The concept of Cliches [Open]

[lucien]

It was the second time in as many days in which he had skipped lunch- it was Sunday, afterall, and hardly mattered for classes, yet...

Wind was scarce here, only blown from some secluded spot further away from a place that did not feed the streams into the pool- it rocked ripples on the surface of the water, almost hypnotizing-

Lucien stared skywards, eyes glazed; gave one the impression of being under a dome, and could think of nothing and nothing else. The rocking motion of the pier beneath him sang the silent songs-

Flay, flee, floo, flu, fly-


He could feel the weight of papers and his wand against the fabric of his shirt- yet was too still to move; to silent to see. There is irregularities in the rocking- as if someone had stepped onto the bound wood....?

He wasn’t sure if his eyes were closed; the sun on his face was like spell-work. He made a mental note to dispel strange, uncharacteristic euphorias such as this one, before he drifted away

[gryphon]

When senses are dull, but burning with fire, all it ever meant was that winter was indeed coming...
Lately the small girl had been feeling less. Invisible around the school, filing past students with ease- not even having to look up just in case someone would maybe run into her. It wasn't even like that. It was as if the very space she occupied didn't exist and that where she was, was precisely nothing.
Days to weeks had passed with nothing to change this odd disappearance of herself. She couldn't even say that she was even a shadow in the corner. For where ever she did stand normally there was some sort of light that made her evidently there, but to no success would they ever see. Even throwing a cream pie at a Slytherin's head after dinner the other day had done nothing.

Nothing. Nothing.

Perhaps it was her mood. This distracted mind that belonged to her, looking over stupid, idiotic girl emotions. Though Gryphon would never admit to this it was the horrible case. 'He is your best friend you demented fool. He is the only source of eyes that actually acknowledge you being. Why would you throw that away?' Petty, stupid thoughts that only caused her pain some where in her center and an emptyness around her. 'You wont act on anything, not if it means you could lose...That you would lose.' She shuddered at the thought up scene, those blue eyes turning away from her forever.

Skipping lunch merely to get away from the hollow eyes of the student body, Gryphon had lolled her way toward the Lake edge. Following her feet to the rickety pier. It's mourning sounds created by the wind sounding dooming. But right now thinking too much like always this didn't bother her. Not enough to stop her from stepping up onto the familiar old pier, the wood shifting beneath her feet with a slight groan. With winter on Hogwarts heels the wood would have shrunken in the cooler climate, and simply disagreeing with the wind pushing at it needlessly. Not that the small girl was thinking of all this. Always, too distracted.

Gryphon paused there, having taken a tiny step, looking up now to find a boy at the other end. 'Oh. Isn't it lunch? I wonder if he knows he's missing out on it?' Normally she would have turned right around and found some other unoccupied place. However worry got the best of her, of him missing out on something he may want...

Slowly pacing toward the unknown boy she made her presence more known allowing the creaks in the pier to show her footfalls coming closer. Stopping several feet away from him before saying. "Um, excuse me. I know I'm interrupting you, but-" She hesitated suddenly feeling ridiculous, who was she to come up to a stranger and tell him he was missing lunch. But it was too late he would have heard her.

(sorry it's a long post :] )

[lucien]

It wasn’t even light sleep- yet it couldn’t be classified as consciousness, either. There wasn’t much to call upon, yet the little cloud of content seemed to evaporate like summer mist-

Lucien opened his eyes, vaguely aware of the gravity of moments before –so light, so light- that had closed them, looked up to the seemingly harsh sunlight of early afternoon, then to the source which had brought him back to normality-

A girl was standing a few paces to his right, her steps must have moved the raft like pier- it was causing ripples now, gentle like the eddies of a sonatina played off the wings of some deserted stage. Heat rushed to his cheeks, and he stood up quickly, making the wooden pier rock even more on its cushion of water, a few leaves fluttering, now uncaught in the folds of his robes.

“I’m sorry!- I...well, apologize…state of…” He curled and uncurled his fingers. The only dignity he could have boasted of at that moment was eye contact; he took a breath.

“…Good afternoon,”

He had come to notice the popularity of muggle attire within the school, especially come weekends- and had become used to it, though never attempted to try muggle clothing. The thought of it was queer to him, like walking around with a dressing gown on all day in public. He attempted to direct his thoughts back to logic-

The girl was slight, pretty with large eyes and white blond hair. The gaze being offered wasn’t too consoling, and he wondered why it was that he would be discovered, half asleep- a few times in as many days. <i>Must be the pace of the place…such it were to give strange, unaccustomed distractions-</i>

Like it was doing now. He frowned to himself, inwardly.

(ooc: It’s alright- I usually do longer, but can’t find the energy, to be honest.)

[gryphon]

In all honesty she was expecting the boy to glance over his shoulder, roll his eyes and ignore her presence. She would expect that much from him and with that indication from him Gryphon could leave, awkwardly without a further murmur. He would forget about the interruption and equally that she ever existed.
The reaction that did come surprised the small girl, resulting in her holding her breath briefly without realising she was doing so. He was on his feet now suddenly, apologising. He was apologising. She had been the one to interrupt him.

The corners of her lips eased into a small smile then at his withered greeting. Obviously this boy wasn't as she had thought he was, her confidence feeling not as small. Friendlier people always having this reaction on Gryphon, always moulding into their own personal space of 'friendly' behaviour.

Heat burned through her porcelain cheeks as this scene some how remained awkward as Gryphon really didn't have any pending reason to be here; being noticed, making him apologize. Lowering her eyes away from his to her feet on the creaky pier Gryphon winced inwardly. 'Idiot.'

"Afternoon." She said a smile in her soft voice, forcing herself to look back to the boy. Why were her hands clenched at her sides a little too tightly? 'Probably because no one looks at you directly anymore.' And Gryphon couldn't help but wonder what this boy did see. Probably the utter depiction of a fool...

"I... Should be the one to apologize. I shouldn't of interrupted you. And... um what you were doing." The words came soft and sincere. Hopelessly trying to give him reason for this. This that didn't really matter but right now seemed to a lot somehow. "I'm sorry. I..er..I." Gryphon stumbled over her words stopping herself unsure how exactly she wanted to finish the sentence. Was it really just to remind him about lunch?
She sighed under her breath, vagely shrugging. "I'm not sure anymore."

[lucien]

“I’m not sure anymore.”

Her demeanour and hesitance seemed to assure him; instead of retreating into the silent statue that one became around chatter- he almost always found himself in such- he smiled at the edge of his features-

“I’m afraid I may have…what is the phrase…’dozed off’,”

He gave a small gesture- just as vague, towards the sun and still rocking platform they were both standing on- to give the statement some sort of evidence and reason- as if falling asleep and being found in such states were perfectly acceptable. The girl was not yet displaying some sort of sarcastic retort or remark, so…perhaps it was. The thought failed to cheer him-

“Being sure indicates that there is something that you don’t know. Best to be a little unsure.”

He allowed his smile to widen- it was a curious thing, for he had never smiled into a mirror to check what the expression looked like. The smile promptly faded again, and he took a few steps on the pier, making it move in steady beats on the water- the sound filling the silence around them. His bag was where he had left it, lying on the edge of the planks, its black cloth soaking up the heat of the sun.

[gryphon]

(oh...x] sorry too many words. Don't feel you have to match it.)

The smile that she saw come to him was reassuring to say the least. Another expression she didn’t see from others often. Small but enough to make her pale cheeks die down in colour. Her own lips lifting into a faint smile, some understanding filing through her mind at his ‘dozing off’. Gryphon had the same problem in class, day dreaming drifting into a deeper state of mind. At least here this boy could get away with it, once a Professor saw her half shut eyes clouded and aimlessly gazing off into the far corner; they would sharply bring her back to the class room in a means of how loud they could holler.
Gryphon only wished she could be caught out here at least where anyone had an excuse to dream away in such a beautiful amphitheatre of nature.

True understanding came to her that it must be awkward for him to be discovered asleep on this pier and she could only stand here wordless as she couldn’t exactly say that she was sorry for making him sorry. Really it didn’t matter that he was drifting in and out of consciousness, fore she was so accustom to doing it herself.
A small nod showed her understanding smile still there if it possible that expressions could talk, clearly hers would say I don’t mind.. Of all places Gryphon did expect one to doze off here.

"Being sure indicates that there is something that you don’t know. Best to be a little unsure." He had said.

She couldn’t stop her own smile from widening a fraction. Still feeling hopeless despite the boy’s way of trying to make her oddity ok. ‘So then when someone is sure, rightfully there not really.’ She answered equally back as if to make the words sit better in her head. Unable to not let this interesting phrase just rest there among the other thoughts. Why couldn’t she ever just leave things as they were said. Why must they be pulled apart and gnarled at until they fitted better with her feelings.
Not that his answer made her feel not so stupid. If anything it made her regard him as very, very interesting. Polite, nice, interesting… Maybe her interruptions could be put on a more positive outlook, that is if she continued to meet rather lovely people like him.

But Gryphon couldn’t help but answer him in her mind again. Thinking; always too much of this thinking. That only a fool comes wilfully to interrupt another for no reason. Why this word kept humming back into her mind regardless of how this boy was being so polite, was really an unknown. It just was more evident to her in this present than before. If anyone were to ask her now of a brief definition of her self, she would answer in that with two syllables. A fool.

Oh, she really was in a dull mood. No reason to be in this mood when you had interesting people like this boy to converse with. Gryphon would have to shake her mind away from the dull.

This boy was taller than her she noticed as he came closer, though, nearly everyone was rightfully taller than her. The house elves having their own exception to that of course.
She would not answer him about this brought up unsure, too sacred it would lead to how unsure she was of herself in general. How unsure of everything right now she was. It was then that her mind whispered to her to say something before he did vanish. Urged to say you are very curious, but holding her tongue as that may result in offending him. Gryphon didn't wish for that.

“Well, I'm sorry all the same. If that makes any difference.” A murmured, shy laugh escaped her. Holding her arms not defensively but only to get a hold of her self. Fists still clench a bit too tightly.

"I don't usually go out of my way to..." Gryphon paused. "Interject." She smiled friendly at the interesting stranger. [/size]

[lucien]

Lucien raised his eyebrows a fraction, and allowed himself the luxury of a smile in return.

"No...I think not."

There was something...like an small, inner orb of confidence that radiated the girl's face; made it easier to hold the gaze. Yet the masks, as masks do...Lucien look away. What was the point of standing if one could not stand within the self...? Drowning.

The leaves pulls under with the water, repetitive in rhythm and tempo. He walked to the edge of the pier (for walking at that time seemed to be appropriate), making the ripples grow in unsteady circles, each footfall consequenting in cool rings of colour thrown by the afternoon rays. He turned back to her with his back to the water's edge, studying the figure before him with unblinking and unmoving eyes. She did not appear to be in school robes, and her house was not marked there, like some crest of prejudice that all houses seemed to bear.

It was strange, he had thought it from the very beginning, to seperate those in qualities of a hat's decision. Oh the brave must be the winners, and for you, Slytherins, you will always come the worst in the end for society demands it. Hufflepuffs, loyalty and perseverance is always valued second best, but you make lovely sidekicks. As for Ravenclaw, someone must provide the answers...

He shook the thoughts to the back of his memory. The hat had been...well.

"What brings you out here?" He enquired. The wind covered the echoes that may have fallen with damp leaves and rotten petals. The water sighs-

<i>Names are not important, eh, James? Bought the first hour of friendship with silence, took it back again with words. Haven't seen the shadows you throw for...</i>

His eyes pulled to the water, his own reflection distorted by the fading ripples caused by their very heartbeats. It was so...natural. So forgetful. Such it were, repetitious, also.

<i>...how long, from now?</i>

[gryphon]

Her gaze had remained on him even when he did look away a few times. The boy seemed like the thoughtful type. No he wasn't the loud obnoxious, attention-seeking student you would find in the Great Hall right now. Not at all. And Gryphon couldn't help but wonder too much into this figure to why exactly he was here.

"To breathe..." She said the words before thinking them over better, though they had been the precise answer, her smile faded. Maybe she shouldn't say this to him, not that he would look into it as much as if he had said it to her. Caution wasn't a big thought in her mind, though Gryphon hadn't been hiding from those eyes that couldn't see her. Why should she hide these trivial facts? For she could very much breathe around those people, those crowds, but it didn't feel like she was breathing.

'Cause you can't breathe around those soulless eyes.. can you?

Somehow she had still been looking at the boy without really looking at him still. The cooler climate becoming more known to her now on this old pier. And it didn't matter that she didn't know his name and that perhaps he didn't wish to tell her it. It didn't matter to even really answer. Nothing did.
It was all just simple actions, like some sick puppet shows for the entire world to see. Yet no one was looking anyway.

Freeing herself from the thoughts she looked at him, even though she hadn't looked away once. Smile still having faded and Gryphon couldn't really feel her lips enough to make them return back to that shape. Mind too clouded with these obstacles.

"And you?"

[lucien]

Silence seemed to be abundant, it curled around them both like dense smoke, the air smelling sweet-

"To think." He said, not quickly, but without hesitation.

It was one of those answers that came, without question, a must for it could not be any other, to stray from the box was to fray into imperfection deemed by the places and people one lived with-

Her own answer was...Lucien glanced back at her, the expression on porcelain features almost unreadable...he wondered why she sounded so wistful, trailing at the end of her words like the fallen dust of seraphim.

He sat down by the edge, making the pier creak once more, crossing his legs in the lotus position. His hands hid the reflection of his face, the weed that swirled around the ankles masking the depth of the pool. Sunlight strobed, and failed to penetrate, lost in it's own thoughts and anyone elses' that did not belong in heads nor clouds.

It was the pleasant company that did not force itself, she seemed to belong there as surely as the petals on a flower and trimmings on a golden sleeve.

[gryphon]

An answer which she had suspected as much. To breathe, to think- simple answers however there lay more to it just beneath the surface of the answer. But were they both the same in one sense, was all Gryphon could think of, unable to tear away from it. Did they differ or was the same need there?

His hidden features only caused the girl to stare fixedly at the boy trying to see past those hands to what that face may convey. Most likely thoughts, that was why he was here. But then again before his face had hidden those thoughts and those thoughts had been rather stealthily. Words normally accompanied thoughts to make good evidence. But such evidence was sparse.
In all honesty Gryphon much preferred the small amount of words. It was comfortable somehow.

Watching his sited form she too without much recognition knelt where she was. Barely a motion with the soundlessness of it. Not even the pier complained. Hands folded together in her lap. Relaxing there, forgetting how stiff they had been.

Minutes effortlessly trickled by without further words or movement from Gryphon. The soft noises of nature more pronounced around them and the rickety pier, yet she did not move her gaze. Then finally Gryphon spoke breaking the calm silence not flustered or worried by how quiet it had been between the two.

“...To escape?” She asked in her normal soft spoken voice. A little hesitant.

[lucien]

The voice spoke over his shoulder- he did not have to turn to see the expression, and he was rather reluctant to do so. The conversation had the possibility to lead down the paths of ‘why’…and the last time that had happened-

A hand came up to his cheek, touched the fading bruise there- an unconscious movement- before speaking. It was odd, hearing your own voice. As if everything else had hushed, for you had said (or was about to say) something that you shouldn’t speak or know…or both. It was a cold sensation.

“I’ve heard people say that-” there is the tone of a Russian Rag in his voice. Bitter. Cynicisms were not born, but made….

“But you’re only escape if you know what you’re supposed to be escaping from.”

His reflection rippled back at him, the water swirling, just a few centimetres beyond his fingers. It was almost sickening the things people imagined, to pretend…for pretending was pretending was pretending…once the masquerade ends, one could not even stand within oneself, let alone from others- the crush of sweet velvet was too much of a temptation to pretend that one held pretence. It was the one of the many reasons he looked away.

And been punched for it.

The memory brought a smile back to his face, and he turned back to the girl, her slight figure crouched beside him like a porcelain doll. He appreciated the fact that he was not reduced to a silent and blushing fool- she did not force her company.

“I’m afraid I don’t know. So, no…I guess I’m not escaping.”

Turned back to the water, the raft almost still underneath them both, though the sloshing of water still surrounded them like the spring mists’ shroud. Like the fading ethers of a dream…or nightmare. Depending on your perspective. Lucien realised he had spoken more than he had to a single person for a whole week. It surprised him. The reflection grinned back at him like a drowning fool-

He smiled back.

[gryphon]

She inched her head at his response her blue eyes shifting toward the lakes vast surface away from him. Mind sweeping over his words, over and over again. No doubt from these words he was contemplating other things a lot deeper than her simple hiding from the people.

He was right, you only escape if you know what you’re escaping from, she had come here away from the eyes, the hollow gazes. Escaping them, yes, but here she was with another. So she really hadn’t escaped precisely. But really Gryphon hadn’t completely wished to escape absolutely.

This boy wasn’t one of them. That was blatantly obvious, known to her the moment he responded with her presence. Not to mention the fact his eyes were not hollow like theirs.

At least it had only been people to escape from. There are worse horrors she knew of that lurked in the depths of the mind. Ones you couldn't escape from. If she had been trying to escape something as such, Gryphon wouldn't of known where to go. And there would be no escape...

‘And he doesn’t know what he is escaping from and so he is not escaping.’ She thought, gaze taking in the glittering light caught on the ripples of the water. Resting there as lines in her brow deepened, furrowing over these thoughts depicting their own broken pieces of light reflecting to no end. Sad as they were they seemed to come up with no precise answer. Only more questions.

Questions and questions upon questions calling soundlessly. Too many; wavering for the right answer. If there were any right answers at all for them.

“...I guess none of us really can escape from anything.” Gryphon murmured, the equation was always flawless if you really looked at it. The mind is a nasty thing in how it always mutely remembers and in that way all is inescapable.

It was by the way he had said his answer that made her feel like there was something he would wish to escape from.

”If you can’t find some solitude in even a false escape, doesn’t that leave you only to…Drown? Without a sanctuary how can there be hope?” Her features softened as she realized what she had just asked. Pushing this conversation to where exactly? Maybe he would disappear with her undue pushing, this quiet ivory angel she had found on the decrepit pier.

A smile met her own lips and she shook her head at her self. “Forgive me, I ask of too much from you, naturally it's all none of my business. Yet I ask without falter and create such negativity to something that could be looked over.” She looked to him now, “Who am I too you but another stranger from no where." She smiled still though it was one that she wore this time, there was no real feeling behind it. "I for one, am always searching for this...escape. Because I can not deal with it like everyone else seems to."

The blind see it better than they, the same nature of it all.

[lucien]

He drew his knees towards himself, fingers laced around eachother. He would have liked to let himself lie back in the afternoon sun and answer questions that way…but not in company. Instead, he let the warmth fall on the back of his neck.

“At least you ask,” he said without turning. “Most don’t. For if you say ‘yes’, in this world, no one ever asks you the reasons…”

He gave a shrug, almost an expression unto himself- the rise and fall of thin shoulders that seemed out of place in the cheerful atmosphere. There was the calm contentedness that still folded itself about them like the wings of some butterfly, without scent or colour-

He passed a hand over his face, as if wiping away some memory that still haunted the features. Fingertips were cold to the skin, as if he had been swimming- the reflection in the water was still smiling back though there was no such thing on his own face. It had fallen back into its customary impassive mask, its cue only by the trailing leaves on their sleeves.

“Everyone drowns…or is drowning. Some of us just fall beneath the surface.” yet from which side or end? There is always another place if you reach out far enough…I wonder where you stand. Names don’t matter in this case, perhaps you really have escaped…?

Now I only have to decided whether I wish it in parallel…

Such is the question. But we must now how before a why…motives are not important. Only the things behind the thoughts and wills…I am truly different to you, James. Where have you gone? And Vanessa, you would choose neither.

He almost envied her- to have her thoughts crystallise and drop like pearls on a golden chain, glittering as the light glitters in phantom diamonds across phantom faces. A sob rose in his throat- and it was several long moments before he could bypass it again, and speak with a normal tempo;

“Are you happy now, that you’ve escaped?”

[gryphon]

She was already looking at him before she had realised she was. Having let those other words rap around her busy mind while her gaze drifted into the no-where over the lake. But now she was looking at him trying to see past what was and perhaps onto his reason for his words.

And Gryphon would search for the reason tirelessly knowing it wouldn’t surface even if she did find the right questions. Prodded in the right places. Like a statue she sat there unmoved staring with pending eyes.

“..no.” She whispered. It falling from her lips so delicately, wishing that she could say the other. Knowing she wouldn’t say the other ever. If she did it would be a lie.

“I can’t say that I am happy about my escape because I don’t believe I have escaped. You can run and run and hide, but you can never escape. The only way to be rid of it- that we don’t wish to face, is to face it and succumb to it. Beat it.” Gryphon laughed under her breath, the simplicity of what we say and what we mean. The difference between what is said and the initial action.

“Kill it.” She said a lot more simply. Though believing even if someone did do this, say kill the addiction, turn to a more duller atmosphere, fix the wrong; it would still remain. The itch under the surface. Irresistible, constant pleading. Which ever path you took you would in the end remain under the surface. With or without your sanity. Drowning.

’So your choices stand side by side. To take your poison and hide in your inability to subside the needs, or equally, deny it and die a little more on the inside just as you had with the dose of freedom…Either way your trapped.’

Run from the tidal wave or face it head on. You will drown.

“I am content in the fact that I will always see this way. And that this,” she waved her hand a little to indicate them here. “- is only an excuse for a brake. Not an escape. Now that I think about it I don’t believe there is such a thing in life. There is only one true way to escape this and everything, and it isn’t very pretty.”

Gryphon stared at him still, wondering what those eyes saw from the mind that controlled them.[/size]