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 Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:24 pm
 Quilo looked around the fair, hands stuffed in his pockets. The mid-November breeze was ruffling his hair and promising snow just around the corner. It would probably be another couple of days, but even if it had been about to snow today, the festival would have gone on regardless. Even the unpleasantness of this last Haunted Hallows hadn’t been enough to cancel the Asphodel Garden Arts and Music festival—no way was snow going to cancel it. Quilo was glad for that. It gave him an opportunity to step off campus with a bunch of other juniors and some seniors who wanted to experience the fair. It was a day to listen to music, and admire art, and spend some allowance. It was also a day to remember that life was going to go on, no matter how much more dangerous the world seemed these days.
Quilo shivered in his thick coat and explored the festival. He’d gotten separated from a couple of his friends, but it had been on purpose. The normally gregarious hybrid didn’t want to be in a group right now. He wanted to be alone. He wanted to have some time to himself, to think, to brood. He was still heartbroken, even if his conversation with Yaviss and Zuna had made him feel a little better. He still missed that feeling, the feeling that he had someone to love more than anyone or anything else. That’s all I want, someone to love, and I can’t buy that at a festival!
Better than being on campus, though, moping to himself.
Quilo paused at the entrance to a side street, where a small stage had been set up and a group of Geists were setting up their equipment. They looked a little strange, but they were clearly rock musicians. Quilo watched them. Did he like rock music? Only kind of. Generally, he preferred pop music, but with all of the combat boots, leather belts, and ripped clothes on display, he suspected that this rock was going to be a little too hard for him.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:26 pm
 Another day another concert. Not that Xeno minded, of course—a concert meant that his dad earned some money, and their band got just a little bit more famous. They were still a niche band, and while there was a lot to be said for being niche, there was a lot to be said for going mainstream. It wasn’t “selling out,” as Sigrin eloquently put it. It was “introducing the world to our culture’s music in a modern presentation.” Xeno liked that. True, he wasn’t a Geist—in fact, he was the only member of their extended family, the Sack on Asphodel family, that wasn’t a Geist or part-Geist. Even their newest member, Iona, was a quarter Geist. Xeno was a Chimera, which made him stand out a bit from the crowd. In spite of his genetics, though, he considered himself to be a Geist. He’d been raised by Geists who valued their culture, not by Chimeras.
Xeno was staffing the merchandise table today, the traditional job of any friend of the band who had nothing better to do. Nkiruka was helping him, opening up boxes and pulling out CDs, all while wearing lots and lots of layers of jackets. Xeno smiled at her, then turned to survey the rest of the side street.
That’s when he saw him. He was soft blue—with dark blue hair—a Geist with a Baphomet’s tail. Oh, he was beautiful, he was so cute! In that pale grey sweatshirt, looking so cold. Xeno blushed. Say something, say something, Xenophon! “Hey there!” he said. “You come for the show?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:28 pm
Eh, it’s not like there was anything else Quilo wanted to do. There wasn’t anything he wanted to buy—and he’d been looking, just in case there was something that could bring a smile to his face. It seemed like a lot of stuff was just a little over-priced, though. Nothing really seemed worth the buying. He couldn’t leave the fair right now, though—they still had two hours until they were heading back to campus, and no one was allowed to go back to campus alone. Security had been tightened a lot in the last few weeks. Quilo was grateful for that, of course, but it meant that he was stuck out here or stuck at school, either one, every day.
Quilo watched the band set up. They had a weird selection of instruments, but the traditional ones were all present—electric guitar, electric bass, a drum set. The fiddle and whatever those things attached to the bag were a little unusual, but hey, he supposed every band needed something to set them apart from the crowd.
Someone called out in his direction, and he turned to see who it was. It was no one he recognized, a Chimera about his age calling to him from a table stacked with t-shirts and CDs. He was rather cute, actually. He was clearly Hallowed, with those big fangs, but the fangs just made him look sweet and a little sincere. Quilo wandered over to him—there was no point in shouting at each other over long distances. “Um, I guess I’m here for the show,” he said with a shrug. “I’m just wandering around until we go back to campus, I guess.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:30 pm
Xeno’s call worked! The blue boy was heading over here! So…what should he say now? Um, um, um… Xeno flicked a quick glance in Nkiruka’s direction. She was watching the newcomer with suspicion. Yeah, okay, well, it’s not like he normally came to Ruka for her opinions on strangers. Besides, she was too young to realize how good-looking this guy was. Anyway. He looked back at the blue boy, hoping that he hadn’t noticed Xeno’s look at his little sister. He wanted to attract the boy’s attention. Get him to notice him. Of course, he’d succeeded on that score already, so now the trick was to get the boy to remember him. That would be the hard point, of course. He had to leave a good impression. Yes. Then the boy would remember him! And—notice him, no, wait, he’d already done that…
So…what should he do now that the boy was over here? Not getting nervous and talking like a goober would be a good start! Thankfully, the boy gave him a topic of conversation to latch onto. The word “campus” could mean a lot of things, but in this town, at this age? There was only one “campus” for teenagers like him and the boy. “Do you go to the Academy too, then?” Xeno asked. “I’m in Arkham.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:32 pm
Oh! So…this was a classmate, then? Obviously one with a family—Quilo thought he would have remembered if this boy had been part of the expedition to the street fair. If he wasn’t part of the expedition, and Quilo was certain that he was not, then that must mean that he lived off-campus, like those students with family did. Hm…had they ever been in a class together? It seemed unlikely—again, Quilo didn’t think he’d seen this guy before. Or if he had, he hadn’t remembered. Or noticed. He definitely would remember him now, though! It would be really hard to forget a nice face like that, even if Quilo had been inclined to try. Cute faces tended to stick in a person’s head, especially if they were in that most wonderful category, that of “awfully cute.”
Quilo nodded. “Yeah, I go to the Academy. They arranged an outing to the fair today for juniors and seniors, so I tagged along to get some fresh air.” Quilo smiled. It wasn’t a very big smile—he wasn’t ready to do big smiles again—but it was a smile nonetheless. “Oh, nice! I was trying to remember if we’d met before, but I can’t remember. I’m in Eldritch—but I was pretty close to joining Arkham instead when I was a kid.” It was true, too—he’d been sorely tempted by Arkham’s emphasis on art. Quilo liked art, even if he wasn’t particularly good at it.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:33 pm
This conversation was actually going well. This was uncanny. According to books and movies, this conversation was supposed to be going down the toilet. Xeno was supposed to be making a fool of himself, and the boy was supposed to be thinking that he was a loser. So far as Xeno could tell, neither of those things were happening yet. Kallistos willing, this conversation would continue to go well. Getting off on a good foot was important, but it wouldn’t carry the conversation the whole way.
Xeno smiled. The boy had a really cute smile. “Oo, Eldritch. I can see why a person would choose Eldritch—it’s a very nice house.” Honestly, Xeno could respect any house that wasn’t Enoch. He wasn’t fond of math class or science. They were all a little too abstract for him to get a handle on, and the idea of anyone really liking them and understanding them on an intuitive level was an intimidating prospect for Xenophon.
A thought occurred to Xeno all of a sudden, and he couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been for the conversation to have gone on as long as it had without introductions. “My name’s Xenophon Piper,” he said. “But you can call me Xeno. That’s what I’m used to. So why not Arkham?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:34 pm
Quilo nodded. “It is a nice house. The people there are really nice and helpful, I’m proud to be in Eldritch. Arkham’s nice, of course,” Quilo added hastily. He didn’t want the Chimera boy to think that he was saying that people who weren’t in Eldritch weren’t nice! There were lots of nice people in other houses! “I just have more experience with Eldritch students than I’ve had with anyone else. I live on campus,” he added. Had he said that already? Yeah, he probably had. Maybe the boy wouldn’t notice that?
“It’s nice to meet you, Xeno,” he said quickly. “My name’s Quilo. Um…” Quilo hesitated. He had a reason for having chosen Eldritch over Arkham. He’d never told anyone that reason, though. He hadn’t told Tarin, or Ella—definitely not Ella—and he hadn’t even told his new friends, either. It had never come up in a language arts class, which was odd now that he thought about it, because language arts was always asking the students all sorts of personal questions. I guess I thought the idea was silly—it was, it was always built on a dream. It wasn’t a bad choice, I don’t regret it. If I had to do it all over again, I definitely would choose Eldritch again, but… But none of that was the reason why he’d never told anyone.
He’d never told anyone because…it was too personal. Even for his close friends. “One of my parents was in Eldritch,” Quilo said. He wasn’t sure why he was saying that. He had no reason to say that, not to a stranger! “Or at least, I assume they were. They were a historian, and I thought if I hung out with some history buffs, they’d help me find them.” Quilo looked at the ground and scratched the back of his head. Why had he said that? His most personal, deepest secret? To some random stranger? Was it to stop feeling anxious? Or…why?! Impulse, you fiendish devil, he thought.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:35 pm
“It’s nice to meet you, too, Quilo.” And it was true. It was harder to think of someone he’d been happier to meet (other than his family, of course). “I’ve had more experience with Arkham students than Eldritch, but I can confirm that Arkham students are pretty nice, too. I figure it’s an artist thing.”
His question had just been idle conversation, but Quilo surprised him by taking the question seriously (or at least seeming to). He was really thinking about what he was saying. He was thoughtful—something that made him all the more irresistible to Xenophon. He listened to everything the blue boy had to say, processing it all, and he found himself looking at Quilo in a whole new light. He’d been assuming that Quilo was cache-born, but if he had some inkling of who one of his parents was, then he was probably imbued more recently than that. If he didn’t know his parent personally, then that parent had abandoned him—most likely by giving him up for adoption at the Academy. That was sadly a pretty common event. It was certainly a common fate for Hallows like Xeno and his sister. Both of them assumed that the parents who had made them had abandoned them after they were awakened.
“That makes sense,” Xeno said. “I mean, that’s really good logic.” He wanted to ask if Quilo had had any luck with that, but the hybrid was staring at the ground and looking embarrassed. Chances were that the answer was a resounding “nope.” “I chose Arkham for more or less the same reason,” Xeno added. “I mean, because it was my parent’s house. My dad and all his friends went to Arkham—he’s the red one up there with the bagpipes.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:36 pm
Xeno didn’t think that Quilo’s reasoning was dumb. He wasn’t criticizing it or saying that it was bad logic—he’d even said that it was good logic, not just some sort of….foolish, childish impulse built on naivety and hope. Quilo looked up at Xeno to see that the Chimera had a cheerful look on his face, tinged with sympathy. Xeno knew how he felt, then… or at least a little bit. He also hadn’t asked Quilo at all to elaborate, or ask him how he knew this, or where his parents were, or if he’d ever found his last parent. He hadn’t asked any of that. Quilo was so grateful towards him right now that he could just burst.
Quilo looked up at the stage. There was indeed a red Geist there, one with a very severe mohawk and the oddly-shaped instrument he’d noticed earlier. Quilo had heard of bagpipes before, mostly under unfavorable circumstances. He wasn’t about to tell Xeno that, though. He didn’t want to antagonize Xeno, not since they were having such a nice conversation. If Xeno’s father played the bagpipes, he probably wouldn’t want to hear the question, “aren’t those that instrument that sounds like a cat’s getting strangled in a bag?” It’s not as if Quilo had ever heard them before anyway. Quilo looked back to Xeno. “It must be nice to have a dad who’s a musician.” Quilo fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve. “So…if Eldritch students are nice because they like people—or at least like studying people—what makes an artist nice?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:38 pm
Thank goodness. Xeno was continuing to navigate this conversation well. He was so very grateful for that, especially after he’d caused Quilo embarrassment! Thankfully, the blue boy seemed to have gotten over it, or at least forgiven Xeno for his inadvertently personal question. Xeno followed Quilo’s gaze up to the stage. Dad was just using three drones today, a good choice for a small crowd and a confined space. Four drones might have been worrying; five drones would be obnoxious to most people’s ears, no matter how good dad’s skills at the pipes were. Most people heard a bagpipe and automatically assumed that they wouldn’t like it without once considering that it might be an enjoyable instrument.
Then again, Xeno had more experience with them than most people, and he’d heard what an inexperienced person playing the bagpipes sounded like. It was…less than ideal. “It’s pretty nice,” Xeno said. “I’m not much of a musician—film’s my medium. But it’s still nice to be able to play a couple simple tunes occasionally.” Xeno looked back to Quilo’s face with relief. Quilo’s face was much more fun to look at than watch people tune their instruments again. “Well, the thing with most artists is that they don’t like to be asked questions about their work while they work. Other artists understand that, so Arkham’s common room is a place where artists can sit around and be undisturbed. It lets them recharge their social batteries so that they can be nicer to other people that they talk to, the ones who maybe don’t understand how awkward it is to be asked questions a lot.”
Quilo blinked. “I see.”
The conversation was stalling. Quilo wasn’t giving Xeno anything to work off of. Think, think, think… “The music’s about to start,” Xeno said quickly. “Do you dance?”
Quilo smiled. “Not really. But I would if you showed me, Xeno.”
Xeno grinned. “Nothing would make me happier, Quilo.”
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