Closed Just kid's play [Vladimir]

[Amelia Cross]

[4th day of summer 497.a.v.]
[Fountain of Cascading Harmony]
[Early day]

The small girl, who whore floral dresses colored in blue and small, polished white shoes, was well known to the people passing the fountain. Her hair like a sheet of black was reaching down to below her undeveloped hips. She was Amelia, the little Cross girl whose mother was a teacher. The little girl with a round face, and full cheeks was known by the shopkeepers to never stay still. Therefore, she was usually left by her mother by the fountain or in the library. She knew those where the only places she would stay still.

Some would call it crazy to have Amelia, a 4 year old girl alone with nothing but a book in her hands. But nobody really knew how convenient it was, after all, at all times by the fountain was at least one person who knew Amelia well thanks to her mother. Her mother had always instructed her to look for certain people, and above all, if Amelia was left alone by the fountain, it meant her mother would be coming back in half a bell, probably even sooner. At a bright day time like this, no harm was present. Not to mention, the little girl had little knowledge about the concept of fear, so as long as she had her book in her hands, she was happy.

She flipped another page, this page contained shapes like triangles, squares and circles. Each was colored differently and she tried to memorize the colors, she then covered the page with her palms and chanted to herself what color the object was. It was nothing really, but she felt proud to recognize colors, shapes and letter…Amelia even knew a few numbers, though vaguely, Math was distant to her and she knew only the sounds of them, not the actual meanings. Though she knew she was 4 years old, turning 5 at winter, the season she didn’t like much, it was cold!

But behind the façade of smiles and laughter the girl made when she had guessed something right, and could read words as ‘blue’ or ‘red’, she knew that something was missing. The girl didn’t know what was missing, but the ones who occasionally dropped an eye on her knew, she had no friends. Amelia had never really found common talk with other kids, probably because the few things she knew, came from her parents not teachers. What was a shame, she liked to talk, liked to talk a lot.

[Vladimir Beatrice]

A small boy, dressed in a white shirt and pants, was shambling slowing towards a very special fountain with his eyes tilted towards the ground. The boy’s soft wavy hair danced slowly in the light breeze. His pale blonde hair was no too long nor was it too short. The boy’s emerald green eyes slowly tilted up towards the fountain as he was closing in towards it. The sound of water splashing slowly grew stronger and stronger. The boy reached into his pocket and began searching for something. Soon after, he pulled out from his pocket a shiny gold miza.

The small boy was named Vladimir, Vladimir Beatrice. He was six years old and was virtually a ghost in ghost in the Zeltivan society. His family consisted of a mother and father. However, ever since Vladimir turned three and was placed under the care of a family friend, his parents have been embarking on severally adventures to make a living. Because of that, Vladimir only gets to see his parents vary rarely, and the times he does see them they only sat home for about two day before going back out.

Vladimir reached the fountain. The splashing water created a small rainbow in the early summer sun. Vladimir attempted to force a smile. However, his smile slowly faded away. He looked at his hand which held the gold miza, and gripped it with both hand, placing the miza between both of his palms. He rested his closed hands on his forehead and closed his eyes as he prayed for a wish.

Gods, please hear my wish. I wish that my parents can come home and stay. It doesn’t have to be forever, but I want them to stay just long enough so it feels like I have a family. I wish we could play games and have fun, but they’re never around. Siobhan tries to play with me, but at her age I think it’s better for her to rest. Vladimir wished. He opened his eyes as gazed at the statues in the fountains with pleading eyes, before give his miza a great big toss, sending it into the sky. The miza arced over the fountain and landed on the other side. Vladimir heard something odd, like the sound of paper being bashed with a small object followed by a surprised voice.

Vladimir wandered around the fountain to see what had happened. As he walked around, the vision of a small little girl who wore a floral dress that was coloured blue and white. She notably had very long black hair, contrasting great with Vladimir’s hair. In the young girls hand was a book, and in that book was Vladimir’s shiny gold miza.

“Ah!” Vladimir gasped, rushing towards the girl. “Sorry, are you hurt?” He said, keeping an awkward distance from the young girl. Vladimir never, really talked to girl, so he didn’t feel too comfortable talking to her. “Umm… Sorry about that… I tossed my Miza too high and well, I think it landed in your book.” Vladimir said, awkwardly scratching below his right ear, avoiding eye contact with the young girl.

I need that Miza back, how can I make my wish to have my parents back so we can have some fun…

[Amelia Cross]

Flipping another page, Amelia came to the things that were yellow. She began reading through the words, having to attempt reading it no less than 2 times each to actually understand what was written. She tried her best and slowly, was repeating ”sun, banana, butter…” the current opening was friendly for children, as it had nice big letters that Amelia understood and illustrations ”che..chees, corn..”

She was about to read on, struggling with a word that was hard for her to pronounce, or understand from the illustration. Struggling with the word, she was awoken by a hit of something on her head, than landed on the opening of her book. She looked at it, it was round in shape, and flat. Her eyes full of curiosity as she looked at it. Amelia had no clue it was a golden miza, her mother didn’t give money to the girl, at her age she had no use of it. And so there was no way of her knowing.

About to take it in her hand, but she was interrupted by a boy running up to her. She looked at him and what caught her eyes first was the unusual hair color he possessed. She didn’t manage to notice anything else before he began to speak. ”I’m fine” she answered to his question. As despite it hitting her head, it was light enough not to cause pain, just shock.

The way the boy kept his distance, made her wonder, was he afraid of her? Was it another person afraid to approach her? ”are you scared of me?” she asked, tilting her round head to see his eyes. Amelia had a pale face, that had a steady amount of blush covering her round cheeks and nose. She wasn’t embarrassed; she was just a bit burned by the sun.

She looked down at her book, at the strange flat object that was shining there, and looked back at the boy ”what is that?” she asked, her little chubby finger pointing at it. She was curios, and wanted to know what was the object, before she would give it back. No doubt she would, she was thought well to give back what belonged to others, stealing was bad, even if in this scenario Amelia didn’t actually steel, she just found something that belonged to someone else.

[Vladimir Beatrice]

Vladimir gave a sigh of relief, knowing that the girl who held a book in her hands was okay. As Vladimir looked back at the girl, he began to notice her eyes were as dark as the moon on an eclipse. He has never seen such eyes before. He couldn’t help by stare vaguely into them. However, his gaze was broken as the girl asked Vladimir a simple question, causing him to shack his head ever so slightly to get his head together.

“A- Am I afraid of you?” Vladimir repeated. Vladimir looked at the girl with slight confusion. Soon after, he took notice of the large distance separating him and the girl. He wasn’t afraid, he was just nervous. “N- No, I’m not afraid of you.” Vladimir said with a sheepish smile, taking one step closer to the girl to prove that he wasn’t afraid.

As the young girl tilted her head down, shifting her gazed onto her book, Vladimir’s eyes followed her gaze and noticed that she was pointing at Vladimir’s miza that lay on her page. The young girl asked Vladimir yet another simple question. However, this time a look of confusion fell on his face. “What’s that…?” Vladimir repeated the girl’s question, making sure he heard correctly.

Because Vladimir’s parents left him at Zeltiva under the care of Siobhan, he had to do errands for in order to have his dinner. Siobhan has a very bad back and is unable to carry heavy loads, so he sends Vladimir to pick up the food. Because of that, Vladimir understood what mizas were and how to count them.

“That’s a gold rimmed miza…” Vladimir answered. “… have… you never seen something like that before…? Vladimir asked, taking yet another step towards the girl, not knowing he had done so. The distance between him and the girl was about three or four steps away. This was slightly out of character for Vladimir, who would normally shy away from people. However, he felt as is a divine force was pushing him closer and closer towards the girl. Perhaps the miza landing on the girl before him was the work of both Tanroa and Laviku, answering his need of a person to socialize with.

Vladimir took another step towards the girl, this time his hand out. “Um… him if I had that back?” Vladimir asked with his hand reaching out. As Vladimir waited for his miza, he took notice of the young girl’s book. It was a sort of beginner’s book, filled with picture and large writing.

“Isn’t that a feather?” Vladimir said as he tilted his head slightly to align his head with the book, pointing at the vague poorly drawn illustration in the book. The young girl looked as if she was struggling to visualise the illustration as that object. Vladimir stepped towards the girl so he could help her interpret the image.

Vladimir used his finger to guide the young girl’s eyes as he explained what parts are which. “See, that part there is the hard bit in the middle, and those are the soft fluffy bits” Vladimir explained, unaware that his distance from a far was now close to the girl.

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia noticed that the boy seemed to be confused by her question, a little bit at least. She had spent a lot of time sitting around, and looking at people and their faces. Even if she had little knowledge of it, she could tell apart some of the expressions. Not actually knowing it was of use ”yes, is it silly?” she answered, as Vladimir repeated her question. She wondered about the item, now, knowing it was a gold rimmed miza. She knew that gold was valuable, and miza…she has heard that word being said between her parents, but it still didn’t make much sense.

”silly you! If I knew I wouldn’t ask, right?” she giggled, sure that she made most sense of the two. ”so…what is a…gold rimmed miza? Why would you need one? is it part of a game? It’s no fun playing with it…it’s flat!”She questioned the boy, being her age, it was highly natural for a lot of silly questions. Her idea of fun was a ball, singing a song or listening to a story, and reading. It surely didn’t involve small flat objects, why would Vladimir need it?

He had come closer to Amelia once more. He had his hand outstretched towards her, clearly wanting the miza back. It was his rightfully, and so she just picked it up, bringing it up to her face slightly, to look at the details it had. Nothing of mayor importance and so, without further delay, she handed the miza to him.

”feather” she repeated in a more silent and passive tone of voice. Carefully she listened to how he explained each part of the feather. ”My mommy use feathers to write!” she said happily. A quill, was really the closest thing she has gone to a feather, as she got too energetic around birds and ran after them…logically, scaring them all away.

Only now did Amelia notice that the boy had limited the distance between them. It wasn’t often people got close to Amelia, at least kids. Adults seemed to like her, but children her own age were generally hard to socialize with, as the small, energetic girl seemed intimidating. She herself, often thought it was the fault of her pale complexion and the dark hair? ”You like this book?” she asked, slightly pushing the book towards him ”I’m Amelia! And you?” she asked, her voice had clearly became a bit livelier.

”Did your mommy leave you here to, like me?” the question must have seemed odd, taken its content and the cheerful voice of the girl, but to her it wasn’t unusual. Her mother left her alone quite often. While she prefers her and her father’s company, she didn’t find it sad to be left without them.

[Vladimir Beatrice]

The little girl giggled at Vladimir’s dumbfounded response. “Well… You might need it…” Vladimir said, to the young girl, scratching the back of his head for a moment. “Well it can be part of a game, even if it is flat” Vladimir said as he got his miza back. “See have a look” Vladimir held the miza flat along the ground in his hand. He held the miza with his index and thumb as if he was going to Frisbee the flat coin. He them proceeded to throw the miza in such a way that that the coin skipped along the water in the fountain, hitting the other side and sunk to the bottom. “Heheh~ See looks fun right?” Vladimir said, with a light chuckle.

As Vladimir as beside the young girl and joined her in the book she read, he gave a small childish laughter at the young girl response about the quill, because he hadn’t of thought of the picture like that. It felt a bit odd for him to have another person share their point of view with him, it was far too alien. “Huh, well, it’s okay” Vladimir said, in response to the young girl’s question. He didn’t know how he felt about the book, it was a bit too simple and easy for him, but when he read it with the girl, it seemed enjoyable. “Ah, I’m Vladimir!” He laughed with a childish smile, facing at the newly acquainted Amelia.

As Vladimir read the book with Amelia, the girl asked him a very peculiar question. It’s not often people delved into Vladimir’s family life, this was also something that was new to him. “Um… I guest she did, so did daddy…” Vladimir said, looking up at the sky and into his mind. “But the needed to leave so we can live in a house.” Vladimir continued. Vladimir knew this because his father sat down with him and talked about why they had to leave, because Vladimir became emotionally stressed from the constant disappearance of his parents.

“What about you, Amelia? Did your mummy leave you behind?” Vladimir asked as he turned the page of Amelia’s book, looking at the new picture.

[Amelia Cross]

”need it? For what?” Amelia asked with clear curiosity in bout her voice and the way she tilted her head, eagerly waiting for a response of the boy. But she must admit that he made the gold miza appear fun, at least the way he did it. So far, she had seen people throw objects in the fountain, and throw pebbles against bigger surfaces of water, but not quite like this. ”what is that game? I don’t know it” Amelia asked. Sometimes it felt like questions were just randomly generated in her mind all the time.

Amelia wasn’t sure how to respond to the boy’s statement, of her book being ok. She liked these a lot better than the ones at the big library her bother toke her. These had big images, while the images she saw at that library, were far from that, the ones she found with vivid illustrations, made no sense to her! ”you like other books then? Ones with more words and less pictures? Like the ones at the big library?” once more a question from the top of her head, holding a little pause before”Vladimir” Amelia repeated, emphasizing the wrong parts of the name, but still getting it right, at the second attempt that is. ”it’s a nice name!” she cheered with her small arms being thrown up in the air, a bad habit when she was excited!

Amelia didn’t understand the concept of not living in a house if the parents wouldn’t leave. But something in the voice of the boy made her slightly bad and she didn’t want to ask any more about it. What was quite unusual for her, as she was curios and would usually ask just about anything. Then again, a lot of things happen for the first time with this little girl.

”yes, but I don’t mind…Mom says that I get troublesome when she has to go on errands or visit her students. So she usually leaves me here or at the big library” she explained, stretching her hands out to show how big the library was. ”and dad has a lot of work, I see him only when it’s dark, and usually I’m sleeping…” Amelia explained, it was far too usual for her to sink into details when she answers questions ”but…it’s ok because I’m used to being around these people” she explained, pointing her finger at a few artists that were earning money by drawing portraits. ”they are friends of my mom, so I’m not scared to be here!”

[Vladimir Beatrice]

“I don’t really read that much” Vladimir said, looking at Amelia. “I only read when my dad is home, and he’ll often read weird books full of weird symbols and weird pictures.” Vladimir explained about a grimoire his father had found during his travels. “He said that he donated it to the library, but only really important people can read it.” Vladimir continued.

Soon after his talking, Amelia began saying Vladimir’s name is a very odd fashion, pronouncing his name in an odd manner. “Vladimir, Vladimir” Vladimir said, trying to correct Amelia’s pronunciation. “You think it’s a nice name…?” Vladimir said in confusion. “I don’t think it’s that good of a name. I like the name Gunter, eh heh heh.” Vladimir said jokingly. Vladimir did think his name was a bit weird. However, it was something given to him by his parents. “Your name is a nice name as well. Amelia, Amelia.” Vladimir said, repeating her name and emphasising the wrong areas of her name, obviously having fun with her.

Vladimir listened to Amelia as she explained about her mother and father and how that she rarely sees her father due to work. “Yeah, I know how you feel.” Vladimir emphasized with Amelia. Amelia soon after pointed at various people who were painting portraits of people, some artist being better than others. “Wow know more people than I do, I only know that guy over there.” Vladimir said, pointing at a beggar in the distance. “His name is Simon. He likes to ask for food”

A few chimes had passed and Vladimir and Amelia had just about finished the book. With the book complete, Vladimir and Amelia had nothing to do. Desperate to find something to occupy the awkward silence they sat in, Vladimir looked around until his eye fell back on the young girl who sat next to him, where their eyes connected.

“erm… what are you looking at” Vladimir’s childish voice said. Just as Amelia finished speaking, a travelling salesman wandered about selling foods. The salesman was advertising his good and before long wandered to the fountain. The man said he was selling various foods that could be eaten on the go. Vladimir got an Idea and hoped that it would occupy the silence. “Hey Mister!” Vladimir called out, rising his hand and waving at the salesman. The wandering salesman turned his head towards Vladimir and wandered towards him.

“Why hello there young sir and madam. How may I be of service?” the salesman said. The salesman looked around about his early thirties, and wore a classy suit and was carrying a bag on his back. The bag looked complete full and looked as if it would burst in any moment. “well young sir, are you going to buy something for yourself or your lady friend over their?” The salesman said, implying Vladimir and Amelia was a couple as a joke.

“Huh? No!” Vladimir said, denying the salesman’s accusations.
“Hahah sorry, I was only joking young sir” The salesman apologized.
“It’s okay” Vladimir said “Um, what do you have to offer?” he continued asking to seem was the salesman was selling.

The salesman took off his backpack and laid it on the floor. The salesman’s backpack was different that normal one, the pack was able to unfurl itself out in a straight line, like a long strip of canvas. Vladimir inspected the salesman’s good and spotted something familiar, small pouch with a symbol on the end of the string that held the bag shut. “Can I have a look at that?” Vladimir said, pointing at the pouch. The salesman nodded with a smile on his face and Vladimir picked up the pouch and viewed its content. Pleased with the contents inside, Vladimir gave out a childish laughter and asked for how much it was. The salesman said that the whole pouch costed two silver rimmed mizas. Vladimir had enough mizas to pay for it and so he gave the salesman the coins.

The salesman thanked Vladimir for his business and returned to advertising his goods. Holding the pouch in his hand, Vladimir jumped up and plopped himself down next to Amelia with excitement. “Amelia, Amelia!” Vladimir said to grab Amelia’s full attention as he tossed the bag he held up and down. “Have you ever tried one of these!?” he said with excitement, not knowing that he hasn’t show Amelia was in the bag.

After Vladimir’s excitement he realised that he hadn’t shown Amelia what it was. Vladimir grabbed one end of the string and pulled it loose. Vladimir reached his hand inside the bag and pulled out a yellow pebble shaped item. The yellow pebble was transparent, smelled somewhat sweet and felt slightly sticky. “Here have one!” Vladimir insisted, giving Amelia the mysterious pebble.

After Amalia placed it in her mouth, Vladimir revealed what the yellow pebble was, “It’s called a honey lolly. My mum brought me some during her job, she said that it was ‘exotic’, but I don’t understand what that means… but they’re nice, right?”

[Amelia Cross]

”my dad reads weird books to, they are all so weird looking and have a funny looking symbol on the front…” Amelia explained, but didn’t give it a second thought. As she didn’t usually pay much attention to what he read, no pictures! ”but my mom reads cool books! They have these interesting symbols in them…er…music notes! When you read them, you can make music!” she explained eagerly, before Vladimir began speaking.

”I know! That’s what I said!” Amelia said as she listened to him say his own name, the little girl clearly missed the part where she was wrong. Yet, she didn’t miss the one where Vladimir was being wrong. ”No, no, nonon. No!” she said, waving her hands around in front of the boy, making it clear she wanted him to stop ”Its Amelia, Amelia Cross!” she said while waving her index finger at him, like her mother did when she was correcting Amelia. Though soon enough she understood, she understood that Vladimir was joking around and with a small blush she laughed, hugging her book close to herself. ”your funny Vlad!” she explained.

Amelia listened to the description of, Simon? Well, it didn’t seem like a nice one, but food was nice, she could understand someone asking for it. ”I understand the man! Everyone likes food!” she chuckled, the girl didn’t really eat much though, she preferred sweets over all other things, must be natural for her age.

”You” a simple and short answer, but true, her little mind was wondering about the boy. Nobody approached her, at least not her age, it was usually old ladies who were worried about Amelia. She had trouble understanding the boy, and even at her young age, she tried to do it.

With curiosity she looked at what the white haired boy was doing. Her head tilted in curiosity, she couldn’t; quote make out the words, but she had a good sense of the older man’s posture. He seemed to be nice, and polite. Mom always told her that men like this were the ones she should head to when she was having trouble, or hurt.

Amelia continued thinking over her mother’s teachings, all the way until her new friend came back and was clearly excited about the content of his pouch. He asked Amelia has she tried them before, didn’t even know what it was that she was asked about, making her question just how good of a memory the boy had. ”Silly! You haven’t showed me what’s in it” she chuckled, waiting for him to do so.

As soon as Amelia was offered the sweet, she didn’t think twice before popping it into her mouth. The girl rolled it around in her mouth, her face showing clear concentration as she was trying to tell apart the taste of it. It was clearly sweet, but there was something more in it that she couldn’t quite put her finger on ”Yes, it’s really nice!” she finally stated with a smile. ”your mom is really nice to let you have sweets, mine makes me eat vegetables and I usually must ask her lots, and lots and lots of times before I get sweets” clearly a tragedy for the little girl, but she didn’t let it get to her now, not when she had a friend with her!

Time passed, and the little kids seemed to be having a good time. The silence came up, but it was probably how things should go with them. After all, neither of them was quite used to socializing. By all means, neither of them was sued to talking with someone more or less the same age. Still, it didn’t quite bother Amelia, at least not visually.

But the one thing that did manage to get to her, was that her mother was still not back. ”I’m worried, my mommy isn’t back yet…” Amelia said, not quite aware that usually, she is gone much longer than this. ”maybe we should go look for her! What if she got lost!?” the girl almost panicked.

[Eldritch]

Amelia :

Skills
Observation +2
Socialization +2

Lores
-Gold Rimmed Mizas: Not good for games
-Vladimir: Boy with a gold Miza

Notes :

Nothing to note.

If you have any comments/questions/concerns about your grade please PM me and we will work something out.

Keep on writing!