[/C/lum\sy/.\Lucidity/][Open]

[WT]

"Stupid cloud. Back off, you hear? Get away! I'm not gonna let you do- do- well, do whatever nasty thing it is that you wanna do. Everyone else might trust you, but I know better, so you just stay away, you hear me?"

The cloud stopped drifting toward her. Ara nodded, satisfied, and went back to talking to her rock.

It was a small rock, only just large enough to not be called a pebble. It was unremarkable, irregularly shaped and plain gray, with no distinguishing characteristics. It was also a very nice rock, even for a rock, most of which were nice, and while it was quiet it was also a very good listener. Which was good, because Aranica was giving it a lot to listen to.

"Anyways,, what did they ever do to deserve death? 'Cause they're dead, I mean let's face it, District Twelve almost never wins the Hunger Games, and even we do have a winner this year one of them would still have to die because there can only be one winner, so any way it happens one of them ends up dead and it's not fair, it's just not." She sighed and kicked some dust up with one foot, watching as it settled back down on the ground. She didn't know why she felt so guilty; it wasn't like any of this was her fault. And she could hardly volunteer- if she did she was even deader than Blue, the chosen female candidate. At least Blue could probably fight. Ara... she couldn't kill a rabbit. She wouldn't last five minutes in the Games.

With a sigh, Aranica set teh rock back down where she had found it and wandered on. She kept to the buildings, only occassionally daring to fight her way across the streets. It was a quiet day; not too many people seemed to be out, and those that were seemed deflated somehow. The day after the Reaping was never a happy one. Ara herself had considered staying home, but eventually decided against it- she needed to walk, to move, to do something to try to escape the guilt and sorrow that seemed to chase her.

She wasn't watching where she was going, distracted as she was by her thoughts, and so she didn't realize there was someone in front of her until she ran into them. "Sorry!" she cried as she jumped back, landing awkwardly on one foot and crashing down to the ground. She sat there for a moment, stunned, and blinked up at the person she had bumped into. "Are you okay? Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you..."

[rae]

I'd been allowed out of the home for the next two days...
I walk until i get distracted by the clouds... I hope it rains, i absoulutely love the rain, i hate the sun. All it does is give me a burn, and well it makes it harder to conceal myself in the shadows when it takes them all away... "Go away!" I growl at the sky. Of course, Nature almost never listens to me, no suprise.

I keep walking until i run into the girl... I pause to register her. I look up to find the same girl from the reaping. so i guess i could talk to her.. "Sorry!" she tells me. "Are you okay? Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you..." she tells me... "Huh?" I say... what? "Oh, yeah no problem.." I tell her...

[WT]

"If you're sure..." Aranica blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out why this person looked familiar. They were- oh! Of course, the girl from the Reaping. The one whose friend had been chosen. Ara sighed a little in sympathy, but said nothing; she didn't know much about how other people interacted, except for running away from her since that was mostly what people did around her, but she knew that your friend's death probably wasn't an acceptable or wanted subject. Instead she stood up- or tried to, anyway. What she actually did was start to stand, trip on absolutely nothing, and fall again. Stubbornly she tried again, and this time managed to get to her feet, shaking a bit of dust out of her black hair before letting it fall back in place. It drifted down, and she smiled at it. Ara liked dust. It was a little like rocks in a lot of ways- in fact, some of it was little bits of rock- and as far as she had ever been able to tell it was just as nice as its bigger, more solid cousin. She had never talked to dust, but maybe-

But now wasn't the time to find out about dust. Ara looked back over at the girl from the Reaping, studying her carefully. Brown hair, light brown eyes, pale skin. Of course, you couldn't tell much about a person by the way they looked, unless maybe they had lots of scars, in which case you pretty much knew that something tragic had happened to them.

"I'm Aranica," she said on impulse, scuffling her left foot a little. A bit of dust rose up, and again she gave it a small smile before looking up at the other girl again. Dust. Yes, she definitely liked dust. "What's your name?"

[rae]

"I'm Aranica... What's your name?" she intorduces herself and asks my name, after being oddly pleasured by the dust she keeps stirring up... "Uuh, Im rae." i say seeming a little unsure whether or not i should have done that or called for the 'keepers to haul her down to the asylum... "Uum, whatcha got there?" i ask, as she seems to be carrying a rock of somesort...

[WT]

"What? Oh." Aranica glanced down; she had forgotten she was carrying the rock. Feeling guilty- poor rock, how could she have forgotten about it?- she hugged it to her in apology. "Just a rock. It's my friend." She smiled gently and held it out. It didn't say anything, but she wasn't surprised; rocks didn't talk to other people much. It was difficult to try to talk to people who couldn't hear you. "Most rocks are. My friends, that is. Not like people. People aren't always very nice. They tend to think I'm crazy and run away. I'd chase them, because I like being around people, but that would make them upset and I don't like to make people upset."

She sighed and stared at the rock, petting it absently. After a few moments she looked up again. "Rae is a pretty name," she said. "Do-"

Whatever she had been about to say was cut off abruptly; motion had caught the corner of her eye, and she whirled to see the cloud drifting again. "No!" she screamed, shaking her head. "No, not good, not good... You stay there! No! Get back! Go away! Are you hearing me? Go away!" Panicked, she glanced around and then darted around Rae to hide behind the other girl, peering at the cloud from around Rae's shoulder. "Be careful," she whispered. "I don't know what it wants, but it can't be good. Clouds are mean."

This, she realized belatedly, was the sort of comment that usually made people think she was crazy. But Rae had to know- Ara couldn't just run and leave her to the mercy of the cloud. Besides, there was nowhere to run; to run back down the street would lead her toward the cloud, and anywhere else would take her away from the protection of the shops, into open space.

Stupid cloud.

[rae]

She began rambling about rocks being her friends and people being mean and thinking she is crazy, i let her talk, "Rae is a pretty name... Do-" she stopped abruptly and as i was about to say 'thank you,' she squealed,"No!" at first i thought she was talking to me until she started saying something about a cloud, and to my surprise she is trying to hide from it behind me.. "Clouds are mean," she finally says.

"I happen to like clouds," i let out, because the cold weather brought along with my dear grey fluffy friends is pure bliss. I watch it for a while until it seems to have covered half the sky... I look over my shoulder and ask,"So what its name?" turning to face her as well, gesturing to the rock.