Claudia and Conner, backdated to Oct 20

[om_superboy]

Claudia is uncertain how to approach the horses. Luckily, there's a farm boy willing to show her. It is all very cute, clearly.

Claudia had wanted to get out of the mansion, some place that didn't feel like she would trip over another student and just...space out. She hadn't even had a destination in mind, just grabbed a perfectly nontechnical notebook and pencils and headed out to roam the grounds. And if anyone had actually suggested where she'd ended up, she would have looked at them like they were crazy.

She wasn't one of those girls who were crazy about horses, but there was something about the animals that had drawn her to the edge of the fence, and while she was sorely tempted to climb up or move closer, she didn't know anything about the animals. For all she knew, one of them would suddenly decide she'd looks better with hoof-prints crushed through her if she tried. It didn't make them any less fascinating. From a biomechanical viewpoint, they were a hodgepodge of evolutionary dead-ends, but that didn't say anything about the grace with which they moved, the sheer beauty of an animal that had once defined wealth and industry by its capabilities.

She couldn't figure out what made them so entrancing, so she just kept watching, as if the problem would just come clear with enough data points. It usually worked, but she had nothing to start from, and to be honest, the animals weren't the kind of thing she thought she should try to pet or whatever horses liked.

Kon had come bearing apples--always a great conversation starter where horses were concerned. He joked about missing his goats all the time, but it was actually true: he did miss them, and all the animals, even the one mean-ass llama. The horses made him feel a little more relaxed when he got all tangled up in his head with homesickness and wondering if he was some kind of weird zombie creature.

You know, when Tim wasn't available to, uh, work out some stress with him.

He touched down not far from Claudia and was about to say something, but paused to watch her for a second, wondering what she was doing. Was she gonna draw the horses, or...? "Hey, Claudia," he finally said, walking up behind her.

There were a couple of sketches on the page she had open, mostly mechanical drawings attempting to break down freedom of movement in joints and other elements with half-written formulae to try to describe what she was seeing. But mostly, she was watching. It was amazing to see what the world could produce. She was actually in a sort of trance or meditatative state or something when he greeted her, and it startled her out of her musings, and she dropped her pencil, watching worriedly as it bounced inside the paddock.

"Oh, hi, you startled me!" It wasn't really a complaint, but it was better than cursing. Would these animals that outweighed her at least ten to one take offense if she invaded their space. She wasn't one of the equestrian strudents, and she really didn't know all that much. People said horses were friendly, but so were dogs, and plenty of people got hurt by them.

Kon grabbed the pencil before it could roll away, then held it out to her, grinning. "Sorry. Even tried not to, but I'm startling like that. What are you up to out here? Don't usually see you at the stables." He sidled up to get a better look at the notebook.

"Nothing, really, just thinking," Claudia admitted, a little sheepish. "It's the closest I've ever been, really. I don't know anything about horses except what I've read and seen. They're...interesting."

She took the pencil, then shrugged. "Think about it, the horse family isn't terribly successful from an evolutionary point of view, but without them and other domesticated animals, we would still be living in caves, hunting and gathering."

"I didn't know that," Kon said, in re the evolutionary thing. He guessed he'd seen those tiny extinct horses in the natural history museum and all, though. Maybe that? "So--do you think that means they survived because of domestication? Or that we did? Or...?" Hm. Now he was confusing himself.

"It's not that simple," Claudia said. "The herd in general can outrun most of their usual predators, like wolves and cougars and the like. The mustangs certainly do pretty good without much help, or they wouldn't have to keep rounding them up to thin the wild population."

But she didn't know what to think of them. "And we weren't doing so bad, it's just that once we had animals, we could claim more territory, which meant we had a lot more people to look out for moving as a group. At some point, everyone wants a home base."

Kon licked his lips thoughtfully He thought he got what she was saying, but--it was so far from everything he thought, when he was around horses, he didn't know what to make of it, exactly. "I get what you're saying--I think--and it's interesting and all. But, I mean. The really cool stuff about horses, you gotta actually meet one, for that." He cocked an eyebrow.

"How do you do that, exactly?" Claudia had to ask. "I thought about signing up for the class, but, well, this is about as close as I've ever been to one of them. I'd be scared of getting stepped on or something."

Conner waved for her to follow, but waited until she had her stuff together before he started walking. "Come on, let's go meet a horse. These are all really nice ones--no stepping on people, promise." Well, not without provocation, anyhow, but Kon liked to keep his provocation to his roommate, not so much the huge animals, thanks.

Claudia tucked her pen in the notebook and the notebook under one arm, and quickly moved to catch up. "So, they're nice horses. What does that mean, exactly?"

And would what a farmboy thought of as nice match her take.

"Sweet-tempered, docile, for the most part, and really friendly," Kon said easily. "One or two have attitude issues but more in a pesky way than anything else."

"When people say a dog is really friendly, you have to worry about tongue baths or leg-humping. What exactly does that mean in a horse?" she asked, although she was smiling.

"Nuzzling," Kon said, making a face that said he was clearly giving this serious thought. "The occasional accidental hand nipping if you feed them like that, but even that's not likely. I mean, it's not like horses try to jump up on people or anything, you know?"

"I know they don't, but they're certainly....big," Claudia said. "Big enough to hurt someone by total accident. Especially cute, clueless girls, right?"

"Luckily, you're cute as hell, but I'd never call you 'clueless'." Kon winked as they swung around into the paddock. "It's okay, I'll show you first, and you'll see. They're very chill animals. Very zen."

Except when they're not, but hey...

"In this situation, I'm totally lost. Animals are not my forte, for all that Padfoot and I have been doing basic obedience and protection command training," Claudia said. And Sirius didn't really count because he was still a person in that doggy body, for all his priorities seemed to shift to a more immediate focus.

"So how are horses zen? They don't exactly look buddhist."

"Well, I don't know that much about Buddhism," Kon admitted, approaching a sweet gray mare called Guinevere who was swishing her tail peacefully in the yard. He swung his bag off his back and dug for an apple. "Except that the whole idea is you're supposed to be in the moment. So I guess all animals are kinda Buddhist, in that sense?

"Animals are cool like that, you know? You get like a three-legged dog and he doesn't stress about it. A horse with a scar or a cat that lost an eye. Here--this is Gwen. She reminds me of my mom's favorite back home."

"Well, they might dislike people or things that remind them of pain, but I get that part. We covered some of it in Philosophy, because the whole life is suffering idea tends to shape people. I think it's more that animals don't really worry about the future, because they expect the same things to happen. It doesn't occur to a dog or a cat to expect that tomorrow they won't get fed, since that always happens, and if it doesn't, they can go bug the people who feed them until they do so," Claudia said, considering. "They still remember things and get attached at stuff. There was even a study that showed that a group of monkeys even remembered former members of their group who had died, at least in that they seemed to spend longer watching that image than a stranger."

Still, it didn't mean that animals weren't complex, feeling creatures, at least most mammals and birds. It was harder to tell with the cold-blooded animals, because they largely didn't have social interactions on the same level. "So tell me about her? Gwen? Why's she the one you like?"

"I'm not saying they're unfeeling and stupid--horses are especially good learners. Just that they're good at applying things they learned to the now instead of, you know. Living in fear, like we do." And in spite of his own fears, Kon chuckled gently as he reached out the hand not digging in his bag to Gwen. She snuffled at it as soon as he got near and he patted her. "She reminds me of my mom's favorite horse back home. Go ahead and hold out your hand, she'll just sniff at you."

Claudia did as instructed, unable to stop a small smile at the feel of the horse's velvety muzzle against her fingertips. Then she couldn't help a laugh as the horse stopped lipping at her fingers to give Kon a slight shove, as if she were telling him to hurry up. "She certainly has you pegged, huh? Hope you're not ruining her diet or anything. Not that I can really imagine a single apple makes that much difference."

"Nah--it's like a tiny piece of candy for us, I guess," Kon said with a grin. He finally produced the apple and held it out. "The trick is to keep your palm flat, so they don't accidentally nip on you instead of the apple. Their eyes being up there and all."

Guinevere whuffed at the apple once, then delicately parted her lips and snapped it up. She shook her head as she chewed. Conner laughed and stroked her muzzle. "Happy girl..."

"I don't think she can exactly see us all that well," Claudia said, studying the horse's face even as she moved slightly to stroke the side of her neck wher it reached over towards them. "She can see pretty much all around, but it's not really the kind of sharp focus we get. Prey species and all. And they're all the way up there so that the eyes are above the grass when they're eating."

"That's what I meant," he clarified, stepping back to let her have Gwen all to herself. "Just in way less smart terms, pretty much. You wanna give one of the other horses one?"

"Am I gonna get mobbed if I start handing out apples, or did you have someone else in mind?" Claudia asked, still a little surprised she was this close to something so big and apparently interested in her. She was almost distracted by the feel of the smooth hide under her fingertips and the play of muscles underneath.

"Oh yeah, but you're pretty light on your feet, you'll be fine." Then Kon held up both hands and laughed. "No, sorry, that was mean. We'll just find one of the guys in the stables who looks like he wants a little love. You're doing great with Guinevere, here."

"Coming from a guy who can fly, I think I'll take it as a compliment, anyway," Claudia said, although she did mime a punch at his shoulder. "How well do you know the horses? I'm guessing you spend a lot of time down here."

Grinning for the fake punch, Kon nodded and said, "I miss the animals at home. My goats especially. But it's nice that there are horses here to kinda relax me, you know?"

Claudia nodded, knowing what it was like to miss stuff, even if she'd never get any of that back. "At least you're close enough to go home on long weekends, right?"

Still, it wasn't why they were out here. "I guess we should find someone else to give some attention, before somebody gets jealous. Do horses get jealous?"

"They absolutely do," Kon said with a chuckle. He hiked his pack up on his shoulder and waved her towards the stables. "Let's see who's hanging out in there today.

"Yeah, though, I totally could go home. Just kinda haven't. I guess--I miss it, but I like being on my own too? Apart from having to do laundry, which sucks. I like--I dunno. I like living with Tim." He hadn't really thought about it before, but nodded to himself after he expressed the sentiment. It was nice--comfy-like. Made it feel like home, even though it was nothing to the Kent Farm, in that way.

"This is probably the closest thing I've had to home since my brother died," Claudia admitted. "No family to speak of, and the less said about the foster system, the better." She knew people knew it was bad, but having people find out just how bad wasn't where she wanted to go.

"Animals, at least, have it easy. They don't have to worry about things like whether they're going to be turned back in to the agency because the kid wasn't something they could deal with, at least most of the time. I know there's a terrible turnover with puppies given as gifts and the like."

Kon nodded sympathetically at that first bit about the family--not that he really knew what it was like, but it wasn't so hard to imagine, considering how his parents were, well, everything to him. As for the puppies, "That's the problem--and it happens with horses, too. People think they know what they're getting into, responsibility-wise, and then they don't, and then it gets bad... I dunno, Ma always says there's a special hell for people who hurt or neglect children, the elderly, and animals. I'm kinda thinking she has something there." He held open the swinging stable half-door for her.

"In the case of child molestors, it's called prison," Claudia said, and there was a hint of satisfaction on that statement. She'd put several would-be daddies in there during her time, another reason she was a problem placement in the foster system. "Nobody requires more protection from their fellow inmates than a pedophile."

She knew that anything as large as a horse had to be a lot of work, even just keeping up with feeding and cleaning the stalls. "You can't just leave a horse in a field and let it take care of itself outside of feeding, either."

"No--it's not quite a full time job if you just have one, but close enough," Conner admitted, leading the way to one of the sweeter mares who was still in her stall hanging out. Ahhh, the smell of the stable--hay and leather and horses and... okay, shit, but not much! Definitely felt like home. He had an unconscious smile plastered on his face as he said, "That's why most people who have jobs and stuff pay for stabling their horse somewhere else."

"What happens if 'your' horse decides he or she likes the stable people better than you?" Claudia had to ask. "Do horses ever give someone the cold shoulder or an attitude?"

She didn't know just what a horse could do as revenge. Well, bucking, possibly. And she did not want to get thrown because she did something wrong.

"Well, I guess they could," Kon admitted with a chuckle. "They definitely give attitude, anyhow. And they do tend to favor certain people. But I don't really think the ones with attitude are less, uh, attitudinal for one person or another. Unless they do something shitty."

"I bow in the face of your experience. I've thought about taking equestian as an elective, but, well, they're big and all. Enough to give anyone a case of nerves, if you've never been around them. Heck, some people are like that with dogs," she said, smiling. "You look like you're in your element, though. Even if there aren't any goats or llamas."

Conner grinned as they rolled up on the stall he'd been going for. He reached up to pat the pale muzzle that presented itself. She had an even paler mane and forelock, and large, docile eyes. Probably perfect for Claudia. "I love animals," he admitted, "Like way more than people. Guess it comes from being on the farm?"

Okay, so he and Krypto had some rounds before they became friends, but still. Now they were totally BFF.

"You should take it next year. I mean, I don't, but I've talked to Ms. Danvers and she's really cool."

"Probably," Claudia said, to both the class thing and Kon's farm heritage. Some things you couldn't escape, and apparently that was one. "So, who's this?"

She moved to the side so the horse could probably see and smell her and waited to see what Conner would do next.

He handed over an apple to Claudia, and the mare sniffed at it, tail swinging behind her, feet prancing just a little. "Yeah, you know what that is, don't you? This is Leela. Like Futurama, you know?" He grinned. "Go ahead and hold it out to her like I showed you."

Claudia took the apple, and held it carefully on the flat palm of her hand as she came closer. "Even the horses are pretty nerdy around here, aren't they?"

And now was one of those moments when she really was like almost any other teenaged girl, because the feel of those velvet lips against her palm made her start to melt. "There's a good girl," she gushed.

"Ahhh, perfect." Kon patted the mare's neck gently. "You're a natural. At least, with nerd horses."

"With hand-picked nerd horses," Claudia corrected, smiling. She reached to stroke her nose, laughing when Leela tried to follow her hand to see if there was more in it. "Not sure I'd be up to the actual horse-back part, though. It all seems so complicated, even though I know it's supposed to be natural with a good horse."

He shook his head. "It's a little weird at first, I hear--I mean I been riding since I was a kid so I don't really remember not knowing how?--but yeah. With horses like Leela here, you'd be in good hands. You could ask Ms. Danvers to just give you a little one-on-one? I bet she would. She's awesome.

"And hot." Kon made a whistling sound. "I mean wow."

"Is there anyone here that isn't hot?" Claudia said, chuckling. Then she wrinkled her nose, remembering. "Well, besides the creepfest who goes by Toad."

"Oh yeah, that guy." Conner hadn't really talked to him much, but he'd trust the super smart chick's word on that any day. "Not really so hot, no. But the rest of us make up for it. I mean, us alone." He gestured at himself. "Huh, Leela?"

"He's in my squad. I'm just glad I have the super attack dog Padfoot to protect me," Claudia joked. Although she was going to be sorta disappointed when Sirius finally graduated. "But you definitely rate on the hotness, even if your hair decisions are...unique."

Conner didn't know Padfoot--and honestly Sirius Black seemed kinda iffy to him--but he had to admit that turning into a dog was a really cool mutation. He grinned at her assessment of his own hotness, though. "Hey, if I had different hair, I'd be way less hot. I know; I just looked at some pics of me before the fade cut and it was just, like, sad."

Sirius was definitely an acquired taste, but once you got past the facade he'd constructed as part of his life on stage, he was really cool. "I'm not sure I want to know what could be worse than what you're wearing these days."

Conner narrowed his eyes playfully. "Keep that up and my friend Leela might start giving you dirty looks."

"She wouldn't do that, she's a sweetheart," Claudia said, leaning over the stall gate so she could pet Leela more. "What have you been up to, anyway? I mean, besides class."

"Flying around, fixing trees, planning gardens, being super. Usual teenage stuff," Conner said with a grin. "Oh, and Tim is on this kick lately where he's marathoning old sci fi to, um 'purge' the badness that is the twelfth Doctor. Because he can't stop watching it, because he's a completist, but it's so bad. Life is hard, right?"

"He's not bad, he's just not on the same level of awesome as the last two," Claudia said, shrugging. "And Clara makes up for it. Gotta love the impossible girl."

Conner grinned. "You met Becky, right? She's good at that analysis thing too. I mostly just wait for Tim to point stuff like that out to me."

"We're in drama together. And yes, we met. She is certainly different in her way of looking at things. She got a little upset at me for defending Jack, then thought maybe I was dating him," Claudia said, chuckling. "Somehow I got convinced by her and Illyana into doing some of the special effects for the haunted house this year. I still can't believe the headmasters vetoed the idea of using the Danger Room."

Conner didn't even know why defending Jack would be a problem--and wasn't sure he wanted to think about it too hard, considering Becky. He frowned about the haunted house thing, though. "Man, that woulda been cool. I mean--haunted houses aren't really my thing..." He shifted a little uncomfortably and returned his attention to petting Leela. Totally not thinking about that 'practice pentagram' "But, you know."

"They are pretty gung ho about it," Claudia admitted. "I'm just doing ambiance. Making it easier to get disoriented. But if it's not your thing, that's fine."

She didn't know why he was looking uncomfortable, but it was definitely a clue to change the subject. "So, maybe I can steal you away from your surgically attached best friend for a dance instead?"

"I always liked Halloween," Kon admitted with a little smile, albeit one directed at Leela. This would be his first one after actually crossing that line that was meant to be thinnest on that night, was all... and then crossing back. So yeah. Not thinking about it.

He shook it off and turned the grin on Claudia. "But I'd be hurt if you didn't, Claudia. Real hurt."

"Then I'll be sure to pencil you in somewhere. I've always got room for arm-candy," she said, grinning back.