Perfect Strangers.

[Loki]

The wind was strong, strong enough to bend the branches of the older oaks and atop the Balconies where Loki stood it was certainly blowing a gale. The sun had been hidden by the clouds for a good twenty minutes and the chill breeze had started to take it toll on his body. As he stepped tentatively across the platform he immediately began counting the trees in the distance from him, knowing that he would lose count and have to start again several times before he could count the ones that were within his range of vision. Loki, in his own strange little world, was having something of a pleasant day. He'd finished giving a lesson about woodworking to a few of the villages children with the aid of one of the villagers and was now killing time until he was certain the dining hall would be mostly empty so he could go and eat without the hassle of finding a table with no-one else there, he found it difficult enough to digest food without worrying who might be watching him. He stood by the edge of the platform, his left hand ran through the thick locks of black hair that were being scattered about his face by the wind, wondering as he counted subconsciously about what to eat. With a little luck they would be serving some form of forest fruit parfait, he had a soft spot for the lemons that were grown out the back of the dining hall and knew that they had only recently ripened. His tongue darted over his pale lips, the red color a mighty contrast to his pallid skin tone, his teeth dug into his lips, he was almost giddy with the thought of tucking into the soft cold delicacy.

Loki was so enthralled by the thought of food that he didn't notice the presence behind him, he almost didn't recognize it even as a soft touched hand placed itself in the small of his back. Another looped round to his chest and clung to the t-shirt he was wearing, the touch was almost insignificant, though within it was a love of tenderness. Loki's eyes darted to the corners of his sight, trying to recognize whom it could be. His body instantly reacted once he was aware of the contact, jerking forward to loosen the grip on him as he span round to face this person. Much to his shock there was no-one there. He bent down, squatting awkwardly as he tried to analyze the situation.

"That's not fair, you shouldn't be so rough with girls!" The voice that called out to him was familiar, in fact he knew instantly who it was. No. That was wrong. It was a voice that he knew but not one that anyone else could hear. It was a childish voice, one not fitting the image it was associated with. It was coming from behind him and he didn't need to turn round to tell where the female it belonged to was.

She was sat atop the edge of the platform, long blond hair trapped in the wind, her white dress tucked neatly beneath her bottom to keep it from blowing around. Her skin was as white as snow, her eyes as black as ravens feathers, Loki had every detail of her inside his mind. He didn't reply straight away, he knew that even acknowledging her presence was insanity, though it perplexed even him how he could acknowledge something that he knew wasn't there. The ghost of his younger sister, or at least he thought it was a ghost. But do ghosts age? Do they retain their physical form? Can you touch a ghost? Speak to it? Hold it in your arms on a cold night? He knew the answers all lead to the simple truth that he was imagining her, that his sister was in fact dead. That he had buried her years before and that now he was doing nothing more than trying to retain his composure by pretending none of it ever happened. He interlocked his fingers, the tough carbon layer that had replaced his skin scraped against itself as he twiddled his thumbs, contemplating how best to respond to her.

"Loki? Are you listening to me?" Her voice beckoned him to turn round, only to find her now stood straight infront of him when he did so. He raised himself from his squat, his hands inching toward her before recoiling in denial. She wasn't there, he knew that, he knew it for a fact and yet still he saw her. Her every word was gentle, playful, full of life, life that wasn't even real. "I said that you forgot to tell me you were coming up here." Her brow furrowed as she became moody at her absent minded brother. "What would you have done if I got lost?"

Loki stared at her for a few moments before replying, his stammered words jumbling up in his mouth before they could ever escape his lips. "Loki didn't need to tell you," he let out a shallow sigh as he cracked and entered conversation with her. "Uh....Loki," his tongue became twisted and he started sweating, all sense of calmness left him the moment he attempted to speak. "Loki wanted to be alone now. Loki doesn't need to be looked after all the time." He bit down hard on his lips again, cursing his speech impediment in his mind.

[Hayyel Crawford]

It was a chilly day today. But Hayyel was headed up to the Balconies anyways. They were high above the other platforms and it just meant it would be a lot colder and windier up there. Still, she climbed the ladder to go up them. What was she doing here if it was so cold? She was looking for a telescope in the right placement, so she had been checking all the Balconies. She needed a telescope because she was looking for a certain Forest animal. She had heard there was a mutated peryton that was wandering around. If it was then it was one of the few creatures that could get into the Barn Corral and feast on the animals there.

Hayyel was climbing her third wooden ladder, when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and bathed her in it's warm glow. As she climbed the rest of the ladder the sun's rays seemed to follow her form. She drew herself up onto the platform when she heard a familiar voice. Loki stood by himself on the platform, seemingly having a conversation with someone. But Hayyel saw no one. She quirked a brow, interest came about her sunned features.

She didn't know Loki well. As she shrugged her leather jacket closer, she realized she really only knew the Hunters. She let him finish his little talk with who ever he was 'talking' to. Perhaps he was merely speaking to himself, she though, after all she did that sometimes. She couldn't hear his words anyways. Clearing her throat to make her presence known she said, "Good morning Loki. How are you today?" She decided not to ask who he was talking to considering the fact that she really had no idea if he was talking to anyone in particular.

Words: 305
Muse: Good ^-^
Song: N/A

[Loki]

Loki's face contorted in evident displeasure, the image before him, no, the illusion, whatever it was, was behaving in the utmost of immature manners. She had taken to storming about the balcony, complaining all the time about how he should involve her more in his daily life. It had become all too much of a regular occurrence for Loki. Day after day she'd haunt his every waking moment, then leave him alone for a while to torture him before returning to make him feel worse by getting upset. Loki closed his eyes, hoping that when he opened them she might disappear and allow him a moments peace. Loki loved Agrias, even though she was long buried she was still his only little sister whom he cared for more than he could ever hope to be able to explain. It was just that sometimes she acted as more of a burden than a distraction. How he had allowed a psychotic apparition to become something so demanding of him was truly a mystery to even him.

Loki waited for the high pitched wailing of his illusionary sister to subside before slowly opening his eyes. To his delight, and slight dismay, she was nowhere to be seen. It was rare that she did as he asked, even rarer that he wouldn't suffer for it immediately after, but he had faith that for once, just maybe, she had sensed his need to be alone.

However solidarity wasn't something Loki had a strength in, he knew full well that only a few minutes would pass before he'd worry whether she'd come back. As he re-assumed his gaze on the treetops it became apparent to Loki that someone was talking to him. He turned, his neck arching awkwardly to allow him to view this person without moving from his position. He tilted his cranium slightly to the left, then to the right, eying up this person who had invaded his privacy. She knew his name, she could spot him by appearance alone, though to be honest he did stand out a little. Loki however was only aware that he had seen her before, as for her name or any specifics about her he was none the wiser. Loki, even though somewhat incapable, was still a man. Subsequently what he noticed about her had a certain order to it. Firstly he eyed her figure. She was a babe, there was no arguing that even for someone sociologically crippled. Through Loki's warped perspective he viewed not simply a stunningly pretty young lady but also an alien creature he couldn't fathom to understand. His eyes remained on her, unblinking even with his hair lashing at his eyes. His eyelids were sore, he hadn't slept well the night before because one of the guards had turned out his lantern and left him in the dark with no means to relight it. After weighing her up physically Loki took to further analysis. Her voice was as pretty as her face, the tones of her words as luscious as the sea green orbs that were enveloping him. His tongue darted across his lips again, the tip of his left canine clipped it and made a small scratch. Though it would've hurt Loki was determined to focus his senses in one direction only. He took a step backward, turning as though he would then approach her but instead placing a palm against the barricade that spanned the edges of the balcony, the dark substance that was his hand making a horrid scraping noise against it, like that of nails on a chalk board. He sighed, the fresh air was bittersweet, cold to the touch, but his fingertips held no feeling at all as the breeze lapped at them.

Loki wanted to know why she had come to the balcony. He thought himself the only person crazy enough to stand atop those platforms in this wind, one mis-step and you might have found yourself lying at the base of the village staring at the sky through dead eyes. He cocked his chin up and stared at the clouds, they moved in a fashion that he envied, as though there were no boundaries for them. It reminded him of how his body used to be, it also set the cogs in his brain moving at an astonishingly abnormal pace for one such as him. If he had his old body what would he think of this woman? Would he lust for her? Would he attempt to ravage her there and then? It didn't matter, he wasn't capable of such a thing. The worst thing about having all your extremities covered in a hard carbonite layer was that the only partner he'd even find would need to be the worlds greatest masochist.

He opened his mouth, attempting to find some amazingly witty quip that might give her a decent impression of what most people saw as an awkward shell. Instead he found himself mumbling an incoherent slur of random vowels. Nothing new there then he thought to himself. Eventually he did manage to get a few choice words out. "Pretty." It was an easy word to say, though for an ice-breaker it was about as useful as trying to perform surgery with a ladle. "Cold?" The two words weren't said with much flow so it would probably be apparent to most people that they weren't a single sentence. Though Loki did have a certain touch for confusing people with his slur ridden speech patterns.

[Hayyel Crawford]

She tilted her head as his eyes washed over her form, what was he looking at her for? Two of her fingers, delicately placed a lock of hair behind her ear. He was truly an odd fellow, wasn't he? She just didn't understand, but then again she didn't understand most boys. As he turned to her she moved forward to stand close to him. She was about five feet away when she could finally hear him over the whipping wind that tangled it's invisible fingers in her hair. She smiled at him when he said the word 'pretty,' she assumed he was talking about the weather, since the sun was now out.

"Yes I do suppose its a pretty day, now that the sun is shining through the clouds," sometimes she was just so oblivious, she didn't understand what most of the others meant when they spoke of love. When they spoke of kissing, she had never experienced anything like that in her short lifetime. Love was completely foreign to her, crushes were an unknown concept. Not that she hadn't felt them before, she just had never recognized the signs. She didn't even know her own body.

Was he asking if she was cold? Or was he saying that it was cold? Well she supposed the inflection of his voice said that it was the former. She nodded and said, "I am slightly cold, though this jacket is good at keeping me warm. You think since it was spring that it would be somewhat warmer."Though the weak sunshine did speak of spring the wind was more like winter. Though she guessed it could be windy because of all the storms. The rain always came in spring and fed the Forest then. She smiled as he almost leaned back against the railing. Her eyes searched around for a moment and then landed on what she was looking for, the telescope. She waited patiently for Loki's answer though.

Words: 335
Muse: Good
Song- Aqua Harp- Animusic