Because We Are Friends {Dan}

[GERDY MILLAN]

Being a ward of the state wasn’t that bad, because now she had friends. Because of Chandler, mostly. And through him, she met someone that was fascinating. A boy by the name of Dan, who was funny, silly, and apparently Chandler’s best friend. He was also deaf, which took Gerdy a few good moments to realize it, and she only realized it because she had asked Channybaby. Dan communicated through Twitter, and texting, which was okay for her. It was fun coming up with new games to figure out how she could communicate with her new friend—but she had a slip up. She realized that being deaf meant he hadn’t experienced music, and though she brushed it off easily—it was something that bothered her. Gerdy couldn’t go a day without music, without singing. The teenager felt lost and anxious whenever her iPod died on her. So much so, that she learned to carry a portable CD player with a CD case at the bottom of her backpack.

Music made her feel free, and it made her sad, and cry, and helped her all around. It made her dance, it made her sing, and she couldn’t imagine not having it. Everyone loved music, everyone identified with music. There couldn’t be a person alive who disliked music; it was engrained in their biochemistry.

So that night, Gerdy sat at the desk in her tiny, pathetic little dorm and tried to figure out how to do this. And it all started with that song. It was perfect, because it was dynamic enough. The lyrics were poetic and real, and the meaning somewhat went over her head. But the way the man sang to the woman, the way their voices sounded—it made Gerdy’s chest feel tight, made her want to cry and smile at the same time. And it was perfect for Dan’s first song. The entire night she spent brain-storming and writing up ideas. The next morning, she spent learning a small phrase in sign language. Practicing it over, and over, and over until she could do it without watching the screen. After grabbing an early lunch, the rest of her Saturday afternoon was spent in the music room. The music teacher had allowed her use of the room, as long as she put everything back when she was done. So, sweeping her long hair into a ponytail, she started on her project.

It started with the cleanup—moving all the chairs and music stands to the side of the room. Then came with pulling the speakers off the wall. Luckily, with the teacher not around, Gerdy could simply fly up towards the speakers, and carry them down. It made things a lot less dangerous, because she didn’t have to awkwardly balance her own weight on top of some awkward chair. Using her view from up high, she carefully arranged the speakers in a circle. Wires then threaded from the back, and into the two computers on either side.

Each speaker was going to hold a separate instrument. Percussion blanaced on the two in the back. Brass balanced on the left, strings on the right. A third computer was set beneath a TV stand, with one of those huge, hulking screens also pulled down from the wall. Two smaller speakers that fit into her hands were attached to the laptop beneath the TV. The woman’s voice on the left, the man’s voice on the right. It took several tests, with Gerdy standing in the middle and holding the speakers to make sure everything felt right. Hours, and hours of endless work, it felt like. Finally, the lyrics on the large TV were perfectly synched with the music and the voices from the speakers.

She wiped her forehead on the back of her hand, before adjusting her fake glasses. Crossing her legs, Gerdy sat on a chair next to the TV stand, and pulled the phone out of her pocket. “Come to the music room! Emergency, need you ASAP!” Right to the number labeled Dannyboy. Now, all she had to do was wait. She looked down at her hands, and carefully rehearsed the sign that she had learned, humming the song to herself. It was deadly quiet in the room, and it was making her all the more anxious. She couldn’t sit still—instead she hopped off the chair, and teetered on her feet, making sure all the computers were still working while she waiting for her friend to appear in the music room.

---

Tags: Monica / Dan
Outfit: Cutesy!
Song: Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks.
Words: 753
Notes: FEEL THE FEELS COMING YET?

[DAN KAPLAN]

that david played and it pleased the lord

[/color][/font][/size]
but you don’t really care for music do you
--------------------------------

Dan sat by himself on the steps of his dorm, gazing out over the Hudson River, which was totally a river, but which he liked to pretend was some big fantasy ocean thing which stretched, somehow, all the way back to Louisiana #notweird #Iswear. There was something about being able to squint out across the water and pretend that those little weird shape things he could see were actually Baton Rouge, with his house, his room, Mom and Dad and Chloe and Seth and Andy and Heaven, his school, his friends, his deaf friends, his deaf school.

It wasn’t that he missed Robert and Baton Rouge...#right? No. #Duh. It couldn’t be. Because Dan had made the decision to come to New York, right? He’d picked the city, he’d found the school, and #damn had he convinced his parents. He’d convinced his parents so hard. He could remember the effort, so much effort into pushing and pushing and pushing to get here, to get the #fuck out of Louisiana and LSD, where everything was simple and everything was easy. He’d done this. And he’d made the right decision. #right?

Perpetual adolescence should be the way they punish stupid adults in hell #hellfireswag he tweeted, feeling the angst press in on him. I…I do like it here. I do. I really do. He thought the words to himself over and over and over again, pressing them into his mind like bread dough, but there was still something there, something in his chest and mind, telling him that they weren’t true.

#fuck. He was doing it again, wasn’t he? This whole #questioning thing. Wasn’t he supposed to just live, man? Weren’t these the #teenageyears? Wasn’t #yolo a thing? He felt shaky and uncertain, as if he’d just had #ferventsex. Today had been one of those days #stupid #stupid. The memories flashed through Dan’s head even as he stared out at the setting sun’s warped reflection across the water. Sitting in class attempting to take notes from Moira #yeahright and watching from the corner of his eye as some kid jumped up and started what looked like some furious tirade, yelling and yelling at Chandler. Dan remembered sitting at his desk, watching their words whirl around him, signing urgently to his best friend, What’s going on, what’s going on, Chandler, what the fuck is going on? But the confusion, the ache of loneliness, of not knowing, of not knowing anything…it hurt.

There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m not handicapped. I’m just different. The words echoed instinctively through his head, the same words that had echoed through his head his entire life, from his parents when he’d first asked why he went to a different school from his siblings, to his elementary school teachers when he’d asked in frustration why his classmates could talk and read lips and he couldn’t, to now, when he held them in his head like a family heirloom which was pretty to look at, but which he placed next to no value in. This year at normal school #lol #right had been more testing on those words than any other year of Dan’s life. And he wasn’t even sure if he was supposed to be defending them.

#wow #deepthoughts man

Dan began to scroll absentmindedly through twitter, trying to keep his mind off of the distress and the huge pile of homework that should probably have been doing at the moment #awksauce, when his phone buzzed and a text flashed before his eyes. Come to the music room! Emergency, need you ASAP!

Dan clambered to his feet, eyebrow raised. He began to walk up the steps and down Baum’s main hallway towards the music room, breaking into a jog as he passed the Principal’s Office. Oh man, what could Gerdy possibly need him for? In the music room, of all places? Like, not to play up the whole deaf thing or whatever, but…#comeon. #Ohshit, he hoped she wasn’t like, actually in trouble. He didn’t want to be responsible for like, her death or anything #sorrynotsorry.

He burst into the music room, raising a hand in greeting and sending a flurried text. ”Yo Gerdy, where’s the fire?” he sent, before glancing around and taking in the elaborate setup. ”Whoa…what’s all this?” he sent again.

[/center]

Wordz:714
Tagz:Gerdy!
Clothez:Click Me
Creditz:Lyrics are Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen. Template is by MONICA. DON’T BE STEALIN’, YA HEAR?
Notez: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG HOPE IT’S WORTH IT

[GERDY MILLAN]

Gerdy all but jumped when he burst into the music room. For a deaf kid, he sure made a lot of noise. Wait...deaf, not mute. Duh. Actually, she never thought of it. Could Dan speak? She'd heard him laugh before, mutes didn't make a sound. So he wouldn't have laughed, right? Right. The phone in her back pocket went off and she pulled it out, reading the texts before her thumbs went to work on the on-screen keyboard of the pink, sparkly phone.

"I lied a little. Not actually an emergency, but I'm gonna teach you music." Gerdy sent the text, still holding her phone before looking up at him, trying to drag on the suspense. She grinned at him; her lower teeth were slightly crooked, which added to the childlike smile, before she dipped her head back down. "Dr. Gerdy has developed a way!" With that last message sent, she tucked the phone into her pocket and walked up to Dan. There wasn't an excited bounce in her step, though the anticipation was humming in her veins. It made her want to dance on the ceiling, run across the walls, and all but bounce with the pent up energy. But she would save all that energy for his reaction at the end. There would be absolutely no point in wasting all that energy, and having none to celebrate her awesome-amazingness with.

Reaching out, she grasped the front of his shirt between the knuckle of her index finger and her thumb, and turned slightly, pulling Dan carefully to the center of the circle of speakers. Letting go, she looked around herself before turning on her heel. She held a single finger up and raised her brows while her pierced mouth puckered slightly. Wait a minute. Is what her expression said, and she gently edged Dan just perfectly in the middle, right where she had been previously standing. She walked to the large screen at the very front, the one she had positioned him in front of, before grabbing the two small hand-held speakers. On the very tops, she had specified that the left speaker was female, and the right was male. Carefully, she unwound the chords, making a perfect line before holding them to Dan. "Like this." She mouthed carefully, and demonstrated. She showed him that her hands were spread, grasping the speakers, with her palm pressed against the cool metal cage.

She then released the speakers, excitedly pushing them into Dan's arms before she stepped back a little. Heat prickled in her cheeks while the nerves thrummed through her body. Gerdy had no shame, she could sing Lords of Acid at the top of her lungs in the hallways of the school, she would get dressed in front of anyone, and had no problem stripping down to her bra on a hot day. But get the girl to do sign-language to a deaf boy and every since insecurity and doubt she had came bubbling up to the surface. Her head dipped down while she stared at her own hands. Slowly and carefully, she did her best to sign what she had been practicing relentlessly. It was met with a few hesitations in her hand, and having to attempt to straighten out her fingers; but Gerdy managed to very awkwardly and a bit slowly sign, "This is for you, because we are friends."

It was a summed up thought. She wanted to go into a whole spiel about how she loved music, and music was the greatest thing in the world next to flying and that Dan should enjoy music. And that just because he was deaf, it didn't mean he couldn't appreciate it the same way. He just had to listen to it a different way, and that this was elaborate but she'd find a simpler way for him to enjoy it on a regular basis.

But Gerdy Millan took her sweet time signing the one sentence, and wasn't about to make Dan crazy by trying to sign all of that. It upset her when people spoke slowly; Dan probably would want to rip his hair out when people signed slowly at him.

A few more steps back, and Gerdy was standing next to the laptop connected to the TV. She tapped her eyes, then pointed at the screen. Carefully she raised her left hand and held up three fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Followed by the thumbs up, sound suddenly exploded in the entire room. Trumpets blared, each instrument coming from a different speaker around Dan, aiming the sounds directly at him. It was loud enough that Gerdy's eyes squinted just a little, but the circle was close enough that the vibrations would hit Dan. The trumpets a high, fast vibration. The drums were a low, steady beat to the back. The rest of the brass came in at a different frequency, evenly balanced by the trumpets and the percussion.

The left box in his hand started to hum gently, while the words popped up on the soft teal background on the TV.

I don't like walking around this old and empty house.

As the woman sang, the speakers around Dan dropped into a low, careful background hum. Not a split second after the left box quieted, the right started.

So hold my hand, I'll walk with you my dear.

All the while, Gerdy's eyes drank in Dan's face, watching for the tiniest expression while she did her best not to start bouncing.

---

Tags: Monica / Dan
Outfit: Cutesy!
Song: Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks.
Words: 950
Notes: That was stupidly long-winded.

[DAN KAPLAN]

that david played and it pleased the lord

[/color][/font][/size]
but you don’t really care for music do you
--------------------------------

Dan’s eyes took in the setup around him. #Shit, what in the hell did Gerdy have going on here? There were speakers all over the place. Now, Dan didn’t want to be a #debbiedowner or anything, but…speakers? Dan had nothing against speakers as an invention #ofcoursenot, but he didn’t really know what they did. Something to do with sound, he knew. His understanding was that they were kind of like a TV for sound? Except they also made it…louder? Was that a thing?

Well, in any case, as much as he appreciated the thought, he was pretty sure that, #sigh, speakers were not going to greatly enhance his life in any way. His phone buzzed, and Dan read the text apprehensively.

"I lied a little. Not actually an emergency, but I'm gonna teach you music."

She’s going to teach me music.

Something was very wrong with this picture. Did she…did she have the wrong person? Was there some other Dan Kaplan running around Baum who had had a music lesson with Gerdy scheduled for today? Uh, look, Gerdy, he texted back bewilderedly. This is totally cool and all that, but you know I’m like… #fuckit. He sent the text anyway, hoping he didn’t have to finish the sentence.

"Dr. Gerdy has developed a way!"

Dr. Gerdy. Oh God. What…

He’d barely pressed the Send button when he felt himself being pulled into the center of the circle-ish-thing, and then he was being shushed #lol #asif, and then…he was holding speakers? Still as puzzled as ever, he emulated her hands, pressing his own over the heads of the speakers. Was…was something supposed to happen now? He waited. And then he noticed her hands. And she was…she was signing something. Gerdy knew how to sign?

Her fingers were clumsy, she stumbled over a few of the signs, and her fingers twisted over each other, but the meaning was there, and he got it easily. "This is for you, because we are friends."

Dan’s mind reeled. Because we are friends. What could she mean? He saw her count down, waited, and then…he felt it.

It was this weird vibration thing, coming from the boxes he was holding. There was a fast one, and there was something else about it. It wasn’t lighter, not at all, it was just…#shit, was this what they were talking about when they talked about ‘high’ noises? There was another one, slow, and…deep? Was that what they meant by ‘deep’ noises? And then there was this other one, which didn’t really feel like anything, just as if something were pounding on the inside of the speaker against his hands, kind of like…#fuck #shit this was…oh God, this was what they meant, wasn’t it? These vibrations, they were…were they sound? They couldn’t be what sound really was, obviously. If they were, he wouldn’t be able to feel them. But they were something…similar to sound, right? They had to be. Because these were…#shit, he’d never, never felt anything like this before.

And then there were words on the TV, and he could see them light up, and from the speakers came something…else. I don't like walking around this old and empty house.

Oh God. He could…he could feel the words. Not feel words the same way you could feel them if you placed your hand against someone’s lips, but feel like…#whoknows. Something about the words. The…the voices. He’d never understood what the concept of a voice was before, but now…he did. Somehow. In the split seconds between the sitting on the steps and standing here, in this room, with Gerdy, he…he could hear it. Dan Kaplan was hearing music.

He wanted to sign to her, or text her, tweet to the world, or something, anything, but there was no way in hell he was ever taking his hands off of these speakers. And maybe that was better, too, because he couldn’t even think how the hell he was going to put into words the emotions that his heart and mind were drowning in right now. #shit.

As the words pulsated against his hands he felt a tear blossom like a bubble over his right eye, trickling slowly down his cheek. He shook his head, hoping Gerdy wouldn’t think he was like, sad or anything. Because he was so happy. He couldn’t even fathom how red his face probably was right now, and at this point, #aintevenmad. He just…he was hearing music. And words. And they were so much more beautiful than he’d ever pictured that they would be.

His soaking wet, tomato-red eyes swiveled to look at Gerdy. Thank you, they said.

[/center]

Wordz:774
Tagz:Gerdy!
Clothez:Click Me
Creditz:Lyrics are Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen. Template is by MONICA. DON’T BE STEALIN’, YA HEAR?
Notez: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG HOPE IT’S WORTH IT

[GERDY MILLAN]

Gerdy at first ignored the texts. It wasn't until Dan enveloped himself in the music did she actually look down at her phone and smile. Oh, simple boy. He had no idea. She tucked her phone back in her pocket, and leaned against the stand the TV rested on while she crossed her arms and grinned, watching him. However, her smile faded as realization started crossing over his face. He looked stunned, surprised maybe? She had expected him to smile--not for that expression to come over his face.

When his eyes caught hers, she realized that he wasn't sad. They were saying something else, but body language and expressions tended to sail right over her head. But it was tugging at her heartstrings. Her pierced mouth twisted into a smile before she carefully stepped between the speakers, moving up next to Dan while folding her arms behind her back. Curiously, she peeked at him up close, before looking back at the TV. She grinned yet again, and dropped her head on his shoulder, watching the words flare across the screen in time with the words in his hand.

By his expression, her experiment was working. She was now going to have to find a more simple set up for him that he could have in his room. It would take a few sticky fingers, and he'd have to set it up himself, but the effort was worth it, right? Maybe it would work for some TV shows as well, maybe movies? One hand moved from her lower back, and she rubbed his back with a strong hand, comforting him. It wasn't a sad moment, but she felt close to her new friend. As obnoxious as she could be, she liked making other people smile, and feel important. Sharing the things she liked. She didn't have real siblings, so she didn't have things in common with most kids. By pulling Dan into the world of music she loved so much, she now had something else to talk to him about.

Her head turned slightly, and a completely seperate vibration happened against his shoulder. "Don't listen to a word I say! The screams all sound the same! Cause though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore." A softer vibration, not quite as defined as the one in his hands. Somehow on a similar frequency as the woman's voice, but a less less loud, a little less strong. It was Gerdy's own voice dancing across his shoulder, "You're gone, gone gone away, I watched you disappear. All that's left is a ghost of you." Her own voice crackled a bit. Partially from the song, partially from feeding off of Dan's emotions. Gerdy could be strange that way--when her friends were happy, she was ecstatic. When they cried, she bawled. Add it to one of her favorite songs where the voice sounded desparing, "No, wait wait wait for me. Please hang around, I'll see you when I fall asleep." That was the end of Gerdy's own singing because she had to clear her throat and straighten herself up.

Gerdy raised the bottom of her shirt to carefully wipe at her face while pushing the glasses up to her forehead, being careful to not smudge her makeup too bad. She sniffed loudly, before smoothing her shirt back down, waiting for the song to fade out before she took her phone out again. She kept her stinging eyes down for a moment before sniffling again. "So what do you think?" She texted to him, before finally lifting up her glassy eyes with that typical Gerdy grin on her face that made her eyes crinkle and nose wrinkle.

---

Tags: Monica / Dan
Outfit: Cutesy!
Song: Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks.
Words: 635
Notes:I can't. I just can't.

[DAN KAPLAN]

that david played and it pleased the lord

[/color][/font][/size]
but you don’t really care for music do you
--------------------------------

Okay, Dan really needed to pull himself together #actuallythough. Jesus effing Christ, Dan Kaplan didn’t cry. Like, this girl was nice and all, and Dan considered her a good friend, but she wasn’t…Chandler. Or even Jackson or Ozzie or Mikey. He didn’t…well…he wasn’t supposed to…this was awkward. #okay.

But what should he have done?, he reasoned with himself. What would the appropriate #manlymacho #deafboyswag response have been? Had he expected himself to just like, stare stoically forward #Braveheart, nodded slightly, and like, winked and hair-flipped #JBiebz while walking apathetically out of the room? Of course he was going to fucking bawl his eyes out. He was…not hearing, obviously, but…something-ing music. Music, that weird mysterious thing that he always sat silently #awkward while everyone talked about it. Dan was, for the first time…

I’m not handicapped. I’m just different. I don’t have a problem to fix. I’m just different.

He shoved the generic, automaton voice from his head. Okay, well, if his useless ears hadn’t been what was broken inside him beforehand, something definitely had been. And that something had just been fixed. And…#holyshit had it been fixed.

He felt Gerdy’s hand on his shoulder, and tried to keep himself from shattering to pieces. He continued to let the vibrations, the words, the fucking words wash over him, closing his eyes as the…what was it called? Song. The song continued, and he felt himself suddenly flooded with emotions and hopes and dreams and wishes and just #God #everything. And then the song was over. The vibrations got…quieter? Was that what happened when you could feel them less in your bones, when they started to pull back slightly like ebbing tide from a beach? And then they were gone, and Dan’s world was silent once again.

Silent. Dan Kaplan had used the word ‘silent’. #well #thoughtit #whatever. For once in his life, Dan had some tiny semblance of what people meant when they said that things were ‘silent’. He’d always thought that silence was just…well, the absence of sound. What he’d existed in every single day of his living memory. But silence was…so, so much more than that. He could feel it now, seeping through him like cold wind, swirling through his skin and bones. #well #thisisfun

"So what do you think?"

Dan read the text message and balled up his fingers, readying himself to come up with a totally normal-person not-hysterical reply, when something within him snapped, and he lost it.

Dan felt his legs give way under him, and then he was on the ground, setting Gerdy’s speakers gently beside him before collapsing into a huddled ball. All of a sudden he was colder than he’d ever been before, and oh God, the silence was like some kind of wave crashing down on him, and he felt himself shaking like he was having a fucking seizure/was naked in Arctic weather, shaking his head furiously as if to make sure she knew that he wasn’t usually like this, that he was usually @dantheman22, the essence of cool and calm and biting snark. But of course she already knew that, and of course a stupid shake of his head wasn’t going to tell her that #honestly #pullitthefucktogether. His face was so wet, and the tears weren't stopping, and he tried as hard as he could to stop himself from rocking back and forth like some kind of insane asylum patient but it was probably among the hardest things he'd ever done.

His hands were moving, he knew, but he had no idea what they were signing, and since Gerdy wouldn’t either, he didn’t put any effort into stopping them. #Idon’t read one text he managed to send her between incoherent signs. #OhGod @gerdy read another. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. The most coherent text he could manage was Don't...tell the dudes that I'm...#yeah. And even that felt like a novel.

[/center]

Wordz:586
Tagz:Gerdy!
Clothez:Click Me
Creditz:Lyrics are Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen. Template is by MONICA. DON’T BE STEALIN’, YA HEAR?
Notez: Shooort soozzz

[GERDY MILLAN]

Gerdy...had not been expecting that at all. Dan was standing, then he wasn't. She stared wide-eyed at the open air beside her, her hand still out where he had been just a split second before before she dropped down onto her knees. What the everlovingfuck was going on? She could feel her phone buzzing in her hands, but she was caught like a deer in the headlights and had a bit of a hard time actually trying to look at her phone. Granted, that was the only way that Gerdy could understand what he was saying, it felt somehow insensitive to ignore her friend that seemed like he was falling apart at the seams. She caught the messages popping up at the very top, giving her a preview of her texts before she opened them up. Instead, she caught just enough and set the sparkly phone aside and reached out.

As he rocked, her arms looped around him, hugging him tight as she fell into the rocking motion herself. "Shh, shh. It's okay. It's okay!" She murmured against his head. She wasn't dumb, obviously he couldn't hear her. But maybe the words were for herself, because his onslaught of emotions and crying were flooding through her and effecting her as well. It didn't help when the person trying to be comforting burst into tears as well, maybe it was a different senario but it always scared her when someone started crying too. When that person was supposed to be a rock, and make everything better--then they showed they were just as weak and helpless. She couldn't fully comprehend why Dan was reacting like this, but deep in the pit of her gut she felt guilty. She did this to him; she made him cry, she reduced him to this mess. It was all her fault.

If she had been expecting this, she would have kept tissues nearby. It would have been better than looking around the room, hopelessly wishing that a box of tissues would just magically appear next to her so she could stuff them into Dan's shaking hands. She tried to imagine what it would be like to not hear. To have a completely silent world, where people were permanently on mute. Needless to say, she couldn't. Even in an otherwise quiet room, she could hear his labored breathing and her own breath desperately trying to stay even. She could hear the faintest ruffle of clothes, and the mild static in the speakers. Even when she wanted to imitate utter silence, there was always a sound. Impossible to get her head around. And in that, it made her believe that Dan was brave. He had never known sound, so it would be quite as dramatic to have it, then to lose it. But heavens above know that Gerdy would not survive a lifetime of silence.

If she couldn't relate, she couldn't comfort. 'It's alright' wouldn't work, 'You'll be okay' wouldn't work either. Loosening her arms she eased up on her grip on Dan that had tightened considerably, and she used her hands to do her best to wipe at his face and get the tears off. She wiped her hands on her jeans, before fanning him gently with her hands to make sure he didn't overheat. Did boys even react the same when they cried? Part of her wanted to call Channybaby and get him here stat. She couldn't even begin to understand boy-feelings, especially deaf-boy-feelings. But she did know dudes could be jerks, and she wouldn't want them to laugh off his reaction. Just her and Dan, and she felt like a lost puppy. Instead, she dipped her head down with her hair flopping in her face, which she hastily shoved backwards. She curled her hips upwards in a comical, cartoonish smile. Before forcing them down in an equally silly and dramatic frown. Would he understand that she was asking if they were happy or sad tears?

Her fingers itched to pick up the phone and text it to him, to ask more directly. But to pick up her phone made her feel cold. Afraid that if her hands left her friend's body, that he would not only be stuck in a silent world, but a touchless one too. Not until Dan could pull himself together, would her hands completely drop away from him. Instead, she went back to rubbing large circles on his back, and thunked her head carefully against his, blinking at him from over the frames of her useless glasses. It was then that she felt a different wave of emotion, something completely new. A slight possesiveness, and a big feeling of protection. The Gerdy-Mark of Mine. She introduced him to something new, even if the reaction isn't what she expected. She was watching him completely breakdown, and he had asked her to keep it a secret. Something shared between them, and it had soldified the fact that Dan was now one of her favorite friends, and he was just going to have to deal with it.

Her brows knitted together, and she raised the one sign of the few signs that were pretty common, even in regular language. She touched the tip of her thumb and index fingers together, and spread her middle, ring, and pinky out in a slight fan. Are you okay?

---

Tags: Monica / Dan
Outfit: Cutesy!
Song: Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks.
Words: 928
Notes: Gerdy is afraid Dan will have like. An aneurysm if she looks at her phone for like. Two seconds.

[DAN KAPLAN]

that david played and it pleased the lord

[/color][/font][/size]
but you don’t really care for music do you
--------------------------------

Dan could feel himself straining on the inside, trying as hard as he could to pull himself together so he could just listen to this damn song without being a dumb little baby about it #seriously. Dan Kaplan, you are such a fucking #peasant. Act your age. #Jesus. He needed to get over this. Speakers were vibrating. That was a thing speakers did. They vibrated. Like, he’d definitely known that before, right? So what was with this whole like, #emotiooon thing?

He felt Gerdy’s arms around him #ohgod #no #no #notallowed and fought the instinct to flinch away. There was something about her, and the way her chest rose and fell against his own, that made him comfortable here, with her so close, breathing in his ear, lips moving against his scalp forming some words, probably, words he’d never, ever understand. But there was something about her that made him feel like he didn’t need to understand them. Something about her made him feel, well, home.

#deepshit, #man.

Then he felt a chuckle roll through him as Gerdy’s face distorted itself into some comically cartoonish smile. Okay, that was #cute. Even in his current state of unthinkable #whatever, he had to admit that she was…really, really cute when she smiled, and did that blush thing with her cheeks #swag, and with the way her face just lit up as if the corners of her mouth were dragging it towards the sun with them #metaphorswag. #ohlordy, and now she had this frown thing happening, and even that was tickling something in Dan’s chest, that same thing that tickled him when he saw puppies run after things, or cats bat things, or babies laugh, but #wow. He was dimly aware of the fact that he wasn’t crying anymore, and then he felt himself chuckling again, and then he was laughing, leaning over and feeling himself shake with relief and happiness.

Wow, he was so happy. He had just heard music, or #something, and Gerdy was #reallyfuckingadorable and wow, this was all just…okay. He was feeling okay now. He was #gettingthere.

Then he saw her signing again, and tried to focus enough to read her clumsy fingers. Not that he minded their clumsiness, #ohno, he couldn’t have minded anything less, right about now. Are…you…okay. He repeated her signs slowly to himself, nodding to make sure that he had captured them correctly and all. Sometimes it was weird with these #hearingpeople. Their fingers tended to stumble over each other. But with Gerdy, it was #allgood.

He wasn’t sure how much ASL she would be able to understand if he tried to like, #fullon reply to her. Not that he really knew how to reply anyways. He couldn’t think of a single word or sign to describe the emotions coursing through him right now. How could you define the sensation of feeling words in your body, the way hearing people did, the way everyone did, for the first time? How could you talk about that in a way that wouldn’t make it sound totally stupid and contrived?

So he just nodded to her, feeling like a #loser, but #whatever. Then he spelled with his fingers, slowly, I’m o-k-a-y. He grinned gently, brushing a lock of hair from his forehead. It was a tearful grin, but whatever. #grinsagrin. T-h-a-n-k-y-o-u.-G-e-r-d-y.

So much.

[/center]

Wordz:553
Tagz:Gerdy!
Clothez:Click Me
Creditz:Lyrics are Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen. Template is by MONICA. DON’T BE STEALIN’, YA HEAR?
Notez: derp

[GERDY MILLAN]

Gerdy didn't understand for a moment when he looked at her like that. Her expressions stilled for a moment, and like a deer caught in the headlights her entire body froze. The way he watched her made things low in her stomach feel tight, and made it feel like her heart was galloping in her chest. But then he laughed. Her arms retreated as he leaned forward and laughed.

His laugh was different though, very different from a regular laugh. Deaf people could obviously speak, but their words sounded a little garbled. She had never really heard Dan's voice until now, and she decided she liked it. She decided that she would never forget the sound of his laugh that was entirely, uniquely him. It made her smile as well, and the tension eased out of her shoulders. Like a string snapped, the rest of her body relaxed too. Good--so she hadn't killed her friend with emotions. That was very good.

She watched his fingers intently, her lips mouthing each letter, before she put them all together to make a sentence. Eventually, she would get better at this. Gerdy didn't like to study, or like to learn. But she wanted to be able to have lengthy conversations with Dan, without having to grab her phone, or pull out that damn book to read it. The idea of actually becoming fluent in Sign Language made her wiggle slightly on her own bum, excited like a puppy. His second phrase she mouthed the letters again, then mooshed them together and then it was all over.

With a somewhat crazy scramble, and in a flurry of long, fluffy hair--Gerdy threw her arms back around Dan. Had he not been prepared, she probably would have managed to knock the boy clear off his rear. If she did--Gerdy didn't take much notice. She was happily nuzzling her forehead into his cheek, before lifting her head up and laying a big kiss on his cheek. Gerdy grinned at him, dimples erupting in her cheeks, before she finally loosened her arms. Color flushing onto her cheeks again, while she scooted away, clearing her throat. Either Gerdy had a personal bubble made of reinforced steel--or she didn't have any personal boundaries.

Despite the tears, and the chaos--she had done something good. More ideas went spurning into her head, and she twisted her torso for a moment, glancing at the TV. There were so many songs she wanted to show him, so many videos and what other voices felt like. Idea! Unfortunately for Dan--Gerdy had a small attention span--when she got an idea, she wanted to try it out. Reaching out again, she grabbed his hand, and sat up straight, tilting her head back a bit. She gently pressed his palm against her slender throat, and smiled. With her empty hand, she clumsily signed along with her words. "My name is Gerdy." Against his hand, her throat would vibrate softly, though quickly. Indicating that she wasn't talking very loud, but her voice was a higher pitch. Her throat moved beneath his hand, the excited fluctuations in her voice just as apparent in touch. "I'm so gl---glad we're friends." Her brows tilted, her fingers stumbling at one point and having to try again, before she removed her hand from his, and glanced down with a curious look. Did that work at all? Or did it just seem #hellaweird?

---

Tags: Monica / Dan
Outfit: Cutesy!
Song: Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks.
Words: No idea. Yay wordpad!
Notes: I really can't even with these two.

[DAN KAPLAN]

that david played and it pleased the lord

[/color][/font][/size]
but you don’t really care for music do you
--------------------------------

#Gofigure it would be her.

After sixteen years of finger therapy classes, and failed attempts at lipreading, and trying to understand these impossible concepts of music and noise and loud and soft, after sixteen years of psychologists and psychiatrists and disability counselors and peer groups and blah blah blah, he’d found music. It probably wasn’t anything close to real music, or anything close to what hearing felt like, but it was music all the same.

It was something he felt in his body, vibrating like his vocal cords sometimes did when he laughed, but it wasn’t feeling in the same way that you would feel stone, or feel a table, or something like that. It was more a feeling in the way you’d feel a sensation of cold, or hot, or hunger, or pain, or love. It was like an ache, but not necessarily a bad one, despite the gallons of tears that had probably been shed in the past few minutes. It was…well, it was another sense. It wasn’t the hearing sense, but it was something, and that something had brought him music.

After so many years of being poked and prodded by professionals and experts and doctors, trying to explain this mysterious fifth sense to him, trying to make him understand, trying to make him feel it so that he might have a shot at surviving one day in the Hearing world, go figure it would be some random girl from a Hearing school who finally showed him music. Real, perfect, beautiful music. #Gofigure it would be Gerdy Milan.

He felt the vibrations of what he guessed was her voice under his fingers, and the vibrations were beautiful. He wondered if he could ever learn to shape his lips the way she shaped hers. He knew he’d never be able to talk—by the time his deafness had been discovered, it had been far too late—but it wasn’t like she could really sign either. Maybe there was some way they could meet in the middle. Maybe he could mouth some words to her, while she fingerspelled to him. He’d always wondered how Hearing people were able to mold their mouths into such specific shapes; Dan’s lips were limp, and pretty useless, like two dead slugs on his face, and he wasn’t sure how contorting them like that would even begin to work. But maybe he could try. Maybe he’d ask Gerdy to teach him, one day. Maybe, once he’d experienced the difficulty of learning someone else’s language, having to fingerspell everything super slowly to her would become less annoying.

He felt a slow smile spread across his face as he felt the vibrations subside. No more voice meant no more words, right? Hearing people’s voices were like deaf people’s hands, he’d learned early on in school; both were tools to convey stories, emotions, observations, things that separated humans from every other species in the world.

He wasn’t sure what exactly, but something from the center of the universe compelled him to reach forward and place his fingers on her lips.

My name is Dan, he fingerspelled slowly, brushing her skin. She was probably going to find this #awksauce as hell, but he honestly didn’t care. He needed to do it. Something in him needed to.

I’m glad we’re friends too.

God, there was something about her face. The excitement that he could always see in it. The…acceptance. He knew it was the kind of face that would make him feel at home, no matter where he was. And for once, further away from home than he’d ever been, he felt really, genuinely happy. He belonged here. Somehow, he knew he belonged here.

[/center]

Wordz:663
Tagz:Gerdy!
Clothez:Click Me
Creditz:Lyrics are Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen. Template is by MONICA. DON’T BE STEALIN’, YA HEAR?
Notez: THESE TWO I CAN’T