[SRP] First Impressions (Galaxia Sangfroid and Sable Nimbus)

[divena]

This is a self rp between Galaxia Sangfroid and Sable Nimbus

 

[divena]

Galaxia Sangroid was on a mission. She was barely out of foalhood, and rather pleased that she had been entrusted with such an important task. Though she was a bit concerned, at the same time. What if she messed it up? Her mother had entrusted her to conduct an initial interview. Well, more like an initial meeting. Some ravens had come by letting Zahavah know that a stallion was shuffling about at their borders, wanting to cross. Naturally, their guardians weren’t inclined to let just anyone come into their land. Definitely not anyone without Zahavah’s approval. That was why Galaxia was there, just outside their borders. Zahavah, normally very protective of her children, had asked her to meet the stranger and give her initial impression. If she thought he’d fit with their herd, she was to bring him home to meet Zahavah. If she didn’t like him for whatever reason, she was to tell him to leave and then warn the herd guardians that he was not welcomed. Though… now that she was there, where he was supposedly last seen, she found herself alone. “Hellllo?” she called, wondering if he was hiding somewhere. Was he shy?

Sable had been resting beneath a tree, partially dozing, when he heard a voice call out. He snapped awake and looked around, confused, until he realized that the interloper was on the other side of the tree that was sheltering him. Shaking himself slightly, he pushed himself to his feet and looked around the trunk. He had traveled far, looking for somewhere that felt right, that felt like it could be home. Unfortunately, that had proved to be a more difficult task than he had first thought. One did not simply settle in a herd, especially when one had some difficulty expressing oneself, as he often did. He’d thought he had found a good place, where the people were relatively friendly and honorable. And then he had accidently overheard a couple of mares talking about him. Gossiping, really. And he simply could not abide gossip. Even if they hadn’t been saying uncomplimentary things about him. He wasn’t usually an eavesdropper, and he had meant to walk away quickly, but it didn’t take him long to hear how they felt about him, or that those feelings were felt herd wide. He took his leave before he could be sent away. When he heard of an unusual herd in this valley, he had sought it out. Now he found himself facing a mini mare, and he began to doubt the wisdom of approaching them.  

[divena]

Galaxia jumped a bit when a shadow seemed to emerge out of nowhere. She ordered herself to calm down when she realized the shadow was a soq, though an awfully dark one. There wasn’t a speck of color on him anywhere. She chided herself for being surprised, or even a little scared. It wasn’t like many of her family were darkly colored, if not solid. “Hello there!” she greeted him, trying to seem cheerful and confident. “Are you the stallion looking to join our herd?”

So this little creature was going to be the gatekeeper to the herd? Perhaps his mere size would bar his entry. He had discovered that many minis preferred to keep to their own sizes. There were few herds that mixed breeds and statures. Still, he would see this meeting through. He bowed his head slightly, in hopes of showing respect. “Indeed,” he said, and winced inwardly as he heard stiffness in his own voice.  

[divena]

Well, that wasn't the warmest introduction , Galaxia couldn't help but think. Still, she kept her smile in place, stubbornly. Maybe he was just nervous. No one should be held accountable for nerves, after all. Her mother, Zahavah, had always stressed the importance of keeping an open mind. Galaxia wasn't going to let her down by jumping to conclusions too soon. She'd confirmed that this was, indeed, who she was supposed to meet. Now she would get proper introductions out of the way. And she would do it all with a smile on her face, dangit. “Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Galaxia Sangfroid.” She considered mentioning that the herd leaders were her parents, but that felt a bit like boasting to a stranger. That wouldn't be very professional of her, would it? Besides, unless he was a complete idiot, he'd figure out who she was related to if he managed to join the herd.

Sable inclined his head slightly, glad that the mini mare, Galaxia, seemed to possess a friendly temperament. Many would have taken his single word response as brusque or rude. Perhaps it was. He really couldn't say. Even he was willing to admit that his social skills were sorely lacking. He had never been comfortable speaking to strangers. Unfortunately, speaking to strangers was the only way to convert strangers into friends. At least, the only way he had ever heard of. So he tried, and failed, to learn how to be courteous. What he felt was proper and polite often got him into trouble. He feared that would be the case yet again. But perhaps he could stave off disaster by following the mini mare’s lead. She had introduced herself, and as such he would do the same. “I am Sable Nimbus, however you may call me Sable.” Was that too informal? She had lied and said it was a pleasure to meet him, should he do the same? Only, he found it distasteful to lie. Perhaps a version of her greeting? “I hope the pleasure will be mutual.”  

[divena]

He hoped the pleasure would be mutual? What was that supposed to mean? And he said it with such an arrogant tilt to his head! Galaxia ground her teeth together, forcing her smile to remain intact. She was not the one with a temper. That would be… almost any of her siblings, actually. That was why she was chosen to vet this stranger… this Sable. She latched on to that. He had told her she could call him by his first name. Surely that indicated a certain level of… non-arrogance. Or something to that effect. For some reason, he simply got under her skin. Zahavah had the same problem with Midagi. That was not reason enough to refuse Sable entry to the herd. “Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?”

He had made a mistake. He could tell he was already irritating the little gatekeeper. Sable had always been good at reading the reactions of others, he simply couldn't seem to figure out why they reacted the way they did. He knew he was upsetting her, but he didn't know why. Perhaps asking to be called by his given name was too personal. He tried to take a mental step back. Perhaps he could salvage this. “What would you like to know?”  

[divena]

Galaxia managed, barely, not to twitch. She had left herself open to that response, really. She shouldn’t have made such an open ended request. Most soqs loved to talk about themselves. She had expected him to launch into his favorite features. Who answered a question with a question, anyway? Someone with something to hide, that was who. No, she silently chided herself. She needed to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was one of the few who didn’t like to talk about himself. Or maybe he didn’t think he was particularly interesting. He could even be shy. Yes, that could be it… Curador, their herd healer, was always tripping over his own words because of his awkwardness. He was abysmal with dealing with strangers. In fact, as far as Galaxia knew, the only person he was truly comfortable with was Nova, who acted as his sort of assistant. And then it was only because he was confident in his own element. She took a deep breath and told herself that this fellow was probably just shy. “What would you consider your best trait?” she asked. That was usually a good conversation starter.

His best trait. Sable considered that carefully. This could very well be the defining question. Some herds put a lot of stock into certain traits. Loyalty, intelligence, even creativeness in some places. He always seemed to fall short, but that was fine. He wouldn’t want to be stuck in a herd where he didn’t fit. So what would he consider his best trait? He was a decent judge of character… Though that would likely backfire on him, given his ineptness with socializing. She wouldn’t believe how easily he could read body language when he couldn’t pick up on the simplest of social cues. He was a good swimmer… But that didn’t make much of a difference in a non-aquatic herd. Even if it was a mixed herd, the little gatekeeper was very obviously landbound. He could be a good listener… though he didn’t always say the right thing. He possessed many flaws, it would be easier to list those than his strengths. He resisted the urge to sigh. He needed to give the little gatekeeper a reason to let him into the herd, not to tell him to leave. “I have impeccable manners,” he finally answered. While true, it was something that often got him into trouble.  

[divena]

Galaxia waited a moment, thinking he would expand on that. When he didn’t, she couldn’t help but stare at him. Manners? He considered manners his best trait? That was… different. On the other hand, it probably wouldn’t hurt to have someone considerate and good mannered in the herd. But then again, Zahavah wasn’t big on ceremony, and Pavlov followed her lead. Where would good manners fit into the herd?

As the silence drew out, Sable stiffened his spine to keep from fidgeting. He had obviously said the wrong thing, but as usual, he couldn’t figure out how or why. Granted, he knew that his manners often got him into trouble, but wasn’t it better to be polite than to presume? Or was this another one of those instances where he had missed a social cue? Perhaps he should become a hermit.  

[divena]

“Um… Okay,” Galaxia finally managed to say, when the silence had stretched too long. She hadn’t missed the stallion’s stiffening posture. She had the sinking suspicion that she had insulted him, and wasn’t sure how to fix that. She tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter. She wasn’t here to impress him. It was actually the other way around. He wanted to join their herd, and she was simply the first roadblock to that. Zahavah would, as always, have the final word. So, really, what he thought of her didn’t really matter. Well, no, it did. Galaxia realized if he didn’t like her, Zahavah wouldn’t like him. Her mother was fiercely protective over her family. Then again, if he joined the herd, he would be considered family and that was a completely different kettle of weeds. “Let’s try a different tact,” she muttered, not really intending for him to hear her. “What do you think you could bring to our herd?” There, that was a better question than best trait. Someone’s favorite feature could be completely useless. For example, she was quietly pleased that she was the only one in her family with a predominately white coat. It was a useless trait, but one that set her apart a little.

Sable tried not to look too relieved. This, at least, was something that he could be confident in. “I am a fine guardian,” he told her, rather honestly. And because this was something that he was sure of, he elaborated, “I am rarely wrong when it comes to reading the body language of others. This makes me very hard to deceive. I would be proud to act as protector of your herd, guardian of your borders. I am a fine swimmer, so I can even protect any aquatic borders you possess, should you need it. Though I am descended from unicorns, the tie is distant and faint enough that I have no difficulty inflicting harm if it is to protect my charge.” He hesitated before honesty compelled him to add, “As I am certain you have observed, I am not the easiest stallion to like. I can tell that you find me irritating, and I do regret that. I cannot change what I am.”  

[divena]

Galaxia winced. She had thought she was doing so well hiding her personal opinions of him. She was certainly trying to keep an open mind. Still, everything else he had said were good traits to have. “No one would expect you to change,” she informed him, with a sigh. “Even if you are irritating. As long as you pull your own weight.”

“I am not afraid of hard work,” he assured her. He could hear his tone stiffening. He took a breath in an attempt to soften it a bit. He didn’t want her to think that he was offended. On an impulse, he decided to do something that he had never done before. He decided to take a chance and be completely honest. “I am not good at socializing with strangers. I fall upon propriety and manners, and oft times that causes misunderstandings. This is what leads to irritations and has resulted in my removal from previous herds. I can learn your rules, and I can work within them, but I may not be…. Personable.”  

[divena]

“Well, now I feel guilty,” Galaxia admitted, wryly. Suddenly, his behavior made more sense to her. He wasn’t the first soq she had met who was socially awkward. Curador came to mind. Even Duga, who could be very charismatic, had her quirks. She shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. Of all people, she should have known that surface impressions weren’t all there were to a soq. She had grown up with such different personalities, she couldn’t even begin to judge someone else for his oddness. “I’ll bet admitting to all of that was really hard for you, huh?” she guessed. He didn’t seem like the type to just pour out his flaws. At least, not quite as bluntly as he had. She was going to have to take another tact…. Again.

Sable couldn’t help but be surprised. While he had taken a risk by being so open, he hadn’t expected her to realize the risk he had taken. “Yes,” he agreed. Normally, he would have left it at that, but since honesty had worked for him once before, he forced the words out to add, “I do not believe in unnecessary excuses, and admitting to my own failings are just that. However, you have a right to know who you may be allowing into your territory.” He wished he could say welcoming into her territory, but he knew he had already botched the first impression. Those who took a disliking to him in the beginning never warmed up to him. The best he could hope for was tolerance. He was good at alienating, not endearing himself to others. So, being welcomed into the herd was beyond his greatest hopes. That whole hermit thing was still on the table, after all.  

[divena]

“If you don’t tend to get along with other soqs, why bother joining a herd?” Galaxia asked. She had a suspicion. This stranger was reminding her more and more of Curador. He was awkward, and tended to be happier alone, but he was driven to help. Ultimately, he had joined their herd because they were willing to look past his oddness and allow him to tend to them. Well, that and Zahavah had seen a need for a healer and had latched on to the first one that stumbled across her path. Galaxia’s mother was a force to be reckoned with. And Galaxia had a suspicion that the orange mare would latch on to Sable in a similar fashion as she had Curador. Just like that, Galaxia realized, her motives went from vetting Sable to join her herd and switched to judging if he would be happy there.

Why join a herd? Well, that was easy enough to answer. So much so that Sable couldn’t help but suspect that it was a trick question. “I will admit that the idea of becoming a hermit has occurred to me,” he answered, carefully. He didn’t bother to mention that it was still occurring to him with every minute that ticked by. “However, what would be the purpose of living alone?” The spirits put them there to take care of one another. That was why there were so many different soqs, so many different breeds. They existed to interact with one another. At least, that was what he believed. He had a purpose, and it wasn’t whiling his days away in isolation.  

[divena]

Galaxia could think of a lot of reasons to live alone, but she suspected that wasn’t what he was asking. “Well, just as an example, our head healer is almost anti-social,” she paused to consider that comment, then corrected herself, “Not really anti-social, actually, just… socially awkward, I guess. Like you seem to be… or to think you are,” she quickly added, realizing that her blunt comment could have been taken as rudeness. He clearly valued manners, and she didn’t want to offend him. “What I mean is that he’s no good with people. He’s kind of shy, I suppose. Anyway, as a result, he’s kind of on the fringes of the herd. He seems to like it that way. He does his job the way he’s comfortable doing it, and we get a pretty competent healer out of the deal. Then there’s those like my sister’s mate, Duga. She’s very vocal and social. She likes to be in the middle of everything, and she can’t stand staying still. She’s usually the one who goes out and finds others who might do well with our herd….” She frowned as she realized she was distracting herself. “What I mean to say is that you could be a hermit and still be part of the herd.”

The descriptions of such vastly different personalities was a bit surprising to Sable, though he supposed it shouldn’t have been. He had met Duga briefly in his travels. She was the one who had convinced him to journey to this territory in the first place, though thinking back he wasn’t sure how or why. She had been a whirlwind of color and comments, and in the end he had felt compelled to see where she had come from. And here he was, facing another member of the same herd who was very little like Duga. Surely that was evidence enough that there were varied personalities in the herd. Still, the idea of being isolated from the herd while still part of it boggled his mind. He wasn’t certain how that would work, or even if he would want it to. “What would be the purpose of being a member of a herd if one is not going to be PART of it?” he asked, trying to figure his way through her logic. Perhaps it was a mini way of thinking. He often found that his gender or size could hinder him from understanding what another meant. Different races of soq sometimes had a different way of looking at the world.  

[divena]

“You’d have the comfort of solitude if that’s what you want, while also knowing that help and support is just around the corner if you need it,” Galaxia explained. She realized that what she had suggested sounded mutually exclusive if one didn’t know how her family tended to work.

Sable considered that for a moment. When she put it in such simple terms, he could see the logic behind it. Still, why would the herd accept someone who wasn’t going to benefit them? That he couldn’t quite figure out, and so he asked the question aloud. The little mare seemed to have found her patience with him, and he decided it would be best to utilize it while he could.  

[divena]

“That would depend, I guess,” Galaxia answered, happy to finally have some solid footing on which to discuss. This was a conversation. She could learn a lot from a conversation, even if she was the one who was doing most of the talking. For example, the questions he asked could reveal quite a bit about how he thought. The fact that he questioned his value to the herd if he was isolated from it spoke to his willingness to think of others. At least, that was how she was interpreting the question. That was a good sign. A lot of irritating traits could be overlooked if the owner of them put the herd first. “Curador, our healer, is just that. A healer. Then there’s Midagi, one of our guardians. He’s kind of on the fringes, too, though that has less to do with his preference for solitude. I’m actually not too clear on the details, since the agreement between him and my…. The head of our herd came before I was born. But from what I understand, he chose part of the valley as his territory before our herd really started to form. So Zahavah formed a sort of treaty with him to share interests. She actually doesn’t care much for him, and I think he’s afraid of her, so he keeps to the edges, but he protects our border.”

Sable had to sort his way through that explanation. There was so much in what she was saying that seemed contradictory. He wasn’t certain if she was being sincere or just messing with him at this point. She certainly seemed sincere, in fact she seemed more comfortable and relaxed, almost as if she had landed on a topic she was confident about. That, at least, he thought he could understand. It wasn’t unusual for an individual to be comfortable discussing their family and friends. Well, most individuals were comfortable doing so. He wasn’t certain if he would be one such person. Without any family or real friends to speak of, he couldn’t know for sure. But he was starting to distract himself from the point. What surprised him the most, really, was that the leader of the herd openly disliked one of the members of the herd. It had always been his experience that the leaders either didn’t know their followers well enough to dislike them or didn’t tolerate irritants to linger. As one of those irritants, he found the concept of such tolerance as Galaxia was talking about…. Promising.  

[divena]

When Sable didn’t say anything right away, Galaxia continued, “There’s a lot of caves nearby, for example. If you wanted to settle in those, you could protect that entrance to our territory, without having to be an active member of the herd.”

That… seemed like a good possibility. He could fulfill a purpose without risking putting his hoof in his mouth as he was so often prone to do. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder, “What if I wish to be part of the herd?” He had always thought the point of a herd was to be part of a social group. Perhaps he had been going about it the wrong way this whole time.