They understand me!?

[Jezebel Ivaskov]

##JEZEBEL##

_{Tags: Autie
Outfit}

Jez has always loved flowers.

And her love for them grew when she found out that they talk to people they find worth talking to--but maybe she didn't listen closely enough, or maybe she never said the right words to invite them into a conversation, because they never seemed to respond to her attempts at socialization, as far as she could tell. It could be highly frustrating, annoying even, when you spoke so kindly and so often to a creature, only to have no response whatsoever.

And so Jez was exploring the school grounds today, walking by the pond for the most part, when she spotted a patch of wildflowers growing with the grass. She walked over and crouched down, murmuring softly to the plants, whose only response was to sway with a particularly strong gust of the breeze. Jez moved a lock of hair from in front of her face to behind her ear and tried not to let her irritation show, just kept talking to the flowers, giving them compliments and asking them their opinion of the weather. "Do you find summer weather completely pleasing, or is it too hot? And I wonder, how does the breeze feel to you poor small things? Is it more like a mighty wind, or are you used to these by now?"

The flowers only stared.

Jez sat on the ground, not caring about the grass on her dress, or the dirt, just wanting to hear the flowers. She was beginning to lose faith--what if her father was right, and flowers don't talk back? Or worse, what if they spoke a completely different language, one that Jez didn't speak, and so her attempts were in the completely wrong language, and they were simply too polite to speak up and correct her? Oh, dear. She hadn't thought of that. She decided to ask them, slipping in and out of the two languages she knew. "Scuzati-ma, flori. I wonder if you might nu vorbesc Engleza--that is, not speak English, and so that may be why you do not speak to me?" Jez failed to see the flaw in her own reasoning, though, that was she was only speaking English and Romanian, when the flowers could be of any descent and speak any language.

Well, she may or may not figure it out eventually. For now, she was concerned mostly with hearing the flowers' answer.

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn had, once again, dodged a class on algebra. She didn't care for letters masquerading as numbers, and had slid out of the door wordlessly when the teacher had turned towards the window. It was then easy as pie to sneak with no loud footsteps outside to the wonderful fresh summer air. Her hands darted up to the sky and she spun, her colourful outfit twirling around her, beads clacking together. She'd not really been planing to socialise, at least, not with people as she'd walked on her way to the pond.

She was about to sit and talk to the lilies in the pond but she noticed the young girl talking to the flowers, and frowned a little, redirecting her step to flomp next to the other person and cock her head. "They say they're ever so sorry but you don't have the right power to hear them. And your dress looks like bluebells." She said simply, running her fingertips over the flowers and grinning when they waved back at her. "But they appreciate the conversation. Most people just pick them." She nodded, then put her hands in her lap and offered a hand out.

"I'm Autumn." The redhead smiled, glad to find someone else who appreciated the nature in the world. "And I agree with the flowers, you do have a very pretty dress." She flushed in anguish, feeling her hand-me-down dress wasn't anything like as wonderful as it could have been. And with all this saving towards escaping the horrid Hammel, she hadn't had the spare cash to peruse the charity shops for spare fabric and dresses to make into something nice. Fiddling with her beads, she paused.

"I can make the flowers dance, if you'd like."

[Jezebel Ivaskov]

##JEZEBEL##

_{Tags: Autie
Outfit}

Jez knew absolutely nothing about how schools worked--still, even after the time spent at Kocher. She simply couldn't comprehend how the schedule worked, jumping from one place to the next just to get an education that, in her opinion, wasn't even on anything relevant to life. How was that supposed to work for any single person? And so, although she was probably supposed to be taking some class on history, or maybe even physical education, she was exploring. Inevitably, she ended up here, speaking to the girl that apparently spoke to the flowers, too.

Or, maybe not. Maybe this girl was the only one in present company who spoke to flowers. That was severely disappointing to Jez, but exciting and intriguing as well. She smiled brightly at the older girl, her sweet soprano voice coming out in a near rush. (Near rush, you see, because it is unladylike to rush. So she is only near to doing it.) "Thank you very much. So, what you mean to be saying is, you can speak to the flowers? And you understand them? And wait--that would mean... Do they understand what I have been saying?" Because that would make her so very happy to be able to have conversations with the flowers, however indirectly.

"Jezebel. And I do love your dress, too." Jez reached out, touching the fabric. It felt like something she would love to be able to wear. "I wish I had something this soft. I only have dresses like the one I am wearing, and do very much dislike how uncomfortable these can be for when I go on..." She searched for the English word. "...adventures. I would gladly trade with you, or even give you your pick of any number of my dresses, if I could have something as wonderful as your dress." And it was true. Maybe, in return for speaking with the flowers, she would let Autumn have one of the dresses she had yet to grow into. She had what could only be called a surplus of them, surely not something that a girl her age required.

Her smile got considerably wider, and she gasped with delight, clasping her hands in front of her chest. "Could you, really? Oh, I would love that, Autumn!" This girl was officially her new best friend, whether she liked it or not. Jez would follow her anywhere.

Anywhere.

[Autumn Buckland]

While Jez didn't know how schools worked, Autie didn't understand why they existed. They didn't teach anything important, like how to survive in winter with no money, or how to avoid being caught by a selkie and drowned. They simply talked about such fluff as punctuation, formulas for making acids (which was a waste of time when you knew Gerri as well as she did) and how to add letters to make a number. Nothing helpful at all. The fact Jez thought exploration was more important that some piff about running - Autie knew how to move her legs, thank you very much - meant that she was already dear to the redhead's heart.

"I do speak regularly with the flowers. And trees. And hedges. Grass is very difficult to listen to." She explained eagerly, gesturing down at the ground. "It's lots of very very small voices all talking at once and whilst I'm sure what they say is very interesting, they can't seem to let each other speak." She'd given up on conversations with the grass a long time ago, she didn't like headaches. When Jez asked about the flowers understanding, she nodded somberly. "They know many secrets, and sometimes they cry and wail when they're picked. It's horrible." She breathed, as though it was the worst imaginable punishment for anyone. "Imagine just sitting around happily enjoying the sun when someone wrenches your legs off and twists them, then sticks you in some poxy indoor place in a vase away from your friends. Then you slowly die."

Scratching her nose to avoid blushing, Autie looked at her own dress. She supposed it was soft - it had been hand washed for many many years, and even with these odd things called washing machines that were readily available in the dormitories, she sat and washed all her clothes in the bath. "Adventures are wonderful." She agreed, nodding seriously. "But I would love one of your dresses, and I can show you how to make one like mine if you'd like." She lilted, her Irish accent flaring up as she grew more excited. She did reach out to touch Jez's dress, her lips parting in shock. It was so... firm and scratchy! Nothing like what she imagined it would be like at all.

At the request of her new found friend, Autie nodded to the flowers and whispered quietly. "Dance, please?" A few flowers turned to face her, and then, all at once, they swayed, their petals furling and unfurling, stems weaving back and forth. "They don't teach anything worth knowing in this school." She eventually said, looking a little fed up with her chin in her hands. "Nothing about how to find a unicorn, or how to sing to mermaids. Not even a something about how to avoid having your voice stolen by an enraged nymph."