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Summary: Evelyn is napping when Sage comes to visit the horses.
Date: July 25. 2011
Log Title: Cat On The Roof
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Stables
The smell of horse and hay immediately hit the sense for anyone who step in here. There are empty stalls for students with horses, and school owned horses for those who wish to ride. Tackle, saddles (English and Western), helmets, and grooming supplies are found neatly tucked away in a supply closet.
With all of the school grounds to choose from Evelyn has decided, in her infinate feline wisdom, that the best place to take a nap is on the roof of the stables. Never mind that the strange wildcat smell is causing some of the horses to take uneasy looks upwards whenever they come in or out! Of course most of the little Margay can't actually be seen from the ground, except for her tail which occasionally swishes over the edge.
Sometimes it's more relaxing to be around animals than people. Sage didn't feel this way before coming to Xavier's but he just feels very distanced from the other students here. Carrying a a few carrots in one of his hands he walks over to the first stall which belongs to a brown and white pinto horse. He's about to try to feed him when he notices the horse being a bit uneasy. "Hey boy, what's wrong?" He asks.
Briefly waking Evelyn shifts lazily over a little to better catch the sun. All the while her tail swooshes cheerfully knocking a little cloud of muck out from the guttering. "Mroaw," she murmurs befor settling down for naptime round three.
At the 'mraow' the horse starts to move nervously a bit and Sage tries to calm him. "It's okay boy, it's just a mouser. That cat won't hurt you besides you're bigger than a mouser." He says trying to offer the horse a carrot to see if it calms him. He looks around a bit trying to see if he can spot the cat but Sage doesn't think to look up so he misses the tail completely.
Evelyns ears prick up. A /mouser/. The indignity of it all! Shifting round she edges her way up to the lip of the roof and peers over, toying with the idea of dropping something on Sage. "Meoooow. Mraw," she proclaims before forcing herself to resume human form. "Who are you calling a mouser? That's an exceptionally rude thing to say Mr." Thankfully she's still sprawled out or else she'd risk falling off (or through) the roof of the stables.
Sage looks up at the voice, not quite realizing that Evelyn is the cat in question. "I was talking about which ever cat has been around here spooking the horses. And my name is Sage, not Mister. I believe we've met once before. During the student in a metal armour incident in the woods. What are you doing up on the roof?"
"Cat spooking the horses? That's a stupid thing to say, how can horses be afraid of cats when they're much bigger than them?" Evelyn asks, deciding that she'd best keep quiet that she's probably the cat in question. "And I've been taking a nap. The roof gets a lot of sun being nice and far from the tree line. It's also nice and quiet here most of the time."
"Sometimes animals can get spooked by things they don't really know. Just like the tales of Elephants being scared of mice." Sage says as he finally gets the horse to eat the carrot offered. "I like it here, not on the roof more being around the animals. We had horses back home so the smells in here are a bit comforting." As odd as it sounds.
"I think they actually proved the elephant thing is true," Evelyn admits, nodding wisely and then looking for somewhere she can grip to stop herself sliding to the ground. "It must suck getting homesick, I don't think I can even remember the last time I felt it, but then I've lived in a stupid number of places. So it's no suprise I'm strange."
"This is my first time away from home. It's been almost a month now but it's not easy adjusting here." Sage admits. "I like it, the people are nice enough but just having to get used to things being so different." He then looks over at Evelyn curiously. "What is it like, moving all over? Is it weird not having a set place to call home?"
Evelyn shrugs. "It's not weird to me, but then it's all I've ever really known," she replies. "This place is a little stranger than most, people speak mostly the same language but the whole school doesn't conform to any of the normal social dynamics you get. The only thing most people have in common is horrible things having happened to them and that isn't a great basis for forming social groups around."
"I've never had a horrible thing happen to me." Sage says in protest. "I mean, nothing really bad has ever happened. The most horrible thing I can think of is when I had to kill the chickens or pigs for dinner. But then it was quite necessary." He says seeming a bit confused. "I'm not quite sure what this normal social thing you're talking about it. Mind you this is my first time attending a school as well."
Evelyn scratches her head. "Okay… That's a bit weird. I didn't even know people 'back home' could do that," she confesses. "Well. Normally the kids who like sport would be one group, split depending on which sport. You also get social groups for different musical tastes or if people are especially smart. Here it's chaos."
"What, you mean not going to school?" Sage says trying to figure out which part is a bit weird to her. "I grew up in a commune, a farming commune. So they home schooled us there and such." He says before shaking his head. "That all sounds weird to me, everyone seperating because of what they like? Back home we all got along. I had my siblings, cousins and friends. We all pretty much like the same things and as for music, we all had access to the same music records."
"Why is it so strange that people would hang out with people that have similar interests?" Evelyn wonders, finally finding a spot she can hold onto to stop cut the risk of falling off the roof. "And yeah not going to school, I thought it was illegal for people to do that in England."
Sage takes a few steps outside of the stable so that he can sit on the grass and look up better at Evelyn. "It just seems that everyone should get along and not worry about that sort of thing. Should I not be friends with my cousin because I prefer Led Zeppelin and he prefers Jimi Hendrix?" It's an honest question as Sage doesn't really know much outside of what he's learned. "I don't know honestly, we never got in trouble for it. My Mum and Dad and their Mum and Dad were taught the same way."
"Without differences and conflict nothing would ever change," Evelyn points out. "And life would be boring. Besides when you're meeting a lot of new people and you won't have forever to get to know them it's as good as any way of picking who you'll try be friends with. Family isn't the same, because you get much more time to know who they are."
"There is more than just family back home. Only about half of them I'm related to. Maybe a bit more. Most of us have lived our entire live there and it is quite far from boring. I find it more boring here actually." Sage says. "With conflict does the world change for the better or for the worse though? And I'm not saying there shouldn't be differences I'm just saying that the differences shouldn't be what determines who you are friends with and who you are not."
Evelyn shakes her head. "But they're close to you like your family is," she ventures. "Imagine if you only met them when you hit your teens, then had a couple of years to get to know them before you'd all head off for university. You could just speak with /everyone/ but you probably won't have time to get to know anyone very well. I'm not saying you should only ever be friends with people who like what you like, but it definately /helps/ when you're trying to make friends with strangers."
"Well I grew up with them." Sage says as if it's common sense. "And what you're talking about is exactly what is going on now. I'm not going to dislike my roommate because I do not like his music. Tyler is quite nice. Right now I am trying to make friends with strangers. Is there anything that says you and I shouldn't be friends because we do not have much in common?"
"Hmmm. Well we might not have anything to talk about or we might have conflicting beliefs which offend or upset each other," Evelyn lists, frowning. "But in general terms no? But this school has smaller classes compared to a really big high school. Besides you wanted to know how it worked in a normal school, so I tried explain. That doesn't mean I think it's better than what you're trying to do!"
"Well you did seem to look at me funny when I was talking abour fairy folk and such being real." Sage says before smiling at her letting her know there aren't any hard feelings. "Honestly I don't know what to expect once classes start. All I have been told is I will be starting as a Freshman..whatever that is."
Evelyn ponders. "How old are you? If you don't mind my asking that is! And yeah… The number of people who'll give you funny looks if you talk about 'fairy folk' is going to be way higher than the number of people who will agree they're real. It's like not really something anyone believes in these days."
"Well they're quite real." Sage says. "I met a girl who used to be a student here, Rashmi her name is. She said that one of her teachers at this school she goes to is a real live pixie." He grins at the thought face almost lighting up like a child at Christmas. "I'm sixteen years old. And I don't mind you asking. Should I mind?"
"Well from what I gather a freshman is near the beginning. So if you were eighteen and starting in a class full of younger kids you might have gotten a little upset," Evelyn explains, slowly sliding a little further forward while she's concentrating more on the conversation. "Maybe I should get down before I fall off…"
Sage stands up and walks over to the edge. "Do you need help getting down?" He waits for a reponse before doing anything. "Okay, well I gather that makes a bit of sense seeing that I am probably a bit of a beginner at school. We learned more in regards to farming than learning our sums."
Evelyn coughs. "Maybe a little? I seem to be in a position where I can only go forwards without ripping the guttering off," she admits awkwardly. "I don't suppose you can levitate people can you?"
Sage looks up and then takes a few steps to the side of the stable. "This may seem a bit queer but I'm going to latch my hair up there so you can use it as a rope." He says as he braces himself against the wall and concentrates so that the dread locks stretch out and seem to grab onto a beam on the front of the stable so that it forms something like a rope that Evelyn can use to shimmy down. His 'hair rope' moves straight down to the ground before curving back up towards his head.
Once Evelyn starts to fall, Sage's hair tries to catch her to break her fall but he's not to successful. His hair forms back to how it looks normally as he walks over and offers a hand. "You okay? And I'm not quite sure what you mean. What is slang?"
Evelyn thankfully has long years of experience at falling on her face. Enough so that she avoids anything more drastic than wounds to her pride. "I'm fine… Just feel a little silly," she replies, rolling over and dusting herself down. "Slang? Erm it's like a nickname, only it can be about anything. Short versions of words or words which mean something other than what the normal meaning is. Like queer is often used to refer to people who are gay, but in a very negative way."
"So if someone is happy, and you call them queer, it's bad? How is that bad?" Sage asks completely confused. "That doesn't seem to make sense. If someone is happy I don't see why there should be anything negative about it. Also how does strange mean happy?"
"The meaning of the word has changed," Evelyn explains, sitting up and sighing. "People don't use it to mean happy anymore. Unless they're /exceptionally/ old. As for strange meaning happy… Who said that?"
"You said queer is another word for gay. Gay means happy and Queer means a bit strange so thus you were saying strange was another word for happy." Sage says as it all makes sense to him. "Some of the music I listen to uses the word gay to mean happy."
"We can do a test if you'd like? Walk around the city and tell any tough looking guys they seem gay or queer. If no-one tries to beat you up I'll be stunned," Evelyn states firmly, trying her hardest not to hide her head in her hands. "And I never said anything about strange. I mean gay as in romantically interested in the same sex…"
"I haven't been to the city yet." Sage admits. "I don't see why I would tell anyone they seemed queer but gay, it's not an insult." He was raised to think it was a word for happy. "It also means that two women or two men are in love. I guess that is fitting if they are happy with eachother." He says not finding anything wrong with it.
Evelyn groans. "Look I'm not saying anything is wrong with people being interested in whoever they want! What I'm saying is that the words have changed and you could get into serious problems if you say things which don't mean what you think they do anymore. The worlds moved on faster than wherever you used to live."
"Well thank you for letting me know so I don't make a fool of myself. I will try to watch saying that word from now on." Sage says. He pushes his hair back and uses one of his dreads to tie it into a ponytail. "I should be heading back inside though. I am getting a bit hungry and it's about time to start cooking. Cheers!" He says as he goes to head back inside.
"Get your room mate to get you upto speed on what you can and can't say without upsetting people," Evelyn suggests, waving with one hand and covering her face with the other. "There are probably a ton of other things you think are normal that aren't. Anyway enjoy your meal!"
