TAKE ME AWAY. /david

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

Amanda's combat boots hit the pavement with a quiet thumb each time she took a step. She was always a silent walker, it may have had something to do with the fact she weighed absolutely nothing. On her back she had her rut-sack filled with her sketchbook and multiple colored pencils, two of her absolute favorite things. There was a ghost of a smile displayed behind her mask, she was relatively happy today. She'd already had her catharsis for the day, her stomach was still raw from the experience. It wasn't something that she was proud of, but it was something that she felt she needed to do to stay sane most days. It was also something that she was quite paranoid about, which was why she tended to hide it very well. Amanda tended to wear things that covered her stomach no matter what, her shirts were always long enough to ensure that they'd never ride up and tell her terrible secret. Her hand moved to touch where her most recent additions were placed on her body, higher up than normal as if to let the others heal before she began there once more.

She continued to walk and opted to turn off the sidewalk so that she may take the path that had obviously been less taken. Her aim was to go somewhere to draw by herself; there was something so beautiful about drawing alone in the park. Sure she loved who she worked with, but there were just times when she needed to be alone in a place that wasn't the bathroom with a blade. To the untrained eye she looked indifferent, angry almost, but to those who'd known her for any length of time, enough to have been allowed into her walls, she looked almost peaceful. Amanda bit down on the soft flesh of her lip as she moved her hand away from her scarred stomach and into the pocket of her tight skinny-jeans.

Her eyes scanned over the grass that covered most of the park's ground, it was beautiful to say the least. Back where she was from the only grass she really had was in her parents tiny front garden in their small city bound townhouse. It had seemed like a prison as she grew up, she'd wanted nothing more than to move back to where she had been born, although nothing ever happened like that. Her parents had made it very clear that they would never move back. Amanda continued walking along, she didn't really absorb anything that was going on around her, she could be really unobservant if she so wished it. She stopped suddenly and dropped her bag gently on the grass next to her feet. Amanda sat down next to it and unpacked her sketchpad and began to draw the shape of a head onto one of the few clean pages left.

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

_{As the winter winds litter London with lonely hearts
Oh the warmth in your eyes swept me into your arms
Was it love or fear of the cold that led us through the night?
For every kiss your beauty trumped my doubt}

David played an Ibanez acoustic. The wood-grain curled and twisted beneath a gray-blue finish, decorated by the odd sticker here and there. He played it when the amps where packed away, or if WW had occasion for an unplugged set.

Though a boy with tattoos of leering zombies and rotting flesh might suggest a musical taste exclusive to genres with double-bass and distortion, David actually had a sweet-tooth for the stark, raw side of the new-folk movement. He'd wandered around the venue for an hour, looking for someone to jam with and finding no-one. He'd discovered, with time, that the first few days on a venue packed with musicians tended to drive him insane. So, decked in clothing befitting November in Seattle, the boy took off for higher ground, trudging in the direction of a park he'd noticed out the tour-bus window on the way into the city. The plaid sleeves of his shirts were usually rolled back to the elbows, revealing any number of tattoos and fading scars, but the wind today had been just enough that he'd opted to leave them buttoned at the wrist.

He'd found himself a bench there, where he planted himself and had remained for the last hour. It was a Mumford and Sons song he had stuck in his head, presently, and was working his way through when he caught site of long-legs and combat boots. It took his brain a few bedazzled moments to understand that the before-mentioned legs were attached to a heart-stopping beauty.

He soured a note on his guitar as his eyes followed her progress across the park. He recognized her when she sat down as someone belonging to the ROM crew, but he couldn't recall her name.

There was no doubt in his mind as to how he'd spend the the next portion of his day. He was on his feet before he realized he'd pocketed his guitar pick, crossing the grassy field. It didn't occur to him, even as he observed her drawing materials, that she might have taken pains to be alone. "Hey," his voice was a bit hoarse from trying to sing. He cleared his throat as he came to stand beside her. "You're that chick from the ROM crew, right?"

My Heart Beat 455 Times For You
OUTFIT


_{And my head told my heart
"Let love grow"
But my heart told my head
"This time no
This time no"}

[/blockquote]
[/center]

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

As she drew her lines and connected them to other lines, she let her mind wonder. Drawing had nearly become a second nature to her, well at least the drawing of the general shapes. Amanda could vaguely hear the hypnotizing sound of her pencil on the thick sketching paper, it was like music to her ears. The sound was indescribable and held the power to calm her down nearly instantly, actually it did normally all the other time she used a blade. A small smile found it's way onto her nearly always emotionless face; she was alone outside in the park with her sketchpad she couldn't help it. Alone being the keyword, it was one of the only times she could really allow herself to show what she was really feeling, it was safe to say she had a little bit of a trust issue when it came to new people. Something inside of her mind just told her that people were sadistic and couldn't be trusted for reasons that were unknown to her. At some point growing up she'd been the butt of everyone's jokes, perhaps it'd started somewhere back then when all of that mattered. It was back when they were little kids and no one really realized that words and jokes could hurt people for more than a moment.

Amanda looked up after a shadow fell over her tiny body. She looked up curiously and was caught completely off guard, her slight smile grew back into her apathetic facade. She looked down again and drew another line, it was too late to play the absorbed in her work card so she looked back up, slightly angry looking. She took in his words dropping the pencil she held down onto her lap and moved her hands to tangle in the grass behind her. Her eyes took him in, drinking in every little detail she could. It was times like this she wanted to be observant just so she could know what she was up against if it came to torment. In her mind she realized it would have been fun to draw him, not that she would ever ask to draw this stranger in their current status.

The dark haired girl took her sweet time answering this person, she took his words in and played them over and over in her mind. She looked down and closed her sketchbook gingerly before she looked back up at him. "Hi." She said keeping her greeting short and sweet, there was no reason to make it longer than it was really necessary. "Assuming that you don't mean one of the other female crew members, yes I am that girl from the Rise Over Me crew." She said trying to keep her voice emotion free as she answered his question, "And I assume you play in one of the bands that's also on tour?" she asked looking him in the eye. If he wasn't in a band there was no way he'd have known who she was. "Or am I just being presumptuous?"

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

<sub>David sensed her apprehension, watching her analyze him. It was a little bit of a shock. Most of the girl's he'd encountered thus-far on this tour had been only too eager to make conversation. This one seemed apt to be a little stingy with her words. He stuffed a hand in his pocket, sizing her up with a sweep of his gray-sky-eyes. She was even prettier up close. Pretty faces were trouble for David. "No no no. You presume right. Good eye." He jiggled his guitar-strap, as if that explained everything.

He un-looped the guitar strap from his body and held the thing by the neck at his side. "I play lead in Weekend Warriors." Without waiting for her to invite him, he sat down in the grass beside her, setting the guitar gently in the grass. The boy extended a hand to her, his long finger splayed, callused tips darkened and dented by the recent contact with the strings. The sleeve of his shirt rode up his wrist a ways, giving light to the elaborate layout of ink. The designs on his wrist and hand alone were many, not to say that tattoos were anything new in the world of the music scene. David's personality was addictive, and he rarely took anything in moderation. "I'm David. Harlem. Nice to meet you"</sub>

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

Amanda nodded slowly, her eyes fell on the guitar. Perhaps it had become a necessity for her to become more observant even if she hadn't wanted to. Not that it would ever happen, but what if he'd had something other than a guitar slung on his shoulders. What was she even thinking about? Had her paranoia of the human population escalated to an almost insane level? Surely not, she pushed thoughts of craziness far from her mind and watched him closely once more. She took in more details than she had before. She probably should have seen him before, leave it to her to not have. Then again she did have quite a legitimate reason not to have seen him before. Amanda had a tendency to stay away from crowds and people she'd never seen before. "Oh. Well I suppose that's good." Her words may have suggested what she really felt, but her tone made it seem as though she really didn't care.

She watched him closely as he took his guitar off and sat down. Her eyes moved to rest upon his guitar, it was a pretty instrument. She'd always been fond of music and the way instruments looked, it had been one of the things that had made her become Rise Over Me's photographer. "That's nice," she stated almost completely emotionless. It was nice, but there was something about admitting she had feelings that really made her not want to sound truthful. Amanda's reverted back to look at him and down to his hand. She looked at it and blinked a few times before deciding to take it gingerly within her own tiny hand. She shook for a second and drew her hand back quickly as if his was poisoned. "Amanda." She stated looking up into his eyes with her seemingly dead ones. It had been a habit to not really offer any information about herself, she still hoped that he'd take the hint, although in reality she doubted he would.

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

<sub>David read her hint loud and clear, but decided to disregard it. He hung on to her hand for a second more than she seemed comfortable with, but then released, setting his wrist on his knee. "Cool. What'cha drawing there, Amanda?" He leaned an inch or so towards her, eying the drawing pad she'd closed.

David had never been one to back down over a little adversity. One might say he liked the rockier path to begin with. Hard-to-get was just a way of saying 'come and get me'. He liked her eyes -- grim, yeah, but she had the look of someone chizzled from stone. She was too damn pretty to walk away from. The combat boots, her dark hair, her obvious resistance; there was a mild sense of bad-assery about her that was almost as intriguing as her looks.

"Kind of a cold day for sitting around and trying to grip a pencil. Doesn't it screw with your dexterity?" He waggled those long fingers again, trying to pry more words out of her.</sub>

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

Her eyes widened and she snatched her sketchbook as soon as he mentioned drawing. Amanda stuffed it back into her rut-sack and shrugged, "Nothing interesting." She said shrugging off her reaction and his question as if there was nothing to it. Cartoons are what she drew for the most part, but she was keeping that little piece of information to herself. People always found that extra nerdy. She didn't understand why she cared so much about what others thought about her. They really didn't even matter, and yet she found herself craving to be able to legitimately not care what people said about her, to her, or thought about her. It was just so hard for her, in all honesty she wished her brother was here.

Amanda shrugged to his question, not entirely sure if he was mocking her or not. She didn't know why but she had the sudden urge to take his hands and examine them, not that she played out that urge. Her eyes moved from him once again to her fingers, she hadn't really noticed if she was having issues gripping it or not. She hadn't really been paying attention to her drawing, she'd only really gotten the head-shape in before he'd come over to her. "I never really thought about it." She said truthfully, her eyes still glued to her fingers that she moved gently. Her eyes examined every inch of her pianist shaped hands. Amanda put her fingers into a fist and rested it on her lap nonchalantly. Her gaze once again shifted out to the rest of the park. It was a nice day, sure it was pretty cool and whatever, but it was still pretty.

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

<sub>Her reaction was adorable. David turned his head to hide his smirk before he started in on her again. "I was just wondering. I draw stuff, too. Tattoos, t-shirts stuff." He sat back a little, putting his palms on the ground and keeping his eyes intently glued to her. Eventually, she'd have to look at him, or so the story so often went. "I couldn't do it in this weather, though. Too damned cold. I'm from California, originally." He took his hat off, shook his hair into his eyes, adjusted it, and replaced the cap. It was a habit that he didn't even think about any more.

The boy watched his new friend consider her hands, avoiding him for all she was worth. He couldn't keep the smile off of his face. He tried some more. "So where'd you come from before you started loading equpiment for all us music geeks? Must've been colder than Cali, if the cold doesn't bug you."

David began a tapping with his thumbs and forefingers on his knee, again without thought. He was imagining the upcoming set. Even with a pretty girl in front of him, you couldn't tell a musician to stop thinking about music.

He loved performing. Music was a constant in his brain; it was the foundation of the universe. Performing was a high, though. The adrenaline, the screaming, the pounding bass, the drums, the vocals, his guitar's voice, so loud.</sub>

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

Amanda watched his actions through her eyelashes, she honestly didn't think he'd ever in a month of Tuesdays leave her alone. She had the striking suspicion that she was stuck with this man until he bored of her and left her alone again. The worst part of her assumption was that she didn't know how to bore him until he left nor did she know how long it would take her to bore him. There was always the option that she could get up and leave, but then he could also follow her. So in reality she was sort of stuck with this man until he left her sitting here by her lonesome again. She swallowed a little and sighed, deciding right then and there she might as well make the best of her predicament. "Oh?" she said once again sounding severely disinterested, of course she was interested she just really did want to be alone right now. "What style?"

[/b] She mentally slapped herself for striking up a new bit of conversation, but then again she really couldn't help herself when it came to art. She shrugged once more gently, the weather never seemed to bother her artistic talents, but then again she wasn't from California. She was from the south, Georgia and South Carolina.

She looked at him and pursed her lips a little. "Georgia." She said in another dead sounding tone, "And I don't load gear. I take pictures." It wasn't a complete lie, she had assisted to load stuff on and off of the bus and van, but it didn't mean that that was all she did all the time. She bit her lip gently and looked up at the sky, it wasn't cold per-say. The weather tended to be quite bipolar this time of the year down there. Mother nature just wasn't sure if she was ready for winter or to go back to summer, she was quite temperamental. Amanda glanced down at his fingers moving against his leg as she continued to bite the inside of her cheek. Without shifting her gaze back to his face she spoke once more, "It's colder, I guess I just didn't really notice the cold." she said honestly pursing her lips a little.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

<sub>"You know. Comic-book stuff, and people. I did some of my friends' tattoo designs." Mentioning this might have been another boy's attempt to impress the girl, but for not for David. He could see he'd broken the initial barrier. He was making ground. Now, talking to her was more about enjoying that small victory. "And artistic nudes. That kind of stuff."

He fell back onto his elbow, reclining on the grass. The cold didn't really bother him, but he could come up with new details to bitch about for the next hour, if he needed to, in order to establish a connection with this chick. Certainly, he would have liked to have a little more sun and some waves and a beach to be sprawled out on, but he was enjoying the traveling part of it.

"So. Georgia. Must be kind of a shock to go from down south to all the way up in the North-West... That's pretty cool." He tore a hand-full of grass from the turf around them and let it fall. "So when's your band going on, anyway? You guys get everything here okay?"</sub>

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

She nodded slowly, pulling her knees up to her chest. Her arms wrapped around them and she rested her head on her knees. "That's cool." She said without emotion, it was cool. She loved tattoos and comics, comics are what she tended to draw. Well, comics were what she drew normally, there was the rare occasion that she drew realistically but that was rare. Amanda's eyes fell on her rut-sack that held her sketchpad before moving back up to her companion's face. Amanda nodded again, she'd never been a fan of nude drawings, they embarrassed her a little. "I just stick to cartooning." She said still a little detached from emotions.

Amanda nodded a little and rocked her body back and forth gently while holding her knees to her chest. "It's colder for sure, but I'll get used to it soon enough." She'd always been rather fond of the cold weather, it was probably because she'd always been a fan of cuddling up in a huge blanket. There was nothing better than wrapping yourself up in a huge blanket in the middle of the Winter. She shrugged a little, she wasn't particularly sure when the band went on, she just sort of followed when they left the bus or gave her a shout. Amanda moved her hands down to her shoes and ran her thumb over the laces gently. Her eyes fell to watch what her hands were doing before once again moving away to look at David. Amanda looked at his clothes, raking her eyes down his attire and his shoes. In all honesty she didn't feel as uneasy being around him anymore.

She bit her lip gently before looking up to his face, "Do you have tattoos?" She asked cocking her head to the side a little. Amanda was almost sure she'd seen some, but she didn't want to assume and be wrong. She wasn't exactly a big fan of being wrong. Although it upset her most when she was wrong fighting against her brother, it still bothered her when she was wrong against her other people too.

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

<sub>David gave her small nod, unbuttoning the cuff on his left sleeve before she could get the chance to change the subject. The ink on his forearm was formed into many elaborate designs, curling and mixing over the hard, lean muscles. Six gold rings encircled his elbow. Another six had been inked further up his arm, but the gathered fabric of the shirt concealed them from view. A miss-match of musical notes were gathered in black, beneath his elbow, with piss-poor quality, and many characters which might have been names and dates, but had grown unreadable. There was a fish, its scales inked to look dull, rendered in blues and purples. Its mouth was full of hooks and its belly was cut open, intestines coiled and slippery with blood. There was a line of coding, '00B0FF', in light blue with a black stroke, scrawled on the inside of his wrist. In block lettering, from the inside of his elbow to his wrist, were the words "GRAVE ROBBER, OH GRAVE ROBBER, WHERE DID YOU HIDE HIS BONES?".

David extended his arm to her, pointing out smaller details; symbols, numbers, letters. There were more markings than there was natural flesh-tone, which had been much of the point at pouring so much time and capitol into having the work done. Had his arm been bare, the skin would have been riddled with healing scars and old track-marks, and neither of which were something he was interested in sharing with his band-mates or their small fan-base. The scars were vaguely distinguishable beneath all the color, but they had been shallow cuts to begin with, as his dominant hand was his left, not his right.

"I got this one a couple weeks ago. It's from a band-logo. That one's the date that some guy from my high school died, I think." He loved his ink, even if he didn't remember where all of it came from. At twenty one, he'd already woken up more than once to a new graphic that he didn't remember authorizing. "There's a lot more, but I'd have to take my shirt off, and it's fucking cold right now. Have you got any?"</sub>

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

Amanda moved her legs into what little kids referred to as criss-cross applesauce. She leaned forward a little and took his arm into her tiny hands to get a better look at his inked up arm. She ran her finger over the lines that were scratched deep into his skin. She bit her lip gently concentrating on all of the line and pictures, they were beautiful. Amanda moved her body a little closer to his looking down at the designs. Her dark eyes drank in every detail that she could as if she was starving for it. She let go of his arm and looked up at his eyes, a hint of a smile was spread over her mouth as she did so. Amanda rested her own arms on her lap. "They're wonderful." She said, her tone colored in a little more than anything she'd let on to him before. Her eyes shifted each time he spoke of one of his tattoos, she really did love tattoos.

She nodded, "I do have some."

[/b] That was an understatement, she had more than a few. Her body had tattoos all over the place. She had a dagger on her right arm, a design on her left wrist, words placed on her fingers and forearms, superwoman was on her back, and there were some images on her lower stomach, the portion that she rarely cut. Amanda bit her lip gently before deciding to pull off her hoodie revealing her black and gray striped short-sleeved shirt. Amanda held out her arms palms up towards him showing him at least two of her tattoos, the dagger and the design on her wrist. On her wrist was a colorful design centered around some words written on a banner wrapped around a heart set in front of a coat of arms. Her dagger was based from one of the MMORPGs she'd once played. The dagger ran the length of the underside of her forearm and seemed to be held on by her arm by golden wings attached to the hilt. "There's some on the other side of my arms, and other's on my back and tummy, but i'd have to take my shirt off and i don't want to." She bit her lip again continuing to hold her arms out for him. Amanda wasn't entirely sure how she was going to handle it if he decided to reach out and touch her. She'd probably manage to stay quiet, but it'd still be weird to have someone she didn't know touch her.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

[DAVID ANTHONY HARLEM]

<sub>-Which of course, David did. He took the opportunity to shift his positioning, taking both her arms into his hand, which dwarfed hers, by a couple sizes. The heat of her skin in his palms was welcome, regardless, but he had every intention of appreciating her artwork, as well.

"That's sweet," he said, running his thumb over the coat of arms. "That your actual coat of arms?" His eyes went on, studying the winged dagger. "--And that's pretty badass. Was that like, intentional, or do you actually get a kick out of knives?" A quiet girl with a knife tattoo. It was the classic set-up for a good story. "You design any of this?" He barely gave her room to speak between his inquiries. He was gonna get her used to his voice, whether she felt like hearing it or not.

If he was persistent enough, maybe he'd end up getting a look at the rest of her tattoos, and her the rest of his. His tattoos continued up his arm, and back down across his chest, onto his calves, his torso, his ribs. If it was tattoos that got her to depart from monotone, he'd let her know about all of them.</sub>

[AMANDA JANE STEVENS]

Amanda tensed as he touched her skin. She couldn't fight that she welcomed the heat, she did the air was pretty cold and his skin was hot. It was that simple, it was just different for her. She bit her lip gently, her eyes watched as he examined her arms just as she had with his. She shook her head a little, "I don't know I got it because I liked it." She'd been pretty naive when she'd gotten it, didn't really think past the whole looking cool business. Why would she have? There were times when she was quite spontaneous, although they didn't always turn out great, it still happened. She bit her lip, "A little bit of both, I guess. I mean some knives are really cool looking."

[/b] She said truthfully, emotion still continuing to flood through her speech. Her eyes locked onto the dagger, it was an awesome piece of artwork. "I didn't do the coat of arms and the dagger was based off of something I saw." it was a little bit of a stretch, she had seen it just not in real life. She'd seen it on a virtual world, one that she was pretty good at. His questions came one after the other, it was nearly over whelming, but she stood her ground. Amanda pulled her arms back when she suspected that he was done and pulled her hoodie back over her skin covering all of her tattoos.

She pulled her knees up to her chest once more and looked at him again and then down at the grass. "I like your boots." Amanda stated quietly locking her gaze onto his boots. [/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]