Cole (seeingmultiples) wrote in darkcarnivale, @ 2011-06-12 01:33:00 |
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Current mood: | indescribable |
Who: Cole and Yuriko
What: Cole's restless wandering brings him to Yuriko who shares a well guarded secret with him
Where: Around the Carnival
When: During Carnival hours
Rating: Low
It would seem there would be no cure for his ever persistent boredom and this time? It was all Eric’s fault. Really it was. His show was going on way too long and Cole whilst he appreciated his friend’s music couldn’t sit through a whole set, especially when Eric zoned out and the world ceased to be.
Fun for the first ten minutes, but after fifteen? Cole felt as though the world was going to whiz by and he’d miss something important.
Cole had flopped backwards over a nearby picnic table and was blowing at what could only be considered a flop of platinum blonde hair as his blue eyes scoured the sky above. Bored, very bored. He’d even contemplated going into town to blow off some steam, find something or someone to keep himself occupied with.
He pushed out a very long breath and laced his fingers together atop of his chest, thumbs tapping together, restlessly. Almost as restlessly as the right foot that appeared to be moving along to a rhythm and beat that only Cole could hear.
“Dragon,” Cole muttered as he tipped his head at a particular cloud.
“Where’s a dragon?” Yuriko asked, appearing over Cole’s head and into his field of vision through bracing her hands on the table on either side of his head and leaning over. The very tips of her hair brushed over his cheeks. “I don’t see a dragon anywhere.”
She was bracing herself gently against the table but then she moved, quick as anything, jumping up to crouch beside Cole where he was laying flat across the table top. Her twitching tail touched his shoulder before swinging in the opposite direction. She was crouched on her haunches, hands between her knees, fingers splayed on the tabletop.
“Out of all the creatures here,” she said, “I’ve never seen a dragon. Do you think they exist?” Her head tipped to the side, “dragons, I mean. Do you think they exist? Could someone here be a dragon?”
“Up there,” Cole muttered as he gestured towards the sky and more importantly the cloud he’d been staring at only a few moments before Yuriko had appeared in his field of vision.
He pursed his lip and considered her questions, turning it over in his mind as he considered it for as long and hard as was possible when his thoughts were so prone to jumping off the walls and bouncing off ceilings. “I have no idea,” he declared, tipping his head ever so slightly so he could look at Yuriko all crouched atop of the picnic table. “It’s possible. I mean, I’m a Doppelganger and you’re a Werefox so it’s entirely possible that somebody here is quite literally a walking talking dragon and we might not even know it.”
It was possible, not everybody was all that upfront with who or what they were. Some preferred to keep their origins to themselves, for one reason or another.
Yuriko’s eyes lit up at the possibility. “A dragon, that would be incredible.” She shifted, sitting properly and crossing her legs, lacing her fingers together. Her tail flopped over the edge of the table, tip twitching idly. She tapped her fingers on the table before lacing her fingers together again, rubbing her thumbs together restlessly.
She reached out and pushed a few stray strands of hair from Cole’s forehead where they’d been resting. She wet her lower lip, chewed on the inside slightly before she wriggled, shifting so that her tail could move more freely.
“I think it would be quite hard to hide being a dragon, don’t you think?” She tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “Cole… could you turn into me when I’m… actually me?” she asked, curiously.
“Probably,” Cole said with a nod of his head. “I mean, they seem pretty massive if you look at books or watch the movies.” He remained flopped over the table until he finally used abdominal muscles to right himself, long legs being drawn beneath and crossed until he was about as folded as man could get.
He caught the edge of his lower lip and worried it between his teeth, as he considered Yuriko’s question. Curious and untested. “I honestly don’t know. I mean I can do human like a snap of my fingers, but fox? I’m not so sure.” Cole had never given thought to it, especially as he’d spent long enough trying to master human without worrying about animals.
Cole’s fingers wandered to the ring around his thumb and twisted. “I suppose that would keep me occupied in-between shows.”
Reaching out with long, tapered fingers, Yuriko’s touch caught the cool metal of Cole’s ring. She twisted it herself around his thumb, just watching the light catching on it. Shiny things always caught her attention, like balls of string. Her animal nature did win out sometimes as much as she tried to fight against it. And really, she didn’t all that much. Why should she?
“Have you ever tried?” she asked, “To turn into an animal, I mean?” She tipped her head a little more, hair falling over her shoulder. “Would you want to try?” She’d never actually seen Cole shift into another form and it was something she was so curious to see. “But it would keep you busy, that much is true.” She wet her lips and leaned forward a little more, her face mere inches away from Cole’s, lips twitching into something approaching a grin. “Can we try sometime? If I turn first?”
Cole didn’t so much as blink as Yuriko touched his ring and took to toying with it. He simply propped his chin up in his free hand, elbow resting on his knee. “I fully admit to never having considered it before.” He had spent the better part of his life struggling to even replicate any other life form aside from himself, something his mother and his fellow kind had despaired of. Enough to toss him aside and call him disappointment and failure.
It was a brief trip into a sombre place and time, a moment of time that Cole would really rather not revisit. The vivid emotional recall was present in his eyes for as long as it took him to blink and refocus on Yuriko who was now much closer than she had been before.
“Sure,” he agreed readily. “Why not? I need a challenge.” And challenge it would be that much Cole was certain of if his struggle to replicate human was anything to go on.
Yuriko saw the shift in Cole’s eyes. Childlike she might have been, but she at least had a good grasp on emotions. She couldn’t hide her own - unknowingly her tail always gave her away - but she could always pick up on those of others, provided that they weren’t too… complicated. The simple ones, anger, upset, happiness, hurt… those she could pick up on, but jealousy and other emotions that she didn’t understand swept straight over her head.
“I enjoy challenges,” she agreed, reaching up with one hand to cup his cheek, having seen the brief unhappiness deep in his eyes and she leaned forward a little, pressing her forehead against his before she moved back to giving the tiniest bit of space between them. She was trying to tell him something, but what it was she didn’t know, because she didn’t quite know what it was he needed to hear. She just… wanted to make him feel better.
Cole didn’t entirely know how to react to Yuriko’s odd gesture of affection, but decided to focus past it. “You and me both,” he shared with a smirk as he concentrated his attention on his hand. It took a few moments before his masculine hand gave way to a far more feminine one, complete with manicured nails. He smirked as he wiggled said fingers. “See, being a woman? Definitely one of the more challenging replications I’ve ever done.”
He tipped his head and his hand reverted to normal.
“But I look forward to trying my hand at a new form. See if I can’t make things a little more interesting. The show would benefit that’s for sure.”
Yuriko’s eyes widened as Cole’s hand shifted into a more feminine one. Her fingers caught his, playing with the manicured tips, even going so far as to lift his hand to her face and sniff his fingers. He still smelt the same, but he looked different. At least she knew she’d always be able to identify him by smell if he was ever walking around with a completely different form.
She let her touch move up his arm, feeling the difference from the feminine wrist into the more masculine forearm. It was strange, so odd to look at, like it wasn’t… natural. But then again, she had a tail. She couldn’t talk about being a ‘normal’ human.
“Is there anything I can help with?” she asked, not relinquishing her hand on his hand and wrist. Her fingertips pressed in lightly, tip of her tail swishing a little faster in curiosity that couldn’t be hidden. Her tail even lifted a little bit, higher than before, curling in on itself. “To help you learn to change in other ways?”
Cole watched on with faint amusement as Yuriko seemed utterly fascinated with the way his hand had changed, but the rest of his arm had not. “Pretty cool, huh?” He asked with a grin, the sort of smile that lit up his face and caught his eyes.
He reached back into memory and recalled what had assisted him before. “I may have to shadow you.” And wow that sounded creepy. “And I honestly don’t mean that in a stalker kind of way, but in order to replicate? I kind of need to know as much as I can about the person I’m attempting to be, if that makes sense.”
Cole tipped his head and watched the way Yuriko’s tail moved. “How does your tail move like that? Does it just move because it does or do you have to think about it?”
Yuriko turned her head when Cole bought attention to her tail. She shifted to look at it better, though her tail moved with it. She did a circle on the table, managing to keep her balance and not really touch Cole at all except for the brush of her tail against his chin and jaw when she turned.
“I don’t know,” she answered, “I- I just- it just moves. I don’t mean to make it move. Unless I want it to.” Her fingers reached out and her tail flicked up over her thigh and into her waiting touch. She buried her fingers in her fur and lifted her shoulders at the sensation. “When I want it to do something, I have to think, but it’s just a part of me. I don’t- I don’t really think about it much unless someone stands on it.” Her lips pressed together in an unhappy line at the thought. “And that hurts. Like- like when someone stands on your fingers. Or when a bike runs over your toes.”
She looked at him for a long second, like something was clicking into place behind her brown eyes. “Have you never turned into me?”
“I guess it’s kind of like when I wiggle my… fingers or ears,” And yes he could do that as well as being able to roll his tongue, but that was a private bit of knowledge that only Cole and those most intimate to him knew about it.
He shifted a little, restlessly moving as excess energy demanded some sort of outlet. Cole never sat still for very long, he was always moving, even if he was simply cracking his knuckles or twitching a foot.
“And no,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’ve never ever turned into you. Wouldn’t have the first clue about how to do it or even how to turn back into myself.” That was the risk he ran whenever he replicated somebody else.
Yuriko’s eyes widened a little at the edges when Cole said he might not know how to turn into himself again. She tipped her head and moved forwards, back into his space again with her hands resting on his knees. Concern flickered behind her hazel eyes.
“Hmm?” her head quirked, tail standing straight, the tail flicking slightly from side to side. “Do you worry about not turning back into you?” she asked, up in his personal space, currently worried that maybe he would get lost. Would he? Did he get lost sometimes? “Maybe you shouldn’t try turning into fox me, then…?"
Cole regarded the small delicate hands resting on his knees, idly noting how he had a further tear in the denim across one knee. Huh, when did that happen? It seemed unimportant, but for some reason his mind latched on and obsessed.
“Sometimes,” Cole admitted with a shrug. “I mean, I turn into other people. I’m them, from the smallest of details to the biggest. I have to get into their headspace and in order to do that? I need to leave my own behind. Sometimes I worry that I won’t find my way back.”
He broke eye contact and shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “But it’s not a big deal, it’s not like it’s ever actually happened.”
Yuriko’s brow very briefly creased in a frown before she said, “But it could. Just because it hasn’t yet doesn’t mean it won’t, does it?” She looked unhappy for a moment before her fingers flexed against his knees, crouching down but not fully leaving his space. She saw the discomfort on his face and backed off a little more.
Her fingers, though, caught on the tear across his knee and both hands went to that to gently fiddle with the loose fabrics. Her gaze was drawn to that, the animal part of her wanting to just… play with it.
“What about us? Can’t we remind you? We should take a picture!” Her tail lashed from side to side excitedly, “We could take a picture of you and that can remind you.”
“Life’s too short to worry about things like that,” Cole remarked lightly. It was in fact a real and very actual worry and given its intensity one could say it was a very vivid fear of Cole’s. It was probably at the root of the problem when he’d been younger and apparently incapable of replicating. Not that any of his so called family had bothered to take that into account before tossing him aside.
He tugged on his ear, wondering if it was worth getting another piercing. It was truly amazing how on one hand he could be talking about something quite serious and on the other? Considering another piercing.
“If you wanted a picture all you had to do was ask,” Cole teased with a smile. “I don’t do autographs mind you.”
Yuriko tapped his nose and leaned forward to kiss the tip before leaning back, her tail still moving excitedly from side to side. People, strangely, didn’t take much notice to her tail, which was a surprise, considering she couldn’t conceal it all that well. Sometimes when it was very hot, she wore long skirts, and her tail stayed hidden, but sometimes the fabric twitched in ways that couldn’t be explained.
She wet her lips and shifted on the table, resisting the urge to play with the fabric at the tear on Cole’s jeans. “I don’t need an autograph,” she said with a smile, a slight laugh trying to catch in her voice but she wasn’t letting it. She ran with the change of conversation easily enough: she knew he didn’t like being too serious and his worries were a little beyond her ability to understand - or so she thought. “Do I?” Even if she had been given one, she wouldn’t know how to read it. “Why would I want you to scribble on a picture of yourself? That makes no sense.”
“For posterity?” Cole suggested, eyes crossing ever so slightly as he watched the Werefox kiss the tip of his nose. “And it’s not just a scribble, it’s usually a combination of your first and last name. Sort of like putting your name stamp to something.”
He leaned back and tapped his fingers against his chin. “You know how the movie stars are always giving… autographs? It’s the same thing. Some people would quite literally give their right arm and tooth for a signature of a famous person.”
Yuriko understood once it had been broken down and she just nodded before she laced her fingers together. “I couldn’t ever give an autograph,” she said a little sadly. Not that anyone would want an autograph, but she couldn’t write her own name so she’d be signing with an ‘X’. But that wasn’t really… distinguishable.
She wiggled where she was sat and her tail went still, a bigger give-away that she was upset for some reason, over an autograph, of all things.
Cole tipped his head a little and he frowned a little. “Why not?” And he absently noted the movement of the tail, knowing that meant something, even if he didn’t know what it meant exactly.
He looked away very briefly when he heard a trickle of conversation that sounded sort of interesting, but it really wasn’t all he thought it would be and he returned his attention to Yuriko.
Goldfish concentration? Him? Never.
Yuriko looked at him for a moment, chewing on her lower lip before she twisted her fingers where they were laced together. She felt her knuckles trying to pop and it hurt so she stopped, reaching out and curling her tail into her hand, fiddling with the fur in a motion that anyone who knew her was one of her ways of comforting herself, something she did when she was nervous.
“I can’t-“ she started, eyes wide and honest as she looked at Cole before she looked down at her knees again. She mumbled under her breath read or write and didn’t say anything for a long moment, shifting a little in front of Cole’s eyes, her human ears giving way to pointed, fox ones that poked out of her hair, pressed flat against her forehead.
Cole watched in fascination as Yuriko’s obvious discomfort caused her form to shift, giving way to a more fox like appearance. It was only when she admitted that she couldn’t read or write that his brow furrowed. “Really?” He asked, honestly taken aback. “Wow, I had no idea.”
He wet his lower lip and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Have you ever thought of asking somebody to help? I mean that’s how I learned, by somebody else helping me.”
Yuriko’s ears twitched, though they stayed flat, pressed firmly back against her head, almost disappearing into her hair. “I never told anyone,” she confessed, not looking at him. If anything, she ducked her head more, her hair falling forward protectively and she started to lift her knees, too.
She shook her head, “Never wanted to bother anyone. Everyone’s so busy, and it’s not a big deal… right? I don’t miss out… right?”
Oh…
Cole sat back a little and then tapped his fingers against his knee, leaning in close enough to catch her hair and pull it back a little so he could catch her eyes.
“Hey, relax, I’m not going to tell anyone. And also? Learning that stuff is hard if you’ve never had anyone to help you out with it.” He offered her a surprisingly gentle smile, a smile that was not often seen on the Doppelganger known as Cole. “But you should definitely learn if you can. The journaling system is a weird and wacky place, but it’s a lot of fun. You’re missing out on that and all the other associated madness.”
He didn’t think he’d be the best teacher in the world. Eric? Probably would be as he did have the patience of a saint and concentration that seemed to run for miles and miles. “I don’t think anybody would mind.” Cole could imagine a few people he wouldn’t want Yuriko approaching. “I could help? I mean not with the learning thing because I’m sure I would suck as a teacher, but I’m good with people at the very least. I could probably find somebody to help out, if you’re willing and able?”
Yuriko stiffened a little when she felt Cole touch her, but then the fact that it was physical contact and it was friendly. Her eyes lifted a moment later and she tipped her head into the hand against her hair. Her ears lifted a fraction, just a twitch at the top of her head, facing forwards instead of laying flat. She wet her lower lip and reached out to curl her fingers around his wrist.
“You’d help?” she asked, a little disbelief in her voice before hope filtered in. “Really?” her tail lifted again, a small smile on her face, one that matched the gentle smile. She shifted again, onto her knees. “I- I’d like that.” She had often wondered about the journal system, the way people communicated without her knowing about it. She wanted to know what was happening on there, but didn’t dare ask anyone, didn’t dare ask for help or for someone to read that to her.
Cole’s lips pulled into quite the vibrant smile and he hopped off the table, holding a hand out to Yuriko. “Yep, starting from today. C’mon, let’s go find you a teacher.” He wiggled his fingers and gave her another encouraging smile. “You’ll be reading and writing soon enough.”
Nothing wrong with asking for help.