And so, she sat.

[garnet]

There are quite a few things in the world which the the majority of people don't enjoy. These are many, varying depending on who is concerned, but it can be generally agreed upon that the cold, the wet, and the dark and unknown are, in fact, very unpleasant in most circumstances. As we look upon our heroine, one might note with pity all of these factors descending on her at once.

Siobhan gazed out at the dark expanse of water, her emotions bordering on despair. She had been told to follow her instinct, and it would lead her to where she needed to go. Thus far everything had been going well. She had had a good feeling about the direction she was heading, and her magic was flourishing, now that it had been exposed to different parts of the earth.

But all was lost now. It seemed to Siobhan that she had come to a dead end, seeing no way to cross the water without risking swimming or using one of those boats. As neither option seemed very appealing, she did as many have done before when faced with situations like these. And so, she sat.

And as it had also done for many before her, sitting did help. Despair turned to indignance, and Siobhan decided that she would sit there, on the dock, until either she fell asleep or someone came so she could give them a piece of her mind. Why, she wasn't really sure. But who wouldn't be a bit peeved at having to sit in the cold and dark?

That is, if she had come to the right place.

[Señor Sunday Friday]

An alluring song lilted through the shipyards, crystalline and smooth with silvery tones as the sound caressed the air and came like sweet emotion into the ears and mind, starting like a shy, quiet murmur which rose into a brilliant dance of music with the notes not only inspiring a great swell of emotion into one's heart but also, it seemed forcing a frolic into the limbs, joyous and without the bounds of constricting society. The music, if anyone knew to recognize such things, was distinctly fae in nature and make, meaning that the musician or piper, if you will, had to have been someone who had some lineage back to the old lands, and from the vigor of the magic and the song it could be believed that whoever it was, they could have possibly been part of one of the courts at some time.

Upon following the sound one would find a fellow seated one of the posts of the docks, playing the complex trill of notes without seemingly much thought, his eyes staring off into nothing and his mind obviously wandering elsewhere, a sadness there in his gaze as he looked down at the little creatures whirling about in tight circles and there they were, ship rats circling each other and nipping at each other's tails in a merely playful manner.

The music, if one got past the initial giddiness it could inspire was more warped than previously conceived. It was like the song was twirling out of control, being pulled away from some thing that it fought to return to, this being clad in simple clothing, a green shirt, brown pants, and a brown jacket- his bare feet on the wooden planking, was putting himself into the music, wholly and completely.

He wasn't human, though he wasn't elf. His features elegantly and exotically different in some quizzically confounding way, his eyes perhaps slanted only slightly and an oddness to the shape of his mouth that could not be pinpointed exactly. His ears were elongated like those of elves, though formed distinctly differently from elves, he was definately not an elf. Something much, much more ancient, perhaps.

Like a whisper in the ear came the music, seeming to be that the more you listened, the more there could be words made from the sound, words that came in a voice so familiar and so foreign like a friend lost to time for so long to return so suddenly and catch the mind and heartstrings off guard. ...So much time we circle the sky with one wing beating, looking for a light that's true, all our lives we're chasing the light that's never ending, you the sun and I the moon...

(So I was all, "She likes Irish folklore... and I like Irish folklore... so let's use this guy, just for both our sakes! He's my mix of various classic folklores, and I like him. Very much, thankye.)

[garnet]

Siobhan had been sitting, tracing obscure patterns in the woodwork of the boardwalk when the music began. It was so strange, so foreign, yet undeniably familiar. She closed her yes, anger and indignance slipping from her mind. She even began to forget where she was, wrapped up in the tune which was wafting through the air.

Before she knew it, Siobhan was on her feet, beginning to dance. She had never been very graceful dancing, but some buried instinct told her feet what to do. Whirling about, she felt as if she had been dancing for millenia, and would continue to do so for eternity.

Siobhan's eyes were still closed, and she had, as mentioned earlier, forgotten where she was. Her eyes flew open now, almost expecting to behold an ancient moor, or a magnificent ballroom, something where the music seemed to belong. But when she saw the desolate scenery of the shipyard, her feet halted, and she stood, staring, at the musician with her mouth half open and a note fading from her throat. She did not know when she had begun to sing, but apparently she knew not only the steps but the words to this song that wasn't altogether a song.

Like the music, the musician was undeniably familiar, if also strange. Memories that weren't hers flashed through her mind for a second at his almost regal features, but then she was on guard. Her fingers went to the dagger strapped to her right forearm, just in case the player was sinister.

She didn't want him to be malevolent. It was almost as if she had glimpsed an old friend who had been lost for years. But her mother's warnings still rang in her ear, so she watched the player warily.

[Señor Sunday Friday]

Gaia softly turning, Luna never sleeping, Mother moonlight heavy with a belly of dreams that's almost foaling... the song came into the air and the player didn't look towards Siobhan, not even noticing her presence, either that or choosing not to acknowledge her. His green eyes looking through the light brown hair to the boards of the docks. He let his eyes drift closed, the song progressing further and it was words torn into existance reluctantly, the sadness more apparent through prolonged exposure. ...Night bloom take me under, night skin taste of wonder, night kiss stir the hunger, lapping the dark with tongues of silver..." The music spiraled downwards in frantic dying notes, the words further continuing in the song carried in the notes but they were losing life, the song forcing itself to an end as the fast paced composition drew out into a single long, pure note that seemed despite it's length to stop prematurely.

The rodents scattered, whirring off in every direction to take refuge in the creases and corners of the docks, dissapearing out of sight as if they had never existed and it was merely an illusion.

His eyes remained lidded for a few moments, a confused expression befalling it and one eye peeked open, peering towards Siobhan for a few moments before gingerly the instrument, glistening like silver moonlight, was lowered and slipped into a leather holster at the man's waist. "My apologies." he spoke quietly, nodding towards the young woman and standing up from his perch, his motions fluid as a breath of wind.

He seemed to be the kind of thing that shouldn't exist, an embodiment of some cruelty of nature to build a mold and form for a being who despite being a stranger could appear so exotically familiar. It was disturbing, off putting, and comforting all at one terrible moment as he gave a polite bow to Siobhan like a musician finishing a private concerto dedicated to a dear friend, that friend being the young woman whom had danced and sang her way over into his company. "Might I help you?" he inquired.

[garnet]

Still extremely disconcerted, though almost certain he meant her no harm, Siobhan slowly relaxed. She took a step towards the man, and answered his question. "Yes, actually. Have I come to the Twilight Moon Academy?"

She looked around her once more, not sure if she already knew the answer to that question or not. She could not see the opposite shore of the lake, and she hadn't seen anything remotely similar to a school in the forest behind her. Hopefully the familiar stranger knew.

So Siobhan looked back up at the musician and awaited an answer to her question, hoping it would be in the positive. She really did not want to retrace her steps halfway across the globe.

[Señor Sunday Friday]

"Not yet, but it's nothing that a good ship cannot mend." he shrugged, looking at the rows and rows of ships, they didn't call it a shipyard for nothing. He let his eyes fall over each ship, sizing up thier make and build for a few moments. "Might you have any preferences?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he cast a passing glance towards the student, with little concern painted on his features. There were many ships to choose from and either the man meant to say in his question that he owned all the ships, or that ownership did not in the slightest matter at this time and if they wished they could take whichever vessel it was that they wished to have.

"Twilight Moon is just accross the water, you see." he explained, "A precarious placement, really, in the center of a lake. Eerie and damp on one side and dry as a bone on the other, a curious lake, really." he explained, though not finding anything further that need be said he simply stood there, waiting for the girl, barely more than a child really, to make her choice of ship. It crossed his mind to apologize for capturing her within the song but such little things were soon dismissed and forgotten as he stood there, tall and stately like some royalty of the daoine sídhe.

An odd being, really. His eyes like burning absinthe as they glistened from behind the few stray locks of barley wheat hair, gazing through the mist with a quiet complacence that seemed only as temporary as a rainstorm in a desert, a lingering nature just under his skin to keep him from remaining too calm, or too still for any enduring length of time it seemed. His hand twitched slightly as if it yearned to pick up the instrument once more to play but he made no such motion, letting a seriousness and calm overtake him like a cloak. He was a master teacher at Twilight Moon, and those days where one could forget themselves entirely in thier music was long gone and were to be replaced now instead with duty.

He seemed not too overly concerned over names because of course to ask for one's name would be quite rude and he didn't waste his time with examining the lady or even looking towards her too overly much when he spoke since one's privacy was an important thing and to infringe it with ceaseless oggling (as he found humans were so prone to doing, looking at you whenever they spoke) would be horridly rude and out of position for anyone. Especially an exile.

[garnet]

Siobhan nodded, relieved at the choice she had been given. Living so close to the sea, some of her friends had had small sailboats, and Siobhan had often gone out into the harbor in one of them.

But of course, this would be much different. There were no friends she had known since birth, no bright, sparkling blue water, and no up and down motion of the waves. Ah, well, she thought. It's better than swimming.

She walked a small way down the dock, examining each worn boat. One caught her attention. It was smaller and longer, with chipped and peeling black and green paint. The hull looked sturdy, though, unlike most of the other vessels. She could faintly make out the word 'Goblin' in faded gold paint on the side.

"This one," she said, sounding more confident than she felt. "I want to take this one." She turned around to face the man. "And..." She hesitated a moment. He was slightly intimidating, with his regal bearing and assuredness. She didn't know if the question would be considered rude or not. Still, she figured, I do need to know, if we're going to work together to get the boat across the water. "Um, might I know what your name is? I'm Siobhan, by the way. Siobhan McDermott."

[Señor Sunday Friday]

"My name..." he paused, a bit of a thoughtful expression on his face, "You may call me Gavin Hales." he said, simply because his actual name would not be an option here. Dangerous information, that. He quietly approached the ship, looking at the chipped and cracked paint that half covered the expanse of the hull. He never was particularly akin to water, such things were more along the lines of selkie business and he would be insulted if he were expected to be adept at such things.

Boarding the ship quietly and motioning for Siobhan to follow, he knew that others were not so affected by others having the knowledge of thier names, of saying thier names, and so it wasn't likely that the young Siobhan would have known the insult of asking for a name and the percieved danger in offering it up so freely, but since she was of a different kind he said nothing of it, still there was something that bothered him, "Would it be rude to ask... of what kind are you, because I do indeed find you strikingly familiar." he said, his head tilting to the side in a curious, almost bird-like manner as he inquired. "Dreadfully so, actually." honestly seeming puzzled over the fact for a brief moment, and it seemed that it bothered him. Lots of elves and humans and the sort came through and it seemed that this student was not elf or human, so she must have been of some other kind and the school did not pair any teacher to a student without any purpose to it.

Without awaiting a response though, he began treading across the deck, looking about with a quiet expression, his curiosity melting away to suit himself as he inspected the ship for some unseen fault or danger that he felt would be present in any ship in the Ghost Shipyards.

[garnet]

"Erm..." This was the first time Siobhan had had to explain that since having it been explained to herself, and she didn't really know how to start. "Well, I'm descended from the Tuatha De Danaan, them that got away when the Milesians took over. But I have human blood in me too. I just don't know which part I have more of... I do have magic, though." Stupid, she thought, of couse he knows you have magic, otherwise why would you be here? She closed her mouth before she could embarrass herself further.

But... there was one thing her curiosity would not let her not ask, as she knew he probably wasn't going to just tell her. "Are you... are you of the Fae also? Because you seem awfully familiar to me as well."

After asking this she swiftly stepped into the boat, stumbling for a moment due to her speed. What next, she thought to herself. What else will I do to humiliate myself? After all, Gavin was quite good looking, and Siobhan had never had much experience around boys of her age, the children in her vicinity being either girls or much younger than her.

But she would just have to get over that. It would do her no good to be fumbling over everything, especially on the ominous looking water.

Without looking at her guide, Siobhan asked, "How will we move the boat? I feel no breeze, and I don't think there's much of a current to this water. Maybe I could influence the water in some way..." She bit her lip. She wasn't very good at her magic yet. That was why she had come to the school, after all.

[Señor Sunday Friday]

There was a loud laugh that came forth from his lungs and he let his body fall into a seated position on the deck of the boat, not even lending worry to the matters of actually getting the boat to travel forth to Twilight Moon, "Tuatha De Danaan? The people of Danu, you say?" he asked, his voice sounding to be on the brink of further laughter, and such laugher was a bubbling kind like a spring that one could guess had no limits and he had a broad smile on his face as he looked towards Siobhan. "Indeed there was a reasoning behind this!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together with a near childish delight. "Of the aes sídhe." he said, a nod of a bow given to the student, his voice momentarily warping into a picturesque, and admittedly rather heavy accent of old Ireland, some parts of his inflection, tone and whatnot were gone now from modern speech which made him a bit hard to understand but it showed that he was likely much older than he did appear, "An' I would have though' tha' yer kin woul' 'ave been dispers'd b'now." he shook his head, considering such a thing to be a great shame "It's a great honor indeed, Miss Siobhan, some many of my people have a root stemming from your ancestry before the return to Tír na nÓg." He didn't make mentioning of the bloodlines that were most treasured among his people though, the ones that stemmed from deeper magics than seemingly any roots could reach.

"I believe that something as momentous as this should warrant a celebration!" he decided, rising suddenly to his feet and the instrument slipping into his hand too fluidly and too quickly to have any sense made of it. The silver flute was raised up to his lips as he looked towards Siobhan with a smirk, "If that is... you aren't too human for a little revelry." he spoke the words like a challenge, a mischeviousness sneaking into his smile as he looked towards the student, the dare lingering in the atmosphere.

Normally Gavin was quite reposed, collected and not at all the person one would expect some kind of childish dare to come from but this one student had in her veins a little bit of home, something in common that he did not share with anyone else here and that made him content. He made a note in mind to thank administration for assigning him this particular student. It had been so long since he had been home, and even longer since he even spoke with someone of fae blood. Oh how he longed for home, his very existance pining for those sweet lands rather than this place where he had been placed. Brilliant for short times but not at all where one would wish to be for any extended period of time, he was in fact brilliantly suprised that someone of fey blood would be able to live here though perhaps it was because you Siobhan had never been there, and that made all the difference.

((Quick note: There are a million versions of the origins of the Sidhe and thier relations to the Tuatha De Danaan, my version that I've chosen to use likely different from the one that you have. Mine being the belief of them having been the nature spirits as well as the gods and goddesses of the Gaelic people. So desperately am I trying to make them work since we've both learned different versions. It's really difficult because they contradict so much. I might cry, it's so hard.))

[garnet]

Siobhan jumped, surprised at the sudden change in behavior. She hadn't expected a response like that, to say the least. It was a welcome altercation, though, from the distant behavior of earlier.

When he mentioned some of his lineage, she nodded. She had half-expected him to be of the Fae, in one way or another. After all, Siobhan's family were just one thread in the enormous tapestry that was the Fae. No doubt descendants were everywhere, whether they knew it or not.

"Am I too human? For a little revelry? No, never too human." She smiled. The jubilant attitude, the dare, and the accent more like that of home than anywhere else put Siobhan at ease. She Perhaps the shipyard was not so ominous after all...

She looked up at him and awaited the start of the enchanting music she had heard earlier.


((Oh my god, I'm so sorry! For your plight and how short the post is. If there are any more problems concerning the differences in the Fae, just tell me and I can work with it. Siobhan's character is totally flexible. Maybe it could be as you started to hint in your last post... that the more divine Fae were older, more hidden and powerful. But if there's anything I can do to help, just say so.))

[Señor Sunday Friday]

Gavin let his smirk broaden as he recieved his response, "Very well then." he said quietly, so that it beckoned the ears to prick thier attention to his voice in order to capture the near silent words and then the song started, just as the previous one had ended. A single clear note cut the air, a note of springtime and of new life and deep, beautiful magics. The note then drew down in a wide sweep, smooth and perfect, curving further down before drawing up and dancing about the scale like children's feet lost amidst a dance. There were no words to be distinguished from the song itself this time, nothing that flowed through the mind and instead all the essense of power and being was focused on the notes and the meter, not the rhyme and verse.

His eyes glistened like captured starlight, his grin more apparent in his eyes than on his lips, the notes jumping about in a continued challenge for the Half-Fae to keep up, almost as if she had something to prove here, that her diluted blood was not too much of a hinderance and that she was more Fae than human. As the music began to play, the ship slowly crept forward, into the mist and presumably towards Twilight Moon Academy, almost with a mind of it's own it glided through the water, slicing through the waves and undaunted by the elements cast before it. It picked up speed rampantly and one could think that they would reach the shores of Twilight Moon Academy rather soon if it travelled at such speed.

((I should be sorry. I intended to talk to you in the C-Box but I then noticed that my art pencil was missing and I spazzed out and went to find it. I found it, sat down and you were gone. I'm so sorry for asking to talk and then not being there. So, so sorry.))

[garnet]

Siobhan grinned. The front deck of the boat was just large enough to give her a little room to dance, and she started with the traditional shuffle-kick-repeat she had known before she walked. But as the music became pranced about more urgently, that hidden instinct once again took control of her feet.

Opening her eyes, she glanced into the water while continuing her dance, she saw what could only be a ghost underneath the translucent surface. Instead of subduing her, though, the sight of the dead put in her mind an image of Danse Macabre, the constant cycle of life and death. Skeletons and rotting corpses dancing in a graveyard flashed behind her eyelids, and the thought just added to the mystical and surreal atmosphere.

A slight breeze kicked up, swirling around Siobhan, lightly rustling her hair and clothes. No doubt the playful thing was summoned by a mix of the music, which no doubt had some sort of magic behind it, intended or not, and the dancing.

The boat was well underway to Twilight Moon by now, and a sharp eye might even pick out a faint, dark silhouette through the mist.


((Oh no problem! It's perfectly fine. I have a super special writing pen with blue black ink, and if I lost that I would tear up the earth looking for it. I completely sympathize Also, I wouldn't have been able to chat for long. The smell of Stir Fry wafting through the house was almost unbearable by then, and temptation to burn one's tongue on the cooking peppers very hard to resist...))

[Señor Sunday Friday]

The music from Gavin's flute stuttered slightly as he attempted to suppress a small laugh, his foot tapping consolingly to the song. Weaving the notes together in a joyous stream as the boat moved along, figuring that once they reached Twilight Moon a schedule could be made rather quickly but he did not let such thoughts trouble his mind at current, instead he continued along with the merry tune that twisted and twirled through the air.

The spirits moved through the water silently, making no noise that would be heard over the music, and the ship effortlessly continued on it's voyage. The music moved feet and it moved ships, just like it moved the soul and the heart when it hit those precise notes and it twirled about in that way that Gavin seemed quite capable at doing, making it so the song was a peircing arrow of joy into oneself. (It sounds so happy and painful at the same time! D: Oh my!)

Looming through the mist was the spires of Twilight Moon, ancient and stately as they looked through the mist in a quiet solace. Gavin's eyes looked with a momentary reverence towards the building, something that it seemed most developed once the knew the school. The entire complex almost like a living being. It had a life to it and a rythm like a soothing heartbeat that if only you would open yourself to it, it would become like the hearbeat within your chest.

The teacher continued playing though the ship gradually slowed so as to not crash into the shoreline and to not make a stop so sudden that it would knock anyone from thier feet.

[garnet]

Siobhan was very happy. Dancing, the music leaping around the boat, and coming to a new place, all was well.

She looked up at what could only be the academy, and her dancing gradually slowed as the music did. Twilight Moon, her new home... what sort of things might she learn once there.

Turning to Gavin, curious once more, she asked, "Will you be one of my teachers?" She liked Gavin, and hoped he wasn't sentenced to ferrying students back and forth across the desolate water, lake, sea, whatever it was.

The music turned slower, sadder almost. As the notes slowed, so too did the boat. An interesting phenomena. The shore approached, some tooth-like boulders looming just to the right.