Just Another Day (Ari)

[Damia Owens]

It was nice to get out every once in a while, and there was no better place to go than the lake. The sun was out and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. A light breeze kept the temperature down and, so long as she stuck mostly to the shade of the trees, Damia was comfortable despite the lightweight fabric that kept her arms covered. All in all, it was perfect weather by her standards.

Damia arrived at the lake before noon and spent the better part of a couple of hours making her way around the lake. She kept an eye out for anyone she might know. Maybe Ricio would be drawing or painting or something. Having not seen him or anyone else, she considered approaching a stranger. Maybe she could make a new friend or at least some conversation.

However, despite the wide variety of people out and about today, Damia didn’t see any openings - at least, none that she was willing to take. Every time she stopped and thought about approaching someone her thoughts got the better of her. If not for one reason or another, Damia just couldn’t make herself do it. She didn’t have the nerve.

Defeated, she returned to where there were a group of picnic benches. Only half of them were taken, but that wasn’t the problem. The trouble was that Damia’s favorite was taken, yhe one at the center, closest to the lake. She considered sitting at one of the others, however, as she approached the tables, she found herself uncomfortable with the thought and continued to walk passed. That way no one would think she’d been about to sit and had changed her mind. It was at that moment that the occupant of her table chose to leave.

Damia watched him as he wandered away. Now she didn’t know what to do. Go back and take her table or just keep walking? Everything inside told her to keep walking. No one would be the wiser to her intentions. But… Damia didn’t want to lose her table again. Only, if she went back it would be obvious that she had returned just for that one table. Everyone would know. Know that she had wanted to sit, that she had changed her mind and walked away, and then that she had changed her mind again to return…. that she couldn’t stand to sit at a table other than that one.

Damia both kicked herself mentally and attempted to remind herself that no one except her cared whether or not she kept walking. Then she fortified her nerve, turned and took her table. The girl sat on the bench closest to the lake, facing toward it as she often liked to do. She still felt awkward but hoped the feeling would pass soon.

[Ari Jasinski]

He got up and walked to the lake with his bag of cracked corn, tossing a couple of handfuls on the ground near the shoreline. He'd made a mental note to carry the stuff anytime he was going to the lake, just in case he saw any hungry ducks.

Besides, he felt a lot less dumb if he had something to do besides just sit staring at the water by himself. And somehow, he had a feeling if he took a book, he'd end up just staring at the page, thinking of all the things he should be doing. He'd spent years living and breathing work, he wasn't going to stop overnight.

He'd been thinking seriously about what he'd talked to Greg about-- starting to have dinners for people at home. He wasn't the only one tired of going home to nobody, and he'd met enough people by now that he was pretty sure he could fill the house up at least once a week or so.

Thinking it over, he turned around and went back to his table-- to find someone else there! It caught him a little off-guard, so for lack of anything more sensible to say, he said, "It's a great view, isn't it? I should probably be doing something else right now, but it was too nice a day to stay in-- and anyway, ducks!" he added, waving his hand back at the ones eating the corn he'd just put down to show that he wasn't just rambling on about waterfowl for no reason. He had a reason: ducks!

[Damia Owens]

Still restless, Damia closed her eyes and focused on trying to banish her thoughts. Seriously, no one would care that she had sat there. She opened her eyes after a moment and glanced around to be sure. It didn’t appear that anyone even noticed her. Good. Looking back towards the lake she gave a bit of a start. He’d returned for his table?!

It took a moment for the shock to settle in, but while it did her thoughts whirled. She’d been right. That was all the proof she needed that her self-consciousness was justified. People always noticed the little things, and they didn’t let them go - they judged. Damia should have just kept walking. Now everyone here must realize the awkward situation she’d put herself in.

Damia was about to stand, ready to flee, when she started to put together what he’d said. He wasn’t mad she’d taken his table? He wasn’t mocking her? “Ducks?” Her gaze followed his gesture. She saw the ducks picking at the food on the ground, but it took a moment for her to process. Oh… ducks. Not that she understood what he was getting at any better. Damia’s expression softened a bit. “They are ducks.”

She said it as a simple fact, a confirmation of his comment, and added a small nod. What else was she supposed to say? Maybe it would have been normal to apologize for taking his seat, but he hadn’t said anything about that and she wasn’t comfortable broaching the subject herself. Then a thought struck her, he’d seemed rather excited about the ducks… was that normal? Perhaps she should share in his excitement. “They’re cool, the ducks.” Not the ideal choice, but it was the best she could do.

[Ari Jasinski]

"They really are. I mean, I don't know them all that well personally, but what I know about them? They're really pretty mellow," he said, "but that could just be because I feed them. I'm trying to make it a regular thing."

Ari knew he was probably talking too much, but why not? She wasn't looking at him like he was crazy or like she was about to pepper-spray him or something, so he was pretty sure he wasn't either making her nervous or weirding her out.

Although that might change if he kept talking about ducks.

"This your regular table?" he asked. "If it is, sorry if I took it over-- but you have good taste in tables, because, yeah, the view from here is great." He paused. "Okay, so that was sort of a lame thing to say, but it's better than more chat about ducks. Right?"

[Damia Owens]

Damia wasn’t sure what to think at first but it did appear that her choice of comment hadn’t been wrong. It certainly seemed to give him enough to talk about. That was good.

She was just getting her hopes up that the subject of the table would be completely forgotten when he switched topics. “Um, yeah. I mean – no.” Wait, which part of that should she respond to first? Damia wracked her brain. There had to be a convention for which order to respond to his questions in. “It’s, uh, not lame.” Actually, she rather liked the view herself.

“The light is good too.” The nearby trees kept it out of direct sunlight at almost all times, but at the same time it was in a good spot to receive a lot of ambient light. And the light was even at that. The only side that received more was that facing the lake where the light bounced off and toward the shore.

“But, um… you were here. I could just-” go and not come back for a long while. Long enough that no one currently here would still be here and know it was her returning. “-It’s fine.” Damia hadn’t exactly answered his question, but she preferred not to admit that this was the one table she liked to sit at. That would be too much.

[Ari Jasinski]

Ari turned to look out over the lake. "I hadn't even noticed the light," he said, thoughtfully, "I guess I kind of just concentrated on the du-- the, uh, rest of the scenery, and, y'know, not getting lost somewhere out here, even though I have a smartphone, so I could just, like, map my way back to civilization."

"And hey, you were here first," he said, "or at least, I'm betting you were. This is only the third time I've been out here, I've only been in town a few months, and I've been spending most of my time at work, so I don't think you could count me as a regular. But tell you what-- if it's not going to bother you, me being here, I mean, I'd be grateful if you wouldn't mind letting me share it."

He re-thought what he'd just said. "But I'm good with sitting somewhere else, if sitting at a table with a duck-feeding stranger is a little too weird. I'd, uh, say I don't usually talk this much, but that'd be a total lie. I usually talk more than this much."

[Damia Owens]

He usually talked more than this? Damia had a hard time imagining that. Not that she minded. It was always easier to talk to someone who did most of the talking.

Shaking her head to indicate that she didn’t mind him sitting with her, Damia shuffled over to give him room. He may have given her claim to the table, but that was no reason for him to have to find somewhere else to sit. They could share. Besides, hadn’t she been hoping to find someone to talk to earlier? Damia had failed to approach anyone but now someone found her. Go figure. Now she just had to step up and actually work on the conversation part.

“So, you’re new?” Damia asked. It was the easiest conversation starter she could make out from all of his rambling. Oh, and “Thank you, for the table. I do… usually sit here.” There, that hadn’t come out so bad, now had it? It answered his question from before a little more directly and sounded normal enough. "The scenery is nice, and the ducks." Damia smiled a little. He certainly seemed to like the ducks and she'd mentioned them again.

[Ari Jasinski]

"Yeah, moved down from Montpelier a few months ago," he said, settling down at the table, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Still getting used to the place-- what there is to do, where to meet people, what's going on locally, that kind of thing. Takes a while to get settled in to a new house, let alone a whole new city, y'know? But I like it here. I think I like it a lot."

"It's just... I don't know, it's like it hits a good balance between 'busy' and 'overcrowded', and there's something always going on. And people are pretty friendly-- even willing to share a table with a stranger," he grinned, "and hey, speaking of meeting people, I'm Ari Jasinski, and I... kinda like walking by the lake... and ducks, I guess."

[Damia Owens]

Damia nodded at what he said, despite not really knowing what he was talking about. She didn’t have a lot of experience moving to new places. Just that once before and then coming to Hammel. Neither could really be compared to voluntarily moving to a new town. Still, it made sense that it took time to get used to, and that was something she could understand.

She smiled at his comment about sharing tables. She actually got that one. “I’m Damia… I, uh, just kinda like hanging out here I guess.” Though, that was obvious, wasn’t it? They had already sort of covered that. “I mean, it’s nice to just get out. I like to walk around or just sit here. The lake’s great for relaxing.” At least, that was what Damia usually did when she came here.

[Ari Jasinski]

"Good to meet you, Damia," he said cheerfully. "Are you a local, or are you a transplant like me?"

"And yeah, I'm kind of learning how to do that-- how to relax, I mean," Ari said, "and yeah, this seems like a pretty good place to start, right? After all, this is the great outdoors, no distractions, no stress, just fresh air and trees and-- and stuff." He grinned. "I almost said 'ducks' again. I swear, I'm not obsessed with waterfowl."

[Damia Owens]

“A… transplant?” It took her a moment, but then she got it. “Oh, well, transplant I guess.” Although, after eight years the place was pretty much her only home. Even when she graduated, Damia doubted she’d go very far. Speaking of which, “they brought me to the private school.” That should help keep up her end of the conversation.

She raised an eyebrow at Ari’s remark that he wasn’t obsessed with ducks. He had seemed rather keen on them, but she wasn’t going to make a point out of it. “You’re not?” Damia asked, her gaze turning from him to the ground and then back out to the lake. Why had he said that? Was he trying to deny that he was obsessed, as she might… or did he have a problem with it? Damia certainly hoped not, but the thought got under her skin.

“There’s nothing wrong with… ducks.” Her voice was a little quieter and she felt tense. Of course she had said ‘ducks’, but she really meant obsession with them. However, there was no way Damia would be so forward about it.

[Ari Jasinski]

Private school -> Hammel -> meta.

He'd never thought much about the meta-human thing before, but he knew well enough that being different sometimes meant the world didn't treat you very kindly, and that had to be extra-true for metas.

"I just hired a couple of students from Hammel to help me at work. They're good ki-- uh, young people, and I'm looking forward to having 'em around," Ari said gently. "It'll be nice to have the help, but they're both smart, friendly, that kind of thing, and I like them both."

And then he laughed when she mentioned the ducks. "Nothing wrong with them at all; I guess I've kind of got them on my mind, though, since I come out here to feed them pretty often, and I... I don't know, I sort of feel like I need an excuse to be out here, and 'feeding the ducks' is as good as any, right? Not a bad conversation starter, either."

[Damia Owens]

She was a little surprised to hear that he had hired some of Hammel's students. Not that she should have been too surprised. From what she'd heard some kids had part time jobs and quite a few metas lived and worked around town. There may be the occasional meta-phobes but Damia had been lucky enough not to run into many. Or maybe she was just sheltered enough? Nieve enough? It was hard to tell. Whatever it was, it did pique her curiosity.

"What kind of work do you do?" He'd mentioned it a couple of times but hadn't been specific. It made her wonder what he might do that would allow him to hire Hammel students. She would have asked who he hired but it was doubtful she'd know who that was.

Her spirits were lifted a little at his response and Damia glanced back to him. "It's not," she agreed with him. Maybe if she'd had a valid excuse to be out here she would have been able to find a way to start a conversation with someone earlier. It was an interesting notion. Summoning whatever courage she could, she tried to find a way to put words to that. "Is that... how it normally works, to start a conversation?" Hopefully he'd understand what she meant by that.

[Ari Jasinski]

"Just opened up a coffeeshop downtown," Ari said, setting his bag by his feet. "And it caught me off guard, how fast people started showing up. I guess I underestimated the need for caffeine around here, huh? Anyway, I didn't want to keep working 15 and 16 hour days, that's really no way to live, so I figured it was time to hire some help."

"It's how I try to make it work," he admitted, "I spent so much time working and baking and that kind of thing that... I sort of never really got around to-- well, I have no trouble talking to people, obviously, that's pretty easy, it's actually... it's sort of making contact with them, making and keeping friends. I never made time for it before, so I'm trying to be less stupid about it now.

"Making connections.. it seems to help if I talk about something that interests me, then see if it interests the person I'm talking to, and if it doesn't, I try and figure out what does interest them, what they do like." He smiled at her. "Which is how I end up in public places rambling on about ducks to unfortunate bystanders like you.

"So now I know your name is Damia, you like this bench, you like sunshine-- or is it light in general?-- and you're really patient with total strangers."

[Damia Owens]

For a minute there, Damia had absolutely no clue what he was talking about and, when she did figure it out, she rather wished she could backtrack and listen again - make sure she caught and understood EVERYTHING he had said. She had to remind herself to stop starring at him, her face a mixture of perplexity and blank inner-focus. But his point had gotten through ’less stupid about… connections.’ Was that why she was having trouble following him? He was awkward too?

Again, wipe that expression from your face! He must think she thought him bizarre and unearthly, but Damia was just trying to process it all fast enough to keep up with him. Luckily, he kept talking and the direction segwayed into something she could actually think of a response to. And keep up with. Although, when he did finally ramble to a stop, Damia found herself hesitant to just jump in. Her thoughts just froze up.

“Sunshine’s the best… but yeah, I guess all light is good,” she smiled. It made her glad that he had picked up on that. “Oh, except florescent lights. They’re horrible...and green.” Damia wrinkeled her nose distastefully.

Still processing everything he’d said, she searched for the connection as he’d said he tried to do. “So, I like light and this bench… and… you like baking?” Ari had mentioned that, but she couldn’t tell if it was more in connection to work or just the whole conversationing thing. As much as she wanted to say more about that she just couldn’t find a way to get it in.