Terrible Twosome

It was Junchi's daddy, Henghai's, turn to watch over Arjean and Junchi, yet he was busy writing down his schedule for what he needed to do for the week. Arjean was in the park flying as they were chased by Junchi on the ground. Junchi was trying to test himself and see how fast he could go, or alternatively, how slow Arjean was. There were multiple times Junchi pulled on Arjean's leg to bring them down, only to get a yell from his daddy to not be too rough. Arjean didn't even seem that bothered, and even giggled at times. Only times they seemed really annoyed was when they fell on their bag or their outfit got dirty. They were too stuck up about their outfits and how pretty they had to look. Their whole family were stuck up, and maybe it was time for at least one of them to know it wasn't too bad to get some dirt on them.

Junchi stopped chasing Arjean for a moment, then began digging up some dirt. Before Arjean could figure out what he was about to do dirt covered the front part of their shirt and overalls, then tried to turn them away so his daddy wouldn't see what he did. It wasn't like he was paying attention anyways, though there were a few times he looked up from his notes to check on the two. Arjean just pushed Junchi away, pulled out one of their story books from their bag, and then tried to throw it at him... and failed with the book just hitting the ground. At least they weren't crying. They obviously wanted to, and tears were starting to appear in their eyes, but they were also trying to be quiet and not make it noticeable. Instead of trying to throw the book again they just picked it up, returned it to their bag, and then began wiping the dirt off of their overalls.

He didn't feel bad, but he guessed he had to considering they were crying and angry at him. He helped wipe off the dirt from their clothes and nearly pet their head for their comfort, but realized that would just move the dirt to their hair. "Sorry," he said in Oscela. Arjean stayed quiet and just continued to try their best at removing the remaining dirt off of them.

(( @Jays ))​

Arjean only forgave Junchi after he begged Mr. Henghai to buy them ice cream. As he got himself the money needed and prepared himself to go, Arjean noticed a lady sitting nearby on a bench. She had a bunch of markings, but she didn't look anything similar to an oricenta. The markings looked so pretty though, and were so detailed too. The lady seemed to just be watching something, though they weren't sure what she was watching.

They couldn't hold themself back anymore though and forgot all about the ice cream. They walked up to the lady and instantly blurted out, "Pretty markings," while pointing at her arm. Arjean found themself surprised at their sudden compliment, the rudeness of pointing, and how embarrassed they were t the fact that they were still in dirty overalls and their face was still wet from tears. It was hard to ignore her markings though: they didn't look like what their family had, and considering how long it too for Arjean to have their own markings put on (though they did struggle whenever the time came), it must take her hours to put hers on daily.

Mr. Henghai only noticed Arjean talking to the lady once he got the money he needed for the ice cream. Then he spoke to her using some words Arjean wasn't completely sure of their meaning, though he seemed to be apologizing somewhat.

"Sorry. They don't really know the difference between markings and tattoos yet." What was a tattoo? He then looked down at them and tried to wipe away the rest of the dirt on them, though now it seemed to have stained. "Ugh. I need to keep a better eye on you two. Are you hurt? Doesn't seem like Junchi hit you with any rocks at least."

Arjean just nodded their head, then shot a quick glare at Junchi. Some rocks did hit them, but they were small and weren't that painful. Their clothes protected them, and got damaged during it. Junchi just looked back with his own glare and a small smirk, not even looking that bothered at their own discomfort.​

Junchi was just about to tell Arjean how the girl's markings weren't that special—he's seen many like those before from the pictures his daddies showed him—, but then they began to move. His eyes widened at her... her... whatever it was. Magic. Powers. Everyone but his family and Arjean's family had weird powers and weird looks and sometimes it made him uncomfortable. Only once in a while did he see an oricenta or a person who had similar abilities.

He tapped Arjean on the shoulder, first asking them to translate what was written, and once they were done with that he told them what he wanted to say and then pointed to the girl. Once Arjean figured out how to translate his words they looked up at Jay and pointed to him. "He... is... Junchi. I am Arjean. How, um... um... Hnng... How did you do that? The markings." He always found it funny hearing them speak in any language other than Oscela: they were always so unsure of what they were saying and how they were pronouncing it. Their accent when speaking Oscela was weird enough, though he assumed it was cause their family had French and Nigerian accents or whatever that meant. Still, Junchi could notice how when they spoke in any language all of their accents just meshed together to create words that didn't fit the sounds that adults made.

He then watched as Arjean took out their sketchpad and some crayons while sitting themself on the floor. (For someone who hated dirt on their clothes, they sure seemed perfectly fine with sitting on the dirty ground.) They seemed to be preparing themself in case they needed to respond to more things. Typical. They were already getting annoyed of their accent and speaking. They never worked through the hard stuff like Junchi did.​

Arjean went quiet for a moment as they tried to translate what she said, though they could only pick up a few words here and there. It was only when Mr. Henghai translated the words that both Arjean and Junchi understood. After thanking him they looked back up to Miss Jay and nodded. They were still confused on what a tattoo was, but it seemed to be made of different things than markings. They remembered Remi speaking about getting one before, but she was told by Grandy to really think about it first.

"Is there magic?" they asked as they began a quick and messy drawing of her with her tattoos coming out of her arm into real life in different shapes and forms. They wanted to get what they wanted to know out quickly, so trying hard to make a neat and pretty drawing wasn't the best use of anyone's time. "Animal mark-... tattoos. Animal tattoos? Tattoos... guard you?" It was so hard getting what they wanted to say out. Why did English have to be such a hard language? It wasn't fair. It's not like it was spoken that much in their family, and they had to learn by just looking at books their family had or television or by listening to other people. All they wanted to know for the moment was if her tattoos could protect her and come into real life. At least they got tutoring from their mommy when she was available, which was rare.​

Arjean and Junchi jumped back, but then looked on in awe at Jay's new tail. She could give herself animal features with her tattoos. That was amazing. Arjean wished they could do that but... well... they already had features of owls, deer, and humans.

When asked about their markings they lost focus on Jay's tail and quickly stood proudly. They loved talking about their family and how perfect they were, and talking about their markings was the perfect opportunity. They began slowly and carefully to make sure what they were saying was correct and could be understood. "Markings are, um, paint stuff. It is our family. With no marking we could not, uhm... um... We not know our family. It make us special. My family have really really really pretty markings and I love mine because they are blue and pretty."

Then they looked up to Mr. Henghai, hoping he would give them some help on the explanation. "In oricenta culture, markings are used to tell what family someone belongs to, and they can be combined when two people decide to combine their families. Some oricenta specialize in imbuing our markings with magic for some power boosts, but since my family came here, as well as Arjean's family, we haven't really been getting anyone to imbue magic and decided to just live without it unless necessary." He then pointed to his own markings. "We usually switch up the colors of our markings to match our look for camouflage. Mine is yellow, but Junchi has the exact one as mine, just pink. And... Oh! Whoops. Sorry for the whole exposition dump."​