Jenn

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

I have to confess, I'm enjoying finding ways to illustrate poor Alden's social ineptitude XD.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

It was a small victory when she surrendered her acquiescence to Alden, though he understood that it had more to do with some shift in her than with his miraculous ability to influence. He understood that perfectly; like salty waves lapping against the rocks, he had simply eventually worn her down. Though his presence had won her acceptance, he knew that it had not won her trust. And that was okay with him, for now. He could feel her keen eyes as they worried over and considered him. Each time she looked at him, he did his best to disarm himself—to forfeit anything about him that might come across as threatening. A difficult task, as he was not by nature intimidating nor ferocious.

“Your discomfort is perfectly acceptable.” He replied to her timid observation, smiling at the nervous laugh that accompanied it. “I suppose you don’t get many strangers prying their way to your rescue.” He shrugged, and gladly followed her lead down the walk. “Do you believe in fate? I do, and I knew just by looking at you that we were going to be fast friends.” It was his naiveté that drove him to make such a statement. What was a friendly confession meant to attract good feeling in his world could easily be seen as an overbearing assertion in this strange world. However, he did not leave time for the remark to stain the air before he pushed forward, taking the lead by a breadth so his presence behind her would not cause alarm.

They neared the fairgrounds, and he felt his heart surge hopefully in his chest. Perhaps he would get his way and she would accompany him to the grounds, even if they only barely fringed upon its borders. He craved more than anything to be able to share in the lights, laughter, and music of the fairground with his new friend. It was with vague disappointment that he noticed her stop instead at the sidewalk. Under the dull hum of a street lamp, she sat. He followed her descent onto the grimy cement. Leaving a comfortable gap between them, he sat in front of her. His long legs crossed, he rested his lissome fingers on both his knees; his posture was unthreatening, unalarming—just as he was taking pains to make it so.

She finally admitted her name, and he spoke it aloud with a gentle grin. “Carla.” It was unique; he enjoyed the way it forced him to curl his tongue when spoken. He considered it for a few moments more, but soon found himself caught up in the sudden flood of pink to her cheeks. A blush, he knew that much, but he couldn’t pin what was the cause of her embarrassment. It didn’t matter, for she spoke again; a topic created solely to fill the silent space that had settled between them.

“I’ve been here quite a few times, actually.” He licked the salt from his lips and ran his fingers through his hair, made even more wild than usual because of the sea’s air. Hastily, he pondered what he should tell her; he didn’t wish to lie, but it wasn’t as if he could tell her the truth either. He finally settled upon an acceptable middle ground: the truth riddled with omissions. “My family is not from around here.” Not a lie. “They’re sort of strange, I suppose, to most. I guess I am too though, huh?” He shot her a grin and continued, “They like to keep to themselves, and never really venture out into the city unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Still not lying. “I can see the fair’s lights from my home. From where I am, they always look like stars that have withdrawn themselves from the sky. I can hear the noises too, the people and the music and the games—they seem almost otherworldly as well. I just wanted to see what it was all about, and so I started coming here at night. It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it? Like a little piece of magic stationed right in the center of the town.” He was glancing around then, like a spellbound child, trying to take it all in for the thousandth time since he’d started venturing into the town lines.

After a time, he caught himself and smiled abashedly at his present companion. For a second or two he measured her in silence, but, remembering that the quiet made her uneasy, he offered up the expected other half of the conversation. “And what could have possibly brought you to the boardwalk alone so late at night?”

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Oh no! That's terrible! I hope everything works out OK. What a bummer.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Another swing and a miss: for the umpteenth time that night, Alden felt his stomach drop. He couldn’t understand why he was failing so badly with this human. For weeks he had been watching, learning how to be the perfect conversationalist. The temptation to ask her what he was doing wrong pushed at his lips, but he resisted—something told him that the ol’ “Excuse me ma’am, I’m a fay representing the summer court; would you be so kind as to take a second of your night and answer my quick survey on why our interaction has been such an abject failure?” would only lengthen her mistrust in him, and perhaps convince her that he was crazed and dangerous. The truth was, his grasp on the brutality of human society was limited. Fay could be temperamental, petulant, and cold, but almost never to each other, and rarely unprovoked in the case of human interaction. The didn’t swipe children from their yards, brutalize each other for pocket change, or rape. It wasn’t in their nature—the Seelies, anyway. The Unseelie were the root of all that was evil, but, just like the humans, Alden had no experience with them; they were ostracized, banned from ever being able to integrate into any of the four courts. Light, love, and innocence were all that had ever been allowed to imbue his soul, which was why his new friend’s reactionary mistrust filled him with melancholy confusion.

Though she was not obvious about it, Alden noticed the way the girl positioned herself when she made the call; always watching him as if he were going to turn feral at a moment’s notice. Sighing, he turned his back to her so he was the prone one, and leaned against the boardwalk’s coarse railing. His eyes found the water; like always, he found himself struck by its lassitude. The waters churned lazily, splashing against the beams that supported the walk, but otherwise swirling unhindered. Various vegetation as well as garbage spun in endless circles just underneath the dock. Just a dead, lifeless pool of water. The waters in the woods never had and never would see such listlessness. The pixies, sprites, nymphs and sylphs always brought life to the lakes and ponds in the woods—follow the giggles and unmistakable glow, and you would soon find yourself at a lake’s edge. Even when winter’s rimy kiss froze the waters solid, the traffic of fay folk didn’t dwindle. They simply played on the slick ice until exhaustion drove them to seek comfort on the snowy bank. Despite his upbringing, Alden found himself incredibly fond of the winter season. There was always a surge of life around that time, perhaps a compensation for all that was lost from the hibernating trees and animals. He wondered if it was the same or the opposite for their human counterparts. Did their vibrancy also permeate in winter’s chill to stave off the grimness of the dying land, or did they whither with it until spring brought its reprieving warmth?

He did not ponder long before his friend finished up her call. Upon hearing the click of the receiver, he turned back around to face her, careful not to move from his spot at the railing. Disappointment welled at the edges of his heart, but he was glad for her—she would soon be able to escape the discomfort and wariness that practically dripped from her. “Oh, wonderful! No need to apologize; I’m just glad that you found someone to get you safely back where you belong.” Alden flashed her a kind smile, but then let it drop to a grin—his mouth was almost sore with smiling, feeling it was necessary to comfort the girl. In hindsight, he realized that the biggest smile in the world would not have earned her trust.

“Maybe I’ll stay with you for a bit, just to make sure you don’t run into any trouble. There’s a lot of sketchy activity around here at night.” Or so he had heard, verbatim, actually. The fair always drew the attention of miscreants like moths to a flame, according to a few of the people he found himself eavesdropping from. It made sense, he supposed. There weren’t many street lights to illuminate those who prowled, and many people thought nothing of walking alone to their cars. With the fair producing such a cacophony of music and screams, the shouts of the helpless would go unnoticed. Alden frowned into the darkness.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your name? Mine is Alden…but I believe I already told you that, come to think of it,” He grinned sheepishly, pushing his unruly hair from his face.

[Advanced] On the Hunt for one More Partner

On the hunt for just one more partner again!

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Again she screamed, and again Alden made as if to jump straight over the moon with the shock of the sudden interjection. So incredibly loud, these humans were; her especially, he was learning. He hadn’t yet finished recovering before she skittered back into the boxy phone booth. His hand half-extended to catch her, and a grimace of his own marred his tranquil face. It had not been his intention to be an instigator in any harm that befell her, but she was so unexpectedly skittish; he was having a difficult time predicting when or not she would react volatilely to her environment. This was not how he had planned for this to go. All the other girls he had seen were the epitome of warmth and bravery—this one seemed distant and suspicious. She was missing every step he had choreographed for them; if he were wearing a tie, he’d be anxiously pulling at it.

“I’m terribly sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you.” His smile had dimmed, but a nervous chuckle was released from somewhere in his constricted throat nonetheless. A part of him weighed the option of politely excusing himself from her company, and sparing them both the rest of the calamity that was his miscalculation in their introductions. But he liked her; she was his very first human friend. He wanted to know her.

They came to a silent impasse that made his skin itch under her probing gaze. The sounds of the night echoed in the air around them. Many of the people on the boardwalk had dissipated, off for their own adventures, but the few that remained, combined with those he could hear from the fair, created a low din of noise that he found to be pleasant. To the far right of him, car tires could be heard rasping against asphalt; below them, the water gently whispered; all around them crickets chirped and whip-poor-wills chanted. He liked the song that this new world of his sang, very much. Interrupting the continuous melody with a voice he found lyrical in its own special way, the girl mocked his wording. He squinted; it was hard to perfect the humans’ speech—it was so informal, lazy almost.

Without warning, the girl lifted up her shirt, revealing her smooth, soft flesh underneath. Cheeks slightly warming, Alden politely averted his eyes. Nudity was commonplace to say the least in the forest, especially among the nymphs; in fact, sexuality was something very much embraced and manipulated in his world. His kind, the fay folk, frowned upon the other mythics’ ostentatious salaciousness, but even the fay could not be categorized under prude. More than a dozen times in the human world he had eavesdropped on talks of modesty—mostly mothers, fathers, and grandparents sharply scolding their kin for the amount of skin they revealed—and had concluded that the baring of flesh was not looked particularly fondly upon by many who inhabited the human world. The last thing he wanted was to offend his new friend by looking where his eyes were not welcomed. When his peripherals let him know that she was covered, he returned his gaze to her and smiled warmly; despite the bleak emotions that swirled in her eyes, he was bursting at the seams with hope for them.

That hope hitched only briefly when she requested money from him. He should have been ready for it, especially given he knew that was solely what she was after. Pretending that he wasn’t sure, he proceeded to vainly dig through his pockets for the money she requested. When nothing was found as expected, he removed his hands and showed them to her with an apologetic shrug.

“No, I guess I don’t.” A second passed before his eyes lit up with an idea. “I don’t have it, but I know someplace that might. The fair always has loose change on the ground. I would be more than happy to walk you there and look with you, if you’d let me.” There was nothing stopping her from telling him to get bent; in fact, that was probably the smart thing to do. She didn’t know him, and she certainly didn’t owe him the time of day. He had nothing to prove that he was the kindred spirit that he was, only the genuine smile that he offered her once more.

[Advanced] On the Hunt for one More Partner

Bump.

[Advanced] On the Hunt for one More Partner

Shameless bump.

[Advanced] On the Hunt for one More Partner

Bump.

[Advanced] On the Hunt for one More Partner

Bump