Speak Your Mind (Open)

[Deleted]

Backdated to after events in A Warm Welcome

Oriel didn't know what else to do. It felt yet again like he'd just take a giant step backward after all the progress he thought he'd been making, but….guess there was no cure for being an asshole.

After his little scuffle with Cameron, Oriel spend some time in his own room, which after a few minutes was starting to feel like the smallest room he'd ever been in. He couldn't breath. He couldn't think.  He needed to get out of there before he broke his desk in two.

He went out as he was, just in his usual button up(dark green) and tank undershirt combo, despite the cold. It wasn't that cold out though. It was technically spring…wasn't it? He didn't keep track of that shit.

Anyway, Oriel was just searching for a place to be away from people, blow off some steam. Any of his regular places - the auditorium, the dorm commons - were literally littered with people who were only going to get in his way and annoy him. He didn't feel up for running so that was out. He still didn't have the confidence to go check out the gym. Oriel wanted nothing more than to just call up Phoenix and tell him about what had happened, tell him he needed the other boy, that he was on the verge of breaking again but…fuck, Phoenix was a real person now with a real job. Oriel wasn't about to ruin that with his own stupid problems.

Instead he took a short jog to the pond, to the tree where the lovers had first met, glaring at anyone with a threat to kill if they so much as looked at him along the way. He bummed a couple cigarettes from someone along the way, gave the guy a five for 'em. As soon as he arrived, Oriel wasted no time in scaling the tree and planting himself on his usual branch. He sucked in a deep breath of nicotine and released a billowing cloud into the cool air. He stared off towards the thick cluster of trees before him, flicking his red ashes down to the grass below.  What a fucked up day this was...

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Things. Events. People. Argh.

Gryphon had too much to think about. There'd been that whole... issue, with Kodi beating that kid up in the hallway because of his stupid parents and that damned letter. Who tells their own kid that they're gonna go to hell? It was... ridiculously... argh! And then that snake person. He set off alarm bells. And Gryph still wasn't entirely happy about that whole... situation, but he wasn't about to tell Kodi that.

He just wanted to dance! Get rid of all the energy and tension and let it out... but wrist. Wrist wrist wrist, stupid, stupid wrist. Everything seemed to revolve around his injury at the moment - he would be ecstatically happy once it was gone. Of course, he could dance at the moment, but it was restricted, and annoying, and he was slowly losing the will to live.

So he was walking around. He'd been considering running, but... maybe another day. He didn't run on a regular basis anyway, and it didn't do much for him, but... it was better than nothing? Anyway, he was walking. Apparently, to the Pond. Gryph only frequented the area to be around the birds... well, why not? But that tree... trees didn't generally let off smoke. Hmm. It looked like there was the shape of a person He went to a closer tree and called up into it, catching the attention of a nesting vireo. It fluttered down and he asked it to go scout it out for him.

Which meant Oriel would be getting a bird in his face. Gryphon followed it as it flew up to the dark haired... 'friend' of his. Maybe if he'd known it was Oriel... he would've done the same. It wasn't... mean, per say. Just entertainment. He needed entertainment in whatever form he could get.

[Deleted]

The nicotine was doing the trick but…fuck, Oriel couldn't believe he dropped five bucks and the threat of not bashing in some guy's face for only two sticks. He must've really been desperate. And after plowing through one as fast as possible, Oriel was still feeling less than at peace with his…..anxiety or whatever it was. If it was going to be this bad, then maybe Oriel should start investing in getting regular packs so he wasn't bumming cigs off his friends(and sometimes non-friends) all the time. But could he really ask Phoenix to feed his dirty habit like that? Danishes were one thing. Sex was at least something they both enjoyed. Oriel wondered if Tak had any more of those herbs of hers and if she'd be willing to donate them.

Dr. Neville was right, Oriel really needed to find and exercise better coping skills.

He idly wondered if Cam was okay.

He apologize to him….eventually. When Oriel wasn't feeling like a complete asshole.

The breeze felt nice, at least.

The world beyond that tree was far beneath his span of attention. Oriel paid no mind to people who might've been walking around and chattering below. Yes, this was why he liked this spot, nobody bothered him and he could relax without being suffocated by the confines of his room. He could probably even manage a nap….shit, how long had it been since he needed a mid-day nap?

Oriel wouldn't get it, however, as his ruminating was interrupted by a…bird? A bird just decided to randomly fly up into his face, huh? What? Oriel blinked and leaned his head back, only mildly disturbed at the disruption. "Hey…" he protested. "Can't you see I'm trying to gloom here?" Oriel snorted at the bird. He released a giggle. Really, what the fuck was this thing's problem? Honestly, while Oriel enjoyed living in the trees, he hadn't ever been so close to their residents for so long. He continued to laugh softly as he loosely waved his free hand around to keep the bird at bay.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Smoking... Gryph was not a huge fan. In actually doing it, or in just witnessing and seeing others do it. He'd had a cigarette, once, and it was disgusting. He vowed not to have another, which was mildly difficult at first, but he just remembered how horrible it had been, how suffocating and smokey and... then it wasn't difficult at all to avoid. He understood why some people smoked, for something other than just the addiction to the substances, though that usually played a rather large part in it, so he tried not to judge. It could've been him motto - don't judge a book by its cover. Didn't mean he was happy about smoking to any extent, but... why had a smoking tree got him on this train of thought? Ugh.

The little bird was strongly interested. So it had a nest in a tree at Hammel, it saw humans all the time. But not... this close. Well, not without having to depart shortly after from the danger of it all. And while it was startled by the teenage boy, it wasn't as... scary. He didn't seem violent, after all. The vireo swooped a little to avoid Oriel's waving hand and landed on a close branch, out of his way, but still... there. It watched the boy curiously, wondering what the weird sounds he'd made meant. It tweeted something and tilted it's head, moving it in twitching movements at quite a rapid pace to analyse its surroundings and analyse the boy.

Gryphon was watching the whole time from underneath the tree. He recognized Oriel after coming closer, and was... half tempted to call the bird away. But it seemed alright. If the younger boy saw him, he wouldn't mind either. He wasn't attempting to hide himself.

It was interesting... when people talked to birds. Some, like Maud, practically opened up and said whatever was on their mind. It was a bird after all, they couldn't understand English and judge them. And some people got scared of the winged creatures and would try to run away. Oriel was doing... neither. Gryph walked up to the trunk of the tree and sat at the base, not directly under the dark-haired boy (he didn't want to be covered in ash), but to the right. Maybe he'd talk to Oriel in a minute... maybe. Maybe the bird would do all the talking for him. Or maybe Oriel would see him and have a shouting fit. Gryph had no idea, and at this point in time, didn't necessarily care either.

[Deleted]

He'd almost finished his first cigarette. Which meant that he was going to have to work quickly to light the other one if he wanted to keep going. That was the other thing Oriel would have to invest in. Lighters. Shit, why'd smoking have to be such an expensive habit? He'd rather be spending his limited cash on more bedroom supplies, or a new pair of pants, or on taking Phoenix out somewhere….Sigh, Oriel really needed to get himself a regular job. Not only would it get him some extra cash, but also give him something to do when he felt bored and out of it like this.

At least the bird was entertaining. Oriel still wasn't paying attention to the workings of the world below, so he didn't know that it had been sent on a reconnaissance mission by a person he probably would've shouted off to already. The bird, though…Oriel was fine with it hanging around. "Just don't shit on me," he warned it, flicking his newly lit cancer stick at it, letting the ashes fall down to the earth.

"Feh," he grunted, leaning back against the trunk and securing himself in the branches. Oriel had slept up here before, so he knew how to position himself to that he wouldn't fall easily. He glanced over at the bird, the skittering, twitching little creature, and snorted again in amusement. "'Least you like me," he mumbled with a half smile. "The fuck's your problem, anyway? I ain't got any food on me." Ah, well. It could hang out if it wanted to. Oriel rested his head back and closed his eyes, letting the cigarette rest loosely between his lips.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

...it was certain, this bird wasn't about to understand English anytime soon. Oriel's comments meant nothing to it. Gryph felt kinda bad... he'd done this before, with Maud, but he'd been translating for that Eastern Phoebe the whole time. He wanted to do the same here... it was worth a try. He tweeted out as quietly as he could manage, "[He said not to...]" Birds weren't fans of swear words. Some were alright with them, but the smaller birds especially did not take lightly to their use. Gryph started again, "[He said not to go to the toilet on him.]" That was a posh way of putting it... oh well. The little bird hopped a few steps back, not showing any signs of leaving, but trying to keep its distance. It was trying to be careful about this.

The bird's own curiousity was one of the main things that kept him from taking flight and leaving. That and the human it was able to talk to. There were a few humans like that at this school, so it wasn't a foreign concept to the bird, but it hadn't actually been able to converse with one before. It was a new experience. The same couldn't be said for Gryph himself, but it was a new bird. He had to watch for anything unintentionally insulting.

Cautiously, the little bird flapped his feathers and landed on Oriel's leg, looking up at his face. It had no idea what to do, or how to keep itself safe, and it was pushing its boundaries to see where the limits were. Gryph saw this, but did nothing. He was not getting any more involved than he was.

[Deleted]

While Oriel might've heard the other tweeting from below, he had no reason to turn his attention towards it. There were plenty of birds around and about making noise, so he just assumed it was another one of them. It was the bird that was still staring him in the face that drew his attention. Seriously, why was this thing still here. Even relaxing like he was, his hands resting on his thighs, Oriel kept his eyes on the twitching, twittering thing, a faint smile tickling the corners of his lips.

Oriel wasn't expecting it to be a bird that calmed him down and tried to cheer him up. Though…yeah, he was feeling better. Not 100% but at least he wasn't going to kill someone anytime soon. And he wasn't feeling like the world was closing in on him quite so fast anymore. He closed his eyes again.

But only for a moment. After a few seconds, Oriel felt a light pressure on his leg and he re-opened his eyes to find the bird perched on his knee. "What?" he urged the animal for an explanation. He didn't move though, keeping himself still for fear of scaring the creature away with a sudden movement. This…this was nice. "Keep that up, you might end up in a cage." Though Oriel had no intention on trying to capture this thing. Maybe touch it though. He stretched out a finger to the bird while he moved the cigarette to the other side of his mouth with his other hand. Would it come closer? It wasn't like it was a dog, a stupid mongrel that had to sniff and inspect anything that got pointed at it's nose.

He chuckled at the thought of a bird sniffing around like a dog.

Oriel took in another lungful of smoke then, with a snarky smile, blew it out in the bird's direction. "Want a drag?" he offered, holding up the white stick, though how it would manage to purse it's non-existent lips together was beyond him.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

No reaction. He didn't look at him. That was good, this was good. Whatever Oriel was... concerned over seemed to be slowly fading from him, and Gryph actually didn't want to fuck this up. Because he wasn't too sure how impressed Oriel would or wouldn't be at the realization that Gryphon was just... right there.

A wild bird wouldn't let itself bbe domesticated - not to Gryph's knowledge anyway. But he was taking Oriel too seriously, surely the boy wouldn't consider doing such a thing? The winged boy looked up and saw him reaching out towards the bird, who was minorly confused and bewildered. He thought for a moment, before saying, "[He doesn't want to hurt you, don't worry. Do what you want.]" The bird hesitated a moment, and its head continued to twitch and turn, looking at the finger shown to it. Tentatively, it hopped up in one jolty, sudden movement, wondering what the boy wanted it to do. The only other option seemed to be to eat it, but for some reason, that didn't seem like it would work.

If birds could cough, this vireo would've been hacking it up like there was no tomorrow. It was not a fan of the smoke. It came off of its perch and flew around a bit, before landing on Oriel's head. Because it could avoid the smoke from there. Yeah. And totally not because Gryph told it to. Nope.

The bird was curious about what the smokey stick did, but it was fine with keeping it's distance from that thing for now. Besides, the human could probably tell it later.

[Deleted]

If Gryphon had simply walked up to Oriel and said hello, Oriel more than likely would have snarled him off. Depending on his approach, however, Gryph might also have gotten an honest response from Oriel declaring himself unfit for any sort of social interaction, friendly or otherwise. At the present moment, even though Oriel was starting to feel better, that only encouraged Oriel's probable ornery response should he discover the bird-boy had been listening to him mouth off to a bird the whole time.

Oriel had no presumptions that the bird could actually understand any of the words he was rattling off to him, offensive or otherwise, but he liked to entertain the idea. It was more amusing to him to think that the bird was reacting in direct response to Oriel's questions and insults. The fact that it hopped up onto his extended finger fed into his delusions that the bird might actually have intelligence. He laughed again. This was kind of cool. He'd never had a bird perch on his finger before. Oriel could feel it's weight, but only just barely. It was like it wasn't even there.

So delicate. It reminded him of the kittens that at the pet store that Phoenix worked at. Back when they snuck one into the dorms. Oriel remembered thinking the same thing back then. Such small creatures. So delicate. It would take the littlest amount of effort to break them…..

The sick thing was….he could see himself doing it. He could see himself enjoying it. Just like how he enjoyed putting Phoenix through ten kinds of pain….and just like how he enjoyed putting Madison through 100 kinds. Oriel really was taking it easy on Phoenix, holding so much back. Oriel really was a twisted fuck.

That train of thought quickly brought his mood down again. He lazily watched as the bird flew off when he blew the smoke into it's face….and then landed on his head. "Oh, now you better not shit on me now! I work hard to get my hair just the right kind of floof!" He snorted. "Cook you into fried chicken," he grumbled, resting against the tree trunk again and taking another drag. Hmm...fried chicken....that sounded like a good idea. For dinner.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Did Gryphon consider Oriel a friend? ...no. Well, not yet at least. He was optimistic on that front, he did want to befriend the younger boy, but it was hard to do when a foul attitude and multiple swear words were thrown back at you. He was quite tolerant of most things, but like everybody else, he had his limits.

The little bird skittered on it's human perch. The magic of the interaction could so easily be ruined, but Gryph was trying his best not to let that happen. He'd let Oriel have his 'Disney Princess' moment, being able to interact with the bird. Of course, the only reason why it was capable of responding in most ways was because of the winged boy, but he'd let Oriel think otherwise. Whatever it was that he was thinking.

Gryphon chuckled quietly - this bird was a lot of fun. It stayed amongst Oriel's fluffiness, musing about how good or not it would serve as a nest. "[Try not to muck up his hair.]" Gryph warned. Some people were so vain, and he didn't know how much Oriel was joking by this point. And he didn't want to be the cause of fear in that little bird.

Gryphon frowned at the mention of fried chicken. He deigned not to eat anything that flew - it was a weird kind of vegetarianism which meant he ate everything else, but meats like chicken, turkey and whatever else were off of his menu. It was like... cannibalism. It felt wrong.

The vireo hopped onto Oriel's shoulder, tweeting about... something or other, Gryph didn't really catch it. This was the issue from before, with Maud. At one point, she was whispering and her hair got in the way of his line of sight, so he had no idea what to tell the bird with her. That had almost single-handedly screwed everything up. But Oriel was a loud person, that wouldn't happen here.

[Deleted]

Phoenix said it once before, to someone somewhere sometime(Hint: it was Erik). The more playfully offensive Oriel was to you, the more likely it was that he actually liked you….well, it was something to that effect. But Gryphon wasn't much different. He was…interesting. As much as he hated and was envious of his past relationship with Phoenix, Oriel found him amusing. Fun to play with. He had some great reactions(especially to the descriptive details of Kodi's secret "love" spots). It was…just really the only way he knew how to relate to people. He remembered telling Phoenix once that back in New York, you had no choice but to be that "polite" just to command some respect from certain people. It was pretty much a "I insult you, you insult me, so that makes us friends" kind of world.

Still, Oriel was trying. Not very easily, not very quickly, but he was. At the very least he wasn't picking random targets anymore for his abuse. Cameron wasn't random, just fyi. Oriel felt guilty over that, but he still thought the guy was a dick.

Ugh…he'd almost forgotten about that. It'd barely been an hour, but he'd already been starting to feel better and forget. Now it was all coming back to kick his ass all over again.

Oriel sighed, bringing a knee up to hang his forearm over it, then rested his forehead against that. Fuck he wanted to cry…but no. No crying in front of the bird. He might tell someone.

That brought a weak smile to his lips.

He felt the bird move to his shoulder and he peeked an eye out from beneath his veil of hair. "…..so what's your fucking problem anyway? You got that fucking animal sixth sense thing that tells you I'm fucked and need someone's hand to hold?" The bird couldn't be that smart. But he'd heard that cats and dogs did that sort of thing so…maybe birds could too? Oriel buried his face into his knee again. "…….I…I want Phoenix…." His voice cracked. Oriel could feel the prickling warmth in the corners of his eyes. "C…could ya get 'im for me…..?" It was a long shot, but never hurt to ask. He sniffled, rubbing his damp eyes against the fabric of his jeans.

How fucking dumb was this? Crying to a stupid bird. And he'd completely forgotten about the second cigarette in his other hand, which had burned down until the weight of the ashes fell all by themselves, taking the smoldering red particles with it.

[Deleted]

It just so happened that Phoenix got to leave work early that day. His manager and shooed him off after he'd gotten a call that required him to go home, so he'd shut down the shop for the day. Phoenix hadn't texted Oriel because he wanted it to be a surprise - he'd even stopped by the bakery and picked out an extra special expensive danish with cream cheese and raspberries and those thin little pieces of almond and who knew what else.

He was skipping along towards campus, enjoying the spring weather. The box with the treat was tucked firmly under his arm, and although he was eager to get back to the dorms, he was also sort of wandering, letting his path go where something interesting caught his attention - a bright flower starting to bud, a strange bird, some rustle in the bushes. Phoenix knew he was somewhere close to the pond, but he wasn't really looking that direction, and thus didn't see either occupant there. He was too busy studying a weird caterpillar on a large leaf. He poked it.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

The theory that Oriel considered to make friends didn't really work with Gryph. For him, it was more, 'You insult me, I insult you, I avoid your company at all costs.' And as entertaining as they may have seemed, hearing all of that... stuff had made Gryphon far from comfortable. Not a happy bunny.

The winged boy looked up curiously. Was Oriel... alright? He chuckled lightly as the dark haired boy continued to talk to the bird - if only the world was so nice.

And then he bit his lip. He wanted Phen. And Gryph... really wanted to help him out. But Phoenix was working, wasn't he? He wouldn't be able to leave just to see Oriel. Gryphon sighed and the bird just hopped a few times, not knowing what else to do in its avian ignorance. Gryph pulled out his phone and toyed with it, looking for some kind of -

What.

How.

Phen.

He was literally... holy fuck, how was that even possible? Gryph let out a breathy, incredulous laugh, before quickly tweeting instructions to the bird. The vireo hopped down Oriel's arm and flew off towards his boyfriend. When the little green bird reached Phen, it tweeted loudly and circled around him a few times, stopping in front of him. Assuming that his attention was caught, the bird would hover for a few more seconds, before flying back to the tree in which Oriel resided, leading Phen over to the dark-haired boy.

Meanwhile, Gryph shuffled around the tree, so he was on the opposite side to Oriel. He was trying his best not to be spotted, but honestly? He knew if Phen got one look at him, his 'cover' would be blown. It was best to hide. Maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn't. He was just gonna have to wait and see.

[Deleted]

Oriel wasn't expecting Phoenix for another few hours. It was just his luck that Phoenix's boss kept the damn store hours open past five o'clock, it was a torturous waiting game every day after classes to the time when Phoenix came home. For the most part, Oriel found things to keep him occupied, but when things like today happened, Oriel had very few people to go to. It occurred to Oriel to just go to Dr. Neville's office, but…..somehow he was too scared for it.

He didn't like people seeing him this pathetic. Oriel could barely stand Phoenix seeing him like this. But still, Phoenix was the only one he would let.

Fuck….fuck fuck fuck….it was getting harder to breath. He lifted his head with another sniffle, bringing the remainder of the cigarette to his lips. One last drag and he sharply tossed it down. How dare it burn into nothing when he still needed it! The jerk!

Though that was the point where Oriel realized that the bird had taken off at some point. The thought nearly made him laugh. Even the fucking bird couldn't stand to be around him for long.

Oriel heard some rustling down below but….fuck, at this point Oriel didn't care if anyone else was down there. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on his breathing instead of the people around him. At least he was in a tree….people had a bad habit of never looking up.

[Deleted]

Once Phoenix determined the caterpillar wasn't going to do anything incredibly interesting, he straightened up and started to keep walking again. He hadn't seen Gryphon, or his boyfriend in the tree; he thought Oriel would be in his room or something. His attention was soon caught, however, by a peculiar little bird flying around his head. Phen might've been crazy, but it was almost like it was interacting with him.

"What's up, little cutie?" he asked, watching with awe as the feathered creature hovered in front of him. "You're a pretty little guy, aren't you?" Giggling, Phen took off after the vireo, breaking into a small jog as he tried to keep up. "Hey wait, don't leave me behind!" he laughed.

It disappeared into a tree, and Phen stopped, panting a little. "Please come back," he begged. But Phen heard some rustling around the other side of the tree, and, frowning, he peeked around the trunk... Only to be met with his best friend. "Wha- Dimples!" he giggled. "Did you tell that bird t'do that?" Gryph could talk to birds, after all. "You're silly." Unaware that his lover was right above them, Phoenix glomped his friend into a hug. "I didn't see you! I would've come over otherwise."