Gar and Terry - Backdated

[ax_siryn]

Terry disturbs a green manatee at the lake. Conversation ensues.


This place reminded Terry of Cassidy Keep, she'd quickly realized, and with that came intense feelings of nostalgia. She missed the place. She missed Eamon. She missed her uncle, and she hated to think of him in jail, especially since he probably could have spent less time there by giving her up. Everything was fucked up.

So she walked outside because otherwise she might end up screaming, and no one wanted that to happen. She put sunscreen on her face, throat, shoulders and arms as she walked, then paused to do her legs. Sunglasses in place, she continued towards the lake glistening in the distance, humming under her breath and focusing on the vibration of it in her throat, how to play with it, anything that wasn't how lonely she felt. She was an idiot for feeling sorry for herself; this was a chance, and she'd lucked out with her roommate, at least. Tessa was weird, but she was all right. They were all weird here, anyway, weren't they.

Terry could have used a drink to take the edge off, though. Stupid USA and their stupid alcohol regulations.

She sat on the edge of the lake, tucking her skirt underneath herself, and took off her sandals to put her feet in the water. Then she started singing properly, Bird Set Free by Sia, since some of the lyrics felt very on point, and she loved Sia. Her songs were beautiful, and occasionally a challenge, which didn't happen often anymore.

"Yes, there's a scream inside that we all try to hide, We hold on so tight, but I don't wanna die, no, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die..." Terry let her voice swell on the word, modulating the sound until she could see the ripple across the lake. "And I don't care if I sing off key, I find myself in my melodies, I sing for love, I sing for me, I shout it out like a bird set free..."

Gar had been enjoying himself in one of his rare aquatic forms. Rare insomuch as that he didn't find himself near bodies of water for very long, Gar was trying out what it was like to be a manatee, until he felt a large ripple across the surface of the lake that made him feel a bit... weird. Shifting into the form of a river otter, he bobbed to the surface and looked around before he spied a redhead, and began to swim over to her, figuring that a green river otter might catch her attention. He was a much more confident swimmer as a river otter than he was as a human; no matter what anyone told him, he always felt that humans weren't meant to be in the water for very long.

Terry had kept on singing, until a moving shape in the water caught her attention. The next lyrics died on her lips. Was that a green otter?

It was indeed a green otter, and it walked up onto the nearby lakeside, and shook itself dry in a smooth motion, before turning to her and chittering at her for a few moments. Gar was mostly just curious about her reaction.

Terry just stared at it for a little while, then said, accent obvious in her words, "Either I'm going mad, or you're also a mutant." It was a little mad to think a mutant could... do something like this, though. But she could shatter glass with a sound and her roommate could read her thoughts, so really...

Gar, now slightly damp in his human form, was sitting in front of her, suddenly, replacing the green river otter, which had abruptly expanded into his human shape. "Hey," he said. "Mutant, as charged. You're not crazy."

"Whoa!" Terry let out as the otter shifted into a just as green boy. Her eyes were wide, and she was gaping a little. "That's... whoa."

"Neat, huh? I'm Gar," he said. "Garfield Logan. But... call me Gar," he said, figuring he'd explain the name. It wasn't exactly common. "Was that you, who made the ripple across the lake?" he asked, curiously.

"It was, sorry," Terry confirmed with a nod. "I didn't think anyone was in it." And she hadn't thought of the actual animals. "I'm Terry," she added, doing her best not to look like she was staring. What if he was green?

Of course, he was green, and he didn't seem to really mind that she was looking at him. "No, it didn't like, hurt or anything. Manatees are pretty hefty critters. Just kinda thumped my ears a bit. Got me curious. How'd you do it?" he asked.

"The headmaster calls them sonic powers," Terry replied distractedly, because, well, manatee. "You can turn into any animal you like?"

"Yep! Dinosaurs, too. Just, y'know, don't expect it to be anything but green. Seems I can change shapes, but color not so much. Even as a chameleon, which makes turning into a chameleon kind of pointless," he said, shrugging.

"Don't they have the crazy eyes, too?" Terry asked, and then frowned. "Do you have the same senses as the animals you shift into?"

"Yep!" he said, happily. "The crazy eyes took a bit to get used to, when I tried. Kinda gave me a headache," he confessed. "Bugs are weird, too, for the same reason. Plus, lots of things like to eat bugs, and I'd rather not get eaten," he added.

Terry wrinkled her nose. "No shit." She paused. "There's really no telling what sorts of things mutants will be able to do, is there? What you can do's incredible."

"Yeah, we're a pretty varied bunch," Gar said, more-or-less humbly shrugging off the remark on his powers. "But sonic stuff is cool, too. Can you like, shatter glass? Oh, oh, what about uh, um... Inner-ear stuff, like... make people dizzy, or nauseated, and stuff like that?" he asked, excitedly. "Sound's so cool."

"I've done the glass and the dizziness," Terry confirmed with a nod. It wasn't all that cool at all, compared to what he could do. Then again, she was very glad not to have turned out green-skinned.

"That's really neat," Gar said, grinning. "What about like, uh, vocal ranges?" he asked, curiously. "Can you do like, operatic stuff? Ooh, what about like, vocal modulation? Can you make it sound like you're auto-tuned?"

"All of it," Terry confirmed with a nod. "But I don't much fancy opera."

"That's so neat!" Gar exclaimed, enthusiastic about it. "I-I mean, I'm not like, an opera fan, either, but still. Voice tricks are so neat. I mean, have you heard, um..." What was it called? "Throat-singing? Can you do that? I saw a YouTube video of a throat-singer, he sounded so cool," he said, so curious about what she could do.

"Is it that thing from... Mongolia, maybe?" Terry asked. It rang a faint bell, but she certainly hadn't looked it up in the last few months.

"I... maybe?" He obviously wasn't sure, himself. "I saw it on the internet like, once," he said. "But it sounded really cool."

"If it's something to do with vocal cords, I can probably do it," Terry answered. She might look it up, but she enjoyed simple singing more than enough as it was.

"So you're basically the best singer ever," Gar said, blinking at her, and then he grinned. "That's so awesome. I bet you'll be really famous someday for it."

"I don't know," Terry answered, making a sceptical grimace. "It takes more than good singing to be famous."

"I-I mean, what else does it take?" Gar asked, curiously. "I mean, you're-you're pretty, you can sing like nobody else can, and, I mean, anyone can learn to like, dance, or write music," he said. "So what bases are you not covering?" he asked. "It seems to me like all you need is... uh... the... first step to becoming a famous singer. Whatever that is."

"Wanting to become a famous singer?" Terry offered as a first step. It seemed like a sound one to her. And she very much doubted that anyone could learn to dance or write music well enough.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess that's kinda step one," Gar said, having not considered whether or not she really wanted to. "Sorry. Guess I kinda assumed..." Now he felt kinda bad about that.

Terry shrugged, because it didn't really matter. "Maybe that's what I'll end up doing, anyway."

"I mean, y'know. World. Oyster. Which, come to think of it, I'll probably never try mollusks. Changing into them, not eating them. I'm not a fan of eating animals," he said, figuring he should clarify on both counts. "I don't imagine being a clam or an oyster would be particularly fun."

"Yeah, it doesn't sound great," Terry confirmed with a nose wrinkle.

"Well, especially when you think about the fact that they have so many natural predators. Like, ironically, otters," he said. "Though that's more sea otters. River otters don't have access to mollusks, usually," he said, thinking about that. He drifted for a moment in thought, and then realized he was still probably trying to hold a conversation. "Ah, sorry. Got lost in thought. So-so what about you?" he asked, curious. "What's your story? Like, where are you from and stuff?"

Story? There was no story here, kindly move along, thank you. But his next question was a lot easier to answer. "Ireland, on the West coast. Small village, really."

"Oh, neat," Gar said, obviously enchanted by the very idea. "Ireland's supposed to be super beautiful. Every picture online I've seen of the place makes it look like a storybook, with castles and cliffs and beautiful fields and stuff..."

"It is the most beautiful place on earth," Terry confirmed, and smiled. "But I'm biased."

"Maybe I'll go there someday," he said, grinning. "I can turn into the only snake in Ireland. That's a thing, right? No snakes in Ireland? That's... Saint Patrick, right?"

"That's the legend, anyway," Terry answered with a small smile. "But our only snakes are in captivity."

"That's so weird. I mean, like, I wonder why, historically, it's the case. There's no real reason, speaking in terms of climate, right?" he asked, curious if she knew. "Like, England has snakes, I'm pretty sure."

"There was no way for them to get to us, I suppose?" Terry guessed. "Or it's yet more proof that we're better than the English. Your pick."

Gar snickered a bit. "Maybe. I haven't been to England, either. But ..." He shrugged. "I'll take your word for it. You don't seem biased or anything," he teased.

"It's a well accepted fact all over the world," Terry assured him mock seriously, a playful light in her eyes. "Only the English disagree."

"I'd bet," he said, going along with it if only for fun. But it was deprecating toward a certain group of people, and Gar wasn't one-hundred percent cool with that kind of thing. So he moved on to other topics. "Are you doing the summer courses, too?" he asked, curiously.

The light went out of Terry's eyes and she pursed her lips in a sad moue. "Yeah. I've got a few months to catch up on." Not to mention that different countries meant different syllabi.

"Same. I was kind of... well, it's complicated," he said, shrugging. "Raised by a pair of biologists in the middle of Africa. Kinda, y'know, not your typical educational setup," he chuckled.

Terry's eyebrows rose. "It doesn't sound like it."

"It really wasn't," he said, reinforcing the statement rather than going on to explain it. His childhood was kind of a touchy subject, doubly so since his parents had died, and he'd failed at saving them. He could have. But he hadn't. "But I guess I won't have to worry about biology class much, huh?" He chuckled.

"One less to worry about," Terry agreed with a nod and an amused smile. "So where've you been in Africa?" she asked curiously. She knew so little about that entire continent, it felt.

"I'll be honest. I don't actually know," he said. "For most of it, I was really young, and we were just kind of out in the wilderness a lot. My parents, uh..." Forgot? Didn't bother with? Neglected? "When they'd go into towns and stuff, they'd leave me with the camp," he said, deciding on that. "If they cared to keep track of where they were, they never really told me. I think it was mostly the central African regions."

That didn't sound good, and it showed on Terry's face that she thought so. She perked up. "Well, at least you've seen a lot of things none of us have."

"I mean, I guess," Gar said, shrugging. "It... I mean, don't get me wrong. The areas are beautiful. So much of it's just untouched by human hands. It just... got lonely, too."

"At least you won't have that problem here," Terry stated optimistically, ignoring her personal knowledge of loneliness in boarding schools. Sometimes, it didn't matter how many people were around. But she was hopeful about this one!

"Yeah! It's great. There's so many cool people here. Have you met Shen? She's awesome," he said, grinning widely.

"Yeah, she's cool," Terry agreed, with less overt enthusiasm. It wasn't like she knew her very well, but she did seem cool. "There's a lot of cool people around."

"Yeah. I still haven't met everyone," he admitted. "I spend a lot of time out here, I guess. Practicing," he said. "Though, mostly it's just having fun. 'Cause, y'know. Being different animals is pretty great."

"I can only imagine," Terry smiled. "But anyway. I should get back." She'd come out here to sing without an audience, after all, and that wasn't happening. Maybe she should look for a new spot; of course the lake would attract other students. But for now, since her feet were dry, she pushed up to her feet.

"Okay," he said, happily. "I'm sure I'll see you around. It was really great to meet you, Terry," he said, grinning just a little.

"You too, Gar," she told him with a smile, smoothing down her skirt. "See you around!" she added, and turned to head back towards the mansion.