Post by Raul Adalwulf on Jul 6, 2020 11:22:33 GMT -5
Raul had gone from standing, to lazily swimming back and forth, in a manner that resembled a doggy-paddle enough that it would have offended his sense of dignity, had he any to speak of. Unlike Red/Sienna, Raul did not feel any inherent shame for his more bestial characteristics. They were such an ever present reality of his life that even the slightest of shame for his unconventional characteristics would have been paralyzing. Raul simply understood that he was different than other people, and that sometimes, for reasons that he never truly understood, he was treated differently than others as well. The fact that his heritage was the source of that prejudice and not simply the fact that he was bigger than most and tended to be somewhat clumsy or absent minded, had truly never occurred to him. Whenever he was confronted with people behaving strangely towards him, Raul tended to just accept it at face value, as the inscrutable behavior of strangers, and rarely thought much more of it save for the frustration it caused him.
Having been raised in a loving family, who recognized early the neurodivergent nature of their child, Raul had been spared much of the grim reality of being a visible minority through a combination of a sheltered family life and a complete and characteristically oblivious nature. It was only recently, with his studying at Sanctum, and his enrollment at Haven, that Raul had actually been forced into direct confrontation with the reality of what it was to be a faunus in a society dictated by humans, who on the whole hated and distrusted him. Even still, he'd been spared any direct prejudice by virtue of being large and imposing enough to give even the most brazen of bullies second thoughts. While other faunus were discriminated against more openly, Raul was often discriminated via exclusion and isolation. Even other faunus tended to avoid him by simple virtue of how his animalistic qualities made them more self conscious and foiled their attempts to fit in. This had the unfortunate effect of Raul being not only ignorant of his own condition, but ignorant of the effect it had upon him.
He'd been so long without friends that he didn't really even understand that it was abnormal, and didn't even realize that the longing he felt when he watched others getting along in their day to day lives was actually a keen sense of loneliness. He'd been by himself, and had always been by himself, and that was just normal to him.
"People are really hard to understand."
Raul floated up to the edge of the stream, grasping a convenient boulder on the water's extent to keep the current from carrying him away. For some reason he wanted to go out to Sienna, and place his head in her lap, but it was such an absurd and random impulse that he ignored it utterly. Besides, he'd just grown accustomed to the temperature of the water and to climb out now would expose him to the chill of the air.
"I don't understand people..." He confessed, feeling strangely sad at the words even as they fell from his lips, "I feel like people don't like me. They are always staring at me when they think I'm not paying attention. They stop talking when I come into the room. Sometimes they say mean things about me when they think I can't hear them. I don't know why. What did I ever do to them?"
He sighed and climbed out of the water. Sure enough, it was chilly, but at least he'd rinsed most of the grit out of his hair and was feeling less grubby. From all fours, he shook his head violently enough to shake his entire body, in so doing generating a dense shower of droplets as the water clinging to his hair was flung off. Then, still moving on all fours as if it were as natural as walking, (actually given the quirks of his skeleton it was easier than standing upright), he padded up beside Sienna.
When she asked him how he would get home, Raul suppressed a grin, but couldn't keep his soggy tail from slapping the rocks a few times. Still battling the impulse to put his head in her lap, he instead nudged her with the side of his head, with enough strength to jostle her.
"This is my home." He said as if it should have been obvious.
It was mostly the truth. Sure he had a room at the dorms in Haven, but that was only where he kept his belongings. Raul went entire weeks at a time without sleeping in a bed, and was more comfortable sleeping in the bough of a tree than he was on a mattress. He tended to only even return to his dorm to change into his uniform for class or to perform maintenance on his weapons.
"The forest has everything I need." He said, unable to keep a sense of pride out of his deep voice.
He padded around and sat in front of the girl, as he pointed towards the stream.
"There's my bathtub, and my water cooler." He said, a bit of mischief creeping in now, as he gestured broadly to encompass the entirety of their surroundings, "Here's my bedroom, and my kitchen. If I get hungry I can go fishing, or catch a hare, or eat some berries. If I get lonely, there are always birds and beetles to keep me company..."
His voice dropped low, and a bit of the light faded from his expression as his gaze fell.
"No one out here calls me names when they think I can't hear them. No one stares at me...."
958/25,161
Having been raised in a loving family, who recognized early the neurodivergent nature of their child, Raul had been spared much of the grim reality of being a visible minority through a combination of a sheltered family life and a complete and characteristically oblivious nature. It was only recently, with his studying at Sanctum, and his enrollment at Haven, that Raul had actually been forced into direct confrontation with the reality of what it was to be a faunus in a society dictated by humans, who on the whole hated and distrusted him. Even still, he'd been spared any direct prejudice by virtue of being large and imposing enough to give even the most brazen of bullies second thoughts. While other faunus were discriminated against more openly, Raul was often discriminated via exclusion and isolation. Even other faunus tended to avoid him by simple virtue of how his animalistic qualities made them more self conscious and foiled their attempts to fit in. This had the unfortunate effect of Raul being not only ignorant of his own condition, but ignorant of the effect it had upon him.
He'd been so long without friends that he didn't really even understand that it was abnormal, and didn't even realize that the longing he felt when he watched others getting along in their day to day lives was actually a keen sense of loneliness. He'd been by himself, and had always been by himself, and that was just normal to him.
"People are really hard to understand."
Raul floated up to the edge of the stream, grasping a convenient boulder on the water's extent to keep the current from carrying him away. For some reason he wanted to go out to Sienna, and place his head in her lap, but it was such an absurd and random impulse that he ignored it utterly. Besides, he'd just grown accustomed to the temperature of the water and to climb out now would expose him to the chill of the air.
"I don't understand people..." He confessed, feeling strangely sad at the words even as they fell from his lips, "I feel like people don't like me. They are always staring at me when they think I'm not paying attention. They stop talking when I come into the room. Sometimes they say mean things about me when they think I can't hear them. I don't know why. What did I ever do to them?"
He sighed and climbed out of the water. Sure enough, it was chilly, but at least he'd rinsed most of the grit out of his hair and was feeling less grubby. From all fours, he shook his head violently enough to shake his entire body, in so doing generating a dense shower of droplets as the water clinging to his hair was flung off. Then, still moving on all fours as if it were as natural as walking, (actually given the quirks of his skeleton it was easier than standing upright), he padded up beside Sienna.
When she asked him how he would get home, Raul suppressed a grin, but couldn't keep his soggy tail from slapping the rocks a few times. Still battling the impulse to put his head in her lap, he instead nudged her with the side of his head, with enough strength to jostle her.
"This is my home." He said as if it should have been obvious.
It was mostly the truth. Sure he had a room at the dorms in Haven, but that was only where he kept his belongings. Raul went entire weeks at a time without sleeping in a bed, and was more comfortable sleeping in the bough of a tree than he was on a mattress. He tended to only even return to his dorm to change into his uniform for class or to perform maintenance on his weapons.
"The forest has everything I need." He said, unable to keep a sense of pride out of his deep voice.
He padded around and sat in front of the girl, as he pointed towards the stream.
"There's my bathtub, and my water cooler." He said, a bit of mischief creeping in now, as he gestured broadly to encompass the entirety of their surroundings, "Here's my bedroom, and my kitchen. If I get hungry I can go fishing, or catch a hare, or eat some berries. If I get lonely, there are always birds and beetles to keep me company..."
His voice dropped low, and a bit of the light faded from his expression as his gaze fell.
"No one out here calls me names when they think I can't hear them. No one stares at me...."
958/25,161