Pins and Needles [open]

[Elizabeth Sloane]

Beth had been working in the library for hours now. Cross-legged she sat on the floor surrounded by sewing supplies. She probably should have gone to work somewhere else. The home ec rooms or her dorm, but she found sitting in the section with old history books was much quieter and she was less likely to be interrupted. She was working on some intricate beading on a formal dress (that she would likely never have an excuse to wear, but she'd been inspired to make anyways). The black fabric was slowly being decorated with miniscule green and silver beads that, when finished, would create a beautiful vine pattern that wrapped up from the bottom of the dress and all the way around the waist. It was going to take several more hours.

This type of work was something Beth had always loved. It was repetitive and required very little thought. After only a few minutes working on it, she fell into a routine and was officially 'in the zone'. She'd never prick herself - she'd done it enough when she was starting to learn . This was second nature to her. And so now Beth sat there, in the library, at peace. She quietly worked away at the dress, her hair falling forward as she leaned over top of it. She was happy, and quite content.

But of course it would be her luck that a rather large spider crawled it's way into her field of vision, and startled her. She squeaked, and jumped to her feet rather quickly, knocking over two small containers of itsy bitsy beads that quickly scattered all over the place. She cursed inwardly and stared at it for a moment in disbelief, not quite processing what had happened. By the time she realized she'd need to clean this all up, the spider had disappeared. This made her hesitant to get down on the floor to start scooping up the beads. Carefully she picked up the dress with two fingers and shook it out gently to make sure the eight-legged creature hadn't crawled inside of it. A few of the beads fell of the dress and Beth sighed, exasperated.

[Vrases Claudt]

As vrases stood in the fantasy and science fiction, picking over all the books that he thought was interesting, he spotted one that caught his eye. A large Dungeons and Dragons book, one based around the recent expansion. Smiling in pure glee, the large man reached up to the top and grabbed it, easily reaching it and setting it on the small, but building, stack of books that ranged from history to battle star galactica. Bouncing up and down slightly as his music played in his ears, he changed the song quickly and set it to something a little more....heavy. As whitechappel blared, he grabbed the books in one of his hands and walked over to the automated check out, when he saw sudden movement catch on the outside of his vision. Turning his head quickly, he clenched his muscles in instinct to the movement....but all it was was a girl freaking out over a spider. she had unfortunately made a small mess in the work she had been working on, and vrases smiled slightly as she began to clean up. Taking out his music from his ears, he put the earphones around his shoulders and walked over to the woman, setting his books down quietly on the table. bending down, he began to quietly help pick up the beads and placed them on the table in a small heap, trying to help the woman as she cleaned up. Turning around, he saw the spider on the ground; a medium sized wolf spider. Now he knew why she had reacted so; wolf spiders could grow to fairly large sizes. taking one of his books, he smiled quietly as he scooped the spider up onto the book and walked quietly over to a window and opened it up, letting the spider go free into the wild.

Turning around, he smiled at the girl and spoke in his deep voice "gotta watch out for them; they can sneak up on you, as you've seen...are you alright?" grinning, he cocked his head slightly and pointed to her arm, he spoke "i like your artwork; where'd you get it?" asking out of curiosity, he couldn't help but admire her tattoo; he loved the intricacy that tattoos had, and each one had a story. He should know; he had a number of them across his body, as was very easy to see because of his attire. He had just gotten done from a workout, and he still wore his shorts and sleeveless workout t-shirts. His tattoos of a dream catcher and the words "chaos and bravery" in German were seen on his shoulders, as well as the beginnings of a Bengal tiger on his chest. His scars were showing slightly, but he didn't really care about those; he had come to terms with them, and they simply added an intimidating effect, one that he didn't exactly dislike. He in of himself was said to be slightly intimidating, standing at 6'3 and nearly pure muscle; but he didn't want to scare the girl, nearly the opposite; she intrigued him. smirking slightly at the woman, he bent down to help finish picking up the last of the beads as he listened to her quietly.

[Elizabeth Sloane]

"Oh gosh, you don't have to help," Beth said when she noticed an extra set of hands. She glanced up and was surprised at the look of the fellow helping her. He looked like he'd just come from the gym. She blushed slightly, and looked back to her hands. Attractive guys didn't usually approach her, and when they did she certainly liked to be put together and not bent over a mess of beads. She put a handful of seed beads on the table, and smiled at him, silently thanking him. She blushed gently once more when he complimented her tattoo. "I got it back home, after my sister passed away..." She noted his tattoos - the ones she could see - and nodded approvingly. She also noticed what appeared to be scars, but chose not to mention them.

She bent back down and scooped up the last few beads. Or, at least, the last few scoop-able beads. Heaven knew that there would be little green and silver beads under those bookshelves for the rest of eternity. She sighed lightly and looked back to her dress, wondering how far she would have to back track. She was certainly done working on it for the day. "Her name was Charlotte," she told him, testing to see if he would make the connection the book Charlotte's Web. It wasn't necessarily a deal breaker on a friendship if he didn't get it, but it was certainly going to earn him points if he did. From first glance the guy looked like a stereotypical jock, but she'd met him in a library and he'd helped her pick up beads, so clearly he couldn't be totally cliche.

She noted how tall he was. Almost a good foot taller than herself. He was built well, and clearly worked out. He was almost a little frightening. Not that he was a scary person, but Beth wasn't used to interacting with guys like this. She dealt with theatre kids, and crafters. The elderly woman she met at places like the bakery and fabric shop. Come to think of it, she didn't have any close guy friends at Hammel. And she'd been there for almost three years. She suddenly, and reluctantly, felt herself becoming hopeful. Back home Beth had always gravitated towards male friends. She couldn't keep up with the pop culture gossip or the catty drama they dealt with - she was enough of a drama queen all on her own.

"Bravery and Chaos," she remarked, managing to read the full words while he was still crouched down, "Why bravery and chaos?"

[[ooc: I'd like to point out how serendipitous it was that I called the thread pins and needles and now they're talking about tattoos so there's another sense of the term needle. Also, the word for chaos in german is chaos, I'm pretty sure...]]

[Vrases Claudt]

smirking slightly as she stated that he didn't have to help her, he replied easily "its alright; it looked like it would be a pain to have to pick all of them up by yourself....plus worry about a spider" he said, laughing a bit as he did so. Coking his head slightly, he felt a memory dredge itself from the back of his mind; remembering hearing that name before.... "Charlotte, like Charlotte web? I remember reading that as a kid." he said. his eyes turned somewhat sad at the mention of a dead sister. "I'm sorry to hear about that. i didn't mean to pry into your business" he said, smiling a slight apologetic smile. 

As he heard her ask about his German tattoo, he smiled a bit, gesturing at it. " its a bit of a long story actually..." he said, laughing as he did so. Taking a seat, he began " back when I was 15, I manifested; little late, but I was still really surprised by what had happened. Before i got transported her, i had a friend who did really nice artwork. I have a big dream-catcher" he said, gesturing to the side of his chest "on my chest and the words written on my shoulder. It was meant to symbolize civilization and nature, predictability and unpredictability, coming into one person; namely, me!" he said, laughing as he gestured to himself. "I got it in German though because my mom was German and...well, I don't know what dad was. But i know at least that i'm German cause of her!" he said, laughing a bit, but his eyes had taken a bit of a saddened look... but he shook it off quickly and turned back to the girl. :do you know of any places around here that actually do tattoos? I've been looking for a place around here that does tattoos; haven't been able to find one yet. I kinda want to add some...and maybe get a job there as a tat artist! love doing that kinda work." he said, smiling happily at her as he thought about the art that he genuinely enjoyed doing. He tilted his head slightly to the side and asked the girl "how long have you been here? I don't remember seeing you in class before. what year are you?" he said genuinely, eyes taking a curious gleam to them.

(OOC: ya thats actually quite entertaining xD and true, i meant to put Urchaos down; my bad :/ it means primordial chaos XD. Wrong translation!)

[Elizabeth Sloane]

Beth nodded, and shrugged off his apology. While she still missed her sister she knew first hand that it was better for her to be hone than suffering the way she had been. She felt her smile grow as she listened to his story. "That's really cool. I actually manifested at fifteen too. Maybe we should start a club. Though I don't know how I'd feel about wearing a 'late bloomers' jacket." She leaned against the book shelf and explained that her mother's family was German as well. While she didn't speak German her mother had spent many an hour teaching it to her. "I think there's a place downtown that does tattoos." She told him, answering his question, "I don't know how good they are."

Beth had been at Hammel for three years now, since shortly after she manifested. But she'd been rather introverted. Besides a couple people the only crowd who knew her name was the drama club. She smiled, almost apologetically, "I've been a bit of hermit since I can here. Three years." She reached down and picked up her bag from where she'd left it upon arriving in the library. She replaced the beads into the appropriate containers, and dropped them in her bag, before retrieving a container of cookies. She'd baked them the other day, and wasn't going to eat them all. She opened them, holding them out to him. "They're dark chocolate chunk, if you want one."

[Vrases Claudt]

watching as she replied about how she had manifested late as well, he let out a single note of laughter as she made the comment about the late bloomers jacket. "HA. now that would be entertaining to see. just a bunch of people wearing the jackets with late bloomer on the back; id rock that, no doubt in my mind." smiling easily as he spoke, he watched her quietly for a moment as she talked about the tattoo parlor downtown, and he perked up a bit when he heard about it. "awesome! i have to go down there and check it out; maybe now ill get a job in a place besides a warehouse." he said, chuckling slightly as he did so. 

He tilted his head slightly as he listened to her again talk about how she had been a hermit for the time that she was here. Smiling slightly, he watched as she walked over to her bag and began to put away her beads. As she did so, Vrases glanced her over for a moment, smiling as he did so, then rapped his knuckles over his temple as he put on his somber face again; he really had to figure out how to stop doing that. As she turned around, his eyes lit up when he saw the cookies and she offered him one, he opened his mouth slightly in happiness and took one and leaned against the table, devouring the tasty goodness from heaven; He already had to eat a lot each day, and cookies were among his favorite foods. And these were hand made! perfect! As he was nearly done seemingly devouring the cookie, he stopped for a moment and then turned his head slightly to face the girl; he had eaten the thing in seconds. Pursing his lips together slightly, he stopped and said "they're really good....." he said slightly embarrassed. turning to her, he wiped off his mouth and said sheepishly "can i have another? i love cookies and those are.....really really good..." he said, making a sad face with a slight grin peeking out from under the frown as he watched the girl, smirking as he did so.