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Alexander pulled his seat out and practically collapsed into it, he then shuffled it in and stretched his long legs beneath the table, careful to place them so that he wasn't going to bump into Xiu accidentally. He glanced longingly towards the refreshments table, almost wishing he had grabbed something before sitting down. Ah well, too late now, and he probably shouldn't attempt to eat anything while actually clean for once.

His gaze shifted back towards Xiu and he nodded happily "I'll be honest, I didn't even realize what I had signed up for when I first walked in but this is..this is nice!" his smile turned into a wide grin. He was also glad that he had been matched up with somebody that he already knew, since being tossed together with somebody he'd never met before might have been a bit awkward.

He was a little taken aback by her first question, though for some reason he sort of expected it. She had, after all, helped him and Yin get through a rough patch of their friendship. Sometimes he did wonder if Xiu knew more then she necessarily let on. "Things are...good. Yin seems happy with me, at least, and the weekend he spent at my place was a lot of fun." He answered.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you, though, for helping me set up that thing for Yin with Princess Eva. That was really nice of you to do that for him." He smiled warmly at the ghoul.

"How are things with uh..you?" He asked, suddenly realizing that he really didn't know very much about Xiu at allllll.
(Answered: 1, Asked: 1

"It wasn't nothing." Alex insisted, "You have no idea how much you helped with..just..everything." But Alex didn't really want to think about the events of that particular night any further, though the time he had spent locked up in his room with Yin had been very..interesting to say the least.

"Oh you like to bake?" He was a bit surprised. Here one of his friends was into making food and he had no idea until now! How could this have happened? He blinked at her in surprise, idly wondering if he should ask her to teach him to make some things sometime...it would really come in handy if he knew how to make his own food once in a while, rather then be subjected to the food in the school cafeteria on a daily basis.

"Hobbies? Well I..like to read a lot, and play video games. And I collect ties!" He grinned happily. That was a hobby, right? "I..uh..have over 500 of them." He said, with maybe just a touch of embarrassment.

He wondered what he should ask her next, and the first thing that came to mind was family, so he thought he might as well go with it. Family was rather an important thing to the boil, after all! "So you uh..have a lot of family somewhere? Brothers and sisters or anything like that?"


(Answered 2, Asked 2)

"I...is that so? Then I'm just happy that I helped." And she would certainly do it again if the need ever arise. If there was one thing that bothered the baku to see, it was when her friends were in distress. If she could do anything to help...well then, she would.

As the conversation turned to happier topics, Xiu immediately brightened, nodding eagerly at his question about her baking. "Yes! Baking and cooking--they're the two things that I enjoy doing the more. Although..." She suddenly looked embarrassed, the grin on her face sheepish, "I...I tend to...overdo it a lot. If you're ever interested in some spookies or cupcakes just let me know. Please."

It sounded like she was pleading him to take the sugary confectioneries away from her. Indeed, with Scarentines, she had overdone the heart-shaped spookies and heart-themed cupcakes by...well, a few dozen or so. Perhaps she should have asked if she could have donated them to this event, but ah well. It was a little late for that now.

She smiled in interest as Alex told her his hobbies, but it wasn't until he mentioned the ties did she actually grin. "500--that's impressive! Have you worn all of them at least once, or...?" Maybe she could play a game of "what tie is Alex wearing today" now that she knew this little tidbit--oh, it was Danny! Momentarily distracted, Xiu lift up a hand to return the wave. By the time she turned back, she realized that the boil was asking her a question.

"My family is rather small, and no. Regrettably, I do not have any brothers or sisters." She sighed, but then there was a sudden pause as she reconsidered the question. "Actually, my uncle, he's kind of like a big brother to me. And here in Amityville, I have Shun and Levi, who are like my big brother and big sister." She smiled fondly at this, but Xiu was quick to shake the expression off her face, turning the question back to the zomboil.

"And you? What is your family like?"

Valeria

Alex wasn't really big into cakes and spookies, but he could see how much she was hinting at needing to get rid of them. If anything, he supposed he could try and feed them to his pets, so he nodded. "I could certainly take some of them off of your hands!" Some being the key word here, though he had no idea that she had apparently overdone it by several dozen.

Ah, ties. Was there any other greater joy in Alex's life then his collection of silky, sleek and highly fashionable tie collection? A couple of other things in his life may have come close, but for now, ties still reigned supreme!

"Well, a good portion of them are just for collections sake and I've never actually worn them, but yes, most of them I have worn once or several times." He had his favorites of course, though, and he wore those more often then not. The one he was currently wearing hadn't exactly been a favorite before, but it was one that Yin had pulled out of his closet and told him he should wear sometime, and so it had been bumped up to a new level.

He smiled and nodded along when Xiu told him about her family, but inwardly again he was wondering what it would be like to be an only child. He just couldn't even imagine it! "That's nice that you have found friends at this school that you could form that type of brotherly and sisterly bond with!"

"My family..well, I have 3 sisters and a brother, plus my parents of course. But..it's a bit different then just that. I have aunts and uncles as well, and tons of cousins, that all live within walking distance, and are all just as close to me as my immediate family. We have family gatherings at least once every week. I've lived my entire life surrounded by other zombies and now, well..." Now that he was at the school he actually found himself feeling quite lonely, often missing the comfort that being in the midst of a large crowd would give him.

"But here I have friends as well! Michi and Mort, and you of course. And well..Yin. Being around him always feels like family." He may have gotten a slightly dopey expression on his face at that last part.

(Answered 3, Asked 2)

The wings? Amarus quirked her head, bells jingling, as she looked at Junko's full outfit. They were cute, sure, but Amarus didn't particularly care for wings. She tried to find the delicate balance between being insulting and honest, and finally settled on, "They suit your outfit, and you did a good job with all the clothing, I think-- Not that I'm very informed." Amarus seemed to become suddenly uncomfortable, and excused herself-- Junko was surrounded with students. Amarus could see why: the student council member was friendly and seemed quite approachable.

After excusing herself, she waited around for the pairs to be assigned. Amarus did not quite understand how it was that this should work. In fact, when she looked at the board and noticed that she was paired with someone named Danny she quirked a brow. Who in the jack was that? Not that she had really expected to know anyone she met, really, but there was perhaps a tiny glimmer of hope that she'd see someone she recognized.

In any case, she was eventually able to, through asking around, find out who Danny was. And subsequently locate her. Amarus was surprised she had been paired with a ghoul, but it didn't particularly matter to her either way. So far she had not really been very involved in the lives of other students, except to drift around and weird them out asking what a soul was. That, and trying to fight them all.

Like a burning rune, her vow to punch four students by the end of the event shone in her mind, hanging above everything she was doing and was to do. Danny, when Amarus approached her, had her feet up on the table.

Amarus, for her part, walked towards her about two inches off the ground, but walking as though she was not levitating at all. From the head to waist, she was about 100% tangible and visible, but from that point on her body began to fade until her feet were rather translucent: in order to concentrate enough to maintain such opacity in her upper body, her lower body often reflected her species. Her bells jingled as she walked, and her skin flickered with the purple-pink aura which marked her as a Lotus Eater: the aura produced a colourless, odourless smoke which had calming properties. It was, in lore, used to lure and then trap Lotus Eater victims, as it often disoriented the victim so that they had no sense of time passing.

Since Amarus was only a year one student, her aura was not particularly fierce. It usually had a gentle effect, though some felt the effect less than others. Those who wanted to relax could experience its full strength. Amarus thought, as she stepped up to the table and perched on her seat with one foot on the cushion and the other dangling to the floor, that Danny did not look like someone who wanted to calm down.

"Danny, right?" Amarus asked her. "Looks like I'm paired with you..." It was at about that moment when Amarus realized she had sat down on a piece of paper, and she pulled it out from under her. Her face was eerily blank, in part because she was a ghost and therefore her emotions were a little messed up, in part because her eyes were a shade of silver that made it extremely difficult to figure out what she was thinking. "So... Danny, do you think you have a soul?" Amarus asked, having rejected all the logical questions on the sheet of paper (which she hadn't bothered to read, really) for one she liked to ask (because she still didn't think she had a soul).

Surely this night would not go very well.

"I have about fifty of them here at the school with me. My mom bought me a tie rack to keep them on, though it's a little crowded." He smiled fondly at the memory of finding the tie rack in his room as a surprise from his mother. "At home I keep the rest all hanging in a closet. Nothing fancy or anything." He grinned, though it faded a little around the edges when she leaned back in her chair to squint at him. It made him lean back a little himself, an urge to huddle in on himself suddenly taking hold. Why was she scrutrinizing him like that? Was having 500 ties really that weird? (The answer is yes.)

She had stopped now though, and was continuing on with the topic of family, so he relaxed and replied. "It is nice, most of the time. But having siblings isn't always very much fun. My brother can be a bit of a pain most of the time, and my older sisters.." He didn't even want to think about them, but he plunged onwards anyways. Maybe the more he talked about it, the less the memory of it would haunt him.

"They cut my head off, once." He said, in almost an offhand manner like it was nothing, before trying hurriedly to move on.

"I actually get along better with most of my cousins then I do my own siblings." He chuckled, though it was obvious the laugh was a little bit forced and he was becoming a little bit...broody.

If anything could have brought him back out of his current sudden downward moodiness, however, it was talking about his best friend. "Not really like a brother," he started to smile again. "But..something. I dunno. My family accepted him even though he's so different, and he's just. Well, he's my best friend." He shrugged, as though that explained everything. He kind of felt as though he was talking about himself too much now, so he nodded towards Xiu's camera.

"What's with the camera, anyways? Another hobby or are you in a photography club or something...?" He let his voice trail off.


(Answered 4, Asked 3)