We are going out {A trip of sight}

[B.D. Adams]

Benjamin hardly ever felt the need to go see, or bring someone, to him. Time was something he hardly bothered with and regarded as trivial. Thus was the same with the time that had passed since he had the conversation with Pris that resulted in him being her 'parent'. While he didn't care much for time, he had been thinking about Pris on and off - especially recently. This might be due to what he had witnessed and he thought that it would be something Pris should see. This was the reason why he was reaching out to her now. Benjamin did not appear anywhere; he only pulled along the line that connected him to that eccentric girl. A bit of a trickle it felt like heat, a trail of heat running along the cord until it would reach her, no matter where she was, and ignite against her skin as a spark. That spark would speak her name. Pris. Pris. not audibly, but a thought. Something that people tend to hear even if what they were hearing was only their imagination.

pris was at the inn, in her and dommy's apartment. sitting on the couch inside the intricate tent made of sheets some of which were hooked to the ceiling. at least she didn't have the air conditioning on full blast. and there was a reason for that. she was back in school. pris didn't like school very much and had a difficult time there because of her teachers, her classmates and her difficulty maneuvering through her own mind. but it gave her somewhere to be, things to focus on, and she was surrounded by other people. all these things kept pris from getting lost in her own warped thoughts so she was much more lucid than she had been when summoned benjamin at the cave. right now pris was doing her homework. it was math. which was always the worst. she had to do it very slowly, taking a lot of breaks, otherwise the numbers would just start falling off the page. she wished dommy was home. he helped the numbers stay where they were supposed to. she was just reaching for her phone to whine to him when the spark game. like a little zap. static electricity that said her name. now pris had a lot going on in her head, but she was compulsive about her own mind so she knew when something wasn't hers. pris shrieked softly and swatted at her head by her ear, like she was trying to shoo an invisible bug away. "shhhh!" she insisted as she shook her head back and forth, dropping her pencil to swat at her other ear too.

She accepted the call. That's what it would be associated to. The fact that she realized that 'something' was there and addressed was an answer. Benjamin smirked from where he was because in her answering the call he was able to do more than simply feel her, but he was able to see what was around. He could do this normally, but it would have taken more time and he would have been more of an invader than an invited guest. Though, she hadn't really invited him either by normal means. Benjamin had never seen her room before and so now he was taking note of the details in the room and in what she was doing. Homework. In the back of his mind he remembered having to do homework as a boy, but it was a different sort. Even as he was trained in his abilities he had homework. Being that this was something she was focusing on it was what he would focus on as well. The numbers and letters on the books page would start to move around, slowly, but they would move until they formed two words: "Hello Pris." How strange it might be to see a words made out of other letters numbers and shapes. Strange to the normal person yet he did not think that it would phase Pris at all.

it turns out the swatting at her ears and headshaking worked. after her hands flapped at the air on either side of her head the talking zap stopped. immediately pris calmed, and thought nothing more of it. this was a girl who had to deal with her walls whispering at her when she was trying to sleep. she didn't question things like that anymore. inistead she was just glad when they were gone. after a huff pris fished her pencil out of the crack of the couch where it fell, and she turned back to the problem on her page. her head bent to see the paper which was on top of a book in her lap, she erased three numbers. she was wearing one of her wigs today, a dark purple one that was wispy in a way that framed her face and shoulders. she was wearing an emerald green dress with a white with black polka-dot sash around her waist. her rights were black with purple stars all over them. her shoes were converse sneakers that laced halfway up her calf and they were red. once she was done erasing, her emerald green eyes turned to the page. "eep!" popped softly from her. it wasn't out of fear. it was just a reflex sound - she was startled. "wait wait wait. you're eating my numbers. i need those. i already lost two problems off the edge of the page."

As she was watching the words on the page gathered together into a two dimensional ball that spun around in a heap. This ball then brook off and formed new words that would sit upon that page. "You are required." That was all it would say for there was only so much space on a page of a math book when the words and numbers were being used to make new words and have them larger than the standard font. With those words Benjamin reached out across the connection they shared once more, this time sending with it an awareness of him. If she had not known that it was he who was causing the current state of affairs then this might help make it so. The awareness came as almost a hovering feeling of having someone looking over your shoulder. Benjamin still was not entering within the Inn, but his presence was there, within that singular room. Even as he was there in this form he was searching for other sources which might hamper his current quest. But he didn't feel anything. Perhaps this was his lucky night.

dommy was at work. so was donnie. and like pris, lumie was doing his homework inside the blue box which was a short distance away from the inn. the teenage kitsune just enrolled in pris' grade, and lumie's guardian was a rather clever man who could and did get lumie into pris' grade and pris' classes. the boy was raised a guardian, and he was guardian-ing pris during the school day. the girl watched the words pull up off the page and swirl around. her lips parted into an awestruck 'o' shape, and she made that exact sound long and drawn out. "ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...." her head snapped down, following the travel of the words as they set themselves back on the page. "oh." different kind of oh. this one was spoken out of understanding. That understanding spread across the hairs on her upperarms and the goosebumps that were tickling themselves over her shoulder and back. it even made her shiver, the feeling. that was how pris felt benjamin's hovering. and she knew who it was. was he here? pris closed her book - bad idea? - and let the other book and the paper on top of it slide out of her lap as she got up off the couch and emerged from the sheet tent. "poof?" called loudly as her emerald eyes darted here there and everywhere. "i have a phone..." said in a 'duh' sort of tone.


Had she given him her phone number? The better question would be to ask whether or not Benjamin used, or had a phone. Pris had closed the book and thus cut off that particular way of communicating. However, she posed another way. The phone. Using electrical means to communicate was slightly more difficult and it was not something that he readily practiced. Why should he when it was much more effective to plant thoughts into a persons mind? Therefore Pris would be devoid of any response for him for a handful of moments. And then he would reach out in another way. Benjamin entered more into the area where she was, yet he was still unable to be seen he would be able to be heard. "Say my name Pris." His voice, the one that she would hear was different than the one she was use to hearing. This one was more light, as a breeze, but it was clear and direct. With the words came a trickle along her back. Pris may soon find that pricks of warmth or electricity were a common thing to experience when around him because it was something that he did quite often and for different reasons. This time it was so she would know it was him, even if his voice was different. This spark of warm was almost as a fingers fanning out from her backs center and curling up and around her shoulders. "Say it."

she was creeping around the main room, bent downward in a slight crouch as she tip toed forward to try and peep into the kitchen area to see if he was there. she didn't get all the way there, though. because when she felt the trickle down her back her eyes sank shut. the warmth drew a soft exhale out of her as she straightened up with a soothed shiver. snuggles. if pris actually let someone touch her, if it was something she wanted to touch her, the girl was actually very affectionate and enjoyed being close and physically cuddled. now pris had been very adamant about poof not touching her. but this reaction said the opposite, that she would enjoy the touch. maybe pris was adamant about proof not touching her for a reason other than her own want. her body language said she didn't mind the touch either. her hands crossed over her chest in an 'x' shape, her hand touching her opposite shoulder, fingers stretching out with hesitation. her mind considering the possibly of touching the sensation that was touching her. there was a very clear picture of an electric socket in her mind. that's what her warped thoughts told her it would feel like. bzzzzzzt. she didn't reach all the way to touch, though. she did listen and obey, however. "beeenjamin." she spoke out into the room. her eyes remained close. pris was probably going to very much regret showing him the reaction she just did. she'd be angry with herself for spilling a secret.

There it was. Pris had said his name and said it as he wanted her to say it, the way that was special only for her. And he also saw something that he would fill away for a later date or occasion. He always sought to capitalize on opportunities when he could and what he saw was an opportunity. However, that was for another time. For now he was making his entrance into her room, something that she may not see being that her eyes were closed. The entrance was not grand, there was no loud noise of feel of electricity in the air, winds, or the world breaking apart. No rumbling, no movement, the only thing that Pris would feel was a stronger dose of his presence for he was no longer far away but right there in her room. One minute he was not there, and the next he was. It was that simple. Once she opened her eyes again she would find him standing arms reach away and dressed in black jeans that bagged around the top of his heavy boots. A mate copper belt and an open black vest were the only other things he wore. No shirt and nothing on his arms. His hair was cut short as always and his face freshly shaven. He was looking straight at her with his arms holding down at his sides.

after she said his name, she made a wrinkle-nose face. for that brief moment she looked like a disgruntled bunny. it was the sensation that saying his name gave her - the heart skipping. the third time it happened. her impossible brain made the connection immediately and now pris was sure. maybe it was why when she opened her eyes her lip was thrust forward. a petulant little pout. "i have a pho-o-o-ne," she repeated with childish insistence, arms dropping to her sides hands balled up in little emphatic fists. as her arms dropped the little plastic and gossamer fabric fashioned wings bounced like they were trying to help her fly. if he'd just used her telephone her heart wouldn't have gone on heartbeat strike. "poof." calling him by his other name. the one that her heart kept beating when she said it. some people would have made another comment. about how bare he was. not pris. maybe it made sense to her. bears were bare. so were wolves. and her hormones didn't see him like that. if her hormones were even awake yet.

"You never gave me your number." She hadn't and he retorted with that because it may have been the logical response. Never mind that he didn't need her number to call her, that was not the point. Benjamin was dressed. He did not appear this way to entice any reaction from her in that regard. He may have worn it for her to see that he was not hiding anything 'up his sleeve' to use against her later. It was all hypothetical instead of being literal - he had no need of objects to reach her now. "Contacting you on your terms was never part of our arrangement." He saw the wings upon her back and a ghost of a smirk shadowed his lips. "Are you wanting to fly Pris? That shall be made possible when you come with me. Tell me. How are your eyes." Her eyes. He knew that was something which was different about her now and he inquired over something that he may have already known the answer to. May. It didn't mean that he did. Often times people gave their opponents more power than they truly had and it always worked to his benefit.

"ppppfht." pris made that fart sound with her tongue between her lips as she looked to the side, folding her arms across his chest. didn't give him her numbers. he was poof. couldn't he poof her numbers with his poofness? "doesn't sky fly? you're the one that painted me that. they don't work. they're my sparkle jacket, magical they make teachers glare and frown." pris said that last part about her wings upsetting the adults at her school with a proud little smirk. she didn't believe the wings were actually magical. but even without magic they annoyed her teachers and pris had liked that response today at school very much. she didn't have to dress like everyone else, trapped in the uniforms. she had a doctor's note. "my eyes. they tickle in my sockets sometimes. they say they can scratch off layers. like turpentine." Like turpentine does to paint, she meant. her eyes did what they always did. she was looking here there and everywhere, every few seconds, as always. the way her eyes scratched layers now had changed her drawings. they were more complex. the minute details were kind of incredible. so much more pouring out of her portraits of people. so much more specific.


He met her flap of tongue with a flat look and did not move from where he was. "Adjust your wings Pris. We are going out." It wasn't something that he suggested that she do, if was something he was telling her to do and he did it not quite unlike any parent who told their child to get ready to go, they were leaving. "Your math will keep until you return and there will be time enough to get back to it." Though the other presence in the Inn was missing Benjamin was not going to dally. The less time he was here the better, even if there was another here that he would not have minded paying a visit to., that would come later. Then he did extend a hand out to her, his left hand, palm up and arm at a perfect ninety degree angle. He stepped no closer to her, it was for her to adjust herself as was needed in order to take his hand. "Give me your hand."

she liked his flat look. it made her beam. a beautiful blooming smile. it seemed pris was in one of those moods. where she was happy when something she did caused a reaction. a needling mood. even better he said they were going. "out?" she asked it with wide-eyed wonderment. like it was a wish come true. pris loved going out instead of doing her homework. she did it all the time. she just hadn't been doing her math long enough to give up on it yet. "purr," it was said with great excitement as she immediately got ready to go. she didn't adjust her wings, not right away at least. she went over to her big black shoulder bag instead, slipping it over her shoulder. she was heading back to him and just starting to reach a hand behind her back to straighten those wire-fashioned wings when he dropped the bombshell. she stopped short, and this was a different wide-eyed look. the reflex she couldn't stop. her left hand holding her right protectively. pris was very, very particular about her hands. "poof and my wings can really fly?" she suggested it in a teeny hopeful voice. as an alternative method of them traveling so he didn't have to take her hand.

It could be that he was asking her to extend a bit of faith in him by asking her to take his hand. He remembered how she did not like to be touched and with the things that were possible with his touch being wary of it was not foolish. "If you want to go out then you must take my hand. You do not have to hold it. One single touch. A brief touch. That is the requirement." He was unmovable on that point. Benjamin did not adjust his hand or his position. He said right where he was with his hand out for her to take. "Touch my hand with yours Pris and your wings will fly and your hands will be guarded. Nothing will happen to your hands. Trust me." Trust me, that's what he said and he expected her to believe it. As stated before, he hasn't lied to her, why would this time be any different.

"to my hands," she echoed. on the emphasized word pris' eyes looked right at benjamin's. just for that precious second of emphasis before her eyes dropped down to look at his hand. she hadn't stared at it for more than a few seconds before the fingers of her right hand [the one that was getting coddled protectively by her left] curled. looking like little claws. her eyes scratching at the surface of benjamin, maybe. seeing a bit of the wolf. she bit on her top lip. trying to keep in the usual reflexive snarl. she put the emphasis on the word hand to let him know that she wasn't dumb. she knew she had a lot of other things that could be happened to. but even if she knew that poof had said it was the requirement. those things her teachers insisted couldn't be pushed aside with doctor's notes. requirements didn't budge. shifting her weight from one foot to the other she lifted her still-cradled-by her-left right hand up to her mouth in a cupping shape. from behind it pris whispered to the wrinkles on her palm. "whatever he says don't change how you crease" he might have heard her whisper that. then pris stood a little straighter. that that would help. putting her gaze on the empty space next to benjamin's ear as she reached out that precious right hand and barely, barely, barely touched it against his.

[B.D. Adams]

Just as he had said, nothing would happen to her hands. And nothing did. In fact, nothing seemed to happen at all aside from whatever she was already feeling due to the anticipation of touching his hand. There was nothing to be felt from that touch. Senses can be fooled, tricked into only feeling the things you would want. This could be the case here. There were other things to feel As soon as Pris made contact with Benjamin the scene around them changed and they were no longer within her room at the Tel'Ranaemyn Inn. Instead they were standing in the center of a market square, a busy one it seemed during the middle of the day. Around them there were people going about their business, criers calling out their wares while others practiced the art of haggling. The language they spoke was Arabic, something he assumed she did not speak which is why they were at this particular location. But he did not bring her here for shopping or anything trivial like that. Off to the side of them there was a man sitting in a meditative pose on a woven mat. He was dressed simply in a tunic, a stripped cloth tossed over his shoulders and a turban on his head. A wiry beard coved his leather face. In front of the man was a brown woven basket with a lid and in the man's hands was a wind instrument. There was an audience around them and the man was addressing them as he sat there. The man stopped talking and brought the instrument to his lips and a soothing melody sprang from it that caused the basket's lid to move. Soon thereafter the lid rose and a cobra's head came out, pushing the top aside. The snake hissed at the man as it rose up and the crowd around him stepped back. They all seemed to be frightened, but the man with the instrument was calm and continued to play even as the snake looked at him in a threatening manner. "Do you see the man and the snake Pris. Look at them and tell me what you see happening."

a touch was a touch was a touch was a touch even if nothing happened. because the touch happened. and pris was compulsive. who knows what she would think was different about her hand that would never ever occur to anyone else and would be of a logic only pris could understand. maybe that's why she wasn't looking at her palm when she took it back and she just shoved it into the pocket of her bright green dress. the change in location was enough to make her mind drop the issue of her hand. because of the big questions. where. what. why. no how, she knew how. he'd told her how, he made her wings real wings and they were here. all these people. and the different language. it was enough to make pris wince. she didn't know where to look. her eyes were switching locations second to second and while she immediately had a sense of the whole landscape as far as what and who was in it, the details, it didn't help answer her questions because things were just unfamiliar. could it be she was even taking a tiny step closer to benjamin? drawing nearer to what was familiar to her. she was grateful when he told her where to look. he gave her a focal point right when everything was threatening to warp out of her uncertainty. her emerald green eyes snapped to the man with the snake and she said almost instantaneously. "he's got snake in his playing fingers. he's speaking the snake's language."

She could move closer if he wanted. His hand was withdrawn and he crossed his arms over his stomach as he stood there a sign that he was not going to reach out and grab her. Benjamin also did not move from where he stood, he stayed there and watched the snake charmer and looked down at her. "Is what why he is not afraid of the snake as the other people around him seem to be? Because he can speak the language of the snake?" She had said it was a language and he would go with what she said to understand. "See how the snake looks at him, it hisses its discomfort yet it stays it's place. Even with that the people around are afraid. Can you tell me why Pris?" When he said her name he took his eyes away from the man and directed them down to her.

when he said they were going out....well pris had a different opinion of out than he did. because his out seemed a lot like school. just as hard as looking at numbers and trying to figure out what relationships they made when put together. she wasn't staring directly at the snake or the snake charmer. her gaze was ping ponging between them. her weight shifting jerkily between feet, almost in huffy protest. normally her teachers didn't bother her with questions. they didn't like the answers she gave. so this was the first time pris was put on the spot since a substitute teacher had made the mistake of calling on her last spring. "because he's got snake in his fingers," she repeated with a slight whine to her voice. she thought that was the answer to the question. the toe of one of her sneakers scuffed into the dirt of the marketplace before she let...no, before she made herself look steady at the snake and charmer for a few still seconds. "hooks," she blurted. "snake in his fingers attached to string and hooks he's fishing but not for fish and the snake didn't like his worm but he ate it anyway." then pris looked away. not out to the whole market place but down at benjamin's shoulder.

Interesting. "You believe that he is some how controlling the snake. " by bribery, by the hooks and what he was fishing for. "Nice analogy." She was uncomfortable with telling what she saw, he could tell as much but that was not the point. She was going to have to talk and give her opinion. Unlike her teachers or those in her class Benjamin was not going to berate her for what she said or how she saw things. He asked because he wanted to know. "Was he born that way, or did the man acquire the snakes in his fingers by another means. Who would ever want to control a snake . . . " The last he drew out and his words hung in the air, drifting along with the notes the man played from his instrument. The snake was swaying in the basket and rose higher. A few people in the audience ventured bravery and edged in closer around to the charmer but coward back once the snake turned it's hiss on them. "What do you know about snakes Pris?"

"no," she was quick to object, shaking her head back and forth a few times. "i know what that is, analogy. i learned about it. it's not. it's what i see," pris sounded exasperated. but think about it. every time pris did a portrait if the person didn't know her well enough. they looked at it and told her she was a silly goose and that what she drew wasn't really a portrait. they didn't understand that it was. because it was how her eyes saw. was poof not going to understand too? the possibility. it was unbearable to even consider which is why she sounded melancholy too. and then again. question, question, question. each question he asked made her mind switched gears and move on another track. like flipping a switch. leaving any prior thoughts unfinished. when people asked her a lot of questions pris had a hard time keeping up which is why she pulled her hand out of her pocket, her thumb touching each of the beads on her bracelet. she was counting them. to try to keep her mind on the same track. a trick her doctor taught her. by counting she could make her mind see all the questions, the questions just became part of the count. "his string insides move like worms in a jar twisting around his organs munching on his heart...." it was what she saw, but that didn't mean it was literal. it usually wasn't literal. but it was the best answer she could gtive to his first question, "who would ever want to paint a picture cut potatoes wash the floor?" but people did those things as jobs. she stopped her counting, looking down at her hands as she rung them together with a frown. "i met a snake. i crashed his party. he could hiss and even though he didn't have scales all his guests knew to stay away. because he could strike. snakes strike and they swallow whatever they want to swallow whole without even having to chew and he could do that i saw it in him. he wanted me to paint his portrait. he said i should go back." probably not what benjamin was looking for but it was all true. she met arman and she saw and heard snake.

On the contrary, what she said was enough to make a smile tug at the corner of his lips. "You are right Pris. Of course you know you are right. Snakes are not only creatures like the one in the basket, but they also appear in a flesh form. Though they appear human, a snake is a snake no matter what form and people avoid them because they are afraid of them." pausing once more. The performance was ending, it was marked by the music quieting and the snake slithering back down within the basket. "Yet, while other people stay away from the snake for fear of what it can do, you, like the man there defy it. Why." He had questions. He had questions so that she may think of the answers and possibly learn something of herself in the process.

"the snakes don't know what they're trying to swallow whole. because they only have looking eyes they can't see. they can't see me." like she could see. which to pris was deeper than looking. looking was just about outsides. not about the insides that pris saw all the time when she stared. "if they swallowed me they'd see and they'd spit me out." she sounded so sure of that. it had happened enough times before that it made pris sure that there wasn't a snake who wouldn't decide to spit her out, so to speak. even her own mother had spit her out by abandoning her without telling her. pris looked at the snake just before it disappeared and then at the charmer and then nowhere in particular, her eyes keeping in one location for no longer than a second. her eyes landed on benjamin for a precious second because she had a question of her own. "what's the difference between a wolf and snake." though she asked it in a flat tone, it wasn't a rhetorical question. she wanted it answered. which is why she was looking at different spots on him. instead of looking away. drawing her upper lip back in a little snarl. "grr." she was seeing his wolf easier than she had before. even with her moving her eyes every few seconds it started to peak out just before she switched her gaze. that's the way it was with everyone now. she was seeing things sooner and faster.

The wolf of him should be a lot easier for her to see. That was what he was naturally, something he had been born into. The rest, that was a 'gift'. Now to her the wolf she saw may even be accompanied with flames and the distinct aura of evil, all depending on how much her eyes could see and how long she let her eyes see him. But for her, he wouldn't let more seek through. Some things could not be seen with the naked human eye. "This wolf does not lie. The other wolf that you know will not lie. It is not in a wolves nature to lie for there is no point in it. Snakes will beguile to get what they want. Wolves have no need. I don't play with my food." Did he say that she was food? It could be interpreted that way, but it wasn't the case. Benjamin had no desire to eat Pris. "Does that make you feel better?" Did he really want to know or was he asking her that question for her own comfort. " I would never slither on my belly." In his voice there was a hint of disdain when he spoke about snakes. "You will be able to control snakes Pris. And possibly other creatures that feed on fear. Animals and humans alike."

maybe if she were to look at him longer. she wasn't though. the fact that she could see the wolf so easily was reason enough to not look at him for very long. she'd learned very quickly from her 'new' eyes. after she saw one layer it peeled away and there was another and another and another staring showed more and more she didn't want to know what came out when the wolf was peeled away. she was still getting comfortable with the wolf that would take time. but ironically she hadn't asked the question for comfort. it was an answer her mind wanted in order to make its compulsive connections so she asked it. which is why she didn't think he was implying that she was food. because her mind kept up with what he was saying. he didn't play with his food and she had seen him a lot and even in a red riding hood cape. if he wanted her to eat he would have eaten her by now. "no." she replied. just the one word, no clarification. maybe he'd get from her demeanor that there had been nothing to feel better about in the first place. pris laughed. sort odd little chortle because her mind was showing benjamin slithering on his belly. "ssssss," she intoned as her hands made a slither motion. first horizontally and then she started to make her hand a vertical slither until her hand froze and her his froze and she looked at him maybe even in the eyes or at the space just between them. because he'd surprised her. "why?" she didn't question that she'd be able to or how or doubt. maybe those would come next. right now her mind demanded why.

"Why?" It was curious why she asked why but that because he had thought that the answer to it would have been obvious. However, what was obvious to some was not obvious to others. "Why indeed." That was when he moved for the first time since they arrived and he crossed his arms, Benjamin turned from the scene. He didn't tell her to follow for he assumed that she would. Why would she stay behind, if she wanted to, she could. It may be the thing she wanted. Nevertheless Benjamin was walking, and at a steady pace that was easy to follow. Though he was moving no one was paying them any attention, not even a glance towards them the entire time. It was almost as though the others there could not see them and, if Pris happened to look at the dirt ground there would be no mark of his footprint, or hers if she walked with him. "Because of your eyes Pris you do not see things the way normal people do." He talked to her, she should be there to hear. "Fear is a strong element. It is very powerful. If you can grab a hold of the things that people fear then you can use it against them. Do you understand what I am saying?"

[B.D. Adams]

she did follow. there was nothing here worth staying for besides him. so when he started to walk she did too, keeping a pace that let her stand one step behind him and slightly to his right. so that whatever they walked towards, she was half-shielded from it. "no no no," she said emphatically looking at him from over his shoulder as she shook her head firmly back and forth. "why do you want me to do that." it was something that pris couldn't do right now. and since poof was the one telling her that she would be able to do what she currently couldn't do, her warped brain told her that meant he had something to do with being able to do it. and then she leaned back as they walked, focusing her eyes on the tons of things they were passing and no longer him. "i see. but not fear. not always fear. what i see is fear when the person fears what's in them. but if they fear spiders or something i don't see spiders. you're not afraid of wolf. old beak wasn't afraid of the birds nesting in her sockets. not until they attacked." she made a lemon face. "those questions dried up without answers because of that." she hadn't noticed the lack of footprints. she wasn't looking behind them. she did notice no one was paying attention to them. but that wasn't uncommon for pris. a lot of peopled to behave like she wasn't there.

"Sometimes, Pris, people do not know that they are afraid of something until they are faced with it. There are those who claim to not be afraid of anything." pausing he turned his head to look at her and then back forward. They were walking through the market. "Those people lie. Everyone is afraid of something. Even the Devil." He tossed that bit of information in there. "You will be able to do what I said because you do it already.' From the direction he was traveling it appeared that he was leaving out of the market place. Even when they passed directly under a person they were given no more attention than a passing breeze. And, if Pris was watching him, she would see that people were not moving out of his way and he was not moving out of their way. Instead, if a portion of him seemed like it would hit someone it merely passed through. The same effect would happen for Pris if she realized it and didn't seek to move out of their way. The gate where they were headed was more condensed with people. "Did you not know this? Some of the things you do make people wary.. and some of the things you do cause people to act a certain way. If you use that properly, you can get them to do whatever you want them to do. "

even the devil. that example was empty for pris even if it shouldn't have been. somehow in pris' mind the devil was no different than a boy who was no different from an old man who was no different from a waiter. the only people who were different in her mind were doctors. and speaking of doctors. "people get mad sometimes. at the portraits i paint. like my doctor. i drew him and even though he asked me to he yelled and he even threw things. he demanded i leave and even though my mom complained he wouldn't see me for a month. now he doesn't let me draw anymore." he was treated to that whole story. pris' way of telling him that yes she noticed that the things she did made people wary. she just never noticed it could be fear that made people act like that. "properly, properly," she echoed in a mutter after he said the word. properly. what was what? all she'd heard over the past four years was that she couldn't do anything properly. there was a funny lift in her step, pris raising up onto tip toe, everytime someone walked through someone or someone passed through. "brrrrr." she hummed the first time she noticed it happened. she second she turned around to see what the person looked like after walking through her or she walked through them. and the third time pris reached out bared her teeth at the person with her arms hanging like a t-rex, and she tried to claw at them as they went by. "some fear," she scoffed. –

If he had been another type of man he would have laughed at her actions. But it took a lot of a certain something to get Benjamin to laugh or produce more than the hint of a smile he showed on rare occasions. He had slowed to make sure that she was there and surviving through the throng and that was when he saw her dinosaur impression. "It takes a certain level of intimidation for people to be afraid of what they cannot see. And demeanor, you're missing both." She knew that they could not see her so why was she trying to scare them? Perhaps she thought herself to be a type of ghost. He turned and continued where he was going. "Your doctor did not like what he saw. Why? Was it a desire of yours to continue making paintings of him?" He walked through the open gate and headed towards a small tent that sat just off to the side. In this area, the sun was brighter and the landscape started to change. Whereas before it was sand and stone and ground began to change into grass and thin trees.

that's exactly what she was thinking. it's possible that she believe that what she saw wasn't actually happening. that she was having an episode, and that her eyes were peeling back onion layers so that she was existing in what was underneath what was really happening, instead of being in what was really happening like every other normal person. she was used to things like this. sometimes she reacted angrily or violently to them, but poof the parent was here. there was no reason to be upset. which is why she was busying herself with 'boo's. once the t-rex arms didn't work she tried floaty arms with flitting fingers. "boooo!" she said nice and low as she flitted her fingers in someone's face. "boooooo-oooo-ooo!" she wailed in a more banshee like tone as she wriggled her whole body as it passed through someone else it. he might not be laughing. but that last one, it made her laugh. the whole situation was making her laugh. a high-pitched, wild little giggle. "de-meanie." she sassily said that word-play on demeanor to benjamin as a retort to him saying she was lacking. pris was behaving very different with benjamin than she ever had before. their was something missing... oh yes, of course. the fear. benjamin wasn't poof the pirate to her anymore. he was poof the parent, and between the 'work' he'd done on her last they met and her own shift in perception, there was no present reason for her to feel discomfort with him. so benjamin was now seeing behavior that came from pris only when she felt safe. only a small handful of people ever saw that. "i saw his chest open. the skin off and the ribs cracked open like double doors and there was nothing inside him but cobwebs where his heart should be. and he had no hands. so that's what i painted and he didn't like that and it was 'who do you think you are' and 'you're a hateful spiteful girl'. i didn't to paint him at all. he asked me to. i didn't want to see what was on his insides."

"Heartless." That was his interpretation of what that picture meant. It was to be expected of a person who's picture had no heart. Art was open to personal interpretation and that was his. he could be wrong. "There is something else that I would like to show you Pris, and I think it is more important then the lesson about the snake. " HE had to wonder if she got what he was telling her about the snake and fear. if I did not fully register now then it may register later. If it did not register at all, he would have to teach it in another manner. When he got to the tent, which was now in a wooded area, he stopped. This side of her he did not mind and that was because it was a true side. it wasn't something that she was pretending to be. In the end everyone is revealed for who they really and the sooner a person came to grips with themselves then the sooner they could evolve into what they are really meant to be. "This next part is for you to do alone. You will walk through that door and tell me what you see." When Pris would go through the door, if she did, she would find herself in a single small room, wall to wall with full lenght mirrors. Even the ceiling. The only thing that was not a mirror was the floor.


heartless? pris shrugged. she just drew what she saw. most of the time she drew people that she and her odd mind didn't feel like thinking about, so she didn't once the portrait was done. her doctor was one of those people. more than that, he was one of the last people she wanted to think about. as for the lesson about the snake, she understood what he said. she didn't know if she believed some of it though. she kind of thought he was giving her too much credit. but it was nice change. most people gave her too little credit. when he stopped she stopped. when he said she had to go into the tent alone, pris head snapped so her green eyes could stare at him. she'd accept the sight of the wolf to be looking right at him when she said. "don't move." pointing at the spot where his feet were. so far she had been very lucky. when she make demands like that of poof - like the don't touch demand - he had listened to her. so she cashed in on that now to insist that he couldn't leave her here. only then did pris enter the tent. thank god it was a tent and there wasn't a door to shut and lock on her because pris came running back out as if she was being chased like and angry mob, wanting to cling on him in desperation but stopping just short and forcing herself not to. which ended in her bending at the knee and hopping from foot to foot as she grabbed at the air just in front of him saying with a terrified whisper. "no floor no floor no floor there's no floor in there i'll fall..." there was a floor, in the literal sense, of course. but when pris had looked up at the ceiling which reflected the floor it wasn't the floor she saw in the mirror at all. it was something else. somewhere else? pris problem with mirrors was not her own reflection. she just focused on her own reflection as her doctor's answer to keep her getting lost in her actual problem with mirrors.

He had almost expected her to come back out. In truth when she walked away and entered in he had started counting in his head and hadn't gone past the six count before she came running back out. He knew she had a thing when it came to mirrors. She didn't like to look at herself. Might it be because she didn't like what she saw, he didn't know, but he was going to get some answers and this way was safer than venturing back inside of her head. And it would aide in her development. "Whether or not there is a floor is relative Pris for I have made your wings able to fly. Did you forget?" A near questioning tone. He was standing in that spot much like he stood when they were watching the snake: arms crossed and still. "You will not fall. Is that the only reason why you came running out here?"

"the floor is not my relative!" shot back at him with a very disagreeable tone. the girl had balled her fists, and after that outburst she stamped her feet on the dirt five times to let him know just how cross she was with his answer. stamp - stamp - stamp - stamp - stamp. stupid wings. stupid flying! she leaned forward and up on her tip toes to try and get on an even level with him. even though she felt short of that goal, she still bared her teeth at him before swirling around in a huff and stamping her way back into the tent. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight....she wasn't coming out this time. there wasn't a single peep from inside the tent actually, no sounds of movement or anything. her heartbeat was steady and calm, so was her breathing....and if it was possible for benjamin to sense such things there was the taste and scent of triumph on the air. pris thought she was so very smart. closing her eyes as she stood in there. at least he was right about the floor. she had to give him credit for that. her wings seemed to be working just fine.

Fortunately for Pris she did not continue the staring contest with him because it would have been one that ended badly for her. Not for him. It was something she probably did not want to experience for while he had some patience with her it was not infinite and if he was slighted there would be retribution. Even as she bared her teeth at him a heavy and foreboding presence started to rise up which quickly dissipated once she turned away. She may have had that triumphant air, but he had an arrogant one about him once she was inside the tent. "If you are not going to do as I say then the next time you turn around you will find yourself back in your room at the Inn alone with your studies." He was not going to bide his time on stubbornness. "Open your eyes." He knew that she was not looking because there was no emotion coming from her and Pris was not an emotionless being - she only responded to things differently than others. "Open your eyes, look at yourself in the mirror, and tell me what you see." Covering the points. If she had walked straight ahead then upon opening her eyes she could even see outside of the tent, the door reflecting in the mirror. Of course, Benjamin was on a side of the door so he wouldn't be seen .

he had good ears right? so he'd hear that familiar high-pitched and petulant whine from inside the tent when he said if she didn't do what he said she'd be back with her homework. she didn't question how benjamin knew the trick she was doing. he was poof. that was all the answer she and her warped mind needed. words followed that whine, but only the first two were intelligible. "but i...." the rest disintegrated into jibberish sounds. inside the tent pris was hugging her arms around her middle, like she felt stomach-sick. she crossed her legs at the ankles, most of her weight in her left foot though when she rocked a little bit from side to side the weight would trade between her right toes and her left foot. the jibberish was pris trying to talk herself into being crazy enough to open her eyes. "this has happened before, this has happened before already he doesn't take you back you know he doesn't take you back." what made her say that? it was what she felt. pris knew this picture like a painting she'd seen hanging on a wall in a museum. she was having a deja vu. and because in her deja vu she had opened her eyes right now, that's why pris opened her eyes. "black pupil black pupil black pupil black pupil..." she was saying that firmly to herself as an instruction. she needed to stare right at the black center of her eyes and not move them. maybe then she'd have a chance at not getting lost in the, "door stairs [black pupil] sky clouds [black pupil] under my feet [black pupil] blue the sky is blue and there are people here moving...." she was now saying 'black pupil' as loudly to herself in her mind as she could. and yes, what she said was what she saw in the mirror. like to her a mirror was just a window or a glass door. -

[B.D. Adams]

He heard her words perfectly, even the whine that came from her. In one sense he was amused at her discomfort, he couldn't help it as it was part of his nature to take pleasure from the suffering or misfortune of others. Even if it happened to be the ones he took care of. She saw sky, and doors, stairs and people. That she said people is what stood out to him the most and he thought on it for moment, letting her be alone with her visions and the quiet before he spoke. "The people Pris. Do you know them? Do they have faces?" There was more stress on the question of faces than if she knew them or not. At times when people saw other people in dreams or visions those people did not have faces, merely impressions of faces. He was aware that what she saw wasn't a vision, but it was her sight. Still, he would know the answer.

now she was growling. she had to be making the snarl face that she did every time she stared at or thought about his grandmother what big teeth he had. "grrrrrrrrrr-owwww-ww-ww!" was the exact sound she made, and she was bouncing her body near the end of the sound which is what caused the breaks in it. it was like a cat not wanting to take a bath as it was being held over the water with no hope of escaping beyond wriggling free. that's what pris felt like with these mirrors. and she couldn't wriggle free of this, because then she'd be back with her math homework. he wanted her to pay more attention to what she was seeing. "my doctor says no don't look. he says if i look i'll get lost like people get lost in television and then i think they can reach out and pull me in. how are you going to keep them from pulling me in if you're out there poof i don't like that parents don't want their kids pulled in you can't just stand out there and yell 'come towards the light carol ann' because what if I can't HEAR you from the other side of the MIRROR..." this wasn't pris stalling. this was pris being serious. the whole time she rambled all of that, and probably part of the reason it was as bad a run-on as it was, is because she was repeating 'black pupil' to herself silently as she stared right into mirror eyes still just like her doctor always advised her to do. benjamin wasn't the first to work with pris in front of mirrors. and yes, pris absolutely just quoted from the movie poltergeist. she watches way too much television, especially for how impressionable she is.

"You doubt my ability to take you from wherever you are and bring you to me?" Even though he was outside of the tent his voice was as clear as though he were standing next to her in that room. There was perfectly good reason as to why Benjamin was not there in the room with her and unless she pressed the issue of him being next to him he was going to continue where he was. "You're not so weak minded as to get lost within the mirror of what you see. If they start to pull you in revoke them for what they are and they will loose their hold of power." he had forgotten that there were things that would take explaining if a person was not brought up in the habit of doing certain things. Pris was brought up in a different way then the other objects that he played with. He would have to teach until she began to catch on. "Are you afraid of being drawn in?"

sigh from inside the tent. not just any sigh. a very big very put-out full body slouching down and even bending at the knees to droop like a wilted disgruntled teenager sigh. "what are they, poof?" it was a pris trick question. because if he answered that he knew what they were she was going to challenge him about why he made her go in here in the first place to ask her the questions he did when he already knew the answers. but she didn't even let him answer that. she answered it herself. "mirror-people? HEY MIRROR-PEOPLE?! UP YOURS!!" wasn't she a little angel? she was doing what he said...with her own flair, sure, but it was what he said! "i never said they had any power," she added with a grumble. "they could just want to pull me in to dance with them." not likely, but it was her being contrary. notice she didn't answer his question about fear. pris never answered questions about her own fears. ever. just ask her doctor. a second sigh, this was slow. the sound of a person trying to steady themselves. her eyes were closed, but this time it was to prepare herself. 'i'm going to open my eyes,' she told herself, 'and keep mirror-me in my eye corners.' she thought if she kept an eye on her mirror self she wouldn't get lost. "i don't know them they do have faces and you never told me why you wanted me to control snakes." did he think she forgot about that? noooo. she was just waiting for the right time to ask again and she thought now was a good time since she'd just been good and done as she was told. just as she promised herself, even though her gaze was darting here there and everywhere in the mirrors she kept her mirror-self in the corner of her sight - the number of the mirrors there helped with that.

The amount of mirrors was one reason why Benjamin did not enter into the tent. The other reason . . . "Control snakes and you will get the things you want." and the things that he wanted but he did not voice the second half. There was always something in it for him or else he wouldn't waste his time. The time he was taking with Pris was not a waste of time. "There are things you want, are there not? If you're a good study you will learn how to get them." Though he stayed outside of the tent he moved to the other side of the doorway, it afforded him another view at her as she stood there. "Your images. Are they in an order or are they happening all at one time." How was it for her, staying in the room with the mirrors, he couldn't help but wonder. Her actions spoke of the fact that she didn't want to be there yet she didn't ask to come out nor was she backing out towards the door. She took his threat of leaving serious. It also told him that she wanted to experience this in some form for if she didn't then she would have left and went back to her numbers.

where there things she wanted? yes. and what she wanted was never a secret because pris was constantly going after whatever it was she wanted most at any given time. to be okay, to be coddled by duck...to have a parent who parented her. that last one was the only reason she was still in the mirror room. it had nothing to do with what she was seeing. it had everything to do with benjamin and the fact that she wanted to stay with him as long as she could get him to stay. "control snakes and you'll move into the inn?" see? what she wanted was no secret. "this is HARD. i can't see your questions...." see them? she couldn't see him. she couldn't stay on the phone for more than five minutes because of the same focus problem. if she couldn't see the person she was speaking to, or their 'words' at least it started to pull at her compulsions and make her ill at ease. she took a few steps backward. towards the way she came in. if she was closer to his voice maybe it would be better. or maybe.... suddenly he'd see her hand pop out of the tent. her back was to the tent's entranceway, so she was reaching behind her to reach back towards him. fingers wiggling in a wanting way. did she seriously want him to take her...? "wait!" a little shriek. the hand disappeared back into the tent and she folded her arms tightly across her chest. "stupid stupid stupid," she grumbled at herself. asking to hold hands? she'd forgotten herself. arms crossed she went back to staring at the mirror. "your question isn't right for what i see. what do you think i see? this isn't a picture show. of photos. this is...people. they're the mirror people. they live on the other side of the mirror. they're doing life things. going in and out of their doors. up and down their stairs."

His eyes narrowed and focused in on her hand when he saw it peek through the tent doors. An open invitation. If he hand had stayed there a moment longer he would have clasped it in his own and what she would have seen then in the mirrors of the tent would have been all together different. To take a firm hold of Benjamin, or have him take one of a person, was an overwhelming experience for the other and, unless he meant to touch them with a certain meaning in mind, one barely survived. Good thing she removed her hand. He wasn't out to destroy Pris, but he would have given her a different experience. Her request of him put a thought in mind, one that brought a wolfish smile to his lips. Benjamin took a step forward and faced the door of the tent. He was placed perfectly right behind her, however, even though he was there, he had no reflecting. No reflection yet she would be able to tell he was behind her as he gave off the same feeling as he did when he was in her room: the feeling that someone was looking over the shoulder. Effectively he was. "If you learn to control snakes, and get rid of the Daimon's protection over the Inn, I will move in." It wasn't something she should doubt. He said it and that is what it would be. If she could accomplish both task. Though if she could do those task then there would be no reason for her to want to be in the Inn other than the satisfaction of getting a job done. "If you want to see me, and stay in the room, call me. Otherwise tell me about the Mirror-people. You see them going about their days and lives. If you could go where they are, as a person from the other side of the glass, would you be an outsider or would you turn into one of them."

the word he said was one she didn't know. so her brain made its connection to the closest one that sounded like it that she did know. "demon?! demon's aren't snakes, demons are demons does it live in the basement or the attic or under the stairs, trolls under the bridge i don't want to pay any tolls is it hanging from rafters posing like bats..." she wasn't making any sense, even to herself. there was a demon in the inn poof had said and she didn't like it or know where it was hiding. now she was having trouble standing still in one spot, he'd easily be able to see her hopping back and forth like she was jumping foot to foot on hot coals and she was shaking her hands like they got caught in a very big cobweb that was sticking to her fingers. it was probably why she misinterpreted what he said. because he'd just offered to let her stop looking into the mirror, didn't he? and to spend time with him in the soothing safety of her room? she thought he meant in the future. call him in the future in her room and he'd come like tonight, until the day she managed to get rid of the inn's demon. so she just answered his questions about the mirror people, though she was getting frustrated. why couldn't he just see what she could see? "outsider. we were JUST OUTSIDERS, poof, you KNOW how this works. Booooooooo?" she made her t-rex arms and snarl face and the motions even though her back was to him. maybe she thought he could see her. "they have doors and stairs and if i stare they open. Go places. in the mirror world. they don't even notice there's no floor only clouds." what she was trying to say, and maybe he'd understand it, was this: if she went through the mirror, she'd be a traveler there just like she and him had been a traveler here. they wouldn't know she was there, at least they never noticed her before after they 'pulled her in' in the past, and they'd walk through her and she them and that was that.

[B.D. Adams]

He couldn't see what she was seeing with her sight because he was not in her head. He didn't have her eyes or her ability. If he did then he wouldn't have to ask the questions. He would be able to see them for himself. Her frustration was riding on him. She was so close to him and that emotion was so near he could taste it. He stayed his position a moment longer, letting the feel of her emotion waif over to him and enjoy it. He wanted to push more, see what else she would do in her frustration. He was slightly surprised that she did nothing but move about in her own way in that room as he thought that perhaps she would have struck out at the mirror in some physical way. That was the nature of average people. If they were faced with something in front of them that they didn't like they normally struck out against it, but Pris showed no physical aggressive action to what she didn't like. She yelled at it, yes, she stomped her feet around and went from side to side, but there wasn't anything physical. Curious in deed. It was now that Benjamin stepped forward and into the tent. The moment he stepped his foot to the floor of the tent every mirror in the room turned black and was devoid of any reflection at all. Any light that had bounced around the room from the opened door ceased as if by an invisible barrier had been set in place. Everything around them was black, the panel of the door holding the only light. The proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Benjamin could see her, he knew where she was and he took slow steady steps towards her. 'Day-mon, Pris." He said the word slower, breaking it in half. "Not demon. We call them Daimon's, people in your realm and what you may have heard them referred to are Angels." The steps he took circled around until he stood in front of her, arms still crossed over his chest and his eyes boring into her. "You've met the Daimon. Would you accept the task?" His voice took on an empty quality now that he was in the room. Sounded as empty as the room was dark.

pris didn't want to get physical with the mirrors. she could lash out, strike out, but the mirrors didn't have arms she could bite and she didn't trust the mirror people to not pull her in if she got close. if one looked at it logically, the closer pris was to the mirror the less places she could shift her eyes to, the greater risk of her staring and once she was staring she'd be 'pulled in'. she never understood what she saw when she looked into the mirror, why there were people there that she didn't know and why they went about her lives like they did with her watching them, which is why her answers to benjamin's questions were garbled and probably confusing to him, and why she was getting frustrated trying to explain what she saw. now if he'd asked her to draw what she saw. what she would have given him with her art would be far more concrete. especially now with how her eyes had changed and her art making hands had changed because of her exposure to him and what he could do. even though it went dark in here, pris' eyes didn't stop bouncing from place to place. she did relax though. her whole body released the tension the mirrors had given it. she went still. "i met an angel?" she sounded doubtful. her hands reached in back of her, fingers clasping at the tips of her pretty wings that she wore. fae wings, not angel wings. but wings were wings. "who? who's the angel and why the mirrors? what did you want me to see and that was a doctor thing you just did putting me in here." she wasn't happy he did a doctor thing to her. which is why she was scowling and not looking at him at all even though she could feel he was looking at her.

"Why the mirrors? Because you don't like mirrors. Because it is something you do not like I surrounded you in it and made you look in it, another thing you do not like to do," Said smoothly, words still empty. "The things you don't like you have to be able to face with the same confidence you have with the things that you like." As before, once Benjamin had his position he stayed. No shifting or twitch, he was still. "If you are so obvious with the things you do not like and show such resistance when it comes to dealing with them then someone will be able to take it and make you do what they want you to do. Control Pris. it's about control." And it was. He could leave her alone in the tent of mirrors, with no way out, or as long as he wanted and watch how it changed her. He could offer her relief from the thing that frustrated her and it would be accepted because she wanted to do free. There were few people who tortured themselves on purpose. Even those people could be tortured if one knew how to go about it. "Shall I give you a hand mirror to look in every day until you get past this frustration and can look into reflective surface as easily as any other?"

he was talking about mirrors but her brain was nagging her with something else. her weight shifted, one foot to the other, in a single rock. "you didn't tell me who the angel was. because of you tell me i won't do it? it better not be duck. let's get rid of the bitchwitch instead. you can have her room. i don't like how close it is to mine." oh pris. what could he expect from her? she was just sixteen and she knew what she wanted and what she didn't and what she liked and what she hated. she made a lemon face as she realized something. the line between a doctor like the kind of doctor she had to see and a parent was really thin. because what benjamin said to her about the mirror was a parenting thing but what he threatened her with was really like a doctor assignment. she scoffed. and then she scoffed again, glancing at him for a baby second before she put her eyes elsewhere and kept shifting her gaze ilke normal. two scoffs to emphasize just how scoff worthy what he said was. "poof. Nothing i look at is easy if i keep looking at it. i don't stare into mirrors. i don't stare into you. i don't stare into my doctor or my teachers or anyone in my classes or people on the street or trees or cats or dogs. i don't stare." the one difference between mirrors and everything else she listed was that mirrors were not alive. the other things were. but because of some...trick of her mind, what was in mirrors WAS alive - all those things only she could see in them lived. but there were a few living things she stared at okay. dommy. donnie. lumie. she left those out. maybe she'd learned that from him. 'unsaying' things.

For all his talk of mirrors it was curious as to why the mirrors and light vanished when he entered the room. Perhaps it was that he didn't like mirrors either? Or it was something entirely different. Whatever the reason was he had made sure that they were no longer in the room. The reason why they had vanished was never questioned so the answer would not be given. "You don't have to stare into the mirror or even preen yourself in front of it. I want you to be able to be comfortable around them and not go out of your way to avoid it. To not be wary if your eyes happen to pass over it." He used the word 'wary' instead of 'fearful' as he knew that she turned off from the word fear. Though those two words were not the same they alike enough for the substitution. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" For she might not understand why he wanted her to be comfortable around things that gave her discomfort. "The Angel.... I will not tell you who it is, but it is not your precious Donnie Duck." He was another matter but one that he was not going to interfere with as nothing he was doing was harming his plans. "Hold out your hand."

she frowned at what he said. and she frowned even more when he added, 'do you understand' at the end of it. from the sullen look of her eyes and the down turn of her lips it might be obvious he'd hurt her feelings. "i understand." she tried to put emphasis on the second word, to be insistent, but the words came out barely louder than a whisper. "i can do that. and i can preen. i have to look to put on make-up. and make my hair how i want it. i just stare at me. that's not what you asked me to do. you didn't ask me to look and make myself comfortable looking. you kept asking about the mirror people. you wanted me to look at them. that's different." she was protesting but it was deflated. it was very much how she was with her teachers sometimes at school when they told her that her answer was wrong but she knew it was right. she felt like he didn't understand her and so he'd assume she didn't understand. hence why he'd ask her flat out if she understood. "all i have to do to look in a mirror was change something, i didn't like being in here alone and you wouldn't come in and now i can't show you..." her eyes were looking around the room. at the mirrors that were gone. poof like all the things he poofed that's the assumption her mind always made and it cost her better answers because it kept her from asking questions. when he asked for her hand she looked down at his feet. fingers slowly letting go of her wings, she was still holding the tips of them. she brought her palms out in front of her and she puckered her lips and blew her breath down over both of them. after a thoughtful pause it was the left out she lifted, blowing her breath over it again before she held that one out. "nothing is going to happen to my hand." that was their agreement. she was repeating it.
-
It was an argument of semantics. He had meant for her to always look in mirrors the same way he had wanted her to look into them for this exercise, aside from the fact that he didn't know she used the mirror for her daily routine. Thee were some who did so without the use of a reflective surface, she could have been one of those people It wasn't worth it to go over it again for he would have to think of another way to word it. It was one of Benjamin's faults. He was use to being in the persons head. Communicating thought and feeling, meaning, was a lot easier when things were transferred that way and nothing got lost in the translation of words. But he hadn't touched her and while he had access to a great deal of her thoughts he was not in her head and that made the difference. For a bit he only looked at her, studying and he looked down to her hand. He extended his own towards her, passing his hand over her arm and her hand and the heat would be felt. The warm soothing heat that gathered at the palm of her hand and spread up her arm and dispersed through the rest of her. "You've done well.. I would like to reward you with something." He knew she was upset, disgruntled, pick a word, and when people were like that they were less likely to be willing the next go around. "If you are to control snakes you need a charm." in her palm where the heat was collecting appeared an emerald on a burnt gold chain. There wasn't anything to be felt of it but the cold of the item as it would have been if she had gotten it from a shop. "For you, Pris. Consider it to be protection if I am not near. If you wear it anywhere on you, and you need strength, think of it, you will receive it." He waited for her response.

she sighed, when he passed his hand over her arm and hand and the warmth crept inside and seeped into her cranky cracks. he had access to her thoughts? he might pick up this one, because it was clued by her body as much as it was with the flickering images of her mind. thoughts in her mind were light a badly wired light bulb flickering on and off, rarely lighting the same picture or place it had the moment before and to most people the sequence of pictures made no sense. to her it did, it was her mind. anyway, the thought. in her body it manifested with a slight lean towards him when the warmth came from him. the way her body responded, even with the half-shut of her eyes, had a similar echo to how she'd reacted to him making himself known at the start of this night. the mental picture that went with it was pris resting on him, but his body was stretched out into a large plush square. a pillow. bizarre but true. want for affection, touch. she didn't say or do anything about the thought though besides the slight lean forward. the fact that what he gave her appeared right into her hand was enough to make her shriek. she looked up at him like he'd betrayed her or something. a trick. the cape, the colors, the painting he'd shown them to her first and it had been up to her to take them. for a second he'd have to wonder if she'd drop it, the way her body seized up with tension like she expected to be burnt or bitten. but it was cold. just cold. so she didn't drop it. and her gaze changed from betrayed to leery. small improvement. she lifted her hand and bent her head. nose nearly touching the emerald for close inspection. "strength....from where?" there was another series of connections her mind was making - get rid of the daimon. day-mon is angel. you know the angel. will you do it? i won't tell you who the angel is. that series of connections had her asking something most people probably wouldn't. "is the angel going to frown around it?"

"Possibly. If it happens to focus upon it." He was talking about what he gave her. "There's nothing to it that would light you up as a beacon. Don't look at it as though it's a snake and will bite you. I delivered it the way that I did so that nothing else would be added to it that's not already there. Would you have me take it back so that I could dangle it in the air in front of you, holding it, before handing it over?" It wasn't a question meant to be answered. He had caught the glimpses of the pictures, but he had noticed it earlier. The way she responded when she had asked him to be her parent was enough to let him know that this was an effective measure. He didn't simply do it because it was effective, but the feeling behind it was genuine. It was something that he did not mind sharing. "The strength will come from me and it will be ineffective against your bitchwitch. You can use my strength - it will be physical strength - against her but it will be as though you are fighting me without all the tools. I advise against it." Never said that she couldn't try. "If you ever choose to use it, when you do you will feel a pull and your body will feel aflame on the inside but not burn. You will be safe. Pull from it too long or too often or too hard and you are inviting me into your body. Do not make that mistake unless you are prepared for the consequences." He paused for a moment to let what he said linger. "Use it to fight against the things that threaten you and find your own strength."

"specter specter angel detector." murmured to herself. her conclusion based in his answer. what he said next made her look up from the emerald. she looked at him with just as much curious scrutiny as she'd been looking at the stone. her head slowly tilting to the side as her lips parted. did she just hurt his feelings? the arrangement of the words was like how she arranged words when she was pouting and cross. even if he didn't sound that way, it didn't matter to her. the arrangement was familiar and that was enough. "tsh tsh tsh tsh tsh tsh." the sounds her daddy used to make when he was bouncing her on his hip when she was crying. one of her very first memories was of her father soothing her that way. which is why the 'tsh' came out in a timbre that wasn't quite hers. her mimic of her father. she obviously wasn't going to bounce benjamin but she did make flutter-finger gestures with her free hand over his heart. like she was fluffing the air in front of him like a pillow. "purr. The oxymoron loves poof for not adding to it." there. she had soothed him. at least she felt she had, and that was the important thing. she hadn't meant to hurt his feelings so since she had it in her brain that she had, she had to fix it. and then she beamed, holding the emerald over her heart and rolling up on her toes and looking like the most innocent young girl that ever was. "i never said that i would use it for the bitchwitch." could he see the halo of innocent innocence she was trying to exude? she added with a shake of her head, "i told you that i don't want to be ilke the bitchwitch with your bitemarks all over. i'm not her. i'll use it safe." maybe she assumed that's how de'ryanna ended up the way she had, because he'd given her one of these and she'd used it wrong?

She wasn't patronizing him, he wouldn't look at her action with that meaning in mind. She was doing what she did to try to make things better. From that perspective it was fine. Still . . . "Good. We're going home." He said that very pointedly. That they were going home. It may even appeared to be a sudden statement. "You need your rest." Did he think that she would use it against De'Ryanna? Possibly. If the circumstance came up and she may not think about it. He raised his hand up and passed it over her face and down the front of her, like he was wiping something. He was. He was wiping the area where they were and when his hand raised back up the blackness of the room was replaced with her room at the Inn. Everything was as it was when they had left, except for one thing. Her math homework was completed and the answers were correct. They had been gone for hours, time passed like normal and now the hour was later and he thought that she had enough mental strain without having to go back to numbers in a book.


{ . . . .The End}

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