Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alexander had gotten the message, but he had hesitated to reply. He'd been mostly keeping to himself lately. Coping with the hand that his unlife had dealt him. Unhappy, but unwilling to let despair and loneliness consume him and keep him from going about his daily routine. Classes, work, the occasional training and lair task...but he did it all alone, and it was mostly done on autopilot. He tried not to think too much about certain things. Just focus on what he had to do and that was all. No extra effort for anything or anybody but himself. Still, these were his friends, and he was going to have to get out and see them eventually. So he had replied, and had helped to make the plans of where they would all meet and when. It might even turn out to be a nice experience. Who really knew?

But when the time came to actually leave his dorm room and go out, he suddenly found himself faced with a decision, one that rubbed raw against a rather sore spot for him. Which minipet did he take? If Fei had been here, there wouldn't have even been a question about it. The vaisel would already be twining himself around the zomboils ankles or scrambling up his body to perch awkwardly on his shoulder.

But Fei wasn't here. His small companion that he had grown to be quite fond of had chosen to stay with...Lady Terror, and his kittens. It was..probably for the best really, but the zomboil sorely missed his presence and companionship. Sure, he had other pets. Loads of other pets. He could see his undead poms, Thing wriggling his half rotting body towards him even now, teeth chattering together as he vied for attention. But none were quite the same as Fei. Fei had been special.

Alexander bent down to retrieve the poms, swallowing against a sudden lump that had formed in his throat, unbidden and unwanted, before he turned and left the room, with Thing hugged tight against his chest.

Some time later he found himself in the meeting place they had all decided on, and as he neared he belatedly wondered if he should have perhaps cleaned himself up a bit first. He tried to make an effort at least when he was going to work, but for the most part the zomboil was filthy. Blood stained, grimy, deathly pale eyes looking tired, and his face grim. "Hey." He greeted his zombro, quietly, his voice low and hoarse. No smile was offered. He felt like he just didn't have them in him anymore.

So much going on. So much so that Mei's head felt as if it might spin right off her shoulders. When the text came about meeting up and junk the ghoul was happy for the distraction. She would get to spend some time with her friends.

All of them together. It was a rare thing to happen lately it seemed. Either she was just with one or the other. Never more than one at once. So them all deciding to meet up certainly made it a lot easier this time around.

She had grabbed Minsks on her way out of her dorm. The Venus Flycat seemed like the best choice for this little outing. Perhaps she should have brought one of the newer additions to her hoard but she was unsure how they might be socially right now. So Minsks it was. The Flycat scurried up her shoulders to the top of the ghoul's head where she flopped down to ride it out high and in style. Minsks' tail flicking back and forth as Mei skipped along, nearly tossing the mini off of her head a few times.

When she had arrived at the meeting place it seemed like everyone was already there. Leave it to Mei to be the last one. "Hey guys!" She smiled widely at them as she closed the distance. Minsks screeched in greeting from her perch.

Maybe everyone just got to used to Alex caring enough to clean himself up. This wasn't like it was something new, for him to be this filthy. But as it was..he didn't feel like he had any reason to care what his appearance might look like anymore, so he just gave up on it altogether, much like he had when he'd first attended the school.

Once the ghouls arrived, he turned to give them a wave as well, though his face was still set in it's grim mask. Leo's question had him shrugging a little, with the reply. "Ya sure. As okay as I can be, I guess." Before he too lowered himself to the ground, releasing Thing, unleashed, to do whatever it is the little undead poms wanted to do. He hadn't bothered telling anybody about the fight with Yin, or how he was pretty sure things between them had come to an end. Of course, neither he or Yin had actually said the words but...there had been a definite sense of finality when he'd left his former boilfriends room that night what seemed like ages ago. As much as it still hurt, as much as he wished to jack it hadn't happened the way it had, it just seemed like it would be best to move on.

Didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

And there it was again, that all too familiar pain that came from thinking too much about it, combined with a burning sensation at the back of his eyes. He blinked away whatever bloodied tears might decide to try and escape, cleared his throat, and focused on Thing, who had climbed into his lap and was drooling all over his pants while making odd snuffling sounds, and on what Mort was saying.

"This is Thing." He gestured towards the decaying minipet in his lap. "He's an undead poms. Kind of dumb, but friendly, and loyal." Unlike some pets. But no, he shouldn't think about that, either.

He was a little bit curious about what it was that Mort wanted to talk about, but first he focused his attention now on the two ghouls, waiting for them to do their introductions as well.

Mei took a seat, completing their little circle.

"I hope you all have been well. As much as you can be." She glanced at Alex for a moment. Reminding herself to pull him aside later, but she gave him a cheerful smile none the less. There was nothing more she could really do but offer an ear and a shoulder. But not out here. Not in front of everyone else.

Reaching up, she removed Minsks from on top of her head and placed her on the ground in front of her. The Venus Flycat's tail whipped back and forth as she let out a screech at the other minis once more before rolling onto her back and putting her legs up in the air with a few kicks of her back feet. Trying to look the cutest obviously.

The ghoul scratched at Minsks' tummy with a giggle at Leo's defensiveness for a minute. "This is Minsks. She is a Venus Flycat that I found wandering around out in the woods as a kitten."

Alex had to appreciate that nobody pushed him further about what was weighing on his mind recently. He was fairly sure nobody needed to nor wanted to hear about his emotional teenage breakup drama. But Yin had been his first steady anything, his first boilfriend, his first best friend that wasn't a member of his family. But he had thought of him like family. He had thought, foolishly, that they would be together forever. Had told Yin that he was his as long as he wanted him. and Yin had asked even if it meant forever. He'd been prepared for that. Forever.

Forever apparently only lasted roughly 6 months.

So yes, he was taking it a little hard. He was miserable, and broken hearted, but he was trying. The proof was in the fact that he was sitting there, with his friends, instead of hiding in his bedroom wallowing in self pity. He didn't deserve pity, not after what happened. He had done this to himself. All he could do now was move on, try to get over it, and let the emotional wounds heal. The scars would always remain, but he could handle a few more of those.

He listened to the others introductions, face as impassive as usual, but nodded to show that he was listening. Thing was squirming around, rolling onto his back, waving little legs in the air, ears twitching. Eventually the minipet squirmed right out of Alex's lap onto the ground, and he began snuffling around, nose pressed to the dirt.

And then the digging began.

"Don't mind him, he likes to dig holes to hide in." Alex said, by way of explanation for the minipets odd ball behavior.

At Morts question about the horsemen, the zomboil just shrugged. "I don't really know how I feel, to be honest. I..haven't exactly been spending a ton of time interacting with them. You know I went home for two weeks shortly after becoming initiated, and since I've been back I've done what I can but...I get the feeling most of them don't really want us around or appreciate us. I wonder if Medea is just using us for....well, cannon fodder."

The ghoul was honestly surprised. Was she the only one that had had the most interaction with the Horsemen? There were so few students as initiates she would have gathered since the others had chosen this path they would have pushed at least somewhat to get to know the Horsemen better.

That singular fact made her edgy. Mei's final goal in her path she had chosen, what she was striving towards was to lessen the animosity between students and the Horsemen. And while she probably was barely making any headway with that ambition, it saddened her that the others were merely skirting by on the edges. Wasn't working together the point of why they had all become initiates?

When it was her turn she kept her gaze mostly on Minsks as she spoke. "I've done a couple lair tasks. Haven't really had too much of an issue with them." She fidgeted slightly glancing to Mort for a second. He had seen her at the Colosseum with Eisheth, yet he had not questioned her on why she was there with the Horsewoman. Yet anyhow. "And I've spent some time with the Horsemen. While they tend to think themselves our betters they do have redeeming qualities once you get past that outer shell. But you have to work for it."

Her eyes looked about the group now. Looking at each one of them individually. "It makes me kind of sad that there are so few of us who are willing to though." Now her gaze settled on Alex. "If Medea is using us as cannon fodder then she must be using the Horsemen as such as well. She seems to have her own secret motives behind everything that doesn't quite include the rest of us. Student or Horsemen. But that is just pure speculation on my part."

Alex listened to each of his friends in turn, keeping his eyes fixated on Thing as he continued to dig himself a nice hole to curl up inside, with the occasional clacking of his teeth and the burble and blurp of drool.

He was definitely a special little guy.

When Leo spoke, however, he cringed a little bit. Nightmares, bad dreams, all from what the horsemen were asking them to do. His gaze flickered from their steadfast post towards the ghoul, and he gave her a sympathetic look. But it was hard to feel sorry for her, or for any of them. They had chosen to follow Medea, and to do whatever it was that was required of them. What had they really expected would happen? When Mei spoke, his gaze snapped over towards her and narrowed slightly. He had this strange feeling like she had left something unsaid that she wanted to get off of her chest, and the way she looked at him at the end of her speech...

Apparently Alex wasn't going to get away with not talking, without explaining his reasoning for what he was doing and why, exactly, he cared so little about trying to appease the horsemen, even if he had chosen to become an initiated.

But then Mort spoke, and apparently he had a lot to say. Alex just blinked at his zombro, and raised an eyebrow, finding himself agreeing with pretty much everything.

"Okay, I think it's time for me to be honest here." He finally said, once Mort had finished his speech, once he was fairly sure that the other zombie was finished, at least. His own voice came out rough, almost like a growl, and he cleared his throat with a cough into his fist before starting.

"The only reason I am following Medea, the only reason I allied myself with the horsemen, is because I felt obligated to do so. I owe Medea for what she did for me. When those students got captured, when Yin got captured," His voice might have hitched a little when he said the boils name, but he continued on regardless. " It was me who went to Medea and asked her for the help to find them, and to bring them home. Maybe they would have done it anyways. Maybe she already had her own agenda, and it just happened to align with my own. Whatever the case, she marked me, personally, and told me that she would help...if I bound myself to her, and if I raised an army of students to join them when they stormed the island" He hadn't told anybody about this. Of course, his friends had seen the mark on his hand, the one that he had long before they crossed through the ring of fire beneath the school.

"So ya, I made the choice to honor the agreement I made with her, and I'll work with the horsemen, but that does not mean that I have to make the effort to become friends with them. Killing humans? Fine, I'll do it, but I don't have to like it either. Hunters are humans, but not all humans are hunters. Hunters are the ones that I want to kill. Hunters are the reason that my unlife has gone all to hell." He growled.

"But of course, I had to miss out on all that fun." He shook his head, remembering what Mort had told him about the Colosseum. "And now Medea is gone, but I'm still marked, my unlife is still s**t, and there are still hunters out there somewhere likely plotting their next attack, or their next mission to capture a bunch of our own and convince them to become weapons through deceitful words and manipulation tactics. What I wouldn't give to be able to go to that island again, to be able to do something to hurt them in the way that they've hurt me." Okay, so he was getting a little bit over emotional now, and realizing this, he clamped his mouth shut. He couldn't blame hunters for everything that had gone wrong, but he could give them a good percentage.

"Anyways, whatever, go team horsemen, I guess." He muttered, eyes dropping back to the hole in the ground.