It had all started with running into each other at the grocery store. The produce isle to get into the details really. Marcus had been debating between getting a red or yellow onion, when he heard it. The words. Now, the words themselves didn't matter so much as the language of the words. The melodic flow that came from Arabic was something Marcus frankly never heard in Ashdown, and while that usually never bothered him, to hear someone else speaking it? This far from any place that might have fostered the language?

Now that was worth looking into.

And that was how Marcus met one Thorne and sparked a conversation with the man. In Arabic, (earning many onlooking looks of confusion as the pair had heatedly gotten into a discussion about the arts and their shares joy in meeting someone else in the small city who spoke a language so far from it's source). Not willing for the opportunity to slip by they had exchanged numbers, and Thorne had even invited Marcus to his home to take a look at his own artistic works, (Marcus had insisted that when the weather let up that he come over to walk through Marcus's metal sculpture garden, sadly the rains were not that kind as of late for more outdoor things).

The old building certainly had a charm to it, and it also had an air of promise. Artists who held romanticism in them often were wonderfully complex persons and could create the most dazzling works. A box of homemade chai, (notably not pumpkin flavored), was in hand, along with boundless enthusiasm in just being able to speak and be understood. Plus the best part of what Marcus hoped of this friendship? They could discuss art and how Ashdown could certainly use more of it. Sure, great city and had a few nice places but why not more, why not something to distract from the fact that it was also gateway to a weird deadly magical dimension? Nevermind all that.

A knock on the door and Marcus waited- then the door gave a slight creek as it opened. Well. Now that was something. After checking the lock to make sure that Thorne hadn't had a break in, Marcus checked his watch. He was on time and well.
Might as well go inside rather than stand in the rain. He did have the mind to take off his coat and hang it before removing his shoes and walking in looking around for any signs of the man who'd invited him.
"Hello?" He switched from Englic to Arabic, calling out once again.
"Thorne? It's Marcus, from the grocery store? I brought some chai." Because clearly walking into a guy's house you didn't know was the fastest route to friendship.

elkbones

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