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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 11:41:41 GMT -5
The desert was its same old stubborn, furious self that night. The winds sped by, forcing the grains of sand up and carrying them, throwing them with all its force. You wouldn't expect anyone in their right mind to visit such a place.
But then.. you wouldn't know Carmen.
In the middle of it all sat a girl, cross-legged, eyes shut, plugged into an mp3 player and concentrating. The world was silent except for the rageful roaring of the lonely desert as Carmen Angeline Laiho waited for her cue.
Then she opened her mouth, somehow not inhaling the sand that danced past her, and summoned up a voice sweet as honey, though it had a gruff, unique edge to it; a voice so entrancing that if you heard it, you would have ran to her and begged her to sing all night long.
"Straight forward on the path of life
Who makes you choose that way
Is it a crime to give it up,
To leave it all behind?"
She adopted a growl, going lower on the scale and not sounding as feminine as before- she almost sounded skeletal. "Oh.. this is all so crystal clear?"
Switching back, she continued, "Going on in shallow blindness,
To watch the madmen sort things out
No time to spill,
Isn't it such a thrill?
By self-deception I am bound to take it seriously
I'm way beyond,
I've put myself in such horrible way to go.."
"I think you just made a big mistake..
This is just a fake cause I am,
Guilty by association, sinner of mankind,
I'm forced to build my life upon this,
Hidden path I just can't find."
Once again, she took on the snarl. "Well...is this all so crystal clear?"
And once again, she dropped it. "Sometimes it seems like time stands still
Demolish myself at free will,
Can you watch me burn
As the sun goes down and my life is overturned,
Can I identify myself with the judgement that I'm facing here
Can't deny,
won't deny that
I'm level with the ground by fear."
Carmen stopped, sucking in large amounts of air and coughing out a bit of the sand that she had ended up taking in anyway. Singing like that always made her breathless and even a bit lightheaded; the singer's style was like melodic yelling and singing near the chorus, and then the growling.. she needed to practice that.
"You need to drop the feminine style, my girl," Carmen murmured to herself, drawing a circle in the sand in front of her. She could hardly see it through the wind, and gazed up at the stormy sky, which was an odd, deep greenish colour.
"Take care of yourself, because no-one else will."
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 12:14:12 GMT -5
Riven took one step after another, pressing the red bandanna that was tied behind his head to his mouth. The sand buffeted his skin, though he would have probably burned to death had he worn anything more than his white, sleeveless shirt and a pair of obsidian and crimson shorts. The fact this didn't extend down to his leg gave a clear view of the tattoo imprinted on his left leg.
The skull was livid with an eerie, radioactive green glow around with, with his scar running diagonally through it, right between the eye sockets.
And though he could barely hear over the raging storm plus could barely see even with the sunglass he had { they didn't help all that much }, the sound of a voice somehow found him. It sounded as if in song but quickly died away. Either he had caught only the tail end, or the desert was playing tricks on him.
Gradually he made his way toward the noise, curious to see if it were a live person or some trickery nature was pulling on him. He wouldn't doubt that it was a mere illusion, noting what this place happened to be.
And faintly through the clouds of dust, he could see a blurry form. It became more distinct as he got nearer, until he could make it out to be indeed a human like himself.
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 12:18:20 GMT -5
Carmen readied herself and chose another song with a different style that she had been practicing for the past few weeks. She had just started off with, "Flying high on blackened wings.. vengence in my eyes.." when she stopped and looked around at the sand with mistrust, as though it were laughing at her. But it wasn't the sand. It was something that was moving on the sand.
Carmen scrambled to her feet, almost knocking her still-playing mp3 player (it was blaring Arch Enemy) out of the pocket of her green cargo pants. She tugged on her shirt nervously, hating how tight it felt (she didn't have the money to go shopping and therefore her clothes were quite ill-fitting).
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 12:31:09 GMT -5
Riven pulled the bandanna down from over his mouth as the waves of sand lessened and tilted his head, the wind whipping through his auburn hair and making it twine with the streaks on the left side.
He studied her, noticing she had earphones in and probably wouldn't hear him if he said anything, though she might not even if they weren't in her ears. The sound of a furious zephyr was enough to make your ears pop.
But he had heard her voice, heard her singing even if it were a mere few words before she noticed he stood there.
His eyes swept over her upper body quickly, noticing how the shirt she worn pressed to her skin in a most uncomfortable looking way. The girl didn't look anorexic skinny, either, which actually sort of relieved him. Most of the women he saw were he had just escaped from were skinny as sticks. And that was probably an understatement.
Remembering the murky lenses he gazed through, he lifted his hand to the rims of the sunglasses and took them off, shaking his head to hid himself of some of the sand that was in his hair, though it barely did a thing for him. He slipped the glasses into the pocket of his shorts before looking at the person before him again.
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 12:47:47 GMT -5
As the figure got closer, Carmen could see that it was a guy about her age. She cast a longing glance down at her still-playing mp3 player, stroking its screen with her thumb almost reverantly before lightly pressing the power button and making it go dark. Stupid as it was, that little machine had been her only friend for the past few years, her sole consolation. She didn't know what she'd do when the battery run out, as she probably wouldn't be able to afford another mp3 player.
Carmen wondered if she should go up to the person, but immediately beat this idea down. Past experience had taught her to be wary of strangers. Then again, that was only at school, wasn't it? And this was the desert, a desert where anything could happen, a desert of illusions. In fact, she thought, that boy is probably just an illusion. It's nothing to be afraid of. Nobody's scared of mirages, right? So why be afraid of this one.. right?
She took a tentative step forward, shoving her mp3 player back in her pocket and calling out, "Hello..?"
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 12:50:54 GMT -5
Well, that's one step to seeing is this is all a game set up but the desert, Riven thought before calling back, "Hey!"
He strode a few paces closer, not liking the fact of having to yell that loud just to be heard, even if the girl was created only by the sands swirling by.
It was only a guess, but he thought it seemed she hadn't been in terms of new clothing for a while, or right fitting ones either, for that matter. But he wouldn't comment on her wardrobe, it wasn't polite to do so.
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 13:05:29 GMT -5
She forced herself on, an internal battle with her shyness forging inside of her, but she tried to ignore it. Every step she took was a war, every thought she made was difficult. Carmen couldn't remember heading towards a stranger with the intent of asking him or her a question for at least ten years. Maybe when she was younger, she'd been a bit more outgoing, and a bit less mistrusting.
Carmen reached the boy and blinked at him through icy blue eyes. "Uh.. hi.." She really did not know what to say.
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 13:12:01 GMT -5
"Er... hey." Riven was, for once, at a loss of words. She didn't seem to be a mirage, and her eyes cut right through the storm of dust to him. They were pretty, just not as friendly as some of the eyes he'd seen at first glance.
And, without much more to say, he decided to introduce himself. "Uh... I'm Rivenborn. Riven or Riv for short. Who're you?" He wondered vaguely if she noticed the unsure tone in his voice as he spoke.
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 13:19:29 GMT -5
She searched her mind for the knowledge for if she was supposed to say "Pleased to meet you" or "Charmed" or something of the like, but decided against it and merely replied, "I'm Carmen. Uh.. Car for short.. I.. guess.." She recalled that she hated being called Car- but she remembered a little too late. Carmen's brain didn't function very well when she was meeting new people, especially people like this boy, Rivenborn. She had never met another person with a tattoo before- or at least someone who's tattoo was in a place that you can legally display to the public. Her eyes flickered to his leg, tracing the lines of the tattoo before they returned to rest on his face.
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 13:24:21 GMT -5
"Nice to meet you... Carmen." At the last moment he decided not to call her Car. It sort of bothered him and reminded him of an automobile rather than a lady. This girl-- Carmen-- she was different than anyone he had seen before, in some way. But he wasn't sure of what made her that way.
"Are you from around here?" Riven finally realized he had been making the nervous gesture of rubbing the back of his head with his right hand. If it were with his left it didn't mean anything, but if it were his right he was anxious and uncertain.
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 13:34:07 GMT -5
She gave an anxious nod in reply, glad that Rivenborn had chosen to use her real name. Most people called her Car just to bother her. She knew what they whispered. "Oh, there goes that fat girl Carmen, let's go bug her, she'll get mad at us and it's so funny when she explodes like she always does," they'd say. She had heard them on more than one occasion.. she shook her head slightly, trying to forget her schoolmates for just a little while.
"Well.. that depends what you classify as 'here'.." She cleared her throat nervously. "Not in the desert- though I do like it.." Well, that was obvious, nobody lived in the desert.. did they?
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 13:39:41 GMT -5
"I wouldn't really be able to imagine you living in a desert," Riven commented without thinking, nor realizing he spoke. His gaze drifted to look around the area: Sand, sand, more sand, and.... more sand.
"What make you so drawn to the desert?" he asked, earning himself the "pleasure" of getting dust in his mouth. Swiftly, he turned his head and coughed, noting how horrible it tasted. Then he swung his head back so he peered directly at her, giving her an apologetic smile, though why is beyond him or I.
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 13:44:17 GMT -5
"Yeah, neither can I.." she agreed, realizing that she was smiling ever-so-slightly. Well, that's odd. When was the last time she'd given a stranger a smile?
She watched him cough on the sand, offering, "Yeah, I get that sometimes too.. especially when I'm singing." She regretted that instantly; her singing voice was not someone she shared with anyone, let alone a boy she had known no longer than two minutes.
In response to his question, she said, "I don't know.. I guess I just like how secluded it is." She looked up at the verdant sky. "Quiet rage.." she said, almost to herself. "It's almost poetic." Part of the reason she was gazing up was to avoid looking at Rivenborn's grin, which made her heart speed up.
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Post by Envy on Jun 23, 2007 13:50:52 GMT -5
"I would imagine you would, if you sang out here." He watched some of the strands of his hair blow in front of his eyes from the wind. Such a troublesome thing, that wind. Riven's thoughts went to what she had said about it being secluded.
"It's easier to have time to yourself out here... isn't it?"
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Post by nikki on Jun 23, 2007 13:53:50 GMT -5
Carmen nodded with solemnity, turning away and stretching out her arms to the massive expanse of sand. "Some people think of it as nothing," she said, "nothing but grains of dirt where you can see things that don't exist. But I've been seeing these grains of dirt for so long that they're engraved in my mind with fondness, and the 'things that don't exist' are a comfort compared to what one can find where everything is all to real." She let her hands drop to her sides and folded her arms, facing Rivenborn again after delivering this little speech. "It's a home to me more than my real house is," she concluded.
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