Jun 23 17:50:07 105 PA

From Chronicles

The current game time is: Tue Jun 23 17:50:07 105 PA.

Late evening has fallen, the hours of twilight stretching across the city. Shadowy darkness bathes the city in its lack of light, and this effect has stretched even into the park. A sliver of a moon has managed to break free of the heavy cloud cover in the night sky, shedding but a whisper of light. In a somewhat open section of the park there is what would be considered to some a very strange sight to behold. With his white fur shining almost silver in the moonlight, giving almost a faint glow from it, there lays a great white polar bear. He lays on his back, his back legs a little splayed out behind him and his front paws held up but relaxed. He looks up towards the heavens above as though they hold within them the mysteries of the ages. Upon his chest and partly on his belly, there lays a small Inuit woman, who also looks up at the sky. Both of them are calm and peaceful, and one would have to look closely to ensure that they do both breathe and live. Both of them are silent, but there is something about the pair of them which speaks of a sort of communion between them, an undeniable connection linking the soul and spirit of one to the other. Monique's black hair is a stark contrast to the white of Tornaq's fur, and it lays spread across his fur without any consideration given towards how it might look. The fingers of her left hand her twined into his fur, her fingers working a little against his skin as though to soothe an itch the bear is too lazy to scratch for himself. If one listens closely enough, there can be heard a sound coming from them -- or rather, from the small woman, for she speaks to the bear in a whisper of sound, speaking in her native Inuit tongue.

Dr. Kelley enters the Plaza Park from the west, peeking up at the the sliver of a moon and shaking off stray raindrops that are just now beginning to pelt the area. He keeps his camouflaged cloak's hood up over his absurdly tall humanoid frame, covered, as they are wont to be, in natural leathers and buckskins. He smiles warmly, his big brown eyes lighting up as he spots Monique and Tornaq asleep in the middle of the park, apparently unaware or undisturbed by the beginnings of the rain. There's probably an Inuit word for rain that links it somehow with snow, but if there is, Kelley is thusfar unaware. Striding over to the woman's side, he sits down quietly, though he most likely disturbs Tornaq, whose loyalty is unflappable. He watches the small Inuit woman for a few minutes - at least, as long as Tornaq doesn't grunt and disturb her. A cold breeze lights up from the west, beginning to blow the rain at an angle as opposed to the near-perfect vertical that it had been falling at moments earlier. Most people would find the weather insufferable and cold, but Kelley is not most people.

Breaking into a trot as she passes alongside the park grounds on the street, Minnie makes a slight face at the unexpected shower. She considers the entrance to the park for a moment, and the shelter of the trees beyond. Some vague memory of sound advice surfacing murkily in her mind, involving rain, trees, and something else...what was it. Her rickety train of thought is promptly derailed by the sight of that white beast of a bear within the park, and the two individuals who would appear to have recently brought it to earth.

Ah, the rain. It falls here often, and it seems a great challenge to be able to keep dry. The small Inuit woman doesn't seem bothered by the rain, though from the chill within the air, each breath she takes is one that softly fogs before her face before dissipating. Yet the chill, much like the rain, does not bother her, or so it would seem. She is from a colder place than here, so it would take more than this weather to make her uncomfortable or actually cold. The small Inuit woman's words of a sudden seem to stop, and then she turns over whilst still remaining upon the great white bear's chest and belly. In the darkness of the night, when she is alone with none but the great spirit bear to keep her company, it is then that her longing for home is the worst. Seeking to at least try to make it better, the bear gives a soft rumble, then brings one of his great front paws to gently wrap over her petite body. It is then when he catches the scent of Dr. Kelley, who by this point has come up next to him, and he makes a whuffing sound even as he brings his gaze to rest upon the scientist. Gently, the great bear eases the small shaman to the ground next to the scientist, and after lightly nudging her with his nose, he looks to Kelley again. Though there is no noise to announce such a thing, there are tears glistening upon the small woman's cheeks.

Without touching the small woman, Kelley rises to one knee, arms outstretched. A crying friend is something that he does not miss. "Monique, what's the matter?" He considers adding on "hon" or "babe" or something of that nature, but it all sounds far too romantic of him, so he simply parses his sentence out where it lies. He turns to Tornaq with a look of curiosity, as he knows that the great white bear would never allow anything to happen to her; physically at least, though Kelley also presumes emotionally, thus his quandary. Even being down on one knee, his face is probably even with hers. The rain begins to come down harder, and though he knows that she's been colder, he's not sure that it's so wise to allow her to get wetter - especially if something has upset her."

"..Thunder...no, lightning," Minnie suddenly mutters aloud, with a frown. She tips her head back, squinting at the sky as though she might glimpse jagged arcs of electricity tearing through the clouds. Nothing, but still. Better safe than sorry, another wise saying, possibly also learned as a child at her mother's knee. She sniffs in air sharply, and frowns more deeply. That had better be an oncoming cold virus, and not some maudlin sentiment brought on by thoughts of Mom! Abandoning the entrance to the park, she instead breaks into a skidding run across the main street, through a break in the traffic, and recedes into the night. Minnie has left.

The outstretched arms of Dr. Kelley are an invitation that the small woman certainly could not miss. Looking to him through the blur of her tears, she willingly moves into his embrace, nestling against him and slipping her arms around him. The tears yet come, tracing wet trails down her cheeks, and she buries her face a little against his chest. She stays there for a lingering moment, quiet and still save for a slight tremble which touches her now and again. A moment later, and she lifts her head to look up at him, her dark eyes shining. "I miss it," Monique says quietly, her voice a little husky from her tears. The ice and the snows, the different flow of time... she misses her homeland, and of it all, it is the aurora borealis that she misses perhaps most of all, for here in the south she is unable to see it. Inuit legend has it that those who have passed to the spirit world come back, if only briefly, in the form of the Northern lights, and it is these she would watch on a night much like this one. The rain, too, is strange to her still. Tornaq lowers his nose to whuff a bit of air at her back, and he knows well that the feelings within her have been brewing to this point ever since she left her home a year and a half ago. He rumbles softly, at Kelley, wishing not for the first time that the man could understand.

As the woman says nothing, he can only guess at what is wrong, but having seen her cuddling with Tornaq and still crying, he makes a stab in the dark. "I know that it's not home, Monique, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people who care about you." It's not much, but it's a start, he feels. As much as one can really say without knowing what the issue is. He squeezes the young woman close, his arms rubbing up and down her back, looking sadly to Tornaq, and wishing that the big bear could explain the problem to him. "Come on, Monique, we should get you in out of the rain. I know that it won't make you cold, but it'll make you uncomfortable, and it's never good to sit around in wet clothes." He squeezes the woman close again, in his rendition of bear hug - assuming that Tornaq could to much better. The rain is coming stronger now, the sliver of a moon now hiding behind a complete veil of thunderclouds. The wind has picked up, as well, blowing the increasingly hard rain at roughly a forty-five degree angle. Standing, he puts a protective arm around Monique and gives her a gentle nudge toward the entrance - and of course, exit - to the Plaza Park.

The small woman's dark-eyed gaze holds to his own for a lingering moment there in the darkness, and to his words, she manages a little smile. "You knew, before I said," she says quietly, her dark eyes showing a shine within them. Lifting her left hand, she lightly touches her fingers to his jaw, her touch gentle and soft. She hugs close to him at the squeeze he gives her, nestling there against him, and then she gives a small nod. "It is not home, but... it is becoming home. I know that you care about me, and I am thankful fo it," she says quietly, looking up at him through the veil of her lashes. Tornaq watches the pair of them, and he gives a nod, knowing this to be the sort of comfort that his little shaman needs, and knowing it to be the sort of comfort that he can not give simply because of his own limitations. "Mmm... I had not really noticed the rain," she murmurs softly, though since he's mentioned it now, she noticed it and just how soaked she is, and this prompts a shiver from her. Standing with him, she slips an arm around his waist and stays close to him, walking with him towards the exit. Tornaq follows behind, wishing not for the first time that his knowledge could be relayed to others than his little shaman.

"How long have you been out in the elements?" Kelley asks. Noticing her shiver, he takes his cloak off and wraps it around her shoulders, holding her closer and picking up their step a little, so as to get undercover more quickly, he looks down at the woman fondly. He checks to make sure that Tornaq is following - he doesn't really feel the need to check, but you can never be too careful with assumptions. He gently lifts her over a rather large puddle of water and sets her down at a walk on the other side. "What's the matter, Monique? Are you homesick? Are you missing something? I know that's probably a stupid question, but I can only help the best if I know the most. Wow, it's really starting to come down," he comments, holding an arm up to keep the rain from his eyes, his own short brown hair now plastered to his head by the falling water. "You could have come to the condominium, you know. Even though I wasn't home, you could have at least stayed in the hallway. I rather thought that Tornaq could have stood up and made a little tent for you to shelter in," he jokes, looking back at Tornaq with a wink. They will soon reach his building, having hurried down the streets into the northwest corner of Kingsdale.

The small Inuit woman blinks a little as she thinks on it, and then she looks up at him, perhaps having not expected the question to be asked. "Mmm... it has been a while. I think it was early afternoon when we first came here, to the park," she says softly, her tone thoughtful in nature. It's not so much that she's cold but that she's soaked through to the skin from the rain. Tornaq gives a gentle rumble as he follows, reassuring them both that he is in fact still there, himself nearly a glowing white figure in the night's darkness and the rain. Monique willingly accepts his help in getting over the puddle, offering him a small smile in thanks for it, and her cheeks blush to the questions asked of her, her chin ducking a little. "I... miss the snow, the ice. The turning of the seasons... from the winter, long and dark, to the short-lived summer days. But most... I miss the dancing lights in the sky, where the passed spirits are reflected, the colours of their presence," she says quietly. Being a shaman as she is, it is that connection to the spirits that she misses most of all. Quiet for a moment as she walks along next to him, she takes a moment to look up at him. "Did you come here, to look for me? I did not know I could have gone inside without knowing the buttons to push... and I did not think others would like a bear in the hallway," she admits, more than a little sheepishly. At the joke shared to include him, the great white bear tosses his head in a nod and rumbles in amusement. "I feel almost cold," she adds then, speaking quietly, the admission one that she finds almost difficult to believe that she's actually making.

"Yes, I was remiss in that," Kelley comments, though it's not instantly entirely clear what he's talking about. As they walk down the hallway, stops and keys a sequence of seven numbers into the electronic pad by the door, each number lighting up at his touch. Huh.. numbers.. he thinks to himself. I bet that she doesn't know her numbers, either. At least, not in Arabic characters. We'll have to fix that. But to the now... "Yes, I was looking for you, Monique, I was planning on going over your letters again, but then then rain came up, and I simply worried about you, so I went to check out where you normally are to be found - and found you. And I'm very glad that I did," he adds, giving the woman a quick squeeze around the shoulders. He ushers her inside with an outstretched hand. Different seasons he can understand; his homeland had four seasons, though not quite as drastic as hers, clearly. But the spirits. He's unsure as to how to handle that. He wants to explain to the girl that the northern lights are simply charged particles from the sun interacting with the atmosphere, but doesn't feel it a good idea to up and destroy her spiritual system for the sake of science. No, this time science has to stay in the closet. It's something that very few people know, so it's unlikely that she'll ever run across the knowledge without being prepared for it first. So, he is content to leave it be for now. He will continue to stand outside the door, and arm outstretched, to allow Tornaq passage into the condominium.

The small woman doesn't really pay attention to the numbers that he presses on the keypad, even though she likely should. She'd learn what the sequence was, that way, but she's not sure that he wants her to know it, so she doesn't watch him put it in. She doesn't know her numbers, though she'll probably get around to admitting that to him. Monique did her homework that he gave her, and she left the pages on the table for him to look over -- both sides of the page, she filled, with the capital letters and the small ones, and they improved with the more that she wrote them. Blinking a little bit from surprise, she looks up at him, perhaps a little surprised that he came to look for her. "Ooh... I am sorry, I had not meant to worry you... but... I hadn't meant to stay in the park so long, either," she admits, chewing the inside of her lower lip. "Thank you, for coming to find me... I am grateful that you did," she says softly, managing a bit of a smile as she looks up at him. As she's ushered into the condominium, she steps inside, pausing to take off her boots and set them aside, though she stays on the doormat since she's literally dripping wet. Tornaq, wisely, gives himself a great shake outside in the hallway, then trundles inside before making himself comfortable in the living room, settling to his rump as he watches the scientist and his shaman quite closely.

"Oh, sweetie, you're soaked," Kelley says, unconsciously using the familiar term for the small woman. He quickly unwraps his cloak from around her shoulders and hangs it, dripping from the peg near the door. "Uhm.. hmm.." Kelley thinks upon her wetness for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. He decides upon, "Okay, this is a little awkward, but how about we do this. I'll pick you up and carry you to the guest-bathroom, and leave my thick robe in there with you. You can strip out of your wet clothes, take a nice warm bath, and when you're done, put on the robe. You'll have to cinch it up a little higher than the bands, and it'll probably follow you like a train, but it will be soft and warm while we wait for the dryer to work on your clothes. Does that work for you?" The man asks from one knee next to the small Inuit woman. He's a bit uncomfortable, thinking that she may think his intentions wrong, but hopes that since he's been only kind to her, that she'll know that he's only trying to help. Besides, she does have to get out of those wet clothes, one way or another, and get her core temperature up, or she could go hypothermic, and that's never a good thing. While she thinks on it, he'll comment on her papers. Very nice, very neat, very impressive for a first day's work.

Monique looks up at him through her lashes for a moment, and then she gives a bit of a nod. "It's the rain's fault," she says softly, then lifts one of her hands to wipe a bit of rainwater from one of her cheeks. It does little good, since more of it trickles from out of her hair, and she gives a little shiver there where she stands. His mention of her having a bath causes her attention to perk, a smile to curl and tug at the corners of her lips. She likes having a bath, even though she didn't know what one was until he'd shown her. With a sparkle reflecting in her dark eyes, she gives a nod of agreement, then boldly steps closer to him to slip her arms around him and give him a hug. "I would like a bath... to be in warmer water. And thank you, for the offer of your robe... I accept," she affirms, giving another nod. She doesn't seem to be uncomfortable, and quite the opposite, she seems to be comfortable to be here, with him. "What is... awkward? And dryer?" she asks curiously, giving him one of her puzzled looks which he's likely become familiar with. She's quiet for a momnt as he comments on her papers, and she blushes as she looks up at him. "You looked at them? I was not sure if you would have a chance to see them... but I left them, just in case. I wanted to leave something, to let you know where I was," she says softly, her tone thoughtful. "After bath, I can show you something, with the herbs that I picked... I will make us tea, if you will make hot water," she offers, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Um.. hmm awkward.. that's sort of an abstract concept to explain. It can have many slightly different meanings. In this case, I suppose it means, something that you didn't see coming that can put you in an uncomfortable situation. Yes, I think that should define it." With a glance and smile at Tornaq, he puts an arm behind Monique's neck and scoopes her up with the other arm, so that she ends up folded at the waist and knees. She's probably a naturally light woman, but the ease with which he picks her up is.. unnatural almost. Like he could toss her across the room if he wanted to. However, he simply holds her close, cuddling her in his arms. His own clothes are dripping on the carpet as he takes her into the guest-room and then on into the guest-bathroom, setting her down by the tub and making sure - just to be certain - that she knows how to operate the hot and cold, and suggesting a nice extra-warm bath. "I can't wait to find out what you did with my herbs, Monique. Now just leave your clothes in here when you're done with your bath, and I'll put them into the dryer - it's a machine that will dry your clothes with hot air. You can wear this - " he runs out and comes back with one of his made-for-a-seven-foot-tall-man white robes. After fumbling with it for a moment, he manages to fold it in half so that when she cinches it, it won't follower hear around like a snail's tail. "It's very comfy and warm and will keep you that way unless and until your own clothes are dry. Can I get you anything else before I leave you alone?" Kelley smiles a caring smile at the girl, his dark brown eyes burrowing into hers.

Raising an eyebrow slightly, she studies his expression for a linger moment as she tries to fit the definition to the particular situation. It doesn't fit, at least not as neatly as other definitions have, and that prompts her next question. "Why is me being wet and here... awkward?" she asks softly, her tone thoughtful and the last word spoken carefully due to its newness to her vocabulary. She understands the definition, just not quite the application for the word. Tornaq merely watches as his little shaman is gathered up and taken to the bathroom, and he seems completely at ease with the entire situation -- he trusts the scientist and has the man's word that no harm will come to her. Monique takes a moment to rest her head against his shoulder, lifting her left hand to lightly touch the clothes covering his chest, knowing them to be wet even before she does so. "You will get warm and dry while I bath?" she suggests, her dark eyes searching his for a moment, if he'll allow it. When she's set down, she verifies that she does know the workings of the tub, starting the bath to filling even while he goes to fetch the robe for her. And when he returns with it, she smiles warmly at him, her dark eyes shining. "Thank you... it looks very warm. I think I will be all right, and I do not think that I will be very long, in the bath," she says softly, smiling warmly at him. Not really having much in the way of modesty (partly from her heritage and partly from the fact that she typically bathes out in the open air), she turns somewhat so that it's her back facing him and starts working on freeing herself of her wet clothes. Having no qualms whatsoever about doing so even though he might see her. Some habits are, indeed, hard to break, and it would seem that he's going to have to teach her about 'modesty' if he wishes for her to observe it, as she seems to have none naturally ingrained within her.

Kelley does look back into Monique's eyes with a caring smile - caring being all that he'll admit to himself right now - pats her on the head. As she begins to disrobe, he will try to hold her arms for a moment while he explains, "Ah, awkward, yes. See, in this case, it is awkward because, at least in the society from which I come, it is not normally allowed for someone to see someone else without their clothes on, except for certain, ah, pleasurable mating rituals. So, that being explained, I hope, I'll leave you to be, now." He begins to back away from the door before he sticks his head in once more just to quickly explain, "Yes, I will dry off and get warm myself. I'll just dry off and throw on a sweat suit. Um, a sweat suit is a type of clothing consisting of warm pants and a warm long-sleeved shirt. You'll see." He smiles widely at her and closes the door behind himself, with a parting, "Relax and have a nice bath. We'll see if we can't warm up your mood a bit when you're out." With one last smile, the door closes and he walks into his room.Tags:kelley, monique