A simple little--OMFG SQUIRREL

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

For Your Consideration
Flying Squirrels
Pawns: characters in play
Bombing 'round the sky
Status: private/open, active/concluded
Lookin' Superfly
Setting: brief idea where you are.
Squirrels (Flying)
Scene: brief idea what is happening.
Thanks to flaps of skin

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Ben sighed as he tried to keep his papers from flying away in the fall winds. How trouble some this was. He tried to paperclip them together, then weighing them down, then finally he just put them in a binder so he only had to worry about a few pages fluttering in the wind. Whenever the wind would stop blowing, he would reach into a bag of unsalted peanuts for his afternoon snack. Ever since he changed diets, he started to be hungry more often. He decided to split his meals into 6 small ones instead of 3 fairly large ones. Healthier from what he could remember. His hand brushed something fuzzy and he blinked, his concentration broken from the CT scan results to look at the object.

A squirrel blinked up at him and he startled, a small yelp escaping from his mouth. The squirrel freaked out and jumped out of the bag, causing it to fall over and spill nuts everywhere. He cursed and tossed out the contaminated nuts and threw them far away from himself and went back to reading. A handful of minutes later, he felt something fuzzy again. He growled and looked down. Two squirrels? He jumped up, spilling the binder on the ground and made a kick at the bag. The squirrels got away of course, but at what cost?

There was barely any peanuts left so he set the bag in his lap, and gathered up the binder once he was sitting once more. He sighed and continued to read. That was when he felt little hands on his shoulder and he jumped up, swinging the binder around.

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FLUFFY DEMON SPAWNS!!"

[Emmer Brighton]

This park was so nice. Emmer couldn't believe she hadn't checked it out before. She'd figured it would be like the parks in the city she'd once visited: crowded and overrun with screaming little kids. Were there little kids in Haven? She hadn't really seen any but she supposed that didn't mean that there weren't some around. She wondered how her little cousins were doing back home. She hadn't heard from any of her aunts or uncles, only her older brother and father and occasionally her mother. Maybe her aunts and uncles had abandoned them because she was a Dreamer. She certainly hoped not. She wasn't a big fan of kids anyways, though they pretty much acted like the colts her family bred. The colts learned to pay more mind faster though. There was so much room in this place. Maybe she could get some land and put fences and a shelter up. Maybe they'd let her bring in Aztec and Aki.

A sudden movement on the path ahead of her startled her out of her thoughts. A tall man was sitting on a bench off to the side of the path, but then he was flailing around, swatting the binder in his hands at something, kicking at something on the ground. Emmer's eyes went wide. Maybe he was crazy? She figured they wouldn't let crazy people just walk around in Haven. Maybe he sat on a bee or something though and needed help. She thought maybe she had sting ointment in her little first aid kit. She sped into a jog, covering the short distance to him rather quickly.

"Hey mist-"

'GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FLUFFY DEMON SPAWNS!!'

"-ACK!"

Emmer ducked as his swung his binder around, just barely missing her face. Who -did- things like that?

"What is wrong with you?!" She cried, staring at the man like he was nuts.
"Is it normal fer y' to go swingin' school supplies at people, huh?!"
What was WRONG with people in this town?!

"Wow yer tall..." This struck her almost as soon as she'd finished yelling at him. All her anger was forgotten as she walked around him in a circle, staring up at him. He had to be at least a foot taller than her! Maybe more!

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

When he almost hit the girl, he instantly snapped the binder closed and put it on the bench. Squirrels still skittered around, stealing the peanuts that were now on the ground. He brushed himself off as he composed himself. Then she was circling around him. He blinked and watched her.

"I was having some issues with the squirrels but it seems that it is over."

He looked at the lost cause that were the peanuts and sighed. Now what would he do for his snack? He shook his head softly and looked at her, shoulders hunched and relaxed now that he wasn't alone. He stared at the neck of the person he talked to.

"I'm Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh. What's your name?"

He waited for a response before sitting back on the bench. No reason to waste energy.

[Emmer Brighton]

"Name's Emmer." She grinned, plopping down next to him and slinging her backpack on the other side of herself.

"I though' maybe ya sat on a bee with th' way you were dancin' around." She laughed, curling her legs up underneath herself, sitting on her calves.

"Doctor huh?" She looked him up and down.

"Ya don' look like a doctor. Why aren't'cha on duty? I though' they always had most of 'em at the hospital?" She cocked her head curiously.

"I guess the squirrels are used to bein' fed. They must be. I mean, they don't have much room t'hunt and there's a whole of 'em here. Did'ja know there are deer here too? I saw tracks the other day but I haven't seen one itsself yet. I will though."

She wasn't a very good deer hunter though. Her father had taken her once and she'd quickly lost focus on what they doing as bored set in. The only things she really seemed to be able to focus on were horses, writing, and certain school classes.

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

There was a slow blink after she had said her peace. He moved his shoulder bag a bit to the side and scooted over to make sure she had room as an old habit. He set the binder on his lap and crossed his legs.

"No, there was no bee..."

He said this slow, as his brain tried to process her as a person. Something new he was trying: seeing people as people, not as tools. It was harder than it looked. He shook his head ever so softly before keeping his face blank of emotions.

"I'm a psychologist and because of the regulations against constantly working, I'm forced to take short vacations here and there to insure my psych isn't being messed with in the process. In agreement to this, I take a day off every three or four weeks. Sometimes sooner if the need arises. Today is not one of those days. My office is actually being used at the moment, so I took my work outside. I thought it would be fine, but the wind and the squirrels are proving to be quite the challenge..."

He raised a brow at her. What day was it?

"Why aren't you in class?"

[Emmer Brighton]

"I skipped." Emmer chirped. It was just math, it wasn't like she was going to need it anyways. She knew all the math she'd need to know to run the ranch when she got older.

"A psychologist huh? The people at my old school tried t' make me go to one once. For somethin'. I can't remember." She frowned.

"Anyways, they made you come out here t' work? Isn't that odd? What're they usin' your office for?" She looked at him curiously.

Man he really was tall. She wondered where Koh was. Probably class. She still hadn't been able to convince him to skip with her. She sucked absently on her lip ring, clicking it against her teeth thoughtfully.

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

"Fainting room. Apparently there are some doctors who aren't use to their job..."

He sighed and shook his head.

"Be glad I'm not of the school staff or I would have to report you. Why are you skipping class anyway? Knowledge leads to your future."

[Emmer Brighton]

Emmer wrinkled her nose. Oh great, another lecturing adult.

"It's just math. My other classes I'll need. Not that one." She nodded, more to herself than anything.

"I know my future. I'm takin' over my family's ranch. I know all th' math I'll need for that. No use bogging down the useful learning with things I'll never use."

It always surprised her how adults had never thought of this.

"I knew you weren't from th' school though." She pulled a water bottle out of the side pocket on her bookbag, opening it and taking a sip. "You don' look like a teacher. 'Course, neither does Mr. Ellis, but he sounds like a teacher when he talks. You don'."

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

He didn't know how he felt about that. He puzzled over this then looked sideways at her, never raising his eyes higher than her neck.

"And how should a teacher talk?"

He made his voice blane, drab, and boring sounding--like Ben Stein when he played a teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

"Something like this? What is the square root of x divided by y to the 10th power blah blah blah"

He dropped the voice. It sounded like collage all over again and those are days best left alone and in the past. He shook his head and leaned back on the bench. He flipped the binder open and glanced over the pages.

"It's good you have your future planned out. Going aimlessly ahead is only a fools way of doing things."

He was a fool by his own definition. Which he believed to be true only because of his own personal definition.

"Though, I have to say, what kind of life is it to live with only one goal? No other outward thoughts, curiosity? I can understand bypassing math for it is quite the trivial thing and only results in angering people from the complexity of it's existence."

He noticed a squirrel picking up a peanut and it stared at him. He frowned and it didn't seem to be phased by his grim expression.

[Emmer Brighton]

She burst into giggles.

"No no. I dunno how t' explain it. I c'n jus' tell, you know?"

Her smile soon turned to a thoughtful frown as she mulled over his question.

"Well....runnin' the ranch is all I've ever wanted to do. Train the horses, breed the mares, raise the colts. Tha's what I want."
She nodded.
"I mean...provided we get t' leave here before then..."
She looked down at the water bottle in her hands, a sudden wave of home sickness washing over her.
"Other places are nice to visit. But the ranch and the horses? They're home to me."

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

Ben sighed softly. He was starting to get a bit jealous of all these people with homes to think of. It was something he was staring to want now. He flipped the page in his binder.

"Be grateful that it's only temporary and eventually you will be home again, running the ranch and doing that stuff with the horses. It just gives you time to research how to better run the ranch--there is always room for improvement in someone and something."

He sighed and leaned his head back to look up at the tree. Squirrels again. He made a face as he thought about shouting at them that he was out of peanuts so stop stalking him but he figured that would be more humiliating than being found flailing at rodents about a snack anyway.

"Also, would you want to take the risk of hurting your family on accident? This place is safer to Dreamers; not only from themselves, but the people who have grown to fear them."

He paused, suddenly realizing that if she was in school, then she too was a dreamer. He looked at her finally, trying to meet her eyes without being too obvious.

"What do you become when you go to the Reverie?"

[Emmer Brighton]

"A plant panther." Emmer said without even thinking. She burst into giggles at the odd expression on his face.

"Her name's Coatl. She's a black panther, but she has these leaves growing out of her back..."
She reached over into her bag and pulled out one of her journals, flipping to a page with a drawing of Coatl on it, settled down to eat with Senka, and handed it to him.

"She eats regular, but she also photosynthesizes in the sun. If she doesn't then she doesn't have hardly any energy."

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

He looked at the journal and his face went nuts with emotions (for Ben, this means very subtle changes as he tried to process this). Finally his shoulders sank and shook his head.

"I thought it could be psychologically corrected and adjusted but apparently, this proves it to be way wrong... does this Planther have anything that you envy? Mean anything greater than what you would think it would be?"

He paused, but he thought it made sense...

[Emmer Brighton]

Emmer frowned.

"Not really. I think she needed me more'n anythin'. She was trapped guardin' this shrine, but she wan'd to explore outsidda that. I think...if I hadn' come, she never woulda left and those elves woulda killed her eventually. They took her eye out, you know."

She fumbled with a strap of her book bag, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Is that...wrong..?" She asked. The way he'd sounded...like there was something wrong with her and Coatl. It worried her. What if they weren't supposed to be a match?

"I have...other journals. If you wanna read them..." Maybe this guy would get something out of them like Mr. Ellis was.

[Dr. Benedict Hidzenboosh]

"Oh no, heavens no. There is no right or wrong with the subject of dreamers. I just have been looking for connections between them and so far, one has been in need of the other in some shape or form. I'm trying to see if by giving the one what they need will lead to the end of a dreamers cycle. I haven't collected enough data to be sure though, so that is all I was asking."

He sighed. Being nice and 'human' was hard. He raised a brow at her comment about the journals.

"If you would like to share, that is up to you. I love to further my knowledge of any kind--more so on something I cannot explore myself."

He gave a soft smile then his face blanked. Smile? He is changing... He didn't know how he felt about it. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. So did not know how he felt about this...