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maskormenacelogs2014-10-15 02:55 am
kinesia) wrote in maskormenacelogs2014-10-15 02:55 am
OPEN: Hiding in a crowd
WHO: Grey and OPEN
WHERE: Around Heropa
WHEN: Within the first few days that he arrives
WHAT: Grey explores his new surroundings and gets used to life in the city.
WARNINGS: Probably none! If you anticipate a thread needing warnings, please add them to your sub-header. I will update this if necessary.
Watching Nature
[ Grey doesn’t like his apartment. It’s clean and bare, and carries with it the feeling that no one has ever lived there. The world he had known had been full of people pressing in on every side, because there was never enough space for anyone to move without brushing past ten others. Nothing had ever been clean or new, and no one had had their own room. Now Grey has several, including a kitchen that he doesn’t know how to use, and a bedroom that’s far too empty and quiet for him to sleep. Staying there at night is enough of a struggle. He leaves as soon as the morning comes.
Work doesn’t go well. First he’s late because he can’t find the place, then they send him home because of the clothes he’s wearing – an old coat and track pants, both so faded and dirty that they look like trash to anyone who’s not Grey. They don’t like his unruly mass of hair, either, or the number of tattoos that he uses to try and explain. When they discover he’s not registered, they lose their patience, and tell him to go home. So the milk doesn’t get delivered, and in fairness, he’d have struggled to find where it should go anyway.
He walks away, and keeps on walking, because the city has plenty to distract him. Eventually he finds himself in a park, sitting on a bench, and just staring at it all. It’s green. Grass both looks and feels strange. He’s picked a few blades to look at them more closely, but it’s not long before the breeze catches them. The breeze itself is just as strange. Grey closes his eyes every time it hits him, savouring the relief it brings from the sun’s heat. He watches people move through the place, eyes on them as they run, walk, exercise, guide small, furry creatures on leashes, and mostly fail to appreciate how beautiful everything is. He quickly forgets about what happened in work. There’s so much to look at here that he could stay here for hours and still not take it in. These are sights he never even imagined he might see. ]
Watching Urbanity
[ The city itself is a different prospect. The streets are an equal balance between comforting and terrifying. At least his eyes don't hurt in the light anymore. Grey walks with near silent precision, used as he is to an environment that was always in motion. He’s not yet used to walking on ground that doesn’t move, and the people around him seem careless by comparison. He’d come here because the larger crowds had drawn him; eventually even the park had felt lonely, and it had made a ball of anxiety grow in his chest. Just being in a crowd helps to chase that back, but…
But the city itself is huge. It feels like there’s too much to take in. He can bear it for a while, but it’s never long before his head starts to hurt. There’s too much to see and hear and it’s all so big – wide and tall and it seems never-ending. He has frequent impulses to flee from it, except that he only knows to go to his apartment, and the thought of the silence and solitude there brings his anxiety back with a bang. Finally he ducks into the nearest store, a pet store. He only notices that once he turns and comes face to face with a rabbit, which sends him skittering back across the floor in surprise. He stares at the weird, fluffy white thing in the cage, and slowly inches towards it again. He’s at a loss, with animals. He has no idea what to do, but he doesn’t like that it’s trapped in a cage. He pokes a finger through the bars, and the rabbit inches forward to investigate. The feeling of its wet nose against his finger draws his first smile of the day. He wishes his friends could be here to see this. ]
WHERE: Around Heropa
WHEN: Within the first few days that he arrives
WHAT: Grey explores his new surroundings and gets used to life in the city.
WARNINGS: Probably none! If you anticipate a thread needing warnings, please add them to your sub-header. I will update this if necessary.
Watching Nature
[ Grey doesn’t like his apartment. It’s clean and bare, and carries with it the feeling that no one has ever lived there. The world he had known had been full of people pressing in on every side, because there was never enough space for anyone to move without brushing past ten others. Nothing had ever been clean or new, and no one had had their own room. Now Grey has several, including a kitchen that he doesn’t know how to use, and a bedroom that’s far too empty and quiet for him to sleep. Staying there at night is enough of a struggle. He leaves as soon as the morning comes.
Work doesn’t go well. First he’s late because he can’t find the place, then they send him home because of the clothes he’s wearing – an old coat and track pants, both so faded and dirty that they look like trash to anyone who’s not Grey. They don’t like his unruly mass of hair, either, or the number of tattoos that he uses to try and explain. When they discover he’s not registered, they lose their patience, and tell him to go home. So the milk doesn’t get delivered, and in fairness, he’d have struggled to find where it should go anyway.
He walks away, and keeps on walking, because the city has plenty to distract him. Eventually he finds himself in a park, sitting on a bench, and just staring at it all. It’s green. Grass both looks and feels strange. He’s picked a few blades to look at them more closely, but it’s not long before the breeze catches them. The breeze itself is just as strange. Grey closes his eyes every time it hits him, savouring the relief it brings from the sun’s heat. He watches people move through the place, eyes on them as they run, walk, exercise, guide small, furry creatures on leashes, and mostly fail to appreciate how beautiful everything is. He quickly forgets about what happened in work. There’s so much to look at here that he could stay here for hours and still not take it in. These are sights he never even imagined he might see. ]
Watching Urbanity
[ The city itself is a different prospect. The streets are an equal balance between comforting and terrifying. At least his eyes don't hurt in the light anymore. Grey walks with near silent precision, used as he is to an environment that was always in motion. He’s not yet used to walking on ground that doesn’t move, and the people around him seem careless by comparison. He’d come here because the larger crowds had drawn him; eventually even the park had felt lonely, and it had made a ball of anxiety grow in his chest. Just being in a crowd helps to chase that back, but…
But the city itself is huge. It feels like there’s too much to take in. He can bear it for a while, but it’s never long before his head starts to hurt. There’s too much to see and hear and it’s all so big – wide and tall and it seems never-ending. He has frequent impulses to flee from it, except that he only knows to go to his apartment, and the thought of the silence and solitude there brings his anxiety back with a bang. Finally he ducks into the nearest store, a pet store. He only notices that once he turns and comes face to face with a rabbit, which sends him skittering back across the floor in surprise. He stares at the weird, fluffy white thing in the cage, and slowly inches towards it again. He’s at a loss, with animals. He has no idea what to do, but he doesn’t like that it’s trapped in a cage. He pokes a finger through the bars, and the rabbit inches forward to investigate. The feeling of its wet nose against his finger draws his first smile of the day. He wishes his friends could be here to see this. ]
no subject
He lifts his shoulders in a shrug at Joel's words - because it might bite him, but it's only little, and he hadn't meant to hurt it - and then he frowns. A familiar tension creeps into his shoulders. On the Train he always knew who was his enemy and who wasn't. Here that's far from the case. His lips press into a line and he upnods at Joel, before pushing up the left sleeve of his coat. He finds the word 'who', tattooed against his upper arm, and he points at it, before sliding his eyes back to Joel again.
Who are you? A name would be good; certainty about friend or foe would be better. ]
no subject
What, you can't talk?
no subject
He moves, slowly – inching to the side, to put himself in more space. His eyes stay watchful. Just in case. ]
no subject
Joel draws in a deep breath to even his still rattled nerves from being startled just moments before. He casts a glance between the rabbit and the guy, then gestures to the rabbit with his hand as he shifts on the spot. ]
Ain't never seen a rabbit before?
[ The way the guy reacted it to sure seems that way. ]
no subject
He has no plans to start that, though. He keeps the idea in mind, in case he needs to act quickly. But instead of attacking him, the man gestures at the rabbit instead. The motion had made Grey tense at first, but the question makes some of the strain leave his shoulders. He hesitates for a moment, and then quickly shakes his head. No. This is new to him. His eyes slide from the rabbit, taking in the pet store as a whole – a place filled with cages, with guinea pigs, hamsters, birds. He glances around it all, then looks back at Joel and shrugs his shoulders. All of this is new to him, not just the rabbit. He upnods at Joel. Has he seen them before? ]