Roads untraveled [Abby/Lunia/ Open?]

[Kurodaia]

[OOC: Semi-open for anyone wishing to join in on the two of them.] 

12:00PM, as per usual she set out from the home belonging to Sara to go out for a walk and explore. Since she's been released, the girl found it much more enjoyable to learn about the world around her that was so different from her own home. This was a place she knew nothing of and still she had much to learn, the technology was foreign and she could hardly understand how to use much of anything in the home. Cars still scared her as she was used to beasts pulling wagons and chariots and more than that but she didn't really mind them right now.

    This time though, she decided to wander through a small path leading out into a small forest. More like a park and since she couldn't really see too many people, her disguise was let down. The cool air was familiar and though this place didn't really get a lot of snow, the rain would bring a welcoming warmth. As she wandered through the park, Lunia would stop to look at various things, rocks, trees, bushes and whatever she did manage to get into. The ever present feeling of loneliness didn't help her when she was out.

    This feeling would come and go, like a tide at sea. Sometimes she was swept under and others she would be able to watch it from afar. The feeling that she was truly alone in the world, despite everything that has happened. Faces she knew but couldn't put a finger on, dreams of worlds she knows she hasn't been to but feel familiar and the fact that she was the only one to know about her life elsewhere. It didn't matter either way if people didn't care that she came from somewhere else but it was knowing she was likely the only one who was here. It wasn't the end of the world, she had Sara and Zavijah and...the floating soul in the house. 


    Lost in thought she didn't really notice that she now took a different path to another part of the park and it seemed like it wasn't used as often, maybe by children who came to play fantasy.

"Urveh...Riv?" She fell quiet, where did she go was a good question.She sighed loudly and scratched her face a bit out of nervous habit.

[NightshadeVII]

Incomplete silence, not quite fragile in its dependent coexistence, it lay like a veil in this secluded clearing, isolated, muted by trees, bushes and grass, absorbed by the ground and the water. The sun above caressing blades of green, dancing on the surface of the lake, playful, yet so fleeting. Everything seemed to fit together, pieces in a mosaic made for their exact position. So even if everything was so far from perfect, even if the world was decaying, losing sight of its own beauty, even if this place, the isolated abstract it was, was missing something, there was a calm here. The chaotic, untamed tranquility of nature. A parallel to the city, with its skyscrapers of glass and metal.
This was the place where the nøkk, Aberdeen, didn’t have to worry about pretenses. Didn’t have to smile or frown, didn’t have to sympathize when it was a concept he faked. A second nature, taught behavior, practiced gestures as natural as breathing. A mask. But here, he didn’t need any of that. He could be himself, whatever that might be. More than a manifestation, or so he liked to think. Perhaps that was the very reason he considered himself to be more. Thought. Independent actions and ideals, that he himself had created and chosen to live by, some sense of gratification, if that was what it was. Even if he had lived for a fair deal of time, the concept of emotions, the way they were defined by so many, was something he had never been fully able to understand, relate to. But he was intrigued by it, fascinated by its complexity and variation. It could all change so quickly, at the slightest provocation. Those emotions he could only mirror on the surface, something that would never be more than skin deep to him. In solitude, like this, there was nothing he haf to mirror. He could be himself, however briefly.

Sitting cross-legged on a rock, Aberdeen broke the silence every now and again as he worked, creating a simple tone, testing before adjusting. Every movement he made was slight, tilting his head slowly, his breathing steady, hands working almost unconsciously. Having changed the strings his violin, he had set to tuning it, the faint smell of olive oil on his fingertips and the strings becoming natural. The process of treating the strings and tuning then took its time, but the results were worth it. And in some way, it was calming. Something to rely on, a small thing he had always done.

However, this calm was soon broken. It started as a rustling of bushes, something he could attribute to the wildlife in the area, perhaps a doe looking for a path of grass or a bird clawing at the ground, trying to find what it needed. Those were the sounds he knew, sounds he didn’t have to worry about, but as the rustling grew louder, the nøkk looked up, pools of turquoise seeing details and movements of light that human eyes never would have seen, at least not at first glance. It was beginning to sound like someone, or something, pushing through the bushes. The last time that had happened… he still had the scars from that, could still recall every detail, the pain, the confusion, the disorientation. That creature, driven by some grotesque bloodlust. Even if what they both did to survive weren’t too different, the way they did it was. It was just about life, and what to do with it. Aberdeen could imagine how that creature had done what it did to survive, how it maimed, tore, but he couldn’t empathize.
Alerted, Aberdeen stopped his work, putting the violin back in its case on the ground. Moving quietly, he crouched, ready to disappear, should the need be. So far he had survived by blending in, integrating in the systems around him, at least halfway, so it would be a simple matter to hide, if what was pushing through the bushes proved to be a threat to him. He knew this place, meaning that he knew exactly where to go unnoticed.

As soon as a young girl stumbled into the clearing, he straightened his back, returning to a relaxed position, turquoise retreating drawing intricate, swirling patterns as it became confined by irises again, changing vision and recreating human eyes in fragments of seconds. Sclera and pupils once again present, manufactured. The slight discolouration of his skin faded in the space it took to draw breath. And it was as if he had never been anything but human.
The smaller details of his inhumanity such as this, could be adjusted so easily, shaped by the standards of normality that society seemed to have agreed on, even if it mean for him to fake a nature he didn’t have. But no matter what he did, his own curiosity remained. The curiosity that would damn him one day, as it gave him the chance to ask the questions that would be considered morbid or wrong, if sympathy was taken into consideration.
Rising to his feet, the nøkk stepped down onto the ground, taking a few steps towards the girl, but stopping a fair distance away, not wanting to startle her. It was obvious that she wasn’t… entirely human. A supernatural being of some sort, but the question was what kind of supernatural? There were so many in Wathais, so many different beings he didn’t remember from his home.

Figuring that that the silence had stretched on for long enough, Aberdeen drew breath to speak.
“Hello there...”, the nøkk said, voice soft, melodious almost. A smile touched his lips, visually genuine, when in reality it was barely more than a practiced reflex, something he had worked on perfecting.

“I’m sorry, you just startled me a little bit,”, he chuckled, shaking his head as if he was embarrassed of himself, “Are you lost? Can I help you?”

[Kurodaia]

The man before her was something different, otherworldly and most certainly not something she was used to. She watched him stand there as her yellow orb-like eyes were fixated on him. The way she looked at him was not of hostility and though she could have done just that, she was merely curious as to why someone would be out in the middle of the forest doing...something. As she looked him over, he "looked" human was what she could gather.
As he spoke, something about his voice felt vaguely familiar. Like home. There was no way he could be like her, something didn't really feel right. If he wasn't human, then what was he? She realised all the while he spoke, nothing was said. He did greet her with hello and as she got into a pounce-like stance. She realised this might be a bad idea.

"H-Hehlo?" All the while being crouched, her eyes glanced at the strange person before her. "Sohry, no. Hehlp...mi?" She tapped to herself as if trying to understand the question.

Her fingers would point back and forth between them and then it seemed to click together. "Mmmm..." She hummed and shrugged.

Finally the girl pounced at the man. "Hehlo!" If he moved aside then she'd likely fall flat on her face and stand up to dust herself off. If he went down with her pounce then she'd excuse herself and rise before helping him. (or if he just let her pass through him she would still fall and just be very confused)

"Noht...hao...Hehlo?" She asked, scratching her face.

Lunia seemed to watch the man again, folding her arms. "Riv goh-in four wahl'kk." She explained.
"Parhk ik beeg." She made a large motion with her arms. "Yis?"

Though the man smiled and seemed rather friendly she couldn't for the life of her understand why anyone would be out here, this deep in the forest. Granted, she was here and mostly just exploring but it could lead to a bad thing or a good thing and currently she didn't really know what was the true answer. She looked around her finally trying to ease herself, taking in the strange beauty that was this area. Unlike the other parts of the park. Magic perhaps? She couldn't know for certain, magic in her world flowed in a way that was very open to all but at the cost of what? A war? Sometimes she felt like she had to leave the past behind and while this is now her new home- her hand came up and rubbed her eyes. 

[NightshadeVII]

There was something about the way the girl looked at Aberdeen, citrine eyes round and focused on him. It was almost as if she recognized him in someway. Maybe she didn't recognize him, didn't recognize his vessel nor what he considered his personality, his mentality, but that wasn't the same as he was entirely foreign to her. Perhaps she could somehow sense what he was, recognizing him as a nøkk trying to look human. The way she looked at him, reminded him of something he couldn't quite connect with words. Being recognized in some way, was something so rare, so distant to him. Even if he knew that many creatures, mortal and immortal alike, needed that recognition, the connection it forged, even if he had never understood. He knew he wouldn't understand, but he could feel that recognition himself, he had felt it. But it was so long ago.
While the girl continued to look at him, gaze unwavering, he wondered if the girl didn't understand what he was saying. She seemed to react to the sound of his voice, hearing it, but not reacting to the words. Perhaps, she wasn't from around here?
When she finally spoke, her words were broken up, fragmented, but she seemed to use it to process what Aberdeen had said, reshaping the words to allow her self to understand.

“Hehlp... mi?”, she then said, gesturing to herself, as understanding was beginning to dawn on her, as she found meaning in the words. Finding that his words hadn't been lost on the girl, Aberdeen’s smile broadened just slightly, eyes becoming calmer, before he nodded.
“Yes, help you, that's it exactly!”, he said, chuckling, sounding almost like he was relived. Even so he still wondered how the girl had managed to find this place, how she had managed to ignore the air of disorientation, how she had managed to navigate through the thick underbrush, even if it seemed like the forest around her had turned against her, wanting for her to get lost. But perhaps, she had been let through. Who could find this place and who couldn't wasn't something Aberdeen could just decide, if he could his life would have been much easier, and void of a fair share of unpleasant encounters. His curiosity grew, before he had just wondered what kind of supernatural this girl was, but now, as he began thinking about the circumstances of it all, he wondered how she had managed to find this place. Questions were rising to the surface, making themselves known.

Suddenly, with an exclamation of “hehlo!”, the girl lunged at him. The change in behavior was so sudden, going from confused, trying to understand, to energized. Almost on instinct, Aberdeen tried to move out of the way of the girl, reminded of another unfortunate situation. But he wasn't fast enough.
Before he could even stop himself from falling, he was on the ground, the tall grass around him reaching towards the sky like trees. Air had been pushed out of his lungs by the sudden impact, leaving his body feeling heavy, useless for a few moments until everything began again. As lungs drew breath again, he groaned softly, the sound barely louder than an exhale. As the girl got up, dusting herself off and questioning her own greeting, Aberdeen waited a moment before getting into a sitting position.

“Well, not how I would say hello, but I suppose it works?”, he finally said, speaking carefully to observe reaction, if there was any. Social interaction, and how it differed, was unique from person to person. Some relied on the unspoken, on some kind of understanding. It fascinated Aberdeen endlessly, even if he could never truly feel it in that same sway, simple way. After a little while, the girl began to explain, using gestures to assist her as she spoke. When the nøkk heard her mention the park, he tilted his head just slightly. While there were a fair amount of parks in Wathais, he was pretty sure he knew which one she was talking about, as none of the others would make sense. Either they were in the city, surrounded by skyscrapers, or they didn't connect to this part of the woods.

“You went for a walk in the park?”, he asked, wanting to confirm what she had said, while proving that he understood, at least he thought he did, “It’s very big yes.”
Aberdeen’s voice faltered, trailing off and disappearing. Eyes averted, falling on a blade of grass, following its lines, tracing the shadows and the small difference in colours. Imperfect perfection, nature’s design. A chance happening, random, without purpose. Even if there was no reason behind nature, the creation of something as simple as grass, it happened. Creating purpose.
Purpose was the grand illusion of sentience.
Or maybe someone could tell him what his purpose was.
“Hvordan er du så havnet her...?”,came the words, quiet, shaped to sound almost melancholic. It had been so long since anyone had understood that language. “Det burde ikke...”

The nøkk looked up, turquoise gaze returning to the girl, just in time to see her rub her eyes. An eyebrow arched and Aberdeen, still sitting cross legged on the ground, drew breath to speak.
“What's wrong? Are you tired?”, Aberdeen asked softly.

[Kurodaia]

She simply tilted her head at his response, though uncertain it was clear that she realised, she has a lot to learn about the proper way to interact with people here. Though her teachings are a lot more fun and exciting at home. She nodded when he mentioned the park. "Yis, bihg." She then proceeded to try to repeat the word like he said it until sort of giving up because her tongue seemed to be twisting the vowels wrong and it was hard to figure it out.

Lunia listened carefully, the ears shifting as he spoke in a language although very unfamiliar to her, the way it was said made her feel. Odd. As she rubbed her face she eventually tried to fake a bit of a toothy grin, sharp teeth in rows indicating that while she seemed very harmless, there were aspects of her that most certainly were not. "Fihe...Fihnne" She explained, shaking her head a bit and laughing a little awkwardly. "Noht...Ik Noht...mmmm Ihmpur-Ihmpurteht?" She struggled with the word important, and seemed to bite her lip now. Finding the struggle of a new language difficult to express.

She swayed side to side and eventually began scratching at her face again before reaching out to lend him a hand to stand back up. "Sohrrie...noht...hurht?" She asked carefully. She was very strong and that strength was often overlooked by herself and would need to tone it down. If Abby let her help him up she would be sort of staring at him in curiosity, pointing to her own eyes and then back to him. "Preh-Prehtty. Youh." She was embarrassed. Her lack of a proper language, was really making her feel so embarrassed about trying to compliment someone, who was in fact very beautiful but she wouldn't outright say it to their face often but she wondered why someone like him was so far away from everyone else, especially on a beaten path that lead to nowhere.

[NightshadeVII]

It was strange, speaking to someone who listened so intensly, a rare thing in fact. Humans rarely listened so profoundly. Even if they didn’t realize it, they didn’t seem to commit entirely to what others said to them, sure they listened, but thoughts wandered, they followed tagents and associated, creating entirely different trains of thought from just one word. And it rarely stopped there. So how much did they really hear? Aberdeen knew that he was guiltily of this too. His mind wandered, without his consent, to places he couldn’t understand, to dark places, beautiful places, known places.
Places that were forever crystallized in his mind.
Silently he noted her smile, somewhat forced as it was, yet that wasn’t what caught his attention. Her teeth, sharp and most definitely not harmless. But they reminded him of someone.

The girl said something, laughed, a light sound, like the sun, it made Aberdeen blink, refocus. 
"Noht...Ik Noht...mmmm Ihmpur-Ihmpurteht?”, she said, struggling with the words, stumbling over it, however, the nøkk remained patient, giving her the time she needed and trying not to rush her. Instead, he just gazed at her, calmly, letting her know that he wasn’t bothered by the way her struggled impacted what she said.
Still her reply wasn’t what one would expect. Why didn’t she consider whether or not she was lost important? However, Aberdeen refrained from voicing his rising curiosity, knowing that it might be less appropriate considering the situation, his curiousity could, and had been, considered rude and out of place by most.
 
Aberdeen watched curiously, as the girl began swaying from side to side, scratching her face. And while the number of questions he wanted to ask never stopped growing, he figured that right here and now probably wasn’t the best time. Not only was she not entirely comfortable with the English language- something which he himself had experienced- but he also knew he needed to tread carefully. The nøkk had no idea what would happen, should he do anything to upset her by accident, just like he had nothing but the vaguest idea as to what might upset her. As she extended her hand, Aberdeen suddenly remembered the state of his hands, his fingers covered in olive oil, which he quickly brushed against his pants, to dry them off. A human, self-conscious crossed his lips as he took the girl’s hand, rising to his feet shortly after.   
"Sohrrie...noht...hurht?"
 
“Thank you and no, don’t worry, I’m not hurt.” He said, with a chuckle, picking a blade of grass out of his hair. Just then, the citrine-eyed girl pointed to her own eyes, then to Aberdeen’s.
"Preh-Prehtty. Youh.", she said after this gesture, simple as it was, it said so much.
Aberdeen chuckled at the unexpected compliment, a pleased, if not slightly flustered-looking smile touching his lips. How he knew to react when being complimented. Being told that one looked pretty, aesthetically pleasing or the like, was some kind of success. After all, how else would he know, that he had created the right form or was the right way? Either way, the concept of beauty or being ‘pretty’, fascinated him so. It had no universal code, no right shape or specific way to be. What he found pretty- with his self-made standards- wouldn’t be the same as what the girl in front of him considered pretty. Arguably, he had a rather different perception of beauty, when compared to what was often agreed upon in society. But even so, he didn’t know what he would be without it, or if he would know even less about what he was.   
Either way, he shuffled a little bit, so appear self conscious, humbled by her simple, honest compliment.
“Thank you so much,” he finally said, smile becoming just a little broader, one side tugged up a bit more “that’s very kind of you to say.”

“What’s your name?”, he asked, then placed a hand on his chest, to gesture to himself, “Mine is Aberdeen.”
He paused, giving her time to both process his words and reply if she wished. The silence returned, but it was incomplete, unfinished. The singing of birds, so clear and melodious, the sound of the wind through leaves, the gentle lapping of lake water, all of it, accompanied the silence and kept it from becoming absolute. Some wordless agreement.
Yet this half silence, as it was, allowed Aberdeen to wonder. 
How had she even managed to find this place? Normally even supers would walk around it unconsciously, avoid it without even making the choice to do so, as if they felt that slight change in the air, or noticed the way the trees swayed, how the earth beneath them became greedy. It wasn’t necessarily because the surroundings became hostile, yet they were... off. But he knew that they didn’t see. No one ever did.
In that way, Aberdeen, his deeds, his nature, could stay relatively hidden.
Like always. Hidden, like he always was. Because he simply didn’t know how to leave the shadows.

“Well... is there anything I can help you with?”, he finally asked, features softening. His expression didn’t change per se, but he still made a few, subtle adjustments, looking more relaxed, natural, smoothing out those last wrongs. It wasn’t even something he had to think about, in a situation like this he found that he... wanted to relax.
“Anything at all?”