Two Steps out of Place

by **Gale Austin McCenry** on October 3rd, 2012, 4:10 am

Gale's long strides and casual threading between people resulted in Gale having to force himself to slow down for Arianthe. With the constant walking through the streets and being use to going around people, walking through a crowd was an easy task. But for others who didn't walk as much as he did would have some trouble. It wouldn't be very good or polite to leave the person you were guiding behind would it? It was just going to be a nice, probably close to silent walk till...

"Harry, was it?"

Gale wanted to cringe at the name. He disliked that name a lot. Who would ever name their kid Harry? Unless they fit the name well. Thankfully only the kid called him that. Gale just sighed and looked at Matthaus with a blank face.

"I suppose you can tag along. As long as you don't get us into any trouble." Gale said, sounding sarcastic even though he meant it. He looked at Arianthe, his smile no longer present, before looking ahead and continuing through the people. Hopefully...Luckily this walk would have as little conversation as possible.

by **Matthaus** on October 3rd, 2012, 2:53 pm

The sarcasm was evident to a deaf person. Matthaus raised a brow, if Harry wanted quiet, he could be quiet. “Since we’re all agreed.”

He gestured in front of them, stepping to the opposite side of the woman. He wasn’t planning on causing any trouble in particular, he actually did want to just sleep. For a few chimes he let the silence reign but silence always bothered him. And this picture didn’t seem like something that had been silent. Instead he glanced up at the woman and smiled thinly.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything Miss…” he paused, “I didn’t catch your name.”

Honestly he doubted he had, the talk of directions cued him in that this woman was probably new to the city as well. Or bad with directions. But talk would tell him more about ‘Harry’ and he could learn about their new friend. He was surprised there were more people in Zeltiva that weren’t natives. It seemed almost strange to him, almost as strange as all the people milling around. The last time he had been out this late it had been nearly empty.

A quick glance around told him everyone seemed to be headed in the same direction towards the docks, pushing the crowd of people against them. It wasn’t hard to walk though, they weren’t a mob, just an inconvenience.

“Do you live near the university, Harry?” he knew perfectly well the man’s name wasn’t Harry but it was starting to grow on him. Considering how the parted ways last time it was likely a good idea to keep calling him Harry as well.

by **Arianthe Swansong** on October 14th, 2012, 9:38 pm

Arianthe half smiled slightly awkwardly, feeling the tension between the two. She didn't mind the silence as they walked, studying her surroundings with interest, but neither did she mind answering the boy's question.

"Arianthe Swansong."

She hoped they wouldn't say anything about her surname. When she was younger she had had a friend who had warned her that, from what she could see, any name with the word song in it was arrogant and pretentious, belonging to a pompous family, if not a pompous person. They didn't say anything so she smiled and continued walking. Now that she was further away from the main buzz of the crows and she couldn't smell the cheap perfume anymore, her headache had dissipated and she was easily able to keep pace. Still, now that she could think clearly, the amount of people surprised her. She had never been out this late before, but it struck her that this number seemed very unusual

“Do you live near the university, Harry?”

Arianthe looked up, noting the way that Matthaus had stressed 'Harry', and it occured to her that maybe she had been wrong in her assumptions that that must be his name - he certainly did not look very happy to be called so. She also found herself interested by how he would reply and wished to know more about him. Sometimes her curiosity was beyond her control.

She was about to ask him to clarify his name, when she noticed something strange out of the corner of her eyes. She stopped walking and turned around with a frown.

by **Gale Austin McCenry** on November 9th, 2012, 3:05 am

OOCTremendously sorry for the delay. I completely forgot like the dork I am. I hope I can be forgiven.

Gale's silence remained as Kaelic questioned the young lady's name. It was a nice name, unlike Harry. It could just roll of the tongue with little resistance, unlike Harry. Gale would have been much happier to be named Bob if it meant it wasn’t Harry. Harry. Haaaaarry. It was so weird. Who was the first person named that? Gale felt bad for the poor lad.

But where he lived was a little much, don’t you think, for someone you’re not particularly fond of to ask? Gale would naturally say ‘no’ since he didn’t think walking from here to there to be much unless it’s the walk from the Grotto to the forest outside. But in attempts to have the “lass” know as little as possible about him, he responded, “Depends on your definition of near and far.”

His face looked at Matthaus with a curious look. “You look a lot different with your hair short.” Gale remembered when Matthaus dressed up as a young girl to try and sell some rocks. It made Gale want to laugh but he prevented himself from doing so.

Gale’s attention moved to yet another subject when he noticed that the blonde he was guiding had stopped following them and was watching something behind them. What was she looking at? Gale stopped and turned around, taking the few paces to meet her at her side. Quickly following her eyes, the artist looked at two men who were laughing at something. It made Gale’s eyebrow rise in confusion.

One was a brunette with a thin nose, big mouth, and probably not much taller than Gale. Probably only an inch difference, if even that. He had a similar build as himself, however, he had more muscle tone then Gale, which the artist had none of. The other was shorter. Gale could use his head as an arm rest even. Black hair with a short beard outlining his jaw and lips. The stranger had darker skin and a square jaw along with dark blue eyes.

What was Arianthe looking at? Gale glanced around them as if to see something more eye-catching. The two were talking to a young girl, probably about late teens or early twenties. Also brunette, freckles, thin nose and nostrils, muddy brown eyes, and pale lips. She didn’t look too happy either, a frown stuck to her face like paste.

Gale sighed to himself. Was he really going to get into this? “Would you two excuse me a moment?” He spoke to the two he was guiding though he more of stated it then questioned. Yep, he was getting into this, if there was anything to get into.

The blonde strode over, trying to not look as nervous as he really was. He really didn’t want to cause trouble but he didn’t want anything to happen that would cause trouble later in himself…Did that even make sense? He hoped so.

“I am actually waiting for someone.” The young lady said with a very matter-of-fact tone.

“That’s too bad.” The taller of the two men said.

Coming to a stop next to the group of three, Gale cleared his throat, “Excuse me, is there a problem here?”

by **Arianthe Swansong** on November 13th, 2012, 10:48 pm

“Would you two excuse me a moment?”

Arianthe could not help wondering what would happen if she refused his 'request' if it could be considered that and a flicker of irritation momentarily creased Arianthe's face for an unknown reason, though she suspected it had something to do with her feelings of powerlessness and inability to get involved - as she so dearly wished to be - almost sub-consciously, she took a step forward, pulling her cloak closer around her, then she stopped. Deciding it would be safer to merely observe what was ensuing, and realising that she would probably get in the way, she proceeded to simply standing there quietly, as immobile as a statue, her dark eyes unblinking, and due to the stillness of the air, she could hear every word.

“I am actually waiting for someone.”

“That’s too bad.”

Arianthe bit her lip, a sudden stab of empathy hitting her for the young lady since she was clearly not in the most pleasant of situations and, mixed with this, a certain sense of admiration for the blond man who may or may not have been Harry. Although the men were not exactly tall, they looked more robust and muscular than the slim, slightly nervous-looking young man who had walked over to them. Arianthe did not think much of his chances in a fight.

by **Gale Austin McCenry** on December 30th, 2012, 5:13 am

"It's about time you got here!" The stranger whipped around to Gale and stuck her arm in the loop that was created with Gale's arm when he placed his hands on his hips."Where did you go? Across the town and back?"

Startled by her sudden reaction, the hypocrite gone pale, despite his attempts to seem normal. He tried his best to come up with an excuse to play along, considering it was a smarter idea then what he had come up with. With no knowledge about the women at all, Gale had decided quickly.

"I told you already, I had to finish the picture before the sun went down."

"Well, you take too long in my opinion. You were suppose to be here an bell ago." She scolded him sarcastically with a realistic smile, one that Gale could not easily replicate.

"Everyone is a critic." Gale mumbled.

While the two conversed, the me perked their eyebrows, eyeing Gale with curiosity and annoyance. It wasn't entirely hard to tell that the artist was not affiliated with the women at all, considering his sudden change of skin tone, the surprised expression when she turned to him with a response, and his hesitant reply. However, the taller man only let a hardly noticeable grumble of dissatifaction before the woman continued.

"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you two but we must be going now. You two have a good day." The burnette practically dragged Gale around to start to walk away from the pair. The irritation of the interruption was heard within their mumbled conversation with eachother as they walked the opposite direction of Gale and the young lady until they were no longer in sight. The freckled face looked over their shoulders to look for any signs of the strangers, but did not see any.

After looking over his shoulder as well, Gale quickly slipped his arm away from the lady, taking a step away as if she were covered in filth, though with a less disguested facial expression. Giving his former, blonde companion a glace that screamed of uncomfortability, he turned to a look of frustration form the lady.

"What? Never seen a woman before?" She questioned, refering to his quick reaction to retract his arm.

"What? No, I just-" Gale went to explain something that would have ended up in an open ended reponse, but was interrupted.

"Well it doesn't matter. I suppose I should thank you for helping me out, shouldn't I?" She raised an eyebrow with a quizzical look as she straightened her already leveled, white shirt with a brown vest laying overtop it.

"No, ma'am, I w-" Gale blinked in surpise from her rude interruption but only was cut off once again.

"Pish posh. You men are always asking for some sort of thank you. So I suppose I shall thank you for your help and concern."

Gale raised an eyebrow in confusion. Was she older then he had anticipated? Left in the dust with the concept of this conversation, the artist stuttered a,"Y-You're welcome?" Gale glanced at Arianthe as if she would fill him in on what just happened.

by **Arianthe Swansong** on January 3rd, 2013, 1:18 am

Arianthe watched the exchange silently, torn between amusement and something resembling confusion, or something of that nature that was ungovernable. Neither could she tell what exactly was passing between the couple and, though at first one might come to the conclusion that they knew each other due to the way the woman was conversing with... Harry, was it... rather jovially. In fact, one might draw from it the conclusion that they knew each other rather intimately, if it were not for the fact that the blond man was looking at the brunette woman as if he had never seen her before in all his life. Therefore, Arianthe simply drew the conclusion from this that Harry was not much of an actor, since the two offending men did not look very convinced either. She smiled and watched the ensuing situation with interest. On closer inspection, underneath all the cosmetics she was wearing, the woman was not as pretty or as young as she first appeared, though she was far from plain and, Arianthe suppose, attractive in her type. Was she a prostitute? Well, they were in the area where one might find prostitutes, so it was very possible that that was indeed the career path she had chosen, not that Arianthe judged or thought worse of her for it. Harry certainly did, though, as he pulled his arm away brashly from the woman's grasp. A swift and awkward exchange of words followed before he looked back to Arianthe, who merely smiled and waited for him to finish doing whatever he was doing, then looked away in case he felt like she was prying. Her natural curiosity meant that she would wonder about it but her upbringing prevent her from questioning the encounter.

by **Lullaby** on July 6th, 2013, 3:42 am

Here is your reward!

Arianthe Swansong :

Gale McCenry :

Matthaus :

Let the stars light your path

Great work guys! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.

Open Two Steps out of Place