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rainbowfic2020-05-12 11:42 pm
greenling) wrote in rainbowfic2020-05-12 11:42 pm
Oliphaunt Grey #12/Ice Water Grey #2, Proper Terms Purple #20
Name: Greenling
Story: Juniper Ridge
Colors: Oliphaunt Gray #12 (When young was mountain under moon)/Ice Water Gray #2 (You told me about nowhere and it sounds like someplace I'd like to go), Proper Terms Purple #20 (Bask)
Supplies and Styles: Bichromatic (Oliphaunt Gray/Ice Water Gray), acrylic (Somehow, amid the noise, chaos and confusion in the world, you can hear me and I can hear you.)
Word Count: 1438
Rating: Basically G
Warnings: None
Notes: More or less chapter 2. Joel gets his antlers caught and Dmitry goes Karening.
One month before the testers came, Dmitry woke up with something wrong with his eyes. It wasn't initially clear what was wrong, but he noticed as soon as he opened them everything felt different. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes several times and blinked. It was like... things were clearer? He'd never had bad eyesight, but it felt like he could see better than normal, better enough that his brain was having trouble adjusting. Or it could have been something with the dawn light, just then beginning to leak through the broken spots in the blinds.
When his head was clear enough to think, he snuck out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom. In the mirror, something seemed wrong, even in the dark; he turned the light on and rubbed his eyes again.
They were... purple? Blue? No, not blue, which would be strange enough. That was just what his brain went to for a rational explanation. His eyes were bright purple, almost shining with an inner light.
"What the hell..?" he mumbled under his breath.
Blinking, rubbing, and closing his eyes and counting to ten didn't do anything, and they didn't hurt, so he decided he must be dreaming and went back to bed.
He woke up two hours later to his little sister bouncing on the bed to wake him up. He sat up, seeing florid rainbow colors churning in front of him, and screamed.
--
After unpacking the rest of his things (that couldn't be all of his things?) Dmitry's roommate had decided to nap. The black guy (his father or something?) said he'd talk to Joel in the morning, made a polite goodbye to Dmitry's aunt and uncle, and left.
They were both afraid. Everyone was afraid except Dmitry. He was just angry. Everyone was running around like everything was normal, but even the workers at the office had the yellow-green glow of fear in their eyes. What was this place?
It had seemed like a great idea back home; to just... go out in the middle of nowhere, where no one knew his family, where he wasn't any weirder than anyone else. To not have to worry about the high school football team finding him to try to beat the crap out of him, even if half of them were smaller than he was already. To have teachers that weren't constantly expecting him to skip class, or cheat, or steal things. His pre-algebra grades were in the toilet even after he'd offered to take his tests outside in the hall. Mr. Clay just had it out for him; even his uncles told stories of his cruelty and the pranks they pulled getting back at the bastard. He wished he could care that little.
His Aunt Val reached out to hug him and he didn't pull away. "If you need anything else- if you just need to talk- you saw the the payphone on the ground floor. You have our room's number? Your mother will be calling you in the morning and we'll see you for breakfast and to sort out your books and things."
He barely had time to nod before his uncle reached up and mussed his hair. "Ehh, don't let the gadje get you down, all right? Make sure they feed you! You sure you don't want to come spend time with us?"
"Tomorrow," he said with a little smile. "I just... want to sit in the AC and relax a bit."
"All right all right, we'll give you some privacy... though with that deer boy in- Ow!" Aunt Val smacked him lightly on the elbow.
"He's just a child, Marcus. It doesn't matter what that stuff did to him."
"Of course- just if you see any rings of mushrooms- all right, I'm going!"
After a few more parting words, Dmitry finally turned and quietly headed back into the room. His Game Boy and the half dozen games he owned were front and center in the cabinet, and he took them down and sat on the mattress. It was frim and a little small for him- he'd have his head brushing the wall laying down- but it wasn't super uncomfortable, especially with his own pillows and quilt. Supposedly it got cold at night later in the year. Right now he was just dreading finding the communal showers. He rolled up the quilt as something to lay back against and started up Castlevania.
From his angle, he could see the other boy's arm and part of his shoulder and face. In his sleep, just to the other side of the boy's actual body, was a soft gray shroud that lifted and settled with his breath, colors flashing from veins of emotion underneath like lightning between the clouds of a thunderstorm. It was just sleep, but... there was something weirdly mesmerizing about it. Dmitry glanced down and realized he had been killed by a bat.
He grumphed under his breath, rolled over, and restarted the level.
--
The first Dmitry realized he had fallen asleep was when he woke up to the sounds of something thumping followed by a loud ow!. His roommate was standing next to his bed, tshirt over his head and hung up on his antlers, rubbing his shoulder.
"Crap. What time is it?" Dmitry said, rubbing his eyes.
"Uh." Joel carefully untangled the shirt from the forward points. "Dunno, I don't have a watch and there ain't any windahs."
"...You'd think they'd put a frigging clock in here- I need to set up my alarm clock."
"T'be honest, I ain't sure this place is uh, real on the ball with much."
Dmitry sat up and frowned at his Game Boy; it had run through the battery while he had slept. Taking a sniff of his shirt and deciding a shower could wait, he got out of bed and grabbed his shoes.
"There's got to be a clock somewhere. I'll look in the lobby."
It was clear it was late enough, and they were both hungry. The moon was hanging low on the horizon and the air was cool enough to resemble a warm spring day more than Hell. They decided, without really speaking, to go together in this strange place, walking past strangers- mostly kids who looked high-school age and single adults with multiple younger kids in tow- towards the cafeteria.
About halfway there, a small crowd had gathered around the little shaded pavilion outside the Primary Building. Several of them had little burgers, tacos, and plastic bags of convenience store snacks. Joel walked up to them.
"If you're going to the cafeteria, the meal cards still don't work," called some white guy in glasses with an obvious comb-over. "You'll need to get an adult to get you something at the store."
The look on Joel's face was like someone had just punched him, and his hand went to his stomach. He looked at Dmitry, who frowned.
"That's stupid. Why do we need an adult to buy stuff?"
The man shrugged widely, soda in one hand. "Who knows? They say until school starts, get your parents to buy you dinner."
He sighed and looked to Joel. "My family's back at the hotels already. Can you get your- uh... Dad?"
Joel crossed his arms and looked down, the yellow-green spikes flowing around him starting to roll like a whirlwind, and shook his head in a way that made Dmitry not want to ask. It made him angry.
"C'mon, I have some cash." Dmitry turned and started walking down the side path.
"But-" Joel lifted his head, following the taller boy's strides quickly- "how're you gonna get it?"
--
Twenty minutes later Joel and Dmitry found a bench next to the rock garden between the dorms and Joel finally consented to sit down, if only thanks to the noises his stomach was making. He immediately opened up the beef jerky and started ripping into it, face red.
"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Dmitry opened his root beer and took a long, slow drink.
"You told him you were gonna sue 'im for child endangerment. What happens when they find out you're not an adult?" Joel grimaced.
"He should've just believed me." Dmitry shrugged, faking nonchalance. "Seriously, it's a stupid rule. Asking for an ID to buy snacks? They're that worried we're gonna go crazy up here alone?"
Joel inhaled both sticks of jerky and lay into the tiny gas-station-esque chicken sandwich, just shaking his head. Soon enough his grimace was a real smile, and he slowed down, both of them eating by the light of the moon.
Story: Juniper Ridge
Colors: Oliphaunt Gray #12 (When young was mountain under moon)/Ice Water Gray #2 (You told me about nowhere and it sounds like someplace I'd like to go), Proper Terms Purple #20 (Bask)
Supplies and Styles: Bichromatic (Oliphaunt Gray/Ice Water Gray), acrylic (Somehow, amid the noise, chaos and confusion in the world, you can hear me and I can hear you.)
Word Count: 1438
Rating: Basically G
Warnings: None
Notes: More or less chapter 2. Joel gets his antlers caught and Dmitry goes Karening.
One month before the testers came, Dmitry woke up with something wrong with his eyes. It wasn't initially clear what was wrong, but he noticed as soon as he opened them everything felt different. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes several times and blinked. It was like... things were clearer? He'd never had bad eyesight, but it felt like he could see better than normal, better enough that his brain was having trouble adjusting. Or it could have been something with the dawn light, just then beginning to leak through the broken spots in the blinds.
When his head was clear enough to think, he snuck out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom. In the mirror, something seemed wrong, even in the dark; he turned the light on and rubbed his eyes again.
They were... purple? Blue? No, not blue, which would be strange enough. That was just what his brain went to for a rational explanation. His eyes were bright purple, almost shining with an inner light.
"What the hell..?" he mumbled under his breath.
Blinking, rubbing, and closing his eyes and counting to ten didn't do anything, and they didn't hurt, so he decided he must be dreaming and went back to bed.
He woke up two hours later to his little sister bouncing on the bed to wake him up. He sat up, seeing florid rainbow colors churning in front of him, and screamed.
--
After unpacking the rest of his things (that couldn't be all of his things?) Dmitry's roommate had decided to nap. The black guy (his father or something?) said he'd talk to Joel in the morning, made a polite goodbye to Dmitry's aunt and uncle, and left.
They were both afraid. Everyone was afraid except Dmitry. He was just angry. Everyone was running around like everything was normal, but even the workers at the office had the yellow-green glow of fear in their eyes. What was this place?
It had seemed like a great idea back home; to just... go out in the middle of nowhere, where no one knew his family, where he wasn't any weirder than anyone else. To not have to worry about the high school football team finding him to try to beat the crap out of him, even if half of them were smaller than he was already. To have teachers that weren't constantly expecting him to skip class, or cheat, or steal things. His pre-algebra grades were in the toilet even after he'd offered to take his tests outside in the hall. Mr. Clay just had it out for him; even his uncles told stories of his cruelty and the pranks they pulled getting back at the bastard. He wished he could care that little.
His Aunt Val reached out to hug him and he didn't pull away. "If you need anything else- if you just need to talk- you saw the the payphone on the ground floor. You have our room's number? Your mother will be calling you in the morning and we'll see you for breakfast and to sort out your books and things."
He barely had time to nod before his uncle reached up and mussed his hair. "Ehh, don't let the gadje get you down, all right? Make sure they feed you! You sure you don't want to come spend time with us?"
"Tomorrow," he said with a little smile. "I just... want to sit in the AC and relax a bit."
"All right all right, we'll give you some privacy... though with that deer boy in- Ow!" Aunt Val smacked him lightly on the elbow.
"He's just a child, Marcus. It doesn't matter what that stuff did to him."
"Of course- just if you see any rings of mushrooms- all right, I'm going!"
After a few more parting words, Dmitry finally turned and quietly headed back into the room. His Game Boy and the half dozen games he owned were front and center in the cabinet, and he took them down and sat on the mattress. It was frim and a little small for him- he'd have his head brushing the wall laying down- but it wasn't super uncomfortable, especially with his own pillows and quilt. Supposedly it got cold at night later in the year. Right now he was just dreading finding the communal showers. He rolled up the quilt as something to lay back against and started up Castlevania.
From his angle, he could see the other boy's arm and part of his shoulder and face. In his sleep, just to the other side of the boy's actual body, was a soft gray shroud that lifted and settled with his breath, colors flashing from veins of emotion underneath like lightning between the clouds of a thunderstorm. It was just sleep, but... there was something weirdly mesmerizing about it. Dmitry glanced down and realized he had been killed by a bat.
He grumphed under his breath, rolled over, and restarted the level.
--
The first Dmitry realized he had fallen asleep was when he woke up to the sounds of something thumping followed by a loud ow!. His roommate was standing next to his bed, tshirt over his head and hung up on his antlers, rubbing his shoulder.
"Crap. What time is it?" Dmitry said, rubbing his eyes.
"Uh." Joel carefully untangled the shirt from the forward points. "Dunno, I don't have a watch and there ain't any windahs."
"...You'd think they'd put a frigging clock in here- I need to set up my alarm clock."
"T'be honest, I ain't sure this place is uh, real on the ball with much."
Dmitry sat up and frowned at his Game Boy; it had run through the battery while he had slept. Taking a sniff of his shirt and deciding a shower could wait, he got out of bed and grabbed his shoes.
"There's got to be a clock somewhere. I'll look in the lobby."
It was clear it was late enough, and they were both hungry. The moon was hanging low on the horizon and the air was cool enough to resemble a warm spring day more than Hell. They decided, without really speaking, to go together in this strange place, walking past strangers- mostly kids who looked high-school age and single adults with multiple younger kids in tow- towards the cafeteria.
About halfway there, a small crowd had gathered around the little shaded pavilion outside the Primary Building. Several of them had little burgers, tacos, and plastic bags of convenience store snacks. Joel walked up to them.
"If you're going to the cafeteria, the meal cards still don't work," called some white guy in glasses with an obvious comb-over. "You'll need to get an adult to get you something at the store."
The look on Joel's face was like someone had just punched him, and his hand went to his stomach. He looked at Dmitry, who frowned.
"That's stupid. Why do we need an adult to buy stuff?"
The man shrugged widely, soda in one hand. "Who knows? They say until school starts, get your parents to buy you dinner."
He sighed and looked to Joel. "My family's back at the hotels already. Can you get your- uh... Dad?"
Joel crossed his arms and looked down, the yellow-green spikes flowing around him starting to roll like a whirlwind, and shook his head in a way that made Dmitry not want to ask. It made him angry.
"C'mon, I have some cash." Dmitry turned and started walking down the side path.
"But-" Joel lifted his head, following the taller boy's strides quickly- "how're you gonna get it?"
--
Twenty minutes later Joel and Dmitry found a bench next to the rock garden between the dorms and Joel finally consented to sit down, if only thanks to the noises his stomach was making. He immediately opened up the beef jerky and started ripping into it, face red.
"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Dmitry opened his root beer and took a long, slow drink.
"You told him you were gonna sue 'im for child endangerment. What happens when they find out you're not an adult?" Joel grimaced.
"He should've just believed me." Dmitry shrugged, faking nonchalance. "Seriously, it's a stupid rule. Asking for an ID to buy snacks? They're that worried we're gonna go crazy up here alone?"
Joel inhaled both sticks of jerky and lay into the tiny gas-station-esque chicken sandwich, just shaking his head. Soon enough his grimace was a real smile, and he slowed down, both of them eating by the light of the moon.
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