wolftrap and fireflies, what does it mean?

[wakeupyouangels.livejournal.com]

WHO: Yoite & Sophie
WHERE: a park
WHEN: late in the day
WARNINGS: Yoite's insane metabolism?
SUMMARY: A fateful encounter! ... Or a coincidental encounter. It depends how you look at it.
FORMAT: paragraph


The sun was low in the sky by the time Sophie made it to the park, but she wasn't concerned. She always made sure to carry a few books on her so she could escape into them if necessary. A good, well-known classic was preferable — many people would have it in their libraries, providing plenty of venues for elusion.

Being back in the City had initially depressed her, she had to admit. Maybe she would just never see Alberto again. He had said she could go home whenever she wanted. But when Sophie was here, that was no longer true. She could feel it, the limitation of fiction. She, like all the others, were stuck here.

Surely there was a reason for it...? Well, beyond the obvious, which was that she was in the hands of an author who wasn't the Major. But to be here, to get to know all these strange and wondrous people — there had to be a purpose. Sophie pondered that as she walked, wrapping her scarf more securely around her neck. Ahead, the path swelled to circle a stone fountain where a statue of horses bursting forth from carved waves stood in the middle. She noticed a cluster of birds hurrying towards one of the benches by the side of the path. Someone was there, feeding them, she supposed.

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[heart-my-hat.livejournal.com]

Yoite knew that leaving the City at this point in time was a bad choice on his part. The City's strangeness had been going at full force lately, crime was higher than he ever could remembered it before, and the few friends he did have here could need all the help they could get. Even his, even if he usually did more damage than good. And the people who knew the damaging effects of his powers rarely did anything else but worry about him, which he just couldn't understand. Even after all this time, even if they were his friends-- He didn't understand their need to worry about him, it was suffocating... He felt like they saw him as some sort of delicate glass figure, when in fact he was nothing like that at all. That he wasn't a glass figure, he was glass shards, sharp and dangerous, able to cause damage if they weren't careful.

And they wouldn't understand. Telling them wasn't enough. Showing them wasn't enough. It had been different, before, at home with Miharu and Yukimi and everyone. They had understood him, every part of him that he was dangerous and some distance should be kept even as he let them closer. That questions should not be asked, that fighting should be left to him even when it seemed like he was struggling. He didn't need to be protected, he managed that fine on his own. He missed having a purpose. Some reason to continue breathing. But here, wasting away each and every day, crawling toward another slow death, feeling like he needed to apologize to someone, something, for each and every breath, each and every beat of his heart that he wasn't supposed to have...

It was frightening. And because he was frightened, he needed to keep people at bay. It didn't matter what they were to him, what he was to them. He just... Needed to sort things out by himself.

And so, he had decided that picking a direction and starting to walk would be a start. A start of what, he didn't know, but... Maybe he would find something. Somewhere. He had enough survival skills to manage, a bit of money saved up and if he got low on it, he could always stop up somewhere and work before continuing. For now though, he hadn't quite gotten out of the City yet. He'd found himself in a park that was... Peaceful. And feeling hungry, had gone to buy himself a good four, five hamburgers, which were next to him on the bench he had sat down at, along with a big bag of things he thought he'd need on his journey. He wasn't too focused on the food yet though, feeding the birds breadcrumbs he'd gotten from a nearby bakery. He found that feeding birds was... Somewhat peaceful, and he could just not think about anything else for a while.

It was a nice little distraction and good for the birds too, because surely they had to be hungry all the time, kind of like he was... And feel cold whenever they were really hungry like he did...

He wouldn't say that he felt sorry for them, but...

Helping them out by feeding them wasn't such a bad thing.

[wakeupyouangels.livejournal.com]

She stepped softly so as not to disturb the birds, but they were more interested in being fed, anyway. It wasn't until she'd partially circled the fountain that she ventured to look at the person feeding them. With the crest of horses between them and the constant trickle of water, it seemed more discreet to observe from this angle. Still, Sophie didn't stare. She took in Yoite quickly, then looked down at the rippling water, fishing a penny out of her coat pocket and tossing it into the basin. For home.

His face was not familiar to her; she did not think he attended the Institute, though it was possible she'd simply missed him in the hectic scramble to reassert a schedule onto her life. She moved slowly around the fountain until she was in plainer view, taking another glance before deciding that the rather melancholy activity of feeding the birds probably has common basis in what she was feeling — displacement, restlessness, uncertainty.

"Hello," Sophie said simply, a greeting that he could take or leave without phasing into further conversation if he didn't feel like it. She whistled at the birds, who ignored her in favor of breadcrumbs.

[heart-my-hat.livejournal.com]

Yoite could tell someone was near- came as part of his training to become a ninja to be able to tell when someone was too close. Add that to his own wish to keep people at bay and you had someone who was constantly trying to be aware of every little part of his surroundings, which was a pretty good description of what he was like for the most part. Not that he'd ever admit that he was like that to anyone else. It was just a habit, to know where he had people. Make sure they didn't get too close.

He glanced up, briefly, before returning his attention the the birds, leaning down a bit now with some breadcrumbs in his hand, extending it down to the birds and surely enough, one hopped onto it while the other ones kept pecking at the crumbs on the ground. The one in his hand pecked at the crumbs there, stiffening a bit when Yoite lifted it carefully up to get a closer look, tilting his head at the small creature, who seemed to pay him no mind, until almost all of the crumbs were gone, then it finally looked at him, and tilted its head too, flying off to join its friends on the ground again when the other person finally spoke.

Yoite instantly looked at her, head still tilted just a little bit to the side.

"... Good evening." He replied, keeping his eyes on her, to see if she intended to try to speak to him or just had said hi for the heck of it and intended to move on.

[wakeupyouangels.livejournal.com]

It was actually not particularly Norwegian to accost strangers like this, but Sophie had learned to do otherwise during her ventures as a fictional character. One had to be quite daring in order to get along, she'd found.

"Do you feed them often? They won't sit on my hands." She smiled a little, momentarily turning her glance to the birds as they hopped about and scrounged for more crumbs. The birds had each other, but she couldn't help but feel it was a lonely life, at least until spring came and they began to pair up and have families. There were plenty of reasons to feed birds other than that maybe you felt lonely too, but Sophie fancied it wasn't a thing you did consciously — Oh I feel lonely, I'm going to go feed the birds — so much as something that appealed during solitary moments.

[heart-my-hat.livejournal.com]

"The birds here aren't particularly afraid of people." Yoite responded. People fed them so much that their fear of humans was greatly reduced and you could get pretty close to them if you walked carefully and didn't startle them. It was especially true about the ones in the parks in the City, so used to people feeding them pretty much each and every day.

"As long as you're careful, it's not much of a problem..." He added quietly, after a short moment. He didn't say anything about feeding them often though, because it wasn't all that common for him. He just felt like it today as he was on his way out of town for a while. Who knew if he'd even come back to do it again. He certainly didn't. There was no holding point in his life at the moment, nothing keeping him here. He wanted to say that Lyra and the others was his holding point, but... He cared for them, but feared them just as much as he cared.

"You can come try, if you want."

He wasn't going to stop her if she wanted to try feeding the birds from her hand. Even shifted a bit further away on the bench, not so much to open up some space for her to sit on, but to have some distance if she did want to try.

[wakeupyouangels.livejournal.com]

"Okay." She stepped lightly again but the birds scattered momentarily anyway as she sat next to Yoite, leaving the space he'd made between them. It so happened she had some crumbs of her own from the pastry she'd eaten earlier, so she took out the crumpled bag from her coat pocket and shook some into her hand, breaking the larger pieces up.

"Maybe it'll help if I'm quiet?" Sophie murmured, extending her hand closer to the ground to tempt the birds closer.

It was nice to, at the end of a longish day like today had been for her, just sit and focus on something small and unimportant but interesting. Well, it wasn't important to her but the birds probably felt it was important to have some fat for winter. It wasn't as cold as it was at home, but cold enough for something so small that fluttered around, using up all its energy.

[heart-my-hat.livejournal.com]

Yoite appreciated that she kept the space between them, but said nothing, expression staying the same as he watched her for a moment, before looking down at the birds that were gathering again, now that there was no more movement that scared them. He only nodded to respond to the question; it usually did help to stay quiet while feeding the birds from one's hand.

It was nice to just sit there in silence, watching the birds approach slowly, cautiously. Even if he wasn't alone, it was... Almost peaceful. Not quite in the way he desired, but still. It was something to focus on other than the thoughts swirling around in his head. It was a moment's escape at the very least.