fix things, she wanted to help him, she didn’t know how to go about any of it, she felt… bereft. Even as he shrugged off her assessment she felt it crashing into her again, her eyes roaming the planes of his face as if they held the answer to all of this within them. It hit her then, flaming through her system with a voracity that nearly left her breathless- she was lonely. Without him she was completely on her own. It shouldn’t have been as big a revelation all things considered, she missed him any time she went any period of time without him. This just happened to be the longest she’d had to endure while he was practically still beside her. Her fingers tightened impulsively upon his arm, forcing her fingers to cross even further into the crook of his arm as if that act alone could keep him from floating away from her. It was what she needed, this physical closeness, in order to order her mind back into some semblance of normality. Not that it fixed everything right off, but it was enough to know that whatever she might be feeling he was still standing beside her, still walking with her. It was enough to stave off the sudden bout of self awareness long enough for her to refocus herself on Gavin and the reason they were out here. This wasn’t a last ditch effort, she knew even if tonight didn’t fix anything(she knew well enough it wouldn’t be some magical cure all) but even if it made no headway at all she would be able to continue working at it. So why did it feel as if this right now was all she had left?

“Is there a point to all of this?” Where other people might have flinched at the tone she found herself cocking her head to the side, fingers tightening again in the barely perceptible movement- the only form of hug she could figure him tolerating from her now. “I always have a point darling,” the flippant response rolled off of her tongue, lips curling in a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She let her feet pace her a bit further before showing any inclination to continue, glad that he hadn’t interrupted her thought process with a show of irritation at her words. Had the situation been different she might have been able to goad him into losing his temper, a few well placed words and they’d have an all out argument- raised voices, flailing limbs, the whole shebang. And then they’d get over it. This wasn’t their normal field of operation however and she couldn’t help but feel she was treading a mine field, that at any moment he might slip away from her and fade into the background. It was a fear she’d never had reason to entertain with him, the emotion so staggering that had she not already acknowledged and been working at it she might have let her feet trip from under her. Even with the prolonged exposure though, the very thought was like a vice gripping her heart- pulling out every insecurity that she managed to bury so deep within her. Gavin was, in almost every aspect, the only one who could do such. Her spine had straightened, elongated until she was ramrod straight, tension radiating from her very core as she fought to suppress the line of reasoning she’d begun to traverse. She wanted to stop them where they were and tell her that she missed him, that she missed them. She wanted to voice the fears that had been building within her chest from the moment she’d returned to his birthday party, spew them forth like the refuse they really were- expunge them from her very system. But then… that wouldn’t do much to repair the break that seemed to still hover between the two of them. Maybe a minefield wasn’t the correct analogy for what she was doing here after all. Maybe it was more of a life and death operation, one wrong move and whatever heartbeat that was still left muttering beneath all of the excess crowded atop it and it would flat line… fall silent. It was something she couldn’t afford. So how did you start the process? It didn’t matter how many times she’d gone over in her head what it was she would say, she still felt at a loss by his side when put in the actual situation. So she did what she could given the circumstance. “I can’t apologize any more Gavin, because if that was all you needed you would have snapped back weeks ago. I don’t know what to do here,” the words seemed to wring themselves from her lips against all her better judgment, the acknowledgment of uncertainty tainting her blushed lips. “I’m not expecting you to be okay.” The words came slower now, like she was tasting each one before actually surrendering it to the humid air around them. “Or even pretend to be, if you were yelling at me… raging, anything I could have handled better.” And she could have, emotion she could handle from him, could work with. This pushing her out and to the side though, closing her out as it were… even if she could understand the reasoning behind it, see where he was coming from- it didn’t make it any easier to bear. Or any easier to find a solution to. “I can’t fix Amina.” The words fell past her lips almost silently, on the very edge of a breath as she hurried as if to cover them. “I can’t make things with either of them easier.” And she would, despite anything else if she could somehow conjure up a solution to all of this she would have already done so- she’d spent enough time searching one out, trying to find a way out for him by default. “I don’t need you happy Gavin,” her feet slowed to nearly a stop- eyes meeting his and holding the gaze, “but I do need you.”

And it wasn’t a gimmick or a way to get him to talk, but she knew with a certainty that she did. It didn’t matter how hurt he was or if he lashed out at her or if she had to find a new facet of his personality to deal with. She could do it because he was her. It was something she’d reiterated enough in her own mind not to even question anymore. Everyone knew they came as a package deal, always had- always would. At least, that had been the assumption before. One she wasn’t ashamed to admit that she’d operated under herself. The fact that the always would was even in question was unimaginable to her, something she’d never figured on questioning. She’d never had to ask him how to fix something between them before; they’d never had to go to eachother to know what to do. Even if they messed up somewhere along the path to getting there it hadn’t mattered. But this crushing feeling in her chest, this loneliness that threatened to rise up and swallow her entire being told her that this time it wasn’t a question of stumbling her way back. Getting back was the only thing that mattered now. Because this time there seemed to be some sort of expiration date looming over their heads, ticking down until it wouldn’t matter anymore- if it hadn’t already passed. Her face was set stonily, features set not to betray the near panic that seemed to have arisen within her. Her eyes flashed though, emotions cart wheeling through them at alarming speeds. Which was the majority of the reason she turned her face to look out in front of her, focusing on nothing even though her feet kept their pace moving. She really didn’t have a destination in mind, not in the physical sense. “Just….” Tell me what to do, point me in the right direction, help me out here. The multitude of pleas fell silent on the end of her sentence, petering off into a choked silence.




WORDCOUNT:: 2,134
MUSICPLAYING:: Bottoms Up by Nickelback
CURRENTMOOD:: Anxious
POSTTAGGEDFOR:: Gavin, Amina, Marcus, Tobias
CHARACTEROUTFIT::
AUTHORSNOTES:: ....

TEMPLATE CREATED BY YOUR SWEET DEMISE of CAUTION 2 THE WIND

[Marcus O'Conner]

living is easy with eyes closed

- - - - misunderstanding all you see - - - - 

He took back all thoughts of Tobias being attracted to the raven haired girl before them as slightly amusing as he watched his friend regroup himself, suddenly wishing it were possible for him to merge his consciousness with Amina when not in wolf form. Not that he would actually impose himself on her, he’d read her discomfort at having him lurking there through their shifts loud enough. Invasive. And it was to an extent. Especially the first few times you experienced it. He’d grown to rely on it in a way though, accepting the voices that filled the void in the recesses of his mind as a welcoming camaraderie. You didn’t even have to speak to communicate, merging as it were in a way that silenced the need for any kind of verbal communication. It was the fact that he had been in her head that allowed him to see the events that unfolded between Amina and the Slytherin’s male co-captain… Not that he’d gone digging to find it. The ass, unfortunately, was never far from the girl’s thoughts. A fact that had served to fuel the fire of dislike that had begun slowly burning from the moment she’d first relived one of the many memories she seemed to live in of him. It wasn’t like he’d harbored any positive feelings for the snake anyways, he’d been fairly ambivalent towards the Keeper up to that point- he’d given Marcus no real reason to tack any animosity to his name. Not until he’d been privy to the innermost workings of Amina’s mind anyways. He didn’t much like seeing anyone reduced to the state that he’d delivered her, much less someone he’d been inclined to acclimate into his small circle of friends. Not that, if he was honest, he’d had much of a choice in that either. She just sort of found them and fell into place, but then that was how all of them had ended up here in the first place. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to be in her thoughts either, but it would have been nice to be able to discern whether or not she viewed Tobes in the same light that he very obviously viewed her in. Although even if he had been inclined to take the time to monitor her every move concerning his friend, he doubted he’d come up with much. He listened to the conversation going on before him with half an ear, taking the words in and banishing them to the back of his mind. Hop scotch? Hardly. Hop scotch was much easier to win, and didn’t take nearly the amount of careful maneuvering as the one they were currently engrossed in did. He was saved from responding as such as Tobias took the duty upon himself, leaving Marcus the opening to contemplate the field before him. He could think more on his friend’s new interest in the girl that was now with them when he’d made his move. If he got distracted now… well he really didn’t want to lose.

He refused to lose this time. Even if it meant playing a bit dirtier than normal… He turned his eyes back to the pair with a kind of shrewd scrutiny. Amina could very easily come in handy towards his eventual goal. He was quite sure that Tobias had a plethora of tricks up his sleeve that he was just waiting to unleash, just as he was sure that he had plenty more that he hadn’t necessarily thought up yet. Tobias was just like that. Kind of a mad scientist, some days he even managed to look the part- were mad scientists a more attractive brand than the majority of cartoons would portray. Because, there was no use not acknowledging the fact, Tobias was fairly attractive for a male. While the other boy never seemed to acknowledge it Marcus had caught enough commentary and idle speculation over his friend. He was certain that were Tobias to ever actually attempt to make that sort of contact with a good portion of the females in their year he’d find his fair share of willing participants. Not that he ever seemed interested in finding that out himself… Actually, Amina was the first person he’d ever seen Tobias pay any extra sort of attention to in those regards… Which would make it all the more easy to use her as a distraction of sorts if it came down to it… though exactly how he would go about it wasn’t entirely clear. “I’m not going to forfeit.” Of course not, that would be far too easy. Marcus didn’t even to attempt to withhold the eyeroll that took over in the moment, very pointedly- and slightly effeminately- over exaggerating the gesture in Tobias’s general direction before attempting once more to return to his planning, the returning words fading into background noise again, although he did manage a grunt of general agreement at Tobias’s double entendre of a welcome. It was good if she stayed, he still needed her unwitting help later… maybe. The thought had him glancing to them once more; just barely catching Tobias’s lost look and grinning widely once more. Not just because it made her an easier accomplice either. It did help spur him into movement though; rolling his shoulders back once Tobias’s eyes fell from him. Not that finally executing his move made him deaf to Tobais’s invitation, making Marcus’s lips tilt in jubilation as he rose from his half bow, looking to Amina excitedly.

“O’course we want ya ta stay ye queer hawk!” Followed by a bawdy wink and a tilt of his head. He may not have been able to address it earlier, what with making his move and letting Tobias do the majority of the talking, but he could definitely use the reinforcement that she would provide. It wasn’t like she was going to win either, no offense against her specifically but he and Tobias were old hands at the sport, and he didn’t have any intention of letting that fact not count for anything tonight. “Although really this wanker is sure ta do it all arseways soon enough. End o’ ta game then.” He shrugged somewhat comically as he looked towards Tobias, his eyes narrowing slightly as he saw him looking out at the field before him. “O’ course Bird, that would leave it ta just us two.” Not that Tobias wouldn’t be working his damndest in the background to make Marcus loose his footing were that lucky enough to be the case. He caught the slightest hint of movement from Tobias though, his eyes snapping back to him as he threw his other shoe down. “Aye Jaysus!” It was too bad she hadn’t been in the game when she’d come crashing onto the scene before, he’d forgotten how easily the tides of luck changed here, something he found himself less aggravated with than he would have been had the past few weeks not treated him so well. It didn’t stop his brows from falling lower upon his forehead though, eyes narrowing as he watched hopefully for some slip to happen. Not that it did… He laughed slightly as Tobias righted himself, nodding slightly. “Feck. Fair play.” He started to scan the moves he could make before stopping, turning towards Amina slightly and inclining his head. “Since ye were just initiated as it were ye get ta go after me, right?” He nodded at the end of his sentence as if to punctuate it, not bothering to wait for a response before turning back and pushing his hand into the bag hanging half off of his back and coming back with an already tattered copy of a book that was very obviously not school issued. He’d hoped it wouldn’t actually come down to this, but he couldn’t very well take his shoes off now when Tobias had just done so. It would be another few moves before he could without feeling as if he’d somehow taken the idea from him. His eyes fell to the book as if in apology before tossing it as well, wincing slightly as it landed just ahead of where Tobias was currently standing. It was a rather large jump all things given, especially when the size of his feet were put into question.

“Righ’ then…” A deep breath filled his chest before he crouched once more, thankful at least that the jump was fairly straightforward. He did spread his legs out, one before the other midair though, smiling when one shoe landed once more just inside the lines of object. Not that it was a good thing to start being chancy with the tree line still just so far away, but at least he hadn’t lost any major limbs yet. He hung precariously there for a second, suspended with one leg arched behind him as he fought to maintain the balance. His arms shot out as he tipped forward just slightly, returning his equilibrium with a slow practice before he felt safe enough to straighten and shuffle his foot so that he could fit the other down. Not wanting to risk turning his whole body he turned his neck to look back at Amina with a wide grin. “Yer turn chick.” And then they could start their attempt at Tobias’s certain demise.
.

tag Gavin, Kariana, Amina, Tobias
words 1,558
lyrics strawberry fields forever - the beatles
credit a girl with kaleidoscope eyes @ caution 2.0
wearing this

[Amina Krane]

“No, you can stay. He likes an audience.” Amina grinned, her back still to the boys but it wasn’t for long. Once she had a control of her grin, not looking like she was too excited to stay in their presence, she turned to look over her shoulder at them. Tobias hadn’t even looked at her. Was he that focused or was he just suddenly afraid to see her face? Merlin, he could be a strange one. “O’course we want ya ta stay ye queer hawk!” Her grin uncontrollably returned as she looked at Marcus who matched her own grin. And, was she crazy or was there a wink thrown in there? Quirking an eyebrow, she turned back around to face the two crazy males who she was fortunate enough to call friends. Well, more than friends really. In the few short months she had known them, they had each become close to her in their own special way. She was just happy that they could finally spend time together as the three of them. It didn’t get to happen often enough. “You can start there, yeah?” Shrugging, Amina followed their lead and took her place atop the bag Tobias had so thoughtfully placed near her. Her eyes followed their pattern that they had made thus far and began to formulate an idea of what she was going to do next. They had already indicated it wasn’t hop scotch, so she had to figure out the game if she was going to stand any sort of chance. Of course, she had no intention of winning, just staying in the game long enough so she had a reason to stick around. So far she knew that they had used object to get where they were and when she had knocked Tobias’ out of the way, his foot had landed on the grass. At that moment was when he claimed he was so called ‘dead’. So apparently, no touching the grass.

Then the pieces snapped into place. Amina was transported back to a game they had played in the gymnasium when she was younger. Her coach had said it would be a rendition of some sort of game… Oh, what was it? They had changed it to deal with sharks since they lived in Florida. It had seemed logical since there were no volcanos around. That was it, the lava game. How it took her so long to realize that was stupid, but she got it figured out, right? That was what mattered. Though this rendition was different than the one she had done in the gymnasium. There, the number of objects you had to use was based off of how creative you could get. Balance beams, uneven bars, parallel bars, rings, pummel horses, you name it. Of course, they had to move the objects closer together since normally they were far enough apart to keep people from hitting another piece of equipment, but they hadn’t made it easy. Jumping was the name of the game, but being elegant at the same time. This version? It was going to be more along the lines of accuracy to make sure you actually landed on whatever object you chose to throw. “Although really this wanker is sure ta do it all arseways soon enough. End o’ ta game then. O’ course Bird, that would leave it ta just us two.” Looking from the trail of objects behind her to Marcus, she rolled her eyes. “Now, now, no need to count him out yet. I’m sure Tobias has some tricks up his sleeve.” A grin crossed her lips as Tobias made his next move, obviously upsetting Marcus. Had he really thought Tobias would just give up that easy? He may come across strange, but he had never come across as a quitter.

“Since ye were just initiated as it were ye get ta go after me, right?” Nodding in response, Amina looked between the two and grinned. “You really should have thought it through before bringing me into this, though. You two seem to be nearly out of things while I still have everything on my person,” she added, tapping the bag slung across her shoulder. It was small so she was sure they would underestimate how much was inside of said bag, however like her normal sized shoulder bag, this one had an enchantment on it to enlarge th inside to hold more. It still wouldn’t hold as much as her other bag, but it held enough to make a difference. If she remembered correctly, two textbooks, one notebook, and a few lengths of parchment. She could show them up if she wanted, she could pull some fancy moves and show them just how much of a mistake they had made in this game, but she wouldn’t do it. Showing people up had never been her forte, even in gymnastics. She had only done her routine to the best of her ability and if she happened to be the best, so be it. “Righ’ then…” Her eyes followed his movements, interested in how he was going to make the jump to the book he had tossed onto the ground. But he actually made it look rather easy. Granted, his landing could use some work, but good nonetheless. After all, he didn’t fall, which meant he was still in the game. Chuckling as he finally righted himself, Amina placed her hands on her hips. These two were certainly an interesting pair.

“Yer turn chick.” Pulling her lips between her teeth and into a tight line, Amina removed her hands from her hips and moved them to her bag where she proceeded to open it up. Her hand reached inside, deeper than it should have with the size of the bag. It searched around for a moment until her hand skimmed the spine of one of the textbooks. She pulled it out of the bag, struggling at the opening since the book was hardly able to fit inside in the first place. Once she had it out. She looked over at them with a quirked eyebrow and a grin, looking back in front of her and tossing the book a few feet away. The jump was a synch. If she had more distance than just Tobias’ bag, which she felt awfully bad for standing on in the first place, than it would have been kids play. But from a stable position, it was a little harder. Biting on her bottom lip, she closed the flap to her bag and curled in her toes. Merlin, she wished she had room to take a running start but she would have to do it without the running. Wouldn’t be the first time. Rocking back on her heels once, Amina straightened out her legs and put all of her power into her toes as she jumped. Her legs went one in front and one behind her in a split jump, her favorite of all of her jumps in her arsenal, her back arching back and her arms out to the side for a moment as her eyes found the spot she wanted to land. Once she had it in her sights, her front leg came down and her toes found the cover of the book, her heel coming down and her knee bending to absorb the impact. Her back leg remained behind her for a moment as her arms helped to keep her balance. It was difficult not to put it down and perform a turn like she nearly always did after that sort of a jump, but she kept it back until she was sure she had her footing. Once she knew she wouldn’t fall, her back leg came down and her toes touched down just beside her foot. Looking up with a grin, she looked over to the two boys. “Tobias, I believe you are next?” Maybe the gymnastics council had a point in keeping her out of the ring… .

Words | 1,333
Tag | Tobias, Marcus, Gavin, Kariana
Outfit | Click

[Gavin Dewhurst]

i'll bare my skin,
(AND I'LL COUNT MY SINS)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kariana deserved the time of day, she deserved his full attention and she deserved to have him listen to her. To understand what she was saying, not to have his mind wandering the entire time that she was talking. Thinking about the impact to his knees with every step, the hollow ache in his stomach that was never going away. The slight tremble in his hand from the need to consume more of his potion. These things dominated his mind, he couldn't hear her. Oh, her words were registering in her brain, but the emotional draw behind them...was absent. He couldn't sympathize with her, the one person that had always been close to him, who he had previously trusted above all else. She had even made an attempt to bring his ill-advised relationship choice into her life over the course of the past summer. She has done her part to accept him, and his choice, even though it was at great personal sacrifice to herself. It meant that any hopes of the two of them would never happen for her, given her attachment. He knew it, neither of them had to say it. They were friends, but lately, were they even really that? At tiny flicker of the image of the girls dormitory passed behind his eyelids as he blinked. A even more fleeting image of a younger Kariana, laughing. Quickly pushed away his head twitched, and the image changed to Amina. Always Amina.

He didn't even notice that his facial muscles constricted, that his mouth turned downward into a frown like a bad taste was in his mouth. His eyes downcast, watching the changes in terrain under his feet with every step. He could hardly even notice the weight of her hand on his arm any longer. It was strange, as somebody who had spent most of his life objectifying and using women for his own, particular needs, that they were now getting back at him. Like every woman that he had ever used had balled up their hurt and anger, and it was being thrust back upon him through the portal of the girl that he lost, and the girl that he was supposed to love, but couldn't. He couldn't change the past, he shouldn't still be as upset as he was. Yet, of course, it didn't make it hurt any less. Time wasn't making things better. Would it have been at all possible to feel better if she had somehow found reason to go back to her old school? If he had transferred himself, if somehow they weren't seeing each other on an every day basis? Would that make him feel better? He doubted it. It was mostly mental after all, this torture. She wasn't doing anything to hurt him, she wasn't being seen with other men, in fact, most people didn't see much of her at all. She wasn't parading in front of him, or going out of her way to be cruel. He knew that she would never do that, she was far too kind for something like that. No, it was him, living in his own memories that was the worst torture. He couldn't make himself stop. No matter how hard he tried.

“I always have a point darling,” She sounded strange, like her voice wasn't her own. Since when did she call him Darling? He felt insulted, though he wasn't certain why. He had heard her all call manner of people variations of every pet name in the book, but it was the first time that she had chosen this one for him. It was enough to distract him, that was for sure. His head turned down to glance at her, her shorter frame in keeping with his stride easily. She didn't seem like she had meant it as an insult...so why was he taking it like one? Her smile was wrong, and he didn't know why. This time last year, he would have known why, and have been able to predict the expression long before it crossed her face. He would have known more, and been able to laugh it off, now, it only confused him further. Like he should be awaiting a lecture of some sort. “I can’t apologize any more Gavin, because if that was all you needed you would have snapped back weeks ago. I don’t know what to do here,” Bitterness rose to the tip of his tongue, the urge to spout cruelties that she just didn't deserve rising. Why was she here, to tell him that she didn't know why she wanted to talk to him? He couldn't understand it. He wasn't just going to smile and tell her that everything was okay. He had to do that enough with everybody else that he encountered. He had thought, that she was the one person that he wasn't going to have to be that way around. He had been hoping that she would understand, that she wasn't going to try and force him to feel better. He felt pressured, by her of all people. Quickly, he turned his head. This wasn't about her. She was a side note. She shouldn't be, but she was. If he had to sit here, and coddle her and make her feel better, it would be just one more thing that he was going to have to worry about. His gaze turned back forward, his teeth closing down over his tongue, biting to keep himself silent. He wouldn't burden her.

By all standards, he was a man now. He had turned eighteen, passed all the requirements dictated by legal and social norms. He was an adult. He didn't need anybody else to fix him, to have the woman on his arm to make him feel better. That was no longer her job. “I’m not expecting you to be okay.” Her words were going in one ear, and out the other, mentally contradicting everything she was saying. “Or even pretend to be, if you were yelling at me… raging, anything I could have handled better.” It was true, to her credit. Kariana had seen him at some of his lowest moments, and she had always been able to handle his temper better than most. Granted, she was the only one that he tended to turn his temper on. Mostly because he knew that she could handle it. “I can’t fix Amina.” The mere mention of her name forced him to choke. To stop walking and stand still, the cold air hitting him harder, registering more in his brain. His eyes turned like daggers to Kariana, she should have known that was crossing a line. He didn't talk about her, and Kariana had no right to mention her. “I can’t make things with either of them easier.” He could tell she knew what a mistake it was, as her talking sped up. If this was her way to attempt to get him to talk about it, any of it, she was mistaken. There was nothing to fix. The damage was done, and Amina was not at fault. He was. He was the bad guy here, and that was the end of it. Kariana had no idea what he had done to Amina. The fallout from his harsh words to her, the lack of control he had over his fellow house mates...what that had allowed her to become. The mutation in her blood. All of it. It was his fault. He had ruined her. Forever. There was no fixing that. No getting over it. He deserved how he felt. End of story.

He couldn't tell Kariana, he couldn't. He wouldn't let it go. This was who he was now, and if she didn't like it. That was her problem. Gavin's thoughts were racing through his mind at a rapid pace, and he couldn't verbalize a single one of them. “I don’t need you happy Gavin, but I do need you.” Her, and everybody else it would seem. His eyes bore down on hers, condescending. It was so hard not to be angry with her, his temper was so close to the surface these days. If he knew how to fix things, how to make them even the slightest bit better, didn't she think that he would have done so by now? He would have done just about anything to not feel like this anymore, to not feel sick to his stomach every waking hour. To get himself out of the situation that he was at sole fault for, but he didn't know how. The panic that she was clearly displaying on her face should have upset him, should have made him want to hold her until she felt better, should have made him yell with anger at her being so dead stupid. But it didn't. Like he was seeing her through a cloud, misty, like he couldn't make it out clearly even though he could see it, understand what she was meaning. She wasn't one to voice her emotions, and the fact that she was taking the time to lay it all out so very clearly for him, meant that she was truly at her wits end. Grasping at straws. He could tell that she wanted to get moving again, to keep walking, but he stayed rooted to the spot. The sun would be starting to set soon, he should want to get inside, he should want to eat, or run, or do anything. They still had a long way to walk before they were even technically back on the grounds of Galaxia. The pitch was far off for a reason. “Just….” He knew that she was trying, he wanted to care more than he did. He felt like there was just this wall – no – a set of hurdles between the two of them that he didn't know how to let her navigate around. His jaw pulsed as his teeth let go of his tongue. All he could manage was a shake of his head. No. He couldn't help her. He didn't know how to help, he didn't even know if he really wanted to. He couldn't even help himself.

His expression was solemn, set. Turning, he started them walking again, even though neither of them was guiding the other, they didn't have anywhere set to go, just to meander. He didn't even feel right naming the woman beside him. The familiar nick name that he had been using for her all of these years didn't feel right on his tongue, but using her given name was even more strange. The middle ground that left him in, accurately described how he felt about her. His chest grew tighter. Slowly, painfully, he let go of his bag strap, and awkwardly fumbled his arm around Kariana's shoulders. It wasn't her fault, but he couldn't help her. This was the best that he could do. Even that wasn't very good.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
just close my eyes,
(TILL I CAN TAKE IT IN)

words: 1,823
outfit: This
tags: Kariana, Amina, Marcus, Tobias.
notes:none for now I think
credit: gabs of a different color; @ caution 2.0

[Tobias Leberecht]

SOMETIMES I FIND IT HARD
• to believe there's someone else who could be •
JUST AS MESSED UP AS ME

His hands brushed together, slapping the bits of grime that he had collected in his fall. His eyes turned over to Marcus, who was next in line. Making sure to leave a smirk on his face the entire time. He didn't need to talk to psych the boy out. It was far easier to focus on his friend, than to give any emotional purchase to the feeling bubbling away in his stomach. At least it was a nice enough day. From the moment that he had woken up this morning, he had woken up in a decent mood. Ate far too many cakes at breakfast and continued to eat until lunch. He had lessons all afternoon, including his favorite subject. Now, he was enjoying the late afternoon weather, soon to be barefoot in the nice, cool grass. Apart from the somersaults in his stomach, he was rather enjoying himself. If only he could manage to win this round, he would continue to enjoy himself. If he lost – well, that would certainly turn things a tad bit more sour. He couldn't even remember where it was that the pair had been keeping score. Hopefully, the more animalistic of the two would remember where it was that the score was kept. It would have made sense to keep it in his journal, but this was his third one since starting school, and they just hadn't thought of that at the time. Who knew that Tobias would have become so very attached to his book like he was. “O’course we want ya ta stay ye queer hawk!” There he went again, with his weird Irish words and mannerisms. Tobias felt his eyes roll as he waited, standing with his feet crossed at the ankles and his arms folded across his chest. “Although really this wanker is sure ta do it all arseways soon enough. End o’ ta game then.” Beaming at his friends odd complement he shrugged. He did tend to pull out the fancy footwork, but of course it just depends on where they were in the months lunar cycle. The closer to the full moon that they were, Marcus got stronger of course. Tobias had learned a few years ago that if he didn't want to lose horribly, not to start a game the week of the moon.

“O’ course Bird, that would leave it ta just us two.” Tobias' eyes darted around, his torso rotating to look for the bird in mention. His eyes lifted to the sky for just a moment before turning back to Marcus. Had his thick accent managed to turn his words around? Out of all of the animals that they collectively made up, a bird was not amongst them. He was certain that somewhere in the castle, there was a bird or two, Tobias certainly saw them enough in the rafters...but there were none in the sky at this moment. That was for certain. What in Merlin's name did he mean? Confusing flittered across the boys face as his hand went up to scratch at the back of his head, mussing his hair into odd angles. “Bird?” He inquired. There were no context clues to hint at what he could have possibly meant. He just didn't understand. Tobias wobbled on his boot as he attempted to uncross his feet, waiting for some sort of explanation. “Where Bird?” he stammered, a little stupidly. He said something about two, so did that mean that one of them was the bird. Tobias' hands gestured to himself, and got a tiny shake no from Marcus, and to Amina and got a subtle yes. Well. That just didn't make any sense whatsoever. Amina wasn't a bird. She was a wolf. “She's not a bird. She's not even a mammal with flying capability.” He continued, carefully avoiding voicing just what sort of Animal that she was. He could feel that he should have been embarrassed by his words, but he just wasn't. In fact, he could feel Marcus just ignoring him. Still, Tobias stood there staring, like the third wheel that he felt like he was. Waving his arms above his head, he waited for his questions to be answered, but no answers came. Sighing in defeat he felt himself on the verge of a pout. He didn't like not understanding things. Crossing his arms over his chest once more he sighed, resigned.

Watching in a childish silence as Marcus tossed his book, he was tempted to kick the book just out of the way as soon as Marcus lined himself up to jump. If it wouldn't instantly disqualify himself then he just might have done so. He didn't feel like losing over a tantrum, most of all since Amina was going to catch him doing it if he did. That couldn't end well whatsoever. She was already getting the hang of it, talking to them what could be considered her version of 'smack talk'. He was certain she had meant it to be menacing or intimidating, but it just made him want to smile. If he wasn't still upset about his question, he might just have allowed his little tantrum to dissipate. “Righ’ then…” His mouth twitched whenever Marcus landed. He was now winning, the slot that Tobias had been in himself just moments ago. He stuck his tongue out at the winning boy at the very least. He would just have to settle for that for now. “Yer turn chick.” He stared at Marcus, visually admonishing him for ignoring his questions. He knew that neither of them had any intentions of explaining the rules to Amina ahead of time, she would just have to learn as she went. That was the best way really, it was cruel, but if they could trick her into losing on a technicality, that would be excellent. Not that they wanted her to lose, but it was her first game, and beginners luck was rubbish. Slowly, Tobias' eyes turned to Amina who seemed to be fishing much further in her bag than she ought to of been able. It was obviously enhanced, like his own treasured book in his bag. Confidant that she wasn't going to make it to her book he let his lips turn upward in one corner, watching carefully. It wasn't until she jumped up into some sort of scissor kick thing that his confidence started to waiver. She landed just like a gymnast. How did he not know that about her? It seemed so silly to him that he knew such intimate secrets about her, but nothing else, nothing about her hobbies. His jaw dropped open a little, it seemed to be a habit of his now, staring stupidly at everything. “Tobias, I believe you are next?” His mouth was dry by the time that he shut it again. Nodding, his tongue moved about his mouth to wet it again. He had just discarded his bag and everything in it, which, at the time had seemed intelligent, but now, didn't seem to be so smart. His mouth moved from side to side as he contemplated using a sock, but that just wouldn't give him too much room to operate and then he really didn't know what to do.

His hand moved to pull his hat off of his head, flipping it around in his hands reluctantly. He really didn't want to squish his hat. It was a cheap old thing but he was rather fond of it. Making up his mind he jammed the hat back on his head. Looking around him, there was hardly nothing to grab and use in a pinch. Smirking, he turned his eyes to the boy just a few paces ahead of him. Reaching forward, he grabbed hold of Marcus' backpack. He knew he shouldn't. He knew it was bad. Generally, they tended to play nice and follow the rules until somebody started something fowl, then all bets were off. Pulling the backpack, he was intent on leveling the playing field. He didn't have a bag, if he didn't surrender the bag, then Marcus was sure to fall off of his text book. It didn't feel like there was much left in the bag anyway. Blowing the boy a kiss as he wrested the bag from Marcus' shoulders he tossed it just far enough from Marcus that he couldn't bend right over and take it back. Hastily, and a little sloppily, he hopped from his shoe to the bag, the contents were uneven, so it made it harder to stand, but he managed alright. His feet were starting to get cold, and it was unlikely he would make it all the way to the treeline before his toes were turned to ice.

TAGGED ! amina, marcus, kariana, gavin
WORDS ! 1,459
OUTFIT ! CLICK
LYRICS ! sometimes by skillet
TEMPLATE ! PANIC! ITS LAUZ @ CAUTION
NOTES ! -hello

[Kariana Gabrielle Travers]

She watched the slight shake of his head and felt her stomach drop even lower, something that before today she would have sworn would be impossible. It should have been impossible. It wasn’t like he was shutting her out intentionally. She knew that, she did. What she knew logically didn’t seem to matter anymore though, logic didn’t have place in the slow burning inferno that had somehow overtaken the relationship the two shared. He was burning, she could see it in his eyes- behind the walls he’d constructed over the years, and if she closed her eyes it was almost as if she could feel it. He was burning… and he was taking her with him. Her head turned infinitesimally to the right, away from the sight of his nonverbal answer, her lids closing briefly over the moisture threatening to work its way outside of the sea-green orbs. She didn’t need words to understand what the gesture meant, and while a very real part of her wanted to let go of the arm she’d been holding and crumple to the ground beneath her feet… the larger part of her refused. She wasn’t going to cry. She’d known when she decided to have this conversation that he wasn’t going to just magically revert to the person he’d been a year ago. If she was being honest she hadn’t expected much different than that which she’d just received. She’d wanted differently. She’d wanted him to react in some way, any way. She’d half hoped that he’d start yelling, screaming. That he’d break past whatever barrier seemed to be separating the two of them and lash out. She hadn’t been lying when she’d said that she could deal with that better, she had a base to move off of then, a basis of comparison to draw from. Her body tensed further, drawing in upon itself as she tightened her lids against the onslaught of emotion threatening to break through. She couldn’t cry. Physically even were she to want to let the tears pass her lids she didn’t think she’d be able. She wasn’t soft, she never had been. She was made of hard edges and contrasting ideas all shoved into her small frame. It was one of the things that kept people from approaching her, from taking a smile as something other than it was. It was what kept elbows from digging into her side when she stalked down a corridor teaming with bodies. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried. It was something she didn’t allow herself, it was far easier- far safer to get angry. She couldn’t though, not in this situation. She steeled herself against it all, taking a breath in as she let her lids drift open slowly, mentally preparing herself not to let them slam closed on instinct as her head turned once more in his direction.

She couldn’t bring herself to look at his eyes, fall back into the fire that had moments before threatened to consume her. Instead she let her gaze rove the hard plains of his face, the solemn set of his jaw. The parallels there didn’t escape her. To a casual observer the past few moments would have seemed innocuous; maybe they would have thought to observe a small disagreement between the two- a casual discrepancy as they walked the grounds. They hadn’t moved any further apart, there hadn’t been any crying jag. Even had one of their friends come upon them they couldn’t possibly grasp the importance of what had just happened. She focused slowly on the way he turned, resuming her own stride as she focused on letting the tension that had steadily built within her muscles. Slowly forcing it to drain from each individual area. She’d said her piece, words flowing from her unwilling lips in a last ditch effort. But she wasn’t giving up on him. She didn’t have a game plan, or any idea how to bring him back- if even she could… But she knew that she couldn’t just walk away. Had it happened to another of their friends… Well she’d seen Reg fall into despair over a girl often enough to be able to turn away from it. It wasn’t the same, she knew that, but she knew if it had been Regulus standing next to her she would have been able to turn now and break the contact of her hand on his arm and return to the castle. Maybe that made her a shitty friend. She was in essence. It wasn’t like she’d ever pretended to be anything other than that. She wasn’t in it to bring other people to the top with her, had no desire to let herself fall asunder in order to let someone else achieve their goals. She had ambitions of her own, always had. It was something that had always made itself transparent in her personality. She was selfish enough to be able to separate herself from someone else’s pain. But she’d never really had to face it with Gavin before, he’d never had any real drama for her to confront before. The thought was sobering. Their friendship had been tested plenty, but never in this manner or capacity. She knew that she wouldn’t abandon it with the innate kind of knowledge that could only come from something that one didn’t need to examine. She couldn’t say the same for him anymore though. How could he hold onto her when he’d already let go of himself?

Her chest constricted painfully at the thought, steely resolve building once more within her. She didn’t have to know how she would accomplish any of this. She didn’t need the answers lain out before her. She was good at puzzles. And that was what she needed to start looking at this as. She tensed as a weight settled over her shoulders, her eyes cutting to her companion instantly. It wasn’t that he hadn’t done so in a while that was the sole source for the confusion. It wasn’t the familiar weight she was used to, didn’t press against her as firmly as it had used to- and she knew it wasn’t because he hadn’t settled it fully onto her but rather due to the changes that seemed to have wracked his body. Instinctually her head turned, lips pressing into the cloth covered arm flung around her, pressing just long enough to get her message across before her body relaxed into his. Again the moisture threatened to build behind her eyes, though just as before she pushed firmly back, refusing to relax into that part of herself. Her arm fell slowly, encircling his waist with the same resolve as before. She couldn’t fix everything, but she could be whatever he needed her to be right now. She knew the embrace was more for her than him, but she could at least attempt to offer some form of comfort that wasn’t self destructive. Her head leant into him, eyes blinking unseeing at the landscape before them. She couldn’t find words the words to fill the silence, couldn’t find the need to utter them. Inane chatter didn’t seem right in this moment and there wasn’t anything left to say on the subject. He wasn’t one to instigate conversation anymore but she couldn’t find it in her to force him into talking. Air filtered past her lips in a sigh as she followed his lead.





WORDCOUNT:: 1,239
MUSICPLAYING:: Bottoms Up by Nickelback
CURRENTMOOD:: Anxious
POSTTAGGEDFOR:: Gavin, Amina, Marcus, Tobias
CHARACTEROUTFIT::
AUTHORSNOTES:: SUPER short and lame, but this is where she took me. I can add more if you need it.

TEMPLATE CREATED BY YOUR SWEET DEMISE of CAUTION 2 THE WIND

[Marcus O'Conner]

living is easy with eyes closed

- - - - misunderstanding all you see - - - - 

He didn’t have to be looking directly at his friend to see the befuddlement that came from his words, the searching look the other boy gave to the area around the lot of them enough to pinpoint exactly what had thrown him off this time. He would have to get him a book of Marcusisms, he quite liked the sound of that, in order to keep him up to speed. Though he really didn’t find it too hard to derive that he’d been talking about Amina when he’d used the word bird. She was an attractive female, there was no mistaking that. It wasn’t as if every culture didn’t have their own euphemisms for the sort. While most of them, from what he understood, were based off of edible items and such… he had heard one of the American boys who was in his year refer to a girl as a ‘dime’ before. And really, he didn’t want to associate the female he found attractive with food. It just seemed odd. And money? No, he would stick with bird… much less confusing. “Bird?” He couldn’t help the slow quirk his lips took at Tobias’s verbal acknowledgement of the question, his head shaking just slightly. It wasn’t like it was the first time he’d used the term in front of Tobias. Although he wouldn’t have put it past the other boy to have gone off in his own head when he had, it wouldn’t be an unusual occurrence. “Where Bird?” His eyes cut fully to Tobias at the second question, eyebrow arching at his word choice. He could easily clear the confusion up by explaining it verbally himself, but the whole thing just felt odd. Only further by the tinge of heat that seemed to take residence just beneath the skin stretched over his face at the thought. IT wasn’t that he had an issue saying that Amina was an attractive girl, not really… It just seemed odd to have to acknowledge it verbally like that. It wasn’t as if either of the two males present had an expanse of knowledge with how to deal with that sort of thing. The only other female friend they really had was Victoria… not that she wasn’t pretty, but it just wasn’t something that had to be verbalized. Marcus had called her adorable and cute aloud on enough occasions to think that he could use those words just as easily to describe Amina, though the thought of associating them in the exact same manner didn’t seem to sit too well with him if he thought on it long enough- which he quickly dispelled. It was just different because Tobias obviously liked the girl. “She's not a bird. She's not even a mammal with flying capability.” It didn’t hurt that Tobias was being more than slightly amusing in his own confusion, sending Marcus into a low chuckle as he resorted to waving his arms above his head. Maybe if he held out even longer he’d resort to tripping himself up during the game, it was a risk Marcus was more than willing to take… and maybe hope for.

Whatever enjoyment he’d received from landing his move so nicely, topped with Tobias’s reactions to it all, was slowly fading as he watched Amina set her shot up, his own eyebrows creasing as he looked from her to the thrown book. He’d caught glimpses of her athletic ability while they were running the last time, something that he hadn’t even taken into consideration before now. The more ignorant of him obviously. The set up she’d so easily put together should have been an easy out… had she not had any other gift that they had taken into consideration beforehand. His eyes watched her ascent into the air warily, shaking his head again slightly as she landed, not even bothering to hold back his groan. “Tobias, I believe you are next?” He turned himself further towards Amina, raising a brow at her in mock reprove. “No need ta get fancy. We shoulda started ye back a good bit more considerin’ yer talents,” his grin belied the words, eyes roving from the points the three of them were set up at. The game was hard enough when it was just he and Tobias. Add in a girl who could balance on a teeny little beam day in and day out, not to mention performing all of those flips and… kicks and what not while STILL on the beam… what had been a casual game devoid of any real drive had suddenly been amped up by her move, something he had no issue acknowledging as he sought to find a way to level the playing field. So long as Tobias didn’t get too ahead of him here he could probably take the other boy out… all things considered he would have to risk taking himself out as well but given that this was Amina’s first game… and the fact that he had precious little left in his bag…. He sighed audibly, his fingers going to the hem of his shirt in concentration. He had no issue stripping the fabric off of himself if it came to it, it wasn’t that cold out here, if anything he felt almost as if he had too many layers on, although that could easily be attributed to the wolf lurking just beneath the confines of his mortal bones. It really was too bad that they weren’t closer to the full moon right now… then again that would do little to keep Amina from besting him. Though she didn’t seem to have such a problem doing it this far away from it either, maybe it was best not to test her then until they’d had a few more games between them to better assess her s--- his thoughts cut off completely as he felt the straps of his bag digging into his skin, head whipping reflexively to glare at the boy causing them to do so. “Aye!!”

Of course he would be seeking to take Marcus off of his game in much the same way he’d been trying to find a way himself… He relaxed his arms just enough, letting the chords slide down the length of them and over his hands before looking petulantly over to where the other boy was now throwing it. Too far to reclaim… Of course. “Sleeven,” the joviality from before was put on the backburner as he muttered, glaring from where Tobias stood atop his bag to the area he’d been planning to jump earlier. He didn’t have anything near big enough to hold his weight on him left after Tobias pulled that stunt. His shoes, if he were to follow his friend’s example, weren’t large enough to make the jump he’d been planning and still support him. He huffed slightly, blocking the other two out completely as he pulled experimentally this time on the hem of his shirt. He could wad it up and throw it, hoping that the wind unfurled it enough by the time it reached the ground to provide a large enough target… Or he could take his shoes off and make a shorter jump, it would still put him far enough ahead to not worry about falling too far behind… He shrugged in defeat, balancing on one foot long enough to pull the shoe easily from his foot, leaving the sock on as he tossed the object underhanded across the distance, hopping easily from where he’d been- his landing much less strenuous despite the precariously placed point. “We’re ta that now yeh?” He turned a raised brow on the other boy, lips twitching despite himself. “Ye should watch yerself birdie, ‘pparently we’re pullin all ta stops out now.” He threw a wink her way, shifting his weight to better accommodate his pose.

tag Gavin, Kariana, Amina, Tobias
words 1,308
lyrics strawberry fields forever - the beatles
credit a girl with kaleidoscope eyes @ caution 2.0
wearing this