Just Breathe (open)

beloved · Jun 28, 2015

The good thing about being an amnesiac, and everything feeling new and strange, was that Nia had no idea how anything was actually suppose to work. While this was a big hinderance, it also allowed for Nia to just accept what others gave to her. She didn't have to feel like things weren't going how they were suppose to because she had no idea how they were suppose to work anyways.

So while Anastasia here had to feel the awkwardness of differences in social norms and other such things between their interactions, Nia (while she did feel extremely awkward) just assumed that this was how you were suppose to meet someone. It would mean there would be little resistance from Nia in the two's direction of conversation and 'getting acquainted'.

"I'm Nia." She replied softly, with her best attempt at a smile, though her nerves made it look more like a grimace trying to be happy, "Uh.... How do we do that?" Nia questioned. She knew what the word 'acquainted' meant but how two strangers went about doing that she wasn't really sure. She looked to the woman with expatiation as to how this was going to work exactly.

Romi · Jun 30, 2015

Well, it was clearly an attempt at a smile, even if Anastasia was not sure she would have ever described it as one. It was close enough she could tell, but... well, she wouldn't be writing home about it.

"Well... we talk." It was certainly not the answer she'd expected to the question, but she could certainly roll with that. Generally it just meant talking, and it seemed they still had time, so... well, talking.

Talking seemed like it made much more sense when someone else was in charge of the direction the conversation was in, but she was (clearly) the elder of the two, and that meant it was on her.

"How do you like the island so far?" They were both new, and it seemed that the island itself would be a good starting point, wouldn't it? It was something they both had in common. They could share their impressions, the things they'd seen, their hopes for the future... All that, in theory, seemed more socially acceptable than asking the questions she really wanted to know, like where the girl was from and why she had been brought there.

Tag to @"beloved"

beloved · Jul 2, 2015

Nia glanced up towards the front of the line. The lady at the desk was still talking to the boy, and it didn't seem like they would be finishing up for a bit. It made Nia feel a bit more anxious. She really just wanted to know where she was suppose to go.

Though Nia was painfully shy, awkward, and basically afraid of everything, she wasn't unable to hold up a conversation. She wanted to be able to make friends and somehow figure out how this whole life thing worked, but it was like she had to fight her brain to be able to do so. It was rather bothersome and stressful.

Nia gave a small shrug, and lowered her eyes to her feet. Her legs weren't visibly shaking anymore (thankfully) but they still felt like jelly to her. She began to fidget with the hem of her dress, "I don't know..." She replied softly. She honestly hadn't seen much of the island yet, "It looked kinda scary from the boat." She said glancing up at the woman again. "Are islands scary?" Nia knew what an island was but she wasn't sure yet how she was suppose to feel about it. Other than scared, but she was scared of everything.

Romi · Jul 4, 2015

Anastasia was fully capable of having a normal conversation and making friends... she simply didn't do it very often. She didn't really see the need. She wasn't particularly social or outgoing the majority of the time, and for the most part Nia was seeing the very best of her because Anastasia considered herself the kind of person who would be willing to help a nervous person who seemed a few years younger than her.

That said, she was presented with a very odd questions. She wasn't being asked if the island was scary, but if islands in general were scary. The truth was that Anastasia had never actually been on a proper island before, because she'd lived in the parts of Russia that were extremely landlocked. That didn't mean she was going to answer that she didn't know, because she did know.

"No, islands are not scary. They are just... land with water around them." Perhaps that was too simplistic of an explanation, but she was doing the best she could presented with such an odd question. "Everyone here seems very nice so far." She did not have a particularly large sample size, since she'd spoken to less than five people since arriving. "There is no need to be afraid of islands. Or this one, either."

Tag to @"beloved"

beloved · Jul 7, 2015

Nia was an observer. She had picked up the habit of just sitting back and watching while at the orphanage. None of the other kids had wanted to play with the girl the nuns said was possessed so she had learned to just watch what everyone else was doing and learn from that. She had come to enjoy it but she still longed to be able to make friends. She was hoping that Starlight would be a place she could accomplish this at, and so far, it seemed like it might be possible.

She knew what an island was. It was like she had a definition for it in her mind but it felt strange to think of because she couldn't place how she knew what an island was. There was no feelings that went along with it. It was like reading a dictionary.

The woman's words did help to make her feel a bit better. At least this person saw no reason to be afraid of this place, so Nia probably would be fine as well. She gave a small nod, "That's good. I don't like scary..." Nia began to crack her knuckles, her little bones making popping noises as she cracked each finger twice, one at a time.

Romi · Jul 7, 2015

Anastasia found she was actually enjoying talking to the girl, no matter how timid she was. She was always better in social situations where there was a clear power dynamic. She was clearly (if wrongly) the girls elder, which made her the one who would have to guide the conversation. One on one with people who were her equals had always been more challenging, and she found the whole thing so much easier to manage.

The knuckle cracking was a bit odd, and she watched it with confusion, unclear on what she was doing. A nervous tick, maybe? It wasn't actually that odd, but the girl had been so quiet, and having her suddenly make noise was strange indeed.

"Is it just you here?" What happened when a child with parents was found to be odd? Did the whole family come? It wasn't something she had any idea about, since she was sort of an adult (depending on the region) and had no legal guardian to speak of. It wasn't covered in any of the guides she'd read, but they'd all addressed the school directly, and didn't deal with the mechanics of the whole moving to the island thing. "It is just me here for now." She admitted, well aware that sharing information made people more likely to share information with you in turn.

Tag to @"beloved"

beloved · Jul 10, 2015

Nia was full of nervous ticks, however those nervous ticks helped to calm her down; fidgeting with her dress, playing with her hair, cracking her knuckles. She didn't know why she did these things and why they brought her even the the smallest amount of comfort, but they did.

She finished cracking all her fingers as Anastasia asked her question. Nia paused for a moment and dropped her hands. After the woman told her that she was here alone Nia raised her hands again and quickly popped both her thumbs. She gave a quick shrug and then returned to fiddling with her dress.

"Who else would I be here with?" She questioned the woman. It was actually an honest question. Was it strange and out of the ordinary that she had come here alone? Should someone have been there with her? She knew what parents were but she didn't have any or if she did she couldn't remember them. Was it odd or wrong for her to be there by herself? So far she only really knew 'by herself'. Even when there had been other people around she had still felt fairly 'by herself'.

Romi · Jul 11, 2015

It might have been an honest question, but it seemed so baffling. It was just so... so impossible for her to understand. Was she really asking? Was she really asking who someone under the age of eighteen would be on the island with? She stared for several long moments, eyes wide with confusion. For a moment, she didn't even know how to answer.

"With... your parents?" It was almost a question, because suddenly Anastasia was questioning herself. She'd just assumed that people would come with their parents, but she didn't actually know that. No one had ever confirmed it for her. She suddenly felt the need to explain herself, and all but tripped over herself to do so.

"I assume that most people come here with family or friends. So that way they are not alone completely." It made sense. Uprooting people who knew no one was a recipe for disaster, and it had none of the advantages that the military did. The military had everyone coming in at once, not bit by bit. It also had a drive, and money, and a million other things which served to draw them together. The island had almost none of that. There was no loyalty to it, not right away.

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beloved · Jul 11, 2015

Nia saw nothing that strange about the way she talked or asked questions. To her, it was the world that was strange and she was just trying to figure it out. She was sort of like a new born child, minus all the crying and popping her pants. Thankfully amnesia hadn't caused her to forget how to use the bathroom.

So she had been wrong to think it was normal to come alone. The nuns had just seemed so fine with shipping her off she hadn't thought that coming to the island by herself was anything out of the ordinary. Nia looked down at the ground after Anastasia finished talking, "Oh..." She stayed silent for a moment, unsure of what to say next.

After a second or two of Nia staring at the ground she gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "I don't think I have parents." Her tone was fairly nonchalant though the statement was anything but that. It was strange though; even though Nia hated her amnesia and not being able to remember her past, she didn't feel that sad about not knowing about her family or where she came from. After all, it was hard to miss something you had no memory of even existing.

Romi · Jul 20, 2015

It seemed like Nia had thought it was normal to come alone. Maybe it was - Anastasia wasn't entirely clear on that, and she supposed it was quite possible. Maybe people did come to the island alone. Maybe they left their families behind, and stayed in the dorms under adult supervision. But that didn't seem quite right. On the walk from the boat to the school it had seemed like a simple enough town, and she was having a hard time imagining her parents just sending her off to live on her own for years.

She supposed some people did do that, but... well, this was different. It was a school for... for strangers. For things that weren't quite human.

Of course, her entire train of thought came to an abrupt screeching halt when Nia mused that she didn't have parents. Or thought she didn't. It wasn't said in a way to induce pity - it just sort of was.

Or she thought it was.

Anastasia was nothing if not literal, and for the most part she glossed right over most of the more metaphorical interpretations.

"Well, everyone has parents, even if they are not alive anymore. You have to have come from someone." Maybe she meant she didn't know her parents? Yes, that was probably it.

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