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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 20, 2009 21:08:05 GMT -5
-Thread Theme-
~A Flower Blooming In The Slums~ Leon sat on a bench in the park, stretching and watching all that was going on in the midst of the green grassy area. Children were playing, people were exercising, birds sang...it was...peaceful. A small warm breeze picked up, strange as it was getting late in the year, and lifted his blond hair slightly before setting it back down as it passed, a gentle caress. It was strange for him, as he was not dressed in his usual garb today. Today he was wearing a simple black suit, instead of the robe and loose clothes he usually wore in training, and no green-and-white-striped hat. He shook his head slightly to set his hair back into its usual place, and continued watching the area. There weren't many people in the park today, despite the unusually warm weather. This cheered him up quite a bit, as crowds of people made him uneasy. He found this ironic, as when he was a street magician just a few months ago, he'd loved the crowd. He picked at the suit lightly, uncomfortable. He used to love this kind of dress, but ever since his training, he was more comfortable in his robe. It seemed that he'd changed in so many ways from what he used to be, and yet he was still the same person on the inside, just his philosophies changed slightly. Shrugging, he just leaned back and looked at the sky, lost in the small amount of clouds. They made shapes for him, shifting and swirling, and he just watched, entranced by their movements... |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 20, 2009 23:51:31 GMT -5
“Sure, I’ll take one of those,” Ilythyia forked over a few dollars to the street vendor and got a hotdog in return. The Industrial Illusions president rarely got a chance to go out and enjoy herself as often as she liked—work usually trapped her in her office, her house, or surrounded by a bunch of assistants and bodyguards—but she still enjoyed the opportunity to leave the office and go out for a little stroll every so often. Whenever she had the opportunity, she liked to take a brisk walk around the park, and she would usually stop to sponsor some of the hardworking street vendors. They worked hard day-to-day without the luxury of a guaranteed salary like Ilythyia had.
Her fine business suit must have stuck out against the casual and exercise clothes that everyone else in the park seemed to be wearing, but she was too busy to bother changing out of her work attire just for a quick walk. The weather of the outdoors was refreshing, even if the suit was occasionally stifling when the weather became hot, like it was on this particular afternoon. She moved into the shade, choosing to ignore the paved walkway and cut through the grass. Her heels weren’t the best footwear for the journey, but with some of her trademark finesse and grace, she made it through without much of an effort.
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 0:16:35 GMT -5
Leon sighed as he found himself beginning to count the clouds. This was getting ridiculous. Hadn't he come out here to do something? No...but he had come out here to relax, not fall asleep counting white fluffy things that weren't sheep. Shaking his head quickly, ridding himself of his tiredness, he began looking around again. Same old people, though a few had shifted places. The kids still playing in the playground, the people still jogging in a circle to keep in shape...however, one new person did catch his attention.
He saw a woman standing nearby, in the shade under a tree behind the bench he was sitting on. He hadn't noticed her before, so she must have appeared while he took his small un-expected snooze. After a minute of watching, and observing, he had come up with a few things. She must work in the Industrial District somewhere, from her clothing. She looked calm, so she must enjoy being out away from where she works, (Who wouldn't) and she enjoyed common food. He blinked, then turned on the bench so he was facing her, sitting on the edge of the side.
"Not the best things to walk int he park with, heels." He commented wryly, blinking up at her. |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 21, 2009 0:36:16 GMT -5
“Figured it wasn’t,” she answered quickly at the voice that had called out to her. She was the only one in the vicinity (and probably the only one in the whole park that wore heels), so she figured that the stranger must have been talking to her. The way that her heel liked to sink into the grass made movement difficult, but she managed by navigating with a ballet dancer’s expertise. She wasn’t one of those girls that would simply take off their heels whenever it became difficult to walk in them. If they couldn’t even commit to a set of heels, how could they possibly commit to anything else?
The other man in the park looked a little out of place. He wore a suit like she did, but his wasn’t particularly crisp or pressed, and the way the tie hung loosely across his loosely buttoned shirt seemed to imply to her that he had either been out for a long time, or he wasn’t even one that worked in the nearby industrial district. Ilythyia wondered silently what he would be up to, especially by himself in the park with nothing to do except gaze up at the sky and accost passersby in heels. But she couldn’t be bothered to think about it for long, not when she could be taking another juicy bite out of her hot dog.
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 0:42:40 GMT -5
He was met with a simple sentence, and then silence, except for of course the small noises of her eating her hot dog. Blinking, he shrugged, then leaned forward a little, tilting his head. "So what brings you to the park, if you don't mind me asking?" He hadn't made a friend in a while, or talked to anyone really, even from the academy. He had been almost a social outcast lately, and he wanted to try and change that a little bit.
He put an elbow to his knee and rested his head on the hand pointing upward, his hair falling to the side as his head was tilted sideways. "That must be a very good hot dog, or you didn't get your lunch break at your building today." Always trying to lighten the mood with really bad jokes, such was his curse. |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 21, 2009 0:51:54 GMT -5
“It’s both,” she said tersely. Ilythyia wasn’t the best of conversationalists even when she wasn’t eating, but she could only imagine how difficult it was for others trying to strike up conversation while she was talking. It wasn’t intention; she liked interacting with others, but she was a firm believer in being able to tell what people were really feeling or trying to express not just from the words they spoke, but the way the spoke it and the nonverbal cues that they were sending. Even though the stranger never said it, she could tell that he was keen on striking a conversation and reaching out to her, for reasons that she did not know immediately. Sometimes she was a little too perceptive for my own good.
“I’m just on my break,” she said, after finishing her hotdog and wiping politely at her mouth. The way she said it seemed to imply that she just some office worker who skipped out to the park during her lunch break, but she never quite mastered the authoritative way of speaking that most people expected from their top level executives. She could have mentioned how she was just taking a walk to not think about work, but the stranger would have to settle for what he could get for now.
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 16:49:18 GMT -5
Interesting. Or rather, not at all. There had to be more to this woman than met the eye. Leon couldn't bring himself to believe that this person was that overly boring. Chuckling to himself lightly, he just smiled and continued looking up at her. He didn't exactly know what to say, so he just simply gave his own name.
"I'm Leon." |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 21, 2009 17:42:41 GMT -5
It wasn’t that Ilythyia wanted to be cruel. On the contrary, Ilythyia was usually a very respectable and forgiving woman, who was willing and capable of reaching out to help others. But it was just that she wanted to know why the man seemed so keen on approaching her, and none of the cues that he had given her had solved the riddle. And, of course, she had food. That complicated things a little bit. But having finished her hot dog and thrown away the wrapper into a nearby trashcan, Ilythyia figured she would at least try to dedicate some effort to the conversation.
“And I’m Ilythyia,” she responded knowingly, having anticipated that he would make an effort to identify himself to defuse what he must have considered a tense conversational impasse. Of course, they hadn’t so much as reached an impasse as much as Ilythyia was testing the waters—having a little bit of mental fun while she did it. She responded with her name so casually that it never so much as hinted towards her illustrious background as a prima ballerina or as the current president of one of the largest corporations in the world. “What brings you to the park, Leon?”
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 18:21:53 GMT -5
He smiled. It looks like she was finally at least a little into the conversation. He took his head off of his open hand and looked around quietly. "It's...peaceful. Here, you don't see the problems people have in their life, or yours. You just see people being themselves, not carrying their worries with them. At least..." He looked up at her, blinking. "Thats what I see. And thats what I come here to forget about. Troubles." |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 21, 2009 18:51:36 GMT -5
“You have a lot of troubles?” Ilythyia replied lightly. Coming to the park to sit and enjoy the ‘beauty’ obviously meant that his troubles weren’t so debilitating that he couldn’t enjoy some of the finer, quainter things in life. It also meant that he likely wasn’t depressed, as that would indicate that he lacks the ability to enjoy most any mundane thing. Ilythyia enjoyed the park for its fresh air, its calm breeze, the tweet of the birds, and the sight of people wandering about, but he rarely came to wash away any ‘troubles.’ If anything, the park served as a place for her to clear her mind so she could continue to make good executive decisions.
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 20:10:39 GMT -5
"Everyone has troubles, Ilythyia. But mine aren't too bad." He chuckled and sat up, stretching, arms high in the air. This suit was so bothersome. He loosened the tie slightly, wanting to be in his loose training clothes again. And he felt...naked, without his hat. He shrugged, letting his troubles go. He didn't want to be rude and break the conversation. "So did you plan to come to the park, or was it just a spur of the moment?" He pointed at her heels, smiling widely. |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 21, 2009 20:33:50 GMT -5
“Clearly, I came prepared.”
Ilythyia never had the time to change her clothes, and she would probably have to return to her job within a half hour, or else the executives and security staff at Industrial Illusions might start overturning half the city to try to find her. Somehow, company workers didn’t appreciate it when the chief executive went missing for extended periods of time. Still, she would try to get the most out of her break while she still had the chance. The park was one of the better places for it, and she had in fact planned to come to the park. She just didn’t intend for it to be so hot and have to walk through the grass and dirt.
“And I’m glad to hear that.” She disliked hearing other people’s problems, because most of them were fairly petty and common. Everyone had them, as Leon said, and she didn’t exactly have all the time in the world to waste to listen to them. It wasn’t a personal thing—Ilythyia just worked better when her mind wasn’t flooded with the melodramatic sentiments of everyone around her.
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 21:28:46 GMT -5
"Now are you really, or are you just saying that?" Leon grinned and sat on the bench again, his neck turned to face her. "In my experience with people, they often say things they don't mean in some sort of false condolence or attempt at manners." He simply laughed quietly and stared out toward the park, watching all of the thrill of life and nature in play. "I do sincerely hope you aren't one of those kinds of people." |
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Post by Ilythyia Venetianer on Oct 21, 2009 21:43:13 GMT -5
“I mean what I say.” Ilythyia usually did mean what she said. Of course, she was capable of lying like the best of them, but she was not one that usually sugarcoated her words. People who wanted that usually avoided her; but those that wanted the truth, no matter how brutal it could be, sought her out for her sage-beyond-her-years advice. Of course, Leon couldn’t have known that she was happy to hear that they were minor because it meant that she wouldn’t have to sit there and listen to them, but she also knew that most people didn’t like telling their heart’s problems to a stranger.
“And,” she added after a bit of a pause, “I say what I mean.”
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Post by Leon DeHay on Oct 21, 2009 21:52:07 GMT -5
"Very good. That makes you much more interesting." He looked up at the sun, a hand over his eyes and frowned. It had already been a while since he'd been here, the sun had already moved through the sky. He glanced down, then over to the woman whom he was conversing with. "Would you like to sit down, m'lady?" The shade was no on the end of the bench from the tree, and he moved over in case she did. |
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