Extraordinary Beings.

Who: Eben and Charlotte
When: Early afternoon
Where: We'll see?

Not wanting to risk waking Eben up, Charlotte waited until safely after noon to call Eben. Though she felt silly admitting it, Kaysen's information about him did help her relax about the situation. Even if she still wasn't convinced she'd make a good model. Sitting at her computer and opening up her phone, she clicked in to her phonebook and dialed Eben's number. "Here goes nothing..." she murmured.

Eben was already awake, and glanced up from the charcoal drawing he'd been working on, and he picked up his cell. "Greetings and salutations." he said brightly. "How are you this fine day?" Whether or not it was a fine day was kind of irrelevant to him.

Charlotte giggled slightly, thinking he sounded exactly how he had at the party. "Well I'm great." she replied. "And how are you?" Okay, so it was easier to talk to a gay guy. Clearly, she had problems.

"I am fantastic. So, since we're both doing so well, are you inclined to go out with me for photo shoots?" he asked. "And did you have anywhere specific you wanted to go, or anything you wanted to do...I am always completely open to artistic expression, and anything you have an idea about? I am more than game for." Eben explained.

"I think I can do that." Charlotte answered, grinning a bit. If nothing else, all the pictures her mother had taken before the dance had certainly prepared her for flashes. "You're the artist, right? You'd said woods at the party, I can brave the chill if you can."

"Yes, definitely the woods." Eben said. "But there's the beach, the jacobetti center...behind it is neat. There are a ton of places we can go. So just, keep that in mind, and if you happen to have a whim, let me know. I'll be by to pick you up in a bit, cool?" he said. "Take whatever clothes changes you might want."

"Sure thing." Charlotte agreed. "I'll be ready." Or, as ready as she'd ever be. She gave him her address as she opened her closet, thinking she probably should have figured that out earlier. Small detail.

Eben didn't take that long getting everything ready. He had his camera bag, a lot of film, everything he needed, plus a light umbrella just in case. He would rather use natural light than flashes, though sometimes they were nice to have. Either way, he borrowed the car for once, and was there to get her inside an hour.

Charlotte had had more than enough time to put a few random outfits in a bag, going for stuff that suited her that she wouldn't freeze in. That was a plus. She'd never considered October a cold month before, but she was already noticing the little differences between the UP and the LP. Ever-present messenger bag firmly on her back, she headed out as soon as she saw Eben's car pull up, really not wanting to subject another guy to her mother. Though she could only imagine how Eben would react. That might actually be worth the amusement.

Eben leaned over to push the door open for her, then sat back right again. "Hello, Charlotte." he said brightly. "Looking gorgeous today, of course. You all ready then?" he asked.

Charlotte got in his car and smiled as she pulled her seatbelt on. "Thank you," she said. "And all ready." she confirmed. "So when did you get into photography?"

"Oh, ages ago." Eben said. "I had a camera when I was really little, my parents gave it to me
when they realized I was fairly artistically inclined. so they were always catering to that, getting me new things to see what I would do with them. I got into it more as I hit highschool, because they have the photolab in there, so I can develop my own prints. That's what I really like to do. None of this sending things away, or bringing it in for one hour development with no care taken to the color or lighting. I'd rather do it all myself."

"Sounds like you have pretty cool parents." Charlotte remarked. Her mom probably would have been that way, if she'd ever shown any artistic... anything. "Sounds like fun. Are you going to make it a career?" she asked. She paused a second, and added, "Or have you already?"

"I sell artwork from time to time, does that make it a carreer?" Eben asked, driving out of town, so they could get proper wooded backgrounds. "And yeah, they're pretty cool. Very open. I guess you would call them hippies. Which is part of why we traveled so much. So...like different communes, religious orders...they kinda...keep trying to find their true north, if that makes sense."

That was kind of fascinating. And with what very little she knew of Eben so far, made perfect sense. "Makes sense." Charlotte confirmed. "They ever find it?" She was guessing not, but hey, you never knew. "What kind of religious orders were they in?"

"Not yet." Eben said. "I'm sort of losing faith that they ever will, but hey. They don't actually seem unhappy about it." he continued. "They're much more...they just float? Drifting back and forth, however life's current takes them. The only reason we stopped here for a few years is they realized my education was patchy at best, so they wanted me in proper school." he said. Then he smiled. "And cults, mostly, if you want the honest answer."

Okay, that was really fascinating. Charlotte blinked in surprise, but didn't look freaked out. "Wow." she said. "That's kind of hard to imagine." she admitted. "Growing up like that, anyway. You seem pretty cool about it all."

"Well, picture it. You're growing up, and every few months or so, you hop areas and belief systems. Everyone's got something. You meet a lot of interesting people, a lot of really open people--some too open, I might add, in some respects--and you get this huge cross section of ideas about the world, and everything in it. Nothing's really solid, because in six months, there'll be new ideas. So everything was really fluid. I guess I never personally bought into any of the ideals preached by the people we holed up with, I just mostly found it all fascinating in one way or another. Tried, when I was older, to draw the lines, figure out how people arrived at what they did." Eben said. "So much of things like that are just people looking for someplace to belong. Someone to take care of them, because they don't think they can, or they don't want to." he continued. "So disillusioned folks, just wanting to find their place."

"I can see how that would happen." Charlotte replied. To a large extent, she knew that was why so many people clung to Christianity - maybe not because they fully believed, but they felt like they needed something to believe in and make everything worth it in the end. "Everyone wants that, the wheres and how just vary. I can see how it would lead to an artistic kid, too. Bet you never ran out of material."

Eben chuckled a little. "No, I never ran out of material. I guess you would call me a student of human nature." he said. "I love people. I love seeing what makes everyone work, or just observing. Everyone's got something good about them. Most people just don't take the time to look." he said. "I like capturing things, different emotions, aspects, angles. And everyone is different, so I'll never run out of things on that score."

"That's... insanely impressive." Charlotte had to admit, relatively certain she'd never met anyone like Eben before. She wasn't sure if he was really special, or she was more sheltered than she'd previously thought. "I'd love to see your work sometime."

"Of course." he said easily. "Any time you'd like, just let me know. I have a bunch of it at home, a bunch of it at school. Though...you've got a much nicer place than I do. You live on Ridge. I've got more of a 'trailer in the woods' thing going on." He paused, hitting the breaks as up ahead, three huge ass moose decided to cross the road. He watched them out the windshield, and grinned. "...don't see that every day." he said. Of course, things like that happened around him.

"I think I'd prefer a place in the woods." Charlotte admitted. She'd opened her mouth to say something else, but when she turned to look ahead and see what he was talking about, her jaw dropped. "Holy crap." One of them actually stopped and locked eyes with her. For once, Charlotte found herself mentally speechless.

Eben shifted the car into park, then wound the window down, climbing up to sit on the ledge of the door. He took out his camera, and took a shot or two of the one moose that seemed to be looking at them. "They don't seem scared at all." he said. But then a lot of animals around the area didn't seem that bothered with humans.

"They're not." Charlotte agreed. You do this often? she asked the one looking at her. She couldn't help but smile. He seemed perfectly chilled out with the world. "I didn't know stuff like this happened. I thought you had to go out into the middle of nowhere to-" Blink. Charlotte looked around. "Nevermind."

Eben snapped another shot as the one who'd been looking started to walk over towards them. "You get to 'nowhere' really fast around here..." he remarked, amused. "Wow." It was walking over towards her side of the car too, and he just snapped off another few shots, wondering how close it would get.

"...It'd probably let you pet him. Does this kind of thing happen a lot here?" Charlotte asked. The moose in question all seemed pretty gentle, like they were just hanging out and got distracted by humans. "Jeez, I have never been up close with an animal this big!" She couldn't help but sound like a little kid on Christmas about it, either.

Eben grinned at her. "Get out of the car...see if I can get a picture with you. Try petting it?" he suggested, not moving from his spot, though he thought this was made of awesome. and thankfully, there wasn't a lot of traffic on this road, so they hadn't been interrupted yet.

He didn't have to ask Charlotte twice. Charlotte was moving as quickly as she could without scaring them off. Mentally, she was asking for permission as she moved around the car. She smiled brightly as she held her hand out to let him sniff at it. "Aww... you're just an oversized snuggly thing, aren't you?" ...I'm what? Charlotte bit her lip. Sorry. But you kind of are.

Eben was absolutely fascinated as he watched, and he brought his camera up and didn't stop taking shots until it began to wind itself. Then he set it down, so it could finish doing that and he just rested his arms on the top of the car, watching her. "That's amazing." he observed.

Charlotte looked back at Eben and smiled brightly. "You want to try? Once in a lifetime opportunity here." she pointed out. "Big friendly snuggly moose." Who kept sniffing her. "I don't have any food, sorry." The moose huffed, as if her interest level had gone down, and Charlotte laughed.

Eben shrugged. "Think it'll let me?" he asked, sliding down from the car window, and he started to skirt the car--taking the way that walked up behind Charlotte, as opposed to putting the animal between two people. Slowly, he reached up with his shoulder just by hers, and he touched the moose's nose. "God these things are big."

They were a lot bigger than Charlotte had actually imagined. "I think if they were of the less friendly variety, they could throw your car around like a tonka truck." And notice her not sounding scared in the slightest! "I read on the internet about a moose in Alaska or something that used to come hang out at the college campus all the time. They couldn't get rid of him so they made him their mascot."

"Really? That's awesome." Eben remarked. "And yeah...I know that they always say if you ever hit one, the car would take a hell of a lot more damage than the moose." he continued, smiling as the moose seemed alright with being petted, and so he got a little braver and did so.

The idea of hitting an animal while driving had always utterly terrified Charlotte, but it wasn't hard to imagine one of these guys walking away from it fine while everyone in the car ended up in the hospital. "I love the wildlife up here. This would never happen down state."

"Have to agree with you there. It is pretty kick ass. I've seen a lot of neat things since living here. And the animals around are really varied. Like you're always seeing them. Squirrles, chipmunks, raccoons, deer, foxes...I've seen coyotes too, back behind the trailer." Eben said, looking past the moose to see the other two had wandered into the woods properly, but were still within view.

"All I ever saw downstate were squirrels and stray cats. Maybe the occasional deer." Unfortunately, they were usually dead. That was never a happy experience. Charlotte grinned and looked over at the other two, before back to the big snuggly one. "Your buddies are waiting for you." she pointed out with a giggle as she petted him again. She would have liked to give him a hug, but the downside of being a huge woodland animal was that he, well, smelled like one.

Eben stepped back again, and leaned against the car, just watching Charlotte. He didn't say anything for a few long moments, merely taking in the view. "You're amazing, you know that?" he told her.

Charlotte blinked and looked over at Eben, trying to figure out where that had come from. At first she'd thought he was talking to the moose, too. Oops. "Me? What did I do?"

He was smiling at her, a really appreciative sort of expression. "Do I actually have to answer that?" he asked. "Look at you. You're amazing. Anyone with eyes can see that." he pointed out, as if she really should have picked up on this.

This was really a baffling experience to Charlotte, who saw nothing special in herself other than the ability to talk to animals - which very few people knew about. She smiled back, but the expression was awkward. "Um. Thank you?" she replied, knowing she needed to say something. What she was paled in comparison to people like Eben or Kaysen, in her opinion.

A light flicker of a frown crossed his features at that. "What, do you not know?" he asked. "What is it with girls?" he asked rhetorically. "Blessed with some of the most beautiful forms known to man, and yet they still just sit there and either pretend it's not there, or don't take a second to see it. There are a lot of people out there who aren't nearly as beautiful as you are. You should learn to appreciate that a little. Adding on top of that you're sweet, and apparently? Wild animals will walk right up to you and let you pet them....yeah, that qualifies as amazing."

"...Oh." Brilliant response. "He didn't walk up to me, he walked up to the car." she pointed out, though she wondered if that was the case. Animals tended to like her, she usually chalked that up to them knowing that she understood them. "I... um... am not entirely used to getting compliments, so I'm not sure how to do it gracefully, but... thank you. I'm not really used to thinking that anything I am is amazing? I'm just... me. I mean, look at you! I'd love to be able to deal with people as easily as you do. And you really try to understand them. No one does that anymore."

"I think he was headed for you." Eben said. "I mean, I was out of the car, but he wasn't walking over to my side. So he probably wasn't looking for food or anything. He headed for you." he pointed out. "Do it gracefully by taking time to look inwards. See yourself for who you are, both inside and out. It doesn't have to be conciet--but to not acknowledge it at all is insulting to those who don't have even a sliver of what you have, and as far as I can tell, it's all purely natural to you."

There was a real difference between logic and perspective, and Charlotte had to wonder now which made the wiser person. Which she realized immediately was just another way of trying to say he was better than she was, so she tried to put a stop to that line of thinking. The problem was that she looked at what she could do and what other people could do, and immediately wrote her own talents off as something that wasn't actually going to help out in a time of need. She wondered if survival mode had done that to her, or just sixteen years of being a loner. "Okay." Charlotte finally accepted, not sure what to say, but wanting him to know she was listening at the same time.

He nodded. "Good." he said. "Because honestly...from where I'm standing--and this is even knowing I've only just met you--you are in fact, absolutely amazing." he told her. "Beautiful, kind...there's something about you." he told her. "Keep that in mind, for the masses." he finished.

Charlotte's cheeks went a little pink - trying or not, she was still Charlotte - and she looked down at her hands and nodded faintly. "Thank you." she said. "I'll try." she promised. She wasn't sure how well that would work out, but she could try. Their moose friend had wandered away while they talked, and after looking around, Charlotte looked back to the car. "Off again?" she asked.

Eben nodded. "Off again." he confirmed, giving her a little smile, before he pushed off of the car and walked around it to get back in. That had been interesting, and with her statements he was feeling slightly less annoyed now. So, all was well again. Eben never stayed irritated for very long.

Charlotte had to shake her head at herself a bit as she headed back to the passenger side door and got in the car. She smiled faintly as she mulled their conversation over, if nothing else, really happy that she'd met Eben. "You realize you're pretty extraordinary too, right?"

"I'm told that from time to time." Eben said, shifting the car into gear, and starting off driving again. "Mostly, I'm observant. I just...pay a lot of attention, I suppose. Things attract my attention, and I focus for a while, so I see things. It's not that I'm seeing what isn't there, or what's impossible to pick out, I'm just noting things people don't bother looking for."

"And that's special. Focusing is starting to become a long lost art. So is paying attention to other people. This world doesn't have a lot of room for it anymore." Charlotte pointed out. "Taking the time to see anything these days is special." Herself included, she was sorry to say. "It's amazing how well adjusted you are." Charlotte blinked, resisting the urge to smack her palm to her face. "I meant that as a much nicer thing than it came out as."

"Oh, it's fine. I recognize the fact that my upbringing was a tad on the insane side. So I know that other people would very likely not have come out anything near normal. And maybe I'm not, but yes, well adjusted I could claim. I'm not full of issues just waiting to snap on people, at least." And so many people in the world were.

Charlotte was relieved her remark didn't bother him. She couldn't help how impressed she was by Eben. "You're like the high school zen master." she said, shaking her head. "You need to teach self help seminars during lunch."

Eben laughed at that. "I think people would be a little too apt to make fun and just ruin all the zen for everyone else if I tried that. Calm in the chaos would be neat though. Like you." he said, since that was the first thing that caught his attention about her in the first place. "Never know, it might be interesting."

Charlotte grinned. "If nothing else, maybe you'd get some good pictures." she replied. "I'm really glad my stillness caught your attention." she admitted. "This is pretty cool." Even if they hadn't got to the actual picture taking part that still baffled her so. Eben's friendship already seemed worth a little weirdness.

He grinned. "Glad you're indulging me." he said. Then he pulled off on a side road, where there was a little parking lot. "And here we are." he announced. "Sugarloaf. There are a lot of steps, and a lot of woods." he informed her. "How good are you at climbing trees?"

Charlotte remembered talking about Sugarloaf with Lullaby a lot. "I'm kind of good with earthy stuff like that." she admitted, smiling a bit. "I like trees." She'd probably be better with the trees than she would be the steps, actually.

"Well cool then." he said. "Let's try the path first." he opted for, and headed off on said path, whistling a touch to himself as he did so. The leaves were bright, almost all of them turned by now. It always happened fast in Marquette. One day everything was green, about a week later it was all a riot of color.

Charlotte followed, a little distracted by the beauty of the place. "I love this time of year." she said, shaking her head. "Everything's so colorful. It's ridiculously beautiful." And being out here made her feel very comfortable. Maybe all that meditating had been working out for her, after all.