Θɴcᴇ Ʋᴘᴏɴ α Ƈυʀsᴇ discussion

Within these woods, there is never winter. Only the warmth and greenness of never-ending spring.

Wrapping his red cloak around himself, Retucius wove his way between the trees, the animals by his side making all sorts of noise to stop him from bumping into trees and bushes and what-not. After some time, he slowed down, confident enough that he was well away from any signs of... human life. Leaning against the trunk of an oak tree to catch his breath, he brushed the bands of his white-blond hair from his eyes, and held his hands out for a squirrel to nestle itself in the pal of his hand. Smiling, he stroked his finger over the soft fur, an image of the squirrel building itself in his mind.

Madeleine was hanging upside down on a branch of a tree with one hand, using her other hand to make sure her hat didn't fall off. She watched the boy's interaction with the squirrel which got her thinking. But she wanted to be sure and not just assume something, cause that would be rude. Madeleine nodded in agreement with herself and let go of the branch doing a flip but still managed to fall on her butt. She sighed and stood up quickly grabbing her hat that was on her lap and walked over to him tapping him on the shoulder three times. "Hey are you blind?" Madeleine asked bluntly waiting for him to turn around and face her. "Wait no that was rude, maybe more like this....excuse me are you blind? No no that sounded too nice......hmm...Oh! I know, Hey you. Are you blind? I was just asking because I was watching the way you were interacting with the squirrel. Yeah that's it." Madeleine sAid happily and waited for him to reply.

Retucius let out a little giggle as the squirrel scampered up his arm to curl up in the curve where his neck met his shoulder, the bushy tail gently swaying from side to side against his pale skin. Although Red couldn't see, true, his blue eyes looked perfectly normal - it was this curse the unknown sender had spoken of in that most strange letter. Carefully, and saying something in a hushed voice to the animals around him that he was going to sit down, he did so, and all the animals made sure not to get in the way. Soon he had all sorts of rodents scampering over his legs, and a bunny rabbit was enjoying some food in his lap. He felt like he belonged here - and would have gladly gone to sleep, had a voice not interrupted his thoughts, making him start. The bunny gave him an annoyed nudge, and he apologised by stroking int between its ears. "Yes, I am," he said slowly. "Who are you?"

"I'm Madeleine, but you can call me Mad or Mad Hatter if you want. I have too many nicknames if I'm being honest." She said calmly and backed away. "Sorry I interrupted you with your friends. I'm really bad at this thing called talking to people." She said sighing and sat down on a rock. Madeleine sat there and watched Retucius and all his little animal friends. "So what is your name?" She asked playing around with her teacup that she had with her.

At this stage, Red was trying desperately not to succumb to the shakes and wild thoughts he often got when approached by other people, so as a result, he clutched the rabbit to himself, but it had gotten over its annoyance and was quite glad to serve as some form of comfort to Retucius. The squirrels has stopped jumping around on his legs, and even the thrush that had been attempting to settle down in his mop of platinum-blond hair had stopped moving about underneath his scarlet hood. "I'm Retucius," he answered slowly, finding it difficult to form the letters into sounds in his throat. But my friends call me Red, he nearly added on, until he remembered that this girl was not his friend, Nor was any other living person to this date.

[boop]

[sorry! ^^;]

Madeleine nodded. "That's a nice name." She said and lifted her jacket to pull out one of her special teas. "Retucius? Do you like tea?" She asked taking two teacups from her hat. "They're really good. I have three different kinds." Madeleine said as she was looking for her teapot that was in her bag along with her teabags. "Um lets see......lets have some of green tea.....annnd something else........" She said and searched for her stuff quietly. "Alright, I've found the matches for the fire...let's add a bit of cheerfulness in this green tea..." Madeleine muttered and was quiet for a bit as she started to make the tea. "Oh do your friends want some? Can you ask them for me? I have extra little teacups if they do want some tea." She asked looking up for a brief moment.

[that's okay!]

"Oh. Thank you, I suppose," he answered, feeling just a little uncomfortable. He wasn't used to receiving compliments, not from people, anyways. But as he slowly relaxed, so did the animals, and the thrush began moving around on his head again, tugging tufts of his hair slightly to the side to build itself a little nest out of it. He warned it that he wouldn't let it use his hair as a bed if it let out a dump, and the thrush gave an indignant twitter before promising it wouldn't. Satisfied, red turned back to stroking the bunny. "Yes, I do. It depends, but in general, yes." As the girl went quiet, Red got a bit worried that she'd just left him alone, but then she spoke again and he was reassured. "Yes- yes, they'd love some. If you just put some in a saucer and place it near me, they'll drink it. Thank you."

"Ok!" She said smiling and poured the tea in the cups. Madeleine then took out some of her mini cakes that she happened to have in case she got hungry. She then walked over to them smiling. "This is one of my special teas, it's called cheerfulness tea, because when someone drinks it, it makes them happy. So bottoms up!" Madeleine said smiling and sat the cupS and cakeS down by Retucius. "Oh yeah I also brought some little cakes if you want some Ret." Madeleine said softly and sat behind him slightly pressing her back against his. She tugged her hat down a bit making sure it was on tightly. "So Retucius, how old are you?" She said taking a sip of her tea and a bite of her cake. Madeleine looked up at the trees waiting for him to answer her.

[like]

[sorry about that!]

Red tried not to seem too uncomfortable as the girl- Madeleine, pressed her back against his, forcing him to lean against her too, in order to maintain a force equilibrium. He didn't like the proximity, but he couldn't burst her bubble of happiness. His hand slid over the soft grass towards his teacup, gently guided by the nose-nuges of a squirrel against his fingertips, until he finally managed to pick it up along with the saucer. He took a sip from it, but didn't feel euphoric at all, just warm. "Thank you. Very much," he said, and told the animals they could drink and eat what they liked, so long as they didn't fight, didn't make themselves sick, and weren't rude. "Oh- I'm sixteen," he said. "How old are- how old are you?"

"Really you seem older than that. I'm 17. I have orange hair and wear a hat all the time or else I'll die." She said smiling and put a little more tea in her and Retucius's little animal friends cup. Madeleine then put another mini cake in front of them since they ate the cake already. "Don't worry I have lots of cakes so you don't have to rush." She said smiling then let out a small sigh. Madeleine ran her hand over the leafs and picked one up studying it. The leaf then reminded her of something about Retucius. "Hey I like your hair by the way. It's a nice white color. It suits you." She said still smiling a bit and sighed. Madeleine then was quiet for a bit not sure what to say, she didn't want to scare him away. She moved slightly to indicate that she was still there and didn't leave. "Hey Retucius. Do you want to be friends?" Madeleine asked both suddenly and bluntly. "I mean we don't have to be friends if you don't want to." She did shrugging lightly and set the leaf down turning to look over at him.

"I know," he answered flatly. He'd heard many people tell him that - he looked like he was twenty, much older than a normal, hormonal, pimply teenage boy. In truth. Red couldn't side with or argue against that - he didn't know what he looked like, after all. He could guess that he had high cheekbones and tufty, messy hair, but he didn't know what colour his eyes were ; if they were clouded over, or if they were an actual distinguishable colour. All he knew was that his hair was platinum white- it was an unusual feature to which people had often asked him wether or not he'd dyed it. He hadn't. "Oh- that's a bit... extreme, I suppose," he said, frowning a little as he took another sip of the tea. "Thank you. I'm sure your hair looks nice too." At the proposal, he froze, for a moment, confused. Someone wanted to be friends- with him? "No- I mean, yes. That would be nice, yes. I think I'd like that."

"Alright now we're friends." Madeleine said happily and clapped her hands. "So what's your favorite color?" She asked leaning back on him and took a sip of her tea a bit bored. Madeleine gave a small tug in her bag to pull out 2 big blankets, wrapping one around herself and poked Retucius. "Would you like to us this blanket? I mean you don't have to if you don't want it. I get cold really fast, so instead of lightning a fire I just bring blankets with me." She said placing the blanket next to him so he could get it if he wanted it. Madeleine picked up her cup and wiped it out with a napkin then placed it back in her bag but left the teapot out if anyone wanted more tea. "So Red, do you know why you're here?" She asked calmly leaning back on him.

That next question stung, if not just a little bit. Red had been told that his nickname was a colour, and it was the colour of his cape, and it many different shades; scarlet, crimson, vermillion- so he had decided that red was his favourite colour. Nevertheless, it still hurt- because he didn't know what any Colour looked like. After all, how do you describe something like that to someone who can't see? "It's red," he said, finally. "What's yours?" At the offer for the blanket, Red shook his head. "No- no thanks. My cape keeps me warm enough, I'll be fine." Christ, she sure liked asking questions. "All I know is what came in this letter some time ago. It said something about being cursed, that I'm blind- and that's my curse, and my ability is communication with animals. I thought it was wishy-washy spam-nonsense, but it wasn't. That's all I know, really."

"Sorry, I'm asking a lot of questions.....I'm just really curious, and also I don't really know what to talk about." Madeleine said sighing and hugged her knees. "Ummm I guess green, I don't really know." She said. "Oh really? I came here....weirdly. Well everything's weird to me. Anyways um, I'm apparently I'll die if I don't keep my hat at least four feet from me. So I always wear my hat. Um and I can make three different kinds of tea, a truth serum, healing tea, and a cheerful tea. They all only last an hour though." Madeleine said and looked down at the ground. She was silent for a while not knowing what else to say.

[heyo ; I'm gonna take a hiatus from this group up until the 11th - I'm so sorry! feel free to get someone else to join us/you here, if you get bored, or you can make Madelaine leave - I'm really sorry!]

{it's ok I totally understand.}