Right Next Door Who: Harlan and Jo Where: Their rooms, and the window between them When: Anesus 3, late morning
One of the many places Harlan hid his things was the closet, the large room full of clothes and linens and things for everyone in the compound to use if they had need. After visiting with Paziter, he needed to put his tinkerings away, and the closet seemed as good a place as any, and one place he didn't actually have any of his other more personal belongings. By the time he actually reached the second floor, after two flights of stairs and a couple long hallways, however, he was starting to think he'd never make it to the closet. A breather was definitely required, so that his heart might slow down and his head stop spinning.
Thankfully, his own bedroom wasn't that far from the stairs. One hand on the wall, the other clutching his things, he made his slow way to the right block and headed into his room, flopping down onto his bed with a tired, slightly out-of-breath groan. He was completely oblivious to the rooms attached to his-- and now terribly obviously there-- and whether they had occupants. He honestly wasn't used to having to worry about that.
Jo had been awake since before dawn, had noticed the sudden lack of privacy, and had absented herself shortly thereafter. It wasn't that she had any problem with the new challenge, but it did hint at possible interaction with her neighbor, which she wasn't really up for first thing in the morning. Thankfully, he was still asleep when she'd left, and gone when she had returned, laundry in hand, to do a little mending. This was one chore that she truly didn't mind having.
When Harlan finally returned, Jo was just beginning to feel a slight ache in her neck from bending over her sewing for too long. She straightened, stretched, and leaned away from her table to peer curiously into the room next door. He sounded as though he'd just run a mile, and not well.
"Been workin' hard?" came her gruff, though lightly concerned query. Thank the winds he was a boy. Who knew how she'd deal with it if he'd been female. She never really knew how to act around girls. At least with boys she could be herself. Mostly.
Looking up in surprise at the voice, Harlan blinked in his dim room-- not quite so dim as it should have been, he realized belatedly, given the light from his neighbor's window coming in through the new window-- over at the source. His neighbor. A new girl, seeing as he didn't recognize her, and at the very least not a Vrykola, though at this point she could have been Lykos, despite the fact that she was actually wearing plenty of clothing.
He smiled, a little sheepishly. "Depends on what you call hard work." He set down his little toys and pushed himself up again, at least into a sitting position. "Hard work for me includes climbing the stairs. I'm Harlan."
Well, from what little Jo knew about the other species in this place, her assessment of Harlan was similar to his own. And, though at this point she had no idea how to tell human-form Lykos and humans apart, she doubted one of the outdoorsy species would be that winded from climbing a flight or two of stairs. Her eyebrows had lifted a little at that comment. So Harlan was probably human. Which was okay. She wouldn't complain.
He also happened to be the first person of any race she's spoken to since her arrival two days ago. "I'm Jo," she returned, the simple reciprocation about all she could think to offer. Winds, she was bad at this. After a short pause, she blurted out the first item on her mental list of questions, hoping it was appropriate, or at least not insulting or something. "Have you been here long, or are you new here, too?"
Jo didn't think she'd seen him with the group of people she'd followed in, but she didn't have the best memory for faces, either.
Standing up and coming over to offer a little bow and then his hand for a shake, Harlan answered, "This will be my third year. I already pegged you for new, seeing as I didn't know you yet. You get to know everyone before too long, here." He smiled, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and reached for a candle to get some more light in his only somewhat windowless room.
"So what do you think so far?" he asked. "Have you met anyone yet?" He assumed she had; everyone had usually had a few run-ins by now. Alarie had managed to catch Svathe's attention, for crying out loud.
Jo hesitantly bobbed her head in response to Harlan's more formal bow, then set aside her mending and reached to take his offered hand. She didn't really have much to say in response to his first comment, other than a nod to indicate that she'd heard him, so she simply watched as he moved around in his room. Just a little awkward. Was she supposed to say something?
Relieved when Harlan continued on his own, she returned to her seat, scooting it over so she could perch on the edge and peer through the window attentively. Jo let her fingers wander over the last few stitches she'd sewn into the shirt she was working on as he spoke. "It's what I imagined it would be," she said with a thoughtful smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "I've been excited to meet these people for as long as I can remember. But you're the first person I've met here." And really, that was something, for Jo.
"Really?" That surprised Harlan, it really did. Surely she'd met someone-- anyone. Surely she'd been at the meeting the night before, a perfect opportunity to mingle, learn some names, learn some faces. "You've been here two and a half days, and you haven't met anyone yet?" What had she done, hide in her room the whole time? Even Paziter had met people, and he was the shyest person Harlan had met here, up to and including poor little Kierban.
But then, a whole castle full of strangers might intimidate anyone... even someone who... had she said she was excited to meet? That didn't make sense at all. "Do you--" He paused to try and fit the right words to his question. "I know a lot of people, pretty much everyone, if you need support for that. I know it can be pretty overwhelming." After all, he did try to help out the new folks.
At Harlan's obvious surprise, all Jo could do was shake her head in mute denial. She was shy, and she didn't know how to communicate with her own species, much less the other two here. To Jo, that was all the reason she needed to keep to herself until the situation changed.
She watched him choose his words, and waited patiently. When he finally found the words, her shy little smile returned, though her eyes remained somewhat wary. "It's pretty overwhelming, alright. This place has more humans than I've met in my whole life. I don't even know where to start." The emphasis she put on humans was meant to indicate her anxiety about meeting the other races, both excitement and nervousness. Would it work? Would it be misunderstood? This was a daring foray into the subtle art of, well, subtlety.
While Harlan wasn't the best at picking up social cues like that, it wasn't an uncommon worry, being stuck here with so many of the other species. "Humans outnumber both Vrykolas and Lykos here," he answered, setting the newly-lit candle-- this time sparked the traditional way rather than with an explosion of magic-- on the washstand and going back to sit on the end of his bed. He was trying to be reassuring. "Just like we do out in the rest of the world. And they're not really that different from us, you know-- they're still people, even if some of their customs are different." And, you know, dietary needs. "But if you do want someone to introduce you to some of the, er, easier ones, I like helping out."
Jo nodded. It wasn't exactly what she'd meant to get across, but it worked out fine. "I'd love to meet them," she agreed fervently, silently adding I just hope I don't, I dunno, scare them away. Hopefully Vrykolas and Lykos didn't scare as easily as humans. Or they took body language cues differently. Maybe she could try her conversation-hunting out on someone! On second thought, maybe not. They might take it some way that she never would have imagined.
And therein lay the problem. If Jo couldn't even communicate with her own species, how could she speak to another? With her luck, they'd mistake something she tried for a fatal insult, or something. She could imagine that getting very bad, very fast. "Um," she began, hesitantly, "you'd be there, right? In case I did something wrong?"
"Well, if I'm introducing you to someone," Harlan said with an amiable grin, "I'd hope I'd be right there. Though you might want to let me know when I start hovering. I can do that, sometimes-- my sister claims it ruins her reputation to have a geeky older brother looming over her shoulder." Especially when it was a boy she was trying to talk to.
Still, if she was nervous, he wouldn't go anywhere. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, though," he assured her. "Some of them are just as nervous as you are. Or more," he added, thinking of Paziter, nervous with everyone. "So they're not going to be any danger, I promise."
Relief flooded Jo's face when she learned that he would indeed be there. She hadn't intended to latch onto the poor boy, but his being the first real conversation (as lacking as it was on her end) she'd had in this place, she was almost guaranteed to want to cling. Like a lifeline. "I don't think that'll be a problem," she assured him, wryly. "More likely, you'll have to put up with me using you as a shield."
When he mentioned that they might just be more nervous, Jo couldn't help the smile that leapt to her face. "Oh, I wouldn't count on that," she muttered, though whether it was in reply to the nervousness or the danger was anyone's guess.
"Wouldn't count on what?" Harlan asked with a little grin that he trying hard not to let look amused. Poor girl didn't need him chuckling at her, no matter how much he was tempted to. She seemed nice enough, with an interesting sense of humor, but definitely cryptic. "Them not being nervous, or them not being dangerous?" He didn't know which way she meant, so he didn't know which one to prove to her. Or if maybe he ought to give examples of both.
Jo paused for a moment, her eyes on Harlan. He was amused. She'd seen that look in her father's eyes often enough to know what it meant, and he'd had it quite often when she'd tried to talk to strangers. Okay. "Of the last five people I've ever tried to talk to," she began, smiling crookedly and holding up five fingers to tic off as she spoke, "three ran away, one tried to get his hands into places they didn't belong, and one was you. One out of five isn't a good record for anyone." And we're not even done with the conversation yet. He could still run, if she tried out one of her conversational tactics on him.
Then again, this was going surprisingly well. Maybe it was because he was just easy to talk to, like her father had been back home, or maybe after she'd given up on trying to predict and master the art of conversation, she'd managed to somehow start to learn it? She wasn't sure if that made any sense at all, but the situation seemed hopeful either way.
That time he really did grin in amusement, shaking his head and smiling wryly at her. He had a feeling he was supposed to, though; even if she was being serious-- three people ran away from a little thing like her?-- he could at least tell that she was doing so in that manner that was supposed to be light-hearted and make you laugh despite the seriousness. He didn't know her well enough to tell whether she was making a real joke or just trying to laugh off something that really bothered her.
"You must not be talking to some very nice people," he commented. "You don't seem scary at all. Though I've officially only known you for five minutes now, we have been neighbors since you got here, and I've no complaints yet. I think if you were worthy of running away from I'd have figured something out by now."
When Harlan laughed, Jo felt a faint rush of relief. That, at least, was a normal response. Well. Maybe this conversation thing wasn't as hard as she thought! All she needed was a place where they couldn't run from her, and a wall between them so they didn't try anything. Right.
Jo did return his smile, however, a shy little grin stealing across her face. "Oh, I dunno," she said, raising her eyebrows, "I haven't tried any of the 'conversation schemes' out on you yet." The word her father had used to define her plans had always amused her, bringing her a broader (and rather sly) smile this time.
"Conversation schemes," Harlan repeated, grinning all the more. She didn't seem all that bad to him, not at all. Maybe he'd introduce her to Alarie or Paziter, or Elanna. "Tell me about your 'conversation schemes', then." He waved a hand at her encouragingly, then leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. "Let me decide if they're terribly scary. Besides, maybe they'll help me out-- I'm not the most socially wonderful person, myself." He waggled his eyebrows teasingly at her.
Jo grinned. He wanted to see? Well, okay. "Alright, but remember that you asked for it," she warned, and then put herself into the mindset that she adopted when hunting. That had been her initial idea of how to treat a conversation, and the one that two of those three people had run from. Her eyes went from openly amused and bright, to cool and calculating. Somehow, that made her features take on a decidedly predatory cast. Stalking the prey. "What sorts of places do you like to spend a lot of time around here?"
Jo couldn't have known this, thanks to her lack of experience, but she suddenly looked and sounded like a serial killer who did a very poor job of hiding their true motives as they tried to lure the next unsuspecting victim to his death.
The change was, Harlan had to admit, a little disturbing. She went from happy, friendly-looking young women to... Winds, he didn't know. Svathe trying, and failing, to look amiable. How did she do that? Why did she do that? He couldn't imagine that she was doing it on purpose, but....
Harlan dropped his chin a little to look at her more squarely over the top of his spectacles. "All right, yes, that does look a bit scary. Anyone ever told you that you look a bit like you want to stab something when you do that? Or someone?"
Jo sheepishly dropped out of her hunting mindset, and her shy smile returned. "Yeah, I started to get the feeling that that was the case when a mother shielded her child." It was almost a joke. It was funny now, but on the road as she tried (and failed multiple times) to learn this social interaction thing, it was far from amusing. "That's why I haven't exactly been jumping at the chance to talk to people here. Though at least they can't run very far away, when we're all stuck together like this," she confided. Harlan was so nice, Jo couldn't help but be her normal, open self with him. "So I just gave up trying to learn how to socialize. Guess it worked?"
"You seem to be doing just fine right now," Harlan said, puzzled and looking at her over the top of his glasses, head cocked curiously. "Have you not tried just... not trying, with people, before?" He might not be the most social person out there, but he was definitely not shy, and he'd never had trouble getting people in conversation if they were willing. And Jo seemed perfectly willing.
A bit embarrassed, Jo had to shake her head. "No," came her answer, "until now, I was always just so nervous that I wouldn't end up talkin' at all. My little 'schemes' were just me tryin' t' figure out how to make conversations with strangers work." Now that she was relaxing a little, her grammar and inflection began to slip from the more careful mode of speech she had unconsciously adopted at the beginning of this conversation, back into the way she would speak with the men on the farm back home. It was easy, with Harlan. Either he was just extra good at this communication thing, or maybe it was because he was a guy, and Jo was just naturally more comfortable around that gender. In any case, it made Jo wonder if she would have as easy a time with the next person she managed to speak with. Especially if it was a girl.
"Well, like I said, you're doin' fine now," Harlan assured her with a smile. He did notice the slightly sloppier diction, but hey, he certainly didn't care. He was from a farm, himself, like so many of them here, though not quite from the same region as she was, he guessed. The accent wasn't quite the same. "So maybe just try relaxing and being yourself? Tell me about where you're from, how about that. That's an easy topic to get you some practice on, right?"
Jo's wry smile reflected her inner bemusement. "Seems like I c'n only get what I want when I'm not tryin'," she murmured. When Harlan suggested a topic to practice with, the girl was visibly relieved. She must've hit the jackpot with this one - not only would he let her practice on him, but he kept the conversation going, which was something Jo had always had the hardest time with. She could never quite figure out what to say next.
"Not really much t' tell, there," Jo apologized, then summed up her past. "Lived with my father, on his farm, in the west. Worked the fields with 'im since I was old enough to walk" she said with a light chuckle. Just how much information was required for a good conversation? "Goin' t' town was a long ride, so we mostly kep' to ourselves, 'cept for the men who worked the farm." There, that should be good enough. For the moment, anyway. Probably shouldn't pour out her whole life story at the boy first time they meet. She hoped. He'd ask for more if he wanted more, right?
"Just you and your father?" Harlan asked, a little taken aback but, given the girl's supposed inability to talk to people, not terribly surprised, either. It wasn't normal, to him, for people to live alone like that. There should have been a mother, siblings, Partners, Partners' wives and husbands and children... their people so rarely lived in small numbers, it just seemed unnatural. "Didn't you get lonely?"
It definitely sounded lonely, to him. That had been his biggest problem coming here, missing his family and the other families he'd lived with, and he'd had to make due by meeting a lot of people. He still didn't feel quite right with the small number of friends he'd collected-- having Alarie here actually helped.
Jo had to think about that one for a moment. While she'd been used to her father's company alone, there had been times when she'd missed outside contact. Even if she couldn't hold up a proper conversation with strangers, the men who worked the farm were amiable enough and easier to talk to, when they weren't in work-mode. In the end, she only shrugged. "When th' men weren't around, it did get pretty lonely," she admitted, "but I never had many people t' talk to, regular, either. Father was quiet, an' we were both loner types, so I guess it worked out okay?" Wait, did that make sense?
To be honest, had Jo not been chosen to come to the compound, her life would have just continued on in that long, lonely stretch. She'd have either married or partnered one of her father's partner's sons, and the farm would have eventually been left to her and whatever family she managed to build. Now that she really thought about it, Jo wasn't at all certain she'd have ever actually have been able to build a family at all, the way she'd been raised. It was a little disquieting, but she managed to keep the feeling from reaching her expression, for the most part.
Besides, now when she went home, at least she'd be able to actually talk to people. That was worth something, right?
"You aren't acting like a loner type right now," Harlan pointed out frankly. "You're acting like a girl who wishes she had more people to talk to, so she's chatting up the guy in the next room over." He did soften the comment with an apologetic grin, but it still seemed very true to him. He, after all, was hardly the best or most obvious person to be talking to, winded from coming up the stairs, skinny and pale, with glasses, and older than she was-- most girls her age weren't terribly keen on holding long conversations with him. Most human girls, period, usually came to the idea that he was a waste of space. Not that he really minded too much. He had friends, even if most of them weren't female or human.
Still, he smiled at Jo warmly. She seemed like a good sort. "I hope you make friends here, Jo. I think you will, and you'll be happier for it."
Troubled for a moment, Jo cocked her head to the side and regarded Harlan thoughtfully. Was she really as desperate as he made it sound? No, maybe he was just seeing it wrong, though at the moment, Jo was ready to accept just about anyone's view on the matter over her own. "Maybe," came her answer, at last. "Or you were jus' in th' right place at th' right time." The thought made her smile, and then the next thing to occur to her broadened that grin. "I'm just glad you weren't a girl. Always got on better with men," she said, though whether it was meant as an explanation or a defense, not even Jo herself was sure. Maybe it was both. Another shrug.
At the mention of making friends, the girl returned his warmth. "'S what I'm hopin'," she announced with fervor. Hmm. Maybe she really was more lonely than she thought.
"That's funny," Harlan chuckled, "I was just thinking that most girls don't get along with me. Nice to be proven wrong now and then. You'll make friends, don't worry. I expect a lot of us here are made of sterner stuff than people who'd run away from you back home. Though," he added with a grin that was mostly teasing but a little bit cautionary, "maybe you ought not to try that 'scheme' thing on the Lykos here. They might take offense to a look that intense." Especially Svathe. Winds take him for threatening his sister....
Jo grinned broadly. "Can't see that'un. You're too nice. Th' girls here must be... wow, scarier than I thought," she said, only half joking. When he cautioned her to keep from using that scheme on the resident Lykos, she tilted her head the other way. "Why?" Oh she'd heard stories, but once she'd passed through those gates, all prejudice her father had attempted to instill in her stayed outside. Hopefully, Jo would be justified in that, but if she wasn't, she'd still like to learn it first hand rather than through rumor.
"Staring like that, to a Lykos, means a challenge," Harlan explained. "Or an offer for a challenge, or intent to challenge, whatever. There's a lot more ritual to it than that, but it all comes down to eyes meeting eyes. As I'm pretty sure you don't want to go around challenging any Lykos for their pack position, just figured I'd warn you." He offered her an amiable enough grin. His own "obsession" was with the Vrykolas, but he knew enough about Lykos to get by, too.
"Oh," was all she could say for a moment. Well, if what Harlan said was true, Lykos were really quite a bit like the wolves back home who tried to raid her father's livestock when the winter got deep. She would never hunt those animals, but they were quite interesting to watch. Hmm... what if they were more alike than just that one similarity? Could this information come in handy in other ways? This could be interesting. "I'll r'member that."
Oh, wait, was she supposed to come up with something else to talk about? Um. Ah Winds. And she'd almost forgotten how bad she was at this.
Harlan was running out of random small talk, himself-- social, yes; always ready with conversational topics, no. What he did say, however, was, "Do you have any questions about this place? Anything that didn't get answered last night at the meeting thing with Tayne, or clarification you want?" He could make himself available for that, whether now or as she came up with them. He didn't think he'd mind random questions at random times.... "Any time you like, even if you can't think of any now. We're neighbors, after all." He grinned at her. She had an out if she needed one, or a subject change if she'd prefer that.
Yeah, there was no way Jo could see anyone disliking Harlan. She grinned at his offer of help and information. "Thanks, I'll r'member that, too." At this point, Jo had completely run out of things to say, and so was indeed grateful for the subtly offered escape. There must've been something to say in ending a conversation, besides 'goodbie', but for the life of her, Jo just couldn't think of what it might be in this situation. She'd already thanked him for his offer, they'd pretty much covered every available topic, what else was there? Her silence lengthened as she fidgeted with the needle and thread and cloth. This could be a very awkward end to the conversation if Harlan didn't come up with anything either.
Well. She had warned him that she wasn't good at this.
After the pause, Harlan took pity on her. "Suppose I ought to leave you to your mending," he commented. He felt better now, recovered from the double-dose of stairs, and he ought to go put his things away like he'd intended to do. Then maybe track down Alarie, or Elanna, or go see if there were any chores that needed doing that weren't being done that day. He pushed himself up off the bed, waited a minute until the graying out went away, and grinned at her amiably. "See you around, neighbor."