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 Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:58 pm
 Ebene was finally free. She was finally free to live her own life. She’d packed her bags a month ago. She’d packed up her books and her clothes and her best toys; she’d spent the last money from her summer wages to rent a storage unit near Leviathan. This morning, she’d moved her childhood toys, costumes, sketchbooks, and notebooks into the storage unit. Her room back home had been emptied of all its contents. It lay bare now, with just a bedframe, a desk, a set of drawers, and her shelves. There was nothing left at the Tanglar household of Ebene Pa’das but some photographs. Seeing those photographs on the walls and on the mantel piece and on her adopted parents’ bedside tables made her sick. The whole affair made her sick. But there was nothing she could do about them now. All she could do was what she had done—move on.
In a few hours, the Tanglars would wake up. They’d find that Ebene was gone, just as they’d known she’d be. She’d made up some excuse about wanting to get an early start, and that was why she’d taken the first teleport in the morning to Maiden’s Wreath. In truth, she just didn’t want them to know that she’d moved out entirely until she was gone. They still thought that she’d be returning over the holidays. They didn’t know that she’d never be coming back. They’d wake up, see that Ebene was gone, go to her room to reminisce about how their little girl or whatever lie they told themselves was all grown up, and then they’d stare in shock that all of Ebene’s personal possessions were gone. They’d find that she wasn’t taking their calls, either, and that she’d changed her email address. She’d cut them entirely out of her life.
The adult Tanglars? They deserved it. The younger ones? They didn’t, but they’d never understand. Not a single one. If A’ka couldn’t understand her, they certainly wouldn’t, and if they couldn’t understand? Well, then it would be kinder to cut them out of her life entirely. And that’s what she was doing. A fresh start. A free Ebene. A new person, newly awakened and independent and free to be whoever she was.
Whoever that was.
Ebene looked into her new home, a dorm room at Leviathan on the second floor. From the looks of things, her roommate had already moved in. By “the looks of things,” she of course meant that another person was standing in the room, bent over a dresser and humming something loudly. Okay?
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:59 pm
 Amut was having trouble containing her excitement. In two days, she’d be starting classes in college. College! Actual college! At last! And it was a university, too. Amut knew that she shouldn’t be feeling snotty about that, but it was a university, and it was Leviathan. It was hard not to get kind of snooty about going to the best darn STEMM school this side of the Portal to Above! Especially since Amut had been looking forward to this for years.
She’d always wanted to be a doctor. That had been her favorite thing to dress up as. She’d written stories about healers. She’d read about diseases and how to be a good doctor and medicine through the ages; she’d built first aid kids and gone to as many first aid classes as she could find. She was born to be a doctor—she knew it down in her bones and in her heart.
There was a catch, of course—I mean, isn’t there always a catch? The catch was that to study medicine, Amut had to move away from home. Unlike most students at the Academy, Amut had lived with her parents off-campus, commuting to school each morning. Sometimes it had been convenient, whether because it was raining so hard that her mother couldn’t see out of the windshield, or because the road was covered with black ice, or because one or the other of her mothers had to go to jury duty or had to work early one morning. It had been difficult, but it had always been worth it. Living at home, Amut got to have her parents’ cooking, and she got to have her own room to herself. She could listen to her music when she wanted to, and go for long walks; she could go to any place in town (within reason, and within curfew) without having to let some caretaker know. But best of all, she’d been able to stay with her parents. She could hang with them whenever she wanted, watch movies with them, read books, just…talk with them. It was hard to emphasize how important that was for a growing kid—to be able to talk to someone, to have a confidant that you could tell your hopes, your dreams, your…weird thoughts with. Amut wouldn’t trade her childhood for all the riches in both worlds.
So living away from home was going to be difficult, especially since she had a roommate for the first time. She’d tried to contact her roommate before the school year began, but no dice—she wasn’t even sure if Ebene Pa’das had gotten the emails. That didn’t bode well, but Amut was determined to make the most of it. There was a kitchenette downstairs—she’d make something nice for Ebene. If Ebene refused it, then yeah, she had confirmation that Ebene was stuck up and rude. But if not? Well, if she accepted it, then there was hope for a good year yet. Amut had heard enough horror stories from her parents and various adults in her life to know that a bad start with a roommate could ruin your year at college.
Speaking of roommates, the door was opening behind Amut and someone set their suitcase down on the thin carpet behind her. “I’ll be with you in a minute,” Amut called. “Lemme just finish putting this sweater away, it doesn’t want to fit!”
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:59 pm
Ebene’s new roommate, according to the letter she’d gotten this summer, was named Amut Duat and identified as female. The note hadn’t said what race Amut was, though. Obviously she was part Chimera like Ebene was, and she could see a pair of furry ears on the top of her head—too small for a Kumiho, so either a Grimm or a Bakeneko like Ebene was. She blinked. Was it possible that Ebene had managed to get a roommate of the same race as she herself was?
Ebene blinked again and brushed her bangs out of her third eye to look again. There was something wrong with Amut’s wings. They were ridiculously small, like those of a child’s. Realization dawned.
Just like Ebene, Amut was a Bakeneko-Chimera hybrid. A Hallowed Bakeneko-Chimera hybrid. What a strange coincidence… She shivered and looked away. She didn’t want to be accused of staring. Instead, she looked at her roommate’s side of the room. She seemed pretty fond of science or medicine or something—Amut had a poster of the skeletal system of a theoretical hyper-hybrid on her wall, along with a diagram for three different variations on the Heimlich Maneuver (Ebene’d never heard that it could be done on yourself before—what else had been hidden from her?!). There were two other posters as well, one depicting sunrise on a heavily snowed mountain, and the other depicting a desert sunset. It was actually very pretty. Ebene looked at her own walls. She didn’t have any posters with her for her wall. It would have to be bare.
“Take your time,” Ebene said softly. “There’s no hurry.” She turned to her own luggage and picked out the box with books in it. She could at least put her books away on the shelf above her desk.
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:03 pm
In between putting sweaters away, Amut checked out her new roommate. Ebene was also a Chimera-Bakeneko hybrid, and like Amut, she was Hallowed. Amut felt better about her new roommate already. They were practically twins!
Well, sort of. Neither of them had fully-sized wings, and both of them carried the Bakeneko traits of hairy arms and furry ears. Unlike Amut, though, Ebene had claws, and the paws of a Bakeneko. In a lot of different ways, Ebene looked like a winged Bakeneko more than anything else. The claws, though—they were Chimerical.
Heh, look at her, makin’ up words to describe a mostly stranger. With her sweater tamed at last, Amut had everything stowed away in its proper place. Huh boy. She hoped Ebene was neat. If she was messy, then there was gonna be trouble between the two of them! At the moment, though, Ebene seemed to be keeping things clean. She was putting books away on a shelf, ordering them apparently by subject, though it was hard to tell. Amut watched her work for a while before finally saying something.
“Hey, do you like chocolate?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:04 pm
…What?
It…probably wasn’t the weirdest question Ebene had ever been asked, but…it sort of was? Um…it was…interesting…an interesting question…um…
How was this going to work? Ebene had shared a room before, but she’d never shared it with a complete stranger! Her adopted sisters, yes, but someone she’d never met? Someone she didn’t know? Who didn’t watch the same movies as she did and didn’t live in the same…malaise she had? Although to be fair, her stepsisters had never been raised like Ebene had—but that wasn’t the point! How was Ebene going to survive for an entire year with someone she didn’t know, who could turn out to be as horrible as the Tanglars, who could hurt her or try to steal what little she had, or just generally…be terrible to her?
What if Amut stayed up all night? Every night? What if she listened to horrible music, or ate crunchy foods really obnoxiously in bed? What if she…well, what if she was obnoxious? A bully? A serial harasser? Ebene didn’t know what to say, she didn’t know what to do. She turned to look at her roommate, then blinked.
Okay, so…where to start…?
For one thing, Ebene and Amut shared something else in common—in the center of Amut’s forehead was a third eye. They also both lacked regularly-shaped pupils. In fact, Amut didn’t seem to have pupils at all, just empty yellow orbs in her sockets. She was a little creepy looking, especially with what appeared to be teeth growing out of her cheeks! Ebene blinked. Oh…okay…
Um…so…
Amut had…asked her a question…?
“Yes,” she said. “I like chocolate. Why do you ask, Amut?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:06 pm
Aww, Ebene was pretty! She had moons in her eyes. No, literally—her pupils were shaped like crescent moons. Combined with her purple irises, she looked just adorable! Amut smiled at her. “I like making food for people,” she said. “Since we didn’t get a chance to talk to each other this summer, I thought I’d make you something—call it a good-will gift, a little something in the hopes that we get along well this year.” She made a face and held up two sheets of paper that she’d found slipped under the door when she’d arrived earlier. “I mean, other than the roommate agreements we have to make and sign before the end of the day. Our RA seems to be a real stickler for the rules.” She tucked the sheets into her purse and picked up a small recipe book. “There’s a kitchenette downstairs. It’s fancy—it’s got an oven and everything. What say I make you some brownies to munch on while we talk about the roommate agreement and you unpack?”
Eh, okay, so she was moving a little fast, but Amut wanted to seal the deal, and she was a little startled by Ebene’s eyes. She held out her arm, beckoning to her fellow Hallowed to follow her down to the kitchenette. She didn’t really expect Ebene to follow, but she did. Good. Things were off to a good start already, and Amut couldn’t be happier for that!
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:07 pm
Uh—uh—okay? Well, at least one question had been answered for Ebene—life with her new roommate was going to be a roller coaster. Amut seemed capable of changing from one topic of conversation to another at breakneck speed, seemingly contemptuous of common conversation conventions—such as, for example, segues. She didn’t seem to realize that they existed. Then again, Amut was offering Ebene brownies, and it was hard to argue with that.
Ebene checked that she had her key with her before closing the door behind them and following Amut down the hall towards the stairs. “Th-thanks for the brownies,” she said. “Or, I guess, the offer of the brownies. Uh, just a question, though, Amut? You said that we didn’t have a chance to talk over the summer—yeah, I don’t think we did? Only, the way you said it, it sounded like you feel that there was an opportunity and that I didn’t take it.” She bit her lip. She didn’t want to ruin the mood that Amut had set, but then again, well, the mood her new roommate had set was marred by that. How could she not comment on it? “If there’s something I failed to do, please let me know. I prefer it when people are totally and completely honest with me. Even if you think it will hurt my feelings or that it will make things awkward between us, please let me know about things I’ve done wrong, or things you need. I can’t do anything if you don’t tell me anything.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:08 pm
Ah, communication already! Excellent. “Well, I sent you a couple e-mails this summer,” she said. “I didn’t get any replies. I wasn’t sure what the—I wasn’t sure why, so…yeah. But that’s okay!” she said quickly. “We can get to know each other now, it’s really not a biggie.” She peered into the kitchen. Good. No one was there. Even better, a check in the cabinets and the fridge told her that no one had messed with her stuff. She pulled out her ingredients and got to work. For good luck, she was going to be making brownies from scratch instead of with a box mix. “And I’d like to get to know you,” she said as she started measuring the ingredients. “Not only because we’re roommates, but, well, you may have noticed—we’re sort of similar. Physically, anyway.”
Amut set each dish as she used it into the sink. She’d clean it when the brownies were in the oven. Oh, right—she should set the oven! “So, I’m Amut Duat—I’m studying medicine. I’m just a freshman, though, so it’s GEs for me this year. I went to the Academy as a kid, Enoch for life,” she added with another grin. “What about you, Ebene?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:08 pm
Ah, okay! It was an easy fix, then. “Oh, yeah, the email I gave the university’s an old one,” she said. “I don’t use it anymore. I started using a new one this year—that’s why I didn’t see your emails.” She made a face. “Sorry for not letting you know that.” She had had a good reason for it, though—her adopted parents could have seen the paperwork at any time and seen what email she’d used. If it had been her new one, her private one, her safe one, her parents would have known about it and she’d never be free of them. It was better this way. Better to annoy a stranger than let them back into her life. “I’ll let you know my new one if you still want it.”
Feeling useless, Ebene sat down at the table and watched Amut bake. She felt useless, but what could she do? Well, she could clean? Hey, that wasn’t such a bad idea, actually! She got back onto her paws and went over to the sink. She turned on the hot water and started to wash the dishes as Amut put them in the sink. “Well, I’m Ebene Pa’das,” she said. “I’m studying enchanting. But—yeah, GEs and all that. I’ve got math first thing Monday morning. Algebra. I’m not really looking forward to it. Uh…I also went to the Academy,” she added. “I’m Eldritch house, though.” On top of all of their other similarities, finding out that her roommate was a fellow Academy graduate wasn’t that surprising. In fact, even if they hadn’t been members of the same race it wouldn’t be surprising—Leviathan gave out scholarships like candy to Academy students, especially orphans, and especially to descendants of cache children. One of Ebene’s parents and both of her adopted parents had come from the cache, which made her prime material for the Academy. As for Amut? Well, a lot of parents of mutant children abandoned their children at the Academy, and there were more Bakeneko hybrids at the Academy than anywhere else on Euros, so… “I hope our house affiliations won’t be a problem.” She hoped not. She was beginning to like her strange roommate in spite of herself.
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:10 pm
Amut snorted. “No, definitely not!” she said. The med student slid the brownie pan into the hot oven and turned to look at Ebene. Ebene had started washing the dishes. Oh thank the Nine! That was a very good sign—it either meant that Ebene couldn’t sit by while other people were working (a lot like Amut) or that Ebene couldn’t stand a mess (again, like Amut—what, you thought that the budding doctor would have ever let herself develop bad habits that would be disastrous in an operating theater? Not a chance!). “Houses don’t mean much anyway, except around the holidays—in which case, I’m sorry, but Enoch had way cooler solstice decorations than Eldritch had.”
Amut caught the quirked eyebrow that Ebene threw her at that teasing remark. It made the other Hallowed’s bangs twitch, and Amut swore that she saw a purple eye peaking shyly out from behind those bangs. So! More and more that they had in common with each other… Oop! She’d forgotten the timer. Belatedly she set the timer to twenty-five minutes—five less than she had to, but hey, she’d lost some time and she could always put it in for longer if it was under done.
“So…” Amut said. “Uh…well…I’m okay at math—I’m not perfect, but if you need some help, I can probably help you out with that. Mom’s a dang good mathematician, so if nothing else I might be able to rack her brains for advice. Other than that,” Amut shrugged. “I think we’ll get along well, Ebene. I’m really looking forward to this year.” She grinned. “I’ll let you know if you make any mistakes, but you’ve gotta promise me one thing: you’ll let me help you if you need help. I’m a helping person. It comes with being a med student.”
The other Hallowed nodded once. Amut nodded back. “Right then,” she said, sticking out her hand to shake. “Looks like we’re in business, Ebene!”
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