deercountry | Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls...

Instinctively, she curled her hands into fists at her sides. Raleigh was correct, in one sense. Certain Alastrians did share a very, very secret handshake. The kind that was best left to privacy and romance.

But the truth was looming in front of her.

No one in Deerington cared. No one in Trench seemed to either.

What was the point in lying?

"No," she said, shaking her head. "It's just that..." She made a vague gesture up and down the front of her body, "...this isn't what I really look like."

An observer by nature, Raleigh watches he closely but without scrutiny. It seems like he's hit something of a sore point, but not so sore that she pivots.

He would understand if she did, though.

"Oh, I see."

That's interesting, and of course he burns with a million questions. What does that mean, what do you look like, how do you do it, can you teach me? But... it can be rude to ask about this kind of thing, especially when she's already said she's experienced racism. It's Ariadne's choice to share, and not Raleigh's place to ask. So here's the question - how do you answer that without looking like an entitled dick?

"Well..." carefully. Considered.

"I'm sure it's as nice as you look now."

Somehow, she sensed his struggle. Mostly because of the way he trailed off. When he spoke again, he said just about the last thing she would have expected. So Ariadne couldn't help it. She let out a little giggle.

Not at him. Ariadne didn't laugh at people.

It was just a soft, bell-like sound.

"I don't know about that," she said. "I suppose it depends on how much you like the color green." A lame attempt at a joke. But it was fine. It was going to be fine. "I'll show you," she continued, feeling bold, "but only if you promise not to freak out, okay?"

Ah- good. She's laughing. He relaxes and raises his right hand.

"Scout's honor I will not freak out and I like the color green."

He'd been a scout for like six months but it counts, right? Right. Oh my god is she the She-Hulk that would be so cool-- be cool Raleigh, be cool be cool.

Ariadne didn't know the scout code of honor, but she accepted it. If it was important enough for Raleigh to swear by, then it was enough for her.

She sat back on her heels a little. It still took some getting used to; transforming in front of people. But she was getting better at it. Or at least not fighting herself.

Like heat rising off of the pavement, the air around her seemed to ripple and blur. And she swirled like a watercolor. It washed over her like a wave, for only a second or two, and then she'd changed. Still lithe. Still graceful. Still petite.

Just...green.

Green like the underside of a maple leaf. With hair a brilliant, blue color. Lips deep lavender.

She spread her hands out, as if to say 'tah-dah.'

"Ha!" Not a laugh, he isn't laughing, it's just a noise of delighted surprise. Raleigh, for a moment, looks like a kid with wide eyes and enormous smile.

"That is the coolest thing- like a chameleon! You look amazing. You look amazing, Ariadne."

Ariadne never could predict Human responses to her here.

And she loved that fact.

Demurely, she lowered her eyes, shrugging up one shoulder. "Thank you," she said, trying not to feel too awkward about the whole thing. "They do...some people think that Alastrians might have once been lizards."

Which explained the change in color.

And the wings...

Okay, right, don't embarrass her. THIS IS JUST SO COOL! Whooooosah--

"Wow, yeah I can see how that might be a thing. We don't have anything like that. I mean, we come in different colors but just kinda shades of tan and brown. Green would be a good one, though."

"I'm glad you see it that way, because not everyone does."

Which was kind of the key to her entire psychology. Both as an individual and as a representative of her species.

With a slight grimace, she reversed the process. Her body shimmered and glistened and she was her former self. Brown hair. Pink skin. Lips stained as if she'd been drinking raspberry juice.

The Padmé look, as it were.

"Thank you. For...being a good person, I guess. It doesn't always happen so easily."

Oh man.. Seeing it happen in real time is such an amazing thing. What an extraordinary ability!! What a pity it is she feels she needs to use it.

"Ah,, nah. I'm just being myself? I'm sorry you haven't have good experiences in the past. I was serious before, though. I love language, if you'd teach me I would love to learn. I could pay you?"

She shook her head. While Ariadne understood the need for a barter system, she saw little value in exchanging goods for knowledge.

Knowledge was meant to be shared. That's how an oral society survived.

...when all else failed.

"I can try to teach you," she said. "I've never tried to teach anyone before, but...honestly, it would be an honor."

"Yeah?"

This has been such a good day. SUCH a good day!

"The honor would be mine. When can we start?"

Honestly, he would be happy to spend the rest of the day here working through vocabulary like a toddler. He can't imagine how hard it must be to try to translate from a language with no similar origin to his world. But he's a quick study and if she just keeps talking to him over and over again he'll pick it up with surprising speed. He's obsessive like that.

"It's the winter," she said, shrugging one shoulder up to her ear. "I won't have much to do until the spring, when the garden starts to bloom." When she opened it to the public. In theory.

Yeah, that was an adventure she still wasn't sure she was prepared for.

But she gave Raleigh a smile. "Any time you like," she told him.

"Well," he muses for a moment. Is it too big of an ask? Now? Is now too soon? He's excited.

"I shouldn't take up your whole day," in the tone of 'but I absolutely will if you allow me to.'

"Maybe something for the road and I'll get out of your hair? Er- not literally. I'll let you get on with your work."

Edited 2022-02-17 01:14 (UTC)

Her hands nearly jerked to her braid again, but she stopped herself this time. Raleigh truly meant her no harm. She was so sure of it.

"Maybe," she said, with a faint gleam of mischief in her eyes, "I should give you just a small taste of what you're in for. In case you scare easily."

It wasn't that the Alastrian language was overly complicated. It was simply that it was so different from any other language that Ariadne knew. But then again, she was a native speaker. Perhaps there was a slight bias there.

"Try this," she said. And then Ariadne broke into a string of sounds. Sort of like water washing against stones on a riverbed. Very soothing and flowing. Perhaps flowing a little bit too much into each other.

Oh. A challenge. He sees what she's done there. He sees it and he likes it, listening in silence and watching her mouth as she goes.

It's incredible. Literally like nothing he has ever heard. There are distinct sounds, but it's almost like one big long word. If he didn't know any better he'd think she was messing with him and quoting that one place in Wales that everybody makes fun of.

But Ariadne probably doesn't know what Wales is, so maybe he's safe.

He squints, running it back through his head and attempting the tail end.. Terribly garbled but it was an attempt nonetheless. Like a child might try to emulate.

"Again? Slower."

Smiling, she spoke again. Slower, it was more like a string of musical notes. A simple combination of do-re-mi. That was the real trick of Alastrian. The sounds were difficult to make. And pitch and tone mattered, along with how drawn out the vowel sounds were.

But Ariadne was patient. She repeated the phrase three times over.

And then held her hands out for Raleigh to try.

It's rhythmic, he's realized. Like a song. There are patterns, too.

He repeats what he think's he's heard in his head once before he says it aloud, tapping the table with a finger in 4/4 for good measure. it's how he was tracking her cadence.

It was...surprisingly close. Especially for a first attempt. Ariadne gave Raleigh an approving smile. "You said, 'Storytelling is our native banana.' Which is close to what I said. Very close. 'Storytelling is our native language.'"

She said it again. Slow and reverent. The way that her father used to say it to her, gathering her up against his side, running his palm along her hair.

"Storytelling is very, very important to Alastrians," she explained. "Without it, we wouldn't have history."

Or much to say, sometimes.

"Or bananas," he answers deadpan.

He likes oral traditions. It's an old way to tracking history but it's creative and inspiring. He likes that he has an opportunity to learn something like that, even if he doesn't know anything about it's origin. Feels kinda like magic.

"Well," she said, giving him a little smile, "bananas are also extremely important. For one thing, they're full of starch, which really helps to keep you full. Plus all of that fiber and potassium."

A pity Trench's climate probably wouldn't support growing them.

To say nothing of the soil!

"And it's funny when you slip on the peel."

Clearly the most important part.

Or wishful thinking. He's just such a big fan of the three stooges.

It really is a shame.

Ariadne didn't see the humor. But she knew that humanoid races were fond of farces. She'd seen traveling players visit Princess Amanda's court in her youth. Some of their shows were about love. More seemed to be about hitting each other over the head with stuffed trout.

And there was always falling down, for some reason.

She shook her head, still smiling all the same. "We'll work on the difference between 'banana' and 'storytelling,'" she assured him.

"I'd like that a lot," he says and finishes his tea before pulling himself up.

Raleigh hesitates a moment before reaching to gently squeeze her shoulder, warm smile in tow.

"I'll see you later 'banana'." Even if he can't say it right, now he knows it's banana. Which is what he's going to call her forever. Not in English or whatever their shared language here is. Very specifically in Alastrian.

Edited 2022-02-17 22:47 (UTC)

Well, being friends with Raleigh was definitely going to be an adventure. But Ariadne found herself smiling all the same.

'Banana,' huh?

In a strange way, she almost liked it more than 'Airy.'

Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls...

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