Just One Person. [Open]

[Dell Nova]

Damn it was cold. Well maybe she should have expected that, not only was it winter, but it was sort of you know…night. It gets a hell of a lot colder at night in Vermont….would that have a tie to skiing? Maybe. Dell wasn't much of a skier, so she let that train of thought chug right on out of the station just as soon as she had thought it. She hadn't been able to sleep, so the only logical thing to do was jog….at 11pm at night. Yes, you either had to be insane to do this….or you had to be Dell. No one was really out this late at night, so she was spared the odd looks…somewhat, there were a few night owls that cocked an eyebrow as she ran past. Those looks; however, were ignored. Dell's mind was wandering over various things. The kids she had trained today. The people she had spoken to. The people she had annoyed that day. Then she noticed. As social and active as she was...she rarely spent much of her free time with any of her coworkers or students recently. Dell bit her lip. That was bad. That wasn't fun. In fact that scared the hell out of her. Was she alone now? She hated that feeling so much....

Dell shivered as she ran through lightly forested areas. Her shadow clothing thickened to keep in more body heat, adding a new scarf to black outfit. She didn't reflect the moonlight, Dell probably could have ran on by, unseen, if she didn't have that obnoxious red hair of hers. But that didn't bother Dell at all. She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to be ignored. Black hair made her apart of an ambiguous crowd - a large crowd at that. Being apart of that crowd, being one plain person in a crowd of fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, one million, scared the hell out of her. She kept going, her speed increasing until she was nearly sprinting - someone might think something was chasing her. Dell just wanted to stop thinking - stop dwelling - on the things that scared her. She wanted to ignore them, lock them away in the far off crevices that lay in her mind and seal them there forever. Dell didn't need this negativity in her life. She might be a shadow manipulator, but that doesn't mean she had to be stereotypically emo...

The meta slowed to a stop and let the smokey wisps float freely away from her mouth as she panted. Dell folded her hands behind her head and breathed in deeply, there was a cramp that had been bothering her for a while now. She couldn't take it anymore. Her breathing was ragged. How long had she been running? A mile? Two maybe? Dell had no way to keep track. Her brown eyes looked out to the dark waters to her left. The moon was looking at herself through the mirroring waters - the vanity of it all. Dell didn't look at the moon directly, it hurt her sensitive eyes to do so. The sparkles and glimmers the glowing orb created were beautiful, even Dell thought so - and she didn't even like the moon all that much...it was just a watered down version of the sun after all.

Did she have to run home now? No, she didn't think so. She didn't have to work tomorrow, well not until the afternoon at least. Dell picked up a rock and skipped it - well she tried to, the rock merely crashed into the water with a spiteful 'clumping' sound. The redhead laughed, placed her hands on her hips, and looked down. She said aloud, not sure if anyone would be around to listen to her talk. "I'm usually better at this...." Lie. No one had ever taught her to skip rocks. She had only seen it in movies - and, big shocker, they weren't very good teachers when it came to the trivial things such as this. She squinted her eyes and looked up, away from the moon, and up at the stars for a moment. Dell knew then that she would always be small. One person, just a person, in a football arena crowd....

[Nina Levitra]

It was a dark and clear night, but the lack of storms was balanced by the delightful cold. Yes, it was winter in Vermont, but it was a good winter, with crisp, cold air and a rather insistent wind whipping around. The moon was rising and Nina glanced at it for just a moment before rolling over and scratching the back of her ear contentedly, feeling far too happy. However, that happiness was to be expected, as Nina was actively rolling and bounding through the forest on all four legs, blending into the darkness as a solid black husky, having the time of her life. There was almost nothing that could compare to the fun of a good winter's night. Well, there was popping balloons with a straight pin or sitting on Willow's head and messing up her hair, but other than those things, being a dog was just ridiculously fun.

Nina liked the winter, liked the cold and liked the bareness of everything. Seeing trees without their leaves reminded her of the twists of wire she used to make using those little bits wrapped around the ends of bread bags. They were delicate and easier to see through, but in a completely natural way, and all the evergreens were fun to brush up against and get that sticky green smell. The forest was a great place to be, but Nina had learned that she had to at least pretend to be careful at night. Being a chicken after dark meant that she looked oddly delicious, but as long as she was a big fuzzy dog, nothing messed with her, not even owls. That gave her the freedom to roll around and just act silly, which was exactly what she was doing when she heard the heavy footfalls and coarse breathing that meant someone was running.

Being herself, Nina's first instinct was to immediately bound over and see if this strange running person wanted to be her friend, perhaps by tackling the unfortunate soul. However, before leaping more than eight steps forward, Nina remembered that being tackled by large black things at night was a frightening experience for most people, and instead turned and looped back a little ways to a hollow tree with a Ziploc bag inside. She had bags of clothes hidden all over the place, just in case she was ever out and about and suddenly needed to be human for some odd reason. Focusing on very human thoughts, Nina felt her spine shift and stretch as her tail disappeared and a weird squishing feeling as her nose was forced back to a human size. It was all terribly normal, but as soon as she was back to her regular self, Nina remembered that it was indeed winter.

"Cold cold cold I miss fur." Nina whispered to herself, quickly opening the bag. She mentally congratulated herself for having found one of the bundles that included pants, and she dressed quickly, trying not to shiver. Three minutes later, she was dressed in blue jeans and an adorable green top with a glitter shamrock on either cap sleeve. "Time for friendship." she said carefully, pulling at the bottom of her shirt before dashing forward. She wasn't wearing shoes of any sort, but she had run around barefoot before and was fairly certain that if she avoided very sharp sticks and pieces of glass, she would be fine. "Now where was that person..."

Nina arrived just in time to see her Potential New Friend toss a rock into the water. Normally, people who liked water tended to be fairly approachable and very low on rabies. This was a good sign! And as Potential New Friend announced her normal skill at rock throwing, Nina felt it was appropriate to go talk to her.

"Hi!" Nina said brightly, walking to Potential New Friend, who seemed to quite like the color black. "I think you're very good at throwing rocks into the water, if its any comfort! Also my name is Nina!" Introductions were important after all, and Nina wasn't sure if she was approaching this one correctly. "In case you were unsure, I'm not a dog at the moment!" Willow always said that clarity was key.