Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shiloh had made his way to the cafeteria for breakfast, or as it had become, pushing the indiscernible mush around until he was tired of looking at it, and got up to carry on with the rest of his day. But today he was interrupted before the mush, and stared at first in surprise at the stranger in front of him, before remembering his manners, and returning the offered smile. His own used to be bigger, warmer, but it was still friendly, even now, even if it was a little worse for wear.

"Uh, hi," he said, a hint of laughter slipping into his words. It wasn't everyday that he had people introducing themselves to him, but Harland seemed nice enough, though Shiloh had no idea who he was. Mush was put on hold, as he extended his hand towards Harland. "Shiloh Parish, Death Division, pleasure to meet you."

Shiloh brightened a bit at hearing they were the same division, kindness and death division being an ever rarer oddity but definitely not one he was particularly opposed to. "Sure," he answered with a newfound enthusiasm. "That'd be great!"

He'd been doing a lot of training on his own, but the best practice was always in sparring and to have a regular and willing partner, or as he barely let himself dare to hope, a possible new friend, would be amazing. Someone upbeat, someone gung-ho, someone like himself, someone nice, Shiloh was already imagining the possibilities. After everything, he'd found that while he thought he'd been doing well and made friends, in the end he'd closed himself off more than he thought. He loved Maebe and Quinn but he was sure he'd been exasperating the past while, and maybe with a new training buddy, he could focus on other things, instead of wallowing and driving them crazy.

But he was getting ahead of himself, and Harland was speaking again.

"Oh," he said, lifting his bowl. "I like porridge, put enough sugar in it and it's like candy, right? It's good when I'm not really hungry... Don't want to take the good stuff away from the rest of you."

He grinned, though it slipped away as he tried to process Harland's explanation of the game, and he stared at the other hunter as though he'd grown a second head.

"You'll probably have to explain that again, but I'm down. Lead the way, Mr. Belle!"

It was better than eating alone anyway.

“Take my Flinstones every day,” Shiloh grinned, though in truth he probably hadn’t touched a vitamin in months. He was usually pretty good with those one a day things, but it all really seemed kind of moot anymore. Getting excited to eat food at all was a chore enough; anything else seemed much too difficult. He could get excited for Scrabble though, it was at least something different.

“Uh, sure, sounds good,” Shiloh answered, watching Harland pause in putting away the board. He was fairly certain he could manage regular scrabble, still not sure what hybrid scrabble entirely was. But regular scrabble was easy, he’d played it before even if he wasn’t necessarily the best at it. Getting asked to play it on Deus seemed a little surreal, the domesticity of playing a board game sort of throwing him for a loop but he sat down across the table with a smile on his face.

“I’ll have to warn you, my vocab is pretty intense. I know how to spell dog and cat and I even know rock and possibly roll, though those double letters can be tricky...”

The smile was still on his face, cheeky now, the corners upturning with a hint of concealed laughter.

Meanwhile Shiloh remained oblivious to most things, watching with mild interest as Harland set up the pieces. His thoughts on the other hunter were simple, he seemed nice enough, and his choice in games suggested he was probably vastly more intelligent. Not that Shiloh minded, most people were, and it had never particularly bothered him. He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to fare in Scrabble, but games were fun and it was always a surprise to meet someone on Deus who's main expression wasn't surly, especially so early in the morning.

He spooned a bit of the porridge into his mouth, nutritional or not, and chewed, smiling halfway through when Harland passed him his pieces.

Shiloh smiled a lot too, and the fact that Harland did as well put him at ease.

"That's good to hear," he laughed a little, setting his spoon down and inspected the letters he'd gotten. He thumbed over a couple, thinking. After a few moments of deliberation, he finally picked up four pieces, placing them in the center. L-E-A-K spelled out across the board, and he glanced up at Harland, of course smiling again.

"Like that?"

“Not mine either, really,” Shiloh laughed, “but the best I can do, for now. Been awhile since I’ve played Scrabble.”

Harland took a moment to think, then set down a word Shiloh didn’t recognize with what seemed like certain ease. Shiloh, of course, was here for the fun of it, and the companionship rather than the competition, and so it didn’t worry him at all, only made him wonder if Harland was one of those sorts of book smart people, like Ian. Or like Ian had been. Shiloh was sure he still read, just he hadn’t been around to see it, a depressing thought. Quickly he shook it away, and was glad for the distraction of Harland’s question.

“My family raised beef cattle, so I helped out a lot with that, and worked part time at our local gas station. Pretty exciting, I know.”

Carefully, he used the ‘t’ of Harland’s to lay down the even more exciting word C-A-T, and he grinned, the expression totally cheesy.

“How about you?”