Who's that lurking in the bushes? [Rowan]

It was early morning, the time of Sophie's daily two mile hike. What could she say, she liked to keep herself in shape. Theodore lane was her chosen place of exercise. It's only problem was the occasioanl clio who thought she was a vulnerable old woman and tried to rob her. That was one of the reasons she always carried her cane. Her nice trusty painful cane.

Rowan hadn't been up this early in weeks. He used to get up early all the time, but recently he'd been staying out all night at the Tavern so he'd been sleeping all morning. But today he had to get up for some kind of early meeting thing that his Advisors weren't going to let him skip.

He was tired as hell though. Like and idiot he'd stayed out all night anyways. And now he had a god-awful hangover (again.) What had he been thinking?

He figured maybe a walk would help wake him up before the meeting. So he went out on Theodore Lane. He had his head lowered so he didn't notice the old woman walking towards him from the opposite direction.

"Hmmph. Just who is that? Don't we know about about someone who's supposed to look like that?"

Sophie asked Delaney, trying to place the clio in her mind. He didn't seem to be feeling good at all. At look at that! Out and about, no doubt getting everyone else sick as well!

I believe that is Rowan, the overloridian of dian. He fits the description anyways. Delaney answered, pulling his head out from beneath his wing, blinking sleepily.

Rowan looked up just in time to avoid running into the old woman. He quickly maneuvered around her. "Sorry," he muttered, and prepared to just keep walking,

"How rude!" Sophie complained to Delaney. "You would expect an overloridian to be more polite. Juliann is! I thought manners were a requirement." Sophie continued in that subject. Delaney shifted from foot to foot on her shoulder, nervous because an OVERLORIDIAN was a mere few feet away while Sophie was starting to catalog all of his flaws (real and imagined, most likely). But then again, Delaney was used to it. Sophie definitely spoke her mind.

Rowan stopped dead as the old woman started to complain about him as if he wasn't standing two feet behind her. First because he was offended, second because she had mentioned someone he knew.

He turned around. "There aren't any requirements for being Overloridian," he informed her. "And I said 'sorry.'"

He turned to keep going but didn't, because he was kind of curious as to how she knew Juliann. A relative? Aunt or grandmother maybe?

"There aren't any requirements for being Overloridian"[/quote]

"So then just ANYONE can be an overloridan? What if someone was a drug addict or worse?" Sophie demanded outraged beyond all belief.

"Now now. Calm down." Delaney soothingly crooned, rubbing his beak against Sophie's face.

Or an alcoholic? Nym said sardonically. Rowan sent her the mental image of him kicking her.

"I don't know," he replied in an emotionless voice. "Fate chooses the Overloridians. No one gets a say in it."

"Not my Juliann! I always knew he'd be an overloridian! He's such a good boy after all! Perfect for the job!" Sophie waxed on about Juliann's good points but slowly slipped onto his flaws. Delaney sighed.

Rowan really didn't care how proud the old woman was of her grandson--or whatever Juliann was to her.

"Well, that's great for him," Rowan replied in the same colorless tone. "But no one is perfect."

"How true." Sophie mused, returning to a sane state of mind. "No matter how hard one tries, one is never perfect are they?" Sophie absentmindedly caressed her left hand, a crooked, slightly twisted mass of scars. Whether physical or mental we all have our imperfections." Thinking of something, Sophie gazed at Rowan with narrowed eyes. "Just what is it that has that grandson of mine acting even more absent minded than usual? Is it some overloridian business?"

"Er," Rowan replied. He had never even really spoken to Juliann before, and therefor had no idea what she was talking about. "I don't, uh, I don't really know," he admitted. They all had their own problems (Rowan especially) but the Overloridians didn't didn't have any common problem right now. "It's nothing to do with the Overloridians, I guess."

He looked at her hand, but didn't linger on it. He had enough tact not to ask what happened.

"Hmmph. That boy. He never talks to me anymore." Sophie slammed the cane but into the ground in agitation, her sudden movement nearly unseating the peacefully sitting Delaney. He squawked in protest and then settled down again, muttering something under his breath. "Back to my earlier example. This is an example of how not everyone is perfect, no matter how hard they try." Sophie thrust her twisted towards Rowan's face.