Closed For the Love of Pycons [Aello]

[Ball]

Ball paused as the two seemed to be having a slightly heated argument, but it ended abruptly when Lily apparently walked off, leaving Ball and the rather eccentric Blind Lady Pycon... It was unnerving watching the larger being sort of drift off into a state of psychosis it would seem. Instead Ball decided to follow Other Pycon. “I. Go.Fin.Duh. He.Er.” ['I go find her.'] He called back, whether she heard him or not didn't really matter to the spherical squire.

Pulling in all four stubby appendages he started to slowly roll away from Aello in the direction that Lily went, soon though he was picking up some speed and managed to catch up with her fairly quickly. “Hi.” The word burst from his being as a bubble.

“Buh.Lin.Duh.La.Dee.Py.Con.Iz.Sk.ar.ee.” ['Blind Lady Pycon is Scary.'] Ball managed to push the words out as he scrabbled to push out his four stubs and once more stand up like a regular person. His sponsor knight would be proud of him if he was here... Ball managed to stay in form for longer than a few seconds. “Sh.Ee.Sta.Air.Ing.Ah.Ta.Naw.The.Ing.” ['She staring at nothing.'] Ball paused and looked around, he didn't quite know where they were, but he knew they couldn't be too far away from camp, he could sort of see Aello behind them several yards away.

[Aello]

Aello nodded her head, although she said nothing, leaving Ball to catch up with Lily. The angered pycon did not seem to hear Ball coming after her, seeing as he rolled as opposed to walked, as so many of her kind chose to do. However, she noticed his presence soon enough and paused in her movements, as she turned to face him. "Oh hello again," Lily responded rather dryly, as her eyes glided over the shifting form, and she considered the rest of the pycon's words. A thin wrinkled line crossed her brow before fading into the burnt clay of her body. "Aello is no pycon," she said simply. "Nor is she al that scary when you get to know her. Just," she began before looking away, "very, very easy to piss off." With that said, the pycon turned and stared walking away from Aello again. The woman who was now sitting with her back up against a tree, her things at her side, looking up through the barren tree branches at the sky. "Why aren't you with Aello still?" Lily asked after a little bit. "I thought you liked her," she added, before stifling a small chuckle.

[Ball]

“Yu. Ly.Ka.Me.” ['You like me.'] Ball blurted out, “Yu.All.So.Ly.Ka.Hu.Er.” ['You also like her.']

Ball wasn't sure what more to say on the fact, he knew, someway or another, that Aello wasn't really a Pycon, but his young mind wasn't able to comprehend it any other way. “Sh.Ee. Ly.Ka.Leige.Lord. Ju.Us.Ta. Nah.Ta.Bu.Ah.” ['She just like liege lord, just not blue.']

Ball struggled to try and make himself more like Lily, but really all he managed to do was add an odd lumpy bubble to the top of his spherical body and his usual stubby arms and legs. When he next split his mouth open it was in the lumpy bubble at top. The spherical pycon was finally starting to form himself into a regular styled human, but it was taking some trouble and he probably wouldn't be able to do it again for some time later.

“Yu.C.Eem.An.Gr.Ee. At. Hu.Er.” [You seem angry at her.'] Ball pointed a stubby appendage back towards Aello.

[Aello]

As she sat, Aello closed her eyes, leaving her vision a peachy, yet blank slate. As she breathed evenly in through her nose and out through her mouth, she began to picture herself holding a fine brush. The stem a supple oak, fanned by fine horse hairs. It was dripping with fresh lavender paint, not wanting it to go to waste, she held her free hand out, beneath it. Cupping it lightly as she held her fingers together. Watching the excess fall in oblong shapes akin to rain. Splatter against her palm as she waited; watched. The markings were soft, fading quickly into her skin. A pool of inky water, which Aello soon allowed her brush to dip into. Softly, she pressed the bristles into the gathering moisture, watching them splay across it as she began to guide it back and forth, easily painting her palm, before pushing the paint onto the flats of her fingers, and then over to the webbing, the back. The paint that hung to her brush never seemed to lessen as she finished with her hand and began to work up the length of her arm. To her shoulder and then the portion of her neck she could reach but never truly see. As the wind blew, she could feel it tousling her hair. Sending the frayed edges against her neck. Slithering serpents that tickled her skin, and clung to the drying paint. Soon becoming matted as she guided her brush down towards the faint outline of her collar bone. You will help keep the heat in, Aello thought, when you dry, her mind added, as she continued to paint her lithe form with djed. Her pupils dilating as her heart began to beat a little faster. _______________________ Puzzled by what Ball was saying, Lily asked. "But how can I be like both?" before pausing a moment as she considered, "and who is the liege lord?" For another moment she fell silent as she awaited an answer. Aren't I either one or the other? she thought to herself as she took note of Ball's struggle to shift from his spherical shape. She sighed. "Who doesn't get frustrated with even their closest friends at times?" Lily asked after a short time. OOCJust in case it is unclear, Aello is working on shielding.

[Ball]

Ball seemed stumped as to how to respond to Lily's beginning question, the second one was quite easy to answer so he did, "Leige.Lord. Iz. Bloo.Py.Con." ['Leige Lord is Blue Pycon'] It was with a nod that Ball seemed to have answered that question in it's entirety, most likely though he just aided in more confusion.

"Fur.Endz. No. Ang.Ree. At. Ee.Acha.Odd.durs." [Friends no anger at each other.'] Again he nodded, this time instead of just coming back up to end the nod he folded back in on himself to once more sit as the ball of clay from which he got his name.

"Az. Ta.Yu.Bee.Ing. Bow.Uth. Yu. R. Ma.Da.Ly.Ka.Me.Buh.Ta.Yu.Loo.Ka.Ly.Ka.Hu.Er." ['As to ou being both. You are made like me, but you look like her.'] He rolled forward and back a little to resemble a nod, then fell silent. Ball was still at awe at her appearance and how she could keep it as such. Maybe he was embarrassed as well, no expression could be determined from a spherical body with no mouth or face.

[Aello]

The brush curled over Aello's chin, and came up on her face. Her wrist twisted easily, flicking her hand back and forth, passing the bristles over the soft flesh of her cheek as though she were using it to apply several coats of blush before moving onto the other. Dotting her nose, dousing her forehead, allowing the occasional bead of sweat to cling to her djed before she made her way back down. Covered her boots, the length of her legs; moving over the clothes as opposed to sweeping them out of the way, into a gathered pool of drapery which cascaded down the length of her sides. Slowly, she made the brush inched over the rise of her hip bones, jutting out from beneath a thin blanket of paling skin. Yes, you will do well to keep out the cold, the huntress thought to herself as she waved the brush back and forth, adding a first layer, and then another. Or perhaps, simply allowing her djed to seep into the spaces she had missed the first time around. After a time, it truly became difficult to say as the soft lavender molded with what had already been, so that it could eventually, become something more. ___________________________ Lily shook her head confusedly. "Who is this blue pycon?" she asked, never having heard of such a thing. Although, she had seen Aello around Akalaks, and some of them had blue skin, only a shade softer than the night sky devoid of its sparkling silver stars. Lily continued to walk a few paces, wondering how the other would answer as she kept her voice stilled, her eyes down, trained on the ground. The path ahead. As she moved, she continued to shake her head at everything Ball was saying. "That's not true, friends get mad at each other all the time," Lily commented. "Well... at least some of the time." For a moment she paused then, considering. "And nor is what you say entirely true. Yes, I am a pycon same as you, with a shape different than yours. Even so, I look nothing like Aello, nor is it known for our kind to gravitate towards a certain appearance." The young pycon licked her lips as she hopped over the edge of a tree's root, and then landed down softly on the other side. After a few ticks, Lily shrugged, more to herself than to the squire pycon. "There are some who look like humans, some various animals, such as deer, and then there are some with shapes as simplistic as your own. But that doesn't mean that any which one of them is wrong or unlike us. Now does it?" she inquired.

[Ball]

Ball wasn't entirely shocked that she didn't know who Blue Pycon was. So he just pointed back towards the encamped knights below. They weren't too far away to be unnoticeable by the trio in the clearing. It was the best explanation he could give Lily, seeing as he never really knew his knight sponsor’s name, even if Imass told him it.

"Fur.Endz. No. Ang.Ree. At. Ee.Acha.Odd.durs." [Friends no anger at each other.'] Was all he reiterated, but he paused and then seemed to be in thought as he swiveled around in place, almost like a slow moving top would. “Fur.Endz. Ge.It. Ang.Ree. At. Ee.Acha. Odd.durs.Sum. Tie.Aimz?” ['Friends get angry at each other some times?'] The concept didn't seem entirely foreign, Ball knew he got mad at Imass all the time, but that was because his sponsor pushed him too hard it seemed. Ball also didn't see his Liege Lord as a friend, more of a mentor.

He stopped his twirling about and rolled his way closer to Lily. “Yu Dew. Tu. Loo.Ka.Ly.Ka.Hu.Er. Yu. Haz. Mouf. An.Da.Eyez.An.Da.Ee.Urz.An.da.No.Za.An.Da.Han.Zaz.An.Da." ['You do to look likeher. You have mouth. And eyes. And Ears. And Nose.And Hands. And...'] Ball ran out of things to say, he only knew so much of the larger Pycons anatomies, there were so many of them.

The last bit of her explanation of herself just confused Ball even more than it should have. “Ou.Ra. Ka.En.Da. Haz.Spuw.Ah... Spuw.Ah.Eff.Eck.Fah.Or.Umz?” ['Our kind has spe... Specfic forms?'] The idea seemed odd to Ball, but that did make sense to him. He knew that after a period of time he always reverted back to his spherical form that gave him his namesake.

[Aello]

The proverbial brush kept on moving; painting every inch of the girl's form and her attire before she whispered, "you will keep out the cold," one last time, and opened her eyes. Revealing two muddied irises that watered as the first light hit them again. Unused to such they screamed inwardly, beseeching the lids offer their shade less their blood vessels burst and redden stark white flesh. As the breeze filtered through the trees again, the tears were swept away, and the pain of having to deal with light again began to subside. The huntress smiled weakly as the cold began to ebb and flow. Making its way out of her bone's marrow. You did well, she thought to herself, as she allowed her eyes to reach the sky. To take in the soft color that ran between the clouds. _____________________________ Lily shrugged. "Some of them do, or a form they tend to gravitate to for a time. Something that describes them as they are; a stepping stone along the path to the final form. The one that freezes us; makes us stone, and ultimately, depicts what we were throughout the course of our short lives." The pycon paused. "The essence of us, if you will," she finished, as she made her way along the forest floor, truly beginning to wonder if Ball was comprehending anything she was telling him.

[Ball]

Ball wasn’t exactly sure how long his race lived, or exactly how they even passed on. What he did know was the following: He was born before a couple of stone miniatures, so he could only assume they were his parents. As for their forms, he couldn’t recall them one bit. Just the flashes of the Djed Storm.

“Yu. Sa.Ya. Da.Ta.Our.For.Um. Iz. Jah.Us.Ta. Sta.Ap.Pee.Ing. St.Own?” [‘You say that our form is just a stepping stone?’] The spherical pycon seemed puzzled at that concept, but the idea did seem to make sense. “So. Wen. I. Ter.An. Wid. Blu. Py.Con. He.Iz.Ter.An.Ing.Me. Iz. Par.Ta.Me?” [‘So when I train with Blue Pucon, his training me is a part of me?’] Ball nodded a bit, in his odd rolling formation.

“So. Wh.Ah.Hel.Pa.Da.Yu?” [‘So who helped you?’] Ball wanted to know if the influences of the other large Pycons influenced the rest of his race and not just him.

[Aello]

The huntress followed the clouds with her eyes. Counting the ticks it took for one mass to move from one end of her vision to the other as she breathed evenly, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Allowing the shield to keep her warm as her muscles began to stiffen and grow sore as she sat against the tree. Trying to enjoy herself as the pycons talked amongst themselves. Waiting for their return. ________________________________ Lily nodded. "Others of our kind mainly. I used to live with a number. But Papa Catharsis helped me most. He taught me most everything I know about plants and medicine." She paused as her mind began to wander back into the realm of memory. "He used to watch us all as we slept, scared things that we were." Her clay lips curled into a delicate smile. "He used to say that sometimes, when I dreamt I'd turn into a flower. So he named me Lily... he always said it was his favorite sort of plant..." Lily's voice trailed off as her relentless gaze somehow managed to mirror the words, developing a far off look. Perhaps Ball could bring her back. Call her back.