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 Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:26 pm
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Even though he hadn't been here in months Xi-Wang could find his way in the dark, as the schools numerous corridors lacked when it came to lighting. It wasn't that the school was some poorly funded school, or any such things, the lights were almost entirely out due to it being past curfew and no one should be wandering around. Xi-Wang however didn't have to worry - he wasn't a student here..at least not any more.
He'd left Lovina's room a bit late, really close to curfew ending, and was now hurrying through the school trying to make his way out without being caught. It wasn't easy, and he was tempted to power up and slip through a mirror to get home faster, as he knew there would be teachers roaming about the school on the look out for wandering students.
Turning a corner he headed towards the library, knowing there was a back door down the end of the hallway. It was a good way to slip out of the school. He'd done it once or twice in the past, shortly after being brought into the dark mirror court, it was one of the last doors locked typically and he was hoping that still held true. He didn't want to try and get someone to let him out the front door.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:43 pm
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The last of his errands led him to Romano's. A simple book swap was in order — chemistry, computer programming and Candide for linear algebra and a book of Yeats poetry — and he found no better occupation for the remaining time on his glamour. Romano's had been a short jog away, which prompted him to beeline for it. The exhaustion that pushed him toward the floor upon gaining entry to the campus reminded him of precisely what he'd lost in the Rift.
It was with panting breaths that he finally dragged himself indoors. Curfew ended only minutes ago, and likely there were still students and hall monitors to avoid at this hour. He vastly preferred the later times when only the hall monitors were of concern, and most were already under Negaverse employ. But he knew his glamour would last many minutes past the necessary point if he encountered a student or an uninformed hall monitor; he simply preferred to avoid that potential interaction.
This place always looks like the Dark Kingdom at night. While weary from his travels and worn to the bone, the youth kept a fast pace toward the library. His entry point was at a T, with women's dorms to the right and the library dead ahead.
The youth was still wound in ethereal thought, too snatched away in separate realms for him to realize the footfalls coming from the dorm area. He stepped out from beyond the wall much too quick and his too-thin shoulder checked the other, taller boy. His count of books spilled form his hands and onto the floors, earning creases where they fell and he stepped back out of habit to avoid scuffs on his shoes. "Sorry," came a hushed apology, doubly aware now for the presence of hall monitors. The two textbooks and single novel each fell to the floor, with a variety of papers stating names and locations and myriad notes fluttering like leaves in a windstorm. Among them was a leather-bound journal with its clasp firmly set.
He spent hardly a breath before he stooped and began collecting his scattered mess. Of all the times to stop paying attention…
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:51 pm
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He'd been in a hurry, while focusing on keeping his steps as silent as he could, and had just spotted the person as they hit into him. Without time to move and avoid it they hit into each other and he winced, almost jumped really, when he heard the books hit the floor. Cursing mentally he was bending without a thought, it was an automatic response, as he went to help in collecting the fallen books and papers.
"It's ok. I wasn't paying attention. You're ok?" Quick to take some of the blame, what he figured was his fair share of it, as he reached out for some of the papers which had fallen. "I hope you're not a student...if you get caught out after curfew you'll be in trouble." He thankfully didn't have to worry about that, though he was sure if he was caught someone would say something. Staff however wouldn't figure it an issue if he was caught and told them where he'd been, enough of them remembered him no doubt.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:05 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:30 pm
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"No, I was visiting Lovina." Answering honestly, as he had nothing to worry over, Xi-Wang offered up a handfull of neatly stacked papers. Without a light he'd gathered them by feel, his fingers wandering over the floor seeking out each paper before adding it to the stack he'd just offered the other. How was a person more or less a student, he wanted to ask but didn't, you either were or weren't right? It sounded like the other was somehow some in between.
"I just needed to ask her help in something." Not wanting the other to somehow think the worst of his friend, as he knew this all looked rather suspicious and not so good for his friend. He didn't want any rumors or anything to spread around about her, though those who knew them both would likely kill any such rumors rather quickly. There was no way there was, or ever would be, anything like that between them.
"Mmm, we should. I don't think it would be good for either of us to be caught." He might be known here, and staff would know he wasn't a student, but that didn't mean he wasn't at risk of some sort of words being said to him if he was caught still here.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:46 pm
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You wanted her help with what? A slow blow? We don't have time for this. He rolled his eyes out of habit, only afterward remembering he had sclera again. The dark provided grateful cover for his uncouth demeanor. "Whatever it was —"
He cut himself off, drawing breath through his nose. "Come," he whispered quietly. He offered no explanation; flashlights searching the many doors down the dorm hallway edged in their direction. Enough distance lay between them and the hall monitor that they retained a modicum of stealth, but not if they continued to loiter. He hadn't fingers free to accept the papers; he simply entrusted them to the stranger while he managed the halls as quietly as he could. Recollection told him that the library followed an L bracket of corridors, at the terminus. Two wide oak doors with squared windows, often covered with advertisements and reading tips bared entry to the initial reading space. He knew precisely the layout against a backdrop of thoughts —
And rolled eyes at himself for is absentminded attempt to teleport. He followed the rest of the distance on foot without sparing a glance back toward their presently-unwitting pursuer. I wonder what they'd think if they found us. We must have to put on quite a show to escape punishment.
When he reached the library doors, brooding and backlit with emergency paneling, he muttered an order to his impromptu accomplice. "Hold these." He passed his burden of books, shook his hands out for the lactic acid burning away their strength, and checked his journal out of the pile.
The key still sat flush in its inner pocket. He withdrew it and, as quietly as the tumblers would allow, unlocked the door to let the pair inside. And once they crossed the threshold, he wedged part of his long sleeve in the door until the heavy oak rested wholesale on it, then pulled the material for a quiet click. "We need to wait for them to pass."
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:02 pm
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The others order, one simple word, was followed without much thought as Xi-Wang moved to follow behind the other. Light on his feet he tried to keep himself from making noise. He walked, quickly, in the tips of his sneakers so he didn't take a full normal step. It made for his steps to be quieter and that was what he needed to be right now. The papers were held to his chest, to keep from dropping any or having them rustle together.
They were headed for the library it seemed, close to where he'd originally been planning to go anyway. He could get out of here easily enough from here, even if he had to slip out a window. He'd never been much for skipping out of the school but sometimes he'd had to, though that had only started when he'd been awakened.
Taking the offered books, there were several of them, he held them close to his chest as well. The papers settled on top of the books, to prevent the books from ruining the papers. Watching what the other did he stepped inside, taking a moment to glance about, he turned his focus onto what the other was doing before nodding his head silently. "Ok." That made sense. He doubted it would be good for either of them to be caught, no matter who either of them were or their reasons for being here.
How long would the wait be? The Chinese teen didn't figure it would be too long, though he could be wrong, but once free he figured he'd make his escape and head back to Nischal and Jason's home and head onto his computer to do some late night gaming. He knew he should be doing some research, and he really did want to, but he did want to game also and it seemed so daunting the task of figuring out his whole mess.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:19 pm
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The library's lighting allowed him to distinguish the appearance of his new accomplice from darkness and more darkness — and he loosed a huff at what he saw. Funny how the cute ones turn out straight. A couple dismissive blinks spared in the boy's direction and he wordlessly reached for his books. His gaze soon settled on the mass as he shifted them to the vacant librarian's desk, where he diligently sifted through the papers. Many were scraps torn from notebooks, a pair written on the back of receipt papers, and a last one on formal printer paper. The other boy gave no indication that he poked into them, which was a wise choice. He was loathe to starseed on Romano's property regardless.
"They'll expel her for your 'extracurricular' activities." He spoke matter-of-factly while he filed the papers back into his journal. He pet it tucked under one arm, the others busied with the textbooks. Candide would wait for his second pass. "They don't tolerate girlfriend visits here. Not like at other schools." Not like at Azure Valley, where the halls knew more than a few PDAs.
A too-thin hand braced against one of the bookshelf frames in rounding the corner. Sharp eyes scanned the call numbers for the proper placement of the rentals he held in hand. He was becoming too used to sussing out books in low lighting conditions; perhaps he'd wind up a subject of prosthetic youma corneas before he reached his twenties. If he reached his twenties.
He peered toward the other boy through the slight gap between top of book and bottom of upper shelf. Tall, dressed in street fashion, narrow to the point of no real muscle definition. The lattermost was a shame, but fine bone structure nearly made up for it. His eyes were striking, thick-lashed and tamed with a liner. Twice-shame that he had a girlfriend. I've been mistaken for a girl enough times. My voice must not be high enough. Or he's devoted. His gaze dodged back to the shelf, where he finally found a place of rest for his chemistry book. Computer programming wasn't far beyond that.
"And if you needed her for something important, they'll just make assumptions. Any boy visting any girl can only mean one thing." There's truth to that cliché.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:32 pm
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"I had permission to visit. I just stayed talking a bit too long - family problems." So long as he didn't say what he wasn't saying too much to the other, just explaining things. He really wanted to make sure this maybe student didn't think the worst of his friend, he didn't want her to gain some reputation...even if it was only amongst a few people. One person thinking such of her, because of him, was too many people.
"She's a friend, not a girlfriend. I wouldn't date her anyway. I just had a break up with my boyfriend...I wouldn't make her a rebound and she's all wrong." She wasn't dating material for him, even if he was into females. She was too much a friend to him, he wouldn't ruin it. Plus he didn't think he could handle living with her, as much as he appreciated her personality. She was too much his opposite he figured.
Finding a place to seat himself he did so, he might as well since they needed to time for the halls to be safe again. Crossing one leg over the other he let his hands fall into his lap. The tips of his fingers just peeking out from the sleeves which were too long.
"The staff here knew me, and her, well enough to know there would be nothing between us anyway. It's just students who don't know either of us that might make the assumption of something else." Shrugging his shoulders. Glancing over the other for a moment, watching as they worked there way through the stacks of books. They clearly knew their way around the library, something he'd never known well. He was one of those who looked up everything, downloaded books online, and rarely ever opened an actual book unless he had to.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:49 pm
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"She must be very useful for those family problems." The comment layered veiled sarcasm against neutrality; he couldn't imagine a family problem wherein a high schooler could provide the solution — unless the high schooler was part of the problem. But thi boy never mentioned a relative dating her, so he was left to scrape his own conclusions together. Pity that. "Does she know your family? They must make exceptions for curfew violations for family drama."
As he passed between shelves, he smiled wryly at the breakup comment. So ends that theory. He passed between the aisles toward the front once more, then slipped Candide off the counter. Its linen-esque surface often brought him tactile joy. But the section for literature was nearest the stranger, which left him slipping through the narrow pass between back of chair and back of bookshelf. He made the distance easily, but his hand traced the chair back and rustled the accomplice's coat. "I've always heard it's a bad idea to date your friends." Not that he agreed. In this instance, however, the proverb bade him an advantage.
Soon, Candide found its home and a book of Yeats works came out instead. Thick and musty, he wedged the unwieldy thing between hip and elbow. Cutting back through that pass would prove more difficult now.
Not that he minded. "Students are idiots. Always making their own gossip when they have none of their own." To speak his mind prompted an ingrained reticence, a wedge of guilt stuck to the underside of his skin where fingernails couldn't reach. An old, inherited distaste for it settled in the back of his throat. But he liked it nonetheless — that freedom. That ability to share his thoughts to a stranger that he'd never meet a second time. Two ghosts passing each other in the halls, with no investments and no guarantees. Chances taken or wasted. What was a little boldness here?
"They should be gone now — the living night-lights. But I'm curious — what family problems has you risking curfew?" The inquisitive youth paused at the cusp of a bookcase, his attention lighted steadily on his accomplice.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 12:08 am
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"She's an ear to listen. It's easier, I find, to talk about things aloud in order to figure out the problem better." Some people liked to figure things out in their head, some wrote things down and others talked out loud whether to themself or other people. He liked to talk to other people or to the air, either thing was the same for him. It helped though to have someone to talk to, sometimes they just had a more positive air than he did and that alone helped him. Lovina was just that as well as the comfort he needed, though she also did threaten to hurt people on his behalf.
"She knows of my family. I wouldn't let her meet them." He wouldn't let anyone meet his mother, or her wife, he didn't trust either woman with any friend of his. Now though that wasn't even an option if he wanted to introduce a friend.
Shivering once at the others brushing touch he continued to watch the other, fingers toying with the sleeves of his hoodie out of habit, he wondered just which books the other was grabbing. He doubted the school would be pleased with someone here grabbing books, even if he was putting other ones away. He didn't say anything though as he continued to watch and listen to the other.
"People like to gossip...it's part of being social I would figure." When things were boring people made things up in order to talk, and be social, so it made sense to him that it happened and was a common thing. He didn't like it though, it hurt people and spread false words about.
"Mmm...aside from the break up..." Was he really going to tell a stranger this bit about himself? Did it even matter though? They didn't know him..would never see him again. It didn't matter did it? No, it really didn't.
"I've never met my father, don't know who he is even. I just found out his name...found documents with his name on it. It's good news...but now I need to find out how to put that information to use and find him." Where to go and who to speak with. He had no way of knowing where to begin and if it was somewhere in China he lacked the level of language skills he was sure he'd need.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 12:25 am
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You won't let your friend meet your family. But you speak positively of her; your family must be the problem. The Negaverse manufactures fractured famiilies; are you one of the many left behind? I haven't met collateral damage before.
"It is. It's part of social power." Rumor, undercutting, and secret-trading were each social capital that communities spread capriciously. As Elex, he watched it for years at his mother's side. Listened to her trade away a fair-weather friend's skeletons to buy grace into another woman's friendships. Bridges burnt strategically to stave off suspicion. His mother worked the gossip machine like a professional; his father often joked that she should consider espionage for a career because of it. High school was simply the training venue for developing such tactics.
But that wasn't its only use. It trained for relationships, too — where sweethearts fell in and fell out or fell pregnant. This boy would seldom risk the lattermost by the sound of it. His friend wasn't dating material, but that didn't preclude girls entirely.
Elex never had the opportunity to date in Azure Valley. This would've been his junior year. If he received that opportunity, would he be here now, with his gaze on this boy? Would he still have pale fingers and pale toes and white sclera? Would he have been conscripted by the Negaverse due to his fateful, whimsical searches, or would some mystery boy have enticed his attentions away to more benign callings? What an idle fancy. He left the thought to rot, instead turning attentions back toward the stranger.
"Did he disappear? Destiny City makes a habit out of missing persons." Carefully he leveraged the book against his shoulder and once again cut between chair back and bookcase. The boy had shifted forward by then, preventing him from again brushing fingers against his coat. Disappointing.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 8:54 pm
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Social power was not something he'd ever sought, he had never been the sort of person to want power of any kind. He wanted to drift through school as unnoticed as possible. He didn't like people knowing about his family...didn't make friend and invite them over, ever. Had he been able to move through school like a ghost, unseen an unheard from, he would have. The least amount of attention the better had always been his opinion. His mother had, unknowingly, seen to it that her only child would not be a social person and would not seek friendships but rather shunned them. Somehow though he'd wound up with Lovina as a friend, how he still didn't know.
"Mmm, no. He didn't vanish. He never lived here. My mother ran here once she divorced him...once she was away and could keep him from ever finding me, maybe even ever knowing about me." And it wasn't because of his father, most would unfortunately suspect his father had done something. But from what he could gather, from his mothers rantings, his father had done nothing. It had simply been because of their marriage being arranged and him being male...that was it. And it wasn't that she preferred females to males, though she did like females, because she hated him also...because he was male.
"If he lived here it would make my search easier. I don't know where he is truthfully. It's why I don't know where to look or how to go about this search."
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 11:25 pm
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"That's a lot of effort all centered on you." He watched the other boy keenly; the story added up under the purview of a mother's protective instinct, but he wasn't wasting time in a library on validating a stranger's claims. With his errands taken care of, any excess minutes spent in the library were strictly out of interest in this stranger and his curious home situation.
To have a mother who so hated one's father that she would leave the country and halt every contact… What was that like? Would he look for a father figure in a situation like that? This boy hunted diligently enough for answers that he stayed to curfew with his friend, a girl who never met his family. A listening ear — much like himself. With a story so blank as his own, would he take that for the bedrock of his existence? He'd consider it further when he finally found a name for himself — one more permanent than Reven Drayson or Rowan Cameron.
"You said you have his name on documents. I assume you tried the obvious venues. Facebook, LinkedIn. Whatever sites they used in his place of origin." He hoisted himself on the librarian's desk, hunched with the old reminder of pipes, and gathered his hands between his knees. "There are ways to dig deeper. Sites that aren't so available to the public. You have his name — now it's a question of when you find him. And the more information you have, the sooner 'when' happens.
"Think about it. Anyone who registers for a car has their name in a file. Their date of birth, social security, address. It might be different for different countries, but they collect enough information on you to watch you. With enough time, you'll find your way in. Search the name and you'll get a list of hits. Look for date of birth. Say you get a dozen with the same age, same name.
"Say he doesn't have a license. That makes your search harder, doesn't it? Find the divorce papers if you don't already have them. Now think — people choose their nearest courthouse. You have a locus and a time. Find out where they were. Find your way into the judicial database. Probe around until you find the paperwork for that case file. Name, address, phone number — all on a single sheet. Get into their CCTV and you have a face." He scoffed, rolling his head in a shrug of shoulders. "But that isn't always legal."
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Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:24 pm
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A lot of those things were good, all of them in fact, but the legality in them..that wasn't there in some cases. Not to mention he was not able to do some of those things, as he was sure some involved hacking into systems and he hadn't a clue there. "I tried the social networking sites here. for this country. I'd try the Chinese ones but they are hard to use and my Chinese is still shaky so I don't know if I could manage the sites." He knew of the major social networking site there, or at least one of them, but he also knew from his research that the Chinese government regulated things there. He wasn't even sure if he could get an account on the site since he wasn't in China.
"I have the divorce papers though...they are from the West coast." From out in California. He had them but I haven't checked...I don't know what else they'd have since I have the divorce papers." Aside from cctv and that would mean hacking and would they have anything from so many years back? He hadn't even been born then.
"I think the main thing is to find out first if he lives in this country or if he went back to China after my mother left him. If so...where." And China was big, really big. "I know where in China they were married...but that's only that, though it is something." It didn't tell him where his father had been born, though he could assume it was the same province as where they were married. But maybe his mother was from there but not his father? Though it didn't make a lot of sense it was a risk. Also moving to another city, or province, for work was possible. A lot can happen in nineteen years.
"I have their marriage license, divorce papers, and my birth certificate...that's it." Which were all important, all of them could help him in finding his father...hopefully soon. "I'll look into what you said...at least it gives me ideas." He'd been too lost in it all, in something which seemed so impossible, he hadn't really been able to simplify it all for himself, like the other had just done.
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