Secrets Within The Science (Mercury X Howler)

[howler01]

The ambient noise of other conversations, about the weather, classes, money, and any number of other things filled his ears. The steam from his cup of coffee and sweet scent of the maple bar filled his nose. Ian Lewis looked around the little cafe, named Claire's Corner Eats, and searched for his friend. He knew she'd come, she always did. This was their weekly hangout spot. Not only for the atmosphere, but for the free WiFi, though she couldn't compete with a Starbucks, there was something to be said for her deserts. Hence the maple bar, one of his favorites, in front of him.

Ian's laptop sat enough away from the plate and cup that, even if he pilled, he'd have time to clean it up before the computer sparked and caught fire, hopefully. His bright blue eyes scanned the place, but it appeared that he'd arrived first. Sliding his eyes over to his computer screen, Ian typed in his password and was grateful the thing had full charge, as his friend would need it. The poor girl didn't speak, ever. Why? Not because she was extremely quiet or shy, but because she couldn't. Ian pulled the text-to-speech program he'd installed just for her and kept that open while watching random music videos on Youtube. Nothing particularly interesting, just to keep himself entertained until she arrived.

Checking his cell phone, which stared at him with a black screen, illuminating to an ocean with fish when he touched it, there was no text from her. Well are you coming or not? he thought. Normally, he tried not to enjoy his sweets and drink without her, but if she didn't arrive soon, he'd have little choice. Hi stomach growled and reminded him that there was food nearby and it wanted some. Ian sighed and decided that he could take one bite of his maple bar. Just one. But, once he took one bite he'd have to eat the whole thing because no one ever just took one bite of those... it was madness.

Ina clicked back to his home page an noticed that, one of his favorite artists had posted a new video pretty recently. What? I missed this? Really? Huh. Well, might as well watch it. he thought a little disappointingly as he watched the beautiful colors drift by and the beat of the song filled his ears, as it emanated from his laptop speakers. He loved it, then again, he loved all the work by this one. Rumors had circulated the comment section that it was a girl who was composing these; but yet, others had said differently. He left his own simple comment,"Great Video as always, keep it up! Maybe you could end this whole controversy and show us who you are in the next one?. Ian sat back from the computer, in a good mood, somewhat buoyed by the pleasant video. He'd commented like that on every one of his...or her videos.

Whoever was producing them was a real genius, in his mind anyway. He swept his brown hair asides and looked hungry. His eyes wondered over to the maple bar, and despite his promise that he wouldn't eat before she came, he couldn't help himself. He began to consume the maple bar, sweet bite by sweet bite. In between sweet bliss, he took sips of the coffee, warm, and somewhat bitter liquid mixed with the sticky and sweet maple bar in his mouth and it tasted amazing. Ian, standing 6'9 wasn't extraordinarily tall, but when he rose to check once more for his friend's arrival, he could see over most of the other booths and table to the door. he didn't see her.

Sitting back down, he sighed and brought up the ocean and fish again. Scrolling through his contacts, he texted, hey sleepyhead! You coming or what? I've already had my sweet for the day. Also, new video from the amazing artist I was telling you about! yay! He though about adding something else, but decided against it and hit "Send". He set the phone back down on the table and waited, alittle impatiently, for her to arrive.

[MercuryCocktail]

Aya took a deep breath in her mirror and put her headphones in. Her top lids were lined with eyeliner reminiscent of a 50s starlet, her go-to style. Her body was a small one, dark hair a sharp contrast to her skin. She wore tight pants and a loose sweater, typical style of winter. Music made its way into her ears, and she let out a small sigh. Music made her feel connected to people, something she felt was always lacking in the rest of her life.

Her clock caught her attention and she suddenly realized she was late. Her newest record had taken almost her whole morning, and to be honest, she'd forgotten about Ian. She sat at her computer quickly, clicking refresh on the comment page of her new sound. A smile painted her face easily when she saw the newest comments; they were all positive. Aya noticed one in particular, this person always commented on her new things.

"Great Video as always, keep it up! Maybe you could end this whole controversy and show us who you are in the next one?"

Her fingers found the keyboard and began to type

AnonymousAdministrator: "Thank you, I definitely will. And I've been showing you who I am in these this whole time."

Aya grinned and closed her browser. She stood and walked toward the foyer of her small, one-bedroom apartment and sighed. She was always happy to see Ian, and she adored the boy, but she really wanted to stay and soak in the attention of her fans. Nothing felt better than the validation they gave her. As her boots moved through the city, one of her older records in her ears, she sighed.

Aya simultaneously felt singled out and ignored whenever she was around people. No one truly understood how it felt to lack a vital form of communication with others. She tried to pretend it didn't matter, that she was just like everyone else. Even she didn't believe that. She knew she was different, knew she would never fit in, simply because some chords in her throat didn't work. She was born this way, and because of it had little friends. Ian accepted her, but even then, there was still something off about it. She felt a vibration in her pocket and moved from the center of the sidewalk to look at her phone.

Aya couldn't help but smile, speak of the devil and he shall appear. She read his message and typed one of her own.
Shush. I'm on my way now. Hopefully I can get there soon, there's a lot of people out today. Oh, the mystery person?

She wondered if he had any idea this person he raved about was her. She assumed not and would never tell him. It was so awkward, and it was private for her. Her own personal haven were she felt normal and to be honest, she didn't want him to know. It was her secret and she demanded it to be.

Aya knew the way to Claire's Corner by heart and was barely paying attention as she walked through the door. She ran her hands through her dark hair and spotted Ian's body in the corner. She smiled, her emerald eyes lighting up as she headed towards him. A tall man slammed his shoulder into hers on accident. She stumbled back a little and he apologized. She nodded to him, signing a quick I'm sorry. He stared at her and did a nervous smile as he walked away from her, muttering an "I'm sorry".

She moved her eyes downward the rest of the walk toward Ian, sighing. It was always awkward interacting with strangers. It took so much work to understand her, she was surprised anyone did it at all.

She took Ian in, smiling at his familiar and handsome features.

Aya sat, sighing as she placed her bag down and began taking off her scarf and coat, 'Sorry I'm late. It'll never happen again... except probably tomorrow.'

[howler01]

Ian had Aya for some time; hell, he'd even consider them best friends by this point. He had gone back to his computer and noticed that the author the of new video had commented on his comment and he smiled. "Thank you, I definitely will. And I've been showing you who I am in these this whole time." This made him smile, to see that whoever it was had noticed had noticed his comment at all. Then his phone vibrated and he read her text message. He snorted and thought about typing something back, but...nah..he'd just wait and tell her about this mystery persona when she arrived. He'd gone back to his computer to turn on something a little different, when he heard a collision and looked up to see Aya signing to some other guy who clearly didn't get it. Ian momentarily was angry; most didn't understand the girl who couldn't speak at all, but somehow he did. he counted himself pretty lucky, there.

Ian watched the strikingly beautiful Aya sit and remove her scarf and coat and sign an apology to him. He smiled warmly and chuckled at her thinly veiled promise to never be late again, that she thought would be broken again tomorrow. Having just about grown up her, since they lived vitally a couple of streets from each other, Ian had come to learn sign language as Aya did, thus, he could both easily read what she said and sign back to her, if necessary. He chose to speak to her, though, and said,"You always say that. It's not a big deal though, I had a maple bar already, and it was yummy, what are you going to get? Oh! and I brought my computer along for you. Look, I know that you hate the voice thing, I get it, but...it's the only piece of technology out there. Besides, without it, you couldn't participate in class, could you? I'll...leave it here for ya; go ahead and order something. You feeling okay?, I saw the jerk bump into you. He gave her a concerned look and took one of her hands in his squeezed it gently, in a friendly way. Ian did like Aya, as a friend, after all. He'd never really explored the possibility of anything beyond that. He wasn't quite sure how his "other" friends would react to such a relationship.

She'd asked if the mystery artist was the one he'd mentioned and he said,"Yeah! Her channel name is...SilentBeatuty, I think? Love her stuff. It's very...quiet, yet at the same time it's original. You should totally check her out sometime!. And wow, look at you, with the eyeliner and the make up...God, Aya, we're not dating here, are we? I feel... like I should be waering a suit or something. Besides what's the point of all that anyway? You look just as beautiful without it, I think anyway." Ian realized that he was kind of flirting with her, let go of her hand and blushing a little, covered his mouth. He was only slightly embarrassed at his words. He looked uncomfortable now and squirmed on his side of the table. He signed, Sorry. I didn't mean to flir like that. I gotta pee really bad. I'll be back. because he was way, way too embarrassed to speak right now.

Ian rose from the table and quickly made his way towards the bathroom, which he ducked into quickly. He'd unknowingly left open his own youtrbe page, with his comment on Silentbeatuy's channel displayed right there in the center of his screen. Right then though, he was more concerned with calming himself down. He was quite flustered that he'd gone that far and said that much about her. He peed and washed his hands, standing in front of the mirror some more, admiring himself and splashing some water on his face to calm himself down. After about ten minutes, most of which was spent calming himself, Ian felt ready enough to go back out and face Aya.

He emerged from the bathroom wearing a red long sleeved shirt that said "Headphones are my two best friends!" (it was the only thing that was clean) and some blue jeans, with his normal tennis shoes. His own coat lay on the booth next to where he'd been sitting. He returned and gave Aya one more smile.