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Maxy gave Curiosity a sweet smile, before turning to Reticence. Her smile dropped after a moment, when she realised he wasn't kidding. "Ringing any bells is just a turn of phrase." She tried to explain, "It means, 'Do you remember yet?'"
She ran an uneasy hand through her bangs, and turned to try to explain to Naivete, "Hide and seek....is a game where multiple people hide, and one person closes their eyes and counts to a certain number before they can go look for the people that are hiding. The first one found is it in the next game." She used her hands to motion around.

She sagged down in her chair. No wonder she felt so out of place, none of them knew anything like the world she knew, except for the fear. ...Except for reticence. He didn't know the fear did he?

Maxy sighed, giving up. She offered them a fake smile, "forget it, I guess it's not that fun, anyway." she waved her hand dismissively. Now, she supposed, she was just being insensitive to the others that had spend such a long part of their lives in hiding.

She didn't know any meaning being Reticence's words, not having been there long enough to. She simply nodded good bye and cast her attention back to the others. He didn't seem like he wanted her attention, anyway, it was no matter to her.

She munched on her breakfast food, but her appetite was gone, and she was suddenly afraid that she would lose herself, while she was there.

Manic turned her vision with tints of blue depressant and she rested her chin on the table. She never thought she'd actually miss earth at all.

Her insides gnawed at her, driving her to grab her own wrist under the table, and squeeze until she was sure her nails were embeded deep into the skin, releasing the tension that she knew no other way of getting rid off. The marks would not stand out too much against the multiple scars that clearly said this was not the first time it happened.

Curiosity tilted his head and blinked. "So it's not fun?" He was as confused as Naïveté. Neither of them had ever heard of this game. "Then why..." He looked thoughtful for a second, then shook his head and rose to his feet. "We should...go...do something. Maybe the courtyard needs clearing or something."

He just wanted to get his mind off Reticence, and the empty dull look that had been in the other boy's eyes when he'd gone out of the room.

Looking up, he blinked thoughtfully. "Or I guess we could start working on the chess set for a little while. Something."

It was too much to ask to just sit and wait. He couldn't do it.

Curiosity scuffed one foot. "Well...sorta." It was outside of the house, or as far outside as they were ever really supposed to go, but it wasn't outside as Maxy was probably picturing outside.

Putting his hands behind his back, he asked, "Do you want to come with us? We should go see if it needs clearing. Haven't checked it in a few days - we wanted to give you time to settle in."

Naïveté was on her feet as well. She had missed the courtyard in the past little while, particularly the animals. It would be nice to get out there again.

They both waited for Maxy's response, both of them trying very hard not to look upstairs to where Reticence had gone.

Curiosity looked a little surprised, but more markedly, he looked relieved - like he'd been afraid she'd say no and insist on staying in the house. "Oh. Okay. I mean, that's great. Let's...let's go." He turned away, heading towards the courtyard.

He led the two girls through the maze of corridors until they finally reached a small, creaking door. In front of it, he paused and looked back over his shoulder at them. "Well, here we are."

Naïveté shuffled her feet nervously. "Yes."

Curiosity took a breath and opened the door, shooing them both outside hastily before closing the door - there might have been a faint sound, like a muffled cry, but he'd shut the door too fast to be sure.

Their version of 'outside' really was nothing like any outdoors found on Earth. That smooth black stone extended across the open area in the centre of the house, at least where it wasn't covered with a large amount of dusty brown needles - they seemed to have fallen from the small, stunted trees, or maybe they were bushes, that rose here and there. Small creatures that resembled birds only in that they had wings looked up from where they nestled among branches. One of them let out a high-pitched shriek and aimed for Naïveté, landing on her shoulder and beginning to nibble at her hair and ear with its sharp teeth. The girl giggled - actually giggled - as she reached up to pet the monstrosity. "Hi, sweetheart," she crooned.

Curiosity drew a long tube-shaped machine out of a cleverly hidden panel built into the outer wall. "We have to clean up the needles and feed the pets," he explained to Maxy. "Well, I guess we don't have to, but it doesn't seem to get done if we don't. Want us to show you how?"

Curiosity hauled on the tube, which gave with curiously little resistance, until enough had slid out that he could walk from one end of the courtyard to the other without difficulty. "Okay, so it's pretty easy," he explained. "We usually just hit these buttons here," he pointed them out, "and point the tube at the needles. It sucks them up and turns them into...something, I'm not sure what, but we use it to help the trees grow."

"What about feeding the pets?" Naïveté asked. "You should tell her--"

"We'll keep doing that for now, unless one of them takes a liking to her," said Curiosity firmly. "We'll start with this."

He offered the long tube to Maxy. "Want to give it a try?"

Curiosity smiled, looking markedly relieved. "Yes," he replied, "just like that." Sometimes the hose would spasm and try to swallow the one working it, but for now it seemed to be behaving, so he thought he'd just keep that tidbit of information to himself for now.

The birds, meanwhile, were observing Maxy right back. A few of them chirped and chittered, but mostly they were silent, examining this new addition.

After a few minutes of silence, broken only by the whirring and hungry champing noises of the hose, one of the birdlike creatures cheeped once and flew across to land on Maxy's shoulder.

"My feeder!"

Its little voice sounded high-pitched and gravelly and rusty and generally unpleasant, but also as though it were curious.

"Mine!"

"Oh dear," murmured Naïveté. "That one likes you."