Blow Us All Away

Today was another day of not being watched by their family. Béatrice was off sewing some outfits for the business, Ade was play-fighting Archard, and Rémi was doing homework stuff. Junchi was off doing Junchi stuff, whatever that entailed, but all Arjean knew was that he was busy with his dads, so that left them all alone with only their dolls to comfort them. Instead of sitting around waiting for everyone to not be busy, they left their home without anyone noticing and went to the park. There they sat down their bag full of fun stuff to play with: their dolls, Chaoshag and Mistling, art supplies, a coloring book, and a book book. Of course they didn't forget their snacks, so like their maman, they stored some chocolate inside of their hair—wrapped of course—and had some Cheetos in their bag too. Today they would need food to energize them, and also because they liked to eat.

The toddler was all ready to have some fun, and they didn't even need their family or Junchi to help. Not yet anyways. They already felt uncomfortable being so far from their family with only their dolls to protect them. Sure, they've done this before, but it was still felt unnerving. Arjean was so small and weak, and almost every other sound made them jump up and hold their dolls to make sure they were safe. But now wasn't the time to get all anxious and baby out. Now was the time for Arjean to teach themself how to play-fight like their mommy and Grandy. If they finally learned how to then maybe they could watch their fights and play with them too. At the moment all Arjean was told was that it's "too dangerous" and "unsafe". Once she even heard her maman say it would probably be traumatizing. Arjean didn't know what that word meant, but it sounded bad, and whenever they asked her if they could watch she scowled and got anxious.

First Arjean started with some simple stuff. They made themselves a paper sword before they left, which took a lot longer than they expected. It was decorated in glitter and glue, so they could fight and be pretty at the same time. They even worse a pretty purple dress and had their hair tied up to stay out of their eyes. Now they were fully ready to test out their sword. First they began swinging it around... only to realize it wasn't swinging how it should have and just kept getting all floppy. They tried again, hoping it would succeed the second time... then third time... then fourth time. Realizing that all of their hard work was a failure they began to tear up and sniffle, but they kept their crying soft so no one else would hear them. This problem didn't mean they had to give up. They had their own weapon: their powers. There was a lot of potential there, so they began by making a cloud over them that started raining. Not only did it feel nice, it was pretty easy to do, compared to the other times they tried it out. When they began walking around the rain cloud followed too. Next they tried to shift the form of the cloud and move it without moving their own body, but all it did was shake a little, the poof away, leaving their body wet. To others it would look like they were soaked for no reason at all. Even their pretty sword was all wet. With a grumpy sigh they tried again, making the cloud smaller this time.

@Ninjapa

Arjean was surprised that someone came to interact with them so early on. She was a tall, pretty woman who looked about the age of Rémi. When she knelt down to Arjean's level she was still pretty tall, and a bit intimidating. For a moment they wanted to back away and hug at their dolls for protection, but they stopped themself at backing away, hoping they didn't seem too fearful. Junchi would laugh at them now if he was here. So far she didn't seem too scary though, and as long as she kept her distance all would be fine.

Quickly Arjean connected the dots to realized she was trying to help them out with their sword fighting. So she even showed a real sword, though it was smaller than their paper sword, and not as pretty. It was still impressive nevertheless. When they started trying to grab it she moved it away and tucked it back to wherever she pulled it out from. Before they could ask for it back she began speaking to them again, sounding very serious.

Arjean picked up their wet sword and tried to dry it by making the air around the sword colder. It wouldn't work immediately, but it should speed up the process. "Mommy and Grandy make and use sword. Play-fight," they explained. They didn't need a weapon, and they were quite proud of how fast their abilities developed, but they still wanted to know how to use one. How else would they impress their family in play-fighting.

Arjean scowled when they were told they weren't ready for weapons, scrunching up their nose and puffing up their cheeks in the process. "Okay," they huffed, feeling like this was unfair treatment. They knew how to use some weapons, like knives, it's just sometimes they made mistakes and hurt themself... or others... Afterwards they often got in trouble and was punished for even getting their hands on weapons, but all they wanted was to be like their mommy and Grandy.

When asked their name they answered with a proud, "My name is Arjean Afolabi-Soie." Their voice had a pinch of annoyance to it, but they didn't want to make the girl get angry and go away.

She spoke so much, and so fast too, it was a bit overwhelming to keep up with her. Any moment they could miss something she asked, or answer the wrong question, or answer the question wrong. Already their face was flushing a light blue for their future embarrassment and current frustration. The last question was pretty surprising; it wasn't often when they got to talk about being stabbed if they could get away. "Yes... um... of course. I can fly or.. or... or kick and hit." They've went through worse than a stab. If someone tried to hurt them they would freeze them and bite their fingers off, or turn into their owl form and peck their eyes out. Once before they've heard their grandparent joke about how the eyes were an easy part of the body to hurt. They tried to sound confident and eager, but their stuttering and slow response made them come off a bit confused. It wasn't their fault that they were forced to keep up with such a quick person.

The girl seemed a bit intimidating, but Arjean found it hard to be truly scared of her. Maybe it was her pretty sword that they wanted, or how she sort of reminded them of Junchi, just an older, human version. They both even had the same pretty, soft-looking hair. For a moment, Arjean had to hold themself back from trying to pet her just to see how it felt. Not that it would succeed anyways, their gloves would have stopped any sensation from getting through.

The woman kept speaking, this time giving her own name. "Freyja Mortii" is what she said. The words "So pretty," slipped out of Arjean's mouth quietly, though they weren't fully aware of what they said until after they spoke them. It was pretty, but it also sounded difficult to speak and write. Maybe she needed a nickname. Was Freyja alright, or should they go with a polite Miss Mortii? If she was Junchi she'd most likely go with just the simple Freyja, but Junchi wasn't a girl, and they looked different enough too. For now Arjean would just try their best to pronounce her full name correctly, just with an added Miss at the start.

Thankfully, it seemed like Miss Freyja Mortii missed their blush. They were sure it was obvious, but she didn't point it out or make fun of them for it. There were multiple times where Arjean was asked questions like "Why do you blush blue, not pink?" or "Is your blood blue?" from non-oricenta. The second one was easier to answer than the first, but both weren't very appreciated or nice to hear, especially on repeat from various peoples, and especially when it felt mocking.

"I want to learn," Arjean responded, when Miss Freyja Mortii said they had to learn how to defend themself. They preferred learning how to fight people, since there's no need for defending if your enemy is already gone, but they would learn that soon hopefully. Hopefully she would be their teacher. With all the stuff she was saying, she just had to.

The next question was her asking their age. Quickly Arjean nervously glanced down at their hands, wondering if she wouldn't teach them if she told the truth. Then they remembered what their maman said what happened to liars, and quickly blurted out, "Two..." softly. Slowly they looked up towards her and asked, "Will, um, teach me... please?"

Miss Freyja Mortii didn't seem that happy when Arjean called her name "pretty". Instead she wore an expression they couldn't figure out before asking if a pretty name matters. Arjean went silent, wondering if there was a right answer to this question, but just as quickly they spoke their mind and answered, "Um... y-yes? I like pretty." Prettiness got them attention, and attention got them compliments and sometimes gifts. It was easy to ask strangers to buy them food, or just give up the food they already had, just because they were young and pretty. Junchi taught them that, as well as their maman.

At the mention of school Arjean's expression brightened. "I love school!" Just the thought of learning all those new things and impressing people and being smart made them excited. They were already being taught at home, both by themself and by their family but they also wanted to know how an actual class was. They couldn't pinpoint a specific reason on why they liked academics. It was fun learning new things and impressing people, but it also felt natural to them. Maybe it was how Junchi always spoke about how being with the big kids was impressive and fun, so Arjean concluded that they needed to be smart like the big kids to be with them.

Yet Arjean's cheerful attitude quickly turned into confusion and anxiety when Miss Freyja Mortii had a bad expression on her face. She looked... shocked? Confused? Somewhere along those lines. Then she denied them the teaching altogether, just because of their age. They were smart. They knew what they were doing. They just need some... help. Someone to guide them along and tell them when they were doing something right or wrong.

Arjean only stared at her hand when she offered it, sitting firmly in place without a budge. Miss Freyja Mortii was going to teach them no matter what. If not her, someone else would, and maybe she could help them out. They also didn't want her talking to their family about this. They would just get into trouble for doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. If anything, maybe Miss Freyja Mortii could have spoken to Arjean's family and convinced them that this was okay.

"No," they told her sternly, scrunching up their nose and narrowing their eyes. Then they softened their voice, hoping that being nice would help. "Teach me, please. Please. Please. I can hunt... um... small animals."

Tears were already forming in Arjean's eyes at this blatant unfair treatment. It wasn't long before they let out a few hiccups and coughs. Back home they got to watch their family hunt in all of their different forms, just to see how to do it. Junchi had to do the same with his family, and he's still doing it now. It was a normal oricenta thing. Of course, Arjean had to attack smaller creatures, and those were when they were allowed to hunt. When they got to hunt it was often in their cervitaur form, humanoid form, or more rarely, their owl form. Their fawn form wasn't really equipped for hunting, and while possible, unlike other deer, it was inconvenient and silly. At least, that's what they were told. So really, they were already learning defense and offense techniques, their teachings were just focused on hunting.

So why weren't they allowed to be taught how to do more then? Instead of using their teeth or claws, why not their fists and hooves? They've done it before. They pulled kids' hair and pushed them around, though often with pushing and pulling back... which led to messy and unhappy situations where Arjean got punished for "starting it". This... wasn't... fair... Baring their teeth, as if they were going in for a kill, they wondered if the only thing they could do was beg. Maybe it was possible to demonstrate to her what an oricenta could do, even at their age.