Strikingly Different [closed]

Mix the colors, fill the brush, sweep it across the canvas, rinse, repeat. Blues and greens, purples and pinks, dark colors, bright colors, bold colors, each one strikingly different from the last. It was a mess of lines and incoherent shapes, but sitting back, Ria smiled at it, pleased with the appearance of it. Paint marked her fingers and the back of her hand, the same mix of colors that were now present on the canvas and spread across her palette. Satisfied, the girl stood off of her stool and crossed the art studio towards the sink to clean up.

It had been ages since she had last done anything creative. She was silent as she watched the colors run off her hands and off the brushes, swirling down the drain in a muddle rainbow. The details of her small creative area at home were slowly slipping from her mind as the time passed at school, something she hadn't been able to remedy until today when she'd had a free day. With everything clean, she returned to the canvas with no white spaces left and smiled again, appreciating the mess of a sunset that it was. Gently, she touched it, determining it was dry enough to take back to her dorm now. She wondered where she would hang it up as she collected her things and tucked the canvas under her arm and hooked her bag over her shoulder.

The weather wasn't as hot as it had been and she enjoyed the gentle feel of the sun on her skin as she crossed the campus. Ria took a deep breath, the smile never leaving her face. She was finally settling into school.

Rohan leaned against a wall, surreptitiously smoking a cigarette and staring into the sky, near the sun. It didn't matter the affect it'd normally have on his eyes; on his nose were sunglasses, expensive ones, a dark gray tint commanding the brown eyes beneath it. He coughed and smiled at a janitor, who smiled dryly back and made a slight movement to his mouth. Rohan recognized the movement, frowned, and tossed the cigarette at a nearby trashcan. He missed. He didn't care.

As he'd been loitering there, girls were passing him left and right, carrying books and bags and chatting it up with other girl friends. With each one that passed he gave his coolest smile, a small nod of the head, and on many of them it seemed to work. A few girls even giggled hushed musing to their friends, making him feel like the best person on campus. The girls in America were cute. He had started to like it there. He'd never been one to become homesick, anyhow; so long as he had his goat with him, he'd prefer not to dodge punks in Edinburgh, many of which he owed money. Money, of course, that he spent on girls. It was a vicious cycle.

The only girl he pursued was the one he knew. When Ria came by and he gave his patented smile and nod, he recognized her after some hesitance. Right, yes, it was that girl. He unpressed his back from the wall, putting his hands in his jeans pockets and walking after her. "Ay," he said to get her attention. "Ay, ay, ay, slow down, slow down!" He fell in line next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder as if the constant alerting wasn't enough. He removed the sunglasses from his eyes, as if taking off a secret identity.

"Ay, s'me, Rohan!" he said. "Where've you been, I han't seen yuh in weeks!"

Focused on where she was going, Ria hardly noticed the cool figure of Rohan that she had passed by. That was, until he had put his hand on her shoulder and said one more 'Ay' than was necessary. An offput smile graced her face as she studied him, taking in his appearance for the first time in what felt like weeks, the first time since she-- that was, since they--

Her lips still tingled and her breath was momentarily gone as she recalled it. Frozen in place, the girl stared hard, taking in his features like it had been years since she'd seen him and not months. Panic filled her chest and it tightened. Was she supposed to call him? Surely, that's what happened when people kissed, they called each other. Or was that the other thing? She remembered one night stands in her moment of fear; it finally shook her out of her thoughts and she found herself face to face with Rohan once again.

A genuine smile brightened her face.
"Rohan!" she stated simply. "Yeah, it has been a while. I'm sorry," she added as the realization she should be a bit sorry hit her.

Rohan remembered her face as she smiled at him, its familiar strides and the memories it came with restoring themselves in his mind. She was cute; he was always one to forget faces and names and events that seemed meticulous and generic, dates being on that list. But he was surprised he forgot her so much. Perhaps she took him off guard.

He kissed her cheek and took her around the shoulder, walking slowly in pace with her. "Where y'going, love?" he asked. Despite his intimate stroll with her, he still took a moment to glance at a pretty girl who passed, his eyes following her as they crossed paths. As she went on, however, he returned his glance forward.

ooc;; In 1887, Thomas Stevens became the first man to bike around the world and the US Senate approved the creation of Pearl Harbor.

It took all of the girl's willpower not to trace her fingertips over the spot on her cheek he had kissed. This was still strange and new to Ria, and they'd never really discussed what they were. She grappled with attempting to talk to him about it, wondering if it would be a smart choice or if it would make things tense between them, and she ultimately decided against it. They were friends. Friends that liked each other. Maybe. She thought.

Glancing at the canvas under her arm, she answered, "Just heading back to my dorm. Why?" Ria nearly added teasingly, 'Have anything in mind?' but stopped herself.

"Oh, your dorm!" he seemed pleased. "I'd love t'come, thenk yuh." The boy reached for a cigarette, and finding his jacket pocket empty, went to that of his jeans. They too were barren. He began to frantically go for each one of his pockets, each fruitless in their yield. Oh well. He'd probably be caught by a teacher anyway. It wouldn't be the first time it'd happened.
"We shuh go out in the town later, thae, this place is a pint crowded." The remark wasn't too founded, what with the crowd disappearing once they left the courtyard. Still, he didn't like the faculty, the people who seemed to lock him down. He was from Edinburgh, where streets crossed over each other and there were plenty of shadows to hide and smoke and fuck and do whatever you wanted. This, North-Dakota-open-space-campus-of-a-private-academy this, was getting on his nerves. Perhaps it was homesickness. Rohan thought he got in fights too much to get homesickness.

ooc;; in 1893, the Great Northern Railway connected Seattle with the east coast.

Taken aback by his inviting himself along, Ria was silent for a moment. She watched his frantic patdown, not bothering to ask what it was for, unsure if it was any of her business. The girl adjusted the canvas under her arm. She glanced around the courtyard, wondering why he wanted to go into town, now that the people were gone and the silence had almost returned to the area. Maybe they could go to the cafe again. And have a repeat of the last time? No, thank you!

Covering up a stutter that threatened its way to her tongue, Ria asked quietly, "What would we do in town? There isn't a lot to do on a summer afternoon, is there?" Truth was, she didn't know. She just felt uncertain. About Rohan.

"That's this whole damn steid. Nae much 'ere anyhow. I mean, I was a farmer, an' even I feel a little outta place." As they neared her dorm, Rohan leaned up against the wall at the front door, waiting for her to swipe in. All the while, he warmed his hands against the late summer breeze by rubbing them together, blowing into them. Even when it wasn't too cold, people from where he came from did that a lot. It looked cool, he supposed. Rohan imagined a mobster or tough guy doing it a lot and the action going down the chain throughout Edinburgh.

"I wis just gonna go see my goat. Y'could come along if yi'll want." I'd been a while since he spent time with Macbeth. The little guy was probably restless to leave the little corner of the stable set for him.

ooc;; in 1895, volleyball was invented by W G Morgan in Massachusetts, German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produced and detectd electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, and Alfred Nobel's will established the Nobel Prize. Good year.

As they reached the door to the Autumn house dorms, Ria pulled her card from her pocket where she kept it close, ready for action. There was a flash of thought as she considered that the boy hadn't offered to pull out his when her arms were full, but she chose not to say anything. Instead, she held the door for him, waiting for him to lead the way in. "I wouldn't mind seeing Macbeth," she commented, remembering the little goat fondly. He'd been adorable.

Upon pausing at her dorm door, Ria said, "I'm just gonna put my things in my dorm, if that's alright, then we can head down?" The way she phrased it was like a question, but it was more like a statement that she left hanging with him as she walked the length to her door, using her key and unlocking it expertly. She left the door open and spared a small greeting for the roommate watching TV in the common area while crossing through. Gently, she propped the canvas on her bed, leaning it against the wall so it took in the room. Once her bag was off her shoulders and she was confident she could continue on with her afternoon, she exited the dorm once more, closing the door behind her and returning to Rohan with an expectant expression.

Rohan was loitering on the wall, checking his phone with an absent stare. He tapped away at the keyboard, messaging someone, looking up occasionally to reacquaint himself with the outside world. At one moment when he looked up, Ria was there. "Ae, les go," Rohan stated with a grin, distaching himself from the wall. It would be nice to see Macbeth.

The stables were close to the dorms, a shame when the wind was blowing towards any open windows. The place kind of reeked, especially when the workers took a while to clean it. Rohan opened up the heavy door, the horse neighing at the bright light that came in. Rohan made sure to give the animal a short wave.

Across the stable, a shuffling had begun. It was a tapping, like a knocking on the wood, and when Rohan approached the sound, it was the little goat Macbeth's excited scurrying around. When it saw him, it jumped for glee.

"Ay, little guy!" The pale boy brightened. "Sor' it took me sae long."

The smell of the stables and the sounds of the animals hit her like a spring breeze. Cool, fairly refreshing, a surprise to the girl who'd always had a bit of a hard time being around the smell of animals. When it came to the city, there were different bad smells, but ones she had grown used to and didn't bother her anymore. Smog from factories, exhaust from cars, the various dumpster scents from different alleyways, and the odd mix of several thousand people living in such a small area had become her home. But this smell reminded her of the times when she was younger and would visit the fair with her dad, a day trip she looked forward to at the end of every summer.

As they entered, however, it was a tad overwhelming, and Ria shortened her breaths to minimize the intake. She found herself distracted by their arrival at Macbeth, the small goat jumping around in excitement. She couldn’t help but smile.