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 Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:26 pm
 It was almost the perfect time of year again. There was a crisp tone to the air, and leaves were starting to turn color. Soon it would be time for spider webs and pumpkin carving, and all of the best parts of fall. Cider and hot cocoa in the evenings, the smell of spices in the air—Xeno couldn’t wait for fall all year ‘round, and now it was finally here. There was definitely a spring in his step as he sat underneath an oak tree, admiring its scarlet leaves. He looked around at his fellow classmates. They looked…glum, and he supposed he couldn’t blame them—not really. Summer was everyone else’s favorite season (or at least, so it seemed). It probably had something to do with school being out, but frankly, the heat and humidity of summer bothered Xeno, and it wasn’t as if he was off the hook entirely in the summer. Dad liked him to “do” stuff over the summer, even if it was just to find some charitable work to do. That all ended when school started, though, and his afternoons were once again free of major work. Summer was nice for the freedom—but the trappings of autumn were what made that season the best. The colors were right, the smells were right, the activities and holidays were just right—yes. Fall season was the best season, even with Xeno’s awakening day factored in. He’d learned to love the season since the day a few years ago he’d been adopted.
One person in particular caught Xeno’s eye—an Imp girl standing nearby, glaring at the falling leaves. He frowned—what could be wrong? He got to his feet and walked over to her. Tapping her on the shoulder, he said, “Excuse me—you look upset. What’s wrong?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:27 pm
 Talya glared at the falling leaves. Oh joy. Fall. She just couldn’t wait. It wasn’t that fall was…well, there was nothing wrong with the weather. It was kind of nice. Her hair didn’t frizz up so badly in fall, and her clothes didn’t stick to her skin. Not as much, anyway. There was a lot less sweating, so no one smelled as stinky (unless they’d just gotten out of PE). And smells…weren’t too bad either, if she was being honest. She liked the smell of spices, and the smell of apples. There was nothing wrong with cinnamon. She preferred flowery scents, of course—roses, lavender, and such—which were normally associated with spring, but when pressed to it, the smells of autumn were pretty nice. The colors were good, too—certainly unlike winter, which was monotonous. The reds were a little too dark—not pink enough—for Talya’s taste, but the colors weren’t to blame. Honestly, it was the time of year that was the problem. It was the dreaded fact of Her Awakening Day.
Talya was a hallowed. Her awakening day was in October, so every year, she was reminded of it all too soon. Orange and red in the stores reminded other people of treats and cool breezes, but they reminded Talya of the fact that some screw-up, ten years ago, had decided it was a good idea to abandon their baby just because she had fangs and a third eye. Everyone else started thinking about costumes while Talya couldn’t help but remember that she had no family to celebrate with, no adults to take her trick-or-treating—okay, the school caretakers, but that wasn’t the same as having parents. Everyone knew that, or at least all of the kids knew that. Funny how the grown-ups, even the ones who had been in Talya’s shoes once, many years ago, seemed not to understand that.
So fall, instead of being a celebration of passing time and candy, became a stark reminder that Talya had no family. It was even worse than summer, when everyone else in the dorms went home, leaving the orphans alone at school.
Talya started when she felt someone else’s hand on her shoulder. She scowled and turned to answer the question, then blinked. The person who had disturbed her reverie was a Chimera—one with big teeth and red eyes. Someone like her.
Talya sniffed. “I’m just…I’m sad,” she muttered.
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:28 pm
The Imp girl had big teeth—just like Xeno. Well, that was not entirely unheard of, there were lots of races with fangs around—well, at least one, anyway—but not so many with multiple irises in their eyes. Xeno tried not to stare. It was hard, even for him. The girl was another hallowed—well, that might explain why she was so sad. Not everyone was as lucky as Xeno was, after all, and he was sort of in the same boat as she was. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? I don’t like seeing anyone else in distress. Is it because it’s fall?” He was pretty sure it was—she’d been glaring at leaves, after all—but he didn’t want to make assumptions, and this was the closest he could come to figuring out a polite way to find out.
He pointed to her shirt, a pink one with green trim. “You’re from Arkham house? Me too!” Well, it was a topic of conversation other than their shared…differences…? This was a shared similarity, something to bond them together. Granted, sometimes it seemed like half the school was in Arkham, but it normally indicated a certain amount of…artistic interest, after all. That would probably be a safter topic of conversation than the seasons, and certainly a less threatening one. One to get her mind off of the falling leaves? He hoped so. Gosh, his mind was a mess.
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:29 pm
Talya shrugged in reply to the Chimera’s question. “I dunno,” she said. She straightened her voice with a cough. “I mean, I do not know. I don’t know what I should do…to, to feel better…” She sniffed and wiped hurriedly at her face with a sleeve. She didn’t want to cry, not now. Ugh. Not in front of another person. But how could she not cry, feeling as miserable as this? “Y-yeah, it’s because it’s fall. I hate fall,” she added vehemently. “It’s a stupid season. I wish it were over already.” She blinked back more tears. This time, she scrubbed away at her face, disturbing the bangs over her forehead. She caught the boy’s eyes flickering up to her forehead and hastily combed her bangs back into place over her third eye. As she did, she felt moisture—great, it was crying, too. And in front of a stranger as well! “It’s, um, I just don’t like it,” she said lamely.
She attached herself to the new topic of conversation like a drowning sailor to a liferaft. “Um, yeah! Yeah, I’m in Arkham. Um, I picked Arkham because I really like color. And fashion! Fashion is nice. I really like things to look pretty, and this was the house that sounded the most like that. It was either that or Eldritch—I like Eldritch’s colors better. Green’s…not my favorite color. Pink is. I like pink. A-and purple, but yeah. Art’s more interesting than history.” She stuck her hand out. “My name’s Talya, by the way. Um, what’s your name?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:30 pm
Xeno took the offered hand and shook it, glad for an excuse to not look at the Imp’s forehead. It wasn’t that a third eye was particularly disgusting or disturbing or anything—it was just the way the girl had tried to hide it. She obviously didn’t like having one. He wondered if she could see with it, or if it could only see certain things. He couldn’t see it—not properly, it was closed—but it looked like it was even crying? He didn’t know that eyes in the forehead could cry. He wondered if the effect of a third eye could be duplicated with stage makeup…ahem. Yes, look at something else. “My name’s Xenophon. It’s nice to meet you, Talya. I picked Arkham because my d—” He hesitated. Wait. He probably shouldn’t mention the fact that he had a dad. It could make her jealous if she didn’t have one. Uh, uh, think quick! “My passion is, um, theater and film. And that’s more of an art kind of a thing than a history thing or a science thing. But history’s interesting! It’s sort of like a story. One with, er…unhappy endings, I guess.” He hoped that his gabbing had covered up the pause. And he’d told the truth—he did love art. It was one of the reasons he’d picked Arkham. The other reason was that his dad had picked Arkham when he went to the Academy. It was the house of music as well as performance. It was sort of a…family thing.
“Green’s not my favorite color, either. I prefer red or orange. Colors like that.” As if to illustrate the point, a red and orange fall leaf gently drifted down to land on his head. He plucked it out of his hair and started fiddling with it. What to say next?
“Talya…” he began. “Um…” He looked down at the leaf again. He wanted to make her feel better—about being Hallowed, about October, about her awakening day—but how could he without making her jealous? Most Hallowed kids didn’t have families, and not all of them got adopted. He figured about half of the hallowed kids at school had been abandoned by their parents, like he was. In a way, they were even luckier than he was—they had been abandoned at the Academy, instead of at a random orphanage like he had been. “Um…it’s about October, isn’t it? That’s why you don’t like fall. Um…would you…feel better…if you talked about it?” He gestured to the tree. “W-would you like to sit down?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:30 pm
Talya hesitated. The boy had obviously figured out what was wrong with her. She didn’t know why he was so hesitant, though—he was just like her. They even shared a mutat—a hallow! But he seemed…shy or something. He seemed so desperate to help…and yet, he seemed like he was hiding something. Immediately, her curiosity was aroused. She nodded mutely and followed him over to the tree, where she sat down. She, too, picked up a leaf and fiddled with it, gently shredding it with her claws. She wrapped the ribbons of leaf around her fingers and tried to figure out where to begin. She could figure out what was wrong with the Chimera later. “Yeah. It’s October. I’m…well, I don’t like October. I know there’s Haunted Hallows at the end, but I feel like I’m a haunted hallow.” She sniffed again. “I don’t like feeling…alone. I don’t like feeling apart from anyone else. I don’t like how I don’t have a family. I can’t help but think…if I hadn’t been awakened in October, I would have a family. You know? And not be, be cursed to be an orphan. So I hate October, because it represents…” She sniffed again, tried to find words, and failed. Her chest hurt, and so did her nose and her eyes. “It represents everything I don’t have!” she bawled at last. She burried her head in her hands and sobbed away, shaking violently. Her tail curled around herself in defense, as if she could build a barrier out of fur, a barrier away from the world. It was pointless to try, but it was an instinctive reaction. She couldn’t help it.
“Y-you understand, don’t you, Xeno?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:31 pm
Xeno sat down next to the girl and prepared for tears—that was what he expected from a conversation going like this. And it was exactly what he got—starting with the shredding of the leaf, and the dropping of the leaves, and the tearful confession… A part of his heart panged sharply. He knew this song. He’d sung it enough times, and heard it played, too. He knew what was wrong with her—because it had once been wrong with him, too. And it was a terrible feeling, one that didn’t easily go away. But how to explain that? He thought a while. Should he continue to hide it? Should he tell her? What if she got angry? What if she punched him, what if it made her feel even worse, to know that some hallowed had family, got adopted, while others didn’t? What could he say?
In the end, he didn’t know what he could say to make her feel better—but he did know what he should say: the truth. He’d just have to make her feel better as he went along. “Yeah,” he said at last. “I know how that feels. It feels like you don’t have a purpose in life—like you’re an accident, or that you shouldn’t exist or, like, you’re a crime. I know how that feels, and it feels…terrible.” He took a deep breath. “I, um…I was adopted a couple years ago, when I was a little kid.” He didn’t dare look up to meet her eye—her eyes. “So I don’t feel as bad as I used to, about my awakening day. It’s just another day, to me, and I don’t feel as…unloved as I used to. ‘Cause, sure, y—I—had parents once, parents that made me, and then they abandoned me. I lived at an orphanage,” he added. “Not the Academy. I hear the Academy’s orphanage is a lot nicer, it’s better funded and staffed and stuff. But yeah, I lived at an orphanage, and I thought it meant I wasn’t fit to be loved. But then I learned, that sometimes…you get terrible relatives. Ones that don’t take responsibility and stuff. But that doesn’t mean you’re unloved. It doesn’t mean you’re not worth loving. It just meanst that…you haven’t found the people that matter to you yet. Or maybe you have, but they’re just not…related to you. By magic, I mean.” He made a face. “I don’t know if that makes any sense at all, or if that makes you feel worse. I’m really sorry if it makes you feel worse.”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:33 pm
Did it make her feel worse? Well, yes, at first. He’d gotten adopted?! Lucky bug! Not everyone got that! It was so unfair! So what if the Academy was a “better” orphanage, it was still an orphanage, and it was still worse than having a family! But the more Xenophon talked, the more…sense it made. And, yes…the better she felt. I wasn’t fit to be loved… That wasn’t…exactly…how she would have put it, but now that he said it, now that she heard it said out loud, and in words and stuff… It sort of…made sense? Yeah, it made more sense. And she almost…felt a bit better. Yeah. Better now. She wiped at her eyes. The people who matter to you…are just not related to you. As he said it, faces swam into her mind. Evelyn, with her big eye, handing her a tiny rabbit to hold. Lillian, teaching her to swim, her tail wiggling back and forth. And Evelyn’s parents, who were nice, and Evey’s brother, who was always hiding from everyone else…they mattered to her…they were important…
It didn’t feel the same as having a family. But, now that she thought about it… He’s right. He’s lucky and he’s right. He’s right about not feeling loved, and he’s right about actually being loved. She wiped her face again and sniffed. “Thank you, Xeno,” she said softly. “That does make me feel better.” She sighed and dusted the leaf shreds off of her lap. “So, um, do you feel better? After you were adopted? Do you feel any different, or do you feel the same?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:36 pm
Xeno smiled. He hadn’t messed up after all! She felt better. That was good. He would have hated himself so much if he’d made her feel worse than she already did. He thought about her question. It was a tricky question—and he didn’t want to mess up the answer. He fiddled with the leaf, twirling it back and forth in his claws. The stem was starting to fall off from the wear. “Um…I kind of feel different? And I kind of feel the same. It was a long time ago,” he added. “Like, six years ago long. So it’s a little hard for me to remember what it was like. I know I felt lonely and unwanted. I didn’t have many friends—that’s the nice thing about the Academy, there are lots of w—different people around here, so when you’re here, you’ve always got company. I was the only Hallowed kid at my orphanage, so I didn’t have many friends. Everyone else thought I was a freak or a weirdo or something, so they always avoided me. It felt really nice to have someone who cared about me. That would be my dad—but he was my friend before he was my dad. He was always happy to see me, and seeing him was the best part of the week, when he’d come over to volunteer. I guess…I guess I do feel different, being adopted, than I did back then. But maybe it was because I got away from bullies, or it was because I started going here and started meeting all kinds of really nice people, or maybe it was that I got to see Dad every day instead of just once a week. So I don’t know which part of it made a difference. But I don’t feel bad about being hallowed anymore. It’s just the way I am, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Y’know?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:37 pm
Talya sighed. She wasn’t sure what she’d been hoping for. Had she been hoping that he felt the same, so that she knew there was nothing she was missing out on? Or had she been secretly hoping that he didn’t feel the same, so that she could feel like she was missing out on something? Talya was honest enough with herself to admit that sometimes she liked to feel terrible. Just so long as she had a reason for feeling rotten. She picked up another leaf and sighed again. “That makes sense. Big life events change what you feel like, so yeah.” She stared moodily at the leaf. It was amazing. She’d gone from feeling really good to feeling kind of bad in the space of a second—and she still didn’t know why. She snuck a glance at Xenophon. The Chimera was staring at a leaf of his own, with a glum look on his face. The look gave her an idea, and she grinned. “Hey, Xenophon—do you have any plans for Haunted Hallows? My friends and I are going to the festival together—would you like to come with us? Your dad can come along, too—Evey’s parents are talking about coming with us, maybe. It’s a big group, I know, but it could be a lot of fun, y’know? Um…unless you were planning on going with your own friends…” She made a face. “Sorry, you’ve probably got previous engagements or something.” She smiled encouragingly at him.
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:38 pm
Xenophon returned the smile. She was finally looking better! “Dad and I didn’t have any plans, beyond going to the festival and trick-or-treating. I haven’t got many friends, so, um…not really? I haven’t picked out a costume yet. You guys have a theme?”
Talya giggled. “Sure we do! This year, we’re going as fairytale characters…”
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